Vic Has A Warning For All of Us

Our alleged Public Safety Minister, Vic Toews, issued the following warning today:

Online hacker group Anonymous a threat to us all

Maybe. Or perhaps it is a threat only to those who seem to have an unhealthy, intrusive, and/or pruient interest in our Internet lives.

The Pleasures of Ford-Spotting

Were I a fully actualized human being, I would no doubt lead an exemplary life, the proud possessor of a heart filled with love for both friends and enemies. Alas, I am not such a person, and so I freely confess to the on-going delight and pleasure I take when things go awry in the fantasy world of the right-wing.

I suspect that is at least part of the explanation for my ongoing fascination with the 'mind' of Toronto's mayor, Rob Ford, about whom I have written several times already. The latest source of my impure pleasure is the Chief Magistrate's total obliviousness to (or absolute indifference to) the caricature of administrative competence that he conveys to the world, at the same time heedlessly dragging down with him any notion of Toronto as a 'world-class city.'

His latest contribution to my merriment came in an article in today's Star, where the big boy threatens to unleash the "Wrath of Kong" against a former MPP under Mike Harris, Councillor John Parker, for falling to support his one-track mind on subways.

As a consequence of this failure of fealty, the ungentle giant is saying he will turn the 2014 election into a de facto referendum on council’s transit votes, ... hinting publicly he will support an effort to defeat Parker.

Nothing I enjoy more than a good cat fight among right-wing extremists.

Ontario's Impending Austerity Budget

Reading my morning Star, I learned that there is wide-spread support among the public for austerity measures to reduce Ontario's deficit. I suspect that there will be a particular appetite for the following:

Hundreds of thousands of teachers, nurses and all other public employees face higher pension contributions or reduced payouts to keep their plans sustainable, the Ontario government will announce Tuesday.

Although I am a former teacher receiving one of those 'lavish pensions' that come with no benefits (I pay about $3,000 per year for supplementary health insurance), I shall not use this space to offer a defense of them, except to observe that the money for that pension comes from a hefty percentage deduction of my salary over the years, along with the government's contribution.

No, what I really want to say is that the reaction of the various public sector union leaders to this austerity program with be a telling barometer of the health of the union movement provincially and nationally.
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Conventional wisdom is that unions in North America have been under attack for some time, and the success of that attack is clear in the erosion of union membership over the years; however, unions have to take part of the responsibility for that decline, frequently serving the members with the less-than-sterling leadership they deserve, a topic I have written about on more than one occasion.

For example, after the divisive and hateful reign of Mike Harris and his comrades came to an end in Ontario, the leadership at OSSTF, my former federation, embraced Dalton Mcguinty and his policies uncritically, and I believe it was at that point, to borrow a thought from Chris Hedges and his Death of the Liberal Class that the union, a traditional liberal institution, failed to hold true to its values, instead essentially giving its stamp of approval to everything the government did, thereby selling out to the corporate agenda.

So, in what looks to be a major budgetary attack on the public sector, how the unions respond could give a very good indication of their future health and viability.

Agitation At The Globe and Mail Continues

In the throes of some form of political delirium tremens since Thomas Mulcair's election as leader of the NDP, the Globe and Mail has apparently lost its lexicographical grasp, describing three resignations from the party with the following hyperbole:

Communications director joins NDP exodus under Mulcair

Expect more of the same as panic continues at Canada's self-proclaimed 'newspaper of record.'

Rob Ford Continues to Embarrass Himself

'Mayoral ineptitude' is probably only one of the many terms that could be used to characterize Toronto's Chief magistrate, Rob Ford. Not only has he regularly demonstrated his unfitness for municipal leadership over his inflexible position on public transit (subways, subways, subways), but he continues to embarrass himself and demean his office through the vehicle of his and brother Doug's weekly radio show.

Apparently happy to burn all bridges with councillors who don't share his monomaniacal enthusiasm for underground transit at any cost, Ford used his show to try to recruit candidates for the next election. Declaring a 'fatwa' against those who have a different perspective, one based on reason and cost analysis, Mayor Rob intoned:

“But you know what? We need to run a slate next time,” Ford said. “We have to get rid of these other 24 councillors.”

He was referring to the 24 councillors who backed light rail over Ford’s proposal to extend the subway system.

Continuing in the demagogic and absolutist vein so loved by the right-wing, he continued:

“You’re on our side or against us. You’re on the taxpayer’s side or against them. There’s no mushy middle. It’s left or right down there.”

Thus the campaign for the next municipal election in 2014 has begun. But what becomes of Toronto in the interim?

Harper Inc. Continues To Deform Our National Ethos

While it is probably impossible to define the soul of a nation, one aspect of the Canadian psyche must surely be a generosity of spirit and a concern for the collective that is absent in many other nations.

It is the relentless attack upon this very spirit, with the intention of minimizing its influence in policy formulation, that I find the most reprehensible aspect of the Harper regime. While I have written before about these efforts, I was reminded of them in reading Tim Harper's column this morning in The Star. A few excerpts follow:

Mulcair had barely made his way to the stage late Saturday when the Conservative party fired off a release, branding him “an opportunist,’’ a man with blind ambition and a divisive personality.

There was Maxime Bernier, a minister of state from Stephen Harper’s tiny Quebec team, branding Mulcair a socialist, a man who will raise your taxes, take away your freedom and intervene daily in your life.

Then Heritage Minister James Moore entered the fray, bringing the attack up yet another notch, referring to Mulcair’s “vicious streak,” then repeating that he was “vicious and personal’’ in his approach to politics.

While these attempts at character assassination can be dismissed as simply reflections of the gutter politics with which Harper and his acolytes are intimately familiar, their costs can be high indeed, as pointed out by a Star reader this morning:

Re: PM disgusts voters with attack ads, Column, March 22

I am really concerned for the Canadian psyche. Here we go again with negative ads even though we are not in an election. What a message for every child in the schoolyard — name-calling, half-truths and demeaning another person's character are okay. Politics is destroying our civil society instead of providing much-needed leadership. The Conservatives should be inspiring us to work together for a better country. They should be talking about policies that will lead to a better, more cohesive society rather than attempting to humiliate the opposition.

They need to stop the negative ads and start focusing on their own party platform. Continuing that negativity will serve as a wedge in our country that can only get bigger and bigger.

Bonnie Bacvar, North York

It is a point well-taken, but one which this Harper Conservative government, I suspect, doesn't give a damn about.

The Globe and Mail Pronounces on the NDP

Well, I guess the rest of us can stop thinking, now that John Stackhouse and the lads over at the Globe and Mail have done it for us.

NDP: still not a credible alternative reads the title of their editorial.

Could it be that 'the paper of record' which consistently and unabashedly endorses Harper each election is feeling just a trifle nervous?