Month: April 2012

Lorne Gunter has some issues with "Alison McGuinty's" ad campaign

It’s debate day in Alberta – remember, we’ve got it live coast-to-coast on Sun News Network beginning at 6 pm Mountain/8 pm Eastern — and Lorne Gunter has some issues with a new ad campaign from the Alberta Progressive Conservative:

.. an ad the party has begun running in selected arty magazines and free weekly newspapers touting themselves as “Not your father’s PC Party.” The ad features a smiling Premier Redford juxtaposed with a greasy, moustachioed disco-era businessman in a suit, peering out of an old analogue TV set. Continue reading Lorne Gunter has some issues with "Alison McGuinty's" ad campaign

In Alberta, a budget adopted less than a month ago, is thrown out the window

Calgary Herald veteran columnist Don Braid has a key graf in the middle of his column today:

[Premier Alison Redford’s Progressive Conservatives] were supposed to run on the budget they passed, remember? It was promoted as a model of prudent management, the prelude to results-based budgeting that would calculate the need for every dime the government spends.

Now, that budget is virtually out the window. Continue reading In Alberta, a budget adopted less than a month ago, is thrown out the window

Connecting global Anglo-American primacy and democracy

Kevin Narizny, an assistant professor at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., has an interesting essay in the latest issue of the journal World Politics. The paper is called “Anglo-American Primacy and the Global Spread of Democracy: An International Genealogy” and, in it, Narizny argues “that Anglo-American primacy over the past three centuries was a necessary, but not sufficient, cause of the global spread of democracy.” Continue reading Connecting global Anglo-American primacy and democracy

Bob Rae: Government MPs and ministers misleading Parliament on F35s

Today in the House of Commons, Liberal Leader Bob Rae asked the Speaker to rule on this point of privilege, claiming that the House has been misled by government ministers and MPs on the F-35. Here is his argument:

Continue reading Bob Rae: Government MPs and ministers misleading Parliament on F35s

TAL the week after: Take the Money and Run for Office

The weekly NPR radio show This American Life made headlines last month for retracting a story it aired about Apple’s manufacturing problems in China. One of the reasons this was such a big story was because TAL, as it’s known, had a history of doing excellent, detailed, long-form journalism. So when it had to pull back from the Apple story, well, that was big news.

Well, the week after it spent the entire episode retracting the Apple story, it’s back with a hallmark example of the kind of work that’s made it such a popular show — a somewhat depressing inside-the-Beltway look at fundraising in U.S. politics. Continue reading TAL the week after: Take the Money and Run for Office

For the Ottawa bubble types: Leaders make staff adjustments

The staffs of party leaders can make a world of difference when it comes to the effectiveness of their chief’s mission so, here on the Hill, we tend to keep a close eye on whose coming and going in key positions. A few changes today: Continue reading For the Ottawa bubble types: Leaders make staff adjustments

Oliver on Trudeau and his "fear gene"; Pellerin on the fight

Of all of the 300 or so members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery, I can think of no reporter who knew Pierre Elliott Trudeau, our 15th prime minister, better than CTV’s Craig Oliver. On his television program Question Period, Craig had this to say about the performance Saturday night in which Pierre’s son Justin knocked the stuffing out of Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau: Continue reading Oliver on Trudeau and his "fear gene"; Pellerin on the fight