Tonight, a potpourri of election information goodies, none overly dispiriting. First off, though, if you haven’t read today’s earlier entries — here
and here — you may want to make a point of doing so. Okay, on to tonight’s entry — hang on to your hat.
The Devil In Stephen Harper

From Now Toronto, an insight into this Conservative fella, Stephen Harper.
“Who is this guy,” they ask? Cautious and crafty, the Conservative party leader has perfected the soft sell, but a look at his past pronouncements reveals he’ll rip up every right and service Canadians have fought for. Dangerous? Hell, yes!

• Has vigorously and actively opposed gay marriage. And would use the Notwithstanding Clause to override the Supreme Court’s definition of marriage.
• Has called ‘vile’ any comparison between civil rights and gay rights, and voted against including sexual orientation in hate propaganda laws.
• Hired a former Winnipeg radio jock fired for saying that “diesel dykes (are) running the school board” to be his media spokesperson in his 2002 Alliance leadership bid.
• In his own words: “West of Winnipeg, the ridings the Liberals hold are dominated by people who are either recent Asian immigrants or recent migrants from eastern Canada: people who live in ghettos, and who are not integrated into western Canadian society.”
• Only party leader to oppose electoral finance reform ban on donations from big business and unions.
• Supported the U.S. war in Iraq.
• Calls Kyoto protocol on greenhouse gas emissions a ‘boondoggle’.
• Favours abolishing human rights commissions, calling them “an attack on our fundamental freedoms and the basic existence of a democratic society … It is in fact totalitarianism.”

The 8 points above are just the start. You’ll want to read the full article.
MP Gallant Compares Abortion To Iraq Beheading

Tory MP Cheryl Gallant equates abortion with beheading

Yes, your favourite Ontario Tory wacko, and mine, the ever dim Cheryl Gallant is up to her old tricks again. Seems that this time she has set about to draw a parallel between abortion and the beheading of American contractor Nick Berg.
The Western Catholic Reporter, in an article on an anti-abortion rally on Parliament Hill last month, quotes Gallant as saying the world was horrified at Berg’s beheading by Iraqi terrorists, and the subsequent video of the incident that was posted on an al-Qaeda affiliated website.
“She compared the killing to the abortions performed in Canada over 35 years and said it is ‘absolutely no different’,” the article said.
Another Fine Elected Tory Wacko
Thanks to the folks at Points of Information for pointing us towards Canada’s funniest, most distressing and completely inane political video.
Yes, the East has Cheryl Gallant. We here in western Canada have Rob Anders, who we wrote about in our June 5th Decision Canada posting.
As PoI writes, “Legend had it that Mr Anders’ political career began with an appointment as a paid heckler working against the Democrats in a U.S. Senate campaign 10 years ago, wearing a Pinocchio nose, no less. It’s actually even quirkier than it sounds, as you can see in this Windows Media Player video. Maybe one day the Blue Fairy will turn him into a real elected representative.
Ah, Jean. We Knew Ye Well

Feeling a bit downhearted about the almost complete ineptitude of both the Liberals and the NDP to inform Canadians about just what a threat Stephen Harper poses to the status quo (universal health care, access to medical procedures for women, equality of opportunity, the Charter of Rights, Canada’s international reputation as a peacekeeper, and so much more)?
Chantal Hébert, writing in today’s Toronto Star suggests …

If Jean Chrétien were still Liberal leader, he would have already made mincemeat out of Jack Layton and Stephen Harper.
Chrétien would have been relentless in his pursuit of the NDP leader in the wake of his promise to repeal the Clarity Act on Québéc secession. He would have set his post-referendum point man Stéphane Dion on Layton’s trail. It goes without saying that Dion would still have been a cabinet minister.
He would not have let the striking internal divisions triggered by Layton’s Clarity Act remarks slip out of sight overnight. Instead, Chrétien would have shed crocodile tears of sympathy at the extraordinary sight of Manitoba’s Bill Blaikie and former leader Alexa McDonough having to break ranks with Layton in the midst of an election campaign.
Chrétien would have pounced on the early Conservative slip-ups on official bilingualism, driving home the fact that Harper knew full well the positions of his friend Scott Reid when he confirmed him as official languages critic earlier this year.

Almost makes you feel a tad nostalgic about Liberal yesteryear, huh? Imagine what this dull campaign would look like if the little guy from Shawinigan was on the hustings.
Decision Canada’s Quote of The Day
From Maritime Rant, who has the following posted on his blog: “People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.” — Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard.
For insight into Stephen Harper’s policies, as well as important 2004 federal election news events, click on VanRamblings’ full Decision Canada coverage.

Smiling while destroying the country

From David Olive, blogging at the Toronto Star: A radical re-invention of government.
Stephen Harper proposes fixed election dates; an elected Senate, its members serving 6-year fixed terms, selected by voters in each province; MP vetting of Supreme Court nominees and senior mandarins, starting with military staff; and power for MPs to overturn Supreme Court decisions.
Which means: a Prime Minister could no longer be deposed or eased out in mid-term — the fate of Margaret Thatcher and Jean Chrétien when they lost the support of their caucus. Legitimate power for the upper house (Senate) for the first time, with the same profound implications of deadlock and regional parochialism that characterizes the U.S. system. Diminished power for ministers, as MPs meddle in their departments; and a neutering of the Supreme Court, whose final say in interpreting the Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms would be eclipsed by backbench MPs.
Probably nine Canadians out of 10 who can identify Tory policies would mention taxes and honest government. How many voters realize this is an election about dismantling the work of the Fathers of Confederation?
For insight into Stephen Harper’s policies, as well as important 2004 federal election news events, click on VanRamblings’ full Decision Canada coverage.

