Election 2010 - the issues

18 posts / 0 new

Wed, 2010-01-06 08:16

Diogenes

Stephen Harper has done it again, he crossed the line, was too clever by half, and now he has pissed off more people than anyone could have imagined. He prorogued parliament when there was no need to. People have reacted. The breaking story on the CBC website garnered over 4200 comments, the breaking story in the Globe & Mail logged over 2000 comments, all withn 48 hours.

The Facebook group Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament now has close to 58,000 members. The debate on Facebook group is passionate, the activity intense. He has unleashed a tsunami of protest.

An election is on the horizon when parliment resumes sitting in March, and you, Mr. Harper, are responsible for this one. You, and you alone. You reached too far, you assumed too much, and you were too arrogant.

Let talk about fixed term elections, free votes, and coalition governments; maybe even proportional representation and an elected senate. Let's discuss democratic reform, because you, Mr Harper, have demonstrated that we really need it.

Let's discuss our war in Afghnistan.

Let's discuss our support of Israel and your view, Mr Harper of the anti-semitism problem in this country. Why is the Jewish vote so important to you?

And let's dicuss why national security matters trump open, accountable government.

Let the debates begin. Screw re-calibrating the economy, Mr Harper, and this is not business as usual.

This is playoff politics now. It's going to get exciting.

Wed, 2010-01-06 08:22

Diogenes

I hope the Libs, NDP, and BQ are all be in the House of Commons on Jan 25th. They could debate and discuss a coalition government. They could put up cardboard cut-outs as stand-ins for the regressive conservatives who are MIA.

A little grandstanding and theatre could go a long way here.

Wed, 2010-01-06 08:35

Diogenes

The best way to end the war in Afghanistan is to leave.

Support our troops, bring them home.

Wed, 2010-01-06 10:47

Frmrsldr

Diogenes wrote:

The best way to end the war in Afghanistan is to leave.

Support our troops, bring them home.

As a former soldier, I support you 100 percent.

Support the Troops.

End the War.

Bring our troops home NOW!

Thu, 2010-01-07 06:47

Diogenes

The Facebook group is now over 80,000 members, an increase of 22,000 in less than 24 hours.

Here is my own blog to advance the cause (Harper's next defeat): 2009 - A Year To Remember or To Forget?

It has lots of pictures and some of them are talking head pictures. Move the mouse pointer over the mouth and see what they have to say. Soundbites are from the movies Scarface, A Few Good Men, and one of the Austin Powers movies.

It should work on most browsers if you have the Apple Quicktime plugin installed (Firefox, Google, Safari, Opera), or the Windows Media Player plugin installed (Microsoft Internet Exploder only).

Thu, 2010-01-07 07:09

Ken Burch

This time, will the Liberals grow some stones, or will Iggy cave one more time?

If he does refuse to move against Harper THIS time, Iggy is in real danger of becoming the Lloyd George of Canadian liberalism.

Thu, 2010-01-07 07:30

Diogenes

Iggy has dismissed the idea of holding mock parliament on Jan 25.

I thinks that is a mistake. Time for a little showmanship, a little theatre.

Time to show yourself as a leader!

Thu, 2010-01-07 07:50

Ken Burch

It looks more and more as if Iggy is deliberately trying to THROW this election(as Turner may have done in '88) in order to keep the Tories in power until they've finished the next part of the corporatist agenda, and then have his party win in an "alternance" election(like 1993)where they agree to preserve the status quo in toto(as Chretien did, with the exception of those times where he was to the RIGHT of Mulroney).

Thu, 2010-01-07 07:53

Michelle

Are you kidding me? Iggy is refusing to have the Liberals go back on January 25th??

I was sure that I'd read that Liberals had said they were going back - in fact, I was kind of annoyed that the Liberals got in ahead of the NDP on that one. But now Iggy's refusing to do it?

He's got the political instincts of a slug. Seriously, there's a huge wave of angry public sentiment that goes across party lines that he could be tapping into right now.

Time for the NDP to step forward and fill in the gap!

Thu, 2010-01-07 08:27

#10

Caissa

A Mock Parliament would be wonderful. I could just imagine Question Period. procedurally though would the Speaker allow MPs to use the House in this manner while parliament was prorogued?

Thu, 2010-01-07 08:34

#11

nussy

The best thing that happened to the NDP is Iggy. Lets hope he sticks around a bit longer.

Thu, 2010-01-07 10:43

#12

NorthReport

I just don't see an election yet for this year on the horizon.

Harper won't pull the plug unless he sees an opportunity for a majority, and the Liberals know they would get trounced.

Thu, 2010-01-07 11:10

#13

Ken Burch

Still, there's no way the Liberals could actually think the voters will reward them for letting Harper have a full four year term in which they let him do everything he wants.

Thu, 2010-01-07 13:26

#14

Sean in Ottawa

Ken Burch wrote:

It looks more and more as if Iggy is deliberately trying to THROW this election(as Turner may have done in '88) in order to keep the Tories in power until they've finished the next part of the corporatist agenda, and then have his party win in an "alternance" election(like 1993)where they agree to preserve the status quo in toto(as Chretien did, with the exception of those times where he was to the RIGHT of Mulroney).

Are you kidding?

First Ignatief would win if he could would be more popular if he could-- he just can't.

Do you remember the 88 election? Turner battled hard and came from third place-- the NDP were in solid second place during the summer. This was the free trade election -- the NDP blew it and turner did a very good job -- the best he could do (He was coming from being considered a big L loser after the "I had no option" election in 1984.)

The Liberals did not win but the gained ground and fought hard. Nobody threw that election -- every party fought like hell and the one that lost the most ground during the campaign was the NDP which got a record of seats at the end but started very, very high in the polls and was capable of much more.

I worked on that campaign-- nobody blew it -- if the Liberals had we would have been all over them for it. The Liberals actually sounded progressive during that campaign and fought like hard with Turner knowing it was his last if he did not win.

Fri, 2010-01-08 01:43

#15

Diogenes

Tory lead waning

latest EKOS poll - CPC drops by 10%

Quote:

At 33 points - a low not seen since the summer - a majority is a fantasy for the Conservatives for the time being. Indeed, they are now closer to sitting in opposition than they are to presiding over a majority.

And as I write this, the Facebook group Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament has hit 100,000 members. 6:42am GMT.

Fri, 2010-01-29 09:40

#16

Diogenes

Will Canadians want to 'throw the bums out' in a spring election?

Quote:

Pollster Frank Graves calls this shift "eye-popping." And he believes "aversion to an election has declined significantly. "

"There is a lot of throw-the-bums-out sentiment starting to percolate out there," he says.

Plugging his new poll numbers into his seat projection model, Mr. Graves has the Liberals winning 119 compared to 110 for the Tories if an election were held today. The NDP would win 30 seats, the Bloc could garner 46 and Elizabeth May's Green Party would win one seat - in Ontario - with two more going to "other" parties or independents, according to Mr. Graves' projection.

Last week, he had the Tories with 117 seats compared to 114 for the Liberals. The Tories now have 145 seats to 77 for the Liberals in the 308 seat House of Commons.

CAPP is 220,000 and growing. On Jan 23 - 27,000 in protests across 70 locations.

The opposition parties will not need to call for an election, the people are getting ready to demand one.

Fri, 2010-01-29 18:28

#17

Sean in Ottawa

The opposition should probably shut up about an election or a coalition and wait till the people demand either or both.

This one is safer to come form the grass roots-- that is one thing that could be done-- a facebook page for calling for an eleciton to throw out Harper-- but any smart person associated with a political party should stay away.

Sat, 2010-01-30 07:12

#18

Diogenes

Agreed Sean. There is no need for any alpha-male posturing now. Harper is doing a splendid job setting his own tent on fire.

The Supreme Court decision on Khadr is a double edged sword. While the the court has deferred to the right of the government of the day to shape and interpret foreign policy according to the dynamics of the time (executive perogative), it has also unanimously agreed that Khadr's charter rights have been seriously breached. Harper is now faced with a moral dilemma, or at least what would be a moral dilemma to most of us. But we are talking Stephen Harper here.

Executive perogative or Charter Rights?

Guess which one he will choose? I wonder if any London bookies are offering odds on this?

Election after March 3 though, count on it.