Category Archives: Liberal

New York Times

Break Up the Liberal City New York Times This great-already sentiment has been reproduced in many elite quarters, and last week the Niskanen Center's Will Wilkinson, writing in The Washington Post, brought it to a particularly sharp point: What's really great about America is its big, booming ...

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Break Up the Liberal City - New York Times

BEIJING Lucifer does not follow Chinese politics. The 28-year-old musician in Beijing who chose his English name to be different doesn't read state media. He cannot name any of the standing committees of the Politburo, the seven men who steer the Chinese Communist Party, save for Xi Dada, a common nickname for Chinese President Xi Jinping.

And he doesnt know the difference between the National Peoples Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the two annual state meetings that brought Beijing to a halt over the past two weeks as the next year of policies and priorities were rubber-stamped. Collectively called the two sessions, these parades of bureaucratic power have dominated foreign news coverage of China.

To read the tea leaves of Chinas future, governments and journalists around the world are watching the top. But maybe they shouldn't be.

There are deeply worrying trends in top-level Chinese politics. Since becoming president four years ago, President Xi has consolidated power, cracked down on civil society, and stifled dissent in an alarming reversal of what observers both inside and out of China had hoped was a trend of gradual reform since the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

His government has tortured human rights lawyers, brought foreign NGOs under state supervision, and called for stricter socialist ideological education in colleges. This year's state congress confirmed that autocratic trend, with fewer dissenting votes (just 14 out of 2,838) and more references to Xi as the core of the party. By these measures, China seems to be going not forward but backward to the Mao era.

But there is another, contrasting trend that is much more promising: While the Chinese leadership is repressive, Chinese society is becoming increasingly liberal. That is especially true of the younger and urban generation, which I have been following, befriending, and writing about since I first arrived to live in Beijing in 2008, fresh out of college.

Their lives sketch a different picture: one of a population more receptive to new ideas, while firm in the conviction that Chinas interests are paramount; of a society that is steadily more progressive, as the countryside gives way to the cities; and of a generation with radically different aspirations and attitudes than those of their elders including those who happen to be running the country.

Its far more a desire for reform than for revolution, whether the goal is free speech or greater equality. And it has never been clearer that the system does not want to be reformed in a more liberal mold. But generational shifts, while slow, are inevitable.

Which means that while the repressive bureaucracy of China that we know today wont be going away anytime soon, the longer-term future may look very different.

Women's and LGBTQ rights are always a good litmus tests for social progress, and young feminist voices are growing just as the state's efforts to suppress them are, with more activism both on and offline. Despite a ruling against same-sex marriage, the fact that it even made it to the courts is telling, and there is greater youth acceptance of LGBTQ individuals, whether they are fighting for their rights or just asking for a hug.

Young Chinese are having sex earlier and marrying later, resisting their parents' urges to find a spouse in their early 20s. The 2015 China Love and Marriage Survey, conducted by Peking University and baihe.com, a leading Chinese dating website, found that for people born after 1995, the average age at which they had sex for the first time is 17.7. Thats compared with those born in the 1980s, who had their first sexual experiences on average at over 22 years old. And according to China's Ministry of Civil Affairs, in 2015 nearly 14 percent of Chinese lived by themselves more than twice as many as in 1990.

More graduates are opting to start their own business, as part of a boom of entrepreneurship, rather than work in a state-owned company or bank. And more divergent views than ever are being shared on social media platforms such as Weibo (often referred to as the Chinese Twitter) and the messaging app WeChat, which has more than 650 million monthly active users even if many of those divergent views are taken down by the Chinese government. Censorship can slow the trend, but it cannot stop it.

Liberal attitudes have also been borne out in recent surveys: 60 percent of young Chinese have a favorable view of the US, compared with 35 percent of those over 50, according to Pew. A study published in February found a surprising decrease in nationalistic sentiment among young people in Beijing compared with previous years, and compared with their elders.

Another survey of Chinese students reported that 73 percent agreed that Western political systems are very appropriate for our country. That is in part a result of globalization and China's more international outlook, influencing a generation that grew up during the era of World Trade Organization membership and the Olympic Games. It is also helped by the number of Chinese students studying abroad roughly 330,000 in the US.

