“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” –Yoda

Norman Spector and others raised a good point about Topp’s suggestion that Turmel was “recruited” to the “cause of Canada”. Does this jive with the NDP’s earlier claim that Turmel was always a federalist, despite her membership in separatist parties?

I think it’s pretty clear at this point that Turmel was a poor choice for interim NDP leader, regardless of her strong union credentials.  It’s not the best optics when you have a leader who was a BQ supporter until a few months ago, and who tried to sweep this inconvenient detail under the rug.  

Meanwhile, the federal Liberals can barely contain their glee. Turmel is the best thing that’s happened to them in a long time. The NDP ineptitude has given them a new lease on life.

There would be questions asked if it became known that Stephen Harper was now a member of the Alberta NDP. And yes, some would be angry, but most would understandably be confused and demand an explanation.

Personally I  would find it difficult to adhere to a party whose core policy I disagree with. I know, I know, I’m dumb and binary for feeling this way.

Anger?  Who’s angry?  Never mind obsessively angry!  Topp?  His friends or colleagues?  If so, Emily is right and they should go on vacation. 

It is going to be long, but enjoyable, four years listening to Topp and his codswallop. And watching NDP and Libs – also known as socialists and fascists – have their regular donnybrook and argue amongst themselves about who should be in charge of country will also be entertaining. 

Silver’s post would have be more persuasive if Silver didn’t belong to party that tried to form coalition government with BQ just short time ago and PM Martin did have separatists in his cabinet. In fact, I would not be surprised at all if PM Martin said something like “Because if the unity of the country were the issue …. ” to justify Lapierre’s appointment to cabinet. 

NDP has about three years to make itself more mainstream or they will not grow their support. Que is natural fit for NDP if Que moving away from separatist/federalist debate but NDP not going to grow support outside Que if they continue as they are now. Interested to see how this plays out over next few years.

The Cons never stop campaigning. Even with a majority and a clear four year mandate, they won’t miss an opportunity to smear the opposition.

The high road is an empty highway, with these guys in charge.

Silver sure seems to think Canadians had placed national unity high on their list of priorities when judging elected officials until Turmel came along. 

Did he miss the part when a man who once said “Whether Canada ends up as o­ne national government or two national governments or several national governments, or some other kind of arrangement is, quite frankly, secondary in my opinion” was elected Prime Minister of Canada???