We’ve invited backofthebook.ca’s chief bloggers to let us know how they plan to vote in the federal election, and why. Below, Eric Pettifor reports in from Vancouver. If we used the Australian system of preferential voting, I would vote on Tuesday as follows: Green NDP Liberal Satan and his Minions Party Conservative Note: #4 assumes […]
elections
Has Harper blown it?
It is striking how Stephen Harper has bollixed this election campaign. In 2006, he ran a model opposition party assault, not only decrying the squalid condition of the Liberals after their long run in power, but also staying a step ahead of them by announcing nearly every day a new initiative, policy, plan. Two years […]
May endorses strategic voting — or not
Poll from Nanos Research The G&M; has Elizabeth May endorsing strategic voting for close-race ridings again today, mentioning both VoteforEnvironment and DemocraticSpace as sites to go to for advice/info. VoteforEnvironment is still endorsing May in Central Nova against Peter MacKay, even though the Ekos, Decima and Nanos polls listed there all show her running a […]
Artsy-not-so-smartsy
So, having declared that “ordinary working people” don’t care about the arts, Stephen Harper now announces a new tax credit worth $150 million aimed at families who want to enroll their kids in arts programs. But who can those families possibly be, given that the “ordinary” ones are apparently too busy playing parcheezi and watching […]
Stephen Harper, panicked child
Stephen Harper reminds me of a panicked child, surrounded and overwhelmed in the schoolyard, red-faced and flailing at every perceived enemy and striking not a one. It would be nice if our issues could be solved with quick fixes, but they can’t. For instance, more people in jail does not reduce crime — just glance […]
Will Canada become bank bait too?
I still haven’t made up my mind how to vote. But I do think that if any leader is going to beat Harper, who is still doing astonishingly well in the polls despite ample evidence that his party is populated by boorish ignoramuses, he or she has got to quit reacting and start providing a […]
Vote Kennedy
This election, I am not going to shill for one leader or another. What I am going to do is ask my local candidate for his or her plan to affect my quality of life right now. If they start yapping scare tactics about how social programs and preserving the ecosystem will shut down the […]
Dion’s plan hits home
Let’s talk about real quality of life and how a decent government program can contribute to it. Many years ago, nobody could afford to get into the housing market in Alberta. So the provincial government offered new home buyers an interest-free loan of $5,000 to help out with their downpayment. I took one of those […]
It ain’t over till it’s over. It’s over.
Item: An Angus-Reid poll puts the Conservatives at 38% of the vote, Liberals at 24%, NDP at 21%. The BQ have 9% and the Greens 7%. Item: Green Party leader Elizabeth May will take part in the TV debates after all, thus further splitting the left-wing vote. Items: Former PQ minister Jacques Brassard suggests the […]
Perceiving Dion
Well, Dion has already fallen into the first of the Conservative traps, by letting them put him on the defensive. Straight out of the gate, he’s insisting he’s not the caricature the Tory ads make him out to be. Of course he’s not, but reminding us of the caricature is not exactly the best way […]
