L2: Leftists United

The Guelph Mercury had an article Thursday about Frank Valeriote's recently articulated desire to unite the left, a la the Conservatives and uniting the right, at least in intention if not literally. He first made remarks about a union at the University of Guelph debate on Sept. 4th. "The right did it," he said. "I'm not sure why we can't do it. If we don't, we face a long time of a right government."

"If we don't somehow reach out to one another, we may indeed find ourselves on the outside looking in," Valeriote told the Mercury Wednesday. "I don't think any of us want to live with another three or four years of right, right-wing government. I'm not proposing a merger, but, if I'm blessed with getting elected, you can be darn sure I'll be reaching out to everyone in Parliament to find out what we have in common."

Amongst the other left-wing candidates, there was some disagreement on that point.

Tom King:
"I don't know what Frank is talking about, I consider (the Liberals) to be in the same bed as Stephen Harper. It's his way of opening the conversation to there are only two parties, the Liberals and the Tories, and everyone has to be hunkered down with the Liberals to keep the Tories out. [...] I'd be more than happy to take Frank's ideas to Ottawa," King said. "But I don't see the Liberals having the backbone for heavy lifting."

Mike Nagy:
"I'll work with every party once I'm in the House, but I need to be in the House. Greens draw from the whole spectrum."

It would be an interesting idea to see the left work as some kind of coalition should we come face-to-face with another minority government situation, but as the article points out, there's a lot of partisan rivalry between the Liberals and the NDP, and the NDP and the Greens. Even before Layton (initially) refused participation in the debates should Elizabeth May be there, the Green Party leader had a certain amount of bitterness towards Layton.

Back in the spring, May told me about Layton that "The strategy is ‘the enemy of my enemy,’” she said, "that when the Liberal Party is crushed and eliminated, than the NDP can replace them as the natural alternative to the Conservatives. It’s politically inspired and it doesn’t make sense ideologically"

Then again, there was a lot of bad blood between the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservatives... still is actually. Still, in the face of a potential Harper majority, is it an offer that the left can refuse?

Yesterday's Headlines... Today.

The first week of the 2008 election is drawing to a close and what a week it was. I spent mush of it at the Toronto International Film Festival, so I haven't been able to be as on top of things as I'd like. But now that time's on my side again, I can reflect on the week that was.

Tuesday dawned with a new Flash gag on the Conservative's Not a Leader website, which introduces readers to "Professor Dion," and makes fun of the Liberal leader's past vocation as a university professor and further belittles Dion by calling him an "inaction figure" and inviting you to check out the "Policy Slot Machine." Oh, and what was that other thing...














...right, the bird pooping on his shoulder thing. If Stéphane Dion "isn't a leader" than what kind of person Federal politician approves of Police Academy-level humour to belittle his rival. Not only does this stink of the golden era of "reptilian kitten eater" attacks on Dalton McGuinty in the 2003 campaign, it's just plain nasty.

Now, it's worth remembering that Harper later apologized saying that the ad was “tasteless and inappropriate.” It was then changed; the bird just flies by without "making a deposit" as it were. A Harper spokesman said the ad was the work of an “eager web designer,” but really, no one in the Conservative war room had to look at this before it went live? Either way, I think Dion's answer was correct: that the affair said more about the PM then it does about him.

Then there was Harper's declaration on Tuesday that he'd choose to be a fruit. Wow, for a guy that was against gay marriage... But seriously, he made the comment in front of a pile of vegetables at a truck depot announcing that he'd cut two cents per litre from the excise tax on diesel fuel if re-elected. He was asked by a reporter, if he were a vegetable, what kind of vegetable would he be. Harper looked at the options behind him and answered, "I would choose to be a fruit — because they're sweet and colourful, like me." Well, that's a lot of bizarre revelations for one day so let's move on.

On Wednesday, the word came in that Elizabeth May would get to debate after all, following Monday's announcement that she was being dealed out because Harper and NDP leader Jack Layton refused to debate in her presence. But do to an overwhelming public outcry, she was dealt back in. Layton folded first after being hounded two days by Green protesters and impudent media questions. He said that the matter had become a "distraction" as he was constantly "debating about the debate." Harper lifted his objection later the same day, and May was in. The debates will take place in Ottawa on Oct 1 and 2.

Wednesday also saw another salvo in the war of words between NFLD Premier Danny Williams and the Prime Minister. He told a business audience that a Harper majority government would mark the darkest era in Canadian history, and that he's stoop to anything and promise much in order to implement his hidden "right-wing, Conservative-Reform party" agenda.

Is that all?

"'This is a federal government willing not only to break their own promises, but they go so far as to break their own laws and call an election even though they mandated fixed election dates,' Williams said in a speech televised nationally."

Anything else?

"'There is nothing Harper will not do in order to win a majority government. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a party who purportedly offered a terminally ill MP a life insurance policy to get his vote,' he continued, referring to the so-called Chuck Cadman affair."

It seems like there's one more thing...

"'On behalf of all Newfoundland and Labrador puffins, I ask Stephen Harper to leave our provincial bird out of his nasty, disgusting, personal attack ads,' Williams said as the crowd applauded. 'The people of our province don't appreciate being used by you for our votes the last time. And our birds don't particularly like being used by you either.'"

Ah, yes. That bird last seen pooping on Dion was a puffin, a native bird of Newfoundland. It really makes you think: is there anything that Stephen Harper won't do... to piss off Danny Williams?

No Debate For May

Well, it was announced tonight that despite the fact the Green Party launched a nationwide campaign, got one Member in Parliament, and had the endorsement of the Liberal leader, it looks like Elizabeth May will not be participating in the nationally televised debates in Ottawa on October 1st and 2nd.

According to the Canadian Press, Stephen Harper and Jack Layton both refused to participate if May was going to be a part of the debate. Apparently they felt that having May there was akin to having two Liberal representatives on stage because of Stephane Dion's deal to not run a Liberal in May's Nova Scotia riding. May has also gone on record to say, including to this reporter, that she thinks Dion would make the best Prime Minister.

"I believe the consortium has been overly influenced by hints, and threats without actually having public statements on the record from any national party political leader that they would actually refuse to participate in the debates if I was included," May said.

Good News Everyone...

I always loved that line from Futurama. Professor Farnsworth would always utter those words right before sending the Planet Express ship crew on some borderline suicidal delivery mission.

Here, I use "Good News Everyone" because Stephen Harper woke up this morning, left for Rideau Hall, saw his shadow and now we have six more weeks of an election.

This is what Harper had to say for himself following his visit to the Governor-General: "Between now and Oct. 14, Canadians will choose a government to look out for their interests at a time of global economic trouble. They will choose between direction or uncertainty; between common sense or risky experiments; between steadiness or recklessness."

Here's what Stéphane Dion had to say this morning: "Stephen Harper formed the most conservative government in our history [...] The words 'fight against poverty' have yet to cross the lips of Mr. Harper. With this conservative ideology, Canadians are left to fend for themselves."

He also told CTV News that "I love being the underdog. I love being underestimated, but don't say so, because then I will stop being underestimated."

As for Jack Layton, the Montreal Gazette noted that Layton is of the opinion that the NDP can form the next government. "Yes, it's possible. We are in the process of proposing to Canadians . . . that it's the time to have a prime minister that listens to them and knows the issues and challenges in their daily lives and who will focus on their concerns every day."

So now, we no longer have to play the waiting game. Nothing's on hold. I do feel sorry for all the campaign volunteers here in Guelph though. They've put so much into their campaigns and maxed out their free time and energy, only to have the rug pulled out from under them the day before. The Guelph Mercury had a great article about the costs of the canceled by-elections last week.

As for the fate of this forum, I'll keep going too. I'll still call it the "Guelph By-Election Blog" because it's a brand now and I still want people to find me. But stayed tuned here and in Echo for all the latest election poop from my point of view.

Stéphane, Frank and Me

This has been a while in coming, but considering that this was supposed to be the denouement to the by-election, I though this would be the perfect time to finally throw it up on the blog. Well, it’s still the perfect time, just for a whole other set of reasons. General election tomorrow? More than likely. I got a media release today saying that Tom King was going to make himself available for interviews following the announcement. But back to the Liberals. Here’s the transcript of my joint interview with Stéphane Dion and Frank Valeriote.

ME: (to Frank Valeriote) So there’s a lot of excitement around here with the canvassing and everything, is that a fair assessment? That there are a lot of people around here excited, I mean especially because of the poll results here that announced you were in the lead…

FV: I would say that about the opportunity to serve the city of Guelph. I am not a bit concerned about the polls at all. I’m concerned about the finish line and when you’re heading to the finish line you don’t look to your right or left to see where other people are. You don’t want to give yourself any false sense of security about anything, and I don’t allow that to happen.

ME: (to Stéphane Dion) Mr. Dion, when’s the general election going to be? […] Do you get tired of being asked that?

SD: Non, we are focused on the by-election. We have a great candidate in Guelph and Frank Valeriote has been involved in every aspect of the Guelph community: arts, fighting against poverty. And now he’s ready to offer his talents and skills to Guelph and to Canada.

ME: Speaking of by-elections, you hear all the time in the news, “Dion has to win two out of three to prove… whatever.” Do you listen to that? How do you react to that sort of scorecarding of you on the by-election?

SD: It’s always part of political life, but I have a job to do and leadership to offer Canadians, and with four by-elections to win, we’ll work hard for each poll. We are confident that Canadians will give us the go ahead to the next challenge.

ME: What do you like about campaigning on a by-election level as opposed to fighting a national one?

SD: The additional challenge most people are not aware of is the vote going out and that means all the conversations you have with people, all the efforts you put in are so important because turnout is likely to be lower than in a general election. The other point is that general elections are local, but are a lot national because people are watching and this is affecting their vote. The candidate can do everything and get helped by their leader, but it’s a different dynamic. I like it.

ME: (to FV) And how does having Mr. Dion here help you?

FV: Well it certainly shows his confidence in the candidate. It shows the confidence of the party. It shows the people of Guelph that Mr. Dion cares about this city and talk about the policies that affect all of us; about the economy, about the environment, about our social programs. And that’s what this election is all about; to reverse the erosion that’s been happening in our economy and our environment and our social programs.

ME: I wanted to talk a little about the Green Shift plan since I had you here. Can you tell me a little bit about its creation? How it started as an idea and how it developed into this strategy?

SD: Yes, it’s something we did not invent. It is a policy that’s been adopted in many countries with a lot of success: Norway, Sewden, Japan. What is striking is that many of these countries are looking to do more. In the UK the two party leaders are working together and the Tory leader is saying “I want more Green taxes as long as the revenue is of these taxes is going into the economy.” So when countless number of economists and Nobel Prize winners are asking the world to do that, why have we not done it? It’s because of a lack of leadership in Ottawa. It’s a very simple idea, but a powerful one: we tax you less on your income, or what you want more of like investments, and we’ll shift it to our pollution. We’ll tax our pollution. Tax less on what we earn and more on what we burn. So this will be our path to fight climate change, which is the worst threat to our nation, and we will help our economy to be an economy of the 21st century; creating great jobs here, in Guelph, and in the rest of the country. Otherwise, we’ll have an old fashioned economy and a polluted environment.

ME: Did you know that it would catch on the way it did, because whether the talk is positive or negative, it is all of what anyone can talk about?

SD: Did I know that my competitors would come with low blow attach ads? Yes. I did know that Mr. Harper would be the first to use low blow attack ads and language to fight the policy about climate change instead of discussing it like adults, face to face with facts on the table. Yes, maybe I didn’t know to which extent he would go, but I knew there were big risks in doing it. The next election will not be only a debate about policy, it will also be a debate about style of politics. What works in Canada? Is it to go to the low blow attack ads or is to speak to the great hearts and great minds of Canadians.

ME: Frank, you’ve gotten a lot of attacks ads even just generally in the Guelph community. I mean, when you’re in the line of fire like that, how do you respond?

FV: Well, the attack ads started long before the campaign started. There were 12 ten per centers, as they say, sent in from other ridings by the Conservative Party, all at the tax payer’s expense, first of all. The attacks following were all on the Green Shift and they’re all inappropriate comments – absolute untruths like the $8 head of cabbage, which really, as Mr. Dion suggested, shows you the extent to which they’ll go when they fear something. They’re trying to give a message of fear believing that people will embrace it more quickly than they’ll embrace a message of hope; particularly during summer when people aren’t necessarily focused on the by-election. Ultimately, I think the people of Guelph are very broad minded, very informed, will see just how effective this Green Shift is. And as I’ve said to you before, Mr. Dion hit the target so well, in dealing with the environment, that he’s left no more room on the page for Mr. Harper to even aim at.

ME: I heard $8 head of iceberg lettuce actually, instead of cabbage.

FV: Okay, sorry (laughs).

ME: Can I ask both you to respond to the news lately about the Conservative cuts to art programs. Guelph, especially in the downtown area, is an incredibly art friendly community with a lot of interest in this area.

SD: We need a strong industry of artists now more than ever. First, because it’s fun; we enjoy good emotions and good feelings when we go to see a movie or to the theatre or go to a museum. But also because to have an effective economy, we need to innovative. You don’t have to be an artist to create, so freedom of art and culture is at the core of a sustainable Canadian economy. It’s a bigger industry than mining, forestry and fisheries put together and so for the government to weaken the promotion of arts and culture, weakens artists and culture around the world. We have a government now that is inspired by a moral-right approach, a right-wing US mentality that we don’t like what is different than the standard. They forget that a lot of mainstream arts and culture were considered odd for their time. I like to be creative and I will fight for arts and culture. And Frank Valeriote will fight for the arts and culture community here.

FV: Arts distinguishes us from other societies around the world; it’s an expression of who we are as a people. It’ allows us to be engaged with other people around the world and they engage with us. And to cut the arts like [Harper] has really affects all of us in a negative way as it doesn’t only disengage us from the world, but as Mr. Dion has indicated, it undermines our economy. It’s a $40 billion industry, and a lot of spin-off jobs are being jeopardized because of his ideological opposition to the arts.

ME: Are you hearing a lot of concern about that on the campaign trail?

FV: I was asked that question at the debate the other night in the Arboretum. And it was of concern to a lot of people there.

ME: (to SD) Let me ask you this: what do you know about being leader of the Liberal Party now that you didn’t know when you took the reins in December ’06?

SD: I knew that it would be a lot of work, but a lot fun at the same time. It’s a great family that’s made some mistakes. On my watch we’ve been divided and we paid the price and I’m very impressed by our will to show to Canadians that there is a solution to the problems of the 21st century as there was one for the 20th century. My challenge was to change a two tier party into a three tier party. We were the party of economic growth and support of justice, and now we need to add environment. We need an economy of Green technology and Green solutions and inclusive, because we need the talent and skills of everyone, so put these kids out of poverty, these decisions helped make me the leader, the party’s behind it and now we need to communicate that. It was a challenge to convince the party of this change for the 21st century. This challenge now is the same but now the scale of it has changed.

ME: (to FV) And what have you learned since the start of the campaign that you didn’t know before?

FV: The campaign has allowed me the opportunity to coalesce all the different ideas in Guelph and really appreciate the tremendous diversity in our community. But also at the same time, the wonderful opportunities we’ve to come to come together and share our ideas and find the common goals that are among us despite the differences we might have.

NDP All-Star Cabaret

Friday's event in Royal City Park, a combination rally/fundraiser, would have been the perfect cap to a hard fought and successful campaign for the local NDP, but instead it might as well have been a kick-off to the Guelph election sequel currently scheduled to premiere Sunday.

But back in Guelph though, it was a rainy, sort of dreary kind of day. Nothing better to liven the spirits than some music, some dancing, some drumming, and some political rallying. The event was billing as "Four Great Canadians in Three Great Events," unfortunately though only three could come: Tom King, Jack Layton and Naomi Klein. The forth, Stephen Lewis, had a family emergency. As the others made there way to Royal City Park from the Bookshelf, the crowd was entertained by the Celtic-folk-stylings of Loretta Reed.

After four songs, a Native drum was set up in front of the stage. The five man drumming team included King, Layton, and emcee James Gordon. They began with a traditional song for travelers in honour of Lewis' ailing family member and the man that drowned in the Speed River a few nights earlier. King said that they'd play this more solemn song and then get into some more "kick ass songs."

The emcee for the evening's gathering was James Gordon, a local singer/songwriter, co-founder of the Wellington Water Watchers and noted King supporter. Gordon said that the rally was really more of an "inactive audio event" rather than a bunch of political speeches, but without too much fanfare, he turned the mic over to the guest speakers.

King was received very warmly by the crowd, elevating him to rock star status almost. He said that it's tough spending weeks campaigning in a by-election only to have to turn around for a general, but he said he's ready to go. He talked about getting rid of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America so that Canada won't be used by the US as "a resource mall." He called himself a realist and then talked about what some people say is impossible: "Nothing is stopping us from going to Ottawa as [the next] government. [...] We can control our destiny, right here in town." As he wrapped up King said, "vote early, vote often and evidently in this election, that's true."

Next up was Naomi Klein, who said that this was her first political rally that she appeared in as a speaker and she was drawn to the opportunity to support King as an "obsessive" fan of the Dead Dog Cafe. Klein called it a "national issue" for Guelph to send King to Ottawa, adding that "so much of what we're proud of is under siege." In particular, Klein talked about the Harper government's cut to the arts and how a lot of people in the arts are afraid to speak out lest they find their own funding taken. Klein also talked about the coming of a "Back to Basics" movement in that we, the citizens, are going to have to dig in to fight for the things we care about, like the recently formed Department of Culture based in Toronto.

Finally, that brings us to Layton, and I'm almost afraid to say that this may be the last be see of the NDP's moustached leader in our abode given that his attention will be drawn to the other 304 ridings in Canada if we're having that aforementioned general election. Layton seems to think so anyway, he said that "Mr. Harper intends to quit his job on Sunday morning, and for a moment we can be celebratory. [...] I'm going to be putting in my application shortly after he quits." Layton also said that he feels that a lot of people are being left behind, and that Canada runs the risk of electing a government beholden to the oil companies before everyone else. He added that if Harper is elected again then, "By golly, those champagne corks will be popping," in the board rooms of big oil. He wrapped up by saying that he wants to take the concerns of people around the kitchen table and see them take precedent to the issues being discussed around the board room table.

Showdown at PCH: This time - it's for the student vote!

It was a hot time in the old Peter Clark Hall on the University of Guelph campus last night as all eight of Guelph's by-election (and future general election) candidates appealed to the student voter.

In this corner: Philip "I've heard every Futurama joke ever" Bender of the Libertarian Party of Canada

In this corner: U of G's favourite professor and master of the metaphor, Tom King of the New Democratic Party

In this corner: Kornelis "You can call me Brother Kase" Klevering of the Marijuana Party

In this corner: playing for the home team; nurse, city councillor and all around good egg Gloria Kovach of the Conservative Party of Canada

In this corner: fighting for the little guy covered in fur and without a vote of their own, Karen Levenson of the Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party of Canada

In this corner: the Green Machine, the man that doesn't know the meaning of the word quit, Mike Nagy of the Green Party of Canada

In this corner: wearing a hard hat and with a brief case full of visual aids, John Turmel

And finally, in this corner: the man that just can't get enough community service, Frank Valeriote of the Liberal Party of Canada

So let's play. The rules are simple: every candidate gets an opening statement. The first question comes from the Central Student Association and the rest came from the floor. Each candidate gets a minute and a half to respond, and if another candidate is personally mentioned in another's response then they get a minute to rebut. The moderator, my old Public Policy prof Tim Mau, promised to be ruthless with the time and it was thus.

Bender was very upfront saying "This is not going to go over very well with this audience," before responding to a question about government assistance in funding post-secondary education (although one guy in the back whooped every time Bender talked). He stuck to his Libertarian guns on a great many issues including the environment, child care and poverty saying that the answers lie not in more government interference but less. He also added that he wants to keep Parliament dysfunctional so that government will "do less harm" and he has no problem with accountability since his sole campaign promise is less government.

King was clearly a favourite and offered a couple of good analogies, like considering the environmental crisis like a speeding convertible or comparing the Conservatives and the Liberals to empty Pepsi and Coke cans, respectively. He attacked the government's $1,200 per year stipend for childcare, saying that "If anyone can find childcare for $100 per month, let me know." He tauted the NDP's record on the environment, poverty and accountability adding that the Liberals used to be the loyal Opposition and is now just loyal. In his closing statement, King said we all talk about change, but it's change we fear the most as we keep putting band aids on mortal wounds.

Which brings us to Brother Kase, who in his navy suit and wife beater was unsurprisingly chill throughout the length of the debate. His big thing was obviously to end the "Prohibition" against marijuana. This is bigger than you think because once we get over that, we can start looking at hemp as an alternative energy source and is a versatile solution to other material-based problems. On the government dysfunction question, Brother Kase said that they're mostly about big scandals, lies and hypocrisy anyway, and that by voting for candidates from the major parties, you're enabling the continuation of that bad behaviour. On other issues, Brother Kase says he's for a fully-funded daycare and post-secondary education system and wants a system of recall for the government.

Kovach came under fire a lot, mostly from Levenson, oddly enough. Kovach's debate performance started with the unusual measure of having a member of the campus' young Conservatives deliver her opening statement. When she was on, Kovach touted the Conservative governments record of tax cuts and credits and that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has kept his promises on offering choice in child care and cutting the GST. She did get soundly booed however when she rebutted to a comment by Levenson that a vote for Kovach is a vote for Harper. Kovach responded by saying that, "It's easy to make grandiose comments when you have no chance of forming a government."

Speaking of Levenson, her repose for the night was saying that her party didn't have a platform for the issue in question before segueing into discussing the mistreatment of animals. Of course, the environment was a matter of great importance for Levenson, animals live in the environment too, after all. Kovach became a frequent punching bag for Levenson's riff, aside from the aforementioned comment about Harper, she added that Kovach will have to clear all her comments from the PMO and that fear-mongering about the Liberals' proposed carbon tax is "evil." It seems that Levenson is still stewing from a perceived snub by Kovach during a council meeting about trapping.

As for Nagy, it was pretty clear that he was amongst his people this evening. He scored early points by saying that the Green Party intends to forgive 50 per cent of your student loan upon graduation. (Which got a jeer of "Charity" from Turmel.) He also talked about the Greens plans to allow every Canadian to earn a living income, and cut all income taxes for people making less than $20,000 per year. But Nagy spoke most clearly and most passionately about the environment and hit the ground running talking about the need for immediate action with the accelerating rate of melting of the Arctic ice. And seemingly taking the cue from a recently released poll, Nagy said that Guelph's poised to be the first riding in Canada to elect a Green MP.

No matter the subject that came up, Turmel would launch into his answer all: "Local Employment Trading Systems" (LETS), which Wikipedia describes as "interest-free barter arrangements," so that students can use the "Time Standard of Money" to work off their student loans or just about any other type of debt you can think of. Turmel plug how this is his 67th election, which secures his place in the Guinness Book of Records, next to the Queen or the Giant bagel, depending upon the edition. It seemed that Turmel's enthusiasm was catching in the hall until he brought up the war in Afghanistan and 9/11 conspiracy theories, calling Canada a "patsy posse" for the Americans in Afghanistan who started a war with the "white hat" Taliban after staging the 9/11 terrorist attacks and framing al Quada. Even the normally liberal university crowd found this hard to swallow.

Last but not least there was Valeriote. Obviously he talked about everything the previous Liberal government did, and would have done before losing the last election. But more importantly he talked about what the Liberals were going to do and Valeriote started off by offering the notion of interest-free student loans, we do it for corporations, offered Valeriote, why can't we do it for students. Bender praised Valeriote for his volunteerism and the Liberal candidate as en example, but Valeriote said that volunteering isn't enough without government money to back it up. Surprisingly there wasn't a lot of mention of the Green Shift plan, but Valeriote did acknowledge the sponsorship scandal and said that he's committed to seeing that a future Liberal government will be more accountable.

Poll: Guelph is a Green Machine

With 5 days to go until the by-election (or 7 more weeks till a general election), I got a press release from the Green Party saying that they've received poll results that say that say they're in second place Amongst Guelph voters. Like the much disputed Klr Vu poll, Frank Valeriote leads by a wide margin.

