🚀 go-pugleaf

After takin a swig o' Arrakan spice grog, "Terry Clark" <clark3terry32@yahoo.com> belched out:
> Christopher Browne wrote:
>> The world rejoiced as tempest@gmail.com (Joel) wrote:
>>> "Brian Bagnall" <bbagnall@mts.net> wrote in message
>>> news:<nYhMc.516$tK5.3394@news1.mts.net>...
>>>> "Siobhan Medeiros" <sbm2004@telus.net> wrote in message
>>>> news:baa03ba8.0407222027.d7fd38c@posting.google.com...
>>>>>
>>>>> There's a big reason why Fox News isn't seen up here.  It's
>>>>> because no one wants it except for a few brainwashed rightoids.
>>>>
>>>> Idiot! By *definition*, 50% of the population is right of center
>>>> and 50% is left of center.
>>>>
>>>> - B
>>>
>>> Brian, didn't you even gander at the election results from last
>>>  month? Here's a quick recap for you
>>>
>>> This is popular vote:
>>>
>>> Liberal 36.7%
>>> Conservative 29.6%
>>> Bloq 12.4%
>>> NDP 15.7%
>>> Other 5.6%
>>>
>>> From cbc [http://www.cbc.ca/canadavotes/]
>>>
>>> Now consider that the Bloq has a platform similar in polital standing
>>> as the liberals you're looking at 30% right and 70% at varying
>>> degrees
>>> of left.
>>>
>>> 50/50 my ass
>>
>> What this says is that 29.6% voted in a fashion clearly "right of
>> centre," 15.7 voted in a fashion clearly "left of centre," and that
>> very nearly 50% voted in the "centre" positions.
>>
>> Reality is that the Liberals are _not_ "left of centre," as far as
>> Canadians are concerned; they _are_ the centre.
>>
>> You may consider them left of _your_ position, but since Canadians
>> keep electing Liberals, they can't be too far left of the Canadians
>> that vote...
>
>
> Although I don't like the guy, there's a poster here named "Che" who cross
> posts to US groups and even he has to explain what he refers to as "The
> Right Wing Liberals of British Columbia".
>
> That must confuse our American cousins in a big way.

Well, they have the "myopia" whereby they understand the term
"liberal" to mean something more different than expected, such that
the term is nearly a swear-word.

> Martin is a "right of centre" Liberal compared to Chretien, and
> Stephen Harper is said to want his Conservative Party to be "more
> Centrist" to gain votes in the inevitable election.

The "new Conservatives" were pretty clearly perceived to be the latest
episode of the "Western Reform Party," which wasn't _nearly_
"Centrist" enough to get significant support outside the west.

> By the way, even the Bloc was formed from the PC Party by majority
> and a few Liberals.

That realistically begs the question of how doctrinally "conservative"
those Quebec MPs truly were...  What seems manifestly clear is that
Quebec has a longstanding history of voting in members of the
"nationally ruling" party, this election being an anomalous
exception...

> Is there any wonder why the only political party that hasn't moved
> off course is the despicable NDP, under Layton?

What is particularly interesting about the NDP is that, unlike the
other parties, they _don't_ have a history of pushing ex-leaders out
to "take a walk in the snow."  Ed Broadbent was brought back, and
elected, in Ottawa, no less.

Contrast with the back-biting assortedly involving:
 - Trudeau "screwing" John Turner
 - The recent ill will between Chretien and Martin
 - Mulroney versus Clark
 - Kim Campbell getting stuck with the biggest Conservative loss
 - I seem to remember Dalton Camp being heavily involved with 
   PC infighting...

> Anyone who says that Canada's political party's are black and white,
> is a person who lives in their own world.

Sure.  They all are prepared to borrow "liberally" (pun intended) from
every other party's platforms, assuming it can help get them elected.

> Harper's Conservatives plan on being more like Belinda, and Martin's
> already there because he's not JC.

The only way for the Conservatives to come back is for the Big Blue
Machine to re-emerge from its grave.  I'm not quite sure where it
went; it had been the machine behind Bill Davis' "ruling" Ontario for
~20 years.  It then "went federal" to create the Mulroney years.

I suppose that a big part of it was that BBM consisted of "Red
Tories," and that the more recent iterations of 'conservatism' have
all branched off Western Reform.

All in all, I think Joe Clark was right; the "new Conservatives"
_aren't_ a nationally electable party because they aren't near enough
to centre...

> It's getting more difficult to tell the enemy from the friend.
-- 
wm(X,Y):-write(X),write('@'),write(Y). wm('cbbrowne','acm.org').
http://www.ntlug.org/~cbbrowne/linuxdistributions.html
``God decided to take the  devil to court and settle their differences
once and for all.  When Satan heard of this, he grinned and said, "And
just where do you think you're going to find a lawyer?"''