Ed's Glass Half Empty

CanWest Media; the Edmonton Journal and Calgary Herald this morning greeted Albertans with this screaming election headline; Another Tory majority in sight.

Well actually no. Their latest poll puts Ed Stelmach and his team at 40%. Now that would be a sweep in any other province. But this is Alberta. Where previous Tory Governments had pre-election poll numbers of 65%, 75%, 80%, 90%.

So this is a decline. Ed's glass is not half full, it's half empty. Worse yet a poll last week had Ed's Team at 49% so in a week he has dropped 9%. Like just under 10% in week. That means by next Monday they could fall even further, in the poll that counts.

The headline should have said 60% of Albertans unhappy with Ed and his team.

And so the sub header ih the Herald and Journal reveal the truth;

'Enormous' undecided bloc a wild card, poll finds.

Now that's the glass half full.



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Worst Right Whingnut Blog

It's poll time. Seems that a couple of Progressive Bloggers have decided to run polls on who is whingnuttiest bloggers on the Right.

Buckdog has a poll on his blog. His poll includes Blogging Tories and those not associated with BT.

VOTE HERE FOR THE WORST CANADIAN 'RIGHT WING' BLOG

Red Tory has one too specifically aimed at the BT blogosphere.

“Wingnuttiest Blogging Tory”

Suzanne from Big Blue Wave has been nominated for both but so far she is not garnering many votes. Despite her obnoxious fetus fetish postings she does run the blog aggregator Opinions Canada, which covers both the right and left, so perhaps we give her the benefit of the doubt.

Unfortunately neither poll includes this rightwhingnut who comments here regularly.


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Conservative Columnist Opposes Capital Punishment

In an editorial in today's Edmonton Sun,and Calgary Sun, Calgary Sun columnist Licia Corbella speaks out opposing the Conservative Governments reversal on capital punishment .

She spanks Harper for his decision to abandon a Canadian to face lethal injection in the U.S. In particular she points out, as I have, that it reveals the Conservatives hidden agenda regarding Capital punishment.

Now Licia is no raving left winger, heck she is proudly opposed to all things Liberal. She is a dyed in the wool conservative, check out her columns, and yet even she is appalled at Harpers anti-democratic, executive decision to overturn a longstanding Canadian policy. I quote;

"Canada is a country that opposes the death penalty. Period.

Now, with no debate, the minority federal Conservative government has changed decades of Canadian foreign policy to stop seeking clemency for Canadians facing the death penalty in other countries.

Asked about his government's about face on protecting a Canadian from the death penalty, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said seeking clemency for Smith would run counter to his government's tough stance on crime.

In other words, Harper is comfortable with reversing decades of democratic Canadian procedure while in a minority position, but isn't comfortable being at odds with party policy.

How's that for a killer of logic not to mention Canadian ethics?

It's also bad politics for the Tories, who have been portrayed with having a scary "hidden agenda" that they will roll out should they ever win a majority.

Yes, Smith is a monster. But Canadians decided long ago that capital punishment is an even bigger monster.

Shame on the federal Tories for letting it loose. "

Some honorable gentleman; "Here, Here."

When the right wing press and its columnists oppose this decision you know that it ain't as popular with the base as the Harper hoped it would be. It's a big political duh' oh.


See:

Capital Punishment Poll

Say No To Capital Punishment

Pro-Life Pro-Death

Free Kadhar

More Foreign Affairs Incompetency

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Capital Punishment Poll

This is an online poll so vote It is on Canoe.ca , home page for the Sun papers. Because clearly the conservative echo chamber has been voting. And you can vote twice, click here and then go to the home page and vote again. See we can do that echo chamber thing to.

Should Canada bring back the death penalty?
Yes
No
Not sure



Results

Should Canada bring back the death penalty?
Yes		66%
No		28%
Not sure		5%
Total Votes for this Question: 1610

SEE:

Harpers Lethal Injection

The Return of Capital Punishment

Say No To Capital Punishment

Pro-Life Pro-Death

Free Kadhar

More Foreign Affairs Incompetency

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Poll Spin

I would spin this poll as the NDP gain in popular support, rather than how the MSM spin it. And clearly the NDP's principled stand over the Throne speech has resonated with Canadians.

Canada's ruling Conservatives have slipped slightly in public support but are still well ahead of the opposition Liberals, according to a new poll.

The Ipsos-Reid survey put the Conservatives on 39 percent, down one point from a poll done by the same firm a week before. The Liberals were steady at 27 percent while support for the left-leaning New Democrats rose three points to 17 percent.

SEE:

Jack Layton PM?

Facebook Politicians

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Jack Layton PM?

The headline is misleading. Harper may be way ahead of Dion but Jack is right behind him in popularity

And in Qubec Jack beats him, Dion and Duceppe (!!!!) in popularity.

If as the article says his popularity is only 'slightly more' than Harpers in Quebec the same could be said of Harper in the rest of Canada. He is only slightly more popular than Jack. If the upcoming election is about leadership Jack wins.

Harper is way ahead in race for best leader, says poll

Nationally, 63 per cent of voters gave Harper "great" or "good" leadership marks, compared with only 36 per cent for Dion.

NDP Leader Jack Layton scored 57 per cent.

In Quebec, Duceppe's leadership rating (63 per cent) was in a virtual tie with Layton's (64 per cent), and only slightly above Harper's at 61 per cent. Dion was last in his home province with 33 per cent.

SEE:

Quebec By-elections

Rudderless Liberals

Layton and May Winners

Ouch

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Atlantic Alberta Accord

Alberta and Atlantic Canada share an accord. The Federal NDP have gained in the polls in both provinces. This is an interesting poll result for the NDP in Alberta. It is the first time they have been in second place in the polls.

The Conservatives are continuing their free-fall in Atlantic Canada, taking only 13.9% of the vote compared to the Liberals 49.2%, the NDP’s 23.9% and the Greens’ 13.1%. These fortunes are mirrored in Alberta where the Liberals find themselves at 12.6%, marginally ahead of the Greens at 12.1%. The Conservatives lead that province with 52.1% of decided voters with the NDP in second place at 23.2%.

Which bodes well for my prediction of the impact a provincial election in Alberta would have on Federal Conservatives. The concern about the 'out of towners' impacting on Stelmach's regime has not been missed by the man himself.

"We've had over 500,000 new Albertans move to the province within the last six years."

SEE:

Williams Out Deals Stelmach

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Stelmach Falls Can't Get Up

In a downward spiral goes the Man Who Would Be Premier.Unelected and unloved is our Eddie. And he lives up to his nickname of Steady. As in de-Klein, err decline. He goes from the Man Who Would Be King to the Man Who Is Strom.

Support for Stelmach drops, poll finds

KATHERINE HARDING

August 22, 2007

Edmonton -- A new poll suggests support for Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach's Progressive Conservative government has dropped significantly in August to 32 per cent from 54 per cent in January.

The Cameron Strategy poll provided to The Globe and Mail also shows during that same time period the number of undecided or unsure voters has risen to 36 per cent from 18 per cent.

Mr. Stelmach became Premier last December after Ralph Klein retired. A provincial election is expected as early as next spring.

The telephone survey of 602 people was conducted between Aug. 7 to 13, and has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points 19 times out of 20.

And if that wasn't bad enough.

Ex-Tory slams Tories

The former president of the Alberta young Tories has a message for the Stelmach government heading into the next election: wake up and smell the disenchantment.

David McColl resigned as president of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Youth Association earlier this year, saying the party isn't progressive enough.

Now, with the prospect of a winter or early spring election, McColl says the Conservatives - and politicians across Canada, for that matter - must change their ways: politics must focus on social action, not on the cult of personality or pursuit of power.

Otherwise, it will face increasingly hostile public receptions.

McColl points to the PCs' own annual general meeting a few months ago, at which its members from across Alberta asked for a provincial commitment to set national environmental protection standards and to put future surpluses into savings for the days when oil can no longer sustain the economy. Both ideas were rejected.

It is possible, McColl said, to be fiscally conservative but still recognize the legitimacy of social progress; in fact, he said, the public already verges towards a consensus middle-ground on many issues that politicians don't seem to even realize exists.

"Peter Lougheed gets this and is spot on: we're supposed to be the wealthiest province but we won't be forever the way we're doing things. "

There are long-term issues that have to be resolved in Alberta, and the party isn't listening and it isn't questioning. Instead, it's just more smoke and mirrors."

Ouch.



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Crushing Criticism Of Conservatives...

By Capitalists

The honeymoon is over for Stephen Harper's Cabinet, according to Canadian business leaders who believe the current government has done little to differentiate itself from its Liberal predecessor.

"The overall feeling is this is a Liberal government in Conservative clothing," COMPAS founder Conrad Winn said. "That came in pretty loud and clear."

Ouch!

The panelists regard taxation as the most important priority affecting their evaluation of the Conservative government. "Tax policy is a joke and undermines the confidence of business in relying on an understanding government, which it is not," one respondent said. "There seems to be too little thinking about repercussions about tax changes and more bowing down to policy wonks. They are not living in the real world."

Looking forward to the cheerleaders at the Blogging Tories response to the voice of capitalism criticizing their party of choice.


See:

Can't Get No Respect

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Can't Get No Respect

So much for success on the BBQ circuit.

Fewer Canadians are satisfied with their prime minister, according to a poll by Angus Reid Strategies. 29 per cent of respondents approve of Stephen Harper’s performance, and 28 per cent say their opinion of the head of government worsened over the past month.

Do you approve or disapprove of Stephen Harper’s performance as prime minister?

	Jul. 16	Jun. 16	May 23
Approve	29%	31%	33%
Disapprove	47%	47%	47%
Not sure	23%	23%	20%

Of course when you do this don't expect to get any respect.

Journalists booted from Tory retreat

Or better poll numbers.

Political stalemate continues, latest poll shows

Wright said the government should rethink its strategy of tightly controlling its message, agenda, and delivery, which is almost exclusively done by Prime Minister Harper, who has been widely criticized for running a one-man show.

“It will really take the prime minister to decide whether he is going to stick by this style of leadership or if he is going to try something different,” said Wright.

SEE:

Slap Upside The Head

Pinocchio Harper

Open, Transparent, Accountable, NOT

Harpers Fascism

Fete Accompli

Ding Dong Tories

Harpers Constituency

Harpers War

Leo Strauss and the Calgary School

Post Modern Conservatives

Why The Conservatives Are Not Libertarians

Heil Hillier, Maintiens le droit

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He Can't Manage

Alberta CEO Ed Stelmach leads his party in decline. He can't manage a simple job, that is to provide good governance. Instead he and his cabinet rely on tired old neo-con ideology to deny Albertans responsible government; like they have over rent controls. Which has led to this.

The Alberta Progressive Conservative party's approval rating has fallen to 39 per cent from 54 per cent in September 2006, according to a Leger Marketing poll being released today.

This is no longer the Party of Calgary, Eddie has alienated them. This is the party of special interests like Real Estate Income Trusts and Big Oil.

A month after Alberta's finance minister fretted that raising resource royalties could reduce the billions fuelling the province's treasury, Premier Ed Stelmach told energy producers the ongoing royalty review must restore public confidence in the system's fairness.

CAPP president Pierre Alvarez said despite the frustrations voiced during the Tory leadership race, few regular Albertans have turned out to the public meetings for the royalty review.

"What's struck me is when you go to the (public meetings), 80 per cent of them are industry and service companies," said Alvarez.

Energy Board bars MLA

down in Rimbey, our elected representatives can't get their foot in the door of a so-called public hearing into a new Calgary-Edmonton transmission line run by the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board.

Even worse, the AEUB admitted it hired plainclothes private eyes to blend in with the crowd and spy on protesting farmers barred from the proceedings.

Unbelievably, Stelmach saw nothing wrong with the public energy regulator's spying on Albertans involved in a public hearing, citing security reasons.

SEE:

Drumheller Bell Weather

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Open, Transparent, Accountable, NOT

The paranoia of the PMO has backfired.

according to a Innovative Research Poll, 46 per cent of the 1,067 people polled said that the Conservative government is "more secretive" than previous governments, 34 per cent said the government is about the same, and 15 per cent said the Tories are "more open."

The latter are of course the Conservative base.

Perhaps we should start calling it the Paranoid Prime Ministers Office.

The Humpty Dumpty Harpocrites seem to have a problem with messaging. Unless it comes from the PMO we can assume anything a Government Minister says is subject to reversal.

So much for open, transparent, accountable government promised by the Conservatives in the last election. It was the first victim of their victory.

And regardless of their bills and legislative changes in this regard, they do not pass the smell test with average Canadians. Which should give us all hope that we will suffer a short autarch reign of King Stephen.

All else that has followed, like no time lines for Harpers War, appointment to the Senate of a unelected Cabinet Minister, bribing a Liberal MP to cross the floor and giving him a Cabinet position, lying about taxing Income Trusts, breaking the Atlantic Accord, etc. etc.

Wait five minutes and there will another new revelation of Harpers Hidden Agenda.




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Worse Than Ambrose

It's hard to believe but you can go from the frying pan into the fire according to the latest poll.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper shuffled his cabinet in January, naming Baird to the environment portfolio to replace Rona Ambrose who had received disastrous reviews and criticism after tabling the government's clean air legislation in the fall. Wright said the latest poll numbers suggest Baird has made matters worse for the government.

"I think that this is seen as a greater disappointment for the simple reason that the environment has been ratcheted up so much in the last six months," he said. "It's taken on a sense of priority and a sense of mission which hasn't been reflected in what the public expected the government to do."

He said it's clear that the public is willing to go farther than the politicians on the issue, and it believes the Conservative government is delivering policies that are designed to protect industries such as the oilsands in their Alberta base.

SEE

Harpers Alberta Green Plan

Economist Trashes Made In Alberta Green Plan

Environment Minister MIA

Baird

Ambrose


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Now You See It....

...Now you don't.

"The Conservatives had come from behind to establish a lead and now that lead is gone,'' said Decima CEO Bruce Anderson.





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Another Poll

Not your usual poll on politics this is a poll on sleep, and why I wake up with a crink in my neck....Sleeping painful for many Canadians: Poll

See:

Polls


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Troops Out Poll

Should Canada be continuing to contribute troops to NATO's mission in Afghanistan?
YES	50%
NO	50%

Please note that these survey results are of website visitors who voluntarily take the survey. These results are not necessarily representative of the larger population.



Afghanistan






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Angus Reid On Line Poll

Does Canada need a federal election in spring? Give us your opinion nowAngusReidForum.com Do you want a federal spring election?
YES	36%
NO	64%

Please note that these survey results are of website visitors who voluntarily take the survey. These results are not necessarily representative of the larger population.


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