"One should doubtless keep an open mind...though open at both ends, like the food pipe, and have a capacity for excretion as well as intake." -- Northrop Frye, 'The Great Code'
On the left running for the NDP stands journalist Linda McQuaig, co-author of The Trouble With Billionaries, a book that plays to ancient leftist theories of alienation ... She prescribes tax rates of up to 70% and radical confiscation of the assets of the wealthy ...
Ms. McQuaig came out swinging Monday with a direct video challenge to her opponent, Liberal candidate Chrystia Freeland. “Hi Chrystia. It’s Linda McQuaig!” says Ms. McQuaig in her best innocent-friendly trap-setting manner. “You’ve written a book on income inequality and I’ve written a book on income inequality.” But they are very different books, she says, with very different policy prescriptions. So let’s have a debate, one on one, “any time, anywhere.”
Ms. Freeland’s book isPlutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-rich and the Fall of Everyone Else. The premise is false—everyone else has not fallen. ... To say that Plutocrats is “very different” from Ms. McQuaig’s The Trouble with Billionaires is somewhat misleading. ... Both books are identical in their foundations, political tracts that popularize class warfare ... her analysis is no less Marxist in its origins. She frequently quotes Karl Marx, the granddaddy of state socialism. Marx, she says, understood the dangers of a capitalist class ...
... The poor voters of Toronto Centre are about to get a heavy doseof such crypto-Marxist revivalism. ...
William Watson predicts what a Canadian marijuana industry would look like if Justin should become PM. For starters, complete takeover by governments and unions:
... Provincial and territorial Cannabis Control Boards ... Board stores, naturally, will be unionized ... The Boards may engage in advertising campaigns ... Sales outside Board stores will be illegal ... GST, PST and/or HST ... Canadian Cannabis Marketing Board ... interprovincial sales of marijuana will be strictly prohibited ... Canadian Cannabis Exporting Agency ...
... with prices to match. And, on top of all that, pot will be subjected to the same health and safety regulations that apply to tobacco (eg. for control of second-hand smoke in public places).
Patients spent the first two weeks of September waiting as long as four days in Peace Arch Hospital [White Rock, BC] without treatment for serious conditions ...
... patients have been imperilled and nurses have felt “abandoned” – some reduced to tears – because of the situation.
... some had been waiting for days for doctors to administer treatment for such conditions as heart attacks, strokes, bleeding disorders, pneumonia and serious infections.
... [The whistle-blower also charges that special doctor subsidies at a Surrey hospital are drawing doctors away from Peace Arch Hospital]. ...
Danielle Smith’s position on climate change — not allegations of bigotry in the Wildrose party — killed her chance to end the Progressive Conservative dynasty, says former Tory premier Ed Stelmach.
... “These are serious matters,” he told reporters ... “You’re going to go to Europe today and tell them you don’t believe in climate change? And you are going to sell them oil?” ...
First, all Danielle Smith said was that the science wasn't settled and would be monitored.
Second, it's unlikely that many Albertans who were sold on AGW were going to vote Wildrose anyway.
... Moody’s downgraded the province’s credit rating from Aa1 to Aa2 on Thursday, on Wednesday Standard & Poor’s downgraded its outlook for the province to negative.
With Moody’s downgrade, Ontario joins the lowest of three tiers that provinces sit at.
Alberta and British Columbia enjoy an Aaa rating, while Saskatchewan and Manitoba sit at Aa1. Ontario was downgraded to Aa2, the lowest rating shared by the rest of the provinces. ...
Take that McGuinty! And the dopes who elected you (along with, unfortunately, those who didn't).
Further to my two previous posts here's a video of Grant Mitchell bloviating on climate change:
Mitchell is a closed-minded true believer. I left these comments at YouTube where Grant's approval is required. Will he approve?
There is no scientific debate about AGW? Really? If Mitchell believes this it's because he keeps his head buried in the sand, listening only to proponents of the AGW hypothesis and catastrophic AGW alarmists. The scientific literature is replete with peer reviewed work that is at odds with that hypothesis. Open your closed mind Senator Mitchell, and learn to think for yourself.
Excellent presentations by very credible people - Ross McKitrick, Ian Clark, Jan Veizer and Tim Patterson. There was a goofy event during Ian Clark's (U of Ottawa) briefing on CO2 and the paleoclimate record in which he used several graphs which unfortunately were not being displayed. The chair, Senator Angus interrupted Prof Clark (at about the 27 min mark) to explain that the graphs were not being broadcast to TV and web audiences because they were not bilingual. Idiotic but, hey, this is Canada. Happily, this lead to a good discussion by Clark of greenhouse gases and the dishonesty exposed by the Climategate emails.
Professor Patterson hit one of my favourite contentions - that global cooling is a much greater threat than warming, especially to Canada. If we were properly looking out for our own interests we'd be promoting anything that might lead to warming not trying to suppress it.
Senator Paul Massicotte (Liberal) brought up the "concensus" issue. He asked why should he, a non-technical political decision maker, believe the skeptics when the vast majority of scientists including government scientists believe in AGW? Tim Patterson attempted an answer but Massicotte wasn't impressed.
Senator Banks (Liberal) believes that we should be following the precautionary principle. Gaaakk! He laid out four extreme but uncertain scenarios and asked: Where should we place our bet? McKitrick responded that Banks had set up an impossibly difficult decision-making problem and suggested that rather than betting on one of a set of bad options a carbon tax based on global temperature could be set up (McKitrick's T3 Tax).
Senator Richard Neufeld (Conservative) said he agreed with Massicotte. They hear from scientists on one side that it that it's so simple, AGW is happening [probably that's all that they've heard until this session] and from the other side not so or not necessarily so. He said he's not sold either way and asked how many scientists would be "on the same wave length" as the four presenters. "Are there a lot of them? Are they just quiet? Why are they quiet? Because the other side is very loud." [Good point! Thank you Senator!] The chair, Sen Angus, then spoke up to confirm that the committee had heard much, much more from AGW true-believers (not his words) than from skeptics. Good answer from Prof. Veiser starting with a bandwagon analogy and his experience with bandwagon thinking in communist Czekoslovakia. He moved on to the corruption in the UN IPCC process, including suppression of contrary views and intimidation tactics.
Senator Robert Peterson (Liberal) brought up the tipping point ("break point" or catastrophic AGW) scare. Clark said these "break points" are based on speculation about the predictability of how climate will behave. Climate is too complex to reliably predict. He referred to such talk as "alarmist" and "wild speculation" (giving as an example the prediction by the scientific advisor to the British government that "in 100 years the only habitable place on the planet will be Antartica").
More to follow (next post) re idiot Senator Grant Mitchell's disgraceful, insulting remarks (see video at 1hr 50 min mark).
In a post yesterday I wrote that there was little appreciation in Canada of the British origins of of our liberty.
I realize I should acknowledge that a few do have such an appreciation - as proved (in spades) by William D. Gairdner in his recent book "The Trouble With Canada - Still!":
The wheat monopoly is as good as gone. Now the dairy cartel needs to be put down. William Watson responds to a column by Wally Smith, head of the Dairy Farmers of Canada:
... [US vs Cdn prices per 4 liters] Three and two-thirds bucks compared to more than six bucks. Anybody feeling milked? If not hosed?
... Why we pay more for dairy products couldn’t be simpler: Our dairy cartel artificially restricts supply.
... To make the legalized price gouging work, of course, it’s necessary to keep cheaper alternatives out of the market. Which is why, in addition to police protection against excessive production in Canada, we have enforcement at the border via outrageously high tariffs: 241% to 295.5%, including 277% for ice cream. Imagine! A country that puts punitive taxes on ice cream!
... Mr. Smith’s main justification for output restriction is that before it came along, dairy prices would fluctuate. ... (Note that one of OPEC’s official aims is “the stabilization of prices in international oil markets with a view to eliminating harmful and unnecessary fluctuations.” All cartels believe devoutly in “stabilization".)
The dairy cartel should go the way of the Wheat Board. But it'll be a tougher nut to crack given that it's a shared federal/provincial jurisdiction.
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Watched Canada Day coverage on SNN.
Switched to CBC to check out the taxpayer funded "entertainment".
Watched for 6 minutes, so, let's see, that's 2 X $1.1B/33million = $66.67 for 6 minutes of CBC viewing over the last year. [Note to self: Send snotgram to James Moore.]
Switched back to SNN.
The vote was 294 Yeas to 1 Nay. Lizzy May was the only hold-out. Even the Bloc and the NDP went for it. Impressive for such an iffy, ill-defined mission. What is it about Obama's wars?
4:10 PM PST
Why am I watching this? Because I'm a masochist, that's why!
It's the coalition against Stephen Harper. The three of them each get a turn hammering him, repeatedly calling him a liar.
Mr. Harper looks calm and composed and responds competently and politely.
Iggy is pained and angry looking and shrill sounding, hectoring and lecturing Harper on his "dishonesty". Though he's got a few more hand motions and eyebrow lifts to supplement his thumb pointing. Stephen looks back at him with a patient smile :)
Layton accuses Harper of calling the coalition names. Pot, kettle?
It's election time in Canada, so this may be the last chance I have to mock Michael Ignatieff's ill-fated venture into politics before he returns to the halls of academe or the green rooms of the BBC. ...
The Harper Rally starts in less than 2 hours. I had best be on my way.
Update: Good rally of about 500-700 enthusiastic folks. Harper's speech was excellent, as usual. Two main themes: "coalition" and "unnecessary, foolish election" - though Canada's done relatively well compared with the rest of the developed world - this is no time to waste time and money playing political games.
Answer the question Mr. Ignatieff. In the event of a minority Conservative Party election result might Canadians be treated to a rebirth of the Liberal, NDP, BQ coalition?
An on the record “yes” or “no” would be preferred. “Maybe” would be acceptable.
Good question. That has to be the top consideration for voters this time around. A coalition of losers needing BQ support cannot be a very appealing prospect.
... voters overwhelmingly rejected proposals that would have obliged some two million gun owners in the country to keep their weapons in public arsenals rather than at home.
.... 3,000 gun clubs, which function as key social centres in hundreds of villages.
... no national firearms register in Switzerland. ... unofficial estimates suggest there are between 2 million and 3 million guns kept in Swiss households.
Let's face it, this is all about politics - votes, pure and simple. Wall is pandering to Sask voter socialist/nationalist sentiment and Harper is afraid of losing 13 Conservative seats. It's embarassing watching conservatives attempting to rationalize it as something more
Peter Foster observes how Tory Agriculture Minister, Gerry Ritz (like sda and others) twists himself into a ridiculous pretzel trying to defend the decision, concluding:
... This is a bad deal for Saskatchewan and a bad deal for Canada. Potash shares have been robbed of any takeover premium since they have effectively been declared off limits to foreign buyers. Investment Canada rules now appear more opaque — or irrelevant — than ever. As usual, the most significant losses will be the invisible ones: the investments not made, the jobs not created.
And, moreover:
One knowledgeable observer to whom I spoke yesterday said that it was difficult to get worked up over the notion of Canada as a banana republic because other jurisdictions do similar things. But the fact that other countries practice destructive economic policies to court populist electorates and mercantilist executives should hardly be a source of comfort. Mr. Harper understands that. Within 30 days his government is going to have to pretend that it doesn’t.
Did we miss the constitutional change — the one that created the Peoples’ Republic of Saskatchewan, with Brad Wall as el presidente?
Sounding ever so much like the head of some mosquito-ridden developing country squeezing dollars out of a multinational mining giant, Mr. Wall has been running an aggressive campaign against BHP Billiton’s $38.6-billion plan to take over Potash Corp.
... Mr. Wall seems to think Potash is still a Crown corporation of some sort, and he’s the new socialist head of state.
... The banana republic comparison may seem a little harsh, but the idea comes from the widely reported news that Mr. Wall or his negotiating minions actually asked BHP to pay a billion dollars up front into government coffers.
... trying to get a multinational to pay a billion dollars in taxes in advance smacks of a Third World shakedown by a political leader looking for cash to distribute to voters.
... If all this is true —and there has been no government denial to date —it paints a dark picture of the political culture in Saskatchewan —and Canada....
So much for Wall's strong support of free markets. Populist politics trump principles, again.
... Why doesn't Potash Corp team up with Agrium and Mosaic and buy out BHP?
Certainly they've heard of reverse takeovers, haven't they? Maybe they're not interested in staying in business though. Or maybe the head of Potash Corp, Mr. Doyle, really does want to cash out his $500,000,000 in shares and severance payments and head home to Chicago. This is where he is apparently running Potash Corp from anyway. ... And as far as protecting the province's resource interests … didn't we once have an oil company known as SaskOil that begot Wascana that begot Nexen that kinda got dismantled and moved to Calgary? What happened there?
Anybody heard of Ipsco? Something called Evraz now owns it and no Saskatchewan-based corporate presence of note can be found there, at least not since Roger Phillips retired. If we can't build a head office base here in Saskatchewan after 120 years of trying, then maybe we just have to accept our fate and be happy with royalty payments, decent payrolls and strong employment figures while the profits and decision making head elsewhere. ... Sherritt Coal and oil companies like Penn West and many others don't sweat the fact that their major administrative decisions are made in places other than Saskatchewan. SaskPower doesn't mind shifting management decisions to an Ontario corporation … it's all part of the never-ending game, especially in the resource sector....
"It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences." -- C. S. Lewis
