The Hypocrisy Of The Harperites

It is no revelation to state how hypocritical the current Conservative cabal is. However, those tough-on-crime zealots are betraying new depths of their natures by their advocacy of 'compassionate', or should I say expedient, treatment of that exemplar of all that is wrong with the right, the disgraced Chief Magistrate of Toronto, Rob Ford. Not for them the fury they direct at Justin Trudeau for admitting to smoking a joint, but rather compassion for those who need to seek treatment.

Contrasting, for example Peter MacKay's public musings about Trudeau's unfitness to lead due to his dalliance with weed, the Justice Minister had this to say recently about the beleaguered Ford:

Federal Justice Minister Peter MacKay is calling on Rob Ford to get help after the Toronto mayor admitted publicly that he had smoked crack cocaine, an illegal drug.

But Mr. MacKay, whose Conservative government styles itself as tough on crime, declined to offer an opinion on whether Mr. Ford should step down. “That’s not for me to say,” he told reporters in Ottawa.

In his column in today's Star, Tim Harper offers some stinging commentary on this most troubling double standard:

The Conservative party of Canada, most significantly its Toronto ministers and MPs, is now defined by its silence over the tumultuous train wreck known as Rob Ford in the past two weeks.

“Conservative values are Canadian values. Canadian values are conservative values,’’ Stephen Harper told us after he won his 2011 majority.

But watching those “values” daily trashed by a man his party embraced, Harper has remained silent. He has done what he so often does. He has merely made himself unavailable to any Canadian journalist while chaos engulfed Ford.

The reason the conniving Conservatives have adopted what Tim Harper calls their 'hug-a-thug program is obvious:

The Conservatives will not risk alienating what is left of Ford Nation, even if it is the last man or woman standing.

But one would be wrong to think that Peter MacKay, who some regard as an upper class twit, is the only hypocrite here.

Health Minister Rona Ambrose, a woman so unrelenting in her war on drug use she cut off heroin for addicts in treatment, now has nothing but hugs for a self-confessed crack cocaine user.

“It is a touchy subject only because none of us want to pass judgment on someone who is going through a very difficult time,’’ Ambrose said in Calgary Friday.

And who can forget Julian Fantino, the perpetually dour and apparently humourless Veteran Affairs Minister and ex-cop whose selective remorseless pursuit of some ne'er-do-wells is the stuff of legend (Toronto bathhouse raids when he was the chief cop there is but one example)?

“I look at it as a humanity issue,’’ he told his local newspaper. “I’ve been involved in my whole career (in policing and politics) in dealing with situations where people, for whatever reason, get into serious personal difficulties and family difficulties. I’ve looked at it strictly from a human dynamic point of view.’’

Of course, last week Finance Minister Jim Flaherty teared up, brimming with compassion when contemplating Mr. Ford's demons. No judgement there.

Tim Harper saves his greatest scorn for Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver:

In the midst of last week’s Ford follies, Oliver appeared on CBC’s Power and Politics and was asked by host Evan Solomon about the unbelievable event of the day in his city.

“This is a sad and difficult situation but I have nothing to add,’’ Oliver offered.

When pressed on to whether he might have a view as an MP from Toronto, Oliver served up a civics lesson.

“Well, they are different levels of government, they are elected separately and they each have their different constitutional responsibilities and we respect the constitutional division of powers.’’

I suppose at his age, Oliver should be commended for his obvious agility in twisting himself out of shape to avoid answering Solomon's questions.

I shall leave you with a picture that my friend Gary alerted me to that perhaps pictorially sums up the Conservative cabal's solution to the problem of Rob Ford, given the obvious importance of altering the optics and 'changing the channel':

The Ford Saga Continues

I have shamelessly cribbed the following from Montreal Simon. Please check out his commentary on the continuing Toronto soap opera known simply as The Rob Ford Follies.


Opener - CBC News Toronto - Mayor Rob Ford... by IdolxMuzic

From The Pens Of Editorial Cartoonists

...some Saturday afternoon wisdom:

A Thought For The Children

I hope this will be one of my last posts about the Rob Ford soap opera, but that is probably a futile hope, given the rich sociological and political insights that his escapades provide. However, today my thought is not about him or his quite possibly abused and complicit wife Renata. Today, my thoughts are for their children.

Rarely seen in public, the pair, a young boy and girl, must be living a hellish life, not only because of the public ridicule and odium heaped upon their father, but also due to the very real possibility that they are at physical risk. Recent revelations, thanks to the release of the previously-redacted police documents, is a narrative revealing the children's unwilling association with alleged drug dealer and extortionist Sandro Lisi, as well as crack addict Bruno Bellissimo, who sat with them in the back seat of the vehicle ferrying Ford to the Garrison Ball during one of the mayor's many nights of impairment.

Add to that the video of the raging mayor, perhaps at home, vowing in hyperbolic language to kill someone, as well as the fact that police have attended the home many times due to domestic disturbances.

It got to the point earlier this week that I actually looked up the contact information for the Toronto Children's Aid Society to express a concern about their well-being, but my wife suggested it would be futile because I have no personal knowledge of their possible imperilment.

Lest one think their mother Renata is somehow shielding them from the worst excesses of their father, Rosie Dimanno has a piece in today's Star that strips away that comforting possibility:

It was late at night, nearly a year ago, that Renata Ford pulled up in a taxi outside her parents’ home.

According to a police report, the contents of which have not been proven in court, the mayor’s wife was slurring her words and belligerent with the driver, police sources have told the Star. She either refused to pay the fare or did not have the money.

Their argument became so heated that the cabbie called for police assistance.

When cops arrived, they observed that Mrs. Ford had bruises and cuts to her limbs and face that appeared to be a few days old. But, when asked about it, she refused to say how the injuries had been suffered. She was, in fact, too incoherent to say much of anything — either inebriated or on drugs.

The upshot of this event is that nobody was charged. When police tried following up the matter in subsequent days — as they always do when domestic abuse is suspected — Mrs. Ford was not cooperative.

As much as Ford's wife may be a beaten-down victim who likely commands little respect within the Ford hierarchy - Doug Ford once referred to her on their now-defunct radio show as "the Pollack'- she is also, by virtue of her decision to 'stand by her man,' both figuratively and literally, just another of her husband's enablers and complicit in, at the very least, the psychological abuse that police records suggest is a quotidian fact of life in the Ford household. Tellingly, Dimanno reveals that over the past eight years, police have attended the Ford home at least two dozen times for domestic disturbances.

Like the infamous Michael Jackson, who was able to carry out his terrible depredations against children for so many years thanks to his money, power and influence, I cannot help but wonder whether the same dynamics are at work with regard to the well-being of the Ford children.

I see no way that this story has a happy ending.

The Medium Of The Moronic

New and long-term members of the Profoundly Stupid Club can rejoice: their mascots, Rob and Doug Ford, the darlings of the dimwitted, the bastions of the benighted, the exemplars of intellectual enfeeblement, will live to fight another day.

Sun News, favored by those who like their commentary simple and absolutist, the place where the good guys wear metaphorical white hats and the bad guys black ones, has announced that starting Monday, the dimwitted duo will be hosting a new show called, predictably, Ford nation.




I guess this addition to their lineup will solidify Sun TV network's reputation as a repository of the ridiculous and banal, if any doubts still linger.

No word yet on whether the network is going after broadcasting rights to the World Wrestling Federation as a followup.

The Stupid Among Us

I was in a rather foul mood yesterday, and I think it was largely attributable to the ongoing spectacle known as Toronto civic politics. Like one sated on too much unhealthy food, I am royally sick of the disruption caused by the crimes and misdemeanours of Rob Ford and his tag team partner, brother Doug. But what I think especially set me off was the pathetic whinging of the duo, who project an image of deep hurt over what Doug calls the "public flogging" of his brother; coupled with the inability to feel even a scintilla of shame or remorse over what they have done to the city and its people, it renders both of them unfit of public office.

But what enraged me most was the patent stupidity of the duo that they hold out as some sort of perverted testament to their characters: "Rob was elected to do a job, and he will continue to do it," says the chief enabler. Big Baby Brother plaintively brays, "All I can do is apologize and move on." Neither is able or willing to acknowledge the massive damage to public reputation, morality and civil discourse they are both responsible for.

To make matters even worse, yesterday during the council meeting they both engaged in a shameful attempt at moral equivalence. Brother Doug barked at Denzil Minnan-Wong, "Have you ever smoked marijuana?"



While the stupid, aka Ford Nation, might have felt that his suggestion of hypocrisy was warranted, people with higher cognitive functioning would have immediately seen the shameless flaw in his 'strategy,' namely that whether anyone has ever smoked pot or gotten behind the wheel when they shouldn't have has absolutely nothing to do with the issues and demons facing his brother. There is simply no comparison.

Yet I got the distinct impression that reputed Drug Dealer Doug felt that he had scored a victory in his defense of his troubled and troubling brother. And I guess that's what really set me off, as it is clearly emblematic of both the intellectual and moral poverty of the rabid right-wing, the faction that seems to believe that you can bully and bray to victory.

Rob got into the act as well, 'magnanimously' offering to pay the cost of drug tests for all council members.

And oh, how they love to play the victims here, besieged by a bloodthirsty mob over a few merely private peccadilloes. Doug gave a CNN interview in which he offered the following emblems of victimhood, his family in general and his daughters in particular:

“Is it tough on the family? Yes, it's tough on the family,” Ford said. “We've been getting death threats. My daughters, I have four young girls, they were threatened to be sodomized and raped."

Just what is a charter and card-carrying member of the Profoundly Stupid Club to do?

I don't have the answer for him and his fellow travellers, but perhaps it is well past time to stop ceding so much airtime and print and influence to the benighted right wing. Perhaps it is time to simply tell them, in language and tones that they can understand, to shut their mouths, stop their bullying, go to hell, and leave the weighty matters of public office to the adults in the room.

Toronto Councillor Adam Vaughan maybe said it best yesterday: "We've spent too much time on this fool already."

This Is Why They Can't Have Nice Things In Toronto

Watch below as reputed drug dealer Councillor Doug Ford thuggishly engages in some sanctimonious and hypocritical grandstanding in 'defence' of his hapless brother:



As well, you might want to read Joe Fiorito's piece in today's Star on the inanity and hypocrisy of those who still support Rob Ford.

I Have No Shame

Not one to take the high road, I will state the obvious here. Clearly, the Rob Ford bobblehead is not built to scale.

One Picture Really Is Worth A Thousand Words

Who invited this guy?



H/t The Huffington Post

The Search For Authenticity

In their bewilderment over the staunch following that Toronto mayor Rob Ford continues to enjoy amongst 'Ford Nation,' some pundits have advanced the idea that it is his 'authenticity' that accounts for his traction, no matter what drugs he ingests, no matter how many criminal elements he consorts with, no matter how many lies he tells to the public. His deep flaws, some suggest, appeal to the 'everyman.'

