Prime Minister Stephen Harper: Funny guy. Video surfaces of Harper doing (killer) impression of Joe Clark (not bad) impression of Brian Mulroney and (a bit over the top) impression of Preston Manning. Shot during rehearsal for 2011 election night in Calgary presumably by company hired by the party to do its election night work. So far as I know, this was not shot by an Canadian media outlet.
Federal Court Judge Richard Mosley ruled tonight on the “robocalls” case, the attempt by a handful of voters in six ridings, backed by the Council of Canadians, to have the 2011 election results in those ridings thrown out and new elections ordered because, the applicants alleged, there was widespread voter suppression using “robocalls” and possibly other means to do so. The Council of Canadians alleges the Conservative Party of Canada was the bad guy.
Here’s the questions Mosley asked and I have summed up his answers: Read more…
VANCOUVER – BC Premier Christy Clark releases her provincial jobs plan during a Vancouver Board of Trade meeting on Sept. 22, 2011. (CARMINE MARINELLI/QMI AGENCY)
“We have set out these bold goals and we are reaching our targets. I’m going to run in the next election on the strong economy. I’m going to run on (being) number one in job creation.”
- Christy Clark to her party’s convention in Whistley, BC, October, 2012
This morning, Statistics Canada released the final report card before Tuesday’s general election in B.C. on Clark’s 17-months-old Jobs Plan. BC is unequivocally not “number one” in job creation. In fact, it is not number one in any employment measurement used by Statistics Canada. And yet, it could be a lot worse, I suppose. So I’m giving the BC Jobs Plan a “C-” at this point. Read more…
VANCOUVER – BC NDP leader Adrian Dix (2nd R), BC Green Party leader Jane Sterk (R), BC Conservative leader John Cummins (L) and BC Liberal leader Christy Clark talk with each other before their provincial election TV debate on April 29, 2013. Voters go to the polls May 14. (REUTERS/Andy Clark)
Eight federal and provincial elections since 2011. In all but one, the incumbent party won. (And the one that lost, Jean Charest and Quebec Liberals, missed by a hair, losing the popular vote by less than one percentage point). Didn’t matter if it was a party of the left or right. Now, in BC, an incumbent that was trailing badly, is quickly narrowing a gap on a challenger: So I ask — What is about Canadian voters they appear so reluctant to change their governments?
UPDATE May 15, 2013: Christy Clark’s Liberals won in B.C. So make that eight for nine incumbents who won with a message of “it’s the economy.” Column, with link below, written two weeks before vote, still stands!
Latest from my Parliamentary Bureau colleagues