Leaving all policy discussion aside, one of the most disheartening aspects of the last five years of minority government under Harper has been a consistent erosion of the adversarial process in our democracy. The list is long but includes: centralizi…
Continue readingthe woodshed: It just happened here
To paraphrase Sinclair Lewis: When fascism comes to Canada, it will come wrapped in a flag and carrying a hockey stick.
Coach Harper won his majority last night thanks to smears, lies, obfuscation, vote suppression and dirty tricks on his part, vote s…
Continue readingHalf an Hour: Notes on open government, open data and open pedagogies
Talk about open government/data and open pedagogies including underlying philosophy, practices, benefits and challenges with specific reference to NRC
So let’s talk about open government and open data.
Geodata – MuniMall – where are our layers?…
Continue readingKen Chapman: Coming to Grips with the Election Implications
So here we are, in a “stable majority government” in times of enormous uncertainty in the world. Democracy has spoken and the collective wisdom of an ever diminishing number of democratically engaged citizens sets Canada on a new course. It looks like voter turnout was even lower this time than
Continue readingA Few Thoughts on What Happened
Now I’ve had a bit of time to digest what happened last night, but before I get to reading other people’s post-mortems on the campaign I want to offer a few of my own thoughts.ConservativesThe Conservatives ran the perfect front-runner bubble campa…
Continue readingEnormous Thriving Plants: Election thoughts.
I haven’t yet seen the popular vote counts, but my initial impressions from last night are: -It is possible to attract progressive voters to the polls. -It is possible to find success running as the anti-Harper. -Ignatieff wasn’t able to shepherd the left’s “herd of cats”. Layton now has 4
Continue readingEnormous Thriving Plants: Election thoughts.
I haven’t yet seen the popular vote counts, but my initial impressions from last night are: -It is possible to attract progressive voters to the polls. -It is possible to find success running as the anti-Harper. -Ignatieff wasn’t able to shepherd the left’s “herd of cats”. Layton now has 4
Continue readingEnormous Thriving Plants: Election thoughts.
I haven’t yet seen the popular vote counts, but my initial impressions from last night are:-It is possible to attract progressive voters to the polls.-It is possible to find success running as the anti-Harper.-Ignatieff wasn’t able to shepherd the left…
Continue readingThe Mumpsimus Blog site Community Blog List: The Mumpsimus Blog – Election results for 2011
Conservative: 167 (majority and a stunning win, 39.6% of the popular vote)
NDP: 102 (now the official opposition for the 1st time, 30.6% of the popular vote)
Liberal: 34 (a huge drop and a crushing defeat for Ignatieff and the Libs; 18.9%)
Bloc Quebeco…
Half an Hour: Hard is Easy, Soft is Hard
Partial summary of presentation by Terry Anderson and George Siemens of Jon Dron’s preconference workshop.
The topic is basically around finding the right balance between Moodle and alternatives.
We began by talking about pedagogies we’ve used or hav…
Continue readingPolygonic: Québec’s NDP revolution: the new normal, or a BQ holiday?
Québec doesn’t do things by halves, does it? Some of us have begged and implored the NDP to focus its energies on Québec: to play to its social democratic credentials, and to take the Bloc to task as arrogant, single-minded, comfortable and lazy, and prone to taking its voters for granted. The idea being that […]
NDP Ideas: NDP official opposition
Canadian federal election, 2011 2008 ←members May 2, 2011 (2011-05-02) → 42nd (expected 2015) 308 seats in the House of Commons of Canada155 seats are needed for a majority Opinion polls First party Second party Third party Leader Stephen Harper Jack Layton Michael Ignatieff Party Conservative New Democrat Liberal Leader
Continue readingThe Global Express: A Shift in Canadian Politics
With one of the most unpredictable and unimaginable elections in recent memory, the most accurate way to summarize it all in one sentence would be to say; there is a shift in Canadian politics. We have seen a shift in the status quo, and possibly the re-alignment in the Canadian
Continue readingNDP Ideas: Stay classy, Fox News
Stay classy, Fox News from Warren Kinsella by Warren
Continue readingTake off, eh?: More positives…
Well, the attack ads against Michael Ignatieff should finally stop.
Continue readingTake off, eh?: More positives…
Well, the attack ads against Michael Ignatieff should finally stop.
Continue readingPample the Moose: Don’t blame Guelph. We voted for Kodos!
Bah! Our electoral system has given a party that won 40% of the vote from the 61% of eligible voters who cast ballots a majority of seats in the House of Commons, and they’ve got control of the Senate as well. And as far as I can tell, electoral refo…
Continue readingPolygonic: If this isn’t bittersweet…
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times – welcome to Dickensian Canada. The best of times, in some ways – a social democratic party’s never had a bigger share of the Parliamentary pie. And Quebec sovereigntists have never had less. The worst of times, clearly, in that years of fear-mongering […]
Mind of Dan: Conservatives win majority; Greens elect leader Elizabeth May, the first Green elected anywhere in North America!
I was underwhelmed by all major parties during this election. But this might just be my decent into cynicism. To the Conservatives’, who won a majority government, credit, they have done a decent job over the past few years (albeit in a minority government), and as long as you ignore science and the environment (more […]
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