CanPol: May(?) 2011 Election. Vote today!

[Asher]

And don't get me wrong -- the Tories are the worst offenders for hyperpartisanship. They're a huge part of the problem.

[Wezil]

The way to win over uninterested voters isn't to obsess over words spoken 14 years ago. It's precisely **** like this which is why Canada has increasing voter apathy.

You DanS'd me.

No one gives a **** about real issues anymore. It's hyperpartisanism and schoolyard politics. People should pay it no mind. And they don't. Thus the low turnouts.

Of course not. The government runs on the politics of fear. Don't be surprised you are getting disingenuous arguments.

[notyoueither]

Unless you are a Conservative, in which case everything Iggy has said since grade school is fair game?

I don't pay much attention to the differences in how Iggy has presented his past.

I also do not see a problem with the differences between what Harper said could be done (constitutional) and what he now says should not be done (coalition of second place and trailing parties supported by seperatists).

[notyoueither]

And don't get me wrong -- the Tories are the worst offenders for hyperpartisanship. They're a huge part of the problem.

This.

[Wezil]

From the Post:

The nicknaming of parties’ campaign planes is a long-standing political tradition. In the last election, journalists aboard the Conservative plane nicknamed it “SweaterVest Jet,” in reference to the garment leader Stephen Harper wore in an early TV commercial. This year, it’s “ScaremongAir.” The leading handle for the Liberal plane seems to be “CzarForce One” — playing on Ignatieff’s ancestral connections to Russian royalty. Running second is “The Eyebrow Arrow” (say it like “The Avro Arrow”).

The Eyebrow Arrow

I can't believe a Lib advisor hasn't sent Iggy for a trim yet.

[notyoueither]

It occurs to me that by constantly hammering on Conservative majority or Liberal coalition of losers, Harper is legitimising the idea. The voters are going to the polls knowing the choices.

Hmmm.

I'm also thinking that Steve will get one more campaign to seek a majority if he falls short this time. He'll be campaigning from day 0 of Ignatieff being sworn in as PM of a minority government.

[notyoueither]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/video/video-harper-duets-with-youtube-star-maria-aragon/article1962498/?from=1962222

Video: Harper duets with YouTube star Maria Aragon
CP Video
Published Tuesday, Mar. 29, 2011 9:48PM EDT
Last updated Tuesday, Mar. 29, 2011 9:51PM EDT
Prime Minister Harper sings "Imagine" with YouTube star Maria Aragon. Aragon became famous for her rendition of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way," which she also performed for Harper and his wife Laureen.

:head explodes:

[Wezil]

That will probably work to his advantage actually.

[notyoueither]

No doubt.

I am just seriously... something... about the play list.

Actually being in power, and being faced with decisions is said to change some people. This just has my head spinning.

[Wezil]

I wonder who picked the song?

[notyoueither]

Born this way is the song the little girl sang on Youtube that had Lady Gaga invite her to perform on stage in Toronto.

I'm unlcear where Imagine came from.

[notyoueither]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/harper-performs-campaign-trail-duet-with-young-gaga-fan/article1962222/

Harper performs campaign-trail duet with young Gaga fan
STEVEN CHASE
WINNIPEG— Globe and Mail Update
Posted on Tuesday, March 29, 2011 7:25PM EDT


Stephen Harper paid a visit to YouTube singing sensation Maria Aragon Tuesday while trolling for votes in Winnipeg – and ended up singing John Lennon with the newly famous 10-year-old.

The young Filipino-Canadian chanteuse gained international acclaim for her YouTube cover of Lady Gaga’s Born this Way, which landed her plaudits from the American superstar and a place on stage when the singer performed the hit in Toronto earlier this month.

Mr. Harper, who’s courting the big Filipino community in Winnipeg like every other party in the 2011 election, journeyed to Maria’s home to meet her.

“Maria's going to play something for us,” he told reporters. “She's played in front of big crowds now; she's a big star.”

The Conservative Leader and his wife, Laureen, sat on either side of the 10-year-old elementary-school student as she played Born this Way on the keyboard and sang.

Mr. Harper bobbed his head in tune with the music during the performance, which took place in Maria’s living room.

He praised the self-possessed young woman for her prowess. “Fantastic. You’re not going to beat that. You’re never going to get this close to concert quality.”

Later, Mr. Harper asked Maria if she knew any Beatles songs. She said her second favourite artist after Lady Gaga was Michael Jackson.

The only Beatles tune she was familiar with, though, was John Lennon’s Imagine.

The Tory chief, a piano player, took the keyboard while the 10-year-old sang.

Mr. Harper took over on the second verse, and when he finished the verse that exhorts listeners to imagine there’s “no religion, too,” he paused and said: “I'm gonna get in trouble for that.”

Maria later accompanied the Harper tour to his Winnipeg rally with area Tory candidates and performed O Canada for the crowd.

