No more Liberals!

[cowman]

Ralph Klein is predicting Alberta will go solid Conservative in the next federal election. Do you think this is true? I would sure like to see old shrill Annie get the boot!
I wonder if Ralph Goodale will be packing his bags, too? Does Martin have room in the senate to park these two?
Right now the NDP seems to be dictating to Martin how things are going to be! I see this as the worst thing that could possibly happen...as you know it is going to cost us some big bucks! Hopefully Martin will not play ball with these spendthrifts but will take his chances...now that Gomery has exonerated him of any wrong doing?
Interesting times ahead? Ontario will be the most interesting? They hold the future of this country in their hands? Will they make a change or will they promote the end of this country?

[greybeard]

Ralph may be right federally but I don't think he or his successor should get complacent as far as a Provincial election in AB is concerned.

[cowman]

Well emerald, if the Alliance doesn't make a lot of gains, then who will?
Maybe the Liberals might convince a few more city slickers to vote for them...but I doubt it?
The NDP in Alberta are just a bad joke? I find it amazing anyone would vote for them...well maybe the welfare bums? I still believe the vast majority of Albertans believe in the free enterprize system and the belief you hold your own destiny in your hands? Sort of a "can do" attitude?
Myself I can not see how anyone here could ever vote Liberal? Don't they know this is the party that stold untold billions right out of their pockets through the NEP? And continues to do so? I see their supporters as mostly government hacks hoping to cash in on the spending spree that would surely follow if they got in!...and perhaps some corrupt businesses looking for some provincial graft..ala..their federal counterparts!

[farmers_son]

It is my opinion that sometimes people vote for a particular party and sometimes they are voting against another party when they cast their ballot. In the 2004 election the Alberta results were Conservatives 61.61% popular vote, Liberals 21.98%, NDP 9.54%. Hon. Anne McClellan won her seat by 721 votes and Hon. David Kilgour (former Progressive Conservative won his seat as a Liberal but now sits as an Independent MP when he left the party over disagreement on Canada’s involvement or lack of involvement in Darfur.

Cowman, you mention the NEP. Most Albertans do not know that the Government of Canada under Liberal Prime Minister Right Honourable W.L. Mackenzie King transferred control of energy resources under the province to Alberta in the Constitution Act of 1930. The good citizens of Alberta rewarded this gesture by voting out the Liberals and replacing them with a Conservative government led by Bennett, most famous for his buggy.

Since 1945 the Conservatives have only been in power from 1957 to 1963 under Diefenbaker and under Mulroney from 1984 to 1993 with a very brief minority government led by Joe Clark which lasted nine months in 1979. Hardly enough time in power to accomplish too much corruption although Mulroney was not immune to accusations of corruption. Remember the Airbus affair which involved alleged commissions paid to members of the Brian Mulroney government in exchange for the purchase of a large order of Airbus jets by Air Canada. In 1995 the RCMP accused Mulroney of taking kickbacks on the sale of Airbus planes to Air Canada during his time as prime minister.

Other famous scandals involving Conservatives include:

The Pacific Scandal: This 1873 corruption scandal brought down the Conservative government of Sir John A. Macdonald and cost Canada's first prime minister the 1874 election. Not over small change, either. Macdonald and the Conservatives were accused of accepting $350,000 in donations from Sir Hugh Allan during the 1872 election in return for agreeing to give Allan's consortium the contract to build the Canadian Pacific Railway. Few believed the prime minister's protestations that the donations and the awarding of the contract were unrelated – especially after a damning telegram surfaced. Six days before the election, Macdonald had sent the following message to Allan: "I must have another $10,000. Will be the last time of calling. Do not fail me. Answer today."

The Gerda Munsinger scandal: The guilty parties were already out of office by the time the Canadian public learned that some Progressive Conservative cabinet ministers had been consorting with an East German playgirl who may have been a KGB spy. Munsinger freely admitted "knowing" former Conservative associate defence minister Pierre Sévigny between 1958 and 1961; Sévigny had even signed Munsinger's application for Canadian citizenship. The former Tory minister of trade and commerce, George Hees, was the other prominent politician linked to Munsinger.

Prime Minister John Diefenbaker found out about Sévigny's affair in 1961 and called him on the carpet, but did not remove him from cabinet. Sévigny broke off the relationship with Munsinger and resigned from politics in 1963. The whole messy matter was far from over, though. Questions in the wake of Cardin's taunt about whether Canadian security had been compromised led Liberal PM Lester B. Pearson to call a judicial inquiry. Supreme Court Justice Wishart Spence blasted Diefenbaker for not firing Sévigny from cabinet in 1961, and Sévigny for risking the nation's security.

Tunagate: This 1985 fiasco brought down Brian Mulroney's minister of fisheries and oceans and robbed a New Brunswick town of its main employer. The story broke on CBC's The Fifth Estate on Sept. 17, 1985: Fisheries minister John Fraser had overturned an order from his own inspectors and ordered a million cans of StarKist tuna released for sale to the public. The inspectors had said the tuna, packed at the StarKist plant in St. Andrews, N.B., was so badly spoiled that it wasn't even fit to be turned into catfood. The plant's owners had lobbied Fraser to release the cans for sale, saying they might shut the plant if the tuna couldn't be sold. When the story broke, Fraser said he had sent samples of the tuna to two independent labs for testing, but those labs later said they hadn't finished their tests by the time Fraser decided to release the shipment. Six days after the scandal erupted, Mulroney asked Fraser to resign.

