One Year Ago
Flaherty to axe subsidies to political parties in fiscal update: sourcesThe Conservatives are poised to eliminate the public subsidies that Canada's five major political parties receive, a move that would save $30 million a year but could cripple the opposition.Sources told CBC News and other media outlets Wednesday that the subsidy cut is one of the key elements of the fiscal update that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will present Thursday in Ottawa.And, with that, the first domino fell, setting off two weeks of a

"Pro-life feminists have also come to see abortion as part of a male agenda to have women more
I'm willing to bet someone at the PMO has a google news alert for "Maurice Vellacott AND abortion" wired to a giant siren...because that's a very dangerous combination for the Tories. The latest:Maurice Vellacott, the MP for Saskatoon-Wanuskewin and a former pastor, faced criticisms for a news release lashing out against the "devastating emotional, physical and psychological effects" of abortion.Released on Friday in response to a local news article about the availab

Christmas Letters: Michael Ignatief
Yesterday I posted an exclusive copy of Stephen Harper's Christmas letter. Today, a draft of Michael Ignatieff's, obtained from my OLO contacts. I publish it here so that those of you not on Michael's Christmas card list can get a look.Salutations my Canadian friends,Isaiah Berlin once proclaimed “philosophers are adults who persist in asking childish questions” – over the past year, I have found that the same could be said about politicians in question period. There, now that I have suc

Culture of Defeat
Too lazy in Halifax to work?OTTAWA - If anyone ever stops Nova Scotia farmers from hiring migrant labourers to harvest their crops, they would destroy a lot of businesses because unemployed Nova Scotians don’t want those jobs, says Gerald Keddy, the Conservative MP for South Shore-St. Margarets."Nova Scotians won’t do it — all those no-good bastards sitting on the sidewalk in Halifax that can’t get work," Mr. Keddy said Monday.

Christmas Letters: Stephen Harper
It's that time of the year again, when Christmas cards and year-end letters start arriving in the mail. I've managed to get my hands on the letters being sent out by all party leaders and will be posting them here over the next week. First off, the Prime Minister.Greetings friends!It’s been another great year despite these grave economic times, which we are only now coming out of thanks to Canada’s Economic Action Plan. I guess you could say, we all get by with a little help from our friends.I was able to travel a lot this year, representing Canada internationally at the G8 summit in Italy, and learning more about the countr