Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

Since before the last election, Stephen Harper was going on and on about a Made in Canada solution to deal with greenhouse gases. That mantra has fallen down since he revealed he doesn’t really care about greenhouse gases or air pollution, but the point is he wanted a solution that we made. It would be ours, and in theory it would be best. Well, people who know what he really meant, was that he wanted a Made in America solution to greenhouse gas emissions, and he has been working on implementing it since he came to power.

Now he’s made the mistake of fixing Canada’s (food) labeling law. This change requires that products with “Made in Canada” or “Product of Canada” are actually mostly Canadian in origin and content. If he doesn’t relabel his “Made in Canada” pollution strategy to “Made in USA”, will he be violating his own law?

Seriously, the food law is a good change. I just had to bug him about his “Made in Canada” crap he’s fed us before. The King of Carbon has a lot of experience with the poop slinging. When he’s not insulting Canada, he does a fine job of saying every other country’s government with a carbon tax is just out for a cash grab.
Continue Reading »

Apparently their eyes don’t work too, because they didn’t see the RCMP raid Conservative Party Headquarters either.

Cadscam hit a snag Friday after the RCMP said that they couldn’t consider audio evidence of Harper admitting to a bribery plan, in criminal charges. Good thing the Internet provides the recording for anyone to listen to. It’s a crime to offer financial considerations to an MP in return for their vote. Good thing that the Criminal Code of Canada is still available on the Internet as well. Resourceful Canadians can put two and two together and get the right answer, even if the RCMP can’t take down a criminal with audio evidence.

The zombies have started to think they’ve won, and are crawling over Jeff’s comments thread. Harper hasn’t won, even though he’s done better than Nixon so far, at avoiding consequences of a damning audio tape.

Wells goes over the top, and I guess he did it on purpose, because look, I’m writing about his ridiculous comparison. To compare one of Canada’s leading environmentalists, and the leader of the Green Party to traditionally pro-establishment/NDP and environment-ambivalent Buzz Hargrove, is frankly absurd.

Channeling my inner-Wells, let me just say that Stephen Dion is Canada’s worst hybrid nightmare because it would never call an election, but if it did, it’d be sure to let other MPs vote about it while it leaves the room.

There’s also a whole schwack of commenters on Wells’ blog who seem to think it’s a good idea to exclude smaller political parties from televised debates. If televised time isn’t going to swing an election, why did the Conservatives try so hard to cheat an extra ~$1.2 worth of airtime out of the last election? Do the mainstream parties have buddies running defense at the head of the TV and media stations running the next televised debate? They’ll keep May out of the spotlight for those short hours, because they know it will strengthen the slide of voters away from the Conservatives, Liberals, and NDP.

UPDATE: May has responded, not really to this, but to the next smear, and that’s one where the Conservatives are vividly SMACKED down. If there were any justice, talk radio would be playing Nelson from the Simpsons saying HA HA after reading what Harper said about Canada, compared to what May just wrote. If the Cons are going to open that “pride in country” can of worms, they are going to get vermicomposted!

The drive by smear of my reputation attacked my love of country. It claimed I had said Canada had the worst government on earth. The Harper lackeys claimed this showed “shocking ignorance of the deplorable human rights situations faced by other people around the world.” I am quite well aware of shocking human rights situations. We held a press conference last week decrying the human rights abuses of the government of Colombia and urging that Canada not proceed with a new trade pact with Colombia. What I said at the Global Greens Congress in Sao Paulo (and anyone can see it on YouTube was part of a speech on climate change, setting out the response of governments around the world to the climate crisis:

“I am ashamed to admit that the Canadian government is now the worst in the world.”

[...]

What is galling about being attacked is that I believe Canadians are the most blessed people on earth, living in a beautiful and wealthy country, one that prizes community and shared well-being. I am fiercely loyal to Canada and regard receiving the honour of being an Officer of the Order of Canada as the greatest of all honours. (By the way, none of the other leaders have received the Order of Canada). Having received it, I stand on guard for Canada. So the gall of these nasty little minions in issuing a press release attacking my love of country began to raise my ire.

