A View From The Left

Renewing the Party

2011-05-22T22:57:00.000-04:00

I went on a much needed vacation after the election and now I’m back I thought I would post my thoughts on what I think the Liberal party needs to look at as a part of its renewal process. Just in case you wanted to read yet another opinion on the subject.

I’m going to get the issue of leadership out of the way first, since that’s been a bit of a hot topic lately. I’m in firm agreement with all of those who have said that the leadership should be pushed back because it is more important that we decide what the party stands for first. Personally I’d like to see the leadership vote take place sometime between June and November of 2012, preferably towards the beginning of that time period. I think if we wait any longer then that we will make the leadership selection process too long and prolong internal bickering which can only hurt the party. I also want to see the membership get to set the date for the leadership convention, because if it’s left up to the executive then the biannual convention will end up being focused on leadership as every candidate will trying to get a favourable executive elected. On the issue of the interim leader, I was pleased to see that whoever is interim leader is not going to be allowed to run for the leadership. I disagreed back when Ignatieff was allowed to do that, so I’m pleased to see that it has been changed this time around.

The issue that the party really need to talk about before getting all hung up on leadership per usual, is what do we stand for. In my opinion the party hasn’t had a clear vision of what we stand for in a long time, going back to the last couple of years we were in government. The public votes on issues, and the Liberals simply being “not Harper” wasn’t going to attract votes because the public largely didn’t share our dislike of Harper. The public also doesn’t share our penchant for nostalgia, so dragging out former PM’s to try to give us a boost doesn’t create an enticing reason to vote for us. Once we’ve decided what we stand for we can re-build the Liberal brand around those issues. Until we have a solid idea of what we stand for we aren’t going to be able to convince voters to return us as the official opposition, let alone as the government.

Most importantly the grassroots of the party need to be front and centre as a part of the rebuilding process. For too many years very little attention has been paid to what the grassroots of the party wanted. Now we find ourselves in a situation where Liberal members are more likely to find out what is going on in the party through the media instead of by communication from the executive to the grassroots. The reform of the party should be driven by the grassroots as much as possible, with the party executive and caucus spending most of their time listening to ideas instead of trying to impose their own ideas on the party. As long as the grassroots continue to feel as if the party is ignoring them people are going to leave the Liberal party and not come back and the rebuilding process will amount to nothing.

A Few Thoughts on What Happened

2011-05-03T11:44:00.004-04:00

Now I’ve had a bit of time to digest what happened last night, but before I get to reading other people’s post-mortems on the campaign I want to offer a few of my own thoughts.

Conservatives
The Conservatives ran the perfect front-runner bubble campaign. They had the exact same message day in and day out which lead it self to voters knowing exactly what the message was. Having only 5 questions a day also allowed a lot of the issues that cropped up during the campaign to brief stories that didn’t really stick. This was aided by the fact that the media for quite a while focused on the lack of questions they were able to ask instead of issue-based questions. If the campaign had ended up focusing on a specific issue or policy it might have gone a lot differently, but with the lack of a defining issue the Conservatives were able to coast to victory on essentially the same message for the entire campaign.

NDP
There is no question that the fact that the NDP surge became the story of the better part of the last two weeks of their campaign helped their numbers. The reason why those numbers started rising in the first place is a little less clear. The surge in Quebec started after the debates, but also after the weekend of the PQ convention where both Duceppe and Marois spoke about working towards another sovereignty referendum. Between Layton’s strong debate performance, his promise to re-open the constitution, and the seeming lack of desire on the part of most Quebecers for another referendum the NDP suddenly started becoming a viable option for many in Quebec.

But above and beyond the Quebec surge, I think the NDP also resonated with people because they were the only party with a positive message. The Liberals often spoke about what was bad about Harper without saying what they would do differently. While Layton was also critical of Harper, he constantly sounded upbeat about what he would do instead. I think the end result was that a lot of voters who would never consider voting Conservative decided to choose the hopeful message.

Bloc
I think I find the complete collapse of the Bloc the most shocking thing out of this entire election. Six weeks ago Duceppe was the most popular politician in Quebec, and there was a lot of talk of him replacing Marois because polls suggested the PQ would do better under him than her. But this campaign the Bloc really ended up lacking a defining issue. In ’04 and ’06 they had sponsorship and in ’08 they had the arts cuts and Duceppe was able to galvanise the electorate around those issues. However, without a defining issue the Bloc floundered.

Interestingly, towards the end of the campaign when they called on separatist voters in desperation that didn’t really seem to help them much. In past provincial elections the PQ has rarely slipped much bellow 30%, but last night the Bloc was reduced to 23% of the Quebec vote. If that’s the base for separatists in Quebec the PQ has got to be worried, but the rest of Canada should be cheering. Given the seeming volatility in the Quebec electorate it will be interesting to see if after they are done with their NDP experiment if they go back to the Bloc under a new leader, or if voters will stay with federalist parties. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the second one.

As a bit of a personal aside, from the time I started following elections even in the vaguest of ways as a child Duceppe has always been Bloc leader. So I’m having trouble imagining federal politics without him, and I think I might actually end up missing him a bit, or at least his quick one-liners.

Greens
I’m pleased to see Elizabeth May win her seat, when I interviewed her a couple years ago she stuck me as the kind of person we need in parliament, much like we could have used her in the leaders debates. However, her victory also causes me some worry given that it could lead to more of the vote splitting that benefits the Conservatives that we saw last night.

Liberals
From the get-go the Liberal message was confused. We didn’t know where we stood on the issue of a collation despite knowing for over two years that it was going to be an issue. It set us off to a bad start and allowed the issue of contempt of parliament to be completely forgotten. And bad communications didn’t stop there. There were a plethora of issues that cropped up during the campaign that we could have used to create a narrative about why we needed to be the government instead of the Conservatives but we never developed that narrative. While we jumped on some of the issues, many of those issues were talked about for less than a day and we never coherently linked them together.

We also never seemed to create a coherent message of what we stood for. Voters knew we wanted to defeat Harper, even if they didn’t understand why we wanted to defeat him, but they didn’t know what we would do differently.

I won’t get into the issue of leadership in this post other than to say the attack ads were effective, but they were far from the only reason that Ignatieff didn’t resonate with the public. However, while Ignatieff resigned this morning it’s important that the party realise that our problems go way, way beyond this issue of leadership. But that will be another long post for another day.

Conservative's Making Sure the Youth DON'T Vote

2011-04-14T22:30:00.003-04:00

This is an atrocious story out of Guelph:

No votes cast Wednesday in a special ballot at the University of Guelph should stand, according to the Conservative Party of Canada.
The party wrote Elections Canada on Thursday to request that none of the votes collected during the U of G session be included in the final tally of votes in the Guelph riding. The letter was sent by lawyer Arthur Hamilton, of Toronto-based law firm, Cassels Brock.

In his letter, Hamilton alleges the polling station was illegal and also that partisan election material was present at it, which is a violation of the Canada Elections Act.

The polling station in question was located on the main floor of University Centre, where approximately 700 students cast sealed ballots.

Elections Canada media advisor James Hale said this was the third election during which the University of Guelph held a special ballot on campus. And this is the first time it’s ever been challenged, Hale said.

And then there's this part which is even worse:

Several University of Guelph students claim Michael Sona, the communications director for Guelph Conservative candidate Marty Burke, attempted to put a stop to voting at the special ballot held Wednesday.

The students say Sona approached the Elections Canada balloting site claiming that the process unfolding at the location was illegal and at one point reached for but never took possession of a container with ballots.

“He tried to grab for the ballot box. I’m not sure he got his hand on the box, but he definitely grabbed for it,” said Brenna Anstett, a student, who at the time of the reported incident was sealing her second of two envelopes containing her vote.

Student Claire Whalen was just about to receive her ballot just before 5 p.m. when the episode unfolded.

“That’s when a guy came up and said it was an illegal polling station and that he was confiscating the ballots. And then he tried to take (the ballot box),” Whalen said.

Interfering with democratically cast ballots? This is Canada not some developing country that has rigged elections with candidates stuffing ballot boxes or destroying ballots cast by voters.

U of Guelph had 700 students vote, that's a behavior that we should be encouraging among youth not suppressing. But the Conservative strategy seems to be voter suppression so the last thing they want to see if people engaged and voting. Apparently this is especially true of young people.

Coward

2011-03-31T08:55:00.002-04:00

After yesterdays great debate about the debates, Harper appears to be backing down from his offer of a one-on-one debate with Ignatieff.

I think a one-on-one debate between the only two leaders that realistically can end up as Prime Minister is a great idea. It should be something that we have every election after a debate including all of the leaders of the major parties (which includes Elizabeth May). Hopefully after all of yesterday posturing we do start a new trend of a one-on-one debate after the all-leaders debates.

If it’s true that Harper is now backing down, then you have to wonder why he’s so afraid of putting his ideas to the test directly against Ignatieff without the other leaders there to muddy the waters.

Post Secondary Education for Your Kids vs Tax Cuts for Foreign Corporations

2011-03-29T20:02:00.002-04:00

Today the Liberal unveiled the Learning Passport. This will provide $1,000 a year to every student in post-secondary education, $1,500 for students from low-income families. This tax-free cash will provide a huge boost to cash strapped families who have been suffering to afford putting their kids through school with the rising tuition rates in recent years. It will also allow students to attends a post-secondary institution who otherwise couldn't have afforded to go.

Given today's economy we need to get more people attending a post-secondary insitutions to remain competitive. This policy takes great strides in that direction.

How are the Liberals going to pay for it? By rolling back those corporate tax cuts. This is a great strategy because it presents voters with a clear choice: money for their kids education, or money for big banks, big oil and foreign corporations.

Promises that Will Never be Kept

2011-03-28T13:19:00.005-04:00

Today's Conservative "major policy announcement" of income splitting for families with kids under 18 is a joke, it won't come into effect until after the budget is balanced. Harper is hoping that people will miss that convenient fact when they got to the ballot box. Even if you go with the optimistic Conservative estimates the budget wont be balanced for another 5 years. How many families voting today would be ineligible for the income splitting by that time? Also, even if Harper wins this time, between now and when the budget is projected to be balanced there has to be at least one more election. It is highly likely that Harper wont even be Prime Minister by the time the budget is balanced making it impossible for him to follow through on it.

Most importantly there is no guarantee that the budget will be balanced in five years. The parliamentary budgetary officer has been very skeptical of these projections as he can't see where the money will come from to balance the budget based on the information he's been provided by the government. At the rate the Conservatives have been increasing spending over the past five years I think it would be easy to argue at this point that they will never balance a budget. All this makes it very likely that this in an election promise that will never be kept.

On Things More Important than Guergis/Jaffer

2010-04-27T11:11:00.000-04:00

A story that has largely fallen by the wayside due to the much more sensations Guergis/Jaffer affair is the speakers ruling on the documents pertaining to Afghan detainees (which may by made later today). Like the coalition crisis this is a precedent setting case, and is being watched by a number of other countries.

In the past speakers have always maintained that the will of parliament is supreme and the Prime Minister can not simply do whatever they want. The upcoming speakers ruling may change that. If Milliken decides that the government does not have to release the documents then he has given the Prime Minister the authority to do whatever he chooses.

Parliament is supposed to be the checks and balances on the Prime Ministers power. Unfortunately as a result of Michaëlle Jean’s decision to let Harper prorogue during the coalition crisis, it clear that parliament already sits only on the will of the Prime Minister. If parliament’s power is further reduced by it no longer being able to compel the Prime Minister to submit to the will of parliament then we might as well get rid of it entirely.

By eliminating the power of parliament we essentially end up with a one-man government. That worries me, regardless of who’s Prime Minister, and hopefully it worries you too.

Reflections on Copenhagen

2009-12-19T06:28:00.006-05:00

Well in the late hours of last night the leaders finally came to an "agreement" that basically says a whole lot of nothing. It's hard to come away from here thinking that the conference was anything other than a failure.

It was very striking to me when I spoke to people and they found out I was from Canada. In the past when I've traveled abroad I've never heard anything but good things when people find out I'm Canadian, here it was a mark of shame. All week I heard variations on the phrase, "why isn't Canada doing anything to fix climate change, I though you guys cared?". Over and over I had to explain that most of us did care, but the problem was our Prime Minister didn't.

Canada also received the title of Colossal Fossil for receiving the most fossil awards throughout the conference. Here's a photo I took of the Fossil of the Day leaders board on my last day in the Bella Centre (Wednesday):

As far as the conference went, I have to leave disappointed in the UN's organization and communication skills. The fact that they changed their minds on who would get in the Bella Centre for the last two important days on the Friday of the first week of the conference was ridiculous. If I (and many others) had known they were going to do that we would have arrived earlier and not even stayed for the last two days as we could have followed it just as well from home. The fact that the UN constantly talks about the importance of the involvement of civil society and then restricted access of NGOs as much as they possibly could was atrocious. There was a gentleman who worked for the UN staying at the same bed and breakfast as me and he couldn't believe how they treated those of us from NGOs either. He told me how in the hall where the negotiations were taking place (that NGOs weren't allowed into to observe) there was a table with a sign saying it was for NGOs with only two seats, and those were empty because we were bared from the room. It's something I wish I had a photo of.

