Oh Cameron will work hard to pauperize the country, like Maggie and John did. But there are social spending programs put in place by Labour they won't dare touch. Brown committed $15 billion to social housing because Maggie's free markets in homelessness wasn't working. Our conservatives and Liberals wouldn't dream of spending that much on social housing. These conservatives in London won't last more than a term.
Can Jack get the Cons to agree to eliminate Senior poverty (and more) or do we go to the polls?
Sun, 2011-02-20 01:03
#52
Sun, 2011-02-20 02:26
#53
M. Spector
Yeah, I guess the only possible way to affect (sic) progressive change is through our "obsolete electoral system". Those who don't participate in that travesty of democracy are just doomed to irrelevance, eh?
Pretty much.
The fact that you and Fidel and god knows how many others around here accept that as an unchangeable truth speaks volumes about your own political impotence and irrelevance.
Sun, 2011-02-20 06:43
#54
Boom Boom
So, what will make the NDP more appealing for the 80% or so of Canadians who don't vote for the party?
Sun, 2011-02-20 06:45
#55
Yeah, I guess the only possible way to affect (sic) progressive change is through our "obsolete electoral system". Those who don't participate in that travesty of democracy are just doomed to irrelevance, eh?
Pretty much.
The fact that you and Fidel and god knows how many others around here accept that as an unchangeable truth speaks volumes about your own political impotence and irrelevance.
Canadians are not ready for socialism in the same way that Venezuelans were not ready. Canada is already a kleptocracy and "corrupt petro state" not too far removed from the situation in Venezuela in the early 1990s. Canadians still have more social democracy than existed then in Venezuela, and certainly more social democracy than existed in 1950s Cuba.
The NDP is trying to form coalitions where and when possible. This is the way forward not back-biting leftists chewing away at the movement from the inside out. We will need some sort of Venezuelan style MMP as was adpoted in that country by 1993. MMP like the federal and Ontario NDPs suppport.
It is those who come on this site and babble the usual inane anti-NDP rhetoric who are irrelevant. They do nothing and propose nothing. They advocate for none of the 20-some odd registered political parties in Canada while unionized and non-unionized workers alike have helped to elect a string of crooked Liberal and Tory governments in Ottawa. And they get what they vote for every time.
Socialists in Venezuela and Cuba are well thought of by citizens in those countries, and largely for providing everyone the right to see a doctor on a regular basis. The CCF-NDP is renowned among Canadians for implementing the first socialized medical plan in all of North America there in the prairies. I remember the NDP plugging away and criticizing the neoliberal economic ideology in the 1990s. Canadian voters turned their backs on our party for it, too. The NDP is now changed gears and promising to maintain medicare in Canada.
It's all we can do for now based on voters preferences and opinion polls of the last ten years. It's all we can and should do for now imo. It hasn't quite hit Canadians square between the eyes yet with respect to just how immoral and wrong the new liberal capitalism really is. It has and will continue to be a large minority of Canadians doing the voting and the selecting of governments every four years that will have to decide they no longer believe in the neoliberal voodoo at some point. It's not working anywhere in the world where tried, and it's not working here either. Three decades three recessions. The NDP's time in the sun is coming.
Sun, 2011-02-20 07:06
#56
So, what will make the NDP more appealing for the 80% or so of Canadians who don't vote for the party?
Start talking about neo-liberalism and the increasing threat it presents to Canada's existing social contracts, voodoo economics, banksterism, corporate underwriting of the political processes, useless wars, and an unapologetic platform which confronts all of it head on. In other words, speaking on behalf of the truth with determination and a sense of urgency, instead of limiting themselves to the pursuit of a few favours.
Sun, 2011-02-20 07:07
#57
I think we will have to give up on the 41 percent who didn't vote last election. They are jaded voters frustrated with the whole thing. Governments in Ottawa have done an excellent job of disenfranchising Canadians and creating millions of disinterested voters. Our electoral system punishes millions of voters who live in the "wrong" ridings or hold the "wrong" political views. Almost six million votes were wasted by a mathematically absurd electoral system in 2008. And there will have been some percentage of excess votes considered wasted as well. Each time I consider it I realize more and more just how mathematically absurd our shitty electoral system really is.
