Obama has teamed up with Nobel Peace Prize and Oscar winner Al Gore to, once and for all, change the climate back to where it once was, damn it! Changing the Earth’s climate? Sounds like a bad James Bond plot to me. Gore, for all his help, does not want a cabinet post, though Obama is rumoured to have offered him Secretary of Propaganda. “The Time for Denial Is Over” they proclaimed. So is the Time for Common Sense, apparently. read more…
This is the first election I’ve heard the opposition parties say: If the Conservatives win a strong minority or a slight majority that means they got 40% of the vote which means 60% of Canada did NOT vote for them. 60% of Canadians DO NOT WANT them. That means 60% of Canada voted for US and so we should govern.
So I did some research into past elections and, applying the above ‘rule’, where you don’t have the Canadian people’s blessing to govern if you don’t get more than 50% of the vote, the history of our country would have been quite different: read more…
Hypothetical scenario:
Minority Conservative Government. First vote of confidence will be on Tough on Crime for Young Offenders. It will (obviously) be defeated. Liberals, NDP, Bloc and Greens will go to the Governor General, and form a new coalition government. We’ll get:
If this doesn’t scare anybody I don’t know what this country is a-comin’ to.
And this is a VERY REALISTIC scenario. The Bloc, Greens and NDP have already said they’re open to it. Dion has REFUSED to rule out putting May in his cabinet, indicating he’s open to a coalition. The only way to stop this is by electing a majority Conservative government.
h/t to Lowell Green‘s radio show
To Elizabeth May:
I’ve had it with you. First you were voted out of the debates and you cried foul. Then some people cheered for you and you were, with kind permission of Harper and Layton, let back in, even though your numbers didn’t allow it. You called it a “victory for democracy”. At the debates all you did was talk through people and point fingers. Then you were accused of making a deal with Dion to, at the last minute, call upon your people to vote strategically, and in most ridings that would mean Liberal. You denied this deal.
Now, it comes out, that you are actually calling upon your followers to vote strategically in certain ridings to stop Harper.
You call yourself a leader. You put forth candidates all across this country who put their heart and soul into canvassing and campaigning for YOU and now you tell them they don’t matter. People in their ridings should vote Liberal instead. If I was running for you in one of those ridings I’d be pretty pissed. Thanks for nothing. What, you can’t even get YOURSELF elected, you don’t want anybody else to either?
Ms. May, you are a liar, and you better crawl back into the hole you came from and if I never hear from you again, it’ll be too soon.
From The Star, December 21, 2007:
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Stephen Harper expects Canada’s economy to suffer next year, buffeted by turmoil south of the border and the “cost” of new climate-change measures here at home.
In a calculated signal to Canadians, Harper said that 2008 will be “more challenging” for his government and the country.
“There remains very serious economic uncertainty in the United States and in other parts of the world, and it’s impossible for me to see how Canada can be entirely immune from those developments,” he said in a year-end interview with the Star.
Candidate Bob Rae issued a warning that Layton and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May are robbing votes from the Liberals and as a result, are actually strengthening the Conservatives’ chances.
Bob, you’re all on the left, and judging by the debates, you’re all battling a common ‘enemy’! Of course you’re “robbing votes” off each other. All parties are constantly “robbing” votes off each other. There are not any more voters now than 20 days ago. It is the same pool. They go from party to party. That’s how the system works!
“We know for certain that if Stephen Harper had been Prime Minister five years ago we would have troops in Iraq,” Rae said.
Um, if Ignatieff was the leader of the Liberals 5 years ago, we’d be there too.
And if you were Prime Minister, this country would be bankrupt within the year.
If I was the PM and I was at the French debates I’d say:
To Gilles Duceppe: Can I finish my sentence for once?
To Jack Layton: How come you sound like a Scot, and I sound effeminate?
To Stephane Dion: Can you take a stand on something? I know Rae and Iggy are not here, but geez. You can’t even say if you’re for or against a our crime bill. At least Jack said he’s fundamentally against so he’ll vote against. You say “we’ll see”.
To the moderator: They have four minutes to pile on me, and I have 1 minute for rebuttal. Why are we sitting around a giant guitar pick? Do I have to sit next to the passion flaky? Why am I facing a three headed firing squad? Why is my back to the camera in the overhead shots, and the firing squad is facing the audience?
To Elizabeth May: God, you’re annoying. You remind me of Jar Jar Binks (“Global Warming comin dees way: Meesa Gonna Die!”) I hope so…
And that is why I would never be a PM. But that’s OK.
The debates
Wouldn’t it be fun if, at the debates, whenever someone says something really stupid (and the chance of that is pretty high, with Dion, Layton, Duceppe AND May in the same room), that Harper looks into the camera a la Jim Helpert of The Office with a look of “What am I supposed to do with this?!?”.
That’s what I want out of these debates.
I am tired of hearing the phrase “third election in four years”. Doesn’t that sound like we’ve had an election nearly every year? What they don’t mention is that normally we have two elections in four years (one at the start, one at the end of the four years), and this is just one more. And they don’t mention the fact that two of three opposition parties have been trying to get to this election for two and a half years, and the third party has been threatening to do it for that same amount of time. So, this is an election ALL FOUR PARTIES WANTED, AND THUS, BEING A DEMOCRACY, MOST OF THE POPULATION.
Trains, Planes and Automobiles. And ponies.
Jack Layton is talking (again) about kitchen tables and being Prime Minister. Talk about being a one trick pony. He did put in a good dig about Liberals not following up on their promises in past elections and taking a promise off the table during the current election.
Finally a pet peeve of mine gets addressed: the naming of serious offenders of 14 years old and over. It always was very frustrating to see these young punks ‘protected’. And not a minute after Harper announced this new measure, and the bleeding hearts are already complaining how teenagers do not have a developed enough brain and can’t be blamed for their actions. And how the death penalty is not far behind and how Harper is turning us into the United States. We don’t need the death penalty. Just stick them in jail for a really long time. I’d be happy with that.
Copyright 2010 ERWIN GERRITS. All Rights Reserved.