Electoral Reform Needed

Electoral Reform should be the front and centre issue facing this new minority government.Even the Blogging Tories agree (despite their ridiculous glee,JUST WATCH US NOW!!!!!!!!!!!! they should calm down in few days when the realize that Harper already has, welcome to the Centre)....

Hopefully, we'll see the platform for electoral reform pushed through. And, if I can just say - the NDP gets 18% of the vote, but takes in less seats then the Bloc who just get 9%? If it is not a system that needs to be fixed, I don't know one that does. The Progressive Right

Tags
Canada
Federal Election
Politics
Harper
Conservatives

Edmonton Strathcona Was A Squeeker

It was Jaffers toughest race ever. As I had predicted. And as I had said here it was a two way race. The Liberals were wiped out. Here strategic voting went to the NDP, with only the Liberal hard core voting for their candidate.It was down to a neck and neck between Linda Duncan and Rahim Jaffer. It was the best showing of the NDP ever. And for Jaffer it was his lowest vote count ever. For the Liberals they came in a very distant third. Which means next time....it's NDP time.

EDMONTON-STRATHCONA

xRahim Jaffer CON 20,965

Linda Duncan NDP 16,478

Andy Hladyshevsky LIB 8,948

Cameron Wakefield GRN 2,964

Michael Fedeyko PCP 582

Dave Dowling MP 438

Kevan Hunter ML 99

218 of 228 polls reporting

Jaffer, who had the closest race of the sitting MPs, said he was looking forward to returning to Ottawa, this time as part of a minority government.

"It's so exciting to be part of a government after 8 1/2 years of being in opposition," he said.

"It's a feeling that I would never have imagined, to be able to go and be there with a strong team of MPs representing almost every region of the country."

He also praised Duncan's efforts.

"It's the first time I've seen them come in second in this riding," he said.

New Democrats pinned their hopes for a local upset victory on Linda Duncan in Edmonton-Strathcona who went down to defeat at the hands of three-time MP Rahim Jaffer.

The mood at her party at the Arts Barns was sombre early in the night, but turned upbeat as about 300 people gathered to watch the results roll in.

The mood was more jubilant at Jaffer's victory party in a Calgary Trail night spot

The other race to watch was Edmonton East. And here again the opposition out voted Conservative incumbent Peter Goldring. That being said Goldring could be defeated next election through strategic voting with a strong candidate with name recognition willing to begin running earlier in the riding.

EDMONTON EAST

xPeter Goldring CON 25,086

Nicole Martel LIB 13,092

Arlene Chapman NDP 9,243

Trey Capnerhurst GRN 2,624

255 of 255 polls reporting

SEE Edmonton Strathcona

SEE Linda Duncan

Tags
Canada
Federal Election
Linda Duncan
NDP
Alberta
Politics
Edmonton
Conservatives
Rahim Jaffer
Edmonton Strathco

A Conservative Funny

Really it's very funny. Darth Vader Calls a Press Conference

Tags
Canada
Federal Election
Politics
Harper
Darth Vader
Conservatives

This is Sharons Brain

Pre-1948 partition of Palestine.





After Six Days War 1967




Brain Scan Shows No Change in Sharon

Yep no change after 50 years.


Viewpoint: A dire case of collective amnesia

The hundreds of endearing commentaries, venerating news reports and glorifying television programs - massively sprung in the wake of his unexpected stroke on January 4 - makes it doubtless that only a legacy like that of Mother Teresa can match Sharon's "towering" legacy, "larger than life" persona and selfless "sacrifices" for peace.

The bashful attempts by some to balance the media's gross misconceptions about Sharon went largely unheard. The man's direct and indirect involvement in tormenting the Palestinian people for 50 long years seemed completely irrelevant.

Sharon's disregard for civilian lives, since his early years as a fighter for the Jewish underground terrorist organization Haganah (1948-49), and his role as commander of an infamous army unit responsible for several massacres (most remembered is the brutal murder of 69 defenseless villagers in Qibya in 1953) seemed an extraneous nuisance.