At best, I suspect this is only a partial answer. Nonetheless, it has gotten me thinking about leadership styles; serendipitously, the other day I caught the latest Justin Trudeau ad on TV in which he seeks to distinguish himself from the Harper regime without really uttering anything of substance:



While I realize that the ad is directed to a demographic much younger than mine and may in fact 'hit the mark' with that audience, I was struck by a few aspects of the production:

1. It offers an obvious contrast to the button-down, anally-retentive demeanour of our current Prime Minister. Although his suit colour is fairly subdued, Trudeau's open shirt suggests a relaxed manner that only one possessed of a vivid imagination could transpose on Stephan Harper (the latter's blue cardigan campaign costume notwithstanding).

2. Trudeau's cadences are balanced, offering another contrast to the inflectionless Harper.

3. The Liberal leader maintains strong eye contact with the camera, suggesting an openness and authenticity that voters may find appealing.

4. He utters platitudes that no one could disagree with.

However, even though it is a very polished production, the ad does nothing for me; as a veteran observer of political matters, I find the entire effort completely contrived, for all of the above reasons.

We leave in an age of shallow thinking, disengagement and phony 'reality shows.' Given the widespread disengagement from the electoral process of young people, this ad may indeed strike a responsive chord among its intended audience.

How do others feel about the ad?

Oh Tim, Why Don't You Stop Bothering Us?

When considering the political motivations of Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak, the boy who would be premier, there seem to be only two possibilities: he is either an indefatigable demagogue appealing to the same kind of folks (a.k.a. Ford nation) who blindly support Toronto mayor Rob Ford, or he truly believes the nonsense he is spouting, the latter perhaps the more disturbing, given the intellectual limitations it would suggest.

Either option, in my view, renders Hudak unfit to hold Ontario's highest public office.

A secret document leaked to the Toronto Star confirms that, if his party wins the next election, this Mike Harris clone would be indeed disastrous for all but the most ideologically-twisted residents of Ontario:

This kind of document [which] is usually a closely guarded secret available to about three people, reveals the daily itinerary Hudak would have followed had an election been called last spring. It reveals the usual rhetoric designed to appeal to the base: “tax cuts create jobs,” “reducing the size of government,” and spoiling for a fight with teachers.

It also affirms Hudak's commitment to crippling unions in Ontario, as revealed by this part of his schedule:

The party’s direction the next day in Windsor becomes very clear with the heading “Fixing Labour Laws” and a Hudak appearance at a non-union factory, the kind of visit that is repeated as the campaign progresses.

One of the party’s many party policy papers calls for getting rid of the Rand Formula, which requires all employees in a closed union shop to pay dues whether they join or not. Coincidentally, Supreme Court of Canada Justice Ivan Rand introduced the formula in 1946 as a result of the 1945 Ford strike in Windsor.

A similar message — Allow Choice in Union Membership — was on the agenda again just a few days later in Guelph and the Kitchener-Waterloo areas, which fuels fears that Hudak’s agenda is to turn Ontario into a right-to-work province, similar to several U.S. states.

The conservative mind, as a rule, has difficulty accepting new ideas or new information that can alter one's thinking and views. This handicap is abundantly evident in the case of young Tim who, compelling evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, is confident spouting the old shibboleths about unions being the root of all evil, the primary reason that unemployment is high and business is staying away from the province.

In his jeremiads against unions and his Pavlovian enthusiasm for right-to-work laws, young Tim ignores the data betraying his hollow and simplistic thinking:

In right-to-work states, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median hourly wage as of May 2011 ranged from lows of $13.11 (U.S.) in Mississippi and $13.68 in Arkansas to highs of $15.70 in Nevada and $16.40 in Arizona. When you chop off the highs and the lows, most were in the area of $14 and change or $15 and change.

In those states without such rules, the median hourly wage ranged from lows of $13.46 in West Virginia and $14.13 in Montana to highs of $19.87 in Connecticut and $20.65 in Alaska. But many were in the area of about $17 and up.

What about his assertions that crippling the unions would mean "jobs, jobs, jobs"? Again, the American experience reveals that it is not a panacea:

The lowest jobless rates, as of October, are in North Dakota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, Utah and Wyoming, all right-to-work states, at between 3.1 per cent and 5.2 per cent. The highest are in North Carolina, a right-to-work state, New Jersey, California, Rhode Island and Nevada, also a right-to-work state, at between 9.3 per cent and 11.5 per cent. Unemployment in Michigan is 9.1 per cent.

I could go on and indict Hudak's similarly blinkered thinking when it comes to tax cuts equaling job creation (despite the fact that unemployment is still high in Ontario even though our corporate tax rate is amongst the lowest in the world,) but I think you get the idea.

So whether Tim Hudak is merely a cyncal manipulator of people's passions and prejudices in the pursuit of power or a young man who lacks the intellectual depth and fiber needed to hold high political office, one fact remains constant. If people allow themselves to be seduced by sweet and soothing rhetoric that promises low taxes, prosperity and no pain (except, of course, for the workers who support the economy), they will have no one but themselves to blame if Mike Harris Redux is the headline after the next provincial election.

Rick Mercer On The Harper Regime's Shoddy Treatment Of Vets

As a supplement to The Disaffected Lib's excellent post on Remembrance Day, take a look at Rick Mercer's thoughts on a government that not only has turned its back on wounded war vets but also tossed them out on the street:

We Are All To Blame

Here is a letter from today's Star that puts responsibility for the proliferating problem of deceitful, inept, corrupt and demagogic political leaders where it belongs: on all of our shoulders:

Re: How to cover a deceiver without airing mistruth? Opinion Nov. 6

Publisher John Cruickshank’s wonderful piece addresses what should be a deep concern in our society: the prevalent and amoral use of “spin.” In the 1960s, when I was being raised in Toronto, we called “spin” what it was: a lie.

