Our new Prime Minister?

[George A. H. Luck]

"George:

What was the cost of Harper's attempted "power grab" in defiance of his own promise/law of no elections until fall 2009?

I've heard up to $300 million........what a great way to spend our money......3 elections in 4 years!!!

With a minority, he may be ready to do it again within 18 months because he can't see a way to get along with the other parties. His excuse for the election that "parliament wasn't working" was the biggest piece of crap foisted on the Canadian public in years!!! Cost way more than the monies involved in the Liberals Quebec scandal!!"

BOO - HOO - HOO ! Tell us Brian; do you ever get dizzy from all that spinning? You and your Liberal friends lost. Canada won. Simple. Our poor country is emerging from a Liberal ice age into "broad sunlit uplands" ( with thanks to Sir Winston). Embrace the change Brian or it will destroy you along with your dangerously liberal friends.

[George A. H. Luck]

Let's call it as it is.....Harper failed.....plain and simple. He wanted power, misjudged the call, cost us a lot of $$$, doesn't have a majority.....so how does that improve things??? A lot of people are pi$$ed!!!

OK let's call it like it is. Harper knew that the Liberals, when they weren't running around with that silly "green shift" thing would try to pin any economic down turn on the Conservatives despite the fact that it is a world wide problem. The only people who are pissed are you and your liberal friends because they got caught in the act.

[Tyler Knelsen]

Originally Posted by Brian A. MacNeish

I think Dion knew from DAY 1 that his leadership was in danger. It was a bit strange that he was chosen in the first place......sort of unexpected! The Liberals had a track record of a Quebec leader then an English leader but that changed with Dion.

IMO, he knew he could not win an election especially in his early days and would definitely not want to be seen as the cause of a money sucking election that he lost......that was the fastest way to end his leadership which was not that solidly supported!! His hands were tied so he had to vote with the minority government. Harper also had to be careful with not triggering an election by forcing a vote of confidence.....so his legislation was not that radical.

Recently, Harper had little concern with the cost of the premature election and his attempted power grab!! He now becomes a liar for breaking his own promise.......don't trust this man!! Does anyone have the cost of this election yet?? Blame it on him.

Hell, he can't even get along with other conservatives due to his dictatorial ruling tactics..........
("I wasn't asked to leave the caucus. I was ejected," Bill Casey said in response to a question that framed his ouster as a request. "There was no asking about it.") Did you see the majority that longterm PC MP Casey got as an independent in northern NS. (69.01 % of the vote; except for 4 years, this riding has been Conservative since 1968 but now is Independent!!) He probably could of won in NFLD but......Harper had to have HIS way!!

Let's call it as it is.....Harper failed.....plain and simple. He wanted power, misjudged the call, cost us a lot of $$$, doesn't have a majority.....so how does that improve things??? A lot of people are pi$$ed!!!

You sound bitter Brian

[Tyler Knelsen]

Originally Posted by gluck

BOO - HOO - HOO ! Tell us Brian; do you ever get dizzy from all that spinning? You and your Liberal friends lost. Canada won. Simple. Our poor country is emerging from a Liberal ice age into "broad sunlit uplands" ( with thanks to Sir Winston). Embrace the change Brian or it will destroy you along with your dangerously liberal friends.

Well said.

[Brian A. MacNeish]

Originally Posted by tknelsen

You sound bitter Brian

The Cost of the 2008 Election in Canada: 300 Million and Counting




How do you feel about the cost?? For a party that claims to be hell bent on reducing costs? I was mad the week before he called the election. Seems that most people I talked to felt there wasn't a majority in the cards for him ........but he gave what may be his last kick at the can to gain the absolute power he desired.

Some notable quotes from a longtime conservative, now independent(remember he received 69% of the vote in a 5 contestant riding this week) :


Ex-Tory kicked out of caucus last year says Harper majority would change Canada fast

Oct 06, 2008 04:30 AM
Comments on this story (11)
Joanna Smith
Ottawa Bureau

AMHERST, N.S.–Bill Casey believes Prime Minister Stephen Harper would alter the country against the wishes of Canadians if he forms a majority government.
"I think Mr. Harper will make changes to a lot of things that Canadians don't want changed – and I think he'll do them fast," said Casey, 63, the Independent incumbent candidate in the Nova Scotia riding of Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley.
"The minority government has restricted what he can do, but if he has a majority – let me just say I certainly would not want him to get a majority."
Casey believes Harper would undermine equalization payments intended to help provinces pay for health care, education and other social services.
Equalization is an issue Casey cares about deeply and he knows a thing or two about how Harper operates.
The long-time Tory, who was first elected to the House of Commons in 1988 and won his riding again in 2006 with 52 per cent of the vote, was booted out of the Conservative caucus last year over a dispute involving the Atlantic Accord.
"I wasn't asked to leave the caucus. I was ejected," Casey said in response to a question that framed his ouster as a request. "There was no asking about it."
He continued to sit as an Independent MP and if the prevalence of white "Re-Elect Bill Casey" lawn signs emblazoned with the Nova Scotia flag in his hometown of Amherst is any indication, Casey is expected to keep his seat.
Party officials parachuted former New Brunswick MLA Joel Bernard to run when the riding association could not find another candidate to replace Casey, leading most riding officials to work for the Independent campaign instead.
"It's been really an exercise in democracy if there ever was one," Casey said.
..................
He said party members generally get a list with directions on how to vote for each bill that comes through the House of Commons.
"When I vote, I have to analyze every single one. Is this motion or is this bill good for my constituents? Is it good for my province? And I just make a decision," he said, adding he has supported motions from all four major parties.
"I don't care where it comes from. If it's good for my riding, I vote for it."
He said one day, another MP showed him the voting list for his party – which Casey would not identify – and instead of directing members to vote yes or no, it just said "Follow the leader."
"I thought that was quite telling," he said.
Casey said individual voices were particularly restrained in the latest Tory caucus – more so than under previous Conservative leaders.
"In my first seven caucuses we had great arguments. We talked about things like GST, free trade, abortion, gun registries and things like that and they were hashed out in caucus, but in this caucus decisions are made," Casey said.

[George A. H. Luck]

Well Brian, I think, and apparently millions agree with me, that the $300. million was a small price to pay to avoid the Liberals and their catastrophic "Green Shift"

[Brian A. MacNeish]

Originally Posted by gluck

Well Brian, I think, and apparently millions agree with me, that the $300. million was a small price to pay to avoid the Liberals and their catastrophic "Green Shift"

Well, I think those millions don't think things out! Seems like Ontario is in a rough situation with the thousands or is it hundreds of thousands of lost manufacturing jobs. A decent green plan could turn those empty factories into plants producing solar hotwater heaters, windmills, photvoltaic panels, fuel cells, hybrid cars, geothermal heat pumps, heat recovery devices and on and on.

http://canadian-provincial-affairs.s...lead_to_crisis

http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/458479

We have a bit of breathing room until fuel prices spike high again and everyone freaks out again......remember this is the second energy crunch, more will come. Lets prepare for the next as we didn't for the second and current one!!!! How stupid or smart are we?? If this scenario repeats itself, we'll all know how stupid we are!!

[wblakey]

I think a minority government is a good thing, and I am glad that the Canadian people in general agree.

[cboyd]

You're right Brian, Ontario is in a rough situation with large job losses. We can blame this mostly on ourelves and our obsession with "quantity" and not "quality" just sit outside any walmart and watch the huge bags and buggies of junk people buy when they want to cheer themselves up with a few trinkets mostly made in China and India, all the while complaining that Canada is losing manufacturing jobs. duh!! We also have Dalton, who specifically said "Ontarions will not pay a penny more in taxes than with a conservative government" Well, we pay lot's of pennies more, the previous conservatives apparantly left a huge deficit. It was only a deficit because liberals spend, spend, spend with no good financial results, it just wasn't enough of a bank account to please liberal spending. We tax our manufacturers right out of the country and complain about job losses. We do need to move toward solar and wind, I am all for it and would go off-grid in heartbeat for a mere $25,000 to get off. As far as running my meter "backwards" I looked into that too, I will be still paying the delivery and other charges for what I use and only paid for the few pennies kwh that I return to the grid. Simple and fair would be the shift to get joe public on board, not tax here and tax there,carbon taxes etc.
I am not sure on this info, but I have also heard that one of those giant windmills could never produce enough energy to replace the energy it used to be built and set up, mining for the iron ore to delivery, set up etc.

[cboyd]

Originally Posted by wblakey

I think a minority government is a good thing, and I am glad that the Canadian people in general agree.

I think that's how we got the minority in the first place,

[Vern Mitchinson, CMI]

Originally Posted by Brian A. MacNeish

That makes it quite clear....excepting the Bloc and Independents as we don't know their political leanings, 156 left of center MP's would be in place versus the right wing 116 (regressive) Conservatives....proving as we already know: Canadians as a group are a liberal people.....the voting system needs to be changed. I would go for proportional representation!!

Even if you add the 33 Bloc and Independent MP's to the Conservatives, the majority would be for the left wingers!!

Actually the Greens follow a right wing philosophy with the condition that the environment must be protected.
Our survival depends on it.

[Vern Mitchinson, CMI]

Originally Posted by wblakey

I think a minority government is a good thing, and I am glad that the Canadian people in general agree.

I agree 100%. With a minority government they will be playing one up man ship, fighting with each other and will not have time to screw the rest of us.

[Vern Mitchinson, CMI]

Originally Posted by gluck

Well Brian, I think, and apparently millions agree with me, that the $300. million was a small price to pay to avoid the Liberals and their catastrophic "Green Shift"

The point is Harper caused all this money to be spent and nothing changed. How is that good unless you are in the advertizing or news media business and collected some of this money. From my prespective nothing changed and $300,000,000.00 of my tax money has been wasted.
That works out to $300.00 out of my pocket. By calling an election Harper ran the risk that the Libreals could have been elected. By not calling an election the liberials could not take over.

[George A. H. Luck]

So Vern, how much money do you think would have come out of your pocket if the Liberals had been successful in hanging the world wide economic down turn on the Conservatives and then had instituted their insane "Green Shift"? You know what the Liberal's game plan was. Or you ought to.

[wblakey]

Originally Posted by vmitchinson

I agree 100%. With a minority government they will be playing one up man ship, fighting with each other and will not have time to screw the rest of us.

Exactly. Minimize the damage. Keep them hacking away at each other (which is what they do best) and leave the rest of us to get on with life in the real world.