Showing posts with label Duceppe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Duceppe. Show all posts

Monday, March 28, 2011

Stephen Harper A Contemptible Liar

No attack ads need to be created to defeat Stephen Harper this election, he has done it too himself.

Stephen Harper and his government; the Harper Government (c)(tm)(r) were found in contempt of parliament. a fact he continues to dismiss.

Harper government held in contempt of Parliament

The fact is his is the first government ever to fall because of a charge of contempt of parliament, and he cannot dismiss that historical fact!

This is the first time a Canadian Government has fallen on Contempt of Parliament, and marks a first for a national government anywhere in the Commonwealth of fifty-four states.

Then he was exposed as a Liar on day one of the election when he claimed that creating a coalition government to replace a minority government that had lost the support of Parliament was 'illegitimate'. Conveniently forgetting that is exactly what he proposed to do in 2004.

Duceppe's message is clear: Harper is a liar

So when it comes to issues of trust and ethics, after five years the Harpercrites have caught up with the Liberals, who fell after 13 years in power because of these kind of ethical failures.

So folks if you don't like Steve and his politics or his political cronies, like Bruce Carson, then just get out those felt pens and add 'contemptible liar', to any Harper posters you see, after all its called truth in advertising for a reason.


Contemtible Liar

Harper Conservatives Don’t Understand Meaning of “Contempt” by Kevin Parkinson – March 27, 2011 |

Even as Prime Minister Harper gave his somber faced farewell speech in the lobby of the House of Commons last Friday, he refused to acknowledge why his government was defeated. By thus refusing, Harper ironically piled on even more contempt for Canadians and their right to know how this government operates. He gave his typical, unimaginative speech attacking the Opposition parties for calling an election, for which the Conservatives have already spent $26 million of taxpayer money in pre-election spending.

If you look back at Harper’s 5 years in power, almost always he has tried to govern as if he had a majority. He has kept information secret not just from parliament but also from the media. Look at the Afghan prisoner debacle, the refusal to stick to his fixed election policy, the secret plan to build mega prisons with a failing crime rate. The list goes on.

Harper’s decision to prorogue parliament should give him the title as King of Contempt. To use a parliamentary statute to protect the Conservative party from defeat in the House has to be one of the most cowardly acts of his tenure. Another irony is, of course, that his popularity actually increased while the House was being prorogued and was empty. As the polls concluded at that time, parliament was irrelevant to Canadians. And that’s the way Harper likes it. He does not want to answer to Canadians.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Contempt

It was a motion whose time had come, perhaps not soon enough. The Harpercrites have been in contempt of Parliament since they first became a minority government in 2006, it just finally caught up with them. And they have not been scandal free since. Once in power they threw out the last vestiges of their Reform Party platform for the expediency of maintaining power at all costs.They had become the very Mulroney Conservatives that Reform had been formed against.

Canadian Government, Beset by Scandal, Collapses

C. E. S. Franks, an authority on Canadian parliamentary practice who is professor emeritus of political science at Queen’s University in Ontario, said it was the first time a Canadian government had been found in contempt of Parliament. Eight individuals have been found in contempt, he said.

Professor Franks said the Conservatives deserved credit for their economic record and for governing “reasonably competently,” but he was very critical of the government’s approach to politics.

“It’s treated Parliament like the enemy,” he said.

Walkom: Yes, contempt of Parliament does matter

But there is a bitterness to this prime minister that has infected his entire caucus. All politicians are partisan by definition. Harper’s partisanship is over the top. He not only disagrees with Canadians who are liberals and left-leaners. He seems to despise them.

All of this was manifest before he took over the merged Conservative Party. In those days, he disparaged what he called the moral failings of liberals, calling them nihilists bent on the destruction of western values.

In power, his rhetoric was often more restrained. But as former nuclear regulator Linda Keen found, those he believed tainted by Liberalism could expect no mercy. Keen was axed in 2007 because she insisted that Canadian nuclear plants have back-up power systems — systems we now know that Japan’s ill-fated Fukushima reactors famously lacked.

But her real sin was to have been appointed to by a previous Liberal government. That, Harper suggested, made her inherently untrustworthy.

