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cinch
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Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Jul 2002
time: 22:19
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"I have always said: 'A successful NDP, you call that a Liberal.'"
-Gilles Duceppe
ZING!
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cinch
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Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Jul 2002
time: 22:19
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quote:
Originally posted by Uncle Sparky
I've voted in every election all levels. While living in Alberta, I did rejected (handed back unmarked) the senatorial slate ballots as they were meaningless. |
I spoiled mine.
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embalmer42
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The Great State Of Insanity
Jan 2000
time: 05:19
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quote:
Originally posted by notyoueither
A fairly clever fellow whose words I have had occassion to read had this to say about another subject, but which I feel to be apropos to Canada's federal political scene.
quote:
The point is that it's very easy to frighten people. Not so easy to make them see sense. |
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I guess we've proven that statement ten times over.....
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Shi Huangdi
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Pittsburgh, PA
Apr 1999
time: 00:19
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According to the BBC, anger is further rising in Canada over the scandal.
quote:
Scandal anger mounts in Canada
By Lee Carter
BBC News, Toronto
Martin says he knew nothing about the missing millions
As sensational revelations continue to pour out of a Canadian government corruption scandal inquiry, public anger is mounting across the country against the governing Liberals.
The larger question will be whether that anger will translate into calls for a new election less than a year after Canadians last went to the polls.
On Thursday explosive testimony from the previous week, by an advertising executive, was released for the first time, when the judge presiding over the public inquiry lifted a publication ban.
The inquiry is investigating how millions of dollars were paid by the Liberal government in the late 1990s to advertising firms in the province of Quebec, after Canada's auditor-general concluded that little or no work was performed and the money was largely unaccounted for.
'All the way to the top'
Under the leadership of the former Liberal Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, the so-called sponsorship programme was supposed to promote national unity in the primarily French-speaking province.
You've got to wonder whether journalists' imagination were going a little crazy
Kady O'Malley
Journalist, The Hill Times
According to the allegations released on Thursday, Jean Brault, the owner of the Groupaction advertising agency at the centre of the scandal, claimed that illegal campaign contributions worth millions of dollars were also channelled back to the Liberal party through an intricate system of false invoices and cash payments.
And at the end of the week, a Groupaction employee alleged that some orders to the advertising agencies came directly from the Canadian prime minister's office.
Mr Chretien, who has already appeared before the enquiry, denies any wrongdoing.
His successor, Paul Martin, told the inquiry that although he was the country's finance minister at the time, he knew almost nothing about the programme and the missing millions.
Tantalising ban
Mr Martin came to office vowing to get to the bottom of the scandal.
But with each new revelation, public anger with the government seems to grow.
Chretien also denies any wrongdoing
The opposition parties will be trying to gauge just how disaffected Canadians are with the Liberal's teetering minority government in the days ahead
The story was made all the more tantalising by the surreal sight of a media champing at the bit, but being unable to report any details for several days, because of Justice Gomery's publication ban, imposed because he felt it could prejudice a future criminal trial.
Instead Canadians heard such phrases as "explosive revelations considered so damaging they could topple the government" blaring out from their nightly TV news, without any details.
No smoking gun
Kady O'Malley, a journalist for the Ottawa parliamentary newspaper The Hill Times, says the media may have got carried away and become a victim of its own hype.
People want to hear real solutions to real problems
Benoit Dutrizac
Television presenter
"You've got to wonder whether journalists' imagination were going a little crazy as they imagined colour photos of Paul Martin handing over big bags with dollar signs on them to Groupaction," she said.
"While there's definitely a lot of meat there and new things we didn't know before, the testimony generally supports what we've heard already."
Ms O'Malley also believes the opposition parties did not get the one piece of evidence they were looking for.
"If they thought there was a smoking gun linking the current prime minister, they were probably disappointed." she said.
'Soap opera'
The part of Canada where the scandal has been the number one issue for political debate is French-speaking Quebec, because that is where all the alleged corruption took place.
As most of the testimony has been in French it has been virtually treated as a ghoulish nightly TV soap opera by many in the province.
After all, the sponsorship programme was introduced to quell the separatist sentiment that led to a 1995 Quebec referendum that came within a hair's breadth of choosing secession from the rest of the country.
Benoit Dutrizac is a TV presenter for the French-language station Tele-Quebec.
He said people in the province are disgusted by what they are hearing from the public inquiry.
"To see all this quarrelling and money being wasted, I think they're really fed up with all this cheating and lying."
Separatism 'waning'
Mr Dutrizac said people in the province are also upset about how they might now be perceived by the rest of Canada.
"Canadians from other provinces probably see Quebeckers as opportunists, liars and thieves. That hurts me. I'm sure that Quebeckers see these French-speaking witnesses at the enquiry every day and feel embarrassed."
The Canadian media has even been debating whether the scandal will lead to renewed anti-federalist sentiment in the province.
But Mr Dutrizac says that separatist sentiment is declining, despite the scandal.
"The last time I checked about 40% of Quebeckers wanted a new deal with Canada," he said
"But frankly, nobody cares about that any more really. I think people want to hear real solutions to real problems."
Meanwhile the slightly more unreal world of Justice Gomery's public enquiry continues.
He is expected to make his final report in November.
It may however look like a crumpled footnote, if Canadians end up going to the polls between now and then.
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notyoueither
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of naught
Aug 2001
time: 22:19
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Well, the only poll that really matters is that held where ballots are counted, but if you want to talk polls...
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNe...?hub=TopStories
quote:
Tories gain lead nationally over Liberals: poll
CTV.ca News Staff
While a federal election call looms closer and closer by the day, a new poll shows Stephen Harper and the Conservatives have surged ahead of Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberals nationally.
A CTV News and Globe and Mail poll, conducted by The Strategic Counsel, finds that the Conservatives would win 31 per cent of the vote if an election were to be held today.
The Liberals, meanwhile, have slid three points in popularity to 27 per cent.
The NDP has gained some ground, at 20 per cent, while the Bloc Quebecois has stayed the same at 14. The Green Party lost a few points and settles at seven per cent.
There's more bad news for the Liberals in the key battleground of Ontario. The Conservatives have gained a narrow lead in front of the Liberals, with a surge in support to 35 per cent.
The Liberals have dropped to 34 per cent, while the NDP has 25 and the Green party seven.
In Quebec, the separatist Bloc now enjoys a massive 40 point lead over the Liberals.
The leaders
The news gets worse for the Liberals when it comes to the party leaders' personal ratings.
The sponsorship scandal seems to have eaten away at Martin's once-vaunted credibility, according to the poll's findings.
When asked to name which of the party leaders was the most dishonest:
63 per cent of Canadians named Martin as being the least honest;
20 per cent chose Harper;
5 per cent of respondents said NDP Leader Jack Layton; and
3 per cent named Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe.
The picture gets even darker for Martin: 61 per cent of Canadians say they believe Martin would lie if it would help him politically; 54 per cent call him hypocritical; while 47 percent say he's indecisive.
"Paul Martin is looking like a caricature of a stereotypical politician -- a person who is prepared to lie, a person who is prepared to bribe people with their own money," pollster Allan Gregg told CTV News.
Harper, meanwhile, has gained crucial momentum going into an election, with poll results indicating that Canadians are beginning to warm up to him and his vision.
However, he's yet to shake off the cool, remote image that many believe has been holding down Conservative support across the country.
When Canadians were asked which party leader they would most like to have dinner with, both Martin (23 per cent) and Layton (25 per cent) edged out Harper, who took 19 per cent of the vote. Duceppe trailed far behind at 10 per cent nationally, but won 35 per cent in Quebec.
Popular Layton
Despite his party's perennial third or fourth place finishes, Canadians continue to see Jack Layton in a positive light.
The NDP leader scores strongly in areas of principle, honesty, charisma, and possessing values that are closest to Canadians.
Ottawa-based image consultant Bernie Gauthier says voters see Layton as less partisan and petty than the other leaders.
"He has done a terrific job, especially in the last week or so of taking the high road. It's the road less travelled now," Gauthier told CTV News.
Martin's track record
The Liberals acknowledge their own polling shows that their leader has been tainted by the sponsorship scandal. But Steve, McKinnon, the party's national director, says the Liberals still view Martin as being their strongest asset.
"When Canadians must judge between Paul Martin, Stephen Harper, Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe . . . they will choose Paul Martin because of his track record," McKinnon told CTV News.
But Martin's eroding credibility explains why the Liberals have been desperately trying to delay an election, reports CTV Ottawa bureau chief Robert Fife.
"Martin needs time to re-connect with voters, and the Liberal party needs to recover from the Gomery revelations," he said.
Polling details: This poll was conducted for CTV and The Globe and Mail by The Strategic Counsel. Telephone interviewing was conducted between May 2nd and May 8th, 2005. The weighted nation-wide sample is based on 1,000 which yields a margin of error of 3.1 per cent 19 times in 20. (Note: Proportions may not sum to 100 per cent due to rounding.)
With a report from CTV Ottawa bureau chief Robert Fife |
The bolded bits would indicate why Martin is so desperate to avoid the people in the confidence vote that really counts.
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11-05-2005 03:55
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