Canadian Rosebud

WHOPPER THURSDAY...

2011-05-13T10:03:00.001-07:00

... with their majority freshly minted, the Harper government doesn't even need to use Friday for its 'bad news' dump -- unless there's something worse than admitting deception on fiscal responsibility for the sake of votes?
Who's suppose to have it their way, anyways?

SELECTIVE MESSAGING...

2011-04-20T23:15:00.000-07:00

Steady Eddie and blustery Brad weigh in for the home team:

“If it isn’t, then I do think we need a time of stability. I think the government that wins the most seats needs to be able to bring down a budget and get the country moving forward,” said Wall.

These blue tories didn't even listen apparently to the Mansbridge interview before stepping into the cowfield -- perhaps they were using the 'selectively edited' CON talking points edition? They also don't like Westminster parliamentary rules, coalition governments (boo Britain, Australia and Finland!) or Canadian history.
Of course, their blinding support of Stephen Harper's Power At All Costs Tour kind of steps around Harper's own dalliance with 'fewer seats, more power' and Jack and Gilles in 2004.

What's good for the goose is not ducky with the hens, apparently.

DEAD HORSE, MEET STUNNED PARROT...

2011-04-19T22:29:00.000-07:00

The Harper CONbots are up in arms twisting in circles and trying to create a controversy over Michael Ignatieff's response to Peter Mansbridge's question on what happens if a minority government is elected on May 2nd.
This is what Ignatieff said...

“[I'd] talk to Mr. Layton, or Mr. Duceppe, or even Mr. Harper, and say, ‘We have an issue, and here’s the plan that I want to put before Parliament, this is the budget I would bring in,’ and then we take it from there.”

... and this is different from this in what way?

If ignorance is what Canadians are when it comes to their own governance, then Stephen Harper has provided the perfect platform. However, it is also obvious that there is someone on the hustings who is only in it for himself, and that person is Stephen Harper.

Which leads us to something completely different...

SOMETHING TO SAY...

2011-04-13T06:06:00.000-07:00

Of all the things that I wish had been brought up during last night's english language debate, one specific theme should have had its 2-minutes of talk: Honesty and integrity.
But how would that be massaged into a four-circle bickering match, while making a salient point about the choices Canadians are facing? Well, let's imagine...

IGNATIEFF - Mr. Harper, you continue to talk about the necessity of having a steady hand helping guide the Canadian economy, protecting jobs and creating opportunities.
All these things are part of the Liberal Party platform, and have been accomplished by past Liberal governments.
But when it comes to leadership, I think what you've delivered falls far short of what Canadians deserve. Just yesterday, one of your senior members had to humbly apologize for your government's deliberate choice to take words the auditor general applied to a report on fiscal management -- a report she wrote in 2004 -- and pasted it onto the preliminary discussion on the G-8 summit.
As someone who spoke fervently at one time about accountability, you continue to relegate responsibility to others when you've been found with your fingers in the cookie jar.
So I ask you, sir, will you apologize for this secretive, undemocratic and trust-breaking act you have done?

HARPER: Mr. Ignatieff, the auditor general's report on the G-8 summit remains unreleased, the documents being leaked to the press, as she has suggested, are not representative of her final report ...

IGNATIEFF: I'm sorry sir but you're misleading the Canadian people here. I'm not talking about the auditor general's final report, of which members in your own caucus continue to suggest are known to you.
I'm talking about the report, tabled to a Commons committee, in the final week of Parliament. You stole quotes from Ms. Fraser and made a mockery of integrity, sir. You sent out Stockwell Day to apologize for it, when Mr. Day had nothing to do with it. I can understand, how you -- having been caught already for plagarizing a speech, and avoiding responsibility on that -- would prefer to sweep this under the rug and avoid talking about it. However, you are talking to the Canadian people, or are you just talking to that camera? Here is your chance to show some leadership Mr. Harper, to say what all Canadians understand to be true -- that plagarizing and misleading people about what someone else has said, are wrong? Will you do that?

HARPER: Again, our government has directed its efforts on guiding the economy during tough times and mistakes have been made, when Mr. Ignatieff distracts Canadians with expensive problems, an unnecessary election...

IGNATIEFF: I'm sorry sir, but that doesn't sound like accountability, Mr. Harper, it sounds like denial, that you having something to hide. Great leaders, and Canada has had many, have taken responsibility for their mistakes. They've not a stable of ministers and assistants take the blame for them, like you have. If you refuse to take accountibility for this one act, which sends a seriously wrong message to young and old alike, how can Canadians trust you with the keys to their economy? I must compliment you on your game-playing skills, Mr. Harper. If we were playing a game, I would admire it, however we are talking about leading a country. The Canadian people are not part of a game who you can mislead and misapropriate from, Mr. Harper.

... and I'm sure it would translate into french...

READ BETWEEN THE LINES...

2011-04-08T21:59:00.001-07:00

Stephen Harper has been known to say one thing and do another.
He's also tried to dance like Toller Cranston around the intentions of his actions and words of the past.
While I think Canadians are eager to have a new debate on how their health care system has to adapt to meet the changing demands and rising costs, Harper is happy to skirt the issue and just pledge what the other guys are pledging (not to let the other leaders off on a technicality, however they are in opposition and not the current government).

Just in case you've forgotten, here is what so-called leader Stephen Harper has said about Canada's health care system in the past:

"We also support the exploration of alternative ways to deliver health care. Moving toward alternatives, including those provided by the private sector, is a natural development of our health care system."

- Stephen Harper, Toronto Star, October 2002.

"It's past time the feds scrapped the Canada Health Act."

- Stephen Harper, then Vice-President of the National Citizens Coalition, 1997.

"What we clearly need is experimentation with market reforms and private delivery options [in health care]."

- Stephen Harper, then President of the NCC, 2001.

"I know this is a dangerous subject. My advisors say don't talk about it, but the fact is sometimes provinces have allowed in the past few years, they've brought in private services covered by public health insurance... Why do I care and why do we care as a federal government how they're managed? What we care about is whether people can access them. This is just an ideological agenda."

- Conservative leader Stephen Harper at the leadership debate, June 15th 2004, conceding that he shouldn't talk about his positive view of privatization of health care.

CHAPTER 421 IN HARPOCRISY...

2011-04-02T00:36:00.001-07:00

... The Chicken is trying to turn the page after he turned the other cheek and ran.
He laughingly tries to blame the per-vote subsidy in putting parliament on a regular election cycle.
That downplays the role of his own party, under Stephen Harper's own watch, that began with regular stunt bluster in calling everything a confidence motion, then launched into out-of-election advertising ad nauseum, which has resulted in the lead he holds today. Yep, no argument here, advertising when done slickly and abundantly, does work. At CON central tho, truth plays no factor.
He says parties are bankrolled for an election almost immediately following an election due to the Chretien implemented per-vote subsidy. As someone who's involved with local riding politics, I know for a fact that the rebates for the per-vote subsidy typically take two years to arrive. Another Harper lie.
That being said, I do agree that the per-vote subsidy should be tinkered with, even democratized.
If each ballot had another check box, this time at the bottom -- requesting the voter if they wished a $2 subsidy to go to the party of their choice -- it would enable those who don't like the subsidy to have their way. Also, there should be a proportional element that rewards parties that run more candidates; one-province parties should not receive the same amount of subsidy per-vote as a party that runs candidates (and meets the 5% threshhold) in 250+ ridings. Ring up the subsidy in 1/4s - 1/4 if you run candidates in 78 ridings or less; 1/2 of the amount if you run candidates in 156 ridings or under, etc.

JUST ANOTHER 'BUYING OPPORTUNITY'?

2011-03-29T12:13:00.000-07:00

The whole Bruce Carson scandal says so much about Stephen Harper.
One of Harper's closest advisors -- a man who earned the nickname 'the mechanic' for being able to move into a department on Harper's sayso and 'fix' things -- had taken hold of a scheme to sell First Nations groups with serious water issues, while making his escort/fiancee a whole lot richer in the process.
Carson, who had been working for government on the environmental file not long ago, also was linked to Big Oil through an appointment to the University of Calgary's Canada School of Energy and the Environment. In northern Alberta, what is one of the biggest factors in undrinkable water? Oil.
Most importantly is the question why water is being continually treated as a saleable commodity over its use for citizens.
I hope all parties come out and make this one of their main campaign promises: Drinking water is a critical resource and will be established as an unassailable right for all Canadians.

READY, SET...

2011-03-25T11:33:00.000-07:00

While they accuse the opposition of being too eager for an election, this arrived in my mailbox 11:12 a.m. pst...

Faux outrage is quaint. Good luck getting this candidate (or 303 other CON candidates, for that matter) to a debate or public meet and greet.

Go Read This...

2011-03-25T10:07:00.000-07:00

... because it's a scintillating read.
Of course, in Stephen Harper's world, forged documents are not unlike faked tapes, plagarized speeches, doctored documents, non-compliant accountability and baldfaced lies.
Bloggers like Curiousity Cat, Impolitical and FarnWide continue to lead the way.

NO KIDDING, EINSTEIN...

2011-03-22T23:39:00.000-07:00

Jim Flaherty to Peter Mansbridge after delivering his budget:
"This isn't Paul Martin."
After wiping the Canadian taxpayers for $40.5-Billion deficit in 2010, after a $55B one in 2009 (and spending the cupboard bare in 2008 BEFORE the economic downturn), Jimbo finally calls one right.
You sir are no Paul Martin.

But give the Stephen Harper CONservative government kudos on one thing -- they sure know how to create a pot of chicken soup. Too bad it isn't edible.

SCOUNDRELS AND BLACK HEARTS...

2011-03-20T23:56:00.000-07:00

It's been obvious for a long time that the 'new' CONservative party knows no bounds when it comes to stooping.
They've changed the parameters of politics -- it's all about the win, and rules and honour are for whiners.
Their latest attack on Michael Ignatieff is again part of their modification of history, where they get to tell someone else's story. However, their latest launch is an incredibly new low -- attacking the dead relatives of the leader of the opposition.
For those who worry about the state of our country and the tenor of our nation's current leadership, every new gamesmanship strategy from Harper is a confirmation of what is wrong within our community. Non accountable, without ethics or moral compass, Stephen Harper's war machine will continue to salt the political landscape until people with backbone stand up, speak up and demand facts and reality as opposed to whispers, malicious lies and innuendo.
Do we really deserve that kind of governance?

WHERE THERE'S SMOKE...

2011-03-17T21:57:00.000-07:00

... You don't suppose the fact that a TV station was doing an investigative piece on the scummy buddy of Stephen Harper had anything to do with said so-called leader tossing his buddy under the bus, or at least to the bushes where his other buddy, Mr. Grumpy Pants Elliott, could 'speed things up', do you?
Check into Bruce Carson's background and you'll see he didn't suddenly become an unethical sleazy bastard overnight. He was fine as a confidante/advisor until the heat and election drive got tangled up in blue.

HARPER'S NUCLEAR SECRET...

2011-03-14T23:12:00.000-07:00

Stephen Harper's boast of Canada being the new energy superpower was just one more of those fake channel changers, ie Northern Star... or was it?
While we all watch with horror, compassion and empathy at what's happening in Japan, we should be reminded that our own so-called leader was (is?) eager to plant Canada's energy future in the nuclear camp.
He's tried to tie his faux environmental plan (a plan that must include mermaids and unicorns, because all of them have the same basis in reality) to a nuclear 'strategy'.
Impolitical has treaded this topic well, here and here.
Harper's abject interest in reducing public oversight, breaking down a publicly owned corporation and selling it piecemeal to likely Harper-friendly big business stirred up some concern. But it's been well hidden and nearly forgotten.
Let's remind ourselves that Stephen Harper's central focus is reducing public investment in areas where he deems it 'competition' to his friends, to eliminate the government's ability to provide safeguards and checks and balances, and let industry police itself.
Oh, no doubt Harper's next spiel about 'nuclear' will be in that sweater voice, expressing caution while placating his allies with deep pockets. It's like handing out 0-down, 40-year mortgages in one sentence, then bemoaning the level of debt Canadians carry.
We don't need to hear his psychic dresser tell us where that could end up, do we?

SIGN OF ROUGH SEAS AHEAD?

2011-03-12T12:47:00.000-08:00

...as the rats start to leave?
No doubt the Stephen Harper CONs will be able to find potted plants in these ridings to run (and win), but the signal's pretty clear.
Exit while the getting's good.

One more chance to flash back to one of Day's worse performances as a lying CON...

NEW STORY, SAME OLD LINE...

