George Will: Liberals Have Race-Baiting Form #39;Tourette #39;s Syndrome #39;
In response to a viewer statement that called out Barack Obama and Eric Holder as race baiters, conservative columnist George Will said that liberals had Tou...
By: LSUDVM
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George Will: Liberals Have Race-Baiting Form 'Tourette's Syndrome' - Video
The Liberal Party of Canada (French: Parti libral du Canada), colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federal political party in Canada. The party espouses the principles of liberalism, and generally sits at the centre of the Canadian political spectrum.[2][3][4] Historically the Liberal Party has been positioned to the left of the Conservative Party of Canada and to the right of the New Democratic Party (NDP).[5]
The party dominated federal politics for much of Canada's history, holding power for almost 69 years in the 20th centurymore than any other party in a developed countrywhich resulted in its being sometimes referred to as Canada's "natural governing party".[6] Among the party's signature policies and legislative accomplishments include universal health care, the Canada Pension Plan, Canada Student Loans, peacekeeping, multilateralism, official bilingualism, official multiculturalism, patriating the Canadian constitution and the entrenchment of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Clarity Act, restoring balanced budgets in the 1990s, and making same-sex marriage legal nationwide.[2][7] Over the last decade however the party has lost a significant amount of support, to the benefit of both the Conservative Party and the NDP. In the 2011 Canadian federal election the Liberal Party had the worst showing in its history, capturing only 19 per cent of the popular vote and 34 seats (becoming the third-place party in the House of Commons for the first time).[8]
The principles of the party are based on liberalism as defined by various liberal theorists and include individual freedom for present and future generations, responsibility, human dignity, a just society, political freedom, religious freedom, national unity, equality of opportunity, cultural diversity, bilingualism, and multilateralism.[9][10] In the present times, the Liberal party has favoured a variety of policies from both right and left of the political spectrum. When it formed the government from 1993 to 2006, it was a strong champion of balanced budgets, and eliminated the budget deficit completely from the federal budget in 1995 by reducing spending on social programs or delegating them to the provinces, and promised to replace the Goods and Services Tax in the party's famous Red Book.[11] It also legalized same-sex marriage and the use of cannabis for medical purposes, and had proposed complete decriminalization of possession of small amounts of it.
During the 2011 election the Liberal party's policies included:[12]
The Liberals are descended from the mid-19th century Reformers who agitated for responsible government throughout British North America.[13] These included George Brown, Robert Baldwin, William Lyon Mackenzie and the Clear Grits in Upper Canada, Joseph Howe in Nova Scotia, and the Patriotes and Rouges in Lower Canada led by figures such as Louis-Joseph Papineau. The Clear Grits and Parti rouge sometimes functioned as a united bloc in the legislature of the Province of Canada beginning in 1854, and a united Liberal Party combining both English and French Canadian members was formed in 1861.[13][14]
At the time of confederation of the former British colonies of Canada (now Ontario and Quebec), New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, the radical Liberals were marginalized by the more pragmatic Conservative coalition assembled under Sir John A. Macdonald. In the 29 years after Canadian confederation, the Liberals were consigned to opposition, with the exception of one stint in government.[13]Alexander Mackenzie was able to lead the party to power in 1873 after the Macdonald government lost a vote of no confidence in the House of Commons because of the Pacific Scandal. Mackenzie subsequently won the 1874 election, and served as Prime Minister for an additional four years. During the five years the Liberal government brought in many reforms, which include the replacement of open voting by secret ballot, confining elections to one day and the creation of the Supreme Court of Canada. However the party was only able to build a solid support base in Ontario, and in 1878 lost the government to Macdonald.[13] The Liberals would spend the next 18 years in opposition.[14]
In their early history, the Liberals were the party of continentalism and opposition to imperialism. The Liberals also became identified with the aspirations of Quebecers as a result of the growing hostility of French-Canadians to the Conservatives. The Conservatives lost the support of French-Canadians because of the role of Conservative governments in the execution of Louis Riel and their role in the Conscription crisis of 1917, and especially their opposition to French schools in provinces besides Quebec.
It was not until Wilfrid Laurier became leader that the Liberal Party emerged as a modern party. Laurier was able to capitalize on the Tories' alienation of French Canada by offering the Liberals as a credible alternative. Laurier was able to overcome the party's reputation for anti-clericalism that offended the still-powerful Quebec Roman Catholic Church. In English-speaking Canada, the Liberal Party's support for reciprocity made it popular among farmers, and helped cement the party's hold in the growing prairie provinces.[15]
Laurier led the Liberals to power in the 1896 election (in which he became the first Francophone Prime Minister), and oversaw a government that increased immigration in order to settle Western Canada. Laurier's government created the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta out of the North-West Territories, and promoted the development of Canadian industry.[15]
Until the early part of the century, the Liberal Party was a loose, informal coalition of local, provincial and regional bodies with a strong national party leader and caucus (and when in power, the national cabinet) but with an informal and regionalized extra-parliamentary organizational structure. There was no national membership of the party, an individual became a member by joining a provincial Liberal party. Laurier called the party's first national convention in 1893 in order to unite Liberal supporters behind a programme and build the campaign that successfully brought the party to power in 1896 however, once in power, no efforts were made to create a formal national organization outside of parliament.
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FBI agents gather near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 16. (AP Photo)
Liberals and conservatives agree, the federal government did something right in its handling of the Boston Marathon bombing.
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds 67 percent of Americans approve of how the investigation was handled, including more than six in 10 of both liberals and conservatives, and majorities across every major political and demographic group in the poll.
Northeastern residents -- living closest to both the 2013 Boston bombing and Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York -- give federal investigators the highest praise. Almost three quarters approve of investigations that followed the attacks, including 48 percent who approve "strongly." Fewer than three in 10 in the South, Midwest or Western regions express intensely positive views.
The investigation succeeded in finding suspects, with Tamerlan killed and Dzhokhar facing a trial which might result in the death penalty (if convicted, most Americans support such a verdict). But investigators also faced criticism for mishaps, including the shooting of Ibragim Todashev, a Chechen man connected to the Tsarnaev brothers, during a lengthy interrogation that became violent. A Department of Justice investigation ruled in March the FBI agent who shot him was justified in using deadly force.
The poll also finds positive reviews for the government's efforts at preventing terrorism overall, with 58 percent saying they have a favorable view of what the U.S. is doing to thwart attacks. Partisanship plays a larger role in this broader assessment, with favorable views peaking at over seven in 10 Democrats compared with roughly half of independents and Republicans.
But the Boston bombings investigation inspires more partisan unity. Three-quarters of Democrats as well as over six in 10 Republicans and independents approve of the federal government's handling of the investigation.
Disapproval of the Boston attack investigation peaks at 39 percent among those who identify as "very" conservative, perhaps reflecting concerns about civil liberties during the manhunt. The investigation and apprehension of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev involved an unprecedented effort to lock down Boston, with door-to-door searches by armed federal and local authorities. Still, 59 percent of very conservative Americans approve of the investigation.
The public is not always unified in response to issues surrounding terrorism. In the days immediately following the Boston bombing one year ago, most Democrats in a Post-ABC poll said they had a great deal or good amount of confidence in the ability of the U.S. government to prevent attacks in this country; most independents and Republicans reported "a fair amount" of confidence or none at all.
The new Post-ABC poll was conducted April 9 to 13, 2014 among a random national sample of 1,015 adults, including users of both conventional and cellular phones. Overall results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.Sampling, data collection and tabulation by SSRS of Media, Pa.
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Liberals and conservatives alike hail Boston bombing investigation
TORONTO - The governing Liberals are promising to pave the way for $29 billion to be spent on new transit and transportation infrastructure in Ontario over the next decade, but they aren't rolling out the entire blueprint yet.
Some of the money will come from re-routing about $1.3 billion a year in gas taxes, Premier Kathleen Wynne said Monday. The remainder will be raised through debt including green bonds and new "revenue tools" that will be kept under wraps until the budget is tabled.
The fiscal plan could make or break the minority Liberals, who need at least one of the opposition parties to support it if they want to avoid an election.
"We need a partner to put our plan in place," Wynne said in a lunch speech to the Toronto Regional Board of Trade.
"That partner could be the Progressive Conservatives, it could be the NDP or if necessary, the voting public."
But Wynne wasn't in a cajoling mood, saying the Tories would be "robbing Peter to pay Paul" by cancelling rural and northern projects to fund Toronto subways and dismissing the NDP as having no plan at all.
Wynne said she would divide $29 billion into two dedicated funds: $15 billion to build public transit in the Toronto-Hamilton area and $14 billion for transportation infrastructure including roads and bridges in the rest of the province.
Instead of hiking fuel taxes, Wynne said she would detour the provincial portion of the gas tax about $1.2 billion annually to the two funds rather than the main government coffers.
Municipalities would still get the two cents per litre about $320 million they currently receive for transit projects, she said.
Ontario's portion of the HST that's collected on gas taxes, which amounts to about $130 million a year, would also be re-directed to the funds, she said.
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The Ontario Liberals are stepping up their efforts to target voters by ethno-cultural group ahead of a spring election, banking on off-the-shelf software to map the electorates demographics down to the address.
The development, announced at a closed-door campaign briefing last month, is part of a push by the governing party to catch up with their Progressive Conservative counterparts, who are said to have built a mighty computer program that can slice and dice demographic data to find the best ways to reach out to voters.
Such technology could ultimately make the difference especially in the seat-rich multicultural suburbs ringing Toronto, which will likely determine the winner of the next vote.
In a record of the Liberals March 22 briefing obtained by The Globe and Mail, campaign director Patricia Sorbara described the new tool as ethnic append software from Connecticut-based Pitney Bowes, which adds cultural information to the partys lists of potential supporters.
It is basically a program that integrates the cultural background of our voters with the voter file, she told hundreds of party organizers gathered at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
The party has also adopted Liberalist, the database built by its federal cousin, she said.
A Liberal source said the software processes census data that can then be fed into Liberalist and matched to individual addresses. It would show, for instance, which houses or apartments are likely to contain Italian-speaking residents, allowing a campaign to target them with Italian-speaking volunteers.
The software lets users see where particular cultural groups are clustered, so they can tailor their campaign efforts to the community. If the tool identified a neighbourhood with a high number of Muslim residents, for example, a campaign can structure its canvassing efforts around prayer times, the source said. The program has already been used by the federal Liberals.
Pitney Bowes makes a range of commercial software generally used by companies for marketing campaigns or to analyze demographic data when determining where to do business.
Provided with a sketch of her briefing, including the software, Ms. Sorbara declined to be interviewed.
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Ontario Liberals to target ethnic voters with demographic database software