Majority of Canadians still see through Harper. Budget fails to impress.

globeandmail.com: Budget fails to quell criticisms of Prime Minister, poll suggests

Although this poll shows that a majority of Canadians support the budget, Harper and his Conservatives are on shakier ground.
Some points to note: 

... voters are now less likely to support the government because of the budget.
... 69 per cent say they still blame Mr. Harper for causing an unnecessary
political crisis late last year when he should have been focusing on
the economy.
...When asked to name the top three beneficiaries of the budget, large
corporations showed up most often. Poor Canadians and older/retired
Canadians were seen as those benefiting the least.

If only the leaders of other countries had the guts that the Turkish leader has to call a lie when he sees one

TheStar.com | World | Turkish-Israeli clash stuns Davos economic forum

DAVOS, Switzerland–Turkey's prime minister stalked off the stage at the
World Economic Forum red-faced Thursday after reproaching Israel's
president over the Gaza offensive by saying ``You kill people."
...
Ergodan brushed past reporters outside the hall. His wife appeared
upset. "All Peres said was a lie. It was unacceptable," she said, eyes
glistening.


Shimon Peres stood up at the World Economic Forum and lied about the
situation in Gaza, and Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Yayyip Erdogan
called him on it.

Conservatives and Liberals vote to turn back the clock on pay equity for women in Canada

Pay equity: U.S. moves forward, Canada falls behind | NDP

“What comes as a shock is that the Liberals, who were so critical of
those cuts, would now support a budget that entrenches these regressive
policies.”

After they see that Iggy is just Dion in wolf's clothing, will the Liberals toss him out and elect Bob Rae?

CBC.ca News - Political Bytes - Obit: the coalition

With Michael Ignatieff and the Liberal party accepting the latest Harper budget, asking little in concessions, we see that things are back to exactly the way they were before the election. The Conservatives putting forth bad policies, and the Liberals, although saying the policies are bad, backing them. Nothing has changed. The majority of Canadians are still shafted.

Maybe the Liberals will see their error in choosing Iggy and turf him out in favour of Bob Rae. It remains to be seen.

I'm not keen on the same old coalition - Conservatives & Liberals - with the Conservatives making the policy, and the Liberals either abstaining or going along with things even though they don't like it (instead of standing up for what they believe is right).

The Liberals have thrown away a large voice for Canadians in Parliament. The people who voted Liberal no longer have a Liberal voice in parliament - they have Conservative supporters instead (that's not what/who they voted for). The only federal opposition voice left is the NDP. And in Quebec, I can see the Liberals losing more seats to the Bloc next election for this.

"Ignatieff says he is prepared to swallow"

globeandmail.com: Tories put on probation; coalition declared dead

Is Ignatieff the same or worse than Dion here?
Not only is he accepting a bad budget, the Liberals are going to vote for it (instead of abstain from it, like the Dion Liberals), and demand pretty lame concessions.

Bad news from the Liberals

globeandmail.com: Ignatieff to call for changes to budget

It seems that the Liberals are going to roll over and accept this lame budget:

The MP said there would be some Liberal positioning on the issue, but that more individuals were leaning toward letting the government live than pushing to defeat it.

More Israeli war crimes

Israel accused of war crimes over 12-hour assault on Gaza village | World news | The Observer

In testimony collected from residents of the village of Khuza'a by
the Observer, it is claimed that Israeli soldiers entering the village:

• attempted to bulldoze houses with civilians inside;

• killed civilians trying to escape under the protection of white flags;

• opened fire on an ambulance attempting to reach the wounded;

• used indiscriminate force in a civilian area and fired white phosphorus shells.

If the allegations are upheld, all the incidents would constitute breaches of the Geneva conventions.

The
denunciations over what happened in Khuza'a follow repeated claims of
possible human rights violations from the Red Cross, the UN and human
rights organisations.

Israel continues to murder Palestinians after the ceasefire

First Palestinian shot dead after Israel's unilateral ceasefire_English_Xinhua

A Palestinian farmer
was shot dead on Sunday morning by an Israeli soldier in Khan Younis in
southern Gaza Strip, becoming the first fatality since Israeli declared an
unilateral ceasefire, local witnesses said.

    The witnesses said the farmer was killed while checking his farm.

White-Phosphorus and its use in Gaza

Special: White Phosphorus and its use in Gaza - International Middle East Media Center - IMEMC < read me.

Reports of usage in Gaza: The Los Angeles Times reported January 12 that 20 homes burnt, one women killed and several injured from the use of WP in Gaza writing:“One landed in my kitchen and caused a fire,' said Zohair Mohammed abu Rejila, 35. 'I went to put it out, but another one landed on Mayar, my baby daughter. It was like a block of fire, a piece of plastic on fire. When I knocked it off her, it exploded and out came this heavy white smoke with a very bad smell.' http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg...story

Al-Jazeera TV reported on its use for several days between December 29-January 9 and aired footage of several civilian victims of white phosphorus bombs showing characteristic burns. One teenage girl, Jamila Al-Habash, had both of her legs amputated and an interview with Dr. Raed Al-'Areeny from Al-Shaifa Hospital explained the need for amutation because of the WP adherence to and reaction with soft tissues penetrating even to the bones.

