Petrocan's Arctic Sovereignty

The real reason for the Conservatives insistence on expanding Canadian Forces in the north is for military enforcement of our Northern Arctic sovereignty..... for Big Oil. In this case Petrocan.

Oh and here is the irony, it is global warming that is opening up these vast reserves to potential exploitaion, thus increasing global warming in the Arctic.


Catch 22.

FEATURE-Canada scrambles to assert sovereignty in Arctic

CORNWALLIS ISLAND, Nunavut, April 21 (Reuters) - After decades of virtually ignoring its remote, frozen Arctic lands, Canada is belatedly trying to assert its sovereignty over a gigantic region rich in mineral resources. Ottawa's problem is that it has little idea of what is going on in the North and far too few resources to patrol the area properly. And that could be bad news when climate change and the appetite for energy and commodities mean the world is suddenly paying more attention to an incredibly inhospitable place.

Scramble is on for Arctic oil

British and US scientists are at loggerheads over a plan to work with oil companies in hunting for the Arctic's fossil fuel reserves.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) is lining up a project with BP and Statoil to find oil and gas in the Arctic Ocean, under the auspices of a flagship scientific initiative intended to tackle global warming. But the head of the British Antarctic Survey, which coordinates UK activity at the poles, has said he is "very uncomfortable" with the idea and has questioned its ethical and scientific justification.

Article continues

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Tackling climate change and working out how it will affect the Arctic and Antarctica is a central theme of International Polar Year (IPY) - a high-profile project to start early next year that involves thousands of scientists from 60 countries.

The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet and last September saw the lowest extent of sea ice cover for more than a century. Scientists say the temperature there could rise by a further 4C-7C by 2100, and the Arctic Ocean could be ice-free in summer by 2060.

Documents on the IPY website show that BP and Statoil, a Norwegian company, are "significant consortium members" on a USGS proposal to assess "energy resources in the circumarctic area including oil, gas, coalbed methane and methane hydrates". Geologists estimate that a quarter of the world's undiscovered oil and gas reserves lie under the Arctic, and analysts have predicted a 21st-century goldrush to tap them as the Arctic Ocean's ice cover retreats.

Suzanne Weedman of the USGS said: "This is very much a part of what we do. Our responsibility is to assess the undiscovered oil and gas using geological information." She said the plan built on a project called the Arctic Energy Assessment, which is part of its World Energy Project - a global attempt to map untapped hydrocarbon fuel reserves. ExxonMobil, Amoco, Conoco, Texaco and PetroCanada are listed as members.

Global warming project criticized for affiliation with U.S. oil mapping

The polar year project, scheduled for 2007-2008, is aimed at increasing scientists' understanding of the environment at the North and South Poles. Rising temperatures are having a big impact on both regions, so climate change is an important aspect of the research.

The project, which includes more than 200 studies, last year conditionally accepted the U.S. Geological Survey's mapping effort as part of its research program, said Chris Rapley, head of the British Antarctic Survey and a board member of the committee running the polar year. The committee is likely to give final approval for the U.S. survey's involvement soon, he said.

Rapley said the U.S. Arctic survey program - part of a long-term American effort to map untapped oil reserves around the world - would provide valuable scientific information that could help those trying to understand climate change and figure out how to combat and anticipate it.

Norway sets Arctic oil plan - boom or gloom?
Norway set rules for oil and gas exploration in the Barents Sea on Friday amid major uncertainty about whether the pristine Norwegian Arctic will mean boom or gloom for oil firms.

The U.S. Geological Survey has suggested that 25 percent of the world's undiscovered petroleum resources could be in the Arctic. But some experts say oil may have leaked from the Barents, off the northern tip of Europe, millions of years ago.

