It's An Election Year!

Down to the wire ...




At least Harper's office wasn't riddled with drug addicts shooting up wherever they wished:

Vancouver’s mayor has not endorsed anyone for prime minister yet, but there’s one person who will definitely not get his vote: Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer.

Speaking to media Wednesday, Kennedy Stewart said a Scheer government would be “a disaster for the city” when it comes to issues that are top of mind for Vancouverites.

“If you care about these top issues — housing, opioids and transit, and I know most people do — Andrew Scheer would be worse than Stephen Harper,” Stewart said.

Why not bar them from getting a pension, Andy?:

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer pledged Wednesday to impose massive fines on politicians who break Canada’s ethics laws as he took his campaign message back to its basic proposition: Justin Trudeau has rendered himself unfit to govern.

Accusing Trudeau of ethical lapses has been an attack line for Scheer since long before the campaign began in mid-September, and it — along with Scheer’s promises to address affordability questions — were the one-two punch the Conservatives intended to use to knock the Liberals out of office.

Also:

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has promised that he will do whatever it takes to turn his marquee pledge to repeal the carbon tax into reality within his first 100 days in office as he lays out his vision for governing Canada if he gets a majority government.

While Scheer has repeatedly promised during the federal-election campaign to eliminate the Liberals’ carbon tax, Thursday was the first time the Conservative leader has given himself a deadline.

“There is no time to lose,” he said during an event in the Ontario city of Brampton, west of Toronto. “We will use every available legislative tool to overcome any obstruction and delay so that we pass this legislation on time. Trudeau’s carbon tax will be history by Jan. 1, 2020.”

I will hold you to that promise, Andrew.




Let them fight:

Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-François Blanchet has revived the fortunes of the separatist party in Quebec.

Blanchet performed well in both the French and English debates and has aligned the federal bloc with Quebec’s right leaning CAQ government.

While both the Liberals and the Conservatives were both hoping to expand their seat count in the province, Blanchet’s growing popularity means that is less likely.

A Justin Trudeau Liberal minority is now a likely outcome after the Oct. 21 election.

Was it something he said?:

What went wrong? How is Trudeau — once the darling of international media, the beneficiary of Trudeaumania II, and the guy who propelled his party from a parliamentary third place to first — now facing what HuffPo’s Althia Raj, no less, has declared the “possibility he won’t be prime minister much longer.” How did that happen?

Three reasons. The first: He over-promised and under-delivered. ...

Second reason: He thinks he’s far more charming and entertaining than he actually is. ...

The third and final reason that Trudeau is less popular than Trump is neatly, and expertly, mirrored in the Conservative Party’s shrewd attack ad slogan: “Justin Trudeau. Not as advertised.”

Kinsella tries to flatter the frat-boy but - as is oft said - one cannot polish - ahem - excrement.




Division and such:

On Wednesday, the Liberal leader told Quebecers to vote for him to stop provincial premiers in Ontario and Alberta.

“Québecers need to stand up and fight against those like Jason Kenney and Doug Ford and other conservative politicians,” Trudeau said while looking for votes in Montreal.

In my near 20 years covering politics, in the seven elections that I have watched up close as a journalist, I have never seen a federal politician call on voters in one province to stop provincial politicians in another. That includes former Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien dealing with separatist governments in Quebec.

And:

Trudeau led his party back from third standing to government in 2015 on the promise of “doing politics differently.” Encouraging citizens to hold their noses and unite behind him out of fear of a Conservative bogeyman is to revive a tactic from the darkest pages of past federal and provincial Liberal governments backed onto the ropes — in the past as now — largely through their own errors, conceits and scandals. It is the sign of a government turning away from the vision and principles that captured the support of voters to begin with, in the name of misdiagnosed expedience.