scribblet

Then it's obvious that you'll always find fault with Harper and the CPC. Your topic and reasoning clearly reflects the way you feel. Indeed, and its too bad if she doesn't like the term Tory, guess she'll have to get used to it, and if one doesn't care, why would one continue going on about it. Seems like a lot of Canadians are liking what they see with Stephen Harper's government. When was the last time anyone saw the Torys at 41%? http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/...em/itemID/11565

Hi: (a refugee from rabble ? ) I'm not against those measures actually, I do think corporate and union donations should be limited, not sure about indivudual donations, maybe $1,000.00 is too low ? Electoral reform isn't one of their 5 priorities which is dissappointing, although I believe Senate reform is on their 'to do' list. I also seem to recall set election dates being on that list. If you are thinking of Prop. rep. I don't believe its even mentioned.

The NCC is a private organization funded by individuals. The fact that it is private and does not have to release the names of its contributors gets the left in a knot, especially the unions. As long as the NCC isn't funded by the gov't there is no complaint. What the gag laws do is deny free speech to all Canadians, while you might not agree with the NCCs politics, there is nothing hypocritcal about them or Harper.

Twist it how you like, but Harper seems to be containing the negative press, with good reason. http://www.freedominion.ca/phpBB2/viewtopi...p=687423#687423 There's an excellent post on here from a very well reasoned person, he says it well. The ‘war’ declared by the media on the Harper government is foolish. Media scribes want access to every facet of government without the drudgery of having to sort through government documents to see what is going on. Considering the Harper and his Cabinet Ministers were sworn in February 6th, and that Parliament resumed April 3rd, there is little Conservative government documentation to review and the media scribes know it. The media is determined to turn our attention to the myriad of problems the Liberals could not or would not resolve while they were in power. The game is to confront a Conservative Minister, (any Minister will do) and demand his or her solution to problems the Liberals left on the table when they lost the last election. The idea is to scatter Conservative forces and not allow Harper and his colleagues to focus on their priorities and election promises. Harper and his Ministers are having none of it. -snip- Harper and the conservatives serve us well by evading the media gamesmanship in favour of sticking to a plan for sound governance..

The man speaks the truth. The NDP's founding ideology is not compatible with the liberals. There is a thread here on this, note the post which compares the communist manifesto with the NDP manifesto. I don't think the centre or centre right liberals would accept that. http://www.mapleleafweb.com/forums/index.p...communist&st=30 NDP: That the production and distribution of goods and services shall be directed to meeting the social and individual needs of people within a sustainable environment and economy and not to the making of profit; To modify and control the operations of the monopolistic productive and distributive organizations through economic and social planning. Towards these ends and where necessary the extension of the principle of social ownership; ... The New Democratic Party is proud to be associated with the democratic socialist parties of the world and to share the struggle for peace, international co-operation and the abolition of poverty.

Kinda makes the self-entitled press gallery look like a bunch of spoiled whining brats. Good! They need to be put in their places. The sound of two hands clapping (need more emoticons)

There's facts and there's facts....the use of the NCC is a strawman argument. the NCC promotes free enterprise, individual freedom and better, more accountable gov't. It fights to protect free political speech, expose wasteful government spending, nothing wrong with the NCC in my opinion. they are standing up for Canada. Speaking about being open minded, Harper has shown extreme open mindeness by appointing 2 liberals.

Not many on line polls are credible, they allow multiple voting by removing cookies, the owner of that site is a hard core liberal, so it is biased. That site sure has a couple of moonbats in the U.S./other forums, my goodness, thank goodness this site doesn't have them here - then I really would whoops my cookies LOL

Is this the beginning, will the NDP go for it, somehow I doubt it, but who knows, we never thought the right would unite either. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...y/National/home "Certainly Chrétien had a concern that between [then-finance-minister Paul Martin] and [then-deputy-prime-minister John Manley] . . . that you had more of the heavy hitters . . . to the right than to the left," a Liberal insider said, noting that then-justice-minister Anne McLelland was also considered right-of-centre. Three of the four premiers declined Mr. Chrétien's offer. Brian Tobin ran, was elected and was appointed industry minister. Two years later, he dropped out of federal politics, abandoning a run at the leadership against Paul Martin. "You could argue that the period from 1997 to 2000 and maybe a little beyond, Chrétien's administration did look much more Liberal," said Frank Graves, president of the EKOS Research polling firm, referring to Canada's support for the Kyoto accord cutting greenhouse-gas emissions and the refusal to participate in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Liberals are once again debating their position on the political spectrum as they recover from their defeat in the Jan. 23 election and seek a leader to succeed Mr. Martin. Many Liberals feel the party drifted too far to the right, and that cost them votes in the last election, where they lost seats to the NDP. "The Tories have the right flank," a senior Liberal said. "We need to take centre and not lose anything on the left." Others say that if party moves to the left, Liberals could harm their reputation as good fiscal managers. "We have got to plant our standard firmly on the centre-left of Canadian politics," leadership hopeful Michael Ignatieff told Alberta Liberals last weekend.

