Conservatives Lead on Issues

Will we or won't we be going to the polls in 2011?  The rhetoric has been ramped up again in recent days amongst  the pundits with MIA(Michael Ignatieff) bellowing, threatening to bring the government down in the New Year  then only days later he tones  down that rhetoric a bit.    Have we not seen this movie before? Anyway, even if we do end up going into an election in the near future, Conservatives not only have the edge in  voter preference but also lead  on the issues as well.   They look that they're more tuned into what the public is most concerned about than the opposition is.

Heading into the new year, Canadians have pegged the economy, health care and the environment as the three priorities they'd like to see politicians give the greatest attention to, the results showed.
"When you're going into an election, you're planning your strategy," said Darrell Bricker, a spokesman with Ipsos Reid, which conducted the poll exclusively for Postmedia News and Global Television. "So you have to find a salient issue, something that people really care about, and somewhere where you can daw a partisan difference between yourself and your opponents."
The Tories definitely have a leg up, Bricker said, with 29 per cent of Canadians polled saying they'd like to see the country's leaders focus on the economy.
"It just shows the strength of the Tory positioning because they're seen as the best on the biggest issue," he said. "The Liberals haven't found an issue, but the Tories have a 20 to 25 per cent advantage on just about every economic question you want to ask."

 So Bricker states that the Liberals haven't found an issue,well that  says a lot about the all the tours the leader has been on in the last year like the Magical Bus tour then the Open Mike tour.  It says Liberals have not really listened to what is important to Canadians, that they're out of touch and the public is not buying what the Liberals are selling. That bodes well for the CPC going forward.

CBC Retirees Double Dipping?

As part of Brian Lilley's series on the CBC he's discovered that dozens of retirees have been hired back as consultants or contractors and of course we pay their pensions and their consultant or contractor fees. So could they be double dipping? I would say so.

OTTAWA - CBC hires back dozens of retirees each year as contractors or consultants.
Documents obtained through access to information show that between 2005 and
2007 the state broadcaster hired 125 people who were also receiving an annuity or pension from CBC.
The records took three years to obtain and required the intervention of the federal information commissioner. At first CBC refused to release any records, claiming all records were considered personal information and not subject to the access law.
After an investigation by the information commissioner's office, CBC agreed to release the total number of retirees hired back on contract.
The practice of retirees returning to work as consultants in federal government departments is not uncommon in the federal government and is often referred to as ³double-dipping.² In 2005 CBC hired back 21 retirees, 37 in 2006 and 67 in 2007.

Wouldn't  Mr. Braaa.....dcast Don Newman former host of the old CBC Politics show come to mind as one of those "retirees" that have been hired back?  Because he now writes a column on the CBC website and appears on panels etc on CBC television from time to time. How much is he and others sucking out of the taxpayer by doing this?  I would like to know. He's probably receiving a pension and collecting a fee or a salary or whatever.    I hope when the information committee investigates the CBC after the Christmas recess, we  can find out. 

Liberal Party Not As It Seems

Liberals say they're a strong united party ready to fight an election whenever that may come. Their leader vows to trigger an election in the new year although it looks like he's starting  to climb back down that hill a bit.

 However, when asked if the Liberals will vote in support of the Conservative budget in the coming session, Ignatieff said he cannot make a decision without first seeing the document.
"Let me read the thing first. I'm not like Mr. Layton, who votes for things before he's even read it," Ignatieff said, taking a shot at his NDP rival for saying that he would vote down the government's stimulus plan even before it had been tabled.
But Ignatieff definitively said that he would be prepared to vote down the budget and topple the government if the legislation doesn't mesh with what's good for the country.

Are they ready?  Not quite so as it seems.  Publicly the party will "appear" united and that every thing is hunky dory but privately they are deeply divided as Angelo Persichilli so aptly points out. Apparently  the Liberal infighting and divisions are vastly different than when the Tories were divided.

It took 10 years, from 1993 to 2003, for the Conservatives to put aside most of their differences and work together. It’s ironic that the same year the Tories started bridging their differences, the Liberals grew apart.Moreover, the division among them is more dangerous. The Conservative fight was in the open and the division was a clear split between two visions. The Liberals are more than divided, they are fragmented by personal vendettas, jealousies and a lack of leadership.
Despite the front of a happy family, they are fighting each other over differences from the past while creating new ones. This fight no longer has anything to do with Martin and Chrétien; it’s about the metastasis of that disease which has taken on a life of its own.

Why? Angelo answers that too:

Why is all this happening? The problem is that spoiled individuals who have taken over the party are using it to pursue feuds with their personal Liberal enemies.
This problem can be corrected only by using a big broom to get rid of them all, and a good place to start would be in the office of the present leader.
But in order to do that, you need a credible, respected and strong leader. Such a leader is nowhere to be seen.  

Oooh, ouch!  Could this be the reason he's starting to back down  from his election rhetoric again? There are plenty of problems within the Liberal party. They have a tough time raising funds, have no credible policy etc. and  all that infighting doesn't help.. Maybe, if they want to earn their "earn" their way back into office,they should stop the muckraking,trying to make the Conservatives bad, work on cleaning up their own party  instead acting like petulant little children all the time. Maybe then the public will take them seriously again.
Until then they're not ready or qualified to govern. They need to learn to govern themselves first.

Liberals Still Entitiled to Their Entitlements

It must be in the Liberal DNA because the last five years out of power, the Liberals sure have not learned anything. They still have that arrogant sense of entitlement.This right out of the leader's mouth:

“They want to win. It’s just that simple,” Ignatieff said. “They don’t like being in opposition. We’re a party that’s governed the country. We’re not like the Bloc or the NDP who think this is dying and going to heaven. We think this is purgatory and we want to get back to the business of governing the country and we know the only way we can do that is if we’re united.”

Wow! Doesn't sound like they've been very humbled at all by having to sit in the opposition benches.  Just that statement alone proves they should not be returned to power any time soon. They were voted out of office for that very reason,the sense of entitlement. Power is all the Liberals care about. They don't care the county. They don't care about you. All they care about is stealing your money. You see they have a very tough time in the fund-raising department and they need the money. . They act like junkies when they can't get their fix.

. All they do is bleat and howl like banshees at government  while offering no ideas or alternatives of their own. They cry outrage at issues that the public doesn't care about re-prorogation, Afghan detainees etc.  They've been in this constant mode,with the help of their talking head friends in the Lame stream Media of finding and manufacturing faux scandals trying to make the Conservatives look bad. They haven't done anything to earn their way back to power.

Don't let them fool you.  They will do anything, say anything, try any stunt under the sun to get those keys back.

I hope the Tory war room is tucking statements  like this away in a safe place so that they can remind voters  come next election that Liberals haven't learned a darn thing since being turfed out five years ago.

Christmas MIA for MIA

We are now in the midst of the most blessed time of the year, Christmas,the celebration of  birth of our Lord Jesus Christ who came from His home in Heaven to this wretched sinful world to give us freedom,save us from our sins and give us eternal life in which no man is able to give.

Our nation was build on Christian principals.  Even The Charter of Rights of Freedoms that Liberals tout all the time, begins with the preamble of the "Supremacy of God"
 Ezra Levant points out the dearLiberal leader Michael Ignatieff's Christmas card is well not a Christmas card. 

Michael Ignatieff’s Christmas card isn’t a Christmas card.
It’s a “holiday” card. It has a Jewish menorah on it, which is great. Fully 1% of Canadians are Jewish and though Hanukkah was three weeks ago, it’s a nice thought.
The card has some snowflakes on it, too, and mittens and a gingerbread man (or a ghost, it’s not clear). Those are symbols of winter. Which is great, because it is winter time.
But there’s not a single Christian symbol on the card, the religion of the majority of Canadians. It’s the faith our Queen Elizabeth is officially the “defender” of, the religion that inspired the names of so many places in this country, from the St. Lawrence Seaway to St. John’s.

As Ezra also points out we have many Christian symbols in the coat of arms in the provinces, our anthem etc.

It is the religion whose cross adorns the coats of arms of almost every province, the religion from whose Bible comes Canada’s motto, “From sea to sea.” Our anthem asks God to keep our land, and the French version says we will “carry the cross.”
Even the Charter of Rights begins with the reminder that neither judges nor politicians are at the apex of Canadian society, but rather both are under the “supremacy of God.”

