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The Official TOTA Elections thread
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| EvilTree |
Instead of cluttering up the forum, let's try to keep all election related news and debate in this thread. :)
And for this morning, we have stupidity from Comrade Jack Layton, fuhrer of NDP.
http://www.herald.ns.ca/Search/470154.html
| quote: | Halt troop deployment to Afghanistan Layton
NDP promises to try and hike home care cash
By MURRAY BREWSTER The Canadian Press
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — On what was supposed to be a day dedicated to seniors issues, Jack Layton trumped his own feel-good $1.5-billion seniors policy by calling for a halt to Canadian troop deployment in war-torn Afghanistan.
The wounding of three special forces soldiers in a battle near Kandahar this week and the more aggressive posture of Canadian troops as they prepare to return to the region en masse highlights a delicate legal point.
There has been no formal public debate — or declaration of war.
As he arrived in St. John’s, N.L., Layton said he doesn’t want the country to drift into a war blindly or secretly.
He called for an immediate halt to Canada’s buildup of troops in southern Afghanistan, and he demanded that Prime Minister Paul Martin define the goals of the mission, which has been in preparation for months.
As well, Layton wants country’s involvement in the war on terror debated in the House of Commons.
Earlier in Dartmouth, Layton promised seniors that the NDP would work to improve their lot.
He said he would negotiate with any future minority government — Liberal or Conservative — to put $1.5 billion into home care and long-term care.
The NDP plan would create a $1-billion annual transfer to the provinces to expand home-care services, which would allow seniors to stay in their own homes while receiving supervised care.
It’s estimated the program would affect 100,000 households.
Layton said he would also phase in a $500-million plan to create as many as 40,000 new long-term care spaces over four years.
Improving home-care services is important because it would free up hospital beds, Layton says.
Opinion polls have repeatedly suggested that health care remains Canadians’ top priority.
In Afghanistan, as many as 2,000 Canadian combat troops are expected to be on the ground by March, as the army joins other NATO countries in a mission to rebuild the southern region, including the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.
Part of the mission will involve forays into the mountainous creases that surround the area to flush out resistance fighters. |
Where was he piping up his objections when Martin and CDS announced the plans to move to Kandahar months ago?
What was he thinking Canadian soldiers were doing in Afghanistan since 2002? Singing kumbaya? |
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| ShadoWolf |
^^^^^
You think that announcement has something to do with this? :rolleyes: |
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| EvilTree |
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/serv...alDecision2006/
Liberal Ploy Tasteless
| quote: |
Friday, December 23, 2005 Posted at 3:35 PM EST
Canadian Press
Calgary — So much for Peace on Earth.
As political leaders began a break from the federal election campaign Friday, the spirit of brotherly love appeared to be decidedly absent.
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper took time out from his last-minute Christmas shopping to lash out at the Liberals over a photograph suggesting his party would work with the separatist Bloc Quebecois.
The photo of Harper and Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe talking quietly was taken during a Holocaust memorial last spring on Parliament Hill.
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The Liberals are using the picture in some of their internal instructions for candidates on the campaign trail.
"I think it's beyond tasteless," said Mr. Harper, noting that Prime Minister Paul Martin and New Democrat Leader Jack Layton attended the same ceremony.
"To imply that Mr. Duceppe and I share some sort of agenda other than opposing the Holocaust is disgraceful."
An internal Liberal website has been distributing material for candidates warning of a Harper-Duceppe coalition and suggesting the two leaders could work together to weaken the federal government.,
Mr. Harper said the material foreshadows how the election campaign will become increasingly nasty when electioneering resumes in early January.
"I think you're just seeing the beginning," said Mr. Harper, who spoke briefly to reporters after buying some presents for his children at a Calgary toy store.
"A corrupt party that doesn't have a record to run on: this is the sort of stuff they're going to do."
Mr. Harper said he would never form a coalition with the Bloc.
"We may co-operate on the odd issue, but even there we're not naive," he said. "We understand that, even when the Bloc agrees with us, their motives are very different."
Liberal spokeswoman Amy Butcher said in an e-mail that the material is not intended for a planned advertising campaign, but is part of a list of issues to help candidates who are knocking on voters' doors. The pieces were prepared by a volunteer and have been available on the internal Liberal websire since last spring.
"They were never at any time prepared in the context of an advertising strategy, it was never our intention to use them in our strategy, nor will they be used in future ad spots," said Butcher.
Mr. Martin has said his party will stress positive campaigning.
On Friday, Mr. Harper refused to pledge that the Tories would stay above negative ads.
"Anything we'll be saying in this campaign will be factual and accurate," he said.
"I won't promise it will all be pretty. But these people want to play a dirty game. I won't say we won't be tough but we will at least be truthful. I certainly won't use a misleading photograph in that kind of manner."
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| EvilTree |
| quote: | How Harper fashioned his lead
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/serv...ER07/TPNational
By BRIAN LAGHI
Saturday, January 7, 2006 Page A1
OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF
It's time for Stephen Harper to cash in.
With slightly more than two weeks to go before election day, the Conservative Leader heads into a pair of election debates Monday and Tuesday buoyed by a new poll that suggests Canadians, including Quebeckers, are listening hard to what he has to sell.
The survey by the Strategic Counsel puts Mr. Harper's party in the lead over the Liberals by two percentage points for the first time in this campaign and indicates he also has a huge lead, even in Quebec, when voters are asked who has the momentum going into the Jan. 23 election.
"This is really interesting that this is occurring right on the eve of the debate," said Allan Gregg, chairman of the Strategic Counsel, which conducted the poll for The Globe and Mail and CTV News.
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"If we are in the midst of change and anything significant happens in the debate -- even if Stephen Harper looks moderate, temperate and prime-ministerial -- you could see things change really fast."
Even in Quebec, the Tories are suddenly an option. Although the party continues to run third in the province after the Bloc Québécois, which is still substantially ahead, and the Liberals, 38 per cent of Quebeckers say the Tories have the most momentum heading into the election.
It's a signal, Mr. Gregg said yesterday, Quebeckers are primed to hear Mr. Harper's message and a good performance in the debates will be critical. "He's there to close the deal."
Conservatives have until now talked in hushed tones about the possibility of forming the next government. Too many remember what happened when Mr. Harper, in a similar leading position in 2004, mused aloud about the possibility of winning a majority.
But 18 months later, Tories are quietly confident that they won't blow it this time, thanks to a series of lessons learned and a newly jelled campaign team to which Mr. Harper has delegated more authority.
"He perhaps had a narrower base of advice last time," said Ken Hughes, a former Progressive Conservative MP from Alberta volunteering for the Tories in a riding south of Calgary.
"But also, they were caught in the vice of no time to prepare and a lot of new people whose relationships weren't as open, experienced and tested."
One of the key changes, said one Ottawa official, is Mr. Harper's willingness to farm out at least some of the workload that he took upon himself in 2004.
Sources say, for example, it was a staff member whose close study of the 2004 Australian election resulted in the importing of certain tactics from Prime Minister John Howard's campaign.
The Australian Prime Minister surprised many by not only winning a fourth mandate, but increasing the number of seats for his party. Patrick Muttart, one of Mr. Harper's chief strategists, studied the victory closely and saw things in it that might apply to the Tories.
The result was the informal participation of Mr. Howard's federal party director, Brian Loughnane, in the Conservative campaign. While not a main player, insiders say Mr. Loughnane speaks regularly to campaign officials about strategy.
The Tories have also leaned on the Australians for help on how to attract swing voters, a group that Mr. Loughnane and Mr. Howard have had some success in winning over in the past.
The Australian example led the Tories to aim tax cuts at targeted groups. A Conservative promise that would give tax breaks to apprentices purchasing tools was lifted directly from Mr. Howard's 2004 election campaign.
Sources also say that a few key changes at the top of the campaign structure have allowed Mr. Harper to cut back his involvement in certain tasks perhaps better left to others.
One of the chief complaints against him in 2004 revolved around his insistence on being his own campaign strategist, press secretary and senior adviser.
That has changed with a beefed-up staff on the road and the addition of a new chief of staff in Ian Brodie.
Mr. Brodie, a political scientist who studied at the University of Calgary, has become a key conduit between the campaign plane and the party war room in Ottawa.
In 2004, Mr. Harper communicated his ideas directly with the Ottawa staff, which colleagues said impaired his ability to concentrate on his most important job: that of campaign messenger.
