<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>Canada&#039;s online magazine: Politics, entertainment, technology, media, arts, books: backofthebook.ca &#187; Liberals</title>
	<atom:link href="http://backofthebook.ca/tag/liberals/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://backofthebook.ca</link>
	<description>Politics, tech, media, culture and more, from a Canadian point-of-view</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Thu, 24 May 2012 03:34:24 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1</generator>
		<item>
		<title>Why Mulcair is winning</title>
		<link>http://backofthebook.ca/2012/05/16/why-mulcair-is-winning/6630/</link>
		<comments>http://backofthebook.ca/2012/05/16/why-mulcair-is-winning/6630/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 16 May 2012 10:21:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Alberta]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Canada]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christy Clark]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservatives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Liberals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mike Duffy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NDP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[oil sands]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ontario]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pamela Wallin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saskatchewan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stephane Dion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stephen Harper]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Thomas Mulcair]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://backofthebook.ca/?p=6630</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By Montreal Simon OK. So I was wrong. When Christy Clark became the latest Con stooge to denounce Thomas Mulcair,  for simply pointing out that the Dutch Disease is killing our manufacturing sector, I said it could only mean one thing. Big Oil and its Con puppets were scraping the bottom of the barrel. But [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>By <a href="http://montrealsimon.blogspot.ca/">Montreal Simon</a></em></p>
<p>OK. So I was wrong.</p>
<p>When Christy Clark became the latest Con stooge to denounce Thomas Mulcair,  for simply pointing out that the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease">Dutch Disease</a> is killing our manufacturing sector, I said it could only mean one thing.</p>
<p>Big Oil and its Con puppets were scraping the bottom of the barrel.</p>
<p>But I forgot I was living in the sinister petro state of Harperland.</p>
<p>Where the bottom of the dirty oil barrel goes all the way to China.</p>
<p>And I forgot about the Con Senate, and <a href="http://www.leaderpost.com/business/Mulcair%2Bcheap%2Bploy/6615773/story.html">particularly Pamela Wailin&#8217; . . .</a></p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;This is a cheap political ploy to pit eastern citizens against those in the West. Will Mulcair next attack the lentil business, the wheat and grain producers who have long fed the world &#8212; or perhaps the potash industry that allows the poor to bolster their depleted farmland in overpopulated areas?</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s time for Mulcair to act like a Canadian.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>And that like the Con turkey Mike Duffy, Wallin is capable of saying ANYTHING.</p>
<p>I mean can you believe that? As if Big Lentil is as dangerous as Big Oil. As if Mulcair wasn&#8217;t right. As if telling the truth was a <a href="http://rabble.ca/columnists/2012/05/thomas-mulcair-and-energy-mccarthyism">crime.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fjDajo0GhTs/T7HGFBD_CrI/AAAAAAAAL9c/aKQxTnG9n_s/s1600/Turkeys%2Bcopy%2Bcopy%2Bcopy.jpg"><img class="alignleft" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fjDajo0GhTs/T7HGFBD_CrI/AAAAAAAAL9c/aKQxTnG9n_s/s400/Turkeys%2Bcopy%2Bcopy%2Bcopy.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="245" border="0" /></a>These diatribes against anyone who even acknowledges potential downsides or side effects of the bitumen boom seem to herald a new, dangerous tendency in Canada&#8217;s political culture. Opposing a bitumen-exporting pipeline in Canada these days makes you a foreign-financed subversive. And it seems that questioning the economic effects of the bitumen export strategy makes you equally seditious. I call this &#8220;energy McCarthyism,&#8221; and it should be rejected forcefully not just by those concerned with Canada&#8217;s de-industrialization and staples dependency, but by those worried about the quality of our democracy.</p>
<p>As if those Cons weren&#8217;t selling us out to foreign interests. As if Albertans haven&#8217;t been screaming at those damn Easterners for 40 years over the National Energy Program. Which did to Alberta what Harper&#8217;s oil pimp policies are doing to the rest of Canada.</p>
<p>Which explains why the Cons and the other Big Oil stooges are attacking Mulcair like piranhas. They know a killer issue when they see one. But why is Stephane Dion joining in the<a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/14/stephane-dion-criticizes-thomas-mulcair-for-east-west-strategy/"> feeding frenzy?</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Stéphane Dion, the former Liberal leader, says he turned down a proposal from advisors to accuse Prime Minister Stephen Harper of favouring Alberta and the oil sands industry during the 2008 election campaign because he feared it would harm national unity.</p>
<p>He said Mr. Mulcair is effectively “giving up” on much of Western Canada and, if he forms a government in 2015, risks having little or no representation from provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan in his Cabinet.</p></blockquote>
<p>Oh boy. When will he ever learn&#8230;</p>
<p><a href="http://backofthebook.ca/frankmoher/bob/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/dion-alberta.jpg"><img src="http://backofthebook.ca/frankmoher/bob/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/dion-alberta-216x300.jpg" alt="Image" title="dion-alberta" width="216" height="300" class="size-medium wp-image-6643" /></a></p>
<p>What Thomas Mulcair understands so well. He doesn&#8217;t have to win any seats in Alberta or Saskatchewan. All he has to do is win most of the seats in Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec, and he will BURY the Cons in the Tar Sands.</p>
<p>Which is one of the reasons he&#8217;s looking like a winner, and thanks to people like Stephane Dion, the Liberals are going <a href="http://www.globaltoronto.com/federal%2Bliberals%2Blosing%2Bsupport%2Bas%2Bndp%2Btories%2Bbattle%2Bfor%2Btop%2Bspot%2Bpoll/6442640892/story.html">nowhere.</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Liberal support in Canada is steadily slipping as the New Democrats and Tories continue to battle for the top spot, the results of an exclusive poll for Global News indicate.</p>
<p>While the Grits may say that their troubles lie in finding the right candidate to lead the party, Ipsos Reid’s Darrell Bricker suggests the party may be losing a distinct voice in the political arena.</p>
<p>“The problem they’ve got is that they’re having a hard time finding their place in a debate about economic issues,” Bricker told Global News.</p></blockquote>
<p>Yup. Mulcair is ruthless, the kind of leader these times <a href="http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/tories-admit-to-closing-enviro-research-group-because-they-disliked-results-151445775.html">demand. </a></p>
<p>He has found a mighty issue, the truth is on his side. That&#8217;s why the Cons are running scared.</p>