The Progressive Conservatives lost an average of one cabinet minister to allegations of wrongdoing during each year of Mulroney’s 1984-1993 reign.

First there was Robert Coates, who stepped down as defence minister in 1985 after it was revealed that he had visited a strip club in West Germany while in that country on official business. Communications Minister Marcel Masse left over an alleged violation of the Canada Elections Act (he was later exonerated), followed closely by John Fraser.

In 1986, Minister of Regional Industrial Expansion Sinclair Stevens stepped down because of conflict of interest allegations related to a $2.6-million loan to a Stevens family company. André Bissonnette, the minister of state for transport, resigned in 1987 while the RCMP investigated his alleged involvement in land speculation. Roch La Salle, who served Mulroney in the public works, and supply and services portfolios, left cabinet the same year after being charged with demanding a bribe and accepting money from businesses looking for government favours. The charges were later dropped due to lack of evidence.

Conflict of interest allegations involving a personal loan felled Supply and Services Minister Michel Coté in 1988. Bernard Valcourt stepped down in 1989 after pleading guilty to an impaired driving offence. In 1990, current Quebec Premier Jean Charest had to leave his two posts as minister for fitness and amateur sport, and minister for youth after trying to talk to a judge about an ongoing case.

And, finally, in 1991, Housing Minister Alan Redway offered his resignation after being charged over joking about having a gun while boarding a flight at the Ottawa airport. Not a cabinet minister but equally embarrassing to the Conservatives was Quebec MP Michel Gravel, who in 1986 was charged with 50 counts of fraud and influence peddling. He later pleaded guilty to 15 charges, paid a $50,000 fine and served four months in jail.

[cowman]

Well I don't think I ever said the Conservatives(provincially or federally) were choir boys? I do find it interesting that in the vast majority of scandals you mentioned, the participants were of a French flavor!
Not too worried about politicians getting drunk, or hanging out with hookers, or going to strip clubs...after all, boys will be boys!
Mulrooney was not an angel, without a doubt, but he did two things for the west that really helped us. One was to scrap the NEP and the second was to negotiate the Free Trade deal. Now people bitch that America isn't living up to the deal on soft wood lumber, beef etc. but without a doubt Alberta benifitted in a huge way from the free trade deal(as well as all of Canada)? Some would argue that isn't so but numbers don't lie.
The only problem was it wasn't taken far enough. They should have scrapped the cultural exclusions,harmonized the laws and adopted one currency! Well maybe in the future?

[FarmRanger]

Farmers_son, what is the one thing that all those scandals you listed, both real and alleged, have in common? They all brought the respective governments down. The sponsorship scandal is by far the largest magnitude of scandal in terms of dollars and the high political office that it can that it can be traced to. How many countries in the world would re-elect these guys? It seems to me that kicking them out of office is the only rational thing to do? I find it bizarre that they have as much popularity as they do. How on earth have they been allowed to spin this scandal so well?

[FarmRanger]

Thinking about that last question, maybe Martin’s setting up of the Gomery inquiry may have been one of the smartest political ploys he could have done. First, it distances him from the scandal because it appears that he is trying to get justice in this thing. Secondly, he gets to fry his high level political enemies in the Liberal party. Thirdly, he makes the rules on how it gets set up, the timetable of the release of the report, and when the election gets called. It is also handy that any damaging testimony from the Brault and Guite trials won’t happen until after the federal election.

I still find it hard to believe that he knew absolutely nothing about it while the scandal was going on. I doubt that he was that inept a finance minister, and if he was, why should we be confident in his ability to be Prime Minister?

[silverback]

Looks like you have been working overtime f_s to find some scandals that the conservatives have committed since confederation.

They are incredibly slight compared to the billions of dollars that are missing, wasted, or hiding due to Liberal dealings.

How about listing the scandals the Liberals have done in this country to give some balance f_s??? Or do you still think there isn't enough evidence?

[cowman]

Paul will have a tough time convincing anyone he was just an innocent bystander who knew nothing?
However I don't think he is all that worried? He knows that all the scandals will fly away when he plays "the hidden agenda" card as well as the "we all have to share" card?
It appears that Layton is talking pretty tough right now? Of course when the reporters ask Jack if he will take down the government he waffles at his best and never answers the question! I think Harper and Duceppe are smart enough to know Jack is playing the game and isn't all that serious about losing his status as the policy maker of Canada?
Then old shrill Annie gets on the tube and babbles about all the good things they still hope to accomplish in this Parliment and so does the traitor, Belinda! Give me a break!
I don't think Martin wants a campaign right now? It is pretty hard to get the smear campaign up and running in a few weeks? The Gomery whitewash has people pretty mad right now and he needs sometime to let them fall back asleep?

[silverback]

Don't forget the abortion card that comes out at election time. "Somehow" the east has been somewhat convinced that the Conservatives would make abortion illegal even though that is a lie. I know several women from down east that said that is why they wouldn't vote for a conservative.

Fear works apparently.

[cowman]

It has always amazed me how two faced a lot of politicians can be? Here we have Martin claiming he is a strong Catholic(and Jean before him) but they have no problem promoting gay marriage, abortion, etc.! Pretty well whatever it takes to get elected?
I won't get into what I think of abortion, but then I do believe somewhere down the road everyone will have to stand up and explain why they did what they did in this life? Paul might have a lot of explaining to do...