I Hate To Have To Create Yet Another Federal Election Thread, But.....

[WIP]

Last night, there was a candidates meeting for the Hamilton Mountain candidates in the upcoming election, and sure enough, the hysteria created by the NDP late surge was the biggest part of the rhetoric of the Liberal and Conservative candidates. One thing that isn't a surprise to Hamiltonians who have usually supported the NDP beachhead here, is that Liberal and Conservatives seeking to knock off the local NDP MP raise the implied threat of:'you'll get nothing from Ottawa if you don't put our guy in Parliament!' It almost sounds like a threat every time I hear a candidate for a governing party throw that one up to either bribe or extort their way into office!

Conservative candidate Terry Anderson, meantime, says Hamiltonians need to decide whether they want to elect an opposition member who will send out leaflets and criticisms, or elect someone who will have the Prime Minister's ear at the government table.

As if backbench MP's have the Prime Minister's ear in any government! Maybe I'm a cynic, but MP's role besides helping locals with their tax issues or government services, is to serve as propagandist on behalf of the Prime Minister in the local riding. The advisers in the PMO have more power than all but a handful of cabinet ministers. We saw this when fellow Conservative - Diane Finley disappeared into the shadows when trouble erupted in Caledonia re: the Six Nations land dispute. The OPP, Provincial Government, and the local mayor were available to the media, but the PMO immediately took over the cautious, almost invisible Federal response to the dispute and she was no where to be found. No doubt she got orders from On High to step back and say nothing about Caledonia.

Liberal candidate Dr. Marie Bountrogianni says the NDP know how to march, protest and vote against government, but don't know how to work with other parties and other levels of government to bring Hamilton results.

http://www.900chml.com/Channels/Reg/NewsLocalGeneral/Story.aspx?ID=1408593

And, the former MPP for Hamilton Mountain apparently didn't work well enough with other parties, or other levels of government to keep her job in Queens Park a couple of election cycles ago! Wonder what's changed this time!

Most Hamiltonians are going to buck whatever Conservative trend others see going on in Ontario. We have the continued debacle of the U.S. Steel lockout going on to remind us daily that NAFTA rules against domestic ownership led to the foreign ownership and gutting of the local steel industry here; and for that a lot of Hamiltonians have a grudge against both the Conservative and Liberal parties for allowing Canadian industry to wither away.