Reflagging the Liberal Party

PM's Canadian Steamship Lines which is now run by his sons is planning to re-flag one of its Canadian ships and replace its Canadian sailors with Russians the day after the election.

Like father like son. Under PM the Canadian government increased it's reliance on P3's and contracting out.The Neo Liberal Canadian State

I wonder if PM plans to do the same with the "smoking hulk "of the good ship Liberal Party.

Crew of PM’s sons’ ship fear for jobs
Rumours say vessel will be reflagged, deckhands replaced after election

A crewman walks past the tattered Canadian flag aboard the Canadian Steamship Lines bulk carrier Atlantic Superior, which is docked at Pier 34 in Halifax. (TIM KROCHAK / Staff)

By STEPHEN MAHER Staff Reporter

The crew of a vessel owned by Prime Minister Paul Martin’s family is afraid the company is only waiting for the election to end before reflagging the ship and replacing the sailors with a foreign crew.

The Atlantic Superior, a 220-metre bulk carrier that usually works in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway, is in Halifax for repairs to its engine.

The rumour on the docks is that Canada Steamship Lines Inc., the company Mr. Martin built and eventually handed to his sons, plans to register it abroad and hire a cheaper foreign crew, but is waiting until Tuesday, because the news might hurt Mr. Martin’s electoral chances if it came out in the middle of the campaign.

"That’s why he might have kept the Canadians on board until just after the election, because he knows that it would kill them if he would do so right now," said a union source, who asked not to be named.

The rusty ship, flying a tattered Canadian flag, is tied up at Pier 34 in Halifax, with a skeleton crew aboard.

"The Canadian crew have been pretty open about it around the port, that the ship will be reflagged and crewed with Russians after the election," said one waterfront source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

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Jaffers Voting Record

So how did Rahim Jaffer vote in the last sitting of Parliment? Check this out.

Proving that when Conservatives say they allow Free Votes that means Conservative MP's feel free to vote along party lines.

Otherwise if they vote against the Party line they may feel they have to cross the floor, like Belinda Stronach.



SEE Edmonton Strathcona


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American Sabre Rattling Blogger

If it is on a blog you can bet that someone in the Bush Administration and the Pentagon has already thought of this. Dumb idea. Dumb. But hey it was ex-pat Canadian David Frum who coined the phrase Axis of Evil which was Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

The Case for Invading Iran

by Guest Author at January 19, 2006 01:24 PM

by Thomas Holsinger

And the logic of this is that if Iran doesn't have nuclear weapons hit them before they do cause we all know America is a pussy cat when it comes to countries with Nukes. And a paper tiger, I love that old ML term, when it comes to Iran in particular. There will be no American invasion of Iran they will opt for a selective air assault by Israel, for plausible deniability.

Which begs the question, Iran is surrounded by Nuclear Powers, Pakistan, India, China, Russia, Israel, Turkey (US base). Why is the West so fixated on this issue. Why the dismissal of Irans intentions to develop a domestic nuclear energy program? The reason given is that Iran lies. This is an ideological given by all who talk about the Iranian nuclear power issue. They see Iran wanting to be a Nuclear Power and discussions of Iran wanting to use Nuclear Power for domestic civilian purposes are dismissed out of hand. Except by Russia. Who is of course biased since it is trading with them.

But if Russia endorses the Iranian program, then as the endorser and supplier they need to be held responsible for insuring that the program remians civilian. Putin and China will not allow the UN to sanction Iran. So the diplomatic way of dealing with this is to have UN inspectors work with Russia insuring Iran does what it says it is going to do.

Is Iran paranoid. Well of course they are. And just because they are it doesn't mean the US the UN and the EU is not out to get them. They are also aware that the American Imperialist Tiger is next door, with hundreds of thousands of troops, and an unstable war mongering leadership. A leadership that calls them an axis of evil. That has them on a hit list with North Korea. After the Afghanistan invasion, and now the Iraq invasion, Iran has American and Nato troops sitting on its doorstep. Along with Pakistan, as America's new client state.

Nuclear Iran: A matter of time

In geopolitical terms of course Iran is worried that it is next for invasion. And with articles like the one above, they are not being paranoid. That being said the Americans would face world outrage over any attempted invasion of Iran. Despite the censoring of Iran for its outrageous, but predictble, Anti-Semitic remarks, and for its Nuclear posturing, the EU and UN do NOT want war with Iran.

Most Americans tired of the war in Iraq will not sanction War with Iran. Unlike Iraq any such invasion or armed intervention in Iran would be met with mass resistance. Given that the sabre rattling has to stop. It only feeds into Iran's political paranoia, one that creates the conditions for Iran to see no alternative but to build a nuclear weapons system. Because America only respects countries with Nukes.

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Political Nutbar

It is now down to two candidates for Political Nutbar of 2005. Rob Anders and John Duffy. Guess who I voted for.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

The latestest graphic of poll results as of yesterday. E-3 The picture tells the story, the Liberal decline, Conservatives level off and the NDP on the rise. Courtesy Politics Canada

POLI-GRAPH - ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2006

GRAPH - polls results surveyed on the same date are averaged. Updated Jan 21, 8:40 AM EST

NATIONAL POLLS

Date Lib CPC NDP Bloc Green Ekos 20/01/2006 27 37 20 12 5 Strategic 19/01/2006 28 38 17 11 7 Ipsos-Reid 19/01/2006 26 38 19 5 SES CPAC 19/01/2006 29 36 19 11 6

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Michael Moore On Bush Lite

Well the Washinton Post, the Chicago Sun Times, The New York Times, CNN, Fox, The Daily Show why everyone in the U.S. has paid us some little attention this election. The Conservatives have been endorsed by the Washington Times and National Review.

So did the Martin campaign encourage Michael Moore to write this? Their eleventh hour appeal to progressives?

Actually its just Moore being Moore. Michael Moore who has paid attention to several of our elections and said the same thing before; Conservatives scary.

His alternative, well I am not sure except perhaps a big hug from him if we do the right thing. Like elect a NDP government. Why are you all laughing.

These are no ordinary times, and as you go to the polls on Monday, you do so while a man running the nation to the south of you is hoping you can lend him a hand by picking Stephen Harper because he's a man who shares his world view. Do you want to help George Bush by turning Canada into his latest conquest?

Is that how you want millions of us down here to see you from now on? The next notch in the cowboy belt? C'mon, where's your Canadian pride? I mean, if you're going to reduce Canada to a cheap download of Bush & Co., then at least don't surrender so easily. Can't you wait until he threatens to bomb Regina? Make him work for it, for Pete's sake.

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It's All About Paul

Why Progressives Cannot Vote Liberal

Cerberus has an excellent article defending the Liberals and attacking the Conservatives in these final days before E-Day.

That being said I disagree with him completely when he says the only choice is between these two parties. I began to leave him a comment but it was getting long, then longer so I thought I would post it here and expand on it.

To say that the Martin Team, NOT the LIberal party, the Martin Team deserve to run this country well as the saying goes; they had their chance and they blew it.

With a minority government handed to them last election they were expected to make a go of it. And even knowing that they faced a disgruntled, ticked off Official opposition, they had to make a go of it. And they blew it. They remained arrogant, dismissive, ruling as they had for the last 12 years, as if they were the Natural Ruling Party. As if they had a majority. This arrogance was the same as that of their predecessor the ever hated Jean Chretien, the guy they fought to replace cause he was old news.

The whole Martin for Leader campaign was the pre-election campaign. And for two years before the 2004 election all these internal shenanigans reflected badly on the Liberal party. They showed a party indifferent to the needs of Canadians, a party more concerned with winning, and with its own internal needs.

After having been in the back rooms, then spending two years abandoning Chretien as they plotted their coup, Team Martin swept through the party purging enemies, and NOT making friends. In a very public way. There was no unification under Team Martin. There was a glorious purge, sweeping away all the Chretienites, in order to claim to be a whole new Liberal Party.

When they got to 24 Sussex they found out that Chretien still had a trick up his sleeve, he left them the ticking time bomb of Adscam. That is why no one can believe Team Martin. Even if Martin says he didn't know about Adscam and even though Gomery exonerated him that claim doesn't sit well with Canadians.

Because we see him as not wanting to know, too busy plotting to overthrow the boss. In effect we are saying he didn't do his job when he was Finance Minister and later when he dropped all his caucus affiliations to run his dump Chretien campaign.

So really if the Liberals loose this one it will be because Team Martin lost it for them three years ago as they brought out the long knives for Chretien. So intent on dumping him, they were solely focused on gaining power, now they appear as only focused on holding onto power. Which is so obvious to everyone in the Country that the vote will certainly go against them. It will go to the BQ, the Conservatives and the NDP. It will be an anybody but Team Martin/Scott Reid/John Duffy/etc. etc.

His own isolation from the party, from a real unified Liberal team, is so obvious that this election has shown him haggard, tired, overworked, short on supporters, short on support, short of new things to say. Team Martin has run this campaign, as they ran the ran the House, for the past eighteen months. They have been arrogant, elitist, out of touch with their base, and unwilling to be open to input from those outside of their small clique.

They are asking for us to vote for Paul Martin Liberal Leadership Candidate.
They have run both the 2004 and this election as if it were a Liberal Party Leadership race. A race they won at the expense of alienating the left of the party, the centre of the party and the right of the party. All that was left was incumbents, back benchers and Team Martin. Now that team is in real trouble where is Martin.

He has failed to campaign for his good pals Anne McLellan in Edmonton and Ralph Goodale in Saskatchewan. Loyal pals, who have taken it on the chin for Team Martin have been deserted by Paul and his crew. Why because there is no Team in I, Me, Paul Martin. This is Pauls war. Just like it was Pauls war against Jean. This is Paul's war against Stephen. This is Pauls election. This isn't about voting for a government its about voting just like in high school, for class president. In this case for Prime Minister.

