Secret backroom dealing! This feels like banana republic politics!

Ho-lee shit! Via Blue Like You I just learned of the CTV news item with Robert Fife exposing the secret NDP/Bloc deal to initiate an overthrow of the Tories. Jack Layton is heard admitting the deal was cooked up long before Tory fiscal update last Thursday.

This puts the absolute lie to any claim that the on-going coup d'etat attempt has anything at all to do with the economy and the Conservative fiscal stimulus plan.

There's nothing particularly wrong with plotting to bring down minority governments. It's part of the game. Hell, oppositions have always hatched these plots, but the goal is normally to force an election not form coalition governments.

In this case the opposition has been lying to the public about its motives while secretly plotting to form a coalition government a few short weeks after the electorate put the Tories in power.

These are creepy banana republic tactics. They're a disgrace and if the government should be defeated there must be a new vote not a phony rag-tag 'coalition' cooked up on the fly.

PR anyone?

Bumped: My response to comments on the previous post on polls:

"Yeah, these on-line media polls do lack the credibility of the supposedly unbiased ones done by the professional polsters (and as Alberta Girl notes where are they on this crisis?). But in this case there's reasonable consistency (as Reid points out) with other similar polls. Also, in a small town like Victoria 300 responses (I note it's now up to almost 500) to a radio station's on-line poll is a pretty good sample - and it's against the natural local political grain.

So people are clearly seeing through the opposition BS. Even if they had reasonable justification for ousting a six week old 143 seat minority government(and they don't) there's no way that they can form a more credible or stable minority government with a mixed bag of leaderless Libs and NDP with 113 (76+37) seats between them backed up by a bunch of (50) commie separatists.

Though the opposition can't admit it, it's blatantly obvious that the driving motivation for this attempted coup d'etat is the threatened cancellation of taxpayer funded 'entitlements' for political parties - and for the NDP maybe the no-strike provision for gov't unions.

But as far as I know the opposition doesn't really need a good argument to defeat a minority government. They can do it any time they see an opportunity. However, ordinarily, they have to risk going to the polls. I can't see the GG and/or the Supremes allowing this "coalition" of idiots to form a government on such a thin pretext without a new vote . But it's possible and, as Ted says, "downright scary."

And people actually want Proportional Representation?! Permanent instability and elections every year or so? Nuts to that!"

Poll - No coalition!

Somewhat surprisingly, should it come to that, it appears that even here in lib/left Victoria there's little enthusiasm for a Lib/NDP coalition:
See also: Globe poll, NewsTalk650.

And, should it come to that, here are some catchy names for the coalition.

Push for the repeal of HRA Section 13

Ezra is pumped about the prospects for getting rid of Section 13 of the Human Rights Act. He urges his readers to write to the Prime Minister. So, I just now sent this off to the PM:

Dear Prime Minister,

The abuse of a basic human right to free expression by so-called "Human Rights" Commissions is an obvious contradiction that cannot be allowed to stand in a free society.

At their recent policy convention in Winnipeg, Conservatives voted nearly unanimously to repeal Section 13 of the Human Rights Act. Professor Richard Moon just finished his report on the Canadian Human Rights Commission and recommended the repeal of Section 13. Nearly every newspaper in the country has written stories and editorials (see recent examples below) condemning "Human Rights" Commissions' use of Section 13 to censor free expression supposedly guaranteed by our Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

This is not a partisan issue. It is an issue of funadamental rights that all parties can and will get behind. It is time for the government to take action to repeal Section 13 and you are urged to move this to the top of your agenda.

Respectfully yours,

Press stories and editorials
Toronto Star editorial.
Op-Ed in the National Post.
The Globe and Mail's third editorial this year.
The tenth editorial or column in the Calgary Herald.
The Montreal Gazette for the second or third time.
The Ottawa Citizen, the Toronto Sun, the Edmonton Sun, the London Free Press, the Windsor Star, the Metro paper – the daily free newspaper in seven Canadian cities from Vancouver to Halifax.
The Brockville Recorder and Times and the Portage Daily Graphic

A similar letter, modified to praise Keith Martin, went to Liberal leadership frontrunner Michael Ignatieff.

Moon: "Repeal Section 13 of the Human Rights Act"

Unexpected good news: Professor Richard Moon released his report on the Canadian "Human Rights" Commission and, surprise-surprise, recommended that Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act be repealed.

There's lots of good commentary by Ezra Levant (also, and), Mark Steyn, Blazing Cat Fur, Kathy Shaidle, Jay Currie and others.

That's another step in the right direction. What more will it take to get the Conservative government to finish the job?

Obama's auntie

John Derbyshire relates, on Radio Derb, the hilarious lowdown on Barack Obama's Kenyan (and US illegal alien) Aunt Zeituni.... and much more.

Bail out the Big 3?

While the current global economic crisis isn't helping, the Detroit Big 3's problems are much deeper. Here are the 2007 performance figures for the Big 6:





"And of course GM’s CEO just got a 64% raise this year, presumably for the excellent performance."

[Via]

Conservatives vote to defang the CHRC

Good news! Dr. Roy reports from the Conservative policy convention about resolution P-203 to defang the CHRC. Stephen Taylor reported that it passed in the plenary vote with Justice Minister Rob Nicholson voting in favour. The resolution reads:

P-203 Modify HRC Jurisdiction PROPOSED BY VICTORIA AND KELOWNA - LAKE COUNTRY
iii) The Conservative Party supports legislation to remove authority from the Canadian Human Rights Commission and Tribunal to regulate, receive, investigate or adjudicate complaints related to Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act.

Ezra Levant says that 99% of nearly 2000 delegates voted in favour. Only ten voted against.

That's a big step in the right direction. I wonder how Jennifer Lynch is enjoying her weekend.

In my local rag the CHRC issue is buried in a mid-section article under the headline: "Tories pushed to the right as convention wraps up". Even that's an improvement - it's the first time it's ever been mentioned at all.

Over-the-top environmentalism

If yesterday’s BC civic elections proved anything it’s that the "green" fad has gone from tedious to downright irritating. I don’t think there was a single candidate out of the 150 or so running for mayor and council in greater Victoria who didn’t use the words sustainable, the environment, green or global warming in campaign literature and/or winners’ acceptance speeches:

The new Victoria mayor, in a CTV interview last night, named his top priorities as "homelessness, transportation and global warming".

My own city’s newly elected mayor declared that his was a "green-friendly" win.

This is nuts! We live in one of the cleanest natural environments on the planet - surrounded by the sea and rain forests. We get three feet of rain dumped on us every year and cleansing winds blow constantly off the ocean. We have abundant hydro electricity and little or no heavy industrial activity. And there’s absolutely no credible sign of "global warming".

The environment can safely go to the bottom of the priority list. There’s no need, beyond pure politics, to have it at the top.

“The Audacity of Solace ... A Quantum Of Hope”

Daniel Craig, when asked which presidential candidate would make the best 007, replied like any typical show-biz kneejerk lefty:

... ‘Obama would be the better Bond .... McCain ... would probably be a better M, ...‘There is, come to think of it, a kind of Judi Dench quality to McCain.’

And, as usual, Mark Steyn zeros right in on reality:

Oh, great. John McCain has survived plane crashes, just like Roger Moore in 'Octopussy’. He has escaped death in shipboard infernos, just like Sean Connery in ‘Thunderball’. He has endured torture day after day, month after month, without end, just like Pierce Brosnan in the title sequence of ‘Die Another Day’. He has done everything 007 has done except get lowered into a shark tank and (as far as we know) bed Britt Ekland and Jill St John.

And yet Daniel Craig gives him the desk job.

On the other hand, Barack Obama has spent his entire adult life chit-chatting with "community organizers" and campus lefties – and he’s the last action hero?....

Read the whole thing.

"Free" healthcare in Canada

$5,170 per Canadian in 2008. For a family of four that's $20,680 per year.

... with governments accounting for 70% of total spending and the private
sector (including privately insured and out-of-pocket expenses) for
30%.

... in 2006 Canada was in the top fifth of [OECD] countries in terms of per
person spending on health.

CHRC lays its wreath

Unfortunately the campaign led by Ezra Levant failed to prevent the CHRC from laying a wreath on Nov 11th.