Also on the Peace Tower on the Parliament Building, you have inscribed from the Psalm 72:8 in the Bible,
"He shall have dominion from sea to sea."
So see you have symbols of Christianity all around you.  Our country is based on Christian principals.  For Michael Ignatieff to ignore that is ignoring what our country was build on.  Most Canadians identify themselves with the Christian faith.  If Ignatieff is trying to win back Christian voters back from the Conservatives ignoring them will not help.

On a side not:e: I would like to take this time to wish everyone a very Merry and Blessed Christmas.  As we do our shopping, baking, visiting friends and family, let us just take the time to reflect on what this time of year is really about.  Jesus is really the reason for the season.

Iggo Waffle's Delusion

I don't know what Iggo Waffle been smokin' but he believes that their win in Winnipeg North is a sign of things to come for the Liberals.  He believes that the public is starting to fall in love with the Liberals all over  again..   Yes they won handily over the NDP in the by-election that was held last month but that was only because the Liberal candidate was well known and the NDP candidate was not and volunteers were exhausted from working for Judy W's .mayoralty race.. Voter turn out was extremely poor too. Plus Conservatives never had a chance there anyway. The NDP will easily regain that seat next general election.

OTTAWA -- Voters in one of the country's most troubled ridings voted for hope over fear when it comes to battling crime, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said Thursday.
During a day of year-end interviews with national reporters, Ignatieff told the Free Press the results in the Nov. 29 byelection in Winnipeg North are significant.
"Winnipeg North is a community that has been devastated by crime," said Ignatieff. "And yet we stood up there and fought it block by block and street by street, blew the NDP away, blew the Conservatives away with a message that said 'yeah we need to be tough on crime but we need to be smart on solutions.' "
Kevin Lamoureux won the byelection for the Liberals, defeating the NDP in a riding it had held for more than a decade. The Conservatives finished a distant third. Much of the Conservative campaign was focused on the party's tough-on-crime approach.
Ignatieff called that the "politics of fear" approach and said Winnipeg North voters, who deal with violent crime every day, rejected it.

Umm.... has he forgotten about Vaughn, a Liberal stronghold which they held for 22 years?Conservatives  were able to break that stronghold. Voters there must have bought the Conservative message over the Liberal one.  Thus we have  Julian Fantino a new Conservative MP in caucus.

He later claims his leadership is fine at the same time you have a poll that came out just a few days ago stating a good number of Liberals who want a new leader.

He thinks Liberals are ready for an election.but  you have this from a senior Liberal. 

This is where the divisions emerge, because Mr. Ignatieff is clearly to the right of many Liberals, who would dearly love for their party to consolidate the progressive vote.

 Says one senior Liberal: "There are all kinds of problems -- money, candidates, the leader's various issues -- but they could be overcome to a very large degree if the party had the courage to chart a clear, values-based progressive course. That ain't going to happen under His Igness, who is basically a conservative dressed up as a progressive."

This is an argument that seems to be being whispered with increasing volume.

He  believes he's connecting with voters?  

“I think I am connecting with the voters who are paying attention,” said Mr. Ignatieff. The situation is far better than it looks, he insisted. “The party believes in itself, believes in its message, the organization is good.”More important, he maintained, the Liberal Party remains the most legitimate party of the centre, which is where most voters are. “The Conservatives only win when they pretend to be a liberal party. They have to defang themselves.”
Most Canadians still believe in public health care, help with post-secondary tuition, a meaningful pension plan and the protections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, he maintained.
“The Liberal appeal is: we’re the people who put that granite under your feet,” he said. “The message is as persuasive now as it ever was – in fact, more so, because that middle class is under a lot of pressure.”
But for the past three elections, more of those middle-class electors have turned to the Conservatives than to the Liberals. Mr. Ignatieff can only hope that once a campaign is under way, they will be open to changing their minds.
The Liberal Leader is ready to find out sooner rather than later.

Wow! Is he deluded or what?  That fact is voters are not turning away from the Conservatives and flocking to him and his Liberals. They are quite satisfied with the current government and not hankering for change. Allow him to have his delusions. If he want's an election, bring it on.  I gotta feeling he'll be heading back to Haavard or  where ever asap after the election.   But when all is said and done, even though he's saber rattling about bring the government down right now, I bet he'll find a way once again to climb back down that hill.

Questions About CBC and Ekos

This would answer a lot of questions concerning those Ekos polls that usually show results different than most other polling firms. There are allegations that CBC has violated it's own polling rules with Frank Graves and Ekos polling firm. Brian Lilley has discovered.

OTTAWA — CBC is fending off allegations it is violating its own polling rules by using Frank Graves and EKOS Research to perform their political polling.
Graves uses an automatic dialing system called IVR that has respondents to his polls punch numbers to make their selections rather than speaking to a human questioner. That method is not approved by Government of Canada polling guidelines nor CBC’s call for bids on the polling contract.
“Graves uses methodology not approved by CBC. How did they miss that," Conservative spokesman Fred DeLorey asked.
Graves became a lighting rod for Conservative criticism after a newspaper quoted him as advising the Liberals to start a culture war to defeat the Conservatives. He later also admitted to donating to the Liberals.
An access to information request to have CBC release the EKOS contract was denied.
CBC spokesman Jeff Keay defended the use of IVR, calling the technology “cost-efficient, fast and suitable.”
Keay also told QMI Agency that while they are not bound by government polling rules, most contracts do follow government standards.

Are you surprised?   I thought not. It sure does put into doubt the credibility of all Ekos polls. It is no secret that Graves is a Liberal supporter so is the CBC.  So why wouldn't they work hand in hand to promote their party of choice and why won't they release any information through access to information?  What more is there that they are hiding?  At least at the Commons committee  the NDP and the Bloc voted with the CPC to investigate CBC.  The Liberals abstained.  I wonder why!  Maybe we'll get some answers at that committee, I hope.

Thanks to Brian Lilley for his series on the CBC.  Hopefully he will carry on with his quest and share what he's learned on  SunTV news channel once it's on air. I fear he hasn't even scratched the surface yet.  All Canadians need to know what's going on at the taxpayer funded broadcaster that we put so much money into.  I urge all of you to go and read all of his columns in the Sun on this issue.  It's about your money after all.

Please Pray for Former Premier Ralph Klein

Today we hear that popular former Alberta Premier Ralph Klein is seriously ill.  He has COPD (emphysema) which is lung disease that has no cure so far. 

He  was mayor of Calgary in  when he hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics and did a great job at that as a matter of fact.

He was a very approachable premier who wasn't afraid to hang out with regular Albertans. He's a straight shooter and not afraid to tell you like it is. His greatest accomplishment was in his first term where he took on an economy which had been left devastated by Trudeau's  NEP and other factors.  We had a debt and deficit that he successfully  was able to turn around. He stood up for Alberta  against the minions in Ottawa. Some days when Ed Stelmach and Co. screw up I pine for the old Klein days.

Now that he's ill the least we can do is pray for him and stand behind him as he battles this horrible disease.  
God's speed and I pray that God will see fit to heal you of this.   There are many who are in your corner and support you. Don't forget that God still does perform miracles.

Chantal Hebert Pushing for Lib-NDP Coaltion

  With the Conservatives trending upward in the last few polls lately and the Libs going down or spinning their wheels, Chantal Hebert is suggesting  the Liberals and the Dippers should listen to their elder statesmen and  get together because it would improve their standing.

If NDP and Liberal leaders Jack Layton and Michael Ignatieff had taken the advice of their elder statesmen and looked for a way to pool forces earlier this year, the result of their joint efforts would likely be doing better in the polls than their separate parties.
Instead, the end of 2010 finds the two main national opposition parties on opposite ends of a teeter-totter. They are each ensuring that the other does not go up very high or for very long.

She later warns that if they don't  there will most likely be a majority Conservative government after next election.

Like the then-Reformers, some New Democrats continue to believe they will eventually overtake the Liberals or, short of that, at least gain enough ground to have a strong hand in any future negotiation with a minority Liberal regime.
They are all more likely to end up sitting side by side across from a majority Conservative government.

I think even with a Lib/Dipper merger they would have a tough time. I sense the mood of the  public is now changing. They are moving more to the right looking for , smaller government, lower taxes, spending cuts, less red tape, reform of the  criminal justice system, reform of the immigration system etc.

