The Trudeau Liberal’s 2017 budget is out. Did they manage to find enough red ink to get it printed in time?

Next, the Conservative leadership race is embroiled in another scandal as over 1300 inappropriately signed up members are struck from the party’s list.

Then a quick dive into Alberta politics as we catch up on how Jason Kenney is making waves in the province.

Subscribe and do all the things. It’s also #TryPod month so secretly trick your friends into listening to this (or any other) podcast.

Links

• Pat Stogran’s The Rebel Gorilla and Facebook Page

Innovate the middle class

• Budget 2017 PDF
• Budget highlights via CBC
• Budget printing costs rise
• Andrew Coyne on the budget
• Lefty analyses from CCPA

Phantom members

• The Globe and Mail gets affidavit pointing vote rigging at O’Leary camp

Jason Kenney’s Wild Rose Ride

• Daveberta on Kenney leadership win and next phases
• Trevor Tombe on the Alberta budget

Quick takes

• BC Conservatives can haz policy too
• Vancouver Sun investigation into big BC Liberal donors doing “big business” with government
• BC political finance bill dies
• BC Government sued over partisan taxpayer funded ads
• BC NDP to side with mayors against Massey Tunnel replacement
• Ontario looks at rent control
• Andrew Potter’s controversial take on Quebec and subsequent resignation from McGill

The Trudeau Liberals are proposing some changes to the way the House of Commons functions. Ian & Scott look at whether these will improve civility or stifle opposition. Then, Christy Clark’s bill to solve BC’s fundraising scandals is out and it’s somewhat underwhelming. What really was the point of this? And we look at the state of the NDP leadership race following their first debate – or, more accurately, group icebreaker.

Finally, big news this week as we announce our partnership with TheDarkHorse.Report This new Vancouver-based blog looks to make politics more accessible and already has a nice poll aggregator to keep up with the upcoming BC election. Check it out, where you can find our latest episodes and more great analysis.

March is #TryPod month so help spread the word about this and other great podcasts. Make it your goal to get a friend hooked on podcasts before the end of the month.

Links

Changing the rules of the game

• Modernizing the House of Commons discussion paper
• CBC coverage

Doing nothing is something

• Guy Giorno comments

Agree to Agree

• NDP Leadership Debate video
• Niki Ashton ‘to the left’ cultural appropriation
• Pat Stogran considers leadership bid
• Brian Graffe sues NDP for being refused permission to run

Quick takes

• BC Conservatives shut out of leaders’ debate
• BC NDP tech plan
• Harcourt pitches UBC subway
• Gondola to North Van
• Nova Scotia rocket launch site
• Vision Vancouver launches Stand Up For Renters campaign

Why are BC’s political parties so incompetent? Christy Clark spent much of the week claiming the NDP hacked her website when really, the BC Liberals probably just didn’t update their WordPress plugins.

Meanwhile, Micah comes back to discuss the return of the Court Challenges Program (sorry for the audio quality Micah!) and we discuss what the census data mean for federal representation and the Vancouver housing bubble.

And quick takes on the TPP, Bombardier bail-outs, more bad arguments against electoral reform, OAS report and a new Campaign Research poll.

Links

Podcast recommendations

• 12th and Cambie
• The Boys in Short Pants
• The Broadcast
• Canadian Political Underground

Segment 1: Alternative Hacks

• Mike Smyth’s columns in The Province
• BC Liberal staffer hired by government
• “Dear Mike” letter

Segment 2: Sue Trudeau for free!

• Court Challenges Program restored

Segment 3: Counting Canucks

• Census released
• BC under-represented in Parliament
• Growth favours Conservatives
• Census shows empty homes
• People flee rich end of Vancouver

Quick takes

• Canada goes post-TPP
• Bombardier bail out
• Alt-right fears killed electoral reform
• Raise retirement age says economic advisory group
• Campaign research poll

Our first segment: Ding dong, electoral reform is dead. We all sort of expected a long, slow process, but Trudeau seems to have given it a compassionate assisted death (which is legal now). Will this egregious promise breaking bite the Liberals? Was there possibly a more unceremonious way they could have killed this? In our second segment we examine the what’s in the BC NDP’s Climate Plan (or more appropriately, what isn’t) and how they sprung a leak.
Finally, we offer our new, even quicker takes on how fast the federal government is spending infrastructure money, Vancouver media downsizing, fundraising numbers in the Conservative leadership race, an undignified departure of an undignified strategist and tweaks to the foreign buyers tax.

All this and more in the latest episode of PolitiCoast!

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Links

Segment one: Electoral Status Quo

• The new mandate letter
• Nathaniel Erskine-Smith’s apology
• November Angus Reid data on electoral reform
• Michael Chong’s democratic reform plan
• List of promises kept & broken

Segment two: Carbon leaks

• BC NDP Climate Plan
• Liberal leak & press release
• Green Party response

Quicktakes

• PBO report on infrastructure spending
• Vancouver media downsizing
• Conservative Party leadership fundraising numbers
• Nick Kouvalis resigns
• Foreign buyers tax lifted for work permits and some refunds

What has the first week of Trump’s presidency meant for Canada? Did the government’s MyDemocracy.ca survey find anything useful? It’s time for another edition of PolitiCoast!

Links

• Tieleman on Clark vs Trump
• Ipsos Conservative Party leadership poll
• MyDemocracy.ca report
• FairVote Canada response to report
• Internal trade deal to be announced
• BC Supreme Court refuses to hear conflict of interest charges
• Nanos suggests Trudeau’s honeymoon is ending
• Report on Canadian media
  
• Jesse Brown Twitter rant on media report
• Paul Well’s take on media report
• Brexit must pass Commons vote

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