— Musings —03.02.2011 07:41 AM
— Musings —03.02.2011 07:41 AM
I will have you know the burlap-wool blend was quite the rage in China. I understood PET had a soft spot for how the Chinese-Cuban government ran society.
Uh-huh. And I understand that PMS had quite a soft spot for PET, back then, too:
“Trudeau was one of the young Stephen Harper’s earliest political inspirations, in fact. Admiration for the then-prime minister led him to join the Liberal student club a friend founded in the mid-1970s at Richview Collegiate in Etobicoke, Ont. That admiration ended when Trudeau enraged the West by bringing in the National Energy Program in 1980.”
http://www.cbc.ca/canadavotes2006/leadersparties/leaders/bio_harper.html
Guess he just decided to reach the same goal — absolute power — from the opposite direction.
With polling numbers where they are, the Conservatives will most likely carefully put poison pills in the Budget that will force the three opposition parties to vote against it. That way, the Conservatives can claim during an election:
1. They did not force an election.
2. The Coalition forces were united again, and they are to blame for a needless $300+ election.
Layton has no free will here. With the NDP’s sinking numbers, Harper control’s Layton decision.
This is all too likely, and the poison will be an advancement of Harper’s envisioned hegemony of right wing christian ideocrats. So he’ll ax campaign financing, if the opposition don’t stand up to the Cons on that then they will be fighting one handed when they do try. I’m expecting a political budget full of explosives.
1, 3, and 5. Not enough wisdom for 4, although maybe a couple of MPs will feel that way.
In the incredibly likely event of #2, expect Liberal Flu to hit again on voting day. But I really think the NDP will cave first.
Until I see the At Issue Election Night Special, I remain of the view this election won’t happen until 2012.
Often people talk about the Conservative Government playing to its base. Other political parties also have their ‘base,’ and they ignore that base at their peril. There could be a political price to pay by the NDP if they ‘cave’ to a budget obviously harmful to most Canadian people, and way too friendly to the upper crust. A base will put up with only so much ‘clever gamesmanship,’ in place of acting on the base’s interests.
right point, about losing face, but wrong animal: it’s not “crying wolf” it’s “chickening out”