Ignatieff said yesterday that he is convinced that whenever an election arises, Canadians, by a majority will choose to come back to the Liberal party, or as he calls it, the "big red tent." After seeing him perform during the summer, I believe he can get a government. What I'm less sure of is if a majority is possible. In Canada, with support being divided between the Conservatives, Liberals, NDP, Bloc and Green, we might not be seeing another majority for a long time. Parties will have to learn how to cooperate, like in the U.K. There can't be any more Stephen Harper bullying tactics. I am expecting more coalitions negotiated after elections.

BADDECK, N.S. Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said Wednesday he's out to earn a majority government in the next election and...

Bye bye apple, hello pot is what you can say about neurotic pain. A new study shows that herbal cannabis helps with neurotic pain. The study gave people with the neurotic pain either a placebo with 0% THC (most common chemical in Marijuana), 2.5% THC, 6% THC or 9.4% THC. It showed a significant reduction in neurotic pain for people taking 9.4% THC against the people who took 0% THC. Now there were some side effects, some of which included headache, dry eyes, burning sensation in areas of neuropathic pain, dizziness, numbness, cough. Some even said that it helped with sleep. I think that the U.S should at the very least legalize medical Marijuana. Which by the way 80% of Americans agree with. Currently though Obama is against legalizing even medical Marijuana.
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With Iggy rightfully taking to task Harper's neglect of Canada's second largest province , it brings up an obvious question in the minds of political watchers such as myself: what does this signal about the Conservative's electoral strategy?

With polls showing the party in the mid-teens, and websites like 308.com , DemocraticSpace and Canadian Election Watch showing the party stuck between 6 and 9 seats (down from 11 they have currently), and no relief in site, Harper is probably asking himself,...

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Harper today has gone into attack the coalition mode again, just like late 2008. Except this time the coalition doesn't exist. But, once again Harper doesn't focus on facts, rather trying to use the world of make-believe to lower Liberal support. The truth is that there is no coalition being planned. The new Harris-Decima poll gives the Conservatives only a ten seat lead (117). There is every possibility that the Liberals could gain a government on their own during an election. After the election, then there might be talks. But right now, no party is focused on a coalition, just getting its own support up, which so far, has worked for the Liberals. We'll see if Stephen Ha...

Thanks to Dr. David Schindler's most recent study , the Regional Aquatic Monitoring Program (R.A.M.P.) has received considerable attention by the media. I did a post on R.A.M.P.'s deficiencies a few months back, so I thought I'd provide insight into how the program informs provincial policy and the implications if it is as flawed as experts say .

In 2009, Alberta Health Services (AHS) released a stu...

U.S. as it promised said it would create tougher sanctions on North Korea. North Korea has still continued to try for nuclear weapons while everyone continues to try and stop them. Sanctions are the best way to stop North Korea from getting a nuclear weapon. The U.S and many other countries should continue to toughen it's sanctions until North Korea stops. All countries should continue to try to stop North Korea and any other nations from getting nuclear weapons, but they should practice what they preach and get ride of their own nuclear weapons.

The sanctions will hit eight North Korean "entities" and four individuals, targeting the trade in arms, luxury goods and narcotics.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced last month that US sanct...

The following is audio from Alberta Environment Minister Rob Renner 's press scrum where he responds to Dr. David Schindler's most recent study . Schindler's study challenges the Alberta Government 's long standing position that oilsands activity is having no significant environmental impact and harshly criticized the province's regional monitoring system, R.A.M.P. I've annotated and commented points in the audio that are worth paying attention to. Special thanks to Archie McLean and the...

If you'd like to send a letter to your Alberta MLA outlining your concerns over the Regional Aquatic Monitoring Program (R.A.M.P) and health concerns in Fort Chipewyan, please follow the following step by step guide.

For more context on the issue, please click...

For immediate release:


EDMONTON-Stand With Fort Chipewyan, an advocacy group based out of the University of Alberta,...

For starters, we already have CF-18s that are 30 years ahead technology wise over our most likely threat, the Russian TU-95s.

Secondly, as Philippe Lagassé, a defence analyst at the University of Ottawa has remarked, "it would be thoroughly against all [Russia's] national interests to ever contemplate sending a fleet of aircraft into our airspace." Not to mention the rest of the world would be ill-advised to enter our airspace, as the US would probably view it as an action ultimately aimed against her....

Straight from the facebook event . Be sure to check it out:


(image) (image) ...

Ever heard the adage about a tree falling in the woods and asking whether it makes a sound? We now have a political equivalent .

It appears that the Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia, which up until last year held government, and is now a third party, badly beaten and bruised by a surging Liberal and New Democratic parties, will be getting a new leader, since no one else except one person filed papers before the deadline to become the new leader, not even sitting MLAs.

That one person is Jamie Baillie, former Chief of Staff to Premier John Hamm. He's going to be acclaimed leader by October 2010. ...

Both Buckdog and Thor at Driving the Porcelain Bus are blogging about how the Liberal heads are telling us bloggers to ride hard against Layton and his refusal to do the right thing :

Idiotically, the boo-bah's who run have decided that it is wise at this time to make another foray into New Democrat territory. Hence w...

Douglas Bell of the Globe and Mail (well, at least what they call an "occasional writer" for G & M) offers up this not-so-startling cry against the Liberals and their reaction to the G20 fiasco:

The largest mass arrest of Canadians in history and the Grits primary concern is that the cops were overwhelmed. It would be as if Martin Luther King in his letters from the Birmingham jail wrote to Police Chief "Bull" Connor complaining about the stress he was putting on his department's German shepherds.

