Battle lines drawn for Canada’s 2015 election – Policy Network

claudia chwalisz

The Liberal Party looks poised to do well in next year’s Canadian elections. However, the Conservatives have changed the rules of the game to their advantage with the controversial ‘Fair Elections Act’ – a bill that suppresses voter turnout, increases money’s influence on results, and eliminates the independent elections monitor

Ahead of next year’s Canadian elections, the battle lines between the Liberals and the Conservatives are being drawn. A number of political earthquakes went off this year – Quebec rejecting the sovereigntists, the Liberals’ surprising majority win in Ontario, and the controversial ‘Fair Elections Act’ passing – which indicate that it will be anybody’s game. Sadly for the New Democrats (Canada’s social democratic party), a two-party race will likely prevail in most provinces.

Quebec: The ‘dying federalist hypothesis’ no more

In April, the separatist Parti Québécois (PQ) suffered an unexpected blow in Quebec’s provincial election, despite a realistic prospect of…

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The Search for the Centre Ground.

Labour of love

Rants, possible

So, it would appear that unions are determined to ensure that a moderate centre left Labour Party can never exist again.

What exactly, I ask myself is their motivation? They’ve just seen a reasonably crushing defeat on the back of a fairly leftist agenda. How do they suppose taking the party further left will aid them?

Also, isn’t the new voting rules for labour leader supposed to ensure a fair and democratic and representative election? That is, not an election where a candidate can be forced onto the party against the majority wishes of members and MPs.

I fear that Labour will die a rather sad death if they do not insist on grounding themselves firmly at the centre of British politics. They need to be articulating a vision of a fair and prosperous country where everyone gains on the back of economic growth.

They need to move away from…

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Right person, wrong time?

But you say she’s just a friend

Grace Provided

The creation of security within the boundaries of a relationship should be a major priority between partners.  When this security is breached or not given the attention due it allows distrust, doubt and anger to creep through the door and settle into your relationship.  I was with someone who had a lot of friends, particularly of the female persuasion.  The issue wasn’t the gender of some of his friends but more so the way the relationships were presented and handled at least in my eyes, I’m sure he would beg to differ.  When I brought this to his attention, his stance on the issue was that they were my insecurities to deal with and had nothing to do with him.   I wasn’t completely sold on his position, but did partially agree as I believe my personal insecurities within myself are totally my responsibility to work on.  But insecurities felt in the relationship that…

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Old Friends

Tales from my Head & Heart

Old friends carry a smile heavy with years.
Old friends embrace with grace that unites the past to the present.
Old friends share a spark in their eyes that although changed, still remains as a marker of time.

Old friends are older, but still friends, still singing and clinging to a love grown inside.

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This Is Not About Writing, This Is About Grief.

Haley Kral - Author

This is not about writing, this is about grief.
The last two days have been so hard. Friday I took my cat to the vet with a sinking feeling in my stomach. He had been coughing and hacking like he was struggling to breathe clearly. Somewhere in the moments where the vet questioned me about his condition I saw things turn serious and scary. I could see the concern from both the vet and the vet tech. When the vet came back I somehow knew what was coming.
“He has cancer in his throat,” the vet said. He explained that the tumor was blocking his airways and that they could try and give him steroids but it would be a temporary and possibly ineffective fix. Even as I waited for him to give me some other option, I knew there wasn’t one.
“You can take him home today and have…

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A word from Khalil

DAILY PHILOSOPHY & ASANA WITH FRANKIE THE DAWG

“Your friend is your needs answered.”
~ Khalil Gibran

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Notes: Disappointment

Getting Published is like Volunteering for the Hunger Games

Caroline Peckham

Okay MAYBE I mean this more metaphorically than physically but, think of it this way: you’re competing against a whole hoarde of other amazing writers, all of whom are at least equally good as you are and each of them have specific skill sets that are going to help them in the publishing world (just like the contestants of the hunger games! – but their skill sets lie mainly in killing people…)

So you have to go all Katniss first of all. Publish your book? Holy crap! This is gonna be scary but…..you’ll have to volunteer to do it or you’ll never get anywhere…

Then you have to submit to Literary Agents. They have so many submissions to get through so what’s gonna make yours stand out? And how do you do that? The same way you win the hunger games of course!

So you carefully phrase your query letter…

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