Inside Politics

Recently by Terry Milewski

Power & Politics' Ballot Box question

Tags: ballot box, power & politics

We asked: Should a byelection be delayed until Elections Canada rules on Peter Penashue?

Here are the results:

Yes: 95%
No: 5%
Not sure: 0%

Power & Politics' Ballot Box question

Tags: ballot box, First Nations, power & politics


Learn more about our interactive features for CBC News Network's Power & Politics and how you can take part in the political conversation -- live and on-screen -- here. Ballot Box refreshes daily - the question you see above is the current question.

Internet Explorer 8 users please note: browser cookies must be enabled to vote in Ballot Box. Consult your browser's privacy settings. We asked: Will next week's meeting with the PM satisfy First Nations demands? Here are the results: Yes: 24% No: 74% Not Sure: 2% (Note: This survey is not scientific. Results are based on readers' responses.)

Is that Baird or Bard?

Tags: john baird

It's nearly always a good idea to quote great poets and statesmen in your address to the United Nations.

Nearly always.

In the case of Foreign Minister John Baird, the quotations -- properly attributed -- were standard fare from Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Kahlil Gibran and Martin Luther King. And who's gonna argue with them?

One additional quote, though, was not attributed.

Click through to read more about Baird's choice of words.

Dealing with Dilma

Tags: stephen harper

In hockey and economics -- two subjects on which Stephen Harper knows his stuff -- it's not always obvious when a deft play has occurred. Was it the goal, or was it the clever pass that set it in motion? Was it the tax cut, or was it blind luck?

Latin America is a place where, well, Harper's no expert. His trip so far is not exactly blasting open the doors of the heavily-protected Brazilian market. But when called upon to handle the former Marxist guerrilla who now runs Brazil, Harper managed a deft play that was unmistakable.

What did he think of Dilma Rousseff's smackdown of Standard & Poor's?

President Rousseff, now managing a capitalist success story in the world's seventh-largest economy, didn't mince words about the downgrade decision that has made life harder for her country. As Harper looked on, she bluntly said she disagreed with it. It was "rushed." In fact, she added, "I would even say incorrect."

Brazilians are struggling with a sky-high currency, which makes their exports costly and is caused by a flight from the floundering U.S. greenback. S & P just made a bad situation worse.

When the leader of a two-trillion-dollar economy turns her guns on a credit rating agency, it matters. So, was Harper's new friend in Latin America correct about S & P being incorrect?

The Prime Minister's deft answer ... after the jump.
Before we all start spinning our brilliant theories to explain why Stephen Harper did so well, let's admit it. We got it wrong, wrong, wrong.

Oh, we'll get to those clever theories soon enough. But can we quickly get a fast mea culpa out of the way? With luck, no one will notice.

The fact is that the political geniuses on the campaign planes were hopelessly out of touch - political staffers and journalists alike. A senior aide to Stephen Harper said his best-case scenario was 157 seats. That was his most extravagant dream! A longtime Calgary MP picked 149. So did I.

A veteran cameraman picked 155, and we pitied him as we pitched our $10 into the pool. One respected reporter picked 139. We all thought, dammit, why didn't we do the same? One thing we were clear on: there was no way the Tories would get a majority.

'Rise up!' Ignatieff goes for broke

Tags: canada votes, liberals, michael ignatieff, terry milewski

What exactly can Michael Ignatieff do to drive voters off their couches and into the streets with pitchforks, determined to turf Stephen Harper out of power?

So far, not much. He must be wondering what it takes. He damns the Tories in his professorial way and tempts voters with a "Family Pack" of goodies. He debates, he barbecues, he fields every question and calls them all "excellent!" But the polls barely move.

Now, here he is with the vote looming. He's in Sudbury, fielding still more questions from an adoring crowd. He apologizes for answering one with a "partisan shot at the other guy." A woman calls out, "that's what we want, Michael!" Another shouts, "two weeks of that, Michael!"

Then Ignatieff wraps up the night with a different face on. He pauses and recalls a Bruce Springsteen song, "The Rising," and launches into a riff on how voters seem to shrug off Harper's crimes against democracy. Contempt of Parliament? "People say, well, so what?" Cutting off questions? "So what?" Smearing Helena Guergis? "So what?" Crooks in the PMO? "So what?" Trying to scrap students' votes in Guelph? "People say, well, so what?"

Ignatieff then scans the crowd and shouts.

"Rise up! Rise up, Canada! Rise up!"

Video: Students say 'we will vote'

Tags: canada votes 2011, conservatives, Stephen Harper

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Harper the hawk goes to Paris. Or is he Goldilocks?

Tags: gadhafi, harper, libya, military, no-fly zone, paris talks, united nations

The world does not wait for the Canadian Parliament to debate contempt, confidence and Bev Oda. Although his own government may not last a week, Stephen Harper felt compelled to fly through the night to help end Muammar Gadhafi's.

Will it work? It depends on how ruthless the Western powers are prepared to be. Harper - a hawk who condemned the Chrétien government's decision to stay out of Iraq - may find that a muscular approach is more popular this time.

At least, as long as it goes well.

Meet the monarch. But no loud noises, please

Tags: democracy, egypt, morocco, stephen harper, tunisia, united nations

Stephen Harper visits Morocco - carefully

tunisia-584-00061668.jpg A protester stands in front of the prime minister's office in Tunis this week to demand the removal of members of the ousted president's regime still in the government. (Christophe Ena/Associated Press)

At first, we all figured the Morocco leg of the prime minister's trip was an afterthought on the way home from the real business in Switzerland.

Stephen Harper went to Geneva, of course, to discuss the UN's vast maternal health initiative, which involves billions of dollars and millions of lives. The stop in Rabat was surely just a courtesy call on the way home. Morocco, after all, is often dismissed as a sleepy, post-colonial backwater with no oil.

After Tunisia, everything changed.

lewis-stephen584-1762874.jpg

First, we must save the mothers and children. No, wait! First, we must make sure this isn't another gigantic, United Nations festival of corruption.

Then, we must save the mothers and children.

It's no secret that great humanitarian schemes can go horribly awry. Remember the UN's Oil-for-Food program in Iraq? Yes, that was the mother of all boondoggles. To this day, nobody knows how many billions were stolen.

This time, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is wading into a program which is certainly gigantic: the UN's $40-billion project to cut the death rate among the world's most impoverished women and children.

Is it possible that some of that enormous pile of money could go astray? Definitely. Remember, this kind of funding is directed at places like Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen...

So, having pledged more than a billion dollars of Canadians' money to the cause as the chair of last year's G8 summit in Muskoka, Harper is now co-chairing a UN "Accountability Commission" to make sure the cash isn't pocketed by sticky-fingered autocrats and bureaucrats.

Thus far, the omens are not good. At the UN last year, Harper pledged $540 million to another grand scheme to cut the death rate of the most vulnerable. And...?

And now, donors are getting queasy.