The temerity of many people in our society, most notably those with whom we should have the greatest trust — politicians and political parties — lie on a regular basis. While there are some individuals (in what should be a noble profession) who avoid spin aka lies, it has become all to common to lie as a means to an end. We have witnessed this in spades over the past six month, both in Ottawa and in Toronto.

Mr. Cruickshank makes an excellent point. By printing the spin, aka lies, the press is enabling this disgusting behaviour. He is absolutely correct in stating that quotes from people-who-lie become, de facto, truth.

These lies have become so much a part of our culture that some people accept behaviour such as that of Mr. Ford and Mr. Harper as “acceptable,” dismissing the lies under the umbrella of “everyone makes mistakes” or “he is saving me tax dollars.” How anti-social and self-serving.

While many politicians have lost their moral compass, so has our society. We, as members of civilized society, are complicit in allowing them to get away with spin aka lies.

It is time for us to take back our compass. For a start, let us call these people what they are: liars. Let’s not allow them to get away with it. Like bullies, spin-people cannot stand the light of day. They prefer to crawl around under rocks, in the slime and in the dark.

David Bourque, Scarborough

Time For A Break

Recently, as I watched Peter Mansbridge's One on One interview with former Prime Minister Joe Clark, I was reminded of a time when Canadian politics had more texture, depth, structure and, yes, intelligence. Clark, no fan of Stephen Harper, spoke knowingly of the complexities of politics, both domestically and internationally, and his point was clear: we have, under the current regime, turned our backs on time-tested traditions that stood us and the world in such good stead, replacing them with what can almost be described as caricature.

For example, rather than to continue to engage Iran, the ultimately more productive choice, we have severed relations with the theocratic state, thereby ending any possibility of ongoing dialogue towards moderation. Our unqualified, uncritical and unstinting support for all things Israeli, no matter how egregiously in violation of international law, would be another instance. We are clearly no longer the world's honest broker.

There was a time in politics when honour meant doing what was right for your country and for your citizens. That time is no more, confirmed daily by a Prime Minister who regularly refuses to answer questions about his real knowledge of the Duffy payoff. It was confirmed yesterday by the eleventh hour admission from Rob Ford about his drug use.

Neither man, of course, will do the right think for this country and its citizens. Holding on to power is their only raison d'être.

And so the debasement of the people continues, with neither man showing a whit of concern for the toll that such corruption takes on the electorate; indeed, they probably exult in the likelihood that even fewer people will turn up at the ballot box, thereby giving their bases even more power to continue the perversion of politics under their corrupt avatars.

With my heart heavy with disgust, disillusionment and contempt for those holding the reins of power today, I think I will likely take a few days off to read, attend to neglected household chores, and try to recharge my spirit.

Meanwhile, I would encourage you to read some of our fine national columnists and our fellow bloggers if you have the heart for it and the capacity to withstand the despair they can engender. Truth is always painful.

A Little Something For Torontonians

You have my sympathies, and I assume you need no explanation:

Rather Appropriate, Don't You Think?

H/t The Chronicle Herald

The Insularity of Our National Leader

Yep. Certainly sounds like Harper's got a resounding mandate for change:

Another Nail In His Coffin

Stephen Harper, the self-professed economist (can you call yourself that when you don't have a Ph.D.?) who 'claims' such sterling management to the economy, has received another blow to his exaggerated and unwarranted reputation of competence:

A European Union analysis of the just-completed trade agreement with Canada suggests the EU gained more than it expected — and might have settled for less had Ottawa pushed harder.

The internal document, obtained by The Canadian Press, indicates EU exporters expect to make great inroads in the Canada market. Negotiators hope the gains can be used to their advantage in other trade negotiations, including talks with the United States that have just begun.

Could that be the real reason the CETA negotiations were conducted in such unprecedented secrecy?

Carnival in Calgary

I hear that the Tory convention is turning out to be a real circus:

A Debt Owed To The Media

As fashionable as it is to denigrate the mainstream media for their frequent timidity and conservatism, public knowledge about both Rob Ford's disgraceful performance as Mayor of Toronto and the current Senate scandal embroiling Stephen Harper, impeaching the integrity and honesty of both politicians, would not exist were it not for a diligent media, especially the press.

I have often stated in this blog that I am both proud and pleased to subscribe to The Toronto Star, given the integrity of its work and the fact that many of its investigations have resulted in change at both the local and the national level. These changes have included rigorous restaurant inspections whose results are now publicly posted to its most recent accomplishment, a promise from Minister of Health Rona Ambrose to remediate the situation after The Star brought to light the tragic death of Marit McKenzie, killed by a blood clot caused by an acne medication. At the time, Health Canada said that the drug safety review information was classified due to "confidential business information."

Yesterday, during an interview about her role in exposing the video apparently showing Rob Ford smoking crack, Star reporter Robin Doolittle encouraged people to take out a subscription to a newspaper, the implication being that the work they do is crucial in a democracy, and that work cannot be accomplished without the financial support of engaged readers.

Were it not for the diligent work of CTV reporter Robert Fife, who was instrumental in exposing Senategate, followed up by the efforts by other dedicated reporters, a corrupt and disdainful Prime Minister would be able to spin his tales of fancy without challenge. Instead, Stephen Harper and his cabal face what is likely their greatest crisis, one that may very well reverberate until the next election and could even result in criminal charges.

Watergate may have set the standard for investigative journalism, but the need for curious reporters with a passion for the truth will extend far into the future. No, whether we acknowledge it or not, a healthy press is a linchpin of a healthy democracy, augmented by social media and blogs, no doubt, but never to be replaced by them.

To reiterate Doolittle's message, "Get a newspaper subscription." The health of our political system may very well depend on you.

