A Great Day in Canadian History

"Je declare le motion adopte."

Tuesday, June 28th, 2005. Will go down as a Great Day in Canadian History. Today we take one more step out of the dark ages and get one step closer to enlightenment.

Ottawa - 9:07 PM Eastern Daylight Time - Bill C-38, The Civil Marriage Act passes 3rd reading of the House of Commons 158-133. It begins its final senatorial journey to ensure equal rights for gays and lesbians against the objections of the narrow minded, and surviving one final desperate amendment from those who oppose equality.

It places another well needed nail in the coffin of interference in the affairs of the State by the Church.

The only better day in this saga will be when it receives royal assent.

*pops cork on champagne*

However I know the war is not over, when a group of people lets hate consume them as much as the Conservatives and their supporters have I know they won't let a little thing like a binding vote in the highest legislature in the land stop them. But we will be there, fighting them every step of the way.

Mercer to run for leadership of the CPC?

According to Liberal Underground, Rick Mercer's next bit of comic relief is a run at the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada, and let me tell you I can't think of anything funnier than being a Conservative.

Mercer to Seek Conservative Leadership?

Although I'm a fan of Mercer's I can't support his run at the leadership for this simple reason: Stephen Harper is the greatest asset the Liberals have.

Conservatives Caught in Another Lie

Keeping all political affiliations aside for the moment, how in the world do the Conservatives expect people to believe anything they say if they keep lying? First it was The Grewal affair, then the letter that supposedly confirmed some "secret deal" between the Government and Jean Chretien's lawyers, and now they've been caught red handed, by ME! (woooo hoooo! -Ed.)

Exhibit A: Monte Solberg's Blog Entry of June 16th, 2005.
Source:
(http://www.montesolberg.com/2005/06/media-misinformation.htm)

Some media reports are saying that the Conservatives will support Bill C 48, the NDP Budget Deal, in exchange for changes to C 38. WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.

We will never support C 48, because it is everything we think is wrong with the Libs. It is sloppy, without vision and open to waste. It was conceived by Paul and Jack in a Toronto hotel room that you rent by the hour. It was made up on the fly. In other words it is a classically Liberal piece of work.

We will vote against it, even while we are trying to get amendments to improve it. We may be less aggressive on it if we can get concessions on 48 or elsewhere, but we don't see that happening right now. So, for now we speak and criticize a terrible piece of legislation born of a corrupt government that will do anything to stay in power.

Exhibit B: John Reynolds on Countdown with Mike Duffy, June 23rd, 2005.

Sources:
(CTV Website Text Story)
(Video of Countdown - Time index of Segment 10:52, Requires Windows Media Player)

Mike Duffy: So the idea was that the budgets would be dealt with but the same sex bill would wait until the fall to be finally completed?

John Reynolds: Yes, and I took that message back to our house leader and our leader, we debated it in caucus and felt that the points we were asking for one being that bill being delayed until the fall for third reading ... We agreed to pass the second finance bill, we agreed to do that last Thursday.

Just in case anyone accuses me of being the Blog equivalent of Germant Grewal the ... means that other statements were made in between, but had nothing to do with the overall theme, I've provided a link to the full, unclipped video of the segment for full transparency.

So we have the Conservative Finance Critic, a man who hopefully would be informed if a deal had been struck to pass a finance bill, saying they would never make a deal to pass 48 in exchange for a delay on 38, then we've got John Reynolds a former Conservative House Leader and a front bencher in Stephen Harper's shadow cabinet saying that not only would they consider such a proposal but that they actually made a deal to do exactly that!

Happy times are here again!

The Six Passages

I was doing a little research trying to find some ammunition for a discussion I was having on a message board I frequent about the bible when i stumbled on to this page.

Six Bible Passages

Basically it's a site that lists the six passages from the bible that are used by fundamentalist Christians to oppose same sex marriage. And then disputes their use for these issues in a sophisticated way. Of course I don't pretend to have any notion that I'll change a Christian's mind with this page, but it is interesting reading.

