Conservative

Wednesday May 15, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday May 15, 2019

Niagara MPP Sam Oosterhoff shows his inexperience with two bad stumbles in a week

Maybe it was youthful exuberance. Maybe youthful hubris. But it came off as youthful ignorance.

November 5, 2016

Two times in one week, Niagara West PC MPP Sam Oosterhoff blew a chance to show statesmanship and instead demonstrated his inexperience.

On May 7, staffers in his Beamsville riding office called the cops on a group of protesters: senior citizens, most of them women, some belonging to book clubs, who were gathered in silent protest against provincial cuts to libraries. The cuts affect interlibrary loans, which are especially important in small-town areas where books are not readily available and must be borrowed from other libraries.

Oosterhoff wasn’t in the office that day. But the library system in his riding is one of those dependent on interlibrary loans. How many copies of “Where the Crawdads Sing” do you think are hanging around the Grimsby library? If you guessed three, you’d be correct. But three isn’t enough to feed a book club. Oosterhoff showed in a small way he’s out of touch with an important segment of his riding.

November 18, 2016

Two days later, Oosterhoff was definitely present for a Queen’s Park anti-abortion protest where he said it was time to make abortion “unthinkable.”

What is unthinkable is that in 2019 this discussion is still happening. What is unthinkable is that a newbie backbencher would paint his boss, Doug Ford, into a corner. In the end, Ford missed an opportunity to say he supports a woman’s right to choose. Instead, he said the government would not “reopen” the debate on abortion and, in any case, the PC party tent is large enough to hold a number of opposing views.

At a time when polling shows more than three-quarters of Canadians support abortion rights, Oosterhoff showed how out of step he is. It’s not a good look. (Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Tuesday May 7, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday May 7, 2019

The Tories insist racists aren’t welcome in their party. What are they doing about it?

There’s no way around it: Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives have a racist jackass problem.

This is not to say that Scheer or any of his MPs have consciously invited the affections of the country’s racist jackasses, and there are far fewer votes in Canada’s racist jackass constituency than you might think. But it’s a problem. And Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives have it, in spades.

This is what it has come to. Sixty-nine per cent of the “too many non-whites” respondents say they back Scheer’s Conservatives. It only stands to reason that a fairly high number of these people are racist jackasses. And there’s growing evidence that sociopaths from that creepy white-nationalist subculture that congregates in obscure 4chan and 8chan chatrooms are hoping to mainstream their contagion into conservative parties. Scheer’s Conservatives insist they’re not happy about any of this.

February 21, 2019

The most recent evidence is quite jarring. It comes in Ekos Research Associates’ latest annual findings about Canadian attitudes about immigration. Nothing much has changed in the long-term trends, but for the first time, the proportion of Canadians who say immigration rates are too high has merged with the percentage of Ekos poll respondents who say too many non-white people are coming to Canada. And that bloc is coalescing, for the first time, behind a single political party: Scheer’s Conservatives.

March 5, 2019

It’s not good enough for Scheer to get better at dealing with the occasional flare-ups that leave him looking like the hillbilly caricature Liberals like to make of him. He needs to openly admit that the Conservatives have a problem. He needs to clearly and emphatically demonstrate that he means what he says, that his party is not open to voters who scapegoat immigrants and hold fast to the view that there are too many non-white people coming to Canada. He needs to do something about it.

August 17, 2018

He needs to show them the door and invite them to leave. Whatever numbers he’ll lose to Mad Max Bernier, he’ll pick up from more centrist voters who’ve grown weary of Trudeau’s “woke” politics, with its wardrobe of groovy socks and a photo album filled with glamour magazine spreads where a portfolio of policy accomplishments should be.

But whatever the faults that can be laid at the feet of the Liberals, it’s Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives who have the racist jackass problem. And however much they genuinely don’t want it, they’re clearly not trying hard enough to shake it. (Source: MacLean’s) 

Wednesday April 17, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday April 17, 2019

What Jason Kenney’s UCP victory in Alberta could mean for the rest of Canada

After a bitter four-week campaign fraught with controversies and personal attacks, Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party has unseated Rachel Notley and the NDP in Alberta’s provincial election.

