Monday
Ajax, Ont.,
Reporter (Marissa Semkiw): “What income range for individuals and households constitutes middle class?”
Trudeau: “You’d like a number?” Continue reading Are you in Justin Trudeau's middle class?
Category: Politics
In the U.S., conservatives tighten election laws — in the name of efficiency
State Senator Dale Schultz was a rare Republican who voted against the bill, saying the party was “fiddling with mechanics rather than ideas.”
“Making it more difficult for people to vote is not a good sign for a party that wants to attract more people,” he said.
The New York Times today has a long read about how U.S. conservatives– the Republican Party — is changing election laws in several states.
Read it here: New G.O.P. Bid to Limit Voting in Swing States – NYTimes.com.
Democrats argue the whole point of the changes is to make it more difficult for the type of people who tend to voter Democrat — lower-income Americans and Black Americans — to actually vote. Continue reading In the U.S., conservatives tighten election laws — in the name of efficiency
Former AUS PM Gillard rallies the left in Ottawa speech
Earlier today, former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard spoke to the first-ever Progress Summit put on by the Broadbent Summit. Gillard led a left-leaning goverment and the Broadbent Summit is named after Ed Broadbent. (I surely don’t need to tell you who he is.).
Here is the text of the remarks Gillard was to give, provided by the event organizers:
In my home town in Australia, Adelaide, it is going to be 32 degrees today but the warmth of the welcome I have received has compensated for the difference between that and the freezing Ottawa air. So I am simply delighted to be here to join you for this important event.
While the weather is so starkly different, Australia and Canada share so much in common.
We are both vibrant liberal democracies in the Westminster tradition, with national and provincial level governments and we share our head of state, Queen Elizabeth II.
Our nations are rich in the resources the world needs and have large scale, efficient agriculture. Our economies are sophisticated and increasingly reliant on knowledge and service industries. We came out of the Global Financial Crisis, less damaged than many other nations in the world, in part because of the superior regulation of our banking and financial sectors.
The life expectancy of our people is more than 80 years, our GDP per capita is over $40,000 dollars and the World Bank puts us both in the top three best places to start a business. As a patriotic Australian please forgive me for pointing out we slightly beat you in each of these measures. All these indices are telling us that Canadians and Australians share the good fortune of living in two of the most prosperous places on the planet. We have the joy that comes with living not only in wealthy nations, but in peace and freedom. Continue reading Former AUS PM Gillard rallies the left in Ottawa speech
Harper's History key to a Conservative Century
Both his fans and his critics agree on one thing about Stephen Harper. He wants to transform the country, so Canadians will come to see his Conservatives and not the Liberals as the natural governing party.
By the election of 2015, he will have done much in that regard.
But to make that work endure, the Conservatives need history on their side. They need a narrative of Canada in which Conservative Party values are integral to the story. Voters who buy this history will then turn to Conservative leaders as the default choice in this century the way Canadians turned to Liberal leaders by default in the last century.
I’m not the first to advance this thesis. Plenty have done something similar over the last few years, particularly when the Harper Conservatives allocated millions to mark the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812. But this week, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird gave a speech about John Diefenbaker’s foreign policy and that speech, more than anything I’ve heard yet from a Conservative politician, neatly articulated the Conservative vision of how Canada’s history ought to be read or interpreted. Continue reading Harper's History key to a Conservative Century
Ed Holder gets real — and I like it.
There are 308 MPs in the House of Commons. I like a lot of them. On all sides. Most are “good people”. The common denominator among the ones I like a lot are those that are — and Andrew Potter forgive me for using the term — authentic. They are comfortable in their own skin. They’re interested in other human beings for the simple reason that they find other human beings interesting — not simply because there’s a chance those other human beings might vote for them or say something nice about them.
Ed Holder, the London West MP, (pictured above in 2011 with PM Harper at the Tim Horton’s Brier — and yes, this pic, was taken by a PMO photographer) is one of those I like a lot for those reasons and here’s the latest evidence — Continue reading Ed Holder gets real — and I like it.
Harper for Anders in Calgary Signal Hill
Conservative MP Rob Anders is facing a tough nomination challenge from former provincial MLA Ron Liepert. Anders currently represents the federal riding of Calgary West while Liepert, until 2012 represented the same riding in the Alberta legislature. Both men want to be the federal Conservative candidate in the 2015 general election in the new riding of Calgary Signal Hill. Today, Anders (in conversation above with me on January 7) released a statement showing that his party’s leader, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, backs him. Note also in this release, that Anders tries to use Alison Redford’s unpopularity as an anchor that he hopes will sink Liepert: Continue reading Harper for Anders in Calgary Signal Hill
PMO surprised Supreme Court nomination goes upside down
On October 3, 2013, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that he would be appointing Marc Nadon to fill a vacant Quebec seat on the Supreme Court of Canada.
Today, the Supreme Court, in a 6-1 ruling, said, no, the prime minister would not be appointing Nadon to the court. Continue reading PMO surprised Supreme Court nomination goes upside down
ACOA gets a big budget boost: More money for handouts
Subject to the passage of the legislation by Parliament, the economic and community development activities of the Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation ECBC, including the associated budget, will transition over to ACOA
That passage is from an Open Letter to Cape Breton penned by Rob Moore, the Minister of State for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. He’s writing to to let Cape Bretoners know that Enterprise Cape Breton Corp., the regional development agency is going to be wrapped into ACOA’s activity. I’ve emphasized the point, in the passage above that ECBC budget — which is just under $50 million this year — also goes to ACOA. Continue reading ACOA gets a big budget boost: More money for handouts
Ye Olde Finance Minister: Notes on Joe, Greg, and Ed
Canada’s new Finance Minister, the Honourable Joe Oliver being sworn in. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/fDam51YD6N
— Stephen Harper (@pmharper) March 19, 2014
We have a new finance minister. And there’s no getting around it — he’s old. In fact, according to the Library of Parliament, no finance minister in our history has ever been as old as Joe Oliver upon taking up his duties as Finance minister. Oliver will be 74-years-old on May 20. He’s got a decent shot at being the oldest finance minister ever but the Conservatives would have to win 2015 general election and Oliver would have to be re-appointed as finance minister. The oldest finance minister in our history was also the one who served in the post the longest: Liberal William Stevens Fielding who, when he retired in 1925, was 76, 9 months and 10 days old. Continue reading Ye Olde Finance Minister: Notes on Joe, Greg, and Ed
From Fort Mac to Fort York: The ripples of Chow's resignation on federal politics
Chow represented the downtown Toronto riding of Trinity-Spadina, a riding which Chow won by 20,000 votes in 2011. But that race had been much closer in 2008, when she won by 3,500 and in 2006 when she won by 3,000. In 2004, Chow ran and lost Trinity-Spadina to Liberal Tony Ianno, who would be a junior minister in Paul Martin’s cabinet. Ianno had held the riding for the Liberals since 1993.
Now the Liberals want it back. Standing in their way (aside from some potential Liberal infighting) will likely be Joe Cressy, Continue reading From Fort Mac to Fort York: The ripples of Chow's resignation on federal politics