Harper and Iggy - - Adults?

So Globe & Mail columnist Lawrence Martin is calling the Harper-Iggy pact an adult decision? In essence, all they have done is strike a mutually convenient political pact for both sides. One that, thankfully, spares we Canucks from a long hot summer of having our lawns littered with political placards of dubious aesthetic character, hooky BBQ gatherings, and sweaty disingenuous talk.

Good!

Good? Yes, good! Why? Because neither of the principles in this deal has graced us with a clear idea of where they want to lead this country. Neither man has bothered to advance a vision that distinguishes between where we are, where we need to be, and how we are going to get there. Neither man is being truthful over the absolute fiscal imperative that will see the federal government necessarily raise our taxes to offset our burgeoning national deficit. Neither man has come to grips with the fact that band-aid solutions tied to ill-conceived business friendly stimulus projects will not see us through. We need something more, something lasting. We need one of them to speak to people first, business second, and partisanship last.

Small differences and ephemeral core values do not a platform make. I, for one, am happy to wait until the fall to consider my options. Hopefully, by then, one of these gentlemen will be able to speak honestly, and with clarity, about why they deserve to be my Prime-Minister. As it stands, I have a lot of reason why Harper should not; but, as yet, I have few as to why Iggy should.

Both Iggy and Harper have some serious genuflecting and hard homework to do over the summer. Both have to learn how to speak honestly!

Do your work gentlemen, you may listen to Canadians this summer, but don't intrude too much - - spare us any further petty machinations, obtuse obfuscations, and asinine accusations borne of suspect intellectual and ideological rationalizations. All that can wait until the fall. In September, come back as leaders replete with vision - or, do not come back at all!


p.s. Manic Jack, you best do the same. Nobody wants to hear your outrage all summer; just bring us your ideas in the fall.

McGuinty to Harper: Tag You're It!

Wouldn't wanna be a retired auto worker today!

Premier Dalton McGuinty's admission yesterday that "Ontario's pension plan safety net isn't large enough to cover auto workers if GM goes bankrupt" signals a new round of TAG YOU'RE IT in Canadian politics.

And in this case, PM Stephen Harper is the 'it'.

Effectively, McGuinty gave notice to the federal Tory's yesterday that Ontario "is moving to limit the amount of money it would have to pay in a pension bailout." Ergo, come what will for Canada's auto sector (hell, high-water, or bankruptcy) the ball is now in Ottawa's court. In case there was ever any doubt, McGuinty made it clear that it is Harper's government that is going to have take ownership of the mammoth catastrophe that may await the ten of thousands of auto retirees who depend on their pensions to survive.

Of course, Ontario "is partly responsible for the pension crisis at GM Canada because of 1992 legislation that enabled the company to underfund its own plans." It was a change that all but guaranteed that if GM were ever to fail, her long serving employees and generations of pensioners were bound to find themselves where every worker man and working woman finds themselves at the end of the day amidst an economic collapse - Shit-out-of-Luck. While McGuinty did admit Ontario had "a political and moral responsibility to pensioners"; he also confessed that, really, the province has no capacity to meet the needs of those "experiencing troubles with their pension plans". According to the Report on Business, the problem is that Ontario's Pension Benefits Guarantee Fund, mismanaged for decades, is running a deficit. Though to be fair, even had the fund been administered properly, it was never designed to meet the demands created by a wholesale collapse of the auto sector. Simply put, if GM goes bankrupt, there is no way Ontario will be able to step into the breech to fix a "total pension shortfall may exceed $6-billion".

"Tag" Harper - you're it!

No worries though, Harper's federal Industry Minister Tony Clement is doing his best to help prepare pensioners for their possible fate by "offering words of warning" that they "need to be prepared for possible bankruptcy filings in the auto sector." But tell us Tony, how do 70 and 80 year old auto retirees "prepare" themselves for the disappearance of their pensions? What do you recommend? Do they take to the pavement in search of work with their walkers, wheelchairs and oxygen tanks?

As one retiree shouted at Finance Minister Jim Flaherty yesterday in Oshawa: "Your government asked me to take a haircut as a retiree, ... I took the haircut, but, dammit, I'm not going to let you scalp me on my pension, too." Frustrated by the retirees questions, Dim-Jim Flaherty responded to their concerns with this observation nugget; "Listen, this is a very serious time! ... All of these issues being raised about jobs, about pensions, ... these are very major questions that are being discussed right now in a serious way."

"Serious"? No kidding. Again Harper - "Tag you're it!"

Harper goes Potty at G-20

Canadian Prime-Minister Stephen Harper craps out a lot. But if the BBC is right, he's going to have to get himself a pair of depends. After all, missing the official photo at the G-20 because you're on the potty is just bad optics. What is he? In kindergarten?

Not the kind of PR we need right now.

It might even give some credence to assertions that he flushing our country's future down the toilet!

Take 2: G20 group photo snapped again after Harper's absence

CBC: Thursday, April 2, 2009 | 9:24 AM ET

The traditional photo of the G20 leaders was reshot after Prime Minister Stephen Harper missed his opportunity Thursday to be in the first snap.

Harper met with his officials following the first working session in London on Thursday morning when the picture — dubbed the family photo — was scheduled to be taken.

Officials said the prime minister was getting a quick briefing on changes to the communiqué that is expected to be released by the G20 at the end of the summit.

The BBC, however, is reporting that Harper was in the bathroom while the photo was being taken.

The other leaders initially waited for Harper but then went ahead with the photo without him.

Harper was scheduled to stand in the right flank of the group next to German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the original photo.

A second attempt to gather the leaders for the photograph was made about an hour later with Harper there.

Some of the other leaders ribbed Harper as they gathered for the second take, reportedly calling out, "Harper, Harper, is Harper here? Harper, this one's for you."

Greedy Businessmen: (de)Pressing Times - Eh, Harper?

What strikes one most about our present economic crisis are the paucity of voices from our big-business sector speaking against Tory PM Stephen Harper's desperate stimulus plan.

My, how times have changed.

During the last depression, after his own death-bed conversion, Prime-Minister R.B. Bennett announced before a stunned Board of Trade in St John, New Brunswick that: "I warn you that in the days to come there will be more, not less, interference by government with business."

Years later, Bennett's former private secretary, R.K. Finlayson could not shake the moment, As he recalled, the events of that night stuck because of "the look of horror on the faces of those men hearing such an utterance coming from a man who was regarded as the embodiement [sic] of big business untrammeled by state interference."**

Funny, eh? This time around Canadian capitalism seem's to be 'on-board' with the Tory programme. No real outcry this time. Aside from the odd dissenter there seems to be virtually no opposition emanating from the economic ruling class. Where's their outrage? Why are they not protesting Harper's abandonment of his principles? Where's their demonstrable fidelity to the free and unfettered market?

Ah, ... but of course this time big-business is guaranteed a bailout!

Silly me. How then could we possibly expect our men of integrity and industry today to react otherwise?

After all, what's better than a government guarantee that will not only protect one's privately-owned corporation but commits to preserving the flawed status-quo that spawned this horror in the first place!


The time for a revolution is nigh? - - - No?


** R.K. Finlayson, 'Life With R.B.: That Man Bennett' (unpublished manuscript c.1967?), LAC (Library Archives Canada), MG30, E 143, (ms.) p.252.

What an odd choice for a PR Banner Pic?

One would think that the Tory spin-machine would realize this pic is less than flattering. Odd they should choose to place this image over the banner of their official "Stand Up For Canada" website? I mean, what are they trying to do? Frighten little children?

From that bastard elf Flaherty: Coal for our stockings!

Coal in our stockings! Dirty, ugly and symbolic - Jim Flaherty has given us a dose of coal to suckle this season.

Now Flaherty could have waited until after Christmas to give us the new fiscal up-yours update, but NO! This month's figures were released at 3pm EST the day before Xmas eve! November's Fiscal Monitor statement was released on the 27th. True October's was on the 24th; but September's was on the 26th. What a difference a day makes! Talk about wanting to bury a story!

As MSNBC's Rachel Maddow observed in a different context last night, the tried and true "dumping" of bad news by government's on Friday's is well-founded. Hoping their news will get 'lost' in the end of week news-cycle; all government's 'dump' news on Friday's. But to do it a day before Christmas? Jesus, that's like boot-fucking Santa to death after he merrily slides down your chimney during his annual B&E.

Travesty!

Well Flaherty and Harper knew exactly what they were doing this time. They figured they would drop the coal in our stockings and they hoped we wouldn't notice. Thankfully, some have:

CBC - The federal government posted a $603-million deficit in October as tax revenues fell, according to figures released by the Finance Department on Tuesday.

Globe & Mail Report on Business, on our federal government's rapidly deteriorating fiscal position. [- - ->] The federal government is already starting to bleed red ink, ending the year with a report that showed three consecutive monthly deficits. And it is facing the increasing likelihood that it will post an annual deficit this fiscal year, even before a stimulus package that could be as large as $20-billion a year.

Bloomberg- The world’s eighth-largest economy is sputtering

Timely news indeed! Merry-e'ffn-Xmas!

Turns out October was the THIRD MONTH IN A ROW that whiz-bang economist Stephen Harper's government had posted a deficit! Does anyone remember their speechifying during the election? Does anyone remember Tweedle Dum & Tweedle Dee's "no deficit" mantra? Does anyone remember that in October some economic forecasters were predicting Canada was facing a 10 billion dollar deficit in 2009-2010 because OUR Conservative masters were failing "to stitch a 'looming fiscal hole'"?

Stephen Harper = Trained economist my frozen Winnipeg ass!

He and Jim are nothing but knowing liars. Anybody reading the Department of Finance "Fiscal Monitors" since last April could see where we were headed. Now a day removed from Christmas the truth is finally told: October's election had nothing to do with a "mandate" - it was all about hiding the truth. To make matters worse, the latest monthly financial statement suggests that the slide towards a deficit this fiscal year was due to a rapid run-up in government spending, not a fall in revenues. Again, trained economist my ass!

"Don't worry," Flaherty now says, the deficit will be only "temporary"! Well we certainly hope so, you walking, talking, breathing piece of Harper scat. But why believe him?

Flaherty the coal giver might as well channel Martin Luther King's immortal words and tell us:

"Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind."

Well, Flaherty, some of us do mind. So when you get yourself back to that mountaintop - do us all a favour: JUMP! We'll take it from here.

What's Next? Will this beady-eyed bazturd one day just admit he was 'actually' wrong?

Yesterday's Globe & Mail assessment had it right:

"In an interview with CTV News, aired on Monday, Mr. Harper primarily made headlines by declining to rule out the possibility of recession turning to depression, and for a gloomy economic forecast in which he said he has “never seen such uncertainty in terms of looking forward to the future.” He effectively completed the government's retreat from its refusal to run a deficit in its fiscal update, acknowledging that the billions of dollars to be spent in next month's budget would push the country into the red. This showed a welcome – if belated and still inconsistent – recognition of the need to adjust his government's economic policies to the times."

Now if we could only get the beady-eyed fucker to look straight into a camera and say: "My stance this past election cycle was all a sham. I knowingly lied about our country's future economic prospects and, for that, I apologize."

Baby steps people, baby steps...

If I were Harper.... hmmm?

Today, if I were Harper
I'd be ashamed

Yesterday, if Harper
... embarrassed

In January, if Harper
I will be toast...

Ahhh,

Justice - 'tis a fate so sweet it 'tis worth waiting for.

R.I.P. Minority Government



.

Harper: Even Learned Lesbians are Mocking Your Manhood!!

Well at least Gutless Steve's stunt has been noticed in the US.
On MSNBC last night, awesome TV personality Rachel Maddow mocked Harper and his push to get Parliament dissolved as a "banana republic move."

Maddow: "In the twenty-first century, in Canada, the way to fight for your political life is apparently to demand that the Queen banish your enemies. Oh, Canada! C'mon."

See: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032553/vp/28060742#28060742