Climate change plan should be priority for political parties in 2015 election: Crane
Welcome to 2015 and a federal election year in Canada. While there will be many political issues, perhaps the most demanding test of our political parties is how they will deal with energy and climate change. It’s an issue that won’t go away. Climate change is real, and significantly threatens future life on the planet […]
Conservative Party uses Trudeau’s ‘juvenile’ CF-18 remark to fundraise, ‘whip out our CF-18s and show them how big they are’
PARLIAMENT HILL—The Conservative Party has launched a fundraising blitz attacking Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau for being on the “wrong side of history” over his stand that Canada should be helping refugees in Iraq rather than sending Canadian warplanes to take part in U.S. led bombing of radical Islamic terrorists. A fundraising email blitz from […]
Mandatory voting would erode Conservatives’ strategic advantage, say experts
PARLIAMENT HILL—A system of mandatory voting now being crowd-tested by the Liberal Party would either erode or eliminate a strategic advantage the Conservative Party held over the past two federal elections through the disproportionate weight of its loyal base, U.S.-style campaign tactics, and negative attack ads, experts say. Electoral strategy and tactics the Conservatives have […]
Liberals on offensive over support to legalize marijuana
PARLIAMENT HILL—Justin Trudeau and the federal Liberals are taking the offensive following sustained Conservative attacks over his support for the legalization of marijuana. The Liberal Party blitzed an email to thousands of party supporters and members on Friday, arguing the Conservative position in favour of maintaining criminal laws prohibiting marijuana possession will only prop up […]
How to embrace a problem: Conservatives can use bad polls to fundraise
OAKVILLE, ONT.—If a problem can’t be avoided, sometimes it should be embraced. To see what I mean just consider the Conservative Party of Canada and its “poll problem,” which can be defined thusly: “Almost every public domain poll that’s come out over the past year or so, has the Conservatives trailing the Justin Trudeau-led […]
Conservatives could be tempted to campaign against courts in next election
For the federal Conservatives, the temptation to campaign against the courts in next year’s federal election must be overwhelming. This is a government determined to bring its brand of law and order to this country, whether it is cracking down on bogus refugee claimants, giving police more surveillance powers, bringing in mandatory sentencing, ending early […]
Trudeau has ‘good shot’ at being Prime Minister Harper’s main challenger in next election, says Nanos
PARLIAMENT HILL—The surge of Liberal Party support in four federal byelections on Monday includes signs of a dramatic recovery from an unprecedented 2011 plunge in Alberta that—combined with the two byelection sweeps in Toronto—should make Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau “pleased as punch,” leading Conservative pundit Tim Powers says. And, in light of the poor […]
Opposition MPs slam Conservatives’ lack of good governance, say legislative process ‘dysfunctional’
PARLIAMENT HILL—The government used time allocation to limit debate 17 times during the 19-day marathon of Commons sittings to midnight from the last week in May through most of June, as Conservative MPs passed or pushed forward a flood of bills before Parliament’s summer recess nearly two weeks ago. The dust settled on June […]
Political parties can spend up to $336,996 on byelections
PARLIAMENT HILL—The main national political parties will each be able to spend up to $336,996 to help their candidates in the four federal byelections scheduled for next Monday, June 30—either in all four electoral districts where votes are taking place or two of the ridings or even just one. But three of the parties declined […]
How the Ontario election polls were so wrong yet so right
At first glance, it seems like public opinion polls delivered a poor prediction of the Ontario provincial election outcome. On the day of the election, poll aggregator Éric Grenier described the trend as "likely Liberal, possibly PC victory" with “a likely return to a minority legislature." While admittedly there was a lot of scatter […]
