You Twitter freaks out there that are interested in politics might want to check out #mnce09 and/or #roft. #mnce09 is the Twitter hashtag for the Manning Centre for Building Democracy 2009 conference a three-day event on in Ottawa right now and the lineup of small-c, big-c and officially-c conservatives is pretty impressive. #roft is Stephen Taylor's creation — it stands for Right of Feed Twitter — a place for Conservatives to talk to each other on Twitter.
In any event: This afternoon, there was this panel:
A conservative response to economic downturn
Chair: Gwyn Morgan
– Bill Robson, C.D. Howe Institute
– Ken Boessenkool, GCI Canada
– Andrew Coyne, Maclean's
I've been stuck in the office chronicling the Conservative (Government) response to economic downturn but I've been keeping an eye on #mnce09 Twitter feed. Here's some of the content as at 1715 Ottawa time (I've stripped out some of the Twitter-junk and re-arranged it in chronological order from start to finish). For those not familiar with Twitter, it's a micro-blogging servier and your “tweets”, as they're called, can only be 140 characters long. So correspondents here only have a sentence or so to say something:
jmcjannett: Heading over to hear Gwyn Morgan and Coyne offer economic advice to Canada's conservative movement. #roft
jneilson42: listening to panelists describe how conservatives should solve the financial crisis at #mnce09
jneilson42: Bill Robson is explaining how US Congress rigged mortgage policy- off their balance sheets but artificially inflating home ownership #mnce09Dscn3897_2_normal
ncgafuik: Andrew Coyne, Gwyn Morgan, Ken Boessenkool, & Bill Robson talking economic downturn#roft
jneilson42: Bill Robson's telling the story of the porn industry asking for a bailout and it's obviously upsetting a nearby so-con at #mnce09Nickgafuik_normal
jneilson42: Robson: Wouldn't it be great if the people whose retirement dreams crashed w/ the market got the same support as those w/ pensions?
jneilson42: Bill Robson's view on bailouts – supporting banks is one thing, but picking and choosing who to support in the economy is a problem. #mnce09Dscn3897_2_normal
jneilson42: Ken Boessenkool invoking Goldwater at #mnce09Dscn3897_2_normal
jneilson42: Ken Boessenkool defending Harper's budget at #mnce09Dscn3897_2_normal
jneilson42: is a little confused about the compatibility of her last two tweets at #mnce09Dscn3897_2_normal
jneilson42: Ken Boessenkool: “Moderation in the defense of liberty is no vice.” Bastardizing the quote explains those tweets. #mnce09Dscn3897_2_normal
jneilson42: Coyne: Being opposed to a policy doesn't make you a fanatical purist. #mnce09Dscn3897_2_normal
stephen_taylor: Andrew Coyne (@acoyne) just called himself a socialist #roft
jneilson42: Coyne: Principled politics matters. What you do should cohort with what you say. #mnce09N81008618_36712070_1932_normal
stephen_taylor: “Principles are what you jettison on your way to power” — @acoyne #roft #mnce09
jneilson42: Coyne: Canadian Conservatives think that principles are the things you jettison on the way to power, but nowhere else in the world. #mnce09N81008618_36712070_1932_normal
Carywill: RT WHA?! how is that possible?! Andrew Coyne (@acoyne) just called himself a socialist #roft(via @stephen_taylor)
jneilson42: Coyne: No more argument in politics on what should be in the budget in Canada, just on who would pass it faster. #mnce09Cary_and_poppy_normal
stephen_taylor: Political debate has been reduced to who wil pass the budget faster — @acoyne
jneilson42: Coyne: Compromise might be a virtue in politics, but it shouldn't be the only virtue. #mnce
jneilson42: Coyne: don't be lulled into thinking Canada's higher spending is short termed.
