Aaaaaaahhh!!!!
"Rivals traverse Canada before vote; Prime minister, opposition leader battle on economy" by Rob Gillies, Associated Press | October 14, 2008
OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has had a tenuous hold on power since the 2006 election and is forced to rely on the opposition to pass legislation, called today's vote in hopes of winning the 155 seats needed for a majority in the 308-seat Parliament.
But Harper, the first leader from the Group of Eight to face election since the global credit crisis worsened, has been hurt by his slow reaction to the market meltdown, and that - among other missteps - may have cost him his bid for the majority.
Opponents are painting Harper as a right-winger who would reshape the landscape like a US-style Republican. "Just because someone's a Conservative doesn't mean he's George Bush," Harper told voters in Quebec Saturday.
Harper's rival, Liberal leader Stephane Dion, hopped from the Atlantic coast province of New Brunswick inland to Quebec and then toward the city of Vancouver on the Pacific coast in a last minute blitz of campaign stops. He urged the divided left to vote for his party and dismissed talk he would step down as party leader if he loses.
Dion is a former professor from the French-speaking province of Quebec whose struggles to communicate in English have become an issue. Dion's English is heavily accented and awkward. He stumbles over words during speeches and his grammar is often mangled.
Didn't seem to hamper our idiot king down here!
"It's a handicap that a lot of people won't forgive him for. It just causes a lot of people to turn off. They claim they don't understand him," said Robert Bothwell, director of the international relations program at the University of Toronto.
Polls at the start of the campaign had Harper winning a majority, but Harper hurt himself when he said during a debate that Canadians were not concerned about their jobs or mortgages. Days later, he said stocks were cheap. Canada's main stock exchange then had its worst week in almost 70 years.
Harper has since tried to undue the damage by saying he knows Canadians are worried. He contrasted Canada's economic and fiscal performance to the situation in the United States. The prime minister has maintained that Canada will avoid the mortgage meltdown and banking crisis that are hitting the United States and Europe hard. But his government announced last week that it will buy up to $21 billion in mortgages from the country's banks in an effort to maintain the availability of credit.
Dion has moved his party to the crowded left by staking his leadership on a "Green Shift" tax plan. Dion, a former environment minister who named his dog Kyoto after the Japanese site of the first climate change accord, wants to introduce a carbon tax on all fossil fuels except gasoline. --more--"Mr. Dion, meet Al Gore. I'm sure you two have a lot in common.
Just don't stink up the room, 'eh?
Update:
"Harper leads Canada Conservatives to victory; Party unlikely to gain majority in Parliament" by Rob Gillies, Associated Press | October 15, 2008
OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada, the first major world leader to face voters since the global financial meltdown, led his Conservative Party to victory in yesterday's election but was forecast to fall short of a majority in Parliament.
The election agency reported on its website that the Conservatives had won at least 142 of Parliament's 308 seats in early vote counting, an improvement over the 127 seats the party won in its 2006 election victory. But, based on results obtained directly from election officials, Canadian Broadcasting Corp. predicted the Conservative Party would not win the 155 seats needed to govern on its own, forcing it to again rely on opposition support to pass budgets and legislation.
Liberal leader Stephane Dion's campaign was hindered by his unpopular plan to tax all fossil fuels except gasoline and by perceptions he is a weak leader. A former professor from French-speaking Quebec, Dion also suffered in other regions because he frequently mangles English grammar and his accent makes him hard to understand. --more--"
