Canadian Version Of The Grassy Knoll Theory

How the Harperites ambushed the rights agency

By Haroon Siddiqui

Sun Jan 31 2010

The proroguing of Parlia-ment we understand. Also Stephen Harper's emasculation of independent institutions. And his firing/silencing/demonization of critics, like labelling Jack Layton "Taliban Jack" for saying in 2006 (as argued in this space as well) that NATO had messed up so badly in Afghanistan it could no longer win, and the only way out was political reconciliation, which is what Barack Obama has decided and Ottawa has signed on to.

Educating New Immigrants...

...and m.a.t.c.h.i.n.g $ f.o.r $ c.i.t.z.e.n.s d.o.n.a.t.i.o.n.

And now for a reading lesson:

*5000-7000 troops to help in rebuilding and to protect people from bad people.

*$550M in aid over 5 years

In Canada We Can Only HOPE...

Hopefully a Sign of Things To Come

From Glenn Thrush:

A Democratic operative familiar with the get-out-the-vote push by Martha Coakley's team, and boosted late in the game by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, says that outreach workers in and around Boston have been stunned by the number of Democrats and Obama supporters who are waving them off, saying they'll vote for Scott Brown.

Posted by Max Jacobs at 11:54 AM 2 comments

Giving Credit Where Due...

National Post editorial board: Our (new) military

Posted: January 16, 2010, 8:30 AM by NP Editor

When we first sent troops to Afghanistan, they had to hitch a ride with the Americans. In 2004, when we sent a team of medics and engineers to Sri Lanka following the Boxing Day tsunami, they had to wait for days until we could pay a transport company to fly them to the disaster in old Russian aircraft. For most of the decade before the Tories came to power in 2006, our peacekeepers and troops had to endure the indignity of thumbing a ride to the world’s hotspots. We had the will to help, but not the means.

But now, that has changed.

Thanks to Tory efforts to rebuild our military, within 24 hours of Tuesday’s devastating earthquake in Haiti, Canada had aid flights heading to that beleaguered country. Within 48 hours, the first 272 Canadians stranded there were in the air on their way home to Montreal.

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The Winds Of Change Could Blow Harper To A Majority

Latest Headlines

Tories score upset win in Quebec, regain N.S. riding

The Conservatives pulled off an upset in a Quebec riding and regained a longtime Nova Scotia stronghold in federal by-elections Monday night.

Don Martin: Tories win big in byelection blitz

A harder a push by a governing party to buy a seat or two that doesn’t mean very much in the greater scheme, escapes my fragile memory

• Tories upset Bloc in byelection

• By-curious: Results for Monday's by-elections

A Conservative Insight

Williamson's wisdom

Posted: September 22, 2009, 8:29 PM by NP Editor
Filed under: John Williamson,Stephen Harper,Conservative party

It's A Start But Let's Not Get Too Cocky.......

• Nanos National Ballot - Impresssions of Harper and Ignatieff measured
  The latest Nanos poll suggests that the election dialogue between Harper and Ignatieff has lifted the Conservatives in Ontario, at the expense of the Liberals, the NDP and the Greens.

• Ignatieff loses momentum in Quebec

Layton goes from kingmaker to bystander
Jack Layton looked like a kingmaker when the Liberal-NDP coalition threatened to topple the Conservative government last fall, but eight months later he is struggling for attention.

Cutting Thru The Left Wing Negativity......

John Ivison: Don't buy the spin, stimulus is flowing

Posted: June 08, 2009, 9:17 PM by Ron Nurwisah

The second Report to Canadians on the progress of the Conservative government’s $40-billion, two-year economic action plan is due this week. Its arrival is sure to spark a fresh outbreak of ill-informed speculation about an August election, as the opposition parties plunge into a sea of platitudes about the government’s failure to get “money out the door.”

This is patently unfair. Every day there are news releases detailing how the government is rolling out its action plan, such as the $16,000 recently earmarked for the seniors of New Maryland, N.B., to socialize at the village Step’n Tyme class.

You might not agree that the government should be funding step dancing for seniors, but there is no doubt that it is. Money is starting to flow to major infrastructure projects too, even if John Baird, the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, is finding it harder to give money away than he anticipated.

The real problem is not that it has taken this long to get the money flowing. Rather, it’s that the government was foolish enough in its budget to give the impression that the whole process would be done and dusted within 120 days (in fact, the Conservatives said “measures to support the economy must begin within the next 120 days to be most effective”).

To those in the private sector, the bureaucracy moves at the pace of coastal erosion. But to those who work in the public service, governing takes time because the public interest is at stake, decisions have to be reviewed and stakeholders brought onside.

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Stephen Has A Lot To Do To Get Us Back In The Fold BUT...

National Post editorial board: Chuck Strahl's welcome new approach

Posted: June 06, 2009

"Aboriginal funding will reward initiative, innovation and progress"

Perhaps it’s just a coincidence, but the more the federal government finds itself lacking options on the economic front, the more progress it seems to make in other areas of the Conservative agenda.

While struggling with the ever-expanding deficit and bailout demands on all sides, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government has quietly revamped Canada’s international aid policy, restructured the immigration system and introduced long-overdue legislation to protect the property rights of native women and children following a marriage break-up, bringing them in line with the rights of other Canadian women.

Click here to read more...

