Some old news

A bit of bad news for the Green Party in Germany. It seems that their coalition with the ruling Social Democrats is over. I was hoping it would ultimately work, and be a force in this country; but as they say, never say "die", unless you're speaking German, which would be hard to avoid.

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AA of BBB, among others, seem to have lambasted to an article in the Globe & Mail, concerning what is a perceived infiltration by some of the more extreme Christian evangelical right-wing elements in the federal Conservative Party. Actually, I agree with most of Andrew's points, but there may be a threat south of the border. More on that later.

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Kudos to the Quebec National Assembly, yes THAT Quebec National Assembly, for spiking the Sharia, by unanimous decision no less.

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I was getting ready to criticize the people of Labrador for voting Liberal, and even the guy who won the seat, who is Metis, for running on the Liberal ticket. But at the end of this article, I realized why he did not run for the Conservatives. It's the exact same (and only) reason why I don't become a member of the Conservative party: Stephen Harper (the latest reasons are here).

Strange Bedfellows In Extremus

Has anyone checked out "Inkless Wells" lately? As a matter of fact, I don't go there very often, but I just discovered this fascinating tidbit that I should pass on..., but apparently, Ian is all over this story,(see Ianism.com on the BANPC), particularly because of the connection to our old friend, Sinclair Stevens. I remember my late grandfather saying, while Stevens was still in office, that he was going to ruin the Progressive Conservative party (and he was an avid Liberal). Fortunately, he resigned before he could. Unfortunately, and quite unfairly in my opinion, Deputy Prime Minister Erik Nielsen took the blame for Stevens' shenanigans, apparantly being forced to be their sacrificial lamb.

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Another link I have but seldom check is Points of Information, because I never understood what it is, but this list of people who crossed the floor in Ottawa should make for good discussion, as should this statement of Belinda skipping the bill.

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Another blogging naysayer, but don't let him get you down. Also, don't you just hate people who answer their own questions? I sure do! ;-)

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So what do you think? Is this money well spent? I think that the Gomery Commission will more than pay for itself.

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What appears to be the latest salvo (whatever that is) in the softwood lumber war, which I believe started just after the original Free Trade Agreement was signed in 1989. What is it with those people anyway? They always seemed intent on using brute force to change trade laws, over and over again for years. Is that an unfair assessment?

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Ending this post on a serious note, this story of that crash in Alberta, which took the life of four people, including former Cape Breton resident Stevie Batherson, who was the brother of, and used to be the road manager for, Matt Minglewood. I'm not sure how many people outside of Eastern Canada heard of him, or at least heard, of The Minglewood Band which was quite popular in the 70s, but here on the East Coast, particularly in Cape Breton, he is a living legend. I've seen a number of his performances in the last five or so years and he still puts on a terrific show. In fact, I watched him perform at Big Leagues in Cole Harbour last Saturday, which was scheduled a day after the crash. I would have understood if he had cancelled it, but he performed anyway. When he started, he said that Stevie's cardinal rule was "the show must go on", and still put on a kick-ass show. The words that come to mind: admirable and inspirational.

Advice To The Next Government

I keep wondering about that sordid mess regarding Belinda Stronach's defection. The question I would ask is "Is it a business thing, or a politics thing?" IMHO, it is much more of a business thing. In politics, loyalty is supposed to mean something, in business, people jump ship all the time and leave other people to clean up after their mess. Happens all the time, just one more reason why politics and Big Business should be kept some distance apart. We need someone like Theodore Roosevelt, who could bring corporations to heel. Anyone care to disagree?

Thy Sewer Runneth Over

I am conflicted by what happened, to say the least. On one hand, I wanted the budget to pass, and I did not want an election right now. On the other hand, we will have to put up with the Liberals a bit longer, but just a little bit, hopefully, then the next Liberal bill should fall and we could get rid of them, and Belinda along with them. The whole business with her leaves me with a sick feeling. It could be forgiven if her intent was purely for the country. If her actions hold it together, then it would fit in perfectly with the Machiavellian way of doing things, without morals or scruples. If it was just to gain power, then I guess we will all see her in Hell.

You have to feel for poor Peter MacKay, although he was clearly no babe in the political wilderness, he was apparently the last to know what was happening. She didn't even tell him when they had dinner on Sunday, how cruel and heartless was that? I think he could really use a vacation when this is all over.

So Harper is going to support the original budget right now. You think that would drive a wedge between the Liberals and the NDP, but apparently, one was already there. On Monday, I received some unsolicited mail from Jack Layton's office. It was just a form on cardboard stating that Martin is "no friend of public medicare" and gave me a couple of yes and no checkboxes to fill out, which I didn't, and don't intend to. The first question was to ask the government to stop "credit-card medicine" and the other was to hear about Layton's ideas of strengthening Medicare. Did anyone (or everyone) else get one?

