There's a new poll out for Alberta this week, done by the company "Return on Insight" (ROI), which I don't know very much about but is commissioned by the CBC to do polling from time to time, and have never been particularly crazy with any results.

Their topline numbers fit somewhere in between the recent Forum and Léger polls done in Alberta which gave conflicting results, and...

The race for the Presidency of the Liberal party was an embarrassment of riches. I could listen to Ron Hartling talk about re-building riding associations for hours. Ms. Copps’ speeches on the strength of the Liberal ideal and the need to reach out to the LGBTQ community were truly inspiring. Alexandra Mendès brought a wealth of experience from parliament and beyond to the race. I sent Alexandra (she insisted I call her by her first name) some questions as a sort of post-convention exit-interview. Like Mr. Hartling and Ms. Copps she will be a great asset to the Liberal Party as we rebuil...

First, Julian Fantino writes about his love of the death penalty in his book. Then PM Harper talks about his support for the government having the ability to kill Canadians in an interview last year. On Wednesday it was reported that Conservative Senator Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu suggested that prisoners should be given a rope so they can kill themselves. He initially apologized but then on Thursday he decided to double down and claim that his idea is getting a lot of support. This seems to negate his claim (one that Mr. Fantino and PM Harper have also made) that he doesn’t want to re-open the death penalty debate in Canada. I realize that I will never be able to understand the pain and grief that Senator Boisvenu and his family have been through. However, his remarks illustrate exactly...

On Sunday, January 29th a group of 45+ Queer Liberals, Liberally Curious Canadians and allies of the LGBTQ community (myself included) met at the Church Street Community Centre to talk, drink coffee and build on the momentum of the biennial convention. I was really impressed with the turn out for the event which included Toronto-Centre MPP Glen Murray, former Beaches-East York Provincial candidate Helen Burstyn and candidate for the LPC nomination in Toronto-Danforth Grant Gordon. The Queer Liberal Caucus (QLC) did an excellent job organizing and promoting the event. They also live-streamed the whole thing online to ensure the event was as inclusive as possible. This kind of face-to-face engagement is exactly what the Liberal movement needs. Each person who attended the event would have...

As this Globe and Mail article points out (with a few inaccuracies, like 28% being the "lowest" poll number for the BC Liberals since Clark took office - that's actually 23%), this Angus Reid poll isn't good news for  Premier Clark, who is now not only facing a vote split with the BC Conservatives lead by former MP John Cummins, but also the fact that NDP leader Adrian Dix now outpaces her on the "best Premier" question, and other approval/disapproval indicators.

Topline numbers, as said, are:

...

Attacking the federal Liberals and Bob Rae over the Northern Gateway Pipeline is not how you'll boost your poll numbers. You're flogging a dead horse, my friend.

And this comes from someone who agrees with you on the matter.

Oh, and media... seriously? Why do you even report this? If it's never been clear in the last three-to-four decades of its existence, the Alberta Liberals are not affiliated with the federal Party. This is far from the first or the last or even the most serious disagreement. 'Tis not newsworthy unless you're ignorant of politics in this country, or looking for a story to sensationalize. I'm gu...

I've had some computer difficulties the last couple weeks, combined with work and school keeping me busy, so only now do I have a chance to reflect on the LPC convention.

First off, congratulations to Mike Crawley and his team for a great winning campaign for President. I had a lot of good friends working very hard on his campaign, and I think that hands down he had the best campaign. It was an honour to work with some incredible Liberals on Alexandra Mendes campaign, and I look forward to seeing all candidates who ran for exec board positions to stay active in the party and contribute to the rebuilding process.

On the policy front, the big issues were obviously marijuana and the monarchy. I'm glad the marijuana policy passed in particular, and I sincerely hope the pa...

Today was the first session in the House of Commons of 2012. During QP 3 Conservative MPs subbmitted anti-CBC petitions. The three MPs were: Colin Carrie (Oshawa.) Brian Jean (Fort-McMurray – Athabasca.) Cheryl Gallant (Renfrew – Nipissing – Pembroke.) The CBC needs defending. As Liberals we can’t just take this nation’s support for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a given. We need to publicly defend the CBC and make sure Canadians know why it is an important institution. It is tempting to dismiss these petitions because they are non-binding. We should all remember how Harper chose to go after the gun-registry. He had Candice Hoeppner, a former financial planner who had no experience with...

