Opinion

Memo to Iggy, Jack and Liz: Get Strategic!

On behalf of the Lesser of Evils Party, may I suggest you tell your supporters to just plain vote against Stephen Harper?

By Shannon Rupp, 29 Apr 2011, TheTyee.ca

Harper needs majority cartoon

Cartoon by Greg Perry.

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Memo

Attention: Michael Ignatieff, Jack Layton and Elizabeth May Re: Interpreting the Polls

As a card-carrying member of the Lesser of Evils Party (LEP) I’ve been asked to send you a note regarding those increasingly wacky polls leading up to our biannual election.

You seem to have trouble interpreting them, although they’re all saying the same thing: More than 60 per cent of Canadians want a coalition that does not include Mr. Harper.

So, Mr. Ignatieff, Mr. Layton, and Ms. May, we are asking you to set aside your agendas, personal and professional, and consider the good of the nation. Please ask your candidates and supporters to cast a vote, riding by riding, for whichever party has the best chance of denying The Harper Government ™ even the hint of a mandate.

Despite what Mr. Harper told you, we want a coalition. (In the excitement of chasing the vote you seem to have forgotten he’s a known prevaricator.) While we may not enjoy having our fourth election in seven years, we dislike him even more. There’s no doubt this election was necessary and we want him tossed out permanently this time. Perhaps you need a formal, written agreement for the Canadian Coalition that ensures stability?

There’s been a consistency to the polls for months, which is reinforced by the sudden surge of NDP support in Quebec. For obvious reasons, the Bloc can’t form a coalition, so Quebecers are encouraging the other left-leaning party because they, like the rest of the country, are tired of dealing with that megalomaniac who lies like a rug.

Yes people, even Quebec wants to join a Canadian Coalition. (Perhaps we have something to thank Harper for?)

Which raises the question of why you are all still taking swipes at each other.

Lay off the infighting

We have a shared goal: We all object to The Harper Government ™ for all of the reasons the opposition has outlined, from contempt to corruption. And if you factor in the disgruntled Tories who can’t bring themselves to vote elsewhere, the opposition is overwhelming. Not that any polling will tell you that. As a Tory friend puts it: There is no category in which an anti-Harper Tory can declare herself.

Which is why we in the LEP are speaking up. By the way, we pronounce it “leap” and call ourselves “leapers,” for our willingness to take a leap of faith and vote for people who appear to be unfit for most callings. We’ve been meaning to discuss this with you too, but let’s deal with one problem at a time.

Determining the lesser of evils is a tricky business and our members tend to vote across the spectrum. Alas, our Red Tory members have had nowhere to vote for some years now and have taken to voting with their feet. (There’s less mystery to voter disengagement than you seem to think.)

It’s true some LEP members have been tossing a vote to the ReformaTory minority governments, on the assumption that they couldn’t do much worse than the Liberals. But now they know they were wrong about that. And our female Leapers fear they may become lepers if Harper succeeds in legislating the fundamentalist Christian social agenda.

The LEP platform

I’ll be honest and admit that we at LEP have no fondness for any of the parties. “A Pox on All Their Houses” is our slogan, and we struggle every two years to find somewhere to vote. Courtesy of the superficial nature of party politics, I’ve come to think of you all as ill-conceived pop bands: Harper and the Fundamentalists, Iggy and the Stooges (naturally) and Riverboat Jack and the Gamblers. Am I the only one who looks for a diamond-studded tooth whenever Layton flashes that shark-like grin?

Sadly, we’ve fallen into the U.S. habit of treating politics like an American Idol competition. It isn’t. It’s about finding consensus in how we do things as a nation, with the ultimate goal of ensuring everyone has the opportunity to live the good life.

With that in mind, we’re asking you lot to show some genuine leadership -- in other words, do something that is not entirely self-serving -- and join forces to keep The Harper Government ™ out. It’s the will of the people, and you’ll be doing the Tories a favour too: they need a timeout to dump Harper and his cadre while they find someone more democratic – more, dare I say it, Canadian -- to lead them.

So here’s the plan. Check the website Project Democracy and find out who can beat the Harper minions riding-by-riding. Then come out publicly in a show of unity and advise your followers to support the appropriate candidates.

If we coordinate the voting, it should give us a solid minority-with-a-crutch that includes most Canadian views -- especially if you invite some Tories into the caucus. As I said, our members include despairing Tories and they’re not pretty. One of them likes to offer an open-handed salute and shout “Heil Harper” whenever The Leader comes on television. Then he bursts into tears. We’ve told him this is not helpful, but still, you can see his point.

Afterwards, roles for everyone

Of course, there will be some thorny problems when it comes to forming government, such as who gets to be prime minister -- we’ll leave that one to the seat count -- but we have a few suggestions for the cabinet.

We’d ask you all to back Ms. May in Saanich-Gulf Islands. She’s a thoughtful, hardworking candidate who will make a superb MP. With almost a million Green votes across the country, she deserves a seat and they deserve a voice. Make her minister of the environment and let her deal with the practical problems of some of her views. Not coincidentally, we think it would also give her an excellent example of being careful what you wish for.

Mr. Ignatieff needs to see that he lacks the charisma necessary to win over the mob, and he’s too much a gentleman to play dirty on the hustings. He’s a sophisticated thinker and a diplomat who impressed many of us with his graciousness in the debate, even to Mr. Layton whose egomania gets on everyone’s nerves. We feel that if Mr. Ignatieff doesn’t score the most seats in the coalition, he’s a natural choice for minister of foreign affairs.

We want a Liberal finance minister. Anyone with half a brain and Google knows that it was decades of Liberal policies, including bank regulation, which gave Canada an advantage in the last recession. Please remember the Liberals ran five surplus budgets in a row before Harper got his hand on the kitty and began sending $1.5 billion in subsidies to his pals in the oil patch. Canada can’t survive much more of Harper’s fiscal style.

We want NDP ministers on social policy portfolios including women’s issues, pensions, and health. Again, historically, the NDP gave us our most successful programs.

Tories speak for much of rural Canada and represent small business concerns, which is a significant part of our economy. Don’t ignore the talent on their backbenches in the name of some loony partisanship. That’s just dumb.

Ignore the LEP at your peril

Now, you can ignore this memo and go on sniping at each other, but I warn you LEP members are inclined to interpret lesser-of-evils somewhat whimsically if left to their own devices. This can lead to vote-splitting and another backhanded victory for The Harper Government ™ which -- have I mentioned this? -- more than 60 per cent of us are (loudly!) opposed to.

Read the polls: Please make the Canadian Coalition a reality. And remember people, we’re looking for a responsible government, not an Idol winner. [Tyee]

Shannon Rupp is a Tyee contributing editor, whose previous articles can be found here.

33 Comments:

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  • Jerry Munro

    1 year ago

    Silly Buggers...

    Were I a member of any one of the other parties to capitalism, opposed to these what pass for Conservatives, actually more grey suit and tie fascist in my view, I too would be joining with Shannon here, to urge strategic voting to defeat the bugger. It is a time for all these other parties to get real... from their own perspective.

    Face the facts. You are all not that essentially "liberal" different from each other in any case. There is no substantive difference, except perhaps in some of your own "partisan" minds. Really, fundamentally, from the perspective of programme and policies, you could all really vote for one or the other of you, without the capitalist world you all support coming to an end. (Though from the perspective of practise and history, the official Liberal Party is really.... c'mon now.... in power, closer to these Conservatives. And it ricochets on down the line, with the NDP, in power, probably more behaving like the Liberal Party and so on. :-) Just real life. :-)

    There is no vanguard party to what currently passes for "bourgeois democracy" that stands outside and opposed to capitalism. Not a one of them.

    Anyway, I am not one of any of these folks, in my view, to my good fortune. So I do not have to blither and dither in this way. I can simply, as I intend to, quietly and calmly vote/write-in "None of The Above", and care not a fig what any of these other silly buggers does or does not. I will have simply not given this bullshit process, at the least, any legitimacy from me.

