Bryan

I think they SHOULD sell the CBC, but they won't. That is just a list of the government's major assets, that could fetch some coin IF sold.

KingIggy, Can you actually name a policy that Harper has enacted that makes him "extreme right"?

That fact that the Liberals had to get their token MP of colour, Marlene Jennings, to go around to the media and EXPLAIN to them how it is that the term (commonly used in the media) is racist, is all the proof you need that the Liberals are just making faking their indignation, like usual.

It was good advice, and absolutely the right approach people SHOULD take, it was just bad optics during an election campaign. That's the main reason Harper doesn't get majorities, he's soley concerned with doing the correct thing, and not concerned about how it looks. I'll take that over Iggy's "politics is just theatre" approach. I know that over the top charisma act worked very well for people like Trudeau and Mulroney, but it lacks substance. The unfortunate side effect is with no majority, Harper can't stick to the plan, and has to compromise all over the place anyway. Politics is a bitch.

I doubt that he has, at least not in that way. I've seen a few interviews where the interviewer actually asked Harper if he wanted to start again, or rephrase something. During the "good buys in the market" interview, Mansbridge asked him twice, "are you sure you want to be on the record saying that?" It seems like he just likes to keep the interview moving.

A far right Conservative in Canada is still to the left of most Democrats.

Damn!!! I bet there's video out there of him doing just that....

Did they do anything that was not normal convention during a federal campaign? A few thousand dollars in expense reimbursement requests were disallowed, that's it. Even the actual total spending limit was not breached, the disagreement was whether ads that ran locally should count as local ads. How did Elections Canada even know about it? The Conservatives submitted the documents! It's funny how, when the Conservatives proposed that all parties just submit all of their campaign records to keep everything above board, the Liberals were actually OPPOSED to that? Now why do you figure they want to see everything the CPC does, but won't show their accounting? So far they've been Liberal puppets. They came along on the Elections Canada witch hunt, curiously, with members of the Liberal Party and specific Liberal media in tow. Even you don't believe that. Liberals don't vote with their wallets. Wanting something for nothing is what makes them Liberals. This will come out in the wash. It's not as if the Liberals have not been caught stealing, or doing things like off-the-books corporate no-limit fundraising before. They'll get caught again. These are the same idiots who STILL claim that they had continuous federal surplusses year after year when they were really deep in deficit. Meanwhile, millions of taxpayer dollars that the Liberals stole are still missing: http://www.nanosresearch.com/news/in_the_n...%203%202007.pdf Gee look at that, I was wrong about one thing. I thought it was $24 million, turns out it was $40 million in stolen taxpayers money that the Liberals have still yet to return.

Right. That's why your poll numbers are already receding, and a big crowd so far constitutes 300 people to hear that leader speak.

When Lisa Raitt was on Don Newman the other day, she sure seemed to be saying that divesting of the Chalk River facility (or at least putting it in the hands of third party management) was one of the things they were considering.

He did. More than once.

We most definitely ARE near the end, if not already on our way up from the bottom. Employment is up, retail sales are up, small business startups are WAY up, the markets have had the fastest growth in history in the last two months, consumer confidence is up, oil prices have risen sharply too. Besides, it's those long term employees who essentially lose their entire industry that the EI reforms that the Conservatives have announced are for. If you need to be retrained for another career, you can now collect EI for up to TWO years while undergoing that training instead of the previous one year. That opens up a lot of doors that were simply not available to them before. They also will not have their severance pay counted against their start date if they are using that severance as a re-education expense. To me, that is how such a system should work; help and even reward those who are proving themselves to be genuinely trying to get back into the work force. This is a hell of a lot better proposal (for everyone) than "just give more people more money". Give a man a fish....

I think it's the right thing to do for him to at least publicly admonish them for this, but I really don't think it's within the government's power to impose its will on the CPP. The same separation that keeps them from drawing from CPP money into general revenue (the way the Liberals did with EI), gives CPP a certain amount of autonomy. The govt can't really tell the Bank of Canada what to do either.

Much ado about nothing. It's crystal clear what Poilievre meant. Perhaps the Liberals who are pretending to be upset here need to consult a dictionary. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tar%20baby This term is in common usage, ESPECIALLY in politics (even by Liberals) to reference a sticky situation that you can't get free from. I can just imagine Liberals losing it if they hear the word "niggardly" too. Heck, lets use "niggardly", "nappy", and "tar baby" in the same sentence and watch their heads explode.

There is still at least $24 million unaccounted for. I do not believe for a second that the Liberals retired their debt legitimately. I think they either are lying about not being in debt, or they obtained that money through illicit means.

It's not ideal, but seriously people it's 3% of GDP. That's like me putting an HDTV on my Futureshop card. Trudeau's deficits were three times bigger.

Absolutely great idea, as long as the senate is elected.

1000. In their hotbeds. Excuse me while I roll on the floor with laughter. Lowest deficit in the G7, and a third of the deficit that Trudeau ran. That same Trudeau that Iggy says he wants to emulate? I guess we could balance the budget if we did Paul Martin math. We could just steal $54 billion from EI like he did, and presto, instant surplus. Debt free. Sure. Well, at least now we know where the missing sponsorship money went.

I meant the facility, not the actual river. (As opposed to selling all of AECL, which I'd need to see a lot more info on.

Selling off Crown assets that are not giving the government value was always part of the plan. Chalk River has turned out to be more trouble than it's worth to keep having blow up (pun intended) in the governments faces. At least examining the selling this particular asset is consistent and prudent as far as I can see.

Ignatieff is very afraid. Afraid because the "just visiting" ads reversed The CPC and LPC numbers in the polls so easily, despite being remarkably tame, and completely factual. If something that soft can get results that fast, he knows he's absolutely dead if the Conservatives really do want to attack him. Afraid because he knows full well that he's said a LOT of crazy things in recent times. Anti-Canada things, anti-Quebec things, things that are often all over the map. Afraid because he's said so many things that he doesn't even remember from one week to the next what positions he's taken. He doesn't even know what's out there in his own voice, and that terrifies him. Afraid because even in Quebec where Harper's polling numbers are dismal at best, he still can out draw and out fundraise compared to what Ignatieff can do under even the most favourable conditions. Harper got more support for a speech in Montreal than Ignatieff got at the Liberal national convention. Last week's rallies? 2300 for Harper, 300 for Ignatieff. Afraid because he knows that as bad as Dion's plan was, at least he HAD one. Ignatieff's only strategy was to let the Conservatives wear the recession, then reap the benefits of negative press. He sees those green shoots in the economy. He sees that the markets have had the fastest gains in history in the last two months. He sees report after report from around the world where everyone is marveling at the amazing job Canada is doing during this recession compared to everyone else, and they are looking to emulate us. Afraid because he knows that the Conservatives can afford to go to (and win) as many elections as it takes to make him go away, while he could not afford an election for at least another year.

So what, does Dion want ANOTHER do-over? :lol:

No promise was broken on fixed election dates.

Wow. A couple days of targeted ads, and right back in the lead.

The problem for Ignatieff is he's making attacking the Liberal record front and centre. His demands on EI reform conveniently leave out the fact that it was the Liberals who enacted the EI system we have, and that they did so when unemployment was much higher than it is now, and that they used the money from EI as a slush fund.