Redmonton Not In The Bag for the Conservatives

The Liberals are behind the eight ball in Redmonton. You'd think they only found out about the election last night. They still have to nominate eight more seats in Alberta and three of those are in Edmonton. Huh?

And as I reported here yesterday their national webpage is soooooo far behind that they claim only to have 12 candidates in Alberta. Today the have updated it for the twenty candidates they do have nominated.

Yep Alberta is NOT IMPORTANT TO THE LIBERALS OR CONSERVATIVES.... Its in the bag..... Big mistake......there are four ridings that could be contenders;

Landslide Anne's Edmonton Centre, where Laurie Hawn PC has run before and kicked off the attack ads on the radio on the weekend, his focus Crime and Punishment, he is punishing Anne for having been justice minister, being soft on crime and the Gun Registry....might work in Calgary but we're more urban than gunslinger here......

Edmonton- Beaumont where Kilgour stepped down and the PC's nominated a white guy to replace him in this huge East Indian community (ohhh thats smart...must have figured since Kilgour did it any white guy can.....Kilgour had a base in the community......opps this could be a strategic blunder......) Must figure since he works for the Oilers that will help.....The NDP have nominated a White Guy to run here too, though his campaign manager is Anand Sharma of the NDYA, problem is that this guy has no profile.......the Liberals have still to nominate anyone here..... rumour has it And speaking of Dan Maclennan, the popular Union leader of AUPE,( a guy that even the right wing Sun media loves) may be the Liberal candidate here after losing the nomination in Edmonton East.......and if Dan does run this could be one to watch.......

Nomination meetings are set for Dec. 3 and Dec. 5 for Edmonton-Strathcona and Millwoods-Beaumont.

MID-WINTER BLAHS If there's an election, the only interesting local ridings will be Edmonton-Beaumont, with David Kilgour retiring and non-ethnic Mike Lake winning the Conservative nomination. In Edmonton East, it's another odd situation for the Liberals, with this Nicole Martel campaigning as if she's the Liberal nominee, while the PM invites Alberta Union of Provincial Employees president Dan MacLennan to run in the riding. In Strathcona, the Liberals will sic Andy Hladyshevsky on incumbent Tory Rahim Jaffer.

Edmonton East only had their Liberal candidate nominated Sunday night and despite some failed arm twisting it ain't Dan its unknown Nicole Martel ......She is running against NDP candidate Arlene Chapman who has a good profile in the community,and unlike the Liberals who can't count on their Provincial party to help out, can count on her NDP MLA to help out. So I predict its a two way race between the NDP and PC's.

Edmonton Strathcona is one to watch as well. Vote splitting has allowed Rahim Jaffer to come up the middle and get elected in this left wing riding where the MLA is popular former NDP Leader Raj Pannu. The NDP gained an enormous amount of votes last election, putting them neck and neck with the Liberals.

This time around their candidate Linda Duncan ,an experienced parlimentary lobbyist for the Environmental movement may be able to win votes away from the Liberals, with Laytons send more NDPs to Ottawa campaign. Will that be enough to defeat Jaffer? Place your wagers.

With the Liberals nominating for Edmonton Strathcon newcomer Hladyshevsky, an Executive member of the right wing Nationalist Ukrainian Canadian Congress and partner with the Liberal dominated law firm of Fraser Milner Casgrain, they are hoping his connection to the University and its Ukrainian Ctudies department will help out. Nicole Martel is also Ukrainian and Edmonton East has a large Ukrainian community, though it is mostly old timers.

The Liberals may be trying to make up for the Ignatieff factor in Toronto with Ukes from Edmonton, see we're inclusive....I wonder what Hladyshevsky has to say about Ignatieff since the UCC has denounced him.....

Local candidates gear up for looming election

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by KAREN KARBASHEWSKI
Examiner Staff

On your mark.

Get set.

Campaign!

The race is on as federal political parties gear up for an expected election in early 2006, and have most of their candidates in place, ready to trudge through sleet and snow to spread the message.

“All of our campaign teams have been ready to go since May,” says Tony Clark, federal NDP organizer.

One familiar name on the NDP ballot is Donna Martyn. She ran in Edmonton-Riverview in the 2004 provincial election under the New Democrat banner, attempting to take down incumbent MLA and Liberal leader Kevin Taft. Though unsuccessful, she remains undaunted and has thrown her hat and passion into the federal camp.

“I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” she says, adding she’s been out meeting constituents since the spring.

Martyn is running in Edmonton Centre, Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan’s riding. Edmonton Centre will be the focal point for political watchers this election as McLellan, Alberta’s lone Liberal member of parliament, fights for her seat for the fifth time.

It was a nail-biter in Edmonton Centre in the 2004 election as McLellan beat conservative candidate Laurie Hawn by 721 votes. Some pundits questioned if voters were confused about the Conservative party’s name. The Reform party and the Progressive Conservatives had merged under the name Conservative Party of Canada or CPC. But a candidate also ran under the banner of the PC party, or the Progressive Canadian party.

Conservative Laurie Hawn is gearing up for another duel in Edmonton Centre and says there’s no doubt people who voted for the PC party candidate in 2004 thought they were voting for the Conservative party.
“They used the old (Progressive Conservative) fonts and colours, they were on the ballot as PC. We had observed on that to Elections Canada and they said there wasn’t any confusion, but of course, there was. It was annoying and it was deceitful ... We’ll deal with it if it comes up again,” says Hawn.

He says the loss motivated the ‘heck’ out of him and he’s ready to take a leave from his position as the manager of Union Securities Limited to hit the campaign trail when the need comes.

He’s already secured office space in a former bank building at the north end of Westmount Mall and has built on his volunteer base from the last election.

Anne McLellan’s camp is also ready to go at a moment’s notice, says team member Ray McKall.

“We will be prepared. It appears now to be coming sooner, not later, even though that’s not the prime minister ‘s schedule. If it is forced early, we will be ready to go early,” he says.

Volunteers have been securing new office space for the expected campaign as McLellan’s campaign headquarters for the last two elections is now home to a gardening business.

McLellan’s team will also have help from Dan MacLennan, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE), who was rumoured to be running for the Liberals.

“It was something I was looking at seriously. I’d had lots of meetings (about it) but I just go re-elected three weeks ago to this job. I met with my new six-person executive and not one of them has more than a year’s experience. What I’m going to be doing instead, is taking some holidays and helping Anne McLellan,” he says.

“I think she’s going to have the toughest fight ever, so I think that’s where my energy is going to be spent,” he added.

Edmonton-area Liberals have some candidates in place and continue to hold nomination meetings to determine who will run in some ridings. Calls to the party’s election readiness co-chair went unreturned.

Mark MacGillivray, Alberta coordinator for the Green Party of Canada, says the party will be running a full slate of candidates in the area and has people in place for all but two Edmonton-area ridings.

Edmontonian Harold Knippschild doesn’t think a January 2006 election is a great idea as it will force candidates to campaign over Christmas.

“I’d rather them come after the holidays because it’s so hectic. I think we have to do something about this government. I just hope this time something is done. It seems everybody complains about the Liberals, but when it comes right down to it, they get back into power,” he says.

Kitt Sampley says she’s all for an election and now is as good a time as ever.

“I’d love to get the Liberals out of there. Soon is good, but sooner is better,” she says.

Sampley’s sister Chris Caddey says an early year election means candidates will have to campaign during Christmas and be away from their families.

“They never come to my house,” counters Sampley. “I’ve lived in Mill Woods for 10 years and never had one there.”

Both women say sleet nor slow would stop them from heading to the polls to cast their ballots. When that will be is still up in the air, but a motion of non-confidence is expected to be entered into the House of Commons on Thursday, with the vote expected on Nov. 28 or Nov. 29. If his minority government is defeated, which is widely expected, Prime Minister Paul Martin would then be forced to call an election which is expected to be Jan. 9 or Jan. 16.

CONFIRMED CANDIDATES


EDMONTON CENTRE
Anne McLellan - LIB
Laurie Hawn - CPC
Donna Martyn - NDP
David Parker - GREEN
EDMONTON EAST
Peter Goldring - CPC
Arlene Chapman - NDP
Unknown - GREEN
EDMONTON LEDUC
James Rajotte - CPC
Marty Rybiak - NDP
Ben Pete - GREEN
EDMONTON MILLWOODS BEAUMONT
Mike Lake - CPC
Neal Gray - NDP
EDMONTON SHERWOOD PARK
Ken Epp - CPC
Unknown - NDP
Lynn Lau - GREEN
EDMONTON SPRUCE GROVE
Rona Ambrose - CPC
Jason Rockwell - NDP
John Lackey - GREEN
EDMONTON ST. ALBERT
John Williams - CPC
Mike Melymick - NDP
Peter Johnston - GREEN
EDMONTON STRATHCONA
Rahim Jaffer - CPC
Linda Duncan - NDP
Cameron Wakefield - GREEN

Ruling Class Gossip

Hey this is even better than As The World Turns. Belinda who? MacKay seen with new heiress -Sophie Desmarais: Mila Mulroney played matchmaker a month ago

To rule in Canada is to be connected to the Desmarais Power Corporation of Quebec. Whether through the back rooms, friendship, old party ties or by family.

And it isn't called the Power Corp for nothing, it is the largest private capital fianancial corporation in Canada. And Desmarais sits with the Bush cabal on the Carlyle Group.

Paul Desmarais is not only one of Canada's richest men he is a maker of Prime Ministers. He made his employee Paul Martin what he is today. His son Andre is married to Chretiens daughter; France.

Unfortunatley for Peter those political ties are once again the the Liberal party. Whats with this boy? It gives new meaning to being a 'social' liberal and fiscal conservative. Thats two for one on his dating card.

No wonder the Harper doesn't trust him...his taste in women is for Liberals who Dominate....hmmm......

A tip o the blog to Grandinite for this...I orginally saw it on the gossip page at Bourque; "Nice", she wonders, "imagine Christmas around the giant Desmarais Christmas tree, all decorated with trinkets from Tiffany's, and all those packages under it from Holt's, Harry Winston, Hermes, Chanel, and Harrod's. Peter and Andre and Paul and Sophie and ...""And Jean Chretien's daughter France", he adds.

Dodgey P3's

Lost in the hoopla of the defeat of the Liberals is this announcement by David Dodge head of the Bank of Canada Dodge touts public-private deals

Governments' inability to successfully harness the hundreds of billions of dollars that pensions control is hurting the country's productivity, Mr. Dodge is expected to argue. He is speaking at a conference on public-private partnerships (P3) in Toronto Monday. That's because infrastructure needs — demand to build roads, schools, hospitals — are enormous and growing. Toronto-Dominion Bank figures the gap between what is needed to maintain or replace existing capital, and the amount actually spent, ranges from $50-billion to $125-billion for Canada. Pension plans, on the other hand, are actively shopping for long-term, stable investments, and infrastructure is a good fit for them, Mr. Dodge will say. Pension plans control $800-billion in assets, and are constantly on the lookout for projects that have a lifespan of 25 or 30 years that can give them a steady and decent rate of return. A man with a plan

I blogged here on this just the other day, and I hate to tell you I told you so but, well ..ok I told you so. The neo-con state in Canada, has failed to sell us on their P3 notions. And private capitalism is not up to the challenge just look at the failure of the privatized highway deal in Ontario. So where can capitalism find some capital just sitting around doing nothing.....well in OUR pension plans. Whether those are public sector plans or the CPP.

While private sector pension plans face deficits public plans are flush with capital and capitalism hates capitals that just sits around being unproductive, that is not inversted and earning interest.

What Dodge does NOT want, nor does existing capital markets is the direct control of public pension funds by the workers who fund it. Currently these funds are managed by private managers whose litany of investments are driven by the sole ethic of the market; profit.

Unions whose members fund these pension plans must demand more control over the investment policy and management of these plans. Otherwise the managers and the State will use them to fund P3's which are NOT in the workers interests.

The time for direct democratic control and transparency of public and private pension funds by the workers who fund them is now. The battle lines are being drawn by the corporations, the banks and Mr. Dodge. It is time for labour to fightback by demanding workers control of our pension funds public or private.

But the biggest roadblocks to P3s and attracting pension money to public infrastructure are probably public opinion and outright hostility from organized labour.

“[P3s] are part of a broader neo-conservative agenda that argues that all that is public should be privatized,” Canada's largest union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), said in a statement on its website.

P3s cost the public more than straight government funding, they are not accountable to the public, and they lead to higher user fees and laid-off workers, CUPE argues.

Mr. Dodge's speech Monday will be the second time in a month that he has clashed with organized labour.

Earlier in November, Mr. Dodge said that employers should have more of a say in what happens to the surpluses in defined-benefit pension plans.

“I say to David Dodge, keep your hands off our pension plans, because workers are in no mood ... for any more scams,” said Sid Ryan, president of CUPE Ontario.

More debate around Ignatieff

The debate is heating up both in the blogosphere over Ignatieffs appointment as the official Liberal candidate in Ontario's Etobicoke-Lakeshore riding which is in the heart of the Ukrainian community.

It is also on going in the pages of the Globe and Mail in the comments attached to this article.

It also occured this afternoon on CTV's Mike Duffy Live when longtime political affairs reporter Craig Oliver sneeringly refered to quotes from Ignatieff denying he was Canadian, saying he was a proud American. That American foriegn policy was 'our' foriegn policy.

Craig Oliver, sneered. The rancour on his face was visible and his disdain for Ignatieffs hypocrisy was literally seething. Craig Oliver never sneers. Things do not look good for Ignatieff.

Harpers Gaffe

"I know being the opposition is a hard and dirty job but you were up for it" Stephen Harper speaking tonight to his MP's in response to the defeat of the government.

Opps the Harper is implying that they got down and dirty to defeat the government like playing tricks with tapes like Gerwal did, or calling the Liberals 'mafia' err 'organized crime'. I think he meant to say its a hard and thankless job. Ah well the truth is out, the mudslinging and playing dirty was their strategy all along. Ooo like we didn't know that.

He frowned and looked waaaay to serious as he approached the podium, and when he wasn't forcing his cold fish smile he was looking away distracted. Never have I seen a politician frown while he smiles. How does he do that?

The Conservative messaging Vote Us to Build a Better Future and a Better Canada.

Martin on the other hand was bouyant and ready for the pugilistic battle coming on. The Liberals message is Keep the Good Times Rolling.

Both spoke from their caucus rooms. The difference was the Conservatives showed the diversity of their party with younger members, ethnic diversity and women. The old white guys that dominate the party were in the back of the room.

And as I said here before Laytons message was Canada can do better with more New Democrats.

Ok folks we are off and racing, place your wagers now.

And They Are Off And Racing

The Globe and Mail online reports:
Countdown to confidence vote The no-confidence motion that will likely topple Prime Minister Paul Martin's minority Liberal is only minutes away. The early evening no-confidence vote, set for 6:45 p.m. EST, is likely to trigger the fall of the government after only 17 months in power.

CBC and CTV are covering it live quick go to the TV.

While watching the Party Communications directors on the extended broadcast Don Newmans Politics show we were given the messaging for this election. The Liberals will say; "We kept our promises", The Conservatives will say "Its about ethics" and the NDP will say "More NDPers make a difference."

Ready Set Go.

Now if the NDP want to really stick it to the Liberals they would steal their message The Liberals Made Promises, the NDP kept them.

Ignatieff Imperialist Apologist

A Tip o' the Blog to Simon Pole for bringing this to my attention.Ignatieff Angers Ukrainian Canadians

Where Liberal Candidate and apologist for Empire Ignatieff says; "My difficulty in taking Ukraine seriously goes deeper than just my cosmopolitan suspicion of nationalists everywhere. Somewhere inside I'm also what Ukrainians would call a great Russian and there is just a trace of old Russian disdain for these little Russians."

As someone of Ukrainian Canadian origin I, like the Ukrainian Canadians in his riding (one he has been parachuted into) consider such a comment a form of bigoted racism thinly disguised as national differences.

And as I come from the anarchist tradition of Makhno, Kroptokin and Bakunin, the former Ukrainian the later Russians, I have no cant with nationalism. But I do recognize the Ukraine as a country, and more importantly a peasant culture seperate from the old world Great Powers of Poland and Russia.

Ignatieff has made his role as a public intellectual to be a defender of liberal capitalist democracy ala Fukuyama, which in reality is the defence of American Imperialism and the hegemony of Empire.

