About that "carbon market" plan Mr Dion.
Exactly
who is going to pay for those
emmission credits?
No matter how you
slice it or
spin it, it all comes down to higher taxes to pay for more
draconian legislation to enforce said taxation, and a lower standard of living because of it.
Sorry, but just as
Luther objected to the church in Rome selling indulgences, I'm opposed to the
church of Kyoto imposing its own.
Wearing a green scarf and selling indulgences won't make pollution go away, action does.
Poll reports most not interested in environmental plans
or
Poll respondents rank one trick pony While Dion tried to brand himself as a green candidate, a Strategic Counsel poll for CTV and The Globe and Mail had respondents ranking the parties' environmental plans as follows:
Green Party - 27 per cent
Liberal Party - 16 per cent
Conservatives 12 per cent
NDP - 8 per cent
Bloc Quebecois - 2 per cent
Other - 4 per cent
Don't know - 30 per cent
Shouldn't the ranking be with the highest percentage being at the top of the list ?
Like so:
Don't know - 30 per cent
Green Party - 27 per cent
Liberal Party - 16 per cent
Conservatives 12 per cent
NDP - 8 per cent
Other - 4 per cent
Bloc Quebecois - 2 per cent
Sort of changes the narrative of the story so that the head line contradicts the actual results of the poll.
I've got a contention that when one of the possible outcome of a statistic is "uncertain" or "don't know" it means your poll results are invalid or you set out from the beginning to get a specific answer to fit your narrative.
Further in the story
However, when one factors in the margin of error, the two parties are essentially in a statistical tie.
No clear winner, and when it comes to the cause de jour the "environment" the greens are the one party that respondents indicated ranked the best environmental plan. The wrinkle however is that polls don't allow the respondents to elaborate on what they mean. It also doesn't explain that even though the Greens are ahead of theother parties, the majority of respondents still have no idea what or even if the parties have an environmental plan or whats in it. Does it mean they have the best, or does it mean they are the first to come to mind because its all they ever talk about, read: one trick pony.
Recall this
post?
I said that this is the clip that will be played consistently during the next election.
Sounds to me that Harper is making sure he gets the drop on the liberals.
"They are all Liberals in the ads and they are quite funny," In a related story.
Liberal Leader Stephane Dion is facing questions
And it appears that Dalton is being handed the hot potato again.
Land claims made by the Six Nations Confederacy near Caledonia, Ont. will not hold up in court, the federal government has said.
And that might have an effect on the
next provincial election as well as keep Dalton from assisting his federal counterparts.
Dion flip flop.
The case is being made that Kermit thinks those turfed from the liberal party over adscam have suffered enough.....
but he says that decision isn't up to him.
What inquiring minds would like to know, and have yet to hear from the LPC is, which 12 liberal candidates got the dirty money, more importantly do they still have a seat?
Why doesn't the MSM ask these questions?
liberal convictions
Kerplonka has
a good post about liberal convictions. Frankly I'm of the opinion there hasn't been quite enough liberal convictions over adscam.
As an aside.
Its been 24 hours and I haven't seen hide nor hair of any MSM asking Dion about a fellow french citizen that supports Quebec separation. And Dion? Silent as a fence post.
We'll just add that to the arsenal for the next election.
Wanna be french president socialist says "vive la Quebec libre"
If Dion doesn't want his dual citizenship to become an issue for the next few months he best have a strong response to
this within the next 12 hours.
This goes double for the media. If the MSM wants to dispell the persistent perception they are liberal friendly, some hard questions on this to Dion are in order.
The MSM has till noon to corner Kermit for a condemnation of this, unless that "strong federalist" was just a bunch of hoey.
Conservative party comments on Dion's shadow
linkThe Liberals now have 46 critics (up from 43), plus 9 caucus officers, plus 4 extra shadow cabinet committee chairs and 5 vice-chairs, plus 2 Special Advisors and 9 “mentors” to cover a cabinet of only 26 ministers and 5 secretaries of state.
