Federal Election Called for Oct 19, 2015

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by N-E-B

Take a drive around Harper's riding here in Calgary and look at all the vandalism on his signs.

It goes both ways. Idiots on both sides.

I think what makes this a bit worse is they are wearing jackets for the candidate, and are putting up his signs. You would think the person who sent them out would have a set of guidelines of where you can put signs, how to do it properly, and what is illegal, such as destroying other party signs... The point is, they should know better, and if they don't some one above them should have told them.

[Fire of the Phoenix]

I'm so happy it looks like Harper's finally going to get flushed. It looked kind of iffy for a while but it sure looks like this is the Liberal's election to lose at this point.

My vote really doesn't matter, my riding votes conservative no matter what. I'm pretty sure most people here would blindly vote CPC even if they ran on the platform of "We're going to kick you in the groin if you vote for us". I always vote but it has been for naught each time as the rest of the parties usually get around 25% of the vote combined. Looking forward to the outrage around here when Harper loses, even if my local rep will be a conservative.

I guess I'm a Liberal at heart but they haven't exactly been a great choice either since I've been able to vote. It seems like I'm always voting for the choice I detest the least, rather than being won over by anyone. Don't really like Trudeau but he's far better than the other two, even as a puppet.

[flamesfan6]

Originally Posted by N-E-B

Take a drive around Harper's riding here in Calgary and look at all the vandalism on his signs.

It goes both ways. Idiots on both sides.

here's the thing though - are the vandalism done to harper signs done directly by volunteers of the opposition? probably not

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toront...tive-1.3275649

Conservatives facing criminal investigation over election law violation for the 4th election in a row

The Conservative Party of Canada is facing a criminal investigation over allegations that one of its candidates ordered senior members of his campaign team to tear down opponents’ election signs while putting up his own,

http://thinkpol.ca/2015/10/17/conser...-row/#comments

I know the headline is a bit over the top for what it is, but I think it actually is kind of needed to remind people that every election Harper has won, he has broken the laws.

Illegal transfer of money in 2006, 2008 (in and out scandal), robocalls in 2011,

I wouldn't be surprised if the voter cards saying the wrong places to vote on them is related to him either (not saying it is, just that he's the type of person who would do it and wouldn't put it past him)

Add to top it off, his "Fair elections" act changes...

[Hemi-Cuda]

Trudeau has kind of an anti-Obama movement going. He's rallying the base with hope and change, but still doesn't have a ton of confidence from voters other than being the best choice in a weak field. If he wins and does a half-decent job, it should be easy to surpass those low expectations and gain some high approval ratings. Whereas Obama had such strong hype coming into office that there was no way he could maintain his approval

The conservatives may not have only setup Trudeau for an easy victory with their terrible "Not Ready" campaign, they may have made him an incumbent who could crush them next time around

[Zarley]

Originally Posted by flylock shox

Dear lord.

I finally read the Globe and Mail's editorial endorsement. They're getting lit up for it online and deservedly so.

Leaving aside the conclusion they've reached - that the Conservatives should get back in, but Harper should resign (because that would be a logical and plausible thing to happen)

Harper resigning is likely the most plausible scenario should the Tories win a plurality under 170 seats.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by N-E-B

Take a drive around Harper's riding here in Calgary and look at all the vandalism on his signs.

It goes both ways. Idiots on both sides.

Of course, but it is one thing when it is a random zealot or kids doing it, and another when a party sends out their goon squad to do it in the middle of the night. In the video, the person recording states that they see them out there every night doing it. It sounds orchestrated and not random. Given the fact that the person knew where and when to wait, I tend to believe the person recording.

The police are investigating it now and I am sure they will get to the bottom of it.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by flamesfan6

Add to top it off, his "Fair elections" act changes...

If there is one thing I love about Harper, it's his unintentional Orwellian legislation names like the "Fair Elections" and "Strengthening Citizenship" acts.

