Category Archives: Liberal

During an appearance on MSNBCs Morning Joe last fall, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned Republican lawmakers for collaborating with Donald Trump, arguing that the party had been transformed into a cult. Pelosis censure, however, also carried with it a strangely redemptive cadence. One of my prayers is that the Republicans will take back their party, the speaker said, continuing:

The country needs a strong Republican Party. Its done so much for our country, and to have it be hijacked as a cult at this time is really a sad thing for America. What is this? What is this about the Republicans that they dont care enough about what they believe in as a party a legitimate party with beliefs and their view of the role of government? [] I pray that they would get us a Grand Old Party again.

Last month, only weeks after the Trump-inspired storming of the US Capitol building, the speaker could still be heard saying much the same thing.

Those praying for a return of sanity on the right have doubtless been encouraged by the barrage of reports suggesting a substantial Republican exodus in the wake of last months events in Washington. Spurred by the Capitol Riot, Thousands of Republicans Drop Out of GOP, read an NPR headline three weeks ago, the accompanying report going on to note the more than four thousand Colorado Republicans who had changed their registration in the week after January 6 and observing a similar phenomenon elsewhere. In an article earlier this month, Chris Cillizza argued much the same, noting that the number of Republicans who have recently changed their party affiliation is vastly larger than the number of Democrats. The January riot, Cillizza concluded, has quite clearly tarnished the GOP brand in the eyes of at least a decent-sized chunk of those formerly aligned with the party.

This seems to track with other data that have recently emerged, notably a Gallup poll conducted between January 21 and February 2, which shows a precipitous drop in in the GOPs national favorability overall a drop coming near exclusively from self-identified Republicans and linked directly in some media reports to the partys supposedly tarnished image among its own supporters following the events of January 6 and the subsequent impeachment trial.

Its a story with obvious appeal, and one very much in sync with the long-standing liberal impulse to distinguish between the evil Trumpian and (ostensibly benevolent) non-Trumpian factions of American conservatism the latter perpetually waiting in exile to reclaim its rightful place. Its also a highly dubious one which, time and again, has proven more media phenomena than tangible reality each and every supposedly decisive conservative repudiation of Trump seeming to do little, if anything, to slacken his hold on the Republican base.

From the National Reviews now-infamous 2016 Never Trump issue to the abysmal failure of farcical outreach efforts like the Lincoln Project to make 2020 the year of the Biden Republican, the former presidents appeal has seemed largely impregnable among the constituency whose opinion actually matters: namely, Republican voters themselves.

According to polling from YouGov, some 90 percent of self-identified Republicans hoped for Trumps acquittal in the recent impeachment proceedings. A national survey from Quinnipiac University released last week found that some 75 percent of Republicans want him to play a prominent role in the partys future. A Gallup study from February 15, meanwhile, suggests that a plurality of Republicans (40 percent) want the GOP to move in a more conservative direction, compared with 34 percent who want it to remain as is, and only 24 percent who think it should become more moderate.

As to the thousands of conservatives supposedly leaving the GOP in disgust, the Economists G. Elliott Morris has offered a persuasive countervailing interpretation. For one thing, as Morris points out, the overall share of Republicans changing their affiliation remains quite small in relative terms. More importantly, though, theres a very real chance that those who are disaffiliating are doing so out of disdain for the partys current leadership rather than anger at its conduct during the Trump eras final months. The same February 15 Gallup study identified record support among Republicans for a third party, a trend which strongly suggests animus toward the GOP as a whole has more to do with pro-Trumpian sentiment than the fabled moderate conservative renaissance (Trump himself teased the idea of a new Patriot Party following his November defeat).

As an institutional formation, the Republican Party may well be in something like a crisis party elites are struggling to navigate the rough waters of an early post-Trump era in which a huge swathe of their own rank and file remains intoxicated by the idioms and preoccupations of the past four years. What seems near certain, however, is that the possibility of a Republican Party functionally or ideologically distinct from what we now broadly call Trumpism sailed long ago. The negotiation within American conservatism, such as it is, will be more a struggle about affect and branding than a battle over first principles (in many ways, exactly this struggle has defined conservative attitudes toward Trump from the very beginning).

Given the former presidents stranglehold on the American right, the extent to which what comes next explicitly bears his personal imprint remains to be seen. Though all efforts of this kind have failed so far, a sufficiently creative Republican politician may yet devise a way of rhetorically triangulating between the Trump-inflected and anti-Trump modes of conservatism (if the past few years are any indication, such a figure would probably be an instant hit with some liberals).

But make no mistake: Trumps supposed hijacking of the Republican Party was less a hostile takeover than the logical outcome of a decades-long rightward drift shepherded and applauded by conservative elites themselves. Try as they might, there is no sane, sensible party for liberals to rescue. Its long past time they stopped trying.

