Blue Like You

H/T to Tori for this one…

Is this guy for real?

In a 75-minute session with Sun Media’s editorial board in Toronto, Dion predicted his proposed carbon tax will trigger substantial reductions by 2012, building momentum that he hopes will reach a 20% decrease by 2020. However, he can’t forecast how fast emissions will decrease in the short term.

"I’m confident we will have significant reductions. I’m not telling you specific numbers because you would not trust me," he said.

Okay… and we’re still supposed to take this plan seriously?

And is that another example of the same values that the Liberal party shares with Jennifer Wright’s Green Shift?

Stephane Dion basically wants us to blindly trust him on this one.

We’re to follow him like good little lemmings - right over the cliff.

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More from the Sun Editorial Board:

With numbers, he’s a greenhorn - Lorrie Goldstein.

Dion Green Shift a Green Shaft - Linda Leatherdale.

Dion gets his shift together - Toronto Sun. (And if you look really hard, you’ll see him concede that his "carbon tax might indirectly lead to higher prices at the pumps. "

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Jennifer Wright update - From the authentic Green Shift website:

To all who are visiting this site in interest of what is happening to Green Shift, and/or are questioning whether we have a tie to the Liberal Party of Canada, we want to be very clear – our mission is to help the environment, not to get dragged down by political baggage that we cannot control.

The fact that the Liberal Party of Canada has used our name for their environmental plan is, to say the least, extremely upsetting, and damaging to the reputation that we uphold. We sincerely apologize to all of the businesses, institutions and individuals who are a part of the real Green Shift and sincerely hope that you will not suffer from anyone accidently thinking that you have ties to a political agenda…

More at the Green Shift website.

Also, Dr. Roy has a related post - Grit Arrogance.

Oh, and Jennifer Wright, did you know that you were actually o.k. with the Liberals stealing the name of your company?

SDA weighs in here.

Did anyone else happen to catch Bernier’s speech to les Beaucerons just now?

I thought his speech was very compelling but CTV’s Craig Oliver was not impressed. Waiting for online links to the speech.

The most interesting part was that Bernier says that the documents were Nato notes from a previous trip and did not even warrant a bar code for security purposes. Oliver is surmising that the PM was using this as an opportunity to get rid of him.

Bernier still maintains that he has no memory of leaving them at Mme Couillard’s maison.

The mystery continues.

* * * *

Here we go (H/T to National Newswatch): Bernier says he was unaware of Couillard’s past (CTV).

Globe - Bernier pleads ignorance on bikers.

Mike Duffy is reporting on CTV that Christan Paradis has just rolled up for the swearing-in ceremony.

James Moore is expected.

Developing.

10:45 Update: Duff says Fortier may be moved.

CTV Website update.

11:13 Update: Fortier is being sworn in as Minister of International Trade.

11:16 Paradis is being sworn in as Minister for Public Works.

11:17 Moore is being sworn in for Minister of State for the Pacific Gateway, Olympics and Official Languages.

Kady O’Malley is live-blogging here.

CTV - Cabinet swap sees Emerson shifted, Moore promoted.

Jennifer Wright may be surprised to learn that her company "Green Shift" shares the same values as the LPC, according to a quote by Liberal spokesman Joseph Mayer in today’s National Post:

Ms. Wright has threatened to take the Liberals to court over their use of the "Green Shift" as the name of their newly-launched socialist wealth-transfer plan , due to the resemblance to her own company’s name, Green Shift. Unfortunately, she can’t actually afford the legal fight.

Mayer dismisses Wright’s concerns with comments such as, the party "does not pose a commercial threat to the firm" and "most importantly, I think we share the same values as the company."

Now that seems to grate on Ms. Wright’s nerves just a wee bit. She maintains:

"We make our bias the environment, not politics. Our clients don’t want to be caught up in some Liberal campaign, or for that matter, any political campaign."

She clearly does not want to be associated with any political party, and this infringement upon the company’s name is causing major headaches for her.

The Globe’s Bill Curry quotes her as saying that "what they’re doing is so blatantly unethical" .

And I think that’s what it all boils down to - ethics and goodwill. Jennifer Wright may not have a solid legal case here, but in the court of public opinion, she may be right.

As pointed out in the Globe article, there is a precedent where John Baird backed down from using a private company’s name out of sheer respect and compassion.

Stephen Taylor himself was asked by the Liberal Party not to infringe on their trademark and he complied immediately.

But the Liberal Goliath has determined to stomp all over this hard-working, green, female David.

Stephane Dion states at the Green Shift that he wants to "create new, well-paying, green jobs."

Too bad he doesn’t seem to care about one existing company with the same name.

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10 a.m. Update: Jeff Allen has Liberal MP Andrew Telegdi on for the next hour. Andrew will be taking calls about their shifty plan.

Big thanks to reader Barbara for that tip about the Adler interview with Jennifer Wright yesterday. It’s in the vault here. Just click on Tuesday, June 24 at 1 p.m.

* * * *

Evening update: Has anyone attempted to contact Stephane Dion yet to register displeasure with the way Jennifer Wright has been treated? One reader emailed me saying that she just received a form letter back. Anyone else?

I’m wondering now if it wouldn’t be better for anyone with a Liberal MP to speak to them back in their home riding - especially when they’re explaining the Green Shift to constituents. Thoughts?

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Thursday Update : Have another look at Jennifers’ Green Shift site! Do you see something new? I admire her spunk. I really do.

Matt has another great post up about the Liberal Party’s use of a trademark name belonging to a Toronto company (Green Shift) owned by Jennifer Wright. Sandy broke the story yesterday and Matt ran with it. MSM then started picking it up.

Jennifer Wright is quite upset about this infringement on her trademark name, and rightly so. The Liberal Party called her before releasing The Green Shift, and arrogantly advised her that the hits on her website were going to dramatically increase. So they already knew there would be confusion. Jennifer asked them to use a different name. She didn’t want to be associated with the LPC. They ignored her and went ahead anyway.

Jennifer Wright comments at Matt’s blog:

Hi and thanks to those who left caring comments and signs of understanding. I cannot express enough how frustrating it is to hear anyone suggest that we should be happy to receive misdirected attention. We really do not have time for the garbage and for those who think we do, I wonder, do those people like spam …

…Anyway, our main point is that we are not affiliated with any one political party and to now have our name attached to one of them is a problem. Moreover, if there was ever any doubt that another environmental program, aimed to help some of the very issues that we too are trying to solve under this name, would create confusion and cause damages - we can 100% prove that the answer is absolutely yes and that is why we are left with no choice but to protect ourselves.

I’m sorry but the irony here is too much to contain. Here we have a plan masterminded by Stephane Dion, which is causing huge problems for this poor woman in Toronto who is trying to make a go of it in the green industry. She has worked hard to attain great credibility in the field, and then along comes the LPC and callously jeopardizes all her efforts. She can’t afford to fight the LPC.

Will you please help her by calling or writing to Stephane Dion and ask him to apologize and change the name of his plan? As Jason Kenney suggests, the name should be changed to reflect what it really is - "The Green Tax on Everything".

Jennifer Wright has been shafted enough. She doesn’t need any more Liberal shift.

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Update : H/T to Sammy in comments for this gem from the King of Arrogance himself:

"…So, to recap: The Liberal Green Shift domain name, www.thegreenshift.ca, was available and was registered. The for-profit Green Shift company was notified in advance. It got a ton of hits. It has received non-stop national publicity. Millions of people who never knew it existed, do now. This traffic, headlines, notoriety and attention cost the company nothing. To achieve this level brand recognition would have taken a marketing budget bigger than gross sales.

And now it wants to sue?

Maybe an enterprising journalist should ask the owner, Jennifer Wright, how she votes. I’m betting it ain’t Liberal…"

Unbelievable.

This story continues to evolve. Sandy received a comment from Jennifer Wright as well, where she gives us a sample of the type of abuse she is having to deal with over this problem that the Liberal party initiated.

Stephen Taylor tells us of a run-in of his own with the Liberal party.

Steve janke explains Why the Liberal Party must be sued over the Green Shift name.

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Totally unrelated: Check out Brass Balls Radio to find out who apparently has a crush on me!

Matt and Sandy’s story is really chugging along. I originally mentioned it at the end of this post in an update. It seems that a private company called Green Shift is quite perturbed that the Liberal party have used their trademarked name for the launch of the Tax shift plan.

Just a nice little company doing the right thing, and then along comes the big, bad Liberal party and starts messing with them. Matt tells us the clients are concerned that they are affiliated with the LPC, and this is starting to affect Green Shift’s bottom line.

Why is the Liberal party giving this company the shaft? Will Green Shift receive an apology? Will the Liberals change the name of their plan?

Stay tuned.

* * * *

Update: MSM is on it!

CTV - Firm takes action against Liberal ‘Green Shift’ brand.

National Post - ‘Green shift name taken’, enviro group tells Liberals.

Globe - Liberals Green Shift brand hits a snag.

This story is really staring to look bad for the Liberals. It’s clear from the MSM links that the Liberals knew about this conflict and just ignored it anyway. Ms. Wright feels that this is a David vs. Goliath situation. The Liberals really are the bullies here.

Is this the party you want running the country? Someone who would step all over a great private company that was just trying to do the right thing. Jennifer Wright has been working hard to develop a good reputation only to have it trod upon by some arrogant politicians.

I always thought that Stephane Dion valued green companies and women. But when push comes to shove, the party’s own interests seem to get priority.

Greg Weston - Dion’s costly shift.

Saturday’s National Post editorial condemned the Nanny State for increasing interference into traditionally parental jurisdictions - Leave parenting to parents. The unelected, Liberal-dominated Senate wants to ban spanking in Canada, and the motion will now go to the House of Commons for approval.

As Licia Corbella illustrates from personal experience, there are times when a little tap on the hand or rear end is the only method that works:

…We tried reasoning with our little angel. That didn’t work. Then we gave him time outs. Then longer time-outs. We lectured calmly, we screamed loudly, we removed privileges. Nothing worked.

The bites became a reflex. Soon they were leaving significant marks and a very upset victim.

Eventually, we warned the biter that if he bit his (twin) brother again, he would be spanked. We didn’t have to wait long. He bit his brother that same day. I spanked his clothed bottom. And guess what? It worked.

The biting stopped.

Vow broken. Sanity and peace restored. One son protected from bodily harm, another from a very anti-social habit…

Spanking should of course be used as a last resort, or as a way to convey imminent danger when the child is just to young to understand anything else. Here I’m thinking of situations with a hot stove or running out in the street, etc. But spanking should never be done in anger or excess.

What really baffles me though is how the Liberals ignore the imminent reality of a growing fetus, but then suddenly want to take over every aspect of that child’s life as soon as he emerges from his mother’s body.

Why not just grow a population of Test-tube Lemmings and eliminate the middle(wo)man?

Now wait one gol darn minute here.

Didn’t the Liberals enable the Conservative Government’s immigration amendments to pass?

And now Iggy is being sent on a tour of Canada to try and woo back their supposed base by asking for new ideas?

New ideas for what? How to abstain from voting?

"We don’t like what the Conservatives have done on immigration but we want to come with a good plan to propose to Canadians and Michael and Maurizio have decided they will come with recommendations for the party."

The Star points out that the real problem was that somebody didn’t want an election:

…Liberals voiced their outrage but didn’t defeat the immigration change because it would have prompted an unwanted election in July. But their tacit agreement is seen as a further weakening – if not a betrayal – of the Liberal connection to immigrant communities…

And of course, Canadians apparently don’t want an election in the summer - or the fall, or the winter, or the spring…

Rick Mercer’s brilliant song still rings true:

"We’re not afraid to face the electorate. We’re just afraid to face them in the context of an election!"

