Be ready for fall election, Harper warns
Election drums beating
Harper, Dion swap threats over election
I know I’ve been relatively quiet over the last while… I’ve actually been pretty busy with the house move and election planning. There will be some new stuff at the beginning of September…
Meanwhile, I’ve been hearing at work a lot of, “Kirk. We want you to win… but we don’t want you to win.” We’re currently planning the distribution of my duties for the 6-7 weeks I’ll be campaigning - but if my coworkers expect the election, then the rhetoric has hit a new plateau entirely, and the likelihood of going is very high.
20.Aug.08 
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For those of you keeping score, you may have seen some election talk over the past few days/weeks. I know at work more than one person has walked by my desk saying, “sounds like a fall election.”
And you’re going to continue to hear it. While they’re not saying whether or not they intend to pull the plug, the grits’ obvious strategy is to get people talking this summer, and that they have. It might not be front and centre in every paper every day, but there is this constant rumbling that might get a little louder in the coming months.
So when could this all happen? Well, Parliament resumes on September 15th - 11:00am EST, in fact - assuming the Tories do not prorogue parliament (which I doubt they will). So let’s say the government falls that week, we’re looking at an October 27th election (assuming the writ is the standard 36 days plus epsilon to get to the first possible Monday). And so it continues… November 3th, November 10th, November 17th, for the government falling in subsequent weeks.
Of course, if you read this weblog relatively consistently, you’ve probably already noticed the repeating pattern of ‘possible election’ followed by, ‘nope’. In fact, Harper now has the second longest minority parliament in history… so, you know, take my elections ‘doomsday’ dates with a shaker of salt.
I am, of course, working on campaign stuff this summer. I won’t get into too much here, but I do at least have an ear to the ground and have been talking with some of my volunteers and donors. Of course, this is while I’m not doing plenty of other things, such as packing our things to move into our new house… More campaign information will follow, however… all in good time.
29.Jul.08 Uncategorized Read more Comment (1)
*ta-da*
The prodigal son returns. It has been nothing less than a hectic month, between planning for a fall election, traveling across the country, and making some property deals (aka, buying a new place). The latter is the most recent, and the most nerve-racking - we essentially sold our current place while 3,500km away in Southwestern Ontario, and bought the first day we were back. Of course, it sounds a whole lot more sporadic than it was; Robyn and I have been diligently watching the housing market for over a year now, have regularly checked finances (mostly comparing short-term results with the long-term fiscal projections), and have been planning this for a long time. It just seems sudden, making two property deals in under a week.
Last week, as I mentioned, we were hopping around Southwestern Ontario. We happened to see a lot of Robyn’s family, as well as some very good friends of ours from school. The original reason for going East was a wedding; in fact, one of the most interesting wedding’s I’ve ever been to - half Mennonite, half Jewish… all fun. We then stayed in Ontario and visited different friends and family.
Election stuff. Well, the government cannot be collapsed by the opposition until Parliament returns on September 15. So it’ll be a bit. But that does not stop the endless planning that goes into a solid bid to represent a riding. The advantage now is that I’ll actually have a garage to store all election mats.
Hopefully I will return to the weblogging fray with more regularity. Kudos to those who keep checking for new posts. I only do because it’s my home page…
07.Jul.08 Uncategorized Read more Comments (0)
On Friday, there was word from CBC’s Politics that there was going to be an attempt to get Dion to agree to collapse the Tories’ reign on government with the crucial vote on Bill C-50 tomorrow night. Obviously, that jumpstarted everything a bit and had me working on some campaign prep on the weekend. I don’t think it will be called, but it’s not my job to try to predict, but to be prepared for, the eventual election.
Andrew Coyne jumped on the story, though, to show signs of the possible insurrection at hand. While it would be devastating for the Grits and their party, the thought had crossed my mind that between Rae and Ignatieff, since Dion hasn’t got much of a Roman Guard on his Cabinet, they could pull off a successful bid to collapse the government without Dion. Again, devastating for that party, and it was fly in the face of both of their ambitions, but it is politics, after all.
I read an article a few weeks ago about how crass partisanship is destroying parliament. There are renewed calls from people for independents to come forward and get involved. How appropriate. The problem is, still, that it’s far more difficult to raise funds and to run as an independent. You may remember last summer I developed a few points for how we can help equalize that system. Of course, it will take running within the current one successfully to be able to come in and make those changes, but it would definitely help open the playing field.
Over the summer, I’m going to be working on a number of campaign projects, always moving it forward. I continue to look for active people who might want to volunteer for the campaign, and you’re always welcome to become a ‘fan’ (or ’supporter’) on Facebook.
… and maybe, just maybe, Calgary will see some extended periods of sunshine soon…
08.Jun.08 Uncategorized Read more Comments (0)
