tml12

Bang on. Pretty much I agree.

I got Liberal for EI too. I think government can do good on some issues.

He has??? Wasn't it less than two months ago thatr Harper announced in Vancouver that he would not reintroduce the decriminalization of marijuana legislation favoured by the NDP, BQ, Liberals and two thirds of the Canadian population? In other words, Harper still favours permanent criminal records and jail time for possession of a few grams of marijuana. You don't think this zero tolerance US social policy is extreme? How about Harper's opposition to C-250? Most Canadians I suspect view killing a man merely because he's gay as a hate crime. But not Stephen Harper. He fears that will result in the Bible being banned. Now that's extreme even by religious nut standards. Other than no longer speaking publicly about his extremely conservative social views, what evidence is there that he has changed his position on any of them? Norman, Since when is decrimalizing marijuana such a mainstream view? Among people my age (20s) and I personally support it but most people I know 40 and over don't.

As far as I am concerned: If you shoot someone, you are guilty of murder. If you insult someone's race, you are guilty of making a racial slur. If you lynch someone, you are guilty of lynching. When people start playing the race card, i.e. like affirmative action (albeit that's a different context) we get a really nasty debate. Which minorities deserve more? Are Jews a minority? How do Asians fit in? Etc... I know a lot of people who are visible minorities and homosexuals, etc. You know what they refer to themselves as? Canadians.

When did he "tell us so" Eureka?

I think recent polls have shown that less than 60% "despise" Harper. He's now winning these "Best PM" polls quite handily, isn't he? But yes, our system needs an overhaul. How did a pig of a man like Jean Chretien win 3 majority governments without ever getting more than 41% of the vote? It's been in need of fixing for a long time. -k Duceppe, I don't have the quote in front of me but it was in today's Montreal Gazette, has suddenly stopped kissing-up to anglos and minorities here in Quebec and is now focusing his attack solely in Harper. He made some quote about bilingualism being very good (outside of Quebec, of course! ) but he accused Harper of possibly trying to give anglo Quebecers more English services, denying this was a double standard. :angry:

Monty, You are more "Liberal" than me, although I got two for the NDP Glad to see you on again though...

MY SCORE: In rank order. If there is a tie, it’s up to you to decide. CONSERVATIVE PARTY OF CANADA 6 of your answers match the ideas of this party: health care, parliamentary reform, national defence, international aid, gun control, environment . LIBERAL PARTY OF CANADA 3 of your answers match the ideas of this party: employment insurance, taxes, economy . NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY 2 of your answers match the ideas of this party: early childhood, education . BLOC QUÉBÉCOIS 1 of your answers match the ideas of this party: relations with provinces .

"The appointment process is as near perfect a method as has yet been devised anywhere." HA!

That sounds like Clint Eastwood's Christmas list...

I have never specifically accused anyone here of being anti-American. The Canadian left in general seems resentful of the Americans, as do Liberal Party members. The NDP I would not accuse of being an anti-American party. A few years ago I met Jack Layton in a Montreal bar and asked him how he viewed the U.S. and Bush. He said he was not a fan of Bush but that he was a friend to the American people and that he had a lot of left-wing friends there. Although not from the left, I respected that answer. I respect Layton in general and I don't believe he would sell Canada-U.S. relations out for political gains like the Liberals are doing.

If he questioned his own leadership for even a moment, he is not the man for the job. (...) Proper way for a PM to act? Well first off they are human. But showing weakness is not an option. Out of all the PMs in the past that I have taken note of.. I would say Trudeau was how a leader should act. I have not really liked a PM since. I don't think spending some time reflecting on whether he's the man for the job is a sign of weakness. A lot of smart and experienced observers said before, during, and after the 2004 election that Harper would never be PM. After the disappointment of his 2004 loss, how can you blame the guy for taking some personal time to consider the question of whether maybe they were right? Do you really feel that it would be more admirable for a leader to pigheadedly refuse to step aside until power is ripped from his cold dead hands? That was Chretien's way, and look at the damage that was done to the Liberal Party as a result. We didn't see Paul Martin step aside after his near miss in 2004 either, or even (publicly, at least) admit to giving any thought to the idea. Do you think Paul Martin will have the wisdom to step aside after this election, be it defeat or narrow victory? I think that what Harper has accomplished, first in merging the old PC party into his own party, and uniting it into a cohesive party that is on the virge of winning this election is actually a testament to the kind of leader Harper is. By comparison, look at the "leadership" the other guy has shown. Martin's quest, over the better part of a decade, to engineer a coup-d'etat against Jean Chretien created scars in the party. Even 2+ years after Chretien's retirement we still have warfare going on between the "Chretien" and "Martin" factions of the Liberal party, we have Liberal candidates stripping the word "Liberal" from their own advertising, we have people openly organizing their leadership campaigns in the middle of an election.Harper has taken 2 parties and turned them into a single and effective factor in this election. Martin has taken Canada's traditional governing party, an election-winning machine, and turned it into a confused mess divided by internal conflict and plagued by poor strategy, bad planning, and a series of errors. At this point how can there be any question as to which man has stronger leadership skills? -k To reasoned minds, there's not. Need I say more? No... ...and I REALLY like your signature...good observation!

Elections CanadaIn typical Ottawa/bureaucratic divorced-from-the-real-world fashion, under pressure that voter turn out was falling (and believing the cause was the difficulty to register), Elections Canada made it easy to register to vote. So easy, that people can register several times and vote several times too. (Any 16 year old with ID for getting into bars could also vote.) One person wouldn't bother to do this. But the next step would be to do it in an organized way. This could not be done in rural areas or small towns, but in large cities, it would not be difficult. I don't think anyone has ever taken a voter registry after an election and methodically checked to see how accurate it is. In the past, the voter registration list had to be posted in a public place prior to election date. I happen to think Elections Canada should make it more difficult to get on the list. Voter turn out has become an obsession when it shouldn't be. My friend worked at a polling station on the West Island and she told me that if you come to the polling station and you swear that you can vote along with a random person who lives in the riding and can vouch for your identity, they can let you vote. That and in the last Montreal municipal election we had people on the voting list who weren't even citizens. Yeah and voter turnout still sucks... :angry:

It looks like they just might do that, Buzz Hargrove's engineering seems to be falling flat. Heck, he even wants people to vote for the bloc. Buzz was a political liability from day one. Any Liberal should have known this. The day he endorses them he basically said "I am doing this because the left-wing party I really want to win won't and of the two remaining choices you guys are the lesser evil." Quite an endorsement...

You underestimate NDP supporters if you think they would'nt lend votes to the Liberals to defeat the Conservatives. Or at the least, paralyze them with a minority government. The Liberals are anywhere but down and out. I suppose a healthy ignorance and oblivion to the current political climate would lead you to make a remark like that. But you're wrong. The CPC has maintained consistent 10-point leade. Are you saying you expect THAT MANY NDP voters to turn the tide on their party? That says a lot about NDP supporters if it is true. In the last election the Liberals had about a 3-4 point lead around election time. The NDP votes gave them a stronger minority then was expected. I suppose a healthy sense of denial would cause you to think like you do.

I didn't say they never appointed qualified people. What I insinuated was that this country does not have the same appointment process the U.S. does and, as a result, "irregularities" happen and certain people who "just so happen" to have "been Liberals" and "given money to the Liberal Party" were appoited judges. Causality or coincidence? You decide...

The way I see it, I'm either celebrating by toasting to Prime Minister Harper or I'll be drowning my sorrows on Monday night.... ....odds are I'll have a headache on Tuesday. Well I hope so Fortunately the voters are not buying into the fear mongering so much, and have come to realize that portraying Harper as 'religious nut' is simply a malicious and spurious tactic. Not to mention offensive to all people who hold religious beliefs. The Montreal Gazette carried a piece today where they said it was virtually "certain" Harper would win. I should add they said the Bloc and Liberals were fighting for Opposition status.

To think, we could have been rid of Landslide Annie years ago... :angry:

Harper a good man? Do you think it's good that he voted against including gay bashing in hate crimes legislation? C-250 made it a crime to kill a man merely because he's gay. Harper voted against C-250, arguing that it would be used to ban the Bible and would deny people the religious right to condemn homosexuality. There's a reason why more than 60% of Canadians won't vote for Harper on Monday. He's a religious nut. Most Canadians aren't. Do you think it's good that Harper wants young people to obtain criminal records and possible jail terms for possession of a few grams of marijuana? You think this irrational position is good? I don't know much about Bill C-250, but if it banned passages in the Bible then I have some issues with it... As for the pot, I don't mind the decriminalization of possession of marijuana. Most of us have smoked at some point in our lives and I don't believe it is the worst thing in the world. As I have said before, this is not a one-issue election and marijuana is not going to be even in my mind (or in my system... ) Monday.

Yes, Brian Mulroney does indeed deserve all the credit for what will happen to Canada in the next few years. Let the good times roll once again. Don't worry, I think Harper will be a better PM than Mulrooney...

There is a lot of anti-Americanism in Canada. They say they're against Bush and his policies, but you don't have to dig very far to get the sneers about cowboy Americans, about their gun mentality, about their religious beliefs, and about many other aspects of their society and culture. Americans are thought to be simplistic, uncultured and stupid, though that's not put in so many words very often. You hear it coming from the smug, wine and cheese set, but you also hear it parotted back by fairly simple and ordinary Canadians because they're regurgitating what Martin and Chretien and their type have been spreading around for so many years. I have heard from several people, young people with little political awareness, who rarely follow the news, in ordinary jobs, that Stephen Harper would sell us out to the Americans, be Bush's lap dog. Where are they getting this nonsense from? The political elites, of course. I don't think Argus is confusing anything. In fact, I think he just about gave a perfect description of anti-Americanism in Canada. Primarily based on ignorance, blind patriotism, and (my favourite one) the left's insecurity that Canadians are so much like the Americans they despise. I find that when I declare how much similar we are with the Americans how much better I feel. No I don't support all of U.S. policy and yes I am proud of Canadian sovereignty, but I am also proud of living next to the U.S. and sharing in their material benefits. I am proud to live in North America. Hopefully Harper will govern with the same level of sincerity and consistency as he campaigned with. He is a good man who was not tainted by scandal. And he has my vote.

It seems unlikely, though, thet even a major NDP to Liberal shift would prevent a Conservative government. I think that in the last election many NDP voters realized they had the power to choose between a Liberal and a Conservative government and, naturally, chose Liberal. With the Liberals so down and out in this election, many NDPers may stay with their own party...which is fine with me.

You'll be toasting. The religious nut will win. It's an irony of the multi-party system that while well over 60% of the Canadian electorate despise Harper and will vote against him by voting for socially moderate parties, he'll become Prime Minister despite being socially conservative. For what it's worth, those who vote against Harper on Monday know they're in the majority. It may take a few years but a dose of religious nut Harper will gradually cure the country of Conservative governance even more efficiently than Brian Mulroney did. Norman! Great to have you back... You were so confident in the Liberals last time we were talking...but, as the CBC has put it, there has been a "major shift" in the Canadian electorate. Why don't you join in?

Yesterday La Presse, a French federalist newspaper that traditionally backs the Liberals, endorsed Harper. The Montreal Gazette, in a three-day editorial special entitled "The Choice For Canada" endorsed Harper. Outside of Quebec, the Globe and Mail, also a traditionally Liberal paper, endorsed Harper. And according to CBC, the northern Quebec Liberal candidate who endorsed the Tories yesterday has backtracked and said he wants his supporters to vote Liberal again...Quebec Liberals don't know whether or not to stay on the sinking ship... So much for Martin's running this campaign on a referendum note... BTW...On my 1000th post I would like to thank all who have debated with me the last few months on this forum. Even the left-wing members that I criticize many times I would like to say: it wouldn't be a balanced forum without you. You have made me re-think my views on many issues. And thanks to Greg, of course, for providing the venue.

And being none too snoody about it...