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If we had only two choices between Conservative and NDP, NDP comes out like a shining star right now in comparison. At least Layton realized the stupidity and selfish political opportunism of what Harper was trying to do back in May and obviously decided not to go along with it. That was the right thing to do and he deserve credit for doing the right thing and not going along with it. The Conservatives are unfortunately stuck with the fact that their leader messed up and lost a great deal of credibility for their whole party by playing the very same type of political games that he accuses the Liberals of now. He demonstrated very poor judgment for this and for Iraq and should not be given a chance to get into power. Obviously the Liberals are paying a huge price for the sponsorship scandal. There is a good deal of evidence available now to indicate that the scandal involved a few corrupt individuals in the previous Liberal party in power. If one is open to the possibility that the current Liberal party makeup is not the same as the previous, then the Liberals are also still an option. However, they clearly have a lot of work to reassure voters that this is indeed the case. We will have to see how that goes. On the topic of the makeup. If we look of the current Conservatives versus previous... in spite of the name change there has been enormous turmoil over the last few years and the Conservatives also have a lot to do to clear up their own identity. Perhaps their choice of Harper is indicative of the fact that this party has been really struggling to figure out what it is after the merger. I do believe that eventually this will all be sorted out and Harper will be replaced. Until then, with all due respect to the fine folks who work hard in the Conservative party, they are right now a very bad choice to lead our country. I think that means getting rid of the corrupt government in place right now. Gomer, HRDC, Income Trusts and check out this know info: http://www.stephentaylor.ca/archives/000505.html Fool me once shame on me, fool me twice... Vote Conservative or NDP, just not the Liberals. That is good for Canada. <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Harper has shown himself to be no better than those he point the finger at. His actions last May showed that he badly wanted to size upon a great political opportunity. His actions showed that he believed could get into power by using the sponsorship scandal... even if meant creating additional more instability for Canada at the time. Things were bad enough and we certainly did not need any additional instability in our Government but his actions showed that he was willing to take it to the brink regardless of the ramifications to our economy, our currency or anything else. During the days when he brought everything to a halt in parliament to try to take the government down, the Canadian dollar was affected and it would have likely have turned worse had he succeeded. This would have had very negative unnecessary ramifications. Many eyes across the world were watching this carefully and foreign investors were getting jittery. It was a stupid move and a bad time and resulted in absolutely nothing positive for Canada. Whatever his motives, his ultimate actions were definitely NOT in Canada's best interest and nothing good could have occurred in the short term even if he had succeeded. It does show the lengths Harper was willing to go and would indicate that it was more intended to prove a political point and win back his election loss last time around. It seemed like he and his top aides were so engrossed in trying to take advantage of the situation that they were completely oblivious to the effect it was having. Rest assured that the business world was watching carefully and not oblivious at all. This was the turning point in many people's mind about Harper. On top of his willingness to risk getting Canada involved in Iraq for the wrong reason, Harper was now willing to also sacrifice the economy unnecessarily. This is why we must prevent him from becoming the prime minister. There is no room for these kinds of erroneous decisions and in this day and age of global markets there is no mercy for Governments who screw up their economy. As it turned out we did managed (as expected) to get through to the planned election time just fine. This also further underscores the point that his timing was completely inappropriate. It was a failed attempt to seize upon a political opportunity. Even people within his own party did not support the way that he approached it. Doing the right thing for Canada means putting the best interest of Canada ahead of your own political interests. Harper can certainly point the finger at others but he has shown by his own actions that when it comes to the crunch, he can make very poor judgments and make potentially dangerous decisions. Although in this present campaign, Harper is presenting himself as a moderate with his daily announcements of Liberal policies, he isn't a person any different from what he was six months ago or ten years ago. If he were, he'd be alienating his support base or are we to believe that the people who once whole-heartedly believed in privatization, extreme budget cuts, and cancellation of social programs of the Common Sense Revolution are now embracing the Liberal-like spending policies - something they've always been opposed to until now. <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

In general, accute cynicism makes it very hard to believing that anyone could possibly have a different opinion about Harper unless of course they were paid or put up to it That is understandable. Unfortunately his actions, speeches adn behaviour have combined to show many of us all we needed to see to decied that he really is not a great choice. <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hmmm - Honestly ..I had not read any talking points from the liberals yet but maybe now I will - but it is interesting that some independent analysis supports what is apparently being said there. My point is that a good leader must do the right thing even if he/she believes others are not. That is not what Harper did... in fact he made the Conservatives look just as bad and I know that is not what decent Conservative party memebrs had in mind. 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! <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sorry if this is a little lengthy but like so many Canadians, I am adding my voice to the growing consensus of people who agree that we must prevent Harper from becoming the leader of our fine Country. His actions have shown that he cares more about getting his party into power than the best interests of Canada. His choices show that he would be a very bad leader for Canada and would take our country in the wrong direction. He has demonstrated a type of political opportunism that is at the expense of Canada’s stability. He points the finger at others claiming to be pure and ethical. Yet his under his leadership, his own party’s actions show that he is willing to play just the same political games that he claims others are guilty of. Here are some examples to support these statements. 1. Back in May 2005 Harper and his team saw an opportunity to get into power by jumping on the sponsorship scandal. He and his team brought parliament to a virtual standstill for many days and created more instability for our country by attempting to topple the Government when an election had already been announced. Even if he believed that he would win, this type of instability is very bad for any country and the world perception of Canada. He failed – and rightly so. This is not the right way to get into power and a good leader would not have exacerbated the situation the way he did. It is just one example of the kind of choices that Harper makes and it shows he cares about his own party’s interest over the well being of Canada. There is no question that the sponsorship scandal has had a negative impact on public confidence. Harper’s choice however, was to make matters worse at a time when we needed all parties to do the right thing for Canada. The right thing would be to do everything possible to maintain political stability and keep parliamentary business going until the election. 2. Harper pressed very hard to have Canada send troops to Iraq. This was clear during his statements in questions period at the time. I would like to see CTV or CBC replay the coverage of those question period speeches from Harper. His spokespeople can try to deny it but it was very clear that if he had been in power, we would be very involved in the Iraq mess. Harper showed that he was very keen to have us follow the Bush administration into Iraq without UN support regardless of the consequences and this shows the type of poor choices that Harper can make. 3. Harper and his party have decided to use GST to try to convince people to vote for them. Look at the way his announcement was made with tacky signs that were used – much like we would see in a discount store TV ad. Most economists agree that this is actually a poor choice and there are better ways to reduce the tax burden. While his PR folks did a fine job, it only shows that there is a willingness to try and use any catchy gimmick to get elected. 4. Harper often comes across as angry and bitter. It shows regularly when he speaks and it shows a lot when he does not get his own way. This is not the kind of face we want to show to the world as the leader of Canada. 5. With all the internal focus on merging of the ex-Reform /Alliance/ Conservative party, this is really a relatively newly formed party coming out of a great deal of inner turmoil. I believe that there are many caring folks within this new Conservative party that do not at all agree with the direction that Harper and the top aides are taking. We saw witness of at least one member who stood up and made that clear by crossing the floor. We have seen very scary examples in other countries of what can happen when the wrong leader is elected. It can take years to recover from the decisions and mistakes made. Finally – it is too simplistic and foolish for anyone to make broad sweeping claims that absolutely every members of a particular party is either corrupt or perfect. That is absolute nonsense. There are extremely competent and decent people working hard in all political parties. There are always some who are not up to scratch. For sure there are unfortunately those few who are corrupt. That can be stated about any party as we look back over history. I believe that the conservatives will eventually find a better leader and get a better strategy but right now they are following Harper and that is a poor choice for their party and for our country. Whatever can be said about the current government, Canada is in a very strong position and well respected in the world. On the Iraq situation we stood out ground and we are respected for that. Our economical situation is actually very strong and we have enormous opportunities ahead. Whoever you vote for, I respectfully submit this to urge others who care about Canada that we must not allow Harper and the conservatives get into power in 2006.