where is everyone? i

where is everyone? i expected a bigger welcome upon my return to the good old tyee on this glorious election night. i thought jack layton was supposed to become the prime minister tonight?

Jack's conceded

His party didn't win 86% of the seats in the House but he seems happy.

Atwood and Jane Jacobs

I gather Jane Jacobs would have done the same as Atwood and in fact did go much further earlier on.

i wonder if jack will be

i wonder if jack will be able to stick it to the big bad banks, the evil oil companies and the corporate pigs with 18% of the popular vote?

Merci M. Duceppe

The Bloc understands Harper better than the rest of Canada does.

Thank God for the Bloc without which pee wee would have so undeservedly won this utterly pointless election.

He and Dion should both resign and return to academia where they belong.

OK, ok...

...welcome back sirjohna. What happened? Lose your job at Lehman's?

I'm sure you'll note a few things have changed - some of the same actors are still here, but Ron Erwin/IAMC is gone, so one can no longer count on idiocy in a Libertarian guise to make a regular right-winger look good.

But that's OK - you'll fit right back in. R'man, meet sirjohna. He doesn't have your disease of the mouth, but I think you two will get on well together.

I wonder if ...

...we'll ever hear a Liberal utter the words "Green Shift' ever again?

lots of good canadians

lots of good canadians congratulating the separatist party tonight, and all in the name of an antiquated left-wing ideology. you're right zalm, not much has changed at all around here. is deep-forbidden-lake still around?

Jeez El Welcome Back

Long time no see, thankfully

Yep

I think green shift and blue sweater are gonna walk off into the sunset....

A control freak like Harper is going to have some major trouble with this.

Canadians didn't want this election, turned out in the lowest percentage numbers ever, and are obviously under-whelmed with a stupid electoral system.

If Harper had any balls he would immediately move to bring in proportional representation.

I predict instead he'll take a trip to Afghanistan - his whole program of emasculating the federal system is a complete shambles...

GWest

quote;

"Thank God for the Bloc"

Maybe Stephen will think about that.

What he ought to be thinking of

Is the fact that the stupid system we have in this country has delivered his thugs another 19 seats on an increase of 1.1% of the popular vote.

It appears less than 60% of the people actually bothered to vote.

If Canadians don't see that for the farce that it actually is, the idea of democracy is in real trouble for the country.

Again, thank God for the Bloc, Quebecers always have had more sense than most of the rest of Canada.

Thanks for nothing pee wee.

I guess they weren't that upset with Harper

quote, GWest:

"It appears less than 60% of the people actually bothered to vote."

One guy that is upset though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJbYMCVKfxg

What do you mean?

The man was salivating for a majority - he ran the absolutely stupidest campaign possible - striking all the wrong notes and alienating Quebec without even trying...managing to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory over a Liberal party led by a non-entity.

Give me a break - this is a complete repudiation of Harper and his record - not to mention his 'principles'.

And why wouldn't Dion be upset with CTV

They proved themselves to be the idiots we had suspected they were - as bad, in their own pathetic way, as Global.

Dion has every right to be pissed at them.

trop de sour grapes there eh

trop de sour grapes there eh gwest? fascists don't understand democracy either.

@55% of electorate voted

I am pleased that I am not reading much gloating tonight, on any of the blogs. There is nothing to gloat over. Even the neo-cons aren't jumping for joy. Canadian politics is at a very low point.

What do you mean?

As David Mitchell said, "A huge win for the Conservatives in BC", "A big break through".

Towards the end of the campaign the polls showed the Conservatives in the lead, again. If anyone didn't like the probability of Harper winning again, one would expect they would then be galvanized into going out and voting against him but they didn't. Could it be that 40% of the population were quite content to allow the Conservatives to win again, as all the polls were saying they would?

GWest

Quote, GWest

"Dion has every right to be pissed at them."

Why? They ran it verbatim. It was the Director's cut, who can't like that?

Sir John-a-lot

Not much sign of Deep Forbidding Lake in quite some time, nor coyote, working man Truman Green or Maestro. You've got some big boots to fill. Start shovelling.

David Mitchell is an ass

He hasn't said anything significant or noteworthy for a generation.

Calculate what 37% of 58% is realisticman - less than 22%. That's how popular they are and they shouldn't have more than .37 x 307 = 114 seats....

