More blather from Dick Harris. An election could have been prevented if the Cons worked out a compromise with the opposition, but they are too stubborn to do so. And in going for an election, the Cons show contempt for all Canadians.

Really? Do you think?

They have been saber ratling for an election for more than six months. It was only a matter of waiting ofr a major issue to call a non-confidence vote.

Regarding the budget:
The Honourable Jim Flaherty made a comment on the news last night that they had been listening to "the people" about budget concerns and that they (Conservatives) incorporated those concerns into the budget.

I call Bull puckey. The only "people" that get the government ear is business leaders. Every one else is just fodder for the industrial complex. Eagleone should have some choice verbose comments on that.

The Honourable Jim Flaherty: if you want to hear what the real citizens have to say, go to PTA meetings, go to community halls, and ask the man on the street.

A person can blame whoever they want for this seemingly inevitable election...but you can certainly really blame those who are forcing an election that everybody knows that no one wants.

That hasn't changed post budget no matter how it is spun by the 3 wannabee parties.

Yet Harper's Government (the politically correct term according to the Conservatives, apparently) was negotiating right up to the last minute with Layton as there was a good possibility the NDP would not vote against the budget. Why do that if minds were made up? Obviously Harris is completely ignorant of the facts - go figure!

It may be appropriate to point out that the likelihood of the government falling and an election being called is not primarily as a result of the budget, although Conservatives will do their best to spin it that way. The reason is because Harper's Government has been accused of misleading pParliament and showing contempt for it. The story can be read here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/03/23/pol-leaders-politics.html.

Who is this Big Dick Harris that is mentioned in the article? Does he live in Stevie Land or Harper Land?

Iggy and Layton have been itching for this for quite a while.
What they think they will gain from it,is a mystery.
It is likely going to cost Iggy his job,(hey,that's not a bad thing!)and Layton stands a good chance of losing some seats for the NDP due to voter anger.
I think he is pretty much done as leader anyway,and we will likely see him resign right after the election.
These are not smart people.
It was not canadians who wanted this election but obviously what canadians want is irrellevant to them both.
They are both going to feel that at the ballot box.
There is a very good chance they have just handed Harper a majority.
Neither of them needs to waste our time telling us that they did this for canadians.
That would be an outright lie, considering it had nothing to actually do with the budget.
Is there any doubt that we are surrounded by political idiots!

Layton knows he will never be Prime Minister. I wouldn't count on an election just yet.

just a power struggle by iggy.they told the cons to inject money into the economy when the reccession started and then started crying about the deficit going up.
then our friend layton wanted more money than harper gave in the budget.talk about idiots not knowing what they want. these are the jerks who want to run the country????
iggy just wants to be called mr primeminister,even if it's only for a day.

Let me provide an example and tell me if it sounds familiar:

There is a game of football at the local elementary school. Team A is playing against Team B. Team C, D and E are waiting on the sidelines for the day that they might have enough players to field a team and also play as football is a really important game. There are fans for every team cheering and providing support for their respective team.

After years of dominating football, Team B has struggled in recent times due to getting complacent and losing touch with their fans. Team A is now the big boy on the block as they have always done well in taking care of their fans. Problem is that Team A doesnt really like to play by the long established rules of football. They have their own rules that they think are better and they believe that everyone should go along with them.

Naturally, all the other teams begin to complain that Team A is not playing fair. Team A decides that they dont really care what the other teams are saying and make a point to shout to all the fans in attendance that the other teams are full of babies and whiners. Team A has always been very good at poking fun of players on other teams. All the other teams decide that they have had enough of trying to reason with Team A and decide to form a super team, as all together they have more players than Team A combined. Team A now gets scared as they might have pushed it a little too far this time, so they decide to appeal to the referee to stop the game so they can sort out the mess and try to find common ground. After a short layoff, Team A decides to make it seem as if they will be open to listen to input from Team B, C, D, and E while continuuing to promote their team and trash the captains of the other teams to any prospective fans who have the ability to listen. This is magnificently accomplished by advertisements touting all the great things the game of football does with Team A colors in the background. Many borderline fans begin to associate the great game of football with Team A as a result.

The game resumes but it appears as if Team A is still playing by their own rules and are unwilling to find middle ground! Once it becomes painfully obvious to Team B, C, D, and E that Team A is not really genuine, they say enough is enough and decide that they don't even want to play anymore as long as Team A is playing.

Now it is inevitable that the football game will be stopped for the forseeable future. The only reasonable way to sort out this mess is to have all the fans vote on which teams they would like to see play. This will be the 4th time in 7 years that it has come to this.

Team A immediately starts to blame the other teams for being in cahoots and jeopardizing the great game. The otehr teams all point the finger at Team A.

Problem is that we have been down this road before and Team A seems to do a better job of convincing their fans to come out and vote for them!

Let me provide an example and tell me if it sounds familiar:

There is a game of football at the local elementary school. Team A is playing against Team B. Team C, D and E are waiting on the sidelines for the day that they might have enough players to field a team and also play as football is a really important game. There are fans for every team cheering and providing support for their respective team.

After years of dominating football, Team B has struggled in recent times due to getting complacent and losing touch with their fans. Team A is now the big boy on the block as they have always done well in taking care of their fans. Problem is that Team A doesnt really like to play by the long established rules of football. They have their own rules that they think are better and they believe that everyone should go along with them.

