Globe and Mail cover photo today

And Bourque highlights the woes of the Liberal campaign, including numbers today from SES that show the conservatives within one point, and the shifting blame over the income trust leak.

Campaign update

There is a scandal brewing over the income trust leak. Both the NDP and the Conservatives have called for Goodale to resign.

The Mounties are looking into allegations that information on the government's tax policy for income trusts had been leaked, leading to a sharp rise in the price of trust units ahead of the official announcement.

The Klander blog scandal has also really bruised the Martin campaign. Not the way they wanted to open the second phase of the campaign, I'm sure.

UPDATE: Bourque is reporting that Goodale may quit, and the television news programs led at lengthe with the RCMP investigation and the political impact. And SDA wonders about the CBC quasi blackout on this issue.

The private sector is more efficient

Even the NYT thinks so, even if the headline doesn't quite do justice to the story.

Headline: On Gulf Coast, Cleanup Differs Town to Town

 

Story: The cleanup from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita was 45 percent finished in jurisdictions that called in the corps, and nearly 70 percent complete in communities that employed private contractors.

Why, yes, the cleanup does differ!  Hat tip to CafeHayek.

Merry Christmas everyone!

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Luke 2

Question of the day

Is it a good thing or a bad thing that the Toronto Star thinks that the new conservative party is progressive?

election update

Bourque has written off PM for PM:

 

WRITING ON THE WALL: NO MAJORITY, NO MORE MARTIN FRACTIOUS LIBS PLOT POST-MARTIN LEADERSHIP FAREWELL, PAUL MARTIN

Campaign news

I know, no one cares.  I barely care...

• Layton cool on cooperation with Tories
• Harper made a major pitch to Quebec yesterday
• Martin continues to run against George W.

Freedom's March

122

Speaking of Bourque

I think he's over the edge on Tucker Carlson.  Yes he insulted Canada - big deal.  He insults everyone, it's his style and it's funny.  This kind of reaction is just proof that Canadians are too sensitive to what Americans say about us.  Most Americans think this we have a perfect counrty, other than the igloos we all live in.  Anyway, here are the headlines on Bourque.org

    NUMBSKULL: CANADA A RETARDED COUSIN MSNBC IMBECILE TUCKER CARLSON WAS DUMPED BY CNN, NOW AT MSNBC Email Tucker Carlson If You Disagree With Him

Recent polls

I don't even know if I believe polls anymore, but lately there does seem to be a tightening...except SES of course, which seems bound and determined to show a nearly 10 point spread every day.  (via bourque)

 

CPAC-SES Nightly Tracking Dec 16-18: Lib 38 % Con 29% Ndp 16% Bq 12% Gp 4%
Pollara Dec 17-18: Lib 37% Con 34% Ndp 17% Bq 10% Dunno 10%
Gregg Dec 18: Lib 34% Con 29% Ndp 19% Bq 13% Gp 5% ...
Robbins Dec 10-16: Con 31% Lib 31% Ndp 17% Bq 14% Gp 4%

 

 

 

A serious general

I don't know about you, but it's nice to see a serious man in charge of our military. 

ACCORDING TO OTTAWA insiders, Chief of Defence Staff Rick Hillier has put his senior staff at National Defence Headquarters on notice that as of now, the Canadian military is on a war footing. Armed with the moral support of Defence Minister Bill Graham, Hillier is trying to implement a rapid and radical rationalization of the befuddled bureaucracy and the ponderous procurement process. Those who voice objections to Hillier's reforms are being told to hand in their security passes and shuffle off into early retirement.

Using his vast operational field experience, Hillier is applying the combat arms "mission is paramount" mantra to remove or eliminate all obstacles in his path. The primary objective the good general has lined up in his sights is the deployment of a 2,000-strong, combat-capable expeditionary force in Afghanistan next spring. These troops are to serve as the nucleus of a NATO-based allied rapid reaction corps that will conduct offensive operations against the Taliban insurgents in the volatile Kandahar region.

Campaign update

Who won the English debate? Better yet, did anyone watch the English debate? Macleans has an online poll, extremely scientific of course... Speaker of Macleans, I'm thinking of subscribing. It's got a lot of good stuff lately, including this cover story. Oh and Paul Wells... Update: Andrew Coyne is back (yay!) and has very, very good debate coverage.

A candid interview with Stephen Harper

From the Toronto Star no less.  An interesting read from a relatively hostile source.

The bigger story

Millions of Iraqis turned out for parliamentary elections today. Wait, maybe we should postpone them, because Iraq is a disaster.

