Posts Tagged by conservatives
Just A Week to Go in Election — Some Thoughts.
| 4/22/2011 | Posted by Patti under Canadian Politics |
With just a week to go before the election, I’ve been spending some time exploring some of the mountain of material that is out there on the subject. I like to explore behind the usual headlines, often picking up articles which are put out on twitter. I tend to follow a broad range of people and have also been watching the chatter on the twitter hashtag #elxn41
The flow across there ranges from the silly to the funny to the thoughtful. It is the thoughtful that catches most of my attention. So, yesterday’s NANOs poll shows that nationally, the Conservatives have taken a drop, the Liberals have dropped a bit and the NDP appears to be trending upwards.
From the headlines it would appear that the country is suddenly alive with NDP voters. There is a couple of areas where the NDP is rising in support, most notably in Quebec. They appear to have actually passed the Bloc in support. Now, that would just delight me to see any national party pass the Bloc. Anyone who reads this blog knows two things, I don’t like Harper and I consider the Bloc’s presence in Parliament treasonous. I know, they are there, get over it. Doesn’t mean I have to like it. I digress.
What is really interesting in that poll though, is the line where they are tracking the undecided voters. The number of undecided voters across the country has actually increased. Not dramatically, but this late in the campaign, you’d expect to see that dropping. (more…)
NDP Rising? — Be Careful What You Wish For
| 4/21/2011 | Posted by Patti under Canadian Politics |
The polls the last few days are showing the the NDP moving upward, the Liberals sliding some and the Conservatives more or less staying the same. Now, that presents an interesting scenario. The NDP has done this before, appeared to be on an upward swing in the polls and then Canadians apparently came to their senses and shifted away.
That doesn’t mean that will happen again. So should the uptick in support be sustained what could we end up with? Well, the worst case scenario would be that the vote would become so split that Harper comes up the middle and gets his majority. Another prospect is that Canadians are wise enough not to give him anything more than a minority and Layton could end up as the Official Opposition.
While Harper is a bullying, arrogant dictator — Layton is enough of an egotist that he’d see his opportunity to reach the unreachable for him and would likely work to bring Harper down in an effort to offer his party up as the party to take over. There is a reason that Layton has passion behind his claims that he’s the party to fix Ottawa, he actually believes his own rhetoric. (more…)
Harper Apologizes, Sort Of
| 4/7/2011 | Posted by Patti under Canadian Politics |
Following several revelations about people trying to attend Conservative campaign events being ejected, apparently for having done really bad things like — attending a Liberal campaign event, having an bumper sticker supportive of the NDP, campaigning against plastic water bottles on the University of Guelph campus, being an advocate for homeless veterans or participating in an event designed to encourage young people to vote — Harper has offered an apology. Sort of:
“If anybody is kept out of any of our events that’s there to hear our message, we obviously apologize to them,” the Conservative Leader said during a campaign stop north of Toronto, in Vaughan.
I don’t know, if I was going to offer an apology to people, especially young people, about the poor behaviour of people who represented me, I’d be saying I was sorry to those people and assuring them their treatment was unacceptable.
Interesting to note, a person currently charged with fraud was able to attend a Conservative campaign rally and apparently has had some ongoing involvement with Harper’s Conservatives. I guess that is to keep Bruce Carson company. Remember him, the former point man for the very security sensitive Afghanistan file who had 5 previous convictions for fraud and had been ordered to have psychiatric counselling.
Have you noticed that Harper never takes responsibility for anything? (more…)
Who Altered The KAIROS Docs?
| 2/11/2011 | Posted by Patti under Canadian Politics |
photo credit: ViaMoi
Reference Article: The Globe & Mail
One would think it would be a no brainer that when a document is produced for the signature of one or more government officials or parliamentarians, that no alterations would be made to the document along the way. Doesn’t appear to matter with this current government.
Last year CIDA denied funding for KAIROS, a group of churches doing work in developing countries. In one instance, an MP, Jason Kenny, bragged during a speech that the funding was cut off because of the groups criticism of Israel. The official story became that the group didn’t meet the funding priorities of CIDA.
Rather fishy sounding but, with this government’s secretive ways, who was to prove different. Now we learn, the funding was not initially intended to be cut off. The document circulated for signing recommended the funding continue — at least initially. (more…)
Eco Fees — A Cash Grab by Any Name
| 7/8/2010 | Posted by Patti under Environment |
Along with the HST coming into effect in July 1st, more Eco fees came into effect covering a wide range of products. The Eco fees are supposed to be fees charged to manufactures based on the amount of products or packaging they put into the market place. Stewardship Ontario which receives these fees claims not to be government yet they were setup by the provincial government.
If they are not government, then someone or some group is getting the money we are all being forced to pay. The manufactures are allowed to pass along the fees they are charged to the consumer in any manner they choose. At this point, the fees are appearing on our sales receipts as an added fee one which we pay — you guessed it — HST. But it’s not a tax you see, you just have to pay tax on it.
There appears to be no established standard as to how the fees are assessed and as such the consumer has zero protection from the manufacturers taking whatever they want as the cost of passing on the fee. Since it isn’t attached to the product at the point of the consumer making their selection, we don’t even have buying power to limit the fees to a minimum. (more…)
How About Some Truth on Spending?
| 6/23/2010 | Posted by Patti under Canadian Politics |
The Harper Conservatives have fancied themselves as ‘tough on crime’ by bringing a string of crime bills into the legislature and daring the Opposition to vote them down. The so called “Truth in Sentencing” bill passed in February was one of those bills.
The bill places stronger limits on when a judge can give credit for time served when passing sentence. The overall effect is to lengthen the amount of time which a convict will remain in custody, raising the average time in federal custody from 523 days to 722 days.
The overall effect will be more prisons will have to be built, more guards hired and the costs of providing shelter to those who have committed crimes will rise. (more…)
Forget Coalition, Someone Needs to Show Some Leadership
| 6/6/2010 | Posted by Patti under Canadian Politics |
I’m becoming more than a bit weary of the Liberals spending so much time on infighting and jostling than they are on being the Official Opposition. Lately I see a lot more in the news reports about the mechanics of the party and speculation about the makeup than I do anything else. I suspect I’m not the only Canadian feeling this way.
It is becoming rather apparent that Bob Rae is playing games towards trying to push Ignatieff out as leader. Should that happen and Rae takes the helm, this Liberal will abandon ship. There’s also been talk about forming some sort of either pre or post-election coalition with the NDP. Forget that people, you really think I’d be a Liberal if I wanted anything to do with Layton?
So, what exactly do I want to see?
I want to see the Liberal party take a stand and stick to it. They don’t really need to hunt too far to differentiate themselves from the Conservatives. As for the NDP and the Greens, adopt what is good in their platform and show the rest for the tripe it is. (more…)
Pardon System to be Revamped
| 5/12/2010 | Posted by Patti under Canadian Politics |
Canada’s Pardon system is about to see an overhaul. The Conservatives tabled a bill yesterday to make the changes. The most important changes and the ones I believe were absolutely needed is the deny pardons to those convicted of sex crimes against children and those with convictions of three or more serious offences.
In typical Harper Conservatives fashion, they are now trying to ramrod the bill through the house by raising the spectre of Karla Homolka being eligible to apply for pardon this year. Let me say quite clearly, that woman shouldn’t be even walking the streets let alone being eligible for a pardon.
It’s cleared the flawed system needed some fixing and quickly before another serious injustice occurs. So why wouldn’t the Conservatives table a carefully thought out bill with the most important changes included and leave the door open for other changes to follow? Now that would be a tad too civil.
An editorial in today’s Toronto Star says the bill goes too far. It finds that the move to change the name from Pardon to “Record Suspension” as mean spirited. Toews rationalizes that a pardon implies forgiveness and that the state is not in the business of doing so. (more…)
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