Last Friday, Saskatchewan residents received an automated message criticizing the province’s new federal riding boundaries. The calls weren’t identified and the Conservatives denied involvement until Tuesday when communications director Fred DeLorey released a statement blaming “internal miscommunication” for the slip up. Meanwhile, it appears that what seemed to be an isolated occurrence of a robocall is linked to the massive campaign that happened in 2011.
The NDP’s Unity Act states that if Quebec sovereigntists can garner 50%+1 of the votes in a referendum, or a bare majority, Quebec can form its own country. The bill would repeal the Clarity Act which was introduced in 1995 when Quebec came marginally short of separating from the rest of Canada and inherits the bulk of the views that were taken with the Sherbrooke Declaration of 2005. Additionally, this kind of policy would never work within the NDP itself.
Money may no longer grow on trees but that hasn’t stopped the Conservatives from spending it like there is no tomorrow. Don’t let their austerity fool you, as they cut the services that are vital for the Canadian economy to function, they are funding new senators, a campaign to inform Canadians about the death of the penny, and funny enough, spending much more than the amount that they cut as part of the austerity package.
Who says Canadian politics is boring? Despite being in the first majority government since 2004, politics was easy as government shenanigan continued and controversy ruled The Canadian Political Scene. This post will round up 2012 into one bite-sized image with the big scandals and the party progress reports.
Political parties are strategizing these days and Canadians are weighing in. Despite the party members and their views, the electorate will inevitably get the final say and recent polling numbers paint an interesting story about Liberal-NDP cooperation and prospective Liberal Leadership candidates.
Liberal Leadership candidate Marc Garneau said yesterday that there is no reason that assault rifles like the one used in the 20 school children massacre in Connecticut should be legal.
It’s the holiday season and Canadian financial experts are praying that spending increases to revitalize the fragile Canadian economy. Little do they know, Canadians are still cash strapped, Canada’s economy hasn’t moved a budge and most Canadians expect 2013 to go down hill. What does this mean? As long as citizens feel a rocky road, they too are closed for business.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has approved the CNOOC-Nexen takeover deal and Canada is now trapped in a 31 year deal where China will almost always get the final say. The Chinese government does not believe in our free and capitalist society, remaining totalitarian with a communist system that has one of the worst standards for human rights in the world. This was once a concern for Harper whom slammed the door on China but now, out of virtually nowhere, not only is China an important trade partner, it is trusted enough to own, for 31 years, one of Canada’s most strategic resources that is in very high demand and low supply around the world. In other words, Canada got royally ripped off with its flat rate $15 billion in one-time revenue.
Stephen Harper and his Conservatives have fought hard for their coveted F-35 contract, even in spite of inflating costs and warnings from the US congress. Now, without surprise, the Conservatives have been forced to retreat on the purchase of planes that wouldn’t even have been equipped to fly! It must be a very painful day to be the Conservative strategist because the party has invested a lot of political capital and a lot of taxpayers’ time into this deal. We all know that time is money and Canada’s air-force doesn’t have forever to wait for new planes and we all know that we can get state of the art planes for a better price than the Conservative offer for the F-35 defects.
Newly appointed Conservative Senators are finding their perks rather appealing – so appealing that they are cheating taxpayers to cash in. First Patrick Brazeau abused the system, and now Mike Duffy. We can all agree they should repay their takings and we all agree their expenses will never outweigh their salaries. We can, then, agree the housing allowance perk should be scrapped and the savings be refunded.