by matttbastard Tuesday’s revelation that Sean Bruyea, a vocal critic of Veterans Affairs had his private medical records deliberately compromised by bureacrats in a brazen attempt to discredit his legitimate, extensive complaints about systemic deficiencies within the department has struck a … Continue reading →
Tag: parliament
Pop The Stack: Can Iggy and Jack Learn to Work Together?
You should read this interesting article at Macleans by Peter C Newman on the trials of the Liberal leader this summer. It sounds like Iggy really has come a long way in understanding Canadian politics, good for him. (Of course, if they’d picked leader, ahem…Bob Rae…ahem, who already knew all this they could have recovered […]
Pop The Stack: Free Votes Are Nice But…Who Do Those MPs Represent?
Ah, the gun registry. I agree with FarAndWide completely on this. The NDP are planning to allow a free vote of all their members on the issue, even though the party advises savng the regsitry. Free votes are nice in principle, and if we had a truly representative parliament where the people in Ottawa actually […]
Pop The Stack: A nod is as good as a wink to a blind bat
Another day, another justification for dropping the mandatory long-form census by the Conservative government. Today’s argument comes from Finance Minister Jim Flaherty; he basically argues that because a bunch of policy wonks came voluntarily to a meeting when invited by the Federal Finance Minister that most Canadians will fill out a 40 page census form if they […]
Election time approaches!
I used to enjoy reading about politics. In high school, when I was just developing a conciousness about politics, I used to find the littlest, most menial government tasks absolutely fascinating, and I would exuberantly encourage my peers to read about…
Continue readingPop The Stack: An Economist Who Doesn’t Want More Data? UCalgary Called, they Want their Degree Back.
Witness Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the first non-lawyer to lead this great nation since Lester B. Pearson. Bachelors and Masters degrees in Economics from the fabled University of … Calgary. He dropped out of UofT. And Witness Tony Clement, proud UofT graduate in Political Science and Law and one of the architects of Mike Harris’ Common Sense […]
This is a gift…
So, my loyal readers, I’m sure that you’ve all been keeping up to date on the activities. Well, the police went overboard (like I predicted) and brutalized SO many people. My girlfriend was part of the group that got boxed in on Queen and Spadina on Su…
Continue readingJimBobby Sez: MP Expenses Scandal: Grassroots Outrage or Media Invention
Whooee! Well, friends an’ foes, I like the discussions that take place over at Steve V’s Far and Wide. They’re mostly Grits but they tolerate my Green-tinged rants and the partisanship doesn’t permeate the conversation as much as on some other blogs. T…
Continue readingPop The Stack: Ibbitson Gets Some of it Right and Some of it Wrong
I have to respond to the Globe and Mail’s article today by John Ibbitson “Parliament takes another step toward being a true arm of government”. It has a lots of good facts, a couple good points and a few misleading and incorrect conclusions. Friday’s accord on releasing Afghan detainee documents… marks the rise of Parliament as a genuine […]
Pop The Stack: Future of Democracy Lies in Hands of Cleggy Weggy
So the old mother country has practiced democracy once again and wow, it was a doozy. With a hung parliament and a very distorted result returned by their First-Past-The-Post voting system, the Conservatives and Liberal-Democrats are now in talks to see if they can form some kind of coalition. Nick Clegg has said before that […]
A. Picazo: A Landmark Decision, A Democratic Victory
In a historic decision regarding the battle for access to documents on Afghan detainees, Speaker of the House Peter Milliken ruled in favour of the opposition, reaffirming the notion that Parliament reigns supreme over the powers of Prime Minister and the Federal Government. “Before us are issues that question the
Continue readingBiking around town! Sorry folks.
[edit: I just noticed that I passed 1000 hits! Thank you everyone for reading my blog! I feel so special!]Hey OFDSU devotees -I’m sorry that my posting has been so erratic lately. To be honest I haven’t really had any good topics to write about and I d…
Continue readingPop The Stack: Andrew Coyne speaks to the Liberal Party, but will they listen?
I’m just growing more and more fond of Andrew Coyne as time goes on. Maybe I’m getting older and more conservative, or maybe he’s getting less so. Or just maybe, the old templates of “conservative” and “liberal” aren’t nearly as useful as they once seemed to be. That is essentially the point of Coyne fantastic […]
Pop The Stack: The Simplest Argument for Electoral Reform
Take a look at this simple and clear article on Democractic Reform from Fair Vote Canada. This is what Canadians need, a clear argument why our democracy is broken. There are some great basic arguments here that anyone interested in fixing our democracy should be repeating over and over to everyone they talk to about […]
Pop The Stack: Liberals Need to Stand Out and Stand Up
Gordon Gibson has a nice piece today in the Globe and Mail today on how the Liberals can differentiate themselves in the next election and help the country with a big problem at the same time. It turns out, Gordon agrees with me, that Electoral Reform is the safest and most exciting issue for the […]
Political spin makes me dizzy!
So, as much as I disagree with all that happens behind the scenes at the Olympics, I do support athletics and I do believe that our athletes are the best in the world. I don’t think it’s their fault that these games cost so much and that they do a lot …
Continue readingPop The Stack: What’s the Best Route to a Coalition Government?
An interesting article today in the Vancouver Sun about the need for a coalition government. The main idea of the two BC professors is that three three centre-left parties, the Liberals, NDP and Greens, need to form a coalition and run candidates strategically if they are to hope to ever defeat the Conservatives. You’ll remember […]
Pop The Stack: A Great Democracy Deserves a Great Protest
In response to this article about the latest degradation of American democracy. One senator is essentially holding up all nominations for government posts in order to get special funds, called earmakrs, for his state. I agree that if the Democrats capitulate and negotiate again like they did with Lieberman they have essentially ceded their majority […]
Pop The Stack: Harper plays games while democracy crumbles
My comment on the Globe and Mails recent story: Tories seek parliamentary extension This is a non story, by casting it as some kind of tricky dilemma for the Liberals and NDP the Globe is accepting the Conservative game. You can almost hear the writer salivating at the dramatic irony of the opposition voting against […]
Pop The Stack: Canada 2.0
Today’s protests around Canada against the Conservative’s reckless abuse of power were a great success, look here, even the Globe and Mail is impressed. So, how did a little ‘internet protest’ turn into over 25,000 feet on the ground in over 60 locations across the country today? Two reasons. First, Canadians are awesome! Second, Facebook […]