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Liberal election platform shifts the chips for the rich, takes a pass on the...
Yesterday the Liberals released a portion of their platform for the upcoming federal election. While I’m happy to see some overlap with our Alternative Federal Budget (AFB), I’m puzzled by the...
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Who’s your special interest now? Federal parties ignore women voters at their...
The last time we had a federal election in Canada, women cast half a million more votes than men. And I can’t help wondering why. The 2011 leaders’ debates lacked almost any mention of how the party...
View ArticleWhen Politics is Personal
Lately I wonder if there hasn’t been a modification to the feminist adage “the personal is political”. In the aftermath of the recent federal election — a decision that left so many of us cringing in...
View ArticleKids These Days: Canada’s Inter-generational Voting Gap
To counteract the record low 58.8% voter turnout in the 2008 federal election, there was an unprecedented push to engage voters this past election. With only 37% of 18-24 year-olds casting a ballot in...
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Understanding Québec’s Orange Wave Part One: A Socialist Haven?
Simon Tremblay-Pepin is a researcher at IRIS a Montreal-based left-wing think tank. From an outsider’s point of view, the last federal election may give the impression that a majority of Québécois(es)...
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Understanding Québec’s Orange Wave Part Two: Welcome back to Canada?
Simon Tremblay-Pepin is a researcher at IRIS, a Montreal-based progressive think tank. In my previous post, I addressed how Québec was not reinventing itself as a socialist haven. I will now attempt to...
View ArticleUnderstanding Québec’s Orange Wave Part Three: What Does the Orange Wave Mean?
Simon Tremblay-Pepin is a researcher at IRIS, a Montreal-based progressive think tank. In my previous two posts I discussed how neither a rise in left-wing sentiment nor a surge in support for the...
View ArticleThe Strange Case of Saskatchewan’s Electoral Boundaries
In the aftermath of the May federal election, many Saskatchewan voters were justifiably surprised by the results. Despite garnering 32.3 % of the total provincial vote, the federal NDP was completely...
View ArticleThe Conservative Party’s Fair-Weather Democrats
With the results of the Canadian Wheat Board’s 2011 producer plebiscite now in, farmers have given the single-desk for wheat a rousing endorsement with 62% of the votes cast. Despite the vote being...
View ArticleConservative Health Transfers
During the federal election, I noted in a Toronto Star op-ed that the federal Conservative platform entails significant fiscal costs for provincial governments. I accepted the Conservatives’ promise to...
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Where is Canada’s digital inclusion strategy?
When Alex first arrives at the drop-in computer class at his local neighbourhood house he’s never used a keyboard or surfed the Internet before. But he’s determined to learn so he can apply for...
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CCPA staff share their ballot box questions
The writ has been dropped, and we are now four days into the longest election campaign in recent history. Canadians now have a critical decision to make about the direction of our country—and lots of...
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Five myths about the tough-on-crime agenda
When Stephen Harper announced the election on August 2, he suggested only the Conservative party has the experience and knowledge to keep Canada safe and prosperous. A closer look at his government’s...
View ArticleTwo cheers for the details of the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan
It is tempting to look past the details and welcome the Ontario government’s announcement of the details of the proposed ORPP as an important milestone on the way to a better retirement income system...
View ArticleSaskatchewan’s climate change crucible
Saskatchewan’s summer has been a snapshot of our climate future. Massive wildfires exploded across the north of the province, forcing the evacuation of over 13,000 people – dubbed by some as...
View ArticleIn our politics, telling the truth gets you in trouble
What’s that they say about the first casualty of war? You can obviously say the same for Canadian elections. Linda McQuaig, the prominent Toronto NDP candidate and long-time economics journalist, is...
View ArticleThis election, let’s have a real debate about legalizing marijuana
On the campaign trail, Prime Minister Harper repeated assertions that relaxing pot laws will lead to terrible, horrible things: “When you go down that route, marijuana becomes more readily available to...
View ArticleRecession is just the tip of Canada’s economic iceberg
Well there you have it, we’re in recession! Dispute it, as Jason Kenney may, his own government laid down the definitional rules in its recent Federal Balanced Budget Act, which states: “recession”...
View ArticleThe best of all policies: my wish for the ideal platform
I’m often asked which opposition party, with a potential to win the election, has the better platform when it comes to tackling climate change and inequality – the two great inconvenient truths of our...
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Ontario’s Poverty Reduction Strategy: Still missing a federal partner
#elxn42’s campaign promises on income inequality have, so far, largely focused on the middle class. While this may be politically expedient (for instance, 88% of respondents polled by Pollara consider...
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