Stephen Taylor is also an asshole - Week 215 - June 1-8

This fucking asshole tried to astro-turf Tim Hortons because they pulled Enbridge ads from their internal TV system.  When did we change from actually talking about issues, to just throwing out as much shit as will stick?  Trying to sell pipelines by hyping up rail disasters?  Sorry, that's a rail safety issue.  Trying to guilt David Suzuki for not caring enough about the native population because you're begrudging them cushy pipeline jobs?  Christ, what an asshole.

Steve kicks another one to his granddaughter.  We're going carbon neutral by 2100.  What a proud day.

This looks bad.  $1 Billion underspent by the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs.  Year in, year out, not hitting their budget.  And...The government is yet to comment on the Truth and Reconciliation process.

Way to go Canada.  We're going to try to kick out thousands of refugees from Zimbabwe and Haiti.  Their homelands just aren't horrible enough any longer.

Another report, this one from the EPA, suggesting fracking can lead to water pollution.

Oof.  $200,000 to host a re-opening event for Canada House in London.

More from the copyright assholes.  Accessing US Netflix is stealing.

This is interesting.  Protest environmental destruction.  Potential terrorist.  Protest and threaten abortion providers.  Well...that's fine.  You have a right to present your opinion.

How stoked must these guys be now!  Mounties toting sub-machine guns on Parliament hill.

This article speculates that the PM can ignore spending limits just by calling an election with a really, really long time frame.

Conservative MP Andrew Saxton has been implicated in an offshore, tax dodging episode.  He helped a former client send his money offshore.

An analytics company "analyzed twitter" to determine that likely voters won't care if Harper skips the traditional debates.

Here's some anti-Islamist fear mongering.  Millions are pouring in from foreign sources!  We have no idea!

Of course Peter MacKay will collect his full pension.  He's been an MP forever.  It is interesting to see that they gain a windfall for skipping out on the next election though. 

Up to here - Week 159 - May 12-19

Well.  It doesn't really matter now, does it?  After all, the Antarctic ice collapse has started and probably can't be stopped.  Think of the business opportunities!  Glad I don't own Real Estate in Richmond.

Hooray!  The next election is going to be so fair!

Canada broke ranks with the US and refused to sanction a couple of Russian bigwigs.  Of course it has nothing to do with their significant investments in Canada.  Wouldn't those actually be two of the best guys to sanction if you were actually trying to prove a point?

This guy figures Trudeau has lost the Catholic vote with his abortion proclamation.  Probably had already lost them on gay marriage, anyhow.


The new pipeline rules and regulations are far from "world class".  And why a 1 billion cap on liability?  1,000 people out to an anti Enbridge rally is nothing to sneeze at.

Canada may be subsidizing energy companies to the tune of $34 Billion.  Per year.

This is pretty much straight from the Stephen Harper playbook.  Find a crime that happened once or twice.  Ensure that it is something nobody can argue on behalf of.  And put resources into creating a law against it.  Voila.  Tough on crime.  Who doesn't love police dogs?

There's something kind of funny about an old dude like Julian Fantino defending spending $100,000 to promote a twitter account.  I wonder if he knows what it is?

Garth lays out the sad state of employment affairs in Canada.  Yikes.

Rafe Mair raises a good (and familiar) point.  How is it a "jobs plan" to just dig shit out of the ground and put it on a boat?


Dean Del Mastro doesn't give up.  Wants the RCMP to investigate Elections Canada.  Charles Manson makes similar demands of the people that investigated him as well.

The NDP sent out lots of mailings using government resources.  The Conservatives do this all the time as well...but Elections Canada is investigating.  As well, the Thomas Mulcair grilling over NDP satellite offices has devolved into a bit of a sideshow.


A full swat team came to arrest the engineer on the train that exploded in Lac Megantic.  I mean, when your crime is perhaps being negligent in operating a train, of course you should be considered armed and dangerous and have your entire family hauled out onto the front lawn at gunpoint after you offered to just come in on your own volition.  Meanwhile, the owner declares bankruptcy and walks away.

This story reveals how silly government secrecy rules are.  David Cameron's name has been redacted from documents about his official visit to Canada.  The photo is pretty great.

Jason Kenney to the rescue!  Somehow, we're going to tie the number of temporary foreign workers to the unemployment rate.  Even though our ability to collect stats is bad.  Another company swindled temporary foreign workers out of money.

Hold on a second.  We have a "Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime"?

A nice long read on the history of the Experimental Lakes Area and the impact of bad government management.

This article lays out the case for a London housing bubble...and sounds oddly familiar.

This story highlights all the changes to other countries laws the USA wants.  Canada and Japan need to get rid of privacy laws.  Mexico can't put taxes on junk food.  Canada needs longer pharmaceutical patents.

