Martin warns against importing U.S.-style extreme right

[kskiska]

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (Reuters) -- Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin warned Canadians on Thursday that his main rival, Conservative leader Stephen Harper, would turn the country into a bastion for a U.S.-style extreme right.

"I really do believe that Canadians don't want to buy the far conservative right in the United States," Martin said in a television appearance.

"They don't want to see (it) imported here and they do understand that a sharing, working together has been the way we've built this country."

The Liberals are trailing the Conservatives in opinion polls and Harper appears on track to deny the Liberals a fifth consecutive mandate in the January 23 election.

more…
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/01/12/canada.martin.reut/

[NanceGreggs]

1. I'm an American living in Canada ...

... the Liberals are currently showing TV ads that link Harper's ideas to Bush's.

That's where Bush is at these days - linking your opponent with Bush is THE MOST NEGATIVE thing that can be said ...

[sasha031]

6. lucky you

I'm an American living in Canada :hi:

[AlCzervik]

9. is it working against Harper yet?

[Brundle_Fly]

16. you can clearly link him to the

Neo-Cons.

here he is in 97, chatting them up.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051214.wtext1214/BNStory

[Minstrel Boy]

2. Harper rejects Kyoto, native deal

Harper rejects Kyoto, native deal

Jan 12

...

The Conservative leader said he wouldn't try to live up to Canada's commitments under the Kyoto climate-change accord or under a recent $5-billion federal-provincial deal with natives. Harper said he'd turn his back on Kyoto, because its targets can't be met, and he'd set Canadian-made targets instead for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.

He also said he would renege on the native deal and introduce a better aboriginal policy.

The Liberals, who have been painting Harper as a pro-American, right-wing extremist, jumped on his statements.

Environment Minister Stephane Dion said abandoning Kyoto would be a "tragedy" that would undermine the global effort to curb climate change.

"We will send a signal to the forces of progress that Canada is not with them anymore, we are with the resistance," he said.


http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/CanadaVotes/2006/01/12/1391321-cp.html

[sasha031]

4. Harper would reject everything good

if he gets in he will have them going onto Iraq, Iran and god knows where.

OH please oh please Canada do not fall for this poison.

[anotherdrew]

7. why doesn't the party replace MArtin with someone not scandal tainted?

wouldn't that please the voters more than enough?

[Brundle_Fly]

17. Martin isnt scandal tainted

the party is, and it is all over 5-11 year old scandals.

and we are talking about the kind of money the US spends in a few days in Iraq. That is the level of the scandal, oh and to promote national unity.

yeah it's wrong, it's underhanded, and we still have a full almost unified country.

oh and the liberals had the balls to say NO to Iraq.

and NO to the missile shield.

how is that shield working out by the way, America?

[anotherdrew]

21. Might they be able to team up with the NDP to rule?

"how is that shield working out by the way, America?"

well, so far no missils have gotten through, so that's good... I half expected a test drone to get though and somehow wind up killing someone, but so far the missle shield hasn't killed anyone that we know of, so it's doing as well as can be expected.

Sorry to not get it about the scandels, I'm running too much off headlines on this subject. It sure sounds like another media manufactured line of bull. Might they be able to team up with the NDP to rule?

[Minstrel Boy]

22. As much as I'd like to think so,

right now the numbers aren't adding up. If the Conservatives are held to a minority government they can count on the Bloc Quebecois' strategic support for at least three years. (It's leader has promised not to defeat the next government before then. Also, I think Quebec separatists would prefer to face a Western-dominated reactionary Ottawa in the next referendum on sovereignty, expected also - surprise - within the next three years.)

And this may sound crazy, but I'm thinking there's a possibility that the Liberals could wind up in third place behind the BQ. I could see them, right now, winning no more than 50-60 seats, and that's the projected range of the Bloc.

The NDP is holding its vote and should improve its standing thanks to dropping Liberal support (about a dozen extremely close races were lost to the Liberals last time), but that'll mean maybe 30-35 seats, tops.

The Liberal campaign has the stink of defeat about it now, even possibly a crushing defeat. I will be extremely surprised if they can turn this around.

[anotherdrew]

23. and yet...

If Bloc Quebecois has said, specifically, "we promise not to defeat the next government for at least 3 years" ...
that could also mean that they plan to be the pivotal member of a two or three way faction _against_ the conservatives although of course they could play it either way. From what you've said, while the conservatives would likely aid in their goal of 'independence,' the BQ wouldn't much like the rest of the conservative agenda. They may well prefer to be in coalition with the Liberal's, promising to not topple 'the government' for 3 years could mean that they intend and expect to be pivotal in any next government, no matter how it is formed. They just won't talk about that 'til after the election.

[sasha031]

3. Martin is so right

Harper, reminds me of Bob Roberts (the movie) that is the last thing I would want to happen to our neighbors.
Again look at the source CNN, I can't believe Canadians would ever be foolish enough to fall for the snake oil salesman Harper.

[Minstrel Boy]

5. Harper defends remarks to U.S. conservative movement

Harper defends remarks to U.S. conservative movement

CBC, Jan 12

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper faced questions over past remarks he made to an American conservative movement, comments the Liberals claim prove his allegiance to a radical right-wing agenda. The comment is quoted in one of a series of controversial ads the Liberals released earlier this week. One quotes a speech Harper made eight years ago to a conservative American think-tank.

