Tuesday, September 12, 2006

This Post Is Liberal Leadership Free

-Sure, it's opportunistic. Really opportunistic. But I guess it beats a PM only addressing the country to plead for his political life.

-The deadly dance begins. I said all along that the fiscal imbalance/equalization promises would be the hardest for Harper to keep. Flaherty's first budget wrote itself but his second one is going to be one giant headache.

-Leaked polls show Canadians cool to child care AND the GST cut. Combined with recent poll numbers, I think this means we can safely rule out a fall election. And maybe even a spring one.

posted by calgarygrit at 1:54 a.m.

14 Comments:

  • James, I'd hazard a guess that the post about addressing the country to plead for his political life WAS a reference to PMPM. Bart may still harbour residual resentment towards the Martin people but I am confident that regular counselling and medication will help him to move on with his life. :)

    Harper's speech was so very predictable that one wonders why he didn't just tell us to listen to Bush's speech.

    PS: Bart, glad you let the thread about the Pope and the Catholic church alone. With Cerberus, Kinsella and Cherniak attacking DiNovo's Christianity I was starting to wonder if you bigwig Libloggers had succumbed to some sort of group hysteria.

    By Blogger Psychols, at 2:38 a.m.  

  • I was pretty disappointed with the address myself, I was hoping for much more. It felt like he was on for only 3-5 minutes, and didn't say enough of real importance to explain why we fight. With all the politicization of our participation in the Global War on Terror, he's probably pretty limited in what he can say that won't be perceived as "spin," but he can do better.

    By Blogger RGM, at 6:16 a.m.  

  • We'll probably see even more of his endearing nervous smirk.
    There's this cartoon going round in my mind featuring a bunch of his present courtesans sneaking under the chairs to tie his shoelaces together.
    As I recall O'Connor was in the lead.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:24 a.m.  

  • Peter, you are, unfortunately, mistaken. bin Laden has made his feelings known for a long time regarding his grievances with the West. While he focuses primarily on America, he sees us as complicit in propping up "American empire" (What a ludicrous term that is; I actually people screaming at Condi Rice's motorcade yesterday that the Israel-Hezbollah war was actually for American empire...yeesh) and thus guilty and deserving of whatever punishment he sees fit to mete out.
    It's a nice and comforting view to believe that nobody in the world could possibly want to hurt Canada, but it is deeply flawed.

    By Blogger RGM, at 7:42 a.m.  

  • Really RGM? Ahmed Rassam could have staged a "millenium bombing" in Vancouver, and avoided being caught at the US border.

    I could be wrong, but I seem to recall that OBL only added us to the "hit list" after we joined the initial Afghan mission.. you know, back when nobody was criticising it...

    By Blogger Robert, at 9:01 a.m.  

  • I didn't see a PM pleading for his political life.

    I also don't see a fall election.

    My bet would be an election call immediately following the budget.

    The opposition parties could be drawn into opposing the budget.

    The Libs and Dippers would oppose for sure. The BQ would oppose only if they thought they would do better in Quebec than they did the last time.

    Harper is slowly building credibility in other areas. Just because the GST cut and the Childcare program aren't vote winners, they aren't vote losers either...and they are part of the package of promises the CPC ran on in the last election.

    The next election will be about credibility and competence.

    Canadians have their Bullshit antennae operating at high levels of accuracy so Liberals should avoid spin and work on developing a credible alternative.

    I worked on the last campaign for the local Liberal candidate and was not impressed with the policy material provided. In Alberta, a special booklet was provided that was full of platitudes and short on detail.

    There is a lot of work to be done to improve on that and not a lot of time to get it done.

    By Blogger Down & Out in L A, at 9:25 a.m.  

  • Robert, could have, but LAX is what they would call a more "value rich" target.
    Just because the "official declaration" came afterwards doesn't mean that we weren't on the list in the first place. Sticking our heads in the sand doesn't make the problem go away, it only means that we wouldn't see it coming.

