Obesity Is A National Problem

The new poster child for Canada's participaction program to reduce obesity.

Play is the best weapon in the fight against childhood obesity

To bad he didn't include anything in the new budget to help reduce his and other adult Canadians obesity problems.

Subsidies needed to combat growing obesity problem

Of Canadians aged 18 or older, 36.1 per cent are overweight and 23.1 per cent are obese, according to Statistic Canada’s 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey.

With rising obesity rates in mind, University of Alberta economics professor Dr Sean B Cash spoke of how fat taxes and thin subsidies could be used to encourage Canadians to make healthy choices at last weekend’s Philosophers’ Café, held at the Stanley A Milner Library.

Cash brought up the concept of energy densities, which is the amount of energy in a unit of food, such as calories per gram. Cash and some of his students, using Edmonton grocery stores, replicated a study on energy densities previously done in Seattle.

“As the energy-density goes up, the cost per unit of energy goes down,” Cash said.

Cash explained that this trend results in energy dense foods, like chips, cookies and plain white sugar, being a cheaper way to meet someone’s energy needs than healthier alternatives like fruits and vegetables.

The PM's paunch may not be a question of nature and nurture or even the fault of his food choices, maybe it's the result of chemical poisons in the Canadian environment.

Phthalates, a class of chemicals used in some plastic food packaging and soaps, have been implicated in higher belly fat in men.

Phthalates are used to make plastic flexible, and are found in plastic tubes, some children's toys, cosmetics, shampoos, soaps, lotions, lubricants, paint, pesticides, and other plastics.

The chemicals have been implicated in reproductive problems in men such as low sperm counts and low testosterone levels, and subtle changes in the reproductive organs of baby boys.

In a new study to be published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, Dr. Richard Stahlhut of the University of Rochester Medical Center and his team looked at the connection between phthalates and testosterone.

The researchers wanted to test the idea that phthalates may be linked to obesity, since low testosterone levels appear to cause abdominal obesity and
pre-diabetes in men.

Does our macho PM suffer from a low testosterone count? Only Mrs. PM can say for sure.

Of course it didn't seem to affect the testosterone levels of that other politician with a paunch; Bill Clinton.


H/T to janfromthebruce

See: Fat Boy Needs Election

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Tories Red Budget

Maybe it was all those Red Fridays that finally got to the Conservatives.

Cause according to their fans over at the Blogging Tories this budget was a Liberal one.

How is the Conservative budget playing with Conservatives?

As I said here.

Even their fan club in the mass media gave them thumbs down. Ottawa Sun Scoffs at the Budget

But you know the Conservatives have become the mushy middle when the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, those scions of the right who never saw a tax or spending cut they didn't like, heck Harpers right hand;Jason Kenney used to work for them, denounced the budget because it didn't do enough for the poor!!!! According to the interview with spokesperson John Williamson on CPAC last night.

"Not providing broad-based tax relief is a problem because it means that not all Canadians are enjoying the fiscal dividend that's coming from a rising surplus and savings on debt interest," said Williamson.

The corporate shill lobby denounces the Conservatives for forgetting low income Canadians. But what they really didn't like was this; Notably absent was a measure targeting the wealthier segment of the population, a reduction of taxes on capital gains.

Better to complain about the budget not helping the poor than whining about not getting your corporate tax cut.

"This is hard to distinguish from a Liberal government budget," the Canadian Taxpayers Federation's Mr. Williamson said. "It's the second-highest spending increase in dollar terms since the books were balanced in 1997-1998."

Yep Canada truly is a social democratic country when the Republicanadian right wing denounces their own government.

Irresponsible, unconservative
Don't say taxes high, then table socialist budget

And the Conservatives recognized that with their budget and all the blustering by Flaherty about representing Canadian values .Fiscal conservatism takes a holiday

Irresponsible, unconservative

Terence Corcoran, Financial Post

Published: Tuesday, March 20, 2007

The truck driver, the bank teller, the retiree. The salesperson, the farmer, fisherman. ... We cannot worry about what they say about us around the boardroom tables, but we must care what they talk about at the kitchen tables.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, at a Conservative Party convention, Saturday, March 17, 2007

Ahh, the old populist ploy. The farmer versus the businessman, the kitchen table versus the boardroom table. The literal juxtaposition isn't as important as the symbolism. Nobody expects or wants a government that runs on corporate power, so why bother raising the subject? Simple: What Mr. Harper was appealing to is the age-old collectivist code, big business versus the people, the rich versus the poor and the struggling workers.

No other explanation for Mr. Harper's comments is plausible. It is also the explanation that does more to help us understand yesterday's budget, a massive, unconservative and fiscally irresponsible expansion of government.

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Bleeding Heart Tories

Gone are the nasty neo-liberals, the would be Republicanadians and their social conservative allies, that made up the Canadian Alliance and Harpers new Conservative Party.

Harper paints Tories as party of the middle

With this budget it is the return of Brian Mulroney and his Bleeding Heart Tories, as the Economist branded his government. It is as promised Harpers make over of his Conservative government into the Mulroney Government of yesteryear. Just as Mulroney advised him to do; Harper rallies troops with call to listen to middle-class voters

He has successfully taken the middle of the road, the mushy middle, much better than even the Liberals. In fact this budget is a classic Liberal budget, sans their usual big breaks for big business. In fact it has even resurrected some Liberal programs. Harper's un-conservative spending spree

Sure there are targeted corporate tax breaks aimed at sectors like Manufacturing and small business, but balancing that out is tax rulings eliminating investment off shoring and tax havens. Something the well connected Liberals would never do.

While this will not affect the average Canadian, it should see a reduction in classified ads in the Globe and Mail Business pages and Financial Post for all those tax havens offshore and tax avoidance schemes.

And the Conservatives have made White Collar Crime a priority, true at the bottom of their list of crime initiatives, but still it's the thought that counts.

As usual the devil is in the details. But the bottom line is this is a hold the line budget. The dogmatic need to purge all things Liberal, to cancel programs that their social conservative base has long rallied against (with the sole exception of the Firearms registry), this budget had no spending cuts. And it had little in the way of social program spending either.

It was a sop to all parties and interest groups. There was something in it for the Bloc, the Liberals and NDP. It may not be what they want, or enough, but for appearances sake the Conservatives can claim they listened.

Just as Flaherty praised lobbyists like the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, whose wish list for small business was put in the budget.

Income splitting for stay at home spouses is there, long a bugaboo of the social conservative lobby for middle class wives who can afford to stay home.

Heck they even are eliminating the tax breaks for investment in the Tar Sands, by 2015. However they replaced that with a tax credit for investment in green technology for the very same Tar Sands.

And they have solved the Fiscal Imbalance by giving the provinces their choice of payment programs. A shining example of the ideology of choices so enamored by the neo-cons.

Is it an election budget, sure. Is it a program for an election or even the basis of a platform? No. But it is a budget that allows the Conservatives to stay in power. They are betting on it being winner, that is if they go into an election they can use it, and if they don't it gives them time to plan for the election next year. And as it kicks in it placates the vast middle class in Canada they hope it will improve their poll numbers.

Key suburban voters big winners in budget

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Not His Peers

Former Canadian, remember he renounced his Canadian citizenship, Conrad Black, Lord Black of Crossharbour, will be judged in the United States by the working class. Which belies the old adage; of being judged by your peers.

• Video: Jury selection at the Black trial

Since he has a peerage, I guess they could have held court in the House of Lords. But then they would have acquitted him being good old boys and all.

The mask of invulnerability has begun to slip. For months, Conrad Black has scatterbombed his assailants with bombastic bravado and patronising put-downs. But as he arrived in Chicago to face a criminal trial which could consign him to dotage in jail, the scandal-hit media mogul looked tired, pale and faintly fearful.

The former Telegraph owner and friend of Lady Thatcher faces charges of racketeering, fraud, money laundering, tax evasion and obstruction of justice. With his bulky frame leaning on a courtroom table, he has spent two days listening to childcare niggles, health woes and financial hardships which jurors need settling in order to spend three months on a $40-a-day (£21) stipend sitting in judgment over him.

