Sister Sage's Musings

Posts Tagged ‘Harpercons’

I can’t say this is surprising. I knew that Jean Charest would jump at the chance to attempt to buy himself some love again from the Quebec voters.  Yesterday, he committed 180 million dollars for this project in addition to what Quebec City mayor, Regis Lebeaume has already committed. In all, 400 million dollars is necessary. Since this is Quebec, where our infrastructure projects are known to be finished way over deadline and way over budget, count on it going above and beyond 400 million smackers.

That’s just great! I mean, Charest got himself in trouble with his last budget , implementing user fees and a nasty zombie; the health care contribution which starts this year. Those super hospitals that were supposed to be long built are still empty lots.

Our public schools are suffering. For Gawd’s sake, did you know that parents are obliged to send their kids to their public schools with their own toilet paper? That’s right, kids. Kim Fraser on CJAD did a whole segment on her show about how much parents have to cough up these days just to send their kids to public schools and all the supplies they have to purchase. Amongst that long shopping list, was toilet paper.  Pathetic!

But, golly gee, Charest, who finds himself mired in scandals, which honestly, if they didn’t exist, they would had to have been invented–that’s just the way it goes in Quebec. When French Quebec generally deems the Liberals have been in power for too long, a ‘crisis’ pops up like magic! Trust me, my readers from the province of Quebec know exactly what I’m talking about.  The Parti-Quebecois ain’t so squeaky clean,neither. Particularly, not that shrew Pauline Marois when she held various ministries under Lucien Bouchard and Bernard Landry.

It’s been a rough spring and summer for Charest and the death of  MNA Claude Bechard  of  Temiscouata-Kamouraska, no doubt,  would be the straw that broke the camel’s back. But really, Jean, a hockey arena? For an NHL team that doesn’t even exist?  NHL commissioner Gary Bettman certainly hasn’t committed to anything. From what I understand, he’s saying, build the arena and we’ll see.

I’m surprised Charest is pledging this tax payer money, though. I never would have imagined him doing such a thing as a fed  under the old Progressive Conservatives years ago. I thought he would be smart enough to know that this arena won’t curry favor with him. Gilles Duceppe and the separatists will use the hypothetical Nordiques Part deux to promote sovereignty as Kelly McParland explained not long ago.

“That’s right! If we were independent, we’d have a great big arena in Quebec and our team would only speak French and we’d win the Stanley Cup eight times out of 10, because when you’re independent, you win the Stanley Cup.”)

As silly as that sounds, McParland is correct, that is exactly how the separatists will paint this. Remember, the separatists had used the Quebec Olympic athletes’ performances to promote sovereignty as well; the precedent certainly exists.  Thus, Charest would not be seen as having been the savior of Quebec hockey. In fact, those scandals which he faces will still remain front and center and he will continue to wear his last budget.

As I’ve pointed out in previous posts and on other comment boards, after fifteen years, we’re due for another referendum on sovereignty and this one better count; Quebec’s place within or without Canada needs to be resolved one way or the other.  Sorry, Premier Charest, you’re the big loser here; you should have taken the high road; either way, your days are numbered; the least you can do is just say “No!” to paying for that new arena. After all,  John Molson didn’t use tax payer dollars to build the Molson Center (now the Bell Center); neither did any other Canadian jurisdiction. The precident simply isn’t there. The very least you can do with whatever time you have left in the Premier’s chair is to try fix public health care and education, seriously! If the schools can’t supply even the cheapest of toilet paper, there is a serious problem here.

It was argued over the week-end by Norman Spector that Pierre-Karl Peladeau was working feverishly hard to fight the CRTC to get his Harpercon infomercial channel on a “must carry” license so he can lobby Master Steve for the bucks to pay for the majority of that new white elephant.  Here’s a thought, if Peladeau is the billionaire, why doesn’t he foot the bill for this arena the same way Molson did in Montreal for the Habs?    I had provided examples of Juinior’s business past that may indicate that Peladeau may not have quite the midas touch in business Big Daddy Peladeau had.

After some Harpercon puppets were seen sporting old Nordiques jerseys about town, it seems to be more likely that Stevie spiteful will be engaging in some of his trademark pork barrel politics in Quebec City.  As Don Martin pointed out, his puppets would not be running around like cheerleaders in the Nordiques jerseys without orders from the Master hisself.   So Stevie spiteful, in not only a desperate attempt to keep his existing Quebec seats, but perhaps an attempt to buy more, is also trying to buy himself some Quebecois lovin’ with this bloody arena. Jean-Pierre Blackburn has said that federal funding cannot be accomplished without some kind of private partnership.   Not to mention, if Stevie spiteful coughs up the dough to buy that Quebecois lovin’, it could cause a backlash in the rest of the country for him, especially from places like Edmonton and Hamilton who seek to either build or upgrade existing arenas in their own cities.

And so, the elements are converging to create a political squeeze play pitting West against East, fiscal prudence against profligacy, vote buying in Quebec against voter backlash everywhere else.

Waiting and watching from the sidelines are NHL owners in Calgary and Edmonton who occupy the league’s sixth and second oldest rinks respectively, eyeing this as a funding precedent which the Conservatives will have a hard time ignoring in their Alberta fortress.

Just wait until Regina demands federal help for a domed football stadium or Ottawa extends its palm for a stadium handout to refurbish its inner city park. And if Quebec gets a returning NHL franchise while Jet-less Winnipeg waits in vain, well, what a mess

A mess? Now, that’s putting it mildly.  However, like the Quebec Liberals tend to take for granted that Anglophones will always vote for them, thus they tend to ignore them  & they pander more to Francophones, I suspect that Steve may feel the same way about the west, namely, Alberta. Look at every poll, consistantly, the Harpercons poll above 50%,  many times, over 60% in Alberta; thus,  perhaps, like Charest with the Anglophones, Steve may well take Alberta for granted. Another problem is that old myth that Alberta and Alberta alone supports Quebec and the have not provinces.   If federal money is awarded for this arena while Edmonton may go without, won’t go over well.

