OTTAWA - Elizabeth May said her party will pursue legal action against a consortium of TV networks, which decided Monday to exclude the Green leader from the televised leaders' debates on grounds that three other leaders said they would boycott the show if she were allowed to share the stage.

A defiant May accused the party leaders of preserving a tight "old-boys club" and the networks of turning their backs on democracy instead of calling the leaders' bluff on their warnings of being no-shows.

"Day 2 of the Canadian election and democracy has taken a nosedive," the May told a news conference on Parliament Hill.

.....Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said it would be unfair to allow May to join the other leaders on the national stage because she is too closely tied to the Liberals.

.....She chastised the consortium for failing to give good reasons for its decision, saying only that she is being excluded because of threats from three parties - the Conservatives, Bloc Quebecois and New Democrats - that they would not participate if May were included.

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said that while he supports her inclusion, he would not attend if the prime minister does not.

In a speech to supporters at an evening rally in Montreal, Dion blamed all the other party leaders for cutting May out.

"It's a no brainer, " he declared. "It's about fairness. Elizabeth May should have been part of the debate."
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_{"While not a Playboy reader, she invites a male acquaintance in for a quiet discussion of Chagall, Nietzsche, jazz, sex." - not a Hugh Hefner quote}

Republican Party
Byline: Destroying America for Political Gain
Current President: Gentleman's "C" George "Demolition" Bush
Current Vice President: Bunker Boy Dick "Nuke Iran" Cheney
Candidates:
President: Maverick Guy John "The Prisoner" McCain
Favorite Saying: "I'm against the war that's why we need to stay there and win; that's a maverick idea"
Vice President: Wing'r Sarah "Small Time" Palin
Favorite Saying: "Abstinence works, just ask my daughter"
Platform Summary: bringing change to Washington by doing exactly what Bush did.

Democratic Party
Byline: We are not Republicans
Presidential Candidate: Not Republican Barack "Remember, I'm not a Republican" Obama
Favorite Saying: "I have one house and there's no Republicans in it"
Vice Presidential Candidate: Bull Dog Joe "I Bite Republicans" Biden
Favorite Saying: "We want all the things the Republicans don't want and then some"
Platform Summary: We don't want the Republican platform

Green Party (Sorry this is a two party system) Park your liberal vote here

Peace Party (see Green Party) Overflow liberal vote parking

Constitution Party (see Green Party) Park your right wing vote here

Libertarian Party (See Green Party) Independent vote parking

America First Party (See Green Party) Overflow right wing vote parking

etc etc etc

------------------
"You have no respect for excessive authority or obsolete traditions. You're dangerous and depraved, and you ought to be taken outside and shot!" - Joseph Heller

when Stephen Harper was asked at an election whistle stop what type of vegetable he'd like to be, his reply was, "Let me say this. I would choose, if I had to, instead to be a fruit. Just what I am: sweet and colourful."

L0L Harper with his roots in the Reform Party prefers being a fruit????

Helmet Hair Harper is currently rebundling himself, wearing a sweater and being photographed with his children as a



BIG FAMILY MAN!

In the previous election he was seen bidding his children off for their first day of school. Harper shook hands with his children rather than hugging them! There are recorded photographs! L0L

If you believe those advertisements, may I sell you some FABULOUS swampland? Surely you didn't believe that Canada's Conservative Party wouldn't foist a version of Sarah Palin on voters?

Harper violated his own fixed election date law passed by parliament in 2007. Stephen Harper forced this election by going to the Governor General seeking dissolution of parliament saying he needed a new mandate but not expecting to get much improvement from the voters beyond them electing yet another minority government.

Harper makes unequivocal Afghan pledge for first time in more than 30 months

Murray Brewster | September 10

canoe.ca - Canada's war in Afghanistan will come to end in 2011, Prime Minister Stephen Harper declared in the kind of unequivocal statement he's resisted making for over two and a half years.

Harper said that 10 years' of war in the desert wastelands and mountains is enough. "You have to put an end date on these things," Harper said during a breakfast briefing Wednesday. "We intend to end it."

This is the same prime minister who famously intoned that Canada would not "cut and run" as long as he's in charge, and who had steadfastly refused to declare a firm exit date until he was forced to do so by an independent panel that reviewed the mission.

more at the link

_{"The mythical John McCain is an affable, straight-talking, moderately conservative war hero who is an expert on foreign policy" - Bob Herbert}

OTTAWA, TORONTO, WALKERTON, ONT.

At a NATO summit in April, Mr. Harper left the door open to keeping Canadian soldiers in the country, perhaps in the less violent north.

But yesterday, in the first week of the campaign for the Oct. 14 election, Mr. Harper sought to ensure that no such questions would hamper his efforts to woo the political centre and skeptical Quebeckers.
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_{"While not a Playboy reader, she invites a male acquaintance in for a quiet discussion of Chagall, Nietzsche, jazz, sex." - not a Hugh Hefner quote}

I love the word "relax", it's like "reform" on regulations- you know it's conservative code for "gutting" ;-)

Globe and Mail - Conservative Leader Stephen Harper is vowing a Tory government would open up Canada's corporate sector to more foreign investment, including relaxing rules for outsiders buying into its airline and uranium industries.

But he's trying to balance this with a pledge to give tougher scrutiny to takeovers by non-Canadians, promising a new national security test for buyouts that might threaten the country's strategic interests.

"We are a party of free enterprise, free markets and free trade," Mr. Harper told a Halifax audience. "But we also believe a government needs to know when to be able to draw the line when any foreign takeover would jeopardize our national security."

_{"The mythical John McCain is an affable, straight-talking, moderately conservative war hero who is an expert on foreign policy" - Bob Herbert}

sigh...

Canadian Press - Stephen Harper may be closing in on his coveted majority despite being plagued by a series of miscues and bad news during the first week of the federal election campaign.

A new poll suggests the Conservatives have opened up a commanding 15-point lead over the Liberals, with 41 per cent of respondents supporting the governing party.

Typically, 40 per cent is sufficient to win a majority of seats in the House of Commons.

According to The Canadian Press-Harris Decima survey, the Liberals stood at 26 per cent, the NDP at 14 per cent, the Greens at nine and the Bloc Quebecois at eight.

The poll suggests the Tories have gained ground among key voter groups that have eluded them in the past, and in every region of the country. They took a seven-point lead in Ontario, a 10-point lead in urban centres and a 13-point-lead among women.

In Quebec, the Bloc remained in the lead but the Conservatives moved up into a competitive second place with the Liberals falling to a distant third.

_{"The mythical John McCain is an affable, straight-talking, moderately conservative war hero who is an expert on foreign policy" - Bob Herbert}

OTTAWA — Canadians have shifted to the right and made the country more conservative since he's been in politics, Stephen Harper contended Saturday.

But the prime minister also said that his Conservative party has simultaneously shifted more to the centre of the political spectrum and he warned that it must remain there if it wants to continue governing.

"I think the Canadian public has become more conservative," Harper said in Fredericton, N.B., at the start of a weekend swing through Atlantic Canada.

"At the same time, I don't want to say the Canadian public is overwhelmingly conservative or that it is necessarily as conservative as everybody in our party.

"And that means that our party has to make sure that it continues to govern in the interests of the broad majority of the population. That means not only that we want to pull Canadians towards conservatism but Conservatives also have to move towards Canadians if they want to continue governing."

Harper's comments appeared to be aimed at dispelling opposition accusations that he harbours a hidden, extreme right-wing agenda. And it was consistent with the message the Tories have been hammering home in television ads throughout the opening week of the campaign: Harper is a moderate, steady leader who's in tune with mainstream Canadians.

Jack Layton, at least, was not buying it. At an enthusiastic rally in Toronto, the NDP leader painted Harper as a heartless puppet of big corporations who has no interest in the needs of ordinary working families.

more

No point funding programs 'people actually don't want'

(DUH, the dumb and dumber approach that serves us so well in the US;-))

Globe&Mail - In his first detailed defence of $45-million in controversial cuts to arts and culture funding, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper called his party's decisions good governance and said the government must walk "a fine line" between providing financial stability and "funding things that people actually don't want."

In an exclusive telephone interview during a campaign stop at a winery in St-Eustache, Que., Mr. Harper, who many in the arts community have likened to a Philistine, also spoke at length about his life-long passion for music and the piano as he denied the cuts were ideologically motivated.

He said Ottawa should play "a fundamental role" in encouraging growth and excellence in arts and culture, but added the marketplace, consumers and benefactors must also help shape the cultural landscape.

