Post #242,220
1/23/06 11:08:42 AM
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What's wrong with you canucks?
Sounds like you're about to vote a complete fruitcake into office.
[link|http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5167812|http://www.npr.org/t...p?storyId=5167812]
When somebody asks you to trade your freedoms for security, it isn't your security they're talking about.
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Post #242,221
1/23/06 11:17:31 AM
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Like we didn't do that here?
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
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Post #242,222
1/23/06 11:20:15 AM
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Yeah, but I was hoping for a Canadian bolt-hole.
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Post #242,274
1/23/06 8:30:38 PM
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Something tells me they just installed new voting machines
from Diebold
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Post #242,275
1/23/06 8:47:56 PM
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nah, they really are different there
liberals are the party of laize faire, a gentlemans club of passing the dishonest government dollar back and forth between themselves. Every now and again a really egregious piece of stank bubbles into the press so the people elect conservatives. Unlike here though they keep em on a short leash, long enough to chasten the liberals then a quick vote of no confidence and new elections are called immediately. None of this waiting until terms are finished. My family is split between conservatives and ndp though, no liberals among them.
thanx,
bill
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 50 years. meep
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Post #242,280
1/23/06 9:23:26 PM
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And Canadian conservatives...
are still left of American Democrats.
Except the Alberta wing. They're our version of Texas.
Cheers,
Ben
I have come to believe that idealism without discipline is a quick road to disaster, while discipline without idealism is pointless. -- Aaron Ward (my brother)
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Post #242,322
1/24/06 11:42:44 AM
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Nope, all by hand
We're given little slips of paper with each candidate for our riding (think congressional districts) and we mark off with pencil which person we want. Works surprisingly well with very few screwups unlike various places down in the USA.
lister
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Post #242,297
1/24/06 12:47:03 AM
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what? at least we know our voting system ...
works.
It looks like we swapped one minority government [link|http://www.cbc.ca/canadavotes/|for another]. That's not a bad outcome. We needed to get the liberals out and not give the conservatives a free rein. Seems about right.
Have fun,
Carl Forde
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Post #242,316
1/24/06 9:26:27 AM
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Why did we need to get the Liberals out again?
When Martin became Finance Minister, interest rates and unemployment were high, we were running annual 45G$ deficits, and the dollar was low. Now, the dollar is high, interest rates and unemployment are low, and we've actually managed to undo more than one year's worth of damage to the country's finances inflicted by the Conservatives the last time they were in power; we've shrunk our debt by about fifty billion dollars in the last ten years.
Add that to the fact that the electorate is basically punishing Martin for being the first PM in living memory who didn't lift up the corner of that carpet and sweep the sins of the former on in there; hell, he took all the steps necessary to ensure that reform of the Treasury Board WILL happen (look for Gomery II in a couple of months, which are going to address just those issues) no matter what happened to him for the sin of leaving that carpet lie instead of adding to the dirt under it, couple that up with the fact that Jack Layton is more qualified for the job than Harper is (at least Layton's actually been part of running a going concern of some kind, even if it was a dysfunctional one like the City of Toronto), the rumblings from the Conservative Party about same-sex marriage and the notwithstanding clause of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and I'm not seeing too much to cheer about.
All Harper's had to do is to reliably produce the ideology demanded by his sponsors over at the conference board of Canada or whatever that think tank was called.
--\n-------------------------------------------------------------------\n* Jack Troughton jake at consultron.ca *\n* [link|http://consultron.ca|http://consultron.ca] [link|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca] *\n* Kingston Ontario Canada [link|news://news.consultron.ca|news://news.consultron.ca] *\n-------------------------------------------------------------------
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Post #242,324
1/24/06 11:57:40 AM
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It's not that bad
Harper isn't a fruitcake. There are definitely numerous fruitcakes in the party (which I hope either get dragged out behind the shed and shot or wrapped in duct tape to shut them up) but he's outgrown his previous fruitcake statements of the past 20 years.
With a minority government (155 seats are needed for a majority) the Cons won't be able to implement any socially conservative policies, stuff like rolling back same sex marriage, abortion, etc. All the other parties are left of centre and won't support them. They'll get many of their fiscal stuff through likely with some modifications to appease some of the other parties.
I suspect though that even in the Cons won a majority and implement their "hidden agenda" that gets much press, they'd likely fall come next election and the damage will be undone by the Liberals. Though the courts may beat them to it .
Had the old Progressive Conservative party been alive we'd have a majority PC goverment right now. A majority of us Canucks can get behind a fiscally conservative, socially progressive party no problem including myself though my political views are a little more complicated than that.
Change was needed, not just in the governing party but in the Liberal party as well. The Chretien & Martin hacks need to go along with the people plauged by scandal. Should they do that and have Frank McKenna or Brian Tobin become the new leader you should see a return to a Liberal majority unless the Cons really prove that they've become the fiscally conservative, socially progressive party which this country needs to keep the Liberals in check.
lister
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Post #242,335
1/24/06 1:52:42 PM
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They won't
The new Conservative party is not socially liberal.
--\n-------------------------------------------------------------------\n* Jack Troughton jake at consultron.ca *\n* [link|http://consultron.ca|http://consultron.ca] [link|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca] *\n* Kingston Ontario Canada [link|news://news.consultron.ca|news://news.consultron.ca] *\n-------------------------------------------------------------------
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Post #242,339
1/24/06 2:04:07 PM
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They'll have to change
Or else they don't stand a chance with a renewed Liberal party next election.
lister
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Post #242,350
1/24/06 4:30:54 PM
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Here's the question you have to ask yourself.
How long can the party leadership keep a lid on the nutjobs from back 40 Alberta?
Seriously, I give it maybe a few weeks before one of the nutjobs starts ranting about fags, Quebeckers, and/or babykillers, and gets himself splashed all over the Globe and Mail. It's not like they don't have thirty or forty of them in the House.
--\n-------------------------------------------------------------------\n* Jack Troughton jake at consultron.ca *\n* [link|http://consultron.ca|http://consultron.ca] [link|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca] *\n* Kingston Ontario Canada [link|news://news.consultron.ca|news://news.consultron.ca] *\n-------------------------------------------------------------------
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Post #242,351
1/24/06 4:57:38 PM
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dont forget commies
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 50 years. meep
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Post #242,354
1/24/06 5:45:47 PM
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I have asked that question
That'll be one of the tests of Harper and the moderates plus how they deal with them when the kooks do manage to climb out from under their rocks. They muzzled the nutjobs pretty good during the election. I think we'll start to see some of that stuff when Harper decides on the cabinet and what the Cons agenda will be with a minority parliament. None of the far right types will be happy.
lister
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