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Trudeau is trashing the place (Canada) and if Poilievre is elected, there'll be no money to do anything, and he'll be stuck holding Trudeau's bag of trash tricks. Then we'll attribute the on-going stagnation of the economy and the collapsing of the country to Poilievre, and we'll turn on him and eventually forget who got us into this mess.

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We still have our triple A credit rating and they are cutting costs so that's some trashing the place. I think thou doth protest in ignorance

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I realize that this was a Liberal fundraiser and Party faithful don’t want to pay $1500 a seat to hear the Prime Minister say “We really did some stupid things and now we’re changing course to regain the trust of Canadians.”

But the steadfast inability of the Prime Minister to look in the mirror and reflect on how others perceive his actions is a shame. A shame because some humility to accept that government policies are hurting people and require addressing is always welcomed.

A 12 minute pep talk to highlight the divisive politics of “anger, anxiety, fear or division” might have some resonance if Trudeau admitted that he is the primary practitioner of such ruthlessness and he understands that people are sick of it. Not a chance, his hands are clean, and his is the sunny ways message of hope, prosperity, cheap daycare and a new bridge.

It would be too funny if the recent SCC ruling of the ICC Bill sped up the approval process so the bridge actually got built within 25 years.

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Trudeau is classic example of a guy born on 3rd base but stubbornly insisting that he hit a triple. Narcissist and humility don't belong in the same sentence.

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Born on third and took down the mighty Harper and two of his flunked with no 3 going to happen. I call that a grand slam.

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'...The party had announced a ticket price up to $1,500...'

I am amazed that 67 people agreed to be paid a mere $1,500 to endure having to hear in person the PM's breathy, nasal, woke addled bromides.

I could do it but but 5g would be my starting price. And even then...

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$125 a minute to listen to Trudeau. Hope they got a meal thrown in.

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Any snow in the forecast for Ottawa? Asking for a few million friends...

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And, so, Joe Oblivious spoke to "his" crowd as he continued his descent (ascent perhaps; yes, I think so) into oblivion.

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“This leader is not for turning,” but this afternoon my inbox loaded up with program changes to carbon dioxide taxes reducing some and jazzing up heat pumps and rural rebates. My heavens a federal government who finally cares for the rural folks. Trudeau may be closer to that walk in the snow than the punditry realizes.

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founding
Oct 26, 2023·edited Oct 26, 2023

This arrived in my inbox some 30 seconds after the announcement to suspend the carbon tax on fuel oil popped up in my twitter feed...

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author

NEVER MIND THAT

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Thank you Paul.

I find this to be a load of self-congratulatory puffery. I have been to other fundraiser events, not because I wanted to, but because my employer had purchased a table and then had to fill it up. Why would anyone actually go and listen to stuff like this? How is anyone the wiser for it? (Admittedly I'm not talented at reading tea leaves the way Mr. Wells does.)

Seems to me to be preferable to just write a check. Then get on with more serious stuff.

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You seem to forget that people in the room take attendance. When some of these business guys come to govt looking for subsidies or to present new technologies they will be known. Nothing illegal or unethical will occur but support does open doors. That's how our world turns.

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...Nothing illegal or unethical will occur...

Truer words were never spoken.

After all, we are talking about the Liberal Party of Canada here!

Right Justin, right Dominic?

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True and not about the cons who invented sleaze and election cheating among other things

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Sleaze such as saying give me your vote and we will splash out on a new bridge, greenhouse emissions be damned. Revolting pork barrel politics and we should be thankful that the Liberals would never engage in this!

Those Cons were terrible!

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Have a good day

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I promise you, the Conservative Party of Canada did not invent sleaze or election cheating.

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Never said they did but they work at perfecting it.

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I mean, technically you said the "cons", not the Conservative Party of Canada, but okay.

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Yeah that doesn’t sound sleazy at all.

*cough* SNC Lavalin *cough*

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Have a good evening and stay angry.

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You sound like the spiteful angry one!

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I knock on doors and meet all the angry old conservative types. This guy sounds like one and just maybe you are pretty biased as well. But I digress

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Maybe. But it seems to me that they will remember far better whose signature was on the vheck that paid for the table. For example, after sitting through that fundraiser, I doubt that I had any increased clout. But my employer did.

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The events you may have attended were not fund raisers if the table was bought by the company. The event in Gatineau was a pure fundraiser with individuals paying $1500 to meet the PM and some cabinet ministers.

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The events happened in 1996 and 1997, before electoral finance was reformed. We each got a Cabinet Minister at our table. They were pure fund-raisers.

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Different era

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The guy is delusional, I don’t think he realizes how much fiscal damage he’s done to ordinary Canadians. 67 tickets in what used to be Liberal heartland is pretty telling.

He’s got no self awareness, and a typically narcassistic approach blame the other guy for what’s not working.

Doubling the national debt in 8 years with near zero accountability is going to ruin the future for far too many people. The “giveaways” are not only not affordable, they are downright damaging to our economy.

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67 people coming out to an open event would be pretty sad. 67 at $1,500 a pop isn't actually such a bad turnout, from my memory of Chretien/McGuinty days.

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Only 70 people invited to such events is pretty normal. They want donors to be able to meet with the PM one on one

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Oct 27, 2023·edited Oct 27, 2023

Poilievre flew all the way to NS to get a small crowd who paid nothing to see his circus act. I'll take the 100k our PM raised to beat PP down the road. PP has been made to look silly two days in a row so look for a temper tantrum as his time foil hat boils over.

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"Hearing how the prime minister talks to friendlies on a Tuesday night near home was, perhaps, the closest I could get to hearing how he talks to himself."

…a good line. Paul, thank-you

...so many I talk to think it's time for a walk in the snow...

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Well Paul it gave you something to do on a Tuesday night in Hull aka Gatineau.

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I guess Paul Wells has good connections, given I received both his newsletter and the carbon tax announcement at the same time. I guess it’s a proof than things can turn around pretty quick in politics. However, in the state the liberals are in right now, they are probably praying that PP continue to talk about vaccine mandantes, gun rights, parental rights, etc.

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I don't think the libs are in the state pollsters imagine them to be. The party has been using their ground game to get direct responses to their popularity or lack there of. I agree they want PP to continue being himself, but if he changes tactics the libs will remind people about who he really is. The PM called PP a tinhat character in QP so they are going to label him continously.

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I am not as pessimistic than some columnists/pollsters are but I don’t think liberals should live in denials either. They are in serious troubles and the uphill they will need to face is significant but not impossible. Facing PP and not O’toole could be an advantage for the liberals, especially if the federal elections is after the US presidential elections, but sometimes the desire for change is too strong.

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It is indeed

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I didn't see that, Terry - was that today?

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Yesterday

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I love Justin Trudeau!

But you know when I love him the most is when he morphs into spontaneous mode as in the Youtube video in this article. (And ten thousand other spontaneous times since 2015).

The 5 grand bespoke jacket is handed off to a flunkey while one aide de camp loosens the 350 dollar silk tie and another rolls up the sleeves of the 500 dollar dress shirt so that Junior can show that in the end he is just folks, one of us, ready to go to work helping Canadians!

So genuine, so uncontrived, so like the Great Man himself!

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I don't see them living in denial as they are responding well to current crises like the housing file and other infrastructure projects. They have two years to sell their agenda so it's far from panic time.

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That is based on a very large assumption that the economy and individual prosperity will somehow improve in the interim and that litany of scandals will magically end. Time will tell.

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Litany of scandals tells me you are a brainwashed PP puppet

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Actually, no. Clairvoyance is obviously not one of your skillsets. I've abstained from any direct affiliation because I have a healthy distrust for all parties and the corrupted system they now operate in.

I simply have a special level of disgust and distain for the Trudeau Liberals that they have richly earned over the past 8 years.

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Are you forgetting all the scandals some of which are being picked apart by committee? Thats keeping lots of people bust so they can't work on anything else.

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Laura, I always respect your opinions, so I'm curious.

Every government has "scandals", which kind of come to exist in the zeitgeist. The Liberals have had a bunch, and no one arguing in good faith could disagree. Sorry, we just have. But my question is, are you genuinely troubled by the scandals, or do you just not like Trudeau, and then "well, he has scandals" backs up the view you already had?

I know tons of Liberals who hated Stephen Harper for years, and then started pretending they hated him because of in-and-out or Mike Duffy or prorogation or whatever. So I guess I'm wondering which came first, the chicken or the egg. Were you a big Trudeau fan until SNC-Lavalin, at which point your opinion changed? Or was it more like, "See? I knew this guy was a bad guy, and now I have proof!"? I suspect it's the latter for most people, to be honest. And that's why partisans are rarely dissuaded by scandals, in my opinion.

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All that tells me is the cons are seeing things change.

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