PoliticalPundit

PoliticalPundit

69p

166 comments posted · 0 followers · following 1

12 years ago @ Macleans.ca - Ignatieff talks minori... · 0 replies · -2 points

Brilliantly put. Restores my faith in the common sense of my fellow Canadians!
Keep on upholding the high standards for all Canadians, especially our troubled politicians.

12 years ago @ Macleans.ca - Ignatieff talks minori... · 0 replies · 0 points

Garbage. Conservatives will have to cooperate and support many of the Liberal government's bills. If they do not they will suffer the wrath of Canadians.

12 years ago @ Macleans.ca - Here's where the whole... · 2 replies · 0 points

Mansbridge, in a premeditated move, laid a trap for Ignatieff and he fell into it big time. Shame on Mansbridge. He has lost a lot of credibility and so had CBC. He was shameful and very determined to play a king maker role in the election.

Harper is a constitutional revolutionary. He has poisoned and warped Canada's parliamentary system into a strange republican system where he remains in power no matter what transpires in the House. How? By claiming, quite wrongly, that it is constitutionally and politically illegitimate for any other opposition party to form a government at any time between elections.

If, after the election, a prospective Harper minority government falls on its Throne Speech or its budget that matter is punted to the GG. The GG must decided one of two things:
1) drop the writ for an election. He is unlikely to do this immediately after an election;
2) call upon the leader of the official opposition to form a government if he can assure the GG than he can obtain the confidence of the House.
Harper, by warping and undermining our Parliamentary system, has put himself in a win-win situation. He can't loose power because he will hold a plurality of the seats. He will be called upon to become PM and form a cabinet. The opposition might defeat him but the GG's hands are tied. The GG will not be able to call upon the leader of the Official Opposition, as is custom, to form a government.
The media, badly informed on the nature and scope of Canada's Constitution Act, 1867 as well as the unwritten rules of how Parliament functions, has aided and abetted Harper's constitutional revolution.
Peter Mansbridge's entrapement ploy is merely the confirmation that he has sided with Harper all along in his attempt to subvert our Parliamentary and constitutional democracy. Shame on him!

12 years ago @ Macleans.ca - Ignatieff talks minori... · 13 replies · +6 points

Garbage. Conservatives will have to cooperate and support many of the Liberal government's bills. If they do not they will suffer the wrath of Canadians.

Not much critical reasoning in your diatribe.

12 years ago @ Macleans.ca - Ignatieff talks minori... · 6 replies · +1 points

Mansbridge, in a premeditated move, laid a trap for Ignatieff and he fell into it big time. Shame on Mansbridge. He has lost a lot of credibility and so had CBC. He was shameful and very determined to play a king maker role in the election.

Harper is a constitutional revolutionary. He has poisoned and warped Canada's parliamentary system into a strange republican system where he remains in power no matter what transpires in the House. How? By claiming, quite wrongly, that it is constitutionally and politically illegitimate for any other opposition party to form a government at any time between elections.

If, after the election, a prospective Harper minority government falls on its Throne Speech or its budget that matter is punted to the GG. The GG must decided one of two things:
1) drop the writ for an election. He is unlikely to do this immediately after an election;
2) call upon the leader of the official opposition to form a government if he can assure the GG than he can obtain the confidence of the House.
Harper, by warping and undermining our Parliamentary system, has put himself in a win-win situation. He can't loose power because he will hold a plurality of the seats. He will be called upon to become PM and form a cabinet. The opposition might defeat him but the GG's hands are tied. The GG will not be able to call upon the leader of the Official Opposition, as is custom, to form a government.
The media, badly informed on the nature and scope of Canada's Constitution Act, 1867 as well as the unwritten rules of how Parliament functions, has aided and abetted Harper's constitutional revolution.
Peter Mansbridge's entrapement is merely the confirmation that he has sided with Harper all along in his attempt to subvert our Parliamentary and constitutional democracy. Shame on him!

12 years ago @ Macleans.ca - Greetings, tiny citize... · 0 replies · 0 points

And just when you thought SF could not get any funnier!

Left me rolling on the floor of my office.

Keep the irreverence coming Scott. Moment of levity like this are far too rare in our bleak campaign.

For Harper, the little chicken little of Canadian politics, the sky is always falling. But of course he will prevent it from doing so but only if he is given a majority. Otherwise he walks away and chaos takes over.

12 years ago @ Macleans.ca - Harper and the press: ... · 0 replies · +6 points

Harper's control over the media is remarkable! And very scary!

Paul Wells took a week to figure this out and hopefully hopped off ScareAir and saved his boss a load of cash!

Why don't his fellow journalists do the same?

I guess they all suffer from the Stockholm syndrome.

12 years ago @ Macleans.ca - Courting our ethnic fr... · 0 replies · -1 points

Not true! Harper wants to cut public funding to all political parties because this funding keeps the opposition parties competitive! If Harper does not win big in Kenny's so-called Ethnic enclaves he will blame it on Canada's Election Act and the grants to all parties.

12 years ago @ Macleans.ca - Courting our ethnic fr... · 4 replies · -2 points

David Smith (Nov. 2010 Literary Review of Canada) in his excellent review of C. P. Champion's book The Strange Demise of British Canada: The Liberals and Canadian Nationalism 1964-1968, has this to say about Champion's strange chapter on Courting the Ethnics.
"As Champion tells it, in the 1950s, the Progressive Conservatives with their "one Canada" appeal made converts among ethnic voters. But by the mid 1960s, Diefenbaker's "stubborn defence of the Red Ensign is thought to have alienated much of this new support." The Liberals, seeing an opening, set out to "[Court] Our Ethnic Friends" (the title of chapter six). No electoral or demographic evidence is provided to support this narrative, and in its absence there is good reason to doubt the claim. Who is an ethnic voter, and do all ethnic voters respond electorally the same way? Are there differences between urban and rural voters (ethnic or otherwise)? Are there variations in voting behaviour across regions? These questions are not raised by the author, let alone answered." And there is much more to chew on in his thoughtful review of what is a very stilted and rather strange book.
Clearly, Champion's work cannot be relied upon to make a helpful analysis of Kenny's "Courting of the Ethnic Communities."
What happens if Kenny's "Courting of the Ethnics" does not pay all political dividends that are expected and needed?
Will he or Harper on election night pull a Jacques Parizeau and blame the "ethnics and money" for the failure to get a majority?
Let's just wait and see, OK.

12 years ago @ Macleans.ca - Courting our ethnic fr... · 3 replies · +3 points

Paul, what is the thesis of C. P. Champion's book The Strange Demise of British Canada: The Liberals and Canadian Nationalism 1964-1968?
For readers to make sense of what you are saying we have to know the author's central argument.
Please enlighten us because this issue is central to the current election. Mansbridge had a pretty good shot at unraveling the immigration conundrum yesterday evening but still missed the mark.