...oh, I could drink a case of you-u-u, darling...

So boys, is the news in? Is this the final word? I saw on the Drudge Report, "Canadian Liberals face loss after 12 years in power..." but when I click on, it says, "sorry, this story not available..." Why are they keeping this story from us?

Well, anyway, we'll soon know the truth and if this is any indication, sounds like Canada is snapping into place!

Congrats!

Susan

PS We didn't have a "no gloat" pact for this election, did we?

"Oh, Canada -- you're not really going to elect a Conservative majority on Monday, are you? That's a joke, right? I know you have a great sense of humor, ... but this is no longer funny," Moore complained in a commentary on his website.

"First, you have the courage to stand against the war in Iraq -- and then you elect a prime minister who's for it. You declare gay people have equal rights -- and then you elect a man who says they don't," Moore moaned.

Conservatives led by Stephen Harper were ahead of Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberals by a comfortable 10 to 12 points, polls showed Saturday, two days before Canadians go to the polls.

In "Bowling for Columbine," his documentary on gun violence in the United States, Moore heads north to Canada to flee the rise of conservatism on US soil.

"A man running the nation to the south of you is hoping you can lend him a hand by picking Stephen Harper, because he's a man who shares his world view. Do you want to help George Bush by turning Canada into his latest conquest?" Moore asked.

"Far be it from me, as an American, to suggest what you should do," he added. "I hope you don't feel this appeal of mine is too intrusive, but I just couldn't sit by, as your friend, and say nothing."

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

"We cannot allow a mine shaft gap"

Looking more and more that the Conservatives are going to pull this one out. I have a feeling it will be by more than 5%.

Jordan .

"We cannot allow a mine shaft gap"

Reuters article had the following line: "The Conservatives won 36.3 percent of the popular vote and the Liberals won 30.2 percent, their second-worst showing since Canada gained independence in 1867."

I suggested more than 5% above - "c"onservatives won by 6.1%. But I think anyone could've guessed that so I won't toot my horn too much.

But Danwhy, it does seem like you have the pulse of Canada. Every article I read suggests that the Conservatives power will be short-lived which is probably true. I sorta see this political "revolution" (dareIsay) much like the 1994 GOP Congressional takeover (but that was much bigger and has continued to last up to this point and could be in jeopardy in November).  

Jordan .

On a larger scale, doesn't it seem like the world wants a change? Is there any spot on Earth these days where people are just hanging loose and feeling light and easy? Bora Bora?

I would guess that this Canadian shift may be just the result of being fed up in general and "let's try something different."

But we'll see. If the ever-alert Michael Moore is on the money Canada may soon be like America with its concentration camps for gays and pregnancy prisons where women are confined for the terms of the pregnancies. What's worse is Canada, with its fine tuned sense of humor, may turn as glum as its southern neighbor and cease to appreciate Michael Moore "documentaries." 

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

Lot's of things of interest.  Considering the liberals were rocked with major scandel it's odd that the conservatives didn't get more seats, Canadian's are still a little hesitant about the c's so they are going to take them on a small test drive.  The c's won't be able to get anything too far to the right through with only a minority and the c's must be very worried that they still didn't get a single seat in Canada's 3 biggest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

Overall I think this will be good for both the conservatives and the liberals.  Canadians will get a chance to see how the c's do and if they are really going to touch health care, abortion, gay marriage, etc.  The liberals will now get a chance to have a leadership convention and get a new person in charge (which they have sorely needed) and seperate themselves from the old liberals who were so scandel prone.  My only prediction about the next election is that it will happen within 2 years and either the c's or the liberals will get a majority on the next one.

"We cannot allow a mine shaft gap"

From Rex Murphy, who does a lot of commentary in this country -- and who will be called "curmudgeonly" in another couple of decades -- in his most recent Globe & Mail column:

- - - - - - -

Well, it was a narrow escape. But we did it. Canadians have preserved their liberties and independence against the always rapacious American beast.

We knew there were powerful elements in the United States that wanted us to kowtow and genuflect to a simplistic worldview, that knuckle-dragging Good-versus-Evil script they have been remorselessly propagandizing all over the world since 9/11.

They have been trying to drag Canada into this simpleton's game for years, mauling truth and banishing nuance with a continuous stream of invective posing as reason, and caricature passing itself off as accuracy.

It's a difficult thing to resist the mighty United States at any time, and especially difficult in all the dust and storm of a national election. But we did it.

It was a close-run thing. But on Monday night, Canada fought back and won. On Jan. 20, just three days before our vote, Michael Moore, entrepreneur, fabulist, philosophe, issued a broadside to the citizens of this country warning us sternly, and with the imperious irony of which he is so fully a master, against the perils of electing a Stephen Harper government:

Do you want to help George Bush by turning Canada into his latest conquest? Is that how you want millions of us down here to see you from now on? The next notch on the cowboy belt?

I was worried at first that the subtlety of the pitch might obscure its wonderful impertinence — worried that the charm of Mr. Moore's address might distract Canadians from the consideration that an American millionaire celebrity pitchman was interfering in, and attempting to influence, the Canadian vote.

I was worried, too, that this one-man shock-and-awe “documentarian” might be leading a charge, that the other bright bulbs of international busybodyism were massed behind his formidable massed behind. Was Sean Penn on the way to monitor the vote in Etobicoke? Was he planning one of his patented fact-finding junkets like the visits that brought such comfort and peace to the citizens of Baghdad? I could see the headlines: Penn in Halifax. Visits Bar. Reads Construction-Site Posters. Warns Harper is Christian. Says “God Bless Canada.”

Well, that didn't happen. We're were spared the fast-food internationalism of Mr. Penn, and that probably meant we were spared assorted sermons from Alex Baldwin, Janeane Garofalo, Al Franken and that whole posse of celebrity dilettantes who see the whole world as an audience for their inch-deep, paint-by-numbers, cause-a-day homilies. Maybe they were off somewhere saving a seal.

Or, what is much more likely, maybe he concluded there was really no need for the secondary battalions. We, the respectful, bland and polite citizens of a country that is really only a farm team for the U.S. entertainment industry — hello Céline, Jim, Dan and Avril — would naturally be flattered into sheer insensibility that the portentous Mr. Moore even knew we were having an election. He has a taste for insolence, referring to Stephen Harper, who has more brain than Michael Moore has girth, as someone “who should be running for governor of Utah,“ and whose election would “reduce Canada to a cheap download of Bush & Co.”

One size fits all — that's our Mikey. Because he thinks he has a problem with George Bush, that must be the script for the rest of the world. This is the very essence of imperialism. To believe that your story is everyone else's. To believe that your political drama is the template for every other political drama in the whole wide world. Michael Moore could go to Fogo Island, Nfld., for the municipal elections and find them a perfect parable of the Halliburton super-conspiracy. He'd see Dick Cheney's influence in the selection of the town clerk.

Ego turns the world into one big mirror, and nothing looks back at the celebrity narcissus but the vacant monomaniac staring in. News flash, Mr. Moore: Our election wasn't about Dick Cheney. Or George Bush. Paul Martin (thank God) isn't Bill Clinton. Stephen Harper doesn't own a decoder ring sent him by Karl Rove. Considering the success you've had in stopping George Bush in the country where he actually runs — and on last report he is in his second term — do you really think you should be sparing the time and the shavings of your wit to offer advice to others?

George Bush got three million votes more than John Kerry in the last U.S. presidential election. Karl Rove is on bended knee every day in thanks for the contribution Fahrenheit 9/11 made to that surplus. If you can't win your own elections, Michael, what made you think you had anything to say about ours?

Other than that, I'm glad you called. But we defied you. Stephen Harper is prime minister, and I suppose that tells you all you need to know, which is: Canadians don't care what you think.

Rex Murphy is a commentator with CBC-TV's The National and host of CBC Radio One's Cross-Country Checkup.

Long live the King, Rex Murphy! That was hilarious and I only hope that Michael Moore and Sean Penn, in their self-righteous and indigant ways, write a response to the Daily Globe and Mail. That would be the icing on the funny cake!!!

I'm going to be looking out for Murphy, Jamie, but if you come across any more of his gems, please post them. I LOVED it!

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin