Liberal Ad: "Jobs/Emplois"

From the second round of Liberal ads this past weekend, here is the Liberal ad "Jobs".
{Video by Liberal Video}

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Liberal Ad: "Vision du monde"

From the second round of Liberal ads this past weekend, here is the French version of "Worldview" called "Vision du monde".

{Video by Liberal Video}

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Liberal Ad: "Bilan deficit"

Here is one of the two French Liberal ads: "Bilan deficit".

{Video by Liberal Video}

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Liberal Ad: "Worldview"

Here is the first English ad from Michael Ignatieff, "Worldview".

{Video by Liberal Video}

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Stephen Harper supports Coalition - Part 3

This whole idea of supporting coalition government, particularly cooperation with Gilles Duceppe and the Bloc Quebecois, actually dates back to Stockwell Day and increased under Stephen Harper.

How quickly he tries to forget. How quickly he wants us to forget. How much he wants us to forget.

As this video asks, if Stephen Harper is willing to lie about his support about coalitions just to keep his hold on power, can we really trust him?

{Video by HarperBlocCoalition}

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Stephen Harper supports Coalitions - Part 2

Have you noticed how quickly and easily Harper will abandon any prior belief or principle if it suddenly become convenient to do so? Along with fiscal prudence, no taxes, fixed election dates, accountability, etc., his claim to oppose coalition government is a prime example. It really is a "convenient coalition" for him, isn't it.

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Stephen Harper supports Coalitions - Part 1

It seems that the Conservatives are going to try for another Seinfeld election: nothing about them or what they are going to do; lies and personal attacks on the Liberal leader.

If they plan on using words taken out of context that are decades old by Ignatieff, we will keep hitting back with words directly out of Harper's mouth, directly on point. Here is Stephen Harper endorsing coalition government:

{Video by StephenHypocrite}

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Liberal Minute - 2009 Federal Election Message

A short summary of why the Liberals can no longer support the Harper Conservatives from Liberal Minuteman Justin Lamarche.
{Video by LiberalMinute}

And no, I don't know what's going on with this guy's arms during the video.

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This is what Harper thinks of Canada

The Conservatives insist that quoting someone is always fair game. And then quote out of context, distort or even make up quotations. When they do this they are trying to distract you from their incompetence and horrible erratic performance on the economy.

And to distract you from what Stephen Harper himself has said about his own country.

Here is our Prime Minister, in his own words, in context and about his own country. Disgraceful.


{Video by Daviolis}

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*Breaking* New Conservative attacks ads coming this weekend

Clearly spooked by the prospect of losing the support of the Liberals, the Conservatives are about to launch an ad campaign all about the positive reasons Canadians should support the Conservatives. Er. No. Of course not.

I have been informed from a reliable source that this weekend the Tories will be launching another negative attack ad campaign against Michael Ignatieff, this time taking quotes from some BBC broadcast a couple of decades ago. They know their time is up and they are clearly desperately lashing out.

Will these ads be about Tory accomplishments? No.

Will these ads be about the economy? No.

Will these ads offer anything to Canadians? No.

Will these ads attack Ignatieff personally? Yes.

Will these ads quote Ignatieff horribly out of context? Yes.

Will these ads show how petty, small, out of ideas, clinging to power the Tories are, thereby proving Ignatieff's point? Very definitely.

Is there time up ladies and gentlemen? Oh, yes.

Will we crush them? Yes, absolutely yes.

Stay tuned here for more. I will be posting something juicy shortly.

Tories reject Layton's deal-making, want an election

On the Rutherford Show today, calling the NDP "a party of hardcore leftwing ideologues" that is "not like a moderate centre-left party", Jason Kenney cuts NDP at the knees, destroying any hope they had about avoiding an election and forming a coalition with the Conservatives.



Sounds like the Conservatives want an election to me.

I got a real chuckle out of the irony of Jason Kenney (or any Conservative, frankly) accusing the NDP of being "folks who drink their own kool-aid."

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Caucus Speech / Discours au caucus estival

Yesterday, Michael Ignatieff put the Conservatives on notice that they have failed their probation and their time is now up. An excerpt of his speech to caucus is below.

Some choice excerpts:

“We’re working against a government that’s ready to sacrifice national unity to stay in power. But we have a secret weapon on our side: Stephen Harper’s record. The worst unemployment record in two decades The worst deficit in our history. And last quarter, the worst performing economy in the G7.”

“We can do better. Nous pouvons faire mieux.”

“Stephen Harper hasn’t just failed to stand up for Canada—he’s also failed to stand up for Canadians. Suaad Mohamud. Omar Khadr. Makhtal. Bahari. Mohamed. Abdelrazik. Being a Canadian must mean the Canadian government will stand up for you—no matter where, no matter when. This is at the heart of what every Liberal believes: a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian. A Liberal government would stand by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. We would stand by our citizens. And we would bring forward legislation to protect Canadians abroad—to make it illegal for the government to pick and choose which citizens it protects—to make sure these abuses never happen again.”

“In fact, only two hundred of the twelve hundred infrastructure projects that the Conservatives announced in Ontario have actually received the funding they were promised. Only Stephen Harper could count that as 80% underway.”

