The Canadian Rant

STEPHANE DION ANNOUNCES HIS RESIGNATION In a highly anticipated move, Liberal leader Stephane Dion has announced his resignation. Dion will stay on as leader of the party until the upcoming leadership convention in which a new leader will be chosen. This makes Dion the first Liberal leader not to become Prime Minister since the 1800's. After a historical low in voter support many Liberals have been calling for Dion's resignation and now they have received their wish. Now the focus turns to who will be in the running to replace Diona s Liberal leader and who has the best chance at going up against Harper in the next federal election, whenever that may be. Top candidates from the last Liberal leadership convention such as Bob Rae, Michael Ignatieff, and Gerard Kennedy along with Frank McKenna and John Manley are all considered to be frontrunners although no one has yet to say they intend to run for leader as of yet. It will be interesting to see who puts their name forward and ...

VOLPE CALLS FOR DION'S RESIGNATION On Wednesday I mentioned that there would be no immediate action by Stephane Dion to step down as leader of the Liberal Party and make way for a new leader to take them into the next election. There were reports yesterday suggesting that Dion would make an announcement before the end of the week but were then compltely denied by the Liberal Party. While former Liberal leadership candidates Bob rae and Michael Ignatieff have been deflecting questions about their intentions in regards to leadership and about Dion's leadership there has been no one to actually come out publicly and say the Liberals need a new leader... until now. Joe Volpe, former cabinet minister and member of the Liberal Party, has come out publicly in an interview and demanded Dion's resignation so that the Liberals can focus on getting some new leadership. Volpe, ran in the last Liberal leadership race which saw Dion take over the reigns from Paul Martin. His campaign wa...

WHAT DID THE CONSERVATIVES ACCOMPLISH? 2006-2008 IN REVIEW On Jan. 23rd, 2006 Stephen Harper was elected Prime Minister of Canada and the Conservative Party formed a minority government ending almost 13 years of Liberal leadership in Canada under Jean Chretien and Paul Martin. Many argue that minority governments are unproductive because without a majority of seats it is difficult for a government to pass any legislation and must gain support of at least one other party in order to do so. Harper called an election a year early partially because of this very reason. It was becoming increasingly difficult to get things done in Ottawa because of the lack of support from the Liberals, NDP, the Bloc, and most importantly the Liberal-dominated Senate. Yesterday, Oct. 14th, 2008, Harper has landed himself another minority government, albeit this one much stronger. But while many are contemplating what this new government will do let's ponder a moment at what the longest Conservative minor...

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR THE LIBERALS? Fifty years ago in 1958 John Diefenbaker's Progressive Conservatives won an overwhelming majority government while the Liberals occupied just 48 seats. In 1984, two years before I was born, Brian Mulroney's Progressive Conservatives won their own massive majority government leaving the Liberals with just 40 seats in the House of Commons. These two points in history represent the only time Liberal support has been lower than it is right now since 1882. Stephane Dion's Liberals walked away from the Oct. 14th election with just 76 seats in the House of Commons. The big difference between now and those elections in '58 and '84 is that we have a minority government as opposed to a lop-sided majority seen by Diefenbaker and Mulroney. So what does this mean for the future of the Liberals and their leader, Stephane Dion? Following yesterday's federal election and the serious blow dealt to the Liberals at the hands of Canadian ...

HARPER'S NEW ECONOMIC PLAN Today, the day after the general election in which Stephen Harper's Conservatives walked away with a minority government Stephen Harper has made an announcement regarding a new 6-point economic plan. This is in response to the current economic crisis facing the world. This a huge news as it will determine how the Canadian government will deal with the financial troubles that the country, along with many others around the world, are facing right now. I don't have all the details of this plan as of yet so I can't speculate as to what it will contain but there is a comment I wanted to make about it. Harper is choosing the day AFTER the election to make this huge economic announcement... Does anyone see why this might confuse me? Harper, an economist, is very strong, along with the rest of the Conservative Party, when it comes to fiscal management and managing the economy. History has shown that voters turn to the Conservatives in times of econom...

WELCOME BACK!!! It has been just over a year since the last time I have posted on this site but I am back now and will be back regularly. I'm welcoming myself back to posting on this site and welcoming the Conservative government back after increasing their minority government in yesterday's election. I will have lots to talk about regarding this election, what it means for Canada in the future, the upcoming American presidential election, and much more. Obviously, i won't be able to get to all of that today so I'm just going to focus on the big news of the day. After a 5-week campaign we finally have a result, a Conservative minority government stronger than the one that went into the election. There have been many critics today stating that Canada wasted $300M on an election campaign and ended up with the same result. You can look at it that way or you can look at it in a more objective way. The Conservatives made gains across the entire country except for two areas:...