Liberals poll even with Conservatives

[Ricki Bobbi]

The Opposition controls the time line in a minority government. Paul Martin ultimately discovered that.

You are correct that the Conservatives will focus their attacks on the new Liberal leader since the alternative would be touting their failed policies and broken promises. Poor Harper, just a few short months in power and already he's raised personal income taxes on those earning the least, betrayed and slapped an export tax on the lumber industry and broke his promise to seniors not to tax the income trusts. But I think the failed Afghanistan mission might do him even more harm as will his perceived link to the gasping Bush administration, now repudiated by a majority of Americans.

No one opposition party controls the timeline. Unless the opposition works in unison, which they haven't done yet, the timeline will be up to the Conservatives.

The Conservatives will attack the Liberal leader because it is what works in Canada.

The Liberals stayed in power for 13 years with a strategy of attacking Kim Campbell, Preston Manning, Stockwell Day and Stephen Harper in succession. After 13 years of mismangement and corruption the Canadian people had enough.

Failed policies and broken promises? Whatever .... Kind of tough to judge a policy as failed weeks after it has received final approval from the House of Commons. That is if you were actually judging results instead of making kneejerk blanket attacks without thinking.

Why weren't the Liberals, the party who got us into Aghanistan, linked to the Bush Administration? Because that doesn't play to their electoral advantage ... the only reason you are trying to link our Government to the Bush Administration now.

[normanchateau]

What makes you think the Cons. are "Pretending to care about the environment"? I see more action than the Libs EVER did.

Do you see "action"? Do you also see ghosts, leprechauns, elves and dwarves? I saw a proposed, lack luster, bill that bombed. I then saw Harper and Layton expertly bury it in committee where it will stay until after the election.

You neglected to mention Harper's most important action on the environment...appointing Darrel Reid Chief of Staff to Rona Ambrose. Maybe so-cons and homophobes with no background or interest in the environment are just what the environment needs.

[MightyAC]

Why weren't the Liberals, the party who got us into Aghanistan, linked to the Bush Administration? Because that doesn't play to their electoral advantage ... the only reason you are trying to link our Government to the Bush Administration now.

Don't even try to blame the Liberals for linking the CPC to the Bush admin. Conservatives were praising Dubya and calling the Libs anti-Bush long before the CPC even got into power. At the time Bush was popular now he is not. In hindsight it appears the CPC backed the wrong horse...but they made their bed so to speak.

[Ricki Bobbi]

Don't even try to blame the Liberals for linking the CPC to the Bush admin. Conservatives were praising Dubya and calling the Libs anti-Bush long before the CPC even got into power. At the time Bush was popular now he is not. In hindsight it appears the CPC backed the wrong horse...but they made their bed so to speak.

Despite the private views of members of the party the CPC never officially praised Bush or called the Liberals anti-Bush. They did call the Liberals anti-American and chastised their childish behaviour. For example Carolyn Bennett stomping on a GW doll and Martin's Director of Communications calling White House staffers a**holes.

America is our most important ally and trading partner. We need to maintain a professional working relationship with them, regardless of who is in the White House or controls Congress.

Our Conservative Government will continue to do that even now that the Congress is under Democratic Party control. In that sense the results on Tuesday are a good thing for the Conservatives....

[normanchateau]

Don't even try to blame the Liberals for linking the CPC to the Bush admin. Conservatives were praising Dubya and calling the Libs anti-Bush long before the CPC even got into power. At the time Bush was popular now he is not. In hindsight it appears the CPC backed the wrong horse...but they made their bed so to speak.

The CPC did indeed back the wrong horse. They picked a so-con rather than a fiscal con to lead the CPC. Perhaps next time they'll know better.

[Shakeyhands]

The Liberals stayed in power for 13 years with a strategy of attacking Kim Campbell, Preston Manning, Stockwell Day and Stephen Harper in succession. After 13 years of mismangement and corruption the Canadian people had enough.

So mismanagment where? Corruption where? Please provide backup. Yes the people that were involved in adscam were members of the Liberal party Ricki, but you can't paint the whole party with that brush.

As far as the people having "had enough" the Liberal party was punished (as was Canada) but mark my words, the Liberals will be the governing party come the next election.

[Ricki Bobbi]

So mismanagment where? Corruption where? Please provide backup. Yes the people that were involved in adscam were members of the Liberal party Ricki, but you can't paint the whole party with that brush.

As far as the people having "had enough" the Liberal party was punished (as was Canada) but mark my words, the Liberals will be the governing party come the next election.

A judicial inquiry proved that $1.14 million dollars of taxpayer money was illegally diverted to supporters of the Liberal Party of Canada in Adscam. If you refuse to acknowledge that as mismanagement of public funds then there is no 'backup' you will accept about the previous Liberal government.

I will mark your words.

[Shakeyhands]

So mismanagment where? Corruption where? Please provide backup. Yes the people that were involved in adscam were members of the Liberal party Ricki, but you can't paint the whole party with that brush.

As far as the people having "had enough" the Liberal party was punished (as was Canada) but mark my words, the Liberals will be the governing party come the next election.

A judicial inquiry proved that $1.14 million dollars of taxpayer money was illegally diverted to supporters of the Liberal Party of Canada in Adscam. If you refuse to acknowledge that as mismanagement of public funds then there is no 'backup' you will accept about the previous Liberal government.

I will mark your words.

So no member of the Government was guilty? And there are no cases of mismanagment that you can tell us about? Really? You sounded so convincing in your post

[normanchateau]

So mismanagment where? Corruption where? Please provide backup. Yes the people that were involved in adscam were members of the Liberal party Ricki, but you can't paint the whole party with that brush.

As far as the people having "had enough" the Liberal party was punished (as was Canada) but mark my words, the Liberals will be the governing party come the next election.

A judicial inquiry proved that $1.14 million dollars of taxpayer money was illegally diverted to supporters of the Liberal Party of Canada in Adscam. If you refuse to acknowledge that as mismanagement of public funds then there is no 'backup' you will accept about the previous Liberal government.

I will mark your words.

So no member of the Government was guilty? And there are no cases of mismanagment that you can tell us about? Really? You sounded so convincing in your post

Not a good day be a Con supporter. Not only can they not point to a current Liberal MP guilty of anything other than belonging to the wrong party, but they're now stuck with a leader who has shown, in a very short time, a remarkable ability to break promises and mismanage the economy.

[Canadian Blue]

Yeah 1.14 million taxdollars routed to the governing party which was the federal Liberal's isn't corruption. You conservatives sure have warped minds. You Liberal's have to face the fact that the party was corrupt while in power. Don't you remember the Auditor General's report?

Not a good day be a Con supporter. Not only can they not point to a current Liberal MP guilty of anything other than belonging to the wrong party, but they're now stuck with a leader who has shown, in a very short time, a remarkable ability to break promises and mismanage the economy.

The Red Book, ring a bell stormin norman!!! So hold on, what your saying is that not a single Liberal MP had any idea about what was going on during Adscam. So then your arguing that the Liberal's are not corrupt simply incompetent???

What has happened with the economy, have we gone into a deficit?

This is what a debate in the next election will look like.

Liberal: You guys broke your promises!

Conservative: Remember the GST!

Liberal: Remember Income Trusts!

Conservative: Remember the Red Book!

Liberal: Remember Emerson!

Conservative: Remember Adscam!

First of all Liberal's obviously can't smell their own shit, secondly conservatives do come off as hypocrites for breaking their promise on income trusts. But doesn't it all kind of cancel each other out in the end. If you don't think the Liberal's were ever corrupt, then you either get all of your info from Youtube or you were born yesterday.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adscam

[normanchateau]

Not a good day be a Con supporter. Not only can they not point to a current Liberal MP guilty of anything other than belonging to the wrong party, but they're now stuck with a leader who has shown, in a very short time, a remarkable ability to break promises and mismanage the economy.

So hold on, what your saying is that not a single Liberal MP had any idea about what was going on during Adscam. So then your arguing that the Liberal's are not corrupt simply incompetent???

I never said that no former MP had any idea of what was going on. Read the quote above. It was in reference to current Liberal MPs.

There were corrupt MPs in the Mulroney government but I see no reason whatsoever to link that to Harper or current Conservative MPs. Do you?

[Figleaf]

Waiting lists is a big thing still left undone of the five promises. Maybe they can work on that.

It'd have to be a pretty dramatic reform to have much national traction.

Telling me I only need to wait 6 weeks instead of 8 to get my hip replaced is doing nothing for me. (Not that I need a hip replacement).

I don't see the problem with waiting 6-8 weeks for a hip replacement. It would take most people that long to arrange their schedules and their homes for the rehab period. I think it would be much worse being told you only had a short time to prepare.

Of course waiting any substantial length of time for cancer or heart treatment would definitely be a problem.

[Shakeyhands]

Yeah 1.14 million taxdollars routed to the governing party which was the federal Liberal's isn't corruption.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adscam

This is an even more interesting link....

[scribblet]

The Red Book, ring a bell stormin norman!!! So hold on, what your saying is that not a single Liberal MP had any idea about what was going on during Adscam. So then your arguing that the Liberal's are not corrupt simply incompetent???

What has happened with the economy, have we gone into a deficit?

This is what a debate in the next election will look like.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adscam

LOL some them had to know, there were ridings in Quebec which benefited from adscam money in their campaigns.

Don't forget back in 2002 Paul Martin was urged by a senior Liberal party official to ook into rumours that federal money was being improperly funnelled through the government's sponsorship program for "partisan purposes," according to the National Post at that time.

Paul Martin was sent a letter around February, 2002, asking him to "prepare a fact-based reply" to "the growing rumours that funds from the sponsorship programme are being diverted" through advertising firms closely linked to the Liberals.

Sure a lot of them knew, or were aware there was something scammy going on.

[geoffrey]

Waiting lists is a big thing still left undone of the five promises. Maybe they can work on that.

It'd have to be a pretty dramatic reform to have much national traction.

Telling me I only need to wait 6 weeks instead of 8 to get my hip replaced is doing nothing for me. (Not that I need a hip replacement).

I don't see the problem with waiting 6-8 weeks for a hip replacement. It would take most people that long to arrange their schedules and their homes for the rehab period. I think it would be much worse being told you only had a short time to prepare.

Of course waiting any substantial length of time for cancer or heart treatment would definitely be a problem.

That's ridiculous. You obviously not lived in much pain in your life, or had someone close to you do so. We had to send someone in my immediate family south for care because the Canadian system was a complete failure to her. Waiting times upon waiting times, took years to get even a meagre amount of care. Going south the issue was diagnosed and treated with in a couple months. What about those in Canada that can't afford that sort of travel, accomodations, treatment... they get nothing except a 2nd rate system that would rather see them die than anything else as then it costs less.

How much is your suffering worth? Can you put a dollar amount on it? Can you go to someone suffer and tell them that they can't spend their money to end their pain?

Obviously, I think people should have the freedom to save their life or end their pain if they have the means to do so. Apparently most Canadians don't, otherwise this wouldn't be an issue.

[jdobbin]

I don't see the problem with waiting 6-8 weeks for a hip replacement. It would take most people that long to arrange their schedules and their homes for the rehab period. I think it would be much worse being told you only had a short time to prepare.

Of course waiting any substantial length of time for cancer or heart treatment would definitely be a problem.

The problem is waiting lists are often much, much longer than that.

Pain clinics can take four years to get into.

Sleep clinics up to eight years.

[Leafless]

Pain clinics can take four years to get into.

Pain is PART OF LIFE unless, LIKE EVERTHING ELSE IN LIFE, UNLESS you got the MONEY to alleviate it.

[geoffrey]

I don't see the problem with waiting 6-8 weeks for a hip replacement. It would take most people that long to arrange their schedules and their homes for the rehab period. I think it would be much worse being told you only had a short time to prepare.

Of course waiting any substantial length of time for cancer or heart treatment would definitely be a problem.

The problem is waiting lists are often much, much longer than that.

Pain clinics can take four years to get into.

Sleep clinics up to eight years.

The cost to productivity in regards to sleep clinics justifies far greater expenditure, or more availability of private clinics.

[jdobbin]

Pain is PART OF LIFE unless, LIKE EVERTHING ELSE IN LIFE, UNLESS you got the MONEY to alleviate it.

Is that the new Conservative policy on waiting lists?

[Canadian Blue]

There were corrupt MPs in the Mulroney government but I see no reason whatsoever to link that to Harper or current Conservative MPs. Do you?

But then again the PC's were wiped out in the 93 election.

[jdobbin]

The cost to productivity in regards to sleep clinics justifies far greater expenditure, or more availability of private clinics.

I don't disagree. Or if waiting lists in Canada exceed a certain timeframe, patients should be allowed to get tested in the States. Sleep apnea can kill.

[geoffrey]

The cost to productivity in regards to sleep clinics justifies far greater expenditure, or more availability of private clinics.

I don't disagree. Or if waiting lists in Canada exceed a certain timeframe, patients should be allowed to get tested in the States. Sleep apnea can kill.

It can. My sister had to go to the states, at my family's expense, and it wasn't exactly cheap (not for apnea). What about those that can't afford it? What are they to do? Two-tier is already here, might as well create a market for private insurance for it so that people have a chance at affording it.

[jdobbin]

It can. My sister had to go to the states, at my family's expense, and it wasn't exactly cheap (not for apnea). What about those that can't afford it? What are they to do? Two-tier is already here, might as well create a market for private insurance for it so that people have a chance at affording it.

I think that some aspects could be covered under insurance but I was thinking that if there is an unacceptable waiting list, the government should pay for treatment... elsewhere if necessary.

[Ricki Bobbi]

I think that some aspects could be covered under insurance but I was thinking that if there is an unacceptable waiting list, the government should pay for treatment... elsewhere if necessary.

Uhh that is a central plank of the Conservative's health care policy and one that the Liberals campaigned tooth and nail against.