maldon_road
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Posts posted by maldon_road
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Conservatives prepare for election.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...?hub=TopStories
It sounds like the Tories will try to provoke a vote to bring them down.
Or at least that is what they want the Oppos to think.
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The Liberals do not want an election before 2008. They need a new calendar year to draw enough finances to meet the election spending maximum. They are also waiting to see if the Commissioner of Elections Canada refers the Conservatives election advertising spending to the Director of Public Prosecutions. Lastly, they know that each initiative Harper releases will either alienate his base or shorten the tent.
The worst thing to have at election time is a divisive record to run on.
As for the Conservatives, it will be interesting to see what they dish-out with the Speech from the Throne. I have my suspicions, but I sure as Hell hope there are no hints of Constitutional overtures - the country simply wouldn't survive it.
Dion is giving himself wiggle-room. He seems to be concentrtaing on Afghanistan rather than Kyoto and I'm sure whatever is in the Speech from the Throne he will be able to "live with". Harper may not be the most popular PM ever but there is no real dislike of him. If the Libs are stupid enough to force an election Harper will get back in.
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LifeSiteNews will publish anything that makes gays look bad. However, I hope we are not going to judge gays on the basis of one incident anymore than we would aboriginals, Hispanics, blacks etc.
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Why Canada must take on Britain over the 1701 Act of Settlement
For a Canadian monarchist, the joyous news this summer came by way of an announcement that Peter Phillips, the only son of Princess Anne, was engaged to Autumn Kelly of Montreal. The not-so-happy news came a few days later in The Daily Telegraph, which reported that Mr. Phillips will have to renounce his claim to the throne if he proceeds with the marriage.
Ms. Kelly, it turns out, is a Roman Catholic -- as are the plurality of Canadians. That marriage to any Canadian would disqualify the Queen's grandson from becoming Canada's head of state is absurd. Though renunciation in these circumstances is not without precedent in Britain, the prospect of Mr. Phillips being subjected to religious bigotry is so repugnant to Canadian values that Prime Minister Stephen Harper cannot allow it to stand....
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...ialComment/home
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The Conservatives have brought a different view to the role of ambassador.
They have realized the most important job of an ambassador is to build trade ties. Ireland is a great market for Canada.
Having Binns in the job is good for Canadians.
Worthy successor to Dennis McDermott.
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Ah yes, the revisionist gay agenda strikes again. Next they'll be finding that aliens have been having gay relationships and Mars has been strictly gay for 500 years. So we should too.
I have been told many times by my friends in the religious right that my marriage is in jeopardy because of SSM. I keep asking how. I am still waiting for an answer.
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Yes, the NDP might pull a few votes away from the Liberals in Outremont, maybe even enough to let the Bloc win the by-election.
NDP puts Quebec in its sightsAfghanistan a hot topic on the doorstep
MIKE DE SOUZA, CanWest News Service
Arctic sovereignty and a push to withdraw Canada's troops from their combat mission in Afghanistan are among the issues at the top of the agenda for the New Democrats as they kick off a caucus retreat in Montreal on the eve of three federal by-elections, says NDP leader Jack Layton.
The ridings at stake are all in Quebec, including the Montreal riding of Outremont, where former provincial environment minister Thomas Mulcair is trying to steal the federal Liberal stronghold for the NDP.
While party organizers say they are hoping the exposure of the caucus retreat in Montreal will give them a boost at the polls, Layton said he was already sensing an opening during campaign stops in the riding thanks to his star candidate and increasing concerns about Canada's military mission in Afghanistan....
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news...63-f5f5c7b48097
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If the next election had the environment as the main issues the CPC would hold the 36% of the vote they got last time around and might be able to pick up some votes. If the election becomes a referendum on the environment the Liberals will have to swing left. Leaving the centrists who parked their votes with the Conservatives last time no choice but to stay with the Conservatives this time. The Liberals will probably alienate some of the centrist voters who weren't quite willing to support Harper last time around in the process.
The environment is another issue that people answer yes/no polls affirmatively, but when costs become involved their support erodes quickly. That leaves a lot of centrists open to the Conservatives.
This leaves the Liberals, NDP, Greens and Bloc fighting for a little over 60% of the vote. Is Dion, with his abysmal record as Minister of the Environment, weak policies as Official Leader of the Opposition and poor standing in his home province, going to be able to get 2 out of every 3 votes in the universe of votes avaiable to him?
Bad news for the Libs if the next election is on the environment. The Liberals had their chance with Kyoto and blew it. Big winners in such a case would be the NDP and Greens. And ultimately the CPC who would win the election.
In fact I have a great deal of difficulty seeing Harper losing the election no matter what the issues are. There is no great dislike of him across the country and when you add to that the fact that Dion is a big blah and the NDP are going nowhere it's not surprising that none of the opposition parties is anxious for an election.
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Teen Sex Case Puts Turkey's Judicial System in Spotlight
Marco thought the British girl was 15
Teenagers are rarely prosecuted for having sex, but a 13-year-old British girl has managed to put a 17-year old-German boy behind bars in Turkey. The case has become a thorn in German-Turkish relations.
Turkey's Antalya coast is enormously popular among German and British tourists for its pristine beaches, sporting activities and nightlife. A 17-year-old high school student from the small northern German town of Ülzen, identified as Marco W. in German media reports, had spent the Easter break with his parents at a five-star hotel resort in Side.
But on April 12, Marco's holiday turned into a nightmare.
Turkish police officers arrested him for having sex with a 13-year-old Briton, known in German media as Charlotte M. The mother of the Manchester girl had accused Marco of sexually abusing her daughter after he had been invited up to the girl's hotel room....
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We all know how successful the UN has been at promoting human rights...
UN urged to get moving on gender inequalityThe fight for gender equality is the world's most compelling issue, says Stephen Lewis, the former United Nations special envoy for HIV/AIDS.
Violence toward women ranges from "rape as a weapon of war" to "intimate-partner violence" and requires urgent action by the United Nations, he told reporters yesterday.
Lewis was a keynote speaker at a four-day summer-school conference organized by the Institut du Nouveau Monde, an independent public-information and consultation organization....
Lewis urged the UN to create an international agency for women with a budget of up to $1 billion a year....
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news...52-5f0e92f670a2
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Opposition leaders delivered an ultimatum to Prime Minister Stephen Harper yesterday, demanding he reverse course on his climate change policies and Canada's combat mission in Afghanistan or risk a fall election.
The electorate is restless. You can tell that from the polls with both the Libs and Cons going up and down depending on which poll you read. No party could tell what the outcome of an election would be should the Oppos pull down the government.
Since the Opposition is all pro-Kyoto they could defeat the government on that anytime. They have already had a vote on Afghanistan - that a commitment be made now to pull out the troops in 2009. The NDP voted with the Cons so that shows you how keen they are to have an election.
Right now I just see posturing. The atmosphere in the House was poisonous last Spring and I don't think it will be any better this Fall. But I don't see the government falling. I don't think any of the opposition parties can see any gains to made in forcing an election.
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Are you normally so foolish in ordinary life?
Young men were killed. Politicians ordered this. Could you sleep tonight if you had decided this?
Maldon Road, don't be so flippant.
Flippant? I don't think there is anything flippant at all about this. But it is Duceppe who now wants to discuss an issue he was quite prepared to leave until 2009. To me he is exploiting the issue.
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Are you normally so foolish in ordinary life?
Young men were killed. Politicians ordered this. Could you sleep tonight if you had decided this?
Maldon Road, don't be so flippant.
Flippant? That's Duceppe who now wants to discuss an issue he was quite prepared to leave until 2009.
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Duceppe is saying he'll vote against the government if there is no firm commitment to withdraw troops in Feb 2009. (Duceppe also wants a debate about Afghanistan as soon as Parliament sits.)
Dion is saying that he wants Harper to commit now to remove troops in Feb 2009 but Dion also says he won't vote to bring the government down (???).
Both these guys are trying to exploit the deaths on the VanDoos but trying to avoid a public backlash. There is no justification for Harper to make any kind of commitment at this point. The House will get a chance to vote on the issue in 2009.
At least Dion is smart enough not to try and threaren an election out of it.
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I am also in favour of Harper himself making the call for an election due to the Liberal senate holding things up. If I were hime I would give them 30 days to clear all the backlog in the senate, or he calls the election, and can show just how the Liberals are not serious about changing rules to stop scandel, and also not in favour of increased sentences for gun crimes and the like. He can easily make that work in his favour. If an election is called this fall it will be perfectly ok with me and I am sre the PC's.
If there is an election it would have to be poll related. Harper has said he would not call an election until 2009 but he might try to finagle opposition obstruction as an excuse. To get the Liberals defeated would require all three parties to bring them down and I can't see all three believing simultaneously that their electoral prospects will be good enough to do this.
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Jews Riot Over Showing of Merchant of Venice
Angered by a recent showing of William Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice in New York Central Park's Summer Theatre series, Jewish businessmen in New York, White Plains, Atlanta, Toronto, London and Sydney, Australia spilled into the streets in a violent display of rage and fury. New York State flags were burned, and Mayor Bloomberg was hanged in effigy.
Rapes, looting and vandalism were widespread. In New York City, apparently the major center of Jewish insurgent activity, over 600 people were beheaded. In Atlanta, a MARTA train was commandeered and derailed, killing about 300 passengers.
President George W. Bush, and Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of United Kingdom and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a joint proclamation for calm, noting that Judaism was a religion of peace. Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Counsel was called into urgent session to denounce "violence in all its forms."
And just imagine what would have happened if the Pope had decided to talk about Judaism or the Danish cartoonists had decided to scribble a few drawing?
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http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...?hub=TopStories
Just today, I am starting to believe that an election might be possible.
For a long time, I believed the BQ would be the ones that held up a confidence vote. However, it the Tories collapse completely over the next weeks in support over the issue of Afghanistan, I expect that the BQ and the NDP will be hankering to end it this fall.
The Liberals are smartly not making ultimatums.
I've been watching some of the Quebec broadcasts and seeing what some of the Quebec newspapers are saying. I can't imagine it could be possibly more troubling in terms of the mission.
Isn't the Bloc's position to stay in Afghanistan until 2009? How can Duceppe justify such a N/C motion then?
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It probably seemed like a good idea at the time. Stuck for inspiration about what to wear at their village carnival, one group made a last-minute decision to dress up in mock Muslim burkas.
The test is, if they had chosen to dress up as nuns, or rabbis, or Buddhist monks would there have been "complaints about racism" and would they have been asked to leave?
Where I live a couple of morning men on the radio were seen advertising their program on posters as nuns with the caption, "nun funnier". No complaints that I am aware of. But suppose they had worn burkhas instead. Would the local imam have kicked up a fuss?
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Organizers of a peaceful protest at this week's Montebello summit want answers from the Prime Minister about three demonstrators whom they say were police agents.
Video and photos of the men show them wearing boots with the same marking as police boots.
Some evidence as well as accusations would be nice. That is beyond the fact that they might have been wearing the same boots as the police.
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Betsy, there's one cogent argument in your quiver you haven't used; who the h*** is funding this so-called "art"? If it's the public, that is downright wrong and should be protested in a democratic manner. If it's some corporation or philanthropy, there should be a deluge of non-violent protest. Clearly, not many will pay to view or buy that garbage.
Do I recall something a few years ago at the Brooklyn Museum of Art? Christ on the cross in urine? I remember Rudy raising hell about it since it was a publically funded museum.
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I doubt that. I am a Trotskyite-Leninist-Maoist ideologically. My political hero is Fidel Castro and I have a picture of Che Guevera in my wife's and my master bedroom.
Ah! In Canada you would be a member of the Liberal Party.
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It is easier for people to prattle about doubtful and remote problems such as "global warming" (as I sit here in NYC in hot August with an outside temperature of 18, and rain), than to focus on the big threat.
I'm going to be in New York in a few days. I sure hope that isn't in Farenheit.
As for the guy who wonders why all conversations get round to Islam, if the Danish cartoonist had decided to parody Catholics or the Pope had talked about Jews would we have seen rioting in the streets? If Salmand Rushdie had decided to write about Baptists would he have received death threats? There is a Muslim cleric in prison in England for telling his followers that they have an obligation to go out and kill a Jew. Did you ever hear an Anglican priest say anything like that?
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Interesting. But my mother owned a 1977 Volvo, which was also a disaster mechanically. Just ask me. I was driving it on the Henry Hudson Parkway when it seized up and had to be towed to a dealership (about 6 months after purchase as a supposedly new car).
I bought a Dodge Aspen the year it came out, a vehicle later described by the Society of Automotive Engineers as the worst car ever made.
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I didn't use that abbrievation here but I note three things:
- You capitalized "Conservative", making it refer to a denomination of Judaism that I am not a member of. I am a Reform Jew;
- Ideologically, I am on the far left of the political spectrum; and
- When I use that abbreviation I am referring to the Conservative Party of Canada
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To an American "far left" is what we would call conservative.
- You capitalized "Conservative", making it refer to a denomination of Judaism that I am not a member of. I am a Reform Jew;
A Fall 2007 Federal Election?
in Federal Politics in Canada
Posted
If you recall, last Spring, just before the summer adjournment, House business degenerated into bedlam with all sorts of maneuvers being used to shut down committee work. If that should happen in the new session Harper would have an argument to pull the plug.