Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Robert Cross and Glen McGregor point out how “Pierre Poutine” covered his tracks in the course of sending out fraudulent robocalls to direct voters away from the correct polls. And it’s particularly worth noting how blatantly the entire scheme was planned to conceal
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Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Drew Anderson comments on the support the NDP is winning among groups which have historically supported the Cons: Seniors and men. Until now they formed the rock-solid base of the Conservative Party. But they’re trending towards Mulcair, and that should have Harper’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – I’ll very much hope Chantal Hebert is wrong in her conclusion that Canadians are getting ever more doubtful as to whether change is possible through the ballot box. But one can’t much argue with her take on why that perception might be
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Joan Bryden reports on the Cons’ latest abuses of majority government power, this time in allocating and shuffling around the few opposition days already available in Parliament for their own purposes. But it’s worth noting the difference between the responses of the affected
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Linda McQuaig is hopeful that Quebec’s student protests against tuition hikes might remind many Canadians that we can do more than just meekly accept austerity and inequality: What seems to particularly gall some English Canadian commentators is the fact that the Quebec
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – The Cons’ attacks on the environment and its defenders are starting to attract plenty of unwanted attention, with the Globe and Mail editorial board weighing in as the NDP, the other opposition parties and the environmental movement join forces to reject the utter
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Miles Corak comments on how inequality undercuts social mobility. And Joseph Stiglitz highlights the fact that the vast majority of people hold a strong interest in not having their path to a secure and successful life blocked by a wall of upper-class money.
Continue readingLeDaro: Mitt Romney on the campaign trail
Let the flip-flops begin!
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Hyer Ground
When Lise St. Denis decided last year to leave the Official Opposition to move down the opposition back benches, I noted that the most important issue was likely less her individual choice than whether it would lead to more MPs following suit. (Which of course it didn’t.) And to a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Tim Harper gets somewhat closer to the mark than most pundits in recognizing that any talk an NDP/Lib merger is neither timely nor particularly well-placed. But the “one more time” message is a little bit off: again, we’ve still run precisely zero election
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Paul Buchhelt offers five reasons why the extremely wealthy should pay more in taxes. But if we can anticipate some conflict over that idea, there’s stronger evidence than ever that the public is rather united behind one side. – Bob Hepburn notes that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On shadow boxing
Aaron has already listed and commented on Thomas Mulcair’s shadow cabinet assignments. But there are a few additional points worth adding into the mix. First, while others have pointed out Nathan Cullen’s promotion to House Leader, the exact choice of positions is very much worth emphasizing. As the leadership candidate
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Danielle Martin discusses the importance of federal involvement in Canada’s public health care system: Whose job is it to co-ordinate health-care reform in Canada? Canadians expect our federal government to play that role. We want to know that wherever we live, we will
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On speculative advances
Somehow most of the discussion of Thomas Mulcair’s Question Period appearance this morning seems to have missed what strikes me as the most important point. So let’s take a closer look at how his message has evolved from the leadership campaign – and how it figures to position the NDP
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
This and that for a sunny Saturday. – Paul Wells discusses the clash shaping up between the Cons and the NDP: Some 57 per cent of respondents said they’re dissatisfied with the Harper government, compared to 36 per cent who like it. Last month’s federal budget drew more unsatisfied reaction
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: First impressions and lasting involvement
Others have already commented on the NDP’s first set of ads with Thomas Mulcair as party leader. But I’ll take a few minutes to highlight both the job the ads seem perfectly suited to do – and the more important work only hinted at in Mulcair’s first set of leadership
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: Setting the agenda
Quick, spot what’s different in the NDP’s response to the federal budget compared to any other official opposition ever: NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair today slammed Stephen Harper’s Conservatives for introducing a budget that recklessly cuts the vital services that Canadians rely on—such as Old Age Security and health care. “Stephen
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On early definition
It’s entirely predictable that far too many in the media are starting their coverage of Thomas Mulcair’s election as NDP leader with the Cons’ instant spin – in some cases even while showing plenty of optimism about Mulcair. (On that front, due credit to the Winnipeg Free Press for criticizing
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: The path ahead
To start off, I’ll heartily congratulate Thomas Mulcair on his strong victory in the NDP’s leadership campaign. But it’s well worth working on what comes next from day one of Mulcair’s tenure. Last night’s inaugural interview with Peter Mansbridge already represented a great start on the party unit front –
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