Dion named Scott Brison as his Industry Critic ? who advocated cutting Industry funding during his 2003 leadership campaign: “Eliminating corporate welfare in HRDC and Industry Canada and using that money to dramatically reduce corporate tax rates.” (Scott Brison Leadership Campaign Platform 2003)
Dion named Joe Volpe as his Transport Critic.? This is an interesting choice, given that Volpe raised concerns about Kyoto and the impact it would have on Canadian industry, given its transport implications: "One of the principles we should be looking toward is a position that is uniquely Canadian, taking into consideration the sectoral requirements of all Canadians in this vast territory which is geographically bigger than all of Europe, and much more challenging. It is much more challenging because geographically we have differences in resources and consumption."? (Hansard, December 3, 2002)
Dion named Denis Coderre as his Defence Critic.? How does Coderre feel about Dion’s Afghanistan policies, given that Coderre previously criticized Liberals for playing politics on Afghanistan: Fellow Liberal and Montreal MP Denis Coderre disagreed, saying the time will come later to question Mr. Harper over Afghanistan. "I'm not going to play politics on behalf of the troops," he said. "You call that recognition, so I think it's good." (Ottawa Citizen, September 22, 2006)
Dion named David McGuinty as his (Environment Critic), replacing Liberal MP John Godfrey, who had acknowledged that the Liberals’ Kyoto plan was flawed.?
Dion named Bonnie Brown as his Health Critic, who
advocated using the notwithstanding clause to prevent private health care (Toronto Star, January 13, 2006)
Dion named Pablo Rodriguez, who served as LPC(Q) President and worked at a communications company, as his Public Works Critic and Quebec “mentor” Karen Redman was left as Whip by Dion.?
Is this the back up demand she mentioned in her e-mail when Dion turned down her request to be named Deputy Leader?Despite Dion repeated promises to increase the representation of women in politics, Dion has almost no women in key positions.? He dropped Lucienne Robillard as Deputy Leader.? He
demoted Ruby Dhalla from the Health file.
Oil sands expansion - Who knew what and when
The liblogs must be sounding the retreat after it became apparent their latest flavour of the week backfired on them.
I speak of the so-called secret meeting that was not.
Dions
response?
''It's for sure that there are always discussions with the Americans on a number of topics, but
I didn't receive a specific plan to multiply the use of the oilsands by five, or by two or three.
Never as minister of environment did (this type of recommendation) arrive on my desk.
It wasn't something that we were looking at."
Is that so? The thing is Dion's response is seemingly similar to another liberal minster when questioned about what he knew.
Don't recall?
Here's a stark reminder."Martin went through a detailed explanation of how -
as finance minister - his job was to allocate money to the various government departments. Once that was done, he said
he wasn't involved in decisions about how the departments spent their budgets.
The responsibility of the minister of finance is to set the financial context in which overall spending can be done. Once the minister of finance does that, which is essentially the presentation of the budget, his responsibility comes to a total end.''
Spending decisions were finalized by Treasury Board, after they were
approved by cabinet."
insert mine: Ministers are the cabinet, that includes Martin and Dion"Martin distanced himself from the sponsorship program. He told the inquiry
he had no contact with Jean Pelletier, former prime minister
Jean Chretien's chief of staff, about the sponsorship program. Pelletier was the key person in the Prime Ministers Office regarding the sponsorship program.
Neil Finkelstein: What was your working relationship with Jean Pelletier from 1993 onwards?
Paul Martin: It was fine. We didn't work closely together. Whenever we did, the relationship was fine.
NF: You saw him at Tuesday morning Quebec cabinet ministers meetings?
PM: Yes.
NF: Did you have
private meetings with him there?
PM: No.
(
insert mine: if it was a cabinet meeting then it was a cabinet discussion, all the cabinet)
NF: Private meetings when you were
finance minister?
PM: Very few. Mr. Pelletier was in charge, for instance, of making sure that
salary guidelines for ministers・staff were respected. I would meet with him on those issues.
NF: How often
did you have private meetings with him?
PM:
Two to four times a year, maybe.
NF: Did you ever discuss sponsorships with Mr. Pelletier?
PM: No.
NF: Advertising?
PM: Never.
NF: You didn't discuss the budget?
PM: No.
NF: The unity reserve?
PM: Never.
Martin also testified that he had
no knowledge of the national unity reserve fund while he was finance minister in 1994 and 1995. He said
he was absorbed with slashing the deficit and dealing with an international economic crisis that threatened Canadas economic stability in the mid-1990s.
The unity fund was used to pay for the sponsorship program.
.....
"
I'm wondering why it is that you don't have much of a memory of the creation of this fifty million dollar fund for discretionary spending by the prime minister..."
In his testimony earlier in the week, Chretien said Martin "always agreed to set aside $50 million a year for expenditures related to national unity that would be decided upon during the course of the year."
On a totally unrelated topic:
More proof that liberals are socialists that can't make up their mind. Seems this one is
having second thoughts about what a great guy Hugo Chavez is.
"There is no doubt remaining in my mind that Chavez's recent actions pose a threat to his country's democratic future, and that he must be stopped."
Now somebody pinch me, did this blogger just advocate for unilateral action against another state?
Isn't that what George Bush has been on about for some time now and been one more reason the lib-left vilifies him for?
Always read the whole article
Its where the stuff that would be front and center if a conservative had crossed the floor.
link"Some critics have suggested the failure of Khan's old association to file financial reports looks like an attempt to cover up the loans. But Khan's association is not alone on that score either.
Twenty-seven riding associations have been deregistered by Elections Canada, including three Liberal associations, two NDP associations, a few fringe party associations and a host of Green Party associations. Failure to file financial reports is cited as the reason for delisting in a number of cases, including Liberal MP Maria Minna's Toronto association.
Minna blamed administrative and technical glitches caused by unfamiliarity with the law for the delay.
Riding associations were not required to file annual, audited reports with Elections Canada until 2004, when political financing reforms went into effect. Minna said her association, like all others, is made up of volunteers who are still trying to learn the complicated new rules.
Consequently, she was careful not to criticize Khan's old association for its tardy filing.
"Obviously, similar things could've happened (in Khan's riding). Who am I to judge?""Who indeed. Perhaps she might want to pass it on to the rest of her party that should they not get re-registered, they won't be allowed to run a candidate in that riding.BTW
If the RCMP brings new charges against the LPC over the ongoing investigation into the sponsorship scandal who will they blame if the whole party is deregistered?
Before you can have a nomination
Just wondering why the liberal buzz around the Mississuaga-Streetsville riding is who is going to run there for the liberals.
Doesn't your party have to be registered with elections canada first?
Racism in Quebec
Latest report says Quebecers are racist.
MONTREAL?Quebec is abuzz over a new poll that arrives at uncomfortable
conclusions, and prompted denials from Premier Jean Charest that citizens of the
province are bigots.The Leger Marketing survey, splashed across the front of the
tabloid Journal de Montreal ? the headline screamed "59 per cent of Quebecers
say they are racist" ? shows 15 per cent of respondents describe themselves as
either "moderately" racist, and 43 per cent say they are "faintly" so. Another 1
per cent admit to being "strongly" racist.
as reported by the
Toronto Star
Pammy Anderson's breasts
I was sitting at my favorite restaurant enjoying a glass of Chardonnay discussing the current liberal leadership. As the topic drifted toward the possible outcome of the next election we all decided to hedge our bets.
However one of my sources who shall due to their status in the party remain nameless, revealed to me that the war room expects Dion to get an overwhelming mandate, say in the 200+ seat range.
We shall see.
How can you tell when your horse is not doing well
You go get your past winner to
pad his resume.
Jason Cherniak needs a hug
Poor guy guess he just didn't see it coming with Khan moving over to the government side of the house.
But I digress.
He's been going over the top since yesterday navel gazing the topic to death trying to come to terms with it.
Frankly I think he's going through the stages of denial.
But he's a big boy, and he'll get over it.
However, his latest posting gives five possible reasons why the defection occurred.
I felt that to get into a thread war would only degenerate and just cause him to lose it even more...poor guy.
But it did cry out for a response.
So I post them here.
1) Dion has defended the right of all Canadians to hold duo citizenship. You would think that Khan would support that as a man born in Pakistan. I'm pretty sure many of his constituents do.
