To the polls!!!!

[azimuthaviation]

For Sale: One vote in the 41st Canadian General election. As a disinterested voter I will sell my vote to the highest bidder. Whoever offers the most money, I will vote for the party of their choice. I will verify casting my vote by recording with cell phone camera. Let me double your voting power!!

[North Shore]

actually work towards what's BEST FOR CANADA!

Well, getting rid of a Government that treats Parliament with contempt would seem to be a good start....

[Canuck223]

actually work towards what's BEST FOR CANADA!

Well, getting rid of a Government that treats Parliament with contempt would seem to be a good start....

I find it amusing in the extreme when anyone old enough to have lived through the Chretien era can say this with a straight face.

A government who viewed the voting public as idiots for believing a word they said (Killing the GST), and parliament as an inconvienient middle step (pushing C-68 with the date of enforcement written into the text), to outright lying to parliament about program cost estimates (C-68 $2m vs $2B) by hiding provincial and municipal associated costs, and labeling cost-benefit reports as cabinet secrets so they didn't have to disclose to parliament.

Have the Harper Conservatives made errors in judgement? Of course, but on the whole I find thier direction to be wise and considerate of the long term needs of Canadians.

The Chretien and Martin Liberals seemed more interested in legacy building and solidifying thier place within the Liberal Party, than looking after the best interests of a greater Canada.

Frankly, of that whole era, the only credit I can give is to Martin, who as finance minister didn't completely squander the groundwork laid by the PC's

[mcrit]

Well, getting rid of a Government that treats Parliament with contempt would seem to be a good start....

I can't blame the Conservatives for feeling the same thing I do for the BQ, the NDP, Iggy, and Chretien's dregs.

[niss]

Harper has dome the exact same thing his predecessors have done. But all his supporters hate the liberals for it but completely excuse it when Harper does it. Like I said, the man could @#$! the queens corpse on parliament hill and everyone who voted for him would think it's a good thing.

[mcrit]

.....could @#$! the queens corpse on parliament hill......

Keep your fantasies to yourself buddy.

[Shiny Side Up]

actually work towards what's BEST FOR CANADA!

Well, getting rid of a Government that treats Parliament with contempt would seem to be a good start....

I find it amusing in the extreme when anyone old enough to have lived through the Chretien era can say this with a straight face.

Indeed. Nevermind Parliament, Cretien held most of the population in such contempt it and the only good thing to be said about him was this was the only thing that was transparent about his party at the time. Cretien's basic strategy to keep in power was to play most of Canada against itself and was well known he'd see the country burn just to maintain it. The Liberal government ran amok in those days with absolutely no chek on their power for the interests of Canadians - anyone remember that the Bloc was the official opposition for a while? Probably the worst incarnation our government has ever had. While I can't say that I ever liked Mulrooney, Cretien made him look like a star and Harper will have to sink quite a ways yet to get down to his level. I do think that if Martin could have wrested the PM's office away sooner there would have been some improvement, but he was unfortunately too little too late. Cretien basically pulled a Brannigan-esque move there.

"The captain always goes down with his ship!"

"That's awfully noble of you sir!"

"No, its awfully noble of you! You're captain now Kif. If you survive, make sure to sned me that wicker chair in the office I always liked."

Cretien of course was a great admirer of Trudeau's iron grip on power.

[Slats]

Well, getting rid of a Government that treats Parliament with contempt would seem to be a good start....

To the tune of $300 million? Give your head a shake. You may be a Liberal, NDP or whatever but you can't honestly believe that this "contempt of Parliament" bullshit stunt of political wrangling that will likely end in a government that very closely resembles the make-up of the current one (if not favouring the Conservatives more), provides anything of value to the citizens of this country.
Anyone with half a brain should not be pleased with this. Liberal supporters even more so. Even they should recognize that if the latest polls are any indication, their party has no chance of winning an election and they are just pissing away hundreds of millions of OUR MONEY in an attempt to do nothing more than make their opponents look bad. Ultimately I think it is they who will come away from this looking worse.
Do you think the MP's who voted for this are doing so because their constituents want it? I highly doubt it. Nevermind parliament, they are the ones holding voters and taxpayers in comtempt.

[. ._]

$300 million is peanuts compared to how much Harper gave out to corporations and CEO bonuses to "save Canadian jobs".

http://www.ecojustice.ca/media-centre/p ... d-climate/

The Tories are about corporate welfare. Just google up, "canadian corporate tax cuts" or anything like that and the numbers are all well above 300 million bucks. I only used that link because that was one of many that are out there. We gotta kick these bums out to save some cash. (Pretty crazy talk coming from a Communist, eh? )

The Fiberals will no doubt do the same, but at least I think Iggy's ego isn't so big that he won't work with the NDP to stay in power. OR the Marijuana Party takes it all because it's a great plant.

