Iggy's Senate reforms

According to CTV News:

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff laid out some broad Senate reform ideas Sunday, including term limits and a curb on the prime minister's ability to stack the Upper House with his own picks.

... More specifically, Ignatieff proposed a 12-year term limit on Senate positions and an arms-length committee tasked with vetting candidates.

Amazing! The only time a Liberal would ever suggest curbing the PM's ability to "stack the Upper House" is when a Conservative is in power and threatening to gain a majority there. And twelve year terms? Don't the Consrvatives favour 8 year limits?

And this was the result of an accompanying poll earlier in the day (Oddly it's disappeared from sight and has been replaced with one unrelated to this topic. I wonder why?Now here.):

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Glenn Beck #2 after Oprah

According to a recent Harris Poll:












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Glenn Beck alone is worth my subscription to Fox News.

Who's signing up to Copenhagen?

So far, nearly nobody:

Only four countries -- Australia, Canada, Papua New Guinea and the Maldives -- have signed the Copenhagen Accord so far ...

That's some list! Way to go Canada, that puts us in great company - a country run by a leftist AGW loon and two real nobodies.

Meanwhile the countries generating the greatest growth in atmospheric CO2 are sensibly re-thinking things:

The Indian and Chinese governments have had a rethink on signing the Copenhagen Accord, officials said on Saturday...

And, moreover:

With the Democrats losing in one of their strongholds, the chances
of the climate bill going through the US senate have receded dramatically.

[via FOS]

Update: To be fair and upfront, after further searching I admit it's difficult to find anything regarding Canada having "signed" on to the Copenhagen Accord. There's nothing to that effect on Environment Canada's webpages. And outside of the above link I could find no direct statements saying so. Another source reporting from New Delhi said:

... Canada, Australia, the Maldives and Papua New Guinea have disclosed
their intention to sign the Copenhagen Accord.

As for Canada's actual position coming out of COP 15, it's summarized reasonably well by the CBC here (and here). The video summary also shows that, as we all know by now, climate "activists" absolutely detest Harper's climate policy. So kudos to the Harper government for at least achieving that much.

The Prorogue Score - Harper is an amateur

So, Iggy and the Libs want to change the rules for proroguing parliament. Just for the record, here, from Lenny Walkerville (comment no. 5) [see update below], is the Liberal history:

Compared to a few Liberal PM’s, Stephen Harper is a proroguing amateur.

Chretien 4, Harper 2.

35th Parliament Chretien 1996/2/2

36th Parliament 1999/9/18

37th Parliament 2002/9/16,2003/11/12 ( the last one was done
to avoid the auditor generals release of the report on Adscam)

And if you really want a lopsided score how about this one:

Trudeau [and Pearson] 11, Harper 2.

26th Parliament Trudeau[Pearson] 1963/12/21,1965/4/3

27th Parliament Trudeau[Pearson] 1967/5/8

28th Parliament Trudeau 1969/10/22,1970/10/7,1972/2/16

29th Parliament Trudeau 1974/2/26

30th Parliament Trudeau 1976/10/12,1977/10/17,1978/10/10,1983/11/30

Now, where was all of the outrage on these 15 prorogation’s, and more importantly why are these numbers not front and center in the multitude of MSM stories on the topic?

Faux media led outrage at its best..

BTW Parliament is not prorogued until January 25th and will only last for 22 sitting days so when ever you hear such things as it lasting “3months” or statements implying that it is already prorogued, or that is unconstitutional etc, feel free to call BS on whomever said it and let them know we are on to their lies.

In our 143 years of existence as Canada, Parliament has been prorogued 105 times.

That is an average of about once every 1.4 years that this, very legal and constitutionally granted power, has been used.

Good job, Lenny Alberta Ardvark!

Update: It seems that Lenny may have cribbed from Alberta Ardvark's post. Also corrections have been made above to properly attribute the 26th and 27th Parliaments to Pearson.

Upperdate: Yesterday Ardvark also pointed to Bob Rae's record for proroguing the Ontarion legislature and notes that both of Harper's prorogues have been very short in comparison and produced budgets at their conclusion. "Ha!" Once again, why is it that info like this is so sparsely reported in the MSM? And the obvious answer is: they're more interested spreading partisan bullcrap and/or they're incompetent.

UpperUpperdate: It's been pointed out (in the comments) that Harper's current prorogue will actually be his 3rd - one in the 39th Parliament and two in the 40th Parliament.

Naomi Klein at the Sundance Festival

Gaaackk! Naomi Klein’s "The Shock Doctrine" is now a film entered in the 2010 Sundance Film Festival (in the schlockumentary category):

... Not to be outdone by bona fide movie stars, Naomi Klein hits Park City later in the week for the film version of her book Shock Doctrine, directed by Michael Winterbottom and Mat (sic) Whitcross. Klein will appear alongside the filmmakers for a somewhat original premiere that will lead to a discussion moderated by none other than festival founder Robert Redford.

That ought to be an interesting discussion. Klein’s book and film are so bad that even the Toronto Star is panning them. Movies columnist Peter Howell rightly criticizes Klein’s looniest notions, though he still falls for the usual leftist claptrap about Milton Friedman’s connections to various situations around the world.

For some really credible commentary on Klein, "The Shock Doctrine" and Milton Friedman read Peter Foster and Terence Corcoran.

Say, I’ve got an idea! I’ll bet a lot of the Sundance crowd will be wearing Ché teashirts. They might benefit from viewing Glenn Beck’s "The Revolutionary Holocaust - Live Free or Die". Beck should consider entering it in the festival.

Obama vs Tiger - No contest

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[H/t Vinney]

"The Revolutionary Holocaust - Live Free or Die"

Glenn Beck's powerful documentary exposes modern leftist mass murderers and their boosters. Marx, Stalin, Hitler, Ché, Mao, Shaw, Duranty - he hits them all. It's a must see.

Part 1 of 6


Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

Backgrounder.