Harper's Hopes Fading

Written By: 4Canada
Date: 2006-10-14 08:03:56
<a href="/article/80056334-harpers-hopes-fading">Article Link</a>

It's also despite the fact that the Liberals are still leaderless and that their campaign, according to the same poll, has failed to engage one in two voters and to produce a popular front-runner.

On that particular score, the poll results are at best a mixed bag. The Liberals may be having a four-way race to the top but for the Canadian public, their campaign is primarily a two-way contest between Bob Rae and Michael Ignatieff, with Gerard Kennedy and Stéphane Dion making up a somewhat distant second tier.

And while Rae emerges as the favourite for Liberal leader, it is Ignatieff whom poll respondents find more likely to bring the Liberals to victory in an election. Those contradictory findings could be a sign that when respondents of all political persuasions select their preferred choice, they sometimes do so on the basis of their own partisan interest, by looking for the leader least likely, at least in their minds, to do their own party damage, rather than with an eye to the best chances of the Liberals.

But if the Liberals, based on the tepid public response to their leadership campaign, are not holding the Conservatives back, then it follows that the government is failing to build efficiently on its gains from the last election through its own actions or lack of them.

Indeed, even with the same score as last January, the Conservatives are probably further from their goal of a majority than they were on the morning after the last election, and certainly more removed from it than at the peak of their honeymoon last spring.

In Quebec, the bottom is falling out from under Harper. His party has now dropped to third place, well behind the Bloc Québécois (44 per cent) and four points behind the Liberals (21 per cent).

<a href="http://tinyurl.com/tukb6">http://tinyurl.com/tukb6</a>

The numbers are going down the fastest in Quebec for Harper. But: 
 
"Au niveau national, les résultats ont très peu changé depuis les dernières élections générales." 
 
according to the EKOS-La Presse-Toronto Star poll 
<a href="http://lcn.canoe.com/lcn/infos/national/archives/2006/10/20061014-073950.html">http://lcn.canoe.com/lcn/infos/national/archives/2006/10/20061014-073950.html</a> 
 
 
Am proud of my former coutry mates. But what is the matter with people in the ROC (Rest of Canada)? Are they not interested in following politics the way they are in Quebec??? Do they enjoy being f*ed up by their federal government?--- "We are all in this together somehow, some more than others somehow"

Harper is a neoclassically brainwashed economist and a religious fundamentalist, therefore has been out of touch with realities for all of his adult life.

On the other hand, never underestimate the out of touch mentality of the so called 'average voter", either. How could Reform virtually take over BC in strong union towns, especially with a character like Preston Manning running the show ?

With multinationals, and big business in general, putting unlimited campaign funds into Harper's hand and with their owned and controlled media unleashing the biggest propaganda ever seen, I fear the worst.

Democracy is always the loser, because people love dictatorships, as they free them from thinking. The Soviets praised their one party system as "freedom" from having to make choices.

Ed Deak.

“Democracy is always the loser, because people love dictatorships, as they free them from thinking.”
What an interesting and frightening observation!
What is it about “thinking” that so frightens people? I see contribution on these pages written almost flawlessly, the way I wish I could express myself with the written word and yet the thinking is totally fucked!
Most of what I see that goes for “thinking” has been selected from the steady diet of propaganda and outright lies force fed humanity by either the ruling class or those who want to belong to it.
We’ve had some doozies presented here!
I hate to give in to Ed’s observation about being free of thinking and yet what else would explain the lack of it?

(as an after thought)
Good Morning

---
Diogenes said:
"I am Diogenes the Dog. I nuzzle the kind, bark at the greedy and bite scoundrels."

If you look at the history of all past democracies, Dio, you'll find that they always self destructed and fell into the hands of dictators. Mostly in the fraudulent names of "security" and "preserving freedoms".

I hope that this curse and chain may one day be broken. I have experienced enough dictatorships in my life to be rather dead than fall into the hands of another one. Yet, neocon/neoclassical economics can not survive in democracies, so the powers are doing their best to kill them.

Ed Deak.

"I hope that this curse and chain may one day be broken."

Amen to that Ed!

---
Diogenes said:
"I am Diogenes the Dog. I nuzzle the kind, bark at the greedy and bite scoundrels."

But if I were to read or listen to Ed's perspective, or yours, or Harper's, and decide that I like what I've heard, I could still be accused of being in favour of that perspective out of a desire to not have to think.
There are many people who vote without thinking, I agree but they may do so for different reasons. For instance, my wife always votes the way I do. My Wife's Brother and their Mother both vote NDP because their Father was a union man. My mother - rest her soul - in the 1988 election voted the opposite of her normal pattern because she saw how passionate I was on the issue of free-trade. Her reasoning was that "I am old and it doesn't really matter to me anymore and you are young so I'll let you have my vote".
My point is that both sides benefit from the non-thinking voter.
I certainly would have less respect for someone who would vote for party "A" because that's how his or her family votes than I would for someone who listens to the issues, national and local, and after careful consideration, chooses a party to vote for. However, if Joe Blow from Etobicoke votes "for" the gun registry because his Daughter was a victim of a school shooting rather than "against" BMD, I don't think that makes him a non-thinking voter, it makes him a passionate voter.
I am glad to hear that Harper's hopes are fading but we need to make sure that people are passionate about keeping Canada independant and intact.

---
Everybody got to deviate from the norm

Even in the Soviet Union with one party back in the day you still had to go cast your 'vote' (affirmation) of the candidate/party and if you didn't there was big trouble. You all probably knew that though...

Yes, of course, voting under communism was compulsory, unless somebody had a very good excuse, like sickness, etc. That's how they got 95 and 97% approval of the Party.

But then, compulsion in all sorts of areas, like church going for children, reporting to the police whenever somebody stayed somewhere longer than 24 hours, etc. etc. was the norm in most pre and postwar European countries, so switching to another compulsion, or one more didn't make much difference.

Ed Deak.

<blockquote> Are they not interested in following politics the way they are in Quebec??? Do they enjoy being f*ed up by their federal government? </blockquote> Too busy watching "reality" shows to take much interest in the state of the state--- "Son, if you wanna get ahead in this world, never work for another man as long as you live."

<blockquote> especially with a character like Preston Manning running the show </blockquote> Because, like Bush, Preston came on as a kind of folksy, down-home kind of guy; a sort of anti-intellectual. But Refo-r-r-r-r-m (I love that word) was smart and got rid of Preston before his ratings went down like ol' Bushy's?--- "Son, if you wanna get ahead in this world, never work for another man as long as you live."

<blockquote> you'll find that they always self destructed and fell into the hands of dictators </blockquote> How about, when people become prosperous in a democratic setting, they become anti-intellectual, choosing instead to retain their prosperity (or rather, the material things that represent prosperity), and paying homage to anyone who says they will guarantee the retention of same (and even add to the pot)?Just a thought.........--- "Son, if you wanna get ahead in this world, never work for another man as long as you live."

.....ya got to quit teasing us with carrots like this tidbit! :~)

---
"Son, if you wanna get ahead in this world, never work for another man as long as you live."

"I am glad to hear that Harper's hopes are fading but we need to make sure that people are passionate about keeping Canada independant and intact."
With this (aspect) I agree.

Passion coupled with thinking is neither guarantee nor recipe for moving in a just direction.
I have witnessed people so filled with a passion and a thinking that they would do harm to any that stand in their way and were self-centred and greed filled.

In the case of victims of school shooting there are common threads that gets dropped, eg the shooters were using DOCTORS drugs and stopped being compliant with their doctors orders, also many were labelled social outcasts and made so by the kind of thinking I am referring to, their thinking was skewed.
So yes, thinking is a factor, a major factor.

---
Diogenes said:
"I am Diogenes the Dog. I nuzzle the kind, bark at the greedy and bite scoundrels."

I have noticed two main things. 1. The CON are using anything they can dig up on the Liberals asa cover up for their own screw ups. An example can be found in <a href="http://www.conservative.ca/?section_id=1855&section_copy_id=54831&language_id=0">this article</a> on their website. 2. Harper is getting increasingly robotic with time.