I could have voted today but it was too damn nice! I'm hoping for a 40 below day to give me a greater sense of satisfaction when I do vote.

Barring realy bad weather I'm predicting a voter turnout that we havn't seen in 35 years. Nothing like a good dog and pony show to get them in the tent.

PMPM and the rest of his circus would make P.T. Barnum proud!!!

:O)

Syncro

Just got back from voting. No line ups. Feels good to vote. On the drive over I thought Canada was truly blessed because I did not have to worry if someone at the polling station was wearing a vest of C4 and a dead man's switch. If someone complains about line-ups, give them the "purple finger".

I voted today in Ottawa-Centre at 2pm on a Friday afternoon and the lineup was surprisingly long! A constant stream of people coming and going.

Barring realy bad weather I'm predicting a voter turnout that we havn't seen in 35 years.

Socialists depend upon apathy. May they be disappointed.

Ottawa Centre. --- ???
early voting for the status quo no doubt.Kind of a mutual job preservation society.

"You use him as bait," the ex-minister said.

"him", is Martin, Jr.

Martin may hang onto Liberal leadership even if he loses election
By JOAN BRYDEN
via cnews
http://www.rapp.org/url/?ZWHD4XQB

O/T Has anyone else noticed that the Libs attack ads have turned the volume way way down on the war drums??

It looks like their trying to eliminate the audio cues that would remind the viewer of the military attack ads.

The stupid buggers spent the wad on this bunch of ads and now their trying to edit them mid-stream.

Syncro

OOops "they're", damn homonyms!!!

Syncro

You can tell the Lie-beral's own polls show them doing way worse than what's being shown in the MSM, when they start raisng the issue of a woman's right to choose.
BS, on Duffy today(scary picture), was accusing the Conservatives of having a hidden agenda to ban abortions, to which Rona Ambrose called BS on her BS. One radio host called the Liberal's an inevitable train wreck, hurtling along at 100 mph, just about to happen. Heh,heh,heh!
We'll see the Liberal polling outfits resorting to pushing their polls to show the race tightening, when in fact the opposite is actually happening. At least it's been entertaining.

"Birds" for Martin. CBC for Martin.>>>

Fellow inmate Jeff Power had a red "L" for "Liberal" painted on the side of his head. He was jailed for drug trafficking and robbing two pharmacies.
He said he would not vote for the Conservatives because they've talked about tightening up parole rules.

"My dad was sentenced to double life, way before when there was no eligibility for early parole," Power said. "He killed himself. He couldn't live with it. It was like there was no hope for him."

Power said there's another reason he cannot vote Conservative: party leader Stephen Harper has said he would strip prisoners of the right to vote by using the notwithstanding clause in the Constitution. >>>
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canadavotes2006/national/2006/01/13/inmates060113.html

Those in jail vote today because they vote for the riding in which they lived before they were deposited in jail. The ballots must be sent to the proper riding and be counted with those ridings results, they allow 10 Days for the ballots to arrive at the proper location.

Get out of the way! Get out of the way!
Take a look at those detailed regional numbers from SES, based on a five-day roll. The Tories now lead the Liberals in every region of the country. Not only that, but in every part of every region: in Ontario, they lead in Southwestern Ontario, in Northern and Eastern Ontario, even in the Greater Toronto Area.

There are just two places where the Liberals still lead: Montreal and Toronto. Behold how the "only national party" has fallen: they have become the Montreal-Toronto party.
andrewcoyne.com

Kate,

"PERSONS" is sexist. It's either "PERDAUGHTER" or "PERWHATEVER".

CBC's Hunter just slammed Martin. Coyne is right. It is over.

At this point I don't think even the CBC will try to photoshop Harper with a goat or a small boy.

Not to be too tacky and repost from my own blog, only I did just post this there:

People I'm glad I'm not

Alberta Liberal MP/candidates (link to story)

(FWIW, my husband just voted - NOT for Annie - at our polling place here in Edmonton Centre, said there were maybe 15 other people there, at 6:30 p.m. on the first day of early voting.)

CBC, via Mazz:

"party leader Stephen Harper has said he would strip prisoners of the right to vote by using the notwithstanding clause in the Constitution"

Can anybody confirm that Harper has said this recently? I searched and can only find pre 2004 (http://www.cbc.ca/story/election/national/2004/06/18/prisoners_vote040618.html) election statements to this effect. Just curious.

A bigger issue is the fact that WE HAVE PRISON CONDITIONS WORSE THAN GUANTANAMO AND ABU GIRAB RIGHT HERE IN CANADA. Everyone ignores that.

Hey,analogue get stuffed.

I happen to provide a certain service(legitimate) to a corrections fascility and the conditions are superb. Much better than they deserve BTW.

Horny Toad

Hollywood celebrities gathered on the ski slopes in Lake Louise this weekend to raise money for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s environmental group.

Who wants to bet that JFK Jr. will call a press conference and warn people that voting for the evil Republicans of the North will mean our rivers will be polluted, our wildlife will die, and famine will descend upon the people of Canada? And no one will complain about Americans interfering in our election.

Anon...

Twain & The Con>>>

Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.
- Mark Twain

Here are some good examples of human rights abuses happening in Ottawa:

Ottawa COs demand facility improvements

Ottawa - Corrections officers at the Regional Detention Centre in Ottawa, members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU/NUPGE), are fed up with what they say are horrific working and living conditions. Job action is being threatened unless significant improvements are made to the facility.

Local vice-president Mark Sabada commented to the media that "it's like a freaking nightmare walking into that place."
http://www.nupge.ca/news_2004/n01my14a.htm

Inhuman conditions at Ottawa jail denounced by judge

Ottawa - Ontario Justice Denis Power says overcrowding and staff shortages at the Ottawa Regional Detention Centre are so appalling that they bring the administration of justice into disrepute.

The Superior Court judge made the comments when sentencing a man who had already spent 10 months in the East End facility, located a few miles from Parliament Hill.

http://www.nupge.ca/news_2004/n02se04b.htm

Probe opens into Ottawa jail conditions

A unique hearing opened Monday that could probe living conditions at this area's only jail. A lawyer is arguing that her client's Charter rights are being violated by poor conditions at the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Detention Centre.

She's not alone. The Defence Counsel Association of Ottawa wants to be included in the hearing on behalf of all prisoners.
http://www.cbc.ca/ottawa/story/ot_jail20041102.html

Ottawa jail accused of human rights abuses

A Kingston lawyer says her client's human rights were abused while he was at the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Detention Centre. Among other things, Susan Mulligan says he was forced to live in an insect-infested cell. She's taking the jail to court Monday along with the Ontario Ministry of Correctional Services.

Mulligan claims her client, besides living with the insect infestation, didn't get enough exercise, and was unjustifiably segregated for two months. She also claims Wahib Dadshani was denied private meetings with legal counsel.
http://www.cbc.ca/ottawa/story/ot_jail_rights20041101.html

Inquest probes death of man in jail

A coroner's inquest has begun into the death of a mentally ill man from Cornwall. James O'Brien, 59, died at the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Detention Centre last November.
...
The jury also heard that officials did not provide the jail with O'Brien's medical history, or a letter from his doctor outlining his problems.

A few days later, James O'Brien died in his sleep.
http://www.cbc.ca/ottawa/story/ot_obrien20041102.html

And don't even get me started on Don Jail, now mercifully closed:

Yes, it CAN happen to you too.
You can easily end up in a jail like the Don,
even for unpaid parking tickets.It has nothing to do with being convicted.
You just have to be charged.

You have NO RIGHTS at all
Most of the Don Prisoners have not been convicted of anything.

Judges Break the Law Every Time They Send a Man to the Don Jail

Violent guards beat prisoners.... Prisoners are locked down 24 hours a day for days on end
Lock down means three men confined to one 6 foot by 8 foot cell with no vists, no phone calls, no lawyer contacts
No showers, no shaving, no basic sanitation, forced to wear the same clothes, including underwear for at least a week.
They are routinely strip searched in front of female employees
These are men who have NOT BEEN CONVICTED OF ANY CRIME.
They are usually on remand denied bail or unable to pay bail, and awaiting trial.

Prisoners and guards both at risk; fails to meet minimum UN standards

Toronto - An Ontario judge says Toronto's Don Jail is so overcrowded it's become "an embarrassment to the Canadian criminal justice system." In some cases, three inmates are being held in cells meant for a single prisoner and in others inmates go for days at a time without a chance to exercise, says Justice Richard Schneider.

