People without benefits has grown in Canada

Recently a bill to extend and improve EI benefits failed in the House of Commons.  Harper and the Conservatives voted to defeat the bill and 17 Liberals and 5 BLOC MPs missed the vote.

The bill was defeated despite the fact that 90,000 more Canadians this year are without jobs and have no Employment Insurance. Why would the Conservatives vote to defeat a bill that would provide a lifeline to those 90,000 Canadians?

The government is claiming the unemployment picture is better than last year  Is not, check out The Progressive Economics Forum for the break down.

"In September 2009, there were 818,000 EI recipients among 1,549,700 unemployed workers, leaving 731,700 without benefits. In July 2010 (the last month of EI data), there were 672,200 EI recipients out of 1,493,100 unemployed workers, leaving 820,900 without benefits." - Progressive Forum

Sun Media - Can't read a whole press release - they get it wrong for RIGHT reasons?

The HST is adding a great deal to the heating bills for people in Ontario and BC. In Ontario the bill has actually gone up 17% due to the increased profit margin granted to electricity providers. The Ontario provincial NDP are asking that the Premier remove the 8% provincial portion from the hydro bill in order to help many low and middle income families cope. To date the request has fallen on deaf ears.

Federally, the NDP Leader Jack Layton has asked Prime Minister Harper, to reduce the HST on heating bills. Being the ever right wing protagonist, Brian Lilley at Eye On the Hill, a SUN media blog, came out with a story today with only half the facts, stating that Jack Layton was a Climate Change denier.

Lilley conveniently failed to read all of Jack's media release. Layton calls for reducing the HST and measures to assist people retrofit their homes to assist in reducing heating costs. You can read Brian's misrepresentation here and Jack's press release here.

You are not alone. #stayalive

Shamelessly take from the Youth Blog and reposted here

From Lesbian Gay Bi Trans Youth Line

I’m not sure if folks are aware of this, but in the past month, five teenage boys in the United Stats have committed suicide related to anti-gay bullying.

On September 9th, Billy Lucas, a 15 year old from Indiana killed himself over anti-gay bulling.
September 13th, Cody Barker. He was 17, in Wisconsin. Again – over anti-gay bullying.
September 18th, Seth Walsh, from California. 13 years old. He hanged himself over anti-gay bullying and was pronounced dead on September 26 after ten days on life support.

On September 23rd, Asher Brown, 13, from Texas, killed himself over anti-gay bulling.
And on September 29th, Tyler Clementi. He was 18 from New Jersey, and is presumed dead after jumping from the George Washington Bridge after being humiliated online for his sexual orientation.
That’s 5 since school started in the beginning of September.

Five.

Now, I know this is happened in America, which may seem ‘way over there’ to some, but it affects all of us in the LGBTQ community and it’s definitely an issue in Canada, too. Many of us have also faced bullying due to our gender or sexual orientation (or just bullying, for whatever the reason); we’ve all faced isolation and feeling alone. We all know what it’s like to be queer without support systems in place.

Call the number above if you need help or know someone that does. The blog is here

HST in BC - A Liberal con game

I am hopful people will actually get out and recall a few Liberal MLAs over this. Their government lied. Many of those MLAs may never have known the extent to which "their" party was deep into bringing the HST to BC prior to the election.

Having learned that since, you would think they have had their opportunity to say we have been hoodwinked big time. They remain silent or worse, supportive of the HST.

BC does not need sheep, they need MLAs and a government that listens and does what is right, not what will benefit their corporate backers the most.

Recall them and start with my first choice, Donna Barnett in Cariboo South. She remains one of the most ardent defenders of the decision to bring in the HST.

She has also received thousands of dollars from the forest companies. She knows what side her bread is buttered on. And I am sure voters in Cariboo South know that even more so today!

Here in Ontario voters are quiet but angry.  The latest polls show the Liberal government barely ahead of the NDP and that is doing something in the Land that Bob Rae once ruled.   The new look "Mike Harris" gang of conservatives are well ahead.  May the universe hear our pleas for a Liberal minority here in Onatrio. 

Wal-Martin Ship building

That will be the Day, when we will build our own Ferries.

The BC Liberal government of Gordon Campbell decided soon after they were elected in 2001 that they would not be wasting money by building ferries in BC or Canada for that matter. Ship building was dead in the water. They said good riddance to hope of reviving the industry. Instead they did what all wal-martin folks do. They cast their net in the ocean and scooped up the cheapest boats they could find. They bought ships from Europe.

The Liberals decided the BC industry was just a bunch of unions and it was better to spend money on German and Polish ships made by unions in those countries than support BC workers. The cost for doing so was a federal tax meant to support ship building in Canada. The BC Liberal Government decided the import tax amounting to 119 million dollars was worth the death blow they would deliver to union made ships in Canada.

This was just the first step in their ultimate goal of privatising BC Ferries. After buying the ships from European ship builders, the government then made BC Ferries a private corporation. The expressed rational was that it would make it easier for BC ferries to attract private capital needed to build and revitalise the BC Ferries fleet and physical infrastructure.