While it's not a totally established trend yet, it appears that the Coalition pour l'Avenir du Québec and it's leader François Legault are facing an increasing downward trend in Quebec's provincial polling :

Three polls out in January all give he CAQ below 33% of the vote, with the Parti libéral and the Parti Québécois at varying levels, but al...

Via The Daily Dish. Filed under: United States Politics Tagged: Cory Booker, LGBTQ, marriage-equality, Minority rights ...

During and since the Ottawa convention, there has been a lot of soul searching about what it means to be a Liberal. I realise I keep returning to this question. What is the soul of the Liberal Party? And how will the Party fulfill the goals of its soul? It's an existential question, to be sure, but one that challenges all political parties. We saw such soul searching in full force at the NDP leadership debate in Halifax this past weekend. Thomas Mulcair sees a party that can finally be winners. Brian Topp isn't ready to sacrifice socialism at the altar of victory. Nathan Cullen would rather be the "conscience of parliament", that traditional role of the NDP, cooperating earnestly with Liberals and Greens to defeat Stephen Harper. Mr Mulcair basically called Mr Cullen a lose...

I'll start this one by stating that this is definitely coming from my subjective experience. And for once, that actually counts for something. I'm a woman who is involved in politics. I'm a young woman who is involved in politics. And I'm a minority. As many may have learned I'm Lebanese-Canadian from Muslim background. My involvement began years ago when I was recruited by the Young Liberals and now that my involvement with the youth wing has begun to expire, I found myself suddenly getting more involved with the senior party and they were indeed very welcoming. The question I hear often coming from the men and the women, the young and the young at heart is how do we get more women elected to the House of Commons? And recently the question turned into how do we get more wome...

According, at least, to the Globe and Mail , they've got the momentum:

In fact, she told party members on the weekend she is running to win. As we say, it doesn't seem as farfetched as it once might have. There is certainly a scenario where it could happen, and if it does, it will confirm in stark terms the p...

I went on to the Ontario NDP's website and on to their "Our Team" heading - essentially to see their MPPs, I wanted to look up biographical info on one of them - and my protective Firefox browser had this to say:

Dutifully, I got the heck out of dodge. Not because I'm worried about my computer catching somet...

I'm getting a bit sick of these odd Nanos polls which end up dropping the NDP lower than they should be and the Liberals higher than they should be.

The topline numbers are . While one could accept the Liberal result because it's more-or-less within a standard MOE's breadth of some other pollsters who peg the Liberals around 25%. However, no other recent pollster shows the NDP below 28% - yet once again, Nik Nanos and co. have pegged them there.

Now granted, the topline changes are pretty minor compared to Nanos' last numbers . But let's check this out anyways...

I hate to say it but I disagree with BCL over this post :

forma l ban would kill that cursed pipeline; an informal ban suggests opposition to it but plays about with semantics.  Nevertheless, its a start.

Nevertheless, this should also lay down a marker for the other LPoC leadership potentials.  The Libs should stand with B.C. and against Northern Gateway (and opposed to Alta., where they have no hope anyhow).

Because while five of the eight Dipper leadership contenders are wasting their time in a little-watched debate that no one cares about aside from their own supporters, he's out shaking hands and getting votes in the East Island. To point out, so was Paul Dewar, except in St. John's.

Seriously, the only reason Topp and co. wanted Mulcair there was to throw a few barbs his way by attacking the "right-wing government" of Jean Charest (which Mulcair was a minister in). That's about the extent of the interest I think anyone had in the debate. To see that little spark.

These debates are stale, they're full of utter agreement, they're boring an...

Three polls of the two largest Western provinces have come out this week - one for BC, two for Alberta; two done by Forum, one done by Léger - showing different fates for everyone involved right now.

One poll I already covered, and then argued with David Climenhaga over. Now there's two other polls to come out that are worth covering.

First, let's look at an Alberta poll done by Léger Marketing , which showed the following results:

...

Too many polls have come out this week, and I hope this will be the last one (oh, who am I kidding?).

Abacus Data shows an overhyped, within-the-margin-of-error rise for the Liberals that the Globe and Mail, in all its glory, is trying to make into a big story. Meanwhile, they decide not too pay attention to the fact that Abacus' Liberal poll results are below the most recent average, which shows the Liberals closer to 25%, not 21%, as I explained just before... oh nevermind.

