As I’d suspected, there looks to be plenty of material for a review post from just a day’s worth of events in the House of Commons. So here’s an inaugural daily review of what you may have missed in Ottawa yesterday – with a few themes I’ll be developi…
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Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- I’ll agree with Barbara Yaffe that one of the most important tasks for the Cons as a majority government will be to avoid having their heads inflated to dangerous levels. But I’m not sure how Yaffe could possibl…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week.- Rhys Kesselman rightly points out how the populist message that propelled the Cons to power has given way to elitist policy-making:Once the federal budget is balanced, the Conservatives plan to double the TFS…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: For and against
Not surprisingly, the Cons are working feverishly to pretend that the message which won them a bare majority of seats in the House of Commons is of absolutely no consequence now that they hold them. So let’s set the record straight as to why it’s funda…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
A variety of content for your weekend reading.- The Lethbridge Herald nicely points out who figures to have a problem with Stephen Harper’s decision to have the Canadian public pay tens of thousands of dollars to send him to Game 4 of the Stanley Cup F…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Exciting Crowdsourcing Opportunity!
With some people rightly wondering whether there’s time to conduct a full and proper review of the Cons’ budgetary plans before Parliament rises for the summer, now would figure to be an ideal time for some crowdsourcing work in digging through the Con…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: You may not have noticed, but…
…the first vote on budgetary policy in Canada’s new Parliament took place on Wednesday, with the parties taking their positions on the Libs’ budget subamendment. And it may make for an interesting signal as to who’s willing to work together in provid…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading.- Gerald Caplan has a modest suggestion to ensure the Senate doesn’t do any more avoidable harm to Canada’s democracy:That we have no need for a second house of Parliament of any kind is the first proposition h…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Worth discussing
One of the few times when the NDP has always been able to count on pundit attention in the past has been its policy conventions, when commentators often churn out an easy column or post by gleefully mocking some of the resolutions put forward for debat…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On incomplete reporting
Yes, it’s a problem if the Cons are giving different answers about climate-change policy to different audiences. But I’m not sure how the difference between federal action making next to no difference and its making even less than that makes for a more…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On destructive suggestions
Lest there be any doubt, one of the most important ways an opposition party can have influence in a majority Parliament is by choosing issues to highlight, thereby creating a perceived safe space for the governing party to act if it so chooses.Which is…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading.- Chantal Hebert points out that the biggest difference resulting from the NDP’s emergence as Canada’s official opposition may have to do with gender rather than age:A lot has been written and said about the yout…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Just wondering…
…but can anybody else remember a case of proportional representation being used as a boogeyman outside of an actual electoral reform referendum?I ask only because Peter MacKay’s plea to keep the Cons’ party constitution as is seems to go way over the…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On accountability
Aaron Wherry picks up on a new theme in the Cons’ rhetoric on health care. But since it seems to be drastically out of step with their actions since taking office, let’s ask the question: how can any province be seen as “accountable” for its actions wh…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On recruitment tactics
So that’s the Cons’ long-term economic action plan…A Conservative MP recently nominated by the federal government to sit on a secretive Canada-U.S. committee on continental defence told U.S. officials he was hoping a downturn in the economy would lea…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- With health care once again receiving plenty of attention on the U.S. political scene thanks to the Republicans’ plan to dismantle publicly-funded Medicare, the differences between Canada and the U.S. are once a…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: One of these things is not like the others
One of these things just doesn’t belong. See if you can spot the difference in the following single-election results – and consider what it might mean for each party’s future strategy…
Vote Share | Seats | Provinces w Seats | Provinces under 20% | High Prov% | Low Prov% | Rebates |
30.6% | 103 | 8 | 2 | 42.9% | 15.4% | 306 | 25.5% | 66 | 5 | 5 | 58.9% | 3.9% | 182 | 30.2% | 103 | 9 | 1 | 52.5% | 15.3% | 283 | 29.6% | 99 | 8 | 1 | 61.7% | 8.8% | 251 |
For those wondering, the parties who posted those totals are respectively the NDP in 2011, the Canadian Alliance in 2000, the Libs in 2006, and the Cons in 2004. And of course, each party served as the official opposition following the listed general election.
So let’s ask the rhetorical question: is there an obvious reason why one of those parties might have had both a glaring need to pursue a merger, and an obvious opportunity in doing so?
And conversely, is there an equally obvious reason why the other three might see fit to work from an existing national base, rather than pursuing wrenching structural changes?
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On flattering comparisons
Yes, it’ll take time to break the habits that have formed over the past few years – and it may well be that the Harper Cons will continue to stonewall and distort no matter what they face from the Official Opposition. But if this turns into a consisten…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading.- Brian Topp’s initial observations on the new sitting of Parliament include this note on the Libs’ interim leader:(A)s a footnote, Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae was also interesting in these exchanges. H…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On responsibility
Shorter Con instructions to ministers:If your underlings break the law based on your instructions, it’s their own damn fault for taking orders. So go nuts!
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