Posted on 03/25/2011 11:53:10 AM PDT by edpc
Thank u. Need a poster when I protest at the border (of Florida.)
According to schedule: South America is in line, Canada’s in the cue, we’re the final puzzle piece to the United Americas!
As we all know, there are 57 States, you only mention 5. Do the math :)
Can we trade them for Alberta?
He's been very good for Canada, agreed. And without climbing to the top of a tower and declaring that God will take him home if people don't pony up 11 million smackers...
no connection
Son, even the most liberal paper in Canada is more factual than Fox News, not to mention any of the others in this country. And the Globe is one of the most conservative papers in Canada. Statistics Canada is one of the most accurate government purveyors in the Western world. I have little trouble believing the stats.
As for Supreme Court Judges in the US? We have 4 pretty solid Judges on the court, more than can be said for the Canadian high court.
Do you even know who is on the court and their histories? Do you also have a clue as to judicial activism and the differences between Canada and the US?
A Christian Coalition is exactly what Canada needs, even though you disagree.
So you say. What are your reasons?
Harper was indeed instrumental in “uniting the right”, which had split apart for many reasons — mainly alienation of the western provinces, due to favourtism for Quebec. Also, the preceding “Conservative” party was actually called the “Progressive Conservative” party. Imagine that — it would be something like the RINO/CINO/TEA Party. There was a wing called the “Red (as in socialist Red) Tories”, and another called the “Blue (as in conservative) Tories”. When the right divided, the western part was known as the “Reform” party. Harper was one of the early leaders of the Reform party. After many years of handing the Liberals victories, the right united as the newly (re)formed “Conservative Party”, with Harper at the helm.
Predicting elections is a mugs game, but right now the Conservatives are looking good in the polls, and are flush with cash. If Harper goes down, it's likely that the Liberals, under former Harvard professor Ignatieff, would form government. They'd likely need to form a coalition with the socialist NDP (which they've done before), and would have to make concessions to the Quebec separatist Bloc Quebecois.
“(MarkBsnr) Are they doing any worse than those that come in with great fanfare? The current squatty type masculine liberals come to mind on the US Supreme Court.”
IMHO, the appointment process to the SCOC does need reforming. Right now, there's an extensive consultation process — involving the law profession, provinces, etc. However, the final decisions rest with the PM — with no formal provision for oversight by Parliament. We certainly don't need the highly partisan — toxic even — process used with appointments to the SCOTUS; but too much power is now concentrated in the hands of the PM. Our (Canadian) system made sense, before the Constitution Act (1982) gave the SCOC much the same powers as the SCOTUS. Now, activist judges are legislating from the bench in Canada, just as their American peers have been doing for centuries.
Harper has been trying to bring in reforms — creating a bigger role for Parliamentary committees, etc. Just as he'd been trying to reform the Senate. (He wants provinces to hold elections for Senators. As it stands, the PM appoints whoever he wants to the Senate.)
weird timing
No connection. This defeat is due to a number of recent controversies (I hesitate to say they rise to the level of scandals) that have been going on for a while now, longer than the conflict that's been flaring up in the Middle East.
Arguably the most significant of these is the "In and Out" scandal, over whether money was unlawfully transferred between the national Conservative Party and the local riding offices, in order to circumvent spending limits during the 2006 election.
Heritage Minister Bev Oda asked one of her staff in 2009 to annotate a memo of the Canadian International Development Agency, which resulted in a human-rights organization being denied funding. However, the original wording of the memo would have granted the funding, and it had already been signed. The real issue is that Oda originally claimed no knowledge of the alterations, but this was untrue.
The Conservatives committed $9 billion to purchase 65 F-5 jets for the Canadian Forces to replace our current fleet of CF-18s. The Opposition has raised questions about the process of selecting the jets (there was no competition) and the real cost of the purchase, and have accused the government of misleading Parliament.
Between Oda, the jets, and a few other items where the government were accused of disclosing their full cost, a report from a Commons committee found the government in contempt of Parliament - a first not only in Canada but anywhere in the British commonwealth.
The federal budget was presented on Tuesday and failed to gain the support of any Opposition party. The budget is the most important piece of legislation, and its failure to pass will automatically defeat a government. Harper is a canny politician, and he has been able in the past to use the budget to gain enough support from enough Opposition MPs.
Finally, all this culminated in a no-confidence motion tabled by the Liberal party earlier this week, which was passed this afternoon. Harper will visit the Governor-General tomorrow and request the dissolution of Parliament, meaning we will have a national election some time in early May.
Right now, the Conservatives have about a 19-point lead in the polls - if we were to vote right now, there's a very good chance of them winning a majority this time round.
Minority governments often need some sort of coalition to survive. In Harper's case, he's simply made enough concessions to one Opposition party or another to get enough votes to pass legislation. He's good at it - you can't lead a minority government for 5 years if you're not.
Didn’t he cobble together the disparate conservative-leaning elements to form that government?
Sort of. Western disaffection led to the formation of the Reform Party in 1987, and Harper was one of its principal policy wonks. Meanwhile, the Progressive Conservatives were in power under Brian Mulroney. In the 1993 national election, the PCs were roundly defeated (reduced to 2 seats), but the Reformers won over 50. For the next few rounds of elections, the PCs and Reformers split the conservative vote and kept handing the Liberals a majority government. When Harper was leader of the Opposition in 2002-03, he pushed hard for the merger of the Canadian Alliance (the successor party to Reform) and the Progressive Conservatives, which happened in 2003, under the name Conservative Party of Canada.
A united right reduced the Liberal government to a minority in 2004, and defeated them in 2006 and 2008. Obviously, it worked.
Will he survive the next vote? Any chance he could be returned with a majority?
A very good chance. The Conservatives are very strong in the polls right now. And if not, I hope Harper stays on as the party leader, as he's one of the strongest political leaders Canada has had in a long time.
If he goes down, who is likely to form a new government?
It will be the Liberals, otherwise. Basically, we have 4 major parties currently: the Conservatives (center-right), the Liberals (center-left), the New Democratic Party (hard left), and the Bloc Quebecois (center-left). The NDP doesn't have the popularity to form a government. The Bloquistes are a Quebec-only party and don't have enough numbers to form a government, though they could theoretically form the official Opposition (and did so, in 1993). They also poll consistently at the same numbers, so the Liberals' gains are the Conservatives' losses, and vice versa.
The lefties have been hanging the threat of a coalition government over the Conservatives' head for a couple years now - so if either the Conservatives or the Liberals win a minority government, I think it is likely that they will do so.
You think Fox News is not factual, but Canadian Newspapers are?
You are against the Christian Coalition?
Roberts, Alito, Thomas and Scalia are decent Christian man. If they are given just one more like themselves they will overturn many evils such as abortion/gay marriage etc.
They will restore the right to have prayer/Bible in classrooms and public square etc. They will restore Christian crosses to veterans cemeteries etc, the list is long.
But it seems you support many/all of the evils I mentioned?
You certainly dont sound like a Conservative, certainly not a Christian Conservative.
And why I think Canada needs a Christian coalition you ask?
So that Christians can organize to stand up for God/Christ, to stand up for the unborn.
BTW the terms pro choice/pro abortion Christian, is a oxymoron! That is a fact and it`s not even debatable.
So that Christians can organize to stand up for God/Christ, to stand up for the unborn.
Why do you suppose we need the government's permission to do that?
Who said you needed government approval? I never said it?
You are obviously just a trouble maker, so bugger off
We used to have one - The Christian Heritage Party of Canada. To tell you the truth, I don’t even know if they are still in existence. They did not fare well. The media up here is further to the left than it is down there.
Canada is well to the left of the US. Its three leading parties are all on the left and there are scarcely any social conservatives to speak of there. I have a feeling either the Conservatives win an outright majority or we’re going to see a hard left coalition anchored by the Liberals and the Bloc in the next government.
But a NON denominational Christian union basically. Would stick to basic Christianity, meaning not killing unborn Children, not teaching kids that homosexuality is OK etc, not standing buy while supreme court makes anti Christian rulings one after the other, such as gay marriage/abortion etc.
This union would include Catholics, protestants,Non denominational Bible Churches etc etc, Church goers and non Church goers (a person does not have to attend Church to be a Christian)
Just talking about basic family values, yes abortion/gay marriage top the list, Christians do not support either.
Jewish and other faiths that felt strongly about these same issues could also join. The idea would be to tell the existing parties that we are a army of believers and are going to throw our weight around, as it stands now, smaller groups hold rallies in Ottawa on occasion but with little effect.
So it would be open to anybody that wanted to see a return to basic family values, and for sure it would probably/definitely be the existing Conservative party of Canada that would be the target.
Really would just be a voting block, nothing more, and politicians would have to listen.
anyway, enough out of me :)
The Christian Heritage Party was formed out of the Christian Reformed Church (Dutch community)and did not have the wide umbrella which you describe.
I would have hoped that the union of voters you describe could have found a home with the conservative party up here. That’s about the best choice we have - Prime Minister Harper is, as far as I know, a practicing Christian.
Left-wing media and unions are MUCH more powerful up here than in America.
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