2011-03-10T13:13:00.001-08:00

Stephen Harper says that the $530,000 buyout was the quickest and most efficient way to extricate disgraced integrity commissioner Christiane Ouimet from her position.
The person the Harper regime put in place to oversee whistleblowers and watch over the ongoings of governmental departments had proven to be a colossal failure and drain on the department's resources -- unless of course you're the self-satisfied Prime Minister of a government with lots to hide.
It's bad enough when the odd leak gets out -- all governments know that -- so the occasional William Elliott situation or stompin' mad performance from the soon-to-be senator for Millhaven may create a bad impression on Stephen Harper, he of the carefully, psychic-guided image issue.
So, along with the free pile of taxpayers money is what is now guaranteed CONservative policy: a confidentiality agreement.
Nice to see Stephen Harper takes care of his own.
Could he at least do it with his own money for once?

WHO'S MINDING THE STORE...

2011-03-09T10:29:00.001-08:00

Of course, when the higher-ups are busy forging documents, making 'financial offers' to dying MPs for their vote, and busy misleading parliament and the people of Canada, should we even ask?
From the CP:
OTTAWA — Conservative staffers with minds of their own or speed-bumps under the wheels of Tory re-election buses?

The resignation of Immigration Minister Jason Kenney's director of multicultural affairs added another name to the lengthy list of Conservative aides who have quit over stumbles, blunders or scandals.

Kasra Nejatian resigned last week after his name appeared on a party fundraising letter sent on Kenney's parliamentary letterhead. Kenney said Nejatian disobeyed his explicit instructions not to do partisan work at the ministerial office.

Nejatian is not alone. Since the Tories took power in 2006, at least a half-dozen staff have taken the blame for controversial actions they say were completely their own.

Half of those resignations occurred since the Conservatives announced that ministers would be accountable for the actions of their staff.

"There is a clear case to be made that the accountability of political staff ought to be satisfied through ministers," former House Leader Jay Hill told the Commons last May.

"Ministers ran for office and accepted the role and responsibility of being a minister. Staff did not."
I guess we can just chalk it up to more unreported criminal activity in Harperland.

TAKE THAT, LESS FORTUNATE...

2011-03-08T21:05:00.000-08:00

A House of Commons human resources committee took three years to come up with 58 recommendations that Ottawa could utilize to fight poverty in Canada.
Guess who's not interested?
Stephen Harper's CONservative government, that's who. It's because Harper and sadsack minister/future jailbird wife Diane Finley have their own plans for the less fortunate of the land.
It involves prorogued promises, mega prisons for those practitioners of unreported crimes, and something extra -- courtesy of the Canadian taxpayers -- for those who take care of themselves first.
And if it's a job the poor are looking for, there's a position open in the PMO office: Wanted, stooge able to look guilty on command and able to take the hit when the $#!% hits the fan...

Oh, and those pesky stats that help both public and private groups research and reach out to those in poverty? Well, while they may be perfectly fine for assisting CON ministers in devising ways to scam the public for funding partisan ventures and misrepresenting government business, Stephen Harper has found a way to avoid having to answer to other 'special interest groups' like the poor, underrepresented and ungrateful.
But how about that cake, eh?

GOOD FOR THE GOOSE...

2011-03-05T08:52:00.001-08:00

Here it is in a nutshell.
While he can make the law, Stephen Harper isn't above it, despite what he wants you to think.
Unless he makes forgery and stealing legal.

RETAIL POLITICS

2011-03-04T21:23:00.000-08:00

Naturally, Jason Kenney has a flunky to fall on his sword, just as Stephen Harper has one at the ready for any missteps.
Why wouldn't Harper try to ply his lies in other languages, too?
That Kenney's parliamentary secretary accidentally let the lid off the CONs latest swindle -- that's what you call it when the government uses public finances and machinery to lure in votes -- shouldn't surprise anyone. If anything, that has been the hallmark of Canada's New, er, the Stephen Harper Government.
Pitch, pitch pitch, and make sure the people know who's pitching. That credo has been used by previous Liberal and Progressive Conservative governments, too.
But there's a big difference in today's new world -- where programs and policy take a backseat to the partisan appeal.
It was revealed in the blatant cheque photo ops, in the corporate copying of Canada's Olympic logo, and in the minutia of every day governing. However, the budget-pinched world of the media, especially at the community level, hasn't had the power, inclination or heart to look into how their own Harper drones are milking the system.
Case in point -- Senator Yonah Martin. Here's a failed CON candidate, a political neophyte whose main task, if you can find her schedule and see her at work, is to troll for ethnic votes. Often at the lapel of Jason Kenney.
What has her contribution been to the senate, to the legislation that is supposedly getting sober second thoughts from her and her clones?
Harper is happy to keep us all in the dark -- and while the press give us Charlie Sheen schaudenfraude by the bucketload, it seems the truth will only surface when Harper's minions screw up.
Thankfully, there appears to be no shortage of Harper aides to throw under the bus.

FISH ROTS...

2011-03-04T03:54:00.000-08:00

At the head of the CONservative party, your crimes are not their crimes.
Up is down. Right is wrong. Bad is good.
Stephen Harper made it so.
Now, the party that lied about standing for accountability and ethics has been slapped down once more for its scheme that would bilk Canadian taxpayers of over $800,000 that they eagerly wanted to stuff into their overflowing pockets.
Receipts that appear doctored.
Shock! -- Not.
Stephen Harper, he of the plagarized speech, of the entrapment 'Grewal tape', the man who OK'd an offer to a dying MP in exchange of his vote - now slyly defending his party's right to forge documents. A man of many broken promises who never saw a downed rival who he wouldn't kick.
His agents in the in-and-out falsified invoices threatened to lean heavily on their own Conservative people who stopped to question this scheme.
Yes, that guy.
Sure, there's the smoke-screen defence put up by No. 1 thug, the Rgt. Hon. Senator from Millhaven that Harper knew nothing of this scheme... Sgt. Schultz couldn't have said it better.
Liberals are right to state that the In-and-Out scandal is about character -- at the top.
Lack of it seems to be the next conclusion.

USUAL SUSPECTS...

2011-02-25T00:15:00.000-08:00

Looks who's being charged for 'allegedly' breaking Canadian election laws?
Take a good look at goon No. 1 -- your honourable senator for Ontario (Millhaven?)... No doubt his senatorial bio reads: Doug loves curling up with a good bundle of election spending declaration forms and using them as napkins for his double-Doublicious.

Prior to his 'elevation into the chamber of sober second thought', Mr. Finley was rumoured to be the brains behind a new but ultimately unsuccessful plan to boost an MP's benefit package...

Two Stephen Harper bagman-appointees to the senate, facing charges for breaking election laws? Where did I see that before? Hmmm, it seems the psychic-led emperor has had previous problems with election laws...
Well, if it's good enough for the King, it's good enough for his Sir Guy of Gisbourne...

Now here's a classic that never gets old...

HARPER'S FEAR FACTOR...

2011-01-27T10:12:00.000-08:00

It seems Stephen Harper's central plank in getting a majority is fear.
He and his CONservative party have played the 'be scared, very scared!' card for a long time, while using it as a whip for both his followers and the not-so-nimble opposition.
His plan to imprison more Canadians -- and not just the unreported criminals of unreported crimes! -- has raised some interesting concerns from the Congregations of Christian Churches across Canada.
Using facts and actual studies, as opposed to Harper's lies and intestinal self-interests, the Church Council on Justice and Corrections are asking Harper to reconsider his expensive, both fiscally and socially, plan to ramp up jail times for non-violent offences:

“We are trying to educate the public and the people in our churches about this,” said Lorraine Berzins, co-ordinator of analysis for the CCJC, who worked in Canada’s federal penitentiaries for 14 years. “It goes so much against all the evidence about what keeps communities safe, and it does so much harm, and they are going to spend so much money, that it’s really surprising that there isn’t more opposition.”

A BOOK ON A GREAT CANADIAN...

2011-01-23T20:43:00.000-08:00

... who was once one of the top leading men in Hollywood.
I'm an easy touch for classic films and their stars.
Although Glenn Ford passed away in 2006, failing health and a decision to retire in seclusion meant the Quebec City-born actor had long fallen off the radar of most filmgoers.
If you consider yourself a serious film fan, titles like Gilda, 3:10 to Yuma, Blackboard Jungle, The Big Heat, The Fastest Gun Alive, Pocketful of Miracles, The Sheepman, The Courtship of Eddie's Father and Experiment in Terror, to name just a few of his 107 film and TV credits, will stir a memory or two.
After nearly 10 years in the making, son Peter Ford will be releasing a biography on his father that is expected to straighten out some of the publicity-mill myths that were repeated as fact for many years. Glenn Ford's story starts as the only son of a railway employee (his mother escaped a burning building days before his birth), the family's migration to southern California, and his rise to starring in movies alongside Bette Davis, Fredric March, buddy William Holden and favourite leading lady Rita Hayworth. Married to Hollywood sweetheart Eleanor Powell, who at the time was a star who's film credits dwarfed those of her husband, Ford's career caught fire after returning from a stint in the U.S. Marines on the back of film noir masterpiece Gilda. From that point on, he was among Hollywood's top-10 male stars for nearly 20 years, and remained a 'name' on any film that attracted attention right into the 1980s.
One of his briefest cameos was a touching performance in Richard Donner's Superman, where he played Pa Kent.
Will the book correct stories about Ford's war record, his romances, and tidbits like being related to John A. Macdonald? All I can say is, from a dinner I had with the author and his-then collaborator Christopher Nickens in 2004, separating fiction from fact was a main goal. Even if some of the more 'glorious' pieces of publicity were subtracted from Ford's bio, it still promised to be very enticing for a film fan like myself. Here's hoping.
I've already ordered my copy, which is due out later this spring.

THE PLAYER PIANO MAN...

2011-01-21T23:46:00.000-08:00

... or just more broken promises from the man who wasn't, Stephen Harper.
Apparently, people who believe the CONservatives were earnest about getting things done for Canadians on the fighting crime front were just as duped as those who bought the 'economic stewardship' from the faux economist who in mid-2008 said "if we were going to have some kind of big crash or recession, we probably would have had it by now."
On the 'make sure there are more police officers on the streets' front, it's been one dodge after another. When Harper isn't sending his attack dogs to call police chiefs "a cult" for saying the long gun registry was a useful tool in fighting crime, he's cancelling the 'high priority' crime bills so he can recalibrate the national anthem.
Who said he had to pay for that promise -- after paying for all the partisan 10-percenters, the secret focus groups, the larger cabinet, and keeping his psychic dresser in crystal balls?

TACTICAL SHAME...

2011-01-18T23:34:00.000-08:00

Stephen Harper is considered by many to be a genius. Sure, an evil genius by many, but smarter than the average bear by most.
Very few people have come out and described him as compassionate and reasoned. If there is no political gain for doing something, he'd just as soon wait, growl, snap his whip at his underlings, and let silence reign.
Another piece of evidence to that theory was the government of Canada's decision to ban six phthalates this week, chemical additives to soft plastic toys that have been considered by many nations for a long time to be a hazard to children.
Harper has been Prime Minister since January of 2006.
The European Union has had phthalates banned since 1999. The U.S. banned them two years ago. Being no friend of science nor scientific evidence, Harper has held onto the decision to follow suit for at least two years -- if we're to assume that his boast on 'waiting for the US to set policy', as in the environment, military and softwood lumber precedents.
He's trotted out this 'action' at a time when the heat and headlines are beginning to put him and his inactive government under some scrutiny. Harper's track record of getting legislation through the House and into the books has been abysmal, no small part due to his unwillingness to cooperate with his rivals in a minority parliament, and his addiction to prorogation. Lester Pearson's government showed us what kind of action could be done under similar circumstances.
This is not the first time that some 'important issue' was held back until a more beneficial release date -- that 'red tape commission' is the most recent joke he's thrown at Canadians. His penchant for only acting when it serves his party and person has become a black hole on our governance.
Time to remove the spot.

PROPHETIC PHOOLS...

2011-01-16T23:16:00.000-08:00

... So the men who brought us Zero-percent down, 40-year mortgages is now prepared to run through the theatre lobby with his hair afire?
"Ottawa to tighten mortgage rules" so says G&M.
Did someone just clue the economic clueless duo that Canadian taxpayers are on the hook if CMHC's floor falls? What's another concrete belief for Harper if he can't blow it up and do a 180-degree turn, right?
I'm not disagreeing with the latest move, however the experts I've been reading have been clamouring for this for nearly two years now. It is to laugh when the plagarist and faux economist starts nagging Canadians about their debt-load, and to see the so-called leader then open the taps to build gazebos and fake lakes and weekly focus groups on how to demonize the opposition.
Now that we're at the top of the rollercoaster, I dare say it's a fool who expects it to stop to let him off.
Stephen Harper and Jim Flaherty, making it up as they go along...