BTW, at the end of the campaign the polls actually showed that the conmen had slipped about 10% from their high point...

You missed that did you?

You know why

What they did was not fair - I'm the last person to make excuses for any Liberal. They made a deal and broke it - just like our Prime Minister and his fixed election law.

can't wait to hear from my

can't wait to hear from my old friend frankie-boy. i bet him and gw still spend far too much time here.

GWest

.37 x 307 = 114 (West) How do fill The House if you play that game?

Come on, West, the Conservatives dipped around 6% towards the end. The Liberals were the ones that went down 10.

http://www.sfu.ca/~aheard/elections/polls.html#NATIONAL

Perhaps you missed it.

conservatives like republicans

You are absolutely right, GWest, Conservatives like Republicans always vote: it is part of their religious fanaticistic obsession to control everyone. When nearly half of the electorate opt out, they spout that they must have been happy or they would have voted.

I wouldn't have been pleased about the Liberals getting in either: Either way, the Canadians are being raped by the two main parties. Conservatives openly screw us, say they are doing it for our own good and make no excuses; the Libs threaten that the Conservatives will hurt more so we may as well bend over and get it nicely with a little lubricant. This go around, the electorate was still tired of the passive-aggressive approach.

I blame the Mainstream media for low voter turnout. They have been pushing the capitalist propaganda on people in North America & Europe for so long that the "Average Joe" doesn't want to be bothered anymore. He wants to be numb. The Average Joe just wants to watch the 50" augmented breast CSI agent on the plasma circus while he and the rest of Rome consumes themselves.

besides, if not for the

besides, if not for the global financial crisis, which hit at the worst possible time for harper, this would have been a landslide conservative victory resulting in an overwhelming majority. they're in for at least 3 more years and with some luck the libs will choose bob rae as their next leader. how easy will it be to discredit the guy who practically destroyed ontario singlehandedly?

What's lacking

Canadians would overwhelmingly vote for Obama if given the chance. The problem in this election is primarily an utter lack of real leadership and charisma. Both Harper and Dion are policy wonks who have no place at the head of a party.

No one has won this round. In fact, the election has been a colossal waste of time and money.

The Conservatives may have won more seats, but they don't have a majority. They won't be able to dismantle the Canadian social contract under the guise of austerity measures during an economic crisis. Instead they'll get blamed for the all the economic fallout that's coming. And then they'll be gone, as long as the Liberals can manage to find a leader who isn't a dork.

But yeah, it looks like it'll be a while before Canadians realize the lunacy of the neoclassical economic hokum the Conservatives serve. It is sad that things need to get a lot worse before people realize the current economic model is a pastiche of fantasy and criminality.

sirjohna

Frankie's on good form. I suspect the boys are on staff.

It's called Mixed Member Proportional

A good deal of the civilized world uses it to protect their democratic principles.

I won't bother to explain it.

Also, you haven't been following the polls very closely - the Liberals were gaining for the last 10 days of the campaign and the Con men were sinking from their high of over 41% - if you care to check it out just look for luke skywalker's many posts here at Tyee/

Elliot - it was that kind of personal remark that got you dumped the last time - keep it up and you'll soon be gone again.

James Burns

Well said, Mr. Burns. Imagine what Layton and Obama could do together as a pair of North American leaders - a pair of leaders who actually care about the well-being of their people? a pair of leaders who actually lead?

Time for some predictions

If Ujjal and the Liberals hold to their guns and actually vote against pee wee (instead of sitting on their hands for another 43 votes) then there's a real prospect that the Governor General will be asking the three opposition parties to take over and form a government...which, they may very well be able to do...for quite some length of time.

After all, only 22% of Canadians think pee wee is suitable to govern at all.

that's a good hunch

that's a good hunch realistic. it certainly would explain the extraordinary amount of time they spend here.
sharing: one of your so-called leaders has never proven a thing, and the other consistenly leads his followers to 18-20% of the popular vote. ouch!

And the Liberals

And the Liberals couldn't even muster enough fire to burn Lunn - after playing dirty politics to clear the deck for their candidate.

'the Governor General will

'the Governor General will be asking the three opposition parties to take over and form a government'.
are you suggesting that the separatists should govern canada?

keep it up el

a few more offside calls like that and you'll be spending a lot less time here - I'm sure the editors will be 'pleased' to see you back.

