Bryan

Reform won 52 seats in their second election, and were the official opposition by their third. The Greens have yet to elect a single member in seven elections. Big difference. Hopefully, one good thing that might come of this is a codified set of rules for participation.

My income taxes have gone down noticeably. So did my wife's, my parents, and my in-laws. In my father-in-law's case, it was the first time in 20 years that he actually got a refund instead of paying.

Not only that, but the situation changed such that the government had no choice but to close it, even if they didn't want to. It was not a lie at all, rather a different decision based on different circumstances. When it comes right down to it, that's the kind of government I want. Someone who won't just stick to party-line dogma, but will treat each situation on it's own merits.

Harper for me as well. I also got faked out by some of the other candidates. May's quote on abortion, Dion's on private health care, and Layton's on climate change initiatives were all more right wing than Harper!!

They only run in one province. Even if they won every seat they contested, forming a government is a mathematical impossibility. They are a fringe party.

CBC has even used Harper for commentary during the playoffs. He's the only Prime Minister I've ever seen who actually knows what he's talking about when it comes to hockey. Remember whenever they tried to talk to Martin about hockey? AWKWARD!!!!

She'd have plenty of rights, just not the right to kill her child. Nor should she.

Sure, his whole speech is taken straight from Obama's notes: "We need Change!", "You Have To Believe!", "Change You Can Believe In!", "Do You Believe In Change?", "Kill Whitey!"

Especially federal court justices, that's where bad decisions make the most damage. I don't think party affiliation should even be part of that process.

They haven't cancelled anything. The investigation is still ongoing. Deadline for submissions is September 24, hearings begin October 3.

The past system produced a lot of judges with really poor senses of judgement. Personally, I'd much prefer to see them elected. The way it is now, there's no accountability for their actions.

The idea is sound, it just needs a deadline. Tell the committee they can make the selection, but it must be done by a certain date and time, otherwise they'll take who he picks.

Harper's inroads into Quebec are probably the biggest reason the Liberals are thinking "oh shit" right now. I'm thinking that never in their wildest nightmares did any hard core Liberals ever think that would even be possible. Even I never thought CPC support in PQ would ever rise to these levels. Even with the Bloc, and ahead of the Liberals? That's some sort of dream world.

He didn't break a promise. He put the process in place for the opposition to be involved, and they deliberately sabotaged the process, so he's just giving them a kick in the butt to get it done. If I tell you that I'll give you $20 to mow my lawn, and a week later you still haven't done it (so I just do it myself), don't come back to me and say I broke my promise to you. Not only does the opposition have no leg to stand on to complain, this could easily be held up as an example of the disfunction that necessitated the dissolution of parliament.

Carbon is not being added to the system though, it's just being redistributed. Ground, oil, air, oceans, plants, trees, etc, it's just moving from one place to another.

And Harper has said essentially the same thing. In his One On One interview with Peter Mansbridge, he said that the inquiry will run on its own. He said he's well aware that he's not objective and won't be seen as such, so he's staying out of it.

I don't know if you noticed, but our economy is very closely tied to the US. They, and much of the rest of the world, have been in deep economic yogurt for a few years now. Meanwhile, for the last couple of years our economy has been white hot. It's only just now that the US economic situation is starting to have a negative effect, and even there, it's mostly just a slow down in the increase rather than an actual retraction. Just the increase in the value of the dollar alone should have crushed us, and yet for the longest time it was just the opposite. For us to have fared so well compared to the US for the last two years shows that the country has been run incredibly well. Try looking at the country as a whole aside from the decisions of American owned manufacturers (who we have no control over), and the bad management of Provincial Governments (especially Ontario). It's staggering how well we've been doing compared to other countries.

I could only dream of such a utopia.

Sierra Club supporting Elizabeth May (their former executive director) is the political equivalent to a parent supporting their child. It's unconditional, expected, and essentially meaningless.

So much for reading comprehension. Perhaps you missed this part of the article: "the appointment will not be made until Cromwell faces an ad hoc all-party committee of the House of Commons." He's just making his choice known. The key word here is NOMINATED, not appointed. The committee will be free to decline the nomination. They won't likely decline it, just as the GG won't likely decline the PMs requests for dissolution of parliament, but the committee still has the option to defer to the others on the list.

I hope you are right about that, but I really fear it will never happen. Harper is just nowhere near as socially conservative as that. If anything, he's gone out of his way to alienate the social right in this country. I know I'd support it. That would push me from just saying I support the CPC, to to actually funding the party and actively campaigning for them.

Flanagan is a really smart strategist, I wish he was more involved with the CPC than he has been. Problem is, Harper is not really following Flannagan's model very closely anymore. Flannagan was much closer to the Reform ideals that what Harper is doing. If Harper really was anywhere as close to the Calgary school as people claim, I'd be much happier with the Conservatives than I am now. If there was one thing I EXPECTED from Harper when I voted for him, was that the Fraser Institute would be more closely represented in parliament, especially with regards to fiscal policy. Election strategy, yes Harper is listening. But I don't think Flanagan (or any Fraser fellow) would ever have recommended Flaherty as finance minister for instance. And if people are worried because he's born in the US, they should really be running from the Greens.... Elizabeth May was born in the US too.

The Conservative candidate in St. Boniface has had a few campaign signs up for several months already. I don't have a problem with it.

The investigation is ongoing. They are still actively gathering witnesses. There have been regular calls for people who have any information to come forward. There was full pager in the paper this week even. The biggest delay is lack of evidence. There are a lot of allegations, but actual proof has so far been really hard to come by. Deadline for submissions to the inquiry is the end of this month.

All parties have problems. The serious problem with politics is no matter how you slice it, you have to vote for the least bad choice, because there never will be a good one from anyone's perspective. In order to be capable of getting enough votes to form a government, you cannot stick to any one set of principles. Compromises have to be made, and some of those compromises are invariably going to be seen as unethical to somebody. Has Harper lived up to the promise of what new Conservativism was supposed to be? Not even close. There are a lot of things that were the reasons I supported the movement that have been left by the wayside. The thing is, despite all of his problems, he's STILL been the best Prime Minister this country has had in my lifetime. He's not a great choice, but compared to the other options, he's spectacular.