Dion feels all this cross country touring will help the Liberals really learn how to be an effective opposition:

"Last year we were full of goodwill but we were still a party learning to be an opposition, while the NDP (had been doing) that for decades," he said.

So this is really a sort of an opposition summer school.

Good plan. Looks like they’ll be there for a long, long time.

As Don Martin so eloquently notes , Stephane Dion assisted the Conservatives in passing many substantive bills, and was also instrumental in helping this minority government attain the distinction of "having just beaten the record to become the longest minority reign since the election of 1921."

Dion’s amazing ability to decide when Canadians would not want an election has generated the following Harper accomplishments:

…Having backed away from repeated government invitations to trigger an election –the Throne Speech, budget, Afghan mission extension, crime bills, immigration amendments and even footdragging by the Senate– the Liberals have opted to spend the summer campaigning for a carbon tax instead of their own mandate.

In doing so, they’ve surrendered the best scenario for gaining ground to hopes that an economic downturn in the fall will backlash against the government, a rather morbid plan…

And if you want more highlights, check out Sandy’s list.

However, now that the pressure of having to decide whether or not to bring down the government is safely over for at least the summer, the Wizard of Ozttawa seems to have finally granted Stephane a pair. (Sorry, Garth. Was that offensive?)

Cocky Dion is now challenging Stephen Harper to a televised debate.

Now this is the kind of thing one usually does during an election campaign. However, since Stephane doesn’t seem to want Canadians apparently don’t want an election during any season, this seems rather strange. Who would watch? Who would care?

If Canadians don’t want an election, why would they waste their time indoors watching a debate?

Maybe the Wizard should have concentrated on refining Stephane’s brain instead. He seems to lack a certain je ne sais quoi. Of course in the original story, the Lion and the Straw Man learned that they already had what they were seeking all along.

What’s that old expression? (Sorry, Garth.)

* * * *

Somewhat Related Update: Star - Fixing the world by the numbers.

Greg Weston : Dion goes for whiz and shift - Sun. (Honestly, I didn’t steal your idea, Mr. Weston!)

Lorrie Goldstein: It’s about votes, not Mother Earth - Sun.

Randall Denley - Carbon caps vs. intensity targets: discuss. (Ottawa Citizen)

* * * *

Monday Update: Matt from ASTTR has a shifty new widget for you.

And from comments - The Librano$ are BAAaack!

Nik Nanos - Dions’ risky move:

Polling shows that Canadians are concerned about the environment but that when a price tag is attached, voters become more skittish.

ChuckerCanuk: The Dion Debating Society.

Stelmach slams Dion’s green plan - Canoe.

Sandy and Matt have uncovered a copyright issue with the Green Shift! Heading National Newswatch at the moment!! Also at Jack’s Newswatch. Well done!

It seems that Garth Turner’s sensibilities have been offended by Stephen Harper’s use of the word "screw".

This from the man who called the Prime Minister of Canada a ‘political whore’.

And anyway, if "Young People F*cking" is an acceptable title for a Canadian film worthy of tax credits, then I really don’t see the problem.

Or is this yet another example of Liberal ‘entitlement?’

* * * *

Update: Hunter has the offensive video here. Get the kids away from the computer first though. You don’t want them to hear terrible language like this. They might use it in the schoolyard!!!

Please also check out Return of the Trusty Tory - Calling a spade a spade. Great comments too. Wilson posts a link to a quote by Montreal financial wizard Seymour Shulich:

"…We could all live in igloos and ride bicycles and it won’t make a difference. Everyone is aggravated by the price of oil and gasoline and what is this beauty going to do? He’s going to raise the price of your heating oil and your gas for some mythical objective…"

And I sure do hope that Garth doesn’t get his shorts in a knot over this one - Dear Diary: Stephane Dion. Anyone for a mooTEENy?

Globe - Liberals give business the shaft.