WHAT??

Let's get this straight. If a ministerial aid screws up or interferes with the function of the ministry, they cannot be questioned by parliament committees who are looking into the screw-up. The Minister will take the blame for the screw-up because of the joke term ministerial responsibility. Not too friggin' likely.

Two major problems. A minister can claim to have no first hand knowledge of the infraction... therefore plausible deny-ability. Second... a minister cannot be compelled to testify. Maybe legally he/she has to appear but in reality there are ten thousand ways to get out of it.

And what about the current case wherein the minister is in fact the prime minister. Is he going to testify? Not too friggin' likely. He doesn't even need an excuse - he just says, no thanks.

So what's next for Harpo and his band of cretins? They can pass a regulation to eliminate ministerial responsibility. Think that they can't? Just wait.

Maybe they could cancel the G8 and G20 and use the $930 million earmarked for security to set up a new government department. It could consist of five hundred Con patronage appointees who are charged with taking the fall when ministerial aids screw up. They could be put on contracts so that when they are fired for things that they did not do -they get no severance pay.

Easter has it right

Wayne Easter asked a question in the Commons on Friday.  It went something like this:  "Why, when a senior diplomat like Richard Colvin comes forward with information on the Afghan detainees, does the government dismiss him as dealing in innuendo, but when some third rate private dick make a statement that a junior minister may have done something wrong, the government not only takes it at face value but you dump the minister?

Wayne has asked the crucial question that brings into crystal clear focus the complete lack of credibility of President Steve.

Bye, bye Steve

Good move Steve.  Helena was an anvil around your ankle and she had to go.  Too bad you didn't come clean when you announced her ouster in your press conference.

You can be said to be strategic by your minions but, in reality, you are sapping out.  By referring the issue about which you just learned to the RCMP, you think that your no comment will be sufficient.   Wrong!

For the sake of clarity, the RCMP has to one day announce what they are investigating and if they find no evidence then they will be accused of a cover up. And given their track record of late, the allegations will be justified.

Mr. President -  Steve - you are a one-person wrecking ball.  It is time for you to go.  Please.

Worse than Helena?

The Helena/Rahim Affair misunderstanding(s) are out of control.  As sordid as their lives are, the real BIG loser in this whole thing is President Steve.  It is one thing to be perceived as supporting his ministers but when do you give it up?

I can't help wondering what Bill Casey thinks of Harper's defense of Helena?  After all, Bill was banished from the whole geesly party for voting against a government bill.

Harper is looking like a real loser.

Now comes the story that Steve's reaction to the pardoning (three years ago) of a sex offender flies in the face of a plan put in place, also three years ago, by Stockboy Day.

Not only does Harper see parliament as irrelevant, he now sees his own government as irrelevant.  Sounds a bit familiar to historians.

Enough with the rhetoric. Get something done.

The Throne Speech was filled with orange marmalade but without the peel.  It tastes good but has no substance.

Take two of the lofty goals (and I don't include the change to the anthem or Senior's Day) for example.

"We will freeze public sector wages", states the document.  Sounds good on the surface but the reality is that the current civil service contract does not expire until 2011 so this promise does nothing to help our current crisis.

"We will freeze PM and MP salaries and ministerial budgets."  Sounds good but, as a result of redistribution the government is adding 26 more MPs to the payroll in the near future.  That's $50 million more dollars at a time of wage and budget freezes.  And let's not lose sight of the fact that if President Steve elevates his whole caucus to the height of Parliamentary Secretary for something or other, he can give raises without raising rates.

The devil is in the details.

Expect a contract to be put out on Kevin Page

President Steve has got to be cursing the day he made Kevin Page the Parliamentary Budget Officer. After all, Steve is in charge and what he says is the Word of God. That a mere mortal, such as Page, should contradict the Word of God is good reason to strike with a bolt of lightning.

The current misunderstanding between God and Page is over the chance of Canada entering a period of structural deficit. In a recent report (Page ignored the edict from above to vacate the Hill during prorogation), Page opined that there was going to be a structural deficit going forward if the government did not make the right (according to him) moves.

"Unfortunately, you've got to start dealing with the structural fiscal problem that's going to get bigger and bigger and bigger," Page said in an interview, "We're saying right now the government has no targets. That's not a good place to be. We don't know how much of this debt is going to be passed on to future generations."

