Harper Hillbillies . . .

BRAD FRASER has a Facebook Wall picture he'd like to share with you, and of which he says:

Ladies and gentleman, I give you the true image of our current government. Featuring Stephen Harper as Jed, Jason Kenney as Miss Jane, Ramir Jaffer as Mr Drysdale, Vic Toews as Granny, John Baird as Jethro and Helena Guergis as Ellie May. Conceived by me and put together by the brilliant DC Hillier. Please distribute this image far and wide. Let it become the photo that defines Harper's Hillbillies.

John Baird as Jethro? Sure, now we have Jethro Baird. Works for me.

It's November

And in November is when someone pulls the pin. It's when the hillbillies in Harper's office get caught with their pants around their knees. Something happens that they weren't prepared for and they have to resort to drastic measures to save their own asses.

It is now tradition. Harper will do something to further erode the conventions of Canadian democracy to serve his own needs. We are in very real peril of having some bloody-minded little prick like Harper turn Parliament into the Government's whore.

This past week, it was the unelected Conservative senators audaciously killing a climate-change bill passed by a clear majority of elected MPs in the House of Commons. 

The week before, it was Prime Minister Stephen Harper, with tacit agreement from the Liberals, deciding to bypass the Commons in any debate over extending Canada's troop commitment in Afghanistan — a decision that itself flew in the face of a Commons vote to end the mission in 2011.

Real democracy taking a real hit from a real autocrat.
Harper, who only came to govern on a backlash punishment vote, all the while promising to diminish the limited influence of the Senate, has turned the upper house he claimed to despise into a weapon against the voters and representative authority.

And he's not done yet.

This is the time of year when the political animals running the endless Harper campaign from the PMO miss something or miscalculate and event. At that point, any shred of democracy standing in the way of their retaining power is trampled by the scramble to retain power. Government runs for the bunker in hopes of avoiding a pasting. Twice now, that has involved shutting the doors of this country's representative assembly.

I predict it will happen again. What will be the issue the gamers in the PMO have missed while stuffing their faces with cheese puffs?

Ahhh. There's one now. A showdown the Harper/Soudas gang didn't see coming.

It's November. Prorogue is in the air.

(h/t Scott)

Steve gets mad and goes off the page

Then starts making comments which make no sense.



Furthermore, he and his band of hillbillies are lying about the ramifications of withdrawing from the future purchase of the F-35 Lightning II. We haven't signed a contract yet and we won't until 2013.

Harper's yapping coincides, coincidentally, with a pressurized sales push by Lockheed Martin's F-35 programme general manager, Tom Burbage.

Industrial participation by international partners in the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme could be affected if firm commitments to buy the aircraft are delayed or amended, Tom Burbage, the general manager and executive vice president for the F-35 programme, warned on 17 August.

Canada entered into the development stage without any commitment to buy and Burbage knows it. This is arm twisting on the part of LM.

Burbage told Jane's that the eight international partner nations - Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Turkey and the UK - were "still soft on production schedules".

Soft? The Netherlands and Denmark actually cancelled their plans at one point and only re-instituted them after... pressure from Lockheed Martin.

The countries mentioned by Burbage are facing hobbled economies and soaring deficits. Harper has been right in amongst those other countrys' leaders expounding the virtues of curbing those deficits and getting "their" house in order.

And they intend to. Britain, which is building two larger aircraft carriers is now looking at slowing or entirely eliminating one of them. Along with the reduction in seaborne deck space comes an obvious reduction in the need for aircraft. Word is hemorrhaging out of Whitehall that the Brits will cancel the F-35B STOVL which they helped develop and go with a cheaper standard carrier launch version instead. That will drive the cost of the F-35B upward - for the American buyers - the US Marine Corps.

Burbage and Lockheed Martin will be panicking. The "soft" countries still have a way to go before they finalize any agreement to purchase. Most are still questioning their future needs and have not gone beyond the development agreement. Announcements, like Canada's, have indicated a preference and the waving around of some money. What Burbage would like is a solid deal, something he's not likely to get until the final price tag can be nailed down. So he pops this out:

"There is a sort of a gentleman's agreement in this game that ties industrial participation to buying airplanes," said Burbage.

"Industrial participation is all going on today in advance of anyone making a formal decision to buy an airplane."

"If, at some point in time, somebody says we are not going to buy any airplanes, that puts us in a pretty difficult situation, so there is a trust factor, sort of a partnership factor, that goes along with being part of the programme," he said.

Sounds familiarly like what Harper is attempting to shovel onto the field. It's also bullshit. Lockheed Martin called for international industrial participation without commitments to buy. Gentleman's agreements don't work in multi-billion dollar programmes. If they had required commitments from participants it should have been spelled out in print.

This is where Harper is finding himself in a bind. Commitment from all partners is starting to waver. The Dutch have ordered a total of two aircraft for testing and the British, three. Along with everyone else they are looking at ways to trim their fiscal deficits and big defence equipment purchases are high on the list of things to cut-back. Saab still has a sales push going on with both The Netherlands and Denmark to sell them Grippens over the F-35 - and the Dutch and Danes have not told them to go away.

Harper's yapping has as much to do with trying to keep the F-35 development partners on a buying spree as it does trying to sell Canadians on an aircraft they have not had a chance to evaluate or debate. He can prattle on all he wants that "allies would be angry" if Canada put a hold on the F-35 purchase. In fact, they might be relieved at such a move. If Canada withdrew it would drive the price per unit so high that the Europeans would also withdraw and go shopping elsewhere - closer to home.

Harper is scrambling to keep the European commitment to the F-35 strong. If those partners pull out, (and there is every indication that at least one of them will), the price of the F-35 is going to go up. Way up. For everybody, including the Americans.

Do you get it now?

A great post on the lies being peddled by Harper and crowd is over at Impolitical. Must read.

My people. My enemy.

The latest installment of the Harper party "Father Knows Best" endless onslaught to pull the chain on the rights guaranteed with Canadian citizenship.

The Harper government is bracing for a backlash over a border security agreement it is negotiating with the United States, anticipating it will spark worries about eroding sovereignty and privacy rights, a document obtained by The Globe and Mail shows.

Yes, and here's a little kicker.

“The Canadian public may underestimate the security threat to Canada,” the communication plan says.

On the other hand (that is "economist-speak") the threat to the United States is a dilemma of that country's own making. Not necessarily something any other country would be wise to buy into.

Of course, it would be really handy if the Harper hillbillies in Ottawa would take the time to articulate their assessment, real or imagined, of the "security threat" we are all supposedly underestimating. So far all we've ever seen or heard from the mandarins of the security establishment is paranoid musings of how grassroots defence of personal freedom gets in the way of creating a more powerful security establishment.

Actually, I got ahead of myself. They have clearly identified the threats to their security.

The communication strategy labels [federal privacy commissioner] Ms. [Jennifer] Stoddart as a “high risk” stakeholder who will “raise concerns re: information sharing and protecting private information.” It also anticipates criticism from civil rights groups and others such as Council of Canadians chairwoman Maude Barlow.

Got that? High risk. An officer of parliament.
Salient point:

The Canadian government is refusing to discuss the negotiations ...

You may begin to understand the problem. There is a threat, but they won't tell you what it is, except to tell you that the people appointed to protect the rights and privacy of citizens are a part of that threat. OK. Let's discuss it for them. In keeping with the spirit of the approaching season.
Greg has more.

The Harper hillbillies, hard at work. Updated

First you read this.

Over the past four years, the Harper government has mocked, ignored or fired almost everyone it has in place to provide guidance on the most complex issues that Canada needs to address.

From the firing of the head of the Nuclear Safety Commission and the watchdogs of the RCMP and military, the national science adviser and Canada's chief electoral officer, to mocking the parliamentary budget officer and members of the diplomatic corps, to attacking the judiciary, charities and human rights groups, there is barely an expert in Ottawa who hasn't been marginalized or disrespected by this government.

Taking note of this.

This government's plan to get out of deficit seems to be to get out of governing. Only the Corrections ministry is expected to see a significant increase in government involvement, growing to $3.128 billion from its current $2.267 billion -- a 36 per cent increase -- by the 2012-14 budget year.

If it is one thing you know the Harperites will build, it is jails. Call it a housing initiative if you're a mouth-breathing, mono-synaptic, Manning Centre operative.

Now go read Impolitical.

UPDATE: Impolitical doesn't have a comment section so I'll put this here. Down at the bottom of her piece is a reference to a Calgary Herald opinion column... written by one Susan Martinuk in which she discusses "confidential" documents... which nobody else ever gets to see.

Of course it's convenient and, well, an attempt at respectability since it's the Calgary Herald and all. Except that Martinuk is a contributor at one of the Harper screech machines (Proud To Be Canadian featuring wanker Joel Johannesen) in the company of none other than Ann Coulter, Doug Giles, Mike Adams and a host of others who would have been better left on the mountain-top with a pack of hungry wolves.

In short, Martinuk is full of shit.

The blazing fury of a reseated parliament...

Given the extended and expensive time given to stolen from taxpayers by the Harper Party to "recalibrate" themselves you might have expected every moment spent in Parliament to simply drip with drama. Private members' bills might have a tough time surviving given the need to reintroduce a huge amount of the Harper agenda killed by proroguing and running for the nearest safe corner.

Yet, at 1:35 PM this past Friday Harper Party member and MP for Stormont-Glengarry-Dundas, Guy Lauzon, introduced a motion regarding the Canadian Navy. A private member's bill.

Ships? Increased operations? Better rotation for overstretched crews?

You wish. (At least if you're in the Navy.)

Lauzon had something else on his mind. Uniforms; naval uniforms; naval officers' uniforms; specifically that little loop on the braid of our rank insignia we used to call, "Elliot's Eye".

I am very honoured to speak in the House today to my private member's motion, Motion No. 459, which would introduce the executive curl on the navy uniforms.

40 years after it was removed from the braid, the Conservative "recalibrated" government of Steve Harper, took valuable time in the House to have a motion passed which would have Elliot's Eye re-established on Canadian naval officers' uniforms.

Just don't be in the navy and ask the Conservatives for a new ship, even if they promised it in the past. And the featherweight waste of time didn't go unnoticed.

(Robert Oliphant, Don Valley West) I have some concerns, however. At some point, the hon. member might want to comment on why, with all the issues in Cornwall and the surrounding area, this one has grabbed his attention when that particular community is facing some very significant economic, tourism and other development issues that could the subject of a very serious members' business procedure. I say that because I am somewhat jealous of the hon. member actually getting precedence to be able to present a piece of business. It is rare, because members can often wait six, eight or ten years to have a bill or a motion come to full debate.

The issues in Cornwall and the surrounding area are significant. I am wondering why the member did not take on the issue of contraband cigarettes, perhaps, and the effect they are having on children and youth across the country and very directly in his community on relations with first nations communities. That is of concern to me. Also, I wonder whether or not he had thought about asking his government to appoint a mediator to work on the longstanding dispute between the Canada Border Services Agency and the Akwesasne Nation. Perhaps it is time that the member steps up to the plate to work for his constituents on that very important issue of the reputation of his community, which has been tarnished over these last several months.

The motion the member has presented is rather weak tea. It simply requests that the government consider reinstating a piece of embroidery on a uniform, which is not to denigrate whatsoever the support we give to our troops and our veterans, which is unanimous in this caucus. What we are pushing for, instead, is for the hon. member to address the other important economic social and cultural issues that he has responsibility to stand up and talk about in the House.

This bunch of hillbillies just keeps getting better, don't they? Words in a song; braid on a uniform. I can hardly wait for recipe swapping hour.

While we're pretending that the only thing important enough to address in Parliament is buttons and bows on the uniforms of our sailors, Lauzon might be taken to task for his failure to acknowledge the lower deck of the senior service.

It's all well and good to serve the Harper Party purposes by introducing ( and having carried) a motion which gives the Naval Officers' Association of Canada a reason for a wet dream, but what about the folks who do all the heavy lifting? If we're going to create a distinctive separation of our naval officers from their army and air force kinfolk then it is only courtesy that it should extend to the messdecks. In that regard, I expect to see another motion changing the rank badges of the real troops.

Petty Officer 1st Class (equivalent to senior Warrant Officer)
Petty Officer 2nd Class (equivalent to senior Sergeant)
Leading Hand (equivalent to Master Corporal/Corporal)

While we're at it, why don't we reintroduce good conduct badges? Nothing like confusing everybody and getting downright British about it. Let's face it the average Canadian doesn't know whether their punched, bored or blown out with a 4.7 inch high-elevation gun.

Yes, for those who know, I've left out CPO 2nd Class and CPO 1st Class because honestly, every time I wiped my nose with my sleeve, those extra buttons always gave me a nose-bleed.

Before you head out shopping today ...

Pig-in-a-Poke

And, if you're thinking of doing some seasonal shopping, in most places across the country you'll want to do it today and not leave it until tomorrow. The weather, in many places, is going to deteriorate, later in the day.

The west coast can expect a 995 millibar Low to move into Vancouver Island (and eventually the mainland) by mid-afternoon bringing heavy rain to the entire coast. The Fraser Valley will experience a severe drenching by Sunday.
Alberta will be clear, although temperatures are going to drop rapidly by Sunday. Same goes for southern Saskatchewan, although, according to the crystal ball, there will be blowing snow on Sunday and wind-chills in the -30+ range. (That's "stay-in-bed" weather).
Winnipeg will experience a normal day with wind-chill in the -30+ range, a bit of snow and then experience a sudden temperature drop by Sunday.
London, Ontario will have a clear day which will then turn messy on Sunday. As the temperature drops the east winds kick in, more snow is in your future.
Southern Quebec may have a problem. Today will be relatively clear, but as the winds rise and the temperature drops there is a very good chance of a minor ice-storm in around the Montreal area by Sunday.
The Maritimes will have some flurries or mixed rain and snow today. Overnight, however, the temperature will drop, winds will rise and everything will get icy.
St. John's Newfoundland will be positively balmy today. The daytime high will be -3 but it will be sunny and calm. By Sunday, expect the winds to rise, but then the temperature will too.

So, pretty much a normal winter weekend across the country with today being the better of the two days. Go shopping today and then button up tomorrow.

When you come back from your day at the bazaars, sit back and do a little reading. I know! Go take a look at Impolitical and then Far and Wide. That will warm you up. They will send you off to read David Pugliese which will cause your body temperature to rise even more.

You will then realize that all that comparison shopping you did, that concern for the effect of Christmas on your credit cards, the attempt to get just the right item for the very best price is how every purchase should be made, including those made by the Harper government.

Oh yes, for those special people who actually check out consumer reviews on big-ticket items before making a purchase, good on you. That's the way to make a proper assessment of expensive items. It means the item has to be on the market and available. Of course, you'll also be checking out the "return policy" of any place you shop.

Strangely, the Department of National Defence had pretty much the same policy when it came to buying military aircraft: Buy no aircraft which is not in operational use by an allied air force.

And then Harper hillbillies came to power. They look at the glossy brochure, check out the colours on the box and then blow the limit on your national credit card. They don't believe in smart shopping when it's them spending your money.


Cautionary note: Readers are advised not to make decisions based on the weather forecasting above. Despite the use of very accurate models from various sources, you should always refer to the official forecast issued by Environment Canada for your area. 

And for those who thought the weather was the most interesting part of this post ... check out Moderate Man. 

40 years

For admitting to killing an invading soldier in a firefight. As a child soldier.

From Ian Welsh:

Others have covered this more than I have, but to me the initial charges were always absurd.  He killed a soldier in a firefight in a country that the US invaded.  The idea that doing so qualifies as murder is ridiculous, unless we also want to charge everyone who kills an invading soldier with murder?  And, I suppose, charge every American soldier in Iraq (a clear case of pre-emptive war, illegal under the Geneva conventions and exactly what Americans hung Germans for at Nuremburg) with murder?

Kangaroo court justice, the victors punishing the losers, for “crimes” far more minor than those the victors have committed.  Get back to me when George Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Colin Powell are in the dock, and we’ll talk.

And don't expect a Khadr to be repatriated to Canada to serve out his sentence (after his initial year in solitary confinement). The Harper hillbillies are deep into punishment of anyone they don't like and happy to ignore the rule of law where such things are inconvenient to the pursuit of their rigid and thoughtless ideology. 

No trucks, no mobility, no army

In 1982 the first of over 2,700 Bombardier-built Medium Logistics Vehicle Wheeled, (otherwise known as MLVWs), were delivered to the Canadian Army. Replacing the worn out "deuce and a half" fleet of the 1950s, the MLVW fleet was expected to provide 15 years service before being replaced by something just as capable. In fact, the MLVW, which looks like a US M35 truck but is markedly different, is now well over 25 years old and the army has no choice but to get rid of them. Now, before they start killing soldiers.

The MLVW fleet is now suffering from uncontrollable corrosion (rust out), a problem which plagued them from shortly after delivery, a dangerous braking system (air over hydraulic with no secondary system which was arguably poorly designed from the start), and just plain age. They were, after all, purchased by the Trudeau government and should have had a replacement scheduled to appear during the Mulroney era.

That didn't happen. And it didn't happen during the subsequent Chretien government.

With severe austerity measures finally withdrawn Paul Martin promised a new Chief of Defence Staff that the armed forces would see new equipment - medium logistics vehicles included. Then minority government flipped into Harper's hands. By 2006 a project to replace the existing fleet of MLVWs was announced.

That's virtually all that happened. The only deliveries from that 2006 announcement are a number of off-the-shelf militarized transport trucks (MilCOTS) made by Navistar. They do not meet a stringent military specification and are not a particularly field ready vehicle. Furthermore, Navistar produced them in Texas while closing the Chatham, Ontario truck plant and laying off 500 Canadian workers. 

With the army looking at having to support domestic operations with the less capable Navistar MilCOTS (none of which have armoured protection) and the notoriously awful Light Support Vehicle Wheeled*, the logistics equipment so necessary for almost any operation, from combat to domestic disaster relief, is in jeopardy.

The original 2006 announcement by then Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor included the promise that new Standard Military Pattern Trucks to replace the MLVWs would start delivery in 2008. That's come and gone. And now, the Harper government has stopped the project cold with an announcement that the eight pre-qualified original contenders (from six different companies) would be disqualified and the bidding process will be restarted.

There are several rumours drifting about. One is that the money to pay for a MilSpec vehicle simply isn't there and that the requirement to purchase equipment for the ground mission in Afghanistan left the army's envelope empty. Another is that there is some serious squabbling going on between uniformed army officers and the political animals as to what constitutes a combat logistics vehicle. The army naturally wants something that can do any job it is called upon to do; the politicos want something to put on display. Still another rumour is buzzing about which suggests that the government would be happy with more MilCOTS which are little more than upgraded dump trucks and highway transport vehicles but a lot cheaper than a hard military 6x6 that will last for more than 5 years.

The problem could be that trucks just aren't that sexy. Unlike getting your photo taken in the cockpit of a mock-up F-35 or being hoisted from an exclusive fishing lodge into a SAR helicopter in front of your rich friends, there isn't a whole lot of flash attached to an ugly truck.

Speaking of helicopters ... Peter (Airshow) MacKay promised that Sikorsky would deliver an interim CH-148 Cyclone operational flight training helicopter to the navy by the summer of 2011. (Several years behind schedule). To date no Canadian military air worthiness certificate has been granted to any CH-148 and no operational flight training on the Cyclone has been carried out.

So much for Harper and his hillbillies streamlining the defence procurement process.

* The LSVW is a procurement of the Mulroney government, specifically then defence minister Kim Campbell. When the prototype was tested by army personnel they were happy with the vehicle. The delivered product however, was something different. Built by Western Star in Kelowna, it was a cheaped out fix to a large need and has been roundly criticized for a plethora of deficiencies.

Some Conservative ideas have merit...

Consider... just for a moment, that I am in that decision-making moment where I have to decide whether to empty the last three rounds of my mag on something I'm not sure is a target.

Dilemma.

What if it's a non-combatant innocent?

The Harperites have saved me from that!! I love it! Look at me, I am legal!!!! Harper has saved me!

The minister will answer.

What do I do?

Squeeze, baby, squeeze. And then change mags, because Harper and his hillbillies have the answer.

This war is so much easier now.

I love the idea of being able to dump EVERYTHING on the minister.

Have fun fuckwads, because if it were me, (and it has been), I would abuse this one to the hilt.

So, can we toss any illusion of a Private Member's Bill ...

Onto the building pack of Harper lies where it now belongs? This activity is the stuff of "agenda". Either that or Harper and his hillbillies don't have one and just wait for the next windmill to appear on their horizon.

John Baird is either a liar or stupid ...

And, no, you are not limited to one or the other when trying to decide.

I've said before that Harper and his incompetent thugs are nothing more than hillbillies playing at governing with no coherent plan and no clear concept of the world around them. No one epitomizes the intellectual laziness of the Harper regime than his so-called Minister of Foreign Affairs, John Baird. This is the guy who's supposed be in touch with the world and understand the nuances of other countries and cultures. The truth is, he is utterly unqualified for the job.

After calling the former Canadian ambassador to Egypt, Ferry de Kerckhove, something close to anti-Semitic, Baird furthered the exposure of his own ignorance by stating an outright falsehood, proclaiming that de Kerckhove was on the payroll of the government of Qatar.

Ferry de Kerckhove squared this away quickly while making it clear what he thinks of John Baird and his penchant for making things up. Read it all.

[I] was never on the payroll of the Government of Qatar. Mr. Baird could have checked the fact rather than try to defame me!

...

Yet I would hope that he might understand the danger my grandmother faced during the German occupation of Belgium as she harbored a Jewish couple in her basement for the better part of 1944. She was visited by the head of the Komandantur of Liege who told her there were rumors she was sheltering Jews. She stared him down and challenged him to check if he did not believe her word that she did not. He backed off. The couple survived. That is real life Mr. Baird and I am deeply proud of my grandmother.

My mother, although born a catholic hailed from a well-known Jewish family of printers for the Vatican. Of course, Mr. Baird, you might not know that Catholics could not become printers for the Vatican a few centuries ago as it was not “kosher” (pardon the pun!) for Catholics to make money from the Vatican.

The people of Ottawa West - Nepean should be ashamed of themselves for sending this national embarrassment and total waste of skin to parliament.

The Secrecy of the Harper regime

This shouldn't surprise anyone.

Four years after the Harper government came to power pledging sweeping improvements to Canada’s access laws, a new report warns that the right of Canadians to obtain federal documents is at risk of being “totally obliterated.”

The damning conclusion comes from interim access to information commissioner Suzanne Legault, who is waiting for the government to announce whether she – or someone else – will be appointed to a permanent, seven-year term.

Open, accountable government, run by a bunch of knee-jerking hillbillies with a hidden agenda.

She's not nuts. She's just following Stockwell's footsteps

Oy.

Hard to believe, in this day and age, in the depths of the most dangerous economic pinball game most of us have ever encountered in our lifetimes, that it's possible for someone to be so glaringly stupid and utter such contemptuous statements. (Emphasis mine)

"[W]hen you're raising children, you don't both go off to work and leave them for somebody else to raise," [Iris] Evans, [Alberta Finance Minister] said. "This is not a statement against daycare. It's a statement about their belief in the importance of raising children properly."

Which may not be quite as heinous as this statement from the same speech.

"The huge failure of Canadians is not to educate the children properly, and then why should we be surprised when they have mental illnesses or commit dreadful crimes?" she said.

Oy.

Imagine how much better the world would be if the CEOs of GM and Chrysler had just followed Evans' financial model.

Looks to me like this piece of work now qualifies for Harper's coterie of federal hillbillies. Don't be surprised if she's recruited to make a run for parliament.

By then, we may be swept away by the waves

That's a statement made by a resident of Alexandria, Egypt. Here's more of what he said.

I worry that the government won't do anything until a crisis hits us. By then, we may be swept away by the waves.

The fears of Alexandria taxi driver Ahmed Fatta.
Bad news, Ahmed. Not only are most readers pronouncing your name incorrectly, but a whole host of governments have done exactly what you fear - nothing.

While Steve Harper and his wife (whatever she calls herself now) are hoping to do a little Beatles medley with the Emperor of Japan, the physical world is changing. Even if Steve and his hillbillies deny it.

The problem is, in a place like Alexandria, sea level rise is no longer just a possibility. It's happening ... RIGHT ... NOW.

More than 58 metres of coastline have vanished every year since 1989 in Rasheed, also known as Rosetta, said Omran Frihy of the Coastal Research Institute.

"There are hot spots, but that doesn't mean the whole Delta is at risk. Before we start talking about doom, we need to know where those spots are and act on protecting them," Frihy said.

Increased salinity seeping into underground waters will degrade farmland and cut production, experts say, in a country where food price rises have sparked unrest in the past.

Is Alexandria doomed? Well, unless they start having a conversation with the Dutch about polders, yeah, it probably is. 

Dear Citizen....

Fuck you!

Signed
John Baird
Consummate Harper Fellatist

What Baird is telling you, reader, is that if you exercised your right to know how government works by asking your MP a question and that MP demanded that publicly funded information (read, your tax dollars) to give you a comprehensive answer, he would tell you, personally to get stuffed because he and his band of hillbillies are the underdogs.

Thanks John. Nice to know what you think of your employers.

Oh! look what that twit Oliver has done

We've got an Alberta prime minister trying to bully British Columbians.

Art Sterritt

Haida First Nation

Executive Director

Coastal First Nations

10 January 2012

I have no doubt that the hillbillies in the Harper government, (and particularly a feces flinging moron like Oliver), cannot even begin to understand the nuance of what's just happened.

I wield my scimitar through the fields of dragon dung

And Preston Manning, because Latin doesn't seem to be his strong suit, makes up words to go with his gut-gripping fiction.

We Canadians have many virtues, but we also have our faults. One of the most worrisome is our growing tendency to substitute discussion for action on key public issues such as health-care reform, productivity improvement and energy policy. 

We increasingly seem to think that a major issue is being “dealt with” when someone writes a paper, article, report or book about it. Further “progress” is then measured by the extent to which the paper, article, report or book has been peer-reviewed, conferenced, editorialized, blogged and tweeted, with the original discussants linked in and befriended by an ever-growing number of fellow discussants via the Internet.

Which Manning finds objectionable. Better to employ the Conservative modus operandi by not bothering to gather facts, study anything or read statistics before rushing headlong into the ideological abyss.

But who’s going to do something about what’s being discussed or proposed? Where’s the acceptance of responsibility to act on what has been proposed and discussed? Where’s the implementation plan and to-do list that translates interest, concern and discussion into actions that achieve results?

Good point. Clearly we're not getting it out of Harper. He and his herd of hillbillies ignore all of that in search of their conservative utopia.

Take health-care reform.

(If you didn't know this was coming you haven't been keeping much of an eye on the Manning conservative puppy-mill).

The federal government’s willingness to provide “no strings attached” health-care transfers to the provinces ought to open the door to systemic innovation. But, as yet, no province has produced an action plan equivalent to what Saskatchewan developed in the 1960s to lay the foundations of the current system, nor has any coalition of health-care reformers emerged in any province to move public opinion onto health-care reform ground such that the politicians will follow. On health-care reform, it’s still talk, talk, talk and no action.  

Now there's a different way of viewing events. Flaherty, a refugee from the Mike Harris disaster, shows up in Victoria on the pretext of entering negotiations (that would be action by the way) and blindsides provincial premiers with a no-discussion dictum and you wonder why they're still reeling.

I’m amazed when even some of my private-enterprise friends and acquaintances take the Leave It to Beaver approach. We give ringing speeches on the virtues of private enterprise and letting the markets solve problems, free of heavy-handed government intervention. Yet, when a challenge such as improving productivity or devising a Canadian energy strategy arises, far too often the reports we present to governments consist primarily of pleas for the government to do this or that. 

That's because your free-enterprise friends, or more correctly your corporate donors, are little more than welfare queens. But maybe you're right. Clearly cutting their corporate income tax didn't get them off their collective asses.

Don’t get me wrong. There’s a place for discussing the great issues of the day.

You just said there wasn't. But I'm getting an idea.

Canada itself was born out of a conference of colonial politicians held in Charlottetown in 1864. But when it ended, the Fathers of Confederation went out and did something. They drafted a constitution, united the colonial economies, bought Rupert’s Land from the Hudson’s Bay Co. and built the longest railway in the world. They translated discussion into action on a magnificent scale. 

Wow! Just like that! One day a bunch of politicians just got out of bed, realized there was no snow on the ground and created a country. That would be amazing if it was even the slightest bit true.

Blow away the Manning vacuum and you see that it took the better part of several decades of turmoil and discussion before the Charlottetown conference ever happened. It may be different where you went to school, but I seem to recall from high-school that most of this idea of establishing a Dominion started with the 1837 - 1838 Rebellions. And let's not forget the fact that William Lyon Mackenzie proclaimed a republic in Upper Canada a short time before Robert Nelson did the same thing in Lower Canada. Britain didn't even grant the combined colonies of Canada responsible government until 1848 because a corrupt minority of conservative leaders refused to acquiesce to the will of the people.

In short, Preston, it took a series of evolutionary reforms for Canada to be born. Unlike your chia pet version of national creation the actual road to nationhood took well over 40 years of debate, discussion and insurrection to reach what happened in Charlottetown.

I mentioned that I was getting an idea that could easily be put into action. Let's re-categorize one-sided political boot camps like yours and remove the not-for-profit tax status. Let's see what happens when you've got to pay full freight and your donors don't get a tax receipt.

Excrementum.Verveces tui similes pro ientaculo mihi appositi sunt.