I Need A Million!

John Baird helped out the Canadian Federation of Chabad Lubavitch by helping them get 1 million dollars in federal money. The money that went to Chabad was out of a program to increase accessibility of disabled people. The expansion project that Chabad will be building is claimed to also include accessibility to disabled people. The application for this project was send by an Ottawa rabbi that is apparently Baird's friend and constituent.

The application that the Canadian organization sent to Ottawa was one of 355 application. Only 5 received federal funding. Of the 355 projects proposed this particular one got a very low grading. In fact the rating was so low that it didn't qualify except John Baird jumped in with the help of the minister of human resources to get this project 1 million dollars. 

This is plain wrong. Organizations should only receive money from a program if they are the best applicants for that money. No matter what the application that shows is most worthy to get the money. The same goes for a job. The best and most qualified person should get the job. No MP or Minister should be able to jump in and say who should get this money. This is the people's money that is being mismanaged (to be polite).

This is nothing new! Tony Clement spend millions of dollars on his riding during the G8 and G20 summit that had nothing to do with the actual conference, and don't even get me started on the 2 million dollar fake lake. 

So since the Conservative seem to be giving money to just about anyone may I kindly ask the government for 1 million dollars. I promise to spend some of it to make my house wheel chair accessible.

Read more here

Sleep all You Want, But Don't Cut!

Well the story says it all for itself. A Conservative MP sleeps at a committee session on veterans. Now before you bash the Conservative sleeping and saying that he doesn't care about veterans I think it is important to know that we have all sleepy moments. I just last Friday night slept way too early and forgot to post something on the blog for Yesterday. It doesn't mean I don't care about my readers.Now the MP denies the claim that he slept  and quite honestly I don't care. The fact that are media continues to talk about pointless topics is really getting on my nerves. I mean even if he did sleep in the committee so what? He may have been tired or worked to late the night before. The point is we don't know so don't judge. But what I do know is the conservative party has done questionable acts against our veterans. They have proposed budget cuts to veterans affairs which created protest all over the country. So Sleeping in parliament doesn't mean you don't support veterans, but we will see what Rob Anders really thinks in the spring budget. If the spring budget includes cuts to veterans benefits and Rob votes for it then we will know for sure what support he has for our veterans.

Read more here

Opposition to Harper: Nonexistant

Who will rise this year to challenge Stephen Harper, to oppose him credibly? There might be many credible attacks on the Conservatives in 2012, but the no one will be listening. There was a reason the Tories received a majority government in May: so that Canadians would not have to hear about politics for another four years.

Besides that, the Liberals are too busy rebuilding to oppose him for a good while and the New Democrats still have a couple of months before they choose their leader. Unless the Tories make a huge mistake, the political landscape should stay as is: calm and placid.

Who will emerge to provide tough, credible opposition to Stephen Harper in 2012? 

Harper enters the year with a majority in the House of Commons, a majority on the Supreme Court of Canada and an even greater majority in the Senate, with Friday’s appointment of seven more loyal Conservatives pledging fealty to the leader.

Read more at the Toronto Star.

Let Quebec Pay

The federal government is not only going to destroy the long gun registry, but is going to destroy all the data too. However, Quebec wants to keep the registry and maintain it on its own. They are willing to foot the bill as long as it gets the data.

Why not let them? If Quebec is willing to pay to keep the registry, then the Conservatives should let them. Getting rid of the data is just pigheadedness and unwillingness to arrive at a compromise. If Quebec believes, as do I in the benefits of the long gun registry, then we should be able to pay and keep it for ourselves without the federal government behaving like a baby.

The federal government is undermining Quebec’s ability to create its own long-gun registry by refusing to hand over the data that would allow it to do so, the province’s Public Security Minister says. 

Robert Dutil was in Ottawa Thursday in a bid to convince the government not to destroy the data when it passes a bill to end the registry.

Read more at the Globe and Mail. 

Rick Mercer Thank You

Rick Mercer has outdone himself now. He ranted about the money the Finance minister is spending to try and cut government spending. 20 million dollars to find out how to cut spending. 90,000 dollars a day!

Rick Mercer is right Martin balanced a 43 billion dollar structural deficit in 4 years. Harper has taken the 13 billion Martin left him and brought us into deficit even before the recession. Better than giving Martin a call like Rick suggested. Why don't we kick out Harper and get back to the fiscal responsibility of the Liberal party.

Ontario Has a choice

Ontario on October 6th has a choice they can vote for Hudack who will hurt health care in the province. Hudack will be a sell out to Harper in 2014 on the health accord. Hudack would cancel corporation deals that are going to create thousands of jobs. Hudack would eliminate the Green energy policies that would create more clean energy for Ontario. The Liberal party of Ontario has done good choices for Ontario. They simplified the tax code by creating the HST, and over ten years the HST will create 591,000 jobs. The Liberal party is on the right track to making the energy grid of the province more green. David Suzuki even supports his green plan. The Liberal party of Ontario won't sell out to Harper in 2014. The Liberal party of Ontario has done a good job creating jobs in the province. This year Ontario created more jobs then the rest of Canada combined. The Liberal party is going to reduce tuition by 30%. What have the NDP proposed? they are like the Republicans of the U.S always voting no, and just waiting for power. The NDP voted against the stimulus that has created many jobs in Ontario. The NDP you would think support Green jobs, but they are going to cut Green jobs. David Suzuki says her plan is more about getting political power than doing what's right. On October 6th Ontario has a choice. They can go with the Job killing agenda of Hudack,the Job killing agenda of Horwath or the Job creating record of Dalton Mcguinty. Ontario can go with Hudack's non priced budget or the fiscal responsibility Mcguinty is proposing of eliminating the deficit. Ontario can chose the NDP and PC terrible plan for the environment, or we can go with the plan David Suzuki calls "An example to the rest of the world." Ontario has a choice and the polls show they might chose what is the best for the province.

Elections almost here!

Today is October 3rd and the first big test's for all the political parties on the provincial stage. First up is today in PEI. It seems that the Liberals will grab this province, but the question is will they be able to fully eliminate the Conservatives out of office. The Conservatives only need one seat in the province to be considered an official party, another test will be is the Green's in the province can grow there numbers, and if the NDP can get more votes than the Greens in the province. In 2007 the Greens got 3% and the NDP got 2%.Also today is the territorial election in NWT, but there is no provincial Liberals, Conservatives or NDP in the province. So hard to read anything from that election about federal politics, but I will still be watching it.

 On October 4th the day after those two elections Manitoba will be having it's election. It seems that it could be tied in votes. The last to polls had both NDP and PC very close to each other, but that doesn't seem to matter , because it seems that the NDP are going to get a majority government either way. I say the test here for the NDP isn't to win a majority government which it looks like it's going to get, but whether it can still get more votes province wide than the PC. For us I say are test is to try and get the same support if not grow from last election and keep the current seats we have. It doesn't seem we have much to gain here. If the Greens get the 4% they are polled it will be a win for them considering last time they got 1%.

Then it's the big prize of Ontario. The test for the Liberals is to maintain a majority government. Right now they are polling quite even with the PC, but in seats the projections have the Liberals at the border of a majority. The PC test will be if they can get more votes than the Liberals, and more importantly if they can put the Liberals down to a minority, but it won't matter I don't think the NDP will prop Hudack. The NDP there big test is today. in no other election are they going to make more gains. Last time they got 10 seats right now if they can get the 25% of the vote like they gor in the federal election just some month ago they will prove that there power hasn't diminished quite yet.

It seems the Tories aren't going to win anything. In PEI it looks like they will be swept away. In Manitoba they might get the exact same as the last time around. In Ontario what seemed to be a slam duck for them is now a big major upset by the Liberals. It seems all the incumbents will get another chance at the bat.

Scary is Governing with Ignorance

It's been blogged about again and again, but that is because it's so stupid and at the same time, scary. With their majority government, the Tories are looking to spearhead an omnibus "tough on crime" bill to increase jail time among other things. Crime prevention will be cut in favour of these measures. You'd think that the Conservatives would pretend to be working with the latest statistics, to agree with the facts. Nope!

“We’re not governing on the basis of the latest statistics,” said our Justice Minister Rob Nicholson. So, we have a government that is admitting to governing with ignorance. That is: ignoring the latest facts and statistics, ignoring evidence and putting in measures that have been proven to be counter-productive. And not only does this not work, but wastes our money at the same time. The facts are clear; let's not ignore them.

“We’re not governing on the basis of the latest statistics,” federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said this week. “We’re governing on the basis of what’s right to better protect victims and law-abiding Canadians.”

Read more at the Globe and Mail. 

PC over Promising.

In PEI the PC's in the province who are losing terribly in the polls are trying to gain support promising something that PEI can't afford. The Pc leader Olive Crane said if elected she would reduce the P.S.T in the province from 10% to 9%.

"For a one percentage change, it means there is $20 million available to invest in Islanders. And, as you know … Islanders can make good choices with their dollars," said Crane.

And although reducing the P.S.T in the province would help the economy no doubt I think she neglects to mention that P.E.I has a deficit of 42 million. The Liberals in the province are trying to reduce the deficit and eliminate it under there projection by 2013. It seems yet again that the Liberals are the fiscally responsible one's and the Tories wants to continue to use money they don't have.

read more here

Conservative Majority

The counts are in and the Conservatives are already at 140 seat mark. We haven't even hit the West yet and the Conservatives have pulled into a commanding lead. The Liberals have collapsed and the NDP seem like they are going to be the Official Opposition with Quebec going orange.

I'm ready to call this in favour of a Conservative majority. Congratulations, Stephen Harper, on finally obtaining your majority.

Tories Muzzle Voters

The Tories do not want you to vote. In fact, they will go as far as trying to declare your vote null and void. This was demonstrated this week when the Conservatives wrote Elections Canada to have advanced votes from University of Guelph students not allowed.

The Tories' argument is that the voting station was not authorized and therefore, the votes should not be allowed. They're right, but why should students be penalized for mistakes made by the officer in charge. They were just trying to get a better chance of winning the riding by annulling 700 votes by students who would most likely vote Liberal or NDP. It is not right to be doing this and even they realize it. After they made their initial complaint, Guy Giorno then said that it was OK to let the votes through.

THORNHILL—All party leaders are urging voters — especially young voters — to turn out in droves to cast a ballot on May 2. 

But only one party appears to have an interest in driving down the participation of 18-to-24-year-olds in this campaign, says an expert on youth voting patterns. And now the Conservative Party is facing an allegation of election tampering after trying to have 700 votes cast by students earlier this week at the University of Guelph declared null and void.

Read more at the Toronto Star.

Related articles

• Ignatieff hammers Tories for challenging Guelph student ballot (theglobeandmail.com)
• Tories want U of Guelph votes discounted (macleans.ca)

Cuts to the Wrong Things

The Tories have come out with their platform. It is not really that bad, but there is one thing that bothers me. How can they support billion-dollar tax cuts for wealthy corporations, billions for F-35s and other stupid spending while cutting on 80 000 civil servants. And that's only what they say they're cutting. The Canadian Labour Congress estimates that it will require cutting even more government programs to fund their platform. How very convenient for the Conservatives to suddenly have to come up with extra money. You can say bye-bye to the CBC. The Tories are not telling us what they really want to do and if they get elected, it will be too late.

KITCHENER—The Conservatives are planning billions of dollars worth of spending cuts in a campaign pledge to eliminate the deficit a year ahead of schedule and deliver a $6.6 billion platform of tax cuts and modest investments. 

The platform, unveiled Friday in Mississauga, drew applause from right-wingers and fiscal conservatives, but warnings from the left about the size and targets of the spending cuts, despite Stephen Harper’s vow not to axe entire programs.

Read more at the Toronto Star.

Related articles

• Tories pledge to slash $4 B in spending to balance books (canada.com)
• Corporate tax cuts don't spur growth, analysis reveals as election pledges fly (theglobeandmail.com)

It's "Normal" not to be Treated Equally

Larry Smith, the Conservative candidate for Lac-Saint-Louis has no chance at winning whatsoever. Maybe that's why he said that it's "normal" for Tory ridings to receive more cash than other ridings. This is called pork-barrel spending. Bringing money to purely Conservative ridings. Unfortunately, that is all true. The Tories used the G8/G20 double summit as an excuse to send money to Tony Clement's riding for no good reason. Larry Smith thinks it's "normal" not to be treated equally. It's time to send a wake-up call to the Conservatives and boot them out of government.

It is "normal" for Conservative ridings to receive more cash from Ottawa than those with opposition MPs, a high-profile Tory candidate in Quebec said Thursday. 

Larry Smith, a former CFL commissioner now running for the Conservatives in Montreal, said it is part of the political process for governments to be favourable to their supporters.

Read more at CBC.

Related articles

• Larry Smith, Quote Machine (macleans.ca)
• Tory policies unpopular in Montreal riding: Liberals (ctv.ca)

We Will Suffer Because of Our Environment

We have not taken care of the environment and we will soon pay the price. The Tories have no intention of lowering our greenhouse gas emissions, not even to fulfill our feeble target. Water pollution is rampant around the country because of weak regulation. The resource of life will become scarce in the future and we must protect it.

None of the three main parties have good environmental platforms. However, the Conservatives are the worst. If we elect that government again, quality of life will diminish thanks to the poor environment. Only the Liberals can boot the Conservatives out of power and only the Liberals can improve (maybe not greatly) Canada's environmental policy.

Canada’s failure to do enough to protect the environment could jeopardize its citizens’ long-term quality of life, warns a report from an organization that measures the nation’s wellbeing. 

“We are not yet in crisis, but the warning signs are clearly evident. The need for more monitoring is very clear,” says Roy Romanow, chair of the advisory board of the Canadian Index of Wellbeing.

Read more at the Toronto Star.

Related articles

• Environment minister vows to stay course (thestar.com)
• Wall weighs in on Liberal CO2 plan (cbc.ca)

Stop Spying on Us!

The Liberal Party has released two slick videos (English and French) on how the Conservatives kicked people out of their rallies. Stephen Harper has apologized for doing this, but there is more to this issue. The reason why students were kicked out of his rally is Facebook monitoring. The Tories screened people's Facebook pages and saw that they had pictures with Michael Ignatieff, Jack Layton or a member of another federal party. This characterizes the attitude towards Canadians. It is not right to spy on us.

Related articles

• Harper apologizes for campaign-rally ejections (theglobeandmail.com)
• Election 2011: Strong leaders don't hide from young voters (fullcomment.nationalpost.com)

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.

Related articles

• Harper forced to explain Conservatives' rally rules after students tossed (windsorstar.com)
• Harper shrugs off accusations his campaign is being anti-democratic (thestar.com)

Tories Copy Again

The latest Tory ad came out yesterday. This tries to portray Stephen Harper as a great leader. Thankfully for the Liberals, we can compare this with a Tea Party governor ad. It seems strikingly similar. This also reminded me of a video the Liberals put out three years ago, during the 2008 election. The earlier video compares Harper's speech in favor of sending Canadian troops to Iraq to John Howard's speech. Here are the two videos.

Related articles

• Tories accused of following Tea Partier's script in triumphant new ad (theglobeandmail.com)

The Conservative Campaign of Control

Was this really necessary? Stephen Harper has taken another step in his campaign to control everything. On Sunday, a woman was booted out of a rally for the Tories because she had "ties" to the Liberal Party. By this, the Conservatives meant that this political science student had a Facebook photo with Michael Ignatieff.

The actual action of kicking someone out doesn't make any sense, but why in the first place were the Conservatives screening the Facebook page of people attending their rallies. Some would call it a fair security measure. I call it intrusive and some would go as far as to call it spying. Stephen Harper is trying to run a perfect campaign and this is a gaffe that happens when the need to control everything gets out of hand. I predict that it will be this control-campaign by Stephen Harper and the open campaign by Michael Ignatieff that will be the defeat of Harper's majority hopes.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff is accusing Conservative Leader Stephen Harper of performing more rigorous background checks on people showing up at his campaign events than advisers he hires in the Prime Minister's Office. 

Ignatieff's verbal jab at Harper comes after reports the Conservatives threw two university students out of a Conservative rally in London, Ont., on the weekend.

Read more at CBC.

Related articles

• Stephen Harper's own private audience (II) (macleans.ca)
• Ejections at campaign rallies a ‘staff’ issue, Harper says (theglobeandmail.com)

Harper will Scrap the Gun Registry

That is what he promised. If Harper gets a majority, it will be impossible to stop him from killing the gun registry. But, it's more than just that. If you think that the Tories are really governing the way they want to, then think again. Just read the Blogging Tories any day. A Harper majority would mean less government transparency, more private health care, layoffs of many civil servants, higher tuitions, environmental destruction.

There is no way in the world the Conservatives governed as they wanted to in this minority government. The gun registry will be only one of the cornerstones of what we call Canada to go if Harper gets his majority.

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper is again promising to eliminate Canada's long-gun registry. 

"When it comes to the wasteful and inefficient long-gun registry, you know where the Conservative party stands. We stand with farmers and hunters and we will scrap the long-gun registry," Harper told a group in Welland, Ont., Monday.

Read more at CBC.

Related articles

• Majority won’t spur change on abortion or same-sex marriage, Harper says (theglobeandmail.com)

There is No Need for Fighter Jets

There is no need for Canada to invest $30 billion for 65 F-35 fighter jets. We simply do not need them. Stephen Harper and his cronies keep saying that we must buy them to protect our Arctic from the Russians. The truth is, in this day and age, the Russians are very unlikely to attack Canada. These fighter jets were made for the 20th century cold war, not for modern Canada. Besides, even if the Russians were to launch an air attack against Canada, there is no way that 65 fighters would stand a chance against the massive Russian air force.

The F-35 deal is a complete waste of money. There are better ways to spend $30 billion, like the Liberals have made clear in their platform. Instead, Liberals will spend on education, senior care, family care, pensions and more. Stuff that will help Canadians, instead of shiny new toys for the military. It's time to vote Liberal and stop the spending spree gone out of control.

What man-child can resist a fighter jet? Nothing so infuses the male psyche with self-wow than a $75 million — or $150 million, if you prefer — stealthy, supersonic flying machine with four-barrel cannons, bombs, missiles and built-in video system.

Read more at the Toronto Star.

Related articles

• Does Canada need next-generation stealth fighter jets? (theglobeandmail.com)