I wonder about that too, evidently McGuinty is wondering the same thing. The report put a nice spin on equalization, it said " equalization is not a program in which money from richer provinces is shipped to poorer ones. Instead, it stresses that equalization comes from federal revenues provided to Ottawa from all taxpayers from coast to coast." Well duh...what's the difference other than terminology, it is still a socialist Robbing Hood endeavour. Not that I object to some form of help for the poorer provinces, but I'd rather see more done to create jobs and businesses. http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.h...ef-6884288ad31a McGuinty breaks ranks with Premiers Leaders meeting: Ontario stand on transfer payments called 'act of aggression' MONTREAL - Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's claim that his province can no longer afford to serve as a cash cow for the rest of Canada has angered his fellow premiers and threatened the united front the provinces hope to present in their dealings with Ottawa. Mr. McGuinty -- who skipped the final day of the premiers' two-day meeting here after breaking ranks yesterday -- was under fire for opposing a proposed enrichment of the federal equalization program, which flows cash to every province except Ontario and Alberta. -snip-

Yes, I can see where the making of hypocritical statements would be something you would admire. You don't get branded on your forehead with a big "L" because you once worked as a lobbyist. O'Connor was a general for decades, and then worked as a lobbyist for a few years. He no longer works as a lobbyist. He has a new job. It's funny that the left made no noises about the Liberals being loyal to companies they actually OWNED, and dismissed such suggestions from everyone else, but seems to have this bizarre idea that O'Connor now belongs, heart and soul, to a lobbying firm he worked for briefly. Not with most of us. We recognized that the former Ethics Commisioner was a Liberal Party hack. I don't think anyone sane thought that "government appointments" meant "cabinet ministers" Do you think jobs in cabinet should be put out to bid or something? That they shouldn't go to Party members!? Oh right. He should have turned down all corporate cash while the Liberals were having cash stuffed into their pockets from every bank on Bay street, not to mention having it handed across the tables to them by the bagful by Quebec ad agencies. With the new rules, you can be content that he won't be taking money from Alberta Pipeline any more. I would have thought you lefties would be happy at the removal of corporate cash from election financing instead of whining about what happened before the rules were in place. The NCC is not a political party. You are going through a rather tortuous exercise in twisted logic to try and make Harper look hypocritical here. I'm afraid it only reflects badly on you. Excellent response. Actually Harper did release his contributions, it was on the CPC website some time ago, but I don't have time to go looking for the link, and at the time there was no legal requirement that he do so. The CPC (and Allliance) have far fewer corporate donations than the Liberals, the majority are from individuals. As someone who supports the NCC (although I don't agree with everything they do) I don't see why its a problem for some people, who cares if Harper was the Pres. at one time.

As the article says, "Prime Minister Stephen Harper has good reason not to trust the Eastern-based Lib-Left dominated media." He is at some point going to have to give them a bit more, but when he's ready I guess.

Day job? Call me old-fashioned but it seems to me that if a person accepts to work for the civil service, and the duty to undertake the public's business, and exercice all the authority and perks that provides, then one gives up the right to express personal opinions in public. I would not want to face a tax collector, a policeman or a judge who had written an article opposing Internet forums and the people who post to them. When we deal with government bureaucrats, we should expect impartiality. If this guy wants to write controversial novels, he should resign and find another day job. You make a good point, most companies would require a confidentiality agreement for some positions, I wonder if the gov't requires it. If they don't, they should.

The problem is that it's American. Thats my take on it too, the only reason its getting space is because an American company is providing the software (not doing the actual census). Just goes to show you how hate of the U.S. spills over into perceptiions.

Check out the llast post by critical mass 2 re: abuse, it is time they addressed that issue. http://www.rabble.ca/babble/ultimatebb.php...c&f=31&t=000537 http://www.rabble.ca/babble/ultimatebb.php...c&f=36&t=000601

It's not what I think is spew, it's what the proprieters of the site think. Look: forums like babble and this one are not free-for-alls, they are privately operated web sites, which gives whoever operates them the right to dictate what they consider acceptable behaviour. For instance, here, calling somebody a "motherf**king c**ksucker" would probably get you banned, whereas on babble, such an epitheth would lead to a lengthy discussion over whether the term "motherf**king c**ksucker" is homophobic and misogynist. I'm not gonna quibble over the different standards, but I will abide by them. As for "anyone new" being "viciously attacked", well, if you went into someone's house and started questioning their decorating choices, cooking abilities and spouse's physical apperance, you'd probably get the boot. So why would anyone think they could go to an unabashedly left wing, pro-feminist, pro-gay rights, pro-union, NDP-friendly forum and slag off any of the above with impunity? Also: methinks you overstate things. I've been there a while and rarely is a poster banned who didn't violate the clearly defined parameters of board behaviour. Finally, if you think intolerance for contrary viewpoints, incivility and viciousness are hallmarks of the left, well, you've never been to Free Dominion. Hmm, its not really like walking into someone's home as it is a public discussion group, the door 's open, anyone can read. If they really wanted to keep it private they could charge a subscription fee, I'm sure right wingers or middle ground people wouldn't pony up to debate them. I did have some links saved but can't find them at the moment, of where people were sworn at etc. for expressing a very mild opinion, no slagging etc. no breaking of rules. However, it will be interesting to see if management can get get it going again.

Maybe Harper is just taking back some control from the press which has had too much control over politicians ? The press is supposed to report the news, not make it or shape it, for the time being I'm enjoying them getting their knickers in a knot over it.

Guaranteed election loss right there. I hope he wins and runs with it. We don't even need to bring up his Ukrainophobia or stances on torture - his arrogance is all Harper needs to pull off a majority. LOL, if he should get the leadership, the campaign ads for the next election should be really interesting. (Godfrey is bowing out of the race now). check this out for some decent Rex Murphy commentary, about 43 minutes in.. http://www.cbc.ca/clips/national/thenational.ram

Excellent post TB, I concur. There are those who are not willing to wait and see, or to give any credit to Harper for anything. It doesn't matter what he does, it will be wrong. This act will redefine how business is conducted in Parliament and could take a long time before we know if it has resulted in a more transparency. The long arm of the AG, will be reaching a lot further and should help protect the taxpayers from too much federal largesse. Not much more to ad at this point, I'm willing to give the CPC a chance. So far they havn't broken any rules and have played the game within the law, once the rules change I expect them to abide by them.

What happens if a Party's leadership ends up completely corrupt and finds themselves in legal battles, why can't a backbencher not associated with such scandals choose to switch sides? He should have to sit as an independant then, or call a by election. I believe the conservatives were planning on introducing such legislation, it was out there during the campaign, but the NDP got there first, not sure how it came about.

It is an excellent initiative, I'm glad that they have acted on this. Harper has to be careful as this is a minority gov't. Can't clean it up too quickly you know, too much of a shock for the old liberal boys.

I went over there and had a look, there are always two sides to the issue, and from what I've read it looks like the moderator who was fired, didn't fulfill her obligations. I guess it wasn't handled very well, but the moderator lives in Halifax so it would be kind of hard to talk to her in person I guess. I wonder too, if management was unhappy with the double standards on that site. They banned anyone with even a very moderate conservative opinion, but the worst was that they allowed a few posters to stalk, swear and harass them. Some of what I read was downright scary; for those who thought Stephen Harper and the conservatives were scary, they should go back and read some of the hate and intolerance from people there who were supposed to be 'progressive'. However, they have excercised their options and taken their business somewhere else, but do they really have the right to completely shut down the babble forum and not allow others to post, it will be interesting to see what happens.

I guess the Liberals would want as little as possible audited, especially if Sheila's doing the audit LOL

I don't see the data being more at risk simply because it went to a company in the U.S.

I applaud Preston, and anyone who puts themselves forward to replace 'King' Ralph - ough act to follow. Conservatism needs a vision, and vision was always Preston's strong suit. Heck, he is the Godfather of the balanced budget approach to governance, champion of the grassroots who vanquished the elitist Meech Lakers. I'm sure once he decides to run and wins, he will articulate a conservative vision of Alberta and Canada that would take federal-provincial relations to a new improved level. http://www.manningforpremier.ca/