Also to be dropped from the narrative was the list of relentless war crimes that took place throughout the 1950s and 60s (during Israel's wars with Egypt), late 1970s (during his bloody reign in Gaza), the 1980s (his contemptible war and massacres in Lebanon) and most recently with the advent of the Second Palestinian Uprising in September 2000, one that he provoked and antagonized through his misguided policy of assassination.

Since his election to serve as Israel's Prime Minister in 2001, Sharon has supplemented his notorious resume with the abolition of several thousand Palestinian lives.

Sharon, or the "man of peace" according to President Bush, seems to have decidedly earned a place in history simply for relocating several thousand illegal Jewish settlers from occupied Gaza to the occupied West Bank. Though Sharon has repeatedly asserted that his decision to disengage from Gaza has more to do with Israel's strategic and demographic needs than peace, very few took notice. Though the number of illegal settlers in the West Bank has since then increased by more than 4 percent, that mattered little.

Map Showing Gaza Settlements Evacuated

Settlement Founded Population** Atzmona (Bnei Atzmona) 1982** 650 Bedola'h 1986 220 Dugit 1982 80 Elei Sinai 1983 350 Gdid 1982 310 Ganei Tal 1979 400 Gan Or 1983 350 Katif 1985 405 Kerem Atzmona 2001 70 Kfar Darom*** 1989 365 Kfar Yam 1983 20 Morag 1972 220 Netzarim 1972 390 Netzer Hazani 1973 410 Neveh Dekalim 1983 2,500 Nissanit 1980 1050 Pe'at Sadeh 1989 105 Rafiah Yam 1984 150 Shirat Hayam 2000 50 Slav 1980 50 Tel Katifa 1992 75 * Founded 1979 in Sinai. Moved to Gaza, 1982. **Kfar Darom was founded about 1935; destroyed 1939; re-founded 1946; destroyed 1948 *** Estimates are about 15% below published total of 8,500

Maps courtesy of MIDEASTWEB MAGAZINE

Also see:

Green Eggs and Hamas

Let Sleeping Lions Lie

No Tears for Sharon

Pat Robertson Curses Again

Tags
Sharon
Israel
Palestine

The Latin American Consensus

It appears that the Left wing governments in Latin America have decided to use their Petropower to bypass US hegemony in the region.

Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, says Brazil, Argentina and his country will move forward on a proposed natural gas network spanning much of South America. He added that the agreement heralded a new era of regional co-operation with less US influence.On Thursday, Chavez said: "This is the end of the Washington consensus," referring to a set of US-backed free market policies meant to solve South America's economic woes.
"It is the beginning of the South American consensus."

While this looks good at first glance the problem is that it is stil industrial development and such developement threatens the Amazon jungle.

The pipeline would stretch from Caracas, Venezuela, to Buenos Aires, Argentina, cutting through Brazil's Amazon rain forest. It would also link to Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

What is interesting is that the three countries, excluding Bolivia, which still has to nationalize its oil and gas industry, are now looking at oil and gas for export while moving their domestic market for cars to the low pollution alternative of natural gas.

It was not clear how much each country would invest, but Chavez said the investments would pay for themselves if some countries - especially Brazil and Venezuela - change their petrol-powered cars to natural gas. According to Chavez, that shift alone would allow for a massive increase in petrol exports by both Venezuela and Brazil, generating as much as $15 billion in annual revenue. Argentina has the world's largest fleet of cars running on natural gas, followed by Brazil.

Which means that while they reduce greenhouse gas emissions on one hand, they will also be destroying part of the lungs of the world to do it. Sustainable capitalism, once again faces its own contradicitons.

Also see:

Chavez

Bolivia Moves Left

Oil Crisis

The End of the Oil Age

US Government Discovers Peak Oil

Tags

oil
Latin America
Chavez
Brazil
Agentina
natural gas
pipeline
South America

China Challenges US over Saudi Oil

The number two oil economy in the World, China, is challenging American hegemony over the oil fields in the Middle East. This will surely push peak oil in both the short and long term. By developing trade partnerships with oil producing countries like Saudi Arabia, China can avoid American interfence in its importing oil, since the Saudi's can claim its just a business deal.

