Stick by your plan Mr. Dion

Do not sit on your hands and abstain from voting against the governments confidence motion. The neo-tories do not have the default preferred stance on the Afghan Mission. Neither does the NDP. The population will not support an open ended war nor would they support sheer cowardice. The people of Canada wants a realistic mission that works and accomplishes the goal. Your stance Mr. Dion seems to fit what the population wants. Stick with it even if it brings the government down. The election will not focus only on the mission. There are many other issues such as the economy, the environment, and the unending list of Harpers broken promises and surprise social conservative ones. Not too mention he's made government more unaccountable and even less transparent in direct opposition to what he promised and campaigned on.

Let the writ drop and lets win the next election. We want a Canada thats richer, cleaner and fairer not the broken mess and division we see today, nor the lies on climate change repeated by this government and its cohorts, or the attacks on seniors incomes and tax cuts for the rich.

Mr Harper thinks leadership is being an asshole but we can show him its bringing great policies, consensus building and co-operation that makes a leader. All things he has failed on, especially with the lost opportunity to bridge partisan divides and work together to hammer out a future for the Afghanistan Mission. Instead he builds his firewall, keeps with his unwanted open ended war and then makes it a confidence vote. All this for a view that barely 1/3 of Canadians feel is appropriate. He's like a child sulking in the corner. Some leader.

Please do take your ball and go home. Recommend this Post

Conservative race car ad plays to key supporters

Thought this was interesting.

OTTAWA (CP) - A new poll suggests Conservatives are reaching out to their cornerstone supporters by placing a party ad on a car in the Canadian NASCAR racing circuit

The survey by Decima Research suggests that 24 per cent of Canadians like or love NASCAR, while 62 per cent aren't interested in the sport and 13 per cent dislike or hate it.

Pollster Bruce Anderson says the NASCAR fans tend to be men, with support strongest in rural areas.

But he adds that his data show that Liberal supporters are actually as likely as Conservatives to be NASCAR supporters, suggesting there's potential to lure votes.

Anderson says a downside might be that non-NASCAR fans could conclude the party isn't interested in their votes.

The poll, conducted in the week after the Tories announced the deal with Whitlock Motor Sports, interviewed 1,000 people and is considered accurate to within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Seems the Conservatives have been trying to convert the converted with the latest "look at me" attempt. Though some liberals watch Nascar, the conservatives risk alienating anyone who doesn't and they tend not to vote conservative anyways.

So all that was accomplished was a huge wastage of supporters donations, and Greenhouse Gas emissions with the Conservatives logo all over it.

Great job guys.

Maybe next time you could advertise on the side of an oil tanker. You could go all out pro-oil! Think of all the people who vote for you already getting excited to vote for you again!

Oil Spill? No Problem. Ignore it, no one cares! You only pretend to be green anyway! Recommend this Post

A no fly list? Really?

If someone is not safe to fly and may be potentially a terrorist why are they even able to go to the airport in the first place? Shouldn't they have already been arrested by now?

Really. This makes no sense. Ridiculous.

Or is the conservative approach to terrorism is to wait until they fly?

Sounds to me they are importing ideas (GWB) on the fly just to look like they are doing something. Recommend this Post

Where's Tax Freedom Day?

Last year Tax freedom Day(as determined by the Fraser Institute) was on June 19, 2006. Today is June 18, 2007, so where's the early relief from taxes Mr. Harper?

All the supposed "tax cuts" and such for families I was expecting tax freedom day to be today, earlier than last years.

Strange? Not really, I had my taxes go up.

Maybe tomorrow we'll see they haven't provided any more relief since the liberals did in their last year of government.

Oh yeah, the conservatives put that back up didn't they.

Maybe it will be later this year, on June 20. Wouldn't that be a shocker (not to most though).

Maybe the Fraser Institute will keep quiet this year to help their "boys" out. Recommend this Post

The Man Who Sold the World

Thought this was appropriate following Harper's lowest common factor negotiation skills.




Not a fan of Bowie? Here's Nirvana's take.