_{"The mythical John McCain is an affable, straight-talking, moderately conservative war hero who is an expert on foreign policy" - Bob Herbert}

It's official. Now that Stephen Harper has taken to wearing sweaters and talking about the kids, now that John McCain is being eclipsed by America's favourite hockey mom, the theme of this election season has been formally declared. Welcome to Family Values Fall.

..... Politicians have always been shamelessly opportunistic about image. They kiss strangers' babies, get their scrubbed-shiny kids onto the annual Christmas card, hold spouses' hands in death-like grips out in public, terrified that they might appear insufficiently married. (Oh, the irony.)

But with their current campaigns, what the Conservatives and Republicans have done is bring the political exploitation of family to a whole new level. No longer is the family merely useful political backdrop. Now it's a political tool.

Much has been rightly made in recent days of the political exploitation of family, as Canadian and American politicians' kids are being trotted out left, right and centre. But mostly right.

..... And the campaign manipulators in both countries are using them without hesitation, whether it's Laureen, Ben and Rachel -- or husband Todd Palin with Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and baby Trig. Force-marched into the circus ring, they have had conferred on them the role of agents in that social-conservative agenda so beloved of those on the far right, where much of the Conservative and Republican voting base resides.

This is living, breathing Family Values you can vote for.

This is the whole package: married mom and dad (two-parent household with none of that nasty same-sex business), kids (the purpose of marriage, right?), more kids (family planning being sort of Godless) and even little Trig Palin. Incredibly, the baby, who has Down syndrome, has actually been turned into a political statement.

Don't take my word for it. Visit the Governor of Alaska's official website, which has a whole link devoted to Trig Paxson Van Palin.

..... When Conservatives pointlessly sing the praises of Harper's family, when the Republicans put Palin's brood on parade, the message is loud, blunt and clear: Family Values at work.

More

_{"While not a Playboy reader, she invites a male acquaintance in for a quiet discussion of Chagall, Nietzsche, jazz, sex." - not a Hugh Hefner quote}

Conservative Party in the 2006 Election. Harper's government is a minority government in pursuit of a majority since the day they were elected.

They’ll try every trick in the book to get the electorate to vote for them. I know of no one that voted for the Conservatives.

Whether the electorate believes the Liberals have been out of office long enough won’t be known until after the evening of October 14th.

I am not fooled by Harper wearing fuzzy, blue sweaters putting his family on display and/or sitting at a piano bench relating that his family were musically inclined. Harper is an ideologue that needs defeating. Will it be this time?

Harper, IMHO, is a transplanted neocon! He's just the waterboy for Team Amerika...hired to help it quench its insatiable thirst to drink Canada Dry."

Read, Feng Shui Federalism which elaborates on Harper's philosophy.

I fully agree with the writer’s conclusion from the Walrus Magazine that Canada is based on place rather than people. Socialism within a democracy is very different from communism within a dictatorship. Rovian tactics turned the American election upside-down. Sigh…it may have the same result in Canada in 2008?

As a resident of Ontario., the sole province never receiving a dime in Equalization payments, since the beginning of Confederation...it has never bothered me to possibly pay more than my share of taxes in support of families living in provinces not as economically fortunate so their province enjoys services similar to mine. Liberal Ontarionions, living in both urban and rural areas, share that sentiment.

Toronto Star - No Canadian with a serious illness should ever have to go into debt or sell their home to cover their medication, Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion says.

Dion yesterday announced a program for catastrophic drug coverage worth $900 million over four years. The proposed plan would be in addition to programs already offered by such provinces as Ontario and Quebec.

"We believe that no Canadian should have to choose between taking a drug they need, and paying for their other basic needs," Dion said at a campaign stop. "Unfortunately, this is too often the case today, especially in the Atlantic provinces."

Dion said people with cancer, diabetes, arthritis and other serious illnesses should focus on getting better, not on worrying about their finances.

The Liberals' proposal is in response to former Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow's landmark 2002 report on Canada's health-care system, which urged federal funding to help Canadians shoulder the cost of "catastrophic" drug costs, anything above $1,500 a year.

However, it is unclear how far Liberals are willing to go in terms of providing coverage...
full story at link

_{"The mythical John McCain is an affable, straight-talking, moderately conservative war hero who is an expert on foreign policy" - Bob Herbert}

Canadian Press - Both the Conservatives and the Liberals have lost ground to the NDP and Greens, with indications the Tories may have slipped further from majority-government territory, a new poll suggests.

The Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey taken over the last four days gave the Tories 36 per cent, down two percentage points from Wednesday's figure, followed by the Liberals with 27, down a single point.

The poll put the NDP at 16 per cent and the Green party at 11, both up a point, while the Bloc remained at eight per cent.

"This race continues to become more interesting, and outcomes are becoming more varied and complex," said Harris-Decima president Bruce Anderson.

"Probably no question looms larger in terms of its import for both the Liberals and the Conservatives than the question of vote splitting on the centre-left and, in particular, among younger women."

The survey suggests the race remained tight in Ontario, with the Conservatives at 37 per cent and the Liberals at 34, both down a couple of points, with the NDP at 15 per cent support and the Greens at 12, both up slightly.

_{"The mythical John McCain is an affable, straight-talking, moderately conservative war hero who is an expert on foreign policy" - Bob Herbert}

THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA – A new poll suggests the Tories are inching toward being in a position to win a majority.

A Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey taken over the last four days shows the Tories rising to 39 per cent support – two points from their campaign peak – while the Liberals remain at 23 per cent.

The Liberals have dropped five percentage points in the last week.

The poll finds the NDP remaining at 17 per cent support, with the Green party at 11 per cent, one point down from Saturday's number.

The Bloc stayed steady at eight per cent.
More

_{"While not a Playboy reader, she invites a male acquaintance in for a quiet discussion of Chagall, Nietzsche, jazz, sex." - not a Hugh Hefner quote}

to honour their contribution to parliament and to help pump them up for the campaign. It's a high end Ottawa diner but so many orders will overwhelm the kitchen staff, so the Chef asks Harper if he minds having everyone order the same dish. "No problem," says Harper confidently. "I'll have the steak."

"And what about the vegetables?" inquires the Chef.

"They'll have the steak, too." Harper replies.

Bob Rae joke. A quick boo around the net and I see he tells it quite regularly.

Globe and Mail - (Tim Powers' Tory op-ed blog)

We are moving into debate week. Fairly or not, there is an expectation that there is much on the line for all candidates. I want to look at two of them - the Prime Minister and the want-to-be Leader of the Opposition, Jack Layton. First, though, a word about Mr. Dion.

Mr. Dion has much experience debating. There were many during the Liberal leadership race in 2006. Mr. Dion has said in other places he'll win both the English and French debates. Ms. May will probably help him try and do that. Mr. Dion's skills are not to be underestimated, though he has set the bar high.

Mr. Layton seems to have more ants in his pants than normal. He appears to be buoyed by polls that either show him tied with the Liberals or close behind them. He is going to use the debates as a platform to try to get the vote on the left galvanized behind him. While he has done well in this campaign, he sometimes comes across as a mix between the video professor on the Shopping Channel and a used car salesman. Canadians are going to want see less of that mixed persona and more of a refined style befitting someone who would be Prime Minister.

For Mr. Harper, success in the debate comes from holding your own and eking out a draw. When you are the incumbent everyone attacks you. You are subjected - or least will be in this debate - to a 4-on-1 assault. The PM might end up feeling like Stephane Dion at a Liberal caucus meeting. However, unlike Mr. Dion, the PM is a proven and competent leader. He is strong and capable, no matter how fierce the fire, and on Wednesday and Thursday those attributes will shine through.

(Debate-Canadian style- comments at link:-) )

_{"The mythical John McCain is an affable, straight-talking, moderately conservative war hero who is an expert on foreign policy" - Bob Herbert}

Harper edges closer to majority

Toronto Star - The Conservatives have a tenuous grasp on a majority government, while the Liberals and New Democrats are in a dead heat for second place, a new poll shows.

The survey, conducted for the Toronto Star by Angus Reid Strategies, found that 40 per cent of Canadians would vote Conservative if an election were held tomorrow.

The Liberals under Stéphane Dion continue to drop, losing core supporters to the Tories as well as to the other parties. For the first time in the campaign, the Liberals and New Democrats, under Jack Layton, are tied at 21 per cent support. The Greens register 7 per cent support nationally.

more at the link

_{"The mythical John McCain is an affable, straight-talking, moderately conservative war hero who is an expert on foreign policy" - Bob Herbert}

Cbc.ca - The Bloc Québécois is holding ground against a Conservative surge in key areas of Quebec, according to a pair of polls published Monday.