WHERE DOES IT END...

2011-01-08T16:55:00.000-08:00

Is this what happens when the leaders of one partisan political group fire up their supporters into hatred?
I'm sending my prayers for the victims, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The early stories suggest it was an opponent of Obama's health care program that entered a shopping centre in Tucson, killing six including a nine-year-old girl, and injured a dozen others.
Should I hold my breath for FOX News' talking heads to apologize for leading in stirring up the debate with their lies and fearmongering, or just rely upon them to attempt to turn this tragedy on its head and turn it into more fuel?
Here in Canada, there are plenty who are expecting hatred and irrational anger to lead them to the promised land. That one of their staple tenets is against gun control doesn't help in the feeling that this could happen here, too.

LAME DUCK MINISTER...

2011-01-04T23:06:00.001-08:00

Meet the new guy, same as the old guy. In other words, Peter Kent will get to put his 'anchorman' skills to the test as Stephen Harper's newest carny player, er environment minister. Will it be the door to Kent's assension to corporate windfall, or as a role in the bobblehead choir, or lead him to the higher calling of being Harper's pit bull in training?
Just don't expect anything but rote reading of the action of others, how that's good/bad and Canada will follow it's own/the US decision someday soon.

END RUN AROUND DEMOCRACY...

2010-12-21T23:49:00.000-08:00

Let me get this straight. We've accepted that Stephen Harper has become the Don of patronage appointments -- setting new standards between doses of proroguing.
The Canadian public and the CON sheeple are okay with the idea of him stuffing the porkulent office of the Senate with his failed candidates, fartcatchers and bagmen.
But now, Canadian taxpayers et al, we have to accept him shoehorning in his future candidates for MP into the chamber of sober second thoughts, in effect getting them on the public dime before they even have to be tested by the public?
If you're not shocked, perhaps you should be amused -- one person who only sees the senate as a nice, comfy well-accomodated holiday to launch his campaign for his own importance, as opposed to that set-for-life lottery ticket?
How humbling of Larry Smith to give the voters of Lac St. Louis a heads-up that he'll be eager to step out of his plum appointment at the drop of the next writ.
Apparently, he's chosen to avoid the complete Michael Fortier comparison -- ie two-time loser -- by refusing Harper's offer to be an unelected member of his cabinet.
Harper, who hasn't met a truth he wouldn't trade for partisan gratification, is still pitching the angle that he's not about to shovel money to municipalities looking to attract/keep professional sports franchises... Remember the Income Trust tune? Funny that, rumours being one of Smith's major tasks will be to till the soil to make just such a vote-buying venture palatable coast-to-coast.
If I recall my Reform party history correctly, these governmental doings would result to the rightwing setting its hair ablaze.
The vast sinkhole that was the conservative movement's ethical being already has to deal with smoking pants...

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS...

2010-12-20T22:21:00.000-08:00

... with Stephen Harper's latest stooges appointed to the senate.
Keeping with his 'integrity-free' decision to ignore everything he had said about the Senate in the past, the CON prime minister tagged CFL former great Larry Smith and failed federal candidate and minister Don Meredith to the upper chamber -- just in time for Christmas!
"Hey, no one does Santa like me!" Harper crooned to his covy of bobbleheads. "These two will do my bidding until I uncover the secret of Vlad Tepes!"
During Smith's tenure as CFL commissioner, he led the wildly popular expansion to such Canadian outports as Sacremento, Shreveport, Las Vegas and Baltimore.
Upon leaving the commissioner's office, Smith worked on his resume, primarily being a bootlick with the Montreal 'left-wing media' Gazette.
Meredith, who rode 2,982 votes to finish fourth in 2008 in Toronto Centre, has said that he believes homosexuals to be 'people.' He also said: "It's the right of individuals to choose their orientation."
Of course, that belief should be taken with a grain of salt lick, since his soul now belongs to Harper's Legion of Marauding Senators. To prove he either is mistaken, unclear or not had his CON mindmeld take, Meredith later added: "...if it is, it is the law and we would vote according to what the law is."
Like the set-election law? Or signed agreements on Kyoto, Kelowna et al?

...TO HIGH HEAVEN...

2010-12-17T23:57:00.000-08:00

It's a stink, stank, stunk moment for the Harper CONs.
How long before someone in the media digs a little deeper?
Or they could try and shine their light a little harder here, or here -- it's Keystone Cops in Parliament, but with Snidley Whiplash-esque execution...

FAKE IMITATING ART...

2010-12-17T23:52:00.000-08:00

On the 'if this doesn't soften my image, i'm just gonna call in the commandos' Harper tour, another one bites the dust...

Of course, he couldn't even get his rip-off signoff right, either.

BULLY MAN'S BLUFF...

2010-12-17T23:25:00.000-08:00

The ogre is back at it again... Pitching one meme while doing bi-annual 'I suddenly care about people' act.
Oh, look -- Harper suddenly realizes he's in a land where ancestors of another nation reside! And many of these people are poor! (will he use the word 'poverty'? Over-under says 'no')
Quelle surprise! Harper wants to provide his big shoulder to the women and children of the world -- just don't shake his hand too vigorously.
Perhaps this is all part of the shedding of his skin that occurs with other reptiles. Skulk, hiss, shimmy, hide under a rock, then shed skin. Yep, sounds familiar.
In a year-end interview with CTV, Sauron, er Harper said "...[I'll] not screw around with a bunch of political games."
If CTV and its mainstream members need any reminders -- political games is what Harper's all about. He never saw an issue that couldn't be used as a wedge, and spent his first mandate trying to dare the opposition into defeating his government. Of course, the most benign example actually is apropos; see 'fixed election dates', September 2008.

LETTERS WE'D LIKE TO SEE...

2010-12-11T23:19:00.000-08:00

That should point out when members of the government get it right (no, not necessarily one of the signs of the apocalypse):

Dear Editor,

I'm often a loud critic of our federal government when I feel it's done something wrong. From prorogation to lying about the deficit (we were in it before the 'economic downturn') to single-tender agreements to buy expensive military aircraft, i've disagreed.
But I think it's important to acknowledge (FILL IN CONSERVATIVE James Moore/Gerald Keddy/Shelly Glover) for voting with the side of human rights last week. Mr/Mrs (Moore/Keddy/Glover) voted in favour of an opposition bill that would enhance the rights of transsexual and transgender individuals.
Despite the majority of the Conservative government voting overwhelmingly against the motion, these individuals broke party ranks -- a party that shamefully voted against the rights of indigenous peoples at the UN -- and said transsexuals and transgenders deserve the same protection and regard in the Canadian Human Rights Act of other citizens, as it deals with discrimination and hate crime provisions.
They did this just after the newest Conservative MP, former Ontario chief of police Julian Fantino, attacked the Canadian Charter of Rights during his election campaign.
I like to point out the good things -- so bravo Mr/Mrs (Moore/Cannon/Keddy/Glover/Boucher)!

Signed

___________

Send to:
James Moore - editorial@tricitynews.com; editorial@thenownews.com
Shelly Glover - letters@canstarnews.com
Gerald Keddy - letters@herald.ca; letters@thecoast.ca; info@halifaxnewsnet.ca; halifaxletters@metronews.ca; editor@theadvance.ca; editor@thecoastguard.ca;

JUST A CONJUGAL VISIT...

2010-12-11T09:34:00.000-08:00

A lot of evidence suggests they're more than friends, tho...

Feds 'Not In Bed with Big Tobacco' Aglukkaq says
Shifting Positions on Tobacco Labels Lacks Credibility

Ottawa Met With Cigarette Maker...

Tobacco Lobbying Preceded Label Retreat

HARPER ON A ROLL...

2010-10-08T21:53:00.000-07:00

...Of course, he does it from the safety of Rutherturd's radio booth, sounding like Lt. Cmdr. Phillip Queeg of the Caine Mutiny.
Next he'll ask to check Ignatieff and the opposition troika for the strawberries.
So, has Harper lost it? Sending ministers to stand before the international press and say if Canada doesn't get that UN seat it's Ignatieff's fault? Wow, who knew one man could be so powerful, but considering how Harper is a real one-man-band type, no wonder he is sweating over what his main rival is doing.
Just keep in mind that, while sounding psychotic and paranoid may not be a great campaign strategy, Harper is really playing checkers to our chess. While the media is giving air time to his illogical rants, it is taking real journalists away from the Parliament building reno scandal, the entitlements of righthand toddler Pierre, and the stubborn whacking of the census.

FAUX NEWS NORTH...

2010-09-03T23:48:00.000-07:00

Even without a nation-wide delivery, Korn-Kob Kory Teneycke -- a Harper disciple sent out to muddy the media waters with bile and propaganda -- is demonstrating his pure lack of ethical moxie for all to see.
Irked by the very popular Avaaz Anti-Sun TV petition and its apparent punk-ability, the PM's pseudo spawn virtually gave the thumbs up to a supporter or supporters to sign up fake names to the petition, in hopes to shine a light on its illegitimacy.
In this wonderfully detailed post by the irrepressible Kady O'Malley, Teneycke (just remember, you can't spell Kory without 'yeck') lets slide that his name and some actual public media types were signed up illegitimately but rakes it for silly type signatures like Boba Fett, Snuffaluffagus and The Office's Dwight Shroot.
Nope, but he does take the time to make this online petition into a 'woe-is-us' and try to paint his opposition as mostly American (despite the signatures being unlisted) or artsy lefties like Margaret Atwood (who admitted to adding her famous name to the poll).
Free publicity; but when is the right going to step up to the plate and act like a responsible adult. You've got ideas, let them out and let them face the heat of debate. Hiding them and whining whenever someone throws some heat your way is not the act of an accountable, open organization. Oh right. You are a CON in wolf's clothing...

OUR GOVERNMENT, OUR SHAME...

2010-08-23T10:27:00.000-07:00

The radical right-shift and fearmongering of Stephen Harper and his unscientific morons is making more news in foreign newspapers...
Harper and viagra-fueled lothario Vic Toews' stirred up anger and fear against the latest refugees, with the Manitoba MP labelling the Tamil boat as "terrorists" and "smugglers" and not 492 asylum-seekers.
Then the 'so-called leftwing media' helped carry the CONs' water -- Monte Solberg, anyone?
No need on doing actual casework to get ahead of the conclusions, right Vic?

READ MY LIPS....

2010-08-20T14:45:00.000-07:00

He doth protest much, eh?
Of course, Diamond Bill Elliott knows what happens to CONs who tell the truth.
That's why when he suggested in an earlier interview that the long-gun registry was "useful", he couched it that facts showed that.
Fortunately, Harper has already began to make real facts unlawful.

RUBBER HITS THE ROAD...

2010-08-18T23:41:00.000-07:00

... when the chicken sees its shadow. Or Harper gets the latest publicly funded secret poll data.
It's interesting how quickly the decision to shuffle out RCMP Chief Supt. Marty Cheliak as the head of the Canadian Firearms program -- but first, let's try to blame it on bilingualism -- has become a huge gravy stain on Stephen Harper's no-accountability shirt. If it's any consolation, Cheliak has good company.
The axe came days before Cheliak, who has vociferously defended the long-gun registry as a useful tool in protecting both the public and the police, was to meet with Canadian police chiefs. He was expected to give a speech at the meeting -- then 'Yoink!'
With hothead Willie Elliott putting on his mattel-made RCMP hat and doing Harper's biding, Cheliak is now toast. Oh, first he was just off to re-education, er, bilingual class.
All to protect the CONs' slow-moving act to disarm the controversial long-gun registry.
Even members from the CON-friendly side are not swallowing Harper's lame excuse.
Are the CON-support team starting to show cracks? Isn't there some kind of shame in standing behind a leader who refuses to let them defend and debate what is a fairly major belief? Why is hiding their ideals, their actions and motives from everyday Canadians now the modus operandi of Canada's not-so-new government?
Remember, the long-gun registry was a cause that played a major role in uniting the right.
But instead of explaining their reasons, their feelings and policy options that they want to put ahead of public safety (why listen to the police? What do they know about public safety?) the Harper CONs instead hide the research, data and people who may make their cause a little uncomfortable.
Nobility and transparency have no place in Stephen Harper's Canada, apparently.

REVERSE LOGIC...

2010-08-03T23:54:00.000-07:00

Before, it was the rallying cry of a small fringe group that 'provoked' Stephen Harper and his caucus minions to halt something that had become an accepted, even a civic duty by millions.
Now, the growing chorus of supporters of the long-form mandatory census are just noisy complainers who should just cough up the information on their own.

