While Martha Hall Findlay wiped the tears from her eyes, the World’s Seventh Intellect (is this the same as “Canada’s Foremost Thinker” to describe a certain GG husband?) stumbled in his first speech yesterday. “Determined determination” must be the epitome of smartness. So utter intellectual that simple folks like you or I would almost think it doesn’t make any sense. But I suppose there are only about six people in the world who could come up with better phrasing, so who are we to complain?

It also seems that the World’s Seventh Intellect likes the smell of manure. He’s such a farm-boy, our little Iggy. Doesn’t he look like he could, at any given time, peal off his suit like Superman, reveal his dirty coveralls underneath, grab a pitch fork and shovel some shit?

Jack Layton is laying low. After in effect being called stupid by Ignatieff in the aforementioned speech, and his wife’s online poll-gaffe, I think it is best to hide out until after Christmas. Plus I’ve seen enough of his moustache for a while.

With Dion gone, Rae gone and Lizzy May out of the country, politics have suddenly become non-humourous. Shame, shame, shame.

UPDATE: Thanks to Blue Like You and Small Dead Animals for sending hordes of folks this way and keeping me from doing my work all afternoon (and that’s a good thing!)

Obama has teamed up with Nobel Peace Prize and Oscar winner Al Gore to, once and for all, change the climate back to where it once was, damn it! Changing the Earth’s climate? Sounds like a bad James Bond plot to me. Gore, for all his help, does not want a cabinet post, though Obama is rumoured to have offered him Secretary of Propaganda. “The Time for Denial Is Over” they proclaimed. So is the Time for Common Sense, apparently.

Holland (or: The Netherlands) have come up with a “brilliant” new strategy to spend their climate change fighting $15 Billion/yr budget: they are now going to pay companies in Brazil to not cut down trees. And you thought our politicians were wacky.

Elizabeth May, yes that one, has been spotted in Poland on the UN Climate Change conference, officially titled “14th Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and Fourth Meeting of the Parties of the Kyoto Protocol” – sheesh, I guess that’s one way of weeding out those pesky climate change deniers. She says in her blog:

Everyone with whom I speak is heart-broken that Canada’s government has been so unhelpful

and

I hear that the youth delegates burst into tears – from many countries around the world – when news reached them that the Canadian Prime Minister was hanging on to power by shutting down the Parliament. 

Proving once and for all that she’s a certified nut-case.

She’s peddling her book “Global Warming for Dummies“. I guess she thinks that, besides the Canadian electorate, Poles (what do you call people from Poland?), the UN and indeed the world, are stupid as well.

Bob Rae, one time Liberal Party Leadership Racer and bankrupter of the Province of Ontario, was very un-democratically pushed out of the top lines of the party this week. After claiming the country could be taken over by another PM without a vote, and then claiming the opposite when it came to his own job, the Liberal caucus decided that Rae was a liability, and they’ve had enough liabilities over the past two years. Out he goes.

And Stephane Dion, after being fired from the Liberal Leadership position (is there any other word?), has decided to launch a new series of books in the “For Dummies” style, called “Do You Think It’s Easy?”, in order to generate enough revenue to pay off his extensive leadership race debt. The first in the series is titled “Do you Think It’s Easy? – Making Priorities”. A second one is in the works called “Do You Think It’s Easy - Home Videos – Part One: Focusing on your subject”.

Staffer: Mr. Dion, we have to deliver this tape, we’re late!
Dion: Can we start over?
Staffer: No, Lloyd is waiting for it…
Dion: Is he waiting for it now? Or next Tuesday?

The country is facing a recession, people of all stripes are cutting back on their expenses, some are losing money on their RRSPs, gauging (more like fleecing) at the pumps, people are losing jobs left and right, yet the Liberals, NDP and Bloc are against capping their salaries, cutting their expense accounts and want to hold on to their entitlements.  “We must work together to make this parliament work for the Canadian people” has changed to “I don’t want to give up my $1.95 per vote and a pay hike”. Thanks Jackie, Stephane and Gilles. Glad you’re working for us. Glad you’re chippin’ in.

