Harare

I love CBC aswell. I was refering to (local) Eastern journalists I watched (on sattelite) as the numbers came in BullShit. I flipped through all of the various outlets here and no one was showing bias towards any party or candidate. Feel free to post something to back this up, otherwise I'll just assume it is the typical lies of bias I have listened to CBC radio for decades and yes it has some great programs but it is anything but balanced. Perhaps you can name some right of centre commentators. After all to be balanced there should be just as many left wing as right commentators, right. I think it should be sold and run the way the PBS is run in the states.

There are many elements to democracy reform. Senate reform Set election dates. Funding rules are some that I can see Harper implementing. I never saw PR as part of their platform so why would you think they would adopt it ?

There were 1.3 million more voters in '06 than in the '04 election. The Libs popular vote declined by approx a half million votes exactly the same number by which the NDP vote grew. The CPC number of votes grew by 1.3 million. Did all these new voters, decide to vote just to "throw the bums out" or because finally they were presented with policies that they could relate to and support? Quebec had their "peoples revolt" years ago when Levesque overthrew their overlords and cleaned up the corruption to an extent. I believe that now, finally, the rest of Canada is begining their first tentative steps toward a peoples revolt aided by the internet to keep our rather "Pro Government, Ryerson based Media, honest. I also expect that Mr Harper will win a majority in a couple of years as the true nature of Liberal corruption is uncovered. That, in addition to their inability to get out of debt under the new rulles will force them after getting reduced to a bit player in the Commons, to combine with the NDP ( that has moved a bit to the right) just to survive. Trudeau's fiction of one the one hand enjoying a near Marxist "share everyone else's wealth" except that of his elite cabal of "more equal pigs" and on the other hand promoting a public dependancy on Big Brother to provide just enough to get by as is our "right" is nearly over. Let's hope that now, innovation and enterprise will be allowed to blossom and will produce the far richer country that we should already have been what with our vast resources and strategic location.

If one assumes that it costs $150k to have one RCMP officer then the billion dollars spent on the Gun Registry would pay for 6-7 thousand extra officers with guns in our streets !! Gun crime in gun crazy is dropping while in "no gun" europe it is rising as it is here.

I would add a few other items. #5 The media could always be counted on to sway hordes of Lemmings to vote Liberal. This time they had only PC platform announcements to report on before christmas. And after christmas they had plenty of Liberal dirt and gaffes to report on. The bloggers forced them to be more balanced and honest. #6 The Libs "ace in the hole" - attack ads were blunted and backfired. PC gaffes did not happen. The RCMP factor - after Gommery the Libs could not afford a single hint of any more wrong doing - but they appeared almost daily. The more Martin spoke and dithered the less Prime Ministerial he looked. eg NWC. Net result - Fear Factor Failed Which is how I feel about the Libs and the corrupt folks who still support the crooks - F F F !! #7 The Quebec factor PC seats in Quebec - a renewed hope for Federalists in Quebec at the hands of an Anglo Albertan- go figure. #8 The Toronto shootings = Crime factor is a huge item for vast numbers of law abiding, hard working voters just SEETHING at the Justice system built and run by Libs.

Hey Eureka may I suggest that you immigrate to the workers paradise of strong central government, free health care and education and income equality for all...............Cuba. When I see Libs insiders sharing their ill gotten gains, cushy jobs and pensions with the poor that you keep proclaiming is the rock on which Liberalism is built I might consider your views. Guess what kind of healthcare Alexa McDonaugh arranged for her mother. Bloody hypocrites the lot of them,

Pure and innocent Paul Martin, slick Ralphie and Melanie's man Reg Alcock are finally getting the message about how to get more Canadians to vote Liberal. Send a $250 rebate check to prisoners who don't even paying to heat their homes - the prisons -and don't drive. They also helped out our poor MP's by raising the gas allowance for MP's to $500 per thousand kms travelled. Prisoners rebate checks delivered today What is it you Libs see in these goofs? How much of our money do they have to gice away to convicts before you react ? Good grief and imagine if Harper had this rebate plan in his platform what would you be saying? Unbelievable, anyway by voting the same way as our convicts must be the right way to go - it just feels right, don't you think ? .

I was going to vote Liberal but although I can handle legalizing Polygamy and I can handle same sex marriage I just can't handle the next "progressive" Liberal/Dipper brain burp - same sex polygamist marriages so I think I'll vote PC. Besides, I'd like to see the Liberal Adscam scumbags put in jail and a Governor General who hasn't once worked for the Liberal propaganda machine - His excellancy the right honerable Preston Manning GG of Canada sounds good to me.

So Bubber when Jack or Martin or any number of columnists make statements like "we don't a healthcare system like the American one" they really mean Bush's healthcare system ? When they say we don't want our Supreme Court selected the way the Americans do they really mean Bush selection system. When they say they don't want to lose the Monarchy and become a Republic like the US they're really only anti Bush ? I couldn't disagree with you more - anti americanism in Canada has been around a lot longer the Bush's administration.

Sorry Bubber - I ha ve listened to CBC for years and have never heard a right wing commentator EVER. As far as I concerned the most right wing they have working for them is Rex Murphy. There has been a clear, left wing bias in most of Canada's media for at least a hundred years. The other thing about the media is that they live for a story where they can sling the poop and it's not Harper's fault that the Libs have provided them with so much dirt to dig into. Finally the Bloggers have force the MSM to start doing their job of simply reporting.

I agree with the above points listed by those two smarts A's. Plus 1 point - very quickly change the rules limiting individual political donations and ban corporate and union donations which will make it extremely difficult for the Libs to clear their debt. And I think history will very likely repeat itself: John Diefenbaker - minority government 1957 - Federal election results: Conservatives 112, Liberals 105, CCF 25 and Social Credit 19 2 years later - landslide victory - 31 March 1958 - Federal election: Conservatives 208, Liberals 48, Other 9; largest majority ever recorded

My guess is we will see rapid changes on the softwood lumber stand-off. What do you think ? Nice speeches but no action Softening of proposed US border control issues Gagliano sent to Guantanamo

This election also brings to mind government corruption. I have always said, history will not remember Paul Martin as a great PM or a good, clean guy. That is too bad, because I blame Chretien, not Martin. Martin was probably a fool for not knowing more, but I have always believed Chretien to be corrupt. Hopefully, Martin will be remembered as a better, cleaner guy than Chretien. I don't think that Paul Martin is such a good clean guy. He has underhandedly undermined his boss Chretien ever since he lost the leadership vote. He has also shown more recently that he is willing to lie, cheat and manipulate anyone and anything to reach his goal. - Flags of convenience, Belinda - cabinet job and demonize Harper and the military and then lie about it - attack ads rather than put forward his own platform.

Eureka ! I'm sorry but I just do not understand what you're trying to say...... "Harare! If you have read and understood anything I have posted, you would know that I said Canada, fix that in your mind is united by its social peogrammes." I just can't get my head around how by having the same Healthcare or childcare or EI systems we become a united country. So are you saying that before any of these social programmes were brought in that we were not a Country and were not proud of being Canadians ? Sorry, you lost me on that one. As for various jurisdictions being Federal vs Provincial or local, I fail to see how that is a factor in determining the unity of a country either. It is the same people - individual voters - who decide how they want things done in their community. It is my view that the more distant the movers and shakers are - ie, Federal - the less representative they are of my community's and my, wishes and the more difficult it is to effect change quickly and efficiently. If you think that my opinion as expressed in a Federal vote is OK but my vote at a Provincial or local level is destructive to the country then we will just have to agree to disagree. I don't share your faith in vast and unweildy bureaucracy and frankly don't see what evidence you have for such faith. Let's start with the Gun Registry or the Aborigonal files. Are you a Federal bureaucrat?

Really Eueka, after calling all Cons idiots and incapable of sensible posts, you then try to tell us that what defines the French as different from the Swedes or Aussies or Mexicans is their social programmes...good grief man, that is pathetic. What makes the people of a country, who they are and what unites them, is their way of life - their culture, humour, language, food, style, standards and history. It's got nothing to do with whether their water supply is managed by Local, Provincial or Federal supervision. You seem to lay all the blame for Waterton on Harris (who was left with vast debt by Bob Rae) and leave the local drunk in charge quite blameless while conveniently overlooking all the Federally supervised Indian Reservation's crappy water supplies all over the country as shining examples of your preferred model. Personally, I think that the more local issues that are determined at the local level, the more likely they are to reflect the wishes of the people involved. I'd suggest that you take a look at the wonderful Federal dept of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and what it has accomplished in the last 40 years with some 6 billion per year to improve the lot of some 600,000 Aboriginals under your model of what makes us Canadians.....yea priceless. Yup Harpers a moron what we need more of your unifying federally supervised social programs. I know that I would feel far more "united" with my fellow Canadians if I knew they were hard working "play by the rules" types than if most of them were leeches, feeding off the system through welfare, EI, grants, subsidies and entitlements paid for by me.

Just a wild guess, Melanie and besides I could not see where you were going with democratic rule by minority....perhaps a trip to any number of African or Arab counties would change y our mind. As for your hero Mandela, unlike my hero and his hero Mahatma Ghandi who used no violence Mr Mandela did and called Mr Castro and Col Gadaffi his best buddies. Perhaps Robert Mugabe was also once one of your heros? Mandela welcomes brother Gaddafi

I think Melanie only likes democracy when it means minority rule under the guidance of the Liberals, even if they lie cheat and steal. Frankly it is quite beyond comprehension. Are you or are you not against back-room deals, corruption, life time appointed Senate jobs, big pensions and as if that's not enough - to have a pattern of determining the results of elections thru bribery, cheating and lying.

double post.

"As others have said, I'd far rather have a straight shooter than an "experienced" traveller like Trudeau who so damaged this country. " "Naah, Trudeau put us on the world map." Good grief, you never heard of Vimy Ridge or what our troops did in WWII or what Lester Pearson did on the world stage. Get real !!! Trudeau was born rich and could afford to be both a communist and an elistist and has done great damage to the unity of this country, not to mention starting his reign with a national debt of 20 billion and finished with 160 billion. Like Castro was all to willing to share our money but never his own.

Many marriages function just fine without religion, believe it or not (I suspect you will not). You don't need to have a religious ceremony to be joined in marriage, but the word still applies. Churches have always had the right to refuse to marry someone who doesn't conform to their beliefs, and that still stands, which is why they can't have the monopoly on the word "marriage" - it is accessible to all, regardless of their religious beliefs or sexual orientation. Do we really need to have this debate again? I agree, Melanie we don't. But if an MP wishes to raise a private members bill then I will fully support his/her right to do so. And if the majority of MP's vote against it as I suspect they would, it would truly be a closed issue. Same goes for polygamy SSM or capital punishment. I'm just happy to support any party that will make this place a more democratic country.

Well back to the subject about foreign experience. I have travelled to over 60 countries, so does that make me "experienced in foreign policy" or "ready to properly protect Cananda's interests" of course not. What a ludicrous proposition. The vast majority of cabinet ministers step into ministries about which they have no experience. That's what we have deputy ministers for. I would suggest that speaking a few foreign languages would be useful in foreign affairs or having lived in a few other countries would be helpful but that's about it. Not a big deal & clearly the Liberal war room also thinks so. As for Harper getting pointers from Bush, pulease THAT guy had only travelled to Mexico but once. Harper by contrast has travelled to Mexico and Europe and has a wife who has travelled extensively all over the world - not that it really matters as far as being ready to govern. As others have said, I'd far rather have a straight shooter than an "experienced" traveller like Trudeau who so damaged this country.

No kidding, if your going to do that, at least do it right. He must have been a Lib - not to bright.

Very true August, the shredding machines must be getting plugged in and ready to destroy as much evidence as possible. I believe that we've only seen the tip of the iceburg of corruption in Canadian politics.

For most of the history of this country we have had the least amount of democracy of any modern western democratic country. No other country except several dictatorships have had so much power in the hands of so few for so long. For example the PM has: Total control over his MP's who need the PM's OK to even run as a candidate rather than the riding's OK Buck the PM and forget any political future. Total control of the GG and the upper chamber which is primarily appointed by him. Total control of the pig trough - all the cushy jobs and appointments. Total control of who is appointed to the Supreme court. Total control over areas that our constitution has decreed to be provincial matters by holding the pursestrings. Total control over internal ethics and auditors, up until very recently. Total control over election dates which gives him a huge unfair advantage over the outcome. Total control over his party's private propaganda medium - CBC which is paid for by us all. COnsiderable control over the rest of the media as it is owned by a very few rich mostly friendly folks. Total control over lobbyiests by being able to award contracts without the bother of tenders. Where were the checks and balances? When has a serious candidate for PM of Canada EVER campaigned on a promise to limit these very powers that he could now use and abuse. And additionally promote such things a free votes and ( though not recently) referendums. Add to the above, the increasing power of the internet and of bloggers to force the media to be more balanced and we will surely have a stronger cleaner country that we can all be proud of and involved in. Your thoughts..................... I am not a member of any political party but am intensely in favour of free speech and true democracy.

I don't care as long as each MP is free to vote in a manner that best reflects his constituents wishes. Canada is the least democratic country in the western world and that has got to change.