Stephen Harper and a House Divided

When the Reform Party had their great electoral success in 1993, their leader Preston Manning was ready. He knew what he had to do.

Stephen Harper explains:

The Progressive Conservative party is very much comparable to the Whigs of the 1850s and 1860s. What is happening to them is very similar to the Whigs. A moderate conservative party, increasingly under stress because of the secession [Bloc] movement, on the one hand, and the reaction to that movement from harder line English Canadians on the other hand.

... But I don't use this comparison of the pre-Civil War lightly. Preston Manning, the leader of the Reform party has spent a lot of time reading about pre-Civil War politics. He compares the Reform Party himself to the Republican party of that period. He is very well-read on Abraham Lincoln and a keen follower and admirer of Lincoln. The Reform party is much closer to what you would call conservative Republican ... The Reform party is very much a modern manifestation of the Republican movement in Western Canada; the U.S. Republicans started in the western United States. The Reform Party is very resistant to the agenda and the demands of the secessionists, and on a very deep philosophical level. (1)

Manning had read every word ever written about Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican President of the United States, and just as old Abe had to deal with the secessionists, so too did Manning. He donned his top hat, grabbed his cane, and with his trusty lieutenant Stephen Harper by his side, he marched up Parliament Hill.

Those secessionists wouldn't stand a chance and if it meant Civil War, so be it.

Preston Manning is not averse to raising the spectre of violence when he discusses the Quebec issue. He does not raise the possi­bility of violence often, but when he does, he does not elaborate on what he means — another use of deliberate ambiguity. He has, however, planted the seed, evoking the image of violence often enough to establish it in the public mind.

... "Such terms will be judged satisfactory if they are fair and advantageous to Canada [and] if the new relationship can be established and maintained without violence ... " No one in Canada was anticipating violence over Quebec at this time, and there was little evidence that the Meech Lake impasse was about to dominate the politics of the country. Preston Man­ning was already positioning himself as the man who would, in his own words, "call Quebec's bluff." (2)

Some of the Reformers were even demanding that the Bloc members sign oaths of allegiance. They weren't fooling around. But alas Manning never got to deliver his Ottawasberg address. Most Canadians thought he was nuts.

Changing of the Guard: Next up Stockwell Day

With Manning not getting the job done, there was a new commander of the troops, now calling themselves the Alliance Party, with Stockwell Day leading the charge. Conrad Black had hand picked him as a charismatic saviour of Canada who would unite the Right-Wing flank and do battle against the evil left and everyone else who got in their way.

Before long Black was traipsing him around to $1,000.00 a plate fund raisers and allowing Ezra Levant to host parties at his house.

But what Black may not have known was that Stockwell Day had a past, and when that past was brought to light, it looked like sure defeat. But Stocky really wanted to be prime minister, so he came up with a new battle plan. He would fraternize with the enemy. If he could form a coalition with the secessionists together they could take down the Liberals.

But then the New York Times got wind of this plan and ran with the story: Rightist Shocks Canadians By Flirting With Separatists. Boy was Conrad Black ever ticked!

''The Canadian Alliance leader needs to stop playing footsie with Quebec separatist leaders right now,'' thundered the The National Post, which has more commonly been a cheerleader for Mr. Day.

In an interview on Tuesday, Conrad Black, chairman of The National Post, said the strategy would not work. ''It makes it too easy for the Liberals to represent him as a separatist fellow traveler, ambiguous about the future of the country.''

Jason Kenney was Stocky's campaign manager and once he crawled out from under the bed, he had to come up with another plan. Not that the original one had a chance. The Bloc wanted no part of them.

"Day repeatedly journeyed to Quebec ... During August and September, Day stepped up these efforts, going even further to suggest the Alliance party welcome Quebec separatists and might even consider forming a national coalition government with the Bloc Quebecois .... But Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe said he wanted nothing to do with Day whose values (re: gay rights, abortion, youth justice) Duceppe described as "inspired by the United States..." (3)

When the story came to light in 2008, Stockwell Day denied it, suggesting that his DNA would not allow him to enter into a coalition with separatists. Another little white one because Stock's father was a member of the Western Canada Concept party, a group who wanted the Western provinces to separate from Canada. Maybe Stock just forgot.

