I Can't Imagine Why Harper's Base is Condoning This

When the Reform Party was created more than two decades ago, it was out of a deemed necessity that there should be a party in Canada who would do things differently. They were frustrated with Brian Mulroney and his culture of entitlement.

And as Brian Mulroney held high court in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel’s Café de Paris*, handing out contracts and positions to cronies, they cried foul. The deficit rose, the debts grew and their interests were ignored.

So they were going to create a party that would be fiscally responsible, principled and populist. Where their needs would come first. Where government expenses would be trimmed and cronyism made a thing of the past.

And what did they get for their loyalty?

A party that outspends any other. That takes patronage and cronyism to extremes, while ignoring the needs of the populace. That has taken government waste to unheard of levels and has become so corrupt that it's mind boggling.

The battle cry is no longer 'The West Wants In', but 'Canadians want in'. 'Taxpayers Want in'.

As we learn that the Canada Action Plan was nothing more than a giant ad campaign and never ending photo-ops, you need to ask yourself: "Is this what I voted for?"

Some small community groups say the Conservative government that demanded Economic Action Plan signs be installed at their project sites within a week of delivery is now months behind in reimbursement of project expenses. Adding insult to injury is a federal funding contract that promises to reimburse groups for signs, plaques, bunting and a ribbon-cutting ceremony with politicians - but won't pay interest on money borrowed to keep the stimulus projects underway.

The money went for signs first, community second, Canadians last. Our money.

The contract - which requires recipient groups to submit photos of their Economic Action Plan signs - says eligible expenses for signage include maximum costs of $2,250 for a small sign and $4,250 for a large sign. Another $2,500 can be charged for a "permanent plaque." The club can expense rental fees on chairs, flagpoles, a public-address system and a stage, and can charge Ottawa for light refreshments and snacks (no booze), printing and mailing of invitations, and media kits.

Is this principled? Signs, bunting and plaques? If this was the old Reform guys or even the Progressive Conservatives before Mulroney, there would have been howls of protest.

So where is the indignation? Where are the protests? How is this defensible?

And what about the orgy of spending for the G-20?

The enormous tax increases on average Canadians, while reducing taxes for the wealthy? This doesn't bother you? How is that possible?

Or bailing out the banks? Would you have voted for that?

Or the horrible treatment of our veterans?

I can't imagine any original Reform Party member condoning this. I already know that the majority of Progressive Conservatives do not.

Just once I would like to hear someone from your camp give an honest opinion. Because this is not a principled, fiscally responsible government and I doubt it what's you had in mind when you signed up.

Stephen Harper won't listen to us, but he might listen to you. Or are you afraid to ask?

*On the Take: Crime, Corruption and Greed in the Mulroney Years, By Stevie Cameron, Macfarlane Walter & Ross, 1994, ISBN: 0-921912-73-0

New Book Lambasts Stephen Harper and His Foreign Policy

A new book by Canada's most recent ambassador to the UN Security Council, that is highly critical of the Harper government, will be out just prior to the vote on that seals our fate.

"Harper's commitment to Canada's campaign for a two-year seat on the Security Council, a seat that Canada has won once a decade since the late 1940s, has seemed to be more motivated by a fear of being the first government to fail to do so . . . than by either the benefits a victory would bring to Canadian foreign policy or by the opportunity it would provide for making a mark on the world," writes [Paul] Heinbecker in his forthcoming book, Getting Back in the Game, due out Oct. 5.

Heinbecker was Canada's UN ambassador during the county's last turn on the Security Council in 2000, part of a distinguished career that also included being chief foreign policy adviser to former prime minister Brian Mulroney. Heinbecker is one of Canada's leading foreign policy commentators and his book offers a scathing assessment of the Harper government's international performance since coming to power in 2006.

Included are:

Canada's participation in UN peacekeeping missions during Harper's tenure has remained at a "low ebb" with country ranked 53rd as of January, says Heinbecker.
Harper has also discouraged Canadian diplomats from taking part in UN human rights negotiations and from using terms such as "gender equality" and "international humanitarian law."

Even though these terms come from treaties Canada has ratified, Heinbecker says Harper banned them "because the words offended the sensibilities of the party's social conservative base."

Tilting Canada towards Israel in the Middle East, while ignoring the suffering of the Palestinians is "the sharpest policy change" that Harper has made, says Heinbecker.

"The prime minister took us into uncharted territory when he suggested the existence of a Canadian alliance with Israel," he writes, referring to Harper's declaration in May that "those who threaten Israel also threaten Canada."

Overall, Heinbecker says Harper's foreign policy has featured "ample rhetoric and posturing, but the results have been scarce."

Heinbecker argues that it is not too late for the prime minister to raise Canada's international profile. "Unless he makes some significant adjustments in the meantime, when Prime Minister Harper leaves office, Canada will still be on the international sidelines, largely alone."

I guess we can expect attacks on Paul Heinbecker soon.

The Lavish Spending at the G-20 is Indefensible

Harper's goons are out in full force, trying to justify the lavish spending during the G-20 weekend from hell.

I'm sorry, but I've read the list and this kind of spending is indefensible.

- You do not need to spend $ 85,000.00 at the mini bar unless there's been an earthquake and that is the only available food source.

- You do not need to spend $26,661 for mosquito traps unless you are camping in the jungle.

- You do not need to spend $10 million on hotels for the RCMP because there was absolutely no need to have that many RCMP in Toronto.

- You do not need to spend $2 million for boxed lunches. Where in the hell were they boxed? (For those prices I'd want them flown in from Paris.)

- You do not need to spend $4.4 million to put up the security fence that went much further than it needed to, turning Toronto into an armed camp. The only thing missing was the barbed wire.

- You do not need to spend $333,831 for sunscreen, bug spray and hand sanitizer, unless you are travelling down the Amazon

- You do not need to spend $735,000 leasing furniture. That's nuts!!!

- You do not need to spend $439,186 on portable toilets unless the cops have the trots.

And how do you explain any of this?

$1.7 million for two food catering contracts
$22,403 on snacks from Pickle Barrel
$23,100 on thermal night-vision video cameras
$98,225 on sirens
$31,390 on flagpoles
$246,000 on a "living wall," such a row of bushes
$16,014 on plastic handcuffs
$13,061 on police notebooks
$107,748 on Nikon cameras
$55,432 on video cameras
$1,399 on memory sticks
$191,411 on antennas
$702,597 on two-way radio rentals
$232,036 on phone rentals
$207,900 on solar lighting
$138,446 on a digital-pen system

It's waste, pure and simple. A culture of entitlement. "Elite" politicians who can afford to be extravagant when it's not their money they're wasting.

This is indefensible.

Canada's Culture War is Not What You Think

Valuing Differences While Living as Equals

As Canadians, we have managed to create a single political community of equal citizens out of Aboriginal peoples, francophones, anglophones, and all the people like me whose families came here as emigrants from other countries. Out of those different languages, traditions, and cultures, we have forged a political system that holds us together and keeps us talking through our differences peacefully. We have also succeeded in maintaining a distinctive culture and a tradition of proud independence next door to the most powerful state in the world. Michael Ignatieff (1)

Q: "Is there a Canadian culture?" A: "Yes, in a very loose sense. It consists of regional cultures within Canada, regional cultures that cross borders with the US. We're part of a worldwide Anglo-American culture." - Stephen Harper (2)

It has been suggested that Canada is in the middle of a culture war. Stephen Harper is supposed to represent the working class, hockey loving, Tim Horton's coffee sipping crowd, while Michael Ignatieff is the voice of academia, Starbucks and the Canadian "elite".

When Parliament opened John Baird set the tone, with this nonsense. According to James Travers:

John Baird, Stephen Harper’s very right-hand man, lit a firestorm as MPs returned from their long summer holiday. Pre-loading for the gun registry vote Conservatives lost Wednesday, Baird savaged Toronto elites, notably Michael Ignatieff and Jack Layton, for imposing their neon big city will on salt-of-the-earth small town Canadians. Poking the privileged is good politics. It’s also brazen coming from someone whose perks include a chauffeur-driven car and gold-plated pension. (3)

Stephen Harper did not come from a working class family. His father was an executive at Esso. He uses hockey, because the Republican pollster Frank Lutz told him to: "Images and pictures are important. Tap into national symbols such as hockey. If there is some way to link hockey to what you all do, I would try to do it." (4)

And while Tim Hortons was created in Canada, it is now a multinational corporation:

... in 1995, American company Wendy's International Inc. acquired the Canadian coffee giant, but eventually let go of its shares in an IPO in 2006 and Tim's is now traded publicly on the TSX and NYSE. In recent years, the company has made a big push in the U.S., opening stores across the country, including in former Dunkin' Donuts stores in New York. Recently however, Tim Hortons has sold its stake in Maidstone, the Ontario-based company which makes donuts for every location in Canada, to the Swiss company Aryzta. (5)

So you might say that Stephen Harper represents the affluent, is directed by Republicans and best linked to multinational corporations.

But I'm not going to say that. Because what Stephen Harper is, is a career politician, and everything he says or does is for political leverage. Not what's good for the country.

The Real Cultural Differences

Not content to simply imply that Michael Ignatieff is an "elite", their latest tactic, (image courtesy of Calgary Grit), is that he's a 'Russian Prince'.

Michael Ignatieff is descended from a Russian 'Count', who earned his title, and his family legacy is one of diplomats. The 'Count' married a Russian princess, but they were forced to flee communism, arriving in Canada as immigrants. They chose to farm. And their children did well because they were smart and worked hard. Any privilege of birth was left behind.

And on his mother's side, the family is about as Canadian as you can get.

Putting on airs would be suggesting that you're an average guy, while riding around in a chauffeur driven limousine. Because you are playing us for fools.

When John Baird was in the Ontario Legislature, his office was found to have spent the most money on things likes meals in fancy restaurants. Perks. Putting on airs with money that belonged to "the little guy".

Baird, whose ministry is responsible for Ontario's poor and disabled, along with 11 senior political staff spent an average of $930.95 a month over a 15-month period on food and drink — more than double the $448 basic monthly allowance for a single mother with one child. Details of the minister's office expenses were obtained through Freedom of Information legislation. Many of the larger dinner bills are from trendy restaurants and bars late into the evening hours but omit a specific list of what was consumed. (6)

We need to start tuning this stuff out. Because as Travers points out, no one in the House of Commons has to sing for their supper. They do OK.

But I don't care.

I don't care that Stephen Harper, John Baird or Michael Ignatieff are wealthier than I am. I don't care that they have chauffeurs or villas or eat in classy restaurants.

We don't belong to the same social circles, and I don't care.

And I don't care that Michael Ignatieff is smart. I want my prime minister to be smarter than I am. In fact, I demand it!

But what I do care about, is that they understand what it means to be Canadian.

We are not a "Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term", (7) nor are we "a second-tier socialistic country, boasting ever more loudly about its economy and social services to mask its second-rate status". (8)

We're Canadian, and that's where the culture war begins and ends. It's a battle between "Canadian values" and "American values". Michael Ignatieff gets the first, while Stephen Harper embraces the latter. It has absolutely nothing to do with what kind of coffee we drink, or where we live, or where our ancestors were born.

Myself, I'm a Timmies fan, I live in a medium sized city, was born in a small town in New Brunswick, and my ancestors are French, Acadian, British and Irish.

I am not part of a "worldwide Anglo-American culture". I am part of a "distinctive culture" with "a tradition of proud independence".

I don't want the NRA dictating to me. I don't care what Republican pollsters have to say. I hate the Tea Parties and Glen Beck and will hate Fox News North.

And if that makes me "elite" it's a notion of superiority based on the fact that I am a Canadian!

Sources:

1. The Rights Revolution: CBC Massey Lectures, By Michael Ignatieff, Anansi Books, 2000, ISBN: 978-0-88784-762-2, Pg. xii

2. CBC Interview 1997

3. Hard right swing hits politicians where it hurts, By James Travers, Toronto Star, September 25, 2010

4. Kick the Liberals as they're down, By The Ottawa Citizen, May 7, 2006

5. Companies you think are Canadian, by Kate Robertson, Investopedia.com, September 23, 2010

6. Taxpayers pay Baird's doughnuts & dinner Average monthly bill for Tory minister & staff tops $900, by Richard Brennan, Queen's Park Bureau, Toronto Star, April 11, 2002

7. Conservative leader Stephen Harper, then vice-president of the National Citizens Coalition, in a June 1997 Montreal meeting of the Council for National Policy, a right-wing American think tank

8. It is time to seek a new relationship with Canada, By Stephen Harper, December 12th, 2000

Canada Takes the Lead Again. We Now Have the Worst Trade Deficit in the World. Yeah!!!!

I was excited when I learned that the Canadian taxpayer was the largest lender of sub-prime mortgages in the world, courtesy of Jim Flaherty.

And learning that we would probably be the last of the G-7 to claw our way out of the recession, set my heart to pounding.

But this. This is something to really be proud of.

As countries everywhere leverage government spending into domestic jobs, we pursue trade agreements that would undermine our already-weak domestic-sourcing policies.

Our passivity in the face of others’ pro-activity has taken us from trade feast to famine. A $55-billion trade surplus in 2004 melted away to a $27-billion deficit last year, knocking a whopping 6 percentage points off Canadian GDP. By that standard, we’ve registered by far the worst trade performance of any OECD country. As deteriorating trade undermines domestic growth and employment, Ottawa’s only response is to chase more free trade pacts – whether with Panama (economically irrelevant) or Korea and the European Union (potentially explosive).

Maybe we can have a party.

Toronto Tells Jim Flaherty to Flick Off

Joe Fiorito reminds us of just how much economic damage Jim Flaherty did to Toronto when he was with the Mike Harris government.

And now he is trying to offer them advice???

By far the worst finance minister this country ever had.

Jim Flaherty, the federal minister of finance, said on CBC radio the other day that he was endorsing Rob Ford for mayor because he thinks it is time that Toronto got its financial house in order. I am tempted to tell Jim Flaherty, in capital letters, to keep his big mouth shut and not to meddle in the affairs of this town, where he neither lives, nor works, nor holds municipal office. I will restrain myself. I will merely point out that if Toronto is in financial trouble, it is in large part because of the role Jim Flaherty played as the bloody cleaver in the hands of Butcher Harris.

Not surprising that he's endorsing Rob Ford, another millionaire redneck.

If he wins he's already designed his tourism slogan.

"Come to Toronto. The butt scratching capital of the world."

Although they had to be redone so his "base" could read them"

"Wellcum 2 Trnto ... 'da bum scritchin' captal uff 'da wuld."

Turnabout is Fair Play as Victims of Gun Violence go After Harper's Quebec MPs

I love this story. With Stephen Harper suggesting that he only cares about farmers, so will go after rural opposition MPs who voted to keep the gun registry, others in Quebec are fighting back.

Survivors of the École Polytechnique and Dawson College shootings in Montreal are vowing to unseat Conservative MPs in Quebec who voted to abolish the federal gun registry. A busload of current and former students from the schools went to Ottawa to witness Wednesday's vote on the registry. It was saved by a 153-151 margin. Twelve Quebec MPs voted to scrap the registry. They include all 11 Conservatives from the province and Independent MP André Arthur from the Quebec City-area riding of Portneuf-Jacques-Cartier.

Hayder Khadim, one of the 19 people who were shot and survived when Kimveer Gill opened fire on the Dawson College campus in 2006, watched Wednesday's vote from the House of Commons gallery. Khadim, who is now 21, still has bullets in his neck and head. 'The main goal is a change of government.'— Hayder Khadim, Dawson College shooting victim He said he was relieved to see Bill C-391, a private member's bid to repeal the registry, go down in defeat.

I would like to see this made a national initiative.