Mark H.

Merry Christmas & Holidays. It's always a slice spending time on here. @Noeller I was gifted an HBC blanket - would send it your way if I could.

37 million in 24 hours - that would be over 400 people diagnosed every minute. I am very skeptical about this.

Who needs power plays?

Playing devil's advocate? The quality of shots in today's NHL - is much higher. I mean, the number of pucks Gretzky others bounced in from behind the net - was ridiculous

This does not compute. Chretien / Martin and Harper all cut social transfers. Trudeau was the PM who increased them again.

Morning Big Wood...I'll show myself out.

I'm decomposing.

Will PM you

Sorry, my firewood is sold out.

The Maas of the Week. You to do (to an extent) in order to teach. That is, if you're teaching effectively.

^^ That's quite a jump in 3 years - I wonder if he has some context for those numbers...

^^ Liberals governing like Conservatives...par for the course

This signing is the absolute end of the line.

I completely agree. School boards and Universities need to be having this discussion. I don't want to point fingers, but some Universities are doing a better job than others. I've had student teachers from all three.

Not a star, but he could be a serviceable QB.

That works if those young teachers know how to manage a classroom. Too many can't do the job.

Interlake - Gimli is the same riding now. The old Gimli riding had a long history of swinging back and forth, it was not just Bjornson's popularity. We will see what happens

Winnipeg Beach and Gimli are still in the Gimli-Interlake riding - those are substantial population centres.

The current flu/cold is an absolute b**** I came down with bronchitis and lost my voice for a week.

There were plenty of NDP votes coming out of Gimli, Winnipeg Beach et. al. when Peter Bjornson had the Gimli riding I used to live in that riding but I'm in Selkirk after the redraw Bjornson used to win by several thousand votes (his last election might have been around 1000), he never lost until he retired from politics

Interlake, Gimli, Selkirk, Brandon - any of those will be in play for the NDP. The have a long history of being swing ridings. And of course, the North is a given. Especially Selkirk and Gimli. They are former NDP strongholds.

I think Caldwell is also implying "with a premier this unpoplar, we should be winning that seat." I would also add, we will probably get a minority, one way or another, this spring.

Drew Caldwell's take on the recent byelection. Not a safe Tory seat, however. Not by a long shot. We owned it for nearly a decade in the #DoerSelinger years, so this loss to a parachute candidate representing a massively unpopular government ought be an urgent wake-up call.

Yes, of course there are always exceptions

Token candidates are definitely a problem. I think they should be using ridings that are strong for opposition, to test the mettle of an up and coming candidate. But they don't. It's usually lather, rinse, repeat.