As an Ontario Progressive Conservative, Steve Clark is about safe as safe can be in his Eastern Ontario riding of Leeds-Grenville, but how does he – and other Ontario Tories — make more ridings more Tory-friendly? For Clark, the first step is going to the riding next door, Kingston and the Islands, and asking voters there why they don’t like his party.
Cutting deficits? Slashing government programs? Yes, that's the NDP in New Brunswick
A New Democrat talking about slashing deficits? Balancing budgets? Cutting government waste? That would be New Brunswick NDP Leader Dominic Cardy.
Let the summer of spending begin!
The House of Commons shuts down today for the summer recess and so begins a summer of government MPs handing out cheques at various festivals and events around the country.
For your information, the Parliamentary Summer last year ran from June 20 to Oct 15 and, over that period, Conservative MPs put their names on 510 spending announcements. The combined value of all those spending announcements was $2.4 billion.
My database that tracks all these spending announcements, by the way, is now at about 4,800 separate spending announcements since 2011 federal election. They range from, say, the awarding of a $500 million contract to a firm in Esquimalt, BC to retro-fit our submarines to $2,000 to organize some studio tours on Saltspring Island, B.C.. Continue reading Let the summer of spending begin!
In Ontario and New Brunswick, the NDP go back to populist roots — with much moaning and whining
We all know about the soi-disant “high-profile” New Democrats who complained in the middle of the recently concluded Ontario election that NDP leader Andrea Horwath had abandoned core NDP principles and, as a result was risking core NDP votes in a crucial election. They “leaked” a letter on May 23 in which they scolded Horwath, saying “you are abandoning those values and constituencies that the party has always championed.” My Parliamentary Press Gallery colleague Tim Harper pithily described this as “a manifesto that reads like it was written at an Annex dinner party that went one bottle of red over the line.” In other words, this was the whining of your downtown Toronto NDP, a certain species of New Democrat that has, at times, been more trouble than it’s worth to a party that was born of Prairie populism and sober down-home common-sense 50 years ago. Continue reading In Ontario and New Brunswick, the NDP go back to populist roots — with much moaning and whining
Evidence-based policy …
Severe thunderstorm, torrential rain, Northern Gateway approved, coincidence? NOT
— Adam Vaughan (@TOAdamVaughan) June 17, 2014
A Conservative MP from B.C. opens up on Northern Gateway: A highly conditional approval
Dan Albas is the Conservative MP for the riding of Okanagan-Coquihalla, a riding in the south, central part of the province that is a long, long way from where Enbridge Inc. proposes to build the Northern Gateway Pipeline that will carry as much as 500,000 barrels of Alberta bitumen across the Rockies to the northern B.C. port of Kitimat. Kitimat, incidentally, is in the riding of New Democrat Nathan Cullen, while the pipeline runs through Cullen’s riding and then the ridings of BC Conservative Bob Zimmer (Prince George-Peace River) and Alberta Conservative MPs Rob Merrifield (Yellowhead) and Brian Storseth (Westlock-St. Paul)
Though Albas and his constituents live a long way from the Northern Gateway’s route or port — as do most who live in B.C. — this is a big issue for them. The federal NDP believe that, so far as votes in B.C. go in the 2015 general election, campaigning against the pipeline is electoral gold. Continue reading A Conservative MP from B.C. opens up on Northern Gateway: A highly conditional approval
Liberal MP, er, clarifies his contradiction with Trudeau's abortion stand
The next Liberal to win a majority? Safe bet, it'll be Brian Gallant
They may have had a disastrous decade federally, sinking to the third party in the House of Commons, in the province’s, Liberals are on a roll.
Starting with Stephen McNeil in Nova Scotia last fall, and Philippe Couillard in Quebec and Kathleen Wynne in Ontario this spring (below), it’s been one Liberal majority after another. (If you believe Christy Clark is a Liberal in the same vein as McNeil, Couillard, and Wynne — and I, for one, do not believe she belongs in that same political category and, in fact, belongs in a category that likely includes Saskatchewan Party leader Brad Wall — you could extend this Liberal win streak back to the spring of 2013.) Continue reading The next Liberal to win a majority? Safe bet, it'll be Brian Gallant
Former MPs top list of latest Liberal nominees for 2015
I wish all federal parties would put something so handy together every week. [Copied and pasted as received from the Liberal Party of Canada] I’m trying to keep up and while I knew Anthony Rota wanted take his riding back from Conservative Jay Aspin (judicial recount was required in 2011 over that one), I had not heard that former MP Pablo Rodriguez wanted to win back the seat New Democrat Paulina Ayala took from him in 2011 : Continue reading Former MPs top list of latest Liberal nominees for 2015
The final campaign day in Ontario: Liberals go hard after Toronto New Democrats
The final day of the campaign in the 41st Ontario general election gets going early for all three major party leaders. Continue reading The final campaign day in Ontario: Liberals go hard after Toronto New Democrats