“Harper’s real war is with unions”

Published October 31, 2013

The cat is out of the bag, says National Post columnist Tasha Kheiriddin. Forget the Senate scandal and the daily drip of embarrassing Mike Duffy news for the Conservative Party. The real war is with unions, Kheiriddin wrote Thursday. While the political showdown making news this month has pitted Prime Minister Stephen Harper against Senator […]

No love – or money – for the CBC

Published October 31, 2013

There’s no hidden agenda in this policy proposal about the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, up for debate at the Conservative Party convention: eliminate “all public funding of the corporation” because it “creates unfair competitive advantage with privately owned and operated networks and stations.” This idea, pushed by the riding of Saint Boniface, may be a bit […]

Bargaining rights to loom over convention

Published October 30, 2013

It’s a remarkable feat. A special group in the Conservative Party sifted through all the policy proposals submitted by riding associations to debate at the party convention with a goal of tossing out the duplicate ones. But the group still managed to keep nine proposals that are variations on one theme: undermine bargaining rights. There’s […]

What to put on the chopping block?

Published October 29, 2013

Conservatives from the Quebec riding of Beauce have come up with a plan to gut social programs, and they want their party to get behind the idea at the policy convention. After the government balances its budget, set for 2015-2016, they want to freeze spending at $300 billion in today’s dollars through 2020-21. Let’s put […]

Retirement insecurity, anyone?

Published October 29, 2013

Guess it wasn’t enough to cut public pensions in the 2012 budget – after not saying a word about it during the 2011 election campaign. Now, Conservative Party activists want to take a whack at public sector pensions at their party’s convention in a race to the bottom on pensions. This is the pitch from […]

The anti-science party

Published October 29, 2013

We’re not making this up: when Conservatives convene in Calgary for their policy convention, there’s a proposal on the table to eliminate all references in the party’s policy book to an independent Chief Scientist to “advise and report to Parliament on scientific matters, and help coordinate science policy issues within government and internationally.” Just cross […]

Tag: Conservative Convention Monitor

“Harper’s real war is with unions”

No love – or money – for the CBC

Bargaining rights to loom over convention

What to put on the chopping block?

Retirement insecurity, anyone?

The anti-science party