Bryan

Not even close. He claimed to have problems picking single voices out of a crowd, and very specifically stated that it did not affect him in one on one conversation. Besides that, he provided no verification of an official diagnosis of any recognized hearing disability for the problem he did claim to have. That actually might explain his record as opposition in the House. Maybe he supported the Conservatives so often because he didn't understand the questions, what with everyone yelling over each other so much.

I think the interviewer and Dion both showed serious comprehension issues. Dion had no idea what was being asked of him, and the interviewer had no idea what Dion was trying to ask in an attempt to clarify the question. There's no chance whatsoever this had anything to do with hearing, Dion did not understand the context. That is a serious issue for a leader, because international negotiations and debating in the house all require you to understand what people are saying when they say it. That having been said, I think both sides' explanations/attacks just appeal to their bases, and seriously doubt either will change the numbers. I do think that if Dion is going to claim hearing loss as his standard out, he better man up with an official prior diagnosis. Otherwise it really does come across as making excuses in advance for every time he doesn't know what's going on in the future.

That is odd. Not sure it means anything either though. My pencil always hovers over one of the fringe parties before I mark my real vote. Never having been given the option, I never would have named this fringe party as my choice, but even when it was there, I still didn't vote for them even if I did think about it for a second. As much as Nanos is usually my "go to" , their samples are smaller, their margin of error larger, and their recent numbers a little hard to believe. I'm begining to wonder if in past elections that they might have been leading public opinion rather than reflecting it.

The scary thing is, most people don't understand anything about the economy either, so Dion's insane ramblings seem just as reasonable to them as anything else.

Political spin is one thing, but the bold faced lies by the Liberals and NDP are getting out of hand. How is it that you can say things in a political campaign that would otherwise get you charged with slander?

No, it's worse,because the Conservative "attacks" were accurate, and the left attacks are complete fabrications. They are arguing against a strawman instead of what Harper has actually done. The Conservative record on finances is far better than the Liberals. Reduced taxes, increased debt repayment, restored funding to services the liberals cut like healthcare, and yet are still running a substantial surplus.

The new tax deductions for children under 18 far exceed what you'd otherwise pay on the UCCB anyway. No matter how you slice it, you're still more than $1200 per child to the plus. I don't see how anyone can complain.

Bullshit. A huge surplus means they were either not paying their bills or they were taking too much of your own money in taxes. In the case of the Liberals, it was both. The Conservatives got left with the Liberal's mess. They had to restore funding that the Liberals cut like the $25 billion for healthcare or the $14 billion in other transfer payments to the provinces. In addition to paying the bills the Liberals left behind, the Conservatives also paid nearly $40 billion off of the national debt (that alone will save us over $2 billion a year in interest), and gave us back a substantial amount of our own money in tax cuts. On top of all that, they are STILL running a surplus. Nearly $10 billion surplus last fiscal year, and already and accumulated $2.9 billion surplus for the first quarter of this fiscal year.

I disagree. Abandoning the attack is a big reason why he's slipping in the polls. People are stupid, they don't understand basic policy. The over the top attacks they understand. Dion and Layton's recent ads have been crazy over the top attacks, far worse than anything Harper ever did. And they're working. Harper definitely should come right out and call Dion a liar and a hypocrite. He should especially make special focus on the finances of the Liberal Party and make the connection that he can't even manage those finances, so we better not trust him to manage the country's.

One of the best ever.

Where is the evidence for this "energy"? How do you measure it? How many units of this energy do you need to achieve this transformation?

From the interviews I've seen/heard with Tom Flanagan, Harper very specifically does not want a majority yet. Being "just barely" in power keeps the Liberals thinking they are close to beating him. Like a gambling addict, they will just keep chasing the win while actually getting deeper in the hole. Makes them closer and closer to permanent defeat. If Harper gets a clear majority, then the Liberals will have time to pull back and regroup, and take four years to get back on their feet.

The reason they need ID, is there have been problems with people voting more than once, using the no ID thing as a way to get around "proving" who they are. In a recent municipal election here in Winnipeg, one of the candidates was accused of renting a bus, driving around and picking up homeless people, feeding them, and driving them from poll to poll to vote for him over and over again. Allegations were not proven as far as I know, but what made it stick out was that the laws were just lax enough that you COULD do that if you were so inclined. So, providing ID is now required. And it should be. Question is, how do they issue such ID to homeless people in such a way that it differentiates WHICH John Smith this is (if you can't use simple things like their address or phone number)? I don't have an answer for that.

Carolyn Bennett?? I'll be shocked if this turns out to be anything other than her doing the vandalism herself as an attempt to smear the CPC.

Corporations and unions always supported all the parties. Liberals always had far more corporate support, NDP always had far more union support, the various conservative options always had more individual support. New rules essentially eliminate corporate and union donations, and limit individual donations. The result is, the number of supporters who believe in your message enough to give money is now critical, because no one donation can make up the slack.

What are you talking about? It's been publicly posted on the Conservative website since 2005: http://www.conservative.ca/EN/4684/

This is a very good representation of Harpers plan. It always makes me wonder just how dumb the left really is when their leaders made up a ridiculous boogeyman that has nothing to do with what Harper is doing at all, and then make all their judgements against that fictional representation.

No matter which side of that issue you support, that's probably still true.

No, no. It's not the rural vote I'm looking at (although, it is strong). It's FARMERS specifically. You know, the guys who the CWB thing most affects?

Really? I thought Steve Paikin did a really good job. Better than any other moderator I've seen for these things. He's one of the Canadian broadcast industry's best untapped gems, IMO. You ever watch/listen to The Agenda? We don't get TVO in Manitoba, so I listen to the podcast. He's always really fair to give everyone a chance to talk, and really good at stopping people from talking over each other. I've never seen him present a bias no matter the topic. The format just didn't allow for enough time for Harper to respond fully. That's not Paikin's fault. There were just too many people at the table.

I have to admit this poll is making me smile: http://www.ipsos-na.com/news/pressrelease.cfm?id=4096 Conservative 59% Liberal 17% NDP 10% Bloc 3% Green 7%

I just can't see it. Do you think the recent Bloc swing in Quebec will swing back to CPC again? That's a lot of seats that just don't look to be available anymore.

Actually, he did. He wrote it in 1996, calling it at the time the Quebec Contingency Act. The Liberals made some changes to it and reintroduced it as the Clarity Act.

I don't think he wants a majority. I wouldn't want one if I was him. Much easier to wipe out the Liberal Party permanently if he puts them in a position of having no choice but to force another election right away that they cannot afford, especially if they are in the middle of a leadership crisis.

I wasn't quite convinced that he won either. He was far too humble, and did not take the opposition to task nearly enough for their lying and gross exaggerations of his policies and governance. He was clearly holding back. I almost wonder if he was intentionally letting Layton win just to further fragment the left-wing vote. Considering we're the only country in the G8 that is running a surplus, and that our unemployment is at a 30 year low, I'd say that's a good thing. The Liberals cut $25 billion from healthcare when they were in. Only 2.5 yrs in, the Conservatives had already restored $23 Billion of it. Now this just makes me laugh. The hypocrisy of the left on the issue of investing in corporations is astounding. On one hand, we have sunset industries that are always needing to be propped up just to avoid layoffs, and when you do give them money, they take it and turn around and announce that the plant is closing anyway. When those jobs are lost, this is supposedly the government's fault for not just shoveling more good money after bad. On the other hand, we have industries that are booming. They are expanding so fast, they can barely find enough workers. And these jobs pay incredibly well. The government gives these companies some business tax incentives to encourage them to keep doing what they're doing, and the result is an even greater increase in jobs, and an even greater increase in the wages. That somehow gets painted as lining the evil corporation's pockets at our expense. You've got to make up your freaking mind. The left keeps screaming "job creation, job creation"; Dude, this IS job creation. It's basic math. When more new jobs start than those that are lost, you have MORE jobs, not less. Even bigger bonus is these jobs even pay more than the old ones.