In addition to potentially losing in the rest of Canada, there is no guarantee he will win more seats in Quebec or even keep the ones he already has. Remember, Duceppe has been lobbying Steve for awhile now. If Steve does decide to kick in the rest of the cash for this white elephant, one can be sure that Duceppe will be sure to be front and center, in front of the microphones and cameras taking credit for all of this, and let’s face it, when it comes right down to it, Duceppe has more credibility in Quebec than Stevie Spiteful ever will.

So no, I, for one, don’t want the tax payers funding a new arena in Quebec City. I just wished that many of my fellow Quebecers felt the same way and had bigger fish to fry like health care and education, rather than to worry about arenas for non-existant teams.   There is no precedent for this as pointed out earlier. Sports stadiums and hockey arenas are privately funded solely.  Peladeau wants an NHL franchise so badly, let him build the arena on his own dime.  We hear governments at all levels saying we must cut back; there’s no money for health care and education and other programs and such, then it stands to reason, there is no money for white elephants.

Wouldn’t it be a kick in the pants if after the all 3 levels of gov’t committed the funding for this arena, and it got built, only for Bettman to say “no” to Quebec City, either because the arena took too long to build (like most of our infrastructure projects as mentioned above) or whatever other reason.  A further outrage to the tax payers, but oh the irony!

Pierre-Karl Peladeau and Gilles Duceppe, as well as the mayor of Quebec City, Regis Lebeaume, all have one common goal; to bring an NHL franchise back to Quebec City. In order to accomplish this, NHL commissioner, Gary Bettman has made clear to Lebeaume that a new arena is essential before he can even consider a new team for Quebec City, a deal needs to be in the works for the construction of a new arena. La Colisee is old and falling apart; same problem that existed when the Nordiques left in 1995 for Colorado.   They all want and need federal dollars to build this new arena. Furthermore, they argue that this new arena would help them in yet another bid for the winter Olympic games in 2022. Yeesh! When will they ever learn?  Sweater vest Steve has not committed either way to this project.

Last night, I read an interesting column from Norman Spector. Now, normally, he writes insipid drivel, but this one offers an interesting theory as to why Pierre Karl Peladeau is so gung-ho about getting his Fox News North out on the airwaves in spite of the fact many critics wonder if such a conservative outfit can even get the sponsors and even make money. Spector, basically, seems to think that Peladeau’s 24 hour Harpercon brown nosing channel will get the federal dollars to pay for this arena.  Furthermore, He gives a precedent where this kind of journalistic brown nosing helped Asper.

What’s been missing from the discussion of an additional all-news network in Canada is the quid pro quo: what does Pierre Karl Péladeau get out of this? Surely, this is not just about getting the right to introduce another cable network in Canada, which, even if it succeeds – a big if – will not make megabucks. And, while everyone would like to have the influence that comes from having your own media horn to toot – which, in Mr. Péladeau’s case, includes tooting back at Paul Desmarais and his family – there must be something more to it.

There is.

For the Asper family, ownership of the Conservative-friendly National Post was the ticket to government funding for a human-rights museum in Winnipeg. (Who knows what other funding would have flowed had Izzy lived longer?) Mr. Péladeau’s personal priority is pedestrian: the return of hockey to Quebec City. The price of his support for the Conservatives is a new arena in that city, which is the NHL’s price of admission for the franchise Mr. Péladeau would like to own and converge with his media properties.

Ok, fine, it’s also not the first time we’ve heard Junior expressing interest in bring hockey back to Quebec City, as well as Gilles Duceppe and the Mayor Regis Lebeaume. I’m sure many fans want the same thing. However, is this all simply a romantic notion and very little to do with business smarts? Let’s take a trip down memory lane and get a reminder as to why the Nordiques ended leaving for Colorado in the first place, shall we?

For the 1994–95 season, Marc Crawford was hired as the new head coach, and Forsberg was deemed ready to finally join the team, but first there was the problem of a lockout. In the shortened season of 48 games, the Nordiques played well and finished with the best record in the Eastern Conference. However, the team faltered in the post season and was eliminated in the first round by the defending Stanley Cup champion New York Rangers.

The playoff loss proved to be the Nordiques’ swan song in the NHL as the team’s financial troubles increasingly took centre stage, even in the face of renewed fan support over the previous three years. The league’s Canadian teams (with the exception of Montreal, Toronto, and to a lesser extent, Vancouver) found it difficult to compete in a new age of rising player salaries, which was made even more difficult by a weakening Canadian dollar (the Canadian teams’ revenues are earned in Canadian dollars, but player salaries are paid in US dollars). Quebec City was also by far the smallest market in the league, and the second-smallest market in North America to support a major-league team (behind only Green Bay, Wisconsin). Additionally, Quebec City is a virtually monolingual francophone city. Unlike in Montreal, nearly all public address announcements were only given in French. Then as now, there were no privately-owned English-language radio stations, and only one privately-owned English language television station. The only English-language newspaper was a weekly. These factors severely limited the Nordiques’ marketability in the anglophone market even in their best years. While the Nordiques had a fairly loyal fan base, it was not enough for them to be viable in the new environment.

Aubut asked for a bailout from Quebec’s provincial government, but the request was turned down, as few were willing to be seen as subsidizing a hockey club that paid multi million-dollar salaries. In May 1995, shortly after the Nordiques were eliminated from the playoffs, Aubut explained that he had no other choice but to sell the team to a group of investors in Denver, Colorado.

Well, don’t most of these issues mentioned above, still exist today?  New arena or La Colisee?  Public relations specialist and former aid to Marcel Aubut, Luc Ouellet believes the market in Quebec City is just too small for an NHL team in Quebec City and that folks just won’t pay 100$ for the admissions.

So, to get this straight, Peladeau is insistent on having a Fox News North which would be a 24/7 infomercial for the Harpercons which many believe will not get the subscribers, nor the sponsors necessary to be profitable just so he can get the federal government to cough up the dough needed to build a new arena so he can have a new NHL team in Quebec City, which would also more than likely, not make money?  More evidence that perhaps Junior is not the savvy businessman many would lead us to believe he is. And he really isn’t, you know.

Junior did have to declare bankruptcy in his first year of business with the old man’s premier asset, the printing company, Quebecor World. Ok, fine, the printing industry is dying due to the changing technology toward an electronic world.  However, was running that printing empire into the ground deliberate on his part? When I was in training in estimation and management for the printing industry, my estimation instructor knew old man Peladeau quite well, or so he told us.  The instructor,  much like the Peladeaus, was an anti-union, anti-labor law, Mario Dumont cheerleader wingnut who spoke fondly of the old man, but never had much use for Junior.  Every so often in class, he would express disappointment at how Junior for his mishandling of Quebecor World.

Also, Fagstein briefly goes over some of Junior’s business failings in his posting from May 14, 2009.  Click the link, it’s worth the read.

Is this a case of simply a spoiled brat wanting his toys at any cost?  That seems to make the most sense to me.

And what a hypocrite he is!  Forget that he wants every cable and satellite subscriber to pay for his Fox News; not very conservative or libertarian of him. Never mind that obviously typical Conservative hypocrisy of demanding tax payers to fork over millions of dollars to build something as frivolous as an arena (I mean, really, Junior, didn’t Daddy teach you the free markets were supposed to take care of that?).  But how about that failed bid to buy the Montreal Canadiens in 2009? That anti-union boss who has kept Journal de Montreal writers locked out and by-passed Quebec’s anti-scab laws to keep the paper going, was being supported by none other than the Fonds de Solidarite of the FTQ - FTQ  one of Quebec’s biggest labour unions! Needless to say, that bid didn’t go over well with many factions. No matter, the Molson brothers entered the bidding war late and won.

This leads me to my next question. Had Peladeau’s bid for the Habs been successful, would he even be interested in purchasing some financially insolvent NHL team from the southern United States to bring to Quebec City? Would he be pushing so hard to put his televised blogging supposiTories on the airwaves?

And for another angle, what if the Liberals were in power? In an elaborate effort to suck up for federal dollars for his arena, would Junior be pushing a channel that was Liberal-friendly?

But there is another player. Gilles Duceppe also wants an NHL team back in Quebec City and is also pressuring the Harpercons to fork over federal dough to build this arena. But for him, the motivations are more tranparent than those of Junior Peladeau. It’s all about Quebec Nationalist Pride.  One must question, how badly does he want this? How does this serve him? The NattyPo’s Kelly McParland seems to think that Gilles Duceppe wins whether master Steve forks over the dough for this arena or not.

The guy can’t lose. He gets to march around his home province, the only one he cares about, railing about how Quebec gets shafted because it doesn’t have an arena in the National Capital (that being Quebec City) because the filthy federalists are too busy spending their simulus money (argent stimulusse) in parts of the country where they speak some foreign language like English. Everyone listening to Radio-Canada nods and agrees: “That’s right! If we were independent, we’d have a great big arena in Quebec and our team would only speak French and we’d win the Stanley Cup eight times out of 10, because when you’re independent, you win the Stanley Cup.”)

That’s good for Duceppe. It’s also good for Duceppe if Harper says no, pointing out, for instance, that Edmonton would also like a new arena but is doing its best to find a way to pay for it without begging Ottawa to play sugar daddy. And when Winnipeg decided it needed a new arena in hopes it might lure the NHL back to town, it just went ahead and built one.

For a conservative non-Quebecer, McParland seems to get the workings of a separatist mind some of the time. It’s true that they think that if we were independent, our hockey teams would not only be solvent, but win every Stanley Cup. Hell, didn’t the separatists use the performances of Quebec athletes at the Vancouver Olympics as another argument for sovereignty? They even managed to turn the Harpercons’ promoting of federal parks to eighth graders into a federalist plot.

Yes, for Duceppe it is win-win.  I think that Steve will agree to footing the bulk of the 400 million dollar bill, courtesy of the beleaguered tax payers, yet again as pork barreling is what Master Steve does best. Most of his Quebec seats are in and around the Quebec City area. As McParland points out, Duceppe can take full credit and make new friends. I might also add that if Steve says no to the project, that honestly, I hope he does (Sorry Hockey fans, the Nordiques weren’t solvent before; the market wasn’t there before; I don’t see anything that has changed that. We’re in a recession. I can think of better ways for the tax payers to spend 400 million dollars. If Peladeau wants that arena bad enough, then he should get a consortium together and bankroll it himself, like a good con should),  Duceppe still wins. He has more ammunition to fuel his sovereignty cause and, dare I say it, perhaps even be able to unseat some of those Harpercon  Greater Quebec City area seats in the next federal election?

But is it that simple? If Stevie Spiteful oks this pork barreling, which I’m sure he will, what will it cost Duceppe?  In spite of the fact that this funding would pretty much ensure that he keeps his Quebec City seats, he would surely demand something of Duceppe. Would Duceppe prop up the Harpercons’ poison pills until the spring when the predicted date of a federal election would take place?  If an election were held sooner rather than later? What if the Liberals won?  Would Iggy,  agree to spending 400 million dollars on an arena in Quebec City? Whether or not the Liberals would go for that would depend largely in part whether or not the NDP would support it or not. I’m not so sure that they would.  We can pretty much guess that a Liberal government would let the chips fall where they may with the CRTC regarding whether or not Fox News North comes to light or not.

As I’ve mentioned above, I hope that tax-payers are not left footing the bill for this arena. Bidding for the winter olympics is a bad idea.  We only finished paying off the Montreal summer games a few years ago.  Our stadium still continues to be a safety hazard and many (myself included)  are now advocating for blowing the damned thing up.

The good citizens of Vancouver will have many years to pay off their six billion dollar winter olympic boondoggle and they can’t seem to sell off their Olympic Village condos in an attempt to recoup some of their losses.  Not to mention, Vancouver’s most vulnerable ended up suffering the most.

Why do we want this?

Sidenote: I wonder if any of the new Quebec Tea-baggers; the Reseau Liberte Quebecois will question Kory at their inaugural luncheon in Quebec City the true Libertarian-ness/conservativeness of his boss demanding the tax payers foot the bill for this frivolous arena? Or better still, will one of them have the balls to throw Junior’s former partnership with the Fonds de Solidarite de FTQ when they were bidding for the Habs in his face?

You all remember  Gary Breitkreuz, right? That yahoo who, through the use of a sock puppet, who is now long gone (naturally), basically threatened to beat Iggy black and blue? Oh yes! Gary Breitkreuz, just a “Good ol’ Boy!” But, unlike Waylon Jennings’ theme to “The Dukes of Hazard”, he really does mean harm, just like the rest of those Harpercons. Well, he just got dumped by NDP MP Charlie Angus, who previously supported Mullet-head Hoeppner’s bill.

We all remember Breitkreuz, the brute sending an email ‘proposition’ to the NDP MP of Timmins-James Bay; that email that pretty well pushed Angus to change his mind. In an odd sort of way, the gun nut, who once advocated for  new regulations that would make it a-okay to carry restricted firearms like hand guns and semi-automatic assault weapons in cars in cities, may well be the one to sink Mullet head Hoeppner’s bill. What an idiotioc redneck!  Brute Breitkreuz probably couldn’t even shoot the broad side of a barn.

According to the Toronto Star, it seems that the other 11 rural NDP MPs have also a distaste for the behavior of the Harpercons as of late.  It seems that they will either change their vote or at the very least, be absent from the day of the vote.

“You’ve got the Conservatives turning off our rural guys,” said Brad Lavigne, national director of the NDP. He added that two “very real options” are available to rural members — stay away or reverse their earlier support for the Conservative bill.

Charlie Angus correctly points out that it’s the Harpercons, themselves, that are portraying rural Canadians as  uneducated hillbillies. Something Angus and his other rural colleagues, I’m sure, wish to dispell.

“The Conservatives are unfortunately creating an impression that rural Canadians are somehow nut jobs, but they are not. For me, at the end of the day, I just don’t want to be standing beside these guys,” Angus said.

“At this point I am going to vote against this bill because I think the Conservatives … are treating Canadians as if they are fools on this.’’

Will the rural NDP MPs take heat for this? Perhaps.  Could they lose their votes to Harpercons? Maybe not. If they can persuade their constituents with the reports from the RCMP showing that the gun registry is not only useful, but also cost efficient.

Also, there must be other things, besides the long gun registry,  these rural NDP MPs can sell to their consituents that would address their other concerns better than the Harpercons ever could. I mean, were they really voted in because they promised to help Stevie spiteful kill the gun registry?  Not likely.  I would think that they were voted in because they convinced their constituents that they were better trusted to look out for their interests than the Harpercons. These NDP MPs should stick with that.

Look at it this way, Jack’s stubbornness at not whipping his caucus to vote against Mullet-head Hoeppner was most certainly not winning him any appreciation from Stevie Spiteful in addition to not winning him and his party any favor with many Canadians, including much of his own base.

“In effect, rhetoric aside, both Coalition leaders intend to keep the wasteful and ineffective $2 billion long-gun registry,’ the Tories say. They conclude that neither the NDP nor the Liberals care about rural voters. “Rural Canada: either its voice is important, or it isn’t.”

Note that the above quote came from an article that was published one day before the little email exchange between Brute Breitkreuz and Charlie Angus was published. At that time, things still looked like those MPs were going along with Mullet-head Hoeppner.

No, Stevie, and the other rednecks, the NDP rural MPs did and still do want their constituents to have a voice in Canada. They just prefer that their constituents have all the correct information before them; the good, the bad and the ugly.   Facts, figures, evidence, truthiness, all inconvenient  pesky details that go against Stevie and his flunkies’ agendas.

Stay  classy, Harpercons! ,Jack Layton and his party were risking  losing urban seats to align himself with the mullet-head she redneck herself and this is the thanks you give him?

No matter, Jack, looks like your MPs are saving you in spite of yourself.  But really, those Harpercons and their own stupidity and redneck ways are what would kill the Mullet-head’s bill in the end. Talk about your ironies.

Well, we all know about  Kory and Peladeau’s whining to King Steve to go knock some heads off at the CRTC to get their Category one license.

Now, thanks to a tweet from Liberal MP, Carolyn Bennett, it would appear that the ministry of Canadian Heritage and Official languages under James Moore has been funding a whole host of community papers and periodicals:

GODERICH, Ontario, July 14, 2010 – On behalf of the Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, Ben Lobb, Member of Parliament (Huron-Bruce), today announced funding for 11 community newspapers in the Huron-Bruce region.

Ah, Can you say “Pork Barreling”?  I knew you could! I wonder how many other community papers the Harpercons are funding in their other ridings?

“These federal funds will ensure that these newspapers remain a vibrant source of information for years to come,” said Mr. Lobb.

Translation:  “News” that only praises King Stevie  and his flunkies all of the time; where journalism is one colour: yellow. Unbiased, responsible reporting with actual data and facts will simply not do here.

“The grant from Canadian Heritage is critical to the viability of small newspapers like ours,” said Dave Sykes, Group Publisher, Sun Media. “It ensures that people in rural areas have access to local news.”

