Evening Star

Most of the specific policies she mentions are part of the CPC's published platform: corporate tax cuts, fighter jet purchases, an omnibus crime bill, super-jails, changes to political party financing. And some of these policies do seem to bring us more in line with the US. So I do think it's fair to comment on these. (I'm not generally a fan of these policies myself.) I guess the problem is that her vitriol doesn't mainly seem to be related to these policies. She's probably wrong about abortion and about the actual influence of evangelical Christians in the CPC. She does seem to be insinuating changes to health care and refugee policy that she doesn't back up. The way she stereotypes CPC voters is pretty indefensible, really, and the Bush comparison seems a little unfair to me. It would have made more sense, in the context of her other comparisons, to just compare Harper to someone like David Cameron - and I'm not even sure that Harper is as harsh as Cameron is - but she wanted to pick someone who is generally regarded as a failure.

Is there something I don't know about Dosanjh? He generally struck me as quite respectable, accomplished, and articulate (although I think I disagree with him on bulk drug purchasing).

Cite?

The school is consistently ranked very highly internationally, if maybe not quite on par with Harvard: Only #35 in the 2010-11 Times Higher Education Rankings http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2010-2011/top-200.html but top 20 in 2008 and 2009: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/hybrid.asp?typeCode=438 I do generally agree with you, especially considering how dismal the youth turnout is (and how poorly the old men in the Liberal Party have performed...)

Seems unlikely to me that lobbyists are going to target Opposition backbenchers all that hard...

Yeah, labour (even Labour) parties have successfully formed governments in many countries. (I will admit to being a little concerned about how McGill undergrads will juggle their coursework with being in Ottawa for important votes...)

I'm a little more optimistic than some people about the NDP's QC caucus. There are some strong union people there and I always wished that the NDP could somehow build connections with QC's labour movement and arts and academic communities. This always seemed to me to be the route to top-tier national success for the party.

That piece is incredibly honest. Is that the first time a prominent party member has admitted right after a campaign that his party never even really believed in their platform?

Did they join the Liberals or something? Where did they go?

The one advantage the NDP has over Mulroney imo is that they could actually make the convincing case that Quebec's social democratic, pro-union culture is in line with the NDP's broader vision for the country. IIRC, Mulroney just promised to decentralize the country.

People like Baird and Flaherty did have experience from ON. Day had experience from AB.

Urban voters could conceivably turn back to the LPC or CPC. It's quite possible they won't as well.

I think the distinction might be prominent in Quebec, where much of the newfound NDP support is concentrated. -- It's not that Canada deserves credit for this. It's that fighting in Afghanistan at all could seem less thoroughly futile to some people.

Think Bin Laden's death could possibly make any difference to the election?

http://www.ekospolitics.com/index.php/2011/05/hold-on-to-your-hats-campaign-41-drawing-to-a-heart-stopping-conclusion-may-1-2011/ 2.8% between CPC and NDP

I think he meant that the licence was NOT revoked but was simply not renewed.

Cybercoma, I can't even tell which level of irony you're operating on anymore...

Yeah, that was the part I didn't know about, whether the surge had already petered out by the time of the polls in the last week of the campaign. (I was 9 at the time.)

Fwiw, a quick Google search on "velvet touch massage" does reveal a number of 'exotic massage' places but also some that seem completely legitimate (not that I'm an expert): http://velvetouchmassage.com/ http://sites.google.com/site/vtmtherapy/home/info and even an equine massage place: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Velvet-Touch-Equine-Massage/189524391068609

I meant the '88 campaign in Canada, when there was also supposed to be a strong NDP surge at one point (that seems to have petered out by the end of the campaign, according to recent posts).

I've been wondering that myself. What were the numbers like in the last week of the '88 campaign? Anyone know?

If that red light/green light thing is for real, that does sound pretty blatantly sketchy, admittedly.

I don't even know what you're talking about here. Do you know how many prominent Liberals are or have been devout Catholics?

http://www.google.ca/search?q=rmt+massage+clinic+toronto&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a

Honestly, from that Street View, the place doesn't look that different from any number of alternative medicine shops in Chinatown in Toronto. The name isn't great but, as AW notes, doesn't seem obviously damning to me either. Like I said, the outward appearance of the place is not at all as obviously skeezy to me as some of the massage parlours in Windsor or Montreal for that matter. It's believable to me that a legitimate massage clinic could be open later in the evening. (I did a quick search for RMT clinics in Toronto. Most seem to be open until 8. It's possible that a place could decide to stay open a little later than that.) The known facts, many of which are coming from sources who have a vested interest 15 years after the event, could certainly suggest that the place was an illicit operation but do not suggest this convincingly enough for me. (But, as I've said, I'm not that bothered about it even if Layton was being a bit hypocritical about this 15 years ago.) xposts