Above all, change is apparent at the individual level. Lucifers life trajectory would not have been possible 20 years ago. He was born Li Yan, in the rural outskirts of a town in Hebei province, neighboring Beijing. His father sells tractor parts, and his mother teaches primary school math.

Instead of following in their footsteps, Lucifer whose story I write about in my book Wish Lanterns came to Beijing and formed a rock band, which toured overseas and won a competition. He went on reality TV dating and talent shows. Now he runs his own cafe-bar in the hutongs near the Drum Tower, an area of central Beijing popular with young people, and is about to open a second one.

"I want to tell international friends an opinion that young Chinese have faith, energy, want to be respected, and hope to progress, said Lucifer. I hope foreigners can discover young Chinese are thinking progressively and looking upward."

Xi Jinping's vision for China is not likely to thaw for the next six years of his term, but more meaningful change is happening far away from the two sessions, which some young Chinese netizens have dubbed the stupid sessions a pun in Mandarin where another word for two has a slang meaning of dumb.

That's why Lucifer doesn't follow China's top-level politics not because he doesn't care about the future of China, but because in the long term it is being shaped from the bottom up, not from the top down.

The outcome of this societal shift is impossible to predict, but is likely to be a nation less suspicious of the Wests intentions than the current leadership is, and more open to different ideologies than the socialism which the party preaches but does not practice.

Indeed, changing social attitudes is the very reason the state is so alarmingly brazen in stifling its own population. As novelist and dissident Murong Xuecun put it to me, "The strict censorship is because people's thinking is more Western and open, due to the booming of the internet from 2000 to today." He is pessimistic about today's grim political realities, but also said that "more people think there will be change."

That shift is much more noticeable in Chinas bigger cities than in the countryside or lower-tier cities, where traditional values still prevail. The lower classes have more reason to protest the status quo than those in higher rungs who benefit from it, while the middle classes prefer not to rock the boat. Above all it is generational, in that the conservative old guard including those in power tends to be, well, older.

Mao Zedong framed the revolutionary struggle as being between the old and the new; a key component of the Cultural Revolution was called "break the four olds" (customs, culture, habits, ideas). A more ancient Chinese saying holds, "Breathe out the old, breathe in the new."

Now it is again the younger generations in China that are waiting for their elders to step aside and give them a go at the reins.

This means that while the current state of US-China relations is defined in part by a clash of nationalism at the top, that may not be true when the next generation of Chinese comes into power. It will take longer than the yearly cycle of politics, but the change led by society and youth in China will be more lasting.

Alec Ash is a writer in Beijing. He is the author of Wish Lanterns: Young Lives in New China, following the lives of six young Chinese.

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How the rise of a liberal, social mediasavvy generation is changing Chinese society - Vox

Toronto Sun

Liberal words don't intend to deceive, they just do Toronto Sun Superclusters. We can't describe them. Don't know how to make them. But whatever they are, last week's budget says they'll solve Canada's economic problems. Last year, your Liberals believed infrastructure was our economic cure-all. But, you see ...

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Liberal words don't intend to deceive, they just do - Toronto Sun

When opposition MPs used procedural tactics to delay last Wednesdays budget for half an hour, it was the parliamentary way of jumping up and down and screaming to get attention. They did it because they want people to notice that the Liberal government might be trying to take away the tools they use to scream for attention.

The nitty-gritty details of the workings of Parliament are eye-glazingly dull, so most people quite rightly ignore them most of the time. But this is one occasion when Canadians should keep watch. The Liberal government has signalled they want to change the rules, extensively, quickly, and possibly without the consent of the other political parties in the House of Commons.

This is no small thing: Its the way laws are made, governments scrutinized, and how much time and capacity will be given over to dissent, or to highlighting mistakes governments make. It is the rush, and the suggestion the Liberals will act unilaterally, that has the oppositions backs up.

When Stephen Harpers Conservative government changed election laws unilaterally with its Fair Elections Act, the Liberals and NDP screamed. Now the Liberals appear intent on changing Parliaments rules in a matter of months.

How would the Liberals have reacted if Mr. Harper had done this? NDP House Leader Murray Rankin asked Friday.

The this in question is changing the Standing Orders of the House of Commons, the written rules of procedure. Parliamentary rules can be arcane, and there are things that could be updated: The Liberals proposals include some things opposition MPs might eventually support, like electronic voting. The Liberals insist its just a discussion paper but then Liberal MP Scott Simms proposed that a committee report by June 2 on which proposals should be adopted.

Theres a reason to be careful about fixing the Standing Orders. They allow the Commons to more or less work so the majority can pass legislation but the minority have an opportunity to question and point to things they think are wrong often in inconvenient ways, like Wednesdays move to delay the budget.

Theres always a tension. And young governments like Mr. Trudeaus, now 17 months old, get frustrated. The rules give the government most of the power to decide when things will be debated, but the opposition can slow the progress to passage of legislation it doesnt like. Majority governments can force bills to votes, using procedures like time allocation or closure to curtail debate, but they dont like to do it too often, because then they are accused of dictatorial behaviour the Liberals and NDP called Mr. Harper an autocrat when he used those methods.

The Liberals dont want to use those blunt instruments,. And they also promised to make Parliament less about partisan squabbles. So theyve put forward proposals to make the Commons more efficient, including programming, where the Commons sets aside time in advance for debate on each bill.

But its the majority, usually the government, that gets the final say on programming. The opposition fears that that, along with other proposals like eliminating filibusters at committees, would diminish their main parliamentary tool: procedures they can use to occasionally jump up and down and scream for attention. Once in a while, if you have to pull the fire alarm, you want the fire alarm to be there, Mr. Rankin said.

Of course, governments find that annoying. The Liberal government wants to adopt its agenda. Mr. Trudeaus government has a lot of folks focused on policy and politics, but few influential advisors who care deeply about the eye-glazing work of Parliament. Such sages might have warned that seeking rapid changes in Parliaments rules wont lower partisanship, and will create a precedent that might one day be turned on the Liberals.

The Liberals once had such wise heads: the late Jerry Yanover, the partys parliamentary expert, advised government and opposition leaders for decades on outwitting the other side with tactics and when it was unwise to try. Once, when Paul Martin was in power, he confided that he wasnt sure his advice would be taken. Sometimes governments are like teenagers, he said. Theyre physically large, so they think theyre smart, too.

When it comes to reforming the rules, the Liberals should act with more maturity. And on this occasion, Canadians should keep watch on how they do things in Parliament.

Follow Campbell Clark on Twitter: @camrclark

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Hidden dangers lie in Liberals' proposed parliamentary rule changes - The Globe and Mail

E.J. Dionne Jr., The Washington Post 5:01 p.m. PT March 26, 2017

E.J. Dionne Jr.(Photo: The Washington Post)

I really miss liberal Republicans. People like Mitt Romney.

No doubt the former Massachusetts governor would be aghast at being called such a thing. Of course Romney is not a liberal in any conventional sense. But 11 years ago it now seems like a lifetimeRomney acted in the great tradition of liberal Republicans. He saw a problem and tried to solve it in the most business-friendly way possible. The result was the Massachusetts health care plan.

At a celebration for the new law, as recounted in a 2011 New Yorker piece by Ryan Lizza, Romney tried to explain why his approach was in line with his partys history. Its a Republican way of reforming the market, he declared. Because, let me tell you, having 30 million people in this country without health insurance and having those people show up when they get sick, and expect someone else to pay, thats a Democratic approach.

More Dionne: Read other columns by E.J. Dionne Jr.

A bit demagogic? Sure, especially when one of the politicians who helped Romney pass his bill was the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, for whom universal health coverage was the cause of his political life.

But Romneys definition of a plausible path for his party on health care was compelling. The Republican approach is to say, You know what? Everybody should have insurance. They should pay what they can afford to pay. If they need help, we will be there to help them, but no more free ride.

Yes, requiring everyone to buy health insurance on the private market and providing adequate subsidies so lower-income citizens could afford it really was a conservative idea. It was an alternative to liberal calls for a single-payer approach that would have the federal government take over the health care system.

The mandate was seen not as oppressive, but as an endorsement of personal responsibility. If you can be required to buy car insurance (because everybody is at risk of getting into an accident), why not require people to buy health insurance (because everybody is at risk of getting sick)? But since health coverage is financially out of reach for so many, the fair thing is to ask them to pay what they can and have government fill in the rest.

The debacle that is Trumpcare, aka Ryancareboth President Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan own this thingis a reminder that conservatism has gone haywire. Romney looks like a liberal because conservative Republicans (with a few honorable dissenters) have largely abandoned trying to solve social problems, except for offering free-market bromides as if they are solutions.

Even Romney usually played down the greatest achievement of his governorship when he ran for president in 2012 because President Obama had the nerve to learn from the Massachusetts experience: The Affordable Care Act is rooted in the principles and policies of Romneycare. This was awkward for a Republican presidential candidate because repealing Obamacare had become GOP dogma. So, like a repentant heretic, Romney dutifully bowed to the new orthodoxy.

We already know that any promise Trump makes is meaningless (my colleague Eugene Robinson memorably observed, He even lies about his own lies), but its worth remembering that Trump has consistently tried to cast himself as more 2006 Romney than 2017 Ryan. Were going to have insurance for everybody, Trump told The Washington Post in January. There was a philosophy in some circles that if you cant pay for it, you dont get it. Thats not going to happen with us.

Actually, that is exactly what happened when Trump found himself issuing ultimatums on behalf of a bill that deprives an estimated 24 million Americans of health coverage (while cutting taxes on the affluent). Thus has Trump betrayed the working-class supporters he hides behind while pursuing the interests of his rich friendsas well as his own.

The United States is the only wealthy democracy in the world that doesnt provide health coverage to all its people. Republicans used to recognize this as a problem. Now, their ideology forces them to pretend it doesnt exist.

In his definitive piece on Romneycare, Lizza noted that in the hardcover edition of Romneys book No Apology, he had said of his health plan: We can accomplish the same thing for everyone in the country. Lizza observed that in the paperback, that line had been deleted.

Many in the GOP seem ready to edit out part of its conscience. The Trump/Ryan health care bill crashed on Friday because at least some Republicans refused to acquiesce in desecrating their partys tradition.

E.J. Dionnes email address is ejdionne@washpost.com.

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Republicans must renew compassionate liberal streak - The Desert Sun

It would be easy to become despondent in the face of the relentless attack on the media and on facts that confront us these days. But there is reason to be hopeful.

McKenzie Murray, a senior at Olympia High School in Olympia, Washington, explained why, despite the troubling patterns she sees, shes optimistic about the future. Her essay detailing her perspective which won the Washington Consortium for the Liberal Arts 2017 High School Liberal Arts Essay Contest makes it clear that she understands the nature of the problems were facing.

Politically, were in the midst of some of the most divisive times my generation has ever seen. And as discourse surrounding policy devolves, and people realize that they can capitalize on confusion and fear, a completely new challenge has suddenly been added to our high school experience--the proliferation of fake news on our social media feeds.

She also understands the consequences of the problem. Our democracy cant function without trust between the citizens, our policymakers, and the writers that keep us in touch with one another. Undermining the media is a tactic to silence civilian dissent and cover up gross ethical violations by some of the most powerful people in our nation.

Why, then, is she optimistic? Simply put, she sees a solution to the virulence that is putting some of our most cherished social values at risk.

The antidote to this silencing is a liberal education--an education that spans disciplines and emphasizes critical thinking. The liberal arts give us a voice, and a framework for understanding and discussing our world. Literature and philosophy allow us to look at the idea of a post-truth society and call it what it is--Orwellian, and a violation of our most basic civil liberties. Social studies allow us to look at when this has happened before, and what people did about it. Studying English and language fosters the kind of reasoning and judgment skills that we need to stay informed citizens. Mathematics and the sciences assist us in critical thinking, and seeing the logical underpinnings beneath hazy rhetoric and false claims.

McKenzie recognizes the power the liberal arts has to shape the qualities needed for students to become active citizens. She appreciates the fact that no one discipline or approach is enough to solve our most pressing problems. And as she notes, a broadly based liberal education, can create important habits of thinking: It fosters a kind of vital curiositya desire to understand life and humanity and to constantly keep learning.

She is confident that her generation will embrace this sort of education and that by doing so members of her cohort will learn the kind of critical thinking, truth-seeking, and commitment to respect and unity that we will need to practice throughout our entire lives.

I find McKenzies optimism to be contagious. If high school students like her are able to clearly define some of our most troubling problems and to recognize the type of education needed to craft solutions, there is good reason to be hopeful. Perhaps this next generation will be less divisive and more skeptical, more willing to recognize the difference between opinions and facts, than the current one. If so, they will likely create a more rational and more just world while supporting the full stretch of human knowledge from the sciences to the arts.

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Democracy and the Liberal Arts: A Student's Perspective - Huffington Post

NewsBusters (blog)

Liberal Media Narratives from JFK to Obama and Trump NewsBusters (blog) In fact the White interview of the grieving former First Lady published under the title For President Kennedy: An Epilogue was what media-savvy Americans today would recognize as what might be called the granddaddy of liberal media narratives.

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Liberal Media Narratives from JFK to Obama and Trump - NewsBusters (blog)

Street art photo from The Federalist (online) December, 2016

The left has killed public art slashed her with a thousand cuts and bled her of meaning and dignity. Our generation allowed art to be chained to leftist dogma, and her identity is changed beyond recognition. Public art is only allowed to spout meaningless leftist drivel at this point. She is a conscript in a forced American cultural revolution. Should President Trump be allowed to bury her or can she be revived?

Listening to major media, the nation is in grave peril. Or at least our art is. Threats to slash funding to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) and Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) are causing alarm. Anti-Trump protestors were just as infuriated before this announcement, and had some other reasons Trump was a threat to all interplanetary life. Its difficult to separate hysteria from fact at this point, but lets try.

The NEA and NEH were begun in 1965, in commemoration of the Kennedys, and part of the National Foundation for the Arts and Humanities Act. They do some excellent things and arent always divisive. The NEA brings musicians to rural schools, and commission public monuments. In 2012, the NEH paid for 13 one-hour dramas weaving together lives of the (presidential) Adams family between 1750 to 1900, based on 300,000 historical documents. I doubt many Americans will mind that, but they did have issues with Robert Mapplethorpe.

Although Mapplethorpe described his motifs as bondage, S&M and gay porn, the NEA still made a $30,000 grant in 1989 for a retrospective of his work. This was at the end of the Reagan era and signaled the onset of poor relations between many conservatives and the NEA. Previously it was generally good, with President Reagan particularly interested in the arts.

Reagan was part of the art world, and claimed the arts were one of the most important forms of human expression. Yet at the end of his term he said this: When it comes to the arts and humanities, the nation is best when government intrudes the least. Proving his sincerity for both statements, Reagan proposed cutting NEH funds, but also sought to change tax law so lower-income individuals could make tax-deductible contributions to the arts.

Author of gay kiddie propaganda, Leslea Newman, received NEA grants after publication of Heather Has Two Mommies

Spanning the time between Reagan and now, the NEA, NEH and CPB have become politicized and drifted far left. Almost no traditional print media or talking heads even touch on this. Since it is the only reason a host of conservatives are willing to see art funding disappear, they are missing the entire story. As usual.

The LA times doubled down on this, with a flurry of articles. Dana Gioia solemnly warns: They [Trump administration] are mounting a partisan battle that will do the nation no good. Yet Gioia either doesnt comprehend or care that leftist partisans have been running the NEA for at least twenty years.

Through the Bush presidencies, the NEA waged random war against conservatives, and attacked GOP politicians. G.W. Bush was their favorite whipping boy until Trump came along. Proving that conservatives are the only tolerant ones, Bush made no move to block the geysers of hate aimed at him by artists with NEA grants, even though it was something he could have easily done.

But more troubling than the NEA attacking its patrons, is the reverse: They functioned as a de facto fan club base for Obama. Several people, including myself, noted the creepy Dear Leader-type campaign when Obama drafted the NEA into his personal propaganda department. This was exposed in a group call-out in 2009 by Patrick Courrielche.

Screenshot from NEH series Shared Cultural Spaces: Islam and the West in the Arts and Sciences- 2011-2013

Conservatives tend to feel the need for public art less strongly than others, but its not a fast rule. Shouldnt the NEA and art community hold a little olive branch for the ones they blame over art fundings loss? So far, its just war as usual. Beyond being unjust, NEH partisan nastiness is something they have pledged to not do. Their mission statement reads: The Endowment [NEH] accomplishes this mission by awarding grants for top-rated proposals examined by panels of independent, external reviewers.

Artists and actors have furiously attacked Trump in every medium possible from the time he announced his candidacy. This includes his wife, son, friends and taste. Miles of art will be produced mocking and denouncing Trump and his policies, whatever they are. This hostility will not end even, if the administration reneges of funding cuts.

Smaller version of Renoirs 1874 La Loge, possibly belonging to Melania Trump

Pettiness is pervasive. A New York Post piece assumes a small Renoir in Melanias office is probably a fake. Yet the same article quotes Mark Bowdens horror when Trump points out a small painting on his plane and claims it is worth $10 million. But they contradict themselves even more, as they chide Trump for risking damage to the paintings they have previously labeled as fakes.

Only one article in the LA Times even comes close to comprehending the issue. Christopher Knight writes, Theyve been trying to kill it [NEA] for half a century not because they hate art, but because they hate government. Leftwing artists dont understand that, and take any cuts to art funding as a personal affront.

More pettiness: Last month protestors at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MoMA) demanded the museum drop board member Larry Fink because he joined Donald Trumps business council. Previously Fink was considered for a spot of Clintons team, and was therefore an acceptable liberal. The 180o pivot against Fink reveals the volatile hatred in these groups, ready to ignite over the slightest political unorthodoxy.

Federal funding for the NEA is comparably very small, about $150 million. But the power these sister organizations yield as policy makers and trailblazers is huge. The power of the state is a real thing, as proved by Obamas attempt to yoke it into service for his personal interests. If the NEA, NEH and CPB survive, they must at least make an appearance of impartiality in the future.

Sources

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Is public art dead? Thank a liberal - WND.com

OTTAWA New Democrat MP Nathan Cullen is planning a series of town-hall meetings in Liberal ridings across the country in an effort to resurrect the issue of electoral reform.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau backed away in February from his election promise to end first-past-the-post voting, saying there was no consensus on a replacement system.

Cullen has tabled a petition with 130,000 signatures calling on Trudeau to keep his promise on electoral change.

He says he will challenge 20 Liberal MPs to show up at meetings in their ridings to debate the issue.

He also says those 20 votes would make all the difference if those MPs were to break with the prime minister.

The first town hall is scheduled for Saturday in Toronto.

Cullen says an analysis of the petition shows support across the country.

"Canadians, many who voted Liberal in the last election, are rightly upset," he said today in Ottawa.

"I believe that there's no more sacred commitment or connection than the one between a prime minister who runs on a clear campaign promise and the people he seeks to represent."

There is one chance to salvage the reform process when the electoral reform committee's report comes up for a vote in the House of Commons in May.

"This will be the last opportunity for the Liberals to do the right thing," he said, "to follow through on the campaign commitment ... and bring in a voting system where, truly, every vote can count."

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Stand up for electoral reform, New Democrat MP urges Liberal colleagues - Times Colonist

The Liberal North Shore byelection candidate Felicity Wilson has downplayed the unpopularity of council amalgamations and is banking on voters being angrier about traffic on Military Road as she seeks election in the seat held for the Liberals by Jillian Skinner for 23 years.

"It's traffic, traffic, traffic, is what I'm getting everywhere," Ms Wilson said. "Traffic, public transport, the impacts of traffic. It's not surprising given that Military Road is one of the worst roads in our state."

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The NSW government has committed to a tolled motorway tunnel linking Balgowlah in Sydney's north to the Warringah Freeway in an effort to relieve traffic congestion on the northern beaches. Vision courtesy Ten Eyewitness News.

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Watch Sydney disappear as it becomes enveloped by angry storm clouds. Vision: Sydney Seaplanes

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Embattled airline Regional Express have been forced to turn back a flight en route to Sydney from Dubbo Airport.Courtesy ABC News24

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University of Newcastle engineers uncover how the Australian sawfish uses its weaponised razor-edged snout.

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NSW Police detectives say they have arrested a 63-year-old man in Frankston, Melbourne, in a "major breakthrough" in the infamous 1970 cold case.

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University of Sydney academic Professor Jennifer Byrne has uncovered alleged research fraud.

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A huge storm front has made its way across Western Sydney and the Central Coast.

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The propeller that came off a Regional Express plane has been recovered from bushland in Revesby in Sydneys south-west, after it came loose and narrowly missed hitting the REX flight.

The NSW government has committed to a tolled motorway tunnel linking Balgowlah in Sydney's north to the Warringah Freeway in an effort to relieve traffic congestion on the northern beaches. Vision courtesy Ten Eyewitness News.

Fortunately for Ms Wilson, Premier Gladys Berejiklian last week announced plans for a feasibility study on a Balgowlah to Warringah Freeway tunnel, which would bypass Military Road, just in time for the byelection.

Thursday's close of nominations saw the candidate field for the North Shore byelection on April 8 narrowed to eight, with just three independents standing, including anti-amalgamations campaigner and Mosman councillor Carolyn Corrigan and former Crown solicitor and trade practices lawyer Ian Mutton.

After an unsuccessful tilt at Brad Hazzard's nearby seat of Wakehurst in 2015, Silvana Nile, wife of Christian Democratic Party leader Fred Nile, is also standing for the North Shore seat, calling herself "the only true conservative candidate" in the field.

She cited the Christian Democrats' opposition to council amalgamations as a key vote-winner.

Many of the candidates view council amalgamations as the central byelection battleground, given the local unpopularity of the government's policy. Mosman and North Sydney Councils are in an ongoing legal fight against a forced merger with Willoughby.

Ms Wilson supported council amalgamations when she worked for the Property Council.

But she denied the issue was the vote-changer her opponents believe, saying there was a wide range of views in the community on amalgamations, including many who believed North Sydney council should be merged following its "governance issues and history of dysfunction".

She defended the government's six years of inaction on the north shore's traffic problem.

"Well we had to spend a few years righting the budget. As you've seen, Gladys was the first person to get the budget into surplus in 20 years after Labor's long deficit. Now the economy and the budget is in a strong place, we can go ahead and make the infrastructure investments prioritised across the state."

Local doctor Stephen Ruff and North Sydney mayor Jilly Gibson withdrew their candidacies ahead of Thursday's close of nominations, narrowing the field of independent challengers who are likely to split an anti-Liberal protest vote.

Ms Gibson said she made the 11th-hour decision to withdraw due to an unwell family member. It came as a full-page advertisement spruiking her campaign ran in the Mosman Daily on Thursday.

Ms Gibson threw her support behind Mr Mutton's independent campaign, saying they shared "a similar vision for the lower north shore".

Mr Mutton said locals felt they had been taken for granted for too long by the Liberals and even if he did not win, a significant swing away from the Liberals was a good start.

"I know this runs fundamentally against what every independent says, which is 'I'm going to win', but if we move this seat to an at-risk seat then we would have achieved an enormous amount for the electorate," he said.

The three independents scored the top three spots on the ballot in Thursday's ballot draw, with the Ms Wilson in number four.

Labor is not running a candidate.

The Greens candidate Justin Alick said his party was looking at preference deals with all independents and the Christian Democrats, despite "numerous very big philosophical differences", because of common ground on issues like council amalgamations and privatisation.

"I think there's a definite appetite for change in this community and the Greens have come second in the two party-preferred vote for the last several elections in a row, we are the opposition here," Mr Alick said.

The Greens will announce this weekend at a Transport Forum in Mosman their support for a Spit Bridge tunnel, but only if it's a train tunnel.

"We recognise that the reason there are traffic jams, the reason people are sitting in their cars and wasting hours of their lives every day, is because there's no viable alternative than getting behind the wheel. It would be less expensive than a six-or eight-lane car tunnel, and it has much greater capacity than a car tunnel."

"The proposal we have at the moment is only good for Transurban. I think the community has had enough of government for Transurban."

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Liberal North Shore candidate downplays council amalgamations as byelection issue - The Sydney Morning Herald