Kind of an open thread for the time being until the polls close out west in a few hours. I plan on going back into work and watching the results come in from there, as the computer/TV set-up is better at the office. Should be an interesting evening…
9:30: Well, that was disappointing. Got into the office, turned on the computer and discovered that the Cons had won a majority government. Game over.
9:50: Speaking of “game over” looks like Ignatieff went down with the ship he managed to sink.
10:00: Ken Dryden went down. Gee, that’s sad.
10:05: CBC online player still not working. Having to watch coverage on CTV instead.
10:11: Iggy delivering his concession speech… This could well be the best speech he’ll have given during the whole campaign.
10:15: Ignatieff won’t be the only defeated leader. Duceppe has also been upset.
10:25: Strange to see folks like Gerard Kennedy and Martha Hall-Findlay getting the boot.
10:45: Duceppe’s turn to bid farewell. (Looks like the BQ is all but completely wiped out.)
10:50: Hard to believe that Elizabeth May might actually pull off a victory in Saanich.
11:00: CTV now declaring May elected. Good for her!
11:15: CBC online still MIA. The ads work though! Getting a bit fed up of CTV showing local results from the GTA over and over with almost NOTHING west of Ontario.
11:30: Layton delivering his victory speech. I don’t know why these folks are cheering. The NDP can vote their conscience all they want as the Official Opposition and it won’t make a whit’s worth of difference now that Harper has a majority.
12:05: Awaiting the Dear Leader to take the stage…
12:12: CTV correspondents still fellating.
12:14: Finally, the speech begins. WARNING: Playing that drinking game where you take a shot every time Harper says “friends” could be hazardous to your health.
12:30: Speech over, CTV correspondents are back gushing and fawning.
Red Tory v.3.0.3 
I could go on and soporifically on, like some blow-dried CanWest talking head, about the glories of democracy and how swell it is that, at the end of the day, Canadians choose their leaders through the ballot rather than the bullet. But I’m not in my usual magnanimous mood today.
So let me just state to any and all CPC voters out there that, in an ideal world, your citizenship rights would be summarily and indefinitely suspended on the spot, at the polling station.
Stephen Harper has been, beyond reach of any serious competition, the worst, most objectively morally disordered prime minister with which this country has ever plagued itself. His tenure has been a cultural catastrophe and an international embarrassment. At no time in our post-Confederation history, with the possible exception of the brief Bowell era, have we been as colonial, as parochial, as craven, and as swinishly obsessed with rooting for trivial truffles in the mud of crass self-interest as we are now. We have become, for possibly the first time since the Loyalist migration, a thoroughly unserious people, who have allowed a sitting prime minister to commit acts of unprecedented constitutional and political degeneracy that inspired only applause from the degraded guttersnipes that swell the ranks of Harper’s risibly self-anointed “law and order” base.
A vote for the CPC is a vote for corruption, incompetence, and depravity. It is an objectively pro-crime, anti-Canadian, and immoral vote, and those who are about to cast it are national saboteurs who deserve only contempt.
LOL
As a Metis Canadian, a business owner, a former CF member and a Conservative supporter I must tell you, Sir Francis, in my “ideal world”, it would be you and me with pistols at dawn.
Haha…just kidding lefty.
BTW, eat it!
Oh and BTW, I heard an ad from the PSAC on the radio railling Harper yesterday….it made me smile when I voted CPC today.
Bitches….
Ah spazzy Jim it’s been awhile
“Former” CF member, eh? I guess that court martial didn’t go so well. Did you consider pleading insanity? The jury would probably have bought it.
Enjoy your banana republic, Jim. You’ve earned it. As for the pistols, why wait for dawn?
