Birdy

I challenge you to find anything that supports that, and as this article/study by a group at McGill proves, Harper and the Conservatives actually received preferential treatment from newspapers in the second half of election 2006. So, you're wrong there. i think i'm in love. there's no doubt that the media favoured Harper during the election.. no doubt at all, considering there was a scandal at hand. i haven't argued in comparison once in this entire thread, so i don't really get why we're doing it now. i'm not campaigning here. check out this link: CBC Broadcaster compares Harper to Hitler

c'mon DEM.. haha if i weren't going for lunch right now i'd dig up a few threads from this site around election time to coincide with what i said. media, whether right or left, relies heavily on people's emotional state to get their points across. i didn't see the cover of Time though.

Happy Birthday!

notice the past tense in my post Ollie.. i'm referring to election time propaganda and the seeming attitude that alot of Canadians adopted in thinking that if the CPC were elected it meant impending doom. left-leaning media did everything they could to play up this fear of WWIII in an effort to sway voters. this is what i meant by Harper being the victim of bad press in war time. hux i agree harper's conduct during the Lebanon evacuation crisis did go against the grain of previous foreign policy.. and probably how a lot of Canadians feel about foreign policy too. but you can't argue that our military was ill-equipped to deal with that kind of crisis, and i appreciated that Harper used this example to show Canadians just how fucked up our military really is. really, if we were forced with a natural disaster the size of Katrina, we'd be screwed. that's something we should be concerned about. and as for Michael Fortier, i know about the vows. And there is a small little thing inside of me that feels slightly stung by it all... but then i think that Parliament Hill is like the home of broken promises. Harper's got a minority government hanging on by strings with some shitty-ass representation. He's trying to hold on. Michael Fortier is like a grip.

well knowing that women are allowed to go to school, to hold jobs, to pursue careers helps out. knowing that the taliban isn't amputating arms and legs of people who listen to music, or beheading young men for speaking out helps out. knowing that my friend Roya was able to go and visit her family there for the first time since she was 13 years old helps out too.

The thing that pisses me off about this is how much joy Conservative supporters took in the media bashing that Paul Martin endured during his run as PM. "Mr. Dither" anyone? They now act as if this is the first time the media has been tough on the PM. The hypocrisy is staggering. I just can't get past it. You can't get past it? Shit Ollie! This is the first time in like... 10 YEARS the Conservatives had something on the liberals! I'm surprised it wasn't taken any further than "Mr. Dither". The Liberals had a field day with the paint brush post Mulroney and pre-Harper. In Harper's defence' date=' at least Mulroney and Martin both had scandals.. Harper was the victim of bad press in war time. Never even getting the chance to govern before pictures are posted with Hitler references!! I can't get past that shit! Hypocrisy has nothing to do with it, it's politics and it's a dirty game. But when all you have against someone is what you think he "MIGHT" do, than i just can't get past that. Two names: David Emerson' date=' Michael Fortier. I will not turn a blind eye to those two appointments. [/quote'] That's up to you i guess, but with regards to Emerson, keep in mind that the CPC doesn't stand alone... and in a country whose regions bitch and complain and call for separation i think a little regional representation is a pretty good idea.

i really can't see how you can compare the Taliban who won't allow women to go to school or to hold jobs, who practice genital mutilation, who ban music and sports, who publicly beat women for not completely covering their bodies, who force mothers to behead their sons, to the US or Canada. i checked out your profile.. you host a radio show.. under taliban rule there's no radio.. there's no form of expression or creativity allowed. you would be killed. are you ok with this? are you ok with knowing that this shit goes on in the world? i'm not.

understandable.. if we were all in agreeance i doubt we'd have a politics forum. i won't debate the whole harper thing, as we will all take from his actions what we will, but i have a hard time understanding how you could "completely disagree" that Afghanistan is a far better place today than it was 5 years ago, or that "sometimes people need help" (especially following a WWII reference).

Afghanistan is a far better place today then it was 5 years ago. As for Harper's image of Canada, i don't actually mind it. He's mended our broken relationship with our largest trading partner (without having to sit in Bush's palm), he's stood up to the US on certain issues of importance (ie, border control-- with some damn good points i might add), he's held his ground with an unrelenting press who does nothing short of personally sabotoge him, he recognizes the importance of military (ie, the lebanon evacuation nightmare), he supports a free Afghanistan and recognizes that saying "ooh taliban is bad" from the sidelines is not enough for a country that is able to give so much more and he has not committed us to whatever the "war on terror" is. I agreed with him completely on the flag to half mast debate, and the allowance of press when soldier's come home in caskets and respected him for his composure and arguments he gave. He is committed to responsible government and cleaning up the house. He leads. He has common sense. I think i'm a pretty good judge of character, and honestly, Harper isn't a bad guy. I support the image of Canada he wants to send to the world. Canadian flags aren't hung from street signs in Holland on Rememberance Day because we sat on our asses at home. Sometimes people need help.

Check out "Acts of Faith" by Philip Caputo. It takes place in Sudan during the midst of civil war and examines the effectiveness of humanitarian aid both on a public and private scale, and questions the motives of missionaries, etc. and just how much good their work is doing. He's got a lot of different characters coming from all different sides so if nothing else, it gives you a chance to think about how someone else might see something that you could consider so good and pure, as so predominantly evil.

i'm inclined to disagree. it was just the other day, i was cruising down the 401 thinking to myself that Harper wasn't that bad of a guy afterall. He's stood up on some issues despite all the negative press and shown great leadership. Something this country has been lacking for quite some time. And it's important to realize and differentiate our efforts overseas vs. US efforts overseas. Troops in Afghanistan are on a different kind of mission that those special ops guys in Iraq. I don't care what anyone says, the world is a better place without the Taliban. I have a good friend, an Afghani girl who lives out in Vancouver, who has some absolutely horrific stories under her belt. She's happy Canadians are over there and when I hear what she has to say, so am I.

ollie where's that link supposed to go? it's not working!

i was at the london show too. loved it! #2 up there is "Speed of the Sound of Loneliness" and #4 is "Far From Me"... he's a pretty funny guy too! I loved "that's the way the world goes 'round".

Nice! Have a good trip there Sesh! haha

for sure karin! ours are center, main floor too around the middle or so. we'll chat when the time gets closer! super pumped though! stu i'm sorry you can't make it either.. maybe if you try upgrading that ID of yours so you're not 4 years old in it, you'd have a better chance! haha

i am.. with some great seats too. pretty excited over here!

Happy Birthday DEM!! All the best!

hype to ALL! really really excited for this weekend in chicago!

fucking my god, what a weekend this is going to BE!!!!!!