So Who's Keeping Secrets?

Taxpayer funded Mothercorp, CBC is always hammering PM Harper and his government for keeping secrets and not being open and transparent in not releasing certain documents,Afghan detainee documents for example. They accuse the government of hiding something and demand documents to be released.
Well, Mothercorp just may be the ones with something to hide.  There have been numerous requests to Access to Information for information regarding the CBC and they refuse.

 OTTAWA - CBC may demand accountability from the government but Canada’s taxpayer-funded broadcaster is going to court once again in order to keep its own affairs secret.
The CBC will square off against the information commissioner, an independent officer of Parliament, in a Montreal courtroom on Sept. 13. After hearing from a number of sources, including Sun Media, about problems with CBC’s response to access to information requests, the commissioner subpoenaed a number of files. The CBC refused.
It’s not the first run in between the state broadcaster and the Access to Information Act. The CBC became subject to the act in 2007, since then close to 900 complaints have been filed. While some of those cases were resolved and a small number were found to be without merit, as of June the information commissioner had 498 active complaints against CBC.

Just who do they think they are?  Why are they fighting from having information released even after being subpoenaed by the information commissioner ?  They have been subject to the Access to Information Act for the last three years now. What are they afraid of?  Are they keeping secrets they don't want the taxpayers who's funding them to know?   Another case of hypocrisy?  Pot calling kettle black?  

How about if we hold back funding until they comply?  Or just not fund them at all  anymore?

Tory Majority? Or Coalition of the Losers?

We will have a choice next election whenever that may be.  We will have to choose between a Conservative majority government or a Coalition of the Losers.  That is what PM Harper is going to present to us.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is adopting a strategy to gradually persuade voters they have a "stark choice" in the next campaign: a "stable" majority Conservative government, or a "coalition" government of Liberals, New Democrats and Quebec separatists.

According to Tom Flanagan it could be a gamble though because you don't know whether it will work.

"Any time you change strategies it's a gamble because you don't know if it will work," said Flanagan.
"He has had success ... saying he'd be happy to accept whatever the voters give him. So the gamble is that, after four years of being in power, Canadians would be more open to considering a majority government. It's kind of like you've been on probation for four years."
At the same time, it appears the Conservatives believe they are on strong footing as they try to persuade Canadians a vote for the Liberals is actually a vote for a coalition.
They remember how support for Harper's Tories spiked to unprecedented levels in December 2008 when the Liberals and NDP attempted to form a coalition government with the parliamentary support of the Bloc Québécois.
"You've got to persuade people that you can't take the Liberals at face value," said Flanagan. "There's a big payoff there. Of course, if you're going to do that, it's smart to start early

Nelson Wiseman from Uof T believes a majority for PM Harper is quite possible and  within his grasp.

 Nelson Wiseman, associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto, said Tuesday that he thinks a majority is within Harper's grasp.
"They know that their best card is playing the coalition. The strategy is to trap the other parties on that hook. You don't have to convince the whole electorate. What you have to do is swing over maybe one out of 20 voters."

I personally am looking for  a Conservative majority and believer it is possible.  We as conservatives though cannot take for granted that we would get one, we need to work hard.  We need to convince all those who are sitting on the fence.  Forget the  hardcore liberals, it would be like beating your head against a brick wall and a waste of time.  We'll never win them over.

There are tough decisions that are going to have to be made on deficit reduction, immigration and security.  A Conservative majority government is the most competent and would be more stable and able to make those tough decisions  much better than a minority or a coalition of the losers.  

Don't believe what the Waffle or Jack Layton will tell you. Before and during the election they are going to tell you that there will be no coalition. Don't let them fool you. I believe the coalition of the losers has never really died. It will raise it's ugly head again if  the Conservatives don't get a majority.  Don't forget also, the Waffle signed his name on that coalition document. There's no way he can get around that. 

They are going to have to be transparent and admit from the get go whether or not they will be willing to form a coalition and not try and sneak it up on us like they did before in 2008.  If they are willing  to form a coalition after an election then they should campaign as a coalition during the campaign.  The only way to prevent the losers from taking power is to elect a Conservative majority government. 

You up for it, kids? A majority is in within reach.  Yes we can do it. Remember one in twenty is what we have to win over. It is possible. You ready?

Pot Calling Kettle Black? Re-Long Gun Registry

Michael Waffle Ignatieff says that if coalition partner, Jack Layton doesn't be a control freak and and whip his NDP members into voting against CPC MP Candice Hoeppner's Bill C-391 to scrap the long gun registy, Jack and his party have "no darn principles."

Norman Spector raises the question about who are really the ones with no "darn principals."  He nails it in the last part of his column.  

 Frankly, in light of the history of these two political parties, it’s ludicrous for any Liberal to claim advantage over the NDP when it comes to questions of principle. Whether you agree with those principles or not.
I’ve never written about the long-gun registry, and have no pony in the race over whether it survives or is abolished. However, it doesn’t surprise me that members of Jack Layton’s caucus — confronted by Conservatives playing wedge politics and rubbing their hands in glee at the reaction — would be thinking toward the next election and be trying to live up to commitments they made to the folks who sent them to Ottawa in the last one.Any more than it surprises me that Liberal MPs will say or do most anything — even on fundamental issues such as Afghanistan or the Quebecois nation where the party has some history to defend — to re-gain their “rightful” role as Canada’s natural governing party.  Whatever commitments they may have made in the past to voters.

 So who are the ones with principal?

 On this one, I think Jack Layton even though he's trying to skirt around this by proposing a phony so called comprise bill, he and his Dippers are the ones with principal if Jack keeps his word and allows a free vote, not the Waffle and the Libs.  Remember, it is the Waffle who is whipping his members to vote against even though over a half dozen voted for Bill C-391earlier.  As Norm Spector says, Liberals will do or say anything to regain power.

Outrage About Census, Less About Pro-Coercive Census, More About Anti-Harper

Gary Slywchuk from the Winnipeg Free Press says this brouhaha over the census is farcical.
He applauds the governments decision to take away the threats of fines and jail time if you don't fill out the long form census and points out there have been 8,000 stories in the news, way more than health care or the economy in which  are issues that all Canadians are concerned about.

On Aug. 11, the federal government announced its intention to, in Industry Minister Tony Clements' words, "introduce legislation this fall to remove threats of jail time for persons refusing to fill out the (2011) census and all mandatory surveys administered by the federal government."
This seemed pretty innocuous and something I personally applauded. I don't know about you, but threats aren't the greatest way to get me to do something.
But, since then, there have been more than 8,000 news stories on the census -- way more articles and commentaries than on our health-care system (just more than 1,000) and only a smidgen fewer than articles and commentaries on the economy. Come on, people, where are your priorities?

Those letters to the editor he points out are less pro-coercive but more anti-Harper.

As for the number of letters to the editor in various publications, it seems obvious, at least to me, that many of the writers were less pro-coercive census than anti-Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

I tend to agree.   If you notice, all that rhetoric has been coming from the anti-Harper, anti-Conservative minions in the media and else where.  Their MO is to find anything to slag the PM and his government about and make them look bad.  My sense is they hate this PM and this government, want them out and will do anything it takes.  It gets more pathetic everyday.

They  thought this issue would resonate with voters, it has  not much like many other issues they thought would. The fact is the general public just does not care about this issue.  What average Joe and Mary Sixpack are concerned about is jobs, economy, their kids, health care not this. 

Day Two, Wayne Doorknob Easter Gets Called Out

Yesterday Dave Rutherford called Wayne Doorknob Easter out for his criticism of Conservative patronage appointments.  Today L.Ian Macdonald comes out swinging at Doorknob Easter.

The Grits wheeled out Wayne Easter, one of the shrillest voices in the House, to denounce Stephen Harper for “another case of the PM having broken (his) word.”
The word being that in his Reform-Alliance days in Opposition, Harper was always quick to denounce the Liberals rushing to the trough, promising to reform the appointments process if he formed a government.
Welcome to the NHL, Wayne. That was then, this is now. Or as Robert Bourassa once put it in a similar context in Quebec: “What, you expect us to do business with our enemies?”
Easter represents a Prince Edward Island riding, and on P.E.I. there is an old saying: “If it moves, pension it; if it doesn’t, pave it.”
Easter likes to work with props to make his case.
He once had his picture taken with a doorknob at a newser whose purpose was to illustrate waste in an upgrade of a government building.
This was a bad career move. The Hon. Member from Doorknob.
At his press conference denouncing Tory patronage, he awarded Harper and cabinet colleagues little trophies with smiling pigs on top. Clearly, it was no time for subtlety.
To be clear, the $25,000 donated to Tory coffers by Conservative appointees was within the individual limit of $1,100 per year under the Harper government’s 2006 Federal Accountability Act.
No law was broken, and no appointments were bought.
And if a couple of future judges once made donations to the Tories, or were party activists while in private practice, it is hardly a first for lawyers, and hardly constitutes buying seats on the bench. Applicants for judgeships have to pass a peer review before their names make a short list. That’s how it works, and generally speaking, it works very well. Imagine, lawyers in politics. Shocking.

Doorknob Easter isn't doing himself any favor with these over the top outrageous exaggerations if not outright mis-truths.  Earlier this year with his shrill over the top outrage he accused former Tory Cabinet Minister Helena Guergis of having a meltdown at the airport in Charletown that later turned out not to be true.  The airport video that was later shown to a few reporters showed Helena did not have the temper tantrum meltdown that Easter had accused her of. In fact she apparently was quite calm through out her whole ordeal. I hope Helena sues the crap out of him.  Maybe he would gain a  little honesty and integrity and therefore  be a little careful in the future with  his accusations. But then I will not hold my breath, afterall  he's a Liberal. I don't think honesty and integrity is programed into the Liberal DNA.

What Doorknob Easter tends to forget when he accuses the PM of breaking a promise he should remember that it was the opposition who scuttled the appointments commission.
Easter or anyone in the opposition or the media has no reason to accuse the PM of a promise broken. The PM at least tried to keep his promise.  Hypocrisy! Nothing but hypocrisy!

Heads up: Dave Rutherford to testify in front of the committee at 9:30 am mtn.  Apparently not being televised but you can catch it online at the CPAC website.