Left-wing party explodes onto Canada election scene

[FORD]

Left-wing party explodes onto Canada election scene
By Randall Palmer Thu Apr 21, 6:00 pm ET

OTTAWA (Reuters) – The left-leaning New Democratic Party has exploded from an also-ran in Canada's election campaign to a potential spoiler that could change the Canadian balance of power.

All polls show a surge in support for the NDP, which advocates higher corporate taxes, more social spending and an early withdrawal from Afghanistan, and one showed the party ahead of the Liberals, which has been the major opposition party.

A strong NDP showing could help the governing Conservatives if it splits a left-leaning vote between Liberals and New Democrats, or between New Democrats and the separatist Bloc Quebecois in Quebec, allowing a Conservative candidate to win a race with well under half the vote in an individual district.

But the polls don't guarantee the Conservatives the support they need to win a majority government, and the NDP could also wrest seats from the Conservatives, bringing the likelihood of a third consecutive Parliament where the Conservatives are the largest party but support from others to stay in power.

"It seems clear that the public aren't leaning to give Mr. Harper his majority," said Frank Graves, whose EKOS survey showed the NDP tied with the Liberals.

His automated telephone poll has the Conservatives at 34.4 percent, down three points in three days, ahead of the NDP and the Liberals who are tied at 24.7 percent.

For the first time, the NDP leads the Bloc Quebecois in the French-speaking province of Quebec.

"This steady progression from also-ran to contender has been a smooth and steady," Graves said, adding that he was unsure if the gains could be sustained or expanded.

An Ipsos Reid survey released late on Thursday indicated the NDP may have pulled ahead of the Liberals, with 24 percent to 21 percent of decided voters. The survey showed the Conservatives firmly ahead with 43 percent.

The survey found the NDP with a slim lead over the Bloc Quebecois in Quebec, which is the only province where the Bloc runs candidates.

The NDP gained support after last week's two leaders' debates, posing a dilemma for the Liberals, who describe themselves as the only party that can oust the Conservatives.

"The federal NDP has never formed a government in the history of Canada," Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said on Thursday. "That's just a fact, and we're in the business on the 2nd of May of choosing governments."

The response from NDP leader Jack Layton was cutting: "This is really the least attractive part of the Liberal Party. They just assume they're the only choice and Canadians just have to go along with them in government."

Layton came across in the debates as an affable person who wonders why Ottawa just can't look out for the small guy.

Most assumed he would never form a government, and his platform faced less scrutiny than that of his rivals.

"The NDP platform seldom gets a costed look. It's a pastiche of guesses and conjectures," Globe and Mail columnist Jeffrey Simpson wrote this week.

The NDP proposes to raise corporate taxes to 19 percent from 16.5 percent while cutting taxes for small businesses. It would spend more, but still balance the budget in four years.

Canada's first-past-the-post voting system gives representation to the individual who wins the most seats in each electoral district, so a vote for the NDP has often been seen as a wasted vote in many districts.

But analysts say there can be a tipping point where the party suddenly becomes competitive, and the Ipsos survey found the NDP was the second choice of both voters who said they supported the Liberals and those support the Conservatives.

Half of Bloc voters picked the NDP as their second choice, the Ipsos survey said.

Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper has repeatedly warned that if he does not get a majority, the other three parties will form a coalition -- formal or informal -- to block the Conservatives and put the Liberal Party in power.

If the NDP ends up with more seats than the Liberals, Layton would suddenly have potential to become prime minister.

Pollster Nik Nanos said Layton would gain "moral authority" if the NDP and the Liberals got comparable percentages of the vote, even if the Liberals ended up with more seats.

The NDP lags the Liberal Party by five points in Nanos' latest survey. But support for it has also jumped by that same amount in just two days. Nanos has the Conservatives more than 12 points higher than the Liberals at 39.0 percent.

Graves said his polling points to the Liberals and the NDP together having roughly as many seats as the Conservatives.

[FORD]

NDP surges to strong second place in poll
Mon Apr 25, 6:30 pm ET

TORONTO (Reuters) – Support for the New Democratic Party surged to within 6 points of the ruling Conservatives in an opinion poll released on Monday, raising the prospect that the left-leaning NDP could knock the Conservatives out of power after the May 2 election.

The EKOS survey of more than 3,000 Canadian voters put support for the NDP at 28 percent, compared with 33.7 percent for the Conservatives.

