An appeal to progressive Canadians

With polls showing the Liberals battling the Greens for fourth place in BC, they are getting more and more desperate to chisel away at the NDP vote. Bob Rae has been here in BC already, telling us that we progressive Canadians need to smarten up and vote Liberal, and now Martha Hall Findlay is here too. I guess they have figured out that Ujaal just doesn't do it for NDP voters in BC.

Anyways, according to a story in the Ubyssey, Bob Rae was at an event in East Vancouver on Friday. Here's how the Liberals "unite" progressive Canadians:

In what is becoming increasingly common in many urban ridings across Canada, the Liberals on stage spent the night attacking the NDP instead of the Conservative Party, with longtime Vancouver East MP Libby Davies the target of their attacks. [Liberal Senator Larry] Campbell began his speech with strong praise for Davies, calling her “a friend,” and said he wouldn’t be campaigning against her if she was running for any other party.

Former COPE mayor Larry Campbell is the new definition of sellout. His attack on Libby Davies is shameful. But Senator Campbell doesn't have to worry about getting elected again. And a Liberal government would ensure that he continues to have job security. So his negative campaigning won't hurt him. But I hope this anti-NDP message really backfires on whoever the Liberal candidate is in East Van and he loses by an even larger margin than he would have before.

More from Rae at the rally:

He continued with strong rhetoric against the NDP, saying “the NDP has defeated all the progressive measures that we introduced in government...”

So, then... the Liberals defeated progressive measures in the last parliament (like anti-scab legislation) as a clever way to get back at the NDP? Ahhh. I totally get it now. Well played Liberal Party.

But seriously, this is getting ridiculous. The Liberals had government after government to deliver on child care, the environment and all the other things that they claim the NDP "defeated". Instead Liberal governments broke their election promises and embroiled themselves in scandal. That is what brought them down. Period.

I have heard enough Liberal BS about how we need them to stop Harper. If Martha Hall Findlay or Bob Rae or some other Liberal from Ontario comes to my door in East Vancouver to tell me that "progressives need to stick together, so vote Liberal blablabla", this is pretty much the gist of what I will be telling them:

Where I live, voting NDP not only beats a Conservative, but it elects a strong New Democrat who gives me and my fellow East Van residents a real voice against Stephen Harper and his Conservatives, unlike a Liberal MP who would have abstained or voted with Harper when it really counted in the last parliament.

In fact my New Democrat MP, Libby Davies, has been a strong voice against the last decade of regressive governments. She stood up to Liberal governments while they gave tax cuts to corporate Canada for years on the backs of students, and middle and low-income families. She has demanded that both Conservative and Liberal governments enforce the Canada Health Act instead of allowing private clinics to erode our universal health care system. She fought for same-sex marriage against Conservatives and socially conservative Liberals long before it was made law. And she has spent most of her career bringing much needed attention to the growing crisis in the Downtown Eastside.

Libby Davies is never going to be a Liberal MP because with her experience, she is in an even better position than most to call BS on Stephane Dion and the so-called Liberal 'dream team' (puke) when they claim that only the Liberals can deliver the change that progressive Canadians are calling for. Libby Davies seems to know that only a New Democratic government will do that.

And Libby isn't the only one. She is one of hundreds of New Democrats running to represent Canadians in an NDP government. New Democrats who have witnessed the Liberals either breaking their election promises while in government, or letting Harper get away with $50 billion in corporate tax cuts (and much more). When elected, Jack Layton and these hundreds of New Democrats, like Libby Davies, will bring forward progressive policies to solve our economic and environmental challenges (like they always have) and shape a country fit for future generations of Canadians.

Because of how low the Liberals seem to be willing to stoop with their smear campaigns, these New Democrats are putting themselves and their families in harm's way just to tell their communities what a government led by Jack Layton has to offer.

Every single one of these New Democrats deserves the vote of Canadians who are fed up with Stephen Harper and want real change.

Led by Jack Layton, a New Democratic government will change the way that politics are done in Canada and take measures to ensure that all Canadians make it through the tough economic road ahead. That is something that no other party can promise with any credibility.

So, no matter where I lived in Canada, no matter what riding, I would be putting my vote towards achieving a New Democratic government. Because 'not being Stephen Harper', does not qualify someone to be Prime Minister. And because after Liberal governments have gotten us into most of the crises we now face, why would we trust them to get us out?

Besides, raise your hand if you really believe that Stephane Dion is in any position to stop Stephen Harper?

(crickets)


How far into that speech do you think I would get before Martha and Bob would mark me down as 'not voting Liberal' and take off?