Whether or not Harper chooses to hit the ball is up to him. I am wondering if he actually can pull this out of his ass but somehow I have this funny feeling the Liberals will retake the court with match point....again.

   

no one wants a Christmas election except the Liberals because they'd hope to benefit from a voter backlash against whomever brings the government down. If Harper has any sense he'll try and avoid any kind of confidence vote before Christmas.

   

But if Harper doesn't bring about a non-confidence vote on the days his party has available to them, given everything he's said about not having any confidence in this government and demanding an election be held sooner than later,

Harper comes out looking like a fool who was too weak to do it.

If you have no confidence in someone and you have the means and opportunity to bring about change but fail to act on it, what does it say about you?

   

I don't agree that it's Harpers ball. Jack & the NDP have squirmed out before and it's time for him to put up or shut up. I heard him on the radio and he was all full or rightious indignation but he still did not commit.

As for a winter election...
"No body wants a winter election" Suck it up, buttercup!
People fight and die for the right to vote and Canadian folks are snivelling about taking 1/2 hour out of one day to vote. I might pitty the sad party workers who are doing the door to door thing but I'd bet not many Canadian voters are that compassionate.

   

I polled all the staff at work. They said lets have the election ASAP and get those thieves out of office.

Seems like anytime soon is good

   

Funny how they are trying to blame to other party for a Chrismas election.

The NDP should tell the Conservative to rip that bandaid now and get the ball rolling. Instead they are gonna waffle on who is gonna do it. My angle is that it take two to tango and they are stuck in a menage a trois. Admit they want an election and stop passing the puck.

   

I know I won’t make many friends here since I’m backing the Bloc but I can say that I’m pretty happy with the way they handled themselves (yes, I understand they’re not accomplishing anything for Canadian unity, but which party is?). From day one they said the Liberal party was corrupted and shouldn’t be in power, they didn’t sell their soul to the devil like the NPD did. In regards of the Conservatives, it’s sad, they’re up against a party that’s corrupted, divided and still they can get the votes… Why is that? Do you think it’s related to Harper’s lack of charisma? I’m not being ironic, I’m just wondering why the Conservatives can’t get the votes they need.

   

EX-SCUUUUUSE ME!

Seems to me when Martin waited until the Conservative caucus had left Ottawa for the weekend, before calling a secret midnight vote on gay marriage, the Bloq was a willing partcipant to the deception. If helping the Liberals (a party the Bloq says isn't fit to govern?) to subvert parliament isn't the most egrecious example of selling their soul to the devil (they got into bed with Satan and gave him a blowjob to boot) then what the hell is.

As far as political corruption goes, the Bloq represents it at it's opportunistic worst. They run for election, pretending they have policies and goals which can be achieved to bring benefit to their constituents, knowing full well they will never climb higher than third rung from the top. Thus shielded from ever having to form a government or run the country's business, they successfully hide from any responsibility while collecting full parliamentary salaries, allowances and, eventually, pensions.

   

Nice to see that after the Liberals served Jack's purpose he tossed them aside like a used condom in favour of jumping in bed with the Conservatives. The most dangerous man on Parliament Hill is Wacko Jacko because he's willing to use anyone to achieve his objectives. If only he wasn't NDP...

   

It doesn't matter to me, holiday or not, if I go to vote. I do know however that those doing the the work don't want to campaign during their holiday. If I were a politician making $150,000.00 a year plus $50,000.00 for committee work plus expenses I wouldn't want to work on a holiday either. Yet when they do finally get around to campaigning I'm sure they will tell me the same thing they did when, in the media, we all discussed their last wage increase. They told us at that time that their job as representatives was different. They really work 24/7. What garbage that was, non the less if those with the ability to do so choose to 'not' force an election immediately then parliment business should end until an election can be held. Paul Martin says he doesn't want to play politics here. He just wants to govern and he has an agenda to promote. Well I have seen that agenda and I know he wants to govern but he can't be trusted to do that so shut parliment down now.

   

as it pertains to the Gomery Commission I think that Rick Mercer said it best


Creitien........Bad


Martin..........Clueless


Money..........Gone



As for the other bit of politics gunplumber hit the nail on the head. The only problem is that everybody in central canada...."The ones who matter". They have to rid themselves of this mantra of, "we would rather keep the devil we know than have the one we don't know"

   

First of all you have to give Federal politicians some credit. For example, Mr. Dosanj happened to be on my flight yesterday. I had a brief converstation with me and it turns out he was at a rememberance ceremony at 11am in Vancouver, and then jumped on the 2pm flight to Toronto. I was forced to skip the rememberance day cermony as I thought I wouldn't have enough time to make my flight. Not that I like the guy, but when I was talking with him, his cell phone was constantly ringing (he ignored it) and he looked bagged tired. On top of that, he took a beating in the National Post that day, and when I asked him about it, he shrugged it off and mentioned that he had read the articles, and was dissapionted because he knew the authors personally.

Federal Politicans have a tough job a lot of the time. They're on call 24/7 and can't even collect their luggage without a young man like myself questioning them. They have to live two lives, one in their ridings, and one in Ottawa, and they constantly get beat up in the media.

I agree that the liberals have lost the moral authority to govern, and they should be brought down at the first chance available, and I agree that the Bloq members are getting an almost free ride. However, the rest of the guys work hard and get very little recognition.

   

I agree with prosoldier.The last time I saw my MP (Leon Benoit) in person, he looked like he was going to fall asleep or keel over in the middle of a town hall meeting.His eyes were red and had black circles under them due to lack of sleep.He is only somewhere in his fifties but looked like he was aproaching the 69-70 mark.His hair was all white.The only reason he looks younger on TV now is because he got his hair dyed and managed to catch a few zzzs.There are many MP's who care about their constituents and sometime these MP's go far enough to the point that they put their own personal health at risk.Leon is one example.Farmers in the Vegreville-Wainwright riding, which is mostly rural, have been in financial hardship for years cuz the Libs won't allow them to use a certain gopher poison to stop gophers from destroying their crops.Leon, a Conservative MP has been standing up for these people and fighting for them for the past 12 years and continues to do so without stopping until something is done to help the farmers.

   

Stick a fork in it, this government is done. The timing of the dropping of the writ, even at this late a date, still is not in the grasp of Harper. How can this be? The 15th is the 1st and earliest he can force a vote and seize the initiative. Everyone knew this minority was only going to last 2 years if that. No one wants two elections in a year or a rerun of the last election but Gomery has been tabled. If the election is in early February Martin will have played this to maximum effect. An Xmas election will be a bitter pill but if Stephen wants to lead he had better start already.