I still think he is abandoning ship…

the trouble with that is now he will probably have to find a job where he will have to work..
i am sure old Harper will have another friend to promote.

Conventional wisdom has traditionally been that any party must get at least 40% of the popular vote to win a majority of parliament. The Harper Conservatives managed to bend that rule somewhat in the last election where they eked out a small majority with 38.9% of votes, helped by Pierre Poutine and robocalls. While there is a solid 28% of Conservatives that will vote for Harper no matter what illegal and despicable affronts he presents to our nation, there is no way he will convince the same number of Canadians to vote for him again. Baird is just one of the first rats to jump ship. Just wait, there will be more.

Herbster. You seem confused. Are you not aware that the **rats** are in the opposition?? Have been for sometime and will be for some time to come,.

Baird for all intents and purposes was nothing more than a loud mouth and made out to be bigger than he is by the press.

There are changes coming to the MP pension plans that will keep MP’s from collecting their full pensions until the age of 65. If Baird and some others leave now they can get full pensions. My guess is that this is the real reason they are leaving.

Don’t get confused by what you would like to see happen and what will probably happen.

I think that says more about how many people were stupid enough to vote Liberal and NDP! It could even be less than 38.9% this time, for whoever wins.

John Baird will be back someday. For now, he is buying a bus and searching for the missing Richard Simmons.

Look him up in wiki . Another career politeettion . The only thing he’s ever done outside of seat warming is as a lobbyist . Which is another form of seat warming . He’s going into the private sector ? It’s a blow to the neocons that he is packing it in ? I’m sure he and steve will still be BFFs forever . Maybe a seat in the senate could use his warm butt . That way they can still be together in the same town . Crazy Canucks will vote for anything but their own self interests .

Now this guy could be a real good Prime Minister.

The most partisan politician in parliament. Biard would make a good dictator and with his foreign policy we can see what he really stands for… Civil war in the Ukraine, ethnic cleansing in Israel,foreign control of Canadian courts and parliament through investment treaties with communist China…. The list is long for John Baird foreign affairs achievements. His counterparts in the UN will have nothing to do with him and boycot his speeches which says a lot about his skills as a politician and the reputation he bestowed on Canada.

Expect an early election. His resignation triggers a byelection prior to the next scheduled federal election and will give Harper the excuse to call the election early so as to avoid accountability for the Mike Duff influence peddling with Senate dollars during the last election.

I think the Europeans told him to get lost and not come back. They don’t want war in Europe and seen Baird as the number one champion of a war with Russia in Europe. The leaders of Germany and France said as much to Kerry and the state department this last week as well.

You are all missing the big issue. With Baird’s departure, now who is going to lecture the nation?

@NMG Paul calandra ? He’s got a soft spot for foriegn policy imbalance or is it in his head . Either way he’s perfect . And he can fain real tears in public while whining at the same time .

Perhaps we could get Ignatieff to come back to Canada, become a Conservative, and take on the foreign affairs job. He would fit right in with those other dufus’s in Europe.

It worked for Emerson Liberal-Conservative-Private Sector cushy job, no reason why it wouldn’t work again.

Say what you will, but there are many many of us who believe that we are much better off with Harper and the Conservatives!

Trudeau and the Liberals? You can’t be serious?

Mulcair and the NDP? Seriously? See my comment re: Trudeau and the Liberals?

In the next election, the NDP will once again end up in their rightful place, 3rd place!

The Liberals, under Trudeau, will once again become the official opposition, giving Trudeau even more of an opportunity to show what a complete and total idiot he is!

As per the wishes of the voters, Harper and the Conservatives will once again form Government!

A recent poll from EKOS Research, conducted from January 28 to February 3, showed that “With help from a surprising surge in Quebec, the Conservatives have taken a three- point lead over the Liberals nationally and are again flirting with a majority”.

Anything is better than Harper. It’s the first time in my life that I’m actually embarassed to be a Canadian. The guy is a complete idiot on the world stage.

Yeah right . Better off with a chicken hawk leading from a closet . You must be kidding . Your guy is a coward , propagandist , incompident and he’s going to run on the fear card . He can’t run on the economy because it’s a disaster . The other parties only need use one phrase ” it’s the economy stupid ” . Now your hero is setting up Canada’s first secret police . Ain’t parlimentary dictatorship great . Canadians never cease to amaze me .

Hart guy considering the incoherent comments, good chance Harper will have a majority. Why are the left so rude?

The Green Party , liberals and NDP are the majority in canada . The neocons are the minority and with that said , we should all be saying . It’s about the economy stupid . Btw did you see Andrew weaver mla ,leader of the Bc greens , win his case of defamation against the national post ( Steve’s favorite msm ) . Those fossils have no class but Andy now has an extra 50 k and the national post are a bunch of liars , so says the judge .

Ataloss, Andrew Weaver, are you serious!

Ataloss. The Canadian Secret Service was run by the RCMP until June of 1984 when the Trudeau LIBERAL Government set up the Canadian Security Intelligence Service **CSIS**. Through an Act of Parliament.

So, so much for your insight into the Intelligence Service in Canada.

Actually the economy at this point is not in bad shape with the exception of Oil which we have little control over.

I expect that the economy is going to get a hell of a lot worse before it gets better, and if you think young Trudeau, or Mulcair can run this Country you are in deep denial.

Yes seamut . Are you watching the greens growing exponencially in Britain as the election nears ? Palopu you have bought the coolaid Steve and msm have been feeding you . The whole best economy in the g7 bs has been built on the backs of the young in the condo market which is as large if not larger than the oil industry . It’s all been borrowed . Lose credit . Money is still cheap but the game is over exept for a very few locals . Just wait till the next jobs number come out .

Ataloss. I notice you ignored my information on the Secret Police in Canada.

I don’t recall twisting anyones arm to buy a condo. Nor did I advise them to max out their credit cards.

Don’t blame Harper for the stupidity of others. He is the Prime Minister of Canada, not a bloody baby sitter.

If this Country hits the skids there is lots of blame to go around.

Yes I ignored it because I don’t think you understand the bill and or the lack of over sight . More of civil libertys eroded .
You should go to wiki and read the bios on trudeau , may , Mulcair and harper . Harper is the least educated of the lot by a very large margin . It’s there for all to see . Steve couldn’t hack it in a real university . Steve got pumped out of the blue school at an amazing age . At that same age Justin was already a grown up .

Funny how every one jumped on Mulcair when he talked about a petrodollar and “Dutch Disease” . Well now he has been proven right, the manufacturing sector has been gutted by years of a high dollar, and yet all you Conservatives think Harper is some sort of economic genius. Again, Alberta is the poster child for Harpers policies, and yet it hasn’t managed to balance a budget in 5 years, and probably not in the next two as well. The free trade, corporate welfare which Harper has perfected to a fine art, has left Alberta unable to pay its bills despite exporting over 2 million barrels of oil a day. Ontario and Quebec have lost thousands of good paying jobs due to our high dollar of the past.

It is time for the Liberals and NDP to pull us out of this Conservative mess. Mulroney led everyone down the garden path while he was in power, now Harper has done the same. But never mind you Conservatives – Harper will keep you safe from the big bad bogeyman of ISIS, with the police state he is creating!

Herbster, Liberals, NDP you have a short maybe selective memory when it comes to the liberals. Herbster, Ontario lost jobs because of high energy prices from chasing idiotic bird grinders.

Ataloss are you referring to the whip it out drama teacher? Just where do you get your information about politics in the UK, ever heard of the The UK Independence Party. Do try to keep up. Supproting the dreamers like Weaver and May will lighten your wallet big time.

No seamut . I was referring to his math teaching . And the many other degrees he has won at some in univercities that harper could never have attended due to his limited intellect . I was not referring to his summer of teaching kids between degrees . I may have confused you with that wiki thing . It’s wikipedia . That’s where reality lives .

Seamutt, give your head a shake, you know better living in a resource town. The impact of a high dollar far outweighs a high input cost such as electricity.

seamutt, the only budget surpluses Harper has had were those he inherited from the Liberals. It only took him two years to waste those, since then we have had seven straight years of deficit financing. Harper is indeed some sort of genius, not for being a good money manager, but by being able to convince Conservatives that he is. Thankfully the majority of Canadians don’t buy his bullsh*t and will vote him out.

Year Surplus/deficit Adjusted % of GDP
2006 13.8 15.1 0.9
2007 9.6 10.3 0.6
2008 -5.8 -6.1 -0.4
2009 -55.6 -58.2 -3.6
2010 -33.3 -34.1 -2.1
2011 -26.2 -26.2 -1.5
2012 -25.9 -25.2 -1.4
2013 -18.9 -18.4 -1.0
2014 -16.6 -15.9 -0.9

Seven years of Conservative deficits vs seven years of Liberal surpluses!

Survey says: Vote Liberal!

But, but, the Liberals don’t have a leader yet……….

All hail the great Harper, aka the Wizard of Oz- pay no attention to that little man behind the curtain! Lol!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWyCCJ6B2WE

If the Conservatives had opted not to run deficit budgets after 2008 you’d all be crying about massive unemployment, people losing their homes, business failures galore, and a heartless Federal government that didn’t care about anything other than balancing its books.

Considering what the rest of the world has gone through economically since 2008, Harper’s government has done a pretty good job in comparison. They’ve kept taxes down for the average Canadian, and we haven’t been hit nearly as hard as what we would have been by rising prices if new taxes on businesses had been, as they would only have to be, passed on to consumers here.

As for the new ‘anti-terrorist’ legislation, we witnessed far more draconian administration under Trudeau, Sr, when he proclaimed the War Measures Act, which gave him and his government far more sweeping powers over all our traditional rights and freedoms WITHOUT any judicial oversight whatsoever. Who can forget that journalist asking him, “How far will you go?”, and him answering, “Just watch me.” We’ve never heard anything like that out of Stephen Harper. Ever.

And lets not forget that BC got rid of the hated HST WITHOUT any interference whatsoever from Harper, whose government was greatly enriched by it. Would the people of BC been able to do that under the Trudeau Liberals, if they’d been in office? Not bloody likely.

If the best you can do for Harper is to make excuses about how things could be worse with Pierre Trudeau in power, then the conservatives are in serious trouble.

Why not ask about the 16 billion wasted in Afghanistan, or about the 40 billion that is going to be wasted on the F-35 program if Harper gets back into office?

Why not ask why he wasn’t able to deliver on either the keystone or Energy east pipelines after being in power for 9 years? You can be certain if he gets back in Northern Gateway will rear its ugly head once again.

Harper has been a mediocre PM at best, has accomplished nothing of importance, and tackled none of the pressing issues of our times. He has pandered to the nervous nellies with his law and order agenda even as crime has continued to decrease. But getting out the senior vote is how his bread is buttered, even though he continues to destroy the younger generations prospects.

Ataloss, if you believe that ‘reality’ lives on Wikipedia, you’re dreaming in technicolour. There are biographical articles there absolutely riddled with errors. I was reading one just the other night about Herb Doman, the late coastal lumberman. It stated erroneously, amongst several other mistakes in it, that Mr. Doman had been born in Paldi, India. He was actually born in Paldi, BC, and never lived in India. Stephen Harper had to get a job after he finished university. He didn’t have a ‘trust fund’ to keep him while he amused himself stroking his intellect, or whatever else young Trudeau has ever done to keep himself from getting too bored.

