Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Hey Canada is Hot

Well yes we have had an unusually mild winter in the land of snow and cold. But we are actually a Hot Topic tag at technocrati.

Hot Tags

  1. Canada
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Happy Rabbie Burns Day


This blog is now a year old. I know it says it was done in December but actually many of those articles were back posted.

My first blog article was on Robbie Burns, so Happy Robbie Burns day.


Radical Robbie Burns, Peoples Poet

  1. Radical Robbie Burns, Peoples Poet A'hae toast ya laddie with a wee dram. It is Robbie Burns Day around the world. A day to celebrate the common man, the common poet, of the common people; Robbie Burns ... to that countries greatest lover, poet and radical. Around the world there are Robbie Burns dinners,





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2005 Record Heat Wave

Looking forward to the dweebs at Junk Science Inc. and Faux News to say this ain't so. Opps I spoke too soon here is a really dumb article saying exactly that.

NASA calls 2005 the warmest year in a century
CBC Nova Scotia - 17 hours ago
The year 2005 may be the warmest in a century, say NASA scientists who studied surface temperatures around the world. The previous record holder was 1998, when a strong El Niño in the eastern Pacific Ocean warmed global temperatures. ...
Greenhouse gases blamed for making 2005 hottest year to date Scotsman
Also See: Climate Change


Arctic
Melt Down

Weather
Report

Arctic
on the Rocks

Global
Warming:

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American Gun Nuts Happy With Conservative Victory


So the David Frum canard about Canada having more crime than the U.S. is now making the rounds amongst the right wing commentators in the U.S.

Again they note that we have more 'reported' crime in Canada. That's cause we keep better statistics than the U.S. and have a higher rate of reporting.

The fact that is overlooked is the drop in the crime rate including violent crime in Canada. But hey never let the facts get in the way of ideology.

Except for an increase in 2003, the crime rate has generally been falling since 1991 when it peaked. Police reported about 2.6 million offences in 2004, resulting in a crime rate that was 12% lower than a decade ago.

right click the chart to save it.

Violent crime down but homicide rate up

In total, about 300,000 violent crimes were reported to police in 2004, the majority of which were common assault. The violent crime rate fell 2%, continuing a general decline since 1992. The violent crime rate was 10% lower than a decade earlier, but 35% higher than 20 years ago.

Canada's homicide rate rose 12% in 2004 after hitting a 36-year low the year before. Police reported 622 victims of homicide, 73 more than last year. Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec accounted for most of this increase. The rate of 1.9 homicides for every 100,000 population was 5% lower than it was 10 years earlier


And we don't have eight year olds bringing guns to day care, or licensed to hunt.
Which must gets poor Mr. Gottlieb really upset. He got all verklempt over the Wisconsin decision by the Govenor to veto allowing eight year olds hunting licenses.

Damn Canadian Gun Control freeks. Of course he denies that Canada's current gun problem is one of illegal importation of guns from the U.S. So where did they come from? Who knows. Maybe out of thin air.

Recently, Canada has blamed the United States for its dramatic increase in violent crime; but the problem isn't Americans illegally running guns to Canada, but Canadian criminals illegally importing guns from wherever they can get them, says Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation.

And of course during this election the Conservatives used skewed crime rates to create a hysteria that we had an increasing crime rate rather than the historically factual decline in crime. Not unlike the Canadian pro gun lobby which likes to use selective statistics to prove Canada is prone to violent crime, but not gun crime. Which is because we have gun control. And while the gun registry has been a billion dollar boondoogle and an afront to registered gun owners it is not the reason for increased gun crimes in Canada. Nope. It's all those mysterious guns arriving in Canada from who knows where.

Canada's Crime Rate 50 % Higher than U.S.

"Blaming the United States for Canadian crime is an argument that does not pass the smell test,” Gottlieb wrote. "Canada's experience has simply demonstrated that no matter what kind of gun control law a government passes, that law is doomed to failure because instead of keeping guns out of the wrong hands, the law disarms the wrong people. Canada's gun control scheme has not just failed - it has failed disastrously. Clear evidence of that can be found in a comparison of the crime rates for Canada and America.”

Gottlieb cites an article by Canada's National Post columnist David Frum where he revealed that "Canada's overall crime rate is now 50 percent higher than the crime rate in the United States.” Moreover, "Since the early 1990s, crime rates have dropped in 48 of the 50 states and 80 percent of American cities. Over that same period, crime rates have risen in six of the 10 Canadian provinces and in seven of Canada’s 10 biggest cities.”

Gun Rights Group Praises Canadian Gun Owners for Conservative Victory

"Liberal Democrats now need to take a lesson from Canada's election," Gottlieb stated, "because the whole world is watching. It's clear there is a movement growing around the globe. Brazilian citizens last year rejected a national gun ban, and now, Canadian gun owners have spoken. Americans have been telling liberal Democrats for more than a decade that gun control is a losing proposition, and the elections in Brazil and Canada prove that."

"Gun owners around the world can't make it any more plain," Gottlieb concluded. "We're telling politicians to keep their hands off our guns, because firearm ownership is more than a recreational pastime, it is a symbol of liberty. There's a line in the sand stretching from Houston to Hudson's Bay. Cross it at your own peril."

CCRKBA Applauds Canada Gun Owners For Kicking Out Liberal Extremists


Also see:
Canadian Crime Statistics
Explaining the American and Canadian Crime Drop in the 1990’s.
Firearm Crimes, Canada Vs. US

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Canada's First Family


Here they are. After years of old white guys running the country, as Conservative feminista Rona Ambrose MP refered to the Liberals during the day care debate, we now have a First Family in Canada. Note to Rona, gee they look awfully white.




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Rona Ambrose Parachute Candidate

I was working as a scrutineer on election night in Edmonton Strathcona and who should show up to vote none other than Rona Ambrose, Conservative MP for Spruce Grove.

Now last time I checked Spruce Grove a small urban suburb outside of Edmonton was closer to West Edmonton Mall than Edmonton Strathcona.

And following in the footsteps of Edmonton Strathcona MP Rahim Jaffer she too missed election forums.Ambrose denies missing meetings

But unlike Jaffer she will probably be in cabinet.

Still funny that she lives in Edmonton Strathcona but represents Spruce Grove.

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Rahim Jaffer Not In Cabinet

Well at least there is a silver lining to the ignomious victory for the right wings favorite drinking buddy and Muslim of convenience (he claimed to have missed his first election forum cause he was attending Muslim services) Rahim Jaffer.

PARTY OF THE NIGHT

Jaffer's election-night party Monday at Mike Yasinski's Hudson's Pub on Calgary Trail morphed into the Conservative party's celebration headquarters.

From an eerie quiet earlier in the evening, the party hit a fevered pitch by 11 p.m. and was still going strong when Hicks on Six rolled out the door at 2 a.m. yesterday.

The next generation of political leaders - Jaffer, Rajotte, Lake and Ambrose - cracked an enormous bottle of champagne, saving a few drops for Laurie Hawn who arrived a short time later.

Celebrating with the members of Her Majesty's newest government of Canada were provincial cabinet ministers Lyle Oberg, Gene Zwozdesky; Leduc MLA George Rogers; Conservative campaign director Hal Danchilla and the political "godfather" of many of the younger members of Parliament, retired Conservative MP and MLA Ian McClelland.


He is the only Tory in Alberta who got less than 50% of the popular vote. Told ya. The guy does not have Edmonton Strathcona's support. He was touted as cabinet material at one point when the media speculated on a Harper victory, well not now.

The Calcutta Telegraph of India is speculating on which Indo-Canadians will be in Harpers cabinet and Jaffer ain't one of them.Brown tinge stays same in Canada. Funniest specualtion in this article which fails to name Jaffer at all, is the idea of Nina Grewal being in cabinet. Grewal the quietist backbencher versus Jaffer the laziest.

The excuse for Jaffer not being in cabinet is that Harper has enough high profile potential MP's from Alberta for cabinet. All good old white Albertans.

So if you live in Edmonton Strathcona and are a drinking buddy of Rahims or were thinking after three terms you would finally have a cabinet minister from the riding, well forget it. You get more of the same, the laziest self serving MP in the house.

More Jaffer stories

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Blogspot down Today. But For How Long?

Yeah the last time they fixed something we were offline for a day.

We'll be taking Blogger down on Wednesday the 25th at 4pm PST to fix a bit of a switch that's gone wonky on us. The outage should last about 15 minutes. Blogger.com and Blog*Spot blogs will be inaccessible during this time. This repair will fix the problem that caused the brief outage last Friday night. We're also using this down time as an opportunity to tune our databases for more efficient spam catching and deletion.
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Canada Changes Course


Winds of Change was the slogan of the old Unite the Right post Mulroney Conservative movement in Western Canada attempting to realign the Reform Party of the time with the remainder of the Mulroney Tories they had just decimated in the 1988 election.

After Monday night the headlines in the papers in Canada and around the world were a Deja Vu. Canada Changes Course.

I just can't come to say it. Nope just can't. Can't say Prime Minister Harper. But apparently I don't have to. Cause the first thing the Harper did was wrap himself up with the old Mulroney Team.

