All in Political
Mind you it is because the then Attorney General Jody Wilson-Rayboult was strong enough to hold her ground, and it may have been a different outcome with a weaker Minister. But it couldn’t be forced. That’s the salient point. That is what distances us from lesser democracies.
While successive provincial governments have long placed their priority on chasing investment from outside the region, plying everybody from Sears to call centres with everything from wage subsidies to tax breaks, the real economic potential has always been right here in front of us. It’s Co-operatives and Social Enterprises.
Trudeau’s arrogance and maybe corruption. Sheer’s pandering with nary a Red Tory left to provide a social conscience to his party. God, this is all so depressing. The only positive thing is that we aren’t the United States.
This is about money and what we can afford. It’s a shame that some are trying to use it to widen the linguistic divide.
Circumstances can sometimes catapult someone into a situation they didn’t invite, and that requires a decision the consequences of which represent more responsibility than they maywant to assume.
The problem is considerable. For a start, there’s hardly any affordable housing. Rents have risen steadily while welfare rates haven’t moved in years. Add to that the complex issues those who are living rough are dealing with. Almost all have mental health challenges, often combined with serious addictions. As Faith McFarland of the Community Action Group on Homelessness so matter-of-factly states, crystal meth is a monster. And it is a monster combined with everything else requires professional intervention. This isn’t a job for volunteer ladies from our local churches, regardless of how well-intentioned they may be.
I expect the mayor and council, and maybe even those who hatched the flag idea, simply didn’t think it through. That’s the benefit of the doubt. The other possible conclusions are less kind.
Just two points to wrap this up. First, we are one of only five countries in the world that is still using the first-past-the–post system, and one of the other ones is the United States. We can see how that’s working out for them. Second, consider New Zealand. They switched from first-past-the-post in 1996. Then in 2011 as part of that year’s election, they had a referendum asking if citizens would like to switch back. The response – no way.
While Higgs only scored one more seat than Gallant did, that one could make all the difference. Not that he couldn’t be defeated on his own confidence vote, but he won’t be, because no one wants an election.
It is almost a sense of resignation that it doesn’t matter, that nothing is going to change. I can certainly understand the cynicism.
So we have Gallant who appears to not care about how much we owe at all, and Higgs who may care but doesn’t appear to have a plan.
Does Brian Gallant care about the debt? Does Blaine Higgs have a vision for the province? Is David Coon in trouble? Is Kris Austin dog whistling to the anti-bilingualism crowd? The Political Observer’s Panel is back with a mid-campaign assessment.
The Liberals are spending like crazy, especially in Saint John, based on the tried and true strategy that you can buy people’s votes with their own money. The Tories, on the other hand, are hoping that for the first time in history, that strategy won’t work, and voters will see that Higgs offers the more responsible approach given our precarious economic reality.
There’s no need of the continued secrecy over what Chris Collins did. There’s good reason for disclosure of the facts.
We are used to the government and Ambulance New Brunswick trying to keep the public in the dark. But it is especially disappointing to find the paramedic union has become a complicit partner in this campaign of non-transparency.
It was one more chapter in the uneasy relationship between the Auditor-General and the government. And that’s great. The AG should make the government uncomfortable.
the key question remains of how city hall could be so tone deaf as to not understand how cutting down these majestic trees wouldn’t rub a lot of people the wrong way.
we have to wonder - with the combination of climate change and clear-cutting making flooding worse, is this the new normal? Do we even have any idea where the flood plain is anymore?
When there is a crisis, in this case the flood, a politician’s reputation is either enhanced, or diminished, depending on how he or she responds.
People’s Alliance candidate Stewart Manuel has used his Facebook page to compare Liberals to Nazis. This creates a challenge but also an opportunity for party leader Kris Austin.
