No, not that one, the Canadian one.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Canadian Leaders debate last night (October. 2nd) was riveting and thought provoking. It served to solidify the way I'll vote, and it gave me a chance to look into the eyes of the people who want to run our country.
I'll start with Elizabeth May. What an excellent showing by the Green Party. In my eyes, they have proved to Canada that they belong on the national stage and are not the one issue party that people perceive them as. She responded to every question with far more detail than the other party leaders; citing example after example as she hammered her points home. She was certainly the most well briefed of all the candidates, and her arguments came across very strongly as a result.
What took away from Elizabeth May was that she lacked the sense that she was tried and true. In order for Canadians to trust her, she not only needed to have strong arguments backed up by facts, but she also needed to have a style of discourse that came off as professional and experienced. Her choice of diction such as calling Conservative plans "stupid" and calling Stephen Harper a fraud undermined her image as a serious candidate and made her appear unpolished. She did well when talking about the environment, the economy, justice, and proportional representation.
I believe that one of the reasons she did so well was because she went relatively unmolested when stating her policy ideas, and she fleshed them out so well that they landed solidly every time. If the other leaders hadn't underestimated her, they may have quashed the danger they now face in the first Green Party MP's being elected to the House of Commons.
I have to comment on Jack Layton next. I always enjoy his style of speaking because he is so incredibly confidant and strong in his positions and attacks. He used gesticulation particularly well, and came off as the champion of the working class. There's always a twinkle in his eye, and he spoke well about his party's plans for Canada. Jack had the most charisma, excellent knowledge to back up his points, defended himself relatively well, and was the strongest attacker in the debate. He was strongest when talking about health care and Tommy Douglas, the economy of the working class, Afghanistan, and being a man of action.
Were he comes down is seeming over confidant. He appeared to be more bully-like than Stephen Harper when he asked him where the Conservative leader's platform was, referring to the sweater vested image of Harper's initial campaign ads. Even his introductory nod seemed a far cry from the congenial, courageous, smiling face that I had expected. He's got the best smile, he should use it. One of the best things about the New Democrats is that they're such nice people, and I don't think Jack communicated that to Canadians.
Again I can liken Layton to Elizabeth May's case; he was attacked once that stood out in my mind, and that was Harper's shot at him about being a hypocritical advocate of the public health care system. The New Democrats are surging in strength, and failure to throw jabs at Jack was a fault of all the candidates.
I spoke about congeniality before, and definitely the the most polite, caring person of the night was Stephané Dion, who looked sincerely into the camera every chance across and used excellent body language to communicate that he loves this country. I believed him, and he seemed the most genuine debater of the night. He also had a chance to defend his platform as not being a Carbon Tax, but instead being a tax cut. Richer, greener, fairer, he communicated his centrist position well. He was strong on the environment, the economy, justice, poverty, and came across as the leader who cared the most for Canada.
But of course where Stephané always falls through is with his poor English. This man needs a speaking coach, because although I paid close attention and was able to grasp what I just mentioned, it was hard for me to catch his full message. Congenial he may have been, but he was severly hampered by his inability to be quick on his feet in rebutting or attacking the other leaders.
Dion should also consider himself lucky that he wasn't the punching bag of last night's debate. If he had been, he would have crumbled under the assailance of all parties because of his language barrier. In addition, he's also the least charismatic of all the leaders, his words don't move you in quite the same way that say Jack Layton's do.
Another person who has that problem is Stephen Harper. But he came across as intelligent, steady, and although it's cliché, Prime Ministerial. He defended his record well, and deserves kudos for taking the brunt of all attacks last night. He spoke pragmatically and came off as the most sensible of the candidates by far. Indeed, the media put it the best, saying that he was like a father at a kitchen table resolving the issues of the household; fairly and with an experienced hand. Harper was strong on the economy, justice, defending his record, and simply raising himself above the debate.
However, he came down firstly in his eyes. When he looks at you, his icy glare penetrates deeply. Distant, and uncaring were the impressions I got from is body language, with empty eyes and not a single look directly at the camera, although he did fool me a couple times on that one. He seems the most dishonest, and certainly a quip from the 2006 election describes his smile well, as shark-like. Not only does he seem not to care, but he really falls flat on his intonation. He was the most monotone of speakers, and he has little of the pizzazz that some of the other leaders enjoy, excepting Dion.
One mistake that the other parties made was focusing on him too much. Because Harper is so quick and intelligent, he can rebut a point and quickly pull out one of his credentials that he's gained over the past 2 1/2 years. He had all kinds of opportunities to blame things on the Liberals from before 2003, and got in plenty of swipes of his own on Dion and Layton when refuting the other leaders points.
Lastly I will touch on Gilles Duceppe. Duceppe's english is better than Dion's, and it showed. He came through very well for a case for Québec, making strong arguments for the Arts, Health Care, and Afghanistan. He really scored well; especially in comarison to Dion with his poor english, but ultimately still came across as what he is; a purely Québec party. The other thing that put me off was the way that he bugged his eyes out. Maybe he thinks it makes him look incredulous, but I think it makes him look creepy. He contributed well to the debate overall, both attacking Harper and solidifying his stance as pro-french.
In conclusion, I'd have to say that I'd score Jack Layton first, Elizabeth May second, Stephen Harper third, Stephané Dion fourth and Gilles Ducéppe last. Jack had the best combination of experience, confidence, substance, and style, and Elizabeth really shone through with her polished details and spunky attitude. Harper had a tough job to do but he did it well, and Dion would have done far better if he had a better mastery of English. Lastly Duceppe really seems superificial because he only represents Québec, and you can't get away from that; period.
Now we will see if the NDP can capitalize on the gains they've made, we'll see if the Liberals turn their excellent showing in the French debate into seats, we'll see if the Greens can get one seat, and we'll se if Harper can get more than half.
And we'll see if I can get any real work done this beautiful weekend in Kingston.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
A Grain of Salt
I couldn't believe my eyes. Or ears. Or rapidly rising heartbeat. It actually happened.
Dion called an election.
Or rather, he probably would have, if only he'd have had the chance. But no, Harper got the jump on him and dissolved Parliament with a visit to the GG's house in the Sussex Hood. Rather rudely canceling her trip to China, I might add. And she was going to have so much fun comparing medal totals from Beijing. Ah, C'est la vie.
So, Harper one-ups Dion again (surprise) and calls a fall election. The issues are: The Environment, The Economy, and the.... yeah. Basically that's what it comes down to folks in this election as far as policy goes. Dion's Carbon Tax has been branded by both the NDP and the Conservatives as either "insane" or brutal for Canadian families. And the Bloc thinks it's well... I don't know what the Bloc thinks, they only campaign in Quebec. But anyways, the Liberals want to save the environment with a tax (okay, a tax shift). Unfortunately for Dion, tax tends to have a bit of negative stigma attached to it, so it might not go over so well in an election situation. Especially in British Columbia, where they already have a Carbon Tax. Guess BC will really get a chance to solidify it's reputation as the land of the tree-hugging hippies, whether we want to or not. Now, to be fair, making people hate something is the best way to get them to stop doing it, so if Canadians hate paying a lot for gas, they're pretty likely to start bussing or walking instead. Same goes for the markets. If consumers are going green, then they'll move right with them, because that's how free markets work people. Doesn't mean that the projects in the oil sands are going to like it, but they'll just have to make $100 billion dollars instead of $200 billion. Or making a hydrogen car that actually works.
Of course, that's only in the event that Dion becomes Prime Minister. Our current chappie Stevey Joe is another thing altogether. His plan for the environment seems sketchy at best, and after having several chances to put through an environment bill worked on by all parties through the House of Commons, they've dropped the ball and given it to John Baird to chew on. Other hallmarks of Harper's 31-month lease at Sussex include:
1) Yelling at the Liberals
2) Passing an immigration act that selects cheap labour over well educated immigrants
3) Demeaning Stephane Dion (although really, you sort of get that with the job when you enter politics)
4) Bribing an independant MP's vote (No, we won't let you forget Cadman, Harper. Never)
5) Yelling at the Liberals
6) Having a high-profile cabinet minister leave important foreign affairs documents out for everyone to see (okay, only Maxime Bernier's wife who used to be "special friends" with the leader of the Hell's Angels, but that's pretty much everyone anyways)
7) Yelling at the Liberals
8) Having his HQ raided by the RCMP because the Conservatives didn't spend according to the rules in the previous election
9) Yelling at the Liberals
10) Having his closest friend and mentor caught up inside a scandal that could be as damaging to the conservatives as the Sponsorship Scandal was to the Liberals (Mulroney! Now you can be remembered for something other than the GST!)
