Last time there was a Liberal leadership race which was what, 4 minutes ago? I jumped first on Frank McKenna, and then when he didn't want to run I settled on Scott Brison.
This time I'm going to sit back and wait and see who offers and then read up on each contestant, what they stand for, what their policy positions are, whether they're fluent in both English and French, and then make a decision.
Of course with my massive appeal of like 4 readers (Hey Goldie!) once I make my decision the race will be all over, as for Brison, well the reason he didn't win after I endorsed him was obviously a clerical error. :)
There was a Liberal Blogger, I can't remember who it was, CalgaryGrit? Bowie? I'm not sure, but whoever it was they suggested instead of having one big convention that we have a bunch of smaller conventions networked together, and then have the one main convention in Vancouver where all the candidates are. I'd love that idea, it'd never happen but it would be a great idea because #1 then I could attend, and #2 it would spread the Liberal message out across the country. You know how in the states the parties pick a state where they need help to hold their convention (or in the Republican's case they hold it in New York so they can milk 9/11 for all it's worth) Well we should do that here, only on a larger scale. Hold a bunch of different mini conventions in places where we're weak like the Western Provinces, Quebec City, etc.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Dion Attacks CTV (W/ Video)
How long it stays up until the scumbags at Conservative TeleVision file a copyright request is anyone's guess. But here it is for now.
I'm glad he did it. I hate networks who are biased purport to be unbiased, at least Fox news makes it so blindingly obvious that everyone knows they're a puppet. The CTV and Global hide it which is garbage.
I'm glad he did it. I hate networks who are biased purport to be unbiased, at least Fox news makes it so blindingly obvious that everyone knows they're a puppet. The CTV and Global hide it which is garbage.
I See the Electoral Reform Nuts Are Out in Full Force
Everywhere you go today the small but vocal cadre of Electoral Reform nuts are out there trying to drum up support for their flawed system to replace the flawed system we have now.
I wish someone would come up with a system that allocates power (read: not seats, power) according to how many votes they got nationally. I've tried to figure one out but my brother got all the math in the family and he couldn't care less about politics, I have to remind him to vote.
Basically my biggest worry when it comes to an electoral reform is, and always has been, the nightmare scenario of a small party like the NDP or a fringe party like the Greens holding the balance of power in Parliament.
While it is fun to try to see the supporters of reform, who by and large are usually supporters of these parties (gee, I wonder why) try to twist themselves in to knots trying to explain how it's unfair that a party that gets %40 of the vote getting absolute power is unfair but a party getting %2.5 getting essentially the same thing is a-ok. It's not so fun that I actually want to do it.
Really the problem that we have isn't electoral reform, it's Parliamentary reform. Giving seats based on percentage is fine, but in our current system seats can either be completely meaningless or one seat can change the course of Canadian history. (See Chuck Cadman)
So electoral reformers, put up a system that allocates power and not seats in proportion to the vote and I'll be on board, until then whether you want to admit it to yourselves or not, you're advocating replacing one unfair system with another. It's just unfair to different people.
I wish someone would come up with a system that allocates power (read: not seats, power) according to how many votes they got nationally. I've tried to figure one out but my brother got all the math in the family and he couldn't care less about politics, I have to remind him to vote.
Basically my biggest worry when it comes to an electoral reform is, and always has been, the nightmare scenario of a small party like the NDP or a fringe party like the Greens holding the balance of power in Parliament.
While it is fun to try to see the supporters of reform, who by and large are usually supporters of these parties (gee, I wonder why) try to twist themselves in to knots trying to explain how it's unfair that a party that gets %40 of the vote getting absolute power is unfair but a party getting %2.5 getting essentially the same thing is a-ok. It's not so fun that I actually want to do it.
Really the problem that we have isn't electoral reform, it's Parliamentary reform. Giving seats based on percentage is fine, but in our current system seats can either be completely meaningless or one seat can change the course of Canadian history. (See Chuck Cadman)
So electoral reformers, put up a system that allocates power and not seats in proportion to the vote and I'll be on board, until then whether you want to admit it to yourselves or not, you're advocating replacing one unfair system with another. It's just unfair to different people.
Wow, Go Dion
I want him out as leader, but I was happy to hear him tell CTV to basically eff off.
I was just watching CTV because CBC had a Conservative on, and the reporter for CTV was being an idiot, trying to get in his face so he says something like "The last place I want to talk to is CTV."
I was just watching CTV because CBC had a Conservative on, and the reporter for CTV was being an idiot, trying to get in his face so he says something like "The last place I want to talk to is CTV."
The Scoreboard
Here are the results of my wish list and my reaction.
Expected
- I hope we hold the Conservatives to at least a Minority.
Check. Although I must admit I was scared there for a moment. I'll be talking more about this later, but I hope all of the people who vote split realize just how close we came to a disaster tonight. Right now the Conservatives are at 143, that's 12 seats away from destroying Canada. As much as I hate the NDP and the Greens we need to do something, we need to work this out somehow some way, because if we don't we're going to have a permanent Conservative government. And that's not just on the other side, people like me need to make sacrifices too, and I admit that.
- I hope Mike Savage wins my home riding (I live in Halifax now, but Dartmouth will always be my home)
Check, once again this one was close for a while but in the end he pulled away nicely. Thank God my home didn't go to the Orange Menace, although the riding I currently live in did. But Dartmouth will always be my home.
- I hope Siobhan Coady wins St. John's South-Mount Pearl.
Check, and I'm VERY happy to see her in, I first heard about her last election when CPAC did a profile of her riding and I was very impressed. I'm glad to see we'll have another strong Liberal voice in Parliament.
- I hope the Conservatives get shut out in Newfoundland.
Check, I never thought I'd be happy about anything Danny Williams did, but I am happy tonight, especially since those 3 seats coupled with a few shifts here and there could have meant disaster.
- I hope the Conservatives lose seats in Quebec.
Right now it's not clear whether they will or not, it's looking like I hold, but at least they didn't make huge inroads. The Bloc saved Canada tonight.
- I hope the Greens don't win a seat.
Check, This one was never really in doubt, but the scary thing is if their leader wasn't such an airhead and ran in a good Green seat she may well have won and that would have spelled disaster for the left vote in Canada. Unless we can come to some sort of agreement we're going to fall in to the same trap the Right was in for a long time.
Toss-Up
- I hope that like the last election we do better in Ontario than expected.
Epic Fail, not only did we not do better we got blown away in Ontario. I guess a new cloak and forcing his MPs to keep quiet foold Ontarians.
- I hope we see some Conservative cabinet ministers go down in flames tonight.
Can I count Michael Fortier? :D
- I hope the Greens don't finish any better than 2nd anywhere.
I meant to say I hope they don't finish at 2nd, but I forgot about Elizabeth May, so I'm happy that they didn't finish 2nd anywhere else, or so it seems at the moment.
Long Shot
- I hope we win Government.
As Maxwell Smart would say: Missed it by that much.
- I hope the Liberals can somehow overcome the Orange wave of ignorance in Halifax and elect Catherine Meade. It sucks living in a freakin Orange cesspool. (P.S. just so you're clear dippers, a vote for the NDP is a vote for a 2nd Stephen Harper term, don't delude yourself in to thinking otherwise.)
Not even Close. Sigh, maybe one day...
- I hope the Greens don't win enough votes to get federal funding. (I'm not normally Conservative on taxes, but why the Hell should my tax dollars go to support ANY political party? Particularly ones I wouldn't support if my life depended on it.)
They blew that out of the water, they're still a fringe party. They got their precious leader in the debate and didn't even win a single seat. That's the definition of Fringe Party.
- I hope the number of NDP MPs goes down.
Egh.... I hate the NDP, almost as much as I hate Conservatives.
- I hope Olivia Chow loses.
Nope.
- I Hope Gerard Kennedy wins, we're going to need someone as a viable alternative to Iggy and Rae.
Check, and this right here might have saved the Liberal party. Now I'll have someone to support who I won't be forced to hold my nose for. I hope we get some old Chretien people to run too, I'd have a hard time deciding between Brian Tobin and Gerard Kennedy.
So, all in all, a bad night for Canada, a bad night for progress, but not as bad as it could have been. We've got a lot of rebuilding to do.
Expected
- I hope we hold the Conservatives to at least a Minority.
Check. Although I must admit I was scared there for a moment. I'll be talking more about this later, but I hope all of the people who vote split realize just how close we came to a disaster tonight. Right now the Conservatives are at 143, that's 12 seats away from destroying Canada. As much as I hate the NDP and the Greens we need to do something, we need to work this out somehow some way, because if we don't we're going to have a permanent Conservative government. And that's not just on the other side, people like me need to make sacrifices too, and I admit that.
- I hope Mike Savage wins my home riding (I live in Halifax now, but Dartmouth will always be my home)
Check, once again this one was close for a while but in the end he pulled away nicely. Thank God my home didn't go to the Orange Menace, although the riding I currently live in did. But Dartmouth will always be my home.
- I hope Siobhan Coady wins St. John's South-Mount Pearl.
Check, and I'm VERY happy to see her in, I first heard about her last election when CPAC did a profile of her riding and I was very impressed. I'm glad to see we'll have another strong Liberal voice in Parliament.
- I hope the Conservatives get shut out in Newfoundland.
Check, I never thought I'd be happy about anything Danny Williams did, but I am happy tonight, especially since those 3 seats coupled with a few shifts here and there could have meant disaster.
- I hope the Conservatives lose seats in Quebec.
Right now it's not clear whether they will or not, it's looking like I hold, but at least they didn't make huge inroads. The Bloc saved Canada tonight.
- I hope the Greens don't win a seat.
Check, This one was never really in doubt, but the scary thing is if their leader wasn't such an airhead and ran in a good Green seat she may well have won and that would have spelled disaster for the left vote in Canada. Unless we can come to some sort of agreement we're going to fall in to the same trap the Right was in for a long time.
Toss-Up
- I hope that like the last election we do better in Ontario than expected.
Epic Fail, not only did we not do better we got blown away in Ontario. I guess a new cloak and forcing his MPs to keep quiet foold Ontarians.
- I hope we see some Conservative cabinet ministers go down in flames tonight.
Can I count Michael Fortier? :D
- I hope the Greens don't finish any better than 2nd anywhere.
I meant to say I hope they don't finish at 2nd, but I forgot about Elizabeth May, so I'm happy that they didn't finish 2nd anywhere else, or so it seems at the moment.
Long Shot
- I hope we win Government.
As Maxwell Smart would say: Missed it by that much.
- I hope the Liberals can somehow overcome the Orange wave of ignorance in Halifax and elect Catherine Meade. It sucks living in a freakin Orange cesspool. (P.S. just so you're clear dippers, a vote for the NDP is a vote for a 2nd Stephen Harper term, don't delude yourself in to thinking otherwise.)
Not even Close. Sigh, maybe one day...
- I hope the Greens don't win enough votes to get federal funding. (I'm not normally Conservative on taxes, but why the Hell should my tax dollars go to support ANY political party? Particularly ones I wouldn't support if my life depended on it.)
They blew that out of the water, they're still a fringe party. They got their precious leader in the debate and didn't even win a single seat. That's the definition of Fringe Party.
- I hope the number of NDP MPs goes down.
Egh.... I hate the NDP, almost as much as I hate Conservatives.
- I hope Olivia Chow loses.
Nope.
- I Hope Gerard Kennedy wins, we're going to need someone as a viable alternative to Iggy and Rae.
Check, and this right here might have saved the Liberal party. Now I'll have someone to support who I won't be forced to hold my nose for. I hope we get some old Chretien people to run too, I'd have a hard time deciding between Brian Tobin and Gerard Kennedy.
So, all in all, a bad night for Canada, a bad night for progress, but not as bad as it could have been. We've got a lot of rebuilding to do.
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