Unlike his predecessor, Phil Murphy, Mr. Brodie is seen to have more latitude in shaping campaign strategy and somewhat more independence from Mr. Harper.
He is also even-tempered, a trait some say has tended to calm the enthusiasms of an Ottawa operation that, in 2004, delivered an ill-timed missive suggesting Liberal Leader Paul Martin supported child pornography.
"The worst thing is to have the leader as his own tour director, his own director of communications, his own director of research," one source said. "So, I think there's been a refinement of the process."
Mr. Harper has also taken to travelling with a larger retinue that sometimes includes former Progressive Conservatives such as Senator Hugh Segal and Senator Marjory LeBreton.
Insiders say Mr. Harper listens closely to Mr. Segal, a former PC moderate who sources say has played the role of happy warrior, advising the Leader on communications and on projecting a positive image.
Ms. LeBreton, who was an aide to then-prime minister Brian Mulroney, has been credited with being a friendly influence on the media. Her presence also alerts reporters to the fact that the two-year-old party is mostly over its internal growing pains. Ms. LeBreton was a Progressive Conservative and had been a strong foe of the Canadian Alliance-PC merger that created the Conservative Party.
Other key recruits to the campaign include Guy Giorno, a former chief of staff to former Ontario premier Mike Harris.
"These are all adults who have the ability to calm things down," said an insider.
As for his old Calgary colleagues, Mr. Harper still relies on individuals such as his former political science professor at the University of Calgary, Tom Flanagan.
Mr. Flanagan is a member of a small inner circle that is entrusted with crucial information, such as the nightly tracking polls in Ontario and British Columbia.
Others include the party's pollster, Dimitri Pantazopoulos, campaign chair Doug Finley, Mr. Brodie and the party's advertiser, Perry Miele. Other key members of the team include Michael Coates, president of the Hill and Knowlton lobbying firm, and Mark Cameron, who writes many of Mr. Harper's speeches.
Mr. Flanagan was responsible for putting together a postmortem of the 2004 campaign, the results of which have played a key role in two critical decisions this campaign.
The first decision, which appears to have caught the Liberals flat-footed, was to move up Mr. Harper's daily policy announcement from midday in 2004 to first thing in the morning. The move has helped the Tories control the agenda, forcing the Liberals to respond to them rather than the other way around.
The second decision, still to play out, was to avoid getting blown away by a Liberal advertising campaign without a response. In 2004, the Harper team failed to pre-buy prime-time advertising slots for the end of the campaign and could only watch as Liberal advertising ran unopposed.
Insiders say that will not happen this time. If, for example, the Tories take fire over the next week or so, sources say the party has bought ad time in the Greater Toronto Area to capitalize on the situation.
It is a simple matter of doing homework, an insider said. "After the [2004] campaign, the Liberals were more concerned with high-fiving and patting themselves on the back for being political geniuses," the source said.
"We needed to find out what we had to do better." |
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| Jayx1 |
| we should consolidate all future tiesto and armin threads in the spirit of this one :D |
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| Platipus |
I cannot stand attack ads, it's sooooo school yard bully tactics.. Insead of telling us What the other Party is doing, let's actually hear, what your party is gonna do. Not that it will be the same as their promises..
Harper will rip this country in half. I used to vote PC, but harper scares the out of me.. He reminds me of John Ashcroft.. LOOKOUT!!!
and well the NDP, Mr. Social Service Jack Layton. if he had his way, nobody would be working, cause we are all on welfare. I'm sick and tired of hearing that other people need this and that. Tough , i'm tired of that money coming out of my pocket.
the way i see it, we are fux0red either way. Absolute powers Corrupts Absolutely.
no matter who you vote in, somebody's gonna turn out to be a crook, so which would you prefer, a liberal crook or a Conservative crook.
Being a Conniseur of all things herbal, i am voting Liberal. |
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| EvilTree |
| quote: | Tories Surge in Poll
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/serv...alDecision2006/
By CAROLINE ALPHONSO AND BRIAN LAGHI
Monday, January 9, 2006 Posted at 12:52 AM EST
From Monday's Globe and Mail
Toronto and Ottawa — Stephen Harper's Conservatives have opened up an eight-percentage-point advantage over the Liberals, the biggest gap of the campaign going into tonight's crucial debate, a new poll shows.
