Category: Government

E minus 6 days and counting.

The election machine grinds along in London North Centre and Repentigny. After what seems a long and distinguished absence from the Repentigny race, BQ leader has finally popped out of his hole. Legend has it that, if he sees his shadow, we will have six more years of grumblymooching before the next referendum.

Back in London, Freeps columnist Rory the Tory Leishman sounded off today with 7 damned good reasons why Haskett isn’t just the best choice in the riding; if you think about it, she’s the only choice in the riding. Meanwhile, Haskett herself stuck a pin in the “she’s a religious fanatic” baloon by being the only one of seven candidates to decline to answer a series of morality-based questions from the Christian group Citizen Impact London. As Jack Baribeau, president of Citizen Impact, put it:

Baribeau said he engaged in “a little bit of arm-twisting,” but it did no good.

“Dianne has never done things in an orthodox way . . . I had to respect her approach.”

So much for the canard of Haskett being some sort of blindly obedient zealot. 🙄

The Librano$’ Barbie Girl also slid through town, stopping long enough to stump for Grit Glen Pearson, but couldn’t even seem to impress the hopeless Lefties of Richmond Row:

“So they come in here and the photographers climb on chairs. Whoop-de-doo. I’ve got friends who support the Green Party, so if I did vote, I’d probably vote Green anyway.”

She also served as one helluva handy reminder of just who it is that really is the candidate to beat in this race:

Stronach didn’t dodge any questions, using most as a launching pad to attack the Conservative government led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Time for the links:

The Ministry of What You Should Think
Duceppe defends priest candidate in Repentigny byelection

The Freeps
Haskett only choice in London byelection
Haskett refuses group’s queries
Stronach stumps on behalf of Glen Pearson

No, I’m not talking about Iraq, or even Americans in general. Stuff that.

What I am talking about is that the House of Commons has voted unanimously in favour granting a full state funeral to the last surviving veteran of the Great War. This has been a while in the making, but definitely worth it. I don’t have time to go too deep into this yet, so here’s just a few links:

MPs support state funeral for last surviving WWI veteran

State funeral for last war vet wins approval

Petitioners Win

House approves state funeral for last WWI vet

Damned good news, no matter how you slice it. More will come later in the day.

E minus 7 days and counting.

Well, this makes for an interesting, if hardly surprising, turn in the London North Centre race: it seems that longtime NDP bedbuddy, the CAW, won’t be getting in line behind Dipper Megan Walker after all. Yup, the biggest union in the city is hopping on the Librano$’ Glen Pearson’s bandwagon. This really shouldn’t come as any kind of surprise to anybody though, considering that it’s been obvious for a while that the unions, one by one, are writing off Smirkin’ Jack! and Co. as a lost cause.

Two reasons can be speculated for this: 1) the Dippers, while they may have their roots in down-to-earth types such as Joe Lunchbox and Farmer Bob, have been abandoning that base for years as they shift more and more to the elitist Looney Left and 2) unions have jumped on the “Anybody But Harper” boogeyman bandwagon and have come to the conclusion that Grits have a better chance of winning than Dippers and have chosen to go with a “strategic voting” strategy accordingly.

Isn’t it interesting, though, that in spite of all the hairballs hacked up by the MSM about Haskett being “too far to the Right” to win, every other campaign seems to be targeting her like she’s the candidate to beat (which she is, of course 😉 )…

Meanwhile, in Repentigny, Raymond Gravel seems to have gotten the hang of politics; he’s learned how to waffle.

Read more in the links du jour:

The Freeps
Blog furor drags byelection battle into gutter
CAW local plans to back Pearson
Still chance to sway voters
Campaign notebook

Canada.com
Bloc candidate vows to abstain on issues contrary to Catholic ideology

E minus 8 days and counting.

Moving into the home stretch now, ladies and gents. With the byelections in London North Centre and Repentigny barely more than a week away now, we can finally start to think that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel and not worry so much that it might just be the lamp on an oncoming choochoo.

And now, on to the links:

Da Freeps
Down the stretch they come

CTV
London, Ont. an important political test market

Ottawa Citizen
Front-runners in Ont. byelection fight for left-wing votes

E minus 10 days and counting.

And here we go… The MSM continues to hoot that London North Centre is pretty much a writeoff for the Tories, the Dippers tried to suck up to the unions (BIG surprise there, eh?), Memogate seems to have finally shut the hell up and John Q. Londoner seems to think that Haskett’s going to win. Make what you will of it, boys and girls; I’m off to the pub…

The Freeps
No place for cliches
New Democrat appeals to auto workers, industry

The TO Star
Would you buy this brand?

Canada.com
Front-runners in Ont. byelection fight for left-wing votes
Battle wide open in London, Ont., byelection as voting day draws near

Hamilton Spectator
Candidates on the attack

E minus 11 days and counting.

It just keeps going, and going, and going… Move over, bunny, Memogate is here. Yup, the Night of the Living Dunderheads continues as the story of Dave and the Memo continues to lurch and shamble across London North Centre’s political landscape, stubbornly refusing to die. Most of would settle for having it just shut the hell up! I know I would. 🙄 Yes, it’s fun to see the HypoGrits getting spanked with their own favourite little paddle of indignation, but it does get old after a while. And not too much of a while, either. To be blunt, people are just getting sick and tired of hearing about it. Move on, already; there are real issues we want to hear about.

The first all candidates’ slugfest rolled into the UWO campus last night and brought about the usual anti-Tory spin in the media. The Freeps’ story (as you can see below) was headlined “Haskett draws wave of boos,” giving the idea that she is somehow universally loathed. Read the story, however, and you find this little nugget:

Her assertion produced a barrage of booing from the mainly student crowd, which was soon drowned out by cheers from her supporters.

Funny what a headline can do, huh? Time for the links:

The Freeps
‘Memo-gate’ remains a mystery
Campaign notebook
Haskett draws wave of boos