Friday, July 31, 2009

Golden Horseshoe nomination news

http://www.oakvillebeaver.com/news/article/270986

I hadn't heard anything out of Halton, but this article gives three names; Gary Zemlak, who ran provincially last election and damn near knocked off PC incumbant Ted Chudleigh, as well as two candidates who have officially gotten the green light: Rohit Dhamija and Sheref El Sabawy.

Taken straight from the article:

Dhamija is a 42-year-old Oakville resident and Air Canada pilot. This will be his first time attempting to become an election candidate, he said. His website is www.goteamro.ca

El Sabawy is a 44-year-old Mississauga resident who said he is considering moving to Milton. He currently works as a networking engineer and professor of voice-over-Internet protocol tech-nology for George Brown College. El Sabawy ran unsuccessfully to become a Peel District School Board trustee in the last municipal election. He said he has been involved with the Liberal Party for the past 12 years. His website is www.sabawy.com.

The article also notes that Garth Turner hasn't taken out nomination papers, which could fuel rumours that he might run in Dufferin-Caldeon.

Moving further along the lake:

http://www.wellandtribune.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1682000

In a riding where I have some family history (my mother's family is from the Welland area), the Liberals have already nominated former MP John Maloney, but apparently the Conservative candidate is running for the nomination again, and "two or three others" might be interested in running" for the Tory nomination, which is set for Sept. 17th.

And in the GTA:
http://www.georginaadvocate.com/News/Markham/article/95091

Long-time Markham council member Gordon Langon was acclaimed as the Conservative candidate in Markham-Unionville.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

It's getting crowded up North

http://www.thesudburystar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1677622
Another candidate enters the race in Sudbury, lawyer Carol Hartman. That brings the race to her, Gary Holman and Janet Gasparini.

Sudbury will have a very contested nomination, as well as Algoma – Manitoulin – Kapuskasing, in which Joe Chapman, Marc Dupuis, François Cloutier, and Chris Wray entering the race a couple days ago.

Is something in the water up in Northern Ontario causing people to not hesitate to run?

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Great Scott!

As I said in my previous post, I was doing some phone canvassing for Scott Bradley tonight, and it was very encouraging. People are very receptive to Bradley's political style and vision for the riding, and we got lots of people asking for more information on his campaign, and plenty of people willing to devote hours to the campaign.

Scott's campaign is really moving forward, thanks in no small part to lots of people who last time supported Penny Collenette's great campaign coming to support Scott. We are moving forward as a united Ottawa Centre team, and I am going to keep working to help make Scott Bradley the MP for Ottawa Centre.

Scott's website can be found here: http://votescottbradley.ca/

Ottawa area news/rumours (and one Quebec nomination)

Just got back from a great time phone canvassing for Scott Bradley (more on that in a bit), but I have heard two pieces of news in the Ottawa area:

Isabel Metcalfe, who had been considering a bid for the Ottawa Centre nomination, has dropped out. With Metcalfe out, it looks increasingly likely that the race will come down to Bradley vs. Yale, although rumours a third candidate have not entirely gone out.

In perhaps juicer news, apparently one of the pieces of gossip going around the big Tory training conference going on in Ottawa the last couple days is the John Baird is considering not running in the next election. Baird has basically served as Harper's Ontario lieutenant since getting elected in 2006 and as constantly been considered one of the most powerful ministers in cabinet, so him leaving would be a blow. Also interesting, is that even if this rumour turns out to be totally false, I have had more than a couple people tell me that staffers for Jason Kenney are behind said rumours.

Also, Joliette held it's Liberal nomination meeting today, and 2008 candidate Suzie St-Onge will carry the Liberal banner once again, according to this article: http://www.laction.com/article-361914-Suzie-StOnge-sera-candidate-liberale-dans-Joliette.html

The riding is held by BQ House Leader Pierre Paquette, who many have seen as a potential successor to Gilles Duceppe (and who made a declaration that he was considering running for BQ leadership during the 24 hour period in which it seemed Duceppe would depart for the PQ leadership race). Despite being one of the few Quebec seats to regularly send a Tory back to Quebec between 1968-1984 in the form of Roch La Salle, the BQ has held the seat with large margins since 1993, the "closest" election between 2000, when Paquette was taking over from a BQ incumbant, but still won the riding by a 52%-34% margin, and it wouldn't be a stretch to say the seat is one of the safest in the province for the BQ.

Welcome back Rocco!



Just got back from the rally welcoming back Rocco from his 5-day journey from Kingston to Ottawa. We had at least 150 people show up (including Ignatieff), as well as plenty of people watching from above the canal. We had t-shirts proudly declaring our efforts to make Ignatieff our 23rd Prime Minister. I definitely think that the donations given from Rocco's efforts will make a nice little boost to our next quarterly fundraising reports. It was also great to see various candidates for local nominations show up. The Ottawa Liberal team is buzzing.

Monday, July 27, 2009

St. Paul's provincial nomination

I usually follow only federal nominations, but with a by-election coming in the safe Liberal riding of St. Paul's, 3 candidates have declared:

Charles Finlay
http://www.torys.com/OurTeam/Pages/FinlayCharlesW.aspx
A lawyer with Torys LLP.

Eric Hoskins
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Hoskins
President of War Child Canada, Officer of the Order of Canada, unsuccessfully ran as a federal Liberal in the last election in Haldimand—Norfolk.

Judith Moses
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Moses
Former Senior Assistant Deputy Minister in the department of Agriculture, has served in several different ministries, unsucessfully ran as a federal Liberal in the last election in York—Simcoe.

Mégantic – L'Érable

A potential Liberal candidate has surfaced in Mégantic – L'Érable, the riding held by Christian Paradis, the current Conservative Quebec Lt.

http://www.courrierfrontenac.qc.ca/index.asp?section=detail-actualite&ID=130230

Marc Giroux, President of Granirex Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary DuPont Canada, has declared his intentions to run for the Liberal nomination. The riding was formerly a BQ-Liberal swing riding, but Paradis won the riding in 2006 with a massive vote shift from Liberal to Tory.

Joliette will also be holding it's nomination meeting tomorrow, but I haven't been able to find out any info about that.

Friday, July 24, 2009

In Harperland: Gays are evil, butcher shops great

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/07/24/10254321-sun.html

Divers/Cité doesn't get a $155,000 funding in return for delivering $10 million to the local economy (and at least half a million going directly into government funds) but, hey, at least a single butcher shop in Denis Lebel's riding gets $100,000.

Combined with Lebel's granting of $94,770 to a local restaurant, Lebel has delivered more for local meat than Diver/Cite asked for, all part of the incredible $6 million (more than 10 times more than the feds allocated towards Toronto Pride) Lebel has dropped on his riding in the last two weeks alone.

Local vote buying over direct economic stimulus provided by market forces drawn to a specialized event? Good to know those fiscally conservative Tories have their priorities "straight".

Nomination news

Some nomination news from across the spectrum. This article: http://www.intelligencer.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1670228 says that all Liberal incumbants have reached the requirements to avoid nomination challenges:

"To date, all of the sitting members have met their minimum requirements and then some. Unless they decide otherwise, we're expecting all of them to run," Rocco Rossi, national director of the Liberal Party of Canada, said here yesterday.

Rossi also says that he expects incumbant Liberal MP and Speaker of the House Peter Milliken to run again. (Although if/when Milliken eventually leaves, I have heard more than a few people toss out Mark Gerretsen, a Kingston city councillor and son of Liberal MPP John Gerresten as a possible candidate)

Out west, it looks like 2008 Edmonton-Sherwood candidate Rick Szostak will be taking another crack at it for the Liberals.
http://www.sherwoodparknews.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1670093
Sherwood Park is an interesting riding because due to conservative vote splitting (independent conservative James Ford nearly won the riding in 08, and is strongly considering running again) it is a potential if still long-shot pick up for the Liberals or NDP.

On the Tory side, businessperson and social club founder Rachel Greenfeld will be running for the Tory nomination in Vancouver Centre.
http://www2.canada.com/vancouvercourier/news/story.html?id=2a6c96a5-747e-4ef9-ad45-45c575daeb69
Vancouver Centre was a 4 way fight last election, with the Liberals, NDP, Conservatives, and Greens all running credible campaigns and winning polls.

I was also at the Ottawa-Gatineau area Liberal candidate pub night last night, which was great. Despite currently only holding the ridings of Hull-Alymer, Ottawa South, and Ottawa-Vanier, the Ott/Gat area is ripe for Liberal growth, with the ridings of Ottawa Centre, Pontiac, Gatineau, Ottawa-Orleans, Ottawa West-Nepean, and Glengarry-Prescott-Russell all being ridings which the Liberals have a decent shot at winning, and must win if we wish to form the next government. The party has strong candidates for the nomination in all of the ridings, and I will be proud to support and help the eventual winners whenever the next election comes.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Two signs the Tories are done in Quebec

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/conservatives-reject-funding-for-montreal-gay-festival/article1226490/

The removal of funding for Divers-Cite is particularly ironic, given that:

The directors of Montreal's Divers-Cite had actually sprung to the defence of Stephen Harper's government earlier this month, telling The Canadian Press that the Conservatives had never treated them differently.

Well, now they are being treated differently. The Montreal gay community has to be pretty low on the list of demographics voting Conservative, but this action proves that the social conservatives are running the show in the Conservative Party right now, and the Tories are seemingly in a race to the bottom in Quebec.

Which might explain this: http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/est-quebec/2009/07/20/010-bernard_genereux_elections_fed.shtml

Which says that local mayor Bernard Généreux is considering running for the Conservatives in Montmagny-L'Islet-Kamouraska-Rivière-du-Loup, which is due for a by-election around November. Bernard Généreux is really only notable as a candidate in the sense that he is not Mario Dumont. Dumont resigned his Rivière-du-Loup seat in the National Assembly, and Paul Crête, the BQ MP for the federal riding, also resigned to unsuccessfully try and win the seat for the Parti Quebecois. More than a few pundits have suggested that getting Dumont to run for the seat federally could be the Conservatives last chance to pull out a game changer in Quebec (to show how much of a personal vote Dumont had, in the provincial by-election in the riding he had represented for over a decade, the ADQ candidate could barely muster 15%). Dumont had remained at least somewhat in the Quebec Tory loop, showing up at Harper's big speech in Montreal a few months back, but other than that has refused to comment on a potential run for the federal Conservatives. If other candidates are looking at the riding, I think that is a good sign that Dumont will not run, depriving the Conservatives of the only real star candidate they could have potentially mustered in the province.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Scott Bradley for Ottawa Centre


Those who follow my blog know that I like reporting on nomination news. Usually I follow them in a dispassionate way, but in the riding in which I am a member federally, I cannot sit on the sidelines. When Scott Bradley ran in 2007, I was proud to support him, and I am proud to say I am supporting him again.
As a Young Liberal, I was inspired by the energy and dedication Scott brought to his nomination campaign, and I know that if he is successful in his nomination campaign this year, he will be a great candidate for the Liberal Party of Canada to take on Paul Dewar and the NDP. Scott is a champion for the common man, and has a strong cross-partisan appeal that any successful Liberal candidate in Ottawa Centre needs. I am proud to endorse Scott Bradley for the Ottawa Centre Liberal nomination and encourage all OC Liberals to get involved with his campaign.
Scott's website can be found at: http://www.scottbradleyottawa.blogspot.com/

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Kevin Page is doomed

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/Economists+call+safeguard+budget+office/1803118/story.html

More than 130 economists have signed an open letter to parliamentarians calling on MPs to provide the fledgling Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer with the independence and funding required to continue the "commendable record" of analysing the state of the federal government's finances.

Based on Harper's record of ignoring overwhelming expert consensus in the name of partisan advantage on everything from the GST cut to global warming, to carbon taxes, to crime policies, I think Page being endorsed by people who actually know what they are talking about is a kiss of death.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Tories blame the victims of sex crime

This story is being criminally undereported: http://thestar.blogs.com/politics/2009/07/its-the-girls-fault-.html

"This project aims to promote equitable, non-violent behaviour in the romantic relationships of adolescents by targeting the hypersexualization of girls as a root cause of dating violence."

Yeah! The root of violence against women isn't lunkheaded men who never learned about equality, it's that girls are dressing like tramps and daring to have sex before marriage!

As someone who considers themselves a pro-sex feminist, the wording of this press release shows just how many decades the Conservatives would like to take equality and women's rights. Hell, most Conservatives I know will openly admit to wanting to either scrap the Status of Women department, or, perhaps even more sinisterly, slash it's funding so much that it is forced into silence, unable to actual advocate for its mandate effective, but unwilling to voice complains, lest the harsh hand of the government teach it a lesson by slapping the department away.

"Fuck the Conservatives" takes on a whole new meaning.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

London nomination news

A handful of tidbits here: http://lfpress.ca/perl-bin/publish.cgi?x=articles&p=269987&s=politics

Former Party President Doug Ferguson is getting is ground game organized, and there are some additional candidates I hadn't heard about, former riding president and teacher Matt Brown, and David White, a former Conservative supporter and financial services salesperson.

In non-Liberal news, Jim Chahbar, a businessman and brother of former city councillor Ab Chahbar is going to take a crack at the Tory nomination for London-Fanshawe.

Interesting Ottawa developments

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Yale+takes+Pratt+riding+option+list/1794680/story.html

Janet Yale, who had been widely considered to be taking a run for Ottawa Centre, and who surprised more than a few people by declaring earlier this week she would try and run for Ottawa West-Nepean, has flip-flopped, and pulled out of the OW-N race while maintaining an interest in Ottawa Centre. Yale says she will be making a decision soon.

Also interesting is that the article says that Scott Bradley, the defeated nomination candidate from last time (who in the interest of full disclosure, I supported) is running again. Other potential candidates include Isabel Metcalf, Cyrus Reporter (although last I had heard, he was leaning against it, although the grapevine can often be wrong) and rumours of a star candidate turn by Phil Fontaine.

A very rights filled day

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending two events with a strong focus on human rights. First I went to a speech by the Hon. Chris Bentley, Attorney General of Ontario, who discussed Ontario's legacy of protecting human rights, and the need to defend them against what he called (paraphrasing) "trends of the day", a thinly veiled shot at Tim Hudak's plan to endanger the rights of citizens. Bentley drew on the stories of such Ontario heroes as Hugh Burnett and other civil rights leaders who peacefully used the justice system to advance the cause of human rights in Ontario. Bentley drew a line between those who opposed Burnett's cause at the time and those who suggest scraping the human rights protections in Ontario. While openly stating that of course the human rights protection system in Ontario could be better, Bentley said it did important work, and that the rhetoric of those who would remove it, which is largely based around the idea that "nuisance" claims are brought toward the HRT's, is quite similar to those who opposed Burnett because he was, after all, challenging the status quo and creating a "nuisance". Bentley lamented the PC's drift towards challenging the position of human rights in Ontario, pointing out that it was PC Party, particularly under Leslie Frost, which implimented many groundbreaking rights laws and served as an ally to Burnett. Bentley also made a legalistic criticism of the Hudak's plan (without ever mentioning his name) to shovel everything into the court system, saying that in addition to HRT's having "specialist knowledge", and that it would solve nothing, as "nuisance" cases would still exist, before the courts, and would totally drown out real cases of discrimination and human rights abuses. Bentley challenged those who condemn the HRT's to "come clean" with why they really were opposed to the HRT's. Overall an interesting speech.

The second event I went to was a fascinating short-film festival focused on sex workers (most of the movies were made by, and starred sex workers). The films, and the discussion after, seeked to bust many of the myths around sex work, and in particular, the portrayal of sex work in the media. Many active and former sex workers gave commentary. The films and discussion shared many common points: sex work should be de-criminalized and treated as any normal form of work (a position I fully agree with, and I will be proud to vote for a sex work decriminalization policy being put forward by my good friend Lindsay Czitron at the upcoming OYL Summer Fling) as well as delivering pro-sex feminist positions on how sex work can be empowering for the workers involved, and that many anti-sex work laws are violations of human rights. It was an extremely enlightening event.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

I wish this was shocking

http://www.orilliapacket.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1654692

Considering this is on the heels of a 10% accusing the Bloc Quebecois of being pedophiles, and coming from the same party that in 2004 said the Liberals and NDP were in favour of child pornography, I guess accusing Liberals of rape isn't a big leap.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Hugh Arrison at it again

Hugh Arrison, the Tory candidate in Mississauga South last year, is going to take another crack at the nomination: http://www.voteforhugh.ca/

Arrison was a Flaherty loyalist, and it'll be interesting to see if he tries to run against Flaherty's economic record or embrace it. That Arrison actually did worse than Phill Green did in 2006, despite a spike in Tory numbers in Ontario might also be a mark against him.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

GPR

I missed this story a couple days ago: http://www.cyberpresse.ca/le-droit/actualites/ottawa-est-ontarien/200907/10/01-883228-ken-hill-se-lancera-dans-la-course.php

Ken Hill, the mayor of Russell, will enter the race in Glengarry-Presscott-Russell, joining the Assistant Crown Attorney of of L'Orignal, Julie Bourgeois, Hawkesbury councillor Gilles Roch Greffe, and party activist Maryanne Kampouris. I had heard Bourdria wasn't running, but the article confirms the reason why.

Halifax

Two candidates have emerged for the riding of Halifax.

Dr. Stan Kutcher, Associate Dean of International Medical Development & Research with Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Medicine and Sun Life Financial Chair in Adolescent Mental Health, is going to give the nomination a go. I actually have a personal connection of sorts to this, Stan's son, Dan Kutcher, was the campaign manager for Charles Sousa's sucessful provincial campaign in Mississauga South.

Facebook event here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=100711459701

Also in the mix is Chris Crowell, a community activist and businessman. His facebook group can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=90017328325&ref=mf and his website can be found here: www.chriscrowell.ca

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Liberals score big name for Churchill

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/blogs/rabson/Election-aromas-50541942.html

The Liberals have scored a pretty big name to run for them in Churchill: Sydney Garrioch, the grand chief of the Manitoba Keewatinook Ininew Okimowin (the northern chiefs association).
In a riding with the largest native population of any riding in Canada, running an aboriginal candidate with the experience and name recognition of Sydney Garrioch has to make the Liberals pretty happy.


They lost the seat in 2008 to NDP Niki Ashton.
Garrioch hasn’t been nominated yet, however, He’s currently the only declared candidate and the nomination will take place July 18.


Garroich would be the fourth consecutive high-profile native Liberal candidate in the the riding, after defeated MP Tina Keeper, Ron Evans, and Elijah Harper.

Edit: A commenter in this article (http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/liberals-gaining-in-winnipeg-poll-50532372.html) says former Winnipeg city councillor Terry Duguid, who has ran unsuccessfully for both the federal and provincial Liberals, will be running in Winnipeg South.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Nomination news in my backyard

A development in Oakville, right next door to my home riding of Mississauga South. Alice from http://www.punditsguide.ca/ in a little bit of a reverse act directed me towards this: http://twitter.com/claurinbowie, the Twitter page of Connie Laurin-Bowie who has served as the Director, Policy and Programmes, of Inclusion International and coordinator of government liaison for Canadian Association for Community Living (both advocacy groups for persons with intellectual disabilities), has declared herself for the Liberal nomination in this affluent GTA West riding.

Interestingly, if Laurin-Bowie won the nomination, she would be following the pattern of previous Liberal MP Bonnie Brown, who also had a background in social work.

4 Days

4 days ago I wrote a blog post asking how long it would take Harper to respond with a negative threat towards Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page, and today we have our answer:

http://www.canada.com/news/Stephen+Harper+withdraws+blistering+attack+Ignatieff/1778259/story.html

On the same day Harper had to flip-flop and take his foot out of his mouth over a phoney attack on Iggy, he said this of the Parliamentary Budget Officer:

That's a very dumb policy and, to the extent, frankly, that the parliamentary budget officer suggested it, it's a dumb position," he said.

