Bryan

See now that is a good point. It's the very first rational argument against an elected senate I've ever heard.

"Oh?" what? Nothing in that post says what you claim it does.

Yes, I'm very much aware of sec 26. I'm also aware that people like you and toad and bambino were trying to claim at the time that the PM still needed consent of the provinces, and that the Queen would never grant such a request for something so minor anyway. The Mackenzie situation was often quoted by such people as proof that the PM is beholden to the crown, and that the senate expansion was a non-starter. The monarchy is literally ceremonial. The PM does not need to open the constitution to compel the GG to do anything, All he has to do is giver her the "advice".

I never said anything of the kind.

Toadbrother, you're still hung up on the misconception that the GG's power is anything more than just ceremonial. It's preventing you from thinking outside the box. If Mulroney had you as his advisor, he'd never have been able to get his 8 more senators just for a simple sales tax bill.

Harper did fine in the debate. The results of this poll reflect exactly what August was saying in another thread: How well you speak Quebecois french is more important than what you said.

I cannot emphasize enough that you're completely misinformed on this discussion. Plans that involve the constitution are far down the list. A constitutional amendment is simply not necessary to elect a senator. It's possible they might go that route, but it's not necessary. There are other ways to go around it.

You don't know what you're talking about. No amendment to the constitution is required to have the provinces elect their senator selections.

No it doesn't.

No it doesn't.

Senate reform is still very much a priority for the CPC. I know the MP who has been working on it, and it's still a front burner issue. The provinces, so far, have not been responsive, and with a minority, the Conservatives have not been able to get a lot what they've proposed through. The Constitution fear mongering is a red herring. Once the federal bill is passed, the next step is just meeting with the premiers. It's obviously not a simple matter, it's going to take a lot of time and a lot of work, but there's no reason it should become anything of a crisis.

August, You don't think that Ignatieff stepped on his dick with his remarks about sovereignty being an old issue, and Quebeckers needed to get with 2011? That whole exchange seemed really badly handled to me, but I don't live in Quebec, and my French is awfull, so I could easily be reading more into it.

The reasons listed are sound, there are just other factors in other regions. Example: French and Catholic skew heavily Liberal. Not just in Quebec, but also in N.B and Manitoba. It throws things off in weird ways when different combinations of the trends are adjacent to one another. St. Boniface used to be able to count on the Liberal vote no matter what. OLD St. B (French Catholic) still does, but there are so many more English speaking non-catholics who now live in and around the area, that as soon as the Conservatives ran a strong candidate here, the Liberal brand got decimated. When you look at the 2008 results, it shows that the parts of St. B that are still identified as French Catholic still voted Liberal, there just are nearly enough of them anymore.

I don't want to belittle Morris' situation by arguing semantics. You know what I meant.

This one's been a cluster-f**ck compared to the english one. Those moderators are horrible.

Ignatieff keeps walking into blindsides. It's almost as if he hasn't even been around here for the last 30 some years to see how the Quebec/English Canada relationship has gone. Oh wait... never mind.

Now Duception says Quebec has been SHORT CHANGED on federal transfers? Has this guy ever seen a lie he doesn't like? Also, that's several times now that they've referred to this as the QUEBEC debate, not the french one. Two official languages, two debates, that makes sense. But, if this is specifically a regional issue, then there should be more than one english one.

Good god. Duceppe just claimed that prisons cause the crime rates to increase.

Leave it to the NDP to confuse provincial matters with federal ones. Or to get their parties mixed up.

This chart is surreal... http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/archive/01264/web-nanos-quebe_1264845cl-6.jpg Harper is polling ahead of Duceppe in Quebec? Ignatieff is fourth?

I didn't say Harper himself was anti-American. Besides, the inspiration he speaks of is their conservative movement standing up to creeping socialism, nothing about joining the US.

You don't think it's easier for a president? Maybe not easier, but simpler at least; He's only got to sell himself, not 308 other members.

308.com is a blank placeholder. I assume you mean http://threehundredeight.blogspot.com/ ? I agree here. There's no trend, just one surprising result. Interesting really only because it's so different.

Conservatives support not-for-profit healthcare, and that's supposed to be a scandal?

You think that's bad? A couple of weeks ago, my father-in-law asked me "what is this internet I keep reading about in the paper?". He was very serious. I tried to explain it to him, and his eyes just glassed over, the whole concept had no meaning to him. Even when I sat him down to my computer to show him, he just thought it was some sort of video game, and dismissed it as irrelevant. In his defence, he is 86, but it still...