P.E.I. voters have spoken, and it’s more bad news for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Premier-designate Dennis King, elected PC party leader a scant two months ago, won 12 seats in the Island’s 27-seat legislature....
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Does Bernier battle remind anyone of Mulroney-Bouchard rupture?
It takes a lot to get Conservative leader Andrew Scheer cheesed off, but this week, one of his MPs crossed the line. “I have removed Maxime Bernier from the Official Opposition shadow cabinet, effective immediately,” Scheer stated in a short communiqué. “The shadow minister for science, Matt Jeneroux, will assume the additional role of...
READ MORE Bernier loses sight of end game with whiny, divisive book
Don’t cry over spilled milk. It’s one of the cardinal rules in politics, particularly when you lose an election. What’s done is done: best to move on with grace, even if you still seethe in silence, and wait for the next opportunity to reenter the fray. Unless you are Conservative MP Maxime Bernier, that...
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With Leitch and O’Leary, Conservatives are flirting with catastrophe
Neither candidate seems to represent anything beyond shameless self-interest As President-elect Donald Trump tangles with actress Meryl Streep on Twitter (could both of them please give it a rest?), U.S. politics continues to cast a long shadow north of the 49th parallel, notably on the Conservative Party of Canada’s leadership race. Two candidates in particular...
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The Conservatives’ identity crisis
With Leitch and Alexander in the mix, the race risks being hijacked by identity politics. The Conservative leadership race is running at full gallop — but the lead horse appears to be “none of the above.” According to a recent poll by Forum Research, 54 per cent of respondents said they would prefer to see...
READ MORE Whose party is it, anyway?
As the Conservative leadership race unfolds, the answer may surprise us This week’s Conservative caucus retreat had been billed as a “performance review” for the party, close to a year after its defeat in the 2015 general election. MPs met in Halifax, in the words of leader Rona Ambrose, “to earn back the confidence...
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Leitch’s ‘values’ pitch is classic wedge politics — and it’s working
But Conservatives can’t make it go away by refusing to talk about it Kellie Leitch has had quite a week. Coast to coast, the media has been whipping itself into a frenzy over a question included in a survey sent out by the Conservative MP’s party leadership campaign: “Should we screen potential immigrants for...
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Free Liberal memberships! (Conditions may apply.)
“I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member,” said Groucho Marx. He wasn’t talking about the Liberal party, of course; as of this weekend, he’d have nothing to worry about anyway. At the party’s convention in Winnipeg last week, Liberals adopted a new constitution which does away with the...
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A tale of two conventions
For political junkies, it’s either a dream or a nightmare: two conventions, almost two thousand kilometres apart, for both the government and Official Opposition parties. How do you keep track of all the tweets, decide which speeches to watch and when? Will CPAC simulcast in split-screen? In Winnipeg, thousands of Liberals are gathering to...
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