Why don't we cut to the chase? Is it time to eliminate elected school boards and let the provincial government shoulder real responsibility/blame/credit for how our schools are operated/paid for?
It's a tough one. You know, winning three byelections for the government …in a 12-month period is probably harder than getting a Stanley Cup.
– BC Premier Christy Clark
The Vancouver Canucks will find out shortly just how hard it is to advance in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, let alone take home the shiny silver mug.
And Premier Christy Clark will find out Thursday night if she does even better than that — but it's highly unlikely the BC Liberals can win either by-elections in Port Moody-Coquitlam and Chilliwack-Hope to go along with her narrow Vancouver-Point Grey win last year, let alone both.
by Ricardo Acuña for Vue Weekly
Albertans — well, at least some Albertans — will go to the polls on April 23 to elect a provincial government. In many ways the dropping of the writ was simply a formality. Alberta's political parties have been in full-out election mode since early fall, when Alison Redford was elected leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, and was subsequently sworn in as Alberta's 14th Premier. Candidates have been nominated, signs have been ordered, campaign offices are open and functioning, and candidates and their volunteers have been knocking on doors for a couple of months now.
Despite the fact that everyone knew an election call was coming, the one person in the province with control over exactly when it would be is the only one who appears to have been tripped up by the timing of the election.
Almost immediately after Ms Redford's win in the leadership race, poll after poll began showing Conservative numbers climbing steadily. The province-wide polling numbers went from a virtual dead heat between Conservatives and the Wildrose Party last spring to putting the Conservatives back into comfortable majority government range after the holidays.
by Bill Tieleman
The right to vote is only meaningful when you use it.
– Jean-Pierre Kingsley, former chief electoral officer of Canada
There's a very simple way to quickly put an end to robo-call scandals, dramatically increase voter participation, reduce negative political advertising and strengthen democracy, without spending any additional money.
The solution: compulsory voting in elections.
How would it work?
On fraudulent robo-calls, or live calls that attempt to mislead voters by directing them to the wrong polling location like the ones being investigated from last year by Elections Canada, there would simply no longer be any point.
by Stephen Kimber for Metro
In the all-too-brief interregnum between Thursday's bad-news federal budget and tomorrow's more-bad-news provincial budget, it's worth noting the across-the-board, cost-cutting Kool Aid fiscal policy makers in Ottawa and Halifax have swallowed is not the only — or necessarily best — way to slay the deficit dragon.
The Nova Scotia branch of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, for example, a progressive think tank, recently released its annual alternative provincial budget. Its Forward to Fairness document calls for "strategic investments" while finding "creative ways to save money and increase revenue." Instead of rushing to balance the budget in 2013-14 "to fit the timing of the electoral cycle," the CCPA wants the government to stretch the back-to-balance timetable to 2015-16 to "reflect the actual fiscal situation."
by Gillian Steward
It's early Saturday afternoon and the casino a mere five minutes drive from my house thrums to the bleeps and bloops of slot machines and the whoops of excited craps players.
There are seven such casinos in Calgary and eight in Edmonton. Just in case some of the oilsands workers have money to burn, there are two in Fort McMurray.
No surprise then that Albertans are the biggest spenders per capita in the country when it comes to gambling. And it's much the same in the other western provinces: anyone who gets a thrill out of playing the slots can usually find a casino close at hand.
Never say "never", Mr Mulcair.
by Clyde Sanger
In his first CBC interview after being elected leader of the New Democrats, Thomas Mulcair flatly ruled out working with the Liberals in the next election. "It's absolutely not in the cards," he told Peter Mansbridge. "In order to win the next election, our party must reach beyond its traditional base and unite all progressive forces under the NDP's banner."
Here we go again! Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be delighted to have another three years of a divided opposition.
The reasons for Mulcair's vehemence are clear. Throughout the leadership campaign his main rival, Brian Topp, implied he was a Liberal in NDP clothes. Ed Broadbent bombarded him with sharp doubts about the direction he would take the party. And for two days at the convention, the other six candidates wove their speeches out of social-democratic yarn.
from Joy Smith, MP Kildonan – St. Paul (Conservative)
Yesterday's [March 25] ruling by the Ontario Court of Appeal to strike down the ban on brothels and living off the avails of prostitution is alarming. The government of Canada recognizes, as do many women's and First Nations' organizations, that prostitution is harmful to communities, women and vulnerable persons. I understand the Minister of Justice is currently reviewing the decision and the Government's legal options.
Prostitution creates and facilitates sexual exploitation and violence towards women and youth. I am especially concerned with the Ontario appeal court decision to legalize brothels. In their ruling, the judges acknowledged that human trafficking and child exploitation may tragically increase through the operation of brothels. The judges also noted testimony from police officers that the brothel provisions in the Criminal Code are critical in human trafficking investigations. I am dismayed that the Ontario appeal court chose not to retain provisions that are clearly important in the fight against domestic sex trafficking.
by Mehdi Rizvi
The "mix of federal-provincial strategies" on immigration "is a recipe for confusion," according to Professor Keith Banting, Research Chair in Public Policy at Queen's University.
Differences among provincial immigration and integration strategies have set the stage for continuing federal-provincial conflict and created a system that is confusing and complex, he added. "With more than 50 streams in various provincial nominee programs and various pathways at federal level," immigrants with equal qualifications will get treated differently, "depending on which door they knock on," he said.
Peter Kelly's stadium dream our nightmare
by Stephen Kimber for Metro
The stadium is dead. Long live the dream. But let's keep it a dream instead of the reality turning into a taxpayers' nightmare.
A brief history is in order. Peter Kelly, our in-search-of-a-legacy-to-match-his-longevity mayor, has long been eager to have the city to erect an expensive new stadium, most recently — and urgently — in the faint hope we might somehow complete it in time to host a few FIFA Women's World Cup soccer matches in 2015.
Keep in mind Kelly previously tried to saddle us with that costly Commonwealth Games white elephant. And still wants us to invest in his convention centre fantasy.
