Same Old Liberals

As I said here despite the rhetoric of renewal and rebirthing of the Liberal Party with their Leadership race, somethings never change.

A long-time Liberal strategist is being accused of sneaking around Canada's political financing laws in his bid to get his party to promote climate change as its top priority to win the next election.

John Duffy, a former adviser to ex-prime minister Paul Martin, has set up a new website, climateliberal.ca, part of a non-profit organization to promote Liberal policies on climate change.

He argues his party has a duty to get the country moving to take action on global warming.

But NDP ethics critic Pat Martin has already fired off a letter of complaint to Canada's elections commissioner. Martin is demanding an investigation into the new outfit, which he suggested could fundraise for Liberal activities and boost the party's profile without being subject to existing restrictions on political financing.

''I call it sleazy and they're trying to pull a fast one on the election financing laws,'' Martin said in an interview. ''One of their (the Liberals) best and brightest operatives is thumbing his nose at the election financing laws by fundraising outside of the (Elections) Act.''

Duffy said his outfit does not fall under existing election laws since its goal is to push the Liberals to change, rather than promoting the party.

Oh, and just to round out his part-time environmental pedigree, John Duffy is also a full-time lobbyist for the nuclear industry. He proposes to fix one environmental problem by creating another.

See:

Liberals

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Liberals, environment, election act, Canada, climateliberal.ca, John Duffy, Pat Martin, NDP, politics

Mitt Romney Hypocrite

I guess the first bust will be at the Govenors Mansion.

Governor Mitt Romney has reached an agreement with federal authorities that allows the Massachusetts State Police to arrest immigrants who are in the state illegally, his spokesman said.

GOP Prez Hopeful Used Illegal Workers
Even as Romney travels the country, vowing to curb the flood of low-skilled illegal immigrants into the United States, some of those workers maintain his own yard, cutting grass, pruning shrubs, and mulching trees.

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Mitt Romney, GOP, Republican, USPresidential Candiate, President, illegal workers, illegal aliens, immigrants, migrants, Massachusetts

Liberal Blogger Owes Jack An Apology

The Liberal blogger who mis-identifies his politics as Views From The Left, slags Jack Layton, in a style that is typical of the Blogging Tories or Jason Cherniak. He smears Jack for apparently dissing newly elected Liberal Leader Stephane Dion. He lambasts Jack personally, when Jack never said what he is quoted as saying by AVFTL. And he engages in typical over the top rhetoric, attacking a strawman of his own creation;

Next, I want to turn to the baseless and rediculous attempt by those bastions of integrity, the NDP. I want to tell you that I just want to say I used to have a lot of respect for Jack Layton before he just completely lost his mind. The NDP today is a party that is so out of touch with Canada's priorities, they do nothing but scream, shout and protest, but they really don't have any agenda except to throw softball questions to Cabinet Ministers.

So this is what the NDP said

Stephane Dion is an out of touch academic who spent 10 years in a scandal-ridden cabinet.

Can I actually dignify this attack with a response? I'm pretty much speechless, really this attack just doesn't hold any water. You know what I'm just going to say that I'm not even going to dignify this drivel with a response if Mr. Layton wants to actually talk about the issues then fine I'll disprove him but this stupid baseless attack just isn't worth my time.



So I replied in his moderated comments section with this;

Since you didn't bother to link to the NDP site which you are quoting here is what Jack actually said.

"I want to congratulate Stéphane Dion on his election as the new leader of the Liberal Party. I am looking forward to debating with him and getting to work on the issues that are important to today’s families.

“Public service is a noble calling. All who are willing to dedicate their lives to serving Canada should be congratulated.”

That is a damn polite non-partisan statement. Get yer facts straight if you are going to slander someone for your own partisan political purposes.



Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Dion, Layton, Liberals, NDP, Canada, politics, blogs, liberalbloggers, blogging, bloggers, progressive-bloggers.

Black Shirts

For the Morton campaign it was all about Black and White, the politics of extremism and polarization.

As always, his supporters at the Alberta Aviation Museum wore black “I’m supportin’ Morton” shirts and buttons.

They remind me of those other 'Black Shirts'. Mortons politics are right wing, not libertarian, though he tried to appeal to libertarians to support him. He is a fascist, albeit a friendly one. Black Shirts, extreme right wing politics, and the unwavering politics of Alberta Uber Alles. Says it all.

Will his supporters pull a Putsch? Nah they will just shift to the Alberta Alliance and other rump right wing parties calling for Alberta Seperation. Nationalism is always the home of the right. Look at the Federal Conservatives, who supported the Quebec Nation motion. Harpers spokesman was the Quebec Pure Laine Minister Laurence Cannon.

And Morton made strange allies in this race. Well not strange for fascists, like the Nazi's whose hatred of gays was only matched by their fear of Jews.

We've all heard that old cliche about politics making strange bedfellows. But there are few couplings more odd in the race to succeed Ralph Klein as Tory leader and premier than the one between Ted Morton and the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada.On Wednesday, the Morton campaign proudly issued a press release announcing the support of the Calgary-based council, and its leader, Syed Soharwardy.

But Soharwardy, whose views have been disavowed by more mainstream Muslim leaders, has made headlines for years with his provocative political views.

In a newspaper article in 2000, Soharwardy wrote that what the Israelis have done to the Palestinians "is worse than the Holocaust of World War II."

In an interview with the Calgary Herald in August, he termed the Israeli bombings of Lebanon an act of genocide. In the past, he's also accused the United States of committing genocide in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In January 2005, after the devastating tsunami, Soharwardy accused Christian missionaries of kidnapping Muslim children in Indonesia. Last year, he called for a boycott of The Da Vinci Code, calling the film blasphemous. He's also been a strong proponent of introducing traditional Islamic sharia law to Canada for Muslim family arbitration.

And what exactly got Morton and Soharwardy into bed together?

Homosexuality, of course.

Morton's press people say Soharwardy supports their candidate because of Morton's stand against gay marriage and in defence of traditional family values.

Ted Morton lost the PC leadership race, but his right wing friendly fascist ideology still found rich soil in Alberta's South, which rivals the American south as a Confederacy of Dunces, where like winter wheat it will sprout up again. With new black shirts whose slogan is Alberta Uber Alles.

See

Conservative Leadership Race


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Ted Morton, Alberta, fascism, black shirts, Islamists politics, PC, Alberta PC Leadership Race, anti-gay

It's The Environment, Stupid

It's the environment, stupid will be the campaign next election.

With election of Stephane Dion as Leader the Liberals go GREEN.

Dion win signals climate change



The NDP has made the Environment issue numero uno.

Elizabeth May and the Green Party showed they are contenders in the London byelection race.

Canadians have said the environment is their number one concern, even ahead of traditional first place Health Care. It is the top issue in Quebec, where the BQ have embraced it as their Federal issue.

And the only party not prepared to fight the next election over the environment are the Tories.

So ignore the hoopla with the Blogging Tories and Conservatives saying Dion is no threat. Its not Dion, it's the environment that will bring them down.

See

Environment

Ambrose



Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Kyoto, Canada, envrionment, Jack Layton, Elizabeth May, Dion, Liberals, NDP, Stephen Harper, BQ, Green Party, Conservatives, climate change, global warming, Canadians, election, Rona Ambrose

Mushy Middle A Canadian Value

This says it all bout Canadian Politics this weeked.Everybody's second choice rises to top

It was the case for both the Federal Liberals and for the Alberta PC's.
Ed Stelmach Is Alberta's New Premier

And I think Iggy from the dejected look on his face yesterday, as the Liberals forced him to wait ten minutes and another ten miuntes till prime time news in the East, knowing the outcome in advance of his defeat and Dions victory, sat grimacing thinking probably this same thing....A defeated Dinning regrets counting Stelmach out


It was all about party unity for both the Federal Liberals and for the Alberta PC's

The new leader of the Progressive Conservative party is uniquely suited to hold its warring factions together, Ted Morton said Saturday after a crushing third place finish in the race to replace Ralph Klein.“With Eddie (Stelmach) it’s probably the easiest to pull the party together,” Morton said late Saturday.“I think he’ll be a very good leader — lots of experience, practical judgment.”

