8 things Joe Oliver could learn from the Alternative Federal Budget

Published March 19, 2015

Finance Minister Joe Oliver may want to think outside of the Conservative box for the spring federal budget. The Harper government’s focus on “austerity and balancing the budget comes at the cost of higher household debt, fewer services, and weakened job growth,” according to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ 2015 Alternative Federal Budget. The CCPA’s data lays […]

Canadian conservatives see themselves as the real victims. Here’s why they’re wrong.

Published March 10, 2015

What’s the one takeaway from last weekend’s Manning Centre Networking Conference — the biggest annual gathering of Canadian conservatives? By their own accounts, conservatives appear to see themselves as the *real* victims. The first sign of this came before anyone finished their morning coffee, during Rex Murphy’s welcoming remarks. In a fire and brimstone speech attacking “diversity” […]

VIDEO: They said what? The best quotes from “Woodstock for Canadian conservatives”

Published March 9, 2015

The Manning Networking Conference is called “Woodstock for Canadian conservatives.” Perhaps that explains some of the retro and trippy comments heard over the weekend. Here’s a video of the conservative movement’s greatest hits at MNC 2015 — whether it was Rex Murphy on “ludicrous global warming,” Finance Minister Joe Oliver on the perils of “social license,” musings […]

VIDEO: Joe Oliver bashes “minority” for using “social license” to block resource projects

Published March 6, 2015

If you’re in the “minority,” you may be out of luck with Finance Minister Joe Oliver. On Friday, Oliver criticized groups opposing federally approved resource projects of abusing the idea of “social license”: Speaking at the Manning Networking Conference in Ottawa, Oliver said opponents of unspecified resource projects are exploiting “social license” — essentially the […]

10 songs that explain why the Harper economy is out of tune

Published January 20, 2015

They say music is the universal language. So maybe it can offer the Conservatives a way to explain their struggling economic policies. Postmedia’s Michael Den Tandt argues the Tories “grand economic strategy” is “in ruins.” Former parliamentary budget officer, Kevin Page, calls the Conservatives reputation as strong fiscal managers a “great confabulation” and Canada’s fiscal numbers a […]

New Year’s resolutions for 10 Tory ministers

Published December 30, 2014

New Year’s Eve is that special time of year in which we all make resolutions to become better people and improve ourselves — even Tory ministers. Sure, they’re total pros at breaking promises. But after a calamity-filled 2014, most of the government’s ministers are in dire need of resolutions to “better” themselves in 2015. Here […]

Tag: Joe Oliver