Let’s face it: elections can be won – or they can be lost.
Just think of the past Ontario election: Dalton McGuilty was so incredibly unpopular, it seemed impossible for him to win even his own seat, much less form the next government. In comes the Conservative’s John Tory – showing such unlimited incompetence and ignorance during the campaign that he manages to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory!
Ontario has been paying the price ever since…
Coming up to this – 2011 – Federal election, it looked like the Conservatives could finally win that coveted majority!
Except that…
The things he has been up to lately have made it impossible for many ‘little c’ conservatives to, in good conscience, vote for him.
And that G-20 thing… (no, not the spending or associated corruption – the suspension of basic civil liberties!)
And that copyright thing…
But that is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
With most of their non-partisan core constituents abandoning the Harper Conservatives, and the unelectability of the Ignatieff Liberals, the NDP rose up – higher than ever before.
And, despite the revelations about Mr. Layton’s mob-controlled ‘massage parlour’ habit – and the potential for blackmail this carries with it – we are likely to see a lot more ‘Dippers’ in the Parliament very, very shortly.
Ezra Levant has penned a piece to let us know a bit more about them.
UPDATE: The ever-awesome BCF has info on ‘Tug-liban Jack’s’ favourite ‘community clinic’, the ‘Velvet Touch Massage Parlour’.
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 
May 1, 2011 at 19:41
Xanthippa:
Remember all that talk about a North American Union, to be called the Security and Prosperity Partnership? Well, that’s nothing but paranoid tinfoil-hat conspiracy theory.
Oh, wait… SPP Home Page
Okay, so… what’s been going on with all that?
Well, they’ve been pushing the agenda forward. In secret.
Why? Because 95% of Canadians are against it!
Knowing this, a responsible government would not proceed. But the Canadian government simply goes behind our backs. According to an article in the Toronto Star:
A “confidential communications strategy” prepared by Public Safety Minister Vic Toews recommended that talks keep a “low public profile” in the months leading up to the announcement by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama. At the same time, the government would secretly engage “stakeholders” — interested parties such as big business groups and others — in a way that respected “the confidentiality of the announcement.”
In advance, the government departments involved — including industry, foreign affairs, international trade and citizenship and immigration — were to “align supportive stakeholders to speak positively about the announcement.”
Here’s the Globe and Mail article. And here’s another article in WorldNet Daily.
The declaration they are talking about is “Beyond the Border: a shared vision for perimeter security and economic competitiveness.” Here it is on Harper’s website and here it is on the White House website.
Let’s look at some highlights:
“… to enhance our security and accelerate the legitimate flow of people, goods, and services between our two countries”
Legitimate. According to whom?
“We intend to work toward common technical standards for the collection, transmission, and matching of biometrics that enable the sharing of information on travellers in real time.”
Biometrics. Just the thing to enhance freedom.
“We will look for ways to reduce the cost of conducting legitimate business across the border by implementing, where practicable, common practices and streamlined procedures for customs processing and regulatory compliance.”
Compliance. That’s what it’s all about. Compliance. Or else.
“We intend to build on existing bilateral law enforcement programs to develop the next generation of integrated cross-border law enforcement operations that leverage cross-designated officers and resources to jointly identify, assess, and interdict persons and organizations involved in transnational crime.”
Cross-designated officers. Get groped by the TSA, right here in your own country.
“Our countries intend to strengthen cybersecurity to protect vital government and critical digital infrastructure of national importance, and to make cyberspace safer for all our citizens.”
Safer. Meaning, more closely supervised.
“We intend for the Beyond the Border Working Group to report to their respective Leaders in the coming months, and after a period of consultation, with a joint Plan of Action to realize the goals of this declaration, that would, where appropriate, rely upon existing bilateral border-related groups, for implementation.”
And the people of Canada will have nothing to say about it.
Zip. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Bupkis.
You are free to do as we tell you.
Tyranny. Brought to you by Stephen Harper.
And he is the least totalitarian of our options…
Xanthippa says:
NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
As in – I agree with you, but don’t like it!
It is precisely because of ‘stuff’ like this that I do NOT want to give my vote to the Conservatives.
