As this picture shows, Justin Trudeau is NOT Canada’s best hope to lead the Rebel Alliance. However, in the event of a cylon attack, Justin is the man. Last week, Postmedia ran the most awesome headline ever: Conservative government’s order of succession shows Canada isn’t ready for a Cylon attack
Continue readingTag: thomas mulcair
CuriosityCat: Do Canada’s rightwingers swoon over Policy Wonks, Pretty Faces or Daddy Figures?
Sarah Hampson We seem to have a conflict between three theories of what motivates conservatives to vote. On the one hand, we have the school of thought that says there is a beauty premium reaped by the more beautiful people in life, business and politics. The second school believes that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how the Saskatchewan Party’s unprecedented attack ads against the participants in another party’s leadership race represent an attempt to silence all political debate that isn’t pre-approved by the marketing departments of its own resource-industry backers. As an addendum to the column, I’ll note that the leadership candidates have
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Hey Thomas Mulcair! Zip this!
Rick Mercer has made a habit of producing videos with major politicians. Skinny dipping with Liberal Leader Bob Rae, A Slumber party with PM Harper and now zip lining with NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair in picturesque Petty Harbour-Newfoundland.
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Victor Toews demonstrates how wedge politics biteth like a serpent
Mennonites in Paraguay. Below: Victor Toews and Omar Khadr as they appear nowadays. Way below: Ron Anders in one of his waking moments. You’d think Victor Toews would have felt a little empathy for Omar Khadr. Mr. Toews is the Paraguayan-born public security minister in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government.
Continue readingCanadian ProgressiveCanadian Progressive: Conservative MP Rob Anders: Thomas Mulcair Hastened Jack Layton’s Death
Conservative MP Rob Anders is “a politician who isn’t afraid to speak his mind”. Supposedly. He once called South African anti-apartheid icon, Nelson Mandela, a “terrorist“. But this time, the Calgary West MP went too far. During an interview with iPolitics’ Laura Stone, Anders suggested that NDP Leader, Thomas Mulcair, helped push Jack Layton into
Continue readingCalgary Grit: Vote Out Anders – Part 84
Only Rob Anders has this theory, because he pays closer attention to the House of Commons than anyone else. At least when Rob Anders is sleeping, he can’t say anything too offensive: And so, [Anders] has a theory. “I actually think one of the great stories that was missed by
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your weekend. – For those wondering where progressive leaders are going with their policy proposals, the last week offered a couple of noteworthy examples. At home, Tom Mulcair’s Canadian Club speech commented on the importance of real roles for the government and the public in making
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Thomas Mulcair and Global Warming: Real discussion of real problems at last?
This week has shown the level to which political discussion in Canada has fallen. The current government, under Stephen Harper, has once more shown that it is not concerned with discussing any matter in a cooperative way. Instead, the new Tories have resorted to their simplistic chest-thumping ways of communication,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On healthy choices
It looks like the federal NDP is starting to highlight some of its priorities as an alternative government in order to better frame Canada’s political debate. And while its first offering on health care includes some relatively low-hanging fruit (it’s truly sad that “not gratuitously boosting drug costs by billions”
Continue readingAlberta Diary: About Stephen Harper’s ambassadorial timeshare: maybe he missed the lesson on the Statute of Westminster!
Canadian and British Joint-Embassy diplomats work out their timeshare arrangements. Below: The young Stephen Harper on the day he missed his history lecture after lingering too long over Atlas Shrugged; Perfesser Dave feeds lines to Opposition leader Tom Mulcair last weekend; Mr. Harper at the NCC. Like Sir John A.
Continue readingCuriosityCat: NDP’s Mulcair challenges PM Harper to stop the hollowing out of Canada
Thomas Mulcair’s NDP is onto a good thing with its policy of taking steps to stop the continuous hollowing out of the manufacturing industries in Canada. Harper’s Tory government is vulnerable to the charge that it lacks an industrial strategy designed to offset the massive hollowing out of the industrial
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Alberta NDP’s Brian Mason lays claim to Tory Peter Lougheed’s legacy
Free of his moustache, Alberta NDP Leader Brian Mason addresses his party’s 50th annual convention in Edmonton yesterday. Below: Federal NDP Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair, who also spoke yesterday; former Alberta Conservative Premier Peter Lougheed. Freshly shorn of his trademark moustache, Alberta New Democratic Party Leader Brian Mason made the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
This and that to end your Saturday. – As pointed out by Paul Krugman, Kathleen Geier recognizes an obvious possible cause of a declining life expectancy for some less-wealthy Americans: I will offer an alternative hypothesis, one which is not explicitly identified in the Times article: inequality. In the U.S.,
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: fifty years of alberta ndp.
TweetNew Democrats from across Alberta have gathered in Edmonton this weekend to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their party’s founding. Attendees at this weekend’s annual convention will hear from NDP leader Brian Mason, MLAs Rachel Notley, Deron Bilous, and David Eggen, Member of Parliament Linda Duncan, and federal NDP leader Thomas Mulcair.
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Carbon Tax, Cap & Trade, Framing: When will Thomas Mulcair learn?
Stephen Harper, the one party leader who probably reads a chapter from George Lakoff’s magnificent work Don’t Think of an Elephant each night before he switches off the light, dragged an elephant into the House this week, and smiled contentedly as the man who wants his job kept flailing away
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Can a ‘progressive’ win in Calgary-Centre? It is not impossible, but it might not be very likely.
TweetCan the online campaign 1 Calgary Centre succeed in its goal to unite (or crowd-surf) progressive voters behind one candidate in the impending Calgary-Centre by-election? It is not impossible, but it is improbable. The existence of a Naheed Nenshi, Linda Duncan, or Chima Nkemdirim style of candidate who progressive voters could unite behind could
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On diverging paths
Earlier this morning, I noted that the NDP is developing on a promising line of economic messaging – highlighting the Cons’ determination to place the interests of the wealthy and privileged over those of mere working Canadians. And I’d expect that principle to factor into the NDP’s foreign policy as
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Should Mulcair channel Hillary Clinton on the Ballot Box Question?
The 2015 election is already on, with Stephen Harper trying to choose the ballot question as anything but the poor Conservative performance in so many areas, the party’s blunders and scandals, and the fact that deep down so many Canadians still do not really trust his party and particularly him.
Continue readingCanadian Progressive: Bad News: Two Polls Give Harper Conservatives Edge Over News Democrats
As the Canadian Parliament returns for what promises to be another acrimonious session, two opinion polls show that the Harper Conservatives hold a slight lead over Thomas Mulcair’s New Democrats. The Canadian Press Harris-Decima poll pegs Conservative support at 34 per cent, the New Democrats at 27, the Liberals at 24
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