Footage released also show the characteristic images of shelling in neighborhoods with WP http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVY4NUKowzg http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/20....html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq-b_40IKfs On January 12, 2009, Human Rights Watch issued a report demanding Israel stop using WP (http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/01/10/israel-stop-unlaw...-gaza)

Death toll continues as Israel continues its assault on Gaza using White-Phosphorus

18th day under attack: Gaza death toll reaches 940 with 4200 injured - International Middle East Media Center - IMEMC < read me.

Dr. Hassanen told IMEMC over the phone that doctors are witnessing burns and disfigured bodies of victims, adding that the injured are arriving with a powder on their skin. On Saturday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the Israeli Army to stop using White Phosphorus in its artillery shells against the Gaza Strip. Researchers of HRW said that they observed white-phosphorus use on January 9th and January 10th near Gaza City and Jabalia,.

Using this type of artillery, in this manner is banned by international humanitarian law, the group added. The shells are capable of burning human flesh right down to the bone and are capable of setting structures, fields and other civilian facilities on fire. The group added that using these kind of shells against one of the most densely populated areas in the world causes magnified harm, and called on Israel to stop using these shells.

Remember that school that Israel targeted a few days ago ...

UN: IDF officers admitted there was no gunfire from Gaza school which was shelled - Haaretz - Israel News

"In briefings senior [Israel Defense Forces] officers conducted for foreign diplomats, they admitted the shelling to which IDF forces in Jabalya were responding did not originate from the school," Gunness said. "The IDF admitted in that briefing that the attack on the UN site was unintentional."

He noted that all the footage released by the IDF of militants firing from inside the school was from 2007 and not from the incident itself.

Israel continues to target civilians in Gaza as the UN demands a halt to the aggression.

In spite of UN Resolution (1860); army continues offensive killing 29 Palestinians on Friday - International Middle East Media Center - IMEMC

On the ground, in Gaza, hospital, medics, civilian areas and homes, school, universities and mosques are including in the Israeli shelling and in the so-called self defense.

Descendents of the Holocaust now committing the same crime.

Bil'in demonstrators remind the world of the Holocaust - International Middle East Media Center - IMEMC

This angry message was to remind the world of the Nazi Holocaust and of the promise made by the international community to never allow another Holocaust to happen, while this promise is being broken by the same people whose ancestors were victims of the Holocaust.

Interviews with US congressmen regarding Gaza

kucinich.us - Al Jazeera interviews Congressman Kucinich on Gaza

Point - US arms are supplied to Israel for defence purposes only - not for invasions. Israel is breaking contract rules with the USA regarding its use of the supplied arms

Point - Israel broke the ceasefire agreement by bombing Gaza on Nov. 4th. Hamas only starting firing rockets in retaliation AFTER Israel broke the ceasefire.

Point - the majority of US congress put the onus on Hamas to stop firing rockets and to recognize Israel's right to exist as a nation, and see Israel as doing nothing wrong in it's bombing and killing of hundreds of innocent civilians (which is a war crime - targeting civilians) and do not ask Israel to recognize Palestine as a nation (or to stop invading and besieging Palestine).

Harper about faces again on Senate reform

globeandmail.com: Harper pushes to gain control of Senate

Seeing that his is up against a stronger opposition this time, Harper has decided to scrap his ideas of Senate reform and continue to appoint senators until the Conservatives have a majority in the Senate. Is this fair and ethical? No. Is it allowed in the rules? Yes.

He is running scared.

Time to take the government away from the minority Conservatives and put it in the hands of the majority - the opposition parties > The Coalition.

But bombing innocent trapped civilians is okay...

TheStar.com | Ontario | Jewish leaders blast CUPE

Please tell me how the current siege and invasion of Gaza is okay and not an abuse of civil, moral and ethical rights.

I think Canada should boycott Israel until Israel plays nice. And I think we should stop selling oil to the USA until the USA stops sending military aid to Israel to help kill civilians in Palestine. Until the USA demands that Israel stop the siege of Palestine, we should cut them off too.

Oh, poor Israel

TheStar.com | Columnist | Israel must fight its battles alone

Oh, they are not allowed to join in fights and kill other people in other countries. Oh, they are limited to only genocide against Palestinians.
Oh, no one understands them - that they have to bomb the crap out of innocent trapped civilians they have had under siege for decades.

Oh, they have to over-react against people who have very little in ways to fight back and who do little relative harm to Israelis.

Maybe, just maybe, if Israeli stopped besieging the Palestinians and allowed them to be a free nation, and stopped the illegal settlements stealing the Palestinian land, THEN the Palestinians would stop throwing rocks at them and stop firing inneffectual homemade bombs at them and the world would show Israel some respect.