<p>For 40 years Alberta used regional alienation like a blunt weapon.</p>
<p>Now it&#8217;s our turn . . .<strong><br />
</strong></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://backofthebook.ca/2012/05/16/why-mulcair-is-winning/6630/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Robocalls: The seven deadly ridings</title>
		<link>http://backofthebook.ca/2012/04/26/robocalls-the-seven-deadly-ridings/6389/</link>
		<comments>http://backofthebook.ca/2012/04/26/robocalls-the-seven-deadly-ridings/6389/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 26 Apr 2012 11:02:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[British Columbia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Canada]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Canadian politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservatives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Council of Canadians]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Elections Canada]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Green Party]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Liberals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Manitoba]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NDP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ontario]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[robocall scandal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saskatchewan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stephen Harper]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yukon]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://backofthebook.ca/?p=6389</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By Allison@Creekside As a follow up to my earlier chart showing Steve&#8217;s Margin of Victory in ridings with the closest vote margins, I&#8217;ve adjusted it to include only the seven being contested in court for voter fraud and added two columns of polling data from an EKOS research paper based on a recent phone survey [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>By Allison@<a href="http://creekside1.blogspot.ca/">Creekside</a></em></p>
<p>As a follow up to my earlier chart showing <a href="http://creekside1.blogspot.ca/2012/02/steves-margin-of-victory-revised.html">Steve&#8217;s Margin of Victory</a> in ridings with the closest vote margins, I&#8217;ve adjusted it to include only the seven being contested in court for voter fraud and added two columns of polling data from an EKOS research paper based on a recent phone survey of 4797 voters. It compares <span style="background-color: white; color: #343434; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">106 ridings where there were no reports of suspicious activity to the seven ridings where there was a lot &#8212; </span></span>election phone calls made to voters to identify who they intended to vote for followed up by a call falsely telling them their polling station had moved.</p>
<p><a href="http://backofthebook.ca/frankmoher/bob/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/robocall_Voter-Suppression1.jpg"><img src="http://backofthebook.ca/frankmoher/bob/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/robocall_Voter-Suppression1.jpg" alt="" title="robocall_Voter-Suppression" width="576" height="382" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-6392" /></a></p>
<p>Only one of them &#8212; Vancouver Island North &#8212; had an actual polling station change.</p>
<p>So according to the Ekos poll, if you lived in Winnipeg South Centre, for example, where the Cons took the riding by only 1<strong>.</strong>8% of the vote, you had a 71% chance of getting a phone call asking you who you were going to vote for. And if you subsequently got a follow-up call regarding polling stations, you had a 30% chance of being told your polling station had changed even though it hadn&#8217;t.</p>
<p>If however you lived in one of the 106 other ridings used as a control group, you had a 44% chance of being asked your voting intention and only a 14.7% chance of later being given false polling station info.</p>
<p>From the <a href="http://www.canadians.org/media/other/2012/24-Apr-12.html">Council of Canadians</a>, who commissioned the EKOS poll and are supporting the court actions, come these other key findings:</p>
<ul style="text-align: -webkit-left;">
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">16.9% of eligible voters received calls related to polling stations. Of those, 22.3% were told of polling station location changes (amounting to 3.77% of eligible voters).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Of those who were told of polling station changes, the voter intentions were as follows: </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Liberals 32.6%, Greens 28%, NDP 25.6%, and Conservatives 10%.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">42.5% of eligible voters who received calls related to polling stations had a call claiming to be from Elections Canada.</span></li>
</ul>
<p>And I can already feel a chilly if friendly wind blowing from the infinitely more rigorous <a href="http://www.punditsguide.ca/">Alice Funke at Pundits&#8217; Guide,</a> who would never mix up apples and hand grenades like this in the same chart (ie., adding a polling sample onto Elections Canada Official Voting Results).</p>
<p>But if the EKOS poll is accurate, then up to 15% of the vote in those seven closest vote margin ridings &#8212; <span style="background-color: white; color: #343434; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">some 50,000 people &#8212; received phone calls deliberately intended to suppress the non-Steve vote.</span></span></p>
<p>Margin of victory riding data from <a href="http://www.elections.ca/scripts/resval/ovr_41ge.asp?prov=&amp;lang=e">Elections Canada Official Voting Results Table 12</a>.</p>
<p>Last two columns in chart taken from data in <a href="http://www.canadians.org/election/documents/Ekos_research-paper-0412.pdf">EKOS Study</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://backofthebook.ca/2012/04/26/robocalls-the-seven-deadly-ridings/6389/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Globe&#8217;s cracked Alberta history</title>
		<link>http://backofthebook.ca/2011/09/06/the-globes-cracked-alberta-history/5590/</link>
		<comments>http://backofthebook.ca/2011/09/06/the-globes-cracked-alberta-history/5590/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 06 Sep 2011 07:48:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Alberta]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Canada]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Canadian politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Joe Clark]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Liberals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Peter Lougheed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pierre Trudeau]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Progressive Conservatives]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://backofthebook.ca/?p=5590</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By Brian Brennan Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives are celebrating 40 uninterrupted years in power. A Globe and Mail reporter talks to some unnamed &#8220;Tory stalwarts, opposition leaders and observers.&#8221; He concludes that the PC dynasty was &#8220;forged in the fire of Alberta’s hatred for Pierre Trudeau and his national energy policy.&#8221; Sorry, Globe and Mail, but [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="http://backofthebook.ca/frankmoher/bob/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Trudeau-Lougheed-toast1-300x225.jpg" alt="Trudeau-Lougheed-toast" title="Trudeau-Lougheed-toast" width="300" height="225" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-5595" /><em>By Brian Brennan</em></p>