My money’s on Canadian freightways
Results so far
Con 132
Ndp 67
Lib 2
Bq 4
100 left to go
Conservative majority will happen tonight
Sorry that’s lib 28
Typing in results from a cell phone is not good lol
70 seats left to go. But still think cons get majority
Ndp meeting expectations
Libs doing badly
Complete collapse of the bloc
Cons winning sears they hadn’t won in years (Labrador no and volpe’s seat)
Conservatives have 40 pct of the pop vote.
Cons 150
Ndp 99
Lib 31
Bq 3
25 seats to go
Our amalgamation into the US Empire is almost complete now.
It only took 48 years. The 1963 Election was the last moment Canada had to remain a Nation.
Aeneas: the 63 election was where Pearson ingratiated himself as the pro-American candidate because died did t want nukes in Canada.
So the libs have their history of selling out to the US
I am not a Liberal. I have NEVER voted Liberal and I never would vote Liberal. They started selling Canada into bondage in the late 19th Century.
How’s that crow pie tasting Martin?
All I can say is “holy shit!” Change was expected. The extent of the change I belive, truly is much greater than most would have anticipated, in spite of the polls. Good concession speech by Igantieff. I feel sorry for him. Meanwhile, go Liz!
Strange to see folks like Gerard Kennedy and Martha Hall-Findlay getting the boot.
“Strange”? I think it’s appropriate. This is a night when decent, hard-working Canadians lose and lazy scumbag hacks win. Rather reminds me of ’88, actually.
You can rag on the Con’s all you want, but for the next 4-5 years, the Conservatives will prove you wrong! And there’s nothing you can do about it.
The Alberta Oilsands projects will take-off like no tomorrow, and there’s nothing Jack can do about it.
(I think thats the sound of the value of my home in Calgary going up 10%.)
Good luck to Jack in managing the Quebec caucus. He’s about to find out what a shit-show that province is. Finally Canada can move beyond Quebec’s childish demands and get on with the business of running the country.
Originally I had a feeling that the ‘Quebec gambit’ that the Tories put together to rebuild the ‘Quebec-West’ coalition of the Mulroney years was just a ploy to win a majority. Now that Quebec has swung to the NDP and the Tories won a majority using rural and suburban Ontario, I imagine that nobody in the Conservative Party will give a rat’s ass about ‘whatever Quebec wants’.
I imagine that nobody in the Conservative Party will give a rat’s ass about ‘whatever Quebec wants’.
Exactly. From now on, it’s what’s best for Canada–which is the only way it should be.
The only sad part about this development is that it took Canada (and Quebec) 20 years to figure that out.
Hey, RT. Hope you are doing well. You were the first blog I visited in 2004 – and it’s nice to still see you around. I hope you give us hell over the next 4 years.
I have to echo TTT’s words. This is the only blog I visit (a little odd for a conservative). And I’m sure, if there are any faults/cracks in the Conservative–or should I say Harper–gov’t, RT will find them.
Cud-chewing CPC jihadis wasted no time showing their true colours, did they? Yessir, they’re pointing those AK-47s up at the sky and blasting up a full-auto storm of banjo-eyed bliss.
“Fuck Quebec, man! Alberta rules, dude! Yeah, we’re really gonna make you pay!”
Now we know what it was like when the Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh.
TT: Thanks. Feeling kind of disappointed, to say the least, but getting used to it. I am a Habs fan, after all. Funny thing… I believe I may be living in the only Liberal riding between downtown Toronto and the waterfront of Vancouver. Because, you know, Winnipeg North is just FULL of latte-sipping elitists… 😉
I’m sure this is a very happy night for you and fellow Conservative supporters. Enjoy your majority victory. It was a long time in coming and no one can deny the amount of relentless effort and serious dedication that went into achieving it.
Bob: Why would I be eating crow pie? Maybe you should consult the Big Book of Idioms first before making such asinine remarks.
@francis
“Fuck Quebec, man! Alberta rules, dude! Yeah, we’re really gonna make you pay!”
When hyperbole is the only rhetorical device you have left, it illustrates the gravity of your position.
It’s not about screwing Quebec, it’s about doing what best for the country and what’s fair across regions. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen that in quite some time, so I guess the proposition of treating provinces fair seems like hard to accept for some.
This is a God-send for the Quebec separatist movement. I know that I am more wanting a referendum in case the hard right regime in Ottawa goes too far. If it does, it’s good bye Canada, you are aliens, you do not represent our values, go to Hell.
trainman wrote: “It’s not about screwing Quebec, it’s about doing what best for the country and what’s fair across regions.”
Oh so when Wolprog wrote: “I imagine that nobody in the Conservative Party will give a rat’s ass about ‘whatever Quebec wants’.” he was just expressing how Quebec will now be treated fairly as compared to the other 9 provinces? I suspect that you mean Harper will not give a rat’s ass about Saskatchewan’s or Ontario’s concerns then either?
R – I think you are right. As much as I relish the Bloc being eliminated as a political party, this really isn’t that much of a set-back for separatists over all.
Charest is very unpopular and Quebec will be electing a PQ government next year. If Quebec feels alienated because they finally embraced a federalist party, yet had sand kicked in their faces by the Harper government because, as Wolprog so eliquantly wrote “nobody in the Conservative Party will give a rat’s ass about ‘whatever Quebec wants’”, then yes I see this ending very badly.
If Quebec leaves under Harper’s watch, I can finally see him and the CPC brand suffer the same fate as the Liberals did last night. But for Canada it will be too late.
@tofkw & R:
If Quebec leaves under Harper’s watch, I can finally see him and the CPC brand suffer the same fate as the Liberals did last night. But for Canada it will be too late.
…it’s good bye Canada, you are aliens, you do not represent our values, go to Hell.
Not sure if you have done the math on this one boys and girls, but when Quebec leaves Canada, transfer payments will stop as well. AB won’t be shelling out $8B a year to the “country” of Quebec so they can have subsidized daycare.
Quebec hasn’t been able to stand on their own two legs within confederation, and they certainly won’t be able to do it outside of confederation. Anyone who thinks otherwise is living in a dream world, and the beautiful part about a Harper Conservative majority government, is Quebec is finally going to have their bluff called and we will all see, once and for all, what a sham separatism truly is.
Quebec is finally going to have their bluff called and we will all see, once and for all, what a sham separatism truly is.
Yeah, the guy who sponsored the Parliamentary motion declaring Quebec a nation and spent his entire first ministry kissing nationaliste ass in order to capture the soft-separatist vote is finally going to put Quebec in its place.
SF: Oh you, and your pesky historical “facts”… 😉
Yeah, the guy who sponsored the Parliamentary motion declaring Quebec a nation and spent his entire first ministry kissing nationaliste ass in order to capture the soft-separatist vote is finally going to put Quebec in its place.
SF: Oh you, and your pesky historical “facts”…
I think you’ll find, sir francis, that your “swipe” at Harper’s motion is missing any of the substance surrounding, and involved in, that motion. Maybe you like to portion your history out in “bit-sized servings”, but unfortunately for you, things aren’t that simple. Speaking of “pesky” facts, here they are:
(1) Harper was proactively responding to a Bloc motion that sought to recognize Quebec as a nation, apart from Canada.
(2) The PM’s own words on this issue: “Do Quebecers form a nation within a united Canada? The answer is yes. Do the Quebecois form an independent nation? The answer is no, and will always be no.”
Wow! A leader with a spine. No there’s a scary thought! Why did we ever give this man a majority?
If you want some other “pesky” historical facts, try reading an authorized biography about Harper or his speeches in the house during the early Reform days, and you will come to understand his position on Quebec. His position is measured but firm, and he will make them understand what it would truly mean to leave Canada–something all other leaders have avoided. However, if you don’t actually understand the man you’re criticizing, then these facts would be lost on you. Besides they’d get in the way of a good ol’ Harper bashing.
Yes, Harper will stand up to Quebec. Don’t confuse minority gov’t politics with majority gov’t politics. You’re naive and/or ignorant if you think they’re the same thing.
All that being said, there’s no indication that Quebec still feels a need to separate. Hell, they essentially just abolished their own separatist party. I think that the new generation of Quebecers realizes how self-centred and useless the separatist position was. Electing a federalist party was essentially saying that they’ll get involved in Canadian politics instead of waiting for their own country to run. Instead of demanding their own sandbox so they can make the rules, they have decided to stay in the Canadian sandbox but get involved in making the rules.
@tofkw: “If Quebec feels alienated because they finally embraced a federalist party, yet had sand kicked in their faces by the Harper government because, as Wolprog so eliquantly wrote “nobody in the Conservative Party will give a rat’s ass about ‘whatever Quebec wants’”, then yes I see this ending very badly.”
If Quebec feels alienated because they voted for a party that the majority of their fellow Canadians didn’t vote for, then I’m afraid you’re wrong. This isn’t a constitutional issue, they simply don’t quite understand the meaning of democracy–sometimes in a democracy you win, and sometimes you don’t.
Not sure what mental gymnastics were required to turn a democratic result into a constitutional crisis that could be blamed on Harper, but obviously in your mind the connection existed. Maybe you were distracted by your fear of the impending “hidden agenda” that’s about to be dropped on us any day now!!
Given the way Harper has acted, the naive one his trainman…
Harper was proactively responding to a Bloc motion that sought to recognize Quebec as a nation, apart from Canada.
Harper was “responding to” (i.e. caving to) a Bloc motion that he could easily have voted against had he wished to (and had he possessed the balls to offend Quebec nationalistes).
The “within a united Canada” codicil was a meaningless face-saving gesture that impressed only the CPC’s Pavlovian partisans. A nation within Canada necessarily is apart from the nation of Canada, Einstein: a nationally bifurcated Canada is no longer a united nation, any more than the EU is “united” except in the merest contractual terms.
That’s really what Harper’s vision of Canada basically amounts to–a contractual convenience, indistinguishable from the soft-separatist conception of sovereignty-association. Harper gave Canada-hating Quebec nationalistes everything they could have hoped for (except their own army, which they wouldn’t know how to use anyway), which is why the Bloc is now redundant. It’s separation by inches, in tandem with Harper’s continental annexation by inches.
As for your premonition of an ideologically pure new policy trajectory for Harper’s majority, they’re founded on the premise that Harper has ever faced a motivated and powerful Opposition, which is clear nonsense: he had his way with Dion, Iggy and Layton, and his compromises were driven only by cowardice and cynicism. I expect that to continue, quite regardless of what your fine books tell you. Harper’s a congenital liar and instinctive pork-barrel hack– always has been, always will be.
The defeat of the Bloc candidates probably won’t faze the Quebec nationalists very much. Their refrain will now be “Ontario and the Prairies are ganging up on Quebec.” Like all good lies, it will contain a kernel of truth.
On the other hand, Quebec’s demographics are such that I don’t think that the separatists could win a referendum–too many French-Canadians are now retired or nearing retirement, which dampens the enthusiasm for building new nation-states. “Money and the ethnic vote” are more heavily stacked against the sovereigntists today than they were in ’95.
But Marois, that old war horse, may want to have one last death-or-glory charge.
Anyhow, Harper would be cool with a devolved, decentralized federalism. He loves the notion of “sovereignty-association.” That’s pretty much already his vision of Canada/US relations. And he doesn’t mind sovereignty-association for Quebec as long as Alberta gets it, too.
I take a lot of comfort with Harper being the PM right now.
I agree that he will have some flexibility since his government does not rely on pandering to Quebec. Quebec, themselves, kicked the BQ to the curb.
Urban/suburban Ontario kicked the LPC to the curb. These are heady times.
When Sir Francis is saying things like:
“…Stephen Harper has been, beyond reach of any serious competition, the worst, most objectively morally disordered prime minister with which this country has ever plagued itself. His tenure has been a cultural catastrophe and an international embarrassment…”
you know things are all coming up 7’s. I am so pleased that Terry Milewski got to ask his biased little questions. Harper just smiled and said something like “….I would quarrel with your preamble…”
As I said… heady times. The Parliamentary Press Gallery is no longer hauling our federal leaders around by their nose rings. Ignatieff can probably have his surgically removed now that he is resigning.
He loves the notion of “sovereignty-association.”
Precisely. And I just love the brazen stupidity of those who think that the Bloc Quebecois, basically Lucien Bouchard’s own little vanity party kept alive beyond his leadership purely by Canada’s zombie-like political inertia, was separatism’s main political vehicle. It wasn’t and isn’t. The Parti Quebecois is, and it is very much alive and likely to form government again in the near term. The Bloc didn’t exist in ’80; the Quebecois consistently voted for the centralising Trudeau, and neither fact prevented the first referendum. This “separatism is dead” schtick is idiotic.
Speaking of “comforts”, it’s so good to know that, in a world of perpetual change, some things will remain constant–like Tomm’s love affair with decadence, corruption, and thuggery in the pursuit of turning Canada into a failed state and his outrage at the too infrequent sallies of the brave against the cowardly impudence of jumped-up mediocrities like Harper and his greasy flunkies.
Strangely, I don’t remember ever hearing an Ontarian smugly brag about how cool is was that Jean Chretien was shutting Alberta out of power with his successive majorities; I suppose the airborne virus that liquefies the Albertan moral compass and turns it into obnoxious streams of self-glorifying logorrheia hasn’t traveled this far east yet.
Certainly, though, much about the Chretien regime was smug and corrupt, and the Tomms of the time had a right to be outraged. Fortunately, fate has given our Tomms an opportunity to become what they hate. How kind of it.
There is a “perfect storm” brewing for Quebec separation. Charest is still massively unpopular and once it sinks in that the NDP can’t anything for us couples with Harpercon arrogance….
Now, I’m sure that Harper will have to appoint a few of his Quebec cons to cabinet post. I would not be surprised to see Max back (I’m sure he still has the binders)….
Sir Francis,
My views on Quebec’s involvement in a national government do not include “ill will”. They deserve as much out of this federation today as they did last week. The difficulty has been the pandering to Quebec nationalists under the minority umbrella. I apologize if I indicated that having few Quebec MPs is a positive part of the outcome. It isn’t. Having fewer MPs constantly whining about their fair share is a bonus for the government.
I have no love for “decadence”, “corruption” or “thuggery”. You are just putting inflaming words in someones mouth. As you may have seen, when I bring your words up to discuss, I quote them verbatim and hopefully in context.
However, I also think there is merit in the comment by CWTF. There may very well be a Quebec hangover once they figure out that Ms. Brosseau (an Ottawa pub manager) is one of their representatives. Further, the lack of popularity of the Quebec provincial government and the aggressiveness of Marois will all play into the future.
Strangely, I don’t remember ever hearing an Ontarian smugly brag about how cool is was that Jean Chretien was shutting Alberta out of power with his successive majorities;
Francis, if you didn’t hear that, then you obviously weren’t listening.
I suppose the airborne virus that liquefies the Albertan moral compass and turns it into obnoxious streams of self-glorifying logorrheia hasn’t traveled this far east yet.
Once you remove the rhetoric from mr francis’ arguments, there isn’t really anything left to respond to.
“…the airborne virus that liquefies the Albertan moral compass”?! Really that constitutes an argument?
quite regardless of what your fine books tell you.
Yeah, who needs history books when we have mr francis’ version of events.
Harper’s a congenital liar and instinctive pork-barrel hack– always has been, always will be.
Well who could argue with that sound rebuttle.