Canada - You Have a Choice

From Avaaz.ca - Hear/download the song and sign the pledge at http://www.avaaz.ca/ca/stop_harper_pledge/

Artists Unite to Defeat Harper and Fight Climate Change

New song features Canadian musicians to raise hope and awareness

OTTAWA – Canadian artists have joined together to record a song, titled "You Have a Choice," to mobilize Canadian voters to let their voices be heard in support of strong, concrete action on climate change. The song is sponsored by Avaaz, a new web movement with over 300,000 supporters across Canada. Click here to download the song.

"Elizabeth May said it best in the debates, the Harper climate change plan is a fraud," said Avaaz Executive Director Ricken Patel.

"I have also seen first hand how the Conservative government is actively wrecking international progress on climate change."

While the majority of Canadians want action on climate change and believe that Harper is offside with their views, voters often feel that one vote can't make a difference. This is why prominent Canadian artists have come together in support of strategic voting to defeat Harper.

"These bright lights of the Canadian music scene are sending a message to voters: you can make a difference, and we need to come together and strategically support candidates who will defeat Stephen Harper and fight climate change," said Patel.
The Canadian artists who rallied together for this effort include: K-OS, Ed Robertson of the Barenaked Ladies, Ben Kowalewicz of Billy Talent, Adam Gontier of Three Days Grace, Sarah Harmer, Hawksley Workman, Jason Collett of Broken Social Scene, Darren Dumas of The Salads and the Arts Offstage Choir under the direction of David Reed. The song was written and produced by The Hundreds and Thousands' Ian Lefeuvre and K-OS. Lyrics all contributed by the artists. Additional keyboards are performed by Todor Kobakov from Major Maker. The track was mastered by Joao Carvalho.

With bagpipes, swirling guitars, soaring choruses and a chilling choral performance, familiar voices bring a powerful message of the necessity of action and the importance of each and every vote on October 14. “You Have a Choice” will be released to radio stations across Canada, and Canadians can download an MP3 by visiting AVAAZ.ca.
Source: http://www.avaaz.ca/you_have_a_choice/

For strategic voting info for every riding in Canada, visit http://www.voteforenvironment.ca/.

Bounce back and forth on the issues

... with the always-fabulous Baba Brinkman:

Download from: http://www.babasword.com/audio/bounce/Bounce.mp3

And don't miss Social Contract, Power Trip and all the rest at http://www.myspace.com/bababrinkman

Power Trip also on Youtube.




(Thanks for the press release, Andrew Potter.)

Vote smart

The Vote for Environment website has calculated seat counts with and without strategic voting:


It's clear that with strategic voting all of the opposition parties would be better off. We would elect a Liberal minority with strong representation from the NDP and Bloc, one Green and two independents.

The site features recommendations to beat the Tories in each riding, with polls giving current standings.

On their blog, they quote Elizabeth May in yesterday's Toronto Star:

May urged Canadians to do all they can to throw Prime Minister Stephen Harper out of office, including strongly suggesting they shouldn't vote Green if another candidate has a better chance at defeating a Conservative.

"We are too close to the edge of a global apocalypse," May said in an interview. "We have got to grab the opportunities we have. And, clearly, the contribution Canadians can make to a global solution is to get rid of Stephen Harper."

"I'd rather have no Green seats and Stephen Harper lose, than a full caucus that stares across the floor at Stephen Harper as prime minister, because his policies are too dangerous," she said.

If there was ever a time for strategic voting, this is it.

Help Avaaz stop Harper

Save the Planet: Stop Harper!
For the last two years, the Harper government has done everything it could to wreck the world's efforts to fix climate change. At UN negotiations, Canada has been voted the WORST country in the world on climate change 3 times! Now, it's election time, and we have to make sure that Harper pays the price at the polls for his reckless and un-Canadian climate policy.

Avaaz is targeting 3 of Harper's top MPs (including Environment Minister John Baird) where it will hurt them the most -- at the grass roots. Together, we will try to stop their re-election with ad campaigns telling their constituents just how irresponsible they've been in the name of all Canadians. We'll beat them not by supporting any one party, but by appealing to all voters to help save the planet by voting for the candidate most likely to beat the Conservatives. Our ad campaign is ready to launch in these ridings, but we urgently need your help to raise $50,000 this week.
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_harper/

Conservatives to kill meat inspection in Manitoba: Ag Union

Agriculture Union media release:

Conservatives to kill meat inspection in Manitoba

WINNIPEG, Sept. 18 /CNW Telbec/ - If elected, a federal Conservative government plans to stop delivering provincial meat inspection programs in Manitoba leaving local consumers exposed to the risk of unsafe meat. The plan is revealed in a secret Treasury Board of Canada decision record, dated May 6, 2008, documenting the acceptance of a proposal concerning "Provincial Meat Slaughter Establishments (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, British Columbia)" which calls for the "elimination of federal delivery of provincial meat inspection programs."

"Meat produced in provincially registered facilities in Manitoba would not be inspected by anyone under this plan," says Bob Kingston, President of the Agriculture Union - Public Service Alliance of Canada, which has launched www.foodsafetyfirst.ca, a tool for voters to email their local candidates during the federal election to urge them to make a commitment to food safety. The campaign is being organized jointly with the Professional Institute of the Public Service Canada.

The Treasury Board decision record says that following approval of a detailed implementation plan, "including risk mitigation and communications strategies," the cuts will come into force.

In Manitoba, the federal government delivers provincial meat inspection programs ensuring provincially registered slaughter facilities meet sanitation and other safety regulations. There are more than 30 provincially registered meat establishments in Manitoba that produce everything from beef to bison, ostrich to turkey and whose products cannot be shipped outside the province. "As we've seen during recent weeks, the federal government should be increasing food inspection, not cutting it," Kingston says.

The government of Stephen Harper has steadily cut funding for food safety programs and shifted responsibility for safety assurance to the food companies themselves.

According to current Treasury Board of Canada forecasts, funding for food safety programs will have declined by almost 30% from $359 million in 2006/07 to $254 million in 2010/11 under Mr. Harper's watch.

Meanwhile, the government plans to expand industry self-policing of safety. The same Treasury Board record also reveals plans to: "shift from full-time Canadian Food Inspection Agency meat inspection presence to an oversight role, allowing industry to implement food safety control programs and to manage key risks."

The Food Safety First campaign is urging federal candidates to endorse a four-point commitment to food safety:

1. Hire 1000 additional inspectors and veterinarians to improve industry compliance with safety regulations.
2. Place a moratorium on industry self-policing.
3. Remove obstacles that prevent CFIA inspectors and vets from taking immediate action when they encounter potential public health risks in the plants they inspect.
4. Restore the system of public audit reports which were cancelled under pressure from the meat industry.

"Voters can visit www.foodsafetyfirst.ca to send a message asking their candidates to make a commitment to food safety. When the candidates are asking voters for their support, there's no better time to ask the candidates to make this commitment," Kingston said.

The Agriculture Union - PSAC represents federal food inspectors and its President Bob Kingston is an Inspection Supervisor on leave from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Before going on a leave of absence to serve as an elected union officer, Kingston spent 25 years as a CFIA and Agriculture Canada inspector, including 15 years as a multi-commodity supervisor, a senior level inspector position.

For further information: Jim Thompson, (613) 447-9592

Source: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/September2008/18/c5823.html

h/t T. Thwim

Disbarred & jailed - how much more qualified can you get?

It must be Friday:

Bruce Carson was named this week as the first executive director of the new Alberta-based Canada School of Energy and the Environment.

The institute recently got $15 million from the Tory government.

Carson, who was disbarred and jailed in the early 1980s for defrauding law clients, will split his time between the Prime Minister's office and his new post until after the next federal election. http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/479507

Obviously his alleged background "defrauding law clients" will be excellent experience in selling the Conservative ecoFraud policies.

Canadians can be proud that individuals of his stature are selflessly prepared to serve their country, putting the public interest before their own.

Cadman video retrospective

For your convenience/viewing pleasure, here's a playlist with 18 QP and scrums snippets on the Cadman affair, February 28 to March 6, 2008: http://ca.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F6E4E6DC3FB51A1F

This might be a helpful or even entertaining supplement to Kady's Tale of the Tape: Unspooling the Timeline post.

The March 4, 2008 QP exchange wherein the prime minister had every opportunity to complain that the tape wasn't completely copacetic (as reported by Aaron Wherry) - but didn't - is here: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=c5TqE-2anHk

So pop up some popcorn and don't forget your blood pressure meds, antidepressants, Laphroig, whatever.

So many scandals, so little time...

There's so much choice, where to start?

More questions about the Cadman affair - Dion in Question Period, March 6, 2008
"Will the Prime Minister admit that he was talking about addressing Mr. Cadman's financial insecurity in exchange for his vote?" Question Period, March 6, 2008 (EN/FR).



Ken Dryden with still more questions about the Cadman affair, Question Period, March 6, 2008.


Geoff Regan has some questions for James Moore about the Cadman affair, Question Period, March 6, 2008.
Moore responds "My mom used to tell me don't believe everything you read in the newspaper." For all the stuff the camera doesn't capture, read Macleans.ca blogger Aaron Wherry's entertaining account of the episode, "The Commons: A bad joke"


"We don't know how to choose among all the scandals"
"Was the Prime Minister misleading the House or was his chief of staff misleading him?" And for the romantic among you, don't miss Harper's billet doux to Jack Layton. (Question Period, March 6, 2008 on NAFscam, FR/EN)


And today's scrum (environment motion, NAFscam) - "This government has been wrong, wrong, wrong about the environment..."

