Liberals should embrace Rudd-style party reform 04:27
Reforms that make it harder to depose leaders- similar to those enacted in the dying days of Kevin Rudd #39;s leadership- should be embraced by the Liberal party...
By: Wedel Sharon
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Liberals should embrace Rudd-style party reform 04:27 - Video
On the first sitting day of the House of Commons since her defection, former Conservative MP Eve Adams kept a low profile. Anyone looking for a preview of how she would stack up in debate against Finance Minister Joe Oliver in the GTA riding of Eglinton-Lawrence will have to wait.
But it will take more than a few bouts of sparring in question period to put Liberal minds to rest over the latest addition to Justin Trudeaus caucus.
A week after the Liberal leader rolled out the red carpet for Adamss floor crossing the episode remains a mystery wrapped in an enigma for most Liberals.
On that score a weekend trip to Vancouver that featured a handful of conversations with veteran party insiders on the West Coast mostly confirmed that the move has baffled Liberals from coast to coast.
Those insiders like most observers start from the premise that Trudeaus team of advisers is a seasoned one. In their minds, such battle-hardened strategists would or should have expected both the editorial backlash and the internal discontent that attended the decision to bring Adams and by the same token former Stephen Harper confidant Dimitri Soudas on board.
Few buy the line that Adams is so ideally placed to take on Oliver on the battlefield of the Conservative income-splitting measure as to be worth her weight in political gold.
As flawed as the policy of allowing parents to split their income for tax purposes may be, it does not have the legs to move mountains of votes that a tax hike for instance would have.
In the same breath, most of them dismiss the notion that Soudas has such invaluable insights on what makes a now-familiar prime minister tick on a debate podium as suggested among others by former Conservative minister Stockwell Day as to make signing up his fiance an irresistible proposition.
If anything, Adamss inclusion on the Trudeau team has more to do with a dogged Liberal quest for deterrence on the field of dirty tricks than with making inroads in voting intentions.
Conservative spin doctors have been quietly bragging about having collected dirt on Trudeau ever since he ran for the leadership.
The rest is here:
Liberals Eve Adams play a defensive move in attack-ad ...
Whether it's unions oruniversities,Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) has waged a number of huge fights -- symbolic and otherwise -- with liberals. So far, thefights have only served to bolster his credentials among national conservatives who like nothing more than a Republican willing to poke liberals in the eye.
And now New York Times columnist Gail Collins has thrown Walker another hanging curveball by which to bash liberals and shine in the eyes of conservatives.
In a recent column widelyderidedas a "hit piece" by conservatives, Collins centered on Walker's breakout speech in Iowa, declaring that it was "his moment." Known for her stream-of-consciousness writing style, Collins sets herself up as a kind of fact-checker of Walker's record. She blames the governor for cutting state aid to education that led to teacher layoffs -- particularly in regard to one teacher who had been honored.
But there was just one big problem with that assertion: Walker wasn't actually in office when saidcuts were made.
Theheadline -- "Scott Walker Needs an Eraser"-- pretty muchsaid it all, except it wasn't Walker who needed one.
The correction, which came two days after the column was posted, said: "An earlier version of this column incorrectly stated that teacher layoffs in Milwaukee in 2010 happened because Gov. Scott Walker 'cut state aid to education.' The layoffs were made by the citys school system because of a budget shortfall, before Mr. Walker took office in 2011."
Walker's conservative fans immediately seized on Collins's mistake.
Here's the Weekly Standard:
The National Review:
Newsbusters:
Go here to see the original:
The Fix: Scott Walker is a conservative hero, and liberals have themselves to blame for it
This was a cover-up of a cover-up.
Jagmeet Singh
New Democrat MPP
All three parties are to blame for the $1.1-billion gas-plants fiasco, the Liberals insisted in a legislative report that the opposition immediately dismissed as a sham and a cover-up of a cover-up.
The Liberal-dominated committee examining the Grits decision to scrap power plants in Oakville and Mississauga before the 2011 election stressed that both the Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats also opposed the energy projects.
No party appreciated the full extent of the costs when each made assurances pledging to relocate the facilities, the Liberal MPPs on the justice policy committee wrote in their 30-page report tabled Tuesday.
Since the relocations were announced, cost estimates have varied, but it is clear that the cost was unacceptably high, they wrote, hailing their own government for paying heed to local opponents of the facilities.
Listening to the concerns of these communities contributed to the decisions that led to the relocation of the proposed gas plants, they continued, making 16 recommendations on avoiding similar debacles in the future, including more community input to energy planning.
While the Liberals conceded improvements are needed in retaining government records, their report made no reference to an ongoing high-profile Ontario Provincial Police probe into the deletion of emails related to gas-plants affair.
The committees examination of these issues shed light on some inadequacies of recordkeeping and document retention policies and training, the Liberals wrote, adding many witnesses complained about not being told about their obligations under the Archives and Recordkeeping Act, 2006.
Excerpt from:
Liberals gas plants report a whitewash, opposition complains
Whether it's unions oruniversities,Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) has waged a number of huge fights -- symbolic and otherwise -- with liberals. So far, thefights have only served to bolster his credentials among national conservatives who like nothing more than a Republican willing to poke liberals in the eye.
And now New York Times columnist Gail Collins has thrown Walker another hanging curveball by which to bash liberals and shine in the eyes of conservatives.
In a recent column widelyderidedas a "hit piece" by conservatives, Collins centered on Walker's breakout speech in Iowa, declaring that it was "his moment." Known for her stream-of-consciousness writing style, Collins sets herself up as a kind of fact-checker of Walker's record. She blames the governor for cutting state aid to education that led to teacher layoffs -- particularly in regard to one teacher who had been honored.
But there was just one big problem with that assertion: Walker wasn't actually in office when saidcuts were made.
Theheadline -- "Scott Walker Needs an Eraser"-- pretty muchsaid it all, except it wasn't Walker who needed one.
The correction, which came two days after the column was posted, said: "An earlier version of this column incorrectly stated that teacher layoffs in Milwaukee in 2010 happened because Gov. Scott Walker 'cut state aid to education.' The layoffs were made by the citys school system because of a budget shortfall, before Mr. Walker took office in 2011."
Walker's conservative fans immediately seized on Collins's mistake.
Here's the Weekly Standard:
The National Review:
Newsbusters:
The rest is here:
Scott Walker is a conservative hero, and liberals have themselves to blame for it