Quote:
Originally Posted by Slava
Fair enough, but 5 weeks of "beware the coalition" is going to old pretty fast. Already at a presser this morning he was being asked about 2004...so you have to wonder when they change the strategy into something that actually matters?
For those who say that the Liberals have no plan or vision could you just enlighten me as to the plan/vision of Harper and his cronies? A 5 year majority based on a few tax credits for kids in art doesn't capture my imagination for some reason...
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We're 2 days into the campaign, and the opening salvo that the Conservatives were going to use was the threat of a coalition, today Harper I thought fairly effectively talked about 2004 and put Duceppe on the spot a bit.
I've had a lot of problems with the contempt of parliament issue. If you go back to the Liberal government under Chretien where he did similar things, tried to hide his scandals like Shawnigate and regularly canceled opposition days, the only reason why things like a contempt charge weren't bought about was because the Liberal's had a majority government.
Sadly whatever party is going to run the government your going to get the same kind of scandals, the same kind of bs hiding of project and policy information costs and the same kind of external attempts at influence peddling. In terms of this on the latest charges against the Lawyer and the escort Harper bought in the RCMP to investigate it which we and he knew would bring it into the open. Harper can point to that one and a couple of other RCMP investigations during this election as illustrations of attempting to shut down illicit influence peddling and lobbying.
In the weeks to come Harper is going to roll out a number of things to attack the Liberals and NDP
1) He's going to go to the budget and attack Layton because whether it was a strategy or as someone weirdly pointed out an undemocratic move to control parliament, the Conservatives did embed NDP wishes into the budget, so whether it was an attempt to gently force an election is irrelevant on the campaign trail.
2) We know that Harper is going to attack the BPO over their calculations on the F35 program and the tough on crime costs.
3) Harper is starting to go after Ducceppe over his roll and supposed changing story in 2004.
4) They will attack Ignatieff for refusing to work with the minority government and again point to the fact that they were willing to negotiate on the budget as they did with the NDP.
5) They will go after the Bloc's attempted blackmail of Canada with the demand for cash and show that the conservatives were willing to lose power instead of folding to the bloc.
6) They will go after Ignatieff over his stupid promise of a hockey arena in Quebec in exchange for votes.
7) They'll go after Ignatieff on his statements about taxation
8) They'll go after the Liberals about forcing another wasteful election.
Its great that Ignatieff is all relaxed and looks comfortable on day 2. But he is still a very experienced guy, he's not saying anything thats concrete about why a Liberal government needs to be elected, he's falling into the same trap that the two previous liberal leaders have utilized to failure, in the whole vote for us because the Conservatives are scary, and I don't know if that strategy will do well for the Liberal's because I think voters will be pissed that an election was called because the government was scary.
While Harper needs to attack on the above, he has a balancing act that he has to do, he has to attack, while using the economy as his defense, and thats the toughest thing during the two debates.
I've said it before, I'm looking forward to seeing Harper brawling with Ignatieff in the debates.
But Ignatieff has another problem, he is going to be attacked by the NDP heavily as Layton knows that he needs the Liberal seats as much as Harper does.
On another note, please please please lets leave Elizabeth May at home during the debates, she was a waste of skin in the last one.