Canada Post Cancels Home Delivery? Maybe Not...

Last month, Minister of Transport Lisa Raitt announced that Canada Post will be ceasing all door to door deliveries of mail.  The operations are to be suspended over a 5 year span, as community mailboxes are erected throughout the country.

Conveniently, Ms. Raitt made said announcement days after Parliament ended for the Christmas session, effectively ending any form of debate on the issue.  I suspect, the announcement was also made as close to Christmas as possible, to minimize media coverage as well.  However, it seems as though the Conservative Government under estimated the passion of Canadians for the service.

Deepak Chopra: Mail Scrooge?

Numerous MP's returned to the Parliament for an emergency session, and simultaneously hauled in Deepak Chopra, the CEO of Canada Post to explain his rational for why ending home delivery was necessary.

Chopra came up with a series of fantastic answers to the MP's grilling session.  At one point, he suggested that the feedback he had been receiving from Canadians was positive, and that Canadian seniors have told him they welcome the opportunity for more fresh air and exercise by walking a few blocks each day to retrieve their mail. 

Chopra and Raitt indicated that the end of mail delivery to our doors was necessary, as Canada Post is facing a $100 million deficit for the year, and the projections for the next five years look even worse.  Not surprisingly, Chopra dodged a series of questions in which he was asked point blank if he received a bonus in the last year, and exactly how much his bonus was.  The closest he would get to providing an answer, was to say that his salary is "a matter of public record".

Well I agree!  His salary SHOULD be a matter of public record.  However, it is not.  Most Canadians would never have known that Chopra's salary is nearly $500,000 a year, or that his bonus was paid out at 33% for an additional sum of close to $200,000 unless NDP MP Paul Dewar hadn't stated so during this parliamentary committee meeting.  In fact, in 2012, the Toronto Sun filed an access to information request for a number of bonus payouts to Canada post employees over the previous four years.  They also asked for a breakdown of how much was paid out to 23 members of the executive committee.  All of the individual payment numbers were refused based on "issues of privacy".  What they DID find out was that 7,402 Canada Post employees were paid some sort of bonus during the time period, including all 23 members of the executive board.  Clearly his salary and bonus is not a matter of public record.  It should be noted that Canada Post posted a net loss before taxes of $327 million in 2012.  A significant portion of which came because of a 25 day strike by postal workers.

I find it rather objectionable that anyone received a bonus when the company is bleeding money.  While good personal performance should be rewarded, it should not be done so when the company is hemorrhaging money.

A number of ways Canada Post could increase revenues was suggested by the parliamentary committee, including offering banking services at its branches in remote locations, or small towns where regular bank branches do not exist.  A wise suggestion.  The Swiss Postal service implemented this service several years ago to great success.

While the Conservative Government seems intent on ramming through the end of mail delivery as we know it (the first communities to lose this service are scheduled to be announced this summer), there may be some hope after all.

Thomas Mulcair: Defender of the Post

Thomas Mulcair, leader of the NDP, and Olivia Chow, Transportation Critic are set to introduce a motion in the house tomorrow declaring home mail delivery an invaluable service to Canadians.  They will force a vote on the matter, which should be an interesting political stone to throw.  An election will be held next year.  Forcing MPs to effectively vote for or against mail delivery will no doubt come to haunt some MPs who find themselves in tight electoral races in their own districts.  And you can bet, the NDP will make it very public come campaigning time which Conservatives voted to kill off their constituents delivery.  

It will all play out in the Commons tomorrow, and it should be interesting to see if Stephen Harper cracks the party whip, or if he lets MPs vote on their own.  I would suspect that independent voting will mean that the NDP motion will pass, which will likely see the plan of killing mail delivery dead on the floor.  If the whip is cracked... well... I guess we will see who will survive re-election.

Jack Layton Dead At 61

The Honourable Jack Layton:

July 18, 1950 - August 22, 2011

It's a sad day for Canada today, as the nation mourns the passing of NDP leader Jack Layton.

Layton passed away early Sunday morning of cancer, though details about his latest fight with cancer have been kept quiet by his family.

Although Layton announced less than a month ago that he would be taking a leave of absence from his post as leader of the official opposition to focus on his battle with cancer, Layton's death came as a shock to many.

Mainly because over the last year in his public appearances, Layton appeared to be The Unstoppable Man.

Early in 2010, Layton announced that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. He publicly vowed to beat the cancer and be back on track to resume his political duties when Parliament was back in session in the fall. And he was. Layton was very optimistic about his fight with prostate cancer, as he had beaten the same condition 17 years earlier.

