Politics in Canada

Anyone have any thoughts on the races in Windsor?  I'm leaning without much enthusiasm towards Limoges right now mainly because he seems to have a little more labour support and seems less likely to spend money on sketchy megaprojects.  Is there an especially progressive candidate I should be aware of?

In the school board races, I'm eager to support Shelley Harding-Smith, who's prominent in the local NDP association.  Probably also Kim McKinley.

Will probably support Ron Jones in my ward, just because he's the one candidate I've actually heard concrete policy suggestions from.  Should I know more about John Elliott?

There seems to be an interesting phenomenon happening in Davenport North, ward 17. Just as the media are predicting that right wingers may ride the Rob Ford bandwagon and unseat some left-leaning incumbents, the opposite appears to be happening in this ward. Last election, Alejandra Bravo came very close to unseating the sleazy incumbent, Cesar Palacio, losing by less than 300 votes. This looked to be her chance to finally take the seat. But she got hired by the Maytree Foundation and decided not to run. Instead, she endorsed Jonah Schein, the very progressive civic engagement coordinator at the STOP Community Food Centre.

Continued from here. 

Would ANYONE be interested in starting an online magazine(?) devoted to Harper and his retirement asap? The reactionaries prosper by hiding under radar, while every nitwit muslim who posts something aggressive online is 'rounded up' as part of terror network etc...i notice very little effective anti harper (anti mister pig) activitry is going on; despite the nazipoohs' almost pathological crudeness- and they're saved from harm by the assumption of the news media that they, the eliteist mobsters, define what everbody's thinking, and go jump-in-lake if anyone disagrees! A magazine decrying harper's foibles would outrage if it went for the throat like a "Steven Harper wipes his a** with Canada!' magazine would do.

The emergence of high-profile conservative and centrist candidates in city wards currently held by left-leaning councillors could change the complexion of the civic election.

The NDP faces the threat of losing two seats and Winnipeg's organized left may be forced to divert some of its ground game away from Judy Wasylycia-Leis' mayoral campaign.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/council-lefties-brace-for-...

What the NDP (or any other party on the left) needs to do in order to go anywhere on fiscal responsibility is to outline a clear fiscal accountability plan before any tax increases.

This means having a summary of Canadian public accounting that is not 500 pages long and is not one that can only be read by experts -- that's baffle gab.

@dandmb50

Where is the coverage of the Toronto Mayoral race, there is a lot of interest in it, here in Toronto but I could find only one recent story (mid August) about Rob Ford.

He sure knows how to perk up our interest and the other candidates know how to shoot Ford down. His campaign is to cut taxes and the over spending at City Hall. But he doesn't explain how he will do that.

A few months ago, in a discussion about George Smitherman, somebody told me a story about how they were involved in something political where Smitherman was present and they asked him to give them a hand. At this, he started to applaud. An amusing little anecdote which goes along with Georgie's reputation for being a jerk. Since then, I have heard a variation of the same story from four or five different people, each with the same punchline. By the third time I heard the story, always from activists, it was obvious that this was an urban legend and that they couldn't have all been there when this happened. It was just as obvious that each believed they had witnessed the supposed incident.

My motivation for submitting this resolution was to uphold human rights, basic human decency, and protection of children from child service workers that may arbitrarily judge these children's parentage in their moral shadow as "unfit" and work to turn otherwise healthy children into displaced crown orphans.

On April 3rd, 440 children were taken from their homes and families after child-"protection" officials in Texas raided a polygamist compound (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24777095/).

At the CP24 debate in Toronto on August 17th at the former home of the Masonic Temple, the "top" five mayoral candidates entertained several questions from the audience on the subject of immigration. I suppose neither the moderators, presenters, candidates, or political commentators knew or ought to have known, that Immigration as it pertains to citizenship is a federal issue, not a municipal one. A good handbook rule for all Canadians and aspiring holders of our constitution, is to remember that the distribution of powers and the issues that each tier may govern under, are consistent with upholding the laws dealt within that jurisdiction. Last time I read, there is no "Toronto court of Immigration".

*

The latest Harper government slashing of the mandatory census and the associated outcry that has raised is certainly present in our minds right now...but given a few more months and some other action, will it fade?

I thought it would be a good idea to compile a list of the cuts and attacks the Harper government has led against various groups.  Taken one by one, these cuts and attacks are awful, but are not easily located in a pattern.

I'll start off with one:

COURT CHALLENGES PROGRAM

Anne has spent decades fighting & performing for *everyone* else, I'm posting this note in hopes that she has some phans & phriends here who would like to reach out to help her in her time of Need:

What are the connections between direct participatory democracy and citizen journalism? How can we link the two so that the "underlings" can have a political voice and be heard on Parliamnet Hill.

Robert A Hackett, William K Carroll. Democratic Media Activism Through the Lens of Social Movement Theory. Media, Culture & Society. 2006.

Latest poll suggests Tories and Libs are neck and neck...

http://newssympatico.cbc.ca/home/conservative_lead_dries_up_poll_suggest...

Time for the Reform Party to cut to the chase and fly the stars and stripes over Parliament.

http://montreal.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100804/ottawa-deserters-100804/?hub=MontrealHome