Harper on with Mansbridge tonight

[ClusterFreak]

FYI....he's following Layton and Martin in studio over the past week with Mansbridge and a small audience of voters, taking questions, etc.

CBC Newsworld just played a preview clip from tonight's show. Peter asked Harper whether his GST promise is something he really would go ahead with. Harper - instead of saying, absolutely, no doubt, we're doing this - gave a strange response. Something like he didn't know how he could get out of it now, he didn't see what circumstances could make the Cons back away from their promise. Question: Will the Liberals pounce on this?? Or will they miss it, and fumble it, as they have fumbled sooooo much during this campaign? Steve's starting to realize he probably will indeed be prime minister....and, "holy shit, yeah that's right, I made that GST promise...son of a....":wow:

[Spazito]

1. LOL, there isn't a promise made in this campaign that Harper

will keep because none of them are contained in the REAL faux con agenda.

[Telly Savalas]

3. Plunging the country further into debt with tax cuts

is the cornerstone of the conservative agenda.

[daleo]

2. He refused to do this at first

I guess this is part of the effort to forestall the slippage in Conservative support. According to two polls (ECOS and SES) it is now a 5 or 6 point race. The fact he is willing to do this now may imply some desperation here. YMMV.

On edit - I mean he refused to do one of these CBC public forums when first asked.

[Harper_is_Bush]

4. He also answered a question about budget deficits by saying a WAR might

happen. So, it's impossible to say if we'll avoid budget deficits.

lol

[CHIMO]

5. Ottawa needs to respect provincial jurisdiction, Harper says

Ottawa needs to respect provincial jurisdiction, Harper says
Last Updated Thu, 19 Jan 2006 18:33:25 EST
CBC News

Harper said it's time for the federal government to "get on" with running its own levels of jurisdiction properly. He said Ottawa should be focusing on issues like international treaties, foreign aid, national defence and economic union.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canadavotes2006/national/2006/01/19/harper-province.html

The ghost of elections past.

[SeveneightyWhoa]

6. I noticed the same thing!

It really stood out to me..

Essentially, Harper basically said, "yes, this is a promise we'll have to keep." You'd expect an answer like, "Of course, I intend to keep all my promises". But the answer was something completely different.