The downside which most people did not understand was that a private company pays more to borrow money than the government does. That means BC Ferries is paying a premium for its borrowing today. A premium it did not have to pay when it was a crown corporation. This is an additional cost and that additional cost has to come from somewhere, the consumers.

Now back to the the federal tax of 119 million dollars BC Ferries paid to the federal government on ships built in Europe. Stockwell Day has come to the rescue and returned the money to BC.

Why you might ask are they doing this? At first it looks like a federal government responding to the cash strapped BC government. Kudos should be in order. Not so fast though. The BC Government and Gordon Campbell are likely the most despised government in all of Canada. The HST and the way they implemented it have made it so. Campbell's friends in Ottawa don't want to see the Liberal brand damaged so much that the NDP forms the next government.

A little good news was in order. The federal hand out to BC, (we will gladly accept it) is a blatant effort to buy votes. Reducing BC Ferries fares is good news. And right now any good news the BC Liberals can deliver is welcome. The recently announced 2% fare reductions just shows us how much more we have been paying due to Campbell's goal to privatise BC Ferries.

I am however concerned in that Stockwell day states that the Federal government will forgo up to 250 million of the import tax. Does this mean that BC Ferries can now go back to Europe and buy more ships at the expense of ever having or reviving a ship building industry in Canada?

Of course it may not be Europe that provides the ships to BC Ferries, It may be a "Fast" boat from China" because thats the Wal-martin thing to do.

Okay its a truce...

I am ready to call a truce.  By that I mean I am willing to focus on Harper and less with my disappointment in the Liberals utter failure in opposition.  The next election I want the see the Harper government defeated.  It likely means that the Conservatives or Liberals will not have a majority.  That means a tough fight. 

I can play nice for awhile.  I would much more prefer a Liberal minority government to a Harper Conservative or Conservative government of any kind.  There I said it.  Now lets get the job done.

The Party of Trudeau is Dying

The Liberals like to portray to progressives they are the Party of Trudeau. They ceased being that party when Paul Martin became Finance Minister. I feel for many loyal Liberal members and supporters. They hang on, hoping their MPs will show some courage. MPs like Kennedy, Dryden, Bennett, Rae and Fry are being ignored or told to wait it out, due to the race to the right by the Liberal election planning team.

The progressives have been pushed to the side and with Iggy's right wing approach to war and torture is it any wonder the Liberals so many Liberals did not show up to vote on the War Resistors Bill. It was not a priority for them. I feel bad for progressive Liberals like Kennedy. They are living in the past if they think the Liberals will remember Trudeau on these issues.

There is no excuse for missing the vote. Its the old game of sending in the old line Liberals and leaving a few outside, just a few, enough to ensure the bill does not pass. How many Harper budgets have past due to Liberals pretending to be unavailable to vote? How many times has Harper survived confidence motions because the Liberals either voted with the Harper Conservatives or stayed away from the house.

These people are MPs. They were elected to represent their constituents. How are they doing their job if they fail to vote on important legislation on budgets? The answer is that they are not doing their jobs.

The NDP on the other hand have stuck to their principals. They voted against Harper's budgets, they voted against Harper almost at every turn. They took the hard road on the Long Gun bill. It wasn't easy, the balancing the right of MPs to vote as they feel their constituents want them too on the long gun bill when so many of us New Democrats are opposed to ending the Registry. Yet the NDP and Jack Layton made sure the votes were there.

Iggy may be leader in name of the Liberal party, yet he has failed to deliver. His failure has made sure the Harper agenda has succeeded since 2006.

The next election will be crucial. The Liberals will have to stand for something if we are to prevent Harper from forming another government. As it stands now, it would appear most Canadians will vote for someone other than Harper. The Liberal leader will have to be willing to work with the other opposition parties, to form a government and to end four years of regressive governments.

If you want to read more on the War Resistors bill, check out Creekside and We Move to Canada.

Old Voting Habits Hard to give up

Something doesn't add up. Scott Brison has been the Federal Liberal critic in the House of Commons on all things financial. This week when the BLOC party Bill on expanding Employment Insurance was to come to a vote, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff stated that the Bill was too costly and it would not be prudent to pass it. See here.

Now given that the leader of the party said “This bill is not fiscally responsible,” why would the party finance critic vote for it? Why would every single Liberal party member in the house vote with the BLOC and NDP to pass the bill save one Alan Tonks.

The Liberals seem to want it both ways on the EI issue. Seventeen Liberals were absent for the vote including the Leader. I suppose that given the Liberals have returned to the past voting habits, enough Liberals stayed away to ensure the Bill would not pass and the Liberals could say they voted to pass the Bill. The leader couldn't be there to vote because if he were then he would have to vote against the BLOC Bill. The optics of 57 Liberals voting one way and the leader the other would have been, well ghastly...

The vote was recorded here at How'd They Vote.