It was the rejection of the backroom boys, the outsider and of extreme shifts to left or right. It was the acceptance in truly Canadian fashion of stay the course politics, the politics of the mushy middle, of Canada's realpolitick; liberalism. Whether in Montreal or Alberta. Regardless of political labels Canadians are really 'conservative' social democrats.

In Alberta it was stay the course politics as Steady Eddie continues the old Ralph Regime. Which means he is a lame duck premier. The extremists on the right who rallied behind Morton will move to the Alberta Alliance. The back room boys in Calgary who made Dinning their candidate, will now move to their natural home, the Alberta Liberal Party. And the next leadership race will be to turf Taft, to put in their boy.

The days of the PC's ruling the One Party State are numbered. As I said Ed Stelmach = Harry Strom. The similiaties of their backgrounds and their leadership victories are no coincidence. Despite Edmonton Journal Legislature pundit Graham Thompsons assurance that this isn't true, it is.

Ed Stelmach, a soft-spoken farmer and cabinet veteran, has come up the middle to become the leader of Alberta's Progressive Conservative party and his province's 13th premier.

Stelmach never put forward a dynamic platform, matching his own undynamic personality. He promised to reach out to Albertans and listen to what they want him to do.

Some of Morton’s supporters had dismissed Stelmach as the next Harry Strom, a mean-spirited reference to the bland Social Credit premier who went down to defeat 35 years ago at the hands of Peter Lougheed.

Strom took over an exhausted Social Credit party that lost to an energized and new Conservative party.

A stay the course Party is a party in entropy. It was the downfall of Social Credit under Strom it will be the defeat of the PC's under Stelmach.

See:

Conservative Leadership Race

Liberal Leadership Race

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Alberta, Dinning, Klein, PC, Calgary, PartyofCalgary, politics, leadership, Liberals, Conservatives, corporations, OnePartyState, Lougheed, Klein, Oil, Planning, History, Politics, Economics, Oberg, Doerksen, Morton, leadership, politics, PC, Tory, leadership-race,
Liberals, Ignatieff, politics, liberal-leadership, Rae, Dion, Kennedy,Liberal, Leadership, Race, Canada, politics, Findlay-Hall, Volpe, Dryden, Brison,

Dinning Exposed

Calgary Sun Columnist Rick Bell, himself being attacked by BT bloggers, takes a swipe at the crowd of syncophantic Moronites, err Mortonites in the blogosphere. Unfortunately it's a column he should have wrtitten a week ago.

He reminds them that it was Dinning, not Ralph, who really created the Ralph Revolution, the creation of the Republican neo-con state in Alberta in the ninties. Yep supposedly 'liberal' Jim Dinning. Like Bell I remember those bad old days, with mass demonstrations in the streets of tens of thousand Albertans hurt by the cuts, ordinary Martha's and Henrys who had never demonstrated before protesting.

His policies are still in place today, causing thousands of Albertans to go homeless. And while Dinning brags about being the Chair of the Calgary Health Authority it was when he was in power the government blew up a Calgary Hospital.

Of course these same BT dweebs forget that his protege was one Paul Martin who did the same thing federally. And Reform Party MP Stephen Harper at the time was complaining that Martins cuts didn't go far enough, using Dinnings as an example.

They like to claim his corporate/political relationship with Martin proves he is a Liberal. Au Contraire.If Dinning supported Martin as Head of TransAlta it's because they are both corporate shills and 'neo-liberals', not social conservatives. And last time I checked 'neo-con' was interchangable with 'neo-liberal'.

Far-right wonks must have had their eyes wide shut during the early '90s Ralpholution

n fact, if those now blathering about Dinning had actually been there in the trenches, they would have seen Jim slammed for being too tough, screeched at for sticking too closely to a plan, slimed for keeping colleagues on track when they began to feel like wavering or could no longer stand the sound of protests.

It was Dinning who brought in Sir Roger Douglas, the New Zealand tough-guy politician, to help convince Conservative MLAs their balancing of the books could be done. Sir Roger even gave the PCs the buzz word for when the going got tough. Don't blink.

It was Dinning as treasurer who appointed a blue-chip panel of experts to advise where Alberta's finances needed cleaning up. It was Dinning who introduced the law to outlaw deficits. It was Dinning who forced government paper-shufflers to make three-year business plans.

It was Dinning who was a leader of the fight to get government out of the business of business. And it was Dinning who gave Albertans a report every three months on the state of the province's bottom line and didn't allow any cash to be blown on anyone's pet projects.

See

Conservative Leadership Race

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Alberta, Dinning, Klein, PC, Calgary, PartyofCalgary, politics, leadership, Liberals, Conservatives, corporations, OnePartyState, Lougheed, Klein, Oil, Planning, History, Politics, Economics, Oberg, Doerksen, Morton, leadership, politics, PC, Rick Bell, Calgary Sun, Tory, leadership-race, Ted Morton, Alberta, Dinning, Stelmach, politics, PC, Alberta PC Leadership Race, Premier Ralph Klein, Klein, Alberta, drunk, premier, homeless, cold,homeless freeze to death,Calgary,Edmonton

Liberal Premiers MIA

As the Liberal Premiers in the audience at the Liberal Convention joined other leaders and candidates on stage with newly elected Liberal Leader Dion two were noticable by their absence. Jean Charest, Liberal Premier of Quebec and Gordon Campbel Liberal Premier of B.C. In Charest case it was even more obvious since the convention was in Montreal. Of course neither of these two are really Liberals, they are Conservatives wearing the party monicker as a matter of political convinence and opportunism. Had they been there and brought their ideological supporters Iggy might have won.

See
Liberal Leadership Race


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Liberals, Ignatieff, Government, politics, liberal-leadership, Rae, Dion, Kennedy,Liberal, Leadership, Race, Canada, politics, Findlay-Hall, Volpe, Dryden, Brison, Dryden, Premiers, Quebec, B.C., Jean Charest, Gordon Campbell,

Liberals Stay Liberals

Whew, good news for the Liberal Party of Canada they elected Dion. The Liberals we have loved and hated for thirteen years are back.

They had the choice between going neo-conservative with Igantieff, but rejected him. They could have gone social democratic but rejected Rae. They could have renewed the party but they rejected Kennedy and Martha Hall-Findlay.

Instead they embraced Dion like an old wool sweater, the Professor appointed by Chretien and promoted by Martin. Dion brings unity to the Liberal family, embracing a smiling Chretien and Martin on stage, they know, wink, wink, nothing has really changed in the party. The Natural Governing Party is again secure in the hands of the old guard.



See
Liberal Leadership Race


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Liberals, Ignatieff, Government, politics, liberal-leadership, Rae, Dion, Kennedy,Liberal, Leadership, Race, Canada, politics, Findlay-Hall, Volpe, Dryden, Brison,

Status of Women offices to be closed

Here is the conservative definition of inefficiency; advocacy and lobbying for womens rights.

“What these offices don't necessarily provide is the help directly to women. There was a lot of lobbying groups, there was a lot of advocacy. Ms. Oda said. “I'm very surprised that the opposition would say, “Put money back into inefficiencies,” when you can find inefficiencies and streamline the operations.

Right and had the offices provided financial aid to women they would have been closed for being another liberal social welfare scheme. You can't win when the Tories have you in their ideological sites.

More jewels of wisdom from Ms. Oda.Minister in Charge of the Status of Women
Of course feminism is the reason that men are on top and women are on the bottom, well economically and socially speaking. Its not systemic sexism in society that's the problem its Liberals supporting womens organizations.

“We don't need to separate the men from the women in this country.... This government as a whole is responsible to develop policies and programs that address the needs of both men and women.”

Do the math.....

Ms. Oda said the closures will save on unnecessary rent and utility bills and she claimed that even with $5-million in cuts, there will be $700,000 more for women's programming.

Huh? Where did the other $4.3 million go? Oh, probably to Afghanistan to help liberate women there.

A tip o' the blog to Next Agenda

See:

Tory Cuts

Feminism

Status of Women

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Government, women, Status of Women, Minister, Bev Oda, Conservatives, cuts, budget, advocacy, lobbying, Canada,feminism, politics