Tag Archives: Canada

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Stephen Harper’s Conservatives up to 43% in latest federal election poll

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Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper

For my Canadian readers, especially Tory Ninja. (H/T Ben)

Excerpt:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have opened up a wide lead against their political rivals in public favour and would be close to winning a majority if an election occurred now, a new poll has found.

The national survey, conducted exclusively for Postmedia News and Global National, found that the Tories are now supported by 43% of decided voters — up by four points from early February.

That finding by pollster Ipsos Reid is significant, as the level of support is near the threshold that experts believe the Tories need to win their long-coveted majority.

The Conservatives haven’t been this popular since they enjoyed a brief spike in the polls in December 2008 when Canadians were opposed to the opposition parties’ efforts to create a coalition government.

The new survey shows the Tories have a 16-point lead over the Liberals, led by Michael Ignatieff. The Grits, who have been trying to stoke voter anger over the government’s performance, have the support of 27% of voters, up by two points.

Jack Layton’s NDP appears to be in political decline as it makes demands to the government over what should be in the budget. The New Democrats would receive 13% of the vote, down by five points.

Similarly, the Green party, led by Elizabeth May, is in trouble. It would receive five per cent of the vote, down by five points.

Gilles Duceppe’s Bloc Quebecois has 10%of the vote nationally and still has a commanding lead in Quebec.

“What you’re seeing in the numbers is a continuation of a trend that started over the past two months,” said Ipsos Reid president Darrell Bricker on Tuesday.

“And one could say that with these types of numbers, the Tories are well poised to potentially form a majority.”

Bricker said that two major factors are at work: Canadians are generally optimistic about the economy and are giving credit to the Harper government, and the negative Conservative TV ads which take aim at Ignatieff’s political ambitions and patriotism are working.

[…]Bricker said another trend is occurring which works in the Tories’ favour: They are increasingly attracting support beyond their traditional base.

The new poll finds the Tories receiving more support from middle-income Canadians, women, university-educated voters and foreign-born Canadians.

“They’re flattening out those demographic differences and becoming more mainstream,” said Bricker.

[…]The federal political parties are preparing for the possibility of an election that could be precipitated by a budget in late March.

[…]In every region but Quebec, the Tories are leading in public opinion.

This poll puts them in majority territory, because last time they only won by 37.65% to 26.26% but they won 143 seats. 155 seats are needed for a majority, so 43% would definitely do the job. Anything over 40% is good.

Stephen Harper has a BA and MA in Economics, and is cutting the corporate tax rate to HALF of the US corporate tax rate. In Canada, voters are concerned about JOBS, not about Harper’s skin color, happy-talk or handsomeness. Canadians understand that if you woo corporations and businesses with low taxes and fewe regulations, you get the jobs. Harper also supports free trade, so that Canadians can sell their goods to foreign markets, and buy good from abroad for a cheaper price, either for consumption of manufacturing. This results in even MORE jobs.

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Poll finds 68% of Canadians positive on Canadian economy

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Map of Canada
Map of Canada

From the leftist Globe and Mail.

Excerpt:

A new international survey shows Canadians are in a very positive mood about the state of the economy, suggesting the opposition parties face an uphill battle pushing for change on the eve of a possible federal election.

Describing Canada as a “superstar,” an Ipsos online survey of citizens in 24 countries finds 68 per cent of Canadians are feeling good about the economy. Those January numbers are up six points from a month earlier.

[…]The contrast between Canada’s positive mood and some other G8 countries is particularly striking. Only 20 per cent of Americans said their economy was good and even more pessimism was reported for Britain, France, Italy and Japan.

Canada’s results place it sixth of the 24 countries surveyed, behind Sweden (82 per cent); Saudi Arabia (80 per cent); Australia (78 per cent); India (76 per cent) and China (74 per cent).

Ipsos senior vice-president John Wright, who is based in Toronto and is responsible for the international survey, says the numbers are good news for the Conservatives because other surveys show Canadians give Prime Minister Stephen Harper high marks for managing the economy.

“It plays to [the Conservatives’] strong hand and more importantly it contrasts with an opposition party which doesn’t seem to be on that track,” he said in an interview. “The opposition – whether it be the NDP or the Liberals – are talking about things that are below the national concerns.”

Mr. Wright said the Conservatives “own” the issue of the economy, placing them on very solid ground heading in to a possible federal election.

“It’s usually governments are thrown out, they’re not voted in,” he said. The flurry of Conservative ads criticizing Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff have also proven to be “very, very effective,” he said.

The latest federal election poll has the capitalist Stephen Harper and his Conservative party on the boundary of a Parliamentary majority. They currently have 143 seats, with 155 needed for a majority.

Canada Election Poll 2011
Canada Election Poll 2011

Harper has a BA and MA in Economics, and is cutting the corporate tax rate to HALF of the US corporate tax rate. It’s about JOBS. If you love corporations and businesses with low taxes and less regulations, you get the jobs. He also supports free trade, so that Canadians can sell their goods to foreign markets, and buy good from abroad for a cheaper price, either for consumption of manufacturing. More jobs. It’s all about the jobs for the capitalists. They just want more and more jobs. That’s why they keep making conditions better for employers.

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What happens when government gets involved in energy production?

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Consider this story from Canada, found in the National Post.

Excerpt:

A $200-million wind farm in northern New Brunswick is frozen solid, cutting off a potential supply of renewable energy for NB Power.

The 25-kilometre stretch of wind turbines, located 70 kilometres northwest of Bathurst, N.B. has been completely shutdown for several weeks due to heavy ice covering the blades.

[…]Wintery conditions also temporarily shutdown the site last winter, just months after its completion. Some or all of the turbines were offline for several days, with “particularly severe icing” blamed.

The accumulated ice alters the aerodynamics of the blades, rendering them ineffective as airfoils. The added weight further immobilizes the structures.

[…]Melissa Morton, a spokeswoman for the utility, says the contract isn’t based on power delivered during a specific period, but rather on an annual basis.

“Our hopes is that it will balance out over the 12-month period and, historically, that has been the case.”

Despite running into problems in consecutive winters, Ms. Morton says NB Power doesn’t have concerns about the reliability of the supply from the Caribou Mountain site.

This story has the word Wintery in it, and spelled correctly, too. That is a good thing. However, government-run utilities wasting taxpayer money on environmentalist nonsense is a bad thing. Maybe the taxpayer-funded wind farm is doing such a good job of stopping global warming that we are now seeing global cooling?

And remember that the Ontario government provides subsidies to private companies for inefficient solar power. More waste.

Now consider this post from Red State, found in Neil Simpson’s latest round-up.

Excerpt:

As taxpayer tragedies go, Broomfield, Colorado-based Range Fuels has all the plot elements—splashy headlines, subsidies and opportunistic venture capitalists. Range got its start in 2006 when George W. Bush used a State of the Union address to extol wood chips as a source for cellulosic ethanol that would break America’s “addiction to oil.” Mr. Bush pledged that with government funding cellulosic ethanol would be “practical and competitive within six years.”

Vinod Khosla stepped in with his hand out. The political venture capitalist founded Range Fuels and in March 2007 it received a $76 million grant from the Department of Energy—one of six cellulosic projects the Bush Administration selected for $385 million in grants. Range said it would build the nation’s first commercial cellulosic plant, near Soperton, Georgia, using wood chips to produce 20 million gallons a year in 2008, with a goal of 100 million gallons. Estimated cost: $150 million.

… the EPA said Range would finally produce some fuel in 2010—but only four million gallons, not 100 million, and of methanol, not cellulosic ethanol. So taxpayers have committed $162 million (along with at least that much in private financing) to produce four million gallons of a biofuel that others have been making in quantity for decades.

Yes, George W. Bush made some mistakes… but there is someone even worse.

From USA Today, we learn the consequences of Obama’s moratorium on oil drilling. (H/T Gateway Pundit)

Excerpt:

Seahawk Drilling Inc. said it has filed for bankruptcy protection and plans to sell its fleet of offshore drilling rigs to a competitor for $105 million.

Seahawk, which announced the deal with Hercules Offshore Inc. Friday, has been hurt by a slowdown in Gulf of Mexico drilling after the BP oil spill last April. The government halted drilling in deep waters and imposed tough new rules that have curtained all energy exploration in U.S. waters.

Bottom line – keep government out of the free market.