let us call the Senate what it is: a reward for the party faithful; an occasional arbiter of legislative common sense; and a supreme seat of patronage that looks like a violation of democratic principle to most Canadians, and like its epitome to those who rest their backsides in its cushy red chairs. ( jmeek@herald.ca)
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Columnists/1097828.html
The loser, pretender, imposter, useless
Hon. Elaine McCoy, QC
The Senate of Canada
Rm 806 Victoria Building
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A4
Toll Free: 1 800 267 7362
Phone: 613 995 4293
Fax: 613 995 4304
still for me is the best prime example of why the senate should be abolished, or reformed .. she could not make it in politics, get ahead in Alberta so next she was given a senate seat..
“Harper’s broken promises Dec 29, 2008 04:30 AM With his appointment of 18 Senators, most of whom are Conservative party cronies, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has added another broken promise to the 27 democratic reform and government accountability promises the Conservatives have already broken since they were elected in January 2006. In their 2006 election platform, the Conservatives promised to establish an independent Public Appointments Commission to ensure fair, merit-based and widely publicized searches for qualified candidates for the PM and his cabinet to appoint to government agencies, boards and commissions. Harper broke this promise after opposition parties changed the Federal Accountability Act to ensure the commission would be non-partisan and operate independently of cabinet, and be accountable to Parliament if it did not ensure fair appointments. The Conservative cabinet has gone on to appoint more than 1,000 people to key government positions, many with ties to the Conservatives. They also broke their promise to “Prevent party leaders from appointing candidates without the democratic consent of local electoral district associations” and Harper showed his dishonesty further by appointing several Conservative candidates for the recent election. He has also made false claims about why he has broken these promises, as usual blaming opposition parties for his failures. The PM also used his so-called “Accountability Act” to cut the ethics rule that requires him and his cabinet and senior officials to be honest. He obviously wanted to protect himself from being found guilty of breaking the honesty rule. Canadians deserve better. The Conservatives are practising dishonest, unethical, secretive, un-representative and wasteful federal politics as usual. The key question is, will the opposition parties offer good government to voters? ” Duff Conacher, Co-ordinator, Democracy Watch, Ottawa
In 2004, when Scott Brison left the Tories to join the Liberals, Mr. Harper said: “Leaving a party and defecting to the other side for 30 pieces of silver is part of corruption.” Then, on the day after Mr. Harper won an election campaign on ethics, he was the one handing out the silver. There is a striking hypocrisy in this, and in many of Mr. Harper’s subsequent actions — where he behaves the same as the cynical Liberals he once compared to Judas Iscariot. It continued this week, when Mr. Harper appointed 18 senators, something he had promised not to do, all the while denouncing the Liberals for blocking his efforts at Senate reform. Mr. Harper, an old Reformer, swore he would be different from his Liberal and Progressive Conservative predecessors. But when faced with the same temptation, he behaved in exactly the same way as prime ministers always have — he appointed old bagmen and political organizers who had been helpful to him in leadership races and election campaigns, along with a few high-profile Canadians as a fig leaf.
Also now, He promised to establish a Public Appointments Commission to review all political appointees, then reneged when the opposition sniffed at the man he selected to head it, and has continued to make partisan appointments without scrutiny. What makes Mr. Harper different from other hypocritical politicians is not his reversals but the withering brutality of his attacks on his opponents, reinforced by a legion of talented spin doctors and advertising experts. It suggests either a psychological inability to recognize that his actions are morally equivalent to those he attacks — or, more likely, a willingness to be as mean as is useful. That meanness, though, has recently backfired on Mr. Harper, twice, at some cost.First, in the recent election campaign, his harsh comments about culture cuts cost him the Quebec seats he needed to win a majority. Then, in the fall fiscal update, his attacks on the opposition’s funding almost cost him power, necessitating another round of hypocritical attacks that boosted his support in the West and burnt his bridges in Quebec. If Quebecers have permanently soured on Mr. Harper — which would put a majority out of reach — Mr. Harper’s appeal would fade in the rest of the country. Having lived, for three years, by the sword, he risks dying from a self-inflicted wound.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Columnists/1097842.html
- Quebec singer-songwriter Michel Rivard’s YouTube video sensation, which mocked Conservative arts funding cuts, likely turned enough tide to prevent the Harper majority from emerging out of Quebec seat gains. It’s deadliest satirical shot featured stiff Anglo bureaucrats auditioning the francophone singer and mistaking his use of “phoque,” or baby seal, as a dirty word. As a hilarious attack ad, it had far greater vote-shifting effects than all the Bloc Quebecois and Liberal advertising combined. Arts funding cut: Hopes for a Conservative majority were built on winning Quebec ridings. So by waiting until the eve of the election to announce modest arts funding cuts and then convincing the prime minister to belittle as caviar-gulping gala hosts all those who receive federal arts subsidies, it was campaign brain death.
