[Rerun]

Just to inject some humor in this battle of ideologies...

I found this terrific website listing all the silly, stupid things Canada's political parties have done or supported over the years since confederation..

http://www.undecidedparty.ca/undecided/history.html

As the Canadian Taxpayers Federation says:

"You can't make this stuff up."

Here's a few quotes from the webpage

1976 - John Turner resigns from the Trudeau Cabinet and works for a Toronto law firm until 1984, when Trudeau resigns and he sees a chance to make his second run for leadership of the Liberal Party. He wins leadership, instantly becomes Canada's 17th Prime Minister, and calls a federal election within four days which will see the election of a Conservative Government. Turner resigns from political life again after losing the 1988 federal election. Like Brian Mulroney before him and Jean Chrétien after, Turner demonstrates by 'coming back' to his party at an opportune time, that while most of our leaders claim that they're primary interest is 'serving the country,' there comes a point where they're really only interested in 'serving' it from the top.

Credit where it's due, Joe Clark continued to serve both his party and his country long after his tenure as Prime Minister, despite knowing he would never hold that position again.

1979 - Conservative Finance Minister John Crosbie introduces, his "short term pain for long term gain" budget, which includes an 18 cent per gallon gas tax despite campaign promises to cut taxes to stimulate the economy. This leads to the defeat of the Joe Clark minority government in a 139-133 vote of non-confidence - with five Social Credit MPs abstaining, three Conservatives unable to attend, and two Liberals arriving from hospitals by ambulance in order to vote.

With less than 9 months in power, Clark's declared intention of running the minority as if it were a majority proves less than successful. More recent history will show that it's a tactic that's only possible when you're up against an opposition that doesn't want an election.

2009 - Always willing to demonstrate their willingness to suffer for the good of the country, while at the same time showcasing their ...unique... sense of humour, the $155,400.00 per year Members of Parliament (who were actually in the House of Commons for an exhausting 13 days between June 2008 and January 2009), acknowledged the 50% fall in the price of gasoline during the previous six months by cutting their personal vehicle travel expense allowance from 55 cents per kilometer to ... well, 54.9 cents.

Despite their heroic sacrifice, the one tenth of one cent cut still leaves the MPs' travel allowance some five cents per kilometer over the maximum rate the Canada Revenue Agency allows any other Canadian citizen as a business expense deduction.