Author: Peter Wrightwater

When Stephen Harper appointed three defeated candidates to the Senate this past May, the response was swift and decidedly negative.Opposition members denounced the move as undemocratic. Premiers called for the Red Chamber to be abolished. Pundits accu…

On May 13, John Ibbitson wrote a column suggesting the Liberal Party adopt an American style primary system for selecting its next leader.The Liberals might want to think about going past the grassroots. Why not ask all Canadians to have a say in the p…

In "Report From Alfred Apps, National President To The Members Of The Liberal Party Of Canada," Liberals were informed that on July 9 a meeting of the National Board would be convened. According to the report the following matters are on the agenda:1. A PROCESS FOR CONDUCTING A NATIONAL ELECTION POST-MORTEM ENGAGING CAUCUS, CAMPAIGN PERSONNEL, DEFEATED CANDIDATES, PARTY OFFICERS AND OTHER

During a press conference yesterday, Bob Rae responded to a question regarding a Statistics Canada report on the reasons why 7.5 million eligible voters didn’t go to the polls on May 2.Here’s some of what he had to say:I think the decline in the number…

In her June 29 column Chantal Hébert writes:Two decades later (after the failure of the Meech Lake Accord), it seems that in winning the battle, the Meech detractors lost the war.But here’s another way of stating what has transpired during the 20 year…

Happy Canada DayBonus track: Charlottetown Rock

For me, "vision" is perhaps the emptiest and most ill-used word in politics. It’s easy for someone to wake up in the middle of the night and say he or she has a "vision." But what does that mean? Nothing. It’s just a word that is used by speechwriters and reporters to build up some politicians as wise and omnipotent saviours – until the inevitable day comes when they’re brought down as

The headlines speak volumes: "The Resurrection Of Stephane Dion"; "Stephane Dion Steps Out Of The Shadows". In either case, the meaning is the same: Mr. Dion has returned form a pretty dark place.Over the past several weeks, Stephane Dion has been making his presence felt after a long hiatus from the public stage. He was front and centre on the Afghan detainee issue; he took a lead role during

In two previous posts, (here and here) I criticized Chantal Hébert’s lack of affinity for certain historical facts. In my last post, I was definitive in my denunciation when I wrote:Under no circumstances will she concede that it was not the appeasers…

There’s an interesting article posted on Xtra titled " Gay people and national security: How does security clearance work for queer politicians and civil servants?" The article quotes Professor Gary Kinsman, who co-wrote "The Canadian War on Queers," as saying:“[The government and security regeme] cited in particular our supposed vulnerability to blackmail. We supposedly suffered from a character

It looks as though sleep deprivation got the best of Elizabeth May in this exchange with Pat Martin during the filibuster over back-to-work legislation for locked-out Canada Post employees.Mr. Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre, NDP):      Mr. Speaker, I…

In her June 13, column, "Harper’s persistence may pay off in Quebec," Chantal Hébert wrote: "It is no coincidence that there has been a non-stop disengagement from the federalism-versus-sovereignty front since the 2006 [Quebecois] nation resolution." At the time, I criticized Hébert for not recognizing that the decline in the sovereignty movement has much earlier origins.In the intervening weeks,

Jack Layton likes to say that New Democrats best represent Quebec values (see video below). But if recent polls are any indication, what Quebecers value at the moment is change.A new survey of Quebec voters shows the turbulence within the Parti Quebeco…

As Stephen Harper said in 1995, and Preston Manning miraculously discovered in his polling data earlier this month, the Canadian people are sick of "grand visions." This is the lens through which all of Harper’s machinations on Senate reform should be viewed. It is also why Harper is engaged in an intial three wave strategy to get the process of real Senate reform underway. The first wave is

… should look like this:The Government of Canada would like to enter into negotiations with the Provinces to reform the Senate. In these negotiations the Government of Canada will address 1) the manner Senators are selected; 2) the duration of a Sena…

If you haven’t already, head over to National Newswatch. Once there you’ll find a plethora of opinion pieces exploring the significance of this weekend’s New Democrat convention. You’ll also notice that the agreed upon stories coming out of the NDP meeting concern two titillating resolutions: One, a proposal to drop the word "socialism" from the preamble of the NDP’s constitution. And two, an

In the aftermath of the Liberal Party’s Extraordinary Convention, some concern has been expressed (here and here) that the adoption of the sub-amendment moving the Leadership Vote to the Spring of 2013 was a victory for the party "brass." I have a slightly different perspective.First, it’s important to note that the Party Executive led by President Alfred Apps wanted a shorter time frame. If the

Earlier today, the following resolution was introduced at the New Democrat’s convention:5-03-11 Resolution Protecting Language RightsSubmitted by Nickel BeltBE IT RESOLVED THAT Section 5.4 of the policy book be amended as follows:New Democrats believe …

The choice is yours.That’s right, it’s cryptic message day here at PDO.

Here are some links that may be useful for tomorrow’s Extraordinary Convention.You can find the Rules of Order here.There will be five sub-amendments which you can find here.Ongoing discussion about the Extraordinary Convention and the original amendme…