Pundits Debate Decorum in the House

Canadian television at its best or at its worst?

Former NDP Cabinet Minister Predicts Calvert's Defeat

You don't need to be a psychic to predict that the Saskatchewan NDP will likely be defeated once Premier Calvert gets the nerve to call an election. However, I was surprised to hear former NDP Cabinet Minster Janice McKinnon predict it over and over again publicly as part of a CPSA panel which included former NDP Premier Alan Blakeney.

Link-O-Rama Ontario Edition

Who wins and who loses under MMP in Ontario?

Urquhart airs Tory dirty laundry.

NDP search for a new leader has begun.

Stephen Colbert and the Ten Commandments

Georgia Congressman Lynn Westmoreland discusses with Stephen Colbert his poposal to have the Ten commandments posted in the House and Senate.

Don't Count on 4-Way Races in Quebec

Thomas Mulcair wants us to believe that if the NDP can reach 20% of the popular vote in Quebec, it will yield an abundance of seats for the party as a result of a good number of 4-way races. However, he shouldn't count on it. The fact of the matter is that although 4 parties are currently polling in the double digits, on a regional basis, we see a series of 2-way races with the NDP trailing far behind the front runners. In Montreal, the contest is between the Liberals and the BQ, while in the rest of Quebec, the contest is between the Bloc and the Tories. Mulcair's scenario only really applies to the Outremont riding, the very riding he plans to run in when a by-election is called in the near future.

Greens Edge Out NDP for Third Place in PEI

New Democrats have never done particularly well on the Island, but did hold a seat within recent memory. The Greens will be very happy about this.

Liberals 53%
Tories 41%
Greens 3%
NDP 2%

10,000 Visitors

Today, this blog was read by its 10,000th visitor. Interestingly, almost none of my vistors are referred by Google. For some reason the search engine doesn't like Uncorrected Proofs...

Ontario Provincial Election Forecasting

Many of you will be familiar with UBC's election forecaster.

It has recently been updated to include the 2007 Ontario provincial election.

Election junkies could literally spend hours crunching the numbers on this thing.

Enjoy.

New Poll, Same Old Story

Read the details here.

Conservatives 33%
Liberals 31%
NDP 17%
Greens 8%
BQ 8%

+/-3.1 19/20

My favourite line from the article:

Pollster Bruce Anderson said these results suggest that voters aren't solidly partisan.
"While politics in Ottawa sometimes presents the impression of Liberals and Conservatives as each other's mortal enemies, the reality among voters is that they are each other's favourite second choice," said the Decima CEO.

Manitoba NDP Increases Its Majority

Winning three majorities in a row is an amazing feat in Canadian politics. Increasing your majority each time is almost miraculous.

Manitoba NDP seats totals

1999: 32/57
2003: 35/57
2007: 36/57

Media Sensationalizes Picket Line Violence

This is just ridiculous... Funny how the scab is portrayed as the hero.

The Communist Manifesto Illustrated by Cartoons

Indoctrinate your children today!

Manitoba Election Night Links

Riding results in real time

Ridings to Watch on election night

Election Forecasting

Public opinion polls

My election prediction

New Provincial Poll Numbers for Ontario, BC, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta

Check out the latest polls from Environics:

Ontario

PC 38%
Liberal 33%
NDP 26%
Other 2%

BC

Liberal 48%
NDP 31%
Green 18%
Other 2%

Manitoba

NDP 44%
PC 41%
Liberal 15%
Other 0%

Alberta

PC 64%
Liberal 21%
NDP 9%
Alliance 4%
Other 1%

From Positive to Negative: Manitoba NDP Campaign Ads

The tone of the Manitoba NDP's campaign ads sure changed during the course of the provincial election. You can see them all in reverse chronological order here. I think the anti-McFadyen ads which ran in the latter half of the campaign were very effective. They seem to have been coordinated with third party ads paid for by unions - smart strategy which likely explains the plummeting support for the Manitoba Tories.

Tory ads here.

Mulcair Eyes Outremont

The federal NDP's star candidate in Quebec, former Environment Minister Thomas Mulcair, is likely going to throw his hat into the ring when Stephen Harper calls a by-election in the in the near future. Many pundits had expected that a federal election would cancel the need for a by-election in Jean Lapierre's old seat, but with the election delayed, chances are the by-election will proceed. The NDP has an excellent chance of picking up the seat, but only with Mulcair as their candidate.

