Tag: Canadian Politics 2008

Friday Bullets For Stay-cation Week

Well, I suppose that the promised break in the days of rain that have been mid-July in Easlakia has to stand for something. I can’t think when I last took a summer week off and did not load the family for somewhere – which is just as well as a van full of damp is not a happy van. It has been a time of napping and of reading something other than the glowing screen. I did not home repair. Of that you can be truly proud.

  • Byelection Fever Update: About 1% of the Canadian electorate go to the polls on 8 September. Woooot!!! This is what we have been waiting for.
  • Ben is proxy blogging Berlin. I hear we need change.
  • What do you think about the fence?
  • My new found status as Canada’s sixth most popular political blogger demands that I make some obtuse observations on the state of doings in Ottawa. Except nothing seems to be going on. Who cares about election plans – I want substance. But aside from the general quality of Federal leadership, there seems to be only one big issue: carbon tax. I still think this is a yawner and a loser for whoever gets marked with the green tint. It shouldn’t be so but as there are no strong answers yet, proposing the unpopular and the unlikely-to-succeed is seldom a yellow brick road to a majority hold on Parliament. And it’s no more than a plank at best. We need more.
  • So which Federal issues deserve more airplay?? The recent premiers’ gathering raised the prospect of actual steps towards First Nations reconciliation. Wouldn’t that be nice of real steps were taken towards that national quandary? How about infrastructure – Ottawa and Toronto have made nice to buy bridges and buses. But do you run an election on that? Rideology not ideology??
  • Al Purdy’s cottage is for sale. Owning that would be rather neato.
  • This week’s weather shattered the promise of a massive harvest for a lot of Ontario fruit growers. Hailstorms. We need to start the “Buy A Peach With A Bruise” campaign. Why do all the farmer’s protests have to be around the combine harvesters? Who’s behind this anyway?
  • Apparently the oversight committee decided to lay off hitting each other in the head with hammers. Who thought that was ever a good idea?

Full disclosure: I wrote most of this Thursday. Between the dodgy internet access and my new found love for not being up at 6:15 am, I thought it would be prudent to plan ahead so as to ensure you desk jockeys have your moments of bulletty bliss at the crack of dawn.

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Friday Bullets Without The Pain…Except For The Pain

I need a new back today. Despite the sit up and other exertions of unbelievable dedication, the back still goes. And it is quite prepared to go before just before the summer holiday begins. Such is life. Good thing I plan to do nothing.

  • Nevermind those who 3% of folk who think George W. Bush will be well remembered by history. He’s going to be considered a goofball if his final words to the G8 are anything to go by: “Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter.” He has to plan that sort of thing. That can’t be what he’s coming up with off the cuff.
  • I wish Google had reviewed the whole fewer and better ads thing with me. See that over there down to the right? Who am I to complain about who give me that big $350 bucks a year?
  • The Mets: 10 for their last 10.
  • I have never liked Paul McCartney that much so I guess I am with that 0.3% of Quebecers who are unhappy. Surely he is not the biggest act in the world, surely they could have gotten Plastic Bertrand.
  • Kottke noted a great illustration of the disutility of information technology this week. Because the information was not sortable by the critical factor, availability of restaurant seats, the application is practically useless.
  • No other politician generated more dancable tunes, though no ska that I know of. Happy birthday, Nelson!

My got to explore the home pharmacy some more. I understand one pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small. But which is which?

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I Think This May Encapsulate The Whole Question Nicely

We are a people in need. It is sad but this always comes up – why aren’t Canadians as outwardly loyal as others allegedly are to their nations. The Globe and Mail thinks we need a little re-education on this point. A little time out from the family for a nature lesson:

On this Canada Day, I wonder: How do you instill a love of country in your children that isn’t hand-over-heart rote patriotism? How do you help them understand they are living in a paradise of benefits and beauty? Or make them want to, as grown-ups, become good citizens and give back to their country? You start by stepping outside. American psychologist and author Mary Pipher (The Shelter of Each Other) says that as grown-ups we tend to remember three things about our childhood: special meals, vacations and time spent outdoors…

It just sad. Can’t find a Canadian authority on point to make your argument about Canadian-ness. Then use that non-national authority to make a point that applies everywhere. Having only lived in areas Canuckian settled before, say, 1830 and for the most part before 1785, I can only say that anyone who hasn’t got special local food, interesting trips to local areas of importance or trips into the bush to to the beach must be bubble babies. Isn’t that what everyone does in Canada? Go to the cottage, the camp or the cottage or camp of the neighbour or relative?

