September 2007
Prorogued
September 5, 2007 - 17:40 — gauntlet
So the news is that the House of Commons has been prorogued, to be recalled in early October.Here's what you need to know.What's Proroguing?It's like "calling it a day" for parliament. You just decide you're not going to get anything else done, and you agree to start again at some later date. All the stuff that isn't finished now you have to start again from scratch.Why are they Proroguing?
Politics is stupid. Canadian politics is stupider.
September 6, 2007 - 19:40 — gauntlet
Calgary Grit pointed me to an interesting article by Coyne in the NP where he complains about how stupid Canadian politics is. Coyne blames it primarily on the unreasonably partisan nature of our political system. It struck a chord with me, because it echoes the reasons that I'm skeptical of the MMP proposal in Ontario.
I want my election back.
September 7, 2007 - 19:37 — gauntlet
Man, this pisses me off. Calgary Grit says that it's called "Conservative AdScam." I was kind of hoping for "Fine-PrintGate." Elections Canada is going after the Conservatives for having taken a national campaign ad and reported it as a local campaign expense at the end of the last election.
New Political Thinking
September 12, 2007 - 18:12 — gauntlet
Alberta Liberal leader Kevin Taft was in Calgary last night giving a speech to a bunch of oil company executives. He got a standing ovation, I hear.In other news, geneticists have determined how to get pigs to grow wings, and hell is experiencing record low temperatures.An excerpt of the speech was published on the Ideas page of the Edmonton Journal, opposite an editorial that lauds the arrival of new political thinking and the opportunity for public debate, if Stelmach joins in.
Vote early, veiled often.
September 12, 2007 - 18:53 — gauntlet
With the many things that people might be concerned about in the relationship between the Conservative Party of Canada and Elections Canada, it is unfortunate that the one that is getting press has to do with burkhas. The Chief Electoral Officer has said that women will not be asked to remove face coverings in order to verify their identity at polling stations for three by-elections being held in Quebec this week.
Can you see the difference?
September 14, 2007 - 22:06 — gauntlet
First, kudos to BCer in Toronto for hitting the nail on the head with his analysis of the Conservatives' claim that Dion is just as bad as they are over this conservative ad scam.Let me get this right, though...
Outremont and Dion - much ado about rien
September 18, 2007 - 01:13 — gauntlet
I have been reading all these news stories about how the election in Outremont tonight is a test of Stephane Dion's leadership of the Liberal Party. That struck me as strange, at first, but then I remembered what I learned taking a political science degree for four years: people vote based on the leader, and the opposition has got the advantage in by-elections, because only the government has to defend its record.
On Justin's Experience
September 18, 2007 - 15:57 — gauntlet
The most convincing thing I've seen on the internet to indicate that there was anything particularly wrong with the Outremont campaign is Justin's post here.All of the things that he lists in his post can be explained by two potential causes: First, the people running the campaign were incompetent. Second, Dion is unpopular in Quebec.
Natural Experiments
September 21, 2007 - 19:17 — gauntlet
In political science, you can't run experiments. You can't set up Alberta as a communist state and Manitoba as a fascist state and see what happens. What you can do, however, is look at two things that are similar, except for one major factor, and compare their outcomes to see if that factor makes a difference.Political scientists have an opportunity to do that, in a way, with the Ontario referendum on the Mixed Member Proportional electoral system.
Copyright © 2007 - 2010 Jason Morris. The views expressed herein are those of the author. Views expressed in comments are those only of the commenter, and are not endorsed by the author. Nothing herein necessarily represents the opinions of any organizations with which the author may be associated.
