Nathan Cullen Can’t do Math! #bcpoli #canpoli #election2019 #ndp #leadership

Methinks Nathan Cullen has cold feet!

In an interview with the CBC today NDP MP says that he is not prepared to announce whether he will run for the leadership of the NDP so quickly because it’s a 15-20 year commitment and that it the thought process leading up to his decision would take more than 24 hours.

Mr Cullen’s name has been bandied about for years regarding leadership aspirations and succession in the party. I can’t imagine he is just starting to think about it now.

Even more shocking is that he thinks it’s a 15-20 year commitment.

To Wit:

Enter the race now and run for leadership( fight off the leap manifesto) for the next 2 years

Win and fight for the next year in the run up to the 2019 election ( So far 2+1 =3)

Go to the polls and have your head handed to you ( including losing the NDP Edmonton seat) and resign ( What Mulcair should have done) and remain interim leader for a bit ;1 year tops.

Total = 4 years, a far cry from 15-20 ( I can only imagine what his first budget might look like if he somehow won)

So I give up, where do the other 11-16 years come from?

Can anybody tell me?

Toronto Star and NDPer Cheri DiNovo a bit on the Daffy Side ! #canpoli #bcpoli

These two are killing my reputation!

After reading the column in the Toronto Star relating Cheri DiNovo rant on her own party ( She’s right, leadership blew the last election and has to look in the mirror) I was taken for a loop at the following paragraph ” Although she applauds Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for accepting Syrian refugees, ending airstrikes in the Middle East, and legalizing marijuana, she nevertheless warns that the new administration “will be an austerity government, with better hair.”

Last time I looked the air strikes were still happening, the refugees (were always accepted) haven’t got here yet and Marijuana has not been legalized.

But if you’d been sleeping or hiding under a rock and read the Toronto Star you would have thought it all fait accompli.

The pot law alone will take time to change, let alone require the house to be in session.

Beside the new government has their hands full with expensive brooches and tax payer funded nannies.

The Toronto Star on the other hand has no excuse and should have in the very least fact checked before this column went to press don’t you think?

Election 42- Death of the NDP #Elxn42 #bcpoli #canpoli

Tom Mulcair and the NDP are toast!

This was the election that was the referendum on Stephen Harper.

It was dubbed as the Anybody but Harper campaign.

It ended badly for Mr.Harper we know that now.

The Conservatives, on the other hand will live another day.

The NDP might not be so fortunate.

Before the election was dubbed the “Anybody but Harper Campaign” the discussion centered around whether the left could exist as two bodies and defeat the Conservatives without splitting the vote.

That was put to the test in this election and from where I sat and watched only one survived.

As soon as Tom Mulcair said the NDP stood for balanced budgets they became Harper lite.

Justin Trudeau and the Liberals pounced and said they would run deficits creating a clear choice in the voting public’s mind. Would they vote for Harper and the Conservatives ( Which the NDP was now lumped) or would they vote for Liberal deficits and spending.

While the voters where mulling that over, Thomas Mulcair put what I think was the final nail in his and the NDP coffin.

It wasn’t the niqab ( although that didn’t help him ).

At the September 28 debate Thomes Mulcair shot him and his party squarely in the foot.

Mulcair invoked the death of Justin Trudeau’s father, Pierre Elliot Trudeau.

Trudeau made a passionate defense of his father as would I of mine.

Trudeau took full control from that moment on and made the voters choice easy, a compassionate party with a left leaning economic vision versus two balanced budget parties that were mean.

In my mind the election was over that night.

At the same time the Trudeau Liberals swallowed up the NDP and gave those progressive voters a home they could win on.

And win they did.

Next election the economy will still be the topic ( It always is) but the NDP wont have much to say in the outcome.

It will be tax and spend of the Liberals versus the Conservatives fiscal economic planning.

The Conservatives will have a new leader who will have gotten the message from last night.

There will be no Anybody But Harper Campaign. The fight will be for those new voters who came out this time.

The NDP? There is no longer room for them, they had their chance.

They blew it.

They will not recover.

Jack Layton must be rolling in his grave!

Guns Guns Guns:You be the Red King… #canpoli #bcpoli #election2015

What did you think,I would have a picture of a gun?

To those of us who are old enough to remember; the title of this blog piece is a line from a famous song by the Guess Who.

To those of us old enough to vote that line may well be the ballot box question during the Canadian federal election in October of 2015.

As of right now the cops and the military need guns to protect the people from the bad guys.

Add to that the farmers need guns because they are to far away from the cops and the military to get quick help and you have a formula for a another Conservative party of Canada win.

Everybody always says it’s the economy stupid and this will be no different.

After all if everybody is safe and sound and buying guns won’t the economy just hum along.

What do you think the ballot box question will be?

Harassment on the Hill-Tough Questions need to be Asked! #bcpoli #canpoli

There are some tough questions that need to be asked.

Sexual harassment is a terrible thing and should be dealt with swiftly and harshly.

Everybody has the right to a stress free workplace and life.

It is also no small mystery that sexual harassment purports to occur in the house on the hill in Ottawa. The environment is there and it needs to be fixed.

We have all read versions in biographies over the years just as we have all read the stories when the NDP first swept the province of Quebec they did it with Jack’s army of young youthful candidates in their twenties and thirties.

We have also read the stories of all the marriages that have not survived life on the hill.

This blog piece is written to discuss not what happened but what I think is a glaring lack of investigative reporting relating to these cases.

What I can’t figure out in the cases that have been reported on this week is why the NDP MP went to Trudeau.

I get that she was sitting next to him on a bus.I get that this is a personal issue.

I cannot fathom why on earth the MP did not bring it up with the NDP Whip or the Party’s leader before she talked to Trudeau.

This is also a big political issue .

To Wit:

You are fighting tooth and nail for every vote,every piece of ground you can get before the next election in 2015.

Why would you not go to your party’s brass and tell them what happened and get some direction ( Leadership) on what steps to take?

Unless she did and they did nothing about it.

For what it’s worth I find it hard to believe that Mulcair and company would sweep it under the carpet.

It is also just as unbelievable that they would counsel her to speak to Trudeau at the first available opportunity.

More likely had the upper echelon of the NDP been involved there would have been a meeting involving the whips and the complainants dealing with the issue with the added instruction of not going public being expressed clearly.

The matter could have been dealt with in a less public forum through to conclusion saving the complainants from as we have heard been harassed twice.

That doesn’t appear to be what happened.

It seems that the complainant went straight to Trudeau.

If that is in fact what happened I think we have a right to know why?

If she did approach her own party brass and they did nothing we also have the right to know why not.

After all in less than a year you will be asked to vote on leadership and isn’t this what this is about?

The Disintegration of the Left! #bcpol #canpoli #uspoli

All over North America the left is in Trouble!

Unless something shocking happens in the US Mid Terms the Republicans will get the required number of seats ( 5) and control the Senate and we can get on with the last of Lame duck Obama’s lame duck mandate.

This will make for a woeful week for left-wing parties and government in this continent.

To wit: Monday 5 ministers resigned from the NDP Manitoba cabinet.

This says either the Premier of Manitoba is a lousy leader or they think their current tax and grab policy will not work or both.

In Ontario the name calling has already stared and if I were a betting man I would say no way to Andrea Horwath being leader of the Ontario NDP going into the next election 4 years hence.

In my province of BC most people would be hard pressed to name the Leader of the NDP even though our current BC Liberal Government has given them ample opportunity to make hay on various issues. ( I love my LNG sung to the beat of I love my MTV)

The answer if you are wondering is John Horgan who is a smart guy who for some reason doesn’t seem to be resonating with the voting public.

Federally in this country the NDP is doing a bit of a death spiral of its own not gaining any traction with the public in recent polls.

In fact if an election were held right now ( It won’t) they would most likely be sha na na’d right out of their so-called Quebec strong hold.

Soon there will be more or less no left leaning governments nor will there be a left leaning NDP opposition.

Can it get any worse for those on the left of the political spectrum?

Federal By-elections: Liberals and Conservatives each win two! #canpoli,#altapoli#election2015#onpoli #bcpoli

Happy Canada Day!

Four federal by-elections were held today , two in Ontario and two in Alberta.

What do the results mean for Canada ?

NOTHING

Nobody ( other than those who participated ) cares.

The mainstream media tried to make a story out of how close these were going to be.

Hardly.

Tonight and tomorrow they will try a paint this as a mortal wound to Thomas Mulcair and the NDP.

Hardly.

Nobody cares, it’s the Monday sandwiched in between the weekend and Canada Day.

I am surprised ( not) that anybody bothered to vote.

So go pour a beer or cut your grass ( Justin you can smoke yours) and Have a Happy Canada Day everybody!

Ontario By Elections-Good measuring sticks for all Parties! #bcpoli #onpoli #canpoli

Who has the most to lose?

The upcoming by elections in Ontario could be used as a fairly important measuring stick as far as a potential full-on spring election in that province goes.

There is a lot at stake for all parties.

For the Tim Hudak lead Progressive Conservatives these votes will tell the tale of the shape they are in heading into the full on election. Are Hudak’s troubles behind him? We’ll soon know.

For the Andrea Horwath lead NDP these votes provide a chance to be taken seriously. A hammering at the polls here and they are in trouble.

There is a lot of discussions when by elections are called and whether they are important to the government of the day.

With the Forum poll released today maybe the Liberals internal polling is even worse and maybe these elections are more important than we are lead to believe.

Why else would the Liberals trot out Justin Trudeau to campaign at this early stage if they weren’t?

For the Kathleen Wynne lead Ontario Liberals these byelections are all about survival. Should they get their heads handed to them in February it could be a bellwether to defeat down the road.

It won’t bode well for Trudeau either, if he can’t turn the tide!

Federal Election 2015 : The fight for the Left has Begun! #canpoli #bcpoli

Here’s a Ghost that Mulcair should resurrect!

With Justin Trudeau trying to get Jack Layton’s ghost to rise in Liberal red, The fight has begun in the run-up to the next federal election.

This will seem like it’s a US election given it’s pretty much two years until we go to the polls in October 2015.

Usually the Liberal party starts to troll for NDP support in the last to weeks of an actual campaign with their silly ” don’t vote NDP it’s a vote for the Conservatives” nonsense.

Make no mistake about it the fight is on and NDPer Brad Lavigne came out and countered with a rebuttal to Trudeau’s nonsense.

It was the right thing to do because of course Trudeau is No Jack Layton. He’s actually more like BC NDPer Adrian Dix was , a leader short on policy and capable of saying things that catch even his own party of guard.

As Mr. Lavigne alludes to, the fight for the left started before that with the Liberals being caught trashing election signs in the Toronto Center riding.

I would expect that the folk in the NDP war room will roll back the tapes on the career of Trudeau’s old Man to ensure the voting public that his ghost will rise and remind the public what a mess he made of Canada.

I mean turn about is fair play isn’t it?

By-Election Results; Did the Trudeau Bubble Burst? #bcpoli #canpoli

Harper: Put that in your pipe and smoke it Justin!

The results are now in in tonight’s by-elections and the Conservatives held onto their two seats and the Liberals won their two.

What does it all mean?

In a nut shell Justin Trudeau aint exactly the next great thing.

Lets face it the Liberals won two seats that they should have, lost one they could have and got blown out in the other.

In the great battle that was Toronto Center the Liberals won a Bob Rae seat in a by-election where nobody bothered to vote. ( 27.8 % of registered voters voted)

In Quebec they won Denis Coderre’s old seat. So what; they won that with great leaders like Ignatieff and Dion .

In Manitoba the Conservatives won big where they were expected to and squeaked by in Brandon-Souris.

In other words with the deck some what stacked against them the Conservatives still won.

To wit;

a) it so goes that sitting governments rarely win by-elections

b) the senate scandal

c) so-called problems with the nomination process

d) the Liberals ran a candidate with the last name Dinsdale a very popular candidate in the riding

e) the Conservatives ran a candidate who already lost the riding once

f) the mainstream media threw everything at the Conservatives they could to help Trudeau

This was the Trudeau chance to show greatness and steal one for the team and he couldn’t deliver.

What are the take a ways from all this?

The Conservatives have to keep the nomination process whistle clean and they should be fine. After all almost 45 % of registered voters turned out in their squeaker and they still won so I don’t think the public will be influenced at all by the so-called senate scandal come election time.

For the Liberals : Trudeau is not the piece of gold you quite thought he was. The west wasn’t buying what he was selling. Without a platform and a vision it is the voting public who will give him the finger when his train leaves the station.

For the NDP : Tom Mulcair might be excellent at question period but he is a dipshit on the campaign trail. He couldn’t motivate anybody to vote for everybody’s favorite socialist Linda McQuaig.

What will the mainstream media say? That Harper will worry over the results tonight.

In truth he won’t and it will be the media and the opposition that will be worried.

I would say the prospects for another majority look a little rosier now than they did a few hours ago, don’t they?

It’ll be an interesting run up to the 2015 election and Political Insider will be there to bring you all the action.

Stay tuned and as always thanks for reading!