Local media in Mexico report that Dion was attending a climate conference at a university in suburban Mexico City on Monday when he started to feel ill.
The event, scheduled in the lead up to November's climate change conference in Cancun, was cancelled after Dion was rushed to hospital."
The vote to kill the long-gun registry later this month is shaping up to be a squeaker with yet another NDP MP pulling out his support for the Conservative private member’s bill.
“We think it is going to be a nail biter quite frankly,” Liberal MP Frank Valeriote (Guelph) told a news conference Tuesday launching a campaign to embarrass NDP Leader Jack Layton into whipping his caucus to vote against the Conservative effort to scrap the registry.
The Liberals figure that four of seven undecided NDP MPs would have to support the bill in order for it to pass.
The fact that the registry does no such thing is quite irrelevant to the politics.
Support for or against the registry is a political test case based on perception and fears. Without recognizing this reality arguments about effectiveness, for example, are simply wasted effort.
John Diefenbaker
Some of Diefenbaker's policies were, at least to my mind, wrongheaded (his foreign policy for starters) -- but he did stand for freedom of the individual and he tried, in vain, to establish a viable Bill of Rights.
This week it's about interracial bondage on swingers' sites.
What a difference a week makes!!!
Readers may remember I suggested a judge who bought his/her spot had to go. What about about swingers's site etc?
Standing alone, there isn't much to it. Swingers' sites are legal and interracial bondage, while perhaps a minority taste, is also lawful. Posting pictures online doesn't show much prudence but it's no sufficient cause to remove a sitting judge.
What complicates this case is the assertion one of the swingers was a client (former or otherwise) who was paid money in return for silence (how did that work out?).
And that's where the problem is. A judge who pays hush money cannot be seen as being "above suspicion". If such is the case -- and remember these are allegations only -- I don't see how the judge can stay.
Canada?
Well the line at immigration at Pearson is vast and slow. And crossing to Buffalo ain't no great pleasure.
Still, I'm home and very glad of it.
Our border system needs work - on many levels - but Canada is the best place to be.
I guess that's why so many people want to get in!
In some cases the failure to vote is intentional -- sort of an expression of dislike for "all of the above". In other cases it is the reverse -- something akin to "they're all fine - you choose".
But often the failure to vote comes from the difficulty of voting. It may seem easy enough for some but for, say, a working parent with young children, getting to work, daycare, home and then free time to vote is not so easy. That's probably why retired people vote at a much higher rate -- they have the time to vote.
That's why the idea of internet voting, one of several concepts raised by Rocco Rossi this week, is so exciting. The objection of security is groundless in the world of secure e-commerce. Let's try it at the municipal level and then expand to Provincial and then Federal levels.
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper, intent on shaping the ballot box question for the next election, is adopting a strategy to gradually persuade voters they have a "stark choice" in the next campaign: a "stable" majority Conservative government, or a "coalition" government of Liberals, New Democrats and Quebec separatists.
The theme has emerged in recent speeches to the party faithful, and Mr. Harper is expected to ramp up the message as Parliament resumes later this month.
But why has Mr. Harper decided to directly ask for a majority after avoiding the word in past years? And why will he try to convince Canadians that his political rivals are bound to form a coalition?
Experts say the answer is simple.
"It's called framing the ballot question," University of Calgary political scientist Tom Flanagan said in an interview Tuesday. "I'm sure that's what he's doing."
Mr. Flanagan, a former Harper aide who managed his campaigns, said Harper's appeal for a majority is a clear shift in strategy and could carry a political risk. In the 2004 election, when Mr. Harper broached the subject of getting a majority, the Liberals insisted he would pursue a "hidden agenda" with such unchallenged power and his popularity dropped. Mr. Harper stayed away from talk of a majority in the 2006 and 2008 campaigns that delivered him a minority government.
"Any time you change strategies it's a gamble because you don't know if it will work," said Mr. Flanagan.
"He has had success ... saying he'd be happy to accept whatever the voters give him. So the gamble is that after four years of being in power Canadians would be more open to considering a majority government. It's kind of like you've been on probation for four years. It's a gamble. There's no question about it."
At the same time, it appears the Conservatives believe they are on strong footing as they try to persuade Canadians a vote for the Liberals is actually a vote for a coalition. They remember how support for Harper's Tories spiked to unprecedented levels in December 2008 when the Liberals and NDP attempted to form a coalition government with the parliamentary support of the Bloc Quebecois.
"You've got to persuade people that you can't take the Liberals at face value." said Mr. Flanagan. "There's a big payoff there. Of course, if you're going to do that, it's smart to start early."
The odds of a fall election appear low, and the next likely time for a campaign would be next spring. In two speeches this month, Mr. Harper began outlining his theme.
On Aug. 17 in Ajax, Ont., the prime minister said the Conservatives aren't seeking an election, but added: "The next election will be a choice between a coalition government of the Liberal, NDP and Bloc Quebecois, or a stable Conservative majority government for this country."
A week later, Mr. Harper delivered the same message in Whitehorse.
"We as Conservatives are not focused on an election," he said. "But, friends, when an election does come, Canadians are going to face a pretty stark choice. The next election will be a choice between a Parliament with a majority made up of a Liberal-NDP-Bloc Quebecois coalition, or it will be a stable majority for our Conservative government."
Pollster Darrell Bricker, president of Ipsos Reid, said on Tuesday that Mr. Harper realizes he has to find a different message than the ones he used in previous campaigns (getting rid of government corruption, managing the agenda well and providing solid leadership."
"Even though the last time he was up against the weakest Liberal leader probably ever (Stephane Dion), he wasn't able to get a majority. So he has to try something different."
The Tories' answer is to convince voters a coalition is in the works. It doesn't matter that Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff reluctantly followed Mr. Dion's lead in the plan to form a coalition in 2008, or that the Liberals now deny they want a merger.
Mr. Bricker said the Tories will be happy merely if Mr. Ignatieff is forced to talk about the issue.
"They want him denying. They want him to engage in that debate, because it's better than talking about the census, or the gun registry or whatever story of the day is. It's smart strategy. These guys, if anything, are smart and ruthless about how they campaign."
Nelson Wiseman, associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto, said Tuesday that he thinks a majority is within Mr. Harper's grasp.
"They know that their best card is playing the coalition. The strategy is to trap the other parties on that hook. You don't have to convince the whole electorate. What you have to do is swing over maybe one out of 20 voters."
Hom
