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Sorry Australia, Michael Ignatieff disapproves

Posted by Joanne on 14 August 2010, 9:00 pm

Australia obviously doesn’t have principles according to Michael Ignatieff (H/T Maz2):

Ignatieff dismissed calls that Canada should have followed Australia’s policy on refugees and turned the Tamil refugee boat away.

“This is Canada, not Australia,” Ignatieff said. “That means Canada has principles, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, our international obligations.“

Anyone from the Liberal camp willing to issue an apology to one of our fellow coalition partners in Afghanistan?

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Sunday Update

Iffy on how he would have handled Tamil ship – BC Blue

Michael Ignatieff: Canada has principles…unlike Australia – Prairie Tory

Ignatieff Does Sack of Hammers – CanadianSense

MSM fails to report ridiculous comments from Ignatieff – Paulsstuff

Smugglers may have made more than $20-million from Tamil ship – National Post (H/T Michael Harkov)

Ottawa vows to stop illegal migrants before they depart for Canada – Globe

End refugee free-for-all – Ezra Levant (Sun)

Very interesting immigration debate going on in Australia.  This site is well worth checking out.

And from Lorne Gunter:

In Canada, Tigers and Tiger supporters in the Tamil community have extorted hundreds of millions of dollars from Tamil Canadians by threatening their businesses here or their families back home unless they paid upwards of $2,500 a month to Tiger front groups.

Indeed, the MV Sun Sea, which steamed into Victoria under RCMP and navy escort this week is thought to be the former Tiger gun-running ship, still owned by the terror group. And the Tigers are thought to be behind the current human-smuggling voyage, charging those on board as much as $45,000 each to get them to Canada.

The cash will help the Tigers rekindle their war with Sri Lanka and the refugees themselves may be being used as cover to conceal Tiger commanders who are thought to be eager to set up a government-in-waiting here until such time as they can take up the fight in their homeland again.

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Monday Update

RCMP eyes Canadian financial ties to Tamil migrant ship – Globe:

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said he has been told the organizers of the voyage of the MV Sun Sea, which reached Canadian waters on Friday with more than 450 men, women and children on board, charged up to $50,000 a passenger – for a potential total haul of more than $20-million.

Inside the Harper government, questions are being raised as to whether Canadian residents helped pay, Mr. Toews said in an interview Sunday. It is a criminal offence to give money to a banned terrorist organization or to participate in human smuggling.

Tamil Migrant Story- Some Facts for your Consideration – LankaWeb

Filed under Afghanistan, Canadian Politics, Iffy, Iggo Waffles, Iggy, Iggyssiah, Incompetence, International news, International politics, Liberal Party of Donolo, Liberal Party of Toronto, Liberal arrogance, Liberal entitlement, Liberal machine, Michael Ignatieff, Peter Principle, Tamil Tigers, Tamils, The LPC is dysfunctional.
169 Comments

The ‘Tragedy’ of Munir Sheikh

Posted by Joanne on 8 August 2010, 9:04 pm

Paul Martin announces that it was a “tragedy” that the [census] controversy provoked the resignation of Statistics Canada chief Munir Sheikh.

And in other news, Former head of Stats Can gets new job. (H/T Wilson)

My heart gently weeps.

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Related

Drop the census charade – George Jonas, National Post:

The census is about coercion. Information is almost incidental. The long form’s function is to accustom respondents to being wards of the authorities.

Finding quarrel in a straw – Rex Murphy, National Post (H/T Liz J):

Let’s put it this way: If this country can’t function without the long-form census as we know it, then let’s man the lifeboats now and bob our way perilously into the future as best we may.

Census invades privacy – Chris Vander Doelen, Windsor Star (H/T Frmgrl):

It’s patently obvious why government and its legions of apologists want us to cough up telling details about our lives. It’s to tax us more efficiently and to enable their social engineering.

Many boaters were infuriated to learn last month that Ottawa’s technocrats will force all six million of Canada’s boat owners to register their pleasure craft and take a “captain’s” course next year. Currently, only 2.65 million of them register their deadly little punts and sailboats.

How do you think the technocrats learned that there were 2.35 million boats left yet to tax at $250 each? (Cha-ching! $587.5 million more in the coffers to prop up federal wages!)

The census is about the unelected controlling the public. The intensity of their defence of the long census reveals the importance this information plays in their plans to tax and control every aspect of life.

Filed under Canadian Government, Canadian Politics, Entitlement, Pseudo-scandals, Too many Fools on the Hill, Too many pigs at the trough, Voter cynicism, Your tax-dollars, democracy.
18 Comments

Days I’m glad I’m just a blogger

Posted by Joanne on 6 August 2010, 10:17 am

There is an advantage to being a lowly unpaid blogger – I don’t have a deadline and am therefore not forced to put out crappy columns like this one by Susan Delacourt.

However even this load of partisan verbiage contains a kernel of truth:

I’ve done a bit of roaming outside the Ottawa bubble this summer, but it’s mainly been with the Liberal Express, Michael Ignatieff’s summer-long tour of the country. Granted, this is a bit of a bubble itself — mainly the crowds consist of committed Liberals. But what I’ve heard generally backs up the observations of Hebert and Martin.

Bubble girl refers to ‘stats’ regarding a Canadian Press (!) ‘investigation’ reporting that focus groups are frustrated with Government communication regarding the “direction the government is taking”.  While I don’t disagree that communication strategies need to be improved, I question the sampling and purpose of this study even though Ipsos was quick to point out that the results shouldn’t necessarily be extrapolated to the entire Canadian population:

The focus groups were conducted in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Mississauga, Ont., Halifax and Trois-Rivieres, Que. Participants were described as “heads of household or co-heads of household” and were designed to reflect “a mix of gender, age, and education levels,” the pollster’s report states.

Yeah not a huge showing from rural Canada. I’m smelling a whiff of something from Delacourt’s column if she’s trying to use this study as her statistical reference.

Oh yes, we have the ever so non-partisan recent EKOS poll to back up her theory, but I’m still not buying the spin.

Even Don Martin admits that “Having lived out of a suitcase for the last month from Cape Breton to Toronto to Alberta to Inuvik, I can tell you the long-form census fight does not even rate being called a trifle to the average voter.”

But as I said before, bring it on.

And I guarantee you that we Conservative bloggers will be out in full force, doing our civic duty to offer a smidgen of balance to all the Tabolos, Travolos and Delolos out there.

Filed under Blog Power, Blogging, CPC majority solution, Canadian Politics, Election fever, Liberal Party of Donolo, MSM bias, Media Issues, Media Watch, Press puffery, Pseudo-scandals, Puffin Stuff, Voter cynicism, grassroots power.
64 Comments

Do Canadians finally want an election?

Posted by Joanne on 5 August 2010, 8:04 am

For a long time now Michael Ignatieff has been telling us  Canadians don’t want an election, but the latest EKOS numbers must be tempting him.

With all the census brouhaha and now this tantalizing poll, will Iggy tell us that Canadians are now ready?  We’re all just waiting for the word.

The Bloc and NDP have been voting against the government all along and would likely agree to go anytime.  So it’s up to Iffy to decide.

Should he strike while the iron is hot, and huge crowds are falling under the spell of his charms on his wildly successful bus tour?

I mean, he’s already got Egmont in the bag right?

[And yes, I am hoping he takes the bait.]

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Update

Big City Lib thinks the poor numbers for the Conservatives are due to the state of the Canadian economy.  Yes!  that’s it!  There should be an election about this!!  And don’t forget that Michael Ignatieff thinks it’s too early to “shut the door” on additional stimulus spending.

Oh be still my beating heart.

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Regarding the census – one of the best letters to the editor I’ve ever read:  Question the Numbers (Record)

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Afternoon Update

Harper vows to focus on economy, no election hints – CTV

PM: Canada ‘leading the way’ on economy – CBC

Best thing for Canadian economy would be job growth in U.S., analysts say – Winnipeg Free Press

Filed under Bloc, CPC majority solution, Canadian Politics, Canadian economy, Coalition of the swilling, Election fever, Federal Election, Harper best PM ever, Harper smartest PM ever, Iffy, Iggo Waffles, Iggy, Iggyssiah, Liberal Party of Donolo, Liberal Party of Toronto, Liberal arrogance, Liberal entitlement, Michael Ignatieff, Too many Fools on the Hill.
101 Comments

Greenies and a higher calling

Posted by Joanne on 31 July 2010, 8:04 pm

Georges Laraque channeling Prince Charles or vice versa?

‘I can only somehow imagine that I find myself being born into this position for a purpose.

- Prince of Wales

“I get excited joining causes, that’s what I was born for, to change the world.”

- New Deputy leader of the Green Party of Canada.

So who makes these decisions? Gaia?

Just askin’

Filed under Big Environment, Big Green, Canadian Politics, Follow the money, Shifty Green, Your tax-dollars.
17 Comments

Political correctness takes a back seat (for once)

Posted by Joanne on 10 July 2010, 9:41 am

Sun Media gives the appointment of David Johnston as new G-G a solid thumbs-up in today’s editorial: Hip, hip hooray for the white GG:

An old white guy for Governor General?

How novel, and yet how brilliant of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

In fact, we’re giving him a standing ovation. Right now.

Everyone on their feet!

In an age when the federal civil service has taken affirmative action to the extreme, with preference in the federal bureaucracy given to those who are bilingual — preferably francophone, of course — or persons of colour, or disabled or aboriginal, the appointment of David Johnston as Canada’s next Governor General is a historic breakthrough…

Which isn’t to say that persons from minority groups aren’t qualified for their positions, but it sure is nice to see a situation where an otherwise stellar candidate wasn’t summarily eliminated from the running due to his age, gender or colour.

Perhaps the pendulum is finally starting to swing back to the sane middle.

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Sidenote to Susan Riley:

If it’s “classy stilettos” you’re seeking, how about making a trip to the mall?

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Sidenote to Lisa LaFlamme and CTV in general:

You’re acting like this was an appointment to the Senate or something. Get over yourselves. You’re yesterday’s news.

Filed under Canadian Government, Canadian Parliament, Canadian Politics, MSM, Media Watch, Men are people too, Multiculturalism, Political correctness, democracy.
27 Comments

The wheels on the bus go clunk, clunk, clunk

Posted by Joanne on 8 July 2010, 2:15 pm

For the lazy hazy days of summer this sure is an action-packed day. We finally know who the next G-G will be, and then there’s that very interesting EKOS poll out today about which the Tories seem rather skeptical.

Now we hear talk of an impending election if the unelected Senate continues to tinker with the budget bill (that our elected Parliament has already passed). Apparently the Conservatives still don’t have an absolute majority in the Upper House.

Meanwhile, Michael Ignatieff will soon be starting his summer bus tour with some Liberals perhaps wanting to throw him under it.

In any case, what shall we call Mr. Ziffy’s bus tour now?

‘Grovelling on the Greyhound Tour’?

Iggy’s Summer Under the Bus Tour?

The Return to Harvard Tour?  Or even better -  Express Bus Back to Harvard Tour?

Go crazy!

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Update

The latest EKOS poll - Stephen Taylor (Very interesting observation about the sampling.)

Steve Janke: Dead party walking – Full Comment

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Friday Update

Tory’s election threat quickly dismissed – Ottawa Citizen:

…But Stephen Harper’s spokesman said Canadians do not want an election and the prime minister “is not looking to call an election this fall.” A lengthy chain of events would need to happen before an election would be forced, beginning with the Senate majority approving the amendments in votes Monday and Tuesday.

Filed under CPC majority solution, Canadian Politics, Election fever, Iffy, Iggo Waffles, Iggy, Iggyssiah, Liberal Party of Donolo, Liberal Party of Toronto, Liberal machine, Michael Ignatieff, Senate reform, Senile Second Thoughts.
47 Comments
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