Intrigue in the Canadian Parliament

[ursus arctos]

It isn't hard to see that the Greens make the most sense for the contemporary Maritimers, but they are building from virtually nothing.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Yes, but fairly quickly. In the last round of provincial elections, from next to nothing, they became the official opposition in PEI and gained three seats in New Brunswick. That's not bad traction.

[ursus arctos]

Absolutely

[Flynnie]

That's part of it, but most/all of the Maritimes have had Tory governments in the past.

But they were "Red Tories" who were committed to public services and intervention in markets that weren't working, as one would expect from a region so dependent on industries like fishing and tourism. I think one of the put the "Progressive" in Progressive Coservatives.

That ethos is anathema to the Resource Extraction-Crazed Libertarians (with a soupçon of white supremacy) who currently hold the levers of power in the party, and their rise alienated its traditional support in the east.

To underscore this point, Robert Stanfield was the high priest of Red Toryism, a patrician and gentlemanly man who won a ton of elections in his native province, establishing all sorts of policies that border on social democratic, and almost certainly would have become Prime Minister if he didn't run into the brick wall of Pierre Elliott Trudeau. He's usually the top choice for "Best PM Canada never had".

From? Truro, Nova Scotia.

[Flynnie]

Having said that, I'd guess that when Justin was a school kid, black-face wouldn't have raised too many eyebrows in Montreál.

Judging by the all-too-frequent sight of Montréal Canadiens fans coming to the arena in blackface to support P.K. Subban, who is the most popular athlete to have played in Montréal in the last 15 years, I would say no.

That's why I really wasn't that surprised. The fact those guys even got in the building is a sign Québec isn't really bothered by blackface.

[Amor de Cosmos]

To underscore this point, Robert Stanfield was the high priest of Red Toryism, a patrician and gentlemanly man who won a ton of elections in his native province, establishing all sorts of policies that border on social democratic, and almost certainly would have become Prime Minister if he didn't run into the brick wall of Pierre Elliott Trudeau. He's usually the top choice for "Best PM Canada never had".

Indeed. Still made great underpants though.

[WOM]

Seems it's now Scheer's turn to eat a few shit sandwiches. First it's been noticed that he never actually had a license to practice as an insurance broker in Saskatchewan - where he's bragged he was an insurance broker for years - and now it's been revealed that he holds dual citizenship (Canada/US), which he's derided other politicians for doing over the years. Looks good on him.

[ursus arctos]

[URL="https://twitter.com/c_9/status/1182286410730086400?s=21"]https://twitter.com/c_9/status/1182286410730086400[/URL]

[Amor de Cosmos]

I think front page ads are so commonplace that many people believe them to be the norm. I, for example, assumed this was an an ad right away so it took me several minutes to figure out what the fuss was about.

[WOM]

It's the freakin' National Post. It doesn't really matter if it's paid or not. They wear their politics on their sleeve anyway.

Nobody buys the damn thing anyway, and newspaper fronts don't carry the weight they did even five years ago.

[Hot Pepsi]

Front page ads like that seem a step too far to me. It looks like that's the paper's editorial position, which maybe it is.

Interesting to see a conservative group claiming to care about environmentalism or "strong women."

[ursus arctos]

That was my reaction as well. And the fact that the paper in question is right wing makes it only more plausible (which I'm sure is the idea)

[WOM]

We sold a few front-section wraps at TGAM over 3 years ago. It was something they said they would never, ever do. They did it.

[DCI Harry Batt]

I think front page ads are so commonplace that many people believe them to be the norm. I, for example, assumed this was an an ad right away so it took me several minutes to figure out what the fuss was about.

What is the fuss about?

[WOM]

The little tiny words above the headline most likely say "Sponsored Content". It's what we use to do for advertorials to alleviate the confusion we specifically helped to create.

[WOM]

What is the fuss about?

It looks like the paper's 'editorial position rather than a political ad. For the National Post, it doesn't much matter either way.

[DCI Harry Batt]

You mean the fuss is about the fact of there being a wraparound?

[ursus arctos]

They say "PAID POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT"

USians aren't used to seeing adverts that dominate the front page to anywhere near that extent.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Oh, it's not a wraparound, it's an actual full-page front-page ad.

[WOM]

Good question. I can't tell from looking. Ours were wraparounds.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Well the LH column looks like it isn't part of the ad.

[ursus arctos]

It certainly doesn't look like a wraparound (which we do have).

The column on the left looks like their normal Page One format, and I presume the Brampton quote relates to something else entirely.

[WOM]

Our section wraps always had the legit masthead/story stuff down the side, too. They just duplicated the front page file as an extra page. They'd never go so far as to do mock editorial down the side bar like that.

[Hot Pepsi]

There's also just something a bit cheesy about putting a big ad - for anything, let alone a political thing - on the front page. I don't recall that being a practice in the past. But times for newspapers are tough, I guess.

[WOM]

Very, very tough. They'll sell you any part of the paper you want.