Civil servants warming up to Tories
But PSAC Union President Nycole Turmel says she definitely does not want to see a Harper Conservative government, especially a majority one. Conservative candidates in Canada’s National Capital Region are starting to look more “attractive”to civil servants, a senior official from the Public Service Alliance of Canada said last week. As it concludes meetings with […]
Conservatives signs all over the map [Canadian edition of the Book of Lists]
Losing zingers on Martin’s Liberals Endless lists… Scott Reid, the Prime Minister’s director of communications, might want to take a look at this one.The Canadian Edition of the Book of Lists has just about everything, including the top 10 list of election-losing zingers. Liberal strategist John Duffy compiled this list of lines guaranteed to bring […]
Corrections
In the Dec. 19 issue, The Hill Times incorrectly reported that the Carisse Cafe Studio is owned by Jean-Marc Carisse, the former official photographer to former prime minister Jean Chretien.The cafe is owned by Mr. Carisse’s wife, Patricia Penzin Carisse. * In the Dec. 19 issue of The Hill Times in the Ninth Annual All […]
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Incorrect use of word ‘racist’ When Lynn Truss became so fed up with sloppy and inaccurate punctuation, she transcribed her lamentations into a book (Eats, Shoots and Leaves). When letter-writers such as Walter Daschko and Richard Pearson (The Hill Times, Dec. 12) bandy about the word “racist”to describe comments made by Jean Augustine, I feel […]
For incumbent Prime Minister Paul Martin, the best-case minority scenario could also be the most dangerous
A minority Liberal government that had a bit of time ahead of it might be more tempted to change the guard quicker than one whose survival would hang by a thread. Will Paul Martin or Stephen Harper be Prime Minister of Canada at this time next year? Or will the PM be someone other than […]
LETTERS
Election campaign polling makes mockery of democratic process Re: “Pollsters warning: political environment ‘very volatile’”(The Hill Times, Dec. 12). Pollsters who ask citizens to divulge their voting preferences are wandering into the sacred territory of the secret ballot. Given that polls do influence the voting choices many citizens make, I believe that pollsters should be […]
The Spin Doctors: “Who won Thursday night’s televised debate and how important will the debates be in January in this campaign?”
Leslie Swartman Liberal Strategist “I think there were two winners. First, I believe that Paul Martin came out ahead, both in terms of substance and expectations. As Paul Wells (who is certainly no fan of the Prime Minister) noted, it’s harder to do the job of Prime Minister than to seek it. So despite the […]
At the present rate of progress, women won’t share equally in political power in Canada for another four generations
It’s not just that so few women are running in this election, but so few are campaigning in winnable ridings. The four major parties have already nominated most of their candidates. So far, less than a quarter of those nominated are women.That’s a little better share of candidacies than in 2004 but not by much. […]
Attack campaign on federal Grits spews ‘beer and popcorn’
It’s kind of like hockey. You want the puck to be in the other team’s zone because a good offence is the best defence, explained communications specialist Andre Lafrance. “The choice of the [Liberal] communications team, is to be that of a young party in an attack mode,”said Mr. Lafrance, a professor at Universite de […]
Canada could learn from Iraq elections: author O’Leary [The Future of Kurdistan in Iraq]
Canada stands to learn from the elections in Iraq to apply to its own democracy, explained author and political science professor Brandan O’Leary last week. Speaking at a reception launching his new book, The Future of Kurdistan in Iraq, he explained that Iraq’s mixed proportional representation system might even be more efficient than Canada’s since […]