No, I think they are making that point to miss the point. The real point is that we want to be jingoistic about something but don’t have it in us, literally. We have not been educated about the important stuff that is laying around us – unless you are lucky enough to be Newf, Bluenose or Quebecois. In his speech yesterday, Harper resorted to a call to “greatness” – which is like a call to tallness. A call to nothing. Greatness is a result not a goal. Patriotism is something that arises from pride, not from rote. So while you are at the beach or the camp, how about telling the kids why they are at that beach or camp and how folks got there Everyone’s pines are tall and lands are vast. But everyone’s history lessons and lessons from history are different. Start with who lived where you were first and go from there.

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Group Project: McCain’s Visit To Ottawa

I don’t usually get caught up in the bashing of various news sources. The Toronto Star gets its share of grief from folks with a variety of levels with incoherent thought – leaving the brighter stuttering when they see the error of their ways. But this column/article/piece, for me, is worth a bit of finger pointery:

He brings to Canada his message that Barack Obama’s desire to unilaterally renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement damages relations between steadfast allies and he will highlight the benefits of the trilateral deal in his speech Friday at an Ottawa hotel. The Conservative government in Ottawa and the Canadian Embassy in Washington are seeking as much cover as possible from the McCain visit, but the optics hurt Prime Minister Stephen Harper and everyone around him. Having the man most Canadians would see as the embodiment of the third George W. Bush term extolling your policies is no favour for the Conservative government.

Most Canadians?!? First, I would think most Canadians really have no opinion on McCain and his position on Canadian policy. Most Canadians think BBQ is a chicken wiener on a hibachi. We like to talk up how much we know about the US but most Canadians are fairly ignorant generally of our neighbour’s governance and specifically who John McCain is. Second, Canadians will gush because US breakfast TV shows may be broadcasting from Canada. Nothing excites Canucks as much as being noticed by US media. Canada could be on fire from coast-to-coast but, as long as there were US camera crews up here, there would be a silver lining. Third, Canada has done very well under trade agreements – as long as we didn’t have an artificially inflated dollar primed by speculators pumping up the cost of a barrel of oil to the benefit of the few.

So why do the optics hurt – why would Harper hide? – well, you know other than he seems to always hide as a first tactic. Sure his policies are a bit anti-trade, ensuring the short term gains for commodity vendors are undermining the solid economic gains made for twenty years in the 80 cent dollar world. Even if you aren’t conservative don’t you like your conservatives standing up for themselves proudly?

Or maybe it’s because McCain was an activist for funding reform and bipartisan cooperation. Maybe it’s because McCain is the sort of politician who Canadians want – engaging and fiscally conservative but a bit of a red Tory in some areas social and libertarian in others. Maybe it’s because McCain knows how to smile. Maybe because side-by-side Harper does not look as good to Canadians as his putative US right-wing counterpart.

Victoria Day’s Weekend’s Very Own Bullets

May two-fer. That is the level to which the legacy of England’s fourth best
Queen has been relegated. Drunks at the cabin. I know one. He’s there already.
While I prepare to go to my day’s labour. It’s going to rain all weekend, too.
No gardening for me and less fishing for the man in the cabin with 56 cans of
beer to work his way through.

  • Update: isn’t the
    proper discription     “murdered child with bomb strapped to body”? When we
    rightly speak of the Canadian role keeping schools open, it’s this kid that we
    are trying to keep in the school.

  • Computer solitaire is the
    most successful program of all time. Who knew?

  • Be warned. The CRTC
    is rethinking     it’s lack of justisdiction over the internet. In 1999 they
    realized they should have nothing to do with it but they are now fudging the
    point holding:

    services consisting predominantly of alphanumeric
    text and those with the potential for significant user customization do not
    “involve the transmission of programs for reception by the public and are,
    therefore, not broadcasting.”

    If we could all just stick to the
    keyboard please. I can’t imagine the botch the CRTC would create.

  • Bad week for the control freaks in the PMO:

    In any other time, these would be the most incompetent politicians. Sadly,
    they are only #2 in that race. But for the Liberal policy of letting the Tories
    hang themselves. Seems to be working.

  • Realist Caesarian art found in river because
    who wanted to be associated with Julie after the assasination.

  • Jesus won’t like this.

Read
some McGonagall
today if you have the time. A fitting celebration of Victoria’s gift of
repression of all that is good.

Bullet Points For The Week Of The Idle

It ended up not being that idle. Taxes yesterday. Driver’s license renewal Tuesday. I’m wiped. Must save up energy to pray for Morton tomorrow.

  • Here is the sound of someone singing in 1860. Here is what it means.
  • Funny how people have long memories.Interesting to note that baseball continues to settle – after a couple of years of little ball, now free agency is not as mad as it once was:

    this winter was the 32nd for free agency, and something worth noting occurred. For the first time other than the collusion years of 1985, ’86 and ’87, teams did not race crazily and expensively after free-agent starting pitchers.

