Like many people I was disgusted to see the Globe and Mail editorial board endorse Stephen Harper.
It was hard to believe a serious news organization, whose own reporters had catalogued such a long list of abuse, corruption, and contempt for Parliament, could come to such a conclusion.
And it was clear to me that the only reason they were endorsing Harper was because of his plans to cut corporate taxes.
And their Big Business masters were jerking their leashes...
It was porky, it was crass. And the fact that they would put profits before their country, at such a critical time in Canadian history, will shame them FOREVER.
So I'm glad to see a Globe contributor take on the editorial board.
This dishonesty transcends the kind of white lies that people expect of politicians; it suggests hostility toward the truth. Indeed, in some of the government’s stranger moments, the Conservatives appear to have lost touch with reality altogether, blinded by ideology while caught in their own spin cycle. Witness their response to being the first government in Canadian history to be found in contempt of Parliament. To the Tories, this was a mere difference of opinion. The Globe endorsement made no mention of that.
To me, this election goes beyond ideology: it’s about trust. The very fact that Mr. Harper and his entourage could behave in such a dishonest manner and still get The Globe’s endorsement is an indication of how cynical we've become about our political process under this government.
Both Michael Ignatieff and Jack Layton have given us far more reason to believe they are trustworthy, honest leaders who have a grip on the reality Canadians face.
Yay Matthew. Say it like is, or should have been.
If you believe in democracy, and love our beautiful Canada.
Voters who believe that Canada can — and should — aim higher have an important decision. Until 10 days ago, they had only one realistic alternative to the Conservatives — the Liberal party under Michael Ignatieff. Today, that is no longer the case.
The New Democrats have been reinvigorated under the leadership of Jack Layton. After Monday, they may well challenge the Liberals as the principal national standard-bearer for the roughly two voters in three who disagree fundamentally with the course charted by the Harper Conservatives. Progressive voters should give them their support on Monday.
No wonder the Cons are so desperate, and are throwing their fecal pellets at Jack Layton. When they're not chewing on them like peanuts. That's why that Sun story was released tonight, to try to blunt the impact of that endorsement. Because it's HUGE. Especially in the Greater Toronto Area where the Cons are hoping to pick up seats.
The NDP are at 33 per cent support nationwide, up three percentage points in recent days and just four points back from the Conservatives who are at 37 per cent, up two, according to the latest Angus Reid poll done in partnership with the Toronto Star and La Presse.
The Liberals have dropped by three percentage points this week to 19 per cent. That’s where the NDP stood at the start of the campaign, illustrating the stunning turn in fortunes for both parties.
I suppose anything is possible. But I wouldn't bet on it.
I'm betting that this country wants real change.
Out of the darkness comes hope.
Out of the manure that is Con Canada, spring the finest flowers...
I always knew he was a monster. You know I did. I always knew he would do ANYTHING for a majority. We all did.
But now I think I can say this categorically: Stephen Harper is to the Canadian body politic what syphilis is to the human body.
Jack Layton accused his opponents of launching a smear campaign after a report alleged the NDP leader was found naked in a Toronto massage parlour long before he got into federal politics.
A political thug who would infect our democracy with the disease of American politics, cripple and blind it, and drag our country into the gutter.
I see the Con Death Machine is denying any responsibility.
Conservative party officials declined comment Friday night.
“All I can say is it wasn't us,” said one senior Tory insider.
“We have no interest in this and, if anything, this kind of a story benefits the Liberals not us,” said the source.
But since just a few days ago a top Con operative, they flew in from Chicago, was accused of peddling a ridiculous story about Michael Ignatieff.
And since we now know from which stinky swamp these Con operatives come from.
Opposition parties have long suspected that the Tories use U.S.-based and (likely) Republican Party-affiliated political consultants to develop campaign strategy. But determining which consultants are on the payroll is difficult.
Do they really think anyone will believe them? And would YOU trust these RepubliCon sleaze monkeys with a Canadian government, let alone a majority?
Oh boy. My parents prepared for a lot of things, they warned me about all kinds of bad people. But they never could have prepared me for this. And for a moment when I first read the story, I thought I was going to vomit.
The good news? It's probably going to backfire. Jack Layton will have a far easier time denying that he did anything wrong, than Stephen Harper will have denying he is a sleaze artist, or a political pervert.
And of course it only reinforces what I have come to believe at the end of this election campaign. Vote smart, but if you can join the orange wave join it.
