tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19402125.comments2024-02-07T16:22:39.625-05:00Jeff JedrasUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger12561125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19402125.post-84106380114999334012016-03-19T18:30:19.949-04:002016-03-19T18:30:19.949-04:00disagree about sauerkraut but of course defend you...disagree about sauerkraut but of course defend your right to refuse it. Please don't go perogieless again in PHP, give me a call.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11080129876491741810noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19402125.post-72305455126524988472016-02-03T20:44:54.313-05:002016-02-03T20:44:54.313-05:00I never touch dairy and I am an alien that hates b...I never touch dairy and I am an alien that hates bacon (for realz) but there is something about that pizza that looks deeeeelliisshhhhhLiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09467749838093621605noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19402125.post-89835178970740817122016-02-03T13:50:15.509-05:002016-02-03T13:50:15.509-05:00Thanks Wilson.
Not really a secret, I guess. I&#...Thanks Wilson. <br /><br />Not really a secret, I guess. I'm working for Salma Zahid, MP for Scarborough Centre.<br /><br />Jason, if I visit Darcy's I'll be sure to visit NDP haunt Brixton's as well, and wherever the Conservatives are eating (I think the Brasserie).Jeffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14971310821484459106noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19402125.post-24432673137433062132016-02-03T13:09:45.800-05:002016-02-03T13:09:45.800-05:00Congratulations on the new job. I assume you aren&...Congratulations on the new job. I assume you aren't allowed to say who you're working for, or you would have? : ) <br /><br />I wish you the best, but I'll miss your commentaries.<br /><br />WilsonUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09412720800766357536noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19402125.post-38777167515770783802016-02-02T13:42:32.036-05:002016-02-02T13:42:32.036-05:00Just be careful that you don't show any prefer...Just be careful that you don't show any preference for Darcy McGee's if you want to avoid partisanship. :)Jason Cherniakhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12473304114206630747noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19402125.post-91960810170749418152015-10-01T21:26:16.786-04:002015-10-01T21:26:16.786-04:00Total LesbianTotal LesbianAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07837150754470444854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19402125.post-55254838151430185912015-08-10T15:36:05.943-04:002015-08-10T15:36:05.943-04:00"Nine of 10 justices ruled "
Actually, ..."Nine of 10 justices ruled "<br /><br />Actually, it was nine of nine: a unanimous decision. Which makes French citizen Mulcair's attempts to oppose it all the more appalling. <br /><br />"Trudeau’s position is very popular everywhere but Quebec."<br /><br />The Clarity Act is popular throughout Canada, INCLUDING Quebec:<br /><br />http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/the-ndp-forgets-the-clarity-acts-popularity-among-quebeckers/article8277838/<br /><br />The only groups that strongly oppose it are extreme separatists. Mulcair is pandering for those votes, NOT the votes of Quebecers in general. <br /><br />I hope people will start asking Mulcair why we're talking about it at all if 50%+1 is the standard, since by that criterion we've had not just one, but TWO referenda where the federalist side won. Or why his own party requires the supposedly undemocratic level of 67% for amendments to the party constitution, if 50%+1 is the only acceptable level.Vancouveroishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10612421378173745791noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19402125.post-73334381897029410072015-08-08T09:22:20.886-04:002015-08-08T09:22:20.886-04:00Thanks for catching those typos.Thanks for catching those typos.Jeffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14971310821484459106noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19402125.post-26989618870241473592015-08-07T19:26:41.339-04:002015-08-07T19:26:41.339-04:00Exactly! I was really happy Trudeau raised this la...Exactly! I was really happy Trudeau raised this last night because it is really important. Doubly so because the NDP are also saying they are going to negotiate a constitutional amendment with the provinces - and the last time that happened it resulted in a referendum in Quebec.Gaylehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08112657859825911939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19402125.post-73450816033483213932015-08-07T12:30:37.393-04:002015-08-07T12:30:37.393-04:00typo alert: "It was deeply popular in much of...typo alert: "It was deeply popular in much of Quebec" not as bad as Prime Minster on an official tweet, mind<br /><br />This issue could easily blow up in Trudeau's face but I guess he feels he has little to lose at this point. He needs a more nuanced approach - and should try to