There were five by-elections yesterday, and anyone expecting a big political shake-up is bound to be disappointed at the following news. Continue reading “By-Election Results: Nothing Changes, Everything Stays the Same”
Category: Federal Politics
From SpannerBook: Reverend Doctor Pastor Predator Esquire
The Don Meredith saga hasn’t managed to reveal anything new to us about the operations of the creaky, antiquated wasteland that is the Senate of Canada. It was designed as a bastion of patronage and will remain ever thus until it is levelled to the foundations, restructured or deleted. Piecemeal tinkering, such as when Trudeau declared that there are no more Liberal senators, will never repair it. It was built to reward the party cronies and faithful pure and simple; some of whom are replete with skills, others are a downright waste of space. If Harper had wanted to boost his cred with the social conservatives in the party ranks, there are plenty of Reverend Doctor Pastors out there to choose from. Instead he picked a guy as phoney as the people who were rustled up from Jason Kenney’s office to fake a citizenship ceremony for Sun News. What is…
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The Weekender: Rebels Without Claws (Or How We Should Stop Silencing Milo, Ezra and the Rest)
How small and slight Milo Yiannopoulos seems not that I’ve seen him. Until his Friday night appearance on Real Time will Bill Maher I had assumed he had devil horns or was some kind of gargoyle looking guy, or something. Nope, he’s a skinny dope with a British accent that clearly enjoys being both the centre of attention and the object of revile, which is why all the reaction to him, be it Jeremy Scahill’s refusal to appear on the same Real Time episode as Yuannopoulos, or the riot that Berkley threw for his planned speaking engagement a few weeks back, is exactly what he wants. People hate Milo, and he loves it, which is why we should stop giving him and others like him what they want. Continue reading “The Weekender: Rebels Without Claws (Or How We Should Stop Silencing Milo, Ezra and the Rest)”
From Spannerbook: Parkamania
Justin Trudeau is on another barn-stormy, petrol sucking national tour, popping up this past week in The North with a “Justin” branded parka that has just enough fur trim to appease the seal hunters yet not enough for the soft PETA types to scream murder outright. The ship of state sails on, straight down the centre in the ever consistent Liberal way – tacking starboard so that that Bay Street is not displeased yet occasionally veering to port to soothe the conscience of the glowing hearts of his amorphous middle class voters. He probably thought Iqaluit was far enough away from anyone who might want to keep harping on about the unceremonious ditching of electoral reform but even the Parka Plebs will not let it go.
The electoral reform promise may have been flushed but it’s still swirling around in the bowl. Justin is running out of rhetorical tricks and…
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From Spannerbook: Get Back
In the midst of the all consuming vortex that was The Inauguration, Tom Mulcair went to Hamilton to visit with some retired steelworkers in their union hall. People tend to always call it The Hammer now but those of us of a certain vintage know the place as Steeltown and remember the particulate haze of its glory days. The federal NDP seems to be trying to get back to where it once belonged but it might be a bit late for Tom himself. It’s uncertain as to whether this trip was his initiative or something the party brass decided would be a good mission to rediscover it’s raison d’etre. It would be a welcome homecoming for those holding out for a political hero or two.
The workers seem happy enough that someone is finally paying political attention to them. Thousands of pensioners at the once mighty Stelco are still left…
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The Weekender: You Finally Did It….
It didn’t even take until lunch time for the latest entrant in the Conservative Party leadership race to embarrass himself. The definition of embarrassment is entirely my own because, as we’ve learned from the Trump experiment south of the border, sometimes a gross lack of political savvy and poise is a selling point, and worse still, some people are all too willing to buy it. Considering all that, Kevin O’Leary, the cartoonishly super villain like “entrepreneur”, “business expert” and reality show TV star, began his political career by saying the following on CP24: “[Justin Trudeau]’s lucky he is going to meet me and I’ll tell you why. I am going to help him find his ultimate destiny because it is not running this country, that’s for sure.” Continue reading “The Weekender: You Finally Did It….”
Trudeau Introduces His First Cabinet Shuffle!
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When in doubt, shake-up the cabinet! As predicted, given his troubles with pay-for-pay, electoral reform and the rest, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has decided to break in the new year by giving his cabinet a shuffle. Six ministries are playing musical ministers. Take a look at how it all shakes out below. Continue reading “Trudeau Introduces His First Cabinet Shuffle!”
Open Sources Guelph 