<p>Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives are celebrating 40 uninterrupted years in power. A <em>Globe and Mail</em> reporter talks to some unnamed &#8220;Tory stalwarts, opposition leaders and observers.&#8221; He concludes that the PC dynasty was &#8220;forged in the fire of Alberta’s hatred for Pierre Trudeau and his national energy policy.&#8221;</p>
<p>Sorry, <em>Globe and Mail</em>, but you really should bone up on your Alberta history.</p>
<p>The ascendancy of Peter Lougheed&#8217;s Conservatives had nothing to do with hatred of Trudeau or his short-lived, unilaterally imposed energy pricing deal. Trudeau&#8217;s controversial National Energy Program was not implemented until October 1980. Alberta&#8217;s PCs came to power nine years earlier, at the end of August, 1971. They won that election, plainly and simply, because of an overwhelming desire on the part of Alberta voters to see some new faces at the helm.</p>
<p>The provincial Social Credit party had been in power for 36 years. Its leader for 25 of those years, Ernest Manning (father of Reform Party co-founder Preston), had retired from politics. His anointed successor, Harry Strom, was perceived by the electorate as a fundamentally decent but boring guy who couldn&#8217;t hold a candle to radio evangelist Manning as a public speaker. Strom came across on television as wooden and grumpy and out-of-touch &#8212; like everyone’s crabby old grandfather.</p>
<p>Aside from the charismatically challenged Strom, the Socred party itself had a serious image problem. Born in the midst of the Depression as a rural-based grass-roots movement that promised to solve Alberta’s economic problems, the party had become &#8212; in the eyes of the province’s younger voters, especially &#8212; little more than a bunch of old farmers with two feet stuck in the past.</p>
<p>Strom emerged as the pan-piper of Alberta politics at a time when people wanted to hear trumpets. Lougheed had the right combination of brass and wind. A Harvard-trained lawyer who once played halfback for the Edmonton Eskimos, the 43-year old Lougheed managed to convince voters that the Socreds were old, tired, and inflexible while the PCs were young, progressive, and responsive to the needs of the citizens. Ideologically, there was little to choose between the two right-wing parties. As former premier Manning said afterwards, it was as if voters who had always driven Chevrolets had suddenly decided to switch to Buicks. &#8220;They were still driving GM vehicles.&#8221;</p>
<p>Offering the voters new faces and a new style was the first step for Lougheed and his young cabinet. What he described as &#8220;province building&#8221; was the next. The place Lougheed called the &#8220;greatest darned province in the world&#8221; could be headed for a bleak future of unemployment and social unrest, he warned, if it didn’t find ways to diversify its economy through development of new industries. He hoped to fund such development through maximizing the province&#8217;s return from its declining, non-renewable oil and gas resources.</p>
<p>Ottawa didn’t enter the picture until late 1973, when the minority Trudeau government &#8212; in a bid to appease eastern consumers &#8212; imposed limitations on Alberta&#8217;s ability to raise domestic oil prices and derive as much revenue as possible from increased royalties. Albertans responded by slapping bumper stickers on their cars that read &#8220;Let the eastern bastards freeze in the dark.&#8221; Tense intergovernmental negotiations over pricing and revenue sharing continued during the next six years, until Joe Clark’s Progressive Conservatives formed a minority government in 1979. At that point it became clear that the conflict between Ottawa and Alberta had nothing to do with the lack of Liberal representation from Alberta in Parliament, or tensions between Lougheed and Trudeau. Lougheed&#8217;s plan to maximize Alberta&#8217;s resource wealth and make the province something more than a &#8220;junior partner&#8221; in Canada was no more palatable to Clark than it had been to Trudeau. Low-cost energy, said Clark, was essential to give central Canadian industry a competitive advantage.</p>
<p>Trudeau’s National Energy Program remains a potent symbol of western discontent. But its most controversial elements were either modified or replaced within a year, and the achievement of a new federal-provincial energy deal, in September 1981, ended with a celebratory toast between Lougheed and Trudeau, a photograph of which appeared in newspapers across Canada.</p>
<p>There are many reasons why the Progressive Conservatives have remained in power in Alberta for 40 years. But hatred of Trudeau is not one of them. </p>
<p><em>Calgary writer Brian Brennan is the author of</em> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1897252161/ref=nosim/escripttheinte00A/">The Good Steward: The Ernest C. Manning Story</a>. <em>His latest book is a memoir,</em> <a href="http://rmbooks.com/book_details.php?isbn_upc=9781926855745">Leaving Dublin: Writing My Way from Ireland to Canada</a>.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://backofthebook.ca/2011/09/06/the-globes-cracked-alberta-history/5590/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Granny Turmel and the red separatist scare</title>
		<link>http://backofthebook.ca/2011/08/04/granny-turmel-and-the-red-separatist-scare/5490/</link>
		<comments>http://backofthebook.ca/2011/08/04/granny-turmel-and-the-red-separatist-scare/5490/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 04 Aug 2011 11:57:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Canada]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Canadian politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Liberals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NDP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Quebec]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[separatism]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://backofthebook.ca/?p=5490</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By Montreal Simon As the Liberals continue their fevered pathetic assault on Nycole Turmel. No doubt hoping that out of her ashes, their shrunken party will rise again, like some fleshless phoenix. Or some charred scarecrow. Even as they help fuel comments like this and this and this in the pages of the MSM. It [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="http://backofthebook.ca/frankmoher/bob/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/nycole-turmel-252x300.jpg" alt="nycole-turmel" title="nycole-turmel" width="252" height="300" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-5530" /><em>By <a href="http://montrealsimon.blogspot.com/">Montreal Simon</a></em></p>
<p>As the Liberals continue their <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">fevered</span> pathetic assault on <a href="http://calgarygrit.blogspot.com/2011/08/turmel-turmoil.html">Nycole Turmel</a>.</p>
<p>No doubt hoping that out of her ashes, their shrunken party will rise again, like some fleshless phoenix. Or some charred scarecrow.</p>
<p>Even as they help fuel comments like <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EYxTWWrfBqw/TjoNZ4iLBTI/AAAAAAAAJ6w/f2ZsoQP8b0I/s1600/Fullscreen+capture+03082011+105512+PM.jpg">this</a> and <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jEmGMJgCWv4/TjoNft-9DHI/AAAAAAAAJ60/Ix8T5tQW8R4/s1600/Fullscreen+capture+03082011+105547+PM.jpg">this</a> and <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Yyy5HPKJVTs/TjoN6mr-8dI/AAAAAAAAJ64/Kwx6n1arHKM/s1600/Fullscreen+capture+03082011+105603+PM.jpg">this</a> in the pages of the MSM.</p>
<p>It probably wouldn&#8217;t hurt if they read this <a href="http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/08/03/turmel-and-the-bloc-er-so-what/">column</a>.</p>
<p>Because then they might, hopefully, ask themselves, what the hell are they are doing?</p>
<p>Do they really believe that by bashing a 67-year old granny, whipping up a Red Separatist Scare, and encouraging anti-French feeling, that they can win back Quebec?  The province they absolutely need to recover, if they are ever to become a viable party again.</p>
<p>And where else do they think this tempest in a cracked teapot will help them? In Manitoba, Saskatchewan, or Alberta?</p>
<p>Or will it help bring the real separatists to power, help the Cons win another majority, and maybe even contribute to the destruction of our country?</p>
<p>Gawd. Never has the Liberal Party stooped so low. Or acted so dumb.</p>
<p>They lost Quebec because they couldn&#8217;t understand it. And now because they STILL don&#8217;t understand it, they are about to lose it all over again.</p>
<p>And worse they can&#8217;t seem to understand that granny Turmel, and her gang of young Quebec MPs, have dealt the real separatists the hardest blow they have EVER received.</p>
<p>Oh boy. For years I have tried to be as non-partisan as possible, and avoided being too harsh on the Liberals, hoping against hope that progressives would unite to defeat the Cons. But not any longer.</p>
<p>Somebody please stop this madness.</p>
<p>Before it damages our country further . . .</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://backofthebook.ca/2011/08/04/granny-turmel-and-the-red-separatist-scare/5490/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Who needs attack ads when you have the Globe and Post?</title>
		<link>http://backofthebook.ca/2011/05/18/who-needs-attack-ads-when-you-have-the-globe-and-post/5107/</link>
		<comments>http://backofthebook.ca/2011/05/18/who-needs-attack-ads-when-you-have-the-globe-and-post/5107/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 18 May 2011 11:45:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Canada]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Canadian politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservatives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Globe and Mail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jack Layton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Liberals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NDP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[newspapers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stephen Harper]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The National Post]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://backofthebook.ca/?p=5107</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By Montreal Simon Well I must admit it&#8217;s looking bleak out there. It&#8217;s been raining for days. The traffic cones are sagging like most of the population. And the Dark Lord of Canada is working feverishly in his castle preparing to unveil his zombie cabinet under a cone of silence. From The Globe: The pieces [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>By <a href="http://montrealsimon.blogspot.com/">Montreal Simon</a></em></p>
<p><img src="http://backofthebook.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/traffic-cones-300x201.jpg" alt="traffic-cones" title="traffic-cones" width="300" height="201" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-5108" />Well I must admit it&#8217;s looking bleak out there. It&#8217;s been raining for days. The traffic cones are sagging like most of the population. And the Dark Lord of Canada is working feverishly in his castle preparing to unveil his zombie cabinet under a <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/cone-of-silence-descends-as-pm-prepares-to-lift-curtain-on-new-cabinet/article2025254/">cone of silence</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>From The <em>Globe</em>: The pieces of Stephen Harper’s cabinet shuffle are all in place and those on the move have been given their orders – but no one’s talking and the Prime Minister’s enjoying it.</p></blockquote>
<p>Because he would eh? Before The Thousand Year Majority the message to the faithful hog hordes was: You talk, you fired.  Now it&#8217;s you squeal, you DIE. And he does so enjoy seeing fear in the eyes of others.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, in a hopefully secure location, the man who wrote <em>Harperland</em> awaits his grim fate calmly. Trying to find a flicker of light in <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/lawrence-martin/the-left-has-the-dreams-harper-has-the-cards/article2024028/">The Great Darkness</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>Liberalism has become a bore. It dims the imagination. It’s mush. By contrast, the New Democrats have some ideological teeth. They can speak with authenticity of voice for social democratic values.</p></blockquote>
<p>But not quite succeeding.</p>
<blockquote><p>Just like the Liberals, the New Democrats are at a huge financial disadvantage. When the Conservatives feel so inclined, they’ll strike with brutal advertising that the NDP won’t have the resources to rebut. Does anyone think Thomas Mulcair’s outburst about Osama bin Laden won’t be aired countless times when the appropriate moment arrives? Or Jack Layton’s massage-parlour visit? Don’t put it past the Conservatives.</p></blockquote>
<p>And who can blame him for feeling down eh? When his own colleagues in the corporate media are doing the Con&#8217;s dirty work <a href="http://www.pogge.ca/archives/003296.shtml">for them</a>.</p>
<p><img src="http://backofthebook.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/piglets3-300x218.jpg" alt="piglets3" title="piglets3" width="300" height="218" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-5109" /></p>
<p>They suckle the <strike>hands</strike> teats that feed them. They know what their bosses want. The socialist conspiracy must be crushed and humiliated. So first it was Jack Does the Massage Parlour. Now it&#8217;s Jack and Olivia do <a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/05/17/layton-chow-went-to-disney-world-on-u-s-unions-dime-records/">Disney World</a>.</p>
<p>When they didn&#8217;t do anything wrong. Or anything other MPs don&#8217;t do. And their real &#8220;crime&#8221; was daring to address union members.</p>
<p>But so it begins. In The Thousand Year Majority there can be only one message: Big Daddy Knows Best. The Media is Mein. And anyone who doesn&#8217;t submit will be destroyed by my mighty attack ads.</p>
<p>The good news? At least now even the dumbest must realize that this is an ideological war, a class war. And that Big Media is the enemy enema. So we can attack them, mock them, flush them out of our lives, and set up our own progressive new media networks. </p>
<p>The even better news? We&#8217;ve got four years to give the Cons a taste of their own medicine. Bombard them with our attack ads, and use the internet to encourage people to mobilize and protest in the streets.</p>
<p>And with the artists of Canada on our side, one thing is for sure eh?</p>
<p>We can do prop-art better than they can . . .</p>
<p><center><object width="500" height="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NiRjwpCrCMc?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NiRjwpCrCMc?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="500" height="300" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></center></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://backofthebook.ca/2011/05/18/who-needs-attack-ads-when-you-have-the-globe-and-post/5107/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Election 2011: The Liberals elect the Conservatives</title>
		<link>http://backofthebook.ca/2011/05/03/election-2011-the-liberals-elect-the-conservatives/4961/</link>