It is a window on to the life of ordinary folk which Black has never been near. He admits as such, complaining that his Rolls-Royce lifestyle of vintage wine, tuxedos and multiple homes is key to his downfall: "Since biblical times, and probably before, the wealthy have been envied and condemned."

But instead of throwing himself on the mercy of the Queen and her Lords, Lord Black high tailed back to the country he despises, that of his birth, the one he renounced his citizenship of.

And promptly hired crackerjack Canadian lawyer Eddie Greenspan to represent him in the United States. Which didn't go over well last week. Judge Is Not Amused by Conrad’s Black’s Lawyer

And there is further irony here, for the Black Lord is fan of that other famous racketeering Chicagoan; Al Capone

Jeffrey Cramer, the young prosecutor who is expected to deliver the government's opening argument today, even looks like Eliot Ness, who put Al Capone in jail for 11 years for tax evasion.

So perhaps to truly be judged by his peers Lord Black would not appear before his fellow British Lords but the Lords of Crime, like Capone, who like Black were busted on Rico charges.



Also See:

Conrad Black

Criminal Capitalism: Black Lord Dodges Tax Man

Criminal Capitalism: Black & Radler,Thick as Thieves

Criminal Capitalism: Lord Black Fugitive

Criminal Capitalism: Black gets his comeuppance

Criminal Capitalism: Hollinger's Black Eye

Criminal Capitalism: Black Out

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Wall Street Deja Vu

I draw my readers attention to this article from the business section of the Saturday Globe and Mail. If you are regular here you will know I have said this exact thing.

Disturbingly, bankers, investors and regulators have seen this movie before. The boom-bust scenario now playing out the market for subprimes – loans to the riskiest borrowers – is remarkably similar to other recent episodes when the basic principles of sound lending were ignored or forgotten, until it was too late. There was the technology bubble of the late 1990s, as well as the trust and savings-and-loan crises of the 1980s.

Then, as now, financial institutions dramatically reined in credit after getting burned on bad loans. Indeed, the flight of lenders from the tech bubble of the late 1990s drove many of them toward the perceived stability of consumer credit – including home equity loans and mortgages.

How the industry got in this mess, again, is a disturbing tale of lending excess.

The simple explanation for why HCL and other lenders made seemingly uneconomic loans is because they could. A thriving aftermarket quickly turns subprime mortgages into bonds, flipping the revenue stream to investors around the world. Most banks no longer keep the loans in-house, so they don't care if homeowners can't keep up with payments. Instead, they make money on lucrative fees and push the risk up the line to an investment dealer such as Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. or Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which then passes it on to hedge fund and pension fund investors.

American finance, the much touted Wall Street Bull market is living in a consumer driven bubble. There is no real boom, just a growth in credit, loans and party mow pay later consumption. Later comes sooner than the market expects.

What is scary is that folks pensions are tied up in these get rich quick schemes like variable and sub-prime mortgages. Which they weren't when the Junk Bonds and later the Savings and Loans meltdowns occurred.

See

China Burps Greenspan Farts Dow Hiccups

Housing Bubble

Housing

Economy



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Fat Boy Needs Election

To lose weight.

Don't Let Them See You Sweat: Harper didn't look Healthy

Otherwise he gets portly in office, much like Henry VIII sans the wives.

Baby Fat

Of course since he shares his wife with John Baird he may just be trying to look like him.

During elections he loses weight, after all politics is the other sport of Kings.
















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Joseph Cherniak

The difference between them is the mustache.

Jason goes on another purge.To Cherniak: Blogger, banish thyself!

He suffers from political bulimia and the strong man syndrome; that need to purge, purge, purge.

Luckily it was only from his personal commercial Liberal blog roll.

No Progressive Bloggers were harmed. Since Audacious Ontology still is a member of the PB blog roll.

While Cherniak claims he purged AO for posting NDP material on their blog perhaps it was actually because they were critical of Israel. Nah Jason would never do that.

