May 2013
3 posts
Economic ACTION! Pain
The sun is just slipping into the Atlantic Ocean, cooling off. A thin mist hangs over a still bog on the cliffside. Cars whip past the curve in the road where the marsh lays. Inside, two slim legs extend out of marsh. They carry a large frame on top of them.
Jobs.
Growth
Prosperity.
Canada’s Economic Action Plan.
Another car zips by and the marsh goes back to being silent.
The hypocrisy...
The Immigration Question: Another Teaser.
This is a second teaser for my upcoming pay-what-you-can eBook, tentatively titled “Why Stephen Harper Will Win Again. Look out for it next week. I think there are some fundamental problem with the idea that immigrant voters, as a block, are locked in with the Tories. It skips over one critical point — it’s just not true.
Depending on your country/region of origin, native language, time spent...
Why Harper Will Probably Win Again: A Teaser.
Below is the teaser for the upcoming eBook I’m working on, release TBA. It will be released on this blog as a pay-what-you-can download. Stay tuned for another excerpt and a release date!
I want to introduce you to Sarah.
Sarah is a 20-something English Literature student and she’s worried for her country. She’s a vegetarian and has hopes of one day being a playwright. She rides a bike, buys...
April 2013
7 posts
1 tag
The Real Harper Agenda
The Liberals were wrong.
You can’t blame them, really, it seemed like a pretty good line of reasoning. Social conservative evangelical Christian ex-Reformer Stephen Harper wants to run the country like a lovechild of Ayn Rand and Dick Cheney. Be afraid, be very afraid.
And it worked. It let them cling to power in 2004. And, amazingly, the idea they planted actually stuck around — half of...
Attack Ads, Ho!
As we head into the summer, the new Liberal leader is kissing babies, shaking hands, flipping burgers, wagging his finger at things, dancing awkwardly to pre-speech hype music, stuffing hotdogs in his face, etc. etc.
The glass ceiling, recently repaired, is in shards on the floor. The Liberals have broken 30%. Victory is within grasp. Pop champagne. Bring out little flag pins. Everybody sigh...
Boston: The Bagmen of Sloppy Journalism.
Like a case of early menopause, you can never be quite sure when a bout of journalistic self-analysis will break out.
And now we, as a profession, are half-asleep, leaning into an open fridge, against a bag of frozen peas at 2am, trying to cool our flashes of existential fear.
Get it right? Get it fast? Trust Reddit? Report it on Twitter? Relay scanner chatter? Work with Anonymous?
The only...
A Tale of Two Conventions
With the frenzied masses pushing their hysteria to an apex, pumping signs in the air and chanting in chorale, their leader quieted down with their first triumphant platitude.
Justin Trudeau and Thomas Mulcair had very similar weekends.
While Mulcair’s leadership may have a year over Trudeau’s, it’s only now that his infant leadership has begun to crawl. While he was elected as a no-nonsense...
Stop Calling the Fucking Queen.
Does it not trouble any one else in this country that when the Grumpy Guses on the Left get upset, they write the Queen and ask her to jump in?
In what is the political equivalent of screaming “MOOOOOOOM!” Green Party leader Elizabeth May in August wrote to Queen Elizabeth II, some lady with a lot of jewels who lives in London, to intervene.
Calling for a royal commission to investigate...
2 tags
Trudeau Speaketh
Photo: Adam Scotti
I’ve spent the last few months interviewing all the leadership candidates — aside from the dropouts, who always seemed to withdraw right before our interview — and I did the last one yesterday with Trudeau. Check out more from my Trudeau interview — and all the other candidates — on Xtra. Check out the full text of my Trudeau interview below the jump
What will your first...
Trudeau on #IdleNoMore
Photo: Adam Scotti
Tonight on Power & Politics, Manitoba First Nations elder Raymond Robinson told host Evan Solomon that he would be beginning a full-on hunger strike — no food or water — starting tomorrow, unless the Harper government engages in real nation-to-nation negotiations.