Results from 2006:

Liberal 14,281
BQ 11,714
NDP 6,965
Con 5,218

If Mulcair can convince just 20% of Liberal voters and 15% of BQ voters to switch to the NDP, he can take the riding.

An NDP victory in Quebec would really shake things up and further complicate matters for the BQ, who are desperately trying to fend off a challenge from the Tories. Mulcair and Layton are currently touring Quebec, building the party's profile and capitalizing on recent gains in Quebec public opinion polls.

Good News for the PQ: New Federalist Party Launched in Quebec

A new federalist party is being launched in Quebec.

Affiliation Quebec is fed up with the way the Quebec government overlooks the anglophone minority in Montreal. This development is reminiscent of the creation of the Equality Party in the late 1980s.

The province's major political parties routinely overlook close to one million voters in Montreal's metropolitan area, said Allen Nutik, founder of the fledgling political party, Affiliation Quebec.

He said Affiliation Quebec will give a voice to the city's anglophones, francophones and minority groups.

“There's nothing dangerous here in our program and there's nothing offensive to main-line Quebeckers,” said Mr. Nutik, a resident of Montreal's upper-class suburb of Westmount.

“We're just a party fighting for the minority interests, which are now overlooked by the main-line parties.”

Doer to Run for Federal NDP Leadership?

Gary Doer and the NDP are widely expected to win the Manitoba provincial election on Tuesday, but the opposition is already charging that Doer won't complete his third term as Premier if the NDP is in fact victorious.

That got me thinking about a potential job reshuffling within the ranks of the NDP leadership. If Jack Layton can't improve on the federal NDP's 2006 numbers in the next federal election, widely expected to be called this year or next, he may face pressure to resign, having run as leader in three campaigns.

Doer would be an appealing choice for many New Democrats.

He's a proven winner (New Democrats do like to win from time to time).

He could potentially rebuild the party's western base (which has been eroded under Layton).

He's a centrist (which would make him more "credible" with mainstream voters).

He has lots of experience (as a three term Manitoba premier).

He is well liked (in fact, one of the most well liked Premiers in Canada).

After three terms as Manitoba Premier, he will likely be looking for new challenges (running to become the first NDP Prime Minister in Canada would certainly be a challenge).

Manitoba Election Prediction

More good news for the NDP.

My prediction:

NDP 31 seats
PC 24 seats
Liberal 2 seats

Feel free to add you own predictions in the comments section.

NDP MPP Votes Against Endangered Species Act

Timmins-James Bay NDP MPP Gilles Bisson joined four Tory MPPs in voting against third reading of the Endangered Species Act on Wednesday. The new law, heralded by environmentalists, expands the number of protected animals and allows scientists to determine which species should be added to the list each year. Ontario NDP leader Howard Hampton and Nickel Belt NDP MPP Shelly Martel skipped the vote. These northern members had reservations about the bill, but by voting against the bill (or abstaining in the latter case) they have allowed the Ontario Liberals to emerge as the greenest party in the legislature in the run up to this fall's provincial election.

See the final vote tally by clicking here and scrolling to the bottom of the page.

Read more about this issue here.

Liberals and the GST: Electoral Suicide

The Federal Liberals are eyeing a campaign proposal to increase the GST to fund more broad based tax cuts.

John McCallum, the party's finance critic, is understood to have pushed the idea of increasing the federal goods and services tax back to 7%.

"It's an option. All I can say is that it is consistent with our approach. But I'm not about to say that the Liberal party will raise the GST because that's not been decided," he said in an interview from Paris, where he is attending an OECD meeting.

This if this first time I ever agreed with the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation... well I only half agree.

John Williamson, national director of the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation, said he would welcome income tax cuts. But he said the idea of linking those cuts to an increase in the GST would be "electoral suicide."

NDP leading Tories in Manitoba: Poll

From the Winnipeg Free Press

NDP 44%
PC 37%
Liberal 16%
Other 3%

Looks like Gary Doer will win a third consecutive majority government for the NDP next week.

Click here for complete poll documentation.

Socialist Realist Nintendo

This whole time I had no idea that Super Mario was actually trying to overthrow capitalism and achieve social and economic justice...

