Liberals onside with public opinion on doctor-assisted dying legislation
The Liberal government sided with public opinion in the doctor-assisted dying legislation that was tabled on Thursday. Canadians were already widely on board with legalizing it, but the Liberals have also aligned themselves with the views of most Canadians on the details, too.
The government had to come up with the legislation due to the unanimous landmark ruling last year by the Supreme Court of Canada that struck down the ban on doctor-assisted dying. Politically, it was not dangerous territory, as at least two-thirds of Canadians have supported legalizing doctor-assisted death since the late 1970s.
But the devil was in the details on how it would be implemented, who would be eligible and what protections would be put into place to spare the vulnerable.
Polling conducted by the Angus Reid Institute (ARI) in March suggests that the Liberals did not take many controversial positions in putting together this legislation.
You can read the rest of this article here.
The Pollcast: The impact of the Manitoba leaders' debate
Four party leaders faced off in last night's leaders' debate, with just a week to go before Manitoba goes to the polls on April 19. But this late in the campaign, did their performances do anything to move the dial?
A new poll taken just after the debate by Mainstreet Research found that 44 per cent of viewers thought PC Leader Brian Pallister did the better job, followed by NDP Leader Greg Selinger (24 per cent), James Beddome of the Greens (19 per cent) and Liberal Leader Rana Bokhari, with just 4 per cent rating Bokhari as the best performer.
Joining me to discuss what went down in last night's debate is the CBC's Cameron MacIntosh. You can listen to it here.
Keeping Tom Mulcair may have been safer bet for NDP, history suggests
Losing seats from one election to the next can sting for the devotees of a political party. The natural reaction may be to call for a change of leadership, as New Democrats did on Sunday at the NDP's convention.
But history suggests that a change in leadership is not necessarily a ticket for future success — in fact, holding on to the leader may be the safer choice.
You can read the rest of this article here.
NDP lost the left to Justin Trudeau before rejecting Tom Mulcair
New Democrats rejected the leadership of Tom Mulcair at their party convention on the weekend, kicking off a battle for the soul of the NDP. With their support for a closer look at the Leap Manifesto, NDP members seem to believe the party's future lies in a return to the left.
But that edge of the spectrum, if the New Democrats want to occupy it again, will need to be wrested away from the Liberals first.
You can read the rest of this article on how the NDP is polling among its core constituencies here.