October 6, 2018

The UCP win marks a return to centre-right politics for Alberta after Notley disrupted 44 years of Progressive Conservative rule with her win in 2015. It also marks the first time a government has failed to win a renewed mandate in the province on its first try.

Holding on to 24 seats, Alberta’s NDP have been relegated to opposition status while the UCP will enjoy a majority rule after winning 63 seats on Tuesday night.

Much of the campaign focused on Alberta’s struggling economy, employment, and building pipelines after global oil prices crashed in 2015 and thrust the province into a recession.

Standing before cheering supporters after his victory on Tuesday night, Kenney announced the province was now “open for business” and vowed to stand up for Albertans.

As the premier-designate prepares to “fight back” against the federal government, here’s what the election results could mean for the rest of the country.

Kenney’s win in Alberta is expected to be a major headache for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after the former federal cabinet member repeatedly vowed during the campaign to challenge the federal Liberals on everything from the provincial carbon tax to how Ottawa distributes funds to the provinces for government services.

David Stewart, a political sciences professor at the University of Calgary, said Kenney has made it clear that he plans to have a confrontational relationship with the federal government.

“I think they [Trudeau government] should be prepared for the end of the carbon tax, the end of any kind of cooperation on climate change with the province of Alberta, and from having any kind of ally in this part of the country,” Stewart told CTV News Channel after the election results came in.

Kenney has already promised to push for a cut in federal income taxes on Albertans as well as changes to Employment Insurance to better assist those who lost their jobs during the energy recession.

The former federal cabinet minister under Prime Minister Stephen Harper has also taken aim at how federal money is redistributed to provinces. He has also threatened to hold a referendum in 2021 to remove equalization, a program that forces “have” provinces to give money to Ottawa to distribute to “have not” provinces.

Even Notley’s working relationship with Trudeau came under fire during the lead-up to the election, with Kenney accusing them of a “Trudeau-Notley alliance” that put Ottawa’s interests ahead of the province. (Source: CTV News)

Jason Kenney Before he became premier gallery

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator - Thursday July 16, 2009 Minister calls for overhaul of Canada's refugee system Canada needs a refugee-claims system that will quickly turn away those who falsely claim persecution to take advantage of the country'sÊgenerosity, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says. Imposing visa restrictions on Czechs and Mexicans was necessary to stem a rising flow of claimants, he said, but what is really needed isÊan asylum system that accepts or rejects refugees quickly - and he indicated he is working on a reform proposal: "Stay tuned," he said. The decision to introduce a visa requirement was met by howls of protest, with the Czechs recalling their ambassador in protest andÊMexico also stating its unhappiness. For Mr. Kenney, it wouldn't be necessary to impose visa restrictions to stem the flow of asylum-seekers if false claimants knew beforeÊcoming that their cases would be heard swiftly and they would be returned home immediately after a decision was made. "This does underscore the need to reform our asylum system so that it ensures that real victims of persecution get swift relief andÊprotection in Canada, and that economic migrants seeking to abuse our generosity are shown to the door quickly," he said. Although he would not say precisely what reforms he has in mind, the government is studying changes made by Britain in 2004. It is considering borrowing ideas like giving immigration officers the first decision on refugee claims rather than a tribunal, reducingÊlayers of appeals, and fast-tracking claims from countries that are generally considered safe in an effort to send home rejected claimantsÊsooner. (Source: The Globe & Mail)http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/minister-calls-for-overhaul-of-canadas-refugee-system/article1218679/ Canada, Jason Kenney, Immigration, immigrants, refugee, citizenship, airport, restrictions, visa
Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday July 16, 2009 Minister calls for overhaul of Canada’s refugee system Canada needs a refugee-claims system that will quickly turn away those who falsely claim persecution to take advantage of the country’sÊgenerosity, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says. Imposing visa restrictions on Czechs and Mexicans was necessary to stem a rising flow of claimants, he said, but what is really needed isÊan asylum system that accepts or rejects refugees quickly – and he indicated he is working on a reform proposal: “Stay tuned,” he said. The decision to introduce a visa requirement was met by howls of protest, with the Czechs recalling their ambassador in protest andÊMexico also stating its unhappiness. For Mr. Kenney, it wouldn’t be necessary to impose visa restrictions to stem the flow of asylum-seekers if false claimants knew beforeÊcoming that their cases would be heard swiftly and they would be returned home immediately after a decision was made. “This does underscore the need to reform our asylum system so that it ensures that real victims of persecution get swift relief andÊprotection in Canada, and that economic migrants seeking to abuse our generosity are shown to the door quickly,” he said. Although he would not say precisely what reforms he has in mind, the government is studying changes made by Britain in 2004. It is considering borrowing ideas like giving immigration officers the first decision on refugee claims rather than a tribunal, reducingÊlayers of appeals, and fast-tracking claims from countries that are generally considered safe in an effort to send home rejected claimantsÊsooner. (Source: The Globe & Mail)http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/minister-calls-for-overhaul-of-canadas-refugee-system/article1218679/ Canada, Jason Kenney, Immigration, immigrants, refugee, citizenship, airport, restrictions, visa
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Saturday April 13, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday April 13, 2019

How Doug Ford’s budget has hurt Trudeau and helped Scheer

The sound coming out of Conservative backrooms on Parliament Hill in the hours following the presentation of this week’s Ontario budget was that of a collective sigh of relief.

April 12, 2019

From Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer’s perspective, his party dodged a pre-election bullet on Thursday.

By all indications, Premier Doug Ford’s fiscal plan will provide the Trudeau Liberals with less lethal ammunition to use against their Conservative rivals in the upcoming federal campaign than they had hoped for.

Yes, the fact that Ontario will remain in the red beyond Ford’s current term in office is liable to blunt Conservative Party of Canada attacks on the ruling Liberals for accumulating deficit upon deficit since they have taken power.

But it will also make it more difficult for Trudeau to turn the tables on Scheer and predict that the election of a Conservative government would result in a fiscal bloodbath.

November 20, 2018

And yes, the course charted in Thursday’s budget will — over time — impoverish Ontario’s social services. The plan to keep the growth in program spending below the rate of inflation for the next five years cannot but result in a thinner social safety net. The province’s most vulnerable constituencies stand to be the first and the hardest hit.

But the full impact on most Ontarians of the measures sketched out on Thursday will not have been felt by the time Scheer and his Conservatives go door-knocking next fall.

July 28, 2018

In the immediate, the first batch of post-budget media analysis has left federal Conservative strategists with an embarrassment of riches to counter the Liberals’ post-budget apocalyptic scenarios.

Take this summation by my columnist colleague Martin Regg Cohn: “There are no savage cuts in the first Ford-Fedeli budget, which could easily have been delivered by former premier Dalton McGuinty back when he belatedly discovered austerity.”

Or this one from Globe and Mail columnist Tim Kiladze: “If anything, it looks more like something that would come from the Liberals he replaced — the ones he swore had been reckless with the province’s finances.”

Those comments were not written to complement the Ford Tories but to highlight the gap between their rhetoric and their actual budget. (Source: Chantal Hebert, Toronto Star) 

 

Tony Clement Gallery

He’s been in Canadian politics for a very long time. Tony Clement, known for his cabinet positions in Federal and Ontario political spheres. Known for his ambition to lead conservative parties both federally and provincially. Known for his influence in political affairs going back beyond two decades. Now the man at the centre of a humiliatingly tawdry sexting scandal, seeing his world and legacy collapse before him. Oh well, it’s been a fun ride.  

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