9:33 and less than 12 hours to go!

So if you've been reading along with my writing then you know all about The Liberals, the Conservatives,
the Bloc, the NDP,
and the Rest, the platforms, and the reasons to vote.
We've been from a Majority Liberal Government, to Minority Conservative, all the way up to talk of a Majority Conservative.
We've seen 10% slides in opinion polls and heard a variety of different promises. We've had mistakes, errors, swearing, shifting alliances, and the French and English Debates. The Media's role, provincial and foreign influence, the balance of power, the comeback of a couple, And the disappearance of one. With less than 15 hours to go, I can honestly say this has been one of the most interesting elections in my lifetime.

I cannot stress on you enough how important it is for everyone to vote. There are up to 200 seats that depending on voter turnout could change the out come off that seat. I am expecting many seats in Ontario to be decided by less that 100 votes, whereas in the previous election the Liberals walked away with large vote amounts. So whether you want to see change, or if you want things to remain the same you still need to vote.

Some things to remember

1) You don't need to be on the voter list! What you need is photo ID, and a record of your residency. This can be accomplished with a phone/cable bill, or any government or work documentation. I've done this three times myself, and it's very easy.

2) You can go home early! Polls are open until 9:30 in most places, so most of us can get home with plenty of time to spare, but if there's any question as to you being able to vote you are legally allowed to leave work to make it on time.

3) You vote right near you. Drop your postal code in here and it will show you where to vote

Prediction

I am continuing my prediction from before, Liberal Minority, with the Bloc holding the balance of power. It will be tight race and the balance that any one party hold will be slim.

How can you help?

Get out and vote. Be involved. What you vote for will make a difference, as whoever ends up running the country will need the other parties help. And Vote intelligently, think about your area. If you're in Downtown Toronto the vote is split between the NDP and the Liberals. If you're in the 905 area it's between the Liberals and the Conservatives. If you're on Saanich-Gulf Island (Victoria) then it's between the Greens and the Conservatives. So if you want to vote for a specific person or party do that, but if you're a strategic voter and want to keep someone in or out of power, think about your area and where you can make the biggest impact.

Happy Voting Day everyone!

Dead Heat and three days to go.

About 72 hours from now I'm going to be racing out of work to go place my vote in one of the tightest races of the last 30 years. By everyone's admission there are virtually NO safe ridings anywhere in the country, and every vote could make the difference.

So this weekend I will be spending some time thinking about the last 4 weeks to see what it all means and make my final decisions. I have already decided who I am not voting for, Sorry Communist Party, the Marxist-Leninist party has much more going for it, but I have not officially placed my vote and can still be swayed.

Interestingly though, the US election always manages to cause a stir in Canada and we tend to get involved in our own ways (there are constantly polls talking about what Canadians think of US leaders, while most American's can't name Canada's leader), however this is one of the first where we've had major US statements about ours.

Michael Moore has come out and said that he hopes Canadian's don't elect Stephen Harper and his conservatives. He has said that Canadians should not become more like Americans and we should be thinking about the long term ramifications to our votes. As with the US, most right wing conservatives will brush Michael Moore off as an annoyance and vote for Harper and his ilk.

And now Ralph Nader, independent Candidate for President in the US, and some believe 2000 election spoiler has come up and endorsed the NDP. In his statement he said that the voters are understandably reacting to the scandal, but we should beware and not overreact. He says a viable third party is a great option and the NDP are there as our option.

So as you head through the next few days think about the party you are voting for. Are you voting for spite, and will you still feel that spite in 4 years and was it worth it? Are you going to vote for the lesser of evils or vote for what you believe in?

Last post pre-vote will come on Monday morning.

Where is Stephen Harper?

A couple of days ago Stephen Harper took a day off to set himself up for the home stretch. This unplanned day off came a day after the news hit of a new poll putting him 6 points behind the Liberals, dropping heavily in the week after the debate. The Conservatives had hit the wall some said, they peaked too early said others, and the whole time the Liberals watched with baited breath to find out what Stephen was going to do the following day.

And it was nothing.

Early yesterday he made an impassioned speech about how Martin could have stopped McGuinty from raising taxes in Ontario, and has since been virtually silent. The Bloc is still tearing up the Liberals, the NDP are setting out a minority government agenda, and the Liberals are attacking the Conservative health care plan. And the Conservatives are silent, there is even surprisingly a lack of new press releases on their website.

So far the reason it seems that most people are switching to the Conservatives are because they are not the Liberals, not for any real support of the CPC Policy. Harper has tried through this campaign to paint himself as a moderate conservative, but he has failed to distance himself from his Extremist Reform roots. I believe this is the new strategy, stay out of the news, stay out of the way, say nothing.

It seems to be that the more we hear from him the more likely he is to say something that concerns a few more Ontarians who then float back to the Liberals, and if Stephen Harper is going to win he needs to storm Ontario.

On June 28, Vote Conservative - National Post

The news papers have begun to step in with their opinions on whom you should place your vote for and surprisingly not what I was expecting. The National Post has come in heavily in favour of the Conservatives surprising considering their owners. The Aspers were heavy Chrétien supporters so for them to come out in support of Steven Harper tells me that they are either pandering to their right wing readers, or they are still angry about Martin's subversion of their friend. The Post mentions the reasons of the healthcare system needing some sort of renewal, the promise to cancel Kyoto, and the backing of the US war in Iraq, of which none will happen unless Harper manages a majority which is not very likely at this point.

The Globe and Mail, for years the paper of Canada's right until Lord Black darkened the newspaper skies with the National Post about a decade ago, has come out in favour of the Liberals. The reasons seem to come down to one thing, even though the Liberals have lied, cheated and mismanaged the social conservative agenda is too dangerous for their liking.

The other shock for me was Winnipeg Sun coming out in favour of Martin with similar reasons to the Globe. Only last week I was giving the Sun papers a bashing for being too Conservative/Harper based, but this week their leftists paper, the Winnipeg Sun, slips by the big Sun Media editors and backs the Liberals.

I'm not too sure if this will make much of a difference, but with a couple of conservative type papers going Liberal I don't see it hurting their chances much.

The Liberal comeback

A recent Ipsos-Reid poll has shown a rebound for the Liberals, bouncing back almost 6 points ahead of the Conservatives from a week and a half ago of a 1-2% miss. In a tight race like this a single point can mean the difference between power and obscurity, and Paul was looking like he was making a run for a footnote in Canadian Political history.

Only a few weeks ago it was looking as if Martin had lost the faith of the media, his party and more importantly the electorate. Steven Harper had seen a 10% rise in his fortune, and was arrogantly talking about a majority government. And with a single poll the momentum the Conservative party had has been stripped away. Talk of a Majority is gone and Harpers statement that the people of Canada wanted to give him a majority has been proven false.

It seems as if people want one thing, a minority government. We are however; unsure of whom we want to be leading. It seems that no one truly wants Martin or Harper, but Layton and Harris aren't a choice of most either. This could very well be the last we see of a majority government, for rearing it's head from the beast of the Liberal Party is the idea of Proportional Representation.

That's right; the party who has benefited the most from our first past the post system is considering, however mildly, the NDP proposal. Martin told the Winnipeg Free Press that he may entertain the idea. No doubt this will be only under the condition that the NDP have enough seats to cover the spread to a majority government. Six days left and I can honestly say this is one of the best election runs we've had in my lifetime. From a majority Liberal to minority Conservative, to a coalition Liberal/NDP, and with less than a week to go and only days away from the publishing ban on polls we could still see many things change.

We've got to put an end to this Bullshit right now

Jack Layton fumed on Friday as accusations from the Liberals that Jack would work with the Conservative party if they won a minority government. In a sign of desperation, the Liberals have begun attacking the NDP, attempting to pull the left Liberals back to their party. As with Ontario, the NDP are running 26%, only a handful of points behind the Liberals, in the province with the most seats. The NDP are projecting up to 12 seats in Ontario, up from the 2 they presently hold. This is concerning the Liberals, because even if they don't lose the seat to the Conservatives, they still lose the seat.

Jack's statement continues to the effect that He, and his NDP, do not agree with virtually any policy of the Conservatives, and there was nothing that could change in the next few days that would change that. The Liberals however are still claiming this to be true, especially in BC, an NDP heavy area.

BC looks like they may be the province to watch in this election as it will be close enough in the rest of the country for BC to hold the balance, as well their polls close last of all the provinces. The NDP have been showing a strong third with the Conservatives leading the Liberals by 1-4% depending on the polls. The Greens are showing strongest in BC with 7-10%. Because of the tightness of the race the parties are all furiously working to shift the momentum in their favour, the Liberals working harder than the rest. Many former NDP members are now working for the Liberal party and are the ones attacking Jack directly.

Meanwhile Harper had been running a great campaign until late last week where he attacked Paul Martin for now doing more about child pornography, an issue raised due to the Holly Jones murder trial. This seems to have played poorly as Harper alluded to the fact that Martin has made child porn more readily acceptable. A stretch at the best of times, Martin's Liberals brought in many new pieces of legislation against child porn. My feelings on a minority Liberal government are still solid, and these issues begin to show the true agenda of the Conservatives, one based on fear and cynicism.

What does Klein have to do with anything?

With two of the main parties (Conservative and Bloc) focusing on a decentralization of power it's important to know the role of the provinces in Federal Politics. As it stands we don't have as clear a delineation between what is the specific role for provincial governments and what Federal jurisdiction. The Federal government acts as a fund distributor to the provinces for programs it deems essential. Programs like security, military and healthcare are federal programs.

Emperor Ralph Klein of Alberta has stepped in many times to complain about Federal programming. He has been demanding that the provinces be allowed to opt out of the programs, receive the money directly, and implement the program themselves in their own way. Apparently he is going to announce his healthcare plan for Alberta two days after the Federal election. Klein has in the past attempted to allow two-tier health care for Albertans, and many have speculated that his health plan will be more of the same. This could have major ramifications for the Canadian Health care system.

Despite the constant denials, Steven Harper and Klein have a strong history. Before his Reform/Alliance days, Harper was finance minister under Ralph Klein and helped to implement the two-tier system growing in Alberta. He spoke of building a "firewall" around Alberta to protect them from the federalist reach, and he cut programs in the same way Ernie Eves did for Ontario under Mike Harris' Tories. If Steven Harper wins the election and gets the Bloc to agree to a devolution of Federal Power (something very important to the Bloc), Ralph Klein may have his way finally, in creating a two-tiered for profit system in Alberta, essentially negating the Canada Health Act.

With only 10 days to go in this election and an electorate bent on change, are we going to vote for something we don't want simply for spite?