Uh oh. Run for your lives. Or just put on your shin guards and protect your private parts with both hands. Jimbo the nasty Con garden gnome has gone on a rampage.
Accusing the " Opposition Coalition" of trying to hijack the country.
"In the global recession, the ship of state has had a difficult voyage. But we can see the harbour lights. And that's just when a would-be captain and his raging crew are trying to storm the bridge. If they seize the helm, ladies and gentlemen, they'll have us on the rocks."
Which would in normal times be laughable, and result in little Jimbo being shipped off, in a cardboard box, to the nearest insane asylum.
But of course, we don't live in normal times. And the words didn't come from the small mind of the garden gnome. They obviously came from the disturbed mind of Stephen Harper. Who let's not forget is DESPERATE for an election.
For some of the reasons Warren Kinsella mentions here.
The chickens are coming home to roost. The Auditor General's report on the Porky Action plan is coming at them like an express train. This sinister death site is ticking down to the vote on the gun registry.
Harper must be hoping it will be the wedge issue that inflames the country.
The good news? All this scary coalition talk is just another sign of how desperate they are. Yet another attempt to use the Big Lie to try to cover up the truth.
And the truth is the Cons are the ones who have hijacked Canada, by trying to change it beyond recognition with only THIRTY percent of the vote.
The Liberals, the NDP, and the Bloc represent the values of the MAJORITY of Canadians.
Stephen Harper is CRAZY.
And of course, as I pointed out in one of my first videos.
Sooner or later progressives in this country are going to have to come to terms with this cold hard fact: only if Michael Ignatieff wins more seats than Stephen Harper will the Con menace be crushed.
Sooner or later Michael Ignatieff and the Liberals are going to have to swallow this hard truth: even if they do manage to win a narrow majority they will only stay in power if the other opposition parties support them.
And that unless at some point they risk an election, as James Travers points out, they risk losing everything.
This country has a problem. It has a ruling party that twists the truth and an Official Opposition that can’t, or won’t, straighten it out.
One unlikely way to end that impasse is for Stephen Harper to come clean about what he doesn’t like about Canada and how Conservatives are changing it by stealth and increment. Another is for Michael Ignatieff to screw Liberal courage to the sticking point and declare enough is enough.
And that includes losing Canada. And hurting themselves.
No party or leader willingly commits political suicide. Instead, they lurk in the shadows, weighing odds and waiting for a promising moment to strike. Still, parties risk everything when what’s good for them is seen to be more important than what’s good for the country.
Ignatieff knows that Liberals have taken too long to discard the tattered cloak of Canada’s natural governing party. Liberals are proving equally slow in grasping that an opposition afraid to oppose is an empty vessel voters will fill with blame when the ruling party goes too far.
I think that moment has come. The Cons have gone too far. I think the Liberals have to take that risk because only by doing that can they make Canadians understand how high the stakes really are.
I think all the opposition parties should ask voters to support them because they think they have the best candidates for the job. But they should stay away from attacking themselves and concentrate all their fire on the Cons who are destroying our country.
Because how else can you send out a clear message that the Cons are the enemies of Canada?
And they should also make it absolutely clear that when the election is over they will work together to repair the damage and make Canada a country we can be proud of again. I believe that Canadians will understand that message and reward them for it.
How we do this I leave to the professionals who run the opposition parties. But I have no doubt whatsoever that until the day progressives unite, this is the only way to go.
Because I love Canada. The hideous Cons MUST be defeated.
Well I see that all of the Liberal bloggerati were in a sunny mood today, cheerily dismissing any speculation that the showdown in the Commons could lead to a snap election. So I thought I'd send them a picture of some tulips, for brightening up my day....if only for a moment. One good turn deserves another eh?
And of course if they're wrong, they can always take them to their our funerals.
Because I watched Question Period and I got the opposite impression.
“The fact of the matter is the government cannot break the law,” Mr. Harper continued, “it cannot order public servants to break the law, nor can it do anything that would unnecessarily jeopardize the safety of Canadian troops.”
Obviously, the government seeks to respect that decision. At the same time, it seeks to respect its obligations established by statute and passed by this Parliament. That is the position of the government. The leader of the NDP talks about confidence. Of course, the government’s position always depends on the confidence of the House.”
And then there was the way he replied to a question from Gilles Duceppe by launching a diatribe on national unity. Which for some reason made me think of that dastardly separatist coalition.
And only confirmed my belief that if Stephen Harper can he'll go for it. Run on the economy, wrap himself in the flag.
Because now is the time to run on the economy, before higher interest rates expose its fatal weakness. And I agree with Paul Wells.
Every time the prospect of an election has increased sharply over the past four years, the Conservative poll advantage has increased. A few days’ brinksmanship is usually all it takes to put SNAP ELECTION? into a front-page Globe headline, and a distracted electorate starts to engage and polarize, and the Conservatives start to climb in the polls to the Liberals’ disadvantage.
Harper's numbers aren't a problem, not with the Liberals at twenty seven percent. The high NDP numbers might conceivably help the Cons by splitting the vote.
And above all Stephen Harper wouldn't mind a minority one little bit. Because he's only ever had a minority and a little power can go a long way.
It will be the only victory he has sought since January 2006: a chance to stay in power a while longer and make a few more decisions that will cement a broadly Conservative perspective on the way the country should be governed. A few more months during which Bev Oda, not Carolyn Bennett, will be setting the agenda for a G8 summit, and Jason Kenney, not Bob Rae, will have friends on the Rights and Democracy board, and Ken Dryden won’t be opening safe-injection sites, and so on.
Yup. If the monster can he'll go for it. He'll pretend to be as reasonable as possible right until the very last moment. And then he'll force the opposition to either table a motion of contempt.
Or CAVE.
Which is why I believe that the opposition should start hammering the Cons on the economy. Beating this drum a little louder.
Why I believe we really need to remind Canadians in the most graphic way what the Canadian army is accused of doing in Afghanistan. So instead of wrapping himself in the flag, Great Torture Leader can mummify himself with a soiled and bloody diaper.
And why of course we need to prepare for an election, and the biggest and most brutal culture war this country has ever seen.
Because if we're not prepared to do that, and the opposition is forced to cave on a matter of such importance, we might as well tip toe crawl through those tulips.
I was almost late for work today, but I just couldn't stop staring at these pretty little lines from the latest EKOS poll.Especially the blue Con one going down like a hot air balloon with a hole Guergis... in its side.
Helena Guergis and her husband Rahim Jaffer are doing what Michael Ignatieff’s Liberals could not – shake up the electorate and provoke a Tory slide, according to a new poll.
But I was surprised that more people didn't pick up on these ominous words:
“Obviously, highly speculative this week but if things worsen for the government over the coming week, speculation about a snap election will become almost as interesting as the prurient innuendos swirling about Jaffer and Guergis,” Mr. Graves says.
Because I believe we could be very well heading for a early summer election. Just like Chantal Herbert predicted.
The opposition parties and, in particular, the Liberals are adamant that they are not seeking a snap campaign. But the matter is increasingly out of their hands and into those of the Speaker and, eventually, the Prime Minister. No one who watched Harper in action over the time of the 2008 parliamentary crisis doubts that he would be sorely tempted to take his latest conflict with the minority Parliament to the people rather than bow to the opposition and the Speaker's will.
Because believe me Harper does want to go, and sooner rather than later.
All the sordid scandals swirling around the government can only get worse, and the economy is smelling like roses. But that could change when interest rates start to rise in June. The housing bubble could pop, and the stock market could take a tumble.
So now is the time. The Liberals are still looking for a campaign plane. Jack Layton is battling cancer. Stephen Harper must be twitching foaming with anticipation.
He could run on the economy, he could shutdown all the inquiries, he could dismiss the Afghan torture and murder scandal, like Peter McKay was doing today in Question Period.
“I just wish,” (McKay) continued, the rest of his comments playing out rather predictably, “that for once we would get a question from the honourable member that would reflect an acknowledgement that the men and women of the Canadian Forces are continuing to do great work on behalf of our country, at great risk to themselves and their families. He should stop disparaging their name, their work, stop making allegations, insinuating that they are war criminals. That is despicable, detestable evidence.”
And since sadly so few Canadians care about Afghanistan, he just might get away with it.
Of course it all depends on that little blue line. Will other polls confirm the Cons are falling like a hot air balloon? Because if they do Great Ugly Leader probably won't dare take the plunge.
But you know what I'm saying eh? We better be ready.
Because the monster is foaming, hungry and DESPERATE. An election call could come next week.