Russia's Gazprom Enters Booming LNG Markets with Giant Arctic Gas Field

With gas reservoirs equivalent to Exxon's oil reserves, Shtokman poses an alluring but technically daunting challenge for the five firms shortlisted as possible partners: U.S. majors Chevron and ConocoPhillips, FranceÂ's Total and Norway's Statoil and Norsk Hydro. Gazprom wants help producing gas in the iceberg-strewn seas around Shtokman, pumping it 550 km to shore, liquefying it and shipping it to the United States for re-gasification and sale.

And it's not like this is NEWS either, as this article from 1999 shows, we have known about global warming in the Arctic for years it just that over the past two years we have seen an acceleration in that process. Arctic Meltdown

Alaska natives speak out against Arctic oil exploration

The $500-million Northstar project has been more than four years in development. It is the first offshore development in the Arctic Ocean

April 16, 1999
Web posted at: 2:30 PM EDT

Alaska natives spoke out Thursday against BP Amoco's Northstar project to explore for oil reserves in the Arctic Ocean. The natives say the oil exploration threatens their culture and livelihood in the region.

Three Alaska natives of the Yup'ik and Gwich'in people attended BP's annual general meeting to make their concerns known directly to company directors and shareholders. The three are campaigning with Greenpeace to end the project.

According to opponents of the project, climate change, caused by burning oil, coal and gas, is causing the western Arctic to warm three times faster than any other part of the globe. The survival of many species, such as polar bears, walrus and reindeer, is currently threatened by retreating ice and unseasonally warm weather.

Arctic scientists have found that the Arctic ice pack has been declining at a rate of 4.5 percent in the past decade.

"For countless generations the Gwich'in people, my people, have relied on the land to provide for our survival," said Allan Hayton, a Gwich'in Athabascan from Arctic Village, Alaska. "Already we are witnessing dramatic changes in our Alaskan climate from the burning of fossil fuels, and an oil spill on the North Slope would effectively destroy our abundant wildlife and our native cultures in the process. Sir John Browne, respectfully I ask you, will you cancel Northstar, and commit your company to not drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge?"

The $500-million Northstar project has been more than four years in development. It is the first offshore development in the Arctic Ocean. BP became sole operator of the Northstar Unit in December 1995. The company projects its 'first oil' to come between 2000-2001.

The survival of many species, such as polar bears, walrus and reindeer, is currently threatened by retreating ice and unseasonally warm weather

Proponents of the project say Alaskans and the federal treasury would both benefit economically from increased oil production and the environmental impact would be negligible. They argue that expanded oil production is badly needed in the area.

Opponents say the oil industry is only looking at the short-term benefits and not seeing the long-term threats.

"BP is undermining climate protection and threatening subsistence ways of life by pushing ahead with oil exploration," said Greenpeace Climate Campaigner Matthew Spencer.

Also at the meeting were 60 members of the BP shareholder splinter group, SANE BP, who encouraged shareholders to advocate a different direction for the company than that being pursued by current BP directors.

Copyright 1999, Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved

Also See:

Capitalism's Denial of Climate Catastrophe

Water in your Scotch

Melt Down

Da' Bears Have It

2005 Record Heat Wave

More Thaw

Hot Air Over Climate Change--Business as Usual

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Canadian Killed in Iraq

It took Foreign Affairs a month, a month, to find out that he had been killed. They obviously didn't even know he had gone to Iraq. Sounds like the Department and its Minister fell down on the job. Peter McKay should resign.

An Iraqi-born Canadian from Montreal was killed last month when he returned to his homeland to visit the children he hadn't seen in about 15 years, Foreign Affairs has confirmed.Department officials confirmed that the body of Sadeq Aldifai was found in a desert near the western border of Iraq.Iraqi-born Canadian killed after returning to homeland

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Contracting -out Broadcasting Corporation

Another indication that our glorious peoples network is rapidly become the Conservative Broadcasting Corporation is their latest move in cutting their noses to spite their face. In this case the layoff and dismantling of their production department. The production department for chris' sakes.

Seventy-nine CBC employees - including workers who build sets, style hair and apply makeup - received layoff notices Thursday, a move critics called "the end of a television era" at the public broadcaster. 79 employees to be laid off at CBC-TV Toronto, executives say

The cash-strapped CBC announced it is having to cut back its in-house production capabilities dramatically by eliminating 79 design positions, from set builders and costume makers to makeup artists and hairstylists, at the broadcaster's Toronto production centre.

This is in addition to a number of voluntary layoffs, some terminated studio production jobs and positions left unfilled, bringing the total to around 106.

"We're sad about this. It is an end of an era. For 50 years, there has been in-house design at CBC, and now there is not going to be," said Fred Mattocks, executive director of regional programming and television production and resources. CBC drops axe on 79 design jobs

Aww he's sad. He has his job. Talk about crocodile tears. Obviously CBC is anticipating the Conservatives gutting our public broadcaster as they have threatened over the years. Quick action sought on CBC review

I thought that was why the CBC staff fought the lockout last year, to stop this kind of contracting out. A press release won't cut it folks, but a wildcat strike would. Of course that is illegal so I guess the best we can hope for is lobbying, email campaigns and maybe, just maybe an information picket or two. Sigh.

This is the begining of the end, what will be left of mothercorp is it becoming the NHL network. NHL is back so is the CBC


Also see:

Media Watch

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Alberta Needs a Living Wage

Alberta is booming. Jobs are waiting while employers finally realise they have to actually pay for labour, over and above the minimum wage, which is the lowest in the country. But are they paying you a living wage.

Find out by taking the Living Wage survey here.



Also See: We Need a Living Wage

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Alberta Labour History Institute Web Launch

Alberta Labour History Institute Web Launch

The launch will mark the culmination of seven years of work to collect materials and stories, resource archives and repositories, and interview Alberta workers and trade union leaders. This work was expedited in the past year with a Centennial Labour History Project made possible by generous funding from Heritage Canada and Athabasca University, as well as a number of trade unions and other working class organizations. On Wednesday, April 12, 2006, the Website will become available at http://www.labourhistory.ca

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AUPE gets off its ass

They have a great looking web page, they have up to date press releases and photos. So how come its taken them years to have their communications guy finally post their press releases to LabourStart?

I did it for them gratis for years cause they seemed to forget about this important source of labour news. Well I am happy to let the guy paid to do it, do it. Thanks Climenhaga. Took ya long enough.

Canada/North America AUPE and Calgary Health Region reach tentative agreement for 5,200 GSS workers [Alberta Union of Provincial Employees] For more info 20-Apr-2006 There are 4 more Canada stories today.

Wonder when Gil the former PR guy for the AFL and now their president will get off his ass and do the same thing for the AFL website.He is after all a hands on kinda guy. Probably when he corrects all the dead links on their website and updates it to include Mayweek and Public Interest Alberta.





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Dead Way

The peasants have surrounded the castle, the monster is put to the torch and the mad doctor is in chains.

King Ralph has lost another one. Just like Same Sex Marriage, the gun registry, Kyoto, the Vriend case, etc.. Talk tough, carry a big wad of cash, and run away.

The Third Way in Health Care reform is dead. Horray cry the Volk of Alberta, the monster is dead.

But lets not party too soon contrary to the blatherings of some.

Don't forget this is the PC's, the Party of Calgary and Presto is still waiting in the wings for an invitation to the dance. And Presto likes the Third Way.

And who actually embraced the Third Way, except the Tory-appointed Calgary Health Region, an outfit hell-bent to let docs cash in on queue-jumpers since some in this city have the fat wallets to get the red-carpet treatment? Even Ralph's own MLAs finally gave the deal the thumbs-down. Tories flatline Third Way

So on May Day in Edmonton , there will be massive march in celebration of the workers holiday and a protest against the Third Way the people need to really make sure the monster is dead. Bring your stakes and signs.

As workers, we must recognize and commemorate May Day not only for its historical significance, but also as a time to organize and speak out around issues that are impacting working-class people today. The March has historically been an opportunity for people to take to the streets and show their commitment to fairness, justice and respect in and outside of the workplace. In this spirit, this year’s March will provide a forum for the public disapproval and resistance to the Alberta Government’s plan for “third way” health care reforms. Edmonton May Week Labour Arts Festival


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America's Snow Job

He would be an appropriate press flak for the Bush regime. Then they could have their own Sunday morning talk show too. Wait they already do, and they have their own station too, heck why even hire him, just use Fox to broadcast all official White House PR. Wait they already do. FOX News' Tony Snow Among Possible White House Spokesman Candidates


Snow repeated falsehoods, offered new one in attempt to rebut Media Matters

See he is perfect for the job. And as another draft dodger that would make a full deck in the White House.



Also See:

Fox Bashing

Fox News Format Infiltrates Canada

An alternative to FOX NEWS

Canada vs Fox

Navel Gazing T.V.

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Harper Full Of Gas

Uh oh the Harpocrite broke another promise. He is telling Canadians to live with high gas prices.

In the 2004 election campaign, and when he was Leader of the Opposition ,he called on the government to eliminate the GST on gas prices. Now he says his teeny tiny 1% GST cut will suffice. Ha, ha, oh thats rich. Rich for gas gouging Big Oil that is sitting on massive reserves in Canada and so do not have to raise the gas prices.

And guess who is really upset with this....why Harpers allies on the right like the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and gasp, the Blogging Tories. So I guess the honeymoon is now officially over.


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The Iranian View

Amidst the sturm and drang and the druming of war with a possible U.S. Nuclear attack on Iran the MSM and the blogs have missed the opportunity to give the Iranian view of their pride in joining the Nuclear club.

Yes pride. Mis-placed of course, but none the less pride just like the Americans have over being a nuclear power. Because with the advent of nuclear power, not the bomb perse, but the ability to produce their enriched uranium for nuclear power plants for 'domestic' use and thus the ability to produce the waste used for a bomb, the Iranian population are united in their view that this now makes them a Great Power.

In truth, the politicians who have overseen Iran’s nuclear file, whether under the presidency of Hashemi Rafsanjani or Mohammed Khatami, and to this day, under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, are aware that the development of nuclear technology should not push Iran into crises that prohibit the country from using this technology for peaceful means.

As Iranians celebrated the announcement that their country had joined the nuclear club, conservative writers and journalists defended this incredible achievement but did not call for Iran’s exit from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT). Instead, they demanded the articles in NPT to be implemented.

The Editor-in-Chief of Kayhan, Hossein Shariatmadari, known for his extremist views on such topics, demanded the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohammed El Baradei, investigate whether the NPT treaty had been breached, before submitting his report to the UN Security Council or the IAEA.

Yet, the academic Davoud Hermidas Bavand saw that from this point onwards, the Iranians should manage the nuclear file with great care and attention. He added that El Baradei’s talks in the Iranian capital would provide an indication of the IAEA’s intentions that it accepts Iran’s uranium enrichment program given that it has not breached any international treaty or it rejects it. In this case, it would throw the ball in the UN Security Council’s court.

Compared to their neighbours in the Middle East, this puts Iran on par with Israel. Israel who has the bomb but is not a member of the NPT, nor is India, both American allies. While Iran is a member of the Nuclear Club and subject to UN sanctions and IAEA observations.

The Bushehr nuclear reactor lies on the shores of the Gulf, and it is closer to Manama or Doha than to the Iranian capital which lies in the interior. This means Tehran is almost safe, much more so than the capitals of the Persian Gulf , in case a mishap or an attack. A nuclear Iran is not evidence the country has become a power in the industrial sense. Iran … “I cry out in the Gulf”

And while the U.S. and its allies threaten Iran over its joining their exclusive nuclear club, the point is that the Iranian people are united in their support for this. Which makes any attempt to mobilize the reformers to oppose the current regime a phantasmagoria.

In the world of geopolitics Iran becoming a Great Power, a global nuclear power places that country in an exclusive club. One whose membership is rather selective about who gets to join.

