Scotty

Take that man's name! Send the mounties to his house immediately!

Unlikely. The Tories have spent the last several years sucking up to the ethnic communities around the GTA and got a big payback this election, particularly from the Indians and Chinese. He'll want to hold onto that. At the same time his conservative base want a rationalization of the immigration and refugee system to bring it more in line with Canada's needs. More younger people with communications skills, less grannies and older brothers who don't have the skills to compete in the modern economic environment. They should also be strengthening the laws and rules to remove phoney refugees, and immigrants who are criminals, or who arrive through fraud, including marriage fraud. And they could still subtly redirect immigration to source countries which produce more successful candidates, especially if the ethnic communities from the less successful ones don't vote Tory.

Given the number of political neophytes in the NDP right now, many of them with zero experience in politics or dealing with the media or the public, I suspect Layton will have quite a time keeping the headlines down.

Harper needs to be a little magnanimous in victory. And he needs to keep close to centre. If he moves to the right that opens up the centre for the Liberals to surge back next election. Straddle that centre right position with solid fiscal government but don't target social programs except for improvement. Canada hasn't seen a strong government able to confront the country's issues in at least a decade. We've had the tory minority, and before that the Martin minority, and before that the Chretien do-nothing years. Now at least, there's a government able to put an agenda into action. For Harper, he can at last relax from the constant politicking. There won't be an election next year or the year after or the year after that. He can now set himself to govern, and ease up on the endless back and forth combat with the other parties. Hold the centre right, pay down the deficit, cut some unneeded programs, and do something about health care. And no, I don't mean look south. I mean look east, across the ocean to Western Europe. Don't pick fights with the unions. Don't pick fights with anyone. They can relax now from the trench warfare they've been involved in for so long. Provide solid, competent government. That's their key to success, and another victory next time around.

Only the smart ones who have to pay taxes.

The Liberals are not going to prop up Layton. It would be suicidal to their party. If Igantieff tried most of his MPs would rebel and he'd be booted out.

Me neither, but we already have those policies. .Who says it's mindless? I find it mindless that airport screeners will carefully search an eighty five year old granny and let the young Pakistani men walk on by. I have nothing against equality of opportunity. The problem is the NDP types want equality of results, and you can't seriously believe an NDP government would not make this a priority. I've been following federal politics since Broadbent was NDP leader and couldn't keep still, always swaying back and forth as he stood in the House to speak. I've never seen anything from that party which shows any real concern for middle class people. Quite the contrary. Their concern has always been for taking money away from me and giving it to someone else, for taking rights away from me, and giving them to someone else, for taking jobs away from me and giving them to someone else. There is nonsense in all platforms. The danger of the NDP is they believe in their nonsense.

That sounds reasonable, or would if the NDP had said that to the CBC instead of telling them it's a 'private' document which is eyes-only for the membership.

No, there could well be very good reasons to vote for the other party. If I was poorer, for example, I think I would see the NDP or Liberals as being more likely to give me what I want in the way of government assistance. If I was an immigrant wanting to bring my aged parents or grandparents over, again I'd see the NDP and Liberals as more likely to be the party who would be amenable to that. If I was a Black guy I might see the NDP as being a lot less friendly with police and a lot more welcoming to the idea of job quotas to get me hired and promoted. If I was gay or lesbian (mind you, I am a lesbian on the inside!) I would likely see the NDP as more friendly to me than the Tories. Middle class straight white guys voting NDP on the other hand - are largely like gay men voting Republican in the US.

No. The Tories were very strong in Ontario, and very well-organized. The better comparison is Mulroney in Quebec. They weren't strong on the ground there, and they wound up with a lot of MPs of questionable ability, not to mention questionable ethics, and eventually, a large number of them split off and became the Bloc Quebeoise.

And how did THAT turn out?

Julian Fantino is a dick. And I would put nothing past him. But he was chief of police in Toronto only from 2000 on. It's unlikely Layton's little brush with the law several years earlier would have come to his attention. A more likely source is the Liberal party operative who offered the story to the Post two years ago.

Impression and logic. Consider. One of the problems with the legal profession is that most of those who enter it have no particular calling to law. They just want to make money. The journalism profession suffers from a related but different problem. Who become a journalist? It's not a big money making profession, by and large, and jobs are far from easy to find. So why go into it? People who want to 'make a difference'. People who see a job as a reporter as something which gives them a voice and a measure of power to 'hold the politicians feet to the fire' as one editorial recently said. They want to be able to publicize bad things, make everyone indignant, and get the government to right wrongs. Ie, there is a 'crusader' mentality among young journalists. None of that goes well with a conservative philosophy that says the government is not your mother, and it's not the government's job to right all wrongs or make life fair for everyone. It also goes against the conservative philosophy of individual responsibility, because these journalists generally want the government, want society, to do something about whatever ills or wrongs they see. So few of these people would like conservatism as an ideology and would come to see conservatives as the 'enemy' opposing or ignoring their desire to right wrongs.

Alberta's government is bigger than Quebec's? I find that difficult to believe.

Well, if you're stupid, then not voting is a good thing.

The coverage I've seen in most of the media has been extremely light on details, and the tone is more a denunciation of whoever leaked it than what might have happened. I saw one on CBC this AM. They didn't mention that the place was called The Velvet Touch, or that it shut down after the police raid, or that the girl with Layton was from China, quite young, barely spoke English, and seemed an unlikely masseuse. They also didn't mention what time this massage took place. Instead they talked about who leaked it and what possible results would be.

That's the sort of thing which happens when you state that your core principles are secret and not to be read by outsiders.

Well it's more of an agenda they aren't talking about in the election, and it can be more clearly demonstrated than the 'hidden agendas' often suggested to be held by the Tories.

Would Libby Davis be a member of that caucus?

What sort of 'expansive, intelligent evidence' do you suppose individuals can produce in support of a theory on leftist bias in media?

The Velvet Touch? Uhm, yeah that sounds like a legit outfit.

Uh... Layton has nothing to gain by lying? Pardon?

I don't disagree. I'm just pointing out that's the way things are. The news is full of shiite every day. Little of it really counts as "news" but that doesn't stop all the shows from putting it out there. The other day I sat down in the morning to eat and watch TV. Every single news show was showing the royal wedding. CNN, FOX, BBC, SUN, CBS, CBC, CTV, ABC, NBC, my morning news shows on local TV. EVERYTHING.

In the world of infotainment, 'newsworthy' is simply a term for whatever people will look at or want to see or are drawn to. That's why lindsay Lohan is front page news.

How unfair. Most of them aren't Communists. And a few still do believe in freedom of speech.