Same sex marriage bill passes 158-133

I suppose it has been inevitable since Stronach crossed the floor on May 19. The bill amending the definition of marriage passed last night, and is on it's way to the senate. This is an editorial worth reading.

32 Liberals (almost a quarter of the caucus) voted against the bill, as did indies Pat O'Brien and David Kilgour, a "handful" of Bloc MPs, and Bev Desjarlais of the NDP. 3 Conservatives voted for the bill.

Jack Layton "immediately stripped Ms. Desjarlais of her post as party critic for foreign aid and transport and sent her to the Commons backbenches" - because he considered the issue a matter of minority rights. He also hung a banner outside his party office "secular athiests only club". Good for Ms. Desjarlais to stand up for what she believed, but again, it would have been nice if she had done it a bit earlier.

For the record, we are now only the third country to legalize gay marriage. We are more "progressive" than the UN or France (!). We are also only one of three countries to outlaw private healthcare - again, more "progressive" than France! (I know, the Supreme Court ruled that was unconstitutional. Change is coming...)

Liberal Canada belongs to some pretty exclusive clubs, don't you think?

two for one

This article covers off two events of the last 24 hours:

• Junior minister Joe Comuzzi resigned as a cabinet minister so he could vote against the same-sex bill (I know what you are thinking: we have a northern ontario economic development minister?). I guess it's admirable, but one wonders why he waited until the very last minute.
  
  

• Stephen Harper said something that, while true, was very unwise: "The truth is, most federalist MPs will oppose this legislation."
  
  Yes, the bill will only pass with the support of separatists. Yes, the media has a double standard when the Cs team up with the Bloc. But it's also true that Quebecers overwhelming support this legislation, so it wouldn't matter who Quebec elected - the bill would still pass.
  
  Oh yeah, and the budget would only have been defeated with the help of the separatists. Isn't this retarded politics? How does saying something like that help?

It's a matter of when, not if

Even Jay Hill, house leader for the Conservatives, acknowledges that same-sex marriage will soon be a reality in Canada: "At some point in time I think we have to recognize the inevitability of this." Apparently it took some rookie MPs to get the PM to extend parliament for the vote. Seems the only thing we can do now is look back briefly at the opportunities missed. Actually it's too depressing to consider...

• David Kilgour left the Liberals, but no others followed at the time; if Pat O'Brien had left then, instead of waiting to leave later...
• Stronach defecting crushed the momentum and morale of the Conservatives, and scuttled their best chance of defeating the government
• Chuck Cadman, on that same vote, sided with the government, deciding apparently that not having an election was a higher calling. That holding the government to account stuff is overrated anyway.
• the Grewal affair astonishingly turned out to be a plus for the Liberals, as no one was really all that surprised that they were willing to buy votes, but the media jumped all over hte possibility that the tapes were "altered"

Ok, that's enough. Summer is here, the Liberals got basically everything they wanted over the last 4 months, and the Conservatives took a beating, both in the house of commons and the media. Let's hope everyone learns from this and the fall is different...

Update: hope springs eternal

Liberals in bed with socialists, separatists

At least that's what the headline should be. Instead:

• Liberals outmanoeuvre Tories to ensure budget bill is passed (Globe and Mail)
• HARPER TORIES CAUGHT NAPPING AS BUDGET ADD-ON BILL PASSES IN SNAP VOTE (Bourque.org)
• Budget passes after surprise vote (Canada.com)
• Budget amendment passes in surprise late-night vote (CBC)
• Liberal budget amendments pass (Canoe)
• PETER MACKAY:'ONE BIG, FAT, STINKING LIE' (NealeNews)
• Tories fume after Liberal minority scores coup, forces budget amendment vote (National Post)

Anyway, here's what happened:

Every available Liberal MP was cloistered in the Commons lobby waiting to spring into a vote to cut off debate. The Liberals, the Bloc and New Democrats made extraordinary use of a rule allowing for cutting off debate on the budget if all agreed the Conservatives were being obstructionist.