Pt On The Coffee...Another Poll

Harper's a Tims man, but Ignatieff inspires Poll finds the Grit chief isn't seen as very patriotic, suggesting that ‘nasty' PM's attack ads hit his weak spot

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Many Of Us Are Thinking The Same Thing

Should a conservative vote for the Nova Scotia PC?
I wrote a blog post proclaiming that the Nova Scotia PC Party do not deserve to win this election. On the Western Standard, Dane Richard responded to my post with his own post on why the PC Party should win.I think I can fairly summarize our positions like this:Hugh: They shouldn't win because they haven't acted like conservatives in government. Dane: They should win because they are acting like
Freedom is My Nationality |

A Wakeup Call

Liberals edge ahead of Conservatives, says poll

Updated Mon. May. 11 2009 11:00 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

The Liberals have pulled ahead of the Conservatives in national voter support, propelled by surging numbers in Quebec where they have virtually tied the Bloc Quebecois, according to a new Strategic Counsel poll.

The survey, conducted May 6-8 for CTV and the Globe and Mail, shows the Liberals with a slight lead across the country.

Here are the national results (difference between 2008 federal election results in brackets):

• Liberals: 35 per cent (+9)
• Conservatives: 30 per cent (-8)
• NDP: 16 per cent (-2)
• Green Party: 11 per cent (+4)
• Bloc Quebecois: 9 per cent (-1)

Support for the Liberals has grown steadily since a Dec. 3 poll, when the party was at a low of 24 per cent. Meanwhile, the Conservatives have bled support since that poll, when they had a high of 45 per cent.

"This poll, and other polls, are probably ensuring there won't be an early election," Peter Donolo of the Strategic Counsel told CTV.ca Monday.

The Liberals would need the support of the NDP and Bloc to bring down the government, but the poll suggests those parties -- especially the Bloc -- lack enough voter support for a successful outcome.

Quebec has seen the biggest change, with the Tories sinking 13 per cent since the last election:

• Bloc Quebecois: 39 per cent (-1)
• Liberals: 37 per cent (+13)
• Conservatives: 9 per cent (-13)
• NDP: 9 per cent (-3)
• Green Party: 8 per cent (+4)

Donolo said the last few months have shown a trend where the Bloc is slowly losing potential votes to the added benefit of the Liberals. The gap between the two parties hasn't been so small since at least 2003, he said.

"They're not down compared to their election results, but over the last few months they've been trending down," he told CTV.ca. "And the Tories are back to where they were before the 2006 election, which is nowhere."

$$$$$$ Well Spent

Federal government gives Calgary Stampede $2M
The federal government kicked off the summer festival season Monday by granting special funding to eight major events across Canada to stimulate tourism amid the economic woes.

What Stephen Is Up To.....

PM champions free trade at Americas summit
Harper insists he's not at odds with other leaders, but clash of ideologies still evident...

Harper pledges $4B to boost Latin American trade

Harper buttonholes Obama at summit

Scuffles break out at Summit of the Americas

Obama and Hugo generate buzz

Loyalty And Intelligence Tory Traits

Half of Canadians think Stephen Harper should step down if the Conservatives are defeated in the House of Commons.

But that seemingly bleak number in a new Leger Marketing poll doesn't tell the entire story.

About 37% of those asked said Harper should stay, and this mirrors the approximate support Canadians gave the Tories and their leader in the Oct. 14 election, says Leger vice-president Dave Scholz.

Among identified Conservative voters, only 16% feel he should step down in the event of his party's defeat, the poll shows.

"It's a pretty strong endorsement for him of people who voted or traditionally vote Conservative," Scholz said.

The Tories are also still seen as the party best able to deal with the economic crisis, the poll shows. Thirty-four percent favoured the Conservatives, while just 14% thought the Liberals would handle the crisis better, and only 7% endorsed the NDP. Eighteen percent of those asked thought a Liberal-NDP coalition would handle things better than any of the opposition parties on their own.

An Apparent Defeat Actually A Victory.....

......for the Canadian taxpayer and for Harper. No matter how much they deny it the liberals, ndp and the other guy showed their true colours...

Conservatives scrap plan to cut party subsidies

Opposition denies subsidy cut was incentive for coalition push

How stupid do the "opposition parties think we are?

Last Updated: Saturday, November 29, 2008 | 6:09 PM ET Comments962Recommend285

CBC News

The federal government will drop its controversial plan to eliminate political party subsidies that are based on the number of votes received during elections, CBC News has learned.

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As A Conservative I Am Not Enthralled With Our Performance

But phrases like "police" state make me question the author's motivation......

Taking Tories to Task

Pierre Lemieux has an excellent column detailing the disappointment that is the Conservative Party of Canada.

Key quote: "The Conservatives have brought their own building blocks to the construction of the Police State while dismantling nothing of what the Liberals had built before them."

Tougher Gun Laws Under Harper's Leadership.....+

.....but to be fair the liberals also attacked the problem of illegal guns with their billion $$$$ boondogle called the gun registry.

Guns seized at border, tough new law gets test

SARNIA -- An Ohio soldier and a California prison guard charged with bringing guns into Canada would face tougher jail terms if convicted under a new federal gun law. Changes that took effect May 1 call for mandatory three-year jail terms for offences including possession of prohibited firearms with ammunition. [...more]

Bastion Of Conservatism Takes A Hard Look

MP Report Card
The good, the bad and the merely ineffective. In the Conservative government of 127 MPs, there are 31 honourable members. The rest don't really count.

We Are Going To Have To Take The Heat Stephen

No shelter from Bernier fallout
By PAUL BERTON

For better or worse, we are all judged by the company we keep. Nowhere is this more obvious than in politics. It doesn't mean people should be hired or fired based on personal relationships, but it cannot be ignored either.

Full Column