Friday, January 20, 2006

Voltaire in the Blogoshpere

I may not agree with what you have to say but I will defend your right to say it. We all know that old chestnut from Volataire. Some just quote it. And some of us put it into practice. And then we get credit, blush, for doing so. As I did with my defense of the Blogging Tories which garnered this.




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Slugger Ed


Ed Broadbent, the NDP secret weapon came out today with a pugalistic attack on Paul Martin and the Liberals. It will send them reeling over the weekend as it hits the print media tommorow.

And the slugger gave Martin a sucker punch but good. Glass jawed Martin hit the mat, the Liberal war room was all a buzz.

In this corner we have Big Ed, in the orange and green trunks. In that corner in the bleeding red trunks, Paul Martin. Big Ed comes out swinging.

"I saw Paul Martin during the 1990s after we had surplus after surplus and building up surplus as well, while millions of kids went to bed hungry, while thousands of Canadians were homeless and we were the only G-8 country without a housing program. Doing nothing on the environment. In fact George Bush did more on the environment than Paul Martin...These are not progressive people. The only time they talk about being progressive is in the dying days of an election campaign." Ed Broadbent's last statement as an MP

Damn fine prose. That opening line about I saw Paul Martin, reminds me of Howl.. I saw the best minds of my generation......etc.

Ed has not yet retired. That won't happen till January 23. Something the Liberals had hoped we would all forget.

Fri 20 Jan 2006
Liberal attack on Ed misses mark

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Softwood Solution

So here is the solution to the Softwood lumber dispute, do it the good old fashioned capitalist way with mergers and acquisitions. However do not expect the corporate welfare bums in Canada's and Quebec's forestry industry to give up their whining and dining at the taxpayers expense.

Canfor pushes into U.S. forests

Takes over rival in softwood spat

Jason Kirby, Financial Post

Published: Friday, January 20, 2006

VANCOUVER - At one time Mack Singleton was a thorn in the side of Canadian lumber producers. As former head of the U.S. lobby group that pushed heavily for softwood duties he once compared Canada's economic system with that of North Korea and Cuba.

Now Mr. Singleton and South Carolina-based New South Companies Inc., which he co-owns and runs, is a cornerstone of Vancouver-based Canfor Corp.'s acquisition strategy that will probably see Canada's largest forestry company snap up other U.S. industry players.

On Wednesday, Canfor said it would pay US$205-million for New South in an all-cash transaction, diversifying its business away from British Columbia and giving it access to lumber from a major European producer through a marketing agreement.

"We've committed to growing with our customers and that is what we'll do," said Jim Shepherd, CEO of Canfor. "This is a step for us to do that."

The irony is some Canadian forest companies such as Canfor are flush with cash partly because the ongoing softwood lumber dispute has forced them to become more efficient. That money could be used to consolidate the fragmented mom-and-pop lumber industry south of the border.




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Liberals Refuse To Speak To Union

While making a big deal about Conservative candidates missing forums, the Liberals have refused to answer the Federal Corrections Officers union; Union of Canadian Correctional Officers (UCCO-SACC-CSN) Federal election questionaire. Dumb move that.

And it does have blowback since this is after all Landslide Annie's file.

And there is a certain irony in all this since one of her biggest supporters is Union President Dan MacLennan of AUPE who is a provincial prison guard.

Of course UCCO has been without a contract for five years. So why would the Liberals talk to them now after not having talked to them for all this time.

I guess its ok to embrace Buzz but to offer your own union workers a fair deal, well thats a bit much to ask.

Arrogance and a culture of entitlement. These are Paul Martins Canadian Values.

Also See:

Landslide Anne in Trouble


Laurie Hawn Chicken Hawk


Conservatives Turn Left


Liberals Abandon Redmonton


Redmonton Votes


Redmonton Not In The Bag for the Conservatives




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Abortion Is Privatized Health Care

A year ago when I launched this blog one of the first issues I wrote about was the denial of womens rights to publicly funded abortion services .A Woman’s Right to Choose? Choose What?

Now Paul Martin has challenged Stephen Harper over the issue of abortion and the Not Withstanding Clause, which has nothing to do with the real issues that surround abortion in Canada.

