Slate Magazine has an interesting take on our election from south of the border.
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Later this month, Professor Guy Laforest will be speaking at the University of Alberta as part of the 20th Annual McDonald Constitutional Lecture from the Centre for Constitutional Studies.
Laforest is well known for his writings on Canadian constitutional issues, comparative federalism, political theory, and intellectual history in Quebec and English-speaking Canada He is also the former President of Action Démocratique du Québec.
Speaking during the middle of the federal election, I’m sure that Laforest will have some interesting things to say about the Stephen Harper–Gilles Duceppe battle for votes in Québec.
As a blogger who has been the target of a politician’s legal threats, I can sympathize with the ridiculousness of Buckdog‘s situation.
UPDATE: Some politicians learn from their mistakes faster than others.
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early morning candidate updates.
The list of nominated federal election candidates in Alberta has been updated to include some new additions:
Edmonton-Strathcona: Jane Thrall, Green
Peace River: Liliane Maisonneuve, Liberal
Vegreville-Wainwright: Adam Campbell, Liberal
Westlock-St. Paul: Aden Murphy, Green
UPDATE*S*: Doug James is the Liberal candidate in Calgary-Centre North. James will face off against Conservative incumbent Jim Prentice, New Democrat John Chan, Green Eric Donovan, First People’s candidate Doug Dokis, and the Canadian Action Party’s John Kohut.
Last week, I wrote that Alberta Sheriff Ali Haymour was seeking the NDP nomination in Edmonton-Sherwood Park. I’ve just been informed that Haymour has had to unfortunately decline the nomination for professional reasons. Brian LaBelle is now seeking the NDP nod in that riding in a nomination meeting set for next week. If nominated, LaBelle will face Tory Tim Uppal, Liberal Rick Szostak, and Independent James Ford.
I joined over 300 folks at Pecha Kucha 2 in Edmonton tonight and the presentations were fascinating. Though I have reservations about the group who organized the event, I was pretty amazed at the out-of-the-box creativity and ideas about design brought forward by the presenters.
Mastermaq has a run down of the evening’s events.
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klein predicts a harper majority.
Former Alberta Premier Ralph Klein is predicting a Conservative Majority Government for Stephen Harper on October 14.
During the 2006 election, Peter Mackay suggested the use of “duct tape” to keep Klein from characterizing Harper as unelectable while predicting that Paul Martin would form another Liberal Minority Government.
The political path has been cleared for Elizabeth May to participate in the televised leaders debates after first NDP Leader Jack Layton and minutes later Conservative Leader Stephen Harper withdrew threats to boycott.
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hell hath frozen over.
A contested NDP nomination in Red Deer is not something that I imagined would happen during this election (or during my lifetime for that matter…). Farmer and Teacher Stuart Sommerville will be duking it out against recent Red Deer Mayoral candidate Matt Chapin (who was 21-years old when he faced off against Mayor Morris Flewwelling in the October 2007 election) for the September 14 nomination meeting.
The nominated candidate will face off against first-time Conservative candidate Earl Dreeshen and Liberal Garfield Marks in the riding vacated by longtime Conservative MP Bob Mills.
The list of nominated federal election candidates in Alberta will be updated as more candidates are nominated.
Former Prime Minister Joe Clark has waded into the debate and is asking some pretty tough questions about why Green Party leader Elizabeth May is being left out of the televised Leaders’ Debate.
Clark also made a point that I can imagine a lot of Canadians would agree on (this Canadian included):
The tone of federal politics today is the worst I can remember in my 50 years in public life. Of course, there were angry partisan differences before, but they were tumultuous exceptions to a general rule of common public purpose, even civility. By contrast, the standard today has become consistently bitter and negative – personal invective routinely displaces any serious discussion of issues or differences.
This low standard helps corrode respect for the democratic institutions in which this mean drama plays out. It comes at a bad time, because there has been a general decline in the reputation of politicians, parties, legislatures and other institutions. Cynicism grows. Candidates are hard to attract. Citizens turn away from politics – especially young people, who see nothing to attract or inspire them. That constitutes a long-term threat to the authority of the pan-Canadian political institutions that have always been essential for citizens of this diverse democracy to act positively together.
And here I was thinking there would be nothing to blog about on the second day of the election campaign…
– Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach sheepishly waded in to the Federal Election campaign yesterday, officially marking the passing of the torch to Canada’s new provincial maverick: Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams. Williams and 43 of his 44 Conservative MHAs have signed on to defeat Stephen Harper’s Conserative candidates in Newfoundland, a caucus loyalty somewhat reminicent of that held by former Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed.
– Speaking of Newfoundlanders, NDP leader Jack Layton landed in New-Newfoundland (aka: Fort McMurray) the North West Territories and took his message to Alberta’s Tar Sands this week, citing the Harper Cabinet’s decision to overturn a court ruling blocking Imperial Oil’s Kearl Lake development. The development of Kearl Lake only increases the devastating problems created by current oil sands extraction techniques and the resulting tailing ponds left behind.
– On an fairly embarrassing note, Stephen Harper apologized today for a Conservative Party negative ad that showed an Atlantic Puffin pooping on Liberal leader Stéphane Dion‘s shoulder. Yes, contrary to the evidence before you, these are the grown men who want to govern our country.
– Shifting mediums from television to the internet, the Liberals have launched Scandalpedia — an online wiki of Conservative scandals (I was excited to first read out about this on the DailyKos). The Conservatives hit back with Dionbook, which takes aim at Dion as well as media and bloggers who have been critical of Harper’s government.
Two candidates have stepped forward to replace Medicine Hat Conservative MP Monte Solberg. Riding association President LaVar Payne and businessman Dean Shock have both declared their intentions to contest the nomination. Former Medicine Hat Alderman Darren Hirsch and current Alderman Jeremy Thompson are said to be interested in the nomination, but have not yet declared their intentions. The Conservative nomination meeting will be held on September 13.
Solberg was first elected as Medicine Hat’s MP while carrying the Reform Party flag in the 1993 Federal Election and most recently served as Minister of Human Resources and Social Development. In 2006, Solberg was re-elected with 79.7% of the popular vote.
The nominated Conservative candidate will face Liberal Beverly Botter and New Democrat Wally Regeher.
The ruling group of media outlets will not allow Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May to join the 2008 televised Leaders Debate because of opposition from Stephen Harper and Jack Layton. Both Harper and Layton have apparently threatened not to participate in the debate if May was allowed to debate. The Conservative and NDP leaders appear to have an issue with May’s support of Stéphane Dion‘s positions on environmental issues.
The idea that two political leaders would cut out a debate because one political leader agrees with another highlights a major flaw in the mentality of Canada’s partisan political system. As admitting that someone else may have a better idea than you is a reality that millions of real Canadians have to come to grips with on a daily basis, perhaps our political leadership should not act so infallible.
Also, at what point in time did Canadians grant private media outlets (with the exception of the CBC, being public) control over deciding which political leaders voters would have access to in a nationally televised debate?
UPDATE: Jason Morris at Gauntlet.ca is blogging in green to protest the media consortium’s decision.
Just in time for a Federal Election, Craig Chandler has decided that it was a good time to set sail for Ontario by blazing his way into Conservative MP Helena Guergis‘ riding of Simcoe-Grey to do some anti-Mayoral campaigning in the Town of Collingwood (something that I can only imagine Guergis is ecstatic about — read: sarcasm).
A right-wing talk radio host and Executive Director of the Calgary-based Progressive Group for Independent Business, Chandler fell into the national spotlight a year ago when he was dumped as the Conservative candidate in Calgary-Egmont after writing a controversial rant against new Albertans on an online webboard and getting into trouble with the Alberta Human Rights Commission. Known for his less than mainstream views, Chandler has previously run for the Reform Party in Hamilton-Mountain in 1993 and for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003.
Now in Ontario, Chandler and PGIB affiliate David Crutcher are running a media smear campaign and mass phone attack against Collingwood Mayor Chris Carrier. According to the Collingwood Enterprise-Bulletin, PGIB has accused Carrier of being “anti-business” following the Town’s decision to fine two companies who were dumping more waste into the local sewage system than local bylaws permitted. One of the two companies, Collingwood Ethanol, is connected to Chandler’s father, Bruce Chandler. Ontario’s Ministry of Environment has also laid 17 charges against the company.
PGIBs accusations against Mayor Carrier have confused Collingwood blogger and businessman Rick Crouch, who offered these comments:
“You must ask yourself, is it realistic or sensible for any of us to believe that a Mayor or any politician for that matter would have an “anti-business” mandate. Hardly and that’s where the hilarity in PGIB’s accusations begin and end.”
Radio Free Collingwood has also been following the story and offers a couple of posts detailing PGIBs activities in the Ontario town.
Though I’m not sure what effect, if any, Chandler’s campaign could have on the Conservative campaign in the Simcoe region, I’m sure that even the thought Chandler being within 100 kilometers of battleground Ontario could make even the most seasoned Conservative veteran organizer a bit nervous.