"It gives me a rash and no dermatologist can fix this problem," said Andre Bachand. The party's youthful deputy leader and its lone remaining Quebec MP, Bachand said he "can't even imagine" such a union. His comments were one of several signs that unite-the-right talks are once again headed for trouble. Tory Leader Peter MacKay said he could never agree to a merger proposal by the Alliance that would give "Alberta alone" the power to choose the united right's leader.
And a furious party whip, Gerald Keddy, called the Alliance "dead" in Atlantic Canada and "anathema" in Quebec.
My Commentary:
The CA is NOT dead in Atlantic Canada! Just biding its time and quietly amassing members!
People like Bachand and Keddy are afraid of losing power; the Red Tories, Ontario and Ontario have been the most powerful. Bachand doesn't want Quebec to lose its positon of power within Liberal government of Canada. NJC
Back to the Canukistanian.
What a pair of jerks -- with a capital "J"! Both afraid of losing their position in another election and doing anything they can to sabotage efforts -- never mind that they're screwing Canada right into the ground. Who do these people work for anyway -- CHRETIEN? These people are afraid of losing power -- of it slipping from the Red Tory faction--who like give-aways and freebies as much as the Liberals--and the provinces of Quebec and Ontario.
Of course, Bachand is concerned about Quebec maintaining the balance of power!
The PC's have a Liberal "fifth column" in their midst. In the interests of Canada conservatives should divest themselves of these people. We don't need them!
And another comment from Jack.
People need to wake up!
Here in my mind is the reason for all the "panic" in merging these parties!
The National Post has been running a poll and Joe saved it (heh -- I love Joe)!
Is Paul Martin the right man to lead Canada?
40.07%.....Yes
59.93%.....No
The Toronto Police Association is throwing its support behind the "law-and-order" Tory party, fearing a Liberal majority will lead to labour unrest. "If the Liberal government gets power, you'll see thousands of police officers marching on Queen's Park in the next two years," said police union boss Craig Bromell.
He said sources have told him the Liberals will revise the Police Services Act to suspend officers without pay and fire those who don't give statements to the Special Investigations Unit.
I’m not sure what all of the implications of the last sentence are; maybe the Canukistanian will explain. Catch the link on the site. NJC
Update 9:20 pm: Here is the Explanation
I was so surprised that I thought it was worth posting here, as well as on the Canukistanian's site.
At the present time when an officer is suspended (for whatever reason) they are treated as an "accused" -- not yet convicted -- they are still innocent "until proven guilty" and so their pay continues and they and their families don't suffer. Dalton McGuinty (in his infinite ignorance) wants to change all that to make political points with a black minority in Toronto.
This is very scary.
Not only that -- he wants to change the rules for the SIU (which is a government hatchet outfit determined to fry cops -- that's what they do) and he wants to fire any cop that refuses to co-operate with them.
Daltin is a lawyer and knows full well that cops are protected, like everyone else in the country, by the Charter. Cops don't have to say anything that might incriminate them just like anyone else but "oh no" -- Dalton, political opportunist that he is, wants to change that so that a cop has NO RIGHTS.
Craig Bromwell is definitely right on this one and if you think the province has problems now -- just wait until Dalton lifts the rights of the people responsible for your safety.
Picture if you will EVERY COP IN TORONTO booking sick --
ALL AT THE SAME TIME!
Picture every cop in Ontario supporting them!
ARE YOU READY FOR THAT?
I had no idea! No wonder the Toronto cops are refusing to support Dalton McGuinty and they are going to support the Tories and Ernie Eves. I perfectly understand; the job of a cop is hard enough as it is. NJC
Negotiators for the federal Progressive Conservatives and the Canadian Alliance made substantial progress toward a new merged party yesterday in closed-door meetings, sources said, despite increased anxiety from Tory MPs.
Sources close to the talks between emissaries for the two parties said the sides are inching toward a possible deal to form a united front in the next election.
Sources said the talks went well, and that one or two meetings will be held in the next five or six days.
"Reasonable minds are coming together," said one source close to the talks.
The sources said the two sides are moving toward agreement on a series of issues, including the structure of the party, financing and a party name, which could be the Conservative Party of Canada.
I can only hope this is right! We need an alternative to what Canadians have had for the most of the last forty years -- to say nothing of the patronage and general profligacy of a party which assumes it is the natural governing party. NJC
Poking fun at Glenn Reynolds has been amusing, but I think I have a real cause for us blog writers and blog readers to work for now.
As I've said before on my own site, I don't get legitimately angry that often, but one thing has been pissing me off lately, and that's the coverage of the war in the media. All we hear is the negative news, and everything is painted to make the war look like a failure. Yet, anytime I talk to one of our troops who has actually been in Iraq, the outlook is quite different. I hear how nice and thankful the Iraqi people are. I hear of all the progress that is being made. I hear of the schools the troops have help built, and how big Marines are sitting on teeter-totters and swing sets teaching Iraqi kids how to use them since those children have never had a playground before.
And I never hear any of this in the major media.[Emphasis mine]
Some of this is just the habit of media to dwell on the negative, but not all of it. These are stories people want to hear, but too many news organizations have no interest in them. And I don't think I'm going to far out on limb to say some of them are purposely ignoring any good news to try to spin victory into failure. They are trying to fight a propaganda war.
Canada doesn't have a real head of state. We have a foreigner as head of state, the Queen of Britain, and a governor-general who represents her in Canada.
Canada has, in other words, a faux head of state, a kind of papier-mâché institution that leaves other countries, to say nothing of Canadians, confused. The confusion explains in part the tempest-in-a-teapot controversy over Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson's $1-million trip to Iceland, Finland and Russia.
[. . . .]
You've got to jazz up a governor-general abroad, to make the bother worthwhile for the host country, and to make an impression for Canada. Hence the nature of Ms. Clarkson's trips: to expose other countries to talented Canadians, and to expose them to other countries.
[. . . .]
Of course, Ms. Clarkson's critics are after her personally as a so-called elitist. A certain, shrinking newspaper with a right-wing editorial position has made taking potshots at her and husband John Ralston Saul a substitute for journalism. The same people who slaver over the foreign Queen and think every penny Canada spends on her Canadian extravaganzas worth the coin go purple when the Governor-General spends $1-million overseas. Do they expect the British Queen to represent Canada when she travels overseas?
The $1-million tempest, however, is framed by something else distinctly Canadian: a fascination in the English-language media with the expenses of all those in high places. (The country's French-language media cares little.) [There is so much sluicing of government money to Quebec—as there has been for 40 years—that Quebec is not about to stop the Liberal fount. NJC]
[. . . .]
It's hard to explain where this deep-seated fascination comes from, since it does not exist elsewhere. Every day, the government spends hundreds of millions of dollars on policies that go without any scrutiny at all from MPs or the media. But send the Governor-General to countries that the Foreign Affairs Department wants her to visit, build a trip that might have an impact beyond her travelling alone, let that cost be $1-million out of the federal government's yearly budget of $185-billion, and watch the fur fly.
The reaction to Ms. Clarkson's trip is therefore part of a curious streak in the English-Canadian political culture that goes beyond the complaints of some critics who don't like her style, personality or previous politics.
The reaction also speaks to the strange papier-mâché nature of the governor-general as institution in a country that doesn't fully have its own head of state.
My Commentary: Note these comments:
***Canada doesn't have a real head of state. We have a foreigner as head of state, the Queen of Britain, and a governor-general who represents her in Canada. Canada has, in other words, a faux head of state, a kind of papier-mâché institution***
Next week, we'll get an article on how we need our own head of state--Perhaps Adrienne? Perhaps a Liberal king?--no, a a republic?
*** A certain, shrinking newspaper with a right-wing editorial position has made taking potshots at her and husband John Ralston Saul a substitute for journalism.***
Nasty comments, Jeffrey, about the only Canadian newspaper—my favourite, The National Post--that seems interested in bringing us news of the corruption and waste of our government--and now this profligacy of our GG! This is so ridiculous! It is Canadian taxpayers who pay the expenses of our faux monarch – and she has been profligate as Canadian taxpayers can see with any perusal of how GG expenses have risen since since she was appointed by her political buddy, JC. Jeffrey, apologist for Liberal/GG waste!
[. . . .]
Canada doesn't have a real head of state. We have a foreigner as head of state, the Queen of Britain, and a governor-general who represents her in Canada.
Canada has, in other words, a faux head of state, a kind of papier-mâché institution that leaves other countries, to say nothing of Canadians, confused. The confusion explains in part the tempest-in-a-teapot controversy over Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson's $1-million trip to Iceland, Finland and Russia.
[. . . .]
You've got to jazz up a governor-general abroad, to make the bother worthwhile for the host country, and to make an impression for Canada. Hence the nature of Ms. Clarkson's trips: to expose other countries to talented Canadians, and to expose them to other countries.
[. . . .]
Of course, Ms. Clarkson's critics are after her personally as a so-called elitist. A certain, shrinking newspaper with a right-wing editorial position has made taking potshots at her and husband John Ralston Saul a substitute for journalism. The same people who slaver over the foreign Queen and think every penny Canada spends on her Canadian extravaganzas worth the coin go purple when the Governor-General spends $1-million overseas. Do they expect the British Queen to represent Canada when she travels overseas?
The $1-million tempest, however, is framed by something else distinctly Canadian: a fascination in the English-language media with the expenses of all those in high places. (The country's French-language media cares little.) [There is so much sluicing of government money to Quebec—as there has been for 40 years—that Quebec is not about to stop the Liberal fount. NJC]
[. . . .]
It's hard to explain where this deep-seated fascination comes from, since it does not exist elsewhere. Every day, the government spends hundreds of millions of dollars on policies that go without any scrutiny at all from MPs or the media. But send the Governor-General to countries that the Foreign Affairs Department wants her to visit, build a trip that might have an impact beyond her travelling alone, let that cost be $1-million out of the federal government's yearly budget of $185-billion, and watch the fur fly.
The reaction to Ms. Clarkson's trip is therefore part of a curious streak in the English-Canadian political culture that goes beyond the complaints of some critics who don't like her style, personality or previous politics.
The reaction also speaks to the strange papier-mâché nature of the governor-general as institution in a country that doesn't fully have its own head of state.
My Commentary: Note these comments:
***Canada doesn't have a real head of state. We have a foreigner as head of state, the Queen of Britain, and a governor-general who represents her in Canada. Canada has, in other words, a faux head of state, a kind of papier-mâché institution***
Next week, we'll get an article on how we need our own head of state--Perhaps Adrienne? Perhaps a Liberal king?--no, a a republic?
*** A certain, shrinking newspaper with a right-wing editorial position has made taking potshots at her and husband John Ralston Saul a substitute for journalism.***
Nasty comments, Jeffrey, about the only Canadian newspaper—my favourite, The National Post--that seems interested in bringing us news of the corruption and waste of our government--and now this profligacy of our GG! This is so ridiculous! It is Canadian taxpayers who pay the expenses of our faux monarch – and she has been profligate as Canadian taxpayers can see with any perusal of how GG expenses have risen since since she was appointed by her political buddy, JC. Jeffrey, apologist for Liberal/GG waste!
Britain's control over its immigration policy was called into question last night after the European Court overruled a Home Office refusal to allow a Moroccan to live in the UK.
The European Union's Court of Justice said Hacene Akrich - who married a British woman while living illegally in the country - could not be refused entry under European free movement rules.
[. . . .]
Mr Akrich had been trying to settle in Britain since 1989 and was deported twice before returning in 1996, when he married.
Do you believe, given that he was an illegal and was deported twice before returning, that on his part at least, this was not a marriage of convenience?
When the couple decided to return to Britain from Dublin, they admitted to embassy officials that they were seeking to exploit EU rules offering a way back for Mr Akrich.
The court said this would be an abuse of the system only if the couple had entered into a "marriage of convenience". Where the marriage was genuine, the spouse from a non-EU country automatically acquired the rights of his EU-national husband or wife.
[. . . .]
The Court of Appeal held that denying food and accommodation to a Malaysian national seeking asylum was not a breach of his human rights because he had not passed the threshold of destitution required.
• There was a record net migration to the UK in 2001 of 172,000, the Office for National Statistics said yesterday.
My Commentary:
There are other articles of interest at the Telegraph site Asylum costs spiral out of sight and Immigrant numbers jump by 400,000. It seems to me governments that belong to the EU will be hamstrung in any effort to control their borders. NJC
Microsoft announced the closure yesterday of all its internet chatrooms, to protect its customers, some of whom are teenagers, from paedophiles and unsolicited pornographic spam emails.
More than 10,000 chatrooms, for fans of such diverse hobbies and pastimes as beekeeping, Arsenal Football Club, Harry Potter and Motörhead, the heavy metal band, will be cut off on Oct 14.
Gillian Kent, director of MSN UK, Microsoft's online service, said it was "necessary to make these changes because on-line chat services are increasingly being misused for spam and inappropriate communication".
Although the move was welcomed by some child protection charities, several internet experts said Microsoft's motivation was more financial than a genuine concern about the types of conversation taking place in chatrooms.
Ian Angell, professor of information systems at the London School of Economics, said the measure was "rather draconian" and unlikely to make any immediate change to the risk of paedophiles "grooming" children online.
According to National Children's Home and Charities' Coalition for Internet Safety, at least 26 cases in Britain of children being raped or abducted by paedophiles had been linked to chatroom contact.
But Prof Angell said Microsoft's decision to close its chatrooms would simply result in children seeking other internet meeting rooms in which it may be even more difficult to trace paedophiles.
I read the National Post, Sept 23, and chuckled at the waste and smugness that was revealed. Chretien, as part of cowardly legacy, went to the U.N. today. He castigated America for going it alone on the terrorist front. As though the U.N. would have done anything about Iraq or Afganistan--or Korea and Iran for that matter! Kofi is the president of the U.N. and he has done nothing about the endless bloodbaths in his own continent. The Serbs would still be slaughtering the Kosovars, if NATO had not stepped in. But what do you expect from a club dominated by gangster states?
Next, we have a story about the another pig at the trough, one Pierre Theberge, the Director of the National Gallery of Canada. Not to be outdone by the other piggies like Radwanski and Boyer, he has racked up $600,000 in expenses since Jan. 1998. That hounddog, CA MP, John Williams has been on the case, ferreting out one big, big, spender after another. Theberge is simply the latest to have his lavish taxpayer-provided tastes indulged. My favourite example was his $140 tip to the waiter on a bill of $347.61. Now if my math is correct, and I pay the "industry recommended tip" of 15%, then his tip should have been $42. The waiter must have been really cute.
Then there is Phil Fontaine, the newly-elected Grand National Chief, He wants to dip into our pockets for an extra $1.2 million to set up his Ottawa office properly. The fact that four years ago he renovated these same offices seems to have slipped his mind. .
You could cast all these big spenders in a play about Louis the Sun King and his court. They obviously have not an ounce of shame about their opulent ways -- while millions of Canadians struggle to just survive the endless barrage of taxes, licences, and other government grab-backs.
I end on an interesting statistic. I don't remember the CBC giving out this poll result. According to Ian Hunter, (NP A-14) there was a poll taken by Ipsos-Reid just before the last election, which showed that "58% of Canadians considered the Liberals to be arrogant and corrupt. And another 66% considered Jean Chretien unfit to govern". Yet, the people voted them in again. Perhaps the fact that only 63% even bothered voting in that election tells us something important.
Bud--wondering what--after the HRDC, the Gun Registry, and other on-going scandals--the Liberals’ approval ratings would be today? And what will it take for Canadians, in their own self-interest, to wake up -- and stop voting Liberal?
Ouestion: What is the difference between ignorance and indifference?
Answer: I don't know and I don't care.
Bud from B.C.
Note: NJC
***"58% of Canadians considered the Liberals to be arrogant and corrupt. And another 66% considered Jean Chretien unfit to govern". ***
If you hang in until 11 P.M. you can catch Mansbridge's interview with some Amnesty International guy. That is, in case you missed the first three airings of this incisive investigation into how Americans are probably torturing Al-Queda suspects in Camp X. Bless Mansbridge, at least he gave honourable mention to William Sampson (Bill's 15 seconds of CBC fame), before he moved on to the world's real torturers, the Yanks.
Just to keep us critics off balance, they presented a reasonably fair case of a third generation Japanese-Canadian, who was economically crippled by a court decision to grant the First Nations the almost exclusive rights to drain the mouth of the Fraser River of every salmon in Christiandom -- while the commmercial fishermen--sorry, fisherpeople--were driven into bankruptcy. The main native chief of the area does not even identify himself as a Canadian, but rather as a FIRST NATIONS’ citizen. This is what it has come to out here in the Wild West. Now, a B.C. court decision has decided that this former court edict is gravely flawed. In fact, it amounts to the worst kind of racial discrimination. It ruled that the commercial fisherpeople have an equal right to fish there. The Indians are going to take the case to the Supreme Court. Of course, they are. Their vaunted spirituality trumps common sense and decency every time. Besides, undoubtedly, the long-suffering Canadian taxpayers will be paying their court challenges lawyers – and associated costs.
The ruling that they are supposed to fish only for their families and their ritual needs has, somehow, been been tainted by the quantity of their actual catches. For this to happen legally, they would have to eat four pounds of salmon, per person, each day to justify their catches. I must buy their recipe book, 1001 Ways to Eat Salmon Every Day of Life.
As before, this Bud is packing his bags to vacate the country. We are definitely on the slippery slope here. Wait for the Metis demands (another spiritual group -- who channel Louis Riel) and you will help me in packing up.
