Mediaboss Marketing

Martin Ouellet and Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press Published Thursday, May 15, 2014 6:57PM EDT Last Updated Thursday, May 15, 2014 6:59PM EDT

QUEBEC -- The testimony of a sitting Liberal member of the legislature at the Charbonneau Commission has caused some ripples with her political family in Quebec City.

As the Liberals gathered for a pre-session caucus on Thursday, questions swirled around the future of Julie Boulet, a former transport minister who is currently a backbencher in Philippe Couillard's government.

Boulet testified again at the corruption inquiry in Montreal on Thursday and continued to be dogged by the question of a $100,000 annual funding objective for cabinet ministers back in the 2000s.

Inquiry counsel Sonia LeBel confronted Boulet with the words of two of her ex-cabinet colleagues, Sam Hamad and Christine St-Pierre, who said the $100,000 objective was widely known.

LeBel also noted that Couillard said in 2012, before being elected, that he thought the quota wasn't a good idea.

Boulet reiterated she had no idea about any fundraising objectives until learning of them from a colleague in 2009.

But her own current political boss contradicted her as the Liberals met ahead of the resumption of the legislature next Tuesday.

Couillard said all elected officials knew about the targets under the Charest government.

"As with every political party, people knew the funding objectives," he said.

Read the original here:
Liberals counter colleague's funding denial at corruption inquiry

Video: What to expect from Thursday FCC meeting on net neutrality.

Dante Chinni is the director of theAmerican Communities Project at American University, which examines different types of communities across the U.S.

Washingtons net neutrality debate checks a lot of boxes. It is, depending on what you read, about corporate revenues, the future of the Internet and/or free speech. And it involves Internet service providers, tech companies and entertainment giants. In short, it essentially affects every American living on the grid.

But it directly (and noticeably) affects some more than others particularly younger Americans who like to download and stream entertainment, for instance and the way those effects shake out brings a political dimension to the debate.

Data from Experian Marketing Services show that as of October 2013, 48% of all U.S, adults watch some form streaming or downloaded video in a typical week. But if you look at younger adults, those under 35, the number is 67%.

As polling data show, younger voters tend to be more liberal, and that distinction carries through to the world of streamers. Self-described liberals are far more likely to have used Netflix or Hulu over the past 30 days 24% say they have. That number is 18% for self-described middle-of-the-road voters and 16% for conservatives.

The data for so-called cord-cutters, those who have high-speed Internet connections, but no cable or satellite TV subscription, has a similar political breakdown. The numbers for cord-cutters is still small, about 6.5% of U.S. households according to Experian Marketing Services. But again, its higher among self-described liberals, about 7% and lower among conservatives, at about 5.6%.

What does it all mean in the context of the FCC net neutrality debate? That could be harder to predict. Maybe 20- and 30-somethings will appreciate that their episodes of Orange in the New Black will stream more smoothly in a faster lane through their Internet Service Provider.

But there are costs as well. Netflix, for instance, has already announced an increase in its monthly fee by a dollar, in part to help pay for new interconnection deals that allow for better streaming on Verizon and Comcast networks.

The real impact may be that younger voters finally have a reason top engage in politics in a midterm year something that is always an issue, as we wrote recently here. In any case, politician Frank Underwood, Kevin Spaceys murderous Netflix villain, will play a central role.

Read the original here:
Politics Counts: Liberals Stream More Than Conservatives

OTTAWAConservative MP Eve Adams is in a tough fight to run as a candidate in Oakville North-Burlington in 2015, but a poll this week is showing that the real Conservative battle in this new riding will be against the Liberals.

Forum Research Inc. polled more than 500 voters in the new riding of Oakville North-Burlington and found Conservatives were essentially tied with Liberals for support with 45 per cent saying they would vote Liberal and 42 per cent saying they would vote Conservative if an election was held today.

One-fifth of former Conservative voters in the riding said they would switch their votes to Justin Trudeaus Liberals, Forum found. The New Democrats had the support of just 8 per cent of the people polled.

Adams and local chiropractor Natalia Lishchyna are facing off on May 24 for the Conservative nomination, which has been dogged by controversy. Adams, the MP for Mississauga-Brampton South, has moved to this new riding as part of the large electoral-boundary shuffle looming for the next election when 30 new seats will be added to the Commons. Half of those new seats are in Ontario, especially in the burgeoning suburbs around the GTA, seen as crucial to all parties hopes for gains in 2015.

Adams fiance, Dimitri Soudas, was forced to resign as national director of the Conservative party after Prime Minister Stephen Harper learned that his former communications director had been interfering in the nomination race.

Soudas was out knocking on doors on Wednesday in the riding on Adams behalf and told the Star that he remained confident in her ability to win the nomination and the riding.

She is a strong workhorse with a track record of winning every election she has fought, Soudas said in an email. Eve has been door-knocking in Oakville North-Burlington for over a year.

With an election at least a year away and parties still lining up candidates for the new ridings, its likely too soon to see any local polls as a prediction of future results.

But the sampling of 530 voters opinions in Oakville North-Burlington does give a report card of sorts to the leadership of the three main parties.

Harper gets a 52-per-cent thumbs-down response to his leadership compared to 39 per cent who approve. Trudeau has a 47 per cent approval rate, compared to 40 per cent who disapproved of the job he was doing.

Visit link:
MP Eve Adams new riding tilting toward Liberals

Conservatives Liberals Upset That I Celebrate Dead Police
So I wrote an article celebrating the death of Brentwood, New Hampshire Police officer Steve Arkell, for breaking into a stranger #39;s home. Predictably, this upset a bunch of people. The conservative...

By: Christopher Cantwell

Go here to see the original:
Conservatives & Liberals Upset That I Celebrate Dead Police - Video

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says the Liberals are in the pocket of big insurance companies and could care less about the motoring public.

People are paying too much for insurance, she told reporters Tuesday at a campaign stop in Scarborough.

We are quite concerned the Liberals are more interested in keeping the insurance companies happy than they are about bringing down rates for drivers.

Howarth said the 15 per cent auto insurance reduction promised the 2013-14 budget has failed to live up to its billing.

And Horwath said if she was to become premier she would bring the industry to heel.

We do want to drive some changes in the auto insurance industry, she said, including forcing the industry to share the wealth.

I have been hearing all around the province people are not seeing a significant reduction in their auto insurance rates. Some people are seeing their rates go up, she told reporters at Malvern Town Centre.

The budget called for an average 15 per cent cut to premiums to be phased in over two years.

According the government, insurance rates on average have gone down 5.67 per cent as of April. The NDP wanted the 15 per cent decrease implemented all at once.

Horwath said that among other things, a NDP government would reduce the time it takes for government rate changes to be realized by the consumer.

Follow this link:
Ontario election: NDP leader Andrea Horwath vows quicker action on auto insurance rates