There’s been a lot of chatter lately about the Diefenbaker-era Canadian Bill of Rights, especially on social media. While it doesn’t seem to have hit mainstream commentary in a big way yet, social media is full of references, usually by commenters in the darker corners of the right-wing Internet, about
Continue readingTag: John Diefenbaker
Alberta Politics: Strange bedfellows: UCP and Tzeporah Berman both praise Justin Trudeau’s oilpatch bailout!
Tzeporah Berman, the high-profile Vancouver environmentalist, on Friday lauded the oil-sector provisions of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s COVID-19 bailout package as a sensible way to begin winding down the Canadian fossil fuel industry. “This bailout announcement is a major turning point for oil and gas politics in Canada,” Ms. Berman
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: In defence of populism.
From the first time I met John George Diefenbaker, I have admired populist politicians. For the benefit of our younger folk, John Diefenbaker was a Prairie populist politician who served as prime minister of Canada from 1957 to 1963. As a young liberal, I did not agree with much of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Is veteran Tory’s bid to run as Liberal in by-election to replace ex-PM a sign of sagging Conservative fortunes nationally?
PHOTOS: Veteran Conservative Lee Richardson with Alberta premier Alison Redford, who he served as principal secretary. Below: Prime minister John Diefenbaker, who Mr. Richardson served as executive assistant, and Alberta premier Peter Lougheed, for whom he was chief of staff. Understanding history requires a long view, and the picture that
Continue readingAlberta Politics: This shouldn’t be a surprise: Trudeaumania 2.0 fails to deliver in Medicine Hat
PHOTOS: Trudeaumania 1.0, the real thing, in 1968. Below: Trudeaumania 2.0, not nearly as effective, in Medicine Hat, Alberta, on Oct. 13, 2016. Below: Conservative by-election winner Glen Motz, Rudyard Kipling, poet of empire and saviour of the Hat part of the Hat, and unsuccessful Liberal challenger Stan Sakamoto. Well,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘Event logisticians’? Give us a break! They’re bouncers! What’s that tell you about the Tories?
PHOTOS: Prime Minister Stephen Harper meets a group of foreign event logistics consultants while travelling abroad (Government of Canada photo). Below: Pierre Trudeau does suppressed fury the right way; Mr. Harper does it with considerably less appeal. Clearly, the continuing uproar about Stephen Harper’s “event logistics team members” tells us
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: Our Addiction to Balanced Budgets May Need an Intervention
“There is always a storm. There is always rain. Some experience it. Some live through it. And others are made from it.” Author Shannon L. Alder Recently NDP candidate and former Saskatchewan finance minister, Andrew Thomson, stated on Power and Politics, that cuts were inevitable, in order to balance the
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: Our Addiction to Balanced Budgets May Need an Intervention
“There is always a storm. There is always rain. Some experience it. Some live through it. And others are made from it.” Author Shannon L. Alder Recently NDP candidate and former Saskatchewan finance minister, Andrew Thomson, stated on Power and Politics, that cuts were inevitable, in order to balance the
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: Our Addiction to Balanced Budgets May Need an Intervention
A closer look at the country’s finances, however, raises a simple question: why all the fuss? The budget is a thin slice of the Canadian economic pie, and interest costs on our debt are shrinking to near-giveaway size. Ottawa is just one of three government levels, and taken as a whole our government spending is very much under control.
That suggests that it’s Mr. Trudeau whose position is in sync with the majority’s mood. The Liberal Leader has refused to rule out running a deficit, arguing he’ll have to see the extent of the “mess” the Conservatives have left in the public finances.
It is the NDP, traditionally to the left of the Liberals, who have launched the most blistering attacks on Mr. Trudeau for opening the door to running a deficit. Under Mr. Mulcair, the New Democrats have sought to allay concerns about their economic policies by insisting they will balance the books, despite the slowdown in the economy.
I’m glad that Trudeau is bringing the Liberal Party back to its roots, that put Canadians first. Now the NDP have to find their way back to the days of Tommy Douglas.
Or maybe I’m just a Diefenbaker, with a dollop of Pearson and a splash of Pierre Trudeau.
Not such a bad thing to be.
Pushed to the Left and Loving It: The Most Powerful Symbol You Will See This Election
I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for
Continue readingAlberta 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 readingAlberta Politics: Independence Day: an excellent moment to remember Stephen Harper is no ‘Tory’
PHOTOS: Today is Independence Day in the United States, and also in Texas, where this photo was snapped. Below: Stephen Harper, not a Tory, unlike John A. Macdonald, below him, who was. Below both of them, a Hessian soldier gets ready to load up and shoot at an American insurgent.
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Who Has The Worst Job in Alberta Politics?
Why does the public go bananas when Danielle Smith, the leader of the Official Opposition, criticizes the PC government? They say she’s too negative, too shrill, too something. Can’t she be more positive they ask? More supportive? Clearly they haven’t a clue about the role of the Opposition. A thankless
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Brian Gallant has a thin resume? Stephen Harper hasn’t held a real job since he quit the mailroom in ’79 or whenever!
New Brunswick Premier-designate Brian Gallant, grabbed from his campaign website. Below: Cranky old National Post opinion thingy Kelly McParland, age undetermined; Justin Trudeau, 42, getting off an airplane with some old guy, 62; Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair, 59. As the present now will later be past The order is rapidly
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Dispatches from your crazy Uncle Steve: It’s all the fault of the media elite!
“Isn’t that Brian Mulroney talking to some guy … Hey! Isn’t that one-a those Trudeaus?! Mulroney’s just another Trudeau lover! Like the Ottawa media elite!” Yadda-yadda… Below: The real Crazy Uncle Steve, Mr. Mulroney again, Heather Mallick. You can tell she’s a member of the urban Ottawa media elite because
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Why I voted for Jim Coutts in 1984 and probably would again, a lesson in retail politics
Jim Coutts, son of the Great Plains and, as long-time principal secretary to Liberal prime minister Pierre Trudeau, once said to be the second most powerful person in Canada. (University of Lethbridge photo.) Below: The Lancaster bomber arrives in Nanton, inconveniently huge, but still too small to house a roadside
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Campaign Diary Volume 5: Praise, political priorities and poetry
Yours Truly visiting the Texas House of Representatives in the State Capitol building in Austin, Texas – and thinking about what to say to Ryan Hastman on EdmontionPolitics.com. Below: The author with LBJ, sort of, and looking particularly fierce for the benefit of our Texan hosts. Last week, just as
Continue readingTrashy's World: The Avro Arrow?
Could it be resurrected? Well, the idea is being talked about. But it’ll never “fly”. LOL! I kill me! So why not? Well, as I never got around to doing a doctorate in aerospace engineering, I cannot speak to the technical side of a 50-year-old concept repackaged for the 21st
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Never mind the CCF! Perfesser Dave shows how the shadow of Stalin looms over the Harper Conservatives!
Gerda Munsinger: More proof if it were needed it that the Harper government secretly loves the Soviets. Below: Perfesser Dave; Pierre “Woody” Sévigny; the Avro Arrow, which we could have used against the Taliban if the same Conservatives now running Canada hadn’t scrapped it! JASPER, Alberta As readers of Alberta
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