The poll breaks down thusly:

Frank Valeriote, Liberals - 38.4 per cent
Mike Nagy Green Party - 24.2 per cent
Gloria Kovach, Conservatives - 12.6 per cent
Tom King, NDP - 8.0 per cent
Undecided - 16.7 per cent

From the press release: "The Oraclepoll survey was conducted on September 1 and 2 with 300 electors who say they are certain to vote. The polls margin of error is +/-5.7%, 19 times out of 20. The Green Party achieved a long-cherished goal of having its first MP in Parliament last Saturday when independent MP Blair Wilson announced his move to the party."

These results are interesting indeed, and anecdotally I can believe it. I've seen Green signs in places I had never thought I'd see them. I will say that Oraclepoll doesn't seems as sketchy as Klr Vu, their website has a long list of clients.

Anyway, I believe wholeheartedly that Green's have got more momentum than ever. The trick will be whether or not they can maintain that momentum in the face of general election developments, but we'll see. Mike Nagy will be among his people tomorrow regardless, the students of the University of Guelph. The U of G is hosting a debate in Peter Clark Hall between 6 and 8 pm.

Harper Ruins Everything!

Kidding. Kind of. The Guelph Mercury/Rogers Television debate that was scheduled for tomorrow night at the Guelph Place Banquet Hall has been cancelled, or rather postponed, until the writ for the general election is dropped. Possibly as early as Friday. All-in-all, not a great day for me and scheduled events as I went down to the University of Guelph campus to cover a rally for Elizabeth May, only to discover that it was canceled.

In other news, the Toronto Star recognized our by/general election dilemma yesterday with a fascinating article. Apparently if a general election is called, all work done on the by-election is cancelled and our local Elections Canada office has to start again from scratch in order to make all things, nationwide, fair. Same goes for Saint-Lambert and Westmount–Ville-Marie.

"'Our job is to run the by-election and until we hear differently, it's business as usual,' Budra told the Toronto Star. 'If we have to start again, we start from scratch.'

"Still many things are up in the air and another Elections Canada staffer in Guelph says they'd be waiting for instructions from Ottawa if the by-elections are cancelled. It could be a scramble for them if Harper waits until Sept. 7 to do it, as rumoured."

Oy.

So today was the big day. Stéphane Dion went to visit Stephen Harper at 24 Sussex Drive to see if the two could agree on the possibility that of a co-operative Fall Parliament. Twenty-minutes later, Dion emerged and said, "It's official. We will have an election."

Hm. I was kind of looking forward to retiring the old By-Election blog next week. Oh, well.

Here's what the article on the Canadian Press website said went down at today's meeting.

"[Dion] said the prime minister called him over to seek a guarantee that no opposition party could ever make: Could Dion promise to prop up the Conservative minority government for another year?

"Dion apparently offered no guarantees - only a series of scoldings.

"He said he told Harper the country was headed in the wrong direction under him, dismissed the meeting as a charade, and said the prime minister was setting a bad example by ignoring his own election law.

"The prime minister's office later confirmed that Harper asked Dion whether he would allow the Conservatives to continue governing until October of next year.

"Tory officials said Dion was also asked what parts of the Conservative agenda he could agree with - and didn't cite any.

"The Liberal leader's reaction illustrates an unwillingness to co-operate with the government, Harper spokesman Kory Teneycke said.

"'There's very obviously little common ground there,' said the prime minister's spokesman."

The feeling amongst our local candidates is "C'est la vie." Well, almost all the candidates. Mike Nagy had this to say in the Guelph Tribune:

"'We are on the verge of a breakthrough here in Guelph and they are trying to take it from us,' Nagy charged, reacting to growing speculation that Prime Minister Stephen Harper will call a general election next week.

"The Greens believe both Harper and Liberal leader Stéphane Dion 'have seen a green wind coming into Guelph . . . and they are trying to stop it,' he said in an interview Wednesday."

Sources say that Harper will visit Rideau Hall later this week, sometime between Friday and Sunday, to ask the Governor-General to call an election for October 14th.

Day after Thanksgiving. Bummer.