Online Arguments - Week 40 - Jan 30-Feb 6

John Baird gets the photo this week.  Way to go, man!

I'm sure everybody heard about this, but Jason Kenney's office decided to send some staff members to pose as recent immigrants when they couldn't find enough real immigrants to go along with their Sun News photo op/story.  The surprising thing?  They actually apologized.  I dig their disguises as well, with three of them wearing the same T-shirt.

Sticking with the Ministers doing weird and stupid things theme, last week I think it was, somebody at the Globe and Mail wrote an article that our good buddy John Baird didn't like.  I would imagine this probably happens quite frequently.  And I can only think that it's good government policy to not respond to every story that angers you.  But our good buddy John Baird decided to write a column in response.  Which seems kind of crazy.  If the guy is as out to lunch as John Baird claims, then why respond?  It seems crazy.  Like if Obama suddenly decided to cave in and provide everybody with even more proof of his birth certificate.  You're just feeding the lunacy.  What?  He did?  Oh, and then John Baird invokes Godwin's Law and brings Hitler in to the argument.

Nunavut has decided that Tough On Crime is kind of a dumb thing that will cost a lot of money.  When a place that experiences 24-hour darkness and that uses frozen rivers as major highways thinks that something is a bad idea, you should probably listen.

Stupid experts.  What do these "economists" know about the economy anyhow?  Now is the perfect time to cut funding to everything and anything.  There's no election to win.

After that, Boingboing points to an article that shows that the entertainment industry has experienced some pretty okay years recently.  Even growing while the rest of the economy was in recession.  Could constantly asking for more and more and more finally prove to be a poor strategy as even the mouth breather catch on to the fact that some of this stuff is crazy?  Wait, now, these same companies are pushing for SOPA style additions to Canada's copyright legislation...because it worked out so well in the US.

More Copyright.  Tom the Dancing Bug uses God Man to take on Copyright.  Pretty good stuff.

The F-35 has a few more problems.  It doesn't sound like anything serious, but it's feeling a bit Unsafe at Any Speed.

Stephen Harper has shown his hand for how he plans on dealing with the Senate.  Appoint idiots until everybody agrees that the Senate is a bad idea.  This guy suggests that we encourage convicted murderers to hang themselves.  Not surprisingly, a shocking number of people agree with him.  Which, of course, justifies the point of view.  Everybody knows that a 600 person mob legitimizes any behaviour.

And finally...How dare you point out the fact that we're threatening to do something that people won't like.  This is all your fault, Liberals and NDP.  Not ours for threatening to change pensions.

Ducking and Weaving - Week 30 - Nov 21-28

So, people have figured out that you're a liar.  Tony Clement appears to get caught red-handed in the G8 spending debacle.  I really appreciate that there is a spelling mistake in the letter that his consituency office sent out seeking projects.  Of course, somehow the Conservatives will figure out a way to express outrage and blame the question answerer.

A story about the conditions of a James Bay reserve.  There's some interesting points raised in the comments.  I think this specific issue should be treated as a symptom rather than the problem.  But if this isn't a sign that our system in Canada is broken, I'm not sure what is.

Nobody is saying that the $47-Billion stimulus spend was a bad idea...they're just saying that we probably should have figured out a way to measure the effects of the spending.  The Conservatives disagree, of course, as they have some numbers that they created...?  I'm going to believe the Auditor General here, just because it helps forward my nefarious left wing agenda.

Canada becomes a part of what will most likely turn into an Iranian debacle.  What's the solution?  I have no idea.  This would probably be a whole lot easier if the last 10-12 years didn't happen.

I like to call this the Sarah Palining of politics - where no matter what the question is, you say whatever it is that you want to say as an answer.  Anyhow, apparently our Minister of Environment doesn't know what ozone is.

More bad news on the fighter jets as it sounds like there are some relatively major technical questions that have not been answered.  There's still some time to sort this stuff out, so I wouldn't be too concerned.  But still.  Software that would prevent the planes from bombing friendly troops sounds important enough to delay things.  It seems odd that we would have to wait until 2019 for this feature.

More bad news on the Omnibus crime bill.  "Dear Quebec:  We only care about what you have to say when we're begging for votes.  By the way.  You voted NDP.  Suck it.  Sincerely, Steve."  And...even the jerks who came up with the idea don't know how much the whole thing will cost.

Other people think the destruction of the gun registry is a bit dodgy.  The "Information Commissioner" weighs in.  Stupid civil servants getting in the way of progress!  Gawd.

Holy shit!  Are you kidding me?  The Conservatives want to make it easier for people to conduct a "citizen's arrest" and easier to claim "self defense"?  Ya, there's no chance that this is going to lead to anything bad.  This is not the direction that we want to go in.

Sometimes I love the Huffington Post.  A Conservative MP dozes off in the House of Commons as one of his buddies drones on.

There's just all sorts of things to feel a bit confused by on this.  Free trade with New Zealand.  Dairy tariffs.  It seems like in this day and age of global warming, imported dairy from New Zealand probably isn't the most responsible thing to do.

Laying Waste - Week 21 - Sept 19-26

It's the first week back in Parliament and Stephen Harper isn't even there.  He is busy in New York trying to prove that he is relevant on the international stage with his comments on Palestine.  He even earned a thank-you from Israel.

He also took some time to talk about the Keystone pipeline, and explained that it should be a "no brainer" for the US to approve it.  He's right.  Why wouldn't the US want a pipeline that magically gets filled with our raw, un-processed oil products?  Why would we agree to do this for them?  This is crazy, for so many reasons.  "Ethical Oil" and all that.  On a similar note, the Saudis are getting a little bit tired about the whole thing and the Canadian Government proves that they're nothing more than an industry mouthpiece.

First on the agenda, the Omnibus Crime Bill.  Stats Canada just revealed that our crime rates are the lowest that they've been since the 1970's.  Sounds like a good time to announce sweeping "fixes".  There's a good editorial here.

As well, the Tories have announced a $20-Million dollar contract (or $90,000 a day,as the Globe puts it) to "save money".  They didn't really follow standard government tendering protocols either.  Sometimes you have to spend money to save money...so I won't be too critical.

The former Chief Statistician comes out swinging over the decision to scrap the mandatory long form census.  Pssh.  Experts.  What do they know?  I mean...this guy probably only spent years in school and his entire career working on statistics and demographics, determining the best way to formulate a coherent picture of the make-up of our country so that we can best design government policy.  Why would his opinion matter?  More here and here.

Government waste doesn't count when it's your government doing the waste.  Apparently Peter Mackay used a search-and-rescue helicopter to fly home from a vacation at a remote fishing lodge.  But it's okay, because he was participating in a "search-and-rescue" demonstration.  A demonstration put together at the last minute.  At his request.  But he cut his vacation short because of it.  Oh...And a Challenger jet flight home on the same day.  I think Peter McKay is one of the better Conservatives out there...although it's kind of his fault we had the merger, isn't it?...it sounds like he had some support from military brass based on this link.  But it's still kind of stupid.

The Conservatives start to get serious on their talk about reducing/eliminating funding for the CBC.  I love that they go on Sun News to talk about it.

And speaking of dismantling...I don't really understand what the wheat board does.  I can wrap my head around the basics of why it might be desirable.  I can't for the life of me decide why somebody would put energy into getting rid of it.

At least Christy Clark isn't our Prime Minister - Week 17 - Aug 22-29

Thank God for Wikileaks. The American Ambassador tends to say what we're all thinking. Here, he points out that Stephen Harper's trip to China (Circa 2007) didn't accomplish much except to "placate Canadian Business leaders". Bit of a theme there, no?

Turns out the Government didn't prevent a scientist from talking about her potentially critical fish farm work.

I'm not sure what I think of Canada's decision to skip the next World's Fair in South Korea. On one hand...I mean...would you have noticed if South Korea never showed up to Expo '86? On the other hand...I mean ten million dollars? Sounds like the cost of being a country, to me. Maybe we'll ask for our UN dues back next?

In BC News...Iain Black, who is apparently our now-Former Labour Minister, announces that he is quitting to become CEO for the Vancouver Board of Trade. "It would be a mistake to take away from this any notion that this is about turning my back on my colleages, my premier or my government." Really? What else is it? I also notice that he doesn't mention turning his back on the people that voted him in. Honestly, short of illness or family matters...how can you quit your job as an elected representative? You got elected on a promise to represent your riding and your voters. You knew that this was a four year commitment. It is not okay to quit because a sweet job opportunity comes along. Even if it's with Fox News. Okay...he thanks the riding here...but this is still a loser move.

So. Let's talk about the HST a bit. It kind of feels like we just shot the driver of the car that we're riding in. We showed him that we aren't very happy about the trip that we've embarked on, but it's probably not going to work out too well for us either. I did vote against the HST...but man is this every going to be terrible. Who knew that revenge wouldn't leave me feeling satisfied?

But, as I think about this a bit more and read the stories about how stupid British Columbia is...I think we all need to remember where the blame for this falls. This is 100% the fault of the BC Liberal government. They could have mentioned this massive tax change during their election campaign. They could have done something to address some of the no-longer-tax-exempt products. They could have actually tried to explain the benefits of the tax than in hoping it would go away and assuming we would roll over and accept it. They could have not allowed the whole thing to go to a referendum. They could have announced their 2% tax roll-back before it became nothing more than an attempt to buy the referendum. They could have not tried to pull one over on the Province with how they ran the election and funded it. It was all just so badly done, nobody is at fault but the Liberals. That they've now cost the Province billions and we're back to where we started is absolutely nobodies fault but the current BC Governments.

Goodbye Jack - Week 16 - Aug 15-22

Wow. Jack Layton is dead. I don't think that I ever voted for the man myself (Vancouver Quadra is about as strategic as it comes...every vote has to count to keep the Conservatives out of this riding). But I always enjoyed his crazy optimism and passionate pursuit of what he believed in. I always thought that if he could have just shifted things a few degrees he would have been an unstoppable force. It's kind of nice that he was able to experience a pretty dramatic election "victory" before passing on. The strangest thing...I swear to god we saw Joy Macpheil standing outside the Darby's Cold Beer and Wine Store last night...like some sort of harbinger of doom.

The Conservatives start the week by taking on one of the real challenges facing this country: Lack of royal identity within the military. Yes, Peter Mackay has caught the royal fever and added the "Royal" back in to our military titles. Now, I don't want you to think that I'm one of these people that says things like "how can you worry about X when there's starving children in Africa!" I believe that human beings are capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time, so taking on more than one problem should be alright. But this is just such a tremendous waste of time. I really don't get it. It offends me that this is a story.

Speaking of offensive...Harper makes gains in best Prime Minster rankings? Good lord. I thought...I thought...Oh man.

It's only taken a few months of killings and Obama to jump on board, but Stephen Harper thinks that the Syrian President should resign.

It's been a good couple of weeks for professional associations in Canada. Last week, lawyers told Stephen Harper his tough-on-crime agenda was stupid. This week, a group of doctors are encouraging a Conservative MP to respect her Hippocratic Oath and help change Conservative policy on asbestos. I think that's pretty awesome.

I heard about this story a few months ago. A North Vancouver man was arrested in Mexico and held without charge for 3 years (or so). They were rallying to try to get somebody from the Federal Government to help them out. They weren't having much luck. It seems like the Harper Government policy is that if you're accused of a crime in another country, you're on your own. Well, good news. The man was released. So if a Mexican judge can look at the evidence and decide that he's not guilty, you'd think that there would be enough doubt that the Canadian Government would deem him worthy of some sort of assistance?

Some BC Politics...I'm not a huge fan of politicizing the courts and criminal complaints. I happen to agree with Jim Chu that it might take some time to adequately sort out all of the charges related to the Stanley Cup Riot and that we will be better served by this in the end. I happen to think that the UK convicting and throwing people in jail within days of the riot is a bit scary and something I'd expect in Syria, not England. And I happen to think that Christy Clark should shut up and let the justice system do it's job without making political statements that will make it tougher for everybody to do their jobs. Because this (dramatic spikes in prison population, excessively harsh sentencing) doesn't sound like the way to do things.

It's Really Happening - Week 5 - May 30-June6

This really makes me angry. One of Stephen Harper's top campaign managers just made a speech claiming the Conservatives won the election because they spoke directly to the average Canadians and didn't pander to the "elites". Hey, I guess if it works for Sarah Palin... Why bother with all that policy and question-answering nonsense? He also blames Michael Ignatieff for not responding well to all of their attack ads. "His failure to define himself was his choice." So, roughly "Sure, I guess it's my fault that I shot you in the face, but you didn't do a very good job of going to the hospital to get it fixed."

As well, we have the Conservatives dropping hints of new things to come out of their next policy convention. We'll have the Omar Kadhr Rule, whereby you'll lose your citizenship if you're accused of high treason. How will that work? Seems like a bit of a catch-22 if the government that you hope will support you in your defense walks away before you can formulate a defense. As well, rumblings about explicit rejection of euthanasia and a "severe crackdown" on prostitution, in order to "declare that human beings are not objects to be enslaved, bought and sold." Ya, forcing prostitution further underground is going to dramatically improve things for those that are enslaved. And why are the religious right so concerned about somebody ending their own pain and suffering?

Moving along, Chuck Strahl pen's a ridiculous piece of tripe posing as "advice to my son, the new MP". I guess the Globe and Mail is hard up for content. Let's read between the lines:
"you made a decision to run for office" - I retired after getting my full pension so that you could have an easy seat while the getting was good
"charted a course" - did exactly what I did
"worked hard" - avoided debates and towed the party line
"and got yourself elected" - because even a coat rack could have gotten itself elected as the Conservative candidate in this riding
And that's just the first sentence!


Building on that, the Conservatives are going to start adding seats in the areas where they are strongest. I'm all for distribution of Parliament seats based on where the population actually is, but I'd like to think that it is more scientific than this. As the article points out, there is already an automatic redistribution initiated by the census. So why is this required? Why would you make this announcement before seeing the results of the census? How can you make these decisions without having the most up-to-date information? It's pure speculation at this point. At least this explains the decision to scrap the mandatory long form census. Why bother if you're not going to use the information? On a side note, we completed our census form a few weeks back. I was kind of hoping to volunteer to fill out the long form census, as a form of protest. But we couldn't figure out a way to do that. I guess the only way to non-mandatorily participate is if you are non-mandatorily selected to voluntarily fill it out.

In support of last week, here's a link to a great Tyee article talking about Stephen Harper's international policy shortcomings. It touches on some points raised last week, but summarizes things far more coherently than I ever could.

Lastly, the Throne Speech happened. There were no real surprises...but most of those probably won't come out for a year or two. Say goodbye to the long-gun registry, vote subsidies and Canadian Wheat Board Monopolies (not sure if that is good or bad). Say hello to longer prison terms and harsher punishment, as well as "shared border security" with the US, Alright Canada! Way to pave your own way!

Worst of all...and honestly, this is one of my biggest problems with the Conservative Government...Copyright Reform. US Copyright Reform is a failure. We are letting the same companies that pushed that crap on the US write our legislation. Internet "piracy" has caused problems for many dinosaur entertainment companies. But look at the explosion in concert revenues. Look at the explosion in independent music. Past bills have ignored feedback from artists groups and consumers and focussed on a bunch of near-criminal music companies that robbed us for years and years. I fear that with a majority there will be no consultation. It could be grim. Three strikes? Criminalization of digital lock breaking? Who knows. It won't be good. And it really won't stop anything.

And the (lady) cojones on that page that held up the "Stop Harper" sign...impressive indeed.

International Futility - Week 4 - May 25-30

It's easy to look at US failures to respond to natural disasters and cast all sorts of judgement. They just always seem to get it wrong. Perhaps our sparse population makes it somewhat easier to respond to disasters? When's the last time a major Canadian city was hit by a disaster? We also don't seem to have the giant areas jammed full of the poor and disenfranchised. But I read this story about the initial reluctance to send in extra help to aid in Quebec floods (via boingboing) and I worry. This doesn't sound very Canadian. And just to put this in to perspective, an interesting take on what might happen when the big one hits (hint - we're kind of screwed).

Speaking of not sounding Canadian...when did we become the rightest of the Israel supporting hawks? Aren't we supposed to be the source of reason and sanity in the worlds conflicts? Apparently Stephen Harper is...actually, I'm not even going to suggest that he's holding things up, because the rest of the G8 probably isn't listening to him... Stephen Harper is crafting his own policy on Israel and the Middle East. As an added bonus, here is a Salon article about the image that Israel has crafted. Oh...wait...he is actually holding things up now.

And speaking of right wing posturing...A "Russian Diplomat" speaks out about Canada' overly paranoid hang-up on Russian expansion into the arctic. Key quote - "It could come out of a lack of knowledge of reality". Indeed, my Russian friend, indeed.

And lastly, this final story represents the complete lack of accountability in the Conservative government. Long story short - Jason Kenney's office sends out fundraising information on House of Commons Letterhead. Jason Kenney says it's an honest mistake, but scapegoats member of staff. Jason Kenney rehires said member of staff, several months later. So not only are they accepting no responsibility for the mistake, but they're not even holding their scapegoat accountible. The shocking thing is that they don't seem to care and that it doesn't seem to matter. At least hire him in a different ministry. It's insulting that they can't even get a tiny bit creative about this.