24 January 2006

OTTAWA – Statement by Prime Minister elect Stephen Harper:

“The Conservative transition team will be led by Derek H. Burney, who served previously as Canada's Ambassador to the United States and as Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. Mr. Burney will be assisted by a group with extensive experience in government. Their main objective will be to ensure a smooth transition from the outgoing to the incoming administration.”


Welcome Back Prime Minister Mulroney.


My Blahg has more on the nasty Mr. Burney and the transition he promises.

With Mr. Burney at the helm Steven Harper will become Mulroney-Too, and that will make the U.S. very happy. Actually it already has.

Canada Moves to Join the Great Club of Relevance: Amity Shlaes

White House looks for closer ties with Canada

Press Briefing by Scott McClellan

Q This morning there was a program at the American Enterprise Institute on the election in Canada. And Stephen Harper was just elected Prime Minister. And three former members of the administration -- David Frum, who was a presidential speechwriter, Roger Noriega, who was an assistant Secretary of State, and Phil Swagel, who was chief of staff for the White House Council of Economic Advisors -- discussed the softwood lumber dispute. And they all agreed that the U.S., they said, acted like a rogue nation in this dispute, that the U.S. is in the wrong. And I'm wondering if the administration would agree with that, and if we might see some resolution of the softwood lumber dispute now that we have a new leader in Canada.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, first of all, let me offer our congratulations to the new government that is taking place, taking form in Canada. We congratulate the Conservative Party and Stephen Harper on the victory. We have had a strong and broad relationship with Canada, and we look forward to working with the new government to strengthen our relations even more. So we offer our congratulations.

In terms of the softwood lumber issue, this is something that we've had a disagreement over. The President has discussed it on a number of occasions when he's met with the Prime Minister there. And we are continuing to work to try to bring it to a resolution and that's what we will -- that's what we are committed to doing.

Q Scott, this morning you said that President Bush would call the Prime Minister from Canada, Stephen Harper. Can you give us an update --

MR. McCLELLAN: No, I don't have an update on that. I expect he will be calling him soon to offer him his congratulations and say that he looks forward to working with him.

Q Can you give us -- there's a bit of a sense in Canada that this conservative government in Canada will be better able to work with the conservative Bush administration. Can you just give us a historical significant comment on --

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, we've had a good working relationship with Canada for a long time. There are many areas where we have worked closely together with the government. We look forward to working with the new government and strengthening those ties even more. I'm not going to try to compare one administration to the next. We congratulate Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party on their victory, and look forward to working with them.

Q Could the fact that they have a very short minority government be a problem? Could that force Stephen Harper to adopt a stronger, tougher attitude --

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, that's getting into internal politics inside Canada. I'll leave that analysis to others. 



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The Last Poll

There was lots of speculation in the penultimate days before the Canadian election about which polls were the most accurate, and subsequently whose polling companies would be toast. Much speculation went on with the Blogging Tories that SES which did not give their party the big lead was out to lunch. Progressive Bloggers on the otherhand took heart over the SES polls. As it was SES faired the best being the closest to the actual vote count. Damn close. But for you poll junkies who need one more hit here is an interesting American site with an analysis of the polls. Political Arithmetik

And while we are speaking of polls the UBC Election Stockmarket Poll did amazingly well showing that a real marketplace in votes could replace Bay Street. Or was it Bay Street could marketize voting. If so you would not lose money betting on SES.

How well did we do? ESM vs. Pollsters (Popular Vote Predictions)

 LIB CPC NDP BLQ OTR Absolute
Error
1. SES Research (Jan. 22) 30.1 36.4 17.4 10.6 5.6 0.4
2. UBC ESM (Jan. 22) 28.1 37.6 17.8 10.5 6.0 4.2
3. Strategic Counsel (Jan. 22) 27 37 19 11 6 6.3
4. Ekos (Jan. 20) 26.9 37.1 19.5 11.5 4.6 8.1
5. Ipsos-Reid (Jan. 22) 27 38 19 12 4 9.6


How well did we do? ESM vs. Other Seat Projections

 LIB CPC NDP BLQ OTR Absolute
Error
1. Milton Chan
(electionprediction.org)		 104 118 29 56 1 12.0
2. UBC ESM 95.5 125.2 32.6 53.4 1.2 15.0
3. Gregory Morrow
(democraticspace.com)		 94 128 29 56 1 18.0
4. SES Research 84 134 34 55 1 36.0
5. Laurier Institute (LISPOP) 78 140 33 56 1 50.0
6. Jordan O'Brien (jord.ca) 72 135 38 62 1 62.0
7. Strategic Counsel 56 149 41 61 1 94.0
8. EKOS (Jan 20) 53 151 41 62 1 100.0
9. Ipsos-Reid (Jan 21) 46 157 42 62 1 114.0





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