election notme getting very close now 040625 ... notme i'm worried please world, don't make harper pm we just don't need that sort of thing 040625 ... notme i wish i could vote for the bloc! duceppe seemed the best in the debates. i think that the ndp and bloc together with the greens would be an awesome combo 040625 ... notme but i am dreaming. 040625 ... notme Dr. Kay, who has been doing seat projections for every federal election since 1980 and has been accurate to within about five seats per party, said Canada will certainly have its first minority government since 1979. "It's too close to call and say absolutely which party will have the most seats," Dr. Kay said. "We are heading toward a dysfunctional Parliament. There is just no way this can work given the numbers. The Bloc will hold the balance of power and they won't work with either the Conservatives or the Liberals. We are going to have a new election probably within six months." -national post, friday, june 25, 2004 040625 ... notme ...Duceppe says he would shop around and offer his support to a minority government based on the proposals for the Speech from the Throne. Preparing for a role as kingmaker, he said his party could prop up either the Liberals or the Conservatives in a minority situation regardless of their standings in the House. He said constitutional rules do not automatically call on the party with the most seats to form that government, which gives the Bloc leeway in choosing a partner. "I'm not a big fan of blank cheques. We will see what's in the speech and then we will act," he said on his way to Fête Nationale celebrations across Montreal. Mr. Duceppe, buoyed by strong polls in Quebec, seems to revel in the possibility of holding the balance of power in the event of a tight national race. The Bloc has taken shots at both the Liberals and the Conservatives during the campaign, but has said it would be open to discussions immediately after the vote. Mr. Duceppe said he would take calls from any party leader, including Liberal Paul Martin, who could technically try to form a government even if his party comes in second. Mr. Martin has said that whichever party wins the most seats should get the first crack at governing, but Mr. Duceppe said he would be open to any proposal. "We will see if [Mr. Martin] tries. We will see what he says. We will see what he would propose. We have to take the time to do things right and with rigour," Mr. Duceppe said. -globe and mail, friday, june 24, 2004 040625 ... notme (my apologies to those who may be annoyed by my posting news snippets here) 040625 ... notme it will be interesting to see what actually happens on monday. 040625 ... notme *friday, june 25, 2004, not friday 24 i seem to be tired 040625 ... notme Tight election makes B.C. more than just an afterthought ...'The last time British Columbia mattered this much to the rest of Canada was 1871."...parallels with 1871 -- the year B.C. joined Confederation on the condition of the railway coming through...Liberal Leader Paul Martin has dared suggest this is the most important election in Canadian history and it all may come down, Monday evening, to whatever happens in B.C. ... -globe and mail, saturday, june 26, 2004 040626 ... notme what martin did to copps was terrible, i can see why her supporters are going ndp and i loved this from nader: ...Professing his love for Canada and its social programs, Ralph Nader...is urging Canadians to vote against Stephen Harper and the Conservatives on Monday. ...Mr. Nader made public an open letter to Canadians accusing the Conservatives of collaborating with corporate Canada and the right-wing Fraser Institute to undermine and privatize Canada's health-insurance program. "They want deregulation; they want to privatize the health-care system on the instalment plan," ..."This is part of a relentless effort to Reaganize or Bushize Canada." Mr. Nader said he is convinced U.S. President George W. Bush would react with "elation" to a Harper victory, noting: "Republicans have very close contacts with the Conservatives." Without suggesting specifically whom Canadians should vote for, Mr. Nader, 70, said he knew many voters wanted to punish the Liberals for the sponsorship scandal. "Do not overreact," he wrote. "You have a third major choice, the NDP, or other parties." He said later that Canadians could also vote for the "Quebec party," a reference to the Bloc Québécois. -globe and mail, saturday, june 26, 2004 "Republicans have very close contacts with the Conservatives." um, like david frum for instance?... http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=David_Frum i remember when his mom Barbara died, was very sad. 040626 ... notme A group of 2,000 Canadian respondents were asked what type of government condition was acceptable: A Liberal-led minority supported by the NDP Acceptable: 56% Unacceptable: 42% A Liberal-led minority government supported by the Conservatives Acceptable: 52% Unacceptable: 45% A Conservative-led minority government supported by the Liberals Acceptable: 48% Unacceptable: 49% A Conservative-led minority government supported by the NDP Acceptable: 47% Unacceptable: 50% A Liberal-led minority government supported by the Bloc Québécois Acceptable: 31% Unacceptable: 66% A Conservative-led minority government supported by the Bloc Québécois Acceptable: 28% Unacceptable: 70% SOURCE: IPSOS-REID -globe and mail, saturday june 26, 2004 frig i'm quoting the globe too much i can see a liberal-ndp minority or liberal-bloc-ndp being okay, but anything involving the conservatives is just crazy really i just want to see paul martin gone he has been the butcher in ottawa for too long. and i'm sick of my conservative mp, he's gotta go! green support is highest in