There might not be a more persuasive argument against an elected senate than the American example. From filibustering to partisan deadlock to disproportionate representation, this broken institution south of our border is largely responsible for the lo…
Continue readingTag: reform
Law is Cool: LSUC Publishes Articling Task Force Report
This article was originally published on www.LFTI.ca The Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC)’s articling task force has released its final report on its proposed solution for what has been dubbed the “Articling Crisis” facing recent law grads in Ontario. The report directly concerns current law students, new graduates of law programs,
Continue readingIt’s conclusive, the Manning Centre for Building Democracy is definitively leaning towards the Conservatives.
The [Manning] centre would not be another political party, but help build an “infrastructure” for existing Conservative parties federally and provincially, Mr. Manning said. (source) As other progressive bloggers have pointed out, the Manning Centre for Building Democracy is obviously partisan – slanted towards the Conservatives. You really just had
Continue readingIt’s conclusive, the Manning Centre for Building Democracy is definitively leaning towards the Conservatives.
The [Manning] centre would not be another political party, but help build an “infrastructure” for existing Conservative parties federally and provincially, Mr. Manning said. (source)
As other progressive bloggers have pointed out, the Manning Centre for Building Democracy is obviously partisan – slanted towards the Conservatives. You really just had to look at their board of directors,
1. Preston Manning – Reform party founder and leader for many years. Long time associates with Harper for obvious reasons.
2. Cliff Fryers – currently the far-right party Wildrose party chairman. He was also party and campaign chairman for the Reform Party in the early 1990s.
3. Blair Nixon – no explicit connections, but tax advisor to a few natural resource companies.
4. Rick Anderson – national director of the Reform party in the early 1990s.
5. Thompson MacDonald – no explicit connections, but board member of an American mining company.
6. Gwyn Morgan – ties to various big corporations, including oil company Encana.
7. Tasha Kheiriddin – self-described conservative, also the President of the Progressive Conservative Youth Federation during the time of far-right Mike Hudak.
8. Tom Long – involved and worked for the Brian Mulroney PCs, then campaign manager to various PC candidates federally and provincially, then President of the Ontario PCs from 1986 to 1989, helped get Mike Harris elected, and was a founding member of the Canadian Alliance – and this is just according to the bio on the Manning Centre!
9. Dan Nowlan – Vice president of banking investment group, and according to an Elections Ontario file, in 2009 was the chief financial officer for the Progressive Conservatives’ Tim Hudak.
10. Chuck Strahl – former Conservative MP, active in the early reform days.
This is every member on the board. Which makes 8 out of 10 (80%) having explicit connections to right-wing political parties (Conservative, and its father, Reform Party), and 10 out of 10 (100%) having either a connection to a political party or business. This is why it’s so obvious this organization is a front for right-wing and business interests.
Regardless, I compiled some more data just to make this pronouncement even more conclusive. I looked at their 2012 youtube channel, which is the msot updated, and compiled some data. There’s (as of September 21st, 2012) 12 videos – 10 of which are speeches or conferences. One of those speeches is just from Preston Manning, so I have excluded it as well. In total, we’re looking at 10 videos, and the political affiliations of those speaking and participating.
So, made a list of all the speakers in each speech, and tracked their political affiliations. Keep in mind, for this, I excluded anyone who was already a board member from this list. I also won’t be tracking business connections, as I think that’s unnecessary considering the findings. I will be tracking influential unions members, just because there’s only one, so it doesn’t really detract from the end result.
Here are my findings:
- Six current Conservative Member of Parliament
- Including four current Conservative Cabinet Ministers
- Three former Conservative MPs
- One former Reform Party MP (Remember, not including board members)
- Three others with direct connections to the Conservatives (Campaign Manager, donor, chief of staff)
- One Republican
- One British Tory
- One Union Leader
- Zero current or former opposition members
- One guy with some past connection to the Parti Quebecois
See for yourself, here is the list of links and subsequent speakers and participants:
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Speaker: HON. JOE OLIVER, MINISTER (Conservative Minister)
– Dawn Farrell, Executive
– Nancy Olewiler, Economist
– Robert Blakely, Union Leader (Union)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wfJXb1WQbc&feature=plcp– March 16th
Chair: Dave Quist, IMFC
Speaker: MARVIN OLASKY, WRITER
– Michael Coren, TV Host
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p6xHAIZL4M&feature=plcp– March 16th
Chair: Nicolas Offord, Executive
Speaker: HON. DIANE FINLEY, MINISTER (Conservative Minister)
– Kate Bahen, Charity Expert
– Ray Pennings, Cardus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBKeck2fZAI&feature=plcp– March 15th
Chair: Youri Chassin, Economist
– Eric Duhaime, Commentator
– Mathieu Bock-Côté, Sociologist (activity with PQ?)
