Can You Say Capitulation

Yep we have a new relationship between the Harpocrites and the Bushites.
It's spelled C A P I T U L A T I O N .

Tembec defies gov't pressure

Major Quebec player says he won't end lawsuits if deal not right for his company

At the same conference, U.S. Consul-General Lewis Lukens told a lunch-hour audience that progress on the agreement was a direct result of the improved tone in relations between the two countries, evident at last month's North American Free Trade Agreement meeting between U.S. President George W. Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

"There is a new commitment to make the relationship work better," Lukens said. "The deal happened because both sides found the political will . . . ."

However, the U.S. filed an extraordinary challenge to Canada's NAFTA victories in the softwood dispute, even though the framework agreement was signed.

Emerson defends softwood deal

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
softwood, Harper, Bush, Canada, US, NAFTA, Emerson, Tembec, Quebec, lumber, politics, government

Sexist Taxes

"Women shouldn't have a tax penalty for menstruating," Women's rights advocate Marianne Cerilli --

"All tax cuts are good, but I don't think tax cuts should be gender-based," Adrienne Batra, provincial director for the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation, said

No tax on tampons? NDP MP re-introduces bill

Here, Here. Get rid of the GST on tampons. Since women are a majority in Canada this is not just a gender issue, as the Canadian Taxpayers Federation excuses it, but is a case of unfair taxation on the majority, who have less than majority representation in Parliament. No taxation with out representation, wasn't that the phrase the right wing loves. And what was that about Tampons giving women more freedom.




Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
tampons, GST, women, Canada, taxes, tax-cuts, discrimination, politics, economics

Elizabeth May's Catholic Ideology

While I am on the subject of the Green Party of Canada leadership race, see previous article, Politique Canadienne has a wonderful collection of quotes from Elizabeth May the former director of the Sierra Club who has thrown her hat in the ring for the leadership of the Green Party. May launches Green party leadership bid

I found this one interesting, specially since she tore a strip off Jack Layton for forcing the Federal Election on the eve of the Climate Change Conference.

"My inspiration comes from the social justice vision of Tommy Douglas, the community empowerment economic ethic of Monsignor Moses Coady, and the environmental principles of David Suzuki."

So who was Monsignor Moses Coady, says I ignoramous of the first water about the Maritimes. Well not an insignifcant force in Cape Breton last century, he follows the school of distributist economics of Hilaire Belloc at the turn of last century. Distributist social reformers promoted an economics of Social Credit as well as the ideals of the Cooperative Commonwealth.

His influence on Elizabeth Mays thinking will be seen by comparing her statements to the ideology expressed by this early Catholic Liberation Theologist and environmentalist.

So here are some quotes about Moses Coady and founder of the Coady Institute at St. Francis Xavier University.

Give us a people who have a sense of belonging, of
taking part in the business of the country and they
will learn to do difficult things. Only in this way
can we build a great civilization worthy of a country
of such great natural resources. Only in this way
can we build a strong, self-reliant population freed
from the need of continuously calling on the
government for material assistance.’

‘Freedom should mean that people have the right to
set up institutions that will act as a counter-force to
the anti-social elements of society who build up
economic institutions to suppress the people and
exploit them.’

Moses Coady

Coady Newsletter for Web

Cape Breton Island has been home to many famous individuals, whose contributions to society are well known outside of the area. Cape Breton's favorite immigrant Alexander Graham Bell, as well as Guglielmo Marconi, made Cape Breton Island the site of many wonderful experiments and scientific progress. Monsignor Moses Coady and Father Jimmy Tompkins, native sons of the Margarees, pioneered social and economic justice.Their legacy remains in every Co-op and Credit Union.

One of the biographies in the book which held a special appeal for the writer involves Monsignor Moses Coady of Nova Scotia. He and his cousin, Father Jimmy Tompkins, wereinstrumental in starting the Antigonish Movement. A little more than a year ago, the writer had the pleasure of a visit and private tour of the Coady Institute located at St. Francis XavierUniversity in the small town of Antigonish. The Institute has actively run training programssetting up cooperative ventures for adult students from third world countries. Father Jimmy was a friend of the Overstreets and they wrote about the Antigonish movement; in some of Bonaro’swritings Jimmy Tompkins emerges as a kind of folk hero.
The article in Twentieth Century Thinkers focuses on Coady as a man ahead of his time. Coady was ecumenical in his outlook and was an environmentalist with views on the waste and destruction of natural resources long before it became a movement of its own. “We cannot sin against nature and hope to win.”His greatest achievement (and Tompkins’) was that they putideas, theories and principles into practice. “The cooperative approach stressed self-reliance, the development of local leadership, broadly based education, and a peaceful redistribution of economic benefits.”

THE WHOLE WORLD WAS THEIR CLASSROOM: THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF HARRY AND BONARO OVERSTREET TO THE FIELD OF ADULT EDUCATION
Chapter 1

And like their distributist forebearers the Green Party being 'niether right nor left', can easily lead to that corporatist model of statism we know as fascism.

Controversy in the Distributist community has occurred because of associations of distributism with some ultranationalist groups. This would include groups such as the British National Party which claims to hold some distributist views. The advocacy of distributism by certain ultranationalist groups is more pronounced in Europe where distributism is seen as reflecting the values of an "old order" and a return to the "nationalistic roots" of a country. Supporters of national anarchism also advocate distributist economic models.

Many ultranationalists trace their ancestry back to Fascist movements, and may see Distributism as a version of Corporativism. There are some similarities between the two systems, notable parallels between the Corporativists' Corporations and the Distributists' Guilds. But there are fundamental differences between the two philosophies, notably the Corporativists' permissiveness towards big buisiness and big government.

Distributism and Corporativism could concievably be placed on a linear spectrum of Third Way economic models, where Distributism would be more compatible with Libertarianism and Corporativism would tend to be more compatible with radical centrist ideologies of Collectivism and Statism, including but not limited to Fascism.

Distributism from the Wikipedia

Also See:

Green Party

Climate Change

Paul Watson Green Conservative

Capitalist Environmentalism

Right Wing Environmentalists

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
May, Coady, Green, Party, Canada, politics, Cape, Breton, Nova, Scotia, distributist, Bellocenvironement, catholic, leadership, race

Manning To Run for Green Party

Why not. Since he has turned his attention to the matter of the environment he would fit right in with the Federal Green Party after all they are just like Preston Manning; fiscal conservatives.

In his most recent work, as director of the Manning Centre for Building Democracy, Manning has gained some attention for the concept of marrying conservative fiscal policies to strong awareness of environmental issues. Alberta could be a good workshop for such thinking, given the contiguous presence of its fossil-based energy industry and its wide-open spaces, majestic mountains and mainly-clean rivers.
OttawaWatch: Manning's surprise, Harper's accountability


"If the appropriate solution to an environmental problem is a market mechanism, then we use it. We're not doctrinaire in the old sense."
Elizabeth May, Green Party leadership candidate

And since there is a draft Manning for the leadership of the Party of Calgary, (Alberta PC's) why not one for the Federal Green Party?! That would give it some political capital and legitimacy. Hey there is still time to draft Manning.
Race to lead Green Party heats up



Also See:

Green Party

Climate Change

Paul Watson Green Conservative

Capitalist Environmentalism

Right Wing Environmentalists

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Preston, Manning, Elizabeth, May, Green, Party, Canada, politics, Alberta, PC, leadership,

Thunk Tank

King Ralph gets a nice perk from the retirement home for neo-cons the Fraser Institute. Not unexpected since the Fraser Institute spent the last thirteen years gushing over Ralph, giving him an annual award for putting into practice what they preach. Retiring Klein will join the Fraser Institute

King Ralph will continue to suck at the public teat as the right wing think tank is a charitable institution. King Ralph will be in good company with other political porkchoppers Preston Manning and Mike Harris. Love these neo-cons who complain about the Nanny State but suckle off the public teat with their 'charitable' foundations, and political consulting firms.


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Klein, Manning, Alberta, Premier, Fraser-Institure, think-tank, right-wing, Harris, Walker, politics, retirement, Canada

Basket Case

Inflation rate exceeds 1,000 percent in Zimbabwe

Gee that was the inflation rate in Weimar Germany prior to the rise of the fascists. Except in this case the fascists already rule in Zimbabwe. Mugabe is practicing what Schumpeter called creative destruction, "capitalism is revitalized by waves of creative destruction." Unfortunately for Zimbabweans the emphasis has been less on creation and more on destruction. The political policies of Mugabe are closer to those of Pinochet when he came to power in Chile. And while Mugabe is a statist and Pinochet was a free marketeer the results are the same.

Zimbabwe: Top Banks Face Crisis

As Zimbawe's economy collapses, a tiny few make huge profits
April 25: In the second of our dispatches from inside Robert Mugabe's tightly controlled country, the Guardian discovers one of the world's most surreal and successful stock exchanges.
24.04.06: Behind a facade of normality, Zimbabwe is falling apart

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Zimbabwe, Mugabe, Inflation, crisis, Africa, Schumpeter, Pinochet, Chile, fascism