Monthly Archive: February 2008

The allegation that Conservative Party officials tried to bribe dying Independent MP Chuck Cadman in May 2005 to vote against the Paul Martin government continues to keep the political watchers in a state of frenzy.

A key element of the story -- that the enticement offered was a $1 million life insurance policy -- seems absurd on the face of it.  Insurance officials now confirm that they can't imagine how anyone could believe that anyone in the final stages of terminal cancer would be offered a life insurance policy.

A Liberal blogger's attempt to embarrass a part-time Conservative researcher has come to silly end with an abject apology.

All posts have been withdrawn -- including the one in which someone inside the parliament used their access to government computer resources to provide confidential information in the effort to wreck this person's life.

Too bad the apology doesn't take the time to mention who is still lurking in the halls of parliament, looking for an opportunity to send out personal information of any Conservative who looks vulnerable.

A new story is gripping Ottawa.  Did the Conservatives try to bribe Chuck Cadman before the May 2005 confidence vote against the Paul Martin minority government?

If only there was a fly on the wall.

No wait, there was!  Let's recall the "Cadman Cam".

I know that sounds ridiculous.  Don't look at me.  I didn't say it.

The spin from the Liberal Party has been that Stephane Dion decided to support the Conservative budget because there was little in it to oppose.  That's nonsense. 

The Conservative budget has been delivered, and Stephane Dion and the Liberals have announced, both in word and in print, that they will not vote down this budget.

The fury in the Liberal ranks is palpable.  Stephane Dion's guards are growing nervous and ever more desperate.

If you listen to David Suzuki, you'd hear about how human activity is causing the Earth to warm up.  Specifically, how a mere 30 million Canadians are supposed to shoulder a large amount of the blame.

His rhetoric has become increasingly heated, ironically.

Well, it seems that the heat generated by his latest comments has caused David Suzuki to throttle it back. 

Sometimes you wonder if people are saying more than they mean to.

Stephane Dion has done it again.  Without even taking the time to inform the local riding association, the Liberal Party leader has gone ahead and appointed a candidate for the riding of Etobicoke North.

Dr Kirsty Duncan will be the candidate.  Hopefully for the riding association, she will have turned out to be a good choice.  It's hard to say, given that she has no experience whatsoever in politics.  But she is a woman, and Stephane Dion needs to reach his goal of 33% female candidates. 

Still, there are elements of Duncan's personality that makes me wonder just how well she'll perform in the rough-and-tumble world of politics.

There have been three very different polls released in rapid succession. 

The Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey conducted from February 14 through 17 showed the Conservatives and the Liberals in a dead heat, with the Conservatives making modest gains in Ontario to pull into a near tie there as well. 

On the other hand, a poll by The Strategic Counsel for The Globe and Mail/CTV News, conducted over the same three days, showed the Tories ahead of the Liberals by a full 12 points nationally, and by 8 points in Ontario.

An Ipsos-Reid poll split the difference, showing the Tories just seven points ahead.

So what gives?

Well, guess what.  It doesn't matter.  What matters is how the information is going to be used and by whom.

CTV has released the results of a new poll.   There isn't any good news for the Liberals in it.  Not even a little bit.

Today John McCallum spoke to Graeme Richardson on Mike Duffy Live.  It was really quite enlightening.  According to McCallum, the Liberals have drawn a line in the sand, and the Liberals will be voting.

The Globe and Mail has reported, based on information from unnamed sources, that the Conservative government is proposing that John Manley be appointed as the United Nations "super envoy" in Afghanistan.

John Manley is the Liberal and former cabinet minister who delivered a report to the government advocating continued Canadian involvement in Afghanistan.

But the Ottawa Citizen is debunking the story...somewhat.

Not surprisingly, Stephane Dion is in full backpedal mode.  Yesterday he said he would be satisfied to let Canadians suffer economically if it meant he could hold on to his job as Liberal Party leader.

Yes, that's what he said.

News that a popular and eminently electable former Liberal MP, Francoise Boivin, is going to run for Jack Layton's NDP is an insult to Stephane Dion.  There is no way to spin this as anything neutral.

Senior Liberals are opening discussing a coup with reporters.  Stephane Dion's response?  Nothing.  It's like he's not even there.

Bob Rae wants an election about nothing.  That would suit him just fine.

There are people out there who sell companionship, usually in hourly increments.

Well, someone order a purple velour hat (with leopard print trimmings) for Stephane Dion, because the Liberal Party has turned into an escort service.

I'm confused about something.  Today, the Liberal caucus walked out of parliament in order to avoid voting on a motion designed to pressure the Liberal-dominated Senate to finally deal with the long delayed omnibus crime bill.

But it seems that Stephane Dion didn't want to be photographed walking away from the House of Commons.

Maybe he was worried it would look too much like a retreat.

So he lets Ralph Goodale do the deed.

Hey, maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that if Stephane Dion wants to earn the respect of the rest of the caucus, he's going to have to do more than make uncomfortable decisions.

He's going to have to be seen acting on those decisions.

David Suzuki has been in hot water this week over comments he made (on two different occasions) that politicians ought to be jailed for expressing skepticism about climate change (specifically, about David Suzuki's view on climate change).

