Loaded

After reading a post over at Dr. Roy's Thoughts, I followed a link to a Liberal Poll.  I didn't answer it, as they want me to put in my name, postal code and email, and I don't want any political party to have those.  We somehow got on the NDP mail list as it is.  Not only have I been getting NDP "ten percenters" regularly since we moved, but so has my husband - and the woman who lived here before us!  Yup.  I get three Layton ten percenters, every time they get sent out.

Check out the loaded questions on the Liberal site, though.  After a misleading blurb using the phrase "Reform-Conservatives" (because they just have to dig up the ghosts of those scary old Reformers), the first two questions are yes/no choices.

1. Are the Harper Reform-Conservatives right to oppose pay equity for women?

Strange. That's not at all how I understood things. Equal pay for work of equal value, sure, but as a woman who's been home with the kids for more than 16 years, with a couple of forays into the world of employment in the last few years, I certainly don't expect to walk into the same wage as men who've been doing the job longer than I have, just because I'm a woman.  I expect to have to earn my way up, just like anyone else.

2. Do you agree with Stephen Harper that those supporting women's equality are “left-wing fringe groups”?

Another loaded question.  Most "women's groups" are indeed "left-wing fringe groups."  Therefore, their supporters are most likely to be extreme lefties and modern feminists (not to be confused with the feminists that actualy got us the vote and equal rights).  So there are left-wing fringe groups, and there are their supporters.  The supporters and the groups are different entities.

Not that either has anything to do with women's equality in the first place.

Then they ask:

3. Who do you trust more to advocate for the rights of women in Canada and abroad?

Who do you trust more to advocate for the rights of women in Canada and abroad?   Michael Ignatieff and the Liberals

Stephen Harper’s Reform-Conservatives

 (Cut and paste problem - it should just read "Michael Ignatieff and the Liberals" by itself, but Blogger won't let me edit out the repeated question.  I don't have the time or energy to fuss with it, so there it is...)

Again, they use the term "Reform-Conservative."

To the Libs making this poll: the Reform party doesn't exist any more.  The hard line Reformers didn't like the merger and don't support the Conservative Party of Canada all that much.  They think the CPC is too... wait for it... Liberal.

Now explain to me: how can you phrase a question so dishonestly and misleadingly - and make it a question about trust?

No, I don't trust the Libs.  I trust Ignatieff even less.  Of all our current political leaders, I trust Harper the most.  Which really isn't much of a compliment, considering how little I think of the other leaders.  Layton is so slimey, he gives me the creeps.  May is off her rocker, but at least she seems genuine.  Ignatieff is a nobody who thinks his status makes him a somebody.  I don't like everything the CPC is doing, but they're a whole heck of a lot better than the alternative.

I honestly wish the Liberals would get their act together and be an effective opposition.  Our parliamentary system needs that.  Instead, they're so busy trying to get themselves back into office (with the other opposition parties goading them all the way), it's crippling Parliament.  We don't need any more faux scandals and knee jerk opposition to anything or everything, including the stuff you guys actually wanted in the first place. ie: complaining about lack of stimulous money in one breath, then berating the gov. for our debt the next.  Hello... you guys were the ones threatening to topple the gov. with a coalition supposedly because of the lack of stimulus funding!

We need you all to get your butts in gear, get to work and quit playing games, because those games are costing us regular folks (you know... the ones you want voting for you) a lot.