And speaking of unwanted small-p politics at Remembrance Day ceremonies it's hard to miss Jack Layton's effort to promote his cult of personality.

Steyn to J-school professor: "heal thyself"

Mark Steyn responds to criticism an accusation from Ryerson J-school Professor John Miller - ending with:

PS I see you bill yourself as "The Journalism Doctor". One hesitates to say "Journalism physician, heal thyself", but that strange leaking coming from your ass is your credibility.

Ouch!

Oh, gee! I just noticed. The above link has "The Journalism Doctor" ranting against Ezra Levant the "sawed-off, ultra-right-wing "Sultan of Shout" and lists yours truly among Ezra's "army of imitators", "Ezra -Lites". I take that as a compliment:) But I'm really not so much an Ezra imitator as I am an admirer, promoter and occasional financial contributor. Go Ezra!

Update (Nov 16): The professor responds. Also.

The next outrage: Human rights abuser to commemorate Canadians’ sacrifices for freedom

The Canadian "Human Rights" Commission has issued the following press release:

OTTAWA, ONTARIO, Nov 10, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- This year, for the first time, the Canadian Human Rights Commission has the honour of laying a wreath at the National Remembrance Day Ceremony. The wreath will be placed by Chief Commissioner Jennifer Lynch, Q.C, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Throughout our history, Canadian soldiers have served to promote and protect human rights and freedoms and to uphold universal values of dignity and justice. The Commission will pay special tribute to honour the men and women who have served so valiantly to uphold Canada's commitment to universal dignity and justice - values that transcend cultures and traditions.

This year also marks the 30th anniversary of the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

That the CHRC, notorious for its abuses of Canadians’ freedoms, should pretend to honour the men and women who gave up their lives to protect our freedom is clearly outrageous.

Having said that it’s not hard to see why the CHRC flatters itself so. Its bureaucrats are caught up in their own self-perpetuated mythology of phantom threats and multi-culti grievance while they remain stupidly ignorant of basic concepts of freedom and the harms they themselves perpetrate. And they have had lots of cheerleaders including the current minister of "justice".

I'd like to know: Who was the misguided fool that made this decision "for the first time?"

[kudos to Blazing Cat Fur]

Update (Nov 11): Mark Steyn, Ezra Levant. Ezra answers my above question. Jennifer Lynch was uninvited - apparently she just intended to crash the ceremony.

Food: Buy global!

Food activists have been haranguing us for a long time with their Buy Local, 100-Mile Diet, and food-mile Save-the-Planet bullcrap. It's all part of global warming hysteria and it’s working.

Dinky little local produce markets have been springing up on mall parking lots everywhere. And my grocery stores have been steadily climbing further onto the "green" bandwagon - pushing fabric shopping bags, flogging ever more organic produce (mostly at significantly higher prices) and offering fewer choices and lower quality.

For example, my favourite grocer used to carry a wide variety of potatoes including local, Island, and B.C. grown as well as from Idaho and P.E.I. Then the high quality Idaho and P.E.I. spuds started getting crowded out by lower quality (soggy, starchy) B.C. and ‘Island’ grown - and to add insult to injury the local ones were often priced higher than spuds shipped all the way from Idaho and P.E.I. Go figure! Recently all the grocery stocked were BC and ‘Island grown’ varieties. Now, to get good Idaho or P.E.I. spuds I’m forced to chase across town (saving the planet?) to find a grocer that carries them.

All I want out of my food supply system is convenience, choice and quality at a reasonable price. But the locavore / 100-mile-diet idiots are doing their level best to make sure that doesn’t happen. And I have had serious doubts that buying local would save much, if any, energy.

I’ve been meaning to complain to the grocery management about this but without hard data the only answer I expected from them was a spiel on "it’s-what-the-customer-wants" and their stock saving-the-planet lecture - though I have to admit, thanks to the green bullshit machine, there’s little doubt that "it’s-what-the-customer-wants".

Now, thanks to Peter Foster's column "Just plain bananas" and an accompanying article "Buy global" by researchers Pierre Desrochers and Hiroko Shimizu we now have good evidence debunking the ‘buy local’, food mile mythology. A sampling from Peter Foster’s summary:

... Food mile thinking is crude and ignores productivity differences between different growing locations.