Those Liberals, they’re Grrrrrrrrreat!

The hallmark of the Liberals twelve years in power has been their ability to surprise you just when you think they’re down for the count. This was never truer than last month at this time when they survived a motion of non-confidence forced upon them by the poll buoyed Conservative Party of Canada. Since then however not much has gone right for the Conservatives. The Grewal scandal, Steven Fletcher’s racist remark at a veterans convention, and Steven Harper’s extreme makeover have left a party bolstered by polls that showed them possibly attaining the power they so desperately seek only one month ago, a shattered visage of their former selves, reduced to adopting a “wait until next year” approach that has prevailed in Toronto Maple Leafs circles since the 1970s. So it is little surprise that they have been outmaneuvered once again by the Liberals, who at this point must be looking to them as the Road Runner to their Wile E. Coyote. Yesterday the Liberals announced that they will sit as long as it takes to get bills C-38, the same sex marriage legislation, and C-48, the Add-on to the Budget, passed in the House of Commons before recessing. This news, coming as it does after media rumblings that they were ready to strike a deal with the Conservatives to hold off on C-38 until the fall in exchange for swift passage of C-48.

But according to Conservative Finance Critic Monte Solberg’s website this wasn’t even in the cards at all.

“Some media reports are saying that the Conservatives will support Bill C 48, the NDP Budget Deal, in exchange for changes to C 38. WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.”

Even after all the punishment the Conservatives have taken, not only in the polls, but in Parliament as well, they still refuse to co-operate in a house who’s party standings cry out for co-operation. If you don’t approve of their methods you have to at least admire the strength of their convictions. For they are perfectly willing to keep on truckin, even if that truck has three flat tires, a blown gasket, is leaking fuel, the fuzzy dice on the rear-view mirror are crooked, and it’s driven off a cliff. The Canadian people want their Parliament to work, and the only ones who aren’t heeding that message are the Conservatives.

A Call For Help

I've been looking for a copy of the text of the letter that the government sent to Jean Chretien's lawyers about the Gomery inquiry. It was tabled in the House of Commons on Wednesday and was listed as document number 8530-381-27. If anyone knows where I can find a copy of the text please post a comment with a link, i'd appreciate it a lot.

Another Idiot Protester

I've never been a huge fan of protestors, I don't know why. I understand they have the right to do it and all, and the ones who do it respectfully I have no problem with, but most of them are just idiots who hurt people who have nothing to do with what they're protesting.

Like this winner here. She's protesting the war in Iraq, you know how she's doing it? Well, she's not marching outside of the Republican Party's California Headquarters or the State Department or the White House or even a military base, no no she and her idiot friends have linked themselves together and blocked the morning commute in San Francisco. So basically she's causing people who have absolutley nothing to do with what she's protesting harm by causing them to not be able to get to their jobs. Bravo (And I'm sure those firefighters who are cutting her and her band of morons apart don't have better things to do, like oh say FIGHTING FIRES or SAVING LIVES -Ed.)

The reason I bring this up is because today another wizard dumped red paint on Minister Pierret Pettigrew, apparantly protesting the Canadian government's percieved lack of aid to exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's attempts to regain power. I'd just like to say this to the protester: "Bang up job buddy, I'm sure that changed Pierre's mind, I'm positive he's on the phone to Bill Graham right now, asking him to launch a major offencive against Haiti to restore Aristide to power."

Of course, I wish all protesters could be handled like Jean Chretien handled this guy. The good old "Shawinigan Handshake."

I swear I never laughed so hard in my entire life as I did when I saw that on the news.

Waiting isn't going to change same-sex opinions

I've heard the same old refrain from the opponents of the same sex legislation. "Just wait! All we want you to do is to wait!"

Let me ask you something, take your opinion on same sex marriage as it is now. Do you imagine it being any different twenty years from now? Me Neither. So if waiting isn't going to change people's minds why should we bother waiting at all? I'm seeing this as merely a stall tactic on the part of the right. Hoping that the government can be defeated before it's put into law and the Conservatives can get into power and put forth their hidden agenda, which I would imagine has little to do with equal rights for anyone, let alone gays.

Wow! I'm Famous! (Or Infamous -Ed.)

I was just preusing over the latest stats for the site when I noticed that I had gotten 1 hit from someone in the Government of Alberta (just.gov.ab.ca) and 2 from someone in the Government of Canada. (parl153.parl.gc.ca & parl205.parl.gc.ca) (Oh Boy! I hope it was Monte Solberg! -Ed.) It's nice to know my blog is reaching those who walk the corridors of power, or maybe it's just some bored janitor on his break surfing on the PMs computer while he's away in Question Period. Who knows? perhaps the Conservatives are going to file a motion to have me exiled, I hope if they do it's called bill C-69! Or the NDP could be surfing on over wondering if I want to make a deal on my bandwidth budget to keep my internet server from being defeated. It may even be the Bloc Quebecois coming to tell me they want to seperate from my blog. Only time will tell.

Dryden Dissapoints me

I never was a fan of the Montreal Canadiens, I was a hardcore Nordique fan until they moved to Colorado and I followed them there (Happy I did too, 2 Stanley Cups later) that being said when I heard Ken Dryden was running for the Liberals I was pleased, a new big name to help bring the Liberal message to the common man. However I must say after watching him in Question Period and his performance running his department I'm pretty disappointed. Perhaps this is just a case of expecting too much, like when I went in thinking Revenge of the Sith was going to be the best Star Wars movie ever only to end up having it suck. (In My Opinion Anyway -Ed.)

Watch Question Period some day and you'll see what I mean, his answers seem rushed, like he's not able to convey what he's trying to say. I know the man is intelligent, I know he knows what he's talking about, but he just isn't a great orator, and if your running a portfolio as important as his you need to be.

Now you all know me, you know i'm a Liberal For Life and I support them to the ends of the Earth, but that doesn't mean I'm blind, and that doesn't mean I can't criticize. Face it when your getting out manouvered by Rona Freaking Ambrose in the House on a daily basis something is seriously wrong with your game. I mean Jesus even Ruby Dhalla smoked her on Countdown with Mike Duffy when Rona would actually let her talk, and she's a back bencher! I'm thinking he might need a stint in Triple A (That's to a less critical portfolio for those of you unfarmilliar with baseball terminology -Ed.) Hopefully when Martin shuffles his cabinet he'll bring someone else into the fold.

I'm open to any and all Liberal views on this issue so please feel free to comment.

The Liberals Survive

Oh well, I guess it was just wishful thinking. Looks like no election until the Fall or early next year.

The Armageddon Threat Level will be lowered back down to Solberg - Yellow until the house adjourns, if the government survives until then it will be lowered down to Poilievre - Green.

The Government Could Fall Tonight

Tonight at around 10 Eastern time the House of Commons will vote on third reading for Bills C-43 and C-48, otherwise known to those of you who aren't political nerds like me as "The Budget." All budget votes are of course votes of confidence which means the government could fall tonight and we could be into a summer election campaign with a vote probably coming July 12th.

I'm setting the odds of this happening at 60-40 in favor. Because of this I've raised the Armageddon Threat Level from Yellow - Solberg to Orange - Ablonczy until the vote has ended, as we all know in an election crazy things can happen. I think that if it does happen it will either be an accident or it will be the Liberals throwing it. Taking a look at the polling numbers it looks awfully good for the Liberals right now, possibly as good as it's going to get. This would be the chance to get an election on their terms, while their only rival for government status is in disarray and being blamed for the summer campaign, also it could be fought without the cloud of the Gomery report hanging over their head. They may see this as their best chance to get a more stable foothold in parliament. Based on what we're seeing right now it would either work out to be a Liberal majority or a Liberal-NDP coalition. The NDP are gaining on the Tories, and some polls even have them leading them in vote-rich Ontario. If this election happens it is entirely possible the "anti-liberal" vote could split between the NDP and the Tories allowing the Liberals to gain enough seats for a razor thin majority, which is good news for anyone with a brain.

I'll be watching the vote tonight and will update the site with its result once it has concluded.

Bad News for Monte

Whenever I need a good laugh I cruise on over to Monte Solberg's blog. Solberg as I'm sure you're aware is the Conservative MP for Medicine Hat, and the party's Finance Critic. He has also been imortialized in my Armageddon Threat Level Indicator as the color Yellow indicating High.

The reason Monte makes me laugh so much (At him, not with him -Ed.) is that he is so very conservative, he must bleed blue conservative blood.

I got a kick out of one of his most recent offerings where he basically insults the intelligence of the Canadian people because they all don't support the Conservatives.

I have done an indepth analysis of the latest polls and have decided that they are stupid. Come on, people still want to vote for the Libs with all that SPONSORSHIP SCANDAL stuff and the NDP BUDGET DEAL and the VOTE BUYING SCANDAL and the fact that they have Cabinet Minister's like JOE VOLPE and REG ALCOCK who bury the needle on the arrogance meter? You know you live in a very special country when a cabinet minister can speculate about using his powers to deport an opposition Member of Parliament, and it all just gets shrugged off.

what's the matter Monte? Not everyone buying into your party's "lets stone gay people" plan? or your "lets slash taxes to make us popular and bring back deficit financing" solution? Face it Monte, in the last election %70.4 of voters voted for a left of center party. People in this country don't think government policy should be copied from the Bible anymore, they haven't thought these things since the 1800s!

What I think is happening in Canada is that the West is behind the times socially because we in the East got a head start on them. Alberta wasn't admitted into Canada until 1905. We in the east got a 38 year head start. So if we calculate this out that means Alberta social policy is circa 1967!

Now before you dismiss me on this think about it, which province is generally held to be the most backwards in the Country? Newfoundland right? (Note- I don't think that I'm just saying that's what most people would probably say -Ed.) And Newfoundland was the last province admitted into Canada!

One of these days I'm going to get sick of being right

For any of you who read my June 1st Post entitled I've heard of push polls, but this is ridiculous! You'll enjoy this follow up story about Robbins SCE. (Or as I'm calling them The Little Anti-Liberal Pollster That Could -Ed.)

It all started when I went to nodice.ca on June 1st to check and see if any new polls had come out, I was taken aback when I saw a poll from Robbins SCE that had evaporated the Liberals 9 point lead into an 8 point lead for the Conservatives in the span of 2 days. Now if, in those two days, the Liberals had gone out and gotten drunk, fondled Canada's breasts, and then threw up in the back of Canada's car I would have understood the 17 point swing. But since this wasn't the case I decided to do a little checking into Robbins SCE. As I discovered in my original post they seem to have quite a bias against the Liberals as evidences by some of the headlines on their site.

I took the time to email David MacDonald of nodice to let him know what I had found and revieved this response:

I've heard back from the Robbins SCE polling firm. He assures me that the poll is legit. I've decided to give Robbins SCE the benefit of the doubt, for now. I will keep the poll on the site simply as a source of information.
I think it is important for me to post every poll rather than be selective.
Additionally, I do not feel it is my place to decide for the public which polls to believe - in much the same way that I post news articles from a variety of news sources. Thanks again for taking the time to contact me about this matter.

At that point I considered the matter closed, I didn't agree with his assessment but as a webmaster myself I respected his right to put whatever he chooses onto his site. After that I pretty much forgot about it until today when I went to check the polling numbers again and realized that the Robbins SCE polls had been removed from nodice. A quick google search for Robbins SCE then brought up an interesting message board, in which the apparent owner of Robbins SCE himself was on there trying to defend his company's honor. Here are some tidbits. (Sorry about the snippit job, I just feel like being Gurmant Grewal today.) For the full thread in context go here.

