Flaherty's Not so New Red Tape Commission is Code for Deregulation

In a post the other day on Paul Calandra, Reform-Conservative MP for Oak Ridges-Markham; I mentioned that I was surprised he would boast of his involvement with the Red Tape Commission; a scheme introduced by Mike Harris that was devastating for Ontario.

As much as the term 'red tape' has negative connotations, it is really just a clever way of saying deregulation.

Ulli Diemer wrote extensively on the subject back in 2000, when the Walkerton tragedy was directly linked to this horrendous bit of government hanky panky.

Contamination: The Poisonous Legacy of Ontario's Environmental Cutbacks

This is a story about fanaticism and death. The dead are buried in fresh graves in the cemeteries of Walkerton, Ontario. The fanatics are very much alive, going about their daily business in the Premier's office and the cabinet room in Queen's Park ... Investigators are still working to determine exactly how deadly E. coli 0157 bacteria found their way into Walkerton's water in May, causing at least seven and perhaps 11 deaths, and leaving hundreds seriously ill.

The story of the Walkerton tragedy is not, however, primarily a story about Walkerton at all. This was no unforeseen accident. It was the predictable - and predicted - result of deliberate policy decisions which gravely compromised the safety of Ontario's drinking water. The broader story of Walkerton is the story of repeated warnings, from many different experts, officials, and agencies, that the Harris government's environmental cutbacks were putting public health in jeopardy. And it is the story of how those warnings were dismissed ...

Devastating cutbacks, media manipulation and calculated photo-ops, defined the Harris government, and his was a legacy of deceit. Sound familiar?

Well so does this:

The chain of events begins in June 1995, when Harris's Progressive Conservatives take office, and start ramming through their "Common Sense Revolution." The phrase was concocted by the party's election strategists, but it captures perfectly the attitudes of Harris and his inner circle: The private sector can do everything better. That's a fact. That's common sense. Obviously, then, anything which interferes with the private sector - environmental regulations enforced by busy-body inspectors, for example - is nonsense and needs to be dismantled. You don't need public input or so-called "expert" advice to figure that out.

Armed with these certainties, the Tories set out to slash Ontario's "bloated" public services and "red tape."

Environmental programs and agencies are attacked with particular savagery. The Ministry of the Environment loses 42% of its budget. Front-line staff, charged with monitoring, testing, inspection, enforcement, and research, are decimated: 900 of 2,400 front-line staff are laid off. Regional offices are closed. Environmental agencies set up over the years to respond to complex environmental problems are dismantled in days. What remains of the Ministry is in total disarray. Similar cuts hit other ministries, including Natural Resources and Agriculture. A number of industries formerly regulated by the government are told they can now regulate their own environmental performance.

This sounds very much like Stephen Harper's "risk management" scheme with double the death toll of Walkerton, when the Listeriosis outbreak exposed that he was to blame.

In Harper's plan, created with George Bush; the industries could inspect themselves, but if anything went wrong, they must do the PR clean up. Remember all those Maple Leaf ads, portraying themselves as a company that cared?

That was simply part of the agreed upon clean up. This is a tragedy waiting to happen.

IS THIS REALLY YOUR CANADA?

The Murder of Television News Was Premeditated

"The greatest power of the mass media is the power to ignore. The worst thing about this power is that you may not even know you're using it." --Sam Smith

There's no argument that we have a serious problem in this country when it comes to our media, or lack thereof.

Most newspapers are a joke, which is why more people are turning to international news or social media if they want to know what's going on in this country.

We can trace a lot of this back to Conrad Black, when he bought up many of the country's papers and made them a vehicle for the far right.

But even some of the more moderate publications have become a disappointment. Very little investigative reporting and far too much fluff.

That's not to say that they are all bad. We still have a few very good journalists, who aren't afraid to tell it like it is: Lawrence Martin, Murray Dobbin, James Travers, Don Martin, Antonia Zerbisias, Frances Russel; to name a few.

But most of the others are now just cut and paste specialists, or topic spinners; so I rarely waste my time.

And television news is just as bad if not worse. Again a few good ones, but the majority are more into entertainment than keeping the country informed.

And if we don't believe that these so-called news 'personalities' are partisan, look at how easily they move into government. Pamela Wallin and Mike Duffy from CTV. Peter Kent from Global. How can we believe anything they tell us now?

I thought however, that a lot of this problem started with Stephen Harper, and while he is definitely the worst to control the media, bar none; a 2000 article from the Ryerson Press, describes how Mike Harris manipulated the press, so it's definitely a neoconservative trait.

We may not have anything as deplorable as Fox News, but give it time. Everything these guys do, they learned from the worst of the Republicans.

TV newsmakers need vivid images to illustrate their stories. Harris's Tories, easily the most communications-savvy provincial government this country has ever seen, are delighted to oblige — on their terms. They dodge negative coverage at every chance and will go to ridiculous lengths — giving preferential treatment to friendly reporters, shutting out critical ones and staging elaborate, unrelated events — to avoid it.

With expectations so superficial, many television journalists are losing the incentive and initiative to go out and chase stories beyond the pre-packaged photo ops offered up by government communications staff. Even if they want to go beyond these prefab items, with shrinking political reporting staff and dwindling resources, they can only pursue one or two stories a day. Government PR people know this and are prepared to make it easy for journalists to get their precious pictures, provided the coverage doesn't end up being too hard on them. The result is political coverage that serves no purpose other than promoting a government that's already very good at promoting itself.

But what happens if a television anchor tries their hand at a little honesty?

... in October 1984 when Lesley Stahl said on air what President Ronald Reagan was really doing: she called him on all the promises he had failed to keep, particularly to the poor, since his election, calling him a president who "highlights the images and hides from the issues."

But minutes after the CBS Evening News Broadcast was over, Richard Darman, Regan's deputy chief of staff and Michael Deaver, a republican political consultant, called to thank Stahl. They'd watched it with the sound off, and without her verbal assault, it was just five minutes and 40 seconds of sweet, wholesome pictures of the American president with balloons, the president with the flag and the president with needy children.

As Stahl found out, consistently getting the right pictures on the evening news is a PR tactic designed to keep government in the public favour. Harris's communications staff, many of whom are trained by Republicans in the U.S., subscribe to the Mike Deaver school of thought: they know they can't control what journalists say, but they do their damndest to control what they show. Robert Fisher, a Global anchor and host of Focus Ontario, a weekly half-hour political analysis show, says he's never seen such tight control by a premier's office in his 19 years of political coverage.

"This government, unlike any governments before it, is absolutely obsessed with image," he says, "whether it's what shirt the premier wears or what the bus looks like or what backdrop he's in front of. I don't remember governments before being that concerned. If they stood in front of a grey curtain, they stood in front of a grey curtain. I've seen these guys change the curtain because it clashed with the premier's suit."

Image politics. It's the new norm. And news programs are not written with a view to keeping a country informed, but keeping a country pacified. Or even worse, and something that is all too common with Harper's divisive style, keeping a country turned off.

Being offered flawless pictures isn't the kind of help reporters need, but it's the only help they're getting. CTV's Queen's Park bureau, which had three full-time reporters in February 1997, now depends on one CFTO reporter. Global also has just one. The Ministry of Health, however, has a communications staff of 40. "I've sort of adapted to it more, maybe because I'm younger and I can go with the flow a little more," says Kelly. "But it drives guys like Robert Fisher nuts. In his day, we always did issue stories, issues were important."

Fisher admits the decreasing emphasis on solid political reporting does aggravate him, but he recognizes why it's happening. Issues don't usually make for good pictures and, once reporters commit their meagre resources to a superficial event, they can hardly afford not to cover it. This budget-induced apathy is compounded by the stations' general disinterest in traditional political coverage.

Bill Fox, author of Spinwars, who has been both a political journalist and a communications advisor for Brian Mulroney, says news executives are giving up too easily. "Behind a lot of this focus on dumbing the news down is the belief that you can't communicate anything of substance on television. But the academic research indicates the opposite. Used properly, television is an excellent medium to communicate very complex issues," he says.

Used improperly, local news becomes more vulnerable to communications initiatives. "You won't have the time to get behind the pre-packaged announcement," says Fox. Over time, consumers will realize that and move on.
North Americans are already giving up the evening news as a source of daily information. In the late 1970s, 92 percent of Americans watched one of the big three stations' evening news but that number, according to Fox, is now below 60 percent.

Toronto news organizations don't seem deterred by these statistics and, according to Kelly, are perpetuating the dumbing-down trend. "We're an inch thick and a mile wide," he says. "TV news has always been very shallow and in the past five years we've become even more so. It's shorter clips, shorter stories, more pizzazz ...

More pizzazz ... Yep. I guess that's why I've only watched television news very sporadically for the past 20 years. I just couldn't handle the pizzazz.

Did Harper Learn How to Silence the Press from Mike Harris?

When I was doing a bit of research yesterday, I came across an old article on-line about Mike Harris and how he controlled the media.

For those who don't live in Ontario, or are too young to remember; Mike Harris was our premier from 1995 to 2002; and turned this province inside out, creating the highest number of homeless people in our history and a massive surge in the use of food banks.

He was also our first neoconservative premier, an experience we don't want to revisit. (sorry Tim Hudak)

Manipulation of the Media

The article I mentioned was from the summer of 2000, and appeared in the Ryerson Review of Journalism, under the headline: How Mike Harris and his minions manipulate TV news.

It starts out discussing Paul Calandra's old boss, Steve Gilchrist, and how the press was waiting for him to answer questions about the investigation that I mentioned here.

A dozen broadcasters file into the Speaker's gallery at Queen's Park, a legislative locker room perched high above Ontario's elected MPPs. They've reported dutifully for the annual Speaker of the House election, but their attention is focused, more or less, on another man: Steve Gilchrist. The Conservative minister of municipal affairs and housing is under Ontario Provincial Police investigation after allegedly telling developers to go through his own personal lawyer, Tory fundraiser Peter Proszanski, to get an audience with him — a privilege that'd cost them $25,000 each.

Even juicier, Gilchrist has a criminal record for tax evasion dating back to 1984, shared with his father, who was at the time a federal Tory MP. It's not quite Zippergate, but it's something for the boys and girl in the Speaker's gallery to yak about anyway. "Let's get one more shot of Gilchrist for the archives" .... but his communications staff has been doing its best to avoid that, staging photo op after photo op to force the cameras to focus on the brighter side of Tory life.

He was also in trouble at the time because as minister of municipal affairs he had just authorized a 50% rent increase. 50%! However, he avoided the media that day and not long after was replaced by Tony Clement.

And where was Mike Harris when this was all taking place? Was he holding a press conference or a scrum to explain the actions of one of his cabinet ministers? Not on your life.

Where was he? Wait for it ...... at a photo-op! And where is Stephen Harper anytime something unpleasant demands an answer from the prime minister .... at a photo-op!

TV newsmakers need vivid images to illustrate their stories. Harris's Tories, easily the most communications-savvy provincial government this country has ever seen, are delighted to oblige — on their terms. They dodge negative coverage at every chance and will go to ridiculous lengths — giving preferential treatment to friendly reporters, shutting out critical ones and staging elaborate, unrelated events — to avoid it. Because they know the demands of getting on the news are a lot like the demands of the Miss Universe pageant: you've gotta be sexy, you've gotta have charm and you've better have something interesting (but not too complicated) to say.

With expectations so superficial, many television journalists are losing the incentive and initiative to go out and chase stories beyond the pre-packaged photo ops offered up by government communications staff. Even if they want to go beyond these prefab items, with shrinking political reporting staff and dwindling resources, they can only pursue one or two stories a day. Government PR people know this and are prepared to make it easy for journalists to get their precious pictures, provided the coverage doesn't end up being too hard on them. The result is political coverage that serves no purpose other than promoting a government that's already very good at promoting itself.

This shouldn't be too surprising since Harris and Harper not only share several cabinet ministers (Clement, Flaherty, Baird and Van Loan), but they also share something bigger: Guy Giorno.

And they share the fact that they hone their skills, by taking direction from the U.S. Republicans:

Harris's communications staff, many of whom are trained by Republicans in the U.S., subscribe to the Mike Deaver school of thought: they know they can't control what journalists say, but they do their damndest to control what they show. Robert Fisher, a Global anchor and host of Focus Ontario, a weekly half-hour political analysis show, says he's never seen such tight control by a premier's office in his 19 years of political coverage.

"This government, unlike any governments before it, is absolutely obsessed with image," he says, "whether it's what shirt the premier wears or what the bus looks like or what backdrop he's in front of. I don't remember governments before being that concerned. If they stood in front of a grey curtain, they stood in front of a grey curtain. I've seen these guys change the curtain because it clashed with the premier's suit."

How's that for deja vu?

IS THIS REALLY YOUR CANADA?

Paul Calandra Must be Replaced as Member of Parliament for Oak Ridges - Markham

Paul Calandra is the Reform-Conservative Member of Parliament for Oak Ridges-Markham. He won the seat in 2008 by just 545 votes, and has been completely underwhelming representing the riding.

Like Bob Dechert, Calandra is an old Alliance member, running unsuccessfully for the party in 2000.

He is also from the old Mike Harris gang, having acted as Chief of Staff for one of the worst Harris MPPs, Steve Gilchrist.

I was surprised that Calandra mentioned working for him in his bio, because that's not really a name that I would like to be associated with.

In 1999 he was under investigation, after two prominent developers complained that Gilchrist's personal lawyer, Peter Proszanski, offered to allow them to influence policy for a $25,000 fee.

He was eventually cleared of these charges but the probe unearthed a few other things from his past, including a conviction in 1984 for tax evasion, a government contract recently secured by Proszanski and an alleged conflict of interest during his first term.

Harris removed him from his cabinet post, but not from his caucus. Tony Clement took his place.

Calandra also mentions that he was the MPPs Chief of Staff when Gilchrist was Chair of the Red Tape Commission and first Commissioner of Alternative Energy.

The Alternative Energy Commission never really materialized, but the Red Tape Commission was blamed in part for the Walkerton water tragedy.

Like the 'risk management' policy of the Harper government, under the auspices of removing 'red tape', it also removed proper inspections, and hindered people from doing their jobs.

Mark Winfield, of the Pembina Institute ... called for the elimination of the Tories' much-touted Red Tape Commission the body that O'Connor points to as being a stumbling block for environment ministry staff looking to bolster protections.

"The Red Tape Commission has got to go. It's that simple," Winfield said. "I think its actions clearly placed the health and safety of Ontario residents at risk." In his report, O'Connor says despite attempts by staff at the ministries of health and the environment to push for regulations that would have forced all private labs to notify provincial officials- including the local medical officer of health- about any adverse water test results, the anti-red tape tone of the Harris government got in the way.

The Walkerton tragedy killed four people and made hundreds of others severely ill. Harper's scheme killed a dozen people from listeriosis, and yet he still hasn't changed his policy.

Paul Calandra's former boss was also one of the worst little pit bulls in the Harris kennel. In his 1999 book Mike Harris Made Me Eat My Dog, Linwood Barclay talks about how Gilchrist would go on radio talk show debates, and refuse to answer questions, only make pooch sounds. Grrr! Rrrr! Rufff! Grrrrrr.

During one such debate, Gerard Kennedy, who was then in the Ontario Legislature, commented "I hate to be a bother, but Steve just bit me. Does anyone know whether he's had his shots?'

And he hasn't changed much. During the recent provincial leadership contest, he backed Christine Elliot, wife of Jim Flaherty. But to try and take the wind out of Tim Hudak's sails, he announced that he had been a Hudak supporter but had lost faith, so joined Elliot instead. Of course that was a lie, and Hudak ultimately won.

I used to vote PC in Ontario, but this party has gone to the dogs, no pun intended.

So here's how we will win this riding back. I just learned that Liu Temelkovski will be running for the Liberals again next election. Since strategically he will be the best option to take out Calandra, I'm throwing my efforts into promoting him. He's an experienced member of Parliament with an excellent record.

I couldn't locate a website for him yet, just his bio, but Vejay Sappani has an excellent site for the area, so can provide you with details. He also posted as a guest on Morton's Musings here.

If you live in this riding, here's what you can do:

1. Join the Liberal Party. It's only about $10.00 and is a great way to show your support. They will keep you up to date with what's happening in the community and on the federal scene.

2. If you are able to find a bit of time, volunteer; perhaps with canvassing or some other promotions.

3. If you can afford it at all, donate a bit now and then. I'm set up to contribute a regular monthly donation, but it's whatever you feel comfortable with. Remember that the Conservatives have a lot of wealthy backers and it takes money to launch a campaign.

4. Join Catch 22 Harper Conservatives to learn more tips, and encourage others to join. They also have a website that is currently under construction.

5. Join Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament. There are more than 20,000 links to stories with reasons to vote the Reform-Conservatives out. The better informed you are the more motivated you will be.

I'll keep this page updated as often as possible and will continue to provide more reasons why Paul Calandra and these destructive Reformers have got to go. And I will also provide plenty of information, as to why Liu Temelkovski must be brought back.

**********************

More Postings on Paul Calandra

When Canada Was a Democracy Paul Calandra Would Have Been Told to Sit Down

Paul Calandra is Shovelling Something in Oak Ridges - Markham

Harper Won't Let Paul Calandra Talk But He Should at Least Make Him Listen

Paul Calandra is Another Conservative Abusing Tax Dollars

Did Harper Learn How to Silence the Press from Mike Harris?

Flaherty's Not so New Red Tape Commission is Code for Deregulation

When Canada Was a Democracy Paul Calandra Would Have Been Told to Sit Down

On March 3, 2009; Paul Calandra, the Reform-Conservative member of Parliament for Oak Ridge – Markham, stood up in the House of Commons and made this announcement:

“Mr. Speaker, Jewish students across the country are under siege as anti-Semites unveil their plans for Israel Apartheid Week.

Liberal MPs have been quoted in the media and even today in the immigration committee saying that anti-Semitic organizations like the Canadian Arab Federation should receive taxpayer support.

Will the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism explain why the government believes that Israel Apartheid Week is anti-Semitic?”

Now this announcement was not made out of concern for Jewish students, but was just another hyper-partisan assault on the Liberals, in his party's attempt to paint the opposition as being antisemitic, based solely on the notion that any criticism of Israel is antisemitism.

They have actually now taken it a step further, by suggesting that if you don't stand up everyday and declare your love for Israel you are antisemitic. Or if you support the Arab community or if you feel any sympathy for the Palestinian people, you are antisemitic. Or if you're not nuts like Jason Kenney, you are antisemitic.

When and where is this going to end?

Israeli Apartheid Week is an annual series of university lectures and rallies held in March of every year since 2005. It began in Toronto but has spread to 40 cities around the world including England, the United States, South Africa, the West Bank, Mexico, Scotland and Norway. According to Wikipedia:

The aim of the week was officially said to be a contribution "to this chorus of international opposition to Israeli apartheid and to bolster support for the boycotts, divestments and sanctions campaign in accordance with the demands outlined in the July 2005 Statement: full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, an end to the occupation and colonization of all Arab lands – including the Golan Heights, the Occupied West Bank with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip – and dismantling the Wall, and the protection of Palestinian refugees’ right to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in U.N. resolution

I remember a time when we protested another wall, and that one came down.

So why can't we debate this openly and honestly? If Jason Kenney and Paul Calandra believe that the Israeli occupation is just, let them give us their reasons. Canada has always been a diplomatic, even handed country. Let's hear the arguments.

But there are no arguments, because if arguments are presented in the House, the Reformers immediately start bellowing and squealing and speaking in tongues; denouncing anyone who would even make such a suggestion.

This is absolutely wrong, and completely un-Canadian. It goes against everything we believe in. So why are the Reformers being allowed to get away this nonsense?

FEAR!

They have everyone living in fear. The opposition can't even mouth the words, and our NGOs risk losing their funding if they urge that human rights and the rule of law, be encouraged when dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

And how dare Calandra suggest that the organizers of this are anti-Semites. In fact, many of them are Jewish.

IS THIS REALLY YOUR CANADA? IS PAUL CALANDRA REALLY THE BEST CHOICE FOR OAK RIDGE -MARKHAM?

Paul Calandra is Shovelling Something in Oak Ridges - Markham

The stimulus spending that has given Canada it's largest deficit in history, was supposed to be for shovel ready projects, but in Oak-Ridges-Markham, residents are wondering what exactly their MP Paul Calandra is shovelling.

With much pomp and ceremony he announced that stimulus money would be going to build a new arena/community center in the town of Schomberg, but the town council says that they have not yet even designed the building, nor do they have the land to build it on.

What does Calandra think 'shovel ready' means? I guess to him it's just means he should start shovelling something?

This is a “Shovel Ready” Project?
A View From the Left
Monday, July 13, 2009

There was recently an announcement made in my riding by our Conservative MP, Paul Calandra, that King Township would be receiving some of the stimulus funding to build a new arena/community center in the town of Schomberg.

Now Schomberg certainly needs a new arena, however even some of the municipal councilors have been questioning receiving the funding as a) they don’t have the design plans for the arena finalized and b) they don’t even have a location to put the arena as they have yet to buy any land.

Councilor Mortelliti also wondered how, under the Stimulus Find, the project qualified as construction-ready if the designed of the facility has not yet been finalized.

It seems to me that this is just more proof that this stimulus funding is designed to lock up votes in Conservative ridings instead of for investing in shovel ready projects to stimulate the economy.

Harper Won't Let Paul Calandra Talk But He Should at Least Make Him Listen

I know that Stephen Harper keeps a pretty tight rein on his MPs, not allowing them to talk to anyone without a script, but I didn't realize he also told them not to listen.

One of Gail Shea's constituents was upset because she banned him from her facebook, and now Paul Calandra has started blocking citizens critical of his government.

These people are elected officials, who must speak to the those who pay their salary.

I can just imagine what a Conservative caucus meeting must be like. "OK guys, now I want you all to practice putting your fingers in your ears and singing 'la la la la la la la . I can't hear you.'."

Paul Calandra blocks me in Twitter. What does he have to hide ?
Posted by Vijay
June 22, 2009

Markham Oakridges Conservative MP Paul Calandra wont allow me to follow him on Twitter. I added the MP from Markham Oak Ridges to the people I want to follow and Twitter says now that I can’t because he has blocked me. What does he have to hide?

Do you think it is appropriate for a MP to block someone from following them on Twitter because of partisan reasons. Is he afraid that I will uncover his mistake and expose him? Something is very fishy here. Don’t you think ? I have a lot of Conservative friends on Twitter, Facebook and as true Canadians we use partisan politics to engage in a dialogue to make Canada and the world a better place ....

Paul Calandra is Another Conservative Abusing Tax Dollars

The abuse of the franking system by the Conservatives has reached almost epidemic proportions. What is known as 'ten percenters' are supposed to be used to keep constituents informed, but instead are being misused to launch partisan attack ads, that are being billed to taxpayers.

At Least Mr. Calandra sent his to his own riding, but many MPs are now using them to distribute attack ads to ridings of the opposition, so that simply being a candidate gives you 'free' use of tax dollars. Free to them, but not to us.

I recently complained because despite the fact that I live in Kingston, a Liberal riding; I recently received an attack ad against Michael Ignatieff, that was sent to me from Burlington MP Mike Wallace (Apparently he also distributed 29,000 of these things to help Lisa Raitt before she got elected).

Our local 'also ran', Brian Abrams, apparently has no qualms about stealing tax dollars before the election, so what hope do we have of his being honest, if he's elected? Slim to none.

However, I'm not the only one annoyed with this abuse, so I'm collecting stories from across the country, and exposing the guilty parties. Following is a letter sent to the editor, by one voter frustrated with this tax funded junk mail.

Your Community

On returning from a brief holiday, it was no surprise to find one of the pieces of accumulated mail was from our MP, Paul Calandra, last week. This latest one was an attack on Michael Ignatieff. I have been receiving these regular mailings from Mr. Calandra approximately every two weeks for the last several months.

At one point, I received two in one week. I assume everyone else in our riding receives them as well. Generally, the theme is, "Who is on the right track for Canada? I have responded to each one, making comments or asking a question when there was room to do so, always giving my name and address, e-mail address and phone number.

As yet, I have never received a reply, and am left wondering if anybody reads them and if any real purpose is being served. Obviously Mr. Calandra is making use of the free mail service, which we provide for our MPs. In his case, it seems to me that use is being abused. As a Taxpayer I'd like to see it stop.

R. Blake Tufford
Whitchurch-Stouffville

IS THIS REALLY CONSERVATIVE? IS THIS REALLY YOUR CANADA?