Further Proof about how dumb we are ...!

Excuse me as I vomit ...!

All that money spent ,
and we still have a homeless problem ...!

Perhaps as Harper moves to spend the homeless people to jail,

a NON-CONFEDANCE VOTE , will toss him out of power ...!!!!!!!!!!!!!

---------- Don't expect it --------------

Expect this instead ...!

More law-suit's coming from homeless people like David a Johnston...!

You know , law suit's saying ,
that WE THE CITIZEN OF CANADA are going to take your right-wing crap any-more ...!

25-billion to bail-out banks ,
ZERO dollar's for solving homelessness ...?

----- How stupid can we be ...? ------

BIG - BIG - BIG , vs common sence...!

---- Like Hitler said ,

a big lie vs a small lie ...??????????????

sucker's ,
we got what apathy buys us

PIE IN THE SKY ...!!!!!!!!!!!!

ted...

Sir John A

The single greatest quality of a leader is the ability to inspire others to be their best, to do their best and to work together.

Obama has inspired millions of people to donate to his campaign and he has inspired me to believe that there may be some hope left for the USA.

From the rightwing Canada.com:

Layton urges parties to set aside differences, work together
Mike De Souza , Canwest News Service
Published: Tuesday, October 14, 2008

"Although he consistently earned top marks in surveys about leadership, Canadians were still not ready to give his party more power in Ottawa."

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/features/decisioncanada/story.html?id=841e33d7-cb5e-4cd2-a39d-b6156dbcdc61

layton's greatest asset as

layton's greatest asset as the leader of the ndp is to be able to look you right in the eye and lie shamelessly. his rhetoric re the big nasty banks and the evil oil companies is tired and boring, but at least it is reassuring that only 18% of the electorate is falling for such nonsense.

well this sure was fun. in

well this sure was fun. in fact i'd forgotten just how much joy the tyee could bring. we'll have to do it again sometime, don't ya think?

A blossoming relationship in our midst?

realisticman:

I see you have found a new bosom buddy. How sweet! You and sirjohna sure make a cute couple.

Good times

The NDP takes 11 seats from the Cons and Libs and only loses 3.

Conservative to NDP
St. John's East NL
Edmonton–Strathcona AB

Liberal to NDP
Outremont QC (2007 By)
Algoma–Manitoulin–Kapuskasing ON
Nickel Belt ON
Sudbury ON
Thunder Bay–Rainy River ON
Thunder Bay–Superior North ON
Welland ON
Churchill MB
Vancouver Kingsway BC

NDP to Conservative
Surrey North BC
Vancouver Island North BC

NDP to Liberal
Parkdale–High Park ON

Dismal results

The lazy asses at the Work Less Party only got 423 people to turn out for them?

And how about that vote split on the Left? If the Communists and the Marxist-Leninists would only set aside their differences they could have got over 12,000 votes. Tsk

I'm also upset that the neo-rhino party couldn't do better than 2262 votes, I'm so tired of that law of gravity thingie.

Elliot

Remember how I always said your first alias on here was SirJohnA (before you went on to an illustrious career that included such handles as "nemesis", "Elliot", "AdamWest", the memorable "Robin" and the less than stellar "simonfraser") and you always denied it? You'd tell me point blank "Who?" and pretend you didn't know what I was talking about?

Your lying is what makes you so adorable.

Voter turnout

Nice to see that over 40% of Canadians decided to give the election a miss. I guess they had other things to do like maybe find shelter or stop by the grandparents to see their kids in the hour they have between their two jobs.

Pretty much a steady decline in voter turnout since the free trade election of 1988. I wonder why.

Oh well, its great to see that only 5.2 million Conservatives voters Canada-wide have almost given their favourite party a majority.

But seriously, I offer my sincere congratulations to all the Conservative voters on here. The next 5 years will be fun, unless you're... well, let's not be partisan, yet.

Luke

Nanos sucks

But why am I telling you that since wherever you are right now you're probably saying the same thing eh?

Being as the Libs certainly didn't get the 30% in BC that Nanos predicted at the end.

Luke again

Oh, and Mustel sucks too. In fact, they suck even more than Nanos sucks.

Mustel released the results of a riding poll in the bellweather riding of Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo today:

NDP: 34.4% (+3.5% from 2006)
Con: 34% (-5.3% from 2006)
Lib: 18% (-7% from 2006)
Green: 12% (+? from 2006)

Sample Size: 300

Error Margin: 5.8%

Actual results

Con: 45.9%
NDP: 35.9%
Lib: 9.9%
Green: 8.1%

Frank...

What... the NDP gaining ~.5% of the vote nationally and another 7 seats outta 308??

Remember that $18.5 million bank loan that Jack took out for the campaign? Perhaps during the current credit crunch the bank is less than enamoured with these results ... especially with Jack's continual assertations against the same evil banks during the campaign. ;)

Sheesh, have you never ever really, I mean ever, yes I mean ever, seen good times? :)

Luke

The Liberals spent just as much and yet about 800,000 less people voted for them.

Luke

Just to reiterate, your Libs picked up one seat from the NDP, the NDP picked up nine from your guys in return.

Frank...

If ya would have looked at Nanos' last night of polling on Sunday... huge shifts were occuring and that last night was almost dead on!!!! (out of their 3-day rollover).

Con - 37.1% (actual: 37.63%)
Lib - 26.7% (actual: 26.24%)

http://www.nanosresearch.com/election/CPAC-Nanos-October-13-2008E.pdf

Not too shabby.

Perhaps everybody sat down at the dinner table for turkey, instead of at the kitchen table as Jack suggested? :)

Ya know why?

500 - 800 is their typical sample size for provincial polls. Big difference.

Luke

Do you have shares in Mustel and Nanos? They were wrong Luke, let it go.

jimmy

Yeah. I was feeling kinda lonesome. Me and 11 million other Canadians that hadn't drunk the cool aid.

I sure hope that Jack shows some conviction and brings up the Grand Prix de Montréal, in the House. The race has to be quickly saved. I'm sure that was the issue that enabled Mulcair to pull off a win.

Now, here is the real story............

.........41% of the Canadian public did not like any of the leaders, nor the political parties, and gave the election a miss. The Greens got over 8% and others about 2%, that means 0ver 50% of the Canadian public do not like the NDP, the Libs., or the Cons.

An old history lesson reminds me that when over 33% of a countries population reject the political process and established rulers, the time is ripe for a revolution.

It's coming soon boys & girls; it will be nasty and all it needs is the right fuse to ignite this country into flames, unless we change.

Now here is the question, which political party and which leader will effect the much needed change to our Fascist/Communist electoral system?

Now, here is the real story....(1st Variant)...

.........41% of the Canadian public did not vote because they were not unhappy with the way things were going, particularly because all pollsters predicted the re-election of the Conservatives and Stephen Harper.

Since voting is not obligatory in Canada the act of not casting a vote reflects acceptance by the citizenry of the status quo and of the expected Conservative winning outcome, as reflected by all of the polling companies.

The contented demeanour of the Canadian voting public points to the continuation of its stable democracy under its multi-party system of government.

What amusement!

It was with huge amusement that I came here last night.It was just a few weeks ago that old Frankie was agog with the giddiness of forming the opposition. I almost fell off my Well, with 37 seats, that isn't going to happen.

First, there was silence. Now the Usual Suspects are engaged in blaming everybody but the NDP for yet another failure. It is also pretty obvious that the Greens got most of their vote from the Liberals as a protest.

The NDP didn't get any larger share of the popular vote than they have ever received.

It was an awful campaign but perhaps the worst thing I saw from it was the Millionaire Socialist look people in the face and actually say to them, "I'm the next Prime Minster of Canada." Unless the listener was smoking some great weed or was truly deranged, everybody knew that wasn't going to happen.

As for the low turn out, it is demographic. The Conservatives are overwhelmingly a party of people who have deep roots in Canada, many generations. They are more likely to vote, ergo their increase in seats. Harper plays to this crowd, quite successfully, too.

But as I look out the window, the sky hasn't fallen yet. Life goes on.

baloney

If that were the case, then the much self-promoted prescience of our 'very intelligent' Prime Minister (how many times did I hear that lame line repeated last night) sure as hell failed him.

The fact is, as Frank pointed out above, fewer people voted for pee wee and his governement this time than last...rather than being more popular he's less popular than before.

In his phony attempt to get rid of disfunctional government he's simply given us another one. Harper is the idiot of the piece.

The victims are the Canadian people who deserve better from their Prime Minister than this 'boy in the bubble' campaign and what it wasted in public treasure.

Young people don't vote because they've given up.

realisticman

The Conservatives got less votes this time than they did last time.

But claiming that the people that didn't vote are all happy and well fed Conservative voters is an adorable analysis.

That's pretty racist stuff WIlfred

Given the fact that Pee Wee appears to have spent most of his time in BC reaching out to 'connect' with minorities I'd say you're not even up to date with his thinking.
But then, of course, the Conmen always have been pretty schizophrenic.

The question has got to be

The question has got to be asked, on the 59% of the people who voted, what percentage who held their nose while placing their X on the ballot. How many people who didn't like the main parties but voted for an independent or one of the fringe parties? I know and talk to lots of people who do that.

The Blame Game

Ahh, the blame game. Too bad it doesn't change the results.

Van Isle

There's something to what you say of course...and it's not a problem that the Conmen or the Liberals or the media are going to address.

And it's not something that voting for the greens is likely to change either.

Some people have suggested you can move reform along using the internet but I think this election and all those phony strategic voting websites have proved that's magical thinking too.

I expect a quick turn around and a new Liberal leader - they should move as quickly as possible - will be the next big event...if a new leader were to cut all its ties to the Campbell corruption here in BC and send the board room boys to the showers; if they were to make electoral reform the centre of their program and start being a progressive party (and not just a right wing one) then there might be a chance for real change...otherwise - get set for a lot more of Stephen Harper and his foot-stamping.

Frank

Adorable. Good word Frank, sounds as it means. Yes, the Conservatives did get less votes this time, I know of one voter that didn't bother because they were certain that their Conservative candidate would win.

Interesting analysis here:

http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2003/09/12.html

I noted this from it:

Quote, "If an incumbent does something to annoy the electorate enough, or if an exciting new candidate emerges to run against him, voters may show up in enough numbers to turf the incumbent.".

I guess, if this is the case, then the Conservatives didn't upset many people.

Blame game it is Eliot

Where the blame belongs - right on pee wee's doorstep.

He's the one who called the election - breaking his own law to do it - and then stayed in the bubble for 35 days re-breathing his own air.

Say what you like about the ineffectual Dion, he actually RAN a real political campaign.

Harper and his clones just played hide and seek for five weeks.

Rman

The Conservatives ran a pretty good campaign all in all but they blew it in one major area. The cuts to the arts were designed to piss off the elites in Canada and play to the farm brigade in Harper's caucus. He had to throw them a bone so the simmering stew that is the Conservatives, abortion, gay marriage and various other issues from the past, would not boil over. Quebec panders to artistic elites more than any other place in North America. Turning them against the Conservatives in Quebec lost Harper his majority.

The Liberals were kind of interesting. Like all political parties, the polled and focus grouped like crazy and came up with the "Green Shift." Anything that threatens gasoline prices is political death in Canada. Sure you do can a focus group and convince them a "Green Shift" is a good idea but at polling time, people are going to vote with their gas tank. Being an environmentalist is fine as long as it doesn't mean any major lifestyle change. I suspect Dion will be a piece of carbon toast soon. I also expect the Liberals to learn from their mistakes. They are still the second largest party in the House.

The Greens are a prime example of this. They were getting some pretty impressive poll numbers, upwards of 15%, but when push came to shove, they only got 6.8%. Again, people are "green" when it suits them or it is easy. Running their leader in McKay's riding was pretty stupid since a corpse in a blue suit would get elected there.

The NDP, well, the NDP. Layton again preached to the choir. Frankly (no pun intended) I found him smarmy, arrogant and self assured to the extreme. The "I'm the next PM" line was an insult to the intelligence of the average voter. Sure, it played well to the Faitful, but it didn't get him anywhere neat Stornoway. Ed Broadbent was a much better leader. At least he had a sense of reality.

So, we have it. Harper will still have to be careful. He will have to keep the Farm Report Brigade in his party under control. The Liberals will dump Dion, they don't suffer defeat well. And the NDP, ahh, the NDP, they will finger point, blame and then convince themselves that it was all a conspiracy and they really will win next time.

realisticman

"Yes, the Conservatives did get less votes this time, I know of one voter that didn't bother because they were certain that their Conservative candidate would win."

So if your analysis is right, that certainty breeds apathy, then voter turnout in places like Alberta and Saskatchewan should be really really low and the turnout in Nova Scotia, BC and Ontario should be really high?

realisticman

Any thoughts on Harper copying Dion's "plan" this morning and having a bunch of meetings on the economy to formulate a plan?

What happened to "Shun Lunn" ?

I guess strategic voting didn't work out quite as hoped for. Unless the idea was to elect Lunn with a bigger mandate than he had going in.

Backfire?

Frank

I don't think that Harper is averse to learning and adapting any good ideas. He is an economist, after all, and at a time like now when Canada is the only G8 country not running a deficit, as well as the country just labeled the one with the best banking system, it would only be natural for him to be deeply involved. There always has been a plan and there have always been frequent meetings on the economy all through the campaign too. The difference between him and some others we know is that Harper understands that one in his position doesn't go shouting his mouth off during any crisis.

Wilf..
Absolutely right. The arts trimming and the follow-up statement were serious mistakes. Harper's trying to understand Québec but hasn't quite yet.

Pretty much agree with your rest.

happy

The Liberal "war room" failed to gain from their campaign to destroy the careers of NDP candidates. (At least that was how one Liberal insider put it on babble, he was gloating at the time)

Quelle surprise

Smoochie, smoochie :)

realisticman:

No need to take it so hard, realisticman. I just meant that you two make a great couple, that's all.

jimmy

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

This sounds like a dream narrative from a piece of Harper bumpf

Well, we know that, exactly like you, Pee Wee Rambo is certainly not adverse to plagiarizing and repeating un-cited quotations.

Do you suppose that's what he was doing when he made that comment about some 'bargains' being available on Bay Street?

Sounded an awful lot like something 'W' would say.

By the way, did you see the feature in the Times on the weekend which showed how abysmally the GOP has performed in terms of 'investments' compared with the Democrats?

Even leaving Hoover out of the mix the Republicans are god awful...you should check it out.
I don’t think Harper thinks there’s anything he can ‘learn’ from anyone….it happens to be one of the absolutely worst things about him. I’ll cite the way he kept pounding the same dead cultural horse instead of saddling up a new mount when he realized he’d picked a loser – just like Canadians did last night….SLOW LEARNERS

By the way, I’ve also seen some persuasive evidence that Flaherty’s spending spree has already put the exchequer into deficit.

As for the record of economists

I'd say the less said about their sage advice, especially ones from Chicago, the better.

Could we discuss Greenspan perhaps?

I think Ed has their number pretty well circled with red ink.

Tories take Kenora?

Tories take Kenora. What's up with that? Kenora hasn't elected a Conservative since 1917!

And,

Would it be considered unfair to remind you that the Dow closed down another, what was it, oh yeh...700 points?

Good news is just busting out all over!

NDP takes St John's East?

Another wild one... NDP takes St John's East with... 74.6% of the vote! A huge swing considering the NDP took only 17.5% there 2 1/2 years ago.

Dave2

Its even better, the NDP took a seat in Nfld, had their first win in Quebec during a real election, swept Northern Ontario and won a seat in the Con heartland of Alberta. The only things I was disappointed in was V.Island North and Saskatoon-Rosetown.

There's a tiny dot of yellow

There's a tiny dot of yellow NDP on the map of Alberta too. Like the win in St John's East, it's not the first time that's happened, but still... Both results show that candidates still matter, positively St John's East, negatively (for the Tories) in Edmonton Strathcona.

Tipping Point

Quote:
GWest

"By the way, I’ve also seen some persuasive evidence that Flaherty’s spending spree has already put the exchequer into deficit."

I'm sure you're happy; me too. I hate it when they run a surplus, just means that they're taxing too much.

Happy that Harper may once again

Happy that Harper may once again - and not before too long - be revealed for the liar he is.

Surely you know something of Flaherty's past record turning the Ontario economy upside down under Mike Harris....In fact he was minister of practically everyghing in Harris's much maligned and certainly not missed 'common sense revolution' at one time or another Flaherty was the Deputy Premier, Minister of Finance, Attorney General, Minister responsible for Native Affairs, Minister of Labour and Solicitor General, and Minister of Correctional Services.

