The Trollsons

I forgot to mention that while at the Vancouver Island Music Festival we tented in an area set aside for volenteers. They weren't sure exactly where to put us,   there was a small section set aside for performers which is where they let us set up. We had a bit more space that most of the others.

The first evening our camping neighbours moved in beside us. It turned out they were a husband and wife team called The Trollsons a pair of very funny children's entertainers who have been touring since 1995.

Long Beach

I love this area of the country. Long Beach is magnificent. We spend the better part of the day walking  the beach and climbing up and down rocky outcroppings marveling at the inter-tidal life. Shelley is becoming an expert in identifying differant types of sea weed.

One more day exploring then off to Vancouver. I would move here in a heartbeat if I had an extra $1,000,000 for some where to live. At least that is how I feel about it in the summer. I am not sure about "storm season".

Tofino

Several years ago some forest giant was planning to cut timber on Meares Island across from Tofino. Bob Bossin from Stringbank let us know that a young First Nation's artist called Joe David was selling prints to raise funds for the fight. He was working out of Bill Reid's studio and my brother and I tracked him down one night a bought a couple of prints. Mine has been hanging in my living room for over 25 years now.

So, now here we are in Tofino staying at the Inn at Tough City and our room's balcony looks right across the water to Meares Island. The image is the one hanging on my wall all these years.

Vancouver Island Music Festival

We drove on from Nanaimo to Courtney and the Vancouver Island Music Festival.

We has a ball. There was lots of good music and the festival has a very good vibe. The crowd were great. Very laid back. Lots of B.C.bud. I could live here, no problem.

It was quite hot and sunny to at time in the afternoon anywhere without shade became a bit much to handle for any length of time. Luckily they have a couple of stages in the woods and there is a river running through so, many of us spent a little time cooling off with a swim.

Nanaimo

We moved on from Juniper Creek through Cashe Creek to Lilioet, Pemberton, Whisler and on to Horseshoe Bay. I always like that ferry ride.We spent the night in Nanaimo.

They have done good things with their old city centre. We decided Greek food would be fun considering that Regina's Greek fare is decidedly lacking. I called for reservations and was told that they were closing at 8:00. We were  disappointed but somewhat resigned to having something else but when we passed the place it seemed open so we went in anyway.

Oddly they greeted us with open arms so we had a small Greek feast and a bottle of Retisina. It was very good

Vacation Too

We camped at Juniper Creek just before Cashe Creek heading west. A great spot. Hot! The trains are a bit close though. I thought a couple were coming right through the tent in the middle of the night.

We drove from their through Lilloet to Pemberton. An amazing road but it took us 2 1/2 hours to go 180 km.

We are in Nanaimo. Had a great Greek meal last night

Off to Comox today

Vacation

It has been a bit tough to keep this blog up these days. I was sitting on an arbitration panel for several days them there is all the work that comes after the hearing is done.

I am on vacation now heading for the Vancouver Island Music Festival in Courtney/Comox.

The picture above is Takakkaw Falls. We camped in Kicking Horse campsite in Yoho National Park then drove up to the fall.
For all you geography nuts it is the 13th highest in the world

Good to get a break and I love thise mountains. I have been on the prairie too long

Royal Canadian Navy

Out in the ships boat in about 1967

The Queen is in Halifax celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Navy.

They didn't invite me and I can't imagine why.

A Photo-op Gone Bad

 Less damage than your average hockey riot but certainly more than your average protest. Toronto is still reeling from the G20 photo-op that Harper insisted be held in the city.

First let me say that the black block got in the way of things and their tactics did nothing more than help to slience legitimate voices of protest. So, instead of voices of dissent we saw images of burning cars.  It gave a reason for the authorities to justify the police to get out of control.

I don't think anyone felt reassured by listening to the Toronto police chief over the weekend. First they didn't use tear gas, then they did. He still won't admit using rubber bullets although a very credible CBC journalists reports that a woman standing very close to him went down like a stone after being hit with one.

Saturday the police stood by and watched black block protesters smash windows and burn police cars, later in the day and on Sunday they charged the crowds and arrested almost 900 poeple, mainstream media photographers and journalists along with people out for a walk beating some of them up. We will see the real tally when we see how many of the "thugs" arrested are actually convicted of anything serious.

So...what went wrong. To start with it was a formula for disaster.
They;

1. Erected huge barriers denying people access to their own city
2. Brought in huge police presence in riot gear
3. Demanded journalists carry acreditation to be covering the events on the streets of the city
4. Snuck through legislation which seriously eroded Canadian's rights
5. Confused a citizan's right to protest with violent acts of vandelism
6. Lost control of the situation
7. Reacted violently and out of control in frustration
8. Were outsmarted by a rag tag group of black block  activists

I have been in my share of demonstrations including the G8 in Calgary where the police were just as present. I was on the street working with a cameraman trying to witness the events. I know how these things can easily get out of hand.

Before being too quick to assess blame on the thousands of legitimate protesters don't forget that in Montebello the police were exposed, acting as agent provocteurs, dressed as block block members, preparing to throw stones into the crowd to try to provoke violence. If it hadn't been for the fact that they were challanged by a bunch of middle aged trade unionists with a video camera to record the whole thing we never would have known.

So Toronto, you blew it and you know it. Don't forget to make Harper pay come election time.

And by the way Toronto, dump that police chief will you. He is working against you.

Conrad Back to Court

It sounds like the print media are preparing to waste hundreds of gallons of ink once again writing about that old convict and rascal Conrad Black.

It seems that an unrelated court ruling in the USA has opened a door to allow him to once again try to appeal, at least a part of his conviction. He is back into the same Chicago court that has twice denied his attempts to appeal in the past. At least he will be spending his own money for a change.

Sucessful or not, I hope that as a convict he is denied entry to Canada. He has done enough harm here already.

The Start of the Korean War

Today is the anniversary of the start of the Korean war.

Backed by the USSR and China the North overpower the south and had moved as far as Soeul and beyond by the time the Americans and Commonwealth countries got involved. Canada sent over 26,000 troups and 1,557 of them were killed.

For some reason, in Canada no one really talks much about the Korean War and what ever lessons might have been learned there.

The only reason I remember, I am sure, is that around that time my father was a Sergeant in the army and was a tank mechanic. I was about seven when he shipped out.

I don't remember much about it to be honest except that;

• we shipped over left over large Christmas candles. They used them to provide light in the shelters they dug into the side of the hills.
• He was in charge of a tank with a crane in the back but no gun on the front
• The tank was called the Contented Cow
• He brought us back really neat silk jackets from Japan and,
• He was a minor celebrity in our small town for a while.

So, making no attempt to glorify our role in Korea, we should at the very least remember it.

Trephination

I have been neglecting this blog for a few days with family visits and the fact that I had to sit as a panel member to hear an arbitration case this week. But I'm back.


I love the names brew pubs come up with to name their beer. My favorite brew pub Bushwakker's has, Slough Shark, Sodbuster Brown Ale and my favorite, Mother-in-Law, a blend of stout and bitter.

Earlier this spring they started carrying Trephination Double IPA again, I remember having a conversation about where the name might come from. No one seemed to know. So I looked it up.

The word trephination means an opening made by a circular saw. The word is mainly used to describe an operation which involved removing a piece of the skull  from a living patient to expose the  tough fibrous membrane forming the outer envelope of the brain.

Generally, it is surmised that, on the living, it was performed to provide for the escape or entrance of spirits.

The practice pretty much disappeared in modern times but sometime in the early '70s (he doesn't remember exactly when), a jeweler from Pennsylvania by the name of Peter Halvorson  secured a power drill to his bathroom ceiling and proceeded to perforate his skull. He reported that it took several drill bits. They kept getting clogged with blood and bone. Halvorson stopped when he felt the drill give way and penetrate into the cranial cavity.  No report as to why he did it.

I wonder if we really should be drinking this stuff.

Trying to Legitimize an Illegitimate Process

I find it hard not to be cynical about the appointment a British Lord and Ken Watkin, a former judge advocate-general of the Canadian armed forces, as "independent" observers on the Israeli investigation into the attack on the Freedom Flotilla. These observors are Isreal's attempt to sooth international criticizm of a badly flawed process.

If Canada was really interested in an unbiased look at the attack on the flotilla they would insist that this is an Israeli attempt to legitimize an illegitimate process and insist on an inquiry led by the United Nations.

I know that many readers want to write to their Members of Parliament asking that the government change their position on this matter.
and:
a) press for an end to the 3-year blockade of Gaza by the State of Israel;
b) support a UN–mandated independent inquiry on the attack on the Freedom Flotilla

The United Church of Canada has a link that makes that easy. It has a draft letter which you can edit if you like or send it as it is. It also has e-mail links to the leaders and to every MP in Ottawa.

It only takes a few minutes.

Please follow this link: 

http://www.united-church.ca/getinvolved/takeaction/100603

Fake BP Twitter Account Popular

I am watching the World Cup and feeling lazy today but I thought readers might be interested in this story which I found in the Montreal Gazette.


A Twitter that account claims to be that of British Petroleum's public relations department appeared on line, but the messages are a little bit, well, odd for a battling a massive oil spill.


"Please do NOT take or clean any oil you find on the beach. That is the property of British Petroleum and we WILL sue" reads one "tweet" from the account BPGlobalPR.


"If we had a dollar for every complaint about this oil spill, it wouldn't compare to our current fortune. Oil is a lucrative industry!" says another.


"Proud to announce that BP will be sponsoring the New Orleans Blues Festival this summer w/special tribute to Muddy Waters," reads a third.


The fake account was created on May 19 by an unknown Twitter user and has quickly attracted nearly 20,000 followers - four times more than the real BP Twitter account BP-America.


Other messages on BPGlobalPR:

• "The good news: Mermaids are real. The bad news: They are now extinct."

• "The ocean looks just a bit slimmer today. Dressing it in black really did the trick!"

•  "Thousands of people are attacked by sea creatures every year. We at BP are dedicated to bringing that number down. You're welcome!"

Toby Odone, a BP spokesman, told Advertising Age that the company is aware of the fake account, but has apparently not taken any steps to have it removed.


"I'm not aware of whether BP has made any calls to have it taken down or addressed," Odone told Ad Age. "People are entitled to their views on what we're doing and we have to live with those.

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Twitter+fake+draws+more+hits+than+real+site/3104994/story.html#ixzz0qYgFkZtP

Our Government at Work

Gary Mauser, Firearms advisory Committee

The so-called private member’s bill to scrap the long gun registry issue will probably come to a vote sometime this month. I say "so-called" because this bill is in every way but in name a government bill. Put forward by Morden Manitoba's own Candice Heppner this bill is top of the Harper agenda. They have pulled out all the stops to get it passed.

It looks like the Liberals will insist that party's Mps vote against the bill but chances are it will pass to primarily because NDP leader Jack Layton refuses to "whip" his members into defeating the bill. How ironic is that?

This whole debate has been kind theatre of the absurd from day one. It has been hard for me to figure out what the whole issue is all about. Why are these guys so passionate about shutting down the registry anyway? The police chief's support it. The police associations support it. The RCMP supports it. Most reasonable Canadians support it.

The registry was put into place by the Liberals

I know, I know. Liberal legislation bad, Conservative legislation good.

The registry is too complicated for the shooters to understand and it is expensive.

If that is true isn't it the government's responsibility to cut through the red tape and make the process more streamlines and cheaper to use? How do we manage to issue drivers licences, marriage licences, and dog licences without bogging the system down?

The registry is ineffective because so many gun owners has so far refused to register their weapons

The only reason that people have refused is that the government have put an long gun registry amnesty program into place, refusing to prosecute anyone acting in defiance of the law.

The registry interferes with my right to bear arms.

Sorry Bubba, you have been watching too much American television. No such wild west Doc Holiday spirit here in Canada

A Leger poll taken in Quebec tells us that almost 75% of Quebecois want to keep the registry. Two thirds of Conservative voters want to keep it. In the 18 to 25 age group a stunning 85% want to keep the long gun registry.

So there you have it. It has been a phony argument from day one. It would be entertaining if is wasn't so chilling. The debate, if we can call it that has unleashed a kind of underbelly of Canadian society we usually don't see.

We saw Yorkton's own, MP Garry Breitkreuz refer to the Canadian Chiefs of Police Association as a cult because of their opposition to scrapping the registry and suggested that Liberals beat up Iggy because of his stand supporting the regiustry. Breitkreuz's communications staffer, Brant Scott, who wrote that release has now moved on and has landed a job heading up the new Canadian Shooting Sports Association's Communications Office in Ottawa.

That is the same group that anonymously hatched a poll asking questions like, "As a legal firearms owner, who are you more afraid of? Police of Criminals?". They then promoted to poll asking their members to respond. A majority, 58.85% said they were more afraid of the police. I don't know about you but all this makes me a bit nervous.

In addition, Stockwell Day quietly stacked the Firearms Advisory Committee almost entirely with pro-gun advocates including one who argued that more guns in the hands of students would have save lives in the Virginia Tech massacre in which 32 people were killed. Another described the gun used in the Dawson College shootings as a fun gun to shoot.

Did I mention that the members of the group's names have never been released by the government except once by accident in a letter by Breitkreuz. (Not the sharpest tool in the shed) Those names are secret Gary.

So hold on to your hats. It ain't over yet. Sometime in June this whole issue will come up for a vote. MPs have a choice. Let them know how you feel and let's put this whole issue behind us.

The Stories Are Starting to Filter Out

I have not been particularly impressed my Canadian media coverage of the Israeli attack on the aid flotilla on its way to Gaza.

Called the Freedom Flotilla the effort was organized by a coalition of human rights and humanitarian organizations to try to non-violently break through Israel's illegal blockade of Gaza. The intent was to deliver much needed humanitarian and developmental aid to the Palestinians in Gaza.

Almost 700 passengers from 40 different countries joined the flotilla, including: human rights workers, humanitarian aid workers, Members of Parliament, doctors, nurses, teachers, community leaders, and international journalists. Amoung them are Irish Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Corrigan-Maguire and former UN Assistant Secretary General Denis Halliday, who is also Irish.

The Christian/Zionist crowd, as I expected, have been supporting this act of piracy and have been given the ink they need to try and justify Israel's actions. Stephen Harper, out of step with most international leaders, just before the G20, is backing an Israeli investigation of the events surrounding this travesty.

Although it is usually described as a Turkish flotilla there were participants from several nations.

Henning Mankell, the Swedish author of several popular crime novels was aboard the Sofia, one of six ships in the flotilla. He said the ship was carrying cement, building materials and prefabricated houses to Gaza. Mankell said, "I can promise you that there was not a single weapon aboard those ships.

About 25 passengers were on board, many of them Swedish. They were all captured, Mankell says they were "kidnapped", and all were imprisoned in Israel before being released. “This happened on international waters, so this was an act of piracy,” Mankell told journalists in Berlin.

He is calling for an international boycott of Israel.

Iara Lee, a Brazilian filmmaker who was on the ship Mavi Marmara, said the Israeli soldiers stormed the ship after cutting all communications. They then "started shooting at people". Speaking to a Brazilian TV network Lee said, "It was a surprise, because it happened in the middle of the night, in the darkness, in international waters, because we knew there would be a confrontation but not in international waters. Their first tactic was to cut all of our satellite communications and then they attacked. All I witnessed first hand was the shooting. They came on board and started shooting at people."

She said the commandos then sent all the women to a lower level of the ship.

"They said we were terrorists – it was absurd. They came into the part where the women were, lots and lots of them, dressed in black and with gigantic weapons as if they were in a war. They confiscated all of our telephones and all of our luggage and took everything out of the bags and put it on the floor."

"We expected them to shoot people in the legs, to shoot in the air, just to scare people, but they were direct," she said, in a São Paulo newspaper interview. "Some of them shot in the passengers' heads. Many people were murdered – it was unimaginable."

Australian Fairfax Media Limited, one of Australia's largest diversified media companies had two journalists on board the flotilla.

Fairfax journalist Paul McGeough, and photographer Kate Geraghty said they were "fine" as they landed after being deported from Israel.

Another Australian, Ahmed Luqman, did not leave Israel with the five planes as he was in hospital recovering from a gunshot wound to his leg sustained during the raid by Israeli commandos in which nine activists died.

What I wonder is where are the interviews with the Canadians who were participating in this humanitarian endeavour. Why haven't we heard firsthand accounts from them?

Is This About Finding the Truth? I Think Not.

Ottawa is a very odd place or, perhaps what we see of it is odd. I'm not sure which. As citizans, what we do see of the process of governing this nation is pretty messy.

Those people who claim to be championing our causes in Parliament would have us believe that we just don't see the real workings of government which mostly goes on behind closed doors. What we see, they tell us, is just the show.

I wonder.

The latest bit of theatre that caught my attention is brought about by Harper’s new  rules that Parliamentary committees cannot call Ministerial Assistants to testify. Oh, I guess they can call them but, they are not allowed to appear.

Instead they send over their employers, mainly cabinet ministers, intent to bullying the committee members who are trying to get answers to issues that should concern us as Canadians.

The latest spat is around the committee trying to find out what was behind something that has aleady been put to the committee in evidence. Rahim Jaffer apparently approached officials at least seven federal agencies last year on behalf of companies he had some relationship with. It is reported that Jaffer spoke with political aides who in turn spoke to officials about speeding up the process.

It makes one ask, since Jaffer didn't speak with the ministers themselves, or at least as far as we know so far,  who would be able to bring more clarity to the issue than the ministerial assistants who were actually involved in the exchanges?

Now, to be honest, I don't think that Jaffer was doing anything that any other defeated MP might do. He was trying to make a few bucks by using his old political buddies. Calling in a few chips if you will. It might not be legitimate under the rules of engagement but I personally think they'd all do it given the opportunity.

What the Harper government is doing with the investigative process however, stinks to high heaven. We know that anything he does at this point isn't to protect his old buddy Rahim. Harper has already written him off and thrown his wife Helena under a bus. So what's up?

I think that what Harper is afraid of is, that ministerial assistants might just be tempted to tell the truth. Something he isn't as concerned about when he sends over the odd cabinet minister. They have been trained. That is why the Bloc tried yesterday to get Transport Minister John Baird to swear on the bible. Baird, is a card carrying member of Harper's Christian right. The theory is,  if those guys swear on the bible there is at least an outside chance they might actually tell the truth.

Baird however didn't really attend the meeting with any intention of answering questions however. His role was to disrupt proceedings.

He wrote to the committee saying that he wanted to appear as a witness, and then he got into a procedural wrangle with the chair of the committee when he was treated as a witness. He said he was there as a Member of Parliament. He shouted, (the CBC said he "bellowed") over the chair and completely disrupted the procedure. In the two hours set aside for the committee hearings there were only 10 minutes of actually questioning,

I am sure Stevie's Storm Troopers all had a good chuckle about all this around the caucus table but for me it is just another example of why these guys have to go. Come on you guys in opposition. It is time to bring this government down.

It is time to  reclaim Parliament. It isn't meant to be Stephen Harper's private club. 

Shame on you Stephen Harper

Our Prime Minister's initial response to the raid by the Israeli Navy on the aid flotilla fell far short of the mark. Harper said he'd have to wait and see if an investigation of the event gave him cause for concern.

I'd have thought that the boarding of vessels carrying aid to Gaza, by the Navy, in International Waters, would be enough for most reasonable people to say, "Hang on, that went too far." But Stevie, like the USA, wanted to wait and see.

In the end I thought, well at least we'll have an investigation by an independent international body and surely at the end of that someone will stand up and say that the actions by Israel were a violation of international law.

Think about it. Several Israeli ships harass the flotilla for several hours. Then, in the middle of the night heavily armed Israeli combat troops rappel from military helicopters onto the ships' decks. The ship's crew responds to the attack and Israel condemns them as the ones who initiated the hostilities and justifies the killing of several crew members.

The United Nations Security Council issued a statement significantly watered down as a result of aggressive America interventions, but calling for "a credible and impartial investigation" of the incident. Not satisfied with that the US administration later insisted that any investigation of this aggressive and illegal act should be done by Israel.

Isreal can no more conduct an unbiased investigation into this affair than Tony Soprano could lead an unbiased invesigation into organized crime in New Jersey

Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and it cramps my fingers just to call him that, was quick to climb on board the American attempts to prevent an unbiased investigation.

Shame on you Mr. Harper. Shame on you.

A bit Late For That

No matter how legitimate their cause, I couldn't help but find the planned boycott of the World Cup Kick Off Concert by the South African artists union a bit amusing.

They have already missed the boat. The event is sold out.

Another Lukiwski Shit Sandwich

All right, I want to be right up front. I don't like my Member of Parliament Tom Lukiwski.

He send me a lot of mail. Most of it either empty boastful law and order rhetoric or what can only be described as anti liberal hate mail. The result is, that I write back to him fairly often.

Unlike most of Stevie’s Storm Troopers he writes back. Hell, guys like me probably keep a MP staffer employed just answering mail. (Note to Conservative staff members - No thanks are necessary. It is just one of the services I provide as a citizen)

Perhaps you are not familiar with the term but, Tom sends me shit sandwiches. They are of a pretty basic construct. The first paragraph is usually like this one.

"Thank you for taking the time to write to me. Contributions such as yours allow me to more accurately articulate the opinions of my constituents for consideration and debate in Parliament. Please be assured that I have noted your concern regarding the long-gun registry"

That opening is then followed by half a dozen paragraphs telling me that I don't know what I am talking about,  I am wrong about the issue and that the Harper government is on the right track. It ends with a sweet;

"Again, I thank you for your feedback as it helps me to be the most effective parliamentarian and representative possible. If I can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me in the Future."

It is pretty clear. Tom tows the party like pretty closely but, Tom doesn't listen. So, how can I get anyone in Parliament to represent my point of view. Over 50%  of us in the riding voted against Lukiwski but that old first past the post system assured him of a victory. Tom's letters make it very clear, the majority of people in my riding have no representatation. Tom just blows us off.

I don't know how you feel about it but it is hard to feel good about our so-called democracy when my MP keeps feeding me shit sandwiches.

Does Anders' Comment Reflect Tory Sentiment

I swear Ottawa gets weirder by the minute.

An obscure Christian group, El Shafie Ministries, got permission from Harper and his gang to put an oversized "Support Our Troops" card in the House of Commons. The group lobbied for MPs to sign in the card Ottawa That creates a bit if a quandary for MPs, if they don't sign the card Stevie's Storm Troopers are bound to suggest that they are cavorting with the enemy or something else as ridiculous. We all remember the “Taliban Jack” comments.

Most MPs left notes like, "You are the Best" or "We are all proud of the work you do" but not to be undone Calgary West Reform/ Alliance/Conservative Member of Parliament Rob Anders' note says "When in doubt, pull the trigger."

Anders admits he left the message on the card, suggesting that "it's a common military expression" that isn't meant to alarm anyone." "It's just another way of saying keep safe and defend yourself," he told the Calgary Herald. He thinks the issue is being overblown by detractors.

Opposition MPs are outraged but we haven't heard much from the PM on the issue which would imply that Harper quietly supports the sentiment. No surprise there.

Meanwhile, interestingly enough, the El Shafie Ministries website has pulled all but their first page from their website. One has to wonder who the hell they really are anyway.

I also have to wonder what the response would be if a union, for example, asked to post a card on Parliament Hill asking MPs to support workers injured on the job. No I really don’t wonder. I know what the response would be. I did my time in Ottawa.

I'm Going to miss Dennis Hopper

I was sorry to read about one of my favourites moving on. Dennis Hopper made more films than most actors, some really good, others quite forgettable.

Dennis Hopper was in some of the first films I went to with my friends as a boy. Films like Rebel Without a Cause, Giant and Gun Fight at the OK Corral  kept us glued to our seats as 11 and 12 year olds.

 His characters were always a bit complicated. He seldom played characters that were really likable. He pushed the envelope on screen and off with  Easy Rider, Apocalypse Now, Blue Velvet or  River's Edge.

Even in his bad movies and there were a few of those, Hopper stood out. 

  He died Saturday at 72.

The Bare Naked Ladies Couldn't Even Count That High

One Billion Dollars

So the Harper government is going to spent $1 billion on secutiry for the G8/G20 meetings. Who knows what the rest of the uber-photo-op is going to cost us.

To be honest I am not sure how we as Canadians calculate how much a billion is. The UK has more zeros in their billion than the US does in theirs. Who knows where we stand on the calculation but no matter how we make the determination, it is one hell of a lot of money.

Let's assume that we use the American way of counting, just for this blog posting.

So, how much is a billion dollars. Well, perhaps the easiest way to viliualze how big a billion is think about it in terms of time.

• A billion seconds ago it was 1959
• A billion minites ago the Romans were building Hardian's Wall 
• A billion hours ago we were in the stone age

You get my drift. So, what would that much buy us.

• The average elementray school would cost about $6.5 million to build these days.  You can do the math too but, that is about 154 schools.

• Olivia Chow suggests that “Three percent of that $1 billion would provide all Canadian children a nutritious and healthy breakfast or snacks every day. We can lift all seniors out of poverty by increasing the guaranteed income supplement”

• Think 19 top scholars for $200 million was a good deal? How about another 94 for $930 million?

• We could’ve given the 500,000 Canadian college and university students a real edge next September. The money could have bought each of them a 64-gigabyte Wi-Fi-only iPad.

Or the federal government could have forgiven the student debt for:

• 33,214 graduates in Atlantic Canada, where the debt at graduation is $28,000 (the highest in Canada).

• How about a year’s supply (about three litres) of maple syrup for every man, woman and child in the country. There’d be enough money left over to mail souvenir containers of the stuff to the leaders and their entourages. And maybe even a T-shirt, too.

In comparison, the UK only spent $30 million last year to put on the same kind of event in a London, city known for terrorist bombings. The US only spent $18 million in Pittsburgh which has a murder rate 2.8 times higher than Toronto. 


That price tag does not include salaries, contractors, meals, booze, hotels, airfare, taxis or hookers for that matter. Just security.

Think of all this as a kind of back door deal for the law and order Haper to funnel money into the RCMP, the Armed Foaces and CISIS.

Harper thinks it is fine to spend over a billion on these meetings when Canada's place in word standings in infant mortality has slipped several points. Canada gets a “C” and now ties the U.K. for 15th place out of 17 peer countries. Its infant mortality rate is shockingly high for a country at our level of socio-economic development. When are we going to get rid of that man?

Either get Involved or, Sit Down and Shut UP

One thing we’d all probably agree on, whatever side of the political spectrum you sit on is that politics can be, and generally is a pretty frustrating process.

First, here in North America at least, we use a first past the post voting system that has its roots back in the 17^th century.  The result is that generally, whatever party gets elected, a majority of the people voted against them. In fact in the last eighty years here in Canada we have only ever had four real majority governments. Couple that with the fact that only about 60% of those eligible even bother to cast a ballot and you have a system that is very broken.

People don’t vote because they feel disenfranchised, they have no voice and they don’t feel represented at any level of government.  For example, my city councillor is a real estate developer, my MLA is on the opposing side, facing a government that were quite miffed because the opposition would not agree to guarantee the passage of their bills within the time allotted and Federally my MP is a bigoted right winger whose political agenda is so far removed from mine that it would be a joke if it wasn’t so serious.

There is a democratic deficient. I have no voice.

Federally the Green Party got almost a million votes in the last election but have no representation in our House of Commons what so ever.

The New Democrats, under the leadership of Jack Layton and annoyed at Paul Martin’s minority Liberal Government brought the government down in 2006. The excuse was that they brought the government down because of corruption while the previous Liberal leader was in power.

What was Layton thinking? To listen to him during the campaign you would think that he thought he’d be the next Prime Minister.

What we got further to the right than most Canadians ever wanted to go.

Our current Prime Minister is a nerdy, mean spirited, control freak leading a pack of the religious right thrown together with some old style Conservatives.

What an odd bunch. Originally the Reform Party with Western roots, they were elected on a platform promising not to be like old style politicians. Preston Manning’s folksy down on the farm style appealed to the hate the Ottawa establishment crowd, particularly in Alberta.

Manning was replaced by Stockwell Day. A right wing evangelical who was a friend of hate monger Jim Keegstra. Stockwell believes that dinosaurs and men existed on the earth at the same time.

Harper, who is a bit brighter than Day, went to work for the National Citizens’ Coalition during this period. There he supported the concept of Alberta as a breakaway state and generally ranted and raved against Ottawa.

When Harper returned to politics, to his credit, he engineered a merger between the Progressives Conservatives and the Alliance which the Reform Party had now become.  Peter McKay who became leader of the PC Party by promising another leadership hopeful that he would never merge with the Alliance in return for his support, did just that, as soon as he took over.

In a rather ironic twist, the new merged political party dropped the “Progressive” from their name and just became the Conservatives.

It is no wonder that the average Canadian feel cynical about the process. How can anyone feel good about politics?

People have become disengaged which is a huge mistake.  Plato is purported to have said, "One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." 

I hate to tell you but, it has already happened.

We are told that bolstered by events in the USA the religious right is feeling empowered.

• They vote. 
• They contribute. 
• They lobby. 
• Their friends formed the government.

The Liberals are in such  shambles that they are afraid to dump their second ineffective leader in a row because the leadership gene pool is so shallow they can't think of a replacement.

Jack Layton, stuck at 12% or so,  still thinks he just might get to be Prime Minister.

The Bloc is having fun sticking their nationalist stick in the government’s spokes.

So we have a choice. Sit back and let the crazies take over and complain about it or get active.

• Speak up. 
• Write to your MP. 
• Take part in a demo.
• Send letters to the editor. 
• Start a blog. 
• Join a protest Facebook site. 
• Make it clear you don’t like what is going on.

Either that or sit back and shut up and let them take over your country.  But don’t complain about it after the fact. You let it happen.

Kind of Like Employment Insurance For Banks

Anyone who has been reading the papers or watching the news these days knows that there is a major G-20 initiative to put in place, a global form of bank tax. The theory is that with this kind tax, a fund would be created to put into place, a kind of insurance plan so that taxpayers would no longer be on the hook for bank bailouts when the going gets tough economically.


Sound like a good idea to you? Yeah, me too but, the Harper/Flaherty crowd don’t think so and they have dispatched at least 5 high profile cabinet ministers internationally to try to derail the plan. Canadian banks don’t like the tax and of course the Conservative goal is to cut corporate taxes not to increase them. Flaherty would argue that we shouldn’t punish Canadian banks because they, unlike their many of their international friends, are sound, safe, reliable and free from the reckless practices that got the world into the economic mess we are in.

I think it should be noted here that if Canadian banks are all that, it has nothing to do with Tory corporate and economic policies. It isn’t that Canadian bankers live by a higher moral standard or that they wouldn’t get into those risky lending practices either. The Canadian banks are stronger because of the strict financial regulatory framework put into place by successive Liberal Governments.

The Harper government that generally hates this kind of regulation and has a record of promoting deregulation is it a bit of a quandary here. No talk about how “business knows best” or “the government has no role in the boardrooms of the nation.” They know that the only thing that saved our collective asses was sound regulation. Notwithstanding that fact, I am not sure we can trust the Tories not to screw it up in the long term.

What is proposed by the G-20 countries is something like employment insurance for banks. The plan is to have banks contribute a small percentage of earnings which would go into a fund to help them if they start to fail. On the surface it sounds like a great idea. The issue it raises for me is can you trust the government with the money.

If the governments treated banks like they treat citizens they would put the plan in place, collect the money and then spend it as if it was general revenue. Then when the banks did get into trouble they would give them a fraction of what they should be entitled to claiming that to give more would stiffly productivity or something else as just as bogus.

The problem is, the only way this plan will work globally is if every nation buys in. If not, international banks would simply transfer funds to a country that doesn’t have such a tax. So what we have is a great plan which is probably doomed to failure because of Canada’s willingness to screw up any agreement by refusing to sign on.

Harper who wouldn’t know a compromise if it climbed up and bit him on the ass has gone too far to backtrack now. So stand by for Canada to take, yet another hit to its international reputation.

Some Days you Just Have to Wonder Who Buys These Things

New High Tech Gopher Rifle

I find the whole long gun registry issue very interesting. The Harper Government is rock solid behind Morden, Manitoba's own Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner's private member's bill. Guys like the fool on the Hill, the little known Garry Breitkreuz from Saskatchewan's Yorkton-Melville riding are solidly behind her harassing Liberal MPs who might vote with their party despite the pressure but on them by the Conservatives.

If you listened to them it is all about the cost of the registry which they being the government have the responsibility to bring under control and the hardship the registry is putting on gun owners. They claim they are just protecting hard done by hunters and the right to bear arms which of course is not a part of our constitution..

Well several of those "hunters" have been buying up a Chinese made Norinco Type 97A rifle nicknamed the bullpup. Apparently the RCMP have recently gotten interested in this firearm. Apparently it can be quite easily be converted so that it will fire on fully automatic. The cops, quite rightfully are a bit concerned about what these "farmers" and "hunters" might do with these guns.

This would be an opportunity for the registry opponents to stand up and make a few points for being responsible and reasonable. You would think so anyway. Instead, the National Firearms Association of Canada is trying to challenge the RCMP's right to declare this killing machine a prohibited weapon, in court.

The government, careful not to annoy the gun owner crowd will reimburse the full cost, about $900.00 for these guns if they are turned in. A very rare move.

If you ever did wonder who buys these things are, have a look at some of the blog postings. These are some of the mild ones. I don't know. I just find their mindset a bit scary.

• I just got back from Tenn. going in a gun store there makes you see just how screwed we are up here almost makes me want to move there.
• Like I said, you guys should be as free as us, and we should revoke every gun law passed since the communist infiltrators started hitting in the ’30s. I’d be totally cool with you guys having all the stuff we have, and both of us having more than we do.
• speaking about communist infiltrators, you know how it goes: first it is restriction on some firearms, then it is the restriction on acquisition of the new ones, then it is confiscation, and finally it is the mark of the beast if you want to get some food. Mind you they will tell you that it is all for your own safty! Communist..hmm..or do i detect budding horns and faint smell of sulfur?!
• All I ask is that we be prepared. Have a survival kit made up, have lots of ammunition at bay, have your bolts and actions greased, keep lots of extra canned food, rice, and bulk multi vitamins around. Stop thinking inside the little box we were born into (especially americans, canadians, and the brits). Do you think people were ready for ww1, the holocaust, ww2, the de-colonization of africa/india, vietnam, jfk’s assassination and the list goes on. Only the people who weren’t ignorant saw these things coming,

Spring at Last

It is still a long way from being a "garden" but, it is a stsrt.

The Blogosphere Responds

My hope for the new coalition government in the UK is that it will at the very least start Canadians thinking about how our system of government works, or perhaps more accurately doesn’t work, our approach to minority governments and coalitions and how it all fits into the scheme of things. If the blogosphere is any indicator, that is exactly what has happened.


Brian Mulroney’s former Chief of Staff, Norman Spector weighs in with his two cents worth on the Globe and Mail’s blog saying that Harper could respond to the coalition this way, “... the Prime Minister could note that the British coalition is perfectly legitimate since Liberal-Democrat Leader Nick Clegg had made it clear throughout the campaign that the party that won the most seats should be given the first crack at governing the country. And neither Mr. Cameron nor Gordon Brown dismissed the possibility of getting together with him after the election — as Stéphane Dion did in 2008.

Things would have been quite different, Mr. Harper could note, had Mr. Clegg instead gotten together with Mr. Brown’s Labour Party which, as Jeffrey Simpson noted yesterday, “lost” the election. And the prospect of the governing coalition surviving at the whim of the Scottish Nationalist Party was truly frightening.”

He got a few people’s attention:

M. Martyn responds by saying “But the key here is the very fact that a coalition is legal and constitutional, not illegal and unconstitutional as the Mr. Harper's hyperbole machine repeatedly stated.

As someone who was told that I should be hauled in front of a firing squad for supporting the notion that a coalition in Canada could be something not only legal but also profoundly democratic I take issue with your oversimplification of what is clearly a double standard drawn along partisan lines.”

Stan L. Says “Norman......Harper has a LOT to defend and the talking points he has sent out in the matter are palpable and destructive and in my mind to defend him is to defend a PM deliberately misleading the public about a legitimate democratic process of our government.

If he gets asked, Harper needs to suck it up and offer the right answer.....as much at it would kill him to actually say something Prime ministerial.....and not self-serving.”

Onceanislander comments, "Did Harper promise to send John Baird to the UK? He could advise them like he did Canadians in the halls of parliament, while his boss was on bended knee begging the GG for a reprieve that he didn't deserve.

Baird to reporter -- the GG hasn't the authority to approve a coalition, and "if she does, we'll go over her head, directly to Canadians."

Harper and Baird need to tell the Queen. Apparently, she's operating outside authority and precedence when she accepted Cameron and his coalition.

Mr. Spector - how can you support these toads who blatantly misinformed people about the legality of a coalition government? Oversimplification is right. This article reeks”

Keep talking Canadians. It is time to take a hard look at Ottawa.

UK Election Should be a Wakeup Call

It isn’t over yet in the UK but I have been watching the attempts to form government there with rapt interest. Canadian political commentators have been critical of the process but to me, it is a good deal better having the interested parties struggling to make some kind of compromise than it is to meekly allow a government with very little voter support simply assume power the way we have in this country.


Why should we assume that it is any more legitimate for David Cameron’s right-leaning Conservatives to form government with the 36% support they won from voters rather than have a coalition of the more socially conscious Labour, the Liberal-Democrats and members of various other small parties including the Green member elected last week who collectively scored over 50%, run the country.

Something about that sticks in the craw of commentators like the Globe & Mail’s Jeffrey Simpson and others and frankly I cannot fathom why. Canada’s elites seem to have a mental block about proportional representation and they don’t like the concept of a hung parliament being able to be worked out in a compromise through discussion of common interests. I wish Simpson could explain to us, why a system which would give the party that got 45% of the popular vote , 45% of the seats in Parliament is flawed.

We need to make the process more democratic and why, as Canadian voters we cling to the out dated first past the post system is beyond my comprehension.

I do know why the Harpers and Ignatieff don’t want to change the system. It is all about the hope that their party will achieve that elusive 40% which just might get them a majority Government. The NDP are just as bad. It has been party policy for years but when is the last time you heard Jack Layton speak out in favour of proportional representation. Jack still thinks he has a chance of becoming Prime Minister. Some democracy we live in.

Here in Canada, over the last 80 years only four governments were elected by a majority of the people who cast ballots. That was in 1940, 1949, 1958 and 1984. Here in Canada it took 31,000 votes to elect each Bloc member of Parliament, 37,000 to elect one Liberal, 40,00 for each Conservative and 111,000 to elect each NDP member. The Greens received close to a million votes and elected no one.

So let’s take a hard look at what is happening in the UK and in our own country. It is time to stand up and tell the party leaders that electoral reform is more than giving a few extra seats to Alberta. We need significant change and we need it now. Be part of the solution. Get involved. Speak out.

Down With This

What an election. I have been following the action on the Guardian’s live election blog . With several reporters covering every aspect of this election as things unfurl, including Twitter feeds, it really makes for great reading.

At this point it seems very likely that the UK will have some form of coalition government. According to the Guardian “It is understood that three options were under consideration: an informal "supply and confidence" arrangement in which the Lib Dems would allow confidence measures, such as the budget and the Queen's speech, to be passed; a more formal arrangement in which the Tories would agree to pass legislation on schools and tax reform that would be acceptable to the Lib Dems, who would not join the government; or a full coalition in which the Lib Dems would sit in the cabinet. “ At this point in time the “supply and confidence” option seems to have legs but, the Liberal Democrats are still talking to Labour.

There are some great bloggers following things and the papers are full of the struggle to see who will win out. It is nice to see people in the UK actually interested in the electoral system and acknowledging that it just isn’t working.

Under the slogan “No more broken elections. Fair Vote now.” The Take Back Parliament site says This Parliament does not represent us. We demand fair votes now. There must never again be an election under this broken system. Our election is being stolen - this isn't the parliament we voted for! Sign up here to take it back

It is great to see citizens engaged.
Unfortunately rumour at least has it, that Nick Clegg has already given up on his demand that the new government hold a referendum on making changes to the electoral system.

Hopefully Canadians will learn at the very least that the “first past the post” system is broken and has to be replaced by something more democratic and second that coalition governments are not treasonous. Now, if someone would tell that to the Governor General.

For more informantion on the campaign for electoral reorm in Canada go the the Fair Vote Canada site. If you like what you see, ten dollars will get you a membership and help a great cause.