— Musings —03.08.2012 11:19 PM
Harper’s Cons won’t be defeated by Robocon
There’s only one thing that can defeat him: Nathan Cullen – or, perhaps, Nathan Cullen’s idea.
Swear to God: if I was a member of the NDP, I’d be busting my hump for this guy.
— Musings —03.08.2012 11:19 PM
There’s only one thing that can defeat him: Nathan Cullen – or, perhaps, Nathan Cullen’s idea.
Swear to God: if I was a member of the NDP, I’d be busting my hump for this guy.
Pierre Poutine is a University of Ottawa student? Are they trying to blame this one on another young guy again like they did with Michael Sona? For some reason, I doubt one single University of Ottawa student could be behind all of this.
Why not, with a few of his friends maybe?
It`s not as if you need to be a rocket scientist to hire a marketing firm to distribute a pre-recorded message
On robocalls, reporters dig while pundits sit and snipe
By Andrew Mitrovica,
The Ottawa Citizen
March 8, 2012 6:17 PM
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/robocalls+reporters+while+pundits+snipe/6272965/story.html#ixzz1oaJ5CeDm
Something to listen to while reading all this stuff…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y-JL8tuQ6Y
It’s not too late to donate to his campaign, Warren. 🙂
Would you do the same if a Liberal candidate were running on the same proposal?
NOW we’re on to something here. If there were two outspoken very public people that endorsed this and ran with it, THEN it might finally get legs. Afterall, what do you have to lose?
This story about Prescott tweeting about voter suppressing robocalls the day the burner phone was activated is interesting:
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Guelph+Tory+campaign+worker+tweeted+robocall+alert+days+before+vote/6274256/story.html
Prescott is also the one whose expenses for Racknine were never reported and no explanation has been given for that.
The story also tells about how heavy handed these Conservative companies are in threatening legal action. The National Post has been threatened. I hope it doesn’t curtail their coverage of this issue as I have been enjoying reading them for the first time in a long time.
I wouldn’t be so sure…
Cullen’s idea is definitely an idea, but I’ve got a strong hunch that there is a lot bubbling under the surface that will come up in the next while…
Claimed to be UofO. Probably only confirms that his voice age is about 22.
http://uranowski.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/why-nobody-believes-the-conservative-talking-points-on-the-robocon-scandal/
The column underestimates the extent to which this proposal would alienate the NDP base, some of whom would prefer another Harper government to this. Consequently, it’s almost certainly a nonstarter.
Maybe they should stop playing to the base and start playing to the nation.
Well, I mean, it’s not going to work without boots on the ground, and it would transparently become the Liberals warmed over. Canada has a large enough left that an NDP that looks like it is moving too far to the center could lose the left edge to another party, and thereby lose marginal ridings, etc.
Ignoring the base in a populist party (which is what the NDP is) is a recipe for disaster. The only way a marriage could work is if the Liberals agreed that they were not going to be in the driver’s seat in any way.
zing! and i agree.
How big is this “base” of which you speak?
Over 50% of caucus comes from Quebec and they weren’t there before the last election.
Seems to me that the article is making the point that the NDP “base” is constantly changing by adding and growing, and needs continue to do so.
The NDP caucus in Quebec was elected by people who did not want to vote for a Liberal government. It wasn’t elected by Liberals who had a soft spot for the NDP.
Uniting the left would definitely create a disadvantage for the Conservatives in the short term. But eventually, the Conservatives would find a way to add 10 percent to their 40% base support in order to get a majority.
I think a certain percentage of Liberals would probably go Conservative if their party merged with the NDP anyway.
I don’t think any serious movement toward a two-party system (like the Americans now basically have) will occur unless the Conservatives have been in power for 20 years.
Were Cullen elected leader, he has the next election strategy, then he will modify the voting system to include proportional representation. Partial prop rep, or prop rep will change the number of parties possibilities.
No they wouldn’t. The votes will never be there. The Tories are a 25% party which gets an extra 10-15% or so each time people get fed up with the Liberals. With a Lib / NDP merger, the cats would be herded and it would be a Lib / NDP majority government about 70-80% of the time. The Tories would lose further votes when their supporters realize it is virtually impossible for them to win again. Any Blue Liberals who would move Tory have already done so.
Lastly, the Tories will be in power for the next 20 years straight, no matter how much money they steal, no matter how many votes they rig, no matter how many advisors set up businesses for their escorts. They will be in at 35% of the vote and 100% of the power unless NDP / Libs realize that Canada is more important than their parties.
We need Belinda Stronach to help out here!
Steve Chase keeps up…
York Centre joins list of ridings reporting misleading robo-calls
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/york-centre-joins-list-of-ridings-reporting-misleading-robo-calls/article2363895/
Manning, Harper meet with Tories in Ottawa
http://www.canada.com/Harper+stole+majority/6275822/story.html
yes, the idea removes the separatist wedge issue so successfully exploited by Conservatives.
This would definitely work, but would rather vote pure Liberal if they get a decent Leader. There’s a lot of swing voters that voted Harper, I’m one of them, I’d easily switch to the Liberals, but not so much to the NDP. Draft Trudeau, and I’ll vote big Red!
I’d prefer a European style coalition with Liberals and NDPer maintaining party identities but with a brokered decision on who get to run where. Intensely political and maybe not practical but merger isn’t the answer either. Some Ideals are consistent but the party cultures are too different.
I live in a heavily conservative riding in Ontario and talk to CPC supporters on a daily basis. I think the CPC will lose support IF there are by-elections called and/or if some relatively senior person(s) gets charged (conviction optional). These events would make a lot of their supporters take notice. Women supporters will be especially problematic. Where would their vote go? My guess is that it would be mostly split between the Liberals and Greens… old Libs going back home and die hard PC’s going Green. The real problem for the CPC is that they will keep most of their support where it will do them the least good… in ridings like mine where they get 65% of the vote anyway.
I think the he big impact of Robocom, with or without by-elections and convictions, is that it will galvanise the ABC vote. Right now I would put my money on the Liberals simply because they’ve been in government before, but I really think in the end it will be determined by their leadership selections. I think any Lib/NDP cooperation at the riding level is a long shot… who are you to tell me who I can’t vote for! I can just see the CPC ads. I would like a preferential balloting system where one’s second ballot appeal matters. You couldn’t appeal to just the base… a lot less special interest politics and voter suppression BS! Notice that ALL parties use a runoff type of process in their leadership selection.
BTW, your server is VERY slow! Are you under attack?
I dropped in the middle of an interview the other day on CBC R1. I wasn’t entirely sure who was speaking for the first few minutes and thought to myself hey this guy seems unusually bright and well spoken. It wasn’t until the end that I discovered it was Nathan Cullen who was speaking. I don’t agree with many of his points of view, but I do admire the way in which he explains them. The left needs more of that.
I seem to recall Premier McGuinty at the Federal Liberal Convention in Ottawa come out strongly against merging with the NDP. It also seems to me that we just had to wait for Harris to blow out in Ontario to get a majority Liberal Government – no merger with the NDP required. The question in hindsight is, would Harris have gotten his second majority if there was a merger of the NDP and Liberal in Ontario during the Harris years?