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OTTAWA The Liberal government is breaking its promise to change Canadas voting system, though just yesterday it was stringing along opposition parties with hopes for collaboration.

New Democrat Nathan Cullen met with new minister Karina Gould Tuesday, and told the National Post she seemed keen and open to collaboration with all parties. She told him, he said, that she was considering his idea for parties to co-draft electoral reform legislation.

At the time, he said it might be a good sign that Gould seemed so curious about other parties positions.

Less than a day later, Cullen was standing outside the House of Commons calling her boss Justin Trudeau an outright liar.

Without warning Wednesday, Liberals dropped the bomb, in Goulds ministerial mandate letter, that they wont change how Canadians vote despite a black-and-white election promise and months of studies and consultations.

What Mr. Trudeau proved himself today was to be a liar, Cullen said, accusing the prime minister of a lack of courage for not making the announcement himself. It puts into question any commitment, any promise Mr. Trudeau makes or has made in the past.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Gould, who recently replaced predecessor Maryam Monsef, sidestepped questions about why the governments online survey (MyDemocracy.ca) didnt specifically ask Canadians about whether they want reform, or what type of voting system they prefer.

Our view has always been clear. Major reforms to the electoral system, major changes of this magnitude, should not be made if they lack the broad support of Canadians, she said.

But as Green Party leader Elizabeth May pointed out in question period, the need for broad support did not enter into the Liberals public statements until well after they were elected. Why was that never mentioned in any promise or mandate? she asked.

May and Cullen were on a special parliamentary committee that studied electoral reform last summer and fall. It found about 90 per cent of the experts it heard from, and almost 90 per cent of people who attended town halls, supported proportional systems.

For the Liberals to say thats not enough of a consensus clearly shows the stupidity and the arrogance and the entitlement, in fact, that somehow because theyre Liberals they can get away with making that kind of argument, Cullen said.

Those numbers only reflect the views of people who were plugged-in enough to the conversation that they showed up to town halls or sought out consultations. But random polling also suggests support for reform.

An EKOS Politics poll of 1,622 Canadians in October found 51 per cent of Canadians felt the electoral system should be changed, and 59 per cent felt electoral reform is something the Liberal Party campaigned on, so they should deliver on this promise though 57 per cent agreed its too important to be rushed.

In a second phase of that research, with 688 respondents drawn from the original sample, pollsters found 62 per cent of people would move ahead with replacing first-past-the-post, and 63 per cent would prefer proportional representation over a preferential, or ranked, ballot.

An Angus Reid Institute poll of 1,516 Canadians found two types of proportional systems, including mixed-member proportional one that includes local representation would be competitive versus first-past-the-post. The poll, released at the end of November, also found 75 per cent of people would want a referendum on any major changes the desire for which was a sticking point with Conservatives throughout the debate over reform.

Liberals said repeatedly during the election campaign, in their platform and in their first throne speech that the 2015 election would be the last using first-past-the-post.

I have long preferred a preferential ballot, the members opposite wanted proportional representation, the official opposition wanted a referendum. There is no consensus. There is no clear path forward, Trudeau said. I am not going to do something that is wrong for Canadians just to tick a box on an electoral platform.

In Cullens view, it seemed like the strategy became that once Mr. Trudeau wasnt going to get his way, his exact system, well then clearly they had to kill the whole process dead.

Email: mdsmith@postmedia.com | Twitter: mariedanielles

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Liberals break electoral reform promise less than a day after signalling collaboration with opposition - National Post

Malcolm Turnbull is depicted on a GetUp billboard with Pauline Hanson that asks why the Liberal party wont stand up to racism. Photograph: Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images

GetUp has taken aim at Malcolm Turnbull, depicting him on a poster with Pauline Hanson asking why the Liberals wont stand up to racism.

The billboard, to be rolled out in multicultural electorates in western Sydney and Melbourne from Thursday, is part of the activist groups racial justice campaign, including its efforts to retain prohibitions on speech that insults, offends, humiliates or intimidates based on a persons race.

But despite the majority of formal submissions opposing the repeal of section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, the freedom of speech inquiry considering the provision has been inundated with 7,775 form letters in favour of repeal.

