The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Federal Campaign Highs and Lows Only four days left to E-day! Most politicians believe the vote is already locked in at this time, and there really aren't a lot of people that show up at the polls not knowing how they will vote. The parties are now busy concentrating on getting out their identified vote as the campaign with the best "ground game" will make a difference in a tight race. In some ridings the race has been over for some time and no amount of "getting out the vote" will make any difference. For example in White Rock, B.C. the combined Alliance-P.C. vote was 70% last time. A liberal organizer claims the Tories could run a German shepherd in the riding and win. There were a lot of strange happenings in this 35-day campaign with many highs and lows. The Liberals disintegrated early and spent the rest of the time playing "catch-up." Paul Martin presented a massive spending program with millions for everything including another billion for subsidies to business. Martin's own company, Canada Steamship Lines, last year received $160 million in loans and grants, and they pay their taxes in Liberia! As Harper said, he recycled every broken Liberal promise since 1993, promises which apparently few voters believe. With no one believing their promises, Liberal support has dropped like a stone, most noticeably in Quebec and Ontario. Quebecers are the most angry at the Adscam scandal and the resurging Bloc is expected to win a majority of seats in that province. In the French debate on the 14th, bloc leader Duceppe was a clear winner over Martin. Voters in Ontario are angry at both Liberal governments (provincial and federal) and appear to be determined to "throw the rascals out." Isn't it interesting that Liberal strategists paid so little attention to the surveys showing that 60 per cent of voters want to see a change in government, and they thought that Martin would not be tarred with the scandals? We now know why Chretien quit three months early, as he knew Sheila Fraser's report would be out. He neatly passed the scandal on to Paul Martin! Paul Martin, as star of the Liberal show, has had the full weight of the drop in popularity on his 65 year-old shoulders. Leaving the country for the 60th anniversary of D-Day where in a slip of the tongue he talked about Canadians attacking Norway instead of Normandy; and at the G-8 summit he talked about giving his condolences to the dead Ronald Reagan, meaning of course President Bush. He accomplished little for Canada at the summit except a vague promise from Bush to "look at the mad cow and software lumber thing." See 'Voting' P.# Con't from P.# Paul and the Liberals have spent most of the campaign attacking Stephen Harper with occasional blitzes on the NDP and Bloc. They have tried to scare people about the "radical Harper" with little effect. Smiling Sheila Copps, who is obviously enjoying Martin's struggles says Harper is definitely not scary. The Liberals have also enlisted help from their friends in the Native organizations. Phil Fontaine, along with the Metis and Inuit leaders, strongly attacked one of Harper's policy guys who has written extensively on Aboriginal issues and authored several books on Louis Riel. Conservatives and New Democrats expressed surprise at the attacks but quickly concluded that the Native leaders were being manipulated by the Liberal strategists. One of the campaign lows has been the actions of Joe Clark and recently Joe's misguided followers in Alberta and Manitoba. Twelve disgruntled PC's including four ex-Alberta cabinet ministers came out in support of Liberal Anne McLellan widely expected to lose in Edmonton Centre. McLellan's organizers usually enlist outside support from anyone as "landslide Annie" always has trouble winning in her riding. The group who wants to see McLellan back in Ottawa are calling on Alberta PC's to vote for her. Surprising? Not really, as recently leaked information claims that in the 2000 election Clark and McLellan's organizers made a deal, with the Liberals working for Clark in Calgary and the Tories working for McLellan in Edmonton. In 2000, McLellan, who backs gun registration, was losing until the last two polls came in over her Alliance rival. Best bet is that Landslide Annie's goose is cooked this time. In Manitoba, a couple of ex-MP's and a few Joe Clark diehards announced they are supporting the Liberals. Not much help there, but the "Fiberals" will take help from anyone Joe Clark's antics are disgusting to many of his former supporters such as this commentator who worked diligently for him in two elections and in his leadership contest with Brian Mulroney. He displayed incredibly bad judgment as Prime Minister and as leader. As Robert Stanfield once remarked: "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me." Has the NDP leader, Jack Layton, been a high or low in this campaign? Some pundits claim he is the reason the party is not doing as well as it should, with some of his policies and off-the cuff remarks plus his anti-American ads and rhetoric. In fact Canadian elections haven't seen as much anti- American talk (all from Liberals and NDP) since 1911's "No truck or trade with the dÑ- Yankees", or 1962's bomarc crisis (both times it was the Conservatives). Layton released ads claiming the Liberals and Conservatives are too cozy with the Bush government. He also promised his government would actively lobby the US government to strengthen gun control laws in America to prevent illegal arms from coming into Canada. This is incredibly funny as Layton and the NDP are poorly regarded by the American administration. "Anti-American Jack" would likely have trouble crossing the border, much less influencing Washington. By the way, he said the NDP will not scrap the gun registry but somehow fix it! Earlier, Layton praised Winnipeg's Pan-Am Clinic as he announced the NDP would ban any use of private clinics including a ban on the much used private diagnostic clinics. This is so much abject nonsense as all provinces contract with private clinics including Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Layton didn't mention (or didn't know) that the Pan-Am Clinic cost the province millions to buy plus a fat salary for the owners and is doing the same patient care that it did when contracted by the Manitoba government. It is interesting that neither Gary Doer nor the Saskatchewan Premier have endorsed the NDP platform, although Lorne Calvert expressed approval of the health plank. How about a few humorous highs in a generally humorless campaign: Best quip: "It's so cold in Ottawa that the Liberals have their hands in their own pockets" - Stephen Harper at the start of the campaign. Most biting remark: "Do your handlers tell you to talk all the time?" - Paul Martin to Layton at the leader's debate. Best bumper sticker: "Politicians and diapers need changing regularly - for the same reason! Will the public come out to vote in great numbers on Monday? Voting is a privilege not allowed or ineffective in many countries. As Plato said more than 2,000 years ago: "Those who do not engage in political activities risk being ruled by others less wise than they." Let's hope that the true voice of the people will be heard on June 28th. P.S. - If the vote is heavy across the country, you'll know that the Liberals are defeated.
