Blue Like You

The Globe has an editorial this morning (The Tories’ almost forgotten policy), which ties in with a discussion we were having here yesterday.

The Globe asks why the Tories aren’t flogging their own climate change policy which they suggest is quite credible, instead of allowing Stephane Dion to have exclusive control of the media agenda this summer?

…That would be understandable if the Tories lacked a plan of their own. But as a government, they are moving forward with a regulatory framework that they claim will cut industrial pollution in half by 2015 and reduce greenhouse gases by 150 megatonnes by 2020. "In as little as three years, greenhouse gases could be going down, instead of up," Environment Minister John Baird enthused back in April. "After years of inaction, Canada now has one of the most aggressive plans to tackle greenhouse gases and air pollution in the world."

If that is the case, most Canadians certainly don’t know it. The Tories’ plan is complex, imposing mandatory emissions targets for big companies and then giving businesses that continue to exceed them a range of options (including contributing to a technology fund and purchasing credits from firms that come in below target). But, unlike Mr. Dion, who has worked hard to put his carbon tax into layman’s terms, they have made little effort to explain it…

The question from some of my loyal Conservative readers is similar. Why aren’t the Conservatives out there flogging their own environmental policy and the Government’s accomplishments in general?

Well, I have a few theories. The first one is that you usually need the willing assistance of the media, and they seem loathe to present anything conservative in a positive light, although it does occasionally happen. (Check out the comments from shocked Globe readers following Lawrence Martin’s recent column, In case you haven’t heard, there’s a new unity in the land.)

However, I think the main reason is that the CPC party strategists want to keep their powder dry.

Dion is so brave, now that the pressure is off to bring down the government until Parliament resumes again some time in the fall. Then he will again consult the tea leaves as to Canadians’ appetite for an election (and whether or not the results would favour the Liberals).

Yes, Dion Quixote is out there on the summer BBQ circuit, fearlessly tilting at laggards and deniers who are slow to see the value of wind farms and tax shiftiness as a way to fight the Evil Climate Change menace.

However, when he finally does screw up enough courage to actually bring down the government, then watch for the CPC to come out with guns ablazing.

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Update: Only 14 hours left to vote in the latest poll!

Steve Janke nails Stephane Dion for directing people to Greenshift.ca ! Where’s that calculator, Stephane?

NB Tory Lady has done a great job critiquing Michael Den Tandt’s op-ed in today’s Sun, so I will let you read about his unique view on Dion’s performance there.

Certainly his perception differs sharply from Don Martin’s, whom as you may know is not usually one of Harper’s cheerleaders - Dion Green as Campaigner.

The problem as I see it is that when Stephane Dion is faced with a specific question, he refers everyone to the website or the voluminous Green Shift document itself. He even does that with his own candidates.

Does he even know the answers himself?

Or is he just expecting us to blindly trust him and buy his green pig in a poke?

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Please don’t forget to vote in the latest poll. Thanks.

Update: 900 days in office today! Congrats, PM Harper!!

Interesting related links : Liberal MPs still undecided on carbon tariff - Globe.

Stephane Dion’s wife rallies local federal Liberals - Observer. (Did you know that she also picks out his clothes for him?)

Tories to take aim at carbon taxes in buildup to race for BC seats - Globe.

Greener than thou - Herald.

Don’t ya just love the rhetoric?

First Stephane Dion decries Jennifer Wright’s legal action as ‘DEPLORABLE’, and that he is "willing to fight in court to keep the "green shift" policy name that is attracting attention to the Liberals." (Gazette)

Then he turns tells reporters that "in a practical way we are ready to work with this businesswoman."

So which is it, Mr. Milquetoast?

I don’t really think Canadians are getting their money’s worth from elected members of the Liberal Party of Canada - especially when it comes time to vote in the House of Commons.

NB Tory Lady has some pics showing the poor attendance of the Official Opposition. If they were working in for a private company, they’d be long gone.

The NDP is not impressed either, nor is this letter writer from the Star.

The big question is, who’s in charge in the Liberal Party? Susan Delacourt says that Dion wants to wait until the fall, but Michelle Collins suggests that others are holding the pack back:

"…We want to go. We want to go," Mr. Dion said. "I feel that more now than it was the case some months ago, and it’s good because indeed we need to replace this bad government …"

"…and we don’t think most Canadians will want an election in mid-July," Mr. McCallum said. "And so we’re registering our opposition to provisions of the bill, but it’s unlikely that we would provoke an election."

