PQ in Hot Water!

With another PQ MP leaving the party Pauline Marois and what is left of the PQ is in hot water. Not to mention that the CAQ is now coming with what some might suspect as a knight in shining armor. Nevertheless the CAQ is just a right wing party that seems to very much mimic the ADQ in many respects. With new poll shows that the CAQ would get 33% of the vote compared to the PLQ which would get 27%. The sovereignty party of Marois is at 19% (that's even worse than the Bloc Quebecois in May). The ADQ of course losses much of it's right wing support to the CAQ so it's left with a meager 6% and in a tie with the Crazy Quebec Solidaire. Interesting enough the person who was in charge during the collapse of 2011 in May is the person many Quebecois want. Gilles Duceppe although doesn't seem interested. It seems my Belle province is in a moment very similar to the Republican primaries south of the border. They are in a moment of not knowing what they want just yet and giving strangely enormous amount of support to any new comer in the race. Pauline Marois party is in for a bumpy ride, because her support is the most vulnerable to the CAQ. The Liberal support no matter what seems to be stuck at the high 20's. The reason the PLQ supporters aren't seperatist so they won't vote PQ, Quebec Solidaire or Option National and They aren't right wing so the ADQ and CAQ for many of them is out of the question. They seem stuck. The PQ has the most to lose from the CAQ, and if more MNA leave the PQ there might just be enough Independents in the National Assembly to be given officail party status.

Read more Here

What Super Committee?

It seems the so called committee that was going to save the U.S deficit crisis (yeah right) ended up doing nothing. And those so called triggers that would have come into effect in order to force politicians to work together was a big joke apparently, because since most automatic spending cuts are going to take place in 2013 the politicians can actually change the law to make the spending cuts zero. So no Harm no fowl right! Wrong the Super committee should have at least cut by 1.2 trillion over two years, and quite frankly that's nothing. They need to cut the deficit by 10 trillion over the next ten years to balance the budget. That means ten times the amount the super committee can't even accomplish. This is going to be very interesting how we go from here.

Dewar Ideology Lets Have Everything!

"The orange wave stopped in Manitoba," (Dewar) 

Yes it's true, but only in the sense that the west of the country didn't fly straight into the NDP like Quebec.  But there are to many things wrong with Dewar's plan for a western strategy to get seats The NDP can't have it both ways. They can't dominate Quebec and also the west. It's very hard and has barely ever been done in Canada. The most recent exception is Brian Mulroney. I do think that the NDP can grab the province of Saskatchewan , BC and Manitoba (in extreme circumstances), but this will come at the expense of Quebec and even Toronto. How can the NDP try and get the right wing Prairie province and still try and dominate the left wing Quebec province. Quebec won't like the NDP flirting with the West. The exact place were many people feel they give to much money to subsidies Quebec programs. So The NDP I think are going to play on sharp glass if they want to get the  majority  west to vote for them. True they might garb a lot of seats in the West, but lose almost every single riding in Rural Quebec to the Bloc, a bunch in Toronto to the Liberals and some in Montreal to the Bloc and Liberals if they try to push hard for western gains. The best chance (even though very unlikely I think) the NDP can get government is if they try to get some selective seats in the west and really push to dominate the province of  Ontario.But quite frankly I don't see that happening.The NDP have a bad history in Ontario and I don't see it get any better .The NDP even with the May election just barely got more votes than the Liberals in Ontario. Dewar's plan is as good  idea as a man on a unicycle trying to balance on a tight rope. It will be interesting where the new NDP leader tries to get votes, and how Quebec will react.

Read more here

Let Quebec Pay

The federal government is not only going to destroy the long gun registry, but is going to destroy all the data too. However, Quebec wants to keep the registry and maintain it on its own. They are willing to foot the bill as long as it gets the data.

Why not let them? If Quebec is willing to pay to keep the registry, then the Conservatives should let them. Getting rid of the data is just pigheadedness and unwillingness to arrive at a compromise. If Quebec believes, as do I in the benefits of the long gun registry, then we should be able to pay and keep it for ourselves without the federal government behaving like a baby.

The federal government is undermining Quebec’s ability to create its own long-gun registry by refusing to hand over the data that would allow it to do so, the province’s Public Security Minister says. 

Robert Dutil was in Ottawa Thursday in a bid to convince the government not to destroy the data when it passes a bill to end the registry.

Read more at the Globe and Mail. 

Economist: Universal Health Care is Good!

A new report done by top economist warns Canada that it should stay with Universal Health care. It states that although Health Care spedning is growing too fast for revenue's the principal of a public health care system should be kept. Him like me is worried about the future of our Public health care system. By 2030 Health care spending will explode and become between 70%-80% of the budget. In order to avoid this catastrophe the study states reforms that must be done. Including using technology for efficiency, billing rich seniors for their drugs and paying doctors on their quality and cost effectiveness. I say that there is other things we should consider. Like cutting back on administration in the health care system, target obesity so that their is less of a need to use the health care system and Tax junk food and put that money into health care. We don't need to privatize our vital public health care system what we need to do is look for efficiencies. Our Health care system isn't broke and wont be broke if we take the necessary steps to avoid catastrophe.

“A great deal can be done to improve efficiency in the system before privatization is considered,” Mr. Drummond says in the report prepared for the C.D. Howe Institute.

Canada should remain committed to publicly funded health care, and not open the door to two-tier medicine, says a new report by a top economist.

Read more here

High Speed Rail.... Study!

In Canada we are lagging behind when it comes to high speed rail. Europe has high speed rail and they have seen it to be very beneficial to the environment and the economy. High speed rail in Canada is profitable, and it is almost silly that we have to keep talking about it! It should be done and done now! We are one of the only developed countries in the world that doesn't have it. The Liberals support High speed rail, but with Harper Canada is moving backwards.

Thank you again Rick Mercer

Sanction on Syria!

Since the Arab spring has started it is as if a big chunk of the western world all of a sudden got glasses. They realize that these countries that in many cases are being ruled by dictators should have sanctions put on them. Last week the EU joined us here in North America in imposing sanctions on Syria. Very soon the EU nations will have an arms embargo on Syria and will ban Petroleum imports , and ban all investments and loans in the country. Not to mentions the millions of dollars they froze in assets. It seems the western world is listening to the need to stop supporting these dictators from staying in power. Because giving loans to dictators is supporting them. I am glad to see the EU put sanctions on Syria.


Read more here (P.S it is in french so for many readers you may have to translate it on Google translate)

A Win For Democrats.

In just a few days ago a few ballot measures (Referendums as we call them hear) were voted on. In Ohio they voted to repeal the Republican governors plan for unions. In Mississippi they voted against the anti abortion legislation. These two referendums shows that the swing state of Ohio ain't to keen on to much anti union legislation. In one of the most right wing states in the U.S to vote down a anti Abortion ballot measure then that means even right wing states aren't so keen on the Tea party ideology. This just proves that number one there is no way Tea party radicals like Ron Paul and Michele Bachman will win swing states like Ohio. It also proves that some radical ideas like Abortion believes of many of the Republican candidates won't prop more support from the Republicans in the right wing states. True that many Republicans will probably settle for whoever the Republican nominee is then vote for Obama, but when the Independents have to make up their mines a radical tea party nominee isn't going to get their shoes running to the polling stations.

Wow I Was Right!

I stated just a few post's ago that the Conservative would reduce their budget targets. Now This time around Jim Flaherty thinks he has a good case. Saying the economy isn't good and the budget is going to suffer. True, but why didn't you know about this decline before. Economics have been talking about a economic instability since even before the recession. Why then put in your election platform a promise to eliminate the deficit in 2014. Now the conservatives say they will balance it by 2015. Now I would understand this if a bad economy came out of nowhere, but why say in October of this year that the economy is strong when it's by are now Flip flopping Minster bad enough to delay deficit targets. Now I think this will be just the first delay in the Conservative budget target. Soon the cost of the Corporate tax cut, Mega prisons and fighter jets will force our minister to tell us that we must move the deficit target yet again.

By the way I thought our minister would take at least one year to move the deficit target, but I guess that will be the next time our minister tells us we will delay our deficit target.

Read more here

So What Happened In Saskatchewan?

The last of the provincial elections hora is over. It went from a Liberal win in Both PEI, and Ontario. To a NDP victory in Manitoba And two right wing parties winning in NFL and Sask. No incumbent party lost there power. In Sask the right wing party lead by Mr. Wall won a landslide victory! The Liberals well what is there to say about them. I read there platform It gave no specifics! Especially on the spending cuts. The Liberal party got not even a 1%. Last time around they got 9%. By the way the Green party got more votes than us! They ran a full slate and the Liberals didn't. It seems that these elections have taught us a few things.


1. The Orange crush in all provinces is no where to be seen

In Manitoba although winning the election actually lost support. In Ontario the NDP got nowhere where they were polled let alone there federal results in the province. In PEI they got less votes than the Greens at 3%. In NFL although getting 24% of the vote they not only are in 3rd party status to the Liberals, but also didn't reach there federal election results. In Sask they dropped in support even though the Liberals didn't run candidates in most of the province.

2. The Liberals aren't dead

With regaining nearly a majority In Ontario, a majority In PEI, at least one seat in Manitoba and being the official opposition in NFL Shows us that Liberals aren't gone. In Sask the Liberals lost terribly, but it's safe to say that even if the Liberals won a majority government in 2011 there was no way the Liberals would do any better in Sask.

