Election Rumblings, Sabre Rattlings, Murmors, Rumors…..

vol Is the Volcano about to burst and spout another Canadian Election?     Last week there was a meeting between Jack Layton, leader of the NDP, and Stephen Harper Prime Minister of the Minority Conservative government.

The Libs are meeting in Sudbury mulling, conspiring, and wringing their hands as to what to do and how to do it.

Interesting times?   Well in between Swine Flu and losing your job it does give you something to think about.

There can be no election as long as one of either the NDP, Liberals, or Bloc support the Government.  How much will Stephen Harper spend of Canadians money to grub onto his power?  Did Jack Layton sell Mr. Harper some more time?

Here are a few recent stories:

P A T R O N A G E Click the link to read the full story.  It appears that Mr. Harper has done exactly what he’s complained about former Liberal Governments doing.

“Harper has yet to establish his promised Public Appointments Commission to set standards and criteria for cabinet nominations to federal posts. That despite the fact that Treasury Board documents show a four-person secretariat set up to support the commission has cost taxpayers a total of $3.6 million since 2006.

“He has done everything that he has criticized. I think the prime minister and his team should be well aware of the fact that there frankly isn’t a single pledge they can make now or down the road that the Canadian public can take seriously.”

Meanwhile from Subury Mr. Ignatieff was quoted:  L I N K

“We’ve kept this government on life support for 10 months. It’s important to remember that,” he said at his news conference. “We have put the country first. We voted for a budget about which we had serious reservations because we thought some stimulus is better than no stimulus; we thought some help to the unemployed is better than no help to the unemployed.”

However, he said, nothing has improved over the summer on these keys issues. In fact, he dismissed the meetings of the special Conservative-Liberal working group on changes to employment insurance as having “turned into a bit of a charade.”

“And so this is the kind of matter that we are going to have to take up in the caucus,” he said. “I want to listen to what they have to say, and then we will make our decision. The decision will be very clear.”

The Conservative response this week is basically the usual mix of scare tactics and attack press releases:

John Baird in Second Gear:  L I N K

While the Government spends at record rates L I N K

“The federal Conservatives have been rolling out spending announcements at a furious clip, a new analysis by Canwest News Service shows, putting their names on more than 1,590 news releases since their re-election last October detailing spending commitments worth nearly $70 billion.”

And those are conservative amounts…..

Sound familiar?

“On Monday alone, for example, there were 11 funding announcements as Conservative MPs handed out nearly $60 million worth of cheques.

One of the biggest was in Victoria where Trade Minister Stockwell Day, who is also the political minister for B.C., announced a $19.6-million contract for a shipyard there to build some coast guard rescue boats.”

Nobody wants an election and yes they are expensive, but if this government is going to keep spending at these rates the sooner it’s changed the lower our deficit will be as a country.

Now where is that line to get funding for locally owned online newspapers…….Yoo Hoo, Guy?

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