Do Canadians deserve to be paid back for the expenses submitted by Wallin and Duffy as they travelled to CONSERVATIVE PARTY FUND RAISERS? I say yes, we need all of the expenses back and all of the funds raised donated to the taxpayer who paid for the speaker. No wonder
Continue readingTag: conservative party of canada
Alberta Politics: Shhhhhh! Don’t tell anyone: As PM, Stephen Harper’s economic performance is a bust!
PHOTOS: From the sublime to the ridiculous? Liberal Lester Pearson, the top postwar economic performer among Canadian prime ministers. Below: Stephen Harper, the bottom. Below him: Pierre Trudeau (second best) and Brian Mulroney (second worst). Below them: Unifor economists Jim Stanford and Jordan Brennan. One of the most effective ways
Continue readingPolitics Canada: “Fair” Elections Act makes it easier for Harper ro cheat and not get caught
Why on earth would an anti-democratic dictator like Stephen Harper bring in a law called the “Fair Elections Act”? Well don’t judge a bill by it’s title. We saw how people felt about the “Anti-terror Act”, once they got a whiff of what was inside. David Parkins on The Safe
Continue readingPolitics Canada: Conservative disdain for democracy evident in their history of electoral fraud
One of my favourite moments in the coverage of the Conservative Electoral fraud in the 2011 federal election was when a reporter asked Senator Doug Finley if the Conservatives had misdirected voters, his response, “no, we do not do that.” The reason this struck me as odd was that Senator
Continue readingHarper is not serious about senate reform
Stephen Harper is not serious about senate reform. Despite his announcement last week that he plans to stop filling vacancies in the upper chamber until the senate is reformed, his track record on the issue is very poor. Stephen Harper, cc: pmwebphotos (Flickr.com) Harper was first elected to parliament in 1993
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta shows why there will be no NDP-Liberal entente, Nathan Cullen’s mistimed musing notwithstanding
PHOTOS: Loose-lipped New Democrat Nathan Cullen – whatever was he thinking? Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, former Alberta Liberal leader Raj Sherman, federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and NDP strategist Ian Capstick. Whatever Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen was thinking when he flapped his lips to the delight of the
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: Dancing Around the Polls Will Only Make You Dizzy
The news this week was of two recently published polls. One was conducted by Forum Research and the other by Mainstreet Research; with completely different results. Forum shows some drop in support for the NDP but has them forming a minority government. Mainstreet, on the other hand, shows a huge
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Two polls, widely different results, and Postmedia only reports one – what gives?
PHOTOS: “It is indeed Christmas in July for Conservatives!” Maybe it’s July, but is this guy really Santa Claus? Below: Pollsters Quito Maggi and Lorne Bozinoff. A Forum Research Inc. interactive voice response poll conducted on Tuesday of this week indicates 34 per cent of decided voters plan to vote
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta’s NDP needs to react more quickly, plus throw the Tories under the bus where they belong
PHOTOS: Carbon capture: The oil company executive in the bow tie places the carbon in a bottle, which is then stored underground by his corporation for billions of dollars. Or something like that. If the bottle breaks, of course, we’re screwed! Actual carbon capture schemes may not appear exactly as
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Who ends up allied with whom in a ‘Pizza Parliament’? It may not be as simple as you think
ILLUSTRATIONS: Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, left, and Conservative Leader and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, right, get together in a liaison dangereuse … actual Canadian politicians may not behave exactly as predicted, or expected. Below: The real Mr. Harper, NDP Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair, the real Mr. Trudeau and notorious Republican
Continue readingPolitics Canada: Harper government a textbook Karl Rove approach
That the Harper government is anywhere near the top of the polls is a testament to their discipline and adherence to the political strategies of Karl Rove. The Conservative Party of Canada applies Rove’s strategies more effectively than any other organization, including the George W Bush administration. Stephen Harper has
Continue readingAlberta Politics: MP Wai Young’s lines were flubbed, but nevertheless they sound like a cynical Harper Government talking point
PHOTOS: The Cone of Silence – it just doesn’t work for anyone any more. Below: Conservative MP Wai Young, Conservative PM Stephen Harper and Jesus, whose position on Canadian politics is unknown. It seems likely Vancouver South MP Wai Young fumbled a cynical Harper Government talking point when she claimed
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Liberal dissenter says Conservative Senators ignored advice from police in report on preventing terrorism
PHOTO: Alberta Senator Grant Mitchell with the Senate Chamber in the background (from his website). Conservative Senators on the Upper Chamber’s Standing Committee on National Security and Defence were not interested in the strongest recommendation by police and security experts who testified before the panel, its Liberal Deputy Chair told
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Was the Senate report on ‘countering’ the threat of terrorism intended to incite hatred for political gain?
PHOTOS: Conservative members of the Senate of Canada answer questions about their “interim report” on countering terrorist threats to Canada. Actual Conservative Senators may not appear exactly as illustrated – but close enough, unfortunately. Below: Liberal senator Grant Mitchell of Alberta, who dissented from the report; former British MP George
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Reunite Alberta’s right? The Great Wildrose Experiment is going to be hard to undo
PHOTOS: Wildrose Party Leader Brian Jean at the Calgary Stampede. Too country to be electable in the new Alberta? (Photo from Mr. Jean’s Flickr account.) Below: Former Harper strategist Ken Boessenkool and former Harper speechwriter Paul Bunner, both involved in Alberta’s “reunite the right” movement. (Photos grabbed from their Facebook
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Will Canadian troops in Ukraine have to train radical Islamist volunteers said to be tied to ISIS?
PHOTOS: Defence Minister Jason Kenney explains who Canadian troops will train in Ukraine last fall. Below: Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Ukraine in 2010. Photos are from the CBC and the Prime Minister’s Office’s Flickr account. It’s been evident for several months now Ukraine has a problem with neo-Nazis, in
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Where Are Our Leaders?
Vancouver is all but obscured in this satellite image It’s fire time in BC. Real leadership means speaking the words, recognizing facts and realities for people, and saying leader-y kinds of things like empathic comments that reflect understanding, like an acknowledgement that things are changing thus making BC more vulnerable
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Government by sneak: the preferred Harper Conservative response to thorny issues and hard-fought elections
PHOTOS: Poultry farmers not exactly like these, and dairy farmers as seen below, are facing sneaky attacks by the Harper Government. And speaking of the chickens coming home to roost, below them is a screen shot of former Peterborough MP Dean Del Mastro. VICTORIA, B.C. Same sex marriage advocates and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Does advertising plagiarism suggest Harper Government’s running on intellectual fumes?
PHOTOS: A screen shot from the new Harper Government anti-Tom-Mulcair advertisement. Actual Harper government plagiarism may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Scenes from the nearly identical 2011 Manitoba NDP 30-second spot and 2015 Harper Con spot. If political ads were popular songs, the Manitoba NDP would probably be getting
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Bitter Twitter commentators battle Dippers: Apparently size matters after all! Who knew?
Back in February 2013, then-Alberta-premier Alison Redford announced that, “recognizing the impact of falling resource revenues on our bottom line, my government will lead by example with a smaller, more focused cabinet.” At the time, the usual suspects in the provincial news media seemed to think her reduction of the
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