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When I first expressed a firm NO to her participation, I was primarily considering my own ears. I have found out that, like Dion, I become deaf under certain circumstances. Whenever I'm exposed to continuous cries of calamitous catastrophies about to befall our planet, if not the entire universe - nay the Milky Way - well, I have a tendency to become extremely agitated.
But ... what a surprise! Mother Earth thinks Canadians are stupid? Did she really say that? Who woulda thunk it?
Ya, this needs to get around. She's gonna float like a lead balloon in that debate.
Some kind of shenanigans between Harper and the Liberals, eh?
They are a party leader?
That could be taken advantage of, so there may need to be another test.
Saskboy, I'm curious - which election are you referring to?
If you go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary_Southwest#...
you will see that the only time the Liberals didn't field a candidate against Harper was in the byelection in June 2002 (on Mr. Manning's resignation, January 2002). Mr. Harper at the time was running for the Canadian Alliance.
As for Ms. May: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_North_Centr...
In a byelection in November 2006 (on Mr. Fontana's resignation, 20 September 2006), May was opposed by the Liberals, who won the riding. The Conservatives, NDP, Progressive Canadian, Canadian Action and an Independent also ran against her.
If the Liberals are claiming, like you seem to suggest, that Dion's Liberals are not fielding a candidate against her because she's the leader of the Greens, then why did they field one against her in in London-North-Center in 2006? She was already leader of the Greens by then.
Sask Power burns 10,000,000 tonnes of coal a year. Electricity from coal represents approx. 45% of the grid production. One tonne of coal generates 2.419 tonnes of co2. Therefore Sask Power generates 24,190,000 tonnes of co2 off of its’ coal produced electricity. At $40 a tonne for the Green Shaft tax this means Sask Power is going to pay $967,600,000 almost a billion dollars in tax to the Liberal government. Forty percent of Sask Powers electricity is consumed by Sask. residents (individuals, families, and senior citizens). Based on a population of 1,000,000 people each and every Sask. resident will see their electrical bill increase by $387 a year. For a family of 4 that is $1,548 a year. The liberals say that a family of 4 earning $60,000 or less will see a tax reduction of $1,600 a year. But wait Sask Power also has Natural gas fired electrical production that accounts for 14% of their production capacity. Under the Dion Liberals this portion of Sask Powers production will see a 27% increase on their natural gas fired generators. So now if we factor that cost in that will put a family of 4 well over the $1,600 tax reduction. We have not even touched heating the homes yet or the added costs passed down from the municipalities, goods and services, Boards of Education etc.
Truthiness 1: In a Sept. 8 interview with Don Newman, May stated she knew for a fact that none of the 4 leaders would dare say that they wouldn’t participate in the debate if she were allowed to.
She then went on to say that it was the decision of the Media Consortium executives: “they rewrote the rules” and she called them “an old boys’ club.” OK, so that was Monday Sept. 8.
On Tuesday Sept. 9, CTV reported through NDP strategist Brad Lavigne that Jack Layton had threatened not to participate if Ms. May was in. Okey-dokey, but many media continued to say it was Harper.
Truthiness 2: In another interview I saw (unfortunately I don’t recall where) May pointed to this op-ed by former CBCer Tony Burman: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RT...
“Former CBC News chief: The election debate process is a sham”
May argued that PM Harper was opposed to her participation from the get-go and offered Burman’s op-ed as evidence. In it, Burman states:
“Within days of the meeting, we were privately told by the Conservative Party representative that Prime Minister Harper would not participate in the debates if the Green Party leader was there.
That was in early 2007.”
What both Burman and May neglect to mention is that it was also early in 2007 (April) that May and Dion made their pact:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTV...
"Liberal Leader Stephane Dion is dismissing any criticism within his party about a non-aggression deal struck with Green Leader Elizabeth May.
Dion has agreed not to run a Liberal candidate in May's Nova Scotia riding of Central Nova, which is currently held by Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay.
In exchange, May is endorsing Dion as the best candidate to become prime minister.
Opinion within Liberal ranks is sharply divided. …”
AND
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTV...
“ … Under the terms of the non-compete agreement, ***May has agreed not to run a candidate against Dion and will essentially endorse him as prime minister.*** ...
During the news conference May touted Dion as the answer to Canada's climate change struggles, saying she has worked closely with him and has become convinced he is the best choice to lead Canada. …”
So, at that time the PM probably decided no, she shouldn't take part in the debates.
Next, in an interview with Mike Duffy on Wed. Sept. 10, she blamed it primarily on Mr. Harper as being the one most responsible for wanting to boycott the debates. She pointed to his “hard-right agenda” and “top-down autocratic style.” But she insists she wants to see “Canadian politics practiced more respectfully.”
So, Ms. May is speaking out of both sides of her mouth, She wants a more respectful discourse, yet she paints her opponents, primarily the PM, in very negative terms. And she demonstrates a certain elasticity with the truth.
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network
http://buckdogpolitics.blogspot.com/2008/09/gre...
It appears to me she is saying (after repeated listening):
"Politicians are afraid to mention the word tax and "THEY" think Canadians are stupid, and cannot, and I fundamentally agree with that assessment"
To my ears she is in fact agreeing with the assessment that "Politicians are afraid to mention the word tax and "THEY" think Canadians are stupid.
The tape isn't edited, but cut short, preventing us from determining proper context.
That said, the Watermelons and Ms. May have made asses of themselves for threatening to sue.
Normally it's done in a by-election when a new party leader is elected and does not hold a seat in the house. Kind of odd May never mentions Liberal's ran a candidate against her in the London by-election. Wanna explain why there was no leaders courtesy there Saskboy?