Finally, if you ever get the chance to visit the city of Copenhagen I recommend it. Besides being a beautiful city it has a public transit system you really have to experience to fully understand what we're missing out on here in Canada. The metro runs 24-7, and even in the middle of the night I never waited more than 6 minutes for a train. Most buses run from 5am to 1am, though some on major routes run 24 hours, and their trains run from 5am to 3am. Also, over half the city uses bikes as their main mode of transportation, and there's bike lanes on literally every road vs Toronto where people scream and cry when you even suggest adding bike lanes. It is certainly worth seeing as a model for some of the things we should be implementing if we really want to get serious about tackling climate change.

Disaster in Copenhagen

2009-12-18T09:50:00.004-05:00

We've spend the day watching the live feed of negotiations from the Bella Center, and unless there is a big change in the next few hours then we will end up with a document that basically says everyone realizes that climate change is an important issue but no one is actually willing to do something about it.

Politicians are too busy being lazy and trying to commit to as little as possible instead of listening to the recommendations of the scientists and being bold enough to at least try for a 40% reduction in GHG emissions from 1990 levels by 2020. Or if they really want to use 2005 as the base level have a percentage of reductions that matches that amount knowing that it will be something like 90%.

Instead we are currently on track for a 3-degree increase in the temperature of the earth that doens't matter to any of the leaders because they will all be dead by the time the fallout from climate change becomes obvious. Instead my generation and my childrens generation will be the one's who have to bear the brunt of climate change devastation. Many youth groups have been wearing t-shirts that read "How old will you be in 2050?" which are particularly poignant now we have been given an agreement that says nothing.

Everyone had hoped for not only actual action in Copenhagen but serious targets. Instead we are left with what is basically the worst outcome.

Live From Copenhagen Archive

2009-12-17T09:27:00.006-05:00

Since today is a slow day for me, I decided to create a list of all my post from Copenhagen in one spot in case you've missed a post and are interested in following my coverage. I'll update this list with any posts I make after this point.

In chronological order:

Live From Copenhagen
A Failure in Organisation
Live From the Bella Center
CNN and YouTube Debate
Recap of Day Two
Green Growth and Green Jobs,
Gender and Climate Change,
Climate Summit of Mayors,
Clean Energy and Climate Action: A North American Collaboration
Recap of Day Three
Disaster in Copenhagen
Reflections on Copenhagen

Recap of Day Three

2009-12-17T04:04:00.003-05:00

Well my day today again started fairly early with a line up at 7:30 to get into the Bella Center, fortunately today the line actually moved so I was in after about 30/40 minutes. If you got in with an NGO then you didn't have access to as much of the Bella Center as in previous days as the section of the main hall near the negotiating room had been blocked off with curtains so you couldn't even see anything down there.

Speaking of being barred entrance to places, all of the countries have these little delegate centers that are basically boxes with doors where they coordinate and do press conferences. Most countries have the door open and are happy to talk to anyone who is here from their country, Holland invites everyone in and serves all the delegates who are at noon lunch. However if you go by the Canadian one the door is shut and they don't even like you standing in the area by their door unless you are press and they are giving a press conference.

I spent most of the day attending seminars (Green Growth and Green Jobs, Gender and Climate Change, Climate Summit of Mayors, Clean Energy and Climate Action: A North American Collaboration), and between seminars watching some of the leaders speeches which were being broadcast on TVs around the Bella Center. Most of them seemed to have similar themes of action is needed, acting for future generations, and creating a system that made it fair do to whatever their specific concern(s) were.

I also had an opportunity at different time during the day to meet and chat very breifly with Jack Layton, Oliva Chow, Elizabeth May and Jean Charest. David McGunity also stopped by the tables we were using as our central meeting place to speak with us for a while.

Tomorrow I won't be in the Bella Center as all NGOs are basically banned for the last two days, I think there's something ridiculous like 90 passes being given to NGOs so they can actually get in. Today there were a lot of people from NGOs protesting not being let in tomorrow and Friday the restricted access from today and yesterday that only let a third of individuals who were here with NGOs in. For example, for the entire IFLRY delegation of 100 people we got 24 secondary passes that would let people in on Tuesday and Wednesday. The protests were very unhelpful because as soon as they started it meant that they stopped letting anyone from any NGO in so we couldn't even switch passes with someone else so they could be there in the afternoon after we'd been there in the morning. It may also cause problems for NGOs who want to attend future COPs.

Clean Energy and Climate Action: A North American Collaboration

2009-12-16T12:26:00.011-05:00

This panel is hosted by the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the Pembina Institute.

Guest Speaker are:

Jean Charest

Greg Selinger

Shalini Vajjhala (Deputy Assistant Administrator, Office of International Affairs, US Environment Protection Agency)

Gabriel Quadri (Director, EcoSecurities, Mexico and Central America)

6:26 - Charest starts off talking about how the sub-national governments are the one's that will be responsible for a lot of the implementation and how the municipalities and provinces are already moving and if we wait for higher levels of government to act very little will happen.

6:30 - Quebec has adopted the California emissions standards for vehicles, he is glad to see the change in the US administration on this issue

6:34 – Charest wraps up his remarks, now it’s Gabriel Quadri’s turn. Who starts off with the 3 most concerning sectors in Mexico.

6:37 – In Mexico the most important sector, and fastest growing sector is transportation, by 2020 it should make up about a third of our emissions if it continues at the current rate of growth

6:40 – The second largest concern is electricity, and energy use and the third issue is deforestation, which is different then US and Canada

6:42 – Unfortunately in Mexico there is a gas and oil subsidy, an obscene subsidy because of its size in his words

6:46 – Greg Selinger starts off by stating that 60% of Manitoba’s hydro electricity is sold to the US, and that is something that they need to examine as it’s clearly a huge issue.

6:48 – We’re currently under a lot of pressure to start changing things before we pass the tipping point.

6:49 – Pursuing UNESCO world heritage designation for some of the Boreal forest to help preserve them

6:51 – We need a smart grid for keeping track of energy, to allow for energy savings and to allow access for green energies such as wind and solar

6:54 – Also need to be pursing cap and trade

6:56 – Now it’s Shalini Vajjhala’s turn. Federal US government was taken to the Supreme Court by the States for action on climate change. The Supreme Court ruled that CO2 was an endangerment to the public. The endangerment label is good because it has allowed them to start pushing for change.

6:59 – Moving towards creating a GHG emission registry, which makes public the emission that come from different facilities

7: 02 – a number of things that state and local government can bring to these negotiation. 1) helps bring specificity to international negotiations, the negotiated documents are as broad as possible 2) transparency, not required but fundamental so that people see that it is working and that their money is spent well 3) coordination, depends on working together because we are depending on our networks, electricity systems, water systems, etc.

7:08 - we've now wrapped up and moved on to Q&A

7:12 - first question is on federal governments role vs. sub-national governments role, are the federal governments needed? Charest takes the question and starts talking about all the deals Hydro Quebec has been making, and all the stuff Quebec in general has been doing (it's a long list and I would probably miss things) then says the federal government has nothing to do with it. However he ads that the federal government are the best ones to implement things like a carbon tax.

7:14 - Vajjhala says role for both, depends on the specific project

7:15 - Selinger: role for federal government to facilitate things like moving energy east-west, right now it's easier for them to move energy south. Basically feds need to provide enabling legislation/resources and provinces and municipalities are the one's who actually implement things.

7:20 - Question on water conservation and water protocol that is way to long and complicated to reproduce, it's basically on aquifers.

7:24 - Charest: Quebec uses watersheds, they're better. Water sharing is a long-standing issue between Canada and US, and there is a real anxiety in Canada who are worried about the Americans putting in a pipe and taking all our water.

7:27 - Vajjhala has no idea how to pick up after the comment on the US making a big pipe to take water "this is a concern that we've never heard before", she and Charest are having a laugh about it.

7:28 - Quadri "does this big pipe extend to Mexico?". The answer to the longest question ever is turning out to have very little to do with the question.

7:29 - Cooperation on water issues is very important, especially now climate change is becoming so important.

7:34 - And we're out of time so that's a wrap.

Climate Summit of Mayors

2009-12-16T08:57:00.025-05:00

3:00 - well this room is standing room only, the speakers are:
Ritt Rjerregaar (Lord Mayor of Copenhagen)
Amos Masondo (Johannesburg)
Rakesh Mehta (Delhi)
Robert Doyle (Melbourne)
Marcelo Ebrard (Mexico City)
Antoni Villaraigosa (LA)
Barbel Dieckmann (Chair of World Mayors)
Bertrand Delanoe (Paris)

I'm going to apologize in advance, I'm in the back corner so I can't see the name plates of whoever's speaking, so I wont always be able to attribute statements.
Update from after the fact: Big thanks to the lady who was sitting beside me who was able to keep track of the mayors and tell me who was talking, this was especially helpful as the list we were given at the beginning didn't exactly match up to who ended up speaking.

3:03 - Mayors are committing to a reduction of 30-40% by 2020 and they think if they can do it then countries can certainly do it

3:05 - If things continue how they are, then we will see cities that will be/have to be eliminated because of climate change

3:06 - A lot of the solutions for climate change is city oriented, recycling, public transit, infrastructure for electric cars, etc. It is also an easier environment to pull people together because they live close to one another and can work cohesively.

3:15 - "do you think that if we can bail out the auto companies the insurance companies and the banks we can find the 100 billion dollars per year we need to save the planet?"

3:18 - Mayor of Melbourne talking about the fires that raged through his state that got earlier this year and while that got world news coverage the week that proceeded it did not. The temperature was so hot for that week that building systems failed, public transport systems failed, etc.

3:21 - Don't worry about what they sign at the end of the week, because they will sign something, but we are already doing what they are talking about (Mayor of Melbourne)

3:23 - (Mayor of Johannesburg) More resources need to be available at the local level because action has to happen at the local level. This fight will be won or lost depending on what happens at the local level.

3:26 - (Mayor of Seattle - Greg Nicolas) Climate change is a local issue

3:27 - (Mayor of Seattle) Assumed that it was a federal issue and that someone was already dealing with it. Then in 2005 when there was no snow in the winter they had no water in the summer because they depend on the snow on the mountain for water. He realized that it was a problem because the US government hadn't signed onto Kyoto, that's why his city signed on. Now 1016 US cities are signed on Kyoto.

3:30 - "We made it safe for the current congress and president to take this issue up seriously" Mayor of Seattle on the 1016 cities that signed onto Kyoto

3:31 - (Mayor of Delhi) Cities create carbon footprints and therefore have to deal with that. Many cites have already taken up this challenge.

3:32 - (Mayor of Delhi) Challenge in front of us in in terms of transportation, air quality, etc.

3:35 - "The challenge in front of us is how do we sell this to communities, especially the poorer communities" Mayor of Delhi, mentions specifically the challenge of getting people to conserve energy and use public transportation

3: 39 - "Without local governments there will be no solution to climate change" Chair of World Mayors

3:41 - (Chair of World Mayors) Hopes that references to the importance of local governments in the current draft will remain in the final draft

3:48 - "We are not discussing the differences between boarders, counties, states, we are discussing the future of the global community" Mayor of Mexico City

3:49 - (Mayor of Mexico City) Local governments need to be involved in the negotiations because they are discussing things that cities are already doing

3:50 - (Mayor of Nantes) Cities are at the heart of the problem, but also at the heart of the solutions. We know that countries will not meet their climate change goals without the cities.

3:54 - "If cites are empowered and given the right resources then we deliver on our commitments" Mayor of Nantes

Gender and Climate Change

2009-12-16T08:02:00.000-05:00

Early this afternoon Iceland hosted an interesting session on gender and climate change. The basic thesis of it is that women must be included at the group at the table at all levels because women have different experiences with climate change. Their argument is this is because women make up the largest section of the worlds poor, and climate change will effect things like agriculture and water among other things which are of pivotal importance to those women.

The first presenter is from Ghana, to explain their approach to including women in climate change discussions. In Ghana 70% of agriculture is produced by women and 53% of fish provided by women. Meaning any changes in these sectors has a huge impact on women aside from the obvious impact it has on the economy. They also have women's groups who have taken responsibility for restoring and conserving forests.

An interesting point the presenter made was that women are the one's in the best position to help with population control. One of the concerns here this week has been the impact of the worlds ever-growing population on climate change.

She concluded by saying that if these negotiations were being conducted by women that the deal would have been done already. It got a big laugh from the room, and goes back to the idea that the involvement of women in politics would make the whole process run more smoothly. I'm still not sure if I completely buy into that idea.

The second presenter was male and also from Ghana. He was a government official and went through the different committees they have on climate change, from communications to reforestation/forest restoration to agriculture, etc. and how they ensured that there was equal representation of men and women. Also, a number of committees have women as their president, and any with a male president have a women as a vice president (and visa-versa). Apparently a key member of their negotiating team is their female vice-president who has been at COP-15 since the kick off last week. He concluded by making the point that they are working to increase the number of women on their negotiation team for future COP meetings. It's very interesting to hear all the effort they are going into to get a 50/50 male/female split as much as possible when in Canada it's a big deal that the Liberals are only ensuring that 33% of their candidates are women.

The final presenter was from an organization that deals with gender equality and women in climate change with a really long name that I didn't entirely catch. She spent a while talking about how women are negatively effected by natural disaster, with examples, before stating that unfortunately women are often the ones with the solutions on climate change but are less likely to be involved in working on the solutions. She then touched on the same issue that the first presenter did regarding population control and women's role in that, also pushing the important tie between that issue and educating women.

At the moment gender equity has been included on the (very long) draft document that is currently being negotiated. It will be very interesting to see if that makes it into the final agreed-on document.

Before the Q&A session started the general conclusion was given that gender equality and women's involvement with climate change matters go hand-in-hand. It's certainly a very interesting point, and overall a very interesting session, though I think it is more applicable to African and other third-world nations than developed countries.

Green Growth and Green Jobs

2009-12-16T05:29:00.003-05:00

While the media’s focus is on the negotiations, a lot of the conference here is about presentations from governments and NGOs on many different environmentally friendly things that have worked when they have been implemented.

This morning I attended a seminar put on by the Austrian government who have over the past 10 years been investing in the green technology sector.

The panellists were:

Isabelle Pilmon (Austrian Chamber of Commerce)

Mauel Graf (Global 2000, Austria)

Gernot Wagner (EDF, New York)

The presentation started off with a brief overview from an Austrian government official; in 2008 there were 5% employed in the environmental technology sector. The growth rate in the green sector has grown 12% over the past couple of years, despite the recession. The plan right now is to have 20% working in green tech sector by 2020 and they are currently on track for that.

An example of the importance of the investments in the green tech sector can be seen in the town of Guessing, which has had a biomass power plant since 2001 and is now 100% energy-autonomous. This has lead to a substantial number of green jobs and also created eco tourism.

From Isabelle Pilmon’s presentation:

This sector has had increasing has linear growth in the demand for the environmental technology, and also in investment. The green tech sector currently makes up 4% of the Austrian GDP. This is expected to continue increasing rather rapidly as there is also an every emerging market for this technology. Especially as the more the world looks at reducing carbon emissions the bigger the demand for this market will become, and it will become a big part of the economy if countries do seriously address the issue of climate change.

From Mauel Graf’s presentation:

Since developed countries should be aiming to reduce GHG emissions 40% by 2020 that will create incredible growth in the green tech sector. By investing in the green tech sector not only will we meet our environmental targets but it will create 250,000 to 750,000 jobs by 2020. Also, the creation of the new jobs in renewable energy will be 7 time higher than the loss of jobs in the Coal and Nuclear Industry. However there needs to be subsidies to get the market started off, and we should be removing the subsidies from oil and gas companies and transferring them to the green tech sector.

From Gernot Wagner’s presentation:

We can’t sell the green tech sector by talking about climate change, we have to sell the sector by selling the idea of more jobs. This should be an easy sell given that we’re currently in a recession. For example, at the moment all the windmills are currently manufactured from steel in China instead of using already existing steel miss in North America that have being shut down during the recession. Also, businesses innovate all the time and we should be directing that innovation into the green tech sector, and maybe get fossil fuel companies to start thinking of themselves as energy companies. Finally it has been shown over and over in many different countries and in California that implementing a cap and trade program, or even starting the process of introducing the legislation for it has been shown to create an incredible jump in the number of green jobs.

Recap of Day Two

2009-12-15T18:03:00.003-05:00

Well after queuing at the Bella Center starting at 4:30 this morning for when registration opened at 8 (I wasn't even the first one in line) I did make it in today just before 9. While we can't get in to watch the negotiations taking place there are a lot of side events put on by NGOs and different countries involving discussions of any issue related to climate change you could possibly imagine.

While I did spend most of the day at those sessions I also attended at debate on climate change hosted by CNN and YouTube, the official version of which you can now find on YouTube. Given the problems when I attempted to liveblog it on my BlackBerry I will be bringing my computer tomorrow so I will actually be able to liveblog things.

I also had an opportunity to spend a while chatting with Bloc environment critic, Bernard Bigras, about if there's the political will in Canada to do anything on climate change, the challenge of selling environmental policies to a public that says it wants action on climate change but doesn't want to pay for it, and what our approach should be on the tar sands. It was a very interesting, non-partisan discussion.

The welcoming ceremony for the world leaders and Ministers was also tonight. Among the key-note speakers was Ban Ki-moon, Connie Hedegaard (president of COP-15 and Danish environment minister, Prince Charles, Yvo De Boer, and the Danish PM Lars Lokke Rasmussen.

I will be back at the Bella Center tomorrow for what will probably be the last day that NGOs are allowed to enter, so look for updates then.

CNN + You Tube Debate

2009-12-15T07:52:00.002-05:00

As one of the side events here at COP-15 CNN is hosting what they're calling a You Tube debate. It will be starting momentarily and I will be liveblogging it then.

Alright, massive problems with live blogging on the BB so here it is with edits all in one post.

2:00 - apparently these questions have been submitted on you tube over the past few month

2:03 - Now I shall butcher the spelling of the names of our panelists Evan Bur (UN environment working group) Darrel Hanna (actress, environmentalist) Thomas Friedman (new york times) Bion Lonburg (skeptic)

2:07 - are the world leaders serious about dealing with climate change?
EB- they're recognizing that its important given interest in it but still a question of how committed they actually are

2:09 - climategate question, should we actually do something if the issue doesn't actually exist?
TF acting on climate change is like buying insurance, acting in case anything happens

2:15 - will countries be punished if they don't meet their kyoto targets?
EV - moral policing, governments being held accountable by the ppl DH - should be legal mechansim TF - should treat it like a race

2:21 - Kofi Annan (sp?) via satellite to respond to a couple of videos

2:25 - does Africa have a loud enough voice on the climate change issue?
Short answer is no, suggests that all the poor countries need to band together on the climate change issue as they are all vulnerable.
Follow up from host: is Africa to do enough to help itself?
Some are, gives examples.
DH - everyone needs to do their part and be conscious of their own emissions

2:30 - irradiation and poverty seem to go hand in hand are ppl acting on both?
Political will is not yet there, need transfer of green technology. Aid money can't be replaced by climate change subsidies.

2:33 - Annan is now off and we're back to asking questions of the panel

2:37 - Is human selfishness stopping us from actually takling climate change and what do we do about that?
TF - give incentives for acting on climate change
DH - americans consumers need to learn to be producers to drive the issue
BL - people won't go for anything that involves paying more
EB - its a process, it won't happen over night

2:42 - why are taxes the answer, and why do we have to pay those?
TF - gas price driven by gas companies so would rather have tax that goes to thing we want to invest in
EB - tax will have too much backlash, poluters need to pay, cap and trade better

2:51 - what decision can we make in our everyday lives to protect the environment?
DH - get off fossil fuels if at all possible

2:54 - now we have a guy dressed as a pirate asking about why these conferences are restricted to leaders where ppl can't have their voices heard?
TF - people actually need to show they actually really care
BL - people have bigger concerns than the climate
Now we're talking over one another

3:04 - kid wanting to know what we're going to leave his generation?
EV - hopefully not a runaway problem out of control

3:05 - q from audience on population control
TF - need to make sure all people have access to family planning

3:07 - are you optimistic that it will actually happen?
EB- yes
LB- only if we tackle this in a different way than we have been

Live From the Bella Center

2009-12-15T03:06:00.002-05:00

Well after yesterdays disaster I lined up before 5, making me 4th in line for when registration opened at 8. I'm now in and registered despite the messed up pass system. Because the UN registered 40,000 delegates and only have capacity for 15,000 for the last 4 days the NGOs have been given what are called secondary passes which only cover something between a quarter and a third of the NGO delegates. Next time they need to get a bigger venue or put a cap on registration in advance.

That aside I will be attending events around the Bella Center today and trying to liveblog as much as possible.

A Failure in Organisation

2009-12-14T17:54:00.003-05:00

Well besides negotiations breaking down at COP-15 so did the registration process for acredited delegates. Registration opened this morning at 8am, I was there at 7:30, there were probably already a couple thousand people ahead of me so I assumed this meant I would be in line for 2 or 3 hours (which was apparently the standard wait time from last week). At 11 they stopped letting people in entirely (I was at this point less than 10 meters from the entrance). This was supposed to be temporary as apparently their computer system was down. Three hours later the line still hadn't moved and the story had changed to the Bella Center was at capacity. While there were 30,000 accredited delegated vs the Bella Center's capacity of 15,000 there were sill delegate who hard already registered streaming in through the other line. We were then told that we would be let in as people left, which never happened.

At 5:30 it was announced that press may come through to register but the rest of us now had to go home and come back tomorrow. This is after 10 hours in line outside with it snowing for part of the day. Fortunately for them everyone was relatively well behaved and the worst thing that happened was the crowd started chanting. The Danish police were fantastic throughout the day trying to be helpful by pushing the UN for updates that they didn't want to give to those of us waiting outside, and being very good about a terrible situation.

On a more postive side, being in line for 10 hours I did get to meet a number of people from all over the world, from other NGOs media groups and government delegates from more minor countries. (Only world leaders, ministers, and government delegates from the larger more powerful nations got to use the government delegation line). I also felt very sorry for the two ladies in line behind me from Africa who had never been anywhere this cold before and were then stuck there for 10 hours.

I will be going back very early tomorrow in hopes to end up right near the front of the line so that I actually get in this time. For those following my twitter feed you should start seeing updates from me later this evening.

Live From Copenhagen

2009-12-13T11:22:00.003-05:00

Well I've arrived in Copenhagen for the second week of the UN Climate Change Conference. I will be doing my best to liveblog as much as possible, and I will also be tweeting regularly from my phone. You can find me on twitter at http://twitter.com/viewfromtheleft

Canada Guaranteed to be the Problem in Copenhagen

2009-12-07T22:40:00.000-05:00

Just as the UN Climate Change Conference kicking off today in Copenhagen Harper gave a speech this morning where he stated that we need to be putting economic recovery before addressing climate change. You can bet that this will be his excuse for holding up talks in Copenhagen. No wonder Canada received the first fossil award of the conference and Greenpeace staged a protest on Parliament Hill this morning.

On a slightly different note I will be in Copenhagen attending the conference as delegate for IFLRY starting this Sunday until the conferences conclusion on Friday the 18th. If everything goes as planned I will be doing some live blogging from the conference, so start keeping an eye on this blog starting Sunday.

I Want a Leader, Not A Follower

2009-11-26T18:33:00.000-05:00

Well now we've heard that a number of leaders of other countries (including Obama) are going to be in Copenhagen Harper is jumping on the bandwagon and declaring that he too will be going. Instead of trying to take a leadership role on the international stage Harper is simply following along with what everyone else does. That is when he's not trying to be an obstructionist for taking real action on climate change.

Preparing to Disappoint the World

2009-11-15T11:50:00.003-05:00

With less than a month to go before the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen the Harper government is already preparing to be a major roadblock for consensus on a world plan to deal with climate change. Refusing to do anything unless the developing world is held to the same standards Harper is like a two-year-old wailing "I won't clean up my toys until everyone else has" instead of acting like an adult and choosing to lead by example.

In response to Harper, Professor Tim Flannery of the Copenhagen Climate Council told The Canadian Press that Canada faces an international credibility crisis because it is "by far the biggest defaulter" on previous Kyoto Protocol obligations.

Without a doubt Harper is preparing Canada to be an international embarrassment in a few weeks. Now with the US starting to take steps on climate change we're the ones who are going to be left behind as the only country refusing to take action on a serious global issue.

Soft on Crime

2009-11-04T22:05:00.000-05:00

Well the Conservatives proved tonight despite the rhetoric they're the one's who are soft on crime by pushing through the abolishment of the long gun registry. Police services across the country have said that the registry is a key tool for police and public safety, accessing it millions of times a year.

Yet just like with mandatory minimums the Conservatives ignored the experts advice in favour of partisan opinion. Sadly they weren't the only one's who voted to abolish the registry. One can only hope that after the committee hearings that some MPs will change their minds and vote to keep the registry.

Go Train Update

2009-10-23T14:38:00.004-04:00

Well the Star has picked up on the story of the Conservatives turning Go Train cars into giant "Action Plan" ads that I blogged about earlier this week. It also comes with a better picture of the train car:

According to the article the Conservatives claim to have spent $46,000 on turning two cars into giant ads that run on the Lakeshore line. Go Transit says that normally costs $75,000 to wrap a train car for two weeks but is prohibited from revealing the details in their contract with the Conservatives. This means that the Conservatives could have spent as much as $150,000 on the Go Train ads alone. I think it's more than clear by now that the "Action Plan" has very little to do with creating jobs for Canadians and everything to do with trying to get Harper his much coveted majority.

This is a Good Use of Taxpayer's Money?

2009-10-20T09:08:00.004-04:00

When I got a job in downtown Toronto a few months ago I decided to commute in by Go train. Since then I've seen the occasional Go train car that has been repainted to advertise something, generally a big movie like Harry Potter or Terminator. Given that there are very few of these ads and they don't seem to appear for more than a few weeks I assume the cost of one is exorbitant. So imagine my surprise when I get off my train this morning and pulling away from one of the other platforms is a train with a car that has been repainted Conservative blue with the Action Plan logo in the centre, an orange construction sign on each end and some slogan about creating jobs for Canadians that I don't remember the exact wording of. I managed to snap a picture of it with my phones camera, though it's blurry as the train was moving.

It will be interesting to see how long the car remains repainted as the cost of using that as an advertisement could easily surpass the cost of some of the projects the stimulus money was actually spent on, such as doorknobs.

It's Time for the Liberals to Change Their Strategy

2009-10-09T11:02:00.000-04:00

There's been quite a lot written about polls recently. While all polls outside of an election can't be taken too seriously as campaigns matter, etc. we should all be worried about the trend in the polling numbers in recent weeks.

Ever since we announced our intention to have an election the poll numbers have been slipping, things like Denis Coderre didn't help that. Now, if the latest EKOS poll is to be believed we're behind in every region of the country, which, if true, is disastrous. Even if that's not the case the trend from all the polling companies shows us falling further and further behind in Ontario, where we now risk loosing more seats. We're also falling behind with female voters which was typically a safe demographic for us.

The main problem is we haven't sold Michael Ignatieff to Canadians. We made the same mistake we did with Stephane Dion and let the opposition define him before we could. That's allowed the message that he's only in it for himself to take root in voters minds.

It hasn't helped that we haven't presented any policy as a way to differentiate ourselves from the Conservatives. We seem to have decided that our entire plan for winning the next election is to wait for Harper to mess up big enough that we get voted in. But the message of Harper is bad for Canada no longer resonates with the majority of Canadians who have watched him govern for the past four years and have decided he's doing an okay job. Neither I nor other Liberals I've spoken with have any idea of what the Liberal plan is for the economy, or climate change, or any other topic you can think of. If party members who follow politics don't know what the Liberal plan is then how can we expect the average voter to want to vote for us when they have no idea what we'd do if we got into office?

Furthermore, to continue so much of our focus on winning in Quebec is to ignore the elephant in the room that is redistribution. When more seats are added to the House the lions share of them will be out west in BC and Alberta. Neither of those areas are Liberal friendly right now. If we want to start winning again then we can't continue to assume that the Bloc will simply disappear and we'll go back to taking a majority of Quebec seats. The past few years have shown that the Bloc is here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. Therefore we have to get serious about building the party out west. We also have to accept that process will take a long time and be ready to commit to taking that time instead of simply trying to find ways to get instantaneous results.

Our focus right now should be on fixing the party in Quebec (which recent event have shown to still be an absolute mess), building the party out west, and creating policy that will clearly show Canadians what they would get with a Liberal government vs what they are currently getting with the Conservatives. If we simply continue pushing for an election without addressing any of these issues when the election finally comes we're likely to do worse than we did last time. We can't continue on simply hoping that the Harper government will defeat itself and we'll be swept back into office. We need to actually rebuild the party and offer an alternative to Canadians even if that means we stop pushing for an election for a couple of years.

Tim's vs. the UN

2009-09-23T21:01:00.002-04:00

Consistent with his position on climate change Harper decided to ignore Barack Obama's address to the UN on climate change in favour of a photo-op at the Tim Hortons Innovation Centre.

He's also got Jim Prentice out making laughable comments about what the Conservatives have "accomplished" on the climate change front. Prentice is also criticizing China for not clearly commiting to greenhouse gas reduction targets as they've only set intensity-based targets. Perhaps Prentice has forgotten that Canada has also only set intensity-based targets.

This all simply proves that the idea that Harper takes climate change seriously is clearly laughable.

Another Example of Helena Guergis' Good Judgment...

2009-09-16T22:35:00.002-04:00

Helena Guergis is the MP for the riding that my cottage is located in, so I get to read what people think of her in the local papers. There always seems to be plenty of people around willing to question both her judgment and competency. Now we're hearing reports that her husband, former MP Rahim Jaffer has been arrested and charged with impaired driving and possession of cocaine after being pulled over for speeding. The next round of weekly papers up at my cottage are sure bound to be interesting.

The Separatist, Socialist Coalition

2009-09-16T20:11:00.000-04:00

Well after decrying the Liberals for working with the "separatists" and "socialists" Harper now finds his government only surviving because of the separatists and socialists. The Bloc has agreed to support the ways and means motion on Friday in order to pass the home renovation tax credit. While the NDP is going to support the Conservatives until the EI changes are passed.

Personally I would rather see the EI changes become a permanent change instead of just temporary ones. It will be interesting to see if any party, the NDP in particular, tries to propose that as an amendment, and what the Conservatives do if it is.

We're Back

2009-09-14T10:32:00.000-04:00

Well the House is back from it's summer break and thus so is this blog.

Naturally election speculation is also back with the common wisdom being that we're heading for an election unless the NDP decides to support the government, or failing that the Bloc (my personal opinion is that it'll be the NDP or no one, but I've been known to be wrong before). Either way we're looking at an interesting fall session.

This is a “Shovel Ready” Project?

2009-07-13T08:54:00.001-04:00

There was recently an announcement made in my riding by our Conservative MP, Paul Calandra, that King Township would be receiving some of the stimulus funding to build a new arena/community center in the town of Schomberg. Now Schomberg certainly needs a new arena, however even some of the municipal councilors have been questioning receiving the funding as a) they don’t have the design plans for the arena finalized and b) they don’t even have a location to put the arena as they have yet to buy any land.

Councilor Mortelliti also wondered how, under the Stimulus Find, the project qualified as construction-ready if the designed of the facility has not yet been finalized.

It seems to me that this is just more proof that this stimulus funding is designed to lock up votes in Conservative ridings instead of for investing in shovel ready projects to stimulate the economy.

The Tale of the Tape

2009-06-08T22:05:00.000-04:00

Well today has certainly been entertaining, first we learn that the Halifax Chronicle-Herald has a tape accidentally left behind by Lisa Raitt's former press secretary, Jasmine MacDonnell, that contained Raitt slagging the health minister. However, MacDonnell was trying for a court injunction to keep the contents of the tape out of the press. Finally, a Nova Scotian judge dismissed the injunction and the Chronicle-Herald published the story on their website.

The tape contains Raitt describing the medical isotope crisis as "sexy" and saying this about Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq:

"They’re terrified of the issues. You know what? Good. Because when we win on this, we get all the credit. I’m ready to roll the dice on this. This is an easy one. You know what solves this problem? Money. And if it’s just about money, we’ll figure it out. It’s not a moral issue.”
...
“I think her staff is trying to shield her. Oh, God. She’s such a capable woman, but it’s hard for her to come out of a co-operative government into this rough-and-tumble. She had a question in the House yesterday, or two days ago, that planked. I really hope she never gets anything hot.”

So anyone want to make bets at how long it will be before Raitt looses her job?

Opposing Del Mastro's Plan to Build Condos on Peterborough Green Space

2009-05-29T22:08:00.001-04:00

Peterborough MP Dean Del Mastro has been pushing Peterborough City Council to approve a condo development project on federal land on the east shore Little Lake. That land is currently occupide by Parks Canada buildings and greenspace and is currently enjoyed by many Peterborough residents for a variety of outdoor activities.

A citizen petition opposing the development has been started and currently has 888 signatures witha goal of getting 5,000. If you're a resident of Peterborough, please take some time to sign it.

Want a Record Deficit, Elect the Conservatives

2009-05-27T21:03:00.000-04:00

The last time we had a record-setting deficit the Mulroney Conservatives were in office. Now due to Flaherty's typically incompetent fiscal management the Harper Conservatives will be setting a new new deficit record of more that $50 billion.

Not only is that $17 billion more that projected, but just a few weeks ago Flaherty was claiming that his projections were right "on track", and a few months before that he was claiming we were going to continue running surpluses. I think it's long past time for Deficit Jim to go.

Deficit Jim Strikes Again

2009-05-26T10:12:00.002-04:00

Those of us from Ontario remember well Jim Flaherty's lack of ability to properly manage the books. Now after predicting a deficit of $33.7 billion, not too long after trying to claim that we would continue to run surpluses, Flaherty is not admitting that the defect will be larger than predicted. How much larger he won't say, but parliamentary budget watchdog, Kevin Page, is predicting a record-setting defect of $40 billion.

Three years ago he inherited a $13 billion dollar surplus that through terrible fiscal management he has now managed to turn into the largest defect in Canadian history. Yet laughably the Harper government still persists in claiming that they are somehow better fiscal managers than the Liberals.

Harper Mishandling Tamil Issue

2009-05-13T22:06:00.002-04:00

Another massive Tamil protest today in Toronto is keeping the civil war in Sri Lanka in the news ensuring that attention remains on the civilian deaths. Obama has called for a cease fire, yet Harper refuses to do that and instead risks inflaming the issue by having Bev Oda focus on calling the Tamil Tigers a terrorist group instead of focusing on the loss of civilian lives.

Clearly Harper would rather launch attack ads on Ignatieff and play petty partisan games than deal with substantive issues.

Big Surprise

2009-04-27T10:01:00.003-04:00

"Harper inflamed isotope crisis with partisan remarks: government document". The document in question is the briefing note prepared by the ministry for Lisa Raitt. Everyone, of course, remembers when Harper derided the head of the nuclear safety commission Linda Keen as Liberal-appointed when she did her job and shut down the chalk river plant for not adhering to safety standards. The Harper government later fired Keen, and re-opened the reactor.

The briefing document states:

"It is clear that what might have been a relatively low-profile, or at least short-lived, medical isotope supply story became much more than that by political events, specifically, the prime minister's characterization of Linda Keen as a 'Liberal-appointee,' and the subsequent demotion of Ms. Keen,"

...

"The issue of Ms. Keen's demotion became the catalyst for media commentary on the issue of the prime minister's relationship with the public service, an issue - along with the prime minister's politicization of the affair - that underpinned much of the Chalk River affair,"

Unsurprisingly Harper spokesman Dimitri Soudas is sticking to his talking points, saying that Harper was simply stating a "fact" when he called Keen Liberal-appointed, and blaming Keen for the crisis;

"The government pointing out facts does not change anything in the severity of the situation, which was a shortage of isotopes," he said.
"Pointing out facts does not change the fact that the government was going through a health crisis, and Ms. Keen's inability to effectively manage and lead the commission resulted in the government removing her designation as president. That was what's at stake here."

When it comes to the Harper governement the knee-jerk reaction is to go hyper-partisan and blame the Liberals, and if that somehow inflames the situation well it's not their fault.

Why Harper Shouldn't Write His Own Speeches

2009-03-10T16:49:00.002-04:00

Because he is inclined to say dumb things like;

“If you own a home and you have a wife, you will probably be doing home renovations this year.”

Which prompts the obvious question of so if I own a home and have a husband, or own and home and I'm not married I won't be doing any renovations this year? Never mind the fact that if you've just lost your job you're not going to be doing much renovating. It's like the "great buying opportunities" line all over again.

On a semi-related note, speech recaps you should read are David Akin and Scott Feschucks liveblog.

Harper Finally Decides to Speak About the Recession

2009-03-10T12:40:00.003-04:00

Much is being made in the media of Harper's speech to be delivered today on the economy. Not only is it his first speech about the recession, but apparently he also wrote all 3,000 words of it himself.

It's not very surprising the the Conservatives are doing their best to play this up, especially in the wake of things like this YouTube video:

This Should Not be a Surprise to Anyone

2009-03-02T13:35:00.002-05:00

Tories prepare Ignatieff attack ads:

OTTAWA — The Conservatives are scouring hundreds of hours of videotape as they prepare to pummel their key rival Michael Ignatieff with attack ads leading up to the next election.

...

The Tories already have anti-Ignatieff ads ready to air at a moment's notice, and are also combing through a lifetime's worth of musings from his career as a public intellectual.

Anyone who thought that they were actually going to be nicer to Ignatieff was simply kidding themselves. After all, the Conservatives only had to wait for the budget to pass.

Duffy, Very Much a Partisan Conservative

2009-02-05T21:44:00.000-05:00

Just in case anyone had any doubt after the last election that Duffy was anything but a partisan Conservative, he made an outrageous statement about the premiers of PEI and Newfoundland and then issues the typical Conservative non-apology. Well done, Duffy, you fit in perfectly.

The Amendment is a Request for Reports...

2009-01-28T15:03:00.000-05:00

Despite all the problems with the budget and the rumors that the Liberals would ask for amendments with substance Iggy is only asking for some sort of checkpoint where the Conservatives have to provide quarterly reports on implementation. Given Flaherty's past history of creative accounting, and that fact that every economic projection that this government has put forward disagrees with all the experts this is a laughable as the only condition to put forward in order for the budget to get Liberal support.

I covered in my post this morning some of the things that I had major problems with and thought needed to be amended, yet all of them are being let slide in favour of quarterly reports. Might as well just give them a cart blanche for all the supposed teeth that amendment has.

Amend or Vote it Down

2009-01-28T09:50:00.000-05:00

While the common wisdom among journalists seems to be that the Liberals will let the budget pass there are a number of things that in my admittedly quick read-through that I found problematic. The biggest issue for me is that there is nothing for the environment, to me this seems like a perfect opportunity to start structuring for a green economy there is nothing in this budget that would allow for that. Other issues I have, that many others have already talked about, are the changes - or lack thereof - to EI, the catch on some of the infrastructure funding and the fact that it does not go directly to the municipalities, the fact that the elimination of wage equity is still there from the fall fiscal update, and the lack of overall focus to the budget with it seeming as if they were trying to hit everyone with a little bit of everything instead of having an overall plan.

That's why I was pleased to see the following in this morning's Globe;

It's unclear whether the Liberals would demand substantive changes or more minor concessions.

Some MPs, speaking on condition they not be named, said all options appeared possible, but that it was unlikely the Liberals would vote for the budget in its current form. It seemed probably they would propose amendments.
"Obviously, that could still lead to an election if they're not co-operative," one MP said.

There are clearly some areas of the budget that need some changes made, and if the Conservatives decided that they're going to dig in their heels over it then, in my opinion, we should bring the government down.

The Politics of Keeping Power

2009-01-26T08:59:00.003-05:00

"Harper Accused of Ditching Principles" is the headline of an article in the Star this morning. The disgruntled Conservatives who started appearing when Harper fumbled the fiscal update a couple of months ago seem to have decided that they would prefer not to be muzzled. The main complaint that the Star seems to have picked up on is the promise breaking. Beside the obvious promise not to run a deficit only a couple of months ago to the $34 billion deficit predicted now the Star also lists broken promises such as senate appointments, the fixed election date law and government appointments.

Even Tom Flanagan appears to be unimpressed with Harper's performance of late;

...said Harper has transformed from a conservative ideologue to a political survivor, but remains a victim of his own dark side. "Both sides are real ... but what you see more and more is the political Harper," said Flanagan, author of the acclaimed Harper's Team: Behind the Scenes in the Conservative Rise to Power.
Flanagan said the "Machiavellian" side is far more troubling than his political transformation, given that it almost cost him his government. "He lost the initiative by provoking the other parties into this potential coalition against him ... and now he finds himself having to put together a budget which is really a coalition budget ... the government's hand is fairly weak right now."

While I'm sure there will be plenty of Conservatives twisting themselves into knots to proclaim how great and wonderful Harper is in the comments section, it will certainly be interesting to see how many Conservatives remain enamored with Harper after this weeks budget.

Conservative MP Vows to Reopen Abortion Debate

2008-12-29T19:24:00.002-05:00

The headline says it all really, kudos to Rod Bruinooge for not letting Harper completely muzzle the crazy so-con wing of the Conservative party. Though one has to wonder what other MPs are a part of the "secretive anti-abortion parliamentary caucus".

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

2008-12-25T10:17:00.003-05:00

Merry Christmas to all my readers celebrating and happy holidays to the rest, I hope everyone enjoys the day. This blog will be back in the new year as I'm off to Mont St. Anne tomorrow for a week of snowboarding.

Harpocracy

2008-12-24T10:20:00.001-05:00

Aside from the major flip-flop on the senate appointments, remember the fuss that Harper and his cronies kicked up over the Bloc being even tangentially involved the the coalition? Remember how much of a threat to Canada it was? And how the Harper party swore from then on it would refuse to work with the Bloc (despite what it has done in the past)? Well apparently while it's the worst thing ever to work with the Bloc, we can appoint past PQ MNA's who helped with the oui side of the '95 referendum campaign to the senate.

While on the topic of senate appointments, I'm pleased to see that Harper properly rewarded Duffy with a senate seat, he certainly owed him one after the last election.

Headlines that make you go "duh"

2008-12-09T19:11:00.001-05:00

Separatist-bashing in Ottawa may have helped PQ

Liberal Eilites Choose Next Liberal Leader

2008-12-09T05:52:00.002-05:00

Well I suppose this is the inevitable leadership post, allow me to express my disappointment with this choice:

The federal Liberals will broaden the consultation process for choosing a new federal leader, rather than leave the choice strictly in the hands of Grit MPs and senators.

The executive will still consult with the national caucus, but will also canvass the opinions of riding presidents, defeated candidates and the presidents of the party's student, women's, seniors and aboriginal clubs before choosing an interim leader to replace Stephane Dion.

That means over 800 Liberals will get a chance to weigh in on the leadership question, rather than just 77 MPs and 58 senators.

However, thousands of rank and file party members will still have no say.

While the idea of expanded consultations is supposed to placate Liberals with the idea that their riding president will consult them before making a recommendation to the national exec, what this decision actually means is that unless you hold a pretty title in the party your voice doesn't actually matter.

Distracting from the Real Issue

2008-12-08T10:08:00.000-05:00

With all this leadership b.s. that is going on we've allowed ourselves to be destracted from any issues of actual importance. We've decided that we can publicly tear ourselves appart and that it can't possibly hurt the party in the long run. At the same time we've decided to loose focus on something that we should really be focusing on.

Over the past few days we have seen thousands of Canadians attend rallies in all kinds of weather. This level of political interest and involvement hasn't been seen since the 1995 Quebec referendum. It also comes in the wake of an election with the lowest voter turnout in history. There are many arguments that could be, and have been, made in support of a coalition but the key one is this: Canadians are engaged again.

I would argue that Canadians are engaged against because this is an example of doing politics differently. It's an example that comes at a time when Canadians could not be more sick and tired of politics as usual.

While things didn't go as planned and the overall communications strategy of the coalition has been far from perfect, that it not a good reason to take internal party bickering to a whole new level. I'm certainly not saying that there aren't leadership issues, but those issues should not be eclipsing the bigger story of the coalition.

For this brief moment Canadians appear to be listening, thus we should be engaging them. Instead we seem determined to turn Canadians off politics again by showing them exactly what politics looks like at its worst.

Recap of the Rally in Peterborough

2008-12-06T20:11:00.000-05:00

Despite the snowstorm this morning, we had about 200 people turn out to the pro-coalition rally in Confederation Park. There were excellent speeches given by the riding presidents for both the NDP and Liberals (unfortunately the Green couldn't make it due to the weather) as well as the representative for the District Labour Council.

This was also sung at the rally, and was written by someone who is clearly very creative, it's to the tune of Let It Snow:

Oh, Jim Flaherty's looking frightful..
And Stephen Harper is getting spiteful...
But the majority's having a ball!
Let 'em fall, let 'em fall, let 'em fall!

Out movement shows no signs of stopping!
Conservative polls are dropping!
We once were naught; we shall be all!
Let 'em fall, let 'em fall, let 'em fall!

Our fire ain't close to dying!
One-Forty-Three MPs are crying...
They can run, but time catches all!
Let 'em fall, let 'em fall, let 'em fall!

So gather your brothers and sisters
Send Mr. Harper a message this Christmas
We stand united and tall!
Let him fall, let him fall, let him fall!

Pro-Coalition Rally in Peterborough Tomorrow

2008-12-05T22:44:00.002-05:00

To all my readers in the Peterborough area, I hope to see you at the pro-coalition rally in Peterborough tomorrow. It's at 11:30 am in Confederation Park (across from City Hall). In the spirit of cooperation and inclusiveness, all three party's have agreed that they will not display Party Colours or Logos, so hopefully those of you who can make it will respect that decision.

I will certainly be there, and hopefully will be able to get some pictures up on this blog afterwards.

To The Coalition: Keep Meeting

2008-12-05T13:28:00.001-05:00

Reprinted from the blog Peace, Order, and Good Government, with permission.
http://www.pogge.ca/archives/002160.shtml

December 04, 2008
Keep Meeting

[Promoted from a comment by Eric Finley to the last post. I'm taking his
preamble to mean he has no problem with this. I'm still mulling this
over myself but certainly this would demonstrate that opposition to
Stephen Harper and to the events of the last week isn't just some
fleeting, momentary frustration. And it would demonstrate that objection
to today's decision is based on both serious concern for our democracy
and for the urgency of the occasion. So, for your consideration,
consider this to be a guest post. -p]

Keep meeting.

To the coalition: Keep meeting.

Parliament has been prorogued. So you're not meeting in an official capacity. But nonetheless meet as if you were not prorogued.

Find a site. Pay for it yourselves, and be explicit about that. You're citizens meeting to speak. But in so doing, keep up the business of Parliament. Debate. Draft bills. Hold (unofficial) committee meetings. Vote... on memoranda of understanding.

Show the country, its citizens, and its investors that while you do not argue with the legality of the delay, you see no need to go on vacation in this crucial economic time. Assume (without even explicitly saying it) that in January when Parliament reconvenes, Harper will fall, the coalition will form government, and the memoranda of understanding and drafted bills will be dealt with, bang-bang-bang, because you have already hashed this out.

Invite the Conservatives to join you. If you get some momentum, you might get no few disgruntled members willing to bet that Harper's fury will not control their lives.

Let the Conservatives take an extended vactation. Shrink the proposed vacation period instead, to mark the severity of the economic need.

Make it plain that you do not dispute Her Excellency's right to consent to her nominal first minister's request to prorogue, and that you respect her for making a difficult decision in uncharted waters. Open each session with a consistent, well-crafted adaptation of protocol which is sufficiently distinct that it does not trespass upon Parliament's formal privileges... but that nonetheless shows clearly that you do this out of the uttermost respect for the Queen, the Governor General, and the Canadian people.

Repeat frequently that you're just trying to get work done now, so that things can happen fast when the doors unlock in January. It can't be trespass upon the privileges of government if its level of formality is that of a caucus meeting.

Be completely transparent. Defeat the smoke-filled rooms meme. Heck, hold it in a bar, if you can find one big enough.

The media will come to you. I can think of no more efficient way to stretch your advertising dollars than a bold, newsworthy stroke like this.

If you do this, I will donate to the limit of my ability. I will write letters to the editor praising your actions. I will take my four children and go door to door. In Edmonton. In December.

Pass it on.

KEEP MEETING.

Too Little Too Late

2008-12-04T22:17:00.002-05:00

Jean's decision sets 'very dangerous' precedent: constitutional expert.

Many of us had figured that out before the decision was made, unfortunately it's taken until after the decision was made to get some media attention on the issue.

My Country Before My Party

2008-12-04T17:24:00.001-05:00

It was only a few hours ago that the Governor General made the decision to prorogue parliament and let a party continue governing that has lost the confidence of the House and by extension the Canadian people. Now we are already hearing rumblings of Liberals who want to see us back out of a coalition agreement instead of hanging on until January and defeating the Harper government in favour of the coalition then. However, there are many good reasons for us to stick with this coalition, and before too many Liberals start getting cold feet for no good reason at all, here are some of those reasons;

We have seen over the past year what damage refusing to take a stand on anything has done to the party. All arguments about leadership aside, the fact that we insisted on sitting on our hands for vote after vote after vote made us appear ridiculous in the eyes of the voters. How could we argue that we were fundamentally different from Harper’s Conservatives when all we did was constantly prop them up?

If we truly believe the rhetoric that we have been using over the past few days that the Harper Conservatives are bad for the economy and for Canada then that should not change over a six week period. If the Conservatives are fundamentally the wrong party to be in place, then we have to vote against them, there cannot be any other option. Mackenzie King was famous for his willingness to form alliances with other party’s because he believed that the Conservatives were bad for Canada, and that is exactly the attitude that Liberals should currently be adopting. Unfortunately, the party seems to have gotten so used to the idea of being in power all on it’s own after 13 years of government that it has forgotten the importance of compromising and working together with other party’s.

We are so busy with our internal disputes that we are letting Harper claim that we are creating a national unity problem while letting him do exactly that. The people of Quebec aren’t stupid. They will realize that Harper is giving them a different message in French than he is giving to the rest of us in English. It will not escape them that he is telling Canada that all those who vote for the Bloc are separatists and therefore he will not work with their elected representatives. When I spent a summer living in Quebec, one of the things that I was surprised to learn what that many people who vote for the Bloc are not separatists, but would rather a vote for a party that they feel best represents their needs. To call these people separatists and to say that you will not work with those that they voted for is to risk driving them into becoming separatists. Already we are beginning to hear that the result of Monday’s Quebec election may not be the Charest majority that it would have been a week ago, solely due to Harper’s actions driving people towards the PQ.

If the fact that Harper risks creating a national unity crisis is not enough for us to remove him from power; then we should consider the further backlash that will result in us backing away from the deal with the Bloc. (I hope at this point that readers will not stop reading to spew vitriol in my comments section but instead continue reading and give serious consideration to what I have to say) At the moment Harper has alienated Quebec, he will loose seats and the Bloc will gain them at his expense. However, we have a unique opportunity to be seen as reaching out to Quebecers by working with their chosen representatives instead of writing them off as separatists. If we back out of this deal then you should expect to see Duceppe during the next election telling Quebecers that Canada doesn’t care about them as the Conservatives refuse to work with the Bloc and the Liberals sided with them. Expect that to drive up support for Quebec separation even more.

Those MPs who are considering abstaining (or even crossing the floor) need to stop and think about what they truly stand for. Is it worth backing away from the coalition to perhaps advance the party or your own career or your leadership candidate of choice? If so, why is one, or a combination of those things, worth more than getting Harper out of office? When I think we can all agree that he is a danger to Canada. As a Liberal supporter I would love to see a Liberal majority government. However, I acknowledge that is not going to happen anytime in the next few months.

I support the coalition because I think that Harper is a danger to many of the things that I love about Canada. Therefore, I could never in good conscience put my party before my country.

The Destruction of the Canadian Parliamentary System as We Know It

2008-12-04T11:59:00.002-05:00

From now on, any time a minority government is facing certain defeat in the House of Commons they will simply ask the Governor General to prorogue parliament so they can continue governing without the confidence of the house and by extension the confidence of the Canadian people. What the Governor General has just done give minority governments the authority to act like a majority and made sure that there is nothing that the party's who actually hold the majority of seats in the House can do about it.

If the Governor General Allows for Prorogation It Will Set A Horrible Precedent

2008-12-03T23:24:00.000-05:00

If the Governor General allows for a prorogation when Harper requests one tomorrow it will set a horrible precedent not only here in Canada but for all British Parliamentary systems world wide. It would essentially allow for a government that has lost the confidence of the House to continue governing without parliament until they decided that it was time for parliament to resume. Every single minority government from this point on would then look to prorogue instead of trying to work for consensus when faced with defeat. The point of a minority government is that parties work together for the betterment of the country, and to create a situation where they would no longer have to would destroy our parliamentary system as we know it.

Harper is Deliberately Misleading the Canadian People

2008-12-03T09:58:00.000-05:00

By trying to claim that what the opposition is doing is "anti-democratic" and that he is the only one that Canadians have selected to be Prime Minister Harper is deliberately misleading the Canadian public. He is hoping that the public doesn't have enough understanding of the Constitution and will therefore not support a coalition government. While the average joe can be excused for thinking that this is anti-democratic because they don't fully understand how government works, Harper has no such excuse. He knows that in the British Parliamentary system we elect MPs, not leaders as they do in the States, and that who forms the government depends on which MPs choose to work together. While this is often one party, this can be done with many party's in a coalition, it's happened before in Canadian politics and there is no reason to think that it shouldn't happen again. Harper's choice to not only willfully ignore these facts but to suggest to the public that the opposite is true is nothing more than a disgusting attempt to cling to power using any means possible.

While he may be hoping that his desperate ad campaign will sway Canadian's opinions, he forgets that the fate of his government is in the hands of the Governor General and her Constitutional experts. Even if he does succeed in getting the Governor General to prorogue parliament he is only delaying the inevitable as his government will fall when parliament resumes in January and the opposition coalition will be handed power then irregardless of the ad campaign.

Instead of waging a P.R. campaign partially designed to make the public dislike the currently parliamentary system Harper should do the honorable thing and either resign or accept the fact that he no longer has the confidence of the House with dignity. But of course he wont do that, because he would rather bring the public's faith in our parliamentary system down with him.

A Pertinent Question

2008-12-02T22:55:00.003-05:00

Do the Conservatives really think that they can paint Stephane Dion, a man responsible for the clarity act and who worked tirelessly on preserving national unity while Harper was off building firewalls around Alberta, as anti-Canadian?

Dion to Lead Liberal-NDP Coalition

2008-12-01T13:52:00.003-05:00

It will come as a surprise to no one who knows me (or is a frequent reader of this blog) that this made my day. The fact that the support for Dion was unanimous should just further serve to show that the only purpose of Ivison's columns was to try to break up the coalition before it had even got underway.

The Best News In A Long, Long Time

2008-11-30T23:01:00.001-05:00

NDP, Liberals Reach Deal to Topple Minority Tory Government

I bet Harper isn't sleeping tonight :D

Onwards to a Lower Place

2008-11-30T17:58:00.002-05:00

Just when I think the Conservatives have scraped the bottom of the barrel they go and prove that the bottom of the barrel is much lower than I would have ever imagined.

They are so desperate to hold onto power that they are now secretly listening in on other party's conference calls and taping them. Then they try to explain away the fact that it's illegal by pushing what they think is a "gotcha" moment.

Good on the NDP for threatening legal action over this. If they want to talk to another opposition party I don't see the problem, it's called co-operation. But then the Conservatives clearly have no idea what co-operation actually means.

Conservatives for Prentice

2008-11-29T23:56:00.002-05:00

This just showed up in my e-mail inbox so I thought I'd pass it on:

CONSERVATIVES for PRENTICE

conservativesforprentice.blogspot.com

The Liberals, New Democrats, and Bloc Quebecois are threatening to take power in Parliament AWAY from the rightful government elected by the Canadian people and give the prime ministership to Stephane Dion, the weakest party leader in living memory ... in the middle of an economic crisis.

Unfortunately, we have brought this on ourselves by provoking the opposition one step too far to the point where they are willing to band together and take over government.

WE SUPPORT AND RESPECT STEPHEN HARPER as the current Prime Minister
of Canada. But if the Conservative government falls before Christmas, we believe it will be time to bring in a new leader ...and our choice will be Jim Prentice. Find out why at our new site, CONSERVATIVESforPRENTICE.blogspot.com.

Signed,

Grassroots Supporters of Jim Prentice for Conservative Leader

Conservatives Turn on Harper

2008-11-29T19:36:00.000-05:00

Well today has been interesting, faced with the possibility of loosing government Conservatives appear to be revolting against Harper. Some in the party seem intent on making it very clear that it was Harper's idea and Harper's idea alone to scrap the subsidy to political parties;

That’s why Stephen Harper has to wear this political mess himself. He personally ordered the incendiary paragraph inserted into Thursday’s fiscal update, ignored warnings from his own MPs who felt it was a lousy idea and clearly under-estimated his opponents’ resolve to defend their cash at any political price.

Anonymous insiders are also popping up to lament the stupidity of the idea:

Conservative insiders across the country were flabbergasted.
"It is 1979 bravado with 1985 facts," said one plugged-in Tory, referring to Clark's bungled confidence vote in 1979 and the 1985 Liberal-NDP accord that ended 42 years of Tory rule at Queen's Park. "The government will fall," he lamented.

and;

...while the Tories remained outwardly feisty, there were several examples of internal nervousness. One Conservative official said it was unfathomable that the government might be heading for a cliff.

“I thought it was ‘The economy, stupid,'” one strategist said.

Then later today we saw internal party talking points being leaked by anonymous sources to the press as fast as the details of many Liberal caucus meetings. First the strategy of blitzing the country with talking points:

The Globe and Mail has learned that Conservative MPs have been told to fan out this weekend in their ridings and sell the message, through forums such as talk radio, that this dispute with opposition parties is merely about the Liberals, NDP and Bloc trying to protect their share of the $27-million in public subsidies.

The Tories plan to scrutinize public reaction this weekend. If they don't feel they've persuaded Canadians that a change would be disastrous, sources said, they may consider describing in more detail what kind of spending they would be prepared to offer and under what conditions they would pump stimulus into the economy.

Then the talking points themselves, sent around by Harper's chief-of-staff:

We're not even two months removed from the last election, and a group of backroom politicians are going to pick who the Prime Minister is. Canadians didn't vote for this person. We don't even know who this person will be.
Not a single voter voted for a Liberal-NDP coalition. Certainly not a single voter voted for the Liberals to form a coalition with the separatists in the Bloc.
This is what bothers me the most. The Conservatives won the election. The Opposition keeps saying that the Conservatives have to respect the will of the voters that this is a minority and so on.
…how about Liberals, NDP and Bloc respecting the will of the voters when they said "YOU LOSE".
And what's this going to do to the economy. I'm sorry, I don't care how desperate the Liberals are — giving socialists (Jack Layton) and separatists (Gilles Duceppe) a veto over every decision in government — that is a recipe for total economic disaster.
...[click for more]

Late this afternoon we saw Harper, clearly desperate to keep his job, officially declare that the scrapping of the subsidy to political parties will be removed from the fiscal update (for real this time). And even CTV is mentioning "anger from Conservative cabinet ministers" as the reason that Harper is backing down.

I think Harper is beginning to find out that he can only play dictator with his caucus for so long, and now that he's screwed up he's in real deep trouble.

The Circus is in Town!

2008-11-28T17:38:00.002-05:00

To Recap: the Conservatives somehow thought it would be a good idea to cut the subsidies to political parties, the opposition revolted and there started to be rumblings about the possibility of a coalition government. When it starts to seem like that would actually happen, the Conservatives backed down on the subsides cut, the opposition said we don't like the rest of your fiscal update either and the idea of being in charge even if we have to work with other people is fun. Jean Chretien and Ed Broadbent are brought in to help broker the deal. Liberals introduce non-confidence motion. The GG aborts her trip and has to fly home for Monday. Harper panics and delays the vote until December 8th (ensuring that no one will pay attention to the Quebec election).

Harper severely miscalculated on this one, and it's going to cost him. I'm sure Conservatives are going to try to explain how this is all a part of the brilliant chess master's plan, but I think the opposition is sending the clear message that maybe if you're playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers you're not actually that brilliant, you're just lost and confused.

Coalition Thoughts

2008-11-28T10:50:00.000-05:00

Well Harper the chess master seems to have grossly miscalculated (though the faithful still seem to believe that this is some sort of genus plan) and unless he does a rapid about-face and backs down, we could be in for a very interesting three-party coalition government. The possibility sure has the MSM excited as all of the papers this morning are filled with discussion about the possibility of a coalition and it would work.

There's also some issues to be worked out in terms of who would lead the coalition, especially if this Globe article is to be believed. Given that there is a leadership race going on I'm leery of simply installing one of them as the party leader regardless of what kind of support they may have within caucus because I think it sets a dangerous precedent for choosing a leader and it's likely to be off-putting to many in the grassroots who would like to have their say. If MPs really can't stand the idea of Dion as leader then work out an interim leader who everyone will agree on, or make Layton or Duceppe in charge if that is more agreeable. But I think simply allowing the upper escholons of the party to pick a leader will only cause problems in the long run.

Calling Gilles Duceppe

2008-11-27T17:54:00.001-05:00

The Liberals and NDP are going to vote against the economic update, will the Bloc also step up to the plate for a coalition government?

Changing the Channel

2008-11-27T09:24:00.003-05:00

Well the blogosphere is certainly buzzing this morning about the possibility of cutting the subsidies to the federal parties. The Conservatives are clearly hoping that the resulting uproar from the other party's will shift the focus off just how badly they have mismanaged the economy.

Cutting the subsidies is a blatantly political move that is designed to hurt all of the opposition parties as the subsidy makes up over 50% of the funding for the Liberals, NDP, Bloc and Greens, but it won't hurt the Conservatives nearly as much as the subsidy only makes up 37% of their funding. Trying to pass of a partisan attack on the opposition and democracy as belt tightening in tough economic times is atrocious and I hope that none of the other parties stands for it.

sigh

2008-11-19T17:53:00.002-05:00

I give up, I really do.

Stupid

2008-11-16T10:52:00.003-05:00

So after we've seen how the Conservatives practice of banning the media from events is off-putting not only to the media but to the public LPC(O) decides that we're going to have a leadership forum/debate and not allow the media in. What a stupid way to start off the race, guys. Also, why is Ignatieff the only leadership candidate backing LPC(O)'s retarded decision?

Hopefully there will be bloggers there to liveblog the debate for those of us who can't make it.

In and Out

2008-11-12T17:30:00.003-05:00

With the rules having been announced a couple of days ago, it's time for this blog to start covering yet another Liberal leadership race. So to recap where we're at so far:

In:
Micheal Iggnatiff
Bob Rae
Dominic LaBlanc

Out:
Brian Tobin
Frank McKenna
John Manley
Martha Hall-Findlay
Gerrard Kennedy
Dennis Coderre
David McGuinty

While I had only expected a field of four or five, unless someone decides to make a surprise entry in the next couple of weeks these three will be it for candidates. Sadly, there are no women in the race.

Elect to wear your poppy

2008-11-10T08:03:00.001-05:00

I saw this in the Star this morning and it really hit a chord with me:

Elect to wear your poppy
November 10, 2008
Lorraine Sommerfeld

One.

John Babcock, the only surviving Canadian veteran from World War I, out of 650,000 who served. Made it out, though 69,000 died, to be the last man standing.

Five hundred and sixteen dead Canadians in the Korean War, from the 26,000 who served. Lousy odds, those.

World War II was supposed to be the last big one. A million Canadians and Newfoundlanders headed off, 47,000 never returned.

But of course it never ends, for Canada is renowned and admired for its peacekeeping and foreign military operations. Since the end of World War II, 150,000 Canadian troops have served, and we currently have 2,500 men and women serving in Afghanistan. As I write this, 97 have died.

Ninety-seven times you've looked at the front page of this newspaper, and felt your breath catch a little at the gut-stabbing knowledge that this son, this daughter, this father, this husband no longer breathes. Military-issued beret perched at just that angle, a camera-ready stoicism belying the awareness that they would be leaving Here, to go Over There, and they might not come back.

It doesn't really matter what your politics are on this one; we've placed them Over There under two political banners now, and like anything already broken, the importance is in the cleanup, not the blame. War is hideous; the haunting lasts a lifetime.

Fifty-nine per cent of you get at least part of this; for the other 41 per cent, it's just not worth the effort. "Elections are boring," you whine. "I never know who stands for what, and they're all liars anyway," you go on. "It's too hard to learn, so it's better that I don't vote at all," you conclude.

As you jam your plastic poppy in your lapel and stuff some quarters or a toonie into the little slot, take notice of the person who may be standing nearby, thanking you sincerely for your pocket change. No, really. Look directly at them, and thank them for doing what most of us could never summon up the courage to even consider.

But if you didn't make the effort to vote, don't you dare perch that poppy on your coat. Instead, apologize to anyone you see exiting a car with veteran's licence plates. Don't tell them you were too busy, don't tell them you were too tired, don't tell them you couldn't be bothered to take half an hour to consider the platforms of the major parties. It should be a no-brainer for citizens to devote a fraction of their efforts to understanding our role in Afghanistan as they do to The Amazing Race or the new iPhone. Even a passing knowledge of why someone is dying on your behalf would be nice.

Yes, there are some people who know every single facet of every political stripe. Trust me, I've been stuck beside them on airplanes or at cocktail parties. But you don't need to be that person to exercise your vote and honour those who made sure you have it. Pick an area that matters to you – child care, doctor shortages, seniors' health, our war involvement – and ask some questions, do some research.

Understand that those poppies don't just represent the efforts of a generation that is shrinking by the year. It's now also about our generation, and our children's. Is it really going to take a 26-year-old wounded in Afghanistan standing beside that poppy box to make you understand?

Contact your local MP; pay attention when pivotal votes will be taking place; teach your children the impact of our system, especially when a young face is staring up at you in that beret. You have a vote.

