John Y i think the Libs and Bloc will find common ground on a number of issues. Both are left of center and the only big disagreement will be over Fed- prov powers. Also don't forget that the bloc will also refrain from voting on many issues so the Libs and NDP will win. They do not need 155 votes,just enough to outnumber the opposition.
Who knows there might even be situations where the bloc abstains, NDP and Conservatives vote against then the LIbs could go it alone.
At least here in Sask we went 13 of 14 seats conservative, only one Lib( Goodale) and no NDP.

Bill I agree with your post as to the hurt inflicted on the Conservatives by Klien and Randy White. It is the danger found in populist politics. The old Reform/Alliance party really valued free expression by all members. The new Conservatives need to 1) have a strong policy convention and 2) stick to the party line. Despite my feelings about the Liberals and their forced obedience to the prime ministers office it does win elections. Even when an occassional Lib speaks against the party line as did happen durring this election there is a feeling it is not policy and the issue dies. Until the conservatives can develope trust of this nature they will fall prey to the scare tactics of the Liberals. Same thing happened here with the Sask. party in our last provincial election. one comment about "examing the crown corporations" led to wild claims that they would sell off all the crowns and bring in wide ranging private health care.Result an NDP victory.The real intent of the comment had been to evaluate the crowns and see if they were the most effective way 5to deliver services which had been said almost word for word by the NDP a year or so previously.

I saw an article in the National Post that said Martin is pure politician, and since women are overwhelmingly in favor of the gun registry he won't touch it. Isn't that just terrific now? Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

The comments made by Randy White were deliberately distorted by the corporate media who employ phoney social liberalism to hide their REAL agenda; the corporate domination of Canada. Mr White is, along with Mr. Breitkreuz, an example of what a democratic parliamentarian is supposed to be, he is a credit to Canada and his party.

The map kindly shown by the gentleman from Texas is in error in one respect as Canadians were also at Sword Beach; my maternal uncle, the late D.F. McCallum was one of them, an Oerlikon gunner on H.M.C.S. Prince David. He volunteered on his 18th birthday and served in four separate invasions......to preserve the freedom to mock our flag that some immigrants abuse, kinda makes ya think, eh?

kutenaymtnboy:

There were several instances if the mixing of ours and the British forces on D-Day.

We landed a Brigade at Gold, and some Brit commandos came ashore with our guys on Juno. Also, don't forget that the Newfoundlanders (then a colony) landed with the Brits on Sword.

Rick

I, for one, am incensed with the outcome of this election.

Ontario voters remind me of a parent whose kid has just been caught lying, cheating and stealing.

They say to the kid "Go to your room! You're grounded for a MONTH!!"

Then, 2 hours later, they start to feel guilty, and say "I think you've been punished enough. Whaddya say we go out and buy you a new video game??"

More like, "why don't we go out and steal a new video game?"

The whole political system is screwed anyway! How can you call it democracy when any party can be the government of the country with 31 or 32% of the vote? This leaves 69% of the population which is the majority of the population being governed by a government they didn't vote for! This needs to be straightened out! I thought proporsional representation was horse s#it but I realize now if we can't go to a 2 party system it's better than what we have.

Note that the Liberals have been adjusting the boundaries of ridings, to favour themselves. So called population balancing, or some such BS. They added considerable Liberal territory to my riding, but we went Conservative anyway. Screw them.

Murf
I agree that the Bloc, NDP and Liberals have much more in common than the Conservatives. Lets hope they fall on their faces. Shouldn't be to hard with Layton whining all the time.

40% of those that were qualified to vote didn't even bother! Although this was supposed to be one of the closest elections in recent histor, with all the scandal and corruption exceeding even normal excessive liberal levels, it was one of the worst voter turnouts in Canadian history. That in itself tells the sad story of why this once great country is now so f##ked up... and no end in sight to the downward spiral! God help us now that Martin and his cronies have been re-elected and given the green light to rob and pillage again. With the reality challenged Layton and crew offering support to the libs we better hang on tightly to our wallets and brace for the screeching left turn!

Northsniper. he problem I see with proportional representation is where the MP's will come from. As a westerner with interests in rural areas I would hate to see the MP's all come from urban and eastern areas. If there was a blend of constituent and "selected" MP's I would want to see a list of the "selected" MP's and be provided background on them. If not we would be in a worse situation than the last couple of parliaments where a considerable number of candidates were parachuted in to ridings where they had no background and were there simply to act as yes men to the party hierarchy. What we really need are MP's that will balance party loyalty with a strong commitment to represent the wishes of their riding. The new elcetion funding laws to come in effect for the next election will give even more power to the party elite as more funds will be from the national office and fewer options re. private funds. It will. I fear,lead to more yes men as without party funds they will not be able to raise sufficient funds to compete in future elections.

