Election 2011?

[Boom Boom]

Geez. You'd think he would have had a slick, pre-tested answer. 

It shows, I think, Ignatieff's lack of political experience. He was like a deer in the headlights.

[sparqui]

Gawd I hate Ignatieff but if he blows it my letting Harper frame the election, I will lose my mind.

[pogge]

He's been getting questions about coalitions for two years. I posted about the incoherence of his response on the issue during last summer's BBQ tour. And if he hasn't come up with a decent answer on his own, he has people working for him who should have. There's no excuse.

This is one of the reasons why I'm not that excited about an election. I expect the Liberals to run a lousy campaign -- it's what they've been doing since Chretien retired.

(That doesn't excuse a press corps that's only too happy to buy into Conservative frames even when they're completely dishonest but I expect that, too. That's another reason for my low expectations. Sorry to harsh the buzz but there it is.)

[Toedancer]

I'm with pogge on this. Altho I dare to hope the NDP will pick up a few more seats in the west. Speaking of dressing up as a coalition, did u all see the article entitled Tories claim Ignatieff wants to form coalition government, even if Libs come second in next election campaign:

Okay so someone knocked at the door when I had just read that and I thought I had read - Tories claim Ignatieff wants to form coalition government, even if Libs come FIRST in next election campaign. OMG, I couldn't stop laughing at myself, I'm still laughing @ Iggy NEEDING to form a coalition if he comes in FIRST.

 

[brebis noire]

Gawd I hate Ignatieff but if he blows it my letting Harper frame the election, I will lose my mind.

I know, eh. I keep telling my very conservative brother that I believe Ig is secretly in the pay of the Tories, and he just smirks. 

[Croghan27]

During an interview on the way out of Parliament Jack Layton was brought upshort by a newsie ..... he gave a good response as to why the NDP could not support the Conservative budget.
 
It was immediately pointed out that the government fell on a non-confidence motion, not on a budget, taking the wind out of his sails.
 
Now Dan Gardner castigates him for the other side:
 
 

  Look at an immediate cause of this Parliament’s demise: Jack Layton said the NDP might support the Conservative budget if it put an additional $700 million toward the Guaranteed Income Supplement; the Conservatives agreed to put $300 toward it; Layton said that wasn’t good enough. And so a relatively minor difference of opinion about a relatively minor program will finish off the government and we will have an election in which there will be endless claims of hidden agendas, names will be called, nonsense will be past off as fact, honourable members will tell bald-faced lies about stuff that doesn’t really matter, and that which urgently needs debate and direction will be ignored.
 

WOW - talk about damned if you do and damned if you don't.

[Antonia]

I know, eh. I keep telling my very conservative brother that I believe Ig is secretly in the pay of the Tories, and he just smirks.

Well, I wouldn't go that far but I do think he wants to be back in mommy and daddy's good books. Didn't they back his repatriation and initial run? I have excellent reason to believe they did.

[skdadl]

Who are mommy and daddy in that scenario?

[Toedancer]

The Cons have adopted a very pro-Israel stance not out of conviction as the McGill Uni prof says, but because they prefer Jews to Muslims. The Liberals as flounderers, well yeah they have been floundering under Iggy, but the 'divide' is what the Cons do best. It's really no more complicated than that.

[lagatta]

Oh dear, election set for the 2nd of May. I suspect the May Day march will become a thinly-veiled walking ad for the Bloc (with some NDP presence).

[Mandos]

D'oh.  Depending on how you interpret "residence", I've been residing outside of Canada too long to be eligible to vote.  I didn't realize that there was an upper limit, though it makes sense.  OTOH my status in the USA is still officially "nonresident" for immigration purposes, but resident for tax purposes.  It's very confusing.  I dunno if that makes me a resident of Canada or a resident of nowhere.  Huh.

[Boom Boom]

NDP supporters are always going on and on about how Jack Layton is their biggest asset - if that's true, then the NDP is in trouble because, frankly, I think much of the electorate is tired of him. He said yesterday he's running to be Prime Minister, and that made me chuckle, because the latest poll has the NDP at 14% and still in fourth place.

[sparqui]

I wish the parties would run on slogans like "restoring democracy" and "respecting the laws of governance" and "representing you in Parliament"...

And please, despite the useless media, pin the word CONTEMPT on Harper at every possible opportunity.

[lagatta]

I didn't happen to catch the jaw-droppingly apalling comment by Harper after the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster in Japan. Thanks to Thwap at his schoolyard for posting it:

http://thwapschoolyard.blogspot.com/2011/03/harpers-japan-remarks-banality-of-evil.html

“All of these things should remind everyone, should remind everybody in Canada, should remind all the parties in Parliament, that the global economy remains extremely fragile. It does not take very much to make us all, not just in Canada and the United States but all around the world, very worried,” he said.

“The fact of the matter is this should be a wake-up call that we cannot afford to take our focus off the economy to get into a bunch of unnecessary political games or, as I said, an opportunistic or unnecessary election that nobody was asking for.”

Posting this here rather than in the Japan/earthquake/tsunami thread because of the incredibly mendacious conclusion.

[Holly Stick]

Bouquets of Grey:   
 
http://bouquetsofgray.blogspot.com/2011/03/this-day-in-history.html