		<comments>http://backofthebook.ca/2011/05/03/election-2011-the-liberals-elect-the-conservatives/4961/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 03 May 2011 15:40:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[2011 election]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bloc Quebecois]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Canada]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Canadian politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservatives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Elizabeth May]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gilles Duceppe]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Liberals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michael Ignatieff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NDP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ontario]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Quebec]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stephen Harper]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Toronto]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://backofthebook.ca/?p=4961</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By Alison@Creekside Just a 2&#37; increase in the popular vote took the Cons from 143 seats in 2008 to a 167 seat majority tonight, thanks to our fucked up first-past-the-post system and because of what happened in key ridings in Ontario where presumably the Lib voters moved over to the Cons: ie., in Toronto the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="http://backofthebook.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Canada-Votes2.jpg" alt="Canada-Votes" title="Canada-Votes" width="562" height="203" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4968" /></p>
<p><em>By Alison@<a href="http://creekside1.blogspot.com/">Creekside</a></em></p>
<p>Just a 2&#37; increase in the popular vote took the Cons from 143 seats in 2008 to a 167 seat majority tonight, thanks to our fucked up first-past-the-post system and because of what happened in key ridings in Ontario where presumably the Lib voters moved over to the Cons: ie., in Toronto the Cons took 31 seats to the Libs&rsquo; 8 and the Dippers&rsquo; 12.</p>
<p>So the Libs and the Dippers change places in seat count compared to 2008, Elizabeth May finally gets a seat while Duceppe and Iggy lose theirs, and the Bloc, the only genuinely social democratic party in the country, is wiped out.</p>
<p>Consider this: Quebec&#8217;s 59 seats has kept the Cons from an almost total lock on the country this time.</p>
<p>It will be interesting to see how Alice at <a href="http://www.punditsguide.ca/">Pundit&#8217;s Guide</a> breaks down the efficacy of the various strategic voting guides. In my own riding &#8212; West Vancouver&#8211;Sunshine Coast-Sea-to-Sky &#8212; the recommendation from Project Democracy, previously Vote for Environment in 2008, and other strategic voting sites was to vote Liberal. As it turned out, the Dipper came second to the winning Con, who would have won anyway.</p>
<p>Note: In 2008 the voter turnout was 59&#37;; today it was 61&#37;. So much for Get Out the Vote.</p>
<p>What else hasn&#8217;t changed since 2008?</p>
<p>60&#37; of the 60&#37; of Canadians who voted still did not vote for Harper, who has been allowed to govern as if he held a majority for five years already now. </p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://backofthebook.ca/2011/05/03/election-2011-the-liberals-elect-the-conservatives/4961/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Doing the Orange Wave</title>
		<link>http://backofthebook.ca/2011/04/28/doing-the-orange-wave/4883/</link>
		<comments>http://backofthebook.ca/2011/04/28/doing-the-orange-wave/4883/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 28 Apr 2011 07:50:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[2011 election]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bloc Quebecois]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Canada]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Canadian politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservatives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jack Layton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Liberals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michael Ignatieff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NDP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ontario]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Quebec]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saskatchewan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stephen Harper]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://backofthebook.ca/?p=4883</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By Montreal Simon As you know I have always tried to be as non-partisan as possible. All I want is ANYONE but Harper. But these days, like most people in my neighbourhood, I&#8217;m also hoping for an orange wave. I&#8217;m hoping for that because I honestly believe that what Jack Layton has managed to achieve [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="http://backofthebook.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/olivia-chow-signs-300x179.jpg" alt="olivia-chow-signs" title="olivia-chow-signs" width="300" height="179" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-4884" /><em>By <a href="http://montrealsimon.blogspot.com/">Montreal Simon</a></em></p>
<p>As you know I have always tried to be as non-partisan as possible. All I want is ANYONE but Harper. But these days, like most people in my neighbourhood, I&#8217;m also hoping for an orange wave.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m hoping for that because I honestly believe that what Jack Layton has managed to achieve in Quebec, breaking the stranglehold of the Bloc, is a historic opportunity that may not be repeated again.</p>
<p>And I&#8217;m worried about what might happen in <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/no-quebec-style-bump-in-polls-for-ndp-in-ontario/article1996858/?from=sec368">Ontario</a>.</p>
<p>The surge of the New Democratic Party in Quebec appears to be holding strong but a new survey conducted by Nanos Research suggests there has been no similar bump for the NDP in Ontario, where elections are won and lost.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m worried that if the NDP and Liberal support remains roughly the same, the vote split could help the Cons. And I know we could lose that historic opportunity.</p>
<blockquote><p>“There are probably a number of voters in Quebec who have watched what’s happened and have started to park into the undecided column,” he said. “ It doesn’t mean that they are necessarily going to move to the New Democrats. It means that they are up for grabs in the last seven days of the campaign.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Just like I know that if Ontario did join the orange wave even more people in Quebec would vote for the NDP, so would people in the Atlantic provinces and British Columbia. We could steal some Con seats even in <a href="http://buckdogpolitics.blogspot.com/2011/04/ndp-surging-in-regina.html">Saskatchewan</a>.</p>
<p>And a great orange wave could sweep from coast to coast to coast. And change this country FOREVER.</p>
<p>I hope my Liberal friends don&#8217;t hold these words against me, or treat me like The Enemy. Because of course I&#8217;m not. There are a lot of good Canadians in that party. Including the person I love the most. And I&#8217;m sorry what those foul bully Cons have done to their leader.</p>
<blockquote><p>“Those negative [Conservative] attack ads helped form Canadians’ opinions of Michael Ignatieff even before Day One in this election,” said Mr. Nanos. “He started off with a disadvantage” and has not been able to overcome it.
</p></blockquote>
<p>But the sad truth is Ignatieff has been damaged beyond repair. The Liberals have lost Quebec. Their party is old and tired. And it can&#8217;t offer the hope Jack Layton and the NDP can, for something new and different.</p>
<p>And then there is this other consideration. If the Liberals did end up in third place, and working in a coalition government with Layton as Prime Minister, a little humility might do them good. They would be forced to come to terms with what kind of party they really are. And that would make it easier for them and the NDP to merge, and form the Liberal Democrats. Our best hope for a Con-free future.</p>
<p>I know that changing old habits and party loyalties is hard. I realize that anyone who advocates that, is likely to be shot at by both sides. And I am aware, as Steve from Far and Wide writes, that our biggest enemy is <a href="http://farnwide.blogspot.com/2011/04/none-of-above.html">cynicism</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>We keep telling ourselves that voters aren&#8217;t cynical, but every measure suggests the opposition- they are, and nobody has really changed that perception, unless having no wear on your tires classifies as profound inspiration. People kicking themselves trying to figure out why Harper isn&#8217;t floundering in the polls, chiefly it&#8217;s because there is such a firm wall of pure cynicism surrounding the whole process, all the actors, all the brands, that the impetus for substantive change never manifests.</p></blockquote>
<p>But after the breakthrough in Quebec, that&#8217;s the other big reason I am hoping for an orange wave. As an idealistic person I don&#8217;t want to live in a cynical Con world. It&#8217;s choking the life out of me like some dark winter of the soul.</p>
<p>And nothing can break that grim hamster wheel of despair like something new and different.</p>
<p>Oh well. That&#8217;s all I wanted to say. I will not be criticizing the Liberals in what remains of this campaign. Just working as hard as I can to help the progressive cause prevail. Still asking progressives to <a href="http://www.projectdemocracy.ca/">vote smart</a>.</p>
<p>Because first and foremost those evil Cons must be DEFEATED.</p>
<p>But in my heart I&#8217;ll also be hoping for an orange wave. And a new beginning for Canada after so many years of darkness.</p>
<p>I may be disappointed eh? But that has never stopped me before.</p>
<p>Spring brings life back to The Great White North.</p>
<p>And hope springs ETERNAL . . .</p>
<p><img src="http://backofthebook.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/olivia-chow-sign2.JPG" alt="olivia-chow-sign2" title="olivia-chow-sign2" width="400" height="289" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4886" /></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://backofthebook.ca/2011/04/28/doing-the-orange-wave/4883/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Is Trost right again?</title>
		<link>http://backofthebook.ca/2011/04/22/is-trost-right-again/4858/</link>
		<comments>http://backofthebook.ca/2011/04/22/is-trost-right-again/4858/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 22 Apr 2011 13:19:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[abortion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Canada]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Canadian politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservatives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dimitri Soudas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Liberals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NDP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stephen Harper]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://backofthebook.ca/?p=4858</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By Alison@Creekside Con MP and anti-abortion crusader Brad Trost, who lists being a member of the cross-party Pro-Life Caucus as one of his duties as an MP on his website, addressed the Saskatchewan Pro-Life Association’s annual convention on Saturday and thanked its members for their help in killing off federal funding for Planned Parenthood. “Let [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="http://backofthebook.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Brad-Trost1.jpg" alt="Brad-Trost" title="Brad-Trost" width="269" height="429" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-4869" /><em>By Alison@<a href="http://creekside1.blogspot.com/">Creekside</a></em></p>
<p>Con MP and anti-abortion crusader Brad Trost, who lists being a member of the cross-party Pro-Life Caucus as one of his duties as an MP <a href="http://www.bradtrost.ca/aboutbrad.html">on his website</a>, addressed the Saskatchewan Pro-Life Association’s annual convention on Saturday and thanked its members for their help in <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/978054--pro-life-backers-shaped-tory-funding-decision-for-planned-parenthood">killing off federal funding for Planned Parenthood</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>“Let me just tell you, and I cannot tell you specifically how we used it, but those petitions were very, very useful and they were part of what we used to <strong>defund Planned Parenthood</strong> because it has been absolute disgrace that that organization and several others like it have been receiving one penny of Canadian taxpayers dollars.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Planned Parenthood has been waiting over a year to find out whether the Con&#8217;s official program defunder, Bev Oda, would renew PP&#8217;s decades old funding and now Trost has let the cat out of the bag.</p>
<p>Harper spokesy Dimitri Soudas hastily convened a <strong>1 a.m.</strong> presser to distance Harper from Trost, blowing Trost off as a mere uninformed &#8220;backbencher,&#8221; but as <a href="http://cathiefromcanada.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-stupid-do-they-think-we-are.html">Cathie points out: Trost has been right before</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/978228--tories-in-damage-control-over-abortion-funding">Soudas</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;Asked repeatedly whether allowing access to abortion was part of the government’s funding criteria, Soudas replied: &#8216;No, it does not.&#8217;</p>
<p>&#8220;He also repeated the Harper government’s often stated position that it would not re-open the debate on abortion.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Well of course with Harper seeking a majority, he doesn&#8217;t want to reopen the debate but he doesn&#8217;t need to, does he? Defunding it, with the repeated help of the Blue Dog Libs, is working just fine as an alternative.</p>
<p>A year ago the Libs tried to smoke out the Cons on contraception and abortion by introducing a Liberal motion in the House to include a broader range of family planning programs in a maternal health initiative for developing countries. It was <a href="http://creekside1.blogspot.com/2010/03/blue-dog-liberals-banner-day-assholes.html">defeated 144-138 when four Libs voted against it, two abstained, and 12 missed the vote altogether.</a></p>
<p>So it&#8217;s a bit much that it&#8217;s the Liberal Party who broke the news about Trost&#8217;s shenanigans at the annual Pro-Life bunfest, just because the Liberals having 17% anti-abortion MPs is better than the Cons 66%.</p>
<p>Let&#8217;s have another look at the <strong>support for pro-choice</strong> in our current government.</p>
<p>From <a href="http://www.arcc-cdac.ca/action/list-antichoice-mps-nov08.html#libs">Choice Joyce</a>:</p>
<p><img src="http://backofthebook.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Anti-choice-MPs-April-20113.jpg" alt="Anti-choice MPs April 2011" title="Anti-choice MPs April 2011" width="595" height="215" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4866" /> while <a href="http://sixthestate.net/?p=412">Sixth Estate</a> has a 2009  list of suspected Pro-life Caucus members, based on their voting records and public statements. Suspected. Because membership in the Pro-Life Caucus is a government secret.</p>
<p>At least they&#8217;re more upfront about it in the US, where bills to defund Planned Parenthood are currently pending in Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Indiana, North Carolina, and the District of Columbia.</p>
<p>More: <a href="http://scathinglywrongrightwingnutz.blogspot.com/2011/04/did-con-candidate-brag-about-defunding.html">Dammit Janet</a>, <a href="http://drdawgsblawg.ca/2011/04/next-on-the-conservative-enemies-list-planned-parenthood.shtml">Dr. Dawg</a>. <a href="http://scathinglywrongrightwingnutz.blogspot.com/2011/04/not-reopen-just-not-fund.html">Dammit Janet again</a></p>
<p>Joyce reminds us that the 36% of antichoicers from both parties is a &#8220;conservative&#8221; estimate, and her research bears this out.</p>
<p>For instance, voting for some version of fetus rights doesn&#8217;t automatically get an MP onto the chart because maybe the candidate is pro-choice but it was a whipped vote, or they are anti-choice personally but have stated they would not vote against reproductive rights.</p>
<p>Check out <a href="http://www.arcc-cdac.ca/action/list-antichoice-mps-apr-11.html">her list of MPs and their voting record</a> before you vote.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://backofthebook.ca/2011/04/22/is-trost-right-again/4858/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Debate: By not losing, Harper won</title>
		<link>http://backofthebook.ca/2011/04/13/debate-by-not-losing-harper-won/4819/</link>
		<comments>http://backofthebook.ca/2011/04/13/debate-by-not-losing-harper-won/4819/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Apr 2011 13:30:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[2011 election]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bloc Quebecois]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Canada]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Canadian politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservatives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gilles Duceppe]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jack Layton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Liberals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michael Ignatieff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NDP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stephen Harper]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://backofthebook.ca/?p=4819</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By Montreal Simon I wish I could say that the three opposition leaders smoked Great Ugly Leader last night, and that they were still hoovering him off the floor. But they didn&#8217;t, so I can&#8217;t. Because at this point delusion could kill us. They held their own, they landed some good blows, but their attacks [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="http://backofthebook.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/canada-2011-election-debate1-300x171.jpg" alt="canada-2011-election-debate" title="canada-2011-election-debate" width="300" height="171" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-4823" /><a href="http://montrealsimon.blogspot.com/"><em>By Montreal Simon</em></a></p>
<p>I wish I could say that the three opposition leaders smoked Great Ugly Leader last night, and that they were still hoovering him off the floor. But they didn&#8217;t, so I can&#8217;t. Because at this point delusion could kill us.</p>
<p>They held their own, they landed some good blows, but their attacks weren&#8217;t focused enough, and they missed too many good opportunities to put Stephen Harper on the defensive.</p>
<p>The good news? The debate probably won&#8217;t move many voters. The bad news? The debate probably won&#8217;t move many voters. And by not losing Stephen Harper probably <a href="http://www.canada.com/Four+debate+viewers+think+Harper+poll/4605023/story.html">won</a>.</p>
<p>Anyway, for what it&#8217;s worth, here&#8217;s how I scored it:</p>
<p>STEPHEN HARPER: He looked so pretty I was sure he was wearing lipstick, and he was definitely on some kind of tranquilizer . . . probably Zombie dust from Haiti. He creeped me out by staring straight into the camera with those cold, dead piggy eyes.</p>
<p>But then that&#8217;s what you&#8217;re supposed to do when you&#8217;re in a television studio. Forget your three opponents and address your three million viewers instead. And by restraining the beast within him, he probably didn&#8217;t scare any voters, and for him that&#8217;s a small victory.</p>
<p>GILLES DUCEPPE: He had the best line of all: &#8220;Mr Harper is tough on criminals, just not those in his government.&#8221; He also rattled Harper with his charge that Harper had tried to form a coalition in 2004. But his English let him down, and when he went after Harper for his deal with Newfoundland and Labrador, he probably delivered that province to the Cons. Dommage.</p>
<p>JACK LAYTON: He looked really good, the most relaxed and friendly of the four leaders. He scored points going after Harper on medicare, and bringing up what he had said on that subject in the past. But he wasn&#8217;t specific enough. Imagine how much more effective he could have been if he had memorized this quote:</p>
<p><img src="http://backofthebook.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/stephen-harper-healthcare.jpg" alt="stephen-harper-healthcare" title="stephen-harper-healthcare" width="400" height="238" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4820" /></p>
<p>And asked Harper to explain how he could expect ANYONE to trust him?</p>
<p>And then there&#8217;s the sad fact that Jack&#8217;s most devastating blow was the one he aimed at Ignatieff over his attendance record. You can be sure that the Conservatives will have that one in an attack ad by tomorrow morning. And use it against BOTH of them.</p>
<p>MICHAEL IGNATIEFF: Considering it was his first debate, and the pressure on him, I thought he did better than expected. Just not good enough to shake the tree. He did hammer Harper on the democracy question, but he kept repeating himself. He looked beat, and at some points disoriented. When Jack hit him with the attendance record he could have said he was out listening to what ordinary Canadians had to tell him, but instead he just looked rattled. And when for some reason he addressed Duceppe in French, it was just bizarre.</p>
<p>But I thought Ignatieff&#8217;s greatest failing was that he looked too worried and angry, and not confident and hopeful enough. He spent a lot of time attacking the Cons, but not enough time promoting his own program.</p>
<p>While Harper, when he wasn&#8217;t lying or evading questions, promoted his budget baubles like a robot.</p>
<p>So what does all this mean? It depends on the spin from the MSM. But my guess is not too much. The progressive leaders all emerged relatively unscathed from their encounter with the werewolf robot. I doubt many people&#8217;s minds were changed. And there is still a lot of campaign to go, and the drip drip of scandal to take its toll.</p>
<p>What is clear to me though is that we have to sharpen our message. If we can&#8217;t convince Canadians that a Harper majority would be a frightening prospect it&#8217;s all over.</p>
