Harper’s Controversial Quotes

On April 25, a 500 page document was allegedly handed to the Liberal Party of Canada by Conservative insiders that contained an organized inventory of all of Stephen Harper’s controversial quotes ranging from abortion to western alienation.

The Dust Barely Settles after Back-to-Work Legislation becomes Law

During the filibuster last week as the Conservatives tried to forcefully end the standoff between Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, an apparent agreement between them failed and insiders are pointing at the Prime Minister’s Office. All the while, the union said that it will be legally challenging the back to work legislation.

Nanos Poll Gives Tories 14 Point Lead

A new Nanos poll shows the end of the NDP honeymoon as their poll numbers are slipping. Meanwhile, the Conservatives are growing, the Liberals are recovering and the Bloc Quebecois remain crushed.

The NDP Inevitably Lost their Fight for Postal Workers

Jack Layton imposed a 58 hour filibuster to try to stall a Conservative back to work bill that would do more than just send postal workers back to work with a lower pay increase than the management’s last offer. As a result, Canadians can expect to get their mail on Tuesday and can expect a return to regular service. The bill easily passed in the house of commons on Saturday and easily passed through the senate on Sunday as both houses are held in majority status by the Conservatives.

Opinion: Liberal-NDP Merger: A Disaster in the Making

There has been a lot of speculation around Liberal-NDP merger and while the Liberal Party has swiftly stopped its main proponent Bob Rae from being able to discuss the topic, the NDP kept itself open by rejecting an internal proposal to prevent future talks of merger. While many people have different takes on a proposed merger, what would be the consequence if they chose to or not to merge in the near future?

Baird Condemns the Probe into $50 million in spending as a “PR stunt”

The controversy over the G8 summit didn’t die as the Tories desperately try to defend themselves after $50 million that was supposed to be spent on border upgrades was instead spent on various projects in Tony Clement’s riding. Former Liberal MP Marlene Jennings asked the RCMP to ask for an inquiry into the spending while Tory attack dog John Baird claims that it is all a PR stunt.

Canada Going Backward on Crime Initiatives

The Americans have been fighting the war on drugs for more than 20 years with their tough-on-crime agenda. However, the Americans are now moving away from mandatory minimum sentences without any chance of parole as more than 20 states struggle to afford it in the current economic times. All the while, Tory PM Harper plans to impose their failed justice system on Canada.

Harper’s Department Broke Expense Rules

The government’s tough rules for hospitality spending have been repeatedly broken by Stephen Harper’s own department, an internal report suggests. The report analyzed how the Privy Council Office spent $340,000 on hospitality and found widespread abuses to a basic rule – public servants can’t spend any money without getting approval from a supervisor.

Appointed Conservative Senators Change Their Tunes on Senate Reform

While the provinces of Ontario and Quebec were quick to pounce on Harper’s proposed senate reforms, it turns out that Harper’s newly minted Conservative majority in the Red Chamber are rejecting the plan as they fear that retiring at an earlier age than 75 will greatly reduce their pension payments. Harper defended his appointments at the time stating that the purpose was to pass senate reform.

Conservative Party goes at Full Steam Ahead

The Conservatives are going full steam ahead with their agendas. The throne speech went through without debate or a vote, Baird defends the ever-growing cost of the Libya mission, and the Conservatives won’t go to the Supreme Court of Canada to get the green light for senate reform. All the while, the Auditor General slammed their secrecy over G8 spending.

It May be Time for Canadians to Tighten Their Belts, but not the PMO

As the Conservatives announced cuts and user fees to come to public services and new austerity measures, Stephen Harper used his business jet to go to Game 4 of the Cup finals in Boston. Due to security reasons, Harper, his daughter Rachel, and Heritage Minister James Moore used a government Challenger Jet to get to the TD Garden for the game which cost $3,285 per hour to operate on the tax payers’ tab.

Flaherty intends to copy the Liberals

The Conservatives promised that they would get us out of deficit by 2014. However, such a promise won’t be visible in the upcoming budget. The Conservatives are well aware of the Liberal Party’s prudent economic abilities and plan to copy it. Jim Flaherty, Canada’s Finance Minister has declared that he doesn’t how to fix the economy, but knows that if he can figure out how the Liberals fixed the previous Tory mess, he can clean up his own.

