Harper attacks Trudeau over cost of Liberal pledges
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I chose this article because it talks about both the methods the Conservative party uses to move voters from the Liberal side to their side, as well as how the Liberals react to what the Conservative party says.
The article seems slightly biased towards the Liberals. Though there are more quotes from the Conservatives than the Liberals, the length of the Liberal quote was about as long as all of the Conservative quotes combined, and the Liberal quote is the last paragraph the reader sees. The article uses words that make the Conservatives seem desperate and about to lose (e.g. attacks, offensive) . However, it is likely that the tone of the article simply reflects the fact that the Liberals are doing better in the polls (or at least this poll) than the Conservatives. Also: Probably a coincidence, but still ...
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Resignation of key Liberal gives lift to Mulcair’s message in Quebec
Oct 15, 2015 The New Democrats have a renewed bounce in their step after damaging news at the centre of the Liberal campaign played right into the message Thomas Mulcair has been delivering to Quebecers desiring change. “Justin Trudeau may have put a new coat of red paint on the front door of his party, but he is still letting the old Liberal boys club go in through the side door,” Mulcair told a partisan rally in a hotel ballroom in Sherbrooke, Que., Thursday night, clearly enjoying the opportunity to beat up on the surging Liberals. Dan Gagnier resigned as co-chair of the Justin Trudeau campaign Wednesday night in the wake of a report by The Canadian Press that he had sent an email this week to officials at TransCanada Corp. — the company behind the Energy East pipeline project — advising them how to lobby any potential new government so they can help influence its choices. The Liberal campaign was doing damage control Thursday, with Trudeau arguing the resignation was a sign that he was serious about doing politics differently. “We are well aware of the challenge of perceptions in politics and of the challenges the Liberal party has had to address in the past,” Trudeau told reporters in Montreal. “That’s why we took immediate action to say that this action was unacceptable, inappropriate and Mr. Gagnier fully assumes the responsibility for his actions and stepped down,” Trudeau said of Gagnier, who served as an adviser on his leadership campaign and twice served as chief of staff to former Quebec Liberal premier Jean Charest. That was a distinct shift from the Liberal position after the news broke Wednesday, when the party said Gagnier had done nothing wrong and was a victim of dirty political games. It also later emerged that TransCanada had hired Gagnier as a consultant for the Energy East pipeline this spring, after he had been appointed co-chair of the Liberal campaign, and that the party knew about it. Liberal officials said Thursday they were aware of Gagnier’s relationship with TransCanada and had ensured he did not advise the party on energy issues. They said when it became clear he was advising the company on how to deal with a future government, his involvement with the party ended. The New Democrats seized on the story, especially since it touched upon key themes the party has been pushing during the campaign in their stronghold of Quebec, where they have suffered a setback in the public opinion polls over the niqab issue. It gave the NDP a new opportunity to remind voters of the Jean Chrétien-era federal sponsorship scandal that decimated Liberal party fortunes in Quebec, but also to whip up anti-pipeline sentiment in the province, where the Energy East project has become so controversial Mulcair had to scale back his own initial enthusiasm for the idea. “I think it’s an extraordinary opportunity for everyone in Canada, including here in Quebec to remember that this is the same old Liberal party of the sponsorship scandal,” Mulcair said in Alma, Que. earlier Thursday. Mulcair noted Trudeau has been campaigning with both Chrétien and Paul Martin, the Liberal prime ministers during the time of the sponsorship scandal, which saw contracts being awarded to Liberal-friendly firms in exchange for little work. “They can try to put a fresh face on it, but behind the scenes, it’s still the same old gang pulling the same old tricks,” Mulcair said. Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, who was also in Quebec Thursday, offered little by way of observation on Gagnier, although he, too, raised the spectre of the sponsorship scandal. “I would just say very briefly I think we should all understand that the culture of the Liberal party that gave us the sponsorship scandal has not changed and it will not change,” said Harper in Trois-Rivières, Que. His brevity was surprising for a party leader who successfully campaigned against the Martin Liberal government in 2006 by repeatedly blaming the party for a culture of “waste, mismanagement and corruption.” -The Toronto Star |
I chose this article because it is from the Toronto Star, which caters to an audience more specific than the Globe and Mail, and which is not read very much in B.C. It also mentions all three parties.
