[UPDATED JUNE 20]. More than two weeks ago, the lovely Althia Raj warned that trouble for the latest Stephen Harper step by step Senate reform adventures was brewing among the new Tory majority in the unreformed Senate of Canada itself (“Conservative senators balking at Senate reform agenda: sources”). Now a fresh wave of similar reports […]
Senate reform has been in the Canadian news again this past week. And – even with the new Harper Conservative majority in the elected “lower house” of Parliament –Â the sceptical bottom line is don’t hold your breath. Jeffrey Simpson concluded his latest shot in this dark forest with: “The Senate can’t be unilaterally abolished […]
[UPDATED JUNE 9, 12]. So US progressive documentarian Michael Moore feels former unreformed Senate of Canada page Brigette DePape’s ejection from the fabled Red Chamber with her ”Stop Harper” stop sign facsimile last Friday was “an iconic moment for Canada.” He goes on: “Moore said a functioning democracy should ‘encourage you to be disrespectful, to […]
They don’t take up much space in the 41st Parliament of Canada, which has just begun a very short housekeeping session, before fleeing for the traditional summer break. The future of the once high and mighty federal Liberals after their massacre this past May 2 nonetheless continues to attract attention. Among key current written texts […]
[UPDATED]. The Globe and Mail’s online poll on “Is the Conservative Party committed to reforming the Senate?” (38% Yes and 62% No, as of today) could be read as suggesting that only those who voted for Mr. Harper’s party on May 2 still believe in its public commitments on this front. Yet according to John […]
The 41st Parliament of Canada has not even held its first meeting quite yet. But already Jack Layton’s new Quebec-majority NDP official opposition is showing just how different it is from anything the federal New Democrats have ever known before. Former Ontario NDP leader Stephen Lewis, son of former federal leader David Lewis (silent partner […]
You sound more elegant when you speak French, Pierre Trudeau told his children. Those of us who don’t really speak French will never quite know what this means. But we can catch a glimmer of it when we read in Le Devoir that “Le Torontois Bob Rae est devenu le chef intérimaire du Parti libéral […]
On this May 24 holiday weekend there can be no doubt that the early 21st century has launched some kind of new Canada. Or, more aptly perhaps, in the wake of the May 2, 2011 Canadian federal election the “next Canada” that John Ibbitson was saying “will not be denied forever,” in the wake of […]
[UPDATED MAY 19, 20]. There is at least a strong perception that Senate reform will be one of the key issues on the early agenda of the new Harper majority government in Ottawa. (See, eg: “New momentum for Senate reform” and “Then it will be on to Senate reform.”) In speculating about today’s much-touted federal […]
[UPDATED FOR SOME FINAL POLLS, MAY 1, AND FINAL RESULT MAY 3]. With just one day to go (and not quite that right now, to be very exact), Eric Grenier at ThreeHundredEight.com says “all indications are Stephen Harper’s Conservatives will likely win their third consecutive election Monday night. But whether the next government will be […]