Opposition MPs and others who had the temerity to disagree with the government were given equally short shrift. Canadians who questioned Ottawa’s handling of Afghan prisoners were treated as traitors. Richard Colvin, the veteran diplomat who testified to this mistreatment, was savagely and personally attacked.

At one point, when it looked like his government might be defeated, Harper simply shut down the Commons.

And while Harper flippantly dismisses the contempt charges against his governance and government, he continues to abuse his power by claiming as the outgoing PM that any form of Minority coalition government is 'illegitimate', in particular the one formed in 2008 after the fall election when he and his government refused to accept there was a recession and that they had to do something about it.

"Canadians need to understand clearly, without any ambiguity: unless Canadians elect a stable, national majority, Mr. Ignatieff will form a coalition with the NDP and Bloc Québécois," Harper said. "They tried it before. It is clear they will try it again. And, next time, if given the chance, they will do it in a way that no one will be able to stop."

"Imagine a coalition of arch-centralists and Quebec sovereignists trying to work together," Harper said. "The only thing they'll be able to agree on is to spend more money and to raise taxes to pay for it. We've all got too much at stake. Now is not the time for political instability."


Of course that was 2008 and he was in power. In 2004 then Liberal PM Paul Martin had a minority government and a coalition was formed by Harper, Duceppe and Layton against the Martin government. It was legitimate and legal then but not now says Harper.

Harper wanted 2004 coalition: Duceppe

Duceppe says Harper lying

OTTAWA - Stephen Harper is warning that the Liberals will form a coalition with the NDP and Bloc Quebecois if the May 2 federal election results in a minority government. But when he was Opposition leader, Harper didn't seem to mind the idea of governing with the support of the NDP and Bloc. Here's the text of a letter Harper and his fellow opposition leaders sent to the Governor General in 2004:

September 9, 2004

Her Excellency the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson,

C.C., C.M.M., C.O.M., C.D.

Governor General

Rideau Hall

1 Sussex Drive

Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A1

Excellency,

As leaders of the opposition parties, we are well aware that, given the Liberal minority government, you could be asked by the Prime Minister to dissolve the 38th Parliament at any time should the House of Commons fail to support some part of the government's program.

We respectfully point out that the opposition parties, who together constitute a majority in the House, have been in close consultation. We believe that, should a request for dissolution arise this should give you cause, as constitutional practice has determined, to consult the opposition leaders and consider all of your options before exercising your constitutional authority.

Your attention to this matter is appreciated.

Sincerely,

Hon. Stephen Harper, P.C., M.P.

Leader of the Opposition

Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada

Gilles Duceppe, M.P.

Leader of the Bloc Quebecois

Jack Layton, M.P.

Leader of the New Democratic Party


Harper has always had contempt for Parliament, when he was a Reform MP and even more so as spokesman for the right wing business lobby NCC, but no more so than over the past five years in power when he acted like he had a majority not a minority.

Now he tries to run an election campaign to become King of Canada with a Conservative majority that does not reflect the values of the vast majority of Canadians.


Friday, March 25, 2011

1984 And Now Election 2011

Warren Kinsella who used to be a Liberal Party Insider, and of course therefore a HACK, now works for the right wing conservative mouthpiece; Quebecor/SUN media, so today he declares that the election campaign is over before it begins.

Nineteen Eighty-Four wasn’t just the title of a good book by George Orwell.

It’s also a useful reminder of what may be about to happen to the Liberals and NDP in the coming election campaign.

You remember: Sept. 4, 1984, and Brian Mulroney sweeps to a massive parliamentary majority. The once-great Liberal Party — the Natural Governing Party, no less — is reduced to a paltry 40 seats.

Conservatives, up to 43%. Liberals, down to 24%. NDP, unchanged at 16%.

And if you just look at voting preferences of those absolutely certain to trek to polling stations, according to Ipsos, the Cons go up to 45%, and the Grits slide to 23%.

To put it in context, that gap is perilously close (or identical) to the 22 points that separated Mulroney and John Turner in 1984’s Gritterdammerung. Result: Tories, 211 seats, NDP 30 seats, and Grits the aforementioned 40.

