Is This Legitiamate Legislation Or Partisan Politics?

With all the Lame Stream Media focusing on the Guergis/Jaffer soap opera in the last weeks, something else very important has gone under the radar that the media should be widely reporting. That being a NDP private members Bill C-282 sponsored by New Brunswick NDP MP Yvon Godin. It would require all Supreme Court judges to be bilingual.    It was passed with all three opposition parties supporting it.  The coalition at work I see.  It has now gone to the Senate.

That piece of legislation would discriminate against  fully qualified people who can't speak french, mainly those in the west and could divide the country.  Language would come  first.  That's an outrage!

Liberal Globe and Mail contributer, Robert Silver reports on what retired Supreme Court Judge John Major has to say about this.

A NDP private member's bill - Bill C-232 - passed the House of Commons last week. The legislation would require that all future Supreme Court justices be bilingual. Specifically, the act says that:
"Section 5 of the Supreme Court Act is renumbered as subsection 5(1) and is amended by adding the following:
(2) In addition, any person referred to in subsection (1) may be appointed a judge who understands French and English without the assistance of an interpreter."
On CBC Radio's The Current today, retired Supreme Court judge John Major came out and spoke strongly against the bill in a rather remarkable intervention for a former justice.
Among his more interesting comments:
1. According to Major, only two or three current justices would qualify as "truly bilingual" - capable of fully understanding a case without translation. This is a key point Major makes - that the level of language skill required to understand a complex legal case is not something you can learn in a month in french (or English) immersion or even high school second-language skills. It requires perfectly bilingual LEGAL second language skills, a rather rare skill that disqualifies the vast majority of Canadian lawyers.
2. If the bill passes, you will no longer have "the best," "most competent" people appointed to the bench. He says the bill would be a big "step backwards."
3. The regional inequity of the proposal is problematic to Major - specifically in terms of disenfranchising the West. He says there would "be a very modest number" of qualified candidates in the West and you would have to "settle" for lesser candidates to meet this qualification.
4. He criticizes by specific reference former justice minister Irwin Cotler and Bob Rae that he was "astounded" the bill got through with their support.
NDP official languages critic Yvon Godin (who proposed the bill) appears on the show both before and after Major. His rebuttal of Major was weak, to say the least as were, in a bit of irony, his English language skills. 

This Bill MUST NOT BE ALLOWED to pass in the Senate.  Contact all Senators now to make sure this bill does not become law!  I think this whole this is about partisanship politics especially on the Liberals part. They should know better. 
What's going to happen when Ruby Dhalla's bill comes up?  You know the one would reduce to three, from ten, the number of years elderly immigrants to Canada have to wait before being eligible for an Old Age Security pension.

We pay these people to come up with this kind of stuff? No wonder Canadians are turned off politics. I beginning to get turned off too.

Parliament has become out of control, with the media's help I believe and it needs to be fixed.  

Media this is to you, report something important for a change, instead of tabloid rumors and innuendo!

Foxnews Ambushes Al Gore

Al Gore has crawled out from underneath his rock. Watch here.


Go Fox, keep up the good work! Wish we had a version of you here in Canada.

On a related matter it seems there has been a public split between Al Gore and President Obama since the President announced that he would allow expanded offshore drilling.

What's In the Liberal DNA?

First you have the Federal Liberal Party.  They have no direction, no policies except to raise the corporate tax rate and are a party with no real unity.  They have leader who is out of touch with regular Canadians. He was coaxed to come back to Canada in hopes of becoming PM asap after being out of the country for 34 yrs. They have lost touch of who they are and what they stand for. They are a party adrift. Canada's Liberal Party has lost it's way.

Next you have the Alberta Provincial Party where a popular MLA yesterday quit the Alberta Libs  to sit as an Independent.  Dave Taylor former radio talk show host turned MLA for Calgary-Currie Calgary has sat in the Ledge in Edmonton for 6yrs. under the Liberal banner. The reason he sited for leaving  was under
leader David Swan, the party has gone adrift.  Swan is out of touch with Albertans.  They weren't getting any traction, no one was talking about them.

Then you have the Quebec Liberal Party where they are in the middle of a mess.  There have been  allegations where "stacks of cash were forked over by construction company bosses and illegally funnelled into party coffers."
The claims are too, that Premier Charest knew what was going on.  Wow! Sound familiar? Looks to me they have lost their way too.

Is it in the Liberal DNA or what?  I think we can clearly see at least two provincial Liberal parties are very much like their federal cousins.  Alberta Libs like the federal party-"adrift".  Federal Libs-"adrift"
              Quebec=cash funneled back into party coffers    Federal Libs=cash funneled back into party coffers
At least the Alberta Libs haven't been accused of any corruption but then again they haven't had the reins of power either, thank God.

What Is the Political Class?

Mr. Iffy claims he's part of the political class. 

"Even more unusual, is his characterization of himself as someone in the "political class." He's used this term before, including at the recent thinkers conference the Liberals hosted in Montreal. According to some definitions, the term political class was originally coined to describe a "ruling class".
Mr. Ignatieff is someone with great talents as a wordsmith, so one has to surmise that he really does think of people in politics as a somehow different "class" from other people. If he doesn't think that, his advisers should encourage him to stop using this term. If he does, he'd best prepare to explain what he means because he can likely count on hearing his political opponents bring this up as part of a renewed effort to cast him as an elitist."

Well what is meant by the political or ruling class?
 Here you can find  great explanation.

.Barbara Yaffe says Scott Reid, yes "beer and popcorn" former communications director for Former PM Paul Martin, Scott Reid, said that was a dumb and makes him look like an elitist. Well, duh, that's what he is. Consider his heritage, How could he possibly connect with us, the little people?

Social class

Social classes are the hierarchical arrangements of people in society as economic or cultural groups. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political economists and social historians...

Power elite

A power elite, in political and sociological theory, is a small group of people who control a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, and access to decision-making of global consequence...

Social class

Social classes are the hierarchical arrangements of people in society as economic or cultural groups. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political economists and social historians...

Means of production

Means of production , are things used byhuman labourers to create products. They include two broad categories of objects: instruments of labour and subjects of labour...

Sovereign state

A sovereign state is a political association with effective internal and external sovereignty over a geographic area and population which is not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state...

Government

A government is the body within a community, political entity or organization which has the authority to make and enforce rules, laws and regulations.....

 Recent remarks by Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff about his being a member of "the political class" have left him wearing a dunce cap. Political commentators Bruce Anderson, Scott Reid and Tom Flanagan have stated that use of such phrases leaves Ignatieff looking elitist and bolsters Conservative Party attacks suggesting that the Grit chief is too full of himself.

                                                 ***********************

Dumb, dumb, dumb, said Scott Reid, whose criticism is surprising because he's a die-hard Liberal and former communications chief for former Liberal PM Paul Martin. Reid says this type of talk only reaffirms the fact that Ignatieff doesn't seem to know how to connect with ordinary voters, the great middle class out there who should be directed to focus on the Conservative MP's misbehavior rather than Ignatieff's own insulted status as a member of the ruling class.

 If that's how you see yourself, Mr. Iffy, you might as well call up your former employer at Harvard and see if there is a position open for you.  Most Canadians want someone who can relate to them, someone who knows what it's like to work at a real job, raise children  and pay the bills etc. and enjoys regular activities that most Canadians enjoy, such as hockey for instance.  Hmmmm..........I think we already have someone like that in the big chair.

Give It Up Liberals, The Muckracking Is Getting You Nowhere

With all the faux scandals in the last four years that the official opposition Liberals and their cheerleaders in the MSM has wanted to pin on the Conservatives. seems they're just spinning their wheels. They throw things out there hoping something will stick. Seems like voters are not buying what the Liberals and the MSM have been selling.

Kelly McParland in the NP hits the nail on the head as he analyses the latest Ipsos Reid Poll in light of all the shenanigans and antics on Parliament Hill lately.

CPC-37%

Libs-27%

NDP-15%

Grn-10%

In case you're having trouble deciphering what that means, here it is: Nothing has changed in the 4+ years since the Tories were elected.