Recommend this Post

Harper Doesn't care about Canadian Strippers

Steve thinks that foreign strippers are being exploited so he has decided to stop them from entering the country even though only a dozen or so came in last year.

The question that needs to be asked is why does he want to protect only foreign strippers?

Domestic strippers are open to the same exploitation but Stevie doesn't care about Canadians apparently.

Instead of banning strippers, why not work on the exploitation issue for all strippers?

Unless this is less about strippers and more about social conservatism. There is a shortage here and without strippers, strip clubs have no entertainment.

Now why would so-cons want strip clubs shut down?

Maybe so husbands will spend more time at home making babies.

From my experience, every born again I came across had to be born again because of the wreck of a life they led up to that point; alcoholism, infidelity, drugs, hookers, spousal abuse, theft, etc. Many had to be born again again.

Rather than deal with the personal issues these individuals have and take responsibility for it, they blame society and go take another dunk in the river.

Put your problems in god's hands and distance yourself from any responsibility.

Not very mature or good for oneself. Recommend this Post

Tories Try to block Afghan Detainee Probe & Fail!

Today the Conservatives spent 5 hours trying to prevent a probe into the Afghan detainee mess but lost their guts when members of the media showed up.

It was amusing to see government members "roll over" within moments of the news media arriving, said other opposition members.

I can imagine, its very titillating to just hear of it. Maybe we should have media present at all times to keep this CPC government on the straight and narrow during their perpetual election campaign which seems to have slowed down with their nose dive in the polls.

As I mentioned they failed to block the probe and it will be going ahead with a the report due possibly in the fall. Lets hope they get it done sooner. I am sure the CPC will suffer considerably from this as it is pretty obvious to Canadians that Canada's New Government is starting to take on that old stench of corruption.

Lets find out what our corrupt government has been hiding. Recommend this Post

Harper Badmouthing our Police

Crime stats show that our honourable men/women in uniform have been doing one heck of a job, yet Mr. Harper continues to bad mouth the record of good work by our police forces.

Mr. Harper needs to take a statistics course as he keeps saying the police have not done their work and that crime is at a all time high. The opposite is actually true. Murder and homicides have decreased every year since the 1970's. Overall crime has decreased dramatically. The only only exception is gang related crime which has increased but hardly warrants all the badmouthing.

What are you talking about Steve? Recommend this Post

Dion will reinstate Court Challenges Program and Double Funding!

Now this is the kind of news I like to hear on the 25th anniversary of the Charter.

The charter is the very important to individuals like me. It made me equal to everyone and enshrined that right.

Without it I wouldn't be living the way I do and would have to had to pretend to be someone else and resort secret relationships in back alleys somewhere. I also would not have been able to marry my husband as I wouldn't have any rights anyway.

The Court Challenges Program is central to rights as it enables people to challenge the government even if you cannot afford to. Whose rights should depend on your own personal bank account? That's why the already old "new government" cut the program. They know no one can challenge the courts if they cannot pay the costs, so this is a way of stemming off any further rights and challenges to the government.

Given that the charter is such an important document, I wonder what the conservatives are doing to commemorate this grand occasion for all Canadians?

I would have thought some of them at least appreciated their religious rights. Recommend this Post

Identity Theft - Another reason Not to vote conservative

It was bad enough they can't take care of their own party information but now they lost constituents personal information. Recommend this Post

Flaherty's Income Trust Giveaway

What a genius we have as a finance minister.

In order to stop tax bleeding due to income trusts he decided to levy a huge tax which he claimed fixed the tax leakage. Instead what we have now are foreign investors buying them up where they will now be taxed in ANOTHER country. So we now get no tax from them. So far Flaherty's genius has resulted in 11 Income trust buyouts to date resulting in a 73.2 million tax loss to federal coffers.

What was his intent again? To make them fair or to get rid of them altogether?

This is what you get when you have a party in power that has no clue on how to run a country outside of an election campaign.

Great job Flaherty, a few more months you'll run Canada in to the ground the same way you did Ontario.

