weekend bits

Just got home from a great weekend convention in Dartmouth. After two ballots and a little bit of drama, Stephen McNeil wins the NS Liberal Leadership.

Meanwhile, in PEI, rumours abound that Premier Pat Binns will call an election as early as Monday.

And, in Newfoundland, only days after a budget full of goodies, oil revenue, and a pile o' money from Ottawa, the Williams propaganda machine in his "home" riding is running a poll showing support for separation slightly over 50%. You can vote here.


PS - both WK and PW are blogging about music today, which can only mean that a certain story must be making front pages, yet again. Predictable.

NS Liberal Leadership

Coverage here, here. here, here. So far, so good.

Attention CP

Whichever reporter filed this little ditty:

Williams says he's trying to stifle separatist feelings in Newfoundland
(Williams-Separatism)
Source: The Canadian Press
Apr 25, 2007 15:14

...should file an access to information request to ask what his "minion ambassador" has been up to these past few months. Just for the hell of it.

Iffy lube

The Department of Innovation, Trade and Rural Technology heard Danny Williams' Speech from the Throne loud and clear.

Ushering in the dawn of a new age of self-reliance, in commemoration of the Premier's pledge that Newfoundlanders and Labradorians would stand on their own two feet, a family are lured home from Alberta to be masters in their own house.

Only it's not a house. It's a lube station. Complete with $100,000 in Danopoly money and their very own press release.

Danny Williams. Innovation. Lubing businesses in a community near you soon...

"The Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Fund provides term loans and equity investments to small and medium-sized businesses in strategic growth sectors..."

Must be an election year.

Classifieds

Halifax - Clifton Street $475.00 Month
Accommodation has 2 bedrooms with 1 available. wireless internet, elect., heat, water
5 appliances (fridge/stove/washer/dryer/dishwasher)
One bedroom available for summer sublet, in a spacious 2 bedroom main floor of a house. Furnished, to share with one male roommate for most of the summer. Available from May 1 until August 31 (or July 31). Located very close to Commons, 15 minute walk to Dal.

email: mark_watton@yahoo.ca
or see ad here, here, or here.

I wonder if they're giving out swish barrels...

St. Pierre and Miquelon, two tiny French islands off the coast of Newfoundland's Burin Peninsula hold the distinction of being the first polls to open and close in France's 2007 presidential election, starting today.

I doubt that St. Pierre-Miquelon's voting population of a few thousand will have much of an impact on the eventual outcome, but results will be posted here.

There's more here, here, and ici.

Random thoughts from the second floor of the library

Thought #1

This got me wondering. Imagine the outcry from the national media if the last government appointed a recent president of the Young Liberals to a federal port authority and to the Advisory Committee in Judicial Appointments to the Tax Court in the span of a year... imagine the howls of protest, accusations of patronage, impropriety etc., etc. ad nauseum, ad infinitium...

Canada's New Government, indeed.

Don't get me wrong. Kheirriden's smart, qualified, and probably just the right person for the job(s). Which is all that should matter.

So when Canada's Next Government appoints similarly smart, qualified folks to such positions, I am sure that both the members of Canada's Old Opposition, and of Canada's Even Older Press Gallery will adhere to their new-found sense of deference.

Thought #2

If the only thing I accomplished today was to have some neo-con gun toting whackjob (see below) forced to enable the "moderate comments" function on his ridiculous blog then I can go to sleep happy.

Thought #3

If the only thing I accomplish tomorrow is a "B" in my Civ Pro exam, I'll be similarly smug and content.

Idiot of the week

Hey - check it out!

The author of "More Guns Less Crime" and leading advocate for students' rights to carry guns has a blog. And it has a comments section.

Movin' on up.

One of the great things about being in government is that you no longer have to rely on cross-border bottle drives as a fundraising activity. That makes this guy rather expendable.

This guy, however, was probably never in it for the small change anyway.

Oh well, at least one of them had the stomach to run for office.

A challenge to my NDP friends.

Or maybe not a challenge, more of a request for some information out of general interest.

When a story like this refers to candidates as being "named" or "confirmed", it makes you wonder when you will ever see the words "NDP" "candidate" and "elected" all appear in the same sentence.

Even better, can anyone tell me how many NDP women candidates were elected through a nomination process last time around?

Or more to the point. Liberals frequently offer a pass to candidates to go unopposed in a nomination. Lately, incumbent MPs have generally been nominated without opposition, except where boundary changes occur, other candidates have been appointed by virtue of their eminent quality as a candidate, and more recently, in order to encourage gender parity, or ensure a presence of other minorities.

Yet when Liberals do anything of the sort, they generally get sh*t on from every level in the media. Then, of course, we get a plethora of NDP spinners and hacks piling on with accusations of "backroom deals" ,"trampled democracy", etc.

So here's the question. How many times in the last three elections have the NDP successfully chosen a woman candidate in a contested nomination?

Out of 308 ridings (924 attempts) I am willing to bet that the number can be counted on my fingers and toes.

Prove me wrong.

Supplemental question - in those ridings like Central Nova where NDP candidates get "named" or "confirmed" is it because of a backroom deal, or just a general lack of interest?

Interesting...

WASHINGTON (AP): Global warming poses a "serious threat to America's national security" with terrorism worsening and the U.S. will likely be dragged into fights over water and other shortages, top retired military leaders warn in a new report.

Believe what you Reid, forget what you Heard

Dammit, I am funny with puns today. Funny, funny, funny.

But this... this is funnier.

And no, I don't have mumps, but thanks for asking. Although I seriously think I would prefer to be quarantined with a communicable disease than to stare at this f***ing Admin Law Casebook for another minute. The mumps sufferers can at least watch the Sens game.

Back to the books.

UPDATE - Study break - this makes for lucid reading today, too.

But what have you done for me Layton-ly?

"NDP Leader Jack Layton criticized the alliance at a press conference Friday calling it a backroom deal that was unfair to Canadian voters." - CTV

Hmmm... would that be the same Jack Layton pictured in the "fair alliance" here?

I guess forming an alliance to dismantle things like Early Learning and Child Care and the Kelowna Accord is much "fairer" to Canadian voters than, say, opening the door to collaboration on issues like climate change.

I wish Jack well in making that argument next time around.

As an aside, one of Elizabeth May's great quotes yesterday involved not wanting to be the "Ralph Nader" of the next Canadian election campaign.

I have no idea why she said it or what she was thinking.

That job clearly already belongs to someone else.

False prophets bearing false profits

This is precisely why -- economist or not -- it is ridiculous to predict what an Equalization formula with so many variables is going to produce for one particular province or another, five or ten years out. And it's even more ridiculous for the local media to jump lock, stock and barrel for whatever numbers come out the other end.

To Locke's credit, he's revised his numbers and quickly admitted an error in calculation. And he continues to insist that he will not weigh in on the political implications of those figures. If he were a sitting politician, he would have had no choice but to beat his chest and buy a full page ad to insist he was right the first time around. Luckily, Locke has much more sense.

Which is more than we can say for Canada's New Fisheries Minister. When Locke's numbers gave even the slightest credibility to any of Loyola Hearn's incomprehensible doublespeak (the guy has been a federal MP from for a decade and still cannot even remotely explain Equalization) Hearn was the first out to trumpet some grand sense of vindication.

Today, with Locke adjusting his figures based on figures provided by Loyola's own government at Canada's New Finance Department (note to Hearn: that's two blocks down the street b'y), Hearn suddenly beat a hasty retreat, quickly dismissing Locke's information as:

"...hypothetical stuff, that isn't doing any of us any good, because we have no idea what figures we are talking about..."

A class act, that Loyola.

What would truly be refereshing is if folks could have a sensible and principled discussion around the merits of removing non-renewable resources from the Equalization formula, rather than a tribalistic tit-for-tat over who gets what out of it.

Instead we get this:

"And if there is something that happens which is negative towards our province, that's where I get involved." - Canada's New Fisheries Minister

There's a job description if I ever heard one. Sit around and do nothing until something negative happens. Then get involved... by telling the boss in which newspaper he should buy a full page ad.

On a side note, it sure would have been good if the media paid a fraction of the attention to this "promise" when it was made in 2004 as they are today. But then again, questioning Stephen Harper wasn't in the media's mandate back then. Maybe one day soon it will be.

UPDATE - There's more:

"...Hearn maintains no province will be disadvantaged through the equalization formula - and if theories show otherwise, the adjustments will be made. He says if any of the theories put forth show our province is disadvantaged, the corrections will also be made."

Really??? Where's that in the budget document?

That, Loyola, is an outright lie.

This sums it up quite nicely

My guess is that by Monday, Harper will be trying to distance himself from this Paille thing (see below). Rumour out of Ottawa has him already denying any knowledge of who Fortier was appointing. Whatever...

Anyhow, as is quite often the case, the most eloquent summary of this sordid affair to date comes from a more articulate Newfoundlander than me. Rex Murphy’s commentary from Thursday’s The National can be found here.

It starts at 42:40 and it’s well worth watching.

If you're up for some humour, skip back a couple of minutes and watch David Bercuson provide Stephane Dion with salient advice about picking up seats by getting tough on crime.

more...

...further to the post below, Paul Wells makes two good points, one about this Paille fellow, and another about the people who should have dug this up in the first place.

My hunch on why Harper picked this guy is that he hopes he'll make for good TV clips in the Quebec media. I hope it backfires. Quotes like this lead me to believe it just might...

"at Parizeau's request, Paille warned Wood Gundy that it and other companies could be excluded from lucrative Quebec government business..."

Yup. That's the ideal candidate to conduct a witch hunt into government practices.

h/t to PW at MacLeans and LT at The Gazette

UPDATE - more ...

"apropos of nothing"

Since we've all been treated to a bit of selective editing in various internet places that I don't generally link to...

And since we once again witnessed last week that "Jean Lafleur" and "sponsorship" will generate three times as many Canadian news stories as such clearly irrelevant things like "global warming"...

Here are the AG's "overall main points" which provide a bit of a contextual comparison between "sponsorship" and "polling".

1. We found that the federal government ran the Sponsorship Program in a way that showed little regard for Parliament, the Financial Administration Act, contracting rules and regulations, transparency, and value for money...

2. We found widespread non-compliance with contracting rules in the management of the federal government's Sponsorship Program, at every stage of the process...

5. Overall, public opinion research was managed transparently, with roles and responsibilities clearly defined...

Of course, this comes from the same Auditor General whom Canada's New Government chooses to disregard, when convenient, on matters such as the brewing RCMP* scandal.

Anyway, as CBC apparently described it (when did the National actually air last night?) Harper is simply engaged in a witch hunt. Concerned that his march towards majority territory has stalled in spite of his budget and his faux-federalist victory in the Quebec election, he's decided to go back to the single issue that propelled him to 24 Sussex in the first place.

I suspect that suburban TV studio will soon enough be put to good use.

*I meant to ask two weeks ago how many of you still think the RCMP was best suited to handle... oh nevermind...

Megalomania defined

From today's National Post mini-profile piece on Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams:

"The Premier helpfully reminds voters that, given his own megabucks (he sold his cable firm in 2001 for $232-million), he doesn't need the job. He seeks instead a legacy as a man who "stood up" for Newfoundland.

Since the moment Mr. Williams entered politics, his disciples have promoted this "he doesn't need the job" as the number one reason to vote for the guy. It's his badge of honour worthy of praise, recognition and benevolence. It's what qualifies him to govern and to tell us how we ought to be governed. After all - How on earth could you possibly question a guy who doesn't need a job? We should consider ourselves so lucky to have him.

Really.

How on earth can you relate to a guy who doesn't need a job? And more importantly... How on earth can he relate to you?

And as the last sentence of the paragraph points out, this is a man who readily admits - no, boasts - that his motivation is not to actually do anything, but to have been seen to have done something in a manner to his pleasing.

Three quarters of the way through his first mandate this premier is openly discussing his legacy with the national media; a legacy that revolves entirely around his attitude and peoples' perception of it.

It's gonna be a long five years.


PS - can you imagine the reaction an independently wealthy federal politician would get if he spent his time constantly reminding the press gallery that he was rich and didn't need the job?

7 IP 10 K

This has got Yankee fans crappin' their pants already.

« Harper a balkanisé le Canada », accuse Calvert

Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert might be right, but the stunning silence on this issue from all ten premiers for the past three years - out of fear of being seen in public contradicting one another in their collective strggle against big bad Ottawa - must really seem like a stupid strategy (for some of them) in hindsight.

Just sayin'.

Maybe this means the "Council of the Federation" is doomed. I hope so...

Logic is apparently a non-renewable resource

From yesterday's interview:

WILLIAMS: "Well you know they've already punished us. The damage is done. The magnitude of what they've done to us by not fulfilling this commitment is billions of dollars. What people need to understand is that by giving us the promise... we already had the accord. We got the accord from Paul Martin and we had to fight for that, but we got it. They are now saying well you still have your accord and nothing has changed, but that's not what they promised. They promised that we would be able to deduct 100 percent of our non-renewable resource revenues, which is our oil and our gas and our minerals, our nickel and our copper and our cobalt. So what that would have meant is that we would have had an accord forever. So we would never have had to have a renewal and when the accord expired after the renewal period in 2020, it would have still gone on. So we would have had the benefit that while we've got this window of opportunity here because someday this oil and this gas and this nickel is going to be gone and it's not going to be replaceable and it's the future generation that we have to worry about here.

How can you have something forever that will one day be gone?

A lengthier post on this to follow...

Bold prediction

Jean Lafleur is the lead story on just about every newswire at the moment, which means at least two bloggers will be posting about (a) jazz, or (b) punk for the next 24 hours or so.

Williams Government promised change...

...and change there will be.



Look! A new licence plate!! And it's all blue!!!

The HMV designation will appear on all government-owned Dodge vehicles:

"His Majesty's Viper"

and as for the "zero in forty nine" reference, well...

Clever.