Rob Ford: Sorting out the rhetoric in Toronto

On Monday, Justice Charles Hackland found that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford had violated the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act and ordered him to vacate his position within two weeks.  Since then, a lot of rhetoric has been flying around about his guilt and his term generally as mayor.  But what really happened, and what comes next?

19 days to Election 2012, 20 days to Campaign 2014

We're less than three weeks away from Americans choosing their next President (as well as their Congress).  And the main topics of political conversation?  You would hope that it's either the trillion dollar deficit, the $16 trillion debt, the impending debt ceiling debate, the fiscal cliff, or the high unemployment.

Seats to Watch in Quebec/Circonscriptions à surveiller au Québec

(Aussi en français)

Today, Quebecers will go to the polls to elect a new government.  Liberal leader Jean Charest is struggling to win re-election after three consecutive wins, while Parti Québécois leader Pauline Marois hoping to use the student protests and a floundering economy to make her case for the province.

State of the US Presidential Election

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have now been officially nominated to the Republican Party ticket for President and Vice President, and next week, Barack Obama and Joe Biden will be officially nominated for the Democrats.

So how are things going for the two men who want to become President in 2013?  Let's take a look at a few metrics to compare the states of the campaigns.

What we learned from UK local elections

Thursday saw local elections being held up and down the United Kingdom.  In the wake of central government cuts and numerous unforced errors, Labour made significant gains up and down the country.

But there are a few things that can be learned from the election and the results that are worth exploring.

Ontario? Already?

It's April 2012.  I should be talking about the Republican presidential primaries (probably next week) or the London Mayoral election (see last week) or even the Alberta elections (though I know little about Alberta politics).

I shouldn't be talking about a possible election in Ontario only six months after the last one.  But here we are anyway.  The Liberals, who finished one seat short of a majority in October, are facing a vote on their budget next week, and if that fails, we will by far have the shortest legislature in Ontario history.  As of now, the shortest-lived legislative assembly in Ontario still lasted well over 18 months (1975-1977), which is three times what we're facing next week.

London 2012 - State of the Campaign

London is 106 days away from hosting the 30th Olympic Summer Games, but before we get there, we have to elect a mayor and assembly in three weeks time.  Boris Johnson of the Conservative party is seeking his second term in office, and Ken Livingstone of the Labour party is looking to return to the mayor's office after being defeated four years ago.

Canadian Redistricting - and what it means for the balance of power

Last year, the government changed the formula that allocates House of Commons seats to provinces.  The size of the House will increase from 308 to 338 as a result both of this change and last year's census.


The breakdown by province of this increase is as follows:

• Ontario gains 15 seats, bringing it to 121
• British Columbia gains 6 seats, bringing it to 42
• Alberta also gains 6 seats, bringing it to 34
• Quebec gains 3 seats, bringing it to 78

The reason none of the other provinces get seats is because they are already over-represented in the House of Commons.   I touched on this on a post last year, so I won't go into it further.

Something else people have noticed is that, save Quebec, these are provinces where the Conservatives happened to have done well in last year's election.  So it begs the question: how does this change the balance of power?

Review: The Iron Lady

Even 21 years after she resigned as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher is still considered the Marmite of British politics.  That's why I was intrigued to see The Iron Lady when it came out this weekend in London.