Last night I got home from an all-candidates meeting to find this pamphlet in my door. NDP colours on the outside. Desperate – sadly desperate – Liberal plea on the inside. Please vote NDP and put these pathetic, say-anything-for-power folks out of their misery. More »

As Andrew Potter likes to remind us, the intellectual elite, especially those with international credentials (oh, the mother country has noticed us again!), can’t quite understand why we haven’t just turned Canada over to Michael Ignatieff now that he thinks he might like to run it. I live in that backwater in western Toronto, and […] More »

I caught The National on CBC last night, which included a special “Your Turn” segment with Jack Layton. CBC viewers were invited to pose questions to the NDP leader in front of a live studio audience in Halifax, with Peter Mansbridge moderating. It was a rare chance for Layton to get a full hour of […] More »

I’m not saying nothing. This isn’t about Stephen Harper. This is an American documentary made by Americans about America. Still, I’ll bet I get called anti-American for calling your attention to it. Why We Fight More »

1984 – Bloated and corrupt Liberal government under John Turner is thrown from office after Brian Mulroney campaigns to bring back integrity to Parliament. Former Liberal voters turn to Tories because “it’s time for a change.” 1993 – Bloated and corrupt Tory government under Kim Campbell is thrown from office after Jean Chretien campaigns to […] More »

Friends of Canadian Broadcasting are running a new email campaign to end patronage at CBC. Here’s what it’s all about: “The CBC President acted on his own when he locked out CBC employees last summer. Yet, he remains in office, protected by the Prime Minister who appointed him and unaccountable to Canadians. The patronage appointments […] More »

I caught a bit of an interview on The Current this morning with a Conservative operative (sorry, didn’t catch the name – I was driving and eating at the same time), discussing the Same Sex free vote the Cons have promised as part of their “winning” election platform. I’m confused. After giving me my morning […] More »

…already determined, if you look at any of Canada’s major newspapers and TV newscasts more than a week before election day. The story of Conservative momentum and Liberal downfall is dominating the headlines, to the point where features about might-as-well-be-prime-minister Stephen Harper seem like preparation for the populace. “Hey, we already know the outcome of […] More »

Hoping for a day when everyone’s vote will be counted in a meaningful way, I can’t support the “strategy” of voting for someone you don’t want in order to beat the person you really don’t want. That said Calgary Grit sent me in the direction of this very interesting Strategic Voter guide at Democratic Space. […] More »

The New York Times yesterday had a sad front pager detailing the demise of three for-profit diabetes prevention centres in the city, which is experiencing something of an epidemic of Type 2 diabetes. From the story: They did not shut down because they had failed their patients. They closed because they had failed to make […] More »

Buried behind all the news of surging Tories in today’s Toronto Star is a fascinating piece by Dennis Raphael, associate professor at the School of Health Policy and Management at York University. Raphael argues a direct link between low child poverty rates and what he calls “left cabinet share” in governments. The statistics he uses […] More »