Politics this morning: Judgment day for Duffy
After 62 days of testimony, stretched out over the course of a year-long-trial, Mike Duffy and the rest of the country will finally learn this morning whether the Senator has been found guilty in the 31 charges he faces related to senate expenses, fraud, and bribery. A statement was issued yesterday from the Speaker of […]
Of histrionic leaps, leadership, and insufferable buoyancy
OTTAWA—Newspaper after newspaper has been plastered with a tired grey face coupled with a lazy histrionic headline and “failure” narrative. For anyone outside the Ottawa bubble, any vision of the man with the big bearded smile who was inches away from the Prime Minister’s Office just one year ago (as polls, pundits and NDP staffers […]
A modified ‘leap’ could vault the NDP back into contention
GATINEAU, QUE.—Far from dooming the federal NDP to the margins of political life, the Leap Manifesto—or, at least, its central idea—could save the social democratic party from irrelevance. (Not without work, luck and diplomacy—but all successful parties need that.) But first, someone has to take the pruning shears to the hysteria, half-truths and lazy stereotyping […]
Perspective (and memory) needed in debate about the future of the NDP
OTTAWA—In the days following the New Democratic Party convention in Edmonton, a reporter asked Ed Broadbent “what’s the point of having the NDP” since the Liberals have apparently “moved left.” Broadbent, 80, didn’t miss a beat before replying. “I have a bit of a memory,” he said matter-of-factly before rhyming off a litany of broken […]
NDP supporters urge respectful debate in an effort to avoid divisive party infighting
After a convention that left many NDPers “dazed and confused,” with divided opinions over decisions to hold a leadership race and further debate over the Leap Manifesto, important questions and conversations lie ahead for members, and party analysts urge caution and respect to avoid real schisms and infighting. “Social media channels—Twitter, texts, and emails—in the […]
Has the NDP saved itself from irrelevance?
POWELL RIVER, B.C.—In the aftermath of Tom Mulcair’s crushing repudiation at the NDP’s convention the party enters a period of self-reflection and reinvention that it has never experienced before. The pent-up pressure for such a process was demonstrated dramatically in Edmonton— the humiliating defeat of a leader unprecedented in the party’s history and the (cautious) […]
Thomas Mulcair is out, now what?
TORONTO—The NDP convention in Edmonton confirmed that the New Democratic Party is deeply divided, but its members should not fool themselves into believing that it’s all about the leadership of Tom Mulcair. The NDP has an identity problem and it has to make up its mind about its own identity. Outgoing president Rebecca Blaikie was quoted as saying at the […]
Former Quebec Liberal staffer now press secretary to National Revenue Minister
National Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier welcomed two new Quebecers to her ministerial staff team last month, with press secretary Chloé Luciani-Girouard and assistant to the parliamentary secretary and special assistant Jean-Sébastien Bock-Nadeau having each marked March 14 as their first day officially on the job. Both recently moved to Ottawa from la belle province to work for […]
A Jack Layton bobble-head doll in her office, NDP MP Tracey Ramsey dives into trade at the deep end
The questions were focused and concise, free from the political preamble often jammed into queries from Members of Parliament in the spotlight. Will the government provide financial aid? Which studies have been done? Where are those emails going? The prosecutor on this occasion was not outgoing NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair, but one of the freshest […]
A movement in search of a leader: where does the NDP go from here?
OTTAWA—I never understood why Thomas Mulcair kept saying, “When I’m prime minister” during last fall’s election campaign. Whatever he was thinking, the smarmy, overconfident phraseology struck me as totally wrong—symbolic of a tone-deaf campaign that finally caught up with him in the rejection of his leadership on Sunday. Mulcair is a decent fellow who did […]