Or is it? Iraq at this stage from perfect, but Iraqis seem to be embracing a more peaceful way to settle their differences. Even the Sunni minority is taking part in this election, and the gereral appetite seems to be for a relatively secular government. (That last link via SDA)

Mick sent me a good overview of the election process. Let's be thankful that we will soon have a relatively peaceful and democratic country in the heart of the middle east. Amidst all the violence much good has already come out of the overthrow of Saddam, and I think we can expect much more. Not a perfect country mind you, but there is no such thing...

Update: did I mention it went very well?

French debate

No surprises, and a little dry.  Ok, a lot dry.  Paul Wells had some interesting predictions before the debate, and I don't think he was far off.  Tomorrow night is the real thing - in English and on the main networks.  Should be interesting.

 

2005 year in review

Day by day account of major news stories from Yahoo.

Measuring generosity

Who knew Manitobans are the most generous people in Canada?  The Fraser institute has a pretty interesting analysis of the provinces, and the differences between Canada and the US.  Among the findings, Ontario and SK follow Manitoba as most generous, while NFLD, QC and NB are at the bottom; generosity has been declining in Canada since 1997; and US citizens are much, much more generous than we are.

 

 

Campaign update

The Conservatives announced money for more military aircraft and a new airborne battalion.  

 

And check out this Harper cartoon in the CBC site (bias, what bias?).  Very, very funny, in an antiharper sort of way.  The link is on the right side (Haperstein).  But I can't find any other videos for the other leaders.   Hmmmm...

 

Oh, and the NDP want a Quebec style child care and will DEFEND MEDICARE!

Harper responds to the WashTimes

Via NealeNews: check out the second letter on this page.  It's well worth reading.  Bonus points: try to find the hidden agenda.

Good news from Iraq

ABC shocks itself:

• Despite the daily violence there, most living conditions are rated positively, seven in 10 Iraqis say their own lives are going well, and nearly two-thirds expect things to improve in the year ahead.
  

• Surprisingly, given the insurgents' attacks on Iraqi civilians, more than six in 10 Iraqis feel very safe in their own neighborhoods, up sharply from just 40 percent in a poll in June 2004.

• Average household incomes have soared by 60 percent in the last 20 months (to $263 a month), 70 percent of Iraqis rate their own economic situation positively, and consumer goods are sweeping the country.

• In early 2004, 6 percent of Iraqi households had cell phones; now it's 62 percent. Ownership of satellite dishes has nearly tripled, and many more families now own air conditioners (58 percent, up from 44 percent), cars, washing machines and kitchen appliances.

Red tape worth $33Billion

That's what it costs Canadian businesses to comply with the rules imposed by all levels of government, according to a report by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.  (via Bourque)

"With $33 billion, you could eliminate the GST," Garth Whyte, CFIB's executive vice-president, said.  "$33 billion represents 2.6 per cent of our national GDP."  

Funny site

www.kidsnotbeer.com

Election 2006 predictor

This is a really fun little tool...

Busted

via Paul Wells: 30 million reasons to vote liberal, including a paycheck...

Parents are dumb: Liberals

A top Liberal strategist is suggesting Canadian parents could blow their child-care money on beer and popcorn under a funding proposal championed by Stephen Harper and the Conservatives.

Scott Reid, Prime Minister Paul Martin's director of communications, says there's nothing in the Harper plan to make sure that cash allowances intended to pay for day care would actually be spent for that purpose.

Reid says parents could take the cash windfall and spend it on anything they want - including beer and popcorn.

That's right Scott - you can't control us lazy, know nothing parents. Maybe we think beer is good for kids! Popcorn certainly is.

If only someone would come up with a plan where parents don't get a say, where a whole new level of government administration is required, and families with a stay at home parent, rural parents, and shift working parents, don't really benefit.

Oh wait, someone did.

Update: Paul Wells rightly points out that giving parents money has been the Liberal policy until just recently. Martin has acknowledged this as well. An interesting debate.

EI scam

Here's a shocker: the government is taking too much for EI, $2B too much, in order to pay for other programs.

Ottawa has been charging us billions more per year than they're paying out in EI benefits, providing them with a tidy profit to spend on whatever hare-brained, flavour-of-the-month boondoggle they dream up. They keep track of the accumulated surpluses for accounting purposes. But the money's not sitting in an account somewhere. It's spent.

Oh, part of the reason they have so much money is that benefits have been cut, and hundreds of thousands aren't elegible despite paying the fees. Nice.

Income trust update

via nealenews:

...Goodale met with investment leaders just hours before announcement... ...Trading volume for Trust linked to PM was 3400% higher the day before announcement... ...TORONTO SUN: Liberals must explain the income trust 'leak'... ...Do it yourself Income Trust investigation (for the mainstream media).. .

Fun exercise: Try to find mention of this on the CBC website. Last night Paul Hunter said there was absolutely no evidence of any wrong doing. None.

Funny quote

If government were a product, selling it would be illegal -- P.J. O'Rouque

Election update # 12,345,566,789

And it's only the second week!  Have you seen the polls?  They are wild.  Does anyone trust polls?  Peter Mansbridge wrote in Mcleans earlier this month that a prominent polster told him that Canadians used to respond to poll calls 80% of the time.  Now it's 20%.  Who knows what to believe.

 

First NDP ad is out, and very funny.

 

He said-he said on the income trust leak - looks like the CARP denial earlier wasn't exactly...er...accurate.  Harper says Goodale should resign.  He also had a good joke about Martin being one President behind, when asked about Martin's meeting with Clinton.  Oh, and Harper unvieled tax cuts for seniors.

 

I guess the US wasn't too thrilled with Martin's comments yesterday.  Especially since our record is worse than theirs, all rhetoric aside.

 

And all in all the "gun ban" is being panned as little more than rhetoric that will sell well in urban areas. 

Campaign update

Where to start? Recent polling shows very little movement, despite all the policy announcements and debate over ideas. Look for the campaign to go negative after Christmas to get those numbers loosened up a little.

Martin announced that a Liberal government will ban all handguns. All of 'em, except for the police and collectors. Never mind that most crimes committed with handguns are committed with illegal handgunds already. But this is a good wedge issue, and good politics, even if it is terrible policy. (What? Criminals commit crimes? Use illegal handguns?) To be fair there is also talk of more police officers and border enforcement.

Belinda Stronach's safe in her riding, despite crossing the floor. Probably.

Yesterday there was a lot of hot air on Kyoto. Believe what you will...

Finally, it looks like Goodale's office did leak something on the income trust announcement.

The more things change

The more they stay the same:

Just because the Conservatives are paranoid about reporters doesn't mean the media isn't out to get them.

An analysis of newspaper coverage in the opening days of this campaign concludes Stephen Harper received the most negative coverage of the four main party leaders, even more negative than the coverage he got in the disastrous final week of the 2004 election

And this is coming from Macleans!

Howard Dean

Via NealeNews:

 

To paraphrase Mark Twain: Suppose you're an imbecile. Now suppose you're Howard Dean. Oops, I repeat myself .

Judicial Activism

"The rule of law requires judges to uphold unwritten constitutional norms, even in the face of clearly enacted laws or hostile public opinion," said a prepared text of the lecture [Canadian] Chief Justice McLachlin gave to law students at Victoria University of Wellington late last week.

"There is certainly no guarantee or presumption that a given list of constitutional principles is complete, even assuming the good faith intention of the drafters to provide such a catalogue."

Chief Justice McLachlin set out a blueprint for when judges must rely on unwritten principles, which she defined as "norms that are essential to a nation's history, identity, values, and legal system."

What is there to say, what is there to do, other than throw up one's hands in despair? Canadians and their representatives have no role in reviewing judicial appointments - they are hand picked by the Prime Minister and there's not a thing we can do about it. Maybe you thought judges should interpret the laws passed in the legislature. Fool. Judges are the great overseers of all that is good. They get to make and break laws as they see fit. Our chief justice says so.

Ambassador Frank

Let's get the disclaimer out of the way first: I don't watch CBC, occasionally I flip by it while channel surfing.

 

Ok, this is really funny.  I don't even like Rick Mercer all that much (yet) and I can't believe he got McKenna to say some of these things.  Gutsy for the Canadian ambasador to the US to talk like this, but very, very funny.  Best line: when asked what the pay is like compared to the private sector, McKenna says something about the warm fuzzies he gets serving his country, Mercer starts laughing, so he says something like: "I'm eating and drinking my way accross America".  Good stuff. 

 

I like Frank.

Macleans poll: dead heat

Outside Quebec that is...

The Globe and Mail

I refuse to read the Globe and Mail.  Ok, the odd time I'll read a story if no one else is carrying it and someone links to it, but that's it.  Why?  Because back in the 1990s they ran ads with the catch line: Anyone can have an opinion, but is it informed (or maybe it was 'educated').  The ads highlighted issues like abortion, gun control, and other hot button social issues and implied that if you didn't agree with the globe your were an idiot.

 

But now there is a new reason not to read! (via SDA):

 

Christmas is fast approaching, and with it, the dilemma of what to give the less likable people in our lives: office mates, ex-spouses, born-again Christians.  -- Globe and Mail Dec 3, 2005

 

 

Election round up

Polls

• CPAC-SES Nightly Tracking Dec 4 Lib 37 % Con 30% Ndp 16% Bq 13% Gp 5%
• Gregg Poll: Lib 34 % Con 30% Ndp 16% Bq 14% Gp 6% (via Bourque)

The only major announcement was made by the conservatives: a sensible child care plan - parents, not the government, get to decide what's best for their kids.

 

With all the coverage and smart policy announcements, why are the conservatives still behind in the polls?

Election roundup

The first week is in the bag - 5 more to go. Conservatives pretty much set the agenda, despite a few miscues, and have solidly defined what they stand for: lower taxes, accountability, fixing public health care. When you think about it, those are three great vulnerabilities for the Liberals. But it's a very long campaign, and lots can and still will happen. Here are some of the recent headlines, via NealeNews and Bourque:

• Conservatives say Canadians are massivily overtaxed - Gee do you think? Apparently Harper may annouce income splitting. That would be #$%^&* outstanding for single income families and seniors. Absolutely wonderful. The measure would be a boon to single-income families who could reduce taxes by dividing total earnings between spouses. Supporters of the idea say stay-at-home parents would no longer be essentially penalized for caring for young children, and seniors would have the fairer treatment they've sought for years. They've also released new TV ads...
• Dippers are confusing on healthcare: Campaigning in Vancouver's Chinatown Sunday, Layton said private clinics are a "fundamental aspect" of the health-care system founded by former Saskatchewan premier Tommy Douglas and not much can be done about them. Layton says he wants to stop tax dollars from boosting the bottom lines of big health-care corporations. "Our focus is to keep public health-care dollars going to public and non-profit facilities," Layton told reporters. "What happens with people in the privacy of their own relationship financially, that's up to them." (I think I may vote NDP this election, just because of that statement...ok, not really, but still, that's awesome) Oh, and with friends like the CAW, who needs enemies?
• Liberals have released new ads, and Paul Martin's heckler gets 4 days in jail - what, you thought we had free speech? And we have a new mideast policy, apparently....

Good news

Elections Canada says blogging is free expression, not campaigning.  Remember when BC said it was advertising?   Nice to see this precedent at the federal level...

election round up

The GST cut rules the news: Size matters, and other cliches, and most agree that it is a great strategy.  Oh, and speaking of cliches, it may be a magic bullet.

 

And has anyone noticed that Harper's commitment to embrace the Liberal's income tax cuts IN ADDITION TO the GST cut has been severely under reported.  It's not either or.  It's one or both.

 

On the Liberals and the economy: apparently Martin can't claim credit, because high taxes have held back growth.  Some other interesting analysis in there too.

 

Better blogs to read this campaign: Small Dead Animals, the Western Standard, and Monte Solberg's.  How neat is that a sitting MP is this candid in a public forum?

New poll

CTV/GLOBE & MAIL POLL: Liberals 35%, Conservatives 30%, NDP 15%...  (h/t Nealenews)

Election update

Lots of good stuff out there:

 

Conservatives announce a GST cut to 5% - hey, did I ever write anything about that?  Hmmmm.  It's a brilliant move - every time it comes up, the media or the Cs can talk about the liberals not cutting it after the famous promise in the Red Book.  Everyone hates the GST.  After Christmas, most Canadians will be deeper in debt and looking for something like this.  Did I mention that everyone hates the GST?   Oh, and Charles Adler mentioned in a column yesterday that Canadians are grumpy in January, and grumpiness isn't a good for incumbants.  

 

Oh, but back in the day, Andrew Coyne, no longer blogging for whatever reason, thought cutting the GST is a very bad idea.

 

Look, no one thinks this is the only thing the economy needs - we need tax cuts across the board: on investment, on jobs (EI), on income.  But the GST takes 30B or more from Canadians every year.  Ottawa has huge surpluses.  This is a good idea.  

 

Apparently there is bad Liberal blood in Ontario...

 

Headline of the day: Harper `wrong' but not `scary,' Layton says.  I will say this.  The Liberals have it tough - they get hit from three sides every day, and have to hit back, maintaining that delicate balance.  They will likely shed votes on all three fronts as a result...

 

On a lighter note, check out the Top 199! Liberal Scandals:

1. Cancelling the Sea King replacement
2. Sponsorship scandal
3. Gun Registry
4. HRDC boondoggle
5. Problems with Transition Job Funds program
6. Tainted blood
7. Radwanski Spending Affair
8. Pearson Airport
9. GST Flip Flop
10. Airbus Investigation
11. Voting against Red Book promise of independent Ethics Commissioner
 

I LOVE ELECTIONS

I have I ever mentioned that? I'm a rare bird, I admit, but I love 'em. Focus the mind, they do. I can't get enough of the coverage. Speaking of coverage, the CBC ran a "reality check" on the GST cut announcement tonight (more in a minute) and SUPRISE they found economists who think it may not be the best idea...while the CTV found a farmer on the prairies who would rather have an income tax cut. Cute. Speaking of coverage, the CBC seems to think that Kim Cambell's (who?) opinion matters...