What is Your MP Doing?

What have MPs been up to while Parliament is not sitting? Not much according to Kelly McParland. He even questions the value of question period. Shouldn't they not be busy at work in their constituencies tending to the concerns of their constituents? I'm sure some are. Not so sure others are though. We pay these clowns just to gripe and complain all the time? How about working together to make this country a better place for a change?

Some have given the impression that the PM and his caucus have been on vacation and the operations of government have stopped but that is not true of course, it keeps going. They have been very hard at work. Dealing with the Haiti crisis, planning for the up coming budget and the G8 and G20 summits this summer amongst other matters.

Freed from the need to present themselves on a daily basis in the House of Commons, Canada’s Members of Parliament have been busy catching up on ... nothing, apparently.

The Prime Minister has been active enough. Mr. Harper seems to have no end of duties to keep him occupied — directing Canada’s response to the devastation in Haiti; jetting off to Switzerland to commune with former U.S. president Bill Clinton and expound on the need for more effective assistance to women and children; stuffing the Senate with reliable Tories.

A few members of cabinet also seem able to keep themselves busy, especially those presented with new jobs in Mr. Harper’s recent shuffle, who now have to figure out how to avoid doing anything to upset the Prime Minister’s Office.

The remaining 300-or-so MPs seem to find themselves at loose ends. Ever since Mr. Harper told Parliament it could add four extra weeks to its Christmas break, opposition MPs in particular have been complaining about having nothing to do. Evidently, if the Prime Minister isn’t there to give them a target to aim insults at, they’re stuck for useful activities. (h/t) Kelly McParland, NP

Opposition MPs should have plenty to do in their ridings. It sounds like they want the PM to babysit them. Yet, while opposition gripes and complains about even the littlest things, the PM graciously takes a moment to wish Jack Layton who is battling prostate cancer, well wishes. Even though they're political rivals, it seems like they are good friends. Pretty classy of the PM to do that.

So I question, what has your MP been doing with themselves during this time away from parliament? Better check in and see what they're up to. We are their employers after all.

I know what my MP has been doing. My MP is Ted Menzies. He's the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance. He's been very busy juggling participating in round tables around the country working on the up coming budget and his duties in the constituency office. What is yours doing?

May God Be With You Jack

Jack Layton leader of the federal NDP party announced today he has prostate cancer but will stay on as leader and MP. Even though not all Canadians agree with his politics, I'm sure all will wish him well during this time. I know I do.

OTTAWA — NDP Leader Jack Layton has been diagnosed with a treatable form of prostate cancer.

Layton said Friday he will step away from an active political role for "several months" in order to undergo treatment, but will not step down as leader.


"I'm a fighter and I'm going to beat this," he told a Toronto press conference. (h/t) Ottawa Citizen

I pray that God would put His healing hand upon Jack and raise him up again to good health. I pray also that God would give Jack and his family the grace and the peace that passes all understanding through this this battle they have to fight. Jack, Olivia and family, may God richly bless you!

Breakthrough in the American Protectionism Issue

Good news! A deal has finally been struck in the American protectionism issue due to the hard work of PM Harper and his government to get the job done. A lot of people thought it was a lost cause. Of course the opposition are going find something to gripe about in this deal. Never mind them, this government deserves to be congratulated!

The American government deserves credit too. We can work together with our American cousins to get things done. The softwood lumber agreement, now this.

Way to go PM Harper, Minister Day, Van Loan,and Cannon!
Wonder how the Lame Stream Media is going to spin this,it's just too positive.

OTTAWA -- With official confirmation that Ottawa and Washington have struck a deal on Buy American provisions, Veso Sobot is letting out a major sigh of relief -- as well as a laugh or two. He can’t help but be a bit giddy.

“Oh my goodness, absolutely, we are very happy,” said Mr. Sobot, director of corporate affairs at IPEX Inc., a Toronto-based pipe manufacturer that gained notoriety after the introduction of Buy American rules for having its pipe fittings pulled out of the ground in California because they had the ‘Made in Canada’ designation on them.

“This will allow us to compete again. We are tickled pink and we are going to be aggressive about trying to compete for business in the Untied States, and I hope this can help bolster our 2010 and bring back jobs to Canada.”

International Trade Minister Peter Van Loan and Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon announced Friday morning that a deal had been struck.

"Preserving and creating jobs is the Canadian government's top priority," Mr. Van Loan said. "Our government stood up for Canadian businesses and workers in resolving this issue with our U.S. partners." (h/t) Vancouver Sun

Preston Manning Says Steady Eddy and the PCs on Shaky Ground

Preston Manning thinks the Alberta PC's are on "shaky ground." I think he's right. Premier Ed Stelmach's PC government has been floundering. With the spending like drunken sailors, and the changes in the royalty formula, we now have deficit. Albertans are looking for an alternative, a fiscally conservative party who will put our fiscal house in order and bring back "The Alberta Advantage." They're looking for a home they would feel comfortable in and it's not the David Swan Liberals or the Brian Mason NDs. That home is with Danielle Smith and the Wildrose Alliance.

The PCs have been in power since 1971. That's a very long time for one party to be in government.
It's time for a change. When Alberta makes changes, it's in a big way and I sense it's coming.

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CALGARY -- Canadian conservative icon Preston Manning says he's seeing trouble in the Tory heartland.

Mr. Manning says an aging Progressive Conservative government--along with health-care and economic woes -- have left Alberta in a volatile political state and the province's 39-year ruling Tory dynasty on shaky ground.

The founder of the former Reform party said this week that the challenges facing the Alberta government on health, energy and the economy, combined with a fresh face in Danielle Smith and her rising opposition party, the Wildrose Alliance, are producing political upheaval not seen in the province for decades.

"Alberta is in one of those transition times that it has periodically, where the governing party is challenged to reinvigorate itself from within and you've got a new group coming along challenging it," Mr. Manning said. (h/t) National Post

Elite Count Mr. Iffy Out of Touch Again

Mr. Iffy is supposed to be worldly? Was his father not a diplomat? Is he not supposd to have international experience? Who's advising this clown? Jack Layton? One of his rabid feminazis?
National Post editorial today has a very good take on Mr. Iffy's latest out of touch policy on abortion.

Mr. Ignatieff is staking out an absolutist pro-abortion ideology beyond any taken previously by his party. Even most pro-choice advocates stop short of casually lumping abortion in as just another uncontroversial “contraceptive method,” as Mr. Ignatieff appears to have done.

What’s worse, Mr. Ignatieff insists that the government hard-wire this view into its foreign aid initiatives, such as Mr. Harper’s recent proposal for G8 countries to increase support for health programs for women and children in the poorest countries. Would an Ignatieff government cancel aid to those countries which, for religious or cultural reasons, are opposed to abortion? Will Canadian social assistance to Afghanistan or Gaza be withheld until women there can prove they’ve adopted fashionable Liberal attitudes on the question of when life begins?

Mr. Ignatieff’s supporters commonly point to his international experience as proof of his qualifications to lead, while deriding Mr. Harper’s supposedly more limited world view. Yet it is the Liberal leader whose provincial attitude suggests he is out of place in a world of diplomacy and foreign affairs. He appears not to have grasped that Canada can’t simply dictate Rosedale values to people living in Ramallah.

Mr. Ignatieff has misjudged Canadians if he mistakes Ottawa’s inability to formulate a national abortion policy as proof the question is settled, or that Canadian views would reside easily in the more extreme reaches of the pro-choice camp. He needs to clarify his views, and the position of his party, rather than using an emotional issue in a crass attempt to score points against the government. (h/t) National Post