When I saw Cam Ecclestone’s self-aggrandizing flyer, I was strongly reminded of the opening of Chapter 24 of the Tao Te Ching, which in my latest translation reads, Blowhards have no standing, The self-promoting are not distinguished, Show-offs do not shine, Braggarts have nothing to show, The self-important are here
Continue readingTag: election
The Political Road Map: A Road Map for the Ontario PC Party
My phone went off around 3AM this morning with various breaking news updates. I got up and having been battling the flu, had a drink of water, coughed up a lung and still probably didn’t feel half as bad as PC leader Patrick Brown did. I mean, talk about a
Continue reading52 Ideas: On Fildebrandt: I nominate Fildebrandt for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation 2018 Teddy Awards
For over two decades, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation has described what their vision of good public policy should be. One of the best symbols, descriptors, of their view has been the Teddy Awards. The Award is named for a former federal appointee, Ted Weatherill. Mr Weatherill had the unfortunate distinction
Continue readingPostArctica: Election Selfie
On November 5th Montreal elected its first woman mayor, Valerie Plante. I was volunteering that day and spent a couple of hours in the De l’Eglise Metro handing out voting reminders. Later on another volunteer and I were knocking on doors after 7pm (polls closed at 8). We were motivated
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Vancouver By-Election Endorsements
Just in case anyone is wondering how I will vote in this Saturday’s Vancouver municipal by-election, here’s the plan: City Council: Pete Fry (Green Party) School Board: Judy Zaichkowsky (Green Party) Allan Wong (Vision Vancouver) Mike Lombardi (Vision Vancouver) Erica Jaaf (OneCity) Estrellita Gonzalez (Green Party) Janet Fraser (Green Party)
Continue readingScripturient: The symphony of government
A good government in operation is like a symphony: disparate parts, dozens of different instruments and performers, each in their own space and place, all working together under the benign management of a conductor. When working in harmony, they are a delight to hear and see. There’s no “me” in
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Will Mandryk Eat His Privatization Crow?
Has anyone watched Mandryk eat crow about this doozy of a column defending Wall’s last campaign yet? “NDP must get off privatization merry-go-round“ “On Tuesday, Wall emphatically said “no” to selling SaskPower, SaskEnergy, SaskTel, SGI and even STC. He reminded voters he signed the old NDP Crown Corporation Protection Act
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: NDP Brings Greens Most Pinecones
Title in honour of a Beaverton joke. Andrew Weaver brings up the issue of Kinder Morgan as something he couldn't overlook when negotiating. — Chandler Grieve (@CTVNewsChandler) May 29, 2017 BREAKING: Andrew Weaver announces @BCGreens party will support John Horgan and the @bcndp https://t.co/31K6KRulSm #BCpoli pic.twitter.com/M9SiwleYDh — The Vancouver Sun
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Nathan Cullen’s Electoral Reform tour stop in Regina
@gtlem @pau1234la @Erin_Weir @nathancullen Here's the good one he took, and got @Carla4Lakeview in the background. pic.twitter.com/o9q29JLDA4 — Saskboy (@saskboy) May 26, 2017 Room filling up at Knox-Met for @nathancullen #ERRE #KeepYourPromise tour#cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/tM3a5IWgBa — Saskboy (@saskboy) May 26, 2017
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: What Is a Left-Leaning Green to Do?
With less than a week to go before election day and polls tightening across British Columbia, I find myself in the all-too-common predicament of dreading the electoral options before me. The Liberals, naturally, are out of the question. They have governed this province horrendously through 16 years of the wrong
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Trudeau’s Broken Reform Promise
At the Parliamentary Committee I spoke at, I told Nathan Cullen I was disappointed he wasn’t running for the NDP leadership. Listening to NDP MP Nathan Cullen rip Trudeau over electoral reform promise breaking, the PM must be relieved he's not running for leader. — Don Martin (@DonMartinCTV) February 1,
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: The Travesty of the Electoral College
Of the myriad outrages that define last week’s United States presidential election — namely, the elevation of scandal over policy, of demagoguery over competence, of unabashed sexism and racism and conspiratorial paranoia over reasoned debate — perhaps the most egregious is the fact that the winner of the popular vote
Continue readingTrashy's World: A fine capital project brought to you by the Government of Canada
Request for Proposal (RFP) Canada Wall Project Date: November 9, 2016 aussi disponible en français 1. Summary and Background As a result of the change in government in the United States, the Government of Canada (GoC) finds it necessary to take unusual measures to protect its frontier with the U.S.
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Trump a Plant?
A window into how a major campaign manipulates media and the public to steer the national conversation: July 23rd, 2015: Summary of Morning Joe by TVeyes — Speculation into the possibility of Donald Trump running as a third party candidate. John Heilemann comments saying as it looks right now, Trump
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: #ERRE Electoral Reform Committee in Regina
First Expert guests I watched presenting to the committee were unable to understand French question fired at them because they were not equipped with translation headphones. Nathan Cullen leaped up and got the headsets for them. CLC points out they are a political org and that is why they are interested in this subject of […]
Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Clinton Lied But No Consequence. It’s Like It’s the 1990s Still
“Here, for the record, is Clinton saying, on March 10, 2015, “I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email.”” I’m particularly offended by this oligarchy-outcome because Clinton is guilty of doing what she persecutes American hero Ed Snowden for doing – “mishandling classified information”. Yet he lives in exile in Russia, […]
Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Leave Or Remain In? The Former UK Chooses Out And About Does Itself In
Brexit: It’s a term I first heard months ago on Twitter in relation to people mostly angry with immigration in the UK. It means “British Exit from the European Union”. The country narrowly voted to leave the EU, and the economy/currency Pound Sterling soon crashed from the uncertainty of the Prime Minister resigning, the opposition […]
Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: #RoboCon: Revisiting the 2008 Election Fraud
In light of this news from Elizabeth May, it may be worth re-reading these blog entries from 2012 and 2009. Duffy’s trial raised some damning information about the first infamous robocalls used to steal an election for the Conservatives in B.C. And read Alison’s more recent recap. I certainly think that Duffy’s testimony should be […]
Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: It’s Saskatchewan’s Election Day
I basically stopped writing about the Saskatchewan election on my blog following the hair pulling, anti-democratic decision by CBC and its consortium of TV broadcasters to block most party leaders from debating with Wall and Broten. So we’ll go another 4 years not knowing how those two shouty leaders behave when there are adults in […]