It just so happened that I had an interview with Liberal leadership contender Justin Trudeau, so I decided to...
March 2013
4 posts
Backbencher-Selective Abberation
Mark Warawa hangs with the PM. A caucus revolt!
Free the backbenchers!
Open season on closed government!
DEMOPOCLYPSE 2013.
This, children, is the story of the little abortion bill that could — but might not.
By now you’ve probably hearing of the backbencher rights advocate Mark Warawa. His non-binding motion on sex-selective abortion was ruled out-of-order by an all-party committee last...
1 tag
One Last Debate.
Photo: Adam Scotti/Team Trudeau - Flickr With only weeks to go before the inevitable capsizing of the Liberal Leader-ship, the captain and his five first mates climbed up to the deck to sing one final rendition of that Celine Dion song everyone hates.
And as Justin Trudeau held Joyce Murray, the natural mutiny leader, as she leaned over the bow — he gave one final push, and assured that he, and...
Freelance Journalism: the Money, the Job, the...
Image (of me) via the indelible Kalina Laframboise
I hit the low point when I was sitting on my kitchen floor, using my last piece of cheese as bait in a comedically useless trap — a Tom & Jerry-styled scheme that involved a piece of string tied to a wooden spoon propping up a plastic bowl. A half empty bottle of $8 wine from the Depanneur gave me the confidence to say “I am going to catch...
1 tag
A Tale of Two Women
Joyce Murray and Martha Hall Findlay offer two very different visions of the Liberal Party. Yet, like the Dolly the sheep and its mother(?) the two seem like twins, with only some slight mutations differentiating them.
Murray, the flower-power environmentalist with the hippy-dippy scheme to get everyone to work together, meets Hall Findlay, the hard-nosed corporate executive that just wants...
February 2013
8 posts
Manifencours Goes to the Summit
Stay tuned for a corresponding blog on the issue of students, education and the whole shebang.
Takach Drops Out, Cauchon Goes Rural
Considering the pundit class monitoring the Liberal talent contest has hammered away at the idea that policy and experience are requirements for ascending to the big red throne, it seems strange that they’ve failed to appreciate the two treasures on both fronts that sat in front of them.
Martin Cauchon, as I’ve written endlessly, is a pillar of the old boy’s club, but one that knows his way...
1 tag
Harper's Canada (!/?/...)
Abandon hope, all ye who enter the political fray: this is now Stephen Harper’s Canada.
Well, at least for the rest of the decade. Then he’ll give the keys back. Or be dead. One of the two.
Anyway, this premise is birthed from the minds of Ipsos Reid pollster Darrell Bricker and long-time Hill journalist-cum-columnist John Ibbitson in their new book: the Big Shift.
While the musical...
Any Policy is the Best Policy
Check out a fullscreen version of the Liberal leadership policy cheat sheet here.
Marc Garneau wants to know where Justin Trudeau stands.
Well, I hope to answer his question.
For a race that delves into so much self-analysis over its supposed lack of policy, the Liberal leadership race is simultaneously flush with it, and completely reluctant to talk about it.
So fear not, dear Canadian...
Slam Duncan.
You know, for all the incoherent screams and infantile gurgling of “RESIGN! RESIGN! APOLOGIZE! RESIGNOGIZE! APOLOIGN!” coming from the opposition benches, they occasionally get a couple right.
Like the erstwhile Aboriginal Affairs minister John Duncan.
Duncan took a curt bow before rushing offstage this afternoon. Citing a letter he sent to a tax court on behalf of a constituent in 2011, he...
Do We Hate Trudeau Because We're Cynical Assholes?
Let’s face it, we’re all bitter.
When Justin Trudeau pirouetted onto the national stage as a candidate to revive the drowning , bloated near-corpse of the Liberal Party, we collectively scoffed.
The drama teacher with a silver spoon in his mouth?
Every step of the way, there’s always been something. He’s light on policy. He changes his position too much. His hair is...