A majority Conservative government is something this country needs especially if there will be difficult decisions that will have to be made in the near future about how to get our country out of deficit and debt, deal with the looming health care crisis, pensions etc..  Canadians find the Conservatives more trustworthy when dealing with those issues more so than the Libs or the Dippers. If the Libs and Dippers don't offer credible policy to deal with those issues, they will be climbing an uphill battle.

CBC Staff Earn More Than You!

So you are working hard earning less than those at the public broadcaster and yet you have to pay them more than you're making yourself. How much sense does that make? Brian Lilley has found out through Access to Information that CBC staff make 39% more than the average Canadian with our money.  We still don't know though how much we're paying elitist anchor big wig, Peter Mansbridge. I will bet it's more than enough to pay for his  elitist lifestyle.

Full-time employees at CBC earned an average of $55,712 in 2007, compared to an annual income of $40,092 for employed Canadians – meaning CBC employees were paid 39% more than the average Canadian.

I don't know how far Conservative MP Paul Calandra will get when he requests a study into CBC's reaction to access to information at the ethics committee.  My bet is the opposition parties will probably shoot it down. For some reason they don't want the CBC to be held accountable even though taxpayers throw over a billion dollars every year into that useless state network that hardly anyone watches or listens to.

On Tuesday, Conservative MP Paul Calandra will ask members of the Commons access to information, ethics and privacy committee to support his call for a study of CBC’s reaction to access to information.

 While CBC recently took out ads to trumpet openness there have been ongoing battles over access, including CBC fighting the information commissioner in court to keep some information secret.

Shame on the CBC! How hypocritical of them fighting from being held to account but at the same time they're always howling at how the government is not being accountable the way  they, the sanctimonious public broadacaster  would like!
Time to shut it down, sell the hard assets such as infrastructure,equipment etc. Peter Mansbridge and others can go look for a real job. There is no need for a public broadcaster anymore. CBC is a waste of taxpayer funds and I'm sure we can find more a worthwhile use for those hard earned tax dollars. Say, put those funds towards paying down the debt and deficit for instance.

My, The Liberals Are Childish!

If anyone one missed it, our PM, the Right Honorable Stephen Harper brought down the house last night at the annual CPC Christmas party not with a barn burner of a speech but a mini rock concert.   A good time was had by all. The PM seem like he was in his element.
  He's entitled to let his hair down once in a while  and loosen up have fun but this morning Liberals couldn't leave partisanship alone. They're upset he didn't sing anything in French as Jane Taber reports. Unbelievable!

1. Cranky Liberals. Upstaged yet again by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who took to the stage Wednesday night at the Conservative caucus Christmas party, the Liberals were up early grumpily emailing reaction.
“Not even one song in French,” a senior Ignatieff official told The Globe and Mail on Thursday morning. “One week after Quebec’s artistic elite (over 100 songwriters and singers) came to Parliament Hill on C-32. It shows that he is clueless about Quebec culture.”

Common on, are the Liberals so childish and petty that they would turn this into a partisan issue?  I mean like I said our PM works hard  he even have an without the Libs picking fault.  It shows they're jealous and  proves how bitter and angry the Liberals are.  It's Christmas time they could at least set partisanship aside show some Christmas spirit and give the man some credit but no.  And they call Conservatives mean spirited, well what do you call that?  It sure looks like they are the ones that are mean spirited.

It like Jane says at the end of the segment:

So can we expect Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff to belt out a French tune or two at the upcoming Liberal Christmas bash?

 Liberals should lighten up.
If anyone one missed it you can access the whole concert at Eye on the Hill blog.  Thanks to David Akin for posting it!

Don Cherry Gives It To The Left Wing Pinko's

Outspoken, shooting from the hip, hockey commentator from Coaches Corner on CBC's Hockey Night In Canada gave a short but sweet humdinger of a non politically correct speech yesterday at the new Mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford's inauguration.  He slammed the the pinko left wing media and lefties in general for his support of the military and because he goes to church.  Way to go Grapes! Enjoy his speech in the video below. 


Here are some statements of a couple of offended lefty councillors..

Many Toronto councillors weren't impressed.

"I don't think you belittle people in a public ceremony like this, I think it's unacceptable," said Coun. Adam Vaughan, Trinity-Spadina.

"Yes I felt insulted by it, I think many of us felt insulted by it," said Coun. Joe Mihevc, St. Paul's

.  Kudo's to Cherry for exercising his right to free speech.  It always seems OK for lefties to be offensive and be critical of conservatives but not for conservatives to criticize lefties. We are called every name under the sun. We're neanderthals, knuckle draggers, haters etc. They can give it but they can't take it! 
I say every time lefty heads explode is a good day.  By the way, I wish Mayor Rob Ford the best in his bringing  common sense to the city of Toronto.

Tories Have Wind in Their Sails While Liberals Spin Their Wheels

These days times are going fairly well for the Conservatives.  They won retained in seat Manitoba and won a seat in a Liberal 22 year stronghold a week ago in the by-elections. Since then  a couple of polls have come out showing the Conservatives with wind in their sails while the Liberals spin their wheels.
The Nik Nanos with his analysis says that the Conservatives could win a majority without Quebec. That would be sweet.

The current configuration of national support for the Conservatives suggests that numerically a Tory majority government can be formed without a significant breakthrough in the province of Quebec.

Conservative 38.1% (+1.0)
Liberal 31.2% (-0.4)
NDP 17.2% (+1.8)
BQ 10.2% (-0.6)
Green 3.2% (-2.0)

Then today a poll out by Abacus Data Inc. puts the CPC 11 points ahead of the Libs.

Conservative 35%
Liberal 24%
NDP 20%
BQ 10%
Greens 10%

If these polls are to be believed and hold or get even better for the CPC, until the next election which is expected to be in the spring, it should be a lot of fun.

I do sense though things are a changin' in this country. No Liberal seat is a safe seat anymore. Look at Vaughn for instance.  The public I think no longer see the big government  programs as a a solution to all our ills anymore.  Take the mayoralty race usually lefty stronghold Toronto, a conservative won and is now mayor.  Liberal Premiers are  losing support and will see the wrath of the electorate come their next elections. The electorate have made their judgment in New Brunswick and the Liberal Premier in BC has already seen the writing on the wall and has resigned.  

The old tactics of the past like hidden agenda and new big government social programs aren't going to work anymore for the Liberals.  I believe voters will be looking for a government who will reduce the deficit and live within our means like the average Canadian has to do within our own households. They'll be looking for a government who will stand strong defending the country's interests and not be the world's dumping ground. In other words voters are looking for common sense. If the CPC presents that, I believe a majority will be in their pockets but folks we should not take this for granted.   You know what they say about politics, "a week is an eternity" anything can happen but with hard work on the ground I believe we can achieve it.

Liberals Vow to Kill New Refugee Bill

MIA aka Michael Ignatieff  and the Libs are joining forces with their coalition partners to kill a bill that would make it easier to prosecute human smugglers and hold ship owners to account.

The Liberals claim Bill C-49, which would allow people arriving via any ship designated a human smuggling vessel to be detained for up to one year, violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees against unlawful search and detention.

The usual Liberal supportive Globe and Mail is calling upon the Libs to quit the nonsense, work with the government and support Bill C-49.

The Liberals should not oppose Bill C-49 outright, but work with the government to fine-tune the proposed new legislation aimed at combatting human smuggling.
Michael Ignatieff's get-tough rhetoric is meaningless without a demonstration of his party's willingness to work with the government to thwart the threat of mass arrivals of migrants on ships operated by criminal gangs.

Jane Giggles Taber is speculating whether or not it the government will make it a confidence vote.

Mr. Kenney refused, however, to say whether it would be a confidence matter. This is significant because a defeat on a confidence motion would trigger a federal election.
No date has been set for the bill to come to the Commons for the second-reading vote.

I think they should make Bill C-49 a confidence vote. If the coalition partners defeat the government, so be it.   I believe the opposition parties would have a rude awakening if an election were called over this issue.  The coalition would find the public would be on the government's side and I believe you could very well see voters electing a Conservative majority government to bring common sense to our immigration and refugee policy.

 So Jason Kenny, PM Harper, make Bill C-49 a confidence motion and let the chips fall where they may.
I think most Canadians are sick and tired of being treated like the world's door mat! I know I am. Bring on the election!