11) And finally, yelling at the Liberals
Now, this list looks pretty horrible, I know, but let's remember that all of those yelling points can be summed up into one, and so can the point about Stephane Dion, so let's reduce our final number to 5.
Those five negative things done while Harper was in office were mostly out of his control, excpet the Immigration thing and the Cadman thing, but basically for the other three, it sucked to be him. But, there were many more good things that the Conservatives passed while in government. Like cutting the GST to 5%. Like delivering two balanced budgets and paying off billions of dollars of federal debt. (There's a long ways to go, but every nine zeroes count). He's given families $1200 a year in child benefit cheques (or whatever they're called). He's finally set an end date for our mission in Afghanistan (I know it was hard Steve, but we're so proud of you!). And he has cut personal income taxes for families across the country. All this, and his government has been spending more than any previous Canadian government in history. Of course, a booming economy does help.
However, the honeymoon period is over. And it was so good, that Canada might be ready to give Steve a majority. But their are rocky waters ahead my friends. The United States is heading into some kind of economic quagmire, and I've heard rumours that America plans on riding it out by slapping some tariffs on Canadians goods to pay for social saftey nets. The next Prime Minister must have a plan to get us through what could be a rocky ten years of recession, or we could be looking at the federal debt going right back up where it used to be.
Let's not forget our other party leaders. Except the Bloc, they can just stay in Quebec.
Jack Layton sees himself as the replacement for Stephane Dion. I would love for Jack to become the new opposition or even Prime Minister, but the memory of the 1990's in BC and Ontario is all too fresh, and one seat in Outremont doesn't seem like it'll cut it for Quebec. That said, BC showed a massive increase for the New Democrats during the past week in swing ridings, possibly due to the current success of the provincial NDP in slamming Gordon Campbell's Liberals.
Then of course, there's Elizabeth May. She made headlines and history when she got the Green Party into the leaders debate at the beginning of October. While this is historic indeed, I remain skeptical whether or not running against Conservative powerhouse Peter McKay in Nova Scotia was a great idea. We'll see how that turns out.
So that's the election from my point of view. Sorry that it wasn't quite as funny as normal, (or is it even normally funny?) I'll try better next time.
Dion called an election.
Or rather, he probably would have, if only he'd have had the chance. But no, Harper got the jump on him and dissolved Parliament with a visit to the GG's house in the Sussex Hood. Rather rudely canceling her trip to China, I might add. And she was going to have so much fun comparing medal totals from Beijing. Ah, C'est la vie.
So, Harper one-ups Dion again (surprise) and calls a fall election. The issues are: The Environment, The Economy, and the.... yeah. Basically that's what it comes down to folks in this election as far as policy goes. Dion's Carbon Tax has been branded by both the NDP and the Conservatives as either "insane" or brutal for Canadian families. And the Bloc thinks it's well... I don't know what the Bloc thinks, they only campaign in Quebec. But anyways, the Liberals want to save the environment with a tax (okay, a tax shift). Unfortunately for Dion, tax tends to have a bit of negative stigma attached to it, so it might not go over so well in an election situation. Especially in British Columbia, where they already have a Carbon Tax. Guess BC will really get a chance to solidify it's reputation as the land of the tree-hugging hippies, whether we want to or not. Now, to be fair, making people hate something is the best way to get them to stop doing it, so if Canadians hate paying a lot for gas, they're pretty likely to start bussing or walking instead. Same goes for the markets. If consumers are going green, then they'll move right with them, because that's how free markets work people. Doesn't mean that the projects in the oil sands are going to like it, but they'll just have to make $100 billion dollars instead of $200 billion. Or making a hydrogen car that actually works.