We'll see. I love this shit. Gimme another beer. It's a beautiful day in Sudbury. Gonna hit a sub-zero patio today. I can't think of anything more Canadian.

-istp

[Slats]

$300 million is peanuts compared to how much Harper gave out to corporations and CEO bonuses to "save Canadian jobs".

Not the issue at hand. At the risk of sounding trite, two wrongs don't make a right.

[. ._]

I'm kinda drunk now.

What's the issue? The majority of elected people in Parliament have decided that they don't want to prop up an unethical tyrant anymore because their constituents have told them to get rid of the guy? Is that the issue?

Sounds like democracy to me, but I'll review the situation in the morning when my head clears.

Till then.... ROCK THE VOTE!!!!

-istp

[iflyforpie]

Why exactly is Harper an unethical tyrant?

[JakeYYZ]

I don’t see a complete Liberal Meltdown, but there will be at least 3 Con MP's, if not more, with 416 area codes to their riding offices. I can see Dosanjh ‘s seat going NDP. I doubt the CPC will pick up any seats in PQ.
Could be wishful thinking..but here’s how I think we end up:
Cons 161
Libs 49
Bloc 52
Dippers 45
Independent 1
Greens 0
So, I predict a CPC majority, with the Bloc as the Loyal Opposition. ...then the shite really hits the fan. Good times. Good times.

[2R]

If there is a large protest vote and the socialist sphincter sucking sperm swallowers and their followers get the bisexual gay lesbian transgendered transvestite taliban terrorist felching burka crossdressing multi-culteral multi-lifestyle vote out .Taliban Jack may have Harper by the short and curlies

[beaverbob]

By the way, the non-confidence motion was only won by the opposition by 11 votes. So 11 votes cost us 300 million. or maybe more.(correct me if I got the 11 vote difference wrong.)
Some here seem to be criticising PM Harper for calling an election. Well, he was obliged to after the non-confidence vote. Thats what it was for. The blame is to be placed on all the opposition parties for this election.
Bob.

[. ._]

Why exactly is Harper an unethical tyrant?

I'm sure you could find an example somewhere here:

http://www.100reasons.ca/

or maybe here:

http://unseatharper.ca/blog.php

The thing that ticked me off most about the guy was when he called the last election and was breaking his own law. Well, technically not, but it was a sleazy move against the spirit of his own law.

http://unseatharper.ca/election-date-law.php

-istp

[Hedley]

Good times

Yeah, here's hoping Harper gets a majority! I wonder what the opposition will say if they get one

"You're Welcome"?

He's certainly earned it. Running a minority government for this many years wasn't easy - the opposition couldn't do it for 5 minutes (see Stephanie Dion coalition, which I understand voters here want).

I suppose it would be worth $300M to go from a minority gov't to a majority gov't - Lord knows it would improve political stability in Canada - but as a taxpayer I remain to be convinced.

[North Shore]

To the tune of $300 million? Give your head a shake. You may be a Liberal, NDP or whatever but you can't honestly believe that this "contempt of Parliament" bullshit stunt of political wrangling that will likely end in a government that very closely resembles the make-up of the current one (if not favouring the Conservatives more), provides anything of value to the citizens of this country.

The government could literally burn $300 million tomorrow, and it'd be a drop in the bucket compared to a $50 Billion deficit this year - or we could have not held the G20, and had an election each of the two times that Mr.Harper ran for the time-out and prorogued to save his sorry government.

I suspect that the value to citizens will come in the shape of three leaders losing their jobs if we get a minority gov't. I think that Jack Layton is done - his health is giving out, and he's been running the NDP for 7 years now. If Ignatieff can't make any seat gains, then he's off, too. I think that many more people would vote Liberal if they had a decent leader, and Iggy isn't. Harper, too, is back to the NCC if he can't sell a majority to us.

[bandaid]

I don't consider democracy a waste of money. Maybe I'm weird that way.

Give me a break. You can't honestly believe that the scumbags that brought this about are doing so because they have the best interests of their constituents at heart. They are grandstanding and playing partisan politics with taxpayer dollars for NO REASON. That's the problem with this country: too many people and politicians can't put aside the partisan bullshit and actually work towards what's BEST FOR CANADA!

Not that I disagree with you but have you ever considered the reason there is a minority government is because the Canadian people do not trust any of the parties running?

[iflyforpie]

The thing that ticked me off most about the guy was when he called the last election and was breaking his own law. Well, technically not, but it was a sleazy move against the spirit of his own law.

http://unseatharper.ca/election-date-law.php

-istp

See, that's the thing. It seems like people decide that they hate the guy, then have to figure out why.


