I’ve followed New Zealand electoral politics for many years, rather rabidly since the Fifth Labour Government was elected in 1999, and have read the New Zealand Herald online pretty much daily since then. Based in Auckland, the Herald has NZ’s largest newspaper circulation and a slew of political commentators ranging from former Alliance president Matt [...]
Nov 12, 2011 | Categories: World Politics | Tags: Act Party, Alliance, cabinet, centre-right, David Farrar, Don Brash, election, Epsom, first past the post, government, Green Party, Greenpeace, Irish Times, John Banks, John Key, KILL ALL THE COWS, Kiwiblog, Labour, Mana, Maori, mixed member proportional, MMP, National Party, New Zealand, New Zealand First, New Zealand Herald, opinion poll, Peter Dunne, populism, ranked ballot, referendum, Rodney Hide, United Future, Winston Peters | Comments Off
I decided against blogging last week about the new Ontario cabinet in part because it wasn’t very exciting news – no defectors à la Belinda to give the Libs a majority, no new names in cabinet – and also because three (posts), as they say, is the magic number. Had I written the aforementioned would-be post, [...]

Oct 25, 2011 | Categories: Canadian Politics | Tags: alternative vote, Aras, Belinda Stronach, Bob Rae, Brian Lenihan, brinkmanship, by-election, cabinet, consensus, constitutional convention, critic, David Peterson, Dublin West, elections, Elizabeth Witmer, federal, Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, foreign workers, Frank Klees, government, Ireland, Irish, Joan Burton, Labour, liberal, Machiavelli, majority, minority, municipal, New Democratic Party, OLP, ONDP, Ontario, opposition, parliament, Paul Martin, PC, Peter Milliken, plurality, politics, polls, president, Progressive Conservative, provincial, Randy Hillier, Sean Gallagher, shadow cabinet, single transferable vote, Socialist Party, United Left Alliance, Westminster | Comments Off