Before We Get Too Excited, I Thought Ipsos Reid Was a Poll We Should Ignore…That it Was Unreliable

And here is where I get critical again, as well as playing devil’s advocate.  Ipsos-Reid, the right slanted polling firm that does the surveys for the equally conservative Canwest papers has been said to be unreliable and thus, many progressive bloggers say not to put much stock into their polls.

Another thing to consider:  Ralph Goodale has hinted that  more time would be asked of Speaker Milliken:

“If we all say to the Speaker that progress is being made [on this] serious topic …. let’s take some additional time to deal to make further progress, I suspect the Speaker would respond constructively,” Mr. Goodale said.

I think Milliken would accord the delay on those grounds. He knows most Canadians would rather see this government work together after all than constantly squabbling, no matter what the issue of the day. Furthermore, I don’t think Milliken wants to lose his job so fast.

Well, lambaste me if you will. This lastest poll, from the Fox News of Canada, I might add, should also be taken with a grain of salt. Something doesn’t sit well, why would a Harpercon cheering newspaper and matching poll even print something like most Canadians supposedly caring about torture?

I’m sorry, but to not be wary would be a  grave mistake. I still stand by my previous post that Afghan detainee documents are the wrong issue to go to an election over. Click the link to read why, no sense in repeating myself this time around. And I’m sorry, but the Liberals are not holding any cards here; their polling numbers don’t reflect this. Brother Steve and the Harpercons are still ahead in pretty much every poll taken as of late.  A good new name would be Teflon Steve.

The Liberals know they don’t have the numbers to take on Steve, a coalition with the NDP is out of the question, and we all know Steve wouldn’t talk of going to an election over this issue if he didn’t like his chances of a majority.

In the previous post I’ve mentioned, I have suggested you ask your aquaintances in any town how they feel about Afghan detainees?  I somehow think the  polling firm didn’t phrase the questions correctly.

most rednecks with some impulse control are not going to admit outright that torture is a good thing. However, ask them if they cared about the treatment of Afghan detainees? Or Should Canada be held responsible for turning them over, knowing they could be tortured? Hell, the most entertaining answers to a question I onced asked, is if they realized that either torturing the detainees or turning them over knowing what would happen goes against the Geneva Conventions? Well, I dare you to ask those questions, phrased in exactly the ways I suggested above, everyone you know and so on…I guarantee, the anwers you get may shock you.

Ipsos-Reid (or any polling firm that plans to run a similar poll for future reference) should have asked if the troops were to be worshipped and protected at all costs, because they risk their lives for us. Maybe we don’t necessarily believe in that hero worship for the troops, but ask a lot of ordinary folks at random and they will tell you they do. As such, keeping the troops as absolute heroes supercedes the well being of Afghan detainees, who are seen as thugs who throw acid on girls’ faces. Again, I find it fascinating the Ipsos-Poll question about the Troops wasn’t asked.

Fact is since 9/11, racism, particularly against those from the middle-east is on the rise. (And no, in my case, it wasn’t even French separatists; it was the Anglophones from the west end of Montreal for the most part). Again, for the hell of it, ask your neighbours, aquaintances, co-workers, even your favourite Timmy’s counter person what they think of Muslims, and I guarantee, they won’t be so warm and welcoming.

Eventually, the international community will find something out. Secrets have a way of always coming out in some form or another. If international laws were broken, that would mean the soldiers involved would be guilty due to laws written since Nuremberg.  I’m sure many of those low level soldiers would be happy to sing in exchange for leniency, until they go to the top of the food chain. Bottom line; let the international community take away the Timmy’s crowd’s heroes; not the opposition as they would pay dearly.

Ask those same people how they feel about the troops, guarantee it will be hero worship (except in French quebec where they’re very anti-military). Ask what should supercede? Protecting the troops or the Afghan detainees? Guarantee, the troops will come out on top. Please don’t take my word for it, put it to the test yourselves, ask your aquaintances. It would be educational I’m sure. Knowledge about your fellow Canadians would go a long way in fighting Steve.

