New Decima poll out

New poll out puts Green support at 11% nationally, and 13% in Quebec where the NDP have only 10%.
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Gap narrows between Tories, Liberals: poll

Updated Tue. Apr. 17 2007 11:55 AM ET

Canadian Press

OTTAWA -- A new poll suggests the gap between the Conservatives and Liberals has narrowed to three percentage points, another signal that a spring federal election may be on hold afterall.

The survey by Decima Research, provided exclusively to The Canadian Press, put Tory support at 34 per cent nationally.

That's far short of majority government territory and two points back of where the Conservatives were on election day in January 2006.

The Liberals polled 31 per cent nationally, while the NDP got 15 per cent, the Green party 11, and the Bloc Quebecois, seven.

Political sabre-rattling by the Tory government in recent months had Liberals claiming Prime Minister Stephen Harper was set to engineer his own defeat and force an election.

But Decima CEO Bruce Anderson says volatility in public opinion makes that a very risky proposition for anyone seeking a majority mandate.

The situation is especially intriguing in Quebec, where the Bloc hit a new low of 29 per cent, and the upstart Greens tracked 13 per cent.

The Liberals led the Tories 23-20 in the province, while the NDP trailed with 10 per cent support.

The telephone poll of more than 1,000 respondents, contacted Thursday through Sunday, is considered accurate within plus or minus 3.1 per cent, 19 times in 20.

Another Conservative subsidy for Quebec, another Nova Scotian company closes

Well, Steven Harper has again shown his bias against Atlantic Canada yet again.

He has announced a subsidy of $900 Million for Quebec aerospace companies, which includes Bombardier. Now, I know that aerospace has not always been a money-making business, especially given the closure of so many airlines in the past few years. But was Bombardier in any danger of closing or laying off workers? No. They have other products they make to add to their bottom line, including rail cars.

Now, turn to Trenton, Nova Scotia. Greenbrier is closing its rail car plant that currently employs more than 300 people. The Premier has attempted to keep them here with a few million in subsidies, but it wasn't enough, they still plan to close.

Take note, this is in Peter MacKay's riding.

Consider the budget that has shafted Atlantic Canadians. Wouldn't you think that Steven Harper would like to show that he cares after this. John Stewart pointed out after his interview with John Bolton that he didn't realize the President was only the President of the people who voted for him. Now, apply this to our Prime Minister. He's trying to buy votes in Ontario and Quebec, and keep his Alberta base happy. Since we out here in the Atlantic Provinces are a stalwart support area for him, or are even seeming to break Conservative, there's no point for him to invest effort here, he has nothing to gain in his drive for a majority.

And now Harper is surprised that Newfoundland & Labrador Premier Danny Williams is going after him, taking out ads across the country.

This is the only way that the Federal Government pays attention to us. They are happy to pay us our "pogey" and give us our transfers, but they don't want to deal with us. The Liberals did this too, but to a lesser extent since they have a lot of support here.

We have 32 seats in the entirety of Atlantic Canada, of course due to our population. We have lower representation, which makes sense. But the Government seems to think this is insignificant and not worth their while.

I'm with Danny Williams. The sooner this government is out of office, the better.

Green Party of Nova Scotia Succeeds!

Well, there has been a victory for the GPNS and democracy in Nova Scotia. It's small, but it's a start.

The government had created a election funding law that gave each registered party (there are 4 of them) $1.50/vote, which is perfectly fair because it had no minimum threshold or anything like that. BUT, they had a clause where any registered party that had more than 15% of the vote could take an option to receive $125,000 in a lump sum and $0.90/vote. Now, there is only one party that is less than 15% of the vote, and that's the Greens. It was a blatant attempt to discriminate against a new party.

However, we got the Government to amend the law yesterday, striking down the 15% minimum by claiming it was unconstitutional. We now have access to the second option, giving us a unique opportunity to invest in the party's infrastructure. As well, as Mike Tipping pointed out to me, this also gives us funding to start up door-to-door canvassing, which not only gets our message out, but raises money too.

Pedestrians are worth $387.50 (at least in Halifax)

Okay, this is something that REALLY pisses me off. A 14 year old girl was hit by a car on a cross walk. She was hospitalized, but will most likely recover.

So, what does the man (who was an 84 year old) face for this? Does he face attempted man slaughter, or maybe something small like dangerous operation of a motor vehicle? Hell no. Does he get his license revoked? Not according to the article.

No, he gets a fine for $387.50. He hits someone on a cross walk, and that is it. If he doesn't even have to get re-tested to keep his driver's license it will be criminal.

Much like that girl who was killed in Dartmouth on a cross walk by a car. Another car had stopped to let the young girl cross, then this woman drives around the stopped car, hits the girl and kills her. She doesn't face ANY jail time.

Am I the only person that thinks that this is STUPID?

Then you have intersections where the cross walks are not marked on the pavement, but for those of us who have taken a driving class, we know that a cross walk exists at every street intersection. I almost got hit by a car at the intersection of College and Summer St. (the intersection near the parking lot for the Carleton (Med School) Campus), as they don't stop there because it's not painted on the road.

Personally, I plan on looking into who's jurisdiction this law falls under, and if it's provincial, it's going to make its way into the GPNS policy if I have my way. Before more kids loose their lives at cross walks because drivers are too ignorant of what's going on around them.

Greens Rising in Polls

Two new polls came out today, one from Decima Research and the other from Strategic Council. The Decima poll had the following results:

-Conservatives: 32%
-Liberals: 30%
-NDP: 15%
-Green: 11%
-Bloc: 9%

The Strategic Council Poll:

-Conservatives: 34% (+3%)
-Liberals: 29% (-8%)
-NDP: 14% (unchanged)
-Green: 12% (+5%)
-Bloc: 9% (unchanged)

The Decima poll almost puts the Greens statistically ahead of the Bloc (+/- 3.1%), while the Strategic Council poll does put the Greens statistically ahead (+/- 3.1%).

Winter-een-mas

For those that don't know, it's currently the Winter-een-mas holiday. So make sure you take some time from your busy schedule and play video games! For some of us, we don't really need the excuse, but I'm not complaining.

Blog-tastic

Teh first post-xorz (in a long while at least)!!

Now that that's out of the way, I'm putting this blog back into service. I've registered for Facebook too. I think that Facebook is really the worst of the two evils.

Can't say I have a whole lot to rant about right now, but I'm sure at other points in time I'll post.

Or maybe not. Maybe this will sit unused as the last blog did. Who knows? Only the Shadows knows!

Okay, I'm done for the time being.