OK, Here We Go Again!

Elections Canada continues it's vendetta against the Conservative party.

OTTAWA - Two Conservative senators are facing charges under the Elections Canada Act over a controversy dating back to the 2006 election.
Senators Doug Finley and Irving Gerstein, along with two former party officials, are facing administrative charges laid earlier this week by Elections Canada.
The charges are not criminal and would likely only result in fines of up to $1,000 if they are convicted.
Elections Canada and the Conservatives have long fought over whether election ads, bought by the Conservatives for local candidates in the 2006 campaign, violated the law. Elections Canada maintains that although the ads were paid for by local candidates, the ads were really national ads and should be charged against the Conservative Party's national spending limit.
If that were done the Conservatives would have spent more in 2006 than the law allows.
The party won a court case against Elections Canada in January 2010 when Justice Luc Martineau called the Conservative elections expenses legal.

They lost the court case! So why are they doing this and why now?  Other parties did the same thing, why is EC not going after them?  What about Liberal leadership debts?  Why has EC has granted  them extension after extension when they shouldn't have?   Meantime, it's our money EC is spending on this vendetta.   EC has appealed and that appeal is still before the court. Can't they at least wait until the appeal process has ended?
Seems like double standards here by EC.   Liberals get free ride, Conservatives have the hammer coming down on them.  It almost appears that the so called "non-partisan" Elections Canada is indeed partisan. Here is  good reason to grant PM Harper and the Conservatives a majority, to clean house in every faction of the snivel service including Elections Canada.  Just by continuing on this witch hunt, Elections will have shred completely any credibility they've had.
EC, you lost, give it up!

BTW. Is there any way one could find out how much taxpayer money EC has spent on this?  Are they under the Access to Information Act? 

Stop the Presses! A Balanced Article by Yaffe

Barbara Yaffe usually is in PM Harper Conservative basing mode but has actually written a pretty balanced article today although she does  manage to get a few jabs in at the end. Guess she just can't help herself. But anyhow she says if there's an election the Conservatives will be going into a campaign in a position of strength.

The fact is, if forced into battle as a result of a lost budget vote, there's every possibility the Conservatives would win a majority government.

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

After five years and two election wins, many Canadians finally have grown more comfortable with Harper. A Nanos poll Wednesday shows 48 per cent of respondents would be comfortable or somewhat comfortable with a Harper majority. He's not warm and cuddly but neither has he implemented any restrictive social policies domestically. And there's no denying, on an increasingly pertinent world stage, the Conservative leader has looked good. Nor has he overseen any major scandal involving the blatant squandering of tax dollars.. Conservatives enter a campaign with additional strength among immigrant communities, having worked doggedly for and won over ethnic support that used to belong to Liberals.
. Liberals, again, are poised to split the left-leaning vote with New Democrats, especially because so many of their policy positions of late have been similar.
. Conservatives are presenting a disciplined platform that gives priority to issues of prime concern to Canadians: Jobs and the economy.

This is the most common sense  she's made in a long, long time. Maybe she's just starting to come to terms that her leader and favorite party are toast.

BTW On Another Note.-If the coalition is banking on the Bev Oda affair sinking the Conservatives, they better think again. According to a new poll from Harris Decima not actually a Conservative loving polling company, the Oda affair is not catching  fire with the public.

OTTAWA - A new poll suggests the Bev Oda document-altering scandal may not be as damaging to the Harper government as opposition parties had hoped.

The Canadian Press Harris-Decima poll found that half of those surveyed had heard nothing about the affair.
Of the 50 per cent who were aware of the controversy, 32 per cent said the international co-operation minister should resign from cabinet, 10 per cent said she should stay and eight per cent were unsure.
The poll comes as Liberals and New Democrats are vowing to turn up the heat on Oda when Parliament resumes Monday after a one-week break.
Opposition parties have already been relentlessly hammering away at the issue for two weeks, which revolves around an altered document from Oda's officials that ultimately denied funding to a church-based foreign-aid group.
The telephone poll of just over 1,000 Canadians was conducted Feb. 17-20 and is considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times in 20.

The Coalition Out of Touch

While the media and the coalition keep harping on the Bev Oda non issue, Canadians are paying more attention to the 10 yr.old girl who sings Lady Gaga's new song.

At the same time they're not helping the government address the bread and butter issues that most Canadians are concerned about like jobs, the economy, and security etc. For instance  the coalition are missing  the boat when it comes to addressing the human smuggling issue that PM Harper government is trying to do something about.

If the opposition parties think that Canadians are going to run out and vote against the Conservatives over technical issues or specific clauses in C-49, then they have seriously misjudged what is a true hot-button issue for both native-born Canadians and new Canadians. This in turn hands the Conservatives an important club to batter the opposition with during an election, or perhaps a vote that could trigger one if the Conservatives designated it a confidence motion. Stay tuned for more anti-human smuggling rhetoric from the Conservatives as they take full advantage of the oppositions blindness on this issue.

If the coalition wants to keep hammering on the Oda case thinking they can win they should think again.  It's  like one Liberal blogger puts it, "Also, if this is the stuff the Liberals are counting on to win an election, we’re toast." 
The coalition is out of step with Canadians on prisons too as most support the government's plan.

