Chris Troublespotter Woodcock Imagine you hold one of the most powerful offices you can hold in a democracy such as ours, and your job is this: “My job was to spot trouble, try to identify it and come up with a strategy for dealing with it,” Mr. Woodcock testified. And
Continue readingTag: 2015 election
The Tory Pirate - Politics & Policy: Pirate Party Platform Spotlight (Part 4):Supporting Local Representation
A common complaint that the electorate has year-after-year is that MPs do not represent them. As party discipline hastightened into a stranglehold it has, in effect, made it impossible for MPs to represent their constituents’ views inParliament. The Pirate Party rejects this model of how a party should be run.
Continue readingThe Tory Pirate - Politics & Policy: Pirate Party Platform Spotlight (Part 3): Fairness For Independents
Every election people across Canada seek to be elected as independents. Independents face a number of hurdles notshared by their party-nominated cousins. Obviously, they do not benefit from party brand management and national advertising. Perhaps more unfair is the requirement that all money raised by independent candidates be forfeited toElections
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Look for Ms Clean to replace Harper as Leader of the Opposition on October 20
Dianne Watts, Leader of the Opposition? With poll after poll showing the most likely election result in our federal election on October 19 will be a majority of seats held by the opposition parties, the NDP and LPC, the chances of Stephen Harper remaining as prime minister are slim to
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Duffy scandal: The differences between the Duffy Trial and the Harper (Governance) Public Trial
PM Stephen Harper, the leader of the “Harper Government”, is on trial by the public for the manner in which he governed his Prime Minister’s Office (the PMO), while senator Duffy is facing 31 charges in his criminal trial. That there are two trials is undeniable, despite the PM’s attempt
Continue readingThe Tory Pirate - Politics & Policy: Pirate Party Platform Spotlight (Part 2): Mincome
Poverty is an ongoing and tragic failure of Canadian governance. It has been an issue for so long that it is suspected themajor parties no longer believe they can truly solve the issue. The Pirate Party of Canada does not embrace such uglydefeatism. But what is the solution? It obviously
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Duffy Scandal: PM Harper does not get it that there is a second trial going on
Harper defence to Trial #2 Here’s what Harper is saying in response to questions about the senior advisors and senators involved in a cover up of the real facts in the Duffy senate expenses scandal: The Conservative leader refused to respond to direct questions whether Novak had his support and
Continue readingThe Tory Pirate - Politics & Policy: Pirate Party Platform Spotlight (Part 1): Intellectual Property Reform
Welcome to the Pirate Party Platform Spotlight where I explain a selected planksfrom the party’s 2015 election platform (since I highly doubt the media will). Ok, letsget this over with. What’s with the attitude? Well, the Pirate Party of Canada is hopelessly typecast. Ifpeople are aware of the Pirate Party they already
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Duffy trial: How many in the Harper PMO were walking around in a cloud?
Donald ‘Darth Vader’ Bayne Barrister Donald Bayne, the Darth Vader defender of democracy (and of the sad figure of Senator Duffy), scoffedat the answer given him by Harper’s former Chief of Staff about the reactions by Canadians to Wright’s payment to Duffy of $90,000: Nigel Wright testified Tuesday that he
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Election 2015: Is the Liberal Party ready for October 20th?
Who will be our next PM? Probably Harper We vote on October 19. It will be a cliffhanger, with final results only out early the next day. A minority government is possible, as the Poll Tracker shows with today’s results: The Poll Tracker’s polling average currently awards the Tories 29.3
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Duffy trial: Nigel Wright and Emails change the ballot box question
The Plausible Deniability chickens come home Stephen Harper, blinking furiously, tries to stick to his two self-chosen ballot box questions (security and economic growth), while disregarding question after question about what he knew about the cesspool of misdirection and lies that a group of senior Conservatives indulged in while trying
Continue readingCuriosityCat: The Duffy Senate trial: The Missing Prime Minister “Shut Down” Email
Barrister Bayne, Duffy and Nigel Wright chronicleherald Yesterday Donald Bayne, the bulldog barrister acting for senator Duffy in Duffy’s criminal trial, focused on an email that Nigel Wright, the prime minister’s former chief of staff, had not disclosed as part of the 400 plus pages of email data dump. Found
Continue readingCuriosityCat: The Duffy Senate Scandal: Nigel Wright tells the truth and sinks Harper
Things have veered sharply off course for the most controlling politician Canada has had for many decades. What was to be a tightly controlled and swiftly administered exercise in damage control, has turned into a nightmarish exposure party that is guaranteed to sink Stephen Harper’s government in the coming elections.
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Duffy senate scandal: Nigel Wright says PM Harper “good to go” on coverup points
As expected, the now famous words “good to go” were front and centre in the cross examination of state witness Wright by Duffy’s defence counsel yesterday (my underlining): It gripped a packed courtroom, not because Wright dropped bombshells but because the top insider finally told the story behind one of
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Duffy & Senate Scandal: Email snippets
Going squirrelly Nigel Wright is on the stand, and a blizzard of emails is being released (see hereand hereabout them and how to access them). In no particular order, here are a few extracts from the emails that The Cat finds either curious, worthy of further exploration, raising questions about
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Linda McQuaig’s nettle gift to Tom Mulcair
About to grasp the McQuaig nettle? One of the NDP’s prize candidates has opened a can of worms that Mulcair wishes was not opened. Here’s one report on what Mulcair said, trying to douse the flames (note the part I have bolded and reddened): He pledged that an NDP government
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Prime Minister Trudeau will lead us out of the Harper darkness
Harper’s sham democracy It is difficult to think of a more important election for Canada’s future than the coming October one. The choice is stark: more of the Harper Conservative chipping away at our democratic institutions, or, under Justin Trudeau as our PM, a refreshing change that will usher modern
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Forum poll: Harper in free fall and Mulcair headed for strong minority government
Forum tale of the seats Tom Mulcair is headed towards becoming prime minister of a government with a hefty chunk of seats in Parliament, just shy of a majority, according to the latest Forum poll: A Forum Research poll conducted a few hours after Stephen Harper officially called the 2015
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Some Thoughts From ThinkingManNeil
In response to my morning post, ThinkingManNeil offered some passionate and very interesting comments. With his permission, I am featuring them as a separate post: I was never really interested in politics until the mid-1990’s. Up to then I felt like many that it was something that politicians, poli-sci majors,
Continue readingCuriosityCat: How Trudeau can remove the debate veto imposed by Harper and Mulcair
Possible debaters So Mulcair has decided he will only debate if the prime minister is debating? And Harper has decided not to debate in a forum that would attract the widest public viewership. This leaves the Liberals twisting in the wind. Or does it? One of the secrets of martial
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