maldon_road

It doesn't matter who wins the next election - there will be no change in status of abortion at the federal level. Mr Trudeau therefore accomplished two things. Call into question once again his fitness as party leader and apparently end the Liberal Party's claim to be a Big Tent. You get the impression that whenever Justin opens his mouth there are cheers from the Conservative and NDP camps. Memo to Mr Trudeau: in the recent Quebec election the PQ got thumped because they insisted on talking about sovereignty and Islamic head scarves instead of the issues the public wanted to hear about: jobs, healthcare, education. Don't you make the same mistake.

He's Twitter Man. He makes policy statements that can fit into a tweet. Simpleminded statements on complex policies such as abortion, legalizing marijuana and assisted suicide. He gets pushback then makes "clarifications" that muddy the issue even further. I was a "Liberal Supporter" and voted in the leadership election - but none of my choices was for Trudeau. He lacks his father's intelligence and wit.

The reality is that into the foreseeable future there is no threat of anti-abortion legislation passing in Ottawa. Anybody who wants to go that route should lobby provinces to use their rights to control health procedures. Access to abortion is by no means uniform across Canada and in some provinces abortions are not easy to come by.

I agree that the Royal Family should stay out of political affairs but Charles and his father are noted for making controversial comments on occasion. However, there is nothing knew in Charles' comment. Many comparisons have made publicly between Crimea and the Sudetenland.

Another of Trudeau's famous "clarifications" that just create more confusion. "You can believe what you want so long as you vote the way I want". There is no restriction on abortion, at least at the federal level. And there is no chance whatsoever that a Liberal government would ever bring in an anti-abortion bill. Harper has said repeatedly that his government won't. And we all know the position of the NDP. So why raise the issue? Just another example of Trudeau's lack of qualifications for the party leadership

Trudeau is trying to out-Dip the Dips. A fight for the Left with the NDP. Good news for the Tories.

Unlikely but possible. They will lose seats in Quebec and perhaps a couple in Atlantic Canada. The vote splitting in Ontario would have to be spot-on though to pick up enough seats to form a majority and it would be a thin one. As Harold Wilson said when he had a majority of four, "You don't want four MPs all in the same cab in the event of an accident".

If the polls are right this is the start of the NDP Golden Era and death's door for the Libs and Bloc. Layton will first need to whip a lot of neophytes into a workable opposition party while the other two will be scrambling to find leaders so they can survive. The Tories would only be defeated when Layton felt he would be ready to possibly govern if asked by the GG - this of course would depend on the number of seats he gets today. If the Tories, Libs and Bloc then defeat him he has a great issue to campaign on for the ensuing election.

If half of Jack's caucus is from Quebec it will be a race to see who is the more willing to pander to Quebec - the Bloc or the NDP.

The Liberals will be in a shambles - down to a corporal's guard mostly consisting of hacks going back to the Chrétien era and after three stinkers at the helm, looking forward to having as leader either a defrocked socialist or the son of a former PM who got his brains from his mother, not his father. Or if they want to be totally irrelevant they could elect Dominique Leblanc. No way would Layton want to have anything to do with this bunch.

Thank you for correcting me.

Something that happened fifteen years ago - a peccadillo at best - and dredged up by a right-wing news chain and obviously intended as a last minute smear? Will it have any effect? Very unlikely. It shows Jack is human and, if anything, will probably backfire.

"fine" is a bit of an overstatement. Bernanke recognizes that the very modest growth levels are insufficient to bring down unemployment to acceptable levels any time soon. He talks of "underlying" inflation when it is gas north of four bucks a gallon that is worrying people. And, of course, the real estate market is still in a shambles.

I know what you mean. I live in a riding (no fear of the NDP winning) where the Dips put in throw-away candidates, usually a snotty-nosed kid who wants to put in a $5/liter tax on gas and calls Israel an "apartheid" state.

This presupposes that the NDP will get 50 or so seats in Quebec - preposterous. The Laurier Institute is only estimating 15 identified seats and even that means beating some well established Bloc MPs.

If we are only going to have diplomatic relations with countries that permit religious freedom the diplomatic representation in Ottawa will be quite diminished.

I have always found American politics fascinating but when you look at the current crew - Obama, Huckabee, Sarah P, Trump, the birthers and the tea-baggers it's downright Monty Python on the Potomac.

He'll be replaced as Liberal leader long before then. This is going to be one big disaster for the party on May 2nd.

There is nothing new here. We all know that a deficit of 10% of GDP and a debt of 100% of GDP need to be acted on. The immediate issue to be dealt with is the debt level. We don't need S&P to tell us what will happen if Congress doesn't act to raise it.

Well, that's sure given the Liberal leader a nice line for the remainder of the campaign, "Well, friends, let me tell you - I am now viewed as favorably as Stephen Harper".

Way back when Iggy talked about it being bad fiscal policy but he has shut up about it now. No way would any pol talk of increasing it back to 7%.

Turned on the radio this morning and heard some guy yelling, "Rise Up, Rise Up!". Well, I thought, it is Sunday - I must be listening to a church service.

I have yet to see any support, from anywhere on the political spectrum, for Harper's reduction in the GST. I have however seen much argument that it would have been preferable to reduce income taxes instead.

As compared to Mont-Royal riding that has a 36% Jewish population and since Trudeau has had two Jewish MPs.

I don't agree with that at all. True, Harper is the most pro-Israel PM we have ever had but in the last election the Tories got splattered in Mont-Royal. There is no way they can beat someone with the stature of Irwin Cotler.