tml12

I agree. I didn't approve of Belinda's crossing without getting a mandate from her constituents. At least she did that in the last election. But this crossing the floor crap has to stop. If they want to leave the party sit as a damn Independent then. Independants can't do anything. Emerson now better represents his constituants. We, being non-Vancouverites, should be pissed off because our elected people didn't get cabinet posts (muwaha my MP is PM, suckers ). The last people that should be pissed of is people in Vancouver-Kingsway that now get a seat at the table. Personally, I think Harper should dismiss Emerson to show to those in Kingsway how stupid they are protesting having their interests represented in Cabinet. :angry: I take it a bit personally because when Belinda defected last May her new "plum cabinet post" was one held by my MP... :angry: Not that I like either of them...Belinda's a bit hotter though... Anyways, you make a good point geoffrey...though sorry our MPs can't be as "high up" as yours...

Women's hockey shouldn't be an olympic sport. There is only 2 countries in the world that compete at an olympic level, how ridiculous is that for an event. They had to blow out the score because home advantage against the Americans in the final is decided by goal differential. It was embarssing to watch, and hopefully the IOC eliminates women's hockey in a hurray, its just beyond ridiculous why they are there. Why should the IOC eliminate womens hockey? It has made great strides in the past years as countries start to put the effort into developing the womens side of the sport. Of course it is small but under the olympic banner it will develop much faster, comepared to the non-existent development previous to 1998. In fact the same can be said for mens Ice hockey the first 7 olimpics Canada won 6 gold medals and one silver in a case of Britains Canadians being better then our Canadians. Likewise the United states won 5 silver medals. Needless to say the rest of the world will catch up, and they will catch up sooner with people having the olympics to look to and inspire them. There are plenty of sports out there were only a couple of countries succesfully compete and then there are a couple of sports so ridiculous that alcohol could substitute as a performance enhancing drug, say oh skeleton maybe. Skeleton require about as much core strength as gymnastics. There's greater G force on them then in a fighter plane, so yes, it takes both strength and skill. Don't justify women's hockey because of something thats happened in the past. The games in men's at the beginning didn't have a goal differential of over 100 by the end of the tournie. It's a big embarassement and all it turns out to be is a crowning of Canada year after year. We can get our 25 medals without women's hockey, don't worry. Women don't compete in a few events (Nordic Combined is one that comes to mind) because not enough of them participate. This can be applied to hockey as well. Italy only has 200 women that play hockey, and most of them are under 16. How can you put together an olympic level team if everyone that shows up gets a spot? Agreed. BTW: I have been meaning to compliment you...nice blog there Geoffrey!!! Keep the peace!!!

Bubber, are you stoned again???

Choose more carefully? So now when we're in the voting booth we have to realize that our candidate may "cross the floor.?" This is democracy? It's called fraud August. And today 100's of his constituents protested, even calling Emerson a traitor. This is a clear case of Emerson trying to advance his own private interest. He would have stayed Liberal had they won. It's a disgusting situation, and Harper has to move on this if he's to have any credibility on his moral high ground that he platformed on. On 90% of issues I would back August over Newbie. On this issue I would have to agree with Newbie. Many of his constituents thought they were getting a Liberal MP and now he's a Tory. I have a problem with that... I should add, as a Tory, if I ever voted a Tory MP in and they switched to the Liberals I would be REALLY angry...

Choose more carefully? So now when we're in the voting booth we have to realize that our candidate may "cross the floor.?" This is democracy? It's called fraud August. And today 100's of his constituents protested, even calling Emerson a traitor. This is a clear case of Emerson trying to advance his own private interest. He would have stayed Liberal had they won. It's a disgusting situation, and Harper has to move on this if he's to have any credibility on his moral high ground that he platformed on. On 90% of issues I would back August over Newbie. On this issue I would have to agree with Newbie. Many of his constituents thought they were getting a Liberal MP and now he's a Tory. I have a problem with that...

I nominate Shoop. He'll take over the Liberals and merge them with the CPC, therefore creating an all-powerful centre-right party that will be challenged by a measly 29-seat NDP opposition and a party based solely in one province... Merge the Liberals and CPC and change the name of the NDP to the Labour Party of Canada....hmmm Yes labour would support us if they realized that excessive union demands cause outsourcing...

Using your logic, I should have voted NDP. I really liked my NDP candidate. But no. In the U.S., Americans vote for the person more than the party. In Canada, Canadians vote more for the party than the person because although I liked my NDP candidate's personality more than I liked my Conservative candidate's personality, I thought the Conservative party overall better reflected my values.

I nominate Shoop. He'll take over the Liberals and merge them with the CPC, therefore creating an all-powerful centre-right party that will be challenged by a measly 29-seat NDP opposition and a party based solely in one province...

I have to agree with Shoop on this one...too many unknowns. This government lasts at least 12 months...

Bush's problem isn't his extreme views (although they are a problem too). His problem is he is stubborn, does not understand patience and planning ahead, and an ideologue unwilling to comprehend and study views that are not his own. Those are qualities that NO ONE should have, regardless of their political views. They will get you into a lot of trouble and ruin you.

