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The power is in your hands

Sunday, September 7, 2008
By John Cruickshank


For the next few weeks, the people of Canada regain charge of their future.

And suddenly, perhaps because the power of governing is back in their hands, Canadians will become exceptionally attractive to the political class.

A short, sharp period of aggressive courtship will ensue. Men and women (though still mostly men) who are often unreachable in Ottawa when your taxes rise or your services shrink, will appear on your doorstep now promising to do more, better, different.

They will come with presents: a community centre for the kids, repaved roads for the balding tires on mom's minivan, shorter lineups at the cardio clinic for grandpa. (But it does seem odd that after all the time they've had in Ottawa, they're only getting around to making these gestures now.)

Is it impolite to ask who's going to pay for all these gifts? This kind of thing happens so rarely, nobody quite knows how to act, what to enquire about, who's who.

The bewilderment about politics that citizens in all of the older democracies feel has translated into permanent disinterest among some and persistent lethargy among many. The percentage of citizens who participate in the election process by standing for election, giving money or joining a party and putting a sign in the living room window has been sliding for decades.

So has the percentage that vote.


More at: CBC News

Ok so there's probably not many of us here who know much of Canadian politics, but it has become clear to me over the past year or so that the right wing has taken power and are making changes to much of what Canada and Canadians have been internationally recognized for.

I'm not so sure Canadians are going to have the will to get shot of the right wing Conservative Party though, but hey there's always hope they'll show their southern neighbors how it's done.

Canada Opposition Leaders Seek to Portray Harper as Bush Proxy

By Alexandre Deslongchamps
September 8, 2008


Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Canada's opposition parties are trying to paint Conservative Party Prime Minister Stephen Harper as a proxy for George W. Bush, in hopes of undermining his support ahead of Oct. 14 elections.

``In some ways, Stephen Harper is more pro-Bush than John McCain,'' Stephane Dion, head of the main opposition Liberal Party, said today in Montreal. As evidence, Dion contrasted the Republican presidential nominee's calls to close Guantanamo Bay with Harper's refusal to intervene to get Canadian Omar Khadr out of the Cuba-based prison.

Liberals are associating Harper with Bush in speeches and ads, including a television spot saying, ``It is possible to be a friend and an ally of the United States while remaining true to ourselves.'' Yesterday, New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton said the campaign is a chance to ``make our own decisions and say goodbye to George Bush and Stephen Harper.''

Bush helped feed a perception that he and Harper are close by calling him ``Steve'' at a summit in 2006. As for substance, Harper, like Bush, argued in 2003 that the Liberal government should do more to support the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Both men criticized greenhouse gas emissions targets set by the Kyoto treaty. The association may weaken voters' sense of Harper's leadership, an area where he has a big advantage over rivals.

Guilty Association

``The more Harper is associated with Bush, the more other parties can make gains,'' said Rejean Pelletier, a political scientist at Laval University in Quebec City, capital of the French-speaking province where Harper and Dion made some of their first campaign stops. Harper, meanwhile, ``wants to present himself as someone who's moderate and paint the other parties as scary.''

An Ipsos Reid poll taken Aug. 26-28 showed 50 percent of Canadians see Harper as the best person to lead the country, compared with 20 percent for Dion. The survey of 1,005 adults had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.

After two-and-a-half years in power though, 41 percent of voters still think the prime minister has a ``hidden agenda'' of right-wing policies he'd impose once he had a majority of votes in the legislature, according to the same poll.

``Stephen Harper's Conservatives have an ideological vision inspired by George W. Bush, a vision that dictates all of their decisions,'' Gilles Duceppe, leader of the separatist Bloc Quebecois party, said yesterday in Montreal. ``We have to question ourselves on this agenda, especially now, as a wind of change is blowing over our southern neighbors.''

`Right-Wing Agenda'

By triggering elections, Harper ``is giving us the opportunity to reject his narrow-minded, right-wing agenda and his secretive, unaccountable style of government,'' Dion told reporters in Ottawa yesterday. ``We Liberals will fight fear with hope, lies with facts, and Republican-style attack ads with Canadian-style courage.''


More at: Bloomberg

Ya, it looks like they'll win again as they have %55 of voters in a recent poll.

Just an update on our elections yesterday. The conservatives 'won' with a minority government again, though with a larger minority but nothing of significance IMO.

What is really hitting us hard is the drastic reduction of oil prices, our dollar increasing so bloody much compared to the US so that it is very hard to compete. As the US normally consumes %90 of our exports, this is going to hurt us real bad.

There's not much any government can do about that when our livelihoods are so dependent on the trade.