AIMS president Brian Lee Crowley examines the results of Monday's federal election with a look to the past, where we've been and where we may be headed. He suggests the results show Canadians are hedging their political bets and are another small step in what may become a Canadian political revolution.
Election night 2006 reporters across the country were looking for follow-up stories on the night's results. In Atlantic Canada that meant analyzing why the Conservatives did not make big inroads. One of the people The Canadian Press turned to for insight was AIMS president Brian Lee Crowley.
As election day 2006 dawned, the political pundits were predicting a Conservative win, or at the very least a Conservative minority government. Business writers at the Halifax Daily News turned to some independent thinkers to ask whether a change in the federal government would affect local business. Among those polled was AIMS president Brian Lee Crowley.
Canada far behind the US in recognizing the potential
Numerous papers produced for AIMS have indicated that grants from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) do little to help the economy in Atlantic Canada. When Conservative Leader Stephen Harper changed his stance on ACOA, the media turned to AIMS for comment.
AIMS' High School Report Card is not always welcomed with open arms by the education establishment, but one school district in New Brunswick is embracing it. In this article, AIMS Vice President Charles Cirtwill explains District 2 is using the report card as it should be used, to help improve the quality of education.
It's just days from the federal election, days of political promises and political finger-pointing. In this series of commentaries, AIMS lays out the public policy issues that will mean make a difference in Atlantic Canada. It is not a wish list for handouts or preferential treatment. Collectively they are a request that whoever forms the new government thoroughly scrutinize and quantify the actual effects of existing policies. We believe that such an examination will lead to the same conclusions that many authors published by AIMS have arrived at over the past several years.
When is a brand new policy announcement by a political leader not about policy at all? In his fortnightly column, Brian Lee Crowley reviews Paul Martin's attempt in the leaders’ debate to turn the Charter of Rights and Freedoms’ notwithstanding clause into an election issue. He suggests the ploy has more to do with changing the subject than debating policy.
In this first Beacon of the 2006 season, learn about the AIMS Angus McBeath North American Tour titled "Saving Our Public Schools", read how the ports in Atlantica can be tomorrow's successful ports, and consider whether tax cuts, not bailouts are a better way to deal with the closure of a paper mill.
In his regular fortnightly column, AIMS president Brian Lee Crowley uses the spirit of the season to reflect on politics, politicians and our democracy.