The survey, conducted for The Globe and Mail and CTV News by the Strategic Counsel, also shows that voters believe the Conservatives hold values that are closest to theirs, a turnaround from the first week of the campaign when Canadians identified more closely with Liberal values.
"This is huge," said Allan Gregg, chairman of the Strategic Counsel. "This really does show ..... that by virtue of the kind of campaign they've run, an issues-based, measured, moderate campaign, they have slowly convinced the population that they are not kind of offside the mainstream of Canada.
"If they can maintain this, they have basically taken the Liberals' trump card away."
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If this result were to hold up, the Tories would end up with a strong minority government, it would appear. The widening gap comes as the four major leaders rev up for the final two-week sprint to the polls that includes the second and final set of televised leaders' debates tonight and tomorrow.
The poll finds that 37 per cent of Canadians would vote for the Conservatives if an election were held today, ahead of the Liberals, who are at 29 per cent. The NDP is supported by 15 per cent of voters, while the Bloc Québécois has the backing of 13 per cent.
Perhaps the only good news for Liberal Leader Paul Martin is that voters now expect him to perform the worst of the three candidates in debates tonight and tomorrow.
With expectations so low, Mr. Martin may not have to do a lot to exceed them, while the greater pressure may be on Mr. Harper, who must avoid stumbling.
The poll of 1,500 demonstrates that Mr. Martin and his Liberals will have to move quickly to try to dent Mr. Harper's credibility.
But even that may be difficult, given the strong policy-heavy campaign the Conservative Leader laid down during the first half of the campaign.
The Liberals are expected to run aggressive advertisements aimed at reminding Canadians about the Conservative Party's previous positions on issues like the notwithstanding clause and the Iraq war. Earlier in the campaign, however, Mr. Harper made an effort to inoculate himself against such attacks by ruling out using the clause to ban gay marriage and rejecting any notion of sending Canadian soldiers to join the U.S. in the Middle Eastern conflict.
Mr. Harper's focus instead on family-friendly issues is winning him support as poll results show that Canadians believe the Conservatives have introduced the most appealing policies and platforms during the campaign.
The poll is not good news for NDP Leader Jack Layton, who now sees his party trailing badly in Ontario. At 14 per cent, the NDP is now four percentage points behind where it was in the 2004 vote, while the Tories and Liberals are virtually tied at 41 per cent and 40 per cent, respectively. The NDP has been concerned about its soft voters rushing to the Liberals if it began to appear that the Tories were winning the election.
The three parties are also running at almost the same support levels in B.C. as they did in the last election, with the Tories at 37 per cent and the NDP and Liberals tied at 26 per cent. Both the Liberals and the NDP have been hoping to make up seats in the province.
Meanwhile, the Tories continue to build on their momentum. In increasing numbers, Canadians are saying the Conservatives have it and the Liberals don't. Nationally, 53 per cent said the Tories had the edge. That compares with 14 per cent who gave the nod to the Liberals.
"Basically everyone is getting mowed over in the Conservative momentum and it's happening virtually everywhere," Mr. Gregg said.
In Quebec, particularly, 47 per cent of voters in that province say the Conservatives have the most momentum heading toward the election, compared to 26 per cent for the Bloc and 12 per cent for the Liberals. Although momentum is not an indicator of voting intent, it does suggest that voters are giving the Tories a second look.
Fully 52 per cent of Quebeckers still support the BQ, but the Tories now trail the Liberals by only two percentage points, 21-19, in the horse race for votes. That suggests that federalist voters are beginning to trickle Mr. Harper's way.
Mr. Gregg said the coming debates are important as voters focus on Mr. Martin and how he will stop his slide. "That's his whole campaign," he said. "Why he's losing now, as opposed to what he's talking about."
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| swilly |
Political animal can't hide neo-con spots, Linda McQuaig argues
Jan. 8, 2006. 01:00 AM
In January 2001, Stephen Harper and five others published an open letter in the National Post urging Alberta to beef up its fight with Ottawa by building a "firewall" around itself and take greater control over its own affairs.
Complaining that tax revenues from Alberta were subsidizing other Canadians, the "firewall letter" sounded downright hostile to the rest of the country.
Its attitude is typical of a group of right wingers, centred around U.S-born academic Tom Flanagan of the University of Calgary. This "Calgary school," with which Harper is very closely allied, peddles a Canadian version of Paul Wolfowitz-style neo-conservatism, and it likes the idea of using oil-rich Alberta as a right-wing battering ram against the more socially democratic vision of Canada that prevails in much of the rest of the country.
Certainly, the authors of the "firewall letter" don't sound much concerned about fostering national unity — presumably something we'd expect in a prime minister.
If the "firewall letter" had been published during this campaign, Harper would almost certainly be heading for a crushing defeat, instead of perhaps poised to become prime minister.
I bet most Canadians don't know about the letter, or have forgotten what's in it. After all, people don't have time to go looking up what Harper wrote years ago.
The media have time, but little interest. Instead, the media treat the campaign as a horse race, fixating on polls, offering voters little more than their own reflection in the mirror.
So, despite the "firewall letter," the Conservative campaign has largely gotten away with spinning Harper as a strong defender of Canada and Canadian sovereignty — and independent of Washington.
Carefully out of sight is Harper's attack on Ottawa two years ago for not joining the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Harper even stirred the waters of anti-Canadian feeling south of the border by denouncing Ottawa's decision in an interview with U.S. TV channel Fox News, and also in The Wall Street Journal.
No wonder Harper was recently lauded in the Washington Times as "pro-Iraq war, anti-Kyoto, and socially conservative ... the most pro-American leader in the western world."
Also gone from sight is Harper's suggestion three years ago that Canada was becoming a "second-tier socialistic country." Now, according to Harper, this is a "great country."
Is Harper showing a willingness to compromise?
Not likely.
As fellow right-wing Albertan Ted Byfield once noted in an interview with the Walrus magazine: "I don't think (Harper) knows how to compromise. It's not in his genes. The issue now is: How do we fool the world into thinking we're moving left when we're not?"
No problem.
With a co-operative media, Harper has managed to render largely invisible his links to a cabal of right wingers determined to transform Canada in the way their American counterparts transformed the U.S. — despite widespread Canadian revulsion for George W. Bush's America.
But, enough of that. Back at the horse race; it's neck and neck ... |
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| StereoPrincess |
| oh oh oh debate. |
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| Matt |
| I am sorry, is this a TA thread, or CPC pamphlet? |
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| EvilTree |
| Feel free to post any relevant articles pertaining to the elections. |
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| Orko |
| quote: | B.C. Tory candidate dumped over smuggling charges
Last Updated Thu, 12 Jan 2006 11:27:00 EST
CBC News
The federal Tories are dumping a B.C. candidate who faces charges of attempting to smuggle a car and booze across the Canada-U.S. border.
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper said on Thursday that it's too late to replace Derek Zeisman as a candidate, but that he wouldn't be allowed to join the caucus.
Derek Zeisman (courtesy derekzeisman.com)
"Mr. Zeisman will not be sitting as a Conservative should he be elected," Harper said. "He'll have to get this matter resolved."
Zeisman is running to replace retiring Conservative MP Jim Gouk in the riding of British Columbia Southern Interior. The party only found out about the six charges on Wednesday after it was contacted by the media.
Canada Customs and Revenue Agency alleges Zeisman tried to smuggle a 1989 Mercedes-Benz as well as 112 bottles of liquor in July 2004 from the U.S. into Canada. He's also accused of lying to customs officers about the incident.
If convicted, Zeisman could be fined up to $50,000 and face six months in jail.
Zeisman, who is to appear in court next month, did not tell his party about the charges, which he called "unjustified." He said the information was leaked by someone in the government who had a grudge against him.
Harper said he should have told the party about the charges.
The Tory candidate has worked as a trade commissioner for Industry Canada and a foreign service officer with the Canadian diplomatic corps.
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, Thursday.
Zeisman has other problems. He's currently in hospital because of a serious car accident just before Christmas.
An NDP candidate running against Zeisman says he couldn't believe the news.
"Shock and surprise. That was my first reaction," says Alex Atamanenko.
Atamanenko says he's alarmed voters were unaware of such a serious allegation about a candidate, less than two weeks before the Jan. 23 election. But he also says it would have been far worse had Zeisman won the seat, and the news came out later. |
How's that for stupidity?
Links to more papers |
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