Sad News - Jack Layton passed away today at the age of 61

Photo from the Globe and Mail.

The news came suddenly; it still hasn't sunk in completely for me. He overcame the odds, campaigned vigorously in 2011 with his walking-cane, turning it from a symbol of frailness to one of triumph.

Today is a truly non-partisan moment as tributes come in from all parties - Liberal, Conservative, Green, Bloc, and NDP - we all stand together as Canadians. Jack Layton will go down as a legendary figure in Canadian politics.

Click here for Jack Layton's obituary.

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Re: Jack Layton's Press Conference

Jack Layton announced that he is fighting a new cancer and is thus temporarily stepping down as NDP leader, planning to resume his duties in September. I hope Layton gets well soon, best wishes to him.

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Stephen Harper and Jack Layton: The new buddies

Watch out Mr. Layton. Black cats cannot be trusted and before you know it you become the meal.

Read the story here for the context.

Video:

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Canadian Elections 2011

I think on May 2nd I had a nightmare, in that nightmare I saw that the Liberal Party was practically annihilated, BQ was gone, the NDP became the official opposition, and Harper won a sizeable majority.

Oh no, this nightmare is going to last at least four years.

GONE


GONE

At least this was one of the few good outcomes of election night. I always felt that the Bloc was irrelevant and it is about time that Quebecers joined the federal parties.

OFFICIAL OPPOSITION

I'm sure he and the NDP must be very happy. I hope that they will do a good job of being an effective opposition; although it is going to be hard given the autocratic tendencies of the big cahoona. Layton did considerable damage to Michael Ignatieff when during the debates he told him that he was absent 70% of the time from the House of Commons, and his relentless attacks continued during the election. Because of that considerable damage was done to the Liberal Party, especially in Ontario, where vote splitting in many ridings helped Conservatives to win their majority with sometimes one-third of the vote in these ridings. It looks that Layton unintentionally did help the big cahoona for his majority.

THE BIG CAHOONA

Here is your Prime Minister with a new majority mandate. Given his ultra-conservative background, it is worrisome how much damage he will do to social programs, especially healthcare, and he's indeed a big fan of America. I hope we don't become the 51st state. One can only pray and wish Canada well, it looks like a very rough ride for the next four years.

Since election night, I did not feel like blogging and I still feel the same way, that's why it took me so long to write something about the election outcome. Hopefully time will heal this hurt, we as Canadians will do alright. We should keep in mind that in 1993 PCs were completely annihilated with only 2 seats; who would have thought that a regional party like Reform would collude with the Tories and today have a majority in the House of Commons? We should not be so despondent, hopefully Liberals will get themselves a good leader and start the reconstruction and rebuilding work right away.

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Mahatma Layton

What are the chances that Mahatma Jack Layton will be the next Prime Minister of Canada?

UPDATE: Platform, Layton will free us from the dictator Joseph Harper.

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Sheila Frazer created a Mount Rushmoron

When the auditor general asked to examine the MPs' personal expenses, all three national leaders created a mountain of a barrier to stop her from doing that and that includes Stephen Harper, Jack Layton and Michael Ignatieff. Only Gilles Duceppe said it was a good idea. So much for national leaders. What were they thinking? What are they hiding? Their likeness needs to be carved on a Mount Rushmoron of their own.


Rex Murphy of CBC gave a good commentary on that which you can see here.

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Nick Clegg and David Cameron: The Odd Couple

The picture speaks for itself. Conservatives and Liberal Democrat coalition in Britain.

David Cameron: Prime Minister
Nick Clegg: Deputy Prime Minister

Stephen Harper: Prime Minister?
Jack Layton: Deputy Prime Minister?

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Jack Layton

My thoughts and prayers to Jack Layton, wishing him a speedy recovery.

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Stephen Harper and a true WTF moment

Stephen Harper is being given a Human Rights Award by the Canadian Jewish Congress?!? What for? Because he approved Israel's indiscriminate killing of over 700 women and children during the December 2008 invasion of Gaza. Also approving of Israel's indiscriminate killing of women and children in 2006 when it invaded Lebanon. What is this? Divine rights of Israel to kill kill kill, and kill some more? I suppose Palestinians and other Arabs are not humans and it is promoting human rights when you kill them or approve of such killing. I thought all humans are created equal but apparently this is not so.

And Ignatieff and Layton are speaking at the same function. What kind of skull-duggery is this. These guys are a bigger jerks than I could ever imagine. This is truly a WTF moment.

Click here to read more.

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Jim Flaherty: The Shoe Fits

Jim Flaherty is all set for the budget speech. As being a true devotee to Bush, he first checked to see if the shoe fit his head. But would this shoe fit the opposition? Layton and Ducceppe have already shaken their heads and said it will not. Iggy is not sure as he is used to wearing American shoes. The problem for Flaherty is that his object of devotion, Bush, is gone and Obama's shoe may shrink his head.

Obama is a brilliant and a realist, he is extending a hand of friendship to the whole world. His stay in Indonesia was used against him by the neo-cons during election but he has turned it into an asset for reaching out to the Muslim world. It is hoped that it will be a kiss of death to the extremists as their cause to incite hatred against the US may wane. I may be writing more on this move of Obama later.

