Dan McLean, a politician?

[markbarbera]

Originally Posted by hamiltonguy

Your counting is wrong. The Committee is 6 Government and 6 Opposition MPs. The Chair of the committee is a government MP and therefore voting membership of the committee is 6-5 in favour of the opposition.

I'm afraid it is your counting that is wrong in this case. The committee chair is Marlene Catterall, a Liberal MP. It is common in minority government situations for committees to be chaired by a member of the opposition so that the governing party retains majority votes in a committee. Voting membership for this committee is in favour of the current governing party.

http://www2.parl.gc.ca/CommitteeBusi...&Parl=40&Ses=2

[markbarbera]

Originally Posted by hamiltonguy

Doubt it. Hamilton got Liberal cabinet ministers because we delivered 5 MPs or more (when you count the area that falls in our media market) to the Liberals consistently.

Not true. In 1974 Hamilton area had only two sitting Liberals, and one was appointed to cabinet. In 1980, Hamilton delivered only one Liberal, who was appointed a cabinet minister. In 2004, while only three Liberals were elected in Hamilton, two were appointed to cabinet. Since the start of the Trudeau era, practically every Liberal government has always had a Liberal MP from Hamilton in its cabinet. End of.

[hamiltonguy]

Originally Posted by markbarbera

I'm afraid it is your counting that is wrong in this case. The committee chair is Marlene Catterall, a Liberal MP. It is common in minority government situations for committees to be chaired by a member of the opposition so that the governing party retains majority votes in a committee. Voting membership for this committee is in favour of the current governing party.

http://www2.parl.gc.ca/CommitteeBusi...&Parl=40&Ses=2

Chair
Gary Ralph Schellenberger

Vice-Chairs
Carole Lavallée Pablo Rodriguez

Members
Charlie Angus Rod Bruinooge Dean Del Mastro Ruby Dhalla Shelly Glover Nina Grewal Roger Pomerleau Scott Simms Tim Uppal

I don't know which committee you are talking about, but the Heritage committee membership is listed on the Parliament's site is what I have posted above.

While you have selectively chosen low points for the Liberals in declaring their high priority for Hamilton Cabinet ministers, you ignore that many times in close proximity to these elections, solid Liberal slates were returned. Witness the 90's and early 00's. Now that the Liberals know they only have decent chances at a maximum of two local ridings (ADFW and Hamilton East-Stoney Creek) they might not be so willing to hand over a cabinet post (especially if Liberal veterans and stars win in nearby ridings).

On a side note the Liberal prospects in 3 of the 5 Hamilton ridings are very low. Hamilton Centre will stick with Christopherson for the foreseeable future, and likewise with Niagara West-Glanbrook and the Conservatives. Hamilton Mountain would normally be fertile ground, but a strong NDP MP and a surprisingly resilient Conservative campaign forced Banham into third place last time, despite extensive friendly media coverage. It is for that reason I seriously doubt liberal fortunes on the Mountain.

[hamiltonguy]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

When the house is in session you have weekly meetings with the caucus, you have retreats, and of course parties. I'm sure he had plenty of time to meet and discuss with committee members about supporting CBC Radio, which they voted down. I've heard more from Christopherson on this front than I did with Sweet.


Likely a much smaller CBC. http://www.canada.com/story.html?id=1426856



All the conervatives voted down expanding CBC Radio. A party Sweet is with. It's no secret the Conservatives, especially Harper, look down at the media, including CBC.

See now you're debating policy rather than whether or not he's effective.

By the way, I'm not a big fan of the government run CBC anyways. I'd much prefer to see a PBS style system, with some for-profit speciality channels subsidizing the community channels. And I'm not a fan of the media as a whole. Surveys have consistently shown that journalists in the US and Canada tend to be left wing much more than your average citizen. While most do try and maintain a balanced reporting, this bias makes them liable to buy into garbage such as the "hidden agenda" purported by Liberal Party (anyone remember that Stephen Harper was supposed to be imposing martial law on us?) and the Waffer-gate scandal (which was repeated by journalists who never bothered to fact check and notice the original article was doctored). To their credit, the journalists I'm talking about, don't originate this crud but merely jump on the bandwagon as it conforms to their preconceived notions as to who Stephen Harper is and what the CPC is.

