Harper Times ...

... are tough times :

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=eqQ3WzbWH_k

Speaking of Emerson, why the

Speaking of Emerson, why the hell is the Conservative candidate leading in Kingsway?? Only 5% of the polls have reported, but still... that would be the ultimate irony if it holds (and it can't, possibly, hold)

As the saying goes...

..it was said by a very right-wing conservative who hated all socialists. As the sayimng goes, " A tory is a chicken voting for Colonel Saunders."

Hi happy

"Thats likely b/c there was the lowest turnout ever to vote in a general election, don't you think?"

Yes

"What were the numbers for the other parties?"

Cons last election 5,374,071
Cons this election 5,203,894

Libs last election 4,479,415
Libs this election 3,628,455 (!)

NDP last election 2,589,597
NDP this election 2,516,605

So the NDP lost about 70,000, the Cons lost about 170,000 and the Libs lost about 850,000.

And, on the subject

perhaps a little blast from the past is in order...this time from the pen of the editor here in a piece from Salon written after the last Federal election in 2006
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/01/25/canada/index.html

The comments are interesting too.

Funny how little has actually changed since then....

Conservative vs. more conservative

The article questions whether Canadians have become more conservative (i.e. have moved over time), but then presents only snapshot evidence.

What do the polls say about public opinions over time? Have Canadians moved?

Certainly, this is Harper's goal. And the longer he has at the government levers, the more likely he is to succeed.

Canada is not turning so

Canada is not turning so called "conservative", because there's no such thing in modern politics.

There are no left, or right wings. It is all fabrication to divert attention from the facts.

What we have is a criminal fraud being taught in our universities as "economics", for the sole purpose of leading the world under the dictatorship of a special interest, colonizing, criminal conspiracy, working under the false name of "conservative" to mislead people about their intentions.

What's happening is that a best paid and educated sector of mind benders in history, now in control of the media and using all forms of psychological gimmicks, is leading people up the garden path to their own self enslavement and self destruction.

Then we have an opposition that is scared to bring this crime wave into the open, in spite of tons of historical precedents and
mile wide openings showing and proving what is going on.

In short, it is the opposition at fault and guilty for not opening the door and windows on this stinking, sordid mess and crime wave, for some unexplainable reasons.

As far Harper is concerned, I've never been able to look at him anything else,than a programmed puppet.

Ed Deak.

A rose by any other name.....

It's called Fascism, Ed.

Blind leading the blind

Canada's leftists walk in blindness because sites like Tyee allow them to feed their beliefs among themselves and ferment radical ideas that turn off the vast majority of Canadians who are in the political and economic middle. And most of all don't want their lives destroyed through some of the policy changes the left wants such as scrapping NAFTA. Or punishing corporations.

It may surprise some people on this site, but alot of average Canadians work for big corporations like Walmart and Costco and they want to keep their jobs. Few are wiling to support green policies if it means losing their livelihoods.

Now the left may call Harper, his people and policies radical and crazy, but most of middle Canada can tolerate them. So this election says. And no matter how much Tyee tries to spin them the PCs did increase their representation in BC. There's a generation of BC'ers who suffered through Glenn Clark in the 90s- and suffered badly enough to be very wary of the NDP.

The left and some of its reps do very badly on winning trust on economics. Take Tim Louis for example. Wearing Che Guevera shirts and advocating 'cell' meetings for city council at his house only turn people off to this Marxist. When you're in city council people only want you to improve garbage collection, not save the world.

You'll never win the new immigrant Chinese vote if you're a leftist-Marxist. Most of the ones who've just immigrated from China have been through the foolishness of Marxism and want to stay away from it. Ironically, most of the people advocating these policies on this site have never really lived in a Communist country.

No, Canadians aren't mostly conservative. They are only more conservative on some issues than the left thinks or is willing to accept. Rather than being open minded, the Canadian left savages any challenges to its approach and ideas. Ultimately, you'll only isolate yourselves to blogs and websites.

inexplicable

"In short, it is the opposition at fault and guilty for not opening the door and windows on this stinking, sordid mess and crime wave, for some unexplainable reasons."

I agree that it's inexplicable.
Canadians aren't afraid of looking like idiots with rings in their noses or tattoos, jumping up and down like morons at a hockey game, or mindlessly riding ATVs around like little kids, yet they're terrified of expressing an idea that's different from what everyone else in the room is saying.

Why the sheeple mentality? I'd make a guess that the answer to this question hits at the core of our political problems.

To Bobby Peru

You wrote, "Few are willing to support green policies if it means losing their livelihoods."

Yes, with the sheeple, shortsighted vested interest trumphs common sense about the protection of health, environment, and the very future of their children, every time. In any case, a little brain power and cleaning of earwax would make it obvious that, given the right governance, new jobs could be created in transition... vis a vis the 400 thousand or so alternative energy jobs that have been created in Germany, etc. The average Canadian's thinking is myopic, however, making inventive and wise solutions (other countries have come up with) impossible for them to even envision.

alda

I agree with your comments re greening in Europe, alda. We have only to look at their ongoing commitment to and achievements with AGENDA 21, which was agreed to by the world's nations at the Earth Summit in 1992 in Rio.

I assume we signed it too, since we sign everything but commit to nothing. But when, I ask you, was the last time you heard about Agenda 21, or if you've even seen it mentioned in our MSM?

Thanks to pressure from our neocons, it's unlikely you're likely to learn anything about it either. I doubt if even the TYEE ia aware of it.

Bobby

And what proportion of Canadians voted for Harper?

Please explain to me how any democracy can be said to be effective when the government in power has the support of less than 22 per cent of the people.

Give your head a shake and stop thinking that the vast majority of people who think Harper is a failure are Marxists Leninists or Maoists.

How old are you? Those kinds of ideas might have been current in the early 1950s - today they're simply an artifact.

Election + Thanksgiving = bad turnout

Quote "Thats likely b/c there was the lowest turnout ever to vote in a general election, don't you think?"

Unfortunately I couldn't vote as planned because I was away from my riding on vacation and expected to be home sooenr. I bet that a large portion of voters didn't vote because they were on or returning from a holiday vacation.

I would like to see a poll asking how many people we're on or returning from vacation during the elections.

Making Sense

Aida, it's easy for the likes of David Suzuki to preach greener than thou living to all of us when he's been a professor and TV host basically living off some form of government subsidized payroll. He doesn't have to live and suffer the travails of a private sector job. Or like Mel Hurtig preaching against NAFTA- he's lucky he doesn't have a job in an industry that depends on free trade.

It's that Canadian leftist sense of self-entitlement and ceaseless desire to social engineer and meddle in people's lives that turns voters off. That's why the NDP- which tries not to appear too radical will never achieve a meaningful voice.

The Canadian left preaches like they care about people and the world, but the fact is the left hates people- or only cares about people who share their beliefs. They are so doctrinaire their attitudes. As I have said before, Canadians are conservative on some issues, liberal on others. The left must find the right formula and must start making sense to the avg voters. And the left must purge itself of members who are forever preaching the socialist heaven.

Canadians may like their social programmes, but they don't want fiscally irresponsible socialists running the economy into the ground.

well said bobby peru. jonah

well said bobby peru. jonah goldberg calls the notion that the left only cares about people who share their beliefs 'liberal fascism'.
"The side of fascism he attributes to American liberalism is not that associated with the works of George Orwell or the racism and genocide of the Holocaust. It is much less brutal, “smiley-face fascism,” as he puts it. He asserts that liberals hold political principles which are similar to those found in many fascist regimes. They have a desire to form a powerful state which coordinates a society where everybody belongs and everyone is taken care of; where there is faith in the perfectibility of people and the authority of experts; and where everything is political, including health and well-being."
sound familiar jack layton?

jonah goldberg

OH come on Elliot, can't you find a better avatar than Goldberg?

The last time I heard anyone quote him was in the Clinton years when his mother was advising Linda Tripp.

Remember how that turned out?

He's been supplanted on the lunatic fringe of the right wing by David Horowitz....who is currently setting his hair on fire because no one on college campuses in the US will even show up for his dog and pony show any more...

You need to get out more and read something from a real journal. The National Review died with William F Buckley - whose son, you might be surprised to know, is supporting OBAMA.

Bwaaa haaa haa

Jeeez El I'm glad you're back - I hope Beers doesn't notice and send you packing again - you provide so much comic relief.

Even David Frum has broken with the worst of the right wing crazies who spout that kind of nonsense.

well done gwest. point

well done gwest. point proven. have a progressive day.

re-post from

re-post from robbinssceresearch--re "Going Conservative"

What about the theory that Stephen Harper presented—recently—that Canada was moving Conservative? The elections results don’t bear this out. Quebec is the second largest province in the land—and it isn’t going Conservative. Gains were made in Atlantic Canada—but seats were lost in Newfoundland and Labrador—you can’t say the Atlantic provinces are going Conservative.

Ontario and BC are going conservative—the prairie provinces already are—except for that little trouble coming in Edmonton—but it isn’t true that Canada is going Conservative.

Jean Charest—the current Quebec Premier and former Progressive Conservative star was once a name dropped in many circles for Prime Minister. He did not help Prime Minister Harper—he has a minority government in Quebec—elections are coming there and he wants a majority. Knowing Jean Charest’s ambition---and the likelihood that he will rule Quebec after that provincial election suggests to me—help won’t be coming anytime soon to Stephen Harper’s Conservatives in La Belle Province.

Jean Charest will frustrate Harper's advancement in Quebec for (potentially) his own advantage. The same Jean Charest who scooped the millions Harper provided to Quebec a couple of years ago for public services and gave it directly to the people--how conservative of him.

Harper needs to review his Reform playbook and bring in the ROBBINS PR system using a percentage of vote on a province by province basis---with the ROBBINS provision that in any province where one party obtains > than 50% the outcome is first past the post only. This would give Harper the advantage of fptp where it is deserved and the further federalist and party advantage of reducing the Bloc's seats in the Parliament to mid 20's. The NDP would back the plan because under ROBBINS PR they would have achieved around 50 seats for their efforts. The Liberals would support it because they would have achieved about what they have---would have a similar opportunity to grow in Quebec.

30-35 seats would immediately be in play in Quebec.

This is probably the most important piece of legislation the PM would want to advance in the interests of Canada as a federation, his party and his own political interest, and would be supported as indicated by both the NDP and the Liberals--with the Greens outside cheering as well.

Remember ROBBINS is the same polling firm that advised on an early commitment to culture--which cost the Conservatives the election---herein is another opportunity.

After this has been debated isolates the Bloc as self interested--made into law for the next election--than the discussion about the country moving Conservative has some real possibilities.

Otherwise the argument remains invalid.