Almost there - Week 158 - May 5-12

I don't get this.  The Conservatives look poised to use the Ukraine crisis as an excuse to hike military spending.  I'm sorry, but if we are to look at this situation and think "Huh.  If only we had the firepower we really could have showed those Russians who is boss", we're crazy.  I don't think our military is within an order of magnitude of challenging Russia for anything.  So what are they talking about?  Even if we doubled military spending we'd still have nothing.

A website has started mapping locations of temporary foreign workers in Canada.  The largest chunk are working in food service in large urban areas.  Another company has been sanctioned over Temporary Foreign Workers.  Temporary Foreign pilots now?  With the full knowledge of Jason Kenney.  And, lastly (I think), a Temporary Foreign Worker in Nanaimo was threatened with death if he reported his unfair working conditions.  Oh.  Wait.  One more link...what this looks like from the workers side.  Jeez...okay.  This is it.  Apparently telling temporary foreign workers that if they don't do exactly what you say, you'll send them home...isn't a threat.

Kinder Morgan thought it would be a good idea to talk about how an oil spill could potentially provide a kickstart to the economy.

The CBC summarizes all the things Stephen Harper has done with respect to the Supreme Court.  Mostly temper tantrums and embarrassments  .It now looks like the Conservatives knew the Nadon appointment was going to be a problem, and they attempted to skirt the issue with some (should we say...some more?) legal shenanigans, but Nadon wouldn't go along with it.  And a bunch of legal experts are telling Steve that he's wrong with his comments about the Chief Justice.

A lawyer involved with the Robocalls investigation calls it "fatally flawed".  Basically, they only considered people who made formal complaints, and not the 1000+ other calls that were made.


The opposition is proposing 145 ammendments to the "Fair Elections" act.

The Tyee dives into Piketty.  I like this graph that they came up with...inflation adjusted incomes in BC, the top 1% vs. the bottom 90%.  Not sure what year they adjust to.

The head of the Canadian Border Services Agency thinks it's a bad idea to continue with the tv show "Border Security".  But the Conservative government disagrees, and is going to move forward with it anyway.  Because what does the head of an agency know about anything?

Garth breaks down the Real Estate stats.  Not all is as the Real Estate boards tell us.  They very consistently overstate the number of sales, then adjust downwards, then overstate again the next year, comparing to the downward adjusted number.

Government employees that need to use data to make decisions are not very happy about the mandatory long form census going away.  On a similar note, the Auditor General points out that Stats Can cannot provide accurate job data in certain areas of the country.

Steady hand on the tiller!  Canada loses 29,000 jobs in April.

Is the government snooping on Facebook against the law?  Maybe.

A study is showing that methane leakage from fracked areas is far higher than expected.


A Conservative Senator has degrees from imaginary Universities.


Only an idiot would look at SNC Lavalin and think "You know...I really want the guy running the board of directors of that company for the last few years to come and run things for me."  Christy Clark, everybody!

The Conservative ad campaign about wireless fees has made people a bit angry.  Because exactly the opposite of what was promised has happened.  Competition down.  Prices up.

A Canadian mining company supposedly used slave labour to construct a mine in Africa.  The government responded with non answers and cliches.

First of all, let me say that as an Apple shareholder (I know...I held on for too long)...this outrages me.  $68 Million in stock for a senior level manager?  What the hell?  This is just...shit...the 1% issue in a nutshell.

Scaring Russia - Week 155 - April 14-21

Really?  We're sending six CF-18's to Eastern Europe scare big old Russia?

Nigel Wright appears to be let off the hook.

This whole temporary foreign workers thing is a disaster.  Another story out of Saskatchewan where  a bunch of waitresses have been displaced by temporary foreign workers.  This is starting to stoke some crazy racism and anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Conservatives don't like the answers that they're getting on Economic Action Plan Ad questions.  So they're not going to ask the people of Canada what they think any more.  In other survey news, Canadians aren't convinced that pipelines are the answer.

I tend to not put too much stock into these "Conservative insider" reports.  But really...who would be shocked that Conservatives think Pierre Poilievre is a douchebag?  Where has this cartoon been all my life?  From the Tyee article here.  Another summary of the terribleness of the "Fair Elections" Act.

This is an interesting theory.  As Conservative incumbents flock to safer ridings, who is going to fight the tougher battles?  This could impact their numbers at the next election.

My argument against owning Real Estate in Vancouver has long been this - the carrying costs for the average home are far higher than the average annual household income.  If the average person can't come close to affording the average home, how can that be sustainable.  Garth summarizes this nicely.

Jim - Week 154 - April 7-14

Man.  What a depressing end.  Serve as Finance Minister to an asshole, retire and then die a few weeks later.  Poor Jim Flaherty.  Garth nicely sums up the good and bad of Jim Flaherty.

Pierre Poilievre is doubling down on awful.  He's accusing Marc Mayrand of a power grab in his opposition of the "Fair Elections" Act.  Is it really a power grab if you want to keep doing the job that you are paid to do?  Can you believe these Conservative jagoffs have decided that the talking point needs to be that Elections Canada shouldn't be in the voter turnout game?  As well, looks like the guy who is supposed to take over investigations from Elections Canada wasn't consulted either.


These people are children.  One Conservative minister makes a "shooting a gun" gesture at an NDP MP, and then another runs over and trots out the beautiful "Say it outside of Commons!" refrain.  These people are idiots.

This is awesome.  "Sleepy Time" Rob Anders lost his nomination battle.

It's remarkable the job Stephen Harper has done of shirking any responsibility for Patrick Brazeau.  Not to kick a man when he's down, but it seems like it's all really unravelling.

Another tough on crime bill doesn't survive scrutiny by the courts.

In Australia, government employees aren't allowed to criticize the government online.  "Shit, what a great idea!" somebody in Ottawa just said.

More companies taking advantage of the temporary foreign workers program.

Why are MP's allowed to accept paid travel from companies/organizations/countries?  If it is important enough to go, Canada should pick up the tab.

Trudeau took shit for not letting his bullying candidates run for nomination.  Steve has no problems with his bullies...shit...it might be a prerequisite.  Eve Adams is allowed to continue.


Greenpeace is asking for an investigation into the ties between the Conservatives and "Ethical Oil" from an election finance perspective.  Interesting response from the "grassroots" Ethical Oil.

An interesting idea.  CBC asked people to tweet their stories about vouching/getting vouched for.  Of course Conservative commenters point out that these people are all probably lying about it.

Kitimat decided that it doesn't want a pipeline.

More bad news for Attawapiskat.  And Theresa Spence.  Her partner/the co-manager of the first nation, has been charged with fraud.

There's some fallout from decreasing subsidies and no more Hockey Night in Canada.  600+ at CBC are out of work.

Huh.  This guy talks a bit about the potential speed restrictions coming to the de-restricted sections of the Autobahn.  He equates it to the gun control argument in the US.

A bunch of yahoos that work for the Minister of Public Works have been accused of interfering with access to information.

More Quebec corruption with ties to Stephen Harper appointees...or attempted appointments...or something.

Legally Challenged - Week 151 - March 17-24

How many court challenges did the Conservatives lose this week?

#1 - Marc Nadon's appointment to the Supreme Court is overturned.  By the Supreme Court.
#2 - A BC judge grants a reprieve for previously legal, home grown, medical marijuana.
#3 - They aren't allowed to retroactively eliminate early parole.


The Conservatives refuse to release the information that Pierre Poilievre used to come up with his election reform laws.

Remember all those ads over the last few months about cheaper cell phone rates?  That we spent millions of dollars on?  Ya...cellphones are getting more expensive.

Russia laughs at our sanctions.  "Sleepy Time" Rob Anders thinks we should go to war.

Flaherty is out and Joe Oliver gets a promotion.  Every time I think of Joe Oliver I can't help but think of drunk Joe Namath.  This article points out that Joe Oliver's riding is linked to the robocalls scandal.  This article points out that he's a bit of a dinosaur.

It's funny when the Conservatives launch an attack ad, and it makes you think "Hey, that's actually a pretty good idea!"  Somehow, I think the Conservatives spending a lot of money to convince us that Justin Trudeau will legalize marijuana might backfire.

Yet another reason to legalize pot.  Illegal outdoor grows are destroying forests in California.

An article about Stephen Harper's obsession with the original Trudeau.  Clouding his judgement perhaps?

I don't know why this never came to me before.  It took wolf killings to do it.  Christy Clark is the Canadian Sarah Palin (this is good news!  I actually tried to put the "h" in the last name, not the first.  Things are good when you can't remember how to spell "Sarah Palin").  Now, I know this is a pretty unfair comparison to make to any human being.  But hear me out.  The simplistic folksy sayings.  The love of natural resources.  The unexpected rise to power.  Quitting politics to become a political pundit.  A distrust of science.  Killing wolves.  It all fits.

I know StatsCan can get things wrong.  But I like that they're so directly contradicting the Conservatives "lack of skilled workers" claims.  I wonder how temporary foreign workers fall into this though?

Military supply companies are sensing blood in the water.  A French conglomerate is pitching fighter jets, and jobs, for Canadians.


A Conservative Senate Staffer has been accused of fraud and breach of trust, after promising influence over contracts.

This article highlights how much funding has been cut for Cities from the Feds and Provinces.

I haven't read an article on Quebec in quite some time that makes me feel good about that place.  They seem to be making it difficult for students to vote in the upcoming election.  Perhaps I'm a closet Conservative?  But then again...now they're talking about banning burkas.  This must really be a tough one for the Conservatives to figure out which side they are on.

