Blue Like You

Archive for September 22nd, 2008

Harper vows crackdown on youth crime - Sunmedia.

This is a substantive issue that clearly defines the Conservatives from all the other parties on the left. Check out the comments at CTV and the Post. Most are saying it’s about time!

The only complication would be a minority government, and then we would be right back where we started.

Come on Canada! You know what to do!!

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Update: Great discussion going on at Jack’s Newswatch on the same topic.

Another happy Blogging Tory here - Right as Rain.

I don’t think there’s anything that frustrates a political canvasser more than when the person who opens the door says, "Well I’ve always voted (fill in the blank), and I’ll be doing it again".

Case  closed. Mind shut.

At this point you know you’re wasting your time trying to convince the voter otherwise, so you wish them a good day and move on.

This seems to be the mindset of many Northern Ontario voters, as John Ivison has discovered - Too conservative to vote Tory. In this case, the definition of ‘conservative’ appears to refer to a tendency to avoid change - as in changing the way you and your ancestors have ever voted since time began:

…It’s as predictable as the girls going to bingo and the boys getting stinko on a Sudbury Saturday Night — come election day, more Northern Ontarians vote for the Liberals than for any other party…

…Apart from high gas prices and bears that invade city backyards, voters aren’t feeling angry. Simply put: Many Northern Ontarians are too conservative to vote Conservative. "I’ll just vote the way I’ve always voted — Liberal," said one man in a Sudbury branch of Tim Hortons.

It’s ironic that the Conservatives’ national campaign has played so heavily on the theme that this is no time for risky changes. Voters in Nickel Belt and Sudbury look set to punish them for that sentiment and re-elect candidates for the party that bought loyalty with federal dollars in an attempt to diversify a region over-dependent on the boom-bust cycle of resource industries….

…Ms. Marleau is confident she will be re-elected for the seventh time. "I’ve been in politics so long, voters know me very well and know what I’ve done," said the former health minister. Not everyone, it appears — the Sudbury Star says her only recent achievement was "the odd communique about getting a passport office, which is an eye-roller, since the Liberals couldn’t deliver one during the 13 years in which the party was in power.

But Ms. Marleau should benefit from her longevity as the local MP — after 20 years in politics, voters seem to think that if you can still tie your own shoelaces, you deserve to be re-elected…

Then on to North Bay :

Mr. Rota has other challenges, namely the performance of his leader and the Green Shift policy. One afternoon last week, he tried to sell the key platform plank to the sisters at St. Joseph’s Mother House in North Bay. Go to the party’s Web site and punch in your information to find out about your tax credits, he said. "Say you’ve two parents and three kids, it will give you the difference," he enthused.

One of the older nuns looked bemused — perhaps by the example offered, which was relevant to hardly anyone in the room, or perhaps by such new-fangled concepts as Web sites and the Internet. The bottom line is that in a week of asking people if they understood the Green Shift, no-one, including at least one Liberal candidate, could explain it without plunging into a sea of platitudes…

However, the good news for Rota is that "to the sisters of St. Joseph’s Mother House, Mr. Rota represents hope to the Tories’ fear. "You’re preaching to the choir," one nun said."

Wonderful.

Ivison finishes his column with an observation from a gentleman at Tim Horton’s saying that he expects things will "just stay the same".  The image that immediately came to me was of the older crew from Air Farce sitting around the table nodding in agreement, "Oh yeah", "Uh-huh", "You got that right", ‘Tell me about it, eh?", as they add more sugar to their coffee.

I guess I’m wondering if there is anything the Liberal party could possibly do that would be so egregious that Northerners would finally wake up and smell the Timmies?

Adscam obviously wasn’t it.

I really hope that the various political parties will soon start addressing some of the issues on my election wish list, and get away from the pathetic display of mud-slinging, which MSM seems only too happy to regurgitate in our morning papers and newscasts (Springer has a link to a great column by Coyne on the latter).

O.k.  I admit the topic of the economy has been discussed, with certain leaders seemingly of the mind that throwing buckets of non-existent money is the solution to all our problems…

However, how about the issue of Human ‘Rights’ Commissions in Canada, and what many Canadians perceive to be a frightening encroachment of our basic freedoms?

I’m not just referring to Freedom of Speech and of the press, which has been well-publicized (thanks to Ezra Levant , David Warren and others), and is proving to be a difficult and delicate balance between hate speech and freedom to express oneself -especially with the internet.

Father Raymond J. De Souza had an excellent column in the Sept. 19 National Post, in which he likened the actions of the various human rights gulags to a "cancer" - (Human Rights’ vs. Basic Freedoms) :

A timely intervention has prevented the cancer from metastasizing, but aggressive treatment is still needed.

The diagnosis is by now well known: From their privileged place within the body politic, Canada’s various human rights commissions have gone from legitimately fighting discrimination to attacking Canadian liberties.

There was a real danger of metastasis, as the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) attempted to spread its corruption to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO). The timely intervention came from the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) and other public voices. The patient, though — the Canadian public–is still infected with human rights commissions that are compromising our most fundamental liberties, including freedom of conscience, of religion, of speech and of the press…

Please read the whole thing and become informed and aware of how our precious freedoms are in danger of being stealthily eroded.

We narrowly dodged the bullet this time. But as Father De Souza says:

…Professional groups such as the OMA — those representing writers and clergy, for example — have been sounding the alarm on the human rights commissions for some time now. There needs to be a corresponding sense of urgency from Canadian governments, whose statutes sustain human rights commissions. Provincial ministers of justice have been largely silent. The federal minister of justice, Robert Nicholson, a good man who surely knows better, has been disconcertingly reserved in regard to the abuses taking place on his watch. The federal government’s irresponsibly lackadaisical approach sends signals to otherwise respectable bodies, like the CPSO, that the OHRC and similar bodies are not to be challenged.

That needs to change–otherwise we shall eventually be whistling past the graveyard of Canadian liberty.

Wake up, Canada!  Which of our freedoms will they be going after next?

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Update: The National Post seems to be agreeing with me that we need to get beyond the gaffe alerts - Election Immaturity.