Bob Rae probably surprised 99% of the political world by today declaring he was not going to run as permanent Liberal leader. As with others online, on blogs and on Twitter, I concur that it’s the right decision, and that he did so with class. Despite the mini-furore online that
Continue readingTag: Canadian Politics
Pressing Politics: Protected: It’s Justin, Not Pierre’s Son: Trudeau The Next Liberal Leader?
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Continue readingbastard.logic: These Are Not Your Father’s Tories. Seriously.
“I worked for (Mulroney-era environment minister) Tom McMillan, who was a very red Tory. I wrote speeches for him. We never checked his speeches with the PMO. He’d get up to answer in Question Period. He didn’t have a script for how to answer. Brian Mulroney was not telling his
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: This is nothing we progressives haven’t said before
Many of us have been snorting at the “Canada’s back” on the international world stage claim that Harper and the Conservatives have been going on about for several years now – as if we had disappeared from the world stage to begin with. Many of us have pointed out that
Continue reading350 or bust: Canadian Democracy in Disarray
* There is mounting alarm and opposition across Canada, even among many conservatives, about the Harper government’s omnibus budget bill, Bill C-38. Yesterday Parlliamentary Speaker Andrew Scheer (a Conservative MP from Saskatchewan) denied Elizabeth May’s well argued Point of Order re: allowing Omnibus Budget Bill C-38 as a legitimate omnibus
Continue readingwmtc: we must stand up for the most vulnerable among us: please contact the senate about bill c-31
This week, all political eyes in Canada will be focused on the C-38, the massive “budget” bill through which the Harper Government seeks to remake Canada. The Opposition in the House of Commons will be stalling, and the opposition on the ground will be supporting them, and pressing Conservative MPs
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Small chinks in the Conservative armor?
There have been signs lately that even some Conservatives are not pleased with what Harper and the government have done with either their omnibus bill or their blatant disregard for anything to do with the environment or protecting it in their frantic rush to pump oil from the tarsands. You
Continue readingLeopard spots
Hot on the heels of the non-news that the Liberal Party’s national executive would rule soon that interim leader Bob Rae is “allowed” to run for the permanent leadership (he could anyway, but whatever), social media, the blogosphere, and the mainstream media are full of reports suggesting that Rae may
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Brief thoughts on Bob Rae running or not running
There was a bit of a dustup online (amongst Liberals anyhow) over this story CBC broke yesterday: Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae will be permitted to run in his party’s leadership race and he is expected to enter the race, CBC News has learned…Party President Mike Crawley said a motion
Continue readingeaves.ca: Open Postal Codes: A Public Response to Canada Post on how they undermine the public good
Earlier this week the Ottawa Citizen ran a story in which I’m quoted about a fight between Treasury Board and Canada Post officials over making postal code data open. Treasury Board officials would love to add it to data.gc.ca while Canada post officials are, to put it mildly, deeply opposed.
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Alberta reinstates funding for Sex Reassignment Surgery
The Alberta Government has announced that it will be reinstating health care funding for sex reassignment surgery (often called gender reassignment surgery, and abbreviated as GRS by the province and its clinicians), effective June 15th. In the recent provincial election, Premier Alison Redford was returned to power by an electorate
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Retiring the Monarchy
Alright, what longstanding Canadian institution shall we dispense with today? Queen Elizabeth II has been all over the news of late in honour of her Diamond Jubilee. Never satisfied, some of those rabble-rousing muckrakers in the NDP have refused to join in the festivities. That killjoy Pat Martin in particular,
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: More UN hating from Conservatives. Pull us out, screams 1 MP.
Wow, majority government is really unleashing some of the Conservatives: Larry Miller, the MP for Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound, says he’s upset the UN Committee Against Torture “voiced displeasure” with the Harper government’s refugee-reform bill, and sent a rapporteur on food security to Canada. He doesn’t like the criticism from the UN
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: C-279: When a victory for one can be a victory for… one.
The second hour of Second Reading debate for Bill C-279: An Act to Amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and Criminal Code (gender identity and gender expression) occurred on Friday June 1st, and the Second Reading vote is to take place on Wednesday June 6th. I missed any indication that the
Continue reading350 or bust: For Sale: All Of Canada
* The federal government has suggested it could replace a team of smokestack pollution specialists by turning to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, appearing to contradict its own description of the scientists and their work on Environment Canada’s website. The apparent contradiction comes as hundreds of charities and organizations across
Continue readingwmtc: blackout speakout a success: government truthspeak squad dispatched to spread lies
I can’t find exact numbers on how many websites and blogs went dark in yesterday’s BlackoutSpeakout campaign, but conservative mainstream media is saying that more than 500 websites and 18,000 people participated. Another marker of success is the government’s reaction: 10 Members of Parliament were dispatched to media events to,
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: The Senate Election that Refuses to Die
Three months ago, I wrote a post warning of coming Senate elections here in British Columbia. Now it seems that the private member’s bill providing for such elections, despite Premier Christy Clark’s support, will not be making it through the … Continue reading →
Continue readingPolitical Twitter makes me cry
This is all pretty obvious stuff, but it needs repeating, especially as we head into the Liberal leadership period. I’m not calling anyone out here, but it would be nice if all politicians – Liberal, Conservative, New Democrat, & Green alike – tried to use Twitter in a more authentic
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: More foreign policy antagonism
You might have caught this story last week: For a moment at least, it was a United Nations-basher’s dream come true. The UN had once again hugely discredited itself, this time by appointing Zimbabwe’s pariah President Robert Mugabe to be its tourism ambassador, of all things. An indignant Foreign Affairs
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