Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
More of the same.
More of the same for this election. Is anyone following CBC’s horribly biased accounts of this election? No wonder people don’t want to vote!
Media Bias Continues
More of the same for this election. Is anyone following CBC’s horribly biased accounts of this election? No wonder people don’t want to vote!
Media missing the mark.
It’s several days into the election and the media are still harping on the same issues of who said what several years ago – it’s clear that no message is going to catch on because the media only want to concentrate on who thinks who is a liar! This is shameful!
Election Day 3
We’re at day 3 of the election and nobody seems to want to talk about substance. Layton is wrong, Ottawa is NOT broken, our political parties seem to be during this election. Doesn’t anyone have anything substantive to say?
Well done political parties!
Why in heaven’s name have we descended this election into a case of who’s REALLY going to form a coalition! Can the media start asking WHAT these guys stand for?
What a ridiculous start to what should be one of the more important elections we’ll face in a long while. WHO frigging cares about who said what in 2004! Can’t the media start asking real questions about what these Parties vying to be government will do on issues like: Arctic Sovreignty, Canada’s role in nuclear power generation, a greener environment, getting us out of the economic hole we’re in.
My non-political friends are telling me that no one seems to be attractive to them – they’re feeling frustrated and may NOT vote. Well done political parties!
Federal Election Update
Today federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty confirmed that the federal government will table its latest budget on March 22, 2011.
The minority Conservative government must gain the support of at least one of the three opposition parties for the budget to pass. If the government is unsuccessful in passing the budget, the government will fall as it will have “lost the confidence of the House”.
Currently both the opposition Liberals and Bloc have indicated they will not support the budget. The Liberals sticking point is the issue of continuing corporate tax cuts which they oppose at this time. The Bloc under Duceppe has indicated that they could support the budget if $2 billion in HST compensation was included. It is somewhat unlikely that this will occur although “discussions are ongoing”.
This leaves the fate of the current government in the hands of Jack Layton and the NDP. The NDP has asked the Conservative government for four measures in the budget:
- Remove the HST from home heating bills and restore the EcoEnergy Retrofit program.
- Increase the Guaranteed Income Supplement for low-income seniors
- Expand & strengthen the Canada Pension Plan
- Increase the number of family doctors (5 million Canadians do not have access a family doctor)
Following the budget being tabled on March 22, there will be a vote in the House. If all three parties vote against the budget (vote to be held within the week following the budget) then the government will be defeated.
A likely Election Day is May 02, 2011.
Recent polls have the Conservatives on the edge of majority territory. Harper’s Conservatives have polled in the high 30’s through much of February, and in the most recent poll (yesterday) Conservative support is pegged at 43%.
The recent surge in Conservative support has occurred over the last few weeks so there is some debate regarding the “depth” and “staying power” of this level of support.
New seat projections have averaged the last few polls and show seat gains for both the governing Conservatives (+9), the Bloc (+5) and declines for both the NDP (-5) and Liberals (-4) from their current seat totals.
The Conservatives remain just shy of a majority under this model.
The question is whether or not the PM wants to roll the dice on a majority. This is likely his last chance to show the Conservative base that he can deliver. If he falls short, the leadership race will commence soon after.
However, if the polls are solid, the PM has never been this close before. It may prove too tempting to resist and if that is the case, the government will not work with the NDP or Bloc and will in fact engineer its own defeat.
Over the next few weeks, watch the polls and not Jack or Gilles…it really won’t be their call!
Grateful politicos say goodbye to a real dynamo from Cell 13
The sad news was received that former Liberal giant Keith Davey has died. This is big news for political types in Canada. Davey typified Liberal politics in Canada and was the reason why many know the Liberal brand so well.
Whether it was in his role as the National Director of the Liberal Party when the “New Politics” was introduced in Canada. When Lester Pearson (Mike) became PM in the early 60’s, it was largely recognized that the central Liberal Party figure that brought about the dramatic return to power was Keith Davey.
Davey broadened the base of support for the Party in those days, increased grass roots consultation in the Party, fixed the strained relations between the provincial and federal wings of the Party and created a process for increasing fundraising efforts for the Party. These principles exist today and that is his legacy.
Synonymous with his roots in the Liberal Party, he was also a die-hard supporter of the Canadian Football League and Canadian baseball.
In short, Davey brought a whole bunch of fun into politics in Canada. As a young Liberal growing up in the seventies, I had cause to interact with the “Rain Maker” in national elections. In the latter part of the Trudeau era, Davey was the reason why so many people like me loved “practical politics” – working in campaigns, creating effective riding associations and advising elected officials.
When I worked for former Prime Minister John Turner in the early 1980’s we fought the federal election in 1984 under Davey. He was classic! Everyone knew we were going to get “smoked”, but he put on the toughest of skins as the Director of that campaign and motivated the hell out of all of us in the field. In short – like everything else in which he was involved, it was fun!
He’s going be missed and we’re all blessed for having experienced his enormous presence.
Leaks and a Pause for Concern
The “Wikileaks” reveal an insidious side of human nature, yet are a serious and hard-core symptom of the state of politics today.
Notwithstanding that the US is red faced over this whole ordeal, Canada’s now firmly ensconced in the matter regarding certain people, process and politicians.
What are we doing? The leaks, in my opinion, are a reaction to the absolute mistrust, anger and frustration that the average person has toward what can be characterized as “the elites”.
The issue is not that we need to hunt down who leaked the items, but why!
Think about Canada – former CSIS Director Jim Judd was a great leader in that organization, who became quite frustrated and angry about how the political process, the current cast of elected politicians, the bureaucracy, the justice system and, frankly, the media have been immature about dealing with the threats of terror in Canada.
We’re hung up, in our current political process, about being so correct as not to offend that we will, seemingly, put at risk our own safety.
As an advocate for government reform in areas like prescription medication costs and patient access to care, I have been subjected to security threats and largely they have been ignored or viewed as dramatic.
I have been intimately involved in repatriating Canadians who have been wrongly imprisoned abroad and heard snickers from Canadian politicians and media that maybe the person deserved what they got.
At the same time, I see lobbyists get advanced peeks at government announcements and rigged bids for government contracts or procurement occur time and time again.
Wow! We do this a lot in Canada. No wonder people are angry, frustrated and reactive.
Unless citizens take matters into their own hands and start to push back against this institutionalization of politics by getting active in the process, seeking democratic renewal and demanding that politicians and their bureaucrats perform better and in our collective best interests, we will most certainly continue to see these kinds of activities like leaked documents invade our falsely secure and pretty little worlds.
Marc Kealey with MP Justin Trudeau
At a recent event in Mississauga South, discussing policy issues with Federal MP Justin Trudeau.