    I remember my collusion years.

  • I feel like I have seen too much basketball for some reason. Do you really need that link?
  • The real reason I did not do it.
  • El Tigre has posited (or at least frets) that McCain will pick Romney. I find this highly improbably but in this US election campaign – the boring cannibalistic Democratic contest, the more interesting Republican one that ended too soon – anything can happen now. Apparently Fred Thompson knows he is not in the running for VP.

I have to admit, I have been on the internet less this week than most – could it be that there is a connection between the desk and surfing?

Outcome? More Stalemate

Last night’s by-elections are enough of a win for both the Grits and Tories that nothing really changes:

Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River in Northern Saskatchewan was expected to be a close race. But it turned heavily toward the Conservatives after early results and Rob Clarke, an aboriginal who is a 17-year veteran of the RCMP, surged ahead of Joan Beatty, the former provincial New Democrat who was hand-picked by Mr. Dion. Bob Rae, meanwhile, sailed to an easy victory in the Liberal stronghold of Toronto Centre. (The NDP candidate finished second, but only three votes ahead of the Green candidate.) And Martha Hall Findlay thumped her rivals in the Toronto riding of Willowdale – a seat that went to the Progressive Conservatives during the Brian Mulroney years.

The Liberal grip on Vancouver-Quadra, a party stronghold for a quarter-century, loosened last night. Former B.C. environment minister Joyce Murray won the seat, but was only about 5 per cent ahead of Deborah Meredith, running for the Conservatives. It was a massive shift from the last federal election in 2006 when Stephen Owen had a 21-per-cent lead over his Tory rival.

The Liberals get at least two new strong voices on its side in the House of Commons but has shown weakness in the west, though the Saskatchewan riding was no one’s to win. It was however, Dion’s to lose and by dropping in his own candidate he may have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

The interesting thing will now be to watch Bob Rae. A gifted debater but he carries the curse of a man of two parties. Yet he faces a man of four across the aisle in the person of the Prime Minister – any history of the recent centre-left in Canada is only really remarkable for its parallel to the less recent history of the centre-right. It still be interesting to see if he is able to shore up some sort of solidity in the shadow cabinet or whether he will add to the factors pointing out the glaring – as in deer in the headlights – inappropriateness of Mr. Dion’s unofficial interim role.

Verdict: no spring election.

Friday Bullets For The Last Weekend Of Winter

Another Friday. They flow by like the days of the week. A week or so from spring and still there’s feet of snow. That’s not exactly helping. Morton’s teetering and the Orange are gone. At least things are going better for me than they are for Eliot Spitzer. WFAN had an interview with his lady-friend’s grade five teacher. This is a weird world sometimes.

  • Update: Well said and RIP, hairy one:

    Mr. Ponticelli, who described war as “idiotic”, had initially refused an offer of a state funeral made by former President Jacques Chirac, considering it would be an insult to the men who had died without commemoration. He relented after Mr. Cazenave’s death, saying he would accept a simple ceremony “in homage to my comrades”. President Nicolas Sarkozy paid tribute to Mr. Ponticelli and said a national commemoration of all of France’s participants in the war would be held in the coming days.

    I had no idea that more than twice as many French soldiers were killed in WWI as there were total Canadian solders.

  • Update: Bob Costas thinks you are a loser…or maybe it’s just me that he thinks is a loser.
  • Why can’t we have a sense of humour? Why couldn’t it be called Sinistre?
  • What did the dolphin say? “Hey stupid whales! You don’t see dolphins dead on the sand. Loser whales. I am out of here. Stay if you want.”
  • Further to the question of who exactly in what capacity is suing whom, please note this:

    Prime Minister Stephen Harper is following through on his threat to sue the federal Liberals because of accusations, posted on the Liberal party’s website, that he knew of “Conservative bribery.”
    The lawsuit — a statement of claim for $2.5 million was filed today in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice — is a response to the “defamatory” statements made by the Liberals, Harper spokesperson Sandra Buckler said. “He’s doing what any other person with integrity would do to defend himself and his family,” she said.

    While the claim itself carries some errors that are a bit embarrassing for anyone who got better than a “D” at law school – pleading evidence, are we? – it is what it is. But does the spokesperson for the Office of the Prime Minister represent him in all things? Is this a political court case or a personal one? I’d be a little more comfortable if someone not on the public payroll was his spokesperson on this one.

