Deforming The Senate

Reforming the Senate is a waste of time.

But Harper is pushing Senate reform , actually its more like deform, his proposal is that provinces hold Senate elections during Federal elections and then the PM would appoint the 'elected senators' thus avoiding a constitutional change, read constitutional amendment, is another Alberta innovation.

Quebec will never agree, Que. says no to Harper's senate plan even though Alberta has already done this, which leaves eight other provinces open to electoral reform through the back door. And it is being rejected not only by Quebec but Canada's biggest province, Ont. minister dismisses Harper's Senate-reform plan

And it is being rejected even by the other Western Canadians; If the Senate mattered

The Triple E Senate originated in Alberta, and was a key platform demand of the Reform Party it is Harpers sop to his Alberta base the only province that has held Senate elections. And even those elections have lacked popular support, garnering as many spoiled ballots and abstentions as votes.

And who wants Link Byfield in the Senate, he and his whole family are representatives not of Alberta but the loony right.

That Harper continues to attempt Senate Reform by edict, misses the whole point of the Reform Movement in the West. It was about reforming the parliamentary system, but under Preston Manning it only went part way with the concept of the Triple E Senate.

Like vestigial useless wisdom teeth the Senate is the home of non-representative democracy, the last vestige of aristocracy, modeled as it is on the House of Lords. It represents the early parliament of landowners. You need to own property and be over the age of thirty to sit in the Senate, or to even run for the Senate.

We don't need to reform the Senate we need to eliminate the Senate and replace it with Proportional Representation, and a greater say in Ottawa. Senate Reform itself was realpolitik of the Manning reformers, they didn't think they could radically change Canadian parliamentary politics perse so they used Senate Reform as their hobbyhorse.

The reality has changed since the eighties and nineties, and PR is now on the agenda for the NDP and Greens and even members of the Liberals, Conservatives and BQ.

So instead of Senate Reform let's abolish the Senate and talk about real parliamentary reform including PR, recognition of municipalities as political bodies that pre-date provinces thus entitled to federal recognition as provinces are, recognition of Aboriginal Self Government, and a new federalism based upon constituent assemblies.

Now that would be radical reform.

The true sociological doctrines of modern times can be summed up in a few words: Recognizing that, in the political and temporal order, the only legitimate authority is the one to which the majority of the nation has given its consent; that are wise and beneficial constitutions only those for which the governed have been consulted, and to which the majorities have given their free approbation; that all which is a human institution is destined to successive change; that the continuous perfectibility of man in society gives him the right and imposes him the duty to demand the improvements which are appropriate for new circumstances, for the new needs of the community in which he lives and evolves.

1867 Speech of Louis-Joseph Papineau at the Institut canadien

See

Senate Reform

Abolish the Senate 1

Democracy Is Messy

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Brain Scan For The Election

Scientists Claims They Can Read The Secret Intentions In The Brain

Let's scan Harper, Dion, Duceppe, and Layton to find out when the election will be.




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American Union Bosses

Here is an perfect example of why we need autonomous democratic Canadian unions.

Conductors at Canadian National Railway Co., the country's largest railroad, won't strike immediately after a midnight deadline even if labor talks today don't produce an agreement, a union official said. The United Transportation Union chapter, which represents Canadian National's 2,800 conductors and yard workers, needs to apply for strike authority from its Cleveland-based headquarters, Frank Wilner, a union spokesman, said in an interview today.

It's not the workers who decide to strike but the 'union bosses' ,as the Sun newspapers call 'em , in the U.S. This is the real meaning of International Unions operating in Canada, they are American business unions run by union bosses rather than by the members.

CN workers are represented by three different unions, which just goes to show that they need One Big Union of all the workers, run by the workers.

And here is another reason for Federal Anti-Scab legislation.

The company has said it will continue its freight operations across Canada during a strike, with management personnel performing the UTU-represented conductor and yard-service jobs.

This is just another CN disaster in the making, refusing to negotiate while raking in record profits and subjecting its workers to speed ups and accidents.

See

Independent Unions

This is Class War

Unions




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Harper Flashback

Another broken promise.

"When I'm prime minister I will not whip our cabinet,"Harper said

Well I guess that's technically true he whips the whole caucus, and has even used the triple whip ,which even the Liberals didn't use, leading to a cabinet minister stepping down.



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A Year Later Get Over It

Following up on my post about folks who need to get over it, the Liberals need to get over blaming the NDP for forcing the election last year. Martha Hall Findley brought up this tired old canard on Mike Duffy Live yesterday. Sigh. Enough already.

First the Liberals planned to commit political suicide in the spring of 2006 anyways. The winter election simply hastened their imminent demise. Really does any Liberal really believe that Canadians were not going to turf them out?

Second, Paul Martin ran a pathetic tired old campaign. He failed to fight the good fight, he knew it, the Liberals knew it, Canadians knew it and so he fell on his sword for the good of the Party. It was a campaign fraught with mistakes. But even if it had been picture perfect the Liberals were doomed anyways. Canadians were out to punish them for their moral turpitude.


Finally they had the opportunity to win the NDP's support. They could have simply agreed to look at the NDP proposals to strengthen the Canada Health Act to preclude privatization, an opportunity they were offered and rejected. Rejected arrogantly at the time. The same week they suffered the leak to Bay Street on Income Trusts. Which was the straw that broke the camels back.

In their arrogance the Liberals committed political suicide pushing aside the only party left propping them up with an attitude of a schoolyard nyah, nyah dare ya.

The Liberals lost the election just as they lost the NDP's support because they were arrogant. Pure and simple. So lets quit blaming the NDP when the blame falls squarely on Paul Martin, his handlers and his cabinet.



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13 Years Later ,Get Over It

The New Conservative Government of Canada likes to get up on its hind legs in parliament when questioned and bark out; You had 13 years and what did you do?

While not one to defend the Liberals let's remember who was Her Majesty's Official Opposition.Why the Reform/Alliance/Conservatives who are now Her Majesty's Minority Government.

It always takes two to tango in government.

When Martin cut transfer payments to the provinces, which the Harpocrites remind us created the mess we are in when it comes to Medicare, wait times, post-secondary education etc.

What did they want the Reform/Alliance/Conservatives want the government to do? Cut faster and deeper.

And when they talk about the Liberals doing nothing on the environment, what was it they said when they were in Opposition, why that they opposed signing Kyoto and said they would do everything in their power to scuttle it. Which they are now doing.

And what did they say about social program spending cuts made by the Liberals?
Why they didn't go far enough of course which is why they have cut those programs now that they are in power.

And lets not forget either that the reason they paid off Maher Arar was to avoid him including the Conservative Party in his suit, since they repeatedly called him a terrorist when they were Her Majesty's Official Opposition.

So can we drop the 13 years crap already, the Conservative were across the aisle and they wanted to do far worse things, like lead Canada into war. Oops they did that too.


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Green Baird

The only thing Green about the new Conservative Environment Minister John Baird is his tie. No carbon tax, international carbon trading, Baird says

See:

Baird

Environment

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Goose Gander Newfoundland

What's good for the goose is not good for the the gander in Newfoundland.

Noseworthy's annual audit showed that a legislative committee approved an increase in constituency allowances in May 2004, mere days after the house pushed through an austerity bill that froze civil service wages for years.




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Made In Alberta Green Plan

CTV's David Akin notes that what was to be an open meeting between Conservative Government of Canada Ministers in Alberta to talk about the environment with their counterpart in Alberta suddenly was canceled by the powers that be. Another leak from the good ship of state in Alberta.

And more secrecy from the PMO and the Alberta Government. Why?

Because they were discussing the Harpocrites real green plan, which isn't, intensity targets. Intensity targets are mirage, a game of three card Monte err Monty, where the environmental cost of production is estimated based on per item produced rather than total industrial output of Greenhouse gases.

It's what Alberta has been doing but which has not decreased GHG's in the province. Which is why the media was shut out of the meeting, because they would ask uncomfortable questions.

Alberta Environment Minister Rob Renner met behind closed doors with two senior federal ministers to plead for intensity-based targets in the oilsands, regulated exclusively by his provincial government.

"From that perspective, I think we're in line with the federal government," said Renner, following a series of hour-long meetings with Environment Minister John Baird and Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn.

"Obviously, this is a priority for (Baird) as much as it is for me. He's newly appointed by his prime minister. I'm newly appointed by my premier, and it sounds like our marching orders were very, very similar."

And the result of this cozy confidential tete a tete between the two Parties of Alberta? Well duh oh;Alberta has environment model: Stelmach

Baird says meeting Kyoto would lead to 'collapse'

Auto industry, Alberta warn Kyoto dangerous for business

Alberta must join Harper's Ottawa on climate action

At this point, Renner and Premier Ed Stelmach say they'll replace voluntary emission cuts with mandatory targets, and that's an important start. Without mandatory targets, it is difficult for oil companies to justify to shareholders any major spending on carbon-reduction measures. Their job isn't to be environmental nice guys, but they're happy to meet industry-wide regulations.

Those mandatory targets will be based on emission "intensity" -- the amount of greenhouse gases produced with each barrel of oil. But while oilsands production increases, emissions will likely continue to rise under the intensity model, only at a slower rate than they would otherwise have done.

See:

Stelmach

Baird

Environment



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Fudging The Books

It's what you get when you privatize. If Air Canada had remained a nationalized airline howls would be heard in the halls of parliament over this accounting jiggery pokery.

For the full year, Air Canada recorded operating income of $259 million, down from $318 million in 2005 amid a 16 per cent rise in fuel costs.

Full-year operating income was $522 million, excluding one-time charges, compared with $455 million in 2005.

Huh?



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