And so a new era begins in Canadian politics.......

Tue, 2015-10-20 04:27

NorthReport

And from my favourite political analyst at rabble:

Prime Minister-Elect Justin Trudeau has many promises to keep

After one of his three majority victories, Pierre Elliott Trudeau quoted a line from New Hampshire poet Robert Frost’sStopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening:

"I have promises to keep / And miles to go before I sleep."

At the late Prime Minister's funeral in 2000 his eldest son Justin paraphrased that quote:

"He kept his promises and earned his sleep."

It is Justin Trudeau who now has promises to keep.

He made many, many promises during this campaign, possibly more than his father made in his five election campaigns combined.

Here are a just 16 of them:

1. To create a special, all-party parliamentary committee to study alternatives to the current first-past-the-post electoral system, and, within 18 months, introduce legislation to replace first-past-the-post, based on the committee's recommendations.

That is a key promise, and one that the power brokers and insiders of the Liberal party will

not want the new Prime Minister to keep.

It will take determination and fortitude on Justin Trudeau's part to resist the many who will advise him to shelve that particular pledge.

The cynics are already saying we can forget abut electoral reform.

On election night, when one member of a Radio-Canada panel evoked that particular Trudeau pledge, there were snickers all around.

When has it ever happened, the panellists said almost with one voice, that a party wins a majority under one voting system and turns around and changes that system?

Those who voted for the Liberals with hearts full of hope -- especially those who said theirs was a strategic vote necessitated by our unfair and unrepresentative electoral system -- might want to get ready start actively encouraging their party of choice to honour this particular promise.

If enacted, electoral reform would change the face of Canadian democracy for generations to come. It would be a true and lasting legacy project for Justin Trudeau's new government.

2. To get the Canada Revenue agency to "pro-actively" inform Canadians who have failed to apply for benefits of their right to do so; and, more important, to end the Harper government's politically motivated harassment of charities.

3. To restore home delivery of mail.

4. To extend the federal access to information law to the Prime Minster's and cabinet

ministers' offices.

5. To institute parliamentary oversight, involving all parties in the House, of Canada's security agencies.

6. To appoint a commissioner to assure that all government advertising is non-partisan.

7. To end the odious and anti-parliamentary practice of stuffing disparate pieces of legislation into massive omnibus bills. This was a trademark of the Stephen Harper regime.

8. To have all Parliamentary committee chairs elected by the full House, by secret ballot. Currently committee chairs are purely partisan appointments of the Prime Minister.

9. To end the Stephen Harper’s war on science and restore the compulsory long form census.

10. To name an equal number of women and men to the cabinet.

Those are just some of the many Liberal promises that relate to democratic reform. Justin Trudeau announced those reform commitments, and a number of others -- with much fanfare -- this past June.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/karl-nerenberg/2015/10/prime-minister-el...

Tue, 2015-10-20 04:38

#3

NorthReport

Green Party on the verge of irrelevance

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/10/11/green-party-on-the-...

------

How many right-wing parties does Canada need anyways?

May, Greens fail to break through into mainstream

Failure to elect several high-profile candidates means there are more questions than reasons to celebrate for Elizabeth May and her Green party

http://www.thestar.com/news/federal-election/2015/10/19/may-greens-fail-...

Tue, 2015-10-20 05:03

#4

NorthReport

Ipsos Reid came quite close to calling it with their most recent poll.

Party / Results / Poll / Difference

Cons / 32% / 31% / 1%

NDP / 20% / 22% / 2%

Libs / 40% / 38% / 2%

BQ / 5% / 4% / 1%

Grns / 3% / 4% / 1%

Tue, 2015-10-20 18:50

#5

NorthReport

Liberals and NDP make gains in western Canada

The Conservatives have dominated the West for years, but Liberals and New Democrats made some dents.

http://www.thestar.com/news/federal-election/2015/10/20/liberals-and-ndp...

Tue, 2015-10-20 21:08

#6

NorthReport

Someone's not getting the message it seems.

Green Party has stalled under Elizabeth May’s watch

The party has gone as far as it will under her watch. Monday’s showing makes clear the Greens have stalled. Consider the party’s results since she took its mantle, after the 2006 federal election in which the Greens, under then-leader Jim Harris, captured 4.5 per cent of votes nation wide.

