Those are the findings of one specific poll. First the poll #’s and the pollster’s speculation: Buoyed by high approval ratings for interim leader Bob Rae, support for the federal Liberals is on the rise, according to a new poll. The Forum Research survey found support for Rae’s Liberals at
Continue readingAuthor: Scott Tribe
Scott's DiaTribes: Getting into the spirit of things, post-Liberal convention.
I’ve seen this logo floating around on some blogs – a suggestion to upgrade the Liberal Party logo: I’ve seen it on some Blogging Tory blogs critical of the legalizing marijuana resolution that was passed, and on some Liberal blogs with people just having fun with it. Personally, I think
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Liberal Convention results/wrapup thoughts
As you might expect, though I was not at the Convention in Ottawa this weekend, I did monitor how events went, and here is my take on things: Things I liked: – The election of Mike Crawley as Liberal Party President. It was a bit of a surprise win, according
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: The case is made for the Liberal Party to adopt primaries to pick leaders
As those politically inclined know, the Liberal Party is holding a convention in Ottawa this weekend, where delegates will be voting to elect different candidates to various party positions, and also to vote on several different policy resolutions. One of those is to adopt a US primary-style system to open
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: It takes a radical to know a radical
Joe Oliver, Minister of Natural Resources, is apparently mad that his government’s plan to dump an oil pipeline through some of British Columbia’s pristine wilderness and have oil tankers come through to pick it up (and why should anyone be concerned about that, right? Exxon Valdez… cough) has been slowed
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: An ugly looking Caterpillar.
The big news down in this area the past few days – specifically in London – is that the big company Caterpillar decided to lock all of its employees out at its London based ElectroMotive plant. It is trying to force its employees there to take more then a 50%
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Season’s Greetings
I’ve been off for a few days enjoying the holidays – I’ve not gone anywhere online – don’t worry Anyhow, to all my political friends, foes, and in between, I hope you had a very Merry Christmas, and I wish you the best for the upcoming New Year.
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: More internal Liberal Party stuff – this time endorsements for Liberal Party positions.
I don’t usually give out endorsements for internal Liberal Party elections to posts, (I’m just one of those “stupid bloggers”) and this probably won’t matter in the grand scheme of things Liberal, but here you are, as events of recent days and weeks have caused me to decide to openly
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: The Liberal Party gives the finger to freelancers and non-delegate bloggers.
As some of you may know, the Liberal Party has decided that for their upcoming convention in January, they were not going to accredit bloggers to it. They preferred Liberals who wanted to come cover it to come as delegates.. and as for the rest – be that other partisan
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Conservatives going ‘bananas’ over non-use of tarsand oil
Apparently, some Conservative ministers are either bored in Ottawa as Christmas approaches, or they’re trying to seek out new “enemies of Canada” to demonize. The new foe of Canada is now apparently Chiquita and bananas; all because they don’t want to use tarsand-based oil. Kenny and Rona Ambrose are urging
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Some folks are dog-gone crazy in Ottawa – and I dont mean the politicians.
I’ll be blunt – I’m not a dog person. I’m a cat person. I normally don’t go out of my way to comment on dog-related matters. I also don’t normally comment on stuff that is not political, but tonight, something has caused me to change gears and do that. My
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: The courts will be the only check on Harper for the next four years.
It’s become rather obvious that with a majority government, the Conservatives feel they can do whatever they want, now that the opposition can no longer restrain them from doing their worse impulses in a minority parliament. You’ve seen the recent court case that the Conservatives lost over the attempted crippling
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Cutting legal corners to fit your ideology isn’t correct – Federal Court Judge on CWB
Well now, this is a ruling that should have some Conservative government officials fuming that they can’t always do as they please, even with a majority government: A federal court judge has ruled that Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz’s tabling of a bill to dismantle the Canadian Wheat Board without holding
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Irony abounds in Canadian politics these days
A couple of instances of irony I see today – one slightly amusing, one not so. The first is there is at least one Canadian at the Durban conference on the Environment that truly cares about the environment in Canada and world-wide when it comes to trying to slow/halt Greenhouse
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: These Conservatives must really hate Charlie Angus
Mr. Angus is the NDP MP for the Timmins-James Bay riding, if you’re not aware. This happens to be the riding that the Attawapiskat Native Reserve is in, where the conditions are so poor, members of the Canadian Red Cross volunteered to go up and try to help the Natives,
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: It’s tough to be an environmentally conscious Canadian right now.
This is highlighted by a couple of decisions/news items that just cam out over the weekend. First, you have CTV News reporting that the Conservative government will formally pull out Canada out of the Kyoto Accord in the next month – and this story comes out just as environmental talks
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: You guys have a majority.. why hide behind a Private Members Bill?
That’s my only real question of this particular reversal/manoeuvre on Section 13 regarding hate speech and the Human Rights Tribunal. I’m not at all surprised they’re doing this, even if they didn’t campaign on it, nor am I surprised that they’ve reversed course on supporting it, now that they have
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: The new enemy of Canada as the Harper government sees it; anyone who questions them
One of the trends this Conservative government has shown since it came to power is the need to demonize their opponents and to paint anyone who oppose them as being somehow disloyal to the country. This isn’t a new trend among conservative-type governments – George W Bush and the Republican
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Thoughts on Liberal primaries and other stuff
My Liberal blogging colleague Jeff Jedras has a new soapbox to preach from. In addition to his own blog, he now is an occasional contributor at Macleans magazine. So first off, congrats to him on that. His first column over there is to do with the prop…
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: In Remembrance
On this particular day, Remembrance Day, I try my best not to get on to other political topics and instead focus on this day as it was meant for – remembering those who served and fought for Canada in the past (and present). I have 2 grandfathers…
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