Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Fatalities and Near Misses In Afghanistan

I am sorry but this Taliban rockets slam near Mackay

Is not as important as this Over 100 killed, injured in suicide attack in N Afghanistan

After all they missed Mackay. And they didn't know he was there because it was another Conservative 'secret', 'unannounced', 'surprise' visit. So much for security.

Hillier told reporters he believed the base was the intended target — not MacKay. “The minister was not subjected to an attack,” he said.


Whereas the suicide attack north of Kabul, remember Kabul we used to have peace keepers there, was far worse.

A senior Afghan opposition politician was among scores of people killed Tuesday by a suicide bomb attack in a previously peaceful northern province of Afghanistan.

Reports of the number of people killed or injured varied from as low as 13 to as many as 100. But because many of the victims were young children, observers say, the attack was one of the most devastating to hit Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

Some analysts, including Wadir Safi, a law professor at Kabul University, agreed that the attack was a political assassination.

Whether or not the Taliban do eventually take responsibility, Tuesday's bombing may feed popular fears that the Afghan government and the international military forces that support it are unable to control the insurgents, observers say.

More than 200 people have died in more than 130 suicide attacks this year amid signs that public confidence in the future of the country is starting to slip.



Though you wouldn't know it by the media coverage in Canada which focused on Mackay with the suicide bombing getting pushed aside.

And we are fighting in the south to protect the women and children of Afghanistan as Mackay likes to remind us. To bad the worst attack since 2001 occurred in the North.





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The Senators Fan Club


No not the hockey team. The old farts club in parliament. That vestigial remnant of the aristocracy, the days of Lords and Ladies, the Senate.

The Senate was intended to mirror the British House of Lords, in that it was meant to represent the social and economic élite.


It seems that the Liberal bloggers over at Progressive Bloggers are all aghast at the idea of abolishing their favorite retirement village; the Senate. All sorts of slagging of Jack Layton and the NDP is going on over this issue. As I posted about here. Not a peep out of them when Progressive Conservative Senator Hughie Segal announced his plan to call for a referendum on Abolishing the Senate weeks ago.

Mainly it is because they put their hopes in the Red Chamber, coincidently the colour of their party, where they hold the majority to be able to do what their Party in Opposition cannot do; oppose the Harper Government. They have no more vision than the realpolitik of the moment.

Read these pathetic partisan posts and you will see what I mean.

Why Canada Should Not Abolish the Senate
It is currently the closest thing we have to an actual opposition to the government.

Senate Reform
The end goal of yesterday’s announcement isn’t to abolish the senate, it’s to abolish the Liberal opposition. It’s another example of the fact that Layton is willing to work more closely with Stephen Harper than any other leader, so long as it’s good for his party

If there is going to be a referendum in the next election I would like to see a vote on reforming the voting system to proportional representation model. Jack has joined Harper’s in his plan to distract Canadians from our disastrous climate change, child care, poverty, and First Nations policies so we can yammer on about something that matters very little

"Harper would back plan for referendum on abolishing Senate." Sure he'll take Jack up on his offer. He's not an idiot, after all. He'll absolutely take up Jack on his offer to get the Senate front and center on the nation's agenda. He wants an Americanized elected-equal Senate, as he does with most things. So if these two clowns have their way, we'll be spending eons of time in the next few years debating Senate reform, when the country is not crying out for it and has plenty of other priorities

There is no doubt that the New Democrats and the Conservatives are in league together. There have been moments in Canadian political history where they?ve supported each other?s democracy to perverse the Canadian democratic tradition that has been celebrated for over a century. Conservative and NDP sources have told CTV that the Harper government will back a NDP motion slated to call for a national referendum to abolish the unelected Senate that?ll be introduced to the House of Commons next Tuesday.

DANGER DANGER DANGER
I was just watching Thomas Mulcair on CBC News. The NDP is now proposing a referendum on abolition of the Senate. To begin with, I doubt you would get a majority in every province so it's a non-starter.


Once again showing that Liberals are often no more 'progressive' than their partisan playmates over at the Blogging Tories. As if we needed any reminder.