Canada Continues to Own the Podium

As we all know there is another climate conference that is going on this year in Cancun, Mexico.  Each day fossil awards are handed out to those countries who, in the greenies minds fail to comply with the green agenda the way they think.

.Get ready to wave your flags and sing "Oh Canada" folks!  Yesterday, Canada swept the awards.

Ottawa (30 Nov. 2010) - The Canadian government, led by reincarnated Environment Minister John Baird, has kicked off United Nations (UN) climate talks in Cancun, Mexico, by winning three Fossil of the Day awards - first, second and third place simultaneously!

  We won 1st., 2nd, and 3rd.  Pretty good for day one I would say.

Canada wins first, second, and third place Fossil of the Day Award in Cancun today. The award is given daily to the country who has done the most to disrupt and undermine negotiations.

Let's clean up and win as many fossil awards as possible. Let's continue to "own that  podium"    Way to go John Baird! Make us proud!   Show National Union of Public employees and others that Canada will not buy into the green scam and  that all this is all about is the distribution of wealth.
Go Canada go!

Update: In the meantime Japan will say no to the extension of the Kyoto Protocol    Look for them to receive one of those coveted awards as well.

By-election Wrap Up - Conservatives-2, Coalition-1

Well the by-elections have come and gone now.  First of all I would like to congratulate the winners from last night. Conservatives easily keep their seat in Dauphin, win a Liberal stronghold in Vaughn bringing them closer to a majority, and Winnipeg North, that seat switched from one coalition partner to another (from NDP to Lib).  Conservatives were not expected to win in Winnipeg North anyway so no real loss there for them.

If this is a taste for the next general election, I suspect Liberals in the GTA will be a tad nervous as they are now vulnerable.  Winnipeg North, should Jack Layton be nervous?  Maybe, maybe not but I bet he's and his party are lickin' their wounds today. NDP didn't do that well in any of the ridings.  NDP could very well take it back next time.  Who knows?  Here is one Lib blogger's take on what happened.

As for the Liberals, Kevin Lamoureux's victory was an aberration. Lamoureux won by promising to be tough on crime. In other words, he won by promising to be a Conservative in riding that would never vote for a real Conservative.

 Do by-elections mean anything?  Well it's usually a referendum on the governing party. It's a chance for the electorate to voice a protest against the government. Look what happened just weeks ago in the US in their midterm elections. The governing party got "a shellacking."  In this case, the governing party did well so the voters must be satisfied with the way current Conservative government is governing.

So no matter what the spin doctors on the Lib and Dippers side say, Conservatives should be pleased with these by-elections and prepare for the next round of by-elections and/or the next general election which ever comes first.  It will all depend on how soon the opposition coalition want to defeat the Conservative government. Judging from what happened last night I bet their thinking long and hard if they want to take down the government anytime soon.

In the mean time and off topic  Don Martin will be gracing your television sets every night as the new host of  CTV's Power Play.

Cruel Prank on Military Families

Our brave men and women in uniform are putting their lives on the line fighting the Taliban and trying to help bring about a peaceful and decent life for the Afghan people.  Meanwhile at home here some demented sicko is playing a very cruel prank on military families who are keeping the home fires burning. This lowlife has been calling families in the middle of the night to tell them their loved one is dead.

QUEBEC - Military police are pursuing a prankster preying on families of soldiers deployed to Afghanistan by calling them in the middle of the night to say their loved ones have died.
The relatives of at least three soldiers serving in the war-torn country have been targeted by the prank, said Alex Maillé, a spokesman at Canadian Forces Base Valcartier said Tuesday.
The wife of one soldier filed a complaint with military police after someone called her last week to say her husband had died in a roadside bomb explosion.

How cruel is that? It's sick,demented,deplorable etc. Our military families sacrifice a lot so  their loved ones can serve and it's not easy. They must be constantly on edge all the time their loved one is deployed for fear they receive that dreaded  call.  Then you have some low life that does this kind of despicable act.  Just think about how the troops in Afghanistan are feeling knowing that some sociopath/psychopath is terrorizing their families like that?  It's just something more for them to worry about.

I hope they find who ever is doing this,lock 'em up and throw away the key. 

What's Happened to the Liberal Party?

Things haven't been going to well for the Liberal Party in the few years. They've tried different leaders. Last summer they send the leader on a bus tour that was  supposed to turn things around but that was to not. Today you have three columns that tell of Liberal woes.
Larry Martin traces Liberal problems way back in '93.

To find the reason for their woes, they might look back, strangely enough, at one of their successes – the election of 1993. That campaign, which gutted the Canadian political structure like no other, is known as the one that vanquished the old Progressive Conservative Party. The Tories came away with two seats. But it should also be known as the one that undermined the Liberals, who came away with a majority.
Although they won handily, that campaign effectively reduced the Grits to an Ontario party with a few regional add-ons. Post-1993, the party won successive majorities in 1997 and 2000, but in each it was an all-Ontario show, with the party registering unbelievable sweeps of 100 or so seats in that province.
That represented close to two-thirds of the party’s overall total in those elections. The warning signals were there. These majorities masked the Liberal Party’s geographical isolation.

Hardcore Liberal apologist, Susan Delacourt gives her reasons why the Libs are having a tough time.
Then Warren Kinsella weighs in with his assesment. Liberals were had once counted on painting Stephen Harper and the Reform/Alliance/Conservative parties as scary, but that doesn't work anymore.
Liberals lack strategy 
Five years after they lost power, there’s no change in sight
For starters, Stephen Harper - once the feared Reform Party outsider - is no longer feared so much, if at all. As with all prime ministers,
Harper has become pretty familiar to the rest of us. For a decade, the Liberals kept Harper and his conservative colleagues from power with frightening tales about what the right-wingers would do to social programs, health care and race relations.
But after five years, our social network is mainly what it was; health care is more or less intact; and the party with the most racially diverse caucus in the House of Commons is, well, Harper’s.

All the Libs have done since they lost the election in 2006 is to, with the help from their friends in the media, conjure up faux scandals to embarrass the Conservatives in hopes of finding the big one that would take them back to their right full place. Hasn't worked.

What are Liberals to do?  Well, former chief of staff to Michael Ignatieff, Ian Davey has some advise, offer some conservative ideas.  This coming from from a Liberal? Wow! I guess he sees that voters are sick and tired of the social welfare entitlement programs that spend tons of money and makes the size of government balloon. Oh, well looks like Davey's former boss hasn't taken that advise.   As long as Liberals keep spinning their wheels and navel gaze, the Conservatives can keep working getting things done for the betterment of the country and PM Harper can keep reaping praise like this one.

Stephen Harper earns biblical praise for pro-Israeli stand 

Stephen Harper is being hailed as a modern-day “Abraham” for his defence of Israel in a recent speech to a conference on combating anti-Semitism.

Scott Stinson sums it all up.

Under Mr. Ignatieff, the Liberals seem to want to have it both ways again: on one hand talking up the party’s deficit-slaying efforts under Jean Chrétien, and on the other speaking about the myriad ways they would spend the money saved by cancelling corporate tax cuts.
It’s as though the party can’t quite bring itself to step away from that key part of what it sees as being “Liberal” — the notion that the government will wrap you in its warm embrace — and so the leader’s summer tour included his stories of the floppy-haired kid who was struggling just to be a student and the elderly lady who couldn’t afford to care for her ailing husband. Mr. Ignatieff would thus talk about not just the need to curb the deficit, but also about “three core priorities for a future Liberal government: learning, care, and Canadian leadership in the world.”

 It was put most simply in this line from one of his speeches: “we need to get this deficit under control, and we need to invest in Canadians.”
 

The Conservatives have recently started making noise about the need for austerity and how the next budget will be one of belt-tightening. Voters could be forgiven for snorting at that and asking what took them so long. But here’s what Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said this week: “This is not the time for dangerous and risky new spending schemes that will increase deficits and raise taxes.” It sounds like the Tories will stick to that simple message.

It sounds like something Ian Davey might have suggested.

Health Czar,Stephen Duckett and his Cookie: Fire Him!

