drewski

I don't believe you're are taking into account the people who more and more aren't voting who I believe to be centrist voters who don't' like what the Liberals have done and for any number of reasons don't want to vote for Harper. Looking at this years vote, the Liberals lost 650k more votes then the Greens & NDP (combined) gained (the Cons lost ~170k). That shows me that the support isn't necessarily shifting to the NDP & Greens as much as the centrist supporters (for the Libs & Cons) just aren't showing up to vote. Also, in the 2006 vote, where the Liberals lost their position as government, the Conservatives gained 2.5x as many votes as the combined Greens & NDP did

legal or illegal (I agree with you though), I think most of us can agree it was still a waste of money

profits are not necessarily an indication of quality. The Big 3 have a lot of legacy cost the Japanese automakers don't. Fiscally they definitely have to restructure, but current product, especially GM has been quite good and if they can get through fiscally, they will be in a good psoition

wishing won't make it so. as the saying goes, time heals all wounds. bad things wil no doubt befall the Conservatives over the years, possibly many or few, while the memory of the Liberals will soften over time, as all things do. that combined with the rebuilding and reinvention that we admittedly must do, as all parties must do every once in a while (ie the Cons in the past decade), means a Liberal run government is both possible and probable at some point within the next decade. Possibly sooner if the economy REALLY tanks under Harper

will Ontario need to re-invent itself, sure, but I don't believe our assembly line life is over. since as you say, the days of cheap energy are over, and shipping costs money, the cost of items from Asia will continue to go up, so while our cost of labour per unit might be higher, the cost to ship from here to the states will be significantly lower. also, the demands on asia to improve quality, safety & environmental policies continues to drive the prices of their goods up. finally, our engineering is still considered quite good, and even asia continues to come to us for engineering solutions, especially for the manufacturing sector

it could be rightfully argued Montreal isn't the only one that see's the economic gain. The feds see a share through taxes collected through the GST, gas tax, etc

simple, I don't believe McKenna would come back for anything less then the party leadership. and again, with Rae I believe there is the issue of electabilty in Ontario and across Canada

listen to some of Frank McKenna's speeches. He's got TONS of charisma. I disagree. the Liberal Party HAD good fiscal credentials, but thats eroded away in the public's view. Just look at how the public took the idea of the Green Shift. People don't remember the budget balancing days, they remember spending billions here and there to buy votes. Harper will nail Rae's fiscal ass to the ground by spinning stories of Rae's free-spending NDP way when he was Premier. McKenna on the other hand has the proven fiscal prowess Canada needs

and where did I spout any opinion on the US democratic process? EDIT: let me clarify though, I didn't meaning integration like a US style or the style William Ashely meant. I should clarify I simply meant that the parties should be integrated, ie made up of MP's from across the country

The concept of the Liberal's being dead forever is merely a pipe dream. Back in the 90's people were said the right wing was dead because they were split. Politcis is like a pendulum. In the 80's it swung the Tories way, the 90's it went to the Liberals, now its swinging back to the Cons and in a few years, it will swing back to the Libs

yes, they should be integrated at the federal level, but I believe that regional parties would simply cause a breakdown and eventually separation instead. Every region has its own set of priorities, regional based parties would simply bicker amongst themselves, not caring about the rest of the country, leaving nothing done. eventually, everybody would just say screw this and leave

I read about this guy and his map in Ghost Plane. IIRC, it was one of those tourist maps with cartoon like drawings of government buildings

don't know if supporters will listen, or either candidate will keep to it, but Rae and Ignatieff agreed to keep it "civil" this time http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/521406

o really? cause last I checked we pay more ot the feds then we get back so before oil hit ~$40/barrel, which is about where extracting oil from the oil sands becomes economically worthwhile for companies, our economy was much worse off? I contend the opposite, at least for the provinces that export to the US. The oilsands helped keep the the value of the dollar where it was, which hurt exporting provinces when the value of the USD fell so dramatically last year.

that didn't stop Dion LOL

agreed totally I had to wait in a line for maybe 10min because I had recently moved and wasn't on the list for my new riding. with a few people ahead of me having to fill out forms, it still didn't take very long

sorry, but those are simply lame excuses to go along with ID that doesn't have an address (ie SIN card, birth cert or even a student ID card) that you don't need to change when you move

I'm going off what I remember reading in the past. if you've got any links to help me become more update I'd love to read them. but I still think his rightfully or wrongfully earned bagged from his days as premier will cause a lot of problems for the Liberals in Ontario, problems they don't need right now

he is very smart and well spoken, but these are the reasons I don't think he'd make a good or widely electable party leader a)he'd keep the party where it is or move it left, which I believe is the wrong direction for the party. It needs to go closer to centre, as evidenced by the bleed off of centrist voters to the Conservatives. b)his past as premier would be one nail in the Liberal's coffin in Ontario. All Harper has to do is mention "Rae Days" and there go a lot of support

I don't think simple ties to the Bush's or Martin/Chretien should mean non-support for leadership candidates. We need to look beyond those ties, to actions. For example, McKenna while having ties to the Bush family, opposed the Iraq war and supported same-sex marriage. As for his ties to Martin/Chretien, he was an ambassador, he wasn't involved in domestic government decisions, which is where the problems with M/C came from. I also think you might be missing some the strong points McKenna bring to the table that we need in these rough times, namely diplomatic foreign experience and very importantly, a strong economic background and experience running a government and balancing budgets. That is all experience that Iggy doesn't have. He might one day, but for now, he's still a relative outsider to the Canadian political system and to Canada as a whole (something Harper would no doubt remind us of time and time again). Now some might say that is good, and sometimes it is, but as I said, in these rough times, we don't need radical change, we need an experienced hand to help guide us through. For now I think that Iggy's outside views and academic experience would be best utilized supporting the party from inside cabinet, no running the show

McKenna believes in the power of the charter of rights and respecting the rights of all. This is shown by this quote from an interview he did as ambassador. It refers specifically to the respecting of the rights of same-sex couple under the Charters while not infringing upon the rights of the the others (ie the Chruch). http://geo.international.gc.ca/can-am/wash...r/050628-en.asp

I was thinking the same thing. cadman & the election funding come to mind quickly frankly politicians of all parties can be corrupt. The Liberals are far from having control over this.

ya it would, but Harper didn't do that. His government bought already insured (ie. we'd lose the money if the banks kept the mortgages and they were defaulted on), non high risk mortgages. The chances of us losing any more money on these then we would have if we hadn't is the same as us having to ever call Jack Layton, the Right Honourable, ie non-existant.

delete - double post

I never called out Harper on this specifically. I was speaking about the contingent of Conservative party members (mainly ex-Reform members) who are anti-choice