The Globe and Mail has named Vancouver Quadra one of the 45 battleground ridings that can change the country.
So get out and vote, UBC! Students need to make themselves heard this election.
UBC area voting stations will be at:
* Place Vanier
* Walter Gage Residences
* Acadia Park Commons Block
* Old Barn Community Centre
* UBC Golf Club
I’m always really impressed by Gilles Duceppe. He is one smart guy - and not just because of his infallible ability to relate any question to separatism/federalism. He can think on his feet better than any of the other four and he always has intelligent comments to make. He nailed Harper and to a lesser extent Dion nicely on an Afghanistan question.
Duceppe pointed out that Harper blames the Liberals for many of their Afghanistan-related decisions, and holds them to account on them. However, he said, the Liberals made their decisions early on in the mission, and Harper, with the benefit of experience and as he sees conditions deteriorate, continues down the same path, making bad decisions.
I thought that was a particularly good comment, and I don’t think Harper was really able to respond.
Favourite moment of the debate (or of the half I saw):
Funny stuff.
“The Ottawa NDP, they’re not listening to BC.”
That is the tagline of the first attack ad I have ever seen targeting the NDP. I saw it a few minutes ago on Global BC, in the middle of Oprah. The ad features a greying, bald head from behind, with its fingers stuck in its ears as the narrator talked about crime and road construction. I think the Conservatives could have picked a better Layton double, myself.
If I were Jack, I would take this as a good sign. The NDP is finally being seen as a credible threat in BC. I wonder, are the Conservatives running similar ads elsewhere?
I’m trying to find the ad at the moment. When I do, I will post it here.
Good luck finding anything but election coverage to read or watch in the next few months.
Also, the CBC Ottawa newsroom is in the background right now on Newsworld, and it’s making me homesick.
So my old professor Michael Byers plans to run for the NDP in Vancouver-Centre.
I can’t say I’m surprised. It was no secret at UBC that he was planning to run for something… although the rumour at the time was that he was going Liberal. And, at that time six months ago, I wondered why not NDP. I guess I was proven right in the end.
It seems everybody on the Maclean’s blogs has something to say about this event. So does the Vancouver Sun, unflattering as that article is. The part that interests me is that he decided Stephane Dion’s “Green Shift” wasn’t any good and he preferred the NDP’s environmental plan. Dion must have better marketing, because I don’t remember what the NDP’s environmental strategy is, other than that it’s not (NOT!) the same as the Liberals’.
Still, I’m not sure why Byers doesn’t like Dion’s plan. It seems fairly consistent with his lectures on environmental issues in class. It’s also fairly consistent with the problem he posed to the class: how to ethically dispose of an SUV his family won in a grocery store contest. He didn’t want to drive such an environmentally-damaging car, but nor did he want to sell it, because that would mean somebody else would drive the gas-guzzler all over Vancouver. I don’t know what they finally ended up doing.
His lectures on environmental problems or on many international issues were quite good though, and the support he gave to his students was admirable. Like any good politician, he knew everybody, and would frequently enlist his contacts to help out on student projects.
Anyhow, Prof. Byers, should you ever read this, feel free to comment or drop me an email. I’d love to know why you think Layton’s strategy is better than Dion’s. And what you did with that car.
So I am now on John McCain’s media mailing list.
My God, that man is busy.
I get 5 or 6 emails a day from his campaign, announcing conference calls, denouncing whatever Obama happened to say that day, then announcing a conference call to denounce Obama. McCain also does a lot of general “politicking” all over the place too. I think he was in Missouri today or will be tomorrow… I don’t read the emails in much detail.
Frankly, I don’t understand how presidential candidates stay on their feet.
I stay on the list because it’s vaguely interesting, and my inbox at work doesn’t get all that full anyway, so I have time to read it. It is a little odd for a Canadian reporter who currently works on a show that talks about Canadian politics to be on a John McCain mailing list, but I needed some info on his visit to Ottawa this Friday.
Entertaining things about poking around for that story:
Old news now, but I think this is so cool. I had no idea there were still uncontacted people in the world.
The CBC website version of this story has a great debate on the merits of the “prime directive“. Check it out. Where do I stand? I guess I’m on the side of leaving them alone. I think that they will eventually be contacted either way though, like if helicopters keep flying overhead.
(Picture from Funai, taken from the cbc.ca site)
The Toronto Star is doing a great series this week about the culture of secrecy in Ottawa. It’s called “Secret Capital” and you can find the first article here. It’s being updated all week.
The gist of it seems to be that Ottawa is becoming progressively more secret and that Stephen Harper’s government and the PMO have securely tightened their grip on all information flowing out of government. All messages are controlled through a central authority and government officials, even Members of Parliament are being muzzled to ensure a consistent message line.
I have to say that this has been my own experience thus far. There is a growing culture of secrecy in Ottawa, and I’ve seen it from the inside and the outside. Everything communications-wise at DND got vetted by at least PCO.
From the outside, I still see that there are some extraordinarily helpful individuals in the media relations offices of the government, it’s true. Unfortunately, many of them seem unable to tell me anything when I call.
I had a poor experience with Environment Canada recently. I had asked people from the local B.C. branch some questions regarding municipal sewage treatment for this story I was writing, and with one exception, they all eventually referred me to the central media relations office in Ottawa. Fair enough… not everybody wants to talk when a reporter comes calling.
The media relations person I got first referred me to the website, which I had read, and then asked me to email her my questions. I wanted to speak to an expert who worked in the appropriate division, and I told her so. She wanted to know what questions I was going to ask. Eventually, after calling everyone I could think of in the department to no avail, I emailed some questions.
I got back very unsatisfactory answers after several days. They seemed cut and pasted from a communications policy document, and did not even answer the specific questions I asked. So, I went back.
And again, didn’t get answers. So I went back.
And asked again.
And again.
I called nearly every day for two weeks.
Eventually, as the story was about to be published, I got a bland email with another policy-ese response that ended up in the story. I never got to speak to a live person, other than the media rep. Really, they would have looked better if someone had talked to me.
Read the Star’s series. I have high hopes for it.
Several UBC students were arrested last night, April 4th, at a protest on campus.
I walked by the protest earlier in the evening, when it consisted basically of a couple of bands and an enthusiastic crowd of maybe 20-30 students. This was not unusual in any way for that area.
Later last night, apparently, the protesters lit a bonfire. This is more unusual. When police arrived to put it out, it seems one student stood in front of the hose. That person was arrested, as were more students who then objected to the arrest. According to CP, at least 25 students were arrested. This seems more than a little ridiculous to me.
CBC has some actual footage of the arrests, and a little story too. I really recommend you watch the movie clip. It’s pretty harsh.
For some background:
Since September at least, there has been an ongoing protest in the parking lot next to the Student Union Building, where students set up an impromptu park, complete with grass, a sandbox, chalk drawings on the concrete, and more recently, a couple of free-standing tentlike structures made out of plastic and cloth. The area, called “Trek Park” by the various students who set it up, occasionally falls into disrepair but is generally well-maintained and has at least a couple of students at it during the day. Sometimes they have little concerts and rallies there. I thought that was all last night’s protest was.
Students have been protesting the planned conversion of the area into an underground bus loop, and the apparent lack of student consultation when the decision was made. At least one group also wants there to be more space available for free public use on campus.
This all happened about a block from my home, and also about two blocks from the campus RCMP station. Just so you know.
Stephen Harper will be announcing a confidence vote on the Afghan mission this Thursday. The actual vote will be taking place sometime in March.
That means it’s all up to everyone’s favourite Liberal leader: Stephane Dion.
According to this article, he’s adamant about ending Canada’s Afghan mission in February 2009, and is definitely not open to extending it at all. This could leave him in an awkward position. It pretty much means that he has to vote against the motion, likely bringing down the government, and forcing an election which he is nowhere near sure of winning.
This is of course why Harper is calling a confidence vote in the first place.
I love politics, don’t you?
