Bertha Wilson...Pathfinder

Sad to hear of the death of Bertha Wilson. As the first female appointed to our Supreme Court she was a true pathfinder for those to follow, including current Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin.

ecoFraud is not new to Baird

Sifting through the pages of time you will find this report from 2002...when Johnboy Baird was Ontario Energy non-Minister:
There were speeches by coalition organizers, and a particularly passionate Ontario energy minister, John Baird, made his anti-Kyoto rallying cry.
It makes it a lot easier to understand his attack on Al Gore yesterday...after Gore merely stated the obvious about the Harper ecoFraud. Baird's attack was incomprehensible, since he seemingly forgot that it was Harp's role model George Bush who TOOK THE UNITED STATES OUT OF THE KYOTO PROTOCOL!
The Tory communications effort is equally confusing these days. But one thing for sure...Home Depot always figures big in Baird announcements. Wonder why he would pick a US firm over a Canadian one...like say Rona? Oh yeah, that would be a little too much poetic justice wouldn't it! And Sandra Buckler wouldn't like it either...so poor Rona gets screwed twice in one year!

If at first you don't succeed...a Gucci Fortier tale

First we find out that Steve Harper has been using a makeup artist to keep him looking like Steve Average. Now we find out that the unelected Cabinet Minister, Gucci Fortier, can't implement the Tory vanity re-naming of federal buildings without screwing up. What's this, you ask?
Last fall...amid much fanfare from Tim Naumetz...the Tories embarked on a little score-settling when it comes to the naming of federal buildings. They thought it unfair that more buildings were named after Liberals than Tories. It never occurred to them that perhaps that was just a reflection of reality. At any rate, with much ado last September 8th, the perfectly primped Fortier announced that henceforth the building at 401 Burrard Street in Vancouver would be called the Howard Green Building. Howard Green was a Diefenbunker minister. Alas, due diligence not being a forte of the Harp administration (e.g. Daniel Paillé, Baird faxing, etc.), the serendipity of this announcement did not last any longer than it took Vancouver's Chinese community to see the name. Tory Howie had some racist tendencies. “Our stand is, and always has been, that we won’t have Japs in the province,” Green said in a Vancouver Province article dated May 27, 1945.
All of which explains yesterday's announcement from the Minister from Gucci that asks for input into the re-naming of...ta da...401 Burrard Street, Vancouver. One wonders why they don't just ask Harp's psychic! Could save some time and money.
The man can't run a simple naming project...how the hell can we trust him to sell off a bunch of federal assets? And just what level of "due diligence" is he applying to that effort? Not much judging by the involvement of former business associates in the effort. But that is another story.
For now...you can bet the naming of 401 Burrard will occupy much thinking in the next little while. Indeed, you should all submit your own suggestions...as the Gucci Boy requests. Too bad Rick Mercer is done for the season...

Harper scam plan

(Contest: Pick the dim bulb in the pic)
Playing the numbers like an addicted gambler. That is the best way to describe the long-awaited Tory plan for the environment.
Mixing and matching talk of "intensity-based" targets for industry (by 2015) with overall targets for the Country (not until 2020), the gaffe-prone (see earlier in the week) Baird has put in place a program that will not see real reductions in GHG emissions. At the same time he has given big industry a "get out of jail free" card...he tells consumers that they will pick up the tab...and that we will just not honour our international commitments. Peter Gorrie in the Toronto Star explains all the typical Tory doublespeak.
"Intensity" targets do not reduce emissions. The 18% that Baird talks about in reductions for the largest emitters (himself exempted) means that, for instance, an oil sands producer must reduce emissions by 18% for each barrel of oil produced...the catch is that over the period of time to 2015 the production of oil from the tar sands is projected to double. Pretty simple and easy to grasp that in this scenario actual total emissions increase. Simple and easy for everyone except Baird and the guy who makes all the decisions...Steve.
The Baird Plan also targets air pollution. But, even when doing something useful like this, the Tories cannot bring themselves to start from a position of truth. Baird says repeatedly that air pollution is rising. That is another convenient untruth from the Harper government. The statistics from his own department are available if Baird wished to use them. He would find that from 1991 to 2005, ambient NO and NO2 levels both decreased statistically substantially on a national and regional basis. He would also see that NO levels in 2005 were about 50% lower than 1991 and NO2 about 30% lower. Ambient VOC levels also decreased both nationally and regionally by around 50%. Ozone levels also decreased, though not in a statistically significant amount.
Meanwhile, SO2 levels are 54% lower than 1980 levels in the seven easternmost provinces. In 200, total Canadian SO2 emissions were 21% below the national cap (yes a hard cap) of 3.2 million tonnes per year.

