Worth Reading – September 13, 2012

Rex Murphy, not often well loved but always well spoken, offered his thoughts on the prospect of a Quebec referendum. 

Something missed in the election of Pauline Marois to lead the province of Quebec is that Canada now has five female premiers. Roughly half of Canada is governed by female Premiers. Truly an important milestone.

Earl Washburn at the Canadian Election Atlas has produced a great map of what the results of the 2011 federal election would look likewith the proposed boundaries. I think it’s important when considering these maps to keep in mind that 2011 represents a high point in Conservative support. While some ridings have questionable boundaries, it is not as though they are gerrymandered. The Conservatives won the suburbs in the last election, but they used to be a Liberal strong point. Even a minor shift in support could flip many seats.

As the Liberal leadership race gets set one journalist lays out the case for Marc Garneau as leader. While Dan Gardner breaks down the polarized reaction to Justin Trudeau. In the piece he describes critics’ view of Mr. Trudeau as such “They say Trudeau has never said or written anything insightful, or even reasonably serious, about public policy or anything else. His vision is warmed-over platitudes. His oratory is the sort of thing pretentious wankers do before the high-school debate coach tells them to knock it off. The popular excitement he is supposed to provoke is simply the celebrity that comes from almost two decades of media coverage so fawning it would embarrass Kim Jong-un.”

Today the Ontario Liberals government was found incontempt of Parliament for withholding documents related to the costs of gas plants, which were cancelled due to political considerations. 

I saw this earlier today, and tweeted about it. It caused me no shortage of anger. Joan Crockett is the new Conservative nominee to replace Lee Richardson in a by-election in Calgary Centre. In this article sheis quoted as saying that her job as an MP is to support whatever the Prime Minister thinks. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of what an MP is meant to do, which is first and foremost to represent her or his constituents.