The Bloc enjoys a seven-point lead with 33 per cent of voters' intentions, against the Tories' 26 per cent, and well ahead of the Liberals' 23 per cent, based on a Léger Marketing Poll done for the Journal de Montréal and French-language network TVA.

The poll found Bloc support remains steady in "ring" ridings around Montreal where the Tories are hoping to make gains (Laval, the Laurentians, Lanaudière, Montérégie and the Eastern Townships).

While the Tories maintain a strong presence in Quebec City, Chaudière-Appalaches, the Beauce, the Saguenay, and the Lower St-Laurence, "they can't come close to Montreal," said Christian Bourque, Léger Marketing research vice-president.
continued at link

_{"The mythical John McCain is an affable, straight-talking, moderately conservative war hero who is an expert on foreign policy" - Bob Herbert}

We're shocked, shocked! ;-)

cbc.ca - The Harper government approved 148 appointments to federal boards and agencies, long used as rewards for supporters of the party in power, as the election neared, The Canadian Press has learned.

Cabinet handed out the posts in three rounds, the first only two days before Parliament recessed for the summer, the second on July 30, at peak holiday time for politicians and political journalists, and the third less than a week before Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Sept. 7 election call.

Harper, who railed against Liberal patronage in the 2006 election, later failed to deliver on a campaign pledge to put an independent commission in charge of vetting cabinet appointments.

He shelved the idea after opposition MPs refused to ratify his nomination of Gwyn Morgan, a Calgary oil baron who is also a friend of the prime minister, as the commission chair.

more at the link

_{"The mythical John McCain is an affable, straight-talking, moderately conservative war hero who is an expert on foreign policy" - Bob Herbert}

There was another debate in North America Thursday night......

Globe and Mail - Conservative Leader Stephen Harper did exactly what he needed to do last night: weather the storm, and send Stéphane Dion packing.

An instant online poll conducted by Ipsos Reid after the televised leaders debate showed Mr. Harper as the debate's winner, but his lead and appeal as a Prime Minister both slipped during the event. New Democrat Leader Jack Layton was ranked second with 25 per cent of viewers saying he'd won.

But it was Green Leader Elizabeth May who emerged the real winner of the round-table event to which she was initially excluded. Having fought to be included, and then struggled through some language difficulties in Wednesday night's French debate, Ms. May was third overall in the English debate, claiming 17 per cent of support, said Ipsos Reid public affairs CEO Darrell Bricker.

“I think a political star was born last night,” Mr. Bricker said Friday. “They [respondents] didn't really know what she was going to do. Her first impression was really strong.”

_{"The mythical John McCain is an affable, straight-talking, moderately conservative war hero who is an expert on foreign policy" - Bob Herbert}

Canadian Press - Prime Minister Stephen Harper is facing more heat over the precarious state of the economy as the opposition leaders look to capitalize on a post-debate bounce Friday.

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion is delivering a major economic address to the Chamber of Commerce in Montreal, while Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe speaks to a business audience in Toronto.

The NDP's Jack Layton was also eager to pounce on what he believes is a chink in the so-far solid Conservative armour - Harper's belief that the economy remains fundamentally sound.

"Well guess what, things aren't fine," he said Friday morning while campaigning in Montreal.

"The financial crisis has become an economic crisis and here in Quebec and in central Canada we're seeing that. Some 400,000 jobs have been lost in the manufacturing and forestry sectors.

"It seems to me that last night Mr. Harper really showed he doesn't understand the impact of losing one's job."

_{"The mythical John McCain is an affable, straight-talking, moderately conservative war hero who is an expert on foreign policy" - Bob Herbert}

AP - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Friday that while the country doesn't need a panicky U.S.-style government, he does need a strong mandate from the Oct. 14 election so he can deal with a slowing Canadian economy. "We don't need a Parliament that acts and functions like the American Congress," Harper said. He later added, "We're not going to get into a situation like we have in the United States where we're panicking and annunciating a different plan every day."

more at link

_{"The mythical John McCain is an affable, straight-talking, moderately conservative war hero who is an expert on foreign policy" - Bob Herbert}

The trouble with Dion is that you can't understand him. The trouble with Harper is that you can.

CBC.ca - Canadian politicians appear to be in denial about the financial crisis, the head of a national business group says.

The party leaders don't seem to recognize that there is a crisis, said Perrin Beatty, president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce."It's clear that something profound is happening, yet the politicians up to now have wanted to talk about everything else," he said. The politicians are living in one universe, while media reports of the international financial crisis paint a different picture, he said.

