The poll numbers have again reverted and iffy loses again. Come on iffy, lets have an election.But despite the fact that the prorogation period caused many Canadians to change their view of Mr. Harper for the worse, nearly half of voters -- 46% -- still say he's the right man for the job he has.Mr. Layton was the second most popular answer when survey respondents were asked to name the leader they thought would be the best PM. He scored 33% support on that question, an improvement of 10 percentage points since Ipsos asked the same question a year ago.Mr. Layton has now overtaken Mr. Ignatieff in every category of leadership attributes that Ipsos polls on.Mr. Ignatieff is seen as the best man to be PM by just 21% of voters. A year ago, 33% of respondents thought he would be the best man to...
iffy really has a tin ear , when it comes to things Canadian. I guess it comes form being abroad so long. "It's interesting: Michael Ignatieff, he wasn't wearing a hockey jersey and I told you I was only going to speak to people in hockey jerseys, but he just happened to be at the Aboriginal Pavilion across the road and so I talked to him. He's Russian background, so he was a little bit betwixt and between about who he's pulling for. He took the very pragmatic approach." ......
It seems the marxist dictator hugo chavez thinks Canad is run by an ultra right wing govrnment. I guess he is now in coalition talks with iffy and jack.The bolivarian revolution is receding throughout Latin America and Venezuela is an economic basket case. iffy and jack must be so proud of their new ally who also insults HM Forces ."I am talking of a Canada governed by an ultraright that closed its Parliament for various months to [evade] an investigation over the violation of human rights -- I am talking about torture and assassinations -- by its soldiers in Afghanistan," Mr. Chaderton said.The allegations over Canadian soldiers' handling of detainees in Afghanistan have actually focused on whether Canadian troops handed prisoners over to Afghan authorities despite knowing the...
So iffy wants other people to raise children and state expense. The better to indoctrinate them to vote grit. The grits are not a centrist party at all and have fully made the journey to the left. Iffy has become dion.Kelly McParland: Ignatieff heads down same path as DionPosted: February 03, 2010, 10:30 AM by NP EditorFull Comment, Kelly McParland, Canadian politicsLiberal leader Michael Ignatieff pledged that he would spend the days before Parliament resumes announcing Liberal policies and making clear where the party stands on the issues of the day.It's never too late to tell voters what you believe in, even if Mr. Ignatieff has waited a curiously long time since taking over the leadership a year ago. Even with his activities this week he's still being economical on detail: His latest...
I am not surprised that iffy is pro abortion, but I am disappointed. I thought he could do better than better than pandering to radical feminists. There are pro life grit MPs . I wonder how they tolerate this. Being pro life is not just ideological. It is to protect mothers and especially children. Abortion is a tragedy, why should export this tragedy to other lands. Is this a form of eugenics?Michael Ignatieff warned Stephen Harper today not to play “ideological games” with women’s health, suggesting the Prime Minister’s new commitment should extend to abortion programs.“Let’s keep the ideology out of this and move forward,” said the Liberal leader at an afternoon press conference.Mr. Ignatieff says he supports Mr. Harper’s initiative to make maternal health a key plank...
A good piece on why the partisan demos of last weekend will have very little effect. Iffy and the grits are still very iffy. iffy and the grits will support the budget and the Speech from the Throne. The camel-eyebrowed Ignatieff, in fact, appears oddly less leader today than he did when he first ran for the leadership, and lost. He was, however, then widely taken to be brilliant, if untested. He now appears more like one of those curious people who are school smart but street stupid. And street smarts – as Brian Mulroney and Jean Chrétien have recently demonstrated – count for a great deal in Canadian politics.If he is brilliant – as his résumé trumpets – Canadians have yet to see it.It may, however, not entirely be Ignatieff's fault that he seems to find such little traction...
The leader of the Toronto party states the obvious. It's quite amusing. No one has thought of the grits as the natural governing party for a long time now. It is remarkable that the remnants of the grits still feel entitled to their entitlements. It is a party that has no ideas. A party that uses the Exchequor as its private bank account. A party that thinks it is entitled to power and your wallets. They have been out of power 4 years and only now they talk about new policies. It really is the delusion grits.Liberals should stop seeing themselves as 'natural' governing party: IgnatieffAndrew Mayeda, Canwest News Service Published: Wednesday, January 20, 201020, 2010.OTTAWA -- Michael Ignatieff said Wednesday the federal Liberals need to stop thinking of themselves as the "natural"...
Lefty thomas walkom of the red star is exasperated that the grits won't bring down the government . Iffy has already said he will not bring about another election. walkom seems to believe the real anger is over HM Pm harper not understanding he is in a minority situation and ruling like he has a majority. That's truly funny. Things would be so much better if the Tories had a majority. The reason HM Government is able to crry on its policies is an exceedingly weak opposition who is broke and rudderless. iffy will look even weaker when he has his circus Jan 25, when both Layton and duceppe don't show up and i am sure most of the protests will be pretty small. We will then have the spectacle of the grits supporting the throne speech and the budget. If they don't I assure the grits that...
I am on an extended holiday at an undisclosed location. At the sound of the tone please leave your name,number and a brown envelope and someone will answer you eventually. HM PM Harper is in his office and doing his job. where are iffy and taliban jack?The Liberals have decided to highlight the two-month prorogation of Parliament by asking Canadians to submit a humorous 140-character suggestion for Prime Minister Stephen Harper's out-of-office reply message.Which, as communications strategies go, is rather courageous.Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff has been on vacation at an undisclosed location and has not therefore been available to pick up his own phone for the past three weeks (though he did pen a newspaper opinion piece).The response to the prorogation story has been left to others...
Dr Dawg is not very happy with iffy. He's not very impressed with the grit thinkers conference either. I agree with Dr Dawg in this instance, iffy is not a leader. John Baglow: Everyone shut up so Ignatieff can have a debatePosted: January 04, 2010, 4:14 PM by NP EditorFull Comment, Canadian politics, John BaglowFaced with the Harper government's frontal assault on the principles of responsible government, the opposition is in its usual complete disarray. My Liberal friend Impolitical has a new badge up at her place: "I prorogue because...I can...you let me...". But what do we get from the leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition?Just when a decisive voice is called for, there's Michael Ignatieff bleating almost en passant about the Harper cut-and-run exercise, and then proffering loads...
Angelo Perschillo summarizes the accidental tourist quite well. The accidental tourist didn't think of being a leader, it was thrust on him. He was handed a seat (ejecting a long time MP) and was crowned grit leader. he felt entitled to be HM PM, a very grit trait. They are entitled to their entitlements.Now he talks about being an alternative. he proposes no policies and spends his time avoiding discussing his previous positions on torture and Iraq.The most important difference is crucial for success in politics: academics lecture, politicians listen.Elections are about a leader's capability to put together a team, a number of economic and social programs, and then to present the package to the people in asking for their support.In the case of Ignatieff's leadership, everything was...
Well now iffy admits the obvious. There will be no election until at least 2011. Iffy finally understands that his unseemly bravado has helped all but destroyed his party. This will not make bob rae very happy, because it seems that iffy will be staying. That makes us Tories happy.OTTAWA -- In a sharp change of position, federal opposition leader Michael Ignatieff said in an interview published Saturday that he was not keen on trying to trigger an election next year.The comments by the liberal leader mean it is likely the minority Conservative government - which needs the support of opposition legislators to stay in power - will be able to push through its budget early next year.The Liberals were level in the polls with the Conservatives in early September but fell away sharply after...
Don Martin's analysis is that the Tories will be around for a long time to come. He says we have a defacto majority. Unfortunately defacto is not good enough. We need a real majority. Even hapless Dion tried to become HMPM. Vigilance , is always the word in a minority situation. Perhaps though the Tories should start proposing some bold new and conservative policies and see what happens.Don Martin: Ignatieff's surrender is the dawning of a de facto majority rulePosted: December 13, 2009, 6:39 PM by Gillian GraceIt didn’t quite work out the way he intended, but a reckless one-sentence ultimatum from Michael Ignatieff defined the person, the party and ultimately his popularity for the entire fall session of Parliament.“After four years of drift, four years of denial, four years of...
an uphill battle, he would have tried to help iffy become PM. This is just anot grit rat leaving a sinking iffy ship.Rossi, 47, is not a household name like front-runners former deputy premier George Smitherman, who has already thrown his hat in the ring, and John Tory, who is expected to join the race in the new year.Rossi has never held elected office. In fact, the longtime Liberal has never even sought elected office – and now he wants to lead the sixth largest government in Canada.It doesn't matter that Rossi's name is low on public recognition, said Ian Davey, Michael Ignatieff's former chief of staff. "When (U.S. President Barack) Obama was in the race for the Democratic nomination, no one knew who he was."...
If I were iffy, I would get body armour. Seems iffy shouldn't have Christmas holiday. Apparently they are afraid that Iffy will take a long European vacation and never come back? oh wait maybe that's what they want. Merry Christmas Iffy.Liberal MP: Iggy doesn’t need a Christmas breakThe reverberations from nightcap-gate will most likely rumble on until the end of the week, at which point Parliament will adjourn and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff and his boss chief of staff Peter Donolo will rejig and recuperate over the holiday season and then presumably present a shiny new Iggy in the New Year. If I was as coordinated as Mr. Ignatieff and could only raise one of my eyebrows without both of them popping up at once then I would have done just that when I read the following line in the...
I was a bit surprised by Angelo Perschillo's article on the weekend. I think iffy will go but not right away. I would also miss the opportunity to mock iffy. I think bob rae would actually be a better grit leader, so I am glad iffy is staying.OTTAWA -- A recent report that the Liberals are plotting to get rid of Michael Ignatieff as their leader and replace him with Bob Rae is a sure sign that eggnog season has arrived.If the story in the Toronto Star were true, the entire federal Liberal party should be begging Santa for a group rate in rehab.Iggy's leadership to date may be overwhelmingly underwhelming, but offing him anytime soon to crown Rae as party leader would be (a) almost impossible; and (b) the political equivalent of a murder suicide.DangerousInstead, the Star's tale of...
Don has really changed his tune on HM PM Harper, he also predicts that HM PM HaHarper has had another victory on his trip to China and that iffy looks small and petty yet again.This go-slow paying of Chinese homage might've been fodder for the Liberals except, once again, every decision made by their leader looks terrible in hindsight.Remember when Michael Ignatieff declared Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government dead last September? Well, the same week he cancelled his proudly-announced all-important odyssey to China where he could have set himself up as the breakthrough catalyst for restored relations.Now that Harper has been there first, all Ignatieff can do is big gulp a theoretical protest and hope nobody remembers he gave it the original pass.It's not that Harper should be...
The pieces are in place for yet another coup in the grit party. rae has been quick to turn the knife when iffy has ben stabbed in the last few months. donolo is a pseudo cretienite. A few more sinking polls and voila. a Toronto cocktail party putsch with cosmos and canapes. Protect yourself iffy, bobby is after your job.Indeed, the more Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff flounders, the more chipper his old pal and college roommate appears."I'm a very happy camper," Rae said last month after Ignatieff, whose autumn has been marred by a series of political bloopers, fired his top aides to bring in new blood.And why not? The new blood, primarily in the form of chief of staff Peter Donolo, is connected to the Jean Chrétien wing of the Liberal party, a wing that still has a soft spot for...
I guess iffy and republican donolo could always allow a free vote. Hey they allowed their Newfoundland MPs to do that. iffy seems to have few leadership skills. BC and Ontario should lower their taxes and make this new tax a bit more palatable.Mr. Ignatieff has criticized the tax in the past, yet he emerged from a closed-door caucus meeting Tuesday saying Liberal MPs would be forced to vote in favour of the legislation because it comes down to an issue of provincial rights.“This is a request from the provinces because they believe it will improve the competitiveness of their economy and create jobs,” Mr. Ignatieff said. “We will support this legislation in Parliament.”But that support appears fragile. Liberal MPs were lining up appointments with the party's whip to express their...
That's what this writer thinks. Iffy is taking shrapnel from within and outside the grits. Janine Kreiber ( dion's wife) launched a blistering attack against iffy. This should make things easier for republican donolo. I wonder if frankie mckenna (soon to be an ex bank vice chairman I hope) will call her a thugs as well?By dithering and declining, Ignatieff is now doomed to slide off into oblivion. He won’t go quietly though and perhaps still thinks he can somehow recover. But he can’t and won’t, and will probably have to be forced out by another leadership hopeful in yet another Liberal party coup d’état. The red star's grit cheerleaders are sounding ever more desperate and pathetic. Things are looking pretty good for the Tories these days....
lawrence martin is a big grit cheerleader. Reading this article just made me smile. martin thought the Tories wer on thir way out. He thought there would be a liber resurgence like in bo's America. I have news for you larry. bo's in pretty bad shape after less than a year in office. he has accomplished very little and it looks like he will get neither of his two major policies before the end of this year. Get used to a Tory government. Get used to a GOP resurgence at the 2010 elections. HM PM is not crafty, viscious and dishonest like your hero pseudo chretien. HM PM Harper is intelligent and is giving Canadians good government. I know you lefties in the media now cry yourself to sleep, but you'll have to get used to it. Maybe you should all just retire and allow a new generation of less...
I haven't posted any political cartoons in a while. There are a host of new and funny iffy cartoons. Iffy's troubles seem to keep getting worse and worse,...
That's what Norman Spector is writing. That's becuae BO's climate change policy as harmful as it is to the US economy is only a shadow of the craziness that the environmentostalinists want. So iffy seems to be going along wwith the Tories, yet again. Good for iffy. He should not support policies that will destroy our economy. Maybe we will make iffy a climate realist yet.Day after day in the House of Commons, Bloc MP Bernard Bigras hammered the Conservatives for having won the fossil award at the climate-change negotiations in Barcelona. However, rather than blow their usual smoke, both Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Environment Minister Jim Prentice unapologetically replied that their government, in contrast to the Liberals, would be defending Canadian interests in the forthcoming...
My friend Hugh MacIntyre has a great video up of Rex on iffy. Hope you're having fun in Edinburgh, Hugh. iffy is not having much fun visiting Canada, I expect he will be returning to the UK or the US very soon for a prolonged rest....
First it was dithers, then delusional dion, then iffy, noow its donolo. The grits still believe that all they need is a messiah to save them from the political wilderness. iffy is a martinite, not his offive is run by a pseudochretienite. I'm not sure any of this will revive the grits' sinking ship. iffy has a 15% approval rating. The grits are now consistently below, what even I thought was their 30% floor. I don't think donolo( a republican) will be enough.The micro-bubble of political Ottawa has greeted Peter Donolo's arrival in the Opposition Leader's office as a Very Important Event.This is more than a little bizarre.Donolo is, by most accounts, a good hand. He did well as Jean Chretien's communications guy. He knows Ottawa, is well-liked within his party and, as a professional...
ToryBoy has a new video....
The circling of the toilet bowl continues for iffy. Even grit supporters are falling away.Yes, yes, we'll get to the horse race momentarily.(Can you even still call it a horse race when one of the horses has wandered off the track entirely, and is now standing by the rail and staring aimlessly into the distance?). But first, we should spend just a moment or two marveling over this week's bonus question, which asks whether any or all of the current crop of federal party leaders should be replaced "as soon as possible." It's not even all that surprising that Michael Ignatieff would win that particular poll handily, with only 31 percent of respondents saying he should stick around, compared to 46 percent who ready to volunteer to help him pack. But only by going through the data tables,...
Ontario is among the grits' lst bastions. Things are not going very well for iffy in Ontario. Chantal Hebert notes how Tory friendly the provincial grits have become. as the numbers rise in Ontario I predict the Tory numbers will also improve. Quebecers are fickle but they will vote for a winner. Wonder if catsmeat will take a chainsaw to the provincial grits and make sure their dreams don't come true. In any case Tim Hudak will defeat mcliar et al in the not so distant future. I doubt Tim will be any friendlier to iffy.Then as now two unlikely partners found it to their mutual advantage to get along. Their association also turned then-Tory leader Joe Clark into the odd man out of Canada's most electorally potent federal-provincial equation.So far, the productive peace that has broken out...
the new iffy order.Tuesday evening: "Just trying to get a note out to staff. There is no news. No resignation(s). No new chief of staff." — Jill Fairbrother, Mr. Ignatieff's communications directorTuesday evening: "I am pleased to announce the arrival of Peter Donolo, who has accepted the role of Chief of Staff." — Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff...
The new BT blog Moose and Squirrel has found a great grits against iffy video. Good work Natasha....