Crime fighting

Here is a summary of what is happening with the Conservatives crime fighting bills currently stalled in Ottawa. 

• The opposition is stalling on the age of consent bill (raising it from an unacceptable 14 to 16).
• The opposition is stalling on mandatory minimum sentances
• The opposition is stalling on cracking down on drug driving
• The opposition is stalling on a bill to crack down on people convicted of three serious offenses

What is wrong with these people?  These are solid ideas, even if the bills need fine tuning. 

 

But I'm sure that the Cs don't mind - they can list these things in the next election campaign and point out how rediculous the other parties are.   You have to love politics.

Christmas in Africa

"We do not know where to escape, we are already suffering from floods, hunger and disease," Abdale Haji Ali told AP from Jowhar. "We are awaiting death." - CTV

 

It looks like there will be war between Somalia and Ethiopia, which is being described as either Islam fighting the infidels or a war to curb the influence of Al Queda.  And where is the UN?  What can they do?  What are they good for?

 

Absolutely nothing.

Former President Ford has died

Who knows if Ronald Reagan would have been elected in 1980 if Ford had defeated Carter in 1976.  Anyway, here is an interesting timeline of his life (interesting fact: his real name not Gerald Ford).

belated Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a great time with family and loved ones over the holiday.

miracles do happen

according to CNN: -- The U.N. Security Council votes unanimously to impose sanctions on Iran for its nuclear program.

Canadian politics

Say it ain't so! Harper has gone green , which is good politics but questionable policy. But It is a good move, so I'll cut him some slack.

From what I've seen, the preponderance of evidence suggests this is a real and a serious problem," he said in a National Post interview yesterday. "As you know, the science has evolved several times even in the last couple of decades, but all the evidence suggests that we should take the problem seriously and start to try and act on it."

This is a new, reinvented, election-ready Stephen Harper. The skeptics and scientists who insist, with some evidence, that severe weather is not a greenhouse- gas-generated planetary scourge have lost a swayable, sympathetic political leader.

The last of the man-made climate change holdouts in the Canadian Parliament has gone green, a shift underlined by a Canadian Press report yesterday that Environment Minister Rona Ambrose will soon be replaced by the more moderate and measured Jim Prentice of Calgary.

The Tories have also renewed and renamed the national homelessness program, and are planning on announcing a $200 million plan for renewable fuel. Gee, might there be an election in the near future?

As for the Liberals, former PM Jean Chretien is back in the loop apparently, offering advice and such. Dion is doing an admirable job reaching out to almost everyone in the party and giving them important things to do. So it should be fun when they don't all say the same things, and when they overshadow the relatively unknown and uncharismatic Dion. He still looks like a soft spoken university professor to me.

Iggy number two!

Dion has made Ignatief the deputy Liberal leader:

"We will have a dream team to offer to Canadians," Dion said as he made the announcement in the city of Quebec Monday. "In this dream team, my dream was to have Michael Ignatieff as close to me as possible."

Does anyone else find this wierd?  Probably good politics, but still...

 

Sheila Copps likes Stephen Harper

Or at least the elected senate idea.  Hey, and so do I.

 

Speaking of Mr. Harper, Time Canada has named him the NewsMaker of the Year

 

Speaking of Time, the US edition has named YOU as the person of the year.  It's an interesting cover and and an interesting concept.

 

Ok, enough speaking of.

An eye opening look at the Israeli army

No one should expect an army to be perfect. By their very nature they are flawed, and it's only in modern times that we want them to be agents of gentle change. Update: and here's a look at how our army is trained. Pretty interesting...

Christmas Spirit

So a judge has ordered the courthouse Christmas tree removed, fearing that this "Christian symbol" will offend people. Here's an appropriate response:

"It's so stupid. I'm at a loss for words," said Muslim Canadian Congress founder Tarek Fatah. "The judge should take a trip to the rest of the world. Christmas is celebrated by Muslims in many countries -- they should ban political correctness, not Christmas trees.

But who actually thinks the Christmas tree is a Christian symbol? Are presents under the tree Christian symbols as well?

Christmas trees are a cultural icon, not a religious one. And this from a judge - it's enough to make you wonder...

Alberta update - new cabinet

Premier Ed "who?" Stelmach has announced his new cabinet, which includes three of his rivals from the leadership race.  Oberg is in at Finance, Morton at Sustainable Resource Development, and Hancock at Health.  Cabinet has also been reduced from 24 to 18.  Not a bad start, all things considered.

good riddance Kofi

In his last speech, outgoing UN chief Kofi (what problems in Africa?) Annan has complained about Bush and his handling of Iraq.  There's a shocker. 

 

Annan summed up five principles that he considers essential: collective responsibility, global solidarity, rule of law, mutual accountability and multilateralism.

 

Is he serious?  Responsibility?  Rule of law?  Accountability?  That's a funny joke, right?  Let's review: oil for food, peacekeepers involved in the sex trade, Darfur, the Democratic republic of Congo's civil war (death toll 3.8M?), the Asian tsunami, and hundreds of other unknown or unreported tragedies.  His record is abysmal and he's a phony.  No, it's worse than that.  His incompetence has cost lives, and he has been unwilling to do the good that was available for him to do.

 

Good bye and good riddance.

An economics lesson

By Milton Friedman, of course

When I spend my money on me, I care about how much is spent and how it is spent.

When I spend my money on someone else, I care about how much I spend but not so much on how it is spent.

When I spend someone else's money on me, I care little about how much is spent but am concerned about how it is spent.

And when I spend someone else's money on someone else, I care little about how much is spent and about how it is spent.

And of course government falls in to this last scenario, explaining why there is so much waste and mismanagement. It's not malicious, it's natural.

from the department of good news department

The federal government announced today that it wants to deregulate local phone services in areas where there is competition.  Industry Minister Maxime Bernier says the government intends to reverse a CRTC decision regulating local services.  -- more

Evil cows...

...polluting the earth more than cars

Roundup

Chantel Hebert wonders about a Conservative/NDP environment plan .  She figures both parties need it given Dion's emergence as Liberal leader and the rise of the Green Party.

 

Did you know that the previous Liberal government gave $5M to a Mohawk community to form it's own police force and push out the existing one?  Me neither.  Guess how it turned out?  The chief "staged what turned out to be a disastrous raid on the Kanesatake police headquarters. His force was held hostage, his house burned down, and his officers ultimately run off the land."  And the Lib broke their own rules to make it happen.  Horray!

 

Speaking of the Liberals, it's never to early to start thinking about the next leadership race, apparently.

 

In serious news, Canadian productivity is down.  But housing prices in Calgary are too, if slightly.

Mark Steyn interview

I've never heard him so upset and so gloomy about the war on terror and the situation in Iraq.  The interview after that is rough too.  Listen when you get a minute.

I sure hope not

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich last night offered a grim outlook for the final two years of the Bush Administration, saying at best it would resemble President Gerald Ford's administration and at worst President Jimmy Carter's. -- more

Same-sex marriage vote defeated

The vote was 123-175, so the debate is now over.  A number of liberals voted against the motion to re-open the debate, even though they voted against changing the definition in 2005.  That vote was 158-133.

 

I still think that changing the definition of marriage is bad overall for society, but I'm now convinced that as a political issue it is dead.  No party can or should run on changing the definition.  The law is now over one year old, there are thousands of gay marriages, and public opinion is decidedly against reopening this issue.  It would take a miracle to change this now.

 

What this means for everyday Canadians is the continued normalization of gay relationships, and we can expect to see this particularly in elementary school curriculum.  And as Christians, we can expect it to become even more difficult to say anything about this issue at all. When religious liberty and freedom of speech comes up against "the charter" or political correctness - liberty loses.

Gay marriage motion today

The government will introduce a motion "to call on government to introduce legislation to restore the traditional definition of marriage without affecting civil unions and while respecting existing same-sex marriages."

It seems to me that there is no chance this will pass and that people who feel strongly on the issue should have pressed harder 3 years ago. Even those of us who think marriage should be defined traditionally for the sake of society as a whole are now at the point of realizing that there is little chance Canadian law.

There is still time to call your MP. The vote is tomorrow.

Maps of War

Every once in a while, technology surprises me. This is outstanding.

Sensible policy

"Our government will not spend taxpayers' money on providing tattoos for convicted criminals,'' Day said. "Our priority is to have an effective federal corrections system that protects Canadians, while providing inmates with access to acceptable health-care and treatment programs.'' -- CTV

Premier Ed Stelmach

Having barely won the most votes in a three man race, but still shy of 50%, it took the 2nd choice ballots of Ted Morton supporters to push him in to the Premier's chair .  Stelmach finished third last week, but received the endorsements of virtually all the candidates who dropped off the ballot.  Final totals were Stelmach 77,577 Dinning 51,282 (with Morton's second choice ballots added)

 

This is truly a stunner.  Who is Ed Stelmach?  I guess he's the guy who isn't as radical as Ted Morton and not as liberal as Jim Dinning (although maybe Dinning got a raw deal on that count - if he was running federally he'd be called a radical right winger.  It's just that compared to Morton he was a liberal).

 

How crazy is this:  But from the beginning of the campaign, he also was described as "everybody's second choice."  That's exactly the way Dion was described in that other race on Saturday.  So two third place guys end up winning it all on the same day.  Unbelievable!

 

As far as policy, Stelmach got a D+ from the TaxPayers Federation (same as Dinning), and his website is here . 

 

Will we see Alberta go in a new direction?  I doubt it.  I think this is largely status quo, without the personal antics of King Ralph.  Time will tell.

 

AB PC Race

Live Results. Looks tight so far...

UPDATE: Premier Stelmach? He's pulled in to first place, followed by Dinning...

Update 2: More results here and here and here

Update 3: Looks like Dinning

Update 4: Morton has conceded and it's coming down to second choices.

Update 5: It's Stelmach!

Stephane Dion - the new Liberal Leader

It is now official. Stephan Dion has pulled of a most improbable win, coming from 4th place to win 57% of the delegates at the convention. I don't think I read or heard anyone say that this was a possible outcome, so it's a significant upset and a huge story. Quick thoughts:

- It was close, but not that close.

-The deal that Kennedy made with Dion after the second ballot was huge.

- Why didn't Rae go to his buddy Iggy? That could have saved him.

- Iggy was obviously not a good fit for the Liberals; he didn't have a single high profile endorsement when he needed it.

- Brison was the only guy who went to Ignatief (does that make him a three time loser? -ed)

- How will Dion play in Quebec? He's a "hardline" federalist

- How will Dion play in the rest of the country? His English is ok, but not great.

- It will be Dion vs. Harper in the next election - the race begins now for an election in 2007

- That election will be fought over two main key issues: Quebec (the federal/provincial balance) and the environment

4th ballot coming soon

In the meantime, check out this story: the Tories claim they helped defeat Bob Rae:

"They (Liberals) don't know how to play poker ... The NDP is also feeling happy right now.''  In recent months some leading Tories admitted privately that Rae was the Liberal candidate they feared the most. Their admissions became public the instant Rae was eliminated from the race.

One Tory operative described how a handful of government supporters proliferated at Liberal parties throughout Montreal on Friday evening and handed out anti-Rae buttons.  "Make Bob the first NDP prime minister,'' one button said.  Another button aimed at underlining Rae's tumultuous time in Ontario said: "Vote Bob. Who needs Ontario?''

The party made similar buttons for all the other candidates -- but it was mainly for show. Rae was their main target, said a government official.  "There were hundreds of Liberals wearing those (Rae) buttons when they went to vote today,'' he said.  "It was great to watch.''

Third ballot results

 Dion 37  Iggy 34  Rae 29

 

Rae drops off, and the question is who does he support.  It is a showdown between Iggy and Dion, and Dion is going to win.  He is officially the anyone but Iggy candidate, and he has doubled his support.

 

Stephane Dion is going to win the Liberal Leadership.

Liberal Leadership Update

The second ballot was: IGGY 31.6% RAE 24.1%, DION 20.8%, KENNEDY 18.8% DRYDEN 4.7%  (via Bourque).  As of now, Drydon, Brison and Volpe has all endorsed Ray, while Kennedy(!) and Martha have gone to Dion. 

 

So it's a three man race: Iggy vs. Rae vs. Dion.  Third ballot in a little while.  Check out the CTV politics blog for more (And Iggy/Rae alliance?  An Iggy/Dion showdown? this is too much fun!).

Liberal first ballot

Iggy  29%  Rae  20%  Dion 18%  Kennedy 18%  Drydon 5%  Brison 4%  Volpe 3% (has thrown his support to Rae)  Hall Findlay  3% (she drops off) -- CTV has more

 

Each candidate gave a speech tonight, and the buzz is that Drydon might have been the best (note: this was probably aided by low expectations).  Dion disappointed.  Rae and Iggy held their own, and are obviously the front runners. 

 

Everyone's attention turns to tomorrow, as the voting resumes and horse trading begins.  I will stick with my prediction of Bob Rae as the man behind whom the anyone but Iggy movement coalesces.