Last week I was having lunch with a friend and briefly the subject of politics came up.  I expressed some of my views on Ignatieff to which she responded that I should write him a letter about my views. My response was, I would but it would not likely get anywhere near him. I thought about that and decided that be damn if it gets anywhere near him, I’ll write my letter here on my blog. So here goes:

I joined the Liberal Party of Canada in July of this year. While I’ve spent a lifetime reading and thinking about politics and how our leaders (or lack), shapes my country, I’ve never before made the decision to commit myself to a political party.

I’ve always leaned towards liberalism, largely because I have a deep-seated belief that one of the great strengths of this country is our social safety net which provides a level of support for those at the lower socioeconomic levels of our society. That sense of social responsiblity balanced with fiscal responsibility has always come from the Liberal Party of Canada.

So, why did I join in July? After a few years of what appeared to me as utter chaos within the party due to their infighting and weak leadership, there appeared to be a leader with some integrity and vision. I still think you have the integrity, but to be frank, I’m having a lot of trouble with discerning your vision.

Where’s the vision?

You seem to be spending a lot of energy and air time reacting to Harper. Canadians know what Harper is, the problem is they don’t yet see a viable alternative to him.  True there are aspects of Harper the Canadian people don’t fully realize or appreciate how wrong he is, but they still don’t see a viable alternative. Why do you think Canadians haven’t yet given him a majority government? Read the rest of this entry »

You know, two weeks ago, I would have been willing to bet that Harper was going to manage to hoodwink the Canadian people enough to win the majority he has lusted after and that Dion would do well to elect a handful of MPs. How quickly things can change.

Here we are two weeks later, two debates and world markets in a tailspin, it looks like Harper will not get his majority and if the current trend continues, he may even end up where he belongs — in the Official Opposition. The last part is a bit of a longshot but then so was Harper being held to a minority two weeks ago.

Yesterday Harper had balls enough to muse about how “Prime Minister Dion” sounds in an effort to scare people away from that prospect. He needs to be careful, that might start to roll of people’s tongues a lot easier than he wants. At best Dion could only pull off a minority government but would put Harper at minimum into the Official Opposition benches, if we got real lucky maybe not even there. Read the rest of this entry »

Today is the last day of the advanced polls in our election and then next Tuesday is vote day. I’ve not been posting much on the election but have been watching very closely. I tuned into and listened closely to the English language debate last Thursday. I was glad that I did, as it is likely one of the very few times that Harper has been forced out of his ‘bubble’ in this election and it was long overdue.

Until now, Harper has managed to appear only at well staged events with only pre-registered attendees. When the press started to blow the whistle on the fact that Harper was keeping a bubble around him, and avoiding any unexpected outbursts by the electorate who have the right to answers from him, his campaign claimed that it was necessary due to security issues. Yeah right.

Anyways, back to the debates. Harper provided no surprises, he was the smug, arrogant individual he always has been. Talking around every issue put before him and beating hell out of the truth about the other leaders. He was nailed not badly a few times by the other leaders but it rolls off of people like Harper who really doesn’t care when it comes to others.

He’s not wanting to be Prime Minister to see a better Canada, he’s wanting to be PM to alter the country to his liking. For a guy who chose to call an election on a trumped up excuse, one really has to wonder why his party remains the only one which hasn’t produced a platform for the public to examine. What’s he hiding other than the fact that he really doesn’t have a plan beyond wanting to get a majority government. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, we’re two weeks into an election campaign here in Canada and so far I’ve not commented. I have some concerns about Dion as a potential Prime Minister, but I have ZERO doubts about the fact that Harper needs to go. As much as I don’t like Layton and his politics, I could live with him as the Official Opposition and Harper reduced to ‘also ran’ but that isn’t going to happen. At this point, it appears that we’ll do good if Harper manages to be kept to a minority government.

Ironically enough, some of my doubts about Dion have been quelled by Harper. See, first and foremost, Harper is a bully. Bullies often instinctively see value in their opponent that they want to flatten, quickly. Harper has been assailing Dion and his character from the moment that he was elected Liberal leader. That indicates to me, along with Dion’s unlikely win, that there is more to Dion than meets the eye. Read the rest of this entry »

Once again, the election drums are beating. Such is life when there is a minority government in power. What makes this time rather interesting is that Harper is the one that is adding fuel to the fire. So much for his oft repeated declaration that he intends to govern until October 2009 which is when the law, that he brought in, sets for the next federal election.

Harper is claiming that the opposition parties are obstructing the function of parliament and that unless he has some indication that he has a functioning parliament, he will bring about the dissolution of parliament. He really can’t get himself off the opposition benches can he? Maybe an election will put him back in his more natural location, on the opposition benches — he appears to be more comfortable there. Read the rest of this entry »

Interesting article in the British paper Guardian comparing Steven Harper’s attitude to Richard Nixon’s. Now, before you’re thinking that the paper is suggesting Harper is a crook like Nixon (aka Watergate), that isn’t the gist of the article.

What the writers are comparing between the two men is their rather obvious utter contempt for the institutions which shape and form their respective governments. That contempt was evident before either of them arrived in office and became even more obvious through Harper’s rather long running war with the national media.

Sometimes even more so than the official opposition, the media can manage to hold governments to account simply through their willingness to dig beyond the facade and find out what is going on behind the scenes. Then they publish their results. I often rail against the media’s often clear bias in their reporting and selective quoting but at the same time, they are bringing to light what would be otherwise in the dark and allowing governments in particular to operate without rebuke. Read the rest of this entry »

RCMP public complaints commissioner Paul Kennedy has found that it is safe to assume that the naming of Liberal Ralph Goodale in a criminal investigation during the 2006 election campaign influenced the outcome of the election in favour of the Conservatives. Goodale had been accused by the NDP of leaking confidential information prior to an income trust announcement that allowed others to profit. He was eventually cleared but long after the election.

The NDP had written to the RCMP wanting a criminal investigation into the rumoured leak. The RCMP replied there was an investigation being launched and then issued a press release a few days later to confirm what had already been made public and naming Goodale. This is not within the usual practise of the Mounties, especially during an election campaign. Breaching the practise was shown to have been a decision specifically made by Giuliano Zaccardelli, then commissioner of the RCMP, who has been subsequently sacked for other misbehaviour.
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Liberal leader Stephane Dion Thursday declared that Liberals, particularly the Quebec Liberals, need to show discipline. “I’m the leader and I want discipline” is what he is quoted as saying. UMMM Stephane, you are the leader and you NEED to impose discipline, it’s one of the areas you really are lacking.

It will take you setting firm boundaries on what is acceptable and sanctioning those who defy you to start garnering some respect within your party, hell within the rest of the world. You know, that is pretty basic stuff.
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