Our health care system is in shambles. Well with a health czar like Stephen Duckett it's no wonder.  He seems to be more concerned about eating his cookie than addressing our urgent issues in the system like emergency room that is on life support. Wait times that are much too long with  patients dying and  having to call 911 to get attention . Some have to wait up to 20 hours. That's totally unacceptable!
  Duckett is in charge of  a big centralized super board where the delivery of health care is controlled and where there is layer upon layer of managers that docs have to go through to get anything done.  Watch this video and you'll see what I mean, it's bizarre. It shows how flippant and ignorant he is avoiding the media's questions. He acts like a four year old. "I want to eat my cookie"




He apologized for the cookie incident but it doesn't cut it. Mr.Duckett needs to be fired along with dismantling Alberta Health Services, the big super board and going back to the regional boards we had before. You hear that Premier Stelmach and Minister Zwozdesky??? 

Roy Green in his column states that our system in is critical condition and has a good idea that would at least be  a start in improving the system.

My fellow Albertans, pressure your MLA, the Health Minister, and the Premier and demand that Stephen Duckett be fired, dismantle Alberta Health Services and go back to the regional health boards that we used have that worked a lot more efficiently.  Then after that bring in some private health care and allow patients to have choice.

Is There a Rift in the Harper Cabinet Re-Peter Mackay?

Well,this should put that rumor to bed.  Check out David Akin's blog, On The Hill.

Some pundits have taken Peter MacKay's less-than-subtle signals that he was unhappy with the decision made by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and others in cabinet to deny landing rights airlines from the United Arab Emirates and, in doing so, forego the free use of the Camp Mirage staging base near Dubai, as a sign that he is preparing to leave the cabinet and perhaps even quit politics. My sources close to MacKay say he's going nowhere but who knows? Stranger things have happened.

In any event, here at the NATO summit in Lisbon, if there is a rift between MacKay and Harper over the UAE decision, the two are putting on a first-class job of hiding it. The body language between the two men -- at four photo ops I saw today as well as the opening of the NATO summit -- told me those two are getting along like gangbusters. I couldn't hear what they were saying in the summit room but whatever it was, they were making each other laugh and smile a lot. And, as you can see in the picture above, MacKay was Harper's wingman all day while Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon had the backseat.

Seems to me just another faux scandal the MSM have dreamed up again to make it look like trouble in the Tory family.  Kudos to David Akin for this report!

Canadians Need A History Lesson

Immigration and Citizenship Minister Jason Kenny says Canadians need to be more knowledgeable about  our history and values or the country is at risk.

OTTAWA - Immigration Minister Jason Kenney warned a conference of historians and educators that unless we do a better job of teaching history and common values, we risk social unrest in the future.
Kenney said there is a need for both native-born Canadians and newcomers to have a solid understanding of Canada’s past including our political system, and how Canada’s culture of rights and responsibilities developed.

The new study guide "Discover Canada" the government put out last year was a good start.

“That’s why the government says that 'Discover Canada' and our efforts to promote civic literacy have to be focused on all Canadians and not just newcomers,” Kenney said.
Discover Canada is the government’s study guide issued to help immigrants prepare for their citizenship test. It was released last year and replaced an older guide that spent little time on Canadian history but did teach would-be citizens the importance of recycling.

I also agree with Mr. Kenny that we just don't know our own real history because it's just not being taught. Instead revisionist history is being taught.

Kenney also took a shot at how Canadian history is often taught, saying there is too much emphasis put on social history and some recounts of Canada’s story make it sound like the country was built of oppression and injustice.
“If that indeed is the way in which we seek to teach history, no wonder that young people aren’t particularly interested,” Kenney said.

Canada has a great historical story, I believe that needs to be told.  . The progressives for some reason  are the ones who have not wanted Canada's real history taught. They would have you believe for instance that our military history is that of just peacekeeping which is not true.  
The only way for us to know our real history sadly is to actually learn it on our own and  pass it on to our children. We have to go back, take the time to research, and read the actual words that our leaders have have spoken and have written.  That's the way you get the truth about our history.

If we don't know our true history we cannot really move forward and are doomed to repeat. My hope is that someone at the new SunTV will take up the mantle just as Glenn Beck has done on Foxnews.  He and his staff have done a fantastic job doing the research and presenting it to the American people the true history of the United States of America. He has presented facts about their history that was not known by most people before just by going back and reading the actual words of their leaders.  I really truly hope that someone will do that at SunTV and  teach Canadians our real history.

Liberal Volunteers Have to be Rewarded?

What has happened to the Big Red Liberal Machine? If Jane Tabolo is to believed, there seems to be a lack of morale and enthusiasm amongst Liberal volunteers in the three by-elections that are to be decided later this month. According to Jane, volunteers have to be cajoled by rewarding them to go out and work for the party.

Michael Ignatieff’s Liberals are offering up big prizes – tickets to Ottawa Senators games and even a $150 gift certificate to Hy’s Steakhouse – to round up volunteers to help them identify the Grit vote in upcoming by-elections.
But this odd pitch for help has some Liberals wondering where the Grit spirit has gone. Why do volunteers have to be cajoled?

 Could it be the internal numbers are not encouraging?  Is it the the Waffle's leadership or just the party itself?   As a long time Liberal MP has put it:

But a long-time Liberal MP sees it differently: “It speaks to the lack of morale and enthusiasm. It used to be that people eagerly volunteered. Now they have to be ordered or rewarded.”

It says a lot about the current Liberal party if the grass roots have to be bribed to go out and work.

I don't see them winning   Dauphin-Swan-River-Marquette in Manitoba, that will stay CPC.  I believe the NDP will probably retain Winnipeg North.  As far as Vaughn, it could very well swing CPC.   That riding will in my opinion  depend on GOTV but do you have to bribe your workers to get that vote out?

Charles Adler on "Michael Clouseau Ignatieff"

Charles Adler had a another great monologue yesterday on Michael "Cluoseau" Ignatieff playing games with race and culture concerning the by election that's going in Winnipeg North where the Waffle has accused the CPC of playing games running a Filipino candidate splitting the vote to hurt the Liberals.

You can listen and/or read it on Charles's website.

 Charles sums it up with a bang as usual.

 If Michael Ignatieff, the has-been BBC interviewer, the has-been Harvard professor, and by next spring he could just be another has-been leader of a party that has gone from being the Natural National Governing party to a Party of Has-Beens. That's what happens to political outfits that play games instead of The Game. They get washed away like fishing boats in a Filipino Monsoon.

Iggo Waffle Has Egg on Face and Insults Voters

The Winnipeg Free Press this morning is saying Iggo Waffle has egg on his face.  Why?  Well the Waffle made a comment when asked a question on the weekend when he was in Winnipeg campaigning for the Liberal candidate for the by-election later this month. He accuses the CPC of playing games? because there is a candidate of Filipino decent running in the riding of Winnipeg North in the by-election to be held later this month? What? The riding does have a large Filipino population and is traditionally held by NDP.   The Waffle also claims CPC candidate Filipino Julie Javier is a fake candidate and will split the vote hurting Liberal's chances.  Well boo, hoo, hoo!

Does anyone know what Michael Ignatieff is talking about?

The Liberal leader was in Winnipeg on the weekend campaigning for Winnipeg North candidate Kevin Lamoureux when he accused the Conservatives of fighting dirty by running a Filipino candidate in the riding.
Voters, he said, deserved "a straight-up fight" and not "a bunch of games." He was apparently referring to speculation that the Tories were trying to weaken Mr. Lamoureux's support by running Filipino Julie Javier in a riding that traditionally supports the New Democratic Party and which has a high number of Filipino residents.
Once again, does anyone know what Mr. Ignatieff is talking about? Is he really suggesting that the Conservatives should have fielded a non-Filipino candidate to make it a fair fight for the Liberal contender? Is it his view that Ms. Javier is a fake candidate who has cynically offered her name to spoil Liberal ambitions and ensure an NDP victory?
Mr. Ignatieff's comments were an insult to voters in general and Filipinos in particular. To be fair, it doesn't look like he anticipated the question, but the leader of an institution like the Liberal Party of Canada should be smarter on his feet. In the big leagues, you're only allowed so many stupid mistakes.

Insult to voters? You bet! Does the CPC not have a right to run a candidate of any nationality if based on merit?  I have news for the Waffle, this is not kindergarten!  This is the big leagues!
 Good luck to CPC candidate Julie Javier and may the best candidate win! 

National Post Today's Letters: Israel's Friend, Harper or Ignatieff?

Today's National Post letters are in response to David Frum's column  and this column in the National Post the other day on PM Harper's speech vs. Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff's speech at the Combatting Anti-Semitism conference on Monday. 
The letters clearly are in support of PM Harper and against the Waffle's approach.

What’s a (once) leftie Jewish Canadian supposed to do? Voting for a Tory was the one thing my Zaida told me not to do. That was then and this is now. There are few friends of Israel of this stature with such willingness to shout for all to hear. Thank you Stephen Harper (and sorry, Zaida, but he turned out to be the good guy).
Janis Rosen, Toronto.

 I am not Jewish but my heart stands with the state of Israel as it continues to be maligned by so many people. The hatred of the Jews is not different from the hatred aimed at the Christians in Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan and many other areas of the world. We strongly applaud Mr Harper for his poise and balance and his strong sense of truth and justice. In contrast we hear confused statements from the Leader of the Opposition. As usual, the latter was aimlessly trying to gain political points at the expense of Israel. What a tragedy.

 George E. Tabet, Mississauga, Ont.

 After reading about Michael Ignatieff’s convoluted take on the issue of anti-Semitism, I was reminded of the notion that a Liberal is a person who won’t speak in favour of his own argument.

 Ronald Rea, Oakville, Ont.

I hope that Michael Ignatieff will never see the prime minister’s chair. He is playing dirty politics, hoping that his appeal to Muslim Canadians will bring him the leadership. I hope that Canadians show him the door.

Isaac Glick, Thornhill, Ont.  

Until this one from Anita Cruella Neville Liberal MP from Winnipeg:

David Frum’s column on Michael Ignatieff’s speech to the Ottawa Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism misrepresented both the substance and the authenticity of Mr. Ignatieff’s remarks. Mr. Frum’s contention that the Liberal leader was strangely ambivalent about Israel is not consistent with the text. Regarding the hateful comparison of Israel with apartheid South Africa, Mr. Ignatieff forcefully argued that to conflate the two is to delegitimize a democratic state. Regarding the Middle East, Mr. Ignatieff made it clear that a democratic state like Canada cannot be neutral between a democratic state and terrorist organizations. There is no honest broker.

 Readers of the Post deserve the full story. Printing Mr. Frum’s diatribe without the context of an excerpt from Ignatieff’s speech — as was provided for the Prime Minister’s remarks — allows for Mr. Ignatieff’s principled and unambiguous statements to be corrupted and maligned. The Liberal party stands firmly against both the old and new anti-Semitism. That’s the full story.

Anita Neville, MP for Winnipeg South Centre, Ottawa

So she calls her leader's statement principled?  News to me!  He was talking from both sides of his mouth.  The fact is Liberals would sell us out just for a seat on the Security Counsel in the corrupt UN.  PM Harper on the other hand has not sold his soul or his principles just to curry favor with those that those on the left tend to love. It's clear he is a staunch friend of Israel.
 Who would want a  seat on the Security Counsel when Iran and Saudi Arabia are going to be sitting on  a new panel for Women's rights and Libya sits on the UN Human Rights Council?.You gotta be kidding right? Believe it or not but.Liberals would sell Canada out for an organization like that.  The UN is no longer a credible organization and neither is the Liberal party of Canada or it's leader.

Meanwhile, PM Harper is still the most trustworthy federal leader.

Update: A great monologue from Charles Adler on the speeches and who is the real leader.  Listen here. Go Nov.10 @ approx. 2:05pm. He continues then after the news at the bottom of the hour. 

Be Very Proud of Our Prime Minister for Standing Against Evil

I know I am very proud of our Prime Minister,especially after yesterday when he gave a very powerful speech at the Conference for Combating Anti-Semitism.  He is very staunch in his support for Israel whatever the cost. We lost a seat on the UN Security Council for it but I don't care.  For that I applaud him.  Here is an excerpt from his speech.

Two weeks ago I visited Ukraine for the first time. At the killing grounds of Babyn Yar, I knew I was standing in a place where evil – evil at its most cruel, obscene, and grotesque – had been unleashed. But while evil of this magnitude may be unfathomable, it is nonetheless a fact.
It is a fact of history. And it is a fact of our nature – that humans can choose to be inhuman. This is the paradox of freedom. That awesome power, that grave responsibility – to choose between good and evil.
Let us not forget that even in the darkest hours of the Holocaust, men were free to choose good. And some did. That is the eternal witness of the Righteous Among the Nations.
And let us not forget that even now, there are those who would choose evil, and would launch another Holocaust, if left unchecked. That is the challenge before us today.
In response to this resurgence of moral ambivalence on these issues, we must speak clearly.
Remembering the Holocaust is not merely an act of historical recognition. It must also be an understanding and an undertaking. An understanding that the same threats exist today. And an undertaking of a solemn responsibility to fight those threats.
Jews today in many parts of the world and many different settings are increasingly subjected to vandalism, threats, slurs, and just plain, old-fashioned lies.
Let me draw your attention to some particularly disturbing trends.
Anti-Semitism has gained a place at our universities, where at times it is not the mob who are removed, but the Jewish students under attack. And, under the shadow of a hateful ideology with global ambitions, one which targets the Jewish homeland as a scapegoat, Jews are savagely attacked around the world – such as, most appallingly, in Mumbai in 2008.
We have seen all this before. And we have no excuse to be complacent. In fact we have a duty to take action. And for all of us, that starts at home.
In Canada, we have taken a number of steps to assess and combat anti-Semitism in our own country. But of course we must also combat anti-Semitism beyond our borders, – an evolving, global phenomenon. And we must recognize, that while its substance is as crude as ever, its method is now more sophisticated.
Harnessing disparate anti-Semitic, anti-American and anti-Western ideologies, it targets the Jewish people by targeting the Jewish homeland, Israel, as the source of injustice and conflict in the world, and uses, perversely, the language of human rights to do so.
We must be relentless in exposing this new anti-Semitism for what it is. Of course, like any country, Israel may be subjected to fair criticism. And like any free country, Israel subjects itself to such criticism – healthy, necessary, democratic debate. But when Israel, the only country in the world whose very existence is under attack – Is consistently and conspicuously singled out for condemnation, I believe we are morally obligated to take a stand. Demonization, double standards, delegitimization, the 3 D’s, it is a responsibility, to stand up to them.
And I know, by the way, because I have the bruises to show for it, that whether it is at the United Nations, or any other international forum, the easy thing to do is simply to just get along and go along with this anti-Israeli rhetoric, to pretend it is just being even-handed, and to excuse oneself with the label of “honest broker.” There are, after all, a lot more votes, a lot more, in being anti-Israeli than in taking a stand. But, as long as I am Prime Minister, whether it is at the UN or the Francophonie or anywhere else, Canada will take that stand, whatever the cost. Not just because it is the right thing to do, but because history shows us, and the ideology of the anti-Israeli mob tells us all too well, that those who threaten the existence of the Jewish people are, in the longer term, a threat to all of us.
Earlier I noted the paradox of freedom. It is freedom that makes us human. Whether it leads to heroism or depravity depends on how we use it.
We are free citizens, but also the elected representatives of free peoples. We have a solemn duty to defend the vulnerable, to challenge the aggressor, to protect and promote human dignity, at home and abroad. None of us knows whether we would choose to do good, in the extreme circumstances of the Righteous. But we do know there are those today who would choose to do evil, if they are so permitted. Thus, we must use our freedom now, and them and their anti-Semitism at every turn.
Our work together is a sign of hope, just as the existence and persistence of the Jewish homeland is a sign of hope. And it is here that history serves not to warn but to inspire.
As I said on the 60th anniversary of its founding, the State of Israel appeared as a light, in a world emerging from deep darkness. Against all odds, that light has not been extinguished. It burns bright, upheld by the universal principles of all civilized nations – freedom, democracy, justice.
By working together more closely in the family of civilized nations, we affirm and strengthen those principles. And we declare our faith in humanity’s future, in the power of good over evil.

He doesn't cower to the corrupt UN for the sake of a seat on the security counsel.   On the other hand you have the leader of the Liberal party, Michael Ignatieff's speech that David Frum so aptly  points out  as confused and pointless.  Iffy would be disastrous as PM on the world scene and well the domestic scene as well. He really stands for nothing.
PM Harper is decisive, strong, and bold when it comes to his support for Israel, it makes me proud.
You can watch the whole speech here.  It's well worth it.  It's different watching it than reading it. I thank God for putting Stephen Harper in such a position for such a time like this.

God Bless PM Harper! God Bless Canada!

Keith Martin Going Rogue

Oh,oh, Liberal MP Dr. Keith Martin going against his party on health care again?  Well good for him!  Obviously this hasn't gone down well with in his own party especially with Ujjal Dosanjh.

Dr. Keith Martin, the Liberal MP, is continuing his campaign to encourage a realistic debate over health care reform (as opposed to just talking about it, which is the preferred option in Ottawa and 10 out of 10 provinces).
His suggestion last month that Canadians should have the right to pay for health care outside the system if they wished had his own party doing backflips to separate themselves from his dangerous ideas. “That is absolutely not a solution to any of the problems that we’re facing today,” said Ujjal Dosanjh, a charter member of the Status Quo club. Liberal policy is to acknowledge that something really needs to be done, while refusing to address any serious alternatives.
But Martin isn’t backing down. Today he expanded his view with a list of criteria for repairing the system:

 Health Care Reform Do’s and Don’ts 
by Keith Martin, M.P., M.D.

 Don’t:
•    Allow people to pay to jump ahead of the queue in the public system
•    Allow people to divert taxes to private services. Everyone will pay taxes and ALL will have access to the public system. This is akin to our education system that has private and public schools. People who pay tuition for their children to attend private schools still pay taxes that pay for public schools.

Do:
•    Look at 17 of the 20 top health care systems that are all in Europe. All provide for better access to quality care when people fall ill at a lower cost (Canada ranks 22nd in the world, the US is 26th).
•    Allow people to pay for health care services in completely separate private clinics. ONLY private monies would pay for these clinics and services.
•    Enforce common standards for public and private health services.
•    Develop a medical manpower strategy.
•    Allow physicians to provide essential services in the private sector if they spend a minimum of 50% of their time working for the public system.
•    Allow hospitals to be paid on the basis of patient services rendered as opposed to receiving block funding alone.
•    Implement a National Head Start Program for Children. This is a powerful preventative program.
•    Implement E-technologies to improve the flow of medical information e.g. E-Health records.

Most of the reforms I agree with. It's a start.  I say kudos to him for  going against the status quo although it could get him into a heap of trouble with the party but oh, well. Remember, it's taboo for any politician anywhere in this  country to talk about health care reform. At least he's taking the initiative for to start talking about something that needs to be talked about. Reforming our  increasingly failing unsustainable health care system.  As the National Post states:

 That ought to really bug the Liberal leadership. Here’s a guy who won’t just shut up and let them ignore the health care issue. Better drag out Ujjal again.

Yup, better fetch Ujjal!  Can't have one of your members going rogue now. I hope he doesn't shut up. I hope he keeps it up!  At least, it just might get an adult conversation started  which is well overdue.
To Keith Martin, don't allow your party to muzzle you, you keep speaking out!

Related: Here is a very sensible column in the Globe and Mail by Andre Picard on health care reform. It's well worth the read.

First and foremost, we need to throw off the shackles of the Canada Health Act, a well-meaning law that has become an impediment to reform.    Amen!

Justin Trudeau To Stump for Vaughn Liberal Candidate

Pretty boy, Justin Trudeau will be stumping for Tony Genco, Liberal candidate for the riding of Vaughn   before a by-election that is to be held on Nov.29

Just a few weeks after lending a hand to failed Toronto mayoral candidate George Smitherman, Liberal MP Justin Trudeau is hoping to raise his party’s fortunes — this time in Vaughan — when he joins that riding’s local candidate Tony Genco on a promotional tour Thursday in advance of the federal by-election later this month.
Mr. Genco is headed into a fierce fight against Conservative Party candidate and former Ontario Provincial Police Chief Julian Fantino for a seat that has been a Liberal stronghold for 14 years.
The Tories are hoping to break the Liberal domination in the November 29 by-election with the high-profile Mr. Fantino, a well known figure in the Italian Canadian community.
According to Liberal Party ads, Mr. Trudeau, MP for the Quebec riding of Papineau and the son of late former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, along with the “rest of the Liberal team,” will stop by Vaughan’s DiManno Bakery for lunch, followed by a visit to the West Woodbridge Seniors Club.
It’s not clear why the Liberals feel they need Mr. Trudeau’s help to win a riding in a province in which the young MP does not live.
Maurizio Bevilacqua, the former Liberal MP who has held the seat since it was created in 1996, was recently elected as Mayor of Vaughan, leaving a hole the Conservatives hope to fill this time around.

Justin stumped for George Smitherman a few weeks ago in the city of Toronto mayoral race and we all how that turned out.   If that election was any indication of the affect that Trudeau has, I think CPC candidate Julian Fantino's chances have just increased.

Why Haven't the Police Been Called In?

It's extremely rare I agree with anything from NDP MP Pat Martin but I do believe he's right on this one. That, the cops should be called to investigate Rentgate. for fraud.

OTTAWA — The House of Commons should explain why there hasn’t been a police investigation into two MPs who paid back tens of thousands of dollars in tax dollars they improperly received for rental expenses, says New Democrat Pat Martin.
The Chronicle Herald reported Saturday that Toronto-area Liberal MPs Judy Sgro and John Cannis were both ordered to reimburse taxpayers for years of rent expenses they received in violation of the rules — more than $60,000 for Sgro and more than $80,000 for Cannis.
Both MPs had transferred their Ottawa condominiums to the names of family members, which allowed them to claim rental expenses that are higher than the amounts MPs can claim for condo fees. Earlier this summer, an investigation by The Chronicle Herald and Ottawa Citizen uncovered the arrangements through searches of property records.

   Even a fraud investigator agrees that the police should be called in.

Steve Harrar, a fraud investigator with Nexia Friedman, a Montreal financial services firm, said that if MPs have been filing false expense claims, the police should be called in.
"The police should be called at that point, to at least make a report of the situation," he said. "They might want to interrogate the person."
Harrar said the fact that the MPs transferred ownership to a relative suggests they knew what they were doing.

Why the cops haven't been called, I don't know why but they should be.  Is it up the Board of Internal Economy to make the call?  Probably.  There should be an investigation toot sweet.  No doubt if this were CPC MPs, the cops would have been called long ago. 

Another thing why is this not front and center in the 24hr. news cycle?  Again if it were CPC MPs, it would be a non stop, leading story for days if not weeks.  The media again covering Liberal butts?  Yeah I think so.

Something's In the Air

  Something is going on, you can feel it in the air. You take a look at what happened in Toronto, a latte sipping lefty bastion, last week where  small c-conservative Rob Ford won the Mayor's seat.  A month before Conservatives won an overwhelming majority in the election in New Brunswick defeating a Liberal government making David Alward the new Premier.

It's going to be a bloodbath tomorrow in the House of Representatives in the US midterm elections for the Democrats.  Republicans are poised to gain power of Congress and possibly the Senate as well by huge margins.

What is the catalyst for all of this?  I think Roy Green has nailed it.

So what may have acted as catalyst for a ballot box attack on the status quo? Arguably, the Great Recession.
Certainly Canada didn’t face the same level of fiscal clear-cutting experienced by our American neighbours, who watched major financial institutions crash and burn, frequently saw their pensions and savings compromised, experienced the trauma of home foreclosure and grew increasingly furious as Washington, first under George W. Bush and then more spectacularly under Barack Obama, spent more than a trillion non-existent federal dollars propping up what was considered “too big to fail”.
Americans watched thousands line up for very few available jobs while corporate gangsters pocketed publicly announced severance payments in the millions.
“What can we do” was replaced by “dammit! No more”!

Simply the public is sick and tired of the big out of control spending, the big nanny style government at all levels that has a noose around our necks that seem to get tighter and tighter with each passing day.  We are in debt up to our eye balls and our children and grandchildren will have to pay  the bills. Our freedoms are being stripped away at every turn it seems and people are finally starting to wake up.  It's about time.

What this shows is that voters are mad as hell and are not going to take anymore.
John McCain has it right when he says " big government spending is generational theft"

So what does this all say?  Well, that socialism doesn't work and is on it's way out and  small c-conservatism is coming into style because it's small government, more freedom that is really what works. It's good for everyone.

If federal CPC  gets with the program, plays it right, listens to the public and offer some real small c-conservative solutions, they can catch the wave and a majority would most likely be theirs.  Perhaps they've already started the ball rolling with Maxime Bernier out there talking about some of those small c conservative libertarian solutions.  You bet on it that he wouldn't be out there speaking like that if he didn't have the PM's blessing.



 This at the end of Green's article:

Once again analysts are analysing and post mortems will feature dumbfounded analytical attempts to make sense of “wha’ happened”.
There will be more of that following tomorrow’s U.S. mid-term vote and no doubt trailing future federal and provincial elections here.
It’s no mystery. The answer has been “blowing in the wind” of political talk radio for some time now. Cup of tea, anyone?

Amen!  I believe there is a wave coming and it's a big blue wave!  Get ready for it!

Liberal Media Getting Frustrated With Iffy Flip Flops?

It hasn't been a very good week for the liberal media in this country.  Tuesday morning the liberal media woke up to a conservative Mayor in Toronto. That's not supposed to happen you know especially in lefty latte sipping Toronto.  A couple of polls come out  with the federal Conservative party surging ahead with their dear Liberal party either dropping or stagnate.  Then you have Iffy virtually kill one of his own members bill on clamping down on Canadian mining activities in foreign countries.  Heck, he didn't even show up himself. Doesn't do much for his credibility now does it?

Rumours swirled in advance of the vote, with some reports suggesting that Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff — who has spoken out against McKay's bill — had ordered party whip Marcel Proulx to tell caucus members not to attend the contentious vote, or to stay away if they planned on voting no. However, Opposition House Leader David McGuinty said he hoped the bill would pass.
Ignatieff told reporters that while he does not support the bill, he favours its principles.
"This is a private member's bill. I've made my reservations about the bill known for months, but I think it sends a very important message about corporate social responsibility," said Ignatieff, who did not vote on McKay's bill.

 Now the  media seems frustrated with Iffy.  No one really knows where he or the party really stands on this mining bill or other issues for that matter.  So yesterday  Liberal cheerleader, Jane Taber wrote a column scolding Iffy. She rarely does that. She always bashes Conservatives so this was a real change for her. In fact The Iceman has a great post on that.

Today the Toronto Star's editorial   also not happy with Iffy.

Where exactly does Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff stand on efforts to ensure that Canada’s mining, oil and gas firms behave ethically abroad? Liberal John McKay’s private member’s bill to hold companies to a higher standard overseas was shot down in a vote in the House of Commons on Wednesday, thanks to only tepid support from McKay’s caucus colleagues. Thirteen Liberals, including Ignatieff, (who has voiced “reservations” about the bill for months) did not turn out to support it. That sealed its fate.
It also left observers scratching their heads. After the vote, Ignatieff issued a vague statement saying he “remains committed” to bolstering corporate social responsibility by adopting voluntary reforms — agreed to in 2007 — that the Tories have failed to implement fully. Industry critics, however, contend that voluntary reforms are not sufficient to prevent abuses.

Where does Iffy really stand on anything?  I think he's trying out dither Mr. Dithers, former PM Paul Martin.

So what does that tell you?  The Liberal cheerleaders are clearly frustrated.  That can't be good for Iffy. 
They had touted him as a savior of the Liberals. He was so intelligent. . He would bring Liberals back to where they so rightly belong, at the public trough.  He'd beat the crap out PM Harper.  He's not doing that. Iffy is just not making a hit with the public even after the Liberal Express Magical Bus tour and now with the open mike stuff. There is no Iffymania with all their help conjuring up all those faux scandals on the Conservatives, Iffy is not making any head way. Every time Iffy makes these stupid moves, the more Canadians see that he's not what the media had touted him to be. It's making his cheerleaders lose their credibility and look foolish even though I think they lost their credibility years ago. 

 The libluving media are singing the blues these days and if you are  a Liberal politician you don't want to disappoint your them, they can turn on you.  Their patience only lasts so long.

Rosie DiManno: Cry Me A River, Omar!

 Obviously one of the more reasonable columnists from the Toronto Star, Rosie DiManno has not much sympathy for Omar Khadr.

Omar Khadr would have been a different person with a different father.
So what? So would we all.
There’s no retroactive mercy for felons who’ve grown up with lousy parents, in deranged households, taught wickedly in the ways of the world. That defence doesn’t work for child molesters, rapists and serial killers, many of whom were subjected to horrific mental and physical abuse, scars that never fade.
I see no reason why it should be asserted as an absolving excuse for the crimes to which Khadr has now admitted — because he had the misfortune of being born into an Al Qaeda family.

She goes on to dispel some of  those excuses that the left make for "poor little Omar."   Why anyone would see Omar as an innocent little babe is beyond me especially now when he has confessed to his crimes and feels happy about killing the US soldier whenever he thinks about it. He has absolutely no remorse. That little twerp wouldn't have hesitated if it would have been a Canadian medic instead of an American. He would have thrown that grenade regardless.  How would have the left reacted?  Probably not much different.  That is sad, really sad.  In fact whether left realizes it or not, it's down right dangerous. If you think about it, they tend to coddle and protect terrorists more than innocent citizens and that folks is scary.

Kudos to Rosie DiManno, she  has it spot on:  "Cry me a river, Omar!"

The Toronto Star Must Be in Mourning

 First of all I would like to express my congratulations to the new mayor elect of Toronto. Toronto Star has had a couple of dark days since  the election of an outspoken conservative as the new mayor for the city of Toronto. As Kelly MacParland so eloquently expresses, the Star's man, Smitherman had lost so badly and the Star had woken the next morning to a dark day when they reluctantly  had to declare that Rob Ford was the new mayor, the man they worked so hard to demonize and smear.  Oh that must have been so hard to do.

Monday was a dark day for George Smitherman, who lost badly in his bid to become Toronto mayor. The next day was even darker -- for the liberal Toronto Star, which had become an unapologetic pamphleteer for Smitherman in the weeks leading to the election. On Tuesday, it had to sheepishly report how badly its own propaganda had failed.
In the unhappy recesses of Star headquarters, perplexed editors were forced to accept that the unthinkable had happened: Rob Ford had been elected mayor. The voters of Toronto, who exist in the Star's imagination as a cheerful, "progressive," multicultural group of bicycle-loving, environmentally aware supporters of mushy Canadian liberalism, had cast their votes overwhelming for a man whom Star columnists had smeared as a neanderthal.

Then Kelly calls out the two most rabid Star columnists for their attacks on Ford.  First Heather Mallick with her usual.

 Having decided that personal attacks were fair game, the Star unloaded columnist Heather Mallick on Ford. Here's what she had to say:

"Voting for Ford is like sleeping with someone to get revenge on your spouse. It seems like a good idea at closing time, which is what an election is. Last call, and you neck down your last shot of good cold vodka. 'Sure, whatever,' is what you say to everything said to you. 'I hate streetcars too!' And you leave the lounge of the Empire Hotel on the arm of some big guy. It is Oct. 26, the day after the election, and you wake in a hard, unfamiliar bed. Your eyeballs are congealed chip fat and your contact lenses have gone crispy. Your liver is en route somewhere. You appear to be missing a tooth. And there's something in bed next to you. It is the sweaty, beer-smelling oik from the bar last night."
Poor Heather must have been scraping off the chip fat with both hands Tuesday. Not only is last night's oik in her bed, but the Viagra is just kicking in.

The reaction from Mallick after the election was well expected.

Then MacParland calls out James Travers for his attacks.

Then there was Star columnist James Travers who warned that "Sudden swings that sweep away the status quo are nothing new. But as World War II reminds, the results are often catastrophic." Toronto voters will no doubt wish they'd listened to Travers if Ford starts sending tanks into Brampton and Pickering.

Then this zinger from MacParland

.Evidently not. Ford didn't just win, he overwhelmed the opposition. The paper couldn't even score a victory out in deepest suburbia, where Mississauga's mayor-for-life, 89-year-old Hazel McCallion, was returned with 75% of the vote and spent election night denouncing the Star to anyone who would listen.

Hazel McCallion and Rob Ford, together. Lord knows what image that raises in Heather Mallick's imagination.

No doubt it must be a stunning defeat for the Star. They hate anything conservative and the new mayor, a conservative  campaigned on conservative  values and they are not supposed to resonate with Torontonians. 
This just simply could not happen, after all, Toronto is supposed to be a bastion of left wing latte sipping liberals. They had worked so hard to prevent this man from winning the Mayors chair but was in the end unsuccessful.  This right wing neanderthal was not supposed to win according to the Star. 
Maybe Torontonians are starting to wake from their slumber. Who knows but  let's hope this carries on to the provincial and federal scene.  Way to go Toronto voters!