Wednesday Afternoon Campaign Links

Assorted campaign material.

- Patrick Brethour is right to note that tonight's French debate figures to offer a showdown between the NDP and the Bloc for votes which Gilles Duceppe has taken for granted in the past:

With NDP support continuing to grow in Quebec, Mr. Duceppe is now taking square aim at Mr. Layton – witness the Bloc Québécois Leader’s odd cross-examination of his NDP rival in Tuesday night’s English debates. The days when the Bloc could treat the NDP as a somewhat-sympathetic irrelevancy are gone.
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(Duceppe's challenge to Layton on Bill 101) does point to an important dynamic in the Quebec campaign: the NDP is a credible – and perhaps lethal – threat to the Bloc.

The polls show historically high support for the NDP in the province. In the latest Nanos Research poll, the NDP is at 17.9 per cent, in third place, with the Bloc at 38.6 per cent. The NDP’s support is up nearly six percentage points from its 2008 results, although that increase is within the regional poll’s margin of error.

Other polls put the NDP in an even stronger position. An April 4-5 Angus Reid poll pegged Bloc support at just 34 per cent, with the NDP in second place, at 24 per cent. Were those numbers to show up on election day, Mr. Duceppe could bid farewell to any ruminations about becoming Quebec premier, not to mention having to worry about keeping his current job.

Whatever the numbers, the Bloc’s worry is clear. There is no obvious line of anti-federalist attack on the NDP.

- Con Ryan Hastman says he's losing in Edmonton-Strathcona. We can only hope he'll be proven right - but it's never a bad time to pitch in for Linda Duncan to help make it so.

- The Cons are after Arab "ethnic costumes" for a photo op in Etobicoke - passing the invitation to (among others) an organization de-funded by Jason Kenney. Presumably plenty of fun is being had in responding; bonus points to whoever passes off the most absurd fake costume as an authentic staple of ethnic culture.

- Finally, Edmonton-Leduc NDP candidate Artem Medvedev earns some ink in the Journal - albeit in a Todd Babiak article that's far less serious than Medvedev's candidacy.

Sunday Morning Links

Content goes here.

- Donald Savoie's analysis of politics in the U.K. is no less applicable at home:

We ought not to be surprised that voters today are less inclined to identify themselves (with parties) as their parents tended to do. They have little reason to do so given that political parties are increasingly election-day machines. This has important implications for representative democracies. When we move away from political parties to pursue more narrow interests, the connection between citizens and government is further fragmented. It also speaks to the rise of more "personalised realities".

The problem is that the economic and political interests of the political, intellectual and economic elites are heard at the expense of the broader community. The power and influence of political parties and even formal policymaking processes have given way to powerful individuals and actor-centred institutionalism. This, in turn, has made it virtually impossible for many elected representatives, let alone ordinary citizens, to play any meaningful role in shaping public policies or even holding government to account. We ought not to be surprised at voter apathy and the growing cynicism about government in society.

- From the "how to use Twitter" department: Edmonton-Leduc NDP candidate Artem Medvedev has responded to a request for more ideas (instead of negativity) with a steady stream of policy proposals.

- In contrast, from the "how to abuse Twitter" department, the Libs are apparently trying to draw nonexistent connections between the deliberately nonpartisan CAPP and the explicitly partisan (at least in the sense of directly challenging the Cons) Unseat Harper site. Which isn't to say I disagree with the aims of the latter in the least - but surely it's worth being honest about who's actually part of what project.

- And finally, Dr. Dawg notes that any commentary about police abuses is apparently off limits for publicly-displayed art in Ottawa. Place your bets as to whether Canada's Speech Warriors (TM) choose to ignore the suppression of speech entirely, or justify it based on their fondness for abuses of authority as long as it's directed toward people they don't like.

Tuesday Afternoon Links

An assortment of topics for your mid-week perusal...

- Linda McQuaig eviscerates the Cons for wasting billions of public dollars on planes that even they can't pretend to justify as more than a vanity project:

What makes this purchase bizarre is how little use the jets will be, unless we’re waging all-out war.

“It’s hard to see any useful military role for the F-35,” wrote Leonard Johnson, a retired major-general in the Canadian air force and former commandant of the National Defence College in Kingston. “The age of major inter-state war between developed nations has vanished, so why prepare for one?”
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Perhaps we should consult someone more resolutely committed to war — like Defence Minister Peter MacKay. Yet even MacKay struggles to explain the utility of the jets.

Asked at a news conference last month for “specific examples of the uses of these aircraft,” MacKay mostly focused on what a great recruiting device they make.

“[I]t helps a great deal, I can assure you, in recruiting, to have new gear, new equipment, that is state of the art,” MacKay said. “That is a very important part of our regeneration of personnel and pilots in particular. So having that platform capacity is something that is of great importance to the continued growth of the Canadian Forces and the development of our pilots.”

So we’re spending $16 billion — about $470 for every Canadian — so we can have planes that are really attractive to pilots? Wouldn’t it be a lot cheaper just to offer every prospective pilot a Porsche?

- Meanwhile, MacKay is also raising the possibility of strongarming the Libs into yet another Afghanistan extension. Which nobody could have predicted.

- We can only hope Jeffrey Simpson is right in his analysis of what the Cons' long-form census debacle will ultimately mean:

The census debate, so provocative and so needless but for the exigencies of ideology, roused civic society as few decisions have done in recent decades. The census will lodge itself in a corner of the electorate’s collective memory as a talisman for what the Harperites might do if given a freer rein and, as such, has ruined what little chance they had of achieving a majority.

Canadian democracy, in this long-term sense, has triumphed by rejecting ideology over reason. Some day, the long-form census will return.

- The Globe and Mail's editorial board suggests that if the economic risks posed by the recession are done with, then leftover stimulus money should be redirected toward "smarter spending" on water, transit and other useful projects. But the likelihood of the Cons accepting that type of common-sense suggestion would seem far greater if they hadn't been the ones to instead set up a photo-op-friendly scheme in the first place.

- Finally, Edmonton-Leduc NDP candidate Artem Medvedev is putting together a new online ad campaign, and wants your input. (For the record, I'm a big fan of the "let's work together" theme, but think the wording could stand to be simplified.)