Vancouver King

Nonsense. Today's TSX carnage resulted from oil plummeting over $5 and professional traders pulling the plug on the latest sucker rally - it had nothing to do with Harper's woes or his opponents coalition building.

It's an anomaly of the current crash that the currency of the economy resposnsible for the financial mayhem is also viewed as the safest haven for parking cash by panicked investors. When equity markets turn around expect the US $ to tank. Btw, there is only solution to managing the latest $7 trillion economic injection - hyper inflation that should begin in mid 2010.

You consider removing the gun from opposition foreheads, compromise? It is likely that since the train has left the station the process of coalition building will continue. I, along with countless others, are rather enjoying the spectacle of Stephen Harper running scared.

It achieves much more than that. Our pathological PM is now in full retreat, already shelving an important aspect of the economic update. Humbled and grasping for time - thats the reality being played before the electorate. Does it bother you that NDP influence in a potential coalition might mean increased spending for working Canadians - money you would rather see in corporate coffers?

Optic of the Year Award: Attack dog Baird - with his tail between his legs - announcing an hour ago voter subsidy changes have been permanently shelved. It doesn't get much better than this with one reasonable exception: Flaherty's head on a platter as restitution for this episode of ill-advised Tory brinkmanship.

His finance minister looked anything but a genius this morning - more like running scared. And you don't think they have a chance to form a govt? Harper has made the greatest strategic blunder of his public life - openly threatening certain political death to the elected represenatives of 62% of voters while simultaneously failing to stimulate a faltering economy. The latter gives the opposition cover to get even for the former.

To cinch the GG's decision in favor of a coalition, Liberals must jettison Dion immediately. Liberal Party rules say in an emergency - ie. current leader's untimely resignation - a caucus vote will quickly designate an interim leader. The stickler here is that as of now Dion has yet to see the benefit of going sooner than May, 2009. This could change over the next few days.

Barely a month has transpired since voters treked to the polls. It is incumbent on the GG to consider options other than another election if a month old govt falls.

Make the point to whom? The Commons? The Governor General? His own caucus? Certainly not yet to the electorate with a looming coalition.

And, of course, the complete absense of economic stimulus is the huge missing item. By itself it warrants defeat Monday but also has the built in advantage of 'covering' livid resentment against the govts attempt to destroy opposition parties. Harper's smug neo-cons might end up on the opposition benches over this.

So Harper has removed the controversial vote subsidy from Monday's vote. Will this strategic backpedal now be enough? Reports have it former PM Chretien is meeting Ed Broadbent to smooth out details of a Liberal/NDP coalition with Bloc support. Could Harper's failed attempt to annhilate parliamentary opposition morph into his own defeat in the Commons with his political victims then setting the timetable and agenda? There is a 'enough is enough' finality in opposition reaction to the latest Tory scheme of sacrificing the national good for more narrow partisan advantage.

Since when is not granting someone/something a tax break punishing them? Tax punishment is increasing taxes on those least able to afford them - exactly what Harper and his neo-cons did in 2006 against the lowest wage earners in Canada. Typical Harper supporter, lots of empty bluster and precious little fact.

His mentor, George Bush, hobbled America's wealth creation with trillions in deficit spending. Despite the current back-peddaling Harper is quite at home with a defining neo-con trait: Spend lavishly all the while decrying your opponents spendthrift ways.

This is what opposition parties do - oppose. Don't mistake the Liberal party's current perch on the edge of oblivion as a systemic change in centuries of parliamentary tradition. Layton is doing his job, one that impotent Liberals are unable to do - holding Tories feet to the fire.

As a society we are at least a generation away from action in the streets as those with nothing left to lose act out their despair against the establishment. In the interim, expect thinly disguised platitudes along the lines of, "sorry, the cupboard is bare, all possible resources have been expended on banks, car companies etc. This govt. remains committed to it's long planned priority of $40 billion in additional corporate tax cuts and this revenue shortfall will have to be made up elesewhere in the budget, such as reducing entitlements for pensioners and working Canadians." If nothing else the current financial calamity will make it quite clear where Harper's priorities lie.

Get a grip, how can we arrive at the coming depression without a bout of deflation?

..or, depending on your perspective, twice blessed.

Is another factor at play in the West? In the US, vocal opposition to corporate bailouts is centered among GOP politicians in Texas - something along the lines of corrupting ideological purity by govt injecting itself in the marketplace. These Reps and Senators actually favor bank and auto failures and reflect the views of many of their constituents. Given that Alberta is Canada's Texas, could CPC losses be chalked up to similar sentiments or a lingering "let the Eastern bastards freeze in the dark"?

No question Layton's opposition to the speech is risk-free party policy promotion. Is that necessarily bad? They seem to be lapping up people-centered politics stateside - financial relief for economic victims, 'trickle up' economics etc.

Dion's replacement will be the third Liberal leader since Chretien's tainted Adscam regime. Doesn't this constitute cleaning house?

Layton is remaining true to his constituency - working stiffs who don't want Harper balancing the budget on their backs through cuts to medicare, EI etc. How refreshing it would be to have a national govt whose highest priority was it's own citizens and not corporations or lobbyists.

First post election general poll from Nanos. Dion's guaranteed departure and Harper's flip flop on 'no deficit' seems to have taken it's toll on Tory election support numbers. CPC 32% Lib 30 NDP 20 Grn 10 Bloc 9 "...shows a tightening of the margin between the Conservatives and the Liberals. The initial change may suggest that the Prime Minister's comments relating to a possible deficit may not be resonating well among core Conservative supporters in Western Canada. The Dion resignation may have made the liberals a temporary parking spot for disaffected Conservative." http://www.nanosresearch.com/library/polls...AT-F08-T342.pdf

Hard to say what bothers them the most, another minority making it a challenge for a full session at the trough, or Obamaphobia - isolating Tories as the last nest of neocons on the planet.

What drivel. You heard plenty from Liberals about the folly of weakening our financial position by election inspired GST cuts and spending - you were mesmerized listening to Harper/Flaherty chanting their 'no deficit' mantra - a slogan that kicks off a post-election list of Tory lies. Who knows, perhaps times will get so tough that federal civil servants like you are asked to rollback bloated remuneration. With your views you must be a big hit around the water cooler.

Forseeable need? Failing to forsee what was coming is at the core of this problem for Tories, or, more ominously, given the party's haste to jump into the last election, Harper did realize his attempts to bribe the electorate with out of control spending and GST cuts had severely limited his govts ability to respond to what was surely coming. A failure to forsee is incompetence, a hurried election to cover fiscal mistakes is sacrifcing the national good for party politics. Either way it's fiscal mismangement. Even a hopeless hack like you should realize that.