Major disconnect between Conservative war room, campaigners
A campaign relying too heavily on the leader at the expense of Cabinet ministers, sticking to script despite its surprising third-place position, and with a “major disconnect” between the war room and campaigners in the field has Conservative insiders worried five weeks from election day. Conservatives The Hill Times reached last week expressed concern […]
Alexander’s Ajax opponents taking aim at minister’s record amidst refugee crisis
The Toronto-area riding of Ajax, where Immigration Minister Chris Alexander is in a tight race with former Liberal MP Mark Holland, might be the national epicenter of the Syrian refugee crisis but those on the ground aren’t convinced that issue alone will swing the riding. Mr. Alexander and the Conservative government have been under fire […]
Harper’s press conferences have added bonus: being heckled by the crowd
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s press conferences in this campaign have so far come with a partisan soundtrack and while all three leaders have kept supporters in the room during their daily press conferences, which is not new, it’s happening a lot more in this election, particularly with the Conservatives, and it’s leaving a bad taste. […]
PS union continues to bargain while campaigning against Conservatives
A major public sector union is in the “uncommon” position of negotiating with government over its collective bargaining agreement during the election campaign even while advocating against the Conservative government through ads and by targeting specific ridings. “It’s quite uncommon for the Treasury Board to want to negotiate during the election period but this time […]
Refugee crisis less damaging to Conservatives than coverage suggests: Innovative Research poll
Despite the media focus on the Syrian refugee crisis and calls for the Conservatives to respond more compassionately, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s party isn’t badly positioned on the issue and it could even present an opportunity, a new survey shows. “It’s not doing the damage that some people might have thought,” pollster Greg Lyle of […]
Federal government has ‘failed’ to respond to Syrian crisis, say aid groups
A majority of Canadians want to see Canada do more to help the roughly four million Syrian refugees fleeing conflict in the region, but so far advocacy groups say the federal government has “failed” to respond to this “exceptional” humanitarian crisis. “There has been no additional support offered to refugees to respond to the Syrian […]
Liberals build momentum in tight race: Innovative Research Poll
VANCOUVER, B.C.—Since our last survey two weeks ago, a new online poll of 2,121 Canadians by Innovative Research Group Inc. shows the Liberals have gained three percentage points while the NDP dropped two and the Conservatives one. These are not very big changes, so can we read much into them? What we should not be […]
New Harper strategist Crosby speaks about negative campaigning, election prep
PARLIAMENT HILL—The newly revealed brains behind Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s general election campaign, Australian political backroomer Lynton Crosby, believes it is the “tone” of negative campaigning that is important as well as the content of the attack. Mr. Crosby has also disclosed, in an hour-long seminar with would-be political activists in the United Kingdom last […]
Still waiting for new era of accountability
Prime Minister Stephen Harper states that his government “only failed to deliver on one promise from the 2011 campaign.” I’ll leave it to others to verify that, but what can be verified is that Mr. Harper’s 2006 promise of a “new era of accountability” has not been delivered. These are but three examples of action […]
Media need tune-up, from top down
My observation of the media is they report on the fast, easy news and forget the tougher subjects that need considerable time and energy to investigate. It seems very evident that there is also political bias as well. The Mike Duffy trial is proof of this, when the Prime Minister is hounded about this on […]
