Lights out on 38th House
It may have sounded absurd, but just before the three opposition parties brought down the government last Monday night in an historic straight non-confidence vote, House Speaker Peter Milliken invited every MP to a reception – mind you following the defeat of the government – in the Speaker’s Room 216- N Centre Block “to permit […]
They’re off and running… but are women stalled? [Federal election candidates]
At the launch of the election, women make up just shy of 22% of the candidates nominated. The NDP leads the parties in nominating women with 35%.The Liberals and Bloc stand at 27% and 25% respectively, while only 11% of Conservative candidates are women. While there are still many candidates to be identified, current numbers […]
Many Liberal incumbents unhappy about 56-day election campaign
Two weeks ago, Liberal incumbents and party strategists clashed over the length of the campaign. Incumbents didn’t want a long campaign. Strategists did. Most incumbent Liberals running for re-election, some in the fights of their political lives, are not happy about the Prime Minister’s decision to opt for a 56-day campaign, but they say they […]
Harper bets voters will look past talking heads to embrace a popular GST reduction
Stephen Harper obviously feels that chipping away at the most hated piece of the Mulroney legacy will do more for the Conservative Party in this election than tearing the Liberal record to shreds. The two-point cut to the GST he promised last week is the biggest item in the Conservative election platform. It was rushed […]
Prime Minister Paul Martin has failed federal leadership test at Natural Resources Canada: federal Conservatives
The PM recently appointed John McCallum, who is also the Revenue Minister, as the acting NRCan Minister ‘in order not to disappoint ambitious Liberal backbenchers.’ In other words, Liberal caucus politics takes priority over the leadership needs of NRCan. Abundant natural resources are a rich source of economic activity in Canada which generate over 12.5 […]
The Spin Doctors: “Time for a little levity people. If your party leader were a movie star, who would he be and in which film would he be starring as the 39th general election begins?”
Leslie Swartman Liberal Strategist “I think Paul Martin would best be styled after Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry.He has ruthlessly cleaned up the government finances and has tackled financial accountability with a vengeance. He stood up to the ambition-fuelled opposition parties and dared them to either bring the House down or follow the timetable he […]
Cabinet Ministers Who Won By Less Than Five Per Cent in 2004 Federal Election
1. Canadian Heritage Minister Liza Frulla: 0.2% over BQ in Jeanne-Le Ber, Que. 2. Northern Development Minister Ethel Blondin-Andrew: 0.3% over NDP in Western Arctic, N.W.T. 3. Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew: 1.1% over BQ in Papineau, Que. 4. Human Resources and Skills Development Minister Belinda Stronach: 1.3% over Lib in Newmarket-Aurora, Ont.; elected as […]
What’s it going to be? Election predictions across the country
Election results prognosticators want chance to update predictions again two weeks before election day, in Jan. 9 issue of The Hill Times Rick Mercer, host, Rick Mercer Report: “I’m predicting a dead tie between the Liberals and the Tories with both parties having 111 seats each, BQ 60, NDP 26 with the Green Party coming […]
Clumsy, sloppy attacks in Quebec run won’t work, Liberals warned
Federal Liberals in Quebec are eager to put up a bigger fight against popular sovereigntist Bloc Quebecois in the next election. The federal Liberals’ strategy to attack the sovereigntists is a good one to gain ground in Quebec, but not if they’re firing “clumsy”random shots in all directions, a former policy adviser to the Bloc […]
Federal Libs DeTrudeauize Liberal Party of Canada
TORONTO – It’s going to be long, tough and dirty. It’s not the Iraq war, it’s the election campaign. If you want proof of how nasty it will be, just take a look at last week’s exchanges in the House between the opposition and government benches. Based on what political leaders are telling Canadians, there […]