    Update: I may be speaking out of my digestive tract about pleading evidence and the “D” thing as a read of Ontario’s Libel and Slander Act points out this dense bit of text:

    In an action for libel or slander, the plaintiff may aver that the words complained of were used in a defamatory sense, specifying the defamatory sense without any prefatory averment to show how the words were used in that sense, and the averment shall be put in issue by the denial of the alleged libel or slander, and, where the words set forth, with or without the alleged meaning, show a cause of action, the statement of claim is sufficient.

    I have not a clue but this may be the basis for an exception to the pleading evidence rule. See 1839’s Boydell v. Jones on “prefatory averment”.

  • Craig inquires into the delicate question of ladies of the night on PEI.
  • I have had the rewarding experience of being in a meeting with Senators Segle and was impressed by his dedication to local constituency work, something more in the nature of what you might expect from a senator under the US system. So I will not trot out my usual snark about monarchists on this point:

    Hugh Segal has introduced a motion in the Senate that would invoke the notwithstanding clause of the Constitution to prevent references to the Queen being dropped from the country’s oath of citizenship. The Kingston senator’s motion comes in response to a class-action lawsuit filed by Charles Roach, a Toronto lawyer born in Trinidad who never took a Canadian citizenship because he objects to the monarchy’s connection to slavery and refuses to take the oath.

    Yet it is note worthy to record for posterity that I have never quite voiced certain words in certain oaths for reasons of the history of the clan:

    The clan supported Charles I in the Civil War, and some of them fought for Charles II at the Battle of Worcester (1651). After the Restoration in 1660, the MacLeods felt a major grievance that Charles II had not been sufficiently grateful for their exertions on his behalf, and they never supported the Stewart kings again. The MacLeods took no part in Claverhouse’s campaign of 1688-89, nor in the first Jacobite rising of 1715.

    My feeling on the point is that if we are going to honour historical legacy, we ought to acknowledge the specific one.

That’s enough for this week. When we next meet over bullet points, it will be spring.

Friday Bullets For The Humpday Of February

Doesn’t February cling on this year, demanding one 24 more hours before we get to the month of hope? Well, February is half over as of noon today. I hate February. I really don’t know why particularly as there never were exams or a rush to get a paper out. Never a particular drain on the budget or time. What else could it be?

  • Election Readiness Update: even if I love all elections, I wonder if this one’s timing is wise?

    The Conservative government expects that it will be defeated over the budget in early March, which means Canadians could go to the polls by early April. The government has apparently intensified its election readiness, believing it may fall during a non-confidence vote on March 4, the day of the Liberal amendment to the Tory budget. That could set an election date for as early as April 7. Sources told CTV News that Liberal Leader Stephane Dion has told party members he is ready to pull the election trigger over the budget bill, even though some Liberals are against the idea.

    I bet the Liberals lose a few seats…or many…but maybe the Tories do, too. I see no reason for change at this point given we have a centrist government just like the last centrist government. Needless to say, however, we are ordering the lawn signs promoting the GX40 way forward: “Change, Order, Hope and A Record To be Proud Of!!!”

  • Forget February. Pitchers and catchers are reporting…even for Kansas City.
  • I have started the call for a global rage for beer and pie festivals. Isn’t it time to debate the fine points of lard and flour, whether leek or onion better does with that filling? I am guided in part by my recollection of the show Pie in the Sky but am ignoring all that gross obestity.
  • The post-Christmas collapse of the Morton continues with them falling from mid-table to relegation. The manager has quit, too. You clearly are not doing enough, not taking on enough misplaced angst.
  • Extremists. Aren’t they getting to be a bore? I am not talking about the terrorist or flag burner but the unreasonable expectations of those who would control political authority. Consider, by way of comparison this op-ed nugget from The New York Times this morning:

    If I were advising the Republican nominee, this is one of the places I’d ask him to plant his flag. I’d ask him to call for a new human capital revolution, so that the U.S. could recapture the spirit of reforms like the Morrill Act of the 19th century, the high school movement of the early 20th century and the G.I. Bill after World War II. Doing that would mean taking on the populists of the left and right, the ones who imagine the problem is globalization and unfair trade when in fact the real problem is that the talents of American workers are not keeping up with technological change.

    What? A call to moderation and prudent focused hard work? When did we last hear that sort of stuff? Maybe something is changing. It was nice to see Larry King call Limbaugh an example of “the far right” last night during the McCain interview. The effect of the extreme exceeds any logical sense of their reach other than in their self-promoting vicitimized imagination. Without the looney left and the wacko right (and perhaps the Web 2.0ers, too) what could be done with the world?

  • Hans has a blog and, unlike 99.99999999% of blogging, it appears to be clever. Brainy. I can’t tell you any more about it as my experience is like 99.99999999% of blogging.

Surely that is enough for the day that starts the slide to March that marks the edge of spring.