Quote:
Originally posted by Keith Webb
Headline (on page 20) reads: "Canada's governing party faces disaster as nation swings right"
"Opposition borrows moves from John Howard's campaign book."
It's interesting to get an overseas perspective:
"CANADA'S governing Liberal Party, which just weeks ago was expected to win the forthcoming national election, now appear headed for certain defeat on January 23.
And they may have the Australian Liberal Party to blame.
Prime Minister Paul Martin's centrist Liberal Party is often referred to as Canada's natural governing party because it has run the country for 61 of the past 75 years. But scandals and a smug campaign have seen the party go from leading the race to falling up to 12 percentage points behind its chief rival, the more right-wing Conservative Party, according to various polls.
At 46, Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper is the youngest of the leaders of the main parties. He is an entire generation younger than Mr Martin, who is 67.
With little more than a week to go, polls and pundits indicate the Conservatives could form a minority government. The party has no natural allies, so a minority government would be weak, although some analysts say it is possible they could win a majority of seats.
Canada's Conservatives looked south, way south, for inspiration. According to Canadian media reports, Brian Loughnane, the Australian Liberal Party's federal director, has been an informal adviser to the Conservative Party, as the two parties are politically akin.
The reports were published in The Globe and Mail newspaper and broadcast on CBC Television, two of the country's most respected media outlets.
The reports claimed that a senior strategist for the Conservative Party, Patrick Muttart, apparently shaped his party's election plan after a close study of Prime Minister John Howard's last election victory. Neither Mr Loughnane nor Mr Muttart would comment on these reports.
Whatever the reasons, the shift in public sentiment (as large as 16 percentage points in seven days, according to some polls) is significant.
"This is the most dramatic shift I've seen in a very long time," said demographer Donna Dasko, who runs political polling at the Toronto firm Environics. "Not only has opinion shifted rapidly, but this shift wasn't expected," Ms Dasko said. "While most pundits here still expect a Conservative minority government, the Conservatives may manage to get a majority out of this election."
At the beginning of the campaign, no one suggested the Conservatives had a majority within their grasp.
There appear to be two main reasons for the Liberals' demise. First, their Government has been racked by scandal for the past four years. Secondly, they have been in power for 13 years and are widely seen as smug."
Source.
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Keith:
You know the old adage "don't believe everything you read in the newspaper"...well, the same applies to any media source.
Neither the Globe and Mail nor the CBC can be described as being the country's most respected media outlets.
Understanding the G&M's editorial stance is like stirring porridge, and the CBC is so Liberally left wing opinionated that no other political point of view is countenanced.
So, Keith...from all of the above posts , perhaps you can gauge the mood of the average intelligent, thoughtful, insightful, politically aware Canadian voter...who will vote in an appropriate manner.