What U.S. Steel Shutdown Reveals About Harper

While all of us continue to be riveted by the ever-deepening pit into which the duplicitous Prime Minister is digging himself over the Duffy scandal, other events are equally revelatory of Stephen Harper's dark psyche. One of them is the announcement by U.S. Steel that it is permanently shuttering its steel-making capacity in Hamilton.

Briefly, in 2007 the Harper government permitted the takeover of the troubled Stelco by U.S. Steel on the promise of certain undertakings, including employment guarantees, which I talked about in previous posts.
Those guarantees were never honoured, and despite the fact that the government took the company to court and won, it essentially gave a free pass to U.S. Steel, which then made new and unfulfilled promises to keep the plant going until 2015 and make capital investments of $50 million by the end of that time.

The charade of co-operation is now at an end, and as Thomas Walkom writes in today's Star,


From the federal government came a deafening silence.

A spokesperson for James Moore, the current industry minister, said only that the government doesn’t involve itself in the day-to-day business decisions of private companies.

And with that kiss-off, a steel-making operation that has defined manufacturing in Canada for 103 years came to an end.

Why should this be of broader concern to Canadians? In my view, it exemplifies the total disregard that the Harper regime has for the social and economic costs involved in industry betrayal. By dismissing such events as merely the result of implacable market forces, we perhaps have a window into what the so-far still secrecy-bound details of CETA have in store for even more employees and Canadian citizens in the near-future.

Rick Mercer's Disgust With Harper

The following video is self-explanatory, but if you would like to read more about it and the Harper clan's seemingly endless capacity to not answer questions, check out this link to The Huffington Post.

A Shocking And Inconvenient Truth

It is a statistic that should disturb even the most unflappable among us. It is also a window through which we see the bald lie in the Harper claim that his government is the best one to manage the nation's economy.

An RBC survey has revealed that three-quarters of Canadians are imprisoned by debt, exclusive of their mortgages, to the tune of an average $16,000.

That number reveals a myriad of truths. It reveals that good jobs are becoming increasingly scarce. It reveals that the precariat is extensive, and hardly limited to university grads carrying heavy debt and contending with contract work. The statistic attests to a world in which minimum wage jobs are proliferating, new jobs being created are largely part-time ones. food bank use is rising. and increasing numbers are facing retirement with little or no savings.

But of course, the wily Harper has a secret weapon at his disposal: people's greed and self-interest. Because deficit reduction continues apace, it is doubtlessly his strategy to go into the 2015 election with it eliminated so that he can make good on his promise to allow income-splitting for parents with children under 18; under the proposal, people would be allowed to split up to $50,000 of income with their partner. It is a scheme, as pointed out by Andrew Jackson and Jonathan Sas, that

will further shrink the federal tax base with little economic or social gain for most families. What it will achieve is the hamstringing of future federal governments, whose ability to make needed public investments and fund critical social programs like child care, parental leave, good pensions, or world-class public health care will be blunted.

As well, the authors go on to cite this study:

A detailed analysis for the C.D. Howe Institute calculates that 40 per cent of the benefits of family income-splitting would go to families earning more than $125,000. David Robinson of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives calculates that 61 per cent of the benefits would go to families earning more than $100,000.

And, as Thomas Walkom points out in today's Star, while the spectacle of the Prime Minister giving non-answers to Thomas Mulcair's probing inquiries about the Senate scandal is diverting, it masks a deeper rot which the Prime Minister refuses to acknowledge: his inept handling of our economy.

Quite a legacy the man will leave, when he is finally forced from office.

So Hauntingly Familiar

The Web Grows Ever More Tangled

They say that when he was a journalist, Mike Duffy would often regale his listeners with tales of political intrigue gleaned from his many sources. A raconteur at heart, Duffy is now turning his story-telling talents to narrate a tale of corruption, cover-ups and lies emanating from the PMO and, increasingly, by inference, from Stephen Harper himself.

It now seems ghoulishly appropriate that the Conservative Conference begins in Calgary on Halloween, given that attendees, during the public portions of the gathering, will have to be wearing masks of contentment with and approval for Mr. Harper's 'leadership' during this crisis, masks that will surely slip away to reveal something quite different during the private sessions. They may also have some questions over why Dear Leader is having an increasingly difficult time in keeping his stories straight.

Below is a nice summary of yesterday's revelations:

Harper Lies Multiplying

The trouble with lies is that after a time, they become hard to keep track of. The latest untruth from Mr. Harper came today during a radio interview with a 'friendly' who did not even bother to raise the fact of the discrepancy when the Prime Minister asserted, for the first time, that he had fired Nigel Wright.

Funny, up to this point I thought he had resigned. Perhaps Wright was simply resigned to his fate after he was fired?

He Has A Nice Smile

That's the highest praise I can think to extend to young Justin Trudeau, who many see as the best hope of unseating Mr. Harper in 2015. For those who enthusiastically back the young Liberal leader, I can only wonder, to what end? Do they want someone more polite and amiable than Harper? Because that is one of the few differences I see in the man who would be Canada's next Prime Minister.

Trudeau's questions in the House of Commons fail to impress, bloated affairs with lengthy preambles that, when finished, leave one wanting. This in sharp contrast to the precise, laser-like questioning Mr. Harper has had to endure under Thomas Mulcair's Nigel Wright scandal questions, to which the Prime Minister has had to rely on repetitive non-answers that raise even more questions about his involvement in the Mike Duffy payoff.

Probably one of the greatest disappointments for those who look to Trudeau for salvation is his unreserved enthusiasm for the Keystone XL pipeline, evidenced in his address Thursday in Washington to a group largely opposed to it, the Centre for American Progress. Said Trudeau:

“I’m actually supportive of the Keystone pipeline because it’s an extremely important energy infrastructure piece for both of our countries.”

With maddeningly typical vagueness, he added,

“The challenge is to demonstrate that it can be done in the sense that we’re protecting our environment and making sure that we’re making the right gains toward sustainable energy sources in the long run”.

Like his platitudinous statements about the need to help the middle class, the above statement sounds good, but is decidedly lacking in any kind of detail that would give a serious thinker something to ponder.

Is Trudeau the Ted Baxter of politics? Who knows? But so far there is little to offer those seeking an alternative to Harper in the pronouncements of the lad who would be Prime Minister.

The following letter in today's Star from a Calgary reader addresses a key problem posed by Trudeau's leadership:

Justin Trudeau pitches Keystone to U.S. anti-oilsands crowd, Oct. 24

Justin Trudeau’s support for Keystone XL may elicit a handful of votes in Alberta, but at the cost of alienating many thousands of voters in the rest of Canada. Many Canadians, including some Albertans, recognize that Keystone XL is an economic disaster — never mind its environmental shortcomings and total failure to provide national energy security.

It’s a shame Trudeau doesn’t have the political smarts to understand that. He seems likable enough otherwise.

Federal and provincial Conservatives will attempt to reprise their usual electoral landslides in Alberta by selling the export of raw bitumen by foreign national oil companies and by foreign-owned multinationals at any cost to our economy and energy security. The NDP has already staked the moral high ground on Keystone XL, the west-east oil pipeline, national energy security, Canadian jobs and the environment.

So far, Trudeau has the Liberals positioned in a no man’s land in between, without a comprehensive plan or policy on the oilsands or a Canadian energy strategy. That makes it easy for Canadians, who will have only two serious parties and leaders to consider in the next federal election.

Mike Priaro, Calgary

A Spirited Discussion About Religion

Given that today is Sunday, it seems appropriate to post this spirited discussion as Bill Maher launches into his usual anti-Islamic tirade, countered by commentary from Michael Moore, Valerie Plame, and the Reverend Al Sharpton:

UPDATED: Russell Brand's Frustrations

Although I do not subscribe to the 'tactic' of refusing to vote, much of what comedian Russell Brand says in this BBC interview with Jeremy Paxton is worth listening to as he articulates the frustrations that are felt by millions of us:



UPDATE: The Globe's Elizabeth Renzetti has an interesting commentary on Brand's expostulations.

Time For Pushback From The Public

Despite the fact that Stephen Harper is 'toughing it out' in The House of Commons under the relentless grilling of Thomas Mulcair, probably believing that the majority of Canadians are either incapable of or unwilling to follow the byzantine path of the Senate scandal, a wealth of letters in today's Star calls into doubt such a cynical assessment. I encourage you to personally check them out, as well as a link I place at the end of the post. I reproduce a few of the highlights below:

Scrappy PM denies role in Duffy coverup, Oct. 24

Stephen Harper now acknowledges that he told Duffy “he should repay his expenses” and that “It is not appropriate for people to claim an expense that they really did not incur even though they think they can technically argue it is somehow within the rules.”

By this statement, Harper is saying that Duffy lives in Ottawa and could only use a technicality to claim living expenses. Then is Harper not guilty of using the same technicality that Duffy owns a cottage in P.E.I. to appoint him as the senator representing P.E.I., when the Constitution says a senator appointed for a province must be a resident of that province?

The real scandal is that the prime minister acts as if he is above the law.

Charles Shrybman, Brampton

With his long foreshadowed and theatrical speech in the Senate, Mike Duffy has basically given voice to what many Canadians already believed was the truth. Stephen Harper’s reputation as prime minister is that of a control freak. Public perception is that elected officials are not allowed to speak without permission and then must restrict their remarks to PMO-approved talking points. Keeping underlings on message is a Harper tactic and he is not above micromanaging their portfolios. To believe that this prime minister could have senior staff in his office conducting affairs of this magnitude without him having the least inkling strains credulity.

Rory McRandall, Bancroft

Stephen Harper claimed that he had no knowledge of the plan concocted in his own office and carried out by Nigel Wright to repay Mike Duffy’s questionable expenses, because “I obviously would never have approved such a scheme.” Then why did Harper so vigorously defend Wright for this action for days after it became public? Why did he send Pierre Poilievre to the political talk shows to defend Wright’s writing of this cheque out of his own pocket, claiming that it was an almost heroic thing to do and that he was saving the taxpayers a lot of money? People don’t usually defend a scheme they wouldn’t approve of.

Margaret Perrault, North Bay

This pithy missive is perhaps the best one to end with:

Stephen Harper came into power promising to get rid of the Senate. It might just be the Senate that gets rid of Stephen Harper.

Edward Carson, Toronto

By the way, for more about how Stephen Harper and his ilk regard the general public, The Star's Susan Delacourt's piece is well-worth reading.

Vengeance Is Mine, Sayeth Harper Regime: An Update On Sylvie Therrien

This past July I wrote two posts on Sylvie Therrien, the government employee suspended because she leaked documents that revealed federal investigators were told to find $485,000 of Employment Insurance fraud every year.

An update on her fate, published in today's Star, reveals that she has been fired. The alleged reason?

According to Employment and Social Development Canada, Therrien had her “reliability status’ ... revoked, and therefore she no longer met the conditions for her job.

The real reason, I suspect, is that she dared to stand up to the bullying tactics of the Harper regime, and thus serves as a very public example of what can occur when integrity trumps the 'situational ethics' imposed by a cabal in which morality is a risible concept meant to be treated with the contempt that this government regularly shows to anyone or anything that impedes its debased journey.

Guest Post - The Salamander

A frequent contributor of provocative analyses and insights, The Salamander left a comment on one of yesterday's posts that I am taking the liberty of featuring here. I strongly recommend that you take a look at the Huffington Post link he provides at the outset, offering, as it does, some insights into the morally 'ambiguous' world of Harper cabinet minister Kellie Leith and her paid position with Dundee Reitt, which has large contracts with government tenants and widespread interests in the oil and resource industries.

Ms Leitch failed to reveal this relationship to the Federal Ethics Commissioner, despite the fact that she did not resign from the company until some five months after her election. Conflict of interest? You bet. At home in the world of Harper 'morality'? Right again:


.. I'm sure you've come across this bizarre info ..
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/amy-macpherson/mp-leitch_b_4124776.html
The hits just keep on coming .. !

Since the Black Swans have arrived en masse
and are circling Stephen Harper
and dozens of his despicable lickspittles
I think it wise to consider who is the most dangerous person in Ottawa ?

No.. not the Duffster.. not Pammy..
and sorry, not 'The Distinguished' Globe n Mail's Yank, Tom Flanagan
Nope, not Ray Novak, Stephen Lecce or Fantino or Jenni Byrne
Conflict Oil Ezra ..? not even close..
Slack Jaw Joe Oliver ? Nope .. (thanks MoS)
the mysterious Quebecois Un F_ck Withable .. (maybe !! So watch out !!)

But.. how about an un-named IT geek or sysop or aide or contractor
tasked to search and delete n wipe all PMO email servers, drives
re ANY Wright/Duffy emails, comms
and ensure any hard copy binders, folders, memos, cc's
are gone, gone .. fried .. permanently redacted to black on black, dead !!

Now there's someone the RCMP can track and turn ..
After all .. somebody is paying them for that expertise .. and service
They have a name, a job description and hey !! An immediate supervisor !!
And that supervisor has someone above them ..
and likely, none of them will ever get to be on an ENERGY board of directors..
or be fabulously wealthy like the upper echelon of the Harper food chain

We can't identify this person (or team) who can blow Stephen Harper
out of the water.. and all his pompous trained n whipped seals ???

Any beat cop, detective would have ID'd such an obvious target
in the 1st 5 minutes..
So lets get real ..

This is Canada.. last time I took a breath ...
and if Stephen Harper has trouble recognizing that..
or has never understood us ..
c'est la vie ..
well that's his problem..

No Comment Needed

Cowardly Stealth - UPDATED

It has been said that at their core, bullies are cowards. Usually they set their sights on weaker targets, and when the time is propitious, unleash their fury. Stealth is often the preferred tactic, given their reluctance to have their deeds exposed for what they are. It is hardly earth-shattering to observe that Stephen Harper is a classic bully, his cowardice and his bullying capacity existing in almost equal measure.

While those Canadians with even the slightest interest in politics have been understandably transfixed by the increasingly dark revelations about the government's efforts to subvert the Senate by exercising its oppressive influence, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty introduced another omnibus bill the other day, Bill C-4.

Following the pattern established in previous Harper omnibus bills, Bill C-4 covers a lot of territory that has nothing to do with budgetary matters. And like previous bills, it is massive at 321 pages, the better to confuse and obscure some of its more anti-democratic elements.

What are those elements? In today's Star, Thomas Walkom identifies one of its most sinister, designed to amaze and delight his core, another attack on unions:

The bill would give the government the unilateral power to determine which civil servants are essential workers and thus disqualified from striking.

However, the most insidious aspect follows:

But the real bite in the government’s proposed changes to Canada’s Public Service Labour Relations Act has to do with arbitration. Most federal public service labour disputes are settled by neutral arbitrators without the need for strike or lockout action. The new law would permit arbitration only when the government agreed.

Even in areas deemed essential, the government could veto arbitration unless it had designated at least 80 per cent of the workers as ineligible to strike.

This bill also ensures that the arbitration process is rigged:

... in those instances where arbitration was permitted, arbitrators would be required to give a “preponderance” of weight to the government’s claims as to what it could afford.

The abrogation of basic bargaining rights, no doubt appealing to those who hate and envy unions, is striking inasmuch as it upends the customs and practices that have worked reasonably well in labour relations for many many decades.

As pointed out in today's Star editorial, just this small part of the bill deserves its own separate bill:

Canada’s lawmakers ought to have the chance to carefully study and debate the merits of handing the government such power, and the Tories should have to make a compelling case for its necessity.

Instead, of course, this and a host of other non-budgetary items ranging from Supreme Court appointments to workplace safety to immigration policy have been hidden, as is the practice of the cowardly, from open view.

Cowards always like to conduct their nefarious activities by way of stealth lest the light of day expose them for what they are. So far, Stephen Harper and his cabal are adhering to that classic pattern without deviation.



UPDATE: The sneering contempt of Tony Clement in a CBC Ottawa radio interview tells you all you need to know about Conservative arrogance regarding their attack on public sector unions.

The Puffster's Senate Speech

As much as I detest Mike Duffy and everything he stands for, I have to confess that in listening to his Senate speech yesterday I was much-taken with both its content and delivery. Thundering at his erstwhile allies and colleagues, Duffy rebuked the motion of suspension pending against him and Senators Brazeau and Wallin. While undoubtedly heavily self-serving, Duffy portrayed a PMO and, by extension, a Prime Minister who abandoned him despite earlier reassurances that all was kosher with both his expenses and residency, all for the sake of political expedience.

During a meeting with Nigel Wright and Harper, the latter is alleged to have told Duffy:

"'It's not about what you did. It's about the perception of what you did that's been created in the media. The rules are inexplicable to our base' …, after which he was ordered to pay back the money.

Hardly a smoking gun, but the unfolding portrait is one that promises to further erode Harper's credibility on claims of knowing nothing about anything pertaining to Wright's arrangements to write the $90,000 cheque to Duffy. I am sure more will be revealed in the forthcoming weeks and months.

Will Duffy's words be enough to circumvent the suspension? Today may provide the answer.

If you would like to hear Duffy's speech, click here.

Pat Robertson Rarely Disappoints

Whenever I want a little theatre of the absurd, I turn to Pat Robertson. He rarely disappoints:

The Virtues Of Restraint

I suspect if teachers were to be completely completely honest, almost all would admit that at some point in their careers they felt like lashing out, either verbally or physically, at a student or two. That was certainly my experience a few times during my 30 years in the classroom, but two things stopped me from ever being physically aggressive: the likelihood that I would lose my job, and, more importantly, the knowledge that I occupied a position of authority that carried with it profound responsibilities; to abuse that authority would have been a violation of the trust placed in me and also a repudiation of my own moral code.

Unfortunately, some police do not seem to be troubled in the least by such considerations. Deluded into thinking that their word and version of events is virtually sacrosanct, countless allegations have arisen over the years of police beatings of civilians; in the majority of instances, absent of corroborating evidence, the offending officers' versions of events have carried the day.

With the advent of camera-equipped cellphones and the proliferation of public surveillance cameras, that dynamic has been slowly changing, each publicly-posted video eroding both police credibility and public confidence in the job they are entrusted with. Two of a myriad of examples include the 2010 G20 Summit in Toronto and the recent killing of Sammy Yatim.

In the print edition of today's Star (I'll provide the link when the online column becomes available), Rosie Dimanno excoriates disgraced Barrie cop Jason Neville, recently sentenced to a one-year jail term for the unprovoked beating of Jason Stern outside of a Barrie mall on November 20, 2010. A public surveillance video (shown below) captures both the senselessness and the brutality of the beating inflicted by Nevill on what appears to be a totally passive and compliant Stern.

It also makes clear how extensively he perjured himself in his claims that Stern kneed him in the groin and was 'extensively intoxicated'.

What was at the root of this senseless attack? An ornament atop the mall's Christmas tree, accidentally broken by a friend of Stern.

I'll leave you with the video and a few choice word from Rosie's column to describe the guilty cop:

Thug. Liar. Bully. Disgrace. Felon.

Another Refreshing Perspective From Pope Francis

I am finding more and more to like about the new Pope everyday. I am certain his distinction between faith and ideology will enrage some on the right - that is, if they even listen to anyone anymore.

Uh Oh - The Big Boy's Mad

One cannot help but wonder if Toronto's Chief Buffoon, Rob Ford, had been 'over served' in some capacity (take your pick of mind/mood altering substances) before making this call to Sun reporter Joe Warmington last night.

Abandoning Ship?

Perhaps the Puffster will receive another lifeline soon?



H/t The Globe and Mail

A Peak Behind the Political Curtain

If, like me, you are of the firm suspicion that governments regard the needs of its citizens as largely secondary to those of its corporate backers, you will derive much from Martin Regg Cohn's column in this morning's Star. Entitled How corporate Ontario gets its way at Queen’s Park, the piece confirms the subversion of the people's interests at the hands of money, powerful lobbying, and venal politicians.

As discussed in an earlier blog entry, construction giant EllisDon has been engaged in an intense lobbying effort to get the Ontario legislature to rescind a 1958 agreement that binds them to using only union labour which, they assert, puts them at a competitive disadvantage. As part of what Cohn terms the lobbyist-industrialist complex that lubricates Ontario politics, the company, a contributor of massive sums of money to the Liberal Party and, to a lesser extent, the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (with promises of more in exchange for their legislative support), attempted to 'call in its markers' through a Conservative private member's bill geared specifically to freeing it from its union obligations.

Thanks to some deft lobbying by StrategyCorp, EllisDon was able to secure Liberal backing for the Tory MPP’s proposal — a conspicuous display of bipartisan co-operation. The two rival parties went even further by agreeing to prioritize the controversial EllisDon bill, speeding it through the legislature.

Premier Kathleen Wynne publicly defended the bill as a necessary corrective for EllisDon. It was an unusually passionate defence of a bill circumscribing union rights, coming from a premier widely viewed as a labour-friendly progressive.

The motivation for such generous Liberal cooperation? Perhaps it had something to do with EllisDon's own 'generosity':

... EllisDon, its subsidiaries and executives, have been shockingly generous donors to her [Wynne's] party: more than $125,000 to the Liberals in 2012 and more than $40,000 so far in 2013.

And what the Tories didn’t say publicly was that EllisDon had given them a still-generous $32,000 last year and some $14,000 so far in 2013. Now, they were hoping for even bigger contributions if they went to bat for the company. Indeed, the latter was confirmed by an email from Conservative Randy Hillier in September.

Interestingly, all of these acts of political prostitution were ultimately unnecessary. Because the company had appealed an Ontario Labour Relations Board ruling that had granted it a two-year exemption from its union obligations, last month Ontario’s Divisional Court granted it a permanent exemption.

But the political hijinks and corruption didn't end there:

Seizing the opportunity, Wynne ducked. In light of the latest court ruling, she publicly dropped her support for the EllisDon bill — provided, she noted, there were no further court appeals from the unions.

Alas, the union has launched an appeal, but, because further legislative support of the company would have made her lack of principle obvious to even the most benighted, Wynne has decided to offer no further support to EllisDon.

All in all, a tawdry affair that shows the massive role that money and corporatism plays in Ontario politics, protests of principled purity by all participants notwithstanding.