Category: Canada

Get really ready, because it’s starting to look like a political version of the perfect storm is brewing. And this particular front seems to be forming directly above the red chamber of Parliament.

Many interesting things, they have been a-happenin’ in far away Ottawa lately. The Smirkin’ gherkin showed that even a blind squirrel can find a nut at times by actually hopping on the bandwagon and taking a few swings at a drum that conservatives, both “big C” and “little C” have been banging away at for as long as I can remember: the time has come for the undemocratic Canadian Senate to face either reform or abolition:

OTTAWA – The Harper government will re-introduce legislation Tuesday aimed at reforming the Senate.

At the same time, the NDP plans to introduce a motion in the Commons calling for a referendum to abolish the upper chamber. The New Democrat motion would see the plebicite held at the same time as next federal election. Opposition motions – especially from the New Democrats – rarely hold any political strength in Ottawa.

But Prime Minister Stephen Harper has indicated he supports the referendum proposal – if only as a pathway to reforming the red chamber.

The Conservative measures being introduced Tuesday, which failed to pass in the last session of Parliament, would introduce provincial elections for Senate nominees, and shorten the terms of senators.

Harper has made it clear recently he wants the Senate changed one way or another.

He was recently quoted saying “if it can’t be reformed . . . it will have to be abolished.”

HMPM Harper has — as anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows — long been an advocate for reform for the upper chamber, which the Librano$ have used for years as their own personal failsafe against un-HypoGritical legislation becoming law in the event that John Q. Canuck should turf their sorry arses from government.

Basically, they get to sit back and say, “We lost the election? So what? We control the Senate, so anything we don’t like doesn’t get passed, and there’s not a damned thing the unwashed masses can do about it.” This is why the Librano$ always howl so loudly whenever someone brings up the subject of Senate reform: it threatens their stranglehold on political power. And if there’s one thing that Liberals actually do believe in, it’s “get power at all costs, keep power at all costs.” And to hell with the will of ignorant clods (AKA voters) like you and me. After all, it’s not like there’s any way to get rid of a shiftless Senator who’s loyalties are to the party and not to the people he or she is supposedly representing.

But the time for all that to change just might, finally, have arrived. I know that we’ve all been down this particular road before (one time too many, it seems sometimes) but this time things just might be different. And we might be in for an election sooner than we thought. Most folks assume that it’s no secret that HMPM Harper wants a majority government and this could be the perfect time to get one.

Now, before somebody accuses me of going off half-cocked about speculating on an election — or “premature electulation,” as it’s been called (you know who you are) — bear in mind that there are several reasons why I think this:

1. Harper has made no secret that he doesn’t like the crony-infested Senate and the way the Liebrals have used it to confound the will of the people for years. Opponents have accused him of wanting to fight an election on the backs of the Senate. That might not be such a bad idea…
   

   But, given the option of improving the existing Senate, a majority of Canadians (52 per cent) said they would favour reforms that would “make it, for instance, an elected body,” while 24 per cent said they would still prefer it be done away with completely. Only 16 per cent said they would want to keep the red chamber “as it is” today.

   The fact of the matter is that ordinary Canadians are getting sick and God damned tired of these high-falootin’ trufflesnufflers and are just about ready to say “our way or the highway.”

2. The fact that even the damned NDP are agreeing with the Tories on the need for the upper chamber to unf*ck itself should belie any claims of this being a “far-right agenda”-driven cause. There’s a lot of things you can call the NDP (trust me, I know; I’ve used most of ’em) but “right-of-centre” ain’t one of them.
3. Stephane Dion. ’nuff said.
4. The PM’s principled stands on so many issues are finally starting to make a serious impression on the Canadian public, with his personal popularity (which we were always told was the Tories’ biggest liability) on a rise that few other sitting PMs have experienced.

So where the hell do I think all this is going to lead? Here’s my prediction: It’s gonna hit the fan.

I have to admit that I’m a bit, erm… befuddled by this. Not a sensation that I’m used to, by any means. I know that I’m a little behind on shooting my mouth off about this, but the utter silence that seems to be going on in the conservative (both big and little “C”) blogosphere on this one has me scratching my head a bit…

Okay, I lied. It’s more than a bit; I’m in full “WTF???” mode.

Maybe it’s because we’ve been ground down by having too many carrots dangled in the past, not a God damned one of which we got a bite out of. Maybe we’ve just given up even though, in our hearts of hearts, we know that this really is the good fight. Whatever the reason, It just doesn’t seem to be creating much of a stir at all:

OTTAWA — NDP Leader Jack Layton has won the backing of the prime minister to hold a nation-wide referendum on the abolition of the unelected Senate, CTV News has learned.

Insiders say Stephen Harper is prepared to support an NDP motion that would call for a national referendum on Senate abolition at the time of the next general election that is set for October 2009.

Sources also say Layton and Harper have held private discussions about Layton’s proposal in recent days.

Tory insiders say the prime minister will have the Conservatives vote for the NDP motion that could be tabled in the Commons as early as next Tuesday.

The NDP referendum plan is similar to an idea floated by Conservative Senator Hugh Segal.

Yeah, that’s right; the Tories and the Dippers are actually agreeing on something! Gonna have to mark my calendar now. Here we have two political parties that are the ideological equivalent of a snake and a mongoose (make up your own minds who’s who) and they’re both singing from the same song sheet. You’d think this would be a no-brainer, that it would sail through the Commons (Dion wouldn’t dare oppose it; even he’s smart enough to know that such a thing would be the political equivalent of putting a loaded shotgun in his mouth) and be on its way to the ballot right quick.

Wrong.

There’s a fly in the ointment. It’s called the Senate:

A constitutional expert says Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s support of the NDP plan to hold a nationwide referendum on abolition of the unelected Senate is likely little more than political posturing.

Errol Mendes, a constitutional law professor at the University of Ottawa, told CTV News that Layton and Harper “know this will not get through the Senate.”

And really, why should that surprise anybody? The Senate is dominated by the Librano$. They see it as their personal little failsafe in case they get turfed from office by the unwashed masses. No matter what the people have to say about anything, if the HypoGrits don’t like it, it doesn’t pass the Senate and to hell with the wishes of John Q. Canuck and his democratically elected representatives in the Lower House.

The Grit senators will fight this tooth and nail. Sure, they’ll puke up all kinds of bullshit about how they’re protecting Canadian interests but the fact of the matter is that the only thing they’re protecting is their own self interest!

Perhaps somebody should give these bastards a history lesson.

The Magna Carta is the forefather document of every western democracy. The tyrant King John — the arrogant sonofabitch who had the gall to declare that “the law is in my mouth” — was forced to sign that document. At spearpoint. He was basically told, “Sign it, asshole. If you don’t, we put that whole ‘divine right of kings’ thing to the test right here. You’ll be the guinea pig.”

He signed it, under threat of death. Does that somehow invalidate the Magna Carta? I don’t think so. There’s some seriously scary shit down that road.

Which brings us back to the Canadian Senate. Like the tyrant John, they will have an opportunity to give up the power that they have and put it where it belongs: in the hands of the people. Like that tyrant, they have an alternative. The questions is: what is that alternative?

A thousand years ago, the alternative was a spear. What do we need to point at these bastards’ heads?

Get your MSM bits on this here, here, here and here.

I just can’t believe this one.  Really, I mean it.  Those of you that come here with any frequency know and I’m no fan of Stephie “no relation“ Dion, his policies, or anything else having to do with him but I’ve always managed to keep myself in the “no, he can’t really be as stupid as people say,” camp.

Until now.

It’s one thing to step on your dick.  You don’t need to be a politician, either; we’ve all done it at one time or another.  It’s just part of the human experience.  Stephie, however, seems bound and determined to tap-dance on his own pecker.

No sooner had HM Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty announced that us hard-working Canucks will finally be getting some long-awaited tax relief than Stephie Greener-Than-Thou-Except-When-We’ll-Get-Clobbered-At-The-Polls yurped up his Greatest Hairball Ever™ on the lobby rug.  Not only that, but he managed to do it with an arrogance that was absolutely… er, well… Liberal:

Dion also said if he were elected he would consider rescinding GST cuts promised by the Conservatives in Tuesday’s mini budget.

The Grit leader said many people believe the two percentage point cut to the goods and services tax was the wrong move. He said it amounts to $34 billion that the govenrment could spend elsewhere.

He then promptly flings open the other side of his yap to tell us how the Liebrals won’t be voting against the mini-budget, even though it’s Bad For Canada® (which is Gritspeak for “it’s conservative”).  And why are the Librano$ so willing to let this oh, so Bad For Canada® nasty thing get by the House, you ask?  Why, for the good of Canada, of course: 😕

“Yes, we will be abstaining for the good sake of Canada. It is not a good declaration. It is not sending the country a good direction,” Dion told reporters after a caucus meeting Wednesday.

“We are the party of compassion, the party of Kelowna for aboriginals, the party that wants to put the fight against poverty at the core of agenda. We want to invest in Canadians and families, seniors, in regions, and there is no good balance in this declaration of the minister of finance about investing in Canadians and tax cuts.” [Translation: “Screw Canada; we aren’t doing Jack Shit that might risk us going to the polls until we’re sure we can win and get our fingers back in your pockets again.  Don’t you realize there are ad execs in Quebec that can’t even afford Grey Poupon anymore, now that we aren’t around?”]

Think about that: “that the government could spend elsewhere.”  My gawd, haven’t these assholes learned ANYthing???  Have they actually managed to forget that the main reason they got turfed in the first place nearly two years ago was because the rest of us were sick and God damned tired of the way the federal Grits were throwing OUR money around??

That’s right, Stephie: our money.  Not yours,

OURS!!

But you sonsofbitches clearly still don’t get that, do you?

Enjoy your time in the political wilderness.  Get comfortable.  You’re going to be there a while.

Alright, everybody, pay attention.  This is important.

It seems like all the quibbling of “is there one or isn’t there one,” is over when it comes to the question of whether or not southwest Ontario has itself a resident cougar.  And I’m talking about the kind that doesn’t wear lipstick.

The Freeps carrried the story today, telling how the big cat — that all the “experts” told us couldn’t possibly be here — made such a mess out of some poor fella’s standardbred trotter out on Elliott Drive near Parkhill that the horse had to be put down…

Parkhill residents have been warned to be on the lookout for a cougar after a horse was viciously mauled by an animal with sharp claws and had to be put down.

Since the attack, which left the horse torn up and bleeding on an Elliott Drive farm last week, there has been at least one cougar sighting, Middlesex OPP Const. Doug Graham said.

In response to the attack and the sighting, police and North Middlesex council issued a public safety notice yesterday, warning residents to avoid walking alone at night in the bush and to secure barns.

“The risk is low, but we know (the animal) is not as fearful of humans as it normally would be,” Graham said. “Normally we see losses of pets, dogs and cats, but this is the first attack of a horse.”

The attack on the horse has not been confirmed as a cougar attack, but the injuries are consistent with that of a cougar hunting prey, police said.

[…]

“It was traumatic,” Graham said. “The wounds (were made by) one animal as opposed to a pack. It wouldn’t be consistent with a coyote or wolf — they hunt in packs.”

He said the wounds were made by “sharp claws. This (horse) was attacked by a large predator that knew how to attack a large animal.”

Cougar sightings have become almost legendary in the region.

Last summer, a wildlife specialist with the Natural Resources Ministry investigated 32 sightings in London, but found no hard evidence of a cougar in London.

The expert did find proof of deer, coyotes, raccoons, wild turkeys and possibly a bobcat.  [gee, he was thorough, wasn’t he? 🙄 -D]

Cougars, also known as pumas, mountain lions and panthers, roam remote areas across the country, mostly Western Canada. Their presence has been confirmed in New Brunswick and Quebec and provinces west of Ontario. Wildlife experts concede they likely roam remote regions of northwestern Ontario. Most of the past Ontario sightings have been at night and in the early fall.

For the most part, the community is not overly concerned, Graham said.

“People realize there has never been an attack on a human. The cats are normally out at dusk and dawn (and) young children tend not to be out at that time of day.”

Apparently Graham doesn’t know too many small town and country kids.  When I was growing up, depending on the time of the year, we could be damned near anyplace around dusk, so make sure that you know where your kids are and when.  And make sure they know what to watch for and not to mess with it.  I’ve seen what one of these things can do to a grown man and don’t even want to imagine what could happen to a kid.

And, as cool as that guy was to hear about, I don’t exactly feel like writing any posts about a local Marc Patterson anytime soon.

CKNX is also reporting that the OPP are warning folks that the critter is still around:

Middlesex OPP are advising area residents that there has been a cougar sighting along a creek in the Parkhill area.

This sighting follows a mauling of a horse last week.

The mauling of the horse has not been confirmed as a cougar attack, however, the injuries are consist with that of a cougar hunting prey.

A cougar expert says they prefer forested or bush areas, usually follow a water course and try to avoid human contact.

Most of the Ontario sightings are in the early Fall.

So for the time being, keep the kids close and your eyes open because this thing’s getting a little too ballsy for my liking.  And while it might not be a bad idea to keep the ammo near the old 12 gague for a few days, don’t go hunting the thing just yet, because a) deer season’s just around the corner so this critter might come to an unlucky end anyway and b) you likely don’t need the hassle of explaining why it is that you shot something that there isn’t even a season for in this province.

But if you see it going after your livestock — or even worse, somebody’s kids — that’s another matter.  Just be observant, keep your head, and for God’s sake, make sure what you aim at.

You know the drill.

UPDATE

The Freeps has a follow-up today from Cheryl Penny’s farm:

When Penny and partner Bob Rundle went across the pasture to collect Rainbow, they were shocked.

“Her head was all smashed in, she was bleeding from a nostril and there was this long gash, right to the bone,” Penny said.

A veterinarian examined Rainbow’s injuries and recommended the horse be put down.

“I agreed because I hate to see an animal in distress,” Penny said.

Rundle said he’s convinced Rainbow was spooked.

“There’s no way she’d jump three fences and that cut from shoulder to knee,” he said.

“I didn’t see a cougar and I can’t prove it, but one was spotted not far from here and it was either that or some other wild animal that spooked her.”

Yeah, there’s been plenty of cutlery broken out for poor li’l Steffie Deedles lately, some Liebral and some not, but the sharpest fork stuck in his flip-flopping backside seems to have come from, of all palces… Owen Sound, Ontario.

Owen Sound Sun Times edotor Michael Den Tandt managed to sum up, in no uncertain terms, exactly what pretty much the whole damned country is thinking about Citoyen Dion these days. While I normally tend to shy away from kicking someone when they’re down, this bugger really did ask for it, and Den Tandt delivers with both barrels:

Stick a fork in Dion – he’s done

Posted By michael den tandt

Stephane Dion, welcome to Hell. You will be a resident of Hell for several months, perhaps six. During that time Prime Minister Stephen Harper will take you apart in little pieces, like a mean boy pulling the wings off a fly. When it’s over there will be an election, which you will lose.

Far from appreciating your effort and sacrifice, the Liberal Party will drag you kicking and screaming into a scrubby field. There it will dispatch you cleanly and quickly – with Michael Ignatieff standing by, murmuring messages of encouragement and condolence. Ignatieff will take your job. You will retire to a modest pension in the south of France, where you will sit in a patch of sunlight, a blanket over your knees, dreaming of what might have been.

Farfetched? Not so much.

In the aftermath of the Liberal leader’s decision to prop up the Harper government for another few months, there’s been much talk in party circles of how very clever it all was. “He is a very capable individual, who maneuvered through deep waters,” was how Huron-Bruce Liberal MP Paul Steckle phrased it.

To hear them talk, it’s almost as though Harper fell into Dion’s trap. On one side we have the wicked Stephen Harper, scheming to engineer an election that “Canadians don’t want.” On the other we have a newly savvy Stephane Dion, who has a few tricks up his sleeve, thank you very much. It’s as though the Liberals are saying: See, we can be sneaky and opportunistic too, just like Harper. What’s so special about him?

Only in dreamland can anyone suggest this episode connotes anything but desperation on Dion’s part. According to multiple reports from within the Liberal Party, he wanted to go to the polls. How could he not? In recent weeks he’d laid down a string of unshakable conditions for keeping this government alive. The most important of these was a hard date of February, 2009 for an end to Canada’s military mission in Afghanistan. Harper stared at that line, eyeballed Dion, eyeballed the line, then hopped right across it with a big smirk on his face.

Dion’s first instinct was to fight. But he couldn’t. His caucus wouldn’t let him. They know that if they go to the voters this fall, many of them will lose their $178,000-a-year jobs. In Quebec the Liberals are imploding. In Ontario, where you’d think Dion would have had a little more currency because of his national unity credentials, he’s gained none. Out West he had none to begin with.

Here’s the poison: The decision to pan the throne speech virtually in its entirety, then concoct a grab-bag of exquisitely nuanced excuses for passing it, feeds directly into Dion’s greatest political liability – the perception that he’s weak. In chess they call this a fork. Move one way, you lose your rook. Move the other way, you lose your queen. Either way you lose. Dion is well and truly forked.

In Quebec, some voters dislike him because of a perception that he is arrogant, aloof and out of touch with ordinary folk. He speaks like a Frenchman – a testament to his French mother. But that doesn’t play well in the Saguenay. Other Quebecers tar him, unfairly, as a traitor, because of his authorship of the Clarity Act. Still others continue to mistrust the Liberals because of the sponsorship scandal.

In Ontario Dion began with a reputation as a smart, honest and hardworking minister. Despite his gawkiness and heavily accented English, he was known as a man of conviction. Journalists who remembered his fight with Quebec separatists in the 1990s referred to him as having a “spine of steel.”

Then came the Harper strategy, taken directly from the Brian Mulroney play book, of seeking a majority through Quebec. First Harper learned to speak French better than any other recent prime minister, including the francophone Jean Chretien. Then he declared Quebec a “nation.” Then he struck a back-room alliance with Mario Dumont’s soft-nationalist, centre-right Action Democratique. Taken together, it worked.

This put the Liberals in severe need of a wedge issue for Quebec. They seized on the most obvious one, the Afghan mission. Polls showed Quebecers overwhelmingly opposed the deployment. Overnight the Liberals, who conceived and launched the mission, transformed themselves into its harshest critics. Trouble is, that hasn’t worked. Liberal fortunes in Quebec have only worsened. Has anyone in the Liberal brain trust considered that some Quebecers’ interest in and support for the mission may actually increase because the Valcartier, Que.-based Vandoos are over there now? It doesn’t seem so.

Meantime the various Liberal flip-flops on Afghanistan have sewn confusion in Ontario and in the West. Dion says one thing, Foreign affairs critic Bob Rae says another, Defence Critic Denis Coderre says something else. Do they want our troops to stay and finish what they began or do they want to pull them out? Nobody knows. In Dion’s speech to Parliament Wednesday he came up with yet another nuance: An extended mission focused on training Afghan security forces would be “acceptable.” Um, Stephane, that’s what the mission is focused on now. Does this mean you support it again?

Dion has made his choice. He now faces an endless succession of confidence votes. In each case Harper will press legislation inimical to Liberal principles and dare Dion to call him out. With each new concession Harper will look stronger and Dion weaker. If Dion pulls the trigger, he loses. If he waits, he loses. In effect Stephen Harper has just maneuvered himself into a majority in all but name.

That makes Dion many things. Unlucky? Doomed? You be the judge. Savvy, in my view, doesn’t make the list.

Michael Den Tandt is editor of the Sun Times in Owen Sound and a national affairs columnist for Osprey Media. Contact mdentandt@thesuntimes.ca

Well, will you just look at this? Everybody’s not-so-favourite bag of maggot shit is (Surprise! Surprise!) fiddlyfrigging about and playing the system. That’s right, Jesse Imeson is doing what scumbags like him always do whenever they get caught in this country: jerking the system around and dragging his sorry ass for all he’s worth.

And no, I’m not surprised. You shouldn’t be, either [my emphasis, of course]…

GODERICH — Accused triple murderer Jesse Imeson is represented by a new lawyer, his third since his capture after a massive police hunt.

[…]

Court was told Imeson is now represented by Raymond Boggs. His Toronto law firm, Boggs and Levin, works exclusively on criminal cases.

Boggs’s firm’s website promises clients “aggressive relentless defence” and boasts that Boggs’s cross-examination in a multiple sexual assault case prompted a complaint by the Crown that it was “the most vicious that he had ever seen.”

[…]

Boggs wasn’t in court yesterday and although identified in court several times as Imeson’s lawyer, When contacted, Boggs said he could not confirm that information.

“I don’t have authorization to make that disclosure,” he said.

Asked what it would take to get authorization, he said: “I would need to talk to my client, if I have one.”

Court was told Imeson spoke to Boggs Sunday and Boggs is still awaiting disclosure of all the police evidence against Imeson, who is scheduled to appear again by video link on Nov. 2.

Waiting for disclosure, eh? Well, maybe if the prick would stick with a lawyer, the crown would know where the hell to send the shit, wouldn’t they?

So here we are. Imeson has finally found his kind of lawyer: the kind of weasel/pit bull crossbreed that will browbeat a rape victim on the stand but will mealy-mouth his way around anything resembling a question pointed at him. These pricks really deserve each other, don’t they?

Just think of how much better this world would have been if some farmer, hunter, or whoever up in Huron had just managed to trip over this bastard and blow his head off before he managed to skip the county…