Miscellaneous material to start your week.- John Quiggin examines – and refutes – a few key complaints about fairer taxes on the wealthy. But Kathryn May reports that the Cons are eager to use public resources to investigate and punish public servants …
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Accidental Deliberations: On dividing lines
For the most part, Joan Bryden’s report signals that there isn’t much controversy left arising out of Alexandre Boulerice’s comments about niqabs in the civil service. But it’s worth asking whether the trial balloon floated by Boulerice serves any purpose whatsoever: Martin added that he has no problem with Boulerice’s
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: The Pat Martin Affair: Straight Talk, Lost Gonch
So Pat Martin arrives in the HOC today looking disgruntled, uncomfortable. In the middle of this morning’s session, during a vote on a motion to salute Canada’s Crappie fishermen, he sneaks out, comes back a little bit later…at ease and smiling! Turns out his underwear was too tight, but they’re
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how the Cons’ secretive giveaway of what’s left of the Canadian Wheat Board can only be explained by their desire to eliminate collective marketing in favour of total corporate control. For further reading…– Janyce McGregor reported on the Cons’ refusal to consider allowing the Farmers of North America
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Alberta politics today: Caribou, Cell Phone Bills, and backing down on Term-Limits
TweetAnother news report this week focused on the devastation of caribou habitat in northwestern Alberta. The CBC story reported that deforestation caused by seismic cutlines and snowmobile traffic has caused irreparable damage to habitat critical to the survival of Alberta’s caribou herds. “About five per cent of range for the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Bruce Livesey discusses Tony Blair’s role in corporatizing social democracy. And Stephen Elliott-Buckley writes that there’s little reason to listen to the policy prescriptions of a financial elite class which is conspicuously ensuring that its future bears no resemblance to that of
Continue readingParliamANT Hill: NDP ethics chair Pat MartinAnt denounces ‘black shroud of secrecy’
Inspired by this headline: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/12/10/ndp-ethics-chair-pat-mart_n_4421940.html
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Sic Twansit Gloria: your blogger, elevated to Alberta’s Twitterati … for the moment, anyway
A typical member of the Alberta Twitterati, pretty much any time of year except yesterday. Your blogger and other renowned Wild Rose Country Twittarians may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Daveberta author Dave Cournoyer, apparently Tweeting. I may not be on Alberta Venture magazine’s list of the 50 most
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Pack the Senate with cheats, then call for reform, then take off for Peru? Good plan!
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, not pictured because he’s pretty well disappeared, has heeded the touristic lure South America, illustrated above. Below: Canadian Parliamentarian Joan Crockatt and U.S. Representative Davy Crockett. Note to Globe and Mail: There is a difference! Below them: Allaudin Merali. Prime Minister Stephen Harper was apparently grinding
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive | News & Analysis: NDP MP Pat Martin calls Conservatives “dirty, rotten bastards”
By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: New Democrat Pat Martin once called the Conservatives “rat faced whores“. In later 2011, he dropped a raw f-word-laden bomb on Twitter after the Harper government voted to nuked the debate on a budget-related bill. Now the Winnipeg Centre NDP MP is calling the Harper Conservatives “dirty, rotten bastards”. Martin accuses
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: In Canada’s House of Commons, A Profound Fear Of “Zombies” (VIDEO)
By Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive, Feb. 14, 2013: Those of us who live in Ottawa are quite used to the talk and sightings of Zombies on Parliament Hill. Today was different. It all started with the NDP‘s outspoken Winnipeg MP, Pat Martin, asking Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird if he’s “working with
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Toews an ill-timed Johnny-on-the-spot justifying imposition of U.S.-style gun-show anarchy
Victor Toews, Canada’s Minister of Public Insecurity and Zombification, rendered by Edmonton artist William Prettie. Below, a shifty looking Mr. Toews as he appears in the halls of Parliament. Pat Martin is a Great Canadian. ™ What a perfect way to throw a little red meat to your gun-nut money
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Pat Martin and the Rat Faced Cons
Golly. I have no idea why Pat Martin called the Cons rat faced whores.Martin launched into a Twitter tirade for the ages Wednesday night, calling the Conservative Party “rat faced whores” and attacking Public Safety Minister Vic Toews’ personal life to express his displeasure over not being invited to an
Continue readingCalgary Grit: Opto Civilitas
Martin then jabbed the button into Peter Van Loan’s eyeball. Some of you may recall Pat Martin’s noble quest to bring civility to Parliament: “This is my new policy,” Martin said, holding up a handful of party-coloured buttons he had made reading “Opto Civitas.” “I choose civility. That’s the new
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: MPs in the dark about the billions in Conservative government spending
Now we know why Treasury Board President Tony Clement did not think twice before spending $50-million of G8 funds in his Muskoka riding. Why Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page threatened to sue the Harper government for refusing to comply with his repeated requests for financial and related information. Now we
Continue readingIn defence of 14-year-old girls
So it was that MP Charlie Angus, the NDP’s self-appointed guardian of civility, has declared that Twitter has “turned us all into 14-year-olds in a cafeteria” where “[e]verybody gets to be a Grade 9 girl.” Yesterday’s context, of course, was Patrick Brazeau’s calling reporter Jen Ditchburn a “bitch” because she
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Retiring the Monarchy
Alright, what longstanding Canadian institution shall we dispense with today? Queen Elizabeth II has been all over the news of late in honour of her Diamond Jubilee. Never satisfied, some of those rabble-rousing muckrakers in the NDP have refused to join in the festivities. That killjoy Pat Martin in particular,
Continue readingImpolitical: 24 hours in legal politics
First, on the Racknine suit against Martin and the NDP…NDP MP Pat Martin issued an apology yesterday for the statements he made regarding Racknine when the issue appeared in the news around late February. His apology was unequivocal, offering no defence, making it appear to be an attempt to mitigate
Continue readingCuriosityCat: The Root of the Conflict between NDP’s Ed Broadbent and Thomas Mulcair
Canadians can be excused for feeling a bit out of touch with the squabble that has engulfed the NDP. Ed Broadbent, the old warhorse with a long record of service to the NDP, has come out swinging at the upstart Thomas Mulcair, who has overshadowed Broadbent’s preferred candidate for new
Continue readingFirms Use #CPC Tactics To Halt Bad PR
Many of you will remember yesterdays post about John Fryer, the UVic professor who wrote a letter to the editor of the Globe and Mail about the two day Manning Center intensive campaign course he attended where-in he allegidly had heard about Robocalls and voter suppression. Turns out the group that Fryer
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