The vote

Well, here we go. Again.

To kick off the historic 2025 federal election campaign is an event that all leaders, parties, national media outlets and Karoline Leavitt have been awaiting. Yes, the GreaterFool Blog Dog Poll.

We’ll do it today. We’ll do it again just before the vote. And let’s see then if the addicts who come to this pathetic site are prescient, or just weird. As we know from past surveys this is a crowd that leans right, has a ridiculously plump net worth and wisely mistrusts cats.

Has the existential threat of 51st-state annexation changed the ballot question? Is Carney enough of a positive shift to suppress the Justin hate? Is Poilievre a barking, snarling career political attack dog, or just the right guy to bite Trump’s ankle? And, consequentially, is this an election that can start bridging the polarization in Canada – the kind that’s ripped America apart – and bring us back to the center?

You may recall I was famously punted from Stephen Harper’s caucus during my second stint as an MP. My crimes included blogging about stuff and asking Canadians how I should vote; talking to oppo politicians to see what they believed; coming up with policies for the minister of finance; and opposing the GST cuts as well as the dumb move to 40-year-mortgages and 0% downpayments, igniting a housing price romp.

Harper moved my beloved former Progressive Conservative party to the right. It became harder, Americanized and socially restrictive. It’s an evolution Poilievre has continued, embracing the anti-vax truckers, seeking political interference at the Bank of Canada, embracing Western alienation and spending three years telling us about rampant crime, wokeness and our ‘broken’ country. Meanwhile the Libs under Trudeau moved further left, abandoned fiscal restraint, pickled us in debt, showered money on special interest groups, trashed resource development and worried more about pronouns than national defence.

So, can we reclaim the middle? Is this the time?

Carney ain’t ‘peoplekind’ Justin. Just a boring, gray banky, get-er-done guy who understands economics, monetary policy and how to move in the halls of power. And Poilievre has already had to pivot away from pro-Peterbilt, anti-WEF, globalist conspiracy, axe-the-tax fringiness to a Canada First trade and infrastructure agenda.

Polls are tight today. Either could win. What do you say? The world is watching.

(No personal data is collected, all replies are anonymous. Use the ‘back’ arrow to change any prior reply):

About the picture: “Mary came to work with me daily for years,” writes Erin. “We worked in the bush on some huge BC wildfires, hundreds of logging blocks, installing bridges and building road.  Our goal was to supply the lumber mill with logs.  Mary worked the loggers for sandwiches and pepperoni bites.  Lunch coolers would fly open for Mary.  She lived for hard work and routine, she was fiercely loyal and loved her person.  I found her at the SPCA as a 1 yr old troublemaker.  She just had a short battle with cancer and passed away peacefully in my arms last month.  I miss her.  But she would tell me to get to work with a side glance and want me to tell people to buy canadian lumber.  Lots of great blog dogs kibbles depend on it.”

To be in touch or send a picture of your beast, email to ‘garth@garth.ca’.