We lefties are all white wine drinking socialists - I don't know where this gold buillion idea is coming from. Well I don't know about this white wine. The Soviets were the ultimate socialists, and they stuck to the Vodka. You white wine socialists are just wannabe Soviets, upgrade to vodka and then I'll take ya seriously. And I am just a conservative looking to buy white wine and vodka in a province with socialist high-priced liquor stores...

When the NDP had Ontario we had the worst recession since the 1930tys Bob Rea saved jobs with the days off.Harris was Lucky things got a lot better in the economy I am no fan of Harris but his far right ilk is necessary after a far left government. The Greeks said it best "everything in moderation."

If you were to move to Québec, and a french-speaking Québécois were to refuse to rent you an appartement, or a grocer, to sell you food, etc., on the grounds that you are English-speaking, would you simply say; "Oh well! That is his right. I will not ask the Government to interfere? It's his property, it's his choice. I'll go to someone that wants my money. I'll never ask the government to interfere in my business dealings, they have nothing to do with it. I can speak French by the way. They wouldn't refuse you, they just would pretend they don't know what English is...

Inherent to neo-conservatism is nation-building and spreading the ideas of one's culture around the world...I don't think Reagan was as nutty about that as Bush. Not saying Reagan was not right-wing (he was) but a different kind of right-wing.

Reagan started the neocon movement. And his deficits were...well. not nearly as big, but pretty big. Reagan did not start the neo-con movement...no no no!!! Reagan took the Republican Party and moved it farther to the right with "trickle-down" economics theories which created huge deficits...yes that much is true. When Bush Sr. took over the reigns of the party he moved it back to it's original centre-right position. Neo-cons may advocate some trickle-down economics but neo-con budget deficits are caused by big military spending and, basically, big spending in general all under the guise of religion.

That makes no sense,giving money to the party to increase voter turn out. Give incentives to the voter....the one that votes, or better yet, do the Australian way,fine people if they don't vote. I didn't say it made sense, I said it was why they did it...

YankAbroad, "Oh that's a toughie. In the last election, if I could have voted, I'd have voted for the Liberal Democrats. They're the only party consistently protecting civil liberties from Labour's big scary statist schemes like a mandatory citizen DNA database and mandatory ID cards. However, I am impressed with David Cameron's leadership of the Conservative party, and have had several colleagues who are NOT "traditional Tories" get contacted by his deputy and invited to join the party and influence its policies. If he can get together with the LDs and agree on civil liberties, while advancing a free market economic policy and reorganisation of the clogged British government which reduces spending and improves efficiency, he could possibly form quite a compelling government." I have read a bit about Cameron and am also quite impressed with his work. We'll see where it goes and hope where it does not go (another Labour majority).

Hicksey, "It just doesn't make sense why Harper would undermine himself. He's very intelligent. He would have forseen this coming. But he forged ahead anyway. Why?" Apparently he is either quite stupid or he has a plan to govern this country. Either way, let us wait until we see all that he does before we evaluate his government. If you get a C on the mid-term, it doesn't mean you get a C in the course. All that it means is that the C, along with other term grades, will be factored into the final mark. Critics and supporters of the Harper government ought to live by that analogy.

The way I see it, in the worst case scenario, Harper exits stage left about 14-18 months from now having done nothing of substance which makes him no worse than at least our last 2 PMs. They all promised us the moon and stars and gove us nothing but scandal too. which is precisely why we can criticize Harper on this particular incident and not evaluate his government until it falls.

Where do you get that idea from? Stronach could at least argue that bringing down the gov't was not what the majority of her constituents wanted (since the NDP was supporting the gov't at the time). In Emerson's case, it is clear the overwhelming majority of his constituents did/do not want a Conservative MP. It is fair to say that both were primarily motivated by personal gain and what their constituents wanted was not really that important to them. However, saying that there is less to criticize about the Emerson defection does not make any sense. Yes I would agree with that.

The U.S. was founded as a society that would be more libertarian a la Alexander Hamilton. The neo-cons hijacked the Republican Party and turned it into a big government. Not that I am his biggest fan, but Reagan would not recognize his former party if he were around today, in fact, I think he'd be terrified about it. Many Americans will not vote for a party that is for big government, yet they only associate big government with the far left, not neo-conservatism. This is how the neo con movement gets elected.

Agreed Stan, why the hell is the government giving parties money. If they have support, they'll have money. It's just too bad the Liberals, NDP and Greens have no widespread donation base, so this law has to exist to sustain themselves (well, the Liberals just keep going further in debt to win so I guess that works too). The gov't gives them money as a way to increase voter turnout and quiet people who say "why should I vote for a party that will never in my riding anyway?"

Emerson is becoming a liability. Harper needs to get this guy in check, shut him up, and issue a statement about his decision before CBC starts any more leftist rants.

You know, Buzz is the biggest idiot in all of this. In "dumping the NDP and endorsing the Liberals to keep the Conservatives out of power then undermining the Liberals separation rhetoric campaign by bumping up the Bloc's popularity in Quebec" actually did one thing...help the Conservatives by hurting the Liberals. Thanks Buzz...we are ready to negotiate...

Especially when Chaney said in 2000 that it's a "states rights" issue