Why the Liberal Leader Lost the English Debate
April 14, 2011 | 3 Comments
If you are a Liberal Party supporter, you probably think your guy won. After all, he stuck to his talking points, hammered them home, and got a few good headline photos of him dressing down the Prime Minister. But if your vote is still up for grabs, you are probably less likely to want the [...]
Prime Minister Michael Ignatieff?
April 5, 2011 | 9 Comments
I think it’s a possibility. A very real possibility, especially if the Liberal Party continues to campaign so impressively and their leader continues to inspire the feelings of connectedness and belonging that he has so successfully cultivated since the start of the campaign. Have you seen the new Liberal red book? If you take fifteen [...]
The Liberal Strategy?
March 27, 2011 | 2 Comments
When it’s not football season, my Sunday afternoon routine begins with reading the New York Times Magazine, the French paper Le Monde, and the Sunday edition of the British Telegraph. Then I turn to my preferred Canadian outlets, including La Presse. Earlier this afternoon when I pulled up the home page for La Presse, I [...]
Who is Today’s Captain Canada?
March 9, 2011 | 4 Comments
On this day sixteen years ago, Brian Tobin took the first of many bold steps that would later earn him the nickname “Captain Canada.” As Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Tobin ordered his department to more aggressively defend Canada’s stock of turbot fish from foreign fishing vessels entering Canadian waters. On March 9, 1995, a [...]
The Ballot Questions
January 13, 2011 | 3 Comments
A re-election campaign is always a referendum on the incumbent. Voters enter the polling station with three big-picture questions on their checklist, though they admittedly may frame them differently in their own mind. First, dollars and sense: has the Prime Minister’s team managed the nation’s books carefully and responsibly? Second, our social contract: has the [...]
The Fight for Fairness
December 16, 2010 | No Comments
Today, a true champion of equality announced his retirement from federal politics. Bill Siksay, who currently represents the riding of Burnaby-Douglas in British Columbia, will serve the remainder of his term but will not run for re-election in the next federal campaign, which is widely expected next spring. This is a big loss for the New [...]
What Would a Canadian Tea Party Look Like?
December 12, 2010 | 2 Comments
In a matter of months, the Tea Party movement in the United States has grown from obscurity to prominence. Standing on three pillars of principle—limited government, free markets, and individual rights and responsibility—the Tea Party movement has scored momentous victories across all corners of the United States, from the progressive Commonwealth of Massachusetts to the [...]
The Next Majority Government
December 6, 2010 | 6 Comments
Who will lead Canada’s next majority government? History says it’s unlikely to be either Stephen Harper or Michael Ignatieff. Both Harper and Ignatieff lead political parties that have been unable to cross the elusive 40 percent polling threshold—the point at which a majority government becomes a realistic possibility. Neither Harper nor Ignatieff has been able definitively [...]
Canada’s Fall: Causation or Coincidence?
November 15, 2010 | 10 Comments
Last week, the United Nations announced that Canada has placed 8th in the 2010 edition of its annual Human Development Index—a global ranking of countries according to quality of life. This is the lowest Canada has ranked in years. Under Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien, Canada routinely placed 1st in the world, earning top marks [...]
The New Math in Canadian Politics
November 4, 2010 | 7 Comments
Numbers don’t lie. They just don’t. And what the numbers tell us is this: the Conservative Party is winning—and for the foreseeable future will continue to win—the fundraising battle against the Liberal Party. This is not a passing moment that we can dismiss as a fleeting fancy. Quite the contrary, the Conservative Party’s dominance in [...]