Quote:
Originally Posted by octothorp
For the Liberals, the sad thing is that they really did not need a central piece of policy to campaign on this election. The overall demographics of the country favour the liberals, and if they don't provide the Conservatives any ammo and if the Conservatives do not have major policies of their own, the pendulum will swing back to the Liberals' favour. It's been this way for the last 80 years: the Conservatives need Grit corruption or major, energizing ideas of their own to gain support, while the status quo will favour the Liberals.
|
I don't know if I agree with this, once the Liberal's were tossed out of power in the last election, public opinion pretty much stabalized in the middle. I think that the day and age of the dominant political party in Canada is pretty much at an end. Your going to see a lot of minority governments being in power for a very short time. Your also going to see a back and forth between the Conservatives and the Liberals. One thing that has killed the Liberals, expecially since Chretien retired is that the Liberals don't appear to have a strong leader or leadership candidate in their bull pen that can capture the nations imagination or make you over look the Liberals gaffs. Stephen Harper for all of his faults, and his lack of personality looks like a strong controlling leader. As long as the Conservatives keep thier more extreme members under control or away from the media they should win this election. Meanwhile Dion has trouble controlling his party, probably because a great deal of the Liberal's probably want this election loss so that they can toss Dion aside and start rebuilding their party.
Quote:
Originally Posted by octothorp
But rather than playing it safe and running a campaign on the faults of Harper's government, Dion introduces an ambitious and confusing concept that provides the Conservatives all sorts of ammo.
|
I think your really wrong on this, I think Dion was screwed whichever way he went. Frankly he was hoping that his retreat strategy would keep the government in power longer so that he could rebuild his party coffers, prepare better for election and have a big scandal or two or an economic collapse to fall back on. This hasen't happened, and Dion must be crapping himself going into the debates because I think he's going to get hammered on, especially considering his main party platform is the Green Shift which is confusing, and to me badly conceived and a thinly disguised economic transfer system. And because its really his only policy, Harper is going to focus on picking it apart over two nights of debates. I almost expect to see a Brian Mulroney/John Turner style knockout punch from Harper at the debates.
Quote:
Originally Posted by octothorp
The most ridiculous thing is that the Green Shift has little chance of being implemented any time soon; in order to be put into effect, it would need a Liberal majority (or a strong Liberal / NDP coalition that amounted to a majority), and this election is about choosing between a Conservative majority or Conservative minority (with a slim, slim chance of a Liberal minority). I think it's noble that Dion is trying to run a clean campaign and basing it on a cause that he's passionate about, but it's been completely misguided and mismanaged from the get-go. Really this election should be about the Conservatives, and whether they've done enough during their time to warrant a majority government. Instead of needing to run on their record, the Conservatives get to do what they're best at; run a campaign of criticism of the Liberals.
|
And you don't think the Liberals don't run on chriticism, come on, they've already alluded to secret agendas if the Conservatives get a majority and they've used the term neocon several times and bought up the Bush boogey man statement. Sure Dion is running on the Green Shift, but he comes across as not believing in it himself as he's making changes on the fly depending who he talks to (farm exceptions, etc). And is he really passionate about the environment, he certainly didn't show it as the environment minister as he sat on his hands and did nothing. He's passionate about it because its the only platform point that he has thats maybe different and unique, and his one main platform is probably going to cost him the election and more importantly the leadership of his party.