Naturally, there’s plenty to catch up on from #vancon2011 – but before I get into the news from the convention, let’s note one relatively surprising omission from the agenda for most of the weekend.At the NDP’s previous convention in Halifax, delegates…
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Impolitical: Party officials with newspaper columns
Quite a read, Brian Topp’s just in from Vancouver item in the Globe on Monday. I expected him to tell us more, given this opening:
The New Democratic Party met in convention this weekend. What happened and what did it mean?There are glowing lines about…
Trashy's World: Boy, do I feel stoopid!
This popped into my Inbox this morning.
I thought it was a recruitment drive for the NDP… I was going to send back a note asking them to cease the spam…
I was wrong.
Share and Enjoy:
Trashy, Ottawa, Ontario Tweet Th…
Continue readingThe NDP will stay socialist, for now
After their Sunday convention, the NDP exposed, perhaps unwillingly, some deep identity rifts within the party over the use of the word socialism. For now, the party will keep the word in their constitution.
And why shouldn’t it?
In a previous ar…
Continue readingmike watkins dot ca: MIA: Federal NDP Constitution
A number of times this year I’ve gone looking for the federal NDP constitution on-line, with no success. During or before the last federal election the party pulled the constitution document from its website – perhaps it was never there. The most recent copy of the document I’ve been able
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Piracy, Anyone?
What’s in a name? Very little. Look at my own British Columbia. Our province is governed by the Liberal Party of British Columbia. Only there’s nothing remotely “liberal” about it.
We used to be run by the Social Credit Party, a pretty right…
Continue reading350 or bust: Bangladesh Surpasses Solar Energy Goal of One Million Homes, Sets New Target
I’ve declared today to be “Good News Friday” on 350orbust. It doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of bad news out there, but today we’re going to focus on some feel-good stories to start the weekend off. From a country …
Continue readingBlunt Objects: Who Let the Crazies Out?
That’s not just in reference to the Vancouver riots, either, though those who took part in those riots – especially this couple – deserve the label of “crazy” in some sense or another.
No, I’m talking about our friends in the New Democratic and Conser…
Continue readingthe reeves report: Layton swears allegiance to Marx, vows to crush capitalism: just kidding…
I think before any journalist sits down in front of their computer to write something, they must ask themselves the following question: will what I am about to write constructively improve the dialogue on that topic? Or dig deeper: will it speak rationally to those who disagree with me, and/or passionately to those who may … Continue reading »
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament In Review: June 14, 2011
With the debate over Libya taking up the time for debate, yesterday didn’t see quite as much of a range of issues discussed as some previous days. However, there’s still plenty of material worth noting from the day’s events.The Big IssueObviously, the …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On timelines
August 2009: The NDP’s federal convention in Halifax votes to have the party’s executive draft a new preamble to the NDP’s constitution.May 2011: The NDP achieves unprecedented success in Canada’s federal election, forming Canada’s Official Opposition …
Continue readingFar and Wide: Squeeze
I suppose the scariest thing about being Liberal these days is the underlying anxiety that we no longer control our own destiny, at least to a certain extent. Truth of the matter, Liberals can transform and reform themselves, become a compelling entity…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Juxtaposition
Lorne Gunter desperately tries to pretend that nothing has changed in the NDP’s reach outside of Quebec:Outside Quebec the party is relevant in 60 or 70 ridings, with most of those concentrated in Toronto, Vancouver and the North. There was no NDP surg…
Continue readingthe reeves report: NDP wakes up to hypocrisy of asbestos mining and export from Quebec
CBC is reporting through the Access to Information Act, that the Harper government rejected a 2006 recommendation from Health Canada to support a global ban on asbestos. Health Canada suggested that the government reverse their previous commitment to keep asbestos off the UN list of banned hazardous materials, and Harper refused. The 2006 Rotterdam Convention … Continue reading »
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament In Review: June 13, 2011
As I’d suspected, there looks to be plenty of material for a review post from just a day’s worth of events in the House of Commons. So here’s an inaugural daily review of what you may have missed in Ottawa yesterday – with a few themes I’ll be developi…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- I’ll agree with Barbara Yaffe that one of the most important tasks for the Cons as a majority government will be to avoid having their heads inflated to dangerous levels. But I’m not sure how Yaffe could possibl…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Up for debate
The NDP has released a first look at the prioritized resolutions from this weekend’s #vancon2011 (PDF). And while most of them may not come as too much surprise (or appear particularly controversial), there are a few which look highly noteworthy in dev…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: A week in review
I’ve figured for quite some time that the goings-on in the House of Commons probably deserve plenty more focus than they receive – and have highlighted at least some of them on this blog. But with the combination of the NDP wave and a Question Period w…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week.- Rhys Kesselman rightly points out how the populist message that propelled the Cons to power has given way to elitist policy-making:Once the federal budget is balanced, the Conservatives plan to double the TFS…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Not yet satisfied
Eric highlights Environics’ polling as to how happy supporters of various parties are with last month’s federal election results. And the findings look to bode about as well as possible for the NDP’s prospects of expanding its reach over the next few years:
Conservative supporters felt very positively about the election result – and why not. Their party won a majority. Fully 82% are quite happy.But New Democratic voters aren’t as pleased as you might expect. Their party made a historic breakthrough in Quebec, won the most seats and votes in their history, and are now the Official Opposition. But only 27% of their voters are happy with the results.Though it is somewhat surprising it is as high as it is, 13% of Liberal voters and 10% of Bloc voters feel positively about what happened on May 2nd. Thirty percent of non-voters are also pleased with the result.As for having negative feelings about the election result, only 2% of Conservative voters have some regrets. That is miniscule. Surprisingly, only 21% of non-voters feel the same way (36% are, understandably, indifferent).Despite their historic outcome, fully 42% of NDP voters feel sad or fearful about the election results. And despite being reduced to third party status, only 54% of Liberal voters feel negatively. It is a majority, but you’d expect Liberals to be a little more upset, along the lines of the 73% of Bloc voters.
Now, it’s important enough that a substantial number of NDP voters were hoping for more rather than expressing satisfaction with the party’s position. After it’s surely easier to build a movement when supporters are concerned about the direction of the country and motivated to change it, rather than seeing reason to get complacent.But the level of satisfaction with the election result among the opposition parties is especially significant when paired with the NDP’s post-election polling boost. In effect, it looks like a number of the Lib voters who already looked like promising NDP targets have already made the jump – and are apparently finding a landing pad which fits their own attitudes about the election.[Edit: fixed quote.]
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