Category: Political Traction

He might have just become the most popular man in the senate they should take 10% of what they were going to spend on legal bills and buy Senator Duffy a car or something.

We’re not big on scandals in Canadian politics. Compared to our neighbours south of the border, ours are few and far between. The biggest in recent memory, is Senator Mike Duffy. In 2014, he was charged with 31 criminal offenses, including fraud, breach of trust and bribery. And this week, he was acquitted of all 31 charges. This scandal, and the subsequent acquittal, have once again spurred conversations on Senate reform.

Really what the leadership vote demonstrates is an unwillingness to move back to third-party status.

Ottawa is still abuzz with the results of the NDP Convention and the NDP is now looking for a new leader, and so, this week it a number of our issues blended together. As sometimes happens with politic, and any major issues really, it can be difficult to distinguish where one ends and another begins. So our top issue for the week is really an amalgamation of a few topics: the NDP convention, Rachel Notley’s response to the Leap Manifesto, and pipelines.

Really what the leadership vote demonstrates is an unwillingness to move back to third-party status.

For our special update on the NDP leadership vote, Allie gets Sally Housser’s perspective on what it means for the NDP moving forward now that Tom Mulcair is no longer leader of the party.

It’s more a difference in interpretation of how they’re presenting the numbers than any sort of error or lack of thought of what’s gone into the budget.

Big news from last night! Tom Mulcair is officially out as the leader of the NDP. In order to give due attention to this change, we will be providing a special update on the NDP leadership vote later tonight, rather than covering it in this episode.

We’re in a dangerous kind of precarious sense of federalism right now, not just over the EIﾅwe’re already getting a bit close to the old sense of western alienation.

This week on Political Traction we’re taking a look at regional issues and how they affect communications plans. Certain areas impacted by the downturn in oil prices are excluded from the recent benefits made to Employment Insurance in the federal budget, and it’s creating an East vs. West mentality against Ottawa.