Oh, the challenges of fundraising when you can’t blame the opposition or Liberal Senators for defeating your agenda: CPC appeals to party supporters to finance fight against media, pundits With a stable majority government for the next four years and the Liberal Party still reeling from the election results, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party […]

As I mentioned earlier, Mark Holland gave a real barn burner at the ALP convention the weekend before last. What made it such a great speech was that he avoided the usual cliches you get from federal politicians when they come to Calgary – “Alberta Liberals are the best Liberals! Stephen Harper is awful! Go […]

For the first time in a long time, we have a budget that can be judged on its content, rather than its electoral implications. So while the opportunity now exists to read the actual document without worrying about who will vote for and against it, there’s not a lot to be said about it – […]

The Parti Quebecois have basically been handed the next provincial election if they want it. But much like the BC NDP, all indications are their answer is “thanks, but no thanks“. The latest problem for them is the defection of three high profile MNAs. And why are they defecting you ask? Over contentious issues surrounding […]

You can read the first Stephen Harper majority government throne speech here. But you probably don’t need to. After all, there are few surprises in it, which is in line with Harper’s “stability” message repeated every day during the election campaign. The throne speech’s proposals for Senate reform, new House of Commons seats, and crime […]

Mark Holland gave a barn burner speech at the ALP convention on Saturday night that had the entire crowd buzzing – I’ll be sure to post it if I can track down the video. Until then, here’s what Mark had to say about the challenges facing the Liberal Party earlier in the day.

A new-look Parliament resumes today, with the first order of business the naming of a new speaker to replace Peter Milliken. A slew of Conservatives who realize they will never be in Cabinet have put their names forward, including Barry Devolin, Lee Richardson, Bruce Stanton, Merv Tweed, Dean Allison, Ed Hold, and Andrew Scheer, along […]

There’s only so much you can read into the critic portfolios assigned to the third party in the house – especially when numbers dictate that everyone gets something. But the Liberal shadow cabinet deserves a bit of attention, if only because it marks Bob Rae’s first significant public decision as interim leader. Among the notables: […]

I’ve updated my election spreadsheet, and will be posting some riding-by-riding analysis over the next while. For now, a list of somewhat interesting numbers from the last campaign: 1: Ridings the Bloc Quebecois won by more than 3 percentage points, showing how close they came to a complete wipe out. 2: Ridings won by the […]

I know some will roll their eyes when I say this, but the federal Liberals – and all political parties for that matter – could learn a lot from the Alberta Liberal Party. After all, everyone talks about “renewing” and “rebuilding” but all too often those are just meaningless buzzwords. The ALP, however, is actually […]