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Guest Post: The State of the Alberta Liberal Party
As one might imagine, the Alberta Liberal Party has been doing some soul searching in the wake of a difficult election earlier this year. In the past month, controversy has swirled around MLA Kent Hehr over his efforts to reach out to the NDP and discuss merger. This prompted a bizarre rebuttal from ALP President […]
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2012 Woman of the Year
Every December, I like to name a “Person of the Year” – the individual who left their mark on Canadian politics over the past year. The only rules are that the PM is too obvious a choice, and that lame picks (“You!”) are strictly verboten. The Person of the Year doesn’t need to be someone […]
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Opto Civilitas
Some of you may recall Pat Martin’s noble quest to bring civility to Parliament: “This is my new policy,” Martin said, holding up a handful of party-coloured buttons he had made reading “Opto Civitas.” “I choose civility. That’s the new me.” He had 300 buttons made up in all party colours — including a green […]
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OLP News Roundup
Bits and pieces of news from the Ontario Liberal Party leadership race, in advance of tonight’s debate in Ottawa. The Policy Candidate: Glen Murray has released the most detailled policy proposals and routinely peppers his speeches with more facts and figures than you’ll see in a fourth year economics class. For you wonks, be sure […]
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Do you think it is easy to write history books?
As if the lock-out wasn’t enough for hockey fans, it looks like one long-anticipated stocking stuffer won’t be ready this year. We haven’t heard a peep from Harper since this story last Christmas: PM Harper’s hockey book to drop next year OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper — the hockey nut that he is — […]
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Liberal Leadership Pool
While a Justin Trudeau cakewalk in the Liberal leadership race doesn’t seem quite as inevitable as it did two weeks ago, most pundits still regard his win as inevitable. However, while discussing the relative strengths of the Coyne and Takach campaigns over drinks last week, it occurred to me there’s a fair amount of intrigue […]
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Interview with David Bertschi
After brunch with David Merner and my trip to the George Takach launch, my tour of lesser known Liberal leadership candidates lands on David Bertschi today. While not an “official” candidate yet, Bertschi has been campaigning longer than most. He was the first candidate to launch a website, and even released a Hollywood-style trailer in […]
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George Takach Joins the Field
Last Thursday, George Takach became the…I dunno…54th? 55th? person you’ve never heard of to declare for the federal Liberal leadership race. Takach launched at Toronto’s MaRS Discovery Centre, before flying to Calgary (as all Liberal leadership candidates are constitutionally mandated to do). On paper, Takach is likely the least exciting candidate in the race. He […]
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The Air War Begins
The Ontario Liberal Party’s leadership race has been largely fought on the ground until now. With such a tight timeline, the campaigns were forced to focus almost exclusively on signing up new members until November 23rd. There have been polls, endorsements, and a few policies rushed out the door, but most of the race has […]