Of course, that's only in the event that Dion becomes Prime Minister. Our current chappie Stevey Joe is another thing altogether. His plan for the environment seems sketchy at best, and after having several chances to put through an environment bill worked on by all parties through the House of Commons, they've dropped the ball and given it to John Baird to chew on. Other hallmarks of Harper's 31-month lease at Sussex include:
1) Yelling at the Liberals
2) Passing an immigration act that selects cheap labour over well educated immigrants
3) Demeaning Stephane Dion (although really, you sort of get that with the job when you enter politics)
4) Bribing an independant MP's vote (No, we won't let you forget Cadman, Harper. Never)
5) Yelling at the Liberals
6) Having a high-profile cabinet minister leave important foreign affairs documents out for everyone to see (okay, only Maxime Bernier's wife who used to be "special friends" with the leader of the Hell's Angels, but that's pretty much everyone anyways)
7) Yelling at the Liberals
8) Having his HQ raided by the RCMP because the Conservatives didn't spend according to the rules in the previous election
9) Yelling at the Liberals
10) Having his closest friend and mentor caught up inside a scandal that could be as damaging to the conservatives as the Sponsorship Scandal was to the Liberals (Mulroney! Now you can be remembered for something other than the GST!)
11) And finally, yelling at the Liberals
Now, this list looks pretty horrible, I know, but let's remember that all of those yelling points can be summed up into one, and so can the point about Stephane Dion, so let's reduce our final number to 5.
Those five negative things done while Harper was in office were mostly out of his control, excpet the Immigration thing and the Cadman thing, but basically for the other three, it sucked to be him. But, there were many more good things that the Conservatives passed while in government. Like cutting the GST to 5%. Like delivering two balanced budgets and paying off billions of dollars of federal debt. (There's a long ways to go, but every nine zeroes count). He's given families $1200 a year in child benefit cheques (or whatever they're called). He's finally set an end date for our mission in Afghanistan (I know it was hard Steve, but we're so proud of you!). And he has cut personal income taxes for families across the country. All this, and his government has been spending more than any previous Canadian government in history. Of course, a booming economy does help.
However, the honeymoon period is over. And it was so good, that Canada might be ready to give Steve a majority. But their are rocky waters ahead my friends. The United States is heading into some kind of economic quagmire, and I've heard rumours that America plans on riding it out by slapping some tariffs on Canadians goods to pay for social saftey nets. The next Prime Minister must have a plan to get us through what could be a rocky ten years of recession, or we could be looking at the federal debt going right back up where it used to be.
Let's not forget our other party leaders. Except the Bloc, they can just stay in Quebec.
Jack Layton sees himself as the replacement for Stephane Dion. I would love for Jack to become the new opposition or even Prime Minister, but the memory of the 1990's in BC and Ontario is all too fresh, and one seat in Outremont doesn't seem like it'll cut it for Quebec. That said, BC showed a massive increase for the New Democrats during the past week in swing ridings, possibly due to the current success of the provincial NDP in slamming Gordon Campbell's Liberals.
Then of course, there's Elizabeth May. She made headlines and history when she got the Green Party into the leaders debate at the beginning of October. While this is historic indeed, I remain skeptical whether or not running against Conservative powerhouse Peter McKay in Nova Scotia was a great idea. We'll see how that turns out.
So that's the election from my point of view. Sorry that it wasn't quite as funny as normal, (or is it even normally funny?) I'll try better next time.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
A Grain of Salt
After a summer of simmering politicking in Ottawa, Stephane Dion's proposed Carbon Tax, Stephen Harper's attack ad's on Stephane Dion's Carbon Tax, and confusion that surrounds Carbon Tax and anything to do with the idea of Global Warming in general clouding the dying days of August, people are saying that there's going to be a fall election. No, seriously. This time they really mean it.
Dion introduced his proposal on the Carbon Tax at the beginning of the summer, and now that people are returning to their normal lives and are realizing that something might actually be happening in Ottawa for once, he seems like he might actually have the piece of policy he needs to fuel the fires of an election debate. And what a perfect issue. The environment has been for a long time Stephane Dion's hallmark, and fighting an election on his three pillars that won him the Liberal leadership nomination is the best chance that he's got against the sharp minds of Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party. Dion is beginning to show some of that old fire that we saw during his glory days with Chretien. When asked about why he would possibly want to make his party a target instead of him targeting the government by Maclean's magazine columnist Paul Wells, he responded by expressing that he was happy that the Conservatives were drawing attention to his idea because it meant that people were talking about it. And in this day and age, if you can get attention, you can get votes.
