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2015 Federal Election

While the ads are deplorable, I think they are incredibly effective.

When Canadians go into the voting booths in October, they'll remember that Trudeau is 'inexperienced' when making a decision thanks to that ad.
 
Toronto Centre is an interesting race. It pits social justice activist Linda McQuaig against former CD Howe head Bill Morneau. Morneau is one of the Liberal's star candidates, and is being touted as Trudeau's "finance minister in waiting." The Liberals have to be very jittery right now with the NDP on the rise, and are probably kicking themselves for not finding a safer riding for Morneau. Morneau was actually expected to run in Don Valley West, but the former Liberal MP Rob Oliphant allegedly put up a fight when he came out and said he wanted to reclaim his old seat. Morneau's corporate, "blue Liberal" resume likely would have been better suited for a midtown/North Toronto riding, like Don Valley West, instead of Toronto Centre which has some of the most glaring divisions of wealth in the country. I fully expect McQuaig to hoist her 'class warrior' credentials during the campaign. It should resonate in St. Jamestown, Regent Park and Moss Park, but whether or not it connects with with condo dwellers in Corktown and St. Lawrence is up for question. Still, recent polling is certainly working in her favour.
 
I usually mute the ads too, but they seem to be showing two to three CPC ads every commercial break and it's getting to the point that I get angry just seeing them. At this point, I just want this madness to end, I already know who I'm voting for.
 
Even what should be a historical story has Prime Minister's Office hands in it.

Pulitzer-winning journalist Paul Watson quits Toronto Star over ‘refusal to publish’ story on Franklin expedition

From link at the National Post:

Paul Watson, who won a Pulitzer prize in 1994, has quit the Toronto Star over that paper’s “refusal to publish a story of significant public interest” — an allegation the paper denies.

“There’s no truth to that suggestion,” a spokesperson told the National Post.

Watson announced his resignation on his blog Tuesday.
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Paul Watson's resignation post
July 7, 2015

At a meeting today in Vancouver, I submitted my resignation to the Toronto Star following the newspaper’s refusal to publish a story of significant public interest.


Resigning is the only way I can resume that reporting, complete the work and fulfill my responsibilities as a journalist.


My reporting is an attempt to give voice to federal civil servants and others involved in the grueling, High Arctic search for British Royal Navy explorer Sir John Franklin’s lost ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. Several are experts in their fields.


For months, these individuals have been angry at what they consider distorted and inaccurate accounts of last fall’s historic discovery of Erebus in the frigid waters of eastern Queen Maud Gulf. They identify a peripheral member of the 2014 Victoria Strait Expedition, who has access to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office as well as editors at The Star, as the source of these accounts.


I intend to continue my efforts to bring this important story forward and will endeavor, as I have throughout my long career as a journalist, to ensure full, fair and accurate reporting of the facts.


Paul Watson​

“Resigning is the only way I can resume that reporting, complete the work and fulfill my responsibilities as a journalist,” Watson wrote.

The article Watson says he couldn’t publish at the Star centres on the search for the lost ships of the 1845 Franklin expedition, an initiative led by Parks Canada that had significant input and personal investment by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The discovery of one of the Franklin ships, the HMS Erebus, was announced by the prime minister in September of 2014.

Watson says experts and civil servants who worked on the 2014 Victoria Strait Expedition that found the wreck of the Erebus are outraged at what they see as “distorted and inaccurate accounts” of that discovery, which allegedly originated with a person close to the Prime Minister’s Office who also has influence within the Star.

Watson’s says his efforts to report on that person’s influence were stymied, and that editors put him under “a six-week reporting ban” he only broke free of upon his resignation.

“People are sick and tired of a government that is destroying our democracy by intimidating experts into silence so the politically connected and the powerful can fill that information vacuum,” Watson said in an interview posted on the Canadaland website on Wednesday.

“You might have thought this was a simple feel-good story, an effort to answer a mystery the world has been following for the last 170 years. But you’d be shocked at how much political sleaze that can generate,” Watson added.

Watson has promised more updates on his personal website and on his Facebook page. The Star’s website, which boasts of Watson as “Canada’s only Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist,” still lists him as staff as of Wednesday afternoon.

