RCMP Bites

The Liberal party has a long history of treating the RCMP like it's own private force (i.e. Airbus, Shawinigate, Gurmant Grewal, Juliet O'Neill, funneling RCMP cash through ad agencies thereby having $1.3 million racked off for fees and commissions, etc.). Michael Stein doesn't seem to be aware of this (Ottawa Citizen via Norman's Spectator)

"In fact, the timing of the launch of the RCMP probe is strange, considering it has obvious implications for the election," Mr. Stein said.

"I'm actually surprised the RCMP has even decided to go forward rather than wait," he said. "It's such an obviously political issue, why would they go ahead and push ahead when they know it has the potential of affecting the vote?"

Michael Stein, political science professor at McMaster University.

Gee professor, perhaps they are finally sick of ongoing Liberal meddling in a supposedly "arm's length" agency. Are you sure this guy is qualified to be a professor?

'Tis The Season For Top Ten Lists

As we near the end of 2005 we will be inundated with various top ten lists. Google "top ten" "of 2005" and you get 2.7 million hits. But I like the ones that are a little different. Here's a trio to get us started. Please add you favourites in comments.

The Top 10 Junk Science Claims of 2005

UFO Digest Top Ten Stories of 2005

top ten sexiest geeks of 2005 (Josie Nutter gets my vote)

Jimmy Carter Makes The Top Ten

I have always felt that Jimmy Carter epitomised the saying "the road to hell is paved with good intentions". Without a doubt Carter's views on international diplomacy have caused increadable damage throughout the world, yet people continue to cut him slack because he's viewed as a well meaning humanitarian. Whether he is just bloody-minded or a simpleton, he was, and continues to be, an unmitigated disaster. Now Captain Ed has included him in his list of the Ten Worst Americans Of All Time.

#10: Jimmy Carter

I would normally leave off any contemporary political person until they had passed away, as their lives still might provide some kind of merit. However, after a promising beginning of his post-presidential career of building houses for the homeless, Carter has inveigled himself into so many foreign-policy crises and made them exponentially worse that it’s becoming more and more difficult to believe it isn’t done with purpose. His efforts to defuse the North Korean crisis deflected what had been until then a rather effective strategy by Bill Clinton to use a military threat to stop Pyongyang from producing nukes. After Carter jumped into the negotiations uninvited – violating the Logan Act – Carter’s prestige within his party and the US forced Clinton to accept the ridiculous Framework agreement that allowed Pyongyang to go nuclear within months. Carter has done the same with Haiti as well, and has traveled the globe to support many a leftist dictator or autocrat as long as they opposed American interests.

But the real reason Carter winds up here at #10 is because he singlehandedly almost lost the Cold War and allowed the start of the Islamofascist terror war during his single term in office. His naiveté in dealing with the Soviet Union, captured perfectly by kissing the jowled cheek of the Soviet dictator Leonid Brezhnev, led him to believe that worldwide Communism was here to stay and that we could do nothing about it. He also assured Americans that we had nothing to fear from the Soviets, who really weren’t bad guys – right up until they invaded Afghanistan. Even then, his response in boycotting the Olympic Games of 1980 has to remain one of the most embarrassing examples of displayed impotence in our nation’s history.

The winner in that category, however, also belongs to Carter. In November 1979, after pulling his support from the Shah in the highly strategic nation of Iran and watching him fall to an Islamist uprising, the same nutcases sacked our embassy in Teheran, an undeniable act of war. Instead of giving an ultimatum for the return of our embassy and the release of our diplomatic staff, Carter sat for 444 excruciating days, doing little except pleading publicly for mercy. He staged one – one! – military response to the crisis months later, which failed miserably. The failure to act not only allowed the rickety Khomeini government to survive, but gave Islamofascism a tremendous boost of prestige throughout the Middle East. It also allowed Iran to become a center for the funding and direction of terrorist activities for the past three decades, a legacy that has finally engulfed us since 9/11.

Other administrations have made their own mistakes in remaining blind to the threat of Islamist terror, but Carter played midwife to it and enabled it to survive when he had every opportunity and a perfect casus belli to kill it in its cradle.

Guess Which "Religion"

What religion is so bereft of any accomplishment that it would actually steal a corpse and lie about the person's religion in order to associate itself with the person's achievements?

The answer is here

What religion considers the following punishments to be reasonable:
Literal "eye for an eye" in personal injury cases. Death penalty for murder, rape, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking. Cutting off hands for theft. Public flogging and death by stoning for extramarital sex.

The answer is here.

What religion discounts the testimony of non-adherents and punishes those who's testimony is insufficient to convict?

The answer is here.

What religion claims that last year's tsunami was because of the sins of the people?

The answer is here.

Hat tip LGF

Geldof To Advise UK Tories

Bob Geldof, ex-musician and global poverty "activist" has agreed to lend his "expertise" in an advisory role to the UK Conservative Party.

Like our own Liberal Party, UK Conservatives have found that there are votes to be had. As Conservative legislator, Peter Lilley, who will chair the new global poverty group, said "The voters are immensely interested in this whole issue of world poverty."

Geldof, famous for organizing Live Aid, Sport Aid and Band Aid, has not developed any particular strengths in economics, international trade, or political theory. Nor have any of these events had any appreciable impact on global poverty. Geldof has however, mastered the art of making western pseudo-humanitarians to feel good about themselves. You don't need to actually accomplish anything at all, simply "raise awareness" of 3rd world issues.

Once again, form triumphs over substance. It would be laughable if it weren't so tragic.

Self Evident , Lame And Just Plain Stupid

In reference to the Boxing Day shootout on Yonge Street that left one dead and six wounded, Chief Bill Blair said:

"I think everybody in the city of Toronto will be angry about what has taken place here."

"It is infuriating that anyone would use firearms in a public place injuring innocent people."

"I think we have to win this battle, I don't think we have any other choice."

Good God man, would you at least get mad. You sound like you are going to write a nasty letter to the TTC about a rude bus driver.

When Natural Selection Is Thwarted

From The Times :

Children account for a lot of accidents (5,809 in playgrounds, 1,085 up trees), but for really spectacular flashes of stupidity, it takes a grown-up. Of the 12 injuries sustained through contact with venomous spiders and scorpions, not one victim was under 15. A kid sees a scorpion: he knows what to do. Only weird adults in bedsits keep tarantulas as pets. One guy was hurt by a crocodile. I’m presuming zookeeper. But 50 more became entangled with other reptiles. So a reasonable sample managed to cross a dangerous snake or lizard in a country that does not have either, and no clever Dick from a local health authority issued a pompous statement about that. There were six injuries from a prolonged stay in a weightless environment, including one in a person over 75, while 21 people fell foul of their pyjamas.

Getting a gun is difficult in Britain, so accidentally shooting yourself should be even more so — yet 816 citizens managed it, at a rate of more than two per day. Think about that. If this were America, fine. It is easy to shoot yourself in America, or for someone to do it for you. Kids can pull it off, and frequently do. But in Britain we have to really work at redecorating a room with body parts. We need to get a licence, two referees, join a club, provide a letter from a landowner giving permission to shoot, and all this before peering down the barrel for cleaning purposes one morning and losing an ear. Yet 816 noble souls were prepared to go that extra yard in the pursuit of total foolishness. Just as Peter Cook was the comedians’ comedian, they are the stupids’ stupid. There will be a place in Heaven for them all, if not in their local casualty.

Wait A Minute, I Thought The US Was Worse Than Saddam

So if Chimpy McHitlerburton and the U.S. is worse than Saddam and the US won't hand over their Iraq prisons until the Iraqis raise their standards, it only follows that the current Iraq government is pure evil incarnate.

From CBC: U.S. won't hand over prisons until Iraq raises standards

Who knew that Saddam was the civilizing influence in the area? I never hear this agrued by any of the anti-war crowd. They probably knew but were afraid to say anything for fear of not being politically correct.

It's a sad state of affairs when the fear of being labled "intolerant" allows the electon of what can only be considered one of the most evil regimes in history.

Help!

For some reason any comments aren't showing up in my e-mail in basket. Anyone have an idea why?

If You Can't Manage Your Own Account, Why Should We Let You Manage Ours? - Updated

I would say that how a party runs its own accounts should give you a pretty good indication of how they will look after other peoples' money. Shelia Copps has spent some time looking at the fiscal health of the major parties:

According to Elections Canada, in their last annual filing, the Liberal Party of Canada was $34,818,257.32 in debt, by way of 13 bank loans. The Bloc Quebecois has more than $10 million in outstanding loans, mostly from the Caisse Desjardins. The NDP has several modest loans outstanding, totalling a little more than $3 million. The Conservatives are debt-free.

No indication if the Liberal position is before or after the Gomery payback they claim to have made, but it does give some indication of why they sent some of their staff back to their government jobs (and paychecks) over the Christmas period.

I have to say I was wrong in my initial apprehension of Copps being taken on by the Sun. I still consider her to be a typical practitioner of Liberal politics - no principles, no vision and a single minded goal of gaining and retaining power. However she's got a big hate on for those who turfed her and and her many years as a mid-level insider gives her the goods on how things work in the Liberal party. She knows where the soft spots are as seems more than willing to stick the knife in. I may not like her as a person but she's and entertaining read.

Update: Angry has posted found that the Liberal sources of income are drying up. Read it here.

Duceppe Declines - Updated

From Cyberpresse (rough translation mine):

Without the presence of the Prime Minister Martin, the Bloc leader thinks that it would be useless to organize a debate. Gilles Duceppe thus does not intend to take part in face to face with the Conservative leader, Stephen Harper.
(...)
For his part, Gilles Duceppe says he is not very inclined to only debate with Stephen Harper. "the direction of this election, it is to sanction the Liberals," said the Bloc leader campaigning in the Quebec countryside. "Any debate where Mr. Martin is not present, I think that it is not very useful. If (Liberals) are not there in a debate, it won't have direction. One beats this government on the lack of moral authority, so it is with them that it is necessary to discuss."

Man my French sucks.

UPDATE
This is on the CBC site now. Read it HERE.

Sometimes Things Line Up Just Right

I love this shot.

How would you rate the news media's election coverage so far?

From CTV

How would you rate the news media's election coverage so far?

Excellent ( 8 %)
Good (24 %)
Fair (27 %)
Poor (41 %)

Can't argue with that.

The Law Of Unexpected Consequenses ?

Saddam claims he was beaten, tortured by Americans in detention

Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Mousawi said he would investigate and that if American-led multinational forces were abusing the former Iraqi leader, he would be transferred to the custody of Iraqi troops.

We can only hope the Iraq troops are related to gassed Kurds or those he had tossed into shredders.

There is nothing that will do more for Iraq untity than executing this guy as soon as possible.

Zellers Has Lost Me For Good

I've never been a big shopper and Zellers has always been one of my least favourite stores (lack of product and those damn cool white flourescents than make everyone look like a cadaver - particularly nice on those pimply cashiers). However, unless there's a lot more to this story, they have lost me as a customer for good.

Guy Masse, 47, had planned to give the discarded chocolate to his children, ages six, nine and 15, for Christmas.

Mr. Masse, who was on welfare and had been working at the store only for a couple of months, was first suspended and then fired.

Firing someone for taking garbage home to his kids in the week before Christmas has to be the most boneheaded public relations blunder ever. I can't believe that HBC is that stupid but if there's more to this, they have done a poor job of getting the story out.

Yahoo, The Supremes Approve Sex Clubs

From CTV:

Canada's top court says clubs that feature group sex and partner-swapping are perfectly legal.
(.....)
The decision is expected to open the door for venues across Canada to begin offering their facilities to consenting adults for the purposes of group sex -- without fear of legal reprisals.

Hands up anyone who can't see a way to turn this into legalized prostitution.

Here's A Headline The PM Doesn't Want To See

Liberals getting set for run to replace Martin

The knives are coming out.

"If Martin leads this party into the next election you will have a Conservative majority," says a lifetime Liberal at the centre of one of the fledgling leadership efforts. "Anyone who thinks otherwise is crazy."

Harper Taps Into Quebec

Harper rocked Martin yesterday with a speech in Quebec City that won widespread praise in the Quebec press.

Harper plans to give Quebec greater autonomy over culture and language as well as an international presence on some issues. He also made it an early priority to sit down with all of the premiers to address the issue of fiscal imbalance (as opposed to Martin's endless "one off" deals). As a result, Harper is getting good press in Quebec, including speculation that the CPC might even take a seat or two.

Even though voters in Ontario might buy into Martin trying to make Quebec separatism the major issue in this election, the voters in Quebec recognize that it's the provincial level that pulls the referendum trigger.

Charest has praised Harper's position because, as Chantal Hebert puts it:

.... Charest knows he would be better off campaigning for his own re-election against the backdrop of a government that is open to changes to the federation than against Martin's systematic rebuttals.

The premier is not about to forget that the federal Liberal leader started off his campaign in Quebec speaking as if the demise of the federalist provincial government was a foregone conclusion.

As Harper said, "They (the Liberals) can't wait to see a Parti Quebecois government so they can stand up for federalism and fight the separatists"

Don Martin, Chantal Hebert and Sheila Copps all have interesting articles about Harper getting increased play in Quebec.

Another Good Rant

Via assorted links, I went to have a look at the censorship on the CTV electionblog. While there I read William Macdonell's rant and thought I deserved a wider audience. Here's a few excerpts:

Even Trudeau wouldn't have wanted the running joke we have become. Liberalism is killing this country, and I don't mean liberalism in the sense of protecting rights, or holding up a placard for the little guy. I mean fundamentally this country was a better place to live as a result of personal accountability and personal integrity, coupled with a high sense of moral value, which our vaunted Liberal party elite has eroded through pork-barrel politics and irresponsible management.
(...)
That is what is happening to this nation, a slow slide into chaos. We allow droves of people to migrate to Canada, and we spend no time giving them a common language to work with, to allow them to flourish. No standards with which to measure themselves beyond the "I get a welfare cheque vs I don't cause I have a job paying minimum wage" benchmark. In fact, we are so "liberal" in our thinking that we promote Immigrants holding onto their culture to the point that they don't speak English or French, so they might as well set up enclaves of their own. We even provide money for cultural centers and such, to help them reinforce their cultural differences and allow them to self-segregate themselves even more. God forbid we help them keep their identity while peeling away the cultural dogma and attitudes that caused them to flee their nations in the first place.
(....)
God forbid we consider the flaw's of our democratic process for even a moment, because if we did that, we might realize that it takes 107,000 people to elect an MP in Alberta, and it only takes 22,000 to elect the same MP in Prince Edward Island. A Senator has near as much power as an MP, and an indexed pension, but you can't be one because you didn't stick your nose up the rump of the last ruling party, and its not an elected post... but don't worry, I hear being a hairdresser is usually good enough for Privy Counsel, and a career in TV is a good stepping stone to Governor General. It’s enough to make one want to throw-up at the ludicrousness and hypocrisy that is literally oozing out of the PMO’s office. We place no value on the institutions which helped form this country. Why have tradition, when our vaunted constitution will just deem it "unconstitutional".

There's lots more. Read it HERE posted at (19/12/2005 6:21:37 PM)

William also writes The Church Of Whats Happening Now

Frum On Martin

It's hard not to be cynical about Martin's "love" of Canada. David Frum's take on Martin is right on the mark. From the National Post:

Paul Martin's problem is that sincerity is the one thing he cannot quite fake. He displayed that failing most vividly Friday night, when he erupted into his choreographed and stage-managed outburst against Gilles Duceppe. He delivered his lines like some ham actor who's made up his mind: The audience has to see acting, and by God, they are going to see acting!

One of CTV's debate commentators, Joy McPhail, a former NDP legislator from British Columbia, complained during a discussion afterward that Martin had made an error of timing. Wouldn't it have been better, she wondered, if Martin had delivered his attack on separatism and his paean to Canada during the French-language debate the night before? After all, it's not as if anybody watching the English debate would be tempted to vote for the Bloc Quebecois.

But of course there was no error. Delivering that "impassioned" message in French would have been politically risky. To speak those words to an audience that might not want to hear them would have demanded courage and character. So naturally Martin didn't do it.

Instead, he waited 24 hours and delivered those words -- in English -- to an audience that would unanimously applaud. Points scored, and at a cheap price too. For this same Prime Minister who stands ready to "defend Canada" is the same prime minister who condemns Canada's most active patriots, its soldiers, to die in ancient, obsolete helicopters, ships and lightly armed cars.

Read the whole thing here.

Update: I guess we were wrong. According to Paul via the CBC:

"I did it in the French-language debate many times and will do it more often. I will do it right now if you'd like."

— Martin answering a reporter’s question about why his most passionate defence of Canada and attack on Quebec separatism of the campaign was delivered in English, not French, during the Dec. 16 leaders debate.

Did The Liberals Deliberately Poison Our Relationship With The US ?

It's one thing to have the retention of power as your sole political motivation. It's quite another to consciously attempt to cause lasting harm to our relationship with our largest trading partner in an effort to gain votes.

If the recent diplomatic row with Washington was merely part of a partisan ploy to gain anti-american votes (as many observers have suggested), does the timing of the filming of these ads further confirm that the Liberals were preparing to sour Canadian-US relations for electoral gain?

Full credit to Stephen Taylor and Kate McMillan for an excellent piece. Read it HERE.

Ontario Liberals To Solve Calculus Problem

It seems that calculus, as it's currently being taught, is too tough for Ontario students. The McGuinty Liberals, in their quest to guarantee 100% high school graduation, have the solution - they'll just take out the hard parts.

From The Globe And Mail:

The Ontario government is studying a proposal to change the current calculus high-school curriculum and scrap certain sections.

A spokeswoman for Education Minister Gerard Kennedy said yesterday that some of the advanced concepts, now taught in Grade 12, may be removed because students need a solid lesson in the basics before getting to university.
(....)
But there is fear in some quarters that the calculus course will be watered down.

"We just don't feel that students would be adequately prepared for an engineering education as they are now," said Annette Bergeron, past chair of the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers and the group's representative on the Council of Ontario Deans of Engineering.

Walkerton Considers Private Sector Water Operator

In spite of all the spin that was put on this story, the private sector component of the Walkerton fiasco was the only thing that worked the way it was supposed to. ALL of the failures occurred in the public sector but somehow the story focused heavily on the evils of moving away from a strictly 100% government operated system. Now it seems that Walkerton, like a lot of other municipalities, is starting to see the light.

From the National Post:

Five years after its water system delivered a fatal dose of E. coli to some residents of Walkerton, the town is turning to the private sector to run its revamped waterworks, part of a national trend.

The Walkerton disaster at one time raised alarms about creeping for-profit incursions into the management and monitoring of drinking water.
(.....)
"More and more municipalities are turning their systems over to private operators on a contract basis," said Glenn Powell of the Ontario Water Works Association.

Someone should send this article to the scores of reservations that are under boil water advisories.

OK To Oppose Gay Marriage, But Only If You're A Liberal

Paul Martin has said it's OK for Liberal backbenchers to oppose gay marriage but it's not OK if you want to lead the country.

From the Ottawa Citizen:

Liberal leader Paul Martin said yesterday that Liberal candidates are entitled to run in this election even if they want to deny Charter rights to gays and lesbians seeking same-sex marriage.

Apparently, you are only considered "unfit" if you are running to be PM.

"The issue is, 'What is the role and responsibility of the prime minister of the country?' And the role of the prime minister of the country is to support the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. And it is not, in any way, shape, or form, to call the Charter into doubt."

Martin is still hanging his hat on gay marriage being a Charter Right when it is nothing of the sort. He's rounded up a pool of "experts" to back his claim that the only way to undo the current law is to invoke the dreaded "Notwithstanding Clause". Harper has already said he won't use the notwithstanding clause on this issue.

Still, there is a better solution that effectively eliminates the problem forever. Simply take the Canadian government right out of the marriage business altogether. Remove the ability of the religious establishment to create unions that are recognized in law. The only unions that will be recognized by the state are civil unions or those formed under common law. So, once you've been down to the registry office for your civil ceremony, the decision to have it blessed by your priest, minister, mullah, or whatever, is strictly between you and your faith group.

Frechette Moves To Waterloo - Another Maurice Strong Connection

From The Canadian Press:

Louise Frechette, the UN's deputy secretary general who was criticized for tolerating corruption in the oil-for-food program, will join a research centre in her native Canada in April, the UN announced Friday.

Frechette, widely criticized in the Oil For Food Scandal (see above link) will be joining the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo Ontario as a Distinguished Fellow.

CIGI was founded in 2002 with a donation of $30 million from Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of Research in Motion and a matching grant by the Canadian government. Maurice Strong sit on its International Advisory Board of Governors

The White House Likes Martin?

Thomas Walkom in the Toronto Star puts forth the idea that the White House secretly supports Martin. In White House jab at Martin a calculated move he postulates that "the U.S. would be pleased if Martin were able to form a majority government after Jan.23."

The argument is as follows;

Martin ran for his party's leadership on a platform of mending relations between the two countries. In 2003, he hinted broadly that, had he been prime minister, he would have committed Canada politically to Bush's Iraq adventure. He also made it clear that he'd sign on to the U.S. missile defence scheme once he seized control of government.

Indeed, it can be persuasively argued that the only impediment to Martin's grand bilateral strategy has been his shaky political situation. A minority government with only a tenuous hold on Parliament cannot afford to be seen cozying up to someone as mistrusted in Canada as Bush. Hence, Martin's eventual decision to avoid missile defence.

Myself I think Mr. Walkom is displaying one of the usual Canadian traits, an inflated self-concept (the mental image one has of oneself) which leads to thinking that the US, and the rest of the world, give a rat's ass about our position on, well anything. Myself I don't think the US perception of Martin is anything more than political opportunist with no real ethics, values or agenda other than the retention of power.

Martin is simply playing to the low self-esteem that many Canadians have with regards to the US and has simply taken a page from John Turner, who pretty much based his campaign on fear and hatred of the Americans. Turner came fairly close to winning and Martin, bereft of policies or ideas, is hoping to use the same card to his advantage.

Samuel Johnson hat it right when he said "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

Did Anyone Keep A Count Last Night ......

of how many times Paul Martin said "the fact of the matter is..."

Canadians' Record Net Worth

From The Globe And Mail:
Canadians' net worth at a record $4.6-trillion

Sounds like good news, right?

With approx 32.8 million Canadians that puts our individual net worth at $140,222. I wonder how that compares with our neighbours to the south.

Americans have a net worth is 46.7 trillion so with approximately 295.7 million Americans that puts their individual net worth at $157,912. HEY, what the f***! I thought Chimpy McHaliburhitler was destroying their economy? Still that's not to bad, we're at 88.7% so not too far behind.

But wait, we need to adjust for the relative value of the dollar. The Canadian dollar closed at 86.27 US on friday so that reduces the individual Canadian net worth to $120,970 US. DANG, now we're down to 76.6%.

I wonder if the tax, productivity, unemployment gap has anything to do with it?

Keep Poking The Bear, Pt II

How did the US view Martin in the beginning? From the St. Petersburg Times

Moves are being made between Canada and the United States to improve relations now that Paul Martin prepares to take over as prime minister next month.
(...)
Martin will establish a Cabinet committee on Canada-U.S. relations, which he will chair, and one to improve the ability of Parliament to prevent bilateral problems from becoming crises.

Gee, sounds hopeful. But by March, 2005 from The Washington Post:

A group of 70 influential Canadians and Americans concluded Tuesday that "Canada is losing its influence in Washington." The American Assembly, which is affiliated with Columbia University, fretted about rising Canada-bashing in the United States, but noted that it "pales beside the disturbing and persistent current of anti-Americanism in Canada."

And Stephen hits it right on the money. "This government has engaged in a series of phony and reckless wars of words with the United States that does not help this economy or Canadians"

Keep up the good work Paul. Start a trade war if you think it will get you a few votes. I'm sure Mexico would be more than happy to pick up the slack in supplying the US markets.

Congratulations Iraq

The polls have closed and, regardless of the outcome, I want to congratulate Iraq on reaching another milestone.

I expect turnout to be 75% or more. I further predict that the Canadian electoral turnout will be significantly lower.

Martin Bobs And Weaves

Paul Wells coverage of the PM gives some excellent insight into the PM. Just the title and lead in line gives you a good indication of the tone.

He's unbelievable!

Is there no end to Paul Martin's grand pronouncements, stirring appeals, and full-of-holes commitments? Talk about your gaseous emissions.

Read it here.

Harper's "Hardline" Speech

Oh dear! Mr. Harper wasn't 100% supportive of the status quo when he talked to some Americans. He alluded to us being the greatest country in the world but then he said we were

"a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term, and very proud of it. Canadians make no connection between the fact that they are a Northern European welfare state and the fact that we have very low economic growth, a standard of living substantially lower than yours, a massive brain drain of young professionals to your country, and double the unemployment rate of the United States."

Got that, we're like SWEDEN who the left constantly points to as a role model. What, you don't like the words "welfare state", OK, just substitute "statist country" and you'll feel much better. As for the rest, we still have a significantly higher unemployment rate, our standard of living has fallen further behind the US and the productivity gap is widening. What's to argue with?

But he praised "American conservative values". It was 1997 people. Clinton was in office and "conservatives' thought perjury, adultery, etc. were bad things.

As for the rest, the Globe And Mail has it up in its entirety. Just remember, he's trying to put the Canadian political system in context for a US audience although I doubt many Canadians could give as succinct and acurate a description of our branches of government.

40% Of Canadians Undecided

From Ipsos Reid:

Half of Canadians (47%) say they "have absolutely made up my mind as to who I am going to vote for and nothing will change my mind", 40% say "have not made up my mind on who to vote for and I intend to park my vote until closer to Election Day in the New Year", and 12% say they "really don't care about the election and I probably will not go out and vote so it doesn't matter what the politicians are saying or doing".

Here we have a classic case of people being embarassed to admit they won't vote so they lie (if we had a 88% turnout it would be the highest in Canadian history). So, who did the liars say they were voting for?

McGuinty Solves The Dropout Problem

Having already figured out how to solve the problem of underperforming students by dumbing down the standardized test, the McGuinty Liberals have now solved the dropout problem by forcing everyone to finish high school. As no one fails anymore, forcing students to hang around until they graduate will make Ontario the only jurisdiction in the world to achieve a high school graduation level of 100%.

Two more Liberal promises kept! HoooYaaa!

Tootie Dies

Who would believe that the cute girl on "the Facts Of Life" would turn out to be the founder of the Crips! Anyway it's all over now.


Oh, sorry, it's TOOKIE not Tootie. Still, don't you think she looks like our Governor General?

Letter to David Wilkins re: Kyoto

Dear Mr. Wilkins;

I see from your recent comments at the Canadian Club, you think the US is doing its bit in dealing with the climate change issue. You said:

"It has been well documented by your news media that the United States is in fact reducing emissions and spending more money on tackling climate change than any other country in the world -- $20 billion in the last five years."

"And we have a better performance with regard to greenhouse gas emissions than many of the countries that ratified the Kyoto Protocol -- including Canada."

"Fact: Between 1990 and 2003, emissions in the U.S. have increased by 13.3 percent but over that same time period Canada increased its emissions by 24.2 percent!"

"So the United States has a real record of results. I would respectfully submit to you that when it comes to a "global conscience" the U.S. is walking the walk. And when it comes to climate change, we are making significant progress - greater progress than many of those who have been most critical of the U.S."

Such a clear misreading of our intent with regards to this issue makes us question your qualifications to be the U.S. Ambassador to Canada.

Let me state this as clearly as possible. Canada has no intention of actually doing anything to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. You would think our record to date would make that abundantly clear. But, at the same time, we want our people to see us a leaders in environmental sensitivity.

Now one would think that these two goals as mutually exclusive but that's where Kyoto comes in. By setting up a system where we can buy "credits" from some underdeveloped 3rd world backwater we allow our people to continue producing as much CO2 as they like while patting ourselves on the back for "doing something".

So why are we picking on the US? Because, as you say, you actually "walking the walk". Our whole self-delusional house of cards is at risk if someone actually does something. So please, do like we do. Sign the accord, put it in a drawer somewhere, and just forget about it. Don't even bother to make up any plans or fiscal analysis. Just pretend it never happened.

Yours truly,
Canada

PS. You can confirm our approach here.

Playing The Anti-American Card

The Liberal strategy of poking the bear seems to have got a reaction and from the press you would think that the Americans are trying to influence our election and "dictate" to Paul Martin. What an enormous load of crap.

First off, the Liberals ticked off the Bush administration way back when Chretien endorsed Al Gore. Then, after Canada participated in coordinating our military efforts, Chretien did a last minute about face and pulled out of assisting in Iraq using lack of UN endorsement as a smokescreen (please remember we participated in Bosnia without the UN).

Along comes Martin who supports missle defense until he reads a poll and flips position on that one. Now he's cozying up with former president and historical revisionist, Bill Clinton, and making completely hypocritical comments about the US committment to dealing with climate change. Any wonder the US is a bit put off?

So now they are "dictating" to Martin. Actually I thought their response was pretty tame. Here's some excerpts from David Wilkins speech that I haven't see in the press:

"Here we have the single best, most productive and peaceful relationship in the world and who would know that by following your election campaign or reading the press?"

"But think about this: What if one of your best friends criticized you directly and indirectly almost relentlessly? What if that friend's agenda was to highlight your perceived flaws while avoiding mentioning your successes? Wouldn't that begin to sow the seeds of doubt in your mind about the strength of your friendship?"

Yup, that's some pretty harsh stuff. Good thing we have Liberals like Paul Martin to stand up to such intimidation. A lesser man would folded and begged for mercy but Paul is made of sterner stuff. A modern day David. My hero.

To See Ourselves As Other See Us, pt III

"The gift, the gift; the gift 'e gi'e us- to see oursel's as others see us"

Following the previous post, a good illustration of where the Conservatives sit on the wider political spectrum is Stephen Harper's Letter To The Editor in the December 11 Washington Times.

A December 2 Commentary piece had touted Harper as "pro-free trade, pro-Iraq war, anti-Kyoto, and socially conservative". Haper's reply takes the US to task over softwood lumber and wants the US to "strengthen the dispute resolution mechanism and to subordinate domestic political pressures to a shared system of rules". This is not a position I have ever heard supported by the Democrats who tend towards protectionism more then the Republicans.

Harper then moves to Iraq, taking the Democratic cop-out position "I must admit great disappointment at the failure to substantiate pre-war intelligence information regarding Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction."

Then on to Kyoto "While I think that the Kyoto Treaty is deeply flawed, I support developing a plan, in coordination with the United States and other countries, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by developing new technologies and energy conservation." Even the Democrats don't support Kyoto. Under Clinton in 1997, the Senate adopted the Byrd-Hagel Resolution by 95-0, urging the Clinton Administration not to sign any climate-change protocol that "would result in serious harm to the economy." Clinton never even submitted Kyoto to the Senate.

For same sex "And while I have promised a free vote in Canada's parliament to reconsider the recent change of law to allow same-sex marriages in Canada, and will vote myself for a return to the traditional definition of marriage, I have said any changes must protect the existing status of same-sex couples who have been legally married. As well, a new Conservative government will not initiate or support any effort to pass legislation restricting abortion in Canada."

The point being, none of these positions would be considered even remotely right wing in the US.

To See Ourselves As Other See Us, pt II

From Robbie Burns
"The gift, the gift; the gift 'e gi'e us- to see oursel's as others see us"

It has always been a particular sore point with me when the Canadian parties are identified as Left or Right in relation to the rest of the western world. Wise up people, Canada is a statist country and even the Conservatives would be considered left of Labour in the UK and well to the left of the Democrats in the US.

However, this failure to rationally assess our political positions on a wider scale does have one benefit, it makes it easier to screen what you read. Anyone who refers to Harper as a Bush clone is so obviously misinformed that you can safely skip whatever else they have written as being completely irrelevant.

Salim Mansur has an excellent piece on this failure to see where we sit on the political spectrum and the inevitable results:

In the meantime we can expect, as our politics become increasingly disconnected with the needs of a fast-changing world economy, our political leaders will confuse their sound and fury with the requirements to think fresh and critically on issues resistant to prevailing consensus.

We've already seen this in the urban violence and "global warming" issues. Full of sound and fury. Signifying nothing.

Layton Supports Worker Rights - Well Not Really

It seems that Jack's recent tiny shifts towards the centre is pushing his core union supporters towards the Liberals. Buzz Hargrove of the Canadian Autoworkers union has already appeared twice with Martin and in spite of signing a Workers' Bill of Rights, Jack has been unable to secure a clear endorsement by the National Union of Public and General Employees or the United Food and Commercial Workers union. It would appear that the unions are abandoning ideology for whoever will offer the most bribes (is Hargrove bucking for a Senate seat?)

And what is the Workers' Bill of Rights? From the NUPGE website:

The Workers' Bill of Rights Pledge commits the party leaders and their parties to affirm that "all workers have the right to join and form unions without interference by an employer or government and the right to bargain collectively as the means of determining their wages, working conditions and terms of employment."

What is doesn't provide it the right for workers to opt out of union membership without losing their jobs. In other words, you have the right of asociation as long as you join us. You do not have the right not to associate with us if you work here.

Income Trust Medical Connection

Others have covered this in depth BUT, just casting around to look at M.K. Braaten's sources using the Do-it-yourself income trust investigation, I discovered another connection.

There seems to be a definite medical connection here. Not only did Medisys Health Group jump on Nov 22 but so did CML Healthcare on the 23rd, and Medical Facilities Corp. (also on the 23rd)

Grieving Dad Put Liberals Straight

Can't say it better than a dad who's lost his son to gun violence.

From the Toronto Sun:

"For this so-called prime minister of ours to come into the low-income areas of this city and make a statement banning guns ... I look at him as a jackass ... and I'll never vote Liberal again as long as I live," said Theodore Huxtable, whose eldest son Jason, 18, was killed on Aug. 30.

(......)

He is furious youths are treated with kid gloves and he accused politicians and other leaders of racial bias.

"Black on black ... who gives a rat's ass," he said with sarcasm.

"No white kids are getting killed."

Unfortunately nothing is going to change in Toronto as long as the left is in power at a all three levels of government and to not vote Liberal within the black community is almost viewed as being a race traitor.

I was listening to CFRB after the handgun announcement and was amazed by the number of black callers that thought this was an effective plan or a "good first step". As long as there is such uncritical, widespread support for Liberals in the black community they can expect no better. The situation is not much different that caused by the overwhelming support by blacks of the Democrats in the US. Written off by the other parties, and taken for granted by the party they support, no one works to earn their vote. Hardly a receipe for change.

Until the community gets a lot more critical about who they vote for, they shouldn't expect anything better.

Montreal Global Warming Summit

From Rex Murphy at CBC:

The bigger disconnect at this monster seminar goes further than rhetoric, however. It's that Canada's the host of this sequel to Kyoto, and that Canada's performance since Kyoto – and remember, we signed on – is at this date, 24 per cent higher than our 1990 levels. According to our commitment, we're aiming for six per cent lower. So as of 2005, there's a 30 per cent spread from what we've promised and what we've done so far.

The U.S., which didn't sign on, is only thirteen per cent higher than its 1990 levels. Still, around the world, the U.S. is the villain for not signing on, while countries like ours, who talk a virtuous environmental line and host King-Kong-scale conferences to celebrate our commitment, pose as the planet's dearest lovers. Perhaps Kyoto is Japanese for hypocrisy.

Christian Peacemaker Teams

As of this writing there is still no word on the fate of the four members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams being held by the latest Islamic pschopaths. However, regardless of their fate, I'm pretty sick of hearing about how these are "peace activists" when they are nothing of the sort. Their selectivity in who they seek to protect says it all. Did they stand as shields to the Kurds when Saddam gassed them? Did they record witness statements when he was tossing people into shredders? Are they active in China? How about North Korea? Any sign of them in Darfur?

To quote Upper Canada Catholic:

These "peacemakers" are nothing of the kind. They're just a bunch of left-wing rabble using the Gospels as cover for an anti-American, anti-free market, anti-Israel agenda.

Expose these frauds. Now.

Banning Handguns

I don't know where I got this from but it fits perfectly. My apologies to the original author.

If you actually and truly believe that banning handguns is going to work.....

I cannot believe how incredibly stupid you are. I mean rock-hard stupid. Dehydrated-rock-hard stupid. World-class, A-1, top of the heap, triple whopper with cheese, supersized stupid. So stupid that it goes way beyond the stupid we know into a whole different dimension of stupid. One-of-a-kind, global, universal, intergalactic stupid. You are trans-stupid stupid. Meta-stupid. Stupid collapsed on itself so far that even the neutrons have collapsed. Stupid so dense that no intellect can escape. Singularly, extraordinarily, incredibly, bewilderingly stupid. Blazing hot mid-day sun on Mercury stupid. You emit more stupid in one second than our entire galaxy emits in a year. Quasar stupid. Your life is a monument to stupidity. I am breathless that anyone or anything in our universe can really be this stupid. You are a primordial fragment from the original big bang of stupid. Some pure essence of a stupid so uncontaminated by anything else as to be beyond the laws of stupidity that we know. A behemoth, a leviathan, a colossus of stupidity.

Foaming Over The Handgun Ban

I always like a good old fashioned RANT!!! and N=1 has a fine one;

Let's take Grit's comments from above one by one.

Bold? Bullshit. Bold would be: concealed carry laws. Bold would be: immediate deportation of landed immigrants found guilty of violent crimes. Bold would be: cancelling the gun registry (for a Liberal). Bold is certainly not saying "oooooh, guns BAAAD" which in Canada is about as bold as saying "Americans are fat!"

Smart? Bullshit. Does anyone honestly believe that "banning" handguns will reduce by any measurable number the quantity of gun-related deaths in Canada?

[pause for deep cleansing breath]

I don't like to insult people simply on the basis of their opinions. I'm not as arrogant as I once was, and I know that smart people can differ on any number of things. I know as well that no-one has ever been convinced of the error of their ways by insult.

But:

If you believe that banning handguns will make our streets safer, then you are a fucking shit-for-brains dumbass.

(...........)

If a plurality of Canadians votes to re-install that mendacious parasite Paul Martin in 24 Sussex next month, this country is well and truly fucked. I will become a Western Separatist about 5 minutes later.

Any country stupid enough to vote for this feculent nonsense is not a country I can belong to any more.

If you vote for this garbage, you can go fuck yourself.

Read it all here.

Keep Poking That Bear

From CTV:

U.S. summons McKenna over Martin remarks

And CBC

Washington furious over Martin's climate change comments

Even the Toronto Star thinks it smells:

Kyoto speech exposes Prime Minister's hypocrisy

We've done nothing about climate change and about global warming except talk. For us to now preach at others is pure hypocrisy.

The evidence is unimpeachable.

According to a report by the U.N.'s climate-change secretariat that was released just before the Montreal meeting began, Canada's performance on greenhouse gas emissions is close to the worst in the world.

Under Kyoto, we, (and all other signatories) are pledged to reduce our emission by the period 2008 to 2012 to 6 per cent less than our levels in 1990. Instead of going down, our emissions have gone up — by a whopping one-quarter (24.2 per cent), by the end of 2003.

This is the sixth-worst performance in the world. Only one other large country, Spain, has performed worse than us.

Worse by far, in the light of Martin's opportunistic moralism, the U.S. has done far better than us. Its rate of emissions is also up, but only by a cumulative 13.3 per cent, roughly half as much as ours.

Questioned by reporters, Environmental Minister Stéphane Dion said our record was caused by our rapid economic growth during the period.

True. Except that the United States has had a faster economic growth rate than we did during the same period and has done better in terms of its emissions.

Things Get Hotter At The Ministry Of Finance

First Goodale says there is no leak and he can't ask the securities commission to investigate because that would be interference (see it's only intetrference if Liberals are being asked to have themselves investigated, no such problem with the Mulroney/Airbuss allegations).

Then Bill Gleberzon, the Director of Government & Media Relations for Canada's Association for the Fifty Plus (CARP), tells CTV that he got a call from a senior policy advisor in the finance minister's office on the morning of Nov. 23, telling him that there would be an announcement on the issue later that day.

Gleberzon and CARP then claimed "At no time was CARP given an indication by the Minister's office of when the announcement would be made or what it would say" Gleberzon confirmed what he had said in the previous interview, but said he had misspoken. He also said that no one from the finance had contacted him about the interview.

When told that the finance ministry's communications director (Embury) had admitted to calling him Wednesday night, he flips again saying "I did speak to him …. I shouldn't have said that I didn't, but I did"

Gleberzon claims now that Embury told him: "We don't want to coach you, we don't want to tell you what to say, we just want to know what to prepare for."

Later in a phone call with CTV Embury said Gleberzon was old and confused.

Read the full article at CTV

Martin Goes After US On Climate Change

Gee, Liberals going after the US. We all knew this was coming, just a matter of when. You can cut the hypocrisy with a knife.

From the Toronto Star:

Martin fails to budge U.S.

The United States yesterday rebuffed an emotional plea by Prime Minister Paul Martin to join the international effort to fight climate change.
(....)
"Yet there are nations that resist, voices that attempt to diminish the urgency" of action to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that warm the atmosphere," he said. "Let me tell you, it is our problem to solve. We are in this together."

And now back to reality.

From Mark Steyn in The Daily Telegraph;

Despite signing on to Kyoto, European greenhouse gas emissions have increased since 2001, whereas America's emissions have fallen by nearly one per cent, despite the Toxic Texan's best efforts to destroy the planet.

And how about Canada's performance?

Also from Steyn in The Daily Telegraph

Canada remains fully committed to its obligation to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions by six per cent of its 1990 figure by 2008.

That's great to know, isn't it? So how's it going so far?

Well, by the end of 2003, Canada's greenhouse-gas emissions were up 24.2 per cent.
(...)
Signing Kyoto is nothing to do with reducing "global warming" so much as advertising one's transnational moral virtue. America could reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions by 87 per cent and Canada could increase them by 673 per cent and the latter would still be a "good citizen of the world" (in the Prime Minister's phrase) while "Polluter Bush" would still be in the dog house, albeit a solar-powered one.

Dog Genome Mapped, Shows Similarities to Humans

Could be a decendant of Caudine de Culam.

Charting LISPOP - Update

I won't be providing any more LISPOP charts as there is a new feature on the LISPOP site - charting its projection trends since early November, 2005.

There's a link here and on the right sidebar of this page under POLLING ANALYSIS/SEAT PROJECTIONS.

Who Said It ?

Who can identify the following excerpt;

You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream-the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, "The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.

UPDATE

The answer is Ronald Regan, in his speech called Time To Choose, given in support of Barry Goldwater, Oct 1, 1964.

Blueright got this 1 hour and 24 minutes after it was posted.

Why I Believe What I Believe

This is a 1995 Rolling Stone article by P.J. O'Rourke posted on the Free Republic site in 2003. Every so often I dig it out and reread it. No one blends humour and politics like O'Rourke. Read it here.

Why Worry About Global Warming When We Have This...

A gigantic honkin' asteroid headed towards earth with a 1 in 5,500 chance of hitting us in 2036.

From The Guardian:

...would release more than 100,000 times the energy released in the nuclear blast over Hiroshima. Thousands of square kilometres would be directly affected by the blast but the whole of the Earth would see the effects of the dust released into the atmosphere.

And, scientists insist, there is actually very little time left to decide. At a recent meeting of experts in near-Earth objects (NEOs) in London, scientists said it could take decades to design, test and build the required technology to deflect the asteroid.

This is a job for International Rescue.

Some Perspective On Spending

For the average person the numbers being thrown around in a political campaign can quickly become incomprehensible and there is no real feeling for the scale of the proposed expenditures. Here's a few handy comparisons to get a feel for just how big these numbers are.

If you count by one number per second it takes about 11.6 days to count to a million. It takes about 31.7 years to count to a billion.

If you cover a surface with loonies, each loonie covers approximately one square inch. A million dollars would cover two nice building lots of about 40 feet by 87 feet each. If there are 50 lots on each block, you would need 40 blocks to lay out a billion dollars.

If your caloric intake is 1800 calories per day, a million calories will keep you going for a little over 1.5 years. A billion calories will sustain you for 1,521 years. That means if you started eating when Justinian of Byzantine was born in 483 A.D. you just be finishing now.

I've looked in the mirror and I'm impressed, says face op patient

Welcome to my world.

Maude Barlow Gets "Nobel Lite"

From the Globe And Mail:

The chairwoman of the Council of Canadians will be introduced to the Swedish monarch on Thursday when she receives the Swedish Parliament's prestigious Right Livelihood Award.

The award, known familiarly as the "alternative Nobel," was established in 1980 "to honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today.

Barlow works tirelessly to turn Canada into an isolationist backwater. She's every bit as misguided as that paragon of international relations, Jimmy Carter, so I don't know why she has to settle for second best.

Martin's Plan - Stiff The Provinces Again

If case anyone missed it, Martin has confirmed that his intent was to stick the provinces with the ongoing cost of his national daycare once the initial spending is completed. From the Globe and Mail:

The previous $5-billion Liberal plan, which runs through 2010, has resulted in signed agreements with all 10 provinces. The conditions vary from province to province -- and Quebec, which offers universal daycare at $7 a day, does not have to meet any conditions to collect the money.

Mr. Martin said Tuesday the Liberals would commit an additional $6-billion when the first allotment runs out.

"Like medicare, our early-learning and child-care program will be a lasting addition to our social foundation," Mr. Martin said this morning at a YWCA child care facility in Saint John, N.B. "Towards that end, we are immediately announcing the financing of the program through to the year 2015."

In other words, just like health care, once the system is thoroughly entrenched, the feds will feel free to reduce their contribution, leaving the provinces to find the money to keep the system afloat. You can be sure the federal level would control the program, they just wouldn’t pay for it. It’s the Canada Health Act all over again.

And furthermore, as per my previous post, I’d be surprised if $5 billion will even remotely cover the costs in the second 5 years of this program.

Olivia Resigns - Well Maybe, But Not Yet

Looks like I spoke too soon.

From CTV:

Olivia Chow is coming under fire for running in the federal election while actively voting on motions in Toronto City Council.

When Chow decided to run in Trinity-Spadina for the New Democrats, she promised to resign her council seat. It was a change from 2004 when she kept her seat and ran federally.

However, Chow was in city hall on Monday and even brought forward a motion for council to consider.

Charting LISPOP

Here's a first attempt at charting the LISPOP seat projections. It's not great but I'll try to improve it as we go along.

Note: Early Oct. is pre Gomery and Nov 1 - 3 is post Gomery.

Pat O'Brien Bitchslaps Martin

After 12 years as a Liberal, Pat O'Brien (London-Fanshawe) left to sit as an independent and helped defeat Martin's government in the confidence vote last week.

From The London Free Press:

The Conservative leader "could be quite a good prime minister, quite frankly," O'Brien said. "There's every reason to expect (that).

"It's certain that the current holder of that office has been a great disappointment to a great many people," he said, referring to Paul Martin.

Harper Hits Another Home Run

Harper continues to set the agenda in this campaign, announcing the CPC plank on child care.

.... a new $1,200 per year Choice in Child Care Allowance for children under six, and a $250 million Community Childcare Investment Program for capital assistance for new childcare spaces. The Choice in Child Care Allowance will apply to an estimated 2 million children of pre-school age.

“The Liberal plan sends money to provincial governments. The total cost of our plan will be $10.9 billion over five years, which is $4.7 billion more than the Liberals are planning,” said Harper. “Our plan provides money directly to parents. You can spend that money the way you see fit. You can choose the child care option that best suits your family’s needs.”

OK. More equitable, more efficiently delivered, doesn’t create a massive bureaucracy. But what about the cost?

On the face of it this plan will cost considerably more than that offered by the Liberals ($10.9 billion vs $6.2 billion) but in actuality it will almost certainly cost less.

There are two main reasons that Harper’s plan will be cheaper.

1) Harper’s plan is paid directly to parents regardless of what they do with it. It becomes “their money” and we all know that people are better stewards of their own money than someone else’s. By not holding parents hostage and compelling them to use the state sanctioned day care system, they can react to changes in the market. If the local daycare unionizes and threaten to strike, parents can look at other options, including leaving junior with grandma, without being financially penalized. When the customer is mobile, costs are better controlled.

2) The second benefit is that the cost is more or less completely predictable. It doesn’t create a massive bureaucracy, it largely bypasses the provinces so they can’t get their sticky fingers on it and it doesn’t have to change if costs fluctuate, just like the current baby bonus. Think I’m wrong? Then consider this:

From Fighting For Taxpayers;

The final price tag for Quebec's day care program is 33 times what was originally projected: It was supposed to cost $230 million over five years, but now gobbles $1.7 billion every year. With this kind of spending, one would think that Quebec was offering top-notch day care to every tot, toddler and teen.

Think again.

Much of the increased spending has gone not toward increased access, but increased costs. Day care worker unions, on the threat of strike, negotiated a 40 percent increase in wages over four years. The cost of care has doubled since the program began, with the annual per-infant cost now exceeding $15,000.

Besides unions, the other major reason for the skyrocketing costs is that when people don't pay the full price for a service, they consume more of it -- what economists call the problem of the moral hazard: Quebecois taxpayers pay 80 to 90 percent of the cost of care, requiring parents to pitch in only $7 a day.

Such low co-pays have encouraged mothers who might otherwise have stayed at home with their newborns to return to work. But any hope that the program would be able to meet the demand that it created was doomed right from the start, because it banned new centers and barred existing ones from participating, decimating the private day care market. (It has since reversed this policy). Literally overnight, long lines of desperate parents vying for a "free" day care spot emerged. Parents registered babies yet to be conceived. And when they did land a spot, they paid their $7-a-day to hold it -- even if they were months away from using it.

(...)

Many low-income parents, who lost their child care tax deductions in order to finance the program, have been crowded out by middle- and upper-income parents more savvy at negotiating the system. According to research by Peter Shawn Taylor for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, half of Quebec's day care spaces are taken by families in the top 30 percent income bracket.

Harper Not So Bad Says Layton

Jack Layton has had a taste of calling the shots and wants to be sure he gets the chance to do so again. To do this he needs to chip away at Liberal support and ensure that he doesn't demonize Harper so much that his suporters jump to the Liberals. Thus, this time around instead of Harper being the Great Satan, he's no longer scary, just inept.

From the NDP perspective the optimal result is a minority Liberal government that needs the NDP to achieve 155 votes. However a CPC minority that could turn to the NDP instead of the Bloc for support could work for Jack as well. So, to get a chance at driving his agenda, Jack has to convince his supporters to stick with him and not run to the Liberals to defeat "scary" Harper. Let the Liberals and CPC fight it out and Jack will be kingmaker.

The health care debate is a good example of how he and Harper avoid butting heads. Harper proposes a system wherein all covered services are paid by the government but allows private suppliers. Layton wants to ensure no one pays to jump the line. No conflict here. (As an aside, Martin doesn't comment because as we all know, he's already solved the healthcare problem "for a generation". Who knew he meant a generation of mayflies.)

UPDATE

I see Angry in the Great White North agrees and has expanded on the premise. Read it here.

The Polls Are Shifting

As we all know, the magic number to form a sustainable government/coalition is 155. LISPOP analysis puts the Liberal/NDP combined count at 150 in late November but the latest results for Nov 28 - Dec 1 polls has them down to 145. When I get some time I'll start charting the 4 main parties (sorry Greens) so we can see where the momentum is.

Electoral Prognostication

Mark Steyn at SteynOnline is runing a contest to test your electoral predictive skills. Post your own entry here.

Here's the questions with my predictions below.

«1«FINAL SCORE - WHO'LL BE THE NEXT GOVERNMENT OF CANADA?
When all the votes are tallied, the deranged Dominion will have a new government. Will it be...?

a) A majority Liberal government
b) A majority Conservative government
c) A minority Liberal government
d) A minority Conservative government
e) A Liberal/NDP coalition or formal Parliamentary arrangement
f) A Conservative/Bloc coalition or formal Parliamentary arrangement

«2«WHITHER DITHERS? - HOW BIG A CAUCUS WILL PAUL MARTIN HAVE?
There will be 308 seats in the new Canadian House of Commons. How many will the Liberal Party win?

«3«FULL HOUSE - DIVIDE THE SPOILS
Question 2 too easy? Then let us know not just how many seats the Liberal Party will win, but also how many will be won by the Conservatives, the Bloc and the NDP.

«4«ETOBICOKE UKRAINOPHOBE SPECIAL! - WILL THE SAVIOUR OF OUR COUNTRY SQUEAK THROUGH?
The prodigal son Michael Ignatieff returned to Canada after decades abroad to find the Liberal Party carving up the fatted calf of Etobicoke-Lakeshore just for him. Unfortunately, the riding's Ukrainian community is unhappy with certain remarks he made in a long-ago book. Will they sink his prospects? We want you to tell us the proportion of the vote he'll receive from Ontario voters.


«5«DOUBLE JEOPARDY - THE CENTRAL CANADA TRAP
What Ontario giveth, will Quebec take away? The argument after the last vote was that the Bloc had won so many seats last time it had nothing to gain from an early election. But, with the Gomery report, Gilles Duceppe reckons he can squeeze the Liberal redoubts of la belle province even harder. If he does, that will only increase the Grits' dependence on Ontario, where even very modest Tory gains could end Paul Martin's premiership. We all know Ontarians will flirt with the big scary Tories for a few weeks and then come home to their Liberal Nanny. But don't let that stop your wildest fantasies. We want to know how many seats the Liberals will lose in Ontario and how many in Quebec?

«6«THE BIG SHOWDOWN - HED OR FINGERS?
This is the epic battle we're all watching - the Liberals' Hedy Fry vs the NDP's Svend Robinson in Vancouver Centre: A Klan fantasist vs a gay kleptocrat in the grand death match of da Canadian values. Will Hedy singe Svend's nimble fingers? Or will Svend swipe a can of gasoline and light up a grand old cross on Hedy's lawn? Or who knows? Henry Kissinger said of the Iran/Iraq war it's a pity they can't both lose. But, under our system, they could! Predict first, second and third place in Vancouver Centre plus the percentages of the votes and you could win!


Here’s my predictions

1. f) A Conservative/Bloc coalition or formal Parliamentary arrangement

2. Liberals will win 121

3. Liberals 121
CPC 103
NDP 23
Bloc 61

4. Ignatieff will get 37 % of the vote

5. The Liberals will lose 8 seats in Ontario and 7 seats in Quebec

6. NDP 37.6 %
Lib 36.2 %
CPC 26.2 %

Liberals On The Defensive

Harper seems to be setting the agenda, leaving the Liberals to react to his proposals. In spite of a some issues of jurisdiction, I think the special prosecutor idea has some merit, although it needs to be more divorced from political interference. It's not like politically motivated prosecutions haven't happened before (remember the Mulroney/Airbus case) and we need to protect against these.

The latest promise to cut the GST has put Martin in the position of having to defend it even though he was one of the authors of the 1993 promised to scrap it.

From the Toronto Star

Martin forced to defend GST

MONTREAL — The GST tables have been turned on the Liberals.

They won power 12 years ago promising to eliminate it and have suddenly been transformed into champions of the unpopular consumption tax.

Prime Minister Paul Martin was flooded with questions today about a Conservative plan to slash the goods and services tax to five per cent from seven per cent — and he repeatedly defended the levy.

“I don’t believe that is the path to follow,” he said of the Tory plan.

“Canadians have been down this road before. They’ve heard this story.”

They heard it in 1993 — when Martin himself co-authored the Liberal red book that promised to scrap the tax. The Liberals backed away from the promise once they took office, and now find themselves swapping roles with the Tories.

...........

The Conservatives also plan to lower personal taxes and corporate taxes. The GST announcement is only one part of their intended tax plan, party officials say.

................

Martin admitted that the Conservative GST plan could be affordable, depending on what else his opponents propose.

What's next? When the Liberals realize that no one believes their policy pronouncements all they will have left is personal attacks and then things will get really nasty.

Light Blogging

I've been at a real estate industry forum and trade show for most of the past week and the event itself, coupled with the smoozing and receptions, hasn't left much time to write.

The election as been launched and the first salvos fired. I'll be starting my commentary over the next few days.

I see a few of you my previous regular readers have been checking out the site. Thanks for keeping me in mind.