Lastly, the STV vote failed by a slim margin in British Columbia. But Greg says that it's no great loss. The single-transferable vote is too complicated anyway, so apparently it's more of a victory than a loss.

Breaking All The Rules

Boy did I get a response to my question in yesterday's post. When I first saw the press conference on CBC Newsworld, I had to say out loud, "UN*&$#%^BELIEVABLE". So Belinda Stronach has defected, in the worst possible way. I didn't even know about her and Peter MacKay. If that doesn't attract international interest, whatever could?

It seems, first of all, that the Liberals have new life in them, that's the bad news. The good news though is that the budget is more likely to pass, perhaps I'm biased that way because it is good for Nova Scotia, and that we will get some funds that were promised to us. However, I think that this is very, very bad politics, the shift is way too fast and too sudden. Ms. Stronach is still quite new to public office, and seems blissfully ignorant as to how politics is supposed to work, assuming of course, she meant to stay in the long haul, which she probably didn't anyway.

So why did she run for public office in the first place? Was it to serve the country as she says, or was it purely ego gratification and ambition, as Mr. Harper says. If her intentions were indeed pure, then she is going about it completely the wrong way. Loyalty to her party and her constituents should at least be a consideration. If she did have a problem with Harper's leadership, she should have just left the Conservative caucus and sat as an independent. She was simply wrong to join the Liberals, and more so to accept a cabinet position. It is an unethical shortcut to leadership which throws the democratic process into virtual chaos.

The only good that could come out of this is that the budget passes, the election is held off, but when the government should inevitably fall, the Liberals should be defeated and Martin and Stronach will be out of office forever. Neither of them are particularly competent politicians anyway. You have to feel for Peter MacKay though, for the political and personal turmoil he must be feeling now. I wonder if he will even be in the country for Thursday's vote.

So who supports the Liberals now? (Besides the party members themselves)

There's a bit of good news for those of us in Nova Scotia, the minority government should survive. The budget should pass, because it seems because we are not in the mood for another provincial election, and we seem to be doing quite well without one.

However some of you may feel about Ezra Levant, he puts forth a fairly convincing argument about the infestation of organized crime in the federal government. Even if most of what he says is true, it is proof, if any more is needed, that we need an entirely new regime, and to purge ourselves of the old.

The latest polls (can't find the link, sorry) seem to say that the Liberals are holding their own in Ontario and I think even here in Atlantic Canada, too. Maybe I spoke a little too soon when I wrote something to the effect (or maybe I just thought it) that they're the walking dead. For those of you who still support them, what do you think about all of these deals that Martin & Co. are making with the provinces? Is it a principled effort to try to get the federal budget passed (rolling my eyes as I write this) or a cynical, desperate attempt to cling to power at any cost? One thing's for sure, if you're going to vote in the inevitable election, make sure that you are not voting for another minority government!

Les choses vous devez savoir

Have you read Polyscopique's May 9th post? It contains some interesting and important and important information from sources that matter (in the last part of the post). It should give anyone second thoughts about Quebec seperation.
I think that the fact that this site is run by Erik Sorenson throws a bit of cold water on the idea that the CBC is dominated by Liberals.

Oh, Winnie The Pooh (et al.), meet Peter Piper (you do like to dabble, don't you?). Two childhood of icons mine whom I know will get along famously. ;-)

For Those of You Who Didn't Vote In The Last Election...

you probably were not aware that you had more choices than you thought. When I voted in the last election, my riding (Dartmouth-Cole Harbor) had six, count 'em, 6 parties with canditates running. It wasn't just the three official parties, there were also the Green Party (more on them later), the Marxist-Leninist Party, and the Progressive Canadian Party. Did you read that right? Some people thought it was the defunct Progressive Conservative party, and voted accordingly, and became upset about it later, mainly because no one has ever heard from them before, or interestingly enough, since. Sadly though, in our last election, our turnout rate was the lowest in well over a century. Forty-six percent of people didn't even take the trouble to vote for any of the "fringe " parties on the ballot.

Anyway, if you feel the need to make a protest vote, you have some actual choices. You could vote for the Marxist-Leninists (I'll give them the benefit of any doubt, they don't call themselves Stalinists and/or Maoists, my main complaint about them would be that they're a painfully dull bunch) and the Communist Party (could someone explain to me what the difference is?), the Socialist Party, who make it clear that they are not communists, and are most likely utopian socialists, and for those of you who don't see a difference, the utopian socialists and the scientific socialists (a.k.a. the communists) are completely different and incompatable schools of thought.

