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Exclusive this week at Straight Goods:
Two-Tier is Here
By Gillian Steward
  In Alberta, the door was already open to user-pay health care. Bill 11 kicked it wide open.
 
 

Puncturing polling myths: Pollsters talk about polling
  Have you always wondered if pollsters have biases? These pollsters say no way!
 

Medicare takes centre stage
By Cindy Wiggins of the Canadian Labour Congress
  "Two-tier" debate highlighted erosion of health care.

Liberal platform clones IMF dictates
By Ish Theilheimer
  Martin's mini-budget in lockstep with February IMF "recommendations".

Election animation gallery - Day and the Dinorsaurs, Count Chretien, and other visions

  (You need Shockwave^® software to view this cartoon and others in the Straight Goods cartoon gallery - it takes a few minutes to download, but it's not hard to install and it's absolutely free.)

The Straight Goods Forum: What's got your goat in this year's federal election?
  This week Larry Solway discusses nine election irritants that drive him batty. His comments are driving others batty including:
- Journalist Michele Landsberg, with some advice for the "choleric" Larry.
- Sandra Tam - in an unsolicited commentary - says youth deliberately choose not to vote, disguising resistance as apathy - on the same wavelength, if not the same age as Solway, he says.
- pollsters Marc Zwelling and Jim Matsui say they're not to blame.
- CA candidate Jeffrey Dorfman on why it's OK to be Jewish and CA.
- Ontario NDP health critic Frances Lankin says Kings Health Centre does represent two-tier care in Ontario.
- Housing consultant David Foster says Larry is all wet on affordable housing.

Now it's your turn. What's bugging you about this election? * What do you see happening locally? * Have western Canadians all turned into right-wingers overnight? * What's become of national Canadian politics? * Was this ever a reality? * Are youth less involved politically than in the past? * Are any generations as involved as in the past? * What are you most sick of hearing about in this election campaign? * Where did Jean Chretien find Stockwell Day anyway?
See what others have written and add your views.
Take the Straight Goods poll.

Also new:

Hired Guns on the Hustings
By Aaron Freeman
  Corporate lobbyists deeply involved in backing election candidates, mostly Liberals.

The Bagmen
By Bruce Livesey
  Are lax federal election fundraising rules letting corporations call the shots with governments?

Publisher's welcome:
by Ish Theilheimer
  Lots of spin to untangle with current federal election
 
 
 

Check out:
Federal party comparisons on health care, transportation (Transport 2000), women (Judy Rebick), environment (Sierra Club), and broadcast policy (Friends of Canadian Broadcasting).

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