Stephen, Why Do You Treat Our Veterans Like Political Pawns?

How do you put out a fire?

Simple question, first of all it depends on how big the fire is.  If it is a small fire, like a candle, it’s pretty simple.  You can blow it out, some like to dampen their fingertips and pinch the flame out, or the more elegant might use a candle snuffer.  Basically you can douse it with water (on your fingertips) or starve it for fuel (with the snuffer).

If it’s a larger fire, like a campfire you can toss a bucket of water on it, starve it for fuel and let it burn out on its own.

What if it’s a big fire?  Like a PMO/Senate Scandal?

Well Steve and Co. have tried just about everything you can think of.  They tried to let it burn itself out, no luck.  They threw water on it and tossed people under the bus to no avail.

They even sent their minions with torches at Justin Trudeau, the only problem is that Canadians like Justin Trudeau.  He may not be everyone’s choice for PM, but lots of us grew up with him.  He’s a nice guy.

And the fire the Harperistas started at JT’s feet just drew more people to him to sit by the fire.  Like going camping or enjoying a bonfire.  It just wasn’t working.

So the Harper folk looked for a new place to set a fire.  I mean intentionally.

So they set their torches toward recently retired Lieutenant General Andrew Leslie.  And they got a fire started.

A lot of people are upset that the General’s move to a new home not far from his existing home ran to $72,000.00 or so. 

CTV reported this, Minister Rob Nicholson is telling the DND to look into this.  But the bottom line is that it appears that the only thing that General Leslie did wrong was to join the wrong political party.

He joined the Liberal Party of Canada.

You see, because the Military requires members of the Forces to relocate, there is a provision that helps to take care of the move.  A benefit of serving for 20 or more years in the Military is that the government pays for one last move.  It could be across town or across the country, but the government has a third party company that takes care of packing, storing, and moving the retirees’ property to the new location.  The Integrated Relocation Plan (IRP) also takes care of some of the expenses in selling the old home and buying the new one.  In General Leslie’s case, this was $72,000.00.

General Leslie did not hire anyone, he didn’t do anything other than what a 20+ year veteran would do.  He submitted his information for the move.  The third party took care of the rest.

The IRP has been on the books for decades.  As a matter of fact, the Auditor General submitted a report on the IRP in November 2006 to the Harper government that pointed out a number of problems with the IRP.  The government did nothing about it.  They even repeated problems that the AG pointed out in 2006.

When General Leslie moved in 2011, no alarms went off, no one at the Treasury Board Secretariat (Tony Clement’s department) waved any flags and no one in Rob Nicholson’s National Defence Department raised any issues either.

Actually, the Harper Party was so enamoured with General Leslie that they offered him a job, even hinting that he should run for them in the next election.  No they didn’t get mad at him until after he had signed on to be an advisor to the Liberal Party on International Affairs.

Go figure.

The Harper Party should take care here.  They have already offended the Veterans and the Military with their treatment of our Warriors.  They are adding fuel to that fire by starting up with General Leslie.

You see the danger is that when you start fires, they can become unpredictable… especially when they are big ones. 

It just depends on which way the wind blows. 

Laters BC

Maybe Stever should be happy we don’t live in an emerging Democracy like Egypt… It’s not good to pee on the military there, is it Steve?

Enough With the Vote Splitting!

There were three by-elections in Canada this week. Each riding was held by the party that had the seat prior to the by-elections.  The riding of Durham, Ontario was a majority win so there is no complaint there, but the other two races were very close with the “victors” only taking roughly 1/3^rd of the votes cast.

But the biggie is the near upset in Calgary by the Liberal Candidate Harvey Locke who almost ousted the Harper Party Parachute Club member Joan Crockatt.  Crockatt took 36.9% of the votes cast, Locke took 32.7%

This is where the cries of vote splitting kick in.

