Beyond The Commons

 Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

You're invited

by Aaron Wherry on Thursday, March 24, 2011 4:54pm - 26 Comments

It’s funny the things you get invited to by people who have “friended” you on Facebook.

For instance, while the parties have not yet officially released their campaign schedules, a moment ago, I received an invitation to a “Campaign Kickoff Rally with Jack Layton.” It’s scheduled for Saturday at the Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton.

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  • Crit_Reasoning

    One can certainly see the humour inherent in a Dipper mistakenly inviting a Liberal to an NDP rally! :)

    Kidding, kidding.

    • DBM

      They also invited John Duncan.

      • West Newf

        Here ya go Libbies, suck on this!

        John Ivison: Tories shrug off opposition attacks, surge to 19 point lead

        * Comments
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        John Ivison Mar 24, 2011 – 5:31 PM ET | Last Updated: Mar 24, 2011 5:09 PM ET

        Aaron Lynett / National Post

        Majority government in the pending federal election is there for the Conservatives to lose, if you believe a new poll taken after the budget this week.

        The Ipsos Reid poll for Postmedia News has the Tories entering the campaign in majority territory at 43%, almost 20 points ahead of the Liberals, who have fallen back to 24% support. The Harper government recorded a healthy lead over the Liberals in almost every region — ahead by 16 points in Ontario (46 versus 30), seven points in Quebec (25 versus 18) and 28 points in British Columbia (50 versus 22). It also leads among young people, the middle-aged, seniors, men and women.

        Unless Michael Ignatieff is playing a long-strategic game and targeting the under-18s, it would seem fair to suggest his attempt to unseat Stephen Harper as Prime Minister has not started quite as well as he might have hoped.

        NDP support was unchanged at 16%. One of the curiosities of the campaign will be how Jack Layton balances seat preservation and his apparent non-aggression pact with Mr. Ignatieff.

        National Post

        • OriginalEmily1

          LOL this is why nobody trusts polls anymore. One was out 2 days ago showing HarpCo down from his 2008 numbers

          Decima (March 2011): Con 34% Lib 28% Ndp 17% Grn 9%
          Decima (Election, 2008): Con 37% Lib 26% Ndp 18% Grn 7%

        • stephen

          From the same article

          "Not that anyone is cracking open champagne corks in the Prime Minister’s Office. Most seasoned observers think the gap is closer to 10 points than 20. This poll was taken hours after the government had promised to spend billions of dollars on Canadians and Mr. Ignatieff had turned around and said they weren’t going to get the cash after all."

  • Neil from Calgary

    Jack Layton's first campaign stop contradicts his stance against the energy industry. What does he think provides this wealth that the provincial government can pour into cultural institutions like the AGA and venerable universities like the U of A?

    • http://halooverride.blogspot.com/ Halo_Override

      Taxes, probably.

      • Neil from Calgary

        With a significant portion of employment income, as well as royalties (accounting for roughly 30% of provincial revenues), coming from "big oil and big ass." Layton's words, not mine. lol

        • OriginalEmily1

          Amazingly enough, places that don't depend on oil and gas for revenue also manage to have art galleries and universities.

          • Neil from Calgary

            You are of course correct, but few provinces have endowments set up specifically to fund education, health, research, etc. directly from royalties flowing from energy projects in natural gas and oil.

          • OriginalEmily1

            And the same deficit as everyone else.

          • Gary

            That would be called transfer payments from those of us that do!

          • OriginalEmily1

            About time you paid some of it back

    • edeast

      Where are you getting the NDP anti-oil and gas? I'm pretty sure they are against subsidies for the industry, but union votes = votes.

  • Leo

    This pretty much proves that the opposition had NO intent to support the budget whether they read it or NOT.

    "The City of Montreal is asking federal parties to curb their election enthusiasm.

    Local officials expressed displeasure on Thursday that some electoral signs had been put up even before the official launch of the federal campaign.

    The officials said the early signs violate election laws."

    Mark Bruneau, a Liberal candidate seeking election in the riding of Jeanne-Le Ber, had red and white signs posted in key locations including right in front of a main downtown subway station."
    http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Politics/20110324/montr…

    • OriginalEmily1

      A minority govt is always on election alert. Hell, Harper's been running campaign ads for years now.

    • TimesArrow

      Gotta get out there early for those key signage spots Leo…as a good Tory you don't want a separatist to get there first now, do you?

      • Leo

        Tabernack!!!!

    • Jeff Jedras

      John Biard and Pierre P. have an election rally in Ottawa Saturday. The Conservative candidate in Kingston put up a billboard this week. I'm sure this clearly proves something too, or something.

    • Stewart_Smith

      I thought it was pretty clear by now that neither the Liberals nor the NDP would be voting against this budget. As someone with a similar name said once the Devil is always in the details.

  • john g

    Meh. Now an invitation to a CPC campaign kickoff…that would be funny.

  • Reverend_Blair

    Hmmm…last invite I got was to a Hayes Carll show in Texas. I couldn't make it, but it's a far more interesting thing than a campaign kick-off.

  • Dot

    Hey, that's in Colby's neighbourhood. Get him to live blog it – that would be entertaining.

  • BGLong

    Ipsos Reid …. Postmedia News ….

    Stand at the bottom of the slide, children. We can make you slide UP !

  • OriginalEmily1

    No, they aren't. However it doesn't mean anything about the opposition and the budget.

  • Leo

    Perception Emily, it's all about perception, lol!!

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