Tax freedom day: June 26

Hey, soon we can start working for ourselves! Maybe the Lib-NDP deal really is a plot to have tax freedom day July 1 "making it official, once and for all, that the highest Canadian value is our love of high taxes." The irony would be unavoidable...

Tax breaks needed

Even the senate is good for something once in a while. A committee recommends tax cuts to spur productivity growth, because we are falling behind other developing countries, especially the US.

Now this is a rant

Paul Wells lays in to Stephen Harper. Ouch. Update: reader response with witty commentary

Private healthcare

Good enough for the military and RCMP just not good enough for you.

Same-sex marriage debate

It now looks as though the Liberals are going to try and keep parliament in session as long as it takes to get their budget and the gay marriage bill through. What a session this has been...so close and yet so far... Anyway, this is a fascinating transcript of a recent committee meeting on the definition of marriage. Focus on the Family Canada appeared as a witness, as did several other groups. Worth reading if you're interested in the debate.

Stuff

David Frum points to Chris Hitchen's Downing Street Memo (oooohh, aaaaah) "demolition". I like Hitchens when I agree with him, which is only part of the time. He's one of the few lefties who vigorously supported the overthrow of Hussein, and has broken with many over what he feels is the betrayal by the left of their principles in favour of rabit anti-americanism. On that note, Sen. Durbin has finally apologized for comparing American soldiers at Gitmo to the worst killers of the 20th century. Haven't been following the hubub? All you need is right here.

This isn't a Republican vs Democrat thing; it's about senior Democrats who are so over-invested in their hatred of a passing administration that they've signed on to the nuttiest slurs of the lunatic fringe. It would be heartening to think that Durbin will himself now be subjected to some serious torture. Not real torture, of course; I don't mean using Pol Pot techniques and playing the Celine Dion Christmas album really loud to him. But he should at least be made a little uncomfortable over what he's done -- in a time of war, make an inflammatory libel against his country's military that has no value whatsoever except to America's enemies. Shame on him, and shame on those fellow senators and Democrats who by their refusal to condemn him endorse his slander.

Harper watch

The Canadian media has been all over Stephen Harper lately, with stories about how he needs a makeover, how he was going to hit the summer barbeque trail, how the Liberals consider him their best asset, how the knives are out for him, etc.

Finally some contrary opinion: The Edmonton Sun and Warren Kinsella (!):

My advice: Stop the nervous nellyism. Focus on the long game. You Tories brought the most successful political machine in Western democracy to within one vote -- a single vote! -- of a humiliating defeat in the House of Commons. You forced the Martin Liberals into all sorts of tawdry, backroom deal-making to avoid an election. And, now -- a few short weeks later -- you are all inexplicably committing ritual political suicide in public. My advice: Fire the nellies, strap on a set of gonads and fight like your lives depended on it. And quit the kvetching in public.

Now he says he isn't interested in an image make over, despite the tour. Oh and the latest poll has L 34, C 29, NDP 16, so things seem to be settling out...

Cut taxes, increase revenues

No matter the evidence, a large segment of the population doesn't get the Laffer curve:

The theory is really one of the simplest concepts in economics. Yet its logic continues to elude the class-warfare lobby, whose disbelief is unburdened by the multiple real-life examples that validate its conclusions. The idea is that lowering the tax rate on production, work, investment and risk-taking will spur more of these activities and thereby will often lead to more tax revenue collections for the government rather than less.

More:

• Reagan cut the highest personal income tax rate 70% to 28%; federal tax receipts went from $517 billion $1,032 billion during his 8 years
• US federal tax revenues are up $187 billion, or 15.4% over fiscal 2004;
• individual and corporate income tax receipts are up 30% in the 2 years since the Bush tax cut
• Alas, federal spending is up $110B, or 7.5%
• Budget deficit will be at least $60 billion lower than last year
• States and cities are expected to have net surpluses of at least $50 billion
• Dow is up 24% since May 2003 while the Nasdaq has risen 39%

Stem Cell wild west in Russia

And it isn't pretty: Russians are paying to have stem cells injected in the belief that they will have an antiaging effect. There is evidence of an illegal baby trade, poor women selling their aborted foetuses, more money for older foetuses, abortions under false pretenses, etc. What a horrific mess.

Healthcare poll

Update - I don't know what happened to my original post, but here it is as best I can remember:

Most Canadians think 2-tier healthcare is coming, and 70% believe they should be able to buy private healthcare if they want to.

Any chance the Tories can turn this in to a positive for them in the next election campaign? Nah, I didn't think so either...but here's hoping.

Full PDF via NealeNews

Same sex marriage bill

Delayed? I'll believe it when I see it...

Misc

Interesting Macleans article (how often do I say that?) on the healthcare decision by the SC, the doctor who brought it, and the general state and future of Medicare. Note especially the lottery in a small Ontario town with only one doctor. Via AsIPlease.

From the same source, but all over the news: Kofi's in trouble. Resign Kofi.

Libs survive easily

No surprise that they survived, but it is surprising that former Liberal Pat O'Brien voting against the government repeatedly, even when the conservatives voted with the government. The Tories say they wont vote for the NDP amendment, so it could yet be interesting...let's hope so, but honestly the Conservatives are in no mood for an election.

Healthcare

The larger lesson here is that health care isn't immune from the laws of economics. Politicians can't wave a wand and provide equal coverage for all merely by declaring medical care to be a "right," in the word that is currently popular on the American left.

There are only two ways to allocate any good or service: through prices, as is done in a market economy, or lines dictated by government, as in Canada's system. The socialist claim is that a single-payer system is more equal than one based on prices, but last week's court decision reveals that as an illusion. Or, to put it another way, Canadian health care is equal only in its shared scarcity. -- WSJ

And in related news, click here for private health insurance pricing (the CTF blog is really worth checking regularily).

And can we really be the only country, besides Cuba and North Korea, the outlaws private care?

Employment numbers

This is fast becoming one of my favorite blogs. Check these unemployment numbers out, but read the whole post:

• National 6.8%
• Ontario 6.9%
• Quebec 8.5%
• Nova Scotia 7.7%
• New Brunswick 8.8%
• British Columbia 5.7%
• Manitoba 5.1%
• Saskatchewan 4.5%. Alberta 3.5% (Edmonton 4.3%, Calgary 3.4)

Polls suck part 5 trillion

I'd love to see the questionaire from this poll of the top danger to Canada conducted last February for the Department of National Defence:

• "International Organized Crime" 38% great threat, 50 % moderate.
• "U.S. Foreign Policy" and "Terrorism" 37 %
• "Climate Change and Global Warming" right behind (no number given)

Exactly

"When it comes to health care in Canada, private health is not some bogey man to be trotted during an election campaign,'' Dr. Albert Schumacher, head of the Canadian Medical Association

"We need a real debate on the role it has played, the role it continues to play and will play in our system to advance the health of all Canadians.''

I'm no fan of judge made law, but what's good for the goose...

Conservatives tank

I hate polls lately...this one continues the trend.

Liberals: 34 per cent (27), +7 Conservatives: 26 per cent (31), -5 NDP: 19 per cent (20), -1 Greens: Nine per cent (7), +2 Bloc Quebecois: 13 per cent (14), -1

Clearly the Conservatives have performed badly, and the media has given them terrible coverage. I've read a number of columns lately about the need for a major change, how Harper has insulated himself, etc. I like Harper, but it seems much of Canada isn't going to warm to him. Is it too early to start looking at a leadership change? If Conservatives can't be 20 points ahead with all that's gone on, something is seriously wrong.

I suppose if Belinda hadn't been so trecherous, we wouldn't even be having this discussion...

Tapes legit

We're all very surprised here at Keaimato (there's only one of us - ed) that the newspapers aren't carrying this headline...

Healthcare in Canada

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled 4-3 today that the Quebec government cannot prevent people from paying for private insurance for health-care procedures covered under medicare.

The majority said the ban on private health insurance violated the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, while the minority said waiting times actually helped to ration scarce resources, given that funds were limited and demand for health care was not.

So we were one vote away from the SC endorsing socialism...scary.

The Liberals and the CBC are in denial, while the Quebec government has asked for a stay; the message is that the ruling doesn't really change anything, we still support the existing system, it applies to Quebec only, etc, etc.

"We're not going to have a two-tier health-care system in this country," [Martin] told reporters following Thursday's ruling. "Nobody wants that."

Except the people who filed the case of course. And the millions of Canadians who have had to wait for urgent procedures. And those that think it is an unneccesary restriction on our freedom as Canadians to pay for services we need.

Other important quotes:

"Access to a waiting list is not access to health care," Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and Justice John Major wrote in the closely watched majority decision. "There is unchallenged evidence that in some serious cases, patients can die as a result of waiting lists for public health are."

"This is endorsing the individual patient's right to access comprehensive health services when the government can't provide them," Dr. Albert Schumacher, president of the Canadian Medical Association, said of the ruling.

The CMA said the court's decision amounted to a "stinging indictment" of the failure of governments to provide timely health care to all Canadians.

More details here. And does it bother anyone else that the Conservative Party is not speaking out more publically on this issue? It's a matter of personal freedom more than anything else.

Shocker of the day

Hands up anyone who didn't see this coming:

Ottawa can't ensure religious protection in all same-sex fights: Cotler

Liberals will tweak their contentious same-sex marriage bill but can't guarantee ironclad religious protections, admits Justice Minister Irwin Cotler.

Churches won't be forced to perform gay weddings, he says. But it's beyond his legal reach to protect provincial marriage commissioners or religious organizations who turn away same-sex couples, he conceded Wednesday.

An urgent mess

I'm not sure what can be said about what's happening in Zimbabwe. Clearly the west needs to intervene, but how?

Churches in the eastern Manicaland region said in a statement that they were ``left shocked and numbed by the utter havoc and destruction wreaked in Mutare townships.''

``What we have seen would reduce the hardest heart to tears,'' the churches said, adding that babies, nursing mothers, the sick and the elderly had been left amid smoking ruins to face biting cold.

Zimbabwe's economy has shrunk 50 percent during the past five years, and the unemployment rate is at least 70 percent. Agriculture - the country's economic base - has collapsed, and at least 70 percent of the population lives in poverty.

PM makes another deal

I don't know what to think, or if this deal is worth any more then the deal Pat O'Brien thought he had with the PM two months ago. I guess it's sort of big news - 30 MPS opposed to same sex marriage legislation met with the PM who promised:

• Stronger guarantees that Charter rights will not override religious freedoms
• Justices of the Peace who do not want to perform civil marriages of same-sex couples will not have to do so
• Churches will not be required to rent out their halls for same-sex weddings
• Religious educational institutions will still be allowed to preach that homosexuality is against God's law, without being subject to hate crime laws

The other big news is that Liberal MPs who oppose same sex marriage briefly considered toppling the government to stop the bill, but reconsidered, thinking that it will pass eventually anyway.

As with everything that happens in Ottawa, we wont know until it plays out, but I'll offer fearless predictions anyway:

• Despite what Martin says, "Charter rights" are determined by the courts, and not the Liberal government of the day. I suspect this promise is another one of those that looks good on paper but is completely devoid of substance
• Justices of the Peace is a provincial jurisdiction, so I'd be surprised if the Feds can guarantee that they wont have to perform same sex marriages if they don't want to. There are already cases accross the country where they've had to agree to perform them or quit.
• Again, I'm not sure they can guarantee that churchs wont be required to do anything. If the courts rule they have to, what's PM going to do about it?
• I'll believe the last point when I see a human rights charge or hate crimes prosecution fail.

At the heart of it, I think there is a profound sense among Christians that all of these things are inevitable, no matter what deal politicians make in Ottawa, and that the only way to reverse course is to have a significant change in our culture and government.

Anyone see that coming? I didn't think so.

Update: Gunter generally agrees and offers this exciting insight:

Since most of these guarantees are not in the PM's power to grant since they have been taken over by unelected and unaccountable judges, they are meaningless. And according to the CTV report, the PM's press secretary, Scott Reid, admitted they were not promises so much as reiterations of previously made commitments to treat all amendments "fairly" (whatever that means).

Crossfire no more

I stopped watching after the election in November, when the hosts left and the show became even harder to watch than before. Apparently it's now off the air, with 3 of the 4 co-hosts still around as commentators. Who knows what happened to Tucker Carlson? I liked him the best of all. Oh wait - here he is: on PBS. Anyway, I'm not sad to see a show I used to love gone, because by the end it wasn't worth watching anyway...

A little off base

The Ottawa Citizen makes some good points I meant to make last week after watching the House of Commons (I know - I'm different). Liberal MP Don Boudria got up on a point of privilege complaining that a "christian" group had put up a website with a domain name very much his own, and was using this tactic on a number of MPs who support changing the definition of marriage. There was also mention of the vast number of faxes being received on the issue. Anyway, there was this fantastic exchange:

Mr. Jason Kenney: I understand my hon. friend opposite is learned with respect to parliamentary procedure but I must infer from his remarks that he is stupefiedly ignorant about the commercial practices on the Internet.

The Speaker: Honestly, the hon. member for Calgary Southeast need not suggest that any hon. member of this House is ignorant.

Mr. Jason Kenney: Mr. Speaker, of the Internet.

The Speaker: That does not make it better.

Lib Pat O'Brien leaves Liberals

He's disappointed that the full and fair debate on the marriage bill that Paul Martin promissed has not happened, so he'll sit as an independent for now.

The Liberals are pushing to pass the same-sex bill this month before the summer break. But a compromise reached May 30 may postpone final passage of Bill C-38 until the fall.

"I feel he's making an enormous mistake to rush this legislation forward," said O'Brien. "There is no mandate for this government to take such an important action as trying to redefine marriage."

I haven't read anything about a compromise pushing the legislation to the fall, but that's a welcome development. Remember his press conference in April, where he decided to stick it out in the Liberal party because he believed he could make a difference? The fast-tracking announced late last week clearly tipped him over the edge, and who can blame him.

Let's also remember that he has a keen interest in seeing the government defeated now, because he must know that they don't have the numbers to beat the marriage bill directly. If he hopes to stop that bill, the government has to fall.

They're everywhere!

Apparently, and shockingly, Christians have been involved in the Liberal Party, and for years! What is the world coming to these days...

No Really, everything is fine

Via CTF blog:

• 52 hour wait in emergency
• The parking lot is too far - call the ambulance

Marriage bill

It's going to be law before the Summer recess, at least that's the Liberal plan. Everyone who thinks we don't need an election, raise your hand.

I'm so tired of this

Media bias I mean. Lorne Gunter covers it well, but anyone can see it who's looking. The story is already Grewal possibly doctoring the tapes (Bourque's headline: Gurmant Grewal on the Ropes - could he be more Liberal friendly?).

Grewal is clearly no hero, and Paul Wells is probably right that waiting so long to release the tapes wasn't a good strategy. But this is just ludicrous: we have such low expectations - no we expect the Liberals to be desparate and corrupt - that the media is more or less ignoring the fact that the minister of health and the PM's chief of staff were essentially negotiating the price of the Grewal's abstention, and in very shady terms no less.

And now the PM has admitted he knew about it all. But no - that's not the real story.

Update: Hope springs eternal - some Liberals are calling for Dosanj and Murphy's resignation:

"[Conservative Leader Stephen Harper] will have to deal with [Tory MP Gurmant Grewal, who made the tapes], but we have to deal with our own," Mr. Gallaway said. "The use of the words 'Senate' and 'foreign posting,' even if no offer was made, is totally odious. There are several MPs who are remaining silent but who think Murphy and Dosanjh have crossed the threshold of acceptable political discourse."

And another:

The bar is so low now. . . . Have you ever seen anything like this? "Everybody gets away with stuff. It's just a joke."

Another Update: a Brief History of Lying and the real translation