So, is Michael Ignatieff this generation’s John Turner?

Of course he is but the political differences of the times are also significant. And Kinsella's prognosis is also questionable.

First in 1984 there was a great debate, a big issue that the election was to be fought over; nothing less than Free Trade.

There is no big issue in this election.


Second there was the appointment of Liberal hacks to the Senate just before the election call, which gave Mulroney his chance to defeat Turner in the debates when he challenged him to simply not appoint the Liberal hacks to the senate. "You had a choice Mr. Turner'. It was the zinger in the Leaders debate.

The NDP, the CLC trade unions and the Left had made Free Trade the issue for the election and had for two years prior. The Liberals seeing an issue which carried votes, opportunistically decided to become Anti-Free Trade hoping to get votes from the Left as the only Natural Governing Party.

In the Leaders Debate the NDP Leader Ed Broadbent carried the day as statesman, while Mulroney and Turner went at it hammer and tong. It was Mulrony who got in the election zinger.

What Kinsella fails to aknowledge is that in 1984 the NDP got enough seats, in fact increased their seats to 30, that had there been a minority government it would behoove them to ask for their support.

And even more importantly in 1984 there was NO Bloc Quebecois. In fact the BQ would originate out of the Mulroney Conservative government, a fact the current Conservative Government would like you to forget, even as they carry on in Mulroney's footsteps when it comes to gaining support in Quebec.

The Conservatives and Liberals want to have two party politics, ala the Republicans and Democrats in the US ,Conservatives and Labour in the UK.

Unlike the 1984 election this election is not about three parties but four parties. Three in English Canada and an additional Quebec based Party. By having four parties, with Quebec solidaly BQ,


The Harper Conservatives have decided to focus on the rural township votes, as they have in Western Canada, that is where their base is.

The urban cities is where the fight goes three ways, if not four. The NDP is currently more popular in Quebec than the Liberals, a historic first.


This election is about Leadership, and that is the only thing it has in common with 1984, Turner was weak, Mulroney was brash and Broadbent was conciliatory.

With the BQ there will be no repeat of 1984, we will once again have a minority government. But will it be Conservative or Liberal? The NDP is then the best place to park your vote, since Layton shows he is PM material, even more that his opponents, and if Harper has any chance so does Layton, even if it is as Leader of the Opposition.

The Liberals under Ignatieff, as they were under Turner, are toast and on that Kinsella and I agree.


Michael Ignatieff was once hailed in Liberal circles as the second coming of Pierre Trudeau. Now his challenge is to shake off the perception he's an outsider interested only in adding another ornament to his well-adorned resume.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

War Monger

Best left wing attack on Harper. Duceppe . On the election announcement night when he called:

Monday, October 22, 2007

Facebook Politicians

Here is the Facebook listing for Canadian politicians.

It appears that Dion is more popular here than in Quebec. Jack Layton is in second place while our PM places third.

Poor Gilles Duceppe has the least support
and he has no pic. And he can't blame Facebook for being Anglo it has hundreds of thousands of members in Montreal, QC and Quebec City, QC .


Name:
Stéphane Dion
Supporters:
11,557
Name:
Jack Layton
Supporters:
9,137
Name:
Stephen Harper
Supporters:
6,815
Name:
Gilles Duceppe
Supporters:
377
While the guy who wants Dion's job may have a lot of friends in high places and the back rooms of the party but not on Facebook. He has a ways to go to catch up with Dion, Layton and Harper.

Name:
Michael Ignatieff
Supporters:
3,969
Lucky for him the other contender for Dion's job, unelected, Bob Rae doesn't have a profile on Facebook. Come to think of it neither does Gerard Kennedy.






In Toronto Liberal Martha Hall Finlay, unelected, is in a race with Dipper Peggy Nash, elected.

Name:
Martha Hall Findlay
Supporters:
259

Name:
Peggy Nash
Supporters:
289
While Olivia Chow of the NDP is in a neck and neck race with Belinda Stronach who is no longer a MP.

Name:
Olivia Chow
Supporters:
2,486

Name:
Belinda Stronach
Supporters:
2,455
There are 166 politicians listed and the majority are men. However women politicians on Facebook are more popular than the majority of their male counterparts.

And of these three are openly gay, Brison, Davis, and Siskay.

Scott Brison, Carolyn Bennet and Dr. Hedy Fry were all wannabe Liberal leader. Maybe Ruby will try next time.




Name:
Scott Brison
Supporters:
1,819
Name:
Ruby Dhalla
Supporters:
1,812

Name:
Libby Davies
Supporters:
1,237
Name:
Carolyn Bennett
Supporters:
987

Name:
Dr. Hedy Fry
Supporters:
745
Name:
Todd Russell
Supporters:
685

Name:
Irene Mathyssen
Supporters:
517
Name:
Tina Keeper
Supporters:
428
Name:
Maria Minna
Supporters:
405

Name:
Bill Siksay
Supporters:
363

Another neck and neck race is between these two, and McGuinty has more name recognition.

Name:
Rebecca Coad
Supporters:
354
Name:
David McGuinty
Supporters:
353
File this under Geekiest photo.

Name:
Gord Zeilstra
Supporters:
395
Poor Paul Martin remains the forgotten PM. Heck the other Martin is more popular.


Name:
Paul Martin
Supporters:
55

Name:
Pat Martin
Supporters:
156
The NDP, Liberals and even the BQ outnumber the Conservatives. In fact it's hard to find any Conservatives outside of the boss in Facebook. Must be the long arm of the PMO. Somebody forgot to send the memo to this guy though.

Name:
Bev Shipley M.P.
Supporters:
278
Of course there is always the possibility that being on Facebook could be embarrassing.

FRENCH government ministers have faced embarrassment from their own children whose entries on Facebook were aired to the public.

Francois Fillon / File

Embarrassed ... French PM Francois Fillon's son Antoine has revealed some of his favourite pastimes on Facebook / File

French Prime Minister François Fillon's son, Antoine, 22, is a member of several “high-brow” chat groups including "I am too proud of my poo" which has 93 members who discuss the "16 different types of turd", Telegraph.co.uk reporte


You even find wannabe politicians here. This guy is running against right-whingnut Calgary West Conservative Rob Anders.

Name:
Kirk Schmidt
Supporters:
311
Heck even a wannabe B.C. Green candidate has a profile.

Name:
Dan Grice
Supporters:
312
While this would be B.C. NDP MP is driving a solar car.

Name:
Julian West
Supporters:
245
Being the NDP Defense spokesperson who has taken the lead on opposing Harpers War has not hurt Dawn Black's popularity.

Name:
Dawn Black
Supporters:
221
Despite his efforts to be the Blogging MP Garth Turner seems to have overlooked Facebook.

Name:
Garth Turner
Supporters:
241
And there is even one Senator listed from Alberta no less. And no it's not Bert Brown. Rather it is former leader of the Alberta Liberal Party.


Thursday, May 17, 2007

BQ and Team Canada

We owe a thanks to the BQ and in particular to the xenophobic nationalist MP Luc Malo who pushed the Official Language committee to look at Shane Doan's leadership of Team Canada. As Rick Nash said on OTR yesterday the team came together in solidarity with Doan when he was attacked by the BQ.

Off The Record - May 16, 2007 Off The Record - May 16, 2007

Michael Landsberg goes Up Front with Blue Jackets and Team Canada star Rick Nash.

That is what happens when you challenge the leader, the people unite behind him despite their personal views of him, such was the case when the Americans attacked Saddam and Iraq.

In this case of course the team already supported Doan, and this parliamentary attack solidified it. They went on to not only win Gold but to sweep the World Cup 9-0. A historic fact itself.

Thank you
Luc Malo for your inspiring the team.

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Sunday, May 13, 2007

I coulda been A Contender

Duceppe decides against PQ leadership bid

Duceppe's 48 hour run for leader of the PQ and his abandonment of the BQ; From contender to dropout in a day: Duceppe announces withdrawal ... reminded me of a couple of classic lines from On The Waterfront:

Terry: You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let's face it.

Johnny: Where you guys going? Wait a minute! I'll remember this! I'll remember every one of you! I'll be back! Don't you forget that! I'll be back!

Marlon Brando in

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Thursday, May 03, 2007

J'Accuse


Canada's Dreyfus affair over Hockey. What foolishness. Luc Malo the BQ MP has made it his personal mission to be prosecutor, judge and jury in L'affaire de Sean Doan.

Parliamentary committee summons Hockey Canada


At the House of Commons Official Languages committee today he harangued and harassed Hockey Canada and Sport Canada officials refusing to believe them, when they said Shane Doan had not used an anti-French slur against a referee in the NHL.

"I mean it is not the first time that words like that are used against French players. That was almost a tradition and we should accept that? Never," Gilles Duceppe, leader of the Bloc Quebecois party, said.


No matter what they said Malo insisted they were wrong. His is a personal mission of scapegoating and political interference in the arms length operations of Hockey Canada. Perhaps his venomous misplaced attack on our national hockey team captain is the result of confusing Shane Doan with Don Cherry or Sean Avery.

Mr. Doan allegedly made derogatory remarks toward a French-Canadian NHL linesman two years ago. Mr. Doan has categorically denied making the comment and the NHL cleared him when it looked into the allegation at the time.

But some MPs still allege that Mr. Doan made a racist insult and wanted Hockey Canada to explain its decision to parliament.

Bloc MP Luc Malo aggressively questioned the hockey officials, saying the whole controversy is their fault and it could have been avoided if they had simply appointed someone else as captain.

He asked why they took the word of the NHL over the word of the linesman, who claims it was Doan that made the insulting remark.

The officials explained that Hockey Canada is a partner of the NHL and it is not about to challenge the NHLs jurisdiction or trustworthiness. They said the NHLs investigation determined an insult was made on the ice, but it could not be proven that it was Mr. Doan that said it, and so they see no reason not to have Mr. Doan on the team.


Could the BQ's real agenda be that they would like to see two teams in Canada, one from Quebec and one from the ROC. That was after all the official party line of the BQ in the last election as expressed by their Marxist Leninist leader Gilles Duceppe. One that Hockey Canada flatly rejected. Revenge is a dish best served cold, and in this case it is ice cold.

Bloc wants Quebec to compete in international hockey

When asked about a Quebec hockey team, the Bloc leader immediately rattled off the goalies who would be available: Martin Brodeur, José Théodore and Roberto Luongo.

"Today I'll announce goalies — tomorrow I'll give you the defence," he quipped yesterday.

Hockey world rejects Duceppe's plan

Kevin Lowe, assistant manager of Canada's 2006 men's Olympic team, doesn't think much of Gilles Duceppe's idea of entering a separate Quebec team in international hockey competition — and he has company in the hockey world.

Lowe, who grew up in Montreal and is fluently bilingual, flatly rejected the Bloc Québécois leader's proposal, which was unveiled Wednesday as part of his party's election platform.

"Those politicians should stick to politics," said Lowe. "If they want to come and apply for a job in hockey, then they can have their say."

Prominent lawyer wants a Team Quebec at the 2008 worlds

If lawyer Guy Bertrand has his way, Canada could be represented at the 2008 world hockey championship by Team Quebec.

Bertrand, who is again proclaiming his sovereigntist faith after embracing federalism for several years, said Thursday he wants Quebec's hockey elite to play a pre-tournament best-of-three or best-of-five series against players from the rest of Canada.

Up for grabs would be one spot at the 2008 world championship, which will be held in Quebec City and Halifax.

Bertrand's scenario would see some of the losing players allowed to represent the winning team at the worlds.

"When you look at Czechoslovakia, it split in 1992. Since then, Canada has won four championships, the Czech Republic won five championships and Slovakia one. Not bad for a country that split."
Duceppe returns to the hockey sovereignty theme he broached earlier in the campaign.

The BQ contests only Quebec ridings. Apart from earning ridicule early in the campaign for his claim that Quebec national teams should be able to play in international tournaments for ice hockey and soccer, leader Gilles Duceppe made few new policy announcements.
Election 2006: Canada changes government



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