Green Shift plan?

Dion released his Green Shift plan yesterday. I downloaded a copy of the guide so that I could comment with some facts behind me, rather than just empty rhetoric as which comes out the mouths of the opponents to fixing the climate.

"Mr. Dion's policies are crazy. This is crazy economics. It's crazy environmental policy," blurts PM Harper to anyone who will listen (and the numbers who listen are growing smaller by the day).

Even the ultra left Deputy NDP leader Thomas Mulcair branded the plan "a train wreck of programs..."

Is the plan complete? No. I would prefer that the plan give some more obvious estimates of the effects of the plan on carbon emissions. The Liberals have stated that their goal was to reduce 2020 emissions to a level that will be 20% below the level in 1990. Is that do-able? Certainly the Con and NDP policies of capping emissions won't do it.

Is the plan possible to achieve, especially the revenue neutral part? Both the Cons and the NDP, as well as most of the media gloss over the statement in the plan that the Auditor General will make sure that money in versus money out as outlined in the plan is achieved. Do the Cons, NDP and media not trust the Auditor General?

To underline and personalize the way the plan will work, the Green Shift web site (www.thegreenshift.ca) has a calculator to determine what your tax offset will be under the plan. However, rather than being personal on the cost side, the plan makes a general statement that the cost will be $350 per household, offset by the savings in taxes. We have two vehicles, live in the country and have gas heat. Are we typical? I am not sure.

Have we gone so far to partisanship in this country that we automatically oppose any idea if it isn't our own? Pretty sad state of affairs.

Two sides to an agreement

In my June 12 entry, I applauded Harper for the apology over residential schools, while at the same time wondering how sincere he was; considering that his pet-MP, Perfect PP, was given a clean bill of health by Harper when he (PP) should have been hung and quartered over the timing and tone of his comments about First Nations folks.

I also have a lingering doubt about the sincerity of First Nations folks surrounding this apology... this admission of guilt... on behalf of Canadians.

It is said that there are two parties to an apology. One to make it and one to accept it. We certainly had both parties to the apology on the Hill last week. But it also takes two parties to make an agreement work. I wonder if we have two parties.

I refer to the fact that, on one hand, the federal government does not seem to have a plan in mind to move forward from this apology and, on the other hand, some members of the First Nations seem to think that they have a blank check to screw Canadians.

Take, as example of the latter, the issue at Summerville Lake near Campbell's Bay, Ontario. Cottagers in the area have been told that their land is now part of a land claim and that, according to gun-toting natives, they, the cottagers, have to pay road access fees to local natives who run a camp nearby. The law is on the side of the cottagers with respect to road access and the issue of land claims did not even come up until after the natives bought the nearby camp. Before that there was no land claim. In fact the closest reserve to Summerville Lake is over 60 kilometers away. I wonder if the natives feel emboldened to blackmail Canadians because Canadians apologized for a past problem?

The natives are now saying that they are going to claim the entire Pontiac area of Quebec as their native territory and demand that the government pay them a land claims. Sounds like a money grab to me.

Did you know that 117% of BC is claimed by one native group or another? The First Nations can't agree between themselves which group has an historic right to which territory. It sounds a bit like they are throwing copious amounts of feces at the wall, hoping that some of it will stick.

There are some legitimate land claims and some bogus ones. Will Phil Fontaine and the Assembly of First Nations stand up and be counted to move their relationship with Canadians forward by helping to sort these out?

PP does it ever again

Two hours before PM Harper rises in the Commons to issue an solemn apology from all Canadians to "victims" of the Residential Schools fiasco, his Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board, the Perfect PP, Pierre "potty-mouth" Poilievre does it again. This guy is an embarrassment to the whole country... not just to his constituents!

PP goes on radio and wonders out loud if giving $4 billion to First Nations, as part of the apology, is good value-for-money. (Never mind that he cannot even get the amount right!) He then goes on to suggest that First Nations people are lazy, the cause of their own problems and demands an accounting of the $10 billion given to First Nations yearly.

Even if you have some good points, PP, did you not think that blowing off your mouth like this two hours before your Boss rises with an apology, might not be appropriate?

PP made an apology in the Commons today so, according to the PM, everything is hokey-dokey. The First Nations leaders and the opposition called for PP to lose his job in the secretarial pool but Harper will have nothing of it. I guess he needs PP to keep saying stupid things so the no one notices the rest of his government.

