The story of the week is, of course, Justin Trudeau's "Senate Shocker".
It's amazing how many people who know absolutely nothing about what
this means are able to jump to some stupendous conclusions.
Liberals - This will solve all our problems with the Senate and proves that Trudeau is a political genius.
Conservatives - This is a disingenuous move that will never work.
NDP - This was our idea.
Preston Manning - Oh...who really cares what Preston Manning thinks these days?
The Harper Government has decided that Canada doesn't really need to know the truth about CSEC spying on Canadians (via airport Wifi), and crafted a rambling, information-less, wrong on many accounts, non-denial of the CBC story.
Let's talk about conflict of interest, because the Conservatives seem unaware of what this means. Leona Aglukkaq held a fundraiser where she took money from the people that receive funding from her Ministry. And, this one is a bit murkier...Mark Strahl's wife is an investor in her father-in-laws (or, Mark Stahl's Dad) consulting company which is engaged in lobbying on behalf of Enbridge? Or something like that. These people are dirty.
The Conservative Government has declined half of the Parliamentary Budget Officers requests for information. Which is an interesting interpretation of "open and transparent".
Keystone XL moves one step closer to reality, as the US State Department gives it the environmental okay. With temporary foreign workers hauling the oil out of the earth and foreign companies shipping it to the USA to be processed, this doesn't seem like a big win for Canada.
Not only are the Conservatives destroying libraries, they're spending
money to make it happen. Not a lot of money...but it still seems crazy to spend $22,000 to get rid of a bunch of resources. Elizabeth May thinks the whole thing might be illegal under the Library and Archives Act of Canada. And as we dig deeper and deeper in to this sordid mess, we find out that over 12 ministries are having their libraries cut/destroyed/culled.
How do you explain an MP proposing a simple, rationale bill to
give Canadians some kind of idea as to whether or not mining companies
are propping up despotic governments or supporting foreign wars...only
to have it laughed out of Parliament? Even though many mining companies
are on board with the plan. And even though similar regulations
already exist in the US and many Canadians already report this under
their regulations. And even though PM Harper promised that Canada would
introduce a law to this effect.
Garth Turner, whose blog you should read if you are in to investing or
thinking about buying Real Estate, points out that Canada didn't create 21,000 jobs in November. It lost 27,000 jobs. Which is a bit of a
swing.
A study has determined that income splitting will help the rich more than the poor. I think they're going to study the effect of yacht and
luxury car prices on the poor next. Perhaps the same people behind that study are behind this one? It's just as useless. If you
project out the last elections voting patterns, the Conservatives majority would grow. No shit. Of course the Conservatives created more
ridings to benefit themselves. And...who cares, because the voting
landscape is totally different.
The Conservatives foreign University student dream doesn't seem all that well thought out.
Stephen Harper linked a Canadian Muslim group to Hamas and
"terrorism". Sounds like without proof. They're kind of pissed about it.
Oil fumes around tanks in Alberta are causing families to move out of their homes. But I'll bet they have jobs!
An Oil Lobbyist was hired to oversee the transfer of the Experimental Lakes Area?
Dean Del Mastro has decided to start criticizing the Conservatives on monetary policy. Which is pretty interesting.
Speculation that Stephen Harper's trip to Israel could help the Conservatives in 10 tight ridings come the next election.
You'd probably think this one should be higher up...but I'm not sure what to think. The Conservatives have started closing Veterans Services Offices, but claim they aren't cutting services. There was reference to some offices only seeing a handful of veterans every month. If it is true that they can actually up services by closing offices and investing the funds in other ways, then I'm okay with that. But is that the truth? I don't trust these guys. And neither do veterans. And they certainly aren't fans of Julian Fantino, who skipped out on a meeting with key veterans to discuss these plans.
This sounds like a pretty lame way to make a point, but I know protesters in the Ukraine have
asked governments to do so...Canada has decided to ban certain high level Ukrainians from traveling to Canada.
More Americaland links. First, if you've ever flown through the USofA, this story will make you hate the airport pornoscanners even more. TSA
agents gawking at your junk? Yes. Making fun of fat people? Yes.
Afraid of all the "safe" radiation? Yes. A very interesting read. Make sure you click through to the main article.
And
then there's this guy. Just a meth-addicted White Supremacist with a
large cache of automatic weapons who likes to fire them in the Baker
National Forest. Fuck...I'm going to Whistler instead.
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