Canada 2008: Official Thread

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So what exactly did the fixed election dates law do?

If the Liberals want Harper to follow fixed election dates, they should have let him pass the Bill.

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So what exactly did the fixed election dates law do?

If the person who passed it doesn't feel like following it, not much.

It didn't pass - the Liberals blocked it.

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Somebody's losing touch with reality...

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An update on Bill Casey's riding.

Since I was bored, I looked up the candidates.

Apart from him, the Conservatives are running Joel Bernard. He is from New Brunswick and lives in Orleans (next door to Ottawa). I doubt he's even been to Cumberland-Colchester. Lol.

The Liberals are running Tracy Parsons, the former leader of the Progressive Canadian thingee that has since been almost entirely absorbed into the Liberal Party.

Safe Indie.

Joel Bernard is fantastic! I'm a massive fan!

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No, didn't look him up and was being completely serious. Won't discuss it any more than that, though.

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http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=yD0sb3HQPik

"Do you like handcuffs?"

I tell you what, he has a fantastic sense of humour!

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Go Elizabeth May and the Greens!

^^^^^^ I'm hoping to see a Tory majority Government on the back of the Greens splitting the NDP and Grit vote, too!!!

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Gary Lunn is an unfaithful traitor and I would not be disappointed if this was the only tory seat to fall.

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Gary Lunn is an unfaithful traitor and I would not be disappointed if this was the only tory seat to fall.

Is this about the DRC? An odd outburst from you, certainly.

Yes, it is about the DRC, and particularly the fact that he was one of the first to criticise Day when he won the leadership of the Canadian Alliance Party in a democratic ballot of members. Gary Lunn is more interested in winning internal party battles than promoting conservatism in Canada. I group Lunn, Deborah Grey, Chuck Strahl, et al in the same group: traitors.

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My god.

This is depressing.

how so?

Harper's pretty much got this in the bag.

But that's not depressing...

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My god.

This is depressing.

how so?

Harper's pretty much got this in the bag.

But that's not depressing...

That is depressing when you are Canadian and you know than this will bring more years of censorship, secrets, lies and pollution.

But, unlike Dion said in a ad, a vote for Harper is not a vote for the third term of Bush.

The only secret hidden agenda is Dion's plan to raise taxes, spend hand over fist into deficit or both raise taxes and spend into deficit, or to go back on his promises - as proven by his $12 billion budget black hole in his campaign commitments. Just take a look at Finance Critic John McCallum's secret conference call confessions to Liberal candidates and MPs.

Dion is not a leader, he's a fraud.

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I wish he'd come to my town, but unfortunately it wouldn't win him any votes.

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Can somebody give a link?

CPAC had the French debate up, and I assume they'll put the English debate up in their Videos on Demand at some point. Check them out.

Fun night watching the debates. I didn't really hear much of it, as it was too noisy in there. Jack stopped by afterwards, and I got to shake his hand (twice!). He said to me "thank you for being here!". Afterwards, I biked home, and I noticed down the street the Greens were having there debate party, and I saw Elizabeth May. I promptly booed her and kept biking. lol

As I mentioned on your facebook page - nice work on that!

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That was a great comment: "If you can't do your job as Leader of the Opposition, how can you ask people to vote for you for Prime Minister"

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Interesting. There was one in the paper from a week ago that showed a landslide for John Baird in Ottawa West-Nepean.

That's because John Baird rocks my world.

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Interesting. There was one in the paper from a week ago that showed a landslide for John Baird in Ottawa West-Nepean.

That's because John Baird rocks my world.

TMI. You know, for what it's worth, the guy is widely known to be gay (although he is not open about it). Interestingly, the MPP for the same riding, Jim Watson is in the same boat. And, they are pretty good friends (even though Watson is a Liberal, they were both young tories)

I'm aware of that, but I'm a big fan. He's a good bloke. I don't know that he's not open about it, I think he just doesn't make it identify him, if you know what I mean. I don't think he hides it or keeps it a secret, he just doesn't flaunt it or whatever.

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Dion is a moron!

How could anyone possibly think that this idiot could do a better job as PM than Harper???

Hopefully after this election, Layton will be the Official Opposition Leader, because he'd do a far better job than this.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=mv-5biChVrA

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With the weekend being Canadian Thanksgiving, this will dominate the news cycle from now until the election.

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Dion is a moron!

How could anyone possibly think that this idiot could do a better job as PM than Harper???

Hopefully after this election, Layton will be the Official Opposition Leader, because he'd do a far better job than this.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=mv-5biChVrA

Something we can agree on

I was thinking of you when I typed it, although I stand by the comments I made - I seriously believe that Layton is a better leader than Dion, and would make a more effective Opposition Leader to Dion, and I agree with a comment by Benjamin Disraeli - that a strong opposition contributes to sound government (paraphrase). I think that the Grits are not ready to govern - and this is not just Dion, I think they need to use their time in opposition to develop policies and do the groundwork for when they govern - they haven't done this in the time they've been in opposition, and it's something they need to do and they won't be ready to govern until they do.

So far, Layton has acted more like an Opposition Leader than Dion has. Dion complains about legislation, before supporting it to try to avoid the government falling, thus triggering an election.

Layton has more leadership qualities than Dion. The NDP has a more comprehensive policy than the Grits. All in all, the NDP would make a superior official opposition than the Grits.

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Dion is a moron!

How could anyone possibly think that this idiot could do a better job as PM than Harper???

Hopefully after this election, Layton will be the Official Opposition Leader, because he'd do a far better job than this.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=mv-5biChVrA

To be fair to Mr. Dion, it was a fairly complex question.  But instead of asking for three retakes, Mr. Dion should have done what any politician who is asked a somewhat incomprehensible question would do - answer the question he wanted to answer and let the interviewer follow up if he wasn't satisfied with the answer.  Is Mr. Dion going to get three retakes at 3AM when the telephone at 24 Sussex rings with a crisis?

Nevertheless, even if the initial response is somewhat understandable, Liberal MP Geoff Regan really messed up when he blamed the situation on Mr. Dion's alleged hearing impairment on Mike Duffy Live.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnYjIw4nAYs

That explanation isn't even close to plausible.  And the dead silence was cringe worthy.

Not good for the Liberals.  And with the holiday weekend coming up, this might be the last most Canadians see of Mr. Dion before Election Day.

It wasn't really all that hard a question - "You say the Prime Minister's not doing a good job. What would you do if you were PM that would be different?"

That video you posted was fantastic! Geoff Regan completely dropped the ball there. Too bad it doesn't go on to show the other two give responses - Joe Comartin would have been fantastic to hear there, I bet he would have savaged him! He's one of the best the NDP has.

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He's one of the best the NDP has.

A sad comment about the NDP, but I digress . . .

I think the silence in that interview was a technical problem, not a fumble. It still doesn't look good, but it's not something Regan can be held responsible for.

As for Dion's video, it's quite clear that he was having trouble comprehending the question, but as to whether that's a problem with his English or a problem with his hearing is unknown. He hasn't shown this kind of response to equally vague questions in the past; this episode stands as an outlier in the spectrum of Dion's performances, rather than the norm. I suspect that if he really had that level of difficulty with his English comprehension he would not have risen as far as he has. Also, a hearing impairment would make it difficult for him to learn to speak another language, so this might explain the persistence of his thick French accent despite so much exposure to English.

Whether or not you like Dion, it's not appropriate to mock him for a physical impairment. Even if you think it disqualifies him for the job, using it as an attack is crude and malicious. The Tories are treading on thin ice by making an issue of this (remember their attack on Chretien in 93?). This isn't the same situation, of course, but it's something they should have left to the media to inflate and repeat. It leaves a bad taste in people's mouths and will not reflect well on Harper in the long run.

It has nothing to do with a physical impairment - that's nothing but Liberal spin. He was asked the question, he attempted to answer, he says "sorry, can I restart, I don't understand?" he gets reasked the question, he fumbles again, he again says he doesn't understand... this isn't him not hearing. If he didn't hear, he would say "could you say that again, I didn't quite hear it" - this is him fumbling.

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how are you making these, anyways?

Basically they're sketches from other maps stiched together. Or something like that. Programme used is Paint, because I'm cheap.

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Yeah, that one's awful...

I use paint, too. I usually highlight from a PDF using the snapshot tool and paste it into paint and then take it from there.

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Elizabeth May's hidden agenda:

GREEN SUPPORTER: ELIZABETH MAY HAS SOLD US OUT !
SENATOR MAY ? ENVIRONMENT MINISTER MAY ?
Where does Green Party leader Elizabeth May get her marching orders ? Increasingly it is becoming clear that it is not from her party members. With less than 48 hours to go before voters go to the polls across Canada, emotions are running high inside campaigns faltering within sight of the finish line. 50 so-called 'close ridings', in particular, are being pitched to May as do-or-die ridings where she can 'lead Greens to make a difference', presumably by inciting Green supporters to not vote Green, the idea being to support your party by not voting for it, a novel concept to say the least. In recent hours, Bourque has heard from a number of senior political operatives, notably a very senior Liberal organizer who admittedly worked on the leadership bid of one of Stephane Dion's rivals, in other words someone who has much to gain if Dion and his Green Shift are soundly defeated Tuesday. Yet, this still-very-active politico tells Bourque he fears a secret deal has been cooked between Dion and Elizabeth May (both unabashed disciples of ex-pat Kyoto godfather Maurice Strong, and both currently immersed in a vociferous round of 'doth protest too much' denial about a secret deal) which may explain why she has been meeting with "key Liberal organizers" and is now actively telling Green Party supporters to vote Liberal, of all things. This, according to our Liberal insider, in exchange for a possible Senate seat and a place as Environment Minister in a Dion-led government. To be clear, Ms May's curious strategy of backing Dion is creating ill-will within her own party to the point that "a lot of Green candidates are upset", according to one national news report this morning. Add to that the fact Dion himself is urging Greenies to go red and join the Liberals. As one of Canada's top media personalities told Bourque tonight, "if i were a member of the Greens, if i were a candidate for the Greens, I would see her as a traitor, how could i possibly think of her as someone who wants to grow the Greens. She is simply behaving as an agent for the liberals". Surprisingly, top Green Party representatives are refusing to respond to a query from this organ as to what is the Party's current position on the Senate. Meanwhile, and fresh on the heels of Stephane Dion's Air Dud carbon-spewing campaign jet, now shocking news of the World Wildlife Fund's "25-day journey around the world by private jet", a $65,000 extravagance in "19 rows of spacious leather seats with full ergonomic support" enjoying "gourmet meals, chilled champagne [and] your own chef." All of which makes one wonder as to what lunacy is fueling the environmental set these days.

Source: http://www.bourque.com/

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Any base to this?

The Bourque article has links to a couple of the comments made in the article.

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At least I can say I did my part to get rid of Gary Lunn.

Good work. I hope you're successful in that endeavour.