New Brunswick Politics

Paul Martin spent the days rolling through Quebec, banging the Federal Unity drum. He also announced the "star" candidate for Vaudreuil-Soulanges, will be none other, than Canadian astronaut, Marc Garneau. Here in New Brunswick, Marcelle Mersereau, will carry the Liberal banner in the Acadie-Bathurst riding against NDP's Yvon Godin. He'll be tough to beat. This will be his fourth term if re-elected. He's very popular in this riding.

Stephen Harper spent his day in Quebec also, discussing his ethics platform, and his new office of public prosecutions. {Story in the blog below.} This is obviously going to be an important issue to Canadians after the sponsorship scandal. Wonder if the conservatives can make any headway in Easten Canada with this issue on the burner??

Jack Layton spent his day in Ontario. He gave a speach at the University of Toronto. Layton accused the Liberals of mismanaging the budget surpluses, by giving corporate tax breaks instead of re-investing the money in education and training. He's not wrong in my opinion. Why do we even have huge surpluses year after year? That tells me, they are over taxing, or not spending enough on government programs.

Looking forward to the debates. 2 english, and 2 french. They have decided to turn the mics off this time while one candidate speaks. Good plan. That was very annoying last time listening to them talk and shout over one another.

Posted by PoliticsNB at 11:37 PM | Permalink | |

Well that did'nt take long at all. Today Stephen Harper announced if elected he would appoint a special prosecutor for federal crimes. {Kinda like Ken Starr was in the U.S......you remember him right??} This is his answer to punish people involved in the sponsorship scandal. When the Liberals said it would interfer with criminal matters under provincial jurisdiction under the criminal code, Harper responded that this new prosecutor would only deal with Federal matters. Then his Deputy Leader, and former crown attorney, Peter MacKay, told everyone why Harper was wrong.

Quote Taken from The Chronicle Herald:

"Let me be clear," MacKay told reporters later Wednesday as Harper prepared to introduce local candidates at a Halifax hotel. "A federal prosecutor has no jurisdiction over criminal offences, which include the Criminal Code."

That office "would have no jurisdiction to go back and make decisions, make any sort of advice even available to investigators when it comes to provincial offences."

It would deal only with federal crimes such as drug or immigration offences, he said.

So how would that deal with those responsible for the sponsership scandal?? We'll file this one under "whoops"......
Maybe he should run all his statements through his Deputy Leader first so he can keep his foot out of his mouth.

Posted by PoliticsNB at 10:05 PM | Permalink | |

Well, I may as well get in on the polling act in this election also. Added two polls down on the right hand side. Please take a second to add your vote.

Posted by PoliticsNB at 9:44 PM | Permalink | |

Well it’s official, the minority Liberal Government has fallen. The Motion? "That this House has lost confidence in the Government." The actual Numbers are….

Yes:171
No:133

So, tomorrow morning Prime Minister Paul Martin will head off to see the Governor General and dissolve parliament.

Seems like a pretty dumb move to me, considering the latest poll numbers, Basically a clear split at this point. Also the fact that Mr. Martin already promised Canadians they have their chance to pass their judgment in the spring after the final Gomery report. So we are faced with an election that most Canadians don’t want at this point.

Basically the conservative party is rolling the dice, and costing us money needlessly. Great way to inspire the confidence of Canadians Mr.Harper.

Let the games begin!!

Posted by PoliticsNB at 8:06 PM | Permalink | |

Well, it's down to hours now, not days. Tommorrow the Paul Martin's Liberal Minority Government faces a non-confidence vote in the Commons. Stephen Harper, Jack Layton, and Gilles Duceppe, will band together to force another Federal Election after only 17 months or so since the last one. Quite an intresting trio really. The hard right, the hard left, and the seperatists. Yikes....

Lets face it. This is a roll of the dice for Stephen Harper. The party long knives have been hiding in the shadows waiting for him and he knows it. The Bloc, heck what do they care? They'd go to the polls every three month if need be. Why would they care about the system that they are so desperatly trying to get out of. Which leaves Jack Layton. I've been trying to figure out what is in it for Jack. History has shown that when the NDP do their part to bring down governments they normally get slaughtered at the polls. I'll bet that from Ontario, and east to Newfoundland, (with the exception of Quebec of course) people will hold their nose and vote Liberal. Why? It will not be a vote for confidence in the Liberal government. It will be a vote against Stephen Harper's right wing politics, and his oppostion to things like medicare. Mr.Harper has shown his disdain for eastern Canada many times in the past, and I personally don't think he'll ever truly be forgiven down this way.

It's kind of sad when you look and realize, that the only party that will be acceptable at this time to the majority of Canada, is one with a major credibility problem. The are seen as being corrupt, yet will probably continue to run our country.

I agree with the pundits on this one. I'm figuring another Liberal minority. Harper Gone. Jack wondering what happened to the support he had. And the seperatists sitting back laughing.

Ahhh Canadian Politics. Wonder if Bernard Lord is still eyeing the federal leadership??

Posted by PoliticsNB at 1:20 PM | Permalink | |

If anyone needs a few bucks, might I suggest lining up outside of parliament hill?? It would be extremely hypocritical of me not to mention the goings on in Ottawa right now. I gave it to Bernard Lord pretty hard over trying to buy votes, and yes, here we are again, just at the federal level. Old time politics, do what you want, then buy your way to the next election? Mr. Martin is opening the pocket book more in the last few weeks than he has in the last twelve years. ~sigh........same old, same old......

Problem here is , what is the alternative?? Stephen Harper?? I think not. Mr. Harper is as far right as Jack Layton is Left. Seems to me that Canadians for the most part like their politicians leaning to the center, whether they are lefties, or righty's. Even Ralph Klein, of all people (mr.righty himself) believes Mr. Harper is too far right for the Canadian public. Catch the story Here.

I guess either way, we are probably going to get another Liberal minority government in this country, unless something wild or crazy happens in the next month or so. Oh well, at least we are getting some of our money back. God knows we’ve been running a surplus for years, yet, average Canadians keep getting poorer. Too bad the liberal’s have been taking our money and hording it for years, to build a war chest simply to buy our votes when the chips are down. Sadly, I bet the gamble works, because we have no other viable choice at this time.

Is it time to talk about Harper’s successor yet??? Huh?? Huh??....ok I’ll wait……..

Posted by PoliticsNB at 12:27 AM | Permalink | |

Well, on what looks like the final few days before the Federal Liberal Government's fall, Bernard Lord has decided to grab the deal's as originally offered instead of getting nothing. My only question is.....what was gained in this little game??? Lord sign's the original deal's, then promises to provide money to the Stay at home mom's and dad's out of provincial coffers, and money to the rural areas out of the provincial coffers. Many New Brunswickers have been saying this was what should have been done months ago. Instead Mr.Lord chose to play politics, then realizing that, Harper stands next to no chance of forming a government, grabs for whatever he can get while the getting is good. A sorry performance in my opinion.

I see "certain" media outlets have a bit of a different spin. They are touting it as a win by the Lord government.

From the Provincial Government Website:

"We have been working hard with the municipal associations to ensure that all New Brunswickers get to benefit from this program," Holder said. "As a result of these discussions, the province has agreed to top up the fund with an additional $30 million. By topping up the fund, municipalities and LSDs will have access to additional funding to build more green infrastructure."

Conclusion:
The LSD's will recieve funding because the Provincial government is going to "top it up"

Posted by PoliticsNB at 9:48 PM | Permalink | |

Nice to hear that City officials in Saint John are going to intervene at the National Energy Board hearings. Took a little longer than perhaps it should have to nail them down, but they are going to do the right thing. Bad part of this is, the NEB makes the final decision, not the local government. I started to wonder exactly who was on this board. Who it was that would decide the fate of Rockwood Park. Did'nt see any New Brunswickers on that list of course. Wonder if the Provincial Government will have anything to say on our behalf? I think we'll need every gun we have, as I have my doubts that a group of people in Western Canada really care about our park and our green space. It's up to us to be heard.

Anyway, here is the list of people that make up the National Energy Board.
Their email's are listed there also, for anyone that wants to share their thoughts with the board.

Here is their Snail Mail address as well:

National Energy Board
444 Seventh Avenue SW
Calgary, Alberta
T2P 0X8


Please pass this info on.

Posted by PoliticsNB at 10:05 PM | Permalink | |

Why oh why is our government still playing politics with this funding for daycare?? Basically Mr.Lord wants to be able to distribute as he see's fit. No offence Mr.Lord, but I personally wouldn’t trust you and your government to distribute milk money to school children let alone $119 million. This is all about getting re-elected. The Lord government wants to be able to give some of this money to stay at home mothers, in another attempt to buy votes in future elections. Please don't get me wrong, i'm not against stay at home mom's and would love to see them get some money to help them out. Heck their job is as hard as any out there for sure. So let the government go after some funding for them. In the meantime, this money has been earmarked by the Feds for Daycare. Let's spend it on daycare. This is no different than playing the same politics with the gas rebate money. Take what is earmarked for municipalities, and give some to rural communities where the government received a lot of support in the last elections. Once again they are playing games with "OUR" money! In the end, the Children of this province suffer. That is just wrong.
Send off an email to the premier and let him know what you think of this situation. Email: Premier@gnb.ca

Posted by PoliticsNB at 9:01 PM | Permalink | |

As you've probably been hearing on CFBC and CBC lately in Saint John, there is a natural gas pipeline being planned, that would run directly through Rockwood Park. A new group calling itself "Friends of Rockwood Park" currently has a petition circulating to try an fight this plan.
I also heard a rumor that Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline met privately with the stakeholders in Rockwood Park a week or so ago. I wonder what was discussed at that meeting? Was a side deal made perhaps? Was it just an information meeting about the planned proposal? Anyone know?
I can't think of any other place in North America where a proposal would even be entertained.
From the information I have, the proposal calls for the pipeline to cut right through the center of the park, following the power lines. What do you think of this plan? What can be done to stop it? Do you think it can be stopped, or will industry have it's way?
Maybe the Municipal and Provincial politicians should speak up with their opinions? They seem to be very quiet on this one. Wonder why??

Posted by PoliticsNB at 8:34 PM | Permalink | |

Well, all thoughts were that, it would be an intresting race, and it did not disappoint. I hear it may not be 100% finished, as far as some of the "side show" stuff that went on. Stay tuned, as we may be hearing more about some of the antics that went on election day, and later that evening.

Bernard Lord has now returned to Fredericton. I guess we've seen the last of him in Saint John for awhile now. Probably until the next election. Wonder if the close numbers in the Legislature will be cause for future drama?? Guess nobody on the government side had better be absent.

Posted by PoliticsNB at 8:06 PM | Permalink | |

CBC is reporting it's all over:
Final Tallies........

Liberal Ed Doherty 2,126
Conservative Michelle Hooton 1,002
NDP Dan Robichaud 669
Independent Glen Jardine 43

Story Here

So it would appear Bernard Lord's message did'nt resonate with the voters in Saint John Harbour. Not all is lost for Michelle Hooton though....she still has her council seat. Makes you wonder what would happen if a Provincial election were held today.

Posted by PoliticsNB at 10:01 PM | Permalink | |

Liberal Ed Doherty 1435
Conservative Michelle Hooton 666
New Democratic Dan Robichaud 457
Independent Glen Jardine

23 of 27 polling stations reporting

Posted by PoliticsNB at 9:30 PM | Permalink | |

Will Bernard Lord's spending spree pay off for him and his party? Will the NDP retain this seat? Will the Liberals add one more face to their side of the house? Will Michelle Hooton prevail, and get herself a new job after only a short time in her old job? Will Luke and Laura get finally get married?? Whoops, sorry, I got carried away with all the drama. :-)

Hope everyone in this riding gets out and votes today. I'll be waiting for the returns, and will post the results as soon as I have them. This should proove to be an intresting night.

Final results of our poll are:

Michelle Hooton (Conservative) 12% 20
Dr. Ed. Doherty (Liberal) 86% 138
Dan Robichaud (NDP) 2% 3

161 votes total

My appologies to Glen Jardine. He was not a candidate when I posted this poll.
I don't expect these results to mirror the real vote, but it might be an intresting comparison.

Stay tuned everyone.

Now go vote!!!

Posted by PoliticsNB at 12:12 AM | Permalink | |

The members of the Federal opposition parties met today to discuss bringing down the federal liberals. They have given an ultimatum to the Prime Minister to call an election in January or they will force a no-confidence motion in November. That of course would mean an election campaign over the Holidays. I don't see any way for the opposition to back out of this one as they would lose an credibility they have by doing so. Personally i'd rather not have a campaign over the holiday. Wonder if it will backfire on the oppostion parties, if they force the election now. Stay tuned, as this is going to get intresting.

CBC have a story on it HERE.

Posted by PoliticsNB at 11:48 PM | Permalink | |

I listened to Mr.Graham, and Mr.Lord on Talk Of The Town on Thursday, and I have to be honest....I was impressed with neither of them.

Quite frankly, in my opinion, Shawn Graham seems to spend more time talking about everything Lord has done wrong, than what he would do to improve things. Heck, I can set out a huge list of things that I believe Mr.Lord has done wrong. Does that make me a future Premier?? I want to know concrete things that he would do to improve things for New Brunswick. What would he as Premier, do to make life better for New Brunswickers, that Bernard Lord is not doing, or will not do. He's very good at memorizing facts and figures to get his points across about Mr.Lords "failures", but again I see very little vision in his talk.

Now, Bernard Lord, as always is a good public speaker, no question about it. But THE SPIN, OMG, The SPIN! I almost died laughing when he gave his "take" on the Orimulsion fiasco. He actually insinuated that they would have done the refit anyway, even without Orimulsion. Yeah right. I also found it interesting that the best argument he could put forth for voting for Michelle Hooton was that "she would be a voice in the government." So in other words, this ridings, and the City for that matter, have been ignored, because there wasn’t a member in this particular riding on their side of the House??? Give me a freaking break! We have members of this party in government, and guess what Saint John got, up until Mr.Lord started throwing taxpayer money around to try and influence the vote in this by-election???? Nada, zip, squat.
Wow, so I guess we have a "real" choice to make in the next provincial election. On the left:**Mr.He's bad, really bad, so vote him out, please don't focus on me and my ideas, Or On the Right**Mr. you don't know what you're talking about I've done great things for everyone in this province, so vote for me again.(But please don't look behind that curtain over there. Yes that one. No! don't look! I said don't look! PLEASE DON'T LOOK!!!!")

OK, that's just depressing.

I've recieved a few emails asking if I support the liberals in this by-election. My answer to them and everyone is: I'm not in this riding, therefore my wishes are not important. What it comes down to, is how do the people of this riding feel? Who do they want to represent them in Fredericton? I have my personal opinion on what way i'd like to see this go, but i'm keeping that to myself. I'm not trying to influence anyone. I'm simply putting the issues out there.

Oh, and on a side note, I received an email from someone who sent me an article about Dr.Doherty. I assume they were hoping i'd post a link, and write a blog about it. Sorry "Deep Throat" but I am not spin machine for any Party. Don't waste the clicks. If Shawn Graham ever gets the “Big Job” it’ll be his turn under the microscope. I'm not here to support the Liberals, Conservatives, or NDP for that matter. I'm just calling it as I see it. All just My Humble Opinion.

Have a wonderful day. :-)

PNB

Posted by PoliticsNB at 8:04 AM | Permalink | |

I'll be taking the day off from Blogging on Friday, out of respect for Rememberance Day.
Seems fitting to reflect on the fact, that were it not for the people who faught for our freedom, we would'nt be able to do simple things like Blogging and having political discussions and debate. I can freely express my thoughts and feelings, as can each and every one of you, because of the sacrafices made by others to protect our freedom and democracy.

We must never, ever, forget those who secured our freedom, and paid with their lives.
Please take the time tommorrow to Remember......

Posted by PoliticsNB at 11:12 PM | Permalink | |

Bernard Lord will make another appearance in Saint John Tomorrow. It seems like lately Lord spends more time in the city than the mayor. More goodies for the city. Rumor has it the money for the Justice complex is going to be announced. Saint John has been looking for this for what? 25 years or so?? And all it took was a by-election, that according to Lord, isn't even that important....yeah right. He's spending our money like it was a Provincial election not just a single riding. I wonder where all the money suddenly came from all of a sudden?? Has the government been buying 649 tickets??? Maybe they won and didn’t tell us??
Anyway, he'll be on CFBC's Talk Of The Town in the second hour tomorrow. Sean Graham is the guest in the first hour. Should be an interesting show, although, usually when these things happen, party supporters pack the phone lines so the regular folks can't get in with their real questions. Lets hope Rick Mantle & Company can keep that under control.
I'm pretty impressed by Robichaud, truth be told. He's a good speaker, and makes great points. Very pleasantly surprised actually. Caught him on CFBC the other day, and honestly, I think he could debate Hooton, and Doherty under the table.
On one other note, the turnout at the advanced polls was very high compared with the last Provincial election. "Usually" a high advanced poll turnout is a sign of a high turnout on election day. I would think all parties will be working overtime to get people to the polls. I think this could be a squeaker. We’re down to the final days, so stay tuned.

