So, this happened. Campaign Life Coalition Youth (CLCY) and the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform (CCBR), two anti-abortion groups, announced that they are launching a nationwide campaign against Justin Trudeau because of his staunch pro-choice stance. Far be it from me to say anything that might dissuade them from this
Continue readingAuthor: Joel Klebanoff
Maple-Flavoured Politics: It Begins With Words
After his March 9, 2015 speech in Toronto to the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, Justin Trudeau took a lot of flack for his reference to the Komagata Maru, the St. Louis and “none is too many.” In the course of the 40-minute speech, he spoke expansively about
Continue readingMaple-Flavoured Politics: Our Addition-Challenged Government
As I write this, we are just a little more than three weeks away from the Canadian government’s fiscal 2014/15 year-end. Yet, we still don’t know how much the government spent on advertising and what advertising it spend it on in fiscal 2013/14. What’s more, according to a story in
Continue readingMaple-Flavoured Politics: Questions of Harassment
Two Liberal MPs were recently suspended from caucus for what statements from the Liberal Party of Canada and Justin Trudeau called “personal misconduct.” Media reports went further, describing it has harassment of MPs in another party. Some media reports were even more specific, calling it sexual harassment. This incident raised
Continue readingMaple-Flavoured Politics: Splitting Headache
Are you a member of a family that has one or more children under 18 and two parents, only one of whom is working? Is that one working parent in the top income tax bracket? Woohoo! The government has a great deal for you! In what the Conservatives are calling
Continue readingMaple-Flavoured Politics: Why I’m Supporting Jonathan Hughes for Ward 28
I am actively supporting Jonathan Hughes in his run for the position of Councillor in Toronto’s Ward 28. That support is tangible. I’ve volunteered to put a lot of my time into his campaign and I have donated some of my money to it. (I would volunteer to put other
Continue readingMaple-Flavoured Politics: Minority Ballot
The Globe and Mail editorial board endorsement for the Ontario election is out. It has endorsed a minority Conservative government. What? No, let me rephrase that. What the … well, you know? I disagree with the Globe’s choice of party, but never mind that. Apart from the fact that
Continue readingMaple-Flavoured Politics: Inching Toward China
Today, June 5, probably within the span of less than an hour, I read an article in the Globe and Mail titled Tiananmen Now (the online version is headlined Brave few return to Tiananmen Square to remember dark day in China’s History) and another principally unrelated article on the Ottawa
Continue readingMaple-Flavoured Politics: Taxes = Healthcare
I’m on vacation in Copenhagen and I will also be spending some time in Stockholm before returning home, which explains the dearth of posts here. When attempting to cross a street in Copenhagen, I was stopped at the intersection by a long parade of bicycles that filled half the street
Continue readingMaple-Flavoured Politics: Doug Ford: A champion of NIMBYism
Doug Ford, a Toronto city councilor and brother of our notorious mayor, is supporting a community that wants a residential program for developmentally challenged youth thrown out of its neighbourhood. If the media reports are accurate, Ford’s support is quite vociferous. This shouldn’t be surprising because we’ve come to
Continue readingMaple-Flavoured Politics: Voter and Campaign-Worker Fatigue
We’re in the midst of a general election here in Ontario. Election Day is June 12, 2014. Two ridings in Toronto, Trinity—Spadina and Scarborough—Agincourt, are also in the midst of federal by-elections. That Election Day is June 30, 2014. (There are also two by-elections in Alberta, but at least there
Continue readingMaple-Flavoured Politics: Is there such a thing as too much democracy (in Toronto)?
I’m unique. I don’t mean that in an airy-fairy, sickeningly sentimental, we’re all individuals, be yourself sort of way. I mean it specifically in the sense that I live in Toronto (I’ve lived here all my life), but I’m not running for mayor. Alright, I exaggerated a tad in saying
Continue readingMaple-Flavoured Politics: Knee-Jerk Government Secrecy: The Cameron Visit to Ottawa
How bizarre is this? According to a CBC news story, the Privy Council Office took two years to respond to a CBC Access to Information request asking for “documents pertaining to U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron’s official visit to Ottawa on Sept. 22, 2011.” When the response finally arrived, it included
Continue readingMaple-Flavoured Politics: Stephen Harper Admits He’s Taken Canada to Third-World Status
The title of this post sounds implausible, but it’s true. You may already know this because it’s a dominant social media meme in Canada these days. Stephen Harper was a Reform Party MP in 1996. At the time, the Liberals had a majority in the House of Commons—a majority they
Continue readingMaple-Flavoured Politics: Tim Hudak’s Jobs Plans: Certain Pain Now; Uncertain Gains Later
Tim Hudak made two overarching jobs-related announcements in this Ontario election campaign so far. In one, he said he’s going to cut 100,000 public service jobs. In another, he said he’s going to create one-million new jobs. Here’s something to keep in mind. The public sector job cuts are a
Continue readingMaple-Flavoured Politics: The Hudak Campaign: The Liberal and NDP Secret Weapon
I can think of only five possible reasons for the way Tim Hudak and the PC team conducted the early part of their Ontario election campaign: Highly trained operatives from the Liberal and/or NDP camps infiltrated the PC team and are now running its campaign. The PCs came to realize
Continue readingMaple-Flavoured Politics: Tim Hudak: The million-job man. As if.
One of the first promises that Tim Hudak, leader of the Ontario PC party, made in his race to become Premier of Ontario was that he was going to create one-million jobs. Actually, he was pitching that before the election was called. How? Well, there aren’t a lot of details
Continue readingMaple-Flavoured Politics: Degrees of Openness in Party Nominations
Before launching into this post, I feel the need to provide full disclosure. I’ve mentioned it before, but it bears repeating here: I joined the Liberal Party of Canada a few days after the 2011 election. I had been a donor to the party for two or three years before
Continue readingMaple-Flavoured Politics: The Harper Government: Doesn’t Play Well With Others
Is it me or do you get the sense that if a primary school teacher were grading the “Harper Government,” as it like to call itself, the phrase “doesn’t play well with others” would figure prominently on the report card? Of course, the opposition is the opposition so you would
Continue readingMaple-Flavoured Politics: The Frenzy Over Rob Ford’s Whereabouts
As I write these words, the Toronto Twitterati are going berserk over reports that Rob Ford, who was supposedly going to the States to enter a rehab program there, withdrew his application for entry into the USA after flying to Chicago. Nobody—at least, nobody willing to talk about it to
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