Not so, insists Harper. "If we do what we've said we'll do, which is end stimulus spending when the recession is over. . . and if we discipline spending growth in the future, I don't think that should be a serious problem. If you look at Canada's deficit compared to other countries, it is much lower, and more importantly our debt levels are much, much lower. So the possibility of getting into a debt-interest-payment trap is, in my judgment, not high."

Well who can you believe? Page, who calls a spade a freaking shovel? Or Harper, who refused to see an economic tsunami coming and had to be pushed into acting?

I know who I believe.

“When a government starts trying to cancel dissent or avoid dissent is frankly when it’s rapidly losing its moral authority to govern.”

Sounds like a very enlightened comment.  Surely worthy of being quoted now that Stevey Harper has decided that Parliament is a thorn in his side and that democracy is not good for Canadians.

I wonder who it was who said that?  Let me look that up in my quote encyclopedia.

No!  It can't be.  The sage advice is a quote from Steven Harper in a Canadian Press interview on April 18, 2005.

Hypocrit!

Is this any way to run a country?

The shear arrogance of Harper is clear in this work!

For a PM who ran on a platform of transparency and accountability, his arrogance and true nature shines through like a beacon in the fog.  Beware the beacon!

Off to the slammer with them!

Jason Kenny seems to have a problem.  A bunch of Tamils showed up in an old boat in Victoria asking for the keys to Canada.  This has the entire Con government in a deep quandry. 

If they accept the "refugees" they will be heroes to some and dumbos to the majority.  If they reject them and send them back to Sri Lanka they will lose the crucial Tamil-Canadian vote.  And when you are salivating for a majority government there is no such thing as a bad vote.
 
The Law and Order Party recently decided that their new prisons are good enough for Canadians, so why not put the boat-folks in prison until the refugee system can get around to granting them landed status.

It's a win scenario, Steve.  The Tamils see you soft on refugees and the Con mouth-breathers see you strong on crime.

No need to thank me for the advice.  Just send one of those big Con Party/Gov of Canada cheques to help fix my basement.

The devil is in the details

In 2007 the Cons passed a law to fix election dates. At the time, Rob Nicholson, then-Minister of Democratic Reform and now the Minister of Justice, declared that the measures restricted the prime minister from calling an election unless a vote of no-confidence occurred before October 19, 2009.

Then in 2008, Harper called an election based on the excuse that parliament wasn't working. There was no confidence vote involved, just Harper's imagination at work.

So in 2009, Democracy Watch takes the government to court over the issue and a judge rules that:

"The matter of convention in this set of circumstances is political in nature and is outside the jurisdiction of the court, bearing in mind the separation of powers under constitutional supremacy."

That, but the way is legal speak for the government can do whatever to hell it wants and we have nothing to say about it.

Another nail in the coffin of true democracy brought to you by the Ministry of Democratic Reform?

War is Peace and Freedom is Slavery

Mr. Harper goes to Washington

Obama flew into Ottawa in January.  He was met at the airport by the Governor General and a guard of RCMP.  He them moved on to Parliament Hill and was met by Harper behind a wall of bullet proof glass.

Harper flies into Washington in September and is met at the airport by a Hertz Car Rental representative and a guard of baggage handlers.  He then drives to the White House where he is greeted by the the Assistant-Person for Making-sure-that-you-use-right-fork-for-the-salad, or something, behind a wall of rose bushes.

I am all a tingle for Steve.

Cons buy off Socialists?

Has Harper bought Layton with a billion dollars plan to help the unemployed in NDP ridings?  Shame, shame.

It is odd, however, that Harper would even offer the bribe.  Only a few months ago the Cons were saying the cost to bring equity to the EI program by eliminating the 58 EI qualification regions would cost a billion dollars and they could not afford it.  Shame, shame.

Harper does it again

So a reporter in Waterloo asks PM Harper about the issue of a Canadian being held as a criminal in Kenya at the request of the Canadian government.  His answer?

McGuinty has screwed up on e-Health Records

Good answer Steve.  NOT!

Odd times on the Hill

We all know about the furor that Jason Kenny kicked off by requiring Mexicans to get visas to visit Canada.  Kenny's reasoning is that too many bogus refugees are fleeing Mexico to try and get to Canada and that it is clogging our system.  Never mind that a big piece of the problem is that half of the seats on the IRB are currently waiting to be filled by Harper cronies.

How does the issue square with a tri-lateral meeting that Harper is attending, August 8-11 in Mexico, with Obama and Calderón as part of the discussions on the Security and Prosperity Partnership.

Will the spat begun by Kenny evaporate before August 11 to save Harper's ass?  And if not will Harper need a visa to attend the meeting?

Let's wait and see.

Harper stays the course

Last fall Harper stated that the economy was strong and that Canada will never have a deficit. A few weeks later he admitted that maybe things weren't so rosy. A few after that, he admits that we might have smaller than expected surpluses and that dips in the TSE were "buying" opportunities.

By January he predicted a slight deficit of to cover his stimulus package. Then the estimate grew to $34 billion and then to over $50 billion.

He then tells us that the budget will be balanced in five years and that the debt will rise by only $100 billion.

In the meantime, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, M. Page, who Harper hates with a passion, predicted that the deficits will continue after Harper's target date and the debt will rise by $156 billion.

"Dumb", says Harper. Almost all economists must be dumb also, cause they agree with Page.

It reminds of the old military story that a mother was watching her son on the parade square and she remarked, with pride, "My son is the only one in step". Harper must be the only one in step.

Next comes that declaration that Harper will not raise taxes or cut programs to balance the budget. Then just yesterday he clarified it all by stating that he will not cut taxes or slash programs to meet an arbitrary deadline for balancing the budget.

So let's get this straight -- Harper tells us that the PBO is dumb to suggest that the deficits will last longer than he declares and that he will not raise taxes or cut programs. Then he tells us that he will not raise taxes or cut programs just to meet the dates that he has already stated?

Stay tune -- the next logical thing for Harper to say is he may have to raise taxes or cut programs to get the country's budget balanced. But you can be sure that he will find someway to blame it on the Liberals.

Who is the dumb one now, Pinocchio?

How to make government work

Michael Ignatieff has it right.  The Dippers and the Bloc have it wrong.  Harper just doesn't get it.

The IT is how to make government work given that we will probably never again see a majority government.in this country.

Cooperation and transparency.  That's IT.

Read the budget before you decide to vote against it, Jack and Gilles.

Talk with the opposition before you try to bully legislation through the House, Stephen.

Keep an open mind and your eye on what is good for Canadians, Michael.

That is the way to get government to work in Canada.

A tax on us all to pander to the uninformed?

To say that these so-called attack ads the the Cons are aiming at Iggy are lame, would be charitable.  They are slightly right of stupid.  But, you know, the ads are not aimed at me or possibly at you.  Attack ads are aimed at those folks that do not follow, or care to follow, political debate or happenings and get their news from TV.

Fair enough, I suppose.  Lead them by the nose until you win their minds?  Pretty callus way to treat the serious business of governance, but then all parties have done it once or twice.  The Cons are just the masters of the black-art.

Let's look at the realistic side of attack ads.  The Cons say that they are paying for the ads and maybe they are.  But who funds the Cons and how is that funding received?  The reality is that you and I are funding the Cons attack ads.  The ads, by some estimates, have cost around $3 million so far.  Since contributions to political parties receive tax receipts equal to seventy five percent of the contribution, that means that there will be approximately $2.2 million in subsidy through the tax department to fund the stupidity.

Did anyone ask you if you wanted to contribute to the attack ads?  They certainly did not ask me.

Regulate the regulators?

I am not a great fan of government regulation.  The problems with government is they tend to go overboard in their regulation zeal trying to make one policy fit all.  When exceptions pop up, so too new regulations.

Sometimes the best regulation is none at all... but not in all cases.

The case for regulation.  The Con government is trying to back door Bill C-7.  C-7 is An Act to Amend the Aviation Act.  Get that?  This is an Act to amend an Act.  You can't just amend an Act; you have to pass an Act to amend an Act.  But let's not get off topic.  C-7 was originally called C-6 but C-6 died at first reading in 2007 when Harpo called an election.  C-7 was introduced at third reading by Harpo but it also died when the Cons defeated themselves and called another election.

Now C-7 is being contemplated to be enacted.  Notice that I said enacted not passed.  The Con government wants to enact the regulations contained within C-7 without bringing them to a vote in the Commons.  They have the right to do this of course.  I do not argue against that right.  So what's my point?

The Cons want to amend the Aviation Act to allow for something called a Safety Management System (SMS).  What you may ask is an SMS?  I had no idea what it was until I attended a round table discussion on Aviation Safety this week on the Hill.  All MPs and Senators were invited by the NDP transport critic to attend the round table to hear from people in the know.  Two Dippers attended and no-one else.  What did the others miss?

They missed first person stories of how Transport Canada has screwed up airline safety regulation in this country to the point that they will, through the provisions of faux-C-7, now get out of the business of regulating airlines all together.  From now on, if the Cons and Transport Canada get their way, there will be no more government inspections of airlines or airplanes in Canada.  Those inspections will be done by the airlines themselves.

Doesn't that give you a warm feeling in the special spot?  Cause, don't forget that we are not just talking about Air Canada and Westjet.  We are also talking about air taxis, air ambulances, bush companies and a myriad of other medium and small companies who will now regulate themselves.  The body count will rise thanks to Harpo and his band of idiots.  Don't believe me?  Take a look at what has happened in the financial industry since they became self-regulating.

As I told the round table committee, it is interesting to note that govenment will inspect a six foot non-structural wall that I build in my basement but they will not inspect a plane designed to carry 10s and 100s of men, women and children.

SMS was designed to augment government inspections and regulation; not replace it.

Now let's take a look at the other side of the coin.  At a Food Safety Town Hall meeting last night, we learned that farmer's markets were regulated as if they were five star restaurants.  We also learned that, by simply changing a regulation, a local farmer can lose his organic farm status even though his farming practice has not changed in thirty years.  The regulators claim to know farming better that the farmers. 

We regulate the hell out our local food produced.  We inspect it at every point in the system from production to consumption but, we do not, or can not, regulate the food that we bring in from outside the country.  That is why we get melamine in our melons from China.

All in all, it is a bad time to be a Canadian.

The dangers of being in Harper

In case anyone is confused, there is only one person I would prefer to replace Harpo as PM of Canada.  That person is anyone else in Canada.  Harpo came into national leadership with the aura of "my shit don't stink".  Well guess what?   His shit do stink.

Let's take a quick look at some of the problems of being Stephen. 

First, you can accuse the government of all kinds of nasty things when you sit on the sidelines with the National Citizens Coalition, but when you become PM all the nastiness falls at your feet.  How you handle them makes you a future statesman or a future putz.  Take for example the current CRA scandal-in-the-making.  When in opposite-position, Harpo blamed everything to do with the sponsorship scandal on Liberal politicians rather than a few corrupt civil servants.  Now as the CRA construction scandal begins to unfold, Harpo dives for cover while making sure that it is well known that this issue is the fault of a few corrupt civil servants.  Don't swallow too hard Steve... you might take your dentures down with your foot.

Second, Harpo has boasted that he built his party out of two disparate entities, the ProgCons and the Reformers.  Now we see that this experiment did not succeed as is evident by how the new party treats one B. Mulroney (RIP).  The Reformers spit on his image while the ProgCons exalt in his shadow.  Two people separated by a common party.

Finally, so not as to overload you with too much detail, let's look at the detritus that Harpo has surrounding himself with.  A larger collection of swollen egos has never been seen in Canada as congregates in the Conservative caucus on the Hill.  When Harpo's in town, the caucus bows down to his every command, but when he is in Europe telling everyone who will listen that his government is the best thing since multiple orgasms and that His country is best situated to come out this recession (That would be the recession, by the way, that Harpo, the economist, could not predict until after it hit his windshield.), they fight like cats.   This is a caucus in love with itself.

Got to get a chuckle from Harper

Stephen Harper, an economist by training, is the PM that could not predict the coming economic storm even as late as two weeks before it stuck in full force. This is the same yahoo who goes to the G20 meeting in Britain and has the cohones to state that we are over the worst of it and that things should start improving.

What he actually said was, "Notwithstanding that the employment effects are growing, becoming real on people, the worse aspects of instability, I do believe are behind us." That sounds pretty positive. But then he follows up with a statement that he can't tell us when the end will be but everything will be stable from here on out.

Interesting. He can't see the oncoming train wreck but he can tell us when it is past.

Typical economist. Who says you can't have it both ways?