Oh Rosie, you are sooooo out to lunch with your analysis.

And then they will bomb them again

TheStar.com | World | Israel to halt Gaza operations for 3 hours

And then they will seal off Gaza again and bomb the people, again, who have just received aid.

Israel: "the region's bully"

Al Jazeera English - Focus - Israel's failure to learn < read me

Already we see tensions increasing in the region. Damascus has pulled out of third-party talks with Tel Aviv and Arab anger has been mounting not just at Israel, and not just at America, but also at their own regimes which have collaborated with Washington.

Some Israelis have started to realise their government's flawed approach. While 81 per cent of Israelis support the military campaign, a poll has showed only 39 per cent believe it will succeed in removing Hamas or reducing violence.

An editorial in Haaretz, an Israeli daily, even went so far as to label Israel "the region's bully".

Barack Obama, the US president-elect, remains silent as Israel kills Palestinians with impunity. In his silence he expresses his complicity.

We could have a $20 billion surplus

TheStar.com | Canada | Harper says deficit could hit $30 billion

Hey Stephen.
How about you roll back the $50 billion in tax cuts to corporations? We already have one of the lowest taxes for corporations in all the industrialized nations. And, it has been proven time and time again that the trickle-down effect down not exist/work. So cutting back these tax cuts would a) not change any of the corporations' practises, and b) not affect the economy one way or the other (except to make more money available for services and stimulating infrastructure spending), and c) it would actually boost jobs by increasing the money for services and infrastructure spending.

Lets take that $20 billion surplus and invest it in Canada - not in foreign-owned corporations who will just pocket the money and invest it outside of Canada.

Bill Blaikie - running for a seat in the Manitoba legislature

Winnipeg Free Press

Welcome back Bill!

Veteran New Democrat Bill Blaikie will run for a seat in the
Manitoba legislature in a byelection expected to be called this spring. Blaikie won the NDP nomination for the provincial riding of Winnipeg Elmwood.

"I can't believe that the Prime Minister is just literally giving Canadians the finger."

TheStar.com | Canada | Harper's Senate plan blasted

For someone who was all about making the Senate more fair, representative and elected, this is an odd way to suddenly deal with the Senate.

OTTAWA–Constitutional experts and opposition parties yesterday
condemned Prime Minister Stephen Harper's plan to fill every empty
Senate seat in advance of his government's possible defeat in the new
year.

Constitutional scholar Desmond Morton called the move a
scandal in view of the precarious position of Harper's minority
government.

"He has the power to do it, but he shouldn't have the gall," said Morton, a professor emeritus at McGill University.

"I
think it's more in keeping with the principles of parliamentary
democracy that a potentially lame-duck administration should not make
appointments," said constitutional scholar Ned Franks.

Harper
will name the new senators before Christmas – likely in one fell swoop
– in a move his office says will bolster the chances of eventual Senate
reform, but opposition critics called a hyper-partisan power grab.

"It's
outrageous," said New Democrat MP and reform critic David
Christopherson (Hamilton Centre), whose party advocates abolishing the
Senate. "I can't believe that the Prime Minister is just literally
giving Canadians the finger."

Read more of the article at the link above.

James Laxer ponders what will Ignatieff do

No time for Ignatieff to play Mackenzie King | rabble.ca

If Ignatieff's idea of leadership is to provide confidence for the Harper government as his first act, he could be dooming himself to a short and unhappy career at the helm.

The Liberals would then wear the Harper record on the economy as their record. And while the Conservatives are bound to include some stimulus measures in the budget, there is no way that Harper and Flaherty are going to propose the overhaul of the Canadian economy based on very extensive public investments. And that is what the country needs.

Much though Ignatieff may wish to avoid it, he faces a clear choice. If he keeps Harper in power, it will be Harper who will hold the strong hand. He will determine the date of the next election, and he could well go on to win it. Meanwhile, the NDP, the Bloc and the Greens will feel deeply betrayed if Ignatieff dumps the coalition and allows Harper to remain in power.

At a date, not of his choosing, Ignatieff would go on to face the electorate, squeezed between the Conservative base vote on the one hand and the one third of the electorate already inclined to support parties other than the Liberals and the Conservatives on the other.

For Ignatieff, the WLMK option is a chimera. "A friend to all is a friend to none," Ignatieff could say if he comes to his senses, that is if Aristotle hadn't already said it.

To date, Bob Rae is showing a much clearer understanding of the lay of the political land than is his former roommate.

Click the link above - read the whole post

What Harper would do if he had a majority

If Harper survives | rabble.ca

Both know only too well just who Stephen Harper is and what he would do to the country should he ever achieve a majority.

With no mandate to do so, he would dismantle the work of three generations of Canadians in building a decent, if far from egalitarian, society.

He would, for starters, gut and or sell off the CBC.

He would repeal the Canada Health Act and open the Medicare system to massive privatization and balkanization.

He would, as quickly as he could, further gut the spending powers of the federal government with more destructive and ill-considered tax cuts for the wealthy and for Canada's corporate welfare bums.

He would rapidly devolve power to the provinces, balkanizing the country and its egalitarian approach to social programs.

Our foreign policy would be made in Washington and our energy and environmental policies would be made in Alberta. More billions would be poured into making our military a war-fighting adjunct to the U.S. war machine. (If you think Obama is going to dismantle the American Empire, think again.)

None of this will ever be part of a Harper election platform. But it is what he would do.

Conservatives wasting your money

TheStar.com | Canada | Luxury travel contradicts Tories' frugal image

This article from the Toronto Star exposes that the federal Conservatives are not so fiscally responsible with your money. Another example that they can't be trusted with our money and our economy, and how they don't practise what they preach. [I know this news came out a couple of weeks ago, but I just bumped into it now.]

Read the whole article for all the details. Here is a snippet below:

Some federal travellers can't seem to get to London, England, for less than $6,000, even though economy seats were available for $1,000 to $2,000. In our analysis of 60,000 travel records over four years, we found $18,000 flights to Australia, $7,000 flights to Paris, $11,000 flights to Indonesia and $8,000 flights to Switzerland.

By contrast, travel surveys show businesses are reducing costs by choosing more economical flights. At least one other government, Alberta, has shown more care with taxpayer dollars. For example, the Alberta environment minister and an aide spent $3,200 each to fly to Bali for a United Nations conference on climate change last year. The former federal environment minister, John Baird, took a $10,920 flight to the same conference. Three political aides and two bureaucrats joined him at similar rates. Total airfare was $61,000.

An excellent resource on the record of the Harper Conservatives

start [DokuWiki]

Canada may be the first industrialized country to fall into political
crisis as a result of the global economic recession. Could this crisis
involve the suspension of our democratic institutions?

So here's the story so far:

In the last parliament Harper was a bully, pushing around opposition parties and forcing them to support his agenda.

The Harper Government introduced a new culture of secrecy and
centralized control. No more press conferences, and Cabinet Ministers
are muzzled

Harper broke his own election law by calling the last election.

Attempted to bankrupt the opposition parties by introducing a motion to eliminate voter subsidies to political parties. Debate on Party Financing

Attempts to dehumanize Quebec sovereigntists. Debate on including the Bloc Quebecois in the coalition

Demonizes the opposition. Debate on the Ethics/Constitutionality of Coalition-Forming

In this light, perhaps proroguing Parliament should be viewed as a
dictatorship in function, since the PMO would remain in power and in
control of the Government while the opposition is shut out and
Parliament closed. Debate on the Ethics/Constitutionality of Prorogation

This may be the end of the Harper reign. The Conservatives want power
and as long as Harper could deliver, they supported him, even if it
meant biting their tongue about some of the more outrageous moves. But
he blew it - he misjudged the opposition and the troops will turn on
him just like they did to Kim Campbell when she blew it with the “face”
ads. Hatred is not a family value, but it characterizes a lot of
Conservative politics.

How does Stephen Harper respond to this global economic challenge? He locks the doors of Parliament so he can desperately cling to power.

"Today’s families have spoken loud and
clear – we need action on the economy right now. Action to create jobs,
to protect your pension and retirement, to build the green economy of
tomorrow. Stephen Harper didn’t act.

That’s why the
New Democrats have joined with the other opposition parties to put
forward an alternative government – a coalition for real change.

How
does Stephen Harper respond to this global economic challenge? He locks
the doors of Parliament so he can desperately cling to power.

Now
you and I can send a strong message to Stephen Harper. Change is coming
– and even Mr. Harper must respect the majority of Parliament and the
majority of Canadians." - Jack Layton

"Confidence isn't going to be restored by seven weeks of propaganda"

TheStar.com | Canada | Parliament shut for 7 weeks

The Governor General has decided to prorogue parliament until Jan 26, 2009.
In this time, Stephen Harper has said he will ask the opposition parties for input toward economic issues. The Conservative aim is to put together a budget for the end of January. However, considering their record, it is hard to believe that whatever they come up with won't be full of things that will be bad for Canadians and that the opposition parties cannot stomach.

Canada needs an economic boost NOW, not 7 weeks from now. This delay is going to make Canada seem even more unstable in the eyes of the world and will hurt our economy.

We can also be sure to see Harper's Conservatives spend our tax dollars lying to us in ads and statements over the next 7 weeks. Their propaganda machine will be in full force.

The Governor General has locked the doors of parliament and the doors of democracy in Canada. This is indeed a sad day for parliamentary democracy.

I urge you all to keep up the fight for democracy and truth in Canada. Keep up the letter writing campaign. Maybe if enough people protest to the Governor General, she will re-open parliament and let us get on with democracy and the urgent needs of this great country.

