Pre-cabinet post: "On merit", Trudeau could appoint a very qualified 100% female cabinet

First post in a loooong time, but with much discussion about "merit" in regards to Trudeau's gender parity in cabinet commitment I decided to do digging to demonstrate that yes, on merit Trudeau could appoint a 100% female cabinet because of the depth of the Liberal caucus.

Here are some of the names that come up in articles for a Google search for "Trudeau cabinet", the province they represent, and a brief description of their bio:

Full link to image here, with news sources

A list of potential Ministry quality MPs including an RCAF officer, former cabinet ministers, provincial and municipal politicians, high-profile lawyers, businesswomen, doctors, academics, etc.

And this is just what the first couple pages of Google pops up - not including very qualified new Members like another RCAF and businesswoman Leona Alleslev, community activist Bardish Chagger, Oakville town councillor Pam Damoff, Health Service Officer Bernadette Jordan, experienced lawyers like Eva Nassif and many more.

Excited to see who makes up a new Trudeau cabinet tomorrow!

"Stephen Harper’s climate-change record can’t be ignored anymore" - because it's putting Canadian jobs and our economy at risk

Worthwhile article from Chantal Hebert here.

She's not the first to link Harper's gutting of environmental regulations, skeptical attitude towards climate change and attacks on the environmental movement to other countries (particularly our major trading partner south of the border) reluctance to embrace Canada's natural resources, but in just two sentences, Hebert does a good job of exposing the box that the Conservative government has painted Canada's economy into:

"Harper has made it impossible to have a national conversation on the economy without talking about pipelines, but just as impossible to debate those without addressing his climate change record. When it comes to Canada’s energy agenda, it is the elephant in the room that will no longer be ignored."

When other countries and trading partners read reports that state Canada ranks worst on climate policy among industrialized countries, that doesn't encourage confidence. 

As someone who was part of the Young Liberals of Canada delegation to the United Nations Conference of the Parties climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in 2009, it is disappointing that Canada's leadership sees the environment and the economy as competing interests, but I am happy that the the Liberal Party and Justin Trudeau have a sustainable and balanced energy policy.

This understanding that responsible approaches to environmental and energy policy can benefit all Canadians also contrasts nicely with Thomas Mulcair and his NDP, who are when speaking in front of a Calgary corporate oil sands audience say "Pipelines...should be a priority...[we] will be a partner with the development of energy resources...We will be there with you." while attacking the oil sands in Toronto Centre.

"Willing to bring it … hard", "stoke[ing]...frustration and anger" - What the expect from NDP campaigns in the upcoming by-elections

That's what Pundits' Guide and David Akin wrote about new Mulcair candidate Linda McQuaig's approach to politics in their (both very good) summaries of the Toronto Centre nominations. I was happy to spend the day pulling vote for Chrystia Freeland, who McQuaig wasted no time in attacking. Those who read my blog frequently will know that I would be a wild hypocrite to pretend to be offended by going on the attack, but as Liberals, we have to realize both that Mulcair's NDP will pull as few punches as the Harper Conservatives in both Toronto Centre and Bourassa going after Liberals and making personal attacks both nationally and on local candidates. The "Love is better than anger" etc stuff was always more how New Democrats saw themselves then how they actually behaved, but Mulcair's NDP's determination to attack the third-party Liberals years before a general election is something Liberals are going to have to deal with when campaigning directly against the NDP. In the past, Liberal campaigns against the NDP failed too often when they simply boiled down to strategic voting arguements - an arguement that collapsed in the 2011 federal election. We have to be unafraid to defend our Leader and candidate from personal and policy attacks, and argue that Justin Trudeau and candidates like Chrystia Freeland are better suited to address the needs of all Canadians. And yes, we can make arguements like how McQuaid's support of "Israeli Apartheid Week" and Mulcair's main focus as leader being tearing open the Constitution with Senate abolishment demonstrate that the NDP isn't focused on the issues of everyday Canadians. As a soon to be constituent of Toronto Centre, I'll be looking forward to helping out Justin Trudeau and the Freeland campaign.

This hits the nail on the head

Been meaning to toss up a post about the Conservatives preparing to launch a tax payer funded attack ad blitz again Trudeau, but this social media image put out by Trudeau hits the nail on the head way better than I could. Go show Team Liberal.

Winners and losers in the LPC leadership race - besides the obvious winner

Was in Ottawa for the leadership reveal, and I've been meaning to write a blog reflecting on the race. First off, let me thank all the volunteers and party staff who worked during the weekend and throughout the race.

While the obvious winner was Justin Trudeau, and congratulations to his team are due, I thought I'd write about who I think are the more subtle winners and losers from both the weekend and the race as a whole. Presented in no particular order.

WINNERS

-George Takach

Takach wasn't taken the most seriously at the start of the race, but his official entry into the race was professional, he garnered a surprising amount of Young Liberal support which gave him decent online buzz, and he positioned himself well to own the "digitial economy" file - not a bad niche to have for a party looking for ways to be economically innovative. That he dropped out to support Trudeau helps him in this category of course. For an outsider candidate like Takach, the best realistic outcome was to raise his profile and make friends with the new establishment, and it seems like he executed it well. If he wants to run for a nomination in the next election, he'll have a good pick of seats, particularly his home riding of Etobicoke-Lakeshore

-Supporters of supporters

The supporter class wasn't without its share of controversy, and you can argue about the value of it, how to calculate the turnout, etc, but the fact is with the supporter category over 100k Canadians voted in this leadership race. It would have been interesting to see how the supporter class would have worked in a more competitive race with more candidates able to run truly national campaigns, but those who supported the creation of the class and allowing them to vote can be satisfied - for now. The next test is keeping those supporters engaged and getting them involved on the local level.

-Deborah Coyne

If a candidate who got under 1% of the vote can be considered a winner, Deb Coyne can. She never caught fire, but she had a deep policy binder, performed decently in the debates, and was able to defend her ideas
well. She never thought she could win, but for someone who entered the race to advance certain ideas to keep them part of the discussion, she did well. I hope she goes after a federal nomination in the next election.

-Jean Chretien

Hardly needs to be said, but his barn burner of a speech at the leadership reveal demonstrated why he's the most beloved living Liberal leader.

LOSERS

-Supporters of co-operation

I don't support co-operation, and seemingly neither did many Liberals, with Joyce Murray and her co-operation platform finishing a distant second (which was expected) but underperformed some expectations for vote %. I talked to a couple of friends who were supporting Joyce, and who complained that the third-party groups like LeadNow and the various strategic voting schemes who threw lots in with Joyce failed to deliver. I don't think Joyce was the best salesperson for the co-operation pitch compared the Nathan Cullen in the NDP race, who genuinely surprised a lot of people with his likability and charisma. His unexpectedly strong performance gave a shot in the arm to the co-operation idea after post-2011 federal election analysis brought doubt onto the idea of strategic voting schemes, but with NDP leader Mulcair ruling it out and the co-operation candidate in the Liberal race failing to make as big as an impact, hard to say the idea has momentum.

-Martha Hall Findlay

I didn't think her awkward attack on Trudeu during the GTA debate deserved all the fire and brimstone that the media rained down on her, but it did demonstrate her inability to position herself well as an alternative candidate. She tried position herself as the centre-right candidate and rally Western support, but finished behind the left-wing Murray in every Prarie province, and I don't think she got more than 20% in any riding except for Willowdale, where she still finished a distant second to Trudeau. That she started making noises about running again while she still had 2006 debt also hurt her image. She wants to run again and I think she's a good voice to have in the party, but I don't think she gained anything in particular from getting 5.5% in this race.

-David Bertschi 

Bertschi may have been looking to raise his profile, but unlike the other outsider candidates, failed to do so in any positive way. His campaign was dogged by staff turnover, negative news stories about loaning himself money and other issues. Unlike some of the other outsider candidates, he was never able to even establish a niche for himself on policy issues (like Takach on digital issues, McCrimmon on veterans affairs, Coyne having a generally deep policy background, etc) to develop any sort of constituency. He dropped out without endorsing anyone, which won't earn him any other new friends if he takes another crack at Ottawa-Orleans.

-Michael Ignatieff

Considering the whole point of the exercise was in theory to replace Ignatieff as permanent leader, it left a bad taste in a few people's mouths that Ignatieff didn't make an appearance at the leadership reveal, if only to say a few words.

Justin Trudeau at Carleton

Just giving a little bit more PR to what should be a great event at Carleton on Wednesday:

Title: A Conversation with Justin Trudeau
Location: Mike's Place, University Centre, Carleton University, 1233 Colonel By Drive
Price: 4 OC Transpo Bus tickets
Contact: danielle.mcgee@gmail.com
Time: 6-8 PM
Date: Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Notes: Justin Trudeau is coming to Ottawa-Centre! The Ottawa-Centre Federal Liberal Association and the Ottawa-Centre Federal Young Liberal Association invite you to join JUSTIN TRUDEAU and PENNY COLLENETTE at Carleton University for an evening of drinks and conversation. Possible Topics: Youth Involvement and the Environment

** Why are we asking for bus tickets?
Very recently 9 Ottawa families lost their homes in a fire. Along with losing their homes and their belongings, one family lost their youngest child and have 6 remaining children to care for. Penny Collenette and her team held a drive this past Sunday and we saw amazing support from everyone in the community.

We found out that these families are also in need of help with their transportation costs. So we are asking everyone to bring with them Octranspo bus tickets which we will be giving to the Carlington Community Centre to give to the families.
A bit of History about Mike's Place:

Mike's Place was named in 1973 in honour of Lester B Pearson. Pearson, whose nickname was "Mike", was Chancellor of Carleton University until his death in 1972. His connection with Carleton followed a distinguished career in the public service and politics. He served as Prime Minister of Canada from 1963 to 1968 and is remembered for the introduction of Canada's Maple Leaf flag, among many other achievements. He was also the winner of the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize for the creation of the UN peacekeeping force to ease the Suez Crisis in 1956. An official photo portrait hangs in the pub to this day.

Hopefully we can have a good turnout, all Ottawa area Young Liberals should come!