Chrysler Inc. vs. Liberal Inc.

Better to take over a failing Big Three Auto company than to play in the back benches of a failing political party.

Onex, Magna eyeing joint Chrysler bid: report

Belinda Stronach leaving politics for Magna

Belinda Stronach to return to Magna as it grapples with Big Three auto woes

Belinda Stronach, the former Canadian cabinet minister who made national headlines for both her political and personal life, has decided not to stand for re-election and will rejoin the ranks of Magna International Inc. (MGa.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) as the auto parts company's executive vice-chair.

The Liberal politician, the daughter of Magna founder and Chairman Frank Stronach, said on Wednesday that encouragement from the company's leaders played a part in her decision.

"My father is looking to the future, the company is facing important strategic decisions, and the Canadian and global auto sector and economy are in a period of great challenge," Stronach said in a statement.

"So I am stepping aside from elected politics for the time being and will now take part in public life in a different way."

While in the Liberal party the best she could do around globalization was focus on mosquito netting.

Belinda Stronach focuses on global projects

Now she can focus on the real impact of globalization and how Daddies company exploits workers world wide.

Magna International's workforce dropped by about 1,150 net jobs in Canada last year as tough industry conditions dented the auto-parts colossus.

It marks the first time in more than a decade that annual employment at the country's largest industrial employer declined.

Magna's annual information form shows employment fell about 5 per cent to 21,050 from a peak of 22,200 in Canada during 2005.

Magna's information form also reveals that while employment decreased here, the company's overall workforce in 23 countries climbed marginally by 450 jobs to a record 83,250 in 2006 from 2005. Every other region in the Magna empire posted job gains.

Senior Magna executives have said in recent years that the company can stay competitive only by producing parts in lower-cost regions and near where auto makers build new assembly plants around the world.

It has led to strong increases in Magna's workforce in Mexico and Asia in recent years.

Although auto makers have expanded some operations here during the past decade, they have added only one assembly plant.

Three other assembly operations have also closed.

This shows that the good ship Liberal is leaking from all seams after electing Dion to be Captain. He relegated Belinda to the back bench, a big mistake.

And clearly internal party communications are not good, since the Liberals would not have appointed their favorite pet feminist Martha Hall Finlay to a safe seat in Toronto if they knew Belinda was quiting. Since she was the candidate in Newmarket kicked out for Belinda.

Of course with the woof and wiff of capitalist deal making over Chrysler during the past two months on could say this was a unexpected momentary decision. But clearly since she decided not to contest the leadership for the party, the writing was on the wall.

The selection of Dion as leader and his lack luster performance since then can only have hastened her decision. Whose your daddy? Well Belinda knows. Better to work for a Strong Daddy than a weak Dion.

As I have said many times Dion is the safe man, the safe choice, the third way, all which makes him a lame duck. Belinda leaving is a sure fire indictment of all the Liberals failures to change, despite Gerard Kennedy's assertions otherwise, and Dion's failure as Leader.

See:

Chrysler Made In Canada?

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Real Leadership

With these poll numbers Jack Layton can say that he would make a better PM than Stephane Dion. Since he got more support in Quebec and in the West than Dion and his support is competitive with the "Official Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition".

While Dion has been on another of his invisible tours of Canada, his third since the beginning of the year, Jack's visibility has been in the house thanks to the deal making the NDP is willing to do in order to keep parliament functioning. Jack has been an effective opposition leader, Dion has not.

Thus if it quacks like a lame duck, and walks like a lame duck, it's name must be Dion.

Keep those poll numbers coming in, they just make Liberals quack up.

H/T to Wundrick



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Public Pensions Fund Private Partnerships

The battle of publicly funded pensions funds, your money and mine, being used in collaboration with private equity firms, hedge funds, to do leveraged buyouts needs to be seriously addressed, since those who pay into these funds have no controlling say over the fund managers.

As Robert Blackburn of New Left Review has written, the pension funds created over the past fifty years are huge new source of capital available for use to shore up capitalism.

