Gimbol's diatribe and screed

US voter post election plans

posted by gimbol @ 4:04 AM 0 comments

How to get rid of the Bloc.

I'd be interested to know how far this idea would go.

Here's the plan:

1. Get enough people in riding's outside of Quebec to form a Bloc riding association. The executive of the party will no doubt balk at the attempt and hopefully even deny the application. If/when that happens the HRC could be used to do some good work for a change and a charge should be brought against the Bloc for their refusal to allow admittance based on ethnicity. That's the first strike.
2. The groups that are now denied access, still organize to run under an independent banner. It doesn't matter what, just as long as its clear that the idea is let the Bloc know its under threat of a takeover from the ROC. That's the second strike.
3. If (and this is the tricky part) enough support can be generated to get enough ROC to generate enough members, let the Quebec membership know in no uncertain terms that when the next convention comes up the majority will be delegates from outside of Quebec and they will be making sure the party is unelectable inside of Quebec by voting to get Quebec's signature on the constitution. That's the big if, but it would certainly help push them off the national stage.

Part of the scenario that may help it along is the first stage. The HRC hasn't really been much use of late and mostly I believe its the principle of idle hands do the devils work. Give them something useful to do and they will forget about editorial writers and magazine publishers. This would be real meat that any civil rights activist would give their hind teeth to get at. Imagine the optics, here's a political party that wants to destroy the country by electing members for federal representation....all on the premise of freedom from supposed tyranny of Ottawa, and they turn around and deny the right of Canadians to freely belong to their party. That's not democratic now is it, heck that could even be construed as racist. Now suppose the Bloc doesn't want the media attention and relents at that point to allow riding associations to form outside of Quebec? Oh the mischief that could be played, nominating candidates that not only advocate for Quebec to separate, but also blurting out how it would be okay for the rest of Canada to take what is rightfully theirs. You can guess how well that would go over in Quebec when the leader has to explain to those soft nationalists how they shouldn't take it serious, not what was meant, etc. you get the picture. But it would also put the leader in a spot trying to say one thing to calm the fair weather federalists while at the same time not looking less of a separatist to the hardcore party base in the bloc than that wonky candidate over in Ontario. The strategy is however based on the premise that no separatist can by law deny entry to their party under the laws of this country, and they need to be put on a crash course with the courts.

The second point is an interesting strategy, in that baring the outcome of the first, the ROC should be able to create more than 75 riding associations to out vote the ones in Quebec. I know its a cheap and dirty trick to subvert their vote, but is it really fair that a party that only campaigns in one province makes it nearly impossible for a majority government to form? All they have been successful at is muddying the waters, its time as Preston Manning once said, to get in for the long haul. Its not 1760 anymore, the British decamped generations ago, and there is a new reality that says grow up and stop acting like a colony of France. Digressing a bit, the point isn't to actually do the takeover, but to let Quebec know that we can do it if we want to. Sort of like how Teddy Roosevelt let the world understand the connection of soft talk and big sticks.

The last part, although difficult to do until you get enough of a membership outside of la belle province, would be the sweetest. You could have a detrimental effect on the party by getting a leader nominated that was unelectable in Quebec, or changing the party constitution to abandon the separation option, or even better disbanding the party for good.

Now I am not of any delusions that this will happen, but what I have done is offer up some solution to this old canker sore. My hope is that anyone that happens to come across this little screed will plagiarize some or all of it and take it to the next step. Because frankly I'm tired of seeing the federal government being manipulated by a bunch of socialists posing as freedom fighters with no agenda other than extracting a pound of flesh from the ROC.

Labels: Quebec politics

posted by gimbol @ 3:49 PM 0 comments

A tribute to a great Canadian

Ben Weider was perhaps the greatest Canadian of our time. Born without privilage, he not only rose up and built his personal fortune, but also created a legacy that will be fondly remembered.

That is what makes someone great, not what they built but in what respect they are remembered.

Labels: principles and idealism

posted by gimbol @ 3:38 AM 0 comments

Questions for liberals to ponder

If the pundits maintain your party has to "move to the center" and the perception currently is that the LPC is too far to the left, the assumption is made then that any move would be to the right.

So I ask, if the LPC is going to move to the right, what conservative principles do they agree with?

More importantly, whose support are they going to lose when they do so?
Ditch the carbon tax idea and lose what soft green vote they have?
Ditch the cradle to grave social program idealism and lose what soft NDP votes they still have?
Ditch judicial activism idealism and lose the support of those that want to remold the country in their image?

Frankly I already suspect its none of the above, which is why the talking point is "move to the center".
I know it, they know it, so you better believe its the elephant in the room. And because it is I look forward to a future political talk show where a well known liberal gets sandbagged with..."so if your party needs to change direction from where it is now, what would you do differently than the current government?"
I won't be too worried if I miss the live showing, it will get repeated when the CPC runs its next set of attack ads.

Labels: beer and popcorn, Liberal leadership race, May's little green monster

posted by gimbol @ 5:04 AM 0 comments

Conservative ideas

Here's a couple of ideas that should be adopted.

Federally:

Lets change the rules on what constitutes official party status. Namely, that unless a registered political party campaigns in more than one province, even if they do achieve more than 12 seats, the speaker won't recognize them as an official party caucus. That only takes a vote in the house and I can't think of any federalist party that would be against such a thing.

Change the elections act. Lets remove the restrictions on third party advertising during writ periods, allow individuals to donate as much as they want but still restrict corporations and unions, allow parties and candidates to spend as much as they want but disallow loans. Chretien's gift also made it impossible for interest groups to have their voice on the political stage without being joined at the hip to a political party, the problem of course is that political parties can be taken over by interest groups subverting the grass roots.

Addendum Oct 21 2008 : Lets also remove that odious stipend that Elections Canada awards to political parties. The idea that political parties should be entitled to tax dollars is something that reaks of socialism. End it, and make them all have to operate on donations....but then thats why the monetary limit on donations should be restrictive only on banning corporate and union donations. They should however be allowed to campaign as third parties during elections.

Provincial/Federal:

The Ontario conservatives should be advocating for elected senators, which would allow that party to differ from the Ontario liberals. As a colliery to that, do a name change and drop the progressive from the party name, the party can expand if it describes itself as a home for all conservatives not just some conservatives.

Provincial:

Advocate for a cut to the PST. Its a very hard political fight to argue against a cut like this, and a guy like Dalton would be forced to do only one thing to combat the idea, offer the same. The advantage is that by doing so would put Dalton in the follower category and not the leader category.

Laws are meant for all, so equal enforcement for all. Call for military intervention in Caledonia to enforce the two year old court order for removal.


Municipal/London:

Release a statement to the good citizens of this fair city that while supporting the artistic community is a noble concept, forcing the public to pay for it is not possible. Therefore, the city will not entertain funding for a performing arts center now or in the future. If Gord Hume and his buddies want one, they can dig into their own pockets and pay for it.

Labels: principles and idealism

posted by gimbol @ 3:43 AM 0 comments

Question for those liberals in Canada that support Obama

On Aug 7 2007 it was reported that Barak Obama said

"The first step must be to get off the wrong battlefield in Iraq and take the fight to the terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan."

In January 2008 it was reported that Stephane Dion said:

"We are going to have to discuss that very actively if they (the Pakistanis) are not able to deal with it on their own. We could consider that option with the NATO forces in order to help Pakistan help us pacify Afghanistan,"

The next time some liberal tries to use the "Harper=Bush therefore would take us into Iraq" logic, I'll respectfully ask......If the next US president wanted the world to join it in a unilateral invasion of the Darfur region of Sudan without that governments permission, would they oppose?

Oh I dunno, like maybe this guy?

Neither Pearson nor Roy pretend that their endeavours in Sudan are likely to
bring an end to the strife that has plagued the country for more than 40 years.
"We don't have any big solutions," acknowledges Roy, digging into a tin of cold
beans after a long, hot day on the trail. "But I have been around a bit and can
recognize human suffering when I see it. All we are trying to do here is ease
some of that suffering by bringing people out of bondage. I think that's
worthwhile." She makes the comment near the end of her mission during which CSI
funds were used to purchase and free 4,968 slaves.

Thats an interesting link. Seems CSI isn't as noble an enterprise as its presenting itself to the world.....not a sinister agenda mind you, just terribly misguided. And I quote:

"With regard to the specific issue of "slave redemption", one of the few neutral
sources against which the claims made by Christian Solidarity International and
Baroness Cox can be assessed is the report by the Canadian government's special
envoy to Sudan, John Harker, into human rights abuses in Sudan. The Harker
report, 'Human Security in Sudan: The Report of a Canadian Assessment Mission',
was commissioned by the Canadian government and published in February 2000. One of the two missions with which John Harker was tasked was to:
"independently investigate human rights violations, specifically in reference to allegations of slavery and slavery-like practices in Sudan.""

Its about 106 pages of a pdf. But some of the "meat" is on page seven.

"The UNICEF workers said there is no evidence that “redemption” is actually fuelling the abduction problem, whether the redemption was real or "staged". Several informants reported various scenarios involving staged redemptions. In some cases, SPLM officials are allegedly involved in arranging these exchanges, dressing up as Arab slave traders. The profits are used to support the SPLM/A, buy arms and ammunition, and even to build a power base in opposition to John Garang, which, it is said, has caused a rift in SPLM/A, because those who object (including Garang) are reluctant to publicly expose it for fear of splintering the rebel movement. Sometimes a "redeeming group" may be innocently misled, but other groups may be actively committed to fundraising for the SPLM/A, and deliberately use "slave redemption" as a successful tactic for attracting Western donors. We did speak with an eyewitness who can confirm observing a staged redemption and this testimony conformed with other reports we had from a variety of credible sources. Interestingly, even UNICEF has been accused of "Staged abduction redemption", in their case of recycling children from IDP camps. The accusations force UNICEF to be sure to focus on proper documentation, and it wishes CSI and others lived by the importance of this aspect of the struggle."

Don't say you haven't been warned.

Labels: Conservative ad

posted by gimbol @ 2:36 AM 0 comments