The "hide under a pile of coats" strategy continues. Harper also showed how out of touch he was, and how much the so-con wing of the party has crushed any sensible economic conservatives out, by confirming that the tourist support program which funded Pride is being reviewed. That's Harper for you. Blast all those who say you have mismanged the economy, then revoke funding for events that actually help stimulate the economy because they dare to take place in the gay district of Toronto.

Harper's plan for the deficit?

Let it run wild! http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSMOB00001720090710

He (Harper) also said he would let the deficit run if needed and would not hike taxes or cut spending to bring it under control.

Why bother using the actual policy levers of government to fix a problem when you can use the Homer Simpson strategy of hiding under a pile of coats and hoping the problem goes away?

Nevermind that Harper's statement of Canada recovering by 2011 is pretty much totally contradicted by the Parliamentary Budget Officer. But hey, Harper wants to get rid of Kevin Page anyway, who has been a thorn in the side of Harper by constantly reminding Canadians that Harper's talk back in the 2006 election of running open and accountable government, and his 2008 election talk about Canada not going into a recession or a deficit aren't worth the hot air they produced.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Proud of McGuinty

http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/663147

While the Tories are putting regressive politics in front of real economic stimulus (Pride Week in Toronto leaves a $100-million economic footprint, creates 650 jobs and generates $18-million in government tax revenue), McGuinty is doing the right thing by vocally supporting a great Toronto event.

"It's one of the single largest tourism draws to benefit our province, it generates millions and millions of dollars, it awakens more and more of the world to the fact that we have a tolerant, accepting society here in Ontario and here in Canada," McGuinty said yesterday.

That's some real common sense to me. I wonder what Tim Hudak thinks of funding Pride?

More Liberal nomination fun

http://www.myfmradio.ca/961/wire/news/5280068_B_EQ-CANDIDATE_REWRITE-web_084229.php

Former Pontiac MP Robert Bertrand is "seriously considering" returning to politics. Bertrand was the MP from 1993-2004. In addition to the annouced campaign of former Liberal National Director Greg Fergus, 2008 candidate Cindy Duncan McMillian is also planning on running.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Will Cauchon run in Outremont?

Rumours of former Chretien-era cabinet minister and former Outremont MP Martin Cauchon running again in Outremont started almost as soon as the NDP victory in the by-election two years ago. There was speculation that he would run in the last election, which eventually came to nothing, leaving Sébastien Dhavernas, a Quebecois actor to take a run at knocking off Tom Mulcair. Dhavernas rode a wave of mild increase in Liberal support across the province, and finished only 2,000 votes behind Mulcair.

Rumours of Cauchon taking another run at Outremont continued, but fizzled out for at least a bit after he was accused of offering contracts to a Vancouver based lawyer if he bought a table at a Liberal fundraiser, but according to this article: http://www.thesuburbannews.ca/content/en/1939 he is indeed considering a comeback, as well as Dhavernas' getting ready for a potential nomination battle and the wooing of Alain Dubuc of La Presse. All three potential candidates have some good pro's to them, so it will be very interesting to see how the behind the scenes goes in what has got to be the number 1 target riding for the Liberals in Quebec.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Some nomination news

http://www.standard-freeholder.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1645280

Cornwall city councillor Bernadette Clement is considering a run for the Liberals in Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry.

http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_central/ladysmithchronicle/news/50047607.html
Two nameless candidates in Nanaimo-Cowichan. I'm not entirely sure why the riding President is not permitted to name the potential candidates, unless both candidates have requested it.

The Tory nomination race in Thunder Bay-Superior North heats up:
http://netnewsledger.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=411:tbsn-conservative-battle-moves-online&catid=39:northwestern-ontario-news&Itemid=90

No mention of a riding, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/tories-climb-to-top-of-the-polls/article1208636/ but a potential star Liberal candidate, Jacques Ménard, the chairman of BMO Nesbitt Burns. If another star candidate rumour comes true, that of former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge running for the Liberals, the Liberals could have a very solid list of recruits on the economic file. Where Ménard would run raises some interesting questions. As a potential star candidate, the Liberals might want to give him a safe seat somewhere in Montreal, but so far, no incumbant Liberal MP's in the ultra-safe Liberal seats of the West Island and Central Montreal have indicated they will be going anywhere, and indeed, some of them, such as Mount Royal, probably the safest Liberal seat in the country, have already re-nominated the Liberal incumbents. Additionally, top target seats on the island, such as Outremont, Jeanne-Le Ber, and Ahuntsic have already drawn plenty of potential big names, so it will be interesting to see where he fits into the island.

Edit: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/loyalties-shift-as-political-terrain-moves-in-quebec/article1207497/

Sébastien Proulx, formerly the MNA for Trois-Rivières and ADQ House Leader has had his curiosity in the federal Liberals "piqued" by Ignatieff, and is described as "flirting" with the Liberals. If Proulx could be convinced to run for the Liberals, that would certainly be the biggest coup yet of Denis Coderre's outreach to adéquistes.

Edit Edit: http://www.cyberpresse.ca/la-voix-de-lest/actualites/200907/07/01-881909-le-npd-mise-sur-brome-missisquoi.php

2008 NDP candidate Christelle Bogosta "has expressed a wish to again be a candidate". Layton also says Brome-Missisquoi will be a seat the NDP will be targetting, despite only getting 9% of the vote last election.

Monday, July 6, 2009

How quickly will the Tories make another threat towards Page?

One of the Tories favourite things to do lately is the criticize and infringe on the independence of its own appointee, parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page, particularly as Page's economic predictions have time and time again proven to be far more accurate than Harper and Flaherty's spin.

With his newest predictions, how long will to be before the Conservatives start to rumble about cutting his budget/mandate?

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/661558

The Canadian government is unlikely to balance its budget in 2013-14 as promised because of a weaker economy... Kevin Page estimated a cumulative deficit over five years of $155.9 billion ($134.4 billion). Page forecasts a deficit of $48.6 billion this year, slightly lower than the government's estimate of $50.2 billion. But he projects a shortfall of $41.3 billion in 2010-11, $27.6 billion in 2011-12, $21.6 billion in 2012-13 and $16.7 billion in 2013-14.

Of course, watch the next election campaign when the Tories use the tired game of "tax and spend" Liberals. Only the Conservatives would give lectures about fiscal responsibility after running up a $155.9 billion deficit

Thursday, July 2, 2009

"Cuddling up" to Tim Hudak

http://campusconservativewatch.ca/2009/06/09/ontario-campus-conservatives-support-far-right-wing-leadership-candidate-hudak/

That guy with Hudak looks so familiar...

Harper's "leadership" on the world stage

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6620438.ece

Under Harper, Canada is indeed "back". We're at the "back" of the pack on environmental issues, and we are playing a leadership role in scuppering any new climate change deal. Conservatives like to harp on Kyoto, but they seem just as intent to stop any real climate deal from getting done in Copenhagen as well.

“Copenhagen is faltering at the moment,” said Sir David. “The Americans are now fully engaged. But several countries are blocking the process.”

Of course, considering we have a Science minister who doesn't believe in science, it's not a big surprise.

The low profile of science in the Canadian and Japanese governments — both countries have recently scrapped the role of chief scientist — is also contributing to their stances, according to Sir David.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Canada Day nomination news

http://www.northumberlandtoday.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1636542

With former MP and candidate Paul Macklin out in Northumberland-Quinte West, two candidates have put themselves forward, Campbellford teacher Andrew McFayden and Cobourg businesswoman and educator Kim Rudd.

However, something that caught my eye in the article:

A nomination meeting is not expected until the fall, candidate search committee chair Doug Mann has said.

I won't claim to be an expert in the on the ground situation in N-QW, but waiting that long? Particularly after David Smith said he wanted most nominations done by the fall? Somewhat unusual to say the least, but at least it gives the candidates more time to get local exposure.