Poly Ticks

I Have A Plan

Seeing has stimulus plans seem to be in short supply in Canada, I thought I'd offer my plan for a one billion dollar stimulus package for the auto industry.

Let's have the Canadian Government promise to buy one billion dollars of hybrid or electric vehicles in 2009. Offer to replace any vehicle that was registered in January 2009 that is older than 1980 with one of the new cars. Or whatever year gives you the same number of cars as one billion dollars can buy. Stimulus to the auto industry. Stimulus to the local market. Elimination of a huge chunk of our annual pollution.

Any takers?

And Yet They're Still In Power

Fiscal responsibility. It's something the Harper Gang continually tell us that only they can do. I'd like to call bs. Again. First the Minister of Finance suggests there will be screw ups in releasing Canada's stimulus package. Then the Harper Gang insists there be no over sight to their spending the stimulus package. We're going to screw up and you can't watch.

Cooperation. Another thing the Harper Gang consistently say only they are doing. More bs. Harper is going to make the legislation removing oversight from their spending a confidence motion. He has said he's willing to have an election for the right to have no one watching as he doles out the stimulus money. And screws up.

Seriously, if you are a conservative, why would you ever vote for these clowns? They are not practicing conservative ideals.

Not that I'm overly impressed by any of them at the moment. The Liberals after all are the ones who are allowing this farce to continue, but they at least know how to play well with others. Having reduced our parliament to a kindergarten glass it is perhaps the best we can hope for.

Help Me, I'm An Economist

I will admit that the first time I heard the "ask two, get three answers" joke it was economists being referred to. But what's with Stephen Harper, the great economist and strategist suddenly asking for help. From anyone who will listen. And if you're Michael Ignatieff and suggest that it's the government's job to come up with a budget and an opposition's job to critique it then you get slammed for not helping. Or if you're the NDP and actually show up for the meeting you're ignored. The Bloc, one expects, are not invited to the party. So basically we have "No thanks, I can do it myself" to "Please help me" to "If you didn't help me it's all your fault." Remember that kid in grade school?

The kid who never did anything and always blamed someone else. The kid you wonder about years later in the "man, I wondered what happened to him when the real world hit" sort of way. That's Stephen Harper this month. Wonder who he'll be next month. Suppose that will depend on whether or not he manages to come up with a budget that people can live with.

Stephen Harper Finally Sees The Train, Soundtrack by The Who

It seems as if Stephen Harper has finally realised what's going on. There are suggestions from the Conservative camp that there will be far fewer confidence votes in the next legislation and that some more controversial legislation won't be pushed forward. It would be nice if this was happening because Stephen Harper looked up the definition of "minority government", but it would seem not to be the case.

Stephen Harper has finally come to understand that he might not hold on to power if he pushes this Opposition. There's also the fact that someone in the Conservative camp has done the math and reached the conclusion that if they can hold power until January next year, that they will be able to appoint so many Senators that they control the Senate. Seems like the new boss is looking a lot like the old boss. Let's hope we won't get fooled again.

Happy New Year

Yes it's the new year and the hits just keep on coming. Jim Flaherty, the man presently responsible for the coutry's finances has just announced that there may be tax cuts in the upcoming budget. Maybe. Maybe not. What do you think?

This is what's known as a trial ballon and it has a long and proud history in Ottawa. Suggest something might happen and see how and who reacts. Adjust as needed. The problem is that we're in the middle of a global financial crisis that is having a very serious effect on Canada. During the election a couple of months ago the Cons made fun of Stephane Dion for saying he wanted to consult and formulate a plan in 30 days to get Canada thru this crisis. It took the Cons 30 days to decide they needed to consult, and having consulted still don't have a plan. They're floating trial balloons and are obviously only concerned with cobbling together a budget that gives everyone enough money to stop them from complaining and makes it difficult for the opposition parties to defeat.

One of the tax cuts that's been brought in is the tax free savings account. Up to $5,000 can be saved in a special account with no income tax paid on it. What a great way to encourage Canadians to save. Unfortunately what is needed at the present time is to encourage Canadians to continue to spend. Ooops.

A Con Is A Con Is A Con

Another story that has been developing during the news blackout known as the Christmas Season surrounds the issue of Abortion. Like a great many Canadians I'm surprised that this is an issue. I was fairly certain Canada had resolved this one quite a few years ago. It seems however, that there is a "secret caucus" in Ottawa made up of parliamentarians who would like to make abortion illegal. The plan at the moment seems to be to pass laws defining the fetus as alive and a legal person. Even this will be brought in thru the back door. The idea is to make crimes against pregnant women carry harsher sentences than the same crime committed against a non pregnant person. This introduces, legally, the idea that the fetus must be something special. From there the rights of the fetus are expanded until abortion becomes illegal because it infringes upon those rights. And today Stephen Harper announced that he has no intention of reopening the debate on abortion.