... This simplistic approach completely ignores the rationale for the evolution of a dispersed and globalized commercial agriculture...

... Food mile lunacy has been taken farthest in the U.K. .... [But a British study showed] The biggest carbon offender was automobile trips to the supermarket! ... [The study also showed] Spanish tomatoes are responsible for one quarter of the CO2 emissions of greenhouse-grown tomatoes in the U.K. Importing fruit from the antipodes is cheaper (and less environmentally costly) than storing domestic fruit for use in the off-season.

... The [Desrochers & Shimizu] study notes the hypocrisy of many campaigners, who are simply domestic protectionists trying to guard their expensive "organic" products. It also points out that fads such as the "100-mile diet" reduce choice, increase costs and take up lots of precious time to pursue.

... the economic and environmental costs of food miles are almost irrelevant when compared with the horrendous costs of farm subsidies and food-trade barriers. ... This corrupted system is at the root of many current trade frictions.

... "The evidence presented suggests that food miles are, at best, a marketing fad... ."

... Food-mile mysticism involves lower incomes for Third World farmers and higher prices for First World consumers.

... Indeed, one can’t help concluding that only the wealthy, who live in underappreciated capitalist societies, could have the time and resources to engage in calculations of such moralistic, self-indulgent stupidity. What is most depressing is the willingness of corporations to waste billions of dollars dancing to their tune.

OK. Now I’m ready to complain to my grocery store managers - and my provincial government. Do I think it will have any effect? Not a snowball’s chance in Hades - they’re all part of the racket. But I’ll feel righteous.

[The full paper by Desrochers & Shimizu.]

Poll - Obama jokes

CTV seems to have found it too politically incorrect to even mention an obvious possibility.

The meaning of Obama’s victory

It’s only four days since Obama's "historic" election, so it's small wonder people are still trying to come to grips with the meaning of it all.

Today the National Post published the views of two New York Times columnists.
Thomas L. Friedman figures that it’s a historic event symbolizing the end of the American Civil War:

And so it came to pass that on Nov. 4, 2008, shortly after 11 p.m. Eastern time, the American Civil War ended, as a black man — Barack Hussein Obama — won enough electoral votes to become president of the United States. [Notice now that he’s been elected it’s OK to include Obama’s middle name. Or is that only permitted for liberals?]

And then there’s the gonzo Maureen Dowd who has a wide range of expectations:

Obama may be in over his head. Or he may be heading for his own
monument. [Or, one has to assume, anything in between.]

Thankfully, on the opposite page of the Post, classical liberal George Jonas provides a more reasonable assessment:

... to those who may be upset about Barack Obama’s victory because he’s black ... consult your shrink. [You’re a racist.]

... To those who are elated about Obama’s victory because he’s black ... Talk with your physician. [You’re a racist but a good racist with a "better prognosis" than the first.]

... To those who are elated about Barack Obama’s victory because it’s a historic first, I’d say: Sorry, it isn’t. .... When a candidate’s skin colour passes unnoticed, that will be a historic first. [Thomas L. Friedman take note.]

... What about those who are upset about Obama’s victory not for reasons of racism but statism? Those who consider his ideas statist, his executive experience meager and his associations dubious - in short, who are upset for the right reasons? To them I suggest: Democracy isn’t for sissies. [Suck it up and "abide not grudgingly but cheerfully" and work to throw the bum out next time around.]

... To those who think who think an Obama victory is going to be a disaster, I suggest: Relax. Take a stiff drink....Yes it may be a disaster ... America survived disasters.

... to those ready to jump on the Obama-presidency’s bandwagon, I suggest: Put on you crash helmet. It’s going to be a rough ride.

...Finally, to those who are happy because they like Obama’s politics and would have voted for him if he had been white and his opponent black ... Congratulations. You may be wrong about your politics, but at least you’re happy for the right reasons.

Excellent advice, George!

Assassinating Sarah

Last night CTV "News" anchor Lloyd Robertson ran with a story about Sarah Palin being attacked slandered by McCain campaign aides:

Months of bubbling frustration with Sarah Palin from within the McCain campaign finally exploded in the wake of their ticket's crushing defeat as Republican insiders began making embarrassing allegations about the Alaskan Governor.

Unnamed McCain aides have told the media that Palin ... [I decline
to repeat the slander]

"Months" of frustration? Palin was nominated on August 29th. She had a brief honeymoon of a couple of weeks before the hatchet job began in earnest. So make that ‘a month and a half’.

And these "unnamed McCain ‘aides’" - would they be the ones responsible for screening Palin’s incoming calls and letting those two moronic so-called "comedians" from Montreal spoof a call from French president Nicolas Sarkozy? The same ones who set up her interview with Katie Couric?

To have this kind of crap repeated on CTV national "news" is a disgrace. "Unnamed" sources can say anything. For example: Lloyd Robertson, here’s a couple of ‘stories’ you might want to consider running in your upcoming "news" casts:

... highly placed but unnamed sources within the Obama campaign allege that Obama’s father was a cannibal; and
... unnamed sources within CTV have alleged that news anchor Lloyd Robertson is a pedophile with a huge kiddy porn collection;

Sarah Palin has had a real job done on her. First by the Dems, backed up by a ruthless Obama cheering MSM that didn’t hesitate to repeat every rumour/slur/lie - the same media that virtually ignored Obama’s many serious political liabilities but swarmed Alaska to dig for dirt on Palin. Now Sarah Palin is being targeted, apparently by campaign aides who continue the slanderous rumour mongering, again backed by a scummy MSM.

Wasn’t Palin picked by McCain and his top aides? Wasn’t the McCAin campaign stalled and unable to bring in the Republican base? Didn’t Sarah Palin energize that base? To now scapegoat her for McCain’s loss (McCain's incompetent campaign), assuming media reports are anywhere near true, is beyond despicable. This is mean, nasty stuff. If McCain’s aides are behind it then the scum-bags should be rooted out and crucified. As for the media, repeating slander about conservatives is even worse but, sadly, par for the course.

And one last question. Where’s McCain? Isn’t he going to defend his running mate? C’mon, John, let’s see some of that vaunted honour and courage.

Michael Crichton dies of cancer

Michael Crichton died of cancer yesterday at age 66. The famous novelist and movie and TV creator/writer/director had a fascination for scientific and medical subjects. This was no doubt closely connected with his formal training in medicine and biology:

He graduated from Harvard Medical School, obtaining an M.D. in 1969, and did post-doctoral fellowship study at the Jonas Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, from 1969 to 1970.

He will be remembered by me, for one, for his valuable contributions to fighting anti-scientific global warming hysteria.

R.I.P. Michael.

Update: Obituary (and review of 'Next') by Mark Steyn.

Oh, crap!

I just got back from the movies (Clint Eastwood's Changeling - excellent movie, by the way) and turn to CNN and see that Obama has won. So much for my Hope! Now we have to Hope that Obama and the Dems won’t Change too much for the worse.

Next I switched to CTV News and there’s Bob Fife telling us that:

"the Conservatives are actually quite excited about having Obama in power because they see a breakthrough on the environment."

Oh, crap! CTV’s worse than CNN! And if what that twit Fife said is anywhere near accurate then my own party is out to lunch.

I’m hitting the sack. Maybe I’ll wake up tomorrow and find that this was all just a bad dream. Otherwise it's a nightmare!

Election day - what an Obama victory would mean

I like this from Mark Steyn:

Earlier I wrote that "If you don't want an Obama-Pelosi-Reid-Frank-Acorn supermajority, there's only one way to stop it: Vote." A reader responds:

Okay, but if Obama and the Democrats win, can we at least acknowledge that it's what people do want?

In democratic systems, the people are free to screw up their own societies. An Obama victory would be a tragedy for this country and for the world. It would be a flight to fantasy and delusion, and a repudiation of the animating principles of America. It would also be profoundly unbecoming for the citizenry of a mature republic to vote for therapeutic fatuities like "hope" and "change".

But that is the people's prerogative. The way to forestall such discussions is to get out and run up the numbers.

Don't screw it up, America!

Election eve

On the eve of the U.S. election comes this very effective presentation via Blazing Cat Fur reminding us of the Dem's role in the financial crisis and of the socialist Obama's background, role and agenda.

One frame of many:

Black reviews Atwood

I never doubted that Conrad Black would make good use of his time in jail. It’s hard to imagine the author of biographies of Roosevelt, Nixon and Duplessis whiling away the hours wallowing in self pity or otherwise wasting his time. Aside from being highly intelligent, educated, industrious and intellectually energetic the guy is well connected with the publishing field. All he needs is a library, a pencil and paper (even the roll in his cell would do) and he’s in business as a serious writer.

The latest example of his time well spent is his review of Margaret Atwood’s recent CBC Massey Lectures Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth. As is fashionable in leftist circles Atwood attempts to justify an anti-capitalist line of thinking that links the world’s moral and material woes to financial culprits. Conrad admires Atwood’s talent:

Payback is well written, even by Margaret Atwood’s very high standards, and is an etymological tour de force, ... a stimulating, learned and stylish read from an eminent author writing from a heartfelt perspective.

But he isn’t buying her "heartfelt" thesis. Atwood’s references to Faustian pacts with the Devil, Ebenezer Scrooge, The Merchant of Venice, Henry VIII and many others are skillfully rebutted with Black concluding:

I don’t really see a straight line from the Egyptian Crocodile God to the Cockroach Spirit, and the economic-terrorists have oversold the green scare.

Excellent stuff [via the Post]. Now wait for the letters of praise along with more futile calls for the Post to keep ‘the criminal Black’ out of its pages.

Obamamania - Trudeaumania or Meech/Charlettowne

The polls all say it’s Obama. There’s hardly an MSM news anchor, political pundit or late-night comic who isn’t enthusiastically cheering Obama on. Almost all of the ‘elites’ are in the tank for Obama. That’s not just in the U.S. - Europeans and Canadians are every bit as enthusiastic, if not more so. Every Canadian poll shows a much bigger margin favouring Obama than the American polls. Hell, even al-Qaeda likes him.

So it looks like Obama can’t lose. He’s a shoo-in. It's like Tudeaumania in 60's when Trudeau got a big thumbs-up from the voters. On the other hand, more recently, the elites, the pundits, the media, politicians were nearly unanimously in favour of the Charlettowne Accord - which the voters gave a thumbs-down.

I’m betting Obama’s been over-hyped and the voters aren’t buying it. McCain will win.

HRC speech censorship - Harper responds

Ezra Levant is encouraged by Stephen Harper’s response to CFRB’s Brian Lilley who asked the PM if his government would be addressing the issue of HRC's censorship of the press.

Lilley’s question:

... the issue of the human rights commission, we have seen both federal and provincial human rights commissions taking media organizations, journalists eforbe them to justify what they have written and I was wondering if your government will be touching that topic?

and Harper’s answer:

In terms of the free speech issues and some of the activities of human rights commissions, I think that everyone has had some concerns about this. This is a complicated area of law, balancing what most people understand to mean by free speech with obvious desire to not have speech that would be intended to incite hatred towards particular groups or individuals. I think some of the most egregious cases, if you actually look at this, are in provincial human rights commission and obviously, you know I can't control or comment on that. I think there has been some - I think the Canadian human rights commission has been moderating some of what - some of its practices a little bit recently to respond to some of these concerns and I hope that will continue.

That sounds a bit limp to me. Here’s Harper’s position in 1999 (from Kathy Shaidle’s "The Tyranny of Nice"):

"Human Rights Commissions, as they are evolving, are an attack on our fundamental freedoms and basic existence of a democratic society...It is in fact totalitarianism. I find this very scary stuff."

PM Harper’s response was certainly hyper-cautious compared to citizen Harper’s. To some extent I suppose that’s understandable. Staying in power is a tricky business , especially for conservatives in these ultra-sensitive, politically correct times. You have to know which fights to pick and when to fight them. Though surely at some point defending "fundamental freedoms" has to rise to the top of the priority list.

Ezra suggested that now might be a good time to e-mail the Prime Minister and encourage him to take action. Done.