Cudos go to those progressive bloggers who actually have defended this long standing policy of the CCF/NDP and the Left In Canada. Of course two of these are Dippers, but they are not particularly partisan.

Longheld NDP policy having its day
Today some big news broke on the electoral reform front. On the weekend in Winnipeg, NDP Leader Jack Layton called for a nation wide referendum on the abolition of the senate. That announcement should not have surprised anyone simply because the NDP and it's forerunner, the CCF, have been calling for the abolition of the Senate since 1932. The NDP also announced that they would be putting a motion before the House of Commons upon it's return to have this referendum. The Senate Abolition policy is hardly new policy for the NDP, but what added to the news was the announcement today Stephen Harper and his party would back the NDP's motion in the House.

Liberal MPs should take note, this is what effective opposition looks like.Despite what Stephane Dion might tell Liberal MPs, opposition parties are supposed get their ideas on the agenda, not roll over and have the government get its way like Liberals have of late

Changes To The Senate On The Way?
Now on the motion itself: I’m personally in favour of creating a “Citizen Assembly On Senate Reform” and let’s them decide what kind of action should be taken, approved by a referendum. But, hey, I don’t think that the current Senate is acceptable in today’s world, and abolition sounds like an acceptable alternative to me.


Though to be fair even some Liberals get it.

Stephen Harper is not Always Wrong
I guess this post should be titled why the senate should be abolished. Let's review our options on the Canadian Senate:The Status Quo:An unelected senate/ or quasi-elected (Harper's appointment of the senator from Alberta) senate with almost as much power (on paper) as the House of Commons.…

And then some folks at PB actually are defending the longstanding dream of the right wing populists in the Reform party of an Triple E Senate as an alternative to abolition. Anything but abolition.

Senate Abolition VS. Senate Reform
With a referendum being discussed, and potentially in the offing, the topic of senate reform has suddenly moved from the back burner to the front burner for many Canadians. This may provide an opportunity to begin the process of airing public concerns and potentially moving from an unelected, unequal and ineffective chamber toward the type of elected, equal and effective one that would be the most beneficial for everyone involved.


When push comes to shove the Liberals will accept Senate Reform to save their Red Chamber. That is perhaps what irks them most about Jacks move. They will be forced to accept the Conservatives Senate Reform as the lesser of two evils.


http://www.thecanadapage.org/images/Sen_1.jpg


The image “http://www.ndp.ca/xfer/html/2007-10-12/LiberalWarningHeader-en.gif” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.


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An Idea Whose Time Has Come

I have said it before, and I have campaigned for it and will do so again. Good on Jack. And he is teaming up with a Red Tory; Hughie Segal to do it.
Layton calling for referendum on abolishing Senate

NDP Leader Jack Layton is calling for a referendum on the abolition of the Senate, an institution he describes as "outdated and obsolete."

"It's a 19th-century institution that has no place in a modern democracy in the 21st century," Layton told party organizers Sunday in Winnipeg.

"It's undemocratic because (senators) are appointed by prime ministers who then are turfed out of office. But these senators end up leaving a long shadow of their continued presence in the legislative context."

Layton has long called for the upper chamber to be done away with. The idea for a nationwide vote on the issue was floated two weeks ago by Conservative Senator Hugh Segal, who favours maintaining the upper house. He said a referendum could lead to important reforms if a majority of Canadians voted to keep the upper chamber.

Layton, albeit with different motives, is trying to put Segal's idea on the floor of the Commons. He said the NDP will introduce a motion calling for a referendum in the coming weeks, and is hoping Prime Minister Stephen Harper will allow Tory members to vote freely on the issue.

The referendum would not be costly, Layton said, because it could be held in conjunction with the next federal election.

"Why don't we start out by finding out how Canadians feel about it," Layton said.

Four provincial governments, including British Columbia, Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan have supported the idea of abolishing the Senate and the prime minister has warned that the upper chamber might be abolished if it can't be reformed.

Abolish the Senate, the anachronistic vestigial remains of British Parliamentary representative government, which was not democratic. It is a throw back to the days before universal suffrage when one had to own property to be elected to government.

In order to have authentic parliamentary and democratic reform in Canada the Senate needs to be abolished and replaced with proportional representation in the House with an increase in MP's.

And while we are at it lets implement some of those radical left wing populist notions from the turn of last century; Recall and Referendum's. Yes I said left wing because they were instituted in Alberta under the joint United Farmers/Labour government in 1921.

After all there is no democracy like direct democracy.

But there are those who are whining about this being unconstitutional. Must be Liberals. Not liberals.

The true sociological doctrines of modern times can be summed up in a few words: Recognizing that, in the political and temporal order, the only legitimate authority is the one to which the majority of the nation has given its consent; that are wise and beneficial constitutions only those for which the governed have been consulted, and to which the majorities have given their free approbation; that all which is a human institution is destined to successive change; that the continuous perfectibility of man in society gives him the right and imposes him the duty to demand the improvements which are appropriate for new circumstances, for the new needs of the community in which he lives and evolves.

1867 Speech of Louis-Joseph Papineau at the Institut canadien

For a different, but no less thoughtful,perspective see Jack Layton and the Drunken Chamber

SEE

Abolish The Senate Redux

Abolish The Senate 2

Senator Brown

Bully Boy Harper

Deforming The Senate

Abolish the Senate 1

Democracy Is Messy

Conservative Blogger Endorses NDP

Nosferatu Fortier

Whose Canada?

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Spring Election

This is why Stephen Harper likes closed meetings with his volk where the media isn't present. In case he blurts out his hidden agenda. In this case his plan for a surprise Spring Election.

In Castlegar, Harper put out the call for more Tory blue in B.C., even getting a bit ahead of himself in asking voters to support their local Tory candidate at the polls "next year."

He quickly corrected himself to say "next time."


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Behind Closed Doors

Harper quietly slipped into Alberta yesterday as part of his Western Canada tour. Even in all blue Alberta he remains aloof, paranoid and out of touch with the public.

Harper waves Tory flag in Fort McMurray, Alta., but only behind closed doors

The prime minister was to meet behind closed doors Monday in Fort McMurray, Alta., with the mayor, health region chairman and energy industry representatives. [ 5.11.07 CanadaEast]


And despite being in All Blue Alberta he got an earful. Which is probably why he listened under the cone of silence. And in the end he came, he maybe listened but did he hear? Well we won't know because he doesn't talk to the media.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper took his first tour
of northern Alberta's multibillion-dollar oil sands bonanza yesterday, then heard first-hand about all the problems the massive projects are causing.

Harper and his entourage flew over the massive mining excavations by helicopter, then climbed aboard a three-storey-high, heavy hauler earth-moving machine. He then shook hands with Syncrude Canada employees.

Back in Fort McMurray, community leaders met with the Prime Minister in a closed-door invitation-only meeting to tell him about the flip side of developing Canada's energy riches.

"We need housing, we need better roads and we need better medical services," said business owner Francis Jean, who is also the mother of Brian Jean, the Conservative MP for Fort McMurray-Athabasca.

"People are paying exorbitant rents, making it difficult for families to move to here."

Other community leaders were equally blunt.

Melissa Blake, mayor of Wood Buffalo, the municipality that includes Fort McMurray, said it is great to have the Prime Minister visit an area that will provide much of Canada's economic oomph over the next decade.

Noting many of the region's problems fall within Alberta's jurisdiction, Blake said she hopes the federal government will contribute money to help the community build road, water, sewer, health and other infrastructure projects it needs to flourish.

The population of the Fort McMurray area has doubled to 90,000 people since 1999 and continues to grow quickly.

"It is the challenge of having a population that has doubled and is projected to triple within 15 years," Blake said.

"The infrastructure is simply not keeping pace under the regular funding mechanisms. We are looking at the possibility of sharing costs with other levels of government – be it federal or provincial."

Last week, media reported people in the area found notices on their doors warning of impending rent hikes exceeding $1,000 a month.

Harper would not speak to the media about the meeting, his tour of the oil sands or any other issue.


Boom has its stresses, McMurray tells PM

Harper tours oilsands, meets with community and business leaders, but makes no offers of help

Mike Sadava, The Edmonton Journal

Published: 1:35 am

FORT MCMURRAY - Stephen Harper may have been the first prime minister to visit Fort McMurray in more than a decade, but he made no promises to help this over-stressed city deal with its booming economy.

During his half-day tour of the area, Harper flew over the oilsands in a helicopter, toured part of the vast Syncrude site in a three-storey high "heavy hauler," and visited employees at the Syncrude control centre before meeting with oilsands executives and other business and community leaders.

Fort McMurray is one of the mostapidly growing cities in Canada, expected to hit a population of 100,000 within five years.

But the growth has come at a cost: extremely high house prices, rent increases of more than $1,000 in the case of one apartment complex, and a two-lane highway from the south that is clogged with slow-moving, oversized loads of prefabricated parts for the oilsands.

Harper did not talk to the media after the "round-table" meeting, but others

attending the meeting said it produced no specific help for the "energy superpower," as the prime minister has referred to the area.

Wood Buffalo Mayor Melissa Blake said consistent comments from those in the room clearly sent Harper the message that the boom has brought many challenges.

While many jurisdictions across Canada face labour and other growth pressures, "the order of magnitude is different here," Blake said the prime minister was told.

The meeting included a discussion of different levels of government working together, as well as the possibility of so-called P3 partnerships between business and government.

Blake was upbeat despite the lack of specific promises.

"The first step is awareness, and we certainly had that."

Athabasca MP Brian Jean said the provincial royalty review was brought up in the discussion. Harper pointed to last week's tax-cutting, mini-budget fiscal update and noted "that we brought corporations pretty well back to where they were before the royalty review."

"It was great news for corporations and great news for Canadians at every level of paying taxes," Jean said.

Monday marked the first time that Harper has visited Fort McMurray, at least as prime minister, and is the first time a prime minister visited the area since Jean Chretien's trip there in 1996.

Alain Moore, spokesman for Syncrude, said there was a lot of talk about the contributions of the oilsands to Canada's economy during his visit to the com-pany's site.

Many workers came out of their offices to greet Harper when he visited Syncrude's control centre.

"A number of Syncrude employees were thrilled and honoured to have a person of that national stature visiting them," Moore said.

After his visit to the northern Alberta city, Harper was flown to Castlegar, B.C.. where he was to attend an evening meeting with Tory party members.



H/T to
Borges Blogue


SEE:

Presto Shills For Big Oil



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Calgary Sun Publishes My Letter

I sent a personal email to Licia Corbella on her editorial critical of the Harpocrites reversal on clemency and the death penalty for Canadians abroad. It may be one of the few things Licia and I agree on.

But since, as she wrote back, she had been swamped with letters critical of her stance she asked if she could publish it in the Calgary Sun. Here it is with adjoining letters in favour of capital punishment.

Letters: November 6

UPDATED: 2007-11-06 03:39:34 MST


By SUN READERS

CORBELLA'S DEAD WRONG

It was disappointing to read Licia Corbella's point of view that Canada should seek clemency for a convicted killer facing the death penalty in the U.S. ("Death row inmate leaves PM unfazed," Nov. 3.) In this, I support Stephen Harper. When our citizens commit crimes on foreign soil, they do so knowing the legal system is different than at home. We owe them nothing other to try and ensure they get a reasonably fair trial, as defined by the country they are in. I am not a supporter of the death penalty, but this is not our business. The U.S. is a sovereign country with a reasonable justice system. How would you like the Texans to come to Canada and execute one of their fugitives because, according to their laws, that would be the thing to do? Harper and the government deserve praise for this, not condemnation.

Werner Harder

(Not to mention the killer could be paroled if he's returned.)

---

PUT DEATH PENALTY TO VOTE

Maybe it's time for a referendum on capital punishment. I for one would vote in favour.

D. Gervais


(If ever there was a divisive issue, it is capital punishment.)

