Monday, November 28, 2005

While Rome Burns...

A few thoughts in anticipation of the government's imminent collapse.


-Luckily the BQ has found an issue, other than Adscam to run on! This one comes from an alert reader. On the front page of the BQ site, you'll find what is probably the lamest attack of this election: (in french, of course)

"Young Liberals encourage energy waste"

Montreal, 26 Nov 2005 - While environmentalists meet in Montreal, the Youth Commission of the Liberal Party of Canada, Quebec section, encourages its members, through a competition on its website, to waste energy by decorating their homes with as many red lights as possible.

"Once more, the Liberals prove to us that their words don't match their actions," said Chantale Bouchard, president of the Youth Forum of the Bloc Quebecois (FJBQ). "While we try to be conscious of and change the habits of Quebecers, the Young Liberals of Paul Martin encourage overconsumption," added the FJBQ president.



-CTV's election blog is up here. They'll be taking the feed of several blogs, including the Progressive Bloggers.


-Michael Ignatieff will be running for the Liberals (as reported here last Wednesday!) in Etobicoke Lakeshore. It seems like some members of the Ukrainian community are a little peeved but, honestly, when you've spent a lifetime discussing ethnic conflicts, you'll inevitably piss a few people off along the way.

That said. It's a little disingenuous for Paul to claim he isn't appointing anyone this time around. He's simply not signing the nomination papers of anyone who isn't the chosen candidate in many ridings, leading to de facto nominations. And most people can see through it.


-Political Staples, Let it Bleed, Sinister Thoughts, and James Bow have banded together to do a weekly bloggers podcast of the election. You can check it out on James' site here.


-Some bloggers are already up in arms over the grant this blog has received. No word yet on what he thought about Paul's Sunday address a few weeks back.


-Speaking of Sunday, Paul got booed at the big game last night. Just be grateful the Grey Cup wasn't in Calgary this year.


-I'll make my election predictions sometime this week but here's my bold predictions for Alberta:
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative

I haven't included riding names so, as a contest, let's see who the first reader can be to link the result to the riding!

11 Comments:

  • Oh come on CG, you don't think Anne is going to win her seat? Last time she won by the largest margin she ever has, and that was at the height of Adscam.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:24 p.m.  

  • I think Anne can win.

    There are only two possible conditions.

    1) Tories are under 60% province wide, bringing the Liberals plus Anne supporters well over 40% in parts of Edmonton Centre.

    and/or

    2) Tories/Harper don't learn to run a good campaign/continue to scare people localy or nationally

    Not a sure thing either way

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:23 p.m.  

  • "It seems like some members of the Ukrainian community are a little peeved but, honestly, when you've spent a lifetime discussing ethnic conflicts, you'll inevitably piss a few people off along the way."

    Then why would you put him in a riding full of the people he pissed off?

    By Blogger Simon Pole, at 6:50 p.m.  

  • Bwest; From what I hear, the internal numbers are really bad for Anne right now. I don't think it's a slam dunk, but if I had to put money on it, I'd say there's a 2 in 3 chance that this will be the time she finally drops.

    Simon; Well, maybe that was a poor choice, but they needed to find a riding for him and I guess that's the only riding they could find.

    By Blogger calgarygrit, at 6:53 p.m.  

  • CalgaryGrit! You get all of this money from the god damn government!! and you now you've put some advertising at the top of the page - all those people who say you're not a Liberal are finally proven wrong! You take all this money - and then you show how stinkin' greedy you are by trying to make more! Shame on you!!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:46 p.m.  

  • What will happen if Alberta has no MPs in the next government? Any good Senators?

    By Blogger Jason Cherniak, at 11:09 p.m.  

  • he wrote some nicely-worded books, but he is still a tool when it comes down to it. what good is your methodology when your "human rights" studies lead you to be pro-torture?

    he also advances the concept of the "virtual war", using kosovo as an example of how wars conducted from a distance are so clinical and easy, raising the possibility that states will use war as an easy solution. then he supports the questionably hasty iraq war - im sure we all got the 'there were no wmds' memo by now.

    he, like many at harvard (samuel huntington) is all hot air. the jfk school of govt is one of the best training centres for using the liberal language of freedom to articulate and defend regressive and oppressive statist policy.

    he should stick to novels and biographies (or literary canonizations) of isaiah berlin.

    By Blogger ainge lotusland, at 3:49 a.m.  

  • I'm pretty sure we're (the Conservatives) are going to run the table in Alberta. Without Kilgour there to run as a Liberal by convience and without the benifet of incumbency I'm fairly sure that Millwoods is ours. Annie will put up a struggle, but while she will likely have every Liberal in Alberta coming to her aid (I supose that's you CG and three or four other people?) I tend to think that disgust with the Liberal government and its general perdifity and impotence over the last year and change will lead her her being sept up in a sea of revulsion.

    As for Ignatief, he strikes me as a Tony Blair sort of liberal, as Mark Steyn once aptly put it "a total panty waist on domestic issues, but whose at least grasped there is a war for civilization going on at the moment." I don't really know how well that will cause him to get along with the Liberal women's caucus who as I recall basically came out for pacificism. I mean I can understand people saying they don't think force was warranted in Iraq, but if you can't comprehend a scenario where it would be I tend to think you've lost your mind. However, that digression is meant to point out that aside from the cadre of quasi-Liberals whom are hawkish and socially conservative I'm not sure who really agrees with Ignatieff's conception of foreign policy within the Liberal party.

    It also occurs to me that when he claims that a quaint ethnic minority shouldn't be concerned about preserving its identity, language and culture that a number of francophones might just start feeling uncomfortable with that statement. After all, aren't the Quebecois just another minority like the Ukrainians whom simply should have accepted defeat and quieted down a long time ago? Now of course, that's said tongue in cheek as I look forward to borsce and perogies at Christmas time.

    However, perhaps this isn't the more interesting election we'll see. As whether Martin or Harper wins a minority Ignatieff and Lord are off waiting in the wings. And while the Star might be excited about that, I rather recall what happened last time it came down to an election between an a rightish, beloved by Toronto, Anglophone Liberal and a moderate, fluently bilingual Conservative with roots in Quebec.

    Now that's a heck of an extrapolation I realize, but I think the Liberal's calling Ignatieff their saviour might want to keep their applause to a golf clap.

    By Blogger Chris, at 5:04 a.m.  

  • Indeed the lamest attack of the campaign

    they are against christmas lights now, menorahs emit CO2 its part of the one tonne challenge now

    Thats Next!

    DEBATE ISSUES!

    By Blogger Anthony, at 6:13 p.m.  

  • Glad to see the BQ are environmentalist. Which reminds me, I must take a walk over in Gatineau and enjoy a town free of visual pollution. (I'm assuming that as envornmentalists, the BQ aren't wasting the environment with nasties like signs and campaign lit.)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:39 p.m.  

  • The only reason "Landslide Annie" ever won was because of that secret paring arrangement with Joe Clark. With Clark gone now, she's toast, off to the other troughing place or an ambassadorship. Good riddance: like Iggy, she's too well connected to the US war hawks for my taste.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:42 p.m.  

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