An Open Letter from New Democrats Who Have Won Through Cooperation

 

            Today, we are formally endorsing Nathan Cullen for leader of the NDP. His positions on the environment, employment and social justice make him the candidate who best reflects our values; and his wit and humour as a campaigner make him the person best able to fill Jack Layton’s shoes in bringing a positive, upbeat, yet hard-hitting message to Canadians.

Some…

Continue

Continue

Catch 22 candidate picks unchanged by NDP surge

“NDP moves into tie with Liberals”, screamed headlines in newspapers across the country.

The New Democrats and the Liberals were in a statistical tie moving into the last week of the May 2nd election campaign.

“These polls from…

Continue

Looking beyond just the horse race, here is Stephen Harper's bigger-picture game-plan / agenda:

 

1) Take majority control of the Senate.

2) Take majority control of the appointments to the Supreme Court of Canada.

3) Take majority control of the funding of political parties, riding associations, and candidates.

 

All of the above will be the case if Harper obtains a majority in this…

Continue

Since the election started all that we have been hearing from the conservatives is how vital it is that every canadian should vote conservative because they are the only party who can get this country out of a deficit, and if we dont give them their majority we will all be doomed to eternal poverty and evil coalition governments. What really bothered me was the attack ads saying that Mr ignatieff is not canadian because he was educated in the United states, its disgusting to see the…

Continue

Murray Dobbin is a member of the Catch 22 team providing research and strategic advice. We're reprinting his blog post from March 31.

Dobbin: Harper off to a shaky start

The election campaign is less than week old and Stephen Harper seems to be demonstrating that he is even more of a mad hatter than people thought. Despite his superman view of himself – the…

Continue

Editorial by John Deverell, Catch 22 team

 Stephen Harper, you are either remarkably inventive or arithmetically challenged.  You want a majority government and you’ll happily accept it, without majority popular support, as “the will of the people.

If you’re held to a Parliamentary minority, as you were in 2006 and 2008—you’ll trumpet that too as the automatic right to govern,  “a democratic mandate.” If the majority of MPs in the next Parliament somehow…

Continue

Editorial, John Deverell, Catch 22 central team

=================================

As Elizabeth May knows, the standard for “free and fair” elections in Canada is low.

In Canada about one million supporters of her party – one in 12 voters – can mark their ballots for Green Party candidates without electing a single member of Parliament. Their fair representation, if all citizens were equal, would be 24 Members of Parliament.

Canadian citizens…

Continue

In an election which could produce a Stephen Harper phony majority, or a Groundhog Day, citizens of Edmonton-Strathcona are setting an example for the entire country. 

The district is the only one of 28 in Alberta not held by the Harper Conservatives. The New Democrat MP, Linda Duncan, edged Conservative Rahim Jaffer by a whisker in 2008. She had multi-partisan support then, and again this time she’ll need every Green and Liberal vote she can round up to beat the energetic and focused…

Continue

By Gary Shaul, Catch 22 campaign

Canadians were surprised to learn that a little known Order in Council passed in December by the Privy Council, changed the country's name from "Canada" to "Harper". The change was prompted by several phone calls to the PMO insisting that "Canada" is an antiquated vestige from the 19th century and the country was long overdue for a modern name. Privy councilors loved the idea and readily agreed. The new name was chosen by PM Stephen…

Continue

By Gary Shaul, Catch 22 campaign

Public input and regulation of the "airwaves" is one of cornerstones for a well functioning democratic country. We learn much of what we know about the world around us from the mainstream media. We are even more in tune with what's going on with the advent of the internet.

The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is supposed to have our backs…

Continue

By Luke Bradley, Calgary SW

     Harper’s legacy may be much more permanent then we expect, according to an article in the Vancouver Sun. Canada’s aging Supreme Court, which Harper has accused of being “too left-leaning”, might soon be experiencing an exodus of judges, many of whom have been serving for more than ten years. A handful of Justices in the Supreme Court are now approaching their mandatory…

Continue

By Gary Shaul, Catch 22 campaign

Johannes Wheeldon writes an excellent piece in The Mark (and also posted on our fb page) about engaging the youth vote and reinvigorating Canadian politics at the same time.

How Can Canada Entice Young…

Continue

So does anyone else other than the Athabasca River have a huge issue with the fact that Peter Kent is Minister of the Environment for all of 5 minutes before he starts calling the oil sands development "ethical"? Im well aware of the fact that Stephen Harper is at best a climate change skeptic however is it not completely unconstitutional for the Prime Minister of Canada to appoint a man Minister of the Environement who sounds more like an ExxonMobil lobbyist on RedBull than someone who… Continue

Continue

Continue