What A Week in Alberta Politics

Wow, who said politics in Alberta was boring?  Well it used to be until lately. It's actually starting to get quite exciting.  With the start up of the Wildrose Alliance Party with an intelligent, articulate leader in Danielle Smith already competitive with the Progressive Conservatives. 

This last week alone has been almost like a soap opera.  Monday, you had Calgary Currie MLA Dave Taylor who had left the Liberals to sit as an Independent join the new left wing Alberta Party.  Taylor had left the Liberals over leadership.  He had run for the position but lost to David Swann who he had problems with.

Tuesday Premier Ed Stelmach surprised everyone announcing he was  resigning.It spurred a flurry of rumors that the PC caucus was divided that was later downplayed and denied. 
Yesterday Finance Minister Ted Morton announced he was resigning from cabinet to be a backbencher so he that he could persue  the leadership.

What a week!  Don Braid from the Calgary Herald reported that there was turmoil in the PC caucus over the budget.
Even though the party is denying any rift within the caucus, I don't believe it.  I think there is more than the eye can see.  The timing seems for all this is bizarre to me. We will for sure have a lame duck Premier,with a lame duck government, in a lame duck legislative session this spring. Until there is a new leader, an election to clear the air, no one will really be minding the store. 

One thing you can say is Alberta politics is not boring anymore.  It's not over yet, stay tuned!

The Bloc's Blackmail

Gilles Duceppe, leader of the Bloc Quebecois has stated his price for support of the budget that federal government is to present in March. He wants $5 billion.  It's nothing more that blackmail IMHO. 

QUEBEC — The Bloc Quebecois, with 47 seats in the House of Commons, has announced its price for supporting the Conservative minority government's new budget: The BQ wants $5 billion for Quebec, including $2.2 billion to compensate the province for harmonizing its provincial sales tax with the federal goods and services tax.

I say NO. They have extorted enough from the ROC already.  They are the spoiled child of confederation and it's about time the pandering stop.  If the government gives in and gives them this money, it still won't be enough.   It's never enough. The hands will still be out.  Besides the Conservatives would lose support in the ROC especially in the west here.

It's time to impose some tough love. Don't cave and let the chips fall where they may.  If the CPC loses seats in Quebec so be it.  They'll gain else where. If they comply with Gilles demands, they will lose seats in ROC.

Please PM Harper, Minister Flaherty, Minister of State for Finance, Ted Menzies, SAY NO!  Don't give in to the Bloc's demands! Enough is enough!
Makes you wonder what the Bloc's coalition partners have promised them.

Most Canadians Agree With PM Harper On The Death Penalty

Last week PM Harper had an interview on CBC with Peter Mansbridge in which Mansbridge asked the PM questions on what he would do if he gets a  majority after next election.  One of those questions that were asked of the PM were would he bring back the death penalty.

When asked about reopening the death penalty issue, Harper said that he doesn't "see the country wanting to do that."
"I personally think there are times where capital punishment is appropriate," Harper said, but added that he has "no plans to bring that issue forward."

Well it seems that most Canadians agree with PMSH in a poll that the Sun Media had conducted after the interview.

It turns out such a bill would garner more support than Harper's Conservatives currently do in the polls.
Over the weekend, Ottawa’s Abacus Data found that 66% of Canadians agree with Harper and support the death penalty “in certain circumstances,” but only 41% want the feds to bring back it back a punishment for murder.
The largest group, 41%, said they agreed with the death penalty in certain circumstances and believe the government should reinstate it, while 25% said they support the death penalty but do not believe it should be reinstated.
Total opposition to the death penalty came in at 28%, and another 7% were undecided.

Where does Iffy Waffle personally stand on this issue?  Has the great Peter Mansbridge or any so called journalist actually asked him? 

Iffy on the Wrong Side of the Issues Again?

Why is it  that Iffy and the Libs keep getting on the wrong side of the issues? He's against the corporate tax cuts that PM Harper and the Conservative government have implemented, is good for the economy and that most support.  Even his Harvard buddy President Barack Obama has seen the light and in his State of the Union speech last light talked about reducing the corporate tax rate in the US.

Since taking a pratfall at the midterm elections, Barack Obama has been making a show of moving closer to the middle ground of American politics. He’s stressed his willingness to compromise with Republican opponents, bit the bullet on demands for an extension of tax cuts, avoided opportunities to play to partisanship and generally made known that he’s not the left-wing kook he was portrayed as to great effect by his opponents.

                                            .*******************************

 One assumes Obama is acting out of necessity, having found that bashing business produces short-term approval on the left but provides little in the way of electoral support or presidential job security. That message has yet to wend its way north to Liberal headquarters in Ottawa, though, where leader Michael Ignatieff appears intent on staking a role as Canada’s resident corporate scold, outflanking Jack Layton and the NDP.

Kelly McParland  indicates that  when you listen to Iffy you can almost hear Jack Layton speak and that Jack can easily make PM Harper's case for corporate tax cuts without the PM having to actually make it himself.  Nice.

If you close your eyes and listen, you can hear Jack Layton complaining about rhetoric theft. The NDP leader can hardly open his mouth without talking about “hard-working Canadians” and the Conservatives’ passion for corporate Canada.   Perhaps the Liberals view upping the ante to “hard working families” as original thinking. But business-bashing never did much for the NDP, which has trouble breaking through 18% in the polls, well back of the Liberals. And the NDP has been making its case for years, which suggests they actually believe it, while the Liberals have just arrived at the notion that corporate cuts are evil after spending a decade or so as their eager champion.
Should there be an election, Stephen Harper won’t even have to make his case for himself, because Mr. Layton can do it for him. Just last week the NDP helpfully issued a release reminding everyone that the Liberals of Jean Chretien and Paul Martin were big fans of corporate cuts. In fact, Mr. Martin only backed down on a planned reduction when Mr. Layton demanded it as a condition for helping the Liberals stay in office a few months longer. Martin vowed to reintroduce it if he won the next election, so the Conservatives are really just carrying out that promise on behalf of the Liberals.

If Iffy Waffle is going to campaign against corporate tax cuts that Liberals once supported and even started to implement when they were in office, fine.  It'll just show the hypocrites that the Liberals are.  A party that once was a party of the center makes you wonder.  Are they trying to go further left of the NDP?  Stephane Dion took the Liberals to the left even he supported corporate tax cuts.

Update: Rolling back corporate tax cuts would rock economy, Beatty warns

Canadian Chamber of Commerce president Perrin Beatty is warning the opposition’s plans for corporate taxes would deliver a “blind side hit” to the economy, delivering the message on the same day federal cabinet ministers are fanning out across the country in defence of lower business taxes.

Memo to Liberals: You're three years too late on the corporate tax cut vote-David Akin

CBC Exec and Liberal Senator Lunch Paid for by the Taxpayer

Aren't we generous?  CBC vice president Sylvain Lafrance and Liberal Senator Francis Fox shared a $119 lunch and put the tab on us the taxpayer    Surprised?  I thought not.

OTTAWA – What happens when a senator and CBC executive meet? You pay either way. The only question is how much.
According to documents obtained by QMI Agency through access to information, a lunch between a CBC vice president and a Liberal senator cost more than $100.
Sylvain Lafrance, the executive VP of CBC's French language services, treated Liberal Senator Francis Fox to a $119 lunch in October 2009 at Montreal's Restaurant Julien.
Details of what was consumed are not provided in the documents, but an online version of the restaurant's menu shows entrees normally cost less than $20, meaning the pair likely dined on more than just food.
Lafrance also charged taxpayers $21 for cab fare to and from the meeting.
Fox was a member of Pierre Trudeau's cabinet before he was forced to resign as solicitor-general in 1978 after it was revealed that he forged the signature of his girlfriend's husband to help her get an abortion.
Fox was appointed to the Senate by Paul Martin in 2005 and has helped Liberal election campaigns as an advisor.
Lafrance became known for his lavish spending on hospitality before he cut back, following stories by QMI Agency.

Makes you wonder what they had for lunch for the price of that receipt.  Oh well, what do they care, stupid's paying anyway. I'm guessing this probably isn't the only instance where Liberals and someone from mother corp have dined together on our dime. It's just that QMI have been able to obtain documents for this one case.   

Liberals and the CBC, birds of a feather, liberal elites that like to suck off the public teat with no regards for the lowly taxpayer.  Time to shut old mother corp down and time to elect our senators and bring Liberals down another notch or two.

BTW. Brian Lilley has been doing an awesome job exposing the CBC and the lack of accountability.  If you haven't go and read some of his previous articles on the issue in the Sun papers. He's been exploring this since last fall.