I agree with my Blogger!

My Co-blogger says that the fact that the Liberal party walked out in protest to the Conservatives appointment for the auditor-general was outrageous. I think so, but for different reasons. If  you look at history many people do things that are very similar. When Iran speaks at the UN most of the developed world boycotted his speech. In many Parliament when a radical takes the stand and speaks his speech is boycotted in Parliament. The fact is that boycotting is an effective tool to show displeasure. Except I found that this situation isn't in need for a boycott. It wasn't completely as outrageous as Ahmadinejad dening the holocaust! I think marching out of the parliament should only be used when something completely outrageous is done. The fact that auditor general isn't bilingual is something to maybe disagree with, but not the kind of outrage that deems a complete walk-out of the parliament. On the question whether the Auditor general should speak french I think that it shouldn't matter, but the fact is that the Conservatives cheated there own legally binding rules. That's the problem. So I think if the Conservatives would have changed the rules from the beginning allowing all unilingual people a chance to go for such a job would have made it fair. But I don't think the appointment was a good enough reason to walk out. They should have stayed in the parliament and voted NO!

Walking Out is not Right

The new Auditor-General is not bilingual. Yet, that is one of the conditions of the job of Auditor-General.  No doubt then that the Conservatives are telling the truth when saying that he is the only qualified individual for the job. Out of the people in Canada, there must have been at least one who had all the competences and was bilingual.

Some say that being bilingual doesn't really matter to the job of Auditor-General. Maybe they do not need to be fluently bilingual, but a good knowledge of both languages should be a prerequisite. But, if the Conservatives are going to ignore the condition of being bilingual, then they should full out just say it publicly instead of lying.

I do not agree with the Liberal response to the government. The NDP had the right one. To walk seems like a desperate act to get attention and it does come off as one. If the decision isn't right then the job of the opposition is to show up in Parliament and vote against it, not to abandon its responsibilities as the Liberals did. 

Bob Rae and his Liberal MPs boycotted a Commons vote that approved a unilingual accountant, Michael Ferguson, to serve as Canada’s new Auditor-General. 

While Conservative and NDP MPs stood in the House, the real action was taking place outside the chamber, where an angry Interim Liberal Leader condemned the process as an “abuse” and “illegitimate.”

Read more at the Globe and Mail. 

Quebec Gun registry

If Harper kills the Gun registry then I would fully support a Quebec version of the gun registry. In fact if you calculate it 2 million for all of Canada about a quarter of that if not less would equal $500,000. Which is almost nothing on the provincial budget. The only problem is that our Conservative government will destroy all records to make sure that they make it the hardest possible to try and slow violence. Another problem Quebec will face is guns purchased in Ontario or other provinces. I think Dalton Mcguinty would make a Gun registry for his province, add the NDP premiers of Nova Scotia and Manitoba and probably BC you have practically a nation wide gun registry. With the exception of Saskatchewan and Alberta.  I guess this sort of Primer cooperation  will really put a punch in the Conservatives stomach. But with no old records we have to start the registry from scratch which makes it more expensive, because of start up cost of this program. No help from Harper again! I guess the Harper ideology stays true. Let the provinces deal with it!

Some good Polls

A new poll has the Liberals maybe in not so much good shape, but no where near invisible. The Conservatives are of course leading 37.7% and the NDP in second place at 30% while the Liberals are in 3rd place at 23.4%. If you compare this to the May results we went up 4% the Conservatives went down 2% and the NDP down 1%. In Quebec the New NDP buddy, still likes the NDP at 45% support. Our separatist Bloc friends are in third place at 15%. With these numbers the Bloc would be lucky to get one seat. Us Liberals are placed in second at 18%. Not much to brag about, but it's up. In Ontario the Liberals have been polling at a solid second place finish in Ontario.

Other good news Bob Rae is beating Nycole Turmel for second place on leadership issue's. On the issue of who is the most trustworthy.Harper dipped big time from high 30's to 30% from just a month ago! Turmel is now fighting May on this issue.From almost the moment Turmel became leader her Trustworthiness went from 33% to now 11%. Bob Rae at 16%. Not the best news, but this is the first lead on this issue since 2009.

On the issue of who is the most competent Harper faced a small dip now at 37% from just a month ago. NDP again similarly faced a major crash after Turmel become leader (from mid 20's to 7% by the way May is polling on this issue at 3.9%) Liberal leader Rae is up and at 18%.

On the issue of who is the best vision Harper again leads, but dipped by about 7% from just a month ago. On this issue the NDP faced crash again from 30% when Tyrmel became leader to now 13%.  Rae went up since he became leader and is now at 15%.

These polls are nothing much to brag about, but it's very nice to see that are party isn't dying away like many said we would. In fact if these trends continue the NDP and Conservatives will have to worry.

see the poll here