Harper wants to re:shape the Supreme Court

Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently delivered a speech behind closed doors in Northern Ontario. The speech was very much an election speech, rallying the troops to do the work needed to elect more Conservative MP's.



The CBC obtained the video of the secret speech from the Liberal party who said they got it from someone that secretly videotaped it.

Most of the speech is not a surprise. Most of us know what a majority Conservative government would look like and its not going to be progressive on any front.

I found the most interesting comments were about the Supreme Court and gun registry...

See the speech here on CBC.

Harper on the gun registry...

(4:00 minutes) We are still, you know we believe that you go after the people that use guns to commit crimes, we are still trying to get rid of that registry, we have the NDP, the Liberals and the BLOC stopping us from even having a vote on that issue in the House of Commons. We need to get a mandate so we get that passed.(4:27 minutes)

Harper continuously railed against the appointments to the Supreme Court before he was elected to anything and as opposition leader, here he goes on to imply that there are too many "left wing ideologues" in government the courts and agencies and if you re-elect his party to a majority, he will change this...

(5:31 minutes)...Just ask you to imagine how different things would be if the Liberals were still in power, imagine the bloated bureaucracy their national day care program would have been created and problaby not have delivered a single child care space, imagine how many left wing ideologues they would be putting in the courts, federal institutions, agencies, the Senate, I should say how many more they would be putting in...(5:49 minutes)

We have come along way to providing a decent caring and fair country, only to see the likes of Stephen Harper win a majority government and impose his views of what this country should look like. The Supreme Court will look like the right wing US Supreme Court. Judges throughout the system from the bottom up will have to pass a political leaning test, something we did away with some 40 years ago.

A couple elections ago, Harper said we shouldn't be scared of him because the Supreme Court and the bureaucracy would keep him in check. If Harper gets a majority, who will be there to check his government? No one, no thing, no law, nothing.

We will see neighbourhoods fighting to keep new prisons from being built. The new prisons will be run and operated by private companies just as in the United States. They will have quotas. That is, the Government of Canada will guarantee these private prisons so many new inmates each year. The number of prisoners will have to be increased each year so the private prisons can see growth in its profits year after year.

Health care will be under new restrictions with many services now provided by government handed over to the private sector. Those that can afford it will be able to purchase private services and thus go to the head of the line, just as happens in the US today.

This is only the beginnings of Harper's plan to reshape Canada into what I would call, The Alabama Project. Want to know what that looks like? Take a look at the state of Alabama. Its not pretty.

See CBC story here,
Northwestern Lad's blog post here
and in Montreal Simon Says

Smoking Harper's butts

It seems Jack can't do anything right by red LPCers standards. First they castigate Jack for reminding them the LPC voted for Harper's first budget, and then they voted again for Harper and again. Soon it was ten times and then twenty and then fifty and then seventy-nine. My god how did it get so far out of hand.

Its kinda like the first pull on a cigarette. You cough, you sputter but it also makes your head dizzy. You try it again, a little less coughing, soon you begin to like it, even though you know its bad for you. You keep puffing away, have them more often.

Then the effects of the smoking start to take effect. You are coughing more, and all that second hand smoke is hurting those you seek to support you. People around you glare, you begin to smell...

You get the picture. So have the Liberals really quit? I expect they have this time. So instead of going on, they attack the NDP for not jumping up and down cause the LPCers quit. Jack Layton I suspect is happy the Liberals decided to give up smoking Harper's butts.

Layton however wasn't content that the LPC managed to wean themselves, he wanted to see if he could get the Cons to quit selling those butts and do something a little more healthy for Canadians.

No luck there it seems as Harper is addicted to selling butts.

So it looks like an election this fall. Now it would be cool, if just a couple of those LPC bloggers would say something nice about Jack and how he managed to embarrass the LPCers enough that they had to quit smoking Harper's butts!

Now I want to spend some time going after Harper's Butts and all that gross smoke coming from the PMO.

ThunderBay homophobia attack

Doubtless you have seen this story already. It is horrific.

Jake Raynard was attacked in Port Arthur, part of what is now Thunder Bay Ontario. The initial reaction is that this attack was motivated by hate, homophobia in this case.

Thunder Bay, ON -- On Friday night, a violent attack in the Port Arthur downtown core put a man in hospital with serious injuries. Jake Raynard states, "So the facts. I was assaulted by a gang outside the pier. I managed to get some other people to safety, but not myself. I had bricks thrown at my head, shattering my cheek, eyesocket, and resulting in a broken jaw".

Montreal Simon has been on this story as has been Queer Liberal. Xtra is on it too.

Im more than a little ticked at this right now...

Hey, We Can do better!

The Libs might think I hate them, they actually think any New Democrat that reminds the LPC crowd of broken promises or of the pathetic excuses used by LPCers to prop up Stephen Harper. Some may well dislike those Liberals. Me, I'm pretty pragmatic. I like the NDP, I think they are the right choice, I think the Liberals are the second choice and Stephen Harper isn't a good choice.

With that it was great to come back after a weekend at the cottage away from all the crazy folks and see that the Libs actually came up with a cool ad. It looks even more awesome with what a few NDP bloggers created below...

Joseph Roch discharged for being abused

How else can you see it. Stories like this one make me boil and cry at the same time. I get a gut wrenching pain as if someone is tearing me apart from the inside out. This could have been me or you or someone you know.

read more here in the Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — Former Petty Officer 3rd Class Joseph Rocha says he suffered post-traumatic stress disorder after being physically and sexually abused by fellow sailors over a two-year period. But after a Navy investigation into widespread hazing allegations within the unit, the only sailor discharged was Rocha, because he also admitted that he is gay.

So in the land of Lady Liberty and Home of the brave, this young man was deemed expendable, less than others, despite finishing at the top of his class despite excellent performance reviews, he was the one of the best young men America had to offer. They discharged him because he said he was gay when they investigated the complaint made on his behalf by another soldier.

America you owe this man a great deal and a good number of other young men that have done all you asked of them and more. Why is it that gay men have to do more, be better just to be part of society.

Two years his colleagues tortured, abused, and assaulted him. Not a word did he speak for fear they would discharge him. Now what America, land of the free? What do you have to say for yourself.

Gay service people are in the Canadian, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, German, French and English armed forces. They serve openly. They are valued team members. Why is it that the USA can not recognize gay people are just that PEOPLE.

You will find much more here at Youth Radio

Montreal Simon says

We had child care in 1942

Child care has been a promise of government for years. The federal government once provided childcare in Canada. It began in 1942 when it saw women were needed in factories to assist the war effort. It was not uncommon for women to tether their child in the yard before they went off to work. Other arrangements were made, such as leaving your child with a friend or family member.

see this clip from CBC Archives.

The State saw the value in providing this care then but lost sight of its value when the war ended. Women were let go from there jobs and replaced by the returning men. The women were then expected to stay home and look after these children.

Ontario after some protests from women that lost their husbands in the war, kept some day cares going. The federal government however got out of the business of daycare funding.

The return of the federal government to the provision of daycare funding has been demanded for years. The NDP and the CCF had been asking for it years. The Conservative government of Brian Mulroney promised a national daycare program in 1984. By 1992 it became clear the federal government was going to back out of the promise. (see CBC clip Broken Promises)

Against a strong public protest in 1992, the Liberals in the election of 1993 prominently proclaimed Childcare as high priority in the infamous Redbook Canadians had a reasonable expectation that the long wait was over. It never happened.

In each successive election the Liberal government promised to deliver on Day care. After the election victory, the funding was never found, the promise unfulfilled, but it done its work in seeing some people vote Liberal in a vain hope it would happen this time.

We came close to getting daycare in Paul Martin's government. Martin was looking for issues to separate his Liberal minority from that of the Conservatives led by Stephen Harper. Child care was a key piece of his agenda. They actually started to negotiate with some provinces. Unfortunately Martin wanted to use the carrot of childcare in the election. He did not introduce the need legislation to Parliament. It would have passed had he done so however his thought was that to defeat Harper, he needed to give people something to vote for. The carrot did not work as we all know.

Harper won the election and changed direction on childcare. Now parents get money directly which covers only a very small portion of the cost. The hope of affordable childcare has been lost certainly under Harper.

Now Ken Dryden, LPC MP from Toronto is promising it again. This time they mean it. That's what he and some Liberals are saying. Just as Ignatieff has had to state very strongly his party is going to vote non confidence in the Harper Government, they have to be strong on childcare.

Will the Liberals bring in national funding to childcare if elected. This time they will have too. I expect if the Liberals are in a minority, they will need the NDP support to stay there. Childcare will be high on the list of things required of a minority government.

Whats Kids are wearing in 1973

Okay, it's what kids were wearing in 1973.

I love the CBC Digital Archives. As we approach the beginning of another school year, time for some good fashion reporting from Norman Depoe, veteran CBC reporter. This aired on August 21, 1973.

Note this ...

Here is a sampling of prices for back-to-school clothes from Eaton's, a Canadian department store, in August 1973:
• boys' classic denim flared jeans, $5.98 ($28.94 in 2009 dollars)
• boys' print check plush denim pants, $7.98 ($38.62 in 2009 dollars)
• girls' two-tone leather-look vinyl shoes, $8.98 ($43.46 in 2009 dollars)

CBC also notes the the most popular school cafeteria meal was french fries and gravy, a doughnut and a coke. Cost was 60 cents. Can you imagine a meal like that in today's schools?

Wiki has more here.

Jack 's new fan club

You know that when the Liberals are operating round the clock surveillance they are doing it because they are worried. Is it Prime Minister Stephen Harper they are paying all this attention too? No not Stephen, its Jack Layton.

Kinsella and a few other LPCer bloggers are behaving like frat house kids. Why, they are scared to death that Jack Layton is a serious threat to their electoral success. So serious they have dispatched loyal bumpkins off to hold up silly signs and look pretty.

I'm sure that Layton's team finds it amusing. When was the last time people were actually following Jack like this to "harass" him? It means the LPC brass is very worried about the NDP. Expect the Liberals to pay a great deal attention to Jack and the New Democrats this election.

Its going to be a fun election for New Democrats.

h/t to Accidental Deliberations