Naturally, all the other teams begin to complain that Team A is not playing fair. Team A decides that they dont really care what the other teams are saying and make a point to shout to all the fans in attendance that the other teams are full of babies and whiners. Team A has always been very good at poking fun of players on other teams. All the other teams decide that they have had enough of trying to reason with Team A and decide to form a super team, as all together they have more players than Team A combined. Team A now gets scared as they might have pushed it a little too far this time, so they decide to appeal to the referee to stop the game so they can sort out the mess and try to find common ground. After a short layoff, Team A decides to make it seem as if they will be open to listen to input from Team B, C, D, and E while continuuing to promote their team and trash the captains of the other teams to any prospective fans who have the ability to listen. This is magnificently accomplished by advertisements touting all the great things the game of football does with Team A colors in the background. Many borderline fans begin to associate the great game of football with Team A as a result.

The game resumes but it appears as if Team A is still playing by their own rules and are unwilling to find middle ground! Once it becomes painfully obvious to Team B, C, D, and E that Team A is not really genuine, they say enough is enough and decide that they don't even want to play anymore as long as Team A is playing.

Now it is inevitable that the football game will be stopped for the forseeable future. The only reasonable way to sort out this mess is to have all the fans vote on which teams they would like to see play. This will be the 4th time in 7 years that it has come to this.

Team A immediately starts to blame the other teams for being in cahoots and jeopardizing the great game. The otehr teams all point the finger at Team A.

Problem is that we have been down this road before and Team A seems to do a better job of convincing their fans to come out and vote for them!

sorry for double post everyone

What bothers me most is how a guy like Dick Harris thinks politics is about instilling fear in the voter for hypothetical scenario's to play on the ignorance of the most uninformed. What ever happened to the Ronald Reagan model of using hope and gratitude to win hearts and minds... and in the end elections.

I would ask Dick Harris what his agenda really is... when is he ever a leader on anything... as far as I can see he is an absentee MP from the riding he represents... other then at election time when he comes out with negative election campaigns playing on fears to get another few years of gold plated employment to hold down an empty seat in Ottawa ignoring the local issues that matter to his constituents. The man is about power for himself and absent of any ideas going forward that would build on the hopes and aspirations of Northern BC.... unless of course their is a corporate or party angle to pursue that has been fully vetted by the powers that be, then he represents their wishes to his constituents as a salesman of sorts.

The best thing that could happen for PG is if we had our local riding come into play this election with either an ndp or liberal taking a seat and making this area matter in Ottawa to the political agenda that takes place in Parliament. As it stands now we have the party insiders agenda represented to us and not the other way around. (ie not one single conservative candidate in the local nominee race would talk about the HST issue despite its obvious importance to a border region like the Peace River trying to attract the service sector for the oil and gas fields).

Dick Harris above logic fits only with the pattern of contempt for which his party has been found in Parliament, and that folks is no good for any of us.

Last Federal Election, Pr George Cariboo.

Conservatives 22,637
NDP 10,581
Liberal 4309
Green 2614
Ind 729

Total votes 40,870. Dick Harris got 55.39% of the vote.

Now all those opposed to the Conservatives have to do is come up with an additonal 12,056 votes and they would have a NDPer representing them. To get a Liberal elected you would have to come up with 18,328 votes.

You can knock the Conservatives all you want, but you should remember that in this part of the Country they have a lot of support and always have. When you knock Harris as a MP, you are also knocking 22,637 people who voted for him, and who will probably vote for him again.

So because he got elected by a wide margin he shouldn't be criticized?
This is a conservative riding and anyone running under the that banner would get elected. Its just sad that Dick Harris has been an MP since 1993 but has accomplished so little. He has never been considered for cabinet and done very little legislatively. 250 should have asked him about the in/out spending by the Conservatives in the last election. I believe Harris participated in this scheme.

Is this a "Conservative" riding or a "Reform Party" riding? Hmmm . . .

It also strikes me as incredibly bizarre that so many people around here despise the Provincial Liberals like they are a disease, yet they'll vote Reform (oops . . . I mean "Conservative"), when they are essentially cut from the same cloth. Do people even understand what they are voting for when they mark their ballot?

no, not really.

bah

Harris doesn't really matter as most of us are voting for a particular party. The next time around I plan on voting for the smartest ones......the ones that think having a firearms registry is going to deter criminals from committing crimes are too stupid to run a country...for me the choice is simple.

You mean keep the exising party in power.
At least twice during this term, haperites have tabled legislation to eliminate the registry. Both times, the opposition squashed it.

So, are you gonna vote for change or get rid of registry?

I agree with Dick Harris that the opposition parties should have at least read the budget and there should have been some debate.

Our parliament is so dysfunctional that it's amazing anything gets done.

I liked an article by Andrew Coyne in MacLean's magazine. He questioned the necessity of Parliament. It was shut down for 3 months at the end of 2009 by "prorogation". Nothing bad happened. Life went on. The bills were paid.

And the MP's should have a pension somewhat in proportion to what the taxpayers get. Enough of the gold plated ones.

The most disgusting thing an MP from Ontario put forth was....trying to pass a bill to get the TV networks to turn the commercials down. She was offended that they came up louder than the show she was watching. If that's the best thing she can come up with....God Help Us All. And she will get the gold plated pension by virtue of having been elected. Hopefully she will be thrown out in the next election. But she will still get her gold plated pension.

Let's talk about that one.