Manitoba is second last!

Manitoba is second last!

Hard to believe but it appears that Canada's Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty is back at it. After saying to the world that Ontario was the last place to invest in Canada, he now ranks Manitoba, the second worst place to invest.

Kinda makes you wonder who is third? Let's see, BC with its Carbon Tax? Just a guess mind you...

Notwithstanding a few rules and a new supply of fresh meat

Can it be?

The Harper proposal to significantly change youth justice has some big hurdles to climb. Did the Conservatives know this? If they did they are playing with us again.

Aside from the stark truth put out by Mr. Duceppe who stated that teen-aged criminals sent to prison under Mr. Harper's plan to crack down on youth crime would be “fresh meat” for the perversions of adult inmates, the Conservatives Youth Justice Reform proposal is a likely violation of the Charter if passed by Parliament as is.

A bright sparky blogger has found a hole in the Conservative Justice Reform bill, suggesting Mr. Harper would have to invoke the Charter's Notwithstanding clause, not once but twice to make the proposal law...

Now my questions is, does anyone out there think that if Harper had a majority, that he would not use the Notwithstanding clause in the Charter of Rights to achieve his political agenda?

Once Hedy Liberals are Fried

Currently a whole bunch of folks are thinking of voting something other than Conservative. thats the good news. In fact 60% or more of the population will vote for a candidate other than a Conservative.

That maybe okay in the end if the Greens, NDP and Liberals can find enough common ground and have enough seats to wrest power away from the Harperites. Elizabeth May said as much today, she is asking Canadians to vote for the candidate that has the best chance of defeating the local Conservative. Mr. Dion has agreed in to talk about it. Mr. Layton has dismissed it according to the press.

So it would appear that this is a non starter at this point and maybe it should be. The Greens have never held such opportunity to elect someone, though it would still be a surprise if they did, and the NDP have never been this close to unseating the Liberals.

Today's poll by CPAC-Nano's (thanks for the twitter, Bourque) show the Green's and the NDP gaining ground at the expense of the Liberals, and unless something changes in the days ahead, it won't be hard for more Liberals to abandon ship. A small shift of voters would see the Liberals fall behind the NDP. Not since Brian Mulroney, have the Liberals been in such desperate straits.

The Conservatives have all but abandoned the Prairies where they will sweep the seats again and are focusing on BC, Ontario and Quebec. The Liberals are barely hanging onto Toronto. Even here they are about to lose star candidate, Gerard Kennedy. Kennedy is in tough against NDP MP, Peggy Nash and will likely lose.

A couple of days ago, I got a phone call from a friend in Montreal. He has always voted for the Bloc. With the Bloc appearing to have no focus, he has switched to the NDP and is campaigning for them. He states that he has many friends joining him this time. That hearsay evidence is backed up by the latest polls. The NPD are tied with the Liberals in Quebec.

In BC the Liberals trail the NDP by 6 points and trend appears to be widening. Look out because Hedy Fry, who has owned Vancouver Centre for the Liberals since 1993 when she knocked off Prime Minister Kim Campbell is in a horse race and she's going to lose it. The Conservatives are running a smart two time MLA, Lorne Mayencourt. Mayencourt and I have our differences as you will discover if you search my blog. That said, he remains a formidable candidate and a tireless doorknocker and self promoter. Mayencourt will pull votes from Fry, opening the door for the NDP's star candidate, Michael Byers, nationaly recognised for his work as a Canadian Research Chair in International Law and Politics UBC.

If Hedy can lose her seat, the Liberals are fried in BC. They could lose every single seat they currently hold.

For the so called Centre left parties to get on with each other it is going to take Stephane Dion to do the unthinkable. He will have to cede his Liberal given 'right' to dictate the terms. Dion could propose an equal number of seats for the NDP and Liberals and a token Green seat. It's not going to happen.

The NDP will likely reject him as have the voters to date.

In Toronto vote for whoever you like, the Tories will still lose. In BC, Ontario, Atlantic Canada, vote NDP. On the Prairies, vote NDP or Liberal, one of them might sneak in. In Quebec, I never thought it possible, but consider the NDP candidate especially in Montreal and Western Quebec, in a four way race, they could win.

