It's not always easy to love our country at this time of the year.Not when it has been so cold recently the ducks where I live have been reduced to splashing around in this small hole in the ice, in a bay frozen solid.And we are forced to listen to
Continue readingTag: Paul Dewar
Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Carol Linnitt notes that British Columbia’s provincial pipeline spill map has been conspicuously disappeared by the Clark Libs in the lead up to an election where environmental protection is a major issue. And Kathy Tomlinson is the latest to highlight both the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Carol Linnitt notes that British Columbia’s provincial pipeline spill map has been conspicuously disappeared by the Clark Libs in the lead up to an election where environmental protection is a major issue. And Kathy Tomlinson is the latest to highlight both the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On dividing lines
For the most part, Joan Bryden’s report signals that there isn’t much controversy left arising out of Alexandre Boulerice’s comments about niqabs in the civil service. But it’s worth asking whether the trial balloon floated by Boulerice serves any purpose whatsoever: Martin added that he has no problem with Boulerice’s
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Absurd and Obscene Canonization of John Baird
I honestly thought that I would never have to write another word about the Con clown John Baird. And it was such a great feeling.I thought I had said all I needed to say about his shabby political career in this post. But unfortunately I'm going to have to write another post
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – David Miller makes the case to take aim at inequality in Canada: With globalization being the holy grail of efficiency, it became a race to the bottom as international capital sought the lowest cost and the lowest wages. The result in Canada and
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive | News & Analysis: Elizabeth May: Harper making Canada the North Korea of environmental law
By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: Green Party leader Elizabeth May says Prime Minister Stephen Harper is turning Canada into a “rogue nation” and the “North Korea of environmental law”. The Saanich-Gulf Islands MP was reacting to Thursday’s shocking revelation that the Conservative government last week quietly withdrew from yet another important international body, the United Nations
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: NDP leadership election campaign debt
The NDP leadership campaign sparked considerable interest among Canadians and saw NDP membership soar, rising over 50% in six months to 128,351 on election day. Many of these first time members, such as myself, may well be interested in the NDP but may not be long term loyalists. After the campaign,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 – Candidate What-Ifs
Following up on this post, let’s look at a few what-ifs from the NDP’s leadership campaign in retrospect – this time wondering how the outcome might have changed from the perspective of the candidates based on choices made during the course of the race. And it’s fairly easy to narrow
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Lessons Learned – Pundit Edition
With a week’s perspective on the NDP’s leadership campaign, I’ll take a quick look back to see – particularly in comparing my own impressions as to how the vote might play out to what actually happened. To start off with, let’s note that of all the publicly-available metrics available to
Continue readingA BCer in Toronto: #ndpldr pics, video and a few thoughts
It was a very long Saturday at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre — about 12 hours for me, longer for others — for the NDP to arrive at what, for many, was an inevitable result: the election of Thomas Mulcair as their new leader. With Mulcair set to take his
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 – First Ballot Endorsement
The NDP’s leadership campaign has presented such a wide variety of opportunities and questions for party members that it’s been difficult to decide who to endorse – and I’ve reached my own first-ballot decision only after taking time to see how those have been balanced out in this afternoon’s leadership
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Paul Dewar Is Apparently Going To Rap His Convention Speech
And he is not even slightly funky. Cullen was quite eloquent re Northern Gateway. Horwath got in a good line about Bob Rae knowing how to do what’s right by Bob Rae. That got a roar out of some of the Libloggers present. Dewar’s skillz, however, are truely inadequate. Update:
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 – Policy Highlights
With the NDP’s leadership convention set to start tomorrow (and assorted hospitality suites already starting up tonight), I won’t be able to finish off my initial plan to put together full policy reviews for each of the candidates. But instead, I’ll take some time to highlight a few innovative ideas
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Roundup
I didn’t think much could come along at this point in the NDP’s leadership campaign to significantly change my voting considerations [edit: other than the type of organizational problem discussed here]. But the CROP poll published in Le Soleil may well do just that. No, it isn’t a surprise to
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 readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Roundup
A quick look at the latest news as the NDP’s leadership convention approaches. – Alice’s latest Power Play appearance saw her discuss Nathan Cullen’s campaign: Meanwhile, Cullen received an endorsement from Murray Dobbin – which is particularly noteworthy since Dobbin had previously lined up behind Peggy Nash. – Paul Dewar’s
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: My NDP leadership ballot rankings
Let’s just get it over with: Nathan Cullen Brian Topp Peggy Nash Paul Dewar Niki Ashton Thomas Mulcair Martin Singh These rankings are not necessarily who I think is best as the leader, but are for a variety of strategic reasons as written below. The major choices involved where I
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: The decisive question
Following up on my candidate questionnaire and previous posts about party organization, I’ll offer my own observations on the final two questions I posed to the leadership candidates. I start from the premise that the primary goals of a leader are to serve as the party’s public face and chief
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Candidate Rankings – March 18, 2012
Since last week, we’ve seen the NDP’s leadership campaign win plenty more attention in the media. But has any of the news managed to change the positioning of the candidates? 1. Thomas Mulcair (1) Well, we’ve certainly seen Thomas Mulcair under the microscope more than he’s ever been. But while
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