If the Harper government gets voted out, we will have a coalition government. Fascinating stuff coming out of Ottawa these days. It makes me happy to go home for Christmas.
Archive for the 'Politics' Category
01
Dec
It’s official
So CBC has updated their story on the coalition government, with a few more details.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/11/30/canada-coalition.html
01
Dec
Coalition government?
This story appeared momentarily on cbc.ca. It’s since disappeared from their front page. Wonder why?
NDP, Liberals reach deal to topple minority Tory government
Last Updated: Sunday, November 30, 2008 | 9:51 PM ET Comments 69
CBC News
The NDP and Liberals have reached a deal to topple the minority Conservative government and take power themselves in a coalition, CBC News has learned.
A deal has been negotiated between NDP Leader Jack Layton and Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion that would see them form a coalition government for two and a half years, the CBC’s Keith Boag reported, citing sources.
The NDP would be invited into cabinet and get 25 per cent of seats, Boag said, adding that the party wouldn’t get the position of the finance chair or the deputy prime minister’s post.
“That’s the big step forward tonight,” Boag reported.
The Bloc Québécois wouldn’t be a part of the coalition, but would have to support it, he said.
“The most difficult question is who’ll be the leader,” Boag said, adding that Dion, who negotiated the deal, believes he has the right to be prime minister.
Opposition parties say they have lost confidence in the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper after Thursday’s economic update by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty failed to provide a stimulus package for Canadians.
Since then, the Liberals have been in negotiations to form a coalition with the NDP, and the concessions made by the Conservatives this weekend have done nothing to change the party’s view that Harper must go.
14
Oct
Election day
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):
- Dion turns to Layton and says how the reason Mr. Duceppe will never be prime minister is because of how he makes decisions on Afghanistan.
- The moderator and Duceppe gently point out that he is speaking to Layton, not Duceppe.
- Dion laughs and says yes, he meant Layton, and there is a very different reason why Duceppe won’t be prime minister.
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.
07
Sep
Election October 14
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.
04
Jul
Michael Byers, NDP
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:
- Introducing myself as someone with the “Canadian Broadcasting Corporation” rather than CBC Radio
- Discovering that the Republican website is plastered with pictures of Obama, with nary a McCain to be found (seems to have changed since I first saw it, now with at least 1 McCain related item, so the humour is somewhat lost now)
- Getting an item that’s under embargo (in another country… not that I would break it, but what would the legal consequences be in that case?)
- Mystifying people with the simple question, “So why is he coming to Canada?”
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.