[notyoueither]

It Was a Nice Idea for a Campaign, Iggy

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/03/29/37-days-liberal-cousins-at-odds-on-taxes/

37 Days: Liberal cousins at odds on taxes
Scott Stinson Mar 29, 2011 – 9:51 PM ET

Over the course of the election campaign, columnist Scott Stinson unpacks the makings of a federal political contest. Today, the provincial intrusion.

If politics makes strange bedfellows, it also makes strange adversaries. Thus, a Liberal government in Ontario that presents a budget — and priorities — on Tuesday that are significantly at odds with those being stressed by its federal Liberal cousins on the campaign trail.

The McGuinty government released a budget that includes corporate tax cuts as a cornerstone of its economic growth strategy. It notes that Ontario’s general corporate income-tax rate has already been reduced since 2009 from 14% to 12%, and it is scheduled to be cut further — to 10% — by 2013.

Finance Minister Dwight Duncan told media Tuesday the tax measures were “an integral part of our growth plan.”

“These comprehensive tax reforms,” the provincial budget says, “will position Ontario as one of the most attractive jurisdictions in the industrialized world for new investment. Increased business investment will lead to more jobs and higher incomes for Ontarians.”

These are statements that in tone and substance echo exactly what the federal Conservatives have been saying about Ottawa’s scheduled reductions to its portion of the corporate income-tax rate.

Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals call them “tax reforms.” Michael Ignatieff’s Liberals call them “corporate tax giveaways.”

The Ontario Liberals call them “competitive business taxes.” The federal Liberals call them “handouts for Canada’s wealthiest corporations.”

Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath, speaking on Tuesday, called them “multi-billion-dollar handouts for Ontario’s richest corporations.” She noted that federal Liberal MP David McGuinty does not agree with his brother, the Premier, that “corporate tax cuts are the way to go.”

It will make for an artful bit of argument if Mr. Ignatieff is able to explain how his provincial brethren still believe in corporate tax reductions now that his party, having previously supported them, has abandoned them. Even the federal Liberals’ preferred explanation for their own switch — that business taxes should not be cut during a time of deficit — has been rebutted by the Ontario Liberals, who are committed to further reductions even though the province carries a multi-billion-dollar deficit.

The McGuinty government says continued cuts are needed to increase competitiveness with jurisdictions in the United States, and with other provinces. And, it says, they are working: “A more competitive business climate is creating more jobs and higher incomes for people,” the Ontario budget says, sounding positively Flaherty-esque. The budget adds that the improved climate has led to a 7.4% increase in private-sector investments in infrastructure, machinery and equipment from 2009 to 2010.

Ontario’s Finance Ministry said on Tuesday that the combined cuts to the federal and provincial corporate tax rates will mean a 25% rate in 2013, which is in line with the OECD average. That’s why, Mr. Duncan says, the province doesn’t want to raise them again in the short term.

A Liberal official in the media lockup on Tuesday noted that “[Stephen] Harper will probably use that to bash Iggy” as soon as the budget was released.

No doubt he will. And while he’s at it, the federal Conservative leader might also note that among the Ontario Liberal budget items is a plan to make the jail system more efficient by closing under-used prisons. Those inmates, it says, “will be transferred to new, larger, more efficient facilities.” Ontario Liberals spending money on bigger jails? In federal Liberal circles, the proper term for these facilities are “U.S.-style mega prisons.”

Mr. Ignatieff can take solace in one element of the Ontario budget, however. The province isn’t buying any untendered fighter jets.

National Post
sstinson@nationalpost.com

[Wezil]

Don't worry about what McGuinty does NYE. He's a dead man walking and following his lead would be bad advice (although I know the Post likes tax cuts).

Harper is actually trying to buck the historical trend. Ontario traditionally votes opposite fed/prov and we have a Conservative provincial government on the way this fall. If trends continue that would mean Iggy and the Libs should take over in Ottawa.

[Wezil]

Pack it in. We're all Liberals.

KINGSTON, Ont. — The CBC appears to have a new spin on the old joke about the answer to all multiple choice questions being "C". This time the answer is usually "G", as in Grit.

Queen's University political science professor Kathy Brock says the state broadcaster's Vote Compass online survey tool is flawed and tells people they're Liberal by default.

Vote Compass, a 30-question survey on the CBC's website, is supposed to show Canadians which party's political views are most like their own.

Brock said she completed the survey three times using three distinct strategies, and was aligned each time with the Liberal party.

"If you're giving opposite responses and getting the same result, that's not correct," she said.

Brock said the first time she did the survey she selected the "somewhat agree" response to every question. The second time, she selected "somewhat disagree," and the third time she chose "strongly agree."

The final questions in the survey pertain to leaders. They ask respondents to rank candidates for prime minister based on trustworthiness and competence. Brock said she selected the "I don't know" option for all the leader questions, every time.

"Every time, it told me I was politically centred and should vote Liberal," Brock said.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/CanadaVotes/2011/03/29/17798811.html