Quebec Arena: Harper Loses

No matter what his decision is on funding a Quebec City arena for a rebirth of the Quebec Nordiques, Harper will lose. If he funds the hockey arena, he will be accused of using this funding as a fake campaign for his party. He would also be prompted to fund many other pro sports lieus across the country. But, Harper is looking only to gain votes in Quebec. However, if he refuses the other cities' proposals, he risks being seen as buying votes in Quebec. But, if he doesn't fund the project, he will lose a lot of votes in Quebec and would be hard for him on his goal of getting a majority. Pork-barrel politics has put the Harper government in another dilemma from which they will lose either way.

The notion of federal funding for a state-of-the-art hockey arena in Quebec City is a textbook case of desperate politics and bad policy. By flirting aggressively with the idea of forking out tens of millions of public dollars to finance the project, Stephen Harper and his Conservatives have manoeuvred themselves into a lose-lose position.

Read more at the Toronto Star.

We can keep the registry

Now a 3rd MP in the NDP has said that they will switch there vote to keep the registry. The rest of the NDP can push themselves to save lives by voting to keep the gun registry. The conservatives are whipping the vote for the bill, and the Bloc and Liberals are whipping agsinst the bill. While the NDP will be having a free vote that allows the party MP to vote freely. the The Liberals predict that 149 will vote to save the registry while 152 will vote to get ride of the registry. That leaves 7 NDP votes undicided. No less than 6 people need to vote agaisnt the bill to save the registry. Some say unless the NDP whip the vote agaisnt the bill the registry will die. I think if Jack Layton keeps pushing, and if Micheal Ignatieff continues the pressure we can keep the registry without whipping the NDP vote. It is crucial that we keep the registry to save lives.

Read more here

The Quebec Tea Party?

A new group has been formed in Quebec called the Réseau Liberté Québec. It is a right-wing group devoted to a right-wing movement in Quebec. This is a good idea in essence, to make the debate in Quebec between right-wing and left-wing parties, not federalist and sovereigntist parties. But, this just seems like another right-wing propaganda group meant to brainwash the population into supporting right-wing parties. Unsurprisingly, this is backed by Kory Teneyke, one of the key members of the new Sun TV News, the Fox News North. I've already seen Fox News and it is totally horrible! In conclusion, these right-wing organisations can often be found to be spreading propaganda. On that note sign the petition to stop Sun TV here.

For now they’re just a small band of libertarians seeking to replace the sovereigntist-versus-federalist divide in Quebec with a new brand of political confrontation between the right and the left.

They call themselves Réseau Liberté Québec, or the Quebec Freedom Network, and could be considered Quebec’s version of the right-wing populist Tea Party in the United States.

Read more at the Globe and Mail.

Koran burining on 9/11 Cancelled

A pastier in Florida on the 9th anniversary of 9/11 planned to burn the Koran. Now Peter Mackay, Hilliary Clinton,Aglina Jolie,Colin powell,Stephen Harper and Barack Obama have all said that it is wrong and is asking him not too.The risk of backlash in the world by terrorist groups was a main concern of this event.Clinton I think had the right reaction to say that this pastier in rural Florida with less than 50 people who come to his church is getting too much attention. I don't know why he is getting all this attention. This Pastier Then canceled the event only because he was told that the Islamic center in ground zero will be moved. This is the right thing to do for the wrong reasons. Because there is nothing wrong with having an islamic center in NYC. I think that he should have stoped the event because it was wrong, but instead he continues discrimination agaisnt Islam in another way. By wanting the Islamic center moved he supports the thinking that 9/11 was the fault of all muslims. That is wrong and we shouldn't look at Islam with one braud brush.

Gun Registry Loser

According to Robert Silver, the Conservatives could actually be the real losers if the long gun registry is dismantled. His argument is that this is one of the issues that bring in a lot of money for the Tories. If this bill passes, the donors will not feel pressed to give so much money. This could make for a weaker Conservative Party. However, I hope this bill does not pass. The long gun registry is an important part of saving lives. We must keep it.

There has been much ink spilled over the last month, while I was away on special assignment for Silver-Powers, about the conundrum that Jack Layton finds himself in over the gun registry. If, as expected, the Liberal caucus votes unanimously against the "private member's bill" currently before the House (which might as well be a government bill) and Stephen Harper's caucus votes unanimously to gut it, the vote will come down to a divided NDP caucus.

Read more at the Globe and Mail.