Mr. Ziffy Blames Tories For His Low Poll Numbers

The new poll that came out this morning by the Lib lovin' supporter Frank Graves, Ekos has the Libs tanking again. Mr. Ziffy's personal approval numbers are abysmal as well.
But you know what the latest is?  He's blaming the Conservatives   I mean come on, he can't be serious, can he?

Michael Ignatieff blames his lowly status in the polls on his adversaries, who he says have “done a number on me.” And that was before today’s EKOS results showing the Liberals slipping even farther into the basement of public opinion.

Uh, maybe he should look at himself in the mirror.  He's been leader now for over 16 months and hasn't been able to make inroads with Canadians.  Canadians just don't trust him. Trust needs to be earned. How can he or his party be trusted when they offer no credible policies and continually engage in faux scandals, smears, and a cultural war? Besides, they still need to pay back the $40 million they stole from us.

You can't blame your opponent for all your short comings.  You need to stand up and take personal responsibility  for why you are losing ground.  Didn't a well known Lib politican say to the affect once that "the more mud you throw, the more you lose ground?"  

As long as Mr. Ziffy and the Libs keep up the scandal mongering, the culture war and keep blaming the CPC for their low poll numbers they aren't going to get traction with the voters and their numbers will keep dropping.

Mr. Ziffy Irrelevant?

Kelly McParland has a good piece about on Mr. Ziffy called Michael Who?

The leader of the Liberal party isn't just unpopular. He's also increasingly irrelevant

  You're the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. You have been leader for well over a year. Your party has just spent the winter portraying the government and Prime Minister as willing -- even eager -- accomplices in the torture of foreign combatants, enemies of women, keepers of a secret agenda that opposes abortion rights and discriminates against impoverished women in developing countries.

 You have argued ceaselessly that the government is obsessed with secrecy, is deliberately hiding critical documents from public scrutiny and is increasingly contemptuous of Parliament. You've hounded the Prime Minister into firing a troublesome minister whose antics raised serious questions about the way business gets done in Ottawa. The country has just gone through one of the most frightening economic periods in a generation, a situation that invariably reflects badly on the government of the day.

Yet an opinion poll finds that, given a choice, voters would pick almost anyone else, including the target of all your party's scorn, as Prime Minister. Far from making inroads against a government faced with any number of challenges, you place dead last when Canadians are asked to identify their favourite leader.

Mr. Ziffy's personal numbers are atrocious.

A Canadian Press/Harris-Decima survey found 52% of those questioned had a negative impression of him, against 26% with a positive impression, leaving him with a net score of minus-26.

 Today also has the CBC's Liberal friendly pollster, Frank Graves, Ekos putting  the Liberals down from their last poll at 25.1, CPC, up to 34.4, NDP, 15.3, Greens, 12.0. 

Wow, those numbers for the Libs are at Dion numbers! He must be somewhere smiling.
Seems like Mr. Ziffy is just not turning the public on.  The culture war, that Graves was advocating (abortion, guns, secrecy, the whole hidden agenda etc.) doesn't seem to be working. Smearing first a former Minister, then the PM and our brave troops in Afghanistan, with the help of the Lame Stream Media hasn't helped either.The more the Libs and their media wage the culture war and demeaning our troops trying to accuse them of "war crimes" the lower the numbers go for Mr. Ziffy and his Libs. It just helps the CPC. 

That old culture war to try and scare people, Canadians aren't buying it anymore.  The CPC has been in office now for four years and everything the Libs said before that the CPC would implement hasn't come to fruition, you know, soldiers in the streets with guns, women would have to go back to the kitchen and they would have to resort backstreet abortions, Harper would make everyone go to church every Sunday, etc.

 Liberals don't know who they are, what they stand for, all they have is faux scandals, smears, and a friendly media who are only too happy to help them along with the smears and faux scandals and cover for them.  Example, Rahim/Guergis vs Pablo   Keep it up Libs and media, it's good for the Conservatives, it just drives more support toward them and away from you!  Could Janie Krieber, Stephane Dion's wife be right?

Ok MPs, You Can Run, But You Cannot Hide

MPs think they can turn the Auditor General down from wanting to audit their expenses to make sure taxpayers are getting value for our money but I think they have another thing a coming. I, like Tasha Kheiriddian think it's absolutely disgraceful that they are resisting Sheila Fraser.
. Don Martin says that if MPs have following their guidebook and the checks they have nothing to fear.

It should be stressed that MPs face 100 pages of bylaws governing what they can pay for hospitality, housing, supplies, staff salaries, and airport lounge fees.
If federal MPs actually follow their guidebook to the letter and the checks on how they spend public money function as intended, MPs would have nothing to fear from the icy blue eyes of the auditor general peering through steel-rimmed spectacles at their detailed budgets.
That’s why she should intensify the come-clean pressure on Parliament. Sooner or later, MPs must accept that Sheila Fraser has made them an audit offer they cannot politically refuse.

They think this is will be forgotten about and will go away. It's NOT going to go away and it shouldn't. It sure did not go away in Britain. MPs resisted over there too and look what happened. Expense were finally exposed and it was revealed that some MPs had spend taxpayers money inappropriately. Are our MPs scared of some similar inappropriate things getting out? Who knows but the optics just does not look good.

The Nova Scotia expense scandal I think is spooking them too. Now the RCMP is investigating.

The funds our MPs are using for their expenses are taxpayers money. We have a right to know if they are being good stewards or not. They tend to forget we are their employers. They work for us. Not the other way around. We should not stand for the blatant refusal and accuses they are giving for not opening their books.

I urge MPs to please stop the stonewalling and allow Sheila Fraser to have a look. If everything is on the up and up, what are they afraid of?

Conservative MPs, you can take the high ground here and voluntarily invite the AG to come and see what you have. Set the example. You talk about openness and transparency, practice what you preach. The public will honor it if you do.

It's up to us, the citizens to put the pressure on and keep it up until they change their tune and allow the AG to conduct that audit. Phone, email, visit your MP and demand they open their expense accounts to scrutiny.

Update: Maybe the AG could start with Mr. Ziffy. h/t wilson

Personalities

Colin Mochrie, Shirley Douglas, Michael Ignatieff, Jill Barber (manicure), Rex Harrington, Sophie Milman, Liane Balaban, Arsinee Khanjian, Joe Flaherty, Sheila McCarthy, David Julian Hirsch, Mark Breslin, Andy Kim, Patrick McKenna, Phil Nimmons, Dan Redican, Isobel Bassett, Paul Gross, Sharon Hampson, Michael Lee-Chin, Daniel Liebskind, Justin Louis, Jeff Seymour, Miriam Toews, Michael Bonacini, Ashley Legatt, Michael Seater, Ralph Benmergui, Jaymz Bee, Larry Green, Danny Marks, Glen Woodcock, Walter Venafro, Heather Bambrick, Rosemary Dunsmore, Tie Domi, Jamie Sale, Shae-Lynn Bourne, Craig Simpson, Ken Daneyko, Stephane Richer

Oh,oh, Is the NDP Faction of the Liberal Party Causing a Rift?

Looks like some in the Liberal party are not happy with  former NDPers Ujjal Dosanjh and Bob Rae concerning the Afghan detainee transfer issue.  They seem to be causing a rift within the party over the issue.  It apparently started last week after former  Liberal Defence Minister Bill Graham testified in front of the Special Committee on Afghanistan.

Some senior Liberals are unhappy over the manner in which party defence critic Ujjal Dosanjh and foreign affairs critic Bob Rae have been pursuing the Afghan-detainee issue. They fear this relentless pursuit of possible wrongdoing will undermine public confidence in the Canadian Forces and create a major rift between Canadians and their military.

Well duh, isn't that what we on the Conservative side been saying all the time concerning this major non scandal? They're just seeing the light now after Bill Graham testified last week?  Ujjal and Bob clearly didn't get what they wanted in Bill's testimony.  He more or less said much of the same as others had testified to.

The split between at least two very senior Liberals was apparent last week when Bill Graham, the minister of national defence in 2005, appeared before the House of Commons committee probing the detainee matter. At one point, Mr. Graham clashed with Mr. Dosanjh when the defence critic, in effect, implied that the former minister ought to have known that transfers of detainees by Canadian troops had made Canada “responsible as a country” for their welfare – in other words, responsible for their alleged torture. Mr. Graham replied that Mr. Dosanjh “has totally jumbled up what international lawyers make of the law of war and the law in war.”

That must have gotten Ujjal's back up.

Reflect on Mr. Graham’s words. He and his government did the best they could at the time, in a chaotic situation. They had no intention to break any laws of war. And there is still no evidence that they or their successors did.

David Bercuson, author of the article wonders where Mr. Ziffy is on these two  former NDP members.

Where, then, is Mr. Ignatieff on this issue, now that he is the only real alternative to Prime Minister Stephen Harper? His failure to rein in Mr. Rae and Mr. Dosanjh is a major lapse in leadership. There is simply no significant advantage to be gained by the Liberal Party, let alone the nation, by encouraging those who continue to seek evidence of crimes committed by Canadian troops in a war in which tragic ambiguity is an ever-present reality.
There ought to be plenty of room between the Liberals and Tories to debate all sorts of issues touching on Canada’s defence, starting with the basic question of how much defence the country actually needs. But there also ought to be a basic consensus on defence and foreign policy.
When Liberals begin to argue among themselves about a gut-wrenching issue such as this, it is time for Mr. Ignatieff to quit flirting with his party’s left wing and restore sense to Liberal defence policies.

So what is Ujjal and Rae trying to pull? Looks like Mr. Ziffy is having trouble with his NDP members.  What will he do?  Does he agree the far left faction? Will he placate them or rein them in? 

Is Bob Rae trying to undermine Mr. Ziffy? We all know Rae really wants to be leader and at some point, heaven forbid, the prime minister. Don't forget it's was Bob Rae who brought  forth the abortion motion in the house that so badly backfired on the Mr. Ziffy and the Liberals. Did he know in advance it would fail so it would look bad on Mr. Ziffy's leadership to keep the party on an united front?  Who will win in the end, the NDP faction or the other side?

Either way it's good day for Conservatives when Liberals fight among themselves.  Keep it up Liberals, just don't denigrate our troops in the process.

Liberals Pandering for Votes in Quebec

The Liberals want to grant Quebec 2 or 3 more seats in light of the government granting more seats to BC,Alberta and Ontario.  Why, when their population has been on the decline?  They wouldn't be losing any. They are assured of 75 seats no matter what. They claim it is to ensure equal representation. I don't think so. It's all about currying favor with Quebec.  For the Liberals it's all about votes and getting back into power.

The Liberal Party wants Quebec to get two or three extra seats if the House of Commons passes legislation to increase representation in three other provinces.
The Liberal plan could trigger a clash with the Conservative Party, which is proposing to add 30 new House seats in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, but none in Quebec.
The Liberals’ Quebec caucus is pushing to increase seats in their province, and are gaining traction within the party. Their goal is to ensure that Quebec’s share of the seats in the House reflects the fact that the province has 23.1 per cent of the Canadian population. Quebec would be left with 75 seats under the Conservative plan.

 The Conservative government introduced a bill in the HOC to increase the seats in BC, Ontario and Alberta to a total of 30 because the population in those provinces have been increasing.  That's understandable and makes sense.  It would equal out representation. I sure hope the CPC does not cave into the Liberal proposal.

Quebec is not losing any seats or influence, infact they even though the population is declining, their influence would still be pretty substantial.  They get way more attention than they deserve.  It's about time Quebec get the same amount of time, attention, money etc., the other provinces get. 
Quebec should stop acting like spoiled brats and the  political parties should stop pandering for votes!