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....