Missing in this one sided rant by the American Empire is the simple fact that all signatories to the NPT agree to eliminate nuclear weapons. The U.S., which along with Russia have the most nuclear weapons and WMD of other kinds, has refused to reduce its stockpile. In fact with the Bush policy of pre-emptive strikes, it is expanding its small scale nuclear capability with bunker bombs etc .

If sanity is to be regained then the world, the UN, countries like Canada need to demand that the U.S. and Russia along with all countries with nuclear weapons begin the mass destruction of these weapons for the safety and good of the planet.

That was and is the purpose of the NPT. And countries that do not belong to the NPT should be shunned until such time as they are forced to allow inspectors to check their weapons.

Canada has long been an advocate of Nuclear non proliferation, however under the Harpocrites it appears that the government in its hypocritical condemnation of Iran in support of the Bush regime seems to forget this.Harper says Canada stands with allies against Iran

If Canada is to condemn anyone it should be Israel, not likely with Zionist sympathisers like Stockwell Day in cabinet, and India, as well as those countries not members of the Nuclear Club; the NPT.

Canada could be a voice of sanity and calm in this current attempt by the U.S. to drum up support for another idiotic pre-emptive assault on a Soveirgn country. The real question is why after the end of the Cold War we see an increasing proliferation of nuclear weapons not a decrease. We are now less safe than we were when a balance of MAD existed between the Soviet Union and the U.S.

Canada as a country with NO nuclear weapons has the political responsibility and obligation to pose an alternative to this MADness and call for an end to all WMD. Period. And it the Harpocrites won't do it in a minority government then it behooves the Opposition to unite around this and demand it.




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Quit Yer Whining

Bush Calls Rising Gas Prices 'Major Problem' for Country

Yo America quit yer whining about gas prices.

Here in Alberta we are paying $4 a gallon, and we own the stuff.

While in the U.S. gas prices are half that.

You want good news or bad news? For commodities, it doesn't matter

But others hold out little hope for lower oil prices in the near future. "I think the price is going to go higher," said Peter Tertzakian, chief energy economist and director of ARC Financial Corp. in Calgary.

With China showing no signs of slowing and North American demand for gasoline remaining strong, "in the near term there isn't a lot of spare capacity out there to make the markets feel comfortable," said Mr. Tertzakian, author of A Thousand Barrels A Second: The Coming Oil Break Point and the Challenges Facing an Energy Dependent World.

While it's true that U.S. crude oil inventories are high, "that's like saying the gas tank is high in my car. But the issue isn't the gas tank in your car, it's at the pump."

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Alberta Gets No Respect

All that whining from Calgary, 60 per cent of Albertans want more respect: poll and the Oilers and Flames are in the NHL Playoffs.

Sheesh Toronto is out of the playoffs, how much more respect do ya want.

Especially since the Oilers played so lousy this year.

How much sweeter can it be when the Maple Leafs are out again, lets see they haven't been in the playoffs since Canada's Centennial.

So suck it up Alberta, and lets play hockey.



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Kielburger Wins Nobel

Congratulations to Craig Kielburger the founder of Free the Children who mobilized a grassroots movement amongst Canadian youth to fight against Child labour and Sweatshops. That movement grew into an international campaign that is growing every day.

Children's advocate Kielburger wins global honour

Craig Kielburger, who began his fight for the rights of children as a 12-year-old boy outraged by the death of an activist who opposed child labour in Pakistan, has won the "Children's Nobel Prize. Swedish authorities announced on Tuesday that the 23-year-old, who lives in Thornhill, Ont., had been awarded the 2006 World Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child.

See My Boycott Nike site for more on child labour and Sweat shops.

Also:

Where Are Your Clothes Made

Gildan Sweat Shop Success Story

Haiti Quebec's Shame

Canada's Dirty Secret: Haiti

Jack Abramoff Sweat Shop Lobbyist

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May I See Your Passport Please

Well that's that. Our tough talking Conservative Government; Harper, McKay and now Day, all told the US where to stick their mandatory passport plan and of course the US listened.

