Do as we say; not as we do.

Is it fair to expect members of the Kyoto Kult to practise what they preach?

In today's National Post, Kevin Libin uncovers a scathing exposé of hypocritical actions by so-called environmentalists and green advocates- Emissions omissions.

He cites the Kyoto high priests themselves, Suzuki and Gore, whom we all already know emit more hot air when giving speeches than most ordinary Canadians do in a lifetime.

But he also hones in on Liberal Environment critic David McGuinty, of the Flying McGuinty Brothers. (Great blog there, BTW)

Libin provides a stinging list of David's environmental sins acquired by access to information. Just check out McGuinty's carbon footprint! You'll be blown away by the greenhouse gases.

Anyway, as we all know brother Dalton is having his own problems - especially lately with news leaking out of his own Environment Minister Laurel Broten's unpopular plans to build a huge two-story garage to accommodate "one of their four vehicles, baby gear and bikes." Neighbours are not happy due to the threat to a large nearby tree and the perceived visual impact of such a monstrosity.

Then there is the matter of those fours vehicles, which Broten defends as something her husband is entitled to, after having become a "mining town boy made good".

Ah, so if you achieve some financial success in your life, you're allowed to drive a bunch of fancy cars. Or maybe they're just saving them for the boys, who should be ready to drive in around 15 years or so...

Anyway, back to the Post article. An actual Doomsday Believer is frustrated with these high-profile, so-called green advocates who make convenient exceptions for themselves:

"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."

What do you think? Do you feel it's acceptable for these environmental saviours to preach one thing but do another?

If you're rich enough to purchase carbon credits to offset your lifestyle, does that seem fair to others that are being asked to make huge personal sacrifices with cutting back on the A/C in the summer, shivering in the winter, letting their lawns go brown and taking the bus to work?

Or are such questions considered to be an act of heresy?

Puffery exposed

Ontario Government - World class smokescreen.

H/T National Newswatch.


Meanwhile, the Ontario Environment Minister is busy planning her four-car garage. Well, she's gotta spend that raise somewhere...

Update:

Oh here's a good one - Ontario schools to receive Gore's ‘Truth':

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.

Could someone please drop off a copy to Laurel? Perhaps she could play it for the kids when driving around in one of those four vehicles. I'm sure one has a DVD player.

* * * *

Thursday Update: Blizzard - Marin: A Rottweiler who needs to be unleashed. (H/T Bourque)

Liberal cover-up?

Joel-Denis Bellevance relates a story in La Presse that suggests that the former Liberal government was keenly aware of warnings of torture in Afghanistan (H/T National Newswatch).

This is a translated version of the article, so it reads the way Stephane Dion speaks English, and is therefore somewhat difficult to follow, but well worth the effort.

Bellevance makes the point that the present government is surely to blame for a lot of confusion this week, but the Liberals may not have been lily-white in the affair themselves.

* * * *

Et en français: (Bourque) - Torture en Afghanistan: les libéraux savaient.

SDA: Michael Ignatieff - Call Your Office.

And here's your weekend quiz courtesy of ChuckerCanuk: Am I a Liberal..?

Thou Shalt Not Besmirch the Grits...

...anyone one else is fair game.

Today's National Post Editorial (Dear Stephane: Be a Man), highlights Stephane Dion's outraged hysteria over the Prime Minister daring to suggest that "the opposition seems to care more about the rights of Taliban detainees than the safety of our troops in Kandahar".

So Steffi then called Stephane Harper a 'bully'. The Post then goes on to outline other instances when the Liberals did their own 'bullying':

Since last fall, the Liberals have labelled Mr. Harper a Neanderthal over his government's cuts to the Status of Women Canada budget; implied he is racist for axing the $5-billion Kelowna agreement on native funding; claimed he is anti-democratic for "stacking" the committees that advise on judicial nominees; accused him of "undermining our Canadian values system" by eliminating funding to the left-leaning Court Challenges Program; and suggested he was homophobic for reviving the debate on same-sex marriage. They have called him a "control freak," "Bush-lite," "deceitful" and a practitioner of "Republican voodoo economics."

