Put your Right foot in

Yes I know there has been lots of posts about Iggy doing the two step. You know, step over here, say this, step over there, say the opposite.

Its tough being the AIR Apparent. You have to say so many things to get elected. Its does however appear that the Liberal leader will keep the commitment made by the Tories in Ottawa and The LIBcons in Queens Park to harmonize the sales taxes. Its really not fair for Iggy to call it Harper's Sales tax in BC anymore. That is what he has been doing as the TAX is not going over well out there.

Here in Ontario, it different, people here have rolled over. So Iggy went to meet some business folks the other day and decided there are more votes here than in BC so he won't change the HST. That is going to cost him in BC.

As for Ontario, the longer we wait for an election the worse it looks for the Liberals. To add insult to more red faced LPCers, they may have handed the NDP a big repeat victory in Quebec with the Pontifical one himself, (that's Iggy) declaring he will anoint a woman to run in Outremont. I can hardly wait.

Till then try out this tune (note its always a "right foot")

You put your right foot in,
You put your right foot out,
You put your right foot in
And you shake it all about.
You do the Iggy shuffle
And you turn yourself around,
That's what it's all about.

- Kelly McParland: Liberals do the Iggy Shuffle on sales tax

Protect Insurance Companies PSA

All too real, do you part, insurance companies are under attack...

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

Thomas Mulcair is Outremont

Thomas Mulcair's butt is not waiting to be kicked by Iggy's chosen woman. I hope for the LPCer's sake they pick a ripe one. Mulcair is very good and will not be an easy one to knock off. I expect they (LPCers) will find it surprisingly difficult.

Adding to the difficulty will be the idea that the Liberals have again decided against a democratic selection of a candidate, continuing the age old practice of benevolent leadership.

The Member of Parliament for Outremont, as awful as that sounds today to the LPCer, is a New Democrat and likely will be no matter who Iggy hand picks for the riding, especially if Iggy hand picks someone. Mulcair is a new breed of New Democrat and not so easily dismissed.

update: I missed Scott's advice to Iggy here.

Politics and colouring

If this is how virgin political boys colour, is this how non-virgin Liberal staffers colour?

Seems both the LPCers and CON's like the same package of crayons.

...of course I like all crayons... I own several packages ;)

This is how you get things right Iggy

Oh oh, looks like the LPCers are down again. Not only is the latest poll showing them to be headed south, but the NDP have done in a few days what Iggy and the LPCers couldn't get done all summer.

See in the spring, Iggy said in order for him to support the Conservative government something had to be done on EI. Iggy created a committee of three of his guys and three of the Conservative dudes. The committee had no teeth. It met a few times with predictible results. Why didn't Iggy make changes EI a condition of his support. The budget could have been amended if the Harper folks wanted to avoid an election. You likely would even have had the NDP support it.

Don't look now, but look who found money for at least 190,000 Canadians! It wasn't Iggy's committee, nope, it was the NDP and Jack Layton, using their leverage when they get it.

h/t Blogging a dead horse

Harper's Big Victory

Do you remember the Court Challenges program? It was cut by the Stephen Harper government in 2006. It has been one of the few ideological victories for the Tories since coming to office. Ironically it was another conservative government that created it by expanding the a government program providing assistance for minority language cases.

The Court Challenges program's direction was to provide financial assistance for important court cases that advance language and equality rights guaranteed under Canada's Constitution.

The program has long been a thorn in the side of right wing ideologues conservative political parties and the Religious Right. Two of the more vocal objectors were the Reform Party and a national lobby group, the National Citizens Coalition.

The primary objection was too "left wing" groups gaining access to funding to challenge the law of the land. They referred to it as undemocratic and usurping the duly elected government's will. The program was key to many issues being canvassed before the Courts in Canada. It meant that Queers, women and other groups were able to make successful challenges to the law of the land, base primarily on the Charter of Rights. Many of these challenges would have been delayed or lost due to inadequate access to funding to take a case to the Supreme Court of Canada in the first place.

One case that has stuck in the craw of Prime Minister Harper has to be Harper Vs Canada, in which he then the Executive Director of the National Citizens Coalition, challenged what is called the election gag law. That law limited organizations, like the NCC from spending gobs of money during elections. They lost the case. The court Challenges Program funded two interveneors in the case, Democracy Watch and National Anti-Poverty Organization who argued in support of the "Gag" law.

I'm sure that Harper didn't like taxpayers money being used against him in is fight to remove the "gag" law.

So I can imagine it was with a great deal of delight he eliminated the program. Now in a move likely to appease Quebec and Francophone voters across Canada Harper has started up a Language Rights Support Program. It's job is address language related issues across the country.

Mulroney in 1985 expanded the then Minority Language Rights Support Program after the Charter of Rights kicked in. It was likely that they would have been forced to expand the program by the courts if they had not done so. Mulroney however in 1992, in a bid to appeal to the more Conservative voter that was being pulled away from the Tories, killed the program. It was re-instated in 1993 by the new Liberal Government.

Back to this day and we now again have a Minority Language program to fund challenges based on instances of discrimination. I suspect they (Harperites) have to know the new program discriminates against other minorities but are willing to chance it won't be successfully challenged, by in large due to minority groups not having enough funds to mount a successful challenge. Clever right?

Well it seems some very conservative folks aren't happy about it. Check out Joseph C. Ben-Ami. This guy would be a "birther" in the US of A.

Old Dutch dips and chips at workers

Here is another of those companies doing well during the recession, trying to squeeze even more out of workers. And the Alberta government makes it so much easier to treat workers poorly.

So much for my favourite potato chip, I guess I'll have to Lay off my Old Dutch for awhile. What's crazy about all this is Old Dutch is doing well during this recession.

Help out by picking up a bag of other brands and be sure to tell the cashier, (nicely) that you won't be buying Old Dutch until they start treating their workers properly.

Imagine a Canadian PM do this...

Imagine our Prime Minister getting this kind of reception from anyone. Then try very hard to imagine the current Prime minister even making a speech like this. I know you can't. You don't see the current PM even talking to these people. You don't see the current PM doing anything for organized workers.

Close your eyes, listen to Obama and imagine a Canada that had its leader recognize the need for a strong union movement...