Except that – the Liberals are even worse…and the Dippers – well, they are ‘out there’ in socialist la-la-land.
As for the watermelons – no thanks.
The Pirate Party is not running a candidate in my riding…
Whom do I have left to vote for?!?!?
I DON’T KNOW!!!
What will I do tomorrow?
I truly don’t know.
Perhaps I’ll spoil my ballot.
Perhaps I’ll write-in a choice – perhaps John Robson – as I have done in the past.
Perhaps I’ll vote for the first non-Conservative, non-Liberal, non-NDP, non-Green candidate listed on the ballot – I have done that before, too….
ARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
May 1, 2011 at 23:08
Xanthippa:
If you insist on voting, cast the vote which, in your opinion, minimizes the probability that any of these kleptocrats achieves a majority.
Personally, I refuse to give this farce the nod of legitimacy implied by my participation.
Until they put someone on the ballot whose policies I could actually tolerate if they won – or at least a box labelled “none of the above” – I will simply boycott the entire sordid affair.
It is the only honest way I know to indicate my true choice, which is, none of the above.
In the last federal election, 42% of Canadian voters chose none of the above.
As compared to 22% for Harper, 15% for Dion, and so on down the line (Harper’s official return is 37% of the 58% who turned out to vote, which equates to only 22% of eligible voters).
My point is this: “none of the above” got twice as many votes as Harper. “None of the above” got more votes than the top two contenders combined.
The Canadian public has indicated their preference very clearly: they want nothing to do with any of the choices being forced upon them!
But the corporate media choose to ignore the evidence which stares us all so plainly in the face, and dismiss the voice of the Canadian people with the euphemism, “low voter turn-out,” which they ascribe to apathy.
No one is fooled by this. The only thing they accomplish with such an absurdly biased spin is to prove that the media are nothing more than the propaganda arm of the plutocratic globalist governance machine.
Take it all together and there is only one possible conclusion: we need a new political party in this country.
Like a drowning man needs air.
Xanthippa says:
CodeSlinger,
‘not participating’ in the election is not a choice for me – it is one of my convictions that voting is one of those duties that each and every citizen must fulfill. So, regardless of everything else, I WILL vote tomorrow.
Of course, this does not imply that I will check off one of the names of the declared candidates….as I wrote earlier, I have, in the past, participated in the election without selecting any of the candidates running. And, more than once, I have gone to the electoral booth with my mind still not made up as to what it was I was going to do.
But, I have always fulfilled my citizenship duty and cast a ballot!
It is my deep conviction that if one does not participate in the electoral process – even if to register ‘none-of-the-above’ vote by spoiling the ballot or writing in one’s own preferred candidate – one looses the right to criticize the outcome.
Sure, it is one thing to have 42% (did somebody invoke Douglas Adams?!?!?) of the population not turn out for the vote – but that does not mean anywhere near as much as if those 42% DID turn out and ostentatiously spoiled their ballots! There IS a difference!
I do not know what I will do – once in the voting booth. Perhaps I will write in ‘Nigel Farage’ or ‘John Robson’ or some other clever person whom I have yet to think of!!!
But, I will fulfil my citizenship obligation and cast a ballot – even if for no other reason than that I want to be able to bitch about the outcome later!!!
P.S. – They are not running a candidate in my riding, and they certainly do not ‘cover’ all the issues, but the ones they DO cover they cover well – have you taken a look at the Pirate Party? If they were running a candidate in my riding, I think I might vote for them: they have no hope at all in actually winning the seat, but, every vote they WOULD get would help promote their message. This, I suspect, would be a needed thing at this time.
May 2, 2011 at 19:10
Xanthippa:
I agree that turning in a blank ballot is the best way to express one’s intent to vote for “none of the above,” as pointed out by The Great Canadian Blank Ballot Project:
But I strongly disagree that refusing to participate in a charade nullifies one’s right to call it a charade. Or to criticize the actions of a government formed as a result of the charade.
And as for fulfilling citizenship obligations, I claim that such obligations are bilateral. When the government is in default of its obligations to the people, any reciprocal obligations of the people become null and void.
Xanthippa says:
CodeSlinger – you are indeed consistent!
May 12, 2011 at 10:59
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