Calgary Grit

Frank Klees, the runner up to Tim Hudak in the 2009 Ontario PC leadership race, has announced he will be running for speaker when the Ontario legislature resumes sitting. If you’re wondering why we should care, the answer is “math” – with Klees as speaker, the legislature would be split between 53 Liberals and 53 […]

While the latest round of elections suggest Canadians are craving stability, the situation is starkly different in Quebec. Consider the latest poll from Leger: Legault 36%Lib 22%PQ 18%ADQ 9%QS 7%Green 5%Other 3% “Legault” refers to “a new party led by Francois Legault”, the former PQ Cabinet Minister who heads the Coalition pour l’avenir du Quebec, […]

There was a lot of ink spilled about Liberal rebuilding in the wake of the May 2nd shellacking – both among pundits and party members. Although much of that talk has cooled, with January’s biennial convention approaching, it’s likely time to renew the renewal discussion. What I like about the renewal discussion so far is […]

Nathan Cullen shakes up the Mulcair-Topp cage match with an interesting idea: His plan would be to let grassroots members of the three parties [Liberals, NDP, Greens] decide in each riding currently held by the Conservatives whether they wanted to hold a joint nomination meeting. If they agree, all parties could run candidates at that […]

…Justin Trudeau won’t run, but Thomas Mulcair will. So this sets us up for a Mulcair-Topp battle for Stornoway. All early indications are that Topp and Mulcair will play nice with each other, while their supporters mercilessly smear each other in the press. After watching Liberals do this very thing for years, I’d caution against […]

Three of Alberta’s political parties have now held leadership races this year, with the Wildrose Alliance having picked their leader two years ago. Below are the number of Albertans who voted in each contest: Progressive Conservatives: 59,359 on ballot one, 78,176 on ballot twoAlberta Liberals: 8,640Wildrose Alliance: 8,200Alberta Party: 1,200 Yes, the PC total is […]

Stephen Harper speaks out in favour of “modernizing” the rules for succession when it comes to selecting Britain’s, and Canada’s, head of state. …just so long as this modernization doesn’t including allowing Canada’s head of state to be Catholic, Canadian, or born outside a certain gene pool.

Sad and unexpected news, as former MP Reg Alcock died this morning at the age of 63. I’m sure most will remember his time in Cabinet, but what will stick in my mind was a mild controversy I helped stir up at the 2005 Liberal Policy Convention. I was president of the University of Calgary’s […]