Last week, Martha Hall Findlay and Karen McCrimmon declared their candidacies for the Liberal leadership race. This week, George Takach has taken the plunge. I’ve posted one blog interview with David Merner, and will have others with David Bertschi and Alex Burton next week. Deborah Coyne, meanwhile, has already released more fresh ideas than we’ve seen from Stephen Harper during his entire tenure as Prime Minister. These are seven very different candidates with seven very different messages, but the one … →
Continue readingTag: Pierre Trudeau
Alberta Diary: Perfesser Dave explains negative TV advertising and the job-killing Tory carbon tax
Zap! You’re frozen! … In the dark! The Harper Tories’ latest TV advertising attack on NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair. Perfesser Dave, below, explains why Prime Minister Stephen Harper will do the same thing he’s accusing Mr. Mulcair of planning if he manages to get re-elected. Below Perfesser Dave: Robert Stanfield, the underwear guy, Allan Fotheringham …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Alberta Tories send feds a message, but keep their most dangerous enemies close
Friends close, enemies closer: Alberta Tories, left, send a message to their federal counterparts. Alberta political parties may not be exactly as anthropomorphized. Below: Premier Alison Redford, Niccolo Machiavelli. Proving you really can have it both ways, Premier Alison Redford’s Alberta Tories rapped the knuckles of their federal counterparts yesterday but kept their most dangerous …
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Are storm clouds forming in Alberta Premier Alison Redford’s sunny skies?
Alberta Premier Alison Redford, left, gives a member of her caucus his marching orders. Alberta politicians may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: The real Ms. Redford, Stephen Carter. Alberta Premier Alison Redford would appear to be unassailable. A recent cross-Canada poll by Angus Reid found her to be the
Continue readingAlberta Diary: About Stephen Harper’s ambassadorial timeshare: maybe he missed the lesson on the Statute of Westminster!
Canadian and British Joint-Embassy diplomats work out their timeshare arrangements. Below: The young Stephen Harper on the day he missed his history lecture after lingering too long over Atlas Shrugged; Perfesser Dave feeds lines to Opposition leader Tom Mulcair last weekend; Mr. Harper at the NCC. Like Sir John A.
Continue readingAlberta Diary: If Alberta’s Tories loved Peter Lougheed so much, why do they have so little to say about him?
Linda Duncan at the Alberta NDP’s 50th annual convention over the weekend. Below: Ralph Goodale, Peter Lougheed. We have 28 federal electoral districts in Alberta of which 27 elected members of the Conservative Party of Canada. Of those 27 Conservative MPs, one has since been kicked out of caucus for
Continue readingCanadian Progressive World: Thatcher to Trudeau: No desire to deal with “queues of Indians”
This year marks the 30th anniversary of patriation of the Canadian Constitution. And guess what? It took us 30 years to learn that British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher wasn’t exactly welcoming to Canada’s Aboriginal chiefs and elders seeking participation in the sensitive constitutional talks that resulted in our legal independence
Continue readingAlberta Diary: B.C. Bitumen Busters! Who ya gonna call? Greg Selinger?
Alberta and British Columbia Sheriffs see who can stomp the highest at the increasingly tense inter-provincial border near the disputed town of Field. B.C. and Alberta peace officers, of course, may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Just for someone completely different, Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger. Who ya gonna blame?
Continue readingThe Equivocator: The Liberal Party: A Substantial Heritage, a Future of Substance (Co-written with Theresa Lubowitz)
Theresa Lubowitz on the Death of Substantive Policy Canada is teetering dangerously close to the death of substantive policy as we know it, with the rise of a populist Conservative Government, a populist NDP Official Opposition, and a struggling Liberal Party so afraid of irrelevancy it has spent the last
Continue readingThe Equivocator: Toronto Pride with the Queer Liberals
“There is no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation.” – Pierre Trudeau While at university I made appoint of watching the Toronto Pride Parade a a member of the crowd. This year, thanks to my friends in the Queer Liberals, I was able to participate in
Continue readingCalgary Grit: 100 Years of Bad Photo Ops
As you have probably heard a hundred times over the past month, the Calgary Stampede turns 100 this year. Calgary has changed a lot over this time. A seat at the 1912 rodeo cost 50 cents. Calgary’s population was 70,000. And, oh yeah, back then Alberta was a Liberal bastion,
Continue readingCalgary Grit: The Name Game
Despite all quantitative evidence to the contrary, trust me when I say Quebecers hate these two men more than the Boston Bruins In today’s Globe & Mail, Lysianne Gagnon takes aim at Justin Trudeau: Is Justin Trudeau really the Liberals’ best option? If the Toronto Liberal intelligentsia believe that Justin
Continue readingPressing Politics: Protected: It’s Justin, Not Pierre’s Son: Trudeau The Next Liberal Leader?
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: The Harper Phenomenon is explained to Perfesser Dave
Perfesser Dave, left, with W. L. “Willy” Mackenzie King, centre, and Pat, right. Some Canadian prime ministers are exactly as illustrated. Below: Several shots of Willy and Pat. Some stories are just too complicated for ordinary bloggers to explain. That’s when we turn to the expert knowledge offered by Perfesser
Continue readingFive of Five: Peter Lougheed Wins Again
A 1975 editorial cartoon showing the early foundations of the Alberta PC Party’s formula for success Former Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed has been named the best “Provincial Premier” of the last 40 years. The poll was conducted by Policy Magazine using a small number of experts and academics. I was
Continue readingThe Equivocator: Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s Speech in Support of the Abolition of Capital Punishment (House of Commons, June 15th, 1976.)
“I am sure that very few of us consciously contemplated, when we decided to run for public office, that we would find ourselves playing a decisive role in the resolution of a question as awesome as that of life and death. Yet, here we are, with all our individual limitations,
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Last night’s TV leaders’ debate: Alison Redford won – but nothing’s that simple
The 2012 Alberta leadership debate’s dull set. From left to right: Brian Mason, Danielle Smith, Alison Redford, Raj Sherman. Below: Ms. Redford and Ms. Smith as they appeared on the debate. (Main phpoto grabbed from the Globe and Mail; the little ones from Daveberta.) I call it for Alison Redford
Continue readinggay persons of color: Rick Mercer takes on Vic Toews
Gay Canadian comedian, television personality, political satirist, and blogger, Rick Mercer, addresses Public Safety Minister Vic Toews’s proposed Internet-surveillance legislation, Bill C-30, in a brilliant, two-minute video rant. A must watch for a quick summary of what the fuss is all about surrounding the controversial bill.
Continue readinggay persons of color: John Baird feeling the heat over privacy concerns?
During question period in the Canadian House of Commons on Friday (February 17), Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird accused the opposition National Democratic Party (NDP) of having been caught in a “dirty, sleazy Internet game,” an allegation the NDP has denied. What Baird was referring to was an anonymous
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Alberta’s Electrolux Throne Speech: breathtaking in its vacuity, but quite possibly effective
Your blogger with Tory campaign mastermind Stephen Carter. Below, Charles Dickens, who also wrote a good story; Finance Minister Ron Liepert. It was either the best of Throne Speeches or it was the worst of Throne Speeches. Heck, maybe it was both at the same time. Yesterday being the 200th
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