Louise, when are you and Conservatives going to admit that Harper is not an honourable man? He doesn’t look out for the little guy, and he gets his ideas from broken leaders from the States and Australia. How can Canadians trust anything that Mr. Harper says now (if you missed all the other lies, crimes, and broken promises)? In case you didn’t know, Bob Rae said the same thing, “How can Canadians trust anything that Mr. Harper says now?” See how that’s done Harper? You give credit to someone else for their words.
Mr. Lippert is a senior fellow with the Fraser Institute and holds a Ph.D in modern European history. He worked as press secretary to Kim Campbell when she was attorney general and justice minister, and taught at Carleton University and University of British Columbia. More recently, he worked as a senior policy adviser to Bev Oda, the International Co-operation minister.
My goodness! This man has a Ph.D in modern European history? That sure must come in handy when he’s directing Harper’s actions in a manner reminiscent of other right wing leaders who pulled the wool over the eyes of their countrymen.
For a period of time in 1996, he served on the editorial board of The Globe and Mail.
That darn Liberal media, eh? The Globe should do something about that QUESTION MARK they have after “Plagiarized speech” they used to caption the CONFIRMED TRUE evidence.
–
Hat tip to I’mPolitical. More at Steve V. Still more at nearly every Progressive Blogger, and even some Blogging Tories who understand that having a leader who would take us to war based on what a failed Australian Prime Minister would parrot, is disturbing.
BONUS: Stageleft cites Mike Duffy Live - “The Conservatives haven’t released a campaign platform yet because they’re still waiting for the Australians to finish it”!
What is Open Source Software, and why do I think it’s cool? From my perspective, and probably yours, it means free software for your computer. It’s usually free of spyware too, and has more features than software that comes included with Windows Operating Systems (like Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer).
If software can be free, why do so many people pay for it? Well, a lot of people don’t know they can get software for free, because their friends haven’t told them. It’s not like there are big ads on TV or on radio telling people to download Open Office or VLC. Where else are they going to hear about free software, other than from friends, family, and possibly workplaces?
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The Green Party supports open source software. They want schools and governments to use especially Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) to lower IT costs, and improve openness of government.
Here’s Green nominee Dan Grice explaining the struggle against closed software that uses Digital Restrictions Management (DRM), and how FLOSS would benefit Canadians. Closed source software does not allow people other than the original writers of a computer program’s code, to improve the code, or use it in another similar program.
Presumably the federal NDP would be Open Source friendly too, however that was not the case in Saskatchewan, where the provincial government and education systems are mostly Windows based, and there’s no edict that I’m aware of to encourage civil servants to choose FLOSS over proprietary software alternatives. If someone has information on the federal NDP’s platform that covers software purchases, please come forward.
Change the debate format now? Why not? I just have one tiny demand. Add a debate. Give Harper the debate he wants, but make it October 7. Keep the existing format of the French and English debates on Wed. and Thurs., and add one. More debate on the economy is good according to Stephen Harper, so an extra hour or two would be great.
(http://www.conservative.ca/EN/1091/106423)
I don’t think he’ll fare too well in more debate given that he has to poach ideas from other Prime Ministers (or their speech writers). (Is it normal for a party leader and former university professor to plagiarize?) And given that just days ago he was saying our economy was fine an unaffected by the American credit crisis, it seems a tad odd that he’s just now come around to realizing that he’s not insulated Canada from financial disaster befalling our closest trading partner. You’d think a supposed economic mastermind would have figured that out before last week?
Don’t worry Harper. If you do badly in the debate, your merry band of yes-men will leap to your rescue. After all, plagiarism is right, so long as the Liberals do it too.
The headline of this CBC story brought a smile to my face.
“Website, phone lines for do-not-call list overwhelmed ”
Do not call the do not call list, line. You can try again later, I suppose.
In the meantime here’s how you can handle telemarketers:
Remember that they may sound like people, but they are actually people controlled by computer dialers. You are under no obligation to be excessively polite, and if you are not interested in hearing what they have to sell you simply interrupt them like they did to you by calling, and tell them you wish them a good day but you must go right now *click*. The telemarketer doesn’t need you to be overly concerned with their well being on the job, since they get literally dozens of quick hangups a day and have learned to deal with it.
And here’s Zach’s solution which is even more effective:
“Anyhow, I think it’s bad advice to tell people to simply hang up on a telemarketer. It’s always better to interrupt and ask “is this a solicitation call?” If the answer is yes, say “I wish to be placed on your do not call list.” Give them time to say thank you, will do or whatever they say and hang up.”
I think the campaign is wearing me down as a blogger. It’s starting to get to professional journalists as well. There’s just not enough time to read, or write about everything that’s interesting and important in the campaign; And that is exactly what Stephen Harper (and John McCain) are counting on to win their respective elections.
Harper isn’t interested in persuading the public to come round to his point of view, or in behaving in a principled or ideologically consistent fashion. All he wants to do is win. (The Coyne thesis.) How does he reconcile that with his long-run ideological ambition (the Wells version)? Because as long as he goes on winning, by whatever means, he becomes the status quo.
“Reporting about reporting. Campaigns about campaigns. We are all in mortal peril of disappearing up our own backsides.”
Coyne sees how Harper is moving the chess pieces around and playing Hide The Tory, but why aren’t big TV stations, Mike Duffy, Lloyd Robertson, Peter Mansbridge, and MacLeans giving it to the Conservatives for playing dirty? Listen to Coyne! TV producers invite him onto their TV shows, but then pretend his points are interesting by ignoring his sound advice.
