"I'm Not Stephen Harper"

This has been making the rounds on Facebook:

And yet the latest from Harris-Decima shows that amongst women, the Conservatives under Harper still have more support (34%) than do the Liberals under Ignatieff (30%) or the NDP under Layton (18%).

Sounds like a better pickup line might be "I'm not Michael Ignatieff!"

Question of the Day

Q: What do Margaret Atwood and a Vacuum Cleaner have in common?

A: They both suck.

In other news...

We're still talking relentlessly about Bruce Carson while this is ignored and this wasn't, and a Liberal candidate who belongs to a white-power group makes blatantly racist and disparaging remarks about aboriginals, muslims and gays (and subsequently quickly disappears off the front page never to be brought up again). Does anyone think for a second that if Andre Forbes had been a Tory this wouldn't be everywhere, for days on end?

Fresh off the Steaming pile of...

...is this example of poignant, relevant, and insightful political commentary. Apparently, it's newsworthy (and plagiarism to boot!) if your campaign ad features waving flags, rural scenes, orchestral scores (every link I could find...), pride in country and military (oops), and national achievements (things you NEVER see in campaign ads). I would normally like to toss out a detailed analysis of all the ways calling this plagiarism is asinine, but let's make this short:

Are you freaking kidding me?

Campaign ad content is usually repetitive with little change found among countries in the central themes, and the fact that similar content shows up across the board is hardly indicative of 'plagiarism'. Ask yourself: What themes have Harper's Tories focused on over the last few years? The military. Pride in country. Rural Canada. The Arctic. Economic growth and stability. And pray tell, what themes do you see in this ad? Exactly.

Further to this is the typical 'Tea Party/America/Republican' card that always seems to be trotted out as a hammer to whack the Tories on the head with; I suppose the insinuation is that it's really scary if the Tories have any similarities, no matter how tiny or spurious, to those 'nasty right-wingers to our south'. Canadians will instinctively recoil at any hint of American involvement in our political discourse; unless of course it's done by Liberals, in which case you won't hear about it.

You want a real plagiarism story? How come we never heard about this? It's a great find by Paul, and I would suggest you spread it around as much as you can if this becomes another two-day non-issue story in the media; If any Tory brass are reading, you're lucky someone found this for you.

Still waiting for coverage of the issues...I probably won't hold my breath though.

*Update* Thanks should be given to the Liberal Party for playing the Conservative ad on their YouTube channel! It's not often your opponents are dumb enough to spread your message for you.

Honestly, the more controversy this ad generates, the more it will get played. It's a great ad; this is a bad thing how?

*upper-date* Took me a while, but I cobbled together a side by side video comparison for your viewing pleasure. If it gets any media attention, it will be worth the loss of sleep!

Update: Thanks should be given to the Liberal Party for playing the Conservative ad on their YouTube channel! It's not often your opponents are dumb enough to spread your message for you.

Honestly, the more controversy this ad generates, the more it will get played. It's a great ad; this is a bad thing how?

100reasons.ca

At 100reasons.ca, the motto is "There are literally 100 reasons not to vote for Harper's Conservative Party... but you may only need one." Included in its list of "alternatives" to the Conservative party is the Bloc Québecois.

Here at Uncommon Truths, our motto of the day is "If you claim you care about Canadian democracy, maybe you shouldn't promote the destruction of the country?"

John Tory Sr. Dies

John Tory Sr. has passed away age the age of 81 from a stroke. Condolences are extended to his family and friends.

Thoughts of the N.A.H. protest.

Life is busy, and it's been a while!

Thought I'd drop a quick commentary on the "Newfoundanders Against Harper" rally, and particularly on the cbc.ca reporting of the event. This story, posted online by the CBC, makes absolutely no mention that the rally was organized by the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour; in fact, it celebrates it as a supposed grass-roots, social-media inspired event towards the end of the article. One of the prominent speakers at this rally was Lana Payne, head of the NLFL and perpetual anti-Conservative/anti-Harper columnist for The Telegram (A sampling of her work can be seen here, should you be courageous enough to brave her commentary). Furthermore, commenting on the story is disabled so there's no way let readers know this was anything but a grass-roots protest; I'd like to know exactly why the CBC thought a simple story such as this should be closed to comments, though I have a theory or two already in mind.

Regardless, by the reports of the enthusiastic and packed crowd present at the event (which was attended by Premier Kathy Dunderdale), the strong slate of Conservative candidates in the province (many of whom are prominent former provincial cabinet ministers), and the announcement of federal support for a Loan Guaarantee to develop the Lower Churchill project from Prime Minister Harper, support for an ABC campaign in this province is likely limited to those who already can't stand the Conservatives to begin with. My prediction for this election is that you can expect to see at least two seats in this province go Conservative, and quite possibly more.

N.A.H.? Nah.