recent polls add to the confusion

Is it just me, or is everyone else confused about what's is really going on here?

Ok, so Ipsos keeps saying that the sky is falling for the Libs?

Then SES says that there is still hope, but as long as Dion is not the leader?

Betcha the Sun will not have this latest poll on the front page like they had this morning.

I think Eddie Vedder sums it up nicely on his new album "society... crazy indeed".

In any event, can we all agree not to freak out the next time Ipsos releases another poll that seems to be going against the norm?

It's time

I believe it is time for the Liberals to vote against the Cons whenever the next confidence vote comes. I did not believe that the last couple of opportunities were the right time, as the party needed time to overcome its recent difficulties and how could you oppose tax cuts? However, the party has weathered the storm, but it can no longer continue on this course. The next time a confidence vote comes up on an policy that the Liberals clearly disagree with, then it must vote against the Cons. The damage to the Libs credibility will be irreversible and it will look like the party has no principles. Time will not heal this wound if the Liberals abstain again. The party must have confidence in their leader to fight an election, because if the party does not have confidence in its leader then why should they expect Canadians to have confidence to vote for them.

The Liberals have a lot to offer Canadians:

1. Values consistent with the majority of Canadians
2. A solid group of candidates
3. A long history of good government for Canadians
4. A leader with integrity

The Cons on the other hand:

1. Do not hold values with the majority of Canadians
2. A team that consists of the likes of Baird, Van Loan, Day, Flaherty, Mackay, Ambrose, Kenney
3. A mediocre record in government
4. A school yard bully for a leader

If the party wants to show that it is ready to lead again, then it must defeat the government at the next opportunity. Furthermore, the party needs to solidly get behind its leader, be disciplined and have a clear set of policies and then let the voters decide. Fear of losing cannot be a reason not to defeat this government. How can you ask Canadians to believe in you when you will not stand up for your principles?

Finally, a Conservative majority will put this country on the wrong track socially, environmentally and fiscally. It is the responsibility of the Liberal Party as the only viable nationally governing alternative to make sure that this does not happen. It cannot accomplish this if it does not have confidence to take on Harper and his gang of thugs.

What the Cons accomplished this week

This is what the Cons accomplished this week:

1. Demonstrating their hypocrisy on accountability
2. Demonstrating their hypocrisy on grassroots politics
3. Demonstrating their true right wing agenda
4. Demonstrating that they put their desire of a majority ahead of what's good for the country

On a side note, I think it is disgusting that Tim Powers on Duffy would equate this death penalty issue with the Liberals being soft on crime. One has nothing to do with the other. Especially, when this has been a policy of Canadian government's for 40 years! Once again Stockwell Day is the Liberals greatest assets.

Secondly, it is a bit rich that the Cons are dissing Dion for musing about raising the GST (because it was bad policy to lower it, although it was stupid of Dion to mention it), when it was the Cons that brought in the GST!

Oh ya, the Cons are putting out another misleading, childish attack ad. Yawn...

Still in denial?

Records Temps in T.O.

California Wildfires

CO2 emissions rising faster than expected

Even my Dad doesn't like Harper

Was just talking to my my Dad and was shocked by what he said. Even he thinks Harper is a jerk and my Dad is as Conservative as they come. I can sleep easy tonight. Goodnight.

Dryden is a leader

According to Susan Delacourt, Dryden's speech in caucas had a major influence on keeping the Libs from defeating the gov't this week.

"It's not about you," Dryden bluntly told Dion. In other words, there was more than one person's future at stake in this whole parliamentary game of brinksmanship. At least a couple of people in the room were impressed with Dryden's candour. (He still was the best choice for leader)

Dion's Communication Skills

On Duffy yesterday Nanos, Weston and some communication's expert basically made the point, brought on by Weston's column earlier in the week, that Dion's English is what is limiting his effectiveness as a leader. I read Weston's column and I thought it was a little crass, but the main premise was correct. On Duffy's panel they pointed out that he uses too many complicated words and phrases that do not come off to well. Furthermore, Dion's speaking style is too wooden and fails to inspire, which is the most basic of skills for a politician. In addition, his speeches are too long, which make them harder to rehurse. Duceppe and Chretien have obvious problems in English, but they simplified their approach and speak from the heart which has proven to be effective. In the age of the sound bite as the panel described, being able to communicate effectively is key. Duh.



To me Dion's pronunciation, besides the odd slip, is not bad, but I believe that he speaks too deliberately, probably too cognisant of making a slip. I think he needs to simplify his message, speak more passionately, stop worrying about making a slip and less from a script. If you remember back to the leadership debates that was the style that he used and that was what won over delegates. Since he became leader he has tried to come off too prime ministerial, but I think he needs to start acting like an Opposition Leader and speak more from the heart. If his advisors and himself do not fix this basic problem, then there is no point trying to act prime ministerial, because he will never become one.



A note to any Cons that want to respond to this post, spare me the childish cookie cutter remarks. Thanks.

Garneau to run for the Libs afterall!

Some positive news for a change!

Maybe it is not all doom and gloom afterall?

CPC Bloggers still in Climate Change Denial

If you sample some of the comments from the Reform bloggers in response to a post on the environment from a Liberal blogger you will generally get three standard replies:

1. The Liberal record...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
2. It will hurt the economy to take real action
3. The science is still not proven

Therefore, if these are the opinions of the Reform bloggers, is that not a true reflection of the how the CPC feels despite their posturing?

On a side note, the CPC has been in power about as long as Dion was Enviro Minister, so what exactly have they accomplished in that same amount of time, besides a lot of hot air?

Feeling Frustrated at the thought of a Harper Majority

A Harper minority govt has resulted in:

1. A GST cut, roundly derided by economists as it encourages over-consumption, but an increase in personal income tax
2. A weak attempt at green-house gas reduction
3. A faulty Accountability Act
4. An extension of the Afghan mission
5. Quebec as a nation
6. Increased provincial bickering
7. Income Trust betrayal
8. No decriminalization of marijuana, instead a clogging of our justice system with minor possession offences
9. No reduction of wait times
10. No real accomplishments to speak of

A Harper majority will result in:

1. Another useless GST cut
2. No real action on climate change
3. Lip service to accountability, more secrecy
4. An extension of the Afghan mission
5. A weakened federation
6. A continuation of provincial bickering
7. More broken promises, although I am afraid of the ones they will keep
8. More needless court cases wasted on minor possession offences
9. No reduction of wait times, but probably a move towards increased privatization
10. A move towards a more right-wing agenda, which is funny since at least 60 - 65% of Canadians consider themselves near the center or slightly to the left. This will result in a increasingly divisive population. Therefore, about 30% of the right wing nuts in this country, with another 10% of dissafected Liberals will be running this country. However, CTV, The Nat Post, The Sun all those right wing nuts on talk radio will be happy.

What Canadians will get with a Dion gov't.

1. A responsible corporate tax cut and increased resources toward innovation, training and research which will hopefully dull the effects of a the dollar at par and the loss of manufacturing jobs and possible US recession.
2. Real action on climate change - they had better or I am diffecting to the Greens
3. A more effective accountibility policy, based on the Gomery Commission
4. Leaving Afghanistan by Feb 2009
5. A stronger federation
6. Keeping promises to provincial govts
7. I hope no broken promises, cause that would be suicide
8. Decriminilization of marijuana - I hope
9. Modest improvements to health care, without privatization, what else is possible?
10. A govt in tune with Canadian values, such as a ban on hand guns

I believe the formula for winning if I was Dion is:

1. Come up with New Red Book, with a small amount of concrete visionary proposals that are costed, realistic and scheduled. Policies that will appeal to soft NDP voters and to women.
2. Make their key points around Climate Change, Foreign Policy, Poverty, Gun Control and a strong central govt
3. Emphasize the team, less on the leader, appear united
4. Dont go negative, but emphasize what they will do in govt
5. Have a strong, experienced campaign team to surround him, stick to the script
6. Kill Harper in the French debate, come out even in the English debate
7. A quick response team to combat Harper's liers and schemers

If you are a dissaffected Liberal, what would you rather have Harper or Dion? You'd be better off voting Green then.

Dion is not a old style Liberal that promises the moon and only half delivers. He appears to be a smart individual that will give us an effective if unspectacular govt that will not divide the country. So he is a little awkward and has trouble with English. Does that mean he will not do well as Prime Minister?

Can anyone tell me what Harper has done to deserve a rise in polls? His govt is incompetent and overbearing and has made no real progress on anything. Am I missing something? The "new" Liberal party offers so much in terms of talent. It has quality people like Dryden, Kennedy, Rae, Trudeau, Leblanc, Dhalla, Ignatieff, Findlay and Holland. The old boys are gone for the most part. The CPC has only two people that I can stand which are Strall and Prentice. The rest are a bunch of smug, snot nosed weasals like Van Loan, Poilievre, Mackay, Guergis, Baird etc. Are these the types of people we want running the country?

Good luck to the Greens

I voted Liberal, but I have a soft spot for the Greens and hope that they do well and if they are lucky, win a seat possibly in Bruce Grey. It would be a major breakthrough and would bold well for the Green Party across the country. The Greens seem to be a lot of people's second choice and if they can win a seat tonight, they might start to become a bigger player in politics across this country and that can only be a good thing. People like Frank De Jong and Elizabeth May need to be credited with bringing concerns such as climate change and habitat destruction to the forefront. As far as their policies, I particularly like the idea of reducing income taxes but increasing consumption taxes, such as gasoline. Makes sense to me...So go Liberals, but go Greens as well.

Dalton to replace Dion?

According to Bourque, Ray Heard is of the opinion that Dalton will replace Dion after the next election. As Don Newman would say...very interesting...

http://www.bourque.com/notes.html

My five priorities

Here is my list of 5 priorities Ala Harper:

1. To not have to wait four hours to get my torn achilles looked at.
2. To put all the climate change deniers on an iceberg...oh wait there are none left.
3. For the media to focus on the fact that Harper's numbers have not gone up instead of Dion's. Oops silly me Harper's 33% is solid...
4. To give all the Iggy supporters a pacifier.
5. To decriminalize the mary jane, because it is hypocritical for cigs and booze to be legal when they are just as harmful or more so than the mj. Although, I blame Mr. Dithers for that not coming true, the Harper's are just being true to form.

Honorable mention, to not allow politicians to promise tax cuts, but force them to think of something original.

Common Touch

In Paul Wells book he points out an observation that Jason Kenney made that the LPC has lost touch with the common man and does not have a solid grass roots org. PW also notes that "conservative" parties have been steadily increasing their seat totals and popular vote since 1993. In addition, the NDP and the CPC receive a higher percentage of individual donations as compared to the LPC. Basically, the thesis is that the CPC is doing well now because it connects with the common man or woman. Also, when I was at the Paul Martin send off, a woman beside me who worked for a Liberal MP, noted that how the Liberal hierarchy at the event was segregated from the rest of the crowd and that even some MPs were forced to sit in the crowd, enhancing the idea that the LPC is the party of the "elite". Does the Liberal party need to do a better job of connecting with the common folk (like me) and will the fact that we have picked a leader who is an intellectual instead of going with a Martha or a GK who have more of a common touch going to affect the party's chances going forward? I do not really believe that the party needs to dumb down to make its point like the CPC does, but does it need to simplify its message?

Cash grab?

