Bad news - I came home to visit my folks - there's a sign in the lawn...

[HEyHEY]

A huge ass conservative party sign. Yes, it appears my father has put his two-year-hatred of the Canadian Conservatives aside and is now supporting the bastards.

When he get's home were gonna have a little chat.

[LittleApple81]

1. Love your bear, hate your father's sign. n/t

[HEyHEY]

2. Makes two of us

I saw my buddy at the bar before I actually had gone home. He laughs and says "Well, I guess it's no secret who your parents are voting for."

I knew right there.

[liberalhistorian]

3. How bad is the Canadian Conservative party?

Are they like our republicans, really hard-right wing dings? Or are they more traditional conservatives?

[HEyHEY]

4. There more like traditional conservatives

In Canada, which makes them basically a Liberal Republican. BUt still that depends on who you ask.

They try to bring religion into Canadian politics..that doesn't play so well up here. As well, Harper supports the Iraq war, my father does not, so I'm gonna ask him how he can put aside his difference on that issue, which is a major one.

[sandnsea]

9. Does he like Bush?

You guys cannot put a conservative in office. That'll be spun down here as an endorsement of Bush and neoconism. I guess it's a pretty selfish reason to ask your dad not to vote for the conservative, but damn, some of us down here are trying to save our country and are actually thinking of the rest of the world this election. We kind of need Canada's help!! Besides, does he really want a flood of liberals up there if Bush gets back into office?? (Considering it sounds like he is leaning the other direction!)

[HEyHEY]

27. No he hates Bush

[mistertrickster]

5. Yeah, that's what I was wondering too . . .

Canadian conservatives are probably like Daschle, heh.

[Minstrel Boy]

34. Until recently, its name was the "PROGRESSIVE Conservative Party."

But it's been taken over by the fundamentalist, neo-con, radical Republican wannabes of the old "Canadian Alliance" (I say "old" - about five years old - before that, it was the "Reform Party," which splintered from the Progressive Conservatives in the late 1980s because they found it too, well, progressive.

The old PCs had a healthy tradition of what was called "Red Toryism." Red Tories were socially progressive and fiscally conservative. Until Mulroney ran the federal party into the ground, that was as bad as we might expect it up here. These new bastards are the far right fringe masquerading as our old, familiar, moderate Tories.

[camero]

6. Ask him if he minds private health care

I'm pretty sure the Conservatives will be working toward that like they have in Alberta.

[Cleita]

8. I know some perfectly nice Canadians, who have become

convinced that our health care system is better. One woman friend of mine recently lost her husband to kidney failure, the same disease my husband suffers from. She went on a diatribe about the Canadian system and said I was lucky to be in the USA. When I told her what I go through here and what it costs me in co-pays and prescription drugs for my husband her mouth dropped.

Not only that his HMO almost let him die without authorizing the care he needed until he had to go on dialysis. Then they dumped him back on traditional Medicare because they didn't pay for end stage renal disease. She had no idea until then that she had swallowed a bunch of propaganda about our "superior" health system.

[camero]

12. I've had those conversations too

Told them how many injuries I had to basically walk off because I couldn't afford to see a doctor. Their mouth dropped too and they said they didn't realize it was that bad.

Yep, it's that bad.

[liberalhistorian]

30. Sure, our health care is superior, IF

YOU HAVE THE MONEY AND RESOURCES TO PAY FOR IT! THAT is the major (and, to health care providers, basically the ONLY) thing that matters anymore. I live twenty miles from the Cleveland Clinic, which is one of the most renowned health centers in the world. Go just two blocks away from it, though, and you'll be in an area whose residents will never be able to see the inside of the clinic for any kind of treatment whatsoever, no matter what their condition is.

It's so bad that, in many cases, doctors are refusing to treat even long-time patients unless they pay the outrageous co-payments and "leftover" fees UP FRONT, no matter what. And hospitals are suing people who can least afford it (especially the uninsured) for even relatively small bills, using "body attachments", garnishing desperately-needed and already-meager wages, etc., etc. Studies show that a minimum of eighteen THOUSAND people a year die as a direct result of being uninsured, and it's believed that the number is actually far higher. Those with cancer or other chronic/serious/terminal diseases are screwed if they don't have insurance or money, they either don't get care at all or they get substandard care and die in greater numbers. And I don't think Canadians have to worry about losing their house and all other major assets to medical bills due to serious/chronic/terminal illnesses; roughly half of all bankruptcies are filed due to catastrophic medical bills. And they don't have to worry about being hounded by medical debt collectrolls while trying to deal with serious/terminal illnesses, either.

Only in this country, alone among all other industrialized countries, is money put above a person's health and only in this country, alone among all other industrialized countries, is the worth of your life dependent on the size of you wallet and the state of your health insurance, if you're lucky enough to even have it. I have a friend who works solely to provide her family, a husband and three kids, with health insurance; the premiums eat up about two-thirds of her paycheck. And if you don't get insurance through work, it's usually too expensive to pay for on your own, usually several hundred a month.

And yet all doctors care about, and all the politicians who fall all over themselves to cater to the doctors care about, is this so-called phony-baloney medical malpractice "crisis" that is just smoke and mirrors bullshit.