Promise made, Promise Broken. There is no greater fraud than a promise not kept. Recommend this Post

Con MPs knew about the RCMP Pension Fund problems months ago

So Harper & Co want to blame the Liberals for the RCMP pension fund scandal. Well, I found this article very very interesting and contrary to their recent assertions. Dare I say the Conservatives lied, again.

" It was all an act. The shock and horror displayed by MPs after whistle-blowers implicated RCMP brass in an alleged pension fund scandal last week was indignation faked for the cameras.

Unless they were wilfully ignorant, the MPs knew everything months ago. All of them.

And if you’re looking for the most bizarre acts of obstruction and interference, look no further than Conservative MPs, possibly acting under orders from above, who voted as a block to sweep the accusations under the rug.

It’s incredible and inexplicable why a government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, which wraps itself in the uniform of aggressive law and order, would vote repeatedly to deny RCMP officers access to the spotlight when they were willing to risk their careers telling the disquieting truth.

But all committee members were hand-delivered the evidence by RCMP whistle-blowers last fall, carefully indexed and the most damning evidence red-flagged, and even after they were given a preview of their testimony, MPs still stonewalled the push to bring the RCMP scandal out of the shadows."

I know I am pissed, any one else?

These guys have put out more than an ample amount of rope to hang themselves with.

Where's the outrage?

This has to be the most unaccountable, non-transparent government ever to pollute Canadian politics. Recommend this Post

Mary Walsh's Take on a CPC Majority

As was seen and heard at the East Coast Music Awards, Mary Walsh is not fan of Harper and Co., though she does support the Progressive Conservatives from time to time.

I came across these latest comments by Ms. Walsh regarding a Harper majority.

Comments were made during an interview about her new film "Young Triffie" from the play "Young Triffie's Been Made Away With".

Walsh says she fears what might happen if Harper wins a majority government in the next federal election.

"I am not saying that it's going to be a disaster, but it's not going to be like Brian Mulroney," she says. "People are saying we've had Conservatives before, and yes, it's true, but we've never had Reform before, we've never had right-wing evangelical Christian people. We've never had real ideologues; we've had PCs, guys who were the president of the Bank of Nova Scotia."

And Harper is doing what he can to keep those caucus members quiet while he has a minority government, Walsh says.

"He's beginning to look like 33 pounds of condemned veal, isn't he?" Walsh says as Ewanuick bursts into laughter beside her. "I think that his arse getting that big is good so that he can sit on all his members so they're not allowed to speak."

That last paragraph is why I love Ms. Walsh! Plus, she nailed exactly the problem with the CPC.

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If you missed the East Coast Music Awards, here you go!



Trailer for her latest film, "Young Triffie"



www.youngtriffie.ca Recommend this Post

Clear reason why our Government cannot be trusted with defence and foreign policy

Canadians Stand With You
Wall Street Journal | 3/28/03 | Stephen Harper, Stockwell Day

Today, the world is at war. A coalition of countries under the leadership of the U.K. and the U.S. is leading a military intervention to disarm Saddam Hussein. Yet Prime Minister Jean Chretien has left Canada outside this multilateral coalition of nations.

This is a serious mistake. For the first time in history, the Canadian government has not stood beside its key British and American allies in their time of need. The Canadian Alliance -- the official opposition in parliament -- supports the American and British position because we share their concerns, their worries about the future if Iraq is left unattended to, and their fundamental vision of civilization and human values. Disarming Iraq is necessary for the long-term security of the world, and for the collective interests of our key historic allies and therefore manifestly in the national interest of Canada. Make no mistake, as our allies work to end the reign of Saddam and the brutality and aggression that are the foundations of his regime, Canada's largest opposition party, the Canadian Alliance will not be neutral. In our hearts and minds, we will be with our allies and friends. And Canadians will be overwhelmingly with us.

But we will not be with the Canadian government.

Modern Canada was forged in large part by war -- not because it was easy but because it was right. In the great wars of the last century -- against authoritarianism, fascism, and communism -- Canada did not merely stand with the Americans, more often than not we led the way. We did so for freedom, for democracy, for civilization itself. These values continue to be embodied in our allies and their leaders, and scorned by the forces of evil, including Saddam Hussein and the perpetrators of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. That is why we will stand -- and I believe most Canadians will stand with us -- for these higher values which shaped our past, and which we will need in an uncertain future.

Messrs. Harper and Day are the leader and shadow foreign minister, respectively, of the Canadian Alliance.

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They missed out on that warmongering episode but with Iran just on the horizon, I think Canadians should be wary about giving this government a majority. There is also the fact that nothing can stop a majority government from joining a war, and Harper & Co still believe in what the US is doing in Iraq.

Well there are other reasons also, such as Day's possibe law breaking, Harpers penchant for appointments, stacking committees, broken promises, etc., etc., etc.. Recommend this Post

Is This What Canada Stands For Now?

Text from Ad (click image to view larger)

Over three years ago, The Honourable Stephen Harper, then leader of the Opposition, made a promise to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

He promised: "We will remove non-renewable natural resource revenues from the equalization formula".

He also sent the people of Newfoundland and Labrador a pamphlet in the mail.

He said, "There is no greater fraud than a promise not kept." he said, "No small print. No excuses, No caps."

He said it as boldly as you see it here. That's what he said. That was his promise.

On the 19th of March 2007, in his second budget, The Right Honourable Stephen harper, Prime Minister, broke that promise.

It was a promise that he made in the pamphlet. He stood on two election platforms and said it to our faces. He wrote it in letters over and over again. It was a simple, unequivocal promise.

And he broke it.

"There is no greater fraud than a promise not kept"
-Gaelic Proverb

Which leaves us with a simple, unequivocal question.

Where does that leave us? Not just us, the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, but us - we - the people of Canada?

Because if we can't accept at face value the promise of our prime Minister, then who can?

Can the people of the Atlantic provinces? Or Saskatchewan? Or, yes, even the peoples of British Columbia and Alberta? Because all of you have had promises made to you of one sort or another and all of you should now be asking what those promises are worth.

A promise made should be a promise kept. And as Mr. Harper pointed out, there is no greater fraud than a promise not kept.

And when our Prime Minister won't keep a promise as simple as the one he made to us, it's not just the people of Newfoundland and Labrador that lose.

We all Lose.

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Thought it would be interesting if everyone saw this who does not buy newspapers. Recommend this Post

O'Connor apologizes...partially

Minister of Defence Gordon O'Connor, former military lobbyist has apologized for lying/misleading the house with regard to his assertion that the Red Cross would report to Canada about allegations of abuse of detainees handed over to the Afghan authorities by the Canadian Forces. Good for him. Would have been better had he understood what is going on in Afghanistan in reality, seeing he is the Minister of defence.

He still hasn't explained or apologized for asserting that Canada is in Afghanistan for retribution of 9/11. Still waiting on that one. Recommend this Post

Sleveen Institute to Baird: Your plan is a cash grab from taxpayers

And I am not impressed.

Mr Baird has said that Dions carbon budget is a cash grab Notice just saying cash grab and not whose cash he is referring to. Apparently Baird thinks its okay to blow our cash but hands off of industry's.

The liberal plan requires that POLLUTER PAY whereas the conservative plan is to make TAXPAYERS PAY money to industries that are posting multiple billion dollar profits.

Why should my tax dollars go to an industry in which I am not employed, own no stocks in, and goes against all my principles? I think more people should be asking why its okay for Canada's "New Government" to hand over cash to an industry posting profits that many countries have never had in their coffers?

If I were to go and but a pair of jeans, should I be expected to send a cheque to the clothing company to subsidize the cost of cleaning up the left over denim? Of course not, its part of the price of doing business. Then why is it ok for big oil to increase cancer levels, destroy the landscape and pump an obscene amount of pollution into our air and then expect money from our pockets to clean up the mess left by their bad business model? There is absolutely no reason why we should. Which is why people should not support the CPC in the next election.

I find it hilarious that Mr. Baird expects to be taken seriously on the environment. This is the same man that is in cahoots with climate change deniers. His only way of dealing with the issue of the environment is to reissue liberal programs because if you don't believe in climate change, how can you expect to address it? Only one way, use programs from people who do understand it.

This situation is confusing. Since when did the CPC think it was ok to waste taxpayers dollars? I always though they were against this especially with their feigned outrage as of late with anything to do with spending of it. The conservative party of low tax and small government is gone. The conservatives are now blowing our cash on everything they can to buy our votes and promote "an image" of being stewarts of thge environment and and the government itself is as large if not larger than ever.

If you care about your money being wasted on companies who can more than afford to pay for their own mess 5 times over then squarely plant your foot in the ass of your CPC MP/candidate in the next election. Recommend this Post

Baird's lobbyist lawyer also represents Harper and Poilievre

And on top of that he was representing Harper while registered to lobby the PMO. Now the lawyer, Manny Montenegrino, is lobbying the PMO and representing the PM, Baird, and Poilievre due to his penchant to mouth of lies about the Liberal Party (he claimed there are extremists in the Liberal party).

What kind of sordid mess is this? How many conflicts of interest are there in this situation? I dunno, maybe something like if you screw over my chef I will do something on your two issues dealing with sport fishing. Maybe if you clear Poilievre's name there is something in it for you? As well, from yesterday, Baird's lawyer, the same Manny Montenegrino, is lobbying the environment department, the very department his client is the minister of.

Isn't this what the accountability act was supposed to stop? The cozy relationship enjoyed by lobbyists and the PMO was the reason cited by Harper with regard to criticisms of the former Liberal government for the creation of the Accountabilty act. The very act they are currently acting in spirit of even before it passes.

Instead we have an orgy occurring where everyone gets a go with a lawyer named Manny Montenegrino. This government has achieved the same level of dubiousness they associated with the liberals in just 1 year that took the liberals 13 years to get. Who in their right mind wants more of this? Can you imagine the goings on if Harper got his majority? Recommend this Post

Baird's Lawyer Now Registered As A Lobbyist.

In Opposition, the Conservatives railed against what they considered to be a way too cozy relationship between lobbyists and the Liberal government.

They made the Federal Accountability Act and its changes to lobbying rules the centrepiece legislation of their first year in office.

So why did John Baird's lawyer (retained last month over problems as a provincial PC MPP) register as a lobbyist just four days after sending a letter on Mr. Baird's behalf?

I won't comment on the environmental degradation experienced from the Harris years that saw the environmental works of a province (Ontario) that had once led the country in matters of environmental quality hit rock bottom due to partisan initiatives and deregulatory fervour. Oh well, looks as though I did anyhow.

Four days after the letter was sent, on Feb. 9, Mr. Montenegrino registered as a lobbyist for the Canadian Sportfishing Industry Association, listing Environment as one of the government institutions covered by the registration. His issues were listed as two private members bills.

Where's the accountability? I wonder who does our "new" governments advertising and is it the same ones who produced those attack ads? Strange We have to ask ourselves these things, seeing we have an accountability act.

Act, of course, being the key word. Act in this case meaning pretending to have certain qualities or state of mind.

They could have at least pretended long enough to get their majority but pigs are pigs and boy do they get hungry and the trough is so full. Recommend this Post

GHG emissions to rise 248% over 2000 levels under Conservatives

So the GHG levels increased 27% under the liberals over 1990 levels. The CPC government so far as constantly derided the Liberals for failing to reduce GHG levels. So what is this all about?

How is a 248% GHG increase over 2000 levels more acceptable? And this is with intensity based targets.

Seems to me people in glass houses shouldn't throw rocks, someone might just throw a throw a mountain back at them.

This is not leadership. Stephen Harper is not a leader. Not only won't he "get it done" but there isn't even an attempt to. None whatsoever. I thought you set a priority Steve. Finding it hard to set priorities? Or is it after the photo op that you start to break them? Recommend this Post