One."

Just In Case You Aren't Sick of Elections Yet...

2008-11-05T11:50:00.000-05:00

Quebec voters will be going to the polls on December 8th.

Congrats to Obama

2008-11-05T11:32:00.002-05:00

While I haven't been doing much blogging the past couple weeks as I've been catching up on the school work I didn't do during the election, I did watch the US election results as they came in last night. It was quite the historic election, something I'm sure most of us will be thrilled to tell future generations about. And while most are talking about Obama's victory speech, I have to give McCain props for his classy concession speech. Now if only our own politicians would learn a thing or two about class...

Some Thoughts

2008-10-20T16:56:00.001-04:00

Now I've had some time to digest Dion's press conference this afternoon, and overcome some of my initial frustration, I have a couple of things I want to comment on.

First, I am pleased that Dion is staying on as interim leader as it will allow him to lend a voice to the renewal process and ensure that many of his good ideas are not forgotten.

Second, Dion spoke of focusing on many of the issues facing the Liberals at the moment, outside of leadership, the big one being fundraising. Given how many of us have been raising those other issues over the past few days, I was very pleased to see how accurate Dion's understanding of these issues was. I hope that Dion can get the party to start focusing on those things as well, and that the new leader will pick up where he leaves off.

Apparently It Doesn't Matter...

2008-10-20T14:20:00.002-04:00

that over 40 bloggers, and hundreds of individuals in a facebook group wanted Dion to stay. A few senior Liberals wanted him gone, and apparently senior party officials matter a lot more than the grassroots of the party.

To Joe Volpe; I have an impolite suggestion as to where you can stick your opinions

2008-10-16T19:33:00.003-04:00

Joe Volpe has been an embarrassment to the Liberals for years, whether that was $200 pizzas on the taxpayers dime, or signing up dead people, or accepting the maximum political donation from kids. I doubt there would have been many tears shed if he had not been re-elected on Tuesday night. For that reason I am shocked that he has the gall to go on CTV and act like the best thing for the party would be if Dion steps down. No Joe, it would be way better for the party if you stepped down.

Why Dion Should Stay

2008-10-16T18:10:00.002-04:00

While my post won’t be as eloquent as Jeff’s, I though it was important to put my opinion clearly on the record, especially given as I’m not senior enough (or anonymous enough) for the MSM to talk to.

I wrote in my post this morning about how the party needs to look at more than just leadership being the problem, and how we should be focusing on fundraising and organization. Also, I wrote about how the party would be devastated finically by a leadership race.

While all of this is a part of the reason I want Stéphane Dion to stay as leader, there are other key factors more important than that.

The Conservatives threw everything they had at Dion, we saw an unprecedented amount of attack ads, and unbelievable lies. The MSM seemed more than happy to run with this narrative, and CTV even did their absolute best to destroy Dion as well. Yet at the end of it all, Harper only has a minority government, and the Liberals are far from their worse seat total ever. That speaks to Dion’s resilience, and it seems to hint at amazing possibilities in a different environment.

He did an excellent job in the debates, especially the French one where he was declared the winner by the Quebec media who doesn’t even like him. He improved the Liberals numbers in Quebec where he was supposed to be a drag on the Liberal brand. After the debates he seemed to hit his stride and suddenly we had a much more aggressive and animated leader, who started to make some real inroads with Canadians. Unfortunately by that point it was too hard to turn the campaign around completely, and then to make matters worse we had the fiasco with the CTV clip. But if what appeared to happen in the polls in the wake of the debates is true, then Dion can connect with voters.

Finally, Stéphane Dion is a genuine, honest, sincere and extremely intelligent man who truly loves Canada. I refuse to believe that kind of person can’t become Prime Minister, that in order to be Prime Minister you must have rock star charisma, or Harper’s nastiness. And if that really is the case, then I am extremely disappointed in Canada, and depressed by what it says about us as Canadians.

All those anonymous senior Liberals who want Dion to go never wanted him as leader in the first place, the grassroots chose him and if the opinion of bloggers represents the grassroots then it looks like most of us want to keep him.

So to Mr. Dion, know that if you decide to stay I (and many others) will be right behind you 100% of the way.

Maybe It’s Just Me

2008-10-16T10:28:00.001-04:00

I decided to take the day off from blogging yesterday to think about the election results. I don’t think anyone (including pollsters and pundits) expected the result to be that bad, and it seems like the combination of Thanksgiving dinner and the infamous CTV clip proved to be more lethal to the Liberals than anyone had anticipated.

However, I think this election also showed that many of the internal problems in the party – from organization to fundraising – never really got fixed. There are still too many of those anonymous senior Liberals who were so certain that we’d only been put in the penalty box and would be back next time that they didn’t bother trying to fix anything. Now they’ve been proven wrong they still aren’t trying to fix anything and just want to dump the leader as if that’s some magical fix-all.

While I agree that Dion is far from perfect, the leader can’t fix everything and I seriously doubt that a leadership race will fix that. All a leadership race will do at this point, in my opinion, will further finically cripple the party, create even more divisions than the ones we are still trying to heal, and cause everyone to continue to ignore the root cause of many of the problems of the party.

We talked a lot about renewal last time, but got so focused on the election and winning that we didn’t do all that renewal stuff that desperately needed to be done. Now it seems like we’d rather take a leaf from the PQ’s book and keep changing leaders while waiting for something magical to happen instead of taking a hard look at what the real problem is. Which I’m sure Harper and the Conservatives are happy to watch us do.

But hey, maybe it just me.

Strategic Voting

2008-10-13T21:40:00.001-04:00

So we’ve all heard the past few days the Liberals, NDP and Bloc all claiming that they’re the party to vote for if you want to stop the Conservatives. But if we put the b.s. aside for the moment and consider strategic voting honestly, then we have to come to the logical conclusion that the best way to stop the Conservatives is to vote for the candidate with the best chance of defeating the Conservatives. In a number of ridings that’s the Liberal, but in some, especially some in the west, that’s the NDP, and in Quebec outside of Montreal that’s the Bloc.

For those who are thinking of voting strategically but are unsure of who’s best in your riding, I recommend that you check out democraticSPACE’s strategic voting guide.

On a similar note, I’m going to highlight the two candidates I think you should vote for in the two ridings I’ve been involved with this campaign.

First, in my home riding of Oak Ridges – Markham:
Lui Temelkovski is the incumbent Liberal MP, and one deserving re-election, beyond simply the reason of keeping the Conservatives from gaining any seats. Lui is a good constituency guy, who makes a point of being at as many events as possible in the riding as well as responding to his constituents concerns whether they phone, e-mail or drop in to his office.

Second, in Peterborough (where I’m a university student):
Last election Conservative Dean Del Mastro won by just over 2,000 votes, this time around Liberal candidate Betsy McGregor is doing her best to win the riding back for the Liberals. Betsy is the kind of person we need in Ottawa, enthusiastic and well-educated, she has international experience having worked for both the United Nations and CIDA, and is a long-time advocate of equality for women. I believe she would make an great MP and be an excellent advocate for her constituents.

Why Harper Wanted the Shortest Election in History

2008-10-13T21:07:00.000-04:00

Because he knew that he couldn't keep his candidates from saying what they really believe for long. Though the muzzle counter has reached 119 Conservative candidate who have not been allowed to interact with the media or voters at all candidates debates the muzzle has started coming off in the dying days of the campaign.

First is the despicable display by Lorne Mayencourt Conservative candidate in Vancouver-Centre, where he starts swearing at voters during an all-candidates debate:

Second you have star candidate Peter Kent calling for more private health-care clinics that we know will only benefit rich voters, or as Jeff puts it those who can afford to follow Harper's stock tips.

Third is Axel Kuhn, the Conservative candidate in Etobicoke-Centre, who put out a flyer containing lies so defamatory that an Ontario Superior Court Judge banned them from being distributed.

Fourth is Luc Harvey who displayed the standard level of maturity and decorum for Conservatives by crashing a Bloc campaign event and heckling Gilles Duceppe.

And finally there's the video clip that's emerged of Peterborough's Dean Del Mastro reminding voters of exactly what would be in store for things like abortion if the Conservatives were to get a majority.

No wonder Harper wants these people muzzled. Ironically he's muzzled himself for these last few days of the campaign just so he doesn't screw up and loose his "moderate" image by publicly agreeing with his candidates.

Dean Del Mastro Suggests Conservatives will Change the Law on Abortion

2008-10-13T12:12:00.000-04:00

Thanks to a reader for alerting me to this YouTube clip where Peterborough Conservative incumbent, speaking at a pro-life rally, talks about how he is certain that Canada's abortion laws will be changed. Take a look for yourself:

Is this what we want in Ottawa?

May Encourages Stratigic Voting to Block Conservatives

2008-10-13T11:12:00.003-04:00

I have to applaud May for making stopping Harper her top priority and encouraging her supporters to vote Liberal or NDP in close ridings where Conservatives might win. Hopefully this makes a difference and we get a party with a real climate change policy in government as a result.

I also have to give kudos to May for going after Layton for not doing the same

"Life would be simpler if I acted like Layton and didn't care if Stephen Harper formed government again. Life would be simpler if I were a complete hypocrite like Jack Layton and pretended I cared about the climate when all of his strategy makes his own personal success more important than survival of the climate and decent climate policy." (Canadian Press, October 12, 2008)

h/t: Far n Wide

Dion Visits Norwood

2008-10-12T17:55:00.001-04:00

Dion visited the Norwood Fall Fair in Peterborough riding this afternoon. He spent about an hour touring the fair and meeting voters. I went and snapped pictures as best I could through the crowds.

Liberal supporters start gathering in anticipation of Dion's arrival.

A canine supporter

Dion and Peterborough candidate Betsy McGregor kindly pose for a photo.

Dion waves goodbye as he gets back on the campaign bus.

The Volatile Polls

2008-10-11T14:35:00.002-04:00

Well depending on what poll you pick today you can get any trend you like, all it really says is that this is still anyone's race that might just be decided by the conversations that go on over thanksgiving turkey.

Nanos:
Con: 32
Lib: 28
NDP: 22
Bloc: 10
Green: 8

Harris-Decima:
Con: 35
Lib: 25
NDP: 18
Bloc: 9
Green: 11

Ipsos-Reid:
Con: 34
Lib: 29
NDP: 18
Bloc: 9
Green: 8

Ekos:
Con: 34
Lib: 26
NDP: 19
Bloc: 10
Green: 11

Duceppe and Layton Have Class

2008-10-11T14:16:00.003-04:00

While Harper desperately tries to make Dion's fumbling of a question into an election issue, Dion finds some surprising defendants in Duceppe and Layton.

First, Duceppe's comments from an interview with a Montreal radio station:

Duceppe said that, even though many English-speaking politicians can't speak French, francophones are expected to perform perfectly in English.

"I think there should be the same criteria for both," Duceppe
commented.

And Layton's comment when he was asked:

"People are tired; it's a long campaign," he said. "We've all had trouble with questions from time to time."
"I suppose if I was someone who could honestly say I've never had trouble with a question, I might be able to make some kind of remark about it."

Which leaves Harper alone trying desperately to defend what he thought was a good attack to make:

Asked why he doesn't extend the same indulgence to Dion's English that
Quebeckers have extended to him in learning French, Harper said that wasn't the
point.

Perhaps not the best method of attack then, Mr. Harper.

The Tape is Back

2008-10-11T13:59:00.002-04:00

Well this is the last thing Harper wanted to see as a headline: Audio expert says Cadman tape not altered. What's more is that it's the expert that Harper hired that's saying that, when Harper had desperately been hoping that the expert would take his side. Harper was so desperate to make it look like he could not have possibly been involved in the illegal offer of an million-dollar life insurance policy that he tried to claim that the tape had been doctored, even swearing that under oath. Too bad for him that he's now been exposed as a liar.

Linguistic Double Standard

2008-10-10T13:47:00.003-04:00

Just in case anyone was wondering how the Conservative spin was going to go over in Quebec:

The attempts by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative Party to use Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion's command of English against him illustrates the linguistic double standard that exists in Ottawa, said Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe.
"They often require that a francophone speak an English that is almost perfect, but when an anglophone makes efforts, they say, he at least tries to speak French."
"I think there should be the same criteria for both."
...
"Anything that touches on the quality of Mr. Dion's English are low blows," Duceppe told reporters in Montreal. "Everything that touches on the absence of a perspective and solutions on the economic level, that's part of the debate."
Duceppe acknowledged that Harper has made efforts to learn French himself but pointed out that the same cannot be said for several Conservative cabinet ministers.
"It is unacceptable for them to deplore the quality of Mr. Dion's English while they accept the very debatable quality of French of several (ministers')."
"I have always said that in practice there are two languages in Ottawa - English and simultaneous translation."

Warren Parody's the Now Infamous "Gotcha" Clip

2008-10-10T11:29:00.003-04:00

Gotcha Politics

2008-10-10T09:14:00.000-04:00

I think by now everyone has seen the much blogged about clip of Dion asking for clarification on a poorly worded question. I would have asked for clarification and English is my first language, I also don't have a hearing problem.

Yet here are the Harper Conservatives jumping all over the clip claiming that it somehow proves that because Dion was confused by confusing wording that he is incapable of managing the economy. (As an ironic side note, while Harper was questioning Dion's ability to manage a trillion dollar economy he used the wrong word in french for trillion). All this shows is how desperate the Conservative campaign has become in these past couple days to stop their slide in the polls. And as Don Martin points out it tells us more about Harper and the Conservatives than it does about Dion.