Don Jail dates back to 1863

The situation is so bad that both prisoners and guards are at risk. In fact, the facility no longer meets minimum prison standards set by the United Nations.

Justice Schneider made his comments this week while sentencing a man on a firearms charge. Instead of giving the offender four years as prosecutors requested, the judge sentenced the man to one day in jail followed by nine months house arrest.

In doing so, he allowed triple credit for the four months the offender had already served while waiting for the courts to process his case.

'Hellish'

Christopher Crosier, a jail guard with Local 530 of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU/NUPGE), said Ontario's Tory government is ignoring a potentially dangerous situation at the jail.

Guards risk their safety every time they enter the prison yard to break disturbances, many of which can be traced to frayed nerves and stress related to overcrowding, he said.

The facility is currently holding 691 prisoners - 187 more than its recommended maximum capacity. And some put the real maximum capacity considerably lower.

"What's so hellish about the Don?" Bruce Livesey wrote in a 2000 article in Toronto's eye weekly.

"For starters, it's overcrowded. Originally designed to house 275 prisoners - one per cell - the jail now houses ... usually three to a cell. This means one must sleep on the floor. Yet the number of corrections officers has declined. Not surprisingly, tension is high.

"Loud noise is constant. Mice and cockroaches plague the facility. At least 30% of the jail's population suffers from some form of mental illness. There is limited recreational equipment, and many services have been cancelled....

"Worse, these conditions are forced on people who have yet to be found guilty of any crime, and are presumed innocent. The Don Jail, along with the Metro East and West detention centres, is designed for short-term stays as prisoners await trial. Inmates reside there for 30 to 90 days on average - although some remain for months and even years."

http://www.canlaw.com/judges/don_jail.htm

The wife and I voted tonight. Not many people there, but they all had smiles on their faces when they stood in line. You KNEW who they were voting for :-) But this was in Alberta, so..... (unfortuantley, not Landslides riding, but I did make a freind promise to vote for Hawn)

BTW. I mentioned over on Coyne as well. Look close at the SES regional numbers, they show CPC leading in Toronto and GTA too. Only in Montreal do they have the Liberals leading.

We need a big voter showup. Beat those liberals badly. Ottawa Centre. Isn't that Allan Cutlers riding? Whatever, We're all voting Conservative right? Allan. Toronto.

If I'm not mistaken Allan Cutler is running in Ottawa South?

Mama mia, "it" is getting worser for Paolo: Inter-office memo: For Your Eyes Only, Paolo: from the Librano$:

Pauly is the capo of the Libranos crime family. When they don't win, they don't eat. If they don't win this time, Pauly will have let the family down. Nobody lets the family down and lives. Some of the boys will have to take him for a ride.
Posted by: CJ | >>
http://andrewcoyne.com/2006/01/this-is-worst-of-worst-catastrophes-in.php#comments

"[P]ersons womening?"

Nah.

"Wopersons personning."

Great weather in PEI on first day of advance poll. At my poll there was at least a 40-minute lineup to vote - according to local Elections Canada office, an assistant poll clerk was called in (after they got permission from Ottawa to do so) but this lady had a medical condition that made her handwriting slow and shaky, and according to someone I know who was there (I'm voting Saturday), she appeared upset and overwhelmed. There was also confusion over dividing folks into their proper polls (Elections Canada was aware of this and said they would try to fix that problem), and errors in processing people, in that some folks were told to sign their names after they had voted, rather than before... Elections Canada office was also swamped with folks wanting to vote - apparently not seen before on an actual advance poll day - they had to go buy six more clipboards to accommodate voters. In other related news, Stephen Harper arrives in Charlottetown on Monday for a rally at 2:30 - YES.

Let the Prisoners Vote

I can certainly see why a person would feel a prisoner shouldn’t vote.

In the main, I may tend to approve of that line of thinking.

However, it appears to me that there are many reasons a person is imprisoned, from horrific crimes to a person breaking a minor law on a point of moral principle with full knowledge of the consequences of their actions and perhaps even the admiration of a strong cross-segment of their peers.

Some laws are simply unjust and every society has such laws. It can take decades of injustices for them to be overturned. I’m a strong Conservative: I support the military, law enforcement, fiscal restraint, individual freedom and rights and all good things: yet society used to imprison homosexuals and, in previous times, stone them.

The law can be an ass.

Additionally, reasons that people have been imprisoned in all countries (including Canada, for example, the Japanese detention in WW2) are political and racial, among others such as religion (Jews, Germany, etc.).

Political imprisonment can happen anywhere, including this country. Indeed, Paul Martin’s desperate power-grasping multi-hundred-millionaire Liberal allegedly election bribing (?David Oliver), allegedly journalist intimidating (?John Duffy/Mike Duffy), allegedly seniors group suppressing (?Income Trust scandal/Canadian Association of Retired Persons), categorically scare-mongering threatening the peaceful Canadian people with dictatorship unless Martin stays in power Liberal ways frighten the hell out of me.

I am glad, in a sad sense, that the Liberals first alienated the entire Canadian military during this disjointed perhaps dangerous election campaign.

The political franchise and the right to vote, is, I believe a right in a class by itself because it is the cornerstone of Democracy. We’ve all kind of accepted partial-birth abortions of 6-9 month babies (sorry, fetuses – throwaway organs similar to the appendix) performed within a few miles from our homes, but would be aghast if we couldn’t vote.

And this makes sense because while no society has ever achieved moral and practical perfection, the vote is our way of making changes during the natural ebb and flow of our country’s history.

Lose that, and we lose everything.

Let us not forget that for the majority of time most of our ancestors, whatever our race, were surfs and slaves.

At any time, only a small segment of the population in a free country is imprisoned and the laws which they were convicted of breaking and the punishments/rehabilitation efforts that follow are a valid political area of discussion at all times.

Canada has a lawfully registered Marijuana Party. Frankly, I can’t stand the stuff. If I am drinking cirrhosis-inducing alcohol at a party as opposed to miracle-drug weed, and I see a pretty gal that attracts my attention, I may come across like an overeager charging pubescent rhinoceros (no slander intended, Rhino Party)… but at least I can put two words together.

I advocate firmer laws, more consistent enforcement, and would gladly support a return to Capital punishment and actually use it for more crimes than just first degree murder. Treason and depraved child abuse come to mind.

Generally, the prison vote is such a small unimportant segment spread out so far across the country, that it’s not significant to the election result. And since this Lie-berals and the NDP dominate the imprisoned’s heart and thinking, they can have their endorsement. (Doing Paul Martin a whole lot of good, isn’t it?)

But if ever a larger segment of the population is unjustly imprisoned: Protestants, Catholics, Chinese, Japanese, people of African descent, Jews, Gypsies, Poles, Russians, homosexuals, the mentally ill, or any other of the proud and equal who have been wronged in times past… maybe, just maybe, their retaining a right to vote will present a final check against malignant mob government power or at least a bellwether warning, by its loss, of when our freedom is once again being challenged.

We voted at 3:00 in the afternoon and there were line-ups then, as well. If the Globe and Mail and liberal organizers are saying there's going to be a Cons. majority, it's only because they think that will get them votes. Everything they do is designed to get them votes. We need to shut up. We are going to talk ourselves out of a victory. Stop gloating and saying things like "it's in the bag".

I live in Ontario Grey/Bruce pennisula, I went to advanced poll at 6pm, it was lined out the door. Iknew one of the workers & she told me it had been like that since opening.
THE WINDS OF CHANGE ARE HAPPENING

The yank Leftys are all up here complaining about the environment.

Everyone of them ,like David Suzuki himself, burn more jet fuel in a month then I have in a lifetime. Hypocrite elitist left.

Did you see Jack Limosine Layton on Pravda last night. you could see his shock when he found out the high school in Port Hardy he had his big rally at was only going to provide him with a maximum of 4 possible votes.that was all the voters there were. Bad handlers Jack.keep your powder wet.

I and my wife voted in Abbotsford yesterday ( with Oliver still listed on the ballot as Liberal party). We noticed a very heavy turnout, even in the pouring rain.
I remember reading that heavy advance polling indicates trouble for an incumbent government.
Let's hope.

You know why the prisoners are voting early? They'll be out on parole by the 23rd!!!

No Dave, not exactly. They'll be having lunch at Red Lobster and then stopping by the local HRSDC office to pick up their check.

There was a lineup at my advance poll, too. The guy in line in front of me actually asked the poll clerk why Jack Layton wasn't on the ballot.

This was in Mississauga.