Distributed Sunday to the five newspapers which cover Halton. I look forward to constituents telling me if they agree or disagree with Stephane Dion’s plan to put a price on carbon, and I’ll be making sure they all know the details once they’re released. I plan a series of Town Hall meetings to discuss the whole thing. The results of those events, together with the comments on this blog, will be given to M. Dion, in frank and unvarnished form.
Thirty times over – in every Town Hall meeting I’ve held in the last two years – there’s been one plea that people have asked me to take to Ottawa: get serious about the environment.
In the last few months that’s been joined with another urgent request: help us cope with this uncertain economy. As we all know, gas prices have gone nuts, thousands of manufacturing jobs have evaporated, the real estate market’s cooling fast and family finances are tighter than ever.
As you also know, I think the Harper government’s blown its chance to help us on both these fronts. The country has no gutsy plan to deal with greenhouse gas emissions or climate change, while federal spending has gone up, the budget surplus has evaporated, and income taxes are still far, far too high.
Practically everyone believes we’re on the precipice of an environmental crisis, and every piece of news about oil-soaked ducks, cyclones in Burma, arctic ice melting and polar bears at risk just confirms it. But many folks worry it’s impossible to take real steps to deal with the threat to our climate without threatening the economy even more.
Except one guy that I work with – Stephane Dion.
The Liberal leader’s working on a plan which will do the right thing for the environment while actually easing the burden on families. It’s bold, unusual and complicated. It will try to tax the things we don’t want, like pollution, emissions and waste, while lowering taxes on the things we do want, like earning income, saving and investing. That’s called tax shifting.
So expect him to call for a price to be put on carbon. That means companies which dump this crap in the air – like oil refiners, power plants, smelters – will have to pay for doing so. This will encourage them to find clearer ways of doing business. The money raised will then be used to fund tax cuts, to corporations (so they have more money to invest and grow) and to individuals (to offset any increased prices caused by the carbon tax).
Some people think such a plan, while probably long overdue and well constructed, is political suicide.
And I guess the attacks have already started. The Harper Conservatives haven’t yet seen any details of the Dion plan, but are warning people it’ll mean a 50-cent hike in the cost of gasoline. Of course, this isn’t true. Dion has told me himself the last thing he wants to do is raise the gas tax, and I believe him. Fuel costs are already so high they seriously threaten the economy, and I’d never vote to jack them up further.
I have no idea if this scaremongering will work, if people will freak out at the added costs a carbon price would bring, if they believe personal tax cuts are the answer, or if all this talk I’ve heard about helping the environment is just that – talk.
But I do know this: For all the pummeling he has taken from his political foes, Dion is the only national party leader right now with a plan. Unlike Stephen Harper, he is not willing to sacrifice the environment and the future to the present or the oil sands. Unlike the green activists, he’ll never force you to trade in the minivan for a mountain bike.
Details soon. Then let’s discuss if this is the way to go, or not. More town hall meetings are on the way.
Garth Turner is Halton’s MP. Contact him directly at garth@garth.ca.
176 comments ↓
If we want some answers about our gas prices going up , along with everything else going up , it’s time we start telling the truth about our Currency. Perhaps you should start reading up on Mises or even Ron Paul’s new book.
As soon as I finish ‘Bad Money.’ — Garth
The latest release of data clearly and unequivocally shows we are warming globally even though this year the Antarctic ice sheets are at a 30 year high and our cooler La Nina winter.
The list of causes of GHG goes way beyond a Cdn carbon tax or even international carbon credits.
As noted the BC Pine Beetle infestation that is spreading east puts more CO2 in the air than all the cars in Canada.
The tundra has enough trapped methane to equal 10 times the amount of CO2 put out by all the cars on the planet.
Rain forest around the world are shrinking releasing even more CO2.
Developing countries have shown no intention to stop increasing GHG levels with promises of a car in every garage. One suggestion is for developed countries to convert to a green economy which overall will have little effect compared to the list above. Besides no one has answered the question as to who it would be marketed to, the consumer far too far in debt to switch over in any numbers large enough to make any difference in the least.
“So give us an alternate plan.”
By Men With Hats on 05.11.08 11:28 am
I think it`s time everyone that`s interested in doing something other than nattering about climate change take a minute to scan my blog and if you have an alternate please give it too us.
You`ll note consumer spending in March was fueled by debt. It appears that the consumer maxed out debt causing a drop in sales for April. These numbers do not suggest a green economy can be built of the backs of the consumer.
A mag lift transportation system will not require increased spending by the consumer, only redirecting the current spending.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080507/consumer_credit.html?.v=11
Consumer borrowing unexpectedly surges in March
Wednesday May 7, 5:09 pm ET
The increase in consumer debt totaled $15.3 billion at an annual rate in March, much bigger than the $6 billion increase that economists had been expecting.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080511/wall_street_week_ahead.html
Wall Street looks to US consumers for direction
Sunday May 11, 5:18 pm ET
Economists surveyed by Thomson Financial/IFR estimated, on average, that sales dipped by 0.1 percent last month after growing by 0.2 percent in March
I trust the Liberal Party of Canada to actually implement income tax cuts as much as I trusted Chretien to get rid of the GST.
Dion’s gonna sell this plan = Conservative majority…bet me Turner, dare you.
Perhaps there is an even higher cause, which is an environmental strategy we can all be proud of. If this is not the one, maybe it can lead us there. I would be proud to be a part of such a solution, regardless of the political outcome. — Garth
posted by Garth Turner on 05.11.08 @ 8:56 pm
Dion is the only national party leader right now with a plan.
Details soon. Then let’s discuss if this is the way to go, or not. More town hall meetings are on the way.
……………………………………………………..
Where is the ‘plan’ from your piss-assy leader Dion … everybody is talking about it so why can’t Dion divulge his ‘plan’ by next week … what’s holding it up .. is it incomplete .. is it fear, uncertainty, infighting .. and why is he hesitating and hiding while his henchmen colleagues have to pitch something that’s not even fully explained to them??? Is this a ‘hidden agenda’ in the works ..??!!!!
THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO LEAD A POLITICAL PARTY, GARTH … AND YOU KNOW IT … SO TELL DION TO PRODUCE OR PISS OFF …. !!!!!!!
I would be proud to be a part of such a solution, regardless of the political outcome. — Garth
political suicide runs in your blood Turner, kudos…I guess :S
When is Dion planning to release the plan in its entirety? AS the saying goes, the devil is in the details. I’m pretty supportive of the concept, in theory at least, however there’s a need to actually see and discuss it in detail. I do hope the media rise to the challenge and present the facts accurately. (I made the mistake of listening to “talk (rant) radio” for the first time in a while last week and it was pretty discouraging.)
John: We also trusted Harper not to tax income trusts . I have no trust in Harper or Baird ( the original deniers).
I am quite open to a carbon tax policy.
Harper and company continue to coddle the oil and gas barons-they are impotent against this huge conservative lobby group. Intensity based targets are the product of a weak-minded policy.
With Harper at the helm Canadians continue to see escalating costs of living.
If a carbon tax policy will add a few more cents to my gas or food bills, so be it.
33 million Canadians have contributed to GHG’s—and Canadians are known for accepting responsibility even if it means a few dollars.
Perhaps there is an even higher cause, which is an environmental strategy we can all be proud of. If this is not the one, maybe it can lead us there. I would be proud to be a part of such a solution, regardless of the political outcome. — Garth
………………….
It is my suspicion that a Liberal government would allocate the Billion$$$$ collected through a Carbon Tax to purchasing those Kyoto Carbon Credits … all because the Harper government has eliminated surplus taxation. I don’t believe Dion’s scheme will be ‘revenue neutral’ because it will be next to impossible to dynamically balance out the revenue to the cost … and once a surplus is generated I have concerns where that surplus will be allocated.
Garth …. unless I hear Dion unequivocally reject purchasing Billion$$$$ of Kyoto Carbon Credits, I will accuse you, Dion and the Liberal party of having a “hidden agenda” .. and that involves the transfer of Billion$$$$ to China and the friends of the Liberal party there … and you know who I mean …!!!!
Do you support or advocate the purchase of Billion$$$$ of Kyoto Carbon Credits to mitigate the Liberal-created 32% GHGs in excess of our Kyoto commitments???
Bu$$ off. — Garth
Bu$$ off. — Garth
By Harry S on 05.11.08 9:40 pm
……………………………….
Wtf does that mean … can’t you respond to my legitimate queries, or is your knowledge restricted to real estate matters ..??!!!
You are courageous in planning town hall meeting on Dion’s Carbon/Income Tax scheme, but why does everybody have to wait until June, unless it’s not fully prepared for public issuance?? Why has the Liberal party leaked it without full discloser .. is it an attempt to deep-six the scheme … after all it is a hugely important piece of Liberal party policy and it shouldn’t be hung out like a piece of dead meat …??!!!!
Put up or shut up ….!!!!
An Interesting issue. On one hand the carbon tax would have to have enough impact to actually make people switch to more environmentally friendly ways of doing things, however there’s a risk that people who are supportive, in general terms, will rebel if they feel the impact too much. There has to be enough pain to make people change but not enough to make them reject it.
It’ll be quite a balancing act.
I certainly would trust the party that brought Canada back from the brink of bankruptcy, balanced the budget and then gave us $100,000 billion in tax cuts while starting to reinvest in programs that are important and needed by Canadians. And Dion is the leader of this party and his word is worth more than one hair off Harpo’s (^%$)
So far all Harpo and his Flim Flam ecomonics has done is cost me more, more $$.
The issue is NOT the 500 dead ducks. The issue is ‘Why are these toxic tailing ponds even allowed to exist?’
It’s not just about 500 dead ducks
That remains the real question.
PM coming to Halifax for announcement
By THE CANADIAN PRESS
Sun. May 11 – 8:00 PM
Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be in Halifax on Monday to make some sort of announcement.
The Prime Minister’s Office confirms Harper will be at the Halifax Armoury at 1 p.m., but there were no further details about what he might have to say.
Harper will be accompanied by Defence Minister Peter MacKay, Nova Scotia’s representative in the federal cabinet.
MacKay is also the minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.
The prime minister last visited Halifax in November, when he attended an aboriginal conference.
…..vote buying spree again – Harper’s not polling well in Atlantic Canada.
Put up or shut up ….!!!!
By Harry S on 05.11.08 9:55 pm
Garth – it’s way overdue – delete this jerk. As if you are to take bullying threats from a guy that doesn’t even know anything but CPC rhetoric.
Get rid of him.
We don’t need more taxes,get rid of the gas guzzlers,nobody needs 4×4′s in the GTA.
If the big 3 could ever get their heads straight ,build cars with no more than 150hp,improve on quality(instead of building crap that falls apart) they would have a car that would compete and also produce jobs.
Some MPs uneasy about Dion’s plan for carbon tax
By Joan Bryden, THE CANADIAN PRESS – May 11, 2008
OTTAWA – Liberal Leader Stephane Dion has been warned by his own party pollster that his proposal to impose a carbon tax could be a tough sell in an election, insiders say.
But they say Dion is determined to forge ahead with the politically risky scheme. He’s convinced that the bold step is needed to rescue both the environment and his reputation, which has been savaged by relentless Tory depictions of the Liberal leader as a dithering, spineless weakling.
Dion is expected to unveil his proposal for putting a price on carbon before the end of June. He and select Liberal MPs will then fan out across the country over the summer to explain the complicated plan and try to soothe fears – already being stoked daily by the Tories – that it will lead to a massive tax hike on gasoline, home heating fuel and electricity.
Party pollster Michael Marzolini has repeatedly and publicly said that there’s plenty of appetite among Canadians for action against climate change. But sources say Marzolini has privately warned Dion that a carbon tax is a risky way to go about it, particularly at a time when gas prices are soaring and the economy is faltering.
Marzolini flatly refused to comment when contacted by The Canadian Press.
But provincial Liberals at the Ontario legislature were recently briefed on the findings of one of Marzolini’s polls, conducted for a private sector client. An insider who attended the briefing said the data suggest a carbon tax would be a hard sell in the crucial province of Ontario.
According to the insider, the poll found Ontarians are overwhelmingly concerned about climate change and support slashing greenhouse gas emissions to meet Canada’s commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.
Nevertheless, when respondents were given details of British Columbia’s recent carbon tax plan as one way to tackle the problem, support dropped dramatically. According to the insider, the poll found 30 per cent strongly opposed to the idea and 12 per cent somewhat opposed, compared to 23 per cent strongly supportive and 25 per cent somewhat supportive.
By contrast, a Canadian Press-Harris-Decima poll last week suggested 61 per cent of Canadians support imposing a carbon tax on individuals and business that generate greenhouse gas emissions.
Such decidedly mixed reviews worry some Liberal MPs.
“I don’t think there’s anybody who’s anxious to put on a (campaign) T-shirt that says: ‘We want a carbon tax,’ ” said one Ontario MP.
Nova Scotia MP Robert Thibault allowed that “there are people who are of different views within our caucus.”
But Toronto MP John Godfrey contends that voters are smart enough to realize that they can no longer have their cake and eat it too. And he believes they’ll ultimately reward the political leader who has the integrity and the guts to say so.
“You cannot have both a fight against climate change and cheap gas. This is not possible. You have to pick one,” Godfrey said.
“Leadership is always politically risky. That’s the point of it.”
Dion has been encouraged by B.C.’s example – and the fact that there’s been no backlash to it.
Starting on July 1, B.C. will phase in a carbon tax on all fossil fuels. It’s expected to generate $1.8 billion in revenue over three years, but that money will be returned to consumers in the form of income and business tax cuts.
Dion is planning to make his carbon tax proposal similarly revenue neutral. Insiders say he’s proposing to offset the tax with income tax cuts of about $10 billion, plus programs aimed particularly at cushioning the blow for lower-income and rural Canadians who’d be hardest hit by increased fuel and electricity costs.
Talking points circulated to Liberal MPs stress that “a new Liberal government will not raise the tax on gas.”
On that front, some MPs fear they’ve already lost the spin war. In the absence of details from Dion, the Tories have been gleefully filling the void with apocalyptic warnings that Dion intends to hike gas taxes by as much as 50 cents a litre.
Thibault says in his riding some people already can’t afford to fill up their cars or home fuel tanks. Hence, it’s crucial that the plan include measures to “assist people through this difficult time” and that Liberals develop a communications strategy to sell the plan to voters.
“It’s complicated,” said Thibault. “We have to have good, earnest, solid debate on any bold, new such initiatives, make sure we have confidence that what we’re doing will have the desired effect and then communicate it properly.”
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/2008/05/11/5535516-cp.html
Today we took our grandson to Toys R’ Us to get him a new helmet and bicycle (he has outgrown the little ones, which will be recycled to his younger brother).
As I walked down the aisles it dawned on me bluntly. We do not have an oil shortqage, what we have is gluttony of oil being used to produce PLASTIC. PLASTIC EVERYTHING. Where is it being made? CHINA. Who is buying it? North Americans…more specifically, Americans and Canadians, by the kilo tonnes.
Check out what each barrel of oil goes to make? Go ahead, actually do some bloody research for once. Find out the massive consumption we are guilty of promoting in producing endlessly unneeded TOYS! Not just for kids but for adualts as well.
As Pogo said ‘We has found the enemy, and they is us!’
I also made a point that he was getting the new bike and helmet because we love him, and when you love someone you like to to do nice things for them without any strings attached. Not to win their love, but as a gift from the heart. Not as a rerward for good grades, or a means of buying their cooperation, but simply because you care, see they have a need, and want to give of yourself to them out of love.
He is a mere five years old, and grasped the concept. Maybe some adults can manage to accomplish that feat of mental exercise, eh?
There is no such thing as “revenue neutral.” It’s a physical impossibility, like perpetual motion. Think of the United Way for example. It costs them 20% of the money raised to support the infrastructure of raising the money. Anything run by a government is worse. They are the least efficient at doing anything.
You can’t take $1 from someone and give back $1 because there’s a cost in collecting, processing, and then returning the money. What this is going to do is create more bureaucracy, more government agencies, more red tape, more unionized government employees. For every $1 that’s collected in this “carbon tax” what is going to be returned? Likely 57% if the amount to be returned is only $10 billion from the $17.5 raised as per the G&M article mentioned by Garth.
Revenue neutral my behind!
can’t you respond to my legitimate queries,
By Harry S on 05.11.08 9:55 pm
If you had legitimate
By Harry S on 05.11.08 9:55 pm
“can’t you respond to my legitimate queries,”
If you had legitimate queries, you would get a response.
Garth .. take heed of what CAW Buzz Hargrove said on Mike Duffy Live, CTV Newsnet, April 26, 2007
CAW President Buzz Hargrove has praised the Conservative government for seeking a balance between the environment and the economy: “Yes. I believe Mr. Baird today tried incredibly hard to find balance between the economy, between the concern working people have for their jobs and the environmental concerns that concerns every Canadian and I think he took a major step forward today that will deal with some of the environmental concerns but will not throw tens of thousands of Canadian workers out of work.”
………………………………..
Do you think CAW Hargrove will unequivocally support Dion’s Liberal Carbon Tax scheme once it’s made fully public .. particularly since it will badly gore the Detroit Big Three and their Canadian auto workers as well as Canadian parts suppliers ..??!!!
It’s advisable that Dion reveal his Carbon Tax scheme immediately or else Canadian auto and parts workers will be living in fear for their jobs if the details of the scheme are delayed any further. Not the way to proudly present Dion’s Carbon Tax .. is it …???!!!!
Garth,
I hope your parties plan contains a couple major considerations.
First I agree it is about time that we in this country grow up and start dealing with 5 generations of neglect and ignorence on environmental issues. Whatever form it takes it will cost us all money and I don’t want to see us make the same mistake as “free” trade. Because we didn’t adopt common world wide evironmental standards and a common minimum wage, say $5 an hour US we have the economic tornado sucking all manufacturing to the lowest standards. If we are going to implement green taxes in Canada then those same taxes should apply to goods crossing our border. One way to do this would be to eliminate shipping as a write off for business thus making it a cost that can only be lowered by making the product closer to it’s market target.
It was interesting on the last topic reading how many people associated rural with farmers only and individual choice with social reform. Many small towns within 200 or more kms. of larger urban centers with Walmarts etc. have lost their local general store or grocery as a result of the population being tired of “being ripped off”. You can tell how far people live from here by how many shopping carts they are pushing. 10 years ago most people came to town once a month or so to conduct any business and pick up stuff they couldn’t get at home. Then ALONG CAME SUPERSTORE AND WALMART and now many of them come weekly to do all their shopping. If you figure how many people across this country are doing this now the carbon footprint is tremendous to what it was in the past. With the hundreds of thousands of people now commited to this lifestyle you guys had better be carefull that any program you announce either has financial breaks for EVERYONE in this situation or has a solution allowing general stores to exist again. If you don’t, you run the risk of literaly starving people to death as not everyone makes a hundred grand a year. With an aging population this puts that demographic at high risk as well.
Please don’t bounce Harry (or any of his other aliases. He’ll drive us even more crazy over on the Bourque board if he can’t vent on here. He serves the useful purpose of constantly reminding us that Harper attracts some serious whack jobs.
Greetings Garth.
When you were in Alberta in both Edmonton and Calgary we asked you to turn your attention to the murder of 24 Canadians.
Today I emailed you and my MP, Lee Richardson.
To:-Lee Richardson and Garth Turner.
Good morning gentlemen.
As respected Members of Parliament please look into this and let me know how
you will advise the two party leaders.
This item is important since 24 Canadians were murdered with no criminal
investigation.
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=8573
One reason for the high energy cost is the unprovoked invasion of Iraq based on
lies about WMD.
Harry- buzz off, ok? There is nothing legitimate about you. Garth- have a great week, fighting on the Hill, for us all! We’re with you. MOST of us anyway!
I support a carbon tax.
Is Max Bernier going to be sick or non existant in HoC this week?
Who do you think will answer/not answer opposition questions in the Con gang this week? Or is it going to be ‘it’s nobody’s business’ that Bernier associates himself with Quebec Wing of Hell’s Angels Gang.
Betcha it’ll be none of your business Canadians.
Anyways, I support a carbon tax.
Let’s discuss it and see how it could help our landscapes.
… after all it is a hugely important piece of Liberal party policy and it shouldn’t be hung out like a piece of dead meat …??!!!!
Put up or shut up ….!!!! (Harry S)
And where are all the Harper policies.. We want to see them too! Put up or shut up
Harper Under Fire For Delaying Mulroney-Schreiber Probe
May 11, 2008 06:25 PM
THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA–Six months after Prime Minister Stephen Harper first promised a public inquiry into the Mulroney-Schreiber affair, he has yet to name anyone to head the probe or even set an official mandate for it.
That has opposition critics growing increasingly impatient.
“It confirms what I always thought,” says Liberal MP Robert Thibault. “He has no intention of having an inquiry, and if there’s any way he can stop one, he will.”
Thibault contends that Harper’s game plan from the start has been to support an inquiry in principle but procrastinate in practice, in the hope that a federal election will pre-empt the need to make a decision.
“Then he doesn’t have to call one until we get back, and if he wins a majority, he never will,” Thibault contends.
NDP ethics critic Pat Martin also suspects Harper of electoral clock-watching. But he’s not sure the prime minister would want to risk going into a campaign without taking an action at all to keep his promise.
An alternative, says Martin, could be for Harper to drag his heels a few more weeks, then name a commissioner who would need months to hire staff and review documents and likely couldn’t start public hearings until well into the fall.
That would mean, if the country goes to the polls in early autumn, that the actual testimony – and the accompanying media furor – wouldn’t come until after voting day.
“I think that’s their best gambit and probably their action plan,” says Martin. “It would be the best of both worlds for them. It’s a risky game though.”
Harper signalled last November he was prepared to hold an inquiry into the tangled business dealings between former Tory prime minister Brian Mulroney and German-Canadian lobbyist and arms dealer Karlheinz Schreiber.
But he bought time by naming David Johnston, pediment of the University of Waterloo, to conduct a preliminary review and recommend what the precise terms of reference should be.
Since then, Johnston has delivered not one but two reports. In the meantime, the House of Commons ethics committee has conducted its own hearings and tabled its own report – predictably splitting along party lines on what course to take.
The lengthy delay has clearly played to Harper’s benefit, says University of Ottawa law professor Ed Ratushny.
“The vast majority of public inquiries are called because of political pressure,” he says. “The prime minister has managed to reduce the heat.”
Conservative strategists insist that it was only after Johnston and the ethics committee completed their work that Harper could start looking for someone – presumably a sitting or retired judge – to head the follow-up inquiry he’s been promising.
A search process is now in place and “a decision will be made as soon as possible,” insisted one government official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
He denied Harper has been deliberately trying to postpone the political fallout from the inquiry until after the next federal campaign, noting the current minority government can’t control when the opposition will decide to bring it down.
“We don’t plan according to speculation of an election,” said the official. “We’ve gone down that path too many times, and the Liberals have backed off every single time.”
Another insider suggested the delays to date have more to do with uncertainty and indecision on Harper’s part than with tactical cunning.
“I think he’s baffled,” said this source. “He doesn’t believe Mulroney and he can’t figure Schreiber out.”
A key question from the start has been what the terms of reference for any inquiry should look like.
Johnston, in both of his two reports, recommended a relatively narrow mandate that would focus on the lobbying work Mulroney agreed to do for Schreiber once he left office in 1993.
Mulroney has admitted accepting $225,000 to promote a project to build German-designed light-armoured vehicles in Canada for export. He says he tried to line up support among foreign political leaders whose countries might become customers for the vehicles.
Schreiber says the money that changed hands – delivered in cash-stuffed envelopes in hotel rooms – added up to $300,000. He also claims Mulroney was supposed to lobby the Canadian government rather than foreign leaders, an arrangement that could have put him in violation of federal ethics rules.
The Liberals, NDP and Bloc Quebecois all want the mandate for the inquiry broadened to include a look at an earlier deal that saw Air Canada buy European-made Airbus jets while Mulroney was still in power.
They also want a review of a $2.1 million libel settlement Mulroney obtained from the former Liberal government of Jean Chrétien, with a view to determining whether Ottawa should demand the money be repaid.
Ratushny says there’s little hope the inquiry will get to the bottom of things if it can’t look at the Airbus deal and the libel settlement.
“You can’t try and be too cute and cut out possible areas of embarrassment,” he says. “You can’t gerrymander the mandate, the lawyers and public will see through that pretty quickly.”
A restricted mandate could also make it even tougher than it would normally be to find a commissioner willing to take on the probe – one more reason, in the eyes of Harper’s critics, why it’s taking him so long to announce an appointment.
“I think they’re having a hard time finding anyone (to conduct) what would be a useless exercise if they stick to the narrow mandate proposed by Johnston,” says NDP justice critic Joe Comartin.
“I can see a lot of judges or retired judges saying: No thank you, I’ve got better things to do.”
Looking forward to the plan. And I expect that Stephane Dion will have it all worked out. This is his area of special interest. Now it will be time to help him sell the idea against the negative ad campaigns that Harper will surely generate. I expect Harper won’t even be able to comprehend Dion’s plan but he’ll shoot holes in it anyway.
Harper has shown that he is incapable of thinking for himself – most ideas are coming straight from that popular regime to the south of us.
I’m going to try and cut and paste an article from Canada free press to do with this topic. Didn’t work, nor does dragging. Oh well if you go there read the article about how ALL of our canned peaches in the future will come from CHINA!!! And we are trying to find ways to cut our carbon footprnt. Once again foreign takeovers of our industry is costing us more and more fuel. Maybe this is a good point to start, taxing shipping. Or better yet ban the import of any product we can grow here.
Wtf does that mean … can’t you respond to my legitimate queries, or is your knowledge restricted to real estate matters ..??!!!
Put up or shut up ….!!!!
By Harry S on 05.11.08 9:55 pm
Garth is being polite Harry. I will tell you in the crude way you will understand STFU you blathering idiot. You are nothing but a whining little troll.
A Carbon Tax would be cheaper for Canadians than the Con Gang. Today, I read an article about Chuk Guite, Jean Brault, and Paul Coffin, just to mention a few, that these people are actually Conservatives and were appointed to their posts by Lyin’ Brian when he was PM.
Doesn’t Harper and his gang know these guys were one of their own? How can we educate Harper when he isn’t listening?
How did this Liberal Sponsorship Scandal become a Liberal thing, when it seems to appear to be a Conservative Scandal in disguise.
Harper strongly believes that Liberals are liars and deceivers. I just wonder what his definition of a ‘liar and deceiver’ is?
Anybody care to answer this.
Dion is honorable. Dion is a true Grit.
What’s Max Bernier going to do on Tuesday when he has to deal with his budget? Will he be sending Michael Chamas or his ex spouse in and let them sit with the Cons and get up and answer the oppositions’ question in the HoC Tuesday?
I can hardly wait…Oh yeah, shoot, we already know the answer…’It’s nobody’s business’ that Bernier invites his beloved into private meetings relating to foreign affairs. No problem. She’s a Con. Stockwell Day has no problem not checking her out, he says that ‘the state has no room in the bedroom’, does he really mean that these foreign affairs meetings are held in the states bedroom? Aren’t these meetings supposed to be private and confidential for national security reasons? Just wondering or rambling. Stockwell Day does not have a problem with Berneir and Michael Chamas being buddies either…I can’t figure this out either because:
Just for the record, I was reading that Michael Chamas is facing criminal charges relating to possession of 10 illegal gun charges or something,as well, income taxe evasion of almost a million dollars, and can’t remember all the others.
I read this in the La Presse today and I saw a photo op of Bernier and Chamas holding hands, handsomely smiling and charming the Conservative fundraiser guests that was held in January 08. RCMP are investigating this event because no one seems to know why Chamas was a guest speaker; and no one seems to remember what he spoke about.
Let’s go fishing. I live in Western Canada and fishing season opens the long weekend.
Dion is an honorable man. His dog, Kyoto, is absolutely beautiful. Kyoto is unique and one of a kind. Kyoto is gorgeous indeed.
Garth, The truth that all Liberal MPs should know by now is that, yes Mr. Dion is intelligent and has strong ethical policies; however, he cannot win an election as the party leader. He simply does not inspire confidence. Sometime in the near future,Liberals must look at their choice of leader and admit that they might just have gotten it wrong. Don’t wait for another election to validate what most all should know by now. Your loyalty is commendable; but unfortunately, your facade is see-through.
Please forgive the diversion. I recognize this kind of pic… only my bike was an BMW 85 R65. Air cooled. Hated to be stuck in traffic because it would overheat. Great on gas…except in long lines. I notice that Toronto HOV lanes do not recognize bikes as “multi-vehicle” and riders cannot use these lanes. Look at the budding fiasco in Windsor and the Greenlink vs. DRIC bridge proposal that smacks of green vs. $$$. I remember literally coasting off the bridge after being stranded for what seemed forever on my bike just to save the engine and gas! Maybe we just need to look in our own back yards for solutions. Maybe one by one we too can make a difference and collectively influence our government to make better choices.
Harper At ‘War’ With Federal Institutions
Juliet O’Neill, Canwest News Service
Published: Sunday, May 11, 2008
OTTAWA — The Conservative party’s battle with Elections Canada has spawned a Liberal campaign theme that will ask voters to consider whether they want a government that is willing to destroy long-standing public trust in non-partisan federal institutions.
It may seem counterintuitive to accuse Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the head of government, of purposely undermining the state.
But that is the conclusion the Liberals have come to from the government’s determination to get the upper hand in disputes with Elections Canada, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and other independent agencies, even if individual and institutional reputations are ruined in the process.
Liberal leader Stephane Dion says the minority Conservative government’s record contains a clear pattern that constitutes an undeclared “war on federal institutions” that, if left unchecked, could permanently destroy public confidence in vital organizations.
Historian Dimitry Anastakis of Ontario’s Trent University says it’s a pattern that should come as no surprise to anyone who has watched Harper’s career.
“Harper cannot shake his Reform party roots which have always been so suspicious of Ottawa, so suspicious of anything that comes from the state,” Anastakis said in an interview.
“He’s wielded his power as head of government to attack the state. It’s across the board, whether it’s the Senate, the Canadian Wheat Board, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Elections Canada; these are all institutions of the state that he doesn’t like.”
“This will be one of the election issues – what kind of government we believe in,” Dion said in an interview.
Since Harper won a minority government in the winter of 2006, there have been at least 15 firings, resignations, shutdowns and showdowns with federal watchdogs, advisory bodies and government agencies.
Among them are the Elections Canada fight, the firing of the president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and the top two officials of the Canadian Wheat Board, the shutdown of the Law Commission of Canada, and the resignation of the chair and advisory panel of the Immigration and Refugee Board.
Several senior environmental and scientific positions were eliminated and several officers of parliament – the ethics commissioner, the chief electoral officer and the information commissioner – retired after high profile run-ins with Harper’s government.
In addition, Auditor general Sheila Fraser recently exposed a government plan to require her agency and other officers of Parliament to vet their communications through the prime minister’s office.
In each case, the government comes up with a unique justification for tackling an institution.
It accuses Elections Canada of waging “a partisan vendetta” because it is investigating suspected Conservative party election financing violations.
It fired Linda Keen, the president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, on grounds she did not take medical isotope supplies into account when she closed an Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. nuclear research reactor for a safety update. Critics say it was not up to Keen to secure alternate isotope supplies and she was a scapegoat for government incompetence.
The Law Commission of Canada was closed because it had supposedly “outlived its usefulness.”
The Wheat Board president was fired because, it was claimed, he “refused to implement government policy.”
The critics are no longer looking at such cases in isolation; it is the cumulative impact that concerns them.
“You wouldn’t think a prime minister would go out of his way to attack an institution or an individual for partisan gain, but he’s doing that and it does have long-term consequences because it erodes public trust in institutions,” Anastakis said. “It’s deeply concerning. He’s a real partisan and he’s never really been able to shake his ideological blinkers.”
Dion believes the government attacks on institutions reflect Harper’s “libertarian” beliefs. “He wants to dismantle the main elements of what he calls the interventionist state,” Dion said.
The last straw for Dion came late last month when the Conservatives voted in the Commons against what the Liberal leader calls the “motherhood and apple pie motion” of confidence in Elections Canada presented by the Bloc Quebecois.
Harper could have used the opportunity to step back, to say while he disagrees with Elections Canada’s judgment, he still respects the agency. “Instead of directing the troops to say ‘Let’s take it down a notch.,’ he actually poured more fuel on that fire,” said Anastakis. “That’s utter contempt to me.”
Harper’s animosity toward Elections Canada dates back to his pre-government days when he did battle as head of the National Citizens Coalition against the agency’s restrictions on political advertising by interest groups and against the publication of election results while polls are still open.
“From his emergence as a political actor, Harper’s political DNA has always been anti-establishment, attacking Ottawa institutions,” Anastakis said. “From the time of the Reform party to now, that’s his career.”
Ottawa Citizen
© Canwest News Service 2008
You cannot have a carbon tax without taxing the biggest carbon user, us, as in fuel tax, auto and home. John Crosbie gave us a 12 cent tax on Gas, and we all know what happened. You will further the divide us between rural and urban, and the commuting suburbs may fall Tory as a result.
Carbon taxes is a start, and it must not appear to be equitable, it must actually BE equitable. The allocation of those tax revenues is a worry, what will be done with them? Will they be applied to income supplements or housing, health care, raising the basic personal exemption on income tax, and as I’ve seen others suggest, a GST-like credit and of course alternative energy research. That’s just the tax shifting, I’m curious to hear more about it with the details. It is extremely complicated but I am reading more about how the Nordic countries have done it. And like NRTH says, the big 3 have got to start building cars and buses for public transport that actually work for our future if they want to be in the least progressive. I also think the govmint is way behind on how conscientious Canadians would embrace a fair and equitable carbon tax if it truly affected emissions. We don’t have another decade to get it wrong.
Stockwell Day Sticks To Conservative Party Line Over Bernier
The Canadian Press
May 11, 2008 (EDIT)
OTTAWA — Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day says there’s no need to run security checks on the spouses or partners of federal cabinet ministers, despite the political storm over Maxime Bernier’s ex-girlfriend.
Day rejected claims that the foreign minister’s relationship with Montrealer Julie Couillard raised issues of national security.
Day, who is responsible for the Mounties and CSIS, adamantly stuck to the Conservative government’s oft-repeated position that Bernier’s ties to Couillard were a purely personal and private matter.
But a number of independent security analysts have sided with opposition critics who say the matter raises legitimate questions of public policy.
They point to the fact that Couillard, who has had past ties to two members of Montreal-based biker gangs, accompanied Bernier to official functions and on ministerial trips abroad during their year-long relationship.
“If you want to be on the safe side, it should generate a probe,” Michel Juneau-Katsuya, a private consultant who put in time with both the RCMP and CSIS, said last week.
“If you don’t want to be on the safe side, and try to kill this as soon as possible because it embarrasses you in the press [as the Conservatives have done], you’re unlikely to call for a probe.”
Former RCMP commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli warned years ago that organized crime might try to infiltrate Parliament and other national institutions.
In a carefully worded statement issued last Friday, the force indicated it’s still concerned.
“Organized crime can reach into every area of our lives, with vast resources at its disposal and its ability to penetrate legitimate society and economic structures,” said Chief Supt. Mike Cabana.
Couillard was linked romantically with Gilles Gregoire, a former associate of Hells Angels boss Maurice (Moms) Boucher. Giguere was later murdered, and there have been allegations that the Angels considered a hit on Couillard as well, a claim she has dismissed.
Couillard was also once married to Stephane Sirois, a member of the Rockers bike gang. Government officials say her relationship with Bernier ended recently.
The foreign minister faced new controversy on the weekend, as a Montreal daily reported the RCMP had visited him to ask about a photo of Bernie shaking hands with Michael Chamas, a businessman arrested with 27 others as part of an operation targeting organized crime on aboriginal reserves in Quebec and eastern Ontario
Chamas is before the courts charged with 10 counts of possession of illegal weapons.
The photo was taken at a Conservative party fundraiser.
Put up or shut up ….!!!!
By Harry S on 05.11.08 9:55 pm
HornyHarryHoney, use the last two words — shut up — apply them to yourself, as well as your fellow neanderconCRAPtrolls, and toddle back off into another universe where y’all belong. It is generally referred to as Hell.
Your constant diatribes about nothing at all show why CRAPpists are the ONLY source of methane in this universe.
One country is taking the lead in using renewable and free energy resources; the sea, if it’s power is harnessed properly, could also be used.
http://tinyurl.com/6c85gp
Hi slg on 05.11.08 10:19 pm,
Harry S on is entitled to his opinion.
(I don’t agree with it most of the time, I mostly skip his comments, but…)
If you believe in free speech then I guess we’ll be stuck with him.
Maybe we can get him to come around? But what do I know.
It does show us what some people are thinking. We need to try and change their minds if we think we have a better idea of who to do things and why.
Have you had a chance to read?
‘Assault On Reason’
BY: Al Gore
A good person, I think, told me it was a good read, and it is. Well worth it.)
(I think the person is on this Blog from time to time?)
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Assault-On-Reason-Al-Gore/9780143113621-item.html?ref=Search+Books%3a+%2527Al+gore%2527
Put up or shut up ….!!!!
By Harry S on 05.11.08 9:55 pm
Harry take your own advice for once.
There is NO offshore KYOTO offset billions
I am directly involved in both the Provincial and Federal Carbon offset schemes and billions of our tax dollars are not going offshore.That is a myth. It is quite the opposite they are coming to us to look for solutions.
STOP the hysterical fearmongering and get connected with some facts…
or better yet PUT UP or SHUT the f#*K UP!
Dear Garth,
There is no such thing as revolution… ONLY EVOLUTION!!!
And M. Dion would do well to keep this in mind as he begins shifting taxes to benefit people and the environment.
The bold ends must be sellable on a retail political level, and the initial steps must be doable AND POPULAR in a minority parliament situation.
Keep the boring, dull complicated details available yet muted.
Having just read a Master’s thesis on the potash industry in Saskatchewan from the 1960′s through to the end of the 1980s it is fully apparent that lassez-faire Progressive Conservative potash taxation apprach of the 1980s were much less beneficial to the people of Saskatchewan than the statist NDP taxation approach of the 1970s.
During the NDP 1970s in Saskatchewan the mature potash industry was heavily taxed with no corresponding exodus of potash companies. At the point when the relatively high taxation of the NDP occured, much potash was still in the ground and the heavy startup costs were well behind the industry (it was a mature industry).
The potash corporations simply had too much invested to leave Saskatchewan when the NDP high (read Saskatchewan people beneficial) taxation came along.
I think this people beneficial high corporate taxation would make for grrrrreat retail politics if applied to the mature tar sands oil industry.
Sincerely,
MB
Harry S on, FYI:
Were you given fluoridated water as an infant? It’ll lower your IQ permanently!
http://www.fluoridealert.org/
Are you a critical-thinker?
Are you well informed?
Have you been paying attention?
Do you have family?
Something to think bout;
Plato’s ‘The Allegory of the Cave’, (video 7 min. Read to you, with modern pics.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ei7LqbYb8M&feature=related
DionMP does not need to give out his whole plan, until an election is called.
But if PMSH and his Gang were listening at all, they would know, that we need to really get on with the job to stop climate change for our families and ourselves.
I do not see Harper even caring about his own kid’s future.
Do you think he care about your family?
That PMSH’s so-called clean-air plan that only kicks in about 2050, and that’s when the world will be all out of oil!
Canada will be out of natural gas about 2028!
But Harper won’t be running for office then!
For Canada to slow or stop the tar sand expansion we need to give out 6-month notice to get out of NAFTA! NAFTA has penalties if Canada even tries to slow the expansion.
The SPP deal is an act of Treason! Where are the GG and RCMP???
Do you recall the undercover police officers from USA and Mexico at the Canadian SPP meeting that tried to start a riot! Harper said that same day (before hand) that he looked down on any public protest! Did he have pre-knowledge of the undercover cops?
Has he heard about free speech?
Why should we even care about stopping climate change in time?
See, ‘How it all ends’ at,
http://wonderingmind42.com/?page=1
Have you rented the movie ‘The 11th hour’ yet?
http://wip.warnerbros.com/11thhour/
Peak-oil is coming very soon!
Rent movie,
‘A Crude Awakening The Oil Crash.’ http://www.oilcrashmovie.com/
We need to get ready NOW while there is still some oil around to make the changes to wear our energy is coming from. Have you heard that we eat oil!
The Most IMPORTANT video you’ll ever see! Part 1-8
‘Arithmetic, Population, and Energy’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-QA2rkpBSY&feature=related
Even ‘IF’ they find oil & gas in the Artic.
They’re guessing there will be some!
It won’t last very long!
The earth will get to HOT for Human Beings to survive if we just keep going as is!!!
Just staying on the same road, doing things the same old way, will just lead us all over a deadly cliff! And sooner than you might think! I expect to see some drastic changes in my live time.
The kids of to day that know, and see the adults and so-called leaders of our only world must be fearful of there future, because if we just keep going as is it is going to get BRUTAL for everyone! That means YOU and Your Family Too!
There is nothing good about Global Climate change.
At today’s CO2 levels the ‘low’ end of the computer model predicts a 2-3 degree rise in average global temperatures. That is just the low-end prediction. It will get higher if we keep going.
2-3 degrees average Global temperatures increase will mean that Southern Ontario will see a 9-degree average increase in temperatures. That mean the HOTTEST days we have seen will be +9 degrees HOTTER! People will die from the heat!
Will the food crops grow? Will it rain often enough? Were does your food come from?
Calgary gets its drinking water from the river that comes from melting glaciers. Were will the drinking water come from when the glaciers are gone?
When the oils gone how will you run air conditioners? How will you pump water?
How will you ship food and stuff?
How will you heat and cool your home?
There is still a bit of time left to change, but not much time!
We need to really get the job done and with much urgency!!! Or we ALL, including your family with see the REALLY BRUTAL EFFECTS of inaction!
Inaction is a choice. A very BAD choice if you have been paying attention
I’ve been paying attention to this PMSH Government, and it look like a
3rd world dictatorship and even fascist!
Must see,
Talk by Naomi Wolf – The End of America, 48min. talk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjALf12PAWc
Someone on this Blog sayed that PMSH has ordered electronic voting machines.
You have heard of HAKERS and foreign powers.
***Never Vote on a machine or have your Vote counted by a machine.
You must Help count the Votes on paper balots by hand!!!
(or WE ALL will be totally F****D!)
Just some extra stuff to think about,
President Eisenhower’s Farewell Address to the Nation. (just a few minute long.)
A WARNING!!! From Jan 17, 1961
http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/main.html
Robert Newman’s History of Oil ( 1 of 9 )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQhhrzHKMhI
‘America: Freedom to Fascism’ – Director’s Authorized Version – 111 min – May 5, 2007
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1656880303867390173
See the Directors interviews also!
‘ZEITGEIST’ (the movie)—116min
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5547481422995115331
Article,
Naomi Wolf: Fascist America, in 10 easy steps | World news | The …
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/24/usa.comment
An Innovative Idea
I suggest an additional levy on all the methane gas that is produced by CONS spewing their MANURE.
To make this “visionary initiative” revenue neutral, rebates will be provided to CONServatives to purchase DUCT TAPE covering their mouths, thereby resulting in a virtuous circle of lesser and lesser repugnant gas being released into the atmosphere.
Not sure about the details, but the theory is sound.
Mr. Garth TurnerMP, FYI
I saw some articles in the Sunday Toronto Star newspaper that you and others may be interested in.
Three books, three varied but effective reminders of the courage it took in World War II to defy hate and intolerance – and still does
http://www.thestar.com/article/423600
Prime Minister’s attack merely seeks to muffle legitimate debate and attack the opposition
http://www.thestar.com/article/423992
It’s not just about 500 dead ducks.
http://www.thestar.com/article/423991
(Is this just another sign of Global Climate Change and …?)
All eyes on price of rice.
http://www.thestar.com/article/424213
(It’s a very complicated issue. Two wrongs do not make a right, and there seems too be two side to every issue. Just my two cents.)
Rally cries for Palestinian rights.
http://www.thestar.com/article/424222
Mr. Garth TurnerMP,
Please thank your web site people!
For making the changes, so that the comments people type do not get erased automatically when there try and send them.
And the notice if you sent the same comment twice is really good, because it lets the sender know that their comment went through, if note sure it did the first time.
(Note: 2nd try, I change it a bit. Also going to split it up in two parts.)
Harry S on, FYI:
Are you well informed?
Have you been paying attention?
Do you have family?
Mr. DionMP does not need to give out his whole plan, until an election is called.
But if PMSH and his Gang of MPs were listening at all, they’d know, we need to really get on with the job to stop climate change for our families and ourselves.
I do not see Harper even caring about his own kid’s future.
Do you think PMSH care about your family’s future?
That PMSH so-called clean-air plan that only really kicks in about 2050,
And that’s when the world will be all out of oil (mostly).
Canada will be out of natural gas in about 2028.
But Harper won’t be running for office then!
For Canada to slow or stop the tar sand expansion we’ll need to give out 6-month notice to get out of NAFTA. It might be the best thing we can do now.
NAFTA has penalties if Canada even tries to slow the expansion. of the tar sands!
The SPP deal is an act of Treason! Where is the GG and RCMP???
Do you recall the undercover police officers from USA and Mexico at the Canadian SPP meeting that tried to start a riot! Harper said that same day (before hand) that he looked down on any public protest!(not his exact wording).
Did he have pre-knowledge of the undercover cops with rocks in hand?
Has he heard about free speech?
Why should we even care about stopping climate change in time?
See, ‘How it all ends’ at,
http://wonderingmind42.com/?page=1
Have you rented the movie ‘The 11th hour’ yet?
http://wip.warnerbros.com/11thhour/
Peak-oil: Most of the world oil fields have peaked!
Rent the movie,
‘A Crude Awakening The Oil Crash.’ http://www.oilcrashmovie.com/
We need to get ready NOW while there is still some oil around to make the changes to wear our energy is coming from. Have you heard that we eat oil?
The Most IMPORTANT video you’ll ever see! Part 1-8
‘Arithmetic, Population, and Energy’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-QA2rkpBSY&feature=related
Even ‘IF’ they find oil & gas in the Artic.
They’re guessing there will be some!
It won’t last very long!
The earth will get to HOT for Human Beings to survive if we just keep going as is!!!
Just staying on the same road, doing things the same old way, will just lead us all over a deadly cliff! And sooner than you might think! I expect to see some drastic changes in my live time.
The kids of to day that know, and see the adults and so-called leaders of our only world must be fearful of there future, because if we just keep going as is it is going to get BRUTAL for everyone! That means YOU and Your Family Too!
There is nothing good about Global Climate change.
At today’s CO2 levels the ‘low’ end of the computer model predicts a 2-3 degree rise in average global temperatures. That is just the low-end prediction. It will get higher if we keep going.
2-3 degrees average Global temperatures increase will mean that Southern Ontario will see a 9-degree average increase in temperatures. That mean the HOTTEST days we have seen will be +9 degrees HOTTER! People will die from the heat!
Will the food crops grow? Will it rain often enough? Were does your food come from?
Calgary gets its drinking water from the river that comes from melting glaciers. Were will the drinking water come from when the glaciers are gone?
When the oils gone how will you run air conditioners? How will you pump water?
How will you ship food and stuff?
How will you heat and cool your home?
There is still a bit of time left to change, but not much time!
We need to ‘really’ get the job done and with ‘much urgency’!!! Or we ALL, including your family with see the REALLY BRUTAL EFFECTS of inaction!
Inaction is a choice. A very BAD choice if you have been paying attention.
I’ve been paying attention to this PMSH Government, and it look like a
3rd world dictatorship and even fascist!
Must see,
Talk by Naomi Wolf – The End of America, 48min. talk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjALf12PAWc
Someone on this Blog sayed that PMSH has ordered electronic Voting Machines.
You have heard of Hakers and Foreign Powers?
***Never Vote on a Machine or have your Vote counted by a Machine.
You can Help count the Votes by Hand!!!
With comments like these Garth, the Liberal future looks pretty dim. Utterly sad, and distressing as that may be… Most people are just two stoopid to get the concept.
Unless people start getting on board with the reality train, we’re gonna get SCREWED royally by the con train.
I hope Dion’s english has improved because he is gonna have a lot of explaining to do to those who just don’t care.
Harry S
Remember what the shrink told you about getting upset. Now take a few deep breathes and get your meds before you have to make another trip to the happy farm again. Do you remember how long it took you to realize that you weren’t being sexually assaulted by aliens every night. It was a long road to recovery wasn’t it?
A concerned friend……
John: We also trusted Harper not to tax income trusts . I have no trust in Harper or Baird ( the original deniers).
I am quite open to a carbon tax policy.
Harper and company continue to coddle the oil and gas barons-they are impotent against this huge conservative lobby group. Intensity based targets are the product of a weak-minded policy.
With Harper at the helm Canadians continue to see escalating costs of living.
If a carbon tax policy will add a few more cents to my gas or food bills, so be it.
33 million Canadians have contributed to GHG’s—and Canadians are known for accepting responsibility even if it means a few dollars.
By Judy on 05.11.08 9:39 pm
First – Stephane Dion WILL NEVER reverse the Income Trust decision!
Second – you Liberals are truly heartless when you think a few cents on gas or food or heating doesn’t mean anything for lower income people (seniors, families, or individuals). The costs are already rising and the Liberal plan to increase more is just insane!!!
By slg on 05.11.08 10:19 pm
Please don’t advocate removing someone, especially someone as effective as this man at alienating possible CPC voters.
I will certainly vote for a sound environmental policy—we also need Mr Dion to establish his economic strategy for this country very soon–these are the two main issues in the minds of Canadians in terms of priority—economy is number one , environment is number two.
A great one-two punch in any election campaign.
Solid policies in both areas will establish Dion as the strong leader we know he is.
As Jock McBile used to say , Mr Harper “get stuffed”!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dr Mike Popovich—former life-long Conservative.
“…but are warning people it’ll mean a 50-cent hike in the cost of gasoline. Of course, this isn’t true. Dion has told me himself the last thing he wants to do is raise the gas tax, and I believe him. Fuel costs are already so high they seriously threaten the economy, and I’d never vote to jack them up further.”
Someone had better tell John Godfrey. Here’s what he had to say this weekend about the effect of the carbon tax:
“You cannot have both a fight against climate change and cheap gas. This is not possible. You have to pick one,” Godfrey said.
Garth, I applaude you and M. Dion for having the courage to face head-on a problem the rest won’t touch. If you can keep the message and the plan positive, showing how we can be LEADERS in green technology, I think you will have the ear of fair-minded forward-thinking people.
Investment and development in, and USE OF green technology will not just reduce Canada’s contribution to the problem. They will allow us to provide the same solutions to the rest of the world, and we will lead in saving the planet while creating wealth and opportunity right here, for Canadians.
Show voters we can use our God-given intelligence to make this a win-win-win situation, not a case of gloom and doom and denial. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. We can lead in finding it.
I would back this plan if you could show me one SHRED of conclusive proof that carbon is the primary driver of climate. After about 6 months of reading nearly every day on the subject I still have yet to find anything that directly states this as fact.
What I have found is a neat study that showed how people with more knowledge of climate change are more apathetic towards it. I wonder if that has anything to do with the lack of real proof.
There are so many other problems that we can fix, and Canada’s GHG emissions are not even that large in the grand scale of all emissions worldwide.
Even if it were as simple as a nice graph of all the GHG emissions in the air (including water vapour, the primary GHG) and what percentage of each gas were placed there directly by man made sources would be fine. Even better would be a graph depicting the warming we’ve seen since 1900 broken down with what percentage of the warming is attributed to every warming source and how much is actually man made and how much natural variability. I haven’t even found that. You would think this kind of information would be plastered all over half the enviro-loons sites if it existed and supported their theories, but either we don’t understand the real causes or the information isn’t being made public to protect it. In either case we should NOT act until the truth is absolute and known.
That means companies which dump this crap in the air – like oil refiners, power plants, smelters – will have to pay for doing so. This will encourage them to find clearer ways of doing business. The money raised will then be used to fund tax cuts, to corporations (so they have more money to invest and grow) – Garth
You’re correct, M. Dion has a plan, Harper hasn’t a clue.
First thoughts. When I read this paragraph, if M. Dion cuts corporate taxes at the same time as charging the same corporations for using/emitting carbon, will they really have an incentive to cut back?
One things for sure, an increase in the cost of using carbon will make alternative sources of energy much more competitive.
And for you doubters, remember when oil was $20/barrel …. the oil sands of Alberta were too expensive a proposition and few investors would touch them with a barge pole.
