Second Gen (2003-2016, 2016- )
Please provide your ideas for any party to make a change, capture the national imagination, bust out of these doldrums. Maybe the Greens should come right out and promote attacking Yemen. Maybe the Tories should promote a useless infrastructure project in a dumb place like the Arctic…oh, they did that already. Or is national vision even needed? Maybe the NuGovernment has invented UnPolicy as the NuVzn?
Shake the tree.
There is a funny thing about the word ridiculous. Anyone that uses it in serious discussion makes me think of Don Rickles. Nothing in a serious discussion is “ridiculous”…yet…
Prime Minister Stephen Harper defended his government’s decision to pursue free-trade talks with Colombia despite persistent human-rights problems Monday, saying it’s “ridiculous” to stop economic talks until conditions are ideal. “We are not going to say, ‘Fix all your social, political and human-rights problems and only then will we engage in trade relations with you,'” Mr. Harper said at a joint news conference with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. “That’s a ridiculous position.”
Of course we do that. It is called an embargo and it is a useful tool from time to time. The US uses it against Cuba. Canada’s conservatives advocated its use quite handily against South Africa to great effect. Harper in the general sense, then, is being ridiculous in his general proposition. And there is a little something of Don in Steve when you think about it, something about the inability to smile without sending a second message.
But what about the specific? There are certainly situations where trade is a better tool than embargo. Customers and clients are better to have than criminal drug lords. Yet the US Congress has determined in this particular case that is not the case and has stopped their free trade relationship discussions from moving forward. Is it that Harper has picked a country in need of good news to get some of his own? Is he the patron of dumb causes like Arctic paratroopers? Is he leaving out other more sensible choices like Brazil and Argentina which could make a real difference in the movement of goods because they are, you know, “pinkos”? Or is he the vangard of free stable democratic government and picking a hard case for a good cause, indirectly trying to work to halt the murders of trade union leaders and other forms of repression that country is plagued with?
And if there was free trade with Columbia – what would you buy?
Can there be 100 comments without ry? That was the question I asked myself last night. We have settled into a kind rapport even with our differences. Is this middle age? Yesterday at the beer blog, I cited a post that I wrote in October 2003. That’s a long time ago. When do blogs hit middle age?
Bullets postponed until bandwith available.
Update: Why does my broadband cut out in thunder and lightning? Does it rely on AM radio at somepoint between here and there?
The Harper government has been told to stop referring to “fighting terrorism” and the Sept. 11 attacks, and to banish the phrase “cut and run” from its vocabulary if it is to persuade a skeptical public that the military mission in Afghanistan is worth pursuing.
If we are going to ask our youth to fight, speak about what they are fighting for. If you disagree, speak about the nature of your disagreement strongly. I may not vote for you but I will respect your free expression of your view. But for God’s sake, leave the PR consultants out of this. And as for not connecting 9/11 to Afghanistan…are you crazy?!?! Has no one any memory of the BBC leading the charge into Kabul? That is the theatre where all the resources of the Iraq war should have been focused. Offer me war bonds.
I wonder what the real risk is? If I was in Afghanistan, would I be pleased with the huge outlay for military stuff that will never be used?
“Canada has a choice when it comes to defending our sovereignty in the Arctic; either we use it or we lose it,” Harper said. “And make no mistake this government intends to use it. Because Canada’s Arctic is central to our identity as a northern nation. It is part of our history and it represents the tremendous potential of our future.”
Sadly, we are investing 7 billion plus on 4 month a year presence which will add about a -25 factor to the argument. Where is the promised Arctic paratrooper base? Where are the frigid concrete mining towns that worked out so well in Siberia? What about mandatory northern service as an alternative to conscription?
What would you do to the North to keep it safe from, what, Peru?
Oh dear. What else can one say?
In the latest administrative nightmare to emerge from Public Works Canada, auditors say high-level bureaucrats lost control of a $24-million contract with cost-cutting consultants.
I am a bit at a loss at the political plan – you know, the plan to get re-elected. If making everyone unhappy is the road to electoral success, it seems the Not Pre-existing Government is doing a great job:
The receding tide of electoral support for MacKay defies most of the rules of politics. High-profile cabinet ministers aren’t supposed to be in trouble, particularly when they represent poor rural areas. MacKay is not only foreign affairs minister, he controls millions of dollars in local business grants as minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. He is well-liked and holds what was once the safest Tory seat in the country, a seat held for 22 years by his father, Elmer.
The prospect of someone other than a Tory getting in in Pictou County is frankly stunning but the cavalier attitude that goes along with the loss and other likely losses in Atlantic Canada does not seem to be linked to the picking up of seats elsewhere. The green agenda has weakened the resolve and maybe even the interest of many of the faithful. The uncompromising tone belies many last minutes back-tracks.
Aside from the personal affiliations that might make me less than interested in seeing Harper succeed, does anyone else think it is strange at how little he has done to establish his own agenda? To actually get more seats the next time? Or has he done very well with the cards dealt? Group Project rules apply – do not snipe at him – and is there any other pronoun for this government other than “him”? – but think about opportunities or challenges that might have been dealt with differently by another person in the same office.
Why can’t we make a cheaper simpler and secure tool like the US is planning:
Ms. Harty said a planned introduction of a passport card – “that card will be wallet-sized and about half the price” – should ease the problem for Americans who cross into Canada for work or on day visits. The passport card will be available only to U.S. citizens. In Canada, the Harper government has no plans to offer an equivalent card.
No, we have a less-secure, as-expensive, bulky plan. Excellent.
It appears Ottawa is awash with straws these days as there are any number of neato ideas with which one can grasp so as to make one feel better about oneself, such as this:
“It’s getting harder and harder to reach people through the regular media. Fewer people are watching the network news … fewer people are reading the newspapers,” the Immigration Minister said. “So we have to find new advertising outlets to reach them, to get our message through. And the people who follow NASCAR are our kind of people. They’re hard-working families, they’re taxpayers who play by the rules. And those are the people that we’re targeting.” Conservative insiders have been saying for several months that the party strategy is to go after the large number of Canadians who consider themselves middle class.
Brilliant. Sponsor a race car, convince me you have the stuff it takes to run a majority. Next idea?
The dopey anti-journalist message is gold as well.
Jay and I have been discussing the Atlantic Accord and likely both been making errors all over the place but none as silly as the ones likely being made in the political forum these days:
“I am concerned about this allegation we’ve broken the [Atlantic] accords…We have done no such thing. It’s a contract. We don’t break contracts. We respect contracts. Normally, I expect, if someone says you’ve broken a contract, they are going to follow that up by going to court to make you abide by the contract. But I don’t see that happening…We can’t let that allegation stay out there forever. At some point we will consult tribunals ourselves, if that’s necessary, to get a ruling on our respect for the contracts.” The political dare was met with scorn by Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams and Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald, who said they will not be drawn into legal battles that would only deflect their criticisms of the recent federal budget…
Stephen Scott, a professor of constitutional law at McGill University in Montreal, said the Atlantic Accord is a political arrangement, not a contract, so a lawsuit could not be used to force the federal government to uphold its provisions. But, he said, the premiers could go to their own provincial appeals courts to get orders declaring how the agreement should be interpreted.
So you have the leader of the country daring other leaders into a court case over a legal principle that probably does not exist. Classy or troubling?
But to what political end? Where is a seat one with this approach? Maybe rural Alberta, itself the beneficiaries of the greatest non-reimbursable Federal windfall in Canadian history, will now vote 75% Conservative instead of 70%. But what is a Conservative government without seats in Atlantic Canada? Unless, it takes Ontario – nothing. Is there now a practical resignation to the reality of minority government?
Canada is a funny place, where the bits add up to more and less than the whole depending on what week it is in relation to the recycling pick-up. Consider March 2006:
“It is important that all members of our caucus have every opportunity to advance important issues. The regional caucus structure will help give all of our caucus members more opportunities to fully represent their constituents,” said Prime Minister Harper.
Flash forward to June 2007:
Mr. MacDonald, who has been quietly trying to find a compromise with Ottawa since the federal budget was tabled three months ago, has now openly split with his federal cousins, joining Newfoundland’s Conservative Premier Danny Williams, who said the budget is a betrayal of Atlantic Canada. Mr. MacDonald plans to appear before the national news media to make his case. There are national consequences, he said, if the federal government can rip up agreements with provinces.
Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert, who has his own bone to pick with Mr. Flaherty about resource revenues, said voters in his province will expect its dozen Tory MPs to follow Mr. Casey’s example and vote against the budget. Mr. Calvert is a New Democrat; no New Democrats were elected from Saskatchewan in the last federal election.
Hmmm…will they even have any members from out east after next time? Second “hmmm”…so which regions are left from which Conservative caucus members can fully represent their constituents? Quebec I suppose, though the recent provincial election was hardly clear cut evidence of regional confidence in Ottawa. Funny old times.