[markbarbera]

Originally Posted by hamiltonguy

Chair
Gary Ralph Schellenberger

Vice-Chairs
Carole Lavallée Pablo Rodriguez

Members
Charlie Angus Rod Bruinooge Dean Del Mastro Ruby Dhalla Shelly Glover Nina Grewal Roger Pomerleau Scott Simms Tim Uppal

I don't know which committee you are talking about, but the Heritage committee membership is listed on the Parliament's site is what I have posted above.

While you have selectively chosen low points for the Liberals in declaring their high priority for Hamilton Cabinet ministers, you ignore that many times in close proximity to these elections, solid Liberal slates were returned. Witness the 90's and early 00's. Now that the Liberals know they only have decent chances at a maximum of two local ridings (ADFW and Hamilton East-Stoney Creek) they might not be so willing to hand over a cabinet post (especially if Liberal veterans and stars win in nearby ridings).

On a side note the Liberal prospects in 3 of the 5 Hamilton ridings are very low. Hamilton Centre will stick with Christopherson for the foreseeable future, and likewise with Niagara West-Glanbrook and the Conservatives. Hamilton Mountain would normally be fertile ground, but a strong NDP MP and a surprisingly resilient Conservative campaign forced Banham into third place last time, despite extensive friendly media coverage. It is for that reason I seriously doubt liberal fortunes on the Mountain.

Apologies I was looking at a previous committee list and got the chair wrong. Nibbling on a crow's wing as I type this...

With regards to cabinet representation under a future Liberal government, we can bounce comments back and forth on this one continuously. From historical observation, I am certain that there will be a seat for Hamilton in a future Liberal Cabinet as long as there is one Liberal elected in a Hamilton riding. Guess we'll need to wait a few more months before we get a definitive answer on this one.

As far as Liberal 'winnibility' goes, the results of the past election should not be treated as an influencer on the next election. The 2008 Liberal campaign was an anomaly marked by an ineffective leader, a lack of campaign finances, and an extremely disorganized Liberal campaign team. None of those elements will be present for the Liberals in the next campaign. And none of the Hamilton seats should ever be considered 'safe' seats for any party.

[hamiltonguy]

Originally Posted by markbarbera

Apologies I was looking at a previous committee list and got the chair wrong. Nibbling on a crow's wing as I type this...

With regards to cabinet representation under a future Liberal government, we can bounce comments back and forth on this one continuously. From historical observation, I am certain that there will be a seat for Hamilton in a future Liberal Cabinet as long as there is one Liberal elected in a Hamilton riding. Guess we'll need to wait a few more months before we get a definitive answer on this one.

As far as Liberal 'winnibility' goes, the results of the past election should not be treated as an influencer on the next election. The 2008 Liberal campaign was an anomaly marked by an ineffective leader, a lack of campaign finances, and an extremely disorganized Liberal campaign team. None of those elements will be present for the Liberals in the next campaign. And none of the Hamilton seats should ever be considered 'safe' seats for any party.

No problem about the confusion, at first I was worried that I had looked at the wrong list until I checked things.

With respect to winnability, personally I feel that Hamilton Centre is just too solid. It's truly a "safe" NDP seat. (Ditto for NWG for CPC). Hamilton Mountain I just consider very unlikely. Simply put, Anderson and Charlton are strong candidates. Considering that Anderson was basically ignored by the media last time (who looked to the previous election and predicted a Banham-Charlton battle), he should stand a better chance this time. That said, the Liberals have a better chance to improve this campaign. But I think the hurdles on the Mountain are too great to overcome unless the Liberals move close to majority territory (and vice-versa for Anderson's chances of actually winning the riding)

[realcity]

From Canada Press

Conservatives and Liberals might want to think twice before plunging the country into another fall election, a new poll suggests.
The Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey indicates the two main federal parties remain locked in a dead heat, neither within range of winning a majority.
According to the poll, the parties were in a statistical tie, with 32 per cent support for the Liberals and 31 per cent for the Tories.
The NDP were at 16 per cent, the Greens at 11, and the Bloc Quebecois at nine.
------------
Where is the Green base coming from? The NDP always are at the 12-19% range. Either way it's comforting to know that the NDP will never win, not now with a growing Green even if it sustains double digits.

[markbarbera]

The Greens are experincing a surge of popularity in BC right now, with 24% of the popular vote in this poll. BC is a political four-way tie in the polls right now, with the Conservativs at 28%, the NDP at 26%, The Greens at 24% and The Liberals at 20%, all within the margin of error for the sample size. This is pushing up its overall numbers nationally. However, the Greens are also up to 10% in Ontario and Quebec. In Quebec, they are in a statistical tie with the CPC and NDP for that province's popular vote.

The next election is going to be very interesting. Majority governments look to be a thing of the past for us. With five significant political parties nationally, I expect coalition governments to become the order of the day for Canada. IMO that's a good thing.

[realcity]

WOW BC

So the Greens are taking votes from the NDP and Lib base. Yah!

The Liberals will still get slaughtered in the West. Their focus is Ontario and history has shown that whenever we have a Liberal Premiere, Ontario votes Tory Federally and visa versa.

[markbarbera]

Originally Posted by realcity

WOW BC

So the Greens are taking votes from the NDP and Lib base. Yah!

The Liberals will still get slaughtered in the West. Their focus is Ontario and history has shown that whenever we have a Liberal Premiere, Ontario votes Tory Federally and visa versa.

I'd say the Greens are also taking base votes from Cons, particularly Red Tories.

Don't know if the Lib/PC Fed/prov relationship still exists. Hasn't really played out the last couple elections to the degree it used to. This same poll has the Libs over the Cons in Ontario by a 6-point spread. Ontario's polling at Libs 40%, CPC 34%, NDP 13% and Greens 10%. NDP is tanking in Ontario, which is why I maintain that no Hamilton seat is a safe seat for the incumbant.

[thistleclub]

Dan McLean resigns as Liberal candidate

June 07, 2010
By Daniel Nolan
The Hamilton Spectator

A high-ranking Liberal says the party will be able to weather the setback caused by the sudden departure of Dan McLean as the candidate in Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale.

The former CHCH-TV news anchor suddenly announced Monday night he was stepping down as the party’s candidate to take on Conservative MP David Sweet. The 62-year-old Lynden-area resident cited personal reasons in his statement released just before 9:30 p.m.

He declined comment when reached by phone at his home shortly after the statement was issued.

He was some by some as the party’s best chance of re-taking a riding held by the Tories and one which the Liberals held between 1993-2004.

McLean’s departure leaves the Liberals with only one nominated candidate in Hamilton. Michelle Stockwell of Copetown is carrying the party banner in Hamilton East-Stoney Creek.

Anne Tennier, president of the ADFW Liberal Riding Association, said McLean’s departure came as “a surprise,” but she believes they will be able to find a suitable replacement in time for the next election. The popular McLean was seen out and about in the riding and Hamilton for the Liberal cause and even was allowed to lay a wreath last fall during Remembrance Day ceremonies in Waterdown.

“We now have to focus on moving forward and find another candidate,” she said. “You go through the process. You have a candidate search committee you strike up and you look for suitable candidates and we know we will find somebody. There are some good people around and somebody will step forward.”

She described the Liberal situation in Hamilton “as having our eyes and ears open for the right candidates for each one of the ridings. I know the other ridings are looking hard. I think we’re still a good organization that still (has) strong riding associations that are active.”

The Conservatives have candidates in all 13 Hamilton-area ridings. The New Democrats have candidates in the majority of the ridings. The Liberals have candidates in Burlington, Oakville, Halton, Brant, Haldimand-Norfolk, St. Catharines, Welland and Niagara Falls. They once held every seat between Oakville and Niagara Falls, but were shut out completely in the 2008 election

McLean was acclaimed the party’s candidate Aug. 12 last year, as Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff threatened to bring down the minority Conservative government and cause an election last fall.

McLean left CHCH-TV at the end of 2008 after a 37-year career at the TV station and was seen by some as the Liberals best chance of re-taking a riding held by the Tories.

“This is one of the most difficult decisions I’ve ever had to make, but after close consultation with my wife, Allie, and my campaign advisers, I’ve decided to step aside as the ADFW candidate for the Liberal Party of Canada,” McLean said in his statement.

“I continue to be a strong supporter of the Liberal party and its leader, Michael Ignatieff.”

[realcity]

37 years at a TV career. Just enjoy life now Dan. Politics will rapid-age you like crazy. I hope Mr. Maclean just enjoys his horses and his farm now, sleep in, stay up late, get drunk whenever.

I'm sure he felt an obligation when was asked by the Liberals and even for a short time humbled. I think he made the best decision.

[markbarbera]

I'll bet David Sweet sure is happy with Maclean's decision too!