The costs are already rising and the Liberal plan to increase more is just insane!!!
By Catherine on 05.12.08 4:36 am
And so is continuing to dump more and more carbon into the atmosphere!
Insanity… continuing to do the same and expecting different results… that’s the Harper plan when it come to the environment.
You cannot have a carbon tax without taxing the biggest carbon user, us, as in fuel tax, auto and home. John Crosbie gave us a 12 cent tax on Gas, and we all know what happened. You will further the divide us between rural and urban, and the commuting suburbs may fall Tory as a result.
By Ted on 05.12.08 12:00 am
..well , this is a totally different time, different problems.
About Harry S. and his right to an opinion – I have a right to one too. His whole purpose is to attack and it’s annoying (which I guess he loves). I think he’s a total waste of time.
Harry S – about put up or shut up – practice what you preach. You are a bigot but refuse to answer about your own ancestry – waiting for your answer.
Great flogging of the sizzle, Garth, but when do we get to see the steak?
It would be nice to have something substantial to consider and discuss.
In either case we should NOT act until the truth is absolute and known.
By Traciatim on 05.12.08 6:03 am
Hey – you were doing pretty good until you wrote the last sentence shown above – then you gave yourself away.
If you had any knowledge of science you would know that there is no absolute truth – just the best answers to the various questions that we’ve been able to come up with so far.
I guess it is this uncertainty factor in science that some people can’t handle.
When I was reading this post and comments this morning, I noticed immediately the earliest responses of the Con attacking trolls.
I now have a vision of them all sitting in the big computerised ‘war room’ seen on television a long while back. Then, the Harper government was so proud to show they were ever ready for an election and were pouring money and manpower into their enormous office space in Ottawa.
So, they sit by their computers on night or day shifts, alerted by the electronic “ping!” whenever Garth puts a new post online. Swiftly, they key in their comments, interspersing lines from their ‘talking points’ with their personal venting. They add the ‘emotional’ content so they can mirror the angry Canadian Conservative image of their Parliamentary leaders and try to make us think they are individuals You know the ‘leaders’ I mean, the MPs and front benchers who spend time whipping up the troops with ‘humourous’ insulting attacks on the opposition which are greeted with the applause and heckling, the put-down artists.
While they put down ‘the others’, they attack us, the 60 odd % of Canadians who didn’t and won’t vote for them. They put up with a disgraceful handling of the environment and I do not believe Canadians will put up with them much longer.
Secret Letter from Harper to Tim Horton’s discovered
Submitted by Bob Rae on Mon, 05/12/2008 – 07:49.
Through an Access to Information Request, I have just received this copy of a letter from Stephen Harper to the President of Tim Horton’s:
I have just learned of your decision to reinstate the employee who was fired for giving away a free “Timbits” to a crying baby.
While I am no longer allowed to frequent such establishments myself, I admired your original decision and am dismayed that you would cave into dubious liberal second thoughts.
Employees stealing a timbit from the company and sharing the benefits with babies, old people, or anyone else might seem like a small thing.
But we all know the progression. It starts with a timbit. Then it’s a doughnut – say, a chocolate glazed – than it moves on to a cruller (those new maple ones are good), a toasted bagel, and so it goes. Before you know it your employees are giving aways bowls of soup and chili, sandwiches, and who knows how many coffees, mocha froths and those toffee tasting whipped cream things that I’m not even allowed to look at any more.
There goes the business. There goes the brand. There goes discipline, loyalty, and living by the rules. It’s a slippery slope. A timbit might seem like a small thing. But it’s really just the beginning of the end.
So deal with this thing upfront. Fire the employee. Stick by your original plan. The bad publicity will come and go. Don’t answer questions. Attack the questioner. Challenge their credibility. Smear Coffee Time.
It works for me.
Yours sincerely
Stephen Harper
Prime Minister
…..this is truly “disgusting” – I’m going to write Tim Hortons and tell them I WILL NO longer eat there and wonder how much influence Harper has on Canadian companies and why does he feel free to advise them?
Harper is “insane”.
About Harry S. and his right to an opinion – I have a right to one too. His whole purpose is to attack and it’s annoying (which I guess he loves). I think he’s a total waste of time.
Harry S – about put up or shut up – practice what you preach. You are a bigot but refuse to answer about your own ancestry – waiting for your answer.
By slg on 05.12.08 7:34 am
I can’t agree with that premise on Harry, the one thing that is most offensive about the CPC is their attitude of “we are right, you are wrong” period. When Harper, Baird and Van Loan get up to speak in parliament, there is more often than not a put down attached to their remarks. They have the sense that only what they have to say matters, and you will note that is reflected in many of the CPC supporters on here. Harry likes to push the right wing agenda, in doing so, he is totally offensive which turns many people off. I see that as a good thing. Honestly, I think if Harper had played it straight, not allowed his hatred of Liberals and all things liberal to be front and center, he would have had a really good shot at a majority. However, because the CPC can not tolerate a differing opinion, they are constantly on the attack. I see this as an asset for those of us who do not want to be governed by a closed, secretive and protective group. So let Harry wail away, it only makes him look like he is out of control, the thing most feared by the CPC….
I have no idea if this scaremongering will work, if people will freak out at the added costs a carbon price would bring, if they believe personal tax cuts are the answer, or if all this talk I’ve heard about helping the environment is just that – talk.
Details soon.
I have to question the release of the ‘plan’ in portions. It should have been released fully formed or not at all. ‘Scaremongering’ is already in full force (just listened to a rant and call-in on morning radio).
“Details soon” may be too late.
SLG,
that “Harper” letter is beyond disinformation. It ranks up there with the finest Nixonian boiler room efforts. But it is too pat: remember, when something looks too good to be true, it most probably isn’t.
I will believe most anything about Harper, except that he is stupid enough to send something like that. It would be nice if there were evidence that he is, but I don’t expect to see it.
By wjp on 05.12.08 8:06 am
Garth chooses to allow Harry to post.
Given that he is the arbiter of what appears here, I would suggest that he prefers Harry to not ‘shut up’.
When he is not being an ass, some of the questions he poses are not without value. Unfortunately, he tends to be an ass about 98% of the time.
When he harps hour after hour on leadership issues it ultimately becomes laughable. When he demands that Garth respond to his own timetable it is ludicrous.
But should he be ‘shut up’? Clearly, that is within Garth’s power.
You know folks, I guess you are right about Harry S – let him spin, attack, make insane remarks – show the world what CPC supporters are like.
Certainly not impressive and certainly not to be taken seriously. When he comments I will press my “ignore” button.
For a Monday morning…
Heard this from Wendell Ferguson last night(brilliant guitar player who writes wickedly funny songs):
On the occasion of his retirement, M. Chretien and his wife Aline were being interviewed by journalists. One of the journalists asked Mme. Chretien what she was looking forward to now that M. Chretien was retired.
Mme. Chretien thought for a minute and then replied, “A penis”.
Shocked reporters did not no how to respond until M. Chretien leaned over and said to Aline, “It is pronounced “‘appiness” my dear.”
Very interesting how determined or is it desperate the Conservative trolls, e.g. Harry, Catherine, Van etc.etc. are to learn the details of Dions plan for a carbon tax policy. Are they in need of stealing the plan for their own use because they are completely devoid of idea? Are they so insecure that they can only function when they are able to deliver only negative comments on anything and need the details to destroy
any thoughtful dialogue on this subject
why cannot we a meaningful debate on a carbon tax, why don’t all the parties produce their plans and/or ideas at the
same time and then we the voting public can determine for ourselves what is the best way. Of course, the MSM would have to be convinced to report only the truth without all the talking head spins.
If the Cons don’t want a meaningful debate, would the trolls consider asking their party to divulge their plans?
As for Harry, can anyone explain the sheer desperation that is creeping more and more into his postings, is it possible he has money resting on the outcome of Dion’s future, is it possible he has a personal vendetta against Dion, is it possible his own future(life) is dependant on the removal of Dion? Harry is there any way we can help you out of the mess you appear to be in?
,
Harper’s concern for environment is laughable
Written by associate news editor rodney Venis
Sunday, 11 May 2008
He somehow refrained from ordering the flag on Parliament Hill to be flown at half-mast but Prime Minister Stephen Harper nevertheless called the oilsands’ death of 500 ducks a national “tragedy” last week and lamented the damage done to Canada’s environmental image.
Now the prime minister has taken enough grief over his over-enthusiastic use of the word “tragedy.” Really, when compared anything from the Chinese occupation of Tibet to the Vancouver Canucks, the only tragedy is the star-crossed waterfowl should have drowned in l’orange sauce instead of the toxic foulness of a Syncrude tailings pond. What’s more egregious is any member of the Conservative government, let alone Harper, even daring to mention caring about Canada’s “good environmental record and good environmental image.”
C’mon. This is the government that defiled the Kyoto agreement in front of the whole world. The Tories could put Daffy and Donald through a woodchipper in front of the CNN building in Atlanta and it still wouldn’t match the damage they’ve done to Canada’s international reputation.
But, in Harper’s defence, he wasn’t concerned so much about the country’s green credentials as its profile as an “emerging energy superpower.” He’d one day like the world to see the oilsands as sustainable and eco-friendly.
That’s right. The oilsands. As sustainable. And eco-friendly. It’s like arguing one day cigarettes will one day be a source of Vitamin C and ginseng.
Not to put too fine a point on it (and not to ignore the government surpluses and massive economic stimulus) but, in terms of the environment, the oilsands is one of the foulest, most poisonous enterprises ever devised by humanity. According to an, admittedly, worse case scenario from the Edmonton Journal, a patch of forest the size of Florida could be disturbed by the oilsands if it grows as projected while thousands of plants, pipelines and roads tied to the development could eventually cover 21 per cent of the Alberta. Since the oilsands takes two to four barrels of water to produce each barrel of oil, it sucks up almost 16 per cent of the Athabasca River in the winter alone, when the waterway is at its most vulnerable. Then, of course, there are the greenhouse gases, where it’s estimated the oilsands will produce almost half of Canada’s emissions growth between 2003 and 2010.
That’s also not to forget the aforementioned toxic tailings ponds that killed the ducks, which all told are so large they can be seen from space. The reason the ducks died is that, according to World Watch, the ponds contain pollutants such as napthenic acids in concentrations 100 times the natural level.
The list of horrors goes on — from diverted rivers and streams to wetlands being drained to the influence of the Calgary Flames — and they’re enough that the UN put the oilsands in the world’s top 100 “hot spots” of environmental degradation. (OK, the UN failed to mention the Flames.) But they’re not enough to stop either Harper or his provincial counterpart, Premier Ed Stelmach from putting a smiley face on the whole endeavour. Indeed, Stelmach’s government even launched a $25 million “branding” campaign to put a less sickly shade of green on the damage.
Hopefully that money will be used to grease a lot of palms in the U.S. Congress and Senate because it’s hard to imagine how such a campaign would work. Possible slogans include: “What Happens in the Oilsands, Stays in the Oilsands”, “You Wanna Walk?”, “It’s only Canada Anyways”, and “Alberta: Cleaner than Chernobyl, Better than Bhopal.”
But here’s good luck to both of them. After all, they’re dealing with a tragedy: just when everyone was content to turn a blind eye to the oilsands, 500 ducks dropped dead in their lap.
….bit by bit by bit – people are waking up.
See what I mean? – from the Brantford Expositor:
Carbon tax is great idea
Posted By Michael Den Tandt
Posted 2 hours ago
When the leader’s down, a good Liberal operative’s first instinct is to knife him in the spine and roll him into the nearest ditch. The party machine has tasted power a lot, wants it again and has little patience for losers.
Even so, the backbiting about Stephane Dion’s much-leaked plan for a national tax on carbon is mystifying. The idea hasn’t yet been unveiled formally but already the anonymous senior strategists are crawling out of the woodwork, blades in hand. A carbon tax is too complex, too arcane, these folks argue. It’ll be viewed as a cash grab. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s tactically brilliant political team (more on that later) will make mincemeat of it on the hustings. Plus, any kind of bold green plan would be just too much Dion, wouldn’t it? Canadians don’t like the guy. He’s like Hillary Clinton – charisma-challenged, annoying, dead man walking. So If Dion won’t take one for the team and quit outright, he should at least have the decency to curl up in the fetal position until an election comes along to put him out of his misery. Then someone good can take over and lead the party back from the wilderness.
Small-minded? Shortsighted? Er, yeah.
tax inevitable
Here’s the bottom line on a national carbon tax: It is inevitable. Setting a price on carbon is the only fair, effective and comprehensive way to bring about broad-based change in how consumers and businesses use energy.
The Liberals knew this five years ago when they floated a plan to cut Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions by 240 megatonnes, as called for under the Kyoto Protocol, but arbitrarily set aside 60 megatonnes. It was the equivalent of saying to a creditor: I owe you 240 bucks. Here’s 180. I’ll get you the rest sometime, if I can. But we’ll consider the debt paid in full.
To get those extra 60 megatonnes, the Liberals would have to have set a price on carbon – in practical terms by imposing a tax on gas-guzzling SUVs and energy-hogging homes. But the prime minister of the day, Jean Chretien, was too politically crafty for that. Canadians weren’t ready five years ago to make those kinds of sacrifices. We were in the pleasant, pre-action phase of social change. Save the world, sure. Pay for it out of my own pocket? No way.
And maybe, to be honest, many of us are still stuck there. Walking to work twice a week is one thing. Buying a pricey hybrid car, or retrofitting your home – these are different decisions entirely.
But here’s the brilliance of the new carbon-tax model, as implemented by British Columbia earlier this year: it’s cash-neutral. Nationally, a carbon tax could suck as much as $17 billion annually into federal coffers. But that would be offset by cuts in personal income taxes and business taxes. So you don’t pay more, you pay differently. Income and corporate taxes could drop as much as 10 per cent, according to tax experts.
incentive to earn money
The net result would be a strong incentive to reduce conventional energy use, combined with greater incentive to earn money – because businesses and individuals keep more of what they earn. Best of all, an individual’s taxes would drop steadily as his or her energy use decreased. Sell your SUV in favour of public transit and a bicycle, and you get an instant, big tax cut. Keep your SUV but drive it less? You still get a tax cut, albeit smaller.
Now, this needn’t have been a Liberal plan. Indeed, if Stephen Harper remains in power long enough, it will become a Conservative plan – just as slashing the federal deficit became a Liberal plan 15 years ago. Necessity pushes politicians in directions they don’t foresee and wouldn’t necessarily choose if left to their own devices. Dwindling crude oil stocks and climate change together have generated a global wave that is bigger than any party or ideology.
Harper’s greatest mistake so far is that he has failed to see this. Tactically brilliant, they say. Is he also blind? Who knows? Now Stephane Dion, for all his miscues and false starts, is about to pick up the ball. There is no better issue for him to take to the polls. The worst that can happen, from a Liberal standpoint, is that Harper perceives the threat, thieves the idea, and Dion loses anyway. But is that such a terrible risk to take, when you’re facing oblivion already?
Politics is supposed to be about making smart policies that make the country better. This is such a policy. If Liberals are smart, they’ll stop wringing their hands and get behind it.
Michael Den Tandt writes about national affairs.
Sorry about the garbled post just before going to work last night. I had just read an article in Canada free press that set me ballistic. Many peach growers in Ontario are cutting down their trees because all but one canning plant is being shut down by the venture capital company that bought out Del Monte brand. The remaining plant will now can just CHINESE peaches instead and sell them as product of Canada as you guessed it, Del Monte. Now instead of growing peaches and canning them locally before distributing them in Canada we are going to ship green peaches half way around the world from China truck them across Canada for canning then distributing them across Canada. Apparently they qualfy as Canadian products because the cost of the can and label is more than 50% not to mention shipping.
I told 6 people about this at work last night and every one of them was appalled. The best comment was “if the sandstorms from China are toxic thn how can anything grown there be safe to eat”. Another person wanted labels in the language of the source country as well as english and french so they can tell easily what they don’t want to buy. Every one of them said “well I used to like peaches”.
Garth if the Liberals can’t use this issue as a reason “to get tough” on the environment and test every product coming into the country then you don’t deserve to win. As I said yesterday we need to make shipping an unrecoverable expense rather than a writeoff for companies and maybe if we test every container coming into the country for safety we can clog our ports and empty the store shelves and force them to buy local. Or maybe just pass legislation that if we can grow it here we can’t import it. Judging from last nights comments as well the general opinion of most folks around here, we all are checking where stuff comes from and e are getting mre and more frustrated that we can no longer choose to buy Canadian.
Off to bed now.
OT but certainly related to our future. Well, well…Seems Rev. Wright’s little forays into the Twilight Zone of thought and speech are NOTHING compared to Senator John McCain’s Campaign Coordinator.
McCain convention chief was PR man for Burmese junta
SAY WHAT? Oh, I forgot, Lobbyists are paid WHORES who will say anything for money. They have ZERO ETHICS, ZERO MORALITY, and FAT BANK ACCOUNTS!
And Jesus thought he had a problem with the Money Changers in the Temple? HA!
Why, there is even a Funnymentalist Church called ‘The Money Changer’s Temple’ now.
I would call this slimeball a pure, unadulterated whore, but that would be an oxymoron.
SLG: Harper is “insane”.
LOL – remember this the next time that the flock accuses Conservatives of being “humourless”. The credulity of your average Liberal voter is a bottomless well. Kind of explains how they believe that a “13-17 Billion dollar” tax scheme is only going to cost them “a few pennies” each.
If the Liberals presented a plan with some honest numbers, I’d consider it fairly. Since they’d rather treat us all as ignorant rubes, I’ll show them the same consideration.
We have a friend from Germany staying with us this past week. We’ve been talking about the environment & what various European countries have been doing to decrease carbon emissions, etc. They are so more advanced than we are. There are solutions out there, but as we all agreed, it is not in the interest of ‘big oil’ & gas guzzling car mfgs., who in our opinion, have been in cahoots with each other, to make these solutions available to the market. IIRC, my DH was reading on the net about a women who, ‘accidently’ was sold a car than gave her 2K miles on a tank of gas. The car was on lease and she wanted to buy it at the end of the lease, but was refused. I will try and remember to ask him about it more this eve. Believe he tried to find the story again last eve but not sure of the outcome as I went to bed. Our German friend does lots of research about alternatives to ‘oil’. The technology is out there, and has been for decades, but some would require various international govts to support them, from what I understand.
Anywho, our German friend is off to get a temp vehicle permit so he & I shall go down to the south shore to purchase a used Dodge Durango. I know, its a gas guzzler but he is 6 ft 4 in and about 240 lbs. He’ll be sleeping in it for approx. the next 2 mos trying to find an investment/rental property to buy, in the hopes of eventually moving here. In both of our vehicles (Camry & Accord)his knees are touching the dashboard and the seats are just too small for him. He can’t afford to buy a large, more energy efficient vehicle which he’ll only use for a few weeks each year.
I’m for waiting the details of Dion’s plan. As a Cdn. who is concerned about the future of our next generations, we definitely need to bite the bullet. My fear is that the con spin machine will lie using their paid, ‘denier’ scientific community and their big oil lobbyists.
A carbon tax of $17 billion is so inflationary that all goods and services will increase. An income tax cut will only be change in our pocket to help pay for the increase.
Those affected most are those least able to afford it such as seniors on fixed incomes and lower income earners, both of which pay little income tax to get anything of substance back. Home heating fuel, gasoline, electricity, all the things we require to live in a cold climate will increase. In addition, food, clothing, shelter, all those things will increase as the cost to provide them increases. Everything will increase.
To curb inflation the Bank of Canada will increase interest rates which will put a squeeze on business ability to borrow. It will also increase the dollar making exports less viable adversely affecting manufacturing and agriculture.
All this for the “environment.” The problem is, taxes won’t reduce GHG, it only increases our cost of living. Garth, is that really the hill that you and Dion are prepared to die on?
“Do you remember how long it took you to realize that you weren’t being sexually assaulted by aliens every night?”
By Smokingjoe on 05.12.08 3:36 am
Hilarious!
Brilliance from another intelligent “Red” Canadian.
First – Stephane Dion WILL NEVER reverse the Income Trust decision!
Second – you Liberals are truly heartless when you think a few cents on gas or food or heating doesn’t mean anything for lower income people (seniors, families, or individuals). The costs are already rising and the Liberal plan to increase more is just insane!!!
By Catherine on 05.12.08 4:36 am
Catherine, quit writing such negative comments about the Carbon Tax issue until you know what’s really going on. You say the Liberals are truly heartless. If anyone can be accurately accused of that is SH, his Reform Party & his blind followers like you.
Tell me Catherine, by following THE dictator, what’s in it for you? Have you been promised many riches & eternal life?
I for one will not speculate & pass judgement on a Carbon Tax until the plan is out in the open & properly explained. Like I said before, cut the GST on fuel & that would be a good start towards paying for the price on carbon.
Harry, you are out of control. You sound more like a lunatic everyday. Take your meds & relax.
Have a good week all.
Regards
Today’s lesson in How We Got Into This Mess courtesy of J.R. Saul (Pages 114 to 117) of ‘The Collapse of Globalism’.
[Perhaps the most dramatic part of the collapse of the Soviet bloc was the rapid disintegration of social programs inside both Russia and the surrounding countries. A number of leading thinkers, with ties to that world, now see the removal of the old social protections - as opposed to their conversion into a middle-class Western-style safety net - as a projection of what will happen in the West over the next decade. They see the radical stripping-down of the communist system as an experiment in neo-liberal Globalism, demonstrating that you can dismantle such a costly machine without paying any real political price. "Eastern Europe served as a laboratory for a second important test - how far can one push labour without significant social protests and dislocations?" "[Y] ou can make labour flexible enough to diminish their collective demands to a bare minimum.” Again, this disintegration was tied to the advice being urgendy given by Western consultants and economists.
The principal counterweight to this social decline was the gradual integration of the ex-Pact countries into the European Union with its still-complex safety net. Even if multiple attempts were under way to
make the European system more flexible, lighter, less opaque, none of them were intended to strip it down to the Globalist market model. This was the atmosphere during the late 1980s and early ’90s. It was largely positive. Where there were disappointments, the reply was Give it time. These are big changes. Take the broad, long, structural view. It will all come right soon enough.
But if you looked closer with a dispassionate eye you could see great contradictory movements. Globalization was growing ever stronger. It was also fracturing, coming apart, retreating.
The high point may have been 1995, with the creation of the World Trade Organization. It replaced the old trade regulation structure of GATT. And there was every reason for everyone to be pleased that there now existed a centralized body designed to arbitrate trade issues.
What made this administrative accomplishment a major triumph for one school and a major defeat for the other was that both sides treated its creation as far more than a matter of utilitarian organization. It was as if the reconceptualization of civilization through the prism of economics had reached a critical stage. Taken in its fullest meaning, the purpose of the WTO was to ensure that any international exchange containing some commercial element could be judged through that prism. The positive implication was that no other effective system of binding arbitration existed. Trade possessed the only one. At least in that area, problems could now be dealt with. And if because of the economic prism approach other areas could be straightened out from a commercial point of view, so much the better. The negative implication was that issues that were not fundamentally commercial could now be reduced to this utilitarian system of measurement.
Culture, for example, the moment it crossed borders, could be seen as fundamentally a matter of commercial activity, subject therefore to a WTO point of view. Food could be treated as only secondarily something that goes into our stomachs. That we might wish to decide that the makeup of what we eat could be dismissed as an interference with the primary question of competing agricultural industries. National health and food rules could be – and quickly were – treated as protectionist interference. All of the questions relating to labelling, sources, genetics, insecticides, herbicides and fertilizers might be of primary concern to citizens, but they would be only secondarily of concern to the WTO. Food was a matter of competition and trade.
At a time when citizens were becoming more involved in how to deal with technology gone wrong, as in mad cow disease or what conditions and prices should surround the use of pharmaceuticals, the creation of the WTO seemed to suggest that such issues should first be treated as a matter of industrial competition. Citizen involvement was therefore a form of protectionism. Unless based on hard science, citizens’ desires to choose were not welcome arguments. The precautionary principle had thus been demoted, just as a growing number of public interest groups had focused on its importance.
Above all, people were disturbed by the evolution of the idea of choice. Globalization had been announced as – at least from a commercial point of view – a powerful force for increasing choice. Now it seemed that choice was not to be understood as the citizen’s right to decide what she put in her stomach or what his social priorities might be. Instead, choice was to be concentrated on corporate desires and their decisions about how to seek profits. That would mean limiting the personal choices of individuals.
Alfred Eckes has said that those who got us as far as the WTO are “the real revolutionaries of the twentieth century:’ The chairman of Ford was convinced that “we’re moving toward a borderless world.” International business organizations were comfortable announcing that “the private sector is the main source for the creation of added value, wealth and jobs Business self-regulation has proved to be the most flexible way to get results.”
In this way the cheerleaders of Globalization kept urging us on. Mrs. Thatcher in the midst of yet another crisis in 1985: “The temptation of barriers to free trade is strongest when economic growth falters. But effects are painfuL… Modernisation is held back. So the boundaries of the open trading system must be pressed forward.”
This was something she said in Malaysia, where thirteen years later a sophisticated and agile leadership, caught in the middle of a meltdown, would prove the exact opposite.
But Mrs. Thatcher was not encouraging us to act in a normal or down-to-earth manner. She was evoking Herman Kahn’s “ideology of progress.” If you just keep moving in what you believe to be a forward direction, the world will adjust to your pace. It will all come right. Just give it a bit more time.]
As to imposing another tax to solve a clear cut problem, I say NO! We need environmental laws that impose stiff (more than $1 million dollar) fines, criminal prosecution and imprisonment of Corporate Officers and their underlings (the ones they get to do the dirty work), and a Zero Tolerance approach to screwing up OUR environment. No more appeasement, no more ‘tax plans’, not more skirting around the real cause of the problem…Greedy bastards after massive profits with no public accountability. All while they rape and pillage the rest of us either through outrageous money grabbing and or environmental destruction.
BTW, the entire purpose of NAU/SPP is to mitigate the intent of the WTO, which we know from the Softwood Lumber fiasco is a neutered eunich as far as the U.S. is concerned.
Oddly, the U.S. has tougher environmental laws than Canada, and they are enforced, but not good old Canada. No Sir, we have Champion Schmucks like John Baird and Stephen Harper, and a HoC too busy worrying about gaining power to concern themselves with OUR well being and future, much less the poor people of the Athabasca Oil Sands area.
“Secret Letter from Harper to Tim Horton’s discovered”
what the hell is Rae up to?
Hey Jimbo 5:30am, what Mr. Godfrey said is true, in essence. Why not take a look outside your blinders at the price of gas in Europe? Where they ARE doing things that work- like driving more responsibly? OUR gas is too cheap, sorry. CNN- “Goldman/Sacs sees $200 oil in 24 months”…nowhere to go but up, right? Time we start paying for the development of alternate energies that work, don’t you think? Hey Charles, on the other subject we were discussing…don’t you think some of the most credible people to speak out against the injustices commited in Palestine/Israel, are the many Israeli citizens and yes, soldiers, who refuse to accept the way things are there, and are commited to organizing and speaking out and educating the world with the truth? And as well, it is just so well documented, the methodical torture and slaughter of men, women and children and the collective punishment and demonization of a whole nation. Bush’s neo-con’s and ours here, have learned their lessons well, from the Israeli Government, Military, Mossad, and of course, the Zionists. WE need to return to our PROUD CANADIAN TRADITION of being HONEST BROKERS in this world. There is an important place for us to be on this issue and it must involve neutrality, to help both of those nations.–Just a few personal thoughts. ~ Blessed are the Peacemakers ~ for they shall be called the Sons of God…
“When Harper, Baird and Van Loan get up to speak in parliament, there is more often than not a put down attached to their remarks.”
By wjp on 05.12.08 8:06 am
———-
That same CON philosophy permeates everything on their website; their 5th grade web commentaries, newsletters and “poop-o-grams”; every speech made or media appearance by Harper, Flaherty, other CON members and their strategists; their “dirty tricks manual”; their parliamentary committee involvement; and so on.
In short, it’s in their collective, Neanderthal, knuckle-dragging, monkey DNA.
“The sky may be blue…but the opposition is scumbag red.”
“The world is round…that opposition member is a tool.”
“We think the price of frozen ferret is…the member opposite is a jerk.”
“Ontario is the last place to invest…shut your pie-hole”
“We blah, blah, blah…insert defamatory comment here.”
It will try to tax the things we don’t want, like pollution, emissions and waste, while lowering taxes on the things we do want, like earning income, saving and investing. That’s called tax shifting. Fantastic!I’ve been begging for intelligent tax and environmental policy decions.
Wtf does that mean … can’t you respond to my legitimate queries
By Harry S on 05.11.08 9:55 pm
You’re not legitimate.
You’re just another Tom Dick or Harry
‘Why are these toxic tailing ponds even allowed to exist?’
It’s not just about 500 dead ducks
That remains the real question.
BY BILL-MUSKOKA ON 05.11.08 10:18 PM
I remember years ago seeing a documentary about a tailing pond of some sort in the U.S. and there was all sorts of outrage. Fast forward a few years and they’re here. Does anyone remember agreeing to them?
‘Green’ fix urged for Ontario’s job blues
Toronto Star
May 12, 2008 04:30 AM
LAURIE MONSEBRAATEN
Turning Ontario’s vanishing blue-collar manufacturing jobs into stable, well-paying “green-collar” employment in the emerging green economy should be central to poverty-proofing the province, says a new report.
Ontario has the second-largest manufacturing workforce on the continent after California, yet the province seriously lags behind American states in retooling shuttered factories for the green industries of the future, notes the report, entitled “Work isn’t Working for Ontario Families.”
*report from Campaign 2000 to be released today
Garth
I think it will be important for you to explain to your constituents how a green transition plan will be the key to shifting jobs. Currently, the government views a net gain of part-time work over fulltime work a good thing in Ontario. In the short term, Canadians will need to help these workers who are losing their jobs every week. The current federal government has no plans to support Ontario workers.
It will be a Liberal government and provincial governments working in tandem with industry to stop the hollowing out of these good paying jobs.
A similar problem is occurring in B.C. with our forestry workers. The reason is different but the result is the same experience for our workers here. The current federal government has no plans to support B.C. workers.
I would suspect the first thing M. Dion would do as P.M. is call a First Minister’s Conference.
wonder how much influence Harper has on Canadian companies and why does he feel free to advise them? Harper is “insane”
~BY SLG 7:52AM
Good one. Coffee came out of my nose.
~barb the proof reader
Morning Bill! I hear you on the plastic thing, here- and let’s open another dollar store- unfortunately, some of us shop there out of necessity- but really all that plastic?…we are drowning in it and whatever else they’re putting in it. Thanks for your post to Harry, Calberta and the rest of it, too. MB- I like what you said about revolution/evolution. I wonder if you can have one without some of the other? And GREG W.- thanks! for May 12 @12:44,1:43&2:25am! You ask such important questions and share those great links with us. I plan to check them ALL out… We don’t have much time left, to change our ways, do we? There certainly is a lot of great dicussion on this site, today. Thanks Garth!
While a carbon tax may be sold to us as being revenue neutral for the government, I don’t see it being cost neutral for average families. We will need more details for any such carbon tax.
I think issues such as the environment should be non partisan. All political parties should be kicked out of any strategy sessions or at the very least a minimum of party members should be allowed. It would be good if a strategy could be made by scientists who know of climate change
If you haven’t had a good laugh or cry this week, read Greg Palast’s take on the New Orleans summit
http://www.gregpalast.com/jose-can-you-see-bush%e2%80%99s-trojan-taco/#more-1999
BY HERB ON 04.25.08 8:22 PM
Herb,
I had missed that one before. Great link.
Everyone, after the article, click on the video at the bottom of that page.
And after that, just for another laugh or cry, this short video is a good companion to the above article (send both links to your friends and see what they say)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br31mdP8-Ug
WOW, Harry must be off his meds again. I can just hear the drool drip off his chin.
Harry, seek help ASAP.
I remember years ago seeing a documentary about a tailing pond of some sort in the U.S. and there was all sorts of outrage. Fast forward a few years and they’re here. Does anyone remember agreeing to them?
By barb on 05.12.08 10:36 am
We have had these here in Canada for over a century. The Sydney Tar Ponds go back to the dumping of industrial waste from about 1901.
The voting public as a whole do not take time to adequately study a complicated plan.
If Canadian political parties got serious, here is what they would be addressing first. This is reality, not rhetoric;
Oil giant backs off ‘green’ push
“Environmental advocates read recent comments by BP chief Hayward as an ominous sign for the company’s alternative-energy division. At a meeting with analysts and investors in late February, Hayward said BP will expect a bigger contribution to shareholder value from such efforts.
Senior BP managers later said that doesn’t mean an outright sale of the division, launched in 2005. But given that competitor ExxonMobil (XOM, news, msgs) has a return on equity nearly 50% higher than BP’s, green advocates worry what it does mean. (BP’s stock, by the way, is down about 5% over the last year — better than the S&P 500 ($INX), but not Exxon, which is up 13%.)
and,
BP wants to use carbon capture to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, says spokesman Scott Dean, but first wants Canada to develop a regulatory framework mandating it for all energy companies “so there is a level playing field so that early adopters aren’t penalized.” He says BP is using carbon capture at a project in Algeria.”
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/CompanyFocus/OilGiantBacksOffGreenPush.aspx
A little synopsis here. To tackle these things would produce direct results not only in emissions, but also in equalizing regulations for oil companies doing business in Canada. They in turn will charge more for products related to increased costs, but that can be factored and returned to lower income Canadians via more conventional means. The area of regulations and straight forward understandable tax / rebate measures are more in line with what government is capable of and would be much more cost efficient to implement than some complicated bunch of widgets that would likely increase the civil service significantly and thus create another hidden cost. AGAIN
Better to see the cost in real terms, than have it hidden in a costly political shell game with no guarantee of results. At least there are some things that people can do to compensate for higher fuel costs, unlike hidden costs and across the board taxes going into general revenues. That is so like the liberals. A spin off benefit to higher fuel costs that many people miss is that shipping products from thousands of kilometers away will become less and less attractive, resulting in a rebirth of local industries, commercial ventures and increased use of the railway. Plus it will save a lot of emissions too.
I have no idea if this scaremongering will work, if people will freak out at the added costs a carbon price would bring, if they believe personal tax cuts are the answer, or if all this talk I’ve heard about helping the environment is just that – talk.
Details soon.
I have to question the release of the ‘plan’ in portions. It should have been released fully formed or not at all. ‘Scaremongering’ is already in full force (just listened to a rant and call-in on morning radio).
“Details soon” may be too late.
By Ed Brooks on 05.12.08 8:10 am
The problem I see on this forum and some of the others is that the Liberal “spin” itself is frightening. If the plan is what some of the Liberal partisans are promoting it will be designed to create a massive transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top.
Those who will benefit the most from the Liberal plan will be those who profited the most from increasing green house production.
The Liberals downloaded the cost of their deficit reduction program onto those least able to bear the cost and at the same time supported an economic agenda that was designed to create short term gain for even more long term pain.
The more I read here from Liberal partisans the more problems I see for the future.
Does anyone remember agreeing to them?
By barb on 05.12.08 10:36 am
NO! I certainly do not. That was all part of The Western Emperor’s regime, Ralphy Boy, the Alcoholic premiere of Alberta. Ottawa sat on its arse and did NOTHING because the oil company lobbyists OWNED them.
NONE of them GOT IT DONE! The only thing done was to the people of Canada.
Mulroney’s little deal with the U.S. to guarantee oil supply was the core of the problem. God forbid, poor Alberta should be denied profits regardless of how many environmental disasters resulted.
Boom-cannons are NOT environmental stewardship. They are the cheapest way to avoid embarrassing situations like migratory water fowl landing on the Death Pools!
Then by then time the damn lawyers and our Courts of never ending hearings get around to actually dealing with such problems the guilty companies have been sold, merged, or filed bankruptcy, and the real criminals are off Scot free.
Just look at the arsenic (temns of thousands of tonnes of arsenic tri-oxide resulting from the gold extraction process) left in the Giant Mine in Yellowknife. Still not cleaned up. Never will be either because somebody might have to return illegal profits to pay for it.
In the States companies have been forced to deposit millions for environmental cleanup, by the States and EPA, after they take the resources. That is what must be done. Funds held in escrow, and make sure they are sufficient to fully cover the costs.
Also make it an indictable offense with stiff prison time for any politician who aides and abets such companies in avoiding their responsibilities to us all.
We get all so upset over the deaths of people by natural disasters (God makes such a great Scape Goat), but ignore the deaths of thousands by man’s own hand. HYPOCRITES!
General Motors has announced it is closing its transmission plant in Windsor, Ont., by mid-2010.
The factory employs 1,400 people.
GM said Monday that the closure will occur when current production mandates expire for the four-speed automatic transmissions produced by the plant.
That’s one way to reduce your carbon footprint. No doubt this is all about high taxes and Liberal business tactics. Can’t wait for all those equalization payments to come rolling in from Ottawa.
Harry S – a CONspiracy theory #1
Harry S is a LPC plant. Hired by Garth Turner to show us how bad the CPC supporters are.
Harry S takes the CPC talking points, turns them into a rediculous argument, then twists the few facts he is capable of understanding, to try and paint the CPC supporters as a bunch of ignorant, idiotic, anti-intellectuals who are bigotted against anyone not WASP.
Harry S is an “anti-propaganda machine”. His bizarre right wing extremism, melds well with his lack of intelligence.
We are wise to you LPC propagandists. We KNOW that a “real Harry S” is just not possible. No one could be that much of a twit.
C’mon now… ADMIT IT!!!
Now, about “Chatty Cathy”…….
May 12, 2008
Halifax
Stephen Harper Announces 30 Billion Dollar 20 Year Defense Plan
If the Prime Minister could sing his announcement:
And it’s one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn,
Next stop is my Defense plan;
And it’s five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we’re all gonna die.
With apologies to Country Joe and the Fish.
By linda on 05.12.08 11:28 am
You are welcome. Remember, as someone said I tend to post ‘subtle comments’ (and I do a lot) that ‘Ya’ll can lead a horse to water, but ya can’t make ‘em drink!’
I try to provide mostly comments that get people thinking towards cause and solutions, rather than merely parroting the latest brain farts the MSM and politicians present.
Ultimately, change comes when people change their thinking, and not until they choose to do so. A well informed citizenry is still the best securty for a democracy. Something Harper is dead set against.
Oh how the Liberal brown-nosers on this fine forum are backpedalling to cover pauvre Dion’s political gaffe … and his total lack of leadership on his Carbon-Income Tax scheme reveals the uncertainty that is wracking the Liberal party. Not worth the risk now rings with truth ..!!!
Garth .. no legitimate political leader would issue a major piece of policy in dribs and drabs, leaving Canadians hung up and worrying about their jobs because a Liberal Carbon Tax will most definitely cost jobs, and particularly in your Halton riding.
Will you be one of the select Liberal MPs [that] will then fan out across the country over the summer to explain the complicated plan and try to soothe fears … or will you be restricted to your Halton riding and local town hall meetings???
You went cross Canada on the IT issue, but are you being locked out on the Carbon Tax .. most likely because you probably oppose it as a self-admitted “fiscal conservative” ..??!!!
Fess up, Garth … because it sure doesn’t look good for you in Halton as a Liberal, and maybe you would be better off as an independent MP.
Second – you Liberals are truly heartless when you think a few cents on gas or food or heating doesn’t mean anything for lower income people (seniors, families, or individuals). The costs are already rising and the Liberal plan to increase more is just insane!!!
By Catherine on 05.12.08 4:36 am
When you consider what the Reformers did to senior’s investment income and then reducing child care to $100/mth, it clearly shows who is really heartless.
Conservative Ralph Klein blew up hospitals and cut social programs. He reduced and cut off support for AISH because as he said “these people don’t look sick”
How’s that for heartless.
A party that runs candidates in all provinces, in virtually all ridings (other than Dion’s) has been in favour of tax shifting via carbon taxes and reducing income tax y’know – the Green Party. It is why I shifted from Conservative to Green last federal election and have stuck with them since.
Now, if the Liberals weren’t known for saying one thing and doing another (GST federally, almost everything promised in Ontario) I’d seriously consider voting for them. Dion deserves a lot of credit for taking the ball and running with it and if the Green’s didn’t exist I’d probably vote Liberal this time for the first time ever. However, until I see proof of a Liberal party doing what it says it’ll do I can’t vote for them.
FYI: I feel the same way about Harper and the federal Conservatives, no way will I vote for a party that obviously had no intention of following through on their promises.
High-stakes election timing speculation takes yet another twist
Libs say if they gain momentum this summer, PM Stephen Harper may prorogue Parliament this fall, pushing the next general election into 2009.
By Abbas Rana – The Hill Times, May 12th, 2008
Liberals are now suggesting that if their party actually gains momentum this summer, Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) could very likely prorogue Parliament prior to the start of the fall session and schedule its return only after his party’s national policy convention in Winnipeg, Man., in November in an effort to push back the election, but Conservatives are shrugging off the suggestion.
“He [Mr. Harper] doesn’t do well when the House is in session. They’re under attack, you get scandals coming out, questions being asked. He’d much rather not have the House in session. So, if he feels that Mr. Dion has wind in his sails this summer, I wouldn’t put it past the guy to prorogue Parliament and come back later in the year. It’s a shame to do it. Canadians have no accountability when the House is not sitting, but that’s the way Mr. Harper likes it,” Liberal MP Garth Turner (Halton, Ont.) told The Hill Times last week in an interview.
The Conservative Party will hold its second national policy convention since its inception from Nov. 13-15 in Winnipeg, Man., since the merger of the PC and Alliance parties in December 2003. The first policy convention after the merger took place in March 2005 in Montreal.
Mr. Turner, a former Conservative MP who joined the Liberal caucus in February 2007 after he was booted out by the Conservatives in October 2006 for being too outspoken, said it would be politically advantageous for the Conservatives to delay an election into 2009 if the Liberals gain momentum.
“We’re ready for an election now. The only thing that we may want to work more on is getting more policy initiatives in the window. So, there’s a clear alternative for people to choose. That’s what we’re addressing now and we’re going to address it very, very forcefully. So, there’s probably no reason when we get back here once Mr. Dion’s made that case to people why we wouldn’t want to pull the plug, but that will depend on the conditions in the House. I don’t know what the prime minister is going to do, he may as well shut this place down for quite some time. I don’t know, I wouldn’t put it past him, he’s not a fan of democracy,” said Mr. Turner.
Mr. Turner declined to say specifically which policies Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion (Saint-Laurent-Cartierville, Que.) would talk about this summer on his cross-country tour, but added that the environment and the economy are of significant importance to Liberals.
But Conservative MPs in interviews last week shrugged off the suggestion of the prime minister proroguing Parliament.
More at: http://tinyurl.com/43c6wf
________________________________________
Garth … you attack PM Harper on accountability, but you give Dion a pass for delaying a full and proper announcement on his Carbon-Income Tax scheme. Why the double standard, Garth … is Dion not worth the risk ..??!!!
I don’t think a carbon tax is fair to people that downsized their house, insultated it very well, and used the latest technology to heat it. And they drive small fuel efficient cars.
Why should I have to pay for what polluters are doing, particularly oil companies that spew carbon into the air. Why not tax them instead of me when I’ve done everything possible to live harmoniously with nature. I also grow my own vegetables and don’t use harmful chemicals when I grow them…don’t have any part of the lot devoted to grass. The front was left natural with beds for perennials for colour. The back was planted with ground cover that grows at maturity to 6″–doesn’t need fertilizers, or much water. Our landscaping is as close to being xeriscaped as is humanly possible.
Shouldn’t the people like myself, that tried very hard to live in an environmentally-friendly way be given a break from not paying a carbon tax?
Is the Harper letter to Horton’s a joke? Yes, that was my first thought when reading it- it has a Stewartesque quality to it…Hey Barb~ thanks for the Barrick info. The reason I ask is Mr. Mulroney’s connection to them- a directorship? And how many of those does he have? So, whose back pocket does that place him in? And wasn’t he the mastermind behind our U.S. integration? Not saying trade deals are bad inherently, but…and I remembered Harper’s visit to that company in one of the countries being mined by Barrick, as I was watching testimony begin re: Mulroney/Lobbyism. All pieces of the same puzzle, as far as I’m concerned. Have a great day, all. You especially, Harry. SMILE!
Mr. Garth TurnerMP, FYI
Have you seen the NEW Resse’s TV commercials ‘STOP GLOBAL WARMING NOW’
(I saw it on TV last evening).
goto:
http://www.hersheys.com/reeses/
under Reese’s, see TV commercials,
click on ‘GLOBAL WARMING’ ~11 sec.
As long as big businesses can pollute without penalty, they will do so. The only place they can feel pain is in their operating costs. Tax the polluters and don’t allow them to pass on the costs to the consumers. They’ll learn.
Anybody who’s been around for more than five minutes can see the changes:
- birds that migrate late and come back early, or don’t migrate at all
-thunderstorms in the middle of winter
-increasingly fierce thunderstorms in summer
-suffocating heat
-weird precipitation, both in type in quantity, in the wrong seasons
-periods of flood and drought, often in the same area
-orange skies and polluted air in places where there is no heavy industry
-allergies, asthma and other pulmonary diseases
-lower crop yields, bee colony collapse, fish stock collapse
-tornadoes, hurricanes, and severe weather starting sooner in the season and lasting longer which wipes out people, crops, houses and sometimes even the land mass itself.
Stephane Dion was working on this file in the ’90′s, but no one was listening. Give him a chance now to get this done. I don’t know where Harper and his cronies get their policy from. It’s not based on science, ethics or even common sense.
I don’t want my kids to have to live with this godawful mess that’s brewing. Cut emissions, get our food and energy supplies under control, stop wasting lives, money and energy fighting unwinnable wars. If we don’t, humans won’t have a future on this planet.
Mr. Garth TurnerMP,
Why are we still allowing buildings and homes to go up with out Geo-thermal heating and A/C?
Canada will be ALL OUT of Natural Gas in ~2028 !!!
Garth … you attack PM Harper on accountability, but you give Dion a pass for delaying a full and proper announcement on his Carbon-Income Tax scheme. Why the double standard, Garth … is Dion not worth the risk ..??!!!
By Harry S on 05.12.08 12:31 pm
Hmm let’s see, one is Pm the other is not. The one that is PM is accountable to all the people of Canada and not just when he wants to be. When Mr. Dion becomes PM he will be held to the same standard. I typed this really s-l-o-w-l-y Harry becuase I know you can’t read fast. By my watch its 1:21 PM there is still time left for you to post an intelligent comment today, but don’t leave it too late or after your meds. I pulling for you man!
Gable’s cartoon from the Globe and Mail this morning:
The caption is, “But Doc, my gas guzzler is who I am…big, flashy, pretentious and dumb.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/cartoon/
Ever notice that the types who would never be seen in a vehicle smaller than a tank are quite happy to drive little electric cars on the golf course?
But then again, people used to walk around the golf course.
Mark Twain: “Golf is a good walk spoiled.”
Garth … you attack PM Harper on accountability, but you give Dion a pass for delaying a full and proper announcement on his Carbon-Income Tax scheme. Why the double standard, Garth … is Dion not worth the risk ..??!!!
By Harry S on 05.12.08 12:31 pm
You must be good at the game twister. These comments could only come from some one with both arms crossed, the right one between his legs and other parts of his anatomy stuck up in the air for all to see. Oh and someone who always avoids the red dots, but loves the blue ones.
Its simple, Harry. Harper campaigned on accountability. He acknowleged the Gomery enquiry recommendations, but his accountability act did nothing to implement the recommendations. Time and time again, Harper’s government has been called to task on government decisions where no justification has been given, or, has resulted in multiple pages of blacked out paper.
Lest you forget Harry, Harper is the PM. At the moment, he calls the shots and it is for him to be open and accountable. Because I’m PM doen’t cut it, but essentially that’s all we get.
While all would like to see Mr. Dion’s plans for the environemnt and the economy, he has the luxury of not having to show his hand until he wants to. When he becomes PM, then he, too, had better be open and accountable, or he will suffer the same fate that awaits Harper.
Mr. Garth TurnerMP, FYI
Feb. 2008.
Scientific American
The sea-Level Threat from
Sliding
Ice Sheets
RFID Powder
(Big Brothers wants total control!!!)
Scientific American on line web site
http://www.sciam.com/
No one could be that much of a twit.
By maybe Rhino? on 05.12.08 12:11 pm
Not meaning to be argumentative, but go over to the dead animal place for a while. You will become a believer. They do exist, and in abundance…Maybe cousin It was recruited from there…
Hi Barb!~ I am wondering if you know what happened to the farmer in the West, years ago I read about him in Macleans, can’t quite remember his name- Wiebe?- well, he was taking environmental matters into his own hands somewhat, regarding I think, sour gas wells? I remember agreeing with him in principle, anyway. Thanks, I knew you’d be just the person to ask. Take care, Sister!…linda
So, Harper wants to spend $30 BILLION on the military, eh? Gee, with that sum he could buy everyone a new fuel efficient car, and we could recycle all that old smog emitting iron. There would still be billions left.
And just who is Harper planning on going to war against? Oh, and will those be tendered contracts, or more under the table, in the dark ‘Gimmees’ to his campaign contributors?
As to him thinking about poroguing Parliament. That is just plain WRONG to have such a rule and power. Let’s porogue him instead.
Mr. Garth TurnerMP, FYI
Have you heard this guy yet?
David Hughes on Canada’s Oil and Natural Gas – updated with audio (length 33 min): stream
Read transcript: English
http://globalpublicmedia.com/node/823
Mr Garth TurnerMP,
Do you recall this news story?
Oil industry ‘sleepwalking into crisis’
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/oil-industry-sleepwalking-into-crisis-402462.html
What happens if Harper prorogues Parliament?
Harper under fire for delaying Mulroney-Schreiber probe
May 11, 2008 06:25 PM
THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA–Six months after Prime Minister Stephen Harper first promised a public inquiry into the Mulroney-Schreiber affair, he has yet to name anyone to head the probe or even set an official mandate for it.
That has opposition critics growing increasingly impatient.
“It confirms what I always thought,” says Liberal MP Robert Thibault. “He has no intention of having an inquiry, and if there’s any way he can stop one, he will.”
Thibault contends that Harper’s game plan from the start has been to support an inquiry in principle but procrastinate in practice, in the hope that a federal election will pre-empt the need to make a decision.
“Then he doesn’t have to call one until we get back, and if he wins a majority, he never will,” Thibault contends.
NDP ethics critic Pat Martin also suspects Harper of electoral clock-watching. But he’s not sure the prime minister would want to risk going into a campaign without taking an action at all to keep his promise.
An alternative, says Martin, could be for Harper to drag his heels a few more weeks, then name a commissioner who would need months to hire staff and review documents and likely couldn’t start public hearings until well into the fall.
That would mean, if the country goes to the polls in early autumn, that the actual testimony – and the accompanying media furor – wouldn’t come until after voting day.
“I think that’s their best gambit and probably their action plan,” says Martin. “It would be the best of both worlds for them. It’s a risky game though.”
Harper signalled last November he was prepared to hold an inquiry into the tangled business dealings between former Tory prime minister Brian Mulroney and German-Canadian lobbyist and arms dealer Karlheinz Schreiber.
But he bought time by naming David Johnston, pediment of the University of Waterloo, to conduct a preliminary review and recommend what the precise terms of reference should be.
Since then, Johnston has delivered not one but two reports. In the meantime, the House of Commons ethics committee has conducted it own hearings and tabled its own report – predictably splitting along party lines on what course to take.
The lengthy delay has clearly played to Harper’s benefit, says University of Ottawa law professor Ed Ratushny.
“The vast majority of public inquiries are called because of political pressure,” he says. “The prime minister has managed to reduce the heat.”
Conservative strategists insist that it was only after Johnston and the ethics committee completed their work that Harper could start looking for someone – presumably a sitting or retired judge – to head the follow-up inquiry he’s been promising.
A search process is now in place and “a decision will be made as soon as possible,” insisted one government official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
He denied Harper has been deliberately trying to postpone the political fallout from the inquiry until after the next federal campaign, noting the current minority government can’t control when the opposition will decide to bring it down.
“We don’t plan according to speculation of an election,” said the official. “We’ve gone down that path too many times, and the Liberals have backed off every single time.”
Another insider suggested the delays to date have more to do with uncertainty and indecision on Harper’s part than with tactical cunning.
“I think he’s baffled,” said this source. “He doesn’t believe Mulroney and he can’t figure Schreiber out.”
A key question from the start has been what the terms of reference for any inquiry should look like.
Johnston, in both of his two reports, recommended a relatively narrow mandate that would focus on the lobbying work Mulroney agreed to do for Schreiber once he left office in 1993.
Mulroney has admitted accepting $225,000 to promote a project to build German-designed light-armoured vehicles in Canada for export. He says he tried to line up support among foreign political leaders whose countries might become customers for the vehicles.
Schreiber says the money that changed hands – delivered in cash-stuffed envelopes in hotel rooms – added up to $300,000. He also claims Mulroney was supposed to lobby the Canadian government rather than foreign leaders, an arrangement that could have put him in violation of federal ethics rules.
The Liberals, NDP and Bloc Quebecois all want the mandate for the inquiry broadened to include a look at an earlier deal that saw Air Canada buy European-made Airbus jets while Mulroney was still in power.
They also want a review of a $2.1 million libel settlement Mulroney obtained from the former Liberal government of Jean Chrétien, with a view to determining whether Ottawa should demand the money be repaid.
Ratushny says there’s little hope the inquiry will get to the bottom of things if it can’t look at the Airbus deal and the libel settlement.
“You can’t try and be too cute and cut out possible areas of embarrassment,” he says. “You can’t gerrymander the mandate, the lawyers and public will see through that pretty quickly.”
A restricted mandate could also make it even tougher than it would normally be to find a commissioner willing to take on the probe – one more reason, in the eyes of Harper’s critics, why it’s taking him so long to announce an appointment.
“I think they’re having a hard time finding anyone (to conduct) what would be a useless exercise if they stick to the narrow mandate proposed by Johnston,” says NDP justice critic Joe Comartin.
“I can see a lot of judges or retired judges saying: No thank you, I’ve got better things to do.”
By Canuck on 05.12.08 12:33 pm
I don’t think a carbon tax is fair to people that downsized their house, insultated it very well, and used the latest technology to heat it. And they drive small fuel efficient cars.
Dear Canuck
I agree and I think you will find out that M. Dion will be fair to households. It would create inflation to add a tax to gasoline, utilities (heating oil, coal fired electricity, diesel powered generators.) Only four provinces have hydro powered electricity.
Most Canadians do not realize there is an excise tax included in your gasoline price. I think he wants to shift this tax to a carbon tax and use the revenue to reduce personal income taxes. But we won’t know for sure until the writ drops for the election.
The carbon tax will be directed at the crude oil and other large industry emitters.
How M. Dion will square things with Alberta will be his greatest challenge.
Converting the coal fired electricity generated in Ontario for example is not something one can do overnight. (I think M. Dion would have to give Canadians caught in this web a break.)
The lifestyle you have described is almost the same as what I am doing on the Coast. We are a little further behind on upgrading our heat efficiency as money is always a concern. We do the same thing with our garden without pesticides or phosphates in our cleaning supplies.
Have you considered a rain barrel to conserve water for the garden?
Good idea tax the sh*t out of these high polluting businesses then they will have to clean up their act or…. we all know who pays in the end!!!!
So, Harper wants to spend $30 BILLION on the military, eh?
By Bill-Muskoka on 05.12.08 1:29 pm
“Harper’s pro-business, pro-military, anti-welfare and social conservative stands all add up to problems. His Canada is not the real Canada.”
“Harper’s disavowal of Kyoto is based on his belief that oil-rich Alberta has the right to be untouched by federal regulations on climate change”.
LARRY ZOLF:
Stephen Harper’s neo-conservatism
Hi Bill, here’s a june 26 2006 article that should refresh everyone’s memory.
A MUST READ, EH!!!
http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_zolf/20060626.html
Maybe cousin It was recruited from there…
By Greg on 05.12.08 1:17 pm
Greg,
Cousin It was intelligent, albeit a Poster Child for a Barber Shop. Obviously he was not Brain Dead like those at SDA, (wasn’t that a terrorist group back years ago that Patty Hearst got the hots for? Oops, I think the name was SLA? Same thing…Small Lieing Animals).
Anyway, just because Cousin It was ‘different’ does not infer It was a brain dead ‘gnatsy’!
The air we breath is the same air the people in Alberta breath as a matter of fact their air very well be worst, and so will be their southern cousins. Heaven forbid their children and grandchildren get sick from toxic air. So if Albertans think money can buy a new set lungs and life will be better then let the oil flow and bank accounts rise because when the rubber meets the road the big boys will be living the good life in Dubai with the Haliburton crowd who by the way moved their headquarters there last year, hmmmm why?
Halton has 5 newspapers? I thought our area consisting of 3 cities was excessive having 2 local papers. I think if the whole world blew up and left our tri cities I would not read a thing about it in that waste of forest they call newspapers. Maybe that is where to start before a carbon tax. Less local news for every region that has an excess of local rags.
Flaherty’s Portrayal of the Economy Wilfully Ignores Growing Job Losses
For Immediate Release
May 12, 2008
Flaherty’s Portrayal of the Economy Wilfully Ignores Growing Job Losses
OTTAWA – Conservative Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s decision to ignore the closure of General Motors’ Windsor transmission plant and launch a partisan attack against the Official Opposition, shows how out of touch his government really is with the economic hardships of Canadians, Liberal Finance Critic John McCallum said today.
“While Canada’s Finance Minister was busy painting a rosy picture of Canada’s economy, another 1400 Canadians got the news that the factory they work in is closing,” said Mr. McCallum, referring to today’s announcement by GM that it will be closing another Canadian plant in Windsor, Ontario.
“The fact that Mr. Flaherty has the gall to boast about the Canadian job market being ‘the best in a generation,’ when more than 131,000 manufacturing jobs were lost last year, just goes to show how out of touch he really is.”
Mr. McCallum pointed out that instead of providing a plan to help Canadians face today’s current economic challenges, the Finance Minister chose to launch a baseless attack on the Liberal plan for Canada’s economy.
“At a time when hundreds of thousands of Canadians are out of work, Mr. Flaherty would rather smear the opposition with desperate fear mongering that has no basis in reality,” he said. “Clearly, he is trying to distract Canadians from the fact that he has spent the cupboard bare, leaving our economy ill-equipped to weather a possible recession.”
Mr. McCallum explained that a Liberal government will not ignore job losses and won’t leave working Canadians to fend for themselves.
“Canadians remember that the Conservative governments of the ’80s and early ’90s talked endlessly about balancing the books but it was a Liberal government that got the job done and set Canada on track for a decade of unprecedented economic growth and sound fiscal management,” said Mr. McCallum.
“Liberals have proven time and again that we can balance budgets, lower taxes and invest in Canadians’ most urgent needs. By providing broad-based tax relief, investments in research and development, in our cities and communities, and in the lives of all Canadians, a new Liberal government will be a strong partner to help our economy grow and thrive for years to come,” he said.
-30-
Contact:
Office of the Hon. John McCallum
613-996-3375
Ooooo…WOWEEEEEEEEEEE!
Gas retailers could be fined if pumps inaccurate: Prentice
Yeah, and WHO gets to keep all that money? Harper’s so-called goobernment, not the consumers who were CHEATED by the damn greedy oil companies. Some FIX…NOT!
By Ron p on 05.12.08 2:22 pm
Definitely an Oldie, but a GOODIE article!
Thanks for the link!
Bill-Muskoka 9:35am
I agree with your points and think that maybe we should go further by making shareholders individually responsible for environmental damage of any kind. They have no problem pocketing their dividend cheques, do they? In the Yukon and Northwest territories thetotal clean up costs are between 5 and 10 billion dollars for the abandoned minesites which includes EVERY mine ever opened here. Yearly maintenance costs are over 50 million Canadian taxpayer dollars. The typical scenario is to come here, rape the land, the big boys pull out their money then bankrupt the company to get off paying for cleanup. The last company left us an extra present by leaving millions of unpaid electric bills which got tacked onto all of the electric bills of those of us living here. Not to mention the millions owed to local businesses.
It isinteresting to note that a few years later the same owners made the news in the our last major mining disaster in Nova Scotia. obviously they took their “profits” an invested down there. The last I heard they screwed that provence as well. If we made shareholders responsible for all costs of running a business then instead of maximising profts our businesses would be forced to maximise sustainability. Of course this would mean leveling the playing field and measuring all products brought into the country by the same yardstick and taxing them appropriately.
Do you think that might work?
I agree with your points and think that maybe we should go further by making shareholders individually responsible for environmental damage of any kind. They have no problem pocketing their dividend cheques, do they?
…
Do you think that might work?
By William Dahl on 05.12.08 4:28 pm
William, It has worked very well for Lloyd’s of London for several centuries. All ‘members’ are subject to being deemed contributors should the group find itself in financial deficits. Such is determined based on their number of shares held.
In short, it does work, and should be made mandatory. Afterall, investment is a freewill choice to gamble one’s money. Win some, lose some is the eternal rule for such opportunistic persons.
Lloyd’s of London
Lloyd’s of London is a British insurance market. It serves as a meeting place where multiple financial backers or “members”, whether individuals (traditionally known as “Names”) or corporations, come together to pool and spread risk. Unlike most of its competitors in the reinsurance market, it is not a company. The Society of Lloyd’s was incorporated by Lloyd’s Act 1871.
I strongly suggest not mentioning asbestos in their meetings. LOL
A little further insight into LoL.
1988 – 1996
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Lloyd’s went through the most traumatic period in its history. Unexpectedly large legal awards in US courts for punitive damages led to large claims by insureds, especially on APH (asbestos, pollution and health hazard) policies, some dating as far back as the 1940s. Many of these policies were designed to cover all liabilities not excluded on broadform liability policies.
Also in the 1980s Lloyd’s was accused of fraud by several American states and the names/investors.
Some of the more high profile accusations included:
* Lloyd’s withheld their knowledge of asbestosis and pollution claims until they could recruit more investors to take on these liabilities that were unknown to investors prior to investing in Lloyd’s.
* Enforcement officials in 11 US states charged Lloyd’s and some of its associates with various wrongs such as fraud and selling unregistered securities.
* Ian Posgate, one of Lloyd’s leading underwriters was charged with skimming money from investors and trying to secretly buy a Swiss bank. He was later acquitted.
Two primary return approaches are being discussed. One would rebate the revenues directly through regular (e.g., monthly) equal dividends to all Canadian residents. In effect, every resident would receive equal, identical slices of the total revenue pie. Just such a program has operated in Alaska for three decades, providing residents with annual dividends from the state’s North Slope oil revenues.
In the other method, each dollar of carbon tax revenue would trigger a dollar’s worth of reduction in existing taxes such as the federal payroll tax or state sales taxes. As carbon-tax revenues are phased in (with the tax rates rising gradually but steadily, to allow a smooth transition), existing taxes will be phased out and, in some cases, eliminated. This “tax-shift” approach, while less direct than the dividend method, would also ensure that the carbon tax is revenue-neutral.
Note that each individual’s receipt of dividends or tax-shifts would be independent of the taxes he or she pays. That is, no person’s benefits would be tied to his or her energy consumption and carbon tax “bill.” This separation of benefits from payments preserves the incentives created by a carbon tax to reduce use of fossil fuels and emit less CO2 into the atmosphere. Of course, it would be extraordinarily cumbersome to calculate an individual’s full carbon tax bill since to some extent the carbon tax would be passed through as part of the costs of various goods and services.
So there you have it . A fairly simple plan for sharing revenue from carbon taxes .
I’ll sit back now and watch the con-bot trolls go nuts .
Regarding GOLD! This is what Globalism is really doing to PEOPLE!
CORPWATCH REPORT : BARRICK’S DIRTY SECRETS
Note how our illustrious, cowardly PM enters by the BACK DOOR!
Mining firms ‘polluting Africa’
Canadians have NO REASON to be proud of the Canadian based corporations raping this planet wherever they can get a foothold.
Bulgaria comes to mind as well.
Just heard Harper on the news blatting on about building war toys to keep our economy stable.
Bullroar!
Chalmers Johnston on Military Keynesianism:
“This ideology I call “military Keynesianism” – the determination to maintain a permanent war economy and to treat military output as an ordinary economic product, even though it makes no contribution to either production or consumption.
Over time, a commitment to both guns and butter has proven an unstable configuration. Military industries crowd out the civilian economy and lead to severe economic weaknesses. Devotion to military Keynesianism is, in fact, a form of slow economic suicide.”
“…[G]uided by economist Dean Baker, this research showed that, after an initial demand stimulus, by about the sixth year the effect of increased military spending turns negative.
Baker concluded:
“It is often believed that wars and military spending increases are good for the economy. In fact, most economic models show that military spending diverts resources from productive uses, such as consumption and investment, and ultimately slows economic growth and reduces employment.”
http://www.antiwar.com/engelhardt/?articleid=12248
The true cost is measured by what has been forgone, by the accumulated deterioration in many facets of life by the inability to alleviate human wretchedness of long duration.”
Put THAT in your pipe and smoke it, Stevie. Don’t waste any more of our money. We need it now. We’re going to need it in the future, and warplanes, weapons, and ammo will do us no good at all.
Bill-Muskoka
Thanks!
The big question is if it has worked for so long with one company why are we not adapting the principle to all corporations around the world?
BY MEN WITH HATS
Since the beginning of the Alaskan dividend a permanent resident has recieved between 50 and a hundred thousand dollars, I can’t remember the exact number now but it is easy to find. Compare this to the WHOLE three hundred that Albertans got!!!!
http://tinyurl.com/4g4te5
” Everybody else is just green,
Have you seen the chart?
It’s a helluva start,
It could be made into a monster
If we all pull together as a team.”
Have a cigar
Garth … perhaps you should say nothing until Dion unveils his Carbon-Income Tax scheme, because as long as he avoids releasing the details of the plan, people will go off on all tangents.
Since the beginning of the Alaskan dividend a permanent resident has recieved between 50 and a hundred thousand dollars, I can’t remember the exact number now but it is easy to find. Compare this to the WHOLE three hundred that Albertans got!!!!
By William Dahl on 05.12.08 5:28 pm
Just a thought or two. Albertans have Medicare, Alaskans do not, and there are almost twice as many people in Alberta. Then there is equalization payments. I expect Alaska doesn’t pay any of those either.
Men With Hats on 05.12.08 4:53 pm
“I’ll sit back now and watch the con-bot trolls go nuts.”
Why would anyone bother to get excited about some drivel you stole – without citation – from an American advocacy group?
Better you should stick to scrawling juvenile insults with your own excrement… at least I hope it’s your own.
Conservative Ralph Klein blew up hospitals and cut social programs. He reduced and cut off support for AISH because as he said “these people don’t look sick”
How’s that for heartless.
By Ron p on 05.12.08 12:21 pm
And Ralph Klein put a clinic in place for joint replacements which cut the waiting times from 18 months to less than 3 months. Yes – what a “heartless” person that Ralph Klein was, eh?
And yes – the Liberal plan for child care would have see rationing of subsidized spaces (because we know that the Liberals were only puting in 1 Billion $ of the more than 15 Billion $ needed).
The Liberals are generally big on talk and small on actually delivering anything useful to us.
By Men With Hats on 05.12.08 4:53 pm
I was going to add in my earlier post that if the carbon tax ideas took more than 3 or 4 small, easily understood paragraphs to explain, it wouldn’t fly with the public. The Rightie meat grinder will have a field day with this, and would lead to a devastating defeat for the liberals.
Now my reading skills are as good as most, and my understanding of business accounting is better than most, yet I am going to have to ask what the fuddledump this is supposed to mean?
” This separation of benefits from payments preserves the incentives created by a carbon tax to reduce use of fossil fuels and emit less CO2 into the atmosphere.” Is it supposed to convey that because you get a separate bill for your, “carbon taxes” that you will be motivated to lower them?
If so, how does it jive with this? “it would be extraordinarily cumbersome to calculate an individual’s full carbon tax bill since to some extent the carbon tax would be passed through as part of the costs of various goods and services.”
Besides being confusing, the “to some extent the carbon tax would be passed through as part of the costs of various goods and services” would get slaughtered. I can see the whole Con team running for the goal line with that one, and Chicken Little would be leading the pack.
Begin the p.m. with a joke (or IS the PM a joke?!) . . .
****************************************
John was a salesman’s delight when it came to any kind of unusual gimmick. His wife Martha had long ago given up trying to get him to change.
One day, John came home with another one of his unusual purchases. It was a robot that John claimed was actually a lie detector.
It was just about 5:30 that afternoon when Tommy, their 11 year old son, returned home from school. Tommy was over 2 hours late.
‘Where have you been? Why are you over 2 hours late getting home?’, they asked.
‘Several of us went to the library to work on an extra credit project’, said Tommy.
The Robot then walked around the table and slapped Tommy, knocking him completely out of his chair.
‘Son, this robot is a lie detector, now tell us where you went after school.’
‘We went to Bobby’s house and watched a movie.’ ‘What did you watch?’ asked Martha.
‘The Ten Commandments’, answered Tommy. The Robot went around to Tommy and once again slapped him, knocking him off his chair.
With lip quivering, Tommy got up, sat down and said, ‘I am sorry I lied. We really watched a tape called Sex Queen.’
‘I’m ashamed of you son,’ said John. ‘When I was your age, I never lied to my parents.’
The robot then walked around to John and delivered a roundhouse right that nearly knocked him out of his chair.
Martha was bent-over double laughing, almost in tears. ‘Boy, did you ever ask for that one!’
‘And you can’t be too mad with Tommy. After all, he is your son!’
The robot immediately walked around to Martha, and slapped her three times.
****************************************
David Crane ( crane@interlog.com ) writes an excellent article in today’s KDC, headed ‘Financial power is shifting to Middle East’. Notes of interest:
“With oil prices in the US$120/brl. range, cnsmrs. are being hit hard at the pumps. . . . huge increases in oil prices means a massive flow of money into the coffers of the oil producers . . . these oil-rich countries are going to do with all their new money.
“. . . while other M.East investors have acquired Standard Aero Holdings of Wpg. and invested $5 bln. to acquire PrimeWest Energy Trust in Calgary.
“. . . estimates that Saudi Arabia . . . needs oil at just US$50 a barrel to finance even a ‘heavily expanded’ public budget.
“This shift in financial power — to China, Russia, Singapore as well as the Gulf — means that many businesses and govt.’s . . . seeking capital no longer have to go to London or NY.
“Look for new financial links between the M.East, Asia and Africa as part of the new global financial market.
“This will become even more apparent with the rise of India and China.”
****************************************
“. . . US$50 a barrel to finance even a ‘heavily expanded’ . . .”
This may be what is done with the remaining ‘free’ money — a second e-mail I received had pix, so I can’t post it here, but it is an engineering and building masterpiece.
Built in Dubai, where summer temps. reach about 48 – 54C, it is a massive artificial ski hill — all inside, where the temp. is steady, around -12 to -25C.
Things like these, as well as islands, etc., are what extra money is spent on.
Back here, oil companies continue making obscene profits, and yet — sheeple continue to buy their products, mumble and complain under their breath and do nothing about it.
One understands why dubya, harpo and their ilk are letting this land mass go under, as there isn’t much of anything left here. New Orleans will never be rebuilt, infrastructure needs major $$$ invested, but why bother?
Paul Martin and the Libs. — whom we never supported — left a $14 bln. surplus, with the fiscal house in relatively good shape; dimjim and harpo manage to blow the lot in two years or less, and on what?
Power — economic, political, social and just about everything else — has already started to shift away from North America, and this is probably why the wars in Iraq, Af’stan and (soon) Iran will keep going and going and . . . just like the Energizer Bunny.
If I am ever by myself, then I’m in a pretty good position — can’t drive because I’m partly blind in both eyes, so I don’t need a car, no insurance, no maint. — it’s cheaper to take a taxi to Vernon or Penticton, pay a nice tip and I’m still way ahead of the masses.
get your motors running….New York State don’t need no steenkin carbon tax
foing forward 
NY Senate votes to eliminate state gas tax for summer
New York want to extend their heartfelt congratulations and thanks to youse folks up that in Canada for your carbon saving prudence. You all jack up them prices now, and save the world. You makin us feel real guilty, real guilty.
The Liberals are generally big on talk and small on actually delivering anything useful to us.
By Catherine on 05.12.08 5:47 pm
hmmm – sounds like the Cosnervatives too.
Garth
Rant of the Day
Harry rails, Catherine mocks. Perhaps they do not realize – it gives us a window into the thinking of Conservative supporters.
As you may know, I would never want to suppress their thoughts.
But, Canadians cannot force change if Liberals do not stand up to stop this farce.
What are you waiting for? A tsunami? After hearing Mr. Harper’s speech today on Defence either you want to fight the good fight or the party is more worried about their existing seats in Quebec. Well that is reassuring….
So let me list the issues:
1. A continued hollowing out of manufacturing and forestry jobs – Ontario and Quebec, Atlantic Canada, BCwithout the slightest care about people from the government.
2. A total hollowing out of the environment into the “John” Alfred E. Newman’s quip What Me Worry?
3. A total hollowing of support for Human Rights or any international agreements like the Kyoto Protocol, Aboriginal rights.
4. Some kid who was 15 lead by his father into the labyrinth of “freedom fighters” sits in a kangaroo court that should never prosecute the boy who is now a man. At the very least ship him home to face Canadian justice
And I have not even talked about the scandals: Elections Canada Fraud 2006, Obama Election Interference 2008, Chuck Cadman 2005. Do I need to draw a map?
I am done. If you lose, you lose. If the Liberals don’t go now the momentum will go to the Conservative machine and ruin Canada and our democracy.
The Canadian Press reported today on unsubstantiated rumors that the Liberal Party’s pollster has found far less favorable views about carbon tax when respondents were given details of British Columbia’s carbon tax plan. According to the rumors, “the poll found 30 per cent strongly opposed to the idea and 12 per cent somewhat opposed, compared to 23 per cent strongly supportive and 25 per cent somewhat supportive.” Based upon Anderson’s conclusion above and assuming the rumored poll results are accurate, the Liberal Party pollster’s results might have been more favorable had he avoided use of the terms “carbon tax” and “revenue-neutral.”
Since the beginning of the Alaskan dividend a permanent resident has recieved between 50 and a hundred thousand dollars, I can’t remember the exact number now but it is easy to find. Compare this to the WHOLE three hundred that Albertans got!!!!
By William Dahl on 05.12.08 5:28 pm
William it was actually a $400.00, issued to each Albertan . Including children .
And yes – the Liberal plan for child care would have see rationing of subsidized spaces (because we know that the Liberals were only puting in 1 Billion $ of the more than 15 Billion $ needed).
The Liberals are generally big on talk and small on actually delivering anything useful to us.
By Catherine on 05.12.08 5:47 pm
So where the hell are 225,000 daycare spaces the con-bots promised to provide in their first year .
Zero .
I listened to Bruce from Harris Decima on “Politcs” with Don Newman this afternoon discussing his survey about various ways to combat pollution, including what Mr. Dion is talking about. The vast majority of Canadians were in favour of such a move:
http://www.decima.com/en/pdf/news_releases/080508E.pdf
This is great news, Garth!! I apologize if this has already been mentioned.
Harry: Stop worrying your pretty little head about job losses in Ontario. At the rate Harper and Flaherty are working there won’t be any jobs left to lose!! They are doing a fine job of decimating the manufacturing industry in Ontario all by themselves.
By MEN WITH HATS 7:15
Sorry for my poor memory but I do remember that that was the day Ralph declared he was the second coming?
Hi Men With Hats- I hope you ignore Lawrence’s unsolicited critiques of your comments…he’s a difficult one to please. You give good info and I love your answers to the bots!
Could be the start of a major economic downturn, especially in the west — from the UK.
http://tinyurl.com/5jdo47
*******************************************
Things look all rosy and very good for gold and silver — keep in mind, however, the higher one goes, the harder one falls.
Most will recall Nortel and Bre-X — if gold ever hits $1,500 / oz. and silver $100 / oz., that’s when I would sell — take the profits, pay the taxes then re-invest in solid value- and growth-oriented mutual funds.
Except I don’t got nun of them thar metal thingameejigs!
http://tinyurl.com/64eqrr
****************************************
Another thing: If harpo keeps Cdn. troops and equipment in Af’stan, where will the extra money come from to keep troops their?
Canada has been sliding downhill since dimjim’s failed fiscal policies became widely known, so what if CRAP then starts to rip off private and public pension plans?
The IT investors were royally screwed, probably to start, then fund this fake war — if CRAP does stay in power, they may go after taxing RRIF, Annuities, etc.
I came to your site Garth, to see what Liberals are thinking.I feel very much encouraged about a Conservative majority next election! Are you people for real? Most commenters don’t seem to even have their own thoughts. Do you all live in Toronto? Guess what? It’s not the center of the universe!Think outside of Big City!
“When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.”
—Jonathan Swift
By MEN WITH HATS 7:15
Sorry for my poor memory but I do remember that that was the day Ralph declared he was the second coming?
By William Dahl on 05.12.08 8:45 pm
Yea, and he walked across the North Saskatchewan river .
ROTFLMAO
If anyone can do it, Dion can.
It’s now or never. We can either be the ones throwing the party or the last ones to arrive without a gift. It’s up to us.
By Marilyn on 05.12.08 11:09 pm
At least people on here can comment freely, and have some of their own thoughts rather then the programmed thoughts of the CPC…thanks for dropping by….
Gee, Marilyn, I am for real, I don’t live in TO, and my thoughts are very much my own.
Thanks for dropping by anyway.
Linda sez: I hope you ignore Lawrence’s unsolicited critiques of your comments
There you go abusing the language again, Linda. My critiques are solicited quite vigourously. It’s almost shameful how much solicitation goes on around here…
By C. B. Innes on 05.12.08 12:04 pm
“The problem I see on this forum and some of the others is that the Liberal “spin” itself is frightening. If the plan is what some of the Liberal partisans are promoting it will be designed to create a massive transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top. C.B. Innes
(please explain to us, why this is so, I’d like to hear it personally myself)
Those who will benefit the most from the Liberal plan will be those who profited the most from increasing green house production. – C.B. Innes
Outside of a corporate tax cut that goes with the ones to poor and middle class personal income tax cuts, tell me how this is so. Tell me how a tax cut on consumption will benefit oil, transport and manufacturing corps. I’m real curious as to why you believe this is so.
“The Liberals downloaded the cost of their deficit reduction program onto those least able to bear the cost and at the same time supported an economic agenda that was designed to create short term gain for even more long term pain.” – C.B. Innes
Still living in the past? The Liberals in the 90′s downloaded tax increases and cut spending straight across the board to reverse deficits. It wasn’t just the poor or working class people, here. It was everyone without exception and if you don’t think so didn’t believe spending cuts were necessary and can prove me wrong, by all means, provide the links (good ones this time) and/or reasons why this is so.
“The more I read here from Liberal partisans the more problems I see for the future.” – C.B. Innes
Are you tring to tell us that a consumption tax is a bad thing, that the poorest somehow consume as much if not more as the richest?
Are you trying to tell us that you, yourself, are not partisan? (ok, maybe anarchist)
And are you trying to tell us that your own unproven criticisms without solutions is imaginative and inspiring?
Again, I’ll ask you, if you have something better than a consumption tax on energy followed by government spending on green initiatives and tax cuts on the very poor and middle class of which it seems you wish to defend, and yes, corps and the rich too as in fairness, spread the revenue around, then I’d like to hear it.
Speaking on behalf of us all, if appropriate, we all would. Otherwise, the arguements of “we can’t have a tax on consumption because it will tax the poor”, or “we can’t have a tax on consumption because it will tax the rich”, is getting old. If we can’t, as a government and a people do what we can to curb consumption, the tax on the environment will sewer us all.
Sorry, C.B., but… the time for waiting for the best solutions to be ignored because the Libs came up with it first, or “until the NDP” or “Greens” think of it first is over. (Can’t include the Cons in this, because they never will come up with the solution) We need a plan that is good for the environment and doesn’t lay off hundreds of thousands of people and crash our economy and not just in the immediate. If we do nothing, this will happen to our economy regardless, its not if, its when and to do nothing will just delay and magnify the problem. If it doesn’t involve tax shifting and direct spending on green tech or on private initiatives towards green tech, I’d again, like to hear it. If not, then I’d suggest you offer very little if anything to a meaningful debate on this issue.
So where the hell are 225,000 daycare spaces the con-bots promised to provide in their first year .
Zero . BY man in hats
Beacause the business sector likely found that creating the spaces was just to costly to implement even with the incentive from the government. This doesn’t bode well for the Liberal plan either unless we want considerable tax increases to help pay for their plan.
We must not forget to compare the original estimate for gun regersty and how much it actually cost to implement. I suspect that the Liberal Child care program would be no different then the gun registry cost underestimation folly.
Cheers
Lawrence and all like creatures, small, dead and otherwise; who asked ya? See ya, wouldn’t ever wanna be ya…
We must not forget to compare the original estimate for gun regersty and how much it actually cost to implement. I suspect that the Liberal Child care program would be no different then the gun registry cost underestimation folly.
Cheers
By van on 05.13.08 12:04 pm
Just another broken promise in a long,long trail of broken promises from the con-bots .
The $1200,00, per year bribe amounts to two thirds of five eights of FA
Lawrence and all like creatures, small, dead and otherwise; who asked ya? See ya, wouldn’t ever wanna be ya…
By linda on 05.13.08 12:31 pm
Consider the source . If Garvin had a half a brain he’d still be a half-wit .
By Bonnie N BC on 05.12.08 7:07 pm
And you Liberals will smear and drag an innocent Canadian citizen to play your gutter games. Doesn’t Stephane Dion and his goons realize that Bernier’s ex-girlfriend is INNOCENT!!! That what they have done in the last week is beneath contempt. They have accused this innocent person of getting close to Bernier so that she can BLACKMAIL him. This is soooo pathetic and scary.
Even my son who is hardly a conservative said that what the Liberals are doing smacks of Macarthism. You Liberals SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES!!!
Even my son who is hardly a conservative said that what the Liberals are doing smacks of Macarthism. You Liberals SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES!!!
By Catherine on 05.13.08 5:33 pm
Sheeesh ! You are one stupid woman .
Sheeesh ! You are one stupid woman .
By Men With Hats on 05.13.08 7:14 pm
And you are one dangerous individual. Hey why not drag every innocent person through the mud. It seems to be the Liberal style.
Oh maybe the reporters should start to report on what went down when Belinda crossed the floor. She seemed to be enjoying herself on top of those speakers.
Sheeesh ! You are one stupid woman .
By Men With Hats on 05.13.08 7:14 pm
And you wonder why young people are disenfranchised from our political systems. You Liberals must be really proud that you are destroying our democratic institutions. Pat yourselves on the back – you morons.
Calm down C. We are in the middle of a transformation of the political picture of Canada. It is shifting. Minority gov’ts forever, which means co-operation. Can they do it? Will they do it for their country?
Men With Hats- he has such searing? way with words…I try my best not to butcher it, I love the King’s English….Catharine, with all respect, the RCMP and other professionals have given their opinion on this. It is not the Liberals cooking up yet another conspiracy or fantasy or imaginary scandal. The entire HOC is asking our government legitimate questions, on behalf of all of us. Please Catharine, I wish you could see this.These are all issues that are cropping up for the CPC/PMO, and they deserve some kind of credible explanation. No? And sending Jr. Minister’s as sacrificial lambs to deflect from what is now known to be obstruction, (a search warrant was needed in but one example) is it any wonder we’re NOT buying the party lines? Come on, even msm isn’t buying any longer. I’m not trying to be argumentative with you. There is far too much of that in this world and our time here is too short. Take care. linda
Catherine: What is alarming is that a woman known to have had past connections to organized crime whether through marriage or association was NOT investigated by the RCMP when she showed up with Bernier at the swearing in, when she flew overseas with him and when she was in attendance at various official functions.
I am alarmed that you don’t find that alarming.
If it is Canada’s policy not to investigate spouses then I suppose our government officials are just ripe for infiltration by just about any suspect group.
And since the Prime Minister refuses to deny or confirm that Berniers girlfriend was investigated I assume that she wasn’t.
McCarthyism!!!
You ask the Cons a simple question about national security and they accuse you of Communist paranoia .
That’s right, Catherine. The Liberals are trying to root out all the commie’s in the Conservative party by asking if Bernier’s girlfriend was run through a security check.
Catherine: What is alarming is that a woman known to have had past connections to organized crime whether through marriage or association was NOT investigated by the RCMP when she showed up with Bernier at the swearing in, when she flew overseas with him and when she was in attendance at various official functions.
I am alarmed that you don’t find that alarming.
If it is Canada’s policy not to investigate spouses then I suppose our government officials are just ripe for infiltration by just about any suspect group.
And since the Prime Minister refuses to deny or confirm that Berniers girlfriend was investigated I assume that she wasn’t.
By Judy on 05.13.08 10:32 pm
And it was reported that SHE was never charged with any crimes. In fact, she was threatened by the bikers.
So again, why are you dragging her, an innocent Canadian citizen, through the mud?
The Liberals will not stop at anything to destroy innocent people, will they! And yes, the way the Liberals are behaving, they are acting very much like McCarthy.
I have said that the Liberals would love to drag their opponents into their special re-education camps. Will you be their head mistress of these camps?
By brain on 05.13.08 11:48 am
I know your comments were directed to CB but I wanted to point out what I included the the post listed below.
By Greg on 05.12.08 11:57 am
If government was serious and and had a handle on reality why wouldn’t they have tackled these things already?
They prefer to implement complicated measures which are often beyond their ultimate control and assume the co-operation of corporate entities and the effectiveness of enforcement. That which is relative to regulations, which can be easily changed. In the end, far too many of these grand schemes go awry and that is where history comes into the equation.
i.e. the Metric system. I read a report on how this came to be. Many years later a member of the Trudeau caucus said it came up at the end of long caucus meeting and was the pet project of one individual. Everyone was tired, there was little research done by the majority and it seemed like a good idea at the time. My teenage Son computes roughly half in metric and half in Imperial. All these years later.
Or we could talk gun registry or health care or Unemployment Insurance, Farm related/Quota programs or?????
My point is, the more complicated a scheme, the less likely it’s success. In the case of Gov. in particular and the costs are extraordinary. The more simple the plan and it’s implementation, the better. The KISS principle.
The Highway of good intentions is littered with programs and policies that never worked according to their stated intentions, and the recent discussions on food labeling is another good example of that.
P.S. I would have gotten back to you on your previous posts but thought you gone for the week.
Am totally disgusted with how business is done. My brother-in-law worked for a company that was family owned for many years and earned good money. He retired and is now drawing his pension. The head of the family died and the company was sold about ten years ago to US owners. The new owners sucked the company dry, laid off workers gradually so that less than 50 now remain. They just announced a major layoff, but because less than 50 are affected, no severance is paid. Some of the laid-off workers have worked there up to 35 years and won’t get a dime in severance.
That loophole needs plugging yesterday!
Leasa and Catherine,
I see that La Presse is reporting today that Ms Couillard’s ties to criminal elements are more recent than first thought and go back to 2005, which would be months before she started dating Bernier by September 2007.
She had live-in relationships with three different criminals that the media have uncovered. One has to wonder why someone with such a fascination with criminals is suddenly dating a politician and why she is considered such an icon to be defended by the new Conservatives.
She may not personally have been convicted of a crime but she certainly had a fixation on criminals.