Canada's Martin says rival anti-abortion extremist

Stephen Harper’s Covert Support for Cheryl Gallant




Womens groups along with Dr. Morgentaler are demanding that the Conservative party speak up on their position about a womans right to choose. Considering that the majority of their party members are anti-choice. Do I need to point out that this conflicts with the very essence of Libertarianism, something many of the same Tories claim to be.

"Last call" to guarantee Canadian women's right to choose - ACPD wants specific commitments now from Stephen Harper

Mr. Harper characterizes a woman's right to choose as a polar extreme - Women demand clarity and assurances

Beware! Fundamentalist Conservatives at the Gates! Callwood, Egan, Mallick, Morgentaler and Walker warn against a Conservative majority

Morgentaler warns: 'Don't vote Conservative'

And again I would say they may worry about Harper's party being full of anti-abortion advocates but that is not the issue.

The Liberals have their fair share of anti-abortion advocates as well, many who will probably retain their seats in this election. Liberal and Conservative MPs join together to fight woman’s right to choose

The real issue is that abortion services are privatized in Canada. And there is a certain irony that the Supreme court ruling that created this situation, the one that Paul Martin is now defending, allowed by ommission, the private delivery of abortions, leaving the provinces off the hook for providing this essential medical procendure.

ABORTION IS PRIVATE HEALTH CARE IN CANADA.

Women in Canada have the right to choose to have an abortion what they do not have is the right to this medical service being provided for by the provinces or in public hospitals! So in effect it limits their rights, and their right to choose.

It has to do with the simple fact that in all the provinces in Canada abortion is a privatized medical procedure.

In Edmonton last year all abortion services were abdicated by Captial Health Authority to the Morgentaler clinic. Edmonton Privatizes Abortion Services

Private for profit health care delivery is what Dr. Morgentaler offers. So anyone who claims that there is no private health care in Canada is forgetting this one simple fact, abortion is privatized in Canada. He has in fact offered his clinics as an example of private health care delivering a service the public system can't or won't.

Where the state still offers it in hospitals it is a primitive D&C procedure that is invasive and harmful to women's health. It is barbaric compared to the vacuum procedure perfected by Dr. Morgentaler.

In provinces where no abortion services are offered by the State, women have to go out of province, shades of the Tory election platform, to get abortions but the province only pays a portion of the rate charged them.

The same now occurs in Alberta where medicare will only pay a portion of the fee of the total cost of the medical service provided by the Morgentaler clinic.

This is the real issue around abortion, not some phony debate Martin wants to raise. The real issue is that neither the Tories or the Liberals plan to end the privatized delivery of a healthcare service (abortion) for women in Canada.

Morgentaler asks all parties to support abortion rights

Dr. Morgentaler, who started doing abortions in 1968, made his comments after testifying in a class-action lawsuit aimed at getting Quebec to reimburse women who have had abortions in private clinics or specialized women's centres.

He is part of court cases in Manitoba and New Brunswick that are trying to get compensation for women for abortions in private clinics.

He was particularly harsh in discussing New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord's stand on the issue, calling his government "reactionary."

Earlier in the day, Dr. Morgentaler told Quebec Superior Court it would be "criminal" for the provincial government to not reimburse women who had abortions in private clinics.

The lawsuit argues the payments are guaranteed under the provincial health insurance law. Procedures done in hospitals are covered.

Nadia Genois of the Women's Health Centre of Montreal said later a victory in the case is vital.

"The cause is very just," she said. "It's important that all women can have access to abortions, free and legally and also with a quality of care."

And women are the majority in Canada,so we could say that the majority of Canadians face discrimination in that a specific medical procedure they need is not available to them in the public health care system!

Thats what should piss off women and progressives. That abortion is not free and accessible. The privatization of it allows it to be restricted to those who can pay.

That is the real debate we should have over abortion. Over to you Jack.


Also see: Right To Choose


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Soccer Dads

That's right its the Canadian version of NASCAR Dad's . This election lets peak in and see what Soccer Dad's are saying. Over at The Voyageurs: Canadian Soccer Supporters There seems to be alot of discussion about Green's and it's not just the field conditions. Defintely not NASCAR dads.

http://www.crwflags.com/art/miscflags/soccer.gif

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More On Edmonton Strathcona

Well I discovered that we have an entry in the Wikipedia
Edmonton—Strathcona - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And Democratic Space is having a lively debate over the two way race that is happening here, which does not match his riding predicition. Go figure.

