Vancouver King

Oh, so you too don't believe the longest election campaign since candidates travelled by stagecoach will impact taxpayers with colossal additional charges. I thought you guys prided yourselves on fiscal responsibility.

What change? That's easy - take this morning's announcement. Harper, in another cynical lie, stated the 78 day election campaign will not cost taxpayers additional cash compared to a standard 5 week period. The unnecessary extra cost can only be estimated to the nearest $100 million. "What are we doing wrong?" Squandering public funds and lying about it comes to mind.

So you have now confirmed you don't like the British parliamentary model of democracy, the system of gov't upon which Canada's is based. You are aware England's gov't is usually a formal coalition, aren't you?

The NDP's insistence on a Mulcair/Harper confrontation in any attended debate is meant to emphasize this election is now between the existing gov't and the gov't in waiting, which also just happens to marginalize the Liberals participation as also-rans.

Trudeau has ruled out a formal coalition only and he has pointedly said nothing of an informal cooperation between Liberals and the NDP. This would accomplish three high priority goals: Driving Harper from office by Liberals, driving Harper from office by New Democrats and more important, driving Harper from office by the 3 of 4 voters who want him gone (77% according to Abacus).

Return to Duffy.... subtract 4 points off Harper.

Nanos released Wed. has it: NDP 31.4 Con 30.8 Lib 26.8 These results are pre-"Christmas in July".

Guess who has his 8th consecutive deficit budget? Hint - his Finance Minister was so ashamed of the last one, today he ran out the back door of hanger rather than field questions from reporters.

With Canada's economy in disarray and getting worse, with legions of Conservatives under investigation , in jail or otherwise not available, the final assignation must be the fact that Harper has never had a balanced or surplus budget. This final factor might be Conservative's undoing.

... which throws into question the believability of those kangaroo charges from an anti-NDP stacked parliamentary committee.

And now that we know the current budget is in deficit, it means Conservative's "Christmas in July" was accomplished with borrowed money.

Your guys are 10 points back from their 2011 finish with more bad economic/Dufffy news to come. Two weeks ago you couldn't say enough on the deep significance of the Forum's tied numbers. now the Forum reports a 7 point NDP lead 12 weeks out and suddenly it's meaningless. The downside of being partisan.

Amazing. Forum had Conservatives & NDP in dead heat 10 days ago - now NDP has 7 point lead. All the bad economic news for the gov't is likely catching up to them - although the Bank of Canada's confirmation of our current recession is not yet factored in. Another interesting finding involves Liberals only regional stronghold - Atlantic Canada. Forum is the first poll to observe a major shift there - NDP now has 47 - 30 lead over Liberals in this region. Forum declares: an election held today would yield a strong NDP minority gov't. Again, these latest two polls are amazing reading.

Conservatives have been convicted of election fraud related charges for 3 consecutive elections - there's a clear pattern of abuse over a decade.

How times change. Above is post #1 from page #1 in this Federal Election Poll thread. What has changed? Conservatives down 14 points, NDP up 16, Liberals up 3, BQ down 4 and Greens about even. Too early to warm up the paper shredders?

I never did get your reaction to Dean Del Mastro in leg irons and handcuffs scuffling into a police van on his way to jail for election fraud. You remember him, Harper's hand picked parliamentary secretary and.... wait for it.....Conservative ethics spokesman. Well, this jailbird and a dozen or so more Tory felons are starring in a new NDP political on-line ad. They all share this single distinction - all are Harper appointees which speaks loads about the Prime Minister's judgement.

I googled "Del Mastro attack ad".

It's never Harper's fault is it? It's the Ontario gov'ts fault, the opposition made us do it, the world economy was responsible, the devil made us do it.... Will you ever run out of excuses?

My request is granted, A new on-line only attack ad features Del Mastro's perp walk in chains while a female voice lists a half dozen or so criminal charges laid against Conservative caucus members. Hard to say which is more hard hitting, Harper's ISIS beheading ad or this one.

200,000 manufacturing jobs lost since forming gov't, an economic plan anchored in fossil fuel extraction now lies in ruins, a current federal budget that has slipped into deficit and after racking up $151 billion in additional debt since 2006, it now counsels it's opponents to avoid deficits.

Days ago Harper referred to our latest recession as a "downturn". So tell me, what is it about downturns you find attractive?

According to the latest Abacus poll fully 77% of respondents "would prefer to see a change in gov't ". Good grief, that means a sizable chunk of the Conservative base wants Harper gone.

How to explain, then, Harper running scared?

Mulcair's masterful performance in Question Period probably explains Conservative maneuvers on debate formats - Harper wants no part of Mulcair one on one before a national television audience.