China, the world's second biggest oil consumer, has been aggressively seeking to strengthen relationships with major oil suppliers as it grows increasingly reliant on oil imports. Saudi Arabia accounts for about 17% of China's imported oil.Total trade between the two countries - much of it Saudi oil bought by China - grew by 59% in the first 11 months of 2005 to $14 billion, according to China's Foreign Ministry. Some observers believe that the Chinese need for new oil supplies could lead to a stand-off with the United States over access to Middle Eastern oil. King to sign Saudi-China oil deals

Also see:

Oil Crisis

The End of the Oil Age

US Government Discovers Peak Oil

Tags

oil

peak oil

China

Saudi Arabia

Middle East

Reg Alcock Has To Go

There are rumblings that Treasury Board President Reg Alcock is in trouble in his Winnipeg riding. And good news that would be. Alcock represents all that is Liberal, arrogance, a sense of entitlement, and despite Comrade Buzz Hargroves endorsement, he is anti union. He forced PSAC workers to strike last fall. Now after five years without a contract, hmmm sounds like the Liberals are taking lessons from Telus, this is how he responds to the Federal Correction Officers and their union at a public meeting last week.

Alcock: Correctional officers are "dumb as posts".

Also See: Liberals Refuse To Speak To Union

Tags
Canada
Federal Election
Politics
Liberals
unions
Labour
Prison Guards
CSN

Historical Memory on the Eve of the Election

Well said from the right. Publius at Gods of the Copybook Headings gives us a historical overview of how we got here today, where an Alberta based Conservative party, not seen since the days of Borden and Bennett, will become Government.

A government which is poised to also include Quebecois. There is a spectre haunting Ottawa and it is the spectre of Riel. His ghost appears as the spirit of reform of the new Conservative party and the NDP. Both Western Canadian Parties.

The old Conservative Party has been historically the voice of Ontario/English colonialism in Canada. Craig Oliver noted yesterday on CTV's Question Period that Western Alienation has existed since the beginning of the NWT, we were created as a colony of Ontario. Or at the very least a colony of John A. MacDonald, the CPR and the British Crown. Yep Ontario.

Pubilus says;

Westerners, to mangle F. Scott Fitzgerald, are different from you and me, they're from out West. The regional differences, economic, social and demographic between the West and Ontario have made certain kinds of ideologies more attractive, both to the man in the street and the region's elites. Prairie populism is not in and of itself an ideology, as Stephen Harper realized when he quit the Reform caucus and agreed to lead the National Citizens' Coalition. Once in power populism disintegrates almost immediately. Just try and remember who the United Farmers of Alberta or the United Farmers of Ontario were. Footnotes in our national histories because they brought anger but not the ideas that make policy and institutions, the sort of things that last. The ideologies that the West brings to the table, really more like different perspectives on ones found else where in Canada, are libertarian and evangelical.

Actually UFA and UFO did bring policies to the table, interestingly policies that were key to Reform's original popularity; Recall and Referendum. And I agree that once in power populism dissolves in the face of power. Manning sat in Stornaway after saying he wouldn't. Reformers accepted Pensions after being elected based on saying they would never accept them (Hey Deb Grey how's your retirement going at taxpayer expense). Like Mussolini, the rabble is organized in the streets to mount the barricades and then once in power they rule from the statist quo.

I don't mean libertarian in the sense that the people of West want to destroy the welfare state - if only! - merely that they are more skeptical of government, having felt its ill affects only too acutely in the region's comparatively short history. I don't, also, mean evangelical in the purely religious sense. Evangelical in the simpler sense of wanting change and expecting risk - of idealism. There are Christians in Ontario, they're just very quiet about it, lest they be discovered and soon after interrogated for not conforming. It's a beat and sound that's different out there. Nothing wrong with Ontario, Canada needs Ontario and needs what it represents. It just needs less of it in the years to come. Enough with the United Empire Loyalists and the never ending permutations on their bloody paternalism. I'm all for stability, I' m occasionally smug - no really, I am - but the Globe and Mail I do not need.

