harper enters pop up land

after seeing harper 24-7 on the news this week... my computer has now been invaded with harper pop-up ads... see here!

where is the rope... i can't take it!

in other news leadershipalooza 2006 is heating up quickly. with the front runners mckenna and manley out... this race is wide open.

just in!

mckenna is not running... developing.

goodbye paul… hello leadership 2006!

im still in a state of shock that harper will be canada’s next prime minister. just the thought of that man having "rt. hon" in front of his name for the rest of his life makes me shudder... on that note the best of luck to the new pm.

as for prime minister martin … all i can say is that he could have been a great prime minister instead of a good prime minister… if he had fired his useless staff. i am truly saddened to see the prime minister step down and wish him all the best.

now back to the big political story…. LEADERSHIP!

here are the likely suspects for this race and what i think:

john manley – i expect he will be one of the first to declare or not declare. if manley does enter the race he will put forth a strong campaign… I don’t think the left of the party will buy his message… too much baggage from the chrétien years… i.e. monarchy remarks, ideas on u.s. canada relations and his speculated connections to the sponsorship scandal.

martin cauchon – he’s french so that will give him a huge boost … however, im not so sure that will be enough for this contender. here is why… 1) he was part of the chrétien years which leaves the stench of scandal on him. 2) im not so sure that he will be able to bank on the delegation from anywhere but quebec. 3) he is not a sitting member of parliament. combine these three variables and i think he is out. don’t get me wrong … he will run but im positive he will loose.

michael ignatieff – if he is smart he will stay out of this race. ignatieff is new to the party and hasn’t earned anything. his nomination was a shame and as a liberal in etobicoke-lakeshore it would be hard not to loose. i say if ignatieff has any real consideration for the party he will step up and play a role in rebuilding the party.

belinda stronach – no chance… she is an inexperienced and unproven parliamentarian and cabinet minister, doesn’t speak french well, and has not earned her ranks in the liberal party yet. like ignatieff she will need to play a role in rebuilding, rather then being ambitious.

frank mckenna – im about 99.9% sure he will run... especially after his resignation today. mckenna is obviously qualified and is a proven public official. mckenna will be a front runner in this race. however, mckenna has some setbacks. 1) premiers have dismal historic records as leaders and 2) is from new brunswick.

brian tobin – may run … i don’t think he has much of a chance. tobin is a former chretien minister (cough cough… the scandal tag). tobin also has baggage from his premiership in newfoundland and like mckenna will have a hard time overcoming the premier to leader record.

david emerson – probably a front runner if he decides to enter. emerson was an effective minister in the martin government and is a fresh face to politics, with some good ideas… this may give him an edge to emerge as a frontrunner. setbacks … not from quebec or ontario.

bob ray – may be exactly what the party needs … a new face with a vision. has a few obstacles 1) his premiership in ontario 2) not a bread in the bone liberal 3) not a member of parliament.

joe volpe – keep dreaming buddy!

consensus candidates:

carolyn bennett
john godfrey
stephane dion

other possible leadership candidates:

scott brison
allan rock

vote out vellacott

http://www.voteoutvellacott.com/

also visit the cbc.ca for more on this story

cons to spend more then ndp

for the first time i could have kissed bob fife. i was just watching some ctv news between class and fife pipes up that during the CON platform release to reporters was so unorganized they couldn’t even tell reporters how much their platform would cost taxpayers. according to fife they had to scramble to add up the numbers during the press conference that no cameras were aloud to. furthermore, fife told ctv newsnet that monte solberg, the CON finance critic, who he is normally really impressed by didn’t score a high grade in his books today. continuing with the theme of disillusionment fife reported that for a party that wants to be government that they need to get there act together.

clearly this should be no surprise that the CONS don’t care about the numbers. They just want to get elected at any cost … ANY COST! goodbye surplus …. hello deficits. some of the numbers that are being thrown around of how much the CON platform will costs are about 75 billion... which is expected to be more then the ndp's platform!!!!!!!!!!!!

the b word and such

it seems that i only have time to blog at the most inconvient times … usually when i really have nothing to say… so for the sake of posting and keeping the site looking a little less neglected i have written a little post.

it seems as if some people are living in the clouds about bourque. i have read a few comments about this on my blog. so i will attempt to clear the air for those who cant figure this one out for themselves… first he does misinform the public by presenting what appears to be a non partisan site with only pro CON stories. if your objective is to support the harper party then make it know don’t sugar coat your shame. secondly, bourque’s little blurbs that appear are quite unfounded… particularly ones pertaining to party organizers and so called leadership contenders. i have no idea where he comes up with this stuff but he should come back down to earth.

as for negative ads… at no time have i stated that i do not agree with them. what i did allure to is that if your going to go negative don’t try and cover it up like the conservatives did. as far as im concerned if someone said something or did something its fair game for public debate, but misconstruing facts like a certain party ;) is unacceptable.

ANOTHER NEW NEG CON AD

flying home today I was able to take advantage of my flight’s onboard satellite tv… and what should appear… another negative CON ad. This one was not the one which I cought yesterday, but the one which was posted by Liberal 4 Life... and what network did it appear on???? TSN… during the pre game show for the canada game. I figure the ad aired around 6:15. I assumed this ad would be out eventually, if it was real. what I found shocking is that at the end of the ad and no where in the ad was there was an authorization from an official agent for the cons… i‘m not an expert on election law… but that doesn’t seem quite right? i could be mistakend ... maybe the small tv in the back of the airplane seat cut it off but im about 99.9% sure about this.

On another note... this ad is not on the conservative website, just like the last negative ad and i expect the more blogging that is done on the ad the sooner it will be up on their site.

anyhow … the past twenty four hours have been interesting… this site has received more hits then it has in the last four weeks. i would like to attempt to give the links to those who referenced my blog…. Cherniak on Politics, Red Tory and Andrew Coyne. if i have left you out please let me know and i will make sure i give you a link.

CONS CON VOTERS WITH NEW NEG AD!

i was just watching the senator’s game on TSN and what should appear… a CON ad. not the one with the prime minister martin in black or white, but one which pounds the ears of the voter with the message corruption, corruption, corruption. It includes clips of dingwal with his infamous 'entitlements' phrase as well as the prime minister saying “the liberal party is not corrupt”. the pm’s phrase is re-dubbed throughout the commercial, while people in a restaurant look at a tv st in disgust. I wish i could write a more detailed analysis of the spot, but it caught me off guard because it is not yet on the CON website and because of the CON “they’ll go neg” ad.

just another example of tory hypocrisy and deceitfulness.

big thanks to mark ... you can see the ad on his blog @ http://nottawa.blogspot.com/