Yes, but I did hear Dion say that this right was something he would give up if it kept him from winning an election. Sort of reinforces the liberal modus operandi, you don't like what I'm saying I can always say something else.
2) Dion has defended programs that support women's rights, adult literacy and minority legal rights. Khan must be upset that Dion is defending these Liberal programs that the Tories cut.
No Khan in his words was upset because the liberal party has moved away from policies that support free enterprise, family, and Canada being strong.
3) Dion has called for a stronger environment policy. Could Khan really believe that the appointment of John Baird as Environment Minister solves that little problem? There is no credible way to argue that Khan could judge this issue yet, unless it is the environmental focus in general that he does not like. However, he would have known that when he voted for Dion in Montreal.
"Little problem"?
Yes, well lets see.... I'll let Dion's deputy leader say it best. "But Stephane we (liberals) didn't get it done."
But Dion in a display that is sure to be replayed quite a lot during the next election responded with a tantrum "THATS NOT FAIR" making it worse by then saying "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOUR TALKING ABOUT" and then cooked his goose with "YOU DON'T KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO MAKE PRIORITIES". Odd isn't it how the current PM seems to be able to establish them and make progress on all of them.
Youtube is our friend.
4) Dion has done his best to include all former leadership candidates in his new team. Only Volpe and Dryden are without official positions. Maybe Khan is upset that Volpe does not yet have enough prominence on the dream team?
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. You can speculate to your hearts content on reasons why Khan made the move, but it was Dion that, rather than just kick him out of caucus (like Harper did to Garth), he told him specifically to go sit with the government.
5) Dion called a spade a spade and told Khan the obvious. He could not sit in the Liberal opposition caucus and hold office under a Conservative government at the same time. This is a principle at the very heart of our Parliamentary system. Either you are with the government or against it.
Khan was not holding any office. But its moot as it just stresses the fact that he didn't jump he was pushed. But lets not leave this point just yet because in fairness I'm going to offer advice that liberal party members might like to take heed, although its to the conservatives advantage if you don't.
Its this.
I have the distinct feeling that the decision to oust Khan is not one that Dion had considered on his own.
I'll submit that Kermit got forced to make the call to calm the nerves of those in the party that hate anything remotely right of centre. That of course is their choice, however, by doing so it reveals that the liberals have moved drastically and dramatically to the extreme left.
The end result is that all those so-called centrist voters that came into the liberal fold back in 93 are going to take their vote elsewhere. This logic can also be applied to certain liberal MP's that may have views not considered pur laine by the left wing of the libeal party (did I say wing? Sorry make that the majority of the membership particularly the QYL). You might want to check up on the activities of some of your more socially conservative (liberal in name only) MP's like Paul Steckle.
The other point is that leaders usually make decisions that are of their own design.
The last liberal leader that decided to run things on the exclusive advice of a core group of supporters was a guy named Paul Martin. Which is okay if they know what they are doing.
Oddly enough I noticed that the guy who was Martin's top organizer in BC Mark Marissen is working for Dion now.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
Perhaps we can pass the hat and buy Jason some flowers and a get well soon card.
Kyoto is about higher taxes, unenforcable regulations, and a lower standard of living
"Global warming is changing our lives. To deal with it, we're therefore going to have to change our lives.
Doing this is going to involve everything from higher taxes to more regulation to a lower standard of living (although not lower than one created by out-of-control global warming).
Dion, for all his convictions about the environment, has been careful never to say this."
linkI have one disagreement with the columnist. The conservatives campaign on ideas, the liberals campaign to interest groups. The proof is the admission by the columnist that Dion “has been careful never to say” lest he offend the demographic that he needs the support of. And that’s not the left wing kook fringe, thats Joe sixpack and Jane soccermom. What motivates them is the difference between paying more taxes or less, looking to a future where they can obtain a higher standard of living or a lower one, or the difference of having the government intervening much more in your life or keeping out of your business.
Those folks tend to not support a party that wants to tax and spend, reduce your ability to raise your standard of living and decides that your life style is "un-canadian".