"When will the prime minister realize that the buck stops with him?"

Dion - "Mr Speaker, the Prime Minister allowed his government to mislead Canadians on an issue as serious as torture. They even blamed the military for their own failure of leadership. This is completely unacceptable. Why won't the Prime Minister do what he should have done months ago - Stop blaming others and take responsibility for his own decisions?

Harper - "I'm not sure what the honourable member is even talking about."

He's been living in a bunker with no outside access for the last week?

Dion - "When will the prime minister realize that the buck stops with him on the leadership of this mission and that he cannot scapegoat the military - this is completely unacceptable."

Harper - "This government hasn't attempted to scapegoat the military for anything."

Oh well then, that's all right. All those annoyed military types can just get over it.

Really, don't you just cringe when you hear Milliken refer to Harper as the "Right Honourable Prime Minister?" I mean it's a bit of an oxymoron.

Today's QP and scrum -

Stéphane Dion on Afghan detainees, Mulroney-Schreiber

Stéphane Dion on transfer of Afghan detainees

[09:44]

Press conference on January 25, 2008. Stéphane Dion gives a brief review of Harper government record followed by lengthy discussio Stéphane Dion gives a brief review of Harper government record followed by lengthy discussion of Conservative policy on transferring Afghan detainees (scrum, January 25, 2008). Dion reveals that he and Michael Ignatieff were informed confidentially of the change in detainee transfer policy while in Afghanistan earlier in January. Dion and Ignatieff were bound by confidentiality not to disclose the information until it was made public by the government. Stéphane Dion, chef de l'Opposition, commente la politique du gouvernement sur le transfert de détenus afghanes (point de presse le 25 janvier 2008). (EN/FR)

Stéphane Dion commente l'affaire Mulroney-Schreiber

[00:38]

Point de presse le 25 janvier 2008. Stéphane Dion, chef de l'Opposition, commente l'affaire Mulroney-Schreiber - «on a besoin d'av Point de presse le 25 janvier 2008. Stéphane Dion, chef de l'Opposition, commente l'affaire Mulroney-Schreiber - «on a besoin d'avoir une enquête complète». (Français)

Harper government indifferent to homelessness and poverty

Stéphane Dion reiterated his commitment to reducing poverty and homelessness in Victoria yesterday.

At a roundtable on homelessness, Dion learned that about 1,200 people in Victoria are "homeless or at risk." Dion said that the federal government should be involved in Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe's plan to find 1,550 housing units for the homeless in the next five years.

A Liberal government led by Stéphane Dion would work with other levels of government to find solutions to poverty and related social problems.

Dion confirmed that "The Liberals also plan to honour promises in the Kelowna Accord -- an agreement between the Liberal government of Paul Martin and aboriginal leaders two years ago -- to help aboriginal people living in poverty."

The Times-Colonist reported that "Dion also yesterday restated his party's support for supervised-injection sites as part of the fight against poverty and addiction. Dion said research shows the sites save lives and prevent the spread of disease."

Read the full story:

Dion endorses city strategy to fight homelessness
Lindsay Kines, Times Colonist (Victoria, BC)
Published: Friday, November 16, 2007

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion yesterday endorsed Victoria's strategy to fight homelessness and vowed that a government under his leadership would be a partner in the battle.

Dion, who held a morning round-table discussion on homelessness with civic leaders at the Victoria Foundation, admitted surprise that an estimated 1,200 people are homeless or at risk in Victoria.

"Incredible," he said.

But Dion said he was impressed to see the community united behind Mayor Alan Lowe's task force, which intends to find 1,550 housing units for the homeless over the next five years.

"When you have a plan, like the mayor has a plan ... the federal government must be part of the plan," he told the Times Colonist editorial board.

Dion criticized the current Conservative government for "doing nothing" about homelessness and poverty for the past two years. "The current government is indifferent," he said.

By contrast, he said, his party released a plan last week that would reduce the number of Canadians living below the poverty line by at least 30 per cent during the first five years of a federal Liberal government. The number of children in poverty would be cut in half, he said.

Under the plan, the Liberals would expand the child tax benefit, increase the guaranteed-income supplement for seniors, and change the tax rules so people aren't penalized when they move off welfare into the workforce.

The Liberals also plan to honour promises in the Kelowna Accord -- an agreement between the Liberal government of Paul Martin and aboriginal leaders two years ago -- to help aboriginal people living in poverty.

"Keep our feet to the fire, because we have made a commitment," Dion said. "It's not a commitment of decades; it's a commitment of five years. A mandate. If Canadians are giving us the mandate, they will be able to be part of this unprecedented effort to decrease poverty by a third."

Dion said the Liberals will reveal the cost of the plan during the next election campaign. "It's affordable," he said. "We don't need to raises taxes for that. It's a matter of political will. And when I see how much the communities are ready to act -- as the one that we see today in Victoria -- I'm very confident that we will succeed."

Dion also yesterday restated his party's support for supervised-injection sites as part of the fight against poverty and addiction. Dion said research shows the sites save lives and prevent the spread of disease.

Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca Liberal MP Keith Martin told reporters Victoria's integrated plan to deal with mental health, housing, detox and medical issues could be a model for other cities.

"We're utterly confident that here in Victoria, we will be able to build a plan that deals with downtown core urban issues that are affecting cities across our country," he said.
(Source: http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=7a742e55-6ee3-4e1d-b137-eeab897a7c54&k=77917)

The hunter is now the hunted

So it turns out that avoiding an election wasn't such a bad idea after all.

PARTY STRATEGY - Events revitalize Dion's troops
Liberals aiming to avoid vote, give probe some time to unfold
Toronto Star. Nov 15, 2007 04:30 AM. Les Whittington, Ottawa Bureau

OTTAWA - The Liberals are more determined than ever to avoid an early election as Stéphane Dion's suddenly revitalized troops savour the prospect of potentially explosive public hearings focused on their Conservative foes.

In yesterday's closed-door Liberal caucus gathering, Dion warned his MPs they must be extremely cautious to avoid any Conservative parliamentary manoeuvres that would trap them into voting down the government and forcing an early election, insiders said.

Liberals now want to put off an election as long as possible in light of the public inquiry on the business relations between Brian Mulroney and Karlheinz Schreiber. They want to give the inquiry time to put the former prime minister and other Conservatives on the stand to answer questions about the tangled financial matters from the Mulroney years.

"The hunter is now the hunted," said Liberal MP Dan McTeague (Pickering-Scarborough East), summing up the change of mood among Liberals.

Party sources said that, prior to the last few days, some Liberals were growing restive about abstaining in parliamentary votes to keep from being dragged into an election by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. These MPs were becoming convinced it was time to throw caution to the wind and put the Harper government's leadership to the test at the polls by defeating the Tory minority.

But now that events have compelled the government to agree to hold a public inquiry into the Mulroney-Schreiber dealings, the attitude among Dion's caucus has been transformed almost overnight.

"The chemistry is completely different," Liberal MP Garth Turner (Halton) said after a caucus meeting in which Dion was reportedly able to tap into a rare atmosphere of collective enthusiasm.

"This really opens up a whole new chapter in this session of Parliament," Turner said in an interview. "For now, I don't think the opposition parties would dream of going to an election."

MP Robert Thibault (West Nova), who has become a Liberal spokesperson on this issue, said it's not clear how long the opposition can hold off an election "but I certainly would want these facts to move forward" at the inquiry.

Liberals have not forgotten that public inquiries like the Gomery commission into the sponsorship scandal have the potential to unearth information that can be extremely damaging to the political party under investigation. And they point out that since Harper and Mulroney have become confidants in recent years, the scope for discovery is unpredictable once witnesses begin to testify and secret documents and records are brought into the open.

Liberal Bryon Wilfert (Richmond Hill) said the political landscape could change drastically in the wake of the events of the past few days. "Brian Mulroney obviously wants to show that his reputation is intact and he, I think, outsmarted Harper by calling for the public inquiry" after the Prime Minister had said such a probe was unnecessary.
(Source: http://www.thestar.com/News/article/276677)

Accountability and transparency - not

Dion wants answers over Mulroney affair
Toronto Star, Nov 11, 2007 07:02 PM
Jim Brown, THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA - Liberal Leader Stephane Dion says he's finding it "very hard to believe" that Stephen Harper only found out last week about details of the controversial business dealings between Brian Mulroney and German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber.

In an interview Sunday on CTV's Question Period, Dion noted that government officials are now acknowledging Schreiber wrote a letter addressed to the prime minister in March outlining his past contacts with Mulroney.

Aides to Harper insist, however, that the letter never got beyond the Privy Council Office, which failed to pass it on to the prime minister last spring.

"There is a cover-up somewhere," Dion maintained. "I cannot believe it is the Privy Council Office, the most important authority of the civil service...

"The prime minister has to explain: What did he know, when did he know it?"

Harper announced on Friday he would appoint an independent third party to review issues raised by the affair and recommend whether further steps, such as a full-fledged public inquiry, are needed.

The move came after Schreiber filed an affidavit in Ontario Superior Court adding new allegations to an old dispute over $300,000 in cash paid to Mulroney after he stepped down as prime minister.

Schreiber now claims the deal was struck in June 1993, while Mulroney was still prime minister. He also claims a Mulroney adviser asked him at one point to transfer money related to the purchase of Airbus jets by Air Canada to a Swiss lawyer who represented Mulroney.

