— Musings —04.04.2011 03:13 PM
— Musings —04.04.2011 03:13 PM
So much for the Libs good week.
Aside from the Nanos poll, which I think is an abberation, Id say considering where Mr. Harper started out, hes had an incredibly sh**ty week. Im hoping it continues, and the Harper “machine” crashes and burns……and we see the end of Republican/Reform style politics in this country forever…….
I saw a snippet of his ‘do’ today with the ATV ride and the meeting afterward. Harper was clearly uncomfortable and couldn’t put two words together in a sentence–and that was in front of a friendly, SCREENED crowd. In the same reel (CBC’s Campaign Mashup), Ignatieff was out on the street, handing out flyers and shaking hands with everyone that came by. Not nervous or rattled at all.
Whether you like him or not, Ignatieff has shown incredible restraint and remarkable calmness and confidence throughout Week One. No cheat sheets, no teleprompter, no fences–and no personal attacks against Harper. I think I’m starting to really like this guy.
…So when’s the one-on-one? (lmao)
Hmmm…
“Mr. Harper is viewed favourably by 45%, and unfavourably by 52%. Those viewing him unfavourably have jumped from the 43% recorded in February. Additionally, 52% represents the highest ‘unfavourable’ rating the Prime Minister has received in this tracking, dating back to the beginning of the 2008 election.”
“The number of people who view Mr. Ignatieff favourably has gone up by 12 points. Today, 37% view the Liberal leader favourably, up from the 25% recorded in February. This also represents the highest ‘favourable’ number the Liberal leader has received since September, 2009. More than half (54%) view Mr. Ignatieff unfavourably. Perhaps most importantly for Mr. Ignatieff, 77% of Liberals now view him favourably, a jump of 20 points since February.”
http://www.harrisdecima.ca/news/releases/201104/1097-conservatives-lead-seven
In other words: Chicken Run. All those negative ads shot to hell. With four weeks to go there’s a lot of room for Ignatieff to move up from bottom. It also means that Liberals that stayed home in 2008 likely won’t this time.
There’s a lot of fuzz in early polls. The favorable/unfavorable movements are very telling however.
unless it’s this proof
http://www.canadanewsdesk.com/
Wonder which CTV executive shills are gunning for a Senate appt ala Duffy……
The numbers are on the move, unsticking as we speak.
Huge undecided. The game is afoot.
Really good response canvassing door to door today. Every volunteer helps.
In Ontario the MOE shows a statistical tie.
Of course, the MOE could also indicate that the Liberals are trailing by 6 more points than show up in the poll result.
Whatever.
The Red Book is a dud. Now Ignatieff has to defend it. The more people look at it, the less they like it. I see Dithers was in the Toronto Star praising it. Talk about The Kiss of Death.
Ignatieff had a chance to show leadership today on Lower Churchill, but he chickened out, trying to play both sides at once and say nothing. I think he finally said he favoured loan guarantees for Lower Churchill because I saw Dalton McGuinty agreeing with Jean Charest and denouncing both Harper and Ignatieff. NL Liberal MPs must be feeling nervous that they were going to be scarificed in order to try to appease Quebec.
Duceppe came out with his price for supporting a Coalition – $5 billion plus 2.2 billion for HST compensation plus saying non to any attempt by NL to develop its own hydro-electricity. Good thing Ignatieff has ruled out the Coalition! The Liberals will pay dearly for their negligence in not preparing a come-back strategy to beat BQ in Quebec. But as Denis Coderre said when he was sacked, Ignatieff has surrounded himself with people from Toronto who haven’t a clue about Quebec.
Speaking of Quebec, has anyone seen Stephane Dion?
Now that the Red Book is out, it is curious that the Liberal campaign still continues to fixate on political staffers. Nobody cares about political staffers except other political staffers. I think Harper made a good point when he said that another Conservative minority would mean yet more of this annoying and irritating whining about faux-scandals going on forever. The only way to make it stop is a Conservative majority.
You sound like a CPC flag carrier – did you know your guy was voted in contempt of parliament and runs from debates?
Actually, there was no vote in Parliament for contempt.
An opposition committee recommended the Govt of Canada be found in contempt,
but time ran out for the actual vote,
so the Liberals simply included the committee findings in their non-confidence vote….Craig Oliver said so.
Moron. You’re confusing the Bev Oda contempt motion — which the Opp. didn’t get a chance to bring forward because the CPC manipulated the times of the meetings, so they couldn’t finish their report before the contempt of the whole GOV’T motion — with the fact that the “Harper government topples on contempt motion, triggering May election” (Google it!; or just: “Tories fall on contempt motion”: e.g., http://urlm.in/hlqz )
(why else do you think the Gov’t fell? Cuz it certainly wasn’t a budget vote: that’s just Harper’s latest lie / delusion, leading Rick Mercer to ask, Mr. Harper, are you on your meds?
http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/04/04/mr-harper-are-you-on-your-meds/
Here’s an excerpt from MI’s speech introducing it:
“Our motion asks the House to agree with the finding in the 27th report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, presented on March 21st.
This was a historic finding, Mr. Speaker. It was the first time that a parliamentary committee has found the government in contempt.
Today, with this motion, we ask the House to do the same – to find the government in contempt, and to withdraw the confidence of the House.”
http://www.canada.com/pdf/leaderoppositionday.pdf
Voted in contempt of parliament by the opposition who didn`t even bother to look at the evidence. For shame.
You have now earned the contempt of Canadians who put you there.
More crap. The PBO team, who knew exactly what they were looking for since they were the ones who were deprived of this information in the first place, DID review that BS binder the Cons. dumped on the Committee at the 12th hour pretending that the full costs of the prison bills & corporate tax cuts would finally be revealed….
…DID review it, and DID determine that key information was STILL missing and the CPC clowns were just thumbing their nose at the whole process, yet again.
So a conservative majority would stop scandals? Give your head a shake Mark.
It would mean that we are doomed to at least 4 more years of scandals (ie Mulroney, Harris, etc)
“Ignatieff had a chance to show leadership today on Lower Churchill”
And Harper had a chance to show leadership on it yesterday, and blew it. Pandering to one province with federal cash is no different from pandering to the other.
And we know who has the slick money to buy pollsters.
Bruce Carson is just the tip of the shitberg. Cons indeed.
Harper’s had a chance to show leadership for the last five years, and he blew it BIG. Any other Canadian Politician (I suspect even Mulroney), would have put in a effort to make the minority government workable.
Harper WASTED five long years trying to undermine every process involved in running effective, pragmatic and prudent government, and in doing so he wasted our precious time and billions of our money.
FYI – Duceppe has said he would never be part of a coalition. Maybe you Cons could stop playing the Norwegian Blue card.
Why is there such disparity in the polls?
I suspect that money and politics are involved.
The industry is cut-throat business and companies play all the angles to get lucrative contracts after the election!
Figures and numbers, numbers and figures. My first year U of C. C. stats prof always emphasized that figures lie and liars figure.
The real statement is that tories are liars and liars are tories
I tend to shy away from calling the HarperCons “Tories”. The Tories of Joe Clark and Robert Stanfield are long gone. I’ve heard people describe Stanfield as “the best prime minister Canada never had”, in fact.
Nowadays, the ony good Tory is a supposiTory.
Does anyone know if Harper made a trip to Manchuria in the last year? I think Chretien has recently phoned Harper to ask him to “pass the time by playing a little solitaire.” To me Harper seems to be tanking his campaign on purpose. I remember seeing Harper being interviewed on CNN right around the time of prorogation. It was like he was putting his resume around – open to offers. Maybe this fishing trip netted Harper an offer which he hasn’t shared with party officials. In any case, his campaign decisions have been abysmal. Now he’s talking about the gun registry? How’s that going to sway the 5-10% soft Liberals he needs to push him over the top?
