Answer – When his lips are moving.
(H/T to a caller on the Jeff Allan show.)
Archive of entries posted on March 2008
But where do the jobs come from?
Angelo Persichilli’s column in today’s Sun is a must-read - Ontario must create jobs to prosper.
Great to have a job-training program, but at some point you need to have places for those people to work. So if we spend a pile of money re-educating the work force only to have them leave the province for greener pastures, what have we accomplished?
And how can Dalton’s pet projects in health care and education be sustained with a dwindling tax base?
And how can a burgeoning public sector be sustained? John Tory noted recently in the Post:
...Mr. McGuinty boasts that he has created new jobs in Ontario, but he fails to mention that almost half of the new jobs created are public sector jobs, paid for by taxpayers’ dollars. Ontario is the only province in Canada where over the past five years the growth of public sector jobs has exceeded the growth of private sector jobs. Mr. McGuinty wrongly believes this is sustainable. It’s not. We need private sector jobs to pay for those in the public sector…
In spite of what we think of Mr. Tory, his message rings true. If we continue on this path we will end up being the ‘caboose’ instead of the economic engine of Canada.
Jim Flaherty was right that the conditions need to be made favourable for investment to be attractive in Ontario. At the moment, they’re anything but.
Persichilli says we have to start immediately to create the jobs that the skilled labour is being groomed for. He wonders why we are selling our raw resources to other countries to be manufactured, and then shipping the products back to be bought by Canadians?
Of course, nobody is addressing the real issue – that we have priced our labour right out of the market.
Unless we’re willing to accept lower wages and abandon the union mentality, we will never be competitive.
And then the other provinces with natural resources will become the economic engines of the country – until everything has been depleted.
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‘Raising awareness’ with ad hominems
Sounds like Lorrie Goldstein gets more than his fair share of ranting emails from the Kyoto crowd.
In today’s column (Let’s clear the air here), Goldstein lays out his stance on global warming and climate change, which I find to be moderate, non-partisan and entirely reasonable:
For more than a year now, having done a fair bit of research about the issue on my own, I’ve been writing critically about global warming. During that time, I have stated the following:
That I accept the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that the Earth is warming unnaturally and that it is “very likely” human activity is the cause.
That, regardless of global warming, it’s important to conserve energy and to burn fossil fuels (oil, coal, natural gas) as cleanly and efficiently as possible, not just for environmental reasons, but for geo-political ones. The less we have to rely on Mideast oil, the greater our security will be.
I’ve said Canada, as a resource-rich country, should be a leader in the responsible use of fossil fuels and government subsidies to the oil industry — unnecessary when oil costs more than $100 a barrel — should be re-invested into Canadian research and development of new sources of renewable energy and clean technologies.
I’ve said if Canada imposes a carbon tax, presuming a majority of Canadians favour this, it must be done in concert with the U.S. and our other major trading partners, so as not to damage our economy.
I’ve argued it must be truly revenue neutral, providing already overtaxed Canadians with realistic ways of moving toward a carbon economy…
Then he goes on to explain why he doesn’t support the Kyoto protocol which, as he agrees with Harper, really is a ’socialist, money-sucking scheme’. Worse, it is not realistically designed to lower man-made GHG emissions due to the exclusion of certain countries such as China and India, and the fact that the U.S. has not ratified the treaty “dating back to the Bill Clinton/Al Gore administration”.
Also:
…Climate hysterics, led by environmental radicals and opportunistic politicians, who screech that every time there’s an extreme, or even unusual weather event it’s “proof” of man-made global warming, don’t know what they’re talking about. They constantly confuse “weather” and “climate.”They don’t understand the difference between man-made global warming and the Earth’s natural greenhouse effect, which keeps us all from freezing…
…Kyoto isn’t an environmental plan. It’s a plan to transfer wealth from the First World to the Third and damage the American economy in particular…
As if we need that right now! As we can already see, a worsening U.S. economic situation can seriously impact our economy – especially in Ontario.
Please read the whole article. It’s a no-nonsense approach to a very highly-charged, political argument. Yet the emails still pour in calling him names for this moderate stance.
Maybe that’s because when they’ve run out of facts, then name-calling is the only thing left to fall back on.
Or is it?
They could always try locking him up.
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Attacking the messenger
Via a reader – British police support worker Philip Balmforth has been removed from his duties, and faces a disciplinary meeting for talking to the press about Asian girls in the school system who go missing and often end up in forced marriages – Policeman who exposed forced marriages faces sack for ’shaming’ his city.
So the ‘honour’ and image of the city is more important than trying to lessen the incidence of abduction and rape? And if we don’t hear about it, then it doesn’t happen?
Meanwhile we get a lesson here in how our poor Western morals make us ‘hypocrites’ for suggesting that forced marriages with children are anything but noble.
Canada should take note.
Boycott Earth Hour
Update: Do not miss the Season finale RMR – (Season 5; episode 19; second clip) – Light Zapper!!!
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I’m supporting Diogenes Borealis in his Earth Hour boycott. This is just more trumped-up feel-good green nonsense.
Peter Foster calls it Earth Hour’s soft fascism:
…Earth Hour was in fact pioneered last year in Sydney by WWF Australia, advised by advertising giant Leo Burnet. Leo Burnet’s chairman, Nigel Marsh, demonstrated his skill both in semantic perversion and moral obfuscation when he declared: “I’m an optimist about climate change. The human race eventually abolished slavery and gave women the vote. We eventually work it out.”
Get the implication? “Deny” the dubious science or dangerous politics of anthropogenic climate change and you’re the kind of person who would support slavery and keep women barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen!
On the other hand, Lorrie Goldstein suggests that perhaps the topic of climate change is no longer so relevant, since the Ontario budget barely addressed the supposedly catastrophic problem:
…Finally, and most tellingly, the media didn’t ask one question of Duncan, Conservative Leader John Tory or NDP Leader Howard Hampton in three separate news conferences, about Premier Dalton McGuinty’s plans to fight climate change — not even as we all merrily prepare for “Earth Hour” this Saturday.
And all this astounding lack of interest about global warming — according to Al Gore the greatest threat humanity has ever faced — in the province which, next to Alberta, is Canada’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter! Shameful!
Of course, what it all demonstrates better than any opinion poll could is how much of the ongoing hysteria about global warming only survives in the rarefied atmosphere of constantly re-enforced political and media propaganda…
Exactly.
So pardon me if I opt out of this propaganda stunt.
I’ll have every light bulb in the house turned on – and they’ll all be incandescent.
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Thursday Update: Oh good grief! Look what’s on the front page of today’s Record. What a thing to wake up to!! (On the plus side, I did finally send in my cancellation notice.)
Looks like Lorrie Goldstein is going to have a busy Earth Hour – Minutes count when saving earth:
…HERE IS MY ITINERARY:
8:00 p.m. — Turn off lights before leaving house — naked — mindful of George Monbiot’s warning in Heat: How to Stop the Planet From Burning, that the campaign against global warming is a campaign in favour of austerity. In this light, I have decided to give up clothes, the manufacture of which is a major source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
8:01 p.m. — Hug tree.
8:02 p.m. — Lecture next-door neighbour about his stupid idea of holding community barbecue to celebrate Earth Hour, noting burning charcoal, propane and natural gas to heat barbecues emits GHG. Angrily ask neighbour why he is cooking chicken and hamburger, given that meat production is a major source of GHG. Demand neighbour serve chicken and hamburger to guests raw, noting food poisoning is a small price to pay for preventing cataclysmic climate change and making the world safe for Al Gore…
Please read the whole thing. It is hilarious!!!
How to call in to talk radio
CP’s Alexander Panetta reports that some folks seem a bit incensed by the CPC’s offer to coach talk-show callers with party talking points in an effort to counter some of the generally pro-Liberal MSM. Apparently CFRA’s Mark Sutcliffe isn’t impressed, although he doesn’t think they get a ‘ton’ of callers using the crib sheets.
Actually I had no idea such a service was available, and therefore felt compelled to check it out myself. You go to the main party site, and then click on login to My Campaign, which takes you here.
Then you click on Call Talk Radio, input your postal code and topic you wish to discuss, and Poof! You’re taken to a page showing all the talk shows in your immediate area, complete with times and tips on how to call in. The ‘talking points’ are merely lists of information to highlight Conservative accomplishments and failings of the other parties.
All in all, a fairly innovative and interactive program. It could even be useful to Conservative bloggers.
However, as the site suggests, you need to be prepared to ad-lib it with the show’s host if he or she interrupts with some questions. As such, I doubt Joe Blow off the street would be inclined to get much use out of it. I always think it’s better to talk from the heart on talk shows.
Liberal party spokesman Daniel Lauzon seems quite outraged:
“This undermines our democracy,” said Liberal party spokesman Daniel Lauzon.
“It’s not up for someone in Ottawa to tell someone in Blind River what they should think. . . All we tell our supporters is, ‘Speak your mind. Get out there and talk.’
“Never do we dictate messaging.”
My gosh, you’d think Stephen Harper himself arm wrestles every Conservative supporter to the ground and forces a recitation of the party line at gun-point.
More likely Mr. Lauzon is just expressing a sour grapes regret that they didn’t think of it first.
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Update: One of my readers reminded me about that little CBC-gate incident:
Compare it to CBC employees ‘telling’ MP’s what to ask in the HoC:
Which method is more subtle and manipulative? How powerful is a caller to a radio show?
Does it threaten the democratic process in the HoC?
Not to mention that in that case it was the Liberals needing to be fed questions, which doesn’t speak well for their integrity, judgment and imagination.
- Especially when the CBC doesn’t even know that Bill Casey is an Independent until a reader tells them.
Sheesh!
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Wednesday Update: Victor Wong says this is old news. Someone should tell Alex Panetta.
Thursday Update: The Chronicle Herald obviously hasn’t read Victor’s post.
Caledonia citizens get back at Bryant
For anyone following the Caledonia debacle, this post by Jonathan Kay is excellent. It has links to several recent events including Michael Bryant’s pathetic use of YouTube as a PR forum for communicating with residents.
Well the townsfolk have returned the favour. Videos can be found here. (The Spectator suggests trying here).
Psst, Rick Mercer… I see skit potential here!
Good on the National Post for continuing to be one of the few MSM voices supporting the citizens of Caledonia and the theory of a non-discriminatory police and justice system – even if it doesn’t exist in Ontario at the present time.
One more reason to stop public funding for CBC
This is pretty poor:
A Nova Scotia MP said he may urge Canadians to avoid travelling to Mexico if a jailed Canadian woman, Brenda Martin, is not set free soon.
Bill Casey, the Conservative Party MP for Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley made the remarks in a letter sent to Mexico’s ambassador to Canada…
Good grief! What is this? Amateur hour?
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Update: CBC caught the error! I wonder which member of the brain trust at the Mothercorps figured that one out? Ah, it came from comments. Ha!
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This is priceless! Via Liberal Arts and Minds who links to this Chronicle Herald article… Comment by ‘Family Doc’:
The best way to ensure Canadians stay out of Mexico is to remove all Immodium stocked on pharmacy shelves here. I am sure the medical community would lend its support.
Priceless.
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Sunday Update: Greg Weston has really jumped the shark here – Prisoner hopes to see enlightenment of Day. “As Brenda Martin reaches for what may be her only lifeline out of Mexican hell, she can only pray for the amazing grace of Stockwell Day.”
Sunday Update: Greg Weston has really jumped the shark here – Prisoner hopes to see enlightenment of Day. “As Brenda Martin reaches for what may be her only lifeline out of Mexican hell, she can only pray for the amazing grace of Stockwell Day.”
Oh pull-eeze!!! Is that an Easter reference, Greggy? What a load of simpering saccharin.
Next it will be, Save Saint Brenda from the “foreign hellhole”!
Just how gullible does he think we are?
Living with the consquences of the Nanny State
Thanks again to SDA for the link today. Tony’s comment regarding this article seems to have piqued her interest as it did mine. Is “Sandy Smith” an alias for Brenda Martin? There certainly appears to be no end to the intrigue.
The Record surprised me today with a fairly level-headed editorial on the controversy – Harsh realities for jailed woman:
…Nonetheless, there appears to be little more the Canadian government can do. There have been more than 100 contacts between federal government representatives and either Martin or Mexican officials. Canadian officials at the highest levels — including Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier, and possibly even Harper himself, have spoken to their counterparts about her case, urging fair and swift treatment. Other Canadians, including former prime minister Paul Martin, and several MPs, have visited her and telephoned. There is no doubt that Mexican officials, from President Felipe Calderon on down, are intensely aware of her case
But as Harper himself points out, Mexico is a sovereign country, and this case is one for the courts, which must be free of political intervention. There would be an uproar, and swift resignations, were Harper, or any other politician, to step in if they disagreed with a judge’s rulings here.
We must remember, too, that unfortunately Martin’s case is hardly unique. According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, about 1,750 Canadians are today imprisoned in other countries and the Canadian government has the same responsibility to them that it has to Martin. The bulk of these prisoners are in the U.S., but others are in jails in countries as diverse as China, Australia, Thailand and Peru, mostly on drug, immigration or fraud charges.
Many doubtless are guilty as charged. Others have been dealt with in ways many Canadians will consider harsh. For example, Kitchener mother Loan Ngoc Bui is serving 40 years for drug trafficking after a police officer in Illinois stopped her car and found 3,710 ecstasy pills hidden in it. Her boyfriend, who was driving, says Bui knew nothing of the drugs.
But Americans take a different view of drugs than we do in Canada, and as a result, Bui is serving out a sentence harsher than a Canadian court would dole out even for a convicted murderer.
The federal government has lived up to its obligations to Martin, who has had the benefit of dozens of high-level interventions, something most Canadians imprisoned abroad never see. Ottawa must continue be vigilant, and ensure her case is dealt with swiftly and fairly, but beyond that, Martin’s fate lies in the hands of a Mexican judge.
(Just when I was determined to cancel my subscription… Oh well.)
After reading that editorial, a couple of thoughts came to mind. First of all, as the Record noted, the Mexican government would probably like nothing better than to have Brenda Martin ejected from Mexico forthwith. By now her notorious case is undoubtedly an embarrassment and a drag to their tourist industry. So how will putting pressure on either the Canadian or Mexican government change anything people????
As Harper was quoted by the Record, “Mexico is a sovereign country, and this case is one for the courts, which must be free of political intervention.”
O.K. I know that the Mexican legal system is reported to be corrupt, and there is a presumption of guilt until innocence is proven, but it is still a sovereign country. Brenda Martin left Canada and went there of her own volition to work. And yes, she has been in prison already for two years awaiting charges (which have now been laid) and trial, which has its own quaint little idiosyncrasies in the Mexican system. And yes, she has been imprisoned with already-convicted women.
However according to many sources, she has received special treatment in this high-profile case – certainly much better than many other Canadians in the same plight.
Which brings me to point number two. Isn’t it interesting that anyone committing a crime seems to want to either return to Canada or stay in Canada when it comes time to pay the piper? I’m thinking about Schreiber, several Canadian pedophiles, and countless others who know that Canada is an easy mark when it comes to serving sentences and the comfort of that environment. And the Lefties were in shock that our Charter Rights didn’t extend to Afghan detainees!
Could it be that our Canadian system is so lax to the point of creating a mentality of rights-entitlement that has undercut the fundamental need to be held accountable for our actions?
Just go where you want, do what you want and Canada will bail you out afterwards if you embarrass the government enough.
There must be a middle ground somewhere.
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