Not A Leader is Ahead in the Leadership Numbers

2008-10-08T12:47:00.003-04:00

At least according to today's offering from Harris-Decima which report that 41% of respondents have a favorable impression of Dion vs 40% with a favorable impression of Harper. Then when you look at the negative impression numbers, 51% said that they had a negative impression of Harper while 48% had a negative impression of Dion.

Gee I bet the Conservatives are now begining to re-think their strategy of making this election all about Harper's "leadership".

Out of Touch

2008-10-08T10:06:00.000-04:00

Harper needed his platform launch and all the subsequent interviews he did yesterday to show to voters that he understands their concerns and has a plan for the economic situation we now find ourselves in. In his platform launch he didn't show that kind of concern, it was more of the "stay the course" and "the fundamentals are strong" sort of thing that we've been hearing all throughout this campaign.

Later during his one-on-one interview with Peter Masbridge I thought he was doing a better job of seeming to understand the average person's concerns, then it went off the rails when he decided to suggest that there were now some great buying opportunities in the stock markets. The TSX has been dropping for the past 5 days at what most people consider an alarming rate, most people are worried about their investments and their RRSPs, and Harper decides to tell people that now is actually a time where they shouldn't be that worried and should instead be buying stocks.

At the end of it all, Harper only seemed to re-enforce the impression that he has no empathy for all those who are worried, and is out of touch with voters by not being worried himself.

The Race is Tightening

2008-10-07T14:11:00.002-04:00

Today's polls all show the same trend, with a tightening race.

First Nanos closes the gap to the margin of error:
Conservatives: 34%
Liberals: 31%
NDP: 18%
Bloc: 11%
Greens: 6%

Decima has a 5 point gap:
Conservatives: 31%
Liberals: 26%
NDP: 21%
Greens: 13%
Bloc: 8%

And finally Ekos:
Conservatives: 33%
Liberals: 26%
NDP: 19%
Greens: 12%
Bloc: 10%

The other trend that remains consistent through all the polls is the uptick in Liberal support in Ontario with faltering Conservative support.

Threats to Voters Lives in Canada!?!

2008-10-05T15:24:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago in Guelph there were 10 Liberal supporters who had their homes vandalized by graffiti, and six of whom had their brake lines cut. Now we hear of 10 more Liberal supporters who have had their brake lines cut, as well as others who have had their homes vandalized.

Toronto police patrolled a midtown area overnight, after vandals cut brake lines on at least 10 cars parked at homes with Liberal election signs on their lawns.
"We're investigating. Officers are paying special attention to the designated area and we take this very seriously," Staff-Sgt. Shawn Meloche, from 53 Division, said last night. "This is a danger to life as well as to property. Regardless of the motivation – and there appears to be a connection (to the signs) – this is a public safety issue."

Even more disturbing is the news that this time someone was almost injured or killed because of this:

"There are two child seats in the back of my car," said Andrew Lane, chief financial officer for Bennett's campaign. "To cut the brake line on a car like that is just evil. Awful."
Added Lane, whose children are 6 months and 22 months: "You have to crawl under someone's car and cut the brake line, knowing that it could kill someone, or their whole family."
Lane discovered his brakes didn't work on his silver Saturn View as he tried to pull up at a stop sign near his home yesterday. He kept slamming the brakes and, in a "moment of terror," narrowly avoided slamming into a bus.

For the moment most Liberals in the area are refusing to give in to these sick intimidation tactics and are going to leave their lawn signs up. Though one has to wonder what's happening to Canadian politics when one party's supporters decide to target anothers this way.

Update: Impolical reports that 11 Liberal supporters in Parkdale-High Park had their brake lines cut Saturday night, the night after Liberals in St. Paul’s were targeted. Three ridings makes for a disturbing trend.

Dion's Good Debate Preformance Translates into Polling Number Increase

2008-10-03T15:26:00.003-04:00

While I'm hesitant to read too much into one poll, the first Nanos poll to take into account the results of the french debate seems to show promise for the Liberals.

Conservatives: 35 (-2)
Liberals : 30 (+4)
NDP: 18 (-1)
Bloc: 10 (-)
Greens: 9 (+1)

Much of the movement can be attributed to Quebec where the Liberals jumped 7 points and the Conservatives fell 4 points, which is likely attached to the fact that Dion did well in the french debate while Harper did poorly.

Also note worthy is the leadership numbers:

Harper: 79 (-16)
Dion: 71 (+40)
Layton: 48 (-12)
May: 15 (-3)
Duceppe: 11 (-3)

This is the first time that we've seen Dion ahead of Layton, and as Harper's numbers have been dropping all week Dion is suddenly within striking distance of him.

Now we still have to see the results of the english debate factored in, but if this trend continues to hold by Monday we could have a much more aggressive campaign for the final week.

Liveblogging The Debate

2008-10-02T20:45:00.034-04:00

While I decided to forgo liveblogging the french debate in favor of watching it in french, I'll be liveblogging the english one. So start watching this space at 9, and feel free to fill up my comments section with your own observations.

9:02 - Harper decides to talk about the Liberal "tax on everything" instead of talking about what he'd do to help our economy, is anyone surprised?

9:05 - May calls Harper's b.s. on the economy and reminds everyone that the Conservatives don't have a platform

9:09 - Dion brings up the "don't invest in Ontario" line from Flaherty, and May calls Harper out of touch with Canadians.

9:13 - Duceppe is the first one to bring up tying the environment to the economy.

9:14 - May's the first one to bring up Harper's old speeches, and it looks like she's starting to get under Harper's skin. Layton agrees with May, for probably the first time in his life.

9:25 - Duceppe rightly suggests that it's funny that his party is the only party supporting a buy-Canadian act, Layton jumps in quickly to say that he supports it to.

9:28 - "where's you're platform, under the sweater?" great line from Layton

9:35 - "That's a lie" Dion to Harper as Harper tries to claim that taxes are going to go up under the green shift. Dion seems to be doing a pretty good job of selling the Green Shift, May also gives him a bit of a hand by explaining why a carbon tax offset by income tax cuts is better than Harper's approach.

Duceppe is pushing a territorial approach, based of the EU model, and is taking Harper to task for being the only leader who doesn't think it's a good idea.

9:42 - Duceppe explains intensity based targets to the voter (while using his water glass as a prop - aren't they not allowed props?), which should help everyone understand why all 4 opposition leaders and the environmentalists think the Conservative plan is basically a piece of crap.

9:49 - Layton keeps bringing up Tommy Douglas

9:50 - Paikin is forced to explain Harper's cheep shot at Layton over private clinics when Harper decides it's probably not a good idea to have brought it up right after saying it

9:53 - May brings up old Harper speeches again

9:56 - The arts comes up and Duceppe invokes the fact that his father was an actor and his son and daughter work in the movie sector as the reason why he understands the importance of the arts. Then he invokes the Quebec nation.

9:59 - Harper talks about his piano playing, and then rambles about his family clearly trying to compete with Duceppe.

Layton jumps on the personal anecdote about my family being involved in the arts movement.

10:06 - If Paikin doesn't want to loose viewers to the US VP debate, maybe he should switch topics, because this one is getting silly.

That being said, Harper should just admit that he cut money to the arts instead of trying to pretend that he increased funding.

10:08 - May get's a gold star for saying that violent crime is not increasing, it's just the coverage that is increasing.

10:10 - Dion calls the story behind every crime a human tragedy and talks about preventative measures, if my profs are watching they're probably cheering

10:13 - May managed to tie literacy to crime, which is true, but still almost made me fall off my chair as normally politicians just talk about knee-jerk reactions, and now we actually get a substantive debate on the issue

10:17 - Duceppe claims that Quebec is reducing violence

10:18 - May explains the law that's already on the books, and why Harper's policy about not treating kids differently is a horrible idea

This topics almost over? That makes me sad, we've actually had a good debate on this topic for once.

10:24 - Duceppe points out that the mission would be over in 4 months if Layton had voted with the Bloc and Liberals, which I think everyone has forgotten

10:29 - Duceppe is hammering Harper on Iraq, Harper is trying to pretend that he never wanted to go to Iraq despite his speech that re-appeared earlier this week.

Props to May for bringing up make poverty history

Dion brings up the plagiarized speech

10:34 - Layton talks about $50 billion tax cut again, and investing in families

10:35 - Duceppe "I know I wont be Prime Minister, and 3 of you wont be prime minister, some of you know it but wont say it"

10:41 - May seems to be channeling Duceppe's style of interrupting while Harper is talking

10:43 - Dion compares what Harper did on income trust to what Harper is saying about the Green Shift, which was an interesting way of reminding everyone that Harper is a liar.

10:47 - and the last question sucks, IMO

10:48 - Harper "take a look at our platform"; me "WHAT PLATFORM?"

10:49 - Layton invokes the sweater again, and tries to invoke something similar to the "lend me your vote" shtick from the last election.

10:51 - Layton is obsessed with the Exon deal

10:53 - Duceppe is back on the seat at UNESCO thing, calling Harper a liar on it

Aaaaand it's over. So who won?

Post Debate Polls

2008-10-02T08:50:00.002-04:00

After watching the debate last night I thought Dion won, though my opinion is decidedly biased. I also thought that Duceppe did a good job an expected that if the MSM was going to declare a winner that they'd probably give it to him. (As an aside, May out preformed my expectations).

With that in mind I was interested to see two post-debate polls of fracophone voters. So without further adieu, the results:

First, the CROP poll:

Excellent or very good performance:
Gilles Duceppe 54%
Stephane Dion 48%
Jack Layton 38%
Elizabeth May 23%
Stephen Harper 18%

Which leader was most convincing:
Gilles Duceppe 33%
Stephane Dion 30%
Jack Layton 15%
Stephen Harper 12%
Elizabeth May 2%

Which leader was least convincing:
Stephen Harper 46%
Elizabeth May 32%
Jack Layton 9%
Stephane Dion 6%
Gilles Duceppe 5%

Has your opinion: Improved, Worsened, Stayed the same
Stephen Harper 9% 29% 61%
Stephane Dion 45% 10% 44%
Jack Layton 33% 4% 61%
Gilles Duceppe 21% 8% 71%
Elizabeth May 37% 11% 47%

Second, the Ipsos poll:

French Leaders Debate Audience Says Dion Clear Winner

1 in 5 (20%) Viewers Say They Changed Their Mind

Toronto, ON — The results of a near instantaneous Ipsos Reid/CanWest News Service survey of French-speaking Canadian voters who watched Wednesday night’s French-language leaders’ debate has revealed:

The Winner…

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion emerges as the clear winner of Wednesday’s debate with 40% of Canadian voters who viewed the French language debate saying he won, compared with 24% who feel that Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe won, 16% who feel that Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper emerged victorious, 11% who feel that NDP Leader Jack Layton won, and just 1% who feel Green Leader Elizabeth May won.

Being Prime Ministerial…

Nearly four in ten (36%) found Stephane Dion (up 21 points) to be the leader who sounds and acts most like a Prime Minister, placing him ahead of Prime Minister Harper (31%, down 14 points). Gilles Duceppe was next (17%, up 4 points), followed by Jack Layton (12%, down 4 points) and Elizabeth May (1%, unchanged).

The Best Ideas and Policies…

According to 41% (up 15 points since pre-debate poll) of voters, Stephane Dion offered the best policies and ideas during the debate. In second place was Gilles Duceppe (22%, up 6 points), followed by Jack Layton (19%, down 5 points), Stephen Harper (13%, down 9 points) and Elizabeth May (1%, down 1 point).

Likeability of the Leaders…

Jack Layton scored the best in terms of likeability with 46% of viewers (down 12 points) saying that he was the most likeable and the person they’d most like to go out for a beer or coffee with. Next was Gilles Duceppe (18%, up 1 point), Stephan Dion (14%, up 5 points), Stephen Harper (10%, up 2 points) and finally Elizabeth May (9%, up 6 points).

Impressions of the Leaders…

Subtracting worsened impressions from improved impressions, opinions of Stephane Dion improved (net +56) the most as a result of the debate, while Jack Layton (net +48) also fared well. Gilles Duceppe (net +30) also had a solid performance, according to those who watched the debate, as did Elizabeth May (net +18). Opinions of Stephen Harper plummeted (net -39) among those who viewed the debate.

Improved Worsened
Stephen Harper 14% 53%
Stephane Dion 67% 11%
Jack Layton 55% 7%
Gilles Duceppe 41% 11%
Elizabeth May 42% 24%

Most Visually Attractive…

One in three (33%) who viewed the debate found Jack Layton to be the most visually attractive (down 7 points), followed by Gilles Duceppe (22%, up 2 points), Stephane Dion (19%, up 13 points), Stephen Harper (15%, down 5 points), and finally Elizabeth May (5%, unchanged).

Effect of Debate on Vote…

Overall, the effect of this debate on voters’ intentions has not been insignificant. Two in ten (20%) French-speaking Canadians who watched the debate say that they have changed their mind about who to vote for on October 14 as a result of viewing the debate.

Some Timely New Liberal Ads

2008-10-01T10:34:00.000-04:00

First in the wake of the plagiarism story yesterday is this timely ad on Harper's foreign policy:

The second ad is on the economy:

And speaking of the economy, there's also this hard-hitting ad from ACreativeRevolution: