Starting the day that Justin Trudeau was elected as the leader of the Liberal Party, I have received 65 emails from the LPC’s main bulk email account, most with Trudeau’s name attached. Of that 65, 52 of them have been calls for donations, in under eight months. December has been
Continue readingTag: 2013 Liberal Leadership Election
Progressive Proselytizing: The pestering begins: Liberal leadership candidates with campaign debt (Updated twice)
I was very critical after the NDP Leadership election that the inboxes of supporters were full of emails from the candidates who did not win the leadership, but had extensive campaign debt to repay. Unfortunately, it looks like that story may repeat itself with the Liberals. When a leadership election
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Justin’s not so positive acceptance speech
The full text of Justin Trudeau’s speech can be found here. I wanted to highlight the section talking about the Conservatives and Stephen Harper. It is the first major section after thank you’s, and while there are many positive things that come after this lengthy section, the gloves sure came
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: How to vote in Trudeau’s coronation
Even before Justin Trudeau announced his candidacy to be the next Liberal leader, pundits were tripping over each other to declare the inevitability of his eventual success. With Marc Grarneau dropping out of the race following internal polling showing Trudeau lightyears ahead, the outcome truly is certain (read this is
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Specific policies mentioned in the Toronto Liberal Leadership Debate
In keeping with my goal of policy centric coverage of the Leadership contest, this post contains largely a list of various policies mentioned by the respective Candidates at the Toronto Liberal Leadership Debate. The ability to articulate a clear policy vision for Canada, not just utter platitudes and generalities, is paramount
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Defining a Liberal identity in a narrowing political spectrum
The reality of the narrowing political spectrum in Canada is a huge problem for the Federal Liberals as they go about choosing their next leader. I discussed some of the factors behind this declining political space in my previous post, but in this post I turn my attention specifically to
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Choosing the next Liberal leader
Choosing a candidate to lead a political party is ostensibly a task with the lofty goals of deciding the scope and direction a party is heading, the relative importance of the party’s various values, and the policies that go with them. Unfortunately, such lofty aspirations are quickly brought down to
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: A 30,000 foot view of the Canadian political landscape
In this post I investigate the 30,000 foot view of the Canadian political landscape, and consider various factors for what I consider to be a defining political trend of the last several decades: the declining political space between parties. Room for three parties:Wind back the clock to the 70s and
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Vancouver Liberal Leadership Debate: First Impressions
As following the recent NDP and GOP leadership races so poignantly demonstrated, leadership debates are best at demonstrating the electibility of candidates. Basic values come through as well, but these are largely shared in a party, and specific policies are usually just tossed in more as rhetorical tools to act
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: NDP leadership election campaign debt
The NDP leadership campaign sparked considerable interest among Canadians and saw NDP membership soar, rising over 50% in six months to 128,351 on election day. Many of these first time members, such as myself, may well be interested in the NDP but may not be long term loyalists. After the campaign,
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