Is Van Loan that Mentally Challenged?

This from today's Globe and Mail referring to the cons new attack ads:

"Mr. Van Loan refused to say how much the ad campaign will cost or how long it will run. "It will continue until it works," he said."

Does he not realize what he just said? He just said that the con's plan to win the hearts and minds of Canadians is not to make their lives better, not to keep Canada a great country, not to govern effectively, not to be a leader on the world stage, none of these or any other such accomplishments. Their plan is to make fun of Dion.

Wow, how bereft of governing ideas is that and how disrespectful of Canadians intellectual capacities!!!

This is Pretty Way Out There - Or Is It?

Today a man about 45, who works on heating systems, was repairing ours at work and I asked him how he enjoyed his trip to Las Vegas. He said he didn't go because he couldn't get a passport because he had expressed anti-government opinions - namely he had taken EI to court six years ago and won. Is this possible? I am going to try to get a copy of his correspondence, just to see with my own eyes. He has been in touch with the local MP who was surprised and is looking into it.

Anybody out there ever heard of this happening to anyone else?

Pipeline Magister Ludi Prentice Ups the Ante

According to today's Globe and Mail, "Gavin Fitch, an environmental law specialist who was Mr. Prentice's former law partner in Calgary, replaces Tim Koepke, a long-time federal negotiator, at a table to restart treaty talks with the Kaska Nation in northern B.C. and Yukon." Could this have something to do with Mr. Prentice's real file, namely to get oil and gas pipelines through. Mr. Fitch's credentials, according to his firm's website, include:

"Focuses on environmental and regulatory law in the oil and gas industry
Experienced in conflicts between the oil and gas industry and surface landowners and contaminated land cases."

And looks like he might just be American, at the very least American educated: "Holds an M.A. in communications (Syracuse University, 1985), a B.A. from the University of Alberta (1984) and a Bachelor of Laws degree (Dalhousie Law School, 1991)". Needless to say he's from Calgary.

How transparent.

At the same time, First Nations in the region are rallying to pull out of treaty talks because they know they're being had. I wonder if Fitch's legal experience will help him defend the government in the law suits being filed against it because it has failed to engage in the "meaningful consultation with First Nations" required by law. Or maybe the government will just stack the courts and change the law.

One way or another this government is all about oil and gas and making the US happy.

From Rags to Riches - the HRDC Outcome

The skies have opened and the manna is falling. All those groups that were denied student grants are getting phone calls - money is flowing and everyone is scrambling to reverse gear. Good news for the community organizations, good news for the arts and heritage, good news for students. Good for Monty Solberg.

Unfortunately the question remains - what was that all about? My take: the previous HRDC minister - forget her name - made some draconian policy and money decisions, handed them over to some number crunching consulting firm and distributed evaluation formulas to HRDC offices across the country - no one sanely or soberly examined the obvious consequences - they could have asked the senate to look at it, anyone for that matter - but when every MP in the country's phone started to ring off the hook, they realized there was a problem. And now hopefully they also realize that governing is not as easy as they thought.

Harper Hates Heritage Methinks

Here are the figures so far on how many museums in BC have been put at risk by the cuts to Canada Summer Jobs grants: out of 49 museum responding, 26 have received no funding and 23 have received funds for one or more students. That is a 53% cut! MAP, HRDC, what's next? Regulating arts and culture out of existence?

More on the HRDC Debacle

Some analyses are coming in on the impact of the HRDC summer student grant revised guidelines. The latest: of 1000 jobs that were provided by federal grants last year in Cape Breton Island, 100 were awarded for 2007, a 90% cut in funding. One can only conclude intent or gross negligence by Mr. H et al.

The HRDC Summer Student Grant Debacle

HRDC has completely rewritten the guidelines for grants to hire summer students and hundreds of museums - hundreds! - across the country now have no way of staying open or maintaining regular hours and programs. The supposed $5 million, which was meant to materialize at the Canadian Museums Association (CMA) for distribution to museums across the country to compensate for this predicted disaster, has not; and the CMA are claiming they will want to use their own criteria in distributing the money if it actually does surface, thus potentially leaving many museums and students still unfunded or underfunded.

When questioned about the $5 million contingency plan in the House, Oda gave the Conservative mantra "I am proud of the efforts of this government blah, blah, blah" and of course, as they all do, completely failed to answer the question.

Not a smart move - in one fell swoop, show hundreds of communities across the country - rural and urban, and many young people, how mean, incompetent or both this "new" government is.

And From A Conservative No Less

Out of the mouths of Conservatives! You have to love the chamber of sober second thought. Mr. H. better hurry up with his efforts to get rid of them or the fact they remain rational may be his demise.

