2015 Endorsements

ToadBrother · October 17, 2015

It means the same thing as sexually promiscuous but with political parties.

The Tories are going down in defeat, and all the insults against voters that want the Tories gone won't save him.

Canada_First · October 17, 2015

The Tories are going down in defeat, and all the insults against voters that want the Tories gone won't save him.

It's important for the NDP voters to make sure they come out to vote NDP. Mulcair needs your vote.

ReeferMadness · October 17, 2015

It's important for the NDP voters to make sure they come out to vote NDP. Mulcair needs your vote.

Yeah. You really care about Mulcair.

Are you guys getting your talking points from the campaign HQ?

On Guard for Thee · October 17, 2015

I wonder if Harper will get one of the Ford boys to doll out the cash if he plays another silly segment of game show host today.

cybercoma · October 17, 2015

And do you think the Kenney Party would be substantively different than the Harper Party?

-k

I believe it will be. Jason Kenney wouldn't have the short-leash, silence the base to be electable, grip on the party that Harper has. All the nutters that Harper has done an exceptional job of keeping in the closet would be front and centre with Kenney at the helm. It would be a substantially different party and for the worse.

ReeferMadness · October 17, 2015

I believe it will be. Jason Kenney wouldn't have the short-leash, silence the base to be electable, grip on the party that Harper has. All the nutters that Harper has done an exceptional job of keeping in the closet would be front and centre with Kenney at the helm. It would be a substantially different party and for the worse.

That's the point - nobody can even really give a good guess what a post Harper party will look like. He's such a one man show.

And that's why I seriously wonder whether the Globe & Mail's endorsement of Conservatives but not Harper wasn't a passive-aggressive reaction on the part of David Walmsley to instructions to find a way to endorse the Conservatives.

cybercoma · October 17, 2015

And now it looks like Andrew Coyne may be butting heads with National Post ownership, after they insisted on a Harper endorsement, but Coyne decided to pen a column with his own endorsement (likely Trudeau) to be printed the same day. Coyne is the head of the editorial board at the National Post. Jesse Brown of CANDALAND broke the story that suggests Coyne may resign, but it's all rumours at this point.

Michael Hardner · October 17, 2015

This election strikes me as the one where the three elementary parties of Canadian politics all had leaders that were objectionable to longtime party supporters.

blueblood · October 17, 2015

I believe it will be. Jason Kenney wouldn't have the short-leash, silence the base to be electable, grip on the party that Harper has. All the nutters that Harper has done an exceptional job of keeping in the closet would be front and centre with Kenney at the helm. It would be a substantially different party and for the worse.

Party brass will keep the "nutters" in line. They know the path to success. A party leader isnt god no matter how much people want him to be

Bryan · October 17, 2015

And now it looks like Andrew Coyne may be butting heads with National Post ownership, after they insisted on a Harper endorsement, but Coyne decided to pen a column with his own endorsement (likely Trudeau) to be printed the same day. Coyne is the head of the editorial board at the National Post. Jesse Brown of CANDALAND broke the story that suggests Coyne may resign, but it's all rumours at this point.

Coyne has openly endorsed the Liberals for quite some time, nothing's really changed here.

ToadBrother · October 17, 2015

I believe it will be. Jason Kenney wouldn't have the short-leash, silence the base to be electable, grip on the party that Harper has. All the nutters that Harper has done an exceptional job of keeping in the closet would be front and centre with Kenney at the helm. It would be a substantially different party and for the worse.

While I think the hardliner old Reform guard would be emboldened by Kenney, I also think Kenney has shown enough nerve over the years that he could hold them in check. That being said, I'm not at all sure Kenney is that popular with the Red Tories, and with the leadership election rules in place at the moment, the smaller PC contingent still has the muscle to foil Kenney's bid. But this enters pretty dangerous territory. Harper and Mackay made darned sure those weighting rules stuck despite efforts by some to get rid of them at at least a couple of conventions over the last few years. There might be considerable distrust over a socially conservative leader who was also one of Harper's only truly trusted cabinet ministers/fixers.

It will be tough. With MacKay gone, and now Harper likely to resign very soon, the two founders of the CPC will be out of the picture. I can't see Mackay making a comeback, Soudas' helicopter honey pot pretty much destroyed his credibility.

I've heard Brad Wall's name mentioned, though that would be pretty unique in Canadian history if he were to actuall become PM; no Premier before him ever has, and so far as I'm aware the only ex-Premier to become a leader of a Federal Party was Tommy Douglas, himself Premier of Saskatchewan who went on to lead the CCF and then NDP.

I've seen other people float Raitt and Ambrose, and by all accounts their pretty solid cabinet ministers. Some people have floated Moore, and even Baird, but Baird's alleged sexual orientation could be a problem.

ToadBrother · October 17, 2015

This election strikes me as the one where the three elementary parties of Canadian politics all had leaders that were objectionable to longtime party supporters.

Whatever objections there were to Trudeau last year are long gone, and for Trudeau the test of confidence wasn't even that high. If he had come in third, but had doubled or tripled the Liberals' seat count, he would have been viewed as a champion. That he's very likely to become PM will give him as much political capital as Harper received in 2006.

Mulcair was definitely an experiment in handing the keys to a semi-converted Liberal, and it looked like it would work, but I think it's pretty clear the party is going to turf him and shift leftward.

blueblood · October 17, 2015

Whatever objections there were to Trudeau last year are long gone, and for Trudeau the test of confidence wasn't even that high. If he had come in third, but had doubled or tripled the Liberals' seat count, he would have been viewed as a champion. That he's very likely to become PM will give him as much political capital as Harper received in 2006.

Mulcair was definitely an experiment in handing the keys to a semi-converted Liberal, and it looked like it would work, but I think it's pretty clear the party is going to turf him and shift leftward.

I dont think the ndp went wrong by going with mulcair. It was a worthy shot as they were going for the win and mulcair is centrist. Ideally mulcair would have been the liberal candidate instead if trudeau which would be more palatable to western voters. But this is what the cards were dealt. The tories unwittingly kneecapped the ndp by their negative ads of trudeau and trudeau exceeding his very low expectations

ToadBrother · October 17, 2015

I dont think the ndp went wrong by going with mulcair. It was a worthy shot as they were going for the win and mulcair is centrist. Ideally mulcair would have been the liberal candidate instead if trudeau which would be more palatable to western voters. But this is what the cards were dealt. The tories unwittingly kneecapped the ndp by their negative ads of trudeau and trudeau exceeding his very low expectations

If there's any lesson here, perhaps it is that you shouldn't believe your own attack ads. It very much seemed one of the Tories's and NDP's core strategies that Trudeau would be a spectacular flop and would lead the Liberals to ruin. That he didn't is a credit to him and to the risk the Liberals took in electing him, but it also demonstrates that both the Tories and NDP were operating under the mistaken notion that Trudeau was indeed the moron their attack ads asserted he was.

ReeferMadness · October 17, 2015

And now it looks like Andrew Coyne may be butting heads with National Post ownership, after they insisted on a Harper endorsement, but Coyne decided to pen a column with his own endorsement (likely Trudeau) to be printed the same day. Coyne is the head of the editorial board at the National Post. Jesse Brown of CANDALAND broke the story that suggests Coyne may resign, but it's all rumours at this point.

The twitterverse is looking for Coyne. The twitter account of Coyne, normally a prolific tweeter, has been silent for 2 days, right before an election.

Something is going on.

ToadBrother · October 17, 2015

The twitterverse is looking for Coyne. The twitter account of Coyne, normally a prolific tweeter, has been silent for 2 days, right before an election.

Something is going on.

And really, it's much ado about nothing. Does Postmedia truly think they have so much influence that they can save a government that is at least six points down in the polls?

It all seems rather odd, considering they let Conrad Black publish a pretty scathing (and somehow self-congratulatory, you've got to hand it to Black, whatever the story is about, it's about him) review of Harper's time in office. But I guess Black still has enough clout with his former newspaper to write whatever he pleases. They've certainly published enough of his rubbish since his "return".

ReeferMadness · October 17, 2015

And really, it's much ado about nothing. Does Postmedia truly think they have so much influence that they can save a government that is at least six points down in the polls?

It all seems rather odd, considering they let Conrad Black publish a pretty scathing (and somehow self-congratulatory, you've got to hand it to Black, whatever the story is about, it's about him) review of Harper's time in office. But I guess Black still has enough clout with his former newspaper to write whatever he pleases. They've certainly published enough of his rubbish since his "return".

To me, Coyne is the only reason to even look at the National Post. Conrad is a bombastic self-promoter and the rest are winguts or nakedly partisan Conservative supporters (or both).

I'm curious as to where Coyne has gone, right before an election.

ReeferMadness · October 17, 2015

Check out the twitter hashtag #coyneamovie

Canada_First · October 18, 2015

Coyne is a Liberal through and through. He should go write for the Star. Or go to the CBC or something. He's a total red.

SpankyMcFarland · October 18, 2015

Coyne is a Liberal through and through. He should go write for the Star. Or go to the CBC or something. He's a total red.

A total red? First of all, he is a staunch free marketeer and a fiscal conservative. Just because he doesn't follow the party line unquestioningly does not make him a communist.

Canada_First · October 18, 2015

A total red? First of all, he is a staunch free marketeer and a fiscal conservative. Just because he doesn't follow the party line unquestioningly does not make him a communist.

He's useless. We don't need him. He can go play with Trudeau and brush his hair. Coyne is not the picture of a conservative. He's the picture of a Liberal.

ToadBrother · October 18, 2015

Coyne is a Liberal through and through. He should go write for the Star. Or go to the CBC or something. He's a total red.

Coyne is an advocate of Classical Liberalism, which is a whole different creature than modern Liberalism. I'm sure if Coyne had his way, Gladstone would have been cloned and made PM.

ReeferMadness · October 18, 2015

He's useless. We don't need him. He can go play with Trudeau and brush his hair. Coyne is not the picture of a conservative. He's the picture of a Liberal.

What arrogance.

Coyne isn't a partisan voice - he's an independent voice. The fact that a classic small c conservative like Coyne would be so critical of Harper Conservatives should give you pause - but instead you call him a Liberal.

Proof the Harper Derangement Syndrome doesn't afflict the critics, it's a malady of the blind supporters.