Toronto Star spokesperson Bob Hepburn said the company regretted Watson’s resignation but would not comment on personnel matters, including the alleged reporting ban. He also insisted the paper has never shied away from public interest stories, pointing to the paper’s stories on Rob Ford and Jian Ghomeshi as examples of the its commitment to hard-hitting journalism.

“We don’t suppress stories,” he said. “We haven’t done that in the past and we’re not doing that now.”

Watson won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize in breaking news photography for a grisly photo of a dead U.S. soldier being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu during the civil war in Somalia. He originally joined the Star in 1985 and covered foreign conflicts including in Somalia, Kosovo and Afghanistan. After leaving in 1998, he rejoined the Toronto daily from the Los Angeles Times in 2009 and has devoted most of his energies to reporting on Canada’s arctic.
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BurlOak said:
Are you serious? You can't even go back 3 posts to see where the the graph from 2006 to current is. And isn't the best way to rate the current government is to compare it to the previous one.
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Yeah, let's look at Canada's slow recovery from the 2008-09 recession. In fact, Canada is in another recession now, while the US economy is growing.

And let's look at how the Canadian ecnomony didn't suffer as bad a recession in 2008 as the US, which is widely credited to Canada's strong regulations of its banking system, regulations that were created by the Chretien government, regulations that Stephen Harper for years was pushing to get rid of.

Liberal = good economic policies
Conservative = bad economic policies
 
mjl08 said:
Toronto Centre is an interesting race. It pits social justice activist Linda McQuaig against former CD Howe head Bill Morneau. Morneau is one of the Liberal's star candidates, and is being touted as Trudeau's "finance minister in waiting." The Liberals have to be very jittery right now with the NDP on the rise, and are probably kicking themselves for not finding a safer riding for Morneau. Morneau was actually expected to run in Don Valley West, but the former Liberal MP Rob Oliphant allegedly put up a fight when he came out and said he wanted to reclaim his old seat. Morneau's corporate, "blue Liberal" resume likely would have been better suited for a midtown/North Toronto riding, like Don Valley West, instead of Toronto Centre which has some of the most glaring divisions of wealth in the country. I fully expect McQuaig to hoist her 'class warrior' credentials during the campaign. It should resonate in St. Jamestown, Regent Park and Moss Park, but whether or not it connects with with condo dwellers in Corktown and St. Lawrence is up for question. Still, recent polling is certainly working in her favour.
Click to expand...

Yeah, with Rosedale and Yorkville out of the riding Morneau is a bad fit for the riding. Maybe they should send him to Eglinton-Lawrence where he can directly challenge Joe Oliver instead of wasting it on Eve Adams.
 
Potentially a very strong candidate for the NDP.

Again though, it would take an incredible collapse from the Liberals and Trudeau in order for Bennett to lose St. Pauls. I bet you the NDP come second though.
 
King of Kensington said:
Yeah, with Rosedale and Yorkville out of the riding Morneau is a bad fit for the riding. Maybe they should send him to Eglinton-Lawrence where he can directly challenge Joe Oliver instead of wasting it on Eve Adams.
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With Rosedale, Yorkville and the Charles Street condos out of the new riding, it's a terrible fit for such a right-wing Liberal. I agree, Eglinton-Lawrence, York Centre (to turf out the awful, awful Mark Adler), Don Valley West or even the new Don Valley North would have been a far better fit for Morneau.
 
mjl08 said:
Chrystia Freeland is another Liberal 'star' that looks in trouble in University-Rosedale.
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Indeed. Former VJ Jennifer Hollett was lucky to snag the NDP nomination about a year ago when the NDP was in third place and Trudeau was still popular. I'm amazed she was acclaimed, you'd think some top-tier candidates would have come forward.
 
ShonTron said:
With Rosedale, Yorkville and the Charles Street condos out of the new riding, it's a terrible fit for such a right-wing Liberal. I agree, Eglinton-Lawrence, York Centre (to turf out the awful, awful Mark Adler), Don Valley West or even the new Don Valley North would have been a far better fit for Morneau.
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Mark Alder is my MP. Just curious what makes him so awful as I know nothing about him.
 
WislaHD said:
Potentially a very strong candidate for the NDP.

Again though, it would take an incredible collapse from the Liberals and Trudeau in order for Bennett to lose St. Pauls. I bet you the NDP come second though.
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I think you're right. It may take a "Nick Clegg" type collapse to defeat the Liberals in the citadel of St. Paul's.
 
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