Makes you wonder how heart-felt Harper's apology was?

Time to cut the neighbours loose

Let's say that you tell your kids and some of the neighbours kids that they cannot throw a ball against your garage door. The neighbours hear about the ban and they confront you. There is an obscure clause in a city bylaw, they say, that states that you cannot prohibit the neighbours kids from throwing a ball against your garage. Ludicrous you say? Can't happen, you claim? Well listen to this!

In 1951 the Alberta government enacted a law (Alberta Gas Resources Preservation Act) that states that the province must maintain at least a 15 year reserve of natural gas before they can export any to other provinces or to the US. In my example, that is akin to you telling the kids not to throw the ball against the garage.

In 1989, the Canadian government and the US entered into the US-Canada Free Trade Agreement, (think of it as the city bylaw in our example) which included an innocuous clause which referred to proportionality with respect to Canada's natural gas and oil and its export to the US. In fact, the clause has the effect of forcing Canada to make available about two thirds of its energy capacity to the US - regardless to the needs or situations of Canadians. This clause was carried over into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Alberta, according to recent studies, has only eight years of proven reserves, much less than the 15 years demanded by their own law. So, the Alberta government should be restricting their export taps a bit to get their reserves back up to the legal minimum, right? Can't! The FTA (and NAFTA) make the Alberta law invalid. The US controls the exports of Alberta energy through the FTA. The US controls the laws of Alberta.

Can you say unacceptable?

NAFTA (which interestingly includes Mexico but the carried-over FTA proportionality clause does not affect them) has a six month exit clause. With six months notice we can get out of NAFTA including: the tribunals that have screwed up our environment by stopping us from banning dangerous chemicals from entering Canada; the lopsided actions that have screwed up our softwood lumber, potato and beef exports; and demands that we give the US, our partner, two thirds of our energy, even if our own country is in need.

Barrack Obama has mused about renegotiating NAFTA. Maybe Canada's Greatest Government(TM) should muse that also. No... hang on a bit. CGG(TM) is owned by the oil companies and their lobbyists.

Maybe Harper will apologize to Canadians when he finished apologizing for the Residential Schools, to Sikhs over Komagata Maru and whatever other groups he wants to pander to.

Van Looney slips a cog

Con House Leader and robust member of the burger-of-the-month club, Peter Van Loan, is not well known for his civility in the kinder, gentler Con regime up on Parliament Hill. He is better known for spewing invective and insults at any one who dares to ask a question of Canada's Greatest Government(TM), even if the question is directed at someone else. His most recent target was MP Bob Rae.

During Question Period on June 4, Bobby had the audacity to ask why the PM (praise be his name), Homeland Security Czar Stockie Day and the former Minster of Foreign (and I suppose, Domestic...) Affairs, Max Bernier, refused to meet with the parliamentary committee set up to discuss Max's misunderstanding of what constitutes national security and confidentiality. I am sure that Peter would have responded in a civil way (yea, sure) except that Rae prefaced his question by quoting the PM. According to Rae, the PM said in a throne speech in 2006, that: "No aspect of responsible government is more fundamental than having the trust of citizens....It is time for accountability."

How dare you quote our exalted PM, blurts Pete. He is a deity to be revered... not quoted, he screams, with Burger King drool dripping from the side of his mouth. He then slagged the Canadian system of government by saying; "Here we go with another kangaroo court, Mr. Speaker."

Hey Pete. It was a good question. Why not answer it? And do you have such a low opinion of all Commons Committees or just the ones not run by Cons?

A note to Cons - Look out your window

Back on April 17, I mentioned in my blog that there were no secrets in Ottawa, just people who try to make them. I was referring to the accusation made by the Cons that Elections Canada had "tipped off" the Liberals that the Con party HQ was about to be visited by the Federales with respect to the "In and Out" scandal... err misunderstanding.

Just for kicks I decided to locate the Con and Lib HQs on Google Earth and guess what? You can see each others building from each others offices.

Is it possible, Cons, that someone in Lib HQ saw the RCMP wagons circle your HQ and went to take a look, grabbing a video camera as they were going out?

The image above shows you the locations of the Cons on Albert St and the Libs on Metcalfe St..

Hey, I am just asking.

It's perfect to be Perfect

I have started 4 companies, hired, or caused to be hired, about 45 people and sometimes I had to go into debt to do this. According to Mighty-Mouth, the Perfect PP, MP Pierre What's-His-Name, Nepean Carleton's answer to hoof-and-mouth, I cannot be trusted to run Canada because, by having debt, I am too weak to manage my own finances.

Seems that PP has found a new item to work himself into a lather over, in the fact that Liberal Leader Stephane Dion has some lingering debts from his leadership campaign 18 months back. The horror! PP has to get his kicks in before the Elections Canada 24 month deadline for Dion to pay off the debt... just in case Dion does pay them off and PP has nothing to foam at the mouth over.

PP does not represent the people of Nepean Carleton. Most, if not all, of them have mortgages, car loans and/or credit card debt. According to PP this makes them too weak to manage their finances. Let's not ignore the fact that PP, as a Parliamentary Secretary, makes over $170,000 plus expenses, plus housing allowance plus tax free goodies like free train travel, air travel and the clean rarefied air of self-importance. God only know how much his live-in (Not married? The horror!) paramour tops the family income up to. The average family income in Nepean Carleton is less than half of what PP sucks from the public teat.

PP does not represent Mr. and Ms. Nepean Carleton. He should be told so at the next election.

Nominee for Doofus-of-the-decade

If I were David Warren, the seer in seer-suckers and three-times-per-week columnist for the Ottawa Citizen, I would be a bit ashamed of my ignorance.

His recent piece on Forgettable Men was a shot at everyone except himself. Some of the shots were deserved; others, like his comment that "...Liberals in power have been bad news for Canada, since 1963," were sadly over the top.

Warren uses his column to find an excuse for the bone-head Maxie Bernier by slanting the story onto the backs of Liberals. Who cares why Bernier was dumped, asks Warren. "I care," he answers his own question. Why does he care? Is it because state confidential documents were let loose? NO. Was it because Harper had knowledge of the situation all the while he abused the opposition who asked about it? NO. It was because the scandal... err, misunderstanding, could result in the failure of Harper to win a majority government and maybe let the big bad Liberals back in power. OOOOhhh. How scary is that, Davie?

While I would be the last person to say that the Liberals have been squeaky clean, to say that the have been bad news for Canada since 1963, as does Davie, is a bit of a nose-stretcher. The Liberals have been good for this country... better, I dare say, than the GST-loving, NAFTA-failing, don't care about anything but winning, Conservatives have been.

Lying' Brian, Joe Who, Flash Campbell and Harpo. These must be Warrens heroes.

There is a train out of town at 6 AM, Davie. We would all appreciate if you were on it

Ice Cream for me

I decided to take the National Ice Cream Company to court to force them to make dog food flavoured ice cream. Being a Canadian senior on a fixed income, I have grown fond of dog food.

I have the Ice Cream lobby supporting me in this suit because, I suppose, it will make the lobbyists more money. I also have the CARP folks in my corner because, while dog food ice cream is not a popular flavour, they want more choices for their members.

Everything was going swimmingly until yesterday when I made a bit of a mistake. I demanded in my suit that, if the company did not produce dog food ice cream, they would have to cease production of all ice cream. That was when the wheels fell off my campaign. The lobbyists would lose their clients and CARP members would lose 50% of their calories. All of a sudden I was alone in my suit and shunned by my fellow CARP members.

Does this sound like a strange scenario? Compare it to what is happening with the Women's Ski Jumping lobby and the 2010 Olympic games.

Dr. Perfect PP

So here I am in Vancouver, the home of the crazies and who should I hear a story about but the Perfect PP, Pierre Poilievre, the mighty mouse Con MP for Nepean Carleton. What could PP have said that could possibly get the tongues wagging on the Left Coast? Seems that PP has decided that, in addition to his training as a Con mouth piece and bum boy for many of the lesser-known Con politicos, he is now a qualified mental health doctor.

"I think that if people want this medically unnecessary treatment, they have that right. But taxpayers should not have to pick up the tab for it," spouts Perfect PP. What ever could he be talking about?

PP has his shorts in a knot over the 8 or 10 sex change operations performed in Ontario every year. It doesn't matter to PP that these procedures are deemed necessary by medical and mental health professionals who subject applicants for the procedure to strict evaluation. It also doesn't matter to PP that the total bill for the procedures is in the range of $170,000 per year out of a health care budget of billions of dollars.

PP wants the federal government to withhold medical funding transfers to Ontario until they come up to his standard.

Funny thing is that PP is actually an Alberta transplant to Nepean Carleton but he does not seem to apply his same logic to Alberta which also funds the procedures. It is also a funny thing that he does not attack the Canadian military which agreed to fund this type of procedure a couple of years back.

Can you spell "election pandering"?

Health Board for Ottawa?

A word of warning to city council and all Ottawa taxpayers. The idea of an 13 member independent health board (including 6 councillors) to make "non-politicized" decisions may sound like a great idea... and it is... BUT...

Do not let the board get away from you like the Police Services Board did. You may remember the latest fiasco called the city budget wherein the Police Board demanded a whopper of an increase in their suck on the taxpayer teat and council had no recourse other than to say "how high".

I wonder if the same could happen with this health board? I wonder if the board decided that there should be free Wii systems for all kids to counter the spread (no pun intended) of obesity and put a one year price on it of $10 million, would council have the right or the gumption to overturn an "independent" board?

Careful for what you ask... you might get it... in the ear!

Ottawa Sun brightens my day

I picked up the Ottawa Sun at my local Loeb yesterday. I read through the stories which were interesting but not really news. I made it to all the way to page 10 without the little hairs on the back of my neck standing up. Then it began.

"And a chicken in every pot", rings the headline on an article by Paul Berton. The article was about political promises. Paul started off by referring to Barrack Obama's election platform as vague; he says that Obama hasn't made many promises. Your right, Paul, he has not made many promises but, guess what, he is not running in the presidential election today, He is running to be the Democratic nominee for the November election. Why on God's green earth would you expect a nominee-in-the-making to be making promises as if it were an election.

Page 11 really got me going. Chrissy Blizzard laments that the auto industry is headed for the ditch. While the industry is being hammered by unions and the high dollar, Chrissy blames it on Dalton McGuinty. He is giving too much money to the big auto guys and getting nothing but lay-offs in return. She quotes the two paragons of wisdom from Queens Park. NDP leader and hotellier Howie Hampton Inn was "in high dungeon yesterday" (what ever does that mean?) as he hammered the government for handing over money to the auto sector and not getting job guarantees in return. Then she quotes the ever-lovable non-MPP John Tory, leader-in-limbo of the Ontario Cons, who wants deals with automakers to be made public. Yea, as if that will ever happen even if the Cons were [shutter] in power!)

So let me straighten out this dog's breakfast for you. Number one, investments made by the government in the auto sector are not limited the "Big Three". Second, investments are not made to stop layoffs in any short term horizon. Three, it can take 2-5 years to bring a new car or class of cars to market from the time of inception. Four, investment being made are to ensure the future of the auto sector in Ontario (I bet you even Federal Minster of Money and Mouth-piece for the I-hate-Ontario crowd, Jim Flaherty would agree with that.) Case in point, the Ontario government invested $58 million in GMs Centre of Excellence at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. GM forked over most the rest of the $120 million to get the centre operational. Ontario Development and Trade Minister Sandra Pupatello was at GM for the announcement of the investment. So what does Chrissy say about the occasion? "... Pupatella gush[ed] about a new Camero [on display]..." It may be time to retire, Chrissy.

As if I hadn't had enough of the Sun, my eyes beheld the photo of Wally Robinson, failed Taxpayer Association head, failed Mayoralty Chief of Staff, failed Federal PC candidate, but a great dad, according to him. Wally argues that the federal government should not be judged by the scandals, err... misunderstandings, that brew around them, They should not be judged by the girlfriends they keep or the gaffes they make or the way they treat the people's money and the press. After all, they are the "Harper Government" and that makes them closer to God than the rest of us. They may tell little fibs from time to time, but hey, they lowered the GST rate (big deal). They may use law suits to silence their critics but, don't fret, they made some tax changes for families. And on and on, ad nauseum, blurts Wally for two whole columns. I could just lose my lunch.

I like the Sun, although I like it more when you didn't have to hunt for the page with the Sunshine Girl.