New Democrats, in the politics of the United States, are an ideologically centrist faction within the Democratic Party that emerged after the victory of Republican George H. W. Bush in the 1988 presidential election. They are identified with centrist social/cultural/pluralist positions and neoliberal fiscal values.^[1][2] They are represented by organizations such as the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), the New Democrat Network, and the Senate and House New Democrat Coalitions.

Origins[link]

After the landslide electoral losses to Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, a group of prominent Democrats began to believe their party was out of touch and in need of a radical shift in economic policy and ideas of governance.^[3][4] The Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) was founded in 1985 by Al From and a group of like-minded politicians and strategists.^[5] They advocated a political "Third Way" as an antidote to the electoral successes of Reaganism.^[3][4]

Although the label "New Democrat" was briefly used by a progressive reformist group including Gary Hart and Eugene McCarthy in 1989,^[6] the term became more widely associated with the policies of the Democratic Leadership Council, who in 1990 renamed their bi-monthly magazine from The Mainstream Democrat to The New Democrat.^[7] When then Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton stepped down as DLC chairman to run for president in the 1992 presidential election, he presented himself as a "New Democrat".^[8]

Claims That Robert F. Kennedy Was a New Democrat[link]

As a harbinger of modern liberalism and progressivism, Robert F. Kennedy has been described as the first "New Democrat".^[9][10][11] As former President Bill Clinton described in his book My Life:

"In the 1968 Indiana primary, Bobby Kennedy became the first New Democrat. He believed in civil rights for all and special privileges for none, in giving poor people a hand up rather than a handout: work was better than welfare. He understood in a visceral way that progressive politics requires the advocacy of both new policies and fundamental values, both far-reaching change and social stability. If he had become President, America's journey through the rest of the twentieth century would have been very different."^[12]

Bill Clinton as a New Democrat[link]

Bill Clinton was the single Democratic politician of the 1990s most identified with the New Democrats; his promise of welfare reform in the 1992 presidential campaign, and its subsequent enactment, epitomized the New Democrat position, as did his 1992 promise of a middle-class tax cut and his 1993 expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit for the working poor.^[4] New Democrat and Third Way successes under Clinton, and the writings of Anthony Giddens, are often regarded to have inspired Tony Blair in the United Kingdom and his policies.^[13]

New Democrats were more open to deregulation than the previous Democratic leadership had been. This was especially evident in the large scale deregulation of agriculture and the telecommunications industries. The New Democrats and allies on the DLC were responsible for the ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

An important part of New Democrat ideas is focused on improving the economy. During the administration of Bill Clinton, New Democrats were responsible for passing the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993. It raised taxes on the wealthiest 1.2% of taxpayers,^[14] while cutting taxes on 15 million low-income families and making tax cuts available to 90% of small businesses.^[15] Additionally, it mandated that the budget be balanced over a number of years, through the implementation of spending restraints. This helped oversee the longest peace-time economic expansion in USA history.^[16] Overall, the top marginal tax rate was raised from 31% to 40% under the Clinton administration.

New Democrats today[link]

Some of those identified as New Democrats had vied for the 2008 Democratic nomination for President, including Hillary Rodham Clinton and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson.

In 2003 Barack Obama (at the time serving in the Illinois State Senate), asked the Democratic Leadership Council to remove his name from its New Democrat Directory. He said that his name had been added without his knowledge, and that he was removing his name because it implied membership in the DLC, which he had never joined.^[17] In March 2009, Obama reportedly told a White House gathering of 65 members of the New Democrat Coalition that he is a "New Democrat."^[18]

New Democratic Governors[link]

• Gov. Mike Beebe of Arkansas
• Former Gov. Phil Bredesen of Tennessee
• Former Gov. Jim Doyle of Wisconsin
• Former Gov. Jennifer Granholm of Michigan
• Gov. Christine Gregoire of Washington
• Former Gov. Brad Henry of Oklahoma
• Former Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia
• Former Gov. Ruth Ann Minner of Delaware
• Former Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania
• Former Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico
• Current U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services and Former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas
• Former U.S. Senator and Former Gov. Evan Bayh of Indiana
• Current U.S. Senator and Former Gov. Joe Manchin of West Virginia
• Current U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security and Former Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona
• Current U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and Former Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa
• Current U.S. Senator and former Gov. Mark Warner of Virginia

See also[link]

• Democratic Leadership Council
• Democratic Party
• Factions in the Democratic Party (United States)

References[link]

External links[link]

• About the New Democrat movement, DLC

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (May 2012)

Bill Good is a Canadian television personality and CKNW radio talk show host. He formerly co-anchored the 6:00pm newscast on Vancouver's CIVT alongside Pamela Martin.

From 1993 to 2001, he anchored the Vancouver edition of Canada Tonight, broadcast on BCTV (then Vancouver's CTV affiliate). He moved to CIVT in 2001 after that station became Vancouver's CTV O&O.

Bill Good is known for his unwavering middle-of-the-road position during on-air interviews, which has helped him to stay in his seat much longer than other, more outspoken local radio personalities.^{[citation needed]}

Prior to working for CTV, Good worked for CBC. In the 1970s, he worked for CBC Sports, where one of his duties was hosting Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts originating from Vancouver. In 1978, he moved to CBUT in Vancouver, where he anchored NewsCentre until 1989.

Good used to live in North Vancouver but recently moved to Downtown Vancouver where he has purchased a condo. He has three adult children, a son who is said to work as a cook, one who works at Whistler and a daughter who is a teacher.

His father, Bill Good, Sr., was also a well-known sports and newscaster in Vancouver. His brother, John Good, also worked in radio and television, mostly in Toronto and eastern Canada before returning to Vancouver as part of the on air talent during the launch of a new TV station in the late 1970s. He helped create Sports Page, a longstanding sports program. John Good retired from TV work to enter private business in 1980 and went on to become a successful mining promoter, but not before he created the business program Venture. John Good resides in West Vancouver and Los Angeles, California.

References[link]

• Vancouver Broadcasters

External links[link]

• CTV BC biography of Bill Good
• Ravi Baichwal / Bill Good 9/11 interview with Paul Kavanagh

This article about a Canadian journalist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (January 2011)

Adrian Dix
MLA for Vancouver-Kingsway
Incumbent
Assumed office 2005
Preceded by	Rob Nijjar
Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
Incumbent
Assumed office 2011
Preceded by	Dawn Black
Personal details
Born	ca. 1966 [1] Vancouver
Political party	New Democrat
Spouse(s)	Renée Saklikar

Adrian Dix is a Canadian politician, serving as the MLA for Vancouver-Kingsway in British Columbia and as leader of the British Columbia New Democratic Party.^[1] He was first elected to the Legislative Assembly in the 2005 provincial election.

Personal[link]

Dix was born in Vancouver to parents Ken and Hilda, immigrants from Ireland and Britain, respectively. His parents ran the Dix Insurance Agency Ltd. on West 41st Avenue in Vancouver. Growing up in Vancouver, Dix was raised as an Anglican and attended Point Grey Secondary in the 1980s. He then went on to study history and political science at the University of British Columbia. Dix has two siblings, including a brother who is a businessman and entrepreneur, living in East Vancouver. In early March 2012 Dix was briefly questioned by Skytrain staff and let go with a warning for riding the Skytrain without a copy of the daypass fare he had allegedly purchased earlier in the day.^[2] Dix lives in Vancouver with his wife Renée Saklikar, a poet and writer.^[3]

Dix is known for keeping in shape in order to manage his Type-1 diabetes, with which he was diagnosed in his 20s.

Career[link]

Fluently bilingual, Dix lived in France as a young man and then worked in Ottawa for NDP MP Ian Waddell. He then worked as the executive director of Canadian Parents for French in B.C./Yukon. Then from 1996 to 1999, he served as Chief of Staff to Premier Glen Clark. He was forced to resign from that position after it was revealed that he had produced a memo and then back-dated it while marking it with an official Executive Office of the Premier stamp in an effort to make it appear that Clark had instructed him to keep him at arms-length from the process of awarding casino licences, something Dix has repeatedly apologized for.^[4]

Member of the Legislative Assembly[link]

Since 2005, Dix has served as the MLA for Vancouver-Kingsway. He first served as the opposition critic for Children and Families and then served as the Health critic.^[5] He served his constituents by opposing the closing of Carleton Elementary School.^[6]

2011 NDP leadership race[link]

The last candidate to publicly launch his leadership bid, Dix campaigned on a platform of eliminating the HST, rolling back reductions in the corporate tax rate, supporting the redirection of carbon tax revenue to pay for public transit and infrastructure that reduces greenhouse gas emissions, supporting an increase in the minimum wage rate to $10 per hour, creating a provincial child care system, restoring grants to the post-secondary students, reducing interest on student loans, and restoring the corporation capital tax on financial institutions.^[7][8][9]

His candidacy was endorsed by former interim BC NDP leader Joy McPhail, amongst others. Dix's campaign for the leadership sparked controversy when campaign workers showed up at the headquarters of the party at the cut-off for new memberships with thousands of membership forms and bags of cash.^[10] Five of the six other leadership candidates filed formal complaints after video emerged of NDP MLA Mable Elmore stapling $10 bills to the forms.^[11]

Dix ultimately won the BC NDP leadership vote in the third and final round against Mike Farnworth, garnering 52% of the vote.^[12]

Leader of the BC NDP[link]

Since becoming BC NDP leader, Dix's poll numbers have consistently been higher than his competitors, suggested that he could become Premier if an election were held now.^[13]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Profile from the B.C. Legislature

v t e New Democratic Party of Canada Party wings Federal New Democratic Party Provincial Alberta British Columbia Manitoba New Brunswick Newfoundland and Labrador Nova Scotia Ontario Prince Edward Island Saskatchewan Territorial Yukon Historical Toronto Quebec Federal level Leaders Woodsworth (CCF) Coldwell (CCF) Argue (CCF) Douglas Lewis Broadbent McLaughlin McDonough Layton Turmel Mulcair Leadership elections 1961 1971 1975 1989 1995 2003 2012 Parliamentary election candidates 1988 1993 1997 2000 2004 2006 2008 2011 Provincial level Current leaders Hanson - Yukon Dix - BC Mason - AB Nilson - SK Selinger - MB Horwath - ON Cardy - NB Dexter - NS Rodd - PE Michael - NL Most recent leadership elections Nova Scotia 2002 Newfoundland & Labrador 2006 Prince Edward Island 2006 New Brunswick 2007 Ontario 2009 Manitoba 2009 British Columbia 2011 Factions The Waffle Left Caucus Socialist Caucus New Politics Initiative Fightback See also History United Farmers Labour candidates and parties Ginger Group Co-operative Commonwealth Federation New Party New Democratic Youth of Canada

Michelle Malkin
At the RightOnline Summit in Dallas, Texas (2008)
Born	Michelle Marie Maglalang (1970-10-20) October 20, 1970 (age 41) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Residence	Colorado Springs, Colorado
Ethnicity	Filipino
Citizenship	American
Alma mater	Oberlin College - (B.A., 1992)
Occupation	Author, syndicated columnist, television personality and blogger
Religion	Roman Catholic[1]
Spouse	Jesse D. Malkin (1993–present)
Children	2
Website
Michelle Malkin

Michelle Malkin (née Maglalang; born October 20, 1970) is an American conservative blogger, political commentator and author.^[2][3] Her weekly syndicated column appears in a number of newspapers and websites.^[2] She is a Fox News Channel contributor and has been a guest on MSNBC, C-SPAN, and national radio programs. Malkin has written four books published by Regnery Publishing.

Early life[link]

Malkin was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Philippine citizens Rafaela (née Perez) – a homemaker and teacher – and Apolo DeCastro Maglalang, who was then a physician-in-training.^[1] Several months prior to Malkin's birth, her parents had immigrated to the United States on an employer-sponsored visa.^[4] After her father finished his medical training, the family moved^[5] to Absecon, New Jersey. Malkin has a younger brother.^[6] She has described her parents as Reagan Republicans who were "not incredibly politically active."^[1]

Malkin, a Roman Catholic,^[1][7] attended Holy Spirit Roman Catholic High School, where she edited the school newspaper and aspired to become a concert pianist.^[1] Following her graduation in 1988, she enrolled at Oberlin College.^[1] Malkin originally planned to pursue a bachelor's degree in music, but changed her major to English.^[1] During her college years, she worked as a press inserter, tax preparation aide, and network news librarian.^[8] While attending Oberlin, Malkin was hired to write for an independent, right-of-center student newspaper by fellow student Jesse Dylan Malkin. Her first article for the paper heavily criticized Oberlin's affirmative action program and received a "hugely negative response" from other students on campus.^[1] She graduated in 1992^[9] and later described her alma mater as "radically left-wing."^[1][10]

Career[link]

Malkin began her journalism career at the Los Angeles Daily News, working as a columnist from 1992 to 1994. In 1995, she worked in Washington, D.C., as a journalism fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute,^[11] a free-market, anti-government regulation, libertarian think tank.^[12][13] In 1996, she moved to Seattle, Washington, where she wrote columns for The Seattle Times. Malkin became a nationally-syndicated columnist with Creators Syndicate in 1999.^[14][15]

For many years, Malkin was a frequent commentator for Fox News Channel and a regular guest host of The O'Reilly Factor. In 2007, she announced that she would not return to The O'Reilly Factor, claiming that Fox News had mishandled a dispute over derogatory statements made about her by Geraldo Rivera in a Boston Globe interview.^[16] Since 2007, she has concentrated on her writing, blogging and public speaking, although she still appears on television occasionally, especially with Sean Hannity on Fox News and Fox & Friends once a week. In December 2009, Malkin began writing for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

In August 2004, following claims by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that presidential candidate John Kerry had exaggerated his record during the Vietnam War, Malkin appeared on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews and stated that there were "legitimate questions" over whether Kerry's wounds were "self-inflicted." When host Chris Matthews asked her eleven times whether she meant Kerry had shot himself on purpose, she dodged the question,^[17] but ultimately said that other soldiers had made this claim.^{[citation needed]} Malkin criticized Matthews and the MSNBC staff in her blog the following day.^[17] Georgia Senator Zell Miller accused Matthews of "browbeating" Malkin.^[18]

Books[link]

Malkin has written four books, all published by Regnery Publishing.

• Her first book, Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces (2002)^[19] was a New York Times bestseller.

• In 2004, she wrote In Defense of Internment: The Case for 'Racial Profiling' in World War II and the War on Terror,^[20] defending the U.S. government's internment of 112,000 Japanese Americans in prison camps during World War II, and arguing that the same procedures could be used on Arab- and Muslim-Americans today. The book engendered harsh criticism from several Asian American civil rights organizations.^[21] The "Historians' Committee for Fairness", a group of professors, condemned the book for not having undergone peer review and argued that its central thesis is false.^[22][23] As a result of the controversy, the Hawaii-based newspaper MidWeek dropped her column in August 2004;^[24] The Virginian-Pilot called her "an Asian Ann Coulter" and dropped her column in November 2004.^[25] Malkin responded: "I'm not Asian, I'm American," and described the comparison to Coulter as, "a compliment."^[26] Critics of Malkin's theory attempted to get the Manzanar National Historic Site, (a former relocation and internment camp), to ban her book from its' store, but failed.^[27]

• Malkin's third book, Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild, was released in October 2005.^[28]

• Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies, Malkin's fourth book, was released in July 2009^[29] and was a The New York Times Non-Fiction, Hardcover Best Seller for six weeks.^[30][31][32] Malkin said she hoped the book would, "shatter completely the myths of hope and change in the new politics in Washington," described the Obama administration as run by, "influence peddlers, power brokers and very wealthy people," and called it, "one of the most corrupt administrations in recent memory."^[33] She later discussed chapter two of the book, "Bitter Half: First Crony Michelle Obama," on NBC's Today show. She described Michelle Obama as, "steeped in the politics of the Daley machine," and as having based her professional career on nepotism and "old white boy" network connections.^[34]

Blogging[link]

MichelleMalkin.com[link]

In June 2004 she launched a political blog, MichelleMalkin.com.^[35] A 2007 memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee described Malkin as one of the five "best-read national conservative bloggers",^[36] and Technorati ranks MichelleMalkin.com consistently in its "Top 100 blogs of all types".^[37] The people search company PeekYou claims Malkin has the largest digital footprint of any political blogger.^[38]

After Malkin criticized hip hop artist Akon for "degrading women" in a Vent episode, Akon's record label, Universal Music Group, forced YouTube to remove the video by issuing a DMCA takedown notice,^[39] but decided to retract this notice^[40] after the Electronic Frontier Foundation joined Malkin and Hot Air in contesting the removal as a misuse of copyright law.^[41]

In an interview with BusinessWeek magazine in July 2007, Malkin said, "We’re doing what few other blogs can do. We serve up terabytes of bandwidth... I'm shelling out for gold-plated servers. That's expensive, and we want to be able to withstand huge traffic surges."^[42]

She continued to contribute frequently to MichelleMalkin.com, and in June 2007, she revamped it, moving it to a larger server on WordPress.^[43] With the new redesign, she re-enabled comments on her blog, which she said she had disallowed after February 2005 due to a high level of obscene and racist comments.^[44] Subscribed readers could once again post comments, although registration for the comments is rarely open. Malkin states her policy thus: "I may allow as much or as little opportunity for registration as I choose, in my absolute discretion, and I may close particular comment threads."^[45]

Jamil Hussein[link]

Malkin was one of several bloggers who questioned the credibility and even the existence of Iraqi police Captain "Jamil Hussein" who had been used as a source by the Associated Press in over 60 stories about the Iraq war. The controversy started in November 2006 when the AP reported that six Iraqis had been burned alive as they left a mosque and that four mosques had been destroyed, citing Hussein as one of its sources. In January 2007, Malkin visited Baghdad, and stated, "the Iraqi Ministry of Interior says disputed Associated Press source Jamil Hussein does exist. At least one story he told the AP just doesn’t check out: The Sunni mosques that as Hussein claimed and AP reported as 'destroyed,' 'torched' and 'burned and blown up' are all still standing. So the credibility of every AP story relying on Jamil Hussein remains dubious."^[46] Malkin has issued a correction for her denial of Capt. Hussein's existence.^[47]

Students Against War controversy[link]

In April 2006, Students Against War (SAW), a campus group at University of California, Santa Cruz, staged a protest against the presence of military recruiters on campus, and sent out a press release containing contact details (names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses) of three student leaders for use by reporters. Malkin included these contact details in a blog column entitled "Seditious Santa Cruz vs. America".^[48] Malkin claimed the contact information was originally taken from SAW's own website, but that later SAW had removed it and had "wiped" the "cached version".^[49] The students asked Malkin to remove the contact details from her blog, but Malkin reposted them several times^[50] writing in her blog: "I am leaving it up. If you are contacting them, I do not condone death threats or foul language. As for SAW, my message is this: You are responsible for your individual actions. Other individuals are responsible for theirs. Grow up and take responsibility."^[48]

SAW remarked: "Due to the continued irresponsible actions of some bloggers, members of the group have received numerous death threats and anti-Semitic comments through phone calls and emails."^[51] A blog war ensued. Malkin claimed that she received hostile e-mails^[52] then her private home address, phone number, photos of her neighborhood and maps to her house were published on several websites. The Santa Cruz Sentinel reported receiving an email from Malkin saying that this forced her to remove one of her children from school and move her family.^[53]

Another controversy involving private addresses began on July 1, 2006, when Malkin and other bloggers commented on a New York Times Travel section article that had featured the town where Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld owned summer homes. The article included a picture of Rumsfeld's long tree-lined driveway that showed a birdhouse and small portion of the housefront.^[54] Malkin declared that this story was part of "a concerted, organized effort to dig up and publicize the private home information of prominent conservatives in the media and blogosphere to intimidate them." In fact, the photos of Rumsfeld's house were taken with Rumsfeld's permission.^[55]

[edit] Hot Air

On April 24, 2006, Hot Air, a "conservative Internet broadcast network" went into operation, with Malkin as founder/CEO.^[56] She intended the blog to provide "content and analysis you can't get anywhere else on a daily basis–both on the blog and in our original video features".^[57] Her staffers included 'Allahpundit' and Bryan Preston, though the latter was replaced by Ed Morrissey on February 25, 2008.^[58] In February 2010, Hotair.com was bought by Salem Communications and is no longer administered by Malkin.^[59]

Viewpoints[link]

Citizenship[link]

Malkin believes that the custom of granting automatic U.S. citizenship at birth to children of foreign tourists, to temporary, foreign workers and to "anchor babies" delivered by illegal aliens on American soil undermines the integrity of citizenship. She argues that the custom of blanket birthright citizenship is supported neither by the U.S. Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment nor by American legal precedent.^[60]

Immigration enforcement[link]

Malkin also opposes sanctuary cities, in which local authorities do not enforce all national immigration laws or coordinate with agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Following the August 2007 execution-style murder of three college students in Newark, New Jersey, she repeated her criticisms of politicians' posture toward sanctuary cities. In particular, she criticized former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's proposal for a tamper-proof identification card with this comment:

"What Rudy-come-lately fails to comprehend is that there are already multiple alien tracking databases mandated by federal law that have yet to be fully implemented, integrated and used. The reason they don’t work is because open-borders interests have sabotaged them by restricting funding for them, objecting to them on civil liberties grounds, and pushing local and state governments to forbid public employees from checking them to verify citizenship status. Ring a bell, Rudy?"^[61]

She supports coordination with federal authorities through the use of Section 287(g) of the IIRIRA to investigate, detain, and arrest aliens on civil and criminal grounds.^[62][63] Malkin supports the detention and deportation of some immigrants, regardless of legal status, on national security grounds.^[21]

Unemployment benefits[link]

During an appearance as a news analyst on the roundtable segment of ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos on August 2, 2009, she explained why she opposed another 13-week extension of unemployment benefits: "If you put enough government cheese in front of people they are going to just keep eating it and kicking the can down the road... people will just delay getting a job until the three weeks before the benefits run out."^[64]

Women's issues[link]

In a February 2012 column, Malkin called the "War on Women" a false narrative, arguing rather that, "It's the progressive left in this country that has viciously and systematically slimed female conservatives for their beliefs."^[65]

Personal life[link]

At Oberlin, she began dating Jesse Malkin.^[66] Jesse was granted a Rhodes Scholarship to begin study at Oxford University in 1991.^[67] They married in 1993, and have two children. Jesse worked as an associate policy analyst and economist focusing on healthcare issues for the RAND Corporation.^[68] In 2004, Malkin reported on her website that Jesse had left a "lucrative health-care consulting job" to be a stay-at-home dad.^[66][69]

In 2006, Malkin gave a lecture at her alma mater, Oberlin College, discussing racism, among other topics.^[70] She refuted allegations that she had been insensitive to the "plight of minorities" by listing several racial epithets that had been used against her, and by relating a lesson she learned from her mother for which she is "eternally grateful."^[70] When in kindergarten, Malkin went home in tears one day because her classmates had called her a racist name. But, her mother comforted her with the words, "....Everyone has prejudice."^[70]

The Malkin family lived in North Bethesda, Maryland,^[71] but relocated to Colorado Springs, Colorado^[72] in November 2008.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Michelle Malkin

• Malkin's official site
• Michelle Malkin Features at Creators Syndicate
• Hot Air
• Archive of Malkin's columns at Townhall.com
• "Columnist isn't smiling over swastika in rally photo". Rocky Mountain News. February 19, 2009.
• "Michelle Malkin: Grace, gratitude, and G-d". Jewish World Review. November 24, 2004.
• Archive of Malkin's columns at Jewish World Review
• Appearances on C-SPAN
  • Booknotes interview with Malkin on Invasion, December 8, 2002.
  • In Depth interview with Malkin, January 3, 2010
• Works by or about Michelle Malkin in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Justin Trudeau BA (McGill) BEd (UBC) MP
Justin Trudeau, August 2008
Member of the Canadian Parliament for Papineau
Incumbent
Assumed office 2008
Preceded by	Vivian Barbot
Personal details
Born	Justin Pierre James Trudeau (1971-12-25) December 25, 1971 (age 40) Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Political party	Liberal
Spouse(s)	Sophie Grégoire
Relations	Pierre Trudeau, father (d. 2000) Margaret Trudeau, mother Alexandre Trudeau, brother Michel Trudeau, brother (d. 1998) James Sinclair, maternal grandfather
Children	Xavier James Trudeau Ella-Grace Margaret Trudeau
Alma mater	McGill University University of British Columbia
Occupation	Teacher
Religion	Catholic
Website	Justin.ca

Justin Trudeau

Justin Pierre James Trudeau, MP (born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician. He has represented the Montreal electoral division of Papineau in the Canadian House of Commons since 2008 as a member of the Liberal Party and currently serves as the party's critic for youth, post-secondary education, and amateur sport.^[1]

Trudeau is the eldest son of the late former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau and Margaret Sinclair Trudeau Kemper. His maternal grandfather, James Sinclair, was also a federal cabinet minister.

Early life and personal life[link]

Trudeau was born on December 25, 1971, in Ottawa, Ontario. He was only the second child in Canadian history to be born when one of his parents was prime minister; the first was John A. Macdonald's youngest daughter Margaret Mary Macdonald, and Trudeau's younger brothers Alexandre (Sacha) (born December 25, 1973) and Michel (1975–98) were the third and fourth, respectively.^[2] Pierre and Margaret Trudeau separated in 1977, when Justin was six years old, and Pierre retired as prime minister in 1984.^[3] Of his mother and father's marriage, Trudeau said in 2009, "They loved each other incredibly, passionately, completely. But there was 30 years between them and my mom never was an equal partner in what encompassed my father's life, his duty, his country."^[4]

Pierre Trudeau raised his children in relative privacy in Montreal. In 2008, Justin said that of all his early family outings he enjoyed camping with his father the most, because "that was where our father got to be just our father—a dad in the woods."^[5] Justin actively supported the Liberal Party from a young age, offering his personal support to embattled party leader John Turner in the 1988 federal election.^[6] Two years later, he defended Canadian federalism at a student event at the Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf.^[7]

Trudeau emerged as a prominent figure in his own right in October 2000, after delivering a memorable eulogy at his father's state funeral.^[8] The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) received numerous calls to rebroadcast the speech after its initial transmission, and leading Quebec politician Claude Ryan described it as "perhaps [...] the first manifestation of a dynasty."^[9] A book issued by the CBC in 2003 included the speech in its list of significant Canadian events from the past fifty years.^[10]

Trudeau has a Bachelor of Arts degree in literature from McGill University and a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of British Columbia. After graduation, he worked as a social studies and French teacher in Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School in Vancouver, British Columbia.^[11] From 2002 to 2004, he studied engineering at the Université de Montréal.^[12] He also started a Master of Arts degree in Environmental Geography at McGill University before suspending his program to seek public office.^[13]

On May 28, 2005, Trudeau married Sophie Grégoire, a former model and Quebec television host. They have two children.^[14][15]

Trudeau is one of several children of former Prime Ministers who have become Canadian media personalities. The others are Ben Mulroney, Catherine Clark, and Justin's younger brother, Alexandre. Pierre Trudeau and Brian Mulroney were longtime foes, but this rivalry did not carry over to their sons; Ben Mulroney was a guest at Justin Trudeau's wedding.^[16]

In March 2012, Trudeau defeated Canadian Senator Patrick Brazeau in a charity boxing match, winning by technical knockout in the third round.

Advocacy[link]

Trudeau has used his public status to promote various causes. He and his family started the Kokanee Glacier Alpine Campaign for winter sports safety in 2000, two years after his brother Michel Trudeau died in an avalanche during a ski trip.^[17] In 2002, Trudeau criticized the British Columbia government's decision to stop its funding for a public avalanche warning system.^[18]

Trudeau chaired the Katimavik youth program, a project started by longtime family friend Jacques Hébert, from 2002 to 2006.^[19] In 2002–03, he was a panelist on CBC Radio's Canada Reads series, where he championed The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston.^[20] Trudeau and his brother Alexandre inaugurated the Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Toronto in April 2004; the centre later became a part of the Munk School of Global Affairs.^[21] In 2006, he hosted the Giller Prize for literature.^[22]

In 2005, Trudeau fought against a proposed $100 million zinc mine that he argued would poison the Nahanni River, a United Nations World Heritage Site located in the Northwest Territories. He was quoted as saying, "The river is an absolutely magnificent, magical place. I'm not saying mining is wrong [...] but that is not the place for it. It's just the wrong thing to be doing."^[23]

On September 17, 2006, Trudeau was the master of ceremonies at a Toronto rally organized by Roméo Dallaire that called for Canadian participation in resolving the Darfur crisis.^[24]

Actor[link]

CBC Television announced in July 2006 that Justin Trudeau would appear in the two-part miniseries, The Great War, portraying Talbot Mercer Papineau (1883–1917).^[25] Papineau was killed in action in Ypres, Belgium and was among Canada's first Rhodes Scholars. Coincidentally, Trudeau later became the Member of Parliament (MP) for a riding named after Talbot Mercer Papineau's lineage: this includes his great-great-grandfather, seigneur Joseph Papineau (1752–1841) and great-grandfather, reformist Patriote Louis-Joseph Papineau (1786–1871). The program was broadcast in 2007.^[26]

Political career[link]

Trudeau (left) is seated next to Darfurian refugee Tragi Mustafa, and an unknown female event organiser is seated next to Roméo Dallaire (right)

Trudeau became more involved with the Liberal Party throughout the 2000s. He co-hosted a tribute to outgoing prime minister Jean Chrétien at the party's 2003 leadership convention and was later appointed to chair a task force on youth renewal after the party's defeat in the 2006 federal election.^[27]

In October 2006, Trudeau criticized Quebec nationalism by describing political nationalism generally as "old idea from the 19th century," "based on a smallness of thought" and not relevant to modern Quebec. This comment was seen as a criticism of Michael Ignatieff, then a candidate in the 2006 Liberal Party leadership election, who was promoting recognition of Quebec as a nation.^[28] Trudeau subsequently wrote a public letter on the subject, describing the idea of Quebec nationhood as "against everything my father ever believed."^[29]

Trudeau announced his support for leadership candidate Gerard Kennedy shortly before the 2006 convention and introduced Kennedy during the candidates' final speeches.^[30] When Kennedy dropped off after the second ballot, Trudeau went with him to support the ultimate winner, Stéphane Dion.^[31]

Rumours circulated in early 2007 that Trudeau would run in a by-election in the Montreal riding of Outremont, but he instead announced that he would seek the Liberal nomination in Papineau for the next general election.^[32][33] He won the nomination on April 29, 2007, defeating two well-known municipal politicians.^[34] On election day, Trudeau narrowly defeated one-term Bloc Québécois incumbent Vivian Barbot. He was one of only a few Liberal candidates to gain a seat at the expense of an opposition party in this election.

Following the election, Edward Greenspon, editor-in-chief of The Globe and Mail, noted that Trudeau would "be viewed as few other rookie MPs are—as a potential future prime minister—and scrutinized through that lens."^[5]

Member of Parliament

The Conservative Party won a minority government in the 2008 election, and Trudeau entered parliament as a member of the Official Opposition. Stéphane Dion resigned as Liberal leader shortly after the election, and rumours circulated that Trudeau, despite his inexperience, could become a candidate to succeed him.^[35] Trudeau responded that he was not interested in seeking the position so early in his career.^[36] In early 2009, Michael Ignatieff was chosen as the party's new leader.

Trudeau was the first member of the 40th Parliament of Canada to introduce a private member's motion, in which he called for a "national voluntary service policy for young people." The proposal won support from parliamentarians across party lines.^[37] He later co-chaired the Liberal Party's April 2009 national convention in Vancouver, and in October of the same year he was appointed as the party's critic for multiculturalism and youth.^[38] In September 2010, he was reassigned as critic for youth, citizenship, and immigration.^[39] He was critical of the Harper government's human smuggling legislation, which he argued would penalize the victims of smuggling.^[40]

He encouraged a strong Canadian relief effort after the 2010 Haiti earthquake and sought more accessible immigration procedures for Haitians moving to Canada in the time of crisis. His own riding includes a significant Haitian community.^[41]

Trudeau was re-elected in Papineau in the 2011 Canadian federal election, as the Liberal Party fell to third-party standing in the House of Commons with only thirty-four seats. Michael Ignatieff resigned as party leader immediately after the election, and rumours again circulated that Trudeau could run to become his successor. On this occasion, Trudeau said, "I don't feel I should be closing off any options," but added, "because of the history packaged into my name, a lot of people are turning to me in a way that [...] to be blunt, concerns me."^[42]

Bob Rae was chosen as party leader on an interim basis, and a contest for the next full-time leader is expected in 2013. Trudeau now serves as the Liberal critic youth, post-secondary education, and amateur sport.^[1][43]

Municipal politics

Trudeau campaigned on behalf of George Smitherman in the 2010 Toronto mayoral election.^[44]

Electoral record[link]