Naomi Klein on this moment in Canadian history

Naomi Klein: 'We can't lose this moment' | rabble.ca

Just to be clear, what I mean by the shock doctrine, as you know, is the use of crisis to push through unpopular pro-corporate policies. This bundling of a whole package of policies: denying the right of public sector workers to strike, the attack on public financing of political parties, with the economic program - that is what failed, and people were offended by the opportunism of it.

This is what so many of us were worried about during the election - the context of a Tory victory in an economic crisis, because we know that there is this pattern of using an economic crisis to push through policies that were nowhere during the campaign.
...
... what I find most exciting about what is going on right now - beyond
just getting rid of Harper, which is exciting in and of itself - is
that we have this opportunity to show what proportional representation
(PR) would look like, because all of this talk that this is a coup is a
joke.
...

To me the best case scenario that could come out of this is, one,
you get the coalition, and, two, the NDP uses this moment to really
launch a national discussion about why we need PR and that that becomes
one of the things that comes out of this crisis.

Now, they don't have the mandate for that right now, but we could
come out of this with a national referendum on proportional
representation. People might actually like it, which would be really,
really exciting.

...

The way in which public financing for political parties has been
presented in the press is "oh the politicians, they just got mad when
they went after their money," right? This is another key point that I
think is somewhat related to the issue of proportional representation.
We need to be talking about our political process here, and the issue
of public financing for political parties in elections is key to
protecting and deepening democracy in Canada, and for keeping it out of
corporate control. It is not for nothing that the Tories are attacking
that. They see attacking public financing of political parties as a way
to entrench their power.

...

So, what is exciting about this political moment, and how people can
get involved, is that this is building on that. The political parties
caught up with the grassroots movement that was happening anyway with
those initiatives like voteforenvironment.ca, Department of Culture, and people like Murray Dobbin
who have been making these arguments pretty steadily outside of the
political parties. Now it is happening, and it is happening thanks to
Stephen Harper and his extraordinary arrogance and over-reaching. We
can't lose this moment.

I just want to emphasize this point: If even through smart tactics,
Harper pulls this off, if he prorogues Parliament; if the Governor
General lets him get away with it; if the Liberals lose their nerve
over Xmas, then the Harper we will have in January will be a deeply
chastened Harper.

What everybody agrees with is that he made a massive error, that he
massively overreached, and his own party, his own base agrees with
that. Worst case scenario we dodged a bullet here. Best case scenario,
we leverage his overreach, his attempt to use a crisis to push through
his ideological pro-corporate agenda to have a deeper democracy in our
country, and to prevent forevermore a situation where a party with 35
per cent of the vote is government.

62% Majority downloads and blog banners

Downloads | Coalition for Change

Jack Layton's response to Stephen Harper's speach

CBC.ca - Video

"... Stephen Harper has broken his trust with the Canadian people, and
because of that he’s lost the confidence of Parliament. He seems to be
more interested in his job than in protecting your job. Now that’s
simply wrong.
...
Stephen Harper’s job was to ensure that Parliament would work, but
he refused to do that. By locking the door behind me he is rejecting
the democratic choice of 62% of Canadians - your choice - and every
Member of Parliament will see his right, his democratic right to
express his confidence in the government refused.

Every Member of Parliament will be denied their vote. Every Canadian
will be silenced because this House will not be permitted to speak . We
will have a Conservative government without legitimacy at the time of
an economic crisis. That doesn’t have to happen because this is a
remarkable moment in Canadian history. The opposition parties acted
together, with a common goal, to give hope back to Canadians and help
them to come through these difficult economic times. For the first
time, the majority of the parties chosen by the people set aside their
differences for the welfare of everyone.

The majority of Members of Parliament - the people’s representatives
- have set aside their differences for the good of Canada, and for the
good of every Canadian. This is a time of hope. Tonight, only one party
stands against the welfare of the Canadian people. On Monday, two
leaders of the proposed coalition sent Her Excellency, the Governor
General, a letter making it crystal clear that the majority of Members
of Parliament no longer have confidence in this Conservative
government. Nothing we have heard tonight changes this fact. Tonight,
Mr. Harper had an opportunity to chart a new course - to accept some of
the ideas we have been putting before him. But he did not. And tonight
we are announcing that if it pleases Her Excellency, we will arrange
that every New Democratic Member of Parliament will indicate
individually and together - formally - a lack of confidence in this
government.

A new government is possible, and ready to serve. A new kind of
government with a new kind of politics is ready to serve. One that will
put the economy and working families first. Thank you very much."

Harper is lying

Harper 'lies' about coalition details: Broadbent

To save his own government, Stephen Harper is deliberately trying to
deceive Canadians about the facts surrounding a proposed Liberal-NDP
coalition, former NDP leader Ed Broadbent said Wednesday.

"I've never seen the leader of a Conservative party, certainly not Bob
Stanfield, certainly not Joe Clark, lie — I choose the word
deliberately — the way Mr. Harper has," Broadbent said.

The former NDP leader, who helped negotiate Monday's deal between
the New Democrats and the Liberals with the support of the Bloc
Québécois, said Harper also lied when he said the three opposition
leaders refused to sign their agreement in front of a Canadian flag
because Gilles Duceppe, a Quebec sovereigntist, objected.

In fact, there were at least two flags present at Monday's signing
ceremony, as well as a painting of the Fathers of Confederation.

Broadbent said Harper is conducting a "shameful operation" by trying
to turn certain defeat in the House of Commons into a national unity
crisis.

"I'm concerned I have a prime minister who lies to the people of
Canada and knows it," Broadbent said. "It's one thing to exaggerate.
It's another to deliberately tell falsehoods."

The former NDP leader also accused Harper of lying about the details
of the proposed coalition, including his charge that the Bloc Québécois
is a formal partner and that six Bloc MPs would be offered Senate
positions under the coalition government.

The Bloc has said it will support the Liberal-NDP coalition for 18
months in the House of Commons, but none of its members will sit in a
cabinet led by Stéphane Dion as prime minister and a Liberal as finance
minister.

"They make it up," he said of Harper's Conservatives, who have been quick to label the proposal a "separatist coalition."

"They lie. They pay people to destroy things."

He said Harper was betraying the honourable legacy of past party
leaders by continuing to delay a confidence vote in the House of
Commons. The prime minister pushed back the confidence motion brought
by the opposition parties until next Monday and could delay a vote
indefinitely by proroguing Parliament.

"I had, my predecessors had a sense of integrity. Bob Stanfield, a
Conservative, Joe Clark, a Conservative, had a sense of integrity,"
Broadbent said.

"They would have done the proper thing. If we lost the confidence, then we would accept that and have to resign."

Write a letter to the editor in support of the opposition forming a coalition government

This was sent to me today from the NDP. I used it to quickly write a letter to the editors of 3 major newspapers in support of the coalition government formed by the opposition parties. You can too!

Are
you tired of seeing Tory complaints about a coalition being
undemocratic in all the papers, on all the radio shows?? Its because
their website allows their activists to post letters to the editors,
and radio shows through their website...

Lets use it against
them!! Use the below link to write with your SUPPORT of an NDP-Liberal
coalition. Lets use their own website to flood the waves with the
truth!!!

https://mycampaign.conservative.ca/EN/4936/77257

A summary of what led to the formation of the Coalition Government

TheStar.com | Opinion | Harper to blame for political crisis

Update to this article: Most of you know now that the details have been hammered out, and that Stephane Dion will be the leader of the new coalition.

The Choice of Dion for Leader of the Coalition Government

Some may say that choosing Dion to lead the coalition is a bad idea.

I'll admit that I don't think much of Dion's leadership skills considering how he did with the Liberals in the past as their leader, and leading up to the election. But, this coalition government will be altogether different. I think the fact that the Liberals and NDP, and the Bloc for that matter, will have to work closely together to make things work (and they have agreed to do this now) will change things for Dion in such a way that he will be taking more direction from the new cabinet and less from close personal advisers.

Also, for the Liberals to chose Dion to lead the coalition instead of one of the 3 leadership candidates is probably a smart move. Think about it. What if the coalition fails? If so, then the failure will seem connected more to Dion and less to the 3 leadership candidates in the Liberal party. Dion is on his way out as leader and has nothing to lose here. And, if the coalitions works, then this looks good on all involved in the coalition.

Dion will lead the Liberal-NDP coalition.

Dion tapped to lead Liberal-NDP coalition

Liberal caucus members agreed unanimously on Monday that Stéphane Dion
will stay on to lead a Liberal-NDP coalition, following reports that
the two parties reached a tentative agreement to replace the minority
Conservative government.

Layton to the Conservative party: "Good riddance to you!"

Winnipeg Free Press

Layton ridiculed the Conservatives over the issue Sunday night at an Ontario NDP event in Toronto.

"It's entirely possible the Conservative party is recording what I'm saying here right now," Layton told the partisan audience. "Here's what I have to say to the Conservative party tuned in: 'good riddance to you!' "

Coalition Deal Reached!

NDP, Liberal party reach deal to topple minority Tory government

As reported in the CBC News a few minutes ago, The Liberals, NDP and the Bloc have reached an agreement on the coalition. The NDP would get 25% of the seats in the new cabinet. The Bloc would not be in the coalition, but will support it. The coalition government would be for 2.5 years.

As they said - more to come.

Tories force the oppositions parties into starting to talk about a coalition

globeandmail.com: Confidence vote: Opposition parties say they will vote no

If the Liberals can come to terms with things within their party, they could form a coalition government with the NDP and Bloc, and thus, Canada would be governed by a majority government, an actual majority. Lets hope.

Canada - the new Hillbilly Nation

An interesting look at the recent polls on Far and Wide.

I agree pretty much with the analysis here and with most of the commenters - but especially with this commenter, Dana:

This just confirms for me something that I've been thinking since the morning after the election.

Canadians are dumb as dirt and the electorate of Canada has been shown to be just as gullible, just as uninformed/misinformed, just as prone to electoral blunders as our southern cousins were between the years of 2000 and roughly 2006.

Any superior finger pointing and supercilious honking should now be coming from south of the border.

Canada is now the backward hillbilly nation in english speaking North America.

Liberals - up to their same old tricks

stageleft:. life on the left side : BREAKING NEWS !!

Like I said, I'll believe it when I see it. And here they are back to their same old trick of disagreeing with the Conservatives, but not voting against them.

Canadian Media Bias - definitely leaning Right.

Far and Wide: The Conservative-Centric Media

A further point for my NDP friends, how is that Layton runs a flawless campaign, and yet the coverage wanes to almost meaningless mention?

As I've mentioned before in other posts (relative posts here, here and here), the mainstream media sways a lot of people in each election and between elections. Imagine what would happen if the media gave each party equal and fair reporting? I bet we would begin to see results at the polls that would start to show how people would vote if we had proportional representation.

Unfortunately, it seems that our progress toward true democratic proportional representation will depend significantly on the say so of the mainstream media. And they like the status quo.

Something's gotta give. Most older people still read actual papers. A lot of young people get their news on-line. But more older people vote and less young people vote. So, progress is very slow.

We need a revolution in the press.

Liberals to be a "responsible" opposition? A likely story - not

globeandmail.com: Liberals will be ‘responsible' in opposition: Dion

Considering the Liberal record of hand-sitting through 43 votes in the last couple of years, it will be a big step for them to be responsible again.

"Mr. Dion said his MPs are upbeat about the role they will play in the
next sitting of Parliament, and have learned some important lessons
from the last two years in opposition."
This remains to be seen if they have "learned some important lessons from the last two years in opposition".

From what I have read, Harper intends on running the same kind of show - making everything a confidence motion - again. So, if the Liberals are responsible and vote against legislation that would be bad for Canada, we will have another election very soon. (Harper, of course, will try to lay the blame on the opposition, but, I think Canadians will see through his little game of trying to force elections instead of trying to make things work.) Then, maybe people will see how irresponsible the Harper government is and kick them out.

Here's to hoping that the Liberals get it together, but I'm not holding my breath.

More about the MSM's role in the election.

Canadian Dimension Blog / Canadian media reveals true colours this election

MainStreamMedia list of endorsements - mainly Tory.

Fagstein » Tories win again in newspaper endorsements

Most newspapers in the Canwest, Sun and Gesca chains backed the Tories,
as did the Globe and Mail. The two main dissenters were the Toronto
Star, which continued to support the Liberals, and Le Devoir, which
steadfastly stood behind the Bloc Québécois.


Clearly, the MSM does not proportionally represent the views of the people of Canada. But, the MSM views are not just in their endorsement articles, but in the perspective and the way they write stories every day about the different political parties, leaders and members. If they don't like a party, they talk about them in a negative way - sometimes subtly with their choice of words. And, this is what affects many of the readers. How else do you explain why so many people voted Conservative, when, if you ask them to weigh in on the issues, will find that they do NOT support the Conservative stance on the issues.

Sue the MSM?

FRESH MEAT: The government we deserve?

Maybe we should begin a class-action suit against the major news media companies for misleading the public.

A better American vote selection quiz

Glassbooth - Quiz to help you choose best 2008 presidential candidate

This one includes other presidential candidates besides McCain and Obama.

Vote in the American election

Vote in the UIf the world could vote?

Post Election Analysis Pt. 2 - Proportional Representation

Proportional Representation This will hardly be mentioned with the current distribution of seats/power. First Past The Post still puts most of the power in the hands of the 2 main parties and the Bloc. So, they won't be interested in fairly distributing seats anytime soon. Here are comparisons of FPTP vs Proportional for 2006 and 2008 of how the seats would be distributed:

Post Election Analysis

Observations

Less people voted in 2008 than in 2006 (over 1 million less people).