He wasn't breaking his own law. It wasn't a law because the Conservative government hasn't had the power in the Lower and Upper Houses to pass the law. Sure they could introduce it, but it would just give more ammo for the Opposition when it was inevitably defeated. You have to be pretty bold if you say that you agree with his proposition, and attack him when he doesn't carry it out, but still support parties that wouldn't even consider it.

So what are the Conservatives supposed to do when a vote of non-confidence happens? They prorogue the parliament, and there is outcry from the Liberals even though Chretien prorogued the Parliament right after the sponsorship scandal hit the fan in 2002 (only six years before). Proroguing is a perfectly legal process. Or they call an election, and again there is an outcry from the Liberals even though Paul Martin did the same thing in 2006 after the Opposition called a vote of non-confidence. I suppose the right thing for the Conservatives would be to do nothing, look inept, and let a shaky coalition ruin the country over a simple war of words.

What about the other arguments against Harper? The G20 fiasco was, I admit it, a fiasco. But probably nobody east of Lake of the Woods remembers the APEC riots in Vancouver in 1997 when Chretien was in power and the ensuing incidents of use of excessive force by police. No cost figures were ever released, but the security costs 2002 G8 Summit which was in the middle of nowhere were $200 million. The FLQ crisis under Trudeau of course trumps them all in terms of dictatorial actions.

Appointing Senators? Again, what was he supposed to do with a minority government and an Upper House dominated by Liberals who would surely crush any Senate Reform? (If they did it probably would be the first example of the Senate actually doing anything ). If Harper doesn't change the rules with a majority government, I will no longer support him. We in the west have been waiting since the Reform Party to get enough power to clear out the patronage appointments and make sleeping and absent Senators accountable.

Contempt of Parliament? Please! If there had been an Opposition large enough to form a majority in the Chretien days, we would have been sick of the term. Canada needs the F-35s, no matter what the costs. Either that or let's stop pretending to have a military and become like Costa Rica--except with the world's longest coastline, second largest area, and a metric-fuckton of natural resources. The costs of procurement are going to do nothing but rise and if history is any indication we should buy now before the costs double or even triple with development overruns and the devaluation of the US dollar. Let's not forget the Canadian companies involved in component manufacturing.

Getting involved in Afghanistan? I hear this all the time. It was CHRETIEN who got us there in the first place!



Harper is not Bush. I don't mind Harper, I couldn't stand Bush. Bush ruined his country financially and then handed that smoking mess to Obama. Bush tore into Iraq under false pretenses and the US is now nearing eight years in that quagmire with no end in sight. The US Republican Party is the Party by the Rich, for the Rich, which described the Liberals when they were in power to a tee. It's not about who is right-wing or left-wing, it is about who is for the people, and who is for themselves. And I don't believe that the NDP handing out goodies to everyone is being responsible to the people of this country.

I will admit that I don't like everything about Harper. I would like to see Harper balance the budget better and increase corporate taxes, but I'm not going to vote Liberal or NDP to watch all that extra money be squandered on Quebec or bottomless social programs. I do want to see Senate and Election Reform, and I will call them on this. I did not like the stimulus spending, an example of which is across the street from me, now vacant, run by a multi-millionaire and ex-convict who figured that moving staff from other locations would count as the 'new employment' he needed to get the money.

[fel]

Pie,
If you run for office, you got my vote!

[Beefitarian]

have you ever considered the reason there is a minority government is because the Canadian people do not trust any of the parties running?

Ding ding ding ding! Woooop woooooop woooooop
I will vote, I am thankfull for the right to do so. I don't want them to spend the money on an election right now. Why wouldn't it be better to wait at least until the fall.

I'm even mildly worried about Harpo getting a majority but won't cry for the tools that are responsible for this election.

[Icebound]

Canada needs the F-35s, no matter what the costs. .

True. I agree (in principle, anyway)

But there is a little perspective here:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011 ... ewart.html


Just consider the record of the past 66 years, right back to the end of the Second World War.

Here's the number of fighters we've committed to the five conflicts we've been in:

Korean War (1950-53), none. Gulf War (1991), 24. Kosovo (1999), 18. Afghanistan (2001-2011), none. Libya (2011), six.

Surely there's a message in such numbers. Throughout the jet age, Canada has acquired more than 1,100 fighters, out of which only 48 have seen service in our five hot conflicts.




...

[Beefitarian]

The rest should be keeping the Rooskies from stealling santa's sleigh.

[kevind]

One thing that I have been wondering about. All the promises about health care. Isnt that a provincial responsibility?