The article feels a bit pro-NDP. It's clearly not pro-Liberal, and the Conservatives are given comparatively few lines. Then again, Harper spoke only briefly, so there wasn't much for the Star to print. The piece highlights one of the worries that people have about the newly elected Liberal government: do they really stand for change, or are they just like they were, back when we had voted them out and the Conservatives in? Honestly, I don't know. I guess we'll find out over the next four years. |
Five B.C. priorities for Trudeau to address
Oct 20, 2015 Here are five priorities in B.C. that Justin Trudeau has promised to tackle as prime minister: 1. Marijuana The Liberals have promised to legalize marijuana for recreational use, arguing that too many young Canadians end up with criminal records for possessing small amounts of the drug. Trudeau has not said how soon legalization will happen because first the government will need to figure out how to tax and regulate weed. He said it could take a year or two before it is made legal. Legalization has been a huge election topic here in Vancouver, home to Prince of Pot and legalization activist Marc Emery, who spent five years in a U.S. prison for selling pot seeds on the Internet. This year's annual 4/20 legalization rally drew an estimated 20,000 people into Vancouver's downtown core. 2. Missing and murdered women Trudeau pledged to "immediately launch a national public inquiry" into the killings and abductions of indigenous women and girls. This is an important issue in B.C., where 18 girls and women, many of them aboriginal, were murdered or went missing along the Highway of Tears in northern B.C. between 1969 and 2006. In October, Bob Zimmer, re-elected Monday as MP for Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies, came under fire for suggesting one of the main problems for aboriginal women was the fact they didn't stay on the reserves. Stephen Harper repeatedly refused to hold an inquiry, calling the issue a law-and-order problem, and saying that police had solved most of the crimes. 3. Pipelines/oilspills Anti-pipeline protests draw large crowds in B.C., and dozens of demonstrators against Kinder Morgan's proposed expansion were arrested on Burnaby Mountain. While Trudeau has voiced support for the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline and the Keystone XL pipeline, saying that Canada needs to get its resources to market, he also has said that the current approval system is broken and designed to support the Conservative government's objectives. The Liberals have pledged to overhaul the federal environmental review process so that projects in the works and in the future will establish the public trust. During a campaign stop in Vancouver, he also pledged to increase Canada's coastal marine protected areas from 1.3 per cent to five per cent by 2017 and 10 per cent by 2020. He also reiterated his commitment to reopen the Kitsilano Coast Guard base to better assure public safety. Trudeau is opposed to oil tankers on B.C.'s north coast. 4. Transit infrastructure Trudeau has pledged to invest $20 billion more in transportation improvements over the next decade. He said it would be up to local governments to decide which projects get funded, but cited the proposed Broadway rapid transit line, Surrey's light rail and increased SeaBus service as examples that could be funded under the plan. When asked for details of how projects would be funded, Trudeau said his government's job would be to work with local officials. 5. Environment/ Climate Change Notable in B.C. is that Trudeau promised to enact the Cohen Commission recommendations on declining sockeye salmon stocks in the Fraser River, conduct a review of the Conservatives' changes to the Fisheries Act and elimination of the Navigable Waters Protection Act, and restore $40 million in ocean science and monitoring programs. The Liberal government says it is committed to combating climate change, and create national emissions reduction targets. Under the Liberal plan, provincial and territorial governments will design their own policies, including carbon pricing policies. Trudeau will attend the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris starting on Nov. 20, and has said that the Liberal government will hold a first ministers meeting on combating climate change within 90 days of the meeting. -The Vancouver Sun |
I chose this article because it focuses on B.C., and because it is about what the government is (hopefully) going to do, rather then about the campaign.
One of the article's strengths is that it talks about not just the promises made, but also why they are important. However, the article's title suggests that the list will include something the Sun thinks Trudeau should do for B.C., but he didn't promise to do, since the title reads " Five B.C. priorities for Trudeau to address "as opposed to something like "Five B.C. issues Trudeau has promised to address." Then again, the Liberal party probably did a decent amount of research before rolling out their platform, so promises have probably been made regarding all of the top five or six concerns of British Columbians. I can think of a few issues (like funding for education) that I would put in my top five list of concerns which aren't on this list, but maybe they just aren't a great concern to most British Columbians. The article would have been stronger if it had given a guess as to how likely it is that the government will follow through on those promises. |