Tagged: NDP of NS
NDP & Grit riding associations race to avoid deregistration
Three NDP and one Liberal riding associations are racing to comply with financial disclosure requirements that could result in their deregistration. As reported earlier, the entire Green Party also faces imminent deregistration.
Joanne Lamey, provincial organizer for the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party confirmed that three NDP riding associations have been warned of possible deregistration for failure to disclose financial information.
She said financial statements for the Digby Annapolis, Yarmouth, and Inverness riding associations were in various stages of completion, and she expected to submit them “very quickly—perhaps this afternoon.”
Glennie Langille, who was co-chair of communications for the Liberal campaign, said one riding association had been asked to supply tardy financial statements, but she denied the deadline was imminent. She refused to identify the riding association because no official action had been taken against it. Read more »
NDP party party? Not so much much (cont.)
Clarie GillisCCF MP for Cape Breton South, 1940-1957
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Cape Bretoner Joey Schwartz, now living in Toronto, is not impressed:
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…….If it was Clarie Gillis and company, they’d have been partying
…….and drinking ’til sunrise.
Costas Halavrasos speculates that would-be revelers had been lured away by:
…….A devotion to the National Religion, which was broadcasting the Mass
…….For Shut-Ins from Pittsburgh. But given Darrell’s love of b-ball,
…….it was more likely the Lakers-Magic game that he wanted to catch.
Don’t tell Mom; she thinks I’m playing piano in a whorehouse
Victoria County Councillor Fraser Patterson, the NDP candidate in Victoria-The Lakes, scored a coup last week when he recruited fellow councillor Paul MacNeil to take him door-to-door in his home turf of Iona. The area is a Catholic Liberal bastion, and MacNeil’s family has been Liberal since before the flood.
At one stop, a homemaker poked her head out the door, eyed the two politicians, and said, “Paul, does you mother know what you’re doing?”
Angus Reid’s regional breakdowns — feedback
Paul DesBarres, president of Nova Insights, who claims to be the first pollster to project an NDP majority, thinks my squeamishness about using online polling results marks me as out of touch with current market research methods. A recent article by DesBarres expands on the point:
The home landline is no longer necessarily the best way to garner public opinion:
- Fully 84% of Canadians and 81% of Nova Scotians are online
- 7% of Nova Scotians do not have a landline
- 13% among males
- 12% among 18-34-year-olds Read more »
Union tries end run around election rules — feedback (cont.)
Halifax arts and culture activist and New Democrat Andrew Terris weighs in on the union donation flap:
As I understand it, there are two critical factors:
1. Are the members of the [Building and] Construction Trades Council separately incorporated bodies? If they are, their donations are not illegal. The [Members and Public Employees] Disclosure Act says “a trade union and all its members and affiliates are considered to be one organization.” But it looks to me like the Council is an association of unions rather than a single, inclusive entity under the act.
2. Given #1, the NDP could well have accepted the donations in good faith. The real problem was the offer of the Council to reimburse the unions, an offer about which the NDP might well have known nothing until it was leaked to you and other media bloodhounds… Read more »
Leadership
Dr. Chris Milburn
What’s disquieting about our New Democratic Party government-in-waiting is the same thing that’s been disturbing about Nova Scotia for decades: a lack of compelling leadership.
It’s not simply that our once-upon-a-time socialists have moved to the dead center of the road. Contrarian is OK with that. It’s Darrell Dexter’s meticulous avoidance of anything that might challenge voters in any way.
The NDP knew that to get elected, they would have to win seats in rural Nova Scotia. They took polls and conducted focus groups, and discovered that rural Nova Scotians are upset about emergency room closures. So the NDP promised to end those closures, even though every thoughtful observer knows that doing so would be a wasteful diversion of scarce health care dollars. Among other things, it will make recruitment of physicians to rural areas more difficult, not easier. Why would a fully trained physician want to sit in an emergency room all night to treat one or two patients? Read more »
Secret donations (cont.)
The NDP have joined the Liberals in insisting that voters go to the poll without knowing who donated to their campaign. The party revealed the names of labour unions and corporations that gave to the campaign, but withheld the names of individuals who contributed a total of $287,013.12.
“The initial advice we received from [Chief Electoral Officer] Christine [McCulloch] is that there were privacy concerns,” said N-dip campaign director Matt Hebb. “If she has different advice now, I will take a look at it.’
McCulloch’s press aide Dana Philip Doiron told contrarian last week that, in response to requests for an opinion, McCulloch merely told the parties they should seek their own legal counsel, because it was not appropriate for her to issue legal advice. Read more »
Sauce for the gander?
Contrarian reader Scooter Bob complains that the media is ignoring NDP ads that are just as negative as the Tories’:
The NDP are distributing a two-page flyer. On one side is a less-than-flattering picture of Rodney MacDonald and a list of five alleged missteps — ERs closing & longer wait times; wasting money on expensive vehicles for ministers; putting HST on electricity; and putting the province in more debt. Isn’t this exactly the same negative, US-style electioneering the NDP are complaining about? Why doesn’t the media report on this?
Perhaps because the ads go a step further by implying illegality by the N-dips.
UPDATE: Stephen McNeil makes the same point as Bob.
Union tries end run around election rules — feedback
Reader Jean McKenna thinks the mainstream media have overlooked a critical detail in the union minutes contrarian published Monday
The date on this document is very interesting – long before the NDP, acting on information apparently from yourself, decided to give the money back. I am curious as to why the Herald didn’t reproduce this; I wouldn’t have known about it without reading to the distant, page 2, end, of their article.
Where is investigative journalism? Why hasn’t there been some follow-up from someone on the possible ties between the various “brothers” and Mr. Dexter, et al?
Live-blogging the debate — feedback
Reader Lucas Byers comments on contrarian‘s annoyance at Premier Rodney MacDonald’s use of first names to address voters, regardless of age:
You’d like me as your call center rep. I worked in three different ones over six years, and only ever called my caller Sir, Ma’am, Mr Lastname, Ms Lastname, unless directed not to by the caller.
Sad that years of Conservative rule has only provided me with six years of call center [experience]; even sadder we’re about to elect the Orange Menace to a majority. Maybe I’ll be able to get a union job at McDonalds. I guess Nova Scotian voters are Masochists.