None of the allegations have been proven in court, and some of them contradict testimony Schreiber has previously given. He is currently embroiled in a civil suit with Mulroney, as well as fighting extradition to Germany on fraud and tax evasion charges.

Schreiber claimed as well, in his latest affidavit, that Mulroney was supposed to deliver a letter from him to Harper and discuss their business arrangements in the summer of 2006.

Harper has confirmed he met Mulroney that summer, but says he didn't get any letter and there was no talk of Schreiber during the get-together.

New questions surfaced on the weekend, when the Globe and Mail reported Schreiber had also written directly to Harper in March of this year. It was that letter Dion seized upon, demanding to know whether Harper had been aware of the brewing storm but kept quiet about it for seven months.

Sandra Buckler, the communications director for Harper, denied that was the case.

"Mr. Schreiber's letter was processed by the Privy Council Office and was not forwarded to the Prime Minister's Office," she said in an email Sunday.

She offered no further explanation except to say that PCO routinely handles all incoming mail for the prime minister.

Dion, for his part, urged Harper to call a full public inquiry now rather than wait for the matter to be reviewed by a third party.

"We need to know exactly what happened," the Liberal leader told CTV. "We are speaking about something that in a democracy should not happen – the possibility of a former prime minister receiving cash money from obscure services given by a business person who was in trouble with the justice system."

Mulroney has never publicly explained the nature of the business dealings that earned him $300,000 from Schreiber. Spokesmen for the former prime minister have insisted it had nothing to do with Airbus and related to other commercial ventures including a pasta business Schreiber was trying to start with Mulroney's help.

The RCMP and the federal Justice Department named Mulroney in a letter to Swiss authorities in 1995, suggesting he may have been involved in kickbacks arising from the Airbus transactions with Air Canada.

Mulroney sued for libel when the letter became public and won an apology and a $2.1 million settlement from the Liberal government of Jean Chrétien.

In a brief written statement last week, the former prime minister promised to co-operate with the third-party review announced by Harper but offered no further comment.
(Source: http://www.thestar.com/News/article/275533)

Liberals have to fight back positively

Kinder, gentler Dion preferable to nasty Harper
Winnipeg Free Press, Wed Oct 24 2007
View from the West and Beyond - Frances Russell

TEN months ago, the Conservatives brought a quick end to newly elected Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion's political honeymoon with a brutal attack ad culminating in a stentorian voice proclaiming "Stéphane Dion is not a leader."

Last Saturday at a town hall meeting in Winnipeg, Dion used the ad to showcase himself as a person and a politician who couldn't be more different from Prime Minister Stephen Harper. An audience member urged Dion to go as negative and hard against Harper as Harper has against him.

"I try to imagine myself as a very negative person and to have attack ads like 'Stephen Harper is not a leader'" (and here he mimicked the announcer's doomsday tone, to applause and laughter.) "It's not me.

"I don't want ads that are personal," Dion continued. "Instead, I want ads where you contrast what they are doing and what we would do -- on the environment, on women's rights, on fighting poverty... I am confident in the big heart, the good sense and the judgment of the Canadian people."

Liberals have to fight back positively, the Liberal leader continued. "I don't mind to mention the Conservative record and where I think Mr. Harper is making mistakes. But it will not be his personal character that I will attack. It is what he's doing to this country."

He returned to the theme when asked about proportional representation. He prefers the preferential ballot, which allows voters to rank parties in descending order of choice.

"I like this system, because the information you receive from every voter is richer. It's not just your first choice, it's all choices," Dion said. "The other thing that is good is that there is an obligation to be more civilized in the debate."

Parties will be more respectful of one another because they will be wooing each others' partisans for their second or third choices. "If I insult them and I come out with attack ads, they will not want to vote for me. It will be good for Canada because there will be a more civilized debate."

Dion's plea for civility folded in neatly with his views on the close links between economic growth, social justice and environmental sustainability -- what he called the Liberals' "virtuous circle."

"The Conservatives, they have difficulty in seeing social programs otherwise than as a burden on the economy. We Liberals, we think that social programs that are well-designed will help people be better trained, better-educated, healthier, more confident in life and because of that, they will be better equipped to be competitive in the market... And then the market economy will be stronger and provide more room for social programs."

Dion's positive and inclusive message in Winnipeg stands in stark contrast to the nasty confrontational climate in Ottawa.

Last week, the Liberal leader was savaged in the right-wing media for dodging an election over the throne speech, although Harper and NDP Leader Jack Layton both also ducked non-confidence motions during the short-lived Paul Martin minority. Dion Needs A New Dog, screamed one headline. Master of Disaster, blared another.

