-
Pre-Debate Seat Projections
Up until now, I’ve taken the approach that the polls are rather meaningless, as the electorate still isn’t tuned in to this campaign. There’s no need to curl up in a fetal position in the shower just because your favourite party is down 10 points in Atlantic Canada. But consider this the last free pass. […]
-
Friendly Advice to my Conservative Friends
Just because you’ve gotten away with taking Michael Ignatieff’s quotes wildly out of context, it doesn’t mean you can get away with it for everyone else. Especially when the “everyone else” is Sheila Fraser, who your party has played no small role in lifting to deity status: Tories misquoted me on summit costs, Fraser says […]
-
October Surprise
Outside of the NHL’s playoff schedule, we haven’t had many outside events impact this election. Until today: Tories misled Parliament on G8 spending: Auditor-General The Harper government misinformed Parliament to win approval for a $50-million G8 fund that lavished money on dubious projects in a Conservative riding, the Auditor-General has concluded. And she suggests the […]
-
Week 2 in Review – You Didn’t Miss Much
After a relatively substantive opening week to the campaign, week two quickly descended into a morass of meaningless gaffes and process stories – the kind of things that earn tons of ink, even though voters care next to nothing about them. We shockingly learned that Stephen Harper likes to stack Conservative rallies with Conservatives. We […]
-
Hors Jeu
Let’s just hope the Habs aren’t playing May 2nd, or we might need to reschedule the whole election: French election debate switched to Wednesday because of Habs OTTAWA—File this one in the only-in-Canada category. A multi-partisan outcry has led to the rescheduling of a federal election debate so that it does not overlap with a […]
-
Finally, someone promises to cut the overbloated spending by this Tory government
The Conservatives! The Conservative platform promises $11 billion in cuts…without saying where the $11 billion in cuts will come from. For more, listen to Paul Wells try to make sense of it with Jim Flaherty.
-
Proof this election has BENEFITED our fragile economic recovery
Two weeks ago, the budget was projected to be balanced in 2015-16. Now, the budget is projected to be balanced one year sooner.
-
A Picture’s Worth 30,000 Words
The 30,871 word Liberal platform and the 22,178 word Tory platfom, in word clouds: Not surprisingly, both are heavy on the “Canada”. Of note, the Liberal platform uses the word family or families 310 times, compared to 63 in the Tory platform. The Conservatives use the word coalition in their platform 48 times – it […]
-
See 2015 Today
The Tories release their platform, though don’t hold your breathe – most of the big ticket promises won’t be implemented until the deficit is eliminated. The good news is this is projected to be one year ahead of schedule, in 2014-15. The bad news? This is based on wishful thinking, rather than anything concrete: “We […]