Posts Tagged ‘conservatives’
[NEWS] Ten #cdnpoli and #lexn43 links
- Terry Glavin at the National Post suggests that #elxn43 saw Canada unusually and unhelpfully uncaring about the wider world, here.
- Paul Wells at MacLean’s suggests that the collapse of Conservative votes in many Liberal-held areas, along other things, might mean the second Liberal government will pay less attention to Alberta.
- An independent senator says that Trudeau appointing a senator from Alberta to his cabinet, for representation, would be a poor idea. CBC reports.
- Matt Gurney at the National Post urges Albertan Conservatives to realize they are not alone in Canada.
- Andrew Scheer seems safe as leader of the Conservatives for now. CBC has it.
- The People’s Party and Maxime Bernier underperformed, but populism may yet have a future. Global News reports.
- Maxime Héroux-Legault at The Conversation suggests Liberal electoral strategies inspired the revival of the Bloc Québécois, here.
- Trudeau has promised to build the pipeline that Alberta wants. CBC has it.
- David Frum at The Atlantic shares his own critical take on #elxn43, here.
[LINK] “Social conservatives have gained little ground in Stephen Harper’s government”
Toronto Star columnist Chantal Hébert makes a good argument to the effect that the Conservative government of Canada, small-c conservative though it may be, has not been allowed by its leader the prime minister to fight American-style culture wars. The question is whether the party will it continue not to do so after Harper’s departure.
There has never been a federal government caucus as dominated by social conservatives as the one that Stephen Harper currently leads.
Yet, over his tenure, they have failed to regain an inch of ground on abortion rights and they have lost the same-sex marriage battle.
Just last month, the majority of Conservative MPs who would have wanted to reopen the abortion debate were defeated by a majority in the House of Commons that included the prime minister himself.
[. . . ]
Even as Harper exercises iron-clad control over his government, his position on social conservative issues is a minority one within his caucus. The recent vote on abortion rights provided a graphic illustration of that reality.
[ . . . T]he Harper decade has not been kind to Canada’s religious right and some of its members are hoping that payback time will come upon his retirement. Many see Jason Kenney as a promising flag-bearer. The immigration minister shored up his social conservative credentials when he voted a few weeks ago to revisit the legal status of the fetus.
The battle over Harper’s succession could be a watershed moment for the Conservative party. Notwithstanding mainstream Canadian public opinion, it is not necessarily immune to the kind of fratricidal battles that have crippled the Republican Party in the United States.
[LINK] Two links from Xtra! about gays in the Conservative Party of Canada
Back at the end of September I noted that the Conservative Party of Canada–a right-wing political party, currently holding the majority in federal Parliament and so forming the Canadian government–has actually been embracing gay rights issues to a noteworthy degree. Journalist Justin Ling has recently had two article published in Xtra! describing queer presences and policies in the government.
[Roy] Eappen is a bit of a curious case. Indian by birth, he now lives in Quebec, where he splits his time between advocating for a new centre-right consensus in the province, stumping for the federal Conservatives and hobnobbing with Republican heavyweights down south. A quick Google search will turn up pictures of Eappen alongside George W Bush, Newt Gingrich and Paul Ryan.
But he’s becoming increasingly known for his parties.
Recently, Eappen was in Tampa for the Republican National Convention, where he helped organize for conservative gay group GOProud. Before that, he started the Fabulous Blue Tent party for the Conservative convention here in Canada. “It’s a funny little secret that Tory parties all over the world are full of gay people,” he says.
Eappen’s recent 800-person party in Ottawa was met with accolades and positive reviews from partygoers and pundits. It attracted Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and MP Rick Dykstra, as well as staffers from all parties. Even Laureen Harper was supposed to come, but she couldn’t make it.
He laughs again. “She’s an Evangelical Christian, and she’s cool with us.”
Critics derided the party, lobbing accusations of tokenism. But Eappen shrugs it off. “When we had this party, a lot of gay bloggers went nuts,” he says. People asked him, “How can you homophobes have this party?’”
But Eappen says that gay Tories are nothing new. He’s been in the party — the Progressive Conservative side — since he was 16. He says Centre Block in Ottawa is flush with gay staffers, advisers, strategists and other Tories in positions of power. “[The party was] just to show that we’re there. We usually don’t make a big thing about it,” he says.
At the close of a divisive Quebec City conference, 162 countries adopted a new declaration that underlines their dedication to fighting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
But the group appears to have nixed a more clearly worded endorsement of gay rights from its declaration.
The Quebec Declaration, named for the host city of the conference that adopted it, is a series of 38 commitments approved by the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (IPU). The IPU is a collection of political representatives that works to establish guidelines to promote democracy and human rights amongst its member states.
[. . .]
“I firmly believe it is the role of the state to protect its people regardless of sex, sexuality or faith,” Baird told the IPU conference.
It was a vow to fight a hard-line approach taken by Baird.
“It is cases like [murdered Ugandan gay activist David Kato’s] that drive me to raise this issue, often to the discomfort of the people sitting across the table, as I did at recent meetings in Australia and New York,” Baird told the plenary. “I firmly believe it is the role of the state to protect its people regardless of sex, sexuality or faith.”
Baird seemed to get his way, to an extent.
The text of the draft declaration initially did not include a mention of protection for sexual minorities. It repeatedly declared the members’ mission to fight “discrimination of any kind, including that based on race, colour, language, religion, sex,” but left out anything about queer people.
A later draft encouraged member states to foster tolerance, understanding and diversity for sexual minorities.
[LINK] “Why Nobody Wants an Election But We Could Get One Anyway”
Torontoist’s Patrick Metzger points out that the Ontario NDP’s brinksmanship over the minority Liberal government’s budget, demanding tax hikes and new spending, could well bring the Conservatives into power provincially. Liberal assent would undermine the whole austerity project; Liberal dissent could bring an early election.
[W]ho would gain most from an election—or more importantly, who thinks they would gain most? The Grits would be hard-pressed to find anything they’ve done that’s going to pick them up seats, having already got farmers, northern residents, public servants, and Ford nation in a state of high dudgeon. Penny-pinching (er, nickel-pinching?) is never popular, and an election based on this budget would be neutral for the Liberals at best.
The NDP don’t want an election either—they are even less financially prepared than the Grits—but feel they could run a strong campaign on their budget ideas. A recent poll by the Broadbent Institute indicated that a majority of Canadians are comfortable with taxing the rich to prevent cuts in social programs, and tax credits for job creation are likely to find favour in a province where employment has barely recovered since the depths of the Great Recession.
The Conservatives have already defaulted to forcing an election if the Liberals and NDP don’t reach an agreement. If they won the contest, Tim Hudak would redeem himself from the defeat he pulled from the jaws of victory last fall, and if they lose, the Tories probably get to look for a leader who has a better shot at running the province. Either way, somebody’s problem gets solved.
I do not want Tim as premier, I do not.
A Bit More Detail 