Ag minister?

[cowman]

Minority or majority? Who do you think might make a good Ag minister? How about a minister for the Canadian Wheat Board?
I would like to see Solberg for minister of the wheat board as he has been a fairly vocal critic of the single desk! Not so sure about an agricultural minister?
I think it is important for Harper to appoint ministers from all across Canada even though he has a whole lot of good men in the west!
My own MP, Bob Mills, has been environment critic for several years but the speculation is he probably won't make it into cabinet due to the need to appease the regions.

[chaffmeister]

Considering the fact that Alberta is considered to be mainly a beef producing province I would doubt that the Ag Minister would come from here. I think Solberg may end up Minister of Finance, and perhaps Rona Ambrose may be Minister of something.
Don't forget that if Harper forms government and wins a lot of seats from the Liberals in Quebec and Ont. he will have to choose a significant number of his cabinet from there.
And of course Peter MacKay will figure prominently in cabinet even if he did tell Alexa to stick to her knitting yesterday !!!!

[SW1-32-5-4]

Hey cowman try this, agminister Ms. Finlay, wheatboard minister David Anderson with or without a majority.

[cowman]

Really like the idea of Anderson for CWB minister, have to admit I'm fairly ignorant of Ms. Finley?
I do assume there might be some good candidates in Ontario for Ag minister as well as SASK.?
Hopefully whoever gets the job will have a strong committment to doing the right thing for the farmers in ALL of Canada?

[cowman]

There have been numerous ag ministers from Ontario....I would really like to see one from the prairies. I am wondering what Harper will do for Myron, he has been there since day one but sure isn't cabinet material. Sorenson could get a pretty good post of some kind.

I am sure that at least one Calgary MP will go into cabinet. Laurie Hawn may get a pat on the head if he knocks off Annie.

I am heading up to spend election evening with my MP and his team, did that in 2004, and am certain that this time there will be a bit more levity in the room !!!

[farmers_son]

I think the next Minister Responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board could very well be the present minister, Reg Alcock who is also President of the Treasury.

Alcock handily won his seat in Winnipeg South in 2004 gathering 51% of the vote. Now I know what the polls are saying but there is no question in my mind that the election is closer than we are lead to believe by watching TV. When people enter the ballot box on January 23 and appreciate the gravity of this election many voters who told the pollsters they are voting Conservative will vote for anything but.

The CWB is a perfect example. My father in law phoned me up to make sure I was voting Conservative. I told him that if the Conservatives got in the CWB was gone. He is voting Liberal now. At least in rural Alberta and Saskatchewan the Conservative popular vote should be expected to decrease now that their real agenda, for instance getting rid of the CWB, is becoming better known.

[farmers_son]

farmers_son I have a feeling you are going to be in for a disappointing evening on Monday but I may be wrong !

[farmers_son]

I am sure it is going to be a very interesting evening.

I was just looking at the latest poll numbers. The Conservatives are down in popular vote but still lead the Liberals 37% to 27%. Assuming these numbers are accurate and reflect Jan. 23 election results neither party would have the necessary seats to form a majority. It is interesting to consider the popular vote in the 2004 election was Liberals 36.7% and Conservatives 29.6% so right now the parties are reversed. It needs to be noted that the Conservatives have lost almost 7% of their popular vote in the last five days as the Conservatives were more open concerning their true agenda for Canada.

Assuming a minority government the balance of power will go to the opposition parties. The Bloc is shown with 11% popular vote in the latest Strategic Council polling results as compared to 12.4% in the last federal election. The NDP is credited with 18% of the vote in the polls while they had 15.7% in the 2004 election.

When people consider some of the Conservative platform such as giving Quebec international representation in UNESCO, getting rid of the CWB, joining U.S. missile defense, and womens issues like abortion it is not unreasonable to expect voters to switch away from Conservatives as the reality of a Conservative government begins to outweigh public angst over scandals. Also we need to bear in mind that before the last election the pollsters had the Conservatives much higher than was shown in the election results. Network TV is not above trying to hype an election just to boost their ratings. .

However the election goes, this is the most interesting election I ever recall. The voters have a choice for two very different Canadas and it is up to them which one they pick. As for a feeling about who might win the election, it is hard to tell in Alberta. The real election is being fought in Ontario.

[farmers_son]

I need someone to explain to me what the problem is with giving Quebec special international status at UNESCO ? If giving Quebec some international status keeps the country together and means a few million less in bribing them to stay in confederation so be it. I am not sure that the Conservatives popularity has dropped that much, if you read the Edmonton Journal today indicates a 12% lead in the polls.
I really hope that all Canadians who want the best for Canada will allow the new government to have at least a chance to govern. We do not need to be at the polls again in 18 months, the millions of dollars spent on elections could be better spent on health care, infrastructure etc.

The entire campaign has been a comedy of errors as far as I can see. Between Martin yelping at the top of his lungs about what a great Canadian he is and Layton carrying on private health care when he himself has availed himself of treatment in a private clinic, and Peter MacKay needing DUCT TAPE yesterday the entire campaign has been disgusting.

Even the Bloc has very nasty ads running about Harper, saying that the country cannot allow CALGARY to run Canada !!!

The lowest point in the campaign as far as I am concerned was Buzz Hargrove saying that Albertans are different, or whatever he said.
I guess we are dufferent in that we cannot be bought with corruption and likely are more independent than most.


At any rate, I am calling for a Conservative win, with very close to a majority.......I am sure that you will make me eat crow Farmers_Son if I am wrong !!!

[silverback]

What is it with you liberals and abortion f_s? Ask your leader what his policy thoughts on abortion would be! Oh wait somebody did today, what did he say? "Not much different than Stephen Harpers plan".

So are you saying that liberals are going to take away abortion rights? I didn't think so.

And neither will the Conservatives.

The Ultra Secret Hidden Agenda is throwing your masters in jail. Start your shredders!

[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.