fellowtraveller

No, it was a completely unnecessary move by Igantieff and will further damage the Liberals. The NDP aren't backing Harper because they like the EI bill, it has little of the sweeping reform they have been demanding. They are backing the Tories because the NDP cannot afford an election right now, they need to delay for 3 months until they get their annual stipend from Elections Canada. They are also way down in the polls and would get hammered right now. When Ignatieff proclaimed (last week?) that he would not support the Tpories again, he should ave gained a few points for shwoing some spine, while taking little risk because he knows that the NDP cannot call the bluff and bring down Harper. Now, Ignatieff has squandered all of it by flip flopping so quickly- and he didn't have to.......

must give a lovely vista of brown sagebrush and brown dirt and freeways........

I don't think it will happen, because Ignatieff will have to explain how he is now 'going down' on Harper instead of what 'went down'.

the river valleys in Calagry are deeper........that is subjective...... You'll need a snowblower to move that mountain of crap. I've always enjoyed the many freeways consuming the Calgray valleys, and of course the odd tree somebody planted. Otherwise, a brown wasteland with vinyl boxes and strip malls. Ugly. Prosperous. But undoubtedly very ugly.

So now you are claiming you never said the AB govt would not cut the civil service, and are now predicting it will? Wow. And all in apparent sincerity. I hope that your professional life has nothing to do with recording or editing history. And by the way, before you mention it again for the third time, the biggest hydrocarbon contributor to the AB bottom line is not oil, it is natural gas. Oil may be at some point in the future but it is not now. And natural gas is in trouble.

much ado about nothing, really. Byeelections have never meant much. Stelmach will win back many rightish hearts and minds by chopping and whacking costs, starting with the civil service. Yes, jdobbin I do recall you claiming this was impossible and I will be sure to remind you again when the cuts are announced.

Seeling a deal? Why would Hrper need to seek anything? He is leading the polls over the Liberals who have gotten no bounce from their newfound spine, and Jack Layton is desperate not to have an election right now. Jacks one and only hopoe is that soemhow he'll get a little airtime in the next few months, wait until he gets the govt handout funding in January, then tread water in an election he'll try to pretend was not his doing. The worst Harper can do right now is another minority. If the separatists and socialists attempt another coalition coup immediately thereafter, many of them will be hung from lamp posts.

It is true that Calgary has many more square kilometers of vinyl covered boxes sitting on treeless plains, but that is an unusual metric of 'attractive'. What part of Calgary compares to the river valley in Edmonton?

?? Edmonton is colder for longer than Calgary, but Calgary has far, far more wind and nasty sudden weather in every season.

If they were ready, why the utterly lukewarm caucus reaction to the newfoudn Ignatieff spine? Why hasn't there been any bounce in the polls for the Liberals at all? His spine is personal: he has looked at the present and decided the steady diet of turd sandwiches eaten steadily by the Liberals for years and lost his taste for them. I don't think his caucus is quite as ready to face the electorate. I do credit him with recognizing the relative weakness of the NDP and laying the support burden in them for a bit. Ignatieff is tired of waiting and sees one of two outcomes ahead: either he is Prime Minister soon or he heads back home to Harvard.

this has little or nothing to do with Afghanistan, which has no oil.

My favorite Fielder moment is when he stole his very first base late in his career. He'd been caught stealing 4 or 5 times in his career, and could be timed between the bases with a sundial. When he roared into second base safely, the announcers were laughing hard and claiming it would take half an hour for the grounds crew to fill in the trench Cecil had left. He was as excited as if he'd hit the World Series winning home run, and kept the base as a souvenir.

How so? The US plan for energy security has been changed a bit, they are more increasingly more reliant on very stable suppliers like Canada. Part of that plan is lesser dependence on Mideast oil, and of course overall there is a global surplus of oil and gas now. Suppliers greatly exceed consumers. So what do you mean by 'freefall'. Is that a technical term, or ideological?

?? The US has been most involved in the region in Saudi Arabia for decades, no other country is even close.

I think Layton will be much more uncomfortable than Harper. After all. Layton is the guy who votes against little bills like the budget without ever having seen them or having any ideas what is inside those covers. He is not even curious. Can't do that any more. He'll have to come up with plausible fantasies every day about how Harper is his trained monkey. Poor Jack, this won't be fun. Of course his problem is not ideology, it is money - like he doesn't have much. He will in January, when the taxpayer subsidy gravy train stops at Jacks house agin, and he has some coin to buy some courage, and dump Harper. The Tories can't be that worried- Ignatieff got little bounce off his newfound toughness and the Tories are , as always, rich and ready.

another plus for Edmonton is the existence of a large Francophone community, both recent emigres from Quebec and from the numerous communities founded by the French in the area. They are represented at the U of A by the school Faculte St Jean Check it out. As a city, Calgary has no equal in butt-ugliness with the obvious exception of Regina. Most summers, it is the colour of toast, too dry to grow anything. There are very few trees except those that are planted and tended. The river valleys are flat, shallow and boring.

I think you mean Iraq. Iraq and Iran are two different countries. Check that globe again. At present and for the last quarter century Iran has not been at war with anybody, and they sell their oil to nearly anybody at world prices. Inclduing to Afganistan, since you must realize by now there is none in Afghanistan.

What an odd interpretation of the Tory EI plan. They announced in June that action on EI was coming in June, so it is hardly any surprise. It will also be no surprise that they won't do the massively expensive measures demanded by the NDP and Liberals. Anything at all would be enough fpor the NDP now- they are broke and won';t get their federal gravy until January, at which time they may well invent a crisis and provoke an election. But for now, they can pretend that anybody cares what they do.

Kabul and North Korea are over 5000 kms apart.

I did not say Afghanistan had nothing worth fighting over, I just again pointed out that this sctick about oil there is utter bullshit. And what 'region' are you talkiong about? To the north : not much. To the south and east, no oil in pakistan. To the west, p,lenty in Iran but they already sell it to anybody. The ME is far away, maybe you could invest in a map or ask your teacher for a few minutes at the globe.

Me too. Those photos of a grinning Idiot, Socialist and Separatist shaking hands are pure gold.

Many times, I'd guess. Though not as many times as he'll say 'coaltion of socialists and separatists". Why wouldn't Harper speak of a majority both privately and publicly? I know the CBC and your buds over at Liberal Party Battle Control Room are trying to make much of the secret video, but why wouldn;'t both Harper and Ignatieff try and exhort the troops into getting a majority? Isn't that their wholly public goal every election? The alternative is to proclaim "I intend to lose".

I have an exercise in civics for everybody: count the number of times that Micheal Ignatieff says the word coalition voluntarily in the next election campaign. My guess would be zero at the very most. His handlers will have had that word surgically removed from his skull.

What are you talking about? Afghanistan has no oil, is landlocked so has no strategic posiiton in the transport of oil, is far away from the oil of the ME, and any pipeline built across it by extremely rich idiots would be utterly indefensible and a terrorist magnet.

I misread the OP, I thought it said "CBC Campaign of Fear, Fear and More Fear.