Sliding a sheet of paper, NDP version
The New Democrats announced a couple of policy planks last week for the general election campaign. Well, sort of announced. The party’s news release says that leader Lorraine Michael announced…
Election 2011
The Summer of Love 2011
Five years after your humble e-scribbler first wrote about it, the world pretty much accepts the notion that the governing Conservatives time their communications to coincide with polling done by…
Plastic, packaged and preaching to the choir
While some people may be excited about the fact that all three party leaders in the province are on Da Twitter, a close look at how political parties in newfoundland…
The Politics of Public Spending
Check the local media for the past week and you’ll see a sudden bunch of stories about the series of fire truck announcements provincial politicians of the Tory persuasion are…
Free tuition at NL university for Nova Scotians: NL NDP leader
The Newfoundland and Labrador local of the New Democratic Party wants taxpayers in her province to give Nova Scotians free tuition at Memorial University. Sounds idiotic, doesn’t it? But that’s…
Maybe We Should Have Gone in 2009
I've been thinking aloud recently about whether or not the Liberal Party would have been put into a better position post-election if said election was held during the fall of…
The Ballot Question: October 2011
Here’s the question for voters to decide in this fall’s general election as the party leaders themselves have defined it. If you want: guaranteed high electricity prices in Newfoundland and…
Not much to see
The Telegram’s Russell Wangersky looked ahead to the fall election and didn’t like what he saw. Wangersky’s assessment is brutal but it is accurate. The Liberals: “When someone who isn't…
The placeholder election
No matter what the outcome, all three political parties in the province will have new leaders before the 2015 contest. In December, the Tories decided to postpone their leadership fight…
Just the facts ma’am
So late yesterday Team Hughie wannabe Ian Rab and Myrna Driedger pecked out this little <140 character missive on the tweeter. ”NDP buying votes with you| Winnipeg Sun http://t.co/DrFapIz” OK,…
Forecasting the fall
Pick up a sharpened pencil. Now take a clean, white sheet of paper from the computer printer. Close your eyes and make a small round mark on the paper with…
Wally Young’s in trouble
You can tell the Tories are worried about their support in St. Barbe because they’ve scheduled not one, not two, but three announcements in the district starring health minister Jerome…
Excuses! Excuses!
Apparently, voter apathy was not restricted to the young at the 41st election. Below are the numbers broken down of the wall of shame known as the non-voters: 18 to…
Why Manitobans are Rejecting Hugh McFadyen
A couple months ago the polls had Hugh McFadyen ready to move into his new digs at Room 204 of the Legislative Building. Well, today a fresh poll released by…
Will one of them change parties?
Good to his word from last February, former Conservative member of parliament Rex Barnes is challenging Ray Hunter for the Tory nomination Grand Falls-Windsor-Green Bay South. Notice in a piece…
Politics and Disasters
Even to people not desperately in need of help in the wake of last year’s Hurricane Igor, it was pretty obvious - at the time - the provincial government was…
Cross Sheila off your list
Remember the December deal and all the claims that the provincial Tories would all be standing for re-election, bar none? Yeah, well you could take that one to the bank.…
Will bad Tory polls change candidate slates?
Public opinion polls showing dramatic declines in provincial Conservative support might bring some changes in the slate of candidates. The provincial Conservatives, for example, included a pledge to run again…
Can Len Simms be far behind?
Ross Reid quit his job as deputy minister of the Penny Rowe department and a short time later picked up a new gig as the provincial Conservatives’ campaign manager for…
Micheal Ignatieff In Retrospect
In a recent column, Kate Heartsfeld recounts an incident which occurred less than a week after the election:Five days after the federal election, I was sitting in a car dealership…