But gee, didn’t they say that back in the winter? And then Easter wasn’t a good time either…. Now Canadians apparently don’t want a summer election… And of course the fall will be no good because with the kids going back to school and all… And then there’s Hallowe’en…

Those Liberal seats are going to get pretty dusty.

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Update : Jack Layton just had a good line in Question Period. We’ll have to wait for Hansard for the exact quote, but it was something to the effect that if the Liberals really wanted Jim Flaherty and the rest of the Cabinet fired, they could join the NDP in the non-confidence vote tonight and fire the whole government themselves!! Even Craig Oliver got a chuckle on that one during the rehash just now.

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Saturday Update: Dion rejects Liberal pleas to trigger election - Globe.

…With the scandal over former foreign affairs minister Maxime Bernier setting the Conservatives on the defensive and concerns about an economic downturn, a heavyweight group of the party’s most influential MPs argued in internal meetings this week that the Liberals have a window of opportunity for an election.

They included foreign affairs critic Bob Rae, Deputy Leader Michael Ignatieff, House Leader Ralph Goodale, Whip Karen Redman, finance critic John McCallum, and justice critic Dominic LeBlanc, according to multiple Liberal sources…

Yeah, I bet they feel totally humiliated to be seen abdicating their job every time a confidence vote comes up.  Even if they themselves are in attendance, it’s hard to be part of a party that doesn’t show up in enough numbers to put their money where their mouths are.

For purely partisan reasons, I feel that Stéphane Dion should stick to his guns regarding carbon taxes - and in different times, it could possibly have worked .

However, as Warren Kinsella and others have pointed out, we already have de facto carbon taxes right now with fuel prices escalating across the board. This not only affects the average citizen in terms of heating costs and extra expenses associated with driving a vehicle, but also indirectly affects all the other layers of taxes with rising costs for anything the federal, provincial and municipal governments require in terms of their own needs, which of course are inevitably passed on to the taxpayer. So we are getting the shaft in spades already.

Add to that some ‘tax-shifting’ and the poor average citizen will be mired in extra costs, with dubious returns in terms of income tax reductions. And how could the latter occur anyway, if the costs of everything the burgeoning government bureaucracies require would increase? Private companies that supply the governments would have to pass on their costs directly to the consumer, which again is the person staring at you in the mirror. And of course the rings of government and public service workers wouldn’t be lowering their salaries to accommodate the rising costs, would they?

And what about the seniors? There is a rising wave of Grey Power out there that is not going to take this assault on their meager pensions lightly. Some can barely hold onto their homes as it is. And this is the demographic that is more likely to get out and vote.

So as I said, Stéphane , don’t listen to the nay-sayers! Stick to your plan. Principle is always better than political acuity, n’est-ce pas?

And if you have any trouble selling your vision, just call Dr. Kyoto .

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Update: Just caught a newscast from Collingwood, Ontario. Shop owners are crying the blues due to cold, rainy weather and high gas prices keeping tourists away. So how would your gas tax help that again, Stéphane?

And BTW, send us a bit of that global warming here in Ontario!!!

Steve Janke - Does David Suzuki advocate exempting industry from the Liberal carbon tax? This is a must-read, folks!

Stephane Dion seems to be basing his economic policy on the so-called irrefutable science of man-made climate change. While I totally agree with his concerns about pollution and the inherent need to clean up the environment for the health and safety of Canadians, I have a difficult time buying this line:

…Finally, we need to play a bigger role in the international efforts to solve the climate-change crisis. We need to participate in the setting of international goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and international rules to put a price on the cost of inaction. We cannot ignore the science of climate change simply because we don’t like what it forecasts . We need to work together to bring together the environment, the economy and social justice so we can lead the way toward a sustainable future…

Well, there are many scientific forecasts which seem to challenge Monsieur Dion’s unwavering belief system on climate change. Just today we have relevant editorials by Lorrie Goldstein and David Warren , and a piece here questioning NASA’s model.

So the fact is that the science is not clear. There are still many questions and obviously many mitigating factors that can affect trends and changes in the temperature of the earth. And as Fred points out, very little MSM coverage is given to events that appear to contradict the prevalent climate- change theories. One would almost suspect that it is a conspiracy of some kind. But hopefully the light of healthy skepticism will start to peek through the cracks of the cover-up.

So if Stephane Dion wants to follow Australia’s example and try to take advantage of the gullible, that’s his choice.

