News Items
Garth Turner goes to his first caucus meeting and slams Harper. What a surprise considering he has been slamming him for over a year. I guess my only criticism of him is what it took him so long to realize what many other ex Progressive Conservatives like myself have known for quite some time. Whenever I apply for a job, I always do some research on the company before firing off my resume and accepting an offer if I receive one, so if he had done a more an indepth search into Harper's background, it would have been pretty obvious where his political leanings are. I will though give him credit for leaving all his earlier blogs up including the ones slamming the Liberals and praising the Conservatives. Not that I hold this against him, but at least it shows he is willing to face up to his past views, rather than pretend they don't exist. Unlike Stephen Harper who had ever single news item on the National Citizens' Coalition website removed after he became Alliance leader.
Ontario has three by-elections tomorrow. I suspect the Liberals should hold York South-Weston without too much trouble. Despite all the protestations on the minimum wage, this is a very safe Liberal riding. Burlington will likely stay PC as it has in every election since 1943, although it would be a major coup if the Liberals did pick it up. Markham is totally unpredictable considering the Tories won it by 30 points in 1999 while the Liberals won by 12 points in 2003. This suggests each party has a shallow base, with a large poll of swing voters ripe for picking up.
It looks like Quebec is inching for an upcoming election. While the poll numbers are looking good for Charest, lets remember he does have a tendency to pile up huge majorities in West Montreal so in reality he really needs at least a 5 point lead to guarantee a win. Despite his friendly relations with Harper, I fully support him and I would hope all Liberals would stand behind the only federalist leader in Quebec. On the issue of national unity, this is an area where Conservatives and Liberals should stand together and leave their fights for other issues. Some issues are too important for petty politics.
A number of ministers have been caught wasting taxpayer's money on expensive travels. All I can say here is this is politics as usual so if you are someone who is ideologically liberal but voted Tory because you thought they were more ethical, I hope you realize I was right last year when I said one should vote based on their political philosophy not the party's talk on ethics. Opposition parties always claim to be more ethical than the current government, but once in power continue the same old habits. I expect this to continue forever so I really don't get too upset over this.
The Tories are pumping a bunch of money into Diane Finley's riding to help the Tobacco producers. Regardless of what one thinks on this, if the Tories are actually worried about losing Haldimand-Norfolk, then they are in deep trouble in Ontario as this is amongst the 20 safest Tory seats in Ontario, so if they cannot win here, they can kiss being re-elected goodbye. Off course maybe they are targeting neighbouring Brant which they lost by 500 votes, although this seems like a rather dumb strategy.
Back in BC, Bill Bennett (member for East Kootenay and minister of state for mines) had to resign for an insulting comment. This is unfortunate, although the fact this is the only political news out there shows how much Campbell has turned things around. 4 years ago, the government was under a microscope and always being attacked for its controversial changes. It looks like the changes as controversial as they were, were the right ones. Although Campbell is more a conservative Liberal than any federal Liberal leader, I have always been a strong supporter of him since he is a leader who puts the long-term interest of the province ahead of short-term political gain. It is too bad we couldn't have someone like him federally since I would support him as leader in either party.
Stephen Owen is apparently not planning to run again in Vancouver-Quadra. This is unfortunate as he always seemed like an MP with a lot of integrity. I've heard rumours Joyce Murray might be the Liberal candidate. Having worked with her both provincially and federally, I think she would be a great candidate. She argued in favour of making the environment a central plank of the party long before others did. In addition this is a safe Liberal seat so this would put us closer to meeting our 1/3 female candidates target. I've also heard rumours about Christy Clark and Gary Farrell Collins running federally for the Liberals while Lorne Mayencourt for the Tories. The first two would be great additions federally while I think Lorne would be making a dumb choice to run as a Tory federally since he has zero chance of winning as Tory in that riding as since the governing party almost never wins by-elections there is a good chance the BC NDP would pick up Vancouver-Burrard since despite the fact it is no longer a safe NDP riding, usually voter turnout is very low in by-elections and mostly those angry at the government show up while supporters tend to stay home. If I were Campbell, I would urge him to wait until at least the Fall of 2008 before entering federal politics so as to avoid a by-election here. As my former provincial riding, I would hate to see it go NDP.
Ontario has three by-elections tomorrow. I suspect the Liberals should hold York South-Weston without too much trouble. Despite all the protestations on the minimum wage, this is a very safe Liberal riding. Burlington will likely stay PC as it has in every election since 1943, although it would be a major coup if the Liberals did pick it up. Markham is totally unpredictable considering the Tories won it by 30 points in 1999 while the Liberals won by 12 points in 2003. This suggests each party has a shallow base, with a large poll of swing voters ripe for picking up.
It looks like Quebec is inching for an upcoming election. While the poll numbers are looking good for Charest, lets remember he does have a tendency to pile up huge majorities in West Montreal so in reality he really needs at least a 5 point lead to guarantee a win. Despite his friendly relations with Harper, I fully support him and I would hope all Liberals would stand behind the only federalist leader in Quebec. On the issue of national unity, this is an area where Conservatives and Liberals should stand together and leave their fights for other issues. Some issues are too important for petty politics.
A number of ministers have been caught wasting taxpayer's money on expensive travels. All I can say here is this is politics as usual so if you are someone who is ideologically liberal but voted Tory because you thought they were more ethical, I hope you realize I was right last year when I said one should vote based on their political philosophy not the party's talk on ethics. Opposition parties always claim to be more ethical than the current government, but once in power continue the same old habits. I expect this to continue forever so I really don't get too upset over this.
The Tories are pumping a bunch of money into Diane Finley's riding to help the Tobacco producers. Regardless of what one thinks on this, if the Tories are actually worried about losing Haldimand-Norfolk, then they are in deep trouble in Ontario as this is amongst the 20 safest Tory seats in Ontario, so if they cannot win here, they can kiss being re-elected goodbye. Off course maybe they are targeting neighbouring Brant which they lost by 500 votes, although this seems like a rather dumb strategy.
Back in BC, Bill Bennett (member for East Kootenay and minister of state for mines) had to resign for an insulting comment. This is unfortunate, although the fact this is the only political news out there shows how much Campbell has turned things around. 4 years ago, the government was under a microscope and always being attacked for its controversial changes. It looks like the changes as controversial as they were, were the right ones. Although Campbell is more a conservative Liberal than any federal Liberal leader, I have always been a strong supporter of him since he is a leader who puts the long-term interest of the province ahead of short-term political gain. It is too bad we couldn't have someone like him federally since I would support him as leader in either party.
Stephen Owen is apparently not planning to run again in Vancouver-Quadra. This is unfortunate as he always seemed like an MP with a lot of integrity. I've heard rumours Joyce Murray might be the Liberal candidate. Having worked with her both provincially and federally, I think she would be a great candidate. She argued in favour of making the environment a central plank of the party long before others did. In addition this is a safe Liberal seat so this would put us closer to meeting our 1/3 female candidates target. I've also heard rumours about Christy Clark and Gary Farrell Collins running federally for the Liberals while Lorne Mayencourt for the Tories. The first two would be great additions federally while I think Lorne would be making a dumb choice to run as a Tory federally since he has zero chance of winning as Tory in that riding as since the governing party almost never wins by-elections there is a good chance the BC NDP would pick up Vancouver-Burrard since despite the fact it is no longer a safe NDP riding, usually voter turnout is very low in by-elections and mostly those angry at the government show up while supporters tend to stay home. If I were Campbell, I would urge him to wait until at least the Fall of 2008 before entering federal politics so as to avoid a by-election here. As my former provincial riding, I would hate to see it go NDP.
posted by Monkey Loves to Fight at 4:01 PM
5 Comments:
Good for Turner!
I’m glad he’s giving Harper some grief. I am unsure what he said about Harper that would entail this to be a “slamming”, but regardless - there is nobody in the Liberal caucus that knows how to properly give some grief to the government from the opposition side (I guess it’s a downside for being in power for over a decade). Ill be looking out for any tidbits from this caucus meeting, im interested to hear what Turner has to say.
Turner may have a reputation as a “pest” but so did Shelia, and goodness sake do I miss her ferocity! Love her or hate her - she was one strong woman and an even stronger voice.
I am not out to get Harper as much as sometimes it may some like. Rather I am very worried that he plans to take Canada to the right by stealth. I think our job as to expose his hidden agenda and put him on the spot for it. If is willing to drop his determination of moving Canada well to the right, I'll drop my opposition to his government, but not until that happens.
As for Garth Turner giving the government grief, I should note he has actually never sat in the opposition benches prior to this since his last stint was on the governing side. In fact if anything I would think Scott Brison and Belinda Stronach would be best at this. Also we do have a number of MPs who were elected back in 1988 such as Jim Peterson, Joe Comuzzi, Lawrence MacAulay, Paul Martin and several others so it is not totally true we don't have people with experience on the opposition side. In fact I think the Liberals had a very effective opposition in the 80s.
My My!
Miles my friend, where is your sense of passion! Alas, regardless of what we feel about Harper in terms of specifics - Honest agitation and action is the way you make a difference! I would disagree that Harper’s hidden agenda is now hidden, it is quite transparent, its up to the Canadian people to just open their eyes - enter bloggers like you and I.
Your right in saying that some John Turner MP’s have the experience in opposition - but what I like about people like Copps, Cotler and hopefully Turner is that they can perform in the house - they have the ability to kick some ass and take names.
I think Harper's hidden agenda was never really hidden. In fact I am surprised Garth Turner took so long since it was obvious how right wing this government would be long before last election. In fact I expected Harper to be even more right wing and he probalby would be if the public would let him get away with it. The only thing holding back being more right wing is an imminent election and public opinion. If he is re-elected he will move to the right since even if a minority government the appetite for another election will be even less.
Re: Quadra. Some are floating Emerson's name but I don't think anyone can win it for the CPC. The Liberals will win it by a big margin like they did in '04 and '06. It's the Vancouver version of St. Paul's riding - a well-educated, affluent urban riding with small-"l" liberal values and where people are generally repulsed by any hint of hard-right conservatism.
An ideal fit for this riding would be Paul Summerville running for the Libs. He is a Bay Street economist with a Ph.D. who ran for the NDP in St. Paul's last time but moved over to support Rae. He'd be able to appeal to both the business professional types as well as the intelligentsia.
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