engineer situations where he can react to, rather than raise the issue. <br />Trudeau's needs to show how both Harper and Mulcair are "rolling the dice" constitutionally around the Senate issue. Should either be PM after Oct.19 for any length of time - they will have to appoint Senators or open a huge negotiation that will quickly grow beyond the Senate issue. Having focussed on his Senate plan (that essentially treats the Senate as the distraction it is) then Trudeau can link this reckless pandering to the Sherbrooke declaration to show the added danger. He lost points for deflecting the focus from Harper's anti-democratic behavior when he brought this up out of the blue. Northern PoVhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04670080478290108536noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19402125.post-69787271450954605122015-08-07T12:21:59.166-04:002015-08-07T12:21:59.166-04:00The "No" side won the 1995 referendum, h...The "No" side won the 1995 referendum, however narrowly.HenryFTPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12918237715021295212noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19402125.post-74129680037996562052015-08-03T10:13:31.778-04:002015-08-03T10:13:31.778-04:00But Harper isn't the main competition: Mulcair...But Harper isn't the main competition: Mulcair is. <br /><br />How will the Liberal party handle *him*? The federal NDP has no record in government to criticize.Vancouveroishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10612421378173745791noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19402125.post-43627027430487936222015-07-31T19:43:01.095-04:002015-07-31T19:43:01.095-04:00I think there's a separate, longer post on tha...I think there's a separate, longer post on that topic in my future. But in brief, the math isn't as neat as that. You can't add the Liberal vote to the NDP vote as 1+1=2. The Liberal vote would in fact splinter. A chunk, yes, would go NDP. And a chunk would go Conservative. If the NDP can continue to gain credibility on the economy, and Notley does well in Alberta, more of it would go NDP than would have a year ago. But enough would still go CPC to pad their majority, particularly under FPTP in enough ridings to matter. And then there's the question of how much of a shift to the centre in order to appear moderate for the sake of power is the NDP's left flank willing to accept. Do they compromise, or do they feel principle is at stake and break off? I don't know. <br /><br />But like I said, the math isn't simple. I believe the Cons have crunched the numbers, and like how it plays out for them.Jeffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14971310821484459106noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19402125.post-58444114288622050412015-07-31T13:00:30.516-04:002015-07-31T13:00:30.516-04:00Would you be willing to expand on this, please: &q...Would you be willing to expand on this, please: "the Conservatives certainly believe the math of a two-party state favours them. And I tend to agree."<br /><br />On the surface, the math of a two-party state suggests it would work <em>against</em> the Conservatives, since they consistently get less than half the vote and only win governments by splitting the opposition. If the opposition is united into a single party, that suggests the Conservatives would lose out on that advantage.<br /><br />What am I missing?<br /><br />(Note: I'm not trying to suggest that there should be a two-party state. That would be horrible. I'm just wondering how such a situation would benefit the Cons.)Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09412720800766357536noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19402125.post-20724338021008111782015-07-28T22:37:46.507-04:002015-07-28T22:37:46.507-04:00Hey, Jeff. You don’t have be a “hater” to observe...Hey, Jeff. You don’t have be a “hater” to observe that a party leader has made a mistake. In the Eve Adams case, many people who wish Justin well saw that he had made a mistake and were disappointed by it.<br /><br />The idea that Justin ‘had no choice’ when presented with the Adams request to join the LPC puts me in mind of another Liberal Leader who said he “had no choice.” I think we all remember how that turned out. <br /><br />In fact, John Turner had a better argument that Justin. At least there was an agreement in place with Pierre. In the case of Eve and Justin, the decision was all his. No one forced Justin to do the wrong thing. He simply volunteered. <br /><br />And his decision was all the more egregious given the way he and his team have interfered to keep long-time Liberals from running for nomination in other ridings. These prospective candidates weren’t good enough to be Justin Trudeau Liberals but Eve Adams was. The mind boggles. <br /><br />As for the argument that Adams was a prize ‘too hard to pass up’ and that “he’d have taken flack” if he hadn’t taken her in, this doesn’t pass the smell test. Reporters actually guffawed at the news conference, because the sight was so absurd, and Liberal activists were rightly appalled that Justin considered Eve to be an appropriate representative of the Party he leads. Where the “flack” would have come from had Justin told her to take a hike, I don’t know.RADinBChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17303014758298473763noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19402125.post-89043300873472661782015-07-27T16:36:22.441-04:002015-07-27T16:36:22.441-04:00Fact is if Trudeau really wanted Adams as the cand...