"America, and particularly your conservative movement, is a light and an inspiration to people in this country and across the world," the ad quotes Harper as saying.

...

"I was the leader of a conservative organization addressing another conservative organization. And obviously we admire values of freedom and democracy and the promotion of our traditional values and I think we all understand that," Harper told reporters.

In the same speech, Harper also told the group that Canada was "a northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term."

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canadavotes2006/national/2006/01/12/harper-quotes060112.html

[anotherdrew]

10. wow, the media is playing the US script perfectly...

Liberal ads are "controversial" - conservative ads can say anything they want without any deprecating remarks, if the fact they're running ads is even mentioned.

[no_hypocrisy]

8. A vote for Harper is a vote for Anschluss.

Austria learned the hard way . . .

[Minstrel Boy]

11. From an article a couple of years ago on the men behind Harper

(and overshadowing those men is neo-con Leo Strauss)

That neo-conservative agenda may read as if it has been lifted straight from the dusty desk drawers of Ronald Reagan: lower taxes, less federal government, and free markets unfettered by social programs such as medicare that keep citizens from being forced to pull up their own socks. But their arguments echo the local landscape, where Big Oil sets the tone – usually from a U.S. head office – and Pierre Trudeau's 1980 National Energy Policy left the conviction that Confederation was rigged against the West.

...

Shadia Drury, a member of the U of C department until last year, accuses her former colleagues of harbouring a more sinister mission. An expert on Leo Strauss, the philosophical father of the neo-conservative movement, Drury paints the Calgary School as a homegrown variation on American Straussians like Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who share their teacher's deep suspicions of liberal democracy. Strauss argued that a ruling elite often had to resort to deception – a noble lie – to protect citizens from themselves. To that end, he recommended harnessing the simplistic platitudes of populism to galvanize mass support for measures that would in fact restrict rights. Drury warned the Globe's John Ibbitson that the members of the Calgary School "want to replace the rule of law with the populism of the majority," and labelled Stephen Harper "their product."

...

...back in Alberta, Ted Byfield, the unabashed voice of the West since the Calgary School's professors were pups, sees it another way – in terms Leo Strauss might have approved. "All these positions which Harper cherishes are there because of a group of people in Calgary – Flanagan most prominent among them," Byfield says. "I don't think he knows how to compromise. It's not in his genes. The issue now is: how do we fool the world into thinking we're moving to the left when we're not?"

To those who are unnerved by that prospect, Byfield offers no cheer. "Those people who said they're dangerous – they're right!" he says. "People with ideas are dangerous. If Harper gets elected, he'll make a helluva change in this country."

http://www.walrusmagazine.com/article.pl?sid=05/05/09/2119243

[sasha031]

12. nice find

I hope they take him down

[AX10]

14. I see that the Canadian media has become US Media-lite.

Quite sad.

[HuffleClaw]

13. oh good for him

harper's been exposed as a neocon. i just hope its enough to convince some folks to not vote for him.

[BillZBubb]

15. Canadians PLEASE LEARN FROM OUR MISTAKES!!!!!

In 2000, enough Americans were foolish enough to buy Bush as a moderate and someone who would "restore honor" to the government. What we got instead is a neo-fascist devoid of honor. He's brought shame on our country.

Harper is your Bush. Do you really want to go down that road, no matter how tainted Martin might be?????

[Amonester]

19. Exactly. If that Hypocrit Liar manages to sneak his way as PM.

I'm gonna become a Separatist and I'll vote 'Oui' at the next referendum.

And also, I'll tell everyone who would have 'fell' for this dangerous clown (and who will sure REGRET having voted for these thugs):

WE TOLD YOU SO: so don't come out crying out loud because, you deserve it.

:grr:

[Minstrel Boy]

18. latest poll numbers:

Canada Election 2006: Most Voters Expect Tory Government

The opposition Conservative party maintains a seven-point advantage in Canada, according to a tracking poll by Ekos Research Associates published in the Toronto Star. 36 per cent of respondents would support the Tories in this month’s federal election.

The governing Liberal party is second with 29 per cent, followed by the New Democratic Party (NDP) with 18 per cent, the Bloc Québécois with 13 per cent, and the Green party with three per cent.

When compared to the results of the last tracking survey, support for the Tories and the Grits fell by one point, while backing for the Bloc increased by the same margin. Ekos said their nightly releases "are intended only to respond to curiosity about day-to-day movements" and that their "true statistical significance will become clearer when analyzed as part of a larger weekly sample."

Which of the following outcomes would be best?

A majority Conservative government 29%

A minority Conservative government 22%

A minority Liberal government 20%

A majority Liberal government 17%

http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/10515

[daleo]

20. I no longer put much credence in polls

But, the supposed 10 point conservative lead is beginning to evaporate, if you believe them at all. I suspect this will continue.

I think Gomery will come out with something next week, even though it will demolish his neutrality and objectivity. No matter, every dirty trick will be pulled out for Harper (I include the RCMP "stock market investigation"). The forces of reaction are going for broke.