This is what happens when you ignore science.  Wait.  No.  This is what happens when you use some science to create a frankenstein monster and then ignore warnings that science presents with you.  Big Agriculture made a rootworm "proof" corn and it turned out badly.  There was another way, though.  There's always another way.

I like articles that cut through the noise about corporate taxes and how corporations game the system.  This Salon article highlights how tech companies transfer patents to offshore holding companies and use that to siphon profits in to low tax countries.  It's not a fair system.  It doesn't create jobs when a company skirts tax law.

Everybody should use the word "Realtor" - Week 149 - March 3-10

Been a while since we started with a photo.  Two thumbs up, Steve!

Hey.  Nothing to do with Canadian politics, but there is some happiness in the world.  Readit IAmA with a survivor of Mengele's medical experiments.

John Baird thinks this is an argument on the Internet...compares Putin to Hitler.

This Crimea thing is pretty crazy, no?  I kind of wish there was some large, world spectacle that Russia was holding that we could not go to in order to drive home how inappropriate it is to take over your next door neighbours country.  Oh.  Wait.  There is?  Two of them?  And we're still going?  We're just not going to send "government officials" or participate in the planning?  That seems a bit stupid.  It's kind of okay though, because nobody really cares what Canada thinks any longer.

Honestly, this "don't politicize the Olympics" thing has got to stop.  If the IOC didn't hand the Olympics over to despotic regimes looking to prove their political might then we wouldn't need to "politicize the Olympics".

Opposition to the "Fair Elections Act" is really heating up.  Marc Mayrand finally gets to speak and tears the bill a new one.

Try to make sense of this one...Conservative MP makes some shit up to justify additional voter ID laws...Conservative MP admits that he didn't actually see the shit that he made up, somebody just told him about it...Conservatives decide that the issue doesn't warrant any more investigation or discussion.  Here it is, people.  Proof that majority governments don't work.

Not only are we going to make a sex offender registry, we're going to pull funding to treatment programs that seem to be working pretty well.  Can't have people getting better on the Government dime.

So maybe Jim Prentices talks about more environmental protection weren't really what they appeared to be...as he joins up with Enbridge to foist their pipeline on the First Nations.  Sorry, to "negotiate with the First Nations".

"When the pipeline leaks/tanker sinks, we'll just clean it up."  Looks like the area around the Exxon Valdez has finally recovered.  It only took 25 years...but it recovered.  Mostly.

This guy does not think Vic Toews should have been named a judge.  He suggests that the $288,000 per year salary, plus full MP pension, should help pay for his messy, expensive divorce though.  Love the quotes of opposition MP Toews complaining about the Liberals appointing Liberals as judges.  Totally different this time.


It must suck to realize that people so thoroughly disagree with what you believe.  Peter McKay suggests that loosening of marijuana laws might be in the cards.  I thought anybody who even talked about that kind of stuff was a child hating monster?

Just so awesome.  The CREA has told Garth Turner that the use of the word "Realtor" is trademarked/copyrighted/whatever and he can't use that word in his blog posts.  He responds with a takedown of their ridiculous system.  How can you post a number last year for February sales, and then post a number this year for February sales that is lower than last years number, and claim sales have gone up? (just testing to see if you read far enough down to understand the headline)

Hey.  This is shocking.  A former Conservative is accused of improper lobbying.  Gawd.  Doesn't he know there's other ways to get on the gravy train?

Oh boo hoo.  Gun owners aren't allowed to own one specific type of gun.  Sounds like the beginnings of tyranny to me.  You know, the kind of tyranny that takes away your guns.  Not the type of tyranny that arbitrarily ends debate on issues, forces through gigantic Omnibus bills, changes election laws to suit themselves, perpetrates voter fraud, etc.

This story about the mother of a soldier who committed suicide receiving a $0.01 cheque from the government really lays bare Internet commenters true prejudices.
Conservative - Shame on the incompetent bureacrat for allowing this to happen.
Liberal - Shame on the incompetent Harper Government for allowing this to happen.

Joe Oliver thinks it's a good idea that we live up to our G8 commitment to ensure mining companies disclose money paid to foreign governments.  I think the doings with SNC Lavalin (I know...not a mining company) prove that Canada can be a world power with corporate corruption.  Time to require more of Canadian companies.

An American general points out that you need fancier, more expensive planes to protect the fancy, expensive planes we're thinking of buying from the Americans.  If not, they're kind of useless.

I've often wondered how banks can screw up, hand people's money to scammers, and not immediately be fully responsible.  This guy fought BMO for months over money they handed over during a pretty blatant scam.

Astro-Turf - Week 148 - Feb 24-March 3

Why the War on Drugs isn't a great idea.
 
I'm sure this is just correlation without causation, right?  Vicente Fox has a good point to make.  The US War on Drugs is really a war on mexicans.  He wants all drugs legalized.

Did you know the Fair Elections Act will give incumbent MP's the power to appoint key election workers?  What a terrible idea.  On a similar note, Preston Manning has even suggested that taking away Elections Canada's "get out the vote" abilities is dumb.  And another voice suggesting that bad things will happen if Elections Canada can't investigate.

Brad Butt, the MP who said he saw voter fraud taking place in the form of campaign employees pulling voter ID cards from the trash and then using them to fraudulently vote, now says that he saw no such thing.  Is this not troubling?  Is this a statement you can just back away from by saying you "misspoke".  Were new laws not drafted to prevent this from happening?

Oh.  This is fresh.  It's not enough to claim that it's American money funding the anti-pipeline coalition in BC.  It used to be the evil American hippies with no skin in the game that want to see the pipeline fail.  But now...now somehow it's worse.  It's American big oil tricking Canadians into scrapping their own pipeline because they want the oil for themselves.  The same American companies that control the majority of the Oils Sands, right?  So...they don't want this pipeline so they can sell the oil in the US rather than they sell the oil in China?  Interesting.  Note that the author of this article is pretty much a BC Liberal Government shill who seems to be the driving force behind the astro-turf "British Columbians for Prosperity".  Where do you get your money, assholes?  Looks like somebody has followed their money...straight to the long term Oil Industry folks who started this organization.

Similarly, a nice little Tyee story that highlights some of the ties between big oil, US right-wing think tanks, "grassroots" oil supporters and Canadian politicians.  Weird, scary stuff.  It also asks the question - why is the 100% political "charity" The Fraser Institute not held to the same standard as other charitable organizations participating in political work?  And points out that all these outside organizations currently "own" 70% of Canada's oil and gas production and siphon off the majority of the profits.

I love behind the scenes views of talking points for Conservative politicians.  Here we have a look at what they were all told to say with respect to Justin Trudeau and the Senate.

Not only Rex Murphy, but Peter Mansbridge has been caught taking money from the Oil Sands.

The IMF, that crazy bunch of liberals, has a report showing that increased taxes on the rich has no impact on economic growth.

I know that nobody ever said anything positive about child sex offenders and made it out alive.  But, especially since we seem more than eager to make kids that forward pictures of classmates "child sex offenders", I worry what this legislation might mean.  I just don't think that making it impossible for a certain breed of criminal to re-integrate into society might not be to the benefit of anybody.

Garth Turner shows why Justin Trudeau is correct - The StatsCan report on middle class wealth increasing is solely based on real estate values.  Yes, some people are sitting on fat (on paper) Real Estate values.  This hardly defines the return of the middle class.

The Conservatives shutting the opposition out of the trip to the Ukraine is just one of many ways the Conservatives are using foreign policy to take advantage of their position.  Poor Irwin.

Is Jim Prentice making a move to be the next Conservative PM?  He's coming out in favour of more environmental protection.

If you complain about everything, people will stop listening.  This story points out that taxpayers have paid for $130,000 in meals for Conservative staffers since 2010.  Who cares?  What kind of deadbeat employer doesn't pick up the tab for employee meals at specific work events?  $7000 for pizza for 330 people during a professional development event?  So...$21 per person?  Who cares.  This is not the sort of thing we should be worried about.  More Conservative lunch expenses, this set directly linked to the Prime Minister.

Their analysis makes almost no sense...and they were kind of dicks when I asked for clarification...But Ross Kay Consultants lays out how the MLS double counts home sales and how badly it distorts sales numbers.  Over 10% of "sales" disappear.

There seems to be some agreement between the Feds and the Provinces about the Canada Job Grant plan.  Nobody seems too sure what it is though.

I've been thinking a similar train of thought to this story over the last few days.  It comes from the question "Will NHL owners allow NHL players to compete in the next Olympics?"  It just seems absurd.  I understand that NHL owners are paying NHL players obscene amounts of money to play hockey for their team.  But the statement seems to imply some kind of ownership over the very being of the person/athlete.  It's strange to me.  Further to that, this Grantland article points out the near impossibility of athletes to protest much of anything due to their meager earnings and subservience to corporate sponsors.

An interesting Snowden/Greenwald article outlines how western intelligence agencies (the British GCHQ in this case) use dirty tricks to discredit political activists and protesters.  As somebody says somewhere, it's pretty scary that the full might of the government can arbitrarily decide that you're a bad apple and your life should be ruined.  Okay.  That's my paraphrase.

Blame the Chinese - Week 146 - Feb 10-17

Even the Conservatives don't think buying your way into Canada via an $800,000 loan is a good idea.  But what about Real Estate values!  Here's a story on how this program has already been suspended (as Garth Turner points out) for two years.  But of course, it's going to have a now immediate impact on real estate?  (hint...it might already be broken)

When everybody hates you, use your wife to win the next election.  I'll tell you what, Steve.  You let Laureen run in the next election in your place and you have my vote.  Isn't it bad form to hijack another parties convention, though?  Of course, a newspaper is up to no good if they publish secret documents that make a government/party look bad via their own actions.

I think this is beautiful.  Parliament is supposed to be a negotiation, not a heavy-handed attempt to jam through legislation.  The NDP has used one of the only tools in its arsenal - approval of committee travel - to fight back against the Conservatives elections bill.  Well done.  Of course, anything the Conservatives don't do is "anti-democratic".

This story outlines the gigantic, Con friendly loophole in election financing the Conservatives are trying to create.  In essence, anybody that donated even 20 dollars to a campaign is allowed to be contacted "free of charge" during an election campaign.  This is a large portion of what a campaign does (20-25%).  I guess this will free up dollars for more attack ads?

Remember when Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway blamed the conductor for not setting the brakes and causing the Lac Megantic disaster?  Turns out they had a prior 10 years worth of Transport Canada brake related violations.

Matt Taibbi does it again.  Just crawl off into the woods and die because there's no point in trying anymore.  Here he outlines how investment banks have bought up commodities firms and are using them to manipulate prices and drive up costs.  Just way too complicated to explain.  Go read.

Just to drive home the point of how bad Justin Trudeau is and how he wants to give all the kids pot...Hey!  Federal anti-pot advertising money!

Of course...the budget.  Jim Flaherty isn't actually going to introduce income splitting.  And there's not much for anyone, except for a massive jump in seniors benefits.  Most of the budget is just vague promises with little detail.  Such as random cuts to "military procurement".  The Conservatives love the military so much that the Snowbirds have to miss shows due to not enough training time.

Kevin Pages suggests the Conservatives efforts to "balance the budget" and cut spending have hampered Canada's economic growth, jobs, etc.

Canada's spy watchdog doesn't think CSEC has done anything wrong in collecting Canadians data and tracking them.

 Quebec really is different, isn't it?  The CEO of Canada's Bridge Corporation (a government entity) is accused of taking $1.5 Million in kickbacks from SNC Lavalin for a bridge repair contract.  But don't worry.  The swiss bank account that he opened and that all the money was deposited in was for his sister-in-law.

I wish I could blame Jason Kenney for this, but I can't.  I guess I can blame his parents for raising dick children?  Anyhow, people are suing Jason Kenney's brother over his nightmare treatment facility.  He sounds like a real asshole.

Here, our good buddy Jason points to the fence and promises good jobs for Canadians.

Rex Murphy is an oilsands cheerleader.

What?  Hunting Polar Bears is unregulated?

Not so good at this social media thing - Week 145 - Feb 3-10

Sorry if I got a bit grumpy earlier in the week.  Times are difficult, you know?

Oh boy, Steve.  You really can't win these days, can you?  I'd expect this kind of stuff out of your buddy Rob Ford.  Anyhow, the drummer in Stephen Harper's band has been charged with sexual assault.  That guy is going to fast learn the definition of fair weather friend.

Of course everybody is still talking about the farce of an "election reform" bill.  I can't not put it in quotations.  Also not a fan?  The Chief Electoral Officer.  He's wondering why he's no longer allowed to encourage people to vote and what his remaining job is.  Why didn't he speak up when they didn't consult him about it?  He also speculates that up to 100,000 voters could be impacted by the voter ID law, most of them aboriginal.  And of course, this is another great opportunity to cap debate on a bill.  Gotta ram that shit through, no?  Maybe another candidate for a Senate hold-up?  Nobody seems to think this bill is good.  Except the Vernon Morning Star.

This one is new to me, but this site breaks down the arguments put forward in Parliament.  Brad Butt, who is a real Conservative MP and not a made up person, suggests that during his last campaign they just went around and collected discarded voter cards and then went in and voted on behalf of those people using the vouch system.  Oh.  Sorry.  "Some other campaigns" were doing that.  My apologies.

Another Conservative MP has settled his dispute with Elections Canada.  Funny how most of the disputes between MP's and Elections Canada involve Conservatives and now there's all these laws to take away authority from Elections Canada.

This is not new news, but seems to be new news now that the BC Civil Liberties is on board.  Think of just how insane this is.  The national spy apparatus, which is legally prohibited from spying on Canadians, not only spied on (relatively) law abiding Canadians, but did so at the behest of a corporation running a publicly reviled project.  It's totally insane.

Sticking with pipelines, a report about an explosion in a TransCanada pipeline was administratively buried.  Of course, that was never the intention.  I mean, it only showed that their entire inspection program was inadequate.

The new plan for Canadian military procurement is to create some kind of Canadian military-industrial complex.  We can't seem to buy even a trash can properly for the military, now we're going to require it to be designed and built in Canada?

Several dozen oil patch workers were laid off and replaced by Croations.  Of course, nobody is responsible.  The government has no control over Imperial Oil.  Imperial Oil has no control over its contractors.  I'm surprised any of these people were able to make it in to work today, seeing as they're not responsible for anything.

The Conservatives have decided that they don't need tougher conflict of interest rules for themselves.  But public servants certainly do.

Another example of military boostin' Steve not really giving a shit about the actual soldiers.  Veterans are being discharged for medical reasons and don't qualify for benefits.  In other news, a story about how the government ignored PTSD in Canadian soldiers.

The Conservatives have decided to target the "political activities" of charities they deem to be terrorists.  Of course It's much easier to be deemed a terrorist when you do something the government doesn't like.  I would imagine church groups are still going to be allowed to do whatever they want politically.  And if you can't get 'em that way, subject them to Revenue Canada audits.

Another Conservative attempt to solve a problem that doesn't really exist: reigning in public sector employee sick leave.  And then of course all our problems with immigrants.  What better way to weed out the riffraff than to make it more expensive for people to become citizens?  I wonder how these new rules are going to affect ministerial personnel who pretend to be new Canadians for photo ops?

This is a sad and scary story.  Tyrone Hayes is a scientist who did research into a chemical sold as a pesticide.  He started this research at the behest of the company that sold it.  When they didn't like his findings, they set about attempting to discredit his research and ruin his reputation.  They followed him and purchased advertising based on search terms related to his name.  This needs to be a new type of crime.

Justification for ending Canada Post home delivery doesn't hold up to scrutiny.

Of course, now that a few trains have blown up, the Conservatives never would have considered this plan from the rail industry to cut inspections on trains carrying dangerous goods.

CNRL continues to have a giant bitumen leak that they can't stop.

Job creator Jamie Dimon gets a fat raise after presiding over billions in fines to JP Morgan Chase for illegal activities.  As Matt Taibbi points out, the rank and file received pay freezes after the fines were announced.

There were some jobs created in January....for now.  See if there's a major correction to the stats a la November.

"Election Reform" - Week 144.5 - Feb 3-4

You know what?  Fuck these guys.  This is some real 1984 bullshit.  "Let's take something that we do all the time and people hate (cheat at elections), change the rules in our favour and trumpet it as a really great thing."  Fuck these guys.

I actually wrote this morning that the bill seemed positive, but the details needed to be understood before judgement could be passed.  Well, like 8 hours later I think we can determine that this bill sucks.

1) More money pumped into elections - The Conservatives would be able to spend all sorts of money on "fundraising" and it wouldn't count towards campaign expenses.  Bullshit.
2) Even more money pumped into elections - Not a huge deal, but the personal contribution will be raised by $300.  Corporate and Union contributions still need to be hidden as multiple donations from wealthy industrialists relatives.
3) Elections Canada can no longer advertise in order to "Get out the vote" - What the fuck?  Can you be more transparent about your intentions to suppress the vote?
4) Voter ID requirements - This is a huge deal in the US as poor people of ethnic persuasion (i.e. Democrats) tend to have less in the way of ID.  There is never, ever, ever voter fraud in Canada in the form of people voting when they shouldn't or pretending to be somebody else, so why bother?
5) Elections Canada powers are weakened - Investigations in to voter fraud are removed from Elections Canada and placed with a department that reports to the PMO.  Hmmm...Nothing sketchy about that.

And...the imbeciles talked about how they consulted with Elections Canada before making all of these decisions...only to be directly contradicted by Elections Canada.  Maybe they were talking about the Israeli Chief Electoral Officer?

This is a big bag of shit.  And it's only Tuesday.

In other terrible news.

Hey assholes!  Make up your minds!  "We didn't spy on Canadians wifi.  But if we did it wasn't an operation and we didn't use the information.  And if we did use the information, it wasn't in the way you thought we did."

Garth Turner points out that TD Bank just released a report where, under the most positive conditions, Canadian real estate is only 10% over-valued.  Worst case?  Well, maybe 20%.  Or 30%  Or 60%.  That's not a news story though.  CBC uses the best case numbers and I'm sure Global is still pumping "great time to buy" stories.

A study has linked birth defects to natural gas extraction.  I'm sure somebody in the Christy Clark government is upset that nobody mentioned all of the great jobs those babies will have when they grow up!

An awesome little article on how the Conservatives are crushing the spirit of twitter, one sanitized tweet at a time.

I love this.  In essence, "When we provide a clear cut choice for people, with one of those choices not accurately capturing what our opponent actually said, they overwhelmingly choose our view on the matter."  These guys are so out of touch on marijuana.

Corrections Canada just doesn't even bother responding to recommendations made by it's watchdog.

Haven't heard a whole lot about the F-35 lately.  This is a pretty in depth article from Vanity Fair.  What I take away from it is that you'd have to be a total imbecile to buy into the project at this point and time.

A Conservative Senator has quit the Senate.  Fed up of the doings of other Senators?  Or afraid of what's potentially coming?

Mac Harb and Patrick Brazeau are going to be formally charged.  Interesting to hear the Conservatives talk about Brazeau/Duffy/Wallin.  They deny any responsibility and stick to their "former-Conservative Senator" rhetoric.  Won't these people take accountability for appointing these assholes in the first place?  Yep.

20 Years later, the notes from Chretien's first cabinet meeting outline cuts to cabinet excess, more than anything else.

Hard to read this story and not wonder how we've created such a diabolically awful set of circumstances whereby:
1) Canadians don't get jobs.
2) Foreigners get paid less (if they're lucky) for the same work.
3) Some foreigners get swindled out of their savings by companies preying on their dreams.
As if the Canadian government can't do anything about this.  As if.

Mexico.  No fan of Canada.

"Why can't they contribute their fair share?"  According to Salon, the poorest 50% of America possesses 1.1% of the countries wealth (who's the 1% now).  What's most shocking, is that the poorest Americans own less, percentage wise, than the poorest in just about any other location on the planet.  The poorest in China have 9.6%!?  How is that possible?  But make the bums pay their "fair share".  Because chipping away 20-30% of 1.1% of the wealth is going to have a huuuuuuuuge impact, no?

A commentary on Real Estate bubbles?  The 1%?  Who knows.  But some of London's most expensive Real Estate sits rotting and empty.

A Slate article on the strange practice of Conservative politicians raffling off AR-15's in the USofA.  Maybe a "Free Healthcare for life" raffle to counter this?  The scariest thing is the in depth, crazed analysis of technical gun features and semantics that these stories always dredge up.

Stickin' it to Democracy - Week 131 - Oct 28 - Nov 4

I think this pamphlet from the Conservative Convention says all that we really need to know about our current electoral system/government.

I've been thinking about Duffy and Wallin a bit today.  And I think there is danger in lumping these two in together.  I think what one did was much more terrible on a personal level, and what the other did was much worse with respect to what it says about the party.  Duffy essentially spent Senate money as a cheerleader for the Conservative Party of Canada (and claiming a living allowance when he shouldn't have).  Wallin used her travel allowance to go about her own private business.  I think Wallin probably belongs in jail.  I think Duffy is a victim of the Conservative Parties arrogance and deceipt.  He did what dozens and dozens of people told him to do, and what dozens and dozens of people told him would be okay.  Now they're hanging him out to dry and of course he's confused.  I think that says worse things about the party than it does about Duffy.  But at the rate this is going, I don't even know if this opinion will stand for another day before new evidence changes it.  Doesn't look good for Harper though.  At all.  In the meantime...Duffy lays down the hammer!  PM didn't know?  Fuck you!  Here's a cheque from a Conservative Party lawyer for all the legal fees related to this nonsense.  And Jim Flaherty is dismissive of the Senate scandal because it's getting in the way of all of his precious work.

Here's the fucked up logic that Rob Ford is working on.  Release the Crack video because it won't prove that I smoked crack.  Ergo, I should remain mayor because there's nothing at all wrong with any of this.  But the fine folks of Toronto seem to think this is all great.  I feel like this bozo could murder somebody on his radio program and it would be deemed to be a media witchhunt by his supporters.

Interesting that the Federal Environmental Review of the "New Prosperity" Mine (hot name guys!) is so scathing.  Will they build it anyway?  Is it just "environment be damned" on projects that help the Oil Sands?

Fucking hell.  Face scrub micro beads are polluting the Great Lakes in serious numbers.  See...teenagers are awful.

Friends of Michael sona are intimidating witnesses? How does this guy have friends?

Rafe Mair speculates that the fix is in on the Northern Gateway pipeline (obviously) and that it should go to a referendum (not likely).  Probably a good time to pick up some Enbridge shares.

Bloody activist bureaucrats!  Always pointing out the shortcomings of government!  Don't they know that if they point out that Revenue Canada has terrible data security, the terrorists win?

These guys aren't stupid.  There's a proposal to build a bike path along the length of the Keystone XL pipeline.  Now the oil industry can say things like "You're voting against the longest bike path in world history."

Japans hunting of whales and dolphins is messed up.

More on the European Trade Deal - mostly why we didn't get a good deal.

So some drone strike survivors from Pakistan were invited to speak to Congress.  And 5 Congressmen showed up.

Just waiting for the "More guns would have stopped this shooting" argument in the LAX shooting.  Obviously, this shooting only happened because airports are a gun free zone, right?

Looks like the US gets shafted by Free Trade as well.  This time Lobster fishermen in Maine.  I smell a lawsuit.

So this doesn't have anything to do with politics, but I have to talk about it.  Whenever I say to people "Do you remember in the 80's when there were all those plastic costumes that had a picture on it of the thing you were trying to be?" people have no recollection.  Well.  Slate does.