daveberta.ca - Alberta Politics and Elections

Someone found my blog by googling: laval “nasty show”

wow?

Today’s Word of the Day

resile \rih-ZYLE\ verb

: recoil, retract; especially : to return to a prior position

Example sentence:
The politician said he was sorry that his comments had caused offense, but he stopped short of resiling from his position.

Did you know?

“Resile” is a resilient word; it’s been around in English since at least 1529. It’s also a cousin of “resilient” — both words derive from the Latin verb “resilire,” which means to “jump back” or “recoil.” (“Resilire” in turn comes from “salire,” meaning “to jump.”) “Resilient” focuses on the ability of something to “bounce back” from damage, whereas “resile” generally applies to someone or something that withdraws from an agreement or “jumps back” from a stated position. “Resile” is a word that shows up only occasionally in U.S. sources; it is more common in British and especially Australian English.

Not in my books.

I thought this was good for a laugh or two. It looks the like Conservative Party solution to their youth problem: Don’t give them any real power within the party, instead, give them a website.

Watch out! Here come the fiscally conservative radical youth of the CPC! 😛

More commentary on this soon.

D : )

hmmmmm. You’ve been awful quiet lately. Perhaps a little two quiet…

Me thinks treachery is afoot.

BBC has declared a Labour Majority victory. This is Tony Blair’s 3rd consecutive majority.

As of 9:30pm Edmonton Time:

Labour: 331 (-36 difference dissolution)
Conservative: 159 (+23)
Liberal Democrat: 52 (+10)
Scotish National Party: 6 (+2)
Plaid Cymru : 3 (-1)
Repect: 1 (+1)
Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern: 1
Independent: 1 (+1)

Check out the full scoreboard

Best Quote of the Night

George Galloway (Respect Party Leader and newly elected MP for Benthal Green & Bow) to Tony Blair: “I’ve come back to haunt you.”

UK ELECTION FULL SCOREBOARD

BBC is so entertainingly British. I’ve never heard any Canadian politician talk about how “delightful” it was to campaign in my constituency.

How would you like to the Member of Parliament for Southhampton Itch? What a name.

‘Edmonton’ has gone Labour. I’ll update when I find out the results.

8:28pm Edmonton time

Labour – 288
Conservative – 93
Liberal Democrat – 36
Other -11

Labour losses. Conservative gains (they won their 1st seat in Wales since 1997). Liberal Democrat gains and losses.

I’m quite enjoying Peter Snow’s election swingometer

Check out the live results page

I’m sitting here watching the UK Election live on BBC (over the internet).

Tony Blair’s Labour Party is looking for their 3 majority victory against a Conservative Party led by Michael Howard, and the Liberal Democrats led by Charles Kennedy.

So far, the results being reported (as of 5:55pm Edmonton time) are:

Labour – 32
Liberal Democrat – 2
Conservative – 1 (gained from Labour)

324 seats needed to form a majority government…

Well, for those of you who know what I’ve been up to lately, my little adventure has been called off.

THIS is where I was supposed to be going next week following my lovely London adventure. Getting blown up is not on my “to-do” list for this summer.

So, that means no London, Istanbul, Diyabakur, Irbil, or Athens for me this summer.

I was so looking forward to getting a good tan in the middle east. Quite seriously.

Vancouver Island sounds nice and safe to me right now.

Two smear campaigns from the opposite sides of the lovely BC Election

From the BC Liberals:

“NDP – THE REAL STORY”

From the BC NDP:

“The Amazing All-Purpose Fool-Proof Never-Fail LIBERAL TRUTH TRANSLATOR”

On another BC note – the picture of ND Leader Carole James on the pre-front page of the ND website has to be the scariest looking picture of her that I have ever seen. It’s like she has a dark side… Darth Carole?

Sidenote: check out this website for a good laugh.

Check it out: Progressive Bloggers. Way cooler than the Blogging Tories.

This is where I’m going to be in 12 days!

sweet.

a couple of days ago, it was +24C, today it’s -4C with a cold wind.

I really dislike the schizophrenic weather here.

Harper, Martin, Layton, and Duceppe ‘playing nice’ for the camera’s during the 2004 Leaders Debate

According to the Globe & Mail, Prime Minister Paul Martin and NDP Leader Jack Layton reached an “agreement in principle” meaning that the NDP will support the minority Liberal Government’s budget when voting time comes. The NDP support came in exchange for the Liberals cancellation of promised corporate taxcuts (but not the proposed taxcuts for small and medium sized businesses).

Here is an exert of the “Agreement in Principle” from Jack Layton:

“It appears likely that we will have an agreement in principle reached with the government. Families will pay less for their kids’ education. Workers will get better training. We’ll reduce pollution. Build affordable housing. Protect pensions – and have a place in the world that makes us proud.

This likely agreement in principle also gives real hope that the child care money and first installment of the gas tax can start to flow back to communities. It also lets the investment in the Kyoto plan move ahead. The Liberal plan doesn’t keep our Kyoto promise. It has major flaws. But it is vital we move ahead and ensure even the most basic first steps are protected…from year one to year five.”

As a Liberal with NDP tendencies, I like it! I like the idea of a Liberal-NDP Agreement and I like the idea of scrapping the corporate taxcuts.

But, if you take a look at the numbers in the House of Commons, it may not make a difference in the face of a Conservative/Bloc non-confidence vote. So far, what we know is that if the Conservative/Bloc Quebecois alliance pushed a No vote on the Liberal Budget, two of the Independent MP’s (former Reform/Alliance/Tory MP Chuck Cadman, and former Tory/Liberal MP David Kilgour would also vote No.

A Liberal/NDP coalition (which would support the budget) would receive the support of Independent MP Carolyn Parrish.

So, according to the numbers, here is how things work out…

Will vote for the budget
Liberal – 132
NDP – 19
Independent – 1
TOTAL – 152

Will vote against the budget
Conservative – 99
Bloc Quebecois – 54
Independent – 2
TOTAL – 155

So, an Liberal/NDP Agreement may not be enough… depending on who shows up for the budget vote… interesting times ahead.

: ) I’m not a nerd! : )

Thanks to Robert at Five of Five for the nerdlicious link.