Canadian politics

Unequal in Alberta

Mar 272012

Gender wage gap remains among the widest in the nation.

from the Parkland Institute

Women with good, stable jobs earn considerably less in Alberta than their male counterparts, as is the case in most Canadian jurisdictions. In Alberta, this "wage gap" ranks among the highest in the country. In 2009, wages for Albertan women working full-time, full-year were 68 percent of what men earned, a ratio that ties with Newfoundland and Labrador for lowest in Canada.

Alberta has not made any significant progress in closing the wage gap over three decades. In 1976, Alberta's wage gap was 62 percent, on par with the Canadian average, and since that time has only progressed by 6 percent toward wage-parity, reaching an all-time high of 71 percent in 1993 and 1998.

Christy Clark’s bad week

Mar 272012

Canadian politics

Delayed by-elections just one sign of BC Premier's shaky hold on power.

by Bill Tieleman

For Premier [Christy] Clark to wait so long for political, not practical, reasons is a disgrace.
– Tri-Cities News editorial on delay in Port Moody-Coquitlam by-election.

Mid-March brought another week of big problems for BC Premier Christy Clark.

Victoria sources say BC Liberal MLA Joan McIntyre walked out of the legislature’s chamber Thursday while Clark was speaking.

Those include cabinet minister Harry Bloy's resignation in disgrace, and Clark's new communications director Sara MacIntyre's controversial attempt to block media from asking questions at a photo opportunity.

The week also saw more questions about the blown $40-million deal with Telus to rename BC Place, and the reappearance at the Port Moody-Coquitlam campaign office of a BC Liberal Party executive member who resigned for bringing a convicted attempted assassin to the BC legislature for the budget speech — on a ticket from the premier's office.

Robocall legal challenges launched

Mar 272012

Canadian politics

Plaintiffs seek to overturn election results in seven ridings.

from the Council of Canadians

Ottawa, March 26, 2012 — The Council of Canadians announced today that it is supporting applications under theCanada Elections Act by individual Canadians seeking to overturn federal election results in seven ridings. The ridings are Don Valley East, Elmwood-Transcona, Nipissing-Tamiskaming, Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar, Vancouver Island North, Winnipeg South Centre and Yukon. The legal actions to annul results are based on evidence of irregularities, fraud and other activities which affected the outcome of the elections.

"It's a sad day for Canadian democracy that we have to take this action," said Garry Neil, Executive Director of the Council of Canadians. "In response to the survey we launched earlier this month, thousands of Canadians reported about widespread dirty tricks. We believe the evidence demonstrates that the voter suppression campaign affected the outcome in at least the seven ridings in which we are supporting applications."

Neil, Shrybman and Walsh Craig speak about the legal actions they are taking

"In the week before the election I received a recorded telephone message stating that, due to higher than anticipated voter turnout, my polling location had changed," said Peggy Walsh Craig, an applicant from the riding of Nipissing-Timiskaming.

"When I first got that call I was confused and thought it was from Elections Canada. It was only only a few weeks ago that I realized the call about the change in polling location was fraudulent. While I was able to vote, it is clear that many others in my riding received these misleading calls and this has affected the outcome of the election."

Mulling over Mulcair

Mar 272012

Canadian politics

A counter-narrative to the stories being written by the familiar pundits and naysayers.

by John Baglow

Reading the analyses from the pundits yesterday and today, it dawned on me that they don't have a clue what has just happened to our New Democratic Party. But, to be honest, neither do I.

Some had already written us off before the race even began, like this prominent wader in the shallows, who presumed to tell the future three years in advance. Most are far less foolhardy, living as they do in the chaos of the present, not in a smugly closed delusional system.

They haven't cast aside their own lenses and blinkers, of course, but they're in some confusion. Their mix of arrant speculation, avuncular advice, and binary analysis, and the way it is couched, gives the game away. Eight things, 10 challenges, two wings, two directions — it's a snippet here and a snippet there, as scribes scramble to assemble a narrative that they, at least, can make sense of.

Electoral ranges

Mar 202012

Canadian politics

Volatile voting patterns mean fourth parties can have effects.

by Inside Queen's Park

Of votes and numbers
More than eight million Ontarians are eligible to take part in provincial elections, but in 2011 fewer than half of them turned out to vote. Of late, advocates for electoral reform, as well as many citizens of a pessimistic and some of an apocalyptic bent, have lamented the ceaseless downward trend in turnout.

Counting down to NDP leadership vote

Mar 202012

Canadian politics

Why Peggy Nash could be Canada's next Opposition Leader.

by Bill Tieleman

Favourites win about 30-35 percent of the time, so in about two out of three races the favourite loses.
– Good Horse Racing

If favourites were able to win every race, it could safely be presumed that Thomas Mulcair will be the next federal New Democratic Party leader at the end of voting March 24. But as the odds show, favourites don't always win horse races or political party leadership contests — which make it far more challenging to predict who will come out ahead.

After the Halifax transit strike

Mar 192012

Canadian politics

Neither side won public approval.

by Stephen Kimber for Metro

Now that transit buses are transiting the city and ferries finally ferrying passengers, let's take one last, un-fond look back at what went wrong and where we go from here.

A confusing pay day

Mar 192012

Canadian politics

MLA pay is a question of transparency, accountability and democracy.

by Ricardo Acuña for Vue Weekly

Scott Hennig and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) appear to have a problem with elected politicians being well-paid for the work they do. They seem to love nothing more than highlighting, whenever they get a chance, how much elected representatives get paid, what kinds of raises they get, the fact that they get good pensions and transitions allowances, and, most recently, that some of them in Alberta are getting paid $1000 per month for sitting on a committee that never meets.

Budget making 101

Mar 132012

Canadian politics

You are the finance minister at Backtobalance.ca.

by Stephen Kimber for Metro

While not nearly as addictive as Angry Birds, spending a few hours with the province's You-Be-The-Finance-Minister teeter-totter app — more prosaically known as backtobalance.ca — is entertaining. And depressingly, face-slappingly educational.

The government created the interactive online budget-making tool as part of its pre-budget consultations. It allows taxpayers to virtually raise and/or reduce revenues and expenses — and immediately see the bottom-line consequences.

Wanna play?

Let's begin with the government's starting point — a projected budget deficit of $390 million — and our own biases. Can we bring the numbers back to balance?

font-weight: bold; “>The point is that it's all a zero sum game. And actions have consequences.

Replacing poppies

Mar 132012

Canadian politics

Western researchers lead the way in plant biochemistry.

by Gillian Steward

Peter Facchini sits at a cluttered little table in a small office at the University of Calgary. His arms bulge with muscles, his face is tanned, his jaw determined. He's looks more like Indiana Jones than a biochemist who is fascinated by the inner life of plants and spends a lot time in greenhouses.

But Facchini and a team of researchers at several Canadian universities are definitely exploring unknown territory. They are not only genetically decoding certain plants, they are identifying and cataloguing the functions of key genes and enzymes in those plants so they can be used to create new pharmaceuticals, foods, industrial chemicals or insecticides.

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