George Stromboulopoulos, hipster host of CBC's The Hour gets the last word:
"My favourite thing about being a Canadian is that I don't have to think about it."
"It's arrogance. It's a sense of entitlement. A lot of people in the environmental movement, and in government, are so convinced that they're smarter than everybody else, a certain amount of behaviour just comes from that."
Ontario Environment Minister Laurel Broten says the former U.S. vice-president's film will inspire students to “reduce their environment impact.”
Tides Canada Foundation director Tim Draimin says the film helps viewers think about the long-term implications of lifestyles.
...Perhaps my decoder ring is not working as well as Lawrence's (Martin), but I don't see any U-turns in this. What I see, rather, is a J-turn. It's straight out of Jean Chretien's playbook. You run into too much resistance with a given policy thrust, you take a couple of steps back. Lacking a flashpoint, the issue subsides, your opponents relax their guard -- only to see it come crashing back months or even years later, when the time is right...
...There's another sense in which it is a good thing to seek "consensus" from the opposition. Read the last part of the Prime Minister's remarks: "I don't want to send people into a mission if the opposition is going to, at home, undercut the dangerous work that they are doing in the field." Translated: that's exactly what's happening now.
The Taliban read the Western press. They are looking for the weak link in the NATO chain, and having found it, they will exploit it -- by killing as many soldiers from that country as they can. If critics of the war should not be accused of supporting the Taliban, neither should critics of the critics be accused of suppressing debate if they point out that there are consequences to their fecklessness. The Prime Minister has invited them to grow up. They should accept.
Ottawa's latest attempt to do right by Canadian natives involves the creation of a specific claims tribunal to clean up the huge backlog of land claims. Rather than leaving the final settlement process to politicians, the tribunal will create a more court-like arrangement. Final decisions are to be made by impartial judges. It is a welcome proposal. But setting up a conventional arbitration-style process to settle treaty claims will require a business-like approach from both sides.
Anyone familiar with labour arbitration understands that giving judges the power to impose settlements typically means saw-offs for both parties. The two sides often get about half of what they asked for as deals are cut down the middle. If this is the case with the new tribunal, it will require a major attitude adjustment on the part of Canada's native communities. Because from what we have seen and heard to date, the most vocal of Canada's natives have little interest in giving up anything other than their threats to wreak havoc.
If Canada's natives decide to focus exclusively on past injustices, ignore good faith efforts by Canadian governments and refuse to accept honest compromises in current negotiations, the rest of the country may well decide there is no point to negotiating at all.
"Hard-core Liberals were impressed with Mr. Harper's speech. The PM had about an hour's notice and spent most of QP scrambling to write it - an aide to Mr. Graham, who normally thinks of Mr. Harper as the devil, said he was stunned at his "gracious and charming" address.
"...had the McGuinty government not initially tried to sell the new health levy as a "premium" rather than a tax, the union might not have won its case."
"That really hurt the TTC," Mr. Giambrone said. "If the government had been clear that this was a tax, we would likely not be in the same position."
"...I mean, I haven’t seen any of the Liberal bloggers obsessing this much over Emerson or Khan’s defections; what blogging there was of them has long ago ceased, and in both their cases, they jumped straight to the Conservatives, unlike Garth who sat as an independent first and THEN became a Liberal..."
In their planning sessions, community workers refer solemnly to “boundary issues” that impede program delivery. When the police hold consultations with youth, they have meetings in each distinct area to prevent rival gangs from mingling.
It's as though the kids have redrawn the neighbourhood map and forced the adults to adapt. As a result, the teens from Palisades, who often complain of having nothing to do, don't use the well-equipped community centre that's a block away in Crips territory.
True, there are ways to tell the police what you know anonymously, but are you willing to bet your life, or your spouse's life, on them? Has there never been an instance where information that was supposed to be confidential somehow got out?
Dion said in 2004 there was no fiscal imbalance but in 2006 (May 5 -- Mike Duffy Live) he said that "we need to have a clause of this kind that gives a safety net to Ontario." Is that clear? Doesn't sound like it.
"I think you'll find that senators from Nova Scotia, such as myself, from Newfoundland and Labrador, and probably from Saskatchewan, will all vote against it and I don't think we'll be alone," Mercer said.
"If we care to mount a full-fledged campaign with our colleagues, I think we can defeat this bill."
"In my view, based on past experience, the likelihood is high that the budget implementation bill, notwithstanding its many failings, will pass in the Senate following a thorough examination," she said.
Dion said in the release that the Senate has a "responsibility to conduct a thorough review" of the budget bill.
"I am confident that in the spirit of sober second thought that characterizes the Senate, honourable senators on both sides of the aisle will undertake that review in a measured and professional fashion," he said.
The release seemed worded to avoid suggesting that Dion is telling the senators how to vote.
"We have succeeded to make sure thatMichael'sthe government's plan would fail."
Much of the violence involves black people killing each other -- which the left claims is racist to mention and the right claims nobody ever mentions ... every time they mention it.
And does anyone know why Ottawa brings so many people into Canada who can't speak English, provides almost no help to teach them, and then wonders why some turn to crime? Gee, hard to see that one coming, eh?
Finally, black men who father babies and abandon the mothers increase the chances their male sons will become gangsters, and black women who have these children, knowing the man won't be around, do themselves, their child and society no favours.
But according to our lib/left politicians (mayor, premier, etc.) we shouldn't discuss that.
So far, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan, as the aggrieved provinces in the equalization dispute, have had the centre stage to themselves.
That could change in a rearguard Senate battle against the budget.
Seven provinces – accounting for more than 90 per cent of the population – are relatively satisfied with the new way the federal government proposes to redistribute its revenues among them.
Some have already factored the changes into their plans.
By virtue of the government's minority status, Harper's budget has already had to secure sufficient opposition support to have it adopted in the House. So, it's at the will of the Commons rather than just at a soft Conservative target that Liberals senators are currently rattling their wooden sabres. They court a boomerang effect.
With his differences with his senators already public, a blockade in the Upper House could do more damage to Dion's credibility than to the battered budget itself.
...the Senate will not be rushed and dismissed the Harper government's contention that more than $4 billion in funding for things like climate change, patient wait times and post-secondary education will be lost if the bill isn't enacted by the end of the month.
"I've been told by others that this is totally false, the money will not be lost," she said.
The news will have been greeted with some nervousness by Liberal leader Stephane Dion. If the budget is not passed by month's end, the government says $4-billion intended for program spending will not go out the door as planned and he will get the blame.
...But why is it the first instinct of most liberal-left politicians to go after the property of law-abiding citizens when the problem is so obviously the actions of criminals? Confiscating the former will have no impact on the latter..
...Rather than holding the United States up as a bogeyman, Mr. McGuinty and his ministers might want to look at what American authorities are doing well and apply it to the growing crime and violence problem in their own backyard...
...NDP leader Jack Layton, too, railed "We don't want to be hearing more about young people losing their lives to guns in our cities. So let's call on governments to pass the laws to stop the guns from coming across the borders."
But, Mr. Layton, gun smuggling is already illegal. Guns are crossing our borders because criminals are prepared to pay a premium for the tools of their trade, not because of some loophole in the criminal code....
...If Messrs. McGuinty and Layton really want to reduce handgun deaths in Canada, the Premier will pressure his Liberal cousins in Parliament to support the Tories' crime bills, which raise sentences for violent offences. And Mr. Layton will get back to Ottawa and encourage his caucus to do the same.
Liberal senators, who hold a majority, say they might even take up MacDonald's call to defeat the budget.
"If Mr. Harper wants this budget, Mr. Harper is going to have to change this budget," said Liberal Sen. Terry Mercer of Nova Scotia.
Having the Senate vote down the budget would be a vote of non-confidence in the government and an election could result.
"It would be totally irresponsible and it would be unprecedented for the unelected Senate to defeat a budget bill," said Conservative Sen. Marjory LeBreton, the party's house leader.
Shikwati: If they really want to fight poverty, they should completely halt development aid and give Africa the opportunity to ensure its own survival. Currently, Africa is like a child that immediately cries for its babysitter when something goes wrong. Africa should stand on its own two feet.
"Suppose you are an employee in a company and you achieve a bonus from your boss. You take that bonus and put all of it against your mortgage. Two years later the company is doing better so the boss gives everyone a raise. But he gives you a choice between your old salary with the bonus you got two years ago or the raise. But the catch is that if you take the raise you have to pay back the bonus you got. Is that fair?"
Accosted by reporters, he scurried away like a cockroach when the lights go on.
"Mom, Mom, Mom." Hilton was also heard saying "It's not right."
"Everybody says they want to give backbenchers more power, especially everybody in opposition. Astoundingly, someone actually did it. In November 1998, the standing orders were changed so that private members' bills, unlike government bills, no longer die if Parliament is prorogued. They stay right where they are."
I didn't know that. I certainly should have, given what I do for a living. My friend, who does not seek the limelight so I name no names, saved me from much worse embarrassment by spotting the error.
But what is the excuse of Mr. Fontaine, Mr. Barr and Mr. Suzuki? I do not normally find myself in solidarity with them, but I try to be fair about public matters, and when I thought they were morally right I was prepared to deliver myself of a strongly worded opinion to that effect. Instead, I find that they were factually wrong.
They said proroguing would necessarily mean that these bills would either be lost or badly delayed, and that's not true.
On which grounds the inability of the Tories to stop bills C-288, C-292 and C-293 raises serious questions about whether they really are "the government." I think it is wrong for the Tories to cling to the shadow of power without its substance, and equally wrong for the Liberals, NDP and Bloc to seek the fun of legislating without accepting the responsibilities of governing.
The leading industrialised nations (G8) aim to at least halve global CO2 emissions by 2050. The Heads of State and Government agreed at Heiligendamm to achieve this goal together as part of a UN process. The big emerging economies are also to be incorporated in the process.
The German Chancellor and G8 President was convinced and visibly pleased that this was "the most important decision for the coming two years." Many participants had moved their positions quite considerably. The agreement that binding goals on reducing emissions were necessary was "an important signal", said Angela Merkel.
The resolutions adopted by the EU, Japan and Canada form the basis of the agreement reached on climate protection at Heiligendamm. The approach suggested by the United States was added to this, namely of incorporating the biggest greenhouse gas emitters outside the United States, especially China and India.
"We committed to targets without thinking those targets through 10 years ago and then we were unable to reach them," he said.
"When others [G8 leaders] say we want a full discussion before we determine what reasonable targets are, I think that's something we have to be flexible on."
By Mr. Martin's own admission, a little practice would not be amiss. While he lists golf as his favourite sport to play, he said through an aide yesterday that his handicap is "21 and getting worse."
Mr. Martin, who resigned as Liberal leader following the party's 2006 election defeat but remains MP for the Montreal riding of LaSalle-Emard, will enter illustrious company once his course is ready, expected to be next summer.
Mr. Martin's former boss at Power Corp., Paul Desmarais, recently built a complete golf course on his property in Quebec's Charlevoix region. Tim Hortons' co-founder Ron Joyce built himself an 18-hole course along the Northumberland Strait in Nova Scotia.
The budget for Mr. Martin's project is not known, but golf architects say building a single hole can cost $100,000.
That's how the 38th Parliament ends, then.
Not with a bang, but a wimp-out. Funny, isn't it, that when politicians want to hike their pay by 25%, they are happy to work an extra few days -- as they did just before Christmas. But when they're under fire in the Legislature over scandal upon scandal and there's an election round the corner, they cut and run like scared rabbits...
...They left by the back door -- leaving on the order table scores of private member's bills. It is painfully obvious why Premier Dalton McGuinty and his Liberals took the coward's way out of this particular session.
The last two months have been the most damaging in the almost four years the Liberals have been in power. First, they were battered over the lottery scandal. Then they were bruised by the so-called Colle-gate scandal, where Citizenship Minister Mike Colle was on his feet every day in the House explaining how millions of dollars in grants to ethnic community groups went out the door with no accountability and no follow-up as to how the money was spent.
...McGuinty cut the Legislature short because he's "desperate" to avoid criticism over thousands of lost manufacturing jobs as the Canadian dollar continues rising, and over Citizenship and Immigration Minister Mike Colle's scheduled appearance before a legislative committee, where he would have faced tough questions over the so-called "slush fund" scandal.
Citizenship and Immigration Minister Mike Colle was to appear before the standing committee on estimates today.
With the legislature shutting down, Mr. Colle will no longer have to answer for the "slush fund" he has been running out of his ministry, said Progressive Conservative House Leader Bob Runciman. "It's clear that that's the real reason Dalton McGuinty is running out the door."
New Democratic Party Leader Howard Hampton said the McGuinty government decided to "cut and run" because it is "desperate" to avoid having Mr. Colle answer questions about the grants handed out by his ministry.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty promised yesterday that he would not raise taxes if he is re-elected this fall and insisted he means it this time. -- National Post, June 4.
You really can't do anything with this. Satire is impossible. The one thing one felt could be said with certainty in this universe is that, having issued more than 200 promises in the last election and broken nearly as many, the last thing Mr. McGuinty would do this time out is make any promises --least of all on taxes, the ne plus ultra of McGuinty whoppers...
Indeed, everyone knew Ontario was headed for a deficit in 2003, and a large one. The Fraser Institute issued a report, mid-campaign, predicting the deficit was on course to hit $4.5-billion. At the time, Mr. McGuinty would not say precisely how he would adjust his plans in that event, other than to suggest he might delay some of his spending proposals. But there would be no tax increase: on that he was clear.
At a pre-summit get-together with Stephen Harper on Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in the politest terms possible, told our Prime Minister that his goal to reduce Canadian emissions by 60%-70% by 2050, using 2006 as a base year, was good, but not good enough. Germany and the EU backed a reduction of 60%-80% by mid-century using the lower benchmark of 1990 as starting point. (In order to match Germany's and the EU's proposed cuts, Canada would have to reduce its emissions by 80%-85% from current levels, rather than the 60%-70% proposed by the Harper government.)
These numbers, though, (ours as well as theirs) are completely meaningless. They are politically driven one-upmanship: We care more 'cause we can promise to cut more.
The EU as a whole might also slip in under the wire for its Kyoto targets, not because its industry is growing greener all the time, but because it has expanded its membership this decade to include a lot of old Eastern Bloc countries that, like East Germany, have shuttered all sorts of ancient, dirty plants since 1990. The entire EU gets to claim credits for the CO2 those plants have not generated since.
In other words, the bankruptcy of state planning might help Europe meet its Kyoto targets, not European moral superiority or greater concern for the environment.
..Nice, sensitive Europeans, therefore, while everyone else is unimaginative, narrow-minded, greedy.
If you believe all of that, you should take up counting flying pigs for a hobby.
Thus, if the Europeans are really so worked up about global warming, how come they signed an "Open Skies" agreement with the United States that, by increasing the number of transatlantic flights, will dump another 3.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year?
The Europeans do care about fighting global warming. A major reason, though, is that they will come out of the fight as winners.
The EU itself desperately needs some grand self-justifying cause after having had its proposed new constitution rejected by its own citizens.
Also, the trade bloc's new Eastern European members, all upgrading their old, energy-guzzling, Soviet-style industries, can easily make a lot of money out of Kyoto's carbon credits market...
