That didn't take too long. Bourrie made the right call. Interesting that it took a libel suit to prompt the clarification and apology.
Archive for the ‘Politics’ category
Kinsella v. Bourrie, update
February 21st, 2006Emerson defection: Canada needs someone who knows what’s going on
February 7th, 2006There is no shortage of outrage over David Emerson's defection to the Tories. Aaron is one of a few who hold out the possibility that there's more to this move than meets the eye. Perhaps the fact that the current round of WTO negotiations will likely end with the expiration of President Bush's Trade Promotion Authority in 2007 motivated Harper to recruit an intelligent, knowledgeable Minister of International Trade? Harper tapped Chuck Strahl for Agriculture & Agri-Food. He needs just as good or better for International Trade, and he found it.
I don't like how Emerson became a Tory cabinet minister, but there are plenty of reasons to justify it.
observations on the election
January 24th, 2006- Stephen Harper isn't making any friends in Ontario waiting so long to speak. It's 1:00 am EST!
- Turnout was pretty good: 64 per cent so far with more polls to report.
- The conservatives were shut out of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.
- Stephen Harper received 41,549 votes -- did anyone else come close to that?
- Wow, the conservatives picked up ten seats in Quebec. Cool.
- Michael Ignatieff will be foreign affairs critic and the worst nightmare of whichever conservative MP becomes Minister of Foreign Affairs.
- Liam McHugh-Russell garnered more than 8,000 votes. Good work Liam.
- I hope Andy Mitchell wins in a recount.
- Stephen Harper's speech is really good so far (1:33).
War Plan Red
December 31st, 2005I'm not surprised but I am amused. I give you War Plan Red, the not-so-secret US plan to invade Canada. (hat tip: bourque)
An important question
December 16th, 2005Romeo St. Martin hits a nail on the head:
But if Canada has a legitimate national press corps and not a bunch of poll watching, PM-rant and press-release transcribing, navel gazers on a plane then at some point -- real soon -- reporters are going to have to ask all the party leaders -- especially the current prime minister -- an important question.
"Would you support military action against Iran, even if it does not have the unanimous approval of the UN Security Council?"
This is why I used to be a conservative
November 4th, 2005Harper should stick to this kind of policy and stop focusing so much on same-sex marriage. This is the kind of policy that I can support.
subsidising cows while milking the poor
October 17th, 2005
The story of Europe's pampered cows is a familiar one but always worth retelling. Each head of cattle in Europe gets a subsidy from the taxpayer worth $2.20 a day at a time when half the world's population - 3 billion people in all - scrapes by on an income of less that that.
Canada is not much better.
same level as health care?
October 7th, 2005Stronach on the need for better debate on post-secondary education policy:
I would like to see that we engage Canadians and that we elevate the level of debate around the issue of education to the same level that health care has had," Ms. Stronach said. "It's so important to future competitiveness and for securing investment in this country.
The second part of her statement is fine, but the first part is silly. It's the willingness to fund PSE that needs to be increased, not the level of debate. For that matter, the level of debate on health care was and continues to be poor, with some exceptions.
Good work, Prime Minister Martin
October 6th, 2005I think Martin's speech today in New York was a good idea. Stressing the cost to American homebuilders is good strategy. Of course, like most dumping and subsidy issues, the losers on the American side are widely distributed and the winners on the American side are concentrated and organized. Softwood lumber can be solved in basically two ways: through government action in Canada (changing how we set stumpage fees) or through government action in the US. I'm not convinced that a speech in New York is reaching the key people on the US side, but I don't know the legislative geography on this issue very well. It won't make things worse.
memo to incumbents: frugality is a virtue
October 5th, 2005Wasteful spending suggests a terrible attitude towards public money. Lots of expenses are perfectly reasonable, but Joe Volpe's pizza dinners are not. I remember that Preston Manning didn't want to move into Stornoway. Sigh.
