They’re talking about Sponsorship….
I’m listening on radio, so perhaps Harper has revolving red eyes, horns sprouting and green slime oozing out of his ears, but on the off chance he isn’t..
He’s kicking Martin’s ass.
Update: on farming now.
So far, Martin’s best jab was quoting the old Harper speech. Nice rebuttal, though. Throwing the “questioning his patriotism” charge in his face.
Duceppe is really hurting Martin with this hair-splitting over the use of the word “nation”.
(Can Jack “it’s time” Layton be any more nonspecific in his “solutions”?)
Martin is sssttttttaaammering now… and saying nothing in the process. Any mention of Gomery seems to do that to him.
AND… Martin is going to be facing a firestorm tomorrow, after his announcement that his government would reopen the constitution to remove the “notwithstanding clause”.
Monte Solberg grabs Rosemary Thompson’s blackberry;
“Oops breaking news. Paul says his new number one priority is childcare. Well, childcare and education. I guess they have knocked values and aboriginal issues out of one and two.”
“Or is it gassing the nothwithstanding clause. What happened to Paul’s committment to use the clause to protect religious freedom if the Supremes ever started to erode those freedoms. Can’t have it both ways Paul.”
“Better go now. Rosemary is missing her BlackBerry so.”
Did I just hear that Martin and Harper were “trying to outbid each other with your money” – come out of the mouth of Jack Layton??? Even hardcore NDP must have swallowed hard at that one.
Other good catches in the comments.
We’ve had Martin call Aboriginals the root cause of poverty
I heard that too. That has the makings of a Conservative campaign ad.
He is a Quebecer but he is from Essex county as well.
Paul Martin just called for the abolition of democracy in Canada. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Andrew Anderson:”it seems to me that Prime Minister Paul Martin made a new promise tonight: a Liberal government will Americanize the Canadian justice system by doing away with the “Not Withstanding Clause”. This will open us to all of the problems present in the US Supreme Court, the largest of which is the horrendous and long-term political impact of appointing new justices.”
A dissenting opinion from ” garhaneg”;
I guess everyone sees the same event their own way. I was reminded of a good skater coming down from a triple on one good solid foot that sprays the ice as he swirls away.
Martin, at long last, apologized for the hugely overblown scandal, such as it was, and lectured the others to grow up and move on, as he sped away from what was once thought to be his nemesis.
I like it. Stand up for Medicare and Vote Liberal, unless the NDP has a really good chance in your riding.
Interesting point. I wonder, then, in light of the recent Supreme Court decision, if the writer would be comfortable with a federal government that is unable to invoke the Nothwithstanding Clause to offset, or delay a court ruling opening wide the door to private “for profit” health care in Canada?
Morning after thoughts at Canadian Sentinel.
“Stand up for Medicare and Vote Liberal”
A more asinine comment has never been written. The party that has allowed private clinics to flourish. The party that cut transfer payments effectively diminishing the quality and timing of services. The party that will drop the NWC which will allow more private clinics to flourish.
“hugely overblown scandal, such as it was”
Only a lefty can call the stealing of our tax dollars and funnelled back into same party…by a government that is supposed to be on BEHALF of the citizens…hugely overblown. Not to mention the other scandals enveloping this party.
If anybody is the posterchild of everything that is wrong with this country…government ethics…accountability and the handling of matters dear to Canadians….it is the figure skating fanatic garhaneg.
“marks go to an existing leader who can show “fire in the belly”.
My God. Is this the anger people speak about? Feigned emotion gets zero points. Martin and his party showed their fire by the litany of broken and incomplete promises in the last 12 years.
Gary is too young to remember Mackenzie King, St. Laurent, Pearson and Turner –
otherwise he’d know that charisma is a recent requirement for the job of PM. It was invented by, guess who? – the mass media, when Trudeau came on the scene. And, please God, let’s not go there again.
Gary, you really must learn the issues.
Thought Martin was the one accusing Harper of being against the constitution, but….seems he’s the one that’s against the comstituion as it presently stands!
Property Rights:
As odd as it may seem, I believe Trudeau attempted to write property rights into the Charter, but the NDP was violently opposed, and they won out in the end.
The main spar of Hernado de Soto’s ILD reform of Third World economies is to enshrine the the legal right to own property in the constitution of the countries he advises.
The idea is not new. But it was not articulated directly until Lord Kames wrote in 1747 – “love of independence and property, the most steady and industrious of all human appetites.”
This concept, applied in Peru – de Soto is a Peruvian educated in Switzerland – resulted in a visible renewal of the worst sections of Lima in a matter of a few short years (2 years between my visits, if I recall correctly. The difference between ‘before and after’ was astounding.)
The right (freedom) to own property cannot be found among all the comforting, touchie-feelie intangible ‘rights’ written into the Canadian Charter.
This ‘oversight’ must be corrected.
Fat Paulie
“The mayor of Toronto has pointed out it is handguns stolen from homes that are killing people. We’ve got to stop that. We’ve got to ban handguns.”
Remove the NWC.
Then they have only to pickup the already registered long guns and we are unarmed, suckers that could’nt resist a Gomery like judge that decides the priministers job is redundant.
Fat Paulie has lost it.
I believe Mr Martin made a serious error with his silly “ban the notwithstanding clause.” A viewer said it well on the radio this morning, ” the Liberals would ban bubblegum if they thought it could get them elected.” Also I love his spin on the Option Scandal. When asked questions about it after the debate, all he could say was that the documents referenced were “stolen.” They were leaked budddy. Once again he wants to con Canadians (after all stolen documents are probably altered ones). He took one from Chretien’s playbook – you remember, when he was caught out on documents that showed he had a financial interest in the Grand Mere golf course, they became forgeries. The examples above illustrate a pathetic attempt to “change the channel.” For some reason, Canadians finally see through this nonsense and are fed up. BTW, I can’t wait for Martin’s “notwithstanding” sale tonight in the French debate. He has handed Harper a gift. Harper was no superstar in the debate (he still sways too much when he gets engaged), but he got the job done. For the third debate in a row, with the way Martin was waving his hands around), I wondered if he was making a point or trying to land a fighter on the deck of an aircraft carrier. Also, Martin, though he didn’t smile much, looked much younger, though it was an obviously serious makeup job – quite representative of his arguments and positions – painted on and not real. Lots of hard work and negative cheap shots in next 10 days, but barring a remarkable event, stick a fork in the Liberals, they are done! Jack Layton is the bubble boy of Canadian politics. He should be zeroing in on Liberals, that’s where his potential vote growth is, not Conservative voters. There are eight people in Canada who would change their vote from Tory to NDP, and they all live on Vancouver Island!!
More comments. Martin railed against “Americanizing Canada,” yet incromprehensively wants to remove a counter-check on the power of the SCOC over the supremacy of an elected parliament. In the US, there is no such check on their Supreme Court. On the other hand, they have an elected senate and Supreme Court justices are confirmed by Congress. In Canada they are appointed by the PM with no debate, confirmation or recourse. This rank hypocricy reeks of desperation. Martin marches out a bogus stat that handgun murders were done with “legal” ones; you know that rash of thefts from handgun collectors and sport target shooters! There is no such consensus in any studies, which put the percentage of illegal, never registered handguns being involved in over 90% of these murders.
Iraq – Martin is a hypocrite on this issue too. He clearly is on the record as supporting Cdn troops in Iraq. Which troops would that be – six admin clerks from Gagetown? We don’t have that capability. It’s taken four years to assemble a small force to go to Afghanistan. The truth is it was our call, as a nation, whether or not to go to Iraq. The US respected our position but we acted in a childish manner, first promising troops and then engaging in an anti-American hissy fit. Just heard that the Conservatives WILL USE THE NOTWITHSTANDING CLAUSE V.V. GAY MARRIAGE (from Liberal strategist that is). I guess Harper is a liar when he clearly states NWC will not be used; from Liberals who have lied for years – broken promises, gumby-like spin, arrogance. But we shouldn’t trust the Tories?
Am I hearing the death rattle of the Liberals? Yes. Can’t create scandal against Tories. No problem, just make it up.
Another rant on my part. Any objective look at the spending proposals of the Tories and Liberals aren’t much different in terms of actual expenditures . Yet the Tory plan will result in deficits. This from the gang that can’t even accurately measure their own surpluses. Tories have access to public account because Liberals were stupid enough to put out economic statement in November. Liberals have grown govt spending by over 50% since 2000 but there will be no deficits under their watch. Huh? Remember 2004 and the $50billion black hole of Tory deficits that turned out to be Liberal surpluses?
Notably Mr. Martin’s comments that a Liberal government would attempt to amend Constitution to prevent federal use of notwithstanding clause caught our attention. Mr. Martin’s commitment to the proposed change is hopefully the nail in his political coffin. Our current system is a way that the legislatures, federal and provincial, can secure the final say is retained by the elected representatives of the people rather than by the courts. Steve Paikin was very efficient and made the debate very successful for viewers.
All media we view has some type of spin. Hopefully we will all continue to notice these subtleties and note for what they are.
Perhaps living in the outskirts of our Nation’s Capital gives me a different perspective than some others but I have had it with the complacency of our society.
I work full time and am a mother of four. I have worked full time since the age of 18 while continuing my education with night courses to become a designated professional in my field. I pay taxes coming out my ying yang, utilities continuously are on the rise and the cost of gas to commute (I live rurally and no access to public transit) has become ridiculous. I am only lucky we bought our home before the real estate market made it impossible for many to enter the housing market.
I live in an area where we have to be fluently bilingual to work in the downtown or East End of the City of Ottawa. The Francophone community represents 5% of my province’s population and 4.5% of Canada’s total population. I have two children struggling school with reading/writing and have had to pull them from the French Immersion program they started in because there is no help for them available unless their are in the core English program. The additional help the school has only come because I had an emotional meltdown in front of their teachers, principal, vice principal and special education teachers. There are lots of other children who are not getting the help and have far more serious learning issues on their plate.
They are plenty of friends and family who work for the federal government in our area and when they joke about their workplaces have ‘nothing to do’ or committee meetings that comprise of having coffee in the hall it makes my blood boil. Those of us working in the private sector would never get away with that. Nor would I want to.
Please tell me there are others who really want change… for the betterment of all of us and our future.
I wonder what tortured mathematics Paul Martin used to get $1/day out of $1200/year. My guess is that he was fantasizing about his future utopian Kanada where stay-at-home moms will pay income tax rates of 70% to subsidize his government-run thought programming centres.
Just a word to the wise…
The mainstream media, and Liberal red will be carefully studying the Tory blog sites, looking for faithful to become arrogant and boastful.
They will be looking for the same kind of overconfidence, and self-destruction, which sank our hopes for the Country in the last election…
The “Harper is Bush, Harris, Mulroney” negative American style attack ads have already surfaced.
So much for the Wiggs distancing themselves from America. I’m sure that the Tories will have a counter attack prepared for such below the belt politics.
Don’t play into their hands. Keep our powder dry to the end. Don’t fire ’till you see the whites of their eyes!
Hey,
Stand up for medicare, what a crock. I was hospitalised twice last year in the USA and once in Canada. The Canadian health care system is a phreaking joke. Ya, it’s free, and you get what you pay for.
Vote Conservative, pressure them to allow some competition for those of us that can afford quality healthcare, convince your company’s insurance to put that on your plan. Then let us get an MRI from a private company so we can get off the 2 year waiting list and let someone who CAN’T afford get theirs from medic-aid sooner. I’d rather have my bucks going into a Canadian doctors pocket rather than going to the US everytime I can’t get treatment here.
Nothing will help the gov’t do better in health care then a little private competition.
I welcome the support of Altruistic, though he does make quite a noise coming into the mudroom and knocking the snow off his boots. But everyone recognizes the sound of the reluctant convert. I would add that it is great to hear the Canadian health system was there to help him when he needed it, even if it lacks some desireable qualities, and I hope his American experience was not too expensive. One day we shall be rich enough here in Canada to afford pretty well the best for all.
And as for the poster who queries what will be the fate of medicare if the Supreme Court is let loose to roam the land savaging social policies by the Parliamentary reform proposed by Martin? Well I personally suspect the idea there was a device to show that confronted with real Parliamentary reform all three opposing candidates would show the dust of their heels to the very idea. And so they did, indeed, they did that. Oh, leaders of men, surely.
So Martin played a trick on these rather naive worthies? Yup. I mean this is a political campaign, not a tea party where marks go for keeping your knees together and your cup on the doily. Parliament is supreme and courts can be and are controlled by Legislation.
Right then, stand up for Medicare and vote Liberal, unless the NDP candidate in yhour riding has a really good chance.