When the 2011 election had been called for this past May, Layton was recovering from a broken hip he had suffered earlier in the year, and still relied heavily on his cane. When questioned by the media if he had the energy to lead his party through another election campaign, he all but laughed in their faces. Indeed, Layton arguably finished the election scrappier than ever, and propelled his party to Official opposition status for the first time in NDP history.

Through all of the health issues Layton struggled with in the last year, he never seemed to lose composure or confidence that they were minor roadblocks, and indeed, Layton seemed invincible.

Last month when Layton announced publicly that he would be taking the rest of the summer off to fight a bout of newly diagnosed (and unspecified to the public) cancer, Canadians across the country were shocked at his gaunt and frail appearance. But in true Jack fashion, he vowed he would be back for the fall sitting of Parliament. Truly, Canadians had no reason to believe otherwise, as nothing seemed to get in the way of Jack's interminable will.

But sadly, Jack's fight came to an end this weekend. He passed away peacefully at 4:45 am Sunday morning.

Whether or not you agreed with Jacks politics, no one can deny his tenacity and overwhelming desire to make Canada a better place. Jack believed in the power of the people, and that ordinary working citizens like you and me were the driving factor to make Canada a world force and a nation that could be home to anyone despite race, gender or wealth.

Jack's level of conviction set a gold standard for everyone to live up to, especially politicians. I hope others follow in his footsteps.

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Patriot Games: The Conservative Majority

So through the last 35 days of Canada's 41st election, pollsters were in a frenzy to release the most accurate seat projections they could. They polled citizens endlessly hoping to be the most accurate pollster in the nation.

And yet, with the exception of an occasional blip, almost no poll predicted a Conservative majority government.

So how did it happen?

The Conservative party captured about 40% of the votes cast in this election. That was up about 5% from the 2008 election. But that extra 5% in vote secured an additional 24 seats for the party, leap-frogging them past the magic 155 seat count which is required by any ruling party to obtain the majority of seats in the House of Commons.

Ontario was the winning battle ground for the Conservative party. Throughout the election Campaign, the numbers from Ontario, the most seat-rich province in the country polled the Conservatives at a reasonable lead over their rivals. EKOS for example, suggested that the Conservatives were trending about 39% support in Ontario, while both the NDP and Liberal party were tied at 26%.

With these numbers, it would be reasonable to expect that the Conservatives would win 42 of the 106 seats up for grabs in Ontario (roughly 40% of total seats in the province), and the Liberals and NDP would split the remaining 64 seats between them.

But, with Canada's First-Past-The-Post system, this was not the case. The Conservatives actually won 73 seats in Ontario (69% of the seats). Total vote count or "Popular Vote" does not really count in Canada. All that matters is that 1 candidate in each riding gets more votes than any one single competitor.

A great example of how this works is in the Bramlea-Gore-Malton riding in the Greater Toronto Area. In this riding, the Conservative Candidate won the seat by securing 19,907 votes. The NDP candidate in this riding was close behind with 19,369 votes, and the Liberal candidate came in at a close third with 16,401 votes. Other parties running in this riding tied up the remaining 2,119 votes.

Since the Conservative candidate came ahead of any other single rival with 19,907 votes, he wins the seat even though 37,889 constituents did not vote for the Conservative candidate. This phenomenon, known as "vote splitting" occurred in dozens of ridings in Ontario, giving the Conservative Party an additional 31 seats in the province, and thus, securing them a majority government.

This is not the first time this has occurred in a Canadian election. It also allowed Jean Chretien to form a Liberal majority government in the 1990s.

While vote splitting can create a stable government for a 4 year term by allowing 1 party to have a majority government, it often does not sit well with the public. This is because although 40% of Canadians voted for the Conservative party, 60% did not, yet more than 50% of Canadians are now represented by a Conservative Member of Parliament.

In the past when vote splitting has occurred resulting in a majority government, it often brings about calls from the people demanding the electoral system be changed to provide proportional representation. More often than not these calls go unaddressed by government. However this year may be different, as this phenomenon has never occurred immediately after 3 successive minority governments. It will be interesting to see where this will lead our electoral system over the next 5 - 10 years.

Patriot Games: The Dust Settles

As the dust settles from Canada's 41st Election Campaign last night, political pundits ponder the strange events, and how it all happened.

The big prize went to Conservative leader Stephen Harper, who finally got his long-coveted Majority Government. The Conservatives took 167 seats of the 308 available in the House of Commons.

