My Prediction...

...not to brag, but during the last election I predicted that the outcome would be a Liberal-NDP coalition government. While my prediction did not come true right away, now it looks that it will happen.

Click here to read my original prediction which I made on September 7th (it's at the bottom in the italicized portion of the entry).

Recommend this post

Canadian General Election October 2008

I am sure pundits will be giving many analysis of last night’s election as to who won, who lost and what went wrong. In my estimation all the leaders are losers. Yes, there was no winner last night.

Harper took a big gamble to win a majority, indifferent to what was happening to the country. He lost and got another minority. If he would have waited and handled economy well, he might have had better chance in 2009 on the fixed date.

Dion’s dream to become Prime Minister did not work. He could not deliver a knock out punch when Harper was at his weakest, stock markets were in disarray and the economy headed for a major downturn. He ended up with reduced Official Opposition numbers.

Jack Layton aimed for the Prime Minister’s job but could not even come up with Official Opposition title. He fell short of his expectations although he picked up a few seats.

Gille Duceppe could not quite pull off a major upset in Quebec but he did achieve his objective of denying Harper his majority. Canadians should be thankful to Duceppe. Imagine a Harper majority and full-fledged CON agenda.

Elizabeth May of course could not garnish a single seat in the House of Commons. She would have done better in London Ontario or in British Columbia.

However, the biggest loser in all this was the Canadian public. Harper broke his own fixed date election law to impose the election. All Canadians got was a major loss of time and resources with the same results we had before the election. Harper should have been looking after the economy, but instead his ego to have a majority got the better of him and he lost his credibility in the process.

I think both CONS and Libs need a new leader. CONS need a leader who cares about Canada and not about himself alone. Libs need a leader who not only cares about Canada but also can win. It is hard to predict the future, but both these leaders should head for the exit door.

Recommend this post

Stephen Harper: Issues to be considered

Stephen Harper is NOT a Prime Minister, or rather he SHOULD NOT be. A minimum requisite for any Prime Minister is that they should be proud of the country they're governing. That shouldn't be too much to ask. Yet Stephen Harper has referred to Canada as a "second-tier socialistic country" and called for a "firewall" to be built around Alberta. He wants to destroy everything Canada stands for, from hollowing out medicare, to circumventing the Charter of Rights, to establishing a militaristic and Bushian foreign policy. Stephen Harper hates Canada and everything this country stands for. Is this the kind of person we want governing Canada? Should he be our Prime Minister? The answer is No.

This alone would be enough reason to vote against Harper, but there is more. Alot more. It is hard to name everything, but I will try to provide a few examples.

To begin with, Stephen Harper is an ideologue. He subscribes to the small government, free market ideology that was responsible for the Wall Street collapse south of the border. A collapse that arose through excessive deregulation at the behest of the Republican neo-CONS. Stephen Harper is not someone we want managing our economy nor someone we can trust to safeguard our social programs. Furthermore, an extreme ideologue like Harper will not want to accept reality when it contradicts his theories, no matter the consequences for Canadians.

This is dangerous.

Then there is the corruption. Cadmangate, Schreibergate, Couillardgate, the list of Conservative corruption scandals is endless (and they have only been in power for two and a half years). This is especially ironic as the Conservatives campaigned in 2006 to "clean up government." I guess Stephen Harper is a "Maverick Reformer" like Sarah Palin who was recently reprimanded in her own state for corrupt exercise of power in firing the Alaska Public Safety Commissioner.

There is also the mean-spirited nature of the Harper government, from his control freakery, to his aloofness from the Canadian people (for instance his refusal to take questions from the public on Peter Mansbridge's Your Turn segment) to his "pooping puffin" ads at the beginning of the campaign. Harper and his cronies are hardly any better than a gang of schoolyard bullies. Furthermore, this bullying attitude extends to the Conservatives' attitude towards those in poverty, and those at risk. This includes refusing to honour the Kelowna Accord which would have helped impoverished Aboriginal communities, to axing daycare, to an overall hostile attitude towards social programs and social justice in general.

Around the World, neo-CONS are on their way out. John Howard of Australia was resoundingly defeated in his bid for re-election. Bush himself is on his way out and the Democrats look poised to take control of the Whitehouse and gain increased majorities in both the House and the Senate. As well, in Britain the Conservative Party has rejected the neo-CON legacy of Margaret Thatcher.

So why do we still have that anachronism of a Prime Minister that is Stephen Harper? Today, we have a chance to put this right and defeat Harper. Please, I urge you all to get out and vote, and take our country back.

Recommend this post

Stephen Harper and Danny Williams: The Duel of the Decade

These two are in a big duel. Let's see who wins. Will Danny Williams prevail with his ABC (Anybody But Conservatives), or will Harper's fight will bring the desired "fruit."

Recommend this post

Jim Flaherty – Trust no more

There is a flyer being distributed by the Harper government claiming they have lowered income tax for seniors. Of course, no income no tax. Who are they fooling? Do they think that seniors will forget what was done to Income Trusts? That is an insult. By breaking their promise not to tax income trusts, Jim Flaherty caused havoc in the stock market. Canadian stocks on income trusts lost over $30 billion (yes "billion" with "b") and left many seniors deprived of their nest egg. Can seniors trust Harper, Flaherty and company again? I do not think seniors will forget that.

Recommend this post

Harper: Prison of his own making

Harper has trapped himself in his own follies.

The most recent is fixed-date-election-gate. He passes legislation for a fixed date and then violates that law by calling an election, which is expected to be called on Sept 7, 2008 for October 14, 2008.

Other scandals include,

Cadman-gate: An ongoing saga which could be a disaster for Harper. He wants to have a quick election prior to more revelations on this fiasco

Mulroney-gate and Karlheinz Schreiber-gate: an inquiry is underway and more revelations may be coming soon again, he wants a quick election prior to such revelations.

Afghanistan-gate: The situation has gone from bad to worse. Now the reports show that the enemy is even stronger than when Canadians troops started the aggressive role. After losing the lives of close to a hundred brave soldiers, what have we achieved? Even Karzai is not pleased and he has made public statements on that time and again. If, heaven forbid, Harper wins a majority, we might find our soldiers in Iraq too.

Then of course there was in-and-out-gate where the Conservatives tranferred money from the national party to the local riding association, only to transfer it back again (in an attempt to circumvent electoral finance laws).

A fellow blogger, Penlan, suggested that I do a picture of Harper showing him behind the ultimate-gate – the slammer-gate. If Harper ends up here, he will be in the good company of his friend Karlheinz Schreiber.

Recommend this post