In fairness, Abacus as I've seen tends to dumb d...

This is the second poll now to show the federal Conservatives blow 35%, the other being the recent EKOS polling done last month, which had them at 31.4%. In fact, HD almost perfectly mirrors EKOS' 31.4-29.5-24.8 result.

What does this mean? Well... it does somewhat confirm EKOS. However, not since their poll in May of 2011 have they had the Conservatives above 34%, which is what their last polling showed . Take it as you will, but I don't think the Conservatives are as low as 32% - but there is...

I first had the pleasure of meeting Imran at a Edward Blake Society event in Toronto a few weeks before the convention. I was really impressed and after perusing his website, I decided to vote for him. His speech at the 2012 LPC Biennial Convention was one of the best of any of the exec candidates. Mr. Admad is now V.P Francophone for the Liberal Party of Canada. After the convention I sent him 5 questions to find out more about his convention experience and his plans for helping to rebuild the Liberal Party. What wa...

If you've noticed I've been making some changes to the blog's appearance, mostly with the generally-non-customizable "Dynamic" templates from Blogger. Does anyone not like this style? Give me some feedback.

This. This article by David Climenhaga on the recent Forum poll , who is an otherwise excellent writer out of Alberta, is another reason why I can't read Rabble.ca for any length of time without having a meltdown.

The entire premise by Climenhaga is that Forum's two recent polls - one in December and one out this month - are showing inconsistent results compared to the rest of Alberta's many pollsters, in mainly two ways: higher Wildrose support, and lower PC support, the latter being a special concern due to the fact that Redford should have had a honeymoon period which didn't show up in Forum's polling.

Let me dispel both of these misund...

The new poll done by Forum Research in the provincial scene in Alberta shows much what they did last December , with 38% PC (=), 29% Wildrose (+6), 14% Lib (+2), 13% NDP (=), and 3% Alberta Party (-3). Minor differences, all changes except one within the 3% MOE - that exception being the six-point gain for Danielle Smith and the Wildrose Party (I keep wanting to say Alliance).

Through my projections I would get , , and (Forum's own projections showed 57-17-5-4, but that's with the current legislature - mine have the...

(Chris and Joseph: excited to be at Biennial!) The 2012 Liberal Party of Canada (LPC) Biennial meeting was the fifth Biennial meeting I've attended as Liberal delegate from Toronto Centre. As with previous Biennial meetings, it was a great experience and offered some unique moments as these meetings always do. I've compiled a few observations on some of the hard-working people I noticed, the excitement of the constitutional plenary session and the place where 3,000 Liberals from across the country gathered, Ottawa. People: As the Returning Officer for the Young Liberals of...

I heard it mentioned first in this Toronto Star article . It's apparently a poll done by a firm called Robbins SCE back in December. I remember Robbins doing a series of BC polls late last year (which were removed from Wikipedia due to not being considered a major pollster), but never heard of them outside of that province.

This poll assumed two things: that Papineau MP Justin Trudeau was the Liberal Leader, and Brian Topp was the NDP leader. And here's the results that followed:

...

I come from a very musical family (buy my sister’s band’s EP: The Prime Minister of Cool Chicks) and musical theatre has always been a big part of my life. One of my earliest memories is seeing a production of Brigadoon at the high school my father taught music at. In high school I performed in Jesus Christ Superstar, You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown and Les Miserables, and at U of T I helped produce (and appeared in) my favourite musical of all time, Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. With my other obsession being politics I have been wanting to write about how two specific musicals, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson & Urinetown, should be watched by anyone trying to understand the Tea Party and Occupy movements in the United States. This evening I read an article on...

Yessir I do believe it is, especially if certain allegations are proven true:

... Former PQ leader Bernard Landry will publish a letter in Quebec newspapers on Tuesday in which he is expected to question Ms. Marois's leadersh...

Being a con...

I don't think its just me. To date we've heard rumours of Marlene Jennings possibly running for Legault's party in the next provincial election, and someone named Dominique Anglade - who according to the G & M has "spoken" at Liberal conferences before - will be named caquiste president soon. I've also heard personal rumours that floated around the Ottawa convention and from some of my Quebec sources that quite a few fe...