The majority of these people who did not vote this time were Liberals. See for yourself:

2008

Voter turnout: 13,832,972 of 23,401,064 registered voters (59.1%)

Bloc - 50 seats - 16.2% of seats - 1,379,565 votes - 10%

Conservative - 143 seats - 46.4% of seats - 5,205,334 votes - 37.6%

Green - 0 seats - 0% of seats - 940,474 votes - 6.8%

Liberal - 76 seats - 24.7% of seats - 3,629,990 votes - 26.2%

NDP - 37 seats - 12% of seats - 2,517,075 votes - 18.2%

Independent - 2 seats - 0.7% of seats - 89,524 votes - 0.7%

2006

Voter turnout: 14,908,703 of 23,054,615 registered voters (64.7%)

Bloc - 51 seats - 16.6% of seats - 1,553,201 votes - 10.5%

Conservative - 124 seats - 40.3% of seats - 5,374,071 votes - 36.3%

Green - 0 seats - 0% of seats - 664,068 votes - 4.5%

Liberal - 103 seats - 33.4% of seats - 4,479,415 votes - 30.2%

NDP - 29 seats - 9.4% of seats - 2,589,597 votes - 17.5%

Independent - 1 seat - 0.3% of seats - 76,696 votes - 0.5%

My predictions vs the election results

Prediction - Election

CPC - 115 - 143

Lib - 86 - 78

NDP - 51 - 37

Bloc - 53 - 48

Green - 0 - 0

Ind - 2 - 2

Analysis

Regarding my predictions ...

Regarding the NDP - There were 14 close races I gave to the NDP due to their upward trend in the polls. But, this trend was soft and only yielded a small percentage gain. So, most of these seats went to the other main contestant - in most cases, this was a Conservative candidate.

Regarding the Conservatives. See above.
Also, I, and many others overestimated how the Liberals would do.
If you only look at the seats won or lost, you would think that there were a lot of people who switched their voting preference from the Liberals to the Conservatives.

However, when you look at raw numbers of voters and the turnouts and compare 2006 to 2008, you see that less people voted for each of the major parties. And, whereas for these parties, there was a slight drop in voter turnout, for the Liberals, there was a significant drop of almost 850,000 voters.

Why such a big drop in voter turnout? IMHO voters were disillusioned with parliament, with the leaders, with what they offered, and, most of all, with the performance and lack of leadership (Dion) the Liberals offered. So, Liberals, especially soft Liberals, became un-decided and decided not to vote.

I would say that the Liberals abstaining or being absent from so many votes in Parliament (and not standing up for what they were elected to do), and Dion's lack of leadership resulted in a lot of people becoming exacerbated in the whole political process.

So, the Conservatives end up with more seats. The NDP end up with more seats. The Bloc stay about the same. The Greens pick up no seats since their support is still too low and is not focused enough in any ridings. And 2 very strong independents get in.

New Parliament

What will happen? Much of the same?

If the Liberals intend to gain back the trust of supporters, they will have to get a new leader and start to stand up against the Conservatives in parliament (in other words, return to being an official opposition party). If they don't, they will lose all credibility and really bomb in the next election.

The Conservatives will continue to push their agenda, but it all depends on the Liberals. If they decide to get a new strong leader and be an opposition party, then the Conservatives will either end up forcing another election soon, or, they will tone things down and try to get what they can done in parliament.

The NDP will continue to stand up for their ideals, try to get what they can done for Canadians, and oppose the Conservatives when they disagree with them.

The Bloc will continue to be the Bloc - generally agreeable on things with the NDP and the Liberals, but siding with the Conservatives when it comes to getting things for Quebec (which includes more decentralization of power/transferring power to the provinces).

The Green Party saw a gain of 2.3% in popular vote. They will continue to work at becoming a viable alternative party.

Newfoundland, Toronto and Montreal now all have one thing in common - no Conservatives! You can bet that these places will get nothing from the new government.

Edmonton-Strathcona

With a non-Conservative (NDP - Linda Duncan) winning a seat in Alberta, could this be the beginning of an erosion of the Conservative power in that province?

What Canadians Can Look Forward Too

- More Conservative scandals
- More war - Continued killing of civilians in Afghanistan for American oil interests, costing us billions more in tax dollars, and hundreds more Canadian soldiers' lives
- Health and social services reduced and thus costing you more money overall
- More attempts to criminalize women, and outlaw gays
- No new childcare spaces, no new affordable housing, and no help for the poor
- No support for natives
- Increased deregulation of all sorts of things, resulting in a reduction of the safety of our health and our finances
- More attempts to turn our healthcare system into an American style one (where only the rich can afford healthcare, and more and more go bankrupt and are driven into poverty)
- Increased pollution, and embarrassment on the world stage as the Conservatives continue to block progress to reduce pollution
- A further increase of our national debt and increases in the yearly deficit as the Conservatives continue to give our money away to big corporations in the forms of tax breaks
- Increased unemployment as the Conservatives do nothing in our relations to the USA, other countries and big corporations.
- A crumbling infrastructure due to lack of federal funding (because of the Conservatives giving away our money to the big corporations)
- Continued biased news reporting that hides the truth due to the fact that the Main Stream Media, the major media companies, ARE big corporations who stand to gain much money from the Harper government.
- There's lots more bad things I could list here. Feel free to add them on in comments.

The good thing that might come of all this may be that Canadians finally begin to see what a mistake they have made in electing a Harper government (albeit a minority one) twice in a row and turf the bums out next election. Look what happened to the Conservatives after 2 terms of the Mulroney government - and he was popular, with majority governments.