lefties going bye bye…
-Imp
I’m so terrible with Canadian politics. Which parties are in a coalition right now?
I’m saddened today…
Ironically I worked one of the election polls here in Halifax where the NDP cleaned up.
Heh… our PC’s are still more left than your left 
Hello F(r)iends,
America Jr. is one step closer to becoming the next territory…
-Thirst
Impenitent:http://www.cbc.ca/canadavotes/
lefties going bye bye…
K: things travel in cycles. And soon enough the cycle
will turn again and lefties will be back in power.
You only need to wait. The beauty about this is
the right wing is on the wrong side of most every single issue.
The only difference is that right wingers are better liars then
left wingers. But remember lies always, always gets exposed.
It is the nature of lies to get exposed.
Kropotkin
What was the Conservative platform? Aside from the GST tax cut, everything else he proposes (that I saw mentioned in the article) does not seem all that Conservative, perhaps because Canada is innately more progressive than America?
p.s.
Peter K, I am getting where I cannot read your posts. I often feel smothered by blanket statements, regardless of their origin.
[quote=“GateControlTheory”]
What was the Conservative platform? Aside from the GST tax cut, everything else he proposes (that I saw mentioned in the article) does not seem all that Conservative, perhaps because Canada is innately more progressive than America?
p.s.
Peter K, I am getting where I cannot read your posts. I often feel smothered by blanket statements, regardless of their origin.[/quote
Yeah, if we were to transplant conservatives from any other European/Euro-style (Gyro-fry?) country to America we’d call them ‘moderate democrates’. America is so freakin’ conservative its crazy . . .
Serves 'em right. Bulshivic commies. That’s why we killed Communists back in the fifties.
GateControlTheory:
Peter K, I am getting where I cannot read your posts. I often feel smothered by blanket statements, regardless of their origin."
K: sounds like a personal issue to me.
Kropotkin
Yeah, silly me, with my personal preference for sound, cogent arguments.
Gobbo wrote:
wow! i didn’t know your Canadian eh? lol. I’m Torontonian though 
. It’s really sad that the Conservatives won, well at least they won as minority government. And I bet we’ll b up for election in another year, as soon as the damned Liberals get their head straight and get a good leader this time. Did you know that all 3 major cities in Canada shut out the Conservatives? Hmmm really tells you something, it says that they represent rural Canada, i mean for the first time Torono won’t have a Cabinet seat at Ottawa! what the hell is that?! I’m pretty sure the Conservative minority govt won’t work because last time it happened they lasted 8 month before re-election lol. But then again, this time the Block seems to be going conservative. 
we’ll I can only hope, in another year when their is a re-election, I can finally vote! 
Someone correct me if I am wrong, but the Liberal Party in Canada is of the European definition of liberal, not the American one. Therefore the liberal party isn’t actually a far-left party.
I see.
I do know that the NDP is basically a democratic socialist party.
They seem to have picked up some seats as well. I think the Conservative vote was more of a vote to get the corruption out of the LP.
If the vote was really for the Conservatives and their policies you wouldn’t see such an increase in the NDP’s votes.
Yeah, good point.
Layton’s strategy was interesting. Alot of his commercials were akin to ‘Both of these parties suck… so give ours a chance’. I saw him talk a couple months ago at a local university, he did alot of rhetoric dance, but he seemed like a fairly intelligent guy. The seat for Halifax is held by Alexa MacDonough (NDP), she’s won the past 2 or 3 elections I think and was also at the talk with Layton. Personally I think she’s a great politician.
Here comes the science bit concentrate:
from ‘new scientist’ (a british science journal akin to ‘american scientist’ but with less advertisement)
Algorithm detects Canadian politicians’ spin
* 16:01 20 January 2006
* NewScientist.com news service
* Stu Hutson
With the most fiercely fought Canadian election in more than a decade taking place on Monday, the crossfire of political rhetoric between the incumbent prime minister and his Conservative Party challenger is becoming heated – but which one is more trustworthy?
According to a new computer algorithm, Prime Minister Paul Martin, of the Liberal Party, spins the subject matter of his speeches dramatically more than Conservative Party leader, Stephen Harper, and the New Democratic Party leader, Jack Layton.
Spin, in this case, is defined as “text or speech where the apparent meaning is not the true belief of the person saying or writing itâ€, says the algorithm’s developer, David Skillicorn at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada.
He and his team analysed the usage patterns of 88 deception-linked words within the text of recent campaign speeches from the political leaders. They then determined the frequency of these patterns in each speech, and averaged that number over all of that candidate’s speeches. Martin received a ranking of 124, while Harper and Layton scored 73 and 88, respectively.
“I think it’s expected that any party in power is going to use spin more than the challenging party,†Skillicorn says. “They have a track record to defend.â€
Tarnished record
With a solid run of 14 years as the dominant party in Canada, the Liberal Party has a long record – one which has been tarnished in the past year by accusations of illegal donations and kickbacks. Many political experts expect the conservatives, who have a solid lead in the polls, to oust the liberal party this election.
“The guy who’s doing the most tap-dancing is the guy who’s under the spotlight,†said John Wright, senior vice president of the polling company Ipsos Reid. “The pressure is going to show.â€
Conservative parliament members, such as Jason Kenney, point to the analysis as proof of their leader’s honesty. “People used to think he’s boring, but now they recognise that he’s a straight shooter without the spin.â€
But Liberal Party spokesman Ken Polk disagrees: “If that is what the algorithm shows, I think it needs quite a bit of work,†he says.
Interrogator tactics
The computer algorithm is based on a psychological model constructed by James Pennebaker at the University of Texas, Austin, US. While studying the lying and truth-telling of hundreds of test subjects, he uncovered patterns linked to deception, such as the decreased use of personal pronouns – such as I, we, me, us – and exception words, such as “however†and “unless".
The patterns are probably of subconscious origin, he said, much like the physical cues – such as pupil dilation or changes in breathing – which interrogators use to tell when a subject is being untruthful.
Skillicorn decided to apply the technique to the presidential speeches after using it to investigate the text of emails sent between Enron Corporation executives before the company’s infamous bankruptcy in 2001.
He admits that the algorithm is still a work in progress, but “with this much of a difference, I think the results are still pretty clearâ€.
Aero
mmm tiny bubbles of air