Canadian Politics 2008 – Page 2

Canada Votes Day 6: Friday Bullet Points For Week One

There is a certain pattern to elections. The days come and go and within only a few days some patterns seem to appear. Generalities. Themes. Motifs, even. So far in this one the main theme I see is that the Liberals have not collapsed through their own sheer incompetency. I think we all had suspected they might. That is victory in itself. Next, Stephen Harper is trying to be nice and, in doing so, is showing more confidence than his prior chippy habits allowed – though sooner or later it might cloy. Third, faction and gridlock rules. And a fair bit of ho-hum. Something is really going to have to break for anyone to get momentum. Frankly, I think the Tories have a plan to do just that after a quiet first third, a initial phony campaign. But what? What can it be? You will just have to wait.

Other news on Day 6:

Great jab against Dion by Jack(!) – where’s that green revenue going?
I don’t understand how a rabid decentralizer can claim that his opponent’s policies are a risk to national unity.
Stephen Taylor joins in the Conservative apology-fest…but I still can’t quite make out what May said.
Grits dump embarrassing advocate of violence.
Yet another Conservative apology, reports the Edmonton Sun.

Hmmm…for the rest of you unCanadians out there – what else is going on outside of mapled politics?

Boston mulls over something quite extraordinary: secret government.
I love complex time wasters like “Where’s George?“
Were you aware that the Duchy of Courland played a part in the colonization of the American?
A short but useful collection of early 1980s video games – Star Castle! Star Castle!!!
I really should have gone to this dinner.

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Canada Votes Day 5: All We Want Is A New Enegy Economy

One of the great things about a Canadian election is learning how many ways the same thing can be put. From the right-wing to the left-wing is a span of about a nanometre on the scale of political ideologies. Our neo-cons support socialist programs in health care and business development, our socialists support the free market. In this election there is no better example than the New Energy Economy. Jack (!) has announced programs to shift manufacturing on to a more sustainable foundation. The governing Conservatives have a remarkably strong and, dare I say, progressive program for shifting to a more sustainable economy. We all know about the Green Shift from the Liberals, even if we don’t quite understand it…perhaps, to be fair, yet. Don’t like the big parties? Then you can vote for the Green Party.

This is all plainly good and a bit weird. And I think it is plainly good for another reason other than keeping the place neat and tidy – it will create a new bubble economy! In the last fifteen years we have lived through the IT bubble (burst in 1998-2000) and the credit bubble (burst 2007-2008). The times of bubble economy are good times. Plenty of investment and, best, plenty of high grade burn rate of that investment, distributed generously amongst work toys, snack trays and recreational marine craft. People expect no results and lots of meetings over lunch. People get hired, buy things, save. All good.

And especially good if, by some fluke, the bubble also has the side effect of creating a number of actual benefits other than blowing the investments of others. In addition to jobs and increased trade, energy security should be that sort of bonus side effect benefit…in addition to thousands of buffet-style Chinese, Thai and Korean BBQ takeouts devoured in lunchrooms across the land.

Other news on Day 5:

Harper does the right thing and does it quickly and decisively.
Dion makes food inspection prime issue – smart.
Do you trust any of these polls?
A very good point from a soldier’s father.
Questions about this Liberal candidate suggest Denonville’s terrible acts were not most extreme imaginable, even 325 years later.

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Canada Votes Day 4: How Many Swing Votes Is Puffin Poo Worth?

The Liberals must be loving this. Everything so far is about how Dion is not as bad as made out to be. First, we learn he has a hearing issue: so he is not the risk the Tory ads would tell you. Then, now he’s outdoorsy: so not an inept bookish dweeb the Tory ads say. And, now, he wears no bird poopie upon his shoulder. Bird poopilessness good. And by the way, Toronto Star, let’s be clear: a puffin is an auk, not a duck as your website stated. Just because we are in an election does not mean we chuck ornithology out the window. Duck poop, indeed.

So now Jack(!) has called for civility and, brace yourself, Stephen Harper has apologized. Harper never apologizes for his own actions. But, now he has – so that is good. He is growing up, too. And speaking of change, don’t expect website management to be left in the hands of partisan teenagers anymore. This apologizing tone is not the campaign the Tories expected.

