07.23.2015 09:21 AM

Hairy

It’s weird, the stuff I think about.  But, then again, politics is weirder.

34 Comments

  1. Al in Cranbrook says:

    NDP’s Cullen: We’re good with a coalition…

    http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/ndp-open-to-forming-coalition-with-liberals-1.2483445

    Message to Canadians: If you don’t want a socialist NDP government (that will bankrupt the federal government pretty much over night), clearly you have only one choice left.

    • Al in Cranbrook says:

      I should add: Here’s the thing about this…

      Historically, a “coalition” has always looked like the Liberals in the driver’s seat, propped up by a handful of Dippers.

      That’s an entirely different scenario from an NDP government propped up by a handful of Liberals.

      This will not be lost on many voters who a) absolutely dread the notion of an NDP government, and b) find a lot more in common with Conservatives than Dippers. Thus, if the NDP’s strategy is to polarize the vote, they will lose. I think they’ve pulled just about all the votes they’ll ever get away from traditional Liberal supporters.

      Conversely, the CPC hasn’t even gotten started yet on beating the bushes for soft Liberal voters that are (rightfully) terrified of a socialist government.

      The majority of Canadians don’t give much of a damn about “progressivism” nearly as much as they fret fiscally responsible governance.

      • MississaugaPeter says:

        You are overreaching that people care about fiscally responsible governance. It is not the 1950’s and 1960’s.

        And if they did, you are telling me that Harper has been fiscally responsible?

        You are hanging out with a small, select group of folks, if you are making a claim that people don’t give “a damn about progressivism”.

        • Michael Bluth says:

          “You are overreaching that people care about fiscally responsible governance. It is not the 1950′s and 1960′s.”

          The world just faced a big reminder of the need for fiscally responsible governance with the Greece fiasco.

          The NDP tell themselves about what great fiscal managers they are, but nobody outside their core is buying that one.

      • W the K - No, not Warren says:

        “Message to Canadians: If you don’t want a socialist NDP government (that will bankrupt the federal government pretty much over night), clearly you have only one choice left.”

        And there, ladies and gentlemen, is the reason Conservatives are running non-stop multi-media attack ads targeting the Liberals and few, if any, targeting the NDP. Because the Conservatives don’t have to. All the cons planned to do was tell Canadians the NDP is a bunch of commies. And we’re all scared of the commies, right folks?

        I think their plan has always been that simple.

        It’s not working.

    • Matt says:

      1) The mere fact the NDP are openly talkink about a coalition with the Liberals suggests their internal polling is quite different from the public polling.

      2) Trudeau has already stated no coalition, formal or otherwise with the NDP as long as Mulcair is the NDP leader.

      • Al in Cranbrook says:

        “…their internal polling is quite different from the public polling”

        My thinking, too. It tells them they’ve topped out…and the CPC hasn’t.

        Trudeau has to nix the suggestion, or there will be a flight of support to the CPC in order to block…which I’m now fairly convinced is going to happen regardless of what Trudeau says.

      • MississaugaPeter says:

        Disagree Matt.

        If you are going to suggest internal polling, I will say it is more likely that the internal polling reveals that embracing Liberals now will make it easier for Liberals to mark an X next to an NDP candidate in a few months. Hard to hate folks who are stretching their arms wanting to hang out with you. Trudeau’s cold shoulder has the opposite effect .

      • Michael Bluth says:

        1) While I hope you’re right on this, I’m chalking it up to Cullen just spouting off. Lack of discipline makes for better news, but not a good sign for the NDP.

        2) The coalition story will have legs as long as someone from either the NDP or Liberals is willing to talk about it.

    • Priyesh says:

      The Conservative party has failed to balance the budget since 2008. They also bet the entire farm on oil, and when the bubble burst, we had nothing else. The economy has shrunk in the first half of 2015. They successfully created a recession outside of the global cycle. That takes catastrophically bad management.

      If you were an honest person, you know that the only choice Canadians have is to vote for another party.

      If you were an honest person.

      • Al in Cranbrook says:

        Ummm…if you were “an honest person”, you would couch your assertion within the truth that, had the Coalition From Hell succeeded, deficit spending in the wake of the 2008 crash would have been at least double what the CPC carried out…if we were lucky! And the fact remains that both the NDP and the LPC complained almost daily that the CPC wasn’t spending enough.

        Outside of the global cycle? What planet have you been living on? China’s stock markets just shed value measured in trillions. Greece is a trainwreck, and Spain, France, Ireland, Portugal, and more European nations are clinging by their collective fingernails. Putin is threatening to return the world to Soviet style expansionism, ISIS has the middle east and north Africa in a state of chaos, and Iran is about to get, if Obama gets his way, a massive injection of tens of billions with which to finance global terrorism.

        Then we’ve got the eco-fanatics grinding resource, and thus economic, development to a stand still in Canada. It now takes decades to anything at all accomplished…if ever! The NDP are against the Northern Gateway, Kinder Morgan, Keystone, and now Energy East pipelines. No one has a real clue where the LPC stands on of it…but they deeply suspect they’re hedging, too. Under the current conditions, the TransCanada Railway would never have gotten built. Forget about the St. Lawrence Seaway. Forget about all those hydro electric dams that deliver to British Columbians the cleanest and cheapest power in the nation. We’d either be some third world jerkwater wasteland, or more likely, most of us, as recently observed in the NP, would be speaking American.

        Then there’s the growing flight of Ontario manufacturing that no longer can afford electricity to power their facilities, and whom are having no problem finding alternative, and friendlier to industry, alternatives.

        Yeah, right. All Harper’s fault, eh? Because he refuses to kiss Obama’s butt by stuffing Canadians with a carbon tax for which American wouldn’t tolerate for one second!

        Get real!

        • Priyesh says:

          Conveniently sidestep the unsustainable tax giveaways. That’s the problem with Conservatives. They’re so ideologically committed to tax cuts for the rich and powerful that they’ll bankrupt the country and destroy the safety net to get there.

      • Al in Cranbrook says:

        And heard on the radio today, EI claims are up slightly in Canada…unless Alberta is excluded, where close to another 5000 have lost their jobs. Solely oil related? Notably, not hearing the same out of Saskatchewan, eh?

        Albertans are in for an education from hell, primarily that the stated ideological bent of the party you’re voting for actually matters.

    • Christian says:

      The NDP isn’t socialist. And Team Trudeau walked into a trap. By rejecting the idea of a coalition, Trudeau is effectively saying “If you want to REPLACE the Conservative government, vote for the NDP. I won’t play ball so there is no point in sending any Liberals to Ottawa if you’re looking to replace Harper.” The progressive vote right now doesn’t give a shit about which party can replace Harper they only want him gone and they will back ANY party that can do it. Samething happened in Toronto last year. The progressive vote wanted Ford gone and would back ANYONE who appeared best positioned (i.e.: in the lead). Tory appeared to be in the lead and he won. If Chow had managed to hold onto her lead she would have won. The NDP look the most promising so they’ll get the progressive vote and now with Trudeau rejecting a perfectly legimate form of parlamentary governance model (its OK in the UK and pretty well everywhere else) he’s pushing more of that progressive vote to the NDP. As for soft Liberals fearful, FEARFUL you say of a EVIL socialist government, voters who voted Conservative last time are planning on voting NDP this time apparently http://www.torontosun.com/2015/07/11/its-orange-versus-blue.
      Funny, they don’t seem to be fearful at all.

  2. P. Brenn says:

    always hate this talk so early …run to win for heavens sake …coalition smolition…

  3. gyor says:

    Bankuprt overnight, no wonder Canadians are increasingly not taking people like you seriously, you say things that make no sense and are over the top, silliness.

    Have the Alberta NDP bankurpted the province over night? Nope and its been in office over a month now, Alberta’s still here.

    • Al in Cranbrook says:

      Apparently Moody’s has already put Alberta on “credit watch”.

      I live in BC; I’m well aware of what the NDP’s capable of when it comes to trashing an economy.

      • smelter rat says:

        IF that’s even true, it has nothing to do with the NDP government, it has everything to do with 44 years of Conservative mismanagement.

      • Christian says:

        You have to be a real delusional idiot to beleive Moody’s downgrading of Alberta had anything to do with the NEWLY elected NDP government and not 44 years of PC rule.

        • Joe says:

          No one can put the Alberta downgrade entirely on the NDP. The PCs with the exception of Klein love debts and deficits. That being said the NDP have done nothing to stop the hemorrhage of red ink and in fact have increased it. It is the only thing the NDs have done mind you. I’ve never seen such a do nothing newly elected government in my life. I think someone finally whispered in the energy minister’s ear that there has been an oil spill. A week late she has decided to tour the site.

    • Matt says:

      They have basically been on summer break since being sworn in.

      And the one announcement they made was to increase spending by $682 million, to be paid for by “debt financing”

      Plus their honeymoon already appears over as they have fallen to second place, and Notley whils still leading in personal polling, has fallen 12%.

  4. billg says:

    The crazy’s who warned us that Stephen Harper was the anti-Christ 12 years ago have been replaced with the crazy’s telling us the NDP should be feared.
    How about this, stop telling me I should be afraid, it doesn’t work.
    George Smitherman never really recovered from the ridiculous theatre he thought up when he had the CBC follow him and his partner around the day before the election because he was afraid Stephen Harper would repeal gay marriage.
    Sharks…I’m afraid of Sharks, warn me of them.

  5. Jnap says:

    i live in Manitoba, and while I appreciate some provincial NDP green initiatives, I too worry about the tendency here to have ten government paperpushers for every one frontline worker. Moody’s downgraded our credit rating as a province.

    • MississaugaPeter says:

      …and because Moody’s downgraded your province’s credit rating everyone in Manitoba is now a pauper?

      Doesn’t help missing Aboriginal women in Manitoba one bit!

  6. JH says:

    Heard a funny story today that media newsrooms have been warned not to ask Mulcair about the repayment of the $ 2.7 million to the House of Commons. Story is they don’t want to see Angry Tom show up when things are going so well for the NDP, now that the Liberals appear to be in trouble. What sayest thou WK? Plausible?

  7. Brad says:

    I thought this thread was about hair?

    I think Steve is wearing a toupee and a lot of people concur. Just another reason not to trust him.

    Justin wins in the hair dept., hands down. I know because I don’t have all of mine anymore.

  8. Christian Giles says:

    Beards are in now. Just look at the number of beardo-hipsters out there! I predict the next move Team Trudeau will make is to get their guy to grow a Jon Snow facial and walk around mumbling ‘winter is coming’.

    • Ridiculosity says:

      ‘Winter is coming’, my friend. In fact, no matter how Harper & Company try to spin it – it’s already arrived.

      And the sooner Canadians realize that the better.

      Time for some new ideas about how we can move the country forward.

      Alberta can’t accommodate us all. And most of us can’t afford to wait until 2020 for the price of oil to rebound.

  9. AK says:

    It’s the return of the Age of Aquarius ….. Hair Hair Hair!

    Hair, flow it, show it
    Long as God can grow
    My hair, flow it, show it
    Long as God can grow
    My hair, flow it, show it
    Long as God can grow
    My hair

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