I might add to that that the Prime Minister of Canada has even been called a "Political Whore" by a sitting Liberal MP; albeit not in the House itself. I even asked Garth if he was planning to apologize. His response was:

Of course he (Harper) completely prostituted his Reform principles. That’s fact, not character assassination. He executed himself. — Garth

So, I suppose if the accuser believes the statement to be true, then no apology is required.


And yet, we now have Post columnist Jonathan Kay, the National Post itself, and others being served libel notices over Kay's piece about alleged Liberal backroom deals. Jonathan defended his position in the Post's Full Comment blog back on Feb. 28.

This morning I asked Mr. Kay if he was planning to comment about this latest development, but he replied that he has "been advised not to make any statement". However, he did thank me for my note.


The Big Red Liberal Machine is worried, folks. They are demoralized by their glaring mistake in electing a 'whimp' as a leader and by polls showing rising support for the CPC.


- And just like a cornered animal, the LPC is lashing out in anger and fear.

* * * *

Update: More at Backseat Blogger.
Halls of Macadamia - More CTV Bias (The Liberal MSM is getting a bit freaked out too).

The Stephen Taylor has a great post - The Code of the Centre Block Schoolyard.

And Jack has an awesome rant tonight! - "Wimpy Little Guy, isn't he?".

It's called "The Weather", Stupid!

I am emerging from my self-imposed 'reading retreat' because I just couldn't let this pass.

Apparently there were rallies in major cities across Canada yesterday, calling for peace in the "War on Terra". (Can you believe it?)

Anyway, the rallies were supposed to be non-partisan, but many politicians seized the opportunity to push for Kyoto compliance (Post - "Tories Knocked at Kyoto Rally"):

Chief organizer Brennan Louw said he intended the event to be non-partisan; however, local federal politicians took the opportunity to court voters and to challenge the record of Prime Minster Stephen Harper.

"I say to Mr. Harper: You have no right to take Canada out of the Kyoto Protocol. That's Canada's signature on that document - that's not you're signature," said NDP Leader Jack Layton. "We must send that message to Stephen Harper."

( . . . )

"The impact of the climate-change crisis on the world is the equivalent of war," Layton said, referencing remarks the UN Secretary General made last week. "And that means that we have to mobilize as a society and work together the way we would if we were involved in a war."

Good grief! Perhaps Jack Layton would like to take his overblown rhetoric to a protest on Mars?


Anyway, the Star tells of this brilliant protester who is firmly convinced of global warming:

The United Nations released a 21-page report last month that said human activity was "very likely" the cause of global warming and Al Gore's documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, won an Oscar.

Bill Terry, 56, said even without those recent events, he wouldn't have to look very far for a reason to come out to the rally.

"You can even feel it today. I mean we're pretty early in March and look how hot it is."

Bill, I believe that is called spring. And never mind that we've just gone through a frigid February, and I still can't see a speck of green outside. I mean, the birds are making nests in the snowbanks, Bill! C'mon.

But what really gripes me here is that the Kyoto Kultists are allowed to point to any weather at all, and call it evidence of man-made climate change, and therefore requiring Kyoto Kompliance.

But just let a Global Warming Denier even try to make a joke about the weather being cold in an effort to refute all this paranoia, and the result is santimonious outrage!


Obviously the 'Culture of Entitlement' is not the exclusive domain of the Liberal Party of Canada.

* * * *

Update: ChuckerCanuk - Stephane Dion: Save Pluto!

The Strong Conservative - Deny Global warming, Get Death Threats.

A Dog Named Kyoto - The Great Global Warming Swindle.

Kooky Suzuki Smack-down

Licia Corbella is quickly becoming one of my favourite columnists. Today she gives it to David Suzuki and his Kyoto Kult followers (Mean and Not So Green).

Apparently Corbella received hundreds of emails from enraged Suzuki fans, when she had the audacity to point out in a previous column that the Canadian High Priest of Environmental Shlock, along with his American counterpart Al Gore, doesn't exactly walk the talk - and when he does talk, the results are often more 'blue' than green.

Corbella goes on to explain how she is green without the vulgarity and hypcrisy. But her explanation will likely fall on deaf lemming-ears.

Because just as in traditional religion, if you're a believer that's all you need - faith. Science and logic are not required.

* * * *

Thursday Update: Suzuki apologist here.