Electoral Cooperation is a Crock.
Joyce Murray, like the cat memes she likes to flaunt her understanding of in the video above, just wants the noms, noms, noms. Joint noms, that is, amongst the NDP, Greens and Liberals. I wrote a few months ago about the political ramifications of the plan — how the move allowed Murray to position herself as a divisive candidate, in the best possible way. But let’s get down to brass tacks — the...
Novel Ideas on Democratic Reform
Jack Layton is standing in front of the doors to the House of Commons, his rump of a caucus behind him, proclaiming that Stephen Harper has “put a lock on the door on the House of Commons.” Media swirled around. Canadians clicked their tongues and nodded approvingly at home. Jack and his caucus shuffle off. Michael Ignatieff and his then-sizeable official opposition strut over. “The situation...
January 2013
10 posts
1 tag
Everybody, Do the Cabinet Shuffle
Click to here to see the full-screen slider.
Behold, the magical lazy susan of ministerial stalwarts, stars, stale wards, scandal magnets and Tony Clement!
Last summer, Harper announced his intention to overhaul his cabinet, switching gears from the team that have managed his first majority government and previous minority house of cards, and towards a new superteam of potential...
Pauline Marois: Braveheart
Via Flickr/Montreal metropole culturelle
Right now, there is a threat to Canada, toiling in the balmy locks of Scotland. Waiting. Planning.
It’s not the Loch Ness Monster, nor is it Islamist radicals. And no, it’s not Sean Connery.
It’s Pauline Marois.
[[MORE]]Marois is visiting the Scots this weeks in an apparent attempt to stalk Scottish leader and independence crusador Alex Salmond (or,...
2 tags
Federalist Theatre of the Absurd
The question is not why does Justin Trudeau suddenly not love his country.
Because the question is ridiculous.
That little piece of politheatrical bravado might bring you back to an entire year ago, when the bombastic Trudeau was forced to defend comments regarding his views on separation.
Trudeau told the nationalist radio host that, sure, he would support sovereignty for Quebec — if...
1 tag
The First Debate
With a rousing chant of “draft evidence-based policy!” and “sit down and talk with communities!” the Liberal leadership candidates stumbled out of the gates in the first leadership debate.
In a debate that felt plagued by complicated, unnecessary rules, repetitive questions, vague answers and very little substantive policy, we may be seeing the Liberal plan to rebuild...
1 tag
The Late, Dark Horse
Standing before a reasonable number of supporters, letting the soft chanting of his name wash over him, Martin Cauchon finally announced he would do what so few pundits expected him to do:
Enter the Liberal leadership race.
While this journalist has been adamantly saying it for months, many were — rightly — skeptical that the once-cabinet minister who lost his Outremont seat to...
Martin Cauchon Goes International
Martin Cauchon wants Canada to be a strong soft power again.
After months of playing footsie with the Liberal membership base, former Justice Minister and noted Chretien-loyalist/footsoldier Cauchon is finally entering the Liberal leadership race.
Well, assuming he can get enough signatures. The former Montreal heavyweight is still scrambling to get his nomination papers signed so that he can...
The Hunger Games
What if Chief Theresa Spence dies tomorrow morning?
Snide, smug, sniping aside — Spence hasn’t eaten solid food in, as of tomorrow, a month. She’s lost 22 pounds. While Ezra Levant is gleefully slapping his knee over Spence’s (admittedly, stupid) trips to and from an Ottawa hotel in a luxury SUV (which is also, possibly, a total waste of band dollars,) there is a chance...
Martin Cauchon, Everyone
Props to Erik Thomas for this email.
Well, I called it.
Rumors have been circulating for months that former justice minister Martin Cauchon, put on furlough by a defeat by now-leader Thomas Mulcair in his formerly-safe central Montreal seat of Outremont, will be entering the race to be the future leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.
[[MORE]]Tonight, just over four days away from the...
#IdleNoMore Goes for the Crown
So you want to meet the crown.
Today marked an absurd departure from reality as both the AFN and Harper began downplaying expectations for their Friday meet, only to have Chief Theresa Spence throw a grenade into the proceedings — she won’t come to the meeting unless the Governor General is there, as per her original request.
Unless, of course, you consulted CBC news at 8am this morning. Then...
Idle No More
Thien V/Flickr.
There’s a cliff somewhere off in the distance, and it’s fast approaching.
While, in America, squabbling hoards of hyperpartisan bobbleheads were lobbing rhetorical stinkbombs at each other, stride abreast ponies fattened on special interest dollars, we in Canada began dealing with an issue of much more real implications.
Rather than the #WashingtonBubbleProblems...
December 2012
2 posts
1 tag
The Liberal Rebuild
Liberal Party of Canada, polling results since 2008.
“Is god punishing me?” “Short answer: ‘yes,’ with an ‘if.’ Long answer: ‘no,’ with a ‘but.’” Ned Flanders is losing his faith in god after his home was destroyed by a hurricane that, miraculously, left his all of his neighbours homes intact. (For the record, all...
1 tag
Joyce Murray wants to win the joint nomination to...
Joyce Murray is pullin’ a Cullen.
No doubt fearing a fall into the obscure annals of the Liberal history books — having her name written just under Sheila Copps in the ‘failed leadership contestants’ subhead — she decided to shake things up.
Taking a leaf out of the bald-headed third-place finisher in the NDP leadership race, Nathan Cullen, Murray has thrown out...
November 2012
2 posts
1 tag
The Rise and Folly of the Liberal Leadership Race.
With a great woosh, like the air escaping a hot air balloon, the Liberal Party of Canada zoomed wildly through the air, careening into an oil rig in Fort MacMurray. Cue fireworks. Welcome to the Liberal leadership race.
It began as a coronation ceremony, turned into a show of Justin Trudeau boxing nobodies, morphed into a crowded field of the experienced and the not-so-much, and finally settled...
The worst week in Parliament. Ever.
If the House of Commons had a resident canary, it would have asphyxiated last week.
Yes, the noxious gas wafting up from Canada’s democratic mineshaft — vitriol, with notes of hyperpartisanship — choked poor Tweety to death. Though nobody, it seemed, heeded the warning.
While proclamations of ‘this was the worst week in parliament ever’ tend to be thrown out every...
October 2012
3 posts
1 tag
Woodworth speaks at anti-gay conference.
Stephen Woodworth at a press conference. (Image via Postmedia.)
Is the dam in the Tory backbenches about to burst, unleashing a tidal wave of social conservatism onto Canada?
It seems that way, given the most recent Conservative backbench MP to break Harper’s edict that his majority wouldn’t touch social issues. [[MORE]]Just a week after pro-life darling Stephen Woodworth’s abortion-related...
1 tag
Trudeau Waltzes In
Trudeau climbs the metaphorical wall. Photo: Flickr.
Well, he’s in.
Canada’s worst kept secret was finally unveiled tonight in Montreal’s north end in a ceremony that left us wondering why, questioning how, and asking for more.
[[MORE]]Launching his bid in a French college in the heavily multi-cultural Parc Extension district, Justin Trudeau was introduced by local...
1 tag
The Liberal Leadership Race Who's Who
(BLAIR GABLE/REUTERS)
At long last, the race that everyone’s been waiting for. The competition to see who will succeed whoever the last guy was as the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. The party, currently on the outs with the country it used to govern, has proved itself worthy at picking the best possible candidate who will do the worst possible job. And I mean that in every sense. The...
September 2012
2 posts
1 tag
#Qc2012 Takes a Bow
35 days.
35 days of acrimony, gaffery, accusations and pandering, pandering, ever-pandering.
Tomorrow, Quebec will find itself on the other side of one of the most frustrating, disillusioning and, frankly, idiotic campaigns of recent memory.
While issues like healthcare, education, the economy and – of course - corruption have dominated Quebecer’s priorities for the majority of the last few...