CUPE and the NDP: Convention Resolution Could Change Party-Union Dynamic

CUPE's powerful Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) has submitted an interesting resolution to be debated at the Onatrio division's convention next week. Essentially, it calls for the union to criticize the Tory platform in the upcoming provincial election and encourage both the Liberals and NDP to cooperate on a progressive agenda in the event of a minority result.

It's not as controversial as last year's infamous Resolution 50, which called for an international boycott of Isreal, but it should certainly stir some debate on the future of party-union relations in Ontario. We know that the CAW, Ontario's largest private sector union, is likely to, at least tacitly, endorse the Ontario Liberals, but if CUPE Ontario, Ontario's largest public sector union, abandons a mutually exclusive relationship with the NDP, look for major changes in how organized labour approaches electoral politics, in Ontario, and across English Canada.

The text of the resolution as follows.


RESOLUTION #26
SUBMITTED BY OCHU

· Because our political work for the last four years has focused, appropriately, on the provincial Liberals; and.

· Because the provincial conservative Party supports public funding for private schools and 2 Tier Medicare; and.

· Because the provincial NDP should not mirror the federal NDP by propping up the Conservatives in a minority government.


Therefore be it resolved:

1. That CUPE Ontario work actively to expose the political agenda of the provincial Conservative party during the lead-up to the provincial election; and

2. That CUPE Ontario push both the New Democratic and Liberal parties to work together to advance a progressive political agenda for working people in the event that there is a minority government.

All Parties Participate in PEI Leaders Debate

The Prince Edward Island election campaign has not garnered much national media attention, but given the controversy over inclusion of the Greens in the federal leaders debate, I thought it was interesting to note that all four parties (PC, Liberal, NDP, Green) are represented in the debate despite the fact that only two of them (PC and Liberal) currently hold seats in the legislature. The Greens and NDP barely register in public opinion polls either. The federal parties and appropriate authorities should follow the lead of PEI when the federal election finally rolls around.

Union Busting 101

Former union buster Martin Levitt talks about using fear to divide workers.

Husband / Wife Team Running for Different Parties

Former NDP MP and MPP Ian Deans has come out of retirement to run in the next Federal election for the New Democrats in Brant. His wife, Diane Deans, an Ottawa City Councillor is running for the Liberal nomination in the provincial riding of Ottawa Centre. Husband - Wife teams certainly aren't new, the Grewals and Jack & Olivia come to mind immediately. But I have never heard of a husband - wife team running for different parties... must make for interesting conversation.

When Teamsters Attack!

A member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, who plays "Tigger" at Disney World in Orlando Florida, takes a swing at a young theme park patron. The worker who plays "Tigger" has been suspended and refuses to apologize... can you blame him/her?

Manitoba Election Polls?

Canadians have been bombarded with dozens of election polls this year in anticipation of a federal election. But that's not the case in Manitoba. Not a single public opinion poll has been published throughout the election campaign in that province. The last poll, completed by Probe Research, was conducted back in March and had the NDP and Tories tied at 40% each. Surely, the media will release at least one poll before the May 22 vote.

Blogging Dippers Growing

For some months now, ever since the MyBlagh meltdown, I thought the Blogging Dippers would die a slow death. That's why I'm pleasantly surprised to see that Blogging Dippers is actually growing. Check out these eleven new affiliates:

A Dedication for a Plot of Ground
Blogging a Dead Horse
Driving the Porcelain Bus
Engaged Spectator
Evilness
Marginal Notes
Suavé’s Last Call
The 5th Column
The Lazy Populist
The Mind of Rick
TousawLaw

Remembering the Winnipeg General Strike (May 15, 1919)

On May 15, 1919, 24,000 organized and unorganized workers in Winnipeg walked off the job. Another 6,000 would soon join them. It was the start of the largest strike in Canadian history, and political leaders at all levels were quick to act. Parliament amended the Immigration Act so British-born immigrants could be deported, and expanded the definition of sedition. In a 1969 CBC Radio documentary commemorating the strike, lawyer Jim Walker talks about Ottawa's new laws.

h/t to Nag on the Lake who beat me to it.

Images of May Day 2007

A slide show of May Day celebrations around the world while Billy Bragg sings "The Internationale" in the background... better late than never.