BINGO!! Damn, shoulda read it twice! Sun Media. Shoulda known!

Well, well, well!  The take over of print media by Kory and Pierre-Karl Peladeau with the strong arm of King Steve: all paid for by the tax payers. And what do we hear from the Blogging SupposiTories and other Harpercon cheerleaders? Whining about the tax payer funded Ahem! (cough! Cough! Gasp! Wheeze!) ‘Liberal’ CBC??  Yeah, right…As you were.

Susan Delacourt is one of the few columnists who has been not only printing the facts about Iggy’s bus tour, but has actually remained positive about it. I only wish some of the more Liberal leaning columnist would have (and would) followed her lead rather than to continue nitpicking and lamenting him. After all, while Iggy may not be the first choice for leader of any federal political party due largely in part to his long absence from the country and many other reasons anybody could think of, he is here to stay and we should make the best of it. Anything less only helps keep Stevie spiteful in office longer to continue doing his damage; perhaps even get a majority.

If I may sidetrack for just a moment, his latest slap in the face to the civil service and by extension, to Canadians; particularly, vulnerable Canadians, he has just laid off 600 employees who work for Service Canada; employees who work for EI and Pensions. It becomes more ridiculous on the radio when we hear that the reason cited is because “the economy has improved”. No joke! The newscaster on the radio said that was the reason for the cuts. Never mind that folks are still losing their jobs. Never mind that the aging baby boomers are retiring, thus an increasing demand for CPP payments is looming.  Stevie Spiteful must gut the civil service for his own amusement.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand, I had seen a poll from Harris Decima earlier yesterday reflecting that the bus tour has provided modest gains in Liberal polling numbers (they’ve broken 30% for the first time in a long time), but unfortunately, Iggy’s approval numbers have not improved, according to Allan Gregg.  Now, how could this be?  Michael Valpy over at the Grope & Fail has recognized changes in Iggy:

There’s no doubt at all that a new political Michael Ignatieff is on stage. And no doubt at all – after 27,000 kilometres travelled and 110 events staged across the country this summer, with more to come on a tour intended to reintroduce Mr. Ignatieff to Canada – that the people he meets are responding to him with what looks to be a lot like enthusiasm.

His robotic body language has gone, along with most of his leaden phrases. He speaks with a lively cadence; he has lost the faux dropped g’s. He can be genuinely funny. He shows a keen curiosity in what people tell him and feeds back what they say in his speeches.

He now sounds like the 17 books he has written, warm, engagingly anecdotal and authentic.

I tell him on the final day of the B.C. tour that he has changed so much since I first wrote about him as a politician four years ago. He says: “A lot of it is storytelling, a lot of it is connecting to something I always used to do. I’ve been a storyteller all my life, and I had to recover, get back to that stuff. Nothing else was working.”

So, who has Gregg been polling? Folks in Calgary West or in other Harpercon strongholds?  I realize that Gregg, like  John Wright of Ipsos-Reid, is nothing more than a Harpercon shill, but, as I’ve pointed out, time and again, at the end of the day, those polling numbers, along with those columns are pretty much all those politicians have to work with before they make decisions. It’s the reason why I suggest to folks to write their MPs.

It’s also the reason why I’m thankful for social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook and blogs. If not for social media, we would only get the skewed version of how much of a failure the bus tour was. We didn’t. We got to see crowds warmly receiving Iggy. We got to hear him answering questions without missing a beat.  We saw him more relaxed and yes, having fun. There are those from the Blogging SupposiTories and even some Prog bloggers still determined to hate him who chided him for not being himself, but yanno, I think he was probably more himself over the summer than he has been since he joined the Liberal Party. I got that vibe when I saw him at the Papineau event.

By the interviews Iggy has been giving as of late and the vibe folks who have attended events on the stops of the Liberal bus tour seem to have been picking up, it seems to be that Iggy is in no hurry for the tour to end.  I remembered the NattyPo’s Kelly McParland lamenting earlier in the summer about Stevie’s summer of needless crisis in his column.  He sort of gave some simple advice to Iggy, although, I think he meant it more as a joke; sarcasm at the time:

If I was Michael Ignatieff, I’d stay on that bus tour until Christmas and leave the government alone. At the rate it’s going, it should have completed its self-destruction by then.

After reading Susan Delacourt’s column last night, it looks like Iggy is, at least in part, taking McParland’s advice to heart and extending the bus tour into the fall.

“I’ve got a job to do in Parliament, I will do the job in Parliament, because that’s what folks pay me to do. But I will also be out on the road a lot, because I enjoy it and Canadians are responding to it and they want to see their politicians up close and personal and they want to ask them questions.” The Liberal leader has made no secret of his joy at being out of Ottawa over the summer, often calling it an antidote for the toxic, partisan climate of Parliament under Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government.

Oh dear, and now, given that Stevie spiteful’s pitbull, John Baird, is the new government house leader, count on the ambiance in parliament being even more toxic than before.  There is also the problems with the mass firings, demotions, potential firings and non renewals of contracts of public servants as of late. With such heated issues waiting such as Mullet-head Hoeppner’s scrapping of the long gun registry and the census scrapping (Liberals are introducing a new private members bill to reinstate it, minus the threat of jail time which is sure to pass among all three opposition parties) and of course, the threats of unreported criminals, Canadian Idol rejects and “Russian spy planes” in the north.

It’s great that touring the country, meeting and greeting Canadians suits him so well as the tour has achieved one of its’ goals; to prepare Iggy for the rigors of an election campaign.

If the tour is going so well for him and he is still getting positive responses, why not continue for at least awhile longer? Parliament doesn’t sit until later next month anyway.