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=cb23ac69-e4a7-43e9-b833-d7f7e5f79ac9
- The troubled relationship between Couillard and Maxime Bernier got many people’s attention now too, the Couillard-Bernier scandal
The tempest in a D-Cup. They had allegedly split as lovers, yet Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier jumped off the plane after a NATO conference on Afghanistan, dashed over to glamorous Julie Couillard’s townhouse for a sleepover and promptly forgot a stack of secret documents in the former biker chick’s living room. The woman scorned got even by disclosing his left-behind documents to media. That little oversight cost Bernier his ministerial job, prompted an internal inquiry, landed Couillard a tell-all book contract and ended with her infamous cleavage-exposing dress being put up for charity auction. You couldn’t make this up either.
About face of the year Ian Brodie. Not only did Harper’s former chief of staff leak damaging information to reporters on the U. S. presidential race, revealing that all their bad-mouthing of NAFTA was meaningless candidate posturing, he hasn’t embraced the spirit of Conservativeimposed rules prohibiting former political appointments from lobbying the government. When he “retired” last spring, Brodie swore an “undertaking” he would not lobby his former boss or the cabinet underlings. First stop in the private sector? An Ottawa lobby firm where he will advise lobbyists on how to lobby the government. Unspeakably shameless.
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=cb23ac69-e4a7-43e9-b833-d7f7e5f79ac9
Remember how it seemed that Harper didn’t care that he was leading a minority government, next a single, monstrous, Harper’s miscalculation caused a chain reaction that, brought Canada’s economy tumbling down further and Stephen Harper to his knees and he is now cowling in fear.. for the support a coalition government for Canada is growing and why?. It’s clear that Prime Minister Stephen Harper isn’t serious about helping families and . Harper said he’d make Parliament work better this time. He said he’d do something substantial for the economy. Harper the big liar who still cannot be trusted too. It seems that it would only be fair if the mostly useless MPs still can shut down Parliament for 50-plus days, that we, the Canadian taxpayers, should be able to rightfully shut down their paycheques for the same period.
- Proposed social welfare to big three automotive Car makers – General Motors, Chrysler with all the spins..- Canada’s federal government and three provinces have agreed to provide C$4.45 billion ($3.65 billion) in backstops to support a plan to restructure C$32 billion in asset-backed commercial paper that has been frozen for more than a year. The margin facilities provided by Ottawa and the provinces of Quebec, Ontario and Alberta bring the total guarantees for the restructuring to $17.82 billion, the investor committee that organized the plan said in a statement on Wednesday.
- In addition it was clear that the bad RCMP again this year made major headlines with their use of Tasers and their murder of a polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski in Vancouver, BC, plus the alcoholic RCMP cops - Alcoholism, Cops included - Speed traps ..“ Rest in Peace, Robert Dziekanski. How long will we tolerate the cops investigating themselves? How many more families will be denied fair and impartial justice? “
- On top of that Canada’s Bell, BCE made major headlines twice even with their internet download capping, restrictions admissions and also with the Ontario teacher’s failure of the BCE takeover, and related drops in Bell share prices this year too. Don’t forget the bad “CRTC, for siding with Bell Canada and Big Telecom against consumer and net neutrality. In November, the CRTC announced that they would not force Bell to stop its controversial practice of net throttling. “
- Donna Molnar’s husband said Tuesday “God reached down and cradled” his wife — helping her survive 72 hours buried under snow in sub-zero southern Ontario weather.
-The world wide recessions, falling oil prices and falling home prices as well made up a serious part of the news in Canada too. so did Alberta’s new deficit..The economic crisis - How many rich people in Calgary, Edmonton Alberta?
- Health - The Maple leaf tainted meat Scandal got our attention as well.. . China entered the spotlight again with their olympics and their a melamine-laced milk products scandal. Canada had its own listeriosis outbreak involving processed meats, Maple Leaf Foods recall - Shit disease continues to kill people in Canada’s Hospitals. The outbreak of listeriosis killed 20 Canadians last year. It is in ours and in the GOVERNMENTS interests, after all, to ensure that no similar tragedies occur under ALL of their watch. . On Sept. 3, 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper had announced that there would be “an arm’s-length investigation to make sure we get to the bottom, on the government side, on the bureaucratic side, of exactly what transpired” in the fatal outbreak of bacteria in Maple Leaf Foods luncheon meats, “and to make sure as we go forward and we make changes to our system that this kind of thing can’t happen again.” Specifically on Sept. 6, the day before the election was called, Mr. Harper announced the terms of reference – including a reporting deadline of March 15, 2009. That deadline may have been a little ambitious, since an investigation of complex regulations and their enforcement could take longer than a few months. But yet now the same federal government does not appear to be making an effort to meet it – or to treat the matter with any degree of urgency. Even Four months later, and nearly two-thirds of the way through its self-imposed time-frame, it is now still being reported that the government has not yet even named a lead investigator. At this rate, it unlikely that the investigation will even be completed this year. Stephen Harper’s government’s apparent failure to launch an investigation it promised early last fall raises the unsettling thought that its pledge was made largely to prevent the issue from jeopardizing its prospects in the election campaign. There is no plausible justification for this delay. Parliament need not be sitting for the government to appoint investigators; it requires no legislation. If Mr. Harper was comfortable appointing 18 senators while Parliament is prorogued, he should have no qualms about naming someone to help protect. With the exception of the controversy surrounding some ill-advised jokes made by Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, the listeriosis outbreak played little role in the fall campaign. Canadians did not have much reason to believe the Conservatives bore responsibility for it, and were led to believe the government took the matter seriously. ALL Canadians should now feel differently knowing that the issue would not be attended to promptly once the federal lection campaign was over. Once again Stephen Harper THE PRETENDER does not keep his promises.
-Sports - The defeat of the Montreal Allouettes in football again.The underdogs Calgary Stampeders won the Grey Cup.
- The unpopularity of the now gone, past Liberal Leader Stephane Dion sure made many headlines now too
- The 2007/2008 long cold winter with plenty of snow was another top sellerseems to want to repat itself..Note this important brief introduction to road safety and the police .. Yes you always do have to drive safely, in control, not impaired as well and yes there are many, many different factors that now can cause a vehicular, automotive accident, including but not limited to the actual daily road conditions, even the type of tires you have .. for it is a fact that good tires lead to a safer drive, and so does a 4 wheel drive. Next when you start to first drive at any day do first immediately test the road condition by coming to a planned sudden stop , and see firsthand how your car reacts accordingly.. then next do use this experience to set how you will drive the rest of the day too. And no matter what car, or tires you have, or who is the driver, if you do hit a patch of black ice, due clearly to the failure of others, such as the Governments, municipalities, to apply salt and gravel on the icy / snowy road, to falsely try to save money here, it can be very, very hazardous now too. Give them a fine, ticket, they firstly do deserve it too. Now hypothetical if you do not drive at all you are less likely to have an accident, assuming another driver does not hit you while walking..
- Severed feet washing ashore in BC
- Ex PM Paul Martin and Alberta’s Premier Ralph Klien resigned from politics
Stories of the year. Yup, it’s been one crazy, mixed-up 2008. The link between government economic policies and the ever-increasing financial woes of millions of Canadians. Brace yourself for 2009?
ESSENTIAL LESSON: Humility, one would hope. All the mainstream parties lost goodwill in English Canada. The Liberals and the Tories lost the most. They just are not connecting with what real people care about. The pre-Christmas power play was particularly disastrous. Unfortunately, because both Stephen Harper and Michael Ignatieff came out ahead politically, the lesson was likely lost.
