Liberal Convention Kicks Off

[cAndId]

No one is running against Iggy, so he will be crowned official leader of the party this weekend. The convention starts today, and goes on until Saturday night.

Just recently, a poll out of Quebec placed the Liberals ahead of the Bloc for the first time since Adscam. The Liberals were at 37%, Bloc 31%, Cons 15%.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090429.wpoll0429/BNStory/politics/home

CPAC will air the convention live, just check their schedule. I am sure Newsworld and CTV newsnet will also air the closing speech live on Saturday night.

 

[MetalSteff]

It's Ignatieff's honeymoon right now..

no one in the general public really knows what he stands for, but people all know he's better than Dion.

Polls right after a leader is elected are usually very different than what really happens when there's an election.

Should be interesting now to see the Conservatives courting the Bloc and NDP in order to maintain power and not go to an election like the liberals want now that they have a leader.

 

[cAndId]

The Party of God, though, is floating on a sea of cash, so until the Liberals pay off their debt and raise more for the next campaign, not much will change in the House.

The Liberals announced during this convention that they are now debt free. I suspect the cash will start flowing to the party now that the public will see unity and strength as the party moves back to centre with a competent leader.

 

[cklover]

Iggy is just another elitist Liberal that can't see beyond Toronto. Everything he says is Torontocentric. He is completely lost and out of touch once he ventures out of hogtown. He is the father of higher taxation for the purpose of taxing us all into poverty in order to keep the money flowing to the Liberals. Iggy doesn't give a rat's ass about anyone except Liberals.

 

[cklover]

And yes I dislike Liberals, intensely.

 

[MetalSteff]

i think Iggy is extremely boring to hear talk. He's a sleeping pill on 2 legs.

Right now, everything's looking great for the liberals, but the general public doesn't really know Iggy at all.

The liberals want the public to not associate them with all the crap of the past in the party (like the sponsorship scandal), yet they still have the old folks from the party coming to conventions and speaking (Chretien for example, yesterday).

 

[MetalSteff]

They did that because they know the Party of God can't invite Mulroney to anything unless it shoves envelopes full of cash into his grasping claws.

what's with your constant shitting on the party of god to DEFEND yours? i'm not even a conservative, nor would i ever vote for them. Is it just YOU against the world in your little red world or can you discuss the good and bad of your party?

 

[rotary]

Iggy is just another elitist Liberal that can't see beyond Toronto. Everything he says is Torontocentric. He is completely lost and out of touch once he ventures out of hogtown. He is the father of higher taxation for the purpose of taxing us all into poverty in order to keep the money flowing to the Liberals. Iggy doesn't give a rat's ass about anyone except Liberals.

Elitist liberal? I'm impressed we have someone intelligent at the helm. He's new to the party so you couldn't ask for someone more distanced from corruption of the past. And where are you pulling this "father of higher taxation" BS? Do you get your news updates from conservative.ca? Ignatieff said any honest politician couldn't exclude a tax hike as an option in the future to cut the massive deficit. It comes as no surprise that the Tories would childly attack him for being honest to Canadians about the country's financial future and the options politicians have to make sure we avoid structural deficits by cutting spending or reversing some of the tax cuts.

 

[cklover]

.... the Party of God .....

I'm not sure how you managed to come up with that title. I've never seen the Conservatives as a particularly religious party. Like all political parties there are members that have strong religious views, but none of the parties in Canada have pushed religion onto the citizens.

 

[MetalSteff]

I'm not sure how you managed to come up with that title. I've never seen the Conservatives as a particularly religious party. Like all political parties there are members that have strong religious views, but none of the parties in Canada have pushed religion onto the citizens.

no, but the Conservatives have in the past catered to the strong religious lobbies, for example in the same sex marriage debate. They know they are getting that vote in the population. Conservatism and strong religious views usually go together. You can be a conservative and not be religious, of course... but most of the strong religious folks are conservatives.. makes sense because of the social positions of the party (for example their past stance on abortion and their stance on SSM).

 

[rotary]

Not to mention our conservative Minister of International Trade believes the Earth is 6000 years old and humans roamed around with dinosaurs. Yes, seriously.

 

[DesperateHouseHusband]

I'm not sure how you managed to come up with that title. I've never seen the Conservatives as a particularly religious party. Like all political parties there are members that have strong religious views, but none of the parties in Canada have pushed religion onto the citizens.

If not, it's only because they can't get away with it. Make no mistake... if the Canadian electorate wasn't so strongly multicultural and religously pluralistic, as well as being, if not secular, they at least walk the walk and not just talk the talk when it comes to the separation of church and state, many in the Conservative hierarchy would love to do just what you said that "none" of the parties have done (which probably implies they never ever would if they could). They just know they wouldn't have a chance in hell of getting even a minority government, let alone a majority government. This is why even though the Tories are right now perilously close to a majority, that they haven't even bothered to repeal equal marriage rights -- because they want to boost their chances of possibly being elected to a majority -- although I do not think the Canadian electorate will be stupid enough to let that happen -- they were just pushing the Liberals to dump Dion and get a halfway competent leader, which Iggy is.

 

[placez]

where is ron paul

 

[MetalSteff]

It's not my party. No party is my party. The Party of God, however, is the worst of a bad lot, including the PQ and the Bloc.

Fine. That being said, you responded to a message i wrote by bashing the conservatives.. when i wasn't even talking about them. We were talking about the liberals.. who are NO angels themselves.

Funny that someone would try to defend the LIBERALS by bashing the conservatives over envelopes full of cash. Ironic actually.

 

[MetalSteff]

well, not that the last few months haven't been interesting, but having the liberals in power would REALLY make things interesting once again.

As a Québec independantist, it's almost a wish to see them back in power. Independance has never done as well as when the liberals are in power

 

[hotatlboi]

Not to mention our conservative Minister of International Trade believes the Earth is 6000 years old and humans roamed around with dinosaurs. Yes, seriously.

Oh god, we have a serious surplus of those folks in the US. One almost became our vice president. :shudder:

 

[MetalSteff]

So sovereigntists, having hit fifth gear during the last of the Tory outrages, equate their sixth-gear cruising to the Natural Governing Party being in power, when in reality it's the Tories at fault, this time the Tories having morphed into the Party of God thanks to Alberta Reform's hijacking of it and coup.

let's remember the meech lake debacle, and what lead to 1980 referendum, and then let's look at the 90's with the 95 referendum (almost 50-50 in the results) and then adscam.

The biggest enemies for independantists are usually Québecers who go to Ottawa to serve the other side and crap on Québec (Chretien and Dion for example).

The liberals have a WAY longer history of seperation debates and fights than the conservatives. From Trudeau, Chretien and Dion, to all their minions

The "seperation" debate has been pretty absent these past few years, and the BQ and PQ are kinda low in support. You can bet that if the Liberals gain power again, that'll change.

 

[cAndId]

The conservatives of the USA kept saying 'Who is Barack Obama?' trying to create a void in Barack's persona that moderates and conservatives would fill with fear. That strategy did not work for McCain, and it sure as hell wont work for Harper. Iggy has written many books, and has an extensive record and list of accomplishments and other additions to his resume. You cannot put the label of incompetence on this guy.

Ignatieff is putting himself out there, and the more Canadians get to know him, I am confident that his popularity will spread.

As for the taxes issue, he has stated that he would not raise taxes until the economy has recovered. He would be incompetent and unwise not to raise taxes afterwards. I do not want my country to be bogged down in debt any further. We were on pace to eliminate our national debt in just another decade or so... that was until the conservatives took over and eliminated the surpluses even before the recession. That forced us to have to mount a huge debt during the recession.

The Canada I want to see, is the Canada those people talk about in that video... and a Canada that is debt free. Michael is the creative, responsible, intelligent, competent, and inspirational man we need in the PMO.

 

[khushibagh]

Has Ignatieff ever apologized for his full throated support for the US attack on Iraq? It is a sad day for Canada when a man who betrayed Canada's humanist aspirations so thoroughly can seriously be considered for PM as the candidate of Pierre Trudeau's party. I hope that at least the NDP has some moral backbone left. I don't know what the alternatives are but he seems woefully lacking in judgment despite his overweening arrogance. Even the US had the good sense to reject Hillary Clinton when she tried to reinvent herself after the fact.

 

[khushibagh]

At best and at a stretch, Ignatieff is a red-Tory White House poodle. Far more likely he's the poodle that cornered the carpetbag market.

LOL. Now if we can just find a way to return David "Axis of Evil" Frum to you guys.