Prime Minister Stephen Harper: Funny guy. Video surfaces of Harper doing (killer) impression of Joe Clark (not bad) impression of Brian Mulroney and (a bit over the top) impression of Preston Manning. Shot during rehearsal for 2011 election night in Calgary presumably by company hired by the party to do its election night work. So far as I know, this was not shot by an Canadian media outlet.
Federal Court Judge Richard Mosley ruled tonight on the “robocalls” case, the attempt by a handful of voters in six ridings, backed by the Council of Canadians, to have the 2011 election results in those ridings thrown out and new elections ordered because, the applicants alleged, there was widespread voter suppression using “robocalls” and possibly other means to do so. The Council of Canadians alleges the Conservative Party of Canada was the bad guy.
Here’s the questions Mosley asked and I have summed up his answers: Continue reading The Federal Court fraudulent call judgement: short version
“We have set out these bold goals and we are reaching our targets. I’m going to run in the next election on the strong economy. I’m going to run on (being) number one in job creation.”
– Christy Clark to her party’s convention in Whistley, BC, October, 2012
This morning, Statistics Canada released the final report card before Tuesday’s general election in B.C. on Clark’s 17-months-old Jobs Plan. BC is unequivocally not “number one” in job creation. In fact, it is not number one in any employment measurement used by Statistics Canada. And yet, it could be a lot worse, I suppose. So I’m giving the BC Jobs Plan a “C-” at this point. Continue reading The report card on Christy Clark's "BC Jobs Plan": A "C-"
“What the frack goes on with the [BC] Liberal party?” says Vancouver 24 Hours columnist Bill Tieleman. Bill also notes — and I agree — “This has also been the most environmentally-minded campaign I’ve ever seen in B.C.”
Eight federal and provincial elections since 2011. In all but one, the incumbent party won. (And the one that lost, Jean Charest and Quebec Liberals, missed by a hair, losing the popular vote by less than one percentage point). Didn’t matter if it was a party of the left or right. Now, in BC, an incumbent that was trailing badly, is quickly narrowing a gap on a challenger: So I ask — What is about Canadian voters they appear so reluctant to change their governments?
UPDATE May 15, 2013: Christy Clark’s Liberals won in B.C. So make that eight for nine incumbents who won with a message of “it’s the economy.” Column, with link below, written two weeks before vote, still stands!
7-01-13 Resolution to Amend the Constitution
Submitted by Federal Council
WHEREAS the NDP has different rules governing nominations in each province; and Continue reading 7-01-13 Resolution to Amend the Constitution
The NDP convention considered this motion:
5-02-13 Resolution on Electoral Reform
Submitted by Toronto-Danforth
WHEREAS the current federal electoral system contains major shortcomings generating a significant democratic deficit;
WHEREAS the decline in voter turnout in federal elections in the last twenty years in Canada is worrying;
WHEREAS any electoral reform process must include the study of all relevant experience with an electoral system that includes both proportional representation and MPs directly elected in ridings;
BE IT RESOLVED THAT the federal New Democratic Party reaffirm its desire to reform Canada’s electoral system by way of a system that combines proportional representation and direct election of Members of Parliament from constituencies, that is to say, through a version of mixed member proportional (MMP) representation that is adapted to Canada.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the NDP reaffirms its longstanding electoral commitment to such reform and its firmly held belief that Canadian voters must approve such reform.
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED THAT the federal NDP’s Critic and Deputy Critic for Democratic and Parliamentary Reform should consult widely in communities across Canada before the next federal election.
MP Craig Scott spoke in favour. Several speakers spoke for and against.
Motion passed.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced this morning that a by-election will be held in the federal riding of Labrador on May 13. The riding became vacant after Conservative MP Peter Penashue, then a member of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet, admitted that his campaign violated federal election finance laws in the May 2011 general election. Penashue, in that general election, won by a handful of votes and it was quite reasonable to assume that the extra illegal spending his campaign did in that general election could have made the difference.
Elections Canada is still investigating the over-spending and its investigation will be unaffected by the by-election. Moreover, Penashue is not avoiding any sanction he may face from Elections Canada by resigning and running again. That peril will still exist for Penashue regardless of the by-election and its outcome.
This by-election really won’t change a thing in the House of Commons. No matter who wins, the Conservatives will still have a majority; the NDP will still be the Official Opposition; and the Liberals will still be the third party. And yet, for a by-election that means so little in the big scheme of things (though obviously a big deal for the good people of the riding), there is a surprising amount of political capital at stake. For that reason, expect all three of those parties to be campaigning heavily to win. Some notes on what’s at stake …
Continue reading The writ drops in Labrador with a surprising amount at stake
The Ottawa Citizen‘s Glen McGregor and Postmedia’s Stephen Maher have spent a great deal of time digging away at what in Ottawa is called the “robocall” story, a story that reports on incidents of the use of automated telephone calls during the 2011 election. McGregor and Maher’s reporting has won them acclaim from their peers in the form of many awards mostly (I believe anyway) for the creativity and doggedness in which they’ve tried to sort out what is a complicated story about what will turn out to be either a marginal event in the 2011 election or an epic event in the 2011 election.
Elections Canada is investigating many of the allegations of potential skulduggery that McGregor and Maher report on and, nearly two years after the election, Elections Canada appears set to recommend the laying of some sort of charge. (We know that because McGregor and Maher reported it.)
And, today, partly as a result of their work, Elections Canada is recommending Parliament introduce some new laws that Elections Canada says will help prevent any future problems. The Harper government says it will review the recommendations but might — or might not — have its own ideas about this issue.
Now, I mentioned up top that the Robocall affair will either be marginal or epic — largely depending on what investigators come up with and can prove in court. The Council of Canadians believe this to be epic, arguing in court that there was a massive conspiracy organized by the Conservative Party of Canada to use robocalls to suppress the votes of non-Conservatives and, in doing so, win ridings it otherwise would not.
A new book says McGregor and Maher, iPolitics.ca columnist Michael Harris and others in the Parliamentary Press Gallery are “grassy-knoll types” for buying into this meme, most loudly advanced by the Council of Canadians, that runs though the Robocall reporting that somehow the majority government of Stephen Harper and the Conservatives is illegitimate. Continue reading Globe and Mail's top politics writer on "grassy-knoll types" in Parliamentary Press Gallery
British Columbians go to the polls in mid-May. It’s now almost mid-February. The incumbent premier, B.C. Liberal Christy Clark, continues to trail badly in the polls and she polls particularly badly among female voters. Here’s a new ad that, it seems to me, is aimed at female voters. Think it’ll help?
Continue reading B.C.'s Clark pitches for women: Will it work?