In Frank and Passionate Defence of Thomas Mulcair

Well I've defended Justin Trudeau a lot recently, in three of my last six posts.

When she was attacked, I defended Elizabeth May. 

And now it seems I must defend Tom Mulcair.

From a story that suggests that he is really a closeted Harper Con. 

Orange Surge: New Poll Shows the NDP Leading the Other Parties

As I've been saying for quite a while the winds of change are sweeping across this country, and the latest EKOS poll only confirms that.

The NDP is still rising like a rocket.

It's lead over the other parties continues to grow.

And if an election was held tomorrow it would likely be in a position to form a minority government. 

Breaking: New Poll Suggests The NDP is Now Leading the Other Parties.

For weeks Tom Mulcair and the NDP have been climbing steadily in the polls, and it was clear that if that trend continued it was only a matter of time before they passed the other parties.

Well now they finally appear to have done it.

According to the latest EKOS poll they are now in first place.

Orange Wave Rising: A New Poll Shows the NDP On Top

Last week I said that the way Tom Mulcair's NDP was surging in the polls it wouldn't be long before it passed both the Liberals and the Cons.

And sure enough that seems to be what's happened. 

A new EKOS poll has the NDP on top. 

And another orange wave is now a real possibility.

Breaking: A New Poll Suggests the NDP is Surging

For months Tom Mulcair and the NDP have been creeping up in the polls. 

But this latest EKOS poll is still stunning.

For now it's starting to look like an orange surge. 

The Toronto Star Endorses the NDP

This time there is a real choice.

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. 

But can they stop the orange wave?

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...

Recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers

Why Harper Could Still Get a Majority

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.

Now more than ever, hammer those Con bastards...

Recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers

Stephen Harper and the Snake Oil

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 he should know eh?

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.

And I'm feeling really hopeful...

Recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers

Hoping for an Orange Wave

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.

Spring brings life back to The Great White North.

And hope springs ETERNAL...

Recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers