What’s Going On in Quebec?

Lots of analysis is going on in the media these days as to what’s wrong with the Parti Quebecois and more generally with the separatist movement in Quebec.
My view?
Well it seems to me the problem with the separatist political movement in Quebec isn’t that it’s separatist, but that it’s Marxist.
In other words, both the PQ […]

Posted on March 29th, 2007 by Gerry Nicholls in NCC Blog
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The Right Not To Remain Silent

I had a column in yesterday’s Calgary Herald, examining the Supreme Court’s terrible ruling of a few weeks ago which upheld the election blackout law.

Posted on March 28th, 2007 by Gerry Nicholls in NCC Blog
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The Cost of Victory

A week before the Quebec election, Prime Minister Stephen Harper poured $3 billion into La Belle Province.
The PM says he did this to end the “fiscal imbalance” but many believe the real goal was to help Jean Charest’s Liberals defeat the nasty separatists.
And if that was his goal, it worked — the $3 billion ensured […]

Posted on March 27th, 2007 by Gerry Nicholls in NCC Blog
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Flaherty No Ronald Reagan

 
Check out a column I wrote, which appears in Sun Media papers today.
In it, I suggest the recent federal budget is a signal the Conservatives are heading down the wrong track.
And by that I mean, the Conservatives are ceasing to be conservatives.
 

Posted on March 26th, 2007 by Gerry Nicholls in NCC Blog
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Who’s Tory Now?

If the federal Conservatives keep acting like Liberals, the next thing you know they will be creating their own Sponsorship Program.
Oh wait a minute . . . it seems they are creating their own Sponsorship Program!!
Sigh.
Thanks to Janet Neilson for the tip.

Posted on March 23rd, 2007 by Gerry Nicholls in NCC Blog
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Ontario Budget Blues

Did a live interview on CHCH TV about the Ontario budget.
Ahh, live television — is there anything worse?
First off I had to stand outside in the chilly wind for about an hour in one of those “remote” interviews where you stand staring at a lens, pretending you can see the host. And then the audio keeps […]

Posted on March 23rd, 2007 by Gerry Nicholls in NCC Blog
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Good Riddance to Bill 257

Well the House of Commons did something right for a change.
Last night MPs voted down Bill C-257, which would have made it a crime for companies to hire replacement workers during a strike.
Simply put this Bill was a terrible idea.
If passed it would have undermined Canada’s economy, given more powers to union bosses to cripple […]

Posted on March 22nd, 2007 by Gerry Nicholls in NCC Blog
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Blackout Ruling Skewered

Bob Tarantino, who happens to be a lawyer, has an excellent legal analysis of last’s weeks horrid Supreme Court ruling on the election black out law.
Key quote: “The majority decision is so poorly reasoned it almost beggars belief.”

Posted on March 21st, 2007 by Gerry Nicholls in NCC Blog
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More Budget Talk

 
I’m going to be a guest on the Rogers Cable TV Show Money Line tonight at 7:30 PM to discuss the federal budget with Toronto Sun business editor Linda Leatherdale.
Oh and here’s more evidence the federal budget was a train wreck: Sheila Copps liked it.
 

Posted on March 21st, 2007 by Gerry Nicholls in NCC Blog
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Talking Budget with Duffy

Here’s me on Mike Duffy Live this afternoon.
I was discussing the federal budget with Tasha Kheiriddin. She thinks it’s a smart political budget; I hate it.
You can see the segment here.
(Click the tab marked “Are the Tories Moving Left?”)

Posted on March 20th, 2007 by Gerry Nicholls in NCC Blog
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Budget Reaction (It’s bad)

Some reactions to the budget:
“The $200-billion in program spending Mr. Flaherty has budgeted for this year works out to about $5,800 for every man, woman and child in Canada. Even adjusting for inflation and increases in population, that’s more than Paul Martin spent in his frantic last hours. It is more than the Mulroney government […]

Posted on March 20th, 2007 by Gerry Nicholls in NCC Blog
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Budget Blues

 
Somebody remind me again, who is running the federal government, Conservatives or Liberals?
I have to ask because today’s budget sure looks like something the Liberals or maybe even the NDP could have concocted.
Yes, there were some targeted tax cuts for families and a few tax changes to help business, but overall this budget was all […]

