CanPol: Race to the Finish

[Sava]

lol silly canadians LOL

[Ninot]

I only half payed attention to the debates in french.

From what I heard, Leyton was just repeating what he said last night, but in french. He didn't need to be there.

Martin tried to play the whole "I'm a Quebecer and I love Quebec and I love Canada" game again. Didn't work for me.

Duceppe pulled the party line. He won't convert anyone, but he tried to stir the base.

Harper seemed to target Duceppe more than Martin, for me.

But I didn't watch the whole thing, and I was paying more attention to hockey scores.

[Asher]

But I didn't watch the whole thing, and I was paying more attention to hockey scores.

Canada

[notyoueither]

Harper wants the conservative base back from Duceppe?

[Ninot]

Originally posted by notyoueither
Harper wants the conservative base back from Duceppe?

I guess?

My seperatist friend admitted to me that if he wasn't going to vote for Duceppe, he'd vote for Harper.

It's not a far fetched idea at all.

[notyoueither]

http://www.cbc.ca/canadavotes/analysiscommentary/campaignconfidential.html#jan10

Tues., Jan. 10, 2006

A change of mood

There is a time in every election when the shape of the outcome emerges. And even though campaigns are narrow-sighted beasts, that outcome is often discerned somewhat earlier by the participants than by the voters. In this election, has that time arrived?
During the early and middle phases, campaigners subsist, poorly, on an unhealthy diet of fast food, caffeine, and adrenaline, which accounts for the unique blend of stress, panic and exhilaration that describes most campaign war rooms.

Then, both diet and environment change.

In a winning campaign, and the Conservatives currently wear that title, the mid-campaign diet is replaced by fasting. Eating and drinking, are at a minimum. So are sleeping and breathing.

Like a baseball slugger nursing a hot streak, winning campaigns avoid changing routines and jinxing hitters.

Stand tomorrow just as you stood yesterday, tie your shoes in the same order, be polite to the umpire, walk to the plate without a swagger. Do exactly what you did yesterday, and eke out just a few more hits, one day at a time. Conceal the signs of celebration.

On losing campaigns, and even Liberals agree now that they're trailing, the headquarters develop that clubhouse 'quiet' unique to teams down 3-1 in a best-of-seven series. Players and fans all know the gloomy stats: comebacks can happen, even from this point. Remember the Red Sox? But how often does that happen?

Fans reminisce about the warning signs from earlier in the season. Bets are placed regarding the coach's tenure. Campaign workers start remembering everyday things forgotten in the earlier frenzy … things like lunch, picking up the dry cleaning, feeding the cat, paying the hydro bill.

Suddenly, where there was no time for anything, there's time to wash the car on the way back to headquarters. Have a drink, or maybe a few. Instead of the frazzled rat-a-tat of keyboards and printers rapid firing the tenth spin-check to deadline-crushed media, of cell phones chirping non-stop, the war room echoes with the hushed sound of resume editing and the guarded chats about job interviews.

In NDP-land, the good and the bad are both equally imaginable. Up to now, this campaign has been a squeeze play, with Jack the meat in the sandwich. It might still turn out that way, leaving the party in tatters. But, maybe, just maybe, a Liberal freefall could put the NDP in second.

Still 13 days to go.

Nobody dares say this, except an anonymous (until election night) pundit.

Who else is thinking Liberal meltdown?

What do the days to come hold for us?

We live in interesting times.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Ninot


I guess?

My seperatist friend admitted to me that if he wasn't going to vote for Duceppe, he'd vote for Harper.

It's not a far fetched idea at all.

That's what I'm thinking. Traditional Tory support split to other options when Tory initiatives, and their failures, annoyed the hell out of the base. It happened in both Alberta-BC interior and Quebec at the same time. The result was 2 seats.

The big sleep lasted longer in Quebec than in the West, but the base is still there in Quebec, and elsewhere. The West was merely the nursery. Life support for a point of view lost in the wilderness.

[notyoueither]

Swimming in billions, but not enough to fund adequate policing, or enough to transfer enough for policing to be paid for.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/01/10/crimestoppers-kelowna-060110.html

Crime Stoppers to pay RCMP salaries
Last Updated Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:06:00 EST
CBC News
Private funds will pay the salaries of some RCMP officers in a B.C. city, in what is being billed as a national first.

