If anyones is interested:
Alexanders Panettas' PIECE sadly shows the Harper Marionettes to be even dumber than first thought.
This is not me siding with the ontario corruption party, but me saying that even a block_head like Hap couldn't possible want to see this paticular batch of clueout misfits run any country, or a shit-tank collection service for that matter.
Sorry Canada, but what you need is a viable alternative to these cursed Libs, not a flock of clued_out over-inflated with self losers trying to play politics while riding the short bus.
pssst. wanna make Harper squeal like a pig.
OTTAWA (CP) - It all started with a whisper in Paul Martin's ear.
The prime minister leaned back in his Commons chair to hear the question, and replied by giving Tony Valeri the go-ahead.
Martin's house leader had hatched a plan for a midnight budget vote with do-or-die implications for the Liberal government.
By 8:30 p.m. the Liberals were hiding out in the Commons government lobby, a long chamber lined with sofas, televisions, tables and desks.
"We are going to bushwhack the Conservatives," one Liberal MP boldly predicted.
On the other side of the Commons, a beer-filled tub was being wheeled into the opposition lobby for the few Tories preparing to sit in for debate on a $4.6-billion budget bill.
The rest of their colleagues filed out of Parliament's Centre Block and headed off to restaurants, bars, their homes or the airport for weekend trips to their ridings.
A few noticed something wrong when the shuttle buses on Parliament Hill were as bereft of Liberal MPs as the Grit-free city of Calgary.
Even the NDP and Bloc Quebecois were in on the scheme. They hung around the Commons after discussions between Valeri and the other house leaders earlier in the day.
Bloc MPs were in a particularly foul mood with their erstwhile Conservative allies.
The sovereigntist MPs were desperate to get home to Quebec for a festive weekend of Fete nationale celebrations, but the Tories refused a motion to change an 8 p.m. vote to an earlier time.
"(The Tories) were caught flat-footed because they didn't pay attention to details," said one NDP member.
"If they had simply agreed to move the votes to 6 p.m. they wouldn't have had a problem.
"Anger, I suppose is a natural reaction when you've lost - when you've been snookered."
Before anger there was bewilderment.
The Conservatives had been insisting publicly all day they were prepared to trigger an election next week by defeating the Liberal budget.
This despite polls showing them far behind the Liberals and private suggestions they didn't really want to see a writ drop.
They learned of the ruse when Valeri rose to speak in the House, and a handful of Bloc MPs rushed out of the opposition lobby to hear him.
"Their heads snapped," one insider said of the Tories.
"And then the Blackberries started. . . . There was definitely a sense of shock and confusion."
MPs received frantic phone calls and e-mails telling them to get back to the Hill.
The Liberals, NDP and Bloc had seized on a procedural tactic used only a handful of times in Canadian history - an obscure rule that allows parties to cut off debate when they feel one party is obstructing the business of Parliament.
Senior Conservative staff rushed into the Commons area to find out what was going on. MPs were walking briskly back up the long pathway that leads to the epicentre of the drama - Parliament's Centre Block.
"We just found out 20 minutes ago," said B.C. Tory James Moore. "Sneaky, sneaky."
At that point befuddlement turned into rage.
Deputy Tory leader Peter MacKay bemoaned a "menage a trois" among separatists, socialists and power-hungry Liberals.
He called his opponents' talk of making minority Parliament work "all just one big, fat stinking lie."
He compared the Liberals to a homicidal Hollywood psychopath - the liver-eating cannibal Hannibal Lecter.
B.C. Tory John Reynolds seemed to blame the media.
As MPs took their seats for the midnight vote he hollered up at the press gallery when he noticed a reporter-turned-government staffer milling about.
"Get those Liberals out of there! What are Liberals doing in the press gallery?" he shouted several times. He later told a news scrum that the scene represented "what's wrong with this country."
There had been a few nervous Nellies in the Liberal ranks.
A group of staffers pored over the numbers and questioned whether some absent Tory MPs could make it back in time for the vote. But Valeri marched into the lobby and said there was no turning back.
The implications were huge for the Liberals.
Victory would mean the minority government's survival through its first calendar year - a feat not seen in Canadian politics since the early 1970s.
It would also mean the success of a budget deal struck with the NDP out of political necessity: $4.6 billion for housing, the environment, education and foreign aid.
A loss would mean an election campaign starting Friday with the country likely going to the polls on Aug. 8.
The prospect might petrify a prime minister who's pushing 67 and could see his own career end if he fails to deliver a majority government in the next election.
Instead, the night ended with Paul Martin jumping on a desk in the Commons lobby and leading a Liberal hurrah for Valeri and his staff.
He had captured a 152-147 vote, a $4.6-billion budget amendment and a relatively calm summer after gambling his political life.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2005 ... 13-cp.html
:) 
