maldon_road
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Posts posted by maldon_road
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Well duh! CNN is the CBC of the USA. Wouldn't have mattered WHO he chose, the response would have been the same.
Nothing more useless than an on-line poll.
Let's see how Palin does. The convention is as spontaneous as a Papal encyclical so we won't learn anything there.
But I want to hear how she handles the credit crunch, Iraq, Afghanistan and Russia's saber rattling out on the hustings and when scrummed by the media. And of course the debate with Biden.
She is only marginally less qualified for the job than Obama and half the US population seems like it is prepared to vote for him as Prez.
I'ts too early to make an assessment of her.
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Actually, why don't the Liberals not run candidates in some strong Green ridings so that the Greens can have their rightful place in Parlaiment?
Dion has put his all into the GHG issue - if he flops then the Libs, and he, are dead. The environment is the Green's reason for existence. By running candidates they will seep votes away from the Libs. The Greens are just a rump group. They are the ones that should withdraw their candidates. May is a far more effective speaker than Dion and will come across better in the debates.
It's not a surprise that the one leader not opposed to the Greens in the debates is Harper. He has the most to gain.
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If the Americans can manage an orderly and informative televised debate for candidates for a party's presidential candidacy, then why can't we manage to add one more party to the debate? The Green Party is a major party now and has the right to participate.
That's a good point. In some cases there were nine or more candiadtes involved.
What makes the Canadian format messy is all the interrupting. Hard to follow when three people are talking at the same time. I've felt for some time that the rules in our debates have to be changed. Now that it looks like it's five players there is even more need to clean it up.
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I wonder why Elizabeth May would invite a slimy politician with Blair Wilson's legal and financial problems into her party. It could result in a decline in the Green vote Canada-wide.
I expect Wilson's seat will go to the Conservatives but nation-wide, the Liberals may pick up votes from the Greens.
What May should do is to withdraw all her candidates and tell her supporters to vote Liberal. The GHG vote is going to split three ways. As I said before the winner here is Harper.
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CTV: Liberal MP to sit as Green
Welcome news. Welcome new federal party. There's no excuse now to have Greens excluded from the debates. New and hopefully, fresh air is much welcome in the stale federal politics.
I never watched with four because invariably it was just a babble. It'll be even worse with five.
Good news for Harper. May will pick up votes from the Libs and Dips.
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PLease make this an election issue.
It already is. Tory support of Bill C-484 has come up in the by-elections as "evidence" of an anti-abort animus on the part of the CPC. That's why the Justice Minister distanced the party from it.
If abortion becomes an issue it will help the Liberals.
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Sarah Palin seems like quite a capable person, and perhaps, if she had more experience she might be considered a viable option as a VP candidate. But given the numbers, the lack of experience, and given how old McCain is, well, I just don't see it.
In a world of quick sound bites Palin is the latest star. Her 15 minutes will soon be over.
She is not the savior for McCain as socons would like us to believe. But she is not the klutz the liberals tells us she is.
She was elected governor so she can handle herself in public. She will make the odd gaffe, but then so might Biden. The debate between the two should be of some interest.
This election is about McCain and Obama and after a flurry of shots of Ms Patin when she was a "glamor queen" focus will return to the two guys at the head of the tickets.
BTW, if she does become Prez at some point I am sure she will be able to give Vladimir Putin some tips on the art of cooking moose meat.
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There will be an onus of proof on the Crown to show that the perp knew that the victim was pregnant. If that can be proved, then I agree there should be special treatment.
This Bill is now dead after what Nicholson did. It'll die anyway with an election.
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What is this?
What are you referring to? Bill C-484? There have been recent developments.
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However, if Harper did pull the plug, it wouldn't change your vote for him so it doesn't seem like much of a downside.
There might be some that criticize it but were they going to vote for Harper anyway?
And many who criticize him were planning to vote against him anyway.
The economy, Afghanistan, Dion's carbon tax and our usual fight over medicare will ensure that this particular procedural matter will not be a factor in the election.
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Quite possibly. NDP and Green voters who do not go with the Liberals will likely stay with their preferred parties. They will not vote for Harper, of that you can be sure. And, if that's the case, we'll have another Harper minority government. In my view, that's the best Harper can hope for, unless he's delusional.
We don't need a majority government in Canada. The Tories haven't earned it and I haven't trusted the Liberals for years.
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And this will be the justification for Harper to call an election before going back to Parliament?
Absolutely none whatsoever which makes me think that all this is Tory disinformation. He would be subject to much criticism in calling an election and negating by-elections and of course he couldn't justify it on a "dysfunctional" Parliament.
Dion is still sounding like Hamlet in what he will do after the House gets back. Harper should let things go as they go. Dion will be pestered by the media as to "will he, won't he" when it comes to an election. Meanwhile if the Oppos become obstructionist Harper will have an excuse to pull the pin.
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The Liberals can grow by taking votes from the NDP and Green parties. Moreover, where the CPC needs to grow if it hope to ever form a majority--Ontario and Quebec--it trails the Liberals or the BQ. The same for urban areas, where Harper is anathema.
On the other hand the Oppos could split the left wing vote.
There is grumbling about Harper, of course. But not enough to replace with a questionable leader who is proposing tax hikes and no doubt will have grandiose spending plans.
And lastly, if Dion is such a buffoon as Harper and CPC advertise, why haven't they been able to make gains on him?And if Harper is so bad why does he continue to lead in the polls?
The national polls are distorted by massive support for the CPC in areas with few seats and Liberals' modest support in regions with the most seats.And in Quebec the Libs huge margins in parts of Montreal overstate their popularity province wide.
Dion has had plenty of opportunity to force an election and every time he has chickened out. He's the guy not sure of an election.
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Generally, by-election results are a poor indication of future general election results.
The reality is, in my view, that Harper has judged that the lesser of political evils is taking the political heat for flip flopping on his fixed election date law and promise rather than suffer the revelations of illegal campaign spending that will come at the various committee meetings and in court, and the voter backlash he can expect as fighting in Afghanistan increases, the economy tanks, and a deficit reemerges.
It's likely that the CPC will get less seats in Ontario and Quebec. It is, in my view, unlikely that Harper will be the next Prime Minister. The more Canadians see him--as they will on the campaign trail--the more they distrust him, and rightly so. Dion has the opposite effect.
One thing I have never seen is a poll where the Liberals were actually ahead of the CPC. Even yes, but the consistent reality is that the CPC is more popular. And if there has been one it's an exception.
The one thing that will kill Dion is the carbon tax. That by itself will lose him the election.
But it would be silly and not to his advantage for Harper to call an election now. Two weeks after Sept 15 and he will have what he needs to show that the current House can't work.
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It's in Harper's interests to maintain this parliament. To stay in power, he only requires the support of one of three opposition parties. A future parliament may not be so easy.
I would suggest advantage Harper. One thing I don't see is the CPC getting LESS seats than now in a general election. I think that will be clear after September 8th where the Liberal vote will be lower than expected.
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There may be no pay off going back to the House for the Tories. The Liberals generally do better in the polls when the House sits and not so well when it isn't sitting. This summer we haven't really seen a Tory bounce. This might be as good as it gets.
How does he justify it? He has said he would call an election if the other parties don't permit him to fulfill his agenda. He can only do that AFTER the House resumes and there is evidence of a problem.
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The unnamed confidant claims the Tory boss could make the decision as early as September 2nd, one day after the holiday weekend and the time most people consider it's back to business as usual.
And between now and September 2nd there will be at least another half dozen other rumors from an "unnamed confidant".
If Harper is going to pull the pin he will at least meet the House and then claim the Opposition is continuing to be "disruptive".
I just heard Labour Minister Blackburn say he he is being called back to Ottawa in a few days for a special meeting. To organize the party's Christmas party, perhaps?
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You mean it is enough for him to win again if there was an election?
Maybe, if the NDP don't capitalize.
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why are the cpc spending so much time and money in trying to convince people that Dion is not a leader?
Because the best way to get re-elected is to show how your opponent is a goombaa?
How many premiers are now opposed to the Green Shaft? Four, or is it Five?
And look what a carbon tax rip-off is doing for Gordon Campbell's popularity?
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I am against this simply becuase it requires more civil servants with fat saralaries that I have to pay for.
It'll be cheaper if the alternative is to keep them in prison.
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Imagine what it will be like after the House resumes. Time for an election to clear the air. And not let's just blame the CPC. The Oppos in the committee voted down any witnesses proposed by the Conservatives.
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If they pose a threat of violence why are they being let out at all? Surely those are the ones that should remain in the bucket and those who are NOT considered violent are the ones who should be let out with the monitors on as a precaution.
Federal parolees to wear GPS monitorsOTTAWA - The Conservative government, facing the prospect of a fall election, hit the road Monday to aggressively promote its law-and-order agenda, including a new plan to track federal parolees by equipping them with electronic ankle monitors capable of tracking every step.
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, building on programs already in place in several province, made stops in Halifax and Toronto to announce a pilot project to monitor 30 federal offenders in Ontario after they are paroled from federal penitentiaries.
At the same time, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson travelled to St. John's, NL, the first stop in an Eastern Canadian trip to measure support for the government's plan to introduce further legislation to toughen youth crime laws by the end of the year, on top of a bill currently winding its way through Parliament.
The minority government's stepped-up focus on criminal justice, a key component of the Conservative agenda, comes amid speculation that Canadians will go to the polls by the end of the year.
Day said that the ankle bracelets, which will be equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers, will be used on selected "high-risk" parolees who pose a threat of violence, in hopes of reducing the chances of reoffending....
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In the eyes of some, since the anti-aborts don't have the votes for a frontal attack, they are trying to get it through the back door.
Bill endangers abortion rightsLetter
Once again, Ken Epp trots out the same old propaganda about his Bill C-484, the Unborn Victims of Crime Act ("Pregnant women deserve protection for their fetuses," Opinion, Aug. 7).
In many U.S. states, "fetal- homicide" laws have been misused to arrest hundreds of pregnant women. Epp claims there are "no valid comparisons to make," but even with the best of intentions, laws can be used for ends that can't be predicted in advance. This has happened over and over again in the U.S., even though these laws were intended to apply only to third-party attacks on pregnant women, just like Epp's bill.
In many of the American cases, it made no difference if the law exempted pregnant women from liability, as does Epp's bill. Women were often charged under a different law (such as a child endangerment law) that explicitly relied on the authority of a fetal homicide law. Epp seems unaware that Bill C-484 could be used the same way in Canada.
Epp claims that C-484 does not change the definition of a human being. In fact, his bill grants legal personhood to fetuses in eight specific ways, as detailed in a rebuttal (www.arcc-cdac.ca/presentations/rebuttal-to-ken-epp.pdf) we sent him in May....
(full letter)
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Actually, he might be. He could be out in a few months prior to Bush leaving office.
Maybe, or maybe not. Bush pulls the plug in just over five months. I wonder if the new President will order him kept in prison even after he has completed his sentence.
First Green MP
in Federal Politics in Canada
Posted
In the last election when the Greens tried to get in the debate Harper did not oppose it. Layton was the most adamantly opposed since he expects he would lose votes to the Greens.
Can't see the CPC losing votes to the Greens. Anyone for whom the environment is a big thing is not likely to be voting for the Cons in the first place.