Inkless Wells

Paul Wells on all the latest out of Ottawa—along with the occasional post about jazz. Follow Paul on Twitter: @InklessPW

Categories: Blog Central, Capital Read, Inkless Wells

A note on the stakes

by Paul Wells on Tuesday, October 7, 2008 9:07pm - 42 Comments

“Never will an election have posed to Canadians so starking choice.”

— S. Dion, in North Bay tonight

Tags: Election Watch, Stéphane Dion

More by Paul Wells

Harper in China: Beyond the sea of troubles

Underneath all the hype something real is going on between Ottawa and Beijing, writes Paul Wells
Time out: New art in Beijing

Thursday in Beijing. The Prime Minister had pooled events for the first half of…
Harper in China: rules of the game

Paul Wells on why we should file the trade agreement between Canada and China under “might help; can’t hurt”

http://www.flickr.com/theveil Karen Krisfalusi

I’m starking my future on the Greens.
Jack Mitchell

“I remember correctly, Paul Martin made it his campaign theme “mark my words, we are really, really, really, really, really, different”.”

You would be really, really different too if you noticed that every issue is very, very, very important.
Horseface

Honestly, I’m a horrible, devoted ideologue, but I’d switch my vote to the party whose leader just ONCE said “Eehh, you know, this election isn’t even close to being the most important in the history of the country. It’s like 17th. Middling importance.”

That’s all I ask.
Caffeine Free

Does anybody see the Tory trend reminiscent of the Peterson flame out in 1990 in Ontario?
Two Cents

I could happily live with Manley vs Prentice. Either would be fine with me.

Unfortunately our choice is Harper or Dion. The sociologist still has not convinced me he’s up to the job. Harper is beginning to leave doubts in my mind regarding his ability as a campaigner, but his record as PM is much better.

Now that voters may actually believe we have a choice perhaps they will look at Dion with a more discerning eye. If they do, Harper wins.
Murray Littlejohn

Mr. Wells,

You have dropped below your usual standards with this comment. As a fan, I expect more from you. But the campaign trail can be exhausting and even the best people can slip up sometimes….
David

Which is weird because it’s easily the boringest province of the ten.

Have you ever been to Saskatchaplace?
madeyoulook

(Awakens, heart racing and sweating +++ from the paranoid conspiracy dream): I get it now, you clever evil Liberal plant, Paul.

The population was not sufficiently outraged at the Tory “not a leader” hit and the puffin poop. The Libs are desperate for an exaggerated and unfair smear, à la distorted Chretien face. Play up the minor second-language tongue slip, in the hopes of attracting voting-public sympathy back to the natural governing party. It’s really pretty clever, until Con-bot 2008-MYL exposed your evil plans.

What’s that, Paul? Well… do you think you really need a lawyer? Why would that be? If you simply plead out I’ll put in a good word for you with the Crown…
Jack Mitchell

“Have you ever been to Saskatchaplace?”

SK isn’t boring at all. It’s full of the nicest starking people in the country. And there’s a lot happening in Regina and Saskatoon. Dude, get your boring provinces straight why dontcha.
hosertohoosier

Dion for Star king!
Manny

Stark(ing) choice indeed.

Talking to my Liberal friends, they have to chose between NPD and Green. Stark indeed.
paul

Rona Ambrose and Julie Cuillard MUD-WRESTLING!!
Theres a political contest I could get exited over! Oui?Non?
Pingback: Blue Like You » Blog Archive » National Post endorses Harper Majority!
RyanD

“Have you ever been to Saskatchaplace?”

Saskatchewan? Boring?! Are you kidding me?! I’m from Montreal and I live near Toronto but the best year of my life was in Saskatoon! Nobody knows a good time like Prairie boys (and girls)!

By the way, can someone remind me how we got to the “boring provinces talk”? Sorry MYL I really do want to talk about policy too but I can’t let slags against my favourite province go unanswered!
Oldfarmer

He’s right. This is a starking choice. You can vote Conservative and keep the country together or you can vote for one of the others and watch it go down the drain.
http://carnewsandviews.com jwl

I’ve long wondered what guidelines do journos follow when editing pols, and maybe others, words to make them sound coherent before they appear in print. Pols always sound fluent when they are quoted in msm but in real life they are far from it. It’s like the journos are quoting what the pol meant to say, not what was actually said.
Pingback: A Step To The Right » A note on the stakes