Where to start. A secret caucus? So there's a bunch of parliamentarians who know that Canadians don't want this issue reopened and are mostly accepting of where the laws now stand. The caucus is secret because if it got out which people were pushing this agenda they would lose their seats in the next, possibly soon, election. Why else would they hide? Combine this with the method being employed to change what are considered basic rights for women in Canada and you have a group of people who believe that they know better than the voters how things should be. And they are willing to go behind the backs of voters to make it happen. This is not representation. This is not politicians pursuing the will of their constituents. This is somebody saying they know what is right for us even though we have said repeatedly we don't want it. This is someone willing to use secret and hidden means to change the law, to force Canadians to a place we don't want to be.

Stephen Harper says he has no intention of reopening the abortion debate. He also has no intention to tax income trusts, call early elections or, well, you get the point. Who believes anything this guy says anymore. And I'm sure he'd say that this isn't about abortion, it's about harsher sentences for crimes against pregnant women. This takes us down the same garden path.

It seems to me that if a person is against abortion, rather than trying to change the laws that the majority of Canadians support they should spend their energies supporting single mothers. If it was easy in our society to be a single mother, if there were numerous supports in place to help women, we'd see far fewer abortions. It's also something a great many Canadians would support. I know I would.

Original story here.

Repetitive Behaviour Syndrome

For those that missed the story while stuffing turkey...Tory aide tried to scuttle Hanukah event school says.

This shit still surprises me. This was a threat. To any conservatives out there - what do you make of this? It's my understanding that the conservative philosophy is that governments should not be bullying and threatening it's own citizens.

I first heard about this on warrenkinsella.com. If it's not on your list of political blogs to read it should be.

For Those In BC...

Single Transferable Vote. If you don't know what this is, please spend some time at The BC-STV Campaign. This is an idea that 58% of BC voters said yes to, but somehow still didn't get, and is a perfect example of why we need it. A panel of British Columbians spent a considerable amount of time and energy addressing the problem of voter turn out and reached the conclusion that most voters are tired of their vote not counting. The website gives several very good examples. This is the solution they came up with.

If there is any hope of this idea getting applied to national politics it needs to start somewhere and I say let's start it here. Please share the link above with all of your BC friends. I'm sure that once the idea is understood it will be supported. Wouldn't it be nice to feel like your vote actually counts?

Merry Christmas Senate Reform

Some people have suggested that Stephen Harper is not to be trusted, but personally I think you can trust him. You can trust him to speak loudly and passionately about what he believes in. You can trust him to change his mind about what he believes in if it doesn't help him. You can trust him to do the exact opposite of what he said he would do if he thinks it will help him push his agenda forward. You can trust him to ignore the conventions and accepted rules if they get in his way. You can even trust him to break the law if he feels he wants to make a point. In short, you can trust him to be Stephen Harper.

After years of railing against Senate appointments, and even making his point by not appointing any new Senators last term, Stephen Harper has done his usual about face and appointed himself some Senators. Of course he couldn't make those appointments while Parliament was in session like every other Prime Minister, because he suspended Parliament in order to avoid getting tossed out on his ass. So, after setting one precedent for being the first Prime Minister to use the formal procedure of prorogation to avoid a vote of confidence, he adds to that legacy by being the first one to appoint Senators during a prorogation. Does this mean Stephen Harper might actually be beginning to realise that he might not be around much longer and so this is his last chance to tuck some friends in?

I like the Senate, I believe in the Senate and I think it has, generally, served this country very well. On most days it continues to. I also believe in appointed Senators. Typically they are not appointed by some unknown and unelected hermit, they are appointed by the person who, having achieved the majority support of Parliamentarians, achieves the office of Prime Minister. What could be more democratic? This person, usually, has won at least 3 elections to get there. The election to leadership of their party, their home riding election, and then the more nebulous election of having the most seats in the House of Commons. This year, however, only two out of three of those elections were won. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that Stephen Harper has lost the support of the House of Commons.

The Senate's function is to stop populist politicians with from running our country like a dictatorship. And we need them now as much as we ever have.

Don't Panic!!!!!!

That's right, just relax. There's nothing wrong here, everything is fine. Obviously. In fact things are going so well that as a reward all the MP's are going to get almost 2 months off for Christmas. So, while we ignore the layoffs and tumbling dollar, because obviously that's all ok and what was intended, let's reflect.

I don't want to suggest that this blog has ever had any impact on an election, but who knows. Maybe the dozen people who read it take the ideas and spread them at huge rallies. I am, therefore, going to use the word we. We the Press. Ok, maybe We the Bloggers.

I've been asked more than a couple of times why people don't understand our system of Government here in Canada. I myself have railed against the idea that Canadians vote for parties or Prime Ministers and pointed out that we elect MP's, we vote for the make up of Parliament and everything else follows from there and reflects the will of Parliament. Presumably Parliament represents the will of Canadians. So why doesn't everyone get this?

We commentators and news outlets cover elections as if it is a race. We cover the leaders. We make the election about the leaders instead of acknowledging that every party is based upon it's membership. Even a strong leader like Stephen Harper gets direction from his party. The Winnipeg convention did push Stephen Harper a little further right and it showed when he got back to Parliament. And if he loses his present game of chicken you can bet that his party will replace him with great haste. And we cover that perspective hard. Just look at this blog, go back to the election coverage, it was all about leaders and parties. With that in mind, is it really any surprise that people think they're voting for a Prime Minister and not a Parliament?

Perhaps if we commentators and news folks used the word Parliament more often in our Election coverage, we wouldn't have to use it so often after the election.

Today Is The Day

Today is the day we get to vote. We get to vote. I'm not going to rant about why it's a privilege or any of that. Just think of it as the ultimate combination of Canadian Idol and So You Think You Can Dance. Vote for your favourite entertainer if politics bores you.

For me there are a couple of things that are driving me this election. One hasn't been mentioned at all in the media, by any of the parties or even this blog. Digital rights. The Conservatives introduced legislation that would see Canada have some of the most restrictive copyright rules in the world. More restrictive even than the U.S. Remember, in the U.S., record labels chase down little old ladies and preteens in their rabid approach to copyright protection. For more information on this topic, Michael Geist has prepared a list of parties and candidates who are willing to pursue more reasonable approaches to copyright protection in Canada. I'm an artist and a writer, I believe in the need for artistic creators to have control over their work, but I also believe in strong "fair use" laws, and if I buy a cd, I want to be able to make a copy for the car.

Integrity is the other. Look at my blog posting for yesterday and it will be obvious which party strikes me as having the most trouble with integrity in government, and has shown no signs that either they understand or are going to stop. Liberals complain that the Conservatives tried bribing a dying MP for his vote. The Conservatives take them to court, not because they will win the court case, but because it pushes that discussion until after the election. It seems apparent now that the Conservatives will lose the court case, but they will have won by pushing it out of the election discussion. When Elections Canada found the Conservatives had broken the rules of campaigning last election did the Conservative Party vow to punish those responsible? No, they took Elections Canada to court. Once again the Conservatives will lose the court case, but succeeded in pushing it out of the election discussion. The list is long. And then of course there was the law passed to set election dates. If the Conservatives don't even respect the laws they themselves passed, what chance is there for them to abide by the rule of law in this country?

ABC my friends. Anything But Conservative.

Talking Turkey

Some families have rules against talking politics during dinner, but I suspect that there will be a lot of conversation this weekend about the upcoming election. So, what shall we talk about?

How about a party that follows the rule of law? There wasn't supposed to be an election until next year.

How about a party that doesn't try to bribe dying candidates? And then push it to a lawsuit that won't be decided until after the election to keep it from becoming an issue during the campaign.

How about a party that believes in climate change and actually wants to try and do something about it?

How about a party that, if elected, will represent all Canadians, not just those who voted for them?

How about a party that won't push Quebecers into the arms of the Bloc, just to stop their opponents?

How about a party that let's it's members actually speak without being afraid of their flat earth views frightening most Canadians?

How about a party that doesn't continue chanting deregulation even after the listeriosis deaths, the market melt down and say, does anyone remember Enron?

How about a party that actually practices fiscal responsibility, instead of breaking the bank and wiping out our contigency fund?

How about a party that tres to inspire people to attract their votes instead of frightening voters by name calling and mud slinging?

How about a party that isn't the Conservative Party of Canada?

Anything but Conservative.

The Conservative Job Plan

You'll be hearing a lot about the 107,000 jobs that were created in Canada in September. What they're not going to mention is that 97,000 of those jobs are part time. Basically they're proud of the fact that they have maintained and extended the number of working poor in this country.

Conservative Slogans And Inspiration

Vote for Conservative and avoid a recession.

That was Stephen Harper's slogan today. Wow. I feel inspired. Come on people, is that all we're hoping for from our future? Not to mention the Conservative record on keeping Canada in good fiscal shape is lousy. And speaking of recessions....if I had bought stock a couple of days ago like Stephen told me to, I would have lost more money wouldn't I???

The Green Party is once again being accused of being in cahoots with the Liberals and the Conservatives are once again suggesting that Green candidates are going to throw their support behind the Liberals before Tuesday. I doubt if the Green Party would do that before the election. It would spell death for the party just as they were breaking through the popular vote. After the election is a different story. Personally I would be impressed if I saw two or more parties actually working together in the House.

Also of note today was Ed Broadbent campaigning with Jack Layton, and Jean Chretien touring with Stephane Dion. Notice the Conservatives aren't touring their former stars. I wonder why.....

How To ABC

A wonderful idea this website: Vote For Environment. It helps people decide which vote would be strategic in each riding. How to avoid a Conservative government in Canada.