Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Fred Wilson weighs in on Thomas Mulcair's mandate as the NDP's new leader:

(M)any progressives with no interest whatsoever in a "Blairist" agenda had found their way to the Mulcair camp. They supported Mulcair for two reasons -- to maintain the party's base in Quebec, and to immediately step up to the role of Opposition Leader in Parliament and Prime Minister-in-Waiting.

Of course, there are also some in the party and labour who see the Mulcair win as an opportunity to realize a long-held goal of a "big tent" centrist party. But this leadership campaign and decision most definitely did not deliver any such mandate.
...
Tom Mulcair won a mandate instead to do what he obviously was the best prepared to deliver -- an immediate, polished, professional competence as an Opposition Leader and potential Prime Minister. And it's on this basis that Tom Mulcair begins his leadership with the support and goodwill of a much larger majority than his votes at convention.

- And Kathleen O'Hara mentions one intriguing possibility if Harper overplays his hand:

I did detect one area of disagreement between the declarations of the NDP and my employer: the timing of the demise of Stephen Harper. Booting him out in the 2015 election seemed to be the general plan among social democrats. May points out that unpopular leaders, most recently B.C.'s Gordon Campbell, have been pushed out of office well before the end of their mandate. In the name of anti-Conservative unity, I'm sure a compromise can be reached.

- Meanwhile, Bruce Cheadle and Tim Naumetz both report on the unprecedented outside voter suppression aimed at the NDP's members. And Steven Chase and Tamara Baluja report that Elections Canada isn't far from tracking down "Pierre Poutine" - and that higher-ranking Con insiders are on the verge of getting named as well:

Mr. Meier also told Elections Canada that “Pierre” initially telephoned him directly on his unlisted office extension and asked for him by name when setting up his robo-calling account.

“Pierre referred to knowing someone in the Conservative Party,” Mr. Mathews said of the call Mr. Meier received at RackNine. “In Meier's view, these facts mean someone must have given Pierre his contact information.”

- Bill Curry reports that one of the unions most affected by the Cons' anticipated federal budget has been barred from the budget lock-up - with its vocal opposition to austerity looking like one of the main reasons.

- Curry, Janet McFarland and Tara Perkins also point out that the same federal government which has used a tiny amount of provincial disagreement as its excuse for not strengthening the Canada Pension Plan is now trying to strong-arm Ontario into going along with its private-sector-first alternative.

- Finally, Danny Dorling comments on why any actual austerity should be aimed squarely at those who have made the most for themselves while most people have just barely scraped by.

Monday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to start your week...

- Remember the Cons' talking point that we should assume all of the Robocon calls which purported to come from Lib candidates could safely be said to have come from that source? Because Glen McGregor and Stephen Maher just shot a massive hole in the claim, finding that the same Pierre Poutine responsible for sending voters to fraudulent poll locations also recorded a call impersonating the Lib campaign.

- Bruce Campbell suggests five tests for the federal budget - though the smart money is on the Cons paying lip service to one and actively refusing to show any interest in the rest.

- Leftdog runs down some of the Wall government's sad legacy of wilful ignorance.

- Finally, in news surrounding Thomas Mulcair's election as NDP leader, Dan Lett highlights the opportunities open to the party following Mulcair's election. Joanna Smith looks at some of the new talent joining the NDP as part of Mulcair's team, while there have already been a few noteworthy departures as well. Robin Sears points out the trade-offs NDP members considered in voting for Mulcair. Frances Russell describes Mulcair's victory as reflecting the NDP turning the page on turning the other cheek. And John offers a nuanced analysis of the campaign.

Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Glen McGregor and Stephen Maher uncover an apparently-fictitious employee listed as one of Con contractor RackNine's key contacts - nicely paralleling the obvious coverup behind "Pierre Poutine". And Dr. Dawg places the latest revelations in context with the rest of the Cons' misdirections and coverups.

- Meanwhile, the Cons are applying their theory that "the less anybody knows, the better" on the international stage as well.

- Hugh Mackenzie deconstructs the questionable assumptions used in Don Drummond's report to try to foist massive cuts onto the province without any real assessment of the value of public services.

- Finally, Craig Scott's by-election victory in Toronto-Danforth may not come as much surprise. But the fact that Scott was able to hold not only the seat but also the vote share of the most popular party leader in Canadian politics - even with at least one other party pouring its every effort into the seat (unlike in the general election) - surely signals that there's ample room for the NDP to grow in Toronto.

Friday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to end your week.

- Sure, it's a plus to know that Canada's military is ready and willing to leap into action to protect what matters most to the government of the day. Now if only that meant something other than serving as political operatives to protect the Harper Cons' interests.

- Which is to say that the breaking robocall scandal is far from the only example of the Cons' anything-you-can-get-away-with mentality pointed out by John Ibbitson:

(I)t is certainly true the Tories push their campaign tactics to the edge of legality and sometimes beyond. They pleaded guilty last year to violating federal election laws in 2006 with their “in-and-out” scheme to fund the national campaign with money laundered through local campaign accounts.

And they may have instilled such an intensely partisan anything-you-can-get-away-with mentality among their campaign workers that one or more of them concluded it would be okay to cross the line of legality.

Political parties can’t be held responsible for the actions of rogue supporters. But they can he held accountable for creating environments that produce those rogues.

This is a mirror into which Stephen Harper and everyone who works for him should be looking.

- Meanwhile, Carol Goar slams Jason Kenney for ignoring what had been a reasonable set of compromises and accommodations developed in the previous Parliament to force through a bill designed to unduly restrict Canada's refugee system.

- Andrew Jackson points out how Andrew Coyne's attempt to dismiss Paul Krugman's economic prescription falls flat:

(A)s any reader of Krugman’s blog knows, he has acknowledged that a very modest US recovery is underway, while pointing out that the US economy is still operating well below its potential growth path.

He argues – incessantly – that the US economy needs additional stimulus if that gap is to be closed, and he has never argued that the first stimulus package had no effect, only that it was far too small to promote a meaningful recovery.

So there is absolutely no contradiction between what Krugman has argued and the fact of a very tepid US recovery.

Coyne goes on to side with the Fraser Institute argument that fiscal stimulus in Canada had no impact – an argument that has been thoroughly debunked by neutral economists such as Serge Coulombe...

- And given my own interest in chronicling what happens in Parliament, I'll readily note that it's worth reading about Elizabeth May's vigil in the House of Commons.

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- pogge points out that the Cons' response to the perception that judges aren't fully onside with their efforts to impose top-down control has been to eliminate the judiciary's ability to ensure fair results:

Where the institutions of government have put constraints on Conservative ambitions, this government has tried to game them, sabotage them or roll right over them. If a regulator like Linda Keen gets in the way, she gets fired. Legislation from Jason Kenney and now Vic Toews has attempted to give the ministers ever-wider latitude to act on their own discretion without accountability. If regulatory processes threaten to prevent, or even slow down, government-approved development projects then regulatory processes need to be "streamlined."

It shouldn't come as a surprise that they're also trying to game the legal system to prevent judges and courts from impeding their agenda. It's what these Conservatives do.

- Which is to say that we should fully expect them to next try to ensure that partisan appointees can prevent the likes of Election Canada from investigating fraudulent voter suppression.

- Dave comments on the B.C. Libs' punishment budget.

- Finally, this week's column will run a day late - as in the meantime, the Leader-Post is dedicating its opinion page to a well-deserved tribute to columnist Ron Petrie.