    It is all evolving, I'm sure, as it will and must anyway. :-)

    Peace, Love and Revolution.

    Though for sure... don't forget to vote. :-)

  • Driftwood

    1 year ago

    Ah Jerry...

    Jeremiah was a bullfrog, he was good friend of mine
    He never offered to defeat the bad that is
    but man, how he could whine.
    He always had some mighty fine whine, sing it

    If I may quote Confucius:
    'You show me a government which wants to frighten you into voting for only them, and I will show you a government which wishes to exploit you.' Or was that Maxwell Smart?
    And that government will raise your taxes (was it only me or did the Conservative government just raise everybody's taxes by 3% before the election was called?) ruin the coast of the most beautiful part of the pristine world (to quote Raif Mair: "There is no doubt that a Tory majority would move heaven and earth to approve the Enbridge pipeline from the tar sands to Kitimat thence down our extremely treacherous coast by huge tankers."
    Now is definitely the time for strategic voting, and I thank the leaders of LEP for sharing this article.

  • Jerry Munro

    1 year ago

    Ahhhhh Driftingwood...

    I've spent the better part of my life listening to all you strategic voters cry in your whine, about the impossibility of real change. "You gotta go with the flow, man. Take the world as it is. Work from the inside."

    A load of crap to my sensibilities.

    It goes on here all the time, the whining... and not from the likes of me.

    No. I do not have to, and I do not accept your premise. And I will not play the victim to the con you've been suckered into. And that ain't anywhere near the kind of whining you folks do all the time. It says, I can actually do something. Swim against the current of prevailing opportunism. Stand solid against the wage slave system and all of its whispered sweet nothings, which seek to justify cowardice and going along with it, and playing dirty house with it.

    The notion of lesser evils is Evil itself. The very taunting and corrupting voice of it.

    Thanks, but no thanks, Driftingwood. You don't impress me. I'll live my own life.

  • Driftwood

    1 year ago

    Live it then. Jerry

    "I've spent the better part of my life listening to all you strategic voters cry in your whine, about the impossibility of real change. "You gotta go with the flow, man. Take the world as it is. Work from the inside."

    It isn't that we wish to work with the 'inside'; it is that we know cannot we defeat them at one gulp of our imagination.

    "It goes on here all the time, the whining... and not from the likes of me."
    Yeah, you're whining; you know and I know that we cannot defeat the system which governs our elections at one go. So the sensible approach is to elect governments which will represent US. The alternative is to elect governments like the Harper government which will defeat us at any cost.

    "No. I do not have to, and I do not accept your premise. And I will not play the victim to the con you've been suckered into. And that ain't anywhere near the kind of whining you folks do all the time. It says, I can actually do something. Swim against the current of prevailing opportunism. Stand solid against the wage slave system and all of its whispered sweet nothings, which seek to justify cowardice and going along with it, and playing dirty house with it."
    I played the carny circuit for 15 years, and there are damn few if any cons I could be 'suckered into'.

    You, on the other hand, have suckered yourself into the biggest con of all - That your ideas are the only ones worth considering, and all other ideas are just so much rigging.

    "The notion of lesser evils is Evil itself. The very taunting and corrupting voice of it. "

    Nah, the notion of lesser evils is at least a step in the right direction.

    "Thanks, but no thanks, Driftingwood. You don't impress me. I'll live my own life."

    Live it then, but if you encourage by non-participation the current matrix, you will have only yourself to blame when the government sponsored companies come knocking on your door and demand everything you have worked your whole life to create. Ever heard of Monsanto? They eat peoples dreams and spit out the seeds of good in them. Ever heard of NAFTA? Conduit for greed which forced hundreds of thousand of Mexicans to abandon their small plots (and many Candians) and move to the overcrowed slums. That is the Harper government. That is what we wish to defeat.
    Since I have a few words left in this post, I would just like to ask why the Harper government has never bothered to test water, milk, and food products here in BC for radiation, when even countries as far away as Europe have tested and indeed advised pregnant mothers not to risk drinking milK? I sit here and watch the children in my town playing in the rain, and I wonder WTF is the matter with our government?

