Calgary Grit

Tom Axworthy is a guy who likes to toss ideas out there – he’s sort of the Preston Manning of the left. Anyways, Axworthy recently drafted a report on how to improve debates in Canada. I’d originally scribbed down some notes when his report was first released, but never got around to posting them. Then […]

I’m on vacation for the next week. I have two pre-drafted posts on time delay to go up during the week, but don’t expect any commentary on news events even if something cataclysmic happens, like the government falling or Michael Ignatieff playing the harmonica. For now, I’ll re-post the piece I did up for the […]

Harper’s former communications director on anonymous sources: But it appears not enough was done to check if this [floor crossing story] was true until after the story was published. The reality is this was simply a lead sparked by uninformed, partisan gossip that should have been dropped upon further investigation. The reporter in question, and […]

OTTAWA — Michael Ignatieff insisted Wednesday he has no plan to raise taxes, denying a report that he’s about to embark on a politically risky “adult conversation” with Canadians about the painful measures necessary to eliminate the country’s ballooning deficit. While I tend to agree that a promise of raising taxes might not be the […]

Via Wells, Harper today: “The difficulty with the opposition, everyone knows, is they can complain about the deficit all they want, but everyone knows they’d run it a lot higher and they’d make it permanent.” “We don’t want to get into a situation like the Liberals had us in in the ’90s, where they were […]

With Coderre’s resignation as defense critic, Ignatieff has taken the opportunity to shuffle around Liberal critic portfolios. Back in January, I had a few critical comments on Ignatieff’s initial lineup of critics – among them: 1. Dosanjh, Dion, and Cotler left out2. Weak western representation3. Trudeau and young stars left out4. Coderre as Quebec lieutenant5. […]

Magazine names Flaherty top finance chief And no, the magazine in question is not the Onion.

Liberal MPs looking to defect, Tories say To summarize, Tories are spreading rumours that make the Liberals look bad. And this is news. Good grief. Even better, the Star story focuses on speculation about Ruby Dhalla crossing the floor even though: a) Ruby Dhalla has said she’s not considering crossing the floorb) The anonymous Tories […]

…in four ridings. And after a pair of intriguing provincial by elections last month, it’s hard to get too excited over these ones. Pundits Guide has the full run-down, but here are the basics: When: November 9thWhere: Cumberland Colchester, New Westminster-Coquitlam, Hochelaga, and Montmagny-yada-yada-yada Somewhat counter-intuitively, the good news for the Liberals is that they […]