Given the polling numbers that have improved the numbers for the Liberals, but not that of Iggy, maybe the strategy of Iggy continuing the road show and having his MPs do the politicking in Ottawa might have some logic to it on the surface.  However, like everybody else, he will eventually have to go back to work and yes, his true test will be how he handles himself once parliament is back in session. That, I suspect will be make or break for him. If  his newfound confidence can be seen in action in parliament, perhaps we may well see his approval numbers go up as well.  However, that is a two way street. It’s one thing for him to be more confident; to be more oppositional. However,  given the Harpercon friendly corporate media, with the latest addition of the wingnutty efforts of Fox North, as well as some of the nay sayers of the few more Liberal leaning columnists and opinion writers,  can he be more oppositional without getting smacked to the point where his polling numbers plummeting across the board to the point Stevie Spiteful’s  teeter around majority territory yet again?

Another test for Iggy will be how will he counter not only Stevie Spiteful’s attack ads, which as we’ve seen are doozies, and I’m sure, we ain’t seen nothin’ yet, but also those from the NDP;  Layton and Mulcair have shown to be more than capable of of attacking them sometimes (it seems)  even more often than attacking Harpercons, as well as those of Gilles Duceppe and the Bloc. While the Liberals may have begun to make some inroads in Quebec, given that Duceppe is slowly reviving the sovereignty movement with some modest degree of success and with the troubles of the Jean Charest Liberals as of late, I  wouldn’t be surprised to see Duceppe resurrect the Sponsorship scandal. That will be an uphill climb indeed. Dion couldn’t counter the attack ads, neither could Paul Martin before him.  Iggy had been lacking confidence to do so since that violent reaction from Jane and Joe Canuck and the pundits when he dropped the gauntlet last September.  Let’s hope he can draw from his new found confidence coming off the bus tour to effectively counter these attacks.   He will also have to go more on the offensive. Sadly, taking the high road will get him nowhere.

The Harpercon shill, Allan Gregg did point out an interesting fact I think we’ve all noticed:

Pollsters have discovered that the Conservative vote is much more resilient than the Liberal vote. That means when the Conservatives get in trouble, their support drops, but in the absence of trouble it springs right back again. The same isn’t true for the Liberals.

Why is that? Why are folks so much more forgiving of Stevie spiteful than they are of Iggy? It seems to me that Stevie Spiteful could put his own grandmother out on the street and most (from his own base, anyway) would hardly bat an eyelash, but the Liberals, with, or without Iggy can take forever to be forgiven for far less?

After writing all that, perhaps Kelly McParland was right all along: Iggy, stay on that bus and let your MPs take care of the rough and tumble in parliament.

David Eaves first released this news about an hour ago. Now, it’s released on the Liberals’ web site.

“Liberals believe that sound information helps make sound decisions,” said Liberal Finance Critic John McCallum. “That’s why we will fix the mess Stephen Harper created by reinstating the mandatory long-form census and ensuring the threat of jail time is removed in the Act.”

According to McCallum, this bill will also remove the threat of jail for failure to comply. Take that Steve! I would like to see how the clown car brigade like Tony Clement, Stock Day and the other shriekers from the Blogging SupposiTories try to scare the rest of us with the jail threat now while the Liberals try to sell their private members bill.

As before, the bill would also have 20% of Canadians receiving the mandatory long form at Census time as they had before.

Good. I was hoping that the Liberals or the NDP would come up with something like this sooner, rather than later to do this. With over 300 groups, political parties from all levels of government, and individuals wanting to maintain the mandatory long census form (you know, those  pesky ‘special interest groups’),  there is no reason for all the opposition parties to not vote along with it. So, let’s see if all the opposition parties can put their rivalries aside for the sake of their constituents who, overwhelmingly, want the census back.

Needless to say,   Steve will most definitely whip his caucus to vote against it.   The Harpercon mantra: We don’t care about facts and truth. We only care about our own. And ours is we want to take out social programs and services because  bigger prisons and war toys are our priority. I also need dance lessons.

Well, it’s official now. Jack Layton will not be whipping his caucus into voting against Mullet head Hoeppner’s Bill c-391, the scrapping of the long gun registry which will no doubt, set the precedent for Stevie Spiteful to go the way of no gun control, just like Texas and Arizona. Way to go Jack! Furthermore, Jack doesn’t want Canadians to blame the NDP if c-391 passes.

“In terms of where the fate of the gun registry lies, there’s an enormous Conservative caucus right there that is going to be responsible if this thing is not carried on,” he said. “Let’s be absolutely clear where this initiative is coming from. This is coming directly from Mr. Harper, and it goes way back to the Reform days.”

Hmmm, this kinda sounds familiar. Didn’t Jack and other NDP MPs accuse the Liberals of cowering when propping the Harpercons when they claimed “it was the Harpercons idea”?  This doesn’t come to me as a surprise, though. For sometime now, I’ve had a distrust for Jack Layton and the NDP and have expressed it before.  How, they too, have cozied up to Stevie spiteful in the past.  They are no longer the party of Ed Broadbent.

Layton goes on to say:

Despite the mostly rural NDP MPs who want the registry scrapped, Layton said there is a “very large” contingent in the NDP caucus that wants to keep the registry, albeit changed significantly to decriminalize non-compliance.

Yes, that is true, I’ll give them that. Very much the same way Iggy and the Liberals found most of the shit they either reluctantly voted with or abstained from voting on quite hideous. However, during those days, the Harpercons’ polling numbers were teetering in majority territory despite the stranglehold on Quebec Gilles Duceppe and the Bloc Quebecois hold. We all know how dangerous and unthinkable that would be, especially after the actions of Stevie and his sock puppets and pit bulls as of late.  That is not the case today. Besides, Bill c-391 is not a confidence motion. No one would have gone to an election on this. So, Jack, what is your reasoning behind this then? You’re willing to risk losing a great many urban ridings including whatever inroads you started having in Montreal for the sake of a handful of rural ridings? That makes no sense.  More importantly, you claim to lead the only party that really cares about the needs of Canadians above all, including partisan politics. Shouldn’t the safety of Canadians by means of strong gun control laws fall into that category?  The Bloc Quebecois MPs  for the most part represent rural ridings; hunting country; folks who love their guns just like the rest of rural Canada, yet they,  no doubt are being whipped by Gilles Duceppe, are  going to vote against Mullet head Hoeppner’s bill for the greater good. Why can’t you?

So, Jack, why shouldn’t we blame you if the long gun registry is killed? You had no problem blaming the Liberals when the Harpercons passed other insidious motions and legislation when a Harpercon majority was potentially looming.

I also have to ask the question, if the Liberals do come out with more confidence from their bus tour and if the polling numbers for Steve continue to remain weak and those of the Liberals remain stable or even go up some, and they do actually vote against the Harpercons, will the NDP actually cooperate with the Liberals or will they vote with the Harpercons just for the sake (what it seems like) of being contrary to the Liberals?  I often wondered if the Liberals hadn’t voted so often with the Harpercons, would the NDP have stepped in their place and voted along with Steve?

Too bad, Jack, the NDP was a party I used to support wholeheartedly many years ago. But since 2004, I have become increasingly distrustful. I became a reluctant liberal voter,  largely in part because of close polling numbers with the Harpercons but also, my increasing distrust. Now your refusal to whip your caucus to voting against a bill authored by a redneck who sports a mullet has cinched it for me.  You accuse the other federal parties of being partisan.  It’s true that they are. Guess what? You’re no better.

Shit! Is there any way we can get the Liberals and the NDP to cooperate with each other (cooperate, no coalition) to bring down the Harpercons sooner rather than later? Otherwise, we’re going to be stuck in never ending Stevie Spiteful shit.

H/T Cowboys for Social Responsibility & Let Freedom Rain

900ft Jesus does the heavy lifting, having found everyone who has been fired, demoted, and sent away. Thanks 900Ft Jesus for furnishing this list.

Fired or dismissed:

Luc Pomerleau, biologist, Food Inspection Agency for whistleblowing.
Douglas Tipple, consultant, PWGSC, set up then fired for his advice on real estate.David Rotor, consultant, PWGSC, set up then fired for his advice on real estate.
Arthur Carty, National Science Advisor, phased out.
Alan Leadbeater, Canadian Information Commission, dismissed.
Paul Kennedy, chair, Complaints Commission for the RCMP, term not renewed, mid-reportPeter Tinsley, chair, Military Police Complaints Commission, term not renewed, mid-report
Adrian Measner, Canadian Wheat Board, fired for disagreeing with Harper plansJohanne Gelinas, Environment Commissioner, dismissed for a scathing report
Linda Keen, CNsc, fired for doing her job
RCMP Chief Supt. Marty Cheliak, dismissed, apparently for speaking in favour of the long gun registry
Pat Stogran, ombudsman for veterans, dismissed for doing his job

Others who were probably forced out or encouraged to leave:

Robert Marleau, Information Commissioner, stonewalled, resigned
Jean-Guy Fleury, chair, Immigration & Refugee Board, resigned out of frustrationJean-Pierre Kingsley, Elections Canada, stonewalled, resigned while investigating the CONs

Smeared, muzzled, or set up:

Richard Colvin, diplomat, attacked viciously for telling the truth as part of his job
Rémi Beauregard, Rights & Democracy, died, heart attack after cruel attacks from Harper appointeesLouise Arbour, UN High Com. for Human Rights, was refused support on 2^ndterm, publicly rebuffed
Kevin Page, publicly rebuffed repeatedly, budget cut back
Munir Sheikh, resigned because he refused to lie for the Harper governmentThis list does not include those anonymous public servants who may have been fired or forced out for refusing to violate their non-partisan mandates but never made the news.Over two years ago – May 2008, we were warned of this purge:Information Commissioner Robert Marleau told The Hill Times recently that the Harper government has been quietly drafting about 25 government policies that impact on the rights of officers of Parliament, and that it has been happening without their knowledge or input.

All those people who dared to actually do their jobs properly, giving it their full efforts. So, anyone applying to work for the Harpercon government, here are the qualifications searched for: nothing beyond a grade 6 education will be considered. Must always agree with your superiors. Any disagreement with the King’s agenda would be considered insubordinate.  Of course, it is preferable that you are white, unilingual English and an Evangelical Christian. In other words, you only serve as window dressing.  Hey! That sounds like a perfect job for Sarah Landriault! There. That was easy.

Yes, the above may sound flippant, but, remember much humor is derived from the truth and what happened to the above good people who put the good of the people they serve before their megalomaniac employers certainly makes the above  criteria for an ideal servant to King Stevie Spiteful quite accurate. No, no dissenters.

I guess what happened to those protesters and innocent bystanders at the G20 shouldn’t be a surprise under the Harpercon regime given the wretched way he treats his own people. Granted they were treated far worse, but one can see the correlation between the brutality of the treatment of Canadian citizens exercising their rights to protest against government policies and new world orders being discussed at the G20 and  those on Stevie Spiteful’s payroll who are hamstringed from doing their jobs properly as it goes against Steve’s goals and directions.

And yes, contrary to many Harpercon cheerleaders, many of those public servants, watch dogs and bureaucrats were Harpercon appointees. Perhaps next time he’ll make them swear on the Evangelical bible.

Yes, Stevie spiteful is showing more and more to be fit for the rubber room. He displays his disdain for Canada and its’ inhabitants increasingly with each passing day.  It is obvious that his plan was that final hard shove to his far right should have taken place about now and it hadn’t; it was met with hostility instead as many on the right also wish to not only keep the mandatory census, but also have a distaste for the way our veterans are being treated and don’t like the way Col.  Pat Stogran is being pushed out the door simply because of his tireless efforts,  fighting on behalf of veterans and the widows of dead soldiers who are being treated badly by the bureaucrats working under the mandate of the Harpercons.   Pandorra is out of her box. One question for Stevie: if he hates Canada and Canadians and is frustrated with all that he’s tried, why the hell doesn’t he just resign? Just go away?

Yes, it would appear that Tony Clement and the Harpercons now believe it to be convenient to hear from “average” Canadians about the census, or so they say.

“I think it’s appropriate to have individual Canadians appear,” said Edmonton-area Conservative MP Mike Lake, the parliamentary secretary to Industry Minister Tony Clement. “They’re the ones that are getting asked the questions and being forced under threat of fines and jail time to answer them, so absolutely it’s appropriate for individual Canadians to appear before committee.”

Funny, I was under the impression that Master Stevie felt that all Canadians; individual or in groups were “annoying”. Now, it seems they need to postpone the the committee hearings regarding the census so they can find individual Canadians.  Since those who are adament about maintaining the long form census as is are an “irritant” to Master Steve, he will have to find some less “annoying”: less irritating Canadians who sympathize with their cause. What happened? Is Ezra Levant on vacation? Nobody available from the Canadian Tax Payers’ Federation or The Fraser Institute?  It takes time to hire an actor and get them to rehearse the script?  If that’s the case, perhaps they’re better off hiring someone with no speaking role, as that is usually how Master Steve prefers his puppets.  Better yet, perhaps they can ask Jane Taber if they can borrow one of her super anonymous sources to find these actors to play not-so-annoying ”average” Canadian “irritants”.  Another thing about prepping witnesses Steve should take into consideration,  he may well have to start filling his new super prison with Tony Clement, Mike Lake and the other anti-Census used car sales men types and their “witnesses”; last I checked, witness tampering and suborning perjury were against the law.

More over at  Dave, Scott and Pogge ‘s

Not Hot: Jane Taber

Let me get this straight; in the world according to Jane Taber, Tony Clement who looks & talks like the Adams Family butler is hot? I had to read this twice. Even Jane can’t be this much of a cheerleader for the Harpercons, especially not for this flunkie.

Feeling all alone in his defence of the government’s decision to scrap the long-form census, the Industry Minister moved this week to mitigate some of the outrage by including language-related questions in the compulsory short-form census. He also announced the government would drop jail time as a punishment for not complying with the mandatory aspect of the census.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Mr. Clement talked about the fall-out from the controversy: “I would have preferred to have spent my summer a bit more quietly. In politics as you know, you take the adversity as well the good stuff. Right?”

Mr. Clement also talked about the media coverage: “I am not responsible for creating headlines. I am not responsible for how things are reported. But I did say and I still say Statscan gave us some options to mitigate the risks and we chose one of those options. That’s factually true.”

Are you also feeling all alone, Jane? Is Lurch’s missing link that great company?

Oh and Jane, the Harpercons were offered compromises to take the threat of jail out of the equation by the opposition. Guessed you all musta missed that one. Not to mention, the threat of jail is still lurking for those who don’t fill the short form or the agricultural census form. After all, how else are they going to fill those big-assed super private prisons?  Unreported criminals  simply won’t do.

Oh, boys n’ girls, it gets funnier:  Jane thinks the Parliamentary Press Gallery is Not hot because wingnut  radio talk host Dave Rutherford attacked them for being to “liberally biased”.

“We’ve seen the census coverage. We’ve seen some of the commentators – the columnists in Ottawa, Toronto – just hyperventilating about this ridiculous census story and they’re all saying almost exactly the same thing. Very interesting.”

And this is why the Parliamentary press gallery ain’t so hot? Because Dave Rutherford’s feeble lack of originality like most Harpercon media hacks?  Or was it simply because Taber was not invited to the parliamentary press gallery’s reindeer games?

Another thing our pal Jane Taber doesn’t think is quite so hot is Stevie spiteful’s polling numbers going on a downward spiral. And the Blogging SupposiTories think she’s a liberal shill?? Nuff said.

Oh and apparently, what is hot in her books is that Ol’ Jimbo Flaherty and Porky Puffy Duffy are out spending on what is, no doubt, useless to most Canadians and spreading the gospel according to King Stevie along with other Harpercons scurrying about with their pork barreling.

Yes, an epidemic is coming back with a fury, I tell you! Liberal Derangement syndrome is back!

Speaking of  nasty Harpercon super bugs, what I think is hot is the following  comment from Little Rock in response to another commenter, Derringer following Taber’s insipid column. I thought it was kinda cute:

From Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to Senator Mike Duffy, the Conservatives are everywhere, feverishly making spending and good-news announcements.

…that’s the problem with our current C.R.A.P party…they feverishly spend Canadian taxpayers money!…BUT…Derringer has prescribed a cure for our incompetent spendthrifts…

…Derringer

8/9/2010 5:52:06 PM
Warning of New Disease to hit CANADA in Fall of 2010

Information about Gonorrhea Lectim (Harperalis strain)

The Ontario Center for Disease Control has issued a warning about a new virulent strain of this old disease.

The disease is called Gonorrhea Lectim. It’s pronounced “Gonna re-elect ‘em,” and it is a terrible affliction.

The disease is contracted through dangerous and high risk behavior involving putting your cranium up your rectum.

Many victims contracted it in 2006…but it is only now that most people, after having been infected for the past few years, are starting to realize how destructive this sickness is.
It’s sad because Gonorrhea Lectim is easily cured with a new drug just coming on the market called Votemout.

You take the first dose in 2010 (HST variant) and the second dose in 2012 and simply don’t engage in such behavior again; otherwise, it could become permanent and eventually wipe out all life as we know it.

Most ridings are already on top of this, like many in the north, and apparently now in the east, with many more seeing the writing on the wall.

…election please!