No More Voting Liberal was originally published on Local Blogger Writes the World
#WritingFromIsolationWard
Tag: Liberals
If the “Near Dead Heat” election in the US can teach Non-Tory politicians anything, it’s that the facts don’t really matter to the electorate. Anyone with a bit of sense can look at John McCain and say “cor, he looks old and he sounds a whole hell of a lot like Pres. Bush, I hate that guy!”
Let me elucidate, I know at least one HARD CORE Bush lover, by hard core, I mean he chose his friends using Love of Bush as a measure. He HATED John McCain until about 2007, when he suddenly gave up on his Bush Bro-mance and took on McCainiacism. The justification being that he finally noticed how awesome John McCain was.
John McCain has always been John McCain, he’s only more OBVIOUSLY John McCain these days and that seems to translate into “Totally Awesome” in the mind of many of the electorate. I do suspect that there is a good 15-20 percent “I’m not voting for a black guy” thing going on, which may have jumped to 25% after Palin was disgorged from the womb of Alaska, but a race this close doesn’t really make any sense.
Pres. Bush is polling somewhere in Reformed Child Molestor range; McCain is pretty much the Daddy of the party that birthed Bush, why do people believe that “more of the same” is really “change”? Because the McCain camp simply says it is so. Whatever the McCain camp says, they say it over and over and never waver, true or not.
That is the lesson the Non-Tory parties need to take; go hard, go again, and again and again. Keep it simple like “Free Health Care and Education” and “Even Lower Taxes” and so on.
Don’t bother with nuance or long term care, the majority of the electorate doesn’t look anywhere beyond Christmas in planning, why should the Election be about the future when all that matters to the electorate is how they are going to feed and clothe themselves next week.
TORONTO — Deere & Co., the world’s largest maker of farm machinery, is blaming the strong loonie for the decision to close its factory in Welland, Ont., costing the Ontario economy 800 manufacturing jobs.
800 jobs Mowed Down
(Emphasis added)
As I pointed out in an earlier post, the fate of the loonie seems to mirror the political futures of the Liberal Politicians of the day; when the Loonie/Liberal is doing well, it is to blame for the decision to destroy lives (look for it to be the liberals fault that American lives were lost in Iraq and Canadian lives were lost in Afghanistan). So; when the Loonie is strong, obviously it is smarter to pull the jobs from the newly empowered Canadain workers and put them in the hands of people with lesser purchasing power; oblivious to the fact that workers with greater purchasing power (and their neighbours) can toss more money into your coffers through actual purchase of goods an services, not to mention the ancilary tax breaks that come from doing business in an affluent area (due in no small part to your proximity as a business and employer)
Communities reward longtime employers with services and perks, recognizing the value their proximity brings (when I worked for Symantec I got breaks on all sorts of stuff just for being an employee, like free transit and so on). However, corporations, like any other hardcore capatalist, looks only at short term benefits and pull out of communities for whatever reason is in vogue; thus the fortunes of the Loonie has “doomed” a few businesses in Canada.
This is of course the time when the Government should re-invest it’s increasing purchasing power in the nationalisation of industries that do not depend upon foreign investment, or if dependant upon foreign purchases, are based upon resources or services unavailable in client nations. Like Oil.
So too are the fortunes of the Liberals, when plants close during the reign of the Liberals, it’s the Liberal politicians fault, but during the reign of the Tories, it’s the Loonies fault. It may be implict that the Tories are at heart the guiding force behind the economy; but the average reader of a newspaper may not make that connection.
Exciting, being a relative term. What makes me get all lathered up in anticipation may not exactly turn your dials to eleven. In this case it’s the prospect that Steven Harper gets out the Trash Talk Thesaurus and lays it on the table in front of him, looking for synonyms of pansy.
“He is certainly the Liberal leader who’s taken his party furthest to the left, at least since [former prime minister] Pierre Trudeau,” Mr. Harper said in Inuvik.
“I think this is not a time to go back to Trudeau-style economic policies,” said the Conservative Leader, who invoked Mr. Trudeau’s name three times in unfavorable comparisons with Mr. Dion.
Harper uses Trudeau’s name to slam Dion
Who knew that Pierre Trudeau was an insult? Almost universally beloved and the scion of a semi-independent Canada? Nice. Celine could only hope to be so beloved. Pierre was a rock-n-roll Prime Minister if there ever was one and stood Canada out there on the International stage like the prize winning pig that it is. Let’s hope that the Liberals can front a face as audacious and raucous.
The most common definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of shrinking economic output, but Mr. Harper said this wouldn’t worry him because it would only be a “technical recession,” while Canada’s outlook is strong.
–Stephen Harper on the looming global recession.