GetUps human rights director, Shen Narayanasamy, criticised the prime minister on his weak response to Donald Trumps executive order temporarily banning travel from a group of majority-Muslim countries and accused him of cosying up to One Nation.

The Coalition is trying to make short-term gains from Trump-style divisiveness but we are determined to show that there are long-term electoral costs associated with victimising minorities.

At the National Press Club on Wednesday, Turnbull was asked why the Liberals in Western Australia appeared to be preparing to swap preferences with One Nation and whether the party would preference the rightwing nationalists at the federal level.

He said WA preferences were a matter for the state division and the federal Liberal party was prepared to work with all parties in the parliament, including One Nation.

But it is the freedom of speech inquiry, which held public hearings this week, that is the explicit focus of Get Ups billboards with the messages Why wont the Liberals stand up to racism? and #HandsOff18C.

The Australian newspaper, the Institute of Public Affairs and the far right of the Liberal-National party have worked themselves into a lather to defend peoples right to be racist, Narayanasamy said.

She said watering down or removing section 18C would be outright permission for racial abuse. This is a country where almost a third of the population are from a non-Anglocentric background. For most Australians, theres little demand for the right to be a bigot.

However, if you are a person of colour or one of Australias first peoples, this is a serious issue which impacts your quality of life.

The freedom of speech inquiry received 11,500 items from the public, including about 9,100 form letters, 1,300 pieces of correspondence and at least 200 formal submissions.

According to the committees website, 7,775 of the 9,100 form letters were for 18C to be repealed in its entirety, a campaign orchestrated by the Australian Taxpayers Alliance.

The letter claims 18C restricts an individuals ability to engage in lively and forthright debate. It notes that, since it was introduced in 1995, 2,109 complaints have been made and almost 100 have ended up in federal courts.

The process chills speech by requiring defendants to spend time, energy and money defending themselves for their speech and the potential exists for lives to be ruined even if they are ultimately vindicated in the courts, it said.

In its submission to the inquiry, the Institute of Public Affairs called for repeal of section 18C, arguing it infringed freedom of speech and there is no right not to be offended.

The IPA suggested that section 18C harmed social cohesion because people with racist attitudes were more likely to feel better if allowed to be wrong and then corrected by the words and example of others, than if silenced and left to stew in resentment.

It said while humiliation and intimidation are arguably justifiable restrictions on freedom of expression, those were prohibited by other laws.

Amnesty International, academics and the journalists union told the inquiry that laws restricting information about national security and immigration detention were a greater threat to freedom than race-speech laws.

Many organisations supported retaining 18C on the basis it struck the right balance between freedom of expression and freedom from discrimination.

These included the Victorian government, the Refugee Council, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Reconciliation Australia, the Australian Lawyers Alliance, the Arab Council of Australia and the Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia.

A popular compromise position was to replacing the terms offend and insult with vilify, which was backed by Monash Universitys Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance and the Australian Industry Group.

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Malcolm Turnbull targeted by GetUp ad accusing Liberals of failing to oppose racism - The Guardian

Aint no tea party. Photo: Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images

For American liberals, checking the news has become an act of masochism. To scroll through your Facebook feed is to be reminded that a racist clown has the nuclear codes; America is soul-sick; and the moral arc of the universe bends toward the sun swallowing the Earth.

Even when the monotonous parade of terrible developments is broken up by a feel-good story, the effect can feel akin to lighting a single stick of incense in a room where Steve Bannons morning breath is forever flowing through the vents.

Take the protests that broke out at airports all across the country last weekend. The Trump administration came for the refugees, and the American people spoke out. At JFK International in New York, thousands gathered outside Terminal 4 to show their support for those being detained. Within hours, a court order had provided a measure of relief to a small subset of those affected by the White Houses mindless cruelty.

As the protestors celebrated, it was possible to believe that the authors of this fiasco might pay dearly for it.

And then, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 49 percent of Americans agreed with Trumps executive order, while only 41 percent disagreed.

So, no question, the state of the union is weak as hell. The stench of Bannon breath is overwhelming. But theres reason to think that the seeds those protestors planted will eventually allow liberals to smell the flowers.

The first wave of anti-Trump actions may not have freed America from the spell of post-9/11, anti-Muslim fearmongering. But it did inspire Democrats to increase their political involvement while also securing more than twice as much popular support as the tea party had in April 2010.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that 57 percent of the public heard a lot about the Womens March a result that suggests the anti-Trump demonstrators attracted as much attention in a single day of protests as the tea party movement did through months of organizing and demonstrations. Polls from Pew Research Center in 2010 found that just 31 percent of voters had heard a lot about the right-wing movement in March of that year, with awareness of the group reaching a peak of 54 percent, just before the midterm elections in October.

And the Womens March didnt just make a bigger impression than the tea party they also made a better one.

As liberals are painfully aware, being more popular with the public is no guarantee of electoral success. After all, nonvoters are disproportionately Democratic. To make America already great again, liberals wont just need to win over a majority of voters theyll also need to mobilize them, starting in the 2018 midterms.

But the Post poll has excellent news on that front, too: 40 percent of Democratic women say they plan to get more involved in political causes this year. Only 25 percent of all American adults, and 27 percent of Democratic men (sigh), say the same. Democrats under 50 particularly those who lean left are also planning to step up their game in large numbers.

The tea party had some advantages that the anti-Trump left lacks among them, the Koch networks vast resources and the fact that conservative, white, middle-class retirees have more free time to spend on politics than your average, non-old Democrat.

But todays left has its own strengths. Its enemy is the least popular new president in American history; it has years of organizing by Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street, and other Obama-era social movements to build on; and its policy goals are more appealing and coherent than Keep the government out of my Medicare.

Theres a lot of bad news coming down the pike. But if liberals can find in it cause for mobilization instead of demoralization theyll have a lot of happy headlines to read in November 2018.

Its official: Americas top diplomat is now Vladimir Putins favorite Exxon CEO!

Prime Minister Theresa May is one step closer to meeting her March 2017 deadline.

One vote away from keeping the billionaire heiress to the Amway fortune from becoming Education Secretary.

A week after Trump signed his executive order calling for its construction to be completed.

Starting with President Trumps Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch.

Trumps nominee would be the 34th Episcopalian to serve on the Court. But its been a while.

Henry VIIIs powerful adviser did change history. But he also came to a bad end.

He previously clerked for current Justice Anthony Kennedy.

The Womens March is twice as popular as the tea party once was and Democratic women are increasing their political engagement in large numbers.

After a Democratic boycott, Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee changed the rules so they could advance the cabinet nominees by themselves.

Thats not the America I believe in. Thats not who we are.

On Prospect Park West.

Trump hasnt put an official spokesperson on the network in weeks.

He declared hes dismantling Obamacare, building a wall, and ending sanctuary cities, but that doesnt necessarily mean it will happen.

An administration official said Harley-Davidson didnt want to deal with demonstrators, but the company denied that.

Progressives are demanding that Senate Democrats do everything they can to block Gorsuch, though hell almost certainly wind up on the Court.

If they dont make him change the rules, hell make them do it, then blame them.

His nominee, Neil Gorsuch, is a natural successor on the Supreme Court.

A draft executive order would allow the government to deport visa holders who receive public benefits.

A meet the breeds event.

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This Poll Is the Best News Liberals Have Had In a Long Time - New York Magazine

posted at 10:41 am on January 31, 2017 by Jazz Shaw

If youre a liberal these days, you may have trouble keeping up with all of the new actions coming out of the Trump White House which enrage you. If youre a conservative youve probably already lost track of the number of things the liberals are marching, protesting about, condemning and boycotting. On that last point you can now add one more to the list. The evil ownership of Taylor Gourmet, a local chain of hoagie shops around the Beltway, has gone too far and drawn the ire of progressive activists. (For those of you from other parts of the country, a hoagie is just another regional name for a sub sandwich, grinder or whatever you call it in your area.) The specific target of liberal ire is Casey Patten, co-founder of the business.

