shoop

Good point. Besides the Conservatives will also provide incentives for the private sector to create 125,000 daycare spots for their employees.

Welcome to the board stignasty. Try and keep the level of debate a little above the personal attacks. Those pictures are a pretty inauspicious start.

This story looks like it has legs. This is from Jane Taber's column in today's G&M Bad, bad news for Dithers et. al. I am sure the other leadership contenders are being a little quieter because they are still in office, or running for office - Ignatieff. Hopefully Dithers - turn the campaign around speech worked for him today.

I have also been quite disappointed in Martin as PM. The Dithers label really is deserved. The Liberals should have won a majority in 2004 and should be close to winning one now. Instead they are losing in the latest Strategic Counsel *and* Ipsos-Reid polls. Look at the ways the numbers for each break down. If the results are the same as those numbers, the CPC forms government. Remember Clark's Conservatives formed power in 1979 despite trailing in the popular vote by more than four points.

Absolutely. Here is the key to winning the election from this point on for the Conservatives. *Change nothing in the campaign plan!* The daily policy announcements are keeping the CPC at the lead of the agenda. Honestly, there have been no redneck MPs or candidates saying things that have gotten the party in trouble. Harper has run a gaffe free national campaign. The "They'll go negative" ads are brilliant. Not really offensive. Understandable given the way the Liberals have gone negative in the past. Now, if the Liberals do go negative, the Conservatives are totally justified with those ads. It makes it very easy for any Liberal negative ads to backfire. If the Liberals are scared off of using negative ads, that much the better.

I have a hard time believing anybody can seriously be that deluded. Oh well, from some of the things he writes he is clearly an old, dude. Probably lonely and frustrated that there are no signs for him to put up at the campaign office.

There is the rub. The Liberals are so low in support that they are grasping at straws. Nothing they can really do but hope to swing ND supporters. However, Layton's seemingly strong performance in the last parliament was a pyrrhic victory for the Liberals. They gave him a little spending on housing and taxes on business (which they later cut.) While the move saved the Liberal's at the time, it also gave Layton proof of the value an NDP vote has. It will also help the Conservatives, as long as Harper continues to talk about what he will do as the leader of a minority government.

Deservedly the Liberals are paying a huge price for Adscam. Individuals in the *previous* Liberal party? wtf? They have a lot of work to do to come up with a strategy for this campaign. They are so painfully unaware of how to run a campaign without resorting to scary-scary-scary. They have three weeks to right the ship or Martin goes down as the *second* least successful Liberal leader in the last 120 years. (Thanks to John Turner for that one ) With Bevilacqua, Brison, Cauchon, Dryden, Ignatieff, Manley, McKenna, Stronach and Volpe all organizing leadership teams in advance of the Liberals losing power on January 23rd, it is safe to say there is more turmoil in the Liberal ranks than the Conservative ranks at this point.

Where is the *mostly from the right side* coming from? There are whacko posters from all over the spectrum here. No reason to bother Greg during the holidays...

Hey newbie, is your indignation reserved only for when Liberals are attacked? Where was your support when canuckcat went after me for quoting Warren Kinsella?

Eureka, I thought you supported the Liberal Party of Canada? self-interested = (at least) $1.14 million dollars of taxpayer money illegally given to party insiders elitist dominated = giving money to parents to make their own daycare choices (while creating 150,000 institutional spaces) will be spent on beer and popcorn self-regarding = I don't understand that. Does that term really exist?

That is what I expect to see from the Liberals. Fortunately (for anybody not supporting the Liberals), it won't work for them in this campaign. The CPC's *they'll go negative ads* are brilliant. It has put the Liberals on the defensive. The Liberals can't really go negative without a backlash. Negative campaigning alone won't put the Liberals in front this time around. If they can't provide any sort of vision on how they will run the government they are bound for disaster.

The Liberals are in freefall. They semi-conceded five to ten of their Quebec seats at the start of the campaign. Their entire campaign strategy appeared to be based on replacing losses in Quebec with gains in BC and Ontario. Unfortunately, that doesn't look like it will happen this time around.

Right on. Or Green or Bloc, but definitely not Liberal...

Independent analysis

Wow, thanks for that fair and balanced analysis. Maybe you shouldn't use information straight out of the Liberal's talking points. Ahhh, that is right. Paul Martin proposed an historically unprecedented election *at least* nine months after his pleading on TV, because he feared losing an election called at that time. If he had run a better campaign in 2004 he could have controlled the election timing to that extent. Hmmm, people shouldn't vote for Harper because you think the signs he used were *tacky*? Wow, what a great reason not to vote for somebody. No inner turmoil going on with the Liberals right now. Only eight(?) present or former cabinet ministers setting up leadership teams at the moment. Guess our "economical situation" is better than our grammatical one!

Yeah, my bad. But if memory serves correctly I said that before beer and popcorn, Kander's blog and the RCMP investigation. Things are definitely moving in the right direction for the CPC.

So the Globe and Mail is hypothesizing about people who are currently supporting the NDP but who could switch to the Liberals to stave off a CPC government this time around. Globe story Isn't that what happened in 2004? Ahh, but here is the rub. In 2004 the NDP got a little less than 16% of the popular vote. (Presumably the strategic voters had all voted Liberal.) They are currently sitting at 14%. Which voters are left to swing over to the Liberals to stop the CPC?

Voters in Quebec are pretty shrewd. The ridings where the CPC is close in Quebec could swing with the real possibility of electing a cabinet minister. The only other province the CPC might be shut out is PEI. Very interesting as there is currently an open senate seat in PEI.

The key for the Conservatives is to avoid over-confidence. Coming across as arrogant will sink their bright chances of forming the next government.

I cannot see a CPC majority. They would be ecstatic with five seats in Quebec. Winning 150+ seats out of the 233 up for grabs in the Rest of Canada would be too much to ask for.

Things are looking bad for the Liberals. Who are they going to replace the staffers with? What can they do to turn this around? I heard a rumour that the Liberals won't be going negative, for fear of a backlash. It will be interesting to see what they can do to right the ship in the next three weeks.

It might actually be serious.

A productive parliament? Clear enemies of Canada? Really, this has got to be a joke .... doesn't it?

Argus, Let's take a look at what canuckcat said again. That was the response for posting a link to a successful operative who points out the failings of the Liberal campaign to date. I honestly think canuckcat was joking. The strange thing is that the post could be serious. It would serve to exemplify how brainwashed the Martinites have become. Anybody who opposes them is a *coward* who *hates Canada*? wtf