Stephen Harper grew up as the coddled son of a top Exxon executive. It would have been better for all of us if he had a trust fund that would have allowed him to broaden his horizons and come up with a few novel ideas rather than follow in his fathers footsteps as a handmaiden to Big Oil.

Everything about the last 9 years of Stephen Harper is about his delusions of creating a Canadian energy superpower. Too bad the oilsands are profitable only on the margin. Alberta is bankrupt, and so is Harpers vision of Canada.

Andrew J. Weaver is a world renowned mathematician with a nobel prize for mathematics . Elizabeth May is a self made woman and lawyer . Andrew took a 50% hair cut in wages to serve his province .

Did you know that Bc is the only province that charges MSP premiums . If you make 30k a year or 3 million a year you pay the same MSP . So how does it feel to be subsidizing the one percents healthcare costs . Who in your right mind would vote for cc. Andrew has started a petition to ask cc to stop this practice . If you think this is wrong , go to the Green Party website and sign the petition . One of the many immoralities Andrew is addressing on your behalf .

@herbster if you read Steve’s mentor/ professors book persona non grata by Tom flanagan . In it you will find him saying that stevie is child that never quite grew up . And much much more . It’s a creepy book .full of creepy people . Steve threw him under the bus .

The Green Machine is on a slow train to nowhere.

The Greens, much like the NDP, and some left leaning Liberals, want the Government to blow their noses, wipe their butts, and generally get as much as they can with as little effort as they can. They are all talk and no action.

It would almost be worth it to see an NDP Government get elected Federally so people could see just how politically, and business challenged they are.

It took Harper less than 20 years to raise the Conservative Party from the dead, put it back together, and form the Government for the past 9 years, (with a majority).

We can go way back to the 1930’s and the old CCF party which then morphed into the NDP up until to-day, some 85 years later, and the NDP is still stumbling around in the political wilderness trying to form a functional party and form a Government.

To say that the CCF/NDP is a failure of the highest magnitude would be an understatement.

My suggestion to Ataloss and Herbster is. Come back when you have a party that can form a Government, rather than one that holds the worlds record for continuous bitching, bellyaching, and complaining.

The Conservatives are holding at 33% in the polls. They have no possibility of getting a majority in the next election. It will be most likely a Liberal minority government, and it can do no worse than Harper has done. I am optimistic that it will do much better.

herbster, I highly doubt the Conservatives are in ‘serious trouble’. My own opinion is that if the election were called right now they’d most likely go back in with just about as many seats as they presently have, and might even gain a few. The tone of the rhetoric from their opponents indicates as much. What comes across from that is their extreme fear that’s just what’s going to happen. And it probably would, and likely still will later on, whenever the election is called.

What Harper has going for him is not that he’s so good, but rather that the public’s perception of the others is still they’d be far worse. The simple fact of the matter is, NONE of the current political Parties are really fit to govern this country, but the Liberals and NDP are still seen to be even less fit than Harper’s Conservatives.

Someday we may be fortunate enough to have some politicians brave enough to question whether those ‘figures’ with the dollars sign in front of them used by modern finance accurately and completely REFLECT numerically the physical ‘facts’ of production and consumption. As they’re supposed to be able to do. The Liberals and the NDP are both highly unlikely to EVER do that. The Conservatives, on the other hand, will just as likely eventually be forced to do that. Or go extinct. Until we do, we’re going to continue to pursue policies that will promise “full employment”, while we all suffer the inanities of being told we need to work harder and longer and produce more and consume less to have it.

The Greens will never bite the hand that feeds them. And that hand is the one in control of a different kind of ‘green’ ~ the color of money.

Don’t be scared so credible . It won’t hurt a bit to inject a lot more intellegents into both the Bc legislature and the House of Commons . You should pay careful attention to the word commons . There will always be room for greens and others in the commons . House or otherwise .

Harper will win with the help of the attack adds. I predict they will be the best yet.

@hartly2 nothing beats ITS ABOUT THE ECONOMY STUPID !!!!

Ya Weaver is smart, smart enough to ride the CAGW gravy train will the trough is full.

Palopu, whats with this ‘Harper built the conservative party over 20-years’ line. I don’t think he was even a member until he ran for its leadership in the new millennium under the Canadian alliance banner. He was elected a pc conservative under Mulroney. It was Manning that built the party and its image as fiscally responsible… a coat tail Harper road to office on a fallacy of his own character.

Everything about Harper and his economic policy is failed trickle down economics that sounds good from a guy who thinks he is book smart… typical oil tycoon type of thinking.

Harper policy is to bail out banks that gambled and profited from their gambling away their fiduciary duty to our financial system, and when their ponzi schemes collapse its the tax payers and society through a Harper federal government that bail out the banks buying back financial failed assets 100% on the dollar for society to realize the full loss. Our Central banks have been printing fiat money inflating the money supply to pay out bankers from failed ‘collateral’, and Harper has been taping into this to finance his own deficits in the tens of billions of dollars a year (for future generations to pay back at much higher interest rates).

These guys preach capitalism for the little guy, but are the first in line for a bail out for their own failures. If we truly did have a capitalist system these failed gamblers in our banking system would have been wiped out, and others with more responsible capital formation would have replaced the likes of those who should have had to pay a cost for threatening all of our financial future with their self regulated fraudulent crap of greedy people. Credit unions would have risen up, possibly government sponsored lending institutions using the hundred billion of fiat currency that bailed out the bankers.

Its just sickening that anyone could argue that social credit for bankers should take precedence from the top of society, with the rest left to play catch up from a law and order ‘capitalist’ controlled economy heavily tilted towards the 1% through their monopoly access to fiat capital. When ones looks at the global scale of Harper policy of massive record breaking deficits, record low interest rates, an oil industry police state… and clearly Harper is about avoiding accountability for the 1% while screwing real seniors on fixed incomes and the generations any younger than himself.

If interest rates went only to the historical 50-year average than Harper’s policy will have bankrupted the country. He gut the manufacturing industry that gives us sovereign sustainability, made the country reliant on resource exports, increased the national debt nearly $200 Billion dollars, and actively encourages a massive housing bubble with unlimited foreign investors, record low interest rates, and a CMHC that guarantees the bankers 100% return on over leveraged mortgages.

Socredible I think is very dangerous in that he is hard core Harper, not because he believes in what he sells, but because in Socreds world Harper’s policies will bankrupt the existing banking system fastest with unregulated banks and fiat central bankers… thereby through complete collapse of our financial system proving some kind of point that would in Socreds mind enable his own view of how our system of currency should be governed. Its almost a treasonous form of politics if he wasn’t so open about it.

Palopu at least is just a dupe that doesn’t get it, but Socred has a sinister agenda afoot defending Harper as champions in an arena of inept fools, as the lesser of evils approach, with a hidden agenda hoping for a Harper induced failure of the banking system via massive fiat money bail outs of unregulated out of control bankers. I think that is a risky approach and prefer to think social credit to the people and the rule of law in a regulated banking system is a much safer route for everyone outside of the 1% regardless of generation.

I almost think governments should just be honest and run on social credit, but greed would take over and there would be even less accountability than now… so the next best thing is a level of social credit to citizenry equal in its distribution that at least equals the amount of prime interest collected in the country, and then a government that still has to fund itself through taxation that sets the structure in the economy which ensures a level of accountability for spending. If banks can lend out 20/1 in theory and collect interest on that, then why not a small monetary creation being returned to the economy through social credit as well so we are not a nation of beggar debt slaves… when one thinks of the trillions created for banker through derivatives and what not?

So that is all to say I think Harper works by and for the agenda of globalist banksters, and in no way the interests of Canada as a nation. His record speaks for itself. I hope we get a minority government if for no other reason than some accountability within parliament.