Lukiwski Responds

Anyone who follows my blog will know that I don't hesitate to take issue with  my Member of Parliament Tom Lukiwski when he or his colleagues in the Harper Government take positions I believe are untenable. .

After I received what I felt was an inadequate and inaccurate response to a letter he wrote to me about my concerns to cuts to the CBC I responded to him electronically and then I posted the text of that e-mail here.

I wasn't surprised, but I confess to being a bit disappointed at his intemperate response to me. I always felt it was my Member of Parliament's duty to represent the wishes of his constituents to his caucus. Apparently Tom Lukiwski only represents Conservative Party members and others who blindly support any positions their government puts forward.

Below is my latest letter from my MP. Interestingly although it doesn't clear up the inaccuracies in his first letter it does show how he really feels about the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. If nothing else the honesty is refreshing.

I know it a bit tough to read but clicking on the letter will enlarge it.

Do You Think Defeating the Bill Will Shut Them Up

Well the bill to scrap the gun registry is almost dead. Finally.

It has been a long infuriating summer's debate. E-mails, call-in shows, newspaper ads, commentary, chest thumping election style speeches - we had it all.  Perhaps the NRA wasn't involved but their spirit was ever present. Again and again the gun owners claimed, "The next thing is the police will take my guns away." Farmers talked about "The right to brae arms." What bull.

Those Conservative MP's claim the Liberals and the NDP are out to get hunters and farmers. What a crock.

Very few Canadians have any problem with hunters bagging the add deer or farmers shooting gophers but I must tell you that some of the pro-gun bumper stickers out here in Western Canada make me nervous. Who are my neighbours anyway?

We have to ask ourselves, who benefited from all this rhetoric.  No one really except perhaps the spin doctors, the big advertising firms, the pollsters and newspaper industry.  The ad on the right is a prime example. It ran, full page in Ottawa's Hill Times. Two days before the vote that, it has already been determined, will fail.

The ad says that ordinary citizens were not consulted and implies that if they were listened to, the gun registry would be on its was out.

I agree that many, many Canadian citizens were not listened to. I agree, but not in the same way the ad implies. My MP, Ton "A Team' Lukewski didn't listen to my support for the gun registry nor did any of the other Conservative MP's I wrote to.

What the ad really does is threaten. "WE WILL REMEMBER" it says. And, it implies, "If you don't vote to support the bill, we'll take you out next election.

Conservative style wedge politics at it's best.

Lets not go half way here. Let's just get it over with and call an election.

Some Other Time Brad

With time spent traveling to Central Canada and then contracting a bad cold I have been neglecting this blog but I am back, if only at half steam.
Here have been so many issues missed over the last few weeks. Harper and his crew never stop offering opportunities to rant.
While in Quebec I was quite interested in the debate over Federal funding for a new arena in Quebec City as a part of a bid to get Les Nordiques back. Even Harper waded in for a while seeming to support the idea of injecting Federal cash into the project contradicting several of his Quebec ministers. In Quebec it was seen clearly as a vote buying scheme in an effort to garner support much needed by the Reform/Conservative/Alliance bunch. They have taken a big hit in Quebec over the gun registry issue. They are practical people in Quebec. The sentiment seemed to be. “OK, give us the money but we aren’t going to vote for you anyway.”
Now I see that Hamilton wants a bit of Federal cash to refurbish Ivor Wynne Stadium in advance of the Pan American Games. Why not jump on the vote buying bandwagon too, after all?
All this action puts the likelihood of the much hyped Regina stadium project going ahead into doubt. Both Regina mayor Pat Fiacco and Premier Brad Wall see the stadium as a legacy project. Their legacy project.
They are starting to panic.
Wall had a meeting with that motley crew of Saskatchewan Conservative MPs this week and came away with very little. I am not sure how they sounded while they were in the meeting but after the discussions ended a few of the MPs had comments none of which should encourage Saskatchewan Stadium fans. My own MP Tom “A Team” Lukiwski’s comments were incomprehensible. According to media reports he suggested that the Regina bid would have a better chance of success securing funds under a kind of public-private-partnership which of course is what Saskatchewan has already applied to the Feds under. Then he said “We have been facilitating that process for Saskatchewan rather that advocating one way or another. P3 is not a perfect fit, but it has a lot of commonalities in it.”
Now in fairness, no one ever said that Lukiwski was very bright but, his comments make no sense. I sometimes wonder if these Conservatives have been sent on some kind of Ottawa double speak course or, perhaps they are all so afraid of contradicting Little Stevie that they just mumble gibberish when asked a question. The theory being that if they say anything to offend Harper, they will find themselves sitting in the backbenches beside some Independent.
I think Brad is out of luck. Harper was recently quoted as saying, in Saskatoon of all places.
“In terms of financing major sports facilities, there are demands here, there are demands in Quebec City, I am aware of demands elsewhere. In terms of financing these things going forward, we’re going to have to respect the precedents we have had in the past and be sure any treatment we’re prepared to make to one city we’re prepared to make to all,” said Harper.
That sounds to me like “Perhaps some other time Brad.”
Harper needs votes in Quebec and in Hamilton and it appears that he isn’t going to cough up in those cities. Why should he bother when Saskatchewan voters will support him no matter how many promises he breaks in this Province?
And Brad Wall? Brad still clings to the hope that his “special relationship” with Harper will benefit the province at some point. It is kind of cute that Brad can hang onto that small town naivety in politics but I am afraid he heading for a rude awakening.