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Count ’em. Only 14 days until the endless election campaign finally ends. In the meantime, it’s getting nasty out there in campaign land as the politicians batter each other over whether terrorists deserve Canadian citizenship, legalizing marijuana, free trade, and who’s the real deal when it comes to taking down Conservative Leader Stephen Harper come election day.
Tough on TPP
* Mulcair says NDP is the only party with ‘backbone’ to stand up to Harper and stop TPP deal. Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is a wimp, politically-speaking? That’s what NDP leader Tom Mulcair implies when he claims he’s the only party leader with the cojones … oops, sorry, the backbone to stand up to Harper, particularly when it comes to renouncing a new free trade deal, the trans-Pacific Partnership. “Where was Justin Trudeau and his Liberals in all of this? Well … they were saying that they had no choice but to back Stephen Harper’s secretly negotiated deal for the trans-Pacific Partnership,” the NDP leader said, announcing that an New Democrat government “will not be bound by this secret agreement …” (Actually, the TPP has been the subject of negotiations — and much public comment — for the last decade.)
Reefer badness
* ‘Marijuana is infinitely worse’ than tobacco, Harper says as he encourages pot debate to go up in smoke. Marijuana is “infinitely worse” than tobacco and its use should be widely discouraged in Canada, says Harper. The remarks follow last weeks’s federal leaders’ French-language debate in which Harper’s clash with Trudeau over the issue of legalization was among the evening’s more memorable exchanges. The Liberals support legalization. The Conservatives vehemently oppose the idea, with Harper saying that regulating its sale in the same way as cigarettes or alcohol would do nothing to keep it out of the hands of kids.
Leaders mix it up
* Leaders’ debate: Parties argue over economy, security, niqabs and marijuana. Friday’s leadership debate got all tangled up in the niqab issue — should a Muslim woman be allowed to wear the face-covering veil in a citizenship ceremony? — as Mulcair tried to extract himself from a tight political corner — polls shows support for the party dropping — by accusing Harper of using the issue for political reasons.
Local leanings
* Andrew Leslie leads in Orléans riding, poll suggests. Liberal candidate Andrew Leslie could be headed toward unseating Conservative incumbent Royal Galipeau in Orléans, a Postmedia poll suggests. The survey by Mainstreet Research found that Leslie, a retired Canadian Forces general, had the support of 40 per cent of voters who have made up their mind or are leaning toward one party. Galipeau has 33 per cent of the decided and leaning vote. NDP candidate Nancy Tremblay has 19 per cent of that vote, compared with eight per cent for Green candidate Raphael Morin.
Strategic surprise?
* Tory critics advocate strategic voting to address environmental neglect. Strategic voting groups decrying years of environmental neglect under Harper are popping up across Canada in hopes of increasing voter turnout and influencing the outcome of the federal election. The groups are largely fuelled by Harper’s record on issues such as climate change, fossil fuels, the Alberta oilsands, oil pipelines and tanker traffic, the gutting of the Fisheries Act, and weakening of environmental assessments. Other anyone-but-Harper forces are concerned about his foreign policies, Bill C-51 (the Anti-Terrorism Act), the changing character of Canada, and on and on.
Lotus land
* Political stakes high on West Coast battleground. There’s no getting around the fact that 2015’s key electoral battleground is southwestern Ontario, but B.C. is also a critical catch for any party seeking to form government. With the number of B.C. seats increasing to 42 from 36 in 2011, Harper would likely need to keep a majority of them to hang on to his majority in Parliament or to salvage a strong minority government victory. The NDP’s Mulcair has no hope of becoming prime minister without a dominant performance on the West Coast. The reputation of Trudeau, meanwhile, rests on his ability to make at least some gains following the party’s 2011 debacle. And Green leader Elizabeth May has predicted a B.C.-based breakthrough for her party.
Pundits’ perch
Socialist suicide?
