The New Conservative Dictionary

Re-si-dent

And, Here's to all the Little People

re-zə-dənt, ˈrez-dənt, ˈre-zə-ˌdent

a. someone who lives at a particular place for a prolonged period

     "The Queen is a resident of Buckingham Palace""

b. serving in a regular or full-time capacity

    "The resident engineer for the highway department"

c. a physician (especially an intern) who lives in a hospital and cares for hospitalized patients under the supervision of the medical staff of the hospital;

      "After examining the patient the resident chose to call in the Specialist""

d. An animal that does not migrate.

      "White tailed deer are a resident species in Saskatchewan"

e. A member of Canada's Senate who although, for all intents and purposes, lives in one province is recognized for the political convenience of the Prime Minister to be a resident of another province.

    "Mike Duffy is a resident of Prince Edward Island" or Pamela Wallin is a resident of Wadena Saskatchewan"

I'll Always Have Time for Those Who Protest

I was surprised by some of the reaction to Brigitte DePape brief protest in the Senate chamber last week. Not by the overwhelming on-line support, but by some of the politicians’ responses.

She has become a folk hero in cyberspace but, even politicians who we might expect to be a bit more tolerant of her actions pretty much trashed her protest.

It was expected that the Jason Kenny’s of the world would wade, outraged but I was a bit disappointed when Jack Layton gave us all a little lecture saying “We have been pushing for decorum in the House of Commons. You don’t have decorum if people are standing up holding up signs in the middle of debates and solemn moment. We encourage protests; it is part of a great long tradition of democracy. But it should be happening at the proper place and at the proper time.”

I have heard that kind of response from the “left” before. There is seldom is a "proper place and proper time" if it is inconvenient. Protest is great but just don’t do anything that might draw attention away from Jack.

Implying DePape used the wrong venue to stage her protest, even Elizabeth May waded in saying “Essentially, in theory, we’re in the presence of Her Majesty, that is the sovereign, That isn’t Stephen Harper’s room. That’s somebody else’s room.”

Oh Pleeese. In the presence of her Majesty?

It took 20 seconds out of Harper’s big day. No one was hurt. It wasn’t even noisy. Stephen Harper looked pissed off. So what?

She lost her job as a page but, I can’t imagine that paid very well anyway, knowing how the government is usually eager to exploit our youth. At least now she has a few better opportunities to choose from.

American documentary film maker Michel Moore offered her a job and issued a statement saying “For a young person to do that and to do it peacefully, and quietly and with grace, I thought it was a very powerful moment. Every now and then there is an iconic moment where an individual takes action, and it inspires others to think about, you know, what else we would be doing.”

The Public Service Alliance stepped up and said they would hire her if she wanted to work for the union, and the Council of Canadians offered her a job in their organization. Not bad for someone who just graduated.

I agree with DePape when she says, “Contrary to Harper’s rhetoric, Conservative values are not in fact Canadian values. How could they be when three out of four eligible voters didn’t even give their support to the Conservatives?”

Is a Harper Majority fair? Not in your life.

Is it legitimate? You bet.

The Blue Meanies did manage to gain a majority with less that 40% of Canadians supporting them but, they did it using the rules in place. Our first-past-the-post electoral system isn't fair but, Harper didn’t do anything the Liberals haven’t done before him.

And, we let them do it. 

It takes guts to stand up and do what that young woman did. She gets my vote, hands down.

Nicholson and His Cronies Are Out of Touch

The right wing, law and order agenda marches on. The Government has again introduced legislation which would make a six month jail sentence mandatory for growing a few as six marijuana plants. This is legislation that died on the order paper when Harper prorogued Parliament a few months ago. The Senate reviewed the bill and thinking it too harsh, recommended some changes which would relax some of the more draconian penalties but Justice Minister Rob Nicholson has chosen to ignore those suggestions and resurrected his old bill.


Nicholson who I suppose would know about these things, suggests that anything over five plants growing at home is done for the purpose of trafficking. What a crock. It just shows how out of touch these Tories are.

If this bill passes, anyone wanting to smoke a little reefer will have to buy it on the street instead of harvesting a little from under the grow lights.

This all might go down well in small town Alberta but I can't see it winning these guys any support in British Columbia where, from an agricultural perspective,  the devil's lettuce is the largest cash crop in the province by a long shot.  Amazingly, the Liberals voted for this legislation the last time around but, they seem afraid to vote against anything that might inadvertently cause an election. Frankly, I'll feel a little better when the Liberals stop self destructing and find their cahones.

The thing that we should never forget when it comes to government bills is that a good majority of Canadians votes against the Tories in the last election. They may be ahead in the polls today but they can never claim to be a government supported by a majority of Canadians. They are just there because of a deficiency in our electoral system.