Ignatieff is on the Rise

As the campaign moves on, it's evident that Stephen Harper has a problem. His method of command and control has worked before; making sure he gets into no trouble. But, Michael Ignatieff does not choose to abide by these rules. The Liberals are running an open campaign where leaders and candidates take unscripted questions from the public and from the media.

Ignatieff is gaining more and more popularity and so is the Liberal Party. Going around and actually meeting and listening to Canadians allows the public to see Ignatieff like he is, not what the Conservative attack ads portray him. Of course, this does not mean that the Liberals won't have problems later on in the campaign, but if they keep this up, the Tories will have to watch their backs.

Stephen Harper looks like a man afraid to lose. And Michael Ignatieff looks like that most dangerous of opponents: a man with nothing to lose at all. 

Of all the federal leaders, it was Mr. Harper who came into this strange and sudden spring election campaign from a position of strength. Leading in the polls, with the benefit of experience and a well-oiled party machine behind him, he was supposed to steamroll right over Michael Ignatieff.

Read more at the Globe and Mail.

One Million in Four Days

That's what the Liberal Party has gathered from donations made in the first four days of the campaign. This is really unbelievable. It seems like the ads across the country are working. It also seems like the Liberals do have money and a lot of it. To sum up the first week of the campaign, I would have to say that Michael Ignatieff got off to a good start and obviously this shows in the amount of donations. However, this must continue if the Liberals want to even have a chance of winning. The choice in this election is clear: to vote for the Liberals. They just need to communicate the message like they're doing now.

The Open Party and the Transparent Platform

The Liberal Party is continuing to embrace transparency and responsibility in government and the way the platform is going to be presented is a first. On Sunday, April 3, Michael Ignatieff will launch the Liberal Platform and answer unscripted questions in a national town hall. You can submit your questions here.

I was at the Liberal town hall in Montreal. It was really amazing watching Michael Ignatieff answering hard, tough questions on the fly. This really contrasts to the five questions per day Harper is accepting. He wants to minimize the chances of damages to his campaign. He even erected a fence to keep journalists away!

These two very different approaches to the campaign signify two very different parties. If you vote Conservative, you will get a secretive government that launches smear attacks against its opponents, even if they do not belong to a political party. If you vote Liberal, you get an open, transparent government, ready to provide information in an easy-to-access format to all Canadians. I think the choice is clear.

Donald Trump a "birther"

It is sometimes very sad to see someone who is so well connected and so wealthy that he could probably afford to do a full back round check to see if Obama was really born in the U.S unfortunately he said that he doesn't know and really questions wether Obama was really born in the U.S. I hope that this doesn't become the issue of the 2012 campaign there are so many more important issue's. We need to talk about the deficit and the taxes that must rise to eliminate it. It is a shame to see the great democracy of the U.S talk about something so silly and so untrue. I hope Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination so Obama will have an easy candidate to beat. The fact is a poll before these comments had Trump just a few points below Obama. This may just prove how the Tea Party is pushing all right wing candidates more to the right that it will be very hard for a Republican to get elected. You can say the Right is pushing themselves so far to the right no one wants to vote for them. While Obama is moving to the center. Obama could have a very easy win, but I am making no predictions just yet, because no major candidate is saying if he or she is going to run. So far the republican maybe circle is so large that candidates are going to have to push themselves to one part of the party and hold on to it till the other candidates leave the race. The good thing about this is that most of them are trying to hold on to the Tea party vote which means the candidates are pushing themselves to the extreme to win there parties nominations. By doing that they will alienate the center and give Obama another 4 years.

Strategic Voting!

I think Harper must be eliminated and the only way we truly can do that is voting Liberal nationally, but we shouldn't kid ourselves. It is true voting the Liberal is the best thing we can do to replace Harper, but in some riding's it the best thing we can do for the Liberal party is to vote for the NDP or the Greens. Now in most riding's across the country we should vote for Ignatieff, but in just a handful of riding's we should vote for the other parties. In Saanich—Gulf Islands according to 308.com The Green party is just 7% behind the conservative candidate, voting Liberal there would help Gary Lunn get reelected and give Harper another minority. In this riding we must in order to create a Liberal government vote Green to eliminate the Conservative party candidate. If you do the math having one more progressive MP and 1 less conservative MP will help the Liberals have a government as Harper has fewer seats, but just taking off Conservative candidate's in a few riding's across the country will not do it. We need to make a concerted effort to vote Liberal even in NDP riding's like Outremont, because if you do the math again the having one more Liberal and one less NDP does more to eliminate Harper then voting for the NDP. Because voting NDP and electing an NDP will just let Harper stay having a Liberal instead helps Ignatieff get elected and by doing that replacing Harper. We must vote to eliminate Harper, and the only way to do that is to vote Liberal across the country. Like in Brampton Ontario the Liberal just beat the Conservative in the last election. If we split the vote there we will get another Conservative. If the NDP voters and Green voters vote for the Liberals they will stop Harper and help replace him. In Helena Guergis seat because now they are splitting the right wing vote if the NDP and the Greens in that riding vote Liberal we can get that seat away from the conservatives or people who vote with the conservative. Make no mistake the only party that can replace Harper is the Liberals, but a seat that we should keep NDP is Linda Duncan seat in Alberta Liberals in order to stop Harper should help her get elected. We must strategically vote, but this only proves that we must put in place BC-STV or IRV systems so we don't have to vote for one candidate in the fear that Harper will get elected. IRV and BC-STV let's us vote are heart's instead of voting are fears.