"Ordinary Canadians, people who are middle aged today, planning for retirement, have seen much of their retirement savings evaporating this week in the stock exchange," Beatty said.

But campaigning Saturday, the leaders did talk about the economy.

Asked why he is not proposing steps like the initiatives taken in other jurisdictions, Conservative Stephen Harper told a meeting in Yarmouth, N.S., that the Canadian economy and banking system are in much better shape than those in the U.S. or Europe.

_{"The mythical John McCain is an affable, straight-talking, moderately conservative war hero who is an expert on foreign policy" - Bob Herbert}

A poll released yesterday showed Conservative leader Stephen Harper in danger of losing his lead in the Canadian election campaign, though other surveys show him still solidly ahead.

A Nanos rolling poll taken Oct. 2-4 put the Conservatives at 34 per cent, down one percentage point from the day before, and the Liberals at 30 per cent, up two points.
More

_{Tolerating prostitution is tolerating abuse and torture of women and children.}

L.Ian MacDonald, The Montreal Gazette, October 6

If it turns out that the Conservatives fall short of a majority on election day, it will because they were beaten at their own game, wedge politics, in Quebec.

Two issues that work for them in the rest of the country, cultural cuts and their crackdown on juvenile crime, have been flipped on them in Quebec.

Neither one, on its own, is enough to account for the sharp downturn in Conservative voting intention, and a surge for the Bloc Québécois, that has been apparent in daily tracking polls.

But when the two are bundled together, under the overarching Bloc theme that the Conservatives don't share Quebec values, that's trouble for Stephen Harper.
More

_{Tolerating prostitution is tolerating abuse and torture of women and children.}

Ottawa | October 7

Canadian Press -Opposition leaders are seizing on new evidence of a spiralling financial crisis to paint Stephen Harper as out of touch - and out of empathy - with worried Canadians.

With polls suggesting economic concern is burrowing away at Tory support, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion offered an alternative Wednesday to the Conservatives' "do-nothing" approach in times of crisis.

"With an election less than a week to go, Canada's economy is facing significant challenges," he told a business audience.

"Stephen Harper has done nothing to face this challenge ... he has failed the most important test of a leader."

The International Monetary Fund said Wednesday that Canada will outperform other well-off countries, but can't escape a global slowdown as the world works through "the most dangerous shock in mature financial markets since the 1930s."

_{"The mythical John McCain is an affable, straight-talking, moderately conservative war hero who is an expert on foreign policy" - Bob Herbert}

October 8

CTV.ca - NDP Leader Jack Layton jabbed at the prime minister from the heart of Conservative territory Wednesday, lambasting Stephen Harper's platform as an empty document.

Stepping up his attacks on Harper over the faltering economy, Layton warned that Canadians' pensions and homes are at risk and Harper is doing nothing about it.

Instead of protecting their jobs and savings, the Conservative leader is advising ordinary families to spend their money on plummeting stocks, Layton said.

"Most Canadians are extremely concerned, and yet he's trying to suggest that going out and gambling some of your money is the right strategy," he said after a breakfast rally in Edmonton.

"I think Canadians are looking for a government that's going to take this issue more seriously than that, and not be so cavalier or so casual."

Recent polls suggest the NDP could be the wild card in the lead-up to Tuesday's election. Layton could lead a breakthrough for the party or see its fortunes fall as voters scurry to the Liberals to thwart Conservative ambitions of forming the next government.

_{"The mythical John McCain is an affable, straight-talking, moderately conservative war hero who is an expert on foreign policy" - Bob Herbert}

Ken Gallinger | October 4

Toronto Star -

Q: Here's my problem: I'm terrified that Stephen Harper is going to win a majority government. I live in a riding that has traditionally gone Liberal – but with Dion's leadership nationally, I'm afraid it could swing to Conservative this time. I'm a lifelong supporter of the NDP, and a party member. The NDP candidate in my riding is a nice woman – but she hasn't got a hope of winning. So, I think I want to vote Liberal this time; Dion may be boring, but he won't become PM anyways, and I want to do my bit to deny Harper his majority. So here's the question: Is it ethical for a member of one political party to vote, strategically, for another party? And do I need to give up my NDP membership if I vote Liberal?

continued at the link

_{"The mythical John McCain is an affable, straight-talking, moderately conservative war hero who is an expert on foreign policy" - Bob Herbert}