When Harper was in Davos he was practically busting to tell the high priced nobs that he was going to trim Canada’s sails, especially our nation’s Old Age Security programme. That promptly backfired sending Tory MPs slithering for cover into their favourite dark places. Not to worry. Tiny Jim Flaherty,
Continue readingTag: Harper
The Disaffected Lib: Okay, I Get It. Harper Needs China to Buy Bitumen So Canada Can Buy F-35s to Defend Canada Against China.
Okay, now it all makes sense. According to PostMedia’s howler, Matthew Fisher, Canada needs the F-35 to defend Canada against the creeping Red Menace, China: Despite its staggering cost, the jets’ capabilities have appealed to western governments deeply concerned with how quickly China is acquiring aircraft carriers and expanding its
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Contradiction? What contradiction?
Prime Minister Harper in China on the tarsands: Prime Minister Stephen Harper blasted “foreign money and influence” behind critics of Canada’s oil sands even as he welcomed Chinese investment in Canada’s energy sector…At the same time, he made clear he does not equate Chinese foreign investment in oil sands development
Continue readingTrashy's World: Harper and the abortion issue…
…or non-issue… depending on where you stand. I had an extensive back and forth with some conservative friends the other day on FB. I was referring to a piece by WK on how the abortion issue is NOT really off the table for the CPC. I don’t cut and paste
Continue readingWillful Ignorance
As the HarperCon delegation of Ministers and big biz boyz prepared to take off for China, the wise Yinka Dene Nation through whose lands the Northern Gateway pipeline is proposed to go, were busy writing letters. They sent one to the Government of China loaded with examples describing how Aboriginal
Continue readingImpolitical: The "great shell game"
Come on in, the water’s warm! Yes to this Martin column today: “The myth of Tory economic performance.” Can the myth be sustained in coming years? Are times about to get rockier? Some headlines from today to consider: “Banks rolling back mortgage discounts,” “Customers feel the pinch as banks cut
Continue readingcmkl: And now, more squirrel. Search and rescue this time
Hard to argue with this. These cutbacks aren’t out of necessity. They’re choices. Harper’s government would be happy to blow you out of the air with a stealth fighter (assuming they can make them fly) but they won’t pluck you off the side of a cliff.
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Olive: Time to play hardball with Caterpillar (but you can bet the Conservatives won’t)
Here is a very hard-line piece from David Olive today in the Star about what the Canadian government should do about Caterpillar – a tone I’m not used to seeing Olive, the Star’s business columnist, come out and write in his pieces, so he’s obviously ticked off: We could nationalize
Continue readingTrashy's World: A brush with evil…
…or at least extreme nastiness… No. It was evil. And I don’t even believe in the absolutes of good and evil. My complete lack of belief in things spiritual prevents such thoughts. But I cannot explain the following without thinking that evil may really and truly exist. And it resides
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Lazy Loitering Louts
In light of the Occupy movements, younger people will find this vintage video from Vancouver, very vivid. You have to wait until the very end too for a killer video joke. The mayor, pictured in 1968, passed away yesterday at age 85. His vision lives on in the 1%. ==
Continue readingkirbycairo: A Changing Mood. . . .
I was communicating lately with another blogger whose work I greatly appreciate about the way the mood has changed in the country in recent weeks. I have found in my own experience, as well as in my historical reading, that even significant political changes occur in a kind of mysterious
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: F-35 For Australia and Canada
It’s amazing how expensive a stealth fighter jet can be. And it just gets more and more expensive the longer Canada contemplates actually forking over cash for the fictional fighter planes. I was 14 when I last thought that fighter jets were the coolest things ever. I guess Harper never
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: The Stupid Senate
“I felt like it is kind of an insult to be a denier for a long time,” said Sen. Bert Brown, last month at a parliamentary committee studying energy policies. “It feels pretty good this morning.” What I find particularly disturbing about so many climate change deniers ending up being
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Public backlash forces Harper to back down a bit on OAS cuts
Conservative MP’s are often described as parrots for doing nothing but repeating scripted phrases over and over again in defense of their government, or being not the brightest bunch in the world. However, they are smart enough to recognize when the voters get mad, and concerned enough about their own
Continue readingMaking More Noise About the Tarsands!
The HarperCons are certainly giving the regina mom a lot of opportunity to diss them. And that would be fun! Perhaps, if we give them enough rope… I know. It’s wishful thinking, mirroring theirs, apparently. As a poster at one of the web boards I frequent said, “It’s like the
Continue readingRandom Ranting Raving and Ratings: Getting it Wrong and Limiting Debate on Pensions
The first day of Parliament 2012 and the Conservatives are already strangling debate. As we have seen in previous years the Conservative MPs unable to speak for themselves got up and repeated the same old talking points… this time on Pooled Pensions. Watching the debate I could picture… ..
Continue readingImpolitical: Juxtaposing Harper: OAS version
Harper to the House of Commons, yesterday, when questioned on his proposed cuts to Old Age Security: “Everybody understands that there are demographic realities that do threaten the viability of these programs over the longer term. We will ensure that these programs are funded and viable for the future generations
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Does Stephen Harper Support Coalitions?
If coalitions are undemocratic and a threat to Canada, why hasn’t this strong stable Conservative majority government done anything to make sure they don’t ravage our nation? Simple, Stephen Harper supports coalitions. Just over three years ago Stephen Harper and members of his party said coalitions were a threat to
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Minister of Threatening Canadians
Modified form letter I sent started with: Dear Prime Minister Harper, Threatening charities as ‘adversaries’ of your government, is wrong. The form response I got back started with: Dear [Saskboy]: Thank you for writing to the Prime Minister. In your e-mail, you raised an issue that falls within the portfolio
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Harper needs to come clean on his Old Age Security ‘reforms’
Parliament resumes very shortly as of this writing. It is to be hoped that Stephen Harper will deem Parliament important enough to reveal the details on his very public musings in Davos Switzerland last week about Old Age Security needing to be “reformed” – an announcement that couldn’t wait for
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