You know, given that the Conservatives had wanted to make this election about Dion’s ineptness, Grits should remember Iggy wanted to make the puffin the symbol of the Liberal Party. Perfect. Do it…err, bad choice of words…make it so. They should shower themselves with stuffed puffins and plaster puffins on bumper stickers to remind us of the value a sense of humour in the face of mean spiritedness.

Other news for Day 4:

Don’t you dare forget the GX40 election pool.
“No, no – after you, Ms. May. Can I get you a coffee? What a striking outfit!“
Why does Jack (!) most firmly hold on to the same stump speech?
The Conservatives fail to ask the most basic question of a candidate in Halifax, forcing her to leave and leading to preparedness questions.
Given this poll, the country may be playing for that weak minority which seems to work so well.
Hazel would have spent the 300 million on sewers – better value.

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Canada Votes Day 2: The Nasty Campaign

Being Canada’s favorite swing voter, it’s sad to see that Mr. Harper has begun with a great big fib, caught so plainly by the Edmonton Sun:

…it’s Harper’s Conservatives who are likely to prove most adept at demonizing their opponents. For almost two years, the Tories have kept up a barrage of negative radio and television ads against Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, depicting him as weak, indecisive, “not a leader,” and “not worth the risk.” Most ads have been accompanied by an unflattering photo of Dion shrugging his shoulders — a gesture that makes him look clueless and ineffectual…Nevertheless, Harper now says he expects to be the victim of “a very nasty kind of personal-attack campaign.”

Seems to be a case of he who lives by the sword dying by the sword…unless he who lives by the sword also beats off and beats up he who was trying to kill off he who lives by the sword. Regardless, be not fooled. Dion has endured an embarrassment of slander through the days of the last government and has actually come out a teensy-weensy bit better off for it, most Canadians actually thinking the Tory tactic was punkish if not a little thugish.

Whether Dion can leverage something off of his two years of rope-a-dope is an entirely different matter.

Other issues for Day 2: There is more going on out there today like:

Harper is short three candidates.
The “throw the bums out” factor.
Was there ever an election where “majority” was a dirty word?
I want an “UNDECIDED!” lawn sign.

More later if there is more later.

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Confused About The Candidates? Get A List Going

I was flipping channels last night and caught Andrew Coyne on TVO’s news show The Agenda as part of a panel. He was lamenting the actual record of Stephen Harper as a conservative and listed a few items like the ignoring his own fixed election law and keeping an unelected Senator in the cabinet…not to mention that blurting out that Quebec is a nation. It got me thinking about lists. Look at this now instantly famous list from one Anne Kilkenny, the Alaskan voicing her familiarity with the arc of Sarah Palin’s career:

“Hockey mom”: True for a few years
“PTA mom”: True years ago when her first-born was in elementary school, not since
“NRA supporter”: Absolutely true
Social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, but vetoed a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships (said she did this because it was unconstitutional).
Pro-creationism: Mixed. Supports it, but did nothing as governor to promote it.
“Pro-life”: Mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby but declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life legislation.
“Experienced”: Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska. No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000.
Political maverick: Not at all.
Gutsy: Absolutely!
Open and transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions.
Has a developed philosophy of public policy: No.
“A Greenie”: No. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.
Fiscal conservative: Not by my definition!
Pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards.
Pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on residents
Pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla’s history.
Pro-labor/pro-union: No. Just because her husband works union doesn’t make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim that she is pro-labor/pro-union.

For me, this is an effort to establish understanding rather than a purely snarky attack. And by “understanding” I mean one’s own opinion of the acts of another – not some effort to interpret in the context of either ideological purity or some fuzzy concept like the truth that the two-dimensional (to be charitable with the number of dimensions) fools on most blogs would tout but never actually comprehend. Note also the use of the word “mixed”. For me, it admits as much as about Palin as about the list maker. Each are imperfect and carries baggage.

So what would you list as the characteristics of the candidates in either the US or Canadian elections? Are you, like Coyne, one who can’t make a list for our Conservative Party Prime Minister which is “conservative”…or even arising from his “party” rather than himself for that matter. And what of Dion the Grit or Jack the Dipper? What do they stand for when we compare words and actual deeds? What is on your list for them? For me, it is important to take on this exercise for a couple of reasons. First, there has never been such a time when promises and actions were as distantly placed. The Tories have governed as Liberals, the Liberals have been the Tory’s best back benchers and the NDP have been inordinately silent through the whole thing. Second, this is an important election. If Harper is to get his majority – which he may now have earned however unlikely – it should not be though sleepwalking the electorate to the polls. If he does get it, expect a national reflection of Ontario’s Mike Harris years: low tax, high spend retreat to deficit financing with an minoritarian ideological response for every practical problem. You may want that. You may not. You may be considering this in the context of the listeria scandal. Do you actually know what you want? Third, this election seems to be entirely about voting against someone – not some policy but someone. Is it? And shouldn’t you know what you really think about them if that is the case?

What’s on your list?

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Friday Bullets For You And You And You And You…

…and especially for you, little Jimmy.

We stayed up again for a speech. I like speeches so I am something of a sucker but I thought there was just the right measure of menace and warning to the Republican party that my expectation that he would govern as an unfettered independent remains in place. I seem to have liked it more that Tiger but maybe because McCain spoke more to a person like me (internationally transposed, of course) than the party faithful. I liked this: “Let me just offer an advance warning to the old, big-spending, do-nothing, me-first, country-second crowd: change is coming.” Me first? Sounds like an attack on neo-cons and libertarians to me.

I Once Knew Someone Now Famous Update: I dimly recall taking civil procedure at 8:30 am on Monday or some other ungodly hour from Thomas Cromwell in 1989. I paid more attention to the fall of the Berlin Wall that year, however, than when to bring a third party action (know what I mean…nudge, nudge) or when to garnish (right before dinner is served, as I recollect). Wonder what grade I received. He must have done better as he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada today.
Up here, Dion seems to be getting all snippy. Will this help given this?
Earth to Fox News: you are the mainstream media, too.
Nice touch delivering right to Poti. What else is on board?
I tried the new browser Chrome from Lord Goog and the Googleplexians – but I can’t run it on my four year old computer at home! Drag. It is good. Like the recent tabs closed as well as the favorites selection when you open a new tab. Egghead debate points here.
One good reason to be thankful for blogs.
So far no “rats flee sinking ship” comments that I know of. Maybe Emerson wants to try as an NDP now but why, Monty, why? What’s that…because you never got what you deserved? Errr…because you want to start a western party that actually cares about about reforming Canadian politics? Makes sense.
Just in case you were wondering, Morton sucks so far.

Surely that is enough. Surely your incessant demands for more bullet points has an end, a satiation point.

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A New Olympic Record! Blaming Ottawa On Day 4!!!

You knew it was coming. Usually it doesn’t start up until the second week. But accusations are now flying, claiming that the reason Canada has no medals in the Olympics yet is due to the fact that our “sport spending” falls short:

“Why are they so good?” Diving Canada technical director Mitch Geller said Tuesday after the Chinese synchronized diving team easily won a gold medal in the women’s competition and the Canadians finished seventh. “They screen tons of kids. They put them all through some very, very good fundamental training. And then the cream rises to the top.” In Canada, governments and business are offering more money than ever, but the country’s sport spending lags behind that of China, Russia and other modern countries.

Wow. Did anyone tell Mitch that China, that most modern of countries, is a totalitarian dictatorship which may go some way to explain how they get to “screen tons of kids”? That the Chinese even measure kids by the ton may have been a hint.

But setting aside of those dreams of Nicolae Ceausescu’s 1970’s gymnastics teams – though he apparently hated sport – have to explain how it is that those who are well funded, got to China and have the best chances have failed. Yesterday, Brent Hayden, Canada’s fastest man in the pool, the reigning world champion failed to make the Olympic men’s 100-metre freestyle final. Ottawa’s fault? Did you know we had the fifth best fencer? She lost in her first match. She gone. Stephen Harper made it so. Personally. So unmodern of him.

There are reasons our entertainments are not as entertaining as others – and Olympic sport is just that, entertainment. First, we are a middling nation with middling resources which are actually allocated by Federal and Provincial governments ranging from socialists to neo-cons with a great measure of prudence. Second, we lack a pervasive national joy in achievement that drives the competitive spirit. Third, we simply like winter sports better. Fourth, the CFL gets all the real cash from Ottawa and you might as well get used to it.

Do you care? I don’t. I am happy to see some Canadians play an excellent game of softball and even was interested to see we have a men’s field hockey team even if the Ozzies smoked them. That’s what the Olympics mean to me – learning that we have citizens who love weird sports, having a slight interest in that oddly placed passion rise to my mind’s eye for about seven minutes and then moving on, forgetting them for another four years.

