The Canadian Federal Election will probably be October 14th

[Asher]

Originally posted by Wezil


Alberta needs to put some seats in play so the parties can pander to them too.

Why would Alberta vote for a party who historically has done nothing but screw them over?

[Wezil]

It is a double edged sword however. Why should the Libs give a damn about AB if they don't have a prayer of winning any seats there? The province is doing itself no favours by being a one party state.

I do realise it is a chicken and egg sort of thing.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Wezil
It is a double edged sword however. Why should the Libs give a damn about AB if they don't have a prayer of winning any seats there? The province is doing itself no favours by being a one party state.

I do realise it is a chicken and egg sort of thing.

The problem is Alberta's votes are never significant enough to warrant significant attention. They stand nothing at all to gain by voting liberal, they'll always be the smaller fish compared to bigger provinces that also vote liberal.

Given Ontario and Alberta voting liberal, which do you think will get the preferential treatment for fear of losing voters?

Alberta is best served by electing the sole right wing party vs splitting its vote among a bunch of other parties.

Either way they're insignificant for the libs. This way they're significant for at least one party.

[Wezil]

Good point but it's not as if AB is NFLD or something. 28 seats in AB? It's only 1/4 ON but it is growing... I'm sure the Libs would love a slice of that but the distrust between AB and Libs is too deep for it to happen, even if Dion wasn't pushing this Green Shift propsal.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Wezil
Good point but it's not as if AB is NFLD or something. 28 seats in AB? It's only 1/4 ON but it is growing... I'm sure the Libs would love a slice of that but the distrust between AB and Libs is too deep for it to happen, even if Dion wasn't pushing this Green Shift propsal.

The worst for one party provinces is probably PEI-- Only 4 seats and they seem to always vote Liberal-- The rest of Atlantic Canada at leats has a number of seats that are generally in play.

Newfoundland ? Speculation is that the Cons could lose all of their three seats there as Premier Williams campaigns against harper. Two incumbents have retired and the remaining incumbent is thought to be in tough. The NDP could actually take a seat in St John's since Jack Harris (former provincial NDP leader and a former MP) is once again running.

I don't follow NS or NB closely but IIRC there were a number of tight races last time out

[Wezil]

Williams ABC approach has been hurting the Conservatives on the Rock. A nasty tiff it has been. The slogan caught on however. I have heard it here.

[Victor Galis]

Originally posted by Asher

Would you disagree with the assertion they've no reason to make voters in Alberta happy?

Yes and no. While I doubt they can win any seats there in this election, I suspect that they could position themselves in a way that would at least make them competitive in some ridings there. Granted, I'd probably lose an election if I were leader of the Liberal Party, but I'd try to limit the screwing over of any province for the sake of national unity. I do have a general distaste for parties that are overly regional.

and it might perhaps have the intended consequence of cutting emissions although if I find a way to do something 8% cheaper while increasing emissions by 6%, it will still pay to pollute more

I fail to see a problem with that. Reducing emissions is desirable so is economic growth and prosperity. Taxing emissions at a reasonable rate is all about allowing businesses to determine how much pollution is worth it and how much isn't. With no plan, the company would cut costs 8%, with the tax they don't gain as much benefit from polluting more.

If you actually want to reduce I still like cap and trade where the idea is that regardless of the economics you MUST find a way to reduce emissions and eventually a market will set a price on what a ton of carbon reduction is worth

Why should the market set the price on reductions? The damage from a tonne of CO2 is the same regardless of what companies pay to emit it. It's much better to set a fixed price and let companies pick the amount of emissions. If it turns out that at a reasonable price (considering the damage that's being done) companies continue to pollute, then it's more effective for us to cover the environmental damage and keep polluting.

Mandating a tax rate now into the future means you are plucking numbers from the air when you have no idea as to the real cost of reductions. A tax could be too low and have no real impacts or far too high (so the price of some necessaries like electricity goes up far too much despite the fact the need for it is pretty inelastic)

And picking a level of emissions is better? Giving away permits based on existing levels of outputs screws those firms that have already invested in clean technologies. Auctioning permits requires picking a starting bid too. I think it's much easier to set a price per tonne and let businesses decide what they want to do about it than it is to pick a quantity, set up a market, assign initial distribution of permits, etc. More importantly, if the price is very volatile, there's a great deal of risk injected into the system that's just not there with the fixed price from a tax.

[Asher]

Today's best The Star comments.

