Peter Julian the Latest NDP Leadership Candidate to Make Royal City Stop

About 20 people joined Peter Julian for breakfast, maybe lunch, at Breezy Corners in Downtown Guelph today. Julian follows Charlie Angus and Niki Ashton as the third leadership candidate for the NDP to make a campaign stop in Guelph, and he made a pitch to the city's strong activist spirit to lend him their support for a grassroots-driven party that hearkens back to the New Democrats own origins.

Niki Ashton Promotes Pride for Being Left in Guelph

Niki Ashton came to Guelph Sunday evening. The Churchill—Keewatinook Aski became the latest NDP Member of Parliament to pass through Guelph lately, and the second NDP leadership candidate to visit the Royal City in the last couple of weeks. Ashton's message Sunday evening at the Red Papaya in Old Quebec Street was that the best way forward for the national New Democrats was to be themselves.

GUELPH POLITICAST #76 - Charlie Angus in the Green Room with a Story

This time next month, the federal Conservative leadership race will be concluded, and we will know who the new leader of the Opposition is going to be. But when that race is over, there's still one more left to go, the competition for the leadership of the NDP, and there's a 1-in-5 chance that Charlie Angus will get the job.

The Problem with Hudak?

The knives are out! At least that's how the Toronto Sun is putting it, and it kind of sounds a bit like something Arnold Schwarzenegger might yell at a squad of bad guys before he, himself, takes out the knives.

But the knives in this instance have Tim Hudak's name written all over them. Apparently some upstarts, and not-so-upstart members, of the Ontario Tory membership feel that a showing of one out of five in last week's by-elections is reason enough to say "Sayonara" to the leadership of Hudak. It's an interesting question: with the Liberal government under perpetual seige, is the one thing keeping the Ontario PCs from seizing power at Queen's Park Tim Hudak? As a wise man once said, "Short answer yes, with an if; long answer no, with a but..."

Garneau Quits, Says Trudeau Inevitable

A bit of a shocker today coming from the race for Liberal leadership with the withdrawal of Marc Garneau, former astronaut, MP for Westmount-Ville-Mari, and Justin Trudeau's nearest competition in the race.

Trudeau Draws a Crowd at U of G

Normally the kind of wall-to-wall crowd assembled at the Brass Taps this afternoon is there to see some popular indie band. Or are there for trivia night. Rarely does a politician make this kind of smash anyway, especially when he or she is from a major Federal party. But today, the Original JT - that's Justin Trudeau - brought political sexy back to the Brass Taps at the University of Guelph's University Centre.

Progress for the Wynne

Before diving into the politics of Kathleen Wynne's unprecedented victory in the Ontario Liberal Leadership Convention Saturday, can we take a moment to acknowledge this game changer? Ontarians now have their first female Premier, and more than that, Canada has it's first ever LGBT Premier. When she's sworn in, Wynne will be the sixth female Premier current serving in Canada, which means that 3 out of 5 provinces are governed by women. And in Ontario's soon to be re-opened Legislature, 2 out of 3 of the parties with seats there will be fronted by a woman.

Honestly, if you can't leave aside partisanship and politics for a moment to take a step back and truly appreciate the historic relevance of these benchmarks, then I'm afraid there's no hope for you. You're clearly too big an ideologue and I pity you because you may hate the brand, you may hate the policy, but you can't not admit, that the Ontario of this Monday morning truly awakened in the 21st century.

But this blog is called Politico, and deal with the politics we shall.

Waiting for Paul Dewar

It was an offer I couldn't refuse. NDP leadership candidate Paul Dewar was making a stop at the Brass Taps in the University Centre at the University of Guelph. I assumed that this would be a hot ticket, not as an indication of the popularity of Dewar as future leader of the Official Opposition, but because Guelph, as a political animal, usually loves this kind of attention.

Or at least, I thought it did.