One way or another, as of yesterday 143 politicians have crossed the floor of the House of Commons or a Canadian legislature since Confederation. If you can’t name any or many of them offhand, there’s a good reason. A successful floor crossing usually generates a bit of excitement for a
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daveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Floor Crossing! What to make of Tory MLA Sandra Jansen joining the NDP?
Progressive Conservative Calgary-North West MLA Sandra Jansen took to the podium with Premier Rachel Notley this afternoon to announce that she is crossing the floor to join the governing New Democratic Party Caucus. It would have been hard to imagine only one year ago that we… Continue Reading →
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Now we’re just haggling over the price
Others have rightly wondered whether the Wildrose Party’s new promise to make floor-crossing MPs pay a price to the party will be enforceable at all. But it’s also worth examining how it might affect MLAs’ decision-making – with the result potentially being the exact opposite of what Brian Jean intends.
Continue readingA BCer in Ottawa: Today, it’s all about Eve (Adams)
Today it was all about Eve in Canadian politics (one should really Google that plot before referencing it though), even after a mini-cabinet shuffle that made Pierre Poilievre a senior minister of the crown. Pierre gives hope to mindless partisans everywhere that excess of loyalty can trump dearth of qualification and intelligence.
A BCer in Toronto: Today, it’s all about Eve (Adams)
Today it was all about Eve in Canadian politics (one should really Google that plot before referencing it though), even after a mini-cabinet shuffle that made Pierre Poilievre a senior minister of the crown. Pierre gives hope to mindless partisans everywhere that excess of loyalty can trump dearth of qualification
Continue readingMY MLA? OL’ WHAZHIZFACE?
I have a question for you, dear reader. What factor was the biggest factor that drove your voting decision in the 2012 Alberta election? Did you base your vote on a platform, a leader, a party, a local candidate or was it a combination of two or more factors? The 2011 Canadian Election Study asked … Continue reading MY MLA? OL’ WHAZHIZFACE? →
Continue readingMy MLA? Ol’ Whazhizface?
I have a question for you, dear reader. What factor was the biggest factor that drove your voting decision in the 2012 Alberta election? Did you base your vote on a platform, a leader, a party, a local candidate or was it a combination of two or more factors? The
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: On The WRP Collapse
Much has been made of the WRP’s collapse in Alberta this past week. Everything from speculation about the role of various people, to Ms. Smith more or less admitting that she was being undermined by the Social Conservative rump of the party. Back when the WRP was just getting
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Cory Doctorow duly blasts the Harper Cons for meekly complying with an onerous copyright treaty which isn’t even in force. Which raises the question: if the Cons were really interested in demonstrating some independence as a response to the U.S. declining to rubber-stamp
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
This and that for your weekend reading. – Plenty more commentators are taking a turn duly mocking the Cons’ Senate shenanigans. Here’s Tabatha Southey: In fact, Mr. Duffy lives and votes in Kanata, a suburb of Ottawa, in a home he purchased five years before he was appointed to the
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Whipped Votes, Floor Crossing, and the Perils of Party Discipline
In Ottawa’s latest uptick of political drama, NDP leader Thomas Mulcair called on MP Claude Patry to resign his seat Thursday, after the latter joined the Bloc Quebecois. Noting that Patry, while still a New Democrat, voted with the rest of the caucus last year to ban the practice of
Continue readingCalgaryGrit: Crunching Numbers
Now that the shock of Lise St-Denis’ floor crossing has worn off, it’s worth looking ahead to whether Jean Chretien’s old riding will stay Liberal red in the next election. Eric Grenier at 308 likes her chances: If Lise St-Denis, the MP for Saint-Maurice–Champlain who defected to the Liberals from
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Lana Payne juxtaposes massive profits and public concessions for Caterpillar and Rio Tinto against their attacks on Canadian workers: (T)he demands by ElectroMotive, a subsidiary of equipment giant Caterpillar, are about as outrageous as they get, including a 50 per cent cut in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On testing grounds
For the most part, I’ll echo Dan’s take on Lise St-Denis’ party switch: As for her motives, even after listening to the press conference, that’s still a bit of a mystery. St-Denis is 71 so this isn’t a case of long term ambition. There’s nothing in recent polls to suggest
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament in Review: November 2, 2011
Wednesday, November 2 saw the House of Commons debate two bills dealing with democratic reform. And the result was a remarkable gap between the values the Harper Cons presented in justifying their party’s policy orders, and the ones they actually apply in practice. The Big Issue The bill which received
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On priorities
In the absence of any evidence that the NDP’s new caucus will be anything but a strong opposition to the Harper Cons, Kady goes hunting for a story based on the fact that an NDP anti-floor-crossing bill – having been introduced for the sixth time – is …
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