I have had the rather odd pleasure of reading some of the blogs relating to polls, elections, and indeed some of my work. One of the continuing messages that comes up is the word 'scientific'. My question is: what is the bloggers general (or specific) impression of what science in polling is. At ROBBINS we admit to being experimental from time to time, we are in business development.
(Experimental? So they're the Frankenstein of Canadian Polling! -Ed.)

If you go to www.nodice.ca you will see that we are not afraid to post our 'predictions'
(They are now, hopefully thanks to me -Ed.)

Is it any wonder so many mainstream pollsters are accustomed to visiting ROBBINS Sce Research site?
(I visit it too whenever I need a good laugh. -Ed.)

we have the instincts of Nostradamus.
(Do I even need to make fun of this one? -Ed.)

They talked to him for 30 seconds and wouldn't let me on the air.
(Can't imagine why. -Ed.)

These polls are weapons of mass influence, sheer and utter power.
Hitler always said, the bigger the lie the more people will believe it (Classic "Oliver Stone's JFK" Quote -Ed.)

Then he goes on to insult and threaten the sane posters in the forum:

I mean really is this about sticks and stones? I would probably guess that you have a drug and alcohol problem because your blogs are angry and unreasonable. I'll bet your thinking how does he know that?
(Someone has a problem, but I don't think it's the blogger -Ed.)

I'll tell you what. If you give me your full name and address for process service, I will (I have legal standing in BC Supreme Court) commence an action against you for defamation.
(Yeah, I'm sure he wants to give his address to some wackjob so he can stalk him -Ed.)

Then he advocates suicide, and using human skin as a jacket:

I say you don't have the gonads to do it, because cowards like you who will never amount to anything, sit around and send out meaningless blogs. The right and proper thing for you to do and (think seriously about this) you know its true, is to rid the earth of yourself, because (and look at what you are writing) you are truly a waste of good skin that might otherwise be made available to another, or perhaps a jacket for a more worthy citizen.

The Prosecution Rests.........

Time to wade into the health care ruling debate.

Well, it's been a few days, I figured I would allow everyone to soak in the Quebec Health Care Ruling before I dropped in my two cents. Beat the Christmas rush as it were.

I'd like to especially emphasize that this is NOT what I think Paul Martin is going to do, and this opinion has nothing to do with the Liberal Party, it is MY OWN personal opinion. What I think should be done is as follows:

There is already two-tier healthcare in this country, it’s unfortunately inevitable in a country that was ran into the fiscal ground by the Progressive Conservative governments of Brian Mulroney that cuts were going to have to be made to everything including health care. I think the best way to handle it is if rich people want to get special private care they should be allowed to, but there should be a %100 tax on any procedure they have done that goes directly into the health care system, that way one spot on the waiting list is effectively knocked off for every private medical procedure done in Canada. This would either help out our system by reducing waiting lists or get rid of Private Health Care all together because no one wants to pay double when they can fly somewhere else and get it cheaper. This solution would also effectively get around the court ruling as the government wouldn’t be banning these operations they would simply be taxing them, something that is already done on every private service in Canada anyway.

If this proposal were adopted there should also be strict restrictions placed on this new system so that hospitals get first priority when it comes to equipment, doctors, nurses, etc. These facilities should also be made available to handle overload in cases of a disaster.

Floods aren't cool.

I'd just like to take this oppurtunity to say to anyone reading out west in flood ravaged areas of the country: Good luck, I hope the waters receed and the damage is minimal. Although I don't tend to agree with the politics of the people in the areas affected that doesn't matter, they're my bretheren, my fellow Canadians, and I love them as brothers and Sisters.

Harper trying to shift blame back at Liberals

Steven Harper is desperatly clinging to TapeGate, trying to blame the Liberals for his party's monumental screw up. Now he's taking a sort of Kamakazie approach by asking why, if the government thought Mr. Grewal was breaking the law by asking for political favors, didn't they call the RCMP on him themselves. He's basically asking them why they didn't call the cops ON HIS OWN MP. And I thought Belinda Stronach was alienated.