I think it has to do with that little fellow saying; It's de signs boss, de sign's.

The image “http://www.madcowprod.com/fi04.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.


SEE Edmonton Strathcona

SEE Linda Duncan

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Jaffer and his Blogger are Spooked

In an Edmonton Journal riding profile for Edmonton Strathcona Rahim Jaffer admits the NDP campaign has him spooked. Spooked. Let me repeat that for all you disbelievers out there, spooked. What was that about a spectre haunting ....oh never mind.

And if Jaffer is spooked Edmonton Strathcona rightwhingnut blogger The Third Edge of the Sword ( aka Feynman and Coulter's Love Child) is even more freaked.
He is freaked Jaffer would admit this, then he is freaked at the Layton rally held a stones throw away from his house, where Jack announced that this WAS the riding the NDP were fighting to win.
  • Jack Layton is predicting an NDP win in Edmonton Strathcona. Dear God, lets hope he's wrong. That's my riding, for Pete's sake. (He said it at Bonnie Doon Community Hall too, which I could hit with a baseball from home. Stupid work).
  • Jaffer confirms that concern in today's Riding Profile of Strathcona in the Journal. Shit.

Freaked the poor bugger. Say TTEOTS you want to vote for a winner or a wiener. Nah guess we can't convince you to vote NDP. Well at least we know you won't split the vote by going Liberal. I have TTEOTS as a disparaging fan of my blog.

And what can I say, the Linda Duncan Webperson who surfs the blogs for the Citizen Media section , scroll waaaaay down the In The News page it is under Mainstream Media, actually linked to TTEOTS blog.A blog that hates the NDP with a passion. Now that's cheeky.

19 January 2006
. And conservative blogger Feynman and Coulter's Love Child is spooked by all the talk of an NDP win in his riding.

Yep Linda's campaign is NO FEAR. I am impressed.

SEE Edmonton Strathcona

SEE Linda Duncan

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Another Liberal For Linda

Liberal blogger Daveberta has finally taken the plunge; daveberta endorses linda duncan in edmonton strathcona. For all the right errr left reasons. Unlike those Liberal bloggers who have decided to go Tory. Way to go Dave.

See I told you it was a two way race. Why won't you guys believe me?!


SEE Edmonton Strathcona

SEE Linda Duncan

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Why I Moderate This Blog


So I can find where all the comments are in order to reply to them like I did here

Moderating is not censorship unless you make a really offensive remark or are a spam artist. In which case I have always had the option to delete. I let comments run with that provisio.

But having been burned by some twit who loaded my instant comment box in the sidebar with downright nastiness, I removed the feature, I decided to moderate. That and like I said it makes it easier for me to track the comments and comment back. Otherwise you have to scroll, and scroll, and scroll, and.......

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Stephen Harper; Canada's Jekyll and Hyde


As we come upon the last weekend before the election more expose's of Stephen Harper are appearing. The evolution of Stephen Harper and his party Too little, to late some will say.

Perhaps not combined with todays headlines the Harper Hasn't Changed campaign may have a real impact in these final days.

Too late, but Harper tosses Liberals a lifeline National Post

Harper says Senate shouldn't block Tory bills

Canadian Press

WATERDOWN, Ont. — Stephen Harper says outlawing gay marriage won't be one of his top priorities if elected, and that efforts by the Senate to block such a bill would amount to an "abuse of power.''

Two days after saying that a Liberal-dominated Senate would be a check on Tory power, the Conservative leader signalled that he expects the high chamber to defer to Parliament on such contentious issues.


Jim Travers in today's Toronto Star says;

But the harder-to-fix problem for Harper is that his cracks stirred memories of an angry, vindictive streak that worried Canadians enough to send them reluctantly back to Liberals in the last election's final weekend That's not the Harper Canadians are rallying around now. Calm, reassuring and happiest talking about policy, the Conservative leader has redefined himself as far from scary.

Candians should not be fooled by Conservative pundits and Harper apologists,who dismiss critics of Harper as ideoloques because they have been critical of Harper through out his career.

Harper has only had his makeover since the election began. Harper has figured out how to appeal to everyone

The real Harper is still under the media makeup skillfully applied by his new handlers.


Harper’s team of advisers offer eclectic mix
Financial Times, UK

The most significant appointments are three political operatives with close ties to former Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney: Conservative Senator Marjory LeBreton, formerly appointments secretary in Mr Mulroney’s office; Conservative Senator Hugh Segal, who was his principal secretary; and Derek Burney, who was his chief of staff before being named ambassador to the US.

Among Mr Harper’s retinue of academic advisers, Tom Flanagan, a political scientist, has attracted the most attention because of his strong views on both aboriginal programmes and the role of government. His influence was seen in Mr Harper’s decision to renounce the C$5bn deal Ottawa signed with aboriginal groups in November. Mr Flanagan and other academic members of the Calgary School of conservative thinkers favour market-oriented policies to reduce the role of government. They draw their inspiration from Republicans in the US.


Former Mulroney advisors have made over Harper as BM sans the chin and smile, but there is only so much poltical makeup can do. Behind the scenes remains the same old Calgary gang that have been advising Stephen since university. "The Man Behind Stephen Harper,"


Is Harper not for turning?
If the Conservative leader is cut from the same cloth as Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and Mike Harris, expect him to slash government programs, says James Laxer

In power, Harper will reopen the debate about Canada signing on to U.S. missile defence and is likely to cancel Canada's commitment to the Kyoto environmental accord. He refuses to commit himself to honouring the far-reaching aboriginal development program agreed to by first ministers last autumn. He will not throw Ottawa's weight behind the establishment of publicly funded, not for profit, child care across the country. And, as he said on day one of the election campaign, he plans to reopen the issue of same-sex marriage. Perhaps the best clue that Harper has not moderated comes from his commitment to resolve the so-called fiscal imbalance in Canada. In plain English that means that a Harper government would sharply reduce Ottawa's role in setting the nation's socio-economic agenda. That pledge, one of Harper's top five priorities, could well become his mantra as he slashes government programs in the days to come.


His past has been one of being right. Having been the voice of the Republican right wing inthe Reform party he stepped down in a dispute with then party Leader Preston Manning. This was followed with his immediate hiring and appointment as President of the right wing political lobby for Canada's Corporate Elite; the National Citizens Coalition (NCC) He did not run for the Alliance leadership till after Stockwell Day's annus horrbilus as leader. And then only when he was begged to and given supereme authority in the party.

Who is Stephen Harper, the Conservative poised to be Canada’s next prime minister?

By Richard Dufour – World Socialist Web Site

Editorial endorsements of a Conservative election victory by such establishment newspapers as Toronto’s Globe & Mail and Montreal’s La Presse have been justified on the grounds that the 46-year-old Harper has moved his Conservatives sufficiently to the center of the political spectrum to make them a viable "mainstream" alternative to a tired and ineffective Liberal regime.

Any dissonant voice—pointing to Stephen Harper's life-long ideological struggle against “big government” and for the absolute rule of the market over all aspects of social policy, his close links with the American neo-conservative movement and admiration for the Bush administration, his agitation for the build-up of Canada’s military forces as part of a more aggressive foreign policy—is met by ridicule.

Since Harper’s very public political record cannot be effaced, his biography has been spun by his handlers and the corporate media as that of an angry young man (Globe columnist John Ibbitson concedes Harper was a "zealot") who has undergone a process of political maturation.

In fact, the rise to prominence of Harper and his new Conservative Party is a product on the one hand of the Canadian elite’s shift ever further to the right—defence of the Medicare system is now pilloried as ideological extremism—and of the refashioning of the political movement with which Harper first came to prominence (the Reform/Canadian Alliance) into a political instrument better connected with and more pliant to big business.

But the most damning expose that Harper has not changed his spots, comes not from the Left but from the Right. From a supporter of Harper. From the poison pen of Link Byfield in today's Calgary Sun.

And why it is damning is that it's true. Byfield is full of glee, and lets the cat out of the bag. The bag daddy hoped to keep closed till after the election. His article cheers the real right wing Harper. The Harper who has been hiding behind his Brian Mulroney make over all this election. Link of course loves the real Harper. The Harper who the right wing in Alberta look forward to crowning PM for obvious reasons. They want to make over the nation as they did our province.



Winds of change
Calgary Sun, Canada -
Fri, January 20, 2006

By LINK BYFIELD

Harper is a new kind of conservative, unlike any of his predecessors.