But don’t pretend that it is such a noble cause, when in fact it’s just an excuse for another burgeoning, money-sucking bureaucracy that will have the net effect of driving up the costs of goods that Canadians wish to purchase - including gas, and every commodity that relies on gas for transportation.

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Update: CBC’s At Issue addressed the issue of gas prices and politics this week.

Also worth watching is Rex Murphy’s take on ‘The End of the Ethanol Dream’ .

I can’t believe I just linked to CBC twice in one post!

The Maple Three - New Liberal Slogan: "Heating bills from hell are on the way. "  (One of my favourite Liblogs)

With polls showing the Liberals and Conservatives in an apparent dead-heat, it’s disconcerting as a Conservative supporter to ponder what those polls might disclose if Dion was not the Liberal leader.

There aren’t too many columnists out there still trying to paint Stephane Dion as being effective. Even the traditional left-leaning pundits seem to be jumping ship. I suppose you can only support an illusion up to a point.

Chantel Hebert thinks that Dion blew it when he sold out on the environment issue. And now Dion is facing an even bigger test, with the immigration bill being tied to the budget, and thereby forcing him to either take a stand or cut and run once again.

But the immigration issue is so entrenched in Liberal folklore that it would be difficult for Dion to sit this one out. In two different newspapers columnist Angelo Persichilli outlines the dilemma - and the hypocrisy of their so-called self-acclaimed title as Champions of Immigration.

In the Sun (Will Immigration Issue bring down the Tories?), Persichilli states:

Will the issue of immigration do what the environment, crime bill and Afghanistan failed to do? Will the debate over immigration help Canadians get rid of this dysfunctional Parliament?

The answer seems positive. However, it seemed positive in the past but, in the end, one opposition party or another chickened out. This time it looks like the Liberals are tired of their new bend-and-run fitness program on Parliament Hill every time there’s a confidence vote and they may actually want to get rid of the Harper government.

So what they are talking about?

All of them know the immigration system is in a complete state of chaos. It’s also clear this deterioration took place mainly under the Liberals’ watch since 1993. They know what the problems are, but they don’t know how to solve them.

They know Canada’s economy needs tradespeople, but they don’t know how to let them in. They know criminals abuse the system, but they don’t know how to kick them out. They let highly educated immigrants in, but they don’t know how to find them jobs other than driving taxis in Toronto. They want to help refugees from around the world settle in Canada but don’t know how, forcing them to join the huge ranks of “undocumented” workers…

He goes on to point out that only immigration lawyers and consultants are benefitting from the present chaotic and sluggish system.

And then comes the clincher:

…In reality, the Liberals are not looking for a debate that would expose their shortcomings on this issue, but a platform to revitalize the myth about the Conservatives being against immigrants and them the champions of the poor and the weak. And, with this image in mind, throw (Dion) Quixote into the campaign.

Persichilli’s Hill Times piece is even more revealing - Liberals now thing of June election:

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..Last week, at a quasi-emergency meeting of the Liberal shadow Cabinet, the need to go to the polls as soon as possible was debated, recognized, and there was a general consensus that the Conservative immigration reform plan would be the trigger. According to Liberal sources, Canadians should go to the polls in June. This seems to be the plan.

After voting down the NDP motion last week to force the government to extrapolate the immigration issue from the budget bill, the bill will be debated in committee. At the Citizenship and Immigration Committee, Liberals are going to present their amendments to the reforms presented by Minister of Immigration Diane Finley. Liberals are very confident that these amendments will be approved with the help of the other opposition parties and sent back to the House for a vote.

Of course, the government could choose to accept them and change the budget bill in the House. If it does, the government is safe and the Liberals are stuck with Stéphane Dion for the summer, at least. However, in answer to a question asked by Mike Duffy last week during his afternoon Mike Duffy Live show, the Immigration Minister Finley said clearly that the government has no intention of changing anything and the Liberal amendments will be rejected. This means that the Liberals will vote the government down; at least that’s what they were saying last week.

If the Liberal plan holds—and the “if” is necessary considering the twists of the last few months—the final vote against the budget will take place during the first half of May and Canadians would go to the polls in June.

“Of course the best for the Liberals,” a party strategist told The Hill Times last week, “would be the removal of Dion before the vote and, even if this development is highly unlikely, it doesn’t mean that some Liberals have completely given up their hopes…”

The Liberal party’s biggest enemy is not the Harper government, but rather their own in-fighting and problems with moles, which are apparent with the Quebec wing’s inner turmoil and with comments like this:

…Dion seems to be convinced that the only development that could save his leadership is a national election. However, even if an election was widely welcomed a few months ago by the majority of Liberal MPs and strategists, there are now doubts. The polls are so bad that many MPs, even in Toronto, are fearing for their own seats. Some are concerned that even Etobicoke-Lakeshore is not a sure bet.

“I’m not saying that Michael Ignatieff is not going to win. I’m only saying that he has to work hard to keep it,” a Liberal insider told The Hill Times…

And here’s the conundrum:

…And that’s why they are using immigration to defeat the government. They, the Liberals, created the mess, they failed to correct it, and they don’t have a plan solve it. Still they believe that the old antics about this issue (”Conservatives are racist and we are the good guys”) will be enough to bring them back to power or, as a Liberal strategist said half-jokingly last week, spare them the humiliation, 15 years after the Conservative experience, from becoming “the party of two.”

L. Ian MacDonald points out the further hypocrisy of the Liberal’s opposition to changes in the Immigration policy - Harper is playing truth or dare on the immigration bill:

…Then the Liberal deputy leader, Michael Ignatieff, turned to refugee claimants and determination, always a hot-button issue. Under the previous Liberal government, he noted, “the queue for refugee claimants had been effectively reduced to zero.”

He continued: “Under the Conservative government, the backlog has ballooned to nearly 60,000 and is said to be heading to 100,000 by 2012.”

Ignatieff concluded: “What does the government have against refugees?”

Well, nothing. The real question is the reverse of the one posed by Iggy. If there are 60,000 refugee claimants today, how come there were none two years ago?

The answer is that since there are 800,000 people lined up at the front door, 60,000 people are trying to get in through the back door of refugee claims. The system isn’t working in the front, and has been systematically abused by lawyers and claimants in the back. And everyone knows it. Lawyers for Karlheinz Schreiber could file a refugee claim on the grounds he would be tortured by his jailers if extradited to Germany.

The Liberals are trying to whip ethnic communities into a frenzy largely over the discretion the bill gives the minister to instruct her department to give priority to immigrants whose job skills are needed in the Canadian workforce. “Cherry-picking,” Dion called it. Imagine, prioritizing immigration according to the demands of our economy. Aha. Queue jumping. Putting the economy ahead of family unification and refugee claims, sensitive issues in multicultural communities….

In view of all this, it boggles the mind that Liberal brand continues to stay afloat nationally, and even be on top in Ontario.

All of which makes me wonder what would happen if the Liberals finally did somehow get it together? Would they be back in government?

I can only hope their problems last for a long, long time.

In the print edition of Friday’s National Post:

(The above widget keeps changing, but it’s kind of cool. Just hold your cursor over the pic and you will see arrows that will allow you to flip through Clement’s archives.)

Christian Conservative has the Dion cartoon here.

In response to the Speaker’s statement saying, “All in favour of the government’s motion say ‘AYE’”, Dion responds with the following:

“AYE am actually opposed and outraged by this government’s abuse of…“

The Clement archive can also be found here. (H/T Uncommon Truths)

Also just got into my new issue of Macleans. Paul Wells has a fascinating article about Dion titled, “Party of One”. H/T to reader Jad for the link.

… you have to wonder if Dion is going to be putting forward a private member’s bill to extend the 4-year mandate of this government in 2009?

I can just hear it now - “Mr. Speaker, Canadians still don’t want an election…”

The National Post asks how much longer the Party of Shame will be able to continue with this pathetic strategy.

Via Dr. Roy we learn that there are more men disenchanted with Stephane Dion, than there are women who supposedly can’t warm up to Harper.

…Conservatives correctly complain the oft-documented aversion of women voters to their leader is actually less pronounced than male discomfort with Mr. Dion, a trend increasingly evident in Ipsos Reid polling numbers shared with senior public servants last week.

Ipsos-Reid president Darrell Bricker notes that the traditional softness of male support for the Liberals has drooped to an alarmingly flaccid state since Mr. Dion became party leader 16 months ago.

The Harper Conservative male-voter lead over the Dion Liberals is now at an almost insurmountable 14 points — 41% versus 27% for the Liberals…

So, in the interest of trying to protect the CPC’s best weapon, here is my suggestion to the Liberal party - Try a T-shirt.