I hate to admit though, this is a cunning strategy and Mr. Harper needs to be commended for taking such a novel approach by doing everything he can, including admitting wrongdoing on his part, to try to cast blame on the Liberals. It is simply a bold move by Mr. Harper. Well, at least it would have been if the Bloc hadn't been doing the same thing for days in Question Period. That's right folks, yet another indicator that the Conservatives and the Bloc are in bed together, and that Duceppe is running the show. Which I don't find suprising in the least because Duceppe is about six billion times smarter than Harper. That's why I'm so upset about Bernard Landy stepping down, because if Duceppe gets the leadership of the PQ it could be the beginning of the end for Canada. Duceppe is the best talent the sovereigntists have, and he's second only to Lucien Bouchard on my "Dr. Highness' list of speratists I fear" list.

Harper should keep up this strategy of doing whatever Duceppe does, because it's obvious he doesn't know what he's doing.

Why was he a Liberal again?

Ontario Liberal MP Pat O'Brien has announced that he is leaving the Liberal caucus and will sit as an independant because he opposes same-sex marriage.

Why was he a Liberal again?

Honestly, I'm happy about this. He's said he won't vote to bring down the government so I say good riddance, if he's so narrow-minded he should join the Conservative Alliance, the party that took narrow-mindedness from it's backwater status to the official opposition by simply changing it's name. It doesn't truly matter because he's effectively signed his resignation from Parliament when the next election is held.

Now you may accuse me of being insensitive to differing opinions within my party, and you'd be right. On this issue I can't condone bigotry. My feeling is if someone has a problem with the party they should try to solve it within the party. When the next election is held we'll get a candidate who's brain isn't stuck in the 18th century and move forward.

You may also draw comparisons to Belinda Stronach and scream that this is poetic justice. But you'd be wrong. The Conservative Alliance was angry at Stronach for leaving, I'm happy O'Brien is leaving. Steven Harper yelled at Belinda Stronach, told her she'd never be leader of the party (Since when is that his decision? -Ed.) and didn't try to comprimise with her at all. Paul Martin told Pat O'Brien that he would try to find a middle ground on hearings for same-sex marriage. And he did. His main complaints were as follows:

"I had assurances it would be meaningful and fair from the prime minister. That's not what's happening, in my judgment," he said.

He complained that the hearings have been given an artificial and unnecessary June 14 deadline. He said witnesses are only given 24 hours' notice to appear, are often berated and insulted by members of Parliament on both sides of the issue and that too many witnesses are being grouped together in one session.

My Responses are:

- Since Parliament is set to adjourn sometime between now and June 23rd I think the 14th is a reasonable date. Unless he doesn't want to allow the house any time to debate it.

- When your told to appear before a committee of the House of Commons you should get there as soon as humanly possible, if you need more than 24 hours to appear it should only be because your coming in from Neptune. (Classic West Wing Quote -Ed.)

- So he wants a gag order put on MPs?

- How long does it take for someone to testify before they start repeating themselves?

If you need a good laugh

Check this out, God Bless Flash.

Second Term

Bloc Abandons the Conservatives on Budget

According to an article in The Canadian Weekly Political Newspaper The Hill Times the Conservatives are standing alone as the only opposition to Bills C-43 and C-48, otherwise known as the Federal Budget.

I find this someone hard to believe, considering the Bloc voted against both bills in the House, perhaps they did some polling in Quebec and found that people actually liked the bill. Not wanting to lose that huge lead they now have they reluctantly got on board? I don't know. I must say I'm not anxious to see C-48, or as the NPD calls it the "Better Balanced Budget" (I think they should call the Better Business Bureau and report whatever marketing company gave them that horrible name -Ed.) go through but it's the price you have to pay when your reduced to a minority parliament. It was far better than the alternative that's for sure, the alternative was an election and a possible shot at Steven Harper destroying Canada, so I'm sure you can see how the former is much more desirable.