<p>We also have to work harder than ever to get that message out and convince people to vote, because our leaders can&#8217;t win this one alone.</p>
<p>So tonight at Simon&#8217;s Anybody But Harper Party Saloon we&#8217;re featuring this website to help people vote <a href="http://www.projectdemocracy.ca/">strategically</a>.</p>
<p>Work hard. Vote smart. Leaders are leaders.</p>
<p>But the future is up to ALL of us . . . </p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://backofthebook.ca/2011/04/13/debate-by-not-losing-harper-won/4819/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Harper&#8217;s Facebook police</title>
		<link>http://backofthebook.ca/2011/04/06/harpers-facebook-police/4774/</link>
		<comments>http://backofthebook.ca/2011/04/06/harpers-facebook-police/4774/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 06 Apr 2011 13:02:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bad behaviour]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Canada]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Canadian politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservatives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John Baird]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Karl Rove]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Liberals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michael Ignatieff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stephen Harper]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://backofthebook.ca/?p=4774</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By Montreal Simon Uh oh. Talk about poking our privacy. The bitter nerd Stephen Harper has been caught with his pants down reading our Facebook pages. And looking like a creeper. From The Vancouver Sun: &#8220;Prime Minister Stephen Harper is suddenly on the defensive for running a closed and &#8216;unCanadian&#8217; campaign after two university students [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="http://backofthebook.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Stephen-Harper-Facebook1.jpg" alt="Stephen-Harper-Facebook" title="Stephen-Harper-Facebook" width="400" height="218" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-4779" /><em>By <a href="http://montrealsimon.blogspot.com/">Montreal Simon</a></em></p>
<p>Uh oh. Talk about poking our privacy. The bitter nerd Stephen Harper has been caught with his pants down reading our Facebook pages. And looking like a <a href="http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Harper+forced+explain+Conservatives+rally+rules+after+tossed+from+London/4562633/story.html">creeper</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>From <em>The Vancouver Sun</em>: &#8220;Prime Minister Stephen Harper is suddenly on the defensive for running a closed and &#8216;unCanadian&#8217; campaign after two university students were ejected from one of his rallies because they had posted a Facebook picture of themselves with Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>An Amerikan.</p>
<blockquote><p>Iggy: &#8220;I just think when you get to a situation where people can&#8217;t come to a public meeting in Canada and get thrown out by two heavies because they have a Facebook friend from another party, you&#8217;re in a bad place. You&#8217;re in a very unCanadian place.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Or just have a <a href="http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/04/05/matt-gurney-strong-leaders-dont-hide-from-young-voters/#more-33850">Great Chicken Leader</a>.</p>
<p>It’s absurd to suggest that the same man who needs protection from reporters and politically curious young women is fit to handle further economic crises, wars in Libya and Afghanistan, and the ever-present risk of natural disaster, major accident, or terrorist attack on Canadian soil. If you want to sell the Prime Minister’s strong leadership, avoiding unforced errors like these is a good place to start.</p>
<p>And look who came flying to his defence. Looking like a chicken, and shitting like a <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/realitycheck/2011/04/oh-john-baird-he-stands-on-guard-for-harper.html">Pigeon</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;&#8216;Today, Michael Ignatieff called Prime Minister Stephen Harper un-Canadian. Michael Ignatieff is hardly on solid ground on this issue,&#8217; said [Conservative MP John] Baird, who then launched into the familiar Conservative talking points about Ignatieff&#8217;s patriotism, or lack thereof, in their view.&#8221;</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.xtra.ca/public/National/OPEN_SECRET_Conservative_cabinet_minister_John_Baird_outed-8194.aspx">gay guy</a> who <strike>services</strike> serves the homophobes. Talk about a credibility gap, eh?</p>
<p>But of course Ignatieff is absolutely right. This sinister Facebook totalitarianism came straight from Amerika.</p>
<p><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-4776" title="stephen-harper_karl-rove" src="http://backofthebook.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/stephen-harper_karl-rove-300x270.jpg" alt="stephen-harper_karl-rove" width="300" height="270" />From the diseased mind of George Bush&#8217;s flying monkey Karl Rove.</p>
<p>He created a data base that allowed the Republicans to know what Americans were thinking, neighbourhood after neighbourhood, block after block.</p>
<p>From the moment they came to power Harper&#8217;s AmeriCons did the same thing, gathering masses of information on every Canadian, so they could tailor their dirty wedge issues accordingly.</p>
<p>They read our blogs and facebook pages, they monitor chatrooms, they try to find out who we are, where we work, and whether we have any weaknesses they can use against us. It&#8217;s the greatest invasion of privacy in the history of this country, and in the hands of these totalitarian thugs, it&#8217;s a mortal threat to our democracy.</p>
<p>The good news? If they were hoping to win over the youth vote they can forget about that now. <a href="http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/04/05/the-bull-meter-the-conservatives-on-the-liberals-ipod-tax/">Lying about an i-pod tax</a> is bad enough.</p>
<p>But creeping our Facebook pages is totally not done. And Great Chicken Leader is about to find that out the hard way.</p>
<p>You know, when the Cons are defeated there will have to be a massive police investigation to find out what this un-Canadian regime has been up to without our knowledge.</p>
<p>But while the cops go after the Cons.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m going after the database eh?</p>
<p>Like this guy did . . . </p>
<p><center><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="500" height="300" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/px0c4Tgg6gg?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="500" height="300" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/px0c4Tgg6gg?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></center></p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
Golly. Do you think I could get John Baird to sing &#8220;Stephen . . . Stephen . . . give me your answer do</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m half crazy over my love for YOUUUUUuuuuuuuuu . . . .&#8221;</p>
<p>Nah. That would be TOO good.</p>
<p>Hey kids. Now you have NO excuse. Defeat those sinister AmeriCons.</p>
<p>Before they creep you out . . . </p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://backofthebook.ca/2011/04/06/harpers-facebook-police/4774/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>

