Majority territory

Stephen Harper and his brand of conservatism continue to flirt with a majority, although I think he made a mistake lashing out at the cultural community in Quebec and it will prove to cost him, his majority most likely. He brazenly acknowledged his mistake by refusing to say the comments in french.

Meanwhile both the Liberal and NDP have released their respective party platforms, lots of spending from both parties. Which has been a marked difference between that of the conservatives. The conservatives have had very small and demographic targeted spending announcements. A perfect example of this is the tax credit for first-time home buyers.

You can bet your bottom dollar that this is a serious calculated move by the conservatives they have crunched the hard demographic numbers and are targeting the segment of the population they think they can move, evidenced by the polls it seems to be working swimmingly. But they are also benefiting from a divided left, in a fascinating panel held on the agenda last week, they discussed this phenomenon.

For me listening to academic Tom Flanagan a former advisor to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, talk about how they brought together the right was very interesting he also hinted at the amount of effort that it has taken developing a strategy on the right that would pull the conservatives into ruling party status. Folks, what you are witnessing in this election is a party that has done its homework and re-written the rules on how to win in Canadian politics. They really do divide and conquer.

Another important story in this election is the power of Google, the amount of politicians outed in this election because of stuff discovered or posted online has to be a record. How this plays out in coming elections and in the media will be fascinating to watch. Already questions are coming forward about how to properly vet a politician in a web 2.0 world, should any aspiring politicians out there forget about an online social life?

Interesting stuff...

This is a great blog post, despite our fascination with polls elections are not predetermined.

"We remain fascinated by the belief that some people have the power to redirect traffic. In the case of politics, the traffic is not made up of rats, like in the Pied Piper of Hamelin, but of voters. We are fascinated by the potential (or more precisely, the belief in the potential) to move people in a certain way through the mastery of some kind of instrument, be it a flute or a podcast."

There is all kinds of science, numbers and gurus behind how to get your vote but in the end it is just your vote.

This should come up in the election, including a whole bunch of other NAFTA related issues, like fresh water and oil, but it won't.

Trains, planes, and automobiles

Sorry haven't been here in a while but here it is...
1. All these conservative gaffes are starting to become a little suspect to me, so my theory, I think they are being manufactured by the party's own war room. First reason, to stir their base, the conservative hardcores love a lot of what they have gaffed about. And second, to make them look like they are constantly under attack from the liberal elitist media. I think the tories are still trying to profess the image of scrappy underdog the everyman party that is still fighting the controlling elites, which include all those other parties. Evidence: the conservatives continue to remain on top. (Just a theory but now it is out there)

2. Not buying the explanation some journalists and the Prime Minister himself are giving for Conservative MP Mr. Ritz big gaffe this week over his off-hand remark about the listeriosis deaths. The fact is, not everyone does make a habit of joking about dead people, so I don't buy it not one bit. Nice try though. You know what I think, a dumb man made a dumb comment. At this point in his political career he should know better. He represents people for heavens sake! Anyone with that little to offer during a crisis does not deserve to represent anything.

3. Now ignoring this gaffe, the real story as evidenced by the conference call conversation is that his concern when this whole listeria outbreak was blowing was not what the government should be doing to help people but rather how to handle this so the image of the party would look better. This smells of a party not overly concerned with policy but rather looks.

4. The team with no leader and the leader with no team... Take a guess at what I am talking about.

5. I really like the idea of the green party traveling across the country by train. It just sounds like a whole lot of fun. The plane just ain't cool anymore, sounds so dreary.

Campaign continues... Weekend coverage

Well it would appear that after all the media blathering about campaign missteps and war-room mis-behaviour this week, not much changed. The polls tell the story, the party with the most hype around their gaffes gained.

Stephen Harper criss-crossed the country this week making stops in mostly non-tory ridings (showing his obvious confidence in his campaign) and it appeared to work according to the countless polls bombarding us daily.

Tories up to 36% poll!
Tory ads working on Canadians poll!
BC loves the tories poll!
Always wondered what an election would be like without polls, poll!

Today Stephen Harper stood in Newfoundland and contended that Canada is becoming more conservative. That is Conservative Canada, not Progressive Conservative! I personally always thought Canada was progressive despite the ideology, the opposite to me would not be moving forward... Am I wrong?

All parties joined in unison today trying to score cheap political points with tiring rhetoric condemning high oil prices and the evil oil companies that charge them. Here is my first election promise and it is a guarantee, nothing will be done about high oil prices.
I will give the Greens and the Liberals a few points for trying to bring some reality into the equation, oil will go up and there ain't much your government can do about that.

Speaking of the Green party Ms May did not end the week well as the blogosphere was a twitter with her so called stupid Canadians statement. A great portion of analysis on the internet is partisan, the thing Ms May did wrong was respond in such a false manner, I'll sue you, they'll sue you, blah blah blah. The thing wasn't even doctored it was just blown up out of context. Spun through the hard partisan campaign machine that certain sections of the internet have become.

Going along with the partisan internet, does anyone else find TV coverage of the online campaign asinine? "Look here is a partisan website, here is another... Ain't that neeto!" Give me a break. Tell me about the possibilities, not what the hacks are up to. I get that, it's in the newspaper everyday.

-M

Where is the substance???

So where are the policy announcements? Seems the election so far has been made up of poopgate the fight for the inclusion of green leader Elizabeth May and various scandals within the Conservative war room including this one today.

So should we blame the media for this or is this just the quality of candidates we have out there? What happened to the strong Conservative machine, it would seem that they can't quite get on message instead they seem to be almost making daily apologies and retractions. And where are the liberals to pounce on the conservative fumbles, well they finally got their plane, but they can't seem to get on message either. NO party has really taken over the narrative of this election yet. If anyone is looking good in all this it might just be Jack Layton of the NDP who increasingly seems to be in better control then the other two main parties.

Meanwhile buried among the muck there are some policy announcements being made...

Harper has guaranteed that Canadian troops will be out of Afghanistan by 2011.

Dion with Walkerton in the backdrop promised $50 million to fortify Canada's food safety net.

It really doesn't seem like anyone is running away with this and when the debates start what the heck are we going to debate about??? Poopgate? Someone has to pick up the ball here... Or may be the Greens and the NDP will continue to dominate right to the Ballot box, wouldn't that be fascinating. Exciting?

Jack Layton on TVO

Just finished watching the NDP leader sit down with Steve Paikin, a large part of the interview focused on Jack Layton's visit to the oil sands in Alberta. As the pundits in their "politcal chess" like analysis have spun it, it was a good move for him to head to the oil sands just after the call of the election. Outside the chess moves, the oil sands is the elephant in the room, we can't be serious about reducing our carbon emissions without severely reducing what is going on up there in Northern Alberta. One of the main reasons the Harper government did not sign the Kyoto agreement is because it would bankrupt us if we implemented it. We would be paying out the nose to all those environmentally friendly old European countries that have used up most of their stored energy. Mr Layton contends we are subsidizing the destruction of the environment in Alberta. This election will be fought on a cornucopia of issues, already the narrative is appearing, Stephen Harper likes the image of a leader, Stephane Dion is trying to explain his green shift. But the issue of the oil sands that Mr Layton appears to be out in front of is the (to use another gaming cliche) big silent domino in the room its effect hits most other issues even if the other leaders don't want to deal with it. And to deal with it would be more then just pulling a few teeth, it would be changing a lot of what we have become comfortable and normal with. But good leaders have the ability to make us change, lets see if Jack can convince us over the next 35 days.

Update...

Looks like Stephen Harper's advisers have come to the conclusion through various methods of polling and protruding that it would be best to divide the left in as many ways possible...Right in front of you while you suck back pop and chips.

Not that anyone will be watching anyways... But it might trickle though.

Four observations of the elections so far

1. Not gonna lie kind of upset and a wee bit suspicious of the federal debate timing. October 2nd is the English language debate here in Canada but it is also the much anticipated debate between the VP's down in the States. This is going to make it even harder for Canadians to pay attention to our debate. For me it is kind of like putting the grey cup up against the superbowl half-time show and somehow thinking.... Who am I kidding no one is thinking. There may be some parties gleefully mesmerized by the fact that perhaps the less people that tune into this thing the better. Whoo hoo lets sleep our way to the ballot box.

2. Oh and about the Greens not being included in the above mentioned debate, the only thing that I see clearly is fact that I don't understand how exactly a party is picked to debate, that in and of itself is a problem. Lets say a federal party takes 100% of the seats in the upcoming election, who debates in the next election? We really do make this stuff up as we go along, that's why it is good we are arguing about it.

3. Also related to the above story, the greens really are getting lots of traction out of the "there getting lots of traction out of this" story.

4. If this is the democratization of the internet...

The coverage of it is an exercise in the media's own self-loathing.


-M

Canadian Election Coverage

Because very few have asked... I will be blogging about the now running federal election, I'll give you my limited take. May be eventually include my very own political panel online video blog, give you my take on the online campaign and, my own cynical view of how the media covers this thing. So here it goes hope you enjoy.

-M