we don't make this stuff up... we're not allowed

This week I read/heard some interesting quotes.

Jon Volpe, Canada's minister of blowing fluff, was on Global's Decision Canada. I guess PM turned down the opportunity to face the questions. Mr. Volpe gladly said Hey Paul! I'll do it! I can avoid all the question and just spew the party line. (I tried finding a link for you, but even Joe is embarrassed and he doesn't even mention the interview on his website.

My buddy Monte (well not really, he has no idea who I am) had an interesting rant. Here is a snippet.

So the Libs have resorted to making wild accusations about the affordability of our plan (none of which they can back up) and claim that a Conservative government would run deficits and then (dark insinuations with military music)...hunger...soldiers...plagues of locusts...George Bush ignoring Canada... guys standing around burning barrels trying to keep warm... Burnt Almond shortages... burning car bodies... wan looking children... puppies with sad eyes... a Tim Hortons with a big CLOSED sign on the door... George Bush not ignoring Canada... another hockey strike... Yep, basically the apocalypse.

But what's even more amazing is that the Libs being the Libs then have the gall to shrug off demands that they submit their spending plans to anyone for an independent analysis. They think nothing of making spending announcements that
aren't actually even mentioned in their costing or their platform (Quick, someone get a clean napkin, the Libs are going to lay down some new policy. Yeesh).

Plus they have a record of fudging surplus projections to the tune of just $90 billion dollars since 1997 (Yes...$90 Billion dollars...in Canada...I am not making this up...in Canada). But it doesn't end there. In the 2004 election they assured Canadians that the Conservative Platform was unaffordable because the surplus would only be $1.9 billion dollars. Within a few weeks of the election they revealed that the surplus was actually $9.1 billion dollars, just like we had said...in Canada.

These are the same guys who told us that the Long Gun Registry would cost $2 million. It is now at $2 billion (that's billion with a B) and rising. Yet the Libs have the uh, let's call it self assurance, to challenge the Conservative numbers.
It reminds me of when I was a kid and we would be playing marbles and the kid who always won would hit a bad patch and lose his favorite aggie and then would freak out and start windmilling his arms hoping to strike a lucky blow against the guy who had just won his aggie.

Note that I am not saying that the Liberals have lost their marbles. I am not saying that the Conservatives have taken the Liberal's favourite aggie or even their best cat's eye. But I am saying that the Liberals are definitely...windmilling... their...arms (which sounds suspiciously like armies)...and...it is...kinda...weird...to see... that...in Canada...

Ralph Klein - "Duct tape works." explaining how he managed not to get in the way of Harper's rise in the polls this time, basically by keeping his mouth shut.

Jack Layton - "The Conservatives want to increase income taxes on people with low incomes so that they can pay for a cut in the GST. That's not a tax cut. That's moonshine."

Stephen Harper - "There's only one government in history that declared martial law and put troops on the street - or a form of martial law - and that was the Trudeau Liberal government."

Harper - "On my way in, I passed some individuals from This Hour Has 22 Minutes. I'm beginning to confuse them with the Liberal campaign."

Layton - "If you don't vote Liberal, the sun will still rise. If you don't vote Liberal, the spring will still come. If you don't vote Liberal, the planet will not be destroyed by volcanoes."

Harper - "These guys can trust their friends in the advertising business with 100 million dollars of your money, but they won't trust mom and dad with 100 dollars a month."

Duceppe - "When you look at Czechoslovakia, it split in 1992. Since then, Canada has won four championships, the Czech Republic won five championships and Slovakia one. Not bad for a country that split."

Harper - “When I was a boy, I remember a lot of fights in the schoolyard. I was in very few of them, but I always remember the kid always name-calling from a safe distance. There wasn't really much risk of a fight. And Mr. Martin reminds me of that kid. He couldn’t throw a punch to save his life.”