It’s Day 24 of the campaign and voting day is now exactly two weeks away. Both Stephen Harper and Michael Ignatieff are in Yellowknife and Jack Layton is still in Halifax, as far as I’m aware. But hey, no one sent out itineraries again last night, which is super helpful.
Michael Ignatieff held a second town hall meeting yesterday, this time in Victoria, where he played host to more than 600 people. And hey, CPAC didn’t air it, but thanks to the magic of the Twitter Machine and Global’s lovely Shirlee Engel (and a couple of other reporters on the scene), we have an idea of what happened. Apparently, if one needed proof that audience questions weren’t vetted before, this was the event for it. There were questions on education, genetically modified foods (we need to see the science); foreign credentials (people need to be better informed before coming to Canada); mental health (we need to work to control drug costs); legalizing marijuana (he doesn’t want to punish for possession but thinks legalization could cause as many problems as it solves); the “bickering” in the House of Commons (it’s not bickering, it’s democracy); Libya (we’re there to protect civilians); fisheries; platform costing (freezing the corporate tax rates at 2011 levels will finance most of it); and stable funding for the CBC. During questions, he had a run-in with a 9/11 “truther” who was eventually taken out by security. After that came the Rise Up! bit and then a couple of questions from local media about things like access to information (he wants all requests posted online) and the “sleepwalking” voters of his Rise Up speech.
Engel also posted this photo of a sign seen at the rally – a picture of Harper’s face with the phrase “I win when you stay home.” Sad but true.
Stephen Harper held a rally in Yellowknife, which also wasn’t carried on CPAC. (You can see the hell my day was yesterday.) Knowing Harper, I’m sure you can guess what it was – nobody wants an election, the “coalition” said no, [insert daily announcement here – in this case, human smuggling], stability, security, play to patriotism and give me a majority. Did I miss anything?
Elsewhere, Michael Ignatieff reminded us that yesterday was the 29th anniversary of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Funny that Harper didn’t mention it.
In the event you missed it, here is the video of Ignatieff with Nardwuar the Human Serviette at the North Vancouver town hall.
Questions are being raised about what Edmonton Conservative Peter Goldring has been telling his constituents about a housing project in his riding.
Oh, look – another scientific study that shows that InSite saves lives. Who would have thought?
What’s that? Consolidating computer systems across the government won’t save billions? (Not to mention that there would be a host of other problems related to centralization, legacy systems, disaster recovery and security issues?) You don’t say!
Why you can trust Xtra
