IGNATIEFF SAYS HE WOULD CONSIDER RESTORING G.S.T. TO 7%; CONSERVATIVES SALIVATE

In an one-on-one interview with CityNews’ Richard Madan, Michael Ignatieff shared some of his thoughts on the kinds of policy decisions that a future Liberal government may make under his leadership by stating that he would consider reverting the G.S.T. back to 7%.

“If we are in a deep deficit in year 3 or 4 you can’t exclude tax increases to get us out, … I’m not going to take a GST hike off the table later, but it would be a bad idea now, in the recession.”–Ignatieff

At first glance, it sounds pretty reasonable and responsible to me.  If the economic situation has rebounded and if there are deep structral problems with the budget 3-4 years down the road, then you have to at least consider all the options to remedy the situation.

But whenever you utter the words “I’m not going to take a GST hike off the table” or “you can’t exclude tax increases,” then you are leaving yourself vulnerable to a big can of Conservative whoop ass.  Iggy’s comments were pretty innocuous and hypothetical, but it’s dangerous to publicly hypothesize about political landmines.

Perhaps his academic background makes him more prone to giving answers which are maybe a little bit too thorough, because he really should have a little more tight-lipped here.  The Conservatives haven’t had very much to go on lately, focusing on Iggy’s brow and his waffling on the Iraq war, so I’m betting that they’re smelling blood here, and it won’t take long for the sharks to start painting Ignatieff as a tax & spend Liberal.

'Hypothetical' Conservative shark attacking Ignatieff (in red), and a random sea lion

IGNATIEFF USURPS THE LICH KING, OZZY OSBOURNE AS THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS

The Lich King moments before getting pwned by Ignatieff

In yet another shocking seizure of power, John Chuckman of the Baltimore Chronicle reports that newly-appointed Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff appears to have usurped The World of Warcraft’s Lich King to become Canada’s Prince of Darkness.

The Lich King is the main antagonist in the wildly popular World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King expansion.  He is the creator of an undead faction called “The Scourge“and rules over them telepathically from his throne atop the Icecrown Glacier.  It is not yet known whether Ignatieff will attempt to legitimize his assent to Prince of Darkness with the Scrouge at the upcoming WoW convention.  Grassroots Scourge activists were hoping that the whole process could have been more democratic by using simple telepathic technology, but they have reluctantly endorsed Ignatieff for the time being.

In his much anticipated launch in World of the Warcraft’s latest expansion, the Lich King challenged the incumbant Prince Osbourne for the Dark Throne of Evil.

“Well maybe you’re the one riding a #?@! crazy train, but I’ve been the Prince of Darkness since 1979!”–Former Prince of Darkness Ozzy

Despite Prince Osbourne’s garbled protestations, the Lich King dethroned Ozzy Osbourne, hitting him for 1,000,000 hit points of damage on a single ranged magical-attack. (See Below)

In a recent poll, Ignatieff was overwhelmingly chosen as the Canadian politician with the sweetest ninja skillz, so we knew he was a threat, but his unprecedented level of aggressiveness is coming as a shock to many Canadians.  Many have suggested the Ignatieff’s lack of aggressiveness is because the Liberal coffers are too bare to cope with another election.  But Jamaica-lovin’ Super-Liberal Warren Kinsella says this is not so:

“First off, the Liberal Party of Canada isn’t “broke.” … the LPC will be quite election-ready, thank you very much. … Our web team – a very impressive bunch – were very effective at getting folks to donate.”–Kinsella

The Liberal “web team” experts were likely to have given Ignatieff key strategic insights as to how to take down the most feared head boss ever seen in the entire MMORPG universe, but John Chuckman reminds us that Ignatieff isn’t your typical hack-and-slash melee politician class:

“[Ignatieff] is aggressive, arrogant, and has demonstrated Machiavellian skills. I see him as a divisive and anti-democratic figure, much as Stephen Harper”–Chuckman.

Chuckman likens Ignatieff style to a young President Mubarak from Egypt.  Mubarak, whose corrupt government has been in power since the assination of former president Sadat in 1981, declined to comment (out of fear that he might be Iggy’s next victim, no doubt.)  Chuckman goes on to say,

Ignatieff spent years speaking for America ‘s global empire, allying himself with the Neo-cons in his enthusiasm for invading Iraq. He joined the ranks of ethical cowards by suggesting some modest role for torture…Had he been in office when Bush invaded, Canadians would be killing and being killed in Iraq.–Chuckman

Watch your back Mr. Harper: Iggy “The Brow” Ignatieff is bloodthirsty and on the loose.  You’d best not agro the newest Prince of Darkness, else you might end up with an a$$-full of pwnage.

Special thanks to Bork Newswatch for highlighting this informative gem.  I <3 Payola.

CONSERVATIVES REINFORCING IGNORANT VOTER BASE

An interesting poll was published today by the Dominion Institute, concluding that the majority of Canadians lack a basic understanding of our parliamentary system.

The four basic questions asked were :

1. Who is the head of state?
2. How can Canada’s system of government best be described?
3. Do Canadians elect the prime minister directly?
4. Can the governor general nix a prime minister’s request for a new election?

With the exception of question #4, the results for all questions were very poor.  On question is #3, 51% of people incorrectly and believed that we elect our prime minister directly, where in fact, in Canada we elect local members of Parliament.   Then, as a matter of tradition, the leader of the party with the most members by is endorsed by the governor general as prime minister.

The Conservatives are a clever bunch, and seemed to already be aware of this widespread ignorance amongst there voter base and using it to their advantage.  Last week, Conservative Heritage Minister James Moore gave university students a virtual slap-in-the-face when he said that POLITICAL SCIENCE STUDENTS will be rushing to ask their professors if a coalition government was consitutionally possible.  And if you act fast, you can sign up on the Conservative website and download your very own ‘cheat sheet’ on what to say on talk radio shows, filled with constitutionally inaccurate zingers like:

“What I want even less is a backdoor Prime Minister whom I never had the opportunity to vote for or against”

(even though we don’t vote for Prime Ministers)

“Not a single voter voted for a Liberal-NDP coalition. Certainly not a single voter voted for the Liberals to form a coalition with the separatists in the Bloc.”

(again, we vote for individual members of Parliament, not coalitions or political parties)

Political ignorance is a real threat to democracy, and it is very sad to see it being reinforced by political party in an effort to hold onto power.  The Dominion Institute points to educators as the main culprits of the public’s lack of political knowledge, but shame on the Conservatives for making matters worse by reinforcing this ignorance by spreading untruths about the Canadian parlaimentary system in their recent media blitz attacking the Liberal-NDP Coalition.