But it is still public money, from union or public sector and government pensions. But without any meaningful corporate regulations giving the owners of these funds, us, any say in how they are invested. The democratization of public and institutional funds needs to be on the agenda of unions, the left, and the public. While institutional funds like pension funds call for their rights as shareholders, they do not allow their own shareholders the same rights of representation.

Teachers' BCE campaign gaining support

Some of BCE Inc.'s largest shareholders are lining up behind the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan and pledging to support the pension fund if it attempts to lead a takeover of the telecommunications company or even oust its embattled senior management.

Teachers, exasperated with BCE's weak stock performance under chief executive officer Michael Sabia, has already approached U.S. buyout firm Providence Equity Partners Inc. to explore a bid for the company worth close to $40 a share, according to sources.

That hefty price -- about a 30-per-cent premium to where BCE was trading last month -- could be enough to sway many of the company's long-suffering investors if Teachers decides to act. Although it chose not to submit a formal bid after BCE indicated it wasn't interested in selling, Teachers ratcheted up the pressure on the company in a regulatory filing this week by signalling its intentions to shift from a passive investor to an active one. Several investors said the only way BCE may be able to fend off an unwanted suitor now is for Mr. Sabia to step aside.

He said Teachers, like many investors, has become frustrated by what it views as unresponsive management and the glacial pace of Mr. Sabia's turnaround strategy.

In a filing with U.S. regulators on Monday, the pension fund said it was "exploring its options" regarding BCE, and sources confirmed it has been in contact with several buyout firms and pension funds in both Canada and the United States about the prospect of a takeover. The filing came less than two weeks after it was revealed that BCE had spurned another advance from private equity titan Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., which has allied itself with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

These sources described the KKR advance as a "wake-up call" for Teachers, which is bent on leading any privatization effort of the Montreal-based parent of Bell Canada. One person familiar with the matter said the $106-billion pension fund is dismayed by the cool reception its proposals have received from both Mr. Sabia and BCE chairman Richard Currie. Mr. Sabia and Mr. Currie could not be reached for comment.

"At some point the shareholders will speak," said one person familiar with Teachers' plans. "Boards of directors are supposed to represent the shareholders at the table."

See

P3

AIM High

Your Pension Dollars At Work

P3= Public Pension Partnerships

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CN Strike No Hinderance To Honorary Degree

CN strike resumes Despite CN workers rejecting CN's earlier contract offer in an overwhelming vote, CN CEO E. Hunter Harrison will still receive his honorary degree from the University of Alberta for Leadership in Business. LOL.


See

CN


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A Surge in Terrorism

The war in Iraq is a failure as is the White Houses so called war on terror. In the fourth year of the war in Iraq all that has been done is that Iraq has created the conditions for a surge in asymmetrical warfare in the region. Not exactly what was supposed to happen.Qaeda claims responsibility for Algeria blasts

Algiers Blast Follows Casablanca Raids

Although there was no apparent connection between the events in Morocco and Algeria they illustrate how North African countries are struggling to deal with Islamic extremists. Steinberg is convinced that there is a new organized Jihadist scene in North Africa. "One has to expect further attacks in the region," he said.

'This is an incentive to pursue the war on terrorism without respite,' Communication Minister Nabil Benabdallah told Reuters, adding the incident was 'in the framework of horrendous terrorist acts in Morocco and other Maghreb countries'.

Governments in North Africa fear violence may spill over from Algeria after the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat renamed itself Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb with the aim of fusing similar Islamist groups together.

Al-Qaeda's beliefs are those of Salafism, which originates in the Saudi Arabia as the State religion.

The movements of Islamic fundamentalism are those of America's client state in the region; Saudi Arabia, attempting to subvert its neighbours in order to keep its own house stable.

Like Bush who tells Americans it is better that Iraqis die in the war on terror to keep America from being attacked, the House of Saud declares better to export its own terror abroad than to have it come home.

See:

Sadr Surge

Surge In Iraq

Vietnamization of Iraq

Calling A Spade A Shovel

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