Great post
As usual, Mr. Cherniak will NOT post my comments on his site ... his hatred for New Democrats is bordering on .... 'unhealthy'!
So forgive me if I place here, what I posted on his site ....
"Dear Mr. Cherniak:
After all of this ... you are STILL blaming New Democrats for the Liberal's troubles. That is truly pathetic.
You consider yourself a democrat, yet you will not post my comments. That does not display a respect for democracy, it displays a unilateral disregard for all opinions but the ones you agree with or like.
Your slurs and slams on Mr. Layton were unacceptable. While you may disagree with him, he is an honest, dedicated Canadian, who only wants to see good things happen for Canadians. Vilify him if you must.
I acknowledge that in your own way, you also want only good things to happen for Canadians. But demonizing my political party, which has a rich and colourful history in Canada's prairie region, is not the Canadian way.
Post my comment!
Leftdog
Regina"
POSTSCRIPT:
(Please Note)
My apologies to Mr. Cherniak .. he has posted my comments above ... and I thank him for that.
Leftdog
Regina
I must say, I think I'll miss Jason (As Influential as the Mainstream Media) Cherniak. A great source of amusement, indeed he's right up there with Garth Turner.
"The Liberals deservedly took a near-fatal body blow last night"
near-fatal body blow? hahaha... Since we still managed to more than double the NDP's seat count and beat them by 8% of the popular vote in our darkest hour I guess that makes them "still born" eh?
Except, of course, that the Liberals lost 19 seats and we gained 7. And the Libs beat us by a corking great 8% of the popular vote? Do you know how pathetic that sounds?
The Libs are beat, near-bankrupt and effectively leaderless. It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of folks.
"Except, of course, that the Liberals lost 19 seats and we gained 7. And the Libs beat us by a corking great 8% of the popular vote? Do you know how pathetic that sounds?"
Yes and after scandals, an unfortunately inarticulate (in English) leader, a central platform plank that was effectively demonized and misrepresented by the man with the bully pulpit, financial troubles, etc. etc... after all that we STILL beat you handily. All the talk of the NDP displacing the LPC as official opposition was just talk. The results weren't even close. That should tell you something.
You can focus all you want on the 2006 - 2008 changes in seat count all you like. I'm going to focus on the big picture--in which the NDP is a spent, irrelevant entity that can't even come close to the Liberals in a perfect storm. Do YOU know how pathetic it sounds when you call another party's support "pathetic" when your own party is a perrenial fourth place finisher?
The NDP's numbers are trending up. The Liberals are steadily sliding. We did better this time than the time before, and next time we'll do better yet. Too bad that can't be said of the Libs. To put it mildly.
Trends only carry on so long, and often reverse themselves. If they didnt one party would have 308 seats at this point and the rest would have none. The Liberals trended upwards during Trudeaumania and then down in the Mulroney years and up again during the Chretien years and now down again. Political trends are cyclical, not linear.
Its still lame that an NDPer would mock the Liberal performance in yesterdays election without taking a serious look inwards. Canadians have rejected what the NDP is selling in election after election since the parties inception--never giving them more than 43 seats (that they couldnt even beat this time out). Meanwhile the Liberals only fall so far even in the worst of times. Yesterdays election shows the Liberals have work to do, and that the NDP will continue in its irrelevance. The NDP's 7 seat gain merely reflects the parties inability to make real breakthroughs.
Cherniak's gone eh? Thanks for finding an up side to this CPC win....
As a Dionista (as opposed to a Dion Liberal) he was going out during the forth coming purge anyway...he's just leaving on his own terms and trying to fling a little poo at the NDP when he goes.
Apparatchik is such an apropos description...
I told myself I would avoid commenting on bad spin, but this is just too lame to let go.
You won't do better next time around, this was your chance to usurp the Liberals, and frankly it wasn't even close. This is a low water mark for the party, our leader had serious problems, and that's just the fact. Given what happened here, a perfect storm of sorts for you guys, the fact your vote total is essentially unchanged is hardly anything to get cocky about, matter of fact it clearly shows the real CEILING for 19th century socialism. The only way you guys grow from here is if you become the Liberal Party. Period, it's that simple, that's the reality of our electorate.
This isn't partisan, because I fully recognize our failure, but I find it hilarious listening to this crap, when the fourth place party, with half the seats of our hobbled effort, is jumping for joy at the trendline. It's like some other world, totally detached from reality, comforted in being irrelevant. You still have one member in every committee, you get two questions per QP, nothing you will every propose will become law, it's more a feel good exercise than anything practical. That's just the reality, but it will be ignored, with some silly comeback or whatever.
You guys ran a great campaign, Layton was strong from start to finish, the ads were edgy and effective, lots of positives. Despite all that, your vote total is essentially the same, despite the Liberals well down. Woohoo! I don't get it anymore frankly, and I voted for the NDP in the last election, so this koolaid stuff.
BTW, please get off the evil Liberals storyline, I've now worked with and met so many people, with the best intentions, fantastic, selfless, in it for the right reasons. It's really silly actually, but hey it's your pity party.
It certainly didn't help Dion that his highest profile advocate in the media was Jason Cherniak. This only underscored the degree to which senior Liberal backroom people have been sitting on their hands.
Nice words for Dion Dr. Dawg. He is a good decent man and the only reason I would vote for the Liberals. The party is rotten and it ain't the fault of Dion. Jane Taber is going to have a busy year.
Also, have no doubt crowing Dippers. Layton failed in his absurd quest to unseat Harper and his seven new seats will do little in stopping Harper and Co.
"The Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, hinted Wednesday his re-elected government may look at cutting program spending as a way to avoid the risk of running a deficit."
- National Post
Oct 15
"You consider yourself a democrat, yet you will not post my comments. That does not display a respect for democracy, it displays a unilateral disregard for all opinions but the ones you agree with or like."
Leftdog,
I left a comment at your blog last night that you refused to post.
Apparatchik is such an apropos description...
Well, it would be if Cherniak had ever actually obtained a patronage-related or "staffer" government job.
For the NDP this election was something of a cross between 84 and 88, but it marks the first time the party's won a seat in Quebec and a record number of seats in Ontario.
I'm not as harsh on the Liberals as some others, but they really need to discover WHY they exist as a party and start fighting for those reasons. And fundraising for them too. I never got the sense in any of his blog posts that Jason Cherniak had any particular vision beyond strategizing and maneuvering for power, not to mention spin, of course. Far from suffering from vote-splitting, I'd say the primary problem for the Liberals was fairly direct bleeding to the Conservatives, especially in BC, Ontario, and also NB.
Look at the CBC results map -- the Liberals have almost ZERO support outside of Toronto proper and Montreal.
The NDP is the official opposition in BC and is more national in representation that the Liberals.
The Liberals lost seats and votes.
The last three years were a waste for them. They are internally divided. They are thoroughly confused about politics and principle. They will have to find a new leader, and more than that, try to reconstitute themselves as something other than a "firewall" in two cities (TO + Mtl) against a Con majority.
The liberals also have to decide where they stand, other than as a patronage machine dedicated to holding power at whatever cost.
Canadians who want a real progressive agenda are increasingly turning to the NDP, and for good reason: the NDP is the only consistent voice against the neocon agenda.
The NDP has major flaws as well -- like no connections to social movements, a bad position on Quebec, and moving to the centre in order to become the Liberal Party of the Golden Age -- but it is the best vehicle around for left politics at the federal scene. the LPC has no credibility.
SteveV: Given what happened here, a perfect storm of sorts for you guys...the fourth place party
KC: can't even come close to the Liberals in a perfect storm. ...your own party is a perrenial fourth place finisher?
Why not just send me a copy of the talking points and spare yourselves the bother of trying to re-write?
We actually finished in third place, 8% behind the Liberals, but it figures that you'd go by seats won under first-past-the-post. Great system: Alberta elects what, 27 Tories with 800,000 votes, while the Greens get zero with nearly a million votes? The Bloc gets 50 seats with 1.1 million fewer votes than the NDP?
Undemocratic systems, structures and culture have worked well for the Libs in the past, but I really do believe that people are starting to cotton on.
Dr. Dawg:
I've just booked an auditorium for you at L'Université Laval for next Tuesday evening so you can go and explain how under your new, much fairer, much more democratic PR system, the Bloc would lose twenty of their fifty seats so they could be given to a dissident bunch of hippy-dippy Anglos scattered across the country. Promise you won't start without me?
Blues Clair .. your post was abusive ... and by the way ... what happened to your blog? Very wierd!
The Toronto Party will be without its fool.
The blogosphere, left and right, will be without its butt.
Life really is good.
Cherniak lost me during his ill-fated Cheri DiNovo smear a couple years back. Guy's a boob.
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