Prime Ministers of Canada & Their Wu-Tang Clan Names
1. John Alexander Macdonald – Amazing Specialist 2. Alexander Mackenzie – Insane Hunter 3. John Abbott – Respected Wizard 4. John Sparrow David Thompson – Dynamic Desperado 5. Mackenzie Bowell…
Canadian Politics
UBC economist Milligan throws cake at educated, unemployed youth
I tuned into a rebroadcast of this morning’s the CBC’s the Current while cleaning the kitchen this evening which had an unusually good documentary on the problem of youth unemployment;…
The Medium Is the Message: Brigette DePape and the NDP’s Ineffective Response To The Throne Speech
Some thoughts on Brigette DePape: I don’t like Stephen Harper or his government but I also think that what Ms. DePape did was stupid. What she did during the June…
michael moore: canadians need to get in touch with their inner hockey stick
Did you hear Michael Moore has offered our hero Brigette DePape a job? I hope she has many such excellent opportunities coming her way. A young woman with that much…
You keep saying this word. I don’t think this word means what you think it means.
I’d like to kiss the Senate page who launched a protest calling for someone – everyone – to stop Prime Minister Harper. First of all, she’s got chutzpah for doing…
The Throne Speech and the Country I Love
Well I watched most of the Throne Speech today, and all I want to say is that Disneyland would be lucky to be able to stage a show like that…
arash azizi and stephen james kerr: inexperienced ndp mps will be just fine
The media has had a jolly old time ragging on the new, young, inexperienced Members of Parliament in the NDP caucus. Even the most casual observer of mainstream Canadian news…
Speaker election first task for MPs
Inspired by this story: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/06/02/pol-speaker-election.html
as parliament returns, let cats be cats and mice be mice
A new Parliament opens tomorrow, and with it, we step into a great unknown. Will Stephen Harper's Conservative majority plunge us into chaos? Will the government impose a neoliberal austerity…
Killing the Senate requires the Constitution to be opened as well
My Premier, Dalton Mcguinty, has been long on the record that he is for killing the Senate, rather then reforming it, and he reinforced that with another statement to that…
Hudak’s Harris-like approach
In case you missed it, the Ontario Progressive Conservative party had a convention this weekend. There was a lot of, shall we say, extraneous stuff that was going on that…
The left needs to reconsider public funding of parties
With Harper's recent majority it was inevitable that his party would start pushing through policies that were not politically possible when they only had a minority. The first major example…
Let’s NOT Be Civil
There seems to be a very strong current within Canadian politics to "restore civility" within the House of Commons. This message was emphasized by Elizabeth May and the Green Party…
gq feature on stop-lossed iraq war resister phil mcdowell, and canadian press reaction
For several months, Wil Hylton, an excellent writer from GQ magazine, has been interviewing Phil McDowell, an Iraq War resister living in Canada, along with many other war resisters and…
Poll: majority of Canadians support constitutional talks to reform Senate
It seems a new poll is out that says Canadians are more then willing right now to re-open the Constitution to do such things as Senate reform: After almost two…
Liberal leadership stuff
Briefly this AM, a few thoughts on the state of the Liberal Party: 1) I think the choice of Bob Rae as interim leader is a good choice – the…
Rae Days
Is there anyone in Canada who doesn't believe that Bob Rae will ultimately wind up as the "permanent" leader of the Liberal Party, once this interim, kabuki thing is over?…
Ontario Politics: NDP getting a mini post-Layton bump
The Ontario election is still a few months away, so it’s a bit early to be predicting election outcomes, but it appears this Nanos poll shows that Andrea Horwath is…
A weak argument
On this holiday Monday for most people, I was going to take a crack at Jason Kenney’s ridiculous assertion about how Senate reform could be achieved by the provinces magically…
The Liberal Party and Service
On Tuesday, May 17th I attended the “Liberal Renewal Dinner” in Toronto hosted by the Edward Blake Society. You could feel the energy and excitement in the room. People were…