With May in charge, the Greens increased their vote share to 6.8 per cent in the 2008 election. Encouraging, but not enough to send a single Green candidate to Parliament. May ran then in the Nova Scotia riding of Central Nova against formidable Conservative incumbent Peter MacKay. She finished a distant second.

Three years later, May switched ridings, moving across Canada to Sidney, B.C. and the riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands. Her party had determined she would have a good chance of winning that seat, and the number crunchers were proven correct. May became the first Green Party candidate ever elected to Canada’s Parliament.

But she had spent an inordinate amount of time and party resources campaigning for herself. The Greens suffered elsewhere in the 2011 election, taking a meagre 3.9 per cent of the vote, nationally.

On Monday, the Greens couldn’t even manage that. The party’s share of the popular vote across Canada fell further, and the Greens lost their only other seat–the Ontario riding of Thunder Bay-Superior North–as Bruce Hyer flamed out. (Elected in the riding in 2011 as an NDP member, Hyer bolted for the Greens in 2012.)

http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/brian-hutchinson-green-party-h...

Wed, 2015-10-21 14:56

#7

NorthReport

With a young, energetic and Trudeau name Liberal government, and a very solid (about 100 seats) Conservative Official Opposition, does the NDP even have a role any more in Canadian politics?

A good day for Canada, an awful one for NDP

NDP expectations could hardly have been more cruelly shattered. The party lost not only the government it had the right to dream of. Its very role in Canada’s political process is now in doubt. There is no balance of power to hold. There is no coalition to join. There is, in fact, no one in Ottawa who needs to pay it the slightest attention.

The Trudeau government has its clear priorities, many of them embarrassingly more progressive than the NDP’s platform. The NDP caucus can hardly oppose any of them, but nor can it expect the Government to pay attention to NDP overtures. Why should they? To fight the dreaded Harperman, the Liberals, and specifically their leader, received nothing but abuse during the campaign, often gratuitously personal and always strategically dubious. The Liberals will hardly be grateful for NDP advice about the right way to run Canada.

Now that it can’t seriously pretend to be the government-in-waiting, the NDP must rethink its role in parliament and indeed in the country. For decades the NDP were policy pioneers, promoting social policies especially until the governing party was forced to accept them – old-age pensions, medicare, unemployment insurance, and much more. Where are the equivalent NDP policies of today? Where are the tough but realistic policies that would address Canada’s scandalous inequality?

The NDP campaign tried to prove how trustworthily conservative it was. But voters supported the real conservative party. The NDP campaign chose to allow the Liberals to present the most progressive platform. So voters looking for progressive change chose the more liberal platform.

Of course it’s also arguable that the NDP made the ultimate sacrifice: In the face of Harper cynically playing the anti-Muslim card, the NDP threw away votes on a matter of principle – supporting the right to wear a niqab – and indeed fully paid the penalty for doing so. It cost the party their Quebec base, and with it any reason why the large “Anyone But Harper” crowd across the country should think of supporting the NDP. The noise you heard in the last week of the campaign was of progressive ABH voters flocking in their tens of thousands to the Liberals.

And where does it leave the party now? That’s the question that New Democrats must start debating, the sooner the better. The answer is by no means preordained. For me, keeping the new government honest remains a pretty good cause.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/a-good-day-for-canada-an-aw...

Wed, 2015-10-21 21:12

#8

Brachina

The only promises Trudeau is likely to keep are are stop bugging scientists, restore the long form cenus, stop harrassing charities, mostly the stuff that Harper did that were more pure stupidity and pointlessly mean then idealogical. Plus the massive deficit which I'm betting he will find a way to funnel those billions into they're friends pockets. And I believe he'll do everything he can to revive Keystone XL because if the Americans agree to it, it pleases Albertans and keeps Quebecers and British Columbians off his back, because he won't need Energy East or Northern Gateway.

And on electoral reform he'll go with that single transferable ballot thing, because the Liberals believe it will give them an electoral advantage (it does, but to a lesser extent it helps the NDP as well, lots of swing voters interested in the NDP and royally fucks the Tories as they have the smallest universe as it were). There is a tiny chance if the Liberals are confedent that they're prefered voting system would win, that they give Canadians a choice of STV or MMPR, leaving no choice of keeping the current system offered, but that's the best case scenerio I can see.

Either could effectly destroy the Tories ability to win elections and become government in Canada.