Also last week, Canadians learned -- and some voters reacted angrily -- to news that Harper's office had compiled a mailing list of Jewish Canadians and had issued an "outreach" strategy to Conservative candidates on how to target and recruit minority Canadians into the Conservative party that uses the word "ethnic" no less than 85 times. On Monday, the Conservative party followed Harper's earlier decision to turf Nova Scotia MP Bill Casey out of caucus for refusing to toe the line on off-shore resources by firing his entire Conservative riding association for daring to re-nominate him.

These actions recall and amplify Harper's recent "fish or cut bait" ultimatum to opposition parties and last spring's leaked 200-page manual showing Conservative MPs how to manipulate parliamentary committees even though the Conservatives lack a majority on them as they do in the Commons itself.

Among other things, Conservative committee chairs were told how to select party-friendly witnesses, how to obstruct debate and, if all else fails, to simply storm out, shutting committees down. Those MPs who tried to proceed through all-party consensus were severely reprimanded by party whip Jay Hill.

Finally, there's the new Tom Flanagan book proving that all the dark and duplicitous arts of the American Republican political culture have moved north. In Harper's Team, Flanagan, Harper's close friend, political strategist and former campaign
manager, quotes himself in one memorable passage on how to fund raise:

"...(M)ake people angry and afraid and set up an opponent for them to give against."

What happened to Harper's promises of grassroots democracy, respect for voters and for Parliament and ironclad guarantees of free votes on just about everything? Of course, Dion could disappoint just like Harper.

But as it stands now, the next election will offer one of the starkest choices in Canadian history: between openness and inclusion on the one hand and control and manipulation on the other. Source: http://winnipegfreepress.com/subscriber/westview/story/4063366p-4666792c.html

Quotes from the Gas Station Theatre talk
(Winnipeg, Oct. 20, 2007)

Q: What will Liberals do with the Canadian Wheat Board?
A: Dion said Canada needs to protect the wheat board and let members of the board decide their future in a fair process.

Q: How will he address child poverty?
A: Dion vowed to make child care and early childhood development programs a priority, along with investing in families. "The Liberal agenda will have the biggest fight on poverty this country ever had. We need to give every child a chance."

Q: What is his response to Tory attack ads?
A: Dion said he's a positive person and doesn't want to make personal attacks against Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
"We need to fight back, but we'd like to fight back positively."

Q: Does he support making Pierre Trudeau Day a national holiday?
A: "National day, certainly; national holiday, we need to talk."

Q: How will he improve the lives of Canada's First Nations?
A: "Education, education, education."

Source: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/story/4061782p-4665540c.html

After a brief speech, Dion spent 90 minutes fielding questions from audience members, who asked about everything from the cleanup of Lake Winnipeg to gun control. Dion criticized the Harper government for not taking a tougher stance on greenhouse gas emissions and investing just $7 million on the cleanup of Lake Winnipeg.

"This is wrong -- $7 million is a lot in your pocket but for a lake like this one it's nothing," he said. "We need to have a major investment in Lake Winnipeg based on science and good choices."

He also guaranteed Parliament would look a lot different with the Liberals in power by promising that one-third of candidates in the next election would be women.
Dion also criticized Harper's cosy relationship with U.S. politicians. He said Canada needs to work to develop multilateral relationships with countries around the world, but also has to be clear about its role abroad.

"For us, the U.S. is our ally and our friend, it's the biggest trade partnership in the world," he said. "But at the same time they are them and we are us and this is a distinction that is not made by Mr. Harper."
Dion travels to Saskatoon today. (Source: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/subscriber/local/story/4061864p-4665314c.html)

Stephen Harper's Hypocritical "Election Deception"

If "this government is clean," why don't they come clean on election financing?

"Media reports over the last month revealed that Federal Court documents detail that the Conservatives allegedly funnelled over $1 million in national advertising expenditures through at least 66 of their candidates campaigns, which were also signed off by their official agents.

The implications of this scam are two-fold. If properly accounted for as part of the Conservative Party's national campaign, then the party that forms the current government exceeded the $18 million national spending limit and broke the law in getting itself elected. And, if that's not enough, we then have the spectacle of scores of Conservative candidates (click for list of names) having claimed reimbursement of 60 per cent of the money at issue, money that Elections Canada ruled them ineligible to receive. If these allegations are proven, this would amount to election fraud." http://www.liberal.ca/story_13156_e.aspx

Stephen Harper’s Election Deception

Stephen Harper’s Conservatives are currently being investigated by Elections Canada for allegedly orchestrating an elaborate money-laundering scheme that allowed them to spend more on national advertising than the law permits during the last election while attempting to get rebates for monies the national party hid by funnelling through Conservative candidate campaigns.

If these allegations are proven true, they would amount to fraud and a gross breach of the public trust.

This shocking scheme appears to have been designed and administered by senior Conservative operatives to secretly exceed the legal spending limit by $1.3 million and gain an additional $780,000 in taxpayer-funded rebates to their Conservative candidates for expenses those campaigns did not incur and for advertising that was not at all local in nature or scope.

Worse still, this scheme appears to implicate the campaigns of 17 sitting Conservative MPs, including members of Stephen Harper’s Cabinet.

Liberals are demanding accountability and honesty from Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party.

Specifically, Liberals are demanding that Stephen Harper’s Conservatives:

• Provide a full list of candidates who participated in the scheme;
• Commit to refrain from using a similar scheme in the next federal election;
• Repay all rebate monies already received by the scheme; and,
• Drop their court case against Elections Canada, and instead, cooperate fully with its ongoing investigation into the Conservative Party.

These allegations should not be taken lightly: the Canada Elections Act sets out very serious penalties for any individual or political party found guilty of the allegations currently faced by Stephen Harper’s Conservatives. Exceeding election spending limits, colluding to exceed election spending limits, and knowingly filing fraudulent election expense claims all bring with them hefty fines and even jail time.

That’s why Liberals think it is time Stephen Harper’s Conservatives stop playing politics with this issue and start telling the truth.

Nothing is more important for the continued integrity of our elections than ensuring that all political parties contest them fairly and play by the rules. Canadians demand no less. (http://www.liberal.ca/issue_election_e.aspx)

Harper Must Come Clean on Deceptive Financing
October 18, 2007

Prime Minister Stephen Harper must stop playing politics and come clean on his alleged involvement in deceptive financing practices during the 2006 parliamentary election, the Liberal opposition demanded today.

“Elections Canada has said the Conservatives violated election financing rules to the tune of $1.2 million dollars,” said Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion. “The Prime Minister's closest advisors are implicated. How can he say to Canadians that he was not aware of this unethical and illegal behaviour?

“I’m asking Mr. Harper, both as the leader of the Conservative Party and as Prime Minister, to tell us what he knew and when he knew it. Did the Prime Minister violate election laws?”

Despite several opportunities to absolve himself of any implication in the scandal, Mr. Harper refused to answer the opposition’s questions, choosing instead to hide behind Conservative House Leader Peter Van Loan.

The Conservative Party is currently being investigated by Elections Canada for allegedly breaking campaign spending laws during the 2006 general election by funneling national advertising costs to regional candidates, who were then able to apply for taxpayer-funded rebates.

Deputy Leader Michael Ignatieff pointed out that Prime Minister Harper and his team are increasingly betraying the public’s trust.

“The government’s conduct has been called into question by independent organizations. It is under investigation not in one, not in two, but in three separate cases,” said Mr. Ignatieff. “Clearly the Conservatives want to sweep all of this under the rug so Canadians do not get the facts.”

For a party that boasts accountability, the Conservatives’ own practices seem nothing short of hypocritical. The Liberal opposition believes it is time for Mr. Harper and his party to start telling the truth. Canadians deserve an honest and accountable government. (Source: http://www.liberal.ca/story_13221_e.aspx)

Climate change - more than a slogan

Canadians have a very clear choice in front of them. We have a Liberal leader who is considered an international hero by environmentalists in the forefront of the fight against climate change. And we have a Conservative - I hesitate to use the word "leader" - who has opposed action on climate change for years and is still, in fact, doing that.

From Embassy, December 14, 2005

Dion Hailed Saviour of Kyoto Protocol
Canada's Environment Minister is being hailed an international "hero" who withstood fierce resistance to find agreement to extend mandatory pollution limits on most of the world's worst offenders.

Environmentalists are praising Stéphane Dion, chair of the UN Climate Change Conference, and his advisors for clinching a deal that will commit 35 industrialized nations to deeper greenhouse gas emission reductions when the Kyoto Protocol targets elapse in 2012. The United States and Australia are the only major emitters that refused to sign the pact.

"Stéphane Dion should go down as a world hero for making this happen," says John Bennett, a senior policy advisor for the Sierra Club of Canada. "All credit goes to him and his negotiators."

The deal is the crowning achievement of the two-week international summit in Montreal that finished in the early hours of Dec. 10.


A second big win is the adoption of a rulebook that makes the Kyoto Protocol fully operational, including a compliance mechanism that was being bogged down by Saudi Arabia. It is believed the oil-producing nation was attempting to show dissatisfaction with a global shift to alternative energies. Another positive outcome is a move to strengthen the Clean Development Mechanism, which brings developing countries into the carbon-trading market.

Compare to Harper's work on climate change.
From Global Warming update — Harper at G8 (June 4, 2007)

Harper appears to be sticking to his position on "intensity-based targets," which may mean a slowing in the rate of greenhouse gas emissions but does not mean less of them in real terms any time soon. The world would have more greenhouse gas emissions in years to come rather than less of them under this proposal. The Europeans want hard targets for actual reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Harper, however, has promised intensity-based targets to the oil industry, and his government has promised tar sands developers exemptions from even these.

Environmentalists are also concerned the Harper government plans to use 2006 as the base year for calculating future reductions. The Europeans are calling for using 1990 as the base year, since 1990 was the base year for Kyoto. "Mr. Baird's plan makes the Canadian targets less strict," wrote Andrew Mayeda in The Ottawa Citizen on Saturday, June 2. "The Canadian plan also uses 'intensity targets' which do not guarantee that overall emissions will fall."

Harper and the Conservatives have long opposed action on climate change and denied its necessity. Like the Bush Republicans, the Harper Conservatives are heavily backed by the oil industry and have always opposed environmental restrictions that reduce industry profitability. Over the years, they have used a number of front groups and public relations firms to argue their case. With the Conservatives running a minority government, they are using the advantages of public office to make a case they have advanced for years in opposition...

Stephen Harper expressed his feelings about the Kyoto accord in a 2002 letter apparently written when Harper was leader of the defunct Canadian Alliance party. In the letter, he called Kyoto a "socialist scheme" designed to suck money out of rich countries. "We're gearing up now for the biggest struggle our party has faced since you entrusted me with the leadership," Harper's letter says. "I'm talking about the 'battle of Kyoto' — our campaign to block the job-killing, economy-destroying Kyoto accord." [my emphasis]

If Canadians are truly concerned about the future of planet Earth, the next federal election will give us the power to be part of the solution instead of the problem.

The challenge of course is that the majority of us - the people who do care - are split four ways between supporting the Liberals, the Greens, the NDP and the Bloc. While those who don't care - or who can kid themselves into thinking Harper is actually doing something - all vote Conservative.


We really need to start working on this split. The "gesture of cooperation" between Dion and Elizabeth May was a good start:

The planet has reached its limit. The human-caused damage to our natural environment is devastating. Currently, our two parties agree that urgent action is needed. So, too, do the vast majority of Canadians. Yet our electoral system could return to government the only political party that does not believe action is required urgently....

We admit we are different from most adversarial, political leaders. We respect each other. We will always put the country and the planet first.

Is it too much to hope that Jack Layton will start taking Elizabeth May's phone calls?

Stéphane vs Stephen

I've been reading Dion's Le pari de la franchise and I've been struck by the enormous contrast between Dion - a person who obviously admires and cares very deeply about this country - and Harper - a person who has made no secret of his contempt for Canada.

On national unity, here's Harper's famous firewall comment (in a letter to the National Post):

It is imperative to take the initiative, to build firewalls around Alberta, to limit the extent to which an aggressive and hostile federal government can encroach upon legitimate provincial jurisdiction.

And who can forget this gem?

Canada appears content to become a second-tier socialistic country, boasting ever more loudly about its economy and social services to mask its second-rate status...

By contrast, here's Dion in the introduction to Le pari de la franchise:

La première des convictions que j'expose dans ce livre est que notre pays, le Canada, est d'abord et avant tout, un principe d'entraide, l'un des meilleurs que l'esprit humain ait inventés....

Ce qui constitue la principale force et la vraie grandeur du Canada est sa capacité de rassembler des populations différentes autour d'objectifs communs. Cet alliage de l'unité et de la diversité ne saurait se maintenir sans le fédéralisme que nous avons inventé. [pp. xv-xvi]

Roughly translated, "Canada is above all a principle of mutual assistance, one of the best that the human mind has ever invented... The greatest strength of Canada is its capacity to bring together different populations around common goals. This alliance of unity and diversity wouldn't be possible without the federalism that we have invented."

From the English edition, Straight Talk, here's Dion on 'Why is being Canadian so valuable?'

No, the reason I consider myself so fortunate to be Canadian is not because of what is distinctive and particular to this country, but because of our achievement of universal ideals. Canada is the greatest example of what the world must become in terms of tolerance, openness, and capacity for harmony between different communities. [p. 132]

En français:

Non, si je me sens aussi chanceux d'être Canadien, ce n'est pas à cause de ce qui distingue et caractérise notre pays, mais plutôt parce que nous réalisons des idéaux humains universels. Le Canada est le meilleur example de ce à quoi on doit aspirer dans le monde entier sur les plans de la tolérance, de l'ouverture et de l'harmonie entre diverses communautés. [p. 142]

He closed a speech to the Faculty of Law, Université de Montréal, March 18, 1998, with this:

The Canadian ideal is that of a country where human beings have the best chance to be considered as human beings....

We must keep Canada united and make it even better, for ourselves, for our children, for future generations of Canadians, but also for all those human beings throughout the world who love our country as a paradigm of what the world can become. [Source: "150 years of Canadian democracy." Canadian Speeches 12.2 (May 1998): 13-18. ]

A much more generous vision of Canada.