Not when Conservatives keep writing nitpicky, protests-too-much columns like this. Beardsley is probably right about the summer travelling being about staying in the media eye. Why not? It is important for Liberals right now. And really? Liberal plans …
Continue readingAuthor: Nancy Leblanc
Impolitical: Clement’s user fees kabuki dance
Well this seems strange: “Federal departments to propose user fees hikes despite government promises.”The Harper government may have vowed that cutting the deficit would not lead to higher user fees, but documents show that as many as a dozen federal d…
Continue readingImpolitical: Friday night
Some Canadiana this week. Happy Canada Day to all!
Continue readingImpolitical: Great day for Nortel
Not for everybody though: Nortel Networks Corp. has auctioned off its remaining patents to a “rock star” group of technology companies in the biggest patent sale in history, ending a massive selloff that generated US$7.7 billion for the insolvent forme…
Continue readingImpolitical: More on the AECL farce
From the smart folks at Enviralment:Montreal-based engineering firm SNC-Lavalin has begrudgingly stepped up to buy the commercial arm of the crown corporation. The firm is no stranger to CANDU technology, having worked closely with AECL in the past, he…
Continue readingImpolitical: Ritz on the Wheat Board plebiscite
It’s quick, you’ll get it in the first ten seconds. More here, “Ritz takes swipe at CWB; says plebiscite irrelevant,” and in this piece which quotes Oberg, the Wheat Board Chair with details on the summer’s plebiscite. The result will be in before the …
Continue readingImpolitical: Late night
Are you tired of Glastonbury yet? I’m not. Yes, Beyonce with her all girl band it is tonight. She was quite awesome on Sunday, closed it out. This fan video is not bad actually, it sounds good even though it’s a bit jumpy visually. You have to be Amer…
Continue readingImpolitical: $15 million for AECL
“Ottawa sells AECL to SNC-Lavalin.” The federal government is selling Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.’s Candu division for $15-million and future royalties, after pouring billions of dollars into the troubled nuclear company to get it ready for privatiz…
Continue readingImpolitical: Wednesday drive-by blogging
From some American links that caught the eye and offer a mirror to things Canadian in their own respective ways…First, a brilliant post, “Democracy and Gay Marriage” by Ta-Nehisi Coates. On what turned one New York Senator to vote yes to gay marriage…
Continue readingImpolitical: Late night
Look at the crowd for Laura Marling, wow. What a great voice.
Continue readingImpolitical: 24 hours in post-election & post-parliamentary session developments
A few items from the past 24 hours that have that air of careful timing to them for a government that would prefer such things to occur beyond the parliamentary session.1. “Axe hits Industry Canada amid questions about timing of Tory cuts.” “…the tim…
Continue readingImpolitical: Late night
More from Glastonbury, Ed Sheeran who is 20 years old! Man. “Cool girl, no phone…,” great line.
Continue readingImpolitical: Arts funding arbitrariness
Despite the diplomatic reaction by a SummerWorks board member, this does seem like a predictable result given last year’s Prime Ministerial public pronouncement about the content of one play put on by SummerWorks, a Toronto summer theatre festival: “Ot…
Continue readingImpolitical: Liberalbook
That’s what it looks like to me and it’s a needed evolution. There are lots of discussions out there on the future of the party in niches yet this central gathering place was missing. Only critique, what is with the muzak…come on people!
Continue readingImpolitical: Going to plan
As a clever person pointed out to me last week, the fall 2008 economic update is being executed now quite swimmingly following the election. We saw this one come to fruition in the budget: Today, our Government is eliminating the $1.95-per-vote taxpaye…
Continue readingImpolitical: Horwath gaffe watch
So, the Ontario election campaign is getting a little more interesting of late. This quote by NDP leader Andrea Horwath really deserves a second look: “I’m putting a party back in the party,” Horwath, 48, said Sunday, one day after raising eyebro…
Continue readingImpolitical: Late night
From the UK Glastonbury music festival, which is now over. Glastonbury’s always worth watching just for the crowds and how they get into the songs, like this one. It’s magic. Just when you think a group may sound tired, they surprise. Oh, and you hav…
Continue readingImpolitical: Afghan detainee docs released
4000 of 40,000 documents have been released this afternoon. There may be much discussion to come on what is being released, how much has been redacted, etc. This report from the reviewers who worked in conjunction with the committee is important background information to be read in connection with it all. If you are so inclined. Various media organizations will be uploading the documents for all to peruse. Have at it.
Afghan Detainee Document Review – Canada
Impolitical: The RCMP G8 evaluation in the early going
The way the news of a possible RCMP investigation into the Harper government’s G8 spending broke yesterday really was interesting. We have learned, courtesy of the Auditor General’s review, of $50 million being spent on G8 legacy projects in Tony Cleme…
Continue readingImpolitical: 70 years ago today
For the history buffs out there, this is one of Churchill’s very memorable speeches selected in Brad DeLong’s liveblog of today in World War II: “Winston Churchill Liveblogs World War II: June 22, 1941.””We have but one aim and one single, irrevocable …
Continue reading