Federal Election

[farmers_son]

"Prime Minister Stephen Harper has asked Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean not to attend the Paralympic Games in Beijing, in a move further suggesting Harper will pull the plug on his current minority government and trigger a federal election." CBC News

A federal election could be in the works. Who do you think would win, who would you vote for or are any of them worth voting for? Any comments about the record of the Conservative government? Do we have world class leaders in this country or not?

There is an interesting web site of the worlds leaders at:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/world-leaders-1/index.html

If I had my choice I might be inclined to vote for Michaëlle Jean as none of our present leaders inspire me and Jean has performed her job well. Or I think it might be interesting to have a former military leader as Prime Minister, for instance General Rick Hillier. For that matter Michaëlle Jean, as Governor General, is Canada'a head of the military.

But we will have to vote for who the parties chose and that vote might be sooner or later. Any thoughts...

[FarmRanger]

The Conservatives haven’t lived up to all the expectations I had when they were elected, but they haven’t totally abandoned us either. Is there really much of a choice for westerners anyway? The Liberals are actively promoting their “green shift”, or the National Energy Program version 2.0. The NDP are out in left field with the green party.
For me its either the conservatives or stay home.

Politics is too much to think about right now, I just finished the swathing night shift and heading to bed now.

Politics:
from the latin - poli - meaning many, and - tics - meaning blood sucking creatures. ;-)

[wilagro]

This time I will vote for the person that I think will represent me the best. None of the present parties leaders are acceptable at this time, nor are many of their policies.

[per]

Isn't Latin wonderful! I always vote for the person and not the party. Not sure yet who are the cast of characters are going to be. Not particularly impressed with our current MP. I'll bet Ms. Jean knows more about the military now than she did when she signed on.

[per]

October 14th?

[perfecho]

I do find it disturbing that after all the rhetoric talk about set elections taking out the opportunistic election calls, our PM is....well....lying.
If he cannot work with the house, put through a bill that will be defeated and presto, you have your election.
Although I still consider myself a social conservative, all I want is an ethical leader that does what is best for the populous, not the party and doesn't spend their time running down the opposition.
I believed if we did away with party politics a elected on the person, we would achieve much more.....but probably not going to happen.

[farmers_son]

Per: Great prediction on the 14th of October. CBC is saying that will be the day.

[FarmRanger]

Perfecho said “that after all the rhetoric talk about set elections taking out the opportunistic election calls, our PM is....well....lying.”

The fixed election date legislation doesn’t apply to minority governments does it? Think about it: who would be the one person who could decide when an election could happen in a minority government. Not the PM. It would be the leader of the opposition who had the power to call an election.

So to say that Harper violated the intent of the fixed election date legislation is just plain wrong.

[perfecho]

He had a minority gov when he passed the bill.....what has changed? No mention of "it doesn't apply" during his passing the bill....he even came out and said, "next election Oct of 09, unless there is a non confidence vote." This is an opportunistic, the same as all the other parties, election, if he calls it.
His way around it is to let the house fall, he has kept his word, and could save face.....problem being, I don't think the opposition will let it fall, they’re not ready anyways.
This scenario is kind of like, " my kid did it, but he had a reason. Your kid did it and it was wrong."
Most Canadians do not want an election, this may prove to hurt him....and the chances of getting a majority are probably nil.....so what good does it really do.

[Jay-mo]

All this talk about, "do the people want an election now" is getting on my nerves. You could ask the same question if the election was on the fixed date and you would get the same response. Half of the people polled who say they dont want an election now are likely people who dont bother voting no matter when an election is held.
While I'm not totally happy with what the pc's have done so far, its still alot better then having an embarrassment like Dion as pm.
I dont know how even the most staunch Lib supporter could vote for that guy.
He has folded on every issue in the house and then brings out the the green shaft as some sort of revelation from above?? pathetic.

[perfecho]

I do not want the Libs either, and that is what Harper is counting on, but I would like a leader that stands behind his word.
Interestingly, when the populous wants an election, usually the gov doesn't....they are normally ousted. When a gov wants an election, it's because they are riding higher in the polls, and the voters are content with what is going on, hence do not want an election.
This is why I favor a set election date....it takes out the opportunists and over the years, saves tax payers a great deal of wasted $.

[farmers_son]

I don’t know what it is like elsewhere but really in my riding what I like or what I want is beside the matter. The riding here has gone Conservative for as long as anyone can remember. The only question is how wide the margin our Conservative candidate will win by. I can follow the issues and ponder the various positions of the parties, carefully weigh the qualities of the various leaders and form a view on which government I might like to win the election but the fact remains that unless I am willing to move to another constituency my vote really is totally irrelevant in the outcome of the election and only matters as to the margin of victory our local Conservative candidate wins by.

I guess that brings up the issue of popular vote and should a number of federal seats be decided by the overall popular vote, this would tend to give representation to the smaller parties who get votes but quite often never enough to win the seat. There are pros and cons to that but as it is if you live in a riding that is a staunch supporter of one party or another all the election excitement is happening somewhere else.

It is a given that not one of the parties leaders will make a stop in our riding, it would be a total waste of their time.

[per]

Same situation here, fs. What does count though is that federal funding is available to parties with more than 2% of the popular vote across the county. That could be a good enough reason to vote in another seemingly futile or even useless direction. Although Elizabeth May has hurt the Greens terribly, they are a party who's basic platform isn't as out there as many think. A stink vote could help fund some opposition. A hybrid of "first past the post", and "popular vote" would suit me just fine.

[perfecho]

Agree with FS and Per posts.
Interestingly enough, I think the greens have grown in Alberta in the last two elections, and probably for the same reason.
It was "Bill and Bill show" many years ago that said a hay bale in Alberta would win under the Conservative banner, and I for one wouldn't have bet against the hay bale.