On Sunday I decried that the election so far had focused on political foibles, not policy. Three days later, it’s clear that the politicians have been reading the This blog. Yesterday Layton pledged $100 million in skills training; Dion said he’d pay $900 million over four years in pharmacare; Harper thought that self employed workers […] More »

David Miller indirectly endorsed the Green party yesterday when he praised their national transit plan and their promise to increase funding for municipal infrastructure. Although he did not officially endorse the party, he did say it had the best plan for cities in a radio interview yesterday. He also contrasted this thinly-veiled endorsement with some […] More »

An elderly New Brunswick woman who died last week is the 17th person whose death has been linked to the listeria outbreak, it was confirmed late Tuesday–the same day that the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) published an editorial blaming the Conservative government’s change in policy for the severity of the listeriosis outbreak. “Listeria is […] More »

Let’s play a game – guess the voter turnout for the 2008 federal election. First, let’s take a look at the voter turnout from the last few times we hit the polls (for more numbers, stop by Elections Canada): November 21, 1988 – 75.3% October 25, 1993 – 71.8% June 2, 1997 – 67% November […] More »

IN EDMONTON Things political start to stink when they stagnate. Conservatives have typically had a lock on fiscal prudence, portraying the other mainstream parties as tax-and-spendthrifts who cannot be trusted with the public purse. Canadians have long accepted the presumption that Conservatives would keep tighter control of public finance than any other party. Those days […] More »

Barack Obama is undeniably a political phenomenon (after all, we put him on the cover of the magazine). One of the most remarkable qualities of his presidential campaign has been his success at fundraising. It was just announced on the campaign website that Obama-Biden raised a record US$66 million in August alone, far outstripping any […] More »

IN EDMONTON Hello? Can anybody hear me? Probably not. According to the political compass test I just took my politics are libertarian-leftist, which apparently puts me in the same camp as Nelson Mandela, Gandhi and the Dalai Lama. I have no idea what that means in our national election climate, but in Alberta it means […] More »

While no election campaign would be complete without a good amount of badmouthing and near-defamation of one’s opponents, it’s looking like this election is going to include nothing but, at least on the orangier side of things. New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton has seemingly abandoned the age-old campaign tradition of promising (ahem, “promising”) change […] More »

One week into the election and it’s all been about personalities. Dion in snowshoes; Harper at the piano; Layton the charismatic potential PM; May the scrappy women’s lib champion. And it’s all been good for Stephen Harper: his popularity has surged, largely due to the perception within the Canadian electorate that he’s a ‘strong’ leader. […] More »

Late Late Show host Craig Ferguson totally nailed it in Thursday night’s monologue on the U.S. election campaign (run time: 8:45): In it, Ferguson delivers a passionate criticism of media election coverage, voter apathy and the circus around Sarah Palin. I hope a lot of people see it, especially the part where he says he […] More »

(Okay, so that’s my messy bookshelf, not Stephen Harper’s.) Yann Martel is a determined guy. You’d think that after sending 37 books to the Prime Minister with only one very pithy reply, he would have given up. But in a recent interview Martel said he is continuing his “guerrilla book club” with Mr. Harper, even […] More »