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Group Project: Should There Be Different Grades Of Sorry?

I have to admit I know so little about the background that I am somewhat unsure what tho think about the recent incident of the Prime Minister’s apology. But perhaps you have an opinion on what happened:

…Mr. Harper ignored their advice. He offered the apology and left the stage immediately afterward, without waiting to see if his host would deliver the pre-arranged thank you speech. Jaswinder Singh Toor, the grandson of a passenger on the Komagata Maru who was sent back to India, said he was shocked to hear Mr. Harper’s comments “It was unbelievable,” he said, adding that he did not understand why the Indo-Canadian community was not treated in the same fashion as Chinese and Japanese communities that have received apologies for historic wrongs. “Only the Indo-Canadians are being treated differently,” he said. “This is not right.”

It is often said that Mr. Harper does not suffer fools greatly but that I think is a bit of a euphemism. It certainly does not mean he has a license to be unkind and ungracious as he represents my nation as opposed to his personal opinion. Leaving abruptly would seem to be unkind and ungracious.

But has he been placed in an unfair spiral of expectation? The one man cannot be expected to wear the entire mantle of representation of the national government. He may have played a big part in creating the expectation that he is his own PR representative, the figurehead as well as the leader of the administration. For a person who wants to weaken and decentralize the land, he sure likes the strength of centralization of authority. Ought this outreach to communities and history be the job of the Governor General or even the next Royal visit? If it is left to a politician – any politician – is there not a risk of the consideration of an important historic matter becoming politicized?

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I Am Confused About China

So do we like the Chinese government or not? Apparently, Mr. Harper may be suffering from some indecision on the matter, allowing a policy to be defined – imagine! – by someone else:

“We’ve got a trajectory of diplomatic and other kinds of activities that we are laying out in front of us and I look forward to starting to put that together,” Mr. Emerson said in his first lengthy television interview since taking over his new role [as Foreign Minister]. Mr. Emerson is known to be a proponent of a strong relationship with China. His view differs from some Harper cabinet ministers and caucus members who are focused on human rights and want to emphasize that over trade. His appointment was seen by some as an indication that Mr. Harper was trying to improve the China-Canada relationship. “I think that the relationship with China is one that we’ve been cultivating and improving for some time now and my appointment certainly does not get in the way of that, but I don’t think it’s a signal of any profound change in foreign policy,” he said.

I seem to recall that the China-Canada relationship was all tickity-boo prior to the election of 2006, what with all Chretien’s Pacific rim and trade mission policy focussy stuff. But Emerson would know that, being a former Liberal cabinet minister. And I seem to recall it was Mr. Harper who made things a wee bit “who left the fridge door open?”

So have we now confirmed that Canadian policy is to call placing human rights before trade ridiculous in all contexts? Or is this yet another reversion to Chretien era policy with the hope of a Chretien era majority?

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Friday Bullets For The First Of August

Can you believe it’s August already? Can you believe the decade is almost over? This is crazy. Who sped up the clock? August is a month that is quite remarkable for standing for not much. Has anything remarkable happened in August? Here is a list of things that happened on this date. Hey, in 860 the Peace of Koblenz was signed by Charles the Bare, Louis the German and Lotharius II. Why didn’t I think of Lotharius when I was naming the boy?

I have written about Manny many times. I will write about him no more, however, as Manny is now a player for the Dodgers. Jason Bay, however, is a player for the Red Sox. I trust back bacon sandwiches and maple syrup laced cocktails are the order of the day where you are today.
I don’t cross pollinate the beer blog posts over here but this is a great example of DadLit.
Lawless? Would this be the same colonial French who in the 1680s took the leaders of the Iroquois nation invited to meet in Kingston, caged them and sent them to be galley slaves?
I like it when Harper stays away from policy and just taunts. He is better at mean than bright.
I hate the new Google little icon. I’ve looked at the damn lower case purple “g” for, what, a couple of months now and I swear it’s the stupidest logo I have ever seen. I’d ask them why they did swtiched from the old “g” but…
A great primer on the rainbow pitch.

Well, that is enough for today. What do you want from me? Find a TV set to watch the Sox v. Oakland today. Watch Jason Bay get a standing ovation and then watch him quietly play great baseball.

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