Paul Martin would like you to think that Stephen Harper's government will abolish a woman's right to choose. Harper has clearly stated that this isn't true. He could be lying, yes, but if he was that type of man, he would have lied about his agenda with regard to gay marriage, and we might be poised for a majority Conservative government today. But he didn't. He was honest, despite the cost to his chance of leadership. This demonstrates an integrity that Paul Martin cannot hope to match.

Martin also wants you to believe that Stephen Harper has an ultra-right-wing agenda, and that he will poison our courts with hard-line conservatives in order to carry it out. It seems almost believable, but please consider this. The Conservative platform has been out in full for days now, and Stephen Harper's place on the political spectrum is not new information. Yet the fact that he plans to stack our courts and use them to carry out his tyrannical social agenda IS new information. Paul Martin could have unveiled this mysterious secret at any time, and indeed would have a responsibility to the Canadian people to do so. But when did he choose to do so? When the polls suggested that the Tories were strengthening their lead in the final days of the election. This is not a coincidence, my friends; rather, it was simply all Paul Martin could think of after legitimate campaigning did not yield him the popularity he feels he deserves.

Want to know something that actually IS scary, with regard to hidden agendas, courts, and the future of the country? Paul Martin revealed in this campaign that he wants to "strengthen" the Charter of Rights with amendments that shift power away from the courts and toward parliament. This is not a secret, ladies and gentlemen; in fact, Martin has proudly campaigned and debated on this plank. Now think through the implications of what he's saying. The job of the courts is to be objective; the job of politicians to be partisan. In essence, Paul Martin has openly stated that he wants to begin the process of shifting the power to make decisions away from the objective interpretation of law, and towards the whim of whatever politicians happen to comprise our parliament at a given time. And yet he would like you to be afraid of his adversary's agenda, because it's scary, and radical.

Paul Martin wants you to believe that Stephen Harper's G.S.T. cut will not benefit the lowest-income Canadians as much as his own income tax reduction - indeed, more proof that Harper favours the wealthy. The truth? The lowest income Canadians do not pay income tax. What good will a rate reduction do them?

Paul Martin wants you to believe that Stephen Harper will try to make gay marriage illegal. This is true, and it is not ever disguised. Harper feels that it should be put to a vote, and if the Canadian people leave the definition of marriage as it sits now, he will be fine with that. But yes, if he had his own way, the traditional definition would be reinstated, and he certainly has not tried to keep that from us. This is not a reason not to vote for the Tories. I know, I know, it's frightening and distasteful, but hear me out. Paul Martin is also against gay marriage. He is on record as having said this. His political stance is far from his personal stance - because he wants you to vote for him. So if you're avoiding the Tories because you can't stand to vote for someone with such ancient ideas, please keep in mind that Paul Martin shares those ancient ideas, and don't vote for him either. If you're avoiding the Tories because you don't want gay marriage to be illegal again, then rest at ease, and vote Conservative. Constitutionalists, lawyers, analysts, various people who know far more than I do about how our legislative systems operate, have unanimously decided that parliament, without invoking the notwithstanding clause, now lacks the power to take away homosexual marriage rights. So, Stephen Harper can have his stupid free vote, and even if our elected representatives vote to remove gay marriage rights (which they probably won't), the courts will quickly step in and reject the legislation. An action made possible, incidentally, by the fact that Paul Martin has not yet had the chance to mess with the way the system works, and take the authority to make such decisions away from the supreme court entirely.

Paul Martin wants you to forget that gun control is not a new concept in Canada. To carry a gun around on the street, or to use it in the commission of a crime, is already illegal. Martin is dying to waste the disturbing amount of money his government already sunk into a half-baked gun registry by putting a blanket ban on handguns. When Martin wants to campaign against Harper, he brings out mysterious statistics that say the majority of handgun crimes are committed with guns stolen from collectors. When he wants to stick out his chest and thumb his nose at America, however, you'll hear him say that our gun problem is due to lax border control, and the problem of guns being smuggled in from the U.S. Whatever the cause of the gun violence we've been having, please keep in mind that unenforced laws are not worth the paper on which they're written. Criminals break laws. It's that simple. Someone who would risk murdering a fellow human being, or robbing a bank, or raping a girl, is not going to suddenly cower in fear at the thought of going to jail on a gun offense.

Finally, I want to say something about social programs. Paul Martin wants you to believe that Stephen Harper's government will damage our correctional system, our health care system, our educational system, and our environment. He wants you to believe that only a Liberal government can bring strength to these areas. Well, my friends, a Liberal government is what we've had. The statistics are there, if you care to find them: in the past 12 or 13 years, crime has risen severely, while the correctional system has become more relaxed, educational standards have dropped, wait times for surgeries and emergency rooms have surged, and despite Paul Martin's so-called support of the Kyoto Accord, greenhouse gas emissions have risen sharply. If Paul Martin wants to draw a connection between these problems and the government that oversees them, the connection can't possibly work in his favour. The Liberals have had years to make improvements, and instead, everything's got worse.

Oh, and there is actually one more thing. What if Harper is lying about the notwithstanding clause? What if he isn't satisfied with the free vote in parliament on the gay marriage issue, and chooses to pursue constitutional loopholes to forward his agenda? Well, the answer is simple: he won't. I'm not going to try and tell you that I know him to be this honest, because I really have no idea if he is capable of such a thing. But if Harper finally gets people to trust him, gets elected, and then violates what is perhaps his most important campaign promise, his political career will be completely destroyed. The Conservative party will dump him the first chance they get, and so will the rest of Canada. He knows this.

That's alle I thindk there is way too much hare for me to profread so it might be full uf comma splices and mysspelled werds. But goodnight!