"If this census thing was such a hot issue with as many people as some of the national media would like you to believe then. . . if all those people would chip in and volunteer that information, we won't have any problem (with a lack of data), we'll probably have twice as much" as was collected previously, (CONservative MP Larry) Miller said.

Seems like perfect CON circle logic to me...

CIRCLE JERKS...

2010-07-22T23:57:00.000-07:00

... have no reason to look further than two minutes into the future.
Tony Clement's ability to step in piles of self-made doo-doo while commenting on the floral fragrance is a nice skill set.
Emasculating StatsCan by eliminating the mandatory long-form census -- without any form of debate, discussion or dialogue among users or members of non-tin foil set -- can only be described as short-sighted. First thing, Clement's new plan will cost $30-million more in its voluntary version. Secondly, other jurisdictions, most notably the U.S., went through a similar exercise and discovered that the end result wasn't just more costly, but very unreliable. Ho-hum. There's no evidence that can move faith-based decider Harper.
Here to prove Harper's case of a self-absorbed whiner looking out for No. 1 is the CONs' own version of Sgt. Schultz, MP David Tilson.
Yes, Stephen Harper, the suddenly scared of his own shadow so-called leader of this dumb revolution, is happy to let others do the talking. Who said he hasn't evolved?
Although let's be positively clear on this -- besides the private polling industry that would like to pick up the pieces from all the suddenly now underserved private and public groups thanks to a gutted national census -- Harper is the main grumbler who wanted this done.
The likes of Tilson only provide a bit of comedic effect.

SITH HAPPENS...

2010-07-22T00:16:00.000-07:00

... Another day, another bumbling CON government lie exposed.
Gone is the argument that StatsCan mandarins actually supported Stephen Harper's decision to hamper religious groups, social planners, social service providers, chamber of commerces, provincial and municipal governments and the people who paint bedrooms.
The faux strawman of invasion of privacy has been shown to be as hollow as Stephen Harper's soul, and the unabashed lie about thousands of complaints has been proven to be shred-ible. Nor the ribald fib that a totally voluntary project could replicate one that included a mandatory form -- like the current decree from the government for Canada's farmers.
While the census may be a regular target for libertarians and grumblers from across the political spectrum, it has been the same minor inconvenience that a dozen Prime Ministers from the turn of the previous century managed to support for the good of the country.
Unfortunately, the current job-holder gives a rats' ass for that institution.

CLARITY...

2010-07-21T11:44:00.000-07:00

...is never an easy thing with Stephen Harper's government. There'll be no recession meant "the recession is here but we're not responsible." Canada will run no deficits turned out to be "we're already in deficit but you haven't seen nothing yet!"
When StatsCan is turning out numbers that reflect this one can't help but wonder that this kind of data is anathema of the CONs' existence.

Numbers, they say, don't lie. And the numbers say that once again, overall, Canada last year became a safer place in which to live.

Statistics Canada is reporting that the national crime rate -based on the number of crimes reported to police -dropped three per cent last year compared with 2008, and has declined 17 per cent since 1999.

Any questions as to why Harper is hoping to create a huge divisive election issue out of his 'Big Government' boogieman? Considering he's the master of Big Government, the irony is rich...

SILENCE IS GOLDEN...

2010-07-19T14:41:00.001-07:00

... or it may be their best attempt at getting people to swallow the swill being funnelled out of CON government headquarters.
Unappointed Harper biker-chick checker Maxime Bernier now claims the move was in response to "the silent majority."

"We're not there to please all special interest groups, we're there for the silent majority of Canadians," Bernier said. "I'm sure that the big majority of Canadians understand that, and will agree with our decisions."

Even though it is also admitted that there was no consultation of such.
Unless we're counting the psychic dresser hotline, perhaps. And things Stephen Harper thinks are good for you -- like a senate seat if you're fat and blue enough...
I've got a tip for you Maxime - don't ask that silent majority what they think of paying taxes, which also requires a significant amount of personal information bandied about to 'Big Government'. The kind of 'Big Government' that can create fake lakes, shut down a city, twist two provinces' arms to take on the HST-bugaboo (Don't invest in Ontario! unless...) and non-competitive contracts for billion-dollar military expenditures.
What a crock.

DISHONEST MISDIRECTION...

2010-07-19T10:06:00.000-07:00

...typical CON mode of defence. Load up the guns, fire at will. Repeat.
Scott dissects the current 'non-debate' over Stephen Harper's secret decision to axe the long-form census, remarking about how there has not been much of a 'rallying cry' against the census until Harper and sock-puppet and gazebo expert Tony Clement said so. Then the CON-sheeple sat up and began to typeth on cue.
Now they've got renown lazy ex-cabinet guy and bedder of known gangster affiliates Maxime Bernier on the right wing, leading the tea-party-esque silliness. Yes, the minister who forgot his homework near the bed of a motorcycle mama. Well, I know why he doesn't want the Canadian government to know how many bedrooms he has...
The Vanity Press and the Globe and Mail's Jeffrey Simpson nail it in two different directions -- Harper wants to hide his own track record, while framing the future. He knows his electorate opportunities improve with a befuddled, ignorant and impulse driven public. Data, science and substance have no room in the decisions and actions of a Harper government. Stockwell Day and his dinosaur must be cheering very loudly from his seadoo parked in the garage.
It isn't hard to see how this could actually turn into a win for the dicta-er so-called CON leader. Grab an issue that connects in the stomach of a large enough group, hide your tracks and fuzzicate the rationale and debate. Call an election over it. Harper's core supporters are trained seals; they'll vote for fish.
By dividing the opposition's support, through means of governmental warfare, de-funding, isolating and disenfranchising, the right-wing wins.
That's the kind of Canada he wants.

CONSENSUS ON CENSUS...

2010-07-18T01:09:00.001-07:00

... unless you're a living-in-the-dark CON, that is.
Oh sure, there's the token non-Tory contrarian questioning the purpose of the mandatory long-form Stats Canada questionaire, which has fostered a whopping three whole complaints to the privacy commissioner over the past 15 years.
Newspaper editorials are nearly unanimous; academia is too. Bankers and bureacrats, also. Geneologists, ditto. Stephen Harper's favourite (second) kicking post, those special interest groups that help the sick, underprivileged and visible and non-visible minorities? Count them as worried. Social planners, engineers, municipalities, policy planners, private businesses - they all have been aided in their work through information gleaned from the Canadian census.
Without a functioning, accurate census, more decisions like this will certainly be easier to slip past the great 'unwashed'.
So, while a virtually silent Harper leaves all the dodging and weaving for sock-puppet Tony Clement, the lie about why continues to stink.
If the issue was about privacy concerns, who raised them? Is it the cabal of religious right fanatics who've gained inside cabinet access through the likes of Darrel Reid? Wouldn't they love to see government eliminate its interest in solving the social ills, ie. a GWB-like platform that would result in religious groups controlling more social response agencies, here and abroad. Or is it the big business information industry that, perhaps, would love nothing better than control the data, the access and manner inwhich it is created? What do you think, Mr. Fraser Institute? Completely speculative on my part, but when Clement can ride a lie that Stats Canada on its own provided the option to rid themselves of this critical tool, I'm afraid even the most machavellian rationale must be examined.
This policy decision, which came about with no public consultation and no great study, according to Tony the talking Tory, must have had some big kahunas behind it. Who are they -- maybe they also know who secretly paid for Harper's run to the Alliance leadership? Or paid off McKay's bill after he turned all-Judas on the progressives who put him on that pedestal? Or is it just another piece to Harper's own remaking of Canada secret project? The one that he occasionally lets slip -- while the mainstream media keeps us comfortably warm in that pot of warming water?
It's up to us, and you, to keep up the heat on this one.

TRUTH MUFFLED...

2010-06-20T22:33:00.000-07:00

Should we be shocked that the story on Harper and his "Audit reveals prime minister's department flouted contracting rules", by the Canadian Press' Dean Beeby, is being hidden by the so-called 'left-wing media'?
How is this story not in every Canwest paper, or is not even available when you search google news? I always wondered how their news roll was manipulated, but I wouldn't be shocked to find that it's as open to moral corruption as some other private headline sites.
The story, which I recommend you read, is apparently only available on the Winnipeg Free Press' online edition from June 19, while one other 'publication' (likely a web-only item) has picked it up. Yes, it is a Canwest paper which has been known to think it's own thoughts now and again.
None of the other papers in the chain, or elsewhere for that matter, have printed it to date to my knowledge. Have you seen it? Send me the link if you have.
Let's not forget all the backs to scratch and regulations to be circum-navigated with all these media corporations changing hands.
Deep pocketed ethically-amputated A-holes like our so-called PM know the importance of burying the real goods -- whether its on tape or elsewhere.
I guess when even the talking points can't produce a facsimile of a distraction, smothering the truth is the only other option.
Shamefully, it is apparently working.

HARPER'S HIDDEN FOLLY...

2010-06-20T01:01:00.000-07:00

It's been repeated enough that it has become gospel.
It can't happen here because we're different.
So-called leader Stephen Harper said it on the election campaign, along with 'Canada can't afford a deficit', 'if a recession was coming to Canada it would be here by now,' and 'does this mumu make me look fat?' -- ooops, that last one was just for the tax-payer funded psychic dresser.
Nope, the lie I'm referring to about the CONs -- and I know that it's dizzying to pick just one, but let's do so, just today -- is that the Canadian banks didn't get a bailout.
Nope, they didn't. Ask Flim-flam Flaherty. Let treasury bore Stockwell channing Day assure you.
It didn't happen. Wasn't at all like all the others. Nada, mission accomplished, and all that right-wing jazz.
Except:

"The banks were actually "bailed out" to the tune of $125 billion just before and after the 2008 election — in the form of a massive purchase of questionable mortgages and other "rotten paper," in the words of one economist, held by them. This was done through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, a federal agency."

It isn't bad enough that the so-called fiscal conservative Harper has been one of the biggest and most secretive liars this side of Tiger Woods. But now we're all on the hook for some large and dubious debts that could reveal Canada's economic stock a crock.
But hey, perhaps we now know why Harper virtually made it his own personal mission to make sure the banks didn't have to face a tax on earnings to cover these possible liabilities. Next up, possibly he'll host a telethon for BP.

DON'T DO AS I DO...

2010-05-30T23:42:00.001-07:00

...
may be the memo that Vic Toews may have wanted to pass Canada's top soldier.
Although the circumstances differ -- one being a subordinate puppet to Canada's social conservative so-called despot, the other the nation's top soldier in a war zone -- it does smack of typical CON double standards.
Mr Toews, just as Mons. Bernier's clumsy public dance and private slip-ups with a former associate of known gangsters, knows that a little tryst with a subordinate can work out just dandy.
Perhaps Brig-Gen. Daniel Menard can make amends with the piously dishonest CON government by signing off on some prisoner transfer documents, or fall on a sword...

HUG A BANKER...

2010-05-18T07:36:00.000-07:00

In these trying times, it's nice to know who's your real friend.
Stephen Harper, the pal to big oil, is extending his unwavering support to big businesses' Hinterland of Who's, the Big Banker.
Sorry, environment - you'll just have to wait until the bankers' bullion is safe from the Robin Hoods of the world. What's in your wallet?

HARPER DREAM TEAM TAKES ANOTHER HIT...

2010-05-17T22:14:00.000-07:00

He knows how to sing a song and speaks in simple, soft tones. His stories have been incredibly tall and entertaining, stretching reality to a fawning audience.
Not only that, but he might be familiar with the CON circle of friends!
Unfortunately for Stephen Harper, Robert Munsch's public confession today was not a mere cry for help but a timely step to avoid being cast as a card-carrying member of the 'laws are for you, not for me' CONs.

PANIC AT GROUND ZERO...

2010-04-27T23:58:00.000-07:00

Harper is slowly being forced to reveal his hand.
Let's assume that what was diagnosed as serious damage to his credibility and hold on the levers in evil CON corp were not damaged by his last two prorogation dance steps.
However, if you scan the profiles of people lining up behind his shadow, you are seeing a sudden plethora of social conservatives, grinning and staring as though Jimmy Swaggert had just gave them a lapdance.
The Vancouver Sun today has a front page column by Barbara Yaffe that blares 'Harper's Motherhood Issue Backfires, Triggers Secret Agenda-Fears On Abortion.'
Front page.

Other editorials point out Harper's mish-mosh of a policy pronouncement. Originally against 'family planning' he's now just not going to allow Canadian funding of abortion in third world countries. But maybe he's not completely supporting contraceptives, either.
No clear message but one clear signal -- we may not know who paid Harper's way to the party leadership, but we do know who's got their hands up his keister now. It perhaps also reveals why dimbulbs like Anders, Breitkruz, Bruinooge, Cannan, Del Maestro, Fast, Gallant, Glover, Goodyear, Hawn, Hiebert, Kenney, Lukiwski, Poilievre, Ritz, Schellenberger, Smith, Tilson, Trost, Vellacot and Yellich look so happy these days.
Maxime gets it. Soon we will witness more freelancing and leadership ambitions surface. Maybe we'll get Harper to lipsync the Beatles 'The End' to close the books on this morally corrupt and economically moronic party.

TANGLED TORY STORIES...

2010-04-16T21:52:00.000-07:00

Bet Stephen Harper is sure wishing he had saved his last 'go to prorogue' card for a new spring break.
The current scandal is looking more and more like one of those dangerous stingers that leave a nasty cold sore where everyone can see it.
Although some of the salacious and overly personal jibes at incompetent and impudent Helena Guergis are over the top, certain elements of this current scandal are exposing a familiar character flaw in our so-called PM.
Apparently, Steve's a one-trick pony:
Deny, deflect and detach. Repeat.
Hopefully the Canadian public will get a chance to do their own detaching from this inept, morally corrupt group of bunglers soon.

PROGRESS

2010-03-21T20:34:00.000-07:00

Obama stickhandled his health care plan through the US House of Representatives today. Despite some vicious, blatant scare-mongering from the far right and corporate special interests, it appears 32 million more Americans will have access to health care that only the rich have taken for granted.
Although the rhetoric about 'government take-over of the health industry' is pure balderdash, the concerns that it may be unaffordable -- considering the sway and power the military interests hold over the national treasury -- is still to be answered.
The media for the most part has covered both sides of the argument with some semblance of balance (FoxNews being the biggest and expected exception). The opponents to Obama's plan have used every level of scurrilous attack possible to pressure and frighten both the general public and the politicians on the hot seat.
Perhaps one of the other reasons the tea partiers have dug deep and dirty is that their braintrust knows its history. The last time a US President undertook a radical, innovative government aid program during a time of economic turmoil, the success and connection with the American voter was enough to lock up the White House for the Democrats for 20 years.
I'm not saying that the health care plan is 2010's version of the New Deal, but certainly some on the right are worried about that. Not only have they not wrestled with their own guilt over the Bush-Cheney mess that was left, both nationally and internationally, they aren't interested in creating new and innovative programs to solve the problems that Americans are facing today. Not when scare tactics work so much cheaper.
Oh, and raspberry to our own CON movement -- remember Stephen Harper's non-committal non-support of Canada's health care system when Republicans tried to use it to paint national health care as a socialist boogieman? Well, at least one CON leader stood up for it, but it wasn't Harper. Was it because in Harper's mind he'd rather side with the tea-baggers?
Again, more proof that the CON man is not a leader.

OBVIOUS OBSERVATION...

2010-03-20T09:23:00.000-07:00

Stephen Harper and his CON game wasn't interested in the altruistic spreading of joy after all.

A post-campaign evaluation of the publicity for the tax credit – mandatory for government advertising worth more than $1 million – submitted to the Canada Revenue Agency last December suggests creating positive feelings about the government was one of the goals.

Apparently, the Canada's Action Plan ad campaign was all about making the government look good. Shock. No wonder Canada's fiscal record has hit the skids since Harper took office.
Stephen Harper's government? Only in it for themselves...

FLUSH WITH CASH...

2010-03-19T20:51:00.001-07:00

Good thing Canada's fiscal bottom line is tickety-boo.
That means we can afford to waive registration fees, lavish corporate-style increases for our so-called leader, and send mini-ministers on short trips on jets, for say coffee and a timbit.
Nope, I guess the CON team of Stephen Harper is really glad that the previous government left a surplus to splurge with. Otherwise we'd likely have to resort to raising payroll taxes, play 'Boo!' on income trusters, and invent new fees that apply just to the peon classes -- now just to get that government-issue tequila airlifted...

REASON #312...

2010-03-19T10:56:00.000-07:00

...why Stephen Harper has to go.
This is no laughing matter, so Ritz has been gagged. It isn't sexy, either, so Raitt has been shushed.
And I think Leona Aglukkaq will make sure there are no premature body bag shipments.
Of course, all but the tinfoil CONbot brigade will recognize a trend here.
But let's try to hope that behind closed doors CON ministers aren't treating this issue with the same cavalier, self-preservation-first motives that were exposed in past health care issues.
Perhaps in between cabinet ministers' airport rage and Supreme Waffler's post-prorogation habit of daily redux platter of flip-flops, the Canadian government can man-up and put together a real plan, other than handing it over to private, profit-oriented industry to take care of the people?

FISCAL FIXERS...

2010-03-11T10:30:00.000-08:00

After cutting imaginary jobs with imaginary salaries, the CON's magic budget balancing high-wire act is off to weed out the $1,000 plants and doorbells from the government purchase lists.
Creating a balanced budget won't be the 'sleight of hand' work that constructing a deficit out of a $13-billion surplus was (pre-economic downturn), but be patient. No doubt with the increase in advertising, personal private (ie. none of your beeswax!) Harper matters and long, private air travel to Tim Hortons in a neighbourhood near you -- and far enough away from Parliament to enlist an expense account -- we'll begin to see progress on this file sometime when Stockwell and Stephen grab their brass pension rings.

FLAHERTY'S FAUX DIET...

2010-03-06T21:47:00.000-08:00

This week's CON budget showed little signs of a 'recalibration' or 'austerity plan'.
In fact, the thin morsels that flim-flam finance man Jimbo Flaherty painted had all the magic of Avatar by crayola.
Harper's team plans to freeze MPs' salaries at the current level -- oh, that's tough stuff. He's already wearing the most bloated, lethargic cabinet in modern history. I guess perhaps they mean to cut back on Australian speechwriters, or limit focus groups to just one box of timbits. Naturally, partisan advertisement, including the blarney, hatchet-job 10 percenters will continue to fly off the presses, with an increase of $5 million from Jack and Jill Taxpayer; but don't worry, Harper may just off-load the printing work to the U.S., as he did with the 'Economic Action Plan' signage, or maybe a German-U.S. project like Canada's pup-tent Olympic pavilion.
But what's it all mean when Flaherty, to mouth the words 'tough' and 'fiscally responsible' before the cameras, uses the government's Challenger jet -- estimated to cost $9,000 from Ottawa to London Ont. -- to fly for his dollop of photo ops?
Even CON friends from the morose Fraser Institute couldn't help but see the sham in the numbers.

SHARING THE CREDIT...

2010-02-27T22:07:00.000-08:00

Certainly, the Canadian-esque disowning of the 'Own the Podium' earlier this week was a tad premature.
Canadian athletes did as we expected them to -- made us proud, and reached beyond our expectations.
That the 'Own the Podium' program had set expectations beyond what we're use to may have played a role. Governments and corporations and communities all stepped forward to assist our athletes in reaching the targets they had dreamed of.
Naturally, Stephen Harper's CONs will all be about getting their photos with the champions -- perfectly understandable, since no government would turn down that possible connection. However, their support seems to stop there. I recall Pierre Trudeau boarding the plane in 1972 when Team Canada touched down after edging the Soviet Union during the great, untoppable Summit Series.
While Harper wouldn't dare acknowledge it, and most athletes likely have forgotten, I think it's a good time to make sure the credit for some of these initiatives is spread to more than today's spotlight grabbers.
Former B.C. premier Glen Clark, who put a lot of his personal moxie on the line to get Vancouver into the competition of winning the 2010 bid.
Former Prime Minister Jean Chretien, for being a full supporter from the moment go.
Former Prime Minister Paul Martin, for creating and funding the 'Own the Podium' program. Former sports minister and B.C. MP Stepehn Owen was the point person.
Chretien and Martin deserve some extra credit, too, for creating the economic conditions where a two-week bash in the middle of winter wouldn't be a financial burden on a nation. Unfortunately, someone else came along and punched holes in that rainy day fund to where now B.C.ers and Canadians will be paying for the party for a long time.
Gold medals all around, gentlemen!

LAME FOLLOWING THE IMMATERIAL...

2010-02-26T23:52:00.000-08:00

Meet Andy Radia. He's no one's answer to Rachel Marsden, that's for certain, but he may be one small community newspaper's version of Karnak, a character from the ol' Johnny Carson Tonight Show.
Perhaps he's a faux mystic with the foresight of a bowling ball.
Unfortunately, Andy's not funny, nor nearly as insightful as 30-year-old jokes from a laboured comedy skit.
In today's copy of the Tri-City News, he's scrambling a little behind the times in trying to defend the so-called leader's pro-rogatory holiday.
Andy, who fashions himself as Telly Savalas for the right, doesn't use any new talking points, because after all, the CON handbook depends upon repetition of same-old, same-old until you either surrender or become ambivalent, or both.
"Yada-yada others did it too," says Andy.
He says Bob Rae "shamelessly" used it while premier -- thus questioning his own so-called leader's level of shame in the process.
"Yada-yada coalition of evil," snorts Andy.
Conveniently forgetting this agreement, aren't we, Andy?
"Yada-yada busy agenda for ze big leader," mutters Andy.
Funny, all those items he lists, except the photo op in Haiti where Harper kindly forced Haitian officials to ignore local emergency responsibilities to protect a visiting dignitary who once upon a time couldn't get out of Dodge fast enough to avoid an AIDS convention, kinda sound like things that routinely happen in Ottawa when the session's in.
The defence of Harper's prorogue holiday isn't getting easier. But the defendants are getting lamer.

In honour of the real Karnac, please glance and chortle/smirk/groan through some Carson classics:

A: A loaf of bread, a jug of wine and thou.
Q: Name three things that have yeast.

A: The Nestea Plunge.
Q: What does the president of Nestea use when his toilet is topped up?

A: A, B, C, D, E, F, G.
Q: What were some of the earlier forms of Preparation H?

A: Shoo-be-doo-be-doo.
Q: What do you look for when you're tracking a shoo-be-doo-be?

A: Zippo Marx.
Q: What do you get when something gets caught in your Zippo?

A: Kitchy-kitchy-koo.
Q: What do you call a military coup led by General Kitchy Kitchy?

A: Big Ben, Joe Namath and a candidate's campaign promises.
Q: What is a clock, a jock and a crock.

MAXIME'S SILVER HAMMER...

2010-02-24T23:33:00.000-08:00

Maxime Bernier is showing signs of Dead CON Walking... By showing refreshing candor, the former minister/biker-chick dater has broken one of Stephen Harper's key personal rules -- don't say what we're thinking!
Bernier wrote a letter to La Presse newspaper that said the CON government was wilfully sluggish on environmental action because the decision-makers doubted the evidence of global warming.

"There is, in fact, no scientific consensus. What's certain is that it would be irresponsible to spend billions of dollars to impose unnecessarily stringent regulations to resolve a problem whose gravity we still are not certain about."

Harper's man-of-imobility, Jimmy Prentice, did his best to backpedal and hide from Bernier's assertion, but c'mon. A good portion of CON blogging nation has gone viral over the past six months about how climate change is some leftist conspiracy to lower the activity of our precious bodily fluids.

I think no doubt Harper and his agents have done a good job of hiding their true feelings and true plans for Canada's government. He's tried to hug the mushy middle, done his own Mr. Dithers routine with just an added impersonation of Robert Conrad -- "I dare you to knock this battery off my shoulder! I dare yah!"

CONs have tried a number of ways to test drive their more cavemen-esque ideas on the nation. They've established a habit for punking polls -- getting Trudeau's name atop the Most Hated Canadian poll a couple of years ago was their trial run.
Harper himself has gone on record that stats and facts should carry little weight when it comes to gut instincts.

Evidence is bad. Those April blossoms that are currently decorating the cherry trees in Vancouver? Not a sign of climate change. The ice floes that have disappeared? Nope, no sign. The various changes of ocean species washing ashore in the formerly cold waters of the north pacific? That's right, not a sign. Did you know that you could run an eight-cylinder Cadillac in a 10'x 40' garage, keep the doors closed until it runs out of gas, and the air quality would sustain plenty of life, while healing heartburn and goiters?
That's the kind of thought process the CONs are offering, but in a more strategic way. Attacking the credibility of the data and data-gatherers. Swiftboating the Geeks, in other words.
Are we going to buy it? Apparently, Harper and his gang aren't eager to stand behind their own beliefs, which you'd think would make some of their true believers angry. What's worse is that just by repeating those beliefs, even if its just to deny that they hold them, helps create a faux-truth to them.
That's your Harper. Too nakedly ambitious to lead.

FAMILIAR REFRAIN...

2010-02-23T00:52:00.000-08:00

...about the meddlers and meddlesome jobs they do. I think it was Anthony Newley who sang it. Or maybe Kate Smith.
Neither here nor there. But it appears old habits die hard with the CON-voluted anti-governing party, who bet their meal ticket on a racist band of hick reactionaries in Quebec, and are now being accused of tying their cannard to the growing popularity of the Wildrose Alliance of Alberta.
We can always count on that slick chess-playing huntsman, Harper, to push the envelope. Currently using the Olympics as cover for some despicable governmental organization disabling, the so-called leader is willing to soil his party's name in the homeland to prop up Rob Anders, his private dunderhead.
Prorogue once, twice, three times a loser. Like that eventual housing bubble -- remember, what happens down south typically takes 3-4 years before the echo hits here -- Harper's time is coming.

HELP WANTED...

2010-02-07T09:55:00.000-08:00

So Stephen Harper has finally clued in that his crew of climate-change deniers in cabinet just don't know how to rag the puck convincingly, and now he has to hire one.
Enviro-not minister Jim Prentice is too busy working on his succession speech to Big Oil to handle the chore of working with our spiritual leadership from down south? Perhaps he just can't keep up with the high-falutin' words and talk, especially when U.S. government officials start talking about 'action.' After all, that word only is used as an adjective/slogan in CON circles.
Who wants to bet that Harper's next pointman to this 'underling of the U.S. environment department' will come with highly familiar American credentials. Even the tepid response to the government's Canada Pavilion - a tent purchased at Chicago's Montgomery Ward at a cost of $10M - isn't going to bump Harper off track. Spending money is getting to be an expensive habit for this so-called leader. American PR firms to get him on Fox, American consultants to build our own Olympic pavilion, republican thinktanks offering dirty trick seminars -- I'm betting Harper goes south with this position, too. Even his predisposed supporters are beginning to catch on that money is no obstacle when it comes to spreading the Harper manure -- especially if its only taxpayers dollars.
Perhaps an FOI should be filed regarding last week's agreement on Buy American. Because right now it looks like that U.S. program is one policy that Harper is embracing.

LOOKING BEYOND HIS NAVEL...

2010-01-08T12:42:00.000-08:00

Oh-oh! When influential minds of the foreign media/press are catching on to so-called leader Stephen Harper's end-run ambition to avoid democracy with his Harperholiday, it will only be hours until Harper realizes it himself.
Judging by his constipated look during most of the tepid Mansbridge interview, parliament isn't the only thing that's prorogued these days in Ottawa...

LOTTO-MANIA!

2010-01-06T23:34:00.000-08:00

That's the sense in CON-land, because its that time of year again when so-called leader and emperor-without-clothes Stephen Harper divvies up the spoils to his most pliable, solidly bluer-than-blue true believers. Yes, it's Stacking the Senate time!
Of course, the weekly Harper 'Breaking a Hard-Fast Principle' moment will have to wait until Friday because that's when the dirty laundry gets pulled out.
But if you've been loyally sputtering out those CON talking points 'til your fingers are blue, traded all those long-held beliefs for mix-and-match lies, and show no shame when it comes to integrity, accountability and all that useless stuff, you too can be a winner!
The only skills you need are an ability to take orders, mop down Duffy twice a session, and hold your nose while looking offended.

HOPE FOR DEMOCRACY...

2010-01-03T00:52:00.000-08:00

Now this is what democracy looks like.
No wonder Harper's main action plan is to shutter the doors of parliament, befoul committee hearings and turn members' statement and question period into childish partisan lying games.
By all means, lets give this so-called leader what he deserves.

ABOUT THAT WORM...

2010-01-03T00:12:00.000-08:00

It's come to James Travers' opinion that Stephen Harper and his procedural whittling away of Canadian parliamentary purpose is leading Canada down a potentially dangerous path.
What should be a bold, even controversial opinion will be shuttered aside by the Conservative shouting brigade as mere left-wing blather from the media again. Others who may agree with the column will holster their opinions, worried that it may cause ripples in the offices that they tread near. The price of integrity and honest observation are apparently too steep these days. You won't be surprised to know that I agree with Mr. Travers' assessment and don't expect too many eyes to be opened by it.
Harper's contempt for the workings and workers of parliament are obvious; its evident in his gag-orders, his hidden caucus meetings, his turning statement period into partisan slander time, his instituting instructions to defile and debase committee hearings. When he sent out minions to call a potential coalition by the opposition as 'illegal' -- completely opposite to his view just a few years earlier -- the media by and large repeated it and didn't challenged it.
Unfortunately, a vast majority of the journalists and the string pullers of their industry don't feel they should take ownership of what they tell. Instead, too many editors will be glad to hide behind the journalist shingle, that of being unbiased and unwavering to what occurs outside their windows. But there was a time when papers (before television) and their editors proudly displayed their colours and firm opinions -- the best would proudly state that their points but would also listen and occasionally agree with their rivals' views. Now, journalism for all intense purposes is the equivalent to that of the ancient money traders, who cared not for what or for whom was the result of their convenient ignorance.
One can look south to see what happens in the worse case of both instances. A large portion of the U.S. media parked their position as questioner and sifter of facts when George W. and his ilk chose to turn a terrible terrorist act into a mobilizer for an illegal war. Too many members joined in the rally cry and failed to ask why.
When it came to re-electing the GWB team, the media however stayed behind the fray and allowed the Republicans' smear campaign of a war hero to go untested; by repeating it and giving it credence through reflection, the news media validated the lies thrown at John Kerry.
I don't assume that Canada's mainstream media is acting in the quite same reckless manner, however its hard not to see similarities. In the way that so many daily newspapers and TV news shows layer gossip and food features ahead of what is going on in parliament, what our reported lawmakers are doing to our parliament, it appears that many are onside with Harper's plan.
Like many of their counterparts down south, the commitment to the standards of the business are no longer applicable. The media never is wrong unless it impacts the bottom line. Other errors are just part of 20-20 hindsight.
But don't let their ambivalence and high opinions of their profession fool you. By choosing to play down Harper's contempt for our system of government and eventually the systems that we've created to bring justice and compassion to our citizens, the members of the compliant press are enablers of the worst kind.
At least, they are feeding the disconnect.

THAT HIPPY HARPER...

2009-12-31T00:39:00.000-08:00

From my buddy burlivespipe, a clever ditty to the music of Petula Clark's Downtown...

"When promises are broke
And parliament's missing the joke
You can always close - Prorogue!
If you've got committees
Making noise and getting sniffy
There's no better time - Prorogue!

Just listen to the talking points echo on Chas. Adler
Linger on that Liberals did it -is it any badder?
How can you lose?

The truth is no problem then
Forget about Geneva and do photo ops again and again
and go
Prorogue! Things'll be better when you
Prorogue! You're not accountable if you
Prorogue! The GG's waiting for you....

Why hang around
when Fox News ain't on the ground
and Olympic hockey's on? Prorogue!
The budget's blown and Obama won't phone
So tell the media where to go - Prorogue!

No one's accountable if no one's there
To watch you
Just act like nothing's wrong while Jimbo fumbles with his new shoes
What are they gonna do?

Those bills will just wait for you then,
Election promises cancelled by king's pen
Prorogue! Things'll be great when you
Prorogue! You're not accountable
Prorogue! The GG's waiting for you...."

DERELICTION OF DUTY

2009-12-30T23:32:00.000-08:00

With the convenient cover of Team Canada's hockey guardians, Stephen Harper has busted democracy's chops once more for his own personal gain.
With only the bare-thin lie of 'needing the time to make an economic plan' as its rationale, the CONs continue to push that 'the Liberals did it too!' filibuster.
As Maclean's editor and neo-conservative journalist Andrew Coyne sees it, the only possible purpose to play a second prorogation card in 13 months is to avoid having to comply with an order to produce documents regarding the Afghanistan detainee issue. Only the bleeting, bias sheeple of the CONbot nation could argue the point.
It means scraping bills that have been tabled and laws that were within a few hours of discourse from being enacted -- so much for 'getting things done', including some key law-and-order items.
Sure, Harper will be able to reshape the Senate with a few more loyal potted plants, flaunting his past principle one more time in the process. He'll also be able to allow time to distract Canadians' attention and diffuse some of the opposition's fire over what is truly a black mark on Canada's reputation on the World stage.
It's been an effective tool -- whether through the process of litigation (on the Cadman tape affair), refusing to answer to the will of parliament and even promoting faux arguments of anti-democratic coups (despite his own previous open flirting with the 'evil Bloc' for an exact same scenario).
In the end, Harper is playing Canadians for fools. With the support of the 'channel-changing' minions controlling too many pieces of the mainstream media, and our unstoppable apathy, it is likely a plan that will work.
I'm just waiting for one of Harper's foot soldiers to complain to the media about the opposition's ire over this latest move: "Liberals and NDP don't support Shea Weber*!"

* fill in applicable hockey player's name according to region.

HORSE EATS HAT

2009-12-23T00:11:00.000-08:00

It's time to see the CONbots demonstrate their contortionist skills again.
Turning black ink into red, wholloping seniors with a heavy tax, and stocking every crevice of the senate with unqualified CON deadbeats wasn't enough.
Now, they're about to see the benefits of Dion's Green Shift, courtesy of not-a-leader Harper... As usual, he's dumped any formal pretense of principle for the so-leader-like shrug of a meek carpetbagger -- 'Yeah, but what are you gonna do?'

It should get pretty interesting in those behind-doors CON meetings out west.

MOCK DUCK MEETS KETTLE...

2009-12-23T00:01:00.001-08:00

... but when it's Stephen Harper, you shouldn't expect anything else.
He belches in public, then whines when anyone complains. He bellows in public, then attempts to shame those who do the same.
The international stage is no place for national quibbles, he mused in his annual pre-prorogation address. Of course, unless it's Harper doing the quibbling.
'Hey, don't dare be partisan on my partisan watch,' the desperately-trying-to-get-a-photo-op Harper implied.
Nice to see others starting to see him and his 'mock duck' act for what it is.

A STAR IS BORN...

2009-12-15T00:02:00.000-08:00

Funny how that works.
I don't remember other medical doctors becoming the face of a possible pandemic, but then again there aren't too many doctors like Canada's David Butler-Jones.
Like many physicians, Butler-Jones oozes confidence. He's established a credibility that is meant to comfort us, yet almost seems to the level of being more than a little self-aware of his impact. Again, I don't recall someone trying to be the face of the battle against SARS, Mad Cow Disease or even Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
Of course, it really helps when your so-called "real" leader abhors being held accountable. Just the passing chance that he could have to be responsible for something, say like standing up and announcing that he'll be getting a vaccination in front of the cameras (just as the cameras record his every breathing glorious moment for the 2010 CONserfative government calendar) probably put him in the mood to pound out 'Help!' except there were no cameras around to record it.
So what does an unaccountable, frightened of responsibility kind of guy do? He gets someone else to take his place. In this case, it's Dr. David Butler-Jones.
I don't know if the good Dr. has political aspirations, but he certainly has a good TV-side manner, a Canadian Marcus Welby, with the cuddly factor of Bob Keeshan. Perhaps Harper is grooming him for a Toronto-area riding, where 'cancer is sexy' needs a makeover. Remember Lisa, Harper is accountable to no one.
Thankfully for all, the pandemic appears to be not what we feared. Neither the public nor Harper's.
I'm eagerly awaiting the good Doctor's public service message on 'skin tags' next...

CRACKS IN HARPER'S COALITION...

2009-12-14T09:18:00.000-08:00

...of the unaccountable?
With these corporations miffed at his decision to let in Egyptian company Globallive to compete in the cell phone market, there is some unhappiness from Rogers, Bell and Telus -- corporations who've been towing the line and cheering Harper's promise of 'business-friendly hidden changes'.
Now there's these: The rest of the world pretty much in agreement - Canada's government is acting irresponsible when it comes to acting on the environment.

- Unlike the U.S., Canada has no concrete game plan for achieving its targets.

- Former PM Paul Martin (the one who could balance a budget, remember the good ol' days?) says Canada needs to get U.S. to share some of the burden of oilsands ugliness.

- Premiers of Canada's two largest provinces demand that the 'rest' of Canada make same kind of environmental targets that they've set.

With pressure on Canada to act, and a verbal game of chicken by our so-called leader, who has tied his slow-footed action with the U.S., oil executives are feeling the heat whenever Harper makes like he's taking glacier-like steps towards doing the will of the people. No doubt, big oil has Harper's ear. But they also know that popular opinion outside Alberta is that we're not doing enough.
Unlike Harper's role model GWB, Canada's prime minister is not afraid to be a divider, not a uniter. He'll be happy to attack Ontario and Quebec just as he stiff-armed Atlantic Canada just because he could. Unfortunately, there's all those votes...

