Lest there be any doubt, one of the most important ways an opposition party can have influence in a majority Parliament is by choosing issues to highlight, thereby creating a perceived safe space for the governing party to act if it so chooses.Which is…
Continue readingAuthor: Greg Fingas
Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading.- Chantal Hebert points out that the biggest difference resulting from the NDP’s emergence as Canada’s official opposition may have to do with gender rather than age:A lot has been written and said about the yout…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how Saskatchewan has avoided the usage-based billing dispute that’s caused so many problems elsewhere in Canada – and how strong and creative Crowns are an essential part of that advantage.See Christopher Walsh for a rough summary of the chang…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Just wondering…
…but can anybody else remember a case of proportional representation being used as a boogeyman outside of an actual electoral reform referendum?I ask only because Peter MacKay’s plea to keep the Cons’ party constitution as is seems to go way over the…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On regional effects
The NDP’s provincial surges in Canada’s Atlantic provinces has received some attention already. But it’s particularly worth noting how the provincial numbers figure to relate to the recent federal election results.On the one hand, it does seem that the…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your midweek reading.- The Star skewers the Cons’ insistence on pushing ahead with bad budget choices:As the Star argued during the election, Canada needs progressive economic vision in the form of strategic investments in sc…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On accountability
Aaron Wherry picks up on a new theme in the Cons’ rhetoric on health care. But since it seems to be drastically out of step with their actions since taking office, let’s ask the question: how can any province be seen as “accountable” for its actions wh…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Night Cat Blogging
Cats and plastic.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Moved to action
It remains to be seen how far the NDP will get in pushing for all parties to engage in meaningful discussion about policy. But if you’re wondering whether there’s already evidence of progress in the first days of the new session of Parliament, look no …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On recruitment tactics
So that’s the Cons’ long-term economic action plan…A Conservative MP recently nominated by the federal government to sit on a secretive Canada-U.S. committee on continental defence told U.S. officials he was hoping a downturn in the economy would lea…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- With health care once again receiving plenty of attention on the U.S. political scene thanks to the Republicans’ plan to dismantle publicly-funded Medicare, the differences between Canada and the U.S. are once a…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: One of these things is not like the others
One of these things just doesn’t belong. See if you can spot the difference in the following single-election results – and consider what it might mean for each party’s future strategy…
Vote Share | Seats | Provinces w Seats | Provinces under 20% | High Prov% | Low Prov% | Rebates |
30.6% | 103 | 8 | 2 | 42.9% | 15.4% | 306 | 25.5% | 66 | 5 | 5 | 58.9% | 3.9% | 182 | 30.2% | 103 | 9 | 1 | 52.5% | 15.3% | 283 | 29.6% | 99 | 8 | 1 | 61.7% | 8.8% | 251 |
For those wondering, the parties who posted those totals are respectively the NDP in 2011, the Canadian Alliance in 2000, the Libs in 2006, and the Cons in 2004. And of course, each party served as the official opposition following the listed general election.
So let’s ask the rhetorical question: is there an obvious reason why one of those parties might have had both a glaring need to pursue a merger, and an obvious opportunity in doing so?
And conversely, is there an equally obvious reason why the other three might see fit to work from an existing national base, rather than pursuing wrenching structural changes?
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On flattering comparisons
Yes, it’ll take time to break the habits that have formed over the past few years – and it may well be that the Harper Cons will continue to stonewall and distort no matter what they face from the Official Opposition. But if this turns into a consisten…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading.- Brian Topp’s initial observations on the new sitting of Parliament include this note on the Libs’ interim leader:(A)s a footnote, Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae was also interesting in these exchanges. H…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On responsibility
Shorter Con instructions to ministers:If your underlings break the law based on your instructions, it’s their own damn fault for taking orders. So go nuts!
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Burning questions
Since when does a faction of the Cons get to declare that Denise Savoie should stand down as a candidate for speaker for their own benefit?And if Lee Richardson and his supporters were genuinely concerned about Andrew Scheer’s inexperience (rather than…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On dominance
Meanwhile, the obvious potential for growth in NDP support figures to have some rather important effects on the Cons’ strategy as well. After all, their current coalition of support left them little room for error even with a split opposition – and if …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On fading reasons
There’s plenty to catch up on in Canadian politics from the past week, and I’ll try to cover the biggest news over the next couple of days. But let’s start with one polling tidbit that looks even more important than the NDP’s improving support totals:R…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Blogging may be on hold for the week, but columnizing isn’t. Here’s my latest, on the Cons’ disaster response and the broader question of what we expect from our elected leaders in a time of crisis.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Light blogging ahead
Off to a couple of undisclosed locations for the next week, with little to no blogging in the meantime. But let’s note one point worth watching as Parliament reconvenes.While I don’t think there’s much room for dispute that the Cons have tried to move …
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