There are those who say we should be bracing ourselves for the return of President Steve. Say it ain’t so! Stephen Harper (Photo: Remy Steinegger, Creative Commons). We can expect know today if Stephen Harper is going to re-emerge to make a re-run to re-lead the Conservative Party of Canada
Continue readingTag: Michael Chong
Alberta Politics: Sic transit gloria mundi … Globe and Mail, a ‘writers’ newspaper’ no more or a national one either, cans two great columnists
PHOTOS: This was the way into the Globe and Mail back when it was located at the unfashionable west end of Toronto’s Front Street. The door was moved. Apparently the “writers’ newspaper” behind it didn’t come with it. Below: Fired Globe columnists Tabatha Southey and Leah McLaren (Photos: Twitter). Many
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Are non-Albertans who FRWN on progress behind many of the online threats against Premier Rachel Notley?
PHOTOS: Part of the uninspiring, sometimes troubling, field of Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidates. Their names? Frankly, it’s too much work to note them all down (CBC photo). Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former prime minister Stephen Harper (CBC).
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It won’t hurt NDP for centrist voters to understand how close Rachel Notley’s energy policy is to Jim Prentice’s proposals
PHOTOS: Jim Prentice during his time as premier of Alberta. Below: Premier Rachel Notley, Prentice co-author Jean-Sébastian Rioux (Twitter), and journalist Jason Markusoff (Twitter). The revelation that the moderate and thoughtful energy policy proposed by the late Jim Prentice soon after he left politics in 2015 was very similar to
Continue readingThe Progressive Right: What it Means to Join a Political Party ( #cdnpoli )
A lot of people believe joining a political party means getting together and advancing policies and ideas that they collectively believe in. The truth is – the more important part about joining a political party is a willingness or a flexibility in advancing policies and ideas that you do not
Continue readingThe Progressive Right: What it Means to Join a Political Party ( #cdnpoli )
A lot of people believe joining a political party means getting together and advancing policies and ideas that they collectively believe in. The truth is – the more important part about joining a political party is a willingness or a flexibility in advancing policies and ideas that you do not
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Happy New Year! AlbertaPolitics.ca’s Top Ten political predictions for 2017
PHOTOS: Your blogger, in hat, contemplates the difference between the renamed Conservative Party of Alberta and the renamed Conservative Party of Alberta. That’s not a typo. See Prediction No. 9 below for an explanation. Actual Alberta political commentators may not appear exactly as illustrated in this screenshot. Below (with predictions):
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Canada’s Conservatives have taken their greatest strength and bulldozed it to the ground: this will not end well for them
PHOTOS: Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidates Kellie Leitch, Chris Alexander and Brad Trost get ready for their next debate on how best to Make Canada Great Again. Actual CPC leadership candidates may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Former Alberta Progressive Conservative premier Ed Stelmach, Alberta PC leadership candidate
Continue readingAlberta Politics: They can still feel shame! Conservative leaders duck and cover in wake of Saturday’s disgraceful display
PHOTOS: Chris Alexander, at the moment the chant of “lock her up” began from the right-wing mob at the Alberta Legislature Saturday. Does this look to you like a man who is “shocked, taken aback, mortified even”? Me neither. Below: Michael Chong, Deepak Obhrai, Rona Ambrose and Brian Jean, all
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Why the Cons Can’t Attract Good Leadership Candidates
Despite Rona Ambrose's desperate attempts to try to get more people interested in running for the job of permanent Leader of the Harper Party.So far her campaign has been a dismal failure.For after beating her drum, or kicking up her arms and legs…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Michael Chong And The Reform Act
Yesterday, Owen at Northern Reflections wrote a post on Michael Chong, one of the few members of Stephen Harper’s caucus with real integrity, attested to by his principled resignation as Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs after Harper’s unilateral declaration of Quebec as a nation. A legitimate question posed is why he
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On powers of appointment
Andrew Coyne has rightly pointed out the gall the Senate is showing in nixing Michael Chong’s watered-down Reform Act (even if there’s something to a few of the criticisms). But let’s not miss the most absurd suggestion of all as to who should be given increased power over a party’s
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Interview with Diane Ballantyne, LPC Nomination Contestant, Wellington-Halton Hills
A lot of Liberal candidates are up in Ottawa this week for more Campaign College training, but nomination contestants are around to be interviewed, and today I’m doing an interview with Diane Ballantyne, Liberal nomination contestant for the riding of Wellington Halton-Hills (the riding currently held by CPC MP Michael
Continue readingA BCer in Toronto: If Chong’s Reform Act were in place in BC, would Adrian Dix be Premier today?
Lots of the debate around Michael Chong’s proposed Reform Act to, among other things, allow a federal parliamentary caucus to fire the party leader, has taken place in the abstract. We need to do something, it’s better than nothing, you’re with reform or you’re with the terrorists, and so forth.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how Michael Chong’s Reform Act privileges members of Parliament over party members and supporters – and how there’s far more reason for concern about a lack of genuine grassroots input as matters stand now than about the influence of MPs. For further reading…– I’ll point to Andrew Coyne
Continue readingA BCer in Toronto: My problems with Chong’s Reform Act and my own preferences for reform
Having finally gotten around to reading Michael Chong’smuch-ballyhooed Reform Act, which is being pushed by the media pundit class with a fervor that would make most partisans blush, I feel that, while well-intentioned, what the act proposes is flawed and suffers from a narrowness of view that has trouble looking
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Thought’s On Chong’s Reform Bill
Michael Chong’s Bill C-559 is a relatively short piece of work, but it has taken me a bit of time to go through it and start to understand the implications of the changes being proposed, mostly because it contains a series of small changes to much larger acts – in
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Michael Chong and the Canadian Revolution
Well it's not exactly the French Revolution eh? But this being Canada it's probably the closest we can get to one. Michael Chong has presented his Reform Act that would shake up our Parliament to its very foundations. Conservative MP Michael Chong today tabled the proposed reform act, a private member's
Continue readingCanadian Political Viewpoints: Why Reform Will Fail
Source: CBC News: Conservative MP Michael Chong Makes Bid to Fix Parliament Even with Perrin’s e-mails being found amongst the clutter, and some shake ups in the Senate, let’s take a bit of a break and look at a ‘non-releated-but-totally-releated’ consequence of the Senate Scandal fallout. Ontario Conservative MP Michael
Continue readingCanadian Political Viewpoints: Why Reform Will Fail
Source: CBC News: Conservative MP Michael Chong Makes Bid to Fix ParliamentEven with Perrin’s e-mails being found amongst the clutter, and some shake ups in the Senate, let’s take a bit of a break and look at a ‘non-releated-but-totally-releated’ conse…
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