Would dumping Justin help or hinder?
In response to the Liberals’ loss, real and symbolic, of the allegedly safe seat of... The post Would dumping Justin help or hinder? first appeared on Views from the Beltline.
Liberal Party of Canada
If we were going to have a serious conversation about the Canadian Economy…
Anyone who knows me, knows that I love to go down rabbit holes. It is a part of my nature to want to know more. Anyone who has spent even…
Coalitions get the job done
The most productive Canadian government in history is arguably that of Lester Pearson’s Liberal regime of 1963-68. Two consecutive minority governments, all that it accomplished depended on the co-operation of…
A national pharmacare program at last? Forget about it, says Alberta’s UCP – just give us the cash!
No sooner did the federal Liberal and New Democratic parties say they’d reached a deal on a national pharmacare program at the end of last week than Alberta’s United Conservative…
MPs reject democratic upgrade
Canada is a very free country, but unfortunately not a very democratic one. Not when our electoral system consistently gives us governments that most of us don’t choose. For example,…
Time for a walk in the snow?
I believe Justin Trudeau has made quite a decent prime minister, certainly at least a major improvement over his predecessor. The only important disappointment for me was the betrayal of…
Alberta medical clinic’s ‘membership’ billing scheme won’t hurt a bid by PM to attack Pierre Poilievre through Danielle Smith
There must have been a moment of pure delight in the Prime Minister’s Office in Ottawa when the story broke about Dr. Sally Talbot-Jones’s plan to get her patients to…
Electoral reform—to be or not to be?
Once again our hopes rise. Or do they? At their recent national policy convention the Liberals voted to back a citizens’ assembly on electoral reform. Specifically, the convention resolved that…
Politics and the gender gap
What is the political contest about in this country. Conservatives vs. progressives? Conservatives vs. Liberals? Or men vs. women? A recent survey by the Angus Reid Institute suggests the latter…
Majority government – who would have thought?
I was pleased indeed to read about the agreement between the Liberals and the NDP to create a stable government until 2025. This will be the first time in almost…
Hysterical Conservatives outdo themselves with ‘coalition’ histrionics, but Parliament is operating exactly as it should
Let it be conceded that the Conservative histrionics over yesterday’s confidence and supply agreement between the Liberals and the New Democrats in Parliament has far outdone the “spectacular national Conservative…
The Dead Candidate’s Report
The Dead Candidate’s Report, a Memoir tells the story of a celebrated journalist who decided she wanted to be a member of Canada’s Parliament only to have her candidacy canceled…
Alberta signs on to federal child care deal its premier once mocked as ‘9-to-5, urban, government and union-run institutional daycare’
Premier Jason Kenney didn’t look all that cheerful at yesterday’s announcement Alberta had finally signed on to participate in the Trudeau Government’s national $10-a-day-child-care program. While the premier fidgeted in…
Alberta’s ‘Energy War Room’ appears to be operating in defiance of the Canada Elections Act
Alberta’s “Energy War Room” appears to be continuing to operate in defiance of Canada’s election laws, campaigning against positions clearly identified with a Canadian political party without registering as an…
Pandemic election an outrage: Alberta Conservatives. Pandemic over, we’re open for good: Also Alberta Conservatives
It’s an outrage, practically a crime against humanity, for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to call a federal election in the midst of a global pandemic, Alberta’s Conservatives say. The pandemic…
Voting strategically in an election we don’t need
So we are to have an unnecessary election. Didn’t we make our views clear enough in 2019? We didn’t give one of the parties a majority because we didn’t buy…
Canada’s progressive tilt—mitigating first-past-the-post
From 2006 to 2015 we endured a decade of Conservative rule even though the Conservatives never won the support of even 40 percent of Canadian voters. Such are the idiosyncrasies…
Federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu waves a red flag in front of her irascible Alberta counterpart, Tyler Shandro
Obviously, federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu didn’t expect to get a serious answer from Tyler Shandro, her Alberta counterpart, when she wrote the irascible minister to warn him the Kenney…
PM Justin Trudeau, boyish, beardless and in campaign mode, shows up to bestow $1.5B on Calgary Green Line LRT
Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, boyish and freshly beardless as if a summer election is blowin’ in the wind, showed up in Alberta yesterday to bestow $1.5 billion in federal…