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Thumbnail history of televised political debates

Writing in the New Yorker last month, Hendrik Hertzberg digs up this interesting history:

Television debates were a long time coming, and the road was rocky. The first nationally broadcast faceoff between Presidential candidates was on the radio, in 1948, between Thomas E. Dewey and Harold Stassen, who were contending for the Republican nomination. (Dewey insisted on a single topic for the entire hour: “Shall the Communist Party in the United States be outlawed?”) The first such debate to be televised, in 1956, was also an intra-party affair, between the Democratic rivals Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver. Newton Minow, who was later President Kennedy’s chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (and won fame for calling television “a vast wasteland”), was Stevenson’s top aide, and it was largely his and Stevenson’s efforts that made possible the seminal Kennedy-Nixon debates. Newt Minow was also instrumental in reviving Presidential debates in 1976, after a sixteen-year hiatus, and in making them practically mandatory in every election since then.

via Presidential Debates, Citizens United, and the Politics of Media : The New Yorker.

Obama to Iran and Israel: 'As President of the United States, I Don't Bluff'

After meeting with Prime Minister Harper in Ottawa on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with groups of Canadian Jews before heading to Washington Monday for a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama. Ahead of that meeting, Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic scored an 45-minute interview with Obama that focused exclusively on Iran, Israel, and the Middle East. Continue reading Obama to Iran and Israel: 'As President of the United States, I Don't Bluff'

The Atlantic: Does the Romney-Ron Paul Pact Make Paul a Sellout?

I’ll be talking to Molly Ball tonight on my show, Daily Brief on Sun News Network, about her article just up today at The Atlantic. It starts this way:

Ron Paul is helping Mitt Romney. It’s been obvious for months. You’d think Paul’s followers would be outraged by this — but they’re not.

The Paul-Romney alliance means the race’s most ideologically pure fiscal conservative has effectively sold out to the least conservative, least consistent, most establishmentarian candidate in the field. Romney favors the basic concept of progressive taxation and a government’s right to compel citizens to purchase health insurance. It’s unthinkable that he would, if elected, end the Federal Reserve. Alone among the candidates, he insists that there be no cuts to any military spending. All these stances are anathema to Paul’s staunchly absolutist world view.

You’ll want to read the rest: Does the Romney-Ron Paul Pact Make Paul a Sellout? – Molly Ball – Politics – The Atlantic.

Sun News Network News: TVA and Rogers Communications strike a deal

This just out on various business newswires:

TVA GROUP SIGNS AGREEMENT WITH ROGERS COMMUNICATIONS

Montreal (Quebec), March 1, 2012 – TVA Group is proud to announce that it has reached an important agreement with Rogers Communications aimed at offering Rogers’ clients access to the Sun News and TVA Sports stations, Continue reading Sun News Network News: TVA and Rogers Communications strike a deal

Press gallery elections: No robocalls involved

Every year, the Parliamentary Press Gallery holds elections for its board of directors and officers. There are, roughly, about 330 members of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery. Full-time membership in the gallery is restricted to professional journalists who spend most or all of their time covering the activities of the Government of Canada and do so on the Parliamentary Precinct. Continue reading Press gallery elections: No robocalls involved

MPs Del Mastro and Bennett on robocalls; Solberg and Kinsella on that and Vikileaks

Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett and Conservative MP Dean del Mastro have this much in common at least: They both say that supporters in their ridings were hit with annoying, abusive, and possibly illegal telephone canvassing during last spring’s election. But that’s about all they have in common … Continue reading MPs Del Mastro and Bennett on robocalls; Solberg and Kinsella on that and Vikileaks

Liberals say harassing phone calls hit voters in 27 ridings

The Liberal Party of Canada this afternoon identified 27 ridings in which it says voters received harassing or threatening phone calls ahead of the general election on May 2, 2011.

Now, in these ridings, the incumbent candidate or party won 21 of 27. In six of these races, the winner won by less than 1,000 votes.

Now, as one of my Twitter followers, an unidentified southern Ontario tweep who goes by the handle revpaperboy , noted “who won the ridings is immaterial, voter suppression by fraud is still antidemocratic and despicable,” a point with which I am in 100 per cent agreement. Still, for your consideration and to put some of this robocall debate in context, here is an annotated list of the ridings identified by the Liberals: Continue reading Liberals say harassing phone calls hit voters in 27 ridings

Tories say they were victims of robocalls too

A few minutes ago, the Conservatives issues the following release:

Statement by Conservative Member of Parliament Dean Del Mastro on harassing and misleading phone calls during the 2011 federal campaign

“The Conservative Party is calling on anyone with any information about harassing calls or calls giving inaccurate poll information to come clean immediately and hand it over to Elections Canada.

My own campaign in Peterborough was the victim of dirty tricks phone calls, with Conservative supporters harassed by late night abusive calls, and our Party condemns these acts. We are providing this information to Elections Canada.

We call on Elections Canada to investigate and get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible so the truth is known.”

The cynical might wonder:

a) When Del Mastro says “We are providing this information to Elections Canada”, what information is he referring to?

b) Did Del Mastro file complaints or go public with these complaints back in May, after the election?

There is is this, from the Peterborough Examiner of May 4, 2011, in which Del Mastro takes responsibility for some phone call funny business his Liberal competitor claimed was aimed at him: Automated calls not a prank against Leal.

Housing bubble crisis? Maclean's vs. The Bank of Canada

Two national institutions, the Bank of Canada and the newsmagazine Maclean’s, are out with new publications today with starkly different conclusions about the real estate market and household debt in this country. As it’s still relatively early, I have yet to read either but look forward to doing so. In the meantime,  we’ll let BMO Capital Markets deputy chief economist Douglas Porter officiate on the substantive issue at hand: Housing crisis or no? Here’s his thoughts from his morning comment (with his emphasis but my hyperlinks): Continue reading Housing bubble crisis? Maclean's vs. The Bank of Canada