bc, with at least 14 percent of bc'ers saying they're voting green and a higher percentage voting ndp. too many though, are voting conservative. it doesn't make sense to me. last election in my riding, i think we had (like) the highest percent support for greens anywhere in canada, yet we still ended up with this conservative turkey who does nothing for us. it is frustrating, we need green representation and let's get proportional representation already 040626 ... uow i've been making a lot of blather mess. i should've have called martin a butcher, that's really not fair. it's just all the cutbacks... canada is suffering and martin is still pm (ugh!) i wish the ndp could've done better. my guy almost won, but didn't. he lost by only a small margin. if more of the greens had supported him, he would've won by a big lead and maybe the ndp and liberals would have a tighter arrangement today. (if only) oh well. next election. 040808 ... uow shyte *i shouldn't have called martin a butcher not 'i should've have' 040808 ... monee "...One rookie prime minister, one new opposition party and one patronage scandal have aligned themselves to trigger disarray in Canada's cozy Liberal universe. The political surprise of 2004 now becomes the burning question for 2005: was the Liberal plunge to minority status a one-time blip or a turning point? That uncertainty is reflected in the dampening of Liberal insiders' once-unflappable prediction of an election in 2005, made boldly right after the June election. After all, that's what Liberals have done for so long, winning majority governments with such apparent ease that the only real competition came during internal leadership battles. But they have been dealt yet another surprise: public opinion remains stalled and if an election were held in the new year there might well be a carbon copy of the results last June 28. The conditions that forced the Liberal drop remain solidly entrenched. A united Conservative party is still seeking but struggling to make inroads with eastern voters, the sponsorship scandal is still pummeling the government with daily negative headlines, and Paul Martin is still proving that the lustre of a "can't miss" leadership candidate can quickly dull in the prime minister's chair. Those factors should keep Canadians away from federal ballot boxes in 2005 barring an accident. "We're not thinking about an election," Martin told the CBC during a series of year-end TV interviews. "We are very clearly thinking about governing. And if an election happens, it will be because the opposition have triggered it." The opposition might not be interested. The Bloc Quebecois effortlessly captured 54 seats last June - its best election result since 1993. Leader Gilles Duceppe, once derided for his supposed lack of charisma, is now heralded as a potential Quebec premier and successor to Parti Quebecois Leader Bernard Landry. It's amazing what a $250 million sponsorship scandal will do. That grenade detonated in February when Auditor General Sheila Fraser described bizarre money transfers between Liberal-connected ad firms and the federal government. The sense of national outrage was summed up in a four-word banner headline that screamed across the front page of the Toronto Star: "Your Money, Their Friends." The disgust breathed new life into the fledgling Conservative party, revived the once-moribund Bloc Quebecois and promptly killed bold predictions of a 200-seat Paul Martin electoral romp. Martin declared himself "mad as hell" and embarked on a nationwide tour to share his ire with Canadians. He called a public inquiry, he blamed civil servants for the wrongdoing, then blamed Jean Chretien's inner circle, and finally he fired several who still had government jobs like Alfonso Gagliano and Jean Pelletier. Canadians were just as cross - and promptly aimed their daggers at the Liberals. Almost three dozen Liberal seats disappeared last June and the Conservatives were rewarded with 99 seats. "Canadians expected, and expect, more from us," a chagrined Martin said after the votes were counted. "As a party and as a government we must do better, and we will - I pledge that to you tonight."... The Conservatives were made the villains in a stark and devastating TV ad that painted them as pro-Iraq war, anti-abortion, anti-gun control and anti-environment... ...Harper's determined effort to find support in Quebec is stymied by the Bloc's stranglehold on anti-Liberal votes there. Another challenge will be laid bare in three of the major debates of 2005: over same-sex marriage, marijuana decriminalization and Canada's participation in the U.S. missile shield. Conservative opposition to the first two and support for the latter will disqualify them in the eyes of many middle-of-the-road eastern voters who tilt farther to the left than Harper can ever move his party... Any growth for the Conservatives could spell long-term trouble for the NDP. The last two weeks of the 2004 campaign were like a political-science lesson on the NDP's longstanding woes. Pollsters said the Conservative campaign surge frightened thousands of NDP voters into switching their votes to the Liberals. After a brief moment of glory on election night when it appeared they might hold the balance of power in a minority Parliament, the NDP ended up with a disappointing 19 seats. Struggling to remain relevant in the Harper-Martin showdown, rookie leader Jack Layton spent much of his campaign painting both men with the same fiscally conservative brush. "We've seen here that whatever progressive wing there was in the Liberal party was pushed out," Layton said. Martin chipped away at the NDP base with a left-leaning platform that has become central to the current government agenda: a national day-care program, $5 billion over five years for cities, and the $41 billion public health-care agreement he signed with the premiers last fall. Martin pointed to the health accord as proof he had a successful first year as prime minister. But one observer finds it laughable that getting provinces to accept $41 billion is a great political achievement. University of Toronto political scientist Nelson Wiseman said the federal government can't really enforce the health accord's guarantees that provinces will reduce hospital wait times.... Longstanding leadership tensions between Martin and Jean Chretien left the party in a state of perpetual civil war from which it is struggling to emerge... The prime minister's inner circle alienated many Liberals with an apparent attempt to purge anyone hostile to his leadership bid, which meant dumping Sheila Copps... The Martin-Chretien tug of war will begin anew in late January when both men tell their sides of the story before the sponsorship-scandal inquiry headed by Justice John Gomery. Martin has admitted he is responsible for some of his woes. He still hasn't appointed anyone to fill a vacant Senate seat, it took months to name two Supreme Court justices because of disagreements over minor changes to the nomination system, and a sweeping foreign-policy review expected last fall has been delayed to the new year while Martin spends the holidays examining it. "It's very clear that what I've got to do is to focus, and focus on really where the main priorities are," Martin told Global TV in a year-end interview. "That takes a certain amount of discipline, which I guess I'm learning to do..." http://www.canada.com/news/national/story.html?id=e289b23f-3117-4beb-9726-187d7cbf492b&page=3 . 041218 ... monee PEI May Become First Province To Hold A Proportional Representation Election Fair Vote Canada: Prince Edward Island Premier Pat Binns has placed his province back in the running to become the first province to hold an election under a Canadian version of proportional representation. The Premier announced yesterday that Islanders will vote in a plebiscite in November 2005 o­n whether to adopt a mixed member proportional voting system. If the new system is adopted, Binns stated, the changes could be in place for the next provincial election in 2006 or 2007... British Columbians will be voting o­n May 17, 2005, in a referendum o­n whether to adopt a new proportional voting system. If it is adopted, the first BC election under the new system will be in 2009. The Government of Quebec yesterday announced a draft bill for a mixed proportional system and will soon begin public consultations. The Quebec government stated a new system would not be in place for the next Quebec election, expected in 2007. The Government of Ontario has announced a citizens' assembly and referendum process for electoral reform. The O­ntario referendum, however, may not be held until the next election, also expected in 2007... http://www.pej.org/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1240&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0 . 041218 ... anomalous "Canada could see June 27 election By UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL Published May 12, 2005 OTTAWA -- Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin has opened his minority Liberal government to a non-confidence vote by setting a federal budget date. After an emergency cabinet meeting Wednesday, Martin announced the budget will be offered May 19, and if it is voted down, he will call for the dissolution of Parliament, requiring an election. That would make June 27 the earliest possible date, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Thursday. The Liberals are suffering in popularity because of a federal inquiry into an advertising and kickback scandal and are relying on support from the socialist New Democrats in Parliament. An unusual alliance between the Conservatives and separatist Bloc Quebecois have attempted to turn various votes into non-confidence issues in the past few days, but have so far failed on procedure. The country's last federal election was in June." http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20050512-092904-8517r 050512 ... anomalous "Tories, Bloc vacate committees; shut down House of Commons for the day Canadian Press Thursday, May 12, 2005 OTTAWA (CP) - A dying Parliament's vital organs are shut down. The House of Commons is closed early for the day and opposition parties are not attending committees. The Conservatives and the Bloc are trying to prove that the Liberal government has no authority to govern and that Parliament won't work until they bring in an immediate vote of confidence. The Liberals, outvoted 152-144 on the adjournment motion, have scheduled a confidence motion for May 19 and accuse the opposition of obstruction." vancouver sun, canada.com 050512 ... who? erection 050512 ... somenom 153-152, with the speaker's vote where would the government be today without belinda and cadman? well we would've had an election, but now looks like not for a while... (and half the crowd cheered) meanwhile in bc the liberals won a reduced majority, with the ndp gaining back many seats so glad to have a voice in victoria again carole james has done well as a leader 050519 ... somenom the referendum on stv failed to get 60 percent but was pretty close at 57.something... so looks like we'll probably (hopefully) be getting proportional representation next provincial election 050519 ... somenom eventhough it didn't pass, there was still a clear majority voting for change, indicating voter's unhappiness with the current system. i certainly voted for stv, and would be happy to see it set in place. 050519 what's it to you? who go blather from