His fingerprints are all over the trainwreck he and Harris left in Ontario.

I think both he and Pee Wee knew exactly what was coming down the tube economically and they were desperate to make their grab for the brass ring before the mess became public knowledge.

How much did the TSE fall in the last month?

So no, I'm not happy, the poor, the working mothers, the old, the handicapped and the sick, the Native Americans and the workers of this fair land shouldn't be happy either.

Won't be long now

before we're discussing Rae Days.

Frank: Quote:Not that

Frank:

Absolutely nothing wrong with it. As I wrote earlier, I think it's adorable. Two trolls in love.

r-man

R-man said about Harper:
"He is an economist, after all, and at a time like now when Canada is the only G8 country not running a deficit, as well as the country just labeled the one with the best banking system, it would only be natural for him to be deeply involved."

Is it not ironic that we will listen to what the G-7 has said about Canada having the best banking system. The G-7 obviously knows best, after-all, just look what wonderful things the other G-7 members have done for their own economies.

The only reason that the phoney Canadian Economy is not 100% in the toilet is that the Conservatives have had billions in oil sands revenue to squander. It has not been the Cons good fiscal management. The manufacturing sector jobs that add value to primary resources raped from Canadian soil have been leaving the country for Asia. The raw commodities go to Asia and the USA and we pay more for it to be manufactured into things we could be making ourselves.

Case in point: the up-and-comer in the produce your own eletricity equipment manufacturing sector is China. The best value for dollar in wind and water generating equipment is coming out of China. We should be making that equipment right here with our coal, oil, iron and aluminum. We have the resources and the skilled workforce; yet China can pay to have the raw materials shipped to them and then ship the finished goods back and make more money from us from the finished product than we can from the raw materials they purchased to make them. Our auto-workers and ship builders would have no trouble transferring their skills to home energy production equipment.

Yep Sharing, right on!

And Stevereeno is now proposing to do exactly what Dion suggested in the English debate - hold a meeting with the other leaders and the Premiers and consult the experts.

Oh we're in trouble all right - next thing you know he'll be making George Bush statements about how 'bad' it is he has to bail out the banks again.

The economy is already in the tank Sharing...and Pee Wee is now going to tell us what programs he's going to have to cut.

Bring back parliament and vote the sucker out of power. Now. Not next spring, but now.

Less than 22 % of Canadians support the klutz - dump him now and bring in a coalition of the other three - and actually work together for four years for the good of all Canadians.

Because Sweatervest Steve doesn't know the meaning of that phrase.

staffers

realisticman; i've read today's comments from the boys with your suggestion that they are on staff in mind and i think you're definitely on to something. well done.

Quote: GWest "Bring back

Quote:
GWest

"Bring back parliament and vote the sucker out of power. Now. Not next spring, but now."

Save your energy Garth. We all know that ain't gonna happen. Life is good. Harper is in for at least two years and Canada is very good shape.

You may want to go and see Mike Leigh's new film, "Happy-Go-Lucky". For Leigh, (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/04/04/bfmike104.xml) the film is political in the broadest sense. "It's about education: how we learn and how we teach. It's about responsibility. About trust, about men and women, and about commitment. I felt it would be a good time to make a film that would be, in some way, anti-miserabilist.

Yeh, life is good

perhaps you haven't been following the shutdown projects list in the business pages?

You should start looking at them...along with out-of control Olympics costs here in BC...

You may be in good shape, sleek and warm - the rest of Canada isn't.

As for miserable, Stephen Harper has always seemed to me to be the most miserable leader this country has ever had the misfortune to endure. In fact, he could be R B Bennett's undertaker.

It works that way when you know 78% of your own country wish you didn't have a job.

disappointment evokers

Frank opined :

"The only things I was disappointed in was V.Island North and Saskatoon-Rosetown."

Though I myself was a little choked re Saanich - The Islands, I suppose he's right to be uncncerned, since Lunn deserved to win. Lunn was able to find three groups willing to spend their OWN MONEY on his campaign, whereas the others were more interested in wheedling $1.75 per vote of PUBLIC money to finance their NEXT election effort