Qurious Quote : "Screw the Red Book... Don't tell me what's in the Red Book. I wrote the God-damned thing. And I know that it's a lot of crap." --Paul Martin

Paul Martin -- king, lord and saviour of conservative Liberals -- released his party's pseudo-progressive platform today: "Liberal Leader Paul Martin tried to push the focus of an attack-filled election campaign back toward policy Thursday, unveiling a left-leaning platform that focuses on social program spending." This was, I believe, a fatal error in judgement. Pundits will claim that Martin is shoring up his left flank while putting enough distance between himself an...

An alarming trend has developed in Paul Martin's floundering election campaign: the head of our responsible government refuses to take responsibility for just about anything . As we know, two Liberal cabinet ministers staged guerilla political events this week to attack Stephen Harper on budget and social issues. Today, Paul Martin claimed to have had no prior knowledge of the events. But tonight on Primetime Politics , head Liberal politico David Herle admitted that he not onl...

Tonight I saw the first half hour of The National 's Your Say with Jack Layton . It was a good performance. Layton didn't pretend to have all the easy answers, instead he engaged in a real discussion with the audience. That bought him the kind of credibility that a list of promises alone couldn't. The issue that kept him from a truly great performance, however, was taxes. Oddly, though, it wasn't even his position on taxes that hurt him. Layton failed to turn the issue to his ...

Here at Canuckistan we are going have to seriously consider a policy of limiting our coverage of polls, as I believe we're focusing too much on the horserace. However, like the CBC, we will likely break that promise as fast as having made it. Should, on the other hand, support for the NDP begin to falter, our polling coverage will decrease proportionately. But that day is not today! From SES : As of May 31st: Party Support Liberal ...

I don't understand what's going on with the wild Liberal/Conservative swings, but they've now got the NDP at a record high: As of May 30th: Party Support Liberal 36% Conservative 26% NDP 20% Bloc 13% Green 5% As of May 29th: Party Support Liberal 34% Conservative 31% NDP ...

Serious question: does The Clarity Act clarify anything? More to the point, will it -- in the long run -- help avoid Québec separation? Everyone would reflexively answer 'yes', I'm sure. But look a little deeper. We know The Clarity Act gives the federal government and the provinces veto power over any referendum result. Either through declaring a majority vote 'unclear', or by rejecting terms of separation, either level of government could theoretically cancel a province's re...

CPAC and SES Research are conducting a joint tracking poll, public released each day during the election campaign. Sign up. As of May 29th: Party Support Liberal 34% Conservative 31% NDP 19% Bloc 12% Green 3% As of May 28th: Party Support Liberal 34% Conservative 34% NDP ...

Leslie McKinnon, CBC News, Toronto : "First, there is no evidence of a 'rapid rise' in deaths of homeless people in Toronto, in the years Jack Layton was talking about." Wrong, says a 1997 article in The Toronto Star : "According to Diane Patychuk, city public health social epidemiologist, a look back at deaths of people with no fixed address or from hostels and drop-ins, revealed some 40 a year from 1979 to 1993. 'That's an underestimate,' she says." "From P...

Jack Layton : "I believe that when Paul cancelled affordable housing across this country it produced a dramatic rise in homelessness and death due to homelessness. I've always said I hold him responsible for that." As journalists furiously typed, Jack Layton's passionate criticism of Paul Martin's neglect of homelessness was distorted beyond recognition in a matter of hours. Layton's comments are clearly an attack on policy: Martin's choice to cancel federal funding for ...

It seems more than a little ironic that Susan Delacourt, author of Juggernaut , should write this : "No human being could live up to the hyperbole that surrounded Martin's reputation all that time he was the Liberal heir-apparent and the darling of everyone at all points on the political spectrum."

UPDATE: The Toronto Star is reporting much larger numbers regarding both tax cuts and increases. More information will be available soon, when the NDP posts it's full platform online. UPDATE II: Apparently the the NDP's tax plan does not include $9.5 billion in tax increases, as originally posted, but actually nets $9.5 billion in increased taxes over five years. However, the vast majority of the NDP's tax measures are still revenue neutral, paying for tax reduction on middle- and ...

Prime Minister Paul Martin unveiled his healthcare platform yesterday. It was billed as a generational plan for Canadian Medicare. But the Liberal plan turns out to be little more than a numbers game -- and Martin still falls $700 million short of closing the Romanow gap. Let's get right to the Enron-style numbers. Until recently healthcare payments to the provinces were made through the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST) which is now being split into the Canada Health Trans...

So, the Paul Martin Liberals have gotta brand spanking new ad . Go watch, I'll wait. While everything the ad says is true, it still manages to be shamelessly dishonest. This is the same Paul Martin that said Canadian taxes "must continue to come down" to ensure our tax rates are competitive with those in the United States . The same Paul Martin that said Canada's corporate taxes and capital gains taxes should be "lower than the United States". The same Paul Martin ...

Well, the funniest line of the campaign so far has got to be from the NDP's " Reality Check ": "The Liberals are right about one thing: Jack Layton's campaign launch was a show - it was a show that Canadians will stand with a party that is standing up for the issues that matter to them, like public health care, the environment, and education." "Not everybody's campaign launch has to look like a funeral. But that's what you do when you are trying to bury something -- like the Li...