Daaveberta my fellow Redmontonianblogger has provided us with the voting numbers from the 2004 Election. So I left this comment on his site:
The Edmonton Strathcona numbers are telling, while some would look at this as vote splitting between the NDP and Liberals, the NDP actually improved their numbers, far beyond what they had gotten in the last two Federal elections in the riding. Now they did have a high profile candidate, which is one reason. The other may have been the Liberals ran a hand picked Martinite, who had been a provincial MLA. Togther the NDP/Liberal numbers show that Rahim Jaffir gets in up the middle. But I see no urge to strategic voting here where it might actually make a difference. Though with a high profile NDP candidate this time, and a no name Liberal the numbers might change in favour of the NDP.
The other two ridings to watch are Edmonton East total opposition numbers could defeat Goldring And they may coalace around the high profile NDP candidate there since the Liberals last time ran a high profile candidate, but this time its no-name brand.
And Beaumont-Mill Woods could go strongly Liberal as they have the only Indo-Canadian candidate running, the Conservatives ran Uppal last time and seriously challenged Kilgour with the South Asian vote, this time the Conservatives are running a no name White Guy....big mistake.....
Yep four ridings to be watched in Redmonton this time around. Place your wagers gentlemen.
Also See Redmonton Not In The Bag for the Conservatives
Friday, December 09, 2005
CTV does it again
Cutting edge at CTV on their Election Blog page. They now have Blogging Banter
where you can leave your comments unmoderated and they appear instantly. Gee just like a real blog. And of course the usual suspects are there plugging errr blogging away.
Note to Brad Lavigne; we know you don't read blogs, but maybe you should check this one out.......it is after all MSM which we know is all you respect.
where you can leave your comments unmoderated and they appear instantly. Gee just like a real blog. And of course the usual suspects are there plugging errr blogging away.
Note to Brad Lavigne; we know you don't read blogs, but maybe you should check this one out.......it is after all MSM which we know is all you respect.
The Real Liberal Hand Gun Ban
The majority of hand guns on the streets are illegal, smuggled in from the U.S.A. And we don't have enough border patrols to actually reduce the influx of smuggled guns. Well the Liberals are already enforcing a hand gun ban in Canada. No, not the one that severely restricts the legal ownership of hand gunds. Rather they continue to ban handguns from use by the very folks who patrol the borders. They are overworked, understaffed and un-armed. They also have no powers to arrest anyone for bringing guns into Canada!
The real Liberal Hand Gun Ban has been in effect for years, on the border guards. See how effective that has been.
A note; I am opposed however to issuing border guards Tasers, they are an offensive weapon that kills instead of stunning. Guns are guns, you know they are lethal. Arming border guards is sufficient.
CANADA EMPLOYMENT AND IMMIGRATION UNION FEDERAL ELECTION 2006
December 6, 2005 06:45 Tasers and sidearms needed by Immigration Officers to enhance border security and own safety; union president urges federal party leaders to act OTTAWA, Dec. 6
The President of the Canada Employment and Immigration Union today called for heightened protection, up to and including the issuing of tasers and sidearms, for Immigration Officers of the Canada Border Services Agency. Jeannette Meunier-McKay said the CEIU would be contacting the campaigns of all major federal parties to seek their support for making higher levels of protective force for Immigration Officers a post-election priority. She also stressed that the union was representing the views and wishes of its Immigration Officer members. "A recent, internal union survey revealed that an overwhelming majority of Immigration Officers - 86.5% of Enforcement Officers and 74% of Port of Entry Officers - expressed a strong need for additional protective devices, including tasers and/or sidearms," she said. "Our members have spoken strongly with a united voice - that current force options are inadequate to ensure their security when carrying out their duties to protect the public by keeping high-risk criminals and terrorists out of Canada." Meunier-McKay also pointed to last June's interim report of the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence, which called for strengthened port of entry security and concrete measures to improve the safety of CBSA enforcement staff. "The Senate Committee was very clear in urging the Martin government to give CBSA workers the tools they need to carry out their important duties in a safe and secure work environment," Meunier-McKay noted. "Whatever the composition of the next Parliament, the federal government has a clear duty to ensure the highest level of protection for these frontline peace officers." The Canada Employment and Immigration Union represents more than 17,000 federal public service workers, including some 1,300 immigration staff at both ports of entry and at inland enforcement offices. : Jeannette Meun
The real Liberal Hand Gun Ban has been in effect for years, on the border guards. See how effective that has been.
A note; I am opposed however to issuing border guards Tasers, they are an offensive weapon that kills instead of stunning. Guns are guns, you know they are lethal. Arming border guards is sufficient.
CANADA EMPLOYMENT AND IMMIGRATION UNION FEDERAL ELECTION 2006
December 6, 2005 06:45 Tasers and sidearms needed by Immigration Officers to enhance border security and own safety; union president urges federal party leaders to act OTTAWA, Dec. 6
The President of the Canada Employment and Immigration Union today called for heightened protection, up to and including the issuing of tasers and sidearms, for Immigration Officers of the Canada Border Services Agency. Jeannette Meunier-McKay said the CEIU would be contacting the campaigns of all major federal parties to seek their support for making higher levels of protective force for Immigration Officers a post-election priority. She also stressed that the union was representing the views and wishes of its Immigration Officer members. "A recent, internal union survey revealed that an overwhelming majority of Immigration Officers - 86.5% of Enforcement Officers and 74% of Port of Entry Officers - expressed a strong need for additional protective devices, including tasers and/or sidearms," she said. "Our members have spoken strongly with a united voice - that current force options are inadequate to ensure their security when carrying out their duties to protect the public by keeping high-risk criminals and terrorists out of Canada." Meunier-McKay also pointed to last June's interim report of the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence, which called for strengthened port of entry security and concrete measures to improve the safety of CBSA enforcement staff. "The Senate Committee was very clear in urging the Martin government to give CBSA workers the tools they need to carry out their important duties in a safe and secure work environment," Meunier-McKay noted. "Whatever the composition of the next Parliament, the federal government has a clear duty to ensure the highest level of protection for these frontline peace officers." The Canada Employment and Immigration Union represents more than 17,000 federal public service workers, including some 1,300 immigration staff at both ports of entry and at inland enforcement offices. : Jeannette Meun
Why Jack Doesn't Blog
Many of us Dipper and progressive bloggers have wondered why the NDP is the only election site without a blog. And now we know. The PTB in the NDP war room have decided in their divine wisdom that blogs are not where its at. In fact they are so fixated on old media, that no less a high mucky muck than Communications/Media Director Brad Lavigne dismisses the importance of blogs.
In the NDP camp, insider Brad Lavigne says blogs have had a minimal impact so far on leader Jack Layton's campaign. The top priority is to track the other leaders' daily campaigns and mainstream news coverage."Our focus is established by our team,'' said Lavigne, the party's campaign communications director. "While from time to time it's interesting to see what these people are posting, they certainly don't drive our agenda.'' Election war rooms consider impact of blogs
Ah ha thats why the NDP is so behind on the communications eight ball, failing to take advantage of the blogosphere. Yep Lavigne is really old school, you can tell from his hair cut and their communications strategy so far.
Guess I will have to e-mail this little missive to the NDP cause they don't read blogs.
In the NDP camp, insider Brad Lavigne says blogs have had a minimal impact so far on leader Jack Layton's campaign. The top priority is to track the other leaders' daily campaigns and mainstream news coverage."Our focus is established by our team,'' said Lavigne, the party's campaign communications director. "While from time to time it's interesting to see what these people are posting, they certainly don't drive our agenda.'' Election war rooms consider impact of blogs
Ah ha thats why the NDP is so behind on the communications eight ball, failing to take advantage of the blogosphere. Yep Lavigne is really old school, you can tell from his hair cut and their communications strategy so far.
Guess I will have to e-mail this little missive to the NDP cause they don't read blogs.