* Andrew Coyne: With decision to oppose TPP, the NDP puts an end to its failed centrist strategy. The columnists sounds the New Democrats’ election death-knell over its sudden announcement that if the NDP forms the government it would renounce any agreement the Conservative government signs regarding the biggest trade deal in Canadian history — all without bothering to even read what it’s in it. How’s that for irresponsible government?
Niqab hang ups
* Michael Den Tandt: With no options left, Mulcair stays path on niqabs during second French debate. Hanged by the niqab: is that Mulcair’s political fate? The columnist throws out the question in commenting on the NDP leaders quixotic defence of a woman’s right to wear the Islamic veil, or niqab, during a Canadian citizenship ceremony — even though the position might undercut the New Democrats’ election bid.
* Rex Murphy: Mulcair might have been able to close the door on the Liberals early on. Able or not, he didn’t. A month ago, the columnist opines, Mulcair was riding high in the polls, seemingly with a good chance of wresting the reigns of power from Harper. But the “niqab debate” has recast the political dynamic in Quebec and, perhaps, outside that province, too. With both Harper and Trudeau holding up, Mulcair finds himself in “the hardest spot.” Can he find a message that will bring him back to full challenge, and can he find the energy and the wit to deliver it?
Epistolary politics
* David Reevely: The Tories take their crack at winning back public servants. The columnist suggests that the Conservative party’s open letter to federal public servants was really aimed at the voting public at large. And why not. As he writes: “If we’re honest, the idea that public servants will stampede to the Tories is a fantasy anyway. So it seems pretty clear that public servants are only an incidental audience: the real target is non-public servants …”
Will you respect me after the election?
* Kate Heartfield: For the public service, the election issue is respect. Last week both Harper and Trudeau sent open letters to the federal public service. The columnist takes a look at the difference in wording, tone and style, and what those differences say about the parties’ respective attitudes toward public servants. While the Trudeau repeatedly use the word “respect,” the Harper letter “is not, then, in any real way a letter to worried or angry public servants.”
The northern spirit
* Robert Sibley: Canada ignores Arctic sovereignty at its peril. The Citizen senior writer considers the challenges Canada faces from Russia, China and even the United States in maintaining its sovereignty in the Far North, and asks why such geopolitical concerns receive so little attention in this election.
查看原文...
Tough on TPP
* Mulcair says NDP is the only party with ‘backbone’ to stand up to Harper and stop TPP deal. Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is a wimp, politically-speaking? That’s what NDP leader Tom Mulcair implies when he claims he’s the only party leader with the cojones … oops, sorry, the backbone to stand up to Harper, particularly when it comes to renouncing a new free trade deal, the trans-Pacific Partnership. “Where was Justin Trudeau and his Liberals in all of this? Well … they were saying that they had no choice but to back Stephen Harper’s secretly negotiated deal for the trans-Pacific Partnership,” the NDP leader said, announcing that an New Democrat government “will not be bound by this secret agreement …” (Actually, the TPP has been the subject of negotiations — and much public comment — for the last decade.)
Reefer badness
* ‘Marijuana is infinitely worse’ than tobacco, Harper says as he encourages pot debate to go up in smoke. Marijuana is “infinitely worse” than tobacco and its use should be widely discouraged in Canada, says Harper. The remarks follow last weeks’s federal leaders’ French-language debate in which Harper’s clash with Trudeau over the issue of legalization was among the evening’s more memorable exchanges. The Liberals support legalization. The Conservatives vehemently oppose the idea, with Harper saying that regulating its sale in the same way as cigarettes or alcohol would do nothing to keep it out of the hands of kids.
Leaders mix it up
* Leaders’ debate: Parties argue over economy, security, niqabs and marijuana. Friday’s leadership debate got all tangled up in the niqab issue — should a Muslim woman be allowed to wear the face-covering veil in a citizenship ceremony? — as Mulcair tried to extract himself from a tight political corner — polls shows support for the party dropping — by accusing Harper of using the issue for political reasons.
Local leanings
* Andrew Leslie leads in Orléans riding, poll suggests. Liberal candidate Andrew Leslie could be headed toward unseating Conservative incumbent Royal Galipeau in Orléans, a Postmedia poll suggests. The survey by Mainstreet Research found that Leslie, a retired Canadian Forces general, had the support of 40 per cent of voters who have made up their mind or are leaning toward one party. Galipeau has 33 per cent of the decided and leaning vote. NDP candidate Nancy Tremblay has 19 per cent of that vote, compared with eight per cent for Green candidate Raphael Morin.
Strategic surprise?
* Tory critics advocate strategic voting to address environmental neglect. Strategic voting groups decrying years of environmental neglect under Harper are popping up across Canada in hopes of increasing voter turnout and influencing the outcome of the federal election. The groups are largely fuelled by Harper’s record on issues such as climate change, fossil fuels, the Alberta oilsands, oil pipelines and tanker traffic, the gutting of the Fisheries Act, and weakening of environmental assessments. Other anyone-but-Harper forces are concerned about his foreign policies, Bill C-51 (the Anti-Terrorism Act), the changing character of Canada, and on and on.
Lotus land
* Political stakes high on West Coast battleground. There’s no getting around the fact that 2015’s key electoral battleground is southwestern Ontario, but B.C. is also a critical catch for any party seeking to form government. With the number of B.C. seats increasing to 42 from 36 in 2011, Harper would likely need to keep a majority of them to hang on to his majority in Parliament or to salvage a strong minority government victory. The NDP’s Mulcair has no hope of becoming prime minister without a dominant performance on the West Coast. The reputation of Trudeau, meanwhile, rests on his ability to make at least some gains following the party’s 2011 debacle. And Green leader Elizabeth May has predicted a B.C.-based breakthrough for her party.
Pundits’ perch
Socialist suicide?
* Andrew Coyne: With decision to oppose TPP, the NDP puts an end to its failed centrist strategy. The columnists sounds the New Democrats’ election death-knell over its sudden announcement that if the NDP forms the government it would renounce any agreement the Conservative government signs regarding the biggest trade deal in Canadian history — all without bothering to even read what it’s in it. How’s that for irresponsible government?
Niqab hang ups
* Michael Den Tandt: With no options left, Mulcair stays path on niqabs during second French debate. Hanged by the niqab: is that Mulcair’s political fate? The columnist throws out the question in commenting on the NDP leaders quixotic defence of a woman’s right to wear the Islamic veil, or niqab, during a Canadian citizenship ceremony — even though the position might undercut the New Democrats’ election bid.
* Rex Murphy: Mulcair might have been able to close the door on the Liberals early on. Able or not, he didn’t. A month ago, the columnist opines, Mulcair was riding high in the polls, seemingly with a good chance of wresting the reigns of power from Harper. But the “niqab debate” has recast the political dynamic in Quebec and, perhaps, outside that province, too. With both Harper and Trudeau holding up, Mulcair finds himself in “the hardest spot.” Can he find a message that will bring him back to full challenge, and can he find the energy and the wit to deliver it?
Epistolary politics
* David Reevely: The Tories take their crack at winning back public servants. The columnist suggests that the Conservative party’s open letter to federal public servants was really aimed at the voting public at large. And why not. As he writes: “If we’re honest, the idea that public servants will stampede to the Tories is a fantasy anyway. So it seems pretty clear that public servants are only an incidental audience: the real target is non-public servants …”
Will you respect me after the election?
* Kate Heartfield: For the public service, the election issue is respect. Last week both Harper and Trudeau sent open letters to the federal public service. The columnist takes a look at the difference in wording, tone and style, and what those differences say about the parties’ respective attitudes toward public servants. While the Trudeau repeatedly use the word “respect,” the Harper letter “is not, then, in any real way a letter to worried or angry public servants.”
The northern spirit
* Robert Sibley: Canada ignores Arctic sovereignty at its peril. The Citizen senior writer considers the challenges Canada faces from Russia, China and even the United States in maintaining its sovereignty in the Far North, and asks why such geopolitical concerns receive so little attention in this election.
查看原文...