Wed, 2015-10-21 21:16

#9

NorthReport

Does it really matter anymore who leads the NDP?

And if you do believe it's important, you would have to make a spirited defence for your position, as I would hazard a guess that many Canadians are now accepting of the fact that the NDP has been rendered irrelevant as a result of Monday's election.

Mulcair plans to stay with party for ‘the long haul

http://ipolitics.ca/2015/10/21/mulcair-plans-to-stay-with-party-for-the-...

Wed, 2015-10-21 21:19

#10

josh

.

Wed, 2015-10-21 21:21

#11

josh

NorthReport wrote:

Mulcair plans to stay with party for ‘the long haul

http://ipolitics.ca/2015/10/21/mulcair-plans-to-stay-with-party-for-the-...

Pathetic.

Wed, 2015-10-21 21:21

#12

NorthReport

The NDP's future is somewhat akin to Duceppe's resignation today for the second time, or another pontification from Elizabeth May, as in, seriously, who cares!

Wed, 2015-10-21 21:50

#13

NorthReport

Liberals apparently had a three prong strategy to their successful campaign. In part one it was essential that Trudeau had a good showing in the Maclean's debate. In part two Liberals set out to attack and discredit the NDP. Let's just say the Liberals exceeded in both of these areas beyond their wildest expectations. And the NDP failed miserably with their camapign and their expactations. It sorta reminds me of almost all NDP activities. The NDP, during election campaigns, compared to the Cons and Libs, is amateur hour at its finest.

Wed, 2015-10-21 21:52

#14

NorthReport

Canada’s Elections and the Collapse of the New Democratic Party (NDP)

http://www.globalresearch.ca/canadas-elections-and-the-collapse-of-the-n...

Wed, 2015-10-21 22:01

#15

NorthReport

It's a good question but way,way too late for the NDP to start asking it.

The devastation that has taken place this week for the NDP has not yet sunk in for a lot of people, who would prefer to live in some kind of fantasyland.

So let's bring on that legalization of pot, eh!

Devastating election result requires Tom Mulcair’s NDP to again rethink its purpose

What is the point of a faux Liberal party when the real Liberals already exist?

http://www.thestar.com/news/federal-election/2015/10/21/devastating-elec...

Wed, 2015-10-21 22:21

#16

NorthReport

Reasonable assessments from all three parties.

War rooms weigh in: Why the winners won, why the losers lost

Thomas Mulcair is likely going to lead the NDP into the next federal election, associating with the Ford brothers didn’t cost the Conservatives, and Justin Trudeau’s late barnstorm helped the Liberals win some seats.

http://ipolitics.ca/2015/10/21/war-rooms-weigh-in-why-the-winners-won-wh...

Wed, 2015-10-21 23:04

#17

NorthReport

IS TRUDEAU FOR REAL?

I’d love to meet the new PM in a legalized pot joint for a celebratory toke six months from now, after he fulfills his many promises

https://nowtoronto.com/news/the-now-guide-to-the-2015/is-trudeau-for-real/

Wed, 2015-10-21 23:09

#18

NorthReport

THE ANTI-POLITICIAN: JUSTIN TRUDEAU AND THE POLITICS OF SPECTACLE

Real Change™ looks terrific, but no crockery is going to be broken

https://nowtoronto.com/news/the-now-guide-to-the-2015/the-anti-politicia...

Wed, 2015-10-21 23:13

#19

NorthReport

Who is Canada's left-wing party now, eh!

Canada and the Anti-Austerity Movement

http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/canada-and-the-anti-austerity...

Wed, 2015-10-21 23:14

#20

NorthReport

Better luck next time, Mr. Mulcair

http://www.nationalobserver.com/2015/10/21/opinion/better-luck-next-time...

Thu, 2015-10-22 00:50

#21

jjuares

"I am hurt, but I am not slain. I shall lay me down and bleed a while, then rise and fight again." (originally said by Andrew Barton) ( a line frequently used by Tommy Douglas)

Thu, 2015-10-22 01:13

#22

NorthReport

There are no answers left for the NDP. It has zero bearing whether Tom leaves or stays. The NDP has now rendered itself an irrelevant force in Canadian politics and are done like dinner. Just watch how the Horgan gang will get severely crushed in BC in 2017. At least Jenny Kwan had the brains to leave before the coming debacle.