Correcting Kinsella
Well its always a joy here in mudville to correct Warren Kinsella's jaundiced view of the blogosphere, which is always highly coloured by his own blog prescence and his belief that he plays a more important role than he does.
Warren Kinsella, an aide to former Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien, says his blog gets as many as 100,000 hits a day. He has traced some of the heaviest traffic to Prime Minister Paul Martin's most trusted advisors and says his sources of information include former and current cabinet ministers, party leaders and rank-and-file members.
Election war rooms consider impact of blogs
100,000 hits a day?! Methinks Warren doth exaggerate his popularity a wee bit. Oh by at least five zeros. (see comments)
On December 8 after this article came out on CP, he posted it on his blog, he writes his latest backhanded defence of the importance of blogs in this election. He says that so far the blogs have not found a scandal of equal importance as American blogs did in the 04 election.
"In this bizarre two-part election, no big political story has been unearthed by Canadian bloggers - at least not in the way the American blogs broke the Trent Lott or Dan Rather stories. But it's coming."
Well gee what would he call this? The undue influence of American right wing lobby groups with the Conservatives is a major scandal,that has not been covered in the MSM as well as it has in the blogosphere. And I would call that a scandal uncovered by the blogs. Just not by Warrens blog. Hmm do I detect a bit of jealousy in his comment?
For an updated page on this Scandal go here.
Warren Kinsella, an aide to former Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien, says his blog gets as many as 100,000 hits a day. He has traced some of the heaviest traffic to Prime Minister Paul Martin's most trusted advisors and says his sources of information include former and current cabinet ministers, party leaders and rank-and-file members.
Election war rooms consider impact of blogs
100,000 hits a day?! Methinks Warren doth exaggerate his popularity a wee bit. Oh by at least five zeros. (see comments)
On December 8 after this article came out on CP, he posted it on his blog, he writes his latest backhanded defence of the importance of blogs in this election. He says that so far the blogs have not found a scandal of equal importance as American blogs did in the 04 election.
"In this bizarre two-part election, no big political story has been unearthed by Canadian bloggers - at least not in the way the American blogs broke the Trent Lott or Dan Rather stories. But it's coming."
Well gee what would he call this? The undue influence of American right wing lobby groups with the Conservatives is a major scandal,that has not been covered in the MSM as well as it has in the blogosphere. And I would call that a scandal uncovered by the blogs. Just not by Warrens blog. Hmm do I detect a bit of jealousy in his comment?
For an updated page on this Scandal go here.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Retirement Reverse Discrimination
The Ontario Government has ended a great injustice today, they have ended legislated compulsory retirement. Yep now you can work till ya die. The logic of this reversal of discrimination, is classic liberalism; the rights of the individual over the group. And classic Liberalism.
Moments after the province approved the legislation, Ontario Labour Minister Steve Peters hailed it as an opportunity for workers, especially those who joined the workforce later in life, to continue to contribute to their families and the economy. “It’s a very historic day,” Peters said. “We’ve ended a great wrong in this province.”
They found that the law restricted individual choice. For shame. But in changing the law to meet the sacred rights of the individual they lost site of that other important value of classical liberalism, utilitarianism, the greater good.
The so called compulsorary retirement law while restricting the rights of some was for the greater good of the many. Which is why unions lobbied and won compulsorary retirement, because they knew that if the bosses had their way, they would work us till we died, or toss us out with no pensions in order to hire younger workers who will not earn a pension for years. The idea of compulsorary retirement is directly tied to pensions, and to corporations paying into those pensions.
The McGuinty Liberals capitualted to the business community, who having underfunded their pension plans in order to put their capital into the stock market, wanted the government to bail them out. The best way to do that was to up the age of retirement. Business have campaigned provincially and federally to turn the clock back on retirement.
Of course for academics, such as the one who challenged the law in Alberta and got it overturned, or managers and bosses and even journalists working into your seventies or eighties is a career choice. For those of us who do blue collar work, by the time we are 65 we beasts of burden are well willing to give up the work life for the cottage life and we deserve it.
But now our pensionable earnings, our ability to retire early, or to retire at 65 have been put at greater risk.
Moments after the province approved the legislation, Ontario Labour Minister Steve Peters hailed it as an opportunity for workers, especially those who joined the workforce later in life, to continue to contribute to their families and the economy. “It’s a very historic day,” Peters said. “We’ve ended a great wrong in this province.”
They found that the law restricted individual choice. For shame. But in changing the law to meet the sacred rights of the individual they lost site of that other important value of classical liberalism, utilitarianism, the greater good.
The so called compulsorary retirement law while restricting the rights of some was for the greater good of the many. Which is why unions lobbied and won compulsorary retirement, because they knew that if the bosses had their way, they would work us till we died, or toss us out with no pensions in order to hire younger workers who will not earn a pension for years. The idea of compulsorary retirement is directly tied to pensions, and to corporations paying into those pensions.
The McGuinty Liberals capitualted to the business community, who having underfunded their pension plans in order to put their capital into the stock market, wanted the government to bail them out. The best way to do that was to up the age of retirement. Business have campaigned provincially and federally to turn the clock back on retirement.
Of course for academics, such as the one who challenged the law in Alberta and got it overturned, or managers and bosses and even journalists working into your seventies or eighties is a career choice. For those of us who do blue collar work, by the time we are 65 we beasts of burden are well willing to give up the work life for the cottage life and we deserve it.
But now our pensionable earnings, our ability to retire early, or to retire at 65 have been put at greater risk.
Wayne Samuelson, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour, warned that in years to come, employees can expect to work up to the age of 67 or beyond before they can access government benefits.
Samuelson also brushed aside assertions by the province that the law won’t undermine early retirement rights or existing pension plans.
“That’s crap,” Samuelson said. “I’ve been going to union meetings all my life . . . and I’ve never seen anybody stand up and demand that they work longer. People want to work less. They want to have a decent pension. That’s the debate we should be having.”
He pointed to the United States, where access to government benefits has been increased to age 67.
New Democrat critic Peter Kormos slammed the law for not resolving fears of under-funded pensions.
“This legislation . . . is going to result in employers reducing pension benefits for younger workers who have not yet become vested,” Kormos said.
“This is going to create some real iniquities and further worsen, heighten, aggravate the crisis in under-funding of pensions and levels of pension benefits.”
It’s expected that less than two per cent of Ontario’s 1.5 million people 65 and over would continue to work, Peters said.
So you change a progressive law, compulsorary retirement for less than 2% of the working population, hmmm thats the same number that represents the ruling class in Ontario. So 98% of the working population must be subjected to the opportunism and greed of the ultimate minority. So much for the idea of majority rule, or even the greatest benefit for the greatest number. The McGuinty Liberals are classic neo-liberals, not real liberals like Bentham and Mills.
Previous Pension Articles are Here and Here
So you change a progressive law, compulsorary retirement for less than 2% of the working population, hmmm thats the same number that represents the ruling class in Ontario. So 98% of the working population must be subjected to the opportunism and greed of the ultimate minority. So much for the idea of majority rule, or even the greatest benefit for the greatest number. The McGuinty Liberals are classic neo-liberals, not real liberals like Bentham and Mills.
Previous Pension Articles are Here and Here
And Now A Word From David Orchard
The populist iconoclast David Orchard who was stabbed in the back by Peter McKay over the merger of the PC's with Harpers Alliance Party, never forgets. Nor should we. Last April he wrote; David Orchard campaign says Conservatives as unethical as Liberals
And it applies as much in this election as the one the Harperites were hoping for last spring. In fact the unethical behaviour of the Conservative party regarding David Orchard came back to bite them in the ass just before this election was called.
Two and a half years after the Progressive Conservative leadership race, the Conservative Party of Canada has yet to pay David Orchard more than $70,000. About $55,000 of that is owed to the Borden-area farmer from donations to his leadership campaign.
Nor has the Harper yet released who donated to his leadership race where he defeated Peter McKay for the leadership of the newly merged Conservative party.
So when it comes to ethics Mackay and Harper prove that old cliche that the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree, in Davids Orchard.
Rumours had it that Orchard might run for the Liberals, it was a reporters fantasy, but that would never be. He is too principled for that. Unlike his opponents for the PC Leadership or those who now run the strange beast that is the Reform/Alliance/PC Conservatives.
David is still fighting NAFTA and is the only Canadian to continue to offer a real solution to the Soft Wood Lumber crisis, Abrogate NAFTA.
Wanna disrupt a Conservative rally? Just start chanting; Orchard! Orchard!
And it applies as much in this election as the one the Harperites were hoping for last spring. In fact the unethical behaviour of the Conservative party regarding David Orchard came back to bite them in the ass just before this election was called.
Two and a half years after the Progressive Conservative leadership race, the Conservative Party of Canada has yet to pay David Orchard more than $70,000. About $55,000 of that is owed to the Borden-area farmer from donations to his leadership campaign.
Nor has the Harper yet released who donated to his leadership race where he defeated Peter McKay for the leadership of the newly merged Conservative party.
So when it comes to ethics Mackay and Harper prove that old cliche that the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree, in Davids Orchard.
Rumours had it that Orchard might run for the Liberals, it was a reporters fantasy, but that would never be. He is too principled for that. Unlike his opponents for the PC Leadership or those who now run the strange beast that is the Reform/Alliance/PC Conservatives.
David is still fighting NAFTA and is the only Canadian to continue to offer a real solution to the Soft Wood Lumber crisis, Abrogate NAFTA.
Wanna disrupt a Conservative rally? Just start chanting; Orchard! Orchard!
Guns and Butter
When I was introduced to supply side economics in high school we were all taught that capitalism is about supply and demand, the old guns and butter hypothesis. Its all about what we call today rational choice economics, you can choose to spend money on the military or on essentials such as public service. Guns or butter. The more guns the less butter. And guns were always more expensive to produce than butter.
Today we could use the same analogy for the Paul Martins announcement that he will ban hand guns in Canada. His audience was a group of school kids in Toronto. What he told them was the old guns and butter example as applied to politics. You can get more headway publicity wise by banning guns than by promising social programs (butter) to deal with the issue of violence in visible minority communities. His presence in a visible minority community school shows he was trying to butter up folks for his gun announcement.
Hand guns are severly restricted in Canada, and have been since Trudeau introduced gun control. To get a handgun in Canada you must be registered with a FAC, and now registered with the billion dollar Firearms Registry boondoogle. You must get a permit from your local police department, to move your gun from your home, if you are going to the shooting range. And that permit is for that day only and for transportation from point A to point B and back to point A. Failure to get the permit and you can loose your gun and your FAC and your access.
So who is carrying guns? Well not legal hand gun owners. It's the new bling bling of Night Club culture as the recent shooting in Vancouver shows. Graffiti artists's slaying may spur gun amnesty Guns have replaced fast cars and cell phones as the club culture status symbol.
Ms. Slade said a decade ago she thought nothing of going out to nightclubs in the city. Now, however, she wouldn't because of a series of shooting incidents in recent years. "I'm afraid to go the bars. . . . It's getting worse and worse. You never know who's going to have a gun."
In Torontoa recent spat of shootings is driving the Martin announcement, and at the point of stating the obvious gun violence in the largest city in Canada has always driven the governments gun control legislation. While gun violence is also a problem in other large Canadian cities, such as Vancouver and even in Edmonton the shooting violence in Toronto is identified with the poverty of the Afro Canadian community in that city. In the other cities its identified with middle class ethnic crime, usually around drugs. Where the issue is poverty then we need social programs for employment to overcome this. If it is drugs then we need decriminalization.
Now drugs are illegal, and illegal guns are well illegal, but that doesn't stop anyone . Nor will Martins hand gun legislation. It will only further restrict those who abide by Canadas restrictive gun laws, moreso than even England, and reduce their access to hand guns for sport shooting.
Legalizing drugs would be a start to reduce crime both in the suburbs and the inner city. But the deciminalization of marijuana laws died on the table, again, when the election was called. Decriminalizing all drugs, would go along way to breaking the cycle of crime that prohibition has always encouraged. Its butter thats , better social programs and decriminalization, the economic solution to theproblem of gun violence in Canada. Some may say this is simplistic but it is no more so than Paul Martins announcement this morning.
For more debate on this go to progressive bloggers.
John Lennon Working Class Hero
John Lennon 1940-1980
John Lennon was asassinated 25 years ago today. The world lost a revolutionary voice that day.
A day after he died, his wife, Yoko Ono, said, "John loved and prayed for the human race. Please do the same for him." Millions mourned his death across world. As a leader of the Beatles, John Lennon helped to transform popular music. But to his fans he was far more than just a musician.
While the highlights of Lennon's career with the Beatles is well known, Lennon is less remembered for his political activism and dedication to peace. Lennon wrote some of the most famous songs of the anti-war movement: "Give Peace A Chance", "Imagine" and "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)". He sang at political protests against the Vietnam War, in support of the radical John Sinclair and even for the prisoners of Attica. He and Yoko made international headlines simply by lying in bed as part of their Bed-In For Peace.
The U.S. government saw Lennon as such a serious threat that President Nixon attempted to have him deported in 1972. In addition the FBI closely monitored his actions and amassed a file on Lennon of over 400 pages.
A voice that used the mass media to get his and Yoko's message out.
And that is important to remember that John was nothing without Yoko, something he acknowledged much to the anger and slagging of fans and critics at the time.
And while he was a working class hero for my generation he remains a voice of protest and disestablishmentarianism for all generations. He and Yoko spoke out for peace activists, for anti-war activists, for women, for anarchism, for humanism, for all those exploited and oppressed. Before they chanted "This is what Democracy Looks Like" in Seattle, we sang Power to the People!
He was the kid from Liverpool the Working Class Hero he wrote of.
Working Class Hero
John Lennon was asassinated 25 years ago today. The world lost a revolutionary voice that day.
A day after he died, his wife, Yoko Ono, said, "John loved and prayed for the human race. Please do the same for him." Millions mourned his death across world. As a leader of the Beatles, John Lennon helped to transform popular music. But to his fans he was far more than just a musician.
While the highlights of Lennon's career with the Beatles is well known, Lennon is less remembered for his political activism and dedication to peace. Lennon wrote some of the most famous songs of the anti-war movement: "Give Peace A Chance", "Imagine" and "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)". He sang at political protests against the Vietnam War, in support of the radical John Sinclair and even for the prisoners of Attica. He and Yoko made international headlines simply by lying in bed as part of their Bed-In For Peace.
The U.S. government saw Lennon as such a serious threat that President Nixon attempted to have him deported in 1972. In addition the FBI closely monitored his actions and amassed a file on Lennon of over 400 pages.
A voice that used the mass media to get his and Yoko's message out.
And that is important to remember that John was nothing without Yoko, something he acknowledged much to the anger and slagging of fans and critics at the time.
And while he was a working class hero for my generation he remains a voice of protest and disestablishmentarianism for all generations. He and Yoko spoke out for peace activists, for anti-war activists, for women, for anarchism, for humanism, for all those exploited and oppressed. Before they chanted "This is what Democracy Looks Like" in Seattle, we sang Power to the People!
He was the kid from Liverpool the Working Class Hero he wrote of.
Working Class HeroAs soon as you're born they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of it all
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
Till you're so ------- crazy you can't follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function you're so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still ------- peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
There's room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
If you want to be a hero well just follow me
If you want to be a hero well just follow me
They Vote
Hey it worked for the Tories in Alberta for years under Lougheed and Getty. Every election they gave seniors something. It wasn't until the Klein Reich that seniors were ditched and King Ralph has regretted that ever since cause they are his biggestand most vocal opponsnts in the province. And they vote. Layton promises $1.5 billion for senior care The NDP's plan to spend $1.5 billion a year on long-term care and home care would begin to address the needs of seniors and help hospitals reduce waiting times, party leader Jack Layton said on Thursday.
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