I never thought I’d ever pine for Chretien, but Harper has driven me to it.

Stop pining for Chretien.

Canada really needs Rick Mercer to do a nightly show like Stewart’s.

Well Rae is backing out. So it’s all down to Iggy, who apparently never liked the coalition idea. He may be more likely to play it safe, force some concessions out of Harper, rebuild the Liberal Party and its finances internally and hope any negative consequences of the economy stick to Harper before the next election. I just see Harper being shrewder than Iggy for some reason. Like he’s not afraid to fight dirty. Chretien’s the right adversary really.

Back to John Stewart…everyone knows Canada’s biggest export to the US in recent history has been comedic talent that has forced America’s own to raise their game (Lorne Micheals, Dan Ackeroyd, John Candy, Mike Myers, Jim Carrey, Seth Rogan etc.).

Yes, he is a twerp. Therein lies the true problem for the Liberal Party and Canadian politics in general; it seems to attract twerps or well meaning people who either lack the ambition, connections, language skills or personality to lead.

Also, his name is hard to spell, as evidenced by your misspelling it, which I think is also a knock against him.

These voters can only really be balanced off if enough other voters vote Liberal (not NDP). It seems to me that that is entirely dependent now on Michael Ignatiaff. He is now the any-body-but Harper’s only hope. I personally find this rather depressing. But, then Harper will never get is ideological agenda through without a majority, which will be very, very difficult now…but, not impossible.

On another note, I am increasingly irritated by the unprofessional manner in which polsters present their results and the press interpret and represent them. Polls have recently reported that the Harper Conservatives popularity has increased to the point that they could win a majority. As I’ve pointed out above, due to how many Parliamentary seats there are in Quebec it is a mathamatical impossibility for Harper to win a majority (unless something profoundly goes wrong for the Liberals and NDP in Ontario). Traditionally you must one province or the other in strong fashion and have enough from the other to form a majority. That is why the Liberal Party has won as many majorities as it has over the past 125 years. The press and polsters know this, but allow the public to think a majority is still possible. It is entirely dishonest.

Even setting Quebec to the side, do you think that, say, Ontario is ever going to want Harper to have a majority? I realize that a lot of people are also pissed at the coalition, but nobody comes out of this looking very good.

As for why, maybe she felt that given the economic situation that a newly elected government who faught an election in which the voters knew the economic climate, should at least be allowed to table a budget. And if it falls then, then it falls. Maybe we’ll find out in her memoirs one day.

However, the sheer vitriol for him in Quebec now is something that may last decades. He blew his chance for a majority in the last election because of proposed cuts to arts funding that offended Quebec. Now he’s used national unity as a scapegoat for his own mistakes and alienated Quebec altogether. His dream of a majority are over.

all the same, it’s plenty fun up here. you should check out the toronto sun headlinez.

“NO! NO! NO! This must not be allowed to happen”

brings a tear to the eye…

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/Steele

Ha ha ha. Harper’s such a dick. I wonder if he still thinks he’s so smart now.

Also not looking so smart these days: Guy Giorno.

It is funny though, that the press hasn’t mentioned that this sort of stuff is far from uncommon in continental Europe and in parliamentary democracies like India.

Anyway, Stevo has a choice now between letting his government fall, do an about face and offer the seperatist Bloc Quebecois serious concessions to back him, or prorogue (end) this session of Parliament. It appears that he may be leaning to the latter. If so it would be unprecedented and really put the pressure on the (undemocratically appointed) Governor General to decide whether to ignore his request to prorogue and ask the opposition to try and govern, call an election because it is obvious the government does not have the support of Parliament or let Harper dictate when the next session of Parliament will be.

Should be great fun to watch!