The comparison of Ignatieff with PET is apt, for Trudeau had the same self hate and disdain for his country; Quebec, while wanting to be seen as the Great Canadian.

So I left this comment on Simons blog;

Leaving aside the fact the Kiev the capital of the Ukraine is older than Moscow or St. Petersburg and as a city the original city state was known as the RUS from which the so called Russians took their. The very acceptance proudly, not sheepishly, not apologetically (though with the tone of apology), by Ignatieff shows his Imperial attitude, an acceptance of the world as it is, one dominated by Empires. In his case like many anti-Bolshevik opportunists who ran to New York to declare themselves Dukes, Dutchesses and Counts to impress the New Empire with their titles from the Old, so goes Ignatieff. In his case it is to defend and take advantage of his new master. Interestingly Prince Kropotkin, a real prince and a classic Anarchist never glorified his Russian origins when defending Ukrianians or the Dukhbours. The existance of the Ukraine, known as the Borderland, was historically disputed between Moscow and Poland, as these two clashed over the region as part of their Imperial domains. The term little Russians is as much a class and racist remark as it is one of Imperial disdain. For the Ukriane was the sole area peasant serfs from both Empires could escape to and be free. Ignatieff regrets this freedom, while defending the freedom of Empire.

Link Byfield Goes AA

No not Alcoholics Anonymous, the fledgling right wing rump of the PC's the Alberta Alliance. In his column in the Calgary Sun he whines;

"Not much attention was paid on Saturday to the election of Cardston MLA Paul Hinman to lead the Alberta Alliance Party."


And why should we? This is another sorry reincarnation of the Old Socred Party, no not the original party the recent revisionist party under the leadership of Randy Thorsteinson which failed to mobilize any wins in several recent elections.
Thorsteinson was deposed as Leader of the Socreds for his Mormon ties, and went on the create the AA.

The AA got its first seat when the PC MLA for Norwood declared himself an independent after his party eliminated his riding before the last election He joined the AA and became their first member. Paul Hinman won a seat in the last election in Mormon dominated Cardston home of the old Western Canada Concept and the Western Seperatist notion. This southern bible belt community identifies its politics as Republican, not Canadian so Hinmans win is a no brainer. It was a rural right wing reation to the the big city politics of the Party of Calgary and their culture of urban entitlement under King Ralph.

Will they be a threat, will they go anywhere, will they become as whiny Byfield hopes the new party on the right. Well history says no, they are a flash in the pan. Just like the WCC was.

Hinman though could use Byfield to help with his sound bites. He got quoted the other day about Klein's prediction that the Liberals would win a minority government by saying Klein should shut up come home and take a vacation.
Excuse me???!! The Legislature is currently sitting so King Ralphs place is in the house. However considering the last sitting thats exactly what Klein did in the final days.

A Tip o the Blog to AlbertaAvenue for this story. He rightly points out the Liberals and NDP gained seats in the last election and gained in popular support farmore than the AA despite Byfields statements to the contrary in his column.

Byfield's wishful thinking may be some sort of hallucininatory revelation from hanging out with his right wing friends for too long, listening to his father (no not Jehovah but Ted) or perhaps something he smoked. In any case his prognosis is of a ground swell of political popularity for the AA is a shining example of the thinking of the lunatic right.

WWI Xmas Mutiny

It was Christmas Eve 1914 and the soldiers in the trenches, Brits, Canadians, Germans and French, muddy, covered in blood and guts, coughing up bloodied mucus of poison gas, called a truce in the War. A truce that remains a mutiny on the books of the ruling clases and their military to this day.

A new film has been made of this famous mutiny for and it will be shown to British Troops in Iraq.

Now if they sneak in the Americans to watch this that just might be the inspiration for the American all volunteer working class army to down arms and end this war.

So subersive is the legend of the Christmas Truce of 1914 that the French still refuse to allow their soldiers to see this film and refused to be part of the production effort.

Brit troops to see 1914 Xmas 'anti-war' film
During the ceasefire, German, British and French troops stopped shooting, got out of their trenches and shared cocoa and cigarettes. They sang hymns together and returned to fighting a few days later.The French army refused to participate in the making of the film, saying soldiers who participated in the Christmas truce were disobeying orders. German troops have already taken in the movie, but it will not be presented to French soldiers. The ceasefire was seen as treason by superiors on both sides.

It was of course this famous truce that gave rise to the 1960's comic Christmas song Snoopy's Christmas by the Royal Guardsmen Listen to it here.

And it was the inspiration for Dalton Trumbos classic Anti-War novel, Johnny Got His Gun.

During the summer of 1914 in a crucial battle in Mons Belgium British troops claimed to have seen St. George and a group of Longbowmen in the skies, which they claimed to have turned the battle in their favour.

This is known as the Legend of Mons, and occult horror author Arthur Machen claimed at the time that it was based on his short story called the Bowman which had been published in the popular press of the day. However historian A.J.P Taylor believed the story and recorded it in his history of WWI.

The fact that the tale and trench rumours of Angels of Mons appeared the summer before may have had a subconcious effect on the soldiers in the trenches facing the first industrialized war of mass murder.

Such was the horror of WWI and the introduction of mechanized death, mass slaughter by machine gun, huge mortars and giant Big Bertha guns that deafened you, poison gas, tanks, trench warfare, etc. the veritable impass of the No Mans Land lead to the need for a moment of humanity, human contact that became the Christmas Truce.

Shell shocked, cold, wet, facing certain death, suffering what was called Battle Fatigue, the first time it was ever recorded in war and we know now as Post Traumatic Syndrome, soldiers fled the field not in cowardice but in terror. And the officers on both sides of the trenches shot them mercilessly.

The Officer Corps of all the Armies of WWI were the last vestiges of the Aristocracy while the soldiers in the trenches were the original grunts, and like modern industrial capitalism which the war so effectively modeled itself after, they were expendable cogs in the machine.

Canadians know this well for even our officers like their men were expendable, as colonial troops, in both WWI and WWII. In the case of the later the battle of Dieppe saw the ruthless sacrifice of Canadians on the whim of Lord Mountbatten for his personal ego trip in securing a position of command.

23 Canadians were executed for desertion or cowardice in WWI. 2 were executed for murder (murder in war you ask well...) one after he suffered a head injury went nuts, the other was a case of shooting a superior officer, a Sgt. Major, the guys who were particularly brutal to their men. We would call it fragging today.Thousands more died in the trenches, including almost all the 1st Royal Newfoundland Regiment.

All those boys from the prairies, the cities, from the farms and the factories, from Saskatchewan, Iowa, Sheffield, Paris and Berlin died for the glory of Imperialism and Capitalism. When they came home there were no jobs, a depression, and no Veterans benefits. It was not such a Great War.

Happy Christmas (The War is Over)

There's nothing noble about dying. Not even if you die for honor. Not even if you die the greatest hero the world ever saw. Not even if you're so great your name will never be forgotten and who's that great? The most important thing is your life little guys. You're worth nothing dead except for speeches. Don't let them kid you any more. Pay no attention when they tap you on the shoulder and say come along we've got to fight for liberty or whatever their word is there's always a word.

Just say mister I'm sorry I got no time to die I'm too busy and then turn and run like hell. If they say coward why don't pay any attention because it's your job to live not to die. If they talk about dying for principles that are bigger than life you say mister you're a liar Nothing is bigger than life There's nothing noble in death. What s noble about lying in the ground and rotting. What's noble about never seeing the sunshine again? What's noble about having your legs and arms blown off? What's noble about being an idiot? What's noble about being blind and deaf and dumb? What's noble about being dead. Because when you're dead mister it's all over. It's the end. You're less than a dog less than a rat less than a bee or an ant less than a white maggot crawling around on a dungheap. You're dead mister and you died for nothing.

Imagine

I Smell Another Tax Cut Coming

Trusts still have tax advantage over corporations: TD
Wait for it folks here it comes.......Monte Solberg and the Conservatives will demand.....yep another Tax Cut for the Corporations to keep up with the tax dodging Income Trusts. Forget the tiff over the organized crime comments here is a far more serious crime, insider information released by Goodale prior to his announcement, which allowed the banks and others to profit. NDP finance critic Judy Wasylycia-Leis issued a statement demanding that the RCMP look into the affair.And not to be outdone on the eve of the election the Tories have chimed in with a 'Me Too' response.

Creationist Cretins

Ok now this is what happens when right wing lunacy and religious dogma once again dominate the public discourse in civil society. Couple sues operators of UC Berkeley Web site that teaches evolution

In that clever Orwellian speak that the right wing uses, they claim that evolution is a 'religious' theory and should not get government funding. Thats because they claim secular science, pluralist society, and humanism itself is a 'religion'.

The plaintiffs are not proponents of "intelligent design" - a theory that living organisms are so complex they must have been created by a higher intelligence - but they object to the teaching of evolution as scientific fact, Jeanne Caldwell said.

Yep evolution is just another 'belief' option. Seems they have believe scientists have 'faith' in evolution like they have 'faith' in the existance of God.

Actually these folks are dyed in the wool creationists, believers that God created the world 4,400 years ago, in a blink of a cosmic eye. The reason we have fossils according to creationists is that every animal and plant, bacteria, amobia, etc. were all created at once and some just happened to get caught in the magma of creation as it cooled between Monday and Friday. Saturday and Sunday remain in dispute due to being the Sabbath.

So if creation began instantly in a blink of the big fellows eye 4,400 years ago explain this;Scientists think they have deduced the moon's birthday from rock and soil samples -- and it's older than they thought. The researchers examined tungsten isotopes in the rocks and concluded that the collision occurred about 30 million to 50 million years after the formation of the solar system. That's just a blip compared with the 4.5 billion years that the Earth and solar system have existed.

Creationism originated with the belief that the world was flat. However contrary to popular belief this minority view was not held by everyone living in the Rennisance world or prior to Columbus's voyage to North and Central America. Only a small sect of christians believed this nonsense. Colombus himself availed himself of ancient Phonecian and Peloponnesian maps for his voyage as did other of his sailing contemporaries. And these maps did not show the world was flat, well ok the maps were, they showed the world as known at that time and what wasn't was called the unknown.

the claims of creation science do not refer to natural causes and cannot be subject to meaningful tests, so they do not qualify as scientific hypotheses.

So there, science is NOT a religion. It is as Bakunin attests, the study of natures laws. And that contradicts faith for nature according to creationists is the mere beast of God.

Science maybe called an outgrowth of philosophy, and that is where the Orwellian Right sneakily equates philosophy with religion. They have an agenda to evangelize the world, to counter what they see as the humanist attempt to free humanity from God and faith by immanitizing the eschaton, a term right wing philospher Eric Voegelin coined in his book The New Science of Politics.

If science is the child of reason, the Rennisance and the revolutionary ideals of the Enlightenment as Voegelin and his pals like Von Mises and William Buckley claim then it is too modern for them. And for creationists and the neo-con religious right.They want to force us backwards into their glorious age of medivalist theocracy and that theocracy was Catholic, while the modern evangelicals are protestants. But I will leave that contradiction for another day.

Link Wray RIP

Link Wray the Father of Rockabilly with his 'power chord' guitar has passed on. Perhaps in passing he will be remembered as the legend he really was. His music never changed, despite the visimitudes of the the rock world. You can hear an interview with Link here. And check out his classic album Rumble

Links style would influence the Ventures and later 60's guitar instrumental bands. By the end of the Punk era former Clash members formed the Stray Cats and preformed a faster heavier Rockabilly but it was still all Link Wray.

In the world of popular culture his lasting contribution will be the Batman Theme, the one that would be used in the Sixties TV series. And for a great Punk music blog with a tribute to Link go here.
And if you like this style of rock then I highly reccomend CJSR's Flying Saucer Rock and Roll on Monday nights between 10-11 pm Mountain Time. And you can listen to it online.

China's Toxic Capitalism

While apologizing to Russia is nice, the Chinese state capitalists should kowtow to their own citizens with abject sorrow for the disaster their rush to embrace capitalism has once again caused.

Like the numerous mining accidents that have occured over the past two years, these are all a result of the toxic capitalism that China is now embracing in its rush to create a Fordist industrial state.

Chinese decry toxic coverup

Chinese media are leveling rare criticism of the slow, secretive response to a toxic river spill.

As of Sunday the benzene, released into the Songhua Nov. 13 by an explosion at a chemical factory owned by a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation, had largely floated past Harbin on its way toward the Russian border. Five days after shutting down the Harbin water system, local authorities declared the "water had reached a standard level" and turned taps back on late Sunday. But in Russia, authorities are busy helping towns downstream of the spill prepare for when it reaches the country in the coming days. The incident forced Beijing to issue its "profound apologies" to Russia for the expected environmental damage.

And ya gotta love this headline........run boss run....but you can't hide....

China bosses flee as flood traps miners

China, struggling to clean up the world's most dangerous mining industries, has conducted a series of safety crackdowns and has shut nearly 2,000 mines since August.

The government has demanded that local officials sever any financial links to mines and has even called for managers to head down the shaft with each shift of workers.

But booming demand and high coal prices mean some owners ignore regulations, push production beyond safe limits or even illegally continue mining pits that have been formally closed.

Since under state capitalism the local officials are the bosses or in the bosses pocket this is another reason the workers need autonomous unions. A good news feeder on Mining and its impact on communities and workers around the world is;
Mines and Communities: Empowering mining-affected peoples

Web Design 101

It's been a weekend of web design changes on MSM and Blog sites.
Canada.Com which has completely revamped its clumsy ugly pages to look and work better.
But the real change for the better is at Progressive Bloggers A very nice look, very usable, includes polls, slick and cost a lot less than whatever Canada Com. paid. Nice go guys. Now if I use your diary tool what happens, does it appear on in your blogs or what?

Grey Cup Blues

Well its all over when the last field goal is kicked.
But the writing is on the wall, Jason Maas will be going to Hamilton after todays game. Why do I predict this?
Well Danny Maciocia is so enamoured and fiscally indebted to Ricky Ray, regardless of his lousy season and he needs the cash to pay for his football diva.
And that will come with the trade of Maas to Hamilton, which originated earlier this year when Edmonton took two players from Hamilton for future considerations. Sigh, so regardless win or lose we will be left with a prima donna overpaid underachiver for QB, and a starry eyed wet behind the ears coach.
Win or lose Maas is gone and we are stuck with Ricky 'no touchdowns' Ray.
I think maybe the trade should have been these two and the Esks keep Maas, who at least has been a team player unlike Ray.

It's The Economy, Stupid

PM defends party's $10B binge Paul Martins radio ad that ran this weekend is the mock up Liberal Message for the Election, we are going to give you tax cuts and fiscal management if you vote for us. Yep the binge spenders will be using all the announcements over the last two weeks as election goodies. Ahh you knew that was going to happen didn't ya. Notice I din't mention Gomery here once, and as the election plays out watch him disappear into the distance....

Canadian Eh

Colby Cosh has an article on Abortion, oh dear that should rattle a few folks, over at the National Post. Where he asks, in regards to public opinion polls showing that Canadians favour restrictions on abortion, favour capital punishment and restrictive immigration, the following;It is easy for politicians to ignore those who share the majority opinion. You are unorganized and quiet. But why are you?
Well we could ask the same question about Smokers. Who silently allow themselves to be victimized, bullied, and socially ostracized by the majority, it is probably cause they think its good for them, or when facing overwhelming legislative power simply shrug and say 'so it goes'. Very Canadian.

The Election Is On

It's official I just heard it on Joe FM here in Edmonton. An attack radio ad by Laurie Hawn the Edmonton Centre Conservative candidate against the Minister of Security and only Liberal MP in Alberta, Anne Mclellan.

Anne's seat is the one to watch By Paul Stanway

The ad has a couple talking about how the Liberals are soft on crime....thats their messaging for the begining of the election oy, shmucks....and the tag line....its time for a change....obviously listening to the polls.....So there it is folks, not bothering to wait till the shoe drops in the house tommorow the Conservatives are off and running......

the big prize for the Conservatives would be Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan's seat in Edmonton Centre.William McBeath, Conservative organizer in northern Alberta, believes high-profile candidates such as Rona Ambrose will help Laurie Hawn in his second attempt to unseat McLellan. Hawn has been campaigning for a rematch ever since losing to McLellan by just 93 votes the last time.

McBeath is a neophyte organizer and BloggingTory; Noise from the Right "In 2004 I graduated from the University of Alberta School of Business with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Marketing. I work as a political organizer for conservative organizations in the Edmonton and Northern Alberta region."

It is obvious that Alberta is not a serious campaign site for the Conservatives, as they focus their efforts in Ontario. Leaving the campaign to defeat Anne Mclellan to a recent graduate from the U of A, shows either chutzpah or severe underestimation of Landslide Anne's political machine.

Kilgours seat is the other Liberal seat up, but as Kilgour was a Conservative turned Liberal turned Independent, his seat is far more likely to go Tory than Liberal, unless the Liberals really put $$$ and workers into the campaign. Again the Tories must think they have this one in the bag to leave it to the 'kid'.

However there are still two races that could change the dynamic in Alberta, especially if the Tories and Liberal fail to put the effort in here. And from their web page the Liberals are the only party that still has to nominate candidates in Alberta!

Peter Goldring's seat in Edmonton East is being contested by NDP candidate Arlene Chapman who has credentials and public profile. Along with support from the provincial NDP machine to work for her, this is a race to watch. This seat was the only one ever won by the NDP federally. And it has been held by the NDP provincially. Since it includes the provincial riding of Calder, which went NDP provincially, the base is there to unseat Goldring.

The other race is Edmonton Strathcona, where the NDP doubled their vote last election and matched the Liberals but were unable to unseat Rahim Jaffer. This time their candidate is Linda Duncan an environmental lawyer.

The Liberals recycled a former MLA last time, and rumour has it will be their candidate again. This was a neck and neck race between the Liberals and NDP, which polled more votes total than Jaffer, but by splitting the vote, he won.

The question in Redmonton is can the NDP use the voter apathy of the Conservatives and effectively counter the Liberal use of 'fear factor' of the Harper to gain votes from the Liberals to win these seats. Or will these seats go Tory because of strategic voting for the Liberals.

Well that's what makes elections exciting, even in good old predictable Alberta.

Pardon Me While I Laugh

Liberals are about accountability, PM says
Ha ha ho ho hee hee, oh puuuuulllleeaasssee (he said in his best Roger Rabbit imitation) stop you're killing me.....lets take a look at the Liberals accountability as the NDP points out...........

Enough is enough:
Top 6 Examples that Liberal Words Don't Match Deeds
----------------------------------------------
1. HEALTH CARE: For 12 years, Liberals have said they will
protect public health care yet have overseen the fastest
expansion of American-style, private, for-profit health care.
Private clinics, private surgeries, private diagnostics... and
$41 billion thrown around without a single new condition to
prevent privatization from growing.

2. JOBS: For 12 years, Liberals have said they'll stand up for
workers. They've gutted Employment Insurance and today
two-in-three unemployed Canadians don't qualify. They let George
Bush attack our forestry workers and don't fight back. They're 12
years late on an auto strategy and have no idea how to build the
green cars Canada wants right here in Canada. 140,000
manufacturing jobs gone, our forestry industry is in crisis, auto
plants closing and pensions are unprotected.

3. ENVIRONMENT: For 12 years, Liberals have promised to cut
pollution. They promised a 20% cut to pollution in 1993. It's now
up by 24%, and rising faster than even the United States. They
oppose mandatory fuel efficiency and oppose rules to make
polluters pollute less. They give billions of dollars to the oil
and coal industry and smog season in Canada now runs from
February to October.

4. FOREIGN AFFAIRS: For 12 years, Liberals have promised to play
a role in the world that makes us proud. They've cut foreign aid
and broken our promise to the world. They've ignored Stephen
Lewis' plea and not one low-cost AIDS pill has gone to Africa.
They've let the country that invented peacekeeping slip to 33rd
in the world. And Paul Martin only said no to George Bush on
missile defence because he didn't have an unaccountable
majority.

5. UNITY: For 12 years, Liberals have said they'll strengthen
Canada - yet support for separation is at an all-time high. The
Liberal Party's criminal activity in Quebec has insulted
Quebecers, insulted Canadians outside Quebec and is the best
recruiting tool for the Bloc Quebecois.

6. ETHICS: For 12 years, Liberals have said they'll clean up
politics - yet cronyism continues. Corporate lobbyists run the
show and don't play by the rules. Justice Gomery found the
Liberal Party guilty of an organized kickback scheme - and the
Liberal Party ignores Parliamentary votes routinely and has
broken its word on democratic reform.

Enough is enough.

Air Canada Profits From Bankruptcy

ACE Air Canada's holding company has watched its share prices steadily increase since the airline declared bankruptcy last year. In fact the bankruptcy model of corporate restructuring is becoming all the rage both in the Amercian and Euro airline industries and now with GM and Delphi. What it means is using pensions and benefits and workers wage concessions as well as job losses to refinance the corporation. And while ACE has made profits for its shareholders it has been structured to isolate the company from paying any of those profits back to its workers in the form of wage increases. As a weekend special on Air Canada's boss Robert Milton in the Globe and Mail reports;

But making customers happy likely won't be nearly as hard as keeping employees contented. And therein lays Milton's biggest challenge. "I think he's done an awful lot of smart things at the airline, but I think he's based them on the premise of labour peace. I'm not at all convinced that's guaranteed," says Douglas Reid, a professor of strategy at Queen's University School of Business. "The unions do not see current compensation levels as adequate. They see them as an aberration."

As ACE begins racking up profits, the 26,500 employees at the mainline carrier will want their cut. Unfortunately for them, Reid points out, the holding company structure was specifically designed to isolate ACE's most profitable units (Aeroplan, Jazz and ACTS) from the less profitable mainline carrier. A profit-sharing program was put in place at the latter in exchange for union concessions during the restructuring. But if employees can't partake in the booty from ACE's other units, it may not be long before workers begin to balk. If they do, don't expect Milton to cave.

US Government Discovers Peak Oil

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman has asked a high-level advisory board to answer one of the toughest questions dogging the U.S. economy: Can world oil production meet steadily rising demand?

In a previously unreleased Oct. 5 letter to ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond, chairman of the National Petroleum Council, Bodman asked for a study of the industry's ability to produce enough oil and natural gas at prices that won't cripple the economy.

"He's asked them to take a big-picture look out several years. ... He wants to get some definitive information," says Craig Stevens, an Energy Department spokesman.

The most noteworthy aspect of Bodman's request is a reference to the "peak oil" debate. At issue: the claim by a vocal minority of energy experts that the world is at, or near, maximum oil production.

British Anarchism and the Miners Strike

Found this article in the journal Capital and Class which was just published in their fall issue and is available online. Well worth the read as it shows the impact of the Miners Strike and Thatcherism had on reviving anarchism in the UK. The Fall issue is all on the Miners Strike and is available online.

British anarchisms and the miners' strike

Capital & Class, Autumn 2005 by Franks, Benjamin

This paper distinguishes some of the main currents in British anarchism at the time of the miners' strike. It explores the influence of these libertarian movements on the conflict in the coalfield, and assesses how the strike influenced the development of British anarchisms.

Benjamin Franks is a lecturer in Social & Political Philosophy at the University of Glasgow's Crichton campus in Dumfries. His book Rebel Alliances: The Means and Ends of British Anarchisms is due to be published by AK Press and Dark Star at the end of this year.

NDP Gets Election Message Right

Got this in my email from the NDP. Its the message of this election, like it has for the past decade, forget Gomery, its Healthcare stupid.

[On health care] "Liberals are now indistinguishable from the
Conservatives, and only the NDP is screaming about the
metamorphosis. Jack Layton is factually right as well as
politically left. When it comes to protecting public health care,
Liberals have no bark and no bite and are asleep on the mat. Go
figure; then go vote."

James Travers, Columnist
(Toronto Star, November 19, 2005)

Open Access Capitalism

There's money to be made in creating digital libraries and in digitizing data as well as creating online journals. Because if there weren't it wouldn't get done. Now that the technology is available and is expanding Internet companies must use it in order to make a profit, and they must find uses for it. Hence open access and the digital library projects. They aren't doing this for the public good like the Guttenberg Project of e-books is . They are doing it to create propriatary online library services which we will have to pay for.

Competing search engines create adin at the library

Amazon to sell digital books on net

This puts them into direct competition with the academic and text book publishing houses, which over price and overcharge for their journals and text books. For the most part these journals do not pay the authors well being that they are peer reviewed for Academic advancement. These journals exist not to pay the authors, while making a profit for the publishers, but as part of the academic publish or perish hegemony. Once you have published enough you hope these guys will hire you to write a textbook or publish your Phd. thesis as a book.

Open access deemed 'dangerous' by Royal Society
The 345-year-old UK science academy fears that a move to Internet publishing proposed by Research Councils UK (RCUK) could lead to the closure of not-for-profit publishers that have sustained the exchange of knowledge since the first peer-reviewed scientific journals were circulated in the 17th century. It also acknowledges that some scientific publishers "appear to be making excessive profits". This is a key complaint made by librarians in recent years, and one that has triggered enthusiasm for the open access concept.

And while a number of electronic or internet journals currently exist, including some peer reviewed journals they are a drop in the bucket compare to print journals. And some of these e-journals are in fact journals about digital mediums for existing academic studies. In other words they are a result of the internet.

Welcome to the Directory of Open Access Journals. This service covers free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals.

And again writers and authors are not paid. Which underlies the fact that intellectual property rights are not so much about protecting producers (aritsts, writers, etc.) as it is about protecting the propriatary interests of publishers and corporations, including online ones.

The Internet is not meeting its potential to globalise science because researchers in developing countries are not getting the access they need, according to an international study.

In countries where telephone and fax machines are relatively recent where clean drinking water is more of a priority than transmission wires, where those wires provide slow and limited access then there is a disparity between the developed world and the developing world in how we access, use and work in cyberspace. And in many cases it is the newly privatized telecoms pushing this internet access as a funding priority over much needed infrastructure such as fresh water wells.

While open access will benefit the growing corporate internet/cyberspace in the develped world it offers little for those in the developing world to meet their needs. Even with better internet access many in the developing world do not have access to high speed computers or DSL connections.This is the classic case of uneven development as applied to cyberspace.high subscription rates for scientific journals are preventing scientists and health workers in poor countries from accessing vital information.

The expansion of capital and uneven development on a world scale
John Weeks, Captial and Class 2001

We're Mad as Hell and we're Right

Over at the Mad As Hell Right Whing Nut Blog; Canuckastan Chronicles
you would be forgiven for thinking that this was NOT a Canadian Blog considering all the American flags and images and issues plastered on the page. But it is. Which sorta of proves what I have been saying about the Canadian Right its not Neo-Con its Neo-Republican or Republican Lite.

However in his blast against yet another liberal progressive blogger he does say something I agree with...gasp.... "That our country isin't (sic) as socialist as they think or would like to believe. " He is right it is a mix of classical liberal and social democracy, which is far from socialism as you can be.

However to the pea brains like Canuckastan and his American Idols that still spells 'socialism', though if they actually read someone like Murray Rothbard they would discover that he too is a classic liberal of the Mills and Bentham school of utilitarianism.

So just remember when reading the rantings of these Right WhingNutbars they are all mad of course, mad mad mad....and not just angry....it clearly shows the downfall of our public education system that these guys never got a chance to have a classical eductation. Or perhaps they could have been directed to the library where there these things called B O O K S, cause they have spent too much time with their comics or smoking something in the boys room.

The Market Fazers Taser

Take that Taser, not only is this a dangerous weapon which kills but like other greedy corporate types Taser is caught with its hand in the cookie jar. What public pressure and outrage may not succeed in doing, the stock market may, that is getting Taser out of cops hands.

Shares of Taser International Inc. dropped as much as 14.2 per cent Friday after the stun-gun maker said the Nasdaq stock market had changed its status because of its failure to file a quarterly report with U.S. regulators. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is currently investigating possible manipulation of the company's stock. The regulator announced in January that it was probing Taser's safety claims for its stun guns and the booking of a year-end order, news that sent the company's shares down 77 per cent.

America's Right Wing Turkey

It seems fitting that on the American Thanksgiving the proverbial old man of the Yahoos and Know Nothings on the Right should be celebrating his 80th Birthday.
I am of course refering to that startling intellecshual William F. Buckely.

I for one have regreted that this intellectual giant of the American Right never got a chance to debate the intellectual giant of liberalism in North America. I am of course speaking of Pierre Elliot Trudeau.

If such a debate had happened between Buckley and Canada's philosopher king on Buckley's PBS Firing Line program it might go something like this;

WFB; Ummmm, ummm, err, well Pierre , uhhhhmmm how do you reconcile the uhhhmmm contradiction of being well, uhhhhmmmmm a classical liberal of the Bentham, ummmmm Mills school, with your er ah ahhhhemmmm ummm Jesuit upbringing, hmmmm while being a ahemmmm Prime Minister of a country that still ummmmm ahemmmm recognizes the Monarchy? Hmmm?

PET; Well Bill let me say that our country maybe Catholic and we may have a Queen but you want to be Catholic and a Queen.

Yep thats a showdown I would have loved to seen.

Rescuing Lord Black

#666-666-666


Black wants Canadian citizenship back: report
Only Canadian citizens can request a transfer to a Canadian jail from a jail elsewhere.
Nope, Nyet, No way, Hit the highway, get lost.

Lord Black made a stir at an otherwise less than eventful book launch for Rescuing the Right, see articles below, by appearing and hobnobbing with Hog Town Tories, including Warren Kinsella, in hopes I suspect that he would be rescued from his pending doom in the US.

Bwahaha I say in my voice of doom not a chance buddy.

Or maybe he was hoping Kinsella would say something nice about him since he is married to Barbara Amiel.

And speaking of dearest Babawa, she is the main reason for Lord Blacks downfall as Peter Newman points out. But of course the little woman behind the Lord is not being charged with any crime. Unlike her role model Marie Antoinette.

Just as Conrad's troubles began to mount, Barbara wrote an article in FQ magazine, in which she described how her personal priorities had escalated into never-never land, ignoring her husband's troubles. "For some people," she wrote, emphatically including herself, "jewellery is a defining attribute, rather like your intelligence or the number of residences you have." She boasted about owning "a fantastic natural-pearl and diamond brooch," which languished in her safety deposit box because it was simply too big to wear. The contents of her London closets became common gossip, including more than a dozen Hermès Birkin bags and 30 to 40 jewel-handled Renaud Pellegrino handbags. But it was her collection of Manolo Blahnik shoes that attracted the most attention. These are not boots made for walkin'. Their Spanish designer, who calls himself "a sculptor and engineer," carves each last by hand out of beechwood, "giving special thought to toe cleavage." They start at about $600 a pair, and Barbara had well over 100 in her London house alone, some with kitten heels. ("Buckingham Palace floors don't like stilettos," she explained to the uninitiated among us.) The arrangement they had was that Barbara paid for her off-the-rack purchases while the hubby sprung for her couture.

According to Richard Breeden's special investigative report, Barbara was paid US$1,141,558 between 1999 and 2003, for which there was "no meaningful work in return." That included her retainer for editorial advice to the Chicago Sun-Times where, employees claimed, she had not set foot for more than four years. On top of that, she received more than US$1 million through a company named Black-Amiel Management. Black has launched a libel suit as a result of the Breeden report, and Amiel has denied the allegations.

Meanwhile, on April 12, 2004, Amiel cashed in options to buy Hollinger stock for nearly US$3.1 million, some US$2.25 million below market value. That meant she was profiting from her husband's downfall, since that's what was driving the stock price higher.

Love's labour not lost

So why was Rod Love on tour with Ralph Klein this last week? It's not like he is the Premiers executive assistant any longer. And who paid for his touring with his pal Ralph? Inquirying minds want to know. And so should the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

Hang Him High

King Ralph said he would be hung and quartered, driven out of town etc. if his government was a scandal ridden as the Federal Government. Albertans wouldn't stand for it, he said.

We should take him at his word and look at this months list of scandals.

For the record;

Klein dismisses lobbyist registry cause it might impact on his pal Rod Love, and all those ex Tory cabinet ministers now lobbying the government.

Well there is that contract with the AON Consulting, that was an inhouse tender, and to a company with a recent conviction in the US for Fraud.

There was the governments insider land deals in Fort McMurray.

And then there is the OSC charges against the newest appointed Alberta Securities Commission boss for insider trading.

There is scandal downunder in New Zealand with Kleins newly appointed executive assistant and his wife.

The deputy leader of New Zealand's National Party says Peter Kruselnicki and his partner Paula Tyler should repay some of the nearly $57,134 Cdn spent to recruit them and relocate them from Edmonton because Tyler is leaving in mid-contract. Gerry Brownlee says Tyler, a former deputy minister of Alberta Children's Services, should have to repay the New Zealand government for plane tickets and household furnishings because she is leaving early from her post as CEO of the country's Child, Youth and Family Services Department.

And now.......RCMP to follow up on alleged tainted investigations at ASC

You get the horses I'll get the rope.

Go Here for a complete list of the Krimes of Klein.

NDP Election Messaging

Getting results for people...with a common sense compromise.

This WORKS!

Just drop the 'compromise', that was yesterdays tag line.

Going into the Election "Getting results for people" works.

Identifying Jack with the Party works, we did that in the 97 election in Alberta identifying the popular party leaders, Pam Barrett with the party. And it worked, people connected the two.

The issue:
Privatization of Health Care.
Klein has made it the issue and put it front and centre on the agenda. The Liberals have not protected public health care from Klein, Charest and Campbell. This gives the NDP the opportunity to differentiate themselves from the Liberals while bashing Harper for his silence.

The other issues:

Ethics and electoral Reform.
The NDP ethics package is an excellent foil to the Liberals and Conservatives. Even without Ed running, he can hit the national hustings promoting the package with his statemans charisma. You get two for one on this Layton and Broadbent. Layton is strong on prop rep and the need for electoral reform stick to that and avoid Torontocentric issues like housing.

The Environment
Not Kyoto but a New Industrial Policy.
Brush the dust off the hybird Green car plan that the NDP, Sierra Club and CAW raised two years ago in the last election.Layton raised it in the house last week, it was a good sound bite. Good stuff saves jobs, ties auto funding to new cars, and creates a Volkswagon for 21st century Canada.
Kyoto nice in Toronto lousy in the West. Useless period won't really impact climate change, just changes the way the numbers are shuffled. Kyoto is old news, we need a made in Canada Sustainable Industry policy, like the Green Car plan. Its a mouthful but it steals the thunder from the Conservatives. Greens are not a factor in this election. However a made in Canada Environment plan could sell well in the West.

IT'S A MINORITY
Either way its going to be a minority government, Quebec is sewn up with the BQ and Alberta is sewn up with the Conservatives. The latest polls show the battleground is B.C. and Ontario. Even though the Ekos Poll is predicting a Liberal Majority (heavens forbid).

Two Decima polls this past week give us hope that the urge for change by Canadians will result in more votes for the NDP. A poll done for the Ottawa Citizen found:

The second has to do with the dynamic between the Liberal, Conservative and NDP choice.
For months, it’s been clear that a “desire for change” is the major catalyst for rising
Conservative and NDP support. That desire acts as a virtual ceiling that Liberal support seems
unable to penetrate. When people hear that Liberal support is rising and a majority government
may be possible, the desire for change is aroused, and Liberal support starts to drift downward.
So, for months, between 33% and 39% of decided voters indicate they will vote Liberal at the
next opportunity. Maybe enough not to lose the election, but not enough for a convincing win
either. What keeps it from falling below 33% is the other part of the equation: anxiety about a
Conservative government led by Stephen Harper. This anxiety acts as a ceiling for
Conservative support, a floor for the Liberals, and soft NDP supporters are those that have the
most to do with moving the numbers around.

More importantly Decima found that the NDP support has steadily increased in four out of five of its last polls!

Even some died in the wool NDPbloggers are saying the unthinkable. Time for a change says fellow Edmontonian , Idealistic Pragmatist

"Like James Bow, Andrew Spicer, and Greg of Sinister Thoughts, I'm hoping that the upcoming election will bring us a new Prime Minsister named Stephen Harper"

Oyy Vey. But in the NDP world this is the message that has to get out to pink liberals; either a Liberal or Conservative Minority government, with the NDP holding the balance of power is OK with us. Even a Harper minority would actually have to deal with the NDP and BQ and that would temper their extreme wing with the harsh reality of pragmatic parlimentary politics.

Liberals face voter backlash over spending spree

survey: Race tightens More become comfortable with idea of Harper as next prime minister

Ipsos-Reid president Darrell Bricker said yesterday one of the apparent reasons for the declining Liberal support is a backlash triggered by the pre-election strategy of promising billions of dollars in tax cuts and new spending programs.

"It underscores the fact that people believe the Liberals are willing to spend money to buy votes," Bricker said.

"It's one of the things that came out of the sponsorship inquiry, so it highlights the character elements of the Liberals that people don't like.

"For opposition voters, it's throwing a log on the fire for them and steeling their resolve to kick these guys out.

"For people who are voting for the government, it's making them nothing but squeamish."

The poll found that after 12 years of Liberal government, there is a widespread desire for change.

The poll also found a growing number of voters are becoming comfortable with the idea of Conservative leader Stephen Harper becoming prime minister, provided a Tory government is kept to a minority.

Moreover, the poll found the Liberals are in trouble in two key regional battlegrounds: Quebec, where the popularity of the Bloc has surged, and British Columbia, where the Conservatives have suddenly soared in a close three-way contest.

In order not to have the Liberals pull off an eleventh hour Hail Mary pass to win pink liberals from the NDP, Layton has to balance his attacks to against Martin as much as against Harper. He has to remind voters its not who governs but who holds the power in the upcoming Minority government. A plague on both their houses, vote NDP for real change.

Hey Brad just put my cheque in the mail for this advice.

Canada's Right Wing Union

And guess who really likes this new right wing book? Rescuing Canada's Right
This week in Comment, WRF Senior Researcher Russ Kuykendall posts a thorough review of the new book by Adam Daifallah and Tasha Kheiriddin, Rescuing Canada's Right: Blueprint for a Conservative Revolution.

Well none other than the research arm of CLAC the Work Research Foundation,

WRF was founded in association with CLAC (Christian Labour Association of Canada), and their parent body the Christian Reformed Church of Canada as an arms length research lobby group promoting its conservative ideology of comprador labour relations, and like CLAC promotes the open shop (right to work) and opposes the Rand Formula.

CLAC continues to urge governments and the industry for reform and more openness in the industry. The objective in these representations is to create full freedom of association for workers and open the industry to different ways of operating. Certainly, a monolithic, one-union model is uncompetitive and unresponsive to the needs of the industry and its workers.

It's founder was the head of CLAC's Research Department. While an independent research foundation, it was and is in effect an extenstion of CLAC's research department.

In 1972, its research department was established to help the union develop its philosophy and to aid representatives in the field. For many years, up until 1997 when he retired, Harry Antonides capably served as the director of CLAC's research and education department.

The Work Research Foundation (WRF) was incorporated and registered as a charitable organization in 1974, with Harry Antonides as the first part-time research director. Antonides argued for a view of work rooted in the European Christian tradition.

In 1983, Antonides launched the WRF Comment, a bimonthly journal devoted to issues of work and public life.

Between 1987 and 1994, Antonides published two books through the Work Research Foundation. Servant or Tyrant? was a collection of papers presented at a joint conference between the Christian Labour Association and the Work Research Foundation, with contributions from Christian luminaries such as Paul Marshall, Michael Novak, and Al Wolters. Servant or Tyrant? explored and analyzed the main trends of contemporary politics, and discussed ways in which Christians can actively preserve and enhance freedom and justice in the political realm. Three Faces of the Law, by Ian Hunter, was based on a series of lectures to the Ottawa Summer School of Biblical and Theological Studies, and critically examined the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and its subversion of justice, liberty, and life.

WRF runs a consulting firm which works with CLAC and CLAC organized workplaces like Save On Foods.

The Work Research Foundation embraces a unique, Christian approach to leadership: values-based, relational, and practical. Our partnership with the De Pree Leadership Center promotes the leadership philosophies of Max De Pree, one of North America's highest-profile business leaders. From his lifetime of experience at the Herman Miller furniture company, De Pree pioneered today's discussion on organizational culture, leadership values, intimacy, community and corporate renewal.

The WRF promotes what it calls a Conservative Alternative to Labour Representation which is what CLAC is. Ray Pennings who is a researcher staffer at WRF was a rep for CLAC.

After years of hiding their Conservative politics behind the term Christian values and the open shop the WRF has come out as the political lobby for CLAC and its real agenda of working with the bosses to bust the union movement particularly in Western Canada's volatile Construction industry.

Collective Representation

A Conservative Defence

Author: Ray Pennings

Having independent organizations dedicated to representing workers' concerns is an important good worth promoting, and this reflects a probable point of departure with the thinking of many. Compassionate conservatism may work as a slogan, but the term "compassion" needs to be imbued with meaning if it is to go anywhere.

For eleven years, when asked my occupation I responded "Union Representative." This usually made my conservative political friends and business acquaintances squirm uncomfortably. They knew me well enough to know I advocated a different type of labour relations than the stereotypical adversarial relations that are associated with contemporary unionism. In our discussions, they would usually concede the historical contributions of unions, and often would recognize a business or two that they would not want to work for without union protection. But still, publicly advocating for a positive union role made them uncomfortable. To listen to their conversations, it would seem that the fewer workers that were unionized, the better it would be for everyone.

If we continue to view labour relations as a battle between labour and capital, and collective bargaining is just a protective mechanism available to workers to prevent the abuses of capital power, then all the public can do is pick sides. However, I believe that view is flawed. We should take a broader view of industrial relations. Productive economic activity ought to be viewed as the interaction of physical, human, social and intellectual capital, and our structures to support economic activity ought to recognize and promote the interdependence and common interests of them all.

I would make the case that Canadians must develop a renewed labour relations system that promotes the role of independent work institutions, provides for worker choice between various models of representative institutions that are flexible and provide services suited to the industry, and promotes a broad-based collaboration and partnership in support of shared economic and social goals. To be sure, such a system will also provide opportunity for adversarial-minded unions to represent workers when they are chosen, just as any free economy worthy of the name will have the space for less than ideal employers to form businesses and hire workers.

There is support in the public opinion marketplace for this. Since 1997, the Work Research Foundation has been conducting public opinion surveys monitoring the views of Canadians towards trade unions. In the WRF's most recent survey, conducted by Environics at the end of 2001, the 64% expression of approval for trade unions was at its highest known level since 1961. Still, as with the previous surveys, the questions surrounding various union practices demonstrate very negative assessment of the options available to workers. Workers approve of unions - they recognize that in our shareholder economy - it is important that institutions are available to represent the interests of workers. But when surveying the landscape of available union choices, they disapprove of most options. Canadians are looking for a different kind of unionism, but most of the current providers of labour representation, for reasons of ideology, established practice, and systemic reinforcement, are not ready to provide it.

There is no question that the organization of work, and the institutions that are required for this, will be a significant question in the upcoming decades. How we answer this will go a long way to shaping our economic and social performance. The relevance of the question today is are conservatives going to sit out this discussion, except to wish there were less collective organization, or are they going to involve themselves and shape the debate? The case can be made that worker organizations can promote freedom and choice, participation in institutions, and looking somewhere other than government to solve social problems. Workers and management will be both benefited when they work together for economic efficiency, and working with the laws of economic nature and work rather than against them.

Deja Vu: Gen XYY Neo-Cons

Another book on the neo-con youth revolution has been released.....Sigh.
Cute couple on the cover...thought it was a Women are from Ottawa, Men are from Medicine Hat kinda of advise book.

Another call from the right wing youth movement is just well so boooooring. If the right hasn't gotten its shit together after years of us suffering the earlier generation of neo-con youth revolutionaries that unholy cabal of Ezra Levant, Jason Kenney and Robert Anders, all Fraser Institute interns and Reform/Alliance/Conservative party hacks, then its never going to get its shit together....thank the gods of war for that.

So lets see Ezra published his manifesto for the conservative youth generation Youthquake back in 1997, published by the Fraser Institute with an introduction by Jason Kenney then President of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

The recent Fraser Institute publication Youthquake, by Ezra Levant, has been receiving quite a lot of attention from book reviewers. Here are some excerpts from the book:

On Government Charity:

"Too many programs designed to be social safety nets turn out to be hammocks: they trap people instead of getting them back to work."

On Pensions:

"Where the Canada Pension Plan is contributory—you have to pay into it to collect it—Old Age Security is pure gravy. You get it just for being old. It’s like a giant birthday present for every Canadian turning 65."

On Health Care:

"Sounds like a list for Santa: ‘I want free health care everywhere, all the time, plus peace on earth and my very own pony.’"

On Politicians And Pork:

"[I]n politics, only two things have value: money and votes. And where you find those twin political currencies, you’ll find government gravy."

On Youth And Debt:

"Just because we’re young doesn’t mean we should get free education. . . . We’ve been living in this fantasy world for so long, living off our credit and a smile, but now it’s catching up to us"

History will likely record Baby Boomers as the one anomalous generation to receive transfers from both its parents and its children.

Now almost a decade later another round of neo-con whiners come up with, well more of the same. And they are dopplegangers of the Levant/Kenney/Anders gang.

Tasha Kheiriddin (Toronto, ON) became the Ontario director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation in February, 2004.

Adam Daifallah (Quebec City, QC) is a Canadian author and journalist. A native of Peterborough, Ontario, he is currently a law student at Laval University in Québec City, where he is the recipient of the Richard J. Schmeelk scholarship. Adam was a member of the editorial board at the National Post, as well as the newspaper's curling columnist, from 2003 to 2005

In Rescuing Canada's Right, the authors examine the problems facing the Conservative Party and the broader conservative movement, and offer concrete solutions on how to fix them.

Hey what are ya saying that Levant, Kenney and Anders and the rest of the conservative youth movement failed? If thats so what makes these two think they have anything new to say, let alone that their prescription for change can succeed.

Some of the issues the book will address:

• Why the Conservative Party and its predecessor parties have such a poor electoral record;
• Why today's Conservative Party is not really conservative.
• Why a new political vision is necessary to inspire Canadians--and what it should be.
• How the Liberals use public money to entrench an unhealthy reliance on the state--and how the right has failed to challenge it
• What Canadian conservatives can learn from the American and British experiences
• How to build a Canadian Conservative counter-culture in the media, academia, and the law
• How the right can break through to the young, and to immigrants in Quebec
• An action plan to end Canada's democratic deficit and level the political playing field.

Rescuing Canada's Right will be a hard-hitting and groundbreaking work that will introduce new ideas and a passionate call for change for 21st century Canada.

Ho hum heard it all before, hey isn't this what the Reform Party was all about before it sold out to get elected, and then wasn't this what the Alliance was all about and now.....well you get the idea. The Conservative revolution failed due to the internal putsch like politics of Alberta Tories over Preston Manning. And the young Turks behind that putsch were Levant/Kenney/Anders.

Nothing hard hitting here, nothing groundbreaking, lets see a Canadian Conservative Counterculture already dominates our media, academia and the law.

Their new vision for Canada is Republican Lite. The only difference between this 'new generation' of conservatives and their youthful elders; Levant, Kenney and Anders, is these two are from Ontario.....

Monte's Crocidile Tears

Oh this is rich, this is really very funny, and I thought that Monte Solberg was just another dry wit...Considering that he was part of the mudsliging in the house....but then Monte is a historical revisionist.....

"Question Period yesterday was hideous. Think ultimate fighting, but without the rules. No, worse than that. It was like watching the snarling and snapping wickedness of a dog fight. It was all just so ugly and sad and I am glad to be going home. I might just tunnel down under my basement and stay there." Please do, its not like you actually have to campaign, this is Alberta after all. And don't come out until February to see your shadow.

Hey if all the Tories stay home maybe the government won't fall on Monday.....

Catch 22

Ah ha! The old Catch 22, the CIA didn't inform the Canadian Government about its covert operation, so the Government has no evidence that there was a covert operation. Nor is the government going to ask for informantion about a covert operation cause like they know they will only get plausible deniablity.
Ottawa says it needs proof of CIA-plane allegations
If there is evidence CIA-controlled planes are involved in illegal activities in Canada, the matter will be raised with the United States, Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew said yesterday.The minister, under continuing pressure from the Bloc Québécois, told the Commons that Canada expects other countries to respect Canadian law. "If we were to learn that Canadian soil was being used against Canadian or international laws, then we would raise this with the United States," he said during Question Period.
Thus leaving it all up to the Europeans to expose the CIA. EU Wants Details On CIA Prisons On the other hand Pettigrew and the Anne Mcllean our Security Minister could read the paper and find out all about it and ask questions. But perhaps they don't want to know since they have availed themselves of this same CIA covert program against Canadian citizens like Mahar Arar.