Of course, now that Dion appears ready to force an election, Harper doesn't want to give him an inch. The Prime Minister brilliantly stole headlines from the Leader of the Opposition by suggesting strongly that he could possibly request that Governor General Michelle Jean dissolve parliament so that an election can be had. Poor Stephane. Always getting his toes stepped on by people that try to be pushier than he is.
Indeed, if Dion or Harper decides now to go into an election situation, it will be Judgement Day for the Liberal Leader. The Liberals are short on funds, whereas the Conservative warchest is fat. The Conservatives have spent two years trying to grind Dion's reputation into the dust, and have been moderately successful in doing so. And we all know that Harper is a shrewd opponent in any situation, with a clearly powerful intellect and a bite to back up his bark. Not only do these things stand on Dion's slim shoulders, but if he fails to impress in an election situation, or even if he doesn't force an election, he could face serious challenges to his leadership of the party, particularly from disenfranchised Ignatieff delegates or Rae delegates. So the pressure is none to small.
However, Dion has the experience, creativity, and strength of mind to box in the ring with any political opponent. After all, he did beat a former Premier out of a leadership position, and he knows how to scrap in the House of Commons with the best of them. His stubborn streak can be an enormous asset, and his fiery conviction to his trade will be a force to contend with the Prime Minister's.
Of course, we may just be looking at another bit of speculation here. This minority government has been the longest lived in Canadian history (I think), so there's no reason to stop the fun now. After all, the Conservatives can't get any bills they really want to be passed through the Liberal dominated Senate, and many committees are bent on exposing various ugly truths about the Mulroney-Schreiber affair, the Conservative fund allocations, and lets not forget the horror of the Cadman Scandal.
But all in all, my guess is that come September we'll still be watching more T.V. about Barack Obama vs. John McCain than Stephane vs. Stephen.
Election, or not.
Dion introduced his proposal on the Carbon Tax at the beginning of the summer, and now that people are returning to their normal lives and are realizing that something might actually be happening in Ottawa for once, he seems like he might actually have the piece of policy he needs to fuel the fires of an election debate. And what a perfect issue. The environment has been for a long time Stephane Dion's hallmark, and fighting an election on his three pillars that won him the Liberal leadership nomination is the best chance that he's got against the sharp minds of Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party. Dion is beginning to show some of that old fire that we saw during his glory days with Chretien. When asked about why he would possibly want to make his party a target instead of him targeting the government by Maclean's magazine columnist Paul Wells, he responded by expressing that he was happy that the Conservatives were drawing attention to his idea because it meant that people were talking about it. And in this day and age, if you can get attention, you can get votes.
Of course, now that Dion appears ready to force an election, Harper doesn't want to give him an inch. The Prime Minister brilliantly stole headlines from the Leader of the Opposition by suggesting strongly that he could possibly request that Governor General Michelle Jean dissolve parliament so that an election can be had. Poor Stephane. Always getting his toes stepped on by people that try to be pushier than he is.
Indeed, if Dion or Harper decides now to go into an election situation, it will be Judgement Day for the Liberal Leader. The Liberals are short on funds, whereas the Conservative warchest is fat. The Conservatives have spent two years trying to grind Dion's reputation into the dust, and have been moderately successful in doing so. And we all know that Harper is a shrewd opponent in any situation, with a clearly powerful intellect and a bite to back up his bark. Not only do these things stand on Dion's slim shoulders, but if he fails to impress in an election situation, or even if he doesn't force an election, he could face serious challenges to his leadership of the party, particularly from disenfranchised Ignatieff delegates or Rae delegates. So the pressure is none to small.
However, Dion has the experience, creativity, and strength of mind to box in the ring with any political opponent. After all, he did beat a former Premier out of a leadership position, and he knows how to scrap in the House of Commons with the best of them. His stubborn streak can be an enormous asset, and his fiery conviction to his trade will be a force to contend with the Prime Minister's.
Of course, we may just be looking at another bit of speculation here. This minority government has been the longest lived in Canadian history (I think), so there's no reason to stop the fun now. After all, the Conservatives can't get any bills they really want to be passed through the Liberal dominated Senate, and many committees are bent on exposing various ugly truths about the Mulroney-Schreiber affair, the Conservative fund allocations, and lets not forget the horror of the Cadman Scandal.
But all in all, my guess is that come September we'll still be watching more T.V. about Barack Obama vs. John McCain than Stephane vs. Stephen.
Election, or not.
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