Manitoba Election 2007: Top Five Ridings to Watch

Manitoba Election 2007: Top Five Riding to Watch

One week left in Manitoba’s 2007 provincial election campaign. Here are my top five ridings to watch:

Brandon West

In 2003, the NDP’s Scott Smith bested his Tory opponent by 25 percentage points. However, the 2007 race promises to be much more competitive because well-known former mayor and MP Rick Borotsik has come out of retirement to take the riding back for the Tories.

2003 RESULT
NDP 61.0%
CON 34.9%
LIB 4.1%

Fort Garry

The past two elections in Fort Garry have been won by less than 100 votes. Although the NDP bested the Tories in 2003, this riding has traditionally been Tory blue. Forget Fort Rouge, Fort Garry is the riding to watch.

2003 RESULT
NDP 46.7%
CON 45.7%
LIB 6.8%

Minnedosa

The Tories barely held onto this stronghold surrounding Brandon, besting the NDP by only 12 votes in 2003. Incumbent Leanne Rowat is taking on New Democrat Harvey Patterson for the second time. The Tories have the advantage, but an NDP victory is certainly not out of the question.

2003 Result
CON 47.4%
NDP 47.2%
LIB 3.9%

St. Norbert

This southern Winnipeg riding unexpectedly went NDP in 2003, but the Tories think St. Norbert is relatively low hanging fruit on the electoral tree. If the Conservatives can’t win in St. Norbert, they can’t form a majority government.

2003 Result
NDP 48.7%
CON 37.9%
LIB 10.8%


Seine River

This southern Winnipeg riding went NDP in 2003, but the Tories are mildly confident they can bring it back into the Tory fold in 2007.

2003 Result
NDP 51.1%
CON 42.4%
LIB 6.5%


For more in-depth election coverage check out Buckdog's Manitoba Election Blog.

Ignatieff Calls on Dion to Fire Liberal Party's National Director

Infighting is what Liberals do best... How long will it take for Liberal National Director Jamie Carroll to get the boot?

From the Star:

...Ignatieff argued that Carroll can't remain ostensibly in charge of rebuilding and unifying the party after publicly casting aspersions on the loyalty of erstwhile leadership competitors.

"He was forceful that it was his view that (Carroll) should go," said one well-placed insider.Although displeased with Carroll's public musings, sources say Dion indicated that he would not fire his hand-picked choice for the party's top administrative post.

Ignatieff, who was overtaken by Dion on the final ballot at last December's leadership convention, was incensed by comments from Carroll in a new book released Saturday.

In Against the Current, author Linda Diebel writes that two months ago Carroll began to doubt the wisdom of Dion giving key roles to all his former rivals – including his choice to make Ignatieff deputy leader.

"I am starting to wonder if he may not have been a little too good to his former competitors," Carroll is quoted as saying.

Diebel writes that Carroll "lived in fear of an all-out drive against Dion," orchestrated by one or more of Dion's top three leadership rivals – Ignatieff, Bob Rae and Gerard Kennedy.

"What they do in public doesn't bother me. It's the shit they do behind the scenes – which I may not know they're doing – that keeps me up at night," Carroll is quoted as saying.

Senior organizers for each of the former contenders were privately furious about the remarks, particularly those in the Ignatieff camp on whom Carroll's suspicions seemed primarily focused.

Marois is not an Ethnic Nationalist

From today's Star: an incredible non-sequitur on the PQ and nationalism.

Marois stirred the crowd by pledging a shift to a more pragmatic economic policy and also signalled a change in the way the PQ will address questions of identity; for more than a decade the emphasis has been on civic rather than ethnic nationalism.

"The values we share, whatever our origins, are well known: we are francophones first and foremost ... democratic, tolerant, but desiring the respect of our identity," she said.

The remark was clearly aimed at winning back voters wooed by the grassroots, traditionalist appeal of the Action démocratique du Québec, which bumped the PQ as official Opposition.

There is nothing in the above quote which suggests that Marois favours a turn away from civic nationalism (perhaps the writers confused language with ethnicity?) If anything, it reinforces the current direction of the PQ on the issue of nationalism - which is a rejection of ethnic nationalism.

Presidential Debate 2008: The Fringe Candidates

SNL at its best.

Communist Monopoly

Hours of fun for the NDP youth wing ;-)

Duceppe Drops Out: Hands PQ Leadership to Marois

What a political shocker.

Both are very capable leaders. This may end up being the best long term strategy for the sovereignist movement.

Support for Federal NDP "Surges" in British Columbia

Read about the poll here.

The news story contains the following paragraph:

In B.C., the NDP surged 15 percentage points to take the lead with 30% support, followed by the Liberals at 29%, the Tories at 24%, and the Greens at 16%.

"While that province [B.C.] tends to be a bit volatile, it's by no mistake that this drop [in support for the Conservatives] comes in probably the most eco-conscious part of the country and right on the heels of the Tory plan," said Wright. "I think the public is really anxious about climate change and believes that this [plan] is pretty sub-standard stuff."

Old Parti Québécois TV Ad in English and Spanish (1998)

This unique PQ ad reaches out to anglophone and allophone voters in Quebec by expoliting the left/right divide in Quebec politics.

Manufacturing Matters

I gave at talk at CAW 199's Manufacturing Matters community forum yesterday. The event was well atended by local, provincial and federal politicians and drew at least a hundred members of the community. Check out the campaign here.

Canada's manufacturing sector is in crisis. Almost every week another Canadian plant shuts its doors, files for bankruptcy or announces its intention to move its operations out of the country. Good manufacturing jobs are disappearing at an alarming rate across the country and the Harper government has done nothing to stop this hemorrhaging. The clear message to Canadian workers is that the government simply does not care.

The campaign culminates into a demonstration on Parliament Hill on Wed May 30 at 12:30pm

Jane Fonda Turns Tables on Stephen Colbert

You can watch the video clip here.

Urquhart Continues to Hammer Liberals on Slush Fund

Four columns in the last month.

Stonewall Mcguinty

Question Period Worse Than Usual

'Slush fund' charge tarnishes Liberal image

Grant turns into gift that keeps on griping

Manitoba Greens Having Little Impact on Election

They say the Green party is on the rise, but it doesn't look that way in Manitoba.

The Greens are fielding just 15 candidates in Manitoba's 57 provincial constituencies, up just one from last election. They have also lost their star candidate from 2003, Markus Buchart, who won nearly 20% of the vote in the Wolseley riding, finishing second to the NDP candidate. The next best Green riding result was less than 10% of the vote.

According to CBC:

The Greens have been mired in confusion since the spring of 2005, when Buchart resigned, complaining party meetings and committees had been "hijacked" by a group of dissident members who "paralyzed" the party. Almost all other executive council members followed Buchart, leaving the Greens on the brink of collapse.

The new Green Party leader, Andrew Basham, has no hope of making a breakthrough because he is running against NDP Premier Gary Doer in his home riding of Concordia.

UK Green Party TV Ad

"Message in a bottle" is designed to convey green values to the voting public.

Bloc MP Luc Malo Questions Hockey Canada Over Doan Controversy

BQ MP Luc Malo puts Hockey Canada on the defensive.

Hours of Fun for the NDP Youth Wing

Create a Commie! via Nag on the Lake

Liberal Candidates Stir Controversy

Star Candidates? Uh huh.

Bob Rae wants his money back.

Justin Trudeau fails minorities on language rights.

Boisclair Makes a Bad Situation Worse

Andre Boisclair's recent criticism of BQ leader Gilles Duceppe has only accelerated the PQ leader's inevitable departure. Read about the impending doom here.

Ryan's Criticism of Hargrove Hypocritical

CUPE Ontario President Sid Ryan's hypocrisy is a bit much to take. In a recent column, Ryan accused CAW President Buzz Hargrove of flip flopping.

As I read it now, Buzz's many positions are:

Vote Liberal because they
put money into the auto sector, but forget their policies that killed thousands
of auto jobs.

Vote Tory because they are not part of the current
environmental "insanity," but forget they killed thousands of auto jobs with the
Free Trade Agreement.

Vote against the NDP because I don't like Howard
Hampton, but ignore the fact that they are the only party that consistently
stands up for workers' rights.

This is the same Sid Ryan who condemned the Ontario NDP's social contract as the most anti-union piece of legislation ever passed... only to turn around a few years later and run for the party in the 1999 provincial election under the leadership of Howard Hampton (who incidentally voted in favour of the social contract). Ryan should not be giving lectures of flip flops.

Introducing Quebec's Next Premier: Gilles Duceppe

A pheonix will rise from the ashes in Quebec City while the Bloc holds on for its life in Ottawa. However, for Quebecers the trade off is worth it. Quebec City, not Ottawa, is the centre of power in Quebec politics, and that's where Duceppe is needed most.

"But He's a Christian...." or Hockey Canada's Lame Defence of Shane Doan

In an exchange with BQ MP Luc Malo, Bob Nicholson of Hockey Canada, in a lame attempt to defend Shane Doan, explained to the assembled Members of Parliament that Doan was a Christian. I'm not sure how that's relevant, but I wonder if Nicholson would have brought up religion if Doan was Jewish or Muslim...

Ontario Political Parties and YouTube

It looks as though the provincial Tories are much more advanced than the Liberals or the NDP when it comes to getting out their message through YouTube.

A search for the term "john tory" will yield roughly 75 YouTube videos featuring Consrvative leader John Tory - amlost all of them positive.

A search for the term "dalton mcguinty" will yield roughly 25 YouTube videos of Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty. Most of the videos are positive, but a handful are anti-McGuinty videos.

A search for the term "howard hampton" will yield fewer than 5 YouTube videos featuring the Ontario NDP leader.

Looks like the Liberals and the NDP have some catching up to do before the 2007 provincial election.

Shane Doan Has Enemies on the Ice Too

Before punching Doan in the face, Sean Avery called him "the most overrated player in the National Hockey Leauge". Maybe a certain parliamentary committee should call on Avery to give arguments about why Doan isn't fit to be Team Canada's captain.

Duceppe Does Have a Point on Doan

Bloc leader compares Doan to bank robber

Forget the Star's outrageous headline, Duceppe does have a legitimate point.

Hockey officials' impassioned defence of Team Canada's captain left an unimpressed Bloc Quebecois leader comparing Shane Doan to a bank robber and accusing him of racial profiling.

Gilles Duceppe said it was wrong to make Doan captain of Canada's world championship team while the star forward remains embroiled in two defamation suits related to the alleged anti-French slur.

"When someone robs a bank he's presumed innocent until proven guilty – but I don't know many people who'd name them bank manager while the trial's still on," Duceppe said.

"They want to name him captain even before the verdict comes in. It makes no sense. It's an insult to Quebecers."

Ontario Greens Call for a Unified Secular Public School System

According to Ian Urquhart, Ontario's Green Party will be running on the issue of ending public support for faith-based schools (which includes Roman Catholic schools that are currently funded through public dollars). This is a good idea - one I was hoping the NDP would adopt.

Discounting Rights: Wal-Mart's Violation of US Workers’ Right to Freedom of Association

Via Nag on the Lake.

Read the Human Rights Watch report here.

Wal-Mart’s strategy to prevent union formation is complex and multifaceted. The company does not engage in massive anti-union firings nor announce to workers that their store will close if a union is formed. Instead, the company uses myriad more subtle tactics that, bit by bit, chip away at—and sometimes devastate—workers’ right to organize. Many of these tactics comport with weak US labor law, notwithstanding their practical effect of quashing worker organizing efforts. Wal-Mart’s record before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), charged with enforcing US labor laws, suggests that the company has also employed illegal tactics in addition to its lawful anti-union strategy. Based on our research, we conclude that the cumulative effect of Wal-Mart’s panoply of anti-union tactics is to deprive its workers of their internationally recognized right to organize.

Michael Moore and his Sodomobile

After university student Matthew Sheppard was murdered for being gay, the right-wing Rev. Fred Phelps organized a picket of his funeral. Michael Moore returned the favour by bringing his sodomobile to visit Phelps and his supporters in Kansas.

Controversial Michael Moore Flick 'Sicko' Will Compare U.S. Health Care With Cuba's

Moore's new film, debuting in Cannes this May, tackles the failures of the U.S. health care system and includes a segment where 9/11 rescue workers visit Cuba for treatment they couldn't get in America.

Read more about it here.

Borat's Guide to British Politics

Borat takes it to both the left and right in British politics

My New Favourite Blog

Relentlessly Progressive Economics has been added to my favourites.

Tories Crush Opposition in Fundraising

The Liberals are way behind in fundraising in the first three months of 2007. Looks like Dion's leadership has failed to inspire the rank-and-file.

From the Globe & Mail:

Liberals: $531,141 from 4,365 donors.
Tories: $5.2 million from more than 45,000
NDP: $1.2 million from almost 15,000 donors.