A CAQ Minority Government
There is a time in any pundit’s life when you realize that the opinion you are trumpeting, sometimes in front of a viewership of thousands, is likely wrong. I have found myself in that position.
For the past month, I have professed the belief that Francois Legault and the CAQ were on track for a minority government, even in the face of evidence, polls and logic to the contrary.
To give myself...
August 2012
3 posts
2 tags
Legault punts, runs, fumbles. Charest and Marois...
Legault has a good week. And a bad one. Legault had a week, basically. | Graham Hughes/ The Canadian Press
Welcome back to another installment of The Flipflop Election Blog! (Okay, it doesn’t actually have a name.) This past week has been one of stubbed toes, shot feet, and one particularly hard shoe to get on. We’ve seen the Coalition Avenir Quebec striding to catch up with the Bosom Buddies,...
1 tag
CAQ Gets a Get, PQ Throws Cats, LPQ Clutches...
Jacques Duchesneau recounts the fish he once caught. | Jacques Boissinot/THE CANADIAN PRESS
Welcome to day three of the Bikini Election! Today’s headlines were dominated by the bombshell of an announcement that Jacques Duchesneau, the Quebecois quasi-celebrity who was the ex-head of the province’s anti-corruption task force, would be running for the Coalition Avenir Quebec. Duchesneau...
1 tag
A Rest-of-Canada Guide to the Quebec Election
And they’re off! The 4.2* Quebec political leaders are now careening off into the wilderness, embarking on a summer election that promises to be an exercise in forehead-slapping politics. For those of your Rest-of-Canada’ers, I hope to clarify exactly what the hell is going on. I’ve had several RoCers express confusion and dismay at the Quebec political sphere, so I’m hoping to write this as a...
July 2012
8 posts
2 tags
So after a brief hiatus, the Great Redistribution is back!
We’re going to skip over British Columbia for a bit, because of the exciting revelation that the Quebec proposals were released today. Given that this is my adoptive province, I can’t help but show favoritism. BC will come soon enough. Because Quebec has a whackload (metric units) of ridings, I’m going to break it up...
1 tag
Welcome to the Fringe - the Other Quebec Parties
With a summer election lumbering towards us like an terrace-hopper plied with cheap sangria, it’s perhaps time to wax hypothetical on a slate of other parties that will be looking to contest this culmination of a head-smacking, eyebrow-raising pre-election year.
Not the big six, either (yes, I’m lumping the Greens in with “big.”) Let’s take a look at the others, both new and old. And I’ve...
1 tag
Quebec Goes To the Polls - Ten Ridings to Watch
Jean Charest has picked up a shovelful of coal and thrown it into the great Quebecois rumour engine. Amid weeks of cryptic clues dropped unceremoniously at press conferences, the shroud of mystery has been ripped back and Charest’s plan for a summer election laid bare. September 4th. That is, supposedly, the day that the madness ends. Quebec has been subjected to a year of student...
2 tags
Today we turn to Canada’s most (C/c)onservative province, which is poised to receive six new seats under the Tories’ new seat distribution plan.
That means that these ridings will be shifting more than the other, stagnant provinces. With such a hard-core fortress of Conservative support, however, it seems unlikely that this will mean anything more than additional seats for...
2 tags
Yesterday I introduced a new feature that I’ll be working on over the coming weeks - a look at how redistricting Canada’s ridings will shape the results of elections for years to come. I started with Newfoundland, and I’ll now be jumping to New Brunswick. I’ll return to Nova Scotia and PEI when their final plans are published.
Now, New Brunswick is a good province for...
2 tags
It’s everyone’s favourite year.
Yes, it’s time for Elections Canada to chop, slice and dice up our 308 - soon to be 338 - electoral districts into new oddly-shaped ridings.
I’ll be going province-by-province in the coming weeks and looking at how the redistricting might flip some ridings.
[[MORE]]I’m looking at the proposed changes as stated on Election’s...
