It’s been three days since the de ja vu election and I, like many Canadians, have been walking around in a bit of a daze wondering what happened on Tuesday. Are we really in the same place we were before? Did we really just spent $300 million to shuffle around a dozen or so seats? […] More »
The Canadian federal election of 2008 slouched to its ignominious end last night. Having blogged about it here over the last five weeks, we can say several things: It didn’t produce a strikingly different parliament and we could have all saved ourselves the time and money; None of the parties experienced much of a victory […] More »
The Toronto Star today published short pieces written by four of the national leaders: Stephen Harper, Stephane Dion, Jack Layton, and Elizabeth May. There essays included specific proposals, broadsides against other leaders, and some evocative language. Both Harper and Dion used the word “strong” in one form or another, and often. Harper used it three […] More »
Today’s the big day! People seemed to like the liveblogs we did of the two federal election debates, and so we’ll go for the hat-trick by blogging the election results this evening. In case you didn’t see the invitation we posted on the blog below, or the Facebook invitation, we’re having an election-watch party tonight, […] More »
Other than the Tories finally releasing their platform, it’s been a slow week for bloggers and newsies alike, so if you’re like me and suffering from a serious case of election fatigue, here’s a lightning-fast recap on the week’s (arguably pretty slow) happenings: Monday: Orphan voters are left out in the cold while a group […] More »
With four days to go, the rhetoric is heating up. Here in Quebec two Green Party candidates have told their constituents to vote Liberal because they (the Greens) have no chance of winning in their riding anyway. Of course, they neglected to check with their party leader first. I’d love to have heard the conversation […] More »
According to 2005 estimates from the Public Health Agency of Canada, some 58,000 Canadians are living with HIV, and about a quarter of those are unaware of their condition. I was surprised to learn the numbers were that high, and apparently, so were the five party leaders. Four of the five federal party platforms (the […] More »
During an election a few years ago I suggested that my mother vote for the NDP. “Why would I vote for them?” she asked me. “They’re not going to win!” Wanting to vote for the winning candidate instead of the one you believe in, is just one of the ways the results of our flawed […] More »
Yesterday I posted a short quiz to test your knowledge on what the five major parties’ have been telling us over the past five weeks. Below are the answers to that quiz. How did you do? 1. Which party has promised to roll back taxes income trusts? The Liberals. 2. Which party wants to bring […] More »
Judy Rebick’s piece in today’s Globe and Mail raises the troubling possibility that this election will not be democratic. For it to be democratic, the thoughts and feelings of Canadians would have to be represented by their government. “More than two-thirds of Canadians”, Rebick says, support “strong action on climate change; government intervention to create […] More »