fellowtraveller

That will be a big problem, since it is pretty obvious that Ignatieff cannot possibly become PM without the help of both Layton and Duceppe.

Being an astute observer, you may have noticed that the Loyal Opposition outnumbers the government in the House of Commons, and has done so for the last five years. They can pass nearly any nearly motion they wish and defeat the government. There is no need at all to introduce any sort of factual base to the discussion or to the motion that they use to defeat the govt and send us to a pointless election. No doubt you'll blame the media and the stupidity of Canadians when they return a majority government not to your liking.

Utterly delusional bullshit.Every partner in the coalition or cooperative will have a price for being there and the Bloc will be no different. The Liberal price will include having 77 seats or less and Igantieff as PM. The NDP price will be Cabinet seats, pet legislation and a chance to be relevant for the very first time. The Bloc price will be even more favourable treatment for Quebec, lots and lots and lots of money for Quebec, and a bully pulpit to close the deal on the division of Canada. The difference bewteen previous coaltions and this one is that this one includes a separatist party sharing power. It is Alice in Wonderland stuff, and the Canadian people outside Quebec won't tolerate it. If you think people were angry with the 2008 coaltion(recall the uproar? recall Dion abandoning ship at his partys request?). It will be nothing compared to what might happen on May 3, if and when the Tories are relected with 140+ seats and won't be allowed to form a govt.......

I do not agree with August1991 often, but I do here. It's a problem right now, he cannot speak of a post election coalition without admitting he is planning on defeat. He cannot unequivocaly deny he'll not enter a coaltion because OF COURSE he will have to eneter into one if ther is a minority Tory govt. Calling it an informal agreement with the Bloc wil be recognized by Canadians as being an outright fraud. If he does it, he could be sounding the deathknell of the Liberals as a federal party. No matter how you cut the cheese or blow smoke up our colective asses, the Bloc is a party committed to the separation of Quebec/division of Canada and Ignatieff/ Liberal Party won't be forgiven. It is one thing to cosy up for the odd snuggle with the Bloc in the Commons, quite another to share power at the highest levels.

That would go on a list of Tory crimes against humanity, which I am sure you'd like to post. But no, Iggy was listing Liberal accomplishments and Adscam is certainly one of them.

Question: if there is a Tory minority, and Igatieff goes to the Governor General with a sort-of-but-not-really a coalition, a "we'll just try to get along as buddies with nothing signed", will the GG agree that this is in the best interests of Canadians, or will he want a substantive and public show of solidarity between the NDP, Libs and Bloc? In 2008, he had that from the three amigos. Is that a reasonable precurdor to being allowed to form a govt? Prediction: the first major battle between Duceppe and Ignatieff will be a fight over cameras being present when Iggy and Gilles become formal partners in a coalition. It will just the first of many tiffs lost by Ignatieff. The Coalition is like Christmas every day for Ducppe , he cannot help but be a winner no matter what. But the risks for Iggy.... he really is risking the survival of the Liberal Party with a Coalition with Duceppe.

He seems to have overlooked Adscam.

The lifespan of the Coalition- which is absolutely inevitable should Harper come up even a seat short of a majority- will be determined by the Bloc. Every vote to support Iggy and The Stooges in the Commons will have a price paid to Quebec. Sooner or later that price will be so utterly obscene that even the power junkies like Iggy and Jack will wobble, and we'll have another election. In the meantime, we will all pay the price. Literally. And it will not be cheap.

By Old Canada, did you mean 13 years of Chretien goosestepping through the Commons?

It won't matter if Ignatieff loses and Haprper gains a majority. If that happens, he will quit the next day, he won't be given the choice. If the Tories get a minority, Iggy will be PM and of course remain leader. Do or die for Mikey.

Sure he can. That was then and this is now. Even more important, there are no pictures of him posing with shiteating grins like Duceppe, Layton and Dion did in 2008. Layton has already made a big mistake by assuring us he will be part of a coalition that must contain Ducppe to add up to a government, and it is compounded by Igantieff failig to vehemently deny that he will ever form one. He could get away with a 180 degree course change on May 3, but Ignatieff has to say no-no-no now and for the next few weeks or he is DOA.

Your condescension is repugnant. In fact, Canadians are quite aware of the choices available to them, which is more or less limited to voting for the candidate of their choice when somebody in Ottawa- in this case Jack, Mike and Gilles- tells them when they'll be allowed to speak. What pisses them off is when these folks- and include Harper in that mix now- tell them immediately after an election that their choice will be ignored, and that somebody else will be installed. It is all legal of course, as was the prorogation. The folks on the farm also feel very uneasy that a separatist party is right at the heart of power. That reality is a first in the hostory of our country, we have had coalitions before but none with a separatist party at the heart. Oh, we can all pretend that the Bloc is not somehow part of a colaltion, but that again would be treating the entire electorate as if they were complete f***ing idiots who could not do simple addition. Like proof of this? Refer back to the events of Nov 2008, when M. Dion/Layton/Duceppe formed the last coalition, and the reaction from the great unwashed was visceral. That doesn't mean that Iggy won't do it again, of course, but he'd be a fool not to understand what will happen. And that is why he is so desperately coy about the prospect, no make that certainty, that there will be a coalition of Bloc/NDP Lib if Harper does not win a majority. So why would Iggy do now what he shunned in 2008, since it was that event which brought him to be appointed Liberal leader immediately after the failed coalition attempt? Simple. Because he knows now what he did not know then: there is no other way he will ever be PM. He is either PM of a coalition on May 3, or he is unemployed. In early 2009 he thought he could charm and finesse his way into power, now he knows that will not happen. Desperate times make for desperate measures.

Hobo With a Shotgunhas just been released. I can only hope that the music is as good as the plot.

I had thought of that too, which makes the forcing of this election at this time by a weak Opposition all the more puzzling. It may well be moot though, cince I think now that a Tory majority is very likely. That will give all of them time to gracefully start over.

Nice try, but that isn't what Duceppe would ideally want. The Bloc has already seen 55 seats and a majority govt, and they didn't do anything much with it in terms of realizing their ambitions. That was not overlooked by Quebec voters in subsequyent elections. Duceppe would kiss Prince Charles' ass at high noon on Rue St. Catherine for the chance to be seen as an indispensable part of a coalition that is the government of Canada. And he may well have it. The Bloc will be very enthusiastic about how the govt works when they are part of it for the first time. Quebec could really go either way this time. The very worst thing for them that could occur is that they don't elect any Tories, and they still win a majority, which is possible. That could be a gamechanger in Canadian politics.

I don't think many people have any doubt what they are voting for: either Harper or The Coalition. No matter what sort of spin is put on it, any coalition must include the Bloc, NDP and Liberals or the numbers do not add up. NDP leader Jack Layton made it clear yesterday that he's not so skittish about publicly discussing a coalition, It is a huge gamble by Ignatieff, who cannot talk about a coalition while continuing to pretend he has a chance at forming a govt any other way. It really did not work out for the last Liberal leader who tried, and it won't now.

Happen to Believe? You'd have to be brain dead not to think it ineviatble if Hrper does not get a majority. Layton and Duceppe are not coy about their support for a Coalition, and Ignatieff is making stange about it only because he has to continue to pretend he can form a govt on his own. And of course the Bloc will be a full partner, there cannot be a Coalition without the Bloc Quebecois. If I was a Quebec voter, and decided that the Tories could not win a majority, I'd be voting Bloc for sure. You'd be crazy to do otherwise. With 50 or 60 seats, the Bloc would be a force in the Commons as a charter member of The Coalition, and everybody in La Belle Province knows it.

I don't hate The Current, but their overt bias does get a bit sickening sometimes. For Harper-haters, it is condensed into the oxymoronic Best of The Current in an evening show.

Jack Layton is not averse to discussing The Coalition, since he is already openly proposing one.

I think it will be a very narrow Tory majority, though another minority is very possible. And Ignatieff will be gone May 3 if Harper wins a majority. Iggy is gambling it all this time, he'll either be gone in May or PM of The Coalition. And I voted 'interprovincial affairs' as a very key issue, but not for the usual reasons...... I reckon Quebec will be a big key in the electoral puzzle. And that is why Jack Layton is promoting and endorsing a colaition already. he knows Iggy cannot say much about it now, and he also knows that Duceppe is on board wholeheartedly for any form of coaltion, the separatiste dream will be partially realized with Duceppe holding the balance of power in the Commons. It doesn't really matter to Layton who wins the seats in Quebec as long as it isn't Harper. But consider this: what will Quebec voters do when they realize that Quebec via Duceppe has a very real chance to exercise power directly in Ottawa? Why vote Tory, Liberal or NDP and risk that prize? Even if the Tories pick up seats in Ontario and the East, they may lose their ten in Quebec which could tip the balance tpoward a coalition. You heard it here first.

There is no hinting or nuance in Igantieffs position. Ignatieff knows he simply cannot endorse a colaition publicly because a) it's an admission he expects to lost the election even though it is obvious he will and he will form a colaition aat his earliest opportunity because it is the only way he will ever become PM or remain as leader of the Liberals beyond May 3. Note that Layton has openly stated he will back a coalition immediately after an election that returns a Tory minority govt. And of course we know Duceppe would be absolutely delighted to join any coalition for obvious reasons.

I am not going to Google Edmonton 2010/11 Oilers ticket prices again, do it yourself. Gold tickets are $236 each, do the math. There is no discount for buying season tickets over a single ticket. All are paid for in full in advance. If you have a box, you buy either 12 or 20 seats for every regular season or preseason game (paid in full in advance). You are also oblioged to buy a minimum and large amount of food and beverages at arena prices from the arena operator. That is like asking which is better: pancreatic cancer or brain cancer? Neither of your examples will get you anything but bankruptcy in the current NHL. To survive in Canada in the NHL, you need a larger building sold out all the time, plus all the other revenue from building operations, plus ancilliary revenue. You don't have to like it, but that is the situation. Luckily, all Canadian teams now sell out arenas larger than what Winnipeg proposes. The only other option for Winnipeg would be to charge even more for every seat in their small building. I am hoping that you might have noticed that every other NHL team is based in a city that is either much larger or more prosperous than Winnipeg, or both. If you haven't, sorry to break the news.

No, I don't think Canada or Canadians can be pragmatic about green energy. The reasons are that a) we are not mature enough to speak like adults to each other, leaving out the emotion and sticking to the facts and b)most of us have no concept of what are the facts, how important reliable electricity is to everything, and no clue how electricity generation and distribution works. We also need to have a frank discussion about health care, but that too is pretty much impossible.

WRONG! Those are 2008 prices. Check your own link. Gold club tickets are $236 each in 2010/11, and no doubt going up. Multiply that by 41 home games plus a few pre season tickets, and you get no change from $11,000 per seat for golds. All other seats have commensusrate increases. $7500 per year is a reasonable estimate for a reasonable seat. That is what it MUST cost in Winterpeg too, you cannot operate with less revenue since the NHL is driven by their gate. You also need to expand your new arena immediately, it is too small. That's the problem with you guys, you could not afford the team in the 90s and you cannot accept that nothing has really changed. Meanigless, as the average income earner cannot possibly afford tickets to NHL games anyway. Montreal is a much larger city with many more wealthy people who can afford the $15,000 cost of a pair of very average season tickets. NHL hockey is not affordable for the ordinary working man.

August 1991 is one of the Quebecois who gets very, very angry at the notion that Quebec is divisible too, particularly the First Nations aspects. They can wiggle their way past Montreal, but those pesky aboriginals just won't swear loyalty to a new master. It is a very difficult question for the separatistes, I can understand their dilemma but can't be of much help in resolving it to their satisfaction.