The Gingrich who stole South Carolina

Now I don't actually want to sound mean, but I just couldn't resist. Well so far we have three candidates who won a state. Rick Santorum after some recounts in Iowa, Romney with his neighboring state New Hampshire and now Gingrich after getting endorsed by Rick Perry wins South Carolina. One Candidate in the whole race has yet to grab a state so far. That candidate is Ron Paul now he hasn't done terrible in the race he got a close third in Iowa a second place showing In New Hampshire and a fourth place showing in South Carolina. Ron Paul's window of opportunity is closing . If Paul doesn't win a state soon he will get out of the spotlight very very fast. So far any one of these four could be the nominee mathematically, but the front runner I think is still Mitt Romney.Although the showing in South Carolina does mean Romney can't play i'm inevitably going to be the nominee any more. Florida is going to be brutal.

By the way on I predicate a while ago that three out of the six candidates that were in the race after Iowa would drop by the latest Feb 4th out so far:

1.Jon Huntsman

2.Rick Perry

Number three won't be Paul, because if 2008 is any prediction he will stay till every state votes even after the nominee is has secured the needed amount of delegates, and considering Romney is the front runner he will stay even with a bad showing in Florida.

I still stand by this prediction my guess is that Rick Santorum will drop out after Nevada results come in.

Legalizing Drugs! Liberals are Here!

Mexico is going to try and convince Canada and the U.S to rethink the war on drug policy. This is a few decades over due. The war on drugs in the U.S have costed billions of dollars, and has helped result in the fact that America has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. Harper who created minimum sentences that have proved only to increase crime in the U.S.

Prime Minister who has stiffened drug laws at home, imposing mandatory minimum sentences for the possession of six marijuana plants, for example. 

Mexico is the extreme example of the war on drug policy going bad. With drug cartels still practically controlling parts of Mexico, and even though the U.S has provided 1 billion to Latin America to deal with it the problem continues. Obama and Harper are coming very reluctant to do anything. Only if us Liberals were in charge would maybe something get done.

The Liberal party of Canada has endorsed in 2012 the full legalization of Marijuana. It seems Mexico will be the first country to endorse this plan. And since Obama and Romney are both against legalization that gives Canada time till 2015 to be second in the three country relationship to join the "smart on crime" plan.

 Mr. Perez wrote in a recent op-ed in the Observer newspaper: “We have to find new solutions to Latin America’s drugs nightmare. Drug consumption is a public-health issue that, awkwardly, has been transformed into a criminal-justice problem.”

 Guatemala now has one of the highest homicide rates in the world: 60 per cent of its territory is in the control of drug cartels. In Mexico, 50,000 people have been killed since President Felipe Calderon began a military offensive against the organized criminal groups in charge of the drug trade in 2006. 

Read more here

What I Learned In One Day

As a politcal junkie conventions are one of the most exiciting events I can go to. This convention so far is no exception. At the convention is one of the only places in the world where you can tap someone's sholder and say "hey Ima Liberal" and actually have a real conversation with them. This is something not all Liberals in Canada have an opprotunity to do. We need and will get all 308 ridings to start engaging their members into the party and to discuss policy at the local level. On A worser side. Going to this convention I started off with an idea that was contrary to what Liberals must to in the Convention. I was decideing not to support a candidate (Zack Paikin) Because of his more Conservative leaning on certain issue's I can't speak for Owner and Doggy of course. But I felt that the point a fellow blogger Volkov made was very sensible. Which was that the national policy chair is only responsible for oversieng the policy development process, and his own political ideology has nothing to do with it. I felt that I was coming into the Convention maybe diving rather then unitying. But I learned quickly that I shouldn't not vote for Paikin just because of his views which have nothing to do for the job he is running for. Today I will vote for the excutive position, and for the national policy chair Zack is defintly a possibility. I haven't made my mind up. On the brighter side I have meet so many passionet Liberals, and meet Stephane Dion, Paul Martin, Bob Rae and Irwin Cotler and that was just today. One thing is sure which is that this party is not only UNITED, but we are nowhere near DEAD!

Harper: Let's Give It To The Provinces

A new report shows exactly want Harper is intending to do with the Health care plan he has for Canada. This report came from a watch dog group that showed that the Harper's plan for health care will only help Ottawa.

Parliament's budget watchdog says the new health-care funding formula will slowly reduce Ottawa's support for medicare, but it will also put the federal government on a solid fiscal footing for the future.

 The trouble is the provinces will have to shoulder a growing health-care burden over the long run and they can't afford to do that without cutting spending elsewhere or raising taxes.

That means Ottawa's share of provincial health-care funding will fall to an average of about 18.6 per cent for the coming two decades from about 20.4 per cent today. It will continue to slide significantly after 2035 if the policy persists.

Harper's plan will only help Ottawa cut spending, and might help create long term fiscal improvements, but at the extend of forcing the provinces to take all the burden. Harper wants Ottawa to be the one that doesn't increase any taxes, and wants the provinces to look like they are the one's increasing the taxes and cutting spending. This plan is dangerous, and if used for to long will allow people on the right to say that universal health care is unaffordable. The truth is this plan makes health care unaffordable, by doing nothing to try and slow the rate of demand for health care. This won't require a huge overhaul, and can be very budget friendly.

First invest in prevention. in the U.S one third of Medicare spending can be saved if the U.S invest in prevention techniques that will stop people from becoming obese, having lung cancer etc.... Two tax fast food chains and soda pop. Use that money to pay for the prevention spending and also for the third part of the plan which is to modernizing hospital equipment.

These are only some of the policies that could be enacted to save money and improve health care. We don't need to force the provinces into bankruptcy just to save money on the federal end. We can reduce the increase from 6%, but only and only if we do the policy above which will help reduce the need for enormous amount of Health care spending.

The Romney Plan

 One of the strongest political maneuvers is to draw a picture to the electorate that one candidate is going to be the inevitable winner. In the U.S this practice is used much more in the primaries, because after the first few states have their say the media and the candidates all of a sudden claim that their is no way the candidates who haven't won a state could possibly win. Even though this is mathematically impossible. Iowa and New Hampshire alone have only 37 delegates which are divided by the candidate.There is over 2200 delegates in total, but the media and the front runners like to draw different conclusions from each state, and it seems like the candidates may be on track to follow suit. Even though Bachman is the only that left. The big elimination of candidates usually start before major primary days that involve a lot of delegates. Right now there isn't a day like that till March, but I don't expect at all that all the candidates will stay till then. I predict that by February 4th at least 3 out of the six will have left the race.Romney will hope to continue this strategy by trying as hard as possible like Harper did in 2011 not to rock the boat and just walk calmly to the nomination.


P.S in a completely unrelated topic 

I like many Liberals all throughout Canada will be in Ottawa at the biannual convention. I will be posting  for the blog while I  am in Ottawa about the votes the candidates and just how incredible the whole experience is. This will be my first convention Doggy and Owner and I will be attending. I hope to see many Liberals there.