    By Blogger RGM, at 10:54 a.m.  

  • Just for clarification, that WAS a reference to Paul. Harper obviously was trying to drum up support for a mission which is going badly - I wouldn't call it pleading for his political life at all.

    By Blogger calgarygrit, at 12:01 p.m.  

  • This is what my country's "War on Terror" has achieved:
    It has made me more scared and given reason for terrorists to consider Canada.

    Then you should be very upset with Jean Chretien and Paul Martin.

    By Blogger The Invisible Hand, at 12:08 p.m.  

  • I'm not sure why everyone seems satisfied to simply repeat the cant that the war in Afghanistan is going badly.

    Let's remember:

    - the Taliban are gone and on the run.

    - Al Qaeda are on the run and in hiding

    - Taliban/Al Qaeda casaulties: approx. 6,000 to 7,000

    - Coalition casualties: about 350-400 after over 5 years of fighting (and by the way, for the history buffs out there and those who like historical perspective, the 4 year Korean War involved over 1.5 million deaths among our allies and probably double that for the North Koreans and Chineses)

    - hundreds and hundres of millions of dollars spent on infrastructure and schooling

    - the so-called "quagmire" and "failing mission" now focused on a small region in the south instead of across the entire country

    Oppose the war if you want. Call for the pull out of Afghanistan like Layton (directly) and Kennedy (indirectly) have if you want. Those are fair positions - that Canada should not be putting it's own citizens lives in danger for other countries.

    But let's look at what is happening over there frankly and accurately.

    By Blogger Ted Betts, at 1:53 p.m.  

  • The mission in Afghanistan has made a country out of Canada again. Good on the Liberals for setting the table, and good on Harper for realizing the mission's importance to the nation of Canada and sticking with it.

    Sure there will be whimpering whelps who want to cut and run at the first sight of blood, but only in the short term.

    A vote for the NDP is a vote for cowardice. Canadians aren't cowards. Harper knows it, the silent majority knows it, and Jack is going to be handed it in the next election.

    Jack's new anti-war strategy will only play well in Quebec, and he STILL won't win a seat in the province. Very short-sighted policy from the very short Comms group at NDP HQ.

    By Blogger JL, at 3:23 p.m.  

  • The NDP have opposed every war, and are always lining up on the side of totalitarians. From the USSR to Nazi Germany, from North Korea to the Taliban, and including Fidel, Che, Mugabe, and Salafists everywhere. The NDP have always and will always support those who seek to destroy freedom, liberty, and anything resembling economic freedom.

    They always want to do something else. Until we actually do it and then we're horrid colonial oppressors. Look at the Left's relationship with East Timor before the insertion of peacekeepers. Look at the Left's relationship with the Taliban pre 9/11. Now look at Darfur. As soon as we are about to do something, it will be wrong. We will have to go around the UN, thanks to China's veto, as well as neighbouring countries that have their own interests. When we do so, we will become evil.

    By Blogger Hey, at 5:55 p.m.  

  • The need to root out terrorism in all forms is strong until some soldiers die. This western society wants instant gratification and if it cant be solved in days or months it's time to cut and run. Muslims dont operate on our time frame, they have hundreds of years and have been planing the Caliphate for that long. Their aim, a Muslim world period end. Just read some of their blogs, you'll figure it out.
    Solution, easy, revoke the citizenship of any muslim that even breathes the word jihad and send them back where they came from. Ethnic cleansing, if you will. That might protect Canada from future attacks. Otherwise, order your Burqas, i understand they come in three shades of black.

    By Blogger Rositta, at 8:40 p.m.  

  • A very short and yet very full and satisfying post, Bart.

    I think it is excruciatingly obvious that the post was talking about Paul Martin and not Stephen Harper. How could anyone miss that? Unless you're a complete partisan who only sees opposition to your party everywhere.

    By Blogger Jacques Beau Vert, at 9:19 p.m.  

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