I agree Murf, I wish the MP's were allowed to vote to their constituents wishes rather than be ordered to tow the party line. This "democracy" we have is a dictatorship run by a few backroom policy makers who live in an insulated bubble, don't really have any grasp of real world situations.

Murf, I didn't care for the proportional representation idea at first but something has to change nobody should be running the country with less than 51% of the vote! The system we have now is plain stupid when you stop and realize that no matter who wins 2/3rds of the population voted against the winning party!

Further to that, the cities have most of the ridings, so big city issues win the election. Those of us in the rural areas get screwed every time.

John Y It is just that as a Sask resident I don't want my MP from Rosedale or Spedina. i believe if they bring in proportional representation we have to be careful the cities don't get even more influence than they have now.
As far as having a gov't with 51% or more that has hardly ever happened. With more than 2 parties 45% is a large slice for the governing party. If we had proportional representation I fear all power would rest in the backrooms of the parties and only the deal makers would know what was going on. Are those in favour of proportional repres. really sure we want Layton to have 30% of the seats.....bet his wife would get one. The real problem in our system lies with the overwhelming party loyalty that lets the PM control the party and not the constituency associations or even caucus members.

Please accept my apology Bill. I was reading the thread and got the names mixed up. My comments should have been directed toward Dan Belisle. I do feel that the western provinces have been getting shafted as are the Maritimes and Newfoundland now in the oil and gas revenues. If this country could ever get thier priorities straight and stop giving away money to every bleeding heart organization that comes along, and yes make it harder to get welfare and EI, then life might get better for all of us.

Coyote Jack

I don't know what the answer is? maybe some form of proportional representation would be an improvement but continuing on with a system that leaves 2/3rds to 3/4s of Canadians unrepresented is not democracy it's stupid. The problem with proportional representation I see is that any duffuss could start a political party and possibly end up having a seat or small number of seats in parlament. Canada could end up like some other countries that have 6 or even 10 political parties all sitting in parlament fighting over everything every day! I would sooner go with a 2 party system so that there is always a majority of Canadians represented by the ruling party.

I guess what is really needed is a bright enough electorate that will send a strong message to the parties. Screw us over by breaking the trust between the voters and politicians and we will turf your ass out. No if ands or buts allowed. Next team gets the nod and if necessary they will be gone in their turn. If we would only do this a couple of times we would end up with political parties that would listen to us and not be willing to let the party hacks control them. As it is they feel that they can get away with screwing us as long as the national party insiders will pay for the next campaign. I can not believe the way the liberal party members have allowed insiders to force them to vote against the grass roots wishes of the people. We must show them we are the ones with the true power. It can work if they would be given that message. Actually there should be times when western lib's and tories and even socialist MP's would vote together if they were representing us and the same for the maritmes. The actual MP should be selected more on the individuals merit and not simply who his party boss is. Imagine a parliament that represented us not the party executive. Party discipline should only be to general policy and after that the MP's should be free to can their own leader and cabinet if necessary. I would vote for such an MP again and again if he was representing me.
Now we have a system where the voter often has to vote against someone who he may have high regard for as a person but does not like or trust the leader. WQe end up with a backroom corp of non elected executives running the country as the individual MP's feel there is more chance at re-election if they please the party executives read financial powers and damn the voters

Actually Coyote, I know a lot of maritimers that work hard and pay taxes, it's just that most of them live here in Alberta. A few more I know in Manitoba (armed forces) and in Ontario. I tend to think that the working taxpaying folks weren't the ones who voted in Liberals, but I could be wrong. My apologies if you felt insulted. - Dan

No doubt that the power in the PMs office has to be dealt with. At present, we elect a dictator for four years. He and his best buds, run the country, regardless of what his own party, or the rest of parliament think.
Rep by pop, cuts us off well above the knees. We need some kind of equalizer, to get the rural areas more power, or more representatives.

It's not really a problem Dan. It's just sometimes us hard working Maritimers get tired of being lumped together with the deadbeats.

Coyote Jack

I understand. kind of like us westerners all being "inbred redneck fools". Toronto IS the center of the universe, just ask them. - Dan

Coyote Jack

I don't want this to sound like immigrant bashing, but it is something that concerns me. It's pretty well confirmed that immigrants invariably vote for the party that was in office when they entered the country. Liberals have been in for a long time, and we are indeed swamped with immigrants. Maybe the vote should be withheld for lets say ten years or so after citizenship is granted. In my own community French and English are both in a minority status.
It's all Pakistani and Moslems, neither of which is apt to vote for anyone but a Liberal. This crap has to stop somewhere. We're being run out of our own country, same thing with our neighbor to the south. I've had it! Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal