Good for the Bluenosers of Nova Scotia…(I know where else would they be coming from!) They have a very clever and pointed website using humour and facts designed to lure their ex-pats from Calgary. They are warning their “people” that they may be suffering from a disorder (if not a fully functioning disease) they have called “Delusional Calgaria.” I think the point is this is a social disease that is fiscally transmitted and results in homesickness and culture schlock...a Calgary essence. I am from Edmonton, if you couldn't tell. Anyway check it out!
Alberta is great place with a warm and welcoming ambiance - but it is crazy busy, with not enough people to do the work and it is becoming EXPENSIVE too. Inflation is a fact in Alberta’s major centres in particular, due mostly to housing costs. The fact is we are just now catching up to Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa housing prices but we shoulda, coulda and woulda seen it coming and have done something to better control it.
Unfortunately we were so damn fixated on eliminating the debt and deficit at breakneck speed in the 90s we forgot to plan for the obvious growth and infrastructure demands it would place on the place. If you were here “before” then you are doing well in practice and on paper. If you are a newbie and you can afford to stay to get established, you will love the province and you will do very well too. The price of admission today is a factor - for housing in particular is getting to be very high…even if you can find it. It is kind of like the dreams and hopes of the original Europeans who settled the west all over again. This time it is energy and high tech, not cheap land that is the new attraction.
So we need you and your skills and your spirit out here. But make sure you know what you are coming for and getting into. So Nova Scotia, don’t just ask your folks to return. Ask them to send work and contracts home to Nova Scotia too. We need the help out here and I am sure you can do much of what we need right there in Nova Scotia and share in the wealth we are creating out here…right from there!
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Harper's Giveaway Budget Will Not a Majority Government Make
I see the MSM poll interpreters and headline writers are up to their tricks again. Space, time and depth of analysis are all limited so the consequences are misleading and shallow reportage. The Strategic Counsel poll for the Globe and Mail and CTV on post budget results is a case in point. It was conducted over the 2 days immediately following the Harper Budget and put in the context of…did the Budget give Harper enough to call (and win???) an election?
Of course the MSM media wants an election because it is good copy, good for business and, let’s face it, elections are good sport for MSM too! The electorate on the other hand is not supportive of a spring election and the opposition parties save and perhaps except for Jack Layton, are not keen to go now either. We do not need a federal election right now, especially if Quebec is going to become volatile again with its own election results coming tomorrow.
Nevertheless, based on post budget polling, the MSM media screams breathless headlines that Harper is approaching “majority territory” with 40% and a commanding lead on the Liberals. This is of course, based on data collected during a total news blitz coverage on the Budget that was a giveaway to provinces where 2/3 of the population live. What else would you expect but a bounce in the first 2 days afterwards?
It was also polling data collected before Harper insulted the country with his Dion likes the Taliban more than our soldiers bleating, before Defense Minister O’Connor’s expose about “misleading of Parliament” (a euphemism for lying) and the disclosure of damaging documents that his Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day electoral activities may have breached the Criminal Code and Harper’s utterances. This past week Harper also said he would not acknowledge a separatists government if that was the choice of Quebecers…as if he has such a choice in a democracy. This all happened last week to but after the polling data was collected so the context of the MSM presentation of the poll results from the Cons Budget is lacking if we are to be kind about it.
Let’s look at some serious analysis of the Strategic Counsel post-budget poll results anyway. First the Budget gave the Cons a bounce (39% positive and 21% negative), no doubt that would be the result given it was the largest spending budget in the history of the country and a cash giveaway akin to game show prize winnings in Quebec. Underlying this fact was that an equal number of Canadians were “neutral” on the budget. Hum! Maybe the 38% of citizens who were neutral wanted to also think about it and understand it before they jumped to conclusions.
I wonder where they have they evolved in their thinking and in their opinions now that the implications of this budget are better understood. It is now seen in a cynical light to be mostly a budget about political positioning and less about sound economic planning.
A full 55% of Canadians and 67% of Harper’s western base saw the budget as a gift to Quebec. Ironically only 37% of Quebecer saw it that way and 34% of them are “undecided” but, get this, 51% of Quebecers do not yet believe they have gotten “their fair share” from the Budget. This is not a winning formula for nation building Prime Minister Harper. Thanks a lot!
Besides we know the budget is not the ballot box question in any pending federal election anyway – the environment is. So why does the MSM think the budget matters as a value driver as to how people will actually vote when the question will be real? Well the poll asked an environment question too. I did not see a single report on that aspect of the poll.
Well gentle reader – here is some more context for you about what this poll may be telling us. When asked if “Canadians were more concerned about the environment than the Harper government” a full 67% said yes, indicating the Cons have not achieved lift-off velocity on the main issue in he country and the one that will likely decide the next federal election. Even more interesting is that in Quebec and Ontario, where Harper is and has to go to get votes for a majority government, they say he “does not get it” about the environment at the 72% and 70% levels respectively. Ouch!
Harper resonated on the tax surcharge on gas guzzlers with 68% support and only 28% against; the West, by the way, was slightly more supportive than the national averages. But that was before we knew he exempted trucks and was actually playing market maker with a poorly thought out policy that preferred only selected manufacturers but was quickly “fixed” to also include cars made in Flaherty’s neck of the woods.
The big sleeper and potentially the most explosive finding out of this survey got absolutely no coverage in the MSM. It was the results of the question of “Should the federal government be involved in areas of provincial jurisdiction?” A whopping 67% agreed. Even 51% of Quebecers agreed and even more interesting was that 72% of the West was on side with this proposition. The Premiers will not be amused and the Prime Minister will be bemused. Will it embolden Harper to become more Liberal than Trudeau in occupying provincial political territory and jurisdiction? Time will tell!
So we should not get all excited from the MSM headlines and stories coming out of this poll that it might trigger an unwanted election. It has much more substance than the reporting but it tells us that nothing has been decided and no trends have been identified…yet. One thing is for sure though, these are going to be exciting and unnerving times in this quite little part of the universe we call Canada.
Of course the MSM media wants an election because it is good copy, good for business and, let’s face it, elections are good sport for MSM too! The electorate on the other hand is not supportive of a spring election and the opposition parties save and perhaps except for Jack Layton, are not keen to go now either. We do not need a federal election right now, especially if Quebec is going to become volatile again with its own election results coming tomorrow.
Nevertheless, based on post budget polling, the MSM media screams breathless headlines that Harper is approaching “majority territory” with 40% and a commanding lead on the Liberals. This is of course, based on data collected during a total news blitz coverage on the Budget that was a giveaway to provinces where 2/3 of the population live. What else would you expect but a bounce in the first 2 days afterwards?
It was also polling data collected before Harper insulted the country with his Dion likes the Taliban more than our soldiers bleating, before Defense Minister O’Connor’s expose about “misleading of Parliament” (a euphemism for lying) and the disclosure of damaging documents that his Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day electoral activities may have breached the Criminal Code and Harper’s utterances. This past week Harper also said he would not acknowledge a separatists government if that was the choice of Quebecers…as if he has such a choice in a democracy. This all happened last week to but after the polling data was collected so the context of the MSM presentation of the poll results from the Cons Budget is lacking if we are to be kind about it.
Let’s look at some serious analysis of the Strategic Counsel post-budget poll results anyway. First the Budget gave the Cons a bounce (39% positive and 21% negative), no doubt that would be the result given it was the largest spending budget in the history of the country and a cash giveaway akin to game show prize winnings in Quebec. Underlying this fact was that an equal number of Canadians were “neutral” on the budget. Hum! Maybe the 38% of citizens who were neutral wanted to also think about it and understand it before they jumped to conclusions.
I wonder where they have they evolved in their thinking and in their opinions now that the implications of this budget are better understood. It is now seen in a cynical light to be mostly a budget about political positioning and less about sound economic planning.
A full 55% of Canadians and 67% of Harper’s western base saw the budget as a gift to Quebec. Ironically only 37% of Quebecer saw it that way and 34% of them are “undecided” but, get this, 51% of Quebecers do not yet believe they have gotten “their fair share” from the Budget. This is not a winning formula for nation building Prime Minister Harper. Thanks a lot!
Besides we know the budget is not the ballot box question in any pending federal election anyway – the environment is. So why does the MSM think the budget matters as a value driver as to how people will actually vote when the question will be real? Well the poll asked an environment question too. I did not see a single report on that aspect of the poll.
Well gentle reader – here is some more context for you about what this poll may be telling us. When asked if “Canadians were more concerned about the environment than the Harper government” a full 67% said yes, indicating the Cons have not achieved lift-off velocity on the main issue in he country and the one that will likely decide the next federal election. Even more interesting is that in Quebec and Ontario, where Harper is and has to go to get votes for a majority government, they say he “does not get it” about the environment at the 72% and 70% levels respectively. Ouch!
Harper resonated on the tax surcharge on gas guzzlers with 68% support and only 28% against; the West, by the way, was slightly more supportive than the national averages. But that was before we knew he exempted trucks and was actually playing market maker with a poorly thought out policy that preferred only selected manufacturers but was quickly “fixed” to also include cars made in Flaherty’s neck of the woods.
The big sleeper and potentially the most explosive finding out of this survey got absolutely no coverage in the MSM. It was the results of the question of “Should the federal government be involved in areas of provincial jurisdiction?” A whopping 67% agreed. Even 51% of Quebecers agreed and even more interesting was that 72% of the West was on side with this proposition. The Premiers will not be amused and the Prime Minister will be bemused. Will it embolden Harper to become more Liberal than Trudeau in occupying provincial political territory and jurisdiction? Time will tell!
So we should not get all excited from the MSM headlines and stories coming out of this poll that it might trigger an unwanted election. It has much more substance than the reporting but it tells us that nothing has been decided and no trends have been identified…yet. One thing is for sure though, these are going to be exciting and unnerving times in this quite little part of the universe we call Canada.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Will the RCMP Investigate Their Boss, the Honourable Stockwell Day?
With new evidence around the 2000 by-election circumstances surrounding the then newly minted leader of the Reform/Alliance Party, Stockwell Day we can only wait to see how Prime Minister Harper, handles the situation. Stockwell Day is,after all, his Minister of Public Safety and the Minister responsible for the RCMP. How Orwellian!
How comfortable are you as a citizen with the RCMP considering an investigation about criminal charges around political events of the Minister to whom they must ultimately report to? Are the RCMP going to decline to revisit the Stockwell Day by-election events of 2000 for criminal wrong-doing given that it directly involves the Minister to whom they report? What if an investigation were launched and criminal charges laid over the by-election of Stockwell Day and Harper had exercised his new political influence and control over the appointment of the Judge who was to hear the case? How comfortable are you with that? It could happen!
You have to marvel at the irony that the documents the Liberals are relying on were found in the files of the Leader of the Opposition Offices and were left behind by the former Conservative Leader of the Opposition, one Honourable Stockwell Day. The irony is even sweeter when you consider how hard Harper's people dug into the old files of the Martin Liberal government. They were looking for other potential Adscams they could use for political and purging purposes, but alas, to no avail.
How reassured are you that Harper and Day are skating and obfuscating around the Cabinet resignation issue under these circumstances? Do you believe the Honourable Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety of all things, should step down from Cabinet until this is resolved? Former Cabinet Minister Michael Chong resigned Harper's Cabinet over less critical, and less potentially damaging matters, but just as significant as to matters of principle. Michael Chong has proven himself to be a man of principle and character.
The RCMP were quick to jump into an investigation on supposed Liberal government political malfeasance around Income Trust leaks. That investigation was based on innuendo and hints but they announced it publicly just prior to the last election, only having to admit, many months later, there was no evidence of any wrong political doing. They ended up laying only one charge against an individual - a Finance Department bureaucrat who allegedly used insider Income Trust information for personal gain.
We are not yet in an election and only have mere media musings, hints and allegations that one is even remotely pending. So the RCMP do not need to worry about influencing an election outcome, this time any more than they did last time. It is not their concern as to timing of investigations and politics should not be a deciding factor. Speaking of the politics of the last investigation, it was strange the RCMP broke their usual silence about criminal investigations and let it be known publicly they were investigating the former Liberal government. Will they revert to traditional silence about these matters this time or will they boldly go again into the public political fray - if they even start to investigate their boss!
They might be able to get to the bottom of this Stockwell Day by-election matter well before an next election is even called. Perhaps Parliament is mature enough to actually forestall an election while this investigation is going on…presuming the RCMP actually decides to undertake it in the first place.
Where is the sharp wit and sound wisdom of former RCMP Commissioner Zaccardelli now that Canada, and Public Safety Minister the Honourable Stockwell Day, could really use him?
Now for something completely related.
What if I am right about the “republicanization” of the pro tem Prime Minister Stephen Harper and that his is eerily modeling and mimicking George W. Bush. I have been watching the “republicanization” of Stephen Harper as a variation on a theme for his style and substance of government all year. While I don’t think Harper is in the “Bush-league.” Let’s face it, when it comes to being “bush-league” Dubya is in a league of his own. You have to wonder if we can we expect what Stephen Colbert is showing us in this clip about the current Bush leadership reality to be somewhere in our Canadian equivalent?
How comfortable are you as a citizen with the RCMP considering an investigation about criminal charges around political events of the Minister to whom they must ultimately report to? Are the RCMP going to decline to revisit the Stockwell Day by-election events of 2000 for criminal wrong-doing given that it directly involves the Minister to whom they report? What if an investigation were launched and criminal charges laid over the by-election of Stockwell Day and Harper had exercised his new political influence and control over the appointment of the Judge who was to hear the case? How comfortable are you with that? It could happen!
You have to marvel at the irony that the documents the Liberals are relying on were found in the files of the Leader of the Opposition Offices and were left behind by the former Conservative Leader of the Opposition, one Honourable Stockwell Day. The irony is even sweeter when you consider how hard Harper's people dug into the old files of the Martin Liberal government. They were looking for other potential Adscams they could use for political and purging purposes, but alas, to no avail.
How reassured are you that Harper and Day are skating and obfuscating around the Cabinet resignation issue under these circumstances? Do you believe the Honourable Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety of all things, should step down from Cabinet until this is resolved? Former Cabinet Minister Michael Chong resigned Harper's Cabinet over less critical, and less potentially damaging matters, but just as significant as to matters of principle. Michael Chong has proven himself to be a man of principle and character.
The RCMP were quick to jump into an investigation on supposed Liberal government political malfeasance around Income Trust leaks. That investigation was based on innuendo and hints but they announced it publicly just prior to the last election, only having to admit, many months later, there was no evidence of any wrong political doing. They ended up laying only one charge against an individual - a Finance Department bureaucrat who allegedly used insider Income Trust information for personal gain.
We are not yet in an election and only have mere media musings, hints and allegations that one is even remotely pending. So the RCMP do not need to worry about influencing an election outcome, this time any more than they did last time. It is not their concern as to timing of investigations and politics should not be a deciding factor. Speaking of the politics of the last investigation, it was strange the RCMP broke their usual silence about criminal investigations and let it be known publicly they were investigating the former Liberal government. Will they revert to traditional silence about these matters this time or will they boldly go again into the public political fray - if they even start to investigate their boss!
They might be able to get to the bottom of this Stockwell Day by-election matter well before an next election is even called. Perhaps Parliament is mature enough to actually forestall an election while this investigation is going on…presuming the RCMP actually decides to undertake it in the first place.
Where is the sharp wit and sound wisdom of former RCMP Commissioner Zaccardelli now that Canada, and Public Safety Minister the Honourable Stockwell Day, could really use him?
Now for something completely related.
What if I am right about the “republicanization” of the pro tem Prime Minister Stephen Harper and that his is eerily modeling and mimicking George W. Bush. I have been watching the “republicanization” of Stephen Harper as a variation on a theme for his style and substance of government all year. While I don’t think Harper is in the “Bush-league.” Let’s face it, when it comes to being “bush-league” Dubya is in a league of his own. You have to wonder if we can we expect what Stephen Colbert is showing us in this clip about the current Bush leadership reality to be somewhere in our Canadian equivalent?
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Delving into Alberta's Democratic Deficit
There is a growing democratic deficit in Canada. Alberta has a particularly significant set of experiences in this regard. While the new Premier Stelmach has taken some initial steps to reform these matters the recent history of this province in this regard is not particularly sterling. It is not that anything illegal is being done, it is just that the system is not very accommodating of fundamental issues of fairness nor encouraging of informed debate and discussion. We are not getting the best service and outcomes of our legislative processes and institutions with outdated policies and practices.
Public Interest Alberta is a group of Alberta volunteer citizens who have engaged in a process to address these concerns. They have developed a very interesting discussion paper on Democratic Renewal in Alberta and are holding public forum all over the province for citizen input on the issues.
I recently interviewed Larry Booi, the Chair of Public Interest Alberta on the organization and its efforts around democratic deficits and renewal in Alberta. My conversation with Larry is on Policy Channel and I invite you to give it a boo!
As an aside, I spent a couple of days with former Prime Minister Joe Clark this week whiile he was in Edmonton. There is the text of a very interesting speech given by the Rt. Hon. Joe Clark given this week at the Univerity of Alberta on Policy Channel too.
Public Interest Alberta is a group of Alberta volunteer citizens who have engaged in a process to address these concerns. They have developed a very interesting discussion paper on Democratic Renewal in Alberta and are holding public forum all over the province for citizen input on the issues.
I recently interviewed Larry Booi, the Chair of Public Interest Alberta on the organization and its efforts around democratic deficits and renewal in Alberta. My conversation with Larry is on Policy Channel and I invite you to give it a boo!
As an aside, I spent a couple of days with former Prime Minister Joe Clark this week whiile he was in Edmonton. There is the text of a very interesting speech given by the Rt. Hon. Joe Clark given this week at the Univerity of Alberta on Policy Channel too.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Charest's Actions Show Quebec's Fiscal Imbalance is a Scam and a Sham
So Charest versions of overcoming the so-called fiscal imbalance is to take equalization money from the hard earned taxes paid by all Canadians and then using it - not to improve the level of government services to Quebecers as it is intended in the Constitution - but rather apply it to personal income tax cuts.
Quebec has a huge debt, spends more on social programs than Ontario and subsidizes everything from day care to university tuition at unsustainable levels and that do not provide effective outcomes. What does Charest do to get real about these chronic problems created by the parade of past provincial politicians…nothing! He is using federal equalization funds that are intended constitutionally to improve government services in health, education and so forth and instead using them for pure electoral political purposes with a tax break to boost his election chances. Disgusting!
Other bloggers have picked up on this and have pointed out that based on this cynical tax cutting action by Charest one can only conclude that since Quebec did not need the money for remedying any fiscal imbalance- it it fair therefor to conclude the "so-called" fiscal imbalance must not exist.
When Flaherty was Harris’ Minister of Finance in Ontario, that province did the same thing with federal funds. They took federal funding grants intended for improved government services and used it for tax breaks - and then borrowed the money to improve services...not arguing they too have a "fiscal imbalance" because of high debt. Charest has been taught this trick by a past master of obfuscation. Character and integrity are lacking in these politicians when they will do such crass and conniving things with the better purposes and stated intentions of the Canadian taxpayer's money.
Prime Minister Harper, a few questions sir! Wasn’t this type of pandering and political manipulation between Ottawa and Quebec City the original reason the Reform Party split from Mulroney and started in the first place? Has nothing changed except your opportunism and thurst for power sir? How long do you think you can alienate your base in the west and take advantage of, on one hand, and concurrently try to buy-off, on the other hand, the hard working, just-trying-to-get-ahead- middle-class Canadian swing voter with such disingenuous politics?
Good government is always good politics sir. The opposite is rarely true!
Quebec has a huge debt, spends more on social programs than Ontario and subsidizes everything from day care to university tuition at unsustainable levels and that do not provide effective outcomes. What does Charest do to get real about these chronic problems created by the parade of past provincial politicians…nothing! He is using federal equalization funds that are intended constitutionally to improve government services in health, education and so forth and instead using them for pure electoral political purposes with a tax break to boost his election chances. Disgusting!
Other bloggers have picked up on this and have pointed out that based on this cynical tax cutting action by Charest one can only conclude that since Quebec did not need the money for remedying any fiscal imbalance- it it fair therefor to conclude the "so-called" fiscal imbalance must not exist.
When Flaherty was Harris’ Minister of Finance in Ontario, that province did the same thing with federal funds. They took federal funding grants intended for improved government services and used it for tax breaks - and then borrowed the money to improve services...not arguing they too have a "fiscal imbalance" because of high debt. Charest has been taught this trick by a past master of obfuscation. Character and integrity are lacking in these politicians when they will do such crass and conniving things with the better purposes and stated intentions of the Canadian taxpayer's money.
Prime Minister Harper, a few questions sir! Wasn’t this type of pandering and political manipulation between Ottawa and Quebec City the original reason the Reform Party split from Mulroney and started in the first place? Has nothing changed except your opportunism and thurst for power sir? How long do you think you can alienate your base in the west and take advantage of, on one hand, and concurrently try to buy-off, on the other hand, the hard working, just-trying-to-get-ahead- middle-class Canadian swing voter with such disingenuous politics?
Good government is always good politics sir. The opposite is rarely true!
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