NDP Surge Gave Tories Majority Government

A new poll finds that the NDP surge wasn’t a fluke, but instead is here to stay, however, that didn’t stop 16 seats from going blue as a result. These vote splits mainly occurred in Ontario at the expense of the Liberals. Meanwhile, there is speculation as to whether the NDP’s Quebec counterpart the Quebec Solidaire would ride the same wave. A recent poll also suggests that if Quebec voted today, the separatist Parti Quebecois would form a majority government.

NDP Gave Conservatives Majority

Below is a break down from ThreeHundredandEight.com outlining that the NDP were indeed the cause of the current Conservative majority government.


Had the NDP not split the vote in these 16 regions, the Conservatives would have been 4 short of a majority government.

Several of these ridings were close as well.

Bramalea-Gore-Malton went Conservative with only 500 votes leading.

Mississauga East-Cooksville was won with a 700 vote lead.

Etobicoke Centre was won by only 100 votes.

Nipissing-Timiskaming by only a handful of ballots.

In Michael Ignatieff’s old riding, 5,000 new NDP votes helped hand the seat to the Conservatives.

While the NDP gained between 2,200 and 13,500 votes, they only finished second or third.

However, the NDP weren’t completely to blame, in York Centre for example, the 2,200 NDP gain didn’t affect the 6,400 vote gap between Ken Dryden and the newly-elected Conservative MP Mark Adler.
Other ridings that were tossed to the Conservatives due to the NDP were Winnipeg South Centre, Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe, Labrador, and Yukon.

In New Brunswick, the NDP’s growth created a three-way race electing Conservative Robert Goguen.
In Labrador, the 700 NDP votes prevented the Liberals from overtaking the Conservative with only 200 votes behind. In the Yukon, the 1,000 new votes for the NDP prevented the Liberals from holding the seat which they lost by only 100 votes.

While Stephen Harper reaped the benefit of Michael Ignatieff’s failings, he can thank Jack Layton for the 16 seats that bumped him to majority status.

NDP set to become Natural Opposition Party

All the while, the NDP surge wasn’t a fluke, a new Harris Decima poll suggests that Layton secured his position as Official Opposition Leader. Of the poll’s more than 2,000 respondents, the Conservatives got 37%, down from 39.6% on election day, the NDP got 34%, up from 30.6%, the Liberals got 15%, down 4.

"What's happened is the loyalties of traditional Liberal voters continue to be transferred over to the New Democrats," said pollster Allan Gregg, the chairman of Harris-Decima.

"We've got the New Democrats at an all-time high virtually everywhere except British Columbia right now."
The center-left people seem to have started to back the NDP which could make it Canada’s natural opposition party.

In Quebec, where the NDP made the most gains, Harris Decima suggests that the voting intention holds: 46% NDP, 21% Bloc Quebecois, 18% Conservatives, 10% Liberals.

Will the NDP Surge Help Quebec’s Quebec Solidaire Party?

Meanwhile, there has been speculation whether Quebec’s provincial party the Quebec Solidaire would ride the NDP wave. It is Quebec’s sister party to the NDP and like the official opposition Parti Quebecois, the Quebec Solidaire are a separatist party.

Threehundredandeight.com has compiled the provincial data and found that if an election were to be held today, Quebecers would oust Jean Charest’s Liberal Party and elect a major Parti Quebecois majority government which would put Quebec separation back on the table in Quebec. Provincially, the Parti Quebecois would get 78 seats, while the Liberals would get 27, the ADQ, Quebec’s right-leaning party would come in third with 15 seats and Quebec Solidaire would gain 4 more seats to get 5.

A CROP poll suggests that the PQ have 34%, the Liberals have 23%, the Action Democratic du Quebec (ADQ) has 16% and Quebec Solidaire has 12%.



Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois has plenty to be happy about and if the trend continues as Jean Charest’s popularity deteriorates in the province, the election that has yet to come in 2 years may give the Quebec separatist movement the keys to the National Assembly. In the end, the Quebec Solidaire didn’t pick up the gains as a part of the NDP surge in Quebec.

Conservatives go in Two Directions when it comes to the Israel Issues

During the G8 summit, Stephen Harper stood alone in rejecting Obama’s peace offer that would have Israel use its 1967 borders as a standing point for peace negotiations with independence seeking Palestinians. Now, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird is singing a different tune from his leader, supporting Obama’s initiative.