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Jack Layton is planning to compromise over the long gun registry. Of course, the only reason this bill is going to pass is because he refuses to whip the vote. Even though it is a private members' bill, it is clearly something all Conservatives support. I would not be surprised if Stephen Harper himself was the mastermind of this plan. I also wouldn't be surprised if the Conservatives would call an election, stating this as one of the reasons. The RCMP and ER doctors say that the registry is instrumental in saving lives. Why won't Layton make sure that it stays alive?

OTTAWANDP Leader Jack Layton says he's not worried about the backlash that may come from his party helping kill the long gun registry.

For immediate release:

claims that the Alberta Oilsands Industry is releasing...

Tory MP Candice Hoeppner, in response to the report issued by the RCMP today on the long gun registry, said that it showed the long gun registry to be ""wasteful and ineffective." She further claimed that "[t]he report also clearly shows that claims made by advocates of the unreliable long-gun registry about its so-called value to front-line officers are highly misleading."

How can she possibly square these allegations with what the report actually says? The report says of the registry that it is a "useful tool," that it ensures "police are better equipped to respond to, for example, a situation of domestic violence, assess potential safety risks and confirm the possible presence of firearms and their legal status." It also said that there is an ""ongoing need" f...

The "unabridged" version of my article, ' Empower People to Revive Democracy ,' which appears in today's Edmonton Journal....

Last week, Gap , Levi-Strauss , Timberland , and Walgreens officially signed on to Forest Ethics ' corporate boycott of the Alberta Oilsands . There's no doubt that for most of these companies, this is...

Jack Layton seems to be playing catch-up with the Liberals:

NDP Leader Jack Layton is proposing a compromise on the fate the federal long-gun registry to address frustrations of northern, rural and aboriginal Canadians when Parliament returns next month.

... He said his party would introduce legislation in the House to make a first-time failure to register a firearm a non-criminal ticketing offence and to waive fees for new licences.

The proposed legislation would respect aboriginal treaty rights and allow municipalities to ban handguns, he said....

Quebec could allow for the opening of many shale gas wells. This would need to be harvested not unlike the Alberta tar sands. Good. Let the companies collect the gas. However, they should pay for the damages against the environment. This means not just a carbon tax, but many other taxes depending on the damages to the surrounding environment. This would encourage the oil and gas companies to either invest in R&D or not mine for gas at all. The government makes a profit. In any case, the environment wins.

In most places west of Manitoba, the arrival of yet another oil or gas drilling rig is cause for little notice or concern. In Quebec, a half dozen gas wells and the potential of hundreds more may be about to set off a new kind of identity crisis.

Dr....

I've read this argument on many Conservative blogs. Carbon Dioxide is plant food, therefore, if there is more of it in the atmosphere there will be more food in the world for people to eat. That's why we should emit more. This video from Climate Denial Crock of the Week debunks this argument.

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Ms. Smith earlier on Tuesday wrote a letter to the Calgary Herald extolling the benefits of saving the Health Resource Centre. Two doctors wrote letters to the editor calling her out on her twisted viewpoint and twisting of the truth. They are posted below with links to their original pages on www.CalgaryHerald.com. Letter #1 Ask [...]

If a question of an election is in your head this fall you should know it ain't going to happen. In the summer an election was almost certain this fall, but then the Conservatives had to go and mess with the long form census. Which polls show isn't so popular. Then the conservatives are revisiting the long term gun registry. Both these  issue's are ralling his base, and have immense opposition. These aren't issue's a party in power is going to propose just before an election. Now the Conservatives only slitly ahead of the polls are trying to get it back by ralling the base. An election not happening this fall....

When the bill to abolish the long gun registry was last put to a vote in the House of Commons, 8 Liberal MPs supported it. To avoid such an outcome on the upcoming decisive vote, Michael Ignatieff has whipped his MPs into opposing the bill. Ignatieff has understood that the registry is an important tool for police in their fight against crime. He also knows that the registry makes society safer.

Jack Layton probably knows these things, too. However, as of yet he is unwilling to whip his MPs on this issue, citing his principle of letting MPs vote their conscience on private member's bills. This is an admirable democratic principle. Yet, with the safety of citizens' at stake, Jack Layton should take a firmer stand. He should stand up for what is right. He should whip his MPs to o...

I’ll be going. You should too. Information is below: Date- Sunday Aug 29 Time- 1:00pm – 4:00pm Meet and Greet – 12 noon – 1:00pm Location- Croatian Canadian Cultural Center 3010 12 St NE Calgary, AB FEEL FREE BRING A GUEST, AND TO FORWARD THIS INVITATION TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY. The Calgary Leadership Forum is [...]

The eponymous Glenn Beck , otherwise known as that flabby white guy with the show on Fox ( suppose that doesn't narrow it down, does it? ), held his " Restoring Honour " rally today at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to a crowd of apparently hundreds of thousands. Beck, and former Republican Vice-Presidential nominee, former Governor, and formerly liked person within the GOP establishment Sarah Palin, stood side by side, saying that America needs to "return" to God, find its way "out of the darkn...

On Thursday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the creation of a protected area in the Beaufort Sea for belugas. Congratulations! This is a great gesture.. However, oil companies will be able to drill right outside the sanctuary. This, of course, makes no sense whatsoever. If there is an oil spill, the oil will cross right into the conservation area. The oil knows no human lines. It will not stop belugas from dying. This is another cover-up by the Harper government to make it look like they are protecting the environment when they are doing the opposite.

New Democrat MP Nathan Cullen said allowing an exception for offshore drilling defeats the purpose of creating a protected area. "This is a protected area that protects nothing except oil and gas interests," said Cu...