Canada election watch

[Jeff]

I also enjoy the nice puppy, now leave the table work of The National Post's John Ivison:

The NDP has some fine, hard-working MPs who do a good job as gadflies in the House of Commons. Having them conduct a social engineering experiment using Canada as their laboratory is another matter entirely.

That other matter entirely means "it won't just be rain and lightning. The gods will show their displeasure by bringing down plagues of boils, frogs, locusts, taxes and unemployment."

[DrVolin]

Fuck the banksters.

[norton ash]

Fuck the banksters.

I'm sitting with a newspaper in my hands featuring a full-page ad from RBC Royal Bank which reads "20 minutes could save you over $43, 000 on your mortgage. Amazing!"

My response is "That is amazing. You must be unbelievable fucking cheats if you have that kind of leeway on a $200k mortgage on which you're still going to make a killing."

Here's to a merry, messy Monday. Throw the bums out.

[Jeff]

... listening to Rex do his Sunday kitchen table thing ... he asks Donna - "Donna, why do you think people dislike Harper so intensely?", and Donna says "I don't knoooooooooow, Rex."

I caught some of that. When he introduced a special guest, a former Saskatchewan Minister, I unclenched and thought, okay, at last, a New Democrat. But no. She'd served in a Conservative Saskatchewan government.

The coverage and punditry is self-evidently bizarre. A lot of talk about the NDP, but NDP reps are themselves absent from the conversation.

The media's on the record endorsements of the Conservatives (off the record, the list includes all our private broadcasters; our national public broadcaster tilts Liberal but toadies Conservative):

The Brampton Guardian
The Recorder and Times (Brockville)
Burlington Post
Calgary Herald
Calgary Sun
Durham Region News
The Economist
Edmonton Examiner
Edmonton Journal
Edmonton Sun
Etobicoke Guardian
The Globe and Mail
The Mississauga News
The Gazette (Montreal)
The Hamilton Spectator
Inside Toronto
Maclean's
National Post
Oakville Beaver
Ottawa Sun
The Province (Vancouver)
Simcoe County News
The Suburban (Quebec)
Sudbury Star
Toronto Sun
The Vancouver Sun
Waterloo Region Record
Windsor Star
Winnipeg Free Press
Winnipeg Sun

The NDP can claim a reluctant Toronto Star and an alternative weekly.

Nobody's got our backs, but we're this close.

[Jeff]

Naomi Klein tweet just now:

Never realized how stressful it was to root for a party with an actual chance. Being electorally marginal was so relaxing!

[Feilan]

re: Obama's BIG statement:

Hold yer breath everybody! The Mesley has a little bug in her ear that sez, "Stretch, streeeeetch! The BOSS isn't ready!"...

..."... on the other hand he doesn't want to be seen as exploiting this, because of the timing, on the eve of an election..." says Terry Milewski.

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

... baited breath awaiting Harper spin :

on edit: ewwwwwwww. Milewski is embedded on the Harper bus/plane.

[Fresno_Layshaft]

Well, it was nice while it lasted. Nice of them to remind us "we don't just run the USA, you know". Quite a favour!

[Jeff]

But removing the original Emmanuel Goldstein component from the engine of Harper's fear-driven Conservative vote can't be good for him. Bad news is good for him.

[Fresno_Layshaft]

I think this in some way will legitimize the fear again. I think he'll get up on stage tonight and puff and prance about staying the course and all that BS. A HUGE celebration of militant nationalism is not good for the NDP.

[Feilan]

"Bonsoir" it says. Le fucking arsehole opens and closes and stuff comes out en francais... The Mesley translates...

A little paraphrasing, if I may... ?
[...apparently - "Canada welcomes the death of Osama Bin Laden with sobre satisfaction." ... neeeeedless to say: it doesn't end the forever threat of terrorism, but it does remind us of how smoothly we got sucked into this bloodfeast in the first place. The hydra lives. In one hand, Osama's head; springing forth from the bloody stump, a multiverse of reasons to keep the lie alive. Amen. Hey Jude.]

"We're all amerikans now." is just as true today as it was that September ... if you don't believe it, just scratch and sniff a few people you know but don't usually discuss such things with ... while it's heartening to hear conservative voters pipe up to say the massage parlour story was the straw that put orange t-shirts on their backs - I humbly suggest that's the same guy whose button can be reset with a quick montage of Osama the bogeyman Saudi and planes crashing into smouldering buildings ... Only one more sleep girls and boys. By this time tomorrow ...

Little wheel, spin and spin ...

[Canadian_watcher]

Who picked the weekend of the Royal Wedding and the Beatification of the Pope as Election Weekend, anyway? Perhaps people who like to remind their constituencies of their Loyalist Blood and their Catholic Daddies? I dunno - it struck me as odd. There's also the NHL playoffs, let's not forget. These 3 items are not exactly NDP-friendly - they are carrots to the faithful, and now Osama & Obama are the sticks for the backsides of those that didn't go along willingly.

I remain hopeful. The media should be ashamed - that's another reason I'd love to see the NDP squeak out a minority - to shut those old-guard mouthpieces up or at least watch them writhe.

[Jeff]

[Jeff]

It's barbarism or socialism time

Elections agency warns of false information

Elections Canada is warning voters not to trust anyone but the agency itself about where they should vote on Monday after reports that some voters are being told to go to the wrong polling stations — some up to an hour away from their homes.

Spokeswoman Francine Bastien said Elections Canada has had reports from several ridings of voters being given false information directing them to the wrong place to vote. Most, but not all, are in Ontario. She confirmed Kitchener-Waterloo is one of the affected ridings.

...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadav ... 2c57597a,0

[Canadian_watcher]

oh no.
this smells bad.

[Feilan]

See? Now, just yesterday I was saying to the mate, "The one consolation I've got is they can't tamper with the vote itself." I've grossly underestimated evil.

-cue sad trombone