Could we see a little polling on how the idea of a progressive coalition is going over with average Canadians, please?
Anecdotal evidence indicates that the concept seems to have broad endorsement (to say the least — excitement and wild enthusiasm might better describe the sentiment) from supporters of the Liberals, NDP and Bloc. No big surprise there, of course.
On the public front, a CROP-La Presse survey indicates that 76 percent of Québécois favour a coalition should the Conservative government be defeated on a non-confidence motion in the House of Commons. For whatever it’s worth, an online survey at the Winnipeg Free Press shows 69 percent in favour of a coalition government.
It would certainly be nice to see some more detailed and reliable (non-partisan) polling to back up these preliminary indications of general support. Especially so, I might add, before the Tories’ mighty Wurlitzer starts cranking out the anticipated wave of specious propaganda…
69 Comments
December 1, 2008 at 6:45 am
I’m sure all the pollsters were quite busy this weekend, expect a slew in the next two days.
Those Quebec numbers will give any national sampling a big boost.
December 1, 2008 at 6:54 am
You’ll be in your glory.
December 1, 2008 at 7:59 am
“Anecdotal evidence indicates that the concept seems to have broad endorsement (to say the least — excitement and wild enthusiasm might better describe the sentiment) from supporters of the Liberals, NDP and Bloc.”
So that would likely be a majority of Canadians…
December 1, 2008 at 8:03 am
One might naturally think that, although partisans aren’t necessarily representative of “supporters” at large.
December 1, 2008 at 8:27 am
True, but voters represent average Canadians, at least average Canadians who bother to vote, and they’ve already made their views known.
December 1, 2008 at 8:37 am
“True, but voters represent average Canadians, at least average Canadians who bother to vote, and they’ve already made their views known.”
Yeah 62.5% of Canada didnt vote for Stephen Harper. Im guessing after the bang up job he’s done with this parliament the number might be higher. One of the biggest appeals of this coalition for me is that it wont be run by just one person but by people. That is worth it alone.
December 1, 2008 at 11:54 am
One of the biggest appeals of this coalition for me is that it wont be run by just one person but by people. That is worth it alone.
No kidding. I can’t wait to have a cabinet again.
December 1, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Hehehe, I am laughing so hard right now. This is just a bizarre set of circumstances.
So, not that it’s representative, but I find it interesting that my friend from the Phillipines is cheering because she thought Harper’s recent immigration decrees were awful, and she felt like he was lying about how much he cared abut immigrants. I held back to her face, but I felt like saying Duh….
The only thing I find concerning about all this is the lack of comprehension some people have about the parliamentary system. They don’t understand how things can change so fast. I hope the newspapers print some of those diagrams and drawings, you know, “Minority Govt for Dummies”, etc…
December 1, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Once the Liberals are rightfully in power again, I hope they cut off electoral funding just to the KKKonservatives because they are a racist, reich-wing party.
BAN the KKKonservative party.
December 1, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Hmmm. That’s wrong on a lot of levels.
December 1, 2008 at 2:13 pm
As well, I hope that the new progressive coalition passes a law that cuts tax exempt status to those churches that don’t support same sex marriage.
If we are to embrace the separation of Church and State, then the Churches that don’t support the laws of Canada should lose their tax-exempt status.
Why are politicians and tax-payers forced to pay taxes and Churches do not? Just look at the destructive effects that the Churches have on our society today–a Calgary bishop was charged with spreading hate towards gays. This is theocracy at it’s best (or I should say at it’s worst!), the Churches are still trying to oppress us. That’s why we need hate crime laws to protect minorities and gays.
The future is getting better and better because Canada is becoming more politically correct and diverse. As immigrants come in that do not support the fundamentalist Christian white male agenda (Muslims, Sikhs, Africans, etc) they will increase the Liberal share of the vote and move the political center to the left thus guaranteeing that same sex marriage will be
enshrined into law forever
Long live Multicultural Canada!
December 1, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Quite the comedian, aren’t you?
I suspect your act might play better at SDA where there are more gullible rubes who might fall for your lame schtick…
December 1, 2008 at 2:40 pm
When Dion becomes Prime Minister, he is going to kick butt in the next election just like he did in the last one.
That’s why Dion will be PM and Harper will not (anyone who only gets 38% of the vote doesn’t deserve to be Prime Minister).
December 1, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Ho hum… Do you have anything else besides pathetic sarcasm to offer up? Sorry, but it’s really falling flat. Persist if you must, but it’s not in the least bit convincing and, therefore, entirely unfunny. Typical “conservative” — so tragically lacking in any sense of humour.
December 1, 2008 at 3:03 pm
KKKonservatives are pieces of s**t. When I say that, you can’t get more liberal than that!
I’m more liberal than all of you combined.
December 1, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Yawn. The fact that you don’t seem to realize how insufferably tiresome and humourless you are (aside from the needless self-bowdlerization of your own comment with pathetic “**” instead of just saying SHIT) marks you out as a dismal little “conservative” troll.
Please… put down the bag of Cheetos®, get off the computer and go do the dishes like your Mom is asking you to.
December 1, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Red , I think he would have donated to the party(s) , until you hit him with the Cheetos® blast .
December 1, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Bill — Yeah. I’m sure he’s withholding his allowance on that basis.
December 1, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Whither now ?……… or do we wait for the polls .
December 1, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Most of you have known me as a staunch liberal supporter these past few hours but because of your childish insults, I have decided to “cross the floor” so to speak. Although I have done leg campaign work for many Liberal candidates across this great country of
Canada, I have come at a crossroads. But just like St. Paul, I have had my own Damascus revelation.
I have now officially burned all of my Liberal paraphernalia, campaign buttons, Trudeau posters and because, after much careful calculations, I have come to the inescapable conclusion that liberalism is the tool of Satan. Supporting liberal causes detracts from one’s real-life experience, from doing what one is supposed to be doing. It prevents one from having a career, or if one has a career, it prevents one from working harder in order to make more money and support one’s girlfriend/spouse and children in a better style of living. The time dedicated to advancing liberalism could be better spent in career advancement or building a new deck for the little woman. With this in mind, supporting the Liberals is an irresponsible act of giving in to secularism instead of dealing with reality. I cannot subject my dependents to this foul charade any longer.
Praise Jesus and my new girlfriend’s church for finally helping me to see the light. May God have mercy on my soul for all of my disrespectful jokes about his Chosen. I can only hope that the dedication and commitment I have provided for the KKKliberals in the past will be as strong as it is in my new home of the Conservative party.
Yours in the Lord and his messenger, Stephen Harper,
Internationalist Liberale
December 1, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Nooooooooooooooooo!!!!!! Not the Trudeau posters…….. hold on ……. which one ?
December 1, 2008 at 3:48 pm
The one that was the sexy centerfold.
December 1, 2008 at 3:51 pm
OK , I’m cool with that . Buy some carbon offsets though , apparently they’re stimulating .
December 1, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Wow, what a zany laff-riot.
Stop, stop…my sides are splitting.
December 1, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Dickhead .
December 1, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Just so we get things straight here… who’s playing the role of J. MacNeill Whistler?
December 1, 2008 at 4:10 pm
who’s playing the role of J. MacNeill Whistler?
Not me dude , I’m totally anti- whistling . Subversives the lot of them .
December 1, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Bill, J. MacNeill Whistler was a painter (Whister’s Mother is probably his most famous piece). He was also known for his wit, and it is said that Oscar Wilde stole some of Whistler’s best lines.
December 1, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Thank you sharon .
December 1, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Dickhead .
I should always remember that the little dears have very unstable levels of self-esteem.
December 1, 2008 at 4:32 pm
I was actually thinking of the Monty Python skit where Whistler, Shaw and Wilde are being “witty” while slagging one another about the most embarrassing references to the crown prince’s urination they could impute to one another…
December 1, 2008 at 4:41 pm
I should always remember that the little dears have very unstable levels of self-esteem.
Looks down ….. say what ?
December 1, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Now here’s something genuinely funny:
“[Condoleeza] Rice says she won’t give [Hillary] Clinton too much advice.”
Guffaw!
December 1, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Loved this bit…
Your Highness, you are also like a stream of bat’s piss…. you shine out like a shaft of gold when all around is dark.
(Got the Monty Python transcripts as a teenager and that was the joke on the side of the book.)
December 1, 2008 at 4:50 pm
rt, could you please take some measures to attract a better class of wingnut to your blog?
or is this as good as it gets?
KEvron
December 1, 2008 at 4:57 pm
rt, could you please take some measures to attract a better class of wingnut to your blog?
