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Friday April 19, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday April 19, 2019

Historic result for PEI Green Party could mean bigger things coming

For the first time ever, the Green Party has risen to Official Opposition status in a Canadian province.

October 23, 2002

The party, led by Peter Bevan-Baker, won eight seats in Prince Edward Island in a vote that saw the Progressive Conservatives form a minority government under premier-designate Dennis King.  The Tory’s won 12 seats.

“It’s a historic night, and a big breakthrough for the PEI Greens,” says Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner, “I think it’s really an indication, the fact increasingly more and more voters want to see a new way of doing politics.”

“I think Greens bring a fresh voice and a new perspective, and really a desire as much as possible to work across party lines to solve some of the big challenges that we face.  And do it in a way that puts people first, that puts good policy ahead of party.”

May 31, 2017

He says in the past, people thought success for the Greens were more of “a west coast thing,” alluding to federal leader Elizabeth May, who is MP for a riding in British Columbia, as well as three MLA’s holding seats in the BC legislature.

And then with members holding three seats in New Brunswick’s provincially, some were thinking it was a west and east coast thing.

But with Tuesday’s vote, along with Schreiner’s own successful election bid in Ontario last October, he says we’re seeing a “green wave starting to build across the country.”

Now, what could this mean for future elections?

October 14, 2015

Schreiner says we could see our first indication of it during the fall federal election, and even in the next Ontario election in 2022.

He indicates there were five “high quality” people seeking the Green Party nomination in Guelph last year, along with contested nominations in Waterloo Region.

And he is already fielding calls from people interested in running in the next provincial election. (Source: Kitchener Today) 

 

Saturday November 3, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday November 3, 2018

‘Edge of the knife’: Trump drags divided states of America towards his midterms reckoning

Maureen Osiecki remembers the shock of Donald Trump winning her home state, Michigan, on his march to the White House. “My heart died,” she says of that night nearly two years ago. “My father turned over in his grave.”

Pittsburgh synagogue shooting: suspect Robert Bowers charged with 11 counts of murder

On 6 November, Osiecki gets her first chance to formally pass judgment on the Trump presidency. The midterm elections will decide control of Congress and could give the commander-in-chief a black eye. Few can remember midterms taking place in an America so perilously divided – underlined this week by pipe bomb packages sent to leading Democrats and a massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue – or with a president so actively stoking the culture wars as an electoral strategy.

“He’s a pig,” said Osiecki, a 76-year-old retiree from a city planning department, sitting with friends in a Wendy’s restaurant in Pontiac. “No feeling, no empathy. My father was a Republican but we got along and didn’t call each other ‘horseface’.” 

The midterms, which early voting indicates could have their highest turnout in decades, are always more or less a vote of confidence in the sitting president. But Trump has put himself front and centre. “I’m not on the ticket, but I am on the ticket, because this is also a referendum about me,” he told supporters in Southaven, Mississippi.  “I want you to vote. Pretend I’m on the ballot.”

Where his predecessors have sought to build bridges and unify, he has embraced the politics of polarization across gender, race and culture lines in the hope of firing up his base, tacitly acknowledging he has lost a vast swath of the nation for good. The midterms will provide the first official measure of whether the sum of love for Trump is exceeded by the sum of hatred.

Amy Walter, national editor of the Cook Political Report newsletter, told an audience at the Washington Post this week: “The best way to think about where we are today is that we’re having elections in two different Americas.” (Continued: The Guardian) 

 

Tuesday January 31, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday January 31, 2017

Quebec City mosque shooting: Alexandre Bissonnette identified as alleged gunman

Quebec provincial police now say that only one of the two men detained Sunday night in connection with the mass shooting at a mosque in Quebec City that killed six people is considered a suspect.

Surete du Quebec said in a statement just after noon Monday the second person is considered a witness, but they did not offer any names. Media reports identified the “witness” as Mohamed Belkhadir. Earlier reports said the man’s name was Mohamed Khadir or El Khadir.

Reports from Quebec media, including La Presse, TVA, and Radio Canada, say that Alexandre Bissonnette is the lone person suspected in the shooting.