Traditional Parties Stalled in New Poll

The latest from Decima:

Liberals 31%
Conservative 30%
NDP 15%
Green 13%

In Quebec:

BQ 34%
Liberal 21%
Conservative 18%
Green 13%
NDP 10%

In Ontario:

Liberal 38%
Conservative 33%
NDP 17%
Green 11%

The HE/SHE ratio: Male Dominance in Canadian Politics

I came across this interesting site via Nag on the Lake.

The He/ She Ratio
A site’s he/ she ratio is measured by counting the number of pages on the domain containing the word “he”, then searching for the number containing “she”, and then looking at the two numbers in comparison. For instance, the Google search site:cnn.com he returns about 1,160,000 results, and site:cnn.com she returns 335,000 results, meaning “he” makes up around 78% of the CNN pages containing either “he” or “she.”

What does this ratio tell us? If you think it reveals that e.g. a site with a higher “he” count is primarily consisting of or appealing to a male audience, that’s not true; for instance, both BlogHer.org as well as AskMen.com show a higher count for “she.” Whatever correlations you might discover, they’re likely not as linear.

Just for fun, I tested a few prominent Canadian political sites to see what the result would be. Unsurprisingly, the Canadian political blogosphere is very male dominated. (Likely as a result of male dominance in Canadian politics)



Here are my findings:



WarrenKinsella.com 69% HE vs. 31% SHE

CalgaryGrit.blogspot.com 72% HE vs. 28% SHE

JasonCherniak.blogspot.com 73% HE vs. 27 SHE

BloggingTories.ca 71% HE vs. 29% SHE

Liblogs.ca 81% HE vs. 19% SHE

Conservative.ca 86% HE vs. 14% SHE

Liberal.ca 79% HE vs. 21% SHE

NDP.ca 78% HE vs. 22% SHE

GreenParty.ca 64% HE vs. 36% SHE



Test your own site here.

PEI 2007 Election: Links for Election Junkies

Keep informed about the campaign here.

Check out the Tory, Liberal and NDP pages.

Forecast the election results here.

Happy May Day!

From wikipedia:

International Workers' Day (a name used interchangeably with May Day) is a celebration of the social and economic achievements of the international labour movement. May Day commonly sees organized street demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of working people and their labour unions throughout Europe and most of the rest of the world — though, as noted below, not in either the United States or Canada. More radical groups such as communists and anarchists are also given to widespread street protest on this day as well.
May Day was originally the commemoration of the Haymarket protests in Chicago in 1886: in 1889, the first congress of the Second International, meeting in Paris for the centennial of the French Revolution and the Exposition Universelle (1889), following a proposal by Raymond Lavigne, called for international demonstrations on the 1890 anniversary of the Chicago protests. These were so successful that May Day was formally recognized as an annual event at the International's second congress in 1891. The May Day Riots of 1894 and May Day Riots of 1919 occurred subsequently.
In 1904, the International Socialist Conference meeting in Amsterdam called on "all Social-Democratic Party organizations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on May First for the legal establishment of the 8-hour day, for the class demands of the proletariat, and for universal peace." As the most effective way of demonstrating was by striking, the congress made it "mandatory upon the proletarian organizations of all countries to stop work on May 1, wherever it is possible without injury to the workers."
May Day has long been a focal point for demonstrations by various socialist, communist, and anarchist groups. In some circles, bonfires are lit in commemoration of the Haymarket martyrs, usually right as the first day of May begins [2].
Due to its status as a celebration of the efforts of workers and the socialist movement, May Day is an important official holiday in Communist countries such as the People's Republic of China, Cuba, and the former Soviet Union. May Day celebrations typically feature elaborate popular and military parades in these countries.
In countries other than the United States and Canada, resident working classes fought hard to make May Day an official holiday[citation needed], efforts which largely succeeded. For this reason, in most of the world today, May Day is marked by massive street rallies led by workers, their trade unions, anarchists and various socialist and communist parties.
The First and Second Red Scare periods ended May Day as a mass holiday in the United States, which now celebrates its Labor Day on the first Monday of September, due to its importance in Communist countries.

Al Gore, Johnny Cash, and Global Warming

What do you get when you mix Al Gore, Johnny Cash, and global warming?