Let it roll across the country like a democratic tsunami, wash these filthy Cons into the sewer of history.
Uh oh. I see that quite a few progressives are putting on their party hats, and popping the champagne, after reading this story.
Stephen Harper's Conservatives must win 23 more seats in Ontario to achieve their coveted majority, a task that senior party insiders now admit is almost impossible, the Star has learned.
“It all comes down to Ontario and we're just not there,” a source said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the party's internal polling is closely guarded.
But I'm keeping the beer in the box, because I don't believe a word. The Con Death Machine never leaks ANYTHING unless it suits their sinister purposes, and this is clearly designed to suppress the vote.
Nothing motivates most Canadians more than the thought of a Harper majority, but if some believe the danger has passed they may not bother to vote. Or they may vote with their hearts, rather than their heads, split the vote, and give Harper his bleeding majority on a plate.
It's happening in the Quebec City area, where the orange wave is threatening to wash away several Con seats, but may yet fall short because the Bloc and the Liberals could rob the NDP of the few more votes they need to win.
The poll of 2,401 respondents in six ridings found the NDP leading in four of the six ridings but by slim margins. In the riding of Quebec, currently held by the Bloc’s Christiane Gagnon, and Louis St. Laurent, currently held by Verner, NDP candidates are tied with the incumbents.
And in Ontario, where the NDP and the Liberals divide up the progressive vote so evenly, the vote splitting threat is even more dire.
Also, over the weekend when Canadians have more time to watch TV, the Con Death Machine aided by the Liberals, the Bloc, and the corporate media, will launch the greatest concerted assault on a political party this country has ever seen. In a last ditch effort to scare voters...especially seniors... away from the NDP.
And even an incident like this one could prove disastrous. Used to fuel that fear.
Because this is an an election that will be fought all the way to B.C. And whose outcome NOBODY can predict.
So no, I'm not putting on my party hat just yet. Sometimes I'm so filled with hope I think I don't need a boat to get to the island...
I could just walk across the water eh? Or surf the orange wave.
But other times I'm filled with fear and foreboding, because the insanity of a divided left facing a united right could still come back to haunt us. And snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
I don't know what else to say. I'm going to have think it over, and write about it on the weekend.
But some things are obvious. We cannot afford to relax, the danger is still very real. We need to keep warning Canadians about the dangers of a Harper majority. We must work even harder to get out the vote.
And on election day we must be prepared to vote SMART, and put our Canada before our parties.
Or we could still wake up on Tuesday, mourning our shattered hopes, in a country we soon won't recognize...
Can we win? YES WE CAN.
We've never been closer. Even in the moral darkness of Harperland, just beyond the horizon I can see the distant glow of a new and better day rising.
But fight them like there was no tomorrow. Put hope before fear.
Caramba. It seems that Great Ugly Leader is being buffeted by the winds of change.
Harper’s final campaign week has been a logistical nightmare.
The man who preaches stability has encountered turmoil everywhere.
Tuesday night, fog of epic proportions forced his flight to be diverted from Kitchener to Toronto.
Wednesday, apocalyptic thunder storms descended on Waterloo as he left a local manufacturing plant.
Thursday, winds of biblical force buffeted his bus as he departed Niagara Falls, then a fire broke out across the street from the hotel at which he had just spoken.
Reporters following Harper to a winery tour were involved in a minor car accident and trees were uprooted along the road.
Golly. I knew that magic wooden chicken I picked up in Mexico would come in handy eh?
If I rub it hard enough I think I can deliver a tornado this weekend and an earthquake orange wave on Monday.
Harper you cockroach. That'll teach you to torch the planet.
Hooray for Mother Nature. Long live Canada.
And as for the chicken...it couldn't stop the Canadiens from being eliminated from the playoffs. Damn.
But making Harper's farewell tour a nightmare is even BETTER.
Can you believe the nerve of Stephen Harper? The oil pimp from Calgary, Big Oil's favourite fellator, accusing Jack Layton of causing pain at the pumps.
Stephen Harper is warning an NDP-led coalition government would raid Canadians’ pocketbooks and savage the economy as the Conservative Leader tries to curb surging support for Jack Layton that imperils his long-sought Tory majority.
He’s predicting, for instance, that the NDP’s cap-and-trade system to restrict greenhouse gas emissions would boost gas prices in Canada by 10 cents a litre.
His sucking and blowing of his Big Oil masters is allowing them to gouge us.
And his failure to rein in the Dirty Oil Sands that are helping pushing our dollar up, is killing our manufacturing jobs.
The high exchange rate for the Canadian dollar is making it much harder to reduce our unemployment rate and create new jobs in the manufacturing heartland of Quebec and Ontario.
Rather, there's a danger the high dollar will cause manufacturing businesses to fail or shift more activities abroad. In the case of foreign-owned subsidiaries, there's an incentive to consolidate operations in the U.S. and close plants here.
Why does Stephen Harper hate Ontario and Quebec so much? Why can't working class kids have decent jobs, instead of flipping hamburgers? Why is he letting his Big Oil buddies in Alberta gouge us? Why is he running around in a Texan cowboy hat shouting hee haw, and giving Canadians the finger? Why does he hate Canada soooo much?
Yup. If I was the opposition parties I would hit Harper with those questions all the way to the election. Because on this issue, like health care, he has no credibility.
I mean would YOU trust an oil pimp, from Calgary, to crackdown on Big Oil, and force them to stop ripping us off?
And we can force him to spend the last days of the campaign defending himself, and turn that pain at the pumps... into even more pain at the polls...
Hee haw. We got that Calgary oil pimp where we want him.
Oh no. It looks as if Great Ugly Leader is getting a little ... um...agitated. Once he screamed at his captive audiences about the dangers of the "Separatist Coalition." Now he's rattling his skull, shaking his feathers, and warning about the perils of smiles and snake oil.
On Wednesday night, the Conservative Leader launched his sharpest attack so far on Mr. Layton, warning voters not be lured astray by “smiles and snake oil” and offering dire warnings of the damage the New Democrats might do to Canada.
When in fact never has their been a more Big Oily leader. Or a more dangerous one. The snakes are in the PMO.
Sun Media owner Pierre Karl Peladeau took Muttart to task Wednesday, saying he supplied false information to the news organization that inaccurately portrayed Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff as a planner of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
And even the Dark Lord of Sun Media knows a loser when he sees one.
"If any proof is needed to dispel the false yet still prevalent notion that Sun Media and the Sun News Network are the official organs of the Conservative Party of Canada, I offer this unfortunate episode as Exhibit A."
And look !!!! Now the thugs in the PMO are fighting each other.
Rattled Conservative insiders, who spoke only on background, said Muttart, a former deputy chief of staff to Stephen Harper and senior political operative, was treated badly by both the party and the Sun. Some blamed campaign director Guy Giorno.
A Conservative party source said that while some thought getting rid of Muttart was a good thing, there are people inside the campaign who “are pissed about how he was treated.
With only FOUR days to go before the election.
And let's not forget that some of his other senior advisers have bigger things to worry about than a Con majority. Like prison.
And as you know, Harper's parrot Dimitri Soudas is similarly distracted.
One moment he's trying to muzzle the media, the next moment he's talking to his lawyer.
Oh. My. Goombah. All I can say is the next time Harper's former senior adviser Bruce Carson, and his hooker former leader of the violent prostitution ring, visit the PMO, they'll be in good company.
Can you believe it eh? Once they were fighting for a majority. Now they're fighting each other over the next best thing...
Yikes. No wonder more and more Canadians think Jack Layton would make the best Prime Minister.
Poll after poll Wednesday confirmed Jack Layton’s NDP is in a solid second place, even as a new leadership survey suggests Canadians now feel he’d make the best prime minister of the pack.
You know when this election campaign started I was a bit worried about a Con majority. And of course about going to prison.
But now that I realize that the Cons are the ones heading for the pen, and will need all the snake oil they can get, to rub on the backs of their new and heavily tattooed friends. In lieu of... um...other favours.
I can't wait to write a victim's statement on behalf of the Canadian people, to try to triple their sentences.
If like me you've been finding Stephen Harper looking and sounding even more plastic and robotic than usual.
And wonder whether he's just a maniac stalking a majority, or a cyborg waiting to grill us like chickens.
Aaron Wherry, in a brilliant article, explains how the robot is made.
All campaigns create kinds of bubbles—the constant movement deadening the brain and reducing everything else to a blur in your periphery—but Mr. Harper’s possesses the unique feel of a travelling television program.
The audience is here to wave signs and applaud. They are here to further the illusion that this is something other than a taped television advert.
It's a chilling portrait of totalitarian media control.
When a television reporter, unsatisfied with the response to a question he had posed after one event last week, dared to direct a supplementary question at Mr. Harper, the Conservative partisans around the Prime Minister rose up to drown out the journalist with cheers. (Among the most enthusiastic applauders was a member of the Prime Minister’s staff—a senior advisor apparently hired both for his ability to forcefully put his hands together and his eagerness to defend the boss from any assertion of unapproved reality.) The reporter kept shouting and the crowd grew louder. The reporter persisted and the crowd stood and began to chant Mr. Harper’s name.
Mr. Harper simply stood there, in the middle of it all, waiting for the man to give up.
And it makes you wonder what this sinister cyborg might be like if he ever got a majority.
And this is telling too.
Thus, Mr. Harper enjoys wide latitude to simply talk around subjects he’d rather avoid. He is discipline personified and he will give no life to undesirable stories. And with the press, addled on Twitter, unwilling to dwell on anything for more than 48 hours (if that), he has proceeded steadily through this campaign, through half a dozen scandals of varying relevance, without so much as a dip in his party’s standing.
So much for the twitterati.
But I have to admit the part I most liked about Wherry's article was when he compared Harper's phony routine to that of a rotisserie salesman...
Because it's so true eh? The Con crowds clap just like that. And that's what he would do to us if he ever got a majority.
And it reminds me of another ad Great Plastic Leader made.
You know those fancy jets whose price just keeps climbing ? But he doesn't care.
Well here he is asking us to guess how much they'll cost.
And claiming they're a BARGAIN...
Yeah...yeah...I know I shouldn't be laughing at this point in the campaign. But think of it this way eh?
If Stephen Harper wins a majority we won't be laughing for at least FOUR years.
But if we play our cards right on Monday night, Harper will be the one looking for a new job as a televangelist or a rotisserie salesman.
And we'll be the ones grilling him like a chicken...
When I was a boy I thought that being a Boy Scout was a good thing.
When I was older I was proud when other nations called us Boy Scouts. Because we were the decent mediators and peacekeepers of the world.
When I grew up I came to understand that the war in Afghanistan was a tragic mistake.
So what the hell was Michael Ignatieff talking about today?
A Jack Layton government would be a mistake, he said, especially on a file like Afghanistan, where the NDP has demanded Canadian troops be pulled out immediately.
"Come on, folks, let's be serious," Ignatieff said in Vancouver Tuesday.
"We've got to choose a government on the 2nd of May; we can't choose a bunch of boy scouts on this issue."
And why ? When he has almost no political experience, was a poor opposition leader, who let Harper climb all over him.
And if he wasn't such a fussy chickenhawk, he wouldn't have wrecked his chances in Quebec by supporting the war. And Canadian troops wouldn't still be dying in Afghanistan for NOTHING.
You know it's ironic eh? The man whose hopes were strangled by the foul Con attack machine, is going out trying to smother the hopes of so many other progressive Canadians with his own attack ads.
When he should just be hammering the Cons and selling his own party platform. Because he could be soon working with Layton in a coalition government.
And one day the Liberals and the NDP may merge to form a new party that will drive the Cons from power FOREVER. As this Liberal Senator suggests.
Oh well. Vote for who you must. But I'm tired of the same old, same old, and I'm voting for hope.
I'm never been a political partisan. I was too wild and rebellious to be a good Boy Scout. And after the election I shall go back to marching to the sound of my own drum.
But right now I'm taking a chance for REAL change.
In all the excitement over the orange wave yesterday, I forgot to mention a much darker story.
This warning from pro-choice groups about what might happen if Stephen Harper ever got a majority.
Women's rights may be at risk if Stephen Harper's Conservatives win a majority government, a coalition of pro-choice groups said Monday.
Not that I could ever forget how Stephen Harper went after women's rights from the moment he came to office. How he loves to diminish or humiliate them. And how he is going after that wonderfully human group Planned Parenthood.
The group said Canadians should look at the Conservatives' actions rather than Harper's reassurances the party wouldn't reopen the abortion debate, and pointed to comments last week by Conservative candidate Brad Trost, the incumbent in Saskatoon-Humboldt.
Trost said the government de-funded Planned Parenthood because of pressure from groups opposing abortion.
It makes my blood boil to see a group like that treated in such a manner, and to see women's rights given such little notice in this election campaign. And what frustrates me to no end is why the MSM has not made a link between the Con War on Women. And the one raging in the United States.
Congress just voted for a Republican amendment to cut all federal funding from Planned Parenthood health centers, one of the most trusted providers of basic health care and family planning in our country.
Because if the MSM did make the link, they would expose its madness.
WEST: We need you to come in and lock shields, and strengthen up the men who are going to the fight for you. To let these other women know on the other side — these planned Parenthood women, the Code Pink women, and all of these women that have been neutering American men and bringing us to the point of this incredible weakness — to let them know that we are not going to have our men become subservient.
Its heart of darkness...
The real horror of the Con Regime. And why Canadians can't trust Harper not to ban abortion if he gets a majority. Because I wouldn't trust him as far as I can spit.
Oh well. If the MSM won't cover that story, or talk about the war on women, scrawl this one on a wall as well.
Stephen Harper and his Cons are filthy MISOGYNISTS.
He has always been the sleaziest homophobic zombie in a ReformCon government that is full of them.
A grubby religious fanatic, a 43-year-old bachelor, who smells of talcum powder, and has never missed an opportunity to hurt gay people.
During the debate over gay marriage he taunted them by saying they could get married if they married somebody of the opposite sex. Two years ago he symbolically exterminated gay people by disappearing them from the Citizens Guide.
In this election he's been telling new immigrants to vote THEIR social conservative values. i.e. strip gays of all their rights, and send women back to the 1950s.
And now this grubby Con bigot, has been caught with his homophobic pants around his ankles. Exposed as a supporter of another greasy homophobe.
Among the comments attributed to Earle in the Tribunal’s finding of facts:
“Put a cock in her mouth and shut her up;”
You’re a fat ugly cunt. No man will fuck you;”
“Do you have a strap-on? You can take your girlfriend home and fuck her in the ass;”
“Are you on the rag? Is that why you’re being a fucking cunt?”
Can you believe that? A government minister standing up for a man accused of debasing gay people and women, in such a coarse and brutish manner.
But of course I'm not surprised. I've heard that Kenney's office has been preparing a Defence of Religion bill that would allow Christianist fanatics to enter schools and tell gay kids that God hates them, and wants them killed. And nobody will be able to stop them.
Even though that hatred could drive bullied gay kids to kill themselves.
And now of course that cowardly bigot is hiding in his rat hole.
Kenney did not respond to an e-mail request from NOW for comment and as of Tuesday morning (April 26) had yet to return a call to his campaign office in Calgary requesting a response.
Oh boy. Anyone who believes that if Stephen Harper and his foul RepubliCons get a majority they wouldn't kill gay marriage and hurt gay children, is either a useful idiot or a Con collaborator.
Fight them, fight them, fight them. For the sake of our poor bullied kids.
The EKOS-iPolitics survey of more than 3,000 Canadians finds 28 per cent of decided voters now support the NDP, compared to 23.7 per cent who plan to vote Liberal. The Conservatives hold less than a six-point lead, sitting with 33.7 per cent support with just one week to go before election day.
While numbers could still change significantly in the final week of the campaign, Graves said current figures suggest the NDP could take a “breathtaking” 100 seats. With that count, the once-unthinkable scenario of a Layton-led coalition with the Liberals begins to emerge, he said.
And as for those tulips.
They're now a humungous beanstalk....
And the best news of all? Great Ugly Giant Midget is sobbing in his castle, desperately hanging on to his tiny minority.
Current numbers would likely produce 131 seats for the Conservatives and about 69 for the Liberals, according to Graves. Together, the NDP and Liberals would have a clear majority with 38 more seats than the Conservatives, as well as a collective 20 more points in popular vote.
And hopefully working on his resignation letter...
Because how is he going to attack the Leader of the "Separatist" Coalition? When Layton is stealing votes away from the separatists and doesn't need them to form a government.
So much for the King of Canada. So much for the political genius.
Oh yeah. One more thing...the Liberals should remember what the Bloc is learning the hard way. When you attack a popular guy like Jack with ridiculous ads like this one...
You risk looking really cheap and desperate. And making Jack even MORE popular. Because that ad is sooooo tacky, and this is grotesque.
Let Harper have his majority - I never understood why everyone was so afraid of a man who would likely be there for one term and wouldn't likely change a heck of a lot. I disagree with the guy on policy and direction, but he will not destroy the country.
Or just IDIOT. I mean why would we fight ourselves when we have the monster where we want him?
Oh well. I guess that's what REAL change means eh?
When a big orange wave comes roaring straight at you, you either ride it or you get SWAMPED.
Oh Great Polar Bear God of The Great White North. I don't know what I've done to deserve this. But please tell me so I can do it again.
And if I'm just dreaming, don't you DARE wake me....
A 500-page dossier of potentially damaging remarks by Stephen Harper has hit the election campaign, but don't blame the opposition parties — it was prepared by the Conservatives.
Oh no...decisions...decisions... I can't decide which quote I like more, this one:
"I'm not ashamed to say that, in caucus, I have more pro-life MPs supporting me than supporting Stockwell Day."
Or this one.
"Providing for the poor is a provincial, not a federal responsibility."
Isn't this warning interesting?
A cover note on the 2004 instalment says the quotes "that have the potential to be the most problematic are the quotations dealing with health care."
And isn't this simply DELICIOUS?
The research was begun in 2003 by Harper's former chief of staff, Tom Flanagan, who appears to have believed the old adage that forewarned is forearmed.
But of course he would eh?
Mein Strangelove, mein Strangelove....da Fuhrer the Calgary School would be proud of you. Just like I am.
But of course, Great Ugly Leader and his Con mob are VERY upset, so the sooner you can propel yourself to Paraguay the better.
Gawd. How spooky eh?
The Con quest for The Thousand Year Majority, is ending.
As you know I have always tried to be as non-partisan as possible. All I want is ANYONE but Harper. But these days, like most people in my neighbourhood, I'm also hoping for an orange wave.
I'm hoping for that because I honestly believe that what Jack Layton has managed to achieve in Quebec, breaking the stranglehold of the Bloc, is a historic opportunity that may not be repeated again.
And I'm worried about what might happen in Ontario.
The surge of the New Democratic Party in Quebec appears to be holding strong but a new survey conducted by Nanos Research suggests there has been no similar bump for the NDP in Ontario, where elections are won and lost.
I'm worried that if the NDP and Liberal support remains roughly the same, the vote split could help the Cons. And I know we could lose that historic opportunity.
“There are probably a number of voters in Quebec who have watched what’s happened and have started to park into the undecided column,” he said. “ It doesn’t mean that they are necessarily going to move to the New Democrats. It means that they are up for grabs in the last seven days of the campaign.”
Just like I know that if Ontario did join the orange wave even more people in Quebec would vote for the NDP, so would people in the Atlantic provinces and British Columbia. We could steal some Con seats even in Saskatchewan.
And a great orange wave could sweep from coast to coast to coast. And change this country FOREVER.
I hope my Liberal friends don't hold these words against me, or treat me like The Enemy. Because of course I'm not. There are a lot of good Canadians in that party. Including the person I love the most. And I'm sorry what those foul bully Cons have done to their leader.
“Those negative [Conservative] attack ads helped form Canadians’ opinions of Michael Ignatieff even before Day One in this election,” said Mr. Nanos. “He started off with a disadvantage” and has not been able to overcome it.
But the sad truth is Ignatieff has been damaged beyond repair. The Liberals have lost Quebec. Their party is old and tired. And it can't offer the hope Jack Layton and the NDP can, for something new and different.
And then there is this other consideration. If the Liberals did end up in third place, and working in a coalition government with Layton as Prime Minister, a little humility might do them good. They would be forced to come to terms with what kind of party they really are. And that would make it easier for them and the NDP to merge, and form the Liberal Democrats. Our best hope for a Con-free future.
I know that changing old habits and party loyalties is hard. I realize that anyone who advocates that, is likely to be shot at by both sides. And I am aware, as Steve from Far and Wide writes, that our biggest enemy is cynicism.
We keep telling ourselves that voters aren't cynical, but every measure suggests the opposition- they are, and nobody has really changed that perception, unless having no wear on your tires classifies as profound inspiration. People kicking themselves trying to figure out why Harper isn't floundering in the polls, chiefly it's because there is such a firm wall of pure cynicism surrounding the whole process, all the actors, all the brands, that the impetus for substantive change never manifests.
But after the breakthrough in Quebec, that's the other big reason I am hoping for an orange wave. As an idealistic person I don't want to live in a cynical Con world. It's choking the life out of me like some dark winter of the soul.
And nothing can break that grim hamster wheel of despair like something new and different.
Oh well. That's all I wanted to say. I will not be criticizing the Liberals in what remains of this campaign. Just working as hard as I can to help the progressive cause prevail. Still asking progressives to vote smart.
Because first and foremost those evil Cons must be DEFEATED.
But in my heart I'll also be hoping for an orange wave. And a new beginning for Canada after so many years of darkness.
I may be disappointed eh? But that has never stopped me before.
Canadians should never put absolute trust in any politician and must constantly quiz their leaders, Stephen Harper says.
“We always say, in all these elections, in a democratic ethos, voters are never supposed to give absolute trust to anybody,” Mr. Harper said.
“They are supposed to constantly question and that is part of the process.”
Now let's take a look at a wider shot of this brief press conference...
And what do you see? A would be dictator hiding from his people. The media forced to shout questions over a fence.
A sinister authoritarian who is muzzling their questions by limiting them to five a day. Or letting his handpicked mob drown them out.
About 500 Conservative backers in Mississauga drowned out CBC reporter Terry Milewski’s efforts to press Harper on the links between a Conservative candidate in Vancouver and a man acquitted in the Air India bombing.
A coward hiding behind a fence, who was too afraid to let a group of students get anywhere near him.
A political thug who has done more than any other Canadian political leader to destroy the democratic ethos of this country. Tear it to pieces like a rabid hyena.
And who still believes he can fool Canadians into trusting him with a majority.
Hidden agenda? More respondents said this label applied to Ignatieff than to Harper. And which leader is most trustworthy? Harper was ahead of Ignatieff by three to one at the outset of the campaign, and the gap has only widened since.
But he's wrong. He has fooled a lot of Canadians with his Big Lies, his politics of division and personal destruction. But we can still wake them up.
In a few hours the Cons will launch the most concentrated barrage of campaign ads this country has ever seen.
But we will be ready too. We may not have the Big Money Machine the Cons have, but we will more than make up for it with our love and enthusiasm for this country.
They will not drown out OUR message. We will get it out loud and proud by whatever means necessary, whether we have to make a video, write a poem, sing a song, put up posters, or just scrawl it on a wall.
We will help our progressive parties, we will hand out pamphlets, we will get out the vote.
And when it comes to enthusiasm, and poems and songs of freedom, the youth will lead the way...
Oh how lucky we are to be able to fight for our beautiful country when it needs us the most.
The danger is great, but so is the HOPE.
Now more than ever, fight them, fight them, fight them.
Well I finally got a chance to watch Sun TV Nooz. After calling my cable channel to make sure I wasn't paying for it eh?
And all I can say is they should change the name of Ezra Levant's show from The Source to The Sauce. Because anyone who watches this low budget production is going to need it. Glug. Glug. Glug.
I mean I always knew it was going to be bad. But who knew it would be so BORING?
The overall look of SNN, at least in these early days, is of a network trying to do more with less. The sets and lighting are Spartan, and the fact that the hosts of various shows keep popping up on other hosts' shows leaves one wondering if we're watching a news network or a sketch-comedy show (seriously, when is SCTV's Earl Camembert going to take a turn behind the anchor desk?).
Levant, sensing that Canadians might be ill-prepared for Sun News, cautioned viewers: "Don't hide under your beds ... This is not an invasion of Martians ... We're about truth and freedom ..."
Enough. We get the point. Levant seeks to polarize - that is his agenda. He is self-aggrandizing and sanctimonious - also his agenda - but he runs the risk of becoming tiresome real fast. That could be his tragic flaw.
Because let's face it, that nerd is EVERYWHERE.
His stream of consciousness ravings are so absurd, the spittle flies so furiously. The only way to safely enjoy The Sauce is to hire a screen cleaner.
Mute the sound, and laugh at his funny faces.
And if that wasn't bad enough, or the set wasn't garish enough, the supporting cast of this Con klown network is so ridiculous.
The anchors shout a lot for people who mostly agree with each other, as if music someone else had chosen was playing too loudly. The women smile and nod a great deal. They all wear bright short skirts. None of them have sleeves. About 70 per cent of Sun TV’s programming feels like being trapped at a second cousin’s wedding reception.
Even a kid can see through them.
My son came downstairs while I was watching Sun TV. Fifteen minutes into his oatmeal, not five years from voting age, he laughed and said, “Wow, they’re like little kids who’ve built a cardboard fort, and now they’re pretending dragons are attacking it.”
Yup. Just as I predicted.
Sometime, in the next SIX months. (I'd say three but I don't want to discourage them)