Michael Chertoff, the U.S. Homeland Security secretary, told Stockwell Day, Canada's minister of public safety, that the new regulations will come into effect Jan. 1, 2008. U.S. won't delay introducing new border security measures

Opps, oh well there is still softwood lumber....bet the Conservatives are successful in making their new friends in the White House quiver and shake over that issue too.


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A Vision Of Things To Come

Ralph Klein, Preston Manning and Mike Harris have all touted their "Third Way" for Health Care reform in Canada as NOT being modeled on the US but on Europe and the UK. Well lets look at the success the UK is having with its third way model of public private healthcare delivery. Opps better not. Blair faces inquiry into NHS crisis


One of the problems of the GP contract - like so many Labour health reforms - was the number of other radical changes, some of them contradictory, being pursued at the same time. The prime minister has still not learned. In an address to the New Health Network think-tank yesterday he listed four big reforms which the government is pursuing. This month marks the nationwide introduction of payments by results, the biggest change since the NHS was launched 58 years ago, under which finance flows to hospitals, ambulance services, primary care and mental health teams according to the numbers of patients treated, rather than a block contract. On top of that, the government is expanding patient choice, introducing more independent providers and promoting GP commissioning. He could have noted two other reforms - both currently unnecessary - involving radical restructuring of primary care trusts and strategic health authorities. Right goals, too many wrong results


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Go Willie Go

Are you on the bus or off the bus? That's the challenge Willie Lambert is making to the members of CAW. Bus driver aims to steer CAW at top

And it's about time that Buzz faced an election instead of an acclamation.

Hargrove has been repeatedly acclaimed to the union's top job since he first took over from Bob White in 1992. He has said this will be his last campaign -- the union's constitution requires staff to retire at 65, the age he'll reach at the end of another three year term. Hargrove Challenger

What is important in Willie's run is the criticism that Buzz has been getting over concession bargaining and sweetheart contracts with the Big Three auto giants, while failing to organize Magna International or the Japanese and Korean automakers in Canada.

Lambert also criticized Hargrove for accepting changes in labour contracts with Ford and General Motors and for failing to speak out strongly enough for protection of Canadian manufacturing.By agreeing to work rules and other changes in CAW contracts with Ford and GM, Lambert said, Hargrove is setting the stage for the companies to demand even more concessions in the next round of collective bargaining

Buzz dismisses Willie cause he is a public sector worker, a mere bus driver.

"He doesn't come from the auto industry - he works in the public sector. . . . So he doesn't have the same threat to his job as the auto workers."

Uh huh, well he is a bus driver driving the buses members of CAW make, and without drivers well I guess those buses would just sit idle. And the public sector has taken many hits over the last ten years, under Harris and Rae. What an a-hole.

Gee Buzz I thought you were trying to build a national social union not just an autoworkers union. Since that's why you said you were raiding SEIU and why you have been cozing up to AUPE.

Anatomy of a raid

And that's awful patronizing of you to attack Willie for saying what your old pal, mentor and ghost writer Sam Gidin has also said. And he came out of the auto industry. He has publicly criticised your cap in hand gofering for Big Auto.

Concessions in Oshawa: The End of an Era?
Monthly Review, VA - 31 Mar 2006
by Sam Gindin.

Go Willie Go.


Also See CAW To Leave CLC?

Get The Buzz


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Honk For Public Day Care

I want a national Day Care Program and I won't let go until I get it.

That Harper sure has a way with kids.

Harper willing to go to the polls over child-care allowance
Harper said that he could work with the NDP and Bloc Québécois. He suggested those parties are not ideologically opposed to his plan, but instead criticize the amount of the allowance.

What BS. They are opposed to his plan which only creates a baby bonus and ends federal funding to the provinces and does not create a national public daycare program. The NDP plan is just that plus a $1200 tax credit, not cash which will be taxed. Chow calls Conservatives’ childcare bluff

The BQ only care about getting money for Quebecs existing program, the so called fiscal imbalance. So the Tories will count on them to back up this baby-bonus, in exchange for an asymetrical fiscal deal with Charest.

Not only does the kid put the squeeze on Harper but in the very community centre where he is speaking the folks also think his plan is bunk. PM Keeps Plan for Child Care

Prime Minister Stephen Harper challenged his opponents yesterday to take his minority government down over the Conservatives' cherished child-care plan, saying they'll have the chance to do it soon.

Harper's announcement received lukewarm response from some parents in the community centre.

"I think it's just a payoff. Of course I'm going to take the money but I don't think it's solving any problems," said Lydia Pranaitis, who has two children under two.

When she goes back to work from maternity leave, Pranaitis said it will cost her $1,900 per month for child care.

"I think this whole system is breeding poverty," she said.

"If I were a single mother, what could you do?"

Benn Uba agreed it's better to have the money than nothing.

But the father of two children said he would rather see more child-care facilities with subsidies for parents.

"It's tight, it's hard," Uba said of trying to pay the family's bills and pay for child care.

"People don't want to have children anymore."

Besides the cash for parents, the Conservatives also pledged in their first throne speech to create 125,000 new spaces by offering $250 million in tax credits for businesses and non-profit groups that create new spaces.

Critics have said similar efforts by provincial governments have failed to motivate corporations in the past.

Taking Care of Canada's Children

By Nicole Hacock, Director of YWCA Cambridge

The fatal flaw in the Conservative plan is that it ignores Canadians’ desire for quality early learning and care programs. Although the government says it will offer tax incentives to businesses so they can create child care spaces, when the Mike Harris government in Ontario tried this in the 1990s, guess how many spaces the private sector created? None.

The Conservative plan confuses families’ legitimate desire for income support with the need for an accessible, high quality child care. We believe that Canada can deliver both. Families need both, if they are to help their children get the best start in life and balance the overwhelming demands of work and family life.

Since February 24, more than 22,000 Canadians have signed an on-line open letter that urges politicians to work together to honour the child care agreements created last year. At www.buildchildcare.ca, people from all walks of life are saying the same thing: $1,200 a year is not enough. Canada can, and must, do better.

Hayley Wickenheiser, a gold medal mother (and hockey star at the Turin Olympics) signed the child care open letter this week.

Also See

Childcare

Daycare



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Edmontonian Discovers New Dinosaur

And no its not the Conservatives though it does bear a striking resemblance to Alberta's very own Ralph-saurus

New discovery dethrones T-rex

U of A paleontologist identifies carnivore bigger than Tyrannosaurus and millions of years older

EDMONTON - A University of Alberta dinosaur hunter has identified one of the largest meat-eating dinosaurs to ever roam the planet, a bloodthirsty beast that hunted in packs in South America and ripped apart much bigger plant-eaters with its razor-sharp teeth and snapping jaw.

Philip Currie, a well-known paleontologist and biological sciences professor at U of A, and Rudolfo Coria, a paleontologist in South America, excavated a group of at least seven of the ferocious predators in red desert sandstone outside Plaza Huincul in Argentina.

The bones are 80 to 90 million years old -- much older than those of the Tyrannosaurus rex, which lived 65 to 70 million years ago in what is now Asia and North America.

"It's always pretty exciting when you realize you're working on a new type of dinosaur," said Currie, who co-authored a paper about the discovery that appears in the spring edition of Geodiversitas, a journal about earth sciences.

"For me, especially, big carnivorous dinosaurs have been one of my passions since I was a kid and found a dinosaur in a cereal box."

A Meat Eater Bigger Than T. Rex Is Unearthed

The discovery, along with other recent ones in Canada, Mongolia and the United States, appeared to support an emerging interpretation of the hunting behavior of predatory dinosaurs. Instead of being solitary hunters, as once thought, they may have operated in groups.

"The presence of so many animals in one quarry," Dr. Currie said in a statement released by the University of Alberta, "suggests that they were living together in a pack at the time leading up to their catastrophic death." Giant dino-predators may have hunted in packs

Meat-Eating Dinosaur Was Bigger Than T. Rex

Other dinosaur experts say the discovery sheds valuable new light on the most fearsome land predators ever known.

Lowell Dingus is an associate paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

"The remarkable remains of Mapusaurus provide another important example of the spectacular kinds of gigantic carnivorous dinosaurs that roamed South America near the end of the age of the dinosaurs," he said.

Mapusaurus belongs to a group of recently recognized theropod dinosaurs called carcharodontosaurs, which have also been found in Africa.

The new species "increases both our knowledge of the anatomy and the diversity of this peculiar group of theropod," said Ronan Allain of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, France.

Allain says Mapusaurus is more closely related to the Argentinian Giganotosaurus than to the African species.

"It means a South American [carcharodontosaur] lineage could have evolved regardless of the African forms."

He says the other main contender for the title of biggest ever meat-eating dinosaur is Spinosaurus, whose fossil remains come from North Africa.

More on Dinosaurs

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Canadian's Vote Out Berlusconi

Now if we only had been able to vote for the "President of the Free World" , Kerry would be in the White House. Italian Canadian voters pivotal in electing Prodi

Also see: The Friendly Fascist



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Haiti Canada's Colony

Here is another example of the continuing Canadian colonialism of Haiti.

I like this telling headline; Canada Gov. General For Haiti

Governor-general returning to Haiti
Michaelle Jean was a terrified 11-year-old when she and her family fled a barbarous regime in Haiti. Next month, she will return to her homeland as Canada's governor-general, sitting shoulder to shoulder with other heads of state to witness the inauguration of Haiti's new president. The initial plans are for Jean to attend the inauguration of Rene Preval in Port-au-Prince on May 14.

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Vegan Myth Busting

Progressive Bloggers has had an open thread this weekend on the Seal Hunt debate. One of the contributors Mark Francis has been defending veganism, the dietary ideology behind many of the hunt opponents.

As I remarked in my previous post meat eating, hunting and fishing, and later animal husbandry were essential for human evolution. However Mark in a post asserts that Vegans produce less greenhouse gases in their consupmtion of fruit and vegitables;


Of course, there's problems with animal husbandry: vegan diets are much better for the earth: 'Vegans produce 1.5 tons less greenhouse gas emissions per year'


The study failed to consider the high cost and petrochemical basis of fertilizers, soil destruction, labour intensive farming for vegitables and fruits, DDT and pesticide/herbicide use, gas comsuption by combines and other farm equipement and their emissions, etc. And they failed to consider the large scale use of water, irrigation in California for instance, and the electricity and energy associated with it.

When we do green assessments of production, all input variables have to be taken into consideration which was not done in this case.

They compared apples and oranges, pardon the pun. In criticizing the waste from massive single animal factory farms, such as the massive swine farms, they failed to compare it with the average single crop vegitable or fruit farm. And they failed to compare it to the large scale vegitable crop production in the US, such as cotton, peanuts, soy, etc. which are subsidized, and are used for oil seed production not food. They also failed to consider the input and output costs of GMO, genetically modified, crops.

True industrial farming of single animal species is problematic, espicially swine. However so is single crop production of seed products for oil or sugar beets , as the deterioration of soil conditions in Southern Alberta show's.

So when folks talk about food production as if one form of industrial production is better than another, they are frankly pissing in the wind. All industrial based farming is energy intensive, and produces waste, whether in secondary and tertiary production and transportation. To look at these costs would be to look at the real green costs of capitalist food production.

The key to the regeneration of farming is green input output organic small scale farming, not the industrial model. Regardless of crops or animals raised. And that farming has to be based on an understanding of the ecology and ecological impacts it has.

Also See: The Truth About the Farm Crisis




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