An opportunity to strike a blow for parliamentary democracy has suddenly arisen and all democrats should take advantage of it. On Thursday, Michael Chong, MP for Wellington-Halton Hills, will introduce a Bill in the House that would dramatically devolve power from party leaders to MPs and constituency associations. The Bill,
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Parchment in the Fire: Norway’s disturbing lurch to the right | Alf Gunvald Nilsen | Comment is free | theguardian.com
Norway’s disturbing lurch to the right | Alf Gunvald Nilsen | Comment is free | theguardian.com. The results from today’s Norwegian elections are more or less clear: with some 26.8% of the vote, the Conservative party (Høyre) is poised to head Norway’s next coalition government. The first thing to note
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – The CP reports on Suzanne Legault’s much-needed warning about the Cons’ secrecy in government: In a closed-door session with dozens of bureaucrats Thursday, Suzanne Legault cited a series of novel measures she says are damaging an already tottering system. “I am seeing signs
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Wrestling with Democracy
Wrestling with Democracy is an ambitious, historical examination of the changes in voting systems across a large number of Western liberal democracies over the course of the twentieth century that argues that ‘most major voting system reforms in the twentieth-century west have been intimately linked to larger social struggles over
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Pondering Pandeering Political Parties
I am long past the age where I expect very much from politicians of any stripe. While it is easy to target (and I frequently do!) the Harper-led Conservative Party as the party of the corporate agenda, it is also sadly true that both the Liberal Party and the NDP
Continue readingcalgaryliberal.com: Alberta Liberal and Federal Liberal Cooperation? Lets Go.
I was talking to one of my friends around the the university the other day and I brought up Raj Sherman’s interview in the Calgary Herald on some form of cooperation between the two Liberal parties in Alberta. It was an off-hand comment and I didn’t really expect a conversation
Continue readingcalgaryliberal.com: Rebranding: Not Interested in Scraps
The goal is government. I’m interested in a party that wants into government. Anything else is a waste of time. It’s a waste of time to just complain and oppose, along with it being fundamentally unnatural and strange. I want a value-based and focused support of ideas. Bottom feeding and walking by
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – No, there was never any doubt that any statement which could possibly be interpreted as insufficiently jingoistic in favour of the oil industry was going to give rise to a backlash from the Cons’ oilpatch base. But it’s well worth noting that Thomas
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Politics of Public Spending
Check the local media for the past week and you’ll see a sudden bunch of stories about the series of fire truck announcements provincial politicians of the Tory persuasion are making across the province. Voice of the Cabinet Minister’s got one. C…
Continue readingCalgaryLiberal: Globe and Mail: “Alberta’s Liberals see signs of hope on long road back to viability”
In turn, Alberta’s official opposition Liberals tossed open the doors to a failing party, hoping to re-invigorate it at a time of both challenge and opportunity – a run for their money down the centre of the spectrum from the upstart Alberta Party …
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Political parties and debt: the Kennedy perspective
Political parties usually carry around debt. Some carry more than others. Some parties don’t carry any. Is it an issue? Maybe. Just for the fun of it, consider this portion of a speech Jack Kennedy delivered to a Democratic Party fund…
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Minority Governments for Dummies (and Tory PMs)
the voters elect the House of Commons to governthe leader of the current government (the government before the election) has the right to meet the House and attempt to gain its confidence, however usually the party with the most seats gets the first op…
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: The Debate: Canadian Values Win
The most interesting thing I noticed about the debate was where all the leaders, or at least all of the federalist leaders, agreed. These were on what I would consider to be the most basic of Canadian values, but values that many of us suspect are not …
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Do You Really Support Stephen Harper
Are you a lifelong conservative, perhaps going back to the Progressive Conservative Party. Do you assume Stephen Harper represents you because he is the leader of the Conservative Party.Find out which party really represents your views by taking the Vo…
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber Pushing for Two Party System
It started with Ignatieff joining Harper’s anti-coalition bandwagon, the common message being that the big boys don’t share power with the little guys and it’s extended to the push for a debate between just Harper and Ignatieff because they think that …
Continue readingThe Roundhouse: Representative Independence versus Caucus Control
Behind all the Sturm und Drang engendered by Dr. Raj Sherman’s letter, comments and subsequent removal from the PC caucus there are several stories. The specifics of what happened and why are known only to those involved, and I won’t speculate. There i…
Continue readingThe Roundhouse: Representative Independence versus Caucus Control
Behind all the Sturm und Drang engendered by Dr. Raj Sherman’s letter, comments and subsequent removal from the PC caucus there are several stories. The specifics of what happened and why are known only to those involved, and I won’t speculate. There is a good post at the Enlightened Savage
Continue readingThe Roundhouse: Representative Independence versus Caucus Control
Behind all the Sturm und Drang engendered by Dr. Raj Sherman’s letter, comments and subsequent removal from the PC caucus there are several stories. The specifics of what happened and why are known only to those involved, and I won’t speculate. There is a good post at the Enlightened Savage
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