to move up and down
Canadian politics: This is your (TV-movie) life
In light of the announcement that Rick Roberts and Sook Yin-Lee will play Jack Layton and Olivia Chow in CBC’s Smilin’ Jack: The Jack Layton Story, the Post‘s Steve Murray looks at which other stars should stand in for Canada’s political heavyweights in the inevitable dramatizations of their lives.
Gary Clement ’s week in review
Ok, this is a little late this week, but still funny.
Related:
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Andrew Coyne: There is a method to Thomas Mulcair ’s ‘Dutch Disease’ madness
Drinking a few cups of coffee a day linked to lower risk of death
Gary Clement’s week in review for March 18-24
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Dear Diary: ‘The world will finally take notice of the Quebec Spring’
Thomas Mulcair’s challenge is to prove he is no political opportunist
Thomas Mulcair elected new leader of NDP
Quebec MP Thomas Mulcair on Saturday won the contest to become the leader of Canada’s New Democrats, finally giving the party a permanent leader for the first time since Jack Layton died in August.
Mr. Mulcair’s victory, which makes him the Leader of the Official Opposition in Parliament, would have been routine but for several delays in online voting on Saturday caused by what the NDP first blamed on high volume and later said were the result of orchestrated cyber attacks. (Photo: Mike Cassese/Reuters)
Two passports? No problem
If we accept that dual citizenship isn’t evidence of treachery any more than single citizenship is proof of loyalty, then there is an interesting symbolic discussion to be had about banning dual citizenship. Or maybe we ought to move policy in the other direction. People like Mr. Mulcair and Michael Ignatieff often argue that dual citizenships and multiple loyalties are intrinsically Canadian. “For us, it’s just a symbol of the richness of Canada,” Mr. Mulcair said this week. And yet, we cut off voting rights for Canadians living abroad after five years. We demand no income tax from them. If transnationalism is such a core Canadian value, shouldn’t this be reflected in policy? Shouldn’t Ottawa clutch its diaspora more tightly to its bosom, as other countries do?
It would certainly be nice if this perennial debate eventually led somewhere. As for Mr. Mulcair, it seems he treats his French passport with about as much reverence as Canadians treat their Nexus cards. I would say that’s between him and Paris.
Gary Clement on Mulcair’s NDP leadership bid
Mulcair has support of ‘very large majority’ of Quebec MPs
The race for the leadership of the New Democratic Party officially kicked off Thursday and while the deputy leader has yet to declare, backbench Quebec New Democrats have begun to step into the limelight to proclaim their allegiance.
NDP MP Brosseau cleared by Elections Canada
The path is clear for rookie New Democrat MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau — who has been under scrutiny since taking off to Las Vegas in the middle of the campaign — to take her seat in the House of Commons as far as Elections Canada is concerned.
NDP inexperience shows in latest gaffes
The week began on a high for the New Democratic Party, but in the few days since its sweeping victory, a number of public relations gaffes have played into the hands of critics, skeptical of the party’s ability to transition from third party to Official Opposition status with an especially young and inexperienced caucus.
The NDP’s volatile voice of experience
Thomas Mulcair, deputy leader of the NDP, has promised to take under his wing the raft of New Democrat rookies elected in Quebec Monday. But who is going to keep an eye on Mr. Mulcair?
The NDP’s volatile voice of experience
Thomas Mulcair, deputy leader of the NDP, has promised to take under his wing the raft of New Democrat rookies elected in Quebec Monday. But who is going to keep an eye on Mr. Mulcair?
As the party moved to control its message and shield some of its shakier new MPs from the media this week, it was Mr. Mulcair who committed the first major gaffe.
It could be said that Mr. Mulcair performed a service for his young charges with his puzzling comments on photos of a dead Osama bin Laden — deflecting attention away from them, their thin resumés and, in some cases, questionable nomination papers. But the incident illustrates the dilemma the NDP finds itself in following its unexpected success in Quebec.
NDP Opposition: Filling the Shadow Cabinet
National Post front page for May 5, 2011
Ex-bishop admits to importing child porn
The wonder drug that’s no drug at all
NDP MP raises Bin Laden doubts
