Category: Government

Well, boys and girls, the game’s on in London-North-Centre (where no Librano$ seem to want the job) and in Repentigny and that means having a lot of spare time gobbled up. What it doesn’t mean, however, is that I won’t have any opinions or anything to say. I just won’t have as much time to say it. From now until Nov. 27, I’m going to try to make a daily habit of posting what links I can find on the issue. From the MSM, blogs, or whatever, I’ll toss it out.

This will save me time from regurgitating a lot of stuff that others have already said (and sometimes said better, the bastards) while still being able to make sure that all my own little bones of contention are flung as far and wide as possible. You’ll also notice a little google RSS at the bottom of the right sidebar now.

Granted, most of what I put up is going to be focused more on London than on Repentigny but hey, I don’t live in Repentigny. Get over it. 😛 Here’s what I’ve got for Tuesday, October 24:

The Freeps
Byelection race taking shape
Nothing political in vote timing, PMO assures
City council candidate jumps into federal race in London-North-Centre
Walker faces fight for NDP nomination
Walker in NDP candidacy storm

Conservative Life
Would the real Liberals please stand up?

Globe & Mail
Fortier defends decision not to run in by-election

TO Star
Green Party eyes two seats in House
Fortier’s big chance

Canada.com
Byelections seen as test of Harper’s management

Ottawa Sun
Timing is everything

My Take?

There seems to be a lot of whining, especially from the Hypogrits, about the timing of these byelections. Funny. I don’t remember hearing so much as a peep out of them when the Librano$ were calling elections whenever it looked like the wind was blowing the right way for them (with plenty of time left in their mandate, no less).

By the time you start reading this, I’ll likely be off to the London Conservative nomination meeting tonight. Who am I going to support? Not sure just yet. While I favour Haskett’s socially conservative stance on many of the issues, I just can’t shake the vaguely slick feeling that we’re getting Iggy’d here…

Guess I’ll just have to wait and see what they both have to say on the issues that matter to me. Things like national defense, judicial activism, defense of religious rights, law and order… You know; all that nasty right-wing stuff. Especially law and order. I live in a bad neighbourhood. 🙁

We’ll just have to wait nad see.

Yet another huge unsurprise from the Grit-dominated Senate. “Red Chamber,” indeed. Am I the only one nauseated by the irony in that? I didn’t think so. Moving right along, then: the high and mighty trufflesnufflers in the Upper House raised their snouts from the trough today and oinked out their acumen on how to improve the “deeply flawed” Federal Accountability Act, Bill C-2.

In their never-ending quest to make sure their asses are covered when they get their hands on the public purse again safeguard the Canadian lawmaking process from short-sighted right-wing nutjobs that think Joe Lunchbox should have his uneducated snout in the Sacred Business Of The Government, the high and mighty hogs urged the House to reject Harper’s preposterous policies in favour of their high calibre pig in a poke. Proposed changes included (but weren’t limited to; oh, certainly not):

• remove the Canadian Wheat Board from the reach of the Access to Information Act
• allow Sustainable Development and Technology Canada to “better respect the sensitivity of the information” received from their applicants
• “better protect the privacy” of donors and the contract terms of performers at the National Arts Centre
• change the limit on political donations to $2,000

Yessiree, if the Librano$ have their way about it, this thing will be left with no teeth at all. Time for a little more action on Senate reform, does anybody think?

For those that haven’t already heard, tonight is the nomination meeting for the Conservative Party candidate for the upcoming London-North-Centre byelection. The event is being held at the Polish Combatants’ Hall at 80 Ann Street (just click here if you need a map). Hope to see as many of you as possible there. Get off yer butts, get out and vote! Here is a timetable of events for the evening:

7:00 pm – registration desks open up

7:30 pm – John Stirling – president will open meeting with O Canada

7:35 pm – introductory remarks – Jim Knowles

7:45 pm – speeches – Dianne Haskett (introduction 5 minutes, 15 minutes for the candidate)

8:05 pm – speeches – Tom Weihmayr (introduction 5 minutes, 15 minutes for the candidate)

8:25 pm voting commences

I have to tell you, it’s not often that I find myself using those two words together like that. The Brits, by and large, tend to be a little more (although no, not completely) immune to spasms of idiotic legislation than those of us in the new world but even they can suffer from a little cerebral flatulence from time to time. This is clearly one such time.

It seems that the British Parliament is contemplating legislation where, in addition to “no” meaning “no,” all of a sudden “yes” can mean “no,” too, if the woman has been drinking. Let’s make something clear here: we aren’t talking about a passed-out woman being violated by some slobbering lout; we’re talking about some birds that go out for a good time, do the deed with all cognizance and enthusiasm, and then just have second thoughts the next morning.

George McAuley, chairman of the UK Men’s Movement, said men may have to resort to obtaining written ‘contracts’ or using their mobile phones to film their partners consenting to sex.

He said: “Radical feminists within the Labour party have made consensual heterosexual sex a dangerous minefield. The changes in legislation will increase the number of innocent men convicted of rape.

“It means men will have to get a consent form signed, dated and countersigned in triplicate before they make love.

“This legislation is deliberately designed to put more men behind bars.”

If I go out with my mates, get blasted and do something idiotic, I’m the one that has to live with it. I can’t just boo-hoo “I was drunk” and get off the hook for responsibility for my own voluntary actions. If I crack some guy in the head with a bottle, drive drunk, take a whiz on a parking meter or whatever, I’m the one on the hook for it, not somebody else. Why the hell wouldn’t women be held to the same standard? Or, as Lydia Loveric over at the Winterpeg Sun puts it:

…a woman who has a bit too much alcohol — of her own volition — and invites a man back to her place for some non-existent coffee and proceeds to squeal “yes” in every way possible can not and must not cry rape afterwards.

Want to be seen as a strong, independent woman? Then you damned well better be ready to live with the choices you make. Just like we have to.

Well, it’s official. Ol’ Senate-smackin’ Steve gave the word yesterday and I’m gonna have me a new MP pretty soon (most likely Dianne Haskett ;)). As you might expect, all the usual MSM suspects have popped out to check for their shadows and sound off about the dire fortunes this holds for the Tories, because London’s “such a Liberal bastion.”

There’s just one little problem with that… no Grit seems to want the job so far…:lol:

And a political expert says Harper is taking a “huge risk” calling byelections in London-North-Centre and the Montreal-area riding of Repentigny.

“Byelections are always mini-referenda on the people’s opinion of the government of the day and people are seldom happy with the ruling party,” said Paul Nesbitt-Larking, a political scientist at Huron University College, University of Western Ontario.

Nesbitt-Larking predicts a “very interesting, four-way race” potentially with former city mayor Dianne Haskett running for the Conservatives, the “surging” Green Party’s leader, Elizabeth May, former city councillor Megan Walker for the New Democrats, and an unknown Liberal.

Two prominent local Liberals turned down invitations to seek the nomination, including lawyer Doug Ferguson and Glen Pearson, who ran unsuccessfully for the Grits in London-Fanshawe in January.

City lawyer Laura Tripp, president of the London West Liberal riding association, also declined.

A rumour that federal leadership candidate Martha Hall Findlay would enter the race was dashed yesterday.

I’ve been following the Great Grit Grand Poohbah Of The Porkbarrel Pageant lately. Okay, you caught me; no I haven’t. While I must admit that the thought of watching the Librano$ turning on each other like a pack of starving dogs does hold a certain lurid attraction for me, I really can’t bring myself to give a damn about it. BUT, I do know who I want to win…

Special thanks to the Ottawa Sun’s Greg Weston for reminding me of all the reasons why I think Bob Rae should win the leadership race and lead the Grits in the next federal election:

1. Bob Rae made history as a man who gets things done. It took 40 years for mainly Conservative governments in Ontario to accumulate $20 billion in debt building the province’s schools, hospitals, highways and hydro dams. It took Bob’s NDP administration only four years to run up another $40 billion in red ink with little of enduring value to show for it at the end.
2. Bob Rae is a visionary in health care. It was his NDP government that implemented the ingenious plan to cut medicare costs by reducing the number of doctors graduating from medical schools. Today, his legacy endures with a physician shortage that saves taxpayers a fortune by not having to treat millions of sick Canadians who can’t find a family doctor.
3. Bob Rae is a champion of the Canadian leisure industries. For the first time since the Great Depression of the 1930s, there were fewer people employed in Ontario industries when Rae left office than when he arrived.
4. Bob Rae boldly stands up for Big Business and isn’t afraid to stick it to the Little Guy, those whining small businesses that always have it easy. In the five years before Rae came to office, about 85% of all the net new jobs created in Ontario were in companies with fewer than 100 employees. Even in the 1980s recession when big companies shed more than 100,000 jobs, small businesses in the province grew by almost twice that number.But not under Bob’s watch — a few major industries got huge bailouts, while all those mom-and-pop operations got ravaged, losing more than 100,000 jobs in the four years of NDP rule.
5. Bob Rae understands what it means to be a taxpayer — when economic times get tough, the tough get taxed, thereby ensuring the economy slows to the point where everyone gets screwed equally — although some more equally than others. For instance, by the time the NDP left office, Ontario professionals and entrepreneurs earning more than $67,000 a year had the highest marginal tax rate in North America, and were ungratefully running for the border in droves.
6. Bob Rae is a politician who never forgets his promises. The NDP pledged to introduce public auto insurance that would save car owners a fortune in premiums. Four years later, the Dippers were still promising socialist collision coverage even as they were being driven out of office.
7. Bob Rae is perhaps the only great Canadian leader of the last century to have a day named in his honour — Rae Days. Just over a decade ago, the man who would now be the next federal Liberal leader and perhaps Canada’s next prime minister looked out upon the economic landscape he had created and saw that it was ravaged by record debt, record deficits and record job losses, and he knew exactly what needed to be done.He hired 100,000 more public servants, gave them all a big raise, and ordered them to stay home and not get paid.

Can you say “Harper Majority,” boys and girls? 😉