[elperromagico]

7. Get the hatchet...

and tear that sign to shreds. ;)

Just kidding. I never advocate violence against signs.

[Frederic Bastiat]

10. The attacks on Paul Martin worked!

Bravo Layton, bravo Duceppe! Nothing like the Left eating its own eh?

[Spazito]

11. Hmmmm, looks like Harper's "smooth" campaign has hit a few...

potholes, lol! I knew it was only a matter of time before their REAL agenda would start hitting the airwaves but to have one of their own do it is doubly delicious.

Former Alliance director quits Tories, cites views that 'verge on intolerant'

OTTAWA (CP) - Stephen Harper tried to reach out to all Canadians Friday even as a former top Canadian Alliance official urged people to think twice before voting Conservative.


Barry Yeates, ex-director of political operations for the Canadian Alliance, is the latest renegade to throw his support behind the Liberals.


In an open letter Friday to news editors, Yeates writes: "I find myself increasingly apprehensive of the vacuous platform and social conservative agenda now being purveyed by the newly formed Conservative party."


"I think the views expressed by a number of Conservative candidates and party officials, on topics as diverse as abortion, sexual orientation, bilingualism and immigration verge on intolerant. I am therefore deeply concerned about what a Stephen Harper government could mean for Canada."

more

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=cpress/fedelxn_conservatives

[Frederic Bastiat]

15. Kinda late and inconsequential

The damage has been done. The Conservatives had no chance at forming the next government in any shape or form before the attacks on the Liberals started, now they are in the drivers seat- maybe it's just me but I don't find it funny.

[HEyHEY]

17. After seeing a poll today

I'm actually starting to worry myself

[Spazito]

18. No, not at all, the polls are saying the votes are VERY soft...

38% are saying their vote may very well change before the election and 18% are undecided, that says 51% can't be counted on any side, I think that is very good because the hard sell will happen in the next two weeks.

[Fear]

13. Father & Son talk eh.......well good luck ;)

[DaveSZ]

14. I read the CP's platform

It's really moderate compared to the neofascist repubs like Tom Delay and Bush.

What are the Torries up there really like?

[Spazito]

16. Well, if you think anti-immigrant, anti-choice, pro-privatization....

anti-labour, pro-tax cuts is moderate, I guess you are right but, in my opinion, they are radical righties trying to emulate your republicans, no thanks.

Edited to add: oh yeah, pro-war too.

[bubblesby2002]

19. This is now getting scary

I work with two people who have been traditional conservatives and even though they do not like Harper and his minions - they also are going to vote conservative. Go figure.

The NDP was just at my door so I confirmed my membership and gave him a donation. I will be working on e-day as well. Don't know what else I can do.

But you could take a small axe to that sign in your parents' front yard.

[DaveSZ]

20. That does sound scary

Check out the Texas GOP platform though:

http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/2004/06/wackjobs-of-texas.html


Now those are some wackjobs!

[HEyHEY]

21. Just had the chat

He gave me the typical western reason "A vote for the liberals is a vote for Quebec." You know my Dad's a smart guy and I hate it when he says things that are so stupid.
He also "Doesn't believe Harper would actually send Canada to Iraq"

HEy Pops, we'll see.

[Cleita]

22. And Canadians say they aren't prejudiced, unless it's about

French Canadians, of course. Sigh. You guys need to examine your biases. Baiting French haters is what the conservatives will do to get your votes. That is what they did with white middle west and southern Americans. Reagan, especially, carried on about welfare queens with Cadillacs.

[HEyHEY]

23. See in Canada there is a strategy

Make the Quebecors hate Westerners, and make the Westerners hate Quebecors, that way the feds have someone to draw attention away from them, then curry favour to each side by taking "a stand."

[Cleita]

25. Beware. Tthey are learning their 'strategerie' from our good ole

homegrown crooks in the USA.

[Cleita]

29. I forgot to add that Julius Caesar started it all with

his idea of "divide and conquer".

[Spazito]

24. Tell your dad that Harper said he will be working WITH the PQ...

if it is a minority faux Conservative government and that means he will have to give Quebec gifts to stay in power. I bet he won't like that if he doesn't like the French. Turn his prejudice of the French against Harper.

[HEyHEY]

26. It's not that he hate the French

He just doesn't like all the gifts they've been given over the last few years.

[Spazito]

28. LOL then he really won't like the gifts Harper will have to give...

I am pro-French, don't get me wrong but if he is unhappy with what he sees as an unfair practice regarding Quebec then he should know that Harper is not his guy to change that any more than Martin or Layton.

[Blue Wally]

31. Problem up north there

Tow liberal parties (NDP and the Liberals) are splitting the vote in numerous ridings allowing the Conservatives to sneak in. Plus the Partie Quebecois takes away alot of liberal votes in Quebec.

[Spazito]

32. Yes, up until earlier this year it was the conservatives that were split..

which is why the Liberals had a 10 year run. This is the first election the Liberals have to fight hard for in 10 years.

[sandnsea]

33. Well, tell him what I said

A vote for the conservatives is a vote for Bush. Not necessarily war, just neocon Bushism in general. Because that's how our press is going to spin it, as a rubber stamp on OUR brand of conservatism.

Tell him I'm begging here, PLEEEEZZZE no conservatives...