Roundup: Anders down in defeat

The Conservative members of the new riding of Calgary Signal Hill have spoken, and Rob Anders will not be their candidate in the next federal election. Instead, former provincial finance minister Ron Liepert has managed to win the nomination, apparently by a “comfortable majority,” even though Jason Kenney had taken to not only endorsing but also voicing a robocall on Anders’ behalf late in the game. Liepert, after winning, told Kenney to mind his own business rather angrily, incidentally. Anders has indicated that he would sit the remainder of this parliament, but hasn’t indicated what he’ll do next, though there is some speculation that he’ll still try to contest another Calgary riding’s nomination. Anders had labelled this nomination as a fight for the “soul” of the Conservative party, his “true blue” version versus a more “red Tory” Liepert (but apparently not even really), and in the aftermath, Liepert has said that his victory shows where the mainstream of the Conservative party has moved. It also shows how open nominations give the grassroots members more of a voice for who they want to represent the party on their behalf, rather than being assigned that voice for them. Aaron Wherry tries to search for meaning in this nomination upset here. (And be sure to check out the Herald’s video from the aftermath).

It seems that the Conservatives’ 2007 changes to voting laws may be on the way to the Supreme Court as their constitutionality is being challenged – and funnily enough, the government argued then that the ID requirements were constitutional because there was the “failsafe’ of the vouching provisions. Yes, those are the very same provisions that the government is arguing against right now as they try to do away with them on the basis of the flimsiest of anecdotal evidence. It’s all very interesting to see how this all comes back around – a little bit of history repeating, as they say. Meanwhile, here’s a look at how the various provinces deal with the question of voter ID and vouching.

The West Block has an interview with Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault over the three Conservative staffers who were found to be criminally blocking Access to Information requests, but they’ll get off scot free because the current minister of the department won’t recommend charges – a power Legault doesn’t have. (Party of law and order, anyone?)

Three weeks after the Supreme Court rendered its decision on the Nadon reference, there has yet to be any action from Harper as to a new nomination to the bench, and furthermore, whether he has knowledge of what happened at the confidential committee hearings that produced the short-list that included Nadon, or whether he is trying to draw the opposition members out so that he can accuse them of breaching their sworn secrecy.

The residents of Kitimat, BC, have rejected the Northern Gateway pipeline – more or less – in a plebiscite held within the community. (Note that I say “more or less” given the particular wording of the ballot question, which had to do with the conditions placed on Enbridge by the National Energy Board’s Joint Review Panel).

CRA’s website is back up after they patched the Heartbleed Bug problems, and the tax filing deadline has been extended until May 5th.

A quietly-released Environment Canada report shows that the oil and gas sector has now surpassed the transportation sector as the largest emitters of greenhouse gasses, and yet the regulations regarding those emissions are years overdue.

What’s that? The Conservative government gave secret orders to the military to share information with our allies even when it had the risk of leading to torture? You don’t say! In case it bears reminding, they gave similar orders to other security agencies like the RCMP and CSIS.

The government has accepted the options analysis report regarding the replacements for the CF-18s, and the F-35 fighters are still on the table. Later versions of the report dropped references to the fact that the F-35s consume a whole lot more fuel, and the problems surrounding their IT and helmet displays.

Here’s a look at how the Old Age Security bureaucratic process can be especially onerous for immigrants who’ve spent time in and out of Canada, even though they meet all of the qualifications for it.

Canada has imposed more sanctions against Russia over their continued hostile actions in Ukraine.

Huffington Post has an interview with Michael Chong about his reformed Reform Act bill, plus his “comfort” with the Fair Elections Act, which is a bit of incongruity for someone that people like to praise as the champion of democracy.

Glen McGregor writes a thoughtful post about the tradition of state funerals, which have been broken twice now in recent years, and which sets up for some stupid debates going forward as to who should “deserve” them.

Susan Delacourt writes about how those who assert that “people don’t care” about things like the Fair Elections Act are the same people who are confining facts and information to an elite few, which is detrimental to our democracy.

And Tabatha Southey takes on Pierre Poilievre’s conspiracy theories about Elections Canada, and how she may never forgive how this whole debacle of a debate has made her feel sorry for Poilievre.