Dry Run in Ontario

Licia Corbella nails it in this morning's Calgary Sun (A Storm Warning)- The current gas shortage in Ontario is a dress rehearsal for a terrorist attack on oil refineries and national transportation systems.

Corbella brilliantly weaves various themes of Liberal hypocrisy, wilful blindness, environmentalism and terror threat, to create a chilling picture emphasizing just how vulnerable we really are.



I also wonder if the fallout from the gas shortage had anything to do with Stephane Dion's recent epiphany regarding the anti-scab bill.

As the plot sickens

So much is happening in response to the Jonathan Kay article, it's hard to keep up.

Many thanks to reader Biff for the tip in the previous post regarding Kay's response to the Deal Deniers. I am presently trying to piece this altogether.

In addition, National Newswatch has just posted a Globe story, Leadership Losers Draw Liberal Salaries:

Gerard Kennedy and Martha Hall Findlay are receiving salaries from the Liberal Party to help prepare for the coming election, but how much they earn is being kept secret.

The lack of transparency is causing concern among some Liberals and leading to speculation that private deals were made because Mr. Kennedy and Ms. Hall Findlay were the two leadership candidates who dropped off the ballot early and threw significant support behind Stéphane Dion. The secrecy is also driving speculation among some Liberals that Ms. Hall Findlay and Mr. Kennedy are earning big salaries.

This is all starting to unravel in a most curious manner of allegations countered with self-righteous indignation and denials.

Stay tuned. And please weigh in with your own perspective.

* * * *

Update: Dion responds to Kay.

Meanwhile, back at the polls...


OOPS! Now there's a LAWSUIT brewing!

Hidden Agenda

You might have missed it if you blinked, but CTV has disclosed the real secret Liberal agenda behind last night's vote against extending the anti-terror measures. It wasn't about upholding civil liberties at all:

Todd Russell, a Liberal MP for the riding of Labrador, said that "any time you take a bully on and push him back, that's a victory. (Prime Minister Stephen Harper) is a bully, and he got what's coming to him tonight."

Playing partisan games with Canadian lives. And they call Harper 'scary'.

* * * *

More agendas here.

Meanwhile, Lorrie Goldstein treats us to a wistful vision of Parliament.

Adding Insult to Injury

Maureen Basnicki, whose husband Ken was one of 24 Canadians killed in Manhattan's twin towers, has according to Michael Ignatieff simply been participating in a 'sideshow':

Ignatieff said while he sympathized with terror victims, their appearance during the debate over whether to renew the powers is "just a sideshow."

"The issue here is not whether we have or have not met with victims of 9/11. Every member of our caucus feels the grief and horror that those victims went through."

After the vote, Basnicki, on behalf of the Canadian Coalition Against Terror, said she was "very, very disappointed" in the outcome, and angered by Ignatieff's comment.

"Sideshow? I was a victim of terrorism. My husband was murdered.

"I don't like to be a victim of politics."

(Alberta Ardvark has also picked up on this Toronto Star article.)

So, I guess it's fine for some Liberals to cast aspersions at grieving Canadian citizens; seek to diminish their pain and question their motives.

However, if a Conservative MP even makes a general comment that is substantiated by solid investigative journalism, then self-righteous Liberals are allowed to publicly demand apologies.

Another Liberal entitlement, I suppose.



Oh, yeah, and by the way Ms. Basnicki, didn't you know that TIMES HAVE CHANGED???

Get with the program.

* * * *

And let us not forget Stephane Dion's remarkable show of empathy for the Air India families. What did he call them again? Ah yes, "emotional"...


Update: National Newswatch has now picked up this story. Click on the link 9/11 VICTIMS JUST A SIDESHOW: Ignatieff (via Hamilton Spectator).

And if you were wondering what they were thinking about all this on the other side, here's an example - Victims; not experts. (Warning! Not for the faint of heart).

Here's another - Will the Sun Rise Again? (Jason Cherniak)

More Self-Serving Political Machinations

Kudos to the National Post for today's hard-hitting editorial, "Don't let C-257 become law".

As anyone living in Ontario knows, gas shortages from the recent CN strike have seriously jeopardized business and transportation.

