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Politics : Canadian Political Free-for-All -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck who wrote (8921)	3/20/2006 11:00:41 AM
From: Ichy Smith	Respond to of 37550

Is it time for Canada to abandon its multiculturalism policy and insist that immigrants adopt Canadian cultural values About time someone started asking that question I for one, can't see that the "culture" of any other country should supercede the Canadian way of life in Canada. And it is about time out tax dollars stopped supporting the demise of Canadian Culture in order that people who fled their old countries can bring the problems of the old world here. Imagine that we need some form of program to help Black Youth integrate into Canadian Society, and we are going to spend half a million dollars on Caribana, a party downtown instead of helping those children become more productive Canadians.

To: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck who wrote (8921)	3/20/2006 11:36:18 AM
From: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 37550

Harper may end up real winner Contenders more flighty than mighty View Larger Image Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper Photograph by : AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd Article Tools Printer friendly E-mail Font: * * * * Don Martin, CanWest News Service Published: Monday, March 20, 2006 OTTAWA - On your mark and get set for the wildest Liberal leadership scramble in history. With the convention rules set yesterday by the party executive, an oddball collection of former political rivals, new party converts, vaguely familiar MP names and a recently returned Canadian will begin sizing up their shot at a title the true Grit heavyweights decided wasn't worth the fight. This much is certain: There will be no Paul Martin-like coronation this time. The undeclared front-runners are fragile candidates and they're being chased by a dozen dark horses who fancy themselves the reincarnation of Pierre Trudeau, who emerged from obscurity at the hotly contested 1968 convention as a political phenomenon. But given the calibre of understudies pondering a bid, the eventual winner may not even appear on the Dec. 3 ballot. Yes that's you, Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The convention kick-start ensures Harper is no longer in any danger of a snap election this year. He can henceforth govern under his self-imposed cone of silence with a free and non-communicative hand, knowing there's no way the Liberals will take him down until after the Montreal convention free-for-all. And given a Liberal leadership lineup that's more flighty than mighty and filled with no-names instead of high profiles, most of them emerging from the party's last electoral bunker in the Greater Toronto Area, well, the Prime Minister can't help but be smiling at the prospect of the next election showdown. The new rules give just enough hope to ensure most of the 16 or so who have floated the notion of having the right stuff to become a future prime minister will apply for the job, even if that view is shared only by relatives, potential employees and the family dog. Anybody can enter for a $25,000 fee up front and the cost of setting up a Web site that can process membership sales. Only when the candidate debates start will a second $25,000 fee be required and by then the great divide between the serious hopefuls and the severely hopeless will become apparent. The bad news for all but the front-runner five is the party's imposition of a $3.4-million spending limit for each campaign. Raising a million will be as easy as spinning the Rolodex for the well-connected, but nigh unto impossible for the lesser lights of the field, who may have to max out their credit cards just to cover the entry fee. But with the cutoff of membership sales just over three months away, the entry-declaration news conferences by the earnest and hopeful will have to roll out quickly. Bob Rae, noteworthy and notorious as the New Democrat premier of Ontario during its greatest deficit-creation heydays, is expected out of the gate next week. He'll be followed by Michael Ignatieff, who has barely acclimatized to our winters, having parachuted into a Toronto seat after almost 30 years of academic life outside of Canada. Belinda Stronach will enter the race later this month when she feels more comfortable talking in French after a couple weeks of migraine-inducing immersion in Quebec City. Mastering French, learning to talk in soundbites less than five minutes long and finding enough hockey fans to finance his bid are the obstacles facing Ken Dryden's launch of a long-shot bid. And then there's MP Scott Brison, gamely trying to recover from fibbing to a reporter and writing damning e-mails to an investment dealer buddy, giving apparent insight into the government's response to income trusts. He'll have to decide if his candidacy has been mortally wounded by the mistake. Here's my advice. Beam yourself out, Scotty. The rest of the race are the dark horses, some who would probably be beaten by David Emerson if he decided to hopscotch back to the Liberal side of politics. Yet the rules do suggest this will be a cleaner race than the 2003 coronation. After the Paul Martin machine cornered the party's national office and ridings organizations, memberships were severely rationed to rivals and surprisingly easy to obtain for his supporters. So the good news for the Liberals is that they've finally got a real convention contest with the prospect of an upset on a fairly level playing field. The bad news, of course, is that the first-place prize is no longer what it used to be. The fight to lead the party will have to be followed by an even tougher fight to become prime minister. © National Post 2006