Election Update #11 - Sept 18-28

People think that this eternal election campaign was some devious scheme by Stephen Harper to spend more money than his opponents.  But no.  They're wrong.  It was a devious scheme by Stephen Harper to bore the shit out of us so that we forget to vote.  I'm soooooooooooo bored of all this crap.  Maybe the debate tonight will change my mind?

I doubt it.

The Cons announced a massive donation to fight cancer...if they win the election...and implied support from the Terry Fox Foundation.  Once again, not Steve's fault.  He blames the Terry Fox Foundation for getting things wrong.

Diane Watts doesn't necessarily agree with the language contained in her own advertising, potentially.  Okay?

Jesus.  These guys need to just give the fuck up on their niqab ban.  How many millions are we spending pursuing this just so the Cons can appear anti-Muslim to voters?  And if the citizenship ceremony is so sacred...why are they doing things like this?

An NDP campaign sign has been defaced with...ummm...some pretty vulgar anti-muslim bullshit.  Congrats, Steve.

How did Joe Oliver get his job?  We're all wrong.  There's been no recession.

Canada now a net exporter of terrible environmental performance.  Barrick Gold just poisoned the shit out of a South American river.

Ottawa area Conservative candidates are not participating in debates.  Which is fine.  I mean, we don't really need to hear them say horrible things in public, do we?

The drug company that makes one drug and has pulled in $6 Billion in profits for it is suing the Canadian Government over their attempts to lower the price.

Some handy little ties between the Cons and KPMG, even during their tax fraud probe.

So Trudeau wants nothing do do with the F-35.  It's a shitshow over at Canada Politics.  So many defense experts!

There seems to be some documentation showing that Exxon knew about the causes of global warming back in the 70's.  Didn't we all though?

We'll show you - Week 220 - July 6-13

The military went out of their way to write to the parents of a soldier who committed suicide to let them know that he didn't deserve the medals he was awarded.  They're going to let them keep the medals though.  They've only taken away all the meaning behind them.  And no, it didn't have anything to do with the family embarrassing the military by loudly asking for things which they were owed.

Steve is getting the spin out on this "downturn".  Global trends!  Not even a steady hand on the tiller could fix this mess!  Until the election, of course.  I mean...somehow, we're the only G7 nation in recession...  Remember whe Joe Oliver claimed we'd only have one bad quarter.  Now he's claiming all will be well by years end.  Don't rock the boat!

Fine by me.  US threatens to keep Canada out of the TPP.

Another cluster with military procurement.  A radar procurement is abruptly cancelled.

Gatecrashers in the Canadian embassy during the Ukraine uprising?  A tale of two headlines:
CBC - Canadian embassy used as safe haven during Ukraine uprising, investigation finds
National Newswatch - Canada’s embassy in Ukraine used as pawn in 2014 uprising

I understand this argument - If we start charging for water, we open the door under NAFTA for all kinds of bullshit.  Still.  There has to be some way to structure this deal so that we get more than a few hundred dollars per year out of massive water users.  I mean...we'll lose all our water if we start charging for it so better give it away for free?

Christy inserted a nice poison pill into the Petronas LNG contract.  Compensation to Petronas if royalties or specific taxes go up in the next 25 years!  Holy fuck!  What a deal!  For Petronas.

Pierre Poilievre has somehow started to argue that Stephen Harper will prevent us from becoming Greece?  You may have to translate the link.  He also claims that the increased child tax benefit is going to be a huge boost to the economy.  What a wizard.

The Senate Security and Defence Committee wants to ban 'ideological radicals' from Canada.  Love to see who they think should create the list.

An interesting article on how Seattle is being ruined by the tech boom.  Vancouver is mentioned in the boingboing link.  Interesting that we have no corresponding boom to go along with the ruination of our City.  I also like this thought:

if a government presided over a doubling in the price of food, it would be viewed as monstrous. If it doubles the price of housing, it it lionized for “increasing property values.”

 

The new refugee health care programs are so convoluted, nobody is getting treatment.  And I'm pretty sure increased bureaucracy does nothing to drive down costs.

 

Details of Rona Ambrose running fast and loose with her comments about marijuana and the Supreme Court.

 

Over 2 days in June, the Cons made 70 appointments.  Not sure how this usually works. 

Stampede of Ridiculousnous - Week 10 - July 4-11

We start this week with an "Oh my god! They're talking about us!" article from Salon. It talks about Canada's experience with the recession as a rebuttal to an incorrect (surprisingly!) statement made by Michelle Bachmann about our fantastic unemployment numbers even though we lacked a stimulus plan. And this really got me thinking. It's hard to argue against this article. It's an unbiased viewpoint of how our country weathered the recession. It's sober and honest and could probably only be written by somebody far removed from all the yelling and anger and, quite frankly, by somebody that doesn't care all that much about what is going on here.

So here's my new theory for fixing democracy. Rather than voting for our own government, we allow our neighbours to vote for our government. Washington State can vote on behalf of British Columbia. Montana or somebody else handles the prairies. New York can do Ontario. Or Michigan maybe? Maine handles the Maritimes. We could tell them what our problems are, show them who we have to pick from and they can calmly and rationally decide who would be best to fix it. It makes nothing but sense.

With that, we move on to broken campaign promises. The Conservatives are starting to indicate that user fees are about to rise in a number of areas. But it's okay. They didn't break the promise. They aren't raising user fees as part of the "Strategic and Operating Review Process". They're raising user fees because 13 completely different government departments have just all of a sudden decided that they need to be raised. See. Promise kept. You're all a bunch of idiots for even asking a question about this.

A new round of government job cuts are announced, but not necessarily campaigned upon.

A BC Native Band accuses the Conservative Government of holding up the treaty that they (the Conservatives) negotiated. Sorry. Awkward sentence.

Early reports on the non-mandatory long form census don't sound very positive. Interestingly, The Huffington Post has the exact same article. Word for word. Globe & Mail cites "The Canadian Press". Huffington Post cites...absolutely nobody.

I really have to break away from the Globe & Mail. Nobody else really has anything of substance to add though, over and above what they provide. But take a look at this article. It makes no sense. None at all. It seems to be complaining about a loan provided to a small donut maker to expand their business. It brings up past ralings against "corporations" receiving government loans and handouts. This is the example that you can come up with as a strory about "corporate welfare bums"? A small donut maker in New Brunswick? I realize that a headline like Stephen Harper's Conservatives to pony up $190,000 for doughnuts is supposed to grab some attention. But isn't that precisely the kind of small business expansion loan that everybody and their grandma has been encouraging for the last 400 years? Maybe do a story on the massive tax breaks for Oil Companies? Banks? Etc? It's not even coherent in it's wrongness.

And this article...well...this is why people think Stephen Harper is a dick. He heads out to Alberta. He says stupid things to his rabid base of Conservatives. But it doesn't really matter because nobody really pays much attention. Except other politicians. And they just get all angry and sad.

Jason Kenney complains about the entrepreneurs immigration system being broken and of having "huge backlogs that we inherited." Well Mr. Kenney...you've had a few years to get that sorted out, haven't you?

If/When the long gun registry gets scrapped, the Conservatives have vowed to not offer any help to Provincial governments looking to create their own plan. They won't even turn over their records. Seeing as, if memory serves me correctly, one of the prime Conservative problems with the whole thing was the cost...why wouldn't they help a Provincial Government save some money in setting up their own registry? Their "re-purposing" and "privacy concerns" argument is a bit weak.