Your blogger offers Preston Manning a couple of big ideas for conservatives to think about. Below: Liberal Justin Trudeau, pollster Andre Turcotte. OTTAWA While the Forum Research polling company was proclaiming that if an election were held today, Justin Trudeau would be prime minister, conservatives of an assortment of exotic
Continue readingTag: Preston Manning
daveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Preston Manning throws Alison Redford, Tom Flanagan under the conservative bus.
TweetSpeaking about the state of Canada’s conservative movement at this weekend’s Manning Centre Networking Conference in Ottawa, former Reform Party leader Preston Manning denounced the ethical and financial state of Premier Alison Redford‘s Progressive Conservatives. “…in Alberta an aging Progressive Conservative administration has lost its way ethically and fiscally and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Public Interest Alberta takes a closer look at that province’s rhetoric about taxes, and finds that in fact most Albertans pay more income tax than they would under the more fair and progressive systems applied in other province: “Albertans who believe the myth
Continue readingcalgaryliberal.com: The Death of the Green Party of Canada
Either after the upcoming federal election, or the one after, the Green Party of Canada will fade away from existence. Firstly, its fundamental reason for existence has been taken on by other parties. Preston Manning, arch-conservative of the Conservative Party of Canada and head of the Manning Centre for Democracy,
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Tom Flanagan, neoconservative spiritual leader, consigned to utter darkness
Conservative icon Tom Flanagan’s defining moment. Below: Dr. Flanagan in happier times; the six signatories of the Alberta separatist Firewall Manifesto; Richard Nixon saying goodbye during his 1952 Checkers speech. Unlike Dr. Flanagan’s likely career trajectory, Mr. Nixon came back. Who could have predicted that yesterday would be the pope’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Michael Harris rightly points out that a steady stream of scandals and incompetence from the Cons says plenty about Stephen Harper’s own judgment (or lack thereof): Sooner or later, the country is going to realize that there is something terribly wrong with
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Preston Manning’s well-funded ideological hobbyhorse takes aim at civic progressives
Calgary City Hall: The next target for former Reform Party leader Preston Manning’s not-very-merry band of far-right ideologues? Below: Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi and neoconservative ideological guru Manning back in the day. Is the so-called Manning Centre for Building Democracy preparing to target Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi and other progressive
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The Stephen Harper model for Wildrose power: promise free votes and deliver the Borg Hive
Singing along: What we were promised by the Reform-Conservative platform. Below: What we got. Alberta’s Wildrose Party blossomed at the edges of the same muddy spring whence sprang the federal Reform Party of Preston Manning and Stephen Harper. As is well known, the Reform Party went on to engineer the
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Social Credit celebrates 77 years in government.
TweetCALGARY STAR-TRIBUNE In 1935, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers’ hit song “Cheek to Cheek” topped the music charts and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers became the first western Canadian team to win the Grey Cup. It was also the year that t…
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: A History of recent Federal By-Elections in Alberta.
TweetThe November 26 by-election in Calgary-Centre will be the fourth federal by-election held in Alberta in the past twenty-six years. In that time, only one of the by-elections saw the election of a candidate not from the incumbent political party. All three by-elections were won by candidates representing conservative parties.
Continue readingIt’s conclusive, the Manning Centre for Building Democracy is definitively leaning towards the Conservatives.
The [Manning] centre would not be another political party, but help build an “infrastructure” for existing Conservative parties federally and provincially, Mr. Manning said. (source)
As other progressive bloggers have pointed out, the Manning Centre for Building Democracy is obviously partisan – slanted towards the Conservatives. You really just had to look at their board of directors,
1. Preston Manning – Reform party founder and leader for many years. Long time associates with Harper for obvious reasons.
2. Cliff Fryers – currently the far-right party Wildrose party chairman. He was also party and campaign chairman for the Reform Party in the early 1990s.
3. Blair Nixon – no explicit connections, but tax advisor to a few natural resource companies.
4. Rick Anderson – national director of the Reform party in the early 1990s.
5. Thompson MacDonald – no explicit connections, but board member of an American mining company.
6. Gwyn Morgan – ties to various big corporations, including oil company Encana.
7. Tasha Kheiriddin – self-described conservative, also the President of the Progressive Conservative Youth Federation during the time of far-right Mike Hudak.
8. Tom Long – involved and worked for the Brian Mulroney PCs, then campaign manager to various PC candidates federally and provincially, then President of the Ontario PCs from 1986 to 1989, helped get Mike Harris elected, and was a founding member of the Canadian Alliance – and this is just according to the bio on the Manning Centre!
9. Dan Nowlan – Vice president of banking investment group, and according to an Elections Ontario file, in 2009 was the chief financial officer for the Progressive Conservatives’ Tim Hudak.
10. Chuck Strahl – former Conservative MP, active in the early reform days.
This is every member on the board. Which makes 8 out of 10 (80%) having explicit connections to right-wing political parties (Conservative, and its father, Reform Party), and 10 out of 10 (100%) having either a connection to a political party or business. This is why it’s so obvious this organization is a front for right-wing and business interests.
Regardless, I compiled some more data just to make this pronouncement even more conclusive. I looked at their 2012 youtube channel, which is the msot updated, and compiled some data. There’s (as of September 21st, 2012) 12 videos – 10 of which are speeches or conferences. One of those speeches is just from Preston Manning, so I have excluded it as well. In total, we’re looking at 10 videos, and the political affiliations of those speaking and participating.
So, made a list of all the speakers in each speech, and tracked their political affiliations. Keep in mind, for this, I excluded anyone who was already a board member from this list. I also won’t be tracking business connections, as I think that’s unnecessary considering the findings. I will be tracking influential unions members, just because there’s only one, so it doesn’t really detract from the end result.
Here are my findings:
- Six current Conservative Member of Parliament
- Including four current Conservative Cabinet Ministers
- Three former Conservative MPs
- One former Reform Party MP (Remember, not including board members)
- Three others with direct connections to the Conservatives (Campaign Manager, donor, chief of staff)
- One Republican
- One British Tory
- One Union Leader
- Zero current or former opposition members
- One guy with some past connection to the Parti Quebecois
See for yourself, here is the list of links and subsequent speakers and participants:
–>
–>
Speaker: HON. JOE OLIVER, MINISTER (Conservative Minister)
– Dawn Farrell, Executive
– Nancy Olewiler, Economist
– Robert Blakely, Union Leader (Union)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wfJXb1WQbc&feature=plcp– March 16th
Chair: Dave Quist, IMFC
Speaker: MARVIN OLASKY, WRITER
– Michael Coren, TV Host
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p6xHAIZL4M&feature=plcp– March 16th
Chair: Nicolas Offord, Executive
Speaker: HON. DIANE FINLEY, MINISTER (Conservative Minister)
– Kate Bahen, Charity Expert
– Ray Pennings, Cardus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBKeck2fZAI&feature=plcp– March 15th
Chair: Youri Chassin, Economist
– Eric Duhaime, Commentator
– Mathieu Bock-Côté, Sociologist (activity with PQ?)
– Tasha Kheiriddin, TV Host (National Post)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3aWJEiCkN8&feature=plcp– march 14th
Hostess and Coordinator: Leah Costello, Writer
Contestants:
-Pierre-Olivier Bastien-Dionne
-Vass Bednar
-Craig Dellandrea (Conservative donor and supporter)
Judges:
– Cliff Fryers, Executive (Reform/UA activist)
– Deb Grey, Former MP (First Reform MP)
– Steve Madely, Radio Host
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zE8luHStHc&feature=plcp– March 14th
Chair: Preston Manning, Manning Centre
Speaker: HON. PETER MACKAY, MINISTER (Conservative Minister)
-Barry Cooper, Professor – Duff Crerar, Military Historian
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckDSQzsslgc&feature=plcp– March 14th
Chair: Dan Nowlan, Executive
Speaker: HON. TONY CLEMENT, MINISTER
Bill Robson, CD HOWE (Right-wing think-tank)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGlnbCI7mvs&feature=plcp– March 14th
Chair: Nick Gafuik, Commentator
– Monte Solberg, Commentator (Conservative MP till 2008)
– Robert Sopuck, MP (Conservative MP)
– Bob Mills, Former MP (Conservative MP till 2008)
– Michelle Rempel, MP (Conservative MP)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEtKYAf-y3M&feature=plcp– March 13th
Tom Flanagan, Professor (Long time buddies with Harper, current working for the Wild Rose Party)
Travis Smith, Professor
Ian Brodie, Strategist (former chief of staff for Harper)
Andrew Coyne, Commentator (National Post)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8OYWCTtqzA&feature=plcp– March 13th
It’s conclusive, the Manning Centre for Building Democracy is definitively leaning towards the Conservatives.
The [Manning] centre would not be another political party, but help build an “infrastructure” for existing Conservative parties federally and provincially, Mr. Manning said. (source) As other progressive bloggers have pointed out, the Manning Centre for Building Democracy is obviously partisan – slanted towards the Conservatives. You really just had
Continue readingBreaking News: academic institutions and Canadian media continue to confuse Canadians over the Clayton H. Riddell Graduate Program in Political Management donor agreement at Carleton University.
Though, it’s not as if the press is helping. The Canadian Press has been issuing statements and “facts” that contradict what Carleton is saying in other places, and most recently, CBC adds further to this confusion and clusterfuck.
A five-person steering committee — dominated by the patron’s appointees and headed by Preston Manning — no longer approves key hiring and curriculum decisions, but is asked to provide “timely and strategic advice.”The new agreement also requires the committee to operate in accordance with the university’s policies, procedures and practices.
It didn’t before? I’m not sure if anyone has contested this point. Otherwise as Carleton has said elsewhere, there was no problem, with any of it, to begin with! We’re just clarifying! Big misunderstanding!
I’m proposing that both Carleton is trying to mislead, and that our media is a bit too lazy to make that misinformation go away. Carleton Unversity obviously is interested in making themselves look good, so they have a motive for misleading. So, let’s look at this new agreement and see what actually changed.
I don’t have the whole new agreement, but according to Carleton’s press release, it’s clause 14 that has been amended – which they posted online (took them less than a year this time). So here’s what I’m going to do for you, unlike all the other sources so far – I’m going to post the original clause in the first agreement, then the amended clause. Then I’m going to bring up a couple key points, and then you can think about it.
GGPM = Graduate Program in Political Management. RFCF = Riddell Foundation and Manning. CU = Carleton University.
So, indeed, there was a change. (d), removed the explicit mention of being involved in the hiring process. But just think about what (d) still entails for a second, it still gives the Manning camp a foot in the door, and the power to veto the budget (three out of five members are designated to the donors choice) – the budget, by the way, that goes to pay the staff. They approve the budget, imagine if they don’t approve the budget… then Carleton has to accommodate them until they do… or nothing happens. Another point, unless they’ve changed this, in the original agreement section 5 made it clear that the donations from Riddell would be on an annual basis and if the program deviated from the “goals” then the funding could be stopped at any moment by Riddell (meaning, funding could be stopped at any moment by Riddell and Friends). So in addition to a veto over the budget with the Steering Committee, the Riddell Foundation can still sway things with the fact the money flows from him – and can stop at his whim. This “change” seems to be more symbolic than anything else. The ball, as they say, is in their court. And the court is typically those with the million dollar estates.
The only way to be satisfied with this if you think that’s there’s no malicious, or self-serving intent, from Riddell or Manning. You have to trust them completely that they won’t, in any way, take advantage of their clear dominance. Considering they’ve already stacked the program with patronage appointments of neoconservatives, and those with past associations with the Reform Party and Preston Manning and Stephen Harper, it’s not exactly a good foundation for trust.
And, indeed, if Carleton is telling the truth, nothing has changed, really. So the fact they could stack all those Reform remnants neocons and theocons, they’ll be able to continue doing that. The staff remains the exact same, according to Carleton, so there doesn’t seem to be change at all. Satisfied?