I’m still trying to find my way here in Canada; faced with the choice of working two jobs or cutting back spending to my post-college levels to get myself back on track. There are luxuries that I simply can’t afford, like new shirts for work and gas, and I make a decent wage, well above that of some of my peers. The Job market is terrible for somone with my skill set and it only seems to get worse as time goes on. I guess the “fundamentals” are okay in the Tories eyes, profits at their friend’s businessess are up, right?
It’s startling to see how far the Canadian public is willing to let the Tory government get before they start to realize that the Cut Taxes and Spend method of Fiscal Conservatives always leads to trouble that the Liberals end up cleaning up. Taxes always climb in the wake of the Conservative misadventures (see post-Vietnam, Post-Cold-War, Post Bush America for proof) because the “Conservatives” only believe in spending and cutting taxes, not shoring up for the future. They can’t even plan a full year in advance (look at the Tories previous push for “set” election dates and their current push for a fall election, a full year early).
It’s typical.
Update:
Dear Stephan Dion
The Canadian government strongly opposed tougher U.S. rules to prevent listeria and lobbied the United States to accept Canada’s more lenient standards, internal documents reveal.
Briefing notes prepared by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for an April 7, 2006, meeting with the board of directors of the Canadian Meat Council outline how both industry and the Canadian government were frustrated with the increased precautions the United States was demanding.
Specifically, Canada opposed daily inspection visits and the testing of finished products for Listeria monocytogenes.
For your notes at home, The Harper Tories took over in February 6 2006.
All bets are off on fixed voting date as PM backtracks on promise to wait until October, 2009; decision expected within weeks
Be ready for fall election, Harper warns
I must have missed this quote:
“Mr. Dion is threatening to bring the government down, again, but we’ve heard that same song for nearly two years,” said Mr. Harper, accusing Mr. Dion of doing “everything in his power to slow the business of Parliament.
Ah, it’s refreshing to see a Tory behave like one, getting the Liberals to cow to their requests then accusing them of acting as a disrupting force for what they say in the media. It’s Castigation for Words and ignorance for their deeds. It’s too bad that Celine Dion is all Hat and No Cattle, since this kind of crap will go (Legistlativly) unanswered. At least we get to see Harper baring his teeth and reminding the people who do hear it (I missed it too) that he’s a sneaky bastard in the mold of the Neocons to the south. His near-invisibility in public lets him get away with it.
Now, will Celine Dion get his hand dirty and bring down the Government? Probably not. The Liberals really need to stop playing “politics” and start playing POLITICS and get out there and remind people that excepting ONE SCANDAL the Liberals led Canada to peace and prosperity and the Tories continues to Spend and Spend while cutting services and selling out to the Americans. There is NOTHING wrong with pointing out how often the Tories have cowed to the Bush Admin.
They won’t though, because they are the “New Liberals” and just an organ of the Tory machine.
“An election will come between now and October 2009,” he said on CTV’s Question Period on Sunday.
“(Calling an election) is a decision that belongs to me, that’s true … I will choose a good moment.”
Stephane Dion continues to play coy rather than stating the facts. Things aren’t bad enough to call an election, when things are good people vote for incumbents. In this case “The Tories”. If Stephane would just drop the act and state that he knows there is no point in calling an election; as his team would just lose. The general populace is nothing if not forgetful, the years of peace and prosperity under the Liberals are too easy forgotten it seems; lost in the dust of minor controversy.
Dear Candidates, Please Contact me
Published by NiteMayr on September 22, 2008This is my election district: London-Fanshawe; Londoners might refer to the majority of it as “The Scary East End” or som variation of it. When I first came to London, I might have agreeed, having toured it while looking for a new home. I settled here mostly out of necessity but have been constantly surprised and pleased by the hidden nature spots and “close to the countryside” living that I have found out here on the ragged-edge of the riding.
I used “The Undecided” to figure out which party I agreed with more in this election and was surprised to find out that the Greens were top of the list (mostly due to my paranoid desire to have Health Care funded at 100% with magical healing properties and Cancer Cures for all). That aside, I contacted the Green Party Candidate in my Riding (Dan O’Neail) and asked for some information on his stances. I think I may do the same for the candidates for the Liberals and NDP. I won’t Vote Tory for any reason, no matter how great the local candidate is, if isn’t the party leader, one Candidate isn’t going to change a whole party. I’m not required to give some sort of even-handed approach to this, I’ve never claimed to be totally open-minded.And let’s face it, I’m never going to vote for anyone who claims to represent “Christian Heritage” I mean, seriously, “I take my lead from a 2000 year old Carpenter’s Son” that’s like advertising you really, really, really want to believe that local social problems can be solved through strong belief in Faries and Giants.
So, I’m going to ask the Liberal and NDP candidates the same question I asked Dan O’Neail:
I’ll post the replies as they come in.