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CPC
"You'd probably give him a solid B or B plus."
We are entering a new era of identity politics -- the increasingly common practice of political campaigns throwing actual policy to the wind and instead playing directly to our emotions -- this method is defined by selfies, sunny-ways, hope and change, fear and division and class anger turned into blind rage.
Regrets, he has a few.
The mistake during last year's election campaign though, which everyone now recognizes, was to focus our message on identity issues like this one and the misguided barbaric practices snitch line proposal, instead of running on our excellent economic record. Yes, Canadians care about shared values and about these issues. But I would argue that they care a lot more about issues that impact their standard of living and quality of life. They care about whether our economy is strong enough to provide job opportunities. They care about having to pay twice as much as Americans for basic food like milk, eggs, butter and chicken.
Interesting.
Peter Goldring allegedly bugged campaign computers in 2011 to hack into someone's private accounts.
The concept of strategic voting is widely used by political parties and the media since the beginning of the campaign. It is assumed that it is a widespread behaviour because Canada has a "winner-takes-all" electoral system. There are two very simple conditions for a vote to be qualified as strategic: first, a voter must not vote for her preferred party, and second, behave this way in order to block a worse option. As we shall see, this straightforward definition has enormous consequences when it comes to quantifying strategic voting.
Despite the growing dissatisfaction Albertans felt with the ruling party, the election remained Jim Prentice's to lose. Though odds were stacked against him, there were too many missteps, and at the root of each was a failure to respect the intelligence of the Alberta voter.
Beyond the gates of the Stampede grounds, however, the mood was less affable. Hundreds braved a snow storm and icy temperatures to show their dissatisfaction with this convention and government's agenda more broadly. The gathering was part of a three-day conference advocating for democracy, the environment, Aboriginal Treaty rights, and human rights.