And now I’m reporting about that report reporting. If a journalist reads this (and I hope they do) and then write about it or put it on TV (which they probably should), then the whole universe might collapse into some kind of recursive universe singularity. Which would be more tolerable than letting the Conservatives manipulate the media into giving them a majority while they have less than 40% support in the country.
And the media isn’t bothering to fairly cover the 17 registered political parties. There’s 308 ridings, so not even focusing on one a day could anyone get through them all in a campaign. But there are more than 17 days in a campaign. Where’s the media coverage of the other parties, and the issues they raise? Have you heard of Figueroa? Neither would have I, had another Ryan Sparrow not left a comment on MacLeans’ Blog.
So the next time a journalist is tempted to cover puffin poop, they could suppress the urge by investigating and covering one of the other 12 registered parties that are running in the election. It will have the twofold effect of being one less instance of talking about poop, and one more instance of educating a journalist and the public about another viewpoint in the country. Don’t thank me for the idea — thank Andrew Coyne.
The headline of the story is much more certain than the rest of the piece. Perhaps the reporter understood that catching May saying a strategic vote was needed, would garner a lot of attention?
May urged Canadians to do all they can to throw Prime Minister Stephen Harper out of office, including strongly suggesting they shouldn’t vote Green if another candidate has a better chance at defeating a Conservative.
“We are too close to the edge of a global apocalypse,” May said in an interview. “We have got to grab the opportunities we have. And, clearly, the contribution Canadians can make to a global solution is to get rid of Stephen Harper.”
May insists she’s not calling for strategic voting because that leads people to simply vote Liberal. She wants Canadians to examine their riding and figure out how best to keep the Tories from winning.
I added some emphasis in that quote. Clearly a vote for a Green or NDP is not out of the question. The Green Party leader advocating for people to vote Green to strategically[?] keep Harper out of government, if the vote for the Greens is likely to land a seat? Not much a story there. But if you frame it as her advocating that all Greens vote Liberal, it apparently backs up what Harper and Layton have been saying. The trouble is, when she made a point in the article of saying she’d encourage voters to examine even the NDP, people are just trying to play “gotcha”. Can you imagine Layton putting his country and the environment before the NDP getting more seats than the Bloc? I can’t, not without guffawing anyway.
Anyway, all this is really beside the point of any important issue in the campaign. The reality is that many people have voted strategically before, and will again. It’s a problem that won’t go down until people feel they can vote for a person or party of their choice, and have their vote count without it being thrown aside with [often] the majority’s in a First Past the Post electoral system.
The reason May’s selfless position is a negative at all, is that it will undoubtedly lead to a lower Green popular vote than there would be with no strategic voting taking place. Harper and Layton spin it as being ‘pro-Liberal’, but strategic voting is going to benefit the Liberals anyway if the goal is to stop Harper. That’s the curse of the 2 party mentality that most people, and FPTP has.
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And for some partisan NDP fun, check out Scott P.’s ongoing effort to swiftboat May, this time as someone who supports an ongoing war in Afghanistan. Of course she doesn’t want Canadian forces to be there indefinitely, but his NDP partisan bend rushed to post what he knew was not true. He says so himself — he’s “shocked”. Yeah Scott, that would be because you didn’t understand what she was saying, because it wasn’t a complete video. It didn’t even contain the question she was asked.
“Elizabeth May does NOT want to withdraw Canadian troops from Afghanistan
This news came as a complete shock to me[...]”
The video and Scott’s take on it is closer to comedy than it is to journalism!
Observe a master of the out-of-context interview:
Some Babblers just don’t care for someone who isn’t in love with the NDP and every thing they do. I guess I should have just summed up by saying that if Scott ever has something good to say about the Green Party, it will be when Stephen Harper invites Stephan Dion over for Christmas dinner at Stornoway.
- May in Winnipeg
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D. Ray in Ontario sent me these thoughts about the elections:
Nov 4. We will face one of the following scenarios.
McCain and Harper both win. End of our environment as we know it.
Obama and Harper both win. Better for environment and Harper is marginalized by comparison.
Obama and anyone else. Much better for environment and maybe we can get to work.
Jeff has asked an important question [LINK FIXED?] that is on the minds of thousands of people in Regina, “Who can we vote for [ELECT], so Saskatchewan doesn’t end up electing 14 Conservative MPs for the election?”
The answer is something several people may be able to work out, and this post can serve as an open forum for discussion on the topic. If for some reason you disagree with electing a Liberal, Green, or NDP candidate in Regina Wascana, you’re welcome to leave a comment or two, but unless you’re going to add facts, don’t expect anyone to listen. Electing Conservative candidate Michelle Hunter is not an option for people who want Canada to lead the world in areas that matter to socially conscious people.
It’s not hard to see that Goodale’s seat is one of the key seats in the west for the Liberals, like it or lump it. Just as there are other key MPs battling for their seats in other parts of the country, Wascana is certainly a battle ground. The Conservatives sent nearly a dozen 10%ers to Wascana in the past year, on the taxpayer’s dime. Since the campaign started they’ve sent just 2 mailings, and Goodale one. I don’t recall an NDP or Green mailing. CKRM reported this morning that in many ridings in Alberta, the Conservatives are polling so far ahead that they aren’t even bothering to campaign.
There are three strategic voting websites available that I’d put some trust in. Democratic Space has a guide. Kevin’s VoteForEnvironment.ca is remarkably popular too. And there’s the strategic vote guilt reducing vote swap on Facebook called Anti Harper Vote Swap.
Abandon the fruitcake. Make your own holiday cards.
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