By Nick Fillmore

The Harperites saved their best kick in the gut for Canadians this year ‘till the last month of the year.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty lied and stickhandled his way to another victory for the neo-Conservatives who run the country by undermining and betraying Canadians’ retirement security.…

What if the result of the next general election is similar to the election of 2008-- the one after which Stephen Harper nearly provoked the defeat of his minority government by challenging the most democratic element in the Canadian electoral  system – the annual per vote public subsidy to registered political parties?

That threat produced a sudden and remarkable accord among the opposition parties, together a…

The Conservative government’s rush to lock up a Fortress America deal with the United States is misguided and will result in little more than the Americans having greater control over Canada, writes James Laxer, a York University professor who has written widely about the assault of neo-Conservative policies on the Canadian and world economies.

Stephen ("Santa" or "Scrooge") Harper laid out his priorities for 2011 in a year end interview with CTV News. On the Santa front, Commandeer-in-Chief Harper clearly anticipates another year of "business as usual", continuing to hand out tax cuts to the rich, billions to the military-industrial complex and hundreds of millions more in subsidies to the oil industry. Some communities might even find a new arena in their Christmas stocking.…

One of the country’s leading political columnists blames the emergence of a new right-wing political party in Alberta for the decision by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s to undermine the future of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP).

Toronto Star columnist Thomas Walkom says the decision is tied to the threat the Conservatives see in the birth and growth of the Wildrose Alliance.



In making this decision, Flaherty and Harper paid no attention to what would have been…

Hup 2-3-4.

In keeping with Harper's promise to never appoint an unelected Senator, he has now elected two additional Senators, giving the Conservatives an outright majority in the Senate. They were both elected unanimously in tight votes of 1-0. This brings the number of broken promises on this file alone to 37. However, it will make it a lot more convenient for the Con Senate caucus to over-rule the elected House of Commons as they did with the Climate Change Accountability Act.…

A tough-talking Michael Ignatieff seems to be drawing a line in the sand.



If the Harperites dare cross the line, Ignatieff is suggesting he will attempt to force an election in the spring.



The Liberal leader says he cannot support at least a couple of key measures expected to be in a Harper budget:

• A $6-billion break for corporations they didn’t even ask for at a time when the country is facing a $56-billion deficit, and…

Liberal MPs Bonnie Crombie and Dominic LeBlanc new version of Twas the Night Before Christmas as performed in the Liberal caucus.

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the House

No spin could be heard, not a rant, not a grouse.

The doors had been locked, no lightbulbs were burning.

In the hopes that this might stop John Baird from…

When the Conservative government, and by that I essentially mean Stephen Harper recently killed Bill C-311 otherwise known as the “Climate Change Accountability Act” it once again displayed a sheepish unwillingness on the part of Mr. Harper to bring Canada to the forefront of global environmental policy. In a time when we are embarrassingly being rejected by the United Nations for what had throughout history been Canada’s seat on the UN Security Council, it is mystifying that our present day…

Prime Minister Steve Harper, master of the tactical flip-flop, is proving surprisingly adept at polishing his human image, and even his image as a Keynesian, but still hasn’t hit stride as a prudent manager.

As a musician in office he has lots of company including Vladimir Putin and Robert Mugabe, reports Toronto Star:…

Duncan Cameron, President of rabble.ca has a column today outlining his ideas for a "Liberal-Green-Democrat" government. Catch 22 also gets a positive mention in the piece. Here are few excerpts but the entire column is well worth ready.

Bring on the Liberal Green Democrats…

The Conservative government of Stephen Harper is once again under investigation by Elections Canada over its flagrant disregard for campaign spending rules during the 2006 federal election. The same Conservative government who on April 15^th 2008 had their offices raided by police officers over the infamous “in and out” scheme which saw individual Conservative Candidates make expense claims for TV commercials that were produced for the national campaign. This time it appears that…

As the holiday season approaches, we have visions of Stephen Harper sitting at the piano with his fawning Con caucus crowded around, songbooks in hand, ready for a good old-fashioned sing-a-long. You might recall that in October 2009, the PM jammed with Yo Yo Ma at a National Arts Council gala in Ottawa. They played the Beatles classic, "With a little help from my (rich) friends". Of course this is the same PM who…

Which Canadian pollster do you believe?



Earlier this week, the Ekos polling firm reported that the Conservatives were leading the Liberals by a mere 4.5 per cent – 33.7 for the Tories and 29.2 for the Liberals.



But today, Ipsos Reid reports that the Conservatives have a whopping and dangerous 10 per cent lead over the Liberals.



If Ipsos Reid is closer to being right, the HarperCons have for the first time moved into the kind of lofty numbers that – if sustained…

This week's disgraceful performance by Don Cherry underscores the contempt that some Conservatives hold for anyone who doesn't vote for them. It was also an attempt to reinforce the divisive Con strategy of pitting those who live in cities against suburbanites and rural voters. City voters have been loathe to elect very many federal Cons of late. Rob Ford has been fairly shameless about attempting to boost the electoral…

The Harper government is moving toward signing an agreement with the United States that undoubtedly will give the Americans more control over Canadian border security and related issues.



Fears are that the Conservatives will capitulate to Washington on issues such as control of Canada’s border security, immigration controls and information-sharing with American law-enforcement agencies.



This agreement is being negotiated – or should we say conceded to the Americans – by the…