“Stephen Harper’s response has been: “Don’t worry, give it a few years, and the books will balance themselves.” You can put that next to his promise not to run deficits in the first place. Or his promise not to tax income trusts. Or his promise not to appoint Senators.”

“You can’t count on a government that can’t count—and a prime minister who’s only good at division.”

“Liberals proudly support public health care in this country—and, unlike the Conservatives, we’re not afraid to defend it.”

“In June, we set out four tests for Stephen Harper. Mr. Harper, you have failed all four. You’ve failed to protect the most vulnerable. You’ve failed to create jobs. Failed to defend our health care. Failed to restore our public finances.”

“After four years of drift, four years of denial, four years of division and discord—Mr. Harper, your time is up. Vous avez raté votre chance. The Liberal Party cannot support this government any further. We will hold it to account. We will oppose it in Parliament. Canadians deserve better.”

“So let’s get started. Allons-y. Notre pays nous attend.”

{Video by Ignatieff}

Full text of his speech is here.

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Nothing says "I'm a Man" like using soldiers for props

Ok, folks, from the top again, into positions, let's get it right this time, can we get the submarine to move over about 5 metres, pretend you are talking, start looking up, alriiiight... "Mission Accomplished", Take IV ...



It's a cool campaign photo election propaganda photo that they set up for, I have to admit. But I thought about calling this post "The Million Dollar Shot" but that wouldn't be accurate as $1 million wouldn't even cover the cost of the Prime Minister's security detail for this giant-ego-sized photo opportunity for his election campaign ads. Especially when you can't get right the first time. Or the second time. Or even the third time.

Mission accomplished

Alison Crawford reflects on the exquisite precision of a Stephen Harper photo op :

The Coast Guard’s Pierre Radisson ship and the submarine HMCS Cornerbrook lined up one one side of the frigate HMCS Toronto. On the deck of Toronto, was a gaggle of reporters, cameras at the ready.

Then, Defence Minister Peter MacKay sauntered onto the deck with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. They stopped to make idle chit chat until urged by handlers to move forward a few metres in order to have them perfectly positioned with the other two vessels in the background.

But wait! There’s more! Three CF-18 jets flew past in formation. But the fly-by was a little to fast for some camera operators and photographers to catch the entire montage of sub, jets and coast guard, so the CF-18s passed over four more times.

Which reminded me of this gem from Jim Flaherty, November 27, 2008: "We cannot ask Canadians to tighten their belts in tougher times without looking in the mirror."

Please send LVD your political and news videos and clips and, subject to our completely subjective standards of taste, quality and liability exposure (hey, its our blog afterall), we will publish it. So send 'em all along, folks, in the comments or by email to tedbetts (at) yahoo.ca.

Ignatieff - Michael Ignatieff announces EI working group

Video of Michael Ignatieff announcing the EI working group he forced Harper to accept:



The video accompanied the following letter directly from Ignatieff:

Dear XXXXXX,

On Monday I insisted that it is time to replace confrontation with cooperation in the House of Commons. Following a series of meetings with Mr. Harper over the last two days, I’m pleased to announce that our hard work and commitment to progress has started to pay off. The government has made a number of concessions – most notably, an agreement to form an Employment Insurance working group that will work throughout the summer months to fix flaws and find a way to build regional fairness into our EI system, and to offer access to self-employed Canadians.

Mr. Harper has also agreed to a strict accountability timetable for the fall. The government will bring Parliament back early and deliver an additional accountability report to Canadians the week of September 28th. This report will be followed by a guaranteed Opposition Day – and further Opposition Days throughout the fall – allowing our Liberal caucus to hold the government accountable and bring forward a confidence motion, if that becomes necessary and is in the best interests of Canadians.

By achieving this outcome, the Liberal Party has demonstrated its commitment to putting the needs of Canadians ahead of politics by helping to make Parliament work. We have delivered progress and accountability while avoiding a summer election at a time when Canadians are more worried about the growing health care crisis and supporting their families through this recession.

I’ll continue to keep you up to date throughout the summer, and hope you will stay in touch as well.

Thank you,
Michael

Paul Wells - A Blue Ribbon Day

Paul Wells "videoblogged" ("vlogged"?) the "getting results for Canadians" events yesterday:

Michael Ignatieff responds to PM's "report"

Harper is still on probation... at least until Friday.

Does the Prime Minister want to have another election or not?

Shorter Ignatieff

Shorter Michael Ignatieff, in pictures:

First this:















Resulting in this:









And ultimately this:

Let's Go

Apropos of what this guy said and what this guy said, LVD provides our thoughts on the matter: it's pretty clear that you are not alone:

Here's what K-Maro thinks, and in both official languages no less:



Broadcast agrees:



The Fleshtones agree (with a mention of Toronto):



The Cars agree:



Ministry agrees:



It's pretty clear urban dwellers like Pharoahe Monch agree:



Redman too:



In case you thought there was an urban-rural divide on the issue, here's what Norma Jean has to say:



Even washed up '80s one-hit-wonders agree: