Thursday, May 11, 2006

Sheila Copps on the Next Election

Sheila Copps spent some time yesterday taking questions from canoe.ca readers, and some of the results are reported here. Most interesting are her remarks on the timing of the next election:

"I think they have at least another year, because the appetite for another election is limited and the cash is simply not there in the coffers of the opposition parties to withstand an early election... I suspect Harper himself will pull the plug within the next 15 months."

This seems dead on, especially when you consider the advice the Tories recently received from Republican Pollster Frank Luntz to the effect that they will be able to lay blame on their Liberal predecessors for the first year of their term in government, and thereafter all troubles will land upon them.

More specifically, Auditor General Sheila Fraser will present one more report outlining the spending excesses of Paul Martin and his gang, and then turn her attention to Harper and the Tories. Expect much howling about cost over-runs in the gun registry and environmental programs, and an election call before Sheila can, as it were, strike again.

Also, note that Ms. Copps seems to be claiming that Harper will engineer his own defeat in Parliament so as to position himself advantageously for the election to follow. This too is, I think, an accurate assessment. It is interesting to speculate on the means Harper will choose to bring about his own end. The strategy in this kind of situation is to fall over some piece of legislation that is popular among the general public, but so against the principles of your political opponents that they cannot possibly support it. So perhaps something in the "tough on crime but ridiculously unconstitutional" department?

An interesting kink is that the Tories need only one opposition party to keep them afloat and, depending where the polls are, we might find that the opposition is more eager to keep the government from falling than the government is.

PS. This is my final post until at least tomorrow night. I am off to the nation's capital to raise heck for a day or two. Can anyone tell me where the best hot-tubs are?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

BOOM . . . First guns to be fired by the Auditor General.

"Another significant matter. In carrying out our audit of the Canada Firearms Centre, we noted a matter with significant implications for Parliament's control of public spending. Along with the Status Report we are providing a report that discusses this matter in detail."


BOOM BOOM . . . and then the second barrage . . . the Government of Canada will sue the LPC to recover the money the Liberals stole from the people of Canada.

Even the Commie Broadcasting Corp will not be able to bury that bit of news.


When the LPC is up to its asshole in "we are not thives" denials in front of a judge, then PMSH will call the election.


Life can't get much better as we drive a stake through the evil black heart of the LPC.

Anonymous said...

like this

# Finally HM Government will go after the organized criminal eneterprise: the fiberal Party of Canada.

As I have stated here and elsewhere we need to recover the 40 million dollars missing in the sponsorship scandal. The fiberals claimed to have returned 1.14 million dollars. This is an obvious mea culpa. The fiberlas are jointly and sevrally liable with the fiberal ad agencies. When the depths of the fiberal corruption in the Gun Registry and other departments is uncovered they should be sued for that as well. The officers of the party should be personally sued. If Jean Brault is being sued by Hm Government, so should the Godfathers of the Libranos: Chretien, Martin and the entire cabinet. Put liens on their assets and strip them to their underwear. They should of course also go to prsion like Brault, Corriveaiu and soon to be Guite. Evry dollar must be accounted for and the candidates in Quebec who got it sued and arrested as well. This is truly a racketeering case. Too bad the fiberals can't be charged with enterprise corruption.

Anonymous said...

I am willing to bet that if you put the Tories in power for 13 years we'd be looing at the same thing. Not that I think they should be able to get away with it; it's the nature of politics and nobody's immune to it. Just ask Ralph Klein!

bigcitylib said...

I'm willing to bet that if the Tories are in power six months we'll be looking at the same thing. They don't get many chances to rule, and so degenerate into misrule at light speed so as to take advantage.