France acknowledges Palestinian unity; will canada, or continue to bow to the US and Israeli Lobby?

See:

Cherniak


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May Day For MacKay

Guts, chutzpah, strategic genius. All these terms apply to Green Party Leader Elizabeth May who announced on CTV Question Period this morning that she is running in Central Nova, Nova Scotia, Peter MacKay's riding. It was announced on the Atlantic TV network of CTV last night.Love satellite TV, makes Antigonish as close as St. Albert.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May speaks with CTV's Question Period on Sunday, March 18, 2007.

Green Party leader to take on Peter MacKay

Updated Sun. Mar. 18 2007 12:20 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

The leader of the federal Green party has declared her candidacy in the Nova Scotia riding currently held by Conservative MP Peter MacKay.

Elizabeth May made the announcement Sunday afternoon on CTV's Question Period in Antigonish, which sits in the northeastern Nova Scotia riding of Central Nova.

May is facing a steep battle in her effort to unseat MacKay -- Harper's minister of foreign affairs who has represented the riding since 1997 and whose father Elmer held it from the early 1970s to the early '90s.

"Are you crazy?" Question Period co-host Jane Taber asked the Green Party leader, adding why she wouldn't run instead in B.C., or a vacant London, Ont. riding, where polling shows she would have a significantly better chance of victory.

Crazy as a Fox. This is a brilliant political play. Her high profile as Leader of the Greens offsets their poor showing in this riding last election. It forces out Mackay to actually return home and fight for his seat.

No longer the other 'leader' of the Conservatives, Peter MacKay the quisling who as the last leader of the Progressive Conservatives destroyed that Grand Old Party by merging with the Republican-Canadian Alliance of Harper.

He lost the leadership bid against Harper, then he lost his girl friend and leadership opponent Belinda Stronach. As Foreign Minister he has been a loser, a puppet on the strings of Harper. He is toast.

May always spoke about her intentions to go back to her Maritime roots, and sure enough she has followed through. She will make MacKay work to win his riding, that means he will spend more time at home then on the road.

She will unite Liberals, NDP, and yes progressives who are conservative behind her. And by running against MacKay she can make the Green Party stand out on issues other than the environment. As she did in her very successful London, Ontario by election bid.

Yes I have been critical of May, because I don't think she is a socialist. Though she is a progressive and a social democrat, more so then many in the Liberals. She is an advocate for the Distributism of Rev Dr. Coady of the Antigonish movement.

"I'm from here and I want to run where I'm comfortable," she added. "I want to represent a region that I care about, and this place where I'm standing, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, is known for the Antigonish movement -- a local economic development approach that was about sustainability -- before they used that world. "I want to take that message nationally and relaunch the Antigonish movement."

As I said here before the Antigonish Movement is a form of distributism, developed by the left wing social reformers in the Catholic Church. It is their version of the Social Gospel as advocated by CCF founder J.S. Woodsworth and members of the NDP like out going Bill Blaikie.

These six principles were later endorsed by Dr. Coady.

• The Primacy Of The Individual
  This principle is based on both religious and democratic teaching: religion emphasizes the dignity of human beings, created in the image and likeness of God; democracy stresses the value of the individual and the development of individual capacities as the aim of social organization.
• Social Reform Must Come Through Education
  Social progress in a democracy must come through the action of citizens; it can only come if there is an improvement in the quality of the people themselves. That improvement, in turn, can come only through education.
• Education Must Begin With The Economic
  In the first place, the people are most keenly interested in all concerned with economic needs; and it is good technique to suit the educational effort to the most intimate interests of the individual or group. Moreover, economic reform is the most immediate necessity, because the economic problems of the world are the most pressing.
• Education Must Be Through Group Action
  Group action is natural because people are social beings. Not only are people commonly organized into groups, but their problems are usually group problems. Any effective adult education program therefore, must fit into this basic group organization of society. Moreover, group action is essential to success under modern conditions; you cannot get results in business or civic affairs without organization.
• Effective Social Reform Involves Fundamental Changes In Social And Economic Institutions
  It is necessary to face the fact that real reform will necessitate strong measures of change that may prove unpopular in certain quarters.
• The Ultimate Objective Of The Movement Is A Full And Abundant Life For Everyone In The Community
  Economic cooperation is the first step, but only the first, towards a society that will permit every individual to develop to the utmost limit of her/his capacities.

Distributism has both a left wing and a right wing in Canada. The Antigonish Movement was its left wing, Social Credit, also a form of distributism, was its populist right wing. As a Catholic alternative to socialism when in the hands of right wingers it degenerated into Corporatism.

What they share in common along with the old CCF and the United Farmers of Alberta, since all these movements began in the 1920's, is that they are advocates not for the working class but for producer movements.

They are advocates for farmers and fishermen's cooperatives,their class arises from the peasantry but in North America became a producer class, neither workers nor businessmen, but a section of the petit-bourgeoisie that were landowners, or owners of their own means of production such as fishing boats. What they and the CCF and other forms of Cooperative Socialism is that arose from Proudhonism and the idea of a cooperative commonwealth, producer, and worker cooperatives as an alternative economy to big corporations and banks.

Distributism then fits well within the current Green Party ideology that melds a social moral and political progressivism with a classical liberal utilitarian economic agenda. Where the old Antigonish movement and other forms of progressive producer movements advocated for that class, the Green Party appeals to the later industrialized mass base of Canadians who do not identify themselves so much as workers but as consumers and citizens. If you read the Antigonish statement in this light, it is the core of Elizabeth May's ideology, if not the Green Party's.

With this she can appeal to fiscal but socially progressive conservatives, to Liberals and Dippers. And she can effectively challenge Peter MacKay who is the scion of the old family politics of Central Nova, having been coroneted as the local MP after his father.

She challenges that old Conservative family compact, and their failure to deliver the goods for Atlantic Canada. As she so correctly pointed out, not a single Conservative slush fund give away announcement in the past two weeks has been about Atlantic Canada.

She can make social issues the focus of the Green Party campaign, and this will make her run against MacKay formidable. A serious challenge and it will give her and the Greens much needed national news coverage. Already in her interview today she challenged the Conservatives on their attack on social programs, as well as their failure on the environment, and their warmongering foreign affairs policy.

I would say that if there ever was a case for Strategic Voting, this would be it. Yes I know heresy, however while the Green Party vies for popularity with the NDP between elections, they have not been a serious threat to the party in elections as they have been to the Conservatives as we saw in the London by election when May ran .

For this pragmatic reason I believe May will seriously challenge MacKay. And as she showed in London she has the election machinery to do it. Beating him is a long shot but a strong second place is worth the run. She knows that, and has made a strategic decision that benefits all progressive voters in that riding , regardless of party affiliation.

There is another riding that the Greens should focus on and encourage strategic support for; Wild Rose in Alberta where they came in second place last election. With a national mobilized campaign and priority publicity the Greens will focus on taking on the big blue machine in Alberta, garnering them more publicity.

Elizabeth May put Atlantic Canada in play today, and that will mean that forgotten region of Canada will get more coverage in the weeks, and months to come, including when we have an election. On that day, Central Nova will be in the news daily and not just as an after thought.

See:

Green Party

Elizabeth May

Peter MacKay


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Don't Bank On It.

That the banks will voluntarily concede on the issue of ATM fees.

If ATM fees were eliminated, customers would be subsidizing the customers of other banks who use their machines, argues the Canadian Bankers Association. If people want to forego the convenience fee, they should use their own bank's machine.

A red herring, a straw man, and a spurious argument since the oligopoly of the five banks already share their customers since the jointly own Interac, Cirrus, Plus etc. the ATM operating systems. And as such charge fees to stores using Interac, and to private ATM operators. They are literally cash registers for the Big 5 Banks, if not one arm bandits.

But banks don't seem to have convinced either the broader public or their political masters why a fee is necessary.

