Your daily supply of fresh Canadian pundits

Crossposted at Dailykos.

Barry Cooper, a pro-Harper, pro-seperatist, global warming denier and politics professor from the University of Calgary, cannot stand the idea that Margaret Atwood would not want a Harper majority. He believes that Atwood saying she would vote for Duceppe is an conspiracy to convince Ontarians to vote against Harper. He defends this by creating an elaborate conspiracy theory where Ontario always votes how Quebec votes, and the voters in Quebec end up really running the country, in order to hurt Albertans.

Mike Stroebel thinks poor people suck.

Don Martin: Harper is doing too little, too late to pretend he cares about ordinary Canadians and the incoming economic storm clouds. Those cute blue sweaters just don’t seem to cut it anymore when your savings are being wiped out.

Jeffrey Simpson: Everyone hates Dion and the Liberals and everyone really hates Harper and the Conservatives. So, who can they vote for? Obviously, no one since those are the only two parties running. Right? [Ed Note: obviously he missed the three other people at the leadership debate table.]

Mindelle Jacobs:

The illicit pot industry generates tens of billions of dollars for criminal groups – money that governments could be collecting in taxes, the report observes.

Think about that as you wince over Edmonton’s proposed double-digit property tax increase. Do you really care that your neighbour smokes pot? If you do, you poor deluded individual, does it bother you enough that you support Canada spending hundreds of millions of dollars yearly on ineffective drug enforcement?

Wouldn’t you rather your tax money go towards something that makes a difference?

L. Ian MacDonald discusses how Harper turned off so many Canadians, and likely will end up shrinking the number of Conservative seats come the 14th.

Rick Bell points out exactly why Harper is not fit to lead.

But Harper, the man who called this election to get a majority and his own way in governing, should know the people he wants to lead feel like they’re left out of the ark, screwed and not in control and not wicked.

And leadership isn’t about who has the biggest skull. A leader should be able to rally the troops, inspire the citizens, offer up something to give hope.

Whatever their stripe, that’s what politically successful number ones do.

What does Harper say?

He confesses he’s “not the most emotionally expressive guy.” Yes, we kind of get that.

He suggests, you know, “there’s probably some great buying opportunities emerging on the stock market.”

Yes, if somebody with cash comes around and buys the scraps left in your portfolio, they could make real dough down the line. The main man also says “stock markets do go up and down.” Thanks for the economics lesson.

At least, he didn’t tell anyone to eat cake.

Carol Goar discusses all of the party platforms for health issues — or the lack thereof.

The Green party comes closest to making disease prevention a centrepiece of its health policy.

It envisions a health-care system that addresses people’s physical, mental and social well-being. It would spend 1.5 cents out of every federal health-care dollar to keep people well. It would restructure medical training, curb the over-prescription of drugs and offer tax breaks to employers with healthy workplaces. It would give seniors, psychiatric survivors and people with addictions the support they need to stay out of institutions. It would launch an aggressive program to get products known to pose a risk of cancer, infertility and auto-immune diseases off the market.

But most voters aren’t aware Elizabeth May even has a health plan.

Jacqueline Best:

In the debates last week, Mr. Harper stuck to the message that Canada will be just fine — as long as he remains prime minister.

Yet, it is still a little early to get smug. Not only will this financial crisis have significant implications for Canadians, but we have also been part of the same culture of debt and deregulation that has driven the current U.S. crisis.

It is therefore time for the prime minister, as well as the leaders of all of the major parties, to take this crisis seriously and start telling Canadians how they are going to help us through this crisis and work to prevent future crises. Liberal Leader Stephane Dion’s promise of a five-point plan Wednesday night was a start but needs to be more ambitious and more specific.

Murray Mandryk: Harper’s bitumen export restriction is likely unconstitutional, violates a good number of our trade agreements, will hurt Alberta and Saskatchewan’s economies and is the closest thing to the National Energy Program proposed by any party during this election. Yet Brad Wall, the Conservative premier of Saskatchewan, is surprisingly silent. Some are left asking Brad Wall, “Who are you standing up for — Stephen Harper or Saskatchewan?”

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