[MarchHare]

The editorial staff at the G&M show they haven't completely lost their minds by also publishing this piece written by Nenshi yesterday. Definitely worth the read:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...ticle26848363/

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by calculoso

Conrad Black: Stephen Harper did many great things for this country, but he hung on to power a little too long http://natpo.st/1OKGAc9

and shown good judgment and restraint in not going into the deep end over unproved ecological alarm.

And no reason to keep reading after that sentence.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

If there is one thing I love about Harper, it's his unintentional Orwellian legislation names like the "Fair Elections" and "Strengthening Citizenship" acts.

Unintentional?

[MarchHare]

Originally Posted by rubecube

And no reason to keep reading after that sentence.

Trust me, you really want to read the rest. The first few paragraphs might read like an endorsement of Harper, but Black goes for the jugular in the latter portion of the editorial. It's one of the most scathing rebukes of Harperism that I've ever read, and it's all the more notable for being written by someone who could rightly be described as a staunch ally of Canadian conservatism.

[starseed]

I drive from downtown Toronto to the edge of the GTA a couple of times a week. Reaching out to the Fords may be a desperation move, but it may not be so stupid as far as the GTA is concerned. There are houses with Liberal election signs that formerly had Ford Nation signs. I work with people out there who are planing to vote Liberal, but have told me about anecdotes about the Fords, such as how Doug Ford came to a local community event and got on the phone to bring more local people out to support the event. They said Doug was very supportive and personable. These guys have a loyal following, or they would not keep winning elections the week after being found passed out in a pile of puke.

Think about King Ralph getting drunk and throwing bottles at homeless people, and books at pages. Ralph had a tonne of loyal followers, just the same as the Fords. Some of those supporters will even vote for the Liberals on Monday.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

Trust me, you really want to read the rest. The first few paragraphs might read like an endorsement of Harper, but Black goes for the jugular in the latter portion of the editorial. It's one of the most scathing rebukes of Harperism that I've ever read, and it's all the more notable for being written by someone who could rightly be described as a staunch ally of Canadian conservatism.

Wow, you're right. That was relentless.

[Zarley]

Conrad Black is a fantastic writer. Those of you who dismiss his columns due to his conviction are doing yourself a disservice.

[MarchHare]

Originally Posted by Slava

Today though the papers sunk to a low of all lows when the let the CPC buy the front page for an advertisement. Frankly, when you start selling the first page as an ad you have abandoned any credibility as journalists and are just printing brochures for people.

Wow, you weren't kidding. Here's the front page of today's Ottawa Citizen. I presume all other Postmedia papers are much the same:



Ridiculous. Have they lost all sense of journalistic integrity? It's one thing to write endorsements in the op/ed section favourable to a particular party/candidate. It's something else altogether to sell the entire front page of the publication as a paid advertisement.

[starseed]

[Mathgod]

^ lol wow, if that newspaper ad isn't the definition of a Hail Mary, I don't know what is.

[killer_carlson]

That reeks of:

We've got a pile of money left to spend and once we lose none of us "experts" here at CPC headquarters will have a job because we blew the election campaign strategy and lost to a puppet.... so we might as well spend the money on the way out the door.

[JohnnyB]

That Conrad Black article was certainly surprising and really speaks to the conservative base turning on Harper. Powerfully negative.

[MarchHare]

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

That reeks of:

We've got a pile of money left to spend and once we lose none of us "experts" here at CPC headquarters will have a job because we blew the election campaign strategy and lost to a puppet.... so we might as well spend the money on the way out the door.

I doesn't bother me so much that the Conservatives ran this ad*. If they have the money in their campaign war chest, why not? What bothers me is that these newspapers allowed the entirety of their front page to be sold. There are certain ethical lines that should never be crossed in the business of running a newspaper, and this is one of them. Shame on Postmedia.

*Aside from the fact that this ad repeats, yet again, the outright lie that a Liberal government will end income splitting for seniors. The Liberal platform explicitly states that they will not do this.