Baird lying...Tory plan a sham?

After yesterday's embarrassing leak of information...to the the Liberal Caucus and maybe others...the Harper government was reduced to lying, as usual.
First, the Tories rushed to put the speech up on the Environment Canada web site over night. Presumably they were acting in advance of the opening of stock markets today. At the same time, according to the Toronto Star, "a spokesperson for Baird said no details of the plan that had slipped out would affect financial markets, and the announcement would go ahead as planned tomorrow."
But...what announcement? This spokesperson is caught in a lie. A quick glance at the "speech" that was accidentally leaked proves that. One line says: "Yesterday, along with Gary Lunn, the Minister of Natural Resources, our government announced the banning of inefficient light bulbs."
The key word there is yesterday. Hmmm...Lunn's office issued a Media Advisory yesterday (April 24th) for the event at which the lighting announcement presumably would be made on April 25th (today). CBC also had word of this on last night's National...citing a "leak" (though not this particular lea apparently).
One could certainly argue that a banning of inefficient light bulbs could have a market impact for retailers (like Home Depot, Home Hardware, Canadian Tire, etc) of light bulbs, manufacturers of both incandescent and newer more efficient bulbs, and recyclers. The fact that Baird's speech says this was done "yesterday" proves that this "speech" was indeed intended to be delivered TOMORROW (April 26th in my books).
So who else did accidentally get the speech? And why did Baird find to necessary to lie about when he intended to deliver this speech?
Perhaps it is because of other information in the speech, for instance, that could drive markets (e.g. for emissions traders, early adopters, etc.). Things like word that business will be able to:

• Make in-house reductions.
• Make advantage of domestic emissions trading.
• Purchase "offsets."
• Use the Clean Development Mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol.
• Invest in a technology fund.

All of which sounds a lot like what the Liberals were planning to implement...more than 15 months ago. Actually, it is more like 2 years ago since Boss Harp started to bog down government with his first "threats to topple" in May of 2005.
So what exactly was being "pre-positioned" as Baird's mouthpieces claim? The fact that tomorrow's announcement will have lower emissions targets...that even those targets will be intensity based, as requested by industry...the fact that the Tories have a snappy pre-tested name for their effort...all of the above.
Last night Baird said about the leak... "I'm the minister. I take responsibility for that. That's unusual in this town." Given that he works alongside Stockwell Day, Gordon O'Connor, Jim Prentice...truer words were never spoken.
Meanwhile...Steve Harper knew all this was going to happen anyway...his image consultant told him last week!

Bourque pimps Kevin Steel

There is another suspect link on good the Ole Boy Bourque (praised heartily by Ezra Levant back in '03) web site this morning. It links to an "article" by one Kevin Steel in the Western Standard blogs. The article slashes the Grits as "negative"...all because the Tories were too stupid to take private documents with them when they left Opposition offices last year.
This is the same Kevin Steel who in 1999 co-authored an opus in BC Report titled A country for the taking: Canada could stop the migrant onslaught but chooses not to.
He also wrote a piece in 1999 for the Alberta Report titled Why not hotels for the homeless? A Reform MP takes aim at the social housing industry in Edmonton. And the never-forgettable Human Rights Law Commission, sue thyself.
Mr. Steel also works hand-in-glove with those good ole Blogging Tories.
A little perspective always helps.

A Vulcan mind meld experiment

Two efforts at the age-old Vulcan mind meld...

A new day...a new name

It seems Boss Harp may have to move on over...
Make way for Mr. Primpers.
Or perhaps Steve is planning his biography...Mr. Primpy Goes Hollywood.
The legion of Tim Horton's taxpayers across the land must really be wondering whatever happened to the good old hockey dad they thought they were electing.

