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Stephen Harper - famous for sticking to his prepared script and not answering questions from the media (that is, from the people, because that's as close as we get) - has decided he will answer questions after all. Five. He'll answer five questions. Harper has transferred his famously control-freak style of governance from the PMO to the campaign trail. He will answer questions, but only five, and from a media held behind a yellow fence, 12 metres away. The strategy described by this Vancouver Sun commentary is well-known to USians: it's exactly how Republican handlers worked GWB. Prime Minister Stephen Harper held his news conference Thursday and declined to tell journalists — corralled behind a yellow fence over 12 metres away — why he limits the daily encounters to just five questions. The episode highlighted the brewing issue of whether Harper, as the apparent front-runner in the race, is running a campaign in a bubble to prevent embarrassing mistakes. After several da...

If you read only one piece on this year's Super Bowl advertising hypocrisy, make it Antonia Zerbisias . I read this on Facebook, copied with permission: Pro-choice people have better use for their money! By now most of you have probably heard about the anti-choice ad CBS plans to run during the Super Bowl. Multiple media sources have reported that the segment will cost sponsors Focus on the Family $2.5 million. Here at NYAAF, we have been wondering: what kind of non-profit has an extra $2.5 million lying around to spread misinformation to sports fans? How, we wonder, was such an expense justified to their individual supporters and their board? While extra cash lying around has never been our problem, neither has irresponsible spending. Our pledge to our supporters remains true: %100 of your tax-deductible donations go directly to helping women obtain abortions they need but cannot afford. Our board is %100 volunteer and our personal donations as board members cover all overhead cos...

This is making the rounds through the Canadian blogosphere, and worth reading: Canada cannot be both a parliamentary and a populist democracy. Parliamentary Democracy In Crisis , an explosive new book analyzing December's constitutional showdown, written by 15 of Canada's leading parliamentary experts, says Canada must bridge its two largely irreconcilable democratic cultures or face an uncertain future. Canada's two solitudes are no longer Quebec and English Canada. Today, the two solitudes are Historic Canada and The West. Polls taken during the crisis found that Historic Canada -- Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes -- backed parliamentary democracy and the Liberal-NDP coalition supported by the Bloc Quebecois. Under parliamentary democracy, the government of the day must win and maintain the confidence of a majority of the members of parliament to retain power. The West overwhelmingly supported the populist outcome -- a two-month prorogation allowing the minority Conserva...

I wanted to do a round-up of progressive bloggers on this latest Liberal capitulation, but I don't have the time. Fortunately, Allan does. Here's another Redsock guest post to help keep us informed. Thanks to Accidental Deliberations for doing this first. - L From various progressive blogs: Disaffected Lib : Puffing himself up as perhaps no one else can, Iggy said, "We are putting this government on probation." Gee, Mike, I thought a minority government with an unruly opposition was always on probation. Was I missing something? ... Let's get this straight. The interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, our nation's Official Opposition, is content to allow Canada in the face of this fiscal emergency to wallow haplessly under the weight of Harper's visionless bailout budget. ... If you support this budget, Mikey, you're saying "okay" to everything that's in it - and that's anything but okay to me. To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak ...

Shorter Ignatieff: The budget is very bad, it's very bad, it's kind of bad, it's bad. But... it's not so bad. I'm going to live with it anyway. * * * * These goddamn Liberals. They get to act tough, showcase Ignatieff's tough-talking leadership, and then defeat the Government and have an election when they're good and ready, and when they feel Canadians are amenable to it. And we're stuck with this bullshit Government and their unfocused, grab-bag budget that does more for wealthy folks remodelling their kitchens than working people thrown out of work and barely hanging on. It's no big surprise, we knew Ignatieff wasn't really into the coalition, but it still sucks.