However this news just reinforces my belief that the Conservatives are the lone obstructionist in this minority Parliament, hoping to make the Liberals look bad by making it so they can't get anything done. It'll backfire on them though, people will see through it. Imagine if you saw someone get hit by a car and some idiot kept blocking the paramedic trying to get through to save them, who would you blame for the person dying? Exactly.

D-Day Plus 22,280

Today is the 61st anniversary of D-Day. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank those who fought, and those who died so that I could live in a country that is free.

"Don't Touch Me"

Bloggers Note: Normally when I post something like this it's just me being a Liberal, making up stuff or giving that vaunted Liberal spin, but this story is just way too good on it's own. I'll of course spin it, but not before letting you read the pertinent part of the article first. For confirmation, the entire article can be found here.

Alarmed by the positive poll readings Martin garnered recently from his encounters with pre-voting-age Canadians who appear to enjoy the Prime Minister's company, Harper's handlers arranged a photo-op of their own at a Wallaceburg, Ont., rehab centre for children. But the Tory leader was miscast for the assignment. He watched silently, not knowing what to say to these kids. Until, that is, one of the finger-painting toddlers leaned toward his tailored suit. "Don't touch me," Harper said. Okay. So what are you doing here?

DON’T TOUCH ME????? What kind of man is this guy? I mean, I don’t like children either but I’m a 25 year old guy who isn’t trying to be the Prime Minister of Canada! (At least not right now –Ed.) And he wonders why people don’t like him. I wish I had some good website hosting and access to news video archives, I’d dial up footage of Prime Minister Martin at the daycare center just up the road from where I live, hugging and playing with the children, then I’d cut in to Steven Harper saying “Don’t Touch Me.” Then back to Martin laughing with the children, then “Don’t Touch Me.” Then I’d…. Well, you get the picture.

The more I see and know about this guy, the more he makes my skin crawl. And every single day I wake up I get down on my knees and prey to whatever deity is up there controlling our fates and wish for Steven Harper to remain the leader of the Conservative party. Every single day I prey for Steven Harper’s wellbeing, because this guy is the best thing to happen to the Liberal party since its founding. He’s a poster boy for idiocy, he makes Stockwell Day and Monte Solberg look like Albert Einstein!

Landry Steps Down

After leading the Parti Québécois since 2001, Bernard Landry is stepping down as it's leader after getting a paltry 76.2 (paltry? say whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? -Ed.) per cent of the vote at the PQ leadership convention on Saturday. The news stunned the assembled sovereignty advocates who shouted “non! non! non! (Too bad they weren’t shouting that in ’95 –Ed.)

As a Liberal ANYTHING that upsets the stability of the Parti Québécois is a good thing, but the problem is Gilles Duceppe is a great leader, and he seems to be the odds on favorite to take the job if he wants it. I think he’s the most dangerous bloc/pq member since Lucien Bouchard. I’ve said on several occasions that if he were the leader of a federalist party I’d vote for him in a second. This decision, while it seems to be making the Québécois forces sad now, may prove to provide them with their ultimate goal of a separate Quebec, and a Canada left in ruins.

Hate to say I told you so but......

Well, well, well, it seems that those tapes that the Conservatives had alleging that Health Minister Ujall Dosanjh and the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Tim Murphy were doctored after all. According to an article in the Globe and Mail on Thursday night, "the Conservatives released a new version of the recordings after several experts said they appeared to have been altered. They said that a few snippets were accidentally (accidentally on purpose they mean –Ed.) removed when the recordings were digitally copied."

So it seems that the Conservatives tried to frame a Cabinet Minister and the Prime Minister’s right hand man of a crime. I’m pretty sure doing that is a crime in its own right isn’t it? Nothing would please me more than to see Gurmant Grewal, his wife, and Steven Harper led off in cuffs. But as much as I dream I know that it won’t happen. I imagine any moment now Stevie H will try to distance himself from Grewal, even though I’d bet my life he not only knew about it, but gave it his blessing. (pun intended? –Ed.) So it seems I was right all along. From the moment this story broke I knew the Conservatives had nothing, and when they released that first portion I was sure of it, because if they had something they wouldn't have released a portion that sort of made the PMCOS look bad, but kinda didn't, they would have gone for the jugular. Now the proof has come forth! Hurrah! The system does work after all.

Question Period

I love watching question period, before I started working for myself at home I never used to get to watch it, I was always at work when it was on. Then I got a DVR but kept forgetting to set it to record it, (Recording things? I'll bet you feel like Gurmant Grewal -Ed.) but now I watch it every day, most of the time not live but still. If your a political junkie like me you'll love watching question period, especially when your party (hopefully your a Liberal if you come here.) gets off a good line.

There are many ways you can experience question period, you can watch it on CPAC whatever channel it is for you. If you don't have cable tv you can watch it online at cpac's website www.cpac.ca or if that's too slow you can read the transcripts (they're usually a day late) posted on the parliamentary website. Click here then click on "Latest Debates" under the House of Commons menu, then click "Oral Questions" which is under a new House of Commons menu that opens up on the next page and enjoy!

Conservatives in Hot Water

You’ve got to hand it to those Conservatives boy, you see most political parties would have used the Sponsorship Scandal (Even if it is vastly overblown –Ed.) to their advantage and gather up huge lead in the polls, but not these guys. Not only have they not done that, not only are they trailing in the polls, but now they’ve got their very own scandal to deal with.

For those of you who are unaware Evidence has surfaced at Ottawa radio station CFRA that the tapes have been doctored. (I am shocked, shocked to find that doctoring is going on in here –Captain Ed Renault.) This, of course, is what other Liberals and I have been saying since this whole thing began. I think, in the interest of branding this scandal I'll call it "Tapegate." I wish I could say “I can’t believe the lows the Conservatives are willing to go to hurt the Liberals and increase their chances at power.” But I’m not. All they want is to get in to power so they can destroy Canada. Now that the tapes are in the hands of the RCMP I imagine it won’t be long before Ujjal Dosanj and Tim Murphy are totally exonerated, I would also like to think that Germant Grewal would be tossed out of Parliament for trying to frame a cabinet minister and the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff. But we all know Steven Harper authorized the taping and doctoring, so he won’t do anything about it. I mean he said that he didn’t authorize it so that’s proof enough for me.

I've heard of push polls, but this is ridiculous!

Robbins SCE released a poll on Monday which shows the following:

Conservatives: 34%
Liberals: 26%
NDP 20%
BQ 15%
Green 6%

At first I was taken aback, especially when you consider the last two national polls done in Canada showed the Liberals at 38 and 36 followed by the Conservatives at 27 both times. This would amount to a 17 point swing in the span of two days! With numbers like those the Conservatives would be well over 100% within a week, and the Liberals well below 0%

Now naturally this bothered me, and I decided to look in to Robbins SCE, to see what kind of company they were. So I went to their website, and I had my answer. They're an anti-liberal pollster. The only two polls I can see on nodice.ca have them bucking the trend both times. And thier website looks very professional. The title reads: "We are Public Opinion." I guess what that means is they don't bother to do all that messy polling and just make up their own numbers to fit their political agenda. But I'll let you, my dear reader, be the judge: here are some of the lovely headlines they had on their main page:

"BC Liberals forced to cheat to win with so-called scientific polling during BC Election."
"Is Belinda Stronach Canada's 21st century Cleopatra?"
"Federal Conservatives increase position in Quebec, Liberals fading!"
"BC NDP Leader Carole James KO's Campbell 'cold' in all station TV debate."
"ROBBINS calls BC Election close-Ipsos Reid claims BC Liberals have big lead."

...and my personal favorite...

"Is George W. Bush the Buddy Holly of U.S. Presidential history?"

Well, I stand corrected. With hard hitting journalism like that they should give Woodward and Bernstein a run for their money....