Sister Sage's Musings

Posts Tagged ‘Prorogation’

That is what many of us are asking ourselves as well as speculating about, among, of course, other things. Frank Graves of EKOS polls tells the Hill Times that the Liberals would be ‘crazy’ not to call an election now

Grits’ best chance to ‘get rid of this guy. He’s very resilient, the economy is going to improve, Ignatieff is not going to get any better.’

If Mr Graves were in front of me, I would have just one question for him: if, as he says, Iggy isn’t going to get any better, why call an election now? 

I had heard rumblings about Graves being a Harpercon supporter at one time or another, and with  the Harpercon cheerleader squad already beginning to credit St-Stevie with the Olympic hockey  gold medal win, including a commenter over at Scott’s Diatribe’s. That might be part of it; he may want to see a Harpercon majority. That may be a small part of it, but I don’t think that is the most important reason of Mr. Graves.

When he makes a point about Iggy not getting better in the same sentence as the grits must trigger an election this spring, I can only believe that the sooner Iggy loses a federal election, the sooner he will have to exit as leader. That would be a likely scenario. 

However,  if Iggy were to go now, we all know that it will be a Bob Rae coronation. More suicidal as he is a far worse choice than Iggy or Dion ever would have been.  I can see not only the Harpercon attack ads, but the Bloc Quebecois attack ads as well: ‘Do you want Rae to do to Canada what he did to Ontario?’ He would never win the two key battleground provinces of Quebec and Ontario. I think most of us see those attack ads. Plus, he doesn’t do well with the media, I find. Veterans like Craig Oliver makes Rae look pretty damned stupid.  Oh what an even bigger mess for the Liberals potentially.

There are only two things that can honestly boost the Liberals: either Trudeaumania, the sequel or of course, a coalition. The latter, being more of a necessity and a reality if we can only get a grassroots movement to marry off the N.D.P and the Liberals; of course add the Greens and offer some kind of role for Gilles Duceppe and the Bloc Quebecois.

 Although, honestly, I wouldn’t think Duceppe would participate this time: he’s on the lecture circuit, actively reviving and promoting the Quebec Sovereignty movement after Lucien Bouchard threw down the gauntlet.  However, I digress…

As for a potential Trudeaumania the sequel. While  not entirely out of the question ( I have spoken to many former Liberal supporters (volunteers and benefactors alike) who said they could come back to the Liberals if Justin became the leader, and that is in Montreal: a city in a province where his dad was supposedly hated by all), the old boys’ network inside the Liberal party would never allow it.

Then, there is the upcoming budget.  So many rumours. Many pundits  believe that other than continuing the stimulus from last year’s budget, there will be no new spending nor no new taxes (except, of course, that airport ‘fee’ Baird spoke of to pay for their government porn projector).

We pretty much know that Stevie isn’t going to cancel the corporate tax breaks, much to Layton’s (and mine) chagrin.

Many, like myself, believe there will be a last minute surprise poison pill in this budget.  Whatever that can be, I will leave to the imagination; those who aren’t fooled by Stevie’s lustre, I’m sure the possibilities must be endless. I believe as I’ve seen others speculate, that he will try to remove the 1.95$ /vote funding for political parties.

Stevie only needs one band to prop his budget up.  Unless Jack Layton sees something else he likes and loosens his wish for cancelling corporate tax breaks,  I don’t see him going along with it.

Iggy, who claims he was never invited by Stevie to any pre-budget meeting, won’t commit either way until he actually sees this budget, which is what a responsible leader of an opposition party would say.

Gilles Duceppe is still busy promoting Quebec Sovereignty and seems to be more preoccupied by that than the upcoming budget.  I guess it will be the usual, ‘if it’s good for Quebec, he’ll vote with it: if not, then against.

Steve V and Scott’s Diatribe’s posts both disagree with Mr Graves’ assertion that there should be an election this spring.  Ordinarily, I would agree given that Iggy won’t get better  

However, if there were to be a coalition, I would say have an election sooner rather than later.  Tarnish that olympic gold somehow and fast and then an election of the coalition vs Harpercons.  Graves is right: we do need to get rid of St-Stevie before any more damage is done. He has already begun to do his worst with his divide and conquer games.  

Oh and this time, can we stop lambasting Iggy when he tries to be oppositional as an opposition leader should be?

I am indeed disappointed. It is a dark day.   This gold medal win does nothing to help Canada, in fact, it’s made it worse.  It means that St-Stevie’s numbers could easily shoot back up to where they were before prorogation and then some.

Many of the Romper Roomies are blogging that now, all of a sudden that Canada is the greatest country on earth. How would they have felt had the Americans won? They would more than likely go back to thinking Canada sucks; too “soshalist”. In fact, they would probably have blamed Canada’s “soshalism” or Jack Layton or Iggy’s presence.  GW Bush’s Americana is best for all.

They are not alone, unfotunately.

