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An excerpt from Frum's column:




JUN. 1, 2004: SURPRISES
Something Exciting in Canada

… No, really! Two polls taken over the weekend suggest that the new united Conservative party has caught up with the governing Liberals in a statistical tie: 37% for the Liberals, 34% for the Conservatives.

It should be said that the poll results owe as much to the defection of former Liberal supporters to the third and fourth parties (the socialist New Democratic Party and the Quebec nationalist Bloc Quebecois) as to any surge in Conservative voting intentions. The once-moribund NDP stands at 17% in the polls; the Bloc looks likely to sweep 50 or more of Quebec’s 75 ridings.

Even with these ominous numbers, an election today would likely still produce a Liberal government. The Liberals would probably win 135 or so seats, the NDP 20 or more – enough to form a Liberal-Left coalition of a kind Canada by which Canada has often been (mis)governed in the past.

However, the election will not be held today. The trend is away from the Liberals and toward the Conservatives. Early success seems to have turned the head of the NDP’s camera-loving leader, Jack Layton: He is not governing his tongue and is saying things that offend large blocs of voters. (Most recently he suggested that Paul Martin’s mid-1990s cutbacks in housing subsidies caused the deaths of homeless people. Canadian voters dislike that kind of personal attack.) Meanwhile, Conservative leader Stephen Harper has gone about his business steadily and consistently, offering Canadians real but unradical change. Another week like the last, and the polls could be showing a Conservative minority. A third week like it, and … well let’s not count any chickens before they are hatched.

Hello Jolly

I notice you are from Louisiana. How come you are so familiar with the political scene in Canada. I'm in Québec myself and am at a loss as to who to vote for. The liberals cannot be trusted, the "new conservatives" are really the "old alliance" and lean too much to the right for my taste, and the NDP doesn't have enough candidates in Québec. I do not like to vote against a party, I'd rather vote FOR a party. But in this case I guess I'll have to vote for the Marijuana party. LOL

Quebec and Louisiana?

Two peoples separated by a common language, perhaps?

As an Albertan it's very easy. Vote for the party which will best transfer the political power to the Provinces- The Conservatives. If I lived in Quebec I would vote for the Bloc Quebecois. It has nothing to do with being either right or left but everything to do self management of resources and independence of action.

I'd vote for Conservatives, though I'm not at the legal age.

They're gonna increase spending for the military over 4 years 1.4 billion for the first three, then 1.6 billion in the last

With this kind of money our navy won't consist of old worn out canoes with pistols as weapons

Yeah, they'll get some brand new canoes!

Thank you Mr. McGuinty for setting the wheels in motion.

With an extra layer of birch bark as armour plating. Maybe even a York boat or two to float as battle cruisers.

Actually the wheels had been set in motion long before McGuinty came on the scene.

True Renauda, but you can't deny that McGuinty's stunt helped loosen some lug nuts on the Liberal train.

Buy Mohawk Canoes. THEY ARE THE BEST. Built in Longwood FL.

(Disclaimer: I have an interest in their success.)

They have to be war canoes.

Along with Campbell in BC- although I predict that BC might just dump its Liberal incumbents by voting NDP to throw everyone off balance.

Don't be surprised if you see Alberta vote 100% Conservative this time. That means the Deputy PM, Anne McClellan and that long standing dweeb, David Kilgour, will be out once and for all.

THIS kind of talk makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. But, we will make war canoes for you if you like.

Makes perfect sense. And we don't need canoes from Florida- we prefer to to buy 'em from the Pacific Northwest and Alaska in keeping with our obligations under NAFTA.



GO FLAMES GO!

Renauda,

And it's the BOLTS. They teach your girlie boys Flames how to play hockey and how to be men in three 20 minute periods.

And if your girlie boy Flames want to know more about periods--there may be still one or two women left in Canada that can teach them about that subject.

Face it Tom, you're a wus. I know that, you know that and everyone else here knows it. You're a wus.

GO FLAMES GO!

Well yea, OK, I KNOW I'm a a wus. But the Bolts are still going to kick your FLAMEing a** holes right back to Lord Stanley.

Time to drink a Margherita or two out of that cup. We'll salt up the rim...might be fun.

I reckon you've had one too many out that cup for a while. Time for it to come home so we can all have a shot or two of Screech and a Brador from its sterling font.

Them Bolts fell into a burnin' ring o'fire,
Went down down down till the Flames got higher,
ring o'fire, ring o'fire...

GO Flames GO!

Seems it's about time we make "Lord Stanley" a naturalized US citizen since he's been living down here so much. How 'bout the "MR. Stanley Cup?"

Nope- hockey is still our game no matter how much money you want to throw at it. You can pretend though, in the men time a green card is all he gets.

GO FLAMES GO!!