Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

I was really impressed by Dion’s lunchtime speech today (aside from his ESL grammar of course). He certainly was showing some charisma, and was putting Harper’s games playing in context for the media. It’s clear that soon again Harper’s Conservatives will attack Dion and Green Party leader May for a “backroom” deal in their respective riding contests, but Harper is willing to wheel and deal with Dion over the PHONE on the fate of the current parliament!

CTV has the video.

It’s not hard to see why Dion scoffs at Harper’s claim that other parties are preventing parliament from working. The Conservatives are the ones who are preventing parliament from working, because it’s busy weeding out Conservative corruption (In-and-Out, Cadscam) and ethical problems (10%ers, Bernier). Scott provides a link to why an early election call is preposterous if Harper wants to save face.

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Yesterday was quite different. After I had the afternoon off anyway, and no plans, I called up some friends and we went 5 pin bowling for a couple hours. I averaged about 176 after 44 frames, with a couple of >200 games. My car appears to be sucking gas, so either a Grand Prix sucks (likely) or someone is siphoning my tank and that’s why it gets just 18MPG in the city driving I’m doing. I could almost see the needle going down yesterday while driving between the library and bowling alley. Then it went back up again. Accuracy is not important in gas gauges, just as it isn’t for toner cartridge level meters or progress bars.

We wrapped up the night of cooking an unintentionally vegetarian (almost vegan) meal partly from my garden (and mostly from Superstore) at my place, with “Mission Impossible III” [9/10].

This cartoon is a tiny bit funny. Although it does have an air to it that is a little unfair, like the summation highlighted by Robert here about Democrat mayors (mostly in the Rust Belt) of the USA.

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And turning to Conservatives in Canada, Peter MacKay stepped into a pile of stupid with some comments the other week.

““Since Atlantic Canadians mostly rely on coal for electricity, oil to heat their homes, and diesel to import food and other items, the permanent new Liberal carbon tax will be devastating for the region,” said Peter Mackay, Minister of National Defence. “It’s no wonder Liberals are spending two days in Digby trying to find ways to fool Atlantic Canadians about it – we won’t let that happen.”

He’s going to make it very easy for voters around Pictou to decide on their next MP. They can go with the Conservative Party who has no plan for the future when those carbon fuels are too expensive to use, or they can go with the country’s leading political expert on carbon tax shifting and environmentally based economic planning — Elizabeth May.

MacKay also lied (bolded for your convenience):

“Mr. MacKay said the timing of the ad campaign has nothing to do with the fact Mr. Thibault’s riding is hosting the Liberals’ Atlantic caucus meetings this week. He said he wasn’t aware the meetings were happening.

The news release, in which Mr. MacKay is quoted twice, was titled Conservatives Launch Ad Campaign Ahead of Liberal Atlantic Caucus.

The ads are paid for by the Conservative Party, not taxpayers, said Mr. MacKay.

That would be a new thing — for the Conservatives. They are used to having tax payers pay for their In-and-Out schemes, and for their MP propaganda mail-outs that don’t go to the correct ridings.

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Also writing about this was Kady and Big City Lib.

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.

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