OK. So I was wrong.

When Christy Clark became the latest Con stooge to denounce Thomas Mulcair,  for simply pointing out that the Dutch Disease is killing our manufacturing sector, I said it could only mean one thing.

Big Oil and its Con puppets were scraping the bottom of the barrel.

But I forgot I was living in the sinister petro state of Harperland.

Where the bottom of the dirty oil barrel goes all the way to China.

And I forgot about the Con Senate, and particularly Pamela Wailin’ . . .

“This is a cheap political ploy to pit eastern citizens against those in the West. Will Mulcair next attack the lentil business, the wheat and grain producers who have long fed the world — or perhaps the potash industry that allows the poor to bolster their depleted farmland in overpopulated areas?

“It’s time for Mulcair to act like a Canadian.”

And that like the Con turkey Mike Duffy, Wallin is capable of saying ANYTHING.

I mean can you believe that? As if Big Lentil is as dangerous as Big Oil. As if Mulcair wasn’t right. As if telling the truth was a crime.

These diatribes against anyone who even acknowledges potential downsides or side effects of the bitumen boom seem to herald a new, dangerous tendency in Canada’s political culture. Opposing a bitumen-exporting pipeline in Canada these days makes you a foreign-financed subversive. And it seems that questioning the economic effects of the bitumen export strategy makes you equally seditious. I call this “energy McCarthyism,” and it should be rejected forcefully not just by those concerned with Canada’s de-industrialization and staples dependency, but by those worried about the quality of our democracy.

As if those Cons weren’t selling us out to foreign interests. As if Albertans haven’t been screaming at those damn Easterners for 40 years over the National Energy Program. Which did to Alberta what Harper’s oil pimp policies are doing to the rest of Canada.

Which explains why the Cons and the other Big Oil stooges are attacking Mulcair like piranhas. They know a killer issue when they see one. But why is Stephane Dion joining in the feeding frenzy?

Stéphane Dion, the former Liberal leader, says he turned down a proposal from advisors to accuse Prime Minister Stephen Harper of favouring Alberta and the oil sands industry during the 2008 election campaign because he feared it would harm national unity.

He said Mr. Mulcair is effectively “giving up” on much of Western Canada and, if he forms a government in 2015, risks having little or no representation from provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan in his Cabinet.

Oh boy. When will he ever learn…

What Thomas Mulcair understands so well. He doesn’t have to win any seats in Alberta or Saskatchewan. All he has to do is win most of the seats in Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec, and he will BURY the Cons in the Tar Sands.

Which is one of the reasons he’s looking like a winner, and thanks to people like Stephane Dion, the Liberals are going nowhere.

Liberal support in Canada is steadily slipping as the New Democrats and Tories continue to battle for the top spot, the results of an exclusive poll for Global News indicate.

While the Grits may say that their troubles lie in finding the right candidate to lead the party, Ipsos Reid’s Darrell Bricker suggests the party may be losing a distinct voice in the political arena.

“The problem they’ve got is that they’re having a hard time finding their place in a debate about economic issues,” Bricker told Global News.

Yup. Mulcair is ruthless, the kind of leader these times demand. 

He has found a mighty issue, the truth is on his side. That’s why the Cons are running scared.

For 40 years Alberta used regional alienation like a blunt weapon.

Now it’s our turn . . .

As a follow up to my earlier chart showing Steve’s Margin of Victory in ridings with the closest vote margins, I’ve adjusted it to include only the seven being contested in court for voter fraud and added two columns of polling data from an EKOS research paper based on a recent phone survey of 4797 voters. It compares 106 ridings where there were no reports of suspicious activity to the seven ridings where there was a lot — election phone calls made to voters to identify who they intended to vote for followed up by a call falsely telling them their polling station had moved.

Only one of them — Vancouver Island North — had an actual polling station change.

So according to the Ekos poll, if you lived in Winnipeg South Centre, for example, where the Cons took the riding by only 1.8% of the vote, you had a 71% chance of getting a phone call asking you who you were going to vote for. And if you subsequently got a follow-up call regarding polling stations, you had a 30% chance of being told your polling station had changed even though it hadn’t.

If however you lived in one of the 106 other ridings used as a control group, you had a 44% chance of being asked your voting intention and only a 14.7% chance of later being given false polling station info.

From the Council of Canadians, who commissioned the EKOS poll and are supporting the court actions, come these other key findings:

• 16.9% of eligible voters received calls related to polling stations. Of those, 22.3% were told of polling station location changes (amounting to 3.77% of eligible voters).
• Of those who were told of polling station changes, the voter intentions were as follows: Liberals 32.6%, Greens 28%, NDP 25.6%, and Conservatives 10%.
• 42.5% of eligible voters who received calls related to polling stations had a call claiming to be from Elections Canada.

And I can already feel a chilly if friendly wind blowing from the infinitely more rigorous Alice Funke at Pundits’ Guide, who would never mix up apples and hand grenades like this in the same chart (ie., adding a polling sample onto Elections Canada Official Voting Results).

But if the EKOS poll is accurate, then up to 15% of the vote in those seven closest vote margin ridings — some 50,000 people — received phone calls deliberately intended to suppress the non-Steve vote.

Margin of victory riding data from Elections Canada Official Voting Results Table 12.

Last two columns in chart taken from data in EKOS Study

As God’s cruel jokes go, this one’s a doozy. Jack Layton, having built the NDP into the Official Opposition and created a sense of hope for the resurgence of a genuine left in Canada, one that would keep the right from running roughshod over the poor, the middle-class, and those who see the country as more than a balance sheet, is dead at 61.

As a westerner, I had watched his emergence on the national scene with an ingrained distrust. He seemed to be yet another Ontario pol elected to reinforce the NDP’s base in that province, but who would make little headway elsewhere. It was the same old centralist story — or so it seemed. And then there was that moustache — that moustache! — that made him look like a used car salesman, or worse.

But gradually he grew on me (as he did, obviously, on many other Canadians). He had a surprisingly good grasp of the entire country — of the issues in BC’s struggling forestry industry, say, or of the way a flood on the Prairies could wipe out years of hard work. And apparently he got Quebec; in any event, they got him. Maybe he had just whipped his party sufficiently into shape that he was well-briefed before heading out on a trip, but that in itself suggested a new competence that allowed one to conceive of the NDP as, one day, a governing party.

By the time of the election, and his astonishing sprint to the finish, I found myself in an odd position for a died-in-the-wool Westy: of hoping this Ontario pol would be the one who eventually chased Calgary’s Stephen Harper out of office. And, in truth, I was looking forward to watching Layton manhandle the Conservatives in Parliament

And now he is gone.

Next month, in Edmonton, the nation’s rightists will get together for a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Reform Party. What they will be celebrating is the imposition on Alberta of a lot of old Orange Protestant ideas out of Ontario, as peddled from a kitbag by the likes of Ted Byfield and, yes, Stephen Harper. The conservatism of that province is no longer of the Bible Bill Aberhart brand, so similar to the populist politics of Saskatchewan’s Tommy Douglas as to be, at times, indistiguishable. It is now corporatist, and mean. That is the Reform Party’s achievement, which they have since spread, under the name of the Conservative Party, across the land.

They did so by cynically attaching themselves to the West’s regional aspirations — hence the title of their conference, “How the West Got in.” But they do not represent this westerner, nor most of the westerners I know. If we no longer have the stranger from the East with the funny moustache to dig us out from under them, well, maybe that’s just as well. No use once again importing a kitbag of policies; we are, after all, where the NDP began.

We might just have to do it ourselves. That could be Layton’s biggest bequest to us — a boot in the butt.

Thanks for that, Jack. And Rest in Peace.

As the Liberals continue their fevered pathetic assault on Nycole Turmel.

No doubt hoping that out of her ashes, their shrunken party will rise again, like some fleshless phoenix. Or some charred scarecrow.

Even as they help fuel comments like this and this and this in the pages of the MSM.

It probably wouldn’t hurt if they read this column.

Because then they might, hopefully, ask themselves, what the hell are they are doing?

Do they really believe that by bashing a 67-year old granny, whipping up a Red Separatist Scare, and encouraging anti-French feeling, that they can win back Quebec? The province they absolutely need to recover, if they are ever to become a viable party again.

And where else do they think this tempest in a cracked teapot will help them? In Manitoba, Saskatchewan, or Alberta?

Or will it help bring the real separatists to power, help the Cons win another majority, and maybe even contribute to the destruction of our country?

Gawd. Never has the Liberal Party stooped so low. Or acted so dumb.

They lost Quebec because they couldn’t understand it. And now because they STILL don’t understand it, they are about to lose it all over again.

And worse they can’t seem to understand that granny Turmel, and her gang of young Quebec MPs, have dealt the real separatists the hardest blow they have EVER received.

Oh boy. For years I have tried to be as non-partisan as possible, and avoided being too harsh on the Liberals, hoping against hope that progressives would unite to defeat the Cons. But not any longer.

Somebody please stop this madness.

Before it damages our country further . . .

An interview with Andre Marin, Ontario Ombudsman and author of the G20 report “Caught in the Act,” sheds a little light on the blackout surrounding who was responsible for ordering kettling at the G20 a year ago.

Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, as we have previously heard, had not heard of the term kettling before he saw it taking place before his very eyes on TV at the G20. A whole year later he still claims not to know who ordered it.

Paul Jay reads from Marin’s report :

“The former RCMP official who was in charge of ISU security at the time advised us that by June 24, which is, what, two days before, the Toronto Police Services representative on the ISU steering committee had left the ISU building, and that by noon on Saturday, June 26, when all hell’s breaking loose, communications between the ISU and the Toronto Police had broken down. By 4 p.m., the Toronto Police Services had completely gone off the ISU radar.

These guys had months to prepare, like, an unlimited budget, like, a billion dollar budget, and it seems like what they told you is that the communication had broken so down that the RCMP had no control over the events that were going on in Toronto.”

And where was Blair during all this? At the Intercontinental Hotel meeting President Obama.

Now that’s what I call an alibi.

According to Marin, the ISU responsibilities were divided up between: “the RCMP responsible for security within the fence; the Toronto Police responsible for the security outside the fence.”

On CBC’s “As It Happens” on Friday night, Blair made this statement about his relationship to the RCMP-led Integrated Security Unit:

“Quite frankly I was not involved in much of the planning. I was aware of some of the things that were being planned, I was being briefed, but I was not the Operational Commander, I was not on the Unified Command Team or in the steering committee.”

Well that’s handy, isn’t it?

Blair’s in charge of the streets but is not inside the ISU command loop.

Then while he’s off receiving his thank-you-masked-mans from Obama, someone uses the power vacuum at ISU to suck people at Queen and Spadina up as extras in a police crowd control exercise under martial law.

Blair declined to appear before Marin’s investigation and does not support the idea of a public inquiry.

One year later, although the Toronto Police have pledged not to use illegal kettling again, the extraordinary powers of the “Queens breach” and the Public Works Protection Act remain in effect..

Extra reading : When police stick to phony script: the Miami Model from Catherine Porter in the Star

h/t Nadine Lumley.

Well I must admit it’s looking bleak out there. It’s been raining for days. The traffic cones are sagging like most of the population. And the Dark Lord of Canada is working feverishly in his castle preparing to unveil his zombie cabinet under a cone of silence.

From The Globe: The pieces of Stephen Harper’s cabinet shuffle are all in place and those on the move have been given their orders – but no one’s talking and the Prime Minister’s enjoying it.

Because he would eh? Before The Thousand Year Majority the message to the faithful hog hordes was: You talk, you fired. Now it’s you squeal, you DIE. And he does so enjoy seeing fear in the eyes of others.

Meanwhile, in a hopefully secure location, the man who wrote Harperland awaits his grim fate calmly. Trying to find a flicker of light in The Great Darkness.

Liberalism has become a bore. It dims the imagination. It’s mush. By contrast, the New Democrats have some ideological teeth. They can speak with authenticity of voice for social democratic values.

But not quite succeeding.

Just like the Liberals, the New Democrats are at a huge financial disadvantage. When the Conservatives feel so inclined, they’ll strike with brutal advertising that the NDP won’t have the resources to rebut. Does anyone think Thomas Mulcair’s outburst about Osama bin Laden won’t be aired countless times when the appropriate moment arrives? Or Jack Layton’s massage-parlour visit? Don’t put it past the Conservatives.

And who can blame him for feeling down eh? When his own colleagues in the corporate media are doing the Con’s dirty work for them.

They suckle the hands teats that feed them. They know what their bosses want. The socialist conspiracy must be crushed and humiliated. So first it was Jack Does the Massage Parlour. Now it’s Jack and Olivia do Disney World.

When they didn’t do anything wrong. Or anything other MPs don’t do. And their real “crime” was daring to address union members.

But so it begins. In The Thousand Year Majority there can be only one message: Big Daddy Knows Best. The Media is Mein. And anyone who doesn’t submit will be destroyed by my mighty attack ads.

The good news? At least now even the dumbest must realize that this is an ideological war, a class war. And that Big Media is the enemy enema. So we can attack them, mock them, flush them out of our lives, and set up our own progressive new media networks.

The even better news? We’ve got four years to give the Cons a taste of their own medicine. Bombard them with our attack ads, and use the internet to encourage people to mobilize and protest in the streets.

And with the artists of Canada on our side, one thing is for sure eh?

We can do prop-art better than they can . . .

By Alison@Creekside

Just a 2% increase in the popular vote took the Cons from 143 seats in 2008 to a 167 seat majority tonight, thanks to our fucked up first-past-the-post system and because of what happened in key ridings in Ontario where presumably the Lib voters moved over to the Cons: ie., in Toronto the Cons took 31 seats to the Libs’ 8 and the Dippers’ 12.

So the Libs and the Dippers change places in seat count compared to 2008, Elizabeth May finally gets a seat while Duceppe and Iggy lose theirs, and the Bloc, the only genuinely social democratic party in the country, is wiped out.

Consider this: Quebec’s 59 seats has kept the Cons from an almost total lock on the country this time.

It will be interesting to see how Alice at Pundit’s Guide breaks down the efficacy of the various strategic voting guides. In my own riding — West Vancouver–Sunshine Coast-Sea-to-Sky — the recommendation from Project Democracy, previously Vote for Environment in 2008, and other strategic voting sites was to vote Liberal. As it turned out, the Dipper came second to the winning Con, who would have won anyway.

Note: In 2008 the voter turnout was 59%; today it was 61%. So much for Get Out the Vote.

What else hasn’t changed since 2008?

60% of the 60% of Canadians who voted still did not vote for Harper, who has been allowed to govern as if he held a majority for five years already now.

Cousin Gordon and I – he, the country boy, and me, from the city – talked prior to his oldest son, Adam’s, birthday this winter.

“Adam turns 18,” Gordon said. “He’ll be able to vote.” His first thought wasn’t that his son was now eligible for a draft, or of his son’s plans to attend university, or that he could now look forward to his son moving out of the house. That Adam will be able to vote is all Gordon needed to say about his aspirations for his son.

Later, I said to Adam, an intelligent, talented, athletic, good-looking and well-liked teenager, “Eighteen, huh? You’ll be able to vote.”

“Yes!” He pumped his fist like he’d just scored the winning shot. In our family, the traditions of political roots grow deep in the rich, dark soil around Moosomin, Saskatchewan. It is in our genes, like the dirt worked into our jeans. Adam, and his younger brother, Greg, were taught by their father, who learned from my Uncle, who was raised by our pioneer grandfather whose father settled the prairie, that it is more important to defend democracy than your own end.

A few days ago, I posted:

 
Adam liked this. Now I’m not suggesting that my young cousin is casting his ballot for the NDP on May 2nd. It does seem he wants to rid the country of the Harper government, just as I do. Not that I would ever attempt to influence his or another’s vote, but really: Harper? (I do, however, insist that he, and everyone in our family, be a Yankee fan.)

I do know that his father and mother have raised him to make good decisions (like any teenager, he sometimes takes a few swings and misses before hitting the right one), with the freedom to choose. Sure, Gordon would prefer his son to vote Liberal, but he’d readily admit that decision is out of his hands.

I also know – as a native of the province that gave rise to the party under the revered Tommy Douglas – that the NDP can govern, and govern well. And, unlike the other federal parties and their provincial counterparts, the NDP is Canada’s one, true national party, born and raised in Saskatchewan.

Douglas’s CCF was formed by common Canadians who believed the Liberals and Conservatives weren’t ideologically equipped to relieve the real hardship that they suffered during the Great Depression. My dad, who road the rails during the Dirty ’30s, was a “Douglas man.” (If any of this is covering old ground then skip ahead.)

Under Douglas’s leadership and, later, Woodrow Lloyd, the CCF governed for 20 years “and established Saskatchewan’s reputation for innovation, balancing sound fiscal policy with enlightened social policy.”

With the brilliant Alan Blakeney as leader, the party (now the NDP) was just as bold in governing the province for 11 years — investing in its “abundant natural resources, establishing a number of new Crown Corporations including Saskatchewan Potash and SaskOil to ensure that the people of the province benefited from high resource prices. Saskatchewan’s NDP government was also instrumental in the repatriation of the Canadian constitution and the development in the Charter of Rights.”

When Roy Romanow’s NDP beat the Devine Conservatives in 1991 “the province was near bankruptcy and running a large deficit. Romanow’s first challenge was to balance the budget and restore the province’s fiscal health. Many tough choices were made as spending was cut and taxes were raised. By 1995 the budget was balanced and the government focused on many social justice issues, reaching agreement on Treaty Lands Entitlement, reforming the social welfare system, and introducing more progressive labour legislation.”

The values and beliefs of the federal NDP are framed within Saskatchewan’s neat borders and they inform anyone who calls the province home. Whether grudgingly or not, everyone from Saskatchewan has some socialism in their veins. Our numbers are vast and we are spread across this country. If you want proof, go to a Canadian Football League game when the Riders are the visiting team.

It is Canada’s young voters who have given rise to the completely unexpected surge in the NDP’s poll numbers. 100 seats?! As my friend at The Globe and Mail mentioned:

 
Is it? Think of it from Adam’s point-of-view. I remember being 18 and a member of the Saskatchewan Young New Democrats. I shared a dilapidated old house with former Saskatchewan Justice Minister Frank Quennell. It was a flop-house within a few short blocks of the legislature where young social democrats from all over the province and Canada found a piece of floor, a plate of my famous spaghetti, and argued politics and partied. The NDP, not the house, was then and remains the anti-establishment party. It speaks to common Canadians. And, if I were to hazard a guess, more of us are common folk than we like to admit.

Not so with young Canadians. They’re fearless. They seem willing to take a risk that will shake this country out of its lethargy. To put it simply, for most Canadian young people, the NDP is not their parents’ party. And Jack Layton is more like the cool teacher they would invite to a party than their dorky dad. Layton is fearless. What else do you call a leader who has been campaigning full-out after prostate and hip surgery and is willing to re-open the constitution?

The kids’ world is the social network and their numbers are great. Why would it be any surprise that the majority of them are drawn to the social democrats? It’s socialism, online or off, and it’s clicking.

So Adam, take seriously this responsibility because your family fought for it. You come from a family that has always talked politics around the supper table and who has always voted. You come from a province that grows good things and great ideas. You’re cutting your political teeth in one of the most pivotal elections in Canadian history. And Adam, remember to tell your son or daughter the story.

Dave Brindle is a new media broadcaster, writer, and journalist living in Lund, B.C.

As you know I have always tried to be as non-partisan as possible. All I want is ANYONE but Harper. But these days, like most people in my neighbourhood, I’m also hoping for an orange wave.

I’m hoping for that because I honestly believe that what Jack Layton has managed to achieve in Quebec, breaking the stranglehold of the Bloc, is a historic opportunity that may not be repeated again.

And I’m worried about what might happen in Ontario.

The surge of the New Democratic Party in Quebec appears to be holding strong but a new survey conducted by Nanos Research suggests there has been no similar bump for the NDP in Ontario, where elections are won and lost.

I’m worried that if the NDP and Liberal support remains roughly the same, the vote split could help the Cons. And I know we could lose that historic opportunity.

“There are probably a number of voters in Quebec who have watched what’s happened and have started to park into the undecided column,” he said. “ It doesn’t mean that they are necessarily going to move to the New Democrats. It means that they are up for grabs in the last seven days of the campaign.”

Just like I know that if Ontario did join the orange wave even more people in Quebec would vote for the NDP, so would people in the Atlantic provinces and British Columbia. We could steal some Con seats even in Saskatchewan.

And a great orange wave could sweep from coast to coast to coast. And change this country FOREVER.

I hope my Liberal friends don’t hold these words against me, or treat me like The Enemy. Because of course I’m not. There are a lot of good Canadians in that party. Including the person I love the most. And I’m sorry what those foul bully Cons have done to their leader.

“Those negative [Conservative] attack ads helped form Canadians’ opinions of Michael Ignatieff even before Day One in this election,” said Mr. Nanos. “He started off with a disadvantage” and has not been able to overcome it.

But the sad truth is Ignatieff has been damaged beyond repair. The Liberals have lost Quebec. Their party is old and tired. And it can’t offer the hope Jack Layton and the NDP can, for something new and different.

And then there is this other consideration. If the Liberals did end up in third place, and working in a coalition government with Layton as Prime Minister, a little humility might do them good. They would be forced to come to terms with what kind of party they really are. And that would make it easier for them and the NDP to merge, and form the Liberal Democrats. Our best hope for a Con-free future.

I know that changing old habits and party loyalties is hard. I realize that anyone who advocates that, is likely to be shot at by both sides. And I am aware, as Steve from Far and Wide writes, that our biggest enemy is cynicism.

We keep telling ourselves that voters aren’t cynical, but every measure suggests the opposition- they are, and nobody has really changed that perception, unless having no wear on your tires classifies as profound inspiration. People kicking themselves trying to figure out why Harper isn’t floundering in the polls, chiefly it’s because there is such a firm wall of pure cynicism surrounding the whole process, all the actors, all the brands, that the impetus for substantive change never manifests.

But after the breakthrough in Quebec, that’s the other big reason I am hoping for an orange wave. As an idealistic person I don’t want to live in a cynical Con world. It’s choking the life out of me like some dark winter of the soul.

And nothing can break that grim hamster wheel of despair like something new and different.

Oh well. That’s all I wanted to say. I will not be criticizing the Liberals in what remains of this campaign. Just working as hard as I can to help the progressive cause prevail. Still asking progressives to vote smart.

Because first and foremost those evil Cons must be DEFEATED.

But in my heart I’ll also be hoping for an orange wave. And a new beginning for Canada after so many years of darkness.

I may be disappointed eh? But that has never stopped me before.

Spring brings life back to The Great White North.

And hope springs ETERNAL . . .

Con MP and anti-abortion crusader Brad Trost, who lists being a member of the cross-party Pro-Life Caucus as one of his duties as an MP on his website, addressed the Saskatchewan Pro-Life Association’s annual convention on Saturday and thanked its members for their help in killing off federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

“Let me just tell you, and I cannot tell you specifically how we used it, but those petitions were very, very useful and they were part of what we used to defund Planned Parenthood because it has been absolute disgrace that that organization and several others like it have been receiving one penny of Canadian taxpayers dollars.”

Planned Parenthood has been waiting over a year to find out whether the Con’s official program defunder, Bev Oda, would renew PP’s decades old funding and now Trost has let the cat out of the bag.

Harper spokesy Dimitri Soudas hastily convened a 1 a.m. presser to distance Harper from Trost, blowing Trost off as a mere uninformed “backbencher,” but as Cathie points out: Trost has been right before.

Soudas:

“Asked repeatedly whether allowing access to abortion was part of the government’s funding criteria, Soudas replied: ‘No, it does not.’

“He also repeated the Harper government’s often stated position that it would not re-open the debate on abortion.”

Well of course with Harper seeking a majority, he doesn’t want to reopen the debate but he doesn’t need to, does he? Defunding it, with the repeated help of the Blue Dog Libs, is working just fine as an alternative.

A year ago the Libs tried to smoke out the Cons on contraception and abortion by introducing a Liberal motion in the House to include a broader range of family planning programs in a maternal health initiative for developing countries. It was defeated 144-138 when four Libs voted against it, two abstained, and 12 missed the vote altogether.

So it’s a bit much that it’s the Liberal Party who broke the news about Trost’s shenanigans at the annual Pro-Life bunfest, just because the Liberals having 17% anti-abortion MPs is better than the Cons 66%.

Let’s have another look at the support for pro-choice in our current government.

From Choice Joyce:

while Sixth Estate has a 2009  list of suspected Pro-life Caucus members, based on their voting records and public statements. Suspected. Because membership in the Pro-Life Caucus is a government secret.

At least they’re more upfront about it in the US, where bills to defund Planned Parenthood are currently pending in Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Indiana, North Carolina, and the District of Columbia.

More: Dammit Janet, Dr. Dawg. Dammit Janet again

Joyce reminds us that the 36% of antichoicers from both parties is a “conservative” estimate, and her research bears this out.

For instance, voting for some version of fetus rights doesn’t automatically get an MP onto the chart because maybe the candidate is pro-choice but it was a whipped vote, or they are anti-choice personally but have stated they would not vote against reproductive rights.

Check out her list of MPs and their voting record before you vote.