There are people ranting and railing about how the Green Party candidate Chris Turner screwed the chances of a “progressive” party winning Calgary Centre by not throwing his support behind the Liberal cause.

My question to them is why should he have?

If Chris Turner believed that the Liberal Party was the best option for the residents of the riding, he should have run for the Liberals.

He didn’t, he opted to run for the Greens because he felt the Green Party was the better choice.  At least I hope that’s why he ran.

The people complaining about the vote split need to listen to the disenfranchised voters from the right side of the spectrum.  These are the former PC supporters who now have no party to represent them.  They have 3 choices (actually four).  Some, a fair number I suppose, vote for the vestiges of their party that rest in the Harper Party.  They aren’t that happy.  Look at Calgary Centre, the Harper Party only managed 37% of the vote in a lead pipe cinch riding.  The former MP for the riding took 55% of the votes in the 2011 election.

Some of them are willing to hold their nose and vote for the Liberal or other parties, the one that shares at least some of their former beliefs.  This would account for the surge in votes for both the Liberals and the Green Party.

And the rest stayed home.  That could in part explain why the turnout in Calgary Centre was so low.

The fourth option would be to vote for the Progressive Canadian Party, which is made up of former Progressive Conservative members and supporters who left their party rather than be part of the Harper Party.

Are you with me so far?  So let’s “Unite the Left”.

Let’s just say that the NDP, Liberal, and Green Parties sat down and decided that each would get a shot at a riding where it looked like they had a chance of winning and the others wouldn’t field a candidate in that riding.  So the NDP gets Victoria, the Liberals get Calgary Centre and the Greens get Durham.

So the results are a solid NDP win in BC, a solid Liberal win in Alberta, and a Green Party loss in Durham where the Harper Party carried just over 50% of the votes, right?

Maybe, maybe not.  This isn’t a case of 1+1+1=3.  If your riding was a targeted riding and your party was not running a candidate so that a progressive would have a better chance… would you vote for that candidate?  Would you vote for another candidate because you refuse to vote for the “chosen party”?  Would you bother to vote at all?

Be honest, if you are a card carrying Liberal or NDP member, would you happily vote for the other party?  Would you just stay home?

Listen, some churches have tried similar things.  Faced with declining numbers churches are combined in the hopes that 1200+1200=2400.  It doesn’t work that way for them.  Some people faced with the closure of their church would rather not go to church at all, or join other churches that are closer than their newly assigned church.

If it doesn’t work all that well for them, why should it work in politics?  I’ve seen people who agree on just about everything ready to come to blows simply because of the colour of their lawn signs in election season.

Political divisions aren’t like the lane divisions on the highway, where the NDP drive in the Left Lane and the Harper Party in the Right one.  It’s more like mixing water colours and where the two close colours blend is where the swing voters live.  The thing is that if you take colour from the one side of your spectrum, say the right side, then you risk alienating your supporters on the opposite side who may move away from your party or just stay home on Election Day.

In the last Federal Election, Ontario Liberals were knocked down badly.  I looked at the numbers comparing the 2011 Election with the previous election.  The increase in Harper Party votes roughly mirrored the increase in the NDP votes.  Apparently some Liberal supporters jumped to the right to prevent the left from sweeping into Ontario.  The other thing I noticed was that the number of votes that moved to the left and right did not match the drop in the Liberal numbers.  Liberal supporters stayed home.

From where I sit, the best thing for Canada right now is for the “progressive” parties to choose whoever they feel is the best leader for their party and to hammer out what they feel are the best policies for their party and for Canada and to sell it (the policies, not the country).

Part of the beauty of Canada is that we are not divided into two parties.  We have choice.

But beyond that, I would love to see the day when our candidates run under a given banner, but have the ability to stand up in caucus and in the House of Commons and say to their party “This law is not a good fit for my constituents.  I choose my constituency over the wishes of the party.” And not be penalized for that.

And banning all attack ads would be nice too.

Cheers, BC.

