Give Me What I Want, Not What I Say I Want

John Gushue likes to post interesting quotes on his website. Yesterday he posted one that seemed especially appropriate to what I've been thinking the last few days. Maragaret Mead once said "What people say, what people do and what they say they do are often entirely different things".

It occurs to me that the recent fate of the Liberal party has been a demonstration in the difference between what people say they want and what they actually want (or at least what they will vote for.)

Stephen Dion is, according to everyone who knows him or works with him, completely honest and ethical, smart, dedicated and sincere. If you took a poll and asked people (without naming names) if they could vote for such a person the reaction would be a resounding yes.

On the other hand Stephen Harper is, according to his colleagues and friends deeply partisan, arrogant, inflexible, and maintains absolute control over those around him. From the Toronto Star

""There's always been this concern that Harper believes he's the smartest guy in the room and that, no matter what, he's never wrong," confides the Harper acquaintance (who's also a Mulroney friend).

In interviews with federal associates of Harper, past and present, a picture emerges of a bright and driven man who does not take dissenting counsel especially well and is prone to profane outbursts.

"The people around him, the stable, has generally been bred for obedience, so that's what you get," says a confrere.

Another insider agrees "there's no question the Prime Minister rules by fear," which is not always productive.

"At some point, you know, you get up every day and you get kicked in the balls and, you know what, you get tired of it. So when people stop fighting back, I'm telling you, that's a most dangerous, dangerous, dangerous day," he says.

It was Harper who insisted that the Nov. 27 economic statement be used as a political weapon to bludgeon the Conservatives' foes."

If asked (without naming names) if they could vote for such a person the answer would be a resounding no - but Stephen Harper rolls on while Dion is mere days from a very short career as Liberal Party leader.

If you took a poll and asked if Canadians would like the parties in Parliament to set aside their differences, combine their best ideas, and work together for the good of the country during the current economic recession - almost 100% would say that was exactly what they wanted. Sadly when three of the parties try to do just that they are vilified by the one party that has shown that it cannot work with others and doesn't really care what they think. When the Conservatives say that they want input from other parties it makes for good sound bites but it appears that the suggestions of the other parties are not seriously considered, or even taken seriously.

So, who do Canadians like better? The three parties that try to work together to set partisanship aside and find common solutions or the one party (and one leader) that is incapable of being non-partisan and that looks for personal gain in every situation? According to the CBC and Ekos research they like the party that refuses to work with others.

Personally I am sad that things went so poorly for Stephen Dion, but I know there is no changing people's minds about him now. I am disappointed that so many Canadians don't really want to see cooperation and consensus in our parliament but I will keep working to change their minds on that. I can and do support the coalition and it's efforts at cooperative solutions to our economic problems. The coalition may succeed and it may fail but either way, as is always the case in a democracy, Canadians will get what they ask for.

Election Post-Mortem

Well, another Canadian Election is come and gone and while it's not good news, it could have been much worse. Yesterday Canadians decided to follow the American example and re-elect a neo-conservative despite a terrible record on everything. But thanks to a combination of Newfoundland, Quebec, Northern Ontario, Toronto, Vancouver and multi-partisan groups such as AnyoneButHarper.ca, voteforenvironment.ca, Anti-Harper Vote Swap Canada, avaaz.ca and departmentofculture.ca Harper was denied a majority.
So, party by party here is how things broke down.

The Liberals: Ran a terrible campaign. Stephen Dion is, no doubt, a great guy and very smart. I think that he upped his credibility over the course of this election. I also think he is done as leader. He simply let Harper pound on him for too long before fighting back and will not ever be PM as a result. His votes with the Conservatives, during the last parliament and his constant abstentions turned away alot of Liberal supporters and rightly so. Personally I'm disgusted that 40% + of Canadians opted not to vote yesterday, but Dion's Liberals did not set a good example. Remember if you don't vote you can't complain. Bright spots for the Liberals include the addition to caucus of Gerard Kennedy and Justin Trudeau. Trudeau will help bring in young Liberals and Kennedy is the best leader available to the Party. Dion is almost certainly gone, Ray will hurt the Liberals in Ontario (and they don't need to be any weaker here), and while Stephen Harper cannot call Michael Ignatieff on his support for the occupation of Iraq, Gilles Duceppe certainly can and will which will hurt the Liberals in Quebec.

Kennedy who was running food banks when Adscam happened is youngish (but not too young), energetic, charismatic and fluently bi-lingual. He has ties to most of Canada: He was born in The Pas, Manitoba but went to school at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. He ran the Edmonton food bank from 83-86 then moved to Toronto where he started and ran the Daily Bread food bank. While he is not a Francophone, his wife is Jeannette Arsenault-Kennedy is a day care professional and Acadian from Prince Edward Island. The Kennedy win is sad on the one hand because Peggy Nash (NDP) was a great MP and did nothing to deserve the loss, but Kennedy's win means the Liberals may have a chance at rebuilding.

The NDP: Ran a better campaign than the Liberals, but not a great one. They picked up some seats, but they primarily took these from the weakened Liberals, not the Conservatives or the Bloc. They did however win a seat in Alberta, which is probably the biggest coup of the election for the Center/Left.

The Greens: Ran a good campaign, even if it was shy on resources. Elizabeth May should have chosen a riding that was winnable. May clearly did the best of any of the candidates in the debate, unfortunately for her this seems to have translated into votes for the Liberals or NDP and not the Greens. The fact that the Greens got 6.8% of the vote and no seats shows, yet again, the urgent need for electoral reform in Canada.

The Bloc: Ran a great campaign and, if they would finally give up the separatist ghost could play a much more significant role in National politics. A merger between the Bloc and Liberals would be tough to beat in an election. A merger between the Bloc and NDP could conceivably form a government. There are many signs that Bloc voters are ready to abandon separatism, but so far no political party has been able to make the right appeal to lure them from the separatist party. It may be that only the Bloc itself can do that.

The Conservatives: Ran a weak campaign, but won by default. Low voter turnout certainly helped them, as did the fact that no other party was able to effectively show people an alternative. Ok, when I say no other party I mean the Liberals. The Greens showed people an alternative, but couldn't convince people that the Greens would wield any power. The NDP showed an alternative but couldn't convince people they were a realistic possibility for government. The Liberals simply spent most of the campaign on the defensive and were unable to persuade voters to bother leaving the house on voting day. Given all of that though the Conservatives showed a great weakness. There was no reason why they shouldn't win a majority, they failed because (given their current policies) they have reached their limits.

In the aftermath of this election, publicbroadcasting.ca will return to more arts and culture stuff, but will continue to be somewhat political. I am also moving so it will be quieter than usual for a bit. Do stay tuned though, details of the Unparty to come.

Thanksgiving: What Will Future Generation Be Thankful For?

For most people the election will be put on hold tomorrow as everyone sits down for Thanksgiving dinner. It is unlikely though that most dinner tables will totally avoid the taboo topic of politics. If yours drifts in this direction, take a poll around the table. Ask people what your children and grandchildren and great grand-children will be thankful for when they site around their Thanksgiving tables in the future.

Will they be thankful for a reduction in greenhouse gasses, cooler temperatures, clean air and clean water or will they be thankful for a 2 cent reduction in diesel fuel prices?

Will they be thankful for a strong national health care system or will they be thankful that 14 year olds are getting life sentences?

Will they be thankful for a stronger more diverse national economy, and revamped infrastructure or will they be thankful that corporate board rooms got a big tax cut?

Will they be thankful for a strong public education system and a chance for everyone to go to university or will they be thankful that the $100/month day care credit was adjusted for inflation?

Will they be thankful for a strong, vibrant Arts and Culture sector, for music and film and literature that talk about them and their lives and experiences or will they be thankful that they didn't get a PM with a French Accent?

Obviously the Conservatives represent one side of this equation and (while they may have differences on the details) the Liberals, NDP, Greens and even the Bloc (if you're in Quebec) agree about the other side.

This election is actually shaping up to be very, very close. According to CPAC/Nanos the numbers currently look like this:

Conservatives 32 (-1) Liberals 28 (+1) NDP 22 (no change) BQ 10 (no change) Green 8 (no change) 18 % of people remain undecided

I know that other polling firms are showing different things, but in the last election Nanos was pretty close to right on the money. The table below will show you their final polling numbers compared to the actual result.



The other thing to keep in mind is the 18% undecided. There is a gulf in ideology between the Conservatives and the other parties. If people were going to vote Conservative they'd vote Conservative. It's far more likely that they are contemplating which of the Center/Left parties to vote for (Liberal/NDP/Green etc).
Although I don't have actual nationwide numbers on this at this point this example from the Winnipeg Free Press shows what they have found locally.

"What's more, voters who remain undecided going into the campaign's final weekend -- about seven per cent -- are leaning heavily to the opposition parties. About 30 per cent are seriously considering the NDP, 25 per cent are leaning to the Liberals and 16 per cent to the Greens, compared to 26 per cent who are leaning Conservative."

So, by their numbers anyway 71% of the undecided are going to break to the left on voting day but, due to the divisions, if we are going to take out the Tories we need to be motivated, we need to get our friends and relatives and neighbors and co-workers motivated and we need to vote strategically. Check out Anyonebutharper.ca or voteforenvironment.ca for information on strategy.

You Have A Choice

Canada: Do The Right Thing

I pointed out yesterday that voting strategically is a win-win-win situation. Today, at least to an extent Elizabeth May has agreed with that assessment and I feel the need to expand a bit on what we gain this time through strategic voting. As I said yesterday, strategic voting means more seats for the NDP than they would otherwise have, it means at least 1 seat for the Greens which they would otherwise not have, and it means a Liberal minority government. With only 5 points (and a margin of error of about 3 points) separating the Conservatives from the Liberals this is do-able. I know that many people find strategic voting objectionable, but this is no time for that kind of sentiment. There is too much at stake and everyone in Canada, except the Conservative Party, would gain from it.

On the Environment: If you have grown up in the last 50 years you have heard that the environment is important. That we need to do something to protect it, reduce emissions, stop global warming ... but it has always been something we should do someday, eventually, in the next 10 years or 20 years. Well the time has come to do something, not someday but next Tuesday. Stephen Dion's carbon tax plan is actually modest by carbon tax standards, but it's a start. I know Mr. Layton prefers 'cap and trade' but environmentalists and economists almost universally support the carbon tax model to get the most benefit while doing the least harm. If you'd like a few examples - try Al Gore, Kenneth Green (of the American Enterprise Institute), David Suzuki, Elizabeth May and of course, as of yesterday, 230 of Canada's top economists.

I know people will say that the timing isn't right, what about the economy, etc. but if you'll notice the timing is never right to do something about the environment. If they economy is strong they say 'you'll sink the economy' when the economy is weak they say 'not right now, wait for the economy to improve.' The reality is we've already put this off for far too long, this is a revenue neutral plan which means that the average Canadian won't pay any more than they already do (they'll just pay in a different way) and many will actually save money. The time to do something about the environment is Tuesday.

Beyond the Environment, Mr. Dion has stated that the Liberals would
restore and increase arts and culture funding, boost higher education, provide funds for infrastructure improvement (helping Canadian cities and boosting the economy by creating jobs), provide funds to re-invigorate manufacturing, provide 1.2 billion to help farmers modernize and improve efficiency, and he has said he'd move quickly to insulate Canada as much as possible from the coming economic storm.

This may not be everything on the wish list of the NDP and the Greens but it's a pretty good list and far better than we'd get under Harper. The reality is that neither the NDP nor the Greens are going to form the next government (unless it's by coalition) The NDP (as of this morning) is 13 points behind, and the Greens are 20 points behind and no party has ever covered that kind of ground in 5 days. But the NDP and the Greens can both be in Parliament, with a larger number of seats, helping to craft legislation IF and only IF enough people do the responsible thing, vote strategically and get Stephen Harper and the Conservatives out of office, otherwise we do nothing on the environment (for who knows how long) and everything that I listed above is off the table.


Below is a Widget from anyonebutharper.ca to help you vote strategically. If you don't like this one have a look at voteforenvironment.ca and see what they have to say.

The End of Conservative Canada? Help Make it Happen

So far today a group of 80 Economists, and the National Post both attacked Harper's platform. Even Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach apparently doesn't think Harper's economic plan does enough.

"Alberta's Progressive Conservative premier wants to meet with his provincial counterparts to discuss the state of the Canadian economy, even though Stephen Harper called the same proposal by Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion "panicking."

Stelmach, although he still wants a Harper Majority, also openly criticized Harper's Nuclear Policy.

""Albertans will decide, not the federal government, if we have nuclear power in this province," the premier told reporters Tuesday. "No other jurisdiction other than Alberta.""

It would appear that everyone now knows which way the wind is blowing.

According to the latest Nanos Poll the numbers look like this:
Conservatives 34% Liberals 31% NDP 18% Bloc 11% Greens 6%

When split by region the Nanos poll says that Liberals continue to lead the Conservatives in Atlantic Canada, are ahead of the Conservatives 22 - 20 in Quebec (Bloc at 46%) and are now solidly ahead in Ontario 40-31% with the NDP at 22.

Harris-Decima largely agrees with the conclusions of Nanos although the numbers vary slightly Cons at 31% the Liberals at 27% and the NDP at 20%. Harris-Decima also agrees that the Liberals lead the Conservatives in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada. They also point out that the Liberals have pulled ahead of Conservatives among urban voters (representing 80% of Canada) and amoung urban women the Liberals enjoy a 9 point lead.

Although the hope, at the start of the election, was to prevent Harper from gaining a majority - if things continue the way they are currently going a Liberal minority is not out of the question, especially if people vote smart. Although there were cries today
against strategic voting, especially from the Greens, if it is done the right way strategic voting would actually help everyone.

According to Voteforenvironment.ca the seat projection at the beginning of the election looked like this: Conservative 141, Liberal 73, NDP 35, Green 0, Bloc 57, IND 2. However if we vote strategically things could look more like this: Concervatives 97 (-44 seats), Liberals 109 (+36 seats), NDP 46 (+11 seats), Greens 1 (+1), Bloc 53 (-4 sorry Bloc, it's the whole separatism thing), IND 2 (no change). So while the Greens and NDP could lose a little campaign cash they gain seats. If you feel bad about not voting for them donate $10-20 - they only get $1.82 per vote/per year in Federal funds so they would actually come out better financially (and the whole gaining seats thing).

Both Voteforenvironment.ca and Anyonebutharper.ca have easy tools to help you figure out who has the best chance of beating your local Conservative and Anyonebutharper.ca's widget is mobile, so you can take it and put it on your web site, blog, Myspace etc.

Strategic Voting Made Simple

Impression on Last Nights Debate

If you were watching the Canadian English Language Leaders Debate last night, good for you! If you were watching the Biden vs. Palin debate don't you feel ripped off? I mean the excuse that 'what happens in the US deeply affects us' doesn't really work. The US Vice President doesn't affect us very much and doesn't even affect the outcome of the US election very much. So people who watched Biden v. Palin really just wanted to see Palin crash and instead nothing happened, she didn't score, she didn't blow it. The Canadian Leaders debate on the other hand was really very good.

So, one at a time:

Stephen Harper came across as pretty vacuous. He defended the Conservatives but didn't really say what they wanted to do. He provided no excuse for the Conservatives not having a platform and didn't really talk about what they wanted to do. His general theme seemed to be 'everything is fine, we don't need to do anything.' Now if you've watched Stephen Harper over the years you know that the Conservatives want to do SOMETHING and the fact that they won't really say what it is or why they need a majority is just scary.

Stephen Dion was very clear on what he wanted to do. The sad fact is that if Stephen Dion didn't have such a strong French accent he would be running away with the election. His ideas are clear and reasonable. His math works, everything is paid for without raising taxes (shifting but not increasing). Sadly it would appear that racism is alive and well. In a bi-lingual country candidates are still at a disadvantage if they have a strong French accent to their English. (The exception being Jean Chretien who spoke neither official language).

Jack Layton had by far the best one liners of the debate. What you heard from Jack though was pretty much what you expected to hear from the NDP. Jack is, by all accounts a great guy, and a good leader unfortunately I think the NDP is stalled and only a new leader with a broader agenda and appeal will move the party forward.

Elizabeth May, what can I say about Elizabeth May? I've heard it several times today - 'the Greens are here to stay'. Obviously the Greens aren't going to break out and win this election. However I think they will continue to grow, they will continue to draw supporters from other parties (they seem to be a natural home for ex Progressive Conservatives who do not feel at home under the Alliance/CPC). The platform is fiscally responsible, environmentally friendly and socially progressive. To me May was the clear winner of both debates, but instead of winning the election she has won validation for her place at the table and a strong future for the Green Party.

Gilles Duceppe, had he not been a separatist might have made a good Prime Minister. He is always smart, articulate, well informed and has a platform that would resonate with alot of Canadians if he didn't claim it for Quebec only. Perhaps, some day, if the racism mentioned above dies down and Francophones are more at home in a broader Canada Duceppe and the Bloc will merge with another party and bring to all of Canada the good things they want for Quebec. You do not, after all, have to be separate from the other parties in order to look out for your particular province.

Dion Sides with Arts and Culture: Conservatives Plan more Damage

Stephen Dion said today that, if elected, a Liberal Government would reverse the damage done by Harper to the Arts and strengthen them more than ever before. Among Dion's promises

Doubling the budget of the Canada Council for the Arts to $360 million a year

Increasing the film production tax credit to 30 per cent from 25 per cent

Reversing the Conservatives' $45 million in cuts to the budgets of various arts groups.

Dion also pointed to a fundraising letter send out by the Conservatives that asks the question "The CBC costs taxpayers over $1.1 billion per year. Do you think this is a good use of taxpayers' dollars or a bad use of taxpayers' dollars?" This doesn't obviously bode well for the CBC or for the Conservatives future plans for Arts and Culture.

Contrasting Dion and Harper

However it comes out this is turning out to be a great election to analyze. As a thinking person it is becoming more impossible by the day to support the conservatives. Yesterday while listening to CBC Radio I heard from the Liberals and the Conservatives. It was on one of those breaks where they allow the parties a little air time.

For the Liberals Stephen Dion talked for the full time alloted about his environmental record and the liberals Carbon tax plan. It was interesting, informative and well thought out.

Then the Conservatives came on and it became clear that they don't even care about smart people. They want dumb people and/or scared people. They used their time to play 30 second ads, one of them they played twice (just for repetition value). Each of the Ads featured comments from 'voters'. The comments all basically said the same thing 'Dion bad', 'more taxes', 'doesn't seem like a leader to me' and all of them ended with the same conclusion 'not worth the risk'. The ads were so repetitive that they almost turned into a chant "not a leader, not worth the risk". There was no substance, no real arguments (just insults), no analysis, nothing to counter Dion's plan.

As an aside, the reality of Dion's plan is that it will probably not raise your taxes. The idea behind the carbon tax is to shift from income tax to consumption tax. There is a nice quick outline of what such a plan might look like on the Green Party's website http://www.greenparty.ca/en/background/06.06.2007b. So your income tax would go down and then carbon tax would be added to various products depending on the pollution required to produce them. So if you live even a semi-green lifestyle your overall taxes go down. How much you pay in taxes depends on the decisions you make - if you buy recyclable or recycled products your taxes go down, if you take public transit or carpool your taxes go down, if you walk or ride a bike sometimes you taxes go down, if you buy a more fuel efficient car or energy efficient appliances for your home your taxes go down etc., The basic idea here is that it would encourage people to use products that pollute less, and use less of products that pollute. So according to the calculator on the LIberal website my family's taxes would go down by about $1500 a year. All I can say is, check out the actual plan and find out what it means for you before you start chanting with the Harperites.

Now, back to the topic at hand, Harper's mantra for this election is 'not a leader, not worth the risk'. But both of these things can easily be said about Harper. Shortly after Mr. Dion became the leader of the Liberals the Conservatives ran an ad with Dion saying 'It's not easy to set priorities' or something like that, but Mr. Dion has, in fact, made his priorities clear so far they include, first and foremost the environment, but also aid for farmers, assitance in gaining and maintaining manufacturing jobs, repairing crumbling infrastructure across Canada, help for those in poverty and higher education, improved child care assistance and helping Canadian cities. Pretty good priorities I think.

On the other hand, what are Mr. Harper's priorities? He hasn't really said. Sure he's pledged small sums of money here and there, but not enough to really solve anything. His plan seems to be primarily to bash Dion without committing to anything himself. He has essentially offered no plan on the environment, no plan for cities, no plan for farmers or manufacturing jobs. He has not said whether or not, if McCain is elected in the U.S., if he will follow McCain into Iran. Perhaps this is because he has been too busy apologizing for things his team has done and playing down new scandals.

But Harper's past record certainly does not recommend him for the job for which he is reapplying. His record on the environment is intolerable, he has not run an honest, transparent government but a secretive, dishonest and corrupt one, he has openly attacked Canadian arts and culture and his record on the economy is, by any reasonable standard, weak outside Alberta. The corporate tax cuts he's so proud of have not created any jobs, and the 2 cent reduction in the GST has helped the average family very little.

The truth is we live in sad times. We have one Candidate who doesn't come across well on television but has good policy positions on things Canadians care about and we have one candidate who looks good on TV but doesn't really care about the average Canadian or Canada's future (unless we're talking about oil futures) and the guy who looks good on TV is winning.

So, here are a few alternate takes on Dion and Harper

Stephen Dion







Stephen Harper

Vote Swap Group Investigated By Elections Canada

According to the CBC Elections Canada is now investigating the Facebook Group Anti-Harper Vote Swap Canada.

"Chief electoral officer Marc Mayrand said Friday that Elections Canada is looking into the scheme.
In an interview with Canadian Press, Mayrand said it may be nothing more than "organized strategic voting," but it could also fall afoul of a law prohibiting people from selling votes or accepting bribes for them."

To me this smacks of another Conservative blunder. Surely only the conservatives could have called for this investigation, since they have no one to swap votes with and are the only one with anything to lost. However, by calling attention to the group they have provided publicity for it and increased it's numbers.

As for the investigation itself there is absolutely no way that they can find any wrongdoing. There is no money changing hands, and this can hardly be construed as a 'bribe'. The people in this group are doing nothing that politicians across Canada and around the world don't do on a regular basis.

When politicians swap votes it is generally for something larger: They agree to vote for a bill in exchange for a vote on a different bill, they agree to support a bill if it includes an amendment that benefits them or their constituents, they agree to support a candidate in exchange for some reward down the road if that candidate is successful. This is simply how the game of politics is played.

The individuals looking to swap votes aren't getting anything nearly as grand in their deals. They are not getting funds set aside for their riding. They are not getting a cabinet post or coveted ambassadorship. They are not gaining favor with a powerful party insider. They are simply doing their best to make the small amount of democratic power afforded to each citizen stretch a little farther.

If Canada had a different system - if it was proportional, or if there were runoffs, or anything beyond first past the post the vote swapping wouldn't be necessary and wouldn't work. However, the fact that these people are alert, informed and engaged and are showing a little ingenuity in expanding their democratic rights is no reason for elections Canada to do anything except perhaps applaud them.

Vote-Swap: Vote Your Conscience AND Vote to Win

Many Canadians are faced with a dilemma: They don't like Stephen Harper but who do they vote for? The candidate they like the best or the candidate with the best chance to win? Well now you can have your cake and eat it too. A new Facebook group called Anti-Harper Vote Swap Canada will allow you to trade your vote with someone in another riding. So if you're in a riding where the Liberals and Conservatives are neck and neck and you want to vote NDP you can trade your vote with a Liberal in a different riding where the NDP and the Conservatives are neck and neck. The end result? Ideally it means the Liberals pick up a seat, and the NDP picks up a seat and the Conservatives lose two seats (with both parties gaining a seat on the Tories). Or in the words of the groups founder, Mat Savelli:

"The concept of the vote swap is simple: in a completely legal fashion, it allows voters in different ridings to swap votes to best ensure the Conservatives don't win. Let's say your preferred candidate has no chance to win your riding. You can swap that vote out with someone else in the group so that you can vote for the party that has the best chance to stop the Conservatives from winning the seat. This allows you to vote for your party of preference (and thus keep smaller parties alive) while doing your best to keep the Tories out of power."

Time to Unite Against Stephen Harper

In his speech at the Democratic convention Barack Obama laid out plainly the choices before Americans, pointing out the failure of George Bush neo-con policies on almost every front. Canadians will soon have a similar choice to make. Stephen Harper is, perhaps more than Bush himself, a George Bush style neo-conservative. Harper's policies are essentially the same as those of George Bush even when those policies benefit the US and harm Canada.

Since taking over as Prime Minister Stephen Harper has waged a non-stop attack on Canada and everything Canadians value. He has repeatedly assaulted Canada's natural environment right down to allowing Canadian lakes to be used as toxic dump sites at no cost to polluters.

Although he promised open accountable government, Harper has lead one of the most secretive, authoritarian governments in Canadian history.

And while he was elected in part due to corruption on the part of the Liberals, Harper has lead one of the most deeply corrupt governments in recent memory. From the in-out scheme to the Cadman affair and beyond.

He has waged a relentless assault on the arts from attempts to kill the Canadian film industry, to a copyright bill that is good for big media companies but bad for artists and that would make most Canadians into criminals to his rejection of a Heritage Committee recommendation that would have strengthened and improved the CBC and most recently his cuts to export subsidies for the arts.

He has been no friend to Canadian cities, he has bungled the economy (one of the few areas the Tories are supposed to be good at) and may soon take us back into deficits.

He reneged on his promise not to tax income trusts, costing many small investors - including retirees small fortunes, because Harper had promised not to tax these trusts many were buying them until days before his announcement.

Finally he has done considerable damage to Canada's reputation abroad. From refusing to attend the world aids conference to insulting the Chinese people (and Canadian athletes) by his absence from the opening ceremonies. His administration has interfered in foreign elections by leaking private information and left classified documents with girlfriends. The have also damaged Canada's reputation as a refuge from wars and war crimes by deporting asylum seekers.

In short Stephen Harper's government has been inept, corrupt, incompetent, immoral and staunchly anti-Canadain on almost every important issue. So, like the Americans, Canadians have a choice to make between the failed policies of the Bush Administration (echoed by Harper) and a reversal of that course.

Stephen Harper and his Tories have never enjoyed more than about 35% support in Canada, yet they manage to cling to power. If they truly care about Canada it is time for the Liberal Party and the New Democratic Party to put aside their differences, focus on areas of common ground and at least temporarily come together in Coalition.

If the next election results in anything less than a majority parliament, Stephen Dion, Jack Layton and their parties should make it clear to Stephen Harper and the Governor General that they will act in concert and prevent the Harper Neo-Con agenda from going any further, that they can and will form a coalition Government and will block any further legislation by Stephen Harper until given a chance to do so.

To this end I have created a Facebook Group to act as a kind of petition in and of itself. While everyone is certainly welcome and encouraged to use the group to share information and ideas, and everyone is also encouraged to write to the Jack Layton and Stephen Dion and tell them to get over their squabbling and get Canada back on track - just joining the group will send a signal to everyone involved.

Please join at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=29529380865 and invite your friends, family and co-workers to do the same!

Conservative War on the Arts Continues

Last week Stephen Harper's Tories were heavily critisized for cutting the 4.6 million dollar travel assistance program for artists. This program was something of a cultural ambassadorship program, providing funds to allow Canadian artists to travel abroad to share their talents with the world.

Today the George Bush fan club was at it again axing a program that helped, among others, documentary and music producers market their products overseas. While rumors persist of a fall election and it now appears that the Liberals would win it convincingly. It remains to be seen if Stephen Dion would have the intestinal fortitude to reverse the damage (or even stand next to Harper on an elevator).

War Resisters, Stephen Harper and Gerard Kennedy

So it's come to this. US Military deserter Robin Long has been deported.

"Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority Conservative government has ignored a nonbinding motion passed by opposition parties in the House of Commons last month that would have allowed the Iraq deserters to stay."

This coming right on the heels of evidence of the torture of a Canadian teenager at Guantanamo bay. It is appallingly clear and has been for some time that Canada has an anti-Canadian Prime Minister.

Mr. Harper is staunchly pro-Bush, even on issues of war crimes, torture and child abuse. He is pro-Bush even when it hurts Canada and Canadians. He is absolutely anti-enviroment, he is against art and free speech but strongly supports censorship and government secrecy. As I said though, we already knew all of this. The thing is Harper would no longer be in power if the Liberals hadn't completely bungled their leadership election. Even with that, you cannot blame Stephen Dion for not being a leader. True he should, at this point, step down for the good of the country but his lack of charisma is not his fault.

The person, other than Harper, who is most to blame for the current situation is Gerard Kennedy. It pains me to say that. I supported Mr. Kennedy when he was the MPP for my riding. I supported him in the Liberal Leadership race. He seemed like the ideal candidate. Young and charismatic and full of ideas and optimism. He also had none of the negatives of Mr. Rae and Mr. Ignatieff.

Originally from Mantioba, Mr. Kennedy was creating food banks in Alberta when the sponsorship crisis happened and so cannot be tied to it. His wife is from Quebec and so Quebec wouldn't have to worry about being forgotten about and Mr. Kennedy currently lives in Toronto (and Ottawa) - so, with the exception of the Maritimes, Kennedy has the entire country covered - Quebec and Ontario, the Prairies and the West.

I honestly thought Mr. Kennedy would be the new leader of the Liberals, but he did worse than lose - When his chance came to be kingmaker, to shift his support to a candidate and effectively decide the outcome, Kennedy Supported Dion.

I cannot help but think, and I thought this at the time, that someone as politically astute as Kennedy knew what would happen with Dion in power. He must have known that Dion was the weakest and least charismatic of the three candidates and, although I cannot prove it and cannot read minds I suspect that Kennedy was hoping for a short leadership stint from Mr. Dion and another chance to run himself.

Whatever his reasoning or motivation it was this decision by Kennedy that has kept Stephen Harper in power for so long, and because of this demonstration of poor judgement, and because my current MP Peggy Nash has been on the right side of every issue I am concerned about I have decided to support her and the NDP in the next election against Gerard Kennedy.

Harper Wants an Election on Right to Censor

Amazingly, Stephen Harper's Tories want to fight an election on a pro-censorship platform.

"Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is declaring film tax-credit legislation a matter of confidence in the Conservative government, meaning MPs could land on Canadian doorsteps this spring to debate the line between art and pornography.
Mr. Flaherty said the legislation, known as Bill C-10, contains a range of important tax measures and changes will not be tolerated."

For those of you who don't know, Bill C-10 would allow a government appointed bureaucrat to censor films and television shows after they are made and, if they are deemed "offensive" in the personal opinion of that bureaucrat their funding would be pulled after the fact. This would have the effect of essentially ending the Canadian film and television industry. Very few people will be willing to invest in a production if part of the funding can be pulled after the fact because a bureaucrat didn't like it.
Interestingly C-10 would only apply to Canadian productions. American and other foreign films would still receive tax credits for shooting in Canada.
It is not really that surprising coming from this Government. Harper's (us Republican style tories - not to be confused with traditional Canadian conservatives) have, to date:

Placed a gag order on government scientists.

Tried to force through a anti-consumer, anti-artist US style copyright law.

Tried to launch his own media center - which would have allowed him to control what images, video, sound and text were available to reporters, as well as which reporters and news organizations got any access at all.

Has continually avoided, hidden from and blocked reporters trying to inform Canadians about our government.

Has placed gag orders on the Canadian Military as well as those within Government who are concerned about Global Warming and finally his own MPs and Cabinet ministers.

Now he would like to fight an election over his desire to sensor and if possible kill Canadian film and television.
The time has come for Stephen Dion and company to step up, or step down. Stephen Harper is not a fit prime minister. He would be more at home as a third world dictator, or perhaps in the Chinese government. If Mr. Dion and his liberals sit on their hands in this vote I will not even consider giving them a vote in the next election (whenever it comes). I like the Liberal (Gerard Kennedy) who will run in my riding, but I won't support a party that buries it's head in the sand and allows a direct attack on Canadian film and television. If they, once again, decide to abstain they will have to replace Stephen Dion before I will even consider them again.

The Stephen Harper Tax (SHT)

For almost a year now the mayors of Canada's municipalities, lead by Toronto Mayor David Miller have asked the federal government to devote one cent of the GST to Canadas cities. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has staunchly ignored the request and electing Stephen Dion won't help.

Since this call first went out though Stephen Harper has indicated that the federal government does not need all of the GST, cutting it by 2 cents in 2 years. I don't know about any of you, but the 2 cent GST cut has affected me not at all. I don't remember, at any point, looking at a receipt and saying 'thank god for that GST cut.'

So perhaps all we need is to rearrange the tax. I suggest that the provinces put in place a new 2% tax on goods and services. It would act as a local sales tax - with proceeds staying in the city, town, village or rural area where the purchase was made. It would then be up to local officials to decide how to spend the money.

It was estimated when the one cent campaign was launched that getting one cent would raise $400 million for Toronto and 5 billion for municipalities across Canada. So, the two cent tax would be roughly double that.

If the Federal Government doesn't need it, and no one has noticed the cut I think it would be an excellent way to get the 'one cent for cities' without federal support. No one likes to introduce a 'new tax' but this isn't really a new tax. It is an old tax reapplied to solve problems that the federal government has abdicated. Just to drive the point home I would suggest that it be permanently labeled the SHT or Stephen Harper Tax.