Canada General Discussion

[DC Al Fine]

Does anyone have the suspicion that Harper leaked the Duffy emails to ensure Duffy takes all the blame and limit the attention at himself?

Not really, but who knows. Something I've noticed is that the left usually likes to label their opponents as stupid if they're on the attack. Harper is weird because the usual criticism seems to imply that he's an evil genius

[RogueBeaver]

Marois' Cabinet is a complete mess, badly divided on predictable pragmatic/hardline lines.


I looked around the Radio-Canada archives this morning and found the leaders' first French interviews if anyone's interested.

[DC Al Fine]

I'm going to do a profile of the upcoming NS election (Fall 2013/Spring 2014). Is now a good time or should I wait till after summer?

[RogueBeaver]

IMO closer to fall, but entirely your call obviously.

[DC Al Fine]

Fair enough. Might as well start working on it now.

[RogueBeaver]

Today's QP panel: for the first time, caucus is thinking about a post-Harper future. Idle thoughts for now. No one has the faintest clue as to why Wright did what he did. Also shuffle will be even bigger than thought thanks to the scandal.

[RogueBeaver]

Fife: RCMP is probing the Wright-Duffy payment.

[RogueBeaver]

LeBreton will ask the AG to probe all Senate expenses. Long overdue IMO.

[DC Al Fine]

Elections NS has published the notional results of the new riding boundaries.

Note: The Liberals would have won a by-election in Inverness had the new boundaries been used.

[RogueBeaver]

Harper will be in Europe next week.

[RogueBeaver]

Glover and Bezan have some campaign finance disputes with EC to clear up. Glover's court hearing is June 21, dunno about Bezan.

[Peter the Lefty]

This is nauseating.  http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/06/03/sikh-kids-who-want-to-play-soccer-wearing-turbans-should-play-in-their-backyards-quebec-soccer-federation/

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Quebec is the only province where this is an issue.

[DC Al Fine]

This is nauseating.  http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/06/03/sikh-kids-who-want-to-play-soccer-wearing-turbans-should-play-in-their-backyards-quebec-soccer-federation/

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Quebec is the only province where this is an issue.

The french nationalist vibe can go overboard at times.

[RogueBeaver]

The Rob Ford video might have disappeared, and the Senate ethics probe into Duffy has been suspended till the RCMP investigation is complete. Meanwhile Ivison suggests there might be an ethics package coming this fall.

[RogueBeaver]

At the upcoming Tory convention, no policy resolutions of note except that perennial Blue-Red football known as the leadership election mechanism: weighted system was part of the merger agreement but Blues want OMOV. Personally I don't care either way, it'll survive till Harper leaves but whether it survives afterwards is an open question.

Turbans: They'll change it if FIFA tells them to.

[Hatman 🍁]

I'm with the Blues, I guess.

[RogueBeaver]

Final F-35 decision will be made by the PM and Cabinet without civil service advice.

Turbans: I disagree with the ban, but here's Andrew Potter on the different conceptions of secularism in Quebec and ROC.

In non-political news, Despatie retired today, said TV will be his next gig. My bet is that potential memoir aside, we haven't seen the last of him. Or at least we can hope.

Voting: Won't make a difference in any leadership matchup anyways, so I don't really understand why both sides are making such a BFD about it. Though I'd be most curious to know what Moore's position is.

[DC Al Fine]

Voting: Won't make a difference in any leadership matchup anyways, so I don't really understand why both sides are making such a BFD about it. Though I'd be most curious to know what Moore's position is.

In the Maritimes it's a pretty blatant case of "we don't want to lose influence".

[RogueBeaver]

We definitely need to improve our Maritime bench in 2015. Truth be told I have my doubts MacKay even runs when the time comes, for fairly obvious reasons.

[DC Al Fine]

We definitely need to improve our Maritime bench in 2015. Truth be told I have my doubts MacKay even runs when the time comes, for fairly obvious reasons.

Indeed. Brison always struck me as the heavyweight in NS conservatism. To be fair to the Maritimes, we only have 13 MP's. There's more selection among MP's from Calgary than New Brunswick

[Njall]

We definitely need to improve our Maritime bench in 2015. Truth be told I have my doubts MacKay even runs when the time comes, for fairly obvious reasons.

Indeed. Brison always struck me as the heavyweight in NS conservatism. To be fair to the Maritimes, we only have 13 MP's. There's more equal* selection among MP's from Calgary than New Brunswick

*Calgary has 8  MP's

[Hatman 🍁]

We definitely need to improve our Maritime bench in 2015. Truth be told I have my doubts MacKay even runs when the time comes, for fairly obvious reasons.

Doesn't he want to be leader?

[RogueBeaver]

"Wants" and "Has anywhere near the #" are 2 different things.

[RogueBeaver]

In more immediate news, redistribution could cause some intra-Tory battles, particularly in Alberta.

[Hatman 🍁]

In more immediate news, redistribution could cause some intra-Tory battles, particularly in Alberta.

There'll be plenty of seats to go around, since there'll be an increase in seats. It just means some MPs might end up running in ridings that don't correspond well to their previous ridings.