Majority within Tories' grasp (Canada)

[Minstrel Boy]

Majority within Tories' grasp
Harper's popularity surpasses PM's for first time; takes 10-point lead into final week of campaign

Saturday, January 14, 2006

OTTAWA -- The Conservatives are poised to win a minority government on Jan. 23 -- and are within striking distance of a majority -- as leader Stephen Harper's personal popularity edged ahead of Prime Minister Paul Martin's for the first time, a new poll suggests.

...

The Conservatives have opened up a 10-point lead, 39-29, over the Liberals nationally. The NDP remains unchanged at 18 per cent, while the Bloc is at nine per cent. And the pollster predicts there is little the Liberals will be able to do in the last nine days of the campaign to reverse this decline; they have fallen too far behind the Conservatives and are facing the end of 12 years in power.

...

The most dramatic gains for the Tories -- at the expense of the Liberals -- came in Atlantic Canada where they surged nine points to 42 per cent while the Liberals lost their hold on the region plunging 16 points to 26 per cent, since a Jan. 2-5 survey. The NDP also gained seven points at the expense of the Liberals, jumping to 30 per cent, the party's highest showing in any region of the country.

...

In British Columbia, a tight three-way race was shaping up between the Conservatives, Liberals and NDP -- all because of substantial gains made by the Green party. The Conservatives stood at 30 per cent, with Liberals trailing at 28, and the NDP at 25. The Green party surged nine points to 16 per cent -- largely at the expense of the Liberals and Conservatives, each of which dropped five points.


http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/story.html?id=c458ef15-c74d-4c98-99c0-d9037afc43d6&k=25691

[sasha031]

1. Canada will be changed for the worse forever

:nuke:

[Domitan]

5. Oh please!

While I find the prospect of a Con majority to be grim, it's part of the cycle. Trudeau's Libs dominating for a good part of 12 to 15 years, then Mulroney's PC for nearly 9 years, and then Cretien/Martin for 12 years...now it's another cycle. I just hope that if it's a Con majority, it'll not extend to a second term.

[Domitan]

6. What we need

is Bush, Cheney or the US Ambassador to Canada openly endorsing Harper within the next week. That will shift the Con momentum the other way.

[bullimiami]

2. how can s america see bush and turn left.

and canada and germany see it and turn right?

[Wabbajack]

14. * had nothing to do with the German election

or Canada's.

In fact in Germany the CDU lost seats but the SPD lost MORE to the new Left party and refused to form a coalition with them. This parliament is actually to the left of the last one.

As for Canada I fear the Libs need to lose before they can come back again. A few years of Harper will bring them back big time.

[Minstrel Boy]

3. quotes by Conservative MPs and candidates,

possible future government ministers. (More, and links, from this thread on Rabble.ca):

Rob Anders: "Nelson Mandela is a terrorist"

Cheryl Gallant, re abortion: "We saw that young American having his head cut off. What's happening, what is happening down there no different."

David Sweet: "There's a particular reason why Jesus called men only. It's not that women aren't co-participators. It's because Jesus knew women would naturally follow. Men, on the other hand, had to be called."

Rondo Thomas: "There is going to be a clash of morality views between those who believe in righteousness and those who believe in immorality and when we collide there is going to be conflict. We are engaging the enemy today; we are going to win this battle."

Darrel Reid: "I think every Christian's under an obligation to change laws to reflect biblical values."

Art Hanger: "Immigrants are choking welfare systems, contributing to high unemployment, and many cannot read."

[sasha031]

4. do you think it is wise

for us to seek out Canadian discussion groups and advise them to stay away from freeps who call themselves conservative. The UK Guardian had a similar campaign, they targeted Ohio before the 2004. election

[dutchdemocrat]

7. Well I won't be going back to Canada

Anytime soon.

Pathetic. Along with the Globe and Mail's endorsement. It was the last newspaper my dad was buying last time I saw him - and ten years ago his would not even touch it, considering it to be the bastion of big business.

Concentrated media ownership in Canada is insane - from the Asper clan pushing blanket editorials to the weeklies the consumed - to the fascist Post.

I am so fucking PISSED OFF about this.

Holland is being run by Fundies right now as well. I can't get away from these RW Crusaders.

On another note...

My research page on wiretap needs some help.

http://www.thisiswiretap.com or http://www.chris-floyd.com/bush/

[george_maniakes]

8. too bad about the globe and mail

What were their reasons for giving harper the nod? I mean the mans math doesnt add up.

[daleo]

10. The Globe has always tilted right, anyway

Basically they said:
- The Conservatives would have the energy to bring in fresh ideas, as the Liberals have grown gridlocked by power (or something like that). They don't mention that these fresh ideas are just recycled old ideas.
- It's time for a change. It is necessary in a democracy.
- Liberals have attracted people with "a sense of entitlement" from long years of power, while Conservatives have attracted people with an "opposition mentality" (or something like that) from long years out of power. They claim switching roles would be good for everyone.
- Martin and the Liberals need a "time-out" from power.