  • Driftwood

    1 year ago

    Nice phrase Jerry

    "The notion of lesser evils is Evil itself. The very taunting and corrupting voice of it."
    I don't know if that is yours, but it is damn good. Romantic; but good. Sounds like something Conrad might have written in 'Heart of Darkness'.

  • Jerry Munro

    1 year ago

    Evil...

    "The notion of lesser evils is Evil itself. The very taunting and corrupting voice of it."

    Entirely mine... so far as I know. :-)

  • Jerry Munro

    1 year ago

    Evil Again...

    And not romantic at all... just true. And it resonated with you because... you know it.

  • G West

    1 year ago

    Evil - Yep

    The Harper/SUN media/ sleaze merchants are certainly evil.

    No one with an ounce of self respect can vote for the HARPER party in this election.

    It's time to take off the gloves and pick up a shovel - these guys need to be 'buried'.

    The fascist roots of Stevie's hair are starting to show.

  • jim1966

    1 year ago

    An NDP Led Government In Ottawa Is Not So Scary Is It?

    Not really in my view anyways. Perhaps after the dust settles we will look back at this and think, "Geez, that was not so bad after all was it?". I agree that the NDP, the Liberals and the Greens must work together to gain any respect from Canadians. Things are changing all around us here in the hinterland and we as a people must either accept it or stay in the past and accept that as well. I cannot speak for anyone but myself and I know and want real change in Ottawa and I would like a government that does what it sets out to do. Real change I guess comes from within each and everyone of us, perhaps with any luck this will show up on voting day!

  • OhCanada

    1 year ago

    STRATEGIC Voting

    This is the key word people!!!!

    Jerry Munro,I know you want to live your own life here - but in terms of politics I could compare your action to something like driving 100km/hr on a slippery road knowing that even 50km/hr will get you in the ditch in no time.

    Living your own life would work if we would have a voting system in this country where every vote counts! This isn't the case at the moment so the best option to get rid off that sorry a$$ face Harper is to vote strategically.

    I agree with Driftwood - this is the time to vote strategically.

    And as this article says we'll work out the details later as things will move into some form of normalcy.

    Excellent article!

  • cboo44

    1 year ago

    Leadership I Can Trust?

    Presently in Canada there is NO leader we can trust. NONE.
    Harper? A national Gordo Campbell
    Iggy? Same old Liberal pandering to minorities, talk with no action. Just straight BS with no substance except leading the pack to the public trough.
    May? Runs an unethical election funding scam FOR THE MONEY.
    Layton? Do you trust a man who fraudulently acquires subsidized low-income housing while he and his wife earn $200,000 a year? Do you trust a man that claim ONE MILLION DOLLARS in travel expenses last year? Whose explanation was "Travelling to Toronto to visit constituents". It's 300 miles from Ottawa to Toronto.
    Do you trust a man who claims a living allowance in Ottawa and whose wife claims the SAME living allowance for ONE place that they live in?

    "NONE OF THE ABOVE"

  • alive

    1 year ago

    On the other hand ----

    The question is: do I trust you cboo44 ?
    I have yet to see a comment from you that appears on the level.

  • OhCanada

    1 year ago

    Plus...

    This is something that I can't stand about politics - they always smear each other with something.
    Unable to focus on what needs to be done for the greater good of society. Instead they attack each others' personality and try to humiliate the other. How intelligent is that?

    All I can remember of Jack Layton is he wants to move ahead and wants to solve issues. While the others are trying to convince the voters that they are the best choice. For who?

    I find this quote very true:

    Great Minds discuss ideas
    Average minds discuss events
    Small minds discuss people

    So far Harper only tried to smear his opponents and nothing intelligent came out of his mouth, No surprise there.

    I will vote for the party that wants to work with Canadians and not with the rich and 'privileged'.

  • Bill_Horne

    1 year ago

    It's easy to be pure...

    ...as Pete Seeger once said.