Media Has Failed on the Oda "NOT" Story

Over the last week the lame stream media has bombarded  print and the airwaves with the so called Minister Bev Oda forgery and how she lied stories about a document refusing funding for KAIROS which is actually an activist group that lobbies for social and ecological justice.. 

The media failed IMHO as usual to get to the facts and the truth. Photos of Ms. Oda  wearing sunglasses and smoking was plastered all over the papers to make her look in as bad light as possible. The photos have nothing whatsoever to do with the issue at hand.  They've hung her before all the facts are known. Instead they keep repeating the coalition talking points. Did they not pay attention to what was testified to in committee?  Did they not listen to what Margaret Biggs, CIDA's president and accounting officer had said?

Mr. Jean Dorion:

    Ms. Biggs, was the word “not” handwritten on the form that you signed on September 28, two months before the minister signed it?

Ms. Margaret Biggs (President, Canadian International Development Agency):

    No, it wasn't, sir.

Mr. Jean Dorion:

    So then, when you signed the form, you were in fact giving your approval. You were recommending approval, since the form states:

   “Recommendation: That you sign below to indicate you approve a contribution of $7,098,756 over four years for the above program.”
So then, on September 28, you were recommending that the minister approve the project.

Ms. Margaret Biggs:

    Yes, I think as the minister said, the agency did recommend the project to the minister. She has indicated that. But it was her decision, after due consideration, to not accept the department's advice.

     This is quite normal, and I certainly was aware of her decision. The inclusion of the word “not” is just a simple reflection of what her decision was, and she has been clear. So that's quite normal.

    I think we have changed the format for these memos so the minister has a much clearer place to put where she doesn't want to accept the advice, which is her prerogative.

I don't know if it's just plain laziness, the strong dislike they have for PM Harper and his government, especially the women in this government, or is it incompetence?  There has not been any common sense fairness  in this story whatsoever.  For that you have to go to the blogs for that including this one from a Liberal blogger no less.  It is thorough, well though out, fair and clear. Others to check out are Climbing out of the Dark, CruxoftheMatter, Bluelikeyou, and The Iceman.  It has taken citizen journalists to do the job of the so called profession journalists.  No wonder the lame stream media is losing credibility.

Greg Weston from CBC stated something rather disturbing on Power and Politics the other day that really should be investigated. He hinted at maybe some collusion going between civil servants and media.  You can hear it here at the 18:45 mark. 

“Good for us potentially, because, I think, I’m hearing more and more from the senior public service saying ‘enough’. And if they turn against the Harper Government there is no more ferocious enemy because they have all the brown envelopes.”

What did Greg mean by "us anyway?"  If this is true, it's not good and I believe needs to be looked into.  This is a good example of why PM Harper and the Conservatives need a majority.  House needs to be cleaned in the service.

The media and the opposition coalition have taken it upon themselves to be prosecutor, judge,jury and executioner before all the evidence is in.  They are seeing what they want to see. They are hearing what they want to hear never mind the truth.  They are looking for out their own self interests only and are trying everything in the book to bring this government down even if it means ruining reputations in the process.  They don't' care. They don't care about you. They don't care about me. They don't care about the country.
Shame on the media!!!   Thank God for the internet and blogs! 

The Coalition, Media Vipers Brood

I have refrained from commenting on this but I can't hold back anymore. This whole week the coalition and the media have been attacking CIDA Minister Bev Oda.  The yelling and screaming from the coalition and the over the top personal smears from the media at Ms. Oda has become almost unbearable. 

Turning down funding for KAIROS, a left wing faith based organization who are actually activists was the right thing to do.  The process?  Not actually pretty but the personal smears and outrage coming from the coalition and the media are uncalled for and sickening.  I have never seen anything like this before. I thought there was a call for civility but the hate and venom coming from this vipers brood is anything but civil.

What's with the attacks on Conservative women anyway?  I don't understand it. In the States the hate for Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter,etc. Here there was first Lisa Raitt, Rona Ambrose, Helena Guergis, now Bev Oda.  There never were attacks like this on Liberal women.  Why the double standard?  It's nothing but spite and hate. It's amazing that any conservative women would put their names forward for office.

This  controversy seemed to come up as three polls that came out stating the Conservative support was surging and the Liberal support was tanking. What Bev did happened two years ago why does it come up now?  Coincidence or  something sinister and calculated by the coalition, the pollsters and their media friends?   One has to wonder. Something evil is a foot.  It's no secret that coalition and the media hate PM Harper and his government and want them out.  They will do anything at the detriment of reputations and the country. They don't care!  I don't trust any of them anymore.

I grieve for my country at this time.There are so many more important issues that need to be dealt with and this is what is happening right now. It''s sad and pathetic.  It has gotten so out of control in my opinion that the only way I see for things to change is through divine intervention. That's why we must pray for Bev Oda and the PM. Pray that they may find strength and wisdom to deal with this this situation. Pray that the coalition and the media back off the personal smears and start to deal with issues that really matter to Canadians for a change.

 I recommend to you  some excellent commentary  on this is matter from Bluelikeyou, Crux of the Matter, and The Iceman
Update: (h/t to MaryT) A great post today by Steve Janke too.