Making mountains out of molehills on “Royal oath”
There is heated debate going on in the comment thread of the Toronto Star story regarding the court case about 3 long-time permanent residents who want to become citizens of…
Canadian Politics
Nostalgia Redux. Rule Brittania!
So as a followup to my last post about the Conservatives hyping up the old British Empire/Commonwealth ties (The War of 1812, ditching the Maple Leaf insignia and going to…
Nostalgia can be taken to the extreme
I’m a history buff – in particular a Canadian history buff, so I didn’t mind the Conservatives were trying hard (and still are trying hard) to get Canadians to pay…
Buh Bye Vic
One of the better Mondays I’ve had of late, after hearing good ole’ Vic Toews has resigned/retired: Vic Toews, the gruff,mustachioed minister who was the face of the Conservative government’s…
Economic Action Plan 2013 is apparently on track – so says the flyer I got
You’ll all be glad to know that Economic Action Plan 2013 is in high gear/on track according to the pamphlet (otherwise known as a “10 percenter pamphlet) I received from…
Poor Steve Ryan*
Who is Steve Ryan, you might ask? Up until today, he was the nominated candidate for the Progressive Conservative Party in Etobicoke-Lakeshore, for the Aug 1 by-elections here in Ontario.…
Islamic extremism and the power of an idea in the internet age
The comical, if it weren’t so serious, attempt by a couple of disaffected WASPs to murder, Boston Marathon style, Canada Day revellers at British Columbia’s legislature shows the power of…
Belated Canada Day greetings!
Sure its a day late, but better late then never. I hope you all had a Happy Canada Day where ever you were. PS – nothing coincidental about all that…
happy canada day, a/k/a national stop harper day
This week, pollster Nik Nanos revealed that 51.5% of Canadian voters would not consider voting for the Conservative party, compared to 36.4% only seven months ago. I don’t play the…
For Canada Day 2013. Images from Facebook and elsewhere; text…
For Canada Day 2013. Images from Facebook and elsewhere; text from rabble.ca: The National Stop Harper Campaign presents….”SAVE CANADA DAY.” Join us across the country as we proclaim our distrust…
Some more cracks appear internally in the Conservative Party
There are some Conservative Senators who apparently don’t like being parrots for Harper all the time, but I didn’t expect to see a split like this over unions: The already…
Vancouver Sun Letter
A letter of mine found its way into the Vancouver Sun today. This one comes in response to a piece last week by Senator Mobina Jaffer about the role of…
The Uncertain Future of Open Data in the Government of Canada
It is possible to state that presently, open data is at its high water mark in the Government of Canada. Data.gc.ca has been refreshed, more importantly, the government has signed…
Amateur Hour
I’m not sure this should surprise anyone, given the way the PMO has acted recently: The Prime Minister’s Office orchestrated a protest earlier this month at which Conservative party interns…
Trudeau’s the rubber, Harper the glue.
“I’m rubber, you’re glue. Your words bounce off me and stick to you.” That juvenile little axiom popped into my head today as I contemplated the amazing Rubber Man, Justin…
Love this line: ‘Liberals continue to pound Conservatives’
It’s poll night! This one from Leger looks at the party’s standing and leadership.. and this gives a hint as to why the Conservative Party, or the Prime Minister’s Office…
Plurality of Canadians want Senate “reformed”, not abolished.
At least, according to this Nanos poll: The survey asked Canadians what they would like to see done with the Senate. Respondents were overwhelmingly against the status quo, with 49…
The Real News Story about the Relaunch of data.gc.ca
As many of my open data friends know, yesterday the government launched its new open data portal to great fanfare. While there is much to talk about there – something…
Warning to Tories: It’s not just Trudeau any more … it’s open season on public speakers!
Dave Rodney, the only Conservative MLA for Calgary Lougheed ever to have climbed Mt. Everest twice, or once, for that matter. He is an inspirational speaker. Really. Below: The young…
Some thoughts on the relaunched data.gc.ca
Yesterday, I talked about what I thought was the real story that got missed in the fanfare surrounding the relaunch of data.gc.ca. Today I’ll talk about the new data.gc.ca itself.…