    C'mon, Jerry, even the Trailer Park Boys are getting out to vote on this one! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N6QSL-qAe8

  • lynn

    1 year ago

    Survivor Canada - Vote Harper off the Island

    It is a sick and perverse thing to rule by a vindictive aversion to your own country.

    It is even more sick if we accept this treachery as so-called governance.

    What does this man like about Canada?

    Alberta.

    My take on this is that at least at this point in time there is still the possibility of getting rid of Harper by how we vote.

    There is much that I agree with Jerry on, (Capitalism with its side saddle voracious appetites should, and will eventually go - but my feeling is that we as human beings will not willingly overcome our own deep complicity in the process, and that it will be Nature that deals that death blow..... leveling the playing field immediately.)

    But then, we must begin again (if we make it through that dark night)....and work out some kind of consensus about the path forward, which has always been, and continues to be, the really tricky part.

    Gumboots always needed for the muddied existence we continue to make for ourselves.

    And, anyway, don't lotus flowers bloom in the mud?

  • Frank

    1 year ago

    cboo44

    "Layton? Do you trust a man who fraudulently acquires subsidized low-income housing while he and his wife earn $200,000 a year?"

    Subsidized? His rent wasn't subsidized and there's nothing fraudulent about paying rent. His paying market value for his rent subsidized the rents of others in that building. Just another right-wing smear that has no basis in fact but it gets repeated ad nauseum.

    "Do you trust a man that claim ONE MILLION DOLLARS in travel expenses last year? Whose explanation was "Travelling to Toronto to visit constituents". It's 300 miles from Ottawa to Toronto."

    It was Jack and Olivia's combined expenses that went just over a million and he's a party leader. He doesn't just travel between Ottawa and Toronto. The NDP is a national party and he travels from one end of the country to another.

    If you want to be upset, why not look at what the PMO's office spent last year. It was $9.89 million, an increase of $1.7 million in a single year!

  • pwlg

    1 year ago

    so true

    I think one of the best points made by the author of this article is the fact that voters in Canada have spoken clearly in the last four elections... they do not wish any party to govern with a majority. In fact, Shannon is correct, the majority of voters want a shared government, a cautious government and a government that represents a variety of viewpoints.

    I think the most interesting aspect of this election has been the Quebec shift. It will be interesting to see how this plays out on Monday but also will be interesting to find out just what was behind this significant shift. You gotta love the Quebec voters, if anything they give us an example of a vibrant electorate, much like their counterparts in France. Is it no wonder that Quebec has had such an influence on this country. Thanks Quebec for keeping things interesting.

    Still undecided myself in my riding, a strong "c" conservative riding, will not vote Conservative so its a toss up between NDP or Liberal. Perhaps a coalition would be best if they bring in electoral reform that strengthens our democracy, represents a wider spectrum of viewpoints and fulfills the issues raised by "Jerry Munro".

  • guystone

    1 year ago

    this article

    60% are against a Harper majority.

    Why do the ABC people assume if someone doesn't vote for Harper they don't want him elected? Can we assume the same for the Greens who are at about 5% - 95% of people don't want them?

    Note: The Liberal and Conservative policies are almost identical. In fact, alot of the Conservatives management of the government are Liberal policies or the Liberals initiated:

    JSF - F35 jets
    Corporate tax breaks
    NAFTA (conservative - liberals sped it up)
    Debt - NDP and Liberals complained for a couple of years Harper wasn't spending enough money fast enough
    Cutting GST - that political history is hilarious - Liberals were elected based on ending the GST, then when the Conservatives reduced it to 5% the Liberals wouldn't stop attacking them for it.
    HST
    Health care spending - Liberals gutted it and Harper brought it back to pre-Liberal days and then some (6% per year)
    etc. etc.

    Yes, they are criticizing Harper for following through with their own parties

    Even more hilarious - NDP vs Conservative are only a few percentages out on their policies. I just see a bunch of political parties fighting for power and trying to make up areas to distance themselves from each other for political gain

  • Jerry Munro

    1 year ago

    An Eye on The Real Prize...

    First, I think it is clear, and I as much as anyone welcome it, a huge corner MAY be about to be turned by the Canadian people over the next couple of days. This is significant.

    That said, neither the world or our society is about to be transformed by this, not yet. It is but the turning of a significant corner. It is still necessary, in my view, to maintain a focus on the possible, nay almost certain disappointments and struggles that are going to come up after this... Leading deeper into that critical "transformational" territory away from the capitalist status quo.

    It is likely that huge numbers of good folks are going to vote NDP tomorrow. And I fault not a one of them who will be doing so, nor Green... for this is part of the emerging new stage that had and has to be reached.

    BUT, again in my view and read of the tea leaves, there needs as well to be those of us looking even further up the road to, and pointing the direction to this next stage of socio-economic and political development... As will fully recover and secure the independence of our country and transform it into the kind of place our planet and working people need.

    It is not enough to just focus on the present, acting as though that is all there is to what is going on here. It is not. It is but the beginning of what, at least I think and act on the basis of, is about to happen over the ensuing period of time after this election.

    Rome was not built in one day or around one event. Neither will this securing of our country and moving away from capitalism.

    If you think like me, then vote NONE OF THE ABOVE tomorrow. Because there is need for far more yet. And it is time for "business as usual" to end. Which is not being any kind of a "purist", but a "practical" political person... in a far-sighted, not near-sighted way.

    Meanwhile, lets enjoy all the ruling class and their minion hand wringing and anguish tomorrow. :-) Which has already begun in the media... weeping over the loonie, foreign investment and business class wealth accumulation opportunities. (None of which is really threatened, as they should be. But they too know, at least as well as I do, this is just the turning of a corner, with much, much more likely to come yet.)

    There will be much weeping and wailing coming from the hallowed halls of the rich and the powerful... and it is only just started. 8-D lol Which is what they are really fearing of course.

  • Frank

    1 year ago

    If I may

    If you think like Coyote and believe the NDP are too much a party of the establishment and don't represent real left-wing change, don't vote "none of the above", vote for a party further to the Left of the NDP.

  • Jerry Munro

    1 year ago

    And If I May Further Add...

    Were there, in my view, a credible movement of "the people" themselves, my personal preference, or PERHAPS, even a Left Party in place in this country, that I thought did not pose a greater danger than benefit to the country and our working people, I would actually endorse Frank's call.

    Alas, in my view, there is not such a movement of the people or a Party, not yet... at least one that is known to me and credible. What Left Wing Parties there are especially, again known to me, are pretty much still rooted in an ancient "failed" past and its internecine squabbles and other baggage, and pretty much irrelevant to the present historical context of this country and society. This is still to arise out of this and future events, IF I am correct.

    Were there something that was even close to this at present, I would urge voting for that as well. Again, there is not. Certainly it is not the NDP. :-) My view.

    And because I think, in this time context, which could deteriorate and change I concede, there is a need to turn away from "business as usual" and "lesser evil" notions as real solutions, I urge what I do.
    It is time, for SOME of us at least, to begin moving away from all that is bullshit in present political notions and practise and, indeed, focus on creating what really needs to be.

    Band-aids are just band-aids, even by any other name. :-)

    But do have fun over the ensuing few days. It will be interesting... I hope. The worm MAY be about to turn here, even eventually into something the players caught up in it do not yet themselves suspect or recognize.

    :-)

    Love, Peace and Revolution.

  • Bill_Horne

    1 year ago

    indictment of FPP system & Harper

    ‎This is interesting:

    "...more than a third of Canadians (36%) are considering voting strategically in order to reduce the chances of a specific party forming the government, even if it means casting a ballot for a candidate they dislike. More than half of Liberals (55%) and more than two-in-five NDP supporters (44%) are pondering this option."

    Conservatives and NDP Gain in Canada, as Liberals Fall Below 20% Mark | Angus Reid Public Opinion
    www.angus-reid.com
    (http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/43895/conservatives-and-ndp-gain-in-canada-as-liberals-fall-below-20-mark/)

  • alive

    1 year ago

    fence sitters

    Jerry Munro hold your nose and vote NDP!
    Then join the party and attend the meeting, push for the reforms you believe in.

    Sitting on the sidelines proves nothing and might just get Harpo that majority we all fear!

  • lynn

    1 year ago

    pwlg wrote:

    "I think the most interesting aspect of this election has been the Quebec shift. It will be interesting to see how this plays out on Monday but also will be interesting to find out just what was behind this significant shift. You gotta love the Quebec voters, if anything they give us an example of a vibrant electorate, much like their counterparts in France. Is it no wonder that Quebec has had such an influence on this country. Thanks Quebec for keeping things interesting."

    Well said, pwlg....and very true.

    Big points also to Duceppe who has maintained his integrity throughout this shift, outclassing all the insecure smear artists. Duceppe can bite but he is not petty or vile in his response.

    I've always liked how he has steadfastly held his, and Quebec's own ground, with that strong vibrancy you mention but also with a sense of honour and natural dignity that is increasingly hard to find these days.

  • Driftwood

    1 year ago

    Strategic voting to defeat the federal twin of Gordon Campbell

    I'll be voting strategically as per the link given in the article. Great article, by the way!
    What surprises me is that there is not even more support for the NDP in BC. They are the one party whose platform specifically states that they will scrap the hated HST tax and forgive the 1.6 billion bribe/threat promised us by the Conservatives. We would be out of that 'Poor Peoples Tax' free and clear. Any tax which penalizes the poor and middle class (who spend all their income every year and thus pay HST on the whole of it) and benefits the rich (corporate and private alike who spend only a fraction of their income in a year and thus pay the HST on only that fraction) is the very reverse of fair taxation. And let's not forget that the Liberals actually lied to us before the last provincial election - forgetting to mention that they were going to *impose* this tax on an electorate which was over 80% against it. That is taxation without representation, and Harper was in it just as deeply as Campbell - who was forced to resign when his personal popularity dropped to just 9% largely because of the HST. Now we have Harper telling he's going to give some families a tax break. Not right now, you understand; but in five years if he balances the budget and is still in power. Two words: Uriah Heap. (Not the band but the character from Dickens who lies his way into prominence at the expense of his victims.)

  • Jerry Munro

    1 year ago

    In Praise of Gilles Duceppe...

    "I've always liked how he has steadfastly held his, and Quebec's own ground, with that strong vibrancy you mention but also with a sense of honour and natural dignity that is increasingly hard to find these days." Lynn

    Well said, Lynn. I too have great respect for Gilles Duceppe.

    No matter what happens tomorrow, I suspect we will not have seen the last of this man. At least I certainly hope not. I think he still has much to offer the future of all the three distinct founding nations that make up the greater whole of this country.

    I trust you are all ready for the ride that is hopefully coming. :-)

  • jim1966

    1 year ago

    It's Voting Day, Did You Cast Your Ballot?

    Hopefully you will get out and vote. Great coverage by the Tyee over this campaign, I am looking forward to your post election coverage and PLEASE report on how many people went to the polls!

  • cboo44

    1 year ago

    Memo to Iggy, Jack and Liz:

    Try ethical behavior.

  • Frank

    1 year ago

    cboo44

    coming from a big fan of Stephen Harper that's pretty rich.

    Most ethically challenged PM in Canada's history. Makes fellow Conservative Colin Thatcher look like a boy scout.

  • Frank

    1 year ago

    By the way

    Did Harper's wife ever come back home or did she stay with her RCMP guard?

  • Frank

    1 year ago

    Heartbreak in the heartland

    http://backofthebook.ca/2011/01/07/harper-marriag-and-globe/4411/

    http://www.members.shaw.ca/nspector4/harpersinteview.htm

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  • Carolyn.E

    1 year ago

    GET STRATEGIC

    Perhaps if the media could get strategic: less than 40% of the population voted for the PM and 90% of the media outlets endorsed the Conservative Party. WHO SHOULD GET REAL?

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