My advice stands until I see some momentum on the Liberal poll numbers. The only party with a chance at a majority are the Conservatives. It looks like the progressive side of politics needs a minority to govern. That won't be easy if the Liberals maintain that people that voted NDP in 2006 caused their defeat. Its time the Liberals shouldered some of the blame for their misfortunes.

'like sheep among wolves'

As a gay man, one who has spent 30 years fighting for equality and acceptance, I am more than a little worried with the prospect of a Conservative majority government.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't see a Harper government repealing the rights in the human rights code or using the notwithstanding clause to stop gay marriage. Its the other things he can do in a majority. Imagine you are a little kid and your parents released you in a gigantic toy store. Think of all the toys you could have. All those toys you have been wanting but you had to be good until they trusted you to be good when tempted by all that is for the taking.

That's Stephen Harper. The little kid who has been good enough for 38% of us that our first past the post election system could very well give him the majority Government to play with. A majority that 62% of us voted against.

The Harper government has been bad enough with a minority government, thanks in large part to the Liberals unwillingness to face an election, perhaps I know why now as they look doomed at this point.

"We've got a born-again prime minister," trumpets David Mainse, the founder of Canada's premier Christian talk show, 100 Huntley Street. They see him as an image-savvy evangelical who has been careful to keep his signals to them under the media radar, but they have no doubt his convictions run deep — so deep that only after he wins a majority will he dare translate the true colours of his faith into policies that could remake the fabric of the nation. If they're right, it remains unclear whether those convictions would turn government into a kinder, gentler guarantor of social justice for all or transform the country into a stern, narrow-minded theocracy. And what would his evangelical worldview mean for international relations? - Xtra.ca Stephen Harper and the Theo-cons

Harper has already made big changes that affect our lives, The age of consent law, the firearms registry, Kyoto, Afghanistan, Funding for health care initiatives, HIV/AIDS funding and research, and more. Given a majority government, I think many Canadians will be highly disappointed in Stephen Harper.

If you read nothing else in this election, you need to read Marci McDonald's feature article

'Stephen Harper and the Theo-cons' in Xtra. McDonald gets behind the curtain and looks at the religious right that are silently cheering behind it, for a Harper majority.

The Harper Record

A new book on Stephen Harper

'...this book gives a detailed account of the laws, policies, regulations, and initiatives of the Conservative minority government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper during its 32-month term from January 2006 to September 2008.

The 47 writers, researchers and analysts who have co-written this book probe into every aspect of the Harper minority government’s administration. From the economy to the environment, from social programs to foreign policy, from health care to tax cuts, from the Afghanistan mission to the tar sands, from free trade to deep integration, and to many other areas of this government’s record, the authors have dug out the facts and analyzed them.'

Looking for the real Stephen Harper, want to see what he and his government have been doing? You can download the book for free...

The Harper Record

Pension-loving MP -- or maybe a pig

Pension-loving MP -- or maybe a pig

What we know about Stephen Harper...

I expect that many people have forgotten or put to the back recesses of their mind the Reform Party and the indignation they took with the pension plan held by Members of Parliament. It seems it was all a shell game.

The Reformers went to bat for taxpayers to end this injustice, to bring an end to 'gold plated' pensions for the peoples' servants. The vowed never to take such a plan, many vowed never to take a pension from the taxpayers.

As you may recall they did a good job of convincing people in Western Canada the pensions were wrong and symbolic of what was wrong in Ottawa. Deborah Grey, Reform's first Member of Parliament was one of the first to reverse course.

"Reform-turned-Alliance stalwarts such as Deborah Grey and Monte Solberg have taken a public beating recently over their decision to spend more than $50,000 each to buy back into the pension fund they once very publicly eschewed.

Grey, ironically, said it was Manning's recent treatment for prostate cancer that made her reassess her future." - The Canadian Press, 2001

It seems the reformers cum Canadian Alliance members couldn't withstand the heat of their convictions. Ironic isn't it that many of the people that voted for them and supported their position on MP Pensions, could not come up with the $50,000 for an RRSP let alone buy a "gold plated" pension plan.

Monte Solberg who is retiring so he can collect his pension and ride off onto the range confessed to the Medicine Hat News in 2001 that the reformers were perhaps a little overzealous. "To be honest, I think we put on the hairshirt a little bit and probably pushed it too hard."

And who was among the overzealous reformers along the way. Current Prime Minister Stephen Harper. During a short stint as President of the National Citizens Coalition (NCC), a conservative advocacy group, Harper lead the charge to end these pensions and to disparage those who took advantage of them.

I'm reminded of this today because of a column in the Toronto Sun written by Harper's former colleague at the NCC, Gerry Nicholls. Nicholls at the time was the Vice President. Nichols writes,

...'during his tenure as NCC president, Harper didn't like the idea that MPs enjoyed a pension plan that was far richer than what most people in the private sector could ever hope to afford.

He called it a "gold-plated MP pension plan."

So to expose and oppose this plan he launched "Operation Pork Chop," an ad campaign featuring cartoon pigs designed to encourage voters to "fire" MPs who were about to qualify for their pension. That's hardly a scary campaign, unless you're a pension-loving MP -- or maybe a pig.'

The July 1995 issue of NCC’s Overview quoted extensively from one of Harper’s speeches in the House on pensions and commented, 'Reform MP Stephen Harper (Calgary West) has been a leading and vocal opponent of the gold-plated MP pension plans ever since the NCC made it an issue.'

So while Stephen Harper has been wearing his sweaters and cuddling up close to toddlers, he seems to enjoy the perks of an elected member of parliament including his future 'gold plated' Pension Plan. It seems that once enough of us vote for him, Harper will do anything he wants even if it means dumping some of the Gold Plated isssues that brought him to the dance.

Monte Solberg is getting out, he can't wait to join Deborah Grey on Wal-Mart's seniors discount day and begin drawing his 'gold plated' pension. Monte Solberg served in Parliament since 1993.

Gerry Nicholls is alive and well I expect somewhere in Saskatchewan. He writes for the Western Standard, a right wing blog that comes out of a failed magazine of the same name.

Do you know your ABC's?

Anybody But Conservative

There are quite a few sites of organizations and individuals advocating our ABC's. That's Anybody But Conservative (Harper).

Here are a few of the organized sites. I will post more that are available on social networking sites in the days ahead.


Anything But Conservative
Department of Culture
Culture pour tous
Anyone But Harper
Vote for the Environment
Vote for Climate

Political Death for some embracing new web technologies

POSTERiosis - Political Death for some embracing new web technologies

The new age of the web has finally caught some Canadian wanna be politicians. At least four candidates have been dropped as a result of their life inside the world wide web. The NDP have lost three candidates and the Conservatives one.

In the case of the NDP, two were found to have indulged in using drugs while a camera was focused on them, a third went skinny dipping. All I can think of is, 'thanks be to the universe' Barack Obama did coke when digital cameras were still a thing of the future.

The Conservative candidate, Chris Reid was lost due to some of his posted views. Alas this gay man did not post any videos, just words which displayed 'too much enthusiasm' for the Harper agenda, by that I suggest his words were welcome but not on the web or in front of a recording device. In an interview with the Western Standard blog, Reid says, ""No one else--not the media, nor a political party--will stand up for principled conservatism. It is up to us as individuals to stand up and take liberal ideology head-on, with the facts, and optimism towards the future. "

Politics in 2008 means you better be careful if your running for office. Chances are someone has seen you in and or out of your undies or doing something most people would laugh about but never talk about, let alone post it too the Internet.

Perhaps this new found vulnerability will find fewer people willing to step forward. Ideally we would see these things in a new light and be less judgemental. Perhaps a Christian metaphor works here: “He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone.” It almost works, you get the idea, still even that is judgemental. Perhaps this is what summarizes the issue and should guide us: "The attitude is we live and let live." - Thomas Wolfe, American writer.