It will already be too late

Once we start feeling harsher symptoms of global warming it will be too late to turn our planet around. Right now, people are suffering economically, physically because of climate change. We must not wait for this pain to spread and intensify. We must act now against global warming.

Scandal?

A new poll shows that Harper has kept his lead over the Liberals. This is a bit of a shock considering all the news of Jaffer and Guergis. You would think maybe some support would be taken from the Conservatives. The real suprise is that the NDP is at there highest support since election and from then have slowly gone up then jumped up and back down. While as the leaders of  Liberals and Conservatives keep there there support from where they were last time. While NDP leader Jack Layton who's support has been rising and disapprove have been lowring. But the important thing is that if we look at support of all party's plus the second choice you can see that the Liberals would win. So this poll makes me Happy because it shows that Harper is no where near majority, and because it shows that in if you include's peoples second choice the Liberals have more support than the Conservatives. This poll makes me upset that the Conservatives are still ahead.

Canadians Live Longer Lives

A new study has shown that Canadians are healthier and live longer than Americans. That was a bit obvious as we have universal health care. It's a bit weird that Americans are fighting against socializing health care. They should really get to know the truth and the greatness of providing care for the fellow human beings. Health care is a human right.

Canadians tend to lead longer, healthier lives than Americans on average, say researchers who point to lack of universal health care in the U.S. as one reason.

The study in Thursday's online issue in BioMed Central's journal Population Health Metrics was based on data from the 2002-03 Joint Canada/United States Survey of Health, which offered comparable data on the health of the population in both countries.

Read more at CBC.

Protect the Artic waters

WWF (World Wildlife Fund) says that there needs to be new regulations to protect the Arctic waters. The problem is that in the Arctic waters it was ice all year round, and many under ice resources were out of reach. Now that the ice has melted, many people want to try to get the fishes and explore for natural gas and oil. The Arctic Council is meeting in Greenland. I think that they should start implimenting systems that will protect the ocean from over fishing, save the local communites and animals from pollution by having strict rules over naturel gas finding and implement them fast.

In reviewing those regulations, the three reports say the current rules were established at a time when year-round Arctic sea ice closed off access to the natural riches beneath the ocean.

But as the sea ice melts, there will be more shipping, fishing and oil and gas exploration — and a rising risk of more environmental accidents such as oil slicks, according to the reports.

"What is important is that our political leaders take a serious look at what … we need to secure that there is enough protection for nature and ecosystem functions, but at the same time that there is a management system in place that allows us to use the marine resources in the Arctic in a long-term sustainable way," he said.

Read more at CBC.

Advertising Costs

The Harper government has spent 42 million dollars on advertising the stimulus package. I've seen some of these on television. This is a complete waste of government money. These are ads made to stir up support for the Conservatives. The Tories' reason for these ads is to communicate with Canadians about coming out of the economic crisis. There is no need for the government to do this kind of advertising. Chances are, if someone sees the ad, they are aware of the current financial situation. This is a complete waste of our money and should be stopped immediately.

OTTAWA — Federal departments have spent nearly $42 million promoting the Harper government's economic stimulus programs. Documents introduced in Parliament detail the massive wave of print, radio, TV and online advertising intended to highlight the Economic Action Plan launched in January 2009.

The advertising blitz includes everything from $110,000 in newspaper ads for the Agriculture Department's slaughterhouse improvement program to the $44,000 spent to wrap two Go Transit commuter trains in the Toronto area with the distinctive green and blue EAP logo.

Read more at the Ottawa Citizen.

New Poll

The Tories are down again! This time in a new Harris-Decima poll. The Liberals at 27% and the Cons at 29% are virtually tied! Last time this happened, in an EKOS poll a short while ago, the Tories started attacking Frank Graves, head of EKOS. That is the normal Tory thing to do. When diplomat Richard Colvin accused the government of ignoring the fact that Afghan detainees were tortured, the Conservatives started personal attacks on him. Same thing is happening now. I quote from Dr Roy's Thoughts:

frank graves has revealed of late that he is indeed a partisan liberal. Why should anyone pay any intention to this openly liberal pollster. I question the accuracy and bias of ekos. If elos wanrs to regain any degree of believability, they should fire frank graves.

So, we should ignore him because he supports the Liberals. I don't get this logic. If Frank Graves really was biased, would he be presenting false information to the Liberals (poll stats)? Now, a Harris-Decima poll shows that EKOS was right. The Cons personal attacks won't work. The propaganda from the Blogging Tories won't sway us.

The full results of the poll can be found here.

WIN!!!

The federal Tories have two weeks to provide Parliament with the full uncensored documents. It's been a long fight but we finally won. Today, the Speaker announced that the Conservatives would be in violation of the privileges of Parliament if they didn't provide the documents. Though the documents wouldn't be made public, the opposition MPs would still get to look at them. The MPs have two weeks to sort out a compromise or the speaker will assist in it. I'm sure that the opposition will not back down from seeing the full uncensored documents. They may compromise on other demands.

OTTAWA—The speaker of the House of Commons, charged with settling a power struggle between the Conservative government and the opposition gave both sides two weeks on Tuesday to sort out their differences.

Peter Milliken announced his decision after opposition parties asked him to find government ministers guilty of contempt for refusing to hand over uncensored files on people detained by the Canadian military in Afghanistan.

Read more at the Toronto Star.

Sorry, no help against climate change

As we all know a volcano has erupted in Iceland. Volcanoes have erupted before, but I am talking about Mount Pinatubo and St. Helen's both of these volcanoes erupted a huge amount, and it was proven that after both these eruptions, the planet cooled a very significant amount. Do not take out the wine, because this eruption was way too small so far, and scientists say that it will only have an effect on Europe's climate. To the global warming skeptics no help for you, but more importantly unless the next St Helen's blows out (even if it does) we are on our own.

The benchmark cooling event of the past 20 years was in 1991, when Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines.It cooled Earth's surface by 0.5 degrees Celsius (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit) over the next year, enough to offset the impact of greenhouse gases from 1991 to 1993.

A smaller cooling episode occurred in 1980, when Mount St. Helens in the U.S. state of Washington blew its top, an event that while impressive disgorged only a tenth of the material of Pinatubo. Volcanic cooling is in any case only a temporary brake on the effects of manmade greenhouse gases, blamed for stoking dangerous change to the climate system.

Read about it at the Edmonton Journal.

Drip... Drip... Drip...

The sound of oil slowly (or rapidly) leaking out into the Gulf of Mexico from an oil rig that sank last week. The oil is dangerous to the aquatic wildlife and the birds. The birds that land in the water will get oil all over their wings and won't be able to fly. The fish will obviously get some bad effects from the oil. Whales and dolphins will get the gunk stuck in their blowholes and won't be able to breathe. And that isn't assuming that oil is carcinogenic. This is only one demonstration of the pollution oil can create. We must reduce our dependence on oil, and start investing in clean technology and energy.

NEW ORLEANS — Officials worked Sunday to try to stop oil leaks coming from the deepwater well drilled by a rig that sank last week near Louisiana, but they acknowledged that it could be months before they are able to stem the flow of what is now about 42,000 gallons of oil a day pouring into the Gulf of Mexico.

Read about it at the New York Times.

Children and Climate Change

This video from UNICEF shows how children suffer from climate change. It is not us who are suffering from the greenhouse effect yet. However, if these disasters were happening to us, I'm sure that there wouldn't be such inaction as we see in our government now. We must reduce our emissions before the global warming will be our demise. We will start feeling effects soon. We cannot ignore the threat of climate change.

Conservative Lies!

The Fraser Institute released a study which showed that we spend more on taxes than we do on shelter, water, food etc. Craig McInnes investigates and finds out that our tax burden has actually been falling over the past few years and it's now at a 1972 level. The Fraser Institute and their Conservative buddies are trying to spin the figures to their advantage. In fact it's all lies. Taxes are not going up. They are going down. We Canadians do not want any of this propaganda.

Popular, but, even using the Fraser Institute's own self-serving method of calculating tax burden, it's not true. Our tax burden has not been rising steadily since 1961, as advertised. In fact, over the past five years it has been steadily falling and it is now at a level that it reached first in about 1972.

But a headline that says the tax burden of Canadian families has remained relatively unchanged for the past 38 years doesn't have quite the same impact as the lead picked by the Fraser Institute, which was that the total tax bill of the average Canadian family has increased by 1,624 per cent since 1961.

Read about it at the Vancouver Sun.

Flush!

Ontario is going to ban toilets that waste water. Toilets are a way everyone wastes water. Water-needy countries cannot imagine how we can flush 13 litres of potable water each time we go to the can. This is a great initiative by Ontario. With the ever-growing population of the world, we cannot afford to waste this valuable resource. If we do not make the moves to conserve and save our fresh water, instead of polluting it, we will run out of it. There could be wars over water. There will be death. That is why we should all pay attention to our water usage.

Ontario is flushing away the SUV of toilets.

Water-guzzlers with tanks that use 13 litres for one flush will be outlawed in the province this summer.

Switching to a more efficient, six-litre flush can save an average household up to 35,000 litres of clean water every year, Environment Minister John Gerretsen said Thursday.

Read about it at the Toronto Star.

Honesty is the Best Policy

A Golfer named Brian Davis was at his competition. Now imagine being at any competition. Then you have the golf ball and your about to hit it when you miss and hit the ground. So what? you may ask well  "hitting any material around your ball during your backswing constitutes a violation of the rule against moving loose impediments, and is an immediate two-stroke penalty. And in a playoff, that means, in effect, game over. so lets say at your competition something like this happens, but none calls on you. Brian Davis guess what called on himself, and they actually had to the take the video on slow mo just to see him do it. He could have lied and got the credit, but he did not and this man did the most honest and truthful thing he could at a this game i think. So here is to you Brian Davis congratulation on winning something more important than 1#. Honesty

http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/golf/blog/devil_ball_golf/post/Davis-calls-penalty-on-himself-gives-up-shot-at?urn=golf,234963

Arizona bill racist or needed

A new Arizona bill has been seen as racist or needed. Now, no matter what you think of the bill here is what is in it. Police are going to have the right to check someones legal status if they have a justified reason. Here is the question is this racist. The bill does offer training to law enforcement.

"This training will include what does and does not constitute reasonable suspicion that a person is not legally present in the United States," Brewer said after signing the bill.

So this is clear on how law enforcement will have justified reasons to enact this law. So I think this part of the bill makes sense, but maybe they should have more training and make it more strict on policeman who discriminate. The only part of this bill I do not support is that all immigrants must carry their papers to show that they are immigrants. This is outrageous! I think this part of the bill is discriminative that only immigrants have to have there papers all the time, and what if they forgot it? Is the state going to put them to jail, or deport an American citizen to Mexico?

"Racial profiling is illegal. It is illegal in America, and it's certainly illegal in Arizona," Brewer said.

"This training will include what does and does not constitutereasonable suspicion that a person is not legally present in the UnitedStates," Brewer said after signing the bill.

The bill requires immigrants to carry their alien registration documents at all times and requires police to question people if there is reason to suspect that they're in the United States illegally. It also targets those who hire illegal immigrant day laborers or knowingly transport them.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/04/23/obama.immigration/index.html

Turcot Alternative

The City of Montreal has put up an alternative plan to reconstruct the ageing Turcot interchange to that of the province. The Province of Quebec plans to move 30 years into the past by increasing car capacity, decreasing residential areas, not allowing reserved public transit space and basically, destroying the livelihood of our city. The City of Montreal puts up an excellent counterproposal reducing car capacity, putting two new lanes reserved for buses, a tram and a park. How more green can you get? Even the opposition parties in city hall are praising it. Quebec has to stop expanding highways and sending us into the stone age. Public transit is the way of the future.

The City of Montreal Turcot plan is embedded below

Présentation médias_2010-04-21


Read more at the Montreal Gazette.

Volcanos and Climate Change

It is seen that global warming can cause volcano eruptions in the future. How, you may ask. The answer is clear. Climate change will affect mostly ice cap volcanos. If a volcano has an ice cap, and with global temperatures rising the ice that covers the volcano and puts pressure on it will melt, and thus relieving the magma on the bottom. So the math is clear, because of human involvement the planet gets warmer then because of this the ice cap volcano's have less pressure on them thus magma is free. So let us not wait for the next volcano to ruin are lives lets make a change,and what better time then earth week. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36627947/ns/us_news-environment/ UPDATE, I vanillaman am retracting this post after much thought and debate and evidence that this idea of another Iceland volcano eruption is not going to happen because of this as i now know that the ice on the top of the volcano creates the ash so thus this statement is untrue thank you the readers for expressing your opinions and this goes to show how I lisen to many sides of a debate and change my mind as i see fit, and how I lisen to you the readers and am able unlike some people to change there minds, because of lisening to people

Happy Earth Day

From http://www.jourdelaterre.tv/

Bixi Toronto?

Toronto is starting a pilot project based on Montreal's Bixi bike sharing service. Living in Montreal, I have to say that this service has been largely successful. With bike stations all around, it's hard to ignore the growing reality of the bike being practical. It's made for short downtown trips which is very useful for people making multiple trips per day. The only thing wrong with the service is the helmets, or the fact that there are none provided. My solution would be strategically placed Bixi "stores" where people who have a Bixi pass can get a helmet. One suggestion to Toronto: get ready as this system will be overused. Start big this season, and end even bigger.

Earlier, the committee also voted to move forward on the city’s first bike-sharing program. The program, modelled on Montreal’s successful Bixi system, will see 1,000 specially designed bikes roll out by spring 2011.

People will be able to rent bikes from 80 stations across the downtown core, using day-long, month-long or year-long passes. In Montreal, a year’s membership costs about $80.

Read about it at the Globe and Mail.

The Climate Change Reality: Herders

A video from Oxfam showing the effects of climate change It's the poor people who are suffering for our pollution right now. However, it won't be limited only to them in the future. Farmers in Quebec are already starting to feel the consequences. Soon, the general population of Canada will start seeing little changes in everyday life due to climate change.

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride it now!

The Bixi bikes have been very popular in Montreal. The Bixi Bikes were gone for the winter, but today they are back in Business. Since only parts of the city resumed the Bixi program several stations were empty by the station. This is a good thing it is great that people are using diffrent ways other than cars, and use something more everomentaly freindly and economicaly. The Bixi system is so good here and has been doing well that citys like ottawa and toronto want in.

Regis Gamma, an avid Bixi fan, has been waiting for this day since November 30, when he last rented a bike from the service."It's been great!" he enthused. "I use it to do everything, to go to work, to go out with friends, to go to restaurants, to go to the theatre, to go everywhere."

Other Canadian cities including Ottawa and Toronto are interesting in adopting the Bixi rental bike system.

Additional stations have been added in some boroughs, and at the Parc Jean Drapeau on Ile-Ste-Hélène.

 http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2010/04/20/bixi-rental-bikes-montreal.html#ixzz0lfdntkpc

The Whip is mightier than the Gun

Michael Ignatieff has stated that the Liberals will vote against the bill to kill the long-gun registry. This will be a whipped vote and anyone who doesn't vote with the party's stance will be reprimanded. Most of you will say, "Last time it happened, whipping the vote didn't work." I completely agree with you. Except Ignatieff will learn from his mistakes and I believe that he will severely punish anyone who won't vote with the party. Just to set an example of what happens to someone who defies the party on a mandatory vote. Besides this, it is good that the Liberals are going to vote against this bill. Why don't the Conservatives listen to the police, the people who actually work in crime. They will say that the gun registry is important. Anyway, Tories and statistically correct information do not mix. All this will hopefully go to show that the whip is mightier than the gun.

Michael Ignatieff plans to whip his caucus to vote against a controversial Conservative bill to abolish the long-gun registry. MPs who do not vote with him will be punished.

Read about it at the Globe and Mail.

Tea party, get your facts right

We have all been hearing about the tea party movement. Now we have seen all the rallies about how the tea party movement have said stop taxing us, and said how people cannot afford Obama's high taxes. These people would probably like bush who had two big tax cuts.Those tax cuts in 2001 gave 44% of all the tax cut money to the top 20% wealthiest americans, and in the 2003 tax cuts 77% of all that money went to the top 20% wealthiest people. Under Obama people 173 billion dollars in taxes were cut meaning that in total the the tax revenue redused for the goverment, and that means people paid less taxes in 2009 when Obama came in.

The White House noted Thursday that federal taxes were reduced by $173 billion in 2009 and said that the average tax refund is about 10 percent higher than last year.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/04/16/obama-says-tea-partiers-owe-him-a-thank-you/?fbid=aUiDrRtn3Gb

Ash Cloud Life

Christopher Hume, a columnist for the Star trapped in Europe because of the ash cloud preventing many flights from leaving tackles the question of what would happen if the ash cloud came to North America. His answer? Chaos. Why? Because we have no other means of fast transportation. While Europe has high speed rail, we have the often-late under-funded pollution-spewing diesel trains chugging along our routes. There have been enough studies on this proving that this is an economically viable solution and it might even pay for itself like the AVE in Spain. It's time we get moving on high speed rail.

True, it’s possible to travel across Canada by rail, but let’s be honest, that’s mainly for tourists who pay big bucks to spend their time in vintage 1960s dome cars watching as the Great White North flashes by. As for high-speed rail, now so fast it takes barely more than two hours to go from London to Paris, it simply doesn’t exist in Canada, not even in the densely populated Toronto-Montreal corridor 

Go on Harper, Worry

Throughout the recent scandals Harper's government has been facing, he has been trying to distance himself from the problem. Firing Guergis, calling Jaffer a private citizen and dumping Afghan detainee documents on the Speaker's desk are all part of those kinds of actions. If these kinds of things keep happening to Harper, he has reason to worry. The next few scandals could be the straw that broke the camel's back. In fact, the recent EKOS poll already shows Harper's numbers hurt by the recent scandals, especially the Guergis one. This shows that Harper hasn't really done a good job at distancing himself from the scandals around him. Not that any smart Canadian wouldn't see through his antics. All we need is big ideas and more of the truth around Harper's government revealed to whittle down his support.

With the controversy around Helena Guergis growing and at least one poll showing support for the Conservatives sagging, Harper now has reason to worry, pollster Frank Graves warns.

"He's got to have ... cold beads of sweat popping out on his brow right now. He's got to be very uncomfortable," said Graves, president of EKOS Research Associates Inc.

Read about it at the Toronto Star.

Debunking Lord Monckton

Lord Monckton, climate change denier is debunked by the two videos that follow. The Climate Change Reality is getting more and more evident as time goes on. There is no more hiding the truth. We need strong targets and a carbon tax to meet them. Disaster can only come from listening to the delusional climate deniers.

Part 1


Part 2

2 wrongs don't make a right

A school assignment from a teacher was that every student was to write a list of children who have bullied them. This sounds inefficient enough, but one kid had the most complaints against him from bullying. This kid  was suspended from school for 2 weeks without recess and lunch recess. Because kids said he bullied them. You may think this kid deserved this, but is it better to punish someone severely instead of making sure that the kid learns his lesson properly? This is just revenge. This school was too strict on this student. Making him public enemy #1got him being bullied, and as Gandhi said" An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." This system is completely too strict, and cannot be fair and will truly help no one. 

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/04/16/dnt.bully.list.whdh?hpt=T2

SO, green energy is a go?

Sweden and Ontario both have something in common. Sweden is using excess body heat from a train station to heat another building. The cool air from the office building stops commuters from sweating and the hot air from the train terminal keeps the office workers from freezing. This idea was cheap ($30 000) and therefore will pay for itself quickly while saving tons of fossil fuels.

In Ontario, two studies say that solar energy could produce 95 gigawatts of power. That's enough to provide 60% of Ontario's electricity demands in 2025! Demands for energy in the future can only grow. That other 40% of the demands could be met by wind turbines, household geothermal energy and if everything else can't meet demands, exports from Quebec.

Both these ideas demonstrate that the world can run on green energy if we want to. It's possible but we just need to stand up and tell the politicians in Ottawa to start the switch.



Read about it at Time and the Ottawa Citizen.

Back Down You Go

According to a new EKOS poll, the Tories are back down at 31.4% support and the Liberals back up at 29% support. Basically, the Liberals are more or less tied with the Conservatives. Good news for us. Let's plough straight through Stephen Harper's thin support. He can lose it any time (besides Alberta) as demonstrated during his prorogation. Two scandals at the same time now are attacking the Tories' support: the Guergis-Jaffer scandal and the Afghan detainee scandal. Libs are making gains in Ontario and mostly stealing away form the Cons. This is only good news for us.

In fact, Mr. Graves and his team are calling it more than that – they say the Tories have been “Guergisized!”“The resignation and controversy around Helena Guergis and her husband seems to have jumpstarted a moribund electorate in a way that ideas and debate could not,” he says.

Read about it at the Globe and Mail or CBC. Read the full results of the poll here.

Copenhagen welcome back

Remember Copenhagen where the world came together, and got particularly nothing done other than an agreement to reduce emissions (optional)? Well they have done it again. The world came together and agreed they need to reduce there nuclear weapons, and go off and make an agreement that has no teeth (no legal obligation). Now I do at least think that the nuclear summit is a good thing to have talks with countries, but if you are going to make an a world agreement to reduce nuclear weapons and everyone is on the same page then why not have a some sort of legal obligation. I do think that the country's that did not attend the meeting should have much pressure from the international community to not obtain nuclear weapons.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/04/13/obama.hu.nuclear.meeting/index.html?hpt=T2

There's no business like Torture!

A Canadian interpreter who worked for the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan said that soldiers shot an innocent 17 year old, and then proceeded to round up a 10 year old and a 90 year old and transferred them to the Afghan security service. Let's make it clear from now on. He was not a witness, but, he says he read an intelligence report on the issue. He goes on to make another series of accusing claims. Look, I'm tired of blogging about this subject and I think most people are tired of reading on this subject. But I won't relent until we know the truth. Come on Harper. Release the documents.

OTTAWA -- The Canadian military "subcontracted torture" to the Afghan security service and shot an unarmed 17-year-old man in the back of the head, alleges an Afghan-Canadian who worked as an interpreter for the Canadian armed forces in Afghanistan.

Read about it at the National Post or the Toronto Star.

Harper receives a D

Harper declared this week basically that freedom of information is essential to democracy. Too bad he doesn't provide it. Our interim information commissioner, Suzanne Legault, gave Harper bad grades on his freedom of information and even a red alert. Here is a little piece of what Stephen Harper's chief of staff had to say on the issue.

“Canadians have a right to expect that questions are answered,” Giorno said.

Really? We should be able to know about torture in Afghanistan and why Guergis was kicked out of the Conservative caucus? Well, it seems to me that we don't really know much about these issues. So, even Harper says that we should know about these issues, just not much. No wonder some of his departments failed. Even a "fail" category was created especially for Foreign Affairs. It denied 60% of requests for information. What a transparent government we have! Just as Harper says.

The Privy Council Office, which serves as the bureaucrats to the Prime Minister, received a “D” grade or “below average,” as did seven other departments, including Health Canada, Revenue Canada, Natural Resources and the Canadian Food Inspection Service. Five others received failing grades and a special “fail” category was created for Foreign Affairs for its 60-per-cent rate of outright refusal of requests for information.

Read about it at the Toronto Star.

Ice cap Melting

Big news: our largest ice cap has been melting since 1985. Apparently, warmth in the summers has caused the cap to melt. This is climate change at work. The melting ice will contribute to sea level rise of over a metre in the next century. This can drown out islands like Tuvalu and Kiribati (see the "about the environment" tab). When the climate refugees start coming to our countries, the Tories are going to start to complain. But only other people will realize that it's their fault for contributing to climate change.

Canada's largest ice cap has been shrinking steadily since 1985, say scientists studying the remote icy dome at the top of the planet.

They say there has been a decline in the volume and area of the Devon Ice Cap in the High Arctic over the past 25 years, largely because of warm summers.

Read about it at the Ottawa Citizen.

Governments + Cigarette Companies Forever

You would think that in our high deficit times that our government would do all that they could to reduce the deficit. What if I told you that the government can get 10 billion dollars, but instead, they settle for a smaller amount. Not 6 billion, not 3 billion, not 2 billion not even a billion, but 550 million dollars. Yeah, that's right our government gave a 94.5% discount on the amount it sued for. What happened was that the tobacco company's were involved in selling crates of cigarettes into the US subsidizers, then those sold them to the smugglers who brought the cigarettes illegally into Canada. Now I think that we should charge these company's guess what full price they did something illegal why should they be allowed to get a 94.5% discount. Let's get this money and lower the deficit, and invest money into our economy, and not allow the cigarette CEO get off easy while we have the legal right to that money for our economy, and lowering our deficit, but apparently making tobacco companies happy is more important than jobs, economy, health care and education.

Canadian companies shipped crates of cigarettes to American subsidiaries; the cigarettes were then sold to smugglers and brought illegally into Canada through native reserves and border checkpoints; once back in the country, the cigarettes were sold to consumers at a big discount - sometimes for about half the price of legally purchased smokes.

It noted that the federal and provincial governments filed claims for nearly $10 billion over contraband smokes. Mahood said that makes the $550-million settlement "a complete sellout." 

 "Canadian governments led by the feds had an opportunity to play hard ball, to build trust among Canadians in the rule of law related to white-collar crime. Instead, they blew away the opportunity to recoup billions of desperately needed lost tax revenues and made big tobacco financially stronger, with a greater capacity to prey on our children."

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/national/100413/n0413113A.html

Misinformed on...

high speed rail. That's the only problem with the fast trains. People don't know what they are, what their characteristics are and their advantages and disadvantages. I once read about a town in the US which had a group formed of citizens combating fast trains going through their town because apparently it would make too much noise. I'm sorry, but that is completely wrong. The new high speed trains are electric and hardly make ANY noise while passing through a village. In fact, the diesel locomotives chugging through that town at the present probably represents a rock concert compared to the noise of the electric trains. It's time people researched the subject before making claims like, "It's a large waste of money," or "It will need to be subsidized constantly." In Spain, the AVE high speed rail needs 0$ in subsidies each year.

Read about it at Wired.

Spending Inequality

Look at this map. The states in red get more than $1 in federal money for every $1 paid in taxes
Now look at this map.


Looks like the Republican-leaning states are getting more funding. Coincidence? I think NOT! Thanks to the Fourth Branch for the information.

Hells angels Conservative?

The Toronto Star reports that Rahim Jaffer, former Tory MP and a man who says he is a former banker for the Hell's Angels tried to sell his political influence. Harper denies that Jaffer had any influence on the Tories and maintains that he is a private citizen.

"Mr. Jaffer is a private citizen and he is responsible for himself and I have no comment to add to that matter," Harper said. "Obviously, I read the newspapers yesterday. The suggestions that were made that Mr. Jaffer has an open door to my office are completely false."

But just a few days ago, he still had the Con. logo on his website. I'm sorry, but you can't have the best of both worlds. This is adding to his drunk driving and drug charges that he accumulated a year ago and got off with minimal charges. So much for "tough on crime." Anyway, we need to make sure that there is no corruption in the government. Harper kicked Guergis out of Conservative caucus and called in the RCMP. There could be heavy charges involved. We'll have to wait and see.

Tiger returns to golf

As we all may know Tiger is now back, and playing in the Masters. Now many people are now are forgiving of Tiger, but it is shown that men have been more forgiving then women. Tiger's sponsers have come back, but none have actually said they were "pround sponser of Tiger" . This might not happend in a while, but i think we should leave Tiger alone now. If any of you think he should not play ever then do not watch him play, and if you think he should be with his wife instead of playing. It is his life not your's so i say let us move on, and leave Tiger alone to do whatever he wants with life.

Nuclear treaty signed

Both countries (US and Russia) have now decided to reduce their nuclear weapons. There are some loopholes to this disarmament treaty. Such as how countries can modernize their weapons, and that boomers who have 20 nuclear weapons they use to count as 10 bombs, but now they count as 1 so the number will look smaller than it actually will be. I think that this treaty is a step in the right directions, but these loopholes I think should be closed. I do still think this treaty is much better than the cold relationship Moscow had with Washington during the Bush years. this is a step in the right direction, and I hope not just Russia and the U.S, but the entire world will get ride of their nuclear weapons, and eventually the threat of a nuclear war ending the world will end. This would also apply to Iran who should be pressured by the international community to not seek nuclear arms, and the same goes for North Korea.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,688173,00.html

Hypocrisy

Four months ago, our oh-so-great environment minister proclaimed Lancaster Sound in Nunavut a one of a kind place teeming with wildlife. He moved to protect it and set aside 5 million dedicated to this mission. But now, the government is searching the area for petroleum and natural gas. So which one to the Cons want to do? Protect or harvest and destroy? Well, from their track record, I would say that it's full steam ahead! We all know that the Tories support mining the land until it is destroyed so why not the sea?

But the geological research project he's heading in Nunvut is part of an Arctic-wide program touted by Harper in 2008 as key to Canada's economic future and his government's "use it or lose it" strategy for asserting Arctic sovereignty.

It shouldn't be "use it or lose it," Canada's strategy should be conserve it or lose it. Because if we don't protect the site form an environmental point of view, it will be lost for thousands of years and the generations to come.

Guergis Resigns

Harper has called in the RCMP on Helena Guergis who through a tantrum in Charlottetown airport. Guergis faces unknown allegations. She called them unfounded. Well, apparently Stephen Harper didn't as he demanded an investigation into Guergis' doings. However, it seems like Harper fired her.

Though Guergis technically resigned her position, Harper, at a Parliament Hill news conference, made it clear she had little choice in the matter.

It's time that he did that. We Liberals were calling for it months ago. Let's count the scandals.

1. Tantrum at Charlottetown 
2. Letters to the editor written by her office assistant, 
3. A shopping spree being written off as election expenses
4. She is being investigated by the RCMP.

And maybe others I didn't hear about yet. Good for Harper, but it's two months late. We shouldn't have people like this representing us. We don't want people like this representing us.

We should watch her carefully. The fact that Harper kicked her out of caucus is unnerving. He's trying to distance his party from her. He's trying to spin it. It won't work. Maybe I should have created a label called "Guergis." I seem to be writing a lot about her.

Read about it at the Toronto Star and the National Post.

Leave with a impression

This new poll shows that 60% of Canadians want to make are military in Afghanistan end on schedule. I support this date , but I do think that if we are needed more in Afghanistan or are asked by the NATO allies to stay with them to do more military efforts in southern Afghanistan to fully get rid of the Taliban then I agree we should. There are not to many countries staying much longer than we are, so Canada can not by itself control Afghanistan. I think even if we do stay in Afghanistan longer or leave on schedule we should have many negotiations to secure Afganistan has a proper standard of living for the Afgan people.

http://www.ekospolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/full_report_april_8.pdf

More Politicians in Parliament!

Canada may have an additional 30 seats in The House of Commons. These extra seats will go to the 3 top growing provinces:Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta will all increase in seats. Now this would add the total number of seats of the house to 338. This means that in order to get a majority of the house you need 170 seats. The Conservatives have 145 seats. They would now need to get 25 out of the 30 new seats. Now, in Alberta it will have 5 new seats. This is of course going Conservative. Now in BC seven new seats will be added, and these seats will be in Vancouver the recent poll shows the Tories ahead of the NDP who are ahead of the Liberals in Vancouver. So the Conservatives will battle out with the NDP for the seats. In Ontario 18 new seats will be added most around Toronto, so it is not going to be in the very Liberal city but surrounding it so the Conservatives will probably split this with the Liberals and may give the NDP a seat or two. The loser of this would be Quebec who for the first time since Confederation will be underrepresented if this is passed.

Collateral Murder

A web page called "Wikileaks" has released a video (actually two) showing US troops gunning down innocent civilians including two journalists who worked for Reuters. This video shows a lot that the military didn't say how the journalists were killed and said they did not know how children were injured. All lies. These two videos show that the military could have found out who they hit. If some smart guys running Wikileaks could do it, I'm sure the US Army, with all their hi-tech equipment could have pinpointed a grape in the destruction if they wanted to. The point is that incidents can be covered up. Soldiers aren't angels. And investigating incidents like this, can lead to the truth. Investigating incidents like this or demanding access to incidents like these doesn't mean that we don't support the troops. All we want is the truth. The cold hard truth whether it's supportive of our soldiers or not. Is that too much to ask of our government? Therefore, I demand the release of the full uncensored Afghan detainee documents. In other words, I want the truth. Now.
Warning: the videos might be disturbing for some viewers.

Short Version


Long Version


http://www.collateralmurder.com/

Setting the Record Straight

on climate change. The Australian Youth Climate Coalition put together a video to explain climate change and advocate the need for reducing emissions. This is a great video which should be watched by everyone. This video is a great demonstration of why we need to stop increasing GHGs in our atmosphere.

Biomass energy in nova scotia

In Nova Scotia they plan to use biomass to create energy.This energy will only produce 3% of the province's need of energy. This may be minor, but it is a way to decrease dependance on oil for energy. Now, there are many people agianst this saying it will reduce the forest in Nova Scotia. Now I believe that if they would like to use trees then it must be mandatory of the company to replant more tress then the trees they cut so that they will still have trees to use and for biomass and also to suck up CO2 thus increasing the economy, providing jobs that will be sustanable for the futur and reduce their carbon footprint.

Nova Scotia Power and NewPage Port Hawkesbury have reached an agreement to develop a $200-million facility to generate electricity by burning biomass.

They are planning a 60-megawatt biomass project that could produce three per cent of the province's electricity to supply 50,000 homes.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2010/04/05/ns-biomass-newpage-power.html#ixzz0kINiqfqb

Reduce the Voting Age!

A UK policy institute has recommended that the voting age be reduced to 16 (in the UK, of course). The reasons were that in the present, big decisions are being made which will have big consequences on their lives. Also, the ageing population will be the most powerful force in voting and older people sometimes have older ways of thinking. 16 year olds can die in the army, pay taxes, but they cannot vote. This is a good idea not only for the UK, but also for Canada. Climate change, to name one important decision, is happening and nothing is being done about it. Don't the people who are going to be affected by it deserve a say? Yes they do, and that is why the voting age should be lowered. Let's follow Gordon Brown's lead (he supports lowering the voting age with conditions), and support the future of our country.

Demos director Richard Reeves said at 16 young people were old enoug to work and pay tax but were not allowed to vote in an election.

"They are denied the political capital and social responsibility of voting," he said.

As the nation prepares to face decisions with "profound" consequences for young adults, those young adults should be given the right to vote, the report said.

Read about it at the BBC.

Obama wants to drill into contreversy

Obama is allowing exploration in the coast line of the Atlantic ocean, Gulf of Mexico and Alaska. I think it is good to find new sources of energy, but I do believe that these new sources should be renewable. It is still fine that you try to meet energy needs on both sides (renewable and non-renewable) and progress into more renewable energy. The problem Obama faces is to pass it. Some Democrats are strongly against it and some Republicans are for it. This is kind of a good thing considering their might be some by partisanship. I would also like to say that I am now open to drilling in Quebec, but I would like their to have strict environmental standards making sure that there is the least amount of impact as possible, and that there should be taxes if they would like to drill. I like that this way that we get our own oil and not just take it from Alberta's oil companies who have few restictions on the environment, and I believe that this will create jobs on both sides of the border, but I would like to stress that this is a short term solution and we should all spend more time and money on renewable ressources, so we can eventualy say we do not need this oil.

millions more go to school

A new law has passed India last year. That the government must provide education to children for free. This means that about 8-10 million is estimated the amount of children will now go to school. The government is expected to spend about 35 billion dollars or 1.5 trillion rupees (Indian currency). I think it is great that children now can go to school in India and that more children can be well educated in school and live healthy and wealthy lives,because as we learn in the renaissance is that education can save you. I am not saying that all the problems in India, but education can help children in India get a better living standard.

But, said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act aims to ensure that all children "irrespective of gender and social category have access to education." It was passed last year.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/04/01/india.education/index.html

Environment = Economy

A poll shows that 51% of Americans find the economy more important than the environment while 45% find the environment more important then the economy. I believe that the economy is important, but I believe that the economy goes with the environment. We need to start realizing that building green jobs helps the economy. Reducing our emissions saves us money from what we would be spending on the problems of climate change will do. I do still believe some environmental policies have absolutely no effect on the economy if they are implemented correctly. Like a carbon tax implemented too quickly can hurt the economy, but a slow carbon tax will have no effect on the economy except the increase in revenue that can be spend on hospitals and schools, and it would lower pollution and give an example to other countries that you can do environmental policy's and boom the economy.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/31/cnn-poll-economy-tops-environment-as-bigger-concern/?fbid=_UfhJA9Jum8

Where is the line?

A game in Japan called Rape. You guessed it it involves rape. in the Game the player follows a girl to a subway platform. You can decide to rape the girl and her sister and mother. Then you can rape the girl again and again. You can even make the girl pregnant and urge her to have an abortion. This game shows horrible graphic scenes that should not be a part of any game. I think this game should not be allowed to be in stores there has to be some sort of line game designers can't cross. 
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/03/30/japan.video.game.rape/index.html

Bitumen Bird Death

On April 28, 2008, more than 1 600 birds died after landing into one of those tar sands waste ponds which look like this:

I doubt even humans could survive that. An expert has testified that this Syncrude pond is smack in the middle of the breeding area of the waterfowl. In fact, it's the second most important area for the waterfowl in North America. This is the kind of ecological meltdown the tar sands can create. Proponents of the tar sands continue to deny its effects. Not one tar sands project has ever been denied. Continuation like this will lead to more disasters.

Read about it at the Vancouver Sun.

Foes of Ford Defeated

Ford Canada has beaten Toyota in their sales numbers in March. I have been a recent supporter of Ford ever since I got interested in cars. I like the way the company is headed, a more environmentally friendly future. Their sales are spearheaded by the Ford Fusion (a fuel-economical vehicle) and the Ford Escape. Ford represents the future of the environmentally friendly but also practical vehicles. I like the Ford Fusion hybrid. It's a hybrid and more fuel economical than the Camry hybrid. However, it has good looks and is roomier.Whatever company is chosen by Canadians, let's hope they choose green. There should be more initiatives to encourage environmentally friendly car ownership.

Ford said Thursday it sold more vehicles than any other automaker in March, with 22,000 cars and trucks driving off dealer lots. That’s a 29% increase from one year ago. Strong performances by its Fusion and Escape models lifted Ford to top manufacturer in the country, the company said.

Read about it at the London Free Press.

Torture is Real

Torture is, was and should be a concern. A few people with first hand experience voiced their opinion and what they saw . Nevertheless, the Tories refuse to give the documents or be cooperative with the opposition. Col. Christian Juneau, one of the soldiers responsible for the transfer of detainees said that he was getting very little information from diplomats about the matter. In fact, he was so much in the dark that he stopped transferring Afghan detainees.

“I am forced to conclude that I must cease approving the transfer of further detainees on the basis that the legal test upon which such decisions must be based can not be satisfied at this time, having due regard to all the information and lack of information at my disposal."

 This letter was copied to Defence Minister Peter Mackay. So, the Tories did know about the torture concern. In 2007, the Conservatives boasted that the security of Afghan detainees was at it's best. However, as we read the paragraph above, we know that it can't be true. If they are lying about this, on which other subjects are they withholding the truth from us?


Read about it at the Globe and Mail or the CBC.

Environment News

Good news and bad news from the government on the environment. First of all, there will be new regulations on emissions of vehicles. This is rare for the Conservatives. They are doing something helpful for the environment. Transportation uses a lot of oil and creates a lot of pollution in Canada. Not only do these rules help stop climate change, they curb smog in urban areas.


Fun fact: Jim Prentice criticized Quebec on the emissions standards. Look what he is doing now.

Environment Minister Jim Prentice, who is scheduled to make an announcement on the updated proposal at an Ottawa car dealership, stirred up controversy a few weeks later when he blasted the Quebec government for introducing its own tailpipe regulations to match California standards.

Read about it at the Vancouver Sun.


Now for the bad news. The Tories have sneaked into the budget a new rule which would allow the environment minister to decide which aspects of a project.That means that Jim Prentice can decide to only study the not-so-bad aspects of a new tar sand project. Projects funded by the economic stimulus would be exempt from being studied at all. It was horrible enough before this new rule. There probably wasn't one project that was rejected before this rule. Now, the projects will probably be praised for their "excellence." This is a measure meant to fool Canadians and it won't work. We're intelligent, Harper. People are saying that this was a complete political move as it is in the budget and the Liberals can't vote against it. Therefore, it will be passed.

OTTAWA—Environmental groups and opposition politicians say the federal Conservatives are trying to gut environmental assessment laws by sneaking in new rules in budget legislation.

“This is a big step backward about 20 years,” John Bennett of the Sierra Club said Wednesday.

Read about it at the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail.