Vancouver Secrets

Job Offers Roll In For Dion

When Stephane Dion resigns Monday, he should consider the invitation of crossing over to the Green Party with his Green Shaft. They’ll welcome him with open arms.

Hey Macleans - I Found Your Missing Blog Post

Maclean’s is busy doing post-election cover up…

I think this post may have been misplaced - here it is in case you need it.

More on this story here.

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By Andrew Potter | Email | October 9th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Posted to: Capital Read, Potter Gold | 368 | Comment on post

For. Shame.

The only saving grace is that James Moore refused to be drawn in. Good on him. Mike Duffy is disgusting.

UPDATE: This is worse than the Chretien face-paralysis attack ad. CTV just won Dion the election.

UPDATE AGAIN: Here’s the clip, for those who missed it.

AND AGAIN: And as for the Tory spindorks, have their brains completely fallen out? How on earth do they think this is going to play in Quebec? Quebecers don’t much like Dion, but to have a bunch of rubes mocking the man for his poor grasp of English — yeah, they’re going to love that in Repentigny. They’ll be slapping their thighs in the Gaspe.

Honest to god.

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Note to bloggers: Copy and paste this post into your blog - it shows up as a recent comment on the Maclean’s blog - lots of free Maclean’s traffic… lol.

Garth Is Too Much

From Garth’s blog:

Apparently I am too much. Too much for a successful career in Canadian politics, anyway. As you may have heard, last night I lost my seat in Parliament in the first elections in the world to be held in the immediate wake of the financial and economic mess enveloping us.

Being Canada’s only blogging MP (my political site played a key role in having my butt kicked out of the Conservative party) was bad enough. But being with a political party which seemed to offer people no better safe harbour in this storm was likely the kiss of death. I’d urged my leader to adopt an immediate policy of guaranteeing all private bank savings, but that commitment was blown.

In any case, my own damn fault. If you want to know more, you can buy my book (the new one). More on that in future days.

Garth is too much…

We Love To Vote For Losers In Canada

photo credit: darkroom productions

Only in Canada do we vote for separatists.

Only in Canada do we have a federal party that has lasted a generation without ever having come close to winning.

Only in Canada do we have a party that has ruled since 1867 with the undying love of the media, that still doesn’t understand that their leader may need to understand English to win.

And, best of all, only in Canada do we have a party that is named after a colour - and is only running to get some of that green to keep their environmental scare mongering alive.

It reminds me of Rider pride… we love losers here.

Get out and vote.

See if you can choose a winner this time.

It may encourage the losers to get their act together.

The Left Is Getting Ahead Of Themselves

Listening and reading the news, the election is all but over. Obama is measuring drapes and Harper is getting a minority again.

The Canadian left is promoting strategic voting - and it’s sure to deliver unintended results.

I really believe the conservative base will be out in droves to vote. The left, being generally apathetic, will probably stay home to some degree.

If you are for Harper - make sure you get out to vote. A majority is needed dearly to get Canada moving, and to keep us afloat through this financial crisis.

The green plans the other have in store will cripple Canada at a time when we need our natural resources as leverage to keep us in the black.

Plus, it’ll send a message to the opposition parties that you can’t run a successful campaign by only attacking the leader - you need to have a message and a better plan.

A Great Way To Get Your Message Viral

YouTube censors comedian shock http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknew…

With the UK is almost taken over by Islam, a gentleman from England made a video to warn his countryman what was happening under their noses.

The video was pulled - as politically incorrect - and the traffic to Pat Condell’s YouTube channel soared.  Search Islam on YouTube and he is dominating the results.

We learn a couple of things:

1) That saying anything against Islam will get you banned - although if you load terror videos favorable to Islam you’re OK.

2) Sharia law is in place in the UK and on it’s way to Canada. Glad I am not female.

My favorite:

Saudi cleric favours one-eye veil http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/midd…

Canada’s move to Sharia law started quite some time ago, and we need to be aware of how it changes the face of our society - women’s rights being only one of the things sacrificed.

I just hope that the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal isn’t reading this…

Is The Media Really That Biased?

photo credit: ♥♥peppersmom♥♥

Welcome To The Harper Derangement Syndrome.

Search Google news for Stephen Harper and you’ll see exactly how biased the media is against him.

The top of the Goggle results start with this quote:

“Last night, Stephane, you panicked,” … “Your platform says we will spend billions of dollars we don’t have and go into deficit. (You) will raise taxes that will kill jobs”

Keep in  mind that most people don’t read the story - just the headlines…

The media is actively campaigning against the Conservatives and Harper - giving the equivalent of millions of dollars of advertising to the other parties.

I expect this in Vancouver where we have two newspapers owned by the same company… but you’d think that there would be one newspaper in Canada that isn’t far left.

Which leads me to question:

What are the papers in Canada so afraid of that they would compromise their integrity this way?

Isn’t the media supposed to balance coverage of the parties?

The papers are partisan hacks, and lack the balls to objectively look at what’s best for the country.

The NDP will crush the economy, the Liberals would return Canada to cronyism while holding us back through socialism, and the Green Party would take us back a century.

The Conservatives will move Canada forward globally, get government out of legislating behavior, and open Canada for business… I don’t see that as a bad thing.

Or, is it because Harper is from the west?

When Defeat Is Certain - Sue

photo credit: LordKhan

Democracy Watch, which said it’s a non-profit, non-partisan
group that advocates government accountability, filed suit today
in federal court in Ottawa. A hearing is scheduled for tomorrow
on the group’s request that a federal judge rule the Sept. 7
dissolution of parliament illegal.

According to most recent opinion polls, the Conservatives
are close to winning a majority of the seats in the Oct. 14 vote.

“Democracy Watch is filing this case not only to challenge
the calling of the current election, but also to win a ruling
that will prohibit future prime ministers from calling
elections” without having been forced to by a vote of non-
confidence in the legislature, the group said in a statement.

Too little, too late.

Why is it that there is no information on this group on the web, other than links to its site on a very far left web directory?

The suit sounds very suspicious - and comes when the Conservatives probably have a majority in the making.

You’d think with all the scandals the Liberal party has given Canada, they would have been more active in the past.

They may be for actual democracy - but their website makes me question their motives…

Any insight?

Layton: Let’s Collapse The Canadian Economy

photo credit

In a move to appeal to the chronically unemployed, single moms, and anyone still grasping onto Karl Marx, Jack Layton has decided that it’s a good idea to increase taxes on companies and to give another $400/month to those with kids.

Although it has initial appeal to those wanting something for free - it amazes me that he would think that Canadians can’t see where their paychecks come from.

Tax a company and immediately that company will need to adjust its cost base - lay off some of those workers.

But that’s OK - we have a great EI program to look after you - and if you have a kid, add another $400 to your monthly income.

Layton should take a day off and read the news… it’s the worst possible time to increase spending or taxes.

We aren’t so easily fooled.

Funding The Green Party

photo credit: Lili Vieira de Carvalho

By Alina Abbot

One of the big obstacles that the Green Party will face in the next election is that of the strategic voters. Those people who share our values and agree with our policies, but who are swayed by the scare tactics of the big parties that claim “If you don’t vote for us, then THEY will get in!” as they point their fingers at the other big parties.

Here are some arguments to help persuade the strategic voters to cast their vote with the Greens:

1. Casting a vote for one of the big parties tells them that you approve of their policies and political games. You get one valuable vote, something that people around the world are willing to die for. When you use it to support a party you don’t really believe in, they still will make the assumption that you used your valuable vote to support what you believe. “Canadians have spoken!” was the cry heard from many Conservatives after the last election, even though 63.7% of Canadian voters chose someone other than the Conservatives. Every vote cast for the Green Party sends a message that Green values and policies are important. Every vote cast for the Green Party will cause the big parties to raise their eyebrows and think “Hmm, maybe Canadians really DO want something other than our policies!”

2. The parties that receive over 2% of the national vote get $1.75 per vote cast from taxpayers. When you cast a vote for a party, you are not only saying that you approve of their values, but you give them your $1.75 to support their policies and future campaigns. This translated into about $9.4 M for the Conservatives in the last election, and only about $1M for the Green Party. If you support Green values, why not also support them with your tax dollars? Your funding will be available to lobby the government in power to support Green policies, even if your Green Party candidate does not win the seat.

3. The electoral districts (ridings) that receive 10% or more of their local vote receive 50% of their campaign spending back from the taxpayers. This means that your vote not only counts for the present election, but also puts support behind that party for the NEXT election! The Green Party did make it past 10% in some ridings, but most ridings fell short. If the strategic voters had cast their votes with the Greens in the last election, then there would be more funding available in many ridings to get out the all-important message that the Green Party has values that are worth supporting.

4. With the rise of the Green Party in the polls, and the increasing interest in environmental and economic sustainability, it is highly probable that the Green Party will edge out the other parties in a number of ridings in the next election. For some ridings, it will be the choices made by the strategic voters that tip the balance for or against the Greens. For those Canadians who really want to see change in the next election, the best strategy will be to vote Green.

Perhaps the next election will have the big parties waving their fingers at the Green Party candidates, exclaiming, “Vote for us, or else THEY’LL get in!” Hopefully, Canadian voters will hear this, and say, “Really? Then I’M voting GREEN!”

Alina Abbott
Candidate nominee
Chatham-Kent-Essex

Confirms that they know they can’t win, but need to target ridings they can get more than 10% of the vote.

This may explain their non-compete with the Liberals.

Wrecking-ball Harper

photo credit: mrhappy

The Canadian Press now rivals AP as far as yellow journalism.

So bad they didn’t include the writer’s name.

Here’s a heading of one of their articles:

Wrecking-ball Harper accuses Liberals of being anti-Alberta, pro-recession

Plus you have to love the first paragraph:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper accused the opposition Liberals of cheering for a recession and of attacking Alberta in one of his most incendiary broadsides yet of the election campaign.

You can read the whole thing here.

I wonder who they are cheering for…