Moving along, you have the Marijuana Party, who seem to run on an extremely narrow platform. And if you live in La Belle Province, you probably have the fewest options, either the Liberals (aargh!) or the Bloc Quebecois (ptuie!, if you do vote for the Bloc). Also, there's the Undecided Party, which is strictly a write-in party, and probably the closest thing at the moment we have to the old Rhinoceros Party. Also, it's the perfect choice if you if you still can't decide whom to vote for (and a far more realistic choice for write-in candidate than Alfred E. Neuman, well, I guess that's kind of old). Those are the only fringe parties I care to write about here, for more information you can go to BlogsCanada Political Index (see sidebar).

Creeping out from the fringes and into the mainstream is the Green Party, which in my humble opinion, are a sensible alternative to the New Democratic Party (hope I didn't offend any dippers ;-) The Green movement is actually gaining considerable strength, particularly in Europe where members of the Green Party helped to form a coalition government in Germany. The thing is though, the Green Party of Canada does not appear to be very closely linked to other Green Parties in the world, probably because they are a little more to the Right than most of them, but hey, if it works in this country, why not? Do you actually believe that they could sweep to power, just like that unprecedented fluke of the NDP sweeping to power in Ontario? No way, it's just not happening, not under the First-Past-The-Post system which we have now.

If you still think that your vote doesn't really count, you're probably right. The electoral system we have is still one of the most primal in the free world and there is plenty of room to make parliamentarians more accountable to their constituents. There are many different systems of electing governments that make politicians more representative of the voters' wishes, such as proportional representation, single transferable voting (which is a hot topic in British Columbia right now), and a mixed-member voting, among others that have been tried and been successful. As it is right now, most of our votes are pretty much wasted, as evidenced by Sinister Thoughts here, and here. A good start of making the system more equitable is to sign an online petition at the Fair Vote Canada website.

I sincerely believe that our entire country is in a state of transition right now, and with an increasing vacuum of power that is being left by the Liberal minority government, now is the time for as many average citizens to act as possible, because we do have the power to make positive changes now. If you're like me and love a good fight, now is the time to seriously get involved, because unlike previous years, we now have a fighting chance. When we appear to have only one alternative for the next government (or two, depending on who you talk to) and our only choice is between the bad party and the worse party, it's time for all citizens to get off their fat, lazy behinds and do something, anything, about that. We live in a democracy, which means that the people are in effect responsible for the system that we have, good or bad, by our actions or lack thereof. With an election coming along the horizon, it is time for you to get out, get informed, get involved, and at the very least, vote. If you don't, you're going to be a total outsider and miss out on what promises to be truckloads of fun!
(en francais)

Ne le croyez vous! Pas pour un moment!

I was alarmed to find this headline in Canoe.ca today. It was in fact quoting a study by the Parti Quebecois (suprise suprise). For those of you, French and English, who know even a bit about how it works, this could only be compared to an Enron/Arthur Andersen type of accounting. However, the troubling thing about that headline is that it seems to make the point for the separatists, or the fence sitters who speak either official language. Considering that the side is being run by Quebecor Media, it really makes you wonder on whose side they are on.


If I may address the people of Quebec, (en francais) I would just like to say that as far as language and cultural protection go, right now is as good as it could ever get, particularly when you factor in your current economic situation, which is known across the country as being not so rosy. It has apparently been all downhill since our Centennial Year, when we had Expo 67 and de Gaulle's infamous speech. Up till then, Montreal was Canada's cultural centre, but since separatism became popular, there has been nothing short of an exodus of non-francophones along with business, and even cultural values. Today, you are fast becoming a "have-not" province.

Also, since the '60s, you have had three prime ministerial regimes, and each one seemed bent on giving you everything that you ask for, or try to anyway, but for some of you, it's just never enough. Because of what I consider to be cowardly and incompetent policies of appeasement (particularly the long-standing practice of begging, and with the Sponsorship scandal, bribing you not to separate), there has been an ever widening gulf between French and English Canada. You act as if you can never be satisfied and we in English Canada are galled by what we perceive as the federal government being over-indulgent. Speaking on behalf of English Canada, you are already separate from us, particularly of you treat us as though we are the enemy.

However, it is my sincere hope that we will stop treating each other like we are inherently different, and realize that together, we have built a great nation, but that it is being undermined by a small percentage of people who are decidedly never satisfied and openly hostile to Canada as well as people who profess that they want to keep it together but end up doing the opposite. We need to work together to help Quebec regain the cultural and economic might that it once had so we could all be one people again. The only alternative to that is that you could separate, and finish the job of impoverishing and ultimately destroying both French and English Canada.

Lastly, the federal government has in the last few decades, unintentionally it would seem, given you the idea that you are too good for us, and in effect, making the separatist's argument for them. Some of you may believe it now, and it certainly does not make you want to stay in Canada at all. What I would like to say to you in closing is that I believe that we do deserve each other (make of that what you will), and that we can put up with and even embrace each other's differences, and put an end to all the squabbling that is creating all of the fear and uncertainty that is slowly but surely destroying us.