Ag minister?

[farmers_son]

Emerald1. Hopefully crow is not on the menu for anyone, at least us voters. The people will choose and we will go from there.

Conservative majority? Maybe, maybe not. Harper has run an excellent campaign. I am hearing almost nothing from the Liberals in this last week which I think may be an excellent strategy too. At this point the election is Harpers to loose and as the Conservatives gained confidence they became more open about their real intentions for Canada. It works better if Canadians hear the Conservative plans for the Americanization of Canada from the Conservatives rather than the Liberals.

If the Conservatives form the next government it will be a very different Canada. I view Quebec as having special international status as the beginning of sovereignty association. I think most Canadians would have a problem with that.

Regarding a majority. I am not sure that any party can gain a majority in Canada anymore. With four parties capable of winning seats in the House the vote is going to be split. People tend not to like to be voting every 18 months. I somewhat expected a voter backlash against the Conservatives and NDP for forcing a January election although I have not seen any indication of that.

[FarmRanger]

I am wondering why there isn't more backlash against the years of Liberal mismanagement. They do reward their own though, $250 for criminals for heating rebates.
http://torontosun.com/Money/2006/01/22/1405858-sun.html

[FarmRanger]

Also see:
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/003419.html

[FarmRanger]

I watched a panel of journalists and pollsters on CPAC. The Toronto Star is the only major newspaper that is endorsing the Liberals and their analyst indicated that the Liberals are getting a very negative response as they do door to door even in Toronto, and are having a very difficult time attracting enough volunteers to complete the campaign. His feeling is that after tomorrow the party will be almost wiped out in Quebec.

Layton's contimual bid to the working people is getting a bit much, as he casually mentioned this morning that he had never seen a room so full of ORANGE since his last vacation in Florida !! Wonder how many of his WORKING PEOPLE have the luxury of annual vacations to Florida !!

I think that BC will go NDP and the Conservatives will keep what seats they have.

Farmers_son you are correct in saying that if the Conservatives are elected we will have a different Canada, one can only hope so !!

[cakadu]

Change is a good thing, but not all change is good. I believe farmers_son is correct when he says that it does make a difference come voting day versus answering a telephone poll. Part of the polling numbers depend on how the questions are asked and some responses are given based on what is most immediate in the persons's mind ie. did they just read about something in paper, hear it on the news etc.

When it comes to choosing ministers, Harper has a fairly inexperienced caucus to choose from, some of whom have made their own local gaffs in the past few days. Both emrald and FarmRanger have pointed out respectively that there will have to be some representation from the east to be sure and you have to dance with whomever brought you to the dance. If there is more support in places like Ontario and Quebec Harper will have to answer to that as well.

At least if Harper does form a minority government - I believe a majority isn't possible - he will be tackling the federalist issue from outside of Quebec, which hasn't been possible with leaders going all the way back to Mulroney as all of them have been from Quebec. That is something that may have some merit to it.

It won't be over until the last vote is counted tomorrow night and results tabulated. That is what makes this one of the more exciting elections in quite some time - nobody can really say what the outcome is really going to be.

[cakadu]

The one thing that has bothered me the most during this campaign is the references to Alberta.

Duceppe refered to Harper as somebody from Calgary and then there was the Buzz Hargove comments. I am damn tired of eastern Canada thinking that Alberta cannot produce thinking, honest politicians capable of being leaders.
Out here in the west we seem to be more concerned about integrity than we do same sex marriage, and we know that gun control will never stop crime. We have made been independent for good reason out here, the east didn't know Alberta existed until Leduc #1 blew in....before that we could have fallen off the face of the earth and nobody in the east would have noticed.
It is time that we did have a Prime Minister from Alberta, and one that will choose a cabinet made up of representation from all regions of the country, with a focus on accountability and cleaning up the aftermath of corruption.

[cropduster]

Off topic but here goes anyways.....over 70% of Iraqis voted.Am wondering how Canada will compare???

[cakadu]

Playing devil's advocate for a moment - didn't Harper come to Alberta to get a seat in the House? Seems to me he was from Ontario originally, so technically Alberta will not be producing a leader, rather one that had to come here in order to get into the House. It might be a blurring of the lines, but I think it would be hard for him to truly understand what some of the West has felt for a very long time.

Your point isn't so off topic cropduster as numbers could very well make a big difference tomorrow. About 60% voted last time - is there enough interest to get the number higher this time? We'll know after tomorrow.

I'm actually quite surprised by the number of people that are saying they aren't going to vote and/or aren't interested in federal politics - only the local stuff. The other thing that doesn't come as a huge surprise is the number of people that say they don't know who they'll vote for until they actually get into the voting box. Talk about an informed vote at that stage. I would imagine it would be more a matter of what name the person recognizes.

Not getting out to vote is the way we waste a vote, that and spoiling your ballot. If we exercise our right to vote, then it isn't a waste, even in this "blue" province.

[cakadu]

Make no mistake Harper is well aware of western issues. Some of his main advisors are from Alberta, and he certainly has relied on Alberta MP's to carry the ball in this last parliament> ( Jason Kenney, Monty Solberg, Rona Ambrose, Diane Ablonzy etc.) I think he has a good read on issues facing all regions of Canada, his offer to allow Quebec to sit at the table on international cultural issues certainly isn't selling out the country, and may go along way toward getting some conservative seats in Quebec tomorrow.

I hope there is a good turnout all across the country regardless of how they vote.

[farmers_son]

Cakadu: I think you raise an excellent point re voters deciding their vote once in the ballot box. None of the polls list the undecided voter.

The time has come for Canadians to vote for Canada. A Canada with the RCMP, a Canada that stands up to the United States on missile defence, a Canada with a CWB, a Canada that treats all provinces equally and does not give Quebec special international status, a Canada that gives women the right to choice, a Canada that does not say one thing in Quebec and another in the rest of the country, a Canada that is different from the United States, a Canada that is better than the United States. That Canada is not the Conservatives Canada and that has become clear during this election campaign.