April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

Conservative

1 Cat 2 Cat Red Cat Blue Cat

by

As support for the NDP rises there rumblings from some quarters that the NDP is somehow betraying Canada by running a great campaign. Like Harper they have fallen victim to the idea of Canada as a two party system. The concept is that by not supporting the Liberals the NDP is complicit in allowing Harper to win. This presupposes that A) Harper will win and that B) the NDP has no responsibility to its members and contributors to run a proper campaign.

I want to vote for a party that has a commitment to health care and the bona fides to go with it.

I want to vote for a party with a commitment to labour, to protecting pensions and with a vision to bring dignity and hope to the lives of the poor including poor seniors.

I want to vote for a party with a commitment to human rights, women’s rights and respect for the environment.

In short I want to vote for a leftist party, which Ignatieff says the Liberals are not, “I don’t think of the Liberal Party of Canada as a party of the left. I never have,”

I have no problem with Layton and Ignatieff combining their efforts, coalition governments have been wonderful for Canada, however, we have had the Red Cats and the Blue Cats isn’t it time for “little fellow with an idea”?

The Debate

by

Tonight’s leadership debate was much better than I expected. While I didn’t see a clear winner I did see more honest talk than there has been for some time.

May was fantastic and a real asset to the debate. Duceppe was hilarious when asked what his first order of business would be as PM he said he wasn’t going to be elected PM but this is what he would lobby the others to do.

Layton was articulate, on message and got some lovely digs at Harper including asking Harper if he was keeping his platform under his sweater.

Harper slipped a couple of times with Dion proving how he is misconstruing Dion’s words to put forth his own agenda.

As far Harper I’ll quote my son;

he really showed obvious signs of “fight or flight” instincts any time he was asked a direct question from one of the other candidates or whenever they called him on something he said that wasn’t true. His eyes were darting, he shifted multiple times in a small time period and he hunched down making himself as small as possible. And all I could think is if he can’t stand up strong during a simple debate was: How, if he ever actually got elected, could he stand up to his opposition (excluding underhanded tactics.) And if he can’t do that, how would he be able to stand up to other world leaders, especially those who he already seems to have a weakness to? (Bush, McCain if he somehow gets elected.)
he just seemed like a very weak leader in that, he couldn’t stand up to any of them strongly, and could do nothing but evade any straightforward question. He showed clearly his policies are based on lip service to ideology.

It will be interesting to see how the media spins it.