Do people vote with their head?

[betsy]

No kidding, given the likelihood that Stephan Harper thinks the universe is only 6000 years old.

I'll take a heart full of compassion over a head full of nonsense any day thanks.

A tax-grab by a reckless leader who promises billions of spendings in a time when there's economic uncertainty is not by any means having "a heart full of compassion."

It is downright callous.

[Smallc]

A tax-grab by a reckless leader who promises billions of spendings in a time when there's economic uncertainty

Exactly. Given what they are promising and the spending it could require, there's no way I could support Dion....and I'm a card carrying Liberal.

[independent]

Exactly. Given what they are promising and the spending it could require, there's no way I could support Dion....and I'm a card carrying Liberal.

You are completly ignoring what Dion has been saying and instead mentioning Harpers fabrications. The key promise by Dion is that he will keep a balanced budget. Any expenditures would have to wait till the money is there. It is important that people start looking at the history of the conservative members and looking at the facts. Again if the money is not there the money will not be spent is a key part of the Liberal platform.

[Topaz]

I don't understand your question. What's the name got to do with it?

Everything. Harper knew they couldn't form a government with the name, since the PC had very low numbers he joined them but he didn't called the party Alliance because he knew he could get more ground with "Conservative"

[capricorn]

Any expenditures would have to wait till the money is there. Again if the money is not there the money will not be spent is a key part of the Liberal platform.

The opposition parties are barking that the economy is taking a dive as the result of the credit crisis in the US. Most economists and politicians don't know where the US economy is headed. The Liberals issue a platform of policies that can only be applied if the economy is sound. In addition, the platform is based on federal revenue projections that are several months old. Something is amiss.

[betsy]

You are completly ignoring what Dion has been saying and instead mentioning Harpers fabrications. The key promise by Dion is that he will keep a balanced budget. Any expenditures would have to wait till the money is there. It is important that people start looking at the history of the conservative members and looking at the facts. Again if the money is not there the money will not be spent is a key part of the Liberal platform.

Dion is saying we are on the brink of deficit. So where is the money coming from?

Never mind the Conservative history. Look at the history of the Liberal Party. It is most recent and Dion is closely tied to that Liberal Party.

According to Layton, the Liberals never did really deliver their promise of child care spaces, did they? And according to Ignatieff, the Liberals never did get the work done on gas emissions, did they?

[independent]

Dion is saying we are on the brink of deficit. So where is the money coming from?

Never mind the Conservative history. Look at the history of the Liberal Party. It is most recent and Dion is closely tied to that Liberal Party.

According to Layton, the Liberals never did really deliver their promise of child care spaces, did they? And according to Ignatieff, the Liberals never did get the work done on gas emissions, did they?

NEVER MIND THE CONSERVATIVE HISTORY. That's what is happening and that is why this country is going to be in trouble.

Edited September 28, 2008 by independent

[blueblood]

No kidding, given the likelihood that Stephan Harper thinks the universe is only 6000 years old.

I'll take a heart full of compassion over a head full of nonsense any day thanks.

hahaha, is that a two slot or a four slot toaster you have there???

So it's all right for everybody else to believe in something, but when a white christian believes in something he's got issues??? All abord the 9:38 leftist hypocrisy train to toaster and tinfoil land!!!

[craiger]

hahaha, is that a two slot or a four slot toaster you have there???

So it's all right for everybody else to believe in something, but when a white christian believes in something he's got issues??? All abord the 9:38 leftist hypocrisy train to toaster and tinfoil land!!!

your a true blue full of durogatory fictional comments, no education! lol

[Moonbox]

You are completly ignoring what Dion has been saying and instead mentioning Harpers fabrications. The key promise by Dion is that he will keep a balanced budget. Any expenditures would have to wait till the money is there. It is important that people start looking at the history of the conservative members and looking at the facts. Again if the money is not there the money will not be spent is a key part of the Liberal platform.

We're not ignoring anything. Dion has been saying his carbon tax will be revenue neutral.

First, if you look at the "Green Shift" calculator on the Liberal's OWN website, the Green Shift is ONLY going to help the very poorest of Canadians and EVERYONE else will end up worse off. Try it out. Seriously. You have to make a COMBINED family income of like 20,000 and have several kids for this to really do you any good. The Green Shift is an abomination for me and anyone but full time Wal-Mart and McDonald's employees.

Second, if Dion's "Green Shift" is to be 'revenue neutral'. If that's the case, and he's promised 80 Billion in extra spending, where in god's name is he getting this money if not from higher taxes? Dion has been saying a lot of things. I have been listening. I've gone to the LIBERAL WEBSITE and read everything they said there too. None of what they say there will do me ANY good at all, and I'm a young Canadian and my income is average at best! I don't believe any of the attack ads I see. I don't even believe of what Harper says. What I do know, however, is that of all the candidates he's the only one running that's not looking to attack industry and business in Canada and throw money at dubious social programs and equalization payments to the poor. No thank you.

Everything Dion has said has me worried he'd herald the return of Trudeau era idiotic Liberal spending. Chretien/Martin I could stomach. Dion has me absolutely retching.

[independent]

We're not ignoring anything. Dion has been saying his carbon tax will be revenue neutral.

First, if you look at the "Green Shift" calculator on the Liberal's OWN website, the Green Shift is ONLY going to help the very poorest of Canadians and EVERYONE else will end up worse off. Try it out. Seriously. You have to make a COMBINED family income of like 20,000 and have several kids for this to really do you any good. The Green Shift is an abomination for me and anyone but full time Wal-Mart and McDonald's employees.

Second, if Dion's "Green Shift" is to be 'revenue neutral'. If that's the case, and he's promised 80 Billion in extra spending, where in god's name is he getting this money if not from higher taxes? Dion has been saying a lot of things. I have been listening. I've gone to the LIBERAL WEBSITE and read everything they said there too. None of what they say there will do me ANY good at all, and I'm a young Canadian and my income is average at best! I don't believe any of the attack ads I see. I don't even believe of what Harper says. What I do know, however, is that of all the candidates he's the only one running that's not looking to attack industry and business in Canada and throw money at dubious social programs and equalization payments to the poor. No thank you.

Everything Dion has said has me worried he'd herald the return of Trudeau era idiotic Liberal spending. Chretien/Martin I could stomach. Dion has me absolutely retching.

http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/bus...7f-b6ff22f8bf92

Overspending is not an issue. The canadian government has had 11 straight surplus. It has become expected in Canada and no government would dare change that. Any mention of any party running a deficit is fear tactics and has no bases in fact. If the government has to cut back I hope it will not be at the expense of the low income Canadian who work very hard for there money.

[Pliny]

NEVER MIND THE CONSERVATIVE HISTORY. That's what is happening and that is why this country is going to be in trouble.

Okay. Well.. let's be independent.

[Canadian Blue]

MY kid is angry about the carbon tax. He thinks it will do nothing to help the environment. He thinks gas is too expensive already. He thinks it is just another way to tax the public. They went out and bought a new gas guzzling vehicle and drive it when they only have to go four blocks. If people took themselves out of the equation and simply just voted for what is best for Canada the results would be a whole lot different.

I think self-interest and individualism has done more for the west than collectivism. Read Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom."

If the government has to cut back I hope it will not be at the expense of the low income Canadian who work very hard for there money.

Funny thing is that all of the left wing parties would allow it to be at the expense of low income Canadian's, after all how else will they still fund the CBC and Tal Bachman's trip to Africa.

NEVER MIND THE CONSERVATIVE HISTORY. That's what is happening and that is why this country is going to be in trouble.

You mean like NAFTA. By the way that doesn't necessitate that we have a one party dictatorship like you so absurdly suggest.

Everything. Harper knew they couldn't form a government with the name, since the PC had very low numbers he joined them but he didn't called the party Alliance because he knew he could get more ground with "Conservative"

Actually it was agreed on by all of those at the negotiating table. You do realize that at one time the Progressive Conservatives were simply called the 'Conservatives' right? Or do I have to enlighten you about Canada's political history?

It's nice to see that outside of 9/11 conspiracy theories, the Greens also talk about how the Conservatives are using psychological warfare on the population to get us all to vote CPC. That is while they're saying that if Elizabeth May isn't elected within a year this will happen to the earth:

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Uniwdd3Shlc

No kidding, given the likelihood that Stephan Harper thinks the universe is only 6000 years old.

What, where did you get this tidbit of information.

Much of my own sense of where Harper's head is at stems from what I've heard his supporters who live in my town say they believe about him.

People also tell me that Elvis is still alive, I guess I'll have to take them at their word. Some of them are even Liberals, therefore I can categorically say that Stephane Dion still thinks Elvis is living on an island in French Polynesia.

I'll take a heart full of compassion over a head full of nonsense any day thanks.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. As for your second point, the fact that you're basing this absurd view on what people who have probably never met or even looked into Harper's history shows that your head is full of nonsense.

Now, can anyone else imagine Jesus throwing a 14 year old into today's jails? Give your freakin' heads a shake.

I can't imagine Jesus doing alot of things, I can't imagine him fighting alongside the allies in World War 2. But since I'm an atheist it really doesn't have much of an effect on me.

You make a good arguement for improved education and tighter legislation for the sale of video games. You need to support the families and help the kids that do not have the family support. Most kids involved in crime go to gangs because that is the only family they know. The education they get there will not tell them about the consequences of their actions. The problem is governments do not want to spend money where it is needed at the root of the problem.

If you want to help people, simply throwing money at them won't do a damn thing. France has by far one of the best social safety nets in the world. However this hasn't been able to do anything about the gangs present in the suburbs of Paris or prevented rioting. The best way for people to become law abiding individuals is for them to get a good job.

As for video games, I've played Grand Theft Auto in high school and I didn't end up selling drugs. In the end people simply have to learn to take personal responsibility for their actions, you can't engineer a person to be good, that can only come from within the individual.

Edited September 28, 2008 by Canadian Blue

[Canadian Blue]

In addition to what I've heard his supporters say about him (Harper that is) I've also read articles like the one I cited and opinions of people who might provide some insight to what's going on in his mind, like specialists on religion and Canadian government for example.

So you're consulting psychics and people with ESP to make a judgement on Stephen Harper. I can only imagine that the people you're reading have a long history of being associated with looney left wing causes.

By the way I've read most of Harpers articles and essays from when he was a Reform Party and president of the NCC. He wasn't a member of the religious right, and never has been. If anything he's been opposed to social conservatism his entire career, the best case I can give is when he left the Reform Party along with Jan Brown and Jim Silye because he felt it was bending towards the religious right.

Harper's a classical liberal, not a social conservative. Even the supposedly "social conservative" issues he's championed have been moderate, and most people don't have a problem with tougher sentences for violent criminals.

Nobody it seems knows a lot about Harper. He's been keen to reveal as little as possible about where his head truely is, he is secretive and rigidly controls the images and messages both he and his party send. This has been his style from day one since he's lead his party, during his term as PM and his one man campaign roadshow. I guess Jesus was never really big on sharing the spotlight either was he?

Stephen Harper isn't Jesus, and yes contrary to your view a leader is supposed to lead a political party.

I just don't have the capacity for suspending my disbelief the way you and Harper can I guess. It sounds like Harper had to do some pretty serious swallowing to become the educated believer he's reported to be. He apparently wasn't enlightened or saved in the more conventional manner like walking in the desert or as a result of some profound life-altering crisis.

Are you a Christian. If so I think you're already breaking one of the most sacred rules of Christian ethics which is to be non-judgemental.

"You've placed a lot of stock recently in the inability of leftists to think rationality or scientifically. Can you seriously imagine yourself coming to the same conclusions Harper has about the nature of reality after reading C.S. Lewis and Muggerridge? "

C.S. Lewis wasn't a socialist, and he was never keen on the government becoming a welfare state. I think his view that charity should first be an individual responsibility, and he covered it in "Mere Christianity."

Edited September 28, 2008 by Canadian Blue

[eyeball]

So you're consulting psychics and people with ESP to make a judgement on Stephen Harper.

You're saying Douglas Todd and Bruce Foster are psychics that have ESP? At the risk of sounding anal do you have a source for these revelations?

[Canadian Blue]

Any person who says they can read minds are full of shit, and unless they've got ESP they can't claim to know what any person thinks.

But it's gratifying to see the looney left say that any person who seems to think that tax breaks are indicative of an evil plan to make us all snake handlers is abit of loon in my book.

As for both Douglas Todd and Bruce Foster, I've read what they stated. They basically say people with Christian religious beliefs are not fit to be in politics. Just out of curiosity if you're going to accept both Bruce Foster and Douglas Todd's beliefs, would you then say Muslims, Mormons, and other religious minority groups that believe in the afterlife shouldn't be allowed to run for office?

As well what about Stephane Dion, Jean Chretien, and Paul Martin's Roman Catholicism. The Catholic Church had links to Ustase, Franco, and Mussolini. However I doubt you'll hear a word about it from someone like yourself. But for some reason I doubt you'd have a problem with it as they are Liberals and we know how double standards go.

Edited September 28, 2008 by Canadian Blue

[Canadian Blue]

But it's gratifying to see that people on the left now openly state that religious groups should be persecuted and hounded from office, and now want both Church and State to be one and require a religious litmus test.

[Smallc]

religious groups should be persecuted and hounded from office, and now want both Church and State to be one

???????

[Canadian Blue]

???????

It's quite easy, due to eyeballs insistence that politicians should be held to account for their private religious views he's supporting the idea that religion and state should be mixed. Meaning that if you're a politician you can't be a Muslim, Sikh, Jew, Buddhist, or Christian, privately, yet keep them separate from your political life.

[Smallc]

It's quite easy, due to eyeballs insistence that politicians should be held to account for their private religious views he's supporting the idea that religion and state should be mixed. Meaning that if you're a politician you can't be a Muslim, Sikh, Jew, Buddhist, or Christian, privately, yet keep them separate from your political life.

Now I understand. As long as people keep their religion out of public life, it shouldn't even play a factor.

[Canadian Blue]

Now I understand. As long as people keep their religion out of public life, it shouldn't even play a factor.

Exactly, in Alberta for example we have a Catholic Premier. However nobody would question his religious beliefs, and nobody would say he's unfit to be Premier due to the fact he's Catholic. To ask that question would be absurd, and quite frankly I hate hearing those kinds of questions being the main discussion on political talkshows in the US.

Why the left would want to bring in a religious litmus test like eyeball is suggesting is absurd. For me it doesn't matter if a Jew, Muslim, Christian, Atheist, or Sikh is running for parliament. As long as their views match mine politically I'm fine.

[Bryan]

...one of the most sacred rules of Christian ethics which is to be non-judgemental.

Not true. You need to read things in the context, not just pull one verse out while ignoring the rest of the passage. Christians are overwhelmingly exhorted to be very judgemental. They are just supposed to make sure their own houses are in order if/when others turn that judgement back on them.

[betsy]

NEVER MIND THE CONSERVATIVE HISTORY. That's what is happening and that is why this country is going to be in trouble.

And why do you think that's exactly what's happening? We've just had how many long years of Liberal government? 12 years?

What happened in that 12 years? How much money did we squander? What about corruption and scandals after scandals - scandals not on petty issues mind you. All the way from Chretien's golf balls and his hotels to the Sponsorship scandal. What about broken promises?

Harper had a good two years considering it's only a minority government at that. As far as leadership goes, there's no question that Harper knows how to handle his pesky opposition, to the point of getting the Liberals to heel in how many votes in Parliament? 43 three times, if I'm not mistaken. That alone is a feat in itself!

So why is this country going to be in trouble with Harper on the helm?

If the Liberals had supported and voted 43 policies of Harper.....Harper must be on the right track, isn't he? He is doing a good job as a leader. After all, the official watch dog agreed with him!

[independent]

http://ca.lifestyle.yahoo.com/family-relat...g-like-a-parent

Should we use our heads and vote like a parent? Are the polititians acting like adults?

[teletran]

MY kid is angry about the carbon tax. He thinks it will do nothing to help the environment. He thinks gas is too expensive already. He thinks it is just another way to tax the public. They went out and bought a new gas guzzling vehicle and drive it when they only have to go four blocks. If people took themselves out of the equation and simply just voted for what is best for Canada the results would be a whole lot different.

The green shift plan will not be taxing gas.

I wish people would actually take the time and read the green shift plan.

*sigh*