Scott's DiaTribes

The 1 question to ask Rob (or Doug) Ford I’ve not heard yet

Scott Tribe — Sat, 25 May 2013 01:20:40 +0000

“Mr. Ford: Is this you in the still shot of the video you claim doesn’t exist – Yes or No?”

Is this you, Mayor Ford?

Has any reporter asked Mayor Ford this (or his fill-in for questions, brother Doug)?

It would seem to me if he’s denying that he smokes crack, or that the purported video showing him smoke crack doesn’t even exist, surely that Yes-No question should elicit a definitive reply from him or his brother.

Not exactly the spotlight we want in Canada

Scott Tribe — Thu, 23 May 2013 11:06:42 +0000

Canada sure has been in the news a lot of late. Unfortunately, it’s about the wrong reasons. The Senate expenses scandal and the subsequent resignation of Nigel Wright made the NY Times billboard in Times Square. We subsequently then have a Peruvian reporter out of the blue asking Harper on his trip to Peru during his brief news conference why the Canadian people should trust him that he knew nothing about the affair (but we’ve learned how our Canadian media can get Harper to answer difficult questions he refuse to take at home: just get their friends in the international media to ask them).

We also have the Rob Ford [...]

Make voting in federal elections mandatory, but put it on a Saturday or make it an official holiday

Scott Tribe — Mon, 20 May 2013 16:21:46 +0000

On this Victoria Day holiday Monday, I was reading some interesting Twitter tweets from Frank Graves, the President of Ekos Research, one of the polling companies here in Canada. He was discussing in part the poor voter turnout we’ve generally had in federal and provincial elections the past few years, in part the bad polling that totally misread the BC election. The sequence of his Tweets that caught my eye reads as follows:

There is one easy solution to fixing poor polling predictions, horrid vote suppression tactics and anemic youth voting—-mandatory voting…If everybody votes parties must market policies to all; suppression is muted,pollsters focus on modelling populations (not guessing turnout)..Australia [...]

On phone polling vs internet panels

Scott Tribe — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:01:56 +0000

An interesting article from the CBC talking with the BC Liberals internal pollster, who predicted a Liberal Majority with 48 seats, and was off by only 2 (and by 2 more – they eneded up with 50, pending any recounts).

Why was his polling better then every other public domain pollster? He says it’s because he used traditional phone polling, not these internet panels:

Pantazopoulos says where his findings differ from the other pollsters is that he relies entirely on traditional telephone polling rather than online research. He says that approach allows him to access a wider swath of the electorate. “Every resident of the province with a phone line [...]

BC Libs surprise election win is a warning to pollsters – and to Justin Trudeau

Scott Tribe — Wed, 15 May 2013 11:00:41 +0000

Can you find anyone other then the BC Liberals who felt they were going to win a majority last night (did they even think that?). I would suspect that number is a handful. Nevertheless, when all was said and done, the BC Liberals are back in power (despite Christy Clark losing her own seat) and INCREASED their seat total. I’m not particularly thrilled with that result - I hold to my view that they are the LINO (Liberals In Name Only) Party out there for the most part – but, I congratulate them. Another observation is that I am dismayed at the voter turnout – only 48%. I wonder if [...]

Ranked Ballot Initiative in Toronto survives committee – on to full vote in June.

Scott Tribe — Tue, 14 May 2013 21:30:56 +0000

Its been awhile since I’ve posted, so I figured why not 2 on the same day (plus it gives me something else to do besides continue lamenting last night’s tragic Maple Leafs loss).

I just wanted to say I’m very pleased to read that the ranked ballot initiative proposed for Toronto Mayoralty elections – better known by the group name that supports it – RaBIT – survived a 3-3 committee vote to indefinitely table/defer it (which would have in essence killed it) and now goes on to the full Toronto City Council for a vote on whether to recommend to the province that Toronto wishes to change the Mayor’s election [...]

Labrador speaks – and rejects Conservative tactics

Scott Tribe — Tue, 14 May 2013 11:03:23 +0000

Prime Minister Harper called Peter Penashue the greatest MP representative Labrador has ever had. Cabinet Ministers went into that riding (though notably not Harper) declaring that a re-elected Penashue would continue to give Labrador influence – while darkly hinting a Liberal win would not.

Labrador voters rejected those claims, as well as Penashue:

Penashue quit his cabinet post and his job as MP in March after it was revealed the Conservative party had reimbursed the federal government more than $40,000, the value of ineligible contributions accepted by his campaign in the 2011 election…After his resignation, fellow Conservative MPs declared he was a “great representative” that had delivered for his constituents. [...]

Ontario NDP gets ‘competing’ advice on Ontario Budget

Scott Tribe — Mon, 06 May 2013 10:58:37 +0000

Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath has a decision to make soon on whether or not to support the Ontario Liberal government’s budget; failure to support it (or at least an actual vote against versus an abstain) plunges the province back into an election campaign.

She’s been given competing advice on what to do: on the one hand, you’ve got Toronto Mayor Rob Ford urging his ideological foes to oppose the Budget and go back to an election campaign, because according to Ford, that’s what taxpayers want.

An opinion poll just released today, however, would show that unsurprisingly, Rob Ford is probably wrong about his claim:

About half of Ontarians want [...]

Hoping for a change of government in BC

Scott Tribe — Fri, 03 May 2013 11:23:02 +0000

This is a post that some (but not all) of my BC Liberal acquaintances may not like, but as the BC Election draws near and the polls tighten, I’ll say without apology that to me, it would not be a bad thing if the provincial BC Liberal Party gets dumped out of office and the NDP led by Adrian Dix takes over the reins of power.

I’ve made it rather publicly known that I consider the BC Liberals LINO’s (Liberals In Name Only) who should be returning the name “Liberal” back to us as the party stands in its current form. Any party that counts Stockwell Day as one of [...]

The reason(s) behind individual Conservative MP’s rejecting Anti-Trudeau 10%’ers

Scott Tribe — Thu, 02 May 2013 10:47:01 +0000

I find the revelations that several Conservative MP’s are uneasy and not willing to participate in the “10 percent’er” mass mail attack ad campaign that the Conservative Party plan against Justin Trudeau to be rather fascinating (privately as well, apparently). I’m curious of course why there is unease now at this, when there certainly wasn’t or wouldn’t be if this was Stephane Dion or Michael Ignatieff, and this mailing was planned for Conservative-held ridings – mostly friendly territory you would think, for the usual smear stuff like this.

Are individual MP’s getting more flack from their riding’s voters then we publicly know – and is it due to the fact [...]