Does Dalton McGuinty’s Prorogue Pass the Smell Test?

I may annoy some friends with my thoughts, but when I started to do these Blogs I promised myself that I would try not to be biased and would rant at anyone in government who I felt deserved it.

This week Dalton McGuinty ticked me off.

What did he do?  Like you really have to ask… He prorogued the Ontario Legislature.

Like many others, I joined Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament (CAPP) back when Stephen Harper decide to start using the prorogue as a “Get out of Trouble Free” card pulled from the Community Chest stack. I felt it was wrong to use the power of the prorogue to shut and lock the doors to the House of Commons just because the Opposition had him on the ropes.

And now Dalton has done it and I’m just as annoyed with him.

Traditionally when the leader of the Government prorogues the Legislature, it is simply to indicate that the Government has met the goals that they set out to do in their Throne Speech.  It is like a bookmark for historians so they can point at something that happened in say the Second Session of the 39^th Parliament or whatever.  Federally a session lasts about a year and usually ends with a break for the Parliamentarians, like the summer recess.  A prorogue.

An abuse occurs when the Government decides that it is getting too hot for them and they just want to lock the doors with everyone outside to air the House out and hope the heat goes with it.  It also shuts down Committees and kills everything on the agenda… including the item or items that are embarrassing the Government.

It seems to have worked for Stephen, now Dalton is going to try it too.

I can understand the reasoning… Dalton has a minority Government and he’s in a jam and wants to get around it.

So Dalton decides he’s had enough of being Premier, steps down as leader and prorogues the Legislature.  He says it is so the negotiations with the civil servants can go more smoothly, I don’t think so.  I think it is more likely to prevent the Opposition from forcing a vote of non-confidence and bringing down the Government while they are without a leader.  When a new leader is chosen, they’ll end the prorogue and deflect all the accusations by saying “I didn’t do it, he did.  I just brought the Legislature back.”

The PC leader Tim Hudak must be fuming.  How can he rail against Dalton’s prorogation without having Harper’s twin prorogues tossed back in his face?

Now, for the people who are outside of Ontario who are wondering why they should care…

Quite simply, our governments watch each other to see what works and what doesn’t.  I’ll admit that living here in Ontario, I was barely aware that British Columbia’s Legislature is shut down while Premier Christy Clark bails furiously trying to keep her Liberal Party afloat.

Don’t be surprised if your Legislature decides that a cooling off period is required when that government gets in a jam.

We in Ontario have seen the dreaded Omnibus Budget Bill raise its head here, following in the footsteps of the Harper Party who are trotting out yet another 400+ page behemoth Budget Bill… your turn will likely come soon.

So does Dalton’s prorogue pass the smell test?  Not from where I’m sitting.

And for all the Harper Apologists and Echoboxes that blather on about “Where are all the Lefties that cried out about Harper’s prorogues?” You’re looking at one of them here Sunshine.  What Harper did was wrong and what Dalton is doing is just as wrong.

As for the pundits who think Dalton is going to run for the Federal Liberal Leadership, I seriously doubt it.  Dalton fell on his sword to save his party.  The stink of this prorogue will follow him for a while.

Just for fun… The use of prorogation in Canada dates back to the first Parliament Federally.  In Ontario the first use of the prorogue was by Bill Davis, the patron saint of all Ontario conservatives and Harper Party loyalists.  Every Premier since has used it including Bob Rae and Mike Harris so all three Ontario Parties that have formed governments in Queens Park have done it.  Usually in the traditional manner.

‘Nuff said… If I never have to write the word prorogue again it will be too soon. Cheers, BC.

Stephen Harper is Scared of Bob Rae

Remember those attack ads?  The Harper Party ads about Bob Rae?

There were 101 theories about why the Harper Party would go after the interim leader of the Liberals.  Was it to poison the Liberals who had vowed to fight attack ads against their Leader by making them decide if they could afford to protect a stop gap leader?  Was it to distract the people from what was going on in Ottawa at the time?  Or was it to try and make sure that it would be almost impossible for Bob Rae to attempt to be the elected leader of the Liberal Party of Canada?

I’m thinking it might be number three.

Recently, well for a while now, the Harper Party has been pushing to have a pipeline shoved through B.C.’s back door to provide Alberta Bitumen (rather than oil or tar sands production) access to China.  This of course was plan “B” after the big pipeline to Texas appeared to die a political death.

The NDP on the other hand opposed the pipelines in both directions and for the most part are opposing the development of the bitumen deposits in northern Alberta.

And in wanders Bob Rae.  Its Stampede time in Calgary and Bob looks to the left and sees Tom Mulcair shaking his fist and preaching the evils of pipelines and Tar Sands development.  Bob looks to his right and sees Steve Harper waving his hands in the air preaching Oil Sands development and the need for more economic freedom by running a pipeline through B.C. so it can be sold to the Chinese.

Now Bob Rae looks back and forth a couple of times and sees how far apart these two fellows have moved.  They are polarizing the debate and Bob sees something the other two are missing.  There are a whole bunch of people in the middle and they’re not really buying what the other guys are selling.

So Bob steps up and does the unthinkable.  He starts to make sense.

Standing in Alberta where he knows he doesn’t have a lot of support, Bob starts talking about the Oil Sands.

Basically he tells people that the Oil Sands are going to be developed, we all know that, and it will be up to the governments of Alberta and Canada to decide how that development takes place.  Bob says that the development needs to be of value to Alberta and Canada and that it needs to be done properly so that there is no hangover left for the descendants of Albertans and Canadians in general to clean up.  He even goes as far as to applaud the oil companies that are trying to restore the region to its natural state after they are through.

He’s carving out the middle ground for his party and doing it in Alberta.

Bob Rae has been watching, he’s seen the collapse of WildRose and the hopes of the Harper Party to have their provincial equivalent ruling in Alberta.  He’s seen the people of Alberta return to the more moderate Conservatism of the PC Party and he’s betting that at least some of them are closer to the Liberal Party stance than that of the Harper Party.

Does he expect to carry Alberta in the next Federal Election?  I seriously doubt that.  He’s talking to the rest of Canada as well.  And a lot of Canadians aren’t too fond of the pipeline and the gutting of environmental policy to appease big oil but that also think that the deposits in Alberta will be developed anyway.  Kind of like me.  Kind of like Peter Lougheed who thinks Albertans should be processing the bitumen into oil and oil products and not the Chinese or the Texans and I agree with him on that as well.

I really think it is a shame that Bob Rae likely will never get the chance to be in the Leaders Debate at election time.  I think he’d mop the floor with Harper.  He’s an extraordinarily smart man and a very canny politician.  Unfortunately he has a lot of baggage from his Premiership in Ontario, most of it undeserved.

Premier Bob Rae managed to steer Ontario through a recession with virtually no help from his Federal counterparts and left Ontario is rather good shape at the end.  Unfortunately he lost his popularity in doing it.

Harper, the so called Master Strategist missed the mark trying to push Bob Rae around.  He didn’t realize that Bob cares more for his Country and his Party than Harper ever will.

Bob Rae is still fighting a good fight and when he hands the Liberal Party of Canada over to the next leader, he will have done his utmost to make sure the party is capable of taking back the middle ground and going from being an also ran to being a serious contender in the next election.

I hope the Liberal Party will respect his efforts and continue to build towards their future.

Disclaimers:

 I am not currently nor have I ever been a member of the Liberal Party or any other Political Party for that matter.

Although I tend to favour some parties over others, I still maintain that the elected member for my riding should be my representative in Ottawa and not his or her party’s representative in the riding regardless of the colour of their political flag.

I’m done disclaiming; if you would care to rant back I’d be happy to read it, besides I need new ideas from time to time.