And then the irony hit me. Who do we know who went about attacking those very qualities that makes Canada such an incredibly generous and wonderful place to live?

These are quotes from Prime Minister Harper when he headed the National Citizens Coalition.

Here’s one from a letter he wrote to the National Post in 1997:

“Canada appears content to become a second tier socialistic country, boasting ever more loudly about its economy and social services to mask its second rate status.”

Or this one from 1997, which was part of a speech he delivered to the right wing Council for National Policy:

“Canada is a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term and very proud of it.”

And he made that statement in the United States. Hard not to see a real problem with love of country in those speeches.

–
Hat tip to Mark, and also to Mike of RationalReasons.

New York Times bestseller Paul.
At least he’s at the top of some list.

–
Hat tip to Zaphod

This is a subject of great importance — political party donations. Do they belong in a democratic society? Probably. Who and what should be able to give, and how much?

“The NDP also received about $586,000 from corporations, $165,000 from trade unions,…”
As a member of a union, I find that to be a big misuse of dues. There are few exceptions that I’d personally agree to allowing money to be spent in that manner.

Also problematic, and more offensive, are non-democratic businesses giving money to the Sask Party.

This year, some of the biggest corporate contributors to the Saskatchewan Party include:

* The Concorde Group Corp., a Saskatoon commercial property company that gave about $52,000.
* Alberta-based property company Millennium III, which contributed about $79,000.
* Calgary-based oil company EnCana, which contributed about $26,000.
* Companies connected to the Rawlco radio station companies and the Rawlinson family, which contributed about $102,000.

If businesses are to be allowed to give, I think there ought to be a cap at around $1000. Money spent on campaigns are inherently dangerous to democracy. It allows for the new golden rule to take effect: Those with the gold, make the rules.

Missing from the CBC and Mandryks columns were the money raised by other parties such as the Sask. Liberal Association, and the Green Party of Saskatchewan.

–
Hat tip to gfr.

==

Meanwhile, the Conservatives make it harder for journalists to do their job…

Calgary Grit and Nose Hill demonstrates just how crooked the Conservative Party has been, using the Nigerian scam letters we get in our inboxes every day to illustrate it.

From: Conservative Headquarters
To: Conservative Candidates
Date: December 2, 2005
Subject: Urgent Request

Dearest Candidate,

Good morning, how are you and your family? I hope fine. Please, I am sorry to bother you with our problem.

Please know that it’s not by mistake I am contacting you but by the special grace of God. Let my start by introducing myself. I am writing from Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party with this urgent request from Party Headquarters.
[...]

LKO explains how the “in and out” scam that the Conservative Party of Canada used last election, was bilking taxpayers by incurring refunds for ineligible election expenses.

What you CAN do: Transfer money from the national party to local candidiates so that the local candidates can spend that money on local advertising.

What you CAN’T do: Buy a national ad campaign, and then temporarily (and I mean for mere hours here in some cases) transfer money from the national party to the local candidates and RIGHT BACK AGAIN to make it SEEM as though the candidates had paid for local advertising within their local spending limits, when we all know what happened was that the national party exceeded the national spending limits and then tried (incompetently to boot) to cover their tracks.

The score so far:
Liberals: 1 Adscam
Conservatives: 1 ConAdscam
other parties: 0 scams

As usual, the Liberals and Conservatives win again. Or is that lose… no, only taxpayers lose.

–
Hat tip to The Jurist

This is a bit of good news for the province of Saskatchewan. Wall’s government has set an expiry date. We’ll see if they go sour before then; it’s looking likely, especially after the ridiculous Bill 5 and 6 pass and make legal strikes impossible.

The Gift Card expiry date outlawing is a great move. We spend money on a card, so it can be used like cash, and it shouldn’t go away at the whim of the company. Yet once you’ve given your money to a business, honestly you’re taking your chances. They don’t have the backing of the government. Perhaps there should be some kind of bank-government backed secure money transfer in portable format invented. I don’t know… maybe we could call them cheques?