SHOCKING! News round up

Okay, not really shocking... but again, the day job has kept me away from the blogosphere and I have not been on-top of the latest developments.

Here's a round-up of the interesting news (from my perspective) with commentary:

• Advanced polls have seen a significant uptick in voter turnout. Not sure who this helps. In the US last year, many in the punditocracy said high turnout was bad for the incumbent, but we all know how wrong that turned out to be.

• Stephen Harper said that some judges are activists and some are not. I don't think this is very good if we're trying to heal the deep feelings of Western Alienation.

Thanks alot pal, you've just sown a few more seeds that will (among other things) grow to become King Ralph's mantra when his government gets charged with violating the Canada Health Act.

Or, even worse, you've laid the groundwork for the ideological war that portends to erupt once you have your 'free vote' on reversing the Same Sex Marriage law. As we all know, and most lawyers I've spoken to, and all the constitutional scholars referenced in the newspapers say, a vote to reverse the SSM law would prompt a SCOC challenge which would most likely bring us back to the status quo we have right now.

What is to be gained from this dangerous gamble? Not much, except the Conservatives would have the devoted admiration and support of all the Christo-fascists and all the rest who support the discriminatory definition of 'traditional marriage'. What would be lost? Well, a few million dollars for a start. Precious SCOC court time, not to mention the time and resources of a number of federal ministries. All for what? So you could try to turn back the clock of human rights and attempt to force your definition of morality and religious marriage onto the rest of us. Who will the Christo-fascists blame then? Well, you already told them who... the activist judges.

Consequently, a lawyer-friend who is much smarter than I once told me this:

"What is the definition of an activist judge?"

"I dunno," said I.

"A judge who doesn't do what you want," answered he.

Seems right to me. It is a disgusting label foisted by the person who is supposedly not into spin.

• Harper also said, don't worry about giving us a majority, there are checks and balances in place after 12 years of Liberal governments.

Again, setting the stage and pre-labeling the scapegoats so that when things don't work out the way you promised you've got excuses.... FAST FORWARD 4 YEARS...

"Mired in budget deficits and dogged by a crippled, gutted federal government of his party's doing, Harper blames stubborn Liberal Senate and Liberal judiciary for his troubles...."

• Last comment on SSM (at least for this post) it looks like many gay and lesbian couples really do fear a Harper victory. They are rushing to get to the altar, or courthouse, or wherever before scary-Stephen(TM) takes over.
  

That kind of news does not play well for the CPC in Ontario.

• The Blogging Tories got a little heat through a bogus complaint to Elections Canada through an allegedly 'digruntled' party member.

Makes me wonder when Liblogs will get its' notice from Jean-Pierre Kingsley.... I may wholeheartedly disagree with their mantra of scandal, "Lieberals", "Libranos", etc. but they have a right to blog, and no one should be trying to take that away from them. Unless of course they have a legal tie to the CPC. But, that I do not believe.

• Polling has become wildly divergent with the most recent poll from SES showing the Conservatives' lead cut to 5% nationally, CPC 37%, Lib 32%, NDP 18%, BQ 10%, and the Greens at 4%. And the same day a Strategic Counsel poll shows an 18% lead for the Cons, CPC 42%, Lib 24%, NDP 17%, BQ 12%, and Green 5%. Both of these were 3 day rolling, tracking polls and it is worth noting that they had different sample sizes. SES used a sample of 1200 Canadians and Strategic Counsel (Allan Gregg's outfit) used 1500 (25% more than SES). The margins of error are not that different though at +/- 3.1% for SES and +/- 2.5% for Gregg.

I am not sure what to make of that huge discrepancy. Each of the polls are not even within eachother's margin of error.

Warren Kinsella had some thoughts on the polling in his Jan. 17 post, but I can't say he convinced me. His other stuff today though is very good.

I say watch the polls and take them with a grain of salt, get out there and vote, strategically if you can or for the party of your choice if you can't (after all it's worth $1.75 a year!) like I did. Grab a beer, pop some corn, and settle in to watch Mansbridge, Robertson, or the drones on CPAC call the returns.

As Liberal-4-Life said... "Help me Ontario-Kenobi, you're my only hope..."

Classic lines are always welcome... well done my friend.

A.L.

P.S. My latest obsession, the Fraggle Rock Season One DVD set I got for my birthday... I love those Fraggles!

UPDATE: Hat tip to Paul Wells... Ekos has just shown the CPC lead cut to 7% at 35% CPC and 29% Liberals.