Here! Here! I agree. The IWW, the One Big Union; the industrial union movement of the working class originated in Western Canada. Not insignificantly because the work out here was not Trades or Craft based but semi or un-skilled labour. Farmers forced to mine or cut trees or build railways.

Even our Socialist movement, the Socialist Party, and the Social Democratic Parties, were an outgrowth of both class and ethnic consciousness of battling the English Canadian Ruling class. To the English bourgeois we were all Enemy Aliens. Sound familiar.

But a strong streak of libertarian socialism of the William Morris school, of autodidactic learning, of a third way between the Socialism of the English and the Europeans developed.

Our own indigenous socialist movement was of farmers and workers, and worker farmers if you like. It arose with a sense of liberty, we left the old country to be free, and came to a country that had a more advanced capitalist economy, albeit a mercantile monopoly capitalist one.

My grandparents faced down the big Mining companies, the railways and the banks to make a living. In order to get a fair shake they had to organize, so they did. Unions and political parties. In this case the UFA, then the CCF and the Communist Party of Canada all had their roots in the evangelical call of socialism and the ideals of the cooperative commonwealth.

Publius is correct about evangelism as well. For it was the Methodist and Anabaptists who populated the west at first. J. H. Woodsworth the fiery orator for the Social Gospel. My own grandfather who was recognized as a preacher by the Presbyterian (itself an offshoot of Methodism) Church, because there were no Ukrainian Orthodox or Catholic Churches out west at the turn of last century. My grandfather who then helped found the first socialist workers farmers organization in Western Canada, the Ukrainian Farmer Labour Temple.

This evangelism today has been embraced by the right. But it was there in the founding of the socialist movement as well. You have to be an idealist to believe in the cause. Regardless of the rigor of you learning, even founded in materialism, it is idealism that is the heart and soul of radical movements, left or right.

And while the right would have you believe the West was always Right, not so, the West is the very soul of Socialism in Canada. We have always embraced reform out west both Left and Right. And we have embraced clear cut plain speaking politics. In effect we can never be Liberals, mealy mouthed centerists who seek state power. Our clashes have to be clear cut, black and white, left and right. In the west the middle way, the centrist, the statist quo was the rule of Ontario, the English ruling class in Canada. We sent politicians left or right to Ottawa to represent us. That is why we never sent many Liberals. It was either Conservatives or CCF'ers.

The Liberals were wiped out in Alberta for over sixty years as a provincial party. Today the Federal Liberals stand on the eve of their greatest defeat. One that may not be as bad as Kim Campbells, but for the all powerful party of the Centre and Central Canada, it will have the same psychic impact. Their internal battles over power for the past four years have left them unfit to rule. And the two parties that will replace them in the House as voices of the Left and Right, the NDP and Conservatives will be because the West Wants In. Both are parties of the West.
We will have the last laugh this election night. And it's been a long time coming.

Also See:

Social Credit And Western Canadian Radicalism

Canada's First Internment Camps

LABOUR HISTORY

The Edmonton General Strike Of 1919

Also references in the article: A greater union,

Calgary 1919-The Birth Of The OBU And The General Strike

The CCF:The Original Reform Movement

The Edmonton District Labour Council and Municipal Politics 1903-1906

Tags
Canada
Federal Election
Politics
Green Party
NDP
Conservatives
BQ
Liberals
Labour History
Canadian History
CCF
UFA
Riel
Western Canada
Reform Party

(r)Evolutionary Theory

I came across this article on evolutionary theory, Stephen Jay Gould and Dialectical Materialism at Monthly Review. Well worth the read in this era of psudeo science, ID, and junk science; Creationism.

It shows that one can be critical of Darwin and the founders of the science of evolution, without throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Criticsim of evolutionary theory and its links to bourgoise society is not what the promoters of ID and critical discussion of evolutionary theory have in mind though, nor would they allow it in classroom.