Under normal circumstances the "change is good for democracy" idea has some merit, but I don't want it to be Harper. I recall reading a quotation to the effect: "Ever 20 years or so the Conservatives have to be elected, as every generation has to suffer through one Conservative government to learn its lesson."

[dutchdemocrat]

15. Harper is Bush lite

And we all know how crappy their beer is.

Sorry to use such a 'lame' analogy.

Fuck pandering to the minority Fundie powermongers who want to recreate Canada as an US god fearing echo state.

[Minstrel Boy]

9. Layton appeals for wayward Liberal votes

Layton appeals for wayward Liberal votes

Saturday, January 14, 2006 Posted at 5:03 PM EST
Globe and Mail Update

Toronto — NDP leader Jack Layton predicted, for the first time this campaign, that Liberals will lose the election as he stepped up an appeal for disillusioned Grit voters to defect to his party.

...

"They've done things you can't support and they're going to be busy cleaning themselves up after this election," Mr. Layton said of the Liberals while speaking to a Toronto rally of more than 1,000 supporters.

...

NDP strategists believe disaffected Liberal voters are ripe for the picking now that the party is foundering and appears headed for its first electoral defeat since 1988.

"The Martin's team's poor campaign may have set them up to have the tables turned on them - to have us appeal directly to their supporters to vote for an effective party rather than a crippled one that will likely be spending the next few years in the garage," one NDP official said.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060114.wlayton-chase0114/BNStory/specialDecision2006/



Tories threaten fabric of the nation: Layton

Jack Layton picked apart the Conservative platform and raised the spectre of Liberal defeat Saturday, as he walked an electoral tightrope, trying to win over his rivals' supporters while not scaring off his own.

...

In the 2004 election, NDP support flowed toward the Liberals in the final days of the campaign as New Democrat voters heeded Martin's claim that only he could stop Harper from forming a frightening, right-wing government.

...

At the time, a deeply disappointed Layton vowed he would find a strategy to counter the "campaign of fear that the Liberals have so successfully used time and time again."

Layton has tried to turn the tables this time, saying that, with the Liberals in disarray, only the NDP can rein in the Conservative tax-cutting agenda.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2006/01/14/1394134-cp.html

[HuffleClaw]

11. hmmm. a right wing news source

but god help us all if that happens. seriously. he'd have our troops in baghdad by the summer, and he's NOT going to lower the gst folks. not a chance. and his 'personal popularity'? he's scary! its long been a problem for him. the liberals really wrong-footed that 'military ad' thing. they had no business withdrawing the ads. none. they let themselves be bullied. we got a couple flyers from the conservatives through our mail slot today. and they couldn't even find ONE picture of harper that doesn't make him look like a complete fool.

[Lisa]

12. they actually aren't real "Tories" ...

The old Progressive Conservatives were gobbled up by Reform (over the objections of the moderate PCs like David Orchard). I know a number of traditional PC voters who don't like the neo-con economic policies of the new crowd (and being old-style Canadian nationalists, are wary of Harper's support of Bush). Some of them may be voting Green or NDP this time around.

[pretzel4gore]

13. it's a lie....

the canadian voter has more of a voice then the american? how can anyone believe that? the main dynamic in canada is the quebec independence movement, and the tories, being rightwing pigs, made a deal with the separatistes before when mulroney was put in pm office (the conservatives disappeared at end of mulroney's 2nd term, and mulroney is still today one of the most hated figures in the country despite pigmedia trying to shine him up and remake his image) the same pigmedia which harassed chretien and martin, who hardly act as 'liberals' to begin with, want the 'conservatives' and are no more trustworthy then the us media; look how they played the mad cow thing exactly as cnn scripted it, or the sars bs ..... the quebecers want their own country, and harper will break canada up in a minute. so taking all this into account, and remembering the the media are fukking liars (on toronto canada talkradio, i heard a caller tell a chuckling nazipooh radio host that he told his kids to 'keep american flags in the basement' to greet the us army when they 'liberate' canada from the criminal liberals...this at 11 am on largest radio station in the country! and people think the martin 'liberals' give a sweet fukk? jeez) who try to pretend that the economy is booming and canadian politics is so removed from the american (how the hell do they get away without mentioning the bush criminals? simply by pretending that the 'focus' is national, that's how, and conveniently leaving out the vast rightwing conspiracy part...it doesn't help that the canadian broadcast system seems controlled by rightwingers who trumpet harper's success while constantly saying corrupt liberals etc)
it doesn't really matter who wins this election, the future of canada aint gonna suffer anymore if martin wins, or loses, if bush remains steering the uss titanic towards the big goddam icecube which floating dead ahead! Hopefully, canadians see the economic situation as worth giving martin another term, if only to prevent the busheviks from strutting around all over the goddam place.
fact-bush is feared and hated in canada, outside of the pigmedia, who adore the man, and his astonishing success as liberator of iraq.....