Layton's NDP enters campaign with momentum for change

So yesterday, Jack Layton met for half an hour with the PM at 24 Sussex. At the conclusion Layton told reporters that Stephen Harper is set to quit his job -- and that when he does "I intend to apply for his job with a team of New Democrats and a set of ideas that will respond to the real concerns of Canadians."

But even before Harper incredibly inks his own resignation, Canadians are responding to Layton's prime ministerial leadership on their top concerns.

The evidence: Angus Reid's poll out today shows the NDP on an upswing. And sure, one poll is just that, but when you consider that all of the the latest Angus Reid, Ipsos, and Nanos polls have Layton's NDP increasing in support over the past two months, it's tough to argue that momentum isn't with the NDP.

At least for right now, Canadians appear ready to embrace change. Don't let them tell you it can't be done.

All cuts, no trees

So, who didn't see this coming?

With only days to go before Harper incredibly votes non-confidence in himself and his government, Liberals are still kvetching about Dion's carbon tax.

Imagine: Liberals are finding that they can't sell a $15 billion tax increase that even Dion has admitted might not work to clean the environment.

The most amazing part: Liberal MPs like Wayne Easter aren't saying "make the carbon tax stronger by plowing its revenues back into sollutions like Finland and Sweden does" or even "scrap the tax and focus on a polluter-pays approach like Jack Layton and the premiers".

No, no. Easter is saying he wants more and bigger tax cuts!

One sign of a bad environmental program is when your own MPs are fixated more on what the carbon tax will do to hurt people, than what it won't do to help the environment.

The latest from Dion's “Green by Association” Tour

The quickest route to reputation rehabilitation, your publicist will tell you, is association. In other words: be seen with the thing you want to be.

If you are a high school geek, be seen with the cool kids. If you are unethical, be seen at church. If you are Lindsay Lohan, be seen with … anyone who isn’t Lindsay Lohan.

That’s the advice the Dion Liberals are taking too.

Which is in part why whenever they talk about Dion’s carbon tax the first thing they mention the great success that carbon taxes have had in Finland and Sweden – forgetting of course to mention that revenue from carbon taxes in those countries are plowed into green investments, not pointless tax cuts.

But after years of “not getting it done” Dion needs to be seen with people / ideas / or giant power plants that do, which explains this entry in his itinerary today:

"TORONTO _ Itinerary for federal Liberal Leader Stephane Dion: tours Enwave John Street Pumping Station, followed by media availability (11 a.m., corner of Rees Street and Bremner Boulevard, behind Rogers Centre)"

For those who don’t know, Enwave uses cool water from the depths of Lake Ontario to cool Toronto buildings instead of less efficient air conditioning. That Dion would want to be associated with this project makes sense. As a common sense local solution that cuts energy consumption and fulfils a need, it’s both brilliant and visionary.

The problem for Dion is, it’s just one of the “common sense local solutions that cuts energy consumption and fulfils a need” pioneered by ... NDP leader Jack Layton. As his official bio says:

"Ten years after work began on the first BBP venture, Robert Kennedy Jr. helped Layton cut the ribbon on its most eye-popping project yet. Engineer Ian Tamblyn had pitched the idea: instead of burning fossil fuels to air-condition buildings, why not use cold water from the bottom of Lake Ontario? Layton convened a series of meetings, chaired an Investigation Group, and his firm conducted the key study integrating the findings for the project proposal. Later, back at City Council, he shepherded the project through the complex approvals process with then-Councillor and current EnWave CEO, Dennis Fotinos. Today, EnWave’s Deep Lake Water Cooling system is cheaply and cleanly cooling the equivalent of 100 office buildings in Toronto."

After years of inaction on the environment, when Liberals want to look green, they hug Jack Layton.

Which is kinda why New Democrats say people who want real solutions for the environment should vote for the guy with a solid record of delivering them, instead of the guy standing next to him.

Guelph: Tories attack Tom King with bogus poll

The Harper Conservatives want to win Guelph. They need to win Guelph. Winning Guelph, the strategy goes, opens up mid-size Ontario cities in the GTA shadows that they need to win in order to keep their minority in the face of loses they know are coming in other parts of the country.

Problem is, they aren’t going to win Guelph and their polling has to show that. With less than 20 days to go, the race is all but decided between Tom King for the NDP and the Liberals who first won the seat back in the days of Consumers Distributing.

So, aside from having Gloria Kovach stage a dramatic rescue of school children from a burning building, while arresting the arsonist, while also paying to personally off-set the carbon emissions of the fire (lets call that Plan B), the Conservatives need to create the impression that Guelph is a fight between them and the Liberals, not Tom King and the Liberals.

Enter, this poll from Allan Bruinooge and KlrVu Research which showed up today appearing to show exactly what the Harper team wants you to think.

If you haven’t heard of KlrVu Research, you are excused. If you have, it’s because you:

A) recall the only other poll KlrVu Research has EVER done. You know, this one from last month which was widely disemboweled by the blogosphere - which contradicted polls from actual firms - to say that the majority of Canadians opposed the Order of Canada for Henry Morgentaller; or

B) you are Conservative MP Rod Bruinooge, and therefore the brother of Allan Bruinooge proprietor of KlrVu Research.

So, the Tory Spin Machine has all their best guns aimed at defeating Tom King and this is what they come up with?

Which is the more shocking consideration, that the Conservatives would stoop to foisting a bogus poll on local and national media to make it look as though the NDP isn’t a factor in Guelph, or that they would do it in such an amateurish way as to be exposed with a simple Google search?

And they run the country. Shudder.

Fry’s cooked

Hard to believe it was only a week ago that Hedy Fry went on talk radio and ably discredited the first adjective of Dion’s slogan that his carbon tax is as “simple as it is powerful” (the second adjective having been declared moot by Dion himself).

Coming off this stunning performance, the Liberal MP now has something else to worry about.

The irony is that given Michael Byers’ impressive resume as a scholar and talented commentator on subjects including climate change, Fry would be better served consulting her opponent on the finer points of Dion’s carbon tax, and why it won’t work, than asking the communications people in Dion’s office.

Robert Thibault shoud stay out of serious people's business

After its unfortunate sexist sentiments, and his failure to adequately apologize, the most regrettable part about Liberal MP Robert Thibault's attack on Conservative Senator Marjory LeBreton, is how unnecessary it was.

That’s right. Instead of stooping to insults and name calling, Thibault should be embarrassed he missed going after LeBreton’s obvious deficiency as a politician.

That of course is simple fact that she's a Senator.

As Stephen Harper's hand-picked emissary in the unelected, unaccountable Senate, LeBreton is in part responsible for wasting $80 million a year on a farce that neither Canadians nor Senators take seriously any longer.

But of course only Jack Layton and the NDP have the courage to point that out. Liberals won't because just like the Tories, they are addicted to having their bag-men (and women) and party strategists fed and housed on grandiose Senate salaries.

So in the absence of substantive criticism, Liberals must stoop to sexist insults that put them in league with the worst of Stephen Harper's gang.

In a related note, is it any wonder people don't know what the Liberals stand for anymore?

Dion Liberals lose another

This just in: "Liberals Losing Candidates: Regina candidate added to list."

Gary Oledzki, who according to this article had already started campaigning before his abrupt volte face, follows close on the heels of Robert Morrissey who stepped down as the Grit candidate in the PEI riding held by Joe McGuire since about the time the earth started to cool.

So why are so many Liberal candidates choosing this week to take a pass on running with Team Dion?

Moncton MP Brian Murphy has a guess: "I'm not going to pretend that there is 100 per cent agreement among our electorate that The Green Shift is the best idea to ever come down the pike ... But when we're able to get through to people, there's acknowledgement that it's a thinking-man's position and it's a discussion issue."

Seems at least two Liberal candidates have decided they don't care to think about or discuss it any longer.

Meanwhile, Jack Layton promises $42 million in new investment, not new taxes, for Victoria transit from his cap and trade plan.