In spite of one bizarro announcement after the other, in spite of the Conservative’s health critic calling for mandatory abortion counselling for women, an Ontario Tory candidate calling for the re-instatement of the death penalty, Conservative leader Stephen Harper’s statement that his government would pull the debate about same-sex marriage from the Supreme Court and back into Parliament for a free vote, and in spite of the announcement of an Ontario Conservative MP yesterday stating that her party would repeal Canada’s hate law, those damnable, ne’er-do-well, rag-tag bunch of reactionary wackos — better know to most Canadians as the ‘new’ Conservatives — have taken the lead in preference, among Canadians, for government, as sorrowfully reflected in the latest SES poll.

Election tracking: CPAC-SES Poll, June 7, 2004.

Nothing like playing to the lowest common denominator, and appealing to the anger and baser instincts of Canadians to promote the interests of your party. Read the polling chart above, and weep.
For insight into Stephen Harper’s policies, as well as important 2004 federal election news events, click on VanRamblings’ full Decision Canada coverage.

In a June 5th Toronto Star column, Thomas Walkom addresses the question as to whether Conservative leader Stephen Harper “is a former firebrand who, at the more mature age of 45, is moving to the centre … or, a dangerous, socially conservative radical with a secret agenda.”
Walkom’s answer to the question: “Harper is a radical, in the true sense of the word: He would make changes that cut to the root of the system.”
The basis for Walkom’s assertion comes, in part, as a consequence of …

• Harper’s pledge that he would allow a free vote in the Commons if a private member introduced an abortion bill. Harper would not stand in the way if a majority of MPs decide to recriminalize abortion — but it wouldn’t be his idea.
• Harper calling liberals cowards for not joining the U.S. in the war in Iraq: “What is evident is the lack of desire of the modern liberals to fight, and even more, the striking hope on the left that we actually lose … nowhere was this insidious moral neutrality more evident than the 2003 U.S.-Iraq War. Serious conservatives must insist that Canada fully support the U.S. in its new role as the world’s single superpower.”
• Harper’s call for “serious conservative parties” to not shy away from values, on a wide range of public policy questions, including foreign affairs, family and child care and health-care and social services. In particular, Harper has written, “the welfare state is destroying the family through government interference that unduly limits the rights of parents to use force — such as spanking or strapping — to discipline their children.”
• the movement of medicare as a universal entitlement as understood by the Canada Health Act (which demands that 100 per cent of the population be covered equally by public insurance) into a more limited, means-tested programme, available only to those too poor to afford private health insurance.
• a call for an end to all universal social programmes.

Conservative MP Calls For Repeal Of Hate Law

Tory MP Cheryl Gallant calls for repeal of hate law

In what is becoming a repeated pattern, a senior Conservative official was forced to distance the party from a candidate’s controversial remarks — this time about Canada’s amended hate law.
In an interview with CTV News, Ottawa-area MP Cheryl Gallant said she opposed the new law that was recently amended to include sexual orientation as one of the protected groups.

“The danger in having sexual orientation just listed, that encompasses, for example, pedophiles,” Gallant said. “I believe that the caucus as a whole would like to see it repealed,” she said.

And this is the party that Canadians are considering making government?
Might B.C. Voters Decide The Overall Winner In This Election?
Arjun Singh writes: I haven’t done any of the complicated math, but the same Ipsos-Reid poll that showed the Conservatives and Liberals in a dead heat in Ontario, showed that the Conservatives dropped 8% in their support in B.C. That still equates to the same Grit/Tory dead heat as in Ontario. The Liberals only dropped 1%.
Interestingly, the NDP is up 9%.
Communists. Running In A Constituency Near You.

They’re ready. They’re working for you. How able are they? Don’t ask.
If you’re looking for an alternative to the mainstream parties, the Communist Party of Canada says Try us! Here’s one political party that believes having a decent job is a fundamental right.
The Communist Party of Canada has released their platform document, titled People Before Profit!, which its 35 candidates across the country will promote over the next three weeks. Here’s a sampling of tenets of the CP platform …

• An obligation that requires all large corporate employers to justify publicly before terminating operations in whole or in part.
• An equal obligation that requires these same corporate entities to give at least two years notice in the case of massive layoffs.
• The enactment of legislation instituting a 32 hour work week, with no loss in pay or services to the population.
• An end to diverting funds from the Federal Employment Insurance Reserve and a call to raise benefits to 90% of the salary earned by each and every worker, for the duration of the term of unemployment.

Too bad they’re not serious contenders; parts of the platform have appeal.
Who’s Gonna Win the Election Come June 28th?
Last evening, VanRamblings introduced a new election blog (top right), the Election Prediction Project. At present, the site’s administrator, Milton Chan, is calling for a bare majority Liberal government. All that can change in the weeks to come, though.
By clicking on a province on the map on the site’s front page, visitors are taken to a listing of each riding in that province. By clicking on a particular riding, site visitors are afforded the opportunity to read input from voters in that riding (and both their prediction as to who is likely to win, and who the respondent will be voting for), as well as provide their own input.
NDP’s new strategy to target Harper
A Canadian Press story reports that, in a break from tradition, the NDP will ratchet up their attack on Stephen Harper, accusing him of hiding an extreme right-wing agenda.

“With the Conservatives, I think they are being artfully vague in a Republican way about what they really want to do in office,” said Brian Topp, the NDP director of research.

Apparently, the New Democrats have drafted an about-to-be-released document entitled Harper’s Dictionary, accusing the Conservative leader of hiding a range of right-wing plans, from allowing MPs to push restrictions on abortion and gay marriage to re-imposing the death penalty in Canada.
For insight into Stephen Harper’s policies, as well as important 2004 federal election news events, click on VanRamblings’ full Decision Canada coverage.