So what has Patten done to enrage the Left? Did he endorse the travel ban? Pay his female employees less? Offer to feed the workers when they start building the wall? Nope. He was photographed shaking Donald Trumps hand after a ceremony announcing new White House initiatives to boost small businesses. And that was enough to let slip the hounds of protest. (Washington Post)

The co-founder of Taylor Gourmet angered some Washingtonians today by meeting with President Trump for a photo-op connected to his executive order cutting regulations for small businesses.

Casey Patten, who co-founded the local chain of hoagie shops in 2008, was photographed shaking hands with the president in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. The meeting was first reported by Popville.com, and quickly led to Twitter calls for a boycott from its patrons, many of whom reside in the District of Columbia, which voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton. Patten has not yet responded to multiple requests for comment.

If you want a small bit of irony to put the cherry on top of this story, check out the default ad campaign which Taylor Gourmet runs across the district. (Click on image for full size.)

That was apparently all it took. The owner of a string of sandwich shops showed up to mark the roll back of some regulations which should allow small businesses to be more competitive (and, you know keep hiring people) and hes being rewarded with a boycott. I checked in on the boycott on Twitter just to see what might have popped up.

Possibly my favorite here. Im wondering if the store will now actually feature a hoagie called the Hate Sandwich.

I dont want to make it sound as if Im disparaging these efforts entirely. In fact, I want to help. I have it on good authority that Donald Trump eats food. Ive also personally seen footage of him drinking water. Are you really going to associate yourselves with this monster by mimicking his actions? I suggest you stop eating and drinking in protest until the President steps down. As for me, all this writing has made me hungry. I think Ill go order a hoagie.

Go here to see the original:
DC sandwich chain owner learns there's nothing liberals won't boycott - Hot Air

It all started with a green water balloon.

Now five teens three 18-year-olds and two 17-year-olds face misdemeanor charges of malicious mischief after Mount Pleasant police say the quintet threw water balloons at protesters Monday afternoon.

According to an incident report from the Mount Pleasant Police Department, a green object was tossed from a passenger window of a gold Ford F-150 truck and hit a woman who was protesting outside of Sen. Lindsey Graham's Lowcountry office, 530 Johnnie Dodds Blvd.

Martha Rhodes, 41, said she was one of the protesters hit by a water balloon. At the time, Rhodes said she was holding a sign that said, "Bigotry destroys democracy."

"I didn't honestly realize it was a water balloon." Rhodes said Tuesday. "I was a little bit shaken up.One of my concerns has been the normalization of behavior that we wouldn't have found acceptable until now."

As officers were trying to see if anyone else was hit by balloons at the Monday protest, they reportedly heard sounds of water balloons breaking in the area.

"It's those pickup trucks," people yelled, according to incident reports.

Officers said they then spotted a second pickup truck, a black Toyota Tacoma, and followed the two trucks down Mathis Ferry Road. Police said the trucks then turned onto Seaport Lane, where a traffic stop was conducted of the black Toyota Tacoma. Officers then blocked the only exit until more units could arrive.

After seeing two magazines loaded with .223-caliber bullets inside the vehicle, an officer asked the driver and a minor to get out of the vehicle and to sit on the tailgate of the truck. An officer told the teens one fromIsle of Palms, one from Awendaw and three from Mount Pleasantthat they could be charged with assault.

One of the males said they did in fact throw water balloons, and officers then asked the teen whether he knew the driver of the other pickup truck.

A 17-year-old confirmed that he did, and then messaged his friends and told them to meet them at their location as the officer requested.

When three teenagers in the other truck arrived on the scene, officers asked one of them what they were thinking when they threw water balloons at protesters.

An 18-year-old responded that he only "threw water balloons at a bunch of liberals."

The protest held Monday was in opposition to Graham's support ofBetsy DeVos, President Donald Trump's controversial pick for education secretary.

Reach Caitlin Byrd at 843-937-5590 and follow her on Twitter @MaryCaitlinByrd.

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Police: 5 charged after throwing water balloons at 'a bunch of liberals' outside Lindsey Graham's Charleston office - Charleston Post Courier