And for a great piece on the CON's choke chain and who's holding it, check out this story.

PAGING ALAN SMITHEE!

2009-12-09T01:03:00.000-08:00

Who's Alan Smithee, you say?
He's the fictitious director whom is called upon to take the credit when a real director, due to usually having had his film cut and edited by a meddling (but occasionally well-intentioned) producer, pulls his name off the picture.
Now that so-called leader Stephen Harper has requested an additional $1.7 Million to cover video and communications budgetary overruns, it's time that Canadians get a say in who should be directing the action* (or non-action, in Copenhagen, Kyoto and any environmentally accountable state)...
Wasting money isn't a problem when its all about Harper's image. Personally, I think the only living director who could keep up with the turns, twists and mounting costs would be Michael Cimino, he of the legendary Heaven's Gate fiasco. But with the way Harper's blown through Canada's surplus, perhaps disaster king Roland Emmerich (who's 2012 has provided a Harperesque apocalypse to the free world) is the man for the job.
Now, if he was still alive, I think the one who's real calling was meant to cover the life and times of Harper and his band of secreters is Edward D. Wood Jr. and his cashmire sweaters -- I'm certain they come in Baird and Moore sizes.
Really, do Canadians know what is going on in Ottawa?

CREATIVE WRITING...

2009-12-06T20:19:00.000-08:00

...or is it another episode of as the leadership turns?
There is no actual evidence to suggest the writer wasn't suffering the consequences of too many acid trips, wants to treat his wife with the Christmas present of a lifetime -- a senate seat for 8* years -- or has a really dull imagination.
While all things Liberal seem to be where the fun stories emerge, one who once believed that journalism was an honourable profession is now full of 'hit-for-hire' scribblers and 'do-anything-for-promotion' mediocrities.
Yes, I know. Whining about the media wasn't chic when they seemed too focused on the CONs and their leadership trivolties; its no more useful these days.
But perhaps a good question for inquisitive and really earnest journalists to ponder is, while Liberals may be questioning their leader's choice to back a policy which could be unpopular among the masses (even though he is being consistent - hey, even I'm on record as saying the Liberals should have opposed the HST), but where is the conscious of the CONservative party and its members these days?
They sit silently in B.C. and Ontario on the HST matter. They ape despicable talking points to slime a high ranking bureaucrat and do not stand up and say they support the Geneva Convention's law against torture.
Instead, they weave their spider's web, redact any and all federal documents that may reveal the truth, and share it only with those who share their rationale that the end always justifies the means. Just don't ask them to stand up and say what that 'mean' is. Perhaps we'll all be happy when Canada really becomes Alberta, services cut to the bone, honest, intelligent debate is rarely welcomed, and money is king, queen and Lord.
So Angelo, where are those men and women who are suppose to represent Canada and Canadians to the best of their abilities?
Paging Dr. Faust...

*actual service time will vary; CON-approved members reserve the right to disavow such a promise should the government on their 8th anniversary be of other than the CON party; or if they just don't want to quit.

HARPOCRISY, RE DUX...

2009-11-29T20:18:00.000-08:00

Finally breaking free from his full sprint away from accountability and now safely away from any possible examination of the truth, so-called leader and PM Stephen Harper fired a long-distanceshot at the opposition today, suggesting that "some in the political arena do not hesitate before throwing the most serious of allegations at our men and women in uniform, based on the most flimsy of evidence..."
Funny thing is, the opposition's focus has been squarely on Harper's government and their hiding of the facts. But when it comes to "throwing the most serious of allegations", especially off-base lies, despicable and partisan type, few can match up with our man Harper. A CON of the people.

ANTI-CONSISTENT

2009-11-27T10:27:00.000-08:00

After hearing B.C. premier Gordon Campbell's blanket plea for all federal parties to support Stephen Harper's Harmonized Sales Tax in Ontario and B.C., I wonder where was his impassioned, or even straight-forward plea to have the Harper CONs stand and support the Kelowna Accord?
I'm hearing crickets...
As an issue, the HST played a big role in the NDP's byelection win in New Westminster-Coquitlam, while it remains a hot-button issue on talk radio in both B.C. and Ontario. Harper has amazingly been able to dangle the cash and thus incentive for former opponents to step up bashfully and take the bait. That doesn't mean Ignatieff needs to tie his fate to his provincial cousins -- which may be a stretch with the small-c conservative nature of Campbell's B.C. Liberals.
If he were to run now, Campbell would have trouble winning his own seat and would definitely go down in defeat. Small business is up in arms over the HST. Just as Harper lied during the 2008 election debate about a deficit in a recession, having hidden the fact that the government's pocketbook was already in the red, he has lied about his role in implementing the HST. But now the mask is off.
Hit him with your best shot and shoot down the HST.

IT'S A GIMME...

2009-11-27T10:17:00.001-08:00

... but we'll have to wait for the official decision by Michael Ignatieff. If he doesn't take the small risk and stand up against Stephen Harper's new taxation during a recession, then as Liberals we need to be ready for a long cold decade in opposition.
We have to take this issue -- the harmonizing of federal-provincial taxes in Ontario and B.C. -- and realize the public is right.
Harper has for most intent purposes been able to push the blame on the HST onto the premiers, until now.
Vote against the HST Mr. Ignatieff -- any small hit you take from the premiers will be outweighed by overwhelming relief gained through the majority of small businesses and general public.
Then use Harper's stance on pro-tax into the next election.
Easy as pie.

STANDING UP FOR AMBIVALENCE...

2009-11-27T00:43:00.000-08:00

The right move for all the wrong reasons, Mr. so-called leader. Perhaps worrying about how his blogging tinhats will take this, when they stop frothing about that trumped up 'climategate' right-wing daisy chain. When do we start running the "Just Following" ad campaign?

STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART...

2009-11-25T00:05:00.000-08:00

They've kept it underwraps, hidden the entrails and covered its tracks, but the cold-hearted CON beast isn't satisfied with handing out economic stimulus novelty cheque giveaways to friends and allies.
Nova Scotian MP Gerald Keddy teased Canadians with just a taste of that famous CON attitude for the lazy unfortunate, calling them "no-good bastards" in a newspaper interview with the Halifax Chronicle-Herald.
Taking a page from that warm-and-fuzzy depression era Tory leader R.B. Bennett and his laissez-faire government, Keddy tore a strip off those who let the economic downturn turn their smiles upside down, dusting off the hidden (but ready for the Retrovolution) CON iron heel.
And cheering him on was a good portion of the CONbot nation -- check the comments in the CTV link above. Perhaps they can hold a 'No Grey Poupon For You!' rally inside the mansion gates to rub it in a little more.

COLONEL'S SECRET RECIPE...

2009-11-23T23:30:00.000-08:00

Despite his two left feet, a profundity of talking tough, a new-found interest in shining "light into dark corners*" and generally acting with disdain for the public, Stephen Harper claims to be man of action.
He's all for tough love, serious punishment and big assignments for our men and women in uniform -- just don't ask him to stand behind them when the heat's on.
So it came as a shock -- a SHOCK! -- to see that while the heat lamp of political debate was turned brightly onto the front row of Harper's CON bench, he was no where in sight.
The so-called leader was across the street for a 'critical' meeting with members of Canada's national lacrosse team, sharing long-stick tips and doing research on his next book in the queue, "Lacrosse Is A Game I've Seen, Too."
So, perhaps we should ask him if he prefers to do the chicken dance with the lights on or the lights off?

*Depending upon who's shining light upon whom.

A MASTER OF HORROR...

2009-11-23T10:47:00.000-08:00

...but a real gentleman -- I'm obviously not referring to our so-called leader Harper.
No, just a sidetrip salute to Boris Karloff, who would be celebrating his 122nd birthday today. The grand master of Horror could play any role and enliven any script with his subtle, tender-yet-rattling delivery.
From October (Frankenstein, The Mummy) to December (The Grinch Who Stole Christmas) its a veritable Karloff-copia of great moments in pop culture, with Bobby Pickett's tribute/impersonation hit 'The Monster Mash' to too many films and TV shows to mention. Many good bloggers are sharing their thoughts and memories of Boris (who was treading Canadian stages when he came up with the handle 'Boris Karloff' to take as his own)... So if you want a brief respite from the horrors of CON-serfative governance, here's a true master who knew that good always triumphs over evil.

Frankensteinia
The Incredible Invasion
Greenbriar Pictures
Karloff & the Macy's Day Parade
Karloff's Leading Ladies

DUCK AND COVER, EPISODE #31...

2009-11-23T09:22:00.000-08:00

Good thing Stephen Harper and his CON government had delayed action on this old promise until they needed a good distraction -- as noted from this editorial from that 'Liberal bastion' of Prince Albert.
If I was a CON supporter, I'd be wondering what they are holding back to throw out when the real s**t hits the fan...

CIRCLE THE SQUARE...

2009-11-20T09:57:00.000-08:00

Which gov't has twisted itself in a pretzel trying to avoid any responsibility -- starting with 'current transfer agreement is fine and you're a taliban-lover for asking', to 'there is no torture going on in afghanistan (and a recession is evolutionary implausible in these running shoes) and did I say sponsorship scandal?'; the Harper team then shifted slowly to 'we have a new transfer agreement, implemented because of some concerns that we will pretend don't exist', to now 'the people who advised of making the new transfer agreement and don't understand ixnay on the orture-tay are whacked but just dandy for our washington desk'... Bring on the public inquiry and maybe you can get Mackenzie King's seance tossed into the whole tangled mess. Perhaps Harper can try and bribe an ill witness to tie up this whole mess and be done with it...

HELLO, NEWMAN...

2009-11-19T22:43:00.000-08:00

But this Newman hits it right on the mark when it comes to what ails today's Canadian parliament. It's the soup-nazi-like resolve of so-called leader Harper, whose only broth is boiled in deception, lies and broken ethics.
I can just imagine the huffery and puffery that his one-time colleague but no-time equal Mike 'I'm all right jack' Duffy (who is surprisingly more like Seinfeld's Newman) would respond with.

INERTIA AT WORK...

2009-11-17T23:56:00.000-08:00

Another shameful abdication of responsibility, brought to you by so-called leader Harper and his half-wits. If you think Canadians can handle the heavy lifting to help make the world less polluted, more liveable for today's and tomorrow's generations, I bring you this classic ad.

Of course, if you thought Canadians were interested in fiscally responsible yet compassionate government, the CONs again reject honest and open discussion on their plans and actions.
The generations of today and tomorrow will have to pay the piper for Harper's irresponsibility. But do we have to reach the narcissist's promise of not recognizing Canada when he's finished?

ANOTHER GOOD ARGUMENT...

2009-11-17T10:03:00.001-08:00

For the gun registry. There was that hilarious 'Peter van Loan at the stake' media scrum last week that caught the minister in a CON fib, and now this. Some members of the media are taking their jobs seriously...

THE GANG'S ALL HERE...

2009-11-16T11:02:00.000-08:00

If there was any doubt that, just as his senate appointments have shown, Harper takes governing as a part-time job to his campaigning, there's this.
Nothing says fiscal responsibility in a time of crisis like flying a dozen or two nobodies across a couple of oceans for their own ethnic photo-ops to send back home. Does he think Canadian taxpayers are all slumdog millionaires?

RUNNING ON EMPTY...

2009-11-09T00:13:00.000-08:00

...continues to be standard Harper operating procedure when it comes to his candidates and their lack of 'candor'.
Diana Dilworth would appear to be a decent person who would be a good example of whom a political party would want to have carrying the torch in a competitive race. With a decent profile as a businesswoman and a politician, having achieved all that while also juggling the tough responsibilities of a single parent, Dilworth should be able to walk and chew gum and be more than just a pop-up doll.
Unfortunately, the voters of New Westminster-Coquitlam will never know. Harper has insulated her in one of his 'cones of silence' that proved adequate enough to get Dona Cadman and Nina Grewal elected (and thankfully unsuccessful with more than a dozen more to my knowledge of silent bobs and bobettes), where public appearances and opportunities to really engage in a volley of ideas with rivals, supporters and non-supporters alike are verboten.
Dilworth ducked two all-candidates meetings; she dodged other newspapers' attempts at getting her on the record. When BC's unemployment rate has ratcheted up another notch and there's this thing called H1N1 spinning around, she stands behind the tired-and-true Tory con-points about the electorate are really only talking about crime and punishment, the economy and security.
Now, I don't want to deride Ms Dilworth beyond the colours she has chosen to carry. I don't know her despite living not far down the road from her and being fairly interested in municipal politics. Her profile appears to be a notch-better than last year's 'prize CON candidate', one-time school marm and current CON senator-on-tour Yonah Martin (I'd like to see her spending and attendance record). But when someone who is suppose to be vying to be the elected representative for a region, a person who will have to stand up for and speak on behalf of people who supported her and also those who didn't, it doesn't give me much confidence in our political system when the same 'hopeful' deems it unnecessary to speak before and debate in front of a gym of the public, on the basis that (as her campaign manager states) it isn't a "credible venue for citizens to find out what the candidates are all about."
I'd say if that's the opinion of Ms. Dilworth, she is a failure on the credibility gap herself.
We Liberals can be very proud with the campaign that Ken Beck Lee has run; not a politician, he's brought a fresh approach and shown to be a keen learner when it comes to tackling the hard chore of making strangers like you in quick-time -- and despite knocking on more than 10,000 doors, he's still using the same pair of shoes!
The NDP's Fin Donnelly is the front runner, having built up his profile over the past 14 years by swimming the Fraser, running and winning a seat on Coquitlam council, and following that by being a fairly empty shirt when it comes to getting things done. As someone who brings nice environmental credentials to city hall, Donnelly has accomplished little, and while the odds are stacked against him there, he hasn't even elevated his cause. Two cases in point - the quick clearcut of swaths of Burke Mtn for future development (of which much of it won't be started for a few years - but at least they razed every tree so that we can see the dirt now!) and the annual problem of garbage bears - why hasn't he stepped up and demanded that the city, province and feds get together and move/replenish the bears' natural food source in nearby valleys to keep more of the hungry bruins on the other side of the mountain?!
Rebecca Helps is a fine person, wrong party. If you're really serious about the environment as an issue, join a party that can get you at the table, and change it from within.
The citizens of New Westminster-Coquitlam (and southern portion of Port Moody) will decide who will represent them tonight. Here's hoping that the one who thought a coffee clatch was more important than a public debate gets to stay home.

THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHING LINE, COMPLETE WITH ACCESSORIES

2009-11-07T00:51:00.000-08:00

Shouldn't people who are fiscally responsible be up in arms about this?
It's not bad enough that we're paying to dress the fat slob -- while no doubt providing a stipend for psychic duties too (if El Presidento Harper would let us know how much the public is paying for it, that is) -- but now we've got a photo service for him, too.
Mr Desmond, you're ready for your closeup...

DON'T THANK ME, THANK YOURSELF...

2009-11-06T10:22:00.000-08:00

Another infrastructure project brought to you by taxpayers of Canada and the resplendent work of your CON member of parliament.
Cocktails, napkins and signage ~~gratefully provided~~ contractually required by the municipal taxpayers.

FEAR AND LOATHING...

2009-11-03T23:44:00.000-08:00

The opposition is being told that questions about problems with the government's H1N1 response are 'politicizing a life and death issue'. Even members of the media are picking up this theme, taking on FoxNews-like deference to the members of Stephen Harper's shadowy cabinet.
I remember one 'life-and-death' issue that was politicized and how that turned out, and it wasn't that long ago.
If you recall, Chalk River was being forced to shut down so that serious repairs and promised but not completed maintenance could be done. The former president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission lost her job because of her position, which didn't wash with Harper's special plans. What argument did Harper and his honchos use to get the opposition online? That the shutdown would cost lives, it would create suffering. The CONs got their way by using fear and dishonesty. Despite numerous red flags at the time in how the government proceeded, how it pitched Linda Keen as a malicious partisan, the opposition bent and gave its consent. How did that turn out? Oh yeah, Chalk River broke down not much later, at which point the government essentially said "It's no big deal -- now we need to privatize."
I wonder why that episode of 'politicizing' an issue isn't being raised in comparison. But then again, I do see a reoccurring trait to all these: when the heat gets hot, Harper leaves it to his underlings to handle. Unlike most leaders of a country, he hasn't even manned up for a vaccination to steady the nation's nerves.
Some leader.

THE BEST LAID PLANS OF MICE...

2009-11-03T23:26:00.000-08:00

Let me get this straight, Stephen Harper and his CON government had time to plan both a floor-crossing and putting a bagman into the senate and immediately into the cabinet before their first day in office; they were able to plan a huge, orchestrated stimulus program in less than a month despite taking the country to the brink of a political crisis by denying the need of such action -- then they tacked on a plan where giant cheques with MPs signatures, a few mugshots and party logos would be circulated just as a massive advertising campaign for the so-called Action Plan flooded the public airwaves and media.
But in all the time they've been in office, besides flushing away the nation's rainy day emergency fund, erasing a sturdy surplus and breaking numerous promises on accountability, ethics and public safety, Stephen Harper and his CONs didn't have the interest, time or ability to continue mapping out a disaster plan.
I guess the piano lessons and hockey book got in the way.

A GOOD FEVER...

2009-10-28T23:34:00.000-07:00

Enough about swine and their churlish across-aisle taunts and bullying. I doubt there's a fourth division rugby team that could compete with the party that's given us a bribe to a dying MP, making 'cancer' a sexy career opportunity, shipping bodybags to remote communities needing medicine, laughing off the fatal listeriosis as "a death by a thousand cold cuts" or hoping that the latest victim of said food poisoning was a rival.
What Canadians want? Crap if I know. But give them more of this, just to help us recover from the above...

LEADERSHIP, SORT OF...

2009-10-24T23:32:00.001-07:00

The Canadian public is anxious but not completely sold on the idea of that H1N1 flu shot, which is slowly winding its way to your nearest doctor.
It's true, the CON government has faced some heat over the delays and its handling of this issue -- but I suppose to Gerry Ritz and Pierre Poilievre, those body bags were just an instance of 'lightening up the mood or a lesson on hardwork. Lisa Raitt sees it as a possible great and sexy career boost to Leona Aglukkuq, if she can handle it...
That aside, I've noticed on the radio spots for Health Canada that unlike all things stimulus and Canada Action Plan, the government is going out of its way to avoid being known as the first line of defence. The ones I've heard make point of stating "all levels of government" have their fingers on the H1N1 file. Which is true. But is this a case of shielding their actual function and role, just in case something goes awry? Not that these guys haven't been afraid to share the credit -- especially on good news items. Kind of like it's also true that the CONs were the government which helped cut the ribbon and tried to take the credit for construction of the new Pitt River crossing, despite the fact that the money bill was signed off more than four years ago by a government headed by Paul Martin... It would also seem that they are being overly generous in not asking for their due credit on squeezing both B.C. and Ontario into the HST thingy.
Is it because they are scared about being held accountable for their actions, or that the criticism already expressed has them trying to ladle the heat to the provinces and municipalities?

Hat tip to ScottT.

I'LL TAKE GARY DOER TO BLOCK, BARACK...

2009-10-19T09:46:00.000-07:00

Look who now's playing cover for the Alberta tarsands, er oilsands project.
While I actually believe that the best strategy to deal with the oilsands and its litany of environmental implications (many to come) isn't to force it closed or halted, I find it amusing in a sick way that another NdP leader is playing defence for Stephen Harper.
Gary Doer may have a track record in Manitoba, but what he offers in tarsands pollution denials is akin to holding up a big novelty sized cheque with the SS Valdez on it and offering it to environmentalists.
I wonder how comfortable the intelligent, serious NdPers are feeling, these days?

THE TIDE GOES IN, THE TIDE GOES OUT...

2009-10-17T00:59:00.001-07:00

It may not be like clockwork, but the CON celebratory mood may be in withdrawal this weekend, although one never can guess just how things work in this great world of ours.
Riding high in the polls despite having created the biggest deficit in Canadian history -- prissied up with a lot of giant novelty cheques with CON faces, colours and autographs -- Stephen Harper's gang has seemingly stubbed its toe again, if not shot it off, with a myriad of cluck-ups and cockamaney selfishness.
Their smokescreening to prove the former Canadian diplomat to Afghanistan is either lying or mis-remembering has caused a familiar bruise with the government's integrity and honesty levels.
Harper's claim that "he didn't see the memo" makes him a liar or an incompetent buffoon -- but its the same kind of defensive play he made about the woman locked up in the Sudan, too.
Now there are serious allegations that Canadians were offering bribes to buy time and peace with the Taliban kind of raises alarm bells. And memories. I guess when the so-called leader of your country can allegedly bribe a dying MP for his vote, what's a little bribe between warring enemies?
There's the whole cheque-gate thing, which pokes a stick in many eyes, partisan from all sides... It's the kind of behaviour that many Tory supporters associated with Trudeau and Chretien-era politics, and the stench of being bribed with our own money, while Harper's grinning idiots pretend like its payola-time, raises multiple ires -- no more proof is necessary by how quickly the government tried to squash the story (going from "it was just one rogue MP" to now sending out spokesliars to say its just a case of "the Liberals did it so we've made the same error").
Of course, the decade-old evidence of Liberal cheque-giving falls flat when you notice that none of those cheques feature anything but the Canadian government logo, no pictures of a smirking MP on the wall-size memento, no party logo and no mish-mash of signatures. Only the CONs were clever enough to run with those.
Now Harper has been discovered trying to ramp up his piano-playing through a link at the Economic recovery website, making a governmental info area into a partisan hootenanny. This after someone finally called him on his out-of-control narcissism, where his photos lined the pages of the site to an embarrassing level.
Then there's the whole 'turning himself into a pretzel when it comes to partisan appointments'. Remember Harper's whole "We're going to do it the right way" and his idea of being accountable?
What are the CONs doing to rectify these items, which alone are barely enough to stir the barely partisan from indifference, but when stacked one ontop of another and another, along with the old ones that Harper was granted a pass on, it's pretty damning.
Instead of counselling their leader with some kind of mental health plan, an intervention on his meglomania and self-professed passion of wasting energy on focusing on the opposition and trumping a few inconsequential photo-shop images, even a pamplet on a good 12-step program? Their scurrying from their holes, howling "This is not fair!" and creating a whole lotta more interest -- even the media, who has done its best to lighten poor Steve's load and ignore his trespasses, knows that where there is smoke, there's fire...
And down comes the sandcastle.

WANTED: OUR MOJO BACK...

2009-10-05T23:41:00.000-07:00

Okay, the numbers are terrible.
The visuals and white noise that is considered 'journalism' these days are also icky. Although we could complain about the missing ethical compass of the media, who appear to be following down the same stairs that their US counterparts took when George W Bush's team were sliming John Kerry's war hero status, it won't help move this boat in the right direction.
While I wholeheartedly believe that the current positive spin that Stephen Harper and his CONs are enjoying is all lather, no soap, the real concern is that the response from Liberal-land and Michael Ignatieff in particular has been underwhelming, lacking in punch.
We don't need to be George Foreman (sorry, I'm dating myself) but we do need to put the 'heat' on the grill. We also have to lay the foundation for the inevitable election -- which, if the current polling numbers continue to be replicated, is going to be very very soon.
Look at what the CONs and Harper had going for them during their last days in opposition. While they would roll out a very easy-to-digest list of promises/policies in that 2005/06 winter election, they already had a piece to their program well known. They've had the bread-and-butter crime issue -- one that has proven to be a slightly more of a whack-a-mole for them than a real call to action (we still haven't seen those new RCMP members promised in 2006, while their anti-gun registry flies in the face of what the police chiefs of Canada have been calling for)...
While the argument in the Liberal war room is that the policy will be released in due time, likely with the dropping of the writ, its never too late to put out something worth standing for.
I'm thinking the 30-50 poverty plan that Stephane Dion spoke so forcefully about prior to and during the last election campaign. Poverty is an issue that is affecting more and more Canadians during this recession. People who are seeing their EI run out, being forced onto welfare rolls, those who are being turned away from welfare due to 'tough-in-good-times' provincial regulations. Those same people are now being squeezed out of the stats that track unemployment, being classified as 'non-existent' when it comes to seeking a job.
Canada as a nation has built up a reputation for responding to the needs of those less able to pick themselves up, whether its due to a temporary setback or more long-term issues. I want the Liberal Party to be at the forefront of speaking up for those who are falling through the cracks, for those who are seeing opportunity as someone else's reality. And while we also have to admit that there is a cost for such a program, if we talk about it as a vital investment that in many ways is 'wealth creation', turning citizens from dependents on government handouts to taxpaying, healthy contributors to the Canadian economy, I think it is an issue where the party can establish a beachhead prior to the writ being called.
The public and the media is clambering for a reason to like us. We need to step forward and give them that -- let the Grouchy and Less than Good with Numbers Party do their pickin' and grinnin' act.