The NDP's Jack Layton, however, celebrated a huge victory of his own last night. The NDP went into the election with a mere 38 seats (quite respectable, considering the party's highest seat count prior to 2011 was 43). By the end of the vote counting, the NDP had decimated the Bloc Quebecois and the Liberal party to end up as the official opposition with 102 seats under their belt. Jack is reportedly already measuring curtains for his move into the Official Opposition leader's new home at Stornoway.

It is likely today that (former) Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff is packing his things, as he has been given an eviction notice to vacate Stornoway as soon as possible. Both Ignatieff and Bloc Quebecois leaders Gilles Duceppe were defeated in their own ridings last night, and will be in the unemployment office this morning.

All of this occurred as a small ray of hope beamed down onto the Vancouver Island riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands, where Elizabeth May triumphed in becoming the first Green Party member ever elected to Parliament.

Stay tuned for an in-depth analysis of how these events unfolded, and how this drastically new Parliament will or will not change Canada for the next 4 years.

Patriot Games: Ekos Predicts Elizabeth May Will Win

Elizabeth May: The Green Wild Card

Over the last two weeks, Canada has watched the 2011 Federal Election campaign unfold into the most dramatic bout of politics in the last two decades.

The most prevalent topic du jour has of course been the meteoric rise of the NDP in nearly all regions of Canada with the exception of Ontario and Alberta. In fact, as of May 1st, the eve of the election, EKOS pollsters show the NDP have now taken the lead in BC, which has staunchly been a conservative base for the bulk of the last two elections.

But another game changer has burst onto the scene tonight: Elizabeth May. EKOS predicts the Green Party will indeed earn their first ever seat in the house of commons tomorrow. Granted, the pollsters did not specify May's riding specifically, but realistically she is the only candidate high-profile enough to be considered a likely winner.

True, it is only 1 seat of the 308 up for grabs in Parliament. But the Greens will now have a high profile member in parliament, and more importantly, getting regular face time on TV throughout the next sitting of Parliament. Moreover, in the next election (god forbid it be any time soon), Canada's Media Consortium will have no legal leg to stand on to prevent May from getting into the televised leadership debates.

The question looms however, should we somehow end up with an NDP-Liberal coalition government that lasts for a year or two after the votes are counted tomorrow, how will May impact the left of centre vote in the next election? It's hard to imagine that the NDP's Jack Layton and Elizabeth May will become fast friends, as their parties tend to share a lot of the same voters.

If you think this election has been full of frothy excitement, I think we may be in for a real wild time the next go around.

All eyes will be on BC tomorrow night as the votes are counted. The NDP and the Conservatives are neck and neck throughout the nation, and British Columbians stand to be the King Makers in Election 41. If EKOS is wrong, and May loses her riding, the conservatives will retain an all important seat. If EKOS is correct and May wins, Conservative incumbent Gary Lunn will be out of a job, the Conservatives lose a seat they desperately need, and Jack Layton will no doubt be hatching some sort of plan to nip the Green Party in the bud.

More info to come.

Jack-Attack: Will Jack Layton Change Canada On May 2?

Fierce: Gearing Up For The Jack-Attack!

Jack-Attack comin atcha! Or so say the latest political polls.

Jack Layton & his NDP are rising meteorically across Canada. Late last week, a number of political polls from reputed pollsters such as Nanos, Ipsos-Reid and Ekos showed a shocking trend, suggesting that Jack and his party are gearing up to make a major derailment in the train that is the Liberal campaign.

The polls show NDP support higher than the Liberals in several areas of the country. Especially in dire straights is Gilles Duceppe and the Bloc Quebecois. For the first time in years, the Bloc is trailing in popularity in it's own province to a rival. And who would have guessed that rival would be the NDP?

Currently, the NDP holds a single seat in the 75 seat province of Quebec, and naturally that seat is in a multi-lingual section of Montreal.

These revelations have prompted mass panic from The Liberal, Conservative and Bloc camps, with all parties launching all out attacks on Jack Layton and his party over the Easter weekend (not very love-thy-neighbor, is it?).

All of the pollsters cautioned on Friday, however, that while the NDP has slowly made gains in popular vote since the beginning of the election campaign, things may not be as they seem. Political polls tend to have fickle outcomes in general, but can be even more so prior to a weekend. The pollsters urged Canadians to wait until after the Easter break to draw conclusions as to the reality of the numbers.

Well, the Easter break is over, and the numbers are in again. And they are higher than they were last week. This is shocking news. Ekos predicts, that if the election were held today, the NDP would take 100 seats in the house of commons, second only to Stephen Harper's conservatives with 131. The Liberals have been projected to scavenge off the remnants with 69 seats.

