Ok, so who’s providing the money behind this group?
I just got a robo-polling call.

Good grief.

In early 2009, Michael Ignatieff had been, or was about to be installed as Liberal leader (I’m too lazy to look up the exact dates). I was doing an image search for something (I can’t remember exactly what), and came across the above picture. I noted that the soldier in the middle was a dead ringer for Iggy (the photo appeared on a military-themed collection of images with no indication of their nationality or where they were taken). I thought they were most likely Americans (or possibly Brits). So I decided to make up a little story about Ignatieff and his rather muscular approach to foreign affairs.
The original post is here. You can see that I pretty obviously intended it as a joke (if there’s any doubt, click on the “enhanced” popup that I included with it).

And the rest is history.
It’s a pattern with this party. Just when things start to go really well, someone decides to let the children play with the machinery.

Here’s a nice surprise! The UK based Surly Beaver will be coming out of retirement in a few days.
Of course, as the blog isn’t yet out of retirement, I have noooooooo idea what-so-ever what Drew plans to blog about. You might bookmark it though.

Forget the Coyneses and the Wellses and the rest of the preening political pundocracy. I’m going to nominate Skippy’s “last letter home” as the best thing you’ll read all week.

If the NDP displaces the Liberals as the Official Opposition, or even comes close to it, the Liberals are effectively finished. If Ignatieff winds up losing seats, especially in Toronto, he’ll be beheaded by his own party on election night next Monday, which leaves the Grits leaderless and in the throes of a leadership campaign.
Assuming that there even is a Conservative minority (which is getting harder to do every day,) defeating them on a confidence motion would require the Governor General to decide whether to invite a coalition or an accord to assume government or to hold yet another election. That would require some kind of assurance that said coalition could hold for at least two years. I don’t know how a leaderless Liberal Party can make such an assurance to David Johnston.
There are also large swaths of the Liberal Party that want nothing to do with the NDP, and that segment of the party can be expected to run for the leadership. Or there might be sufficient opposition in caucus to defeat the idea outright.
Barring a coalition or an accord, another election would utterly break a bankrupt Liberal Party and English Canada would be divided up between the NDP and the Tories, almost certainly resulting in a massive Conservative majority.
After spending weeks asking the question, no one has been able to tell me why Jack Layton would even want to get into bed with the Grits. As I’ve explained before, it isn’t in his strategic interest. Harper’s fear-mongering about a coalition is adorable, but it assumes that Layton is stupid enough to still be afraid of the Liberals at this point. He pretty clearly isn’t, and seems to know that if he just waits a few months, the Grits will collapse all on their own, leaving him as the only credible alternative to the Tories.
Regardless of Monday’s outcome, the Liberals won’t be able to raise money (which is already a giant problem for them) or recruit halfway serious candidates (which they haven’t focused all that much energy on anyway.) By Tuesday morning, anyone with any brains will see the future of the left in this country, and it isn’t going to include the Liberals.

But read the whole thing. (h/t Lord of the Fleas)

Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
Global News, April 25th – Elections Canada warned Canadians this week that the election law prohibits people from “premature transmission” of results from one part of the country before polls close in another time zone.
CBC, April 27th – “The only [advance polling] difference among the ridings was that Charlottetown was down slightly – seven per cent. Everywhere else is up,” said Karen Janigan for Elections Canada. “Cardigan 49 per cent, Egmont 34 per cent and Malpeque 34 per cent. A little high but not compared to some other places. Halifax is 97 per cent. Saint John, New Brunswick was up 101 percent.”

“Elections official fired for removing Tory signs”
(h/t Maz2)

Looks like Conservatives can kiss the junkie vote goodbye.

Ignatieff would work with Layton in a NDP-led arrangement

We get mail!

Kate, this probably will not be in the media tomorrow about the American Count Iggy’
He attended an Ontario Hockey league play-off game in Mississauga, Ontario tonight, there were about 4000 fans from Niagara and Mississauga present in the arena. He was introduced to the fans, waved, bowed etc. and was booed by the whole crowd for over two minutes. We are not sure how long he stayed at the game afterwards. Mississauga according to the media is supposed to be a Liberal stronghold !!!.

Well, it’s been reported by Open Ice Hockey reporter Nathan Dearing. Over at the Ignatieff campaign bus, the big media tweeters remained silent.
Update – Well, here’s a brand new Canadian Press story on the game. No Liberal leaders reported in attendance.
Morning Update – Confirmation from the V.P. Marketing of the Mississauga St. Mike’s Majors …
And this absolute howler from CP reporter Steve Rennie, traveling with the Ignatieff campaign.

Final Update: Now being covered by SunTV, captured to youtube by SDAMatt!

Now being carried by CTV and CBC. SDA gets results!

Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
Michael Ignatieff, 2009 – Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff says that protecting Alberta’s controversial oilsands is a national unity issue. All of Canada benefits from oilsands development, Ignatieff told a Chamber of Commerce lunch in Edmonton Friday.
Michael Ignatieff’s campaign ad, 2011 – The Liberals are out with an attack ad featuring video of a tarred and suffering duck in a Syncrude tailings pond. […] The Oil Sands Developers Group is slamming the Liberals over the ad, saying the tailings incident had nothing to do with any political party.

Here is your Liberal campaign preview:
h/t
Make your own sign here!

Edmonton Sun;

Ryan Hastman’s campaign office is filing an official complaint with Elections Canada alleging that 550 names in the hotly contested Edmonton-Strathcona riding are “bogus and invalid.” After the Conservatives lost the riding in an extremely close race three years ago, the Tory candidate says he isn’t taking any chances.
In 2008, Linda Duncan received just 460 more votes than the runner-up, Conservative incumbent Rahim Jaffer in the race.
“In a close race like this, every vote will count,” said Hastman. “It’s important that only valid addresses are included in the voters list.”
Hastman’s campaign office claims the bogus entries in the Elections Canada’s voters list include several businesses — including a hemp store and a gas station — and an empty field. The office also alleges that hundreds of voters are also registered at addresses of industrial companies, storage lockers and private mail boxes.

Now is the time at SDA when we flashback!

[T]he Laurie Hawn campaign acquired a City of Edmonton map which listed all buildings and their street addresses and began thoroughly checking the revised voters list….
# Almost 100 apparently nonexistent addresses in Edmonton’s downtown core – in some cases, the addresses listed fictional residences in between two genuine buildings
# Hundreds of people registered to vote out of their law offices, medical offices, accounting offices, and Government of Canada offices – in some cases these may be genuine errors, but in other cases, entire families are registered to vote out of high rise office space
# Dozens of people registered to vote out of office towers, but who did not list a suite number, causing the address to read similarly to ordinary residences – in many cases, these people are also registered to vote in other ridings using their home addresses, and in other cases, voters living in other ridings are only registered in Edmonton Centre
# Dozens of people registered to vote out of small mail box locations and from self-storage yards – there is no legitimate way for a person to appear on the list of Electors from a self-storage yard
# Eighteen people registered to vote out of a truck stop
# People registered to vote out of karaoke bars, lingerie stores, dance lounges, galleries, etc…

Related – Judge rules byelection needed in Ward 9

“Jack Layton wasn’t there on the firearms registry, just ask the victims of the Polytechnique.” – Michael Ignatieff

Can you imagine how low this tool would be polling by now without 75% of media running interference on his behalf?

Spiegel;

Not much is going on at the bioethanol refinery, however, where two tanks are filled to capacity with up to 100 million liters (26 million gallons) of the plant-based fuel, enough to make a billion liters of biofuel mixture. But demand is much lower than expected, which is why the entire production process now has to be shifted away from E10 — a mixture of 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gasoline — and back to the old super unleaded fuel.
German motorists are to blame for the commercial failure of the supposed green gasoline. The first attempt by politicians to foist a product that is both expensive and environmentally questionable on consumers has failed. German Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen, who had earlier argued in favor of the fuel, is now as embarrassed as the petroleum industry and the auto industry.
“Consumers have made up their minds,” says Volker Kauder, chairman of the parliamentary group of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU). “With people starving in many countries, wheat doesn’t belong in our gas tanks.”

Flashback – The City of Brandon is saying goodbye to its biodiesel processor.

Apparently, an incident of national proportions took place on my lawn last night. I have a call in to the CBC.

Via David Akin;

I am deeply troubled by Mr. Ignatieff’s assertion that he may choose to overturn the democratic result of the federal election.
While I understand that the scenario spelled out by Mr. Ignatieff is within the conventions of our Parliamentary tradition, the last thing our country and our still fragile economic recovery need right now is a period of instability caused by a constitutional dispute over who should be the government.
Morever, Canada is poised to solidify its position as an economic leader in a world that needs the food security and the energy security we can provide. How can we take full advantage of this reality if we are distracted by interminable national political machinations and constitutional wrangling?
The party that wins the most seats on May 2 should be recognized as the government, period. If that were to be the Liberals, I would join with other Canadians in accepting this result and recognizing Mr. Ignatieff as our next Prime Minister. However, if the Conservatives win the most seats but come up short of a majority, I would expect Mr. Ignatieff and his party to accept that result.
The notion that Mr. Ignatieff may choose to not recognize the democratic result of the election and may try to seize power with the support of the other parties, including a party dedicated to the breakup of Canada, is offensive to me and I believe, to most fair-minded Canadians. Voters should choose the government, not separatist MPs.
Ironically, this election was caused by a confidence vote over “contempt for Parliament.” I can think of no greater contempt for Parliament or for Canadian voters than the spectre of a party leader refusing to recognize the democratic outcome of the election.

Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
Canadian Michael Ignatieff – “The Canadian army must never be used outside the country without the authorization of the UN”
American Michael Ignatieff – … new information reveals [Ignatieff] was on the front lines of pre-invasion planning when he worked in the U.S.

One on one with Peter Mansbridge: Battle of the Foreheads.

(Mansbridge does a pretty good job with this one – worth the watch)

Way to keep that campaign on message, Mr. Ignatieff!

The Liberal Party won’t stop using an ad that wrongly attributes a quote to Stephen Harper […]
The ad cites an Aug. 26, 2010 Globe and Mail piece for the first statement, and runs it with a headline that says “It’s Past Time the Feds Scrapped the Canada Health Act.”
But while that line did indeed appear in the Globe and Mail last year, it was in a column by writer André Picard. Picard was citing Harper from a 1997 statement he made as vice-president of the NCC.
A Google search makes it clear the line is oft-cited but never with a link to a recording or speech text. It’s usually sourced to a famous speech Harper made in Montreal to a conservative American group called the Council for National Policy (where he calls Canada a northern European welfare state).
Now it appears Harper didn’t use the line at all.

“Globe has corrected” original Aug. 26, 2010 column and is pursuing Liberal response.”
I knew that the appearance of Paul Martin over the weekend was foreshadowing.