Democracy is the greatest sport on Earth. I feed on elections and leadership contests but I’m kind of glad I don’t have a vote this Saturday in the NDP leadership convention. Since I don’t have a vote I haven’t spent as much time researching all the leaders as I could
Continue readingTag: Democratic Reform
Pop The Stack: For Once, I’m Glad I’m Not Voting
Democracy is the greatest sport on Earth. I feed on elections and leadership contests but I’m kind of glad I don’t have a vote this Saturday in the NDP leadership convention. Since I don’t have a vote I haven’t spent as much time researching all the leaders as I could
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: New partners and new supplicants #nlpoli
After the throne speech, the leaders of the opposition parties get to have their say in the legislature. Just as the throne speech sets the government’s agenda, so too can the replies set the agenda for the opposition parties. They could be committed to biting at the government’s heels and
Continue readingPop The Stack: Electoral Reform on the NDP Radar
The NDP leadership race is heating up and the most interesting development to me is that there seems to be a competition growing for who can be the most concerned about the sorry state of our democracy and the most committed to fix it. Take Peggy Nash, her website has
Continue readingPop The Stack: Electoral Reform on the NDP Radar
The NDP leadership race is heating up and the most interesting development to me is that there seems to be a competition growing for who can be the most concerned about the sorry state of our democracy and the most committed to fix it. Take Peggy Nash, her website has
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament in Review: December 9, 2011
Friday, December 9 saw the final day of debate at second reading on the Cons’ seat allocation bill. And as usual, plenty of valid questions went entirely unanswered. The Big Issue Marc-Andre Morin rightly questioned the Cons’ trumped-up sense of urgency in dealing with seat allocations while they do nothing
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament in Review: December 6, 2011
Tuesday, December 6 saw a day devoted primarily to debating the Cons’ seat redistribution bill. And the result was some interesting interplay between the three official parties in the House of Commons – if no lack of contradictions as well. The Big Issue In effect, the debate on C-20 saw
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament in Review: December 2, 2011
Friday, December 2 saw the final day of debate in Parliament on the Cons’ omnibus crime bill. And for at least a moment, the proceedings took a perhaps surprising turn. The Big Issue As debate wound down on C-10, Irene Mathyssen questioned why the Cons insisted on delaying the passage
Continue readingPop The Stack: Demanding Leadership on Democratic Reform
I’ve been offline and travelling for a while if you’ve been wondering about the radio silence (I know, unlikely). But I’m back now, living for the next two years in the self-declared “Greatest Democracy on Earth™”. We’ll see if they have any better luck than we are having up in
Continue readingPop The Stack: Demanding Leadership on Democratic Reform
I’ve been offline and travelling for a while if you’ve been wondering about the radio silence (I know, unlikely). But I’m back now, living for the next two years in the self-declared “Greatest Democracy on Earth™”. We’ll see if they have any better luck than we are having up in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Links and Policy Roundup 3
Assorted policy and punditry from the NDP leadership campaign. – On the policy front, it’s looking like time to give Nathan Cullen full credit for being well ahead of the pack with a well-rounded and detailed set of policies. I missed his democratic reform proposal in my last policy roundup
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On top priorities
I’ve already linked to Postmedia’s story setting out Brian Topp’s first set of democratic reform priorities. But let’s take a look at a couple of the proposals in a bit more detail. To start off, I’m not sure anybody else has pointed out the significance of Topp’s plan to “introduce
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament in Review: November 2, 2011
Wednesday, November 2 saw the House of Commons debate two bills dealing with democratic reform. And the result was a remarkable gap between the values the Harper Cons presented in justifying their party’s policy orders, and the ones they actually apply in practice. The Big Issue The bill which received
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Evening Links
Assorted content for your evening reading. – Alex Himelfarb finds a few positives in the Cons’ ramming their dumb-on-crime bill through the House of Commons: Thankfully many are not willing to “get over it”. How heartening, for example, to hear Leadnow.ca announce that they were simply regrouping for the next
Continue readingA BCer in Toronto: Democracy is too expensive is a poor argument
There are lots of good arguments you can make that just adding more and more seats to the House of Commons to address shifting populations is a bad idea. For example, at some point unless you knock out a wall, you’ll run out of room in the Commons chamber. Cost,
Continue readingImpolitical: Renewal: Liberal primaries
The idea of a primary style system being adopted by Liberals for the next leadership selection is the focus of John Ibbitson’s column today. An excerpt: The party executive will unveil a series of proposed reforms in a report later this week, to be dec…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament In Review: October 3, 2011
Monday, October 3 saw another day dedicated largely to debate of the Cons’ anti-refugee bill. The Big IssueAs might be expected after several days of debate, the Cons’ single set of poorly-reasoned talking points was beginning to get stale. And Kevin L…
Continue readingA BCer in Toronto: Will anyone stand-up for equality of parliamentary representation?
With our parliamentarians having returned to Ottawa this week, it seems appropriate to turn our attention to just how our parliament is composed. Representation in the House of Commons is sure to be a contentious issue once again, and I’m having a ha…
Continue readingPop The Stack: Happy Democracy Day, Canada! Or Is it?
Happy Democracy Day Canada! Wait, what? That’s not even…huh? That’s right, Sept. 15 is the International Day of Democracy. The fourth annual! Apparently. I know, I hadn’t heard of it either. I only heard about it because Fair Vote Canada is holding events all week discussing democracy. So, for my first
Continue readingPop The Stack: Happy Democracy Day, Canada! Or Is it?
Happy Democracy Day Canada! Wait, what? That’s not even…huh? That’s right, Sept. 15 is the International Day of Democracy. The fourth annual! Apparently. I know, I hadn’t heard of it either. I only heard about it because Fair Vote Canada is holding events all week discussing democracy. So, for my first
Continue reading