Free Republic

For those of us who aren't completely on side with "Canadian values" ala Paul Martin and the Liberal party, yesterday's Sun Media election poll by Leger Marketing was welcome. In just the last few days, the Liberal lead in "vote-rich Ontario" (my how tired I am of that cliche) has been cut from 19% to 11%. Nationwide, the Conservatives were still behind 35% to 29%, but within striking distance for the Jan. 23 vote. But as everyone knows, "vote-rich Ontario" (is there no better term?) holds the key to national victory. If the Liberals lose that, they lose everything. Of...

When American Ambassador David Wilkins unleashed his fusillade at Paul Martin's electoral anti-Americanism this week, he catapulted our relationship with the United States, at least temporarily, to the top of the election agenda. Not since the free trade election of 1988 have Canadian-American relations figured so prominently in a campaign. But unlike 1988, when the debate centred on a substantive policy issue, this time it's all sound and fury signifying very little. The risk-free politics of bashing a deeply unpopular American president was the subtext for Mr. Martin's attack on the U.S. environmental record in Montreal last week. Given that...

Our new Prime Minister, Paul Martin, has finally ascended the throne he has so long desired for many a year. Jean Chretien is now gone, and the Liberal party, guided by Martin, will take Canada further to the political right than the centrist or soft left liberals would say amen to at this stage in the Canadian journey. Is it wise and prudential, the thoughtful might ask, at a point in Canadian history when the Liberal party will swing further to the right, to create a party that is further right than Paul Martin and the Liberal party? Is such...