LIberal Leadership Same Old : One Man's Opinion

Sunday, December 03, 2006 03:45 AM

What is so predictable about the Liberal Leadership is that we are about to enter another period of the same old.

When Gerrard Kennedy crossed the floor to throw his support behind Stephane Dion, it had all the ear markings of the good olds days. Take 50 to 60 seats in Quebec, marry that to the 45 you get in Toronto along with a few more from the Golden Horseshoe and you have a nice slender majority which allows you to look after the people that you want, Quebec, Toronto and Golden horseshoe.

Will Stephane be a problem for Stephen Harper’s Tories?

Think about it.

Harper has already been courting Quebec trying to grab a few seats in that province. Who has the best chance of picking up votes in Quebec, Harper, or a francophone?

Kennedy is the darling of the City of Toronto, and there is money behind that crew.

So where do we fit in the mix? Well think about it, have the Ottawa coffers been spilled open in favour of this region or for that matter BC? Trying to spring a buck out of our MP’s for a home grown project hasn’t been easy because they don’t want to be viewed as a party from the west who look after their own. So Quebec gets the potatoes and gravy we get the peels.

For those who can remember, things haven’t changed much in the last fifty years. Get a francophone from Quebec as Liberal Leader and get a lieutenant from Toronto and you have winner 10 out of 10 times.

Can you just imagine if the West said that it wanted to be known as a nation within a nation to allow them to govern their own affairs, what they would be called? Permit me to answer that for you, bloody western separatists.

So Harper may be courting the province of Quebec ,that won’t have very much meaning in the final instance in whether he gets re elected as Prime Minister. With the election of Stephane Dion, this could be a rough year ahead for Stephen Harper. The Liberals could easily form an alliance and bring down the Harper team, and there are very strong signals that Dion could be a winner.

The people of the west already are feeling uncomfortable with a leader they supported who has failed to return the favour and so Harper’s support is thin. The very same people who elected him are now casting an eye into the sky wondering where they can turn to next.

I’m Meisner and that is one man’s opinion.

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Posted on Sunday, December 03, 2006 03:45 AM in Views by Ben Meisner

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Comments

Posted by: kimbo on December 3 2006 9:53 AM

Isn't that how democracy works, represention by population. Here in Prince George we have these two dead MP's that no one seems to like but they get elected election after election. And I don't even have to mention our Mayor we all know how popular he is on this website.

If any of you herd the speach by John Turner last night on how we need to engage our young people in politics. This also applies to all of us if we want good government. So get out get active and think whats best for all of us and not just "ME"

As for Iggy however you spell his name. He came in on top and ended where he should of out the door. This boy was on an ego trip and are we fortunate he is gone as suggested back to where ever he came from.

Cheers

Posted by: owl on December 3 2006 10:08 AM

"For those who can remember, things haven�t changed much in the last fifty years. Get a francophone from Quebec as Liberal Leader and get a lieutenant from Toronto and you have winner 10 out of 10 times."

Brian Mulroney - September 17, 1984 to June 24, 1993. Sounds like he used the Liberal format except he was an "Irophone". :-)

So, the question for me becomes under which of the 22 prime ministers did BC fare the best? Are we looking for something which never happened? Do we need it to happen, or has BC been doing fairly well anyway over the decades?

Are we talking about BC, or are we talking about the northern part of BC? Whose prime responsibility is the northern part of BC? We have two current MP's from here in the government, but they are not in cabinet. Instead we have Emerson from the lower mainland.

Take the Trans Canada Highway system, for instance. Chr�tien proposed to four lane the whole thing into a four lane freeway, which likely would have meant that the Yellowhead arm would have been 4 laned. The provincial governments wanted to decide how to use the money elsewhere. Was the federal government to blame, or the provincial capitals?

So, we got the feds to support border crossings in the lower mainland. Makes a lot of sense, but does not help us.

When I look at Vancouver, I see the feds helping quite a bit. When I look at the southern interior, I see the feds helping, when I look north in BC, I do not see too much.

Who should I blame? The provincial government first.

http://www.pco-bcp.gc.ca/default.asp?Language=E&Page=archivechretien&Sub=NewsReleases&Doc=kickinghorse.20030305_e.htm

Posted by: videomon on December 3 2006 12:37 PM

I am an NDPer and look forward to working with the new Liberal leader.

With this guy leading the Liberals and Layton the NDP we can get rid of the present minority administration that standS for INTOLERANCE and TOADY AMERICAN politics

It has been as if we had a republican administration for the last while and it has been quite nauseating.

BTW - legalize it Stephane Dion

Chuck Beyer :-)~

Posted by: Palopu on December 3 2006 2:18 PM

These Liberals all seem so great at the moment because of the **buzz** from the convention, however that will die down quite quickly and we will see that we have the same old gang running around under an **Old Liberal** new leader.

Harper will not lose any support in the West, and in fact will probably pick up some. In addition I suspect he will pick up some more support in Ontario and Quecbec, and the Maritimes.

The Convervatives have the necessary funding to go into an election at any time. All contributed by individuals. The Liberals at this point in time are **Broke** and a lot of them are still involved in the **Scandal**

Anyone who thinks that Harper will try to hang on to the Government and allow the Liberals/NDP to force an election is dreaming. Harper will call the election, and it will be quite soon, as he will not want the Liberals to get organized.

We will probably end up with another minority Government probably Conservative, but maybe Liberal.

Posted by: Chester on December 3 2006 4:05 PM

Well Ben, I'm pleased that Harper is courting Quebec. Where would he be if he ignored them.

Let's face it, nothing you can say is going to change the mindset of those french speaking Quebecers who truly believe that they are separate, distinct and unique to the rest of us. Chester

Posted by: Harbinger on December 3 2006 9:30 PM

Again, once the polls close in Quebec and Ontario, the election is over. You didn't hear it here first. Now if they only held the federal election in Ontario where it is decided, the government sure would save a lot of time and money.

Posted by: Chadermando on December 4 2006 1:30 AM

Northern BC is meaningless to the federal government as part of BC as a whole. It is the Lower Mainland that elects the members to parliament, so Northern BC becomes nothing more than a bargining chip to be abused for the benefit of the Lower Mainland and their political favorites. Kind of like colonial Canada was to Britain when Britain was making trade agreements with the Americans at Canadian expense in the 1800's.

The only way BC will ever see the return of our federal, provincial, and resource tax dollar invested in our future would be if Northern BC was a province equal to the other provinces in Canada, and then our representation was made in the Senate as an equal. Short of that and Northern BC is less than a territory and the equivilant of a Labrador, Northern Ontario, or your run of the mill indian reservation.

If we had strong MP's our handicap would be less noticable, but....

Posted by: Chadermando on December 4 2006 1:30 AM

I think the NDP will have the most upside potential next federal election IMO.

Posted by: kimbo on December 4 2006 9:59 AM

If northern BC was a Province would be another way of further dividing us and give the politicians more power. Divide and conquer is the strategy cureently being used by government to stay in power.

The Federal government is now providing money to Municipalities for infrastructure development. They used to get their funding from the Province.

The Proivincial government has set up health regions that give the fifedome to another body to create an empire.

The Health Minister comes to town and who does he talk to. The Chamber of Commerce. Why isnt he talking to the sick. He knows the Chamber will provide more low income jobs to keep those plebes happy.

The list goes on and on as to how we are devided. We cant see whats happening. We are deceived into beliving that if we had an empire of our own things would be much better for us when in fact we are already doing quite well. We cant see the forest for the trees.

Cheers