{"id":6575,"date":"2014-01-01T19:02:08","date_gmt":"2014-01-02T00:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=6575"},"modified":"2014-01-01T19:02:08","modified_gmt":"2014-01-02T00:02:08","slug":"2014-year-in-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=6575","title":{"rendered":"2014: Year in Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We don&#8217;t know what will make headlines in 2014. After all, most political predictions are about as accurate as a Forum poll.<\/p>\n<p>So I won&#8217;t try to guess how 2014 plays out, but here are a few things we can reasonably expect to see this year:<\/p>\n<li>With the new electoral map coming into force, all parties will begin nominating candidates, as they gear up for the next election. And since the media loves election speculation, there will no doubt be more <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ipolitics.ca\/2013\/12\/19\/harper-says-he-has-no-plans-to-quit-or-call-snap-election\/\">rumours<\/a> of the 2015 election being moved up to 2014 &#8211; though I can\u2019t imagine Harper would want to go to the polls before what figures to be a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=5599\">popular 2015 budget<\/a>.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>It\u2019s likely that Robocon or the Senate Scandal will resurface at various points during the year. Moreover, senate reform could move to the forefront, especially if Harper decides to tack a referendum question onto the 2015 vote.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>We know the Conservatives will introduce <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/supreme-court-prostitution-ruling-forces-issue-on-harper-1.2472807\">legislation on prostitution<\/a> at some point this year, and you can be sure debate will continue to swirl around the Keystone pipeline.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>We know there will be a by-election in Macleod, and we know the Conservatives will win it. More competitive will be Trinity Spadina, if and when Olivia Chow steps down to run for Mayor of Toronto.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>Speaking of which, it seems likely that Rob Ford will continue to horrify and entertain us all right up to the October 27th municipal election. For one day at least, Torontonians will be right when they think the whole world is watching them.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>New Brunswick has a fixed election date set for September 22nd. The Liberals, on the rise across the Maritimes and led by 31 year old Brian Gallant, are the favourites with a 2:1 edge over the ruling PCs in most polls.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>Quebec and Ontario elections seem <em>likely<\/em>, and both should be hotly contested. Expect the PQ&#8217;s &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/montreal.ctvnews.ca\/quebec-values-charter-could-be-key-in-snap-election-campaign-in-2014-1.1608077\">Values Charter<\/a>&#8221; to be a major election issue in Quebec, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/news\/politics\/kathleen-wynne-will-run-on-promise-to-raise-taxes-for-transit-in-next-election\/article15943546\/\"><\/a>transit funding to be front and centre in Ontario.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We don&#8217;t know what will make headlines in 2014. After all, most political predictions are about as accurate as a Forum poll. So I won&#8217;t try to guess how 2014 plays out, but here are a few things we can reasonably expect to see this year: With the new electoral map coming into force, all [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[983,1184,55,86,904],"tags":[1439,1441,1437,1438,1440,1120,1169,1436],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6575"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6575"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6585,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6575\/revisions\/6585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}