The Spin Doctors: “How important were last week’s televised debates in turning things around for your party?”
Leslie Swartman Liberal strategist “I’m not sure the debates will, in hindsight, be considered the ‘turning point’ for anyone. The effect of debates on voting intentions seems to be nullified by the media in their post-debate commentary. When invariably the debate fails to deliver the much-anticipated ‘knock-out punch’, the debate may as well not have […]
Correction
In last week’s issue of The Hill Times, Jan. 9, in the list of swing ridings across the country, on page 15, the cutlines for two NDP targeted swing ridings were in the wrong order. Here are the correct cutlines. Conservative MPs Dave Batters won Palliser, Sask., with 0.4% of the vote and Conservative MP […]
Grits must soothe angry supporters: Prof. Cohen
‘The Liberals had the upper hand, but then it became a twoway race. Then we polled through the debate and the Liberals got hammered on Monday and Tuesday’: SES Research’s Nik Nanos The key to winning the election for the embattled federal Liberals is to reach out to the party’s angry supporters. “With disenchanted Liberals […]
The return of Lucien Bouchard? It’s just a dream…but: More and more Quebecers have come to realize Stephen Harper is actually not that scary
QUEBEC CITY – A funny thing happened over the Christmas holidays. More and more Quebecers have come to realize that Stephen Harper is actually not that scary.They may even consider him to be a real human being. Up until a few days ago, many voters here were still very put off by the Conservative Party […]
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
So much for globalism, eh? Re: “Politicians should think magnificence, do something noble: John Dalla Costa,”(The Hill Times, Dec. 19). I have just finished Saul’s The Collapse of Globalism, and it seems as though John Dalla Costa has read it as well. Perhaps the attitudes of our current politicians is just a reflection of the […]
Politicians side-stepping growth of organized crime in Canada: Public Safety Department sound alarms on multi-billion-dollar activities in secret briefings
The impact of organized crime has hardly been mentioned in the current election campaign. This, despite the fact that “Canada’s international reputation is suffering,”since many countries now see it as a growing haven for such activities, according to the Public Safety Department’s own documents from 2005. The briefings were presented to Deputy Ministers sitting on […]
Slim pickings: look at winnable ridings for female candidates: Although 36 per cent of NDP candidates are women, none is running in a winnable riding
British Columbia Liberals currently hold eight seats in British Columbia; only one of these is held by a woman (Hedy Fry). One incumbent is not running, but the candidate seeking to replace him is male. There are 15 winnable seats for the Liberals in B.C., and four female candidates in these ridings. In addition to […]
What would Harper’s Federal Accountability Act mean to lobbyists working in his war room?
It was supposed to be a just another photo op for a newly-crowned party leader, but the now infamous snapshot of then-incoming Prime Minister Paul Martin surrounded by a transition team that included some of Ottawa’s most influential lobbyists may go down in Canadian political history as the beginning of the end for the Liberal […]
You’re online, eh?
The Information Technology Services Branch is responsible for several elements of the federal Government’s On-Line initiative in an effort to provide “a whole-of-government approach to serving Canadians.” – Public Works and Government Services According to a 2004-2005 EKOS survey on trends in internet usage and access: * 78% of Canadians had used the internet in […]
Government changing the culture of governance: Brison: Move toward more electronic commerce will also help cut the time it takes to do business
Bernard Courtois, [in] his editorial called “Don’t stall procurement reform”said, and I quote: “Businesses cannot responsibly advocate lower taxes and more efficient government on one hand while demanding that the government spend more than it should to buy products and services.” He went on to say, “We need to get on with it. Stalling procurement […]