As dirty a job as it is, the NDP has to try and appeal to the same large minority of voters electing governments every four years. I don't think it will be a matter of what the NDP has to do so much as what the two parties forming government for the last 140 years in a row non-stop are not doing. And what they are not doing is obvious. The prosperous cold war era economies aren't happening anymore. In fact, things have gone downhill for all of the economy as well as their political capital on the right. The legitimacy of Canadian elections is being questioned more and more every four years.
Sun, 2011-02-20 07:19
#58
I think we will have to give up on the 41 percent who didn't vote last election.
The problem is that the undecided and the disengaged have grown accustomed to this sort of capitulation and mimicry from the NDP. Similar to the stoogeocracy, it's far easier to write off entire swaths of the population as having no value toward the more important goal of nurturing ones own objectives and power base, which in the NDP's situation means the perpetuation of passivity and uselessness.
Sun, 2011-02-20 07:21
#59
The NDP did that already in 1990s. It was a time when the neoliberal voodoo seemed to be paying off for Canadians. And by the early 2000s the ideology began floundering. By 2005 our's was a hewer and drawer economy again. And countries reliant on natural resource exports tend to be corrupt. Canada is no exception to the rule.
The NDP blew the whistle on Mulroney's privatization of money creation without Parliamentary debate in 1991. The big baloney exited stage right before Canadians could throw him out.
The NDP raised red flags over the very neoliberal trade deals and the resultant scooping up of Canadian industries by rich Americans over the years.
The NDP still does criticize the two old line parties for their obsolete ideology. You have to listen to what they are saying though. And we are blowing the whistle on creeping Americanization of our health care and long running infrastructure deficits and lack of effort by governing parties in Ottawa in general. We don't have the cash to propagandize the public like the two BAy Street parties.
The NDP has pushed and prodded the two dirty old line parties to abide by their commitments under section 52 of the UN Convention against Corruption in Government. In addition to a modern electoral system Canada needs sweeping changes to election finance rules.
Sun, 2011-02-20 07:27
#60
If they weren't listening to the NDP in the 1990s, they surely won't be listening now. You can throw a life saver to a drowning person, but you probably shouldn't jump in after them. And you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. Voters are the same way. If they don't want to elect a Liberal or Tory government by phony majority, that's their business. But it's up to the NDP to ride into town slowly and cautiously and make as many friends as possible during this time of Boot Hill mourning over the "new" liberal ideology. Crashing funerals is not recommended.
Sun, 2011-02-20 07:34
#61
The NDP did that already in 1990s.
Before the bubbles begain bursting. Since then they've been provided with more than enough fodder where in other countries, the left would put to good use in formenting a revolution or two. Instead, as corporatism's iron fists have been working everyone over to a pulp, the NDP has fled the scene of carnage in search of a bandaid or two.
Sun, 2011-02-20 07:35
#62
If they weren't listening to the NDP in the 1990s, they surely won't be listening now.
There was scant evidence then before the population that the economy was being turned into a globalized ponzi scheme. Nowadays of course, many people have accurately analyized the various crime scenes. Problem is, there's no politician or media to champion the evidence. Its as though they're bound into silence by omerta.
Sun, 2011-02-20 07:48
#63
The NDP did that already in 1990s.Before the bubbles begain bursting. Since then they've been provided with more than enough fodder where in other countries, the left would put to good use in formenting a revolution or two. Instead, as corporatism's iron fists have been working everyone over to a pulp, the NDP has fled the scene in search of a bandaid or two.
So you're saying Canada is pregnant with revolution the same as Egypt and Tunisia, or in the same way Haiti has been for god knows how many US Military and CIA interventions worth? I don't think so. Those countries never had a Tommy Douglas or so much as medicare on par with Saskatchewan's and the rest of Canada, like Lester B. was forced to either enact nation wide or let the next government do it for him.
No, I don't think we want to try courting the voters as if we were doing a night at the Roxbury and barging in on newlyweds and school proms Jim Carey style. No we want to be more subtle than that. Canadians want sweet nothings whispering in their ears from afar. Jack is doing a great come hither for the voters right now. And I think Steve and Michael the Americans will fall short of their coveted phony-baloney majority, once again.
It's like Errol Brown once sang about Jack and the NDP in song lyrics:
I believe in miracles
Where you from
You sexy thing
Sun, 2011-02-20 07:54
#64
So you're saying Canada is pregnant with revolution the same as Egypt and Tunisia, or in the same way Haiti has been for god knows how many US Military and CIA interventions worth? I don't think so.
I'm not saying that at all. Commodity societies have too much to lose to start tinkering with popular revolt, and thus our expectations have to be kept to a minimum. An NDP polling over 20% would be as close to a revolt as we're going to get in our circumstances. You're only going to get there with the support of the disenfranchised, which means someone is going to have to start speaking their language.
Sun, 2011-02-20 08:12
#65
I see what you're saying. Yes we need the po' people. We need them we do. This bad system and its advocates will only lose support over the next few years.
It's not in the way that you hold me
It's not in the way you say you care
It's not in the way you've been treating my friends
It's not in the way that you'll stay till the end
It's not in the way you look or the things that you say that you do
Hold the line
Love isn't always on time ...whoa whoa no
Sun, 2011-02-20 08:15
#66
You must be reading from the NDP song and dance cue cards.
Sun, 2011-02-20 08:33
#67
And not from Bay Street's song sheet, like Iggy the American apparently was according to the leaked Lisa Raitt tape two years ago.
Just imagine Steve or Iggy with a phony-baloney majority. First thing they'd do is give the high sign to jack interest rates and put the economy into a nose dive Mulroney-Chretien style as a favour to their friends on Bay Street. "The market" loves "stability" provided by a solid stoogeaucracy over four or five years in Ottawa.
Sun, 2011-02-20 09:08
#68
So we come back to the unrepresented, to the people who have withdrawn from the political. Despite being all over the board in terms of persuasions, there are enough left leaning elements among them as to represent the only force out there that may have the potential to mount a challenge to the stoogeocracy. No one is speaking to them except for fellow exiles on the fringe. The NDP has gone as far as it can in trying to appeal to the soft liberal centrist vote. There is only room to grow in one direction. All the same, people are understandably wary of betrayal, which will require some fundamental soul searching on the part of the NDP brain trust prior to any attempt at communication.
Sun, 2011-02-20 10:25
#69
Boom Boom
With regard to the other thread started by rural-Francesa, I'd love to see the NDP be the champion of fully subsidized utilities for those at or below the poverty level - and carefully explain to the neoliberal sceptics that this would be affordable by cancelling Harper's corporate tax cuts and/or replacing that ridiculous F-35 scheme with a reasonably affordable defense procurement.
I think the NDP should investigate the total savings of scrapping the corporate tax cuts AND the F-35s, and at the same time calculate the cost of fully subsidized utilities and medications for those at and below poverty levels, and a downsized military procurement - with emphasis on SAR rather than invading foreign countries. And let's be the country of 'peacekeeping' again!
I think these steps would make the NDP more appealing to those who might otherwise vote Liberal, for example.
Sun, 2011-02-20 12:26
#70
This latest boneheaded play by the NDP ahem brain trust will be correctly perceived by many Canadians for what it is, an admission that the no difference party knows it stands no chance of beating Harper in an election so has instead chosen to fold like a pair of cheap pants. It certainly won't eliminate Senior poverty, not even close. They may also not be unaware that the consquences, quite aside from a Harper majority, might be the Laytons' loss of their gold plated MP pensions which are safely within their grasp if they can hang on at the evil Ottawa talk-shop for another year.
Murray Dobbin pretty much nails it, in what he calls a 'tragic strategic error on the part of the NDP':
"In perception, it weakens Layton and strengthens Harper. If Harper decides to reject the four point program being demanded by Layton, the NDP will look even weaker...the NDP will be forever stuck with folding on the corporate tax cut - giving the Liberals, already ahead on the issue, a near monopoly on this central issue and the tax issue in general. This is a tragic, strategic error on the part of the NDP."
Layton Caves on Corporate Tax Cuts
http://murraydobbin.ca/2011/02/19/layton-caves-on-corporate-tax-cuts/
Sun, 2011-02-20 12:39
#71
Murray Dobbin does this BS on a regular basis now, is probably a Liberal stooge, and has been an NDP hater for such a long time I'm surprised anybody gives him the time of day, apart frrom other NDP haters that is.
I mean where were his criticisms of the Liberals when the Liberals were supporting the corporate tax cuts, eh! Mute you say! 
Sun, 2011-02-20 12:45
#72
Thanks, Ltu. Cuts nicely through the gossip column chatter.
Sun, 2011-02-20 12:58
#73
I have an entire pile of what Dobbin is spreading in my barnyard. Perhaps Dobbin is taking his words from the same pile.
I just watched Layton on QP, no change on the corporate tax cuts issue, in fact the opposite occured, but lord knows we don't want to deal with reality.
I posted what Charlie Angus said in the other thread. Basically he is suggesting the media is full of shit. He's a caucus member, not some unknown 'insider' who could be anyone and no more an insider than you or me. Olivia Chow reported that corporate tax cuts were discussed on twitter right after the meeting. So we have people in the know talking publicly about the NDP view on corporate tax cuts, but no one cares. Doesn't that give you pause - for even a second or are you so filled with partisan loathing that you can't see past your nose?
This is the narrative. We came to the PM with concrete and modest proposals to reduce senior poverty, reduce the costs on home heating and to move the CPP onto more appropriate grounds. Now again tell me the odds that Harper will accept them. My guess is a big huge zero. So the NDP can say- with some conviction and evidence - that the Conservatives just don't care about these issues. For the vast majority of Canadians that will count for something.
Sun, 2011-02-20 13:12
#74
Boom Boom
From the G&M: Layton draws strong line on budget, opening door to election
excerpt:
New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton left little doubt Sunday that his party will vote against the upcoming federal budget in March, which could force a spring election.
In his first interview since meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Friday, Mr. Layton said on the CTV's Question Period that the NDP was opposed to the corporate tax cuts the Conservatives say will be in the budget.
Sun, 2011-02-20 14:01
#75
Dobbin takes what he reads in the Globe and Mail at face value, and NEVER checks it out before writing. He really needs to learn the basic principles of journalism.
Sun, 2011-02-20 14:03
#76
As for the rest of our people who let their chain get pulled by the corporate media: Chretien had an expression for folks like that - "nervous nellies".
Sun, 2011-02-20 14:03
#77
The thread title is "Can Jack get the Cons to agree to eliminate Senior poverty?"
The answer is simple: highly unlikely.
But the answer is simple because the question is wrong.
For a forum like this the better starting point question would be does an agenda of eliminating senior poverty make a good focal demand within the context and framing of a Budget and a likely election?
Sun, 2011-02-20 14:04
#78
Still waiting for NDPP & Dobbin's apologies. Who else is sick of their lies. They sure sound like Liberals to me.
Mr. Layton said on the CTV's Question Period that the NDP was opposed to the corporate tax cuts the Conservatives say will be in the budget.
Sun, 2011-02-20 14:08
#79
Still waiting for NDPP & Dobbin's apologies. Who else is sick of their lies. They sure sound like Liberals to me.
For what? Having opinions?
Sun, 2011-02-20 14:09
#80
And here's how Charlie Angus put in on facebook when similar comments are made.
Classic lefty...can't wait (in advance of anything happening) to quit the party, denounce the leader, hold a grudge for decades, etc. etc. Ever wonder why the right are so successful? It's because they stick together with a big picture in mind
He is quickly becoming my political hero.
Sun, 2011-02-20 14:11
#81
Still waiting for NDPP & Dobbin's apologies. Who else is sick of their lies. They sure sound like Liberals to me.
For what? Having opinions?
Well in Dobbin's case for very sloppy journalism and repeating corporate media bs. I thought that was the whole point of rabbe.ca and that it wasn't just to jazz up MSM bs.
Sun, 2011-02-20 14:42
#82
The media spin on Layton and corporate taxes was why I started this thread. People like Murray Dobbin have decided to go with the Globe/Post spin. Jack has set the record straight. Of course the NDP wants corporations to pay their share of taxes. How else can we eliminate poverty? The question is where do you start. The four points suggest that CPP contributions by business have to increase to pay for improvements to CPP. Spending on the GIS has to go up to eliminate senior poverty.
The corporate income tax scheduled increases is small and part of a bigger picture. The NDP has fought lowering corporate taxes, still fights against it, the media claim they are out of touch for this, and when they don't mention it ... the media pounce on them for selling out.
How do you combat this? Through research and communication. They can not be separated. The CCPA was started 30 years to do research and it does a good job. I will not comment on what role academics play in generating research except to say we could use as many community minded people as are around.
Since as posters were quick to point out, the NDP press releases are the source of quotes, in my opinion the releases should be built around newsworthy facts. Short research reports in the name of the party should be used more than they are used. With a few notable exceptions the media do not phone the CCPA in Ottawa to talk about senior poverty or anything else. In connection with an NDP story they go for the Fraser or Howe voices. In the over ten years I was CCPA president, it was rare to see either the CBC or the Globe at our press conferences.
Jeff Simpson mentioned the CCPA for the first time recently after writing for how many years. He does cite the NDP.
Sun, 2011-02-20 15:00
#83
Ken S I think the NDP has to help close the information gap. Talking about an "affordable" increase to the GIS is weak, when compared to saying that $1 billion would eliminate seniors poverty.
Why spend money on poverty reduction? Because governments can make a huge difference in peoples everyday lives. Compare the GIS pledge to the cost of the F35, or the running costs of the tough on crime stuff, which is in the billions per year.
Press releases are about what exactly? Are the NDP really negotiating with the Cons through press releases? I would have hoped the releases were used to educated the press about the state of Canada. I wish the party would release a research report on senior poverty to strengthen their negotiating position. The Cons and the Libs do no research and do want the people of Canada to know what is going on. The NDP should be filling the void.
The NDP has to close this information gap by astute presentation of policy AND have the balls to stand and deliver said policy without running like frightened rabbits at the first attack ad.
The NDP presented a balanced, fair inheritance tax proposal previously that turned into a carnival side show when the fearmongering began. rather than sticking to their policy and defending it, they did a U turn and tucked tail.
Same thing with the proposal to double CPP payments and contributions. The proposal was to phase in increases but the fearmongering was about "doubling" the costs.
Ditto Jack's response to the last phase of the corporate tax reduction. He correctly stated that these reductions had already been voted on in a previous budget but the media spin was that the NDP was flip-flopping.
It is my opinion that Jack has created a wedge issue that can resonate with the voter - this issue can really explode if handled right. This issue is universal and speaks directly to the insecurities Canadians have for their future in an uncertain world. A world where unsavoury financial interests prosper on the backs of a citizenry faced with higher food and energy costs. The NDP can spotlight the government's unwillingness to protect Canadians' pensions in favour of the financial community's predations on our incomes.
Go for it, Jack, don't get lost in the irrelevant nitpicking of NDP navel-gazers. Stay on message and win.
Sun, 2011-02-20 15:03
#84
It is my opinion that Jack has created a wedge issue that can resonate with the voter - this issue can really explode if handled right. This issue is universal and speaks directly to the insecurities Canadians have for their future in an uncertain world. A world where unsavoury financial interests prosper on the backs of a citizenry faced with higher food and energy costs. The NDP can spotlight the government's unwillingness to protect Canadians' pensions in favour of the financial community's predations on our incomes.
Go for it, Jack, don't get lost in the irrelevant nitpicking of NDP navel-gazers. Stay on message and win.
I think I'm in love.
Sun, 2011-02-20 15:08
#85
Since as posters were quick to point out, the NDP press releases are the source of quotes, in my opinion the releases should be built around newsworthy facts. Short research reports in the name of the party should be used more than they are used. With a few notable exceptions the media do not phone the CCPA in Ottawa to talk about senior poverty or anything else. In connection with an NDP story they go for the Fraser or Howe voices. In the over ten years I was CCPA president, it was rare to see either the CBC or the Globe at our press conferences.
Jeff Simpson mentioned the CCPA for the first time recently after writing for how many years. He does cite the NDP.
If a release is not in people's hands the second they need it, they won't be quoting it. Period full stop. The news cycle is about 5 minutes these days, with Twitter, email, and live TV news.
The material in releases has to be a NEW angle on the story, and has to be quotable and not turgid. The media is writing for, and broadcasting to, an audience with a low reading level, and lower attention span.
The media don't phone people for quotes hardly at all anymore -- why would they, when they get hundreds of comments offered to them in releases arriving in their Inboxes, and on Twitter. You have to be first, relevant, and quotable to get in the story.
The Green Party tried to react to the federal budget compromise three days after the Liberals had already caved in June 2009, and do so in a Friday afternoon news conference the day the House was set to adjourn. The press gallery decided on the spot to stop taking them seriously.
Sun, 2011-02-20 15:57
#86
The NDP generates its own press releases on its own subjects quite often. When it make policy announcements it has its own schedule. How long does it take to write $ 1 billion dollars would eliminate senior poverty, instead of talking: affordable reductions? Research is what takes the time.
Which one is likely is more likely to be quoted or remembered?
People like me only know what the party is saying through its releases.Most staff out of Ottawa must use them as well. How do you create a climate of opinion without factual information?
The news cycle is managed through leaks, e-mails, phone calls, lunches, drinks, and tweets. What we do not see I cannot comment on.
Sun, 2011-02-20 17:09
#87
The Google search "seniors poverty site:ndp.ca" brought up the following search items.
http://www.google.ca/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=seniors+poverty+s...
That should give you enough reading material for now.
Sun, 2011-02-20 17:14
#88
I think that too much dependence is placed on the 'news cycle'. From my ill-informed perspective, the Egyptians rallied against a controlled media and prospered.
Pensions and seniors are the thin edge of the wedge: a focal point for dissent but the issue also encompasses the insecurities created by rising energy prices and the effect that has on the cost of life's necessities. The last decade's choice of food or heat is rendered moot in this one because both will be equally unaffordable for lesser income earners.
Can the NDP pay for advertising to keep hammering at the government on this issue until it takes on a life of its own? Make an end run on the media? Harness the power of the internet to facebook,tweet,email and generally annoy the populace out of their slumber and into the streets? Why can't leftists use the power of the internet to create a climate of opinion?
Sun, 2011-02-20 17:45
#89
True, harnessing the power of the net can work ...imagine a viral video showing seniors in Canada opening up their "meal of the week"..and that meal being canned cat food...or dog food...under conservative rule this is your future ..suck it up..suck it all up!
You know what the funny thing would be..well not funny but predictable...the right wing slime buckets would say ..if you can afford cat food or even having a pet ..you shouldn't be in poverty ..we have food banks...I kid you not, this is what they would say
Sun, 2011-02-20 17:53
#90
Harper will decide if we have an election or not, but my hunch is he doesn't want one this year. Sure sounds like the NDP strategy is working fine to me.
And I agree with Ken this thread title leaves a lot to be desired.
Canada's Flaherty warms to opposition on budget
Canada's finance minister said on Saturday he could juggle spending in his next budget to accommodate any worthwhile opposition demands, a strong signal that a snap election may be averted.
Flaherty said some of the opposition's demands fit with the minority Conservative government's plan to help low-income Canadians. His remarks came the day after the leader of the leftist New Democratic Party (NDP) made four proposals with similar aims.
The minority government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper needs the support of at least one opposition party to pass key legislation like the budget and stay in power. If the budget is defeated in Parliament, it would automatically trigger an election.
"I shouldn't get into specifics but we made it clear we do want to take some measures to help people with the most need and I think there are suggestions from some of the opposition parties that would meet that criteria," Flaherty told Reuters Insider television in an interview in Paris.
Flaherty will deliver his budget in March and the two biggest opposition parties -- the Liberals and the separatist Bloc Quebecois -- are seen as unlikely to support it.
http://ca.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idCATRE71I3EF20110219
Sun, 2011-02-20 18:02
#91
True, harnessing the power of the net can work ...imagine a viral video showing seniors in Canada opening up their "meal of the week"..and that meal being canned cat food...or dog food...under conservative rule this is your future ..suck it up..suck it all up!
You know what the funny thing would be..well not funny but predictable...the right wing slime buckets would say ..if you can afford cat food or even having a pet ..you shouldn't be in poverty ..we have food banks...I kid you not, this is what they would say
And you would have a whole bunch of people from the 'left' who would complain it didn't include this, and this, and this and was to simplistic and played on emotion and so on. The left can't win because there are those on the left who won't let it because they are too busy playing Monday morning quaterback on Sunday afternoon.
Sun, 2011-02-20 18:05
#92
I think Flaherty is spinning the government does not want an election line. The Cons want to blame the opposition for the election they provoke.
Sun, 2011-02-20 18:11
#93
Boom Boom
There can be no doubt about it - Charlie is a real decent guy.
Sun, 2011-02-20 18:30
#94
Wonderful, as that will be even better for the NDP then.
I know it's hard on some folks seeing the NDP act more like the official opposition than who is supposed to be doing the job. This is brilliant strategy of Layton's going into the election representing the working people of Canada against the right who want to continue to rip-off most Canadians. I'd support this and will vote NDP.
Sun, 2011-02-20 18:37
#95
The adoption of email by seniors is increasing, according to recent studies. But they're not on Facebook to the same extent as youngsters, and not at all on Twitter.
But armchair socialists abound there: so by all means yes let's go at this Internet thing full bore.
Sun, 2011-02-20 18:51
#96
North Report has nailed it. Layton has taken on the role of the official opposition. Initiating and brokering the coalition alternative, presenting alternative policies like his four points for this budget, and speaking out about how Canadians are losing their democracy.
I agree with Roscoe, the internet i.e. sites such as rabble.ca and other social media, can get to and mobilize people left in the dark by the corporate media. If the left does not do it, does anyone expect the right to politely abstain from taking unfair advantage by using it themselves?
Sun, 2011-02-20 19:01
#97
That's right. They're hoping Canadians will be so cranky after being forced to get out and vote that they will blame the NDP for not playing nice in Ottawa. And Conservatives are willing to bet that the phony majority machine churns one out in their favour this time.
I think that the real reason Harpers pine for an election is because both the Liberals and Harpers want to get rid of a few NDP MPs from their effective opposition roles, because the NDP is making the official opposition look like a redundant conservative party. It just looks bad for the two-party charade in Ottawa with the NDP receiving even the news coverage that they do.
But it will not be because the minority Tories don't have an effective majority with the Liberals riding shotgun on corporate tax cuts and other key planks in the corporate welfare agenda. Ignatief is speaking with forked tongue when condemning Harper's corporate tax cuts - the same ones which his party supported all along and promised even deeper cuts than the Harpers themselves not long ago.
I hate to say it but it 's almost a given and sure bet that an election will produce, at the very least, a win-win situation for Bay Street with either the Tories or Liberals in minority government with the other wing of the party backing them up on all of the most important corporate welfare policies and either throwing the country down a debt hole, or the upswing of national indebtedness which is austerity and shovelling billions to bankers while strangling the economy so as the country as a whole can not pay the bills. The only ones with anything to lose in an early election scenario are the NDP and the millions of Canadians they are fighting on behalf of.
Sun, 2011-02-20 19:07
#98
North Report has nailed it. Layton has taken on the role of the official opposition. Initiating and brokering the coalition alternative, presenting alternative policies like his four points for this budget, and speaking out about how Canadians are losing their democracy.
I agree with Roscoe, the internet i.e. sites such as rabble.ca and other social media, can get to and mobilize people left in the dark by the corporate media. If the left does not do it, does anyone expect the right to politely abstain from taking unfair advantage by using it themselves?
Yet the article published by rabble on this issue is a wholly inaccurate screed by Murray Dobbin that has no due dilgence in confirming facts and seems to be entirely based on not just MSM, but the farthest right of that breed. Will there be an apology issued for misleading rabble readers and for factual innacuracy. rabbe loses its reason to exist if it is just going to parrot the MSM and not do basic fact checking.
Sun, 2011-02-20 19:09
#99
Boom Boom
I'm still a little vexed by this part of the G&M's article on Friday:
"Mr. Harper and Jack Layton met Friday behind closed doors in the Prime Minister's Langevin Block office. That meeting coincided with the NDP Leader's decision to abandon the party's demand that the Conservatives scrap further corporate tax cuts in the March budget.
A senior NDP official said that in exchange for this concession, Mr. Layton's conditions will have to be met if the NDP is to support the budget."
So, is there no truth to that article, or did Layton reverse himself today? 
Sun, 2011-02-20 19:13
#100
No quote, no names. I think it was made up, or someone who is not all that senior. Have a look at what Charlie Angus said. Does he not have some credibility? I think he has a lot more credibility than some nameless, faceless, supposedly 'senior' official. That is the oldest bs trick in the book.
Sun, 2011-02-20 19:18
#101
I don't believe that Murray Dobbin needs to apologize after Jack Layton's clarification on CTV's Question Period. I do think that Mr. Dobbin is correct in that Mr. Layton's mish-mash of promises will hurt the NDP during the next election campaign.
I don't think all is lost for Layton and the NDP in the next election campaign. Layton does need to set a focus and prioritize important issues so that his political loyalists and base will campaign for the NDP. Personally, I hope he does away with "Putting Working Families First." He should go with "Improving Canadian democracy; improving Canadians' lives." Even if Layton doesn't go with my idea, he does need a clear focus.