Well, I’ve read through the Throne Speech which was delivered yesterday. I’ve read some of the commentary which has appeared this morning in reaction to it. For the most part, they are echoing my thoughts as I read through the speech, where exactly is the recalibration? There was very little real focus or meat.

I had the sense that the speech came about from a brainstorming session around the Cabinet table on how many buttons could they find to press in a bid to make Canadians believe this government has a real sense of need and direction. The point form results was then handed over to speech writers to form into what was delivered yesterday.

I know the devil is in the details and Throne Speeches are not where one would expect to see details. Some will emerge today as the Budget is delivered. For the most part, speech repeated previous announcements and claims from the government.

Public Wage Freezes

It does say there will be a freeze on not only public service budgets but the wages of the Cabinet, Senators and MPs. That is really sharing in the hardship that 1.5million Canadians are going through, not to mention the millions of Canadians who find themselves under-employed as the result of jobs lost through business failures and jobs moved offshore. Read the rest of this entry »

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Tom Zytaruk would like to sue the Conservatives for their continuing claims that the tape which launched the Chuck Cadman affair was doctored. The problem is that he would need a lawyer willing to work on a contingency basis or pro bono in order to afford it.

So the defamation of this author continues unless that happens.

The court has found the tape was not doctored. There was a break in the tape, Zytaruk turned it off when Harper walked away from the conversation and back on when he returned. Pretty normal move to make. The Conservatives continue to claim as fact that the tape was doctored. Sort of a tell the lie often enough and it might be seen as truth.

Most recently, the Parliamentary Secretary to Harper, Pierre Poilievre rose in the House in response to a question from NDP Bill Siksay to ask if Zytaruk would receive an apology for the false accusations against him. Poilievre responded that it was a fact that the tape was doctored and the lawsuit had been settled with both pleased with the settlement. Read the rest of this entry »

Harper has concluded an over two hour meeting with the Governor General and has had his request to porogue parliament granted. The move is clearly to avoid confidence motions scheduled to take place in the House on Monday. While he’s busy accusing the Liberal-NDP coalition of making a power grab, he’s made it just as clear that he will cling to power at all cost. Had the GG not consented to his request, which she could have refused since it was clearly an avoidance move, then she would have had to have chosen between an election, barely 2 months after the last one, or asking the Liberal-NDP coalition to take the reigns.

As much as I would have preferred to see Harper face the music on Monday, the GG’s decision is not all bad. When it comes to power grabs and the subversion of the democractic process, none of the clowns in Parliament have a finger to point at anyone. It would be nice if the GG imposed some conditions on Harper, starting with the ultra partisanship leaving the scene. The blatant lies and distortions gone would be nice too but that is way too much to hope for. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, I must say I’m a tad surprised but intrigued. I have been watching the reports over the last several days about the Liberals, NDP and Bloc in talks about forming a coalition government to bring down Harper and his gang of bullies. I didn’t really expect that the egos in the group would manage to tone themselves down enough to actually work out an agreement. I’m a bit impressed, now to see if it can be sustained.

Seems to me since the Liberals and the NDP have managed to work out an agreement with the pledged support of the Bloc for about a year, that those three have at least got it that compromise is needed to make government work. That is a lot more than Harper has managed to get and actually carry through on — and he has a lot more to loose.

The Conservatives are crying foul, bemoaning that the Liberals are in bed with the socialists and the separatists. Socialists is a bit of a subjective term — according to many of our southern neighbours, we’re all a bunch of damn socialists up here in the great white north. So, I don’t really think the term carries quite the negative connotations here, at least to those who are not of the right wingnut persuasion. Read the rest of this entry »

One thing I’ve always found a bit of a pain about soap operas are their rather long drawn out plot (or lack thereof). Someone deciding to create a soap of the latest goings on in Ottawa might just get my attention. So let’s see, the story to this point…..

On October 14th, Canadians granted the Conservatives yet another minority government in the general election. At the same time that was taking place, the world’s economy (including Canada’s) was going to hell in a handbasket at a rate that few even mused about. The Liberals and the NDP both campaigned with promises of economic stimulus while the Conservatives don’t worry, be happy approach until the polls showed them dropping hard over their lack of notice to the economy. All three parties declared that Canada would not run a deficit under their watch.

On Nov 18th, Parliament opened with the ‘kinder, gentler’ Prime Minister Harper indicating that this session would be more civil. For the first week or so that actually seemed like it was going to happen. He had even gone so far as done a little reach out to the Opposition parties. He seemed to indicate that this session would be focussed on the economy. He’d even reportedly indicated to his MPs that they needed to tone down the idealogy and partisanship in the house. Read the rest of this entry »

Today is the last day of the advanced polls in our election and then next Tuesday is vote day. I’ve not been posting much on the election but have been watching very closely. I tuned into and listened closely to the English language debate last Thursday. I was glad that I did, as it is likely one of the very few times that Harper has been forced out of his ‘bubble’ in this election and it was long overdue.

Until now, Harper has managed to appear only at well staged events with only pre-registered attendees. When the press started to blow the whistle on the fact that Harper was keeping a bubble around him, and avoiding any unexpected outbursts by the electorate who have the right to answers from him, his campaign claimed that it was necessary due to security issues. Yeah right.

Anyways, back to the debates. Harper provided no surprises, he was the smug, arrogant individual he always has been. Talking around every issue put before him and beating hell out of the truth about the other leaders. He was nailed not badly a few times by the other leaders but it rolls off of people like Harper who really doesn’t care when it comes to others.

He’s not wanting to be Prime Minister to see a better Canada, he’s wanting to be PM to alter the country to his liking. For a guy who chose to call an election on a trumped up excuse, one really has to wonder why his party remains the only one which hasn’t produced a platform for the public to examine. What’s he hiding other than the fact that he really doesn’t have a plan beyond wanting to get a majority government. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, the boy Harper seems to be determined to have an election this fall. The writ could be dropped as early as Friday, according to (of course) unnamed source. Both Duceppe and Layton have had the meeting that Harper requested, supposedly in a last ditch attempt to arrive at some consensus about the fall session of Parliament and to end the ‘dysfunction crisis’ that Harper has manufactured.

Both men left 24 Sussex Drive saying that it is clear to them that Harper wants an election at all costs. Dion, has dropped his insistence that he couldn’t meet with Harper until after September 8th, the date of the by-elections currently underway in four ridings. He is meeting with Harper today, even though he’s fully aware that he’s going through the motions, the boy is determined. Read the rest of this entry »

The longer this detainee issue goes on, the worse Harper’s handling of it gets. His unwillingness to admit any error on his part is really making this drag on a lot longer than it needs to. At minimum the Minster of Defense needs to go. Some are hollering for Hillier’s head, well the agreement he worked out initially was not a good agreement, the question is, what was the Chief of Defense doing being authorized to do what should have been handled by either the Minister of Defense of Foreign Affairs?

Sometimes a strong leader needs to do their mea culpa’s and get on with fixing what’s wrong. Obviously Harper hasn’t learned that because he’s not a leader, he’s a bully. He is more engaged in trying to bully the opposition into silence than really giving a damn on fixing the problem. The release of the heavily blacked out report points accusingly at Harper’s office if not Harper himself knowing about this issue long ago. He did nothing.

What is going to suffer here is that the small majority of Canadians currently supporting the mission in Afghanistan are going to slide towards disapproval. Not because Canadian soldiers did anything wrong. In fact, the detainees claiming abuse are quick to point out that they were well treated by Canadian soldiers, Amir Attaran’s claims earlier this year notwithstanding.

Harper needs to move swiftly to resolve the situation not to try to bully others into silence, well except maybe his ministers who can’t seem to get their stories straight. Let’s see, we have:

O’Connor on Wednesday suddenly announcing a ‘new’ deal being worked out with the Afghans allowing Canadian oversight of detainees, announcing first that military officials would have the access and then when Hillier stated it was not an area of expertise for the military, O’Connor changed that to ‘government officials’.

The court jester of the Conservatives, Day first weighed in that some of those people who were detained were killers. Gee, ya think Stock? In a war when you capture detainees, it stands to reason that some of them have been engaged in killing. That doesn’t make it ok to abuse or torture, that behaviour makes you no better than the detainees.

Rosie Dimanno of the Toronto Star writes a piece about an Afghan dubbed ‘the Mad bomber’ who has been caught by the Canadian forces for making IEDs. She notes:

Could be in the Kandahar City jail, where detainees have long complained of torture inflicted by their Afghan custodians. Or, if the right bribe exchanged hands, if tribal loyalties were brought to bear, it could be that Omar has already been released.

Yet another reason why detainees should be under the direct oversight of Canadians or NATO forces while they train Afghans in the appropriate handling and treatment of prisoners. If detainees like this are being released then they are a clear and present danger to Canadian, Afghan and other NATO troops.

Meanwhile, yesterday Harper tells the Commons that the deal O’Connor claims has been made has not yet been formalized (so it’s not really a deal) and the court jester announces that Canadians have been accessing the detainees all along. Day must operate on a planet the rest of us haven’t caught up to.

Harper is going to lose this mission in the court of public opinion as long as the stink of this is attached to it. He needs to admit the problem and move to resolve it.