He didn't stand a chance anyway. Most Canadians thought he was nuts.

Next Up Stephen Harper

So far Canada's Republican Party (aka: Reform, Alliance, Conservative Party of Canada) was not doing so well with the secessionists. Not for lack of trying. When the same-sex marriage bill was passed the new commander Harper cried foul, claiming that it wasn't legitimate because it was supported by separatists.

Where do they keep getting these guys, we asked?

But in 2004 Stephen Harper now had his chance to be Prime Minster, but he lost the darned election. Simply because most Canadians thought he was nuts.

Where Did I put those secessionists?

Poor Stephen Harper was devastated. But while at home licking his wounds he came up with a plan. So he called together Gilles Duceppe of the Bloc and Jack Layton of the NDP, and together they fired off a letter to the Governor General. They were going to form a coalition government and Harper was going to be an "unelected prime minister". He could hardly wait.

However, this time it was the left flank that deserted the battleground, as their leader Jack Layton had a change of heart (or came to his senses). And when Harper's coalition attempt came to light, he denied it and went on a rant about "separatists" and "socialists".



So to recap. Preston Manning ready to do battle with secessionists, force a civil war, and become the first Republican prime minister. Stockwell Day prepared to join forces with secessionists to take down the Liberals. Stephen Harper wanted same sex marriage bill defeated so plays secessionist card, but then pulls it back when he wants to play footsie with "separatists" and "socialists".

Whew! But at least after all of that, the Conservatives are finally ready to admit that the Bloc are a legitimate Canadian Party. Or at least I thought so.

Apparently they are now once again squawking, suggesting that the Bloc should not be allowed to see the documents relating to the alleged torture of Afghan Detainees, because they are separatists. AAAAARG!!!!

And they wonder why most Canadians think they're NUTS!!!!

Sources:

1. Full text of Stephen Harper's 1997 speech, Canadian Press, December 14, 2005

2. Preston Manning and the Reform Party. By: Murray Dobbin Goodread Biographies/Formac Publishing 1992 ISBN: 0-88780-161-7, pg. 218-219

3. "Bloc leader denounces Day's ideas", Edmonton Journal, August 14, 2000.

John Baird, Pierre Poilievre and the Ottawa Taxpayer Advocacy Group

The City of Ottawa was recently named the best city to live in Canada:

Ottawa's great economy, low crime rate and steady population growth put the city back on top as the best place to live in Canada, according to rankings released Thursday by MoneySense magazine.

You would think given that, people in Ottawa would be proud and perhaps congratulate their government for a job well done.

I'm sure many do, and have, but not a new group of rabble rousers calling themselves the Ottawa Taxpayer Advocacy Group. They claim to be non-partisan but their leader, Ade Olumide, was a candidate for the Conservatives in 2006, and their battle cry parrots most neo-con groups associated with Stephen Harper "The Silent Majority is Silent No More"

Stephen Harper was always speaking up for the muzzled Canadians. Now he muzzles everyone else, but whatever.

In an interview with the American TV network, Harper said he endorsed the war and said he was speaking "for the silent majority" of Canadians. Only in Quebec, with its "pacifist tradition," are most people opposed to the war, Harper said. "Outside of Quebec, I believe very strongly the silent majority of Canadians is strongly supportive," the Canadian Alliance leader says.

Ironically most of these "silent" groups are pretty noisy, but what is this really about?

I've read their quotes in newspaper articles and perused their website and they are just another cut taxes, reduce the size of government, bust unions and privatize until Canada has nothing left, advocacy group, for the Conservative Party of Canada and Tim Hudak's Neo-cons.

They raised a flap when Ottawa's buses refused to allow their advertisement attacking the bus drivers union, to be driven around the city. If I could get John Baird and Pierre Poilievre to wear T-Shirts with my ads 'I'm with stupid' pointing at each other, I'd gladly pay, but I suppose that wouldn't be fair.

And speaking of the gruesome twosome, they've both spoken at the group's functions. I think they were billed as 'An Evening at Yuk Yuks with The Ottawa Taxpayer Advocacy Group', because I laughed and laughed.

Federal Transport Minister John Baird waded into Ottawa civic politics on Sunday, blasting municipal officials for what he said were a misplaced sense of priorities. Baird, the MP for Ottawa West-Nepean, told an audience from a taxpayer advocacy group Ottawa's city hall has a history of wasting money.

"There are some people who can't make priorities," he told a Sunday audience gathered to hear potential municipal candidates in Ottawa's upcoming election.

Considering that Baird's government is on record as spending the most amount of money since any government before them, and he himself has created such an accounting nightmare in his department that it may be years before it's sorted, I don't really think he should be judging anyone else's spending habits.

MP Pierre Poilievre applauded OTAG as a counter-balance to special interest groups which, he said, apply pressure on governments to spend more money on programs. A special interest group getting praised for dissing special interest groups. He is funny.

I'll bet it would be neat to follow the money here though wouldn't it, because they sure have a bunch of it. Not to worry though they are non-profit ... and of course non-partisan.

Advocacy groups are important and if they were genuinely concerned with the people of Ottawa, they would offer better solutions than simply no tax hikes and reduce their staff by 10%. And if they were really non-partisan they wouldn't have two of the loudest mouths of the neoconservative movement speaking for the "silent majority".

Maybe I'll try to follow the money with these guys, something our media should be doing before quoting them all over the place. Just a thought.

Rhona Ambrose: Just One of the Boys

Well she's back. Miss 'book banning', 'climate change denying' 'American corporation loving', Rhona Ambrose, has now been put in charge of denying women's rights.

Bev Oda removed 'equality' from the Status for Women, with an eraser provided by Stevie. Helena Guergis made me want to get a sex change operation, with no desire to share that ditz's gender, so they bring in the big guns.

Rhona herself. The woman who dismissed Ken Dryden's childcare plan, by suggesting that women didn't want to hear about how to raise their children from "some old white guy".

Quite rich considering that Ambrose grew up wealthy, so has no idea what working women need, and she has no children! (Unless you count Pierre Poilievre and John Baird).

The Religious Right must be tickled pink. They loved her before:

Dryden, as social develop­ment minister, was negotiating his national child care plans with the provinces at the time. Her comment received criti­cal acclaim for chutzpah on at least two significant grounds.

The first was that Ambrose used statistics from a Vanier Institute of the Family survey to argue that most young cou­ples would like to have at least one parent stay at home with the children during their first few years, or at least make their own child care arrangements outside the home, rather than put their children in state-run institutions. She likely knew that a Vanier survey was a good arrow to use in pierc­ing Dryden's armour, because he himself was on the institute's board of directors.

... her argument was patently conser­vative — arguing for the traditional family. It struck a blow against the sometimes conventional wisdom that to be "with it" one had to be a Liberal and antitraditional. Particularly galling to many conservatives is the kind of state-run day­care system that would replace parental influence with state indoctrination as a tool for child development. That idea conjures up the Cold War—era, anticommunist imagery of Marxist-dominated state nurseries that allegedly prevailed in the Soviet Union, maintained so that mothers would be "free" to sweep Moscow sidewalks or clean the public latrines all under threat of exile to Siberia and permanent separation from their progeny.

Of course most couples would like to have one parent at home, but the fact of the matter is, they don't make the kind of salary we pay Rhona, so can't afford to. But wow! Right to Marxism and the Liberals supporting only non-traditional families.

Well now Rhona, who is the biggest cheerleader for Canada becoming a corporate run state, next to Stevie himself; claims that women care more about crime prevention than any silly old notion of equality. Pack a Colt in your bra and make the boys a sandwich. That's her plan.

Don't know about Marxism, but can't help thinking Gestapo in this new Conservative gender war.

The fight has escalated with news of cuts to long-standing feminist organizations in Canada in recent days and a Conservative senator’s friendly advice to aid advocates in Ottawa this week that they should “shut the f--- up” or risk further backlash from the Harper government. The Liberals have now counted more than 20 groups that have endured probably fatal funding cuts from the Harper government, most of them devoted to women’s equality or advocacy.

Clearly Ambrose needs to find a new babysitter for her 'kids', because little Johnny Baird had a tantrum and screamed out "Let Freedom Reign". Can't imagine Martin Luther King condoning anything this government does.

I hate to admit it, but I'm actually missing Helena Guergis. At least with her we never expected much, and she didn't disappoint.

Sources:

1. The Pilgramage of Stephen Harper, By: Lloyd Mackey, ECW Press, 2005, ISBN: 10-1-55022-713-0, Pg. 180

Conservative MP May Wear Red Collar to Cut Down on White Collar Crime

Devinder Shory, shown smiling with his boss, is committed to cutting down on white collar crime. He says so on his website:

On Monday, Canada’s Minister of Justice, Rob Nicholson, and Natural Resources Minister, Christian Paradis, announced legislation to establish mandatory jail time for fraud over $1 million and to help ensure the voices of victims are heard when white-collar criminals are sentenced to jail.

And when Devinder Shory was down on his luck, he began building houses before becoming a lawyer. He says so on his website:

Still unable to have his foreign credentials recognized, Devinder drove cab, started a small video store and began building homes. As the housing market fluctuated, by 1997, Devinder was ready to do whatever it took to return to his passion of law. Alberta was the province that gave the Shory family this opportunity, and after moving to Alberta for education upgrading and equivalency testing, Devinder was called to the bar in 1998. Devinder set up his law practice in Calgary Northeast and began with a focus on general law.

But Divender Shory is tackling white collar crime while still involved in the housing market, from the inside and the Bank of Montreal is not pleased. It says so on the CBC website:

The Bank of Montreal is accusing Calgary Conservative MP Devinder Shory of having ties to what is believed to be Canada's largest mortgage fraud.

The bank has filed a lawsuit against hundreds of Albertans, including Shory. Civil court documents filed in the lawsuit, and obtained exclusively by CBC News, allege Shory, a lawyer, executed legal transactions that misrepresented the true mortgage owner of at least five Calgary properties.

Harper may want to ease up on those crime bills or he will no longer have a caucus.

Sorry Mr. Harper But Women Will NOT SHUT UP!

Poor Stevie is in trouble. His facade of a moderate leader is crumbling as he has had to take a stand on the abortion issue.

If he gives into the demands of Canadian women, he loses the support of the Religious Right, one of the only things keeping him in power.

Without them he is just another loud moth rabble rouser for the National Citizens Coalition, destined for obscurity. A byproduct of an experiment that failed.

What to do, what to do.

"Oh, I know", says Stevie. "I'll get one of my senators, who may be a woman, at least in terms of gender, to just swear at those broads standing at the gates. That'll work".

Well you know what, Stevie boy. It didn't. She can tell us to shut the F... up, but we've tried that.

When you cut funding for women's programs - we shut the F--- up!

When Helena Guergis blamed the hypersexuality of young girls for date rape - we shut the F--- up!

When you removed protection for women from our foreign policy - we shut the F--- up!

When you allowed the anti-women, REAL women of Canada to dictate what our rights would be - we shut the F--- up!

When you tried to scrap the gun registry - we shut the F--- up!

Well you know what? We are not going to shut the F--- up anymore.

I sure hope this wasn't a threat.

OTTAWA – Aid experts alarmed by Canada’s new anti-abortion stand in foreign policy have received some raw political advice from a Conservative senator: “shut the f--- up” or it could get worse.

“There’s a real chill in Ottawa on speaking out,” said Betty Plewes, a development consultant and chairperson of Monday’s meeting, organized around the question of “where is Canada’s leadership in the promotion of gender equality and women’s rights?”

One international aid advocate, Lydia Alpizar Duran, from the Association of Women’s Rights in Development, vowed that Canadian women would have help from other countries if they want to start making noise here. “I don’t remember any women’s rights ever gained by staying silent,” she said.

Touche!

It's Not About the Registry But Our 'Right to Bear Arms'

By now the so-called “gun control” bill will have received Royal assent. Its alleged purpose is to reduce violent crime.

Mr. Rock, indeed the entire cabinet, knows full well that this is nonsense. The countries with the highest levels of armed citizenry, Norway and Switzerland, have the lowest rates of violent crime. The countries with the most stringent prohibition, Jamaica, Sri Lanka and the Soviet Union, have the highest.

The true purpose of this legislation is hidden.

It is not within the authority of Parliament to sanction search without warrant, to rule that the accused must testify or deprive a citizen of the right, indeed the responsibility, to defend home and family using whatever means are necessary.

These rights long preceded this government or even Confederation. The law is ultra vires. Those who obey it put themselves in peril. The Western Canada Concept sounds a lonely alarm.

BYLINE = Stockwell Day, Sr.
Hinton, AB
Western Separatist

That letter was written by Stockwell Day's father for the Western Separatist's July/August 1995 edition. This paper was run by Doug Christie, founder of Western Canada Concept, now the Western Block Party, a group formed with the intent of separating the Western provinces from Canada.

Stock Sr. was a member of that party and a good friend of Doug Christie.

This article isn't about separation though, but about the gun registry, which the Conservatives have been trying to scrap. They claim because it hurts hunters and people living in rural communities, but that's a crock.

I wrote a piece on the gun registry recently, putting out feelers. I approached it not as a women's issue but from Garry Breitkreuz and his pal's confrontation with the police over what they see as their 'right to bear arms'.

Stockwell Day Jr. (whose son Logan just happened to be Breitkreuz's administrative assistant) has already 'secretly offered amnesty and limited the scope of the registry, but these guys will not be happy until every Canadian is packing heat.

They lament that Canada does not have a 'gun culture'.

I love that 'little coalition' nonsense of Harper's though. Would that be anything like his coalition that included the full support of the Bloc? Of course not.

But he seems pretty clear that he will get rid of the registry.

In my article the other day, I mentioned the case of Bruce Montague, who seems to have been made the poster boy for gun rights in Canada. He teaches a course in self defense ... self defense with a gun that is. And his lawyer is Doug Christie, the man I mentioned above, who was a close friend of Stockwell Day's father.

So to recap. Stock Sr. wanted to be able to protect his home with a loaded gun. Stock Jr. has already worked behind the scenes here, here and here.

And his son Logan worked for Garry Breitkreuz, the man who when his wife asks "Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?" answers ... "it's a gun".

We need to fight like hell to keep this registry because it's just the first step to what these guys are promoting: 'An armed populace".

Is that really your Canada?

Top Ten Reasons Why I Want to be a Lobbyist With Harper's Reformers

Duff Conacher from Democracy Watch sent me an excellent link yesterday outlining the many flaws in our system and how easy it is to exploit them. His organization has been trying to keep government clean for years, with the emphasis on trying.

The Helena Guergis/Rahim Jaffer drama that is unfolding is just the icing on the cake for the Reformers though, because the warning signs were always there.

For me the first sign was when Harper brought in the Mike Harris flunkies, John Baird, Jim Flaherty and Tony Clement. (Helena Guergis was an administrative assistant for the Harris government so she knows how the games are played) I remember thinking that maybe we should just give them all our money, and they'd go easy on us.

These guys were behind every shady deal in the book. In fact Mike Harris was forced to resign after being caught in the shade, in an out of the way restaurant, claiming that he just happened to be the neighbourhood.

Sign two was when Harper put John Baird in charge of drafting an Accountability Act and then sending Pierre Poilievre into the arms of Republican Jim Sensenbrenner, the man Rolling Stone Magazine dubbed one of the ten worst congressman:

Sensenbrenner, whose $10 million fortune stems from his great-grandfather's invention of the Kotex sanitary napkin, won $250,000 in the lottery in 1997. He also enjoys the perks of office: No congressman has racked up more frequent-flier miles on junkets sponsored by corporate lobbyists ....

He is also notorious for hiding things in bills, mostly involving the removal of human rights. He was behind the Patriot Act and when Congress refused to extend it because Americans wanted their civil liberties back, he stomped out in a huff. So I guess we know what they were hoping to learn from Jimmy boy.

So let's do a David Letterman top ten reasons why I want to be a lobbyist in the hallowed halls of Harper's government. Or actually the lobbies. Seeing thousands of snapshots of the big guy would freak me out. Far too Big Brotherish.

It used to have some paintings on the wall. Past prime ministers, certainly a formal portrait of the Queen. Landscapes. I know there was the occasional photo of current Prime Ministers, but when I walked in this time, I felt chilled to the bone. Every available wall space had a large colour photo of Stephen Harper. Stephen Harper at Alert. Stephen Harper in fire fighter gear. Stephen Harper at his desk. Stephen Harper meeting the Dalai Lama. Even the photo of the Queen showed her in the company of Stephen Harper. None were great photos. None were more than enlarged snapshots in colour. They didn’t feel like art.

Top Ten Reasons Why I Want to be a Lobbyist for Harper's Reformers

10. They are so easily bought. Host a fundraiser for Lisa Raitt and provide box seats at a Blue Jays game with all the perks for Rick Dykstra and you can write your own cheque.

9. And speaking of writing your own cheque, they cut out the middle man. Just ask Phizer. Instead of having to lobby they just make you an employee.

8. Need a lobbyist but too lazy to hire one? Not problem. Brian Jean can provide you with a member of his staff. Instant lobbyist, just add water .. or cash.

Breaking the rules of his own accountability act, he removes Erin Wall, assistant to Brian Jean, Member of Parliament and Parliamentary Secretary for the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities. (aka John Baird) and sends her to work for Global Public Affairs. Ms Wall is then registered as a lobbyist for the Houston based International Commodity Export Corporation, the largest beneficiary of government subsidies to the [Ridley] terminals. You will notice here that her appointment took place on June 19, 2009; just before the firing of Dan Veniez, and on the same day that ICEC underwent a name change to give it the appearance of a Canadian company.

7. And bored lobbyists can always get a job with the PMO where you can straddle the fence and hope you don't fall off. Just ask Kory Teneycke.

6. Obtaining military contracts is as easy as 1, 2, 3. Harper's first defense minister, Gordon O'Connor went right from being a lobbyist for military contracts to being the person awarding military contracts. But then that whole torture, lying thing got in the way of a perfectly good business. Not to worry though. I'm sure he passed off his Rolodex.

5. For a little bit of infused patriotism with a group called Canadians for Afghanistan, you can be sure those military contracts never end:

The Canadians For Afghanistan website lists its main contact as Josh McJannett, a former Conservative staffer who worked for government whip Jay Hill until September. He had previously worked as an aide to Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer. After leaving the Hill, Mr. McJannett* became a lobbyist with Summa Strategies, an Ottawa government-relations firm that counts some defence contractors, including U.S. aircraft manufacturer Boeing, among its clients. Canadians for Afghanistan was formed a few months later.

4. You get to arrange YouTube "live" videos of Stephen Harper with a little Google-a-go-go

Meaghan Rusnell: Legislative assistant to MP Rick Dykstra .. left the Hill in 2008 and began lobbying with Playbook Communications, a Toronto-based firm with Tory ties. She listed as clients Google Inc. and the Economic Club of Canada

3. If you're a poor corporation down on your luck at a time when Canadians are out of work and down on theirs, you can be sure that your 25 million dollar revenue is safe with these guys:

What we do know, when we see it, is big time corporate subsidy seeking, backroom politics, scheming lobbyists and cabinet ministers throwing their weight around to satisfy the big time corporate interests. In this case, the corporate interests include the B. C. and Alberta coal industries, whose coal production flows through Ridley Terminals. The political players include two Conservative cabinet ministers, House Leader Jay Hill and Transport Minister Rob Merrifield.

2. Lobbying for a private school was never easier with Diamond Jim Flaherty. If Sensenbrenner taught these guys anything it was how to hide stuff in bills.

1. And my number one reason for wanting to be a lobbyist for Harper's Reformers. You get to play revolving door until you're dizzy. It's better than Prozac. But if you need a little Prozac, have I got a lobbyist for you.

* Josh McJannet has indicated to me that he is no longer with Canadians for Afghanistan.