Cold , hard , fucking cash …. works every time . That way we can give it to charitable causes …….. like keeping the liberal party flush .
December 1, 2008 at 4:59 pm
i did say “better”…
KEvron
December 1, 2008 at 5:05 pm
richer ?
December 1, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Well, that would rather pointless, wouldn’t it. Give money to Bill so that he can “give” it back to the LPC (with a 75% tax write-off)… A plan only a “conservative” could devise…
December 1, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Sharon — I seem to recall jam doughnuts making an appearance in that sketch too…
I had the “Tie and Handkerchief” album when I was kid — one of the more bizarre outings for the troupe. It had, as you might recall, three sides…
December 1, 2008 at 5:31 pm
“Give money to Bill”
why buy the cow when i can fuck bill for free?
KEvron
December 1, 2008 at 5:33 pm
You’re on to us Red …… if only the Libs could figger out this subterfuge , they’d be flush . Too bad you can’t seem to figger out how to put yer monies were yer yaps ar .
December 1, 2008 at 5:35 pm
kiss me first kevvie .
December 1, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Anyone who thought the Liberals and the NDP couldn’t one day become a single party can think again. After this is over we may have a single merged left-of-centre party.
If not, this is going to be bad for Canada and VERY bad for long term prospects of the Liberals.
They have chosen to wear the coming deficit big-time.
What they should’ve done is:
1) Taken it on the chin with party financing
2) Had the effing leadership debate, re-organize party fundraising (IT CAN BE DONE without government money)
3) Let things get bad for the Conservatives with the deficit in time for the next election.
The Liberals will seriously regret this in time. BTW in my own opinion “stimulus packages” do NOT work. This will give us bigger deficit with little effect.
December 1, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Oh, when are we going to see Conservative commercials with footage of the most dramatic moments of 95 referendum? Or of Trudeau bitch-slapping seperatism?
OH, they are sooo going to regret this!
December 1, 2008 at 5:43 pm
I heard about that. The side that played depended on the specific groove the needle landed. Apparently, that was inspired by a horse racing album where the winner was determined by whichever groove the needle fell in.
As for Python — amazing amount of work they put into their comedy. (Got quite a bit of their stuff from a radio program that used to play late at night.)
December 1, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Yeah, we’re still “figger’in” out that guv’mint thang. How’s about u guys?
December 1, 2008 at 5:45 pm
This is great for Canada. We need a government with it’s act together and good plans. It’s been too long since we had that. So I don’t care if the NDP and Liberals are working together. In fact, that makes me happy. The Bloc’s role in this is wonderful.
We’ve had more than enough years of the divisive and extremely negative tactics of Conservatives. We’ve had enough. I’m glad to see them take a stand on our behalf finally.
December 1, 2008 at 5:49 pm
See Red , you say guv’ . I say gub’….. and never the twain shall …….. hold on , someone hep me with this .
December 1, 2008 at 5:49 pm
The Conservatives have already written off Quebec for the next election. They have decided not to suck up to soft nationalists anymore. It’s the ethnic vote now.
It will be a massive play for Ontario and the rest of Canada in the next election where the Conservatives are willing to sacrifice the gains that costed so dearly in Quebec last time to demonize the Liberals with the Bloc.
Oh, they’re going to rue this!
(On the other hand the Liberals still keep their long record of their Leaders becoming Priministers. Yaay!)
December 1, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Carrie , you understand Bloc , and divisive , are players on the same team , no ?
December 1, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Sharon — I was quite astounded when I stumbled onto that. Of course, I was stoned at the time and it took me by surprise. Pleasantly, I must say…
I can still recite much of their work verbatim, which is kind of scary… including a rather lively rendition of their deranged version of “The Cherry Orchard”… “Meanwhile in St. Petersburg Illya Nataevska and Mariana Plaentkoff await news of their step-brother Troffemoff… (There follows much banging, clatter and shouting…)
December 1, 2008 at 5:58 pm
1) Taken it on the chin with party financing
2) Had the effing leadership debate, re-organize party fundraising (IT CAN BE DONE without government money)
3) Let things get bad for the Conservatives with the deficit in time for the next election.
The problem is that if the economy does worse under the Consevatives, the Liberals won’t have anywhere to hide since it’s a minority Parliment and anything the Conservatives passed would have called for support from the opposition parties. Since the Bloc and the NDP are automatically voting down the Conservatives, it would have been up to the Liberals to support the budget. The bad economy would have been tied to the Liberals and the Conservatives.
I’m cautious about what’s happening right now. I’m not over the moon excited about it because there are some drawbacks.
December 1, 2008 at 6:06 pm
“BTW in my own opinion ’stimulus packages’ do NOT work.”
what does histroy have to say about it?
KEvron
December 1, 2008 at 6:10 pm
Bill, with all due respect, stop with that crap.
I’ve had it with this Conservative b.s. of word games and offensive tactics.
The Bloc stopped being about separatism a while ago. They are about Quebec first and foremost but they don’t have any desire to separate. Particularly not when they got the Nation status from the idiot Harper.
What I’m happy about is knowing we do have some political leaders who are adults, who remembered they work for US, who actually give a damn about this country and citizens. Harper never did and no conservative does either.
December 1, 2008 at 6:23 pm
I can still recite much of their work verbatim, which is kind of scary… including a rather lively rendition of their deranged version of “The Cherry Orchard”… “Meanwhile in St. Petersburg Illya Nataevska and Mariana Plaentkoff await news of their step-brother Troffemoff… (There follows much banging, clatter and shouting…)
Not many sketch groups can get away with jokes about writers.
As for things burned into my memory — I’ll never forget the sight of John Cleese as Little Red Riding Hood (German Show).
December 1, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Red had a good youtube conversation with Amity Schlaes. It’s a good watch, Kevron.
Japan ran multiple deficits in the 90’s in order to stimulate the economy. Currently their public debt to GDP ratio is %170. One of the highest in the world.
If, for some, a 40 billion dollar deficit is worth easing some of the pain for people dealing with tough times I can sympathise with that. But if deficits just don’t matter to you, then you’re no better than an American Republican. (40 billion is, likely, what our deficit will be after this coalition’s stimulus plan.)
The tradeoff for Japan was dubious and their debt has become a massive burden.
In spite of the many times it’s been tried I’d like to see where massive government spending has worked.
If we must go into deficit, IMO a far more EFFICIENT, although crass, way of doing it would be to hand out 30 billion dollars to individuals that are on the edge. It doesn’t look good but it would help much more.
December 1, 2008 at 6:31 pm
I’ve had it with this Conservative b.s. of word games and offensive tactics.
With Bill, the thing that bugs me is that he spends a lot of time making sure people know he doesn’t care about any of this.
December 1, 2008 at 6:41 pm
but what if you do care about deficits, but must run one anyway? and if govt economic stimulii are so ineffective, why do so many nations continue to rely on them?
KEvron
December 1, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Then run the smallest one you can … lol.
Look, I imagine most governments rely on them because it’s what voters want. Which is absolutely legit in it’s own right.
December 1, 2008 at 6:48 pm
“I imagine most governments rely on them because it’s what voters want.”
i can’t recall a stimulus rebate that was prompted by public demand.
KEvron
December 1, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Got me there, KEv, Why do governments rely on them?
When have they worked?
December 1, 2008 at 6:58 pm
“Why do governments rely on them?”
i imagine because they offer some remedial value.
“When have they worked?”
i wouldn’t really know. i imagine they have, else, you know…
KEvron
December 1, 2008 at 7:17 pm
The Bloc stopped being about separatism a while ago .
You’re right Carrie , blackmail pays better . Duceppe apparently has veto power on every piece of legislation going through the house , you sure you all want to sit at the table ?What price to be Canadian ?
December 1, 2008 at 7:19 pm
And to TG , trust me dickhead , I fucking care .
December 1, 2008 at 7:30 pm
And to TG , trust me dickhead , I fucking care .
No you don’t, you brain-dead cunt.
December 1, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Dick-head? Brain-dead cunt? Quite the misogyny and misandry. LOL.
December 1, 2008 at 8:36 pm
You will recall that the whole Quebec nation fiasco was initiated by your boy Iggy. Harper had to come in with the resolution to calm separatist fever that your party stoked. You guys made the mess and he cleaned it up.
Thanks for the clarification there, JC Sparkle Pony.
Who knew that the Dear Leader could turn water into whine?
December 1, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Oops. Wrong thread.
Oh well. Not that it matters…