Brian Mulroney was a "progressive" who called national social programs a "sacred trust."

His government brought "pay equity" into the federal sector and doubled the national debt.

Joe Clark said there was no fundamental philosophical difference between Liberals and Conservatives.

John Diefenbaker in the 1950s, like R.B. Bennett in the 1930s, was a Conservative in the old British tradition who believed in centralist, protectionist government.

So, for that matter, did John A. Macdonald.

Harper breaks that mould.

We have never had a prime minister like him.

Harper is young enough, patient enough, smart enough, different enough and tough enough to launch Canada in a new direction in this century.

In the dying days of the campaign, Paul Martin awakened to the fact Harper is not a "progressive" in the same sense as he and Jack Layton are.

He's right.

Harper does not believe, as they do, that it's the job of governments to lead, shape and define society.

He believes it's society's job to lead, shape and define the government.

He also believes firmly in the Charter of Rights, especially its recognition of God's supremacy over mankind and the four "fundamental freedoms" -- religion, expression, association and assembly.

These are rights that call for government restraint, not the liberal dishing out of expensive state entitlements and intrusions.

He will do nothing profound very quickly, but over time he will profoundly change this country, restoring its prosperity, confidence and unity.

If he wins Monday, I believe Canadians are in for a long, satisfying surprise.

I am not so sure aboout satisfying but Candians who think Harper has moderated his views or his NEW Conservative party has moderated there's, well they are in for a surprise if he is elected. And the surprise will not be news to those of us from Alberta.

As Link's daddy said after the last election;

Marci McDonald in Walrus magazine quotes Ted Byfield, a leading voice of a quasi-separatist Western Canada and Harper supporter as saying after the 2004 election, "The issue now is: How do we fool the world into thinking we're moving to the left when we're not." Has Harper of old really moved left?
That Byfield clan what can you say. They have been in the poltical wilderness since the early days of their magazine the Alberta Report. They are Canada's political dinosaurs of the right; the Flinstones to Harpers Barney Rubble. Now they are just rubbing their, anti-choice, anti-gay, Western Seperatist, religious fundamentalist, hands in glee. And if the Byfields are happy Canadians should be worried. Very worried. Harper's holy war Xtra.ca



My Columns:

Harper

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US Media Notice Harper

And it is not just Forbes that has noticed the Canadian Election and Harpers potential win. Here is the Editorial from the Rocky Mountain News in Colorado and a column by a Canadian correspondent in the San Jose Mercury.
An overlooked election to the north

January 18, 2006
Most Americans, it's a safe bet, probably don't know that Canada has a national election next Monday, with the increasingly probable outcome that our friends and neighbors will have a new prime minister.

And most Americans, it's an even safer bet, are probably unaware that the United States is a large and divisive issue in that campaign. The cruelest charge leveled against Conservative Stephen Harper, whom polls show the likely winner by 8 to 13 points, is that he is in the thrall of conservative American Republicans.

It is received wisdom in Canadian politics that President Bush would be happy to see Harper elected. This view probably overstates White House interest in internal Canadian politics. But the fact is that, with plenty of blame on both sides, relations between Ottawa and the Bush administration got off to a sour beginning - so the U.S. president would probably welcome a chance at a fresh start.


Canada election could improve bilateral relations
San Jose Mercury News, USA - 2 hours ago

Canadian voters will do what they'll do on Monday, but if Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, emerges as the prime minister-elect, an unwritten book will have opened for Ottawa and Washington.

Relations between the United States and Canada have deteriorated badly in recent years and every American engaged with Canada knows it.

It would be an ``opportunity to open a new chapter -- especially if the results are clear-cut,'' says Dwight Mason, retired deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa. A majority government, he says, would be taken much more seriously in Washington.

Another American expert on Canada said a change of government in Ottawa would offer the hope that ``Canadian leaders would be talking to us'' rather than ``shouting across the border.''

These revealing words may explain why Canadian concerns -- and Canadian politicians -- are now mainly invisible in Washington.

This bilateral low point is a mixed bag for Stephen Harper. Washington knows what it doesn't like in Prime Minister Paul Martin and his Liberals. By default, Harper and his Conservatives offer new promise. In Canada, though, making out with the Bushies is a potential kiss of death.





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