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Caucus Splitting
By design, Tuesday’s budget was a non-event. The public’s eyes are on Sochi, and the pundits’ eyes are on next year’s budget. So, it should not be surprising that it was the post-budget fallout that grabbed the most headlines, when Finance Minister Jim Flaherty mused that the Tories central 2011 campaign promise of income splitting […]
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Will any Calgary Grits be going to Ottawa in 2015?
We’ve all heard the jokes. When Calgary was hit with flooding in 2005, the Calgary Herald ran a delicious cartoon showing a giant ark being loaded up at the Stampede grounds, and Noah lamenting that, despite his instructions to rescue 2 of each kind, he couldn’t find a second Liberal. It’s been 46 years since […]
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Liberals Lose Half Their Caucus Under Justin Trudeau’s Leadership
It’s rare that something happens in Ottawa that truly surprises everyone. Despite having spent the last year talking about the senate over and over again, it’s safe to say very few saw this coming: Trudeau leads on Senate Reform: Liberal Leader takes concrete action to remove partisanship and patronage from the Senate OTTAWA – The […]
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How many Tory MPs does it take to screw up a light bulb fundraising campaign?
I know it’s still January, but we have an early contender for the most awesome political story of 2014: Tory MP raising money to fight bulb ban her party enacted OTTAWA — A Conservative MP’s campaign against her own government’s ban of incandescent light bulbs is directing the donations it receives to a Conservative riding […]
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Bart’s Books: Stephen Harper, Episode II
“On any day, [Harper] has a choice, he can do the big conservative thing that would be the end of his career, or he can do some of the small conservative things that won’t.” I’ll save you the trouble of reading the rest of this book review – if you like Paul Wells’ writing style, […]
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2014: Year in Preview
We don’t know what will make headlines in 2014. After all, most political predictions are about as accurate as a Forum poll. So I won’t try to guess how 2014 plays out, but here are a few things we can reasonably expect to see this year: With the new electoral map coming into force, all […]
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The Year in Photos
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Quotes of the Year
Scroll to the bottom to vote on your favourite quote… “I am Conservative. I am a traditionalist. I wish I left Cabinet in the traditional way – with a sex scandal!” –Stephen Fletcher, after being removed from Cabinet “When I stand back and look at the cast of candidates, even I would pick me. I […]
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The Best Intentions
Michael Chong is one the most respected people in the country when it comes to democratic reform. He quit his cabinet position on principle, and proposed a series of thoughtful Question Period reforms in 2010, which seem all the more overdue after the Paul Calandra show we saw last week. So when Michael Chong tables […]
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Liberals: The Next Generation
The Liberal Party is old. I’m not talking about its history, but about the faces it puts before Canadians. The average age of Liberal MPs in Ottawa is 56, with Scott Andrews their youngest at 37. The second youngest is some kid named Justin, but at 41, even he’s old enough to remember most of […]