Posted on March 19th, 2007 by Gerry Nicholls in NCC Blog
6 Comments

Budget Fun

The best part about this afternoon’s budget won’t be the actual budget, but the Opposition Parties reaction to it.
The Opposition doesn’t want an election right now, so there is no way they will vote against the government’s fiscal plan, no matter how much they might hate it.
Consequently, the NDP, the Bloc, the Liberals will all […]

Posted on March 19th, 2007 by Gerry Nicholls in NCC Blog
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Blackout Ruling a Disgrace

When the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Thursday to uphold the election blackout law (by a 5-4 margin) it took a stand that was both dangerous and ridiculous.
Dangerous because the Court (a body which exists to protect our freedoms) essentially ruled in favour of political censorship and ridiculous because it endorsed a law that’s practically […]

Posted on March 15th, 2007 by Gerry Nicholls in NCC Blog
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Supreme Court to Rule on Blackout Law

The Supreme Court of Canada will release its decision tomorrow morning at 9:45 am EST on Paul Bryan’s constitutional challenge to the federal government’s election “blackout” law.
Paul — with the financial support of the National Citizens Coalition — is challenging an archaic and undemocratic law which bans the transmission of voting results on election night.
Section […]

Posted on March 14th, 2007 by Gerry Nicholls in NCC Blog
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NDP - Liberal Merger a Bad Idea

There has been a lot of talk lately about “uniting the left.”
The idea being the only way to stop the “Evil, Neo-Con Harper Juggernaut” is for the Liberals and New Democrats to join forces.
Let’s leave aside the fact that far from being a juggernaut, the Tory government has only a slight minority and no real […]

Posted on March 14th, 2007 by Gerry Nicholls in NCC Blog
5 Comments

Forget Election Talk

More and more political pundits are coming to the conclusion that we will have a federal election either in late spring or early summer.
And certainly the signs are out there: the anti-Liberal attack ads, the “pre-election” spending spree, the Tory candidate “boot camp”.
So I am going out on a limb, swimming against the tide, defying […]

Posted on March 13th, 2007 by Gerry Nicholls in NCC Blog
1 Comment

Kyoto’s Only for Starters

 
At a pro-Kyoto rally yesterday, Greenpeace’s David Martin made an interesting comment.
Make no mistake about it — global warming is a reality. The debate is over,” Martin declared. “(Kyoto) will work. It has to work. Kyoto is just the beginning. We need much, much deeper reductions.” (emphasis mine.)
Martin is essentially admitting that for him and […]

Posted on March 12th, 2007 by Gerry Nicholls in NCC Blog
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Taking Out the Trash

Toronto’s Ruling Soviet Council has moved swiftly and decisively to smash counter-revolutionary activity in the outlying region of York — formerly the independent city of York.
What sort of activity?
Well, the residents of that region had contracted with — horrors of horrors — a private company to collect their garbage!!!
Needless to say this struck right to […]

Posted on March 9th, 2007 by Gerry Nicholls in NCC Blog
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Pork and Free Speech

One of the arguments used by those who favour election gag laws — laws which severely restrict how much non-politicians can spend on political ads — is they stop money from influencing elections.
Yes we can’t have citizens spending their own money to express their own viewpoints. That would destroy democracy!
Yet it’s apparently OK for politicians […]

Posted on March 7th, 2007 by Gerry Nicholls in NCC Blog
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Quebec’s Political Future

 
A little while ago, when the Quebec “nation issue” was dominating the debate in the House of Commons, NDP leader Jack Layton came up with an interest way to keep the country united.
He said since Quebec was generally a left wing province, the best way to keep it in Canada was for the rest of […]

Posted on March 6th, 2007 by Gerry Nicholls in NCC Blog
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A Great Man’s Legacy

Today marks the twentieth anniversary of a great man’s death.
His name was Colin M. Brown.
Maybe you never heard of him, but Colin was an important person in my life and an important person in Canadian history.
For one thing, he was the founder and first president of the National Citizens Coalition.
But that’s not what made him […]

Posted on March 5th, 2007 by Gerry Nicholls in NCC Blog
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