While economic Armageddon (according to the boy king George) plays out in the US, Canada's opposition leaders took the opportunity to bash Steve on Thursday on his economic record. Stephane Dion held nothing back when he called Harper an "economic incompetent" and staked out the Liberals' claim to the mushy middle:“We are not the left-wing party. We are not the right-wing party. . . We are the party of the large centre,” Dion said.
And here's our illustrious prime minister trying to look prime-ministerial:
"All the fundamentals of the Canadian economy are good. It's not the time to do anything new, wild or stupid," Mr. Harper said in Victoria.
"I think we will be fine - not great - but we will be fine as long as we don't do stupid things," Mr. Harper added.
Not only has he downgraded the status of our economy from "strong" and "solid" to "good", he's also downgraded his rhetoric to 5th grade level. (No offence to 5th graders). Define "stupid", Mr prime minister.
Is there something in the air? Defeatist Liberals should ‘shut up,' Ignatieff says. And we thought all of the adolescent behaviour had been confined to Question Period. What's next? A food fight?
In other news, Layton, once again siding with the Cons, stated that if he won (not gonna happen) he'd "make sure a federal carbon tax never sees the light of day" while he and Steve, in separate announcements on the same day offered different consumer protection strategies.
Locally, here in Calgary, yet another Con had Right-wing Foot in Mouth disease:
In an interview, Conservative incumbent Lee Richardson suggested immigrants are to blame for much of the crime in Canada.
"Particularly in big cities, we've got people that have grown up in a different culture... and don't have the same respect for authority or people's person or property," Mr. Richardson told Fast Forward Weekly.
"Talk to the police. Look at who's committing these crimes," added Mr. Richardson.
Mr. Richardson later said he regretted the comments and that he misspoke.
Hey Richardson, if I call you a xenophobic bastard, can I just say I "misspoke" later too?
And I see the NDP is still on a roll as well:
Also on Thursday, the Liberals demanded that Layton fire his candidate in the riding of Durham, near Toronto, for violent and misogynist remarks on the Internet.
In Facebook postings denouncing U.S. war deserters, Andrew McKeever used an obscenity to refer to a female poster, and threatened to beat up a male one.
Mr. McKeever released a statement saying he is "deeply sorry for having offended anyone."
Mr. Layton told reporters the candidate has apologized and that's enough.
Which cave did these candidates crawl out from under? Mon dieu.
Oh, we're not done yet. And this one is ironic considering the controversy Liberal blogger and Liblogs owner Jason Cherniak recently created about an alleged NDP candidate and 9/11 conspiracy theories. Who needs to "chillax" now, Jason?
Conservatives called for Winnipeg-area Liberal candidate Lesley Hughes, a former CBC broadcaster, to resign over an article she wrote shortly after 9/11, saying Israeli businesses in the Twin Towers may have had warning about the attack because they vacated the building a week before the terrorist strike.
"Canadians rightfully relegate 9/11 conspiracy theorists to the extreme ideological fringes of our society," said Conservative candidate Rochelle Wilner.
However, Ms. Hughes issued a statement Thursday night, saying she is "deeply distressed" by any suggestion she's anti-Semitic.
"I find any interpretation of my journalism as anti-Semitic personally offensive and I heartily apologize for that perception," she said.
Are we having fun yet?
Meanwhile, Elizabeth May's train had a run-in with a moose. The moose lost and, as far as I know, May didn't field dress it. And perhaps grabbing onto the sudden death metaphor as a result of that encounter, she issued a dire warning for Canadians:
But before her train from Vancouver pulled into Toronto last night, she called for a form of strategic voting, which she feared might get her in a moose-size mess of trouble with her own party.
May urged Canadians to do all they can to throw Prime Minister Stephen Harper out of office, including strongly suggesting they shouldn't vote Green if another candidate has a better chance at defeating a Conservative.
"We are too close to the edge of a global apocalypse," May said in an interview. "We have got to grab the opportunities we have. And, clearly, the contribution Canadians can make to a global solution is to get rid of Stephen Harper."
All I know is that it's time to stockpile cheesecake. The rest of you are on your own.
"Young flesh", "fresh meat" - whatever the comment was, Gilles isn't taking it back. That's 2 campaign days wasted on those remarks.
The level of our leaders' political discourse is quite impressive, n'est-ce pas? This is like political limbo: how low can they go?
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