The Liberals, now the main opposition party in Parliament. had 23.7 percent support in the poll. It was the biggest lead the NDP has held over the Liberals during the campaign.

"We have seen almost from Day One a slow, steady and now a dramatic rise where the NDP has gone from 14 points in a pre-writ poll to 28 points," pollster Frank Graves said on the ipolitics.ca web site. "That is a doubling. I've never seen anything close to that."

Graves said the figures could conceivably bring the NDP, led by Jack Layton, more than 100 seats in Parliament. The poll indicates that Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives could win around 130 seats.

But that's not a majority in Parliament, raising the prospect that the NDP could form a coalition with the Liberals and Layton could become the party's first prime minister.

"It's hard to imagine a 130-seat diminished (Conservative) government would be able to hold on to power against a clear majority of seats and a major advantage in popular support for the NDP and the Liberals," Graves said. "The idea that you could have a Jack Layton-led coalition sounds preposterous, but that's what the numbers suggest."

EKOS surveyed 3,004 Canadian voters between April 22 and April 24. It considers its results accurate to within 2.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

(Reporting by Janet Guttsman)

[FORD]

http://images.suite101.com/480512_com_ndp.jpg

Now if only we could get an equivalent of the NDP on this side of the border.....

[kwame k]

Exactly what I was thinking about half way through the first article!

[kwame k]

All polls show a surge in support for the NDP, which advocates higher corporate taxes, more social spending and an early withdrawal from Afghanistan........

Wow, and I bet by raising corporate taxes they could spend more on social programs without increasing their deficit one bit........

You know, all the money [taxes] they throw in the kitty, actually going to........The People!

Nah, that's crazy talk.......GE deserved that 3 Billion dollar tax refund they got for not paying any taxes at all....stupid Canadians, follow our system it works:pullinghair:

[Nitro Express]

I think the social welfare programs in the US have been a disaster. There are too many people on them that don't need to be on them. They make people dependant and lazy. As far as wasteful spending goes, they don't waste as much as our wasteful military spending. I kind of get a kick out of hearing people say we are going to kill grandma and grandpa but then the same people cry that the world is too overpopulated. Hey, when you take the medical access away people will die sooner and that will take care of the population problem. We didn't have the problem until modern medicine made people live longer. The people in the old days were actually in better physical shape than the fat slobs we have now. It's that modern medicine that is creating the problem. Then you have the people on the right talking about death panels and the social programs want to kill grandma. Everyone wants to kill grandma it seems. I think both side talk out their ass.

[BigBadBrian]

Too high corporate taxes = companies leave Canada and people get laid off. It's that simple.

I'm all against corporate welfare, but corporations shouldn't have the entire burden on their shoulders like many of you Marxists/Socialists want.

[Kristy]

Too high corporate taxes = companies leave Canada and people get laid off. It's that simple.

I'm all against corporate welfare, but corporations shouldn't have the entire burden on their shoulders like many of you Marxists/Socialists want.

Fuck off you miserablist cunt.

[SunisinuS]

I think the social welfare programs in the US have been a disaster. There are too many people on them that don't need to be on them. They make people dependant and lazy. As far as wasteful spending goes, they don't waste as much as our wasteful military spending. I kind of get a kick out of hearing people say we are going to kill grandma and grandpa but then the same people cry that the world is too overpopulated. Hey, when you take the medical access away people will die sooner and that will take care of the population problem. We didn't have the problem until modern medicine made people live longer. The people in the old days were actually in better physical shape than the fat slobs we have now. It's that modern medicine that is creating the problem. Then you have the people on the right talking about death panels and the social programs want to kill grandma. Everyone wants to kill grandma it seems. I think both side talk out their ass.

You may get your wish. Antibiotics and the research invested in them does not pay off....least according to Glaxo. Why would you spend money on research for a "cure" when all you have to do is hook a person on several pills a day for the rest of their lives? Blood pressure, hearts, dicks, anxiety. Everyday for the rest of your life looks better to a heartless accountant. Why give someone a pill that cures them in 6 weeks? Just bad money making.

So as the the "Super Bugs" accumulate more dead bodies.....and medicine gets sent back 7 centuries...and granny cannot even use a respirator (as induced lung function needs to be antibody controlled) why worry?

It will never happen to you.

[WACF]

Too high corporate taxes = companies leave Canada and people get laid off. It's that simple.

I'm all against corporate welfare, but corporations shouldn't have the entire burden on their shoulders like many of you Marxists/Socialists want.

We have had huge economic recovery...when Layton is done spending everyone else's money we will be a mess again.

[FORD]

Does Harper deserve credit for that recovery though? I'd be inclined to agree with this lady......


Is Harper to credit for Canada’s economy?
Published: April 28, 2011 9:00 AM
Updated: April 28, 2011 9:58 AM

The other day I overheard a diner in a local restaurant tell the Liberal candidate that Canada’s economy is the best in the world and that is why the Stephen Harper deserves a majority.

If I had taken the very un-Canadian step of butting into their private conversation here is what I would have said:

Yes, you are right that Canada enjoys the lowest deficit of all the G7 countries and the fastest growing GDP.

However, Stephen Harper does not deserve the credit.

He inherited a legacy of financial regulations that protected Canadians from the reckless banking practices that created so much financial ruin in other countries.

And, let’s remember that de-regulation is a core Conservative value.

If he had had his majority when the world-wide recession hit, those very regulations wouldn’t have been in place to cushion Canadians from the worst of it.

Furthermore, Canada’s impressive economic recovery from the recession can be attributed in large part to the stimulus package, or what the Harper government has been advertising as Canada’s Economic Action Plan.

But again, stimulating the economy through government spending goes against Harper’s fundamental beliefs.

Luckily for us, his minority government was vulnerable to persuasion from the other political parties, persuasion that he has since tried to characterize as bickering and disloyalty.

Kind of rich that he is now taking credit for an economic strategy that was forced upon him.

Let’s deny Harper his majority.

Janet Routledge

Burnaby

http://www.bclocalnews.com/opinion/letters/120873364.html#

[FORD]

FDR put regulations in place here that prevented another Great Depression. And as long as those regulations were intact, we never got close to it again. But it's no coincidence that the systematic dismantling of those regulations over the last 30 years has now brought the US to the worst economic shithole since 1932.

Harper would do the same to Canada if he had enough votes. Why even keep him around to find out?

I'd like the NDP to win this one, so at least one government on the North American continent could return to sanity.

[sadaist]

Wow, and I bet by raising corporate taxes they could spend more on social programs without increasing their deficit one bit........

You know, all the money [taxes] they throw in the kitty, actually going to........The People!


Yeah, raise taxes on businesses even more. They won't pay them, they will just transfer our calls to Punjab, India so Apu can tell us when our items made in Pakistan will be arriving via a Kuwaiti freighter.

The money from businesses should go to the people directly via wages.

NOT from the business, to the government, then through a thousand bureaucracies to feed the public sector unions and bloated government payrolls, then if there happens to be anything left over...the people.



The problem isn't that the government doesn't receive enough taxes. The problem is how they spend it like drunken sailors at a strip club on payday.

[sadaist]

Too high corporate taxes = companies leave Canada and people get laid off. It's that simple.




People can just look at California and see how many thousands of businesses have fled the state. It is a very hostile environment for business.

[Nitro Express]

FDR put regulations in place here that prevented another Great Depression. And as long as those regulations were intact, we never got close to it again. But it's no coincidence that the systematic dismantling of those regulations over the last 30 years has now brought the US to the worst economic shithole since 1932.

Harper would do the same to Canada if he had enough votes. Why even keep him around to find out?

I'd like the NDP to win this one, so at least one government on the North American continent could return to sanity.

It was a Democrat by the name of Bill Clinton who deregulated the FDR era Glass Stiegal Act and opened the door to derivatives specualation. It use to be illegal for commercial banks and investment banks to be the same bank. Now they call themselves JP Morgan Chase. A investment bank and commercial bank all in one.

[WACF]

Does Harper deserve credit for that recovery though? I'd be inclined to agree with this lady......



http://www.bclocalnews.com/opinion/letters/120873364.html#

Harper is an economist by trade.

He knows what he is doing.

He makes mistakes...all do...but I would take him over Layton...a career political type who has never had a job and felt it was his right to live in subsidised housing even though he and his wife make over $100,000 sitting on Toronto's city councel.
Layton loves spending.

