On May 25 Bob Rae became interim Leader of the Liberal Party, after a few weeks of speculation that the job would be his. On May 2 the surprising election was held, reducing the Liberals to a mere 18.9% of the votes cast, which sank a few weeks later t…
Continue readingAuthor: CuriosityCat
CuriosityCat: Is the Clarity Act constitutional?
One of the options facing a future Prime Minister Jack Layton is to consider a request to the Supreme Court of Canada regarding the constitutionality of the Clarity Act.
The Clarity Act was passed in 2000, and in 1998 the SCC decision dealing with the …
CuriosityCat: Would an NDP Government become an outlaw government? The chances are high
Jack Layton campaigned as a future prime minister, and won a resounding victory over the waffling Liberals and do-nothing Bloc, sweeping into Official Opposition party status.
Jack Layton – the Outlaw PM?
Now he is still running for prime minister, c…
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Whose interests, Jack?
During a press conference, the issue of the referendum for independence of Quebec came up, and Jack Layton did a bit of dodging and weaving around the issue.
Finally, he addressed Quebecers directly:
Layton walked a fine line in his speech to the troop…
CuriosityCat: Time for clarity from Jack Layton on the Clarity Act
As the man who crafted the Clarity Act which now governs the manner in which the government of Canada has to deal with the framing of a question for a referendum on the independence of Quebec put it, the law of the land cannot be wished away:
Unclea…
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Wanna understand the next 4 years? Read Éric Grenier
We all know the saying that the tail wags the dog. But sometimes it takes a bit of number crunching to determine just how big a tail might be, and then allow us to deduce just how much the dog will be wagged by a large tail.
Grenier has written a mus…
CuriosityCat: Jack Layton’s Dilemma & Bob Rae’s Puzzlement
Before the momentous May 2 election catapulted the NDP party into the role of Official Opposition when they knocked out the Bloc and won 59 of Quebec’s 75 seats, Jack Layton was quizzed on the party’s policies with regard to Quebec independence, and th…
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Separatism angels dancing on the point of Jack’s needle …
What a short honeymoon!
Having romped home with 59 of Quebec’s 75 seats in the House, Jack Layton has fumbled his first attempt to reconcile the soft nationalist / sovereignist / independence leanings of many of his Quebec MPs in the NDP caucus.
For …
CuriosityCat: Separatism redux, courtesy of Jack Layton’s NDP
Separatism Redux
The centre of gravity of the NDP has shifted to the two largest provinces – Ontario and Quebec. In a sense, having ousted the Bloc Quebecois from power in Ottawa, the NDP under Jack Layton and Thomas Mulcair has also done a bit of …
CuriosityCat: At last, a real leader!
Congratulations to Bob Rae for being chosen as Interim Leader by the Caucus, and congratulations to the Caucus for choosing him:
Bob Rae was crowned interim leader of the Liberals on Wednesday and handed the daunting task of breathing new life into a p…
CuriosityCat: The Coming Decline of Harper’s Values Coalition
Ipsos is predicting that Harper’s “values-based national coalition” of Tories might have a brighter future than the cobbled-together Mulroney coalition had:
Darrel Bricker of Ipsos
The interesting thing about what happened in this (May 2) election . ….
CuriosityCat: Liberal Renewal:Let us not forget this
Renewal starts on the ground, and if we wish to implement a 308-riding strategy, we need to adopt and implement the recommendations of the Change Commission Report April 2009.
One key recommendation we need to focus on is providing assistance to the El…
CuriosityCat: The Interim Leadership and Bob Rae
This is incredible: some unnamed MPs or Senators seem to think that one candidate for the Interim Leadership should renounce any right to run for permanent leader EVEN IF THE NATIONAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND THE CAUCUS OF SENATORS AND MPS DECIDES IN FUT…
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Voters pruned Liberal MPs so as to prune Liberal sense of entitlement
The results of the 2011 election were in many ways a continuation of a trend: a steady rapping of the Liberal knuckles by dissatisfied voters over the course of 3 elections.
Hope versus reality
And yet after each election loss, Liberals repreated the…
Continue readingCuriosityCat: The Journey: From the Railway Committee Room to the Reading Room
Parliament is a place of symbolism. Today, the Liberal Party caucus said goodbye to Michael Ignatieff in the Railway Committee Room, its last meeting there. Jack Layton’s NDP will be meeting there in future, continuing a century old tradition as the …
Continue readingCuriosityCat: A suggestion: Consult, but with Options
A short, sharp battle has been waging over the past few days over the decision by the National Board of Directors of the Liberal Party, lead by President Alf Apps, to set conditions restricting the right of any candidate for the office of Interim Leade…
Continue readingCuriosityCat: After Alf Apps …
Bob Rae
Having made a decision which is most likely contrary to section 10(2)(e) of the Liberal Party constitution (which gives every member the right to seek any office in the party), the National Board of Directors will most likely have spoiled the…
CuriosityCat: Harper’s Right to Appoint Senators
Lot’s of faux indignation amongst media and bloggers and politicians over Harper’s decistion to appoint three senators, including two who ran for election to the House of Commons, and lost. To judge from the response by some, you would think that Harpe…
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Financial meltdown 2007: Big Banks in the crosshairs
It’s about time somebody decided to find out what role the big banks played in the disasterous subprime mortgage market that lead to the financial meltdown in2007, and caused so much damage to so many.
Eric Schneiderman
Keep your eye on the new Attor…
CuriosityCat: Calling all lawyers: Help our Liberal Caucus understand Section 10(2)(e)
Our MPs and Senators in our Caucus will meet to decide which candidate to elect as the Interim Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.
Unfortunately, the Board of Directors of the Liberal Party has imposed conditions on the candidates seeking election a…