Anyone catch them?
I turned them on for a 90 minutes yesterday, and switched back and forth. For me, right now, the US election has as much or more relevance than ours, simply for the mess they find themselves in. Their mess will be our mess. Hope to hell this bail-out goes through.
As for Palin & Biden, nothing rivetting came from either, and both for padering like crazy to the american middle class. It got very tiresomme, as the obvious theme was deflecting blame for the sub-prime / wall street crisis, and portraying a position of both being on the side of the "Average American Citizen". Honestly, very dumbed down, no real issues.
I found ours to be much more lively as the candidates discussed real issues.
IMHO, the big loser was Stephane Dion, literally turning to the camera and pleading with Canadians: "Do not belive this man!". This was after Harper called him on his pledge that he would not raise taxes, and that their own platform called for a net tax base increase. Harper caught him with misdirection, as Dion was unclear in his statement that he would not raise taxes.
Harper: I found him unspectacular, but composed, relaxed, yet able to defend his and his party's position just fine. To me he came accross as a realist.
Jack Layton was- as always- charismatic, and a great debator. He's not above taking cheap shots, but made a gaff when he called out Harper for taking a cheap shot. In defense of himself in the face of the others beating him up about the implementation of private clinics, Harper had stated he was the only one of everyone sitting at the table to not use a private clinic. By their collective defensive reaction, it was clear he had them. That being said, Layton did the best job of clearly pointing out the flaws in the Concervative platform, and pointing out the dangers- from an NDP point of view- of electing them as majority.
Gilles Duceppe...came accross a hell of a lot better than his francophone buddy Dion. Makes you question if the Torries or Libs will win anything in Quebec. Duceppe will be a factor.
Elizabeth May impressed me the most, because she is showing some real forward thinking. The issues of reneuable energy, and the economic impact of that sector should be debated further. I frankly think the Concervatives would be best having her running shotgun as the new Minister of Environment. She showed an outstanding understanding of the bio-mass industry worldwide, and what it can potentially mean to Canada by moving forward with strong initiatives to encourage producers to switch to bio-mass systems. I feel that a plan of action that combines the Conservative approach w/ the Green Party agenda of alternative and reneuable energy would be the economic boost the country needs.
BC as a Province is actually showing leadership in this area, by tightening emmissions standards & penalties in rural areas, while promoting the "ICE Fund" (Innovative Clean Energy Fund) to the greenhouse community. This approach is not much different than a combined Concervative / Green approach would look like. You bring in stiff penalties for high emmitions, while providing tax breaks and funding for those producers willing to invest in converting to a low emmission bio-fuel system.
As for the rest of the issues, like medicare. Predictably, they all piled on Harper with the private clinic issue, while again the answer is sitting in a combined approach. We have a serious medical shortage here, with a brain drain of doctors and nurses. Nobody disputes that. But, for all the political maneuvering, there is a place for the private clinics, so long as they are complementing the system, not draining it.
To do that we need to- as Dion pointed out- encourage students to get into medicine, and forgive part or all of their student loans in exchange for a commitment to Canada for 10 years. Personally, I feel if we're going to forgive the whole portion of the loan, the commmitment needs to be more like 20 years. Plus, we need to look at ensuring these doctors and nurses are being compensated competitively as compared to the rest of the world.
Anyhow, my opinions asside...thoughts?
I turned them on for a 90 minutes yesterday, and switched back and forth. For me, right now, the US election has as much or more relevance than ours, simply for the mess they find themselves in. Their mess will be our mess. Hope to hell this bail-out goes through.
As for Palin & Biden, nothing rivetting came from either, and both for padering like crazy to the american middle class. It got very tiresomme, as the obvious theme was deflecting blame for the sub-prime / wall street crisis, and portraying a position of both being on the side of the "Average American Citizen". Honestly, very dumbed down, no real issues.
I found ours to be much more lively as the candidates discussed real issues.
IMHO, the big loser was Stephane Dion, literally turning to the camera and pleading with Canadians: "Do not belive this man!". This was after Harper called him on his pledge that he would not raise taxes, and that their own platform called for a net tax base increase. Harper caught him with misdirection, as Dion was unclear in his statement that he would not raise taxes.
Harper: I found him unspectacular, but composed, relaxed, yet able to defend his and his party's position just fine. To me he came accross as a realist.
Jack Layton was- as always- charismatic, and a great debator. He's not above taking cheap shots, but made a gaff when he called out Harper for taking a cheap shot. In defense of himself in the face of the others beating him up about the implementation of private clinics, Harper had stated he was the only one of everyone sitting at the table to not use a private clinic. By their collective defensive reaction, it was clear he had them. That being said, Layton did the best job of clearly pointing out the flaws in the Concervative platform, and pointing out the dangers- from an NDP point of view- of electing them as majority.
Gilles Duceppe...came accross a hell of a lot better than his francophone buddy Dion. Makes you question if the Torries or Libs will win anything in Quebec. Duceppe will be a factor.
Elizabeth May impressed me the most, because she is showing some real forward thinking. The issues of reneuable energy, and the economic impact of that sector should be debated further. I frankly think the Concervatives would be best having her running shotgun as the new Minister of Environment. She showed an outstanding understanding of the bio-mass industry worldwide, and what it can potentially mean to Canada by moving forward with strong initiatives to encourage producers to switch to bio-mass systems. I feel that a plan of action that combines the Conservative approach w/ the Green Party agenda of alternative and reneuable energy would be the economic boost the country needs.
BC as a Province is actually showing leadership in this area, by tightening emmissions standards & penalties in rural areas, while promoting the "ICE Fund" (Innovative Clean Energy Fund) to the greenhouse community. This approach is not much different than a combined Concervative / Green approach would look like. You bring in stiff penalties for high emmitions, while providing tax breaks and funding for those producers willing to invest in converting to a low emmission bio-fuel system.
As for the rest of the issues, like medicare. Predictably, they all piled on Harper with the private clinic issue, while again the answer is sitting in a combined approach. We have a serious medical shortage here, with a brain drain of doctors and nurses. Nobody disputes that. But, for all the political maneuvering, there is a place for the private clinics, so long as they are complementing the system, not draining it.
To do that we need to- as Dion pointed out- encourage students to get into medicine, and forgive part or all of their student loans in exchange for a commitment to Canada for 10 years. Personally, I feel if we're going to forgive the whole portion of the loan, the commmitment needs to be more like 20 years. Plus, we need to look at ensuring these doctors and nurses are being compensated competitively as compared to the rest of the world.
Anyhow, my opinions asside...thoughts?
