Canadian politics | Political Insider

NDP Parties Canada Wide: 2013 is Not a Good Year! #bcpoli #bcndp #bcleg #onpoli #canpoli

No Way Am I Giving Up The Best Job I Ever Had!

No wonder the Andrea Horwath Ontario NDP government is propping up one of the most corrupt governments in Ontario’s history.

It’s not because of what they can pry out of the government to keep them afloat ( gas plants be damned eh!).

It is because 2013 is a bad year to be a dipper!

They got hammered in the recent BC election, got hammered last night in Nova Scotia (no matter how much of a spin Lori Turnbull tries to put on it) and are getting killed in the polls that once gave them a ray of hope.

Should Andrea do the right thing and pull the pin on this scandalous Liberal government rest assured the people of Ontario will either lose their minds and vote in a majority Liberal government or do the sane thing and vote in a renewed Ontario PC team. The NDP will once again be on the outside looking in.

The NDP desperately needs a decent platform to take the voters minds off the failure of that parties government during the Bob Rae years.( the voters will remember, fair or not,the mess the NDP made when Rae was premier just as the voters remembered the problems of Dix’s past).

You get imagine the negative ads in the can about the NDP and Rae days etc.

Nope, If Andrea pulls the pin on the minority government in Ontario she will be another statistic in a bad year for the NDP.

Despite all the blustering and saber-rattling I would expect that there will be no Ontario election until at least the spring, that is until 2013 gets in the NDP’s rear view mirror.

Will I be right?

Nice Continent This North America Eh! #bcpoli #canpoli #usapoli

I am telling the Truth sir, there is nothing going on in North America!

It’s only fair if Jeffrey Simpson of the Globe and Mail can write about discussions with his Uncle Fred on Galiano Island, I can at least report on discussions our alien friends are having this week as it relates to North America.

I can only imagine what one Alien Underling would report to his Commander on the goings on ( or not ) on our continent in the last week.

It would go something like this:

Commander: What have you to report from your post overseeing North America?

Underling: Nothing.

Commander : What do you mean nothing, that cannot be !

Underling: It is so, this week.

Commander : Explain yourself or be replaced!

Underling: Sir in the USA everything is closed, the government is shut down. They were discussing something called ObamaCare but one side just walked away shutting down the government. Right now the man named Obama who seems to be the inventor of the care is threatening them with a debt ceiling whatever that is. They are not listening. I think it should be called Obamawedon’tcare!

Commander: Surely something must be happening in Canada?

Underling: No Sir the man they call the Prime Minister has prorogued parliament. That means in a sense they too are shut down.

Commander : What about in your favorite place to report from BC, surely there is something to report there. Nary a week goes by without Premier Clark and her government getting themselves in some sort of trouble?

Underling: Not this week sir. Premier Clark refuses to open the government’s place of business and has herself pretty much gone into hiding.

Commander: Into hiding?

Underling : Yes sure she tried for some sort of thing called a quick win and is now being investigated by something called the RCMP.

Commander: What happens if she is found guilty

Underling : I am not sure sir. By all reports the RCMP shot somebody with a 3 inch knife 9 times and tasered him. I can’t imagine what they would do for quick winning.

Commander : Is there anything on the horizon that you will be reporting on other than nothing?

Underling : yes I have heard of something called a BC Conservative AGM……..

The Michael Ignatieff Book Tour: What was the dumbest question asked so far? #canpoli #bcpoli #fireandashes #evansolomon

These people call themselves investigative reporters.

Former Liberal Leader, Michael Ignatieff, writes a book of his experiences in Canadian Politics aptly titled Fire and Ashes and goes on the media circuit fielding questions and selling what looks like a good read.

To set the stage for the humdinger of a question and in case you have been living under a rock, Ignatieff held the top job in the Liberal Party and had his head handed to him not only in the last election by the electorate but in the aftermath by his own party.

Evan Solomon concludes his interview with this question ( forgive me I am laughing so hard I am having a hard time typing) are you considering running in the 2015 election?

This man just told you why getting involved in Liberal Party politics was one of the dumbest things he did, now you think he might want to spark up a spliff and become a flunkie in a Justin Trudeau led opposition?

You would have been better off asking him if he had considered throwing himself in front of one of those Go-Trains he lives near.

To think the CBC is our tax dollars in action.

Could there be a dumber question to ask Ignatieff?

Christy Clark: In My Heart I Want A Bridge #bcpoli #canpoli

What’s in this Premier’s heart this week?

Hot on the heels of my post last week, who is the worst premier, BC Premier Christy Clark returns to center stage with her speech saying that construction will begin in 2017 with a new bridge to replace the George Massey Tunnel.

So where will the money come from, who will pay, why do we need it and what’s in it for Clark.

When asked the cost the premier had no idea nor did she allude to how we were going to pay for it. She simply said that it will be along the same lines as the Port Mann Bridge.

No doubt there will be tolls because as we all know by now , in her heart BC Premier Clark runs a toll booth with the tolling of the Port Mann and the Golden Ears.

What else is in it for Clark? The next election is in 2017 and if shovels hit ground Clark will be able to snag votes from those commuters who will thank her in kind by reelecting or electing new BC liberal MLAs.

Those for the project go on the record and say that the bridge will be built for a couple of reasons firstly that the existing tunnel only has a life span of about 10 years and might cause a little mayhem in the event of an earthquake.

Secondly they say that replacing the tunnel with a bridge will allow for more ships to pass by.

Most people gloss right over that with a typical for sure it will.

What you should be asking and what is key to what’s in it for Clark is what will be on those ships that the new bridge will allow to pass.

If you said oil and gas you would know really what’s in it for Clark and why she will stop at nothing to get it.

Kinda like building a pipeline with the end piece first, isn’t it?

She wouldn’t do that would she?

Dix Is Done ! #bcpoli #canpoli

No Shocker here. Adrian Dix has stepped down as leader of the BCNDP and will hang on until a successor is chosen.

This is the right thing to do on two fronts.

Stepping down allows the party a shot at renewal and hanging on until a successor is chosen prevents a quack from taking over as interim leader and making things worse.

This is a classy move by Dix and he is to be congratulated.

We wonder if Moe Sihota gets the message and will get out-of-the-way?

What would you do if you were Moe?

Who is the Worst Premier in Canada? #bcpoli #canpoli

As we head into a new week in this the silly season ( two days ago I was in shorts, today I looked for a parka, right now an ark) I thought it a good time to ask just who is the worst premier in Canada?

Could it be Christy Who? You know the premier who in her heart has vanished, shut down the legislature until spring?

Could it be Pauline, let’s have a secular treaty and see what that does for our economy and for our chances of re-election?

Could it be *Kathleen Wynne whose policies are killing the Ontario economy and who threatened the two other parties propping up her minority government with an election she would surely lose.

Tough choices to be sure.

For the time being I give the nod to Marios and Wynne two premiers who are turning Canada’s largest provinces and the supposed economic drivers into have-nots.

How about you?

* Wynne had help from a man named McGuinty but she is continuing his tradition.

Thousands Protest on Streets In Quebec, What about here in BC? #bcpoli #canpoli #bchydro

I get that thousands of people are protesting on the streets in Quebec over the secular charter, they should. They should also be screaming about the mess the Parti Quebecois made of their economy!

They are not.

Likewise here in BC.

The newly elected BC Liberal government has not learned a thing.

This week they are floating trial balloons of 26.4 % increases in Hydro costs . They also want to jam you $35 per month for opting out of the smart meter program.

They want you to think they are heroes when those increases come through at 19 or what ever incestuous number they all arrive at.

Meanwhile over at the BC Ferries the board gets fat increases and bonuses.

Privately people complain, but when are they going to do something about it?

We know you can; the HST movement proved that.

When will the people say enough is enough?

Is a Constitutional Scrap on the Horizon? #bcpoli #canpoli

Everybody’s favorite rich Socialist Pauline Marois is cruising for a scrap with the federal government and yes by extension the Rest Of Canada.

The doors are opened in three different areas:

1) senate reform or abolition

2) the secular bill

3) the use of the word banque or bank by the Quebec government to create their new institution.

On their own each would be no big deal,but grouped together is a different story.

The PQ could attempt to created “winning Conditions” as they have so often promised so that they can stage another referendum.

I think this is only the first stage of mayhem in Quebec and that the winning conditions that Marois and company want are the winning conditions for a provincial election.

They want to go to the people of Quebec and say that the minority government is not working and use these arguments to get a majority.

Then and only then will they be able to get tough with the government and yes by extension with the ROC.

In addition they have also helped their Federal friends because they have flushed out Trudeau and Mulcair thereby drawing a line in the sand between those two and the Bloc for the 2015 federal election.

So to call Pauline Marois ignorant of the rest of Canada as the Toronto Star did is wrong.

She knows exactly which buttons to push.

There is never a dull moment in Quebec is there?

It’s September and Silly Season Is Here! #bcpoli #canpoli

It’s Fall and all is calm but not for long. Silly season is here!

The kids are back at school and the columnists are back at work. So are the bloggers.

News and opinion goes to the forefront as the summer bids us adieu!

Political Insider will be there to follow all the breaking stories and provide opinion as to what is BS and what is not.

We will stay on top of Obama’s ( The US Mr.Dithers) and the war on Syria.

We will cover Pauline Marois as she tries to drive Prime Minister Harper and the Conservative government nuts(banquing anyone?).

Political insider will provide analysis from the BC Conservative AGM and what it means to BC.

We will discuss the fall sitting of the BC Legislature ( if there is one)

We will report from on the implosion of the Ontario Liberal Party.

You want analysis on the Federal Throne speech and what it means to the country? You will find it here.

The new riding boundaries? Look no further than Political Insider as we go inside the campaigns.

The impact of Adrian Dix flying the BCNDP coop and the search for a new leader; it will be here too! ( Christy Clark will have the house all to herself I can hardly wait; for in her heart she will be a ? stay tuned)

Silly season is here.

So kick off your shoes, roll up a joint ( we’ll cover that too) and chill. ( Imagine the boy who would be PM might not be allowed into the US now that he has admitted blunting!)

Political Insider will have all this and more as we speed our way to Christmas and the New Year.

Thanks for reading and have a great fall!

Bike Lanes Across Canada ! #bcpoli #canpoli #election2015

It seems Justin Trudeau and Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson have been discussing a potential switch to federal politics.

It made me wonder why most journalists refer to the provincial arm of the NDP as the training ground for their federal cousins.

It seems like provincial NDP parties are more like a training ground for the federal liberal party.

Just ask Ujjal Dosanjh, Roy Romanow or BOB Rae.

Those three were all NDP premiers who went on to become federal liberal MPs. ( note to provincial NDP organizers: you may want to consider your new theme song to go something along the lines: mama don’t let you sons grow up to be federal Liberal MPs)

Does that speak to the chances of so called NDP stars winning a cabinet post with the federal NDP or does it speak to how far left the Federal Liberals are?

If Mayor Moonbeam ( if you are reading this outside of BC,that’s what he is called) jumps to the liberal ship after the 2014 municipal election you can bet Trudeau will try to bait him with something significant.

If Vancouver’s experience is any indicator, and Trudeau and team win the 2015 election, you can look for bike lanes on the Trans Canada highway.

They day they open, Robertson will likely peddle a bike with a sidecar upon which Trudeau will sit. They will be passing a reefer back and forth.

Nice country we live in eh!