Team Martin was all about making Paul Martin Prime Minister, as if the position was akin to the American Presidency. It was never about building the Liberal party. Sheila Copps and Warren Kinsella, are both right on this point. Team Martin was all about inheriting the mantel of governance, and placing the laurel wreath on Martins head. Hail Caesar.

This whole election has been not about Liberals versus Conservatives versus the NDP versus the Bloc. It has been about Paul Martin's Vision of Canada. Not the Liberal Party or its vision or representation of Canada. Of a party that is Canadian and conducts Canadian values by its cross country base a base that exists even in Tory blue Alberta. A base that will be gone after Monday night.

No this has always been about Paul. Paul versus Harper. Paul versus Layton. Paul versus Duceppe. The only political leader Paul has not been against is Jim Harris of the Green Party.

In the debates it was never about policy, platform, or party position. The Liberal Party was not in the debates. It watched Paul Martin perform in its name, and sat on the sidelines.

Team Martin has made this election about Paul and Stephen and Jack and Giles. Martin has personalized it. Ironically for all his exhortations of I Am Canada, Martins campaign has been the most American style campaign we have seen in years. And it hasn't worked.

The polls don't lie. They may not show the winner but they sure do show the loser and that loser is Paul Martin. Under his and Team Martins campaign the Liberal Party numbers have dropped and his personal appeal has declined so far that Jack Layton is meeting him on the way up. But Paul true to form will still be singing I Did My Way until the night the fat lady sings.

The choice Canadians face this election is between the right and the left. That leaves out Team Martin. They do not represent the Liberal Party, the traditional centre of Canadian politics. By personalizing it they have polarized the vote.

This Monday the Choice is clear it is a choice one of four PARTIES, The BQ, The Conservatives, The Greens or The NDP. There is no Liberal party in this election, certainly not one fit to govern as a government. There are four parties in this election running for government and opposition and one guy running for PM.

In English Canada if you are in the least progressive, centrist or to the left of centre, socially aware, concerned about fairness and social justice, and opposed to the Conservatives you have only one choice this election that is the NDP.

On Monday night it will not be a Liberal party loss it will be Paul Martin's loss, and he will go quietly into that good night. Because it has never been about government, good governance, or the Liberal Party. It has always been about Paul Martin Prime Minister. We are not voting out a government we are voting out a man so arrogant that he thought this election was all about being PM.

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Voltaire in the Blogoshpere

I may not agree with what you have to say but I will defend your right to say it. We all know that old chestnut from Volataire. Some just quote it. And some of us put it into practice. And then we get credit, blush, for doing so. As I did with my defense of the Blogging Tories which garnered this.




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Slugger Ed

Ed Broadbent, the NDP secret weapon came out today with a pugalistic attack on Paul Martin and the Liberals. It will send them reeling over the weekend as it hits the print media tommorow.

And the slugger gave Martin a sucker punch but good. Glass jawed Martin hit the mat, the Liberal war room was all a buzz.

In this corner we have Big Ed, in the orange and green trunks. In that corner in the bleeding red trunks, Paul Martin. Big Ed comes out swinging.

"I saw Paul Martin during the 1990s after we had surplus after surplus and building up surplus as well, while millions of kids went to bed hungry, while thousands of Canadians were homeless and we were the only G-8 country without a housing program. Doing nothing on the environment. In fact George Bush did more on the environment than Paul Martin...These are not progressive people. The only time they talk about being progressive is in the dying days of an election campaign." Ed Broadbent's last statement as an MP

Damn fine prose. That opening line about I saw Paul Martin, reminds me of Howl.. I saw the best minds of my generation......etc.

Ed has not yet retired. That won't happen till January 23. Something the Liberals had hoped we would all forget.

Fri 20 Jan 2006
Liberal attack on Ed misses mark

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Softwood Solution

So here is the solution to the Softwood lumber dispute, do it the good old fashioned capitalist way with mergers and acquisitions. However do not expect the corporate welfare bums in Canada's and Quebec's forestry industry to give up their whining and dining at the taxpayers expense.

Canfor pushes into U.S. forests

Takes over rival in softwood spat

Jason Kirby, Financial Post

Published: Friday, January 20, 2006

VANCOUVER - At one time Mack Singleton was a thorn in the side of Canadian lumber producers. As former head of the U.S. lobby group that pushed heavily for softwood duties he once compared Canada's economic system with that of North Korea and Cuba.

Now Mr. Singleton and South Carolina-based New South Companies Inc., which he co-owns and runs, is a cornerstone of Vancouver-based Canfor Corp.'s acquisition strategy that will probably see Canada's largest forestry company snap up other U.S. industry players.

On Wednesday, Canfor said it would pay US$205-million for New South in an all-cash transaction, diversifying its business away from British Columbia and giving it access to lumber from a major European producer through a marketing agreement.

"We've committed to growing with our customers and that is what we'll do," said Jim Shepherd, CEO of Canfor. "This is a step for us to do that."

The irony is some Canadian forest companies such as Canfor are flush with cash partly because the ongoing softwood lumber dispute has forced them to become more efficient. That money could be used to consolidate the fragmented mom-and-pop lumber industry south of the border.

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