NDP left looking for answers after crushing collapse in support

Tom Mulcair will find it harder to discipline and silence critics within the party's ranks and grassroots

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-election-2015-whither-the-ndp-mul...

Thu, 2015-10-22 01:21

#23

NorthReport

It doesn't matter one iota in the scheme of things, as the NDP has now been relegated to the sidelines in Canadian politics.

And as if Sears, or anyone other NDP spokesperson, is an authority about politics in Canada, eh!

NDP will let Thomas Mulcair decide his fate as leader

The NDP is expected to let Thomas Mulcair decide whether he will stay on as leader while the party reflects on disappointing result.

http://www.thestar.com/news/federal-election/2015/10/20/ndp-will-let-tho...

Thu, 2015-10-22 12:30

#24

josh

NorthReport wrote:

Jeet Heer has sumed it up well in the article which follows.

Why Is Canada's Liberal Party So Dominant?

Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper made it his goal to kill the party. The opposite happened.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/123186/why-canadas-liberal-party-so-d...

Quote:

The NDP under Thomas Mulcair made a fatal mistake in hugging too close to the center

Thu, 2015-10-22 19:00

#25

NorthReport

Thank jjs but that is no longer where I am. The NDP does not have a future. Some already realize that, others will need more time for this to sink in.

Jeet Heer has sumed it up well in the article which follows.

Why Is Canada's Liberal Party So Dominant?

Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper made it his goal to kill the party. The opposite happened.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/123186/why-canadas-liberal-party-so-d...

jjuares wrote:
"I am hurt, but I am not slain. I shall lay me down and bleed a while, then rise and fight again." (originally said by Andrew Barton) ( a line frequently used by Tommy Douglas)

Thu, 2015-10-22 19:04

#26

NorthReport

Voter turnout in federal election hits 68.5%, largest since 1993 election

http://www.tjcnewspaper.com/voter-turnout-in-federal-election-hits-68-5-...

Thu, 2015-10-22 19:22

#27

Mr. Magoo

Quote:
Voter turnout in federal election hits 68.5%, largest since 1993 election

That's a big faceplant for the "Don't Vote!" and "FNs, Don't Vote!" and "Tear Up The Vote!" movements. Ouch.

Thu, 2015-10-22 19:24

#28

takeitslowly

northreport, if brad lavigne and ann mcgrath dont resign its over. what party will you join?

Thu, 2015-10-22 19:29

#29

mark_alfred

So you've moved over to the Liberals now, eh NR? Oh well. To each their own.

Thu, 2015-10-22 19:43

#30

NDPP

Mr. Magoo wrote:

Quote:
Voter turnout in federal election hits 68.5%, largest since 1993 election

That's a big faceplant for the "Don't Vote!" and "FNs, Don't Vote!" and "Tear Up The Vote!" movements. Ouch.

Irrelevant. Those that didn't will be glad they didn't.

No matter who you vote for the government always wins.

The majority is usually always wrong.

Thu, 2015-10-22 19:57

#31

Mr. Magoo

Quote:
Irrelevant. Those that didn't will be glad they didn't.

On a strictly personal level, I guess they won. How could they not convince themselves?

But in terms of making the case for others to join them, they tanked hard.

Fri, 2015-10-23 00:26

#32

NorthReport

A good analogy is that the NDP are like the Vancouver Canadians attempting to play in the majors.

Best wishes to those that still support the NDP but for me I'm going fishing instead.

takeitslowly wrote:

northreport, if brad lavigne and ann mcgrath dont resign its over. what party will you join?

Fri, 2015-10-23 00:31

#33

NorthReport

Such an absurd comment but unfortunately very representative of the NDP political loser mentality who can't see the forest for the trees. Regardless mark_alfred, best wishes to you.

mark_alfred wrote:

So you've moved over to the Liberals now, eh NR? Oh well. To each their own.

Fri, 2015-10-23 00:39

#34

NorthReport

It's about time someone callled Duceppe on what unfortunately he has become.

Good riddance to you Gilles Duceppe and to your racist tactics

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/karl-nerenberg/2015/10/good-riddance-to-...

Fri, 2015-10-23 00:52

#35

jjuares

NorthReport wrote:

Thank jjs but that is no longer where I am. The NDP does not have a future. Some already realize that, others will need more time for this to sink in.

Jeet Heer has sumed it up well in the article which follows.

Why Is Canada's Liberal Party So Dominant?

Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper made it his goal to kill the party. The opposite happened.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/123186/why-canadas-liberal-party-so-d...

jjuares wrote:
"I am hurt, but I am not slain. I shall lay me down and bleed a while, then rise and fight again." (originally said by Andrew Barton) ( a line frequently used by Tommy Douglas)

I went through this in the 90s federally. I also went through this provincially when the NDP lost every single seat, now since May we are the government here. You can see the corporate lobbyists burrowing their way into the Trudeau gov. even now. Its the Tories who are discredited who have an amazing even bigger job ahead of them. We shall see what sort of government this will be.

Fri, 2015-10-23 01:13

#36

wage zombie

NDPP wrote:

Irrelevant. Those that didn't will be glad they didn't.

No matter who you vote for the government always wins.

The majority is usually always wrong.

No matter what you eat, it goes into your stomach. So food selection is irrelevant.

Fri, 2015-10-23 02:37

#37

bekayne

NDPP wrote:

No matter who you vote for the government always wins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-pT-w7qFl4

Fri, 2015-10-23 02:54

#38

Pondering

NDPP wrote:

Mr. Magoo wrote:

Quote:
Voter turnout in federal election hits 68.5%, largest since 1993 election

That's a big faceplant for the "Don't Vote!" and "FNs, Don't Vote!" and "Tear Up The Vote!" movements. Ouch.

Irrelevant. Those that didn't will be glad they didn't.

No matter who you vote for the government always wins.

The majority is usually always wrong.

That is exactly the attitude that helped the Conservatives gain and keep power for so long. If the majority is usually wrong, then it's best they leave complex matters in the hands of their betters, like government and corporate leaders. If government is always corrupt and unresponsive to the needs of the people then the smaller the government and the less they do the better. The neoliberal mandra promoted by the left.

Fri, 2015-10-23 11:42

#39

NorthReport

One of the biggest political losers in the LPC has advice for the NDP.

http://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/reid-the-ndp-has-to-put-mulc...

Fri, 2015-10-23 11:46

#40

NorthReport

Lots of reasons for NDP election loss, but don't blame Mulcair

Harper poisoned many dimensions of our political landscape. I would argue that the worst of his legacy was deterring democratic engagement—an already dwindling institution. Consequently, too many Canadians are disillusioned and disconnected from this political world many of us on the Hill thrive off of. But Mulcair is the complete opposite. He is not ‘angry,’ or heartless, or scary at all. He is really good at what he does, he’s sharp as a tack, and it’s because of how much everyone damn well respects him.

This is a man who surfaced on our public radar without any prior celebrity star factor, without a decade of incumbency or millionaire supporters donating to his campaign, and without a famous family dynasty to leverage his success. It’s not every day a guy from rural Quebec emerges from a regular family background, independently works his own way through university and law school, claws his way into provincial politics to fight social, economic and environmental injustices, and eventually navigates his own way into the ranks of federal office—all while maintaining a principled stance on social democracy.

Mulcair inherited a party shaken to the core over the loss of an irreplaceably charismatic and selfless leader who’d catapulted the party to unprecedented heights. Against all odds, he united a large caucus of inexperienced and uncertain MPs, nurtured and empowered each of them to grow and earn much public acclamation for their work, and came within arm’s length of forming Canada’s first truly progressive federal government. This matters.

Mulcair once told me that as a boy growing up he and his nine siblings were always expected to tell the truth to their parents, no matter what. Brutal honesty and integrity are all he’s ever known. As a result throughout this exhaustingly long campaign that we can finally put to rest, Mulcair did everything in his power to meticulously weave these rare principles into his words and actions—even if it meant losing a few votes along the way.

What brought tears to my eyes on Monday night wasn’t that the NDP had somehow “failed” or had had any sort of rug pulled out pejoratively from under them—it’s that Tom deserved to be prime minister and would have made an excellent one. And more importantly (as former NDP MP Craig Scott so eloquently articulated this week) in many ways, the NDP did the heavy left-wing lifting, and now the much less left-wing Liberals get to benefit.

New Democrats are familiar with loss and uncertainty—but as history tells us, even in the most adverse and trying of times, the party picks itself up, dusts itself off, and keeps moving forward.

Like Douglas, Broadbent or Layton before him, Mulcair will undoubtedly do the same.

https://www.hilltimes.com/opinion-piece/2015/10/22/lots-of-reasons-for-n...