Notice that through out the debate around ID there is a dearth of discussion of Stephen Jay Goulds work on puncutated evolution. A highly critical analysis of presumptions of uniformity, the very basis of which the creationists attempt to call into question evolution. The article below shows how Gould applied dialectics to question assumptions made by the founder of uniformism Charles Lyell (1797-1875) geologist. and his influence on T.H. Huxley as well as Darwin.

Gould deals with both catastrophism, and creationism and comes up with his own take on evolution. From a dialectical materialist perspective.

Natural History and the Nature of History
Richard York and Brett Clark

Over 500 million years ago, Pikaia, a two-inch-long worm-like creature, swam in the Cambrian seas. It was not particularly common, nor in anyway would it have appeared remarkable to a hypothetical naturalist surveying the fauna of the time. Pikaia is the first known chordate, the phylum to which Homo sapiens and all other vertebrates belong. As the late Stephen Jay Gould, paleontologist, evolutionary theorist, and dialectical biologist, posited in one of his most renowned books, Wonderful Life (1989), an exceptional level of human arrogance is necessary to argue that Pikaia was superior to its many contemporaries who either went extinct or, through the vagaries of history, dwindled to obscurity. Yet, despite the absurdity of it, bourgeois thought is so deeply committed to portraying history as a march of progress leading inexorably to the present that many natural historians have long argued that evolution on earth unfolded in a predictable, progressive manner, with the emergence of humanity, or at least a conscious intelligent being, as its inevitable outcome. This view fits well with the perspective of the dominant classes of various historical ages, who typically believe the particular hierarchical social order that supports them is both natural and inevitable, the point toward which history had been striving. As Marxist scholars have long recognized, ruling-class ideology gets smuggled into the damnedest places, including interpretations of the natural world. This elite construction of nature, which often involves demarcating so-called inherent hierarchies, is often used to justify inequalities in the social world. It would be wise to call into question such depictions of the social and natural world and to seek an understanding of natural history free of this ideology.

Also see:

Dialectical Science-JBS Haldane

Dialectical Anthropology-AP Alexeev

Tags
Mutual Aid
evolution
science
animals
Darwin
creationism
biology
Stephen Jay Gould
Darwinism
Marxism
history of science
philosophy of science

Steeler Nation Superbowl Bound

The Steelers are going to the superbowl. It's the fourth quarter and the Broncos are suffering badly at the hands of Pittsburg. Its over the team placed 6th in their Division has spent the last few weeks marching over the number 1, 2 and 3 teams. It's Steeltowns revenge.

There isn't much left of Steel in Steel town. In fact all that is left of the mighty US Steel corporation is the ensigna of the Steelers Football Assocation.

And in this well crafted piece from Monthly Review, the author explains why the Steelers represent the icon of a passing industry, in a town now being recrafted as a Public Private Corporation.
And unlike last year Steeler Nation may not have to face the humiliation of not being in the Superbowl. While the folks left behind in Pittsburg suffer at the hands of the boondoogle of Corporate restructuring of the oldest working class city in North America.

The Glory and the Gutting: Steeler Nation and the Humiliation of Pittsburgh
Charles McCollester

Last football season the Pittsburgh Steelers stunned fans with an unexpected series of victories. A Steeler Nation-composed of a generation of Pittsburgh's workers who scattered across the United States as their jobs vanished in the last quarter of the twentieth century-filled stadiums in a dozen cities with their team's colors, black and gold. The delirium peaked with the Steelers' victory over the New York Jets, which seemed like an act of God. The improbable twice-missed field goals and overtime win continued the Steelers' fourteen-game winning streak and their march toward the Super Bowl-until that road was cleanly blocked by the New England Patriots. Whatever deity oversees such matters, she must have a sense of equity or cosmic balance because the Steeler Nation in diaspora enjoyed its moment of glory just as the real, living, here-still-today city of Pittsburgh, near bankruptcy, suffered humiliation and dismemberment.