primaries

Bringing American-style politics to parliamentary democracy

With 10 states at stake on Super Tuesday, the race for the Republican nomination will have taken a decided turn by the end of the evening. Romney has so far failed to close the deal due to serial insurgencies (Newt Gingrich in December and in the South Carolina primary, Rick Santorum in Iowa and with recent victories), but he should recapture his status as the inevitable nominee.

It seems unlikely that Ronald Reagan would feel comfortable in today’s Republican party. With the GOP leadership candidates relentlessly attacking each other’s credentials and character, it’s worth recalling Reagan’s so-called 11th commandment—’Thou shalt not attack a fellow Republican.’ Try telling that to born-again Catholic Newt Gingrich, who thinks being nasty is good policy, or social conservative Rick Santorum, who finds a new way to alienate a portion of the traditional GOP electorate on a daily basis, or on again-off again frontrunner Mitt Romney, who seems more robotic by the day. This race has already been vicious beyond description, even with Democrats staying out of it.

Former Liberal MP Maria Minna is circulating a letter outlining her concerns with the workings and ramifications of moving to a primary system to elect a party leader. She has nine points, but I’ll excerpt number eight here, which seems relevant both for the philosophical concern and the specific complaints.

Mitt Romney ended the New Hampshire primary with a decisive—albeit expected—victory and has a strong chance to win the January 21 primary in South Carolina as well. His purportedly strongest opponents in South Carolina—Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry—have little or no momentum and are unlikely to cause an upset at this stage. After just one week of primaries, only one first-tier candidate remains and that is Romney.

In his debut for Macleans.ca, Jeff Jedras criticizes the current clamour for open primaries.

Interim leader Bob Rae says he would support U.S.-style primaries to select his replacement. Here’s why it’s a bad idea.

Even her potential rivals don’t know what to say about her

Preston Manning sees hope—or the possibility thereof—in David Cameron’s Britain.