Harper Government Plans to Train Beluga Whales to Drill for Oil

In a daring new pilot project, the Harper government is training Beluga Whales to drill for oil and natural gas.

Special Jack-up rigs will be towed by the Belugas and then ... wait a minute ... what? This can't be right.

But what else are we to assume? Stephen Harper, with much fanfare announced a Beluga sanctuary, after already promising the drilling rights for that same sanctuary.

The federal government has quietly left the door open to offshore oil drilling in a conservation area for beluga whales in Canada's Arctic waters that was unveiled with much fanfare by Prime Minister Stephen Harper this
week.

On Thursday, the fourth day of his weeklong tour of the Arctic, the prime minister announced the government will establish the Tarium Niryutait Marine Protected Area, located at the mouth of the Mackenzie River in the Beaufort Sea. The Beaufort Sea region is home to one of the world's largest summer populations of belugas, which go there to feed, socialize and raise their calves.

"Today we are ensuring these Arctic treasures are preserved for generations to come," Harper told reporters in the remote town of Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T. However, regulatory documents released by the government in April show that officials plan to set aside one per cent of the conservation area for oil and gas activities, such as exploratory drilling.

Oh well. If the Belugas bother the oil rigs, they'll just call in Gail Shea. She'll know what to do.

Peter MacKay Spies Fake Planes Flying Over Fake Lake

I'm so glad we have a defense minister who's on the ball ... or off his rocker.

Seems that once again Peter Mackay is crying wolf and even sending out talking points to MPs, to help with his fabricated tale of another threat by Russian planes.

I'm feeling more secure already.

A larger number of those in the military community that I talked to (or sent emails to me) tend to believe that the “leak” of information regarding the intercept to the Sun newspapers was done to focus attention on the Conservative government’s stance on Arctic sovereignty and in particular to build the case for the purchase of the Joint Strike Fighter.

MacKay has denied that the information was released to support Canada’s participation in the JSF program.

But his denials were undercut somewhat when the Conservative government a short time later issued “talking points” to its MPs on how they could take advantage of the news stories about the Bear bomber intercept and drill home the point that the JSF was needed and that Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff wanted to cancel the program (Ignatieff has actually said he wants to review the program).

We can't afford the damn planes. End of.

Stockwell Day Says Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah ...

This man gets stupider everyday, I swear. He claims that 9 billion for more prisons are needed because of a rise in unreported crimes. If they are unreported, how can they be tried?

Guess that high school education is really paying off for him.

Peter Mackay at it Again. The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming!

You would have thought that MacKay would have learned his lesson after the last time he pulled a "chicken little" or "henny penny", but once again he is trying to create a crisis.

Playing to his base who think we're still in the middle of the Cold War.

They are trying to justify the expenditure on these new jets, when clearly our old ones are doing just fine.

Can't afford them Petey. Join the Twenty-first century. Take a look around. We now have talking phones and everything.

As Marc Garneau and everyone else who isn't desperate for attention, reminds us:

The Liberal Party on Friday applauded Ottawa’s decision to send out the CF-18s, while raising questions over the publicity surrounding the incident with the Russians. The Liberals pointed out that faster two-engine fighter jets might
be better equipped than the single-engine F-35 to handle such confrontations. “The Russians have been doing these incursions routinely ... to see if we are doing our homework,” said Liberal MP Marc Garneau, a former military man and astronaut. “What I find surprising is that the Conservatives are jumping all over this. I think it’s part of their plan to bring attention to their purchase of F-35s.”

What a putz.

Beware of Old Reformers With Ten Foot 'Polls'

So Harper's old mentor, Preston Manning, is at it again.

His 'How to Fool Canadians Into Thinking That Reformers are Not Nuts' Institute, has released another poll; and the media is salivating.

His first on the death penalty apparently 'proved' that the majority of Canadians have suddenly turned evil.

Then he claimed that a poll he conducted showed that we had moved to the centre, where he would like you to believe (ha, ha, ah, ha, ha, ha), our fascist dictator (ha, ha, ah, ha, ha, ha), Stephen Harper (ha, ha, ah, ha, ha, ha), is now governing from. (ha, ha, ah, ha, ha, ha)

Nice try.

I came across a book on Cambridge University's website called 'The Radical Right'. You had to buy the book, but they provided the index, which revealed numerous links to Stephen Harper, Preston Manning, the Reform Party, the Alliance Party and the Conservative Party of Canada; which really are all one and the same.

So if they know at Cambridge University that our government is from the radical right, why aren't Canadians getting it?

Of course these little bogus polls that get a lot of media attention, can often plant a seed. Then when a legitimate pollster calls, we remember the results of Manning's polls, with their convoluted questions, and think .... gee .. most Canadians are now thinking like that old Reformer guy, maybe I should too.

So be aware, that his corporate sponsored 'institute' has just released the results of yet another Manning special. This time on abortion. And you guessed it.

75 per cent of respondents feel abortion is “morally wrong".

Of course my latest poll showed that the majority of Canadians believe that Preston Manning and the rest of his Reformers are completely nuts.

And yet the media refuse to publish those results.

Go figure.

I Wish Someone Other Than Lawrence Cannon Was Handling Haiti Relief

By now I'm sure you're all aware of the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti, and while Lawrence Cannon has assured us that it would appear that no Canadians died as a result, his comments after, reflect his general casual attitude toward human suffering:

"From the preliminary assessment the ambassador gave to us, I can say we don't have any information that would lead us to believe Canadians have been affected," Mr. Cannon said.

Canadians not having been affected?

The quake left hundreds of thousands of Haitian-Canadians in a state of tense confusion as calls to friends and relatives went unanswered. A local doctor told Agence France-Presse the deaths were in the hundreds, and the Red Cross said hospitals are at capacity with people desperately seeking medical attention in the under-resourced region.

I would say that Canadians were very affected.

Canada has yet to decide whether to send its Disaster Assistance Response Team to the quake-torn area - officials still need to assess the damage and available equipment, Mr. Cannon said.

Yet to decide? I know the Reformers were always adamantly opposed to foreign aid, but come on. Supporting allies is about more than joining them in war. You also join them in sorrow and do everything possible to alleviate their suffering. It's a no-brainer.

Cannon is just one more reason why this government has got to go.

Back to: The Lawrence Cannon Story: Intelligent Incompetence

Jim Flaherty Says "Damn I'm Stupid" But I Refuse to Smarten Up

Despite repeated warnings and advice from this country's top economists, our finance minister, who used to be a personal injuries lawyer; thinks he has a better idea.

Bankrupt the country.

Of course, what many of this country's top economists may not realize, is that neo-conservatives have no desire to fix the economy. They just want to reduce our revenue, to justify slashing social programs.

It's an ideology based on social Darwinism, so nothing they say will sink in.

The stage has been set. Canada is toast.

Raise GST, rating service says
By ROSS MAROWITS
The Canadian Press
December 3, 2009

MONTREAL — Canada should tackle its growing debt and the threat of chronic structural deficits by increasing the GST, perhaps to nine per cent, and cutting program spending, the co-president of the DBRS rating service said Wednesday.

While politicians are loathe to raise taxes, dramatic action is required to prevent the country’s debt from spiralling out of control, Peter Bethlenfalvy said in an interview.

"It’s not whether they (taxes) will go up, it’s 100 per cent certain that they will go up."

The Conservative government reduced the Goods and Services Tax to five per cent from seven per cent a few years ago. But a reversal is now required to help improve the country’s fiscal health, he said.

Bethlenfalvy said raising the consumption task is probably the "smartest" tax to increase. He praised moves to harmonize the GST in Ontario and British Columbia.

"It shouldn’t have gone down two per cent, it should go back up, and maybe two percentage points higher," he said after presenting DBRS’ views on Canada’s economic position following the global financial crisis.

The country will hit a "brick wall" that will require major spending cuts unless expenditures are reduced and revenues increased without choking off the economic recovery.

Failure to act will see interest costs increasingly become a more significant part of the deficit, said Bethlenfalvy, who hopes to spur popular support for tough measures.

"We can’t, as citizens, keep demanding a pension plan, health-care services, education and, at the same time, not pay for them."

Several other voices have also recently called for drastic spending cuts and higher taxes to slay the debt elephant that stalked Canada in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

TD Bank economist Derek Burleton and Bank of Montreal economist Douglas Porter said governments will have to shift their attention from stimulating the economy to how to kill the monster they created.

Government officials couldn’t be immediately reached for comment. But Finance Minister Jim Flaherty recently dashed talk of tax hikes, saying the federal government won’t raise taxes or cut transfers to provinces or individuals in order to pay off Ottawa’s deficit.

He also insisted that government stimulus spending was a temporary measure and that it doesn’t plan to undertake major new initiatives in next year’s budget.

Flaherty said the Conservative government will only move to balance the budget when a "firm" economic recovery has taken hold. He has previously said that stimulus spending and lower tax revenues will result in five years of budget deficits.

Faced with a deep recession, the government initiated stimulus spending packages totalling $61 billion.

Canada’s current account deficit, a broad measure of the country’s economic dealings with the rest of the world, widened to a record $13.1 billion in the third quarter.

The federal debt recently passed the $500-billion mark and is rising at $1,772.58 a second.

"Canadian Voters Have Turned Their Country Into a Political Freak Show". I Am So Ashamed!

The statement in quotations was not made by me, though is certainly a belief I share.

There's an ongoing theme here. Canadians now sewing American flags on their backpacks. Our PM complicit in war crimes, hiding behind our revered soldiers. Sabotaging climate change talks and now facing suspension from the Commonwealth.

I have never cried so much in my life, as I'm watching this government completely destroy everything that Canada once stood for.

But hell, Harper can play the piano and sing a Beatles song off key. Let's give the man a majority so he can finish us off.

What is wrong with Canadians these days? This is horrible. How are we ever going to get Canada back? We've been hijacked, and obviously drugged, because we've lost our will to fight.

Stephen Harper is not my Prime Minister. He once said he hated Canada and I guess we are now seeing how much.

It's embarrassing to be Canadian now
George Monbiot is right – Canada has become a corrupt petro-state most of us are ashamed of. But all is not lost
Heather Mallick
UK Guardian
December 2, 2009 13.00 GMT

George Monbiot wrote a real porcupine of a column this week, excoriating Canada on its failure to act on climate change. The headline read, "Canada's image lies in tatters. It is now to climate what Japan is to whaling."

Brilliant! Just what smug Canada needs, a real seeing-to by an environmental wise man.

Monbiot, a hero of mine, had earlier written a toned-down piece for the leaden opinion page of Canada's dullest newspaper, the Globe and Mail. I wish he hadn't done that.

The headline was "Please, Canada, clean up your act." Canada was not now the "corrupt petro-state" of the Guardian piece. Monbiot in the local version seemed to treat Canada more like a student who had let not just himself down, but had brought sorrow to the entire school. Monbiot wanted to add his voice to those "pleading" with Canada's hard-right minority government to change its ways.

The fact is, there are many green and hopeful things to be salvaged from Canada's sorry situation and the wise Monbiot knows this.

Out of something as misty as mere indecision, Canadian voters have turned their country into a political freak show. Canada's Conservative government, run by an ideologue named Stephen Harper, does not represent Canadian voters on saving the air we breathe and temperatures we can cope with. When it comes to climate change, Canadians are as earnest and decent as they ever were.

Yes, Canada's record on carbon emissions is disgraceful, shameful, loathsome etc. The tar sands of northern Alberta are an international scandal. But the problem is not in a former Prius of a country turning into a Hummer. Canada's dilemma is much more interesting that that. It is the decline of a democracy (partly as its media died, thank you Conrad Black) and the descent of a nation into a political stasis, and it could happen to any country that doesn't mind the political store. What takes place when a nation can't decide on a government and lets a rightwing minority, quivering with hate, have just enough power?

Catastrophe, that's what.

Countries supposedly get the government they deserve. I'm not sure Canada deserved Harper. Canadians can agree with Judge Monbiot's assessment but ask the court to take into account our previous, as Rumpole would say.

First, no one disagrees more with Harper's refusal to slow climate change than Canadian voters. Indeed, more than three-quarters of Canadians say they are embarrassed that Canada hasn't taken an international lead on the issue, a recent poll revealed.

Even Albertans – home of the tar sands because they need the money and who is to say them nay – agree on this. Quebeckers, the sophisticates of the nation, are 86% in favour of Canada taking action. Toronto, while suffering economically, is maniacally devoted to hemp, bicycling and meticulous recycling rules. We hate green garbage incompetents. We love the Kyoto protocol, we want to prostrate ourselves in Copenhagen next month, but until we make our mind up about whether to make Michael Ignatieff prime minister, we can't.

May I humbly beg for patience with my country, which is stuck like a beaver in a dam of its own making.

Second, Canadians are still smart and decent. Only the government hews to the party line. On every issue, from abortion rights to rendition for torture to fair treatment of non-white citizens who had the temerity to take a holiday and can't come home because they lost weight and don't quite look like their passport photo, Harper is determined to turn Canada into America-lite.

He doesn't mean the America of Obama. He means the America of Ronald Reagan and George Bush, with its private affluence and public squalor.

American travellers used to shove a Canadian flag on their backpack for better treatment overseas. I'm sorry that the reverse has happened and Canadians now switch the conversation to Obama as quickly as possibly before the subject of clubbing seals arises.

We have shamed our better natures. But we Canadians will rid ourselves of Harper and rise again to be the decent and intelligent nation you Brits once patronised with such delight.