If there was any party in the history of this country that deserved an asskicking out the door it is the currently malformed Sliperals.

However, that said, Harper is a nightmare, and will not last as Prime Minister of a minority government, should that fate befall us.

Good team you note here Sean, particularly Young, who I can say from personal experience, is a very solid strategist, and absolutely loyal to whatever cause the Martinites will have concocted this time. That's what you need.

And Haakstad is an exceptional organizer and pragmatist. Two big stars, no doubt about it.

I have a real problem with this neo-Con labelling of the Tories, though, it will backfire since many of the nutters are gone.

If all the Grits have to offer is the same old tired lines about right wingnuts, etc. they will have a tough time hanging on to any notion of re-election.

Oh well, thanks to this country's wonderful electoral makeup, Quebec's position guarantees a minority one way or another. Good riddance I say, give 'em their debt and send 'em to hell. They'll be the de facto second US territory in matter of five to ten years. Either that, or they'll partner with France, with a mass exodus almost immeidate, leaving behind the lazy, pot smoking Ivory Tower obliviots, who drive Quebec Nationalism behind. Regardless, this won't be resolved with a minoroty either way. They've finally got us, but in the end, they will get themselves.

Martin's stadium sized ego won't stand another minority though. Look for a draft McKenna movement almost immediately post election. That's the only way for the party not to shatter. At the moment, my operatives in the Librano family tell me of many rounds of Chretien baggage being pumped into the campaign midway.....dangerous stuff. Chretien was always a vindictive asshole, he doesn't care about his party or the country. Clearly, right Justice Gomery?

And if Harper doesn't make it this time......ladies and germs say hello the the new leader of the opposition, Bernard Lord.....which will return (thankfully) the Tories to (Progressive) Conservatism.

At this point, we're all screwed no matter who wins.....

Wonder what Charest is doing right about now, hmmmmmm......he's still got the same hair....

Hey Once Again. Your intense fear of the Conservatives.
Just what part of intelligent integrity don`t you get????

The time has come, Once Again, to help the other students of politics with their homework.

The war of the executive assistants and lobbyists is only of interest if one of them is caught in flagrante dilecto or intoxicated at the wheel. These names may be Big Stuff to people with party political careers in mind, but to the public and even to most rank and file political activists they are just BS, except where their reputation as a known pain in the ass may have preceeded them.

These Liberals of the Christy Clark-Mark Marrisen-Eric Bornman epoch have never been tested in a truly hard election, they came into politics in the post 1993 period of Liberal ascendancy. They will be up against the NDP’s Gerry Scott, who will be chuckling knowingly as he just aims and squeezes.

I don’t always agree with Gerry’s calculations, and in particular in the last federal election he blew it by not going after Ujjal and making an issue of the man’s betrayal and linking that up to Sponsorship ethics. But Gerry is a trooper, and he learns. He won’t be making that mistake twice!

Gerry Scott will make the same mistake twice. Or three times. Or four. Or more. Because, you see, in his world, he doesn't make mistakes.

The sooner the NDP dumps this chump the better.

Constance, my love.....there is little intelligence in the halls occupied by both Messers Martin and Harper, and even less integrity.

I am bemused by your twit, I mean wit, but the Tories, in their current structure are doomed for failure, or mediocrity, whichever comes first. Harper breeds the neo-Con whacker sobriquet, because of the genesis of his journey. He's a policy wonk, who takes more frequent trips to Harry Rosen than anyone else--for now. That's the only reason he's there. He shirks good advice to follow his own leanings. Not even Presto Manning was that shirt sighted (at least not before surgery!)

Canadians weren't fooled by Mulroney. They gave him back to back majorities beacuse they liked the team, good or bad, that's history.

For the Conservatives to make up any ground and form Government, they must shimmy to Quebec and Ontario and find a way for the West not to resent such a demeaning, but necessary position.

Forget the NDP they will wither and die eventually. Jack Laydown is about as much of a reasonable leader as they will even have. Any more right of left, and they will be in Liberal LaPierre, MacEachern territory, and thus Red, but also dead, as a party.

So, the Tories are it, but not it.

And that, sports fans, is why, unless there is a rocket attack against this neo-Con labelling, another Librano minority will manifest itself.

I can just see it now, April 1, 2006, headlines in the Mop and Pail, "The Tobin Inquiry absolves Liberals of all sins...Tory leader Peter C. Newman screams whitewash (with secret tapes to prove it)..... and in announcing a new budget, freshly minted Finance Minister Belinda Stronach, shows off her new shoes...and stockings...and garters.....and....."

Budd - once again you do not know what you are talking about. Mark and Christy have been active Liberals since they were in diapers. They have been involved in the party since the early 1980's. Christy in BC and Mark in Ontario. Christy was heavily involved in building the BC Liberal Party under Gordon Wilson. She and Mike McDonald recruited over 20 candidates in 1991. Mark and Christy know defeat and victory in equal measure.

Does this mean that Mark Marrisen has been thrown out? Has Kim Haakstad taken his place?

Ah, Buddly, me thinks that you might have stepped in it here.

"Liberal" is quite correct. Christy has been a life long Liberal and Mark, too, has been heavily involved form a very young age in Ontario. They absolutely did not arrive at Sliperal shores post '93. '83 mught be more like it.

And a force to be reckoned with, both individually and singularly. Particularly Marissen, I predict will become the youngest Senator ever.

The loss to Sam Sullivan was an anomaly. They misjudged the Slammin' ones pull intra-party.

Federally, they will always ring the right bells, or is that left.....probably center...oh well.

When I saw "Adam Johnson" at the LPCBC convention,he was wearing a nametag that said Adam Bornman. Did he and Eric Bornman get married?

To Liberal and Once Again,

If Mark and Christy did Young Liberal gigs prior to 1993, who cares? It's not relevant. They have been around for the period of easy successes and are able to bask in the reflected glory of easy times.

Now that the wheel is turning, they're going to find that speed dialing and schmoozing and the Board of Trade doesn't make up for lack of depth, trademark smugness and a host of other inadequacies. Their defeat in the Mayoralty thing was just the start of their decline, and a joyous thing it will be to watch these two jumped up smart asses taking one fall after another.

BTW, what's their plan for that million dollar white elephant duplex their supporters got them into on 16th Avenue?

oh oh you got some young dope smoking liberals running the show in bc. where is mark emery when you need him......

Why does everyone have to be hating on Mark and Christy? What have they ever done to you. Sounds more like jealousy than anything else.