jneilson42: Coyne kicking the crap out of partisan conservative defenses of Harper's government at #mnce09Dscn3897_2_normal
jneilson42: Coyne kicking the crap out of partisan Conservative defenses of Harper's government at #mnce09
jneilson42: Coyne: Conservatives don't think half a loaf is better than no loaf, they think no loaf is acceptable
jneilson42: Coyne: politics isn't the art of the possible, it's the art of expanding the possible
jneilson42: Coyne: Conservatives haven't just abandoned conservatism themselves, but have closed off the possibility of anyone else applying it. #mnce09
jneilson42: Coyne: whole sections of public policy have been ruled off limits because “even the Tories wouldn't do it.”#roft
jneilson42: Coyne: Conservative ministers go around the country boasting that their party delivers more pork
jneilson42: Coyne explaining why Conservatives have burned the bridge towards being anywhere near conservative if they become a majority#roft
jneilson42: Wonders if Coyne would like to come back to the podium and tell us how he really feels
jneilson42: Thinks there must be a lot of libertarians atfeeling vindicated after Coyne's thrashing of the Conservative party. #roft #fr33
jneilson42: Bill Robson: stressing taking the long view at #mnce09
jneilson42: Ken Boessenkool says Conservatives might be criticized for economic policy, but argues that strengthening the military is good#roft
jneilson42: Ken Boessenkool argues that the most important thing the Conservatives have done is stopped national child care
stephen_taylor: Coyne and Boessenkool battling it out on the CPC record #roft #mnce09
jneilson42: Coyne pwning Tories some more and sparring with Ken Boessenkool at#roft
jneilson42: Coyne: principled politics is possible, but it is difficult, especially when people give up before they've even started
jneilson42: Boessenkool outlined why conservatives can support the CPC in spite of economic lameness but libertarians are abandoning it#roft
jneilson42: Coyne argues for PR and recommends a Harper/Flanagan paper on the subject
jneilson42: Bill Robson: the less we spend, the happier I am
jneilson42: Coyne: when I wrote about the death of conservatism I was merely describing something, I wasn't lamenting anything.#fr33 #roft
jneilson42: Coyne calls out partisan Conservatives for being born-again Keynesians at#roft #fr33
jneilson42: Bill Robson: One of the most important things the government is doing is unilaterally cutting tariffs #fr33
jneilson42: @Freedomnation Hudak calls Coyne atcombative, possibly for claiming that disagreement needn't be interpreted as rabid purity? #roft
brentcolbert: Andrew Coyne didn't come to make friends but hopefully people will listen #mnce09
stephen_taylor: Coyne thinks artic sovereignty is a Conservative political gimmick. #roft #mnce09
jneilson42: Coyne: the issue of arctic sovereignty has been vastly overblown as a smart political move by the Conservatives#roft
stephen_taylor: Joe Clark tories started applause inflation by desk thumping #roft
stephen_taylor: Coyne gets a rousing desk thumping from the crowd #roft #mnce09
stephen_taylor: Flanagan reduces coyne from an economic coach to an economic sports writer. “He's not a player” Ow! #roft #mnce09
stephen_taylor: Flanagan: Stéphane Dion deserved everything he got from the Tories (attack ads) #roft #mnce09
jneilson42: Coyne's call for desk thumping has resulted in an awkward mixture of desk thumping with applause to show approval at #mnce09
stephen_taylor: Manning Centre is like a dietition that tells us (Conservatives) how to eat. — Boessenkool #roft #mnce09
stephen_taylor: Yikes! Boessenkool: PMO needs to be more accepting of criticism from their friends. #roft #mnce09
stephen_taylor: Wow, illegal mex-us immigratn uncharacteristically hits the floor for the first (and likely last) time at a Cdn con conference #roft #mnce09
jneilson42: Boessenkool/Coyne: it wasn't deficit or depression, it was deficit or defeat
stephen_taylor: In January, the PM faced deficit or defeat. — Boessenkool. Coyne says prorogue saved the Libs from themselves. #roft #mnce09
jneilson42: Coyne: political madness lies where political parties convince themselves that they are indispensable
jneilson42: Coyne: when greed is untempered by the usual competitive forces of the free market, you get economic problems #fr33
stephen_taylor: Coyne calls wall st. not a failure of capitalism but a failure of the
jneilson42: Coyne: don't excuse stupid behaviour in the private sector, but people respond to incentives from the gov to do stupid things#roft
jneilson42: Gwyn Morgan argues for keeping immigration low #deytookourjerbs!