PRINCIPLED STAND

Excellent Nov. 3 editorial by Licia Corbella on capital punishment. I must say I am surprised since she seems such an avowed conservative, but I am pleased to see her stand on principle. Thanks for this clear-headed opposition to the Harper government's anti-democratic decision to abandon a long-standing Canadian policy to oppose capital punishment at home and abroad. It bodes ill.

Eugene Plawiuk

(Harper's government should make it clear whether it plans to reopen the debate on this issue.)





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Mike Nickel's Retirement Home

Rumour has it that defeated right wing City Councilor and Stickman Mike Nickel has a new retirement villa where he has hunkered down to lick his wounds.

A 10-by-13-metre concrete box lies under this half-century-old shed.
A 10-by-13-metre concrete box lies under this half-century-old shed.
It is the city bomb shelter.


Meanwhile his 'progressive' replacement at city hall has taken over Nickel's old office.....

If Iveson's fashion is a work in progress, his politics remain unclear yet, as well. As he escorts me down the councillor's wing to his office, he provides a possible clue.

"First door on the left," he says with a chuckle. Yet as he points out, it's the same office used by conservative Mike Nickel last term -- the same Nickel that Iveson toppled to many people's amazement on Oct. 15.

Theories were that Nickel cooked his own goose by being such a council contrarian last term. Conspiracy theorists blamed The Journal, or an underground left-wing movement. The most credible theory, though, is that Nickel's campaign was outworked by the youth and energy of Iveson's.

SEE:

Sticken It To The Stickman

Municipal Elections



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Royalties Pay For Jobs

All those threats about job losses in the oil patch and the bosses protest at the Leg seems to have overlooked a little fact. Job losses in the public sector in particular our hospital sector were caused by the Klein government bailing out Big Oil in the nineties.

As this letter writer to the Calgary Sun pointed out.


JUST ANOTHER INTEREST GROUP

There seems to be a double standard in both media and government attitude regarding regular public service workers and the oil industry. In the '90s, during the Klein "devolution," health-care professionals, teachers, public service workers and their collective bargaining agents protested cutbacks to health-care, education and other public services. They warned of gross shortages and infrastructure deficits in the future (which all came true). They were written off as "special interest groups" by media and government. Now an independent panel indicates the oil and gas industry has not been paying its fair share and the industry gets closed-door meetings with the government and is regarded as a VIP by the media. They come out with a government decision that still has them paying less than their fair share. They still grumble and yet neither the media nor government disregard their threats and grumbling as "just another special interest group."

Larry Connell, RN


The attack on the public sector was the result of low royalties and tax breaks for Big Oil. The neo-con advisers to the Klein government called for cuts to public sector spending, freezes on wages and contracting out to make up for the deficit created by this give away. The deficit was caused by the failure of the government to collect its fair share, even back then, as the auditor general pointed out, of the royalties, even as low as they were; a penny on the dollar.

The cuts to the public sector were ideologically driven, at the time the Klein and Harris governments, indeed in 1995 so did the Federal Liberals, embraced the idea that the private sector can deliver services cheaper and more efficiently then unionized public sector workers.

Well cheaper yes by driving down wages and benefits. Efficiently well no, because they low balled their bids and now the costs are rising. Unionized public sector workers may cost more in wages and benefits, the workers in the private sector, but their costs are controlled by collective bargaining. And the government has controlled public sector wages in Alberta to be below inflation for the past decade. Whereas private sector costs are now skyrocketing.

Today infrastructure costs are higher because the Tired Old Tory government spent the last decade acting like Scrooge when it came to infrastructure expenditures. Instead of spending the annual surpluses they did get, which occurred annually since the pseudo-crisis of 1993, they hoarded the money crying poverty. Now the chickens have come home to roost.

Ralph cut nurses and doctors as well as capping nursing programs in Alberta universities.
The cuts over a decade created a crisis we now face in staffing. especially in the hospital sector. The result has been a decline in health care services, with deadly results.

As we have seen investment in public sector jobs have been a boon to the Canadian economy. Costs of having services delivered in house are much lower than contracting out in an overheated economy. So much for the supply side economics of the Fraser Institute and it's pals.

So the next time some oil supply company workers complain that they may lose their jobs tell them to talk to the nurses in this province who left during the nineties to find work elsewhere.



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Mason Forces Royalty Debate

Slick Eddie had hoped his TV show and Royalty announcement would have avoided any discussion of his royalty plan in the fall sitting of the Legislature which kicked off yesterday.

The Stelmach government doesn't want to discuss royalties or homelessness. Rather they want to talk about busting speeders and smokers. The best laid plan of mice and Tired Old Tories.....And it took the NDP to force the debate.

The legislature will try to debate 26 bills during the month-long session, but royalties took centre stage on the opening day despite the fact no legislation is being introduced on that issue.

NDP Forces Emergency Debate On Energy Royalties
Nov, 05 2007 - 4:20 PM

CALGARY/AM770CHQR - The fall sitting of the Alberta Legislature got off to a raucous start Monday afternoon, as oil and gas royalties became a hot topic during question period.
NDP leader Brian Mason was also successful in forcing an emergency debate on the issue, by getting a Standing Order approved.

Premier Ed Stelmach told the legislature he can't see how the province was shortchanged because of the tremendous prosperity Albertans have enjoyed in recent years. But the NDP and Liberals disagree.

"The auditor general said this minister had access to information showing that their royalties could be raised without hurting the industry and he denied it in this house," Mason said. "How can you condone that, Mr. Premier, why don't you do the right thing and fire that minister?"

Knight and Stelmach largely dodged questions about their roles in past royalty reviews, preferring instead to focus on the government's overall performance.

Knight took issue with opposition claims that the province missed out on billions of dollars in royalties. "There are no missing billions. Those dollars remained in the province of Alberta, were invested, were a magnet for additional dollars," Knight said. "The royalty structure in the province of Alberta is a policy set by the government. The policy is not set by reports that are developed both internally and externally and are given to any minister at any point in time."

Funny that's not what the Auditor General or the Royalty Review Committee said. They said Knight and his Department had NOT collected billions in royalties.

Last month, Auditor General Fred Dunn said the Tory government knew at least three years ago that it was losing royalties from energy projects in the province.

He slammed former energy ministers and their staff for identifying, but not collecting, about $1 billion per year in fees owed by oil and gas companies.

In light of those findings, the NDP hounded the Tories Monday over why the current energy minister was unaware of what his predecessors knew about the province's royalties.

"What I'm saying is there is not billions of dollars missing any place," Energy Minister Mel Knight said. "There is no requirement for me to get a briefing from any previous energy minister in respect to the royalty structure."
SEE:

Mason Hits The Bricks


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Your Tax Dollars At Work

The Tired Old Tories,who believe that the party and the government are one and the same, are selling Ed Stelmach to the people of Alberta in a pre-election ploy using our tax dollars rather than the Conservative Party election bankroll in a slick ad campaign.

Heck if they want an image make-over the San Fransisco Stores did that for him at Halloween.

Helping drive the speculation of an early election are ads the government placed in newspapers during the weekend. "I made a commitment and I delivered," reads the quote from Stelmach in the full-page ad that looks like something the Conservative party would publish, right down to the blue and yellow colour scheme. Except that these ads were paid for by your tax dollars

The government has started an advertising blitz to sell the royalty plan. At the same time, a second layer of ads under the title A Report to Albertans is promoting the accomplishments of the premier since he took office 10 months ago.

Stelmach spokesman Paul Stanway says the $277,000 cost of the newspaper and radio campaign is actually a bargain compared to the price of province-wide mail-outs used in the past.

"I don't believe it's partisan," says Stanway. "It's clearly labelled as a report to Albertans, which is the normal communications that we have with Albertans three times a year."

"I think the decision was that it would have looked a bit like overkill if we'd done this advertising campaign and then also a full mail-out of the report to Albertans."

New Democrat Leader Brian Mason says the punchy slogans and Tory party colours in the newspaper ads leave the impression that the government is preparing for an early election.

"I think (Albertans) see them for what they are. Government propaganda, Conservative party propaganda that they're paying for."



SEE:

December 3 Alberta Election

Mason Hits The Bricks

Alberta Election In The Offing


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