So the Conservative Resource Group is Doing All Polling Now?

Has it puzzled anyone else, that the voice heard most often, and quoted the most by the media, is coming from a group called Ensight Canada?

Ensight is a spin-off of the Conservative Resource Group, the central PR hub of the Conservative Party of Canada.

How are we supposed to be believe a word they say? Put Harper on a short leash? We couldn't put him on a short leash when he had a minority. How in the hell do we leash him now?

Rick Dykstra says his government plans to render even the short form census useless, so I expect we'll have groups like Ensight telling us how we should feel or what we should do.

Canadians don't want public healthcare.

Canadians don't want peace.

Canadians are pleased that they are no longer respected on the world stage.

Canadians don't want action on climate change.

Obviously, they can make us believe anything, so give it time. Welcome to Tea Party Canada.

A Bit of History for the Trivia Buffs

When I read that the Globe and Mail was now endorsing a Harper majority, it reminded me of something.

Not a conspiracy theory, just a bit of trivia.

In 1998, Thomson Newspapers (Globe and Mail) launched a challenge to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The landmark decision 'struck down a law that prohibited the publication, broadcast or dissemination of opinion surveys within the last three days of a federal election campaign.

I remember a time when election laws were more stringent. All political signs had to be removed the day before and bars had to be kept shut down until after the polls closed.

And in 2004, when Stephen Harper sued the Canadian people in the Harper vs Canada challenge to the Charter, he cited the 1998 Thomson Publishing decision.

A the time he was seeking a ruling that would allow corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money during an election campaign.

There are many who believe now that if given a majority, Harper will simply go over the head of the Supreme Court and Canadian citizens will no longer have a voice.

So should we be surprised that the Globe is endorsing a Harper majority? The ultimate plan to create a zero corporate tax rate in Canada, and the multi gazillionaire Thomson family, will benefit enormously.

And so starts the countdown to "D" Day.

I'm Still Rising Up. This Video Inspires

Still looking for this 108 seat projection for the NDP, most at the expense of other progressives. I'm sure it's somewhere in the figment of someone's imagination.

In order for them to get it, the Bloc have to be reduced to three seats. I rather doubt that when the NDP are running paper candidates.

Are we being played? I don't know anymore.

But Harper has the campaign right where he wants it. Between him and Layton. And Layton has no history with the economy so Harper will eat him alive.

A very sad time for Canadian democracy.

I'll continue to fight against Neoconservatism, but it's a powerful force when it can take down a just society like Canada used to be.

Will Don Cherry be Running for the Neocons in Kingston?

The Neoconservative candidate in Kingston, Brian Abrams, stepped down recently and his replacement has yet to be announced.

However, rumours are flying that Don Cherry will be running on the neocon ticket in his hometown, which suddenly makes everything he's been doing so far make sense.

Supporting Rob Ford's throwing public servants out of work and attacking immigrants.

Visiting Afghanistan, knowing that Kingston is a military town.

I don't know whether to feel nauseous or just cry. For 40 years we have been represented by the best of the Tories and Liberals in Flora MacDonald and Peter Milliken.

Now we will have the only politician with a lower IQ than Sarah Palin. But his name recognition will probably get him elected, and the neocons will tout him around to all the ridings, signing autographs, burping and butt scratching their way to victory.

Our once beautiful country is being handed over to idiots.

This is Not My Father's Canada Either

James Travers has an excellent column today that articulated how I have been feeling lately.

This is not my father's Canada. Nor is it his father's:

My father’s Canada was big-hearted at home and away. My uncle’s country was a known force for good when evil wore fascist uniforms and built gas chambers. This country is no longer their country. Canada’s wrenching blood and money sacrifices in Afghanistan, the struggle throwing the most immediate of today’s dark shadows, falls short of sustaining a once brightly shining image.

There are many things my father and uncle wouldn’t recognize. They wouldn’t understand a country where patriotism is partisan, where men and women in uniform are used as political props or where death and sports are shamelessly conflated on Hockey Night in Canada. Left behind by marching time and rising cynicism, they would be rattled by the deconstruction of duty into small, mean, marketable pieces. Reduced to anachronisms, they would be confused and saddened by even greater change.

My dad would absolutely hate Stephen Harper and his desire to tear us apart fighting over silly issues. He would wonder what he went to war for. What his cousin, who enlisted with him, and never returned, died for.

He was so proud of this country and instilled that pride in us. What do we have to take pride in now?

My husband's grandmother was one of the most interesting people I ever knew. She died at the age of 99 after falling down and breaking her hip, while shovelling snow. She loved John Diefenbaker and proudly showed off a scrap book filled with probably every photo and print article ever published of the man.

She loved his vision for this country, in direct contrast to Harper's. She would hate what he has done to the Conservative brand and how he has defiled "Her Dief's" memory.

This is not her Canada either.

I have a link under What are you doing for your democracy today: For My Democracy Today I am Paying Homage to a Hero

I think the best thing we can do for Remembrance Day is make a commitment to restore what our soldiers fought for.

And when you take your two minute silence for the fallen, take another two minutes for the country formerly known as Canada.