Over at Scott’s, commenter Ottlib brings up an interesting point that the opposition should  also consider: The best way to show the public they care about the documents is:

“Let the battle be between Harper and the Speaker/Parliament, not the other opposition parties.”

Exactly!

If the Opposition makes too big of a deal about this they just reduce it to a partisan issue which will be largely ignored by the greater electorate.

The Opposition needs to strike a balance in order to make this issue meaningful.

As well, if the Opposition pushes too hard they will be open to accusations that they really do not care about the documents at all but just using them as a political football. I am assuming that this is not the case and that they are genuine in their desire to see the documents. If that is the case they have to negotiate in good faith even if their negotiating partner may not be so inclined. They can do that because they still have the Speaker’s order in their pockets to use if they finally grow impatient with Conservative stonewalling.

Again, balance is needed.

I still maintain that Steve can get his majority over this. Iggy knows this. I wonder if the NDP knows this as well, as they’re not exactly pushing for the enforcement of Milliken’s ruling neither. Come to think of it, more and more, I do wonder about the NDP and what they’re up to on this issue?

I haven’t heard anything about them dropping the gauntlet to put Steve in contempt of parliament. Unlike Iggy and the Liberals, the NDP haven’t anything to lose; they will never govern.    Why doesn’t anyone chide the NDP for inaction or backroom deals they make with Steve? Not that chiding anyone helps at this stage, but I’m trying to make the point that the NDP aren’t much better, yet they escape much criticism.

You want to fight Steve, realities must be faced.  Most don’t understand democracy or our parliamentary system, if they did, we wouldn’t be a corporatocracy, much like the U.S.  As mentioned above, One of them is, that all Steve has to do is keep Canadians scared  of the Muslim and/or soshalist  boogieman,  the so-called rising  crime rate  (not true, but again, truth doesn’t matter nearly as much as the kool-aid being served) and that he, and only he can keep Canada safe. Ridiculous? If that grandfatherly strategy didn’t work ,  Bush would never have gotten a second term in office.

So, again, yes, I would leave this issue alone, even if Steve wins on this, simply due to the prejudices of the Timmy’s crowd.  However, no, I’m not caving in.  The threat of our legalized abortion would be a start (here’s where we part company Nik Nanos; Canada is mainly pro-choice).

Another reality is that the Liberals absolutely need to get that red book done. Chretien had a red book to campaign with following the Aylmer Conference. They didn’t stick to most of it, but they had something concrete to make the voters feel all warm and fuzzy about.

Nik Nanos pointed out on Question Period a few weeks ago that the party who will get the majority will be the party with the concrete ideas. It isn’t the first time I have heard that. Michael Moore mentioned that once upon a time: (Paraphrasing): ‘Americans don’t see themselves as Democrat or Republican, they will vote for the party they know will get the job done’ to explain the disaser of the Obama Democrats these days.

What Nik Nanos said, sadly, is correct. Otherwise, that ‘anybody but Harper campaign’ would be wildly successful, Steve would have been out of office a long time ago if it worked.  I say sadly, because, I think that that means with the absence of a red book, the majority centrists would embrace the Evangelical Blue book of the Steve and McVety kingdom of darkness where women would be forced to reproduce against their will in order to save the white Christian race , banking deregulation, Homosexuality would be outlawed (got that Fred “gay n right” Litwin? ), big private prisons, American health care system in full swing, but have no fear, Canadians under a Harpercon government would never ever have to go to those pesky polls again. Don’t know about you, but that kind of blue book winning over Canadians is frightening to say the least.

So, again, why don’t we push our opposition MPs to put out that red book to counter Steve’s blue book?

As for the NDP, perhaps it’s time we asked that hard question and perhaps have some truths revealed: ask them to  go into coalition with the Liberals: if they say no or remain silent on it, ask why.  As most of us realize (and more should face this reality), they will never govern, therefore, it is time for them to show what their truth would be when push comes to shove.  With whom will they align themselves? That would certainly get me thinking that perhaps he would rather go to bed with Steve, that much like Nick Clegg across the pond, Jack might be looking for who will offer him the better deal.