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The reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated
There’s a lot of excitement in Liberal land over the latest Nanos poll: CPC 35.6%Lib 28.1%NDP 27.3%Green 3.9%BQ 3.9% As much as I’d love to jump up and down and chant “suck it Peter Newman“, the reality is that this poll is essentially meaningless. We’ve just been through an exhausting few years politically and voters […]
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Party of Principle
While Peter C. Newman has been getting headlines with his diagnosis that the Liberal Party is dead, Andrew Coyne offers his recipe for resurrection here. While I generally agree with Coyne’s article, like Far and Wide, I would quibble that his criticism of the roadmap to renewal is unfair (“do you think it is easy […]
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Bag ‘O Links: Alberta Edition
1. We’ve known Rob Anders has been asleep on the job for years…though this may be the first literal instance: Still, I’m sure most who have heard John Duncan speak will have some sympathy for Anders. 2. Alberta Liberal MLA Bridgit Pastoor is heading back to the Tories, as part of the “future considerations” in […]
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Time for some F’ing Civility
I bookmarked this news story as soon as I saw it in May because, Pat Martin being Pat Martin, I knew it wouldn’t be long before it would be worth resurrecting: “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 […]
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Asymmetrical Federalism
The NDP has made a lot of noise arguing Quebec deserves a fixed percentage of seats in the House of Commons. At the same time, they continue to move full speed ahead with a leadership race where Quebecers will be little more than an afterthought. After some enthusiastic headlines about the party’s membership numbers “soaring” […]
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Opposition for the Sake of Opposition
The Liberals have come out against an expanded House of Commons, arguing we have enough MPs as it is. I personally feel the problem is one of quality rather than quantity, but most Canadians would likely agree with the Liberal position and it makes a certain amount of sense when you consider Canada’s population-to-MP ratio. […]
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Primary Debates
In his Macleans.ca debut, my friend Jeff Jedras takes aim at the proposal Liberals will be voting on in January to move to a US-style primary system to choose the party’s next leader and nominate candidates. While I’ve already voiced my support for this system, Jeff raises three valid critiques which I want to take […]
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Copps’ Laws
I haven’t picked a horse in the race for LPC President, but Sheila Copps is certainly the candidate I’m most familiar with – I was, after all, one of a very very small number of Copps delegates at the 2003 Liberal Leadership Convention. And while I like a lot of what I’ve heard from Sheila […]
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A Roadmap to Renewal
The Liberal Roadmap to Renewal has been released and can be read here. There are several longer drafts floating around I’ve put on my weekend reading list, but at 80-100 pages, I may just wait for the movie version. While the process feels a little too top-down for my liking, we’ve been talking about renewal […]
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Luxury Tax
The Conservatives admit to overspending by $420,000 and are found guilty of breaking election laws. The punishment? A $50,000 fine…or about the amount they’ll raise from their next anti-CBC e-mail. Which is kind of appropriate, since they never got more than a political slap on the wrist for the “in and out scandal”. The blame […]