Canadian Election Watch - Day 20

This new poll is definitely the big news of the day (if you're into polls):

OTTAWA - Support for the federal Liberal party is crumbling, so much so that the New Democratic Party appears to have a realistic chance of forming the official Opposition, according to a new poll commissioned for Canwest News Service and Global National.
[...]
Thirty-nine per cent of the respondents said they would vote Conservative, about the same number as a similar poll a week ago. Just 23 per cent of respondents said they would vote Liberal, a drop of four percentage points in a week while 18 per cent would pick the NDP, a gain for that party of three percentage points.

Support for the Green party also climbed in the week, by two percentage points up to 11 per cent.

In the 2006 federal election, the Conservatives received 36 per cent of the popular vote compared to 30 per cent for the Liberals, 17 per cent for the NDP and five per cent for the Greens.

IV caffeine for the Liberal Party - stat!

I'm still not seeing a majority for the Cons and, as one commentator I heard on Friday said, when the battle is for the (mushy) middle, both the Liberals and Cons look very much the same. The inability of the Liberal party to clearly articulate its Green Shift plan which has been messaged by the Cons in 2 words, "tax increases", has created major problems for the Liberals as far as I'm concerned. And yes, there is the lack of charisma issue for Stephane Dion but it's not like Harper is Mr Personality unless you're into the nasty bullying type. Exhibit A: Harper accuses Liberals of rooting for recession.

Harper, preaching from Conservative bedrock in the Calgary heart of Alberta's oil patch, wrapped up a bruising week of campaigning Friday with a wrecking-ball performance.

"The other parties have clearly written off Alberta and don't mind using Alberta as a whipping boy from time to time, which I think is very unfortunate for our country," Harper opined to a receptive audience at the Calgary Winter Club.

Harper did not provide any examples.

Having stoked the fires of regional alienation, Harper went further, accusing Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion of "some of the most irresponsible behaviour of a Canadian political leader I've ever seen."

Harper's complaint? Dion's pointed criticism of Conservative economic policy and its impact on a flagging Canadian economy.

"Some Canadians think that in times of economic difficulties, you need to elect a right-wing government – right-wing governments are supposed to be good economic managers in their minds. But it's not true," Dion said Friday in Toronto.

"Each time you have Conservative governments, the economy is not going well. In fact, Tory times are tough times."

Harper, in turn, accused Dion of "trying to drive down confidence in the Canadian economy without foundation – and quite frankly sitting on the sidelines virtually cheering for there to be a recession."

And, as that article reminds readers:

Yet it was the Conservatives who spent much of the last year trash-talking Ontario and its investment climate.

Harper's finance minister Jim Flaherty famously said Ontario was the "last place" a tax-conscious business would invest, while Tory House leader Peter Van Loan repeatedly called Ontario's premier the ``small man of Confederation."

The glaring contradiction was not lost on Dion.

"Shame on him," the clearly inflamed Liberal leader said late Friday in Belmont, Ont.

"Do you want more of this? Do you think it's the way, in a democracy, to debate and to try to find the best solutions for our country?"

Meanwhile, back at the Harper ranch:

OTTAWA -- The Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, indicated Friday that the Canadian economy was at risk unless voters gave the Conservative Party a "strong mandate" to govern on Oct. 14.

Emotional blackmail from Bush of the North. Who's driving down confidence again, Steve?

Here's the cover of the Calgary Sun that Calgarians woke up to on Friday:


Harper is standing by his man, Lee Richardson, stating that his blaming immigrants for crime just "isn't an issue among voters". And it probably isn't for xenophobic right-wingers who agree with that judgment but it certainly is for the rest of us.

On the Liberal front, Dion has turfed candidate Lesley Hughes. Ms Hughes learned about her forced resignation from a CBC News crew. Bad form, Mr Dion.

Related:
Provincial, territorial ministers bash culture cuts
The politics of resentment
Anybody-but-Harper movement hopes to catch fire
Transcript: Elizabeth May meets with Star editorial board
Layton pitches prescription drug program
 

Canadian Election Watch - Day 19

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?


