Sheila Copps, during what turned out to be an unsuccessful campaign to become the next president of the Liberal Party of Canada, was quite open about the fact that she thought Bob Rae would be perfectly suitable as a permanent leader.
That idea was controversial within the party. Continue reading Now on to that issue of who should be Liberal leader …
The Sunday Magazine of the New York Times has a feature called the “One-Page Magazine.” This week, that feature includes praise for the PM’s hair.
A second post from Beardsley (the Tory):
Back in 2002 when Harper first sat down with Joe Clark to talk about a potential merger, as a party researcher, I made a chart (later updated in 2003) of all of our PC and Reform/Canadian Alliance election platforms and matched them up word for word. I did the same for the party constitutions. We agreed on something like 75-80% of the items. I wonder if anyone has done this for the Liberal and NDP platforms. Just how different are they?
via Based on today, the Conservatives will have a long reign – BLOG – A look at Canadian politics.
Keith Beardsley was “on the inside” as a member of Stephen Harper’s inner circle both while Harper was in opposition and, later, as deputy chief of staff to the Conservative prime minister. After visiting the Liberal biennial convention in Ottawa this weekend, he blogged some observations. Click through Continue reading An Old Tory reflects on the Liberal convention: Living in a time warp
Liberal MP Ralph Goodale said on Twitter that 3,300 people had registered for the LIberal Party of Canada’s biennial convention being held this weekend in Ottawa. For a party that has people writing its obituary, that’s a very good turnout. In fact that easily leads the turnout at political conventions held since the election on May 2, 2011. Continue reading Convention attendance: Liberals show lots of life
The very first point that a federal government lawyer makes in a case in Toronto involving a non-resident same-sex couple that wishes to divorce here is that they cannot divorce in Canada because they were never legally married to begin even though the couple came to get married after same-sex marriages were made legal. Confused? Here’s the paragraph Continue reading Undoing same-sex marriages in Canada
Today, across our newspaper chain, I try to highlight what I’ll call MVP MPs, as voted on by MPs themselves. Before Christmas, I asked about three dozen MPs from all parties to list one or two MPs from any party they thought had done a good job of serving their constituents and Canadians.
The Liberal Party of Canada isn’t supposed to pick its permanent successor Michael Ignatieff until the middle of 2013. But interim leader Bob Rae gave such a fiery speech to his caucus today that many think — despite a rule set by the party leadership to prevent him from running for the permanent job — he may yet end up with that job. Continue reading All right, then, let's vote for a Liberal Leader
For the last month or so, there has been increasing attention (partly, I’d like to think based on some of the reporting our organization has done on the issue) of the influence foreign, mostly U.S., organization have had on what could broadly be termed the Canadian environmental lobby. This PR war is now heating to a fever pitch as the three-member independent review panel gets set to start hearings tomorrow into a proposal to build a $5.5 billion 1,177-kilometre from the Alberta oilsands to a port on the northern B.C. coast, from where supertankers would take Alberta bitumen to markets in Asia and the U.S.
Today, the green groups started firing back, Continue reading New 'green group' poll: Foreign oil patch money a bigger concern than foreign money in green groups
On the eve of the beginning of a review process to determine the feasibility/suitability of building an oil pipeline from Alberta, through the Rockies, to a northern B.C. port, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver issues this “open letter”:
Canada is on the edge of an historic choice: to diversify our energy markets away from our traditional trading partner in the United States or to continue with the status quo.
Virtually all our energy exports go to the US. As a country, we must seek new markets for our products and services and the booming Asia-Pacific economies have shown great interest in our oil, gas, metals and minerals. For our government, the choice is clear: we need to diversify our markets in order to create jobs and economic growth for Canadians across this country. We must expand our trade with the fast growing Asian economies. We know that increasing trade will help ensure the financial security of Canadians and their families.
Unfortunately, there are environmental and other radical groups Continue reading Oliver: "Environmental and other radical groups" would hijack job-creating development