Oh yeah… Stephen Harper is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life…
OK..so I’ve been feeling totally depressed, especially since the riding I live in is a wave of blue and has been since the beginning of time.
I’ve just discovered Pair Vote Canada and feel a hell of a lot better. I can now direct my vote to a riding where it will actually make a difference. I encourage all of the Liberals languishing in ridings where your vote will do nothing more than earn your favourite party the nominal $2, go to http://www.votepair.ca, register and put your vote in a riding where it will make a difference.
I feel ever so much better now.
Vote pairing sounds like a good idea – but would you really vote for the Conservatives, no matter how much someone in another riding promised to vote Liberal?
You can vote out of your own riding? Doesn`t sound right to me.
Mr. Harper will not achieve his coveted majority.
Despite his apparent affection for Our Game, Mr. Harper doesn’t understand the mistake it is to drop your gloves and then turn and skate to the bench if it becomes obvious it’s going to be a good scrap. This is about more than Canadian politics, this goes to the most base of what some would call the Canadian psyche. I would call it Canadian Natural Law. Skate hard, hit hard, take the odd puck and don’t try to argue from the bench why you didn’t fight. It is essential to “what is Canada” and it binds us over boundaries of land and politics and time.
Mr. Ignatieff understands the odds he is playing against, and decided with the unvealing of his platform that the play of day was to dump the puck deep in the other’s zone and skate for it, grinding in the boards, knowing it’s sometimes the garbage goals that win the game.
Surprisingly, for all he may know about Hockey, it seems Mr. Harper doesn’t actually understand the game — but what is revealed is he doesn’t actually understand this nation, Canada. For him, this election is not about being on the ice, taking hits with his team, but arguing from the team’s bus which goals are better and more worthy of being counted.
And that is the way you get a majority! Don`t let the clowns draw you in. Politics 101.
The clown staffers at the CPC are even warning you. But that’s OK — just keep on going!
Riding home on the city bus today saw passengers reading newspapers with banner headline on front page “IGGY’S GREEN TAX – Cap And Trade Will Cost Us Billions.”
People are aware of Liberal dishonesty. That is why their trust levels are so low in all the polling. I hope someone in the Liberal campaign knows what they are doing because if not it will be a Conservative Majority Government with Gilles Duceppe as Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition.
Conservatives screen and kick out audience members in London.
“Get lost! No guys wearing dresses and sandals allowed. We don’t care if You are Jesus.”
They just did the same thing to students in Guelph today. Love a prime minister who discriminates against students.
One was screened and found to have had a picture of her and Iggy on her Facebook page. Another was screened and found to be the owner of a car with an NDP bumper sticker. This second example, especially, raises the following:
If their parents have any savvy, they should be asking how the hell does a bunch of punk staffers have access to this kind of information on their children!
A hand full of students in Guelph, after participating in this: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/harper-gets-an-earful-from-students-surprise-we-are-voting/article1970607/ were not allowed to attend his talk at a hotel across the street from the university, even though they registered in advance just like everyone else.
Warren,
Am I in Egypt?
What the heck is with the DE-nial on this page.
The polls have shown a fairly consistent conservative lead. (that will drop within the margin again on April 5 2011)
The Cons have had five years of the most stable minority government in the history of Canada. Contempt ? give me break ! doesn’t ring true, at all.
Iggy looks fine, so did Harper in 2004 but get this…… Few want to kick him out, maybe even less than in 2008, like about 4-5% less?
also, Nobody cares that the PM hired a dud. I have done it, you have done it, anyone that has managed anything has done it and Canadians can relate to it and feel for the guy.
You must be in Egypt……….Contempt of parliament is generally only practiced by tin pot dictators and harper is a wannabe in that game.
Sable government for five years.
Lies, porogation, scandals, stacking the senate with undeserving bums. C’mon dont be so blind. harper is an abuser
Hey Petey,
All done by Liberals for decades.
Tin Pot kettle Black.
Play the game to change the game, it’s called incrementalism and you should get used to it.
Again – the only ones that hold the Government in contempt of Parliament are the NDP, Bloc and Liberals naturally.
No i was not paid for that comment but I sure as hell should be.
Only thing sadder than someone who trolls for the Reformers as a job is someone who does it free.
Reality Bites, love the name.
Your moniker was a good movie in 1994 and explains why your still fighting the election of 1993.
Hi….. it is 2011 time to wake up to reality as it is about to bite you…….(Kids in Bed) yup, in the keester. (Just in case)
DEAD ON….And as someone said on another blog if you wear a brown shirt with an armband you get immediate acceptance into their reformatory meetings.
As Jacques Parizeau once said trying to suck Quebecers down the abyss…just get the lobster in the pot and I’ll make sure it doesn’t get out alive.
Well, RB, you know the ol’ saying, “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit!” It’s amazing how any Canadian could even contemplate voting against their own best interests, especially when anyone with a brain would take a long, hard look at the consequences of their decisions.
Without a functioning democracy, there is no such thing as freedom. The people of Libya are experiencing first-hand the extreme difficulty and very real danger of trying to win back their freedom. We Canadians are made aware of these things, yet some won’t pay heed to the warnings contained within.
AHAHAHAHA!….good one RB!……and thanks for calling them by their true name, Reform……the “progressive” part of the Conservative Party was marginalized long ago……I drank the blue kool-aid, but fortunately for me there was an antidote….I rue the day I had anything to do with the Reform Neandertals/Harris neocons….
AHAHAHAHA!…..good one RB!, and thanks for referring to the Cons by their REAL name…..Reform…..
In Egypt eh? By your own overlord’s standards that makes you un-Canadian, so STFU!!!
When it comes down to polls, as the old axiom goes, ‘pick the poll you like’. As one can expect, partisans from every party will point to the poll that has numbers that favour them. However, one should take a couple things into account.
In the last election campaign, in the final poll before election day, EVERY SINGLE POLLSTER had underestimated the level of Conservative popular support. While Angus-Reid was only -0.7% below the ballot box results, every other pollster was at least 3 points LOWER than the actual value of Conservative Party popular support at the ballot box. (FWIW, Harris Decima numbers were 3.7% below the final Conservative popular support numbers, they were 5th out of 7 pollsters in terms of accuracy.)
Not one pollster OVER estimated the level of Conservative party support when the votes had been tallied. Alternately, the final polling numbers for the Liberal party (from the 7 major pollsters) had 5 results ABOVE the actual outcome received on election day. This was a pattern throughout the campaign.
Warren, I just read your Sun commentary. While Harper is running his total-control fake public audience campaign, the Liberals remind me of watching Much Music from the 1990’s. While everything looks free-flowing including Ignatieff’s loose-style campaigning, the Much Music method is well-organized to make sure that Ignatieff and the public’s movements are fairly controlled. The Much Music method means that the host may appear free-flowing, but the directors make sure that the host moves to certain spots at certain times.
well, if it’s televised, then, d’uh, sure, he’s gonna stay in the spots the cameras have a clear view of — and he scarcely needs direction for that, since he WAS a broadcast journalist for many years — but that’s about it. Neither the crowds nor the live questions are pre-screened.
Agree with Dipper’s points. Iggy’s slowly morphing to resemble a talk show host rather than a contender for the PM’s job.
well, as usual, you’ve got it backwards: He’s not “morphing into,” he WAS a talk show host, or at least, a “presenter”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Late_Show_%28BBC_TV_series%29
… and he’s transferring those and many of his other skills to his new roles.
Just as your boy’s extended his, um, extensive mail room experience, to his.
How do I get my pic taken with Iggy so I can be barred from a Harpie public event? I think we should all do it…
Conservatives get rid of the ways to measure their dishonesty– ie long form census – and don’t check on cronies – ie Carson, and don’t allow true numbers for controversial spending( jets, prisons) out in public – then complain that the opposition didn’t vote for their fudged numbers.
Their constant cowardly refuge “Once upon a time, your party…”