Yes, I’m scared of Stephen Harper!

I would be just as frightened of Martin if he had a majority. He has been working since 1993 to give people of his own economic class the financial power to compete in globalization. To do that Martin as Finance Minister, adopted policies that would make the rich richer, real middle incomes stagnate and decline, and increase poverty levels. While he claims to believe in progressive values now he obvioulsy would have gone through a major coversion; it is remarkable what a minority government and a potential loss of power will do.

Economically there is little real difference between Martin and Harper except that Harper is a capitalist in a hurry.

The big difference is that on the social side there are still progressive Liberals but the Conservative Party has purged progressive values along with progressives from the party. If you are a hard working but not particularly affluent Canadian don't expect anything from Harper's policies. Any tax break and more will be eaten up by higher costs as the Conservatives begin more privatization. That money from tax breaks and for child care will rapidly find its way into the hands of corporations.

All that Harper and MacKay had to do was convince a few Progressive Conservatives that all they would have to do is get rid of all progressism from the party and join together to beat the Liberals. Then needed was the vote of the dual card holders, new Canadian Alliance members to join, with the anti-progressives in the party, and some dishonest riding executives to get the 51 per cent vote needed in 66 per cent of the ridings to destroy the Progressive Conservative Party. It is that kind of careful manipulation that passes for democracy among new Conservatives. In my riding there was no vote because the president refused to accept any delegate that did not support the merger. I call that corrupt although many new Conservatives do not agree.

Many of the strategies the Conservatives are using are borrowed from the right wing Republican strategies so it is not surprising the two campaigns are so similar. I believe some of their strategists have been trained by the Republican Party.

Anyone who believes that this new Conservative Party is any less corrupt than the Liberals is merely hiding their head in the sand.

hey turdy,

you saying you don't like the charter of rights? I suppose then we'll just do away with that, and i'll fire your ass from your cushy job because you have a faggy haircut. How do you like them apples partner. Real "libertarian" - texas style. Whoo hoo!

By voting for the bloc, you are voting for a SEPERATIST PARTY - which has no place in a national parliament. They are traitors, and you are for choosing to vote for them. All you do is continue to encourage the rabid seperatist movement in your province - vote NDP, then the seperatists can simmer down, maybe even take a bath or change their clothes.

Research Tom Flanagan - stephen harper's tutor in Calgary. See what this gem of a human being is all about. Furthermore, do some more googling to look up Ted and Link byfield and see how closely knit they are into the inner circles of the CPC right now and ask yourself if you truly wish to be associated with these wingnuts.

There are no "haves and have nots", only "takers and givers". In other words, the "exploiters and the exploited".

Our present political system is based on the glorification of the "takers", called in neoclassical lingo, the "most efficient".

Harper is nothing more than a bagman for the "takers". His past record as the head of the National Citizens Coalition, nothing more than a big business lobby group, and his past speeches are the best proof. Now the guy is lying his head off to cover his past actions.

There won't be a majority government. The worst case scenario would be a minority under Harper, having to depend on the support of other parties for a short term survival.

Being a two faced screwballer, this would give Harper the chance to act as a PM of charm, milk and honey, counting on the hope that it would mislead enough Canadians to give him majority the next time around.

It happened with Diefenbaker back in '57. Mulroney was down to nothing in the polls at the beginning of '88, only to get another majority, and the FTA, with 43% of the votes, later in the same year. Harper is a great admirer of Mulroney and good at learning. This alone should give anybody the creeps.

My only hope is to get rid of our useless, seatwarmer Reform MP by the name of Dick Harris and to read of Harper's
resignation as leader of that Reform/CRAP/Alliance/Conservative/or whatever they call themselves today, bunch the morning after the elections.

Ed Deak, Big Lake, BC.

Actually, I'm impressed how well Harper is doing in this campaign - despite all the negativity surrounding him at the beginning.

He is actually putting out interesting and sometimes controversial policy on a daily basis with clearly stated amounts, thresholds & figures.

I think it was a big mistake for the Liberals to sit on their asses for 3 weeks. It left Canadians with the impression they had nothing else to offer.

The fact is the Conservatives are our best chance of reducing Big Government. All these posts just prove to me that Government (power corrupts) is bad and will not get any better. Vote Harper!

Harper has run a really good campaign. The only hope for Martin now is to scare the hell out of everyone so they don't "waste" their votes on the NDP. He has to convince everyone there is only two options. Liberal "values" or satan incarnate. They pulled if off last time, we'll see if it works again.

Martin says that we can't trust the Conservatives to handle the national unity file, but if the BQ crack 50%, we can thank the Fiberals and their as yet unresolved sponsorship scandal (which CAP says is a tired old horse). So, Martin asks us to believe that the Liberals have put behind them that exercise in corruption, that extraordinary moral lapse. He thinks Canadians should put it behind them, too, at a time when the finance department is under criminal investigation by the RCMP and Goodale refuses to step aside because, he says, he has investigated himself and found himself blameless.

Should be an interesting show.

How about reducing Big Business that steals our eyes out a hundreds times worse than any government ?

Ed Deak.

And I am not alone ... This just in: <blockquote>It’s easy to dismiss the occasional headcase and perhaps even have a chuckle at how out of touch they are with reality. The real concern is with the sheer quantity of these people in a national political party that has a real chance of assuming power. The bible-thumpers are the most worrisome. To a person, they are anti-abortion, homophobic, and determined to destroy all barriers separating church and state. They are often very quiet about their religious agenda, even expunging it from their official biographies on their candidate websites. Stephen Harper, conscious of the revulsion that most Canadians would express if it appeared that the Conservative Party was nothing more than a northern version of the U.S. Republican Party, is careful to maintain a certain distance from the more extreme candidates. But they are there, whether Harper acknowledges them in public or not. The question becomes, do these people and their ideas represent the real Conservative Party? If so, then Harper needs to stop pretending they don’t. If they don’t, then the Conservatives need to assume greater control over who they run as candidates. <a href="http://thegallopingbeaver.blogspot.com/2006/01/conservative-party-candidates-that.html">Go to source</a>

You mean vote for the guy that says:

"We also need to rediscover Burkean conservatism because the emerging debates on foreign affairs should be fought on moral grounds."

The "moral state" *is* Big Government. Look to the CPC's cousins to the south. The only part of Big Government that was reduced was the checks to, and oversight of, executive power.

There is a difference between reducing "Big Government" (wasteful spending, unneeded bureaucracy and economic intrusion) and reducing legal impediments to executive power. Let's be sure what we're talking about here.

As long as the Conservative government is a minority they can't make drastic changes. As anti-nationalism as the Bloc is they will not prop of a lot of the conservative desires. A majority Conservative government is another story; When America is ready to invade Iran or Syria there should be no doubt that Canada will be along side the impoerialist. Coupled with the Ontario provincial liberals Ontario would certainly become much more hawkish and police-state like (It is already slowly the reality in Ontario, i'm not sure about the rest of the country). A minority may prove to be the worst thing for the Conservatives as the next time around the Liberals won't have to do much defending of their record and the populus will feel as if the Liberals got punished for recent scandals. For those who say there is not much difference between the parties I have to disagree; having said that neither party is worth the time of day nor is the Canadian system as a whole. Ifi Harper weren't the leader of the Conservatives it would be much easier for the Conservatives to gain power. Harper will be a very close ally to the Bush administration which is the worst thing that comes out of a Conservative government.

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It appears there is yet ANOTHER RCMP investigation into a 4.8 million grant given during the 1995 Quebec referendum the Globe and Mail reports. Poor Liberals. Can the Conservatives get any luckier than this....

I don't know why some people seem concerned about the Conservatives. Canada is a democracy and not a dictatorship. If Harper screws up throw him out of office after the next election and elect a governement that would undo the damage. Personally I'm a Liberal centrist/Progressive Conservative but want to see Martin lose badly so the party can renew itself.

Well, If the latest polls are correct you clowns are going to be hiding under your beds for a while! 
 
 
OTTAWA—The election campaign has taken a dramatic turn, with the opposition Conservatives jumping into their first real lead over the governing Liberals, a new poll shows. 
 
The survey, conducted by EKOS Research Associates for the Star and La Presse, found that 36.2 per cent of decided voters say they will support the Conservatives, while 30.4 per cent favoured the Liberals. 
 
<a href="http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1136415010845&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home">http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1136415010845&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home</a> 
 
I am going to laugh my ass off!