Strategic Voting

Don't just run from Harper - pick the most likely candidate in your riding. It's all we can do for this election to hang on to democracy. We are on the verge of losing it if we split the vote and Harper gets even a minority. Canada has never been in this situation; drop all thinking of "best party to lead the country" just save the country.

Strong mandate

A strong mandate to support the oil cartel, to split our country, to financially ruin our children's future? No, I will give a strong mandate for you to leave politics behind and give our country back to those who care. Anyone but the Cons.

You're right Stephy

We want jobs and to have a good living,though we will have none of it should you be elected and proceed with picking our pockets clean with your pie in the sky plan to tax everything.

Summary: You need to vote for anyone but Harper otherwise our country will cease to exist; if you vote for Harper you will financially ruin our children's future; if elected Harper will implement a tax on everything.

Wait, what? Good lord, somebody check the water in Toronto.

There's also been three distinct articles within 24 hours on TheStar.ca with the same actual story:
"Dion attacks PM on economy"
"Harper an 'economic incompetent,' Dion charges"
"Don't trust Conservatives on economy, Dion says"

And no, they're not different versions of the same article.

A month or so ago there was an editorial in The Star saying this year they're not going to support one party, and they will be "fairly evaluating all parties" in their editorials. That lasted about half a week. It's back to being a Liberal PR machine now.

[Wezil]

They are the unofficial party rag and always have been. Any claims to the contrary are laughable. Never liked the paper.

Are you compelled to read (as in the accident scene)? I haven't bothered with the paper in years.

[Asher]

Yep, it's compelling. The comments are comedy gold daily.

The paper is also home to the worst hockey columnist ever, Damien Cox. He's legendary in the NHL community.

[Wezil]

I've found the comments at most sites carrying CanPol discussion to be amusing. There are legions of stupid people out there that insist on showing how stupid they really are. Inter spaced with these you find the rabid partisan posts extolling the divinity of candidate X and the evilness of The Other (your Star contributors).

[Wezil]

I found an upset Liberal at cbc you may find amusing

Very funny, you post the comment that protests the blatant censorship, but you don't post the real comment? That is more overt deviousness!

Word is on the radio, on the web, people are getting this out everywhere. You are now not going to be believed on any of your coverage if you keep the PRO-HARPER agenda all over this medium.

You don't even show the Liberals speaking nearly any day of the week, but you put Layton on for 2 hours for a town hall meeting. Do you really think people aren't talking about this everywhere? The official opposition, the LIBERALS are being deliberately undermined by your own coverage, your insidious attempt to SPLIT THE VOTE FOR HARPER?

You think everyone is falling for this, but they're denouncing YOU NOW! The public does not want a Harper Minority, let alone a majority, despite what your 'rigged' small, incompetent polling samples are feeding us. The more you do this to the people, the more the word is spreading, and there is a backlash. Shame on you for taking out the real comments of posters, that are valid, and just showing the protest against your insipid HARPER CONTROLLED CENSORSHIP!

Keep going. It is not going to work this time. People are talking about the Bush election wins, and how the same kind of devious media manipulation is running rampant here now too! We witnessed it in 2000 & 2004, so if you think people aren't aware of what you are doing, Canadians are smarter than you think. We've seen in happen when Mulroney was elected, and Mike Harris, and in the U.S., and believe it, you are only hurting our trust in YOU. People know what being burned by media manipulation looks like, and tons fo them are waking up to 'your devious invented' Harper win, all day, all the time. All the more reason people will really shift to stop Harper. A huge pluarality of voters are not going for a second Harper government! Too many people are taliking about exactly this scenario, and how the media is trying to engineer a Harper win!

We really just didn't believe it would come from the cbc! How shameful!

I didn't know the CBC has been involved in a long standing conspiracy to elect Conservatives. Very devious, no one suspected that.

[Asher]

That post is a winner.

[Asher]

In the past couple hours, The Star added some more awesome articles.

"Harper's passive, fearful Canada"
"'Shame on Harper' for recession accusations: Dion"



And of course, the best comments on The Star are the ones where people from Ontario try to play the victim card:

An Attack on Alberta!

My goodness if Stephen Harper thinks Alberta is under attack; well as an Ontarian I'd say welcome to the club. But I'd add that Ontario is not just used; but abused; of course amused too! Funny how Ontario is the one place where people in Canada consider themselves Canadian first!

Yeah, because Ontario has been neglected for decades under Liberal rule. Albertans have no idea what it's like to be "under attack" by the federal government.

[Wezil]

...and you wonder why I prefer the canoe site.

We don't have many options for online news and they all suck. I'm more conservative than liberal but not a rabid partisan. What would you suggest?