– Tasha Kheiriddin, TV Host (National Post)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3aWJEiCkN8&feature=plcp– march 14th
Hostess and Coordinator: Leah Costello, Writer
Contestants:
-Pierre-Olivier Bastien-Dionne
-Vass Bednar
-Craig Dellandrea (Conservative donor and supporter)
Judges:
– Cliff Fryers, Executive (Reform/UA activist)
– Deb Grey, Former MP (First Reform MP)
– Steve Madely, Radio Host
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zE8luHStHc&feature=plcp– March 14th
Chair: Preston Manning, Manning Centre
Speaker: HON. PETER MACKAY, MINISTER (Conservative Minister)
-Barry Cooper, Professor – Duff Crerar, Military Historian
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckDSQzsslgc&feature=plcp– March 14th
Chair: Dan Nowlan, Executive
Speaker: HON. TONY CLEMENT, MINISTER
Bill Robson, CD HOWE (Right-wing think-tank)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGlnbCI7mvs&feature=plcp– March 14th
Chair: Nick Gafuik, Commentator
– Monte Solberg, Commentator (Conservative MP till 2008)
– Robert Sopuck, MP (Conservative MP)
– Bob Mills, Former MP (Conservative MP till 2008)
– Michelle Rempel, MP (Conservative MP)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEtKYAf-y3M&feature=plcp– March 13th
Tom Flanagan, Professor (Long time buddies with Harper, current working for the Wild Rose Party)
Travis Smith, Professor
Ian Brodie, Strategist (former chief of staff for Harper)
Andrew Coyne, Commentator (National Post)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8OYWCTtqzA&feature=plcp– March 13th
CANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Immigration Bill C31: Auschwitz Survivor Wiesel Confronts Harper
“I feel morally compelled to remain on the side of other uprooted men and women everywhere. Today, as yesterday, a nation is judged by its attitude towards refugees.” The sobering words of Jewish-American political activist, Nobel laureate, writer, professor, Elie Wiesel. The Holocaust survivor’s response to the Harper Conservative governments’
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Arguments For Free Post-Secondary Education
1. Free post-secondary education is a student loan that the country takes out and gets more money back than it ever put in. The government will receive more money from income taxes on the resulting increased salaries and wages of graduates than it spent on the initial investment for free
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: EI Isn’t Perfect & That’s Why Reforms Are Wrong
Employment Insurance isn’t perfect, and that’s why the Conservative reforms are wrong. EI’s very purpose is to give money to people without jobs, it is a program that gives the unemployed incentive not to find work. The only reform that will ever fix that is getting rid of EI, anything
Continue readingThe Leadership Narrative
Way back when, a few months after the last federal election, I replied to the Susan Delacourt’s “Is the Liberal Party dead?” question, echoed ad nauseum in the nation’s press, with a warning to be wary of forcing Canadian politics to fit a certain narrative. That narrative presupposes the inevitability
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: How Old Age Security Should Have Been Reformed
Instead of raising the retirement age and distressing seniors with low-income the government should have prevented wealthier Canadians from receiving Old Age Security; not only would this have been fairer but would have saved hundereds of millions of dollars more. It makes sense that Canadians who are 65 and older
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Liberal Pride
Many Liberals may take pride at the sight of increasing poll numbers, they shouldn’t. The Liberals have problems, increasing poll numbers aren’t going to fix them. Liberals need to build a new party, that will take time, determination and purpose. Poll numbers aren’t going to stop backroom deals, poll numbers
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: The Great Liberal Difference.
Having the luxury of being in government for so long allowed Liberals to think they were special, that there were huge differences between them and other parties, well there aren’t and they should stop thinking there are. Yes there are differences between all the parties, but they are far less
Continue readingOn governance: (1) Principles
How should we govern ourselves? Since Locke’s Second Treatise, the presumption has been in favour of self-government — that is, each individual adult person has the natural right to govern his or her own life. Thus government by others is, when legiti…
Continue readingReform without a vision
Since the Conservatives have a majority government, they’ve been talking about Senate reform again. Mind you, it's being done in their usual clumsy, uneducated way, which seems to assume three things: their reforms actually have a vision, t…
Continue readingPop The Stack: Pander, pander here. Pander, pander there.
Stephen Taylor has an interesting article about the decision to block the potash buyout today in the National Post. The gist is that fiscal conservatives are being betrayed by this protectionist action. I’m actually not sure which way I would go on the question of letting a foreign company own the potash resource. There are […]
Continue readingPop The Stack: Andrew Coyne’s Modest Proposal
The Canadian Interwebs are ablaze with anger over the recent prorogation of parliament and polls tell us that even the general population is quite upset. Hopefully the fast growing Facebook protest group “Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament” will tranlate into feet on the ground during the nationwide protests against proroguing on Jan 23, the Saturday before […]
Continue readingPop The Stack: You should read this about senate reform
You should read this about senate reform, espeically Jim Q’s comment on a PR solution http://ow.ly/TKs3 #cdnpoli #senatereform #fairvote
Posted in Politics Tagged: democracy, fairvote, parliament, Politics, reform, senate
Pop The Stack: Not Everyone Thinks Like You
Posted from a comment via HuffPost What I find really interesting is how this is further evidence that people always assume that others would do exactly as they themselves would do. Republicans think the Democrats would stop at nothing to stop something from the other party. Well, we know thats not true, they think too […]
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