Conservative Anniversary

[jdobbin]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/070122/...tories_one_year

The focus will be on what they can achieve this next year.

[tml12]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/070122/...tories_one_year

The focus will be on what they can achieve this next year.

My hope: a majority government.

[jdobbin]

My hope: a majority government.

So far the polls say no change from a minority government. Could be Liberal, could be Conservative.

[tml12]

My hope: a majority government.

So far the polls say no change from a minority government. Could be Liberal, could be Conservative.

I realize this is the truth although it keeps me up at night.

[jbg]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/070122/...tories_one_year

The focus will be on what they can achieve this next year.

My hope: a majority government.

Mine too.

[jdobbin]

Mine too.

Unless Harper does more to appeal to Quebec or Ontario, he can't win. There's no more seats to win in Ontario.

[Canadian Blue]

I think Harper is trying to shore up more votes with the environment, but it's anybodies game right now.

I remember back in the day when Paul Martin was supposed to get a 200+ seat majority according to the poll's.

[jdobbin]

I think Harper is trying to shore up more votes with the environment, but it's anybodies game right now.

I remember back in the day when Paul Martin was supposed to get a 200+ seat majority according to the poll's.

And most people thought that would change once the conservative vote wasn't split between PC and Alliance. Liberal support steadily went down. It dropped 10 points when the RCMP announced they were investigating Ralph Goodale. I wonder if we will ever hear anything about that.

The new Conservatives aren't splitting the vote now but they are having trouble getting past the minority mark in the polls.

[Canadian Blue]

It all depends on what happen's over the next few month's, as well as how much support bleeds to the Liberal's and Green's from the NDP. I think it'll make for an interesting election once it happen's, but I'm guessing we won't see one until spring of 2008.

[jdobbin]

It all depends on what happen's over the next few month's, as well as how much support bleeds to the Liberal's and Green's from the NDP. I think it'll make for an interesting election once it happen's, but I'm guessing we won't see one until spring of 2008.

Hmm, and they say that the bus drivers for the Conservative campaign met last week at party headquarters and that candidate school starts in March. I'd say they are ready to go in the spring as long as they have the issue to win. They might not want to let Dion get traction.

[geoffrey]

Mine too.

Unless Harper does more to appeal to Quebec or Ontario, he can't win. There's no more seats to win in Ontario.

There 3 or 4 open for CPC gains in Ontario, possibly 6 or 7 if there was alot of momentum. We will not see the 30 seats materialize out of Quebec without Harper selling out the RoC and having Reform II appear.

Unless that's the gamble. Give so much from the West that Quebec votes CPC in an election called before a Reform movement starts. Harper is smart, I wouldn't put it past him, he knows he's got Alberta for at least another year no matter what he does.

Then again, how long did it take for Mulroney to lose 20+ Alberta seats? Hmm...

[Ricki Bobbi]

Then again, how long did it take for Mulroney to lose 20+ Alberta seats? Hmm...

Which party would win those seats in Alberta Geoff?

You keep beaking about an alternative to the CPC in Alberta, but have said that you are too much of a dilletante to do the grunt work to make it come about.

It took the Reform party two elections to get to 1993. Assuming we are a year out from the next election, which party is in position to take the place of the Conservatives the election after next???

I remember back in the day when Paul Martin was supposed to get a 200+ seat majority according to the poll's.

Yup that was conventional wisdom in 2003 ... and Martin squeaked out a minority.

Conventional wisdom in the last election was that the Conservatives couldn't win ... and they won.

Conventional wisdom is now that the Conservatives can't win a majority ... guess we'll have to see.

If people had to bet between a Liberal minority or Conservative majority in the next election, those being the only two options, which would they choose??? At this point I think a Harper majority is more likely than a Dion minority.

[geoffrey]

Then again, how long did it take for Mulroney to lose 20+ Alberta seats? Hmm...

Which party would win those seats in Alberta Geoff?

You keep beaking about an alternative to the CPC in Alberta, but have said that you are too much of a dilletante to do the grunt work to make it come about.

It took the Reform party two elections to get to 1993. Assuming we are a year out from the next election, which party is in position to take the place of the Conservatives the election after next???

That's the point of the rest of my post. No matter what Harper does, he's got Alberta's vote for at least one more election... maybe more.

He's using that fact to this advantage by sleeping with Quebec while using Alberta's money to buy the champagne.

[August1991]

So far the polls say no change from a minority government. Could be Liberal, could be Conservative.

True, yet this government has accomplished alot in a year.

The result is a government that has been highly focused in its policy priorities, disciplined in its communications, free of scandal and ridiculously controlling.

For his part, Harper has put on an able one-man show, marching to his own drummer in a tightly orchestrated parade of minority government, a sharp contrast to the indecision and mayhem in the previous Liberal administration of Mr. Dithers and his hundred top priorities.

In the short time the Conservatives have been in power, the economy has continued to boom, driven mainly by a gushing oil and gas industry.

Employment is up. Interest rates are steady. The dollar is stable. There were no epidemics, natural catastrophes or terrorist attacks on Canadian soil. Relations with the United States and the rest of the world are good.

Heck, even the Quebec separatists have been relatively quiet.

So why is it that Canadian voters remain tentative towards this PM and his Conservative party?

If the polls are to be believed, the Conservatives are languishing somewhere between a dead heat with the Liberals and right back where parties were on election day a year ago, with Harper's winning team attracting barely 37% of the national vote.

Greg Weston

Why? I figure alot of people believed the CBC/Liberal tripe that if Harper became PM, the sky would fall. It takes time to realize that it hasn't happened. What's the term? Cognitive dissonance?

One fact obvious to any political junkie is that there has been no scandals, no chauffeurs hired as advisors, no e-mails to Toronto brokers, no $158,000 trips to Cancun, no party hacks named to our embassy in Lisbon, no crazy FDB loan schemes, no reports of ministers refurbishing their offices.

On this point alone (how low I'm setting the bar), if Canadians don't give this crew a majority, then we deserve whatever fast-buck charlatans we get in the future.

[jdobbin]

True, yet this government has accomplished alot in a year.

Why? I figure alot of people believed the CBC/Liberal tripe that if Harper became PM, the sky would fall. It takes time to realize that it hasn't happened. What's the term? Cognitive dissonance?

One fact obvious to any political junkie is that there has been no scandals, no chauffeurs hired as advisors, no e-mails to Toronto brokers, no $158,000 trips to Cancun, no party hacks named to our embassy in Lisbon, no crazy FDB loan schemes, no reports of ministers refurbishing their offices.

On this point alone (how low I'm setting the bar), if Canadians don't give this crew a majority, then we deserve whatever fast-buck charlatans we get in the future.

Most of their legislation from early on has passed through. I fully expected that. It won't be that easy from here on in.

And as far as getting a majority goes, the Tories haven't offered anything to Quebec yet that would make it worth their while to vote for them or, it would seem, continue to vote for them as they did last election.

The next months will tell if Harper has a plan. In the last few weeks he has had to adjust his promises or back down from them. That is not going to sound like achievement if it continues.

[geoffrey]

If we don't have a patient wait times guarntee by the election, the CPC is going to be in some trouble.

The advantage of being able to say 'hey, we've done EXACTLY what you elected us to do, when has that ever happened?' is huge. If one of the five is missing, it's a huge blow to a potentially fantastic angle for the CPC.

If the environment happens to turn out to be a trendy issue but not much more than that, this election could quickly turn to health. We have hospitals in Kingston giving beds to the highest bidder and in Calgary we no longer have continuous ambulance service because the EMTs have to wait at the hospital for sometimes up to 12 hours before a doctor sees their patient (the EMT has to wait with the patient until a doc takes over their care).

Health is ugly right now. A wait times guarntee is neccessary to cement a CPC win, minority style.

[Catchme]

Happy Anniversary, Conservatives!

..With all of the effort it's taken us this year to get used to saying "Prime Minister Stephen Harper", we might have actually forgotten the promises that got him that title in the first place.

Well, we might have. But we didn't.

On this election anniversary, we'd like to make sure you don't forget, either. So let's revisit the promises Harper made a year ago today, and evaluate how well each has been kept.

1. "Clean up government by passing the Federal Accountability Act"

The Federal Accountability act was passed, alright, but we can't help feeling it missed the point. Contracts with private corporations, aka the Sponsorship Scandal, are almost completely off the hook. As we said in September, this bill won't prevent the abuse of public money seen in the sponsorship scandal or the National Defence contracting scandal. Government funding of non-profit organizations will be much more closely scrutinized, but contracts with private companies will not.

2. "Provide real tax relief to working families by cutting the GST"

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives is asking all the right questions about this tax cut. If you only save money when you buy something, who is benefitting? Sure the GST dropped by one per cent, but this has been a boon to the affluent and to corporations. Working families are scrambling as much as ever, particularly as the divide widens between rich and poor.

-snip-

5. "Work with the province to establish a Patient Wait Times Guarantee"

The Harper Conservatives issued a report on wait times the Friday before the Canada Day weekend. By the time they were back to work Tuesday morning, it was as if it had never happened. The report contained many key recommendations that favour strengthening the public system over the false quick fix of wait time "guarantees". Anytime that Harper would like to drop the political games around wait times and commit to an integrated team approach to providing health care services to Canadians, that would be great.

All we have that we can celebrate is a string of broken vows. Is it too late to talk annulment?

[geoffrey]

The CUPE?!?

I know of no more irrational, anti-public interest organization in Canada outside of the FLQ.

[tml12]

The CUPE?!?

I know of no more irrational, anti-public interest organization in Canada outside of the FLQ.

And I agree, completely. Well said geoffrey.

[jbg]

The CUPE?!?

I know of no more irrational, anti-public interest organization in Canada outside of the FLQ.

And I agree, completely. Well said geoffrey.

There is one. The LPOC.

[Catchme]

LOLOLOLOL

Oh, now those were novel responses, can't trash the message have to trash the messenger.

What has been said by them is absolutely accurate. Care to rebutt what was said?

LOLOLOLOLOL

[jdobbin]

National Post's view on the anniversary.

http://www.mapleleafweb.com/forums//index....post&f=3&t=7878

the Conservative base looks secure for now. A poll on the Free Dominion Web site -- "the Voice of Principled Conservatism" -- suggests 60% of respondents aren't really that principled, preferring a "liberally oriented" Conservative government to a "strongly conservative" Tory party in opposition.

[geoffrey]

Sure. CUPE thinks it's my responsibility to raise others children. That's wrong in my opinion.

CUPE also thinks the $100 isn't enough for childcare. Well, CUPE is right. Where they are wrong is that the Liberal plan was budgetted to be less than $100 per child!!!

Now you tell me how you take care of 50 children in a daycare setting for less than $5000 total costs per month?

Their plan was another gun registry waiting to happen, Canada would have been crushed by the tax burden.

[BC_chick]

Unless Harper does more to appeal to Quebec or Ontario, he can't win. There's no more seats to win in Ontario.

He may have a shot with Ontario, but I'd say Quebec's a write-off for him. Just look at the polls, he's the most unpopular in that province. unlike the ROC, his disapproval is merely an indifference, there's strong emotions against him there.

[BC_chick]

Sure. CUPE thinks it's my responsibility to raise others children. That's wrong in my opinion.

CUPE also thinks the $100 isn't enough for childcare. Well, CUPE is right. Where they are wrong is that the Liberal plan was budgetted to be less than $100 per child!!!

Now you tell me how you take care of 50 children in a daycare setting for less than $5000 total costs per month?

Their plan was another gun registry waiting to happen, Canada would have been crushed by the tax burden.

So you have a different set of priorities than CUPE.

But as Catchme pointed out, you have yet to address any of the broken CPC promises that were raised by CUPE in that post.

In other words, had she (Catchme) decided to omit her source, you would be stumped for a response.