Long Knives in the Liberal Camp

Liberal leader Stephane Dion desperately tries to maintain some order in his caucus by demoting capable critics and allowing rumours of major reshuffles to spread, hurting his most capable potential heirs such as Michael Ignatieff. Meanwhile, the CTV also presents us with some damning poll data from Dion's home province and his own hometown, Quebec city, showing the Liberals rock bottom and the Tories trailing the withering Bloc. L. Ian McDonald commented:

A leader without a base is like a prophet without a homeland

It is in dark times such as these that a wise leader abandons ego and desires for control and embraces the age-old wisdom: the best way to stay in power is to surround yourself with people brighter than you. People who can galvanize support, inspire trust and cast an image of professionalism and ability to discharge great duties. Dion is attempting to do the exact opposite, removing popular aides in order to give more prominence to the likes of Bob Rae. Although that might make him a little more popular in Ontario this is not a successful strategy for the remaining provinces.

It is not a safe route either, as Rae is an ambitious politician who no doubt eyes up the Liberal leadership without necessarily coming across as a viable alternative to Stephen Harper. A Rae leadership, though more colourful than Dion's, would be easier to fire on judging by the man's record in Ontario.

It is time for Dion to realize the danger he is putting his party in, resheath the knives and let a capable team of charismatic true leaders overshadow his blatant inability to keep a party caucus in line.

PEI pregnancy prevention programme to continue

I am currently overwhelmed with university duties but wanted to share a little piece of good news and common sense. The PEI teenage pregnancy prevention programme whose forecoming closure I mentioned a few weeks ago will be receiving funds after all and will be able to continue, as per CBC reporting.

I'm glad this cheap yet efficient initiative was not allowed to go down the drain, and I wish to see more such programmes throughout Canada. Owing to the small investments needed, I am adamant to see them more or entirely funded by generous private donations, thus freeing them from dependence on federal or provincial funds. Maybe then we'll avoid repeating this kind of bungle.

No referendum, huh?

Pauline Marois wants the PQ to abandon its referendum pledge for the time being. Unsurprizing.

Having realized the continued impunity with which Quebec can pursue its most questionable discriminatory objectives through indiscriminate (pardon the pun) use of the notwithstanding clause and provincial prerogative, Pauline Marois is contemplating maintaining the status quo.

Why? My guess is Madame Marois has the wonderful idea of continuing to wrestle with Ottawa, claim more and more prerogative, continue applying or proposing her insane policies such as the law on Quebec citizenship without the province being hailed before an international body and held accountable for its despicable course. In its perverseness, the current situation allows Quebec's harassment of English speakers and potentially many other categories to be shielded from global ridicule by the cover of the Canadian umbrella and the notwithstanding clause. Smart as she undoubtedly is, Marois has all the interest in preserving Quebec in Canada in order to continue scaring us with insane legislation without fear of reprisal and build up the party's support base.

Marois' stance on pushing the referendum back in the priority list is a decoy, and everyone knows it. Except Dion, of course, who appears to contemplate an independent Quebec sometime:

In Ottawa, of all places, Marois's plan received a somewhat more favourable
reception.
"I think it's a good move," Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion told
reporters after a caucus meeting.
"I think a responsible secessionist leader should not rush to a referendum, should first build strong support, a clear majority for separation and once it's done, it's time to go to a referendum."

Referendum time has passed, people don't want to leave Canada. Unless Dion wants more businesses to move to Toronto his remarks are a destruction of his credibility as a federalist. If he were a chameleon I'd say this time he's shown his true colour.

Credit to McGuinty when credit is due

I guess I rarely say this, but Dalton McGuinty might be drifting toward the right track here. He plans to create long-term re-training programmes to help laid-off workers acquire new skills, parallel to the federal government's unemployment benefit that runs out in 36 weeks.

Credit to Stephen Harper for not giving in to the welfarists (although a little concession for those who are in the process of full time skill re-training might be in order) and credit to McGuinty when due. Instead of clinging onto welfare he might be on the road to rowing Ontario out of its manufacturing rut. Maybe, just maybe.

Democrats bash NAFTA and Canadian Gov't

This is too funny to be made up, honestly!

Democratic wonk Bob Shrum is hinting that the Canadian Government is trying to help John McCain win the White House by downplaying the Democratic candidates' pledges on scrapping NAFTA, citing a CTV report on Barack Obama's promises being hot air.

Leaving aside the simple fact that the latter is true, I fully agree with David Frum's definition of Democrats and liberals as thriving on division, differences and discord. Where there's distrust, fear, alienation there's the liberal octopus, the Liberpus if you like, extending its welfarist, statalist and isolationist tentacle. It is no surprise that the Democrats are trying to woo blue-collar workers to the ballot box in November by promising to abolish consumer sovereignty and foreign development opportunities. It is no surprise either that having realized the soundness of McCain's arguments they are attempting to discredit him as a receptor of foreign influence. Having no chance to alienate both Canada and Mexico by destroying NAFTA, they are going for the 50% mark by upsetting Canada.

Scrapping NAFTA would make it more difficult for US companies to sell abroad and increase the price of Canadian and Mexican imports, paradoxically damaging the same blue collars that today advocate NAFTA's demise. Both Clinton and Obama know it, and wouldn't dare damaging their country once in office.

As any other trade agreement, NAFTA can be improved. But let there be no doubt that free trade is the only way for countries to realize their full potential and progress on the path to greater development. If Obama bashes free trade so eagerly, let me remind him that were the US to open up their agricultural markets fully and unlimitedly to Kenyan produce his Kenyan kin would enjoy greater demand for their products, bringing greater prosperity to that African country. Without any need for foreign aid out of the taxpayer's pocket, with greater choice and lower prices for American consumers. The public wins, government wonks and lobbies lose.

If this is Bob Shrum's best shot at campaign strategy I'd classify his pay as welfare rather than a wage. Because his strategy isn't worth a dime.

Networking Conference '08

This weekend I attended the Canada Networking Conference in Ottawa, brilliantly organized by the Manning Centre. About 150 delegates gathered to share views and experiences, as well as to hear from the likes of Preston Manning, Tony Clement, Mike Harris, Bernard Lord, Richard Prebble and many other distinguished politicians and members of the public who are involved in shaping public opinion and representing groups or constituencies.

I was particularly impressed by Tony Clement's recalling of his campaign and victory in the riding of Parry Sound-Muskoka with the smallest majority in the current Canadian House of Commons, a precious 28 votes achieved through tireless campaigning and literally "going the extra mile", often uphill in bad weather.

The healthcare panel discussion included Mike Harris, Quebec's Joanne Marcotte and the Canadian Medical Association President Brian Day, whose presence at our conference will doubtlessly be contested in the coming days. The speakers drew attention to many of the issues affecting Canada's Medicare and the funding system that generates the perverse perception of the patient as a cost rather than a customer. Surprisingly Quebec was singled out as one of the frontrunners in the introduction of greater private care and competition among hospitals. The recent Castonguay report highlights Quebec's desire to experiment with new approaches to tackle the difficulties faced by the province's Medicare.

Saturday saw Mark Textor from Australia and Richard Prebble from New Zealand sharing their political experiences and analyses, the session being aptly titled "Lessons from Down-Under". Prebble's remark about getting rid of agriculture subsidies drew a spontaneous round of applause and the obvious question as to how anyone could have managed to butcher such a sacred cow. Hon. Prebble maintained his humorous style and remarked that since there wasn't a gradual, painless and bloodless way to kill a cow (or something to that effect) they just shot it. If only EU countries could do the same to the CAP!

This was followed by Stephen Taylor's presentation on how blogging and social networking contribute to political activism and by a panel session on campaigning techniques. Unfortunately I was the victim of a post-lunch sleepiness attack half way through the latter and couldn't follow the discussion as closely as I would have loved to.

Former Nova Scotia Premier John Hamm's moving speech about the origins and present situation of democracy in Canada and Preston Manning's closing remarks wrapped up a fantastic two days.

I was delighted to meet fellow Blogging Tories Stephen Taylor, Sara of Choice for Childcare, Steve of Officially Screwed and Roy of Dr Roy's Thoughts. My views on gun ownership and general weapons policy were positively challenged by the Canadian Shooting Sports Association and I also met several Tories from other universities as well as local riding association coordinators. All in all an excellent opportunity to meet new people, learn more about canadian and worldwide conservatism and gain new insight into political activism. I very much look forward to next year's conference on the 13-14th of March 2009.

Taxpayers' aid for Scrooge McDuck

With public agencies and public employees like at LAO, no wonder Ontario had to close shop on Fridays once upon a time. Some sections of that province haven't learned their lesson though.

Legal Aid Ontario squandered over a million of taxpayers' dollars helping defend a millionaire murderer. Both CBC and CTV report on it (and countless other media that don't come into my RSS, yet).

Thankfully someone is giving them the rap they deserve, so kudos to the Ontario Ombudsman for identifying the leaks and giving both LAO and the province the instructions to fix them. The ease with which Ontarians have been cheated out of a million beggars belief, as does the pervasive carelessness and lack of monitoring that go on whenever public money is spent.

Dirty tricks and negligence cannot go unpunished, thus as much as recovering part of the money LAO should ensure that those responsible for this bungle get nowhere close to a taxpayer's dollar again.

Our freedom is not secure

I am one to mind if a corrupt loser government shuts off its own people's access to information. I am also one to really mind if that meddling touches half the globe.

Pakistan's telecoms authority evidently wanted to pull an enormous joke on us, since their zeal outed YouTube not only within the confines of the piece of land cursed by the rule of that congregation of mediocrity and idiocy, but on half the planet.

This SNAFU is a very worrying sign of the vulnerability of the world's information highways to the arbitrary whim of any dictatorship. Today it's Pakistan, tomorrow it could be anyone from Uzbekistan to North Korea. I would appreciate our communication providers secured our access to what is rightfully ours, from funny videos to anything one (but not me) might define un-islamic or contrary to any sort of faith precept. Failing to safeguard our freedoms will bring nothing but misery in a very foreseeable future.

Nature meddles with politics. Badly.

CBC's eager reporting of the journal Nature lambasting the Conservative government prompted me to read the full editorial in question, which I find extremely disappointing and a total blunder, let alone inappropriately politicized for a journal of Nature's focus and calibre.

The most visible objection one can make on the spot is the fallacious assumed correlation between enthusiasm for climate change doom-peddling by self-proclaimed messiahs and genuine interest for science. Dismissal of unattainable targets (Kyoto) and exploitation of natural resources (oil sands) are the duties of a responsible and accountable government. While emissions from tar sand processing should raise the public's eyebrow Nature's ill-advised conclusion that they are symptomatic of government disregard for science elicits ridicule. Research into cleaner processing is ongoing, and I for one am sure these technologies will be implemented once their technical and economic feasibility is proven to the general market.

Moreover, Nature argues that the Science, Technology and Innovation Council (STIC) will be less able than one person (with a vague mandate) to discharge a duty of valid scientific advice to the Government. The principal motivation of such undeserved criticism of the STIC is its presumed lack of independence, for "several government administrators" have the honour and privilege of membership. What Nature fails to acknowledge, however, is that the appointment of Arthur Carthy by Martin's government was as good as any Liberal boondoggle: a colossal waste of a person's potential coupled to an abjuration of commitment. The composition of the STIC is the best recipe for finding a convergence between scientific, business and political interest, because all these seemingly discordant viewpoints are brought together for the purpose of producing coherent and consensus-based advice. The STIC is a practical alternative to Martin's propaganda stunt.

As an employee of the science, research and development sector I covet funding for projects aimed at advancing human knowledge and Canadian competitive advantages in technology. I fully share Nature's concern over the inability of federal bodies to fund all the grant applications they receive yet I refuse to join in the journal's insinuation that the Conservative government doesn't care for science just because it doesn't shower the sector with taxpayers' money.

As a last objection to Nature's attack I wish to draw everyone's attention to the simple fact that re-routing media enquiries to Environment Canada via Ottawa is a legitimate Government prerogative over its own agency. Freedom of speech and freedom of association have been granted in this country exactly to enable any member of the public to deliver any kind of message to fellow Canadians, thus if members and advisors of Environment Canada feel the Government is not acting in the interests of the country they should find like-minded peers and form an advocacy group in lieu of illicitly exploiting an artificial prominence. Nature's ludicrous pretence that the Government should not exercise its prerogative is nothing short of a flirt with anarchy. Considering the article's tone, however, this divide and rule approach seemingly befits the general editorial board's agenda for a world in disarray where a few organized insiders can determine public policy.

Nature appears to advocate a Government whose eagerness to defer to a special interest group (as climate change apocalyptics are) is equalled by its disregard for due democratic process. Let there be no doubt that the day we base our policies and decisions solely on the whim of the most vocal scientist advocates we will have denuded our democratic institutions of their power.

If white coat power is what Nature's editorial board envisions I seriously worry for the journal's reputation. Science belongs to all parties and to none, and Nature's evident partisanship is for me a source of great disappointment.

Arab governments conspire against freedom of speech

They are at it again, in the name of their own style of social cohesion and obscurantism as we haven't seen since the times of the Inquisition.

Governments of several Arab countries have voted in favour of a media code which stipulates that broadcasters should conform to Islamic rules and values, "not threaten public order" and plenty more of such nonsense. Al Jazeera (of all!) has been banned from several Arab countries and is one of the most vocal opponents of such moves, and if one googles the words "arab media code" this article comes up top.

Kudos to Lebanon for not giving in to such mediocrity. Information, despite what those oil-drunk pseudo-leaders of the Arab League may think, is about opinions, facts, reporting and above all: Information is about the TRUTH. Which in the Arab world seems to be more inconvenient than Bacardi 151 and Jenna Jameson put together.