Paul Martin is an idiot.

[C_eh_N_eh_D_eh]

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/story.html?id=a0f15d1e-c925-4ba2-af11-3aff2a1156a7&k=57290

:rant:

So, someone who's against gay marriage has no business running for Prime Minister, but the lower-echelon members of Martin's own party shouldn't feel pressured against courting the homophobe vote if it will help them win seats?

Sweet Cthulhu on a stick, has this guy learned nothing from watching American liberals? You can't stand up for something and then turn around and let your own party members go against it. Canadian voters might not deal in absolutes as much as the Yanks do, but we still have some standards.

This is the same shit the Grits have been pulling since Chretien came to power. Not only are they trying to have their cake and eat it too, but they're hoping nobody else at the table remembers they've already had three pieces.

Message to the NDP: This isn't like previous elections. Now, you're actually capable of gaining some serious clout at the federal level. Please, for the love of our country, *TRY TO WIN* this time!!

[MrPrax]

1. Why complain?

Liberals generally don't have any real priniciples and have to wait for policy direction from which ever fine family offers up a Prime Minister anyhow.

The same-sex issues gives them the patina of internal democracy that makes some small L liberals feel less guilty.

It's a smart move...since Harper brought it up.

However, there is the matter of de-criminalization which, while the minority government had no problem 'harmonizing' the drug laws according to US demands with increased sentences, the other part of the policy seems to have gone by the wayside.

OH the NDP is not trying to win this one...just stay afloat so they can keep their party status. Unfortunately Layton comes across as what he is stereotyped as; 'cappuccino drinking TO yuppie who's top priority is nanny services'

[pbca]

2. I wouldn't mind seeing all three parties find a new leader really ...

Can't they find anyone with ideas OR charisma?

[democracy eh]

3. Paul Martin is also an idiot for dispensing of Sheila Copps

in the manner he did
and he is now paying the price, her column in the Sun is like a gift to the Conservatives. She is like a sniper on the inside of the fort, picking her shots on the best targets. and nobody can touch or neutralize her.

Actually Kinsella might be even more damaging.

It shows that greed, lust for power and arrogance will come back and bite you in the ass.

[eve_was_framed]

4. went to a book club meeting and of course this election and it's

dearth of choice came up. I honestly didn't know what I would be voting this time out but with extreme reservations for both of the major parties given their lying, hypocritical, thieving leaders - well, I was toying with the idea of going NDP. After speaking to various ladies (several of whom I was meeting for the first time)I came away with my vote solidified NDP. The Harper gals were complete right wing BIGOTS! Bigots in capitals because they were the most small minded racists I've had to endure in literally years! The few Martin gals were terrific and real open thinkers I just can't abide our resident CEO Minister and his clear lack of ethics stemming back to his days as Finance Minister and his shipping company. He's the biggest tax dodger in Canada and as such has no business running our country, IMO. The one NDP gal was very similar to the Liberal gals but had a more honest assessment of ALL the parties and their leaders. She didn't try and skip over Layton's shortcomings but expressed them as "relative to". I dearly appreciated her thoughtful candor.

So I wake up this morning solidly voting NDP.

[MapleHeart]

5. My two cents on Admiral Paulie

Posted this on another thread titled "what were Canadians thinking"

The main problem faced by Canadians is that both of the major parties are (by Canadian standards) right wing. There is a void in the center of the political spectrum.

The Liberals have not embraced liberalism for a great many years now. Our current Prime Minister is about the biggest hypocrite there is... all you need to do is look at his sleazy shipping company, yet meanwhile spouts off about helping the Third World. At least Bono finally woke up about what his 'buddy' Martin is really like.

The politics of ambition (as was the title of a book on the worst Prime Minister Canada has ever had, Brian Mulroney) can easily be applied to this man too. Since his daddy failed to become PM (losing to Pierre Trudeau in the Liberal leadership race) it has been the son's quest. Unlike former Liberal political rivals (Trudeau/Turner, Turner/Chretien) Martin did not resign his seat in the House of Commons and return to private life (and then make a bid for the party leadership at a later date) when he could no longer serve loyally under Chretien. Instead Martin and his 'team' began an unceasing campaign to undermine and belittle Prime Minister Chretien, eventually forcing him out (for the record I'm not a rabid Chretien supporter, just telling it like it was).

Sadly, for middle-of-the-road Canadians such as myself, it has come to the point that perhaps the only way for the Liberal party to find their way back to their proper place as a liberal/centerist party is for them to be thrown out of power. Hopefully then the party wil purge itself of the Martianites who have hijacked it. As a the former Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish said about the Martin team, "It's not how loyal you are, it is if you will drink the Kool-aid." That kind of blind political fanaticism is very unsettling to most Canadians.

Best case scenario (outside a NDP or Green government which ain't ever gonna happen as long as we hang onto the outdated first-past-the-poll electoral system) is a minority Reform/Canadian Alliance government that falls within a year before they are able to do too much damage. Canada still hasn't recovered from the Mulroney years. BTW, I refuse to call them the Conservative Party since it wasn't a merger but rather a hostile take over of the old Progressive Conservative Party... and truly they should just be honest and call themselves what they are... the Republican Party of Canada.