It's now been two years to the day since Canadians gave Justin Trudeau a crushing majority. And he sent Stephen Harper packing… And into the garbage can of history. Who can forget what a magical night it was? And who can forget what the Cons looked like once it was over.Read
Continue readingTag: election 2015
The Progressive Economics Forum: Book review: Social policy in Canada (second edition)
Oxford University Press has recently released the second edition of Social Policy in Canada, co-authored by the father-daughter duo of Ernie Lightman and Naomi Lightman. I recommend this book as an excellent resource for students of social policy. It will be useful for classroom instruction, while also being a handy
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Federal Income Support for Low-Income Seniors
Over at the Behind the Numbers web site, Allan Moscovitch, David Macdonald and I have a blog post titled “Ten Things to Know About Federal Income Support for Low-Income Seniors in Canada.” The blog post argues—among other things—that if the age of eligibility for Old Age Security were to move from 65 to 67, the […]
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Amazing Youth Vote and How the Con Media Got It Wrong
About a year before the last election I decided the most useful thing I could do was to try to get as many young Canadians to vote as I could.So together with many other people and organizations all over the country, I set out to convince them that if …
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Will Tom Mulcair Blow Up the NDP?
It's looking more and more like Tom Mulcair will survive his leadership review. Or at least get a two year reprieve. New Democratic Party Leader Tom Mulcair should have two years to rebuild the party’s fortunes before being replaced, but that co…
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The NDP Review: Why I Believe Tom Mulcair Should Go
I haven't written anything about the NDP leadership review, because I know some of my NDP friends are still hurting from their disastrous election result. And I didn't want to re-open any wounds.And also because I think Justin Trudeau is the be…
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Strange Search for Stephen Harper
It has to be the most bizarre disappearing act in Canadian political history. The way Stephen Harper turned into an invisible man, or one with a baseball cap pulled down over his eyes so nobody can recognize him.And has rarely been spotted, and never…
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Justin Trudeau, Young Canadians, and the Last Election
During the last election campaign I spent most of my free time trying to encourage young Canadians to vote.As did a lot of other people and groups all over the country.I got the feeling that more of them would vote than had voted in other elections. Bu…
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Conapocalypse: The Confessions of Jenni Byrne
She was called Stephen Harper's "enforcer", or just "The Beast." The one who took no prisoners.She ran the last Con campaign, and drove it off a cliff.Before she was tossed off the bus, and out of her master's inner circle.
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Why the Con Media is Wrong About Justin Trudeau
From the moment he was sworn in the Con media has gone after Justin Trudeau like a pack of rabid rats.They have attacked his wife, they have attacked his children.They keep claiming that his honeymoon is over. But sadly for them they don't seem to …
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Election Results #nlpoli
Doing things differently. That’s what the Liberal campaign was all about. Now we have to see if Ball and the Liberals actually put that into action. What the commentariat missed The Liberal campaign platform wasn’t about the details of what …
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The youtube election #nlpoli
This is the year of the youtube election. Some of them, like Alison Coffin’s recession pitch or Dan Crummell’s “I live in the district” spot are simple and straightforward. Others, like those of Conservatives Beth Crosbie and Ryan Cleary are s…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Great candidate quotes #nlpoli
The Telegram did voters a valuable service the last weekend of the campaign by printing responses from candidates in metro districts to two simple questions. They asked the candidates to identify the single biggest issue in the district and how they …
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Weight Problems #nlpoli
If you want to know why Forum Research’s poll is out of line with the other polls done on the provincial election, you need look no further than the data tables for the questions. This is why pollsters should give out this information. Lots don’t….
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Abacus poll confirms massive Liberal lead #nlpoli
Residents of Newfoundland and Labrador awoke Thursday to a massive sucking noise as amateur pundits, media commentators, and newsrooms across the province realised they’d read way too much into a single poll on Wednesday. A new Abacus Data poll sho…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Leaders
The provincial election campaign a decidedly nastier turn on Monday. Conservative leader Paul Davis is trying his best to save the party’s furniture. Davis’ best is nasty stuff. Davis called Dwight Ball a liar. Rarely does one politician openl…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The CRA poll in Election 2015 #nlpoli
Corporate Research Associates’ latest poll is in line with polls by MQO and Abacus. The table below shows CRA’s quarterly poll results since the last provincial election with the CRA “decideds” skew taken out. Liberals are at 50% of all resp…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The parties and Muskrat Falls #nlpoli
The mighty Muskrat Falls turned up a few times in the leaders’ debate on Monday night. Now that the project’s huge problems are plainer, folks like Earle McCurdy of the New Democratic Party are working hard to capture the anti-Muskrat vote.&…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Debate #nlpoli
The only winner in the debate was David Cochrane. He’s no Paul Wells but he did a fine job of wrangling the three leaders. And that’s the problem for the politicians. Real people were talking about the fact the neutral guy didn’t…
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