Posted by PoliticsNB at 10:34 PM | Permalink | |

A new study by Stats Canada puts New Brunswick near the bottom of the pile among Canadian Provinces in Literacy skills. There was very little change from numbers 10 years ago. I don't know about anyone else, but I find this appalling. Where the heck are our tax dollars going within the education system???? I was told in a previous blog entry that the Lord Government has spent "record amounts" on education. Well it doesn’t sound so rosy now does it . Record amount or not, it's obviously not enough. Is anybody in government even trying to do anything to improve this situation???? I find this extremely depressing. It sure makes it hard to be a competitive, viable option for investment by outside companies, when our population struggles with basic reading and writing skills.

CBC has a story HERE

You can check out the Stats Canada report HERE

Posted by PoliticsNB at 6:00 PM | Permalink | |

Glad to see i'm not the only one who's noticed. As I posted Here back on October 24th, it's a very transparent display by Premier Lord and his handlers. I see some of the main stream media have started banging away at this. CFBC's Talk Of The Town has discussed it at great length, and this evening on CBC's "Shift" with Paul Castle, the political panel discussed it. Sure it's been the way politics’ has been done for ever and a day, but maybe if we get it out there, people will begin to realize it doesn’t have to be this way. The people have the ultimate power to say no to this sort of stuff. It's called their Vote. Some would say it will never change, but i'd like to think it can. It's up to each and every one of us to make them change. Nobody's ever going to buy my vote. Ever.

Posted by PoliticsNB at 8:44 PM | Permalink | |

Unemployment Rate Up.
Well, the new numbers are in, and New Brunswick's unemployment rolls have grown, up to 11.0 for the month of October. Despite what Premier Lord says, I personally don't believe that the re-opening of the Nackawic mill will help alleviate the situation that much, except in the Nackawic area or the Province itself.(I have my doubts this is going to work anyway, but I certainly do wish best of luck to all the stakeholders, especially the workers.) Lets face it the entire industrial sector of this province is feeling the pinch right now. A strong Canadian Dollar may be great for cross border shopping, but it is really bad for the manufacturing sector. I see the government says help is coming in the forestry industry. Lets hope it's not too little too late for some. What about job creation in this province? Once again, we get back to how little has been done by the current government on this issue. Maybe Mr.Lord should spend less time in Saint John, (which he has consistently ignored until the by-election was announced, and i'm sure will ignore again when it is over) and get back to work with the business of the Province. Maybe the government should worry more about helping New Brunswickers go about putting some food on plates, and less about trying to polish his tarnished image in the City of Saint John. He has a much better chance at the first one than the second I think.

Posted by PoliticsNB at 8:09 PM | Permalink | |

After listening to the clips from last nights debate, it certainly sounds like the by-election is heating up. Michelle Hooton, sure sounded a little frazzled at the attacks made by Doherty, and more so by Robichaud who really gave it to her hard. She even made that comment about being a "whipping post" for a local Talk Show Host. She was of course refering to Talk of the Town, with Rick Mantle, who had lots of fun with it this morning on his show. Did anyone hear the caller this morning defending Mrs.Hooton, who went by the name of Ralph? Was wondering if it was her husband, as that is his name also I believe.
I understand most of the debate was provincial matters, and not much about what was going to be done for the riding of Saint John Harbour. Now I realize it is a Provincial seat, however, I think i'd be more intrested in what the candidates were going to do to represent "me" if it was my riding. Anyone actually there last night? Would love to hear from you about your impressions of the candidates.

Anyway, I'll bet it's going to get more intresting as it rolls along. Stay tuned.

Posted by PoliticsNB at 6:33 PM | Permalink | |