Today Jack Layton announced the composition of the shadow cabinet that will take on the Conservatives when Parliament resumes on June 2. For those who don’t obsessively follow politics, a shadow cabinet is the group of MPs who will serve as critics to the government’s ministers. A critic is tasked with holding their government counterpart to account, and is the main voice of opposition on issues relating to the ministry for which they are responsible. For the first time in their history the NDP are the Official Opposition, and the government in waiting for the next four years…
Category: Notes from Left Field
Anatomy of a Campaign
To listen to the experts, this election would change nothing. The same parliament, in the same proportions – give or take a few. Instead, it went from, as the media were so fond of repeating, the “election about nothing”, to the most significant realignment of the Canadian political landscape in decades. The Bloc Quebecois dropped from a commanding 47 of Quebec’s 75 federal seats to 4, leading them to lose even their status as an official party in the House of Commons…
The NDP and Quebec: a Blossoming Love Affair
This Thursday Jack Layton will arrive in Montreal for a huge rally in the riding of Jeanne-Le-Ber, one of many seats that the NDP suddenly find itself competitive in as Layton fever sweeps the province. The rally, taking place at 5PM at the Corona Theatre (2490, Notre-Dame O) is a homecoming of sorts for Quebec’s newest favourite son…
Who needs accountability when you can just make shit up? ACTION drags the CSU to a new low…
Concordia Student Union elections are like a really bad soap opera, or a train wreck. They’re oftentimes appalling, but once you make the mistake of looking directly at them you can’t seem to look away.
For those of you who don’t know me, I have been a CSU Councillor for the past two years and before that I led the two-year drive to accredit the Dawson Student Union against ferocious, and often illegal, opposition from the Dawson administration…
Wither the progressive choice in a dispiriting election? Take heart, there is hope!
We are currently on an inexorable march towards a Canadian federal election, which will more than likely take place on May 2 or 9th. Despite the seeming strength of the Harper Conservatives, chinks are beginning to appear in his armour. One revelation of unethical behaviour after another has left Our Glorious Leader facing…
Sweater-vests make me hurl: Young people and voting – not as boring as you might think!
Do you hate politics? Do attack ads and sweater-vests make you want to cap a bitch? Do you throw up a little in your mouth when you think about an election happening? Well you’re not alone. The trend in recent elections has been a sharp drop in participation, most noticeably among young voters. While seniors vote so often that they’ve been known to write-in the name of their favourite candidate…