 

Canadian Election Watch - Day 18

Steve on Tuesday:

“I think when ordinary working people come home, turn on the TV and see a gala of a bunch of people, you know, at a rich gala all subsidized by taxpayers claiming their subsidies aren't high enough when they know those subsidies have actually gone up, I'm not sure that's something that resonates with ordinary people,” he said during a campaign stop in Saskatoon.

I guess that means he's opting out of G8 meetings from now on.



Oh. That quote was about Canadian arts and culture?

Mr. Harper's barbed shot at whining elites attending glitzy affairs was curious, given that his wife Laureen is the honorary chair of the National Arts Centre's gala next month in Ottawa.

That's what they call (in truly elitist terms) "schadenfreude".

And, while Steve's been busy mimicking John McCain and Dubya this week - telling us that the fundamentals of our economy are strong - Merrill Lynch issued this warning today: "Canada could face housing woes".

In a report issued Wednesday, Merrill Lynch Canada economists said many Canadian households are more financially overextended than their counterparts in the United States or Britain.

They said it's only a matter of time before the “tipping point” is reached and the housing and credit markets crack in Canada.

Locally, the hot and extremely expensive housing market in Calgary has slowed down with a glut of newly-built condos now sitting empty because there aren't any buyers. On top of that, the G&M also reports that "average pay increases among Canadian workers are set to cool next year" thanks to the current economic mess. Not to worry though. Steve has it all under control. (cough cough hack hack)

Maybe he can get those 14-year olds that he wants to imprison for life ("fresh meat" as Gilles calls them) to start working on building some new nuclear plants (although Elizabeth May might have something to say about that). A little child labour goes a long way towards "rehabilitation". Victorian England wasn't all that bad for kids, was it? Oliver Twist was just an immature little whiner. What's not to love about gruel?



In other news (of the nudie type), I see NDP candidate Julian 'I stripped in front of teenagers 12 years ago so I could go skinny dipping' West has resigned but his name is still on the ballot. How many more candidates will The House That Jack Built lose? Stay tuned. (They're quite the interesting bunch.)

Why are we having this election again?
 

Canadian Election Watch - Day 16

Are we there yet?

I received my handy dandy voter information card in the mail today. If you have questions about voter registration or where to vote, check out the Elections Canada site.

On with the show...

So, Crime Fightin' Steve wants to name young offenders and get tougher on them, does he? JAWL takes a look at those moves and lays out the case against that announcement.

Speaking of Steve and crime, he's called in those who always get their man to find out who sent out spoofed e-mails in his name.

One of the messages suggests Mr. Harper's recognition of Kosovo's independence could lead to Quebec sovereignty.

The other begins with the greeting, “Hi The Average Canadian, Stephen Harper wanted to tell you” that he intends to destroy health care, make Canada the 51st U.S. state, is beholden to the Alberta tar sands, and dislikes all things green except for the almighty American dollar.

The notes were sent to an e-mail address that automatically distributes messages to people who have signed onto the PMO listserv mailing list.

The jokesters would not necessarily have needed to hack into government computers to perform their stunt; all they would have required was the listserv's e-mail address.

Whoops.

Macleans' Kady O'Malley has more on that story.

Today's poll smoking: Various favourability ratings of the party leaders.

(I'm kind of bored with this race. Can you tell? Whose idea was it to do daily updates anyway? Oh yeah. Mine.)

Stephane Dion released his party's platform on Monday (titled, "Richer, Fairer, Greener") and explained how he'll balance the budget and, well, just read the article. (I'll try to be more enthusiastic tomorrow, I promise.)

I expect the Tory's platform will be named, "Meaner, Crueler, Talk to the Hand" because that was the subtitle of the last one.

Speaking of meaner, Steve is sticking with the income trust tax. That's sure to win him votes, especially from those seniors he ripped off.

Hey. I just followed a Google link to a post about the income trusts over at the Blogging Scaries - I mean "Tories" - and evidently I've been banned. Funny, I've never even commented there and have never linked to them. I guess this would be one of those pre-emptive attacks that conservatives are infamous for. Nice to know they're scared of me. That makes me happy.

You have been banned from this forum.
Please contact the webmaster or board administrator for more information.

What more information do I need? Wankers.

Anyway...where was I? Oh yes.

This news caught my ear today as well: Layton hints at coalition government

For the first time in this election campaign, Mr. Layton has broached the idea of a political alliance to prevent Mr. Harper from leading again.

Gee Jack, maybe you should have thought of that in 2005 when you seconded Harper's vote to bring down the Liberal government.

Margaret Wente chimes in on Elizabeth May: What's not to like about Ms. May? I heard some blurb today about people showing up to see her Green Train at 3 am. There was something about teddy bears in there too although not everyone is happy to see her.

Lastly, the battle for Quebec is on: Fortier v Duceppe

Time for Dancing With the Stars. (I jest - although my cat Joey is apparently a big fan. Who knew?)
 

Canadian Election Watch - Day 15

To start off tonite's roundup, as reported by the CBC, props to Big City Lib for exposing some shocking opinions from Toronto Center Con candidate Chris Reid's (now disappeared) blog. (Note: the fact that he's gay has nothing to do with the situation so I'm raising my objection to BCL's headline for that post.) BCL has a follow up post here.

In his blog, according to BigCityLib blog, Reid criticized passengers on the bus in Manitoba where Tim McLean, 22, was beheaded in a gruesome killing in July.

Passengers and the driver "stood by and watched another person being butchered, and couldn't muster up any courage or self-sacrifice to intervene," Reid wrote.

"This is where socialism [has] gotten us folks, a castrated effeminate population."

He went on to say that if Canadians were allowed to carry concealed handguns, they could defend themselves.

Yes, more guns will fix everything, won't they? That's just this "castrated effeminate" person's sarcastic opinion.

And now for something completely different, the G&M offers this montage of 11 recent political cartoons.

Lastly, because I've been feeling pretty ill lately (literally - it's not just the reality of the political scene that's gotten to me although that sure doesn't help) I'll just add this list of links about today's action on the campaign trail:

NDP candidate apologizes for skinny-dipping (in front of minors 12 years ago)

Dion to unveil platform and hit the re-set button on sputtering campaign (shorter headline: he's releasing the Liberals' platform on Monday)

Harper misleading Quebeckers, Duceppe says (Harper's misleading everybody - no news there)

Catch Elizabeth May's Green Train coming soon to some tracks near you.

Steve and Stephane both took the day off.

Meanwhile, a new Harris Decima poll has the Cons lead widening. Ipsos shows the same trend. How many people will actually show up to vote is another question altogether.
 

Canadian Election Watch - Day 14

Kelly McParland of the National Post gets the prize for the most hysterical headline of the day: "Somebody barricade the mint: Liberal promises top $80 billion. Yes, you read that right". McParland then identifies the spending promises made by the major parties since this campaign started. The phrase "apples and oranges" comes to mind. Let's hope this person isn't an accountant because the alarm he or she has raised is quite disingenuous especially considering the fact that history has shown that it's the Conservative party, hands down, that has managed to squander surpluses and leave Canadians with deficits repeatedly. What that article also fails to mention is the proposed revenue side of each party's balance sheet. Nevertheless, it does provide a roundup of who's been promising what and for that reason alone, it's useful. Leave the hysteria at the door.

Harper on the plane:

Harper brought his wife Laureen and daughter Rachel to Nunavut for the brief six-hour stopover.

His son Ben was busy at hockey try-outs, he said.

Ben, a good player, doesn't want to tryout out for competitive league. "His choice," says his hockey fan dad, who says he is still writing a history of hockey.

Ben's choice comes as a relief to Laureen, Harper said.

"My wife says 'I don't want to do all that driving around.'"

Harper threw up his hands: "I said 'the police drive you around.' We don't even have a car."

The family sold its van because they never used it. His Mountie bodyguards won't let him drive. "They said if I insisted they'd let me drive on the highway."

What happened to Sensitive Metrosexual Man in a Sweater Vest Steve?

On the north:

Harper hadn't heard Stephane Dion's crack about the Conservative military strategy in the north – the reference that Canada couldn't win in a military set with Russia or the U.S. and "we're too civilized to shoot the Danes."

Harper said it is a reference to the dispute over Hans Island. "I have all these atlases at home and I don't even have one that's big enough to show Hans Island. It's a little dot in the middle of nowhere."

A reporter joked: "So are you ceding Hans Island?"

"Believe me, we have more important disputes than Hans Island."

Miss Teen South Carolina obviously should have included Harper in her list of people who need maps. And how about Teh Google Maps, Steve? Ever heard of them? Oh who cares about a "little dot" anyway? Ottawa's a "little dot" too so I guess he won't mind if someone else takes that over either.

And here's another example of what Steve's logic (or lack thereof) looks like:

He frankly admitted he never wanted Green leader Elizabeth May in the televised debates, after previously suggesting it was a decision of the broadcasters consortium.

He said it's "ridiculous that someone who is running in a coalition with another party would be in the debates. It's a matter of principle. Can Peter MacKay go in the debate?"

Breaking news: apparently MacKay is in a coalition with another party!

Yes, that's our (current) esteemed (by die hard Conservatives) leader. Shades of Bush moments. Now why know why he avoids the press as much as possible.

And here's a concise roundup of the day's events:

The New Democrats moved to the political right Saturday, promising to get tough on criminals, the Liberals promised millions for the arts and the Tories pledged to maintain a strong presence in the Arctic and create a stand-alone economic development agency. The promises come as a new poll suggests voter apathy is running high.

A new Ipsos Reid poll for Canwest News Service and Global News suggests two in 10 Canadians are paying more attention to this election than past votes. The majority, about 65 per cent, say they're giving the election the same amount of attention as others. And 14 per cent say they're paying less attention, the poll found.

Considering the fact that there was absolutely no reason to dissolve parliament and call this election, it's no wonder Canadians aren't interested although this site might generate more participation:

A satirical website has also hit the Internet as a result of the Ritz affair. The site -_www.deathby1000coldcuts.info - invites participants to "fire salami slices from your cold cut cannon over the skies of Parliament to defend the honour of Canada and the sensibilities of your fellow citizens!"

The site was created Thursday by a group of employees at Guru Dynamics, a Toronto-based web design and hosting company.

"Gerry Ritz made his comments and we were outraged," co-creator Roger Grant told Canwest News Service. "We feel that he should've been fired."

"We believe political satire plays an important role in voter involvement. We wanted to draw attention to it and that's why we put it the way we did it so people would look at it."

Have at it. It's like having your very own chicken cannon and who doesn't want one of those?
 

Canadian Election Watch - Day 13

Steve tried to talk about the state of the Canadian banking system on Friday but Gerry Ritz was again the topic du jour.

Here's how not to handle the situation:

Dennis Schroh, whose mother Elizabeth Schroh died on Aug. 24 in Saskatchewan after contracting the strain of listeria linked to the Maple Leaf Foods meat recall, said he was offended when news broke that Gerry Ritz had cracked jokes about the outbreak while he was on a conference call with scientists and political staffers Aug. 30.

While Harper expressed his sympathies for Schroh and other victims' families, he again refused to fire Ritz over the comments.

"Well, look, we would expect that people in that position would be very upset as we all are, and obviously we sympathize greatly with the situation and the loss of their loved ones," Harper said.

"Minister Ritz clearly did not intend to make any such comments publicly and has thoroughly apologized."

Too late, Steve. He was busted. And you seem to think it was okay that he made the comments because, as you're going to great (and ridiculous) pains to explain to people calling for his resignation, it's fine with you that he cracked jokes about dead people and had a death wish for Wayne Easter as long as he did it privately. Do you see where I'm going with this, Steve? Have you read the news today? Listeria toll reaches 18 with death of B.C. woman. One more person for Ritz to insult.

On another front - the actual military front in Afghanistan - Control Freak Steve has effectively muzzled the Defence department spokespuppets. Journalists are not impressed - again. As for what's going on in that war, I'll be writing a post about some new developments on Saturday. Stay tuned.

From the Shenanigans file: Liberal MP Accuses Tory of Unethical use of the Internet because he parked his domain name. That's life in the fast lane. You snooze, you lose.

Are you easily started? If so, you either have PTSD, some other anxiety disorder or you're a conservative. Yes Virginia, we really do have different brains but if you're conservative, you'll probably reject those test results because we liberals are more open to new ideas.

Related to those revelations is this G&M article in Saturday's paper:

“Americans are much more ideological than Canadians. They tenaciously hold on to their ideological orientations and they are much more conservative, much more moral, with more religiosity and so forth.”

In contrast, Canadian voters over the past quarter-century have indicated to academic investigators that most of them can't define right or left or care about the distinction. They increasingly think of themselves as non-partisan and non-ideological. They have the weakest political-party affinity in the Western world.

In sum, they're reminiscent of U.S. philosopher Thomas Nagel's celebrated essay on what it's like to be a bat, in which Prof. Nagel reasoned that only a bat knows what a bat is. Only a Canadian voter knows what a Canadian voter is.

He adds:

There is an educated, engaged elite in the country that is very partisan and sees clear and deep distinctions between the political parties. But to a majority of Canadians, the parties pretty much look alike, with Jack Layton and Stephen Harper as an identical pair of suits.

There's that word: "elite". I'm an "elite", am I? Could have fooled me. I don't even eat arugula. And if that's the state of mind of Canadian voters, we really are screwed.

In the late 1980s, early 1990s, Mr. Graves says, 40 per cent of Canadians self-identified as small-l liberal, 25 per cent identified as small-c conservative and 35 per cent said they were neither. Today, he says, 28 per cent identify as conservative, 24 per cent as liberal and a whopping 48 per cent say they are neither. (A Conservative Party insider last week put the party's core support at 27 per cent.)

The 2000 Canadian National Election Study uses somewhat different numbers but presents a similar – and perhaps even more politically intriguing – picture.

It says 18 per cent of Canadians identify themselves as being on the right, 13 per cent say they're on the left, 39 per cent say they're somewhere in the centre and 29 per cent don't know where they are, putting the non-ideological total at 68 per cent.

Those people obviously need to start using the internets more. If they don't know where they are, maybe Google Maps can help. Or, if they can't figure out how that site works, perhaps a simple multiple choice test would do the trick.

Mini headline roundup:

It's Reefer Madness in the NDP party!

And speaking of smoking:

SMOKE ON THE HARPER

There's uncertainty in the economy. Canada's "mission" in Afghanistan is being called into question as more soldiers die. Homelessness is at epidemic proportions. Addressing global warming and the environment has never been more urgent. There's a childcare shortage, a nursing shortage and our healthcare system is stretched to the brink. So what is the pressing issue Prime Minister Stephen Harper felt the need to address this week head on, balls out and without an ounce of mercy? Candy. Candy-flavoured tobacco products to be precise.
[...]
And who better to dissuade young people from smoking than a perpetually uncomfortable-looking grey-haired man with a slight paunch and a fondness for baby blue sweaters and dress slacks. Maybe he could have a "rap session" with the kids of today about the dangers of smoking and the fun you can have making model airplanes and collecting Brian Mulroney memorabilia. That should do the trick. Just as long as Harper keeps his pudgy little hands off our Big League Chew bubble gum, which is supposed to resemble chewing tobacco, and Popeye Candy Cigarettes, which really are gross, and everything will be cool.

Not only does Elizabeth May get to be in the leaders' debates, she gets to kick off the first one - standing right beside Steve on top of that.

It was a pretty boring day for Gilles. The battle for Quebec continues.

My elitist chariot awaits...
 

Canadian Election Watch - Day 12

Let me start with this headline: Infant with listeriosis dies in Manitoba

Stephen Harper not only refused calls for agriculture minister Gerry Ritz to resign on Thursday, following the leak of his gallows humour jokes about the listeriosis crisis, the prime minister also chose to defend Ritz saying he made the remarks during a "private conversation" and that most people make insensitive comments during such circumstances. How Steve can characterize a conference call with professionals form various fields as a "private conversation" is beyond me and to stick up for a man who so crudely insulted the victims, some of whose family members are now publicly expressing anger about the revelations, is just beyond the pale.

As if that mini-scandal wasn't enough to rightly embarrass the Cons, it was also revealed on Thursday that a Tory aide made a racist remark about aboriginals' drinking. Every election season another racist Tory is outed.

CNEWS has a running list of apologies made since this campaign began - all from the Conservatives. The CBC goes a step further with a trip down memory lane showing some golden oldie Tory gaffes. Who can forget this one? "Dalton McGuinty. He’s an evil reptilian kitten eater from another planet. (Sorry.)"

The NDP had its own embarrassing incident on Thursday when it turfed a Vancouver candidate who used founded a store that sold some seeds "in the grey area of legalities", including cocoa.

Campaigning in Ontario, NDP Leader Jack Layton couldn't explain why the party didn't vet the candidate more thoroughly.
[...]
Larsen was a candidate for the federal Marijuana party in 2000 and a founding member of the B.C. Marijuana party. He opened the Vancouver Seed Bank in May 2006.

He's also a founding editor of Cannabis Culture Magazine and the author of the Pot Puzzle Fun Book and the novel Hairy Pothead and the Marijuana Stone.

A d'oh in the headlights moment.

Here's a roundup of today's party promises:

- Dion plans to spend $10 billion over the next 10 years on infrastructure.

- You'd be hard-pressed to find what Steve was out there promising in this story as he was in Quebec on Thursday. The only mention of his party's platform appears in a caption under a photo of Steve on the left:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he would cut the tax that about 40,000 Canadian senior citizens pay on payments they receive from U.S. social security.

He also promised a small tax cut for seniors - a huge insult considering how the income trust scandal has impacted so many of them.

He's also trying to court les Quebcois with a promise for $25 million in funding for French-language teevee. How about canceling that $44.8 million funding cut to the arts, Steve, or do you think teevee is art enough?

- Elizabeth May was out promoting the Green Party agenda which was released on Wednesday and she got a bit of good news from a new poll showing a slight gain for the Greens.

- Meanwhile, Gilles Duceppe wants to set up an independent Employment Insurance commission.

- Jack Layton announced his plan spend $1 billion on a new home care program.

That's it for now since crackers and Gravol™ are currently on the menu for me.

Related:

Afghan war costs $22B, so far: study
 

Heckuva job, Ritzie

Never underestimate the potential for Conservatives to be cruel.

As CBC reports, Agriculture minister Gerry Ritz couldn't stop himself from cracking extremely tasteless jokes on a conference call about the emerging listeriosis crisis in August. Yet another compassionate Conservative at work:

Sources who took notes during the call said Ritz fretted about the political dangers of the crisis, before quipping: "This is like a death by a thousand cuts. Or should I say cold cuts."

The outbreak has been linked to deli meats processed at a Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto.

When told about a new death in Prince Edward Island, Ritz said: "Please tell me it's [Liberal MP] Wayne Easter."

Easter is the Liberal critic shadowing Ritz's agriculture department.

About 30 people participated in the Sunday morning conference call that began after 10 a.m. ET. Participants included scientists, senior bureaucrats and political staff.

After this episode was revealed he was forced to apologize, saying it was "a highly stressful time". The next cliché we should be hearing from the Conservative party is that Ritz has decided to permanently "spend more time with his family".

Wayne Easter, not impressed by Ritz's apology, has (again) called for Ritz to resign:

“I don't care what he said about me, but 17 people have died. That is no joking matter,” said Mr. Easter.

Meanwhile, the Maple Leaf plant involved reopened today. I imagine the lawsuits filed against the company will take years to sort out.

As of yesterday, 47 people in seven provinces have become ill with listeriosis linked to tainted Maple Leaf meat, including 17 who have died.

On Tuesday, the Canadian Medical Association called for a public inquiry:

Canada's top medical journal is calling for a full-scale public inquiry into the listeriosis outbreak, saying the independent investigation promised by Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be "inferior to every epidemic inquiry in recent Canadian history."

The Canadian Medical Association Journal says that in August, Canada experienced the worst epidemic of listeriosis in the world.
[...]
"The fact is, this outbreak was 100-per-cent avoidable and unnecessary," says editorial board member Amir Attaran, Canada Research Chair in Law, Population Health and Global Development Policy at the University of Ottawa.

"If your food supply is safe and free of listeria, no one is going to get listeriosis out of eating the food. It's as simple as that."

The journal says the federal government's lax standards on listeria and a decision to transfer inspection duties for ready-to-eat meats from government inspectors to the meat industry "helped bring about this epidemic.

"Yet surprisingly, government has taken no remedial steps beyond issuing a food recall.

"Instead, officials praise the success of our infectious disease surveillance system - as if, with (16) dead, there were cause to celebrate - while food safety standards remain as low as ever."

"It is not a policy success to say we detected a bad food processing plant because there's the corpse that proves it," Attaran said in an interview.

Brutal but true.