Poverty & The Liberal Platform
The Liberals are hammering on Con "start candidate" Chris Alexander for explaining that all Canadians aren't "poor" but rather "low income" because they're above the World Bank numbers of two…
Jesse
Bullies
In one of my ever-popular somewhat stretched U.S. - Canada analogies, my thesis today is: we need to stand up to right wing bullies. The Obama Administration has just decided…
Election Stuff
Since everyone's bothering me about it, I thought I'd throw some thoughts up. Sorry I've been so busy; working hard on the campaign trail. In no particular order: 1) Two…
Contrasts in Leadership
Doug Saunders tweets that the new UK budget says: "UK will cut corporate tax by 1% a year for 3 years, to 23%... and the bank-profit levy will be raised…
G&M
At the risk of turning my Special Election Coverage into a total Globe and Mail rip fest, is it really acceptable to choose pictures this way? This isn't a Con…
Sick Relatives
I had lots of "yelling at the TV" moments yesterday, but, let's lead off with my "yelling at the newspaper" moment from this morning. The Globe reported that the Cons…
On Majorities
I was just reading 308.com's "Best and Worse Cases" for February, and had a brief thought. If the Cons win a majority (and I don't believe they can) it's not…
Pop Quiz
Here's a meme we might usefully try to get into the minds of voters before the release of the budget on March 22 (or, obviously, after); name a single thing…
Finance
The CPC government hates the per-vote public subsidy. A lot. For two reasons. 1) They're ideologically opposed to spending money on democracy, because democracy = government 2) (and more importantly)…
One People
I know I pulled something from him yesterday, but Glen Pearson is one hundred percent right with this quote: "One of the most pivotal moments in our history was when…
CPC Pork and You
Big day in federal politics today, as Con MPs fan out across the country to hand out taxpayer dollars in an attempt to purchase re-election. I have a rather lengthy…
Parliamentary Reform
Aaron Wherry has some interesting suggestions for how we might reform the House (I summarize): Elect committee chairs by vote of the entire House. Involve committees in legislative design Empower…
No Conservatives Here
This post reminded me of something I'd been meaning to write for a while. In it, Joseph Uranowski argues that we shouldn't call the Conservative Party of Canada "Tories", because…
Entitlement Reform
Please, please, please let Democrats, and the media (at least) in the United States stop talking about Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare as "entitlements". I'll accept "social insurance" or "the…
"Not One Dime": A Proposal
In this country, we subsidize dirty energy. There are tax breaks, there are handouts, there are "investments". Liberals should be out there saying "not one dime" of public money will…
Salt (No, not the Movie)
Well, great news from the Globe and Mail today, as the government is getting rid of people advocating getting salt out of our diets so they can be replaced with…
Feel The Rossimentum!
Regarding the whole "Rocco Rossi running for the Ontario PCs" (and, by the way, shouldn't they be talking about dropping the "P"?). Does it feel to anyone else like this…
Polygamy
Today's G&M argues that "arring polygamy remains a reasonable limit on religious freedom and a potent reminder that the law must protect the vulnerable and the equality rights and human…
Polling Sophistication
This is another good point on polling. From the US, polling on the health care reform (ACA) was really problematic. When asked "Do you support or oppose the proposed health…
Floors and Ceillings
In a comment to a previous post Cam argues that "Harper is in power not because of mainstream support, which he's always lacked, but because he will never, ever, get…