Stageleft makes some interesting observations on Chantel Herberts latest column in the Toronto Star comparing, gasp, Stephen Harper to Jean Chretien. Similarities: Harper and Chretien
This is happening in Alberta home of Free Enterprize.Drink prices rising?
Alberta is eyeing a minimum price for booze in bars and restaurants in a bid to stop customers from pounding back drinks and pounding on each other.The province is considering the floor price following concerns raised by bar owners, police and municipalities, Gaming Minister Gordon Graydon said Monday."Once upon a time, long ago, Alberta did have minimum drink prices. It would be going back to that policy," he said. He said the issue will be explored at a round-table discussion in Calgary later this month.
So much for the "Free market" in booze. Once upon a time we also had unionized liquor stores run by the province.
It is of course alright to privatize the liquor stores , despite the loss of monies it created, but now the business folks want the State to regulate per shot prices.
Once again proving that the capitalist state exists to do what business wants, not what the supposedly sacred "market " wants. Guaranteed prices means a guaranteed profit, and lessens competition between bars and lounges. Hey isn't that price fixing by any other name? Why of course it is.
Next time you hear the refrain about the need for government to get out of business or how the free market creates competition, remember this. Business hates a free market, it wants an assured market, it wants the state to guarantee its business. Protectionism is ok to these guys until they become a monopoly and then they want markets to open up to them.
Alberta is now being governed by the Retirement Party, after Premier Ralph Klein confirmed he plans to step down as head of the Conservative dynasty -- but not for 19 long and aimless months.
Jim Dinning, who some consider the front-runner among six leadership hopefuls, said "there's still some confusion" about when the official leadership race will begin."If the date is October 2007, does the race start now or does the race start then?" Dinning said in an interview.
Tories risk taking same trip over a cliff as SocredsThat means the Conservatives won't have a new leader in place until February 2008 -- which gives the party little time to rebuild before the next provincial election is held, likely the same year.
Disaffected Tories are afraid Klein is giving himself too much time to say goodbye and the new leader too little time to say hello.
For them, 19 months is more than enough time for Klein's distracted, at times grumpy, leadership style to drive more supporters away from the party, and to drive the party over the same cliff that claimed the Alberta Social Credit Party and the federal Progressive Conservative Party under Brian Mulroney.
The grumblers are a paranoid lot and they're overstating their worst-case scenario. But they'll be voting at the party's convention and the only way they'd give Klein a ringing endorsement to stay is if he announces he's leaving -- soon.
Klein might still win the leadership vote by a comfortable margin, but then what?
How can he govern for the next 19 months?
He is such a lame duck he'll need crutches to get around for the next year.
Klein to step down next year
Globe and Mail -4 hours ago
EDMONTON -- Ralph Klein, the country's most colourful and longest-serving Premier, ended years of speculation yesterday by finally announcing his official retirement date: October of 2007.
Klein says he'll quit in October 2007Toronto Star
Klein locks in retirement dateCBC.ca Canada.com -CTV.ca -Calgary Sun -Edmonton Journal (subscription) -all 47 related »
New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton said it would not look good for Canada's Prime Minister to deny MPs a vote on a military mission aimed at encouraging democracy. "We think it would be ironic that we're defending democracy in another country but not permitting a fundamental democratic process in our own," he said.
DP World, a ports company owned by the Maktoum family that rules Dubai, one of the seven sheikdoms in the United Arab Emirates, was forced to sell the U.S. port operations of Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation in the face of congressional opposition.
P&O Royal Charter |
| P&O - The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company - is one of the world's foremost developers and operators of container ports. We are also the leading ferry operator in the UK and have property interests in the US and Europe. P&O was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1840. The Charters and Regulations of the Company are set out below. |
| P&O Royal Charter (PDF format, 242 KB) |
It was consulted on the extension of similar mail services into the Mediterranean. In 1840, it received a contract for a monthly run to Alexandria, and to raise the 1 million pounds needed it became a limited liability company: The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company was incorporated by a Royal Charter on 31 December 1840, and remains to this day one of the few British companies not operating under the Companies Act.
Oriental Extension
Larger ships were acquired for the Egyptian run, still larger ones - all of 2,000 tons - built to brave monsoon weather on the Calcutta/Suez line opened in 1843. By 1845 P&O services reached Singapore and Hong Kong and in 1852 extended to Sydney. The company's three great imperial mail routes - India, the Far East and Australia - had been established in less than a decade.
The completion of the Suez Canal in 1869 brought with it a variety of competitors for P&O's virtual monopoly on long distance steamer service to the Far East. To remain competitive the company cut overhead including "abolishing free liquor at meals." In the early 20th century the firm acquired more than a dozen shipping companies; during the World Wars its ships transported troops and supplies in support of the war efforts.
The company reorganized in 1971, and during the 80s converted nearly all its dry cargo operations to container shipping. It was during this period that it turned its attention to "the necessary on-shore infrastructure of container ports, inland depots, and road, rail and inland waterway transport links." P & O also briefly expanded into oil exploration in the North Sea and US, and into housing construction and industrial services. By 1999 "[t]hese interests, no longer needed to support the Group's core businesses, had largely been sold."
P&O Ports, the P&O Group company responsible for port development, investment, operating and stevedoring activities, began as an Australian terminal operating entity, and expanded internationally in 1986 with the privatization of the Port Kelang container terminal in Malaysia. The P&O Ports web site notes "This was one of the first privatizations of public port assets undertaken worldwide and its great success resulted in it becoming an international model. "
Monopoly, the old Mercantilist power relationship between the aritsocracy and its capitalists is again being played out on the global stage, with America playing the role of protectionist Empire as Britain once did. Another irony.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is being sued by a man who claims his dismissal as a Stornoway chef was "insulting, high-handed, spiteful, malicious and oppressive."
He alleges he took on other duties for which he was not paid, including babysitting the couple's two children, washing the family car and burying one of Harper's pet cats after it died.
Lundsgaard alleges that about one month before Harper won the Jan. 23 election, Laureen Harper led him to believe he would become the head chef at 24 Sussex Drive. Both the prime minister and his wife are named in the suit.
Lundsgaard says he received a letter on election day telling him that his services were no longer needed.
Harper tells troops that despite dissent, Canada's staying in ...
Canada.com, Canada -1 hour ago
Prime Minister Stephen Harper chats with Canadian troops in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Sunday. (CP/Tom Hanson). KANDAHAR, Afghanistan ...
Harper goes to war zoneCanada.com
HARPER'S SURPRISE AFGHAN VISITGlobe and Mail
Harper visits troops in AfghanistanToronto Star Calgary Sun -CBC News -all 115 related » Harper vows Canada will not ‘run away at the first sign of ...
Globe and Mail, Canada -3 hours ago
Kandahar, Afghanistan — Prime Minister Stephen Harper served up a healthy portion of praise and support for Canadian soldiers serving in Afghanistan on Monday ...
Harper admits jittersOttawa Sun
Barely out of warm-ups, PM heads to a hot zoneGlobe and Mail all 3 related »
Gee I thought International Terrorism was rooted in Iraq, the reason the Americans gave for going to war, after WMD and Saddam is a dictator. Since the invasion the Bushies have been saying the exact same thing about Iraq, better to fight Terrorism there than in America. They already have to fight armed gangs suffering from poverty and inequality in East LA.Harper told reporters accompanying him that the Canadian force in the country serves the national interest because:
- International terrorism is rooted in the country. "It was in Afghanistan that Sept. 11 started."
- The country is a major source of narcotics, which have a terrible impact on Canada.
- It shows Canada providing international leadership and humanitarian aid.
Perhaps if the Americans had not opposed the Russians who were helping the pre- Taliban government fight off the religious fruitcakes and warlords we would not have such a mess there now. Unfortunately human rights is only an issue of convenience for countries like the U.S., to use when it fits their bigger purpose, or to ignore when it does not.
Afghanistan today is certainly no shining example of human rights. To claim protecting human rights as a policy of the occupation of Afghanistan is certainly a joke. Sources report that for women outside of Kabul things may be worse now than under the Taliban. Religious laws still receive official sanction in some areas, and blasphemy is still a crime.
Harper said "the debate over deployment is over," no matter what surveys of public opinion may suggest.That's it Harper has Declared War and there is no debate. War always the time for serious debate He is being a muscular and masculine politician, something he always wanted to be to get over his policy wonk nerdishness. Harper Will Make Canada Masculine Again Beware of the nerd who gains power.
Canada is fighting for freedom and democracy, but some of our Afghan allies have proven every bit as bloodthirsty as the Taliban, which once formed the de facto government and had dealings with the U.S. right up until the summer of 2001.
The rap sheet of the United Front/Northern Alliance includes mass murder of PoWs, the killing and rape of civilians, religious persecution and the use of child soldiers.
These allies proved remarkably unreliable, most notably during the alleged escape in 2001 of Osama bin Laden.
The best-case scenario goal is to turn over more of the country's security to many of these same people.
Coloured fingers are nice, but when cutthroats and drug runners empowered by the U.S. invasion are the end result, surely our country's deployment is up for at least debate.
Canadians should also know whether the prisoners taken by our troops are turned over to U.S. jailers who've been known to batter captives to death from Baghdad to Bagram.
Canada's elite JTF2 commandos have worked closely with and under U.S. command.
