Dear Mr Harper: I understand that you’ve decided not to participate in the traditional election debates hosted by the three major TV networks, Global, CTV and CBC. Incidentally, isn’t it convenient they’re known as The Consortium? Conjures up all sorts of sinister images of The Firm and The Company and
Continue readingTag: thomas mulcair
Accidental Deliberations: On complexities
Bruce Anderson writes that as some of us have long suspected, a true three-party federal race is developing which will create some new complications for the Cons and Libs alike. But it’s worth pointing out one area where the Cons are in much worse shape than they’ve ever been. Before
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: NDP Support Pre-election 2011 Compared to 2015
Here is an interesting comparison between the NDP support 8-5 months before the election in 2011 compared to the same period now in 2015.Back in 2011, support was in the mid teens at this time and didn’t start to rise until closer to the election. But …
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: NDP Support Pre-election 2011 Compared to 2015
Here is an interesting comparison between the NDP support 8-5 months before the election in 2011 compared to the same period now in 2015. Back in 2011, support was in the mid teens at this time and didn’t start to rise until closer to the election. But in 2015, support
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: NDP Support Pre-election 2011 Compared to 2015
Here is an interesting comparison between the NDP support 8-5 months before the election in 2011 compared to the same period now in 2015. Back in 2011, support was in the mid teens at this time and didn’t start to rise until closer to the election. But in 2015, support
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘Parson’ Manning, in the pulpit, preaches a formula of failure to Alberta’s New Democrats
PHOTOS: Preston Manning, Godfather of the Canadian right. Below: Alberta Premier Designate Rachel Notley, Liberal prime minister Wilfrid Laurier, Social Credit premier E.C. Manning and United Farmers of Alberta leader Henry Wise Wood. Preaching from the highest pulpit in the land, the opinion pages of the mighty Globe and Mail,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Working across the aisle
Among the other lessons learned from Alberta’s recent election, let’s point out one more with implications for the federal scene. While the main opposition parties recognized that they were too far apart in their general policy orientation to justify a formal coalition, both the NDP and the Wildrose Party were
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On relative popularity
Jim Prentice is warning Albertans that they should vote for him lest they be governed by somebody like Tom Mulcair. Jim Prentice’s approval rating in Alberta is 22%. Tom Mulcair’s approval rating in Alberta is 42%. Which means, shorter Jim Prentice: You may think you’re getting an exquisitely prepared filet
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Barrie McKenna takes a look at how the Cons are pushing serious liabilities onto future generations in order to hand out short-term tax baubles within a supposedly-balanced budget, while Jennifer Robson highlights the complete lack of policy merit behind those giveaways. And Ian
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: The petulant son
Shorter Justin Trudeau: When I say I plan to do politics differently, what I mean is that I’m willing to leave Stephen Harper in power based on the most petty and frivolous excuses anybody’s ever heard. No longer is there any pretense that a flat “no” to a coalition with
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Vindication Of Thomas Mulcair
Some will remember the abuse heaped upon NDP leader Thomas Mulcair back in 2012 when he said that Canada was suffering from the same Dutch disease that afflicted the Netherlands after natural gas fields boosting that nation’s currency reduced the competitiveness of its exports back in the 1970s. The culprit
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Andrew Jackson argues that contrary to the attempt of the Ecofiscal Commission to impose right-wing values like tax slashing and devolution on any action to deal with climate change, we in fact need the federal government to take a lead role: While it
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Arthur Neslen reports on the Health and Environmental Alliance’s study of greenhouse gas emission reductions showing that we’d enjoy both improved health and economic benefits by pursuing ambitious targets to fight climate change. And David Roberts examines the massive cost and minimal benefit
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Who leads Canada’s progressives?
Canadian media are a lazy bunch. They follow the paths of least resistance and false assumptions. Take this past week when some supposed progressives were gathered at the Broadbent Institute in Ottawa for its Progress Summit. The one question that was never answered was ‘Who were the Liberal Progressives at
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Dollar for dollar
Thomas Mulcair’s Progress Summit commitment that an NDP government will redirect the value of a stock option tax loophole toward families in need will surely make for one of the most important moments of a summit directed at developing exactly those types of ideas. So it’s unquestionably important that Mulcair
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Both Edward Keenan and the Star’s editorial board take note of Thomas Mulcair’s plan for urban renewal, with particular emphasis on its appeal across party lines: Speaking directly to Toronto city council and Mayor John Tory, who won election largely on the basis
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Police State Canada–Will This Be Our Future Under PM Harper?
Richard Hughes-Political Blogger It’s a rainy West Coast Saturday morning, mild and quite beautiful but the direction that PM Harper is taking is chilling, surreal, shocking. Clearly our Prime Minister is launching a police state to spy on Canadians, arrest, detain, and imprison those who dare to publicly criticize this
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Edward Keenan is the latest to point out that any reasonable political decision-making process needs to include an adult conversation about taxes and why we need them: This week, when asked about the prospect of raising taxes beyond the rate of inflation in
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta Politics: Rob Anders still lurking around the Wildrose Party
Twice denied an opportunity to run for the leadership of the Wildrose Party, controversial Conservative Party Member of Parliament Rob Anders is still lurking in the shadows of the deflated Alberta conservative opposition party. As reported by the Medicine Hat News,… Continue Reading →
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Thomas Mulcair And Joe Clark On Bill C-51
H/t The Toronto Star Yesterday, Tom Clark on The West Block asked both Mulcair and Clark for their thoughts on Harper’s ‘anti-terror’ legislation. You will note that by the end of the interview, it would seem that Mulcair’s ‘principled’ stand against the bill is perhaps less than what it seems
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