I have been debating on the Globe site about Baird's comment on the new Liberal environmental policy being a "cash grab". The Globe reports "Companies would be fined for every tonne of emissions above the Kyoto target, starting at $20 a tonne in 2008 and rising to $30 by 2011. The money would go into an independent account and companies could get their money back by investing in emission-reduction technology." However, one rebuttal that I cannot answer is this: "they only get up $10 per tonne back. There is also the issue of only 80% of the total dollars going into the fund. Where is the other 20% going to go???" Any answers?

Also, why is the auto-industry supposedly exempt?

Draft Al Gore?

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/182861

Who would you like to see win the Democratic nomination?
	Hillary Clinton
	Barack Obama
	John Edwards
	Al Gore
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pollcode.com free polls

What's Bourque up to now?

Link found in Bourque.com titled: Much ado about nothing, who's watching your back, Steph ?

I guess he is implying that Iggy is plotting against Dion behind the scenes?

Simple Message to the LPC

We can whine and cry about how mean the CPC is being with these attack ads. We can point to polls that Canadians do not like them. However, they are effective because they are leaving an impression. Why else would the CPC keeps buying time on the networks?! There is so much ammunition to play with, why is the LPC laying down and taking this crap?! Dont wait for an election, get on with it now! We may not like Harper, but he is a crafty politician. Do we want them to win a majority? The CPC are nasty buggers, we have to start getting nasty right back! The election is being lost right now! All I read on the blog rolls today is a bunch of fluff. This is what Liberals should be focusing on right now!

Going Green

Recently the company that I work for became ISO 14001 certified which is the environmental standard for industry. We went for certification simply for the fact that is what required for an automotive contract that we are in the process of attaining. However, the question remains why wouldn't we do it in any case? Well for one there was no pressure to do so. Necessity is the mother of invention as they say. Two we probably we worried about the increased scrutiny by the MOE. Three, training and finally of course money.

So the question remains why wouldn't we do it in any case and why shouldn't other companies be required to do so. Of course the oil sands and other big project and or companies are emitting a lot of bad stuff into the enviro, but what about all the small businesses and what they are emitting or throwing out or consuming?

As part of our certification our company had to create an environmental policy. It basically boiled down to those old triple R's. One was to reduce our energy consumption. Two reduce the amount that we are sending out to landfill and three reduce the amount of hazardous chemicals that we consume. Why shouldn't other small businesses be required to do the same? We have hundreds/ thousands of businesses in the area in which we are located. If you added up all the things that they might be doing on a day to day basis, how much do you think they are putting in landfill, dumping down the drain, wasting of energy such as leaving lights on at night?

The amount of money we have spent on the programs we have implemented has been maybe a few hundred dollars extra per month. For example, we now recycle all our office paper, so we had to get a couple of totes from our waste provider and they charge about $70 per pick-up every couple of weeks. However, it is not only recycling that we are required to do, but also continuous improvement such as finding ways to use less paper, finding ways to use less harmful chemicals in our manufacturing process and reducing our energy consumption by doing simple things like turning our computers off at night.

Finally, we needed to get some training on WHMIS and handling of dangerous goods. Pretty simple stuff, but I doubt a lot of small businesses are not doing these types of simple things. We also needed to register the types of wastes we are using with the environment and test what we are emitting out into the atmosphere, along with what we are putting into the sewer system.

The CPC says that we cannot meet our Kyoto targets. Horse shit! There are a lot of simple things all Canadians can do and a lot of simple things businesses can do. Require all businesses to become ISO 14001 certified or some sort of equivalent. Increase funding for monitoring and inspection of small businesses. Provide tax incentives for buying green products, such as hybrid cars. Provide incentives for reducing energy consumption.

It's not enough to for all the political parties to that they are greener than the other guy. Its not enough to go after the "big" polluters. Governments need to start looking at what smaller businesses are doing. It might be sexy to go after 'Big Oil" but that is not the whole story. Meeting Kyoto should not have to mean rolling out a bunch of grand gestures, when we already have the tools to do so. It is the will and knowledge to do so that is lacking.