And that's not all. If these numbers hold true, the entire landscape of Canada would surely change. With the NDP taking so many ridings in Quebec, the Bloc would be reduced to fringe party status. Additionally, this would reduce the Conservatives stronghold to only the prairies and Ontario, forcing the two to unite. No more of that "Western Canada - Vs. Ontario" argument. But it doesn't stop there either.

With this Jack-Attack, it would be difficult to imagine a Conservative minority government surviving for long. All opposition parties stated prior to the election that they would not support the budget put forth by Stephen Harper. And Harper himself has stated that after the election, they would present the exact same budget to parliament. This does not bode well for Harper's continued residence at 24 Sussex. It is unlikely that the same budget would pass, which would either trigger another election, which is not likely to occur. The other most likely option would be for the Governor General to ask the leader of the Official Opposition (Jack Layton) to form a government. Of course, Layton would require the support of the Liberals to make such an option work.

Of course, Michael Ignatieff, the Liberal Leader could choose not to support the NDP, and throw his support to Stephen Harper instead. However doing so would likely drive even more of his supporters to the NDP.

The ironic part is, after two elections of Layton proclaiming that he was "running for Prime Minister", it seems he proved he was telling the truth!

There is still 1 week left in the campaign, and as the Jack-Attack proves, anything can truly happen in a week. But for the mean time, we will have to wait until tomorrow, as the pollsters are furiously working through the night to determine if Canadians are suffering with a bout of mass-hysteria, or if the love of Jack is strong and true.

Patriot Games: Election 2011

Not even a week has passed since Canada's ruling government was toppled, and already political posturing and scandals abound.

Last Friday, in an historic move, the Conservative Government was found in contempt of parliament on scandals of hidden costs of military jets and corporate tax cuts, to lying cabinet ministers and document doctoring.

Not 10 minutes after the final session of Parliament wrapped up did Stephen Harper's attack dog, John Baird, begin his annual fear mongering session on national news magazine's cameras declaring a conspiracy by opposition parties to form a coalition government that would throw our country into economic and political fires of Hell.

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff did his best to answer reporters questions about the possibility of a coalition government with the NDP without actually giving a yes or no answer. He did this for a couple of days then finally broke down and gave a resounding "NO!" to the question.

Michael Ignatieff Plays Dumb: "What's a Coalition?"

This likely indicates that the Liberals will be running an all-or-nothing campaign on the election trail, as I believe a coalition had being enthusiastically discussed prior to the government falling. Now that Ignatieff publicly stated that no such agreement would occur after the election regardless of the results, it seems likely that his career would be quickly eviscerated should he go back on his word.

Since coalition is out of the question now, this puts the Liberals in a pressure cooker to perform drastically better than the last election, if not actually form a government. It is unlikely that Ignatieff would be allowed to keep his job as Liberal leader if the party fails to gain a significant amount of seats in the House.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper seemed to be sitting pretty for the first few days of the campaign while the heat was on his arch-rival. Until Sebastian Togneri turned up like a bad penny again.

You may remember Togneri's name. He was a high ranking government aide for many years until he was forced to resign over allegations of interfering in several requests for government information made under the Freedom of Information Act.

Very recently, even Conservative Minister Rona Ambrose had no choice but to call for an RCMP investigation into Togneri's interference with the requests for information. (Though, I find it odd that the RCMP were called in a year after Togneri's resignation). Unfortunately for Stephen Harper, the request for an RCMP investigation coincided with a Parliamentary inquiry into Minister Bev Oda's alleged altering of government documents.

Well, now Togneri's name was in the media again, as some lucky reporter discovered that he was working on the campaign for Conservative hopeful Ryan Hastman in the Edmonton Strathcona riding.

Linda Duncan: A Little Orange Fish In A Big Blue Sea

Hastman has a somewhat uphill battle in front of him to begin with. In the 2008 election, NDP candidate Linda Duncan wrestled the riding away from Conservative incumbent Rahim Jaffer (after Jaffer himself suffered several political scandals). From all accounts, Linda Duncan, a long time Edmonton Lawyer is well liked, and has been made high-profile by the NDP since it was the first time an Alberta riding has been anything but Tory blue since the Anne McLellen days.

Unfortunately for Hastman and Stephen Harper, it doesn't look good having a disgraced government aide currently under police investigation helping out with a new Conservative candidate's campaign.

Things turned from bad to worse for both Stephen Harper and Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff the last two days as Green Party leader Elizabeth May burst on to the scene in a blaze of controversy, fighting for her political rights.

Elizabeth May Is Going To Debate Your Ass Off. Deal With It.