The horrific attacks occurred inside the Centre Culturel Islamique de Quebec in Quebec City’s Ste-Foy neighbourhood just before 8 p.m. ET, when a masked gunman entered the building and opened fire, according to witnesses and police.

The victims were identified as men who ranged in age from 35 to 60. Five people remain in hospital, with two of those in critical condition and the three others stable. At least 14 others suffered minor injuries and were released, according to the University of Quebec Hospital Centre spokeswoman Genevieve Dupuis.

Thirty-nine people escaped the mosque shooting without injuries.  (Source: Global News) 



 

Wednesday September 19, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday September 19, 2012

Flag back in storage as Parti Québécois era begin

Before premier-designate Pauline Marois was again sworn in as an MNA Monday, the Parti Québécois stripped the Canadian flag from the upper chamber of the National Assembly.

And the sovereigntist party removed the Maple Leaf that adorned outgoing premier Jean Charest’s office for the past nine years. This is not the first time a PQ government has put the flag in storage. While the move may inflame passions among Quebec federalists and across the country, this time the symbolic gesture may be a particularly hollow one.

Ms. Marois led the PQ to a minority victory earlier this month with barely a third of the popular vote. She made no mention of sovereignty in her brief swearing-in speech. Nor did her election campaign place great emphasis on sovereignty, desire for which is at historic lows among Quebeckers.

Ms. Marois, who will be sworn in as premier Wednesday, said nothing about the flag removal in her remarks after the swearing-in ceremony. “Quebeckers chose change and they chose to do it with a Parti Québécois government,” Ms. Marois said.

“One of the changes is to put an end to the politics of division. What I wish is for Quebec to get back on course and reclaim its pride and confidence. When a people reclaims its pride and confidence, nothing, absolutely nothing, becomes impossible.”

Asked to respond to the removal of the Maple Leaf by the PQ government, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office responded with a blunt “no comment.”

The swearing-in ceremony has always been an awkward affair for PQ members. They must pledge allegiance to the Queen as part of the mandatory official ritual of taking office. (Source: Globe & Mail) 

 

Thursday April 3, 2008

Thursday April 3, 2008Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday April 3, 2008

MPs pass motion on lowering flag for military dead

A Liberal motion calling for Ottawa’s Peace Tower flag to be lowered whenever Canadian soldiers are killed abroad was passed in the House of Commons Wednesday.

The motion passed 142-115, supported by the Liberals and the NDP.

However, the Conservative government is suggesting it will ignore the non-binding motion and ask a committee to come up with a wide-ranging policy on when the flag should be at half-mast.Rather than lowering the national flag every time a Canadian soldier is killed, the Tories wants to put more emphasis on Remembrance Day, lowering the flag once a year in honour of all Canadian soldiers killed.

MPs voted Wednesday on the Liberal motion that would require a moment of silence and lowering the Canadian flag on the Peace Tower for all dead soldiers, even as a report recommends cutting back on the honour.
Jason Kenney, secretary of state for Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity, told CTV’s Canada AM on Wednesday that the current policy, which sees the flag lowered for every soldier’s death, hurts the flag’s status as a symbol of national pride.
Royal Canadian Legion and other veteran’s associations, as well as many in the military, support the position, Kenney said.
“If we had lowered the flag during the First and Second World War it would have never been at full mast, and so they say to us a country that’s in perpetual mourning can’t necessarily be a proud symbol,” he added.
The panel — led by Robert Watt, Canada’s former chief herald — would restrict lowering the flag to mark the deaths of current and former representatives of the Crown, the prime minister and the Supreme Court’s chief justice.
Kenney said the report recommends finding other significant ways of honouring Canada’s fallen soldiers. That could include lowering other flags at Parliament Hill, but not the main flag mounted on the Peace Tower.
He also said it would be difficult to have to pick and choose when different groups request lowering the flag.
“I think we need to take into account all the different days of mourning and anniversary days and find other appropriate national ways of acknowledging those, but to ensure the national flag maintains that sense of permanent pride up there on the Peace Tower.” (Source: CTV News)