I've paid very close attention to them, Colpy. The claim that Conservatives are closer to the Democrats than the Republicans has never been true of the Reform/Alliance/Conservatives. Perhaps your relatively remoteness from the party has shielded you from the day to day reality of dealing with the majority of the party faithful, but those of us who talk to Reform/Alliance/Conservative members on a regular basis, especially on a level where there is no press to record what's said, see the reality on a daily basis.
No it cannot, especially in the long-term. That's why most economists (every economist without ties to your party) panned your platform last time around. Much of what Conservatives consider wasteful spending is also considered to be paying for worthwhile government programs by most people.
The problems with your military platform go much further than spending though. They move drastically away from Canada's role as a peacekeeper that supports multi-lateral institutions like the UN and put us within the sphere of acting with the USA even as it attempts to destroy multi-lateral institutions in the name of expanding its already intolerable hegemony.
Your party's criticism of Liberals' rights raping "anti-terrorism" bill was that it did not go far enough. You wanted to take even more rights away, allow even more US control of our foreign and domestic policies, and integrate even further with the US. For the Reform/Alliance/Conservatives to say that they are the same as the Liberals on this is to compare petty theft to assault with a deadly weapon and say they are the same thing.
SSM, native rights, anti-hate legislation, racial profiling, separation of church and state, abortion, equal pay for equal work....I can go on, but I think you should have an idea.
No it isn't. A eee senate, basically what they have in the US, is at the very base of your reform package. You shunned proportional representation the second Harper started thinking he might be able to win an election.
Free votes have to be established within the parties and do not face the very real reality that more Canadians vote for a leader or party platform than vote for an individual candidate.
Your electoral reform not only would not limit third party advertising, something that Harper went to court to keep from being limited, but based on previous statements by Harper the present limits would be completely done away with. I don't know about you, but I'm not happy with living in the best democracy that the friends of Stephen Harper can buy.
Provide some real evidence, not the jailhouse confession of a mobster about somebody who was fired. If you have no real evidence, then all you are doing is slinging mud. Nice mention of some cars being blown up too. No numbers, no facts, just an attempt to make it sound like this was a daily occurence. Be specific and prove that has anything to do with the Liberal Party or be quiet.
Perhaps you've had your eyes glued shut to the split in the Liberal Party that has been a very real situation since Chretien won the leadership. Martin won some...like keeping the GST and NAFTA...but Chretien was front and centre in everything that you mentioned.
If you want to sling mad, which is all your party really does, then you'd better be prepared to have it slung right at you. You said that you didn't want to do that, but here you go.
Let's carry this discussion on in a different thread though. We're off-topic here.