You may remember from the 2008 election, when the Green Party was just starting to gain credibility and a lot of media attention, that the Canadian Broadcast Consortium (basically a handful of executives from Canada's 4 main TV networks) decided that May would not be entitled to participate in the electoral debates. This prompted a huge public outcry, and a chance for all party leaders to look like the good guy on national television by stating that they believed May should be included in the debate. Finally the consortium relented, and May had her day in the spotlight. (She actually did quite well- check out my review of her performance here.)

This week, for some bizarre reason, the consortium again decided that May, despite being the leader of a national party that received 6% of all votes in the last election (that's 1 million votes - more than the Bloc Quebecois received) and that runs a candidate in every riding across Canada, was not worthy of participating in the debates because her party does not have a current, elected MP.

Let's not bother taking into account that the Reform Party and the Canadian Alliance Party, which are now both known as the Conservative Party, did not have elected MPs either during their first elections, but were still allowed to participate in the debates.

May has since launched a very public battle against the Consortium, and has retained a high profile lawyer to argue her case to the courts to sneak her way in to the debates.

This is particularly bad news for both Ignatieff and Harper. Partly because May seems to be very good a debating, and neither man likely wants her there. That being said, since Harper endorsed her presence in the last election, he can hardly say that she isn't entitled to be there for this election. He has since said he is open to her being there, but that all parties should submit to the rules put forth by the Consortium. Ignatieff on the other hand, has his barrels firmly aimed at Harper, and the more people included in the debate may lead the public to decide that there are other voting options rather than just the Liberals or the Conservatives, as he has been trying to prove in the media all week.

Foolishly, after May made her public tirade about not being included in the election debate, Ignatieff stated he was most keen on having a second debate televised solely between himself and Stephen Harper. Harper seemed keen on the idea as well, and all but issued a public challenge to his rival. Ignatieff then ran in front of the nearest camera and said it was on. However, as media attention intensified around May and her rhetoric of the debates being anti-democratic for shutting her out, Harper quietly back-peddled on his two-man debate idea. This gave Ignatieff an opportunity to call Harper "chicken", but also gave the impression of him being an elitist.

So to recap, in the last two weeks or so, we have had the government charged with contempt, allegations of creative bookkeeping, Ministers engaged in doctoring documents, police investigations, candidates receiving help from disgraced government aides, finger pointing at undemocratic television execs, threatened legal action, political threats and challenges, and a good deal of back-peddling from most of the party leaders. And we've just gotten started. Imagine where we will be in another 4 weeks!

The Canadian Coalition?

This week, the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc all stated publicly that they would NOT support the Federal Conservative's economic update.  They claim multiple reasons for this, including the fact that there is no sign of any type of economic stimulous included in the update, the fact that the Conservatives are trying to take away any public servants ability to go on strike (or effectively renegotiate their contracts for their own benefit) , and the fact that the Conservatives would do away with the subsidy provided by Elections Canada to the political party.  

As you well know, all three parties voting against the Conservatives bill would bring down the minority government.  That leaves us either with a Coalition government or another election. 

So the Conservatives seem to be on their way out, and the Liberals and NDP in.  Interesting turn of events considering we Canadians just had an election 6 weeks ago.

I hear people bitching on both sides of the matter.  Those with Conservative view points tend to think that it's mutiny at best - as a whole, the Cons won more seats than any other party, and therefore, should lead the government.

Those on the Liberal or NDP side of the fence point out that not only did the Cons not win a majority government, but they also only had 35% of the votes.  So why not let a coalition of Liberals and NDP, who together received 50% of the vote run the country?  These people argue that at least this way, more Canadians will be represented in government.

Personally, I think there is merit to a coalition.  Not because of a numbers game, but simply because it will force the majority of our MPs to work together and compromise whether they want to or not.  Either they co-operate, or we go back to the polls again.  

Going back to the polls would likely not sit well with the bulk of Canadians, who are pretty much 'electioned' out.  We have had 3 federal elections in 6 years.  Add to that the overwhelming media saturation of the American election for the last two years, and that's a hell of a lot of politics.

I say bring on the damned coalition and get back to work!  Be done with it already.  We are in the midst of an economic crisis, and political instability is the last thing we need.  Aside from racking up a costly bill, another election within 6 months would likely see us back in the same situation we are already in.

Canada is ready for a new type of government.  There has not been a coalition since the 1920's.  I think that they Canadian People's political views are diverse enough that the bulk of Canadians would support a coalition government.

Just don't let Stephane Dion play Prime Minister.  There are at least two other men available who would do a much better job.

Rainn