Canadian News Wrap - New Media and Politics

June 13 2010 // News

 

Polling at an all time high! Maybe it's because I'm covering more Canadian news than ever but there do seem to be a glut of polls taking place. The changes to this point have all been of the incremental kind so we try not to get too carried away with the results one way or another. The latest EKOS poll has the Tories at 31.4% which just isn't very much. The progressive vote, which represents fully 56% of the electorate continues to be split between the Liberals at 26.8%, the NDP at 16.6% and the Greens at 12.6%.

 

Actual seat projections has Conservatives at 118, Liberals at 99, the Bloc at 51 and the NDP at 39. The Greens 12.6% doesn't get them a single seat.

 

A good percentage of the 8.9% from Quebec who favour the Bloc, it can be argued, are also in favour of more progressive policies as well and merely park their votes with the Bloc when the don't trust or like the leaders of the three major parties. This is how Canada comes to be governed by the Tories who, make no mistake about it, are ideologues.

Roy Romanow is seemingly ignoring the wishes of the Liberal and NDP leadership and forging ahead with an attempt to bring the two parties closer together. Maybe the landscape has changed irrevocably and it's time to consider this. I'm not sure whether this is a good or bad idea just yet, but looking back at those poll numbers which seem to have hardened over the last couple of years, maybe uniting progressive voters is an idea whose time has come. Or maybe the Liberals should choose a leader who can win in Quebec!

The Harper government continues to stall on Afghan detainee records long after historic ruling by Speaker Peter Milliken. Iggy calls it "ragging the puck," I call it contempt of Parliament and potentially criminal. What does Harper have to hide? He has no problem spending oodles of time defending Lake Whatawaste.

Seth Borenstein of the Globe and Mail, reminds us in the midst of the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico that oil permeates every facet of our life and we have a long way to go if we are going to change our habits and wean ourselves off of our collective fossil fuel dependency.

Chevron admits that they have no quick fix if a disaster, similar to the one in the Gulf, were to happen off our east coast. Remember, they are drilling an exploration well in 2,600 metres of water in the North Atlantic’s stormy Orphan Basin area. I would find this honesty more reassuring if they would suspend the project until they were sure that they could bring such a spill quickly to a halt. What about the acoustic switch that has a cost of $500,000? Surely Chevron can afford that.