Preston Manning and his then-protégé Stephen Harper back in the day. Below: Mr. Manning as he now appears (United Church Observer photo): Alberta premier E.C. Manning, Preston Manning’s father; Mr. Harper as a Reform Party candidate. Nowadays, folks think of Preston Manning as a benign force in Canadian politics –
Continue readingTag: Preston Manning
BigCityLib Strikes Back: Inside Preston Manning’s Secret Deal With Carleton U
Dennis Gruending looks and finds an Alberta oil-man, a passel of old-time Reform Party operatives, a few token Libs, and of course no smelly hippies. Something funny going on?
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Dan Gardner rightly notes that we should be encouraging more public advocacy from charities and other groups with useful input to offer into policy debates – not shutting it down as the Cons are doing: “Many charities have acquired a wealth of knowledge
Continue readingAlberta Diary: How far will Prime Minister Stephen Harper go with separatists to hang onto power?
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, left, with Parti Quebecois Leader Pauline Marois … or something very much like that. The politicians pictured above may not be exactly as illustrated in real life. Below: Thomas Mulcair, Jack Layton. Now that our sullen neo-conservative prime minister is on speaking terms once again with
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: The trouble with A-Bombs: if the blast doesn’t get you, the fallout just might
A typical Canadian reads the news from the Ottawa Press Gallery while Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney sends another email in the background. Below: Wildrose Party House Leader Rob Anderson; former federal PC leaders Joe Clark and Peter MacKay discuss the interesting pod marked “Return to Preston Manning” they
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The trouble with A-Bombs: if the blast doesn’t get you, the fallout just might
A typical Canadian reads the news from the Ottawa Press Gallery while Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney sends another email in the background. Below: Wildrose Party House Leader Rob Anderson; former federal PC leaders Joe Clark and Peter MacKay discuss the interesting pod marked “Return to Preston Manning” they
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: It’s not necessarily the European economy running out of runway, it’s neo-Cons like Stephen Harper
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper warns his countrymen about the fate awaiting Europe if it doesn’t crush unions and eliminate defined-benefit pension plans. Canadian Conservatives may not appear exactly as illustrated, but pretty close. Below: Francoise Hollande, John Maynard Keynes and Thomas Mulcair. With the anticipated triumph of France’s Socialists
Continue readingAlberta Diary: It’s not necessarily the European economy running out of runway, it’s neo-Cons like Stephen Harper
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper warns his countrymen about the fate awaiting Europe if it doesn’t crush unions and eliminate defined-benefit pension plans. Canadian Conservatives may not appear exactly as illustrated, but pretty close. Below: Francoise Hollande, John Maynard Keynes and Thomas Mulcair. With the anticipated triumph of France’s Socialists
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: If you have any doubts left Alberta’s Conservatives are done like dinner, this should settle ’em
“I never thought I’d vote PC” … just embarrassing. Below: Ralph Klein back when he was premier of Alberta; Saddam Hussein. If you have any doubts left there are only three more sleeps before the end of the Progressive Conservative Era in Alberta, look no further than the video and
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Be thankful for our Canadian Charter of Rights, 30 years old today, and remember who hates it
April 17, 1982: The Queen signs the Constitution as Pierre Elliott Trudeau, then Canada’s prime minister, looks on, apparently bemused. Below: The Charter; a sterner Mr. Trudeau. CALGARY Today is the 30th anniversary of our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. On April 17, 1982, Queen Elizabeth signed our new
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: alberta’s tories could have already won another election.
Alberta Premier Alison Redford Premier Alison Redford is expected to call a provincial election today. Had Premier Alison Redford‘s Progressive Conservatives followed conventional political wisdom and dropped the writ shortly after tabling the 2012 provincial budget on February 10, they may have already secured their next majority government. Danielle Smith
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Notwithstanding Dean Del Mastro’s wonderment, the robo-call dots are easy to connect
Dean Del Mastro on those robo-calls: Maybe a giant did it! Unnamed conservative voter-suppression operatives may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: The credulous Mr. Del Maestro. Conservative robo-calls point man Dean Del Mastro prompted a lot of rude repartee in the Twittersphere yesterday when he suggested we should all
Continue readingImpolitical: Charitable activities?
Why hasn’t the Manning Centre’s charitable status gotten more attention? CRA’s own guidelines on political activities raise some interesting questions. For e.g., Under the Income Tax Act and in common law, an organization established for a political purpose cannot be a registered charity. The courts have determined political purposes to
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Preston Manning and the Campus Crusaders
Lordy. I see that Preston Manning, the Big Daddy of the ReformCon movement, thinks that the robocall scandal is deplorable. The patriarch of the modern-day conservative movement in Canada is calling for better ethical training for campaign workers in the wake of the robocall scandal. Which would be a lot more
Continue readingImpolitical: Building democracy
Here was Preston Manning speaking to the media yesterday on voter suppression: Speaking to reporters, Manning said all parties should be worried about robocall vote-suppression during the 2011 election that directed some voters to the wrong polling stations and which has Elections Canada investigating complaints of voter fraud. “I think
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Ideological perfection, Fraser Institute style: why democracy must be destroyed in order to save it
A neo-Con think tank gets ready to save democracy by crushing democracy. A “fellow” of the Fraser Institute stands to the far right. Who’s to say if this is not exactly as they appear? Below: Preston Manning (a Fraser Institute fellow himself) with Stephen Harper, in happier times; the Fraser
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: Dog Whistle Politics and the Return of Old Dance Partners
“Borrowed in part from the legacy of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, Canadian neo-conservatism owes much of it’s character to the right-wing populist tradition of the West. “Indeed, Canadians became exporters of neo-con innovation in the 1990s. ‘I would say Margaret Thatcher and Mr. [Preston] Manning are the two non-Americans
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Tory recipe for happiness: save money and gain self esteem by scrapping the gun registry!
Why should I have to register my flying car? I’m a law-abiding driver! Civilian variants of the $100-million-plus F-35, without working radios, may not be exactly as illustrated. Below, Edmonton St. Albert Member of Parliament Brent Rathgeber. Really…
Continue readingthe reeves report: Manning Centre releases 2011 State of Canada’s Conservative Movement
The Manning Centre, founded by former Opposition and Reform Party Leader Preston Manning, released its second annual State of Canada’s Conservative Movement report. The study is comprised of three parts, examining the attitudes of Canadians across the political spectrum on various topics like welfare and immigration; comparing the electoral map in Ontario from the 2008 … Continue reading »
Pushed to the Left and Loving It: The Canadian Manifesto 6: To Every Action There is a Reaction. Cough, Cough!
Isaac Newton may not have had neoconservatism in mind when he wrote his laws of motion, but it seems fitting when discussing the multitude of think tanks and AstroTurf groups that back up the movement.Most were created in reaction to an action that wen…
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