Ottawavalleyboy

Happy to see the Bloc getting pounded, if nothing else comes from this election let it be the destruction of a seperatist party.

Not going to bother recopying your post I was responding to but all you spoke about was rural people being generally less educated. I dissagree completely, I thought I was being pretty clear on that. The percentages of people who get post secondary educations I would bet are pretty similar all across the board. It may tend more towards Uinversity degrees in the city but sorry many of those degrees arent worth the paper they are printed on other than the for the pure pleasure of learning. Glad your university degree helped you fix my spelling. Saying someone has a minimal education because they no longer spell well without spell check hitting it has little to do with education and everything to do with day to day activity. I can trouble shoot and fix mechanical systems that would blow most peoples minds. I can design and balance duct systems to deliver specific air flows beyond what most understand. My minimal education was a 2 year diploma coarse followed by a 5 year apprenticeship and constant training over 17 years on electronics and mechanical systems. The "lesser people with the lesser educations" often have much more common sense, intelligence than the book smart elite that tend to make statements and generalizations like that.

Yep thats ignorance.

The states have two parties was Bush close to the centre? People need to stop deluding themselves about who and what the current conservatives are. Guys like Poilievre and Baird would never have been given the time of day with the old PCs and with good reason. Anyone questioning Harpers economics is missing the main problem here, its the environment that he has created through muzzling the majority of his mps and those that do have a voice in the public are an embarassment. Our parliament has become a dictatorship to some degree in the way he runs his own party. That is not the way our parliament was built to run. He certainly wasnt the source of this style of leadership, in my opinion Chretien terrible for it. The lack of true diplomacy and the disregard for parliamentary procedure, the my way or the highway attitude is not how this is supposed to work. I want the pcs back not the reformers wearing blue coats.

Nope your post was the big load. So your saying we shouldnt take part in the U.N and help with Nato led missions? The liberals sent our troups into Afganistan with tin can jeeps and green camo uniforms. The conservatives dumped a ton of money into the military because they had to. The military has been the whipping boy for years under the liberals continously having the budget cut back but still expected to maintain Canadas role on the world stage. We have a duty in a world wide role to maintain a decent fighting military.

Never said he was a dictator, but he is leading a democratic party and running it like a dictatorship. There are too many little things that have started to bug me lately like the leaks to Sun media. Its amazing how he runs such a tight ship but how many times his underlings have gotten burned for leaks and statements. He is a slick politician and by far has the best policy and has done a fair job as far as running the country. But he as the prime minister has an ethical responsiblity to act democratically. When you elect your mp, that mp is supposed to be speaking for his or her riding. If they cant do that because they have been muzzled then its no longer a democracy within the party. This has been getting progressively worse through the years and didnt start with Harper but he has been the worse we have seen with this style of leadership.

Anyone know which parlour it was, I have training in Toronto in a month and if Layton was going there it must be good. . In all seriousness who cares. Truthfully if this was Harper the press would be tearing him in two because he would be a complete hypocrite. In Jacks case its almost funny, I can just see him peddling down the street wiping sweat from his face trying to figure out how to spin this to his wife.

Sadly too many go to university just because they dont know what else to do with themselves after high school. This leads to useless degrees in my opinion. If you love literature, you dont know what you want to do with your life but you want to go to school then by all means go and get a degree in English but dont complain about working a lower paying job than the guy who went and took an engineering coarse. The worse out of this is so many become teachers because there is nothing else they can do with the degree. Then we end up with bitter university grads teaching our youth.

Actually I asked him about Chretien, he said he didnt know him but rumour was he was an ego maniac which fits pretty well with what we saw. The question is though who in there right mind would want to be prime minister who isnt an ego maniac. Think of the crap they endure and the hours they work.

I totally understand as that is what I have been doing but at the same time will the party ever truly change or recover some of what it was 20 years ago if we keep supporting it? I would even like to see the Liberal party back to what it was to be honest. I really dont like the way politics have turned out since Harper took power. Part of the problem I think was that the reform capitalized on the weakness of the conservative party which led us being sold out by Peter Mckay. The Liberal party has never really recovered from the Chretien era. What we are left with now is a plethora of mediocre to down right distastefull politicians. All the greats that I truly admired are gone sitting behind the scenes shaking there heads at the state of parliament.

WARNING THIS IS LONG AND RAMBLING - I mentioned in another post that I had dinner with good friends tonight. We met through the childrens aid society as we are both foster parents and we adopted the youngest of four. They adopted the two middle boys and unfortunately because of case circumstances the oldest daughter can't be adopted and is stuck in a group home. I was amazed to learn late into the evening having drinks that he used to work for the progressive conservatives of old, both under Mulroney and Clark so of coarse the conversation got steered into the election at which point both wifes huffed and went out to the deck. First of all this man is immensely intelligent. A clinical psychologist who started out in the military and now has his own practice. We were talking of platforms and he finally asked me what I thought of Harper himself. I said I didnt like him but I have always been a fiscal conservative and such other than Kim Campbell I have always voted that way. We started talking about the rumours about the behind the scene things going on when he pointed out that all the people he worked with back in his political days are voting for other parties other than one who is only voting cons because he likes the candidate. He talked about the reputation Harper has behind the scenes of being ruthless and not willing to negotiate or accept any dissagreement from party members. I of coarse have always chalked it up to the normal rumours spread from opposing sides but he pointed out that the people he had heard it from are party insiders. I am not going to name the names he named because it will just sound like I am bulls$$ting you. I was sitting on my roof tonight having a beer after spending 14 hours reroofing it. The only reason I mention this is I was exhausted but extremely relaxed, enjoying the breeze and the peace and quiet and I started thinking about something. My grandfather used to always say that the people you keep around you say a great deal about who you are. Who does Harper keep around him. Who has he allowed to have a voice and to speak out in the public somewhat, and I realized it was the two guys in the party I can stand the least, Baird and Poilievre. These are his right and left hand man. In all honesty I have slowly been adjusting my thinking lately and I have to say today that on monday I will vote Liberal for the first time. I truly hope that Harper fails to get a majority here while at the same time not giving power to Layton. The conservative party needs a drastic shakeup. The one thing I have agreed with that Layton has said is parliament is broken. We need to get rid of the bloc, reboot the blue and somehow in all of this not get a left wingnut into power that will spend us into oblivion. Sorry for the rambling post but I had a cathartic moment I wanted to share.

whoa whoa whoa!!! how come he gets to be king?

ya no question, problem here I think is what I think has been the problem with the Conservatives since the merger with the reform. This is no longer the conservative party, this is the Harper reform party. In my opinion he did it because he was hoping for an election and if he hadnt done it it would have been another chip to hit him with. I had a long conversation with a good friend that worked in the Conservative party under Mulroney and Clark tonight and I have to say it was an extremely eye opening conversation. If I can stay awake I may post about it(I spent the last two days reroofing my garage and I just remembered I am not 20 anymore ). I have voted conservative for the last 19 years but I honestly think I may vote liberal this time....oh wait thats not true. When Kim Campbell was running for reelection I spoiled my ballot.