Dennis

Harper to Layton: I don't cozy up to the Bloc or to you. Paul Martin shouldn't either. Its too dangerous for Canada.

I didn't even mention American politics. I suggest you quit while you're ahead. The question posed in this topic was whether the NDP could ever form a government. I believe that's exactly what I tried answering. Mayber you should try leaving your english-bashing at home, my friend. There's no place for it in this thread.

That is nothing but sheer rumour-mongering by people who aren't part of the party but seem to want to have a say in who is and who isn't running it.

Alright, smart guy. Maybe you can tell me when Conservatives and Liberals HAVE NOT been one of the ruling parties in this country. If you can't, then I suggest you ask yourself just who's being silly. Sometimes, I really don't know where some of this stuff comes from. People ought to think about what they write before posting.

Never. If you buy into the notion that this country can only have two parties at a time vying for power, than the NDP will never be one of those any time soon unless it finally decides to change its strategy. Instead of trying to be the leftist conscience of the Liberal Party, it has to decide to REPLACE the Liberals as one of the governing alternatives, just as Labour did to the Liberals in the UK. That's my opinion. And, since that is not going to happen soon, and probably never will happen, the NDP will never form governmnet in this country. And Jack Layton is certainly not running as though he wants to form government. He has already admitted to the reality that the best he can hope for is to be a power broker in a minority government scenario. His policy stances, being primarily anti-capitalist, also suggest he has no desire to replace the Liberals any time soon as a genuine choice for mainstream Canadians. Does this country's Left love Jack Layton? Yes. I just don't think too many other people do. And the NDP doesn't look like it wants to change that any time soon. Maybe continued fringe status will wake them up. Or maybe it will send them into oblivion. I don't know. Government? Who are you kidding?

The fortunes of the BC NDP can hardly be transferred federally. And Gordon Campbell, as I have had the opportunity of finding out lately, is more of a Paul Martin Liberal than anything else. Yes, he has Conservatives within his coalition. But even they seem to be peeved at some of the things going on in the government. Also, last time I checked, the NDP made BC into a have-not province. Now, isn't that a surprise.

Your site is hardly "moderate conservative." Looks pretty anti-conservative to me. Why do you Lefties always have to put some kind of a false face on? The site bashes Bush and you call yourselves "moderate conservative?" I mean, give me a break.

Can you please provide the source for such a claim? What pundits? What did they actually say? Otherwise, I can only speculate that its maplesyrup's version given, whose objectivity may be in question. Fact is, Compas is the only major polling firm that thas attempted to guage the opinion of the membership in this leadership race. That it has disappointed opponents of Stephen Harper is something that has become obvious as a result.

Conrad Winn, in his last Compas poll which had Harper at 59%, said he accounted for this factor by including at least 4 members in each riding in the sample. Furthermore, Harper beat both Stronach and Clement in selling new memberships, another indicator of relevant strength. And, even furthermore, Winn said he was surprised at the scope and strenght of Harper's strength nationwide. He was leading in Ontario, and was also considered a strong 2nd choice among members. And, yet even furthermore, the candidates probably have a good idea of what's happening on the ground, given the rules of the leadership contest. And Harper is not campaigning like a man who has anything to worry about. Most of the analyses of this race have Harper well ahead, even with the PC points system being used this time around. I do think it is a tricky system to get a read on what's happening with regard to support. But most attempts have Harper ahead. And the candidates themselves seem to be acknowledging this with their campaign strategies.

I didn't make the comparison.

In case you didn't notice, he was elected twice as the chief executive of the second largest state in America, an proved himself in a fierce contest against a diverse opposition in the primaries, before engaging in a long election battle against Al Gore, where he won all three debates against the 'superior' intellect. You want to compare Bush's and Belinda's pre-leadership campaign credentials? By all means. Bush had credentials to run for office. Belinda has a website and a karoake machine.

She skips the debates because she has no clue. And this person is supposed to take on the current Liberal government? I mean, when is this joke going to finally end? Funny how the faux Belinda supporters (many of whom won't vote Tory and aren't Tories anyhow) spend more time and energy attacking Harper rather than telling the rest of us what business she has wanting to become PM in the first place?

1)Yes, this point was already made. And the reply is that Belinda doesn't have a clue as to how to run an election in the first place. IF the choice is between track record which I think is misleading), and competence, I'll take the former. 2) Since when are bi-elections an indication of general election success? a) If that were the case, Mario Dumont would no be premier of Quebec. How did the PCs do in this time? Win 1? Woooooooo! c) I think the Conservative Party is now in a much better position to win by-elections that either the Alliance or the PC Party. This fact is conveniently neglected when discussing Harper's accomplishments, who is the founder of this party. 3) You know you're on shaky ground when you're an NDPer commenting on the qualification of Tory leadershp candidates. If that person says Belinda (for God knows what reason), then you know something is terribly amiss. PS. If people are going to keep referring to the bi-elections, it would be nice if someone posted ALL the results, that way we'd know what the reference really is. Besides. according to you Lefties, you would think these bi-elections were to be treated as they were mythical legends of electoras success and victory.

Does Belinda even know what a by-election is?

I have a pretty good idea of what you want it to be, which is nothing in comparison to the fact that Belinda has no business running for high office in this country at this time. Before attacking Harper in this regard, I suggest you provide us with even an inkling of how Belinda can be taken seriously by Canadian voters. Good thing it looks like she's going to lose big-time anyway. Save the Conservatives the potential for embarrassment which would make Kim Campbell and Stockwell Day look lie old pros.

This stuff coming from maplesyrup is so laughable. Belinda has no clue what she's doing, can't even debate the issues, and Harper's the one who will be the target in the next election? Shouldn't Belinda's qualifications for the job be scrutinized a whole lot more before she and her supporters start pointing their fingers at Harper? I mean, isn't Belinda busy doing karaoke and holding house parties? (Yes, she's campaigning on that kind of stuff. Look it up. )

Yes, the NDP is just a juggernaut the Conservatives should be shaking over. The numbers for the NDP have stalled nationally. Despite scandal, they're no higher than about 17% in most of the polls. And, if you want to go by current polls, the Conservatives are at over 30% in Atlantic Canada, well ahead of the NDP. The same goes for Ontario. So I don't know where the pickups you mentioned come from for the NDP, especially in Atlantic Canada. Furthermore, the Conservatives are clearly being established as the alternative government-in-waiting, which they they always were before the split. This most likely will mean that those who want the Liberals out will go Conservative, not NDP, especially since the latter is running as a hard-Left option. They don't have a leader, they don't have a platform, they don't yet have a track-record, yet they poll at almost 30% nationally. My guess these numbers can only get better. Kanada Dry is right. Numbers for the Alliance always dipped between elections, for a number of reasons. This may well be happening in regions such as BC and the prairies. For some reaon, I just have a hard time believing Layton will pick up large numbers of seats in any of those regions. But, of course, that not an unbiased assessment.

How do the polling numbers suggest they will lose seats? They suggest they're on the verge of some kind of breakthrough in Ontario, they'll at least hold on to their current seats in the West, and maybe even in the Atlantic. If that happens, that's upwards of 120 seats or so. (70 in West, 30 in Ontario, 20 in Atlantic). If anything, with all this hype surrounding a Layton surge for the NDP, they may well pick up in the general polling numbers yet lose out on seat pick-ups, just as the PCs often did, since the support for both those parties tends to lack regionalization. For example, Bloc support is at about 8% nationwide but they could get up to 50 seats or so. So, I don't know where BigGunner's confusion lies. I hope this helps him out in some way.