The Liberals are running a Harvard professor who has not lived in Canada for 30 years...he is the reason the NDP and doing well....and the Bloq in Quebec are failing.
The Liberals refusing to deregulate banking helped years ago was the right thing to do and helped too.

[FORD]

Harper is an economist by trade.

He knows what he is doing.

He makes mistakes...all do...but I would take him over Layton...a career political type who has never had a job and felt it was his right to live in subsidised housing even though he and his wife make over $100,000 sitting on Toronto's city councel.
Layton loves spending.

The Liberals are running a Harvard professor who has not lived in Canada for 30 years...he is the reason the NDP and doing well....and the Bloq in Quebec are failing.
The Liberals refusing to deregulate banking helped years ago was the right thing to do and helped too.

I'm watching "The National" on CBC right now (their coverage of the Bin Laden thing was a little lighter on the BCE talking points) and they just showed all three candidates. Layton, Stevie, and who ever the (not-so) Liberal guy is. Guy literally looks like someone combined Michael Dukakis and Judas IsKerryot into one body. If I lived 200 miles north of here, there's no question I'd be voting for Jack tomorrow. That other guy just doesn't impress me at all.

Seems that people are as fed up with the "establishment" politicians on both sides of the border. I'm hoping a NDP victory tomorrow will have a positive impact on the US as much as Canada.

[jacksmar]

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/decision-canada/Harper+strikes+historic+majority/4716038/story.html

That Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff couldn't even hold onto his own seat was an enormous humiliation.

A couple of Conservatives say they almost felt sorry for Ignatieff, who led the Liberals to the worst showing ever.


Dumbass.

[Seshmeister]

This is what happens when you have a first past the post system like we do here. You end up with the majority of people voting for left leaning parties but the conservatives get in.

[ashstralia]

we still have a lefty righty greeny thing that can't agree with itself and looks ridiculous on the world stage.

[FORD]

This is what happens when you have a first past the post system like we do here. You end up with the majority of people voting for left leaning parties but the conservatives get in.

Sadly, that's how NuttyYahoo in Israel got in too.

Stevie Wonderbush survives..... that sucks ass. :(

[WACF]

This is what happens when you have a first past the post system like we do here. You end up with the majority of people voting for left leaning parties but the conservatives get in.

He won a majority.

There is a difference from the Liberals to the NDP...which at times have been quite kooky.

The NDP did well for the most part as a protest vote in Quebec against the Federal Seperatist Party.

When people in the rest of Canada saw the NDP having a chance the Blue Libs went Red Tory.

[WACF]

Sadly, that's how NuttyYahoo in Israel got in too.

Stevie Wonderbush survives..... that sucks ass. :(

I could not be happier.

Remember....our Cons are Left of your Dems.

[FORD]

I could not be happier.

Remember....our Cons are Left of your Dems.

That might be true of the "traditional Conservatives", but not Harper's neocon wing of the party. And when they start attacking unions, banking regulations and your health care system (so they can do to Canada all the same things that have failed so miserably here) I just hope you'll be able to stop them in time.

[WACF]

That might be true of the "traditional Conservatives", but not Harper's neocon wing of the party. And when they start attacking unions, banking regulations and your health care system (so they can do to Canada all the same things that have failed so miserably here) I just hope you'll be able to stop them in time.

He has four years to earn another mandate.

He knows he can not change health care.

Unions are more regulated at a provincial level...not so much Federal...but once again there are huge union areas that vote Conservative...especially in Ontario.
Once again he would be held accountable.

Our banking regualtions are something that he has mentioned many times as something that saved our asses...so I think he should know better.

Having the NDP as opposition will be interesting...they do have some kooks(both sides do actually)....but...at times the social conscience that is needed in debate.

It will be an interesting four years.

One thing going against the NDP is it seems some people that won had just thrown their name in a hat to help out...they did not expect to win.
Some won seats in Quebec and do not speak French...this could get interesting.

[FORD]

Maybe the NDP should take whatever campaign funds it has left over and buy some "Rosetta Stone" language software for their new MP's in Quebec? :biggrin:

http://www.rosettastone.com/learn-french

[WACF]

Maybe the NDP should take whatever campaign funds it has left over and buy some "Rosetta Stone" language software for their new MP's in Quebec? :biggrin:

http://www.rosettastone.com/learn-french

LOL...there will be some classes pretty damn quick I would think.