Entries from June 2008 ↓

Illustration courtesy of the Wingnuterer

Our Tune
Originally “O Canada” was a patriotic poem by Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier, a Quebec judge. Calixa Lavallée, the well-known Canadian composer, was commissioned to set it to music, and it was first sung in 1880 during a national convention of French Canadians in Quebec City. Many English versions have appeared, but the one which was widely accepted was written in 1908 by another judge, R. Stanley Weir, in honour of the 300th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City. It was amended in 1913, 1914 and 1916 and published in an official form at the time of the Diamond Jubilee of Confederation in 1927 and during the Royal visit of 1939. A slightly modified version of the first verse of Weir’s poem was proclaimed as Canada’s national anthem in 1980. The original poem of 1908 by Stanley Weir reads as follows:

Ruler supreme, who hearest humble prayer,
Hold our dominion within thy loving care;
Help us to find, O God, in thee
A lasting, rich reward,
As waiting for the Better Day,
We ever stand on guard.

Credit: Department of Canadian Heritage

Thirteen per cent of Canadians live in Alberta and Saskatchewan. But those two provinces account for an eye-popping 40% of the greenhouses gases the entire country emits. They are also provinces which have booming economies, thanks to an oil-rich resource base. You need only look at home prices in to see how westerners have had their personal wealth mushroom over the last five years.

In Saskatoon, for example the average house was worth $135,000 just four years ago. Today it’s valued at $306,000, for a tax-free annual gain of $42,700. In Calgary, homes now averaging $480,000 were changing hands for $225,000 forty-eight months ago. The average annual tax-free benefit to Calgarians, $63,750. (In contrast, the average Toronto home appreciated from $315,000 to $429,000 between 2004 and today.)

But, all is not happy in the West. In fact, we’re hearing, our oil-rich provinces would be hobbled and wasted economically if Stephane Dion ever gained power in Ottawa, and over four years imposed a tax on those emissions. In fact, as the Lib leader prepares to head to Calgary, he is being told in the bluntest way how people in Alberta and Saskatchewan feel about a strategy to deal with climate change. It goes something like this: Piss off.

“It’s going to hurt Alberta,” preem Ed Stelmach, a Conservative, told reporters. “If the proposal just to simply tax the carbon goes through, we may take a major hit.” Over in Saskatchewan, the energy minister Bill Boyd (a conservative) said, “It’s going to dramatically impact upon our economy.”

But that’s just the start of it. Then we get to the motive part. Why would Dion bring in a measure which would wipe out civilization in our western provinces?

Well, don’t be fooled. This is not about finally doing something serious to curtail the gases that are heating the world and melting the ice cap, causing extreme weather and killing off species. This bears no relation to Dion’s plan to slash income taxes for all Canadians and all companies, to invest in new green technologies and develop cleaner energy sources. The environment? Polar bears? Coastal flooding? Do not joke there, little eastern unemployed autoworker left-voting commie, this is about something far bigger: Screwing the West. Just like the PM said.

“I think it’s clear that Mr. Dion has looked at that in a very crass political way and made the political calculation that there’s nothing for him to lose anyway,” the nation-builder, Mr. Boyd, told the media. “If he can take some of the wealth from Western Canada where he has no vote support whatsoever and redistribute it to Eastern Canada, he has a better chance of winning the next election.”

Well, there ya go pardner. Now you know.

Memories of the National Energy Program, brought in by the Trudeau government thirty years ago to create a made-in-Canada oil price, have not faded. No wonder. Not a day goes by that political opportunists like Stelmach and Boyd don’t fan the flames of regionalism and resentment. Why not? It works. Voters eat that stuff up.

While massive amounts of wealth flow every week from East to West thanks to record energy prices, while the oil sands conglomerates, now largely foreign-owned, create a moonscape in northern Alberta and pump tons of carbon into the atmosphere, along comes Stephane Dion with an idea. Drop taxes on what you earn, raise taxes on what you burn. Shift the burden, gradually, with lots of economic offsets, to begin lessening our reliance on fossil fuels. After all, the consequences of doing nothing will be economic disruption on a massive global scale within a generation or two, perhaps just a decade. It is, ironically, a message of hope. We can do something. We can start. We can afford to change habits and mend ways. But only if we do so together.

For years I served as a national director of the Sierra Legal Defence Fund, an organization that fights to strengthen and uphold environmental laws. I saw no conflict whatsoever between my ecological and political convictions. In fact, being a Progressive Conservative I knew that the greatest danger to corporate welfare, profitability and economic progress would be climate change and environmental crisis.

Now the greatest threat is human myopia. Shame on those who feed there.

One of our first dual citizens. I think he also held public office.

I notice some idiots on this blog have referenced Stephane Dion’s dual citizenship, a gift he inherited from his mother. Here are some other sitting MPs (I’m not sure I got them all, by party first elected with), who were not born in Canada. They seem to have little trouble putting their constituents, and their nation, before the country of their birth. — Garth

Karygiannis, Jim Liberal Party of Canada Greece
Volpe, Giuseppe (Joseph) Liberal Party of Canada Italy
Ablonczy, Diane Reform Party United States
Barnes, Susan (Sue) Liberal Party of Canada Malta
Cannis, John Liberal Party of Canada Greece
Chan, Raymond Liberal Party of Canada China
Dhaliwal, Harbance Singh (Herb) Liberal Party of Canada India
Discepola, Nunzio (Nick) Liberal Party of Canada Italy
Fry, Hedy Liberal Party of Canada Trinidad
Malhi, Gurbax Singh Liberal Party of Canada India
Martin, Keith P. Reform Party England
Mercier, Paul Bloc Québécois Belgium
Minna, Maria Liberal Party of Canada Italy
Nunez, Osvaldo Bloc Québécois Chile
Telegdi, Andrew Liberal Party of Canada Hungary
Thompson, Myron Reform Party United States
Williams, John G. Reform Party Scotland
Davies, Libby New Democratic Party England
Folco, Raymonde Liberal Party of Canada France
Grewal, Gurmant Singh Reform Party India
Jaffer, Rahim Reform Party Uganda
Mark, Inky Reform Party China
Obhrai, Deepak Reform Party Tanzania
Stoffer, Peter Arend New Democratic Party Netherlands
Toews, Vic Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance Paraguay
Dosanjh, Ujjal Liberal Party of Canada India
Fletcher, Steven John Conservative Party of Canada (2003) Brazil
Grewal, Nina Conservative Party of Canada (2003) Japan
Khan, Wajid Liberal Party of Canada Pakistan
Kotto, Maka Bloc Québécois Cameroon
Martin, Tony New Democratic Party Ireland
Ratansi, Yasmin Liberal Party of Canada Tanzania
Rodriguez, Pablo Liberal Party of Canada Argentina
Savage, Michael John Liberal Party of Canada Northern Ireland
Silva, Mario Liberal Party of Canada Portugal
Temelkovski, Lui Liberal Party of Canada Macedonia
Alghabra, Omar Liberal Party of Canada Saudi Arabia
Barbot, Vivian Bloc Québécois Haiti
Chow, Olivia New Democratic Party China
Clement, Tony Conservative Party of Canada (2003) England
Dhaliwal, Sukh Liberal Party of Canada India
Petit, Daniel Conservative Party of Canada (2003) Belgium
Thi Lac, Ève-Mary Thaï Bloc Québécois Vietnam

Reference.