"We seem to have run out of ideas already," said a disappointed Conservative Senator, who criticized Mr. Harper as "a narrow boring individual" who makes the mistake of listening only to his own counsel. "We're left scrambling." Retrenchment is a good idea, the Senator said, as long as there's a fresh approach - this instead of having everybody report to the PM like frightened Boy Scouts. "The PM has to learn that governing is about more than just vote-targeting."

From Lawrence Martin's column in today's Globe.

Now That's a Backroom Deal

Dion and May say they are having discussions, announce an agreement and the cons and their buds the NDP scream 'backroom deal'. Today it is reported that Harper, years after the fact, is trying to shut down a court case!!!! to keep things secret about what appears indeed to have been a real backroom deal!!

The Doane Thing

I didn't want to post on this topic until the competition was over - superstitious, didn't want to put any negativity out there towards our national hockey team. However, now that they have won, this is the way I see it. Whoever brought the complaint to the house did the right thing and everyone who tried to sweep it under the carpet are part of the reason that Quebec wants to be sovereign. The f-word (referring to an amphibian) when used, as Doane is reported to have, against a French Canadian is as powerfully negative as the n-word referring to an African American. Canadians should know that, and the Quebecois have the right to make their concerns known at the political level.

And as for Team Canada's self-righteous defence that somehow Doane being a Christian and having 4 children makes him a paragon of virtue - what a load of claptrap. The long history of Christianity is a history of every sin known to man - hubris and self-righteousness for a start. I hope this is not over - Canada deserves better.

Jeffery Monaghan - Hero

In the last few months Stockwell Day and John Manley among others met secretly in Banff with Donald Rumsfeld and others to eliminate the nation states of Canada and the US "by stealth", and Rumsfeld's buddy, Robert Pearl and the head of the World Bank and others met in Ottawa to discuss their vision of the new world order, again by stealth. Last week Jeffery Monaghan let the Canadian people know that their government was intending to break international law, the same law that Rumsfeld, Pearl et al appear to view with disdain.

Two conclusions come to mind. Harper is one of them and Monaghan is a hero.

Another Bully for the West

It's hard to understand the slim majority of voters in the western world who keep voting for bullies. We now have Howard in Australia, Bush in the US, Harper in Canada and Sarkozy in France, all brash, no substance and precious little intellect. National leaders should have vision, intelligence, and class and a passionate love of their country. I guess we'll find out what Sakozy stands for after he calls his buddy Bush and gets his marching orders.

France is a great country and a great people - today's election is a tragedy.

That Word 'Family"

Something keeps bothering me about the Cons use of the words 'Canadian families'. Clearly every Canadian is the member of a family, so why not just say 'Canadians'. I think Mr. H. et al should be asked to define this word they love to use so much. Are they using the word as a sort of code word for their political base, the social conservatives who define 'family' to meet their own sense of the desired world order?

I think the word 'family' as the cons use it is really about two things: sex and its corollary, control over the role of women in society. Socially conservative people have very strong ideas about sex, who can do it, and with whom, and when, and mostly it's the men who have the ideas and the women buy into them. It follows from their beliefs around the role of sex, and the right of men to determine this role, that men have the ultimate say in the fate of their progeny. It also follows that social conservatives feel that a woman's primary role is to look after the home, raise the children and submit to the will of the man in the family.

Personally I find this way of looking at the world obscene. I find the use of the word 'family' in this way in politics an invasion of the privacy and rights of every Canadian citizen. I also think that this obsession with sex and control is unhealthy - for them and everyone around them. And finally, I find this use of 'family' by the cons unimaginably hypocritical, given the variety of life-styles among them.

The Rationale for Detention in Afghanistan

There was a brief clip on CBC which showed how slight the rationale for detention can be in Afghanistan. It showed a man in typical Afghan attire who had just been searched by a Canadaian soldier. He seemed very bent over and submissive. They had found a wad of cash in his wallet. He said he had just been paid for his crop. The commentator said since the soldier did not know whether what he said was true, he handed him over to the Afghans. Just one example of a terrible Taliban - no aggression, no weapons, just lots of cash. Chances of him making it home with his cash? Chances of him making it home?

PMO Communication Strategy

The PMO communication strategy is very simple really. You can see it on any schoolyard, any day of the week. "You stood on my foot" to which is responded "Well you stood on my foot too", to which is responded "No you just stood on my foot" to which is responded "Well you stood on my foot last year and your sister's ugly". Parse any response from Harper or Baird, you get this in its purest form. Hey guys, we're not impressed.