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Liberals Should Stop Trying to Save the GOP. Republicans Don't Want to Be Saved. - Jacobin magazine

The West Australian Opposition Leader Zak Kirkup has already raised the white flag to concede he does not expect to win this month's state election.

At his campaign launch, Mr Kirkup warned the Liberal party was bracing for what it expected "could be a Labor landslide".

It prompted a question could the Liberals take such a hit at this month's poll that its role as State Opposition could be under threat?

Notably, political analysts say that scenario would be a "catastrophic" outcome for the Liberals and is "extremely unlikely".

But there has been a lot of rhetoric and speculation around the predicted "landslide", so it is worth exploring the issue.

The State Opposition is formed in the Lower House of the WA Parliament and is comprised of the largest party that is not in government.

ABC News: Evelyn Manfield

Currently, that is the Liberal Party, which holds 13 seats.

If a swing predicted by a recent Newspoll was replicated on polling day across the state, the Liberals could be reduced to just two seats in the Lower House, with the WA Nationals holding on to four.

Eliza chases down politicians every day, Kate talks to real people about what's important to them. Together they're breaking down the highs and lows of the WA Election 2021.

In that scenario, the Nationals would officially take over the State Opposition reins.

Notre Dame University's politics and international relations associate professor Martin Drum said that was "highly unlikely" to happen on March 13.

"But if the result was catastrophic and [the Liberals] lost an enormous number of seats and the Nationals were able to hang on to more seats because they are safer, the Nationals could technically finish with more seats than the Liberals," Associate Professor Drum said.

"It's a highly unlikely scenario, but it's a possible one."

WA Nationals leader Mia Davies said if her team was required to step up to the plate, she was confident her party had "the right people to do that".

In the event of this "highly unlikely" scenario, there would be consequences.

The politics, the policies and the people. We've collected all our coverage on the election campaign here.

Under WA's Public Sector Management Act, if the Liberals were to lose Opposition status and did not manage to hold onto at least five Lower House seats, it would not qualify for important Parliamentary resources.

"They would (lose) something in the vicinity of up to a dozen people that could work for them as the main leader of the Opposition," Associate Professor Drum said.

"Which would be a real blow to the Liberal leader in trying to hold the government to account."

Labor, The Liberals, The Greens and The Nationals have all made big-ticket pledges to win your votes. We're tracking and collating the big ones for you here.

Associate Professor Drum said Parliamentary rules would effectively need to be rewritten in this scenario to give the Liberals resources to "support their work".

"That would be the healthy thing for democracy," he added.

Another political analyst described that reality as the Liberals effectively having to go "cap in hand" to the Premier's office.

Associate Professor Drum said a more realistic scenario would see the Liberals losing about five seats in the Lower House.

"It could be a little worse than that having 13 and they could lose as many as six or seven. It's difficult to predict exactly," he said.

But he said the fact a scenario like this was even being contemplated showed the daunting situation the Liberals faced in less than two weeks' time.

Read the ABC's election expert Antony Green's analysis of the WA election.

Mr Kirkup would not be drawn on whether his party's Opposition status was at risk.

"We have to see what happens after the 13th of March I'm sure we can all wait 11 days to see what that looks like," he said on Tuesday.

"We're saying to the people of Western Australia, very honestly and very forthrightly, that the future of our democracy is at risk."

Mr Kirkup said Labor's decision to campaign in the blue ribbon seat of Nedlands earlier this week showed just how much control the government wanted to seize, which he said would lead to a lack of "checks and balances" when passing legislation.

Originally posted here:

WA election: What would state politics look like if the Opposition lost its official status? - ABC News

In a season disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Luther swimming and diving program swam through the distractions and continued to compete at a high level. The three-day Liberal Arts Championships was no different for the Norse, as the men won their eighth championship title while the women won their 14th. Held at two sites (Luther College and Coe College) due to COVID-19 protocol from February 18-20, the men posted a final score of 833 while the women posted a score of 814. For Luther notable individual performances came from Maddie Shea (24), who totaled three individual titles and Landon Albro (21), who won two.

Shea and Albro were voted best female swimmer and best male diver of the meet, respectively. Albro defended both of his titles from last year in the 1-meter diving event, scoring 425.70, and the 3-meter diving event, with a score of 378.10. Albros score in the 1-meter dive would have qualified him for the NCAA DIII National Championships had the event not been cancelled due to COVID-19. Meanwhile, Shea, a newcomer to the program, won the 500 freestyle, the 200 butterfly, and the 1650 freestyle. Sheas time in the 200 fly, 2:15.86, ranked fifth all-time in Luther history.

I actually never thought I would compete in the 200 fly, because Im not a fan of sprinting events, but [Luther Swimming and Diving Head Coach Aaron Zander (10)] thought I would be really good at it, Shea said. The race was a different experience for me because I prefer to go long and strong when I compete.

A number of other Norse swimmers and divers won individual titles as well. For the men, Kyle Anderson (21), Soren Gloege Torp (21) and Matt Benson (22) each won their first Liberal Arts Championship titles, touching the wall first in the 1650 freestyle, 50 freestyle and 400 individual medley, respectively. For Anderson, a senior, it was an exciting but bittersweet ending to a season with many challenges.

It hasnt sunk in yet that my collegiate swimming career is over, Anderson said. I have swam my entire life; I think it will fully set in next year when everyone else is coming back to school and Im not.

For the women, two relay teams won championship gold. The team of Margaret Petellin (24), Linnea Lee-Brown (21), Shakira Herrera (22) and Britt Huss (23) won the 200 medley relay in a time of 1:53.32. Additionally, Petellin, Lee-Brown and Herrera were joined by Anna Thomley (22) to win the 400 medley relay with a time of 4:11.10. In individual events, Maddie Putnam (23) won the 1-meter diving event with 288.45 points, while Lee-Brown won the 50 freestyle and 100 breaststroke events. Lee-Brown, who placed fourth all-time on Luthers list for the 100 breaststroke with her time of 1:07.04, hit personal best times in the preliminary and final rounds despite never swimming the event before the 2020-21 season.

It was fun being able to change up what I swam this year because it gave me the opportunity to try new events and score points for the team, Lee-Brown said. Throughout the meet I really felt like I was cruising.

Some of the challenges faced by the swimming and diving teams this year included having athletes in quarantine due to COVID-19 outbreaks, as well as splitting the teams into different practice groups and limiting the number of people in a lane. Despite these challenges, Coach Zander was impressed with how the teams handled themselves and thought it was a fantastic meet and a great season overall.

There were a ton of athletes who scored points for us [during the championship meet] that had COVID earlier this year and overcame it, or missed a quarter of our season just sitting in quarantine, Zander said. Ive told the team this out loud: I could not imagine the challenges theyve had to face this year, and theyve surmounted them, by far.

According to Zander, Luthers wins at the Liberal Arts Championships are especially impressive when considering where the team placed in previous years. Two years ago, the women placed eighth and the men fifth; now both teams are champions.

Weve made really big jumps as a team, and it shows as a whole, Zander said. Being able to see the seniors on the deck joyously crying about how they finished their season and their collegiate careers was awe-inspiring as a coach.

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Swimming and Diving wins Liberal Arts Championships Luther College Chips - Luther College Chips

By Bill Huizenga| 2nd Congressional House District

Three hours after restaurants and bars were mandated to close here in Michigan, Speaker Pelosi and Democrats in the House were passing a $1.9 trillion partisan spending bill masquerading as COVID relief in the middle of the night in Washington.I voted against this package and I believe Michiganders deserve to know what is in this monstrosity.

Over the past year, Republicans and Democrats came together to pass five bipartisan relief bills that were signed into law by President Trump. In fact, there is approximately $1 trillion remaining unspent from those previous agreements. Despite President Bidens pledge of unity, his first major legislative endeavor looks nothing like it. As this legislation went through the House, Republicans introduced 286 amendments to Bidens proposal. These amendments would do a host of things including increase vaccine distribution goals, provide back-to-work bonuses, and help small businesses in a timely and targeted manner.

Out of all these opportunities, only my amendment to provide flexibility for small businesses of less than 10 employees and gig economy workers was included in the bill that passed Friday night. In fact, Republicans proposed amending the legislation to allocate $140 million for childrens mental health and suicide prevention services. Unfortunately, Pelosi and House Democrats blocked the amendment, choosing to use this funding to build a subway tunnel in Silicon Valley just outside Pelosis district.

Recently, Biden challenged Republicans to find items to cut from the bill. Here are a few I suggest:

While Democrats like to highlight vaccines, stimulus checksand funding for schools in this bill, the reality is much different. It may be shocking, but only 9 percent of the $1.9 trillion goes toward public health provisions to defeat COVID-19 and only 1 percent of it goes to vaccines.

The $1,400 stimulus checks have garnered headlines, but under this legislation federal bureaucrats are paid $1,400 per week for 15 weeks to stay home and not work if their childrens school is remote. How in the world is this acceptable? Families in West Michigan and across the nation have been forced to deal with the challenges created by the pandemic. Federal employees should not receive this sweetheart deal.

Speaking of education, 95 percent of the approximately $128 billion in federal funding in this bill wont be spent until next school year or later, according to the Congressional Budget Office. On top of that, even when the funding is administered, the formula is in dire need of adjustment. Prior to the vote, I sent a letter to Pelosi with several of my Michigan colleagues highlighting how some school districts would receive over $18,000 per pupil under the current formula, while some in West Michigan would receive less than $500 per pupil. Last week, I received a letter of support from 43 public school superintendents across Allegan, Kent, Ottawaand Muskegon counties. Sadly, no adjustment was made.

At the end of the day, this $1.9 trillion spending package passed by the House was loaded with liberal policy objectives that permitted taxpayer-funded abortion, increased the federal minimum wage to $15 (despite the CBO saying that will eliminate 1.4 million jobs), and a rash of spending on priorities unrelated to overcoming the pandemic. Simply put, this is not a targeted, temporaryor fiscally responsible use of taxpayer dollars.

Bill Huizenga represents Michigan's second district in the U.S. House of Representatives.

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My Take: Biden/Pelosi 'stimulus' light on fighting COVID, loaded with liberal priorities - HollandSentinel.com

Ori Cantwell 22 presented his research poster during the Convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference on Feb. 13. Cantwells study found that liberals were more anxious than conservatives, partially explaining why liberals socially distanced more during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ori Cantwell 22

Do political views and anxiety play a functional role in combating COVID-19?

According to a recent study by Ori Cantwell 22, the answer is yes.

Cantwell, a psychology major, presented his recent study Yes We (Anxiously) Can: Liberal Ideology and Anxiety Predict Social Distancing during the COVID-19 Pandemic during the virtual 22nd Annual Convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference, held Feb. 913.

We found that in a sample of over 10,000 American adults, anxiety partially mediated the relationship between liberal ideology and social distancing, Cantwell explained. Liberals were more anxious than conservatives, and people were most likely to want to social distance if they were more anxious.

Cantwell began working on this research in March 2020 with his advisor, Kostadin Kushlev of the Digital Health and Happiness Lab at Georgetown University. They were introduced through Assistant Professor of Psychology Alexis May 05.

We dont think that theres a plus side to anxiety disorders, but these findings suggest that anxiety could have played a role in how people adapted to the threat of COVID-19 by social distancing.

To create a social distancing index, Cantwell explored data collected by the Pew Research Center. Between March 19 and 24 more than 10,000 participants were asked, whether, during the pandemic, theyd be comfortable visiting a friend/family members house; eating out in a restaurant; attending a crowded party; going out to the grocery store; and going to a polling place to vote.

The average participant was comfortable doing 3.29 out of 5 activities, Cantwell noted.

In November 2020, Cantwell and Kushlev co-authored a pre-print titled Anxiety Talking: Does Anxiety Predict Sharing Information about COVID-19? This spring, theyll continue their research on the topics of misinformation, infodemics, political ideology, anxiety, and social distancing.

Cantwell also is a recipient of the Psychology Departments Feldman Family Fund grant, which supported his conference registration.

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Cantwell '22: Liberals Are Anxious About COVID-19 And They Social Distance More - Wesleyan Connection

The public interest, the pledge to governfor all of us, has collapsed. Morrison seems bored pretending sports rorts was a fair process, based on need. Margo Kingston

Former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins steel-eyed testimony around rape allegations saw spiders crawl from under rocks and spread in all directions last week.

As women from both sides of politics unfurled their fury at the profoundly, deliberately unsafe workplace for women in our House, the Prime Minister, whether you believe him or not, defined his leadership failure.

He said he found out about an alleged rape in a Cabinet Ministers office, not from the several ministers and personal staff who already knew, but by reading Samantha Maidens story.

There would be no consequences for anyone who kept him in a dark on the alleged crime down the hall from his office.

In the early 1990s, a daring womens recruitment campaign, led by moderate NSW Liberal Chris McDiven, asked interested women to give her a call.

It saw female Liberal MP numbers treble at the 1996 election.

I wrote at the time, The new government could for the first time, put more than one token woman in Cabinet.

Howard chose two, and his womens minister, Jocelyn Newman, predicted the influx would raise the tone.

People on the outside badly wanted a better behaved parliament.

But when Tony Abbott returned the Coalition to power 17 years later, he appointed one woman to Cabinet, and called himself womens minister.

Howard and Abbott presided over the near collapse of the Partys liberal wing, which was the outcome of hard right hegemony. Women now comprise 23 per cent of federal Liberal MPs, compared to 47 per cent of Labor.

It was no surprise then that several female Liberal ministers and backbenchers decried bullying and intimidation from the boys when they supported Malcolm Turnbull in the 2018 leadership spill.

The big parties are now tiny tribes run by nasty, ugly numbers men, as the recent Sixty Minutes report in Victoria revealed.

Loyalty is to the tribe, not the voters. Parliament doesnt debate and finesse policy, because decisions have been made in backrooms. Politics is performance, spin, donor service.

The public interest, the pledge to govern for all of us, has collapsed. Morrison seems bored pretending sports rorts was a fair process, based on need.

No wonder the talent pool is narrow, insular and overstocked with the self-serving, corrupt narcissists and sociopaths. Can anyone seriously imagine women of substance answering a Liberal Party ad for candidates in 2021?

When Turnbull fell for the second time, trying to enact a solid climate change policy, his exit saw Wentworth independent Kerryn Phelps take his seat with a 19 per cent swing.

I was in the public gallery to see Morrison lead a Coalition MP walkout when she stood to give her maiden speech. It was a contemptuous trashing of the civilised Parliamentary full house tradition.

At the last election, Phelps nearly held on, despite Labor being favourite to win the election, and Warringah, the blue ribbon seat the other side of Sydney Harbour, tossed Abbott for Zali Steggall, with another 19 per cent swing, again through a vibrant community alliance of blue, red and green voters.

In 2013, the only bright spot for Labor was Cathy McGowan, a rural feminist, and founder of Women in Agriculture.

She beat Sophie Mirabella in the safe Liberal seat of Indi on the back of a wildly innovative community campaign.

When I spoke to Cathy the day after the 2013 election, she eschewed any suggestion her win had national implications. Its all local, I have to stick to my knitting, she insisted.

Things changed after she helped her successor, Helen Haines, become the first independent to succeed as an independent in Indi (1,800 local volunteers!).

She wrote a folksy how-to-win-and-serve book called Cathy goes to Canberra, and last weekend hosted the first #gettingelected conference for community independents. It attracted Voices for groups, which are now popping up in safe Liberal city seats, and several regional and rural seats.

Women dominated the event organisers, facilitators, speakers, participants. Many knew nothing about the practicalities of politics.

It was, as Cathy said, a gathering, a wide-eyed, excited, naive, supremely hopeful launch of a movement, full of be your best self and never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world.

Community before candidate, values before votes, principles before policies, that sort of thing.

It has to be, because for an independent woman to win, she must come second on first preferences and harvest the preferences of the other candidates. That means some Liberal, Labor and Greens voters must vote 1 for her, and that means she must find enough common ground to embody the electorate.

The 300 people at Cathys conference last weekend want to seriously, positively disrupt our politics.

They want to attract a class act to represent them, someone they trust to serve their needs, and act in what they believe to be the public interest. Someone who will always vote for her conscience and be accountable to them, directly. No middle man.

My take is that an emerging community independents movement is, in essence, a response to the collapse of the Liberal wing of the Liberal Party.

It was once progressive Andrew Peacock as leader took Australias first emissions trading scheme to the electorate at the 1990 election.

Yet its getting organised, folks. Independents CAN is a new political party that will endorse Voices for independents to give them the benefits of a party without having to join it. Things like tax deductible donations, access to the electoral roll, and insurance.

Founder Oliver Yates, a former Liberal Party member who stood against Josh Frydenberg as a climate change independent last election, told me were trying to create an Uber service to help independents get to Parliament, to remove their competitive disadvantage against the Parties.

PS: To follow the Voices groups popping up around Australia, follow @VoicesforAU on Twitter.

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Rapey Liberal culture is their undoing The Echo - Echonetdaily

Time is running out for the Western Australian Liberal Party. Polling points to a massive Labor landslide at the upcoming state election on March 13.

Following last months Newspoll, which put Labor in front by 68-32, two-party-preferred, Liberal opposition leader Zak Kirkup abandoned any public pretence he might actually win the election.

I accept its not my time, he told The West Australian newspaper last week.

While not entirely unprecedented (then Labor leader Geoff Gallop said the Court government would be returned comfortably three days before the 1996 WA election), it is nonetheless an extraordinary admission from Kirkup. It departs from established practice where political leaders try to preserve hope amongst their faithful, even in the face of extreme adversity.

Some voters may applaud Kirkup who only took up the Liberal leadership last November for his honesty. This was certainly the editorial view of The West Australian. It is also a definitive way of capturing the underdog status going into election day and emphasising the importance of checks and balances in our political system, while highlighting the importance of the upper house race as well.

But there are significant risks to this approach. One is that voters may feel its disrespectful to the vast majority of people who are yet to vote. Another is, why would voters take any notice of Liberal party policy announcements, if they wont be in government to deliver on any of them?

Under the circumstances, the Liberal Party could be forgiven for pitching their policy settings firmly towards their own base. Curiously, their one signature policy involves shutting WAs coal-fired power plants by 2025, backing in renewable energy generation, and achieving net zero carbon emissions in the state electricity system by 2030.

It has certainly attracted the ire of federal colleagues, with Liberal MP Andrew Hastie describing it as a lemon. For their part, the McGowan government has borrowed lines from the federal Coalitions playbook, arguing the policy would see,

many, many billions of extra debt, a huge increase in family power bills, rolling blackouts across the state and huge job losses.

While the headline result of the election looks like a foregone conclusion, there are plenty of reasons for the Liberals to continue to fight hard for every vote.

The first is to try to stop Labor from winning control of the Legislative Council (upper house). While the Coalition almost always win control of the upper house when in government in WA, this is extremely rare for Labor.

A Labor majority (or a Labor-Greens majority) could pave the way for electoral reform to remove undemocratic malapportionment in WA. In the upper house, one regional six-member electorate has fewer than 70,000 voters, while three six-member metropolitan ones have more than 400,000 each.

Read more: Whopping lead for Labor ahead of WA election, but federal Newspoll deadlocked at 50-50

However, this malapportionment is so extreme, it means even a Labor landslide doesnt guarantee an upper house majority in its own right. The Labor party currently has just 14 seats in the 36 seat chamber, despite winning 41 of the 59 seats in the lower house in 2017.

To win 19 seats they need to pick up additional seats in five of the six upper house regions. They already hold three seats in both the east metropolitan and south metropolitan regions and the quota for four is a whopping 57.14% of the primary vote. This provides us with some sense of magnitude of the victory required to achieve a basic majority.

A second critical reason for the Liberal party to chase every vote is to avoid a wipe out that is so bad it makes them ineffective as an opposition.

The Liberal Party currently has just 13 seats in the 59 seat Legislative Assembly, which is the legacy of a very poor performance at the last election. While they look very likely to sink further, they would be desperate to avoid the most catastrophic outcome a return of fewer seats in the lower house than the Nationals and the loss of official opposition status.

There is also the possibility their numbers could be so low as to deny them the resources normally allotted to parliamentary leaders and whips as set out by the Salaries and Allowances Act.

This means they would have very few staff and minimal funds to hold the government to account. It also means their capacity to probe during question time and ask useful Questions on Notice would be limited. They would also have a very thin presence on parliamentary committees.

There is also a third, compelling reason for Kirkup and the Liberals to avoid electoral oblivion.

While the modern electorate is a volatile one, if they win just a handful of seats in 2021, the task of winning in 2025 would also become much more difficult the Liberals may face at least three terms in opposition.

Read more: Labor wins WA in a landslide as One Nation fails to land a blow

An electoral wipe-out could ruin the careers of future leadership aspirants and ensure that the next Liberal premier is yet to enter parliament.

Original post:

The Liberals face electoral wipeout in WA, but have 3 good reasons to keep campaigning - The Conversation AU

OTTAWA The federal Liberals are setting aside some of the billions of dollars planned in short-term transit spending to help municipalities further green their bus fleets.

The hope is that the $2.75 billion in traditional grant money will dovetail with the $1.5 billion an infrastructure-financing agency is supposed to invest toward the same cause.

Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna says the grant money is supposed to help cover the upfront cost of purchasing electric buses to replace the diesel-powered ones rumbling through Canadian streets.

She says federal funding has helped cities buy 300 buses and the government hopes the funding will help them add 5,000 zero-emission buses over the next five years.

But she acknowledged there are added costs that need to be addressed, including having charging stations on transit routes and in existing depots.

The Liberals are hoping cities then turn to the Canada Infrastructure Bank to finance the cost of the remaining work.

The bank's chief executive, Ehren Cory, says the energy savings expected from not having to buy diesel could, for instance, be used to pay off a low-interest loan from his agency.

"It's quite a from-the-ground-up reinvestment and the savings will pay for a lot of that, but not for all of it," he said, via video link.

"That's why the combination of a grant from the government, a subsidy, combined with a loan against savings together will allow us to get the most done, allow us to make wholesale change quickly and do so at minimal impact to taxpayers."

Garth Frizzell, president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, welcomed the funding as a way to speed up work in cities to replace diesel buses.

"We are already putting more electric vehicles on our streets, and this major funding to electrify transit systems across the country will reduce GHG emissions, boost local economies, and help meet Canadas climate goals," he said in a statement.

McKenna made the same connections multiple times during an event Thursday in Ottawa, where she stood near the city's mayor, Jim Watson, with Cory and Industry Minister Franois-Philippe Champagne joining by videoconference.

Joanna Kyriazis, senior policy adviser at Clean Energy Canada, noted that the investments could help the country's six electric-bus manufacturers scale up to compete internationally.

"As Canada develops its battery supply chain from raw metal and mineral resources to our North America-leading battery recycling companies we must build the market for electric vehicles and their batteries at home," she said in a statement.

The Liberals are promising billions in permanent transit funding as part of a post-pandemic recovery, including $3 billion annually in a transit fund starting in five years.

Cities have seen transit ridership plummet through the pandemic as chunks of the labour force work remotely. Demand for single-family homes well outside urban cores suggests some workers are expecting remote work to become a more regular fixture of their post-pandemic work lives.

McKenna said her thinking about public transit hasn't been changed by that shift, saying her only thought is that Canada needs more and better systems. It's up to cities and transit agencies to set routes and priorities, she said.

"The reality is many of our essential workers have no other option than to take public transit. And I think we've recognized how important it is for people to be able to get around in a safe way," McKenna said.

Conservative infrastructure critic Andrew Scheer questioned whether the Liberals could follow through on the promise, adding that the infrastructure bank hasn't completed a project.

"The Trudeau Liberals keep announcing the same money but cannot get anything built," he said in a statement.

"You cant take a Liberal re-announcement to work. Electric or not, they just can't get the job done."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2021.

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Liberals tap $2.75B of promised transit dollars for zero-emission buses - Kamloops This Week

The whole shemozzle brought out Police Commissioner Chris Dawson, who went on a mini-media blitz on Wednesday to try to distance the force from politicisation during an election.

He told 6PR about how regardless of who won the election he wanted to introduce a legislative reform package, through the minister for police and the attorney general, after March 13 to try to remove some of the red tape around stop-and-search laws for declared drug routes.

Im not saying we stop absolutely every vehicle, what Im saying is if we can refine the powers similar to what we do to protect the states biodiversity meth is actually just as, or even more destructive for our community, he said.

Mr Dawsons ultimate goal is to be able to carry on the same stop-and-search powers provided in an the current state of emergency beyond the pandemic at drug entry points to WA.

Opposition Leader Zak Kirkup, whose party came up with stop-and-search laws in 2009 which it wanted to employ in areas such as Northbridge and Fremantle, has continued to blast the Premier for trying to overreach despite the similarities to old Liberal policy.

Mr McGowan screwed up his nose at suggestions Labor was trying to enable stop-and-search and spun the Liberal messaging to accuse the opposition of not wanting to have more police to prevent drug trafficking.

The Premier also bypassed traditional media on Wednesday to take his own message to the masses on Facebook to talk about how his comments had been misrepresented.

When asked on Thursday if this misrepresentation was by traditional media, Mr McGowan pointed the finger at the opposition rather than news outlets.

Its the Liberal Party, the Liberal Party misrepresents, thats what they do, he said.

He further tried to explain his flip-flopping by stating he tries not to rule things in or out when Im asked questions at press conferences.

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The Liberals are continuing to run with attack ads on the border issue to try to stop its base from voting Labor but theyll have to shout a bit louder.

The general trust in Mr McGowan does not appear to have faltered because unlike any of his predecessors he has the reach to share his thoughts directly with a massive chunk of WA.

Mr McGowans social media post about being misrepresented, which we were talking about a few paragraphs up, had the potential to be viewed by his now more than 361,000 followers on Facebook.

Those same followers have been lapping up the Premiers premium content with a combined 739,800 views for just three recent videos in late February.

That was the question WA Senator Michaelia Cash asked on Monday at the Liberal campaign launch as her opener to try and electrify the party faithful.

She got a pretty decent cheer from the more than 200-strong crowd.

Ask the same question five days later, however, and you wonder what WA Liberals state and federally will soon be left.

Labors online advertising spend keeps rising as votes continue to roll in over an unprecedented early voting period where West Australians have been able to go to the polls most days of the week.

On one hand Mr McGowan had $34,446 pumped through his Facebook page on positive ads where he features heavily in photos with a rotating gallery of candidates.

The Premiers party also spent $17,477 on attack ads from February 20 to 26 featuring Liberals and Clive Palmer.

Another block of ads in Riverton, Mount Lawley, and Bateman turn the oppositions own campaign language of asking punters to vote Liberal locally against them.

The ads, which feature opposition candidates next to Pauline Hanson, criticises local Liberals for preferencing racist One Nation over McGowan Labor.

Labor attack ads featuring Liberal candidates Matthew Woodall and Liza Harvey with Pauline Hanson and Clive Palmer.Credit:Facebook

Meanwhile the Liberals, who were chirping on Monday about trying to win electorates seat by seat, are using the rhetoric of dont give Labor too much power which takes them back to white-flag language that lends itself to the Democrats kind of keep the buggers honest catch cry.

Labor is once again flipping the Liberal messaging by accusing the opposition of just wanting the power to block Mark McGowan.

There have also been attack ads from Labor targeting the Nationals over a $75,000 donation from Mr Palmers company Mineralogy to the party.

Only the money in question went to the organisations federal branch in 2019-20 rather than the state division.

The Nationals have been running their own variation of the Liberal total control message and have been doing so for months.

The regionally orientated party has been warning bush voters in its ads that Labor getting majority control would lead to one vote, one value a concept of providing equal voting weight between city and country seats being introduced to the upper house and less country representation as a result.

Mr McGowan has stated such a move is not on his agenda but the Greens remain open to the possibility.

Labor has made $250 million in promises since last Friday with its total commitments this election, not including recently announced initiatives already in the budget, close to $3 billion.

The impact on the budget over the next four years for these pledges is about $2.2 billion as of last week.

There wont be any more big pledges from Labor after Friday as it will make its last submission to the Treasury as part of the election costings process.

The Liberals meanwhile got a bit quiet with their biggest announcement of the week in Malaga for an $85 million expansion of the North Wanneroo horticulture precinct.

As a side note, the Liberal candidate for that area, Dave Nesbit, was nowhere in sight despite Mr Kirkup asking voters at the press conference to back their local Liberal.

Might have had something to do with Mr Nesbit promoting an unproved anti-parasite drug as a cure for COVID-19.

The total Liberal spend is uncertain as announcements are made through media releases but also the social media of individual candidates.

Labor claims the Liberals and Nationals would have a budget impact of $11 billion, but also say the total commitment from those two parties is closer to $16.5 billion.

Mr McGowans party is also running online ads saying the Liberals and Nationals have $26 billion of uncosted promises.

WAtoday has clocked the Liberal promises as being worth close to $6 billion but the party will finally release its costings on Wednesday or Thursday.

Peter de Kruijff is a journalist with WAtoday.

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Mark McGowan misstep not the fly in the beer Liberals had hoped - WAtoday

BLAIR GABLE/ReutersPrime Minister Justin Trudeau addresses the House of Commons in Ottawa on Feb. 24. Trudeau's minority Liberal government could be defeated by the opposition parties in a confidence vote, which would trigger an election.

OTTAWA A House of Commons committee is unanimously urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to promise he wont call a federal election while the COVID-19 pandemic rages across Canada.

In a report by the procedure and House affairs committee, even Liberal members supported a recommendation calling for a commitment that there will be no election during the pandemic, unless Trudeaus minority Liberal government is defeated on a confidence vote.

The committee makes no similar call for opposition parties to promise not to trigger an election during the pandemic by voting non-confidence in the government.

However, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has vowed his party wont vote to bring the government down as long as the country is in the grip of COVID-19.

That should be enough to ensure the survival of the minority Liberal government for the foreseeable future, unless Trudeau decides to trigger an election himself.

Trudeau has repeatedly insisted he has no interest in forcing an election but opposition parties remain suspicious.

Unfortunately, the Liberal government has already indicated their desire to recklessly send Canadians to the polls at whatever time they deem to be the most advantageous for the prime minister, the Conservatives say in a supplementary report to the committees report.

Indeed, the Conservatives assert, without explanation, that Trudeau has already tried to orchestrate his governments defeat.

They thank Liberal committee members for taking a stand against the whims of the prime minister, who has been eagerly pressing towards an election for the last few months.

At the same time, Conservatives appear to be pursuing a strategy that could give Trudeau justification for calling an election: Liberals accuse the Tories of systematically blocking the governments legislative agenda, including repeatedly delaying a bill authorizing billions in pandemic-related aid.

Theyve also blocked debate on a bill that would give Elections Canada special powers to conduct an election safely, if need be, during the pandemic.

Bill C-19 is the governments response to chief electoral officer Stephane Perrault, who has said special measures are urgent given that a minority government is inherently unstable and could theoretically fall at any time. However, some opposition MPs view the legislation as proof that the Liberals are planning to trigger an election.

In their own supplementary report, New Democrats argue that an election in the midst of the pandemic has the potential to undermine the health of our democracy. They point to the current delay in Newfoundland and Labradors election due to a COVID-19 outbreak as an example of the delays, confusion and unforeseen barriers in voting that could undermine Canadians confidence in the outcome of a federal election.

This raises the spectre of a government whose political legitimacy is openly challenged, the NDP committee members say, adding that could lead to the kind of crisis that provoked a riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 by supporters of former U.S. president Donald Trump.

Watch: Trudeau said he welcomes sorely missed U.S. leadership in his first meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden. Story continues below.

The Capitol riot, sparked by Trumps unfounded claims that mail-in ballots were fraudulent, appears to have been on the minds of opposition committee members when it comes to other recommendations for how to safely conduct an election, if necessary, during the pandemic.

Anticipating a massive increase in mail-in ballots, the chief electoral officer has, among other things, suggested that mail-in ballots received one day after the close of in-person polls should still be counted.

The Conservatives say the procedure and House affairs committee should have rejected that proposal, arguing that the election should end on Election Day and Canadians deserve to know the results without delay.

Bloc Quebecois committee members, in their supplementary report, similarly argue that extending the deadline for receipt of mail-in ballots would delay the election results, which would fuel voter suspicion and undermine confidence in the electoral system, which is obviously undesirable.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 2, 2021.

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Even Liberals Are Urging Trudeau To Rule Out Calling Pandemic Election - HuffPost Canada