<i>Fact is if Trudeau really wanted Adams as the candidate, she'd be the candidate. He'd either have appointed her or fixed the race to ensure she won.</i><br /><br />I don't see how this follows. He could not have done either of these without giving the lie to his promise of "open nominations". <br /><br />That said, however, I doubt he's terribly disappointed that Ms Adams lost.Vancouveroishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10612421378173745791noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19402125.post-83929874549729347512015-07-27T13:35:11.069-04:002015-07-27T13:35:11.069-04:00Yup, well said, and out leading the parade is Harp...Yup, well said, and out leading the parade is Harper's very own propaganda channel the CBC... Justin Trudeau made it exceedingly clear that there were no deals involved in letting Adams join the Liberal caucus, and that Adams would be allowed to contest in an open Toronto area riding just like any other nomination candidate that could step forward... That's it, that's all the story here... Real journalism is truly dead... Maybe CBC should look at it's own reporting like I did... - http://www.cbc.ca/.../eve-adams-former-conservative-mp...GWizhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16535442415695238625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19402125.post-32944464670013867892015-07-24T12:28:38.577-04:002015-07-24T12:28:38.577-04:00I find this proposition of a Canadian political at...I find this proposition of a Canadian political attention deficit disorder odd. The idea that a government can't pay attention to important issues of principle, whether constitutional or not, and also deal with issues such as the economy, seems to me to be either intentionally misleading or just plain silly. But political partisans and pundits continually repeat it as though it is gospel. I can deal with paying the mortgage, the emotional angst of my teenaged daughter, and the taking care of the lawn all at the same time! Imagine that. And just because Justin Trudeau tells me our country can't deal with more than one important issue at a time doesn't mean I believe him. The next government should deal with Electoral Reform, the economy, the Senate, and many other things because that is what they are therefore. I wish people would stop telling Canadians what they don't want or can't handle and have the courage to actually deal with issues head on. If people don't want to abolish the Senate that's fine. I tis a legitimate political position. But there are many people who do want it abolished and that is also a legitimate political position (even if the Liberals want to portray it as some kind of mental instability). Kirbycairohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17528654183160305877noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19402125.post-73148420890530846952014-12-10T16:58:51.446-05:002014-12-10T16:58:51.446-05:00Here is why you are completely wrong in your asses...Here is why you are completely wrong in your assessment. Your entire argument hinges upon your claim that David broke the rules set by the LPC and thus his failure caused his demise. This assumption is wrong and therefore your argument crumbles. Just because the LPC leaked to the press the reasons why Mr. Bertschi's green light status was revoked does not make these reasons factual. Let's look at the facts:<br /><br />1- David was approved as a candidate contingent upon him repaying his leadership debt before the next election based on an agreed schedule.<br />2- By November Mr. Bertschi was well ahead of Mr. Leslie in terms of membership sales, which normally correlate with votes at nomination meetings. This means that Mr. Bertschi would have beat Mr. Leslie by about ~20% at the meeting, something that would have been quite embarrassing for the LPC.<br />3- It was upon this realization that the LPC acted and revoked his status, citing two reasons: (1) Mr. Bertschi's level of debt was unacceptably high and; (2) Mr. Bertschi failed to disclose current litigation that might damage the reputation of the party.<br />4- Both these reasons are false. With regards to the first reason, Mr. Bertschi had paid off $100,000 of his debt well ahead of the schedule agreed upon by the LPC and only has $50,000 remaining. Thus it cannot be considered unacceptably high given that he was ahead of payment plan approved by the LPC. With regards to the second reason, the litigation they were referring to was a defamation suit against a rag American tabloid website that would not have embarrassed the party and in fact had been abandoned 8 months prior. The green light nomination forms do not ask if you had any past litigation, only current.<br /><br />Therefore, it can easily be seen that the reasons given by the LPC were false, making your entire argument false. In fact, Mr. Bertschi has gone so far as to give the LPC a Notice of Libel because of the lies that they spread to the media. <br /><br />What we can conclude from these facts is that the LPC was fearful that their preferred candidate was going to lose and lied to Canadians to force a candidate out undemocratically.<br /><br />Even though this is just a blog, I implore you to critically reason through things before writing conclusions. If you don't, your arguments can so easily be torn apart. It's easy to blame the person who's stirring the pot, but sometimes we have to critically assess the establishment and realize that some things are fundamentally wrong. You may support the LPC, as I do, but they do not always act in the interest of Canadians. All Mr. Bertschi is doing is fighting for the rights of Canadians to have a voice, after the LPC denied them that right. It seems like so many people are complacent to this deterioration of true representation and leadership, because they view it as politics as usual. At least someone is standing up and saying, "I've had enough".Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16028673821292977114noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19402125.post-31882358533698190902014-12-08T17:33:35.042-05:002014-12-08T17:33:35.042-05:00Bertschi comes across as a bit of a thug. Your pa...Bertschi comes across as a bit of a thug. Your party is well rid of him.The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19402125.post-85091161677502400532014-12-08T17:15:50.394-05:002014-12-08T17:15:50.394-05:00Agreed. Part of the problem I've been pretty c...Agreed. Part of the problem I've been pretty critical about on my blog with regards to campaign debt is that there was a lot of pressure (worse from the NDP than the Liberals) shortly after the leadership election to retire the debt. Instead of using the new opportunity of a large number of new signups motivated and following given a new leadership campaign, the mass emails were being taken up on retiring each of the candidates debts. It is a huge squandering of an opportunity. <br /><br />There SHOULD be relatively stringent rules about debt repayment, and further it should be up to the individuals with very heavy restriction on the use of country wide emails to NDP/Liberal supports for the purposes of retiring the debt. And if Bertschi can't manage to do that, he needs to stop huffing and puffing that it is undemocratic. baziehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11554808178484135529noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19402125.post-90027637373906267362014-12-08T17:15:26.308-05:002014-12-08T17:15:26.308-05:00Agreed. Part of the problem I've been pretty c...Agreed. Part of the problem I've been pretty critical about on my blog with regards to campaign debt is that there was a lot of pressure (worse from the NDP than the Liberals) shortly after the leadership election to retire the debt. Instead of using the new opportunity of a large number of new signups motivated and following given a new leadership campaign, the mass emails were being taken up on retiring each of the candidates debts. It is a huge squandering of an opportunity. <br /><br />There SHOULD be relatively stringent rules about debt repayment, and further it should be up to the individuals with very heavy restriction on the use of country wide emails to NDP/Liberal supports for the purposes of retiring the debt. And if Bertschi can't manage to do that, he needs to stop huffing and puffing that it is undemocratic. baziehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11554808178484135529noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19402125.post-13220837777895189292014-10-15T14:07:10.666-04:002014-10-15T14:07:10.666-04:00This comment has been hidden from the blog.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09412720800766357536noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19402125.post-37530267398580568082014-09-24T11:30:14.928-04:002014-09-24T11:30:14.928-04:00I really enjoyed this well-written post. Levant&#...I really enjoyed this well-written post. Levant's rant did not appear to be opinion piece, but bore a closer resemblance to vile hate propaganda. I have not seen (or heard)any member of the PC Party condemn this piece, and therefore could never accept the theory of the "two sides" of their "media house". There is only one house, and their ownership dictates the image and messages that emanate. While I too understand that some reporters can be hurt by this. They are all adults, and they all know where they work.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04567555294832520698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19402125.post-27929048336729615212014-09-23T23:48:25.419-04:002014-09-23T23:48:25.419-04:00Sorry but Trudeau and anyone Sun attacks all day s...Sorry but Trudeau and anyone Sun attacks all day should not engage at all. It is not news. It is not journalism. There may be some there, but they gave the journalism part to work there.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com