Harper is sooo predictable..Convenient Untruths

After 13 months...make that years...of Kyoto denial, Boss Harp launched his Chicken Little Gambit today. His usually toady, Johnboy Baird, was the designated flak. He trots out a study that is based on Convenient Untruths...in direct contrast to the recent award winning Inconvenient Truth.
The Tory bag 'o lies starts by claiming that carbon replacement would have a $195/tonne price tag. This is a figure that Baird seemingly drew from thin air. NO ONE has ever used a figure like that...NO ONE, NO WHERE.
Once you realise that this underlying premise is a lie it becomes simple to figure out the strategy behind the Harper game. Just like past Tory regimes (hello Mike Harris)...he has decided that the best way to look good is to scare everyone.
It will not work.
Publish

Harper facade droops

Is it possible that this Darell Reid is THE Darell Reid.
The Darrel Reid that supports using the Notwithstanding Clause to individual overturn rights?
The Darrel Reid who was head of Focus on the Family Canada...an offshoot of a US right wing group?
Someone should ask...

PS...if the Darell Reid link above is not working...go here and search his name: http://direct.srv.gc.ca/cgi-bin/direct500/BE

Hockey dad goes Hollywood

Steve Harper prides himself on being Mr. Average Canadian. The very epitome of the Tim Horton's hockey dad...as his spin doctors have steadfastly positioned him. Turns out this is all a hoax. It seems Harp has a makeup artist who is with him constantly...making sure he is picture perfect for all those photo-ops that are the hallmark of his governing style.
There are not many Tim Horton-style Canadians that can afford, or who are vain enough, to worry about their appearance to this extent. This obvious phoniness of Harper will not sit well at the coffee counters or kitchen tables across the land.
You can also bet that the Harp "spinners" will work overtime to diffuse this problem today...because it is a potential image nightmare that they cannot withstand.
You can almost smell the Gucci shoes in the closet!

Peter MacKay re-election campaign gears up

2007-04-02
Canada Pension Plan Appointment of LLOYD GILBERT TATTRIE of New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, to be a member of the Review Tribunal for the region of New Glasgow for a term of three years.

Conservative Party of Canada - Central Nova EDA
Lloyd Tattrie, Mary McCarron, Lawrence O'Neil. Election Readiness Committee ... Lloyd Tattrie, Doug Lloy, Lawrence O'Neil, Marie Feltmate. Policy Committee ...

Whatever will Ray Heard do?

Cyber-bullying law introduced at Queen's Park
CTV.ca, Canada - 3 hours ago
Cyber-bullying will be added to a list of behaviours that could land a student in serious trouble at Ontario schools, including being suspended or even ...

Gap narrows between Tories, Liberals: poll
CTV.ca - 2 hours ago
OTTAWA -- A new poll suggests the gap between the Conservatives and Liberals has narrowed to three percentage points, another signal that a spring federal election may be on hold afterall.

Harper MIA and budget flops

Steve Harper has gone silent on a number of items lately. Notably, not a word on the death of June Callwood. That is just wrong...especially since he did find the time to pay tribute to Jean Beliveau. But maybe hockey dad is his true calling. Can we also assume that his silence on the 25th anniversary of the Charter is because of the hockey playoffs and the extra demands that put on his time???
Stéphane Dion showed class in commenting on the death of Ms. Callwood.
Then there is that other Steve gift that keeps on giving...the Flim Flam Flaherty budget of last month. We are now almost a full month in and that dang budget just keeps on proving its worthlessness. Today we hear that Dion is focused on some job-threatening elements that the Tories slipped into the budget. Meanwhile, Steve is engaged fighting Premiers on other elements of the budget.
If budgets truly are judged by how quickly they slip from the front pages...then this second Flaherty/Harp effort is a flop.

Harper's Dutch Treat...

Defence Lobbyist O'Connor is out and about talking up the fact that Canada's New Government is determined to fight the last war next...in true fashion for a General. So...we acquire used tanks from the Dutch.
These would be the same Dutch who are fighting alongside Canadians in...ta da...Afghanistan. Are the Dutch using tanks there? Just wondering.

