Canada General Discussion 1.5: The Countdown Begins

[DC Al Fine]

Just finished reading "The Akerman Years" about the NS NDP in the '70's. It's mostly explaining the civil war between the Cape Breton and Halifax wings of the party, and by extension the conflicts between the working class and urban progressive wings of the party. Good read

[RogueBeaver]

Cabinet still undecided on the Chong bill.

Carson goes on trial next year.

Mulcair steps up attacks on Trudeau, using the same angle he's used for months. "PM isn't an entry-level job." Miss the crowbar-wielding Quebec City Mulcair.

[Hash]

A student in one of my classes entertained us with the following big truths today:

Radical union bosses have a radical agenda and elected Kathleen Wynne
The NDP has a secret agenda of socialism
Biebertrudeau's Liberals are very clearly on the left
Tim Hudak lost because of scare tactics

[RogueBeaver]

NDP proposes a $15 minimum wage.

NL Tories choose their sacrificial lamb today.

PKP is gearing up to run for the PQ leadership. My prediction: he'll flop worse than Ryan did on the other side.

[DC Al Fine]

NDP proposes a $15 minimum wage.

NL Tories choose their sacrificial lamb today.

PKP is gearing up to run for the PQ leadership. My prediction: he'll flop worse than Ryan did on the other side.

Good politicking on the NDP's part re the "low wage agenda".

Hopefully PKP does to the PQ what Beaulieu did to the Bloc.

[Hatman 🍁]

NL PC leadership race headed to a third ballot, because 2nd ballot was a 1 vote lead, but not a majority as there was one rejected vote.

[Hatman 🍁]

lol newfy math

[RogueBeaver]

Premier-designate Paul Davis, folks.

[RogueBeaver]

Ipsos: 38/31/23. PPM: Trudeau 42 Harper 35 Mulcair 23. Harper leads on economic management (44/31/26) and foreign policy (42/32/26) while Trudeau leads on vision (40/35/25) and trust (37/33/30).

Tax cuts may come sooner than expected.

[DC Al Fine]

Tax cuts may come sooner than expected.

I'm not complaining, but my provincial government is the ones who really need to cut taxes.

[RogueBeaver]

Same here.

[Njall]

Prentice was sworn in as Premier today.. He also unveiled his cabinet.  Notably, he appointed two ministers who aren't (yet) elected members of the Legislature: Stephen Mandel (former mayor of Edmonton) as Minister of Health, and Gordon Dirks (former Calgary Board of Education Trustee, and Minister of Social Services in Saskatchewan during the mid-1980s) as Minister of Education.

[RogueBeaver]

Those by-elections should be fun.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Ipsos: 38/31/23. PPM: Trudeau 42 Harper 35 Mulcair 23. Harper leads on economic management (44/31/26) and foreign policy (42/32/26) while Trudeau leads on vision (40/35/25) and trust (37/33/30).

Tax cuts may come sooner than expected.

How can anyone claim that Trudeau has vision? Sigh.

[Hatman 🍁]

Those by-elections should be fun.

I've heard of premiers being picked who don't have seats, but cabinet ministers? And now Prentice is going to force at least one more Tory backbencher to give up their seat?

[Njall]

Those by-elections should be fun.

I've heard of premiers being picked who don't have seats, but cabinet ministers? And now Prentice is going to force at least one more Tory backbencher to give up their seat?

On the federal level, Chretien appointed Stephane Dion to cabinet in 1996, prior to Dion winning a by-election.  In fact, according to this Edmonton Journal blog, there were 169 people appointed to the federal cabinet from outside the HoC between 1867 and 2011. 

As for the by-elections, I think only one more backbencher will have to step down.  As it stands now, I imagine that Mandel will run in Edmonton-Whitemud and Dirks will run in Calgary-Elbow, so that just leaves Prentice to find a seat.  It looks like Prentice will probably get Neil Brown to step down so that he can run in Calgary-Mackay-Nose Hill; I've heard that he wants to run in a riding that (at least partially) overlaps with his old federal seat, and those four ridings are Calgary-Mackay-Nose Hill, Calgary-Klein (where the MLA just got sworn in to the new cabinet), Calgary-Mountain View (has a Liberal MLA), and Calgary-Varsity (MLA shows no sign of wanting to step down; also has a strong Liberal base).

[njwes]

Harper leads on economic management (44/31/26) and foreign policy (42/32/26) while Trudeau leads on vision (40/35/25) and trust (37/33/30).

That's pretty comical; I guess ~vision~ trumps all for a sizable subset of voters

That article didn't give a sense of who would mainly benefit from the tax cuts--would it be a Bush Tax Cuts type deal or would they be spread more evenly across income brackets?

[Hatman 🍁]

Those by-elections should be fun.

I've heard of premiers being picked who don't have seats, but cabinet ministers? And now Prentice is going to force at least one more Tory backbencher to give up their seat?

On the federal level, Chretien appointed Stephane Dion to cabinet in 1996, prior to Dion winning a by-election.  In fact, according to this Edmonton Journal blog, there were 169 people appointed to the federal cabinet from outside the HoC between 1867 and 2011. 

As for the by-elections, I think only one more backbencher will have to step down.  As it stands now, I imagine that Mandel will run in Edmonton-Whitemud and Dirks will run in Calgary-Elbow, so that just leaves Prentice to find a seat.  It looks like Prentice will probably get Neil Brown to step down so that he can run in Calgary-Mackay-Nose Hill; I've heard that he wants to run in a riding that (at least partially) overlaps with his old federal seat, and those four ridings are Calgary-Mackay-Nose Hill, Calgary-Klein (where the MLA just got sworn in to the new cabinet), Calgary-Mountain View (has a Liberal MLA), and Calgary-Varsity (MLA shows no sign of wanting to step down; also has a strong Liberal base).

Interesting; I hadn't realized Hancock had resigned.

[RogueBeaver]

Sounds like Stoffer will announce retirement tomorrow. Safe Grit pickup without him?

[DC Al Fine]

Harper leads on economic management (44/31/26) and foreign policy (42/32/26) while Trudeau leads on vision (40/35/25) and trust (37/33/30).

That's pretty comical; I guess ~vision~ trumps all for a sizable subset of voters

That article didn't give a sense of who would mainly benefit from the tax cuts--would it be a Bush Tax Cuts type deal or would they be spread more evenly across income brackets?

They haven't been announced yet.

Sounds like Stoffer will announce retirement tomorrow. Safe Grit pickup without him?

Absolutely.

[Hatman 🍁]

Sounds like Stoffer will announce retirement tomorrow. Safe Grit pickup without him?

Very sad news. Is the provincial NDP having a leadership race? Maybe he will run!

[DC Al Fine]

Sounds like Stoffer will announce retirement tomorrow. Safe Grit pickup without him?

Very sad news. Is the provincial NDP having a leadership race? Maybe he will run!

Afraid not. He's already ruled it out.

There's been no word on a leadership convention yet. The new leader will probably be Maureen MacDonald, the current interim leader and de facto head of the party's left wing.

[RogueBeaver]

Stoffer is running again. Said he planned to retire but got encouragement to stay.

[DC Al Fine]

Stoffer is running again. Said he planned to retire but got encouragement to stay.

And Sackville-Preston-Chezzetcook goes back to Safe NDP.

[Citizen Hats]

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Surrey+mayor+take+leap+into+federal+politics/10212524/story.html

Dianne Watts declares for the Tories, likely to run in Surrey-Whiterock-Cloverdale