Hopefully this alleviated some confusion that our media and academic institutions would prefer to inflict upon Canadians everywhere.
Breaking News: academic institutions and Canadian media continue to confuse Canadians over the Clayton H. Riddell Graduate Program in Political Management donor agreement at Carleton University.
Less than 24 hours ago, I pointed out the inconsistency and confusing manner in which Carleton is dealing with the Clayton H. Riddell affair. It almost seems as if they’re deliberately confusing. Though, it’s not as if the press is helping. The Canadian Press has been issuing statements and “facts”
Continue readingClayton H. Riddell Graduate Program in Political Management at Carleton University – Carleton continues to confuse Canadians.
Carleton seems to be talking out both sides of their mouths, still. Originally, according to the Canadian Press and other sources Carleton proported the deal was “improper” and,
the $15-million donor agreement for its showcase school of political management, fronted by Preston Manning, does not reflect the university’s academic policies and will be renegotiated.
Yet, in their press release around the same time, said it was “an excellent academic initiative” and,
An excellent faculty has been recruited, possessing the highest academic standards and practical experience across party lines to offer core courses and electives incorporating the cross-partisan dimension and strong ethical component which were two of the key design specifications for the program.
So, it’s of the “highest academic standards” and “does not reflect the university’s academic policies” at the same time, according to Carleton University. Yes, you’re read that right folks.
In the context of the annual review, Carleton, along with Mr. Riddell, also looked at provisions of the donor agreement that had caused some confusion – particularly as these pertain to the role of the Steering Committee. A revised clause of the agreement [Article 14] clarifies the role as that of strategic advisor. That is indeed the role that the committee has played from the outset, and we felt it was important to clarify the wording to avoid any misunderstanding.
Now there’s two ways to look at this. a) There wasn’t a problem at all, but Carleton is amending this to clarify that there isn’t a problem at all! Just a misunderstanding! Or b) there was a problem, the agreement was “improper”, but now Carleton is”fixing” the non-existent problem, because it wasn’t actually a problem! Just a misunderstanding!
If you’re confused, that’s natural. I doubt Carleton is really interested in making this clear, considering they’ve violated your right for information for over a year by attemping to keep this agreement secret.
Clayton H. Riddell Graduate Program in Political Management at Carleton University – Carleton continues to confuse Canadians.
Breaking news, as they say, Carleton University has apparently renegotiated the deal with Clayton Riddell. Carleton seems to be talking out both sides of their mouths, still. Originally, according to the Canadian Press and other sources Carleton proported the deal was “improper” and, the $15-million donor agreement for its showcase
Continue readingUnderlooked Stehepn Harper quotes P6: Miscellaneous
Part 6 of underlooked Stephen Harper quotes. Part one, two, three, four and five here. Reform-Alliance takeoverHe [Stephen Harper] credits Manning for at least calling for a united alternative but notes the option is ‘seriously flawed’ because …
Continue readingUnderlooked Stehepn Harper quotes P6: Miscellaneous
Part 6 of underlooked Stephen Harper quotes. Part one, two, three, four and five here. Reform-Alliance takeover He [Stephen Harper] credits Manning for at least calling for a united alternative but notes the option is ‘seriously flawed’ because it is essentially a Reform to take over the Conservative Party. 04/1998
Continue readingUnderlooked Stephen Harper quotes P3. Neo-nazis and right-wing extremists
Part three of the underlooked Stephen Harper quotes from the leaked documents.Part one and two here. Neo-nazis and right-wing extremists. He [Stephen Harper] likens the current anti-racism climate to medieval hysteria over witch-craft. ‘We’re talking about fighting unseen enemies,’ he says. ‘It’s getting spooky.’16/04/2001 To provide context, this was commentary
Continue readingAlberta Diary: As goes California, so goes the nation!
The Beach Boys, now, and, below, then. Below them, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, then and now. As goes California, so goes Canada? As goes California, so goes the nation – the nation in the normal scheme of things being what the world knows as the Good Ole U.S.A. For many
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