Talking About Orange Juice - Week 52 - Apr 23-30

Let's start with Bev Oda.

What exactly does the "International Co-Operation Minister" do?  I had originally heard that she was in London for a "Child Poverty" conference when she racked up all her luxury bills.  But no.  The irony was too delicious.  It was simply a conference on "immunization of children in poor countries".  Which is almost worse.  Not just poor kids, but poor kids that will eventually have autism (zing!).  I think this scandal needs a flashier name...once that references the $16 glass of orange juice.

The Conservatives have decided that arguing about the future isn't in their best interest.  They've decided to reach back to World War II, from before the NDP existed, to create their latest attack against said NDP.  Yes, the Conservatives have come down hard on the NDP for having a leader of their precursor party who was a pacifist and didn't want to go to war with Hitler.  And if it wasn't bad enough that they're reaching back 70+ years to come up with new political attacks, they've also decided that they're going to stretch the facts on what they are talking about.  Yes, this is leadership.  And perhaps it is starting to show.

Once again, the Conservatives are leading the way on making government small, keeping out of the way in a pursuit of freedom, as they work feverishly to keep a no brothels law on the books.

That Stephen Harper is a crafty one.  By allowing a backbench MP to continue his anti-abortion crusade he does two things:
1) Proves that he's not a tyrant. (because if he was then he certainly wouldn't allow something like this)
2) Keeps the abortion debate going without getting his hands dirty.
Oh wait.  He's come out against it.

And independent analysis of the robo-call scandal suggests that there is absolutely no way there wasn't some official support to what was going on.  The receivers of the robo-calls were overwhelmingly people who identified to pollsters as Liberals and NDP.  There aren't many people that would have that information.

Oh dear.  The Fisheries Act is up for a de-fanging next.  Indeed, why worry about all of those non-"vital" waterways.

What happens in all of these "committees" in the House of Commons?  Here, we hear about the Conservatives attempts to delay testimony from the Auditor General on the Fighter Jet debacle.  No names are given.  It's all very weird.  And now there are suggestions that even though they knew it was a debacle a year or so back (or longer), they still kept charging ahead.


What is the Conservative fascination with selling off Crown Corporations?