John Lawford is one lawyer eager to argue against the banks in upcoming finance committee hearings. "There is no need for fees at all," says Lawford, who represents about 4,000 Canadians through the Public Interest Advocacy Centre.

Banks collect an estimated $154 million annually in convenience fees, based on figures supplied by the Canadian Bankers Association – a tiny sliver of their overall profits. But it's an issue that gets Canadians' blood boiling.

A drop in the bucket, but don't forget this is only one set of user fees. There are service charges and exorbitant credit card charges which the Banking Committee needs to look at. Since the banks love to get us to pay for their screw ups.

But if the government were successful at getting the banks to eliminate fees, it might not solve consumers' pocket-book problem.

Banks might just shift the fees to another service, says U of T's Booth. Previously, banks raised service fees to recoup losses on 1970s loans to foreign countries such as Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, he says.

While the banks and others advocate you take out large amounts of money at one time from the ATM to avoid withdrawal charges, I point again, that this is simply shifting the burden on the consumer who is being gouged. You are charged by your branch, the ATM you use and further a monthly service charge. The ATM's were instituted to reduce branches and staff costs. The private ATM's were approved by the Competition bureau to provide competition to bank ATM's, though the Big 5 run Interac/Cirrus/Plus that ATM's use.

In February, the Toronto marketing research firm TNS Canadian Facts announced that 81 per cent of Canadian adults surveyed in the fall of 2006 had used a bank machine during the previous month, up from 78 per cent a year earlier, and that nine out of every 10 cash withdrawals had been made at a bank machine.

Furthermore, deposits of cheques and cash at ABMs doubled those made in branches, and in fact only 53 per cent of Canadian adults had visited a branch in the previous month, the lowest percentage since 1994.

So the solution is that the Big 5 banks eat the costs and make it back from stores that use ATM for your purchases, which they charge .50 for. And from the private ATM's, who can charge you whatever they want.

And if this is not solved by the Bank Act Review, it will be real money in your pocket issue that will dwarf any tax break promises the Conservatives make in the next election.

See

Banks

Monopoly

Service Charges

ATM

Bank Profits

Credit Cards


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Priming For An Election

The Conservative Party and the PM spent the weekend leaking election threats. On Saturday before the Conservatives election preparation school in Mississauga, the Party leaked this; Tory memo warns of snap vote

No they don't have a mole, this is party strategy tried and true , release your own memo, they did it last election as well.

It was followed up with this in the afternoon when Harper addressed the troops gathered. Election could come 'at any time,' PM says

But the polls say otherwise; Poll suggests federal parties at stalemate

While those that are wildly optimistic might take heart with this headline which uses the same poll numbers but suggests the glass is half full. Conservatives maintain lead in poll

The bottom line is that unless the budget is defeated there will be no election. ANALYSIS-Canadian govt survival hangs on Monday's budget

Why? Because Harper would not get a majority. Despite his desperate need to call an election.

Even his right wing allies at the National Post, voice of the Conservatives in print, are pointing out his flaws;Comment: Harper spends like it's 2005,

If there is no election, then his whole political platform since gaining office will come under scrutiny. And it won't be a pretty picture.

His childcare spaces and wait time priorities are failures. He has revived Liberal programs, Who's the real flip-flopper? His crime bill will pass, with amendments, and his Clean Air Act will come back with amendments and hard targets. In other words through out the next four months until the summer recess his government will have egg on its face.

Which can only help the opposition.

So besides the budget what could trigger an election that the Conservatives are priming us for? A strong showing by the ADQ and the Liberals in the Quebec election. The former gives Harper seats in Quebec, the latter makes the Conservatives look good in Quebec when they pay for the fiscal imbalance.

Election-ready budget
Toronto Star, Canada - 23 hours ago
Much of the cash will be aimed at Quebec, but other provinces such as Ontario will wind up with more money for post-secondary education and similar ...
Will budget seal the deal for charest? Montreal Gazette (subscription)
Analysis: Budget may add up to majority National Post
Fiscal Imbalance: your questions answered CTV.ca

It's Texas Hold Em until then.
Quebec election tight three-way race: Poll




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