Canada's New Government...not Canada's Good Government

Income trust investors slam Tory MP at meeting
CTV.ca - 10 hours ago
Conservative MP Jason Kenney was berated by dozens of his Calgary constituents angry over Ottawa's new tax on income trusts during a town hall meeting on Saturday.
Bay Street lawyer appointed to probe pension-fund scandal
Globe and Mail - 14 Apr 2007
OTTAWA -- The federal government appointed Bay Street lawyer David A. Brown yesterday to conduct a quick investigation into the RCMP pension-fund scandal.
This is the same David Brown who headed the Ontario Securities Commission during the meltdown of Nortel. The same David Brown who was so mindful of spending taxpayer dollars when serving at the OSC that he kept expenses just below $100K for 2004...that he wanted to escape the Ontario government requirements to even record them like all other agencies.
Canadian, American cops say it's time to end drug prohibition ...
Brooks Bulletin, Canada - 11 hours ago
VANCOUVER (CP) - It's a familiar scene on TV newscasts: wads of cash, rows of guns and bags full of drugs displayed neatly on a table by police officers ...how does this fit the Harper vision?
Dumont says Quebec should consider signing Constitution
Globe and Mail
...but this offer has a caveat...“If Ottawa is ready to open the debate on spending power, (Quebec's) national assembly should have an initiative to facilitate its inscription in the Canadian Constitution,” Mr. Dumont told supporters Saturday.

Boss Harp and Lyin' Brian...

Steve Harper decided to take another page out of the Brian Mulroney play book yesterday. He hired a separatist, Daniel Paillé, to conduct a witch hunt into former governments. In the rich tradition of Lucien Bouchard, Paillé, refused to comment on his political pre-dilections. It should be noted that he was active in the PQ leadership race which chose Andre Boisclair as leader just a short while back.
Meanwhile we all await word from the RCMP on the Stockwell Day purchase of an MP's seat years ago. We also await word of Stockwell Day's lead for the inquiry into the pension schmozzle at the same RCMP. Stockboy has been too busy chasing ghosts and making up photo-ops to do his real job.

Mr. Harper's Opus

Journalists and polls

Journalists (and that term is used lightly) should always be careful about "interpreting" polls. Take Greg Weston today. Please.
You would think that a seasoned journo like the inestimable Weston would remember things like this...or things like this...before putting too much stock into "leadership" analyses of media pollsters.
At the same time, if he must write about such ephemeral things as "leadership" attributes, perhaps he could just reproduce the whole "analysis". It contains lines like: Even with these numbers, one should exercise caution. Perceptions of leaders can turn quickly. All it would take is for one attack ad on Dion to go too far to potentially turn the numbers and change the environment.
By the way...the same poll Weston waxes eloquent about also showed the Tories at 36% and Liberals at 33%.

Get ready for more Harper/Bush climate denials

Today the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its Climate Change 2007 report. Reuters calls it the bleakest report yet. In spite of this, the report was not approved without the usual wrangling from George Bush. Scientists argue that some key elements of the report were removed at the last minute to appease the Bushies. The Bush administration has argued the Kyoto Protocol would hurt the U.S. economy and also objects that the protocol exempts China and India from emission reductions.
Canadians should prepare to hear precisely the same "economic" arguments from Steve Harper in the next little while. Flim Flam Flaherty and others will be out preaching the gloom and doom local economic message, while ignoring the real science and real problems facing planet earth.
Harper's ecoAction program is really ecoFraud. The only "eco" that Harp is concerned about is the "eco" in economics. And according to his former employers Harp is even third-rate at economics, albeit first-rate at vote-buying.
It's time to call a spade a spade. Stephen Harper is George Bush north...on the environment, on climate change, on tax policy, on using public money to buy votes, on military affairs, on law and order wedge efforts, on women's issues, on the role of the judiciary, in his manipulation of the electoral process...the list grows.
Have a good Easter!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to all!

Shrew doesn't tame Queue

Ed Note: Special thanks to the Tory advance guys for this pic! It is from the Tory public site.
The look on Steve's face says it all...is that the look of a man who believes what he is saying about wait times?
Nope!
Others don't think so either...
"We are nowhere near the point where we can say `mission accomplished,'" said Dr. Chris Simpson, of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society.
"Nobody has signed on to a difficult wait time, all have signed up for wait times they're already beavering away at or successfully meeting," said Harvey Voogd of the Alberta-based Friends of Medicare.
Tom Pickles, president of the Canadian Association of Radiation Oncology, said "My impression is they picked a soft target. . . . It does not help patients right now and it doesn't help patients in three years."
Nova Scotia Health Minister Chris d'Entremont said the eight-week guarantee for radiation treatment was selected because that's how long patients now wait in his province.
Then there is the actual truth spoken at the event. "Canadians know that politicians who say they can fix the health-care system tomorrow are snake oil salesmen," Harper Health Minister Tony Clement said.
To put that last quote in context...and just to remind Mr. Clement...the Tory Platform for the 2006 election said: "A Conservative government will ensure that . . . patient wait-time reduction targets for priority procedure identified by provinces are established by the end of 2006."
Global National News had probably the best coverage of this latest Harper pre-election gambit. They point out that all of this is just part of Harp's "big lie" about not wanting an election...and they point out that this particular plan is spending money to "guarantee" wait times that are longer in most instances than already exist.

Steve doesn't want an election

We can understand poor Boss Harp...he says he doesn't want an election...but Iguess the little devils in his Party really do. And we all know that Harp really is Casper Milquetoast and he doesn't really run thngs.
So...it's those darn Liberals who have forced the Tories to launch more attack ads aimed at Stephane Dion. It's those darn Liberals that have forced the Tories to launch attack ads aimed at Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams. It's those darn Liberals that forced those meek and mild Tories to show off their state-of-the-George-Bush-art campaign headquarters. And, of course, it was those pesky Liberals that forced Ministers to fan out this week and continue shovelling truck loads of tax dollars onto the wanting public (though it is mostly re-packaged Liberal programming...so they are actually trying to buy your votes with someone else's ideas and budgeted money...you won't find the word aerospace in the most recent budget).

RCMP...you know things are bad when...

You gotta chuckle...
You know things must be really bad at Public Security, and with the RCMP in particular, when the Minister (Stockboy Day) hightails it off to Afghanistan for a "break".
Sheesh...You would think that the Ministry of Information over at PMO (AKA Bare-knuckler Buckler) would have noted the bad "optics" of Nero Day "fiddling" while a Canadian instution self-destructs.

Tory ecoFraud exposing itself

FlimFlam Flaherty and Mean Steve Harper are not even on the same page when it comes to perpetrating their ecoFraud (ecoAction in HarpSpeak) on the Canadian public...spot the difference here!
FlimFlam Flaherty, April 2, 2007: Canada is"...an emerging energy superpower.''
Mean Steve Harper, March 22, 2007: "Canada must be not merely an energy superpower, but a clean energy superpower."
The Tories should at least be able to get the rhetoric straight...But that is hard when you are merely playing out a charade!

Bits and bites to start a break week

The House of Commons is in recess for Easter. It's a two week break for our hard-working MPs. But that doesn't stop the Tories from leading us down their right wing garden path.
The climate change deniers will have trouble explaining this:
Climate forecast grim for Canada
Peter Calamai Apr. 02, 2007
Canada and the U.S. are ill-prepared to adapt to almost-certain impacts from climate change, leaving their citizens vulnerable, according to an authoritative scientific report to be published this week.
Then there is the recent report that Steve Harper and Flim Flam Flaherty's ethanol talk-talk and photo-op isn't going to be all it is cracked up to be:
Ottawa's biofuel plan will have 'minor impact,' study says
Globe and Mail, Canada - 31 Mar 2007
"In fact, if 10 per cent of the fuel used were corn-based ethanol [in other words, if the E-10 blend were used in all vehicles], Canada's greenhouse gas ...
Of course, the "industry" jumped to the defence of Messrs. Harp and Flaherty. That should surprise no one, since they have also sunk a bundle into advertising in recent weeks. All that money targeted to get the Tories to throw money at them in their recent budget...which of course happened.
On another front, the government's duplicitous treatment of Canada's aboriginal communities continues apace. First, last week we had the minister who is supposed to administer aboriginal affairs perform another Tory flip-flop. This time it applied to the residents of Kashechewan who saw last year's talk-talk and photo-op reversed. They will not be moving...at least not until Steve Harper rides to the rescue during an expected election campaign. For now, according to Jim Prentice, they are SOL.
Ottawa rejects moving reserve
Toronto Star, Canada - 31 Mar 2007
OTTAWA–A new engineering report says it would cost about $474 million to move the flood-prone Kashechewan reserve to higher ground near James Bay – an...
Not hard to believe from a government that has created an atmosphere within DND where it is deemed acceptable to lump Canada's aboriginal activists in with terrorists. This story broke on the weekend too:
Military Manual Groups Native "Radicals" with Terrorists
640 Toronto, Canada - 31 Mar 2007
The Canadian military is drafting a counter-terrorism manual that puts ``radical Native American Organizations' in the same category as terror groups like ...
This highlights the real danger when you have a Prime Minister who gratuitously labels other MPs as Taliban sympathisers...just like Steve did recently.