This and that to end your Saturday. – Andrew Jackson comments on how a premature push for austerity has driven the global economy to the brink of more disaster – as slashing intended to summon the confidence fairies has instead led businesses to reasonably conclude it’s not worth trying to
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David Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: An Open Letter about Rob Ford to the City of Toronto, from the Rest of Canada
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, a political figure so big he has his own gravitational field! Toronto politicians may not appear exactly as illustrated. Dear Toronto: It’s time we had a frank talk about that Chief Magistrate of yours. We are speaking of course about Rob Ford, the big guy who
Continue readingCalgary Grit: Happy Anniversary!
One year ago today, Stephen Harper turned an “unwanted election” into his first majority government, Jack Layton and the NDP soared to never before seen heights, and Liberals spent the evening curled up in a fetal position sobbing in the corner. On political anniversaries, it’s tempting to give each party
Continue readingThomas Mulcair “A Leader” Ad Makes It’s Debut
Fresh off Easter break the NDP has released it’s newest ad, presenting the leader of the Opposition Thomas Mulcair to English speaking Canadians. The video is sharp, and a noticible return to the ads of old for the NDP where people talk about the person for whom the ad is
Continue readingCanadian Progressive World: Jack Layton’s vision for Canada is in good hands (VIDEO)
That’s the key message in a new TV ad introducing the newly minted leader of the New Democrats, Thomas Mulcair, to Canadians. Layton’s widow, Olivia Cho, and ordinary folks, assure us that Mulcair and the NDP will continue from where … Continue reading →
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Thomas Mulcair? We can’t spare that man. He fights!
Ulysses S. Grant, exactly as he appeared. Below: Thomas Mulcair (from a Toronto Star photo), for comparative purposes; President Lincoln. I like Thomas Mulcair for the same reason Abraham Lincoln liked Ulysses S. Grant. As President Lincoln famously said of Gen. Grant, the Commanding General of the Union Army in
Continue readingwRanter.com: Why Thomas Mulcair gets it when it comes to Israel
Not surprisingly, Thomas Mulcair won the NDP leadership last month, replacing Saint Jack Layton as the man social democrats hope can rally left-of-centre voters to defeat Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives. Here’s hoping he’s successful, but as I argued in an earlier post, it seems unlikely that he will be, because
Continue readingMulcair is the right pick for NDP, Canada
#cdnpoli #ndp #tm4pm #thomasmulcair #lpc #gpc A lot of hand wringing is going on at several levels within the NDP about picking a former Quebec Liberal cabinet minister to lead the NDP. Some of the traditionalists warn that this is the drift of the party to the right that they
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: i missed the orange wave.
Around 1:30 am on May 2, 2011, I returned to Edmonton after a month travelling across the vast continent of Australia. That day also happened to be Election Day in Canada. On a social media detox while I was out of the country and suffering from severe jet lag from
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: Mulcair’s Views Very Similar To Layton’s
Many NDP members were worried during the leadership campaign that Mulcair had some extreme views on some issues. Not so. Here is a great piece by Leftist Jab touching on a couple of these issues. Read that post for the details. Some people feared that Mulcair would break from working
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Thomas Mulcair: an NDP leader who passes the Ralph Klein beer test and Tory fear test
One hopes profoundly readers of this blog will indulge its author in running this photograph one more time, given the occasion. NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair, chosen by the party as its leader this evening, is like Ralph Klein a politician who seems to be someone an ordinary person could have
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The NDP Convention and Jack’s Little Tree
Well this is as close as I got to the site of the NDP Leadership Convention. I briefly thought of crashing the party, but I was afraid I might bump into Ed Broadbent. Call him an old asshole. Former party leader Ed Broadbent, who has endorsed Brian Topp, said on
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Jack Layton vs. Stephen Harper
I’ve just spent about the last 45 minutes watching the tribute to Jack Layton at the NDP leadership convention. The heartfelt praise about Jack’s humanity, his real love of and interest in people, suggests a life well-lived, despite its tragic shortness. That got me thinking of what a tribute to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Brian-Michel calculates the expected outcome of the 2011 election minus the Robocon election fraud based on Anke Kessler’s data. Alison, thwap and Saskboy all rightly lament that a government claiming that a majority entitles it to treat Canada as a helpless plaything may
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Roundup
Another day, another set of NDP leadership campaign stories. – Niki Ashton won the support of the NDP’s Socialist Caucus. – Nathan Cullen expanded on his joint nomination proposal with a far more appealing discussion of co-operation in general: Cullen isn’t shy about what he has in mind. “If the
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Cooperation: Nathan Cullen on same page as Jack Layton while Mulcair goes his own way
On the single most important issue facing the opposition parties in the next 3 years or so, Thomas Mulcair has come down strongly on one side of the issue, with both Jack Layton and Nathan Cullen clearly on the other. Both Jack and Nathan believed in cooperation to remove a
Continue readingwRanter.com: Even with a new leader, the NDP can’t defeat the Tories alone
I just can’t get excited about the NDP leadership race, which ends March 24 in Toronto, because irrespective of who wins, it’s hard to see it leading to a positive outcome for progressive politics in this country. Will Thomas Mulcair, the party outsider who reportedly flirted with the Tories prior to
Continue readingRed Tory v.3.0.3: 5.37%
No surprise that the NDP would breeze into Jack Layton’s old seat, but the Conservative result barely cracking 5 percent was a bit… well, hilarious. So much for two-time loser Andrew Keyes – “a recognized leader in the communications industry.” Who knows, maybe there will be a Senate seat or
Continue readingCowboys for Social Responsibility: Second ballot without a second language
Yesterday, Paul Dewar’s NDP leadership campaign released a poll that they claim put Dewar in first place on the second ballot of the NDP leadership race. Understandably, other campaigns drew their own conclusions from the results or their own unreleased but contradictory results. But the one question that the poll
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Liveblogging Today’s NDP Leaders Debate
Today’s NDP leadership debate lands in Quebec. I’m using 14 criteria to evaluate who I’ll be voting for. Let me know if you have suggestions for improved criteria. 2012.02.12 NDP Leaders Debate February 2, 2012 — NDP Leaders, By the Numbers and the Intangibles (0) August 27, 2011 — Liveblog
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