Go way back, and you encounter an entirely different David Suzuki.  This man pleaded for Canadians to be skeptical of science, to exert influence and oversight over the scientific community, and to be careful of the hidden agenda behind scientists and their theories.

I kid you not.

There is something called going after "low hanging fruit".  When confronted with a large task, one approach is to go after the most easily solved problems first.

Engineers are often taught to do the opposite -- tackle the hardest problem first.  The reason is that you will almost certainly spend too much time on the low hanging fruit.  Such a problem is solved easily, of course, but you will try to do a complete a job as possible, to the point of gold-plating (that is, doing more than is necessary).  Often it is to avoid tackling the big problem while still looking like you're make progress towards reaching the overall goal.

The bad thing is that you've used up precious time you'll need to tackle the hard problem you've put off.  In fact, you are almost sure to fail now.

Environmentalists are like that.  They go after the low hanging fruit.  Kyoto is all about low hanging fruit.  Get the industrialized world to carry the load, since they have the technological prowess to make it happen, and the democratic institutions that can be used to compel politicians to go along.  On the other hand, tough nuts like India and China are deferred until some unspecified future time.  These countries and others like them present difficult problems -- a lack of sophisticated industrial infrastructure, huge energy-hungry populations, and most importantly in the cases like China, governments that are authoritarian or even dictatorial and have no reason to listen to anyone, not to their own people and certainly not to foreign busybodies.

So the foreign busybodies make excuses about why these countries are allowed to skip any effort to meet Kyoto targets, and they go after countries like Canada that contribute a tiny percent of green house gas emissions. 

The busybodies will waste a great deal of effort on Canada because Canada is a low hanging fruit.  China, on the other hand, continues to build coal-fired power plants daily.

But here's another example you might not know about.  The Turks and Caicos Islands are negligible when it comes to things like global warming, ocean pollution, ozone depletion, or anything else.  Environmentally-speaking, the impact on the ecology of these islands is zero.

But the government of this British dependency has declared that one tiny island that makes up this tiny place is going "green". 

And David Suzuki is flying down there to celebrate this achievement.

Jack Layton and the NDP want to pull Canadian troops out of Afghanistan.  It is a cowardly position to take, it ignores the successes that have been achieved so far, and it dooms the people of Afghanistan to a life of terror.

It makes no moral sense, but at least the position makes logical sense.

Stephane Dion has a different approach.  He wants Canadian troops to stay in Afghanistan, and in particular, in the dangerous region of Kandahar, after February 2009, but demands that they stop fighting.

No more combat.  Something short of combat called "security".

What does that mean?

I tried to explain the links between David Suzuki, the oil sands developer Nexen, and the online marketing firm Marqui.

It's confusing.

So I've drawn a diagram.

The diagram is also confusing.

You're welcome.

It's amusing to listen to David Suzuki.  David Suzuki wants politicians who are not avowed environmentalists thrown in jail.

Yeah, he's a loon.

But how can David Suzuki sell his particular brand of eco-nuttiness?  Seriously, why does anyone listen to him? 

The answer is simple: money. 

He spends money on sophisticated marketing professionals.  His only concern is that these people succeed in getting him in front of the cameras and in the public eye where he can revel in his foam-flecked fury.

I don't think he really cares if anything gets done in favour of the environment.  I say that because the company he pays to help get his message out also takes money from several large oil sands concerns.  If David Suzuki was really committed to his enviro-jihad, he would make sure all his minions were as pure and virtuous as himself.

But instead, he takes money from his naive followers and hands it to people who work hard to promote oil sands development.

Better yet, he takes money from the oil sands developers themselves, and hands it to the people who work hard to promote oil sands development.

There's your saint of the environment.

Stephen Harper and the Conservatives led Canada to be the first country to pull out of the Durban II conference, a UN-sponsored event combating racism.  The first conference in 2001 turned into a spectacle of anti-Semitism and West-bashing.  Seeing that Durban II was shaping up to be more of the same, the Canadian government announced that no delegation would be attending.

Until now, Canada stood alone.  But now the United States has announced that no American delegation would participate.

I expect more countries to follow soon.

Meanwhile, the NDP is waffling on the issue.  After initially criticizing the government, the NDP came out in support of this decision.  Then that support was withdrawn, and the NDP seems to want Canada back in.

David Suzuki has definitely jumped the shark.  The environmental crusader has morphed into a fatwa-issuing green mullah.  Now it seems that if you don't listen to him, you should go to jail.

Jack Layton, leader of the NDP, has long held the position that Canada ought to abandon Afghanistan.  Until now, the reasoning has been vague.  Basically, it was that it was not pleasant to shoot guns and that people would not like Canadians as much as before when Canada's foreign policy consisted entirely of voting for whatever annoyed the Americans the most at the United Nations.

But now, Jack Layton has come out clearly.  Canada should not be in Afghanistan because the Taliban are invincible and Canadian troops are not up to the task.  Best that they sat in their barracks, never seen by Afghans or Canadians alike.

It's too bad that this position is at odds with that of the United Nations.  Secretary General Ban Ki-moon lists an impressive number of military and civilian successes achieved by Canada and other nations doing the dangerous work in Afghanistan.

Jack Layton and the NDP wanting to abandon the United Nations.  It's just so odd.