[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[crazy canuck]

My bet the average voter in BC knows nothing about this.  I highly doubt anybody else in the country really cares about a by-election in any event. 

I think Federal politics are going to be a bit boring until the Liberals start telling us what their platform is.  Since Trudeau had no platform in the leadership contest it might take a while for him to develop one.  And he might not want to rely too heavily on polling data to create it.

[viper37]

I think Federal politics are going to be a bit boring until the Liberals start telling us what their platform is. 

They got a majority 3 times in a row with the exact same platform.  It's not like people really read those things anyway.  Do you know every fine point of the NDP platform?

We usually vote against a party.  The trick is to minize that number of people on your side.

[crazy canuck]

I think Federal politics are going to be a bit boring until the Liberals start telling us what their platform is. 

They got a majority 3 times in a row with the exact same platform.  It's not like people really read those things anyway.  Do you know every fine point of the NDP platform?

We usually vote against a party.  The trick is to minize that number of people on your side.

I think you are being a bit literal there Viper.  One does not need to understand every detail of their platform but a least a general idea would be nice.

The Liberals are enjoying the kind of bump on the polls that the NDP did here which is largely based on disassisfaction with the governing party.  If they were to follow your advice they would be making the same mistake the NDP made here of allowing the governing party to fill the void with their own characterization of what the NDP would do.

So long as the Liberals remain silent on what they will do (and heck after Trudeau's explanation of what he would do after the Boston attacks who would blame them for remaining silent) the Conservatives have a free field in which to operate.  As I said, pretty boring and predictable stuff.

I am waiting for Trudeau to make some decisions on what he actually wants to do.  That is when things will get more interesting.

[crazy canuck]

Mulcair may be getting tangled in the Quebec corruption hearings.  He says that as a provincial politician he was offered an envelope which he says he thought contained cash and so he ended the meeting.  But he doesnt provide a very good explanation for why he didnt report the matter to police until years later.  Especially when that is what he said he would have expected others to do.

NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair refused an envelope that might have contained cash in 1994 from the then-mayor of Laval, but he only discussed the matter with law-enforcement authorities 17 years later.

The incident raises questions about the delays in the disclosure to authorities in 2011, but also Mr. Mulcair's statement the previous year to reporters that he never saw envelopes of cash in the office of long-time Laval mayor Gilles Vaillancourt.

Mr. Mulcair became an MNA in a riding in Laval, Que., in 1994, and there have been reports in recent years that Mr. Vaillancourt offered cash to various local politicians in a bid to obtain their loyalty.

Mr. Mulcair acknowledged in a statement on Thursday that he met with Mr. Vaillancourt the year of his first election on the provincial stage, but that he only discussed the meeting with authorities two years ago.

"In early 2011, I met with the police in order to help in their investigation. I gave to them my account of a meeting I had with Mayor Gilles Vaillancourt dating back to 1994. As is indicated, I effectively and immediately ended the meeting with Mr. Vaillancourt," Mr. Mulcair said.

The statement corroborated a story in Montreal newspaper La Presse that Mr. Mulcair told police that he felt that the envelope likely contained cash and that he had refused the payment.

After a long career in provincial politics, Mr. Mulcair jumped to the federal stage in 2007, becoming the MP for Outremont. He became the leader of the NDP in 2012 after the death of Jack Layton.

Mr. Mulcair was asked at a news conference in 2010 whether he had ever been offered or had seen "envelopes of cash" in Mr. Vaillancourt's office, and answered with a straight "no."

The statement is accurate in that Mr. Mulcair apparently did not see the content of the envelope that Mr. Vaillancourt had offered. Still, the Conservative government slammed Mr. Mulcair for having kept the meeting secret for 17 years.

"Thomas Mulcair appears to have kept this sordid affair to himself for 17 years. In 2010, he even denied having ever been offered a bribe," Conservative House Leader Peter Van Loan said in a statement.

Last week, Quebec's anti-corruption squad arrested 37 people in Laval, including Mr. Vaillancourt who was charged with corruption and gangsterism. There are various stories of cash and kickbacks at Laval City Hall during Mr. Vaillancourt's 23-year reign, including unproven allegations that he offered cash envelopes to other politicians to help them with various campaign expenses.

Mr. Vaillancourt has long denied any wrongdoing and has vowed to prove his innocence at his upcoming trial.

In his 2010 comments, Mr. Mulcair criticized a former Bloc Québécois MP and a former Parti Québécois MNA, Serge Ménard, who had acknowledged to the media that he had been offered an envelope from Mr. Vaillancourt.

While Mr. Ménard said he refused the offer, Mr. Mulcair raised questions about his failure to report the matter to authorities, given that he went on to become a prominent PQ minister.

"One thing preoccupies me with that is that a person who went on to become justice minister and public security minister felt that he couldn't do anything about it," Mr. Mulcair said at the time.

Mr. Mulcair added that when someone raised a case of potential wrongdoing with him, "I invited the person to go to the police."

[Grey Fox]

Because he didn't want to die.

[HVC]

Mayor of Toronto is a crackhead apparently. Politics is fun

[Josephus]

Let's see how's he's gonna spin this.

[HVC]

Let's see how's he's gonna spin this.

man of the people!

[Grey Fox]

Twin?

[HVC]

The real sad part is that while he's an idiot and a fool he's still makes better policy decisions then the rest of queens park a fair chunk of the time.

[crazy canuck]

As much as I think the guy is a complete boob, this passes as a credible news story these days?  Some reporter says he saw a video that had someone who looked like Ford smoking something that looked like it might have been crack.

If we needed any further indication that mainstream journalistic standards are declining this is it.  In the world before social media this story would have been fact checked at least a little bit more.  Now it seems anything goes.

[Malthus]

Colour me skeptical. 

It's clearly "open season" on Ford. Have any of the numerous stories about Ford being falling down drunk, Ford groping women, or Ford smoking crack, ever actually been substantiated in any way?

Not that I like the fat fool, but really now. This is starting to look like a kind of game - see how much dirt we can throw. 

[Barrister]

Huh - Jos deleted a post where he said "but there's a lot more to it".

I went back to the article - and Malthus basically summed it up.  There's a photo, and that's it.

[HVC]

It started with gawker, so I don't think they would care enough about our mayor to make something up. But who knows.

[Josephus]

Yup. The largest newspaper in Canada is risking its worldwide reputation by making this up.