If you want to see why there isn’t much of a real left wing in the USA, this graph of those seeking the White House in 2008 pretty much covers it. 2008 US presidential candidates show little actual left wing juice. If you want proof of how the neoliberal US
Continue readingTag: conservative party of canada
Alberta Diary: Toews an ill-timed Johnny-on-the-spot justifying imposition of U.S.-style gun-show anarchy
Victor Toews, Canada’s Minister of Public Insecurity and Zombification, rendered by Edmonton artist William Prettie. Below, a shifty looking Mr. Toews as he appears in the halls of Parliament. Pat Martin is a Great Canadian. ™ What a perfect way to throw a little red meat to your gun-nut money
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The Stephen Harper model for Wildrose power: promise free votes and deliver the Borg Hive
Singing along: What we were promised by the Reform-Conservative platform. Below: What we got. Alberta’s Wildrose Party blossomed at the edges of the same muddy spring whence sprang the federal Reform Party of Preston Manning and Stephen Harper. As is well known, the Reform Party went on to engineer the
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Council of Canadians celebrates first victories of the Robocalls case
by Council of Canadians: After a six-day federal court hearing, eight electors in six ridings have made a strong case that there was widespread voter suppression in the 2011 federal election that benefited Conservative Party candidates. They have asked the federal court judge to annul the results in the six
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Bill C-377 can be just the start – let’s shine a light on some corners that are really in the dark!
The ideal Canadian workforce, Harper Conservative style. Below: Social conservative B.C. MP Russ Hiebert. Well, you can’t fight a call for transparency, so why bother? I say, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em! The so-called Conservative Party of Stephen Harper quietly whipped its troops in the privacy of their
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Canadians Take Robocalls to Court – Day 1
by Maude Barlow | Council of Canadians: Under the sheen of freezing rain that blanketed the Supreme Court of Canada, the historic legal cases of eight Canadians against voter suppression and fraud in the 2011 federal election finally got underway. Day one of what is expected to be a full
Continue readingThe Equivocator: Conservatives call Justin Trudeau to testify at the House Un-Canadian Activities Committee
Blaine Calkins (CPC – Wetaskiwin) and the 5 other government MPs have called for David McGuinty and Justin Trudeau to answer questions at the the House Natural Resources Committee. They want David McGuinty to speak because of a poorly phrased statement he made about politicians prioritizing the national interest about all
Continue readingAlberta Diary: And the winner is … no one: everybody missed Monday’s biggest story
Alberta families like this one just stayed home Monday and watched TV. Below: Pollster Janet Brown. So who stayed home? While poll analysts and pundits pontificated yesterday about what the somewhat-less-than-stellar victory of Conservative Joan Crockatt in the Calgary-Centre by-election might mean for the national political parties, the real story went largely unexamined – to …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Go back to sleep everyone: another Tory win in Calgary
Joan Crockatt, the first pest past the post, flanked by Calgary MPs Rob Anders and Jason Kenney, gives her victory speech in Calgary last night. Actual victorious Alberta Conservatives may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: The unsuccessful Liberal, Green and NDP candidates; the real Ms. Crockatt. Oh, how very depressing. Progressive voters outnumbered Conservatives, …
Continue readingThe Equivocator: Canadian Values in 2012
From the Globe and Mail: I find it interesting that the Charter is so high but at the same time the Patriation of the Constitution is so low. Filed under: Canadian Politics, Conservative Party of Canada, Liberal Party of Canada, … Continue reading →
The Equivocator: Vote Harvey Locke: The Progressive Choice for Calgary-Centre
Today (November 26th) is by-election day in the great riding of Calgary-Centre! The Liberal campaign has been as exciting as it has been improbably and for the first time since 1968, Calgary-Centre might such send a Liberal to Ottawa. Though … Continue reading →
Politics and its Discontents: But Isn’t This Like Saying You Are A Little Bit Pregnant?
You decide. H/t aaronwherryRecommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Join Elizabeth May on Politics, Re-Spun Radio Tonight
If you care about Stephen Harper giving China a veto over our democracy for 31 years in the FIPA sellout, tune into Politics, Re-Spun radio on Coop Radio tonight at 6pm Vancouver time to listen to federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May tell us what kind of despotism Harper has in store for us all. […]
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Will the Tories meet their Waterloo on the field at Calgary Centre? One can only hope!
Napoleon after the Battle of Waterloo. Events in the Calgary Centre by-election may not turn out to be exactly as illustrated. Below: Liberal Harvey Locke, Conservative Joan Crockatt and Green Chris Turner. Is Joan Crockatt about to meet her Waterloo? As reported first by Dave Cournoyer of the Daveberta blog and moments later by the …
Continue readingEclectic Lip: Newsflash: Canadian PM’s American Idol supports Stephane Dion-esque carbon tax shift
Note: for non-Canadian readers (or, indeed for Canadian readers who don’t follow politics) Stephane Dion was the milquetoast who led the Liberal Party of Canada to its then-worst-ever federal election result in 2008. He ran on a campaign of a carbon tax shift (“The Green Shift“), for which the Conservative Party mocked and savaged him. We’ll […]
Alberta Diary: Alberta Tories send feds a message, but keep their most dangerous enemies close
Friends close, enemies closer: Alberta Tories, left, send a message to their federal counterparts. Alberta political parties may not be exactly as anthropomorphized. Below: Premier Alison Redford, Niccolo Machiavelli. Proving you really can have it both ways, Premier Alison Redford’s Alberta Tories rapped the knuckles of their federal counterparts yesterday but kept their most dangerous …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Tip for Tories: a grownup conversation about debt will pay political dividends
The House that Ralph built. Alberta mismanaged by market fundamentalists may not appear exactly as illustrated, but close enough. Below: Peter Lougheed, Alison Redford, Ralph Klein. As Alberta’s Tories gather today in Calgary to celebrate Peter Lougheed leading them out of the Social Credit wilderness 41 years ago, they will expend plenty of energy feuding …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Republican failure shows conservative parties must adapt, like Alberta PCs, or die
Psychological/political portraits of Stephen Harper and Barack Obama by Edmonton artist William Prettie. Used with permission. This too shall pass… Now and then throughout history, as with Whigs and Communists, international political-ideological movements of enormous influence wither and disappear, often quite suddenly. It is rarely their call. Neoconservatives – or neoliberals, call them what you …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Undemocratic impulses? Who ya gonna call? Not Jimmy Carter!
When it comes to ensuring the integrity of foreign elections, take it from Alberta Diary, Jimmy Carter is outstanding in the field. Below: Alberta MP Linda Duncan and Ukrainian President Viktor F. Yanukovich. By the sound of it, the international observers of Sunday’s Ukrainian parliamentary elections did manage to catch
Continue readingAlberta Diary: There is a God: Merit Contractors, advocates of Bill C-377, would be caught in its web
Tory MP wonders about Bill C-377: “Is anybody really interested in breaching Sally the Receptionist’s privacy because she earns 40k answering the phones at the Union Hiring Hall?” Below: Stephen Kushner. Surely it is one of life’s little ironies that among the groups certain to be caught in the web
Continue reading