The program is being set up in Kelowna, where Crime Stoppers is raising $240,000 a year to pay the salaries of three new officers.

Crime Stoppers says it's a stopgap measure to deal with a critical shortage of police in the Central Okanagan, which left the force unable to follow up on many tips called in to the organization's anonymous hotline.

"That's why Crime Stoppers is getting involved. It's because the tips are not getting responded to quickly enough right now," Crime Stoppers vice-president Vern Nielsen said in Kelowna on Monday.

"It's the first time in North America that something like this has been done, the most progressive program that Crime Stoppers has ever come up with," he told a joint news conference by the non-profit organization and RCMP.

Outside funding won't sway police, RCMP says

Kelowna RCMP Supt. Bill McKinnon said that, as far as he knows, it is the first time private funding from companies and individual donors has been used to pay for general duty RCMP officers in Canada.

There have been some cases of private funding paying part of the salaries of specialized officers, such as those who speak to young people about alcohol and drug addictions.

McKinnon assured reporters his police force will not be influenced by any outside agency.

"There's no direction from the Crime Stoppers board," McKinnon said. "It will have no effect on any impartiality. All they're doing is raising the funds and providing the officers, and I take it from there."

But there is one small string attached.

In return for that funding, the RCMP has agreed all three new officers will be permanently assigned to follow up on Crime Stoppers tips.

Bravo for a community doing something, but this is a national disgrace.

[Wezil]

Originally posted by notyoueither

Nobody dares say this, except an anonymous (until election night) pundit.

Who else is thinking Liberal meltdown?

What do the days to come hold for us?

We live in interesting times.

Michael Harris (the columnist - not the ex-politico) predicted a Con majority about a week ago. Claimed the "wheels have come off the Liberal bus".

This sure is reminiscent of the PC meltdown when Mulroney gave Campbell the filthy Tory can to carry.

The new ads are absolutely disgusting to me but it remains to be seen if there will be a backlash. It is hard to imagine there won't be, but my countrymen never fail to astound me with their political sophistication.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Wezil


Michael Harris (the columnist - not the ex-politico) predicted a Con majority about a week ago. Claimed the "wheels have come off the Liberal bus".

This sure is reminiscent of the PC meltdown when Mulroney gave Campbell the filthy Tory can to carry.

The new ads are absolutely disgusting to me but it remains to be seen if there will be a backlash. It is hard to imagine there won't be, but my countrymen never fail to astound me with their political sophistication.

I've managed to avoid the new ads.

to satellite dishes and a PVR-- I may never sit through a commercial again

[Wezil]

Originally posted by Flubber


I've managed to avoid the new ads.

to satellite dishes and a PVR-- I may never sit through a commercial again

These ads are running as news.

Gobs of free air time that the Libs may be regretting.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Wezil


These ads are running as news.

Gobs of free air time that the Libs may be regretting.

Hmm-- if the news article is "look how negative the Liberals are this time", I can see the Liberals really regretting things

Remember the Conservative attack ad that used a very unflattering pic of Chretiens face? I believe Campbell would have been crushed but not to the level of 2 seats except for the backlash against that ad.

TYhe problem is that generally attack ads work but if you cross the line to far, they may start to work for your opponent

[Ben Kenobi]

I came to Apolyton only to find myself one of the skeptics!

I don't know if we will see a Liberal collapse on the level of the Tory meltdown earlier. I just want to see how well the Conservatives do come election day. I've not seen a Conservative win, since 1988, and I was too young for that.

[Ben Kenobi]

Now I'm not lawyer, but I think thats the essence of what Judges are supposed to do: what's right, not neccesarily what's popular.

Agreed. But the folks who disagree, this is just another example of how out of touch the SCoC is with what Canadians desire.

I still don't see what constitutional principles they base their decision on, other then libertarianism, that so long as we don't think anyone is being hurt, we should permit swinger clubs. They don't argue that Canadians are deprived for not having them, or that this is the right thing to do.

[Ben Kenobi]

I would never want to stand as a candidate. I'm not very photogenic.