It’s disgraceful.  I had pointed out twice what real patriotism is and I’m not repeating it again. Obviously, a country’s greatness is all of a sudden judged by a hockey game and no doubt, it’s PM would take credit in a not so gracious and humble way as if he were the coach.

Remember, pollsters like Nik Nanos on the radio with Dan Delmar on the Thursday night mentioned that “Olympic burst”, as did Frank Graves of Ekos explained Stevie’s numbers going up by three points as of later, thus putting him in a comfortable minority yet again if an election were held today, and that was before Team NHL Canada won their gold medal.  I had heard and read from those practically giving credit to St-Stevie for own the podium.  Imagine now with this gold medal for our national religion! As we have pointed out, many Canadians like shiny things.

I have read both Dr Dawg’s and David Akin’s predictions about what will happen when parliament resumes.  Both differ and I don’t think either scenario will happen. Depends from which point of view: in the House of Commons, there might be some prorogation related spats, but not much else. For everyone else,  it will be business as usual.

Prorogation and Stevie’s transgressions that went along with that act will be not only forgotten, but they will be forgiven.  Keep in mind that one of his main excuses after so-called ‘recalibration’ was the Olympics. It was as if he took ownership of them. The right winged media and other Harpercon cheerleaders would make sure that Stevie gets credit for the success of the Olympics, particularly the hockey match; a national religion.

We will have only ourselves to blame for this.

Then another frustration, Canadians Against Prorogation of Parliament movement ceased? I had heard from some of the fellow Montreal organizers that Chris White who originally formed the group was planning to leave it altogether come March 3, when parliament reconvenes.  Honestly, I don’t think he ever anticipated his group transforming to the big movement that it did. It must have overwhelmed him. No matter, parliament is reconvening this week.

However, there was no other action. It’s like we ran scared when many of these corporate media outfits as well as other right wing bloggers and pundits lambasted us. Sure there were mistakes across the land, but over all, it was successful. I mean, why else would they have lambasted us?  We can’t expect these media outlets to praise the rallies; they’re like the Fox News of Canada. However, if they ignored us completely, then we wouldn’t have been successful. I think many don’t think of it that way. They think negativity in the press, time to run. I think the opposite. It is incumbent upon us, the grassroots to fight the corporate media machine back as well as St-Stevie and his power tripping.

The other problem is that we’ve allowed ourselves to splinter.  Remember what I’ve said about one of the main Stevie’s successes: divide and conquer. His biggest fear appears to be a coalition ganging up on him. How one breaks a united front like a coalition government is to divide and conquer it. The grassroots movements need to unite once again, or Stevie and the Harpercons will ride roughshod.

Yes, people are busy with jobs, families, school for some, other personal projects.  Know something else? So is the Tea-bagger hit parade with all their noise, zaniness, convoluted logic and misspelled signs. Albeit strange and exaggerated, they fear the evil socialists.  They do fight hard. How else does a disgraced vice-presidential candidate get to become president come 2012? And it will happen if the tea-baggers keep it, which I suspect they will.

Naturally, I’m not advocating something exactly like the tea-baggers; they’re like a cult; they’ve been brainwashed into believing silly things like the Insurance business practises are somehow very Christian and other ridiculousness.

A more coherent example would be the  Europeans. They would never allow any government to change their way of life unless it was for the better.

All I’m saying is that we must continue the movement or different movements we started earlier with the best of intentions and to not be afraid of the right winged media. Because, that is what Stevie counts on: he also will look for the time to pounce with some other totalitarian-ish thing when Canadian voters are least likely to look. Now would be a good time for them due to the shiny gold medals.

How come we have all this time and energy for sporting events like hockey and/or the Olympics but not to keep our governments accountable?

Update: I just heard from Brian Lilley that the latest Ipsos Reid has ST-Stevie back at 37%. Within majority grasp. Who said that the olympic gold medals would never have Canadians forgive him? Not only is he forgiven; I bet they thought he did well to prorogue so that the Olympic athletes, particularly hockey team would win.

Yes! Be Afraid! Be very afraid!

Yes, Stevie has decided out of the blue it would seem, to go off to Haiti to assess the humanitarian situation on the ground and discuss the process of reconstruction with Haiti’s President René Préval and its Prime Minister, Jean-Max Bellerive.’. I wonder what brought that on? After all, wasn’t one of his excuses for proroguing parliament was to watch the Olympics? Perhaps he underestimated the protests happening in and around Vancouver? Or he’s under even more pressure to unprorogue parliament these days.  I’m thinking it’s probably a combination of both and I wouldn’t be surprised to find out later our St-Stevie had yet another demon to run away from.

Stevie announced he wanted to cancel two weeks in the spring to make up for lost time during proroguation;  such a change that would demand a unanimous vote from all the parties. It isn’t looking that way thus far. It seems that the Bloc Quebecois will go along. The N.D.P. is demanding parliament be reopen ASAP if  falling behind on work was an issue and rightfully so. Iggy has said the Liberals will go along (well, no kidding: since they did go back to work last January 25, they would look pretty foolish to vote against this calendar change) with some conditions attached. Conditions like reconvening the committees to resume the  investigation into the Afghan Detainee issue among other things.  Not sure Stevie will go for it. Either way it doesn’t look like cancelling the two weeks is going to work in Stevie’s favor. I think most Canadians saw that ploy for what it was: Stevie trying to redeem himself. Didn’t work, as the N.D.P. have it right: if there is too much work waiting; perhaps parliament should reconvene immediately. So what’s plan B? Run away, as St-Stevie that is what Stevie seems to do best? Just a theory.

There is one other reason I can think of for his interest and diligence on Haiti.  Where is Michaelle Jean originally from? Doesn’t St-Stevie owe her a big favor for granting him a 2nd prorogation in 13 months; the second time, over the phone?

Oh, I bet I know, because he will be the first leader of one of the major countries sending aid to Haiti: yes, he must get there before somebody else from somewhere else gets this idea. He’ll go for a few photo ops of him handing a food box to some poor Haitian or playing Uncle Steve at some orphanage in Port-au-Prince. Unfortunately, there are those who love all things shiny and will fall for it.

Maybe he’s just given up on the idea of Canada winning a gold medal. Oh, incidentally, I have been noticing some neo-con trolls suggesting the left would blame Stevie if Canada doesn’t win a single gold medal.  I don’t think so, but I do strongly believe that if Canada did win a gold medal, St-Stevie would jump up and down and go ga ga giddy for the cameras taking credit for that athlete or team’s win, but I digress…

Yes, we’re supposed to help Haiti, like any other poor country, especially one where disaster hits. It is the job of the prime minister to respond as quickly as possible to these calls. However, it is not necessarily his job to actually fly off to Haiti.  This is something that could well  have been delegated.

To many, this impromptu trip will be applauded. To those of us who think outside the box know better. If it was just to go meet with the Haitian leaders and assess damage, St-Stevie had ample time before to do this. Why cut out now of all times, during the long awaited event that would spruce up his life most?

I know, I will probably have that old critique that I don’t support Haiti for having published this article.  A lot of issues in Canada today seem to be taking on that Georgie feel of ‘you’re either with us or against us..’ as Pale from ACR wrote about yesterday. Let me be clear I have donated to various reputable charities for Haiti. I just hate seeing it taking on the role of St-Stevie’s savior.

A homeless man  and his dog walk across Canada to bring awareness to the plight of the homeless.  A Video below from Sun Media. He braves the elements, fatigue and everything else that goes along with being homeless walking for so long.  But he continues the mission. He has places to be and people to see.

The City of Vancouver determined to keep its’ city spic n span;  attempting to sweep away its’  biggest problem; a very large homeless population. Vancouver passes laws that basically makes it illegal to be homeless with the hope that if  their Olympic guests from all over the world don’t find out this city’s deep dark secret; the fact that one of the richest countries in the world has people who are living off the streets and eating from garbage cans with all their soiled worldly possessions in a dingy shopping cart.  The city of Vancouver (with help of course) seems to think that if they clear away the homeless, they won’t exist and they and their fair city can still look pretty on the world stage.

The Pivot Legal Society will be beginning a red tent campaign where they will be handing out 500 tents to Vancouver’s homeless to set up camp in public places to draw attention to the need for affordable and secure housing.  A few have argued that this act exploits the homeless. Perhaps. However, it can’t be any worse than the exploitation the homeless face due to all the hardships life on city streets forces them to live.  At least, they will have some kind of make shift shelter.  More importantly, they are doing something to further their cause; to rally for  what everybody in society should have: affordable, secure housing.

Activities like the Poverty Olympics definitely meant for all to see that there definitely is a problem with poverty and homelessness:

Highlights of the one-day event include a celebration with “cockroach cake” and meeting poverty mascots Itchy the Bedbug, Creepy the Cockroach, and Chewy the Rat. It also includes events such as housing hurdles, hockey with the Vancouver Olympic Committee Predators, and the broken promise slalom.

While all this might sound somewhat tongue and cheek; organizers of the Poverty Olympics are sending a serious message:

“This is our opportunity to get the message out to the world that our government could end poverty and homelessness. It’s about housing supply, low incomes and low wages. There is no excuse for it and we hope the visitors to Vancouver will be appalled by Canada’s record on poverty,” said event organizer Wendy Pederson of the Raise the Rates Coalition, a coalition of community groups and organizations concerned with poverty and homelessness in B.C.

The efforts of Homeless activists, anti-poverty groups and the homeless themselves seem to have started gaining attention from international media.

A homeless man in Montreal saved up his pennies for a return bus ticket to Vancouver will be joining his homeless brothers and sisters over there to protest the pre-Olympic sanitizing of the city.

These are people who don’t have access to computers to be on Facebook, Twitter or other networking and blogging sites for the most part. Yet, they somehow manage each in their own way to make their way to Vancouver’s east side with the help of anti-poverty groups and other homