Election Candidates Trading Cards :)

Inspired by part of Renee's post today, DD and I have decided that the next project for her political studies will be to make player/trading cards for the candidates that are running in our province in this election. The front will be a picture of the candidate and the back will have information about the candidate. We will probably include something on the front to indicate the party the candidate is running for. We're pretty excited about this idea! It will be something neat to add to her election 2008 lapbook. I'll post pictures when we actually get some done, which will probably be a while as we gather information and work on a design.

Who knew elections could be so fun!?! :)

Consumer costs

According to this article, consumer costs, including the price of gas, is one of the issues that leaders will be addressing in this election.

In this article Jack Layton explains some of his plans in this regard.

Leaders Travels

A great idea would be to create a map to use especially for tracking the travels of teh party leaders during the elections. It would be a good way to get some review of the layout of our country and the different provinces, along with following current events and learning some politics. You could make this as creative as you want. Design your own mini airplanes for each party, making it easily identifiable with the party, and park it at each place as you learn about the leader visiting that place. Create an individual mark of some kind for each party to leave on each place as they leave so that you have a permanent record of where they leaders have been.

Here I will link articles that I come across that talk about the leaders travels:

This article lays out the leaders travel plans for Thursday, September 11

This article includes information about the leaders travels on Friday, September 12

This article says that Layton and Harper will be in Newfoundland and Labrador on Saturday.

This article gives some information on leaders travels for Monday and also gives information on some issues.

Military Issues

One of the issues in this election is that of the Canadian military, especially as related to our role in Afganistan

In this article Taliban claims to increasing attacks on Canadians in attempt to influence elections

In this article party leaders react to Taliban claims.

In this article Harper commits to to a 2011 end date to the Afganistan mission.

Provincial Candidates

Here I will collect links about the candidates that are running in our province.

This post announces that Ryan Cleary will run for the NDP in the St. John's South riding.


This post announces Craig Wescott running as Conservative candidate in St. John's east and Merv Wiseman running as Conservative candidate in St. John's south.

This Western Star Article announces candidates in St. John's East riding - Craig Wescott for the Conservatives, Walter Noel for the Liberals, and possibly Jack Harris for the NDP

This Western Star article talks about the candidates for the Random riding - Liberal Judy Foote, Conservative Herb Davis, and NDP Terry White.

This Western Star article confirms Jack Harris running for NDP in St. John's East

This article points out how Westcott and Cleary have in the past publicly ridiculed the very parties and leaders they are now running for.

In this article Jack Layton laughs off Cleary's former remarks about him and his party.

This article is mainly about Cleary running for the NDP but it also mentions other candidates.

This Western Star article announces conservatives have candidates in 5 of the 7 ridings. Craig wescott in St. John's East, Merv Wiseman in St. John's South, Fabian Manning in Avalon, Herb Davis in Random, Andrew House in Bonavista.

In this Western Star article Gerry Byrne talks about his plans.

This Western Star article introduces Lacey Lewsis as the conservative candidate for Labrador.

This Western Star article announces Mark Kennedy as NDP candidate in Humber riding.

This Western Star article announces the candidates in humber riding - Liberal Gerry Byrne, Conservative Lorne Robinson, NDP Mark Kennedy, and Wayne Bennett for the Newfoundland First Party

In this article Fabian Manning says he expects to win, but some voters tell why they won't vote for him.

Labrador not happy that candidates running in their area are not from their area.

Reminder and update

DD learned a lesson today. She had used one site for information in making her poster about the candidates in the different ridings in our province. When my dad was visiting today he noticed that some of the info wasn't right. Turns out that the site we were using has some information from the last election posted and haven't updated it for this election. It was a well needed reminder for us to not just depend on one source for your information but to be sure to use more than one source and be sure your sources are reliable.

Also, I got a call from the Student Vote people today. Their program is available for homeschoolers so be sure to check out their website and register.

Williams' "ABC" Campaign

This is a topic that is of specific interest to us Newfoundlanders.

Newfoundland and Labrador's Premier Danny Williams thinks that Prime Minister Stephen Harper backed out of a promise he made to Newfoundlanders during the last election. The promise had something to do with the issue of equalization. As a result, Primier Danny Williams, though he is Conserative, has launched an "Anything But Conservative" Campaign and has said he will do his part to see that Newfoundland and Labrador has no conservatives elected in the upcoming federal elections. For the most part I really like our premier but his thinking in this matter baffles me. Maybe I'll understand it better once I research it, or maybe I'll just be all the more baffled, we'll see.

In this post I will be collecting links that have to do with Premier Williams' and his ABC Campaign.

I only have a rough idea of what the whole "equalization" thing is all about so I need to learn more about that. As I get time I will try to find links that will help with that and the equalization issue may end up becoming a separate topic but for right now I will deal with it here.

This article tells about Williams email to MHAs seeking support for his ABC Campaign.

This article states that only one of the MHAs, Elizabeth Marshall, has said she does not support the campaign

This article says that the ABC campaign is making it difficult to find candidates and volunteers for the Conservatives in Newfoundland and Labrador.

In this article St. John's East Conservative candidate, Craig Westcott, explains his argument against Williams' campaign.

In this article Craig Westcott and Merv Wiseman, another Conservative candidate, speak to the equalization issue.


This article tells about Premier Williams sending a letter to each of the main party leaders detailing specific questions to answer.

Here you can get pdf's of the actual letters.

This article tells about Danny Williams attacking Stephen Harper in a speech. I have debated whether I should just leave this as links to articles with no comment about them but I just can't resist with this one. Danny Williams complaining about Stephen Harper's cuts sounds a little like the pot calling the kettle black. Many Newfoundlanders are upset at the way that Danny has been running things in Newfoundland and Labrador. He has done many things that he deemed necessary for our province, even though they may not have been popular. I think Stephen Harper has done the same thing in running things in our country. Also, it seems crazy for a member of the Conservative party to say that "the future of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians — and indeed all Canadians — will be very bleak under a Conservative majority". It just doesn't make any sense!

In this article Danny Williams says he may take his ABC campaign to other provinces.

This Western Star article talks about local MHAs support of the ABC Campaign.

This article talks about the media emailing MHAs about stand on ABC campaign.

This article talks about the cost of the ABC campaign.

This article talks about Danny Williams increasing his attacks.

In this article Harper addresses Williams ABC campaign.

Article talking about Conservatives helping other parties.

Williams has a website for his ABC campaign.

Williams takes ABC campaing to Manning riding.

The Leaders Debate

The Leaders Debate is a televised debate between the leaders of the main political parties.

There has been a big fuss about who should be participating in the televised leaders debate during this election. Here I will collect articles about the leader's debate in general and articles about the debate. If you have any link you think I might be interested in adding, please leave a comment.

In this article the Green Party threatens to go to court if they are excluded.

This article reveals that the networks have ruled that Green Party will not be a part of the debate.

In this article Green Party Leader, Elizabeth May, accuses Harper and Layton of threatening to boycott the debate is she was a part of it.

This site was posted by the green party about the issue.

This article announces that the networks have changed their minds and the Green party leader will be a part of the debate.

A Toronto Start Editorial about the debate about the debate.

Information about the debates to be aired October 1 and 2.

It's Federal Election Time!

I love to use current events as a jumping off point for our learning. This morning DD and I brainstormed about how we could do that very thing with the upcoming election.

She came up with some very basic questions to start with - why is there an election? what are the different levels of government and what are their responsibilities? We discussed this some and discussed how we could do more research into these questions and the different ways we could present our findings. She's thinking about doing a "Politics" lapbook.

I had already done a little research for possible resources last night and found a site called Nodice.ca, "an independent website which contains educational resources and links for Canadian teachers and students, and information about federal, provincial and territorial elections in Canada." This looks like a really great resource that I hope to use in the future, as well as during the current federal election.

DD and I perused the Canada Federal Election 2008 portion of the site after our brainstorm session and had a great discussion time. Our perusual promoted more ideas. She plans to contruct our own Count Down to Election Day poster to keep it fresh in our minds and to get all of us talking about it. She's also planning on making a poster of the ridings in our area and filling in the candidates running for the different parties in each riding as we learn about them. She may also make a little mini booklet about the party leaders.

I was thrilled with how she jumped right into the topic and actually seemed to enjoy it. She reminded me that during an election a few years ago she had set up a voting booth in our house and everyone had to cast their vote for the local candidates. I had forgotten all about that. Then I told her about the Students Vote Organization I learned about through the NoDice site. I don't know if the program is open to homeschoolers or not but it would be a neat thing for homeschool groups to take advantage of if it is.

This lead to a discussion about the voting age limit, which lead to a discussion of the history of the right to vote, which is most likely going to lead to more research and project possibilities.

So, we're off and running! Are you doing anything to incorporate the election into your learning? I'd love to hear about it if you are.


Edit: Just found some more great resource sites!

Link to Learning is a site "Linking you to web sites supporting the Ontario curriculum." Although it states it is specifically for Ontario Curriculum it can be a great resource to any homeschool. This resource is not specifically for the election but I found this work sheet, about the different levels of government and their responsibilites, from the site. In reality there is nothing fancy about this worksheet and you could quite easily just make your own without printing it off.

Government in Canada is the site you are supposed to use to fill in the worksheet. It has great information about the different levels of government and their responsibilities.

Canadainfo is the main site where the page above is found and it is another great resource, not just for the election.

Election 2008 is a specific section of this site for the upcoming election. It looks like it will be a great resource. It answers DD's question about the timing of the election, among other things.

I'm trying to decide if I should just added resources to this post as I find them, or make a new separate post each time I find new resources, or if I should make a special section in the sidebar for the resources I'm finding. Any thoughts on that?


EDIT: I have decided that rather than add to this post I will be making new posts about specific election issues. You can find all thet posts about the 2008 federal election by clicking on the federal election 2008 label at the bottom of this post.


EDIT: Just a reminder to be sure to check the validity of facts and statistics and not to rely on just one source of information. DD and I have discovered that the Nodice site information is not correct for your province, at least as of September 11. Also, the Students Vote program is available for homeschoolers so go register!

revised and published in the October issue of Homeschooling Horizons Magazine and also published on Homeschooling Horizons website