A little bit of this, and a little bit of that…

The Liberals have been fairly silent again today. Once again, Harper’s pushing everyone else to the back pages:

• As we pointed out a while ago, income splitting is in the CPC’s future. I’m going to have to get a spouse.
• The CPC also wants to dole out money for you to become a baby-maker. I love money. I love money way better than I love the government setting up daycare franchises. But, hey, that’s just me.
• Layton loves private health care. Whoda thunk it? (And yeah, I know, I’m way behind the ball on this. Exams and stuff. Life isn’t all fun and games, you know.)
• And then, you know, we had some Nazis in Quebec or something.

I guess that’s about it. Oh, one other thing: that Strategic Counsel poll makes no sense. None. Two off-the-cuff, utterly uninformed guesses: No one’s paying atention yet. The margin of error is unusually large.

Speaking of which, everybody remember: the SES nightly tracking poll is now released SEVEN days a week, at 2pm every day. And it is like crack.

But who likes polls anyway?

Tories in Quebec

Adam Daifallah, co-author of Rescuing Canada’s Right, has a very interesting post up about allegations made regarding the state of the Conservative party in Quebec on a radio program popular there.

Synopsis: It ain’t purdy.

Oh, Bourque…

What would we do without you?

A candidacy in shambles. It wasn’t meant to be this way for the self-styled saviour of Canada. Michael Ignatieff, the 30-years-abroad egghead who’s Harvard-based perch was thought by acolytes to be the perfect springboard for a thinly-veiled assault on the Prime Minister’s Office, all conveniently dollied-up as the second coming of Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Now, however, his undemocratic drop-in “acclamation” is being rebuffed in Etobicoke-Lakeshore as determined local Liberals, including the president of the Toronto branch of the Ukrainian Congress, move forward with their own nomination meeting tonight. Indeed, the Liberal riding association has now indicated that Ignatieff is not even a member in good standing. So much for the concept of democracy, eh Mr. Ignatief ? This growing nightmare can only find one logical outcome, insiders say. Ignatieff will have to step aside. Worse, senior Liberals in Toronto, Bourque has learned, are readying a game plan that will allow the egghead to step aside in favour of devoting more time to his students, lest the growing unrest surrounding his imposed candidacy split the Liberal vote in Etobicoke-Lakeshore. A little egg on the Great Ego’s face, after all, might be the perfect reminder to him that democracy has a process and it must be followed. UPDATE: After Bourque divulged Ignatieff’s grave difficulties, his appearance on a TV panel this morning was cancelled. Developing.

I’m sure Bourque won’t mind me pasting the whole thing here for posterity’s sake seeing as how, well, there’s not much permanency to these blurbs of his.

Ignatieff, Etobicoke–Lakeshore, and the pissed off Ukrainian Lobby.

Canadian politics is often so absurd that it’s self-parodying.

Michael Ignatieff is reportedly going to run in Etobicoke–Lakeshore. Ukrainians are very, very mad. Hah!

Daifallah has some more on this development.

An update: This certainly has exploded across the blogs.  Warren Kinsella has the text of a very intriguing press release from Etobicoke–Lakeshore.  And Colby Cosh posts an excerpt that illustrates very prettily just what these Ukrainian dissidents are complaining about.  Both very interesting indeed.

Rachel Marsden = Death

Jesus.
Our only guess is that there is a John Galt-like figure secretly undermining Conservative electoral success in order to prepare for a Conservative second-coming.

A Lazy Saturday Round-Up

Polls:

• Ekos says possible Liberal majority. Reasons for disbelief: I find the B.C. surge for the Liberals somewhat surprising.
• Ipsos-Reid has very different findings. Reasons for disbelief: a) the poll finds that voters are becoming comfortable with Harper (just wait until those attack ads start running; those ALWAYS work) and, b) Ipsos finds that voters are unhappy with Liberal spending (oh, c’mon, does anyone really follow the news these days?).

And, finally, maybe there IS a hidden agenda. I know, I know. I’m shocked. I, too, had begun to think that “conservative policy” had become oxymoronic. But Greg Staples has heard that the Conservatives might be into family income splitting. Surprise!

Remains of the day…

• That non-confidence motion has been tabled in the House.
• Michael Ignatieff is running (the comments thread is worth checking out)?

And with that, I guess we’re off!