Now it’s either another election with Mr. Money vs Mr. Broke, Mr. Poor and Mr. Stupid, or a coalition government between Mr. Am I Prime Minister now or Tuesday?, Mr. Kitchen Table and Mr. Separatist. Lovely.

These people live in such lala-land it is unbelievable.

So, what other things you have been saying during the campaign that have now proven to be untrue? Or, in other words, what other things has Mr Harper said during the campaign, that you said were lies, turn out to be true?

Yes, Dion held his L O N G awaited press conference yesterday, after HIDING OUT for nearly a week. Saying he’ll step down, but stay on for now (?). He blames everything on himself, but mostly on a number of other things (is that possible? It’s like a shirt is 100% cotton, AND some wool h/t Seinfeld), such as:

1. The Conservatives’ giant war chest
2. The Liberals’ small war purse
3. The Conservatives painted a bad image of him he could not shake
4. The Conservatives said his Green Shift plan was a “Tax”, neglecting to mention the matching income tax cuts.

So, for #1 and #2, you have no-one to blame but yourself: you are the leader of the party and as such in charge of bringing in the donations. Just because others are better at fund raising doesn’t mean they were the cause of your demise; #3: Harper=Bush, Soldiers in our Streets, Harper is a Liar, Harper lives in a ‘bubble’, Harper is dishonest. ‘Nuff said. #4. Sorry, but it isn’t the Conservatives interest to sell YOUR plan to YOUR voters. I think everybody in Canada knows that. Everybody, except one, apparently.

In all of this, past year not showing up for votes in the House, and this election disaster, Mr. Dion still hasn’t stepped past his Parisian snootiness. It’s my fault, but really, it’s those meanies across the isle! He claims to be stepping down for the good of the party, but in the same breath he says he’ll stay on for another 8 months, no doubt to collect his hefty MP salary to be able to pay off his own personal debt.

Well, well. Mr. “I am not a quitter” Quits. Who’s the liar now, Mr. Snooty?

This is the first election I’ve heard the opposition parties say: If the Conservatives win a strong minority or a slight majority that means they got 40% of the vote which means 60% of Canada did NOT vote for them. 60% of Canadians DO NOT WANT them. That means 60% of Canada voted for US and so we should govern.

So I did some research into past elections and, applying the above ‘rule’, where you don’t have the Canadian people’s blessing to govern if you don’t get more than 50% of the vote, the history of our country would have been quite different:

• 1867: Conservative won with 50%, Macdonald can stay.
• 1872  Conservative won with 49.9%. Macdonald thrown out. Liberals and Other govern. (Blake PM)
• 1874: Liberals won with 53.8%. Mackenzie can stay.
• 1882: Conservative win with 53.4%. Macdonald can stay.
• 1887: Conservative win with 50.7%: Macdonald can stay.
• 1891: Conservative win with 52%. Macdonald can stay.
• 1896: Liberals win with 45.1%. Laurier thrown out. Conservative & Order govern (Charles Tupper PM)
• 1900: Liberal win with 52%. Laurier can stay.
• 1904: Liberals win with 52.5%. Laurier can stay.
• 1908: Liberals win with 50.6%. Laurier can stay.
• 1911: Conservatives win with 51.2%. Borden can stay.
• 1917: Conservatives win with 57%. Borden can stay.
• 1921: Liberals win with 40.7%. Mackenzie King thrown out. Other and Conservatives govern. (Arthur Meighen PM)
• 1926: Liberals win with 43.6%. Mackenzie King rown out. Conservatives & Other govern. (Arthur Meighen PM)
• 1930 Conservatives win with 49%. Bennett thrown out. Liberal & Other govern. (Mackenzie King PM)
• 1935 Liberals win with 44.4%. Mackenzie King thrown out. Conservative, Social Credit & Other govern.
• 1945: Liberals win with: 41.4%. Mackenzie King thrown out. Progressive Conservatives, CCF, Social Credit & Other govern. (John Bracken PM)
• 1949: Liberals win with 50.1%. St-Laurent can stay.
• 1953: Liberals win with 50%. St-Laurent can stay.
• 1957: Progressive Conservatives win with 39%. Diefenbaker thrown out. Liberals, CCF, Social Credit & Other govern. (St-Laurent PM)
• 1958: Progressive Conservatives win with 53.7%. Diefenbaker can stay.
• 1962: Progressive Conservatives win with 37.3%. Diefenbaker thrown out. Liberals, Social Credit, NDP & Other govern.
• 1963: Liberals win with 41.7%. Pearson thrown out. PC, Social Credit, NDP & Other govern. (Diefenbaker PM)
• 1972: Liberals win with 38.5%. Trudeau thrown out.PC, NDP, SC & Other govern. (Stanfields PM)
• 1974: Liberals win with 43.2%. Trudeau thrown out.PC, NDP, SC & Other govern. (Stanfields PM)
• 1979: PC win with 35.9%. Joe Clark thrown out. Liberal, NDP, SC & Other govern. (Trudeau PM)
• 1980: Liberals win with 44.3%. Trudeau thrown out. PC, NDP, SC & Other govern. (Joe Clark PM)
• 1984: PC win with 50%. Mulroney can stay.
• 1988: PC win with 43%. Mulroney thrown out. Liberals, NDP, SC & Other govern. (Turner PM)
• 1993: Liberals win with 41.3%. Chretien thrown out. Bloc, Reform, NDP, PC & Other govern. (Lucien Bouchard PM!!)
• 1997: Liberals win with 38.5%. Chretien Thrown out. Reform, Bloc, NDP,PC & Other govern. (Manning PM)
• 2000: Liberals win with 40.8%. Chretien Thrown out. Canadian Alliance, Bloc,NDP, PC & Other govern. (Stockwell Day PM)
• 2004: Liberals win with 36.7%. Martin thrown out. Conservatives, Bloc, NDP, Green & Other govern. (Stockwell Day Harper PM)
• 2006: Conservatives win with <50%. Harper thrown out. Liberals, NDP, Bloc & Green govern. Dion Martin PM.

So, to recap, with this new ‘rule’ we’d have had: No Jean Chretien (+), A BQ as PM (-), No Paul Martin (+), No Free-Trade (-), One term of Trudeau (+), Right Government for past 15 yars (+)

Hmm… more pluses than minuses. Maybe they’re onto something here…

Hypothetical scenario:

Minority Conservative Government. First vote of confidence will be on Tough on Crime for Young Offenders. It will (obviously) be defeated. Liberals, NDP, Bloc and Greens will go to the Governor General, and form a new coalition government. We’ll get:

1. Prime Minister Stephane Dion
2. Minister of Finance: Bob Rae
3. Minister of Defense: Jack Layton
4. Minister of the Environment: Elizabeth May

If this doesn’t scare anybody I don’t know what this country is a-comin’ to.

And this is a VERY REALISTIC scenario. The Bloc, Greens and NDP have already said they’re open to it. Dion has REFUSED to rule out putting May in his cabinet, indicating he’s open to a coalition. The only way to stop this is by electing a majority Conservative government.

h/t to Lowell Green‘s radio show

This is from Greg Weston’s column in the Ottawa Sun:

HALIFAX — It was one of those unfortunate technical glitches that eventually bedevils every election campaign, a teleprompter that failed to roll at the start of Stephane Dion’s speech to the chamber of commerce here yesterday.

No fault of the Liberal leader, the miscue nonetheless provided a much needed reality check on this week’s dubious outbreak of Dionmania.

“Thank you to welcome me in the chamber of commerce of one of the most successful city of Canada and certainly the most resilient Halifax,” Dion began ad libbing as he waited for the teleprompter.

Thanking the person who introduced him and saying a word about local Liberal MP Scott Brison, who provided a warm-up act, should not have been too tricky for a prospective prime minister.

“Thank you very much, um … Thank you. Uh, and thank you also. Thank you, Valerie. I think exactly like … I will speak with my heart, okay?”

“Thank you Valerie. Thank you so much because what you have as an agenda is at the core of a plan that Scotch, um, Scott has shown, a plan that want development and for the next generations as well, build on the economy and environment together.”

The teleprompter finally operational, the Liberal leader reads the rehearsed script, decrying Stephen Harper and telling the crowd why Stephane Dion should be the next prime minister.

Announcing a hearing problem just before the election campaign was an incredible foresight of the Liberal party. It’s a kind of a catch all for any bad answers given during the campaign.

And it came in handy today.

From The Star, December 21, 2007:

OTTAWA – Prime Minister Stephen Harper expects Canada’s economy to suffer next year, buffeted by turmoil south of the border and the “cost” of new climate-change measures here at home.

In a calculated signal to Canadians, Harper said that 2008 will be “more challenging” for his government and the country.

“There remains very serious economic uncertainty in the United States and in other parts of the world, and it’s impossible for me to see how Canada can be entirely immune from those developments,” he said in a year-end interview with the Star.

While Harper has warned of uncertainty before, this is his strongest statement yet that economic problems will hit Canada in what many expect to be an election year.

As a result, Harper said the government is planning a “stand-pat” budget aimed at stability.

“We will have very much a stand-pat fiscal stance focused on stability, focused on paying down debt, which is what families and businesses do when they face a period of some uncertainty,” he said.

His warnings came as the International Monetary Fund downgraded its economic growth forecast for Canada to somewhat less than the 2.3 per cent it forecast just three months ago.

In the United States, housing and credit woes have sparked fears of a full-blown recession. Earlier this month, TD economists warned that Canadian economic growth will “slow materially” in the months ahead.

In Canada, a rising loonie has accelerated the loss of thousands of high-paying manufacturing jobs. Ontario’s manufacturing sector has been particularly hard hit, with the loss of 44,000 jobs in the first nine months of this year.

Harper also warned that climate-change measures that take effect next year “will start to bite.

“It will hit home the reality that you cannot reduce greenhouse gas – you cannot mandate it – without there being some economic cost in the short term,” Harper said.

“We happen to believe we’ve set it up so that those costs are manageable, so that we provide incentives for firms and sectors to exploit the technology opportunities that this regime requires,” he said. “But the fact of the matter is it will cost.”

The Prime Minister sat down with the Star this week at his official residence at 24 Sussex Drive. Sitting in the living room, a large Christmas tree behind him, he reflected on the year past and the year ahead.

Harper said the Canadian economy is “probably the strongest it’s been in 30 years” with low unemployment and has shown “considerable resiliency in the face of some worrying signs around the world.”

And he argued that his government has tried to put the Canadian economy on a good footing, most recently with the fall economic update that provided cuts to income and business taxes to “strengthen the confidence of consumers and families, and also strengthen Canada’s position as a place to invest.”

But because of fears of a slowdown, Harper said such largesse would not be repeated in the budget expected in February or March.

“This government will be very cautious when it comes to fiscal actions. … As I said we’ve taken our tax measures for the budget … this government will not be throwing billions of dollars around in the spring,” Harper said.

This obviously comes from a man who has been on the pulse of the economy for a very long time. As opposed to Dion, whose idea of a plan for the economy came to him during the English debate (about 24 days into a campaign) where he pledged to have 30 days of meetings to come up with a plan. Some plan. “Harper doesn’t have a plan!”, no, you confused him with you! What you mean to say is that YOU don’t have a plan!

Layton, on the other hand, has a plan, but unfortunately, to pay for his plan he intends to roll back (read: raise) corporate taxes by $50B. Someone ought to sit down with Jack at his kitchen table and tell him that corporations (businesses) are what keep this economy rolling and keep a lot of people employed. Especially the Alberta oil sands. Raising their taxes will surely slow down the economy and lose a lot of jobs.

Little Miss Sunshine from The Green Party want to “green” the economy. Buy less from the US (I am sure they’ll be thrilled with that and cut back the 80% of our products they buy), and re-establish the national dream, that is railroads (I’m not making this up, this is in their “economy” section).

I don’t care what the Bloc says.

There you have it folks, you can chose between a guy who has been seriously talking about the economy for years, versus: 1) a man who needs 30 days to come up with a plan, 2) a man who will tax this economy to a grinding halt, 3) a woman who dreams in green, and 4) a separatist who wants to tear this country apart.

Take your pick. I know who I’m voting for.

If I was the PM and I was at the French debates I’d say:

To Gilles Duceppe: Can I finish my sentence for once?
To Jack Layton: How come you sound like a Scot, and I sound effeminate?
To Stephane Dion: Can you take a stand on something? I know Rae and Iggy are not here, but geez. You can’t even say if you’re for or against a our crime bill. At least Jack said he’s fundamentally against so he’ll vote against. You say “we’ll see”.
To the moderator: They have four minutes to pile on me, and I have 1 minute for rebuttal. Why are we sitting around a giant guitar pick? Do I have to sit next to the passion flaky? Why am I facing a three headed firing squad? Why is my back to the camera in the overhead shots, and the firing squad is facing the audience?
To Elizabeth May: God, you’re annoying. You remind me of Jar Jar Binks (“Global Warming comin dees way: Meesa Gonna Die!”) I hope so…

And that is why I would never be a PM. But that’s OK.

The debates

Wouldn’t it be fun if, at the debates, whenever someone says something really stupid (and the chance of that is pretty high, with Dion, Layton, Duceppe AND May in the same room), that Harper looks into the camera a la Jim Helpert of The Office with a look of “What am I supposed to do with this?!?”.

That’s what I want out of these debates.

Dion stated he’s ready to become PM and he’s going to show that to Canadians during the debates.

So in order to accomplish that, he’d have to serious brush up on the following areas before the French debate on Wednesday:

1. The Economy (uh, might as well start from the beginning: “An economy is the realized social system of production, exchange, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of a country or other area.”) 
2. The Environment (why don’t you fight pollution rather than some plant feeding odourless gas)
3. Foreign Policy (nuff said)
4. Reading the Canadian people (“It’s the Economy, Stupid!”)
5. Democracy (Teaming up with Lizzy May and not running candidates in each other’s riding, then getting in bed with the strategic voting crowd is NOT democratic)
6. English (you have an extra day for this one, only due on Thursday)

Layton revealed his feel good platform. It’ll make everyone, except for those nasty corporations, happy! He’ll take the feel good money from those nasty corporations and put it on your kitchen table. Yay. Raising corporate taxes. Yes, nothing says “buy our cheap products” than higher corporate taxes.

“Now is not the time to do something new, wild or stupid” (Stephen Harper).

Dion finally gets it: it’s all about the economy. A full 18 days AFTER Harper started talking about the economy, Dion is finally on the same page, and then has the audacity to say “It’s the economy, ” [waives hands] “Stephen”. Is this guy not embarrassed? Who does he think he’s fooling?

Jackie proposes a brand new, expensive to run, Ministry of Consumer Affairs. Is this what Harper means when he says “new, wild and stupid”?

Five Ottawa Liberal candidates ganged up on Ottawa-West candidate John Baird yesterday, saying he meddled in municipal affairs by intervening in the Light Rail project. They say the Federal Government should not meddle in municipal affairs, and then, in an ironic twist, proceeded by laying out THEIR terms for the Ottawa Light Rail project.

Another good day for conservatives: a great economic speech by Harper, an embarrassing moment for Dion, Layton talks kitchen tables, Gilles stands by his “fresh meat” comment, and May hasn’t been heard from.

Dion’s response to a question from a STUDENT who asked is Mr. LeDrew’s remarks could undermine party morale:

No, because I know how much our party is convinced that we need to win that for our country. It’s not like it was only a battle for who will have the power to enjoy the power. It’s the philosophies and approach. It’s the kind of Canada we want.

…

Now compare that to this response from Harper to questions from a seasoned reporter:

http://watch.ctv.ca/news/election-2008/conservative-campaign/#clip95524

Can anyone be more together, calm and clear with their thoughts and insights?

Why is there even a choice?