Back to the budget speech. Iggy is very shaky and tomorrow, Wednesday, we will know which direction his shoe rotates. Iggy may be a bright professor, but he is definitely a beginner in political field. Who knows, he may pick up a tip or two on the way. Time will tell. So far his performance has been nothing but disappointing.

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The Fall of Stephen Harper

Stephen Harper has been daring the opposition for quite a while now, especially before the last election. He forgot he had a minority in the House of Commons. His arrogance and game playing caught up with him and he brought about his own fall. He cannot blame anyone else for it. No matter who the new leader of Liberal Party is, Stephen Harper will have hard time surviving come January. If Liberals roll over again under the new leader then they will lose their credibility. By proroguing the Parliament in order to avoid a no-confidence vote Harper is bordering on being an illegitimate Prime Minister.

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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.

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“The View” by Danny Williams, and ABC (Anyone but Conservative)

Danny Williams has the ABC (Anybody But Conservatives) campaign against Stephen Harper. Maybe he is on to something. He did deal with Harper face to face and very few get that chance. Is it possible that he knows something that we all should pay attention to? Williams does have alot of credibility as he is a straight talker who has a very high approval ratings in his home province of Newfoundland.

Danny Williams told Steve Murphy of CTV Atlantic that when he confronted Harper on his promise of an off-shore resources deal, Harper looked straight in his eyes and said he did not need the votes of Newfoundland and Labrador. That is quite rude to say to a Premier of any province, especially after breaking his word on the Atlantic Accord.

I watched French Debate and parts of English debate, I do not think Harper did so well. He kept smiling and on economy he said Canada is not the U.S. and repeated the John McCainesque quote of "the fundamentals of our economy are strong." Can you believe this guy? On Thursday the Toronto Stock Exchange took a 814 point hit which does not look good. Yes, geographically we are located north of the US and we are not the US, but anything which happens in the US travels to the North like pollution from smoke stacks in Ohio. This false assurance by Harper is not very comforting. People lost their savings, especially those who have RRSPs up to 20+% on average, and he continues to tell us that "the fundamentals of the economy are strong" (even McCain ultimately admitted there was a crisis, but Harper out-Republicaned him by not admitting this). Maybe Harper means that the economy is strong for him and his rich friends.

I think Danny Williams is right, that Harper cannot be trusted.

In the English debate Harper was repeatedly asked where his platform was which is not available yet. Jack Layton threw a zinger when he said, "Are you hiding the platform under your sweater?" Yes where is his platform and how is he going to deal with the current economic crisis which is getting worse by the day?

Stephane Dion gave a strong performance in the French language debate and held his own in the English debate. Elizabeth May performed strongly in both debates and gave new visibility to her party.

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Stephen Harper, Elizabeth May, Gilles Duceppe, Jack Layton and Stéphane Dion Revealed

CNN aired specials called "Barack Obama Revealed" and "John McCain Revealed". More recently, Joe Biden and Sarah Palin were "Revealed." I thought I will try a Canadian version but in a much simpler way for my readers. I will "Reveal" the answer to, who do they aspire to be?

Stephen Harper: Of course his master George W. Bush. If given the chance, he would change the nomenclature from Prime Minister to President and build himself a Whitehouse.

Elizabeth May: She would like to be her role model David Suzuki. Environmentalist and all green.

Gilles Duceppe: But of course René Lévesque, his role model. A separate nation and he is its Prime Minister or President, whatever the case may be. I wonder if Duceppe will take up smoking too ;)

Jack Layton: Barack Obama of course. He mimics Obama in his speeches and wants to be the leader of change. At times he sounds exactly like Barack Obama and even copies his gestures and mannerisms.

Stéphane Dion: If nothing else he will like to be Prime Minister for 10 years plus like Pierre Elliott Trudeau. He would also like to be like David Suzuki, but then it would complicate the picture a bit.

Good luck to them all.

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Mark Emery - The Merchant of Happiness ;)

My Political Party? ;)


Had it with this cowboy

Waiting for him to assert some leadership

He has his own problems

He is too wrapped up in his ideas of breaking up the country

Nope too green behind the ears
Mark Emery

Marijuana party

Now here is a guy who promises that, in his party, you will surely feel good. So I park my membership and my vote here for the time being ;)

Click here to read more on Mark Emery.

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Julie Couillard and Maxime Bernier's new project

An absolute hit at Parliament Hill, soon coming to a theatre near you.

Reviews from some viewers:

Stéphane Dion: Thrilling.

Jack Layton: Tantalizing.

Gilles Duceppe: Home grown talent

Stephen Harper: The Best Horror movie of the year, full of suspense.

Peter Van Loan: Action oriented. Engaging.

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Jim Flaherty 2008 budget: Reactions

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Stephen Harper daring them again!

What's with the opposition?

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Stephen Harper is daring the opposition

Why is the opposition so complacent, and not obliging Harper?

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Karlheinz Schreiber - 1001 Schreiberian Nights and the Drama on Parliament Hill

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