The Bloc's private member's bill to outlaw replacement workers would only serve to exacerbate this type of disruption. Our economy could be seriously affected to the point of driving even more manufacturing jobs out of Canada.

The Bloc has tried this trick before and failed nine of the previous times. However now that the Liberals have Sheriff Dion in town, they are placing political manoeuvring above the best interests of the country:

But now that their left wing is in charge of the party, and now that the Conservatives are in power, the Liberals favour the law because they reason it will embarrass the government while also permitting them to steal votes from the NDP.

Not even the Liberals, with all their political machinations, are prepared to back a law that would shut down essential services during a strike. But if they can persuade House Speaker Peter Milliken--himself a Liberal -- to permit amendments that would exempt emergency workers, the Liberals seem prepared to vote for a measure they rightly defeated nine times.

This is just one more illustration of what happens in a minority government situation when all oppostion parties join in an extremely irresponsible left-wing agenda to further their own partisan interests. It happened with the Kyoto bill, it is going to happen with the Anti-terror vote, and it looks as if it will be happening again with the National Economy held hostage.

* * * *

More at Dr. Roy.

Tuesday Update: CFIB opposes C-257 (not surprisingly). Check out BC Tory.

CP picks up Bolan Story - THERE WAS NO LEAK, Ralph!

Liberal Catnip breaks the news that Kim Bolan has contacted CP and stated openly that "that there was no leak from anyone and that the story was done on her own initiative." (H/T to Ross at the Gazetteer, who played a major role in uncovering the truth).



From Canada.com:

"The story was not a plant by anybody," Bolan said. "All this talk of plants by the government or the RCMP is ludicrous.

"Nobody has disputed a single element of the story because it's true," said Bolan, who has covered the Air India case since the tragedy in 1985.

Bolan said it's ridiculous that politicians are reacting as if the information is some kind of security breach. She said anyone who has covered the Air India case in any detail has the information.

L.C. says that, "Whether or not this will satisfy the Liberals remains to be seen and it certainly, in my mind, does not excuse Stephen Harper's part in this affair".

I have to ask, 'excuse him' from what?


In today's Toronto Sun, Sheila Copps states the following:

Most political observers were shaking their heads when Prime Minister Stephen Harper attacked newly minted Liberal Member of Parliament Navdeep Bains.

How did PMSH attack Bains? He simply began reading from the Vancouver Sun, and wasn't even allowed to finish what he was trying to say!

If there was an implication of any kind, it was a question about whether or not Stephane Dion's steadfast refusal to support the extension of the anti-terror laws was in any way influenced by some sort of political debt. But Harper never got to finish his thoughts. You can't condemn a man without evidence. So much for the Liberal values of civil rights.

I now have two remaining questions:

#1. Why isn't this plastered all over MSM?

#2. When will the Honourable Member from Wascana retract his nasty allegations and apologize to the Prime Minister of Canada?

* * * *

More at Political Staples - Today's news tomorrow.

CTV Question Period - Bains 'Baffled'...
Good links to interviews. The one between Jay Hill and Ralph Goodale is especially interesting. Ralph blames the government for not bringing forth changes, but Jay makes the point that the Liberals under Dion flip-flopped at the last minute. Time has now run out. Jay says the changes could be made after the vote to extend the provisions.

But Ralph likes to bluster and obfuscate to protect the leader. Thank you Stephane Dion for putting Canadian security second.

* * * *

And for a little chuckle, check out Chucker - "If I were Don Newman on next Friday's Politics". Chucker, you sure do have some strange fantasies...

More mud-slinging

Ralph Goodale's return volley at Stephen Harper strikes me as being both desperate and disingenuous.

No doubt he is still smarting from his own self-perceived character defamation regarding the Quebec attack ads. I suspect he and his fellow Liberal caucus members are also using the opportunity to deflect attention from Dion's steadfast refusal to consider the extension of the controversial anti-terror clauses.

"We have seen here the disclosure of secret security information to personally smear a member of Parliament. Canadians need to know who in the government is responsible," Goodale (Wascana) said in question period.

That's a pretty serious allegation. He is not even just suggesting that it was a deliberate government leak; he is stating it.


The Winnipeg Free Press states that "Goodale said that even if no one in government gave the Sun Saini's name and drew attention to his links with a Liberal MP, the RCMP answers to the government."

Ralphie is trying to cover all his bases here. So he is in effect saying that however the leak occurred, it is the government's fault. They are responsible because everyone answers to the government at the end of the day.

Too bad that as Finance Minister, he didn't apply this line of reasoning to his own department during the Income Trust debacle.

Enviro-Socialist Hypocrisy

Peter Foster's excellent FP editorial (The Living Come First) puts forward an interesting view on the current popularity of the Kyoto Kult, and the underlying enviro-socialism that drives it.

Sir Nicholas Stern, according to Foster, particularly tends to espouse the concern for the future generations:

The alleged ethical trump card in the enviro-socialist stance is that the market has no way of accounting for the fate of people a hundred or two hundred years hence (although it seems to have done a bang-up job in the past two hundred). Future generations "lack representation." To discount the future -- by this account -- is to cheapen the lives of the unborn.

Stern suggests that the unborn should have equal "weights" with present generations. "Are there any persuasive ethical arguments," it asks, "for discrimination by birth date?" Well, abortion certainly seems to be one, since mothers have by definition to be born before their babies. But in fact we need not get into the thorny ethics of the "Right to Life," since this is not a matter of the living taking precedence over a fetus, but of the bizarre notion that the living should not take precedence over those who have not even been--and may never be--conceived.

The main precondition for the prosperity of future generations is the health of present generations. Enviro-socialism seeks to turn this obvious logic on its head. But the notion that the present might sacrifice itself to the collective future is bizarre. By impoverishing ourselves we necessarily impoverish our descendents, and make them less equipped to deal with any challenges they might face (and we also further impoverish the present poor, contrary to the redistributionist fantasies of Kyoto).

I'm not sure that I agree with everything Foster says in the editorial, but it is a fascinating read.

The irony, as he points out as an aside, is that all this concern for the unborn seems to ignore the present reality of abortion.

But of course, in a world view where humans are the supreme culprits, I suppose that abortion is simply another tool with which to offer sacrifices to Mother Earth.

* * * *

Update - More Enviro-Socialist Hypocrisy:

Lorrie Goldstein - Let 'em live like Common People.


Toronto Sun Letters :

Do as they say?

I was somewhat disenchanted to learn that two champions for global warming control have not been practising what they preach. My day started poorly by learning that David Suzuki's entourage of seven are touring the country in a bus with 40 seats. Later, to my dismay, I learned that Al Gore showed up to his Toronto engagement in a gas-gulping limousine. What message are we to take from this?

Grant Kelly

Angus

* * * *

Great post at Officially Screwed, "Suzuki Paying for Salvation...". The post itself is worth the read, and then in comments we have one reader referring to "Kooky Suzuki" which gave me a chuckle, and another gives a link to one awesome debunking site: A Dog Named Kyoto. I could spend the whole day reading that blog!


Tom Brodbeck - Suck it up, Suzuki!

Saturday Update: Suzuki lashes out at Alberta premier.

How crowded IS it over there on the left?

With each passing day I marvel at how much further out in left field the Liberal party is positioning itself.

Right now, it's a dog fight among the Dippers, Grits, Bloc and Greens. Of course, of all those parties, only one has even a remote chance of forming the government. We regard the more extreme policies of the smaller parties with some kind of necessary indulgence.

However, we expect more from the Liberal party.

The issues swirling around in Parliament today, such as the Liberal party's disingenuous Kyoto bill, the hypocritical accusations of partisanship regarding the Tory's judicial advisory selection, and the Liberal flip-flop to the left concerning the anti-terrorist act's sunset clause should be a concern for all Canadians.

But the worst offence is the last one, because it speaks to the very safety and security of Canadian citizens.

We are now starting to see a schism in the 'newly united' Liberal party. Stephane Dion's leadership is a sham. He represents everything I am most fearful of in a leader. His elitist, idealistic world view is still firmly entrenched in the Neverland of Academia. From today's National Post:

A former human-rights lawyer, Mr. Cotler said he initially opposed the two provisions, which critics say give Draconian powers to Canadian authorities, and was pleased to see the Liberal government implement the sunset clause.

But as justice minister between 2003 and 2006, he saw that the provisions, neither of which have been used, were not being abused. As a result, he supports the three-year extension. Other dissenters from the party line include Roy Cullen, who sat on a parliamentary subcommittee that recommended extending the provisions in October. Mr. Cullen said he and other colleagues made their case at the Liberal caucus meeting yesterday.

"The problem now is that we sort of have staked out a position and it might be difficult to reverse that. But I'm always the eternal optimist."

The bill's Liberal architect, former deputy prime minister Anne McLellan, has also expressed concern at the new party position. "After 9-11, we did not actually believe we were going to have to deal with homegrown terrorists," she said this week. "The situation today is, if anything, more dangerous and more complex and the powers have never been abused, so why would you take these tools away from law enforcement?"

And from Canada.com - "Dion, meanwhile, is standing by his decision to oppose the measures. Those Liberals who support the move say a compromise could have been reached with the government on salvaging them had the Conservatives heeded the advice of a parliamentary subcommittee and brought forward legislation to amend the measures."

So this has ended up in a game of chicken.

Dion is not just incompetent - His hopeless naïveté puts us all at risk.

* * * *

Update: I did a little snooping around at Liblogs and came across this interesting discussion. (Shhh.... Don't tell them!)

This one is brutally honest. I admire that. This one too.

Stephane - Give your head a shake!

Short post today due to excess snowfall. However, as I glimpse at today's headlines, I wonder how the Liberals can even consider joining the opposition parties to allow the anti-terrorism measures to expire.

National Newswatch has a story up about Canadian oil and gas facilities being a terror target.

Another story here about terror concerns regarding the 2010 Games.

Why let our guard down now? Is Dion really concerned about civil liberties, or is this just a crass political gesture designed to undermine the current government?

Of course, the Liberals are all about ethics and integrity, right?

Yeah, right. Somebody get me that shovel.

* * * *

Update: Happy Valentine's Day, PMSH! Angus Reid...


Further Update: Will there be an election over Kyoto? Check out Step to the Right, Crux of the Matter.

Loonies on the left

A curious phenomenon is occurring in Canada. It seems that we no longer have a party on the right.

As the CPC is busy establishing itself as a centrist party, the Liberals and NDP seem to be stumbling over each other in an attempt to assume the role of 'Natural Left-Leaning Party of Canada'.


This in itself is rather amusing, but lately it is proving to be a possible threat to Canadian safety.


As the National Post reports today (under subscriber lock), Liberal MP John McCallum revealed Friday that the "Liberals plan to vote this week with the Bloc and NDP to strike down the two most controversial provisions of [their own] 2001 anti-terrorism law."

The Liberal decision means the minority Conservative government will not have the votes needed to approve a motion extending the provisions for three years.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day reacted by accusing the Liberals of bailing out of their own legislation and the war on terrorism.

As recently as October, the Liberals had said they would support extending the provisions that allow preventative arrests of terrorist suspects and investigative hearings.

The provisions, which have not been used, were subject to a five-year sunset clause in the 2001 legislation, and are set to expire at the end of this week unless the Conservative motion is approved by the House of Commons and Senate.

Mr. McCallum said the measures are no longer needed.

What? Is global terrorism no longer a problem? Why put the safety of Canadians at risk unnecessarily? Isn't it good to have these measures in our back pocket?

The Kyoto bill was bad enough, but now we see that the Liberals are even willing to risk national security when it comes to political gain. Does this party have no moral values at all?

I wonder how quickly they would change their minds if Dion was PM and a terrorist plot was uncovered to have him beheaded!

Scary thing is, the NDP is looking better as the official opposition party. The Liberals don't even deserve that.

* * * *

Update: You can get more hypocrisy here.

Chucker Canuk has a great post today - "Grits were actually for public security before they were against..."

Tuesday Update: N.P. - "Cannot 'slack off' terror watch, Day says."

Gender Discrimination?

There are hints that Stephane Dion may bar men from running as candidates in some ridings in order to ensure that at least a third of the candidates in the election are female.

I'm sure there is a clause somewhere in this oft-quoted document about gender discrimination being verboten. Very strange indeed.

I wonder if he's planning any other quota targets.


Monday Update: Phantom Observer - The Libranos "No Boys Allowed" Handicap.