Walking Out is not Right

The new Auditor-General is not bilingual. Yet, that is one of the conditions of the job of Auditor-General.  No doubt then that the Conservatives are telling the truth when saying that he is the only qualified individual for the job. Out of the people in Canada, there must have been at least one who had all the competences and was bilingual.

Some say that being bilingual doesn't really matter to the job of Auditor-General. Maybe they do not need to be fluently bilingual, but a good knowledge of both languages should be a prerequisite. But, if the Conservatives are going to ignore the condition of being bilingual, then they should full out just say it publicly instead of lying.

I do not agree with the Liberal response to the government. The NDP had the right one. To walk seems like a desperate act to get attention and it does come off as one. If the decision isn't right then the job of the opposition is to show up in Parliament and vote against it, not to abandon its responsibilities as the Liberals did. 

Bob Rae and his Liberal MPs boycotted a Commons vote that approved a unilingual accountant, Michael Ferguson, to serve as Canada’s new Auditor-General. 

While Conservative and NDP MPs stood in the House, the real action was taking place outside the chamber, where an angry Interim Liberal Leader condemned the process as an “abuse” and “illegitimate.”

Read more at the Globe and Mail. 

Harper is addicted to lying

Harper again said that this is an unnecessary election! Maybe Harper forgot why we have an election. The reason we have an election is because Harper was held in contempt of Parliament. meaning Harper broke the rules of Parliament. So the opposition like any in the world couldn't have confidence in a party and government that doesn't follow the rules and lie's about numbers and figures that are very important to Canadian people. This election is necessary Harper, because we need to get rid of man who breaks the laws and rules! As Harper said in 2006 "it's time to demand better". Well yes MR. Harper it is time to demand better! It's time to elect a different government! Harper is lying all the time! He is addicted to lying. He isn't even blinking when he lies he looked straight at the crowds face and practically told them that there was no reason to call an election.

Lie again

Harper in all his ads is saying that the Liberals would want a ipod tax that would total 75$. First such a tax would be very extreme considering a classic ipod cost around 200$ this tax would be very high. Higher than the sales tax combined! The thing is the Liberals don't want an ipod tax the so called Liberal tax on ipods is just made up. I know Harper likes to make up his own truth, but come on! A tax on ipods! The Conservatives might as well say that Ignatieff supports sending Canadians to the moon. The word iPod I don't even think is even mentioned in the whole Liberal party platform. The Conservatives are desperate I see since they have nothing to really attack Ignatieff on they are just going to make up stuff now.This is lie number 1,000,000 (I think maybe he is lying more), but I will keep keeping the conservatives accountable to there lies during the election and hopefully I won't have to after the election.

More People at Liberal Rallies

In many rallies around the country, people were kicked out of these Conservative events because officials screened their social media pages and found that they had "ties" to other federal parties. Harper submitted this feeble attempt at an excuse: there were so many people at his rallies, there wasn't any room for these people. This, of course is typical of the lies and spin of the Tories. The Liberals have come out with the pesky truth. My favorite is the Montreal rally, in which the Liberals gathered about 1200 compared to Harper's 500.

The beginning of the campaign has been nice to Ignatieff. There is Liberal momentum. This is proven by the super fundraising done last week: one million dollars in four days! All the Liberals need to do is to keep up this good work and they will win more seats.

Read the facts here.

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Harper 1997: Coalitions are Legitimate

The ever-resourceful Enough Harper has come out with a new video with Harper saying that he believes that to form stable governments, there will have to be coalitions. This was back in 1997 when the Liberals still had a majority. Harper then considered alliances or coalitions with other parties completely valid and democratic. Somehow, when he's in power, coalitions are undemocratic and illegitimate. These videos really do need to get time on air.

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Yes, The Tories did have a Coalition

Stephen Harper insists that his deal with the NDP and Bloc in 2004 to bring down the Martin government and replace it was not a coalition. He calls it a "co-opposition" accord. But, alas, the truth is not always friendly. Tom Flanagan, a former campaign manager for the Conservatives AND chief of staff for Harper said that the point of this "co-opposition" accord was to see if there was common ground to base upon a coalition. It might not have been set in stone, but it was certainly in the making. What else would be the point of this accord? The Tories' insistence that this was not meant to be a coalition is totally unbelievable and typical of the lies that continue to told.

“We respectfully point out,” read the letter, “that the opposition parties, who together constitute a majority in the House, have been in close consultation. We believe that, should a request for dissolution arise, this should give you cause, as constitutional practice has determined, to consult the opposition leaders and consider all of your options before exercising your constitutional authority.”

Read more at the National Post.

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$28B for Jets

As normal, the Conservative government has something to hide. According to Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page, the cost for the F-35 fighters will be about 28 billion dollars. That's just a lot higher than the Tories "estimate" of $9 billion. Here we find that the Tories are once again keeping secrets. Actually, that's a euphemism. Let me put it this way: they are lying. This is a lie that could affect Canadians for decades and we are talking about many billions of dollars. It's not fair to Canada for the Tories to keep lying like this.

OTTAWA — The federal government has grossly underestimated the cost of the F-35 fighter jet deal, according to a newly released report that suggests the controversial purchase will be nearly twice as much as initially thought. 

The report, by Canada's parliamentary budget officer, pegs the total cost of the stealth fighters over a period of 30 years, at more than $29 billion U.S. ($28.5 billion Cdn).

Read more at the Ottawa Citizen.

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Illegal Conservative Ads

Not only are the new Conservative ads unethical and lying, they are also illegal. Their new attack ads, while blowing things out of proportion and using out-of-context statements, also use file footage from CBC. The Tories did not ask permission to use the video. It's a requisite for the CBC to not provide this footage for political use.

Yet the Conservatives think that it is fair to use this footage without even having the decency to make a request. This kind of arrogance should not be tolerated. They are not entitled to use anything for the lies of attack ads they broadcast. The ads will backfire.

The CBC is demanding the Conservatives withdraw file footage from the national broadcaster that appears in new Tory ads targeting their political opponents.

Read more at the Globe and Mail. 

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Crazy Attack Ads

The Conservatives have launched new attack ads and they are full of false information and quotes taken out of context. There is much fear-mongering about the supposed "coalition," that Ignatieff supported, according to the Tories. Actually, it was he who disbanded it. The Liberals should run counter ads with the main message being "Canadians aren't dumb, Mr. Harper." The vast majority of people do not believe these lies and never will. This might very well be a waste of money for the Conservatives. Even worse, they might backfire.

The Conservatives can defend their new ads as accurate – provided that those who view them are among the most gullible folk who ever walked the Northern Hemisphere. For example, one ad notes that Michael Ignatieff favoured a carbon tax at one point. It forgets to mention that he has since disavowed a carbon tax.

Read more at the Globe and Mail.

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Keep our Airwaves Clean

The CRTC is proposing a change to the ban on broadcasting false news. This modification would allow false news to be broadcast except for the kind that "endangers or is likely to endanger the lives, health or safety of the public." The problem with such narrow specifications is that all other types of false news would be allowed. I could see a Fox-like SunTV News in the future, broadcasting false lies without any punishment. The ban on spreading lies through the media must be upheld by the CRTC.

OTTAWA — The CRTC is proposing a regulatory change that would give Canadian TV and radio stations more leeway to broadcast false or misleading news. 

Current regulations contain a blanket prohibition on broadcasting "any false or misleading news."

Read more at CTV.

Fox News: Misinformation

A study has come out by the University of Maryland on how misinformed voters are in the United States. It also recorded which were the primary news sources of each respondent. There were some instances where viewers of more left-wing news channels were misinformed, but many more were found on Fox News. Viewers of this so-called "fair and balanced" channel seem to believe false truths about Democrats.  Among others, they were 30 percentage points more likely to believe that "most scientists do not agree that climate change is occurring" and 31% more likely to believe that it is not clear whether Obama was born in the United States. And it was not a function of partisanship as Democrats who watched Fox News also were misinformed. True, spinning to the end, the senior vice president for news editorial said,

“The latest Princeton Review ranked the University of Maryland among the top schools for having ‘Students Who Study The Least’ and being the ‘Best Party School’ – given these fine academic distinctions, we’ll regard the study with the same level of veracity it was ‘researched’ with.”

And the Princeton Review then remarked that the University of Maryland was among the "Best Northeastern Colleges" and was actually nineteenth on the list of "Best Party Schools." No wonder Fox News viewers are misinformed. We do not need this in Canada.

News organizations can educate voters about public policy and economic conditions, but they can also misinform voters. As if to prove the point, a study released Friday found that “substantial levels of misinformation” seeped out to the electorate of the United States at the time of the midterm elections this year.

Read more at the New York Times. 

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Long Gun Registry is Cheap

The long gun registry doesn't actually cost as much as the Tories say it does. If we kill the long gun registry, there would be savings of only 1.5 million dollars annually. That's just over four cents per person per year! It's pretty obvious that we can afford to give up four cents in exchange for more safety. The numbers show that we only spend 11 million dollars each year on maintaining the whole firearms registry. In fact, licensing took up about 5/6 of the Canadian Firearms Centre's budget. Of course, the truth is now revealed. The gun registry does not actually cost billions of dollars to maintain, but only a bit over ten million. I think that is a fair price to pay for enhanced safety.

An independent cost-benefit analysis of Conservative legislation to kill the federal long-gun registry has found the public savings could amount to just over $1.5-million annually – and that there are only two good reasons to scrap the program.

One is a reduced burden on gun owners. The other is a lighter load for taxpayers.

Read more at the Globe and Mail.

No One Believes Them

A new poll released yesterday shows that when Harper says that his government is the only one that can help boost our economy, it has no effect on Canadians. In fact, the majority of those who answered the poll say that a change in government would have no effect on the Canadian economy. Only 30% think that a different government would be harmful. People do not believe the fear-mongering of the Conservatives. A Liberal government would be much better than a Conservative one. 

Harper government scare tactics warning a big-spending Liberal-NDP coalition government would mess up an already fragile economy is not working, according to a new poll.

Read more at the Globe and Mail.

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Horrible Lies

There is a lot of ruckus on the Internet about an editorial saying that Michael Ignatieff called the Winnipeg-North by-election race unfair because the Tory candidate is Filipino. The Blogging Tories had a field day! Now for the truth. This is a part of the transcript.

Media question: The race in Winnipeg North, there’s been some speculation that the Tories are running Julie Javier... because might siphon off Kevin Lamoureux’s strong Filipino vote allowing the NDP to win, what do you think of that speculation?

Michael Ignatieff: Let’s not insult the voters of Winnipeg North, let’s give them a real choice – the right choice is Kevin Lamoureux. Let’s have a straight-up fight. Let’s not have any political games here. Let’s give the voters of Winnipeg North a clear choice. Kevin Lamoureux has 20 years of public experience... Kevin Lamoureux is the kind of guy who goes down to McDonald’s and holds clinics to help citizens with their problems and he’s doing it for 20 years. He’s the kind of guy Winnipeg North needs in the House of Commons and everything else is a bunch of games and we’re not here to play games, we’re here to win.

He wasn't actually accusing the Tories of "playing dirty" as the editorial suggests, but defending the voters of the riding, saying that they are too smart for political games. I don't blame the Blogging Tories here, but I do blame the newspaper. And I will also say that the all-too-common assertion by the Blogging Tories that most of the media in Canada is left-wing is untrue. In this editorial's case, there are two possibilities: either somebody was asleep at the switch or this was a ploy to demean the Liberal candidate for the riding of Winnepeg-North. I think I'll go for the latter. I also urge all those who blogged about this editorial to have the decency to put an update out there for everybody to read.

They Continue Lying

The fiance minister of Canada Jim Flaherty has said "stay the course:" we might be in economic trouble. He even copied Harper in saying that our economy is too fragile for an election. The fact is that when Harper used this same trick last year an economist said that an election would have no effects on the economy. In fact I think that having an election that cost 300 million dollars is like  stimulus with all the rented rooms. The thing is that Flaherty is telling us that the only way to not have a double dip recession is that we have to support the government 100%, but there is another option the Liberal party has better more efficient way to keep us on track. We don't need to be told it is either the Conservatives or nothing, because we have a much better alternative.
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100921-710364.html

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Conservative Scare Tactics

Yesterday, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty started talking about a supposed opposition "coalition" to an audience expecting non-partisanship. Moreover, he urged the opposition parties to "rise above petty politics." I think I smell hypocrisy here. On the coalition issue, this is just a Tory scare tactic to make Canadians afraid of the Liberal Party. It has absolutely no truth to it whatsoever. The minister should stick to talking about the economy, and stop attacking opposition parties. That's for their attack ads to do.

"The Ignatieff-NDP-Bloc Quebecois tax hikes would not only jeopardize our recovery from the global recession. The coalition's policies would also squander our Canadian advantage, and limit our long-term prospects. They would set us on the same downward spiral other countries are now trying desperately to escape."

Flaherty's speech was delivered at a hotel just steps from Parliament Hill. Many of those in attendance were from the business community, although there were some Conservatives, including Guy Giorno, who is Harper's chief of staff.

Read more at the Ottawa Citizen.

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Another NDP Vote

Another NDP MP has decided to vote for the long gun registry! Another MP decides to vote for the safety of Canadians and saving lives. If my math is correct, we only need one more NDP vote to make sure the gun registry stays. This news comes as the Conservatives release another one of their famous attack ad campaigns. In the ads is said that the NDP MPs should vote with their constituents on this issue. The newest MP to change his vote responds accordingly.

“The majority (of people in his riding) … have said ‘we think at this point we should keep it and we want you to go work on it,’” Allen told the Star.

Besides, how about those Conservative MPs representing urban ridings in Ontario and Quebec? Are they voting with the views of the people in their riding? I didn't think so. Unfortunately for the NDP and rural Liberal MPs, the Tories are pretty good at making propaganda-filled attack ads with nonsense as its main subject. On the other hand, most of the country sees right through the right-wing spin and propaganda. In any case, the long gun registry should stay for good as it is an effective way of saving lives.

The embattled long-gun registry received support on Monday from another New Democrat MP.

Malcolm Allen, who represents the Ontario riding of Welland, said Monday he will join three other NDP colleagues in switching their votes when Tory backbencher Candice Hoeppner's private member's bill to repeal the registry comes to a vote in Parliament.

Read more at CBC.

Gun Registry Works

An RCMP audit has confirmed that the Canadian Firearms Program is working efficiently to save lives. This includes the long gun registry that is slated to be scrapped if a private members' bill passes in September. police chiefs support the long gun registry. Now, the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians says that the long gun registry saves lives. However, not needing fact to guide their decision, the Conservatives and some of the NDP will vote to scrap the long gun registry. The registry was costly to set up, but the lives saved from it are worth more than the money spent on it.

In the News

The following arguments were lifted from numerous pro-gun blogs and websites about the long-gun registry and little was changed except weapons were transformed into vehicles, bullets into car keys.

Read more at the Montreal Gazette.

OTTAWA — Emergency-room doctors across Canada, who often treat victims of gunshot wounds, are asking MPs to keep the long-gun registry because they believe it will save lives.

Read more at the Vancouver Sun.

OTTAWA — An internal RCMP audit concludes the Canadian Firearms Program is operating effectively, efficiently and accountably, and the report makes no mention of massive cost overruns and bungling that plagued the contentious federal gun registry before the national police force assumed management of it.

Read more at the National Post.

Again lies from Harper.

In the fall of last year Ignatieff said he was going to try to bring down the government. Harper said that an Election would hurt the economies recovery. Although many economist say that an election doesn't really hurt a recovery that much. Now Harper said again that the Economy is too fragile for a useless election. The thing is elections actually help the economy. With all the buying of paper for flyer's and posters, renting empty spaces for speeches headquarters and the construction of election headquarters for TV stations. All of those actually help the economy, but to be fair if there was a budget being proposed that failed then there was an election all legislation would be delayed. Now 5 weeks is not that bad , and with all the spending on the election, and after the cleaning of all the areas the economy would be fine waiting 5 weeks. It is not like noting is being done in these 5 weeks a election unlike proroguing Parliament does help the economy.

Read more here

BP cover up work

On Friday, there was about 400 workers on the golf coast cleaning up the gulf, but after a few hours, there was just 20 people. The only difference between these two points of the day was that Obama came to visit. This is just a new low for BP. They just bring people in so that they can show the president what a good job they are doing. Only when Obama leaves, do they stop cleaning up. This is just disgraceful to the people of thee gulf coast that the only reason stuff was getting done was because Obama came to visit. This is where government could get involved in cleaning up this oil spill. There should be govermnet workers over seeing all the projects and the workers, so that the Gulf coast could always get this Presidential treatment.

Early Friday morning, "a number of buses brought in approximately 300 to 400 workers that had been recruited all week," Jefferson Parish Councilman Chris Roberts told CNN's "Situation Room."

But, when Obama departed, so did the workers, he said, adding that he's never seen more than 20 workers at the Grand Isle cleanup site since the effort started.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/28/gulf.oil.spill.bp/index.html