Jack Layton made it clear tonight in BC

[maplesyrup]

NDP launched its National Campaign in BC this evening, with Leader Jack Layton speaking to a standing room only crowd.

Jack & his wife, Olivia Chow (also an NDP candidate), came straight from the YVR airport to the False Creek Community Centre, on Granville Island, in Vancouver, both having left Ottawa earlier in the day.

At the end of a barn-burner of a speech, NDP Leader Jack Layton made it quite clear:

The NDP is running to form the government.

[BigGunner]

NDP launched its National Campaign in BC this evening, with Leader Jack Layton speaking to a standing room only crowd.

Jack & his wife, Olivia Chow (also an NDP candidate), came straight from the YVR airport to the False Creek Community Centre, on Granville Island, in Vancouver, both having left Ottawa earlier in the day.

At the end of a barn-burner of a speech, NDP Leader Jack Layton made it quite clear:

The NDP is running to form the government.

Its wishful thinking, a brave departure from the defeatest attitude that Alexa had when she was gunning for 2nd or third...

[August1991]

Olivia Chow was wearing BRIGHT GREEN.

Why? Is the NDP worried?

[Slavik44]

uhhmm....honestly...to be clear. Jack layton has been saying this ever since he beat bill for the NDP leadership....its nothing new.

[Stoker]

NDP launched its National Campaign in BC this evening, with Leader Jack Layton speaking to a standing room only crowd.

Was the room 10 x 10?

Jack & his wife, Olivia Chow (also an NDP candidate), came straight from the YVR airport to the False Creek Community Centre, on Granville Island, in Vancouver, both having left Ottawa earlier in the day.

Ahh yes, nothing says "average joe" or "working class" like False Creek

At the end of a barn-burner of a speech, NDP Leader Jack Layton made it quite clear:

The NDP is running to form the government.

In Canada?

[willy]

False Creek Community Centre fits about 100 people at most and 36 were candidates.

Wow, the support is overwhelming.

[maplesyrup]

The 300 plus (not my counting, but the media reports I heard afterwards) folks that came out to hear Jack launch the NDP campaign were not disappointed. What a fabulous speaker Layton is. No notes for this dynamic fellow, and you could tell the Jack Layton New Democrats have the momentum.

A lot BC voters will be very pleased that Jack and Olivia made an effort to be out here in BC, on the first day, to kick off the NDP campaign on the West Coast.

[takeanumber]

The NDP is running to form the government.

There should be a little * there.

*By form government, we mean: to form a part of a minority government.

My thing is: if they do manage to get into such a situation, are they going to sell-out and NOT demand PR.

Right now, I'm so cynical, I gotta say they will sell out.

How sad is this? When you gotta go down to the sixth party to find an 'alternative' that won't sell you out.

[maplesyrup]

It is much more likely that the Libs and the Cons will join forces after the election to form a government as they are two peas in a pod.

Health care is not in a crisis, unless you mean the crisis Martin created when he was finance minister, by providing the provinces with less money from the federal government. This whole so-called health care crisis is artificial, a smokescreen to enable privatizing. And no one has ever produced any reasearch that pritizing will save money because it doesn't exist. Just another Canadian myth.

There is no way the NDP will back down on the PR issue, and there is no way the Libs will accept it.

[NDP Newbie]

It is much more likely that the Libs and the Cons will join forces after the election to form a government as they are two peas in a pod.

Health care is not in a crisis, unless you mean the crisis Martin created when he was finance minister, by providing the provinces with less money from the federal government. This whole so-called health care crisis is artificial, a smokescreen to enable privatizing. And no one has ever produced any reasearch that pritizing will save money because it doesn't exist. Just another Canadian myth.

There is no way the NDP will back down on the PR issue, and there is no way the Libs will accept it.

I disagree.

The most important thing the Liberals and Conservatives must do to remain viable is to make Canadians believe that they are different (when they tried working together to take out the NDP in BC by instituting a preferential ballot, Liberal and Conservatives didn't buy it and voted Socred as a second choice, ensuring the Liberals and Conservatives decades of irrelevance in BC provincial politics) unless we are in times of war or other international emergency.

To maintain this façade, Liberal insiders are more than willing to accept an NDP coalition as a temporary inconvenience. (Remembering that should they win a majority again, the Fibs can easily dismantle PR, go back to the old system, and still win the apolitical idiots who vote for the sake of voting demographic by a Fidel Castro or Saddam Hussein-like margin.)

Conservative and Bloc won't happen though.

Duceppe himself, a former Maoist, is considerably to the left of even Layton (while I jokingly refer to Layton as "le choix progressiste" and Duceppe as "le choix Maoiste", the BQ as a whole is not as far left as the NDP) and would not be able to work with Harper (and vice-versa). And should the Bloc attempt to depose Duceppe to get into a coalition, the Quebec sovereigntists will federally schism into social democratic and right-libertarian facations tied in someway to the PQ and to the ADQ respectively.

[maplesyrup]

Liberals (and probably Cons as well) will fight tooth and nail against PR as once implemented the Liberals or the Cons would never form a majority government again.

[NDP Newbie]

Liberals (and probably Cons as well) will fight tooth and nail against PR as once implemented the Liberals or the Cons would never form a majority government again.

The NDP, the Cons, and the Bloc (which gave me a lot more respect for them...Knowing they'd sacrifice seats in the name of a fairly proportioned government.) all support PR.

[Alliance Fanatic]

Wow NDP Newbie, I'm glad that theirs a New Democrat on here with common sense. I'd say that PR won't work. Call me pro American but I prefer the US system. The people can elect a congress that is similar to the parlimentary system, and then vote for senators based on regional break down. This ensure that all regions feel they have an equal say.

I would'nt give 10 senate seats to each province, I think that this is how I'd structure the senate

40 seats- Ontario/Quebec

40 seats- West

20 seats- Atlantic

I also believe this system will force government to compromise on alot of issues such as same sex marriage, gun control etc.

The only people against it are the left wingers, who tend to win every issue because Ontario keeps on electing brainwashed backbenchers.

[BigGunner]

Wow NDP Newbie, I'm glad that theirs a New Democrat on here with common sense. I'd say that PR won't work. Call me pro American but I prefer the US system. The people can elect a congress that is similar to the parlimentary system, and then vote for senators based on regional break down. This ensure that all regions feel they have an equal say.

I would'nt give 10 senate seats to each province, I think that this is how I'd structure the senate

40 seats- Ontario/Quebec

40 seats- West

20 seats- Atlantic

I also believe this system will force government to compromise on alot of issues such as same sex marriage, gun control etc.

The only people against it are the left wingers, who tend to win every issue because Ontario keeps on electing brainwashed backbenchers.

There are merits to the American system, but we shouldn't copy them.

To make our system fair, we should have the HOC elected on a real representation-by-population basis. If that means expanding the HOC to hold more seats so that every province can elect a fair number of MP's then so be it...as long as the average population per seat is equal. If the average seat was 50,000 then you'd have a 600 seat HOC...and it would mean that some of the lower population provinces would lose a seat or two, but other, larger provinces would gain seats thanks to the artificial and arbitrary seat system the gov't now uses.

The counter balance would then be a real triple-E senate. perhaps 6 senators from each province - yes that means 6 from PEI and 6 from Ontario - as a balancing factor for federal politics, and 3 per territory.

A real senate would have senators with the same electoral powers and responsibilies as their MP kinfolk.

I'd have PR to elect the main HOC MP's to better reflect the diversity of Canadian voters.

The only ones who oppose PR are parties that are afraid of losing power. They rely on vote-splitting and other stunts to win seats..while it might be a techincal victory to win on those rules, it doesn't reflect on the true wishes of Canadian voters.

*footnote

My 50,000 per seat is just an example. If that number was chosen, BC would have 80 seats, Ontario 220 seats, etc. It might not change the way westerners complain about how elections are decided in the east before polls close in the west, but at least the west would have a proper share of the federal seats.

My senate idea would reduce the number of senators to 69 from the 104 (or so) that it is now...but make them far more responsible than today.

[takeanumber]

1 person, 1 vote.

That's not a conservative statement.

That's a liberal statement.

1 person, 1 vote: for EVERYBODY: urban, rural, Atlantic, Albertan.

Want regional equality? Elect a strong premier.

A Reformer gave us the Federal system (1855) just for this reason. Let's use it.

[BigGunner]

Want regional equality? Elect a strong premier.

Aren't provincial governments elected to govern areas of provincial responsibility?

Electing a strong premier does not necessarily mean a strong voice at the federal level.

I certainly have no confidence in Gordon Campbell representing me at the federal table...he's sell out everything for the almight dollar if he could. And what about Ontario voters - is Dalton McGuinty the best person to stand up for Ontario on federal issues? Given his performance, I think not.

I'm not a huge defender of America's electoral system, but they had a point in making the Senate representation a counterbalance to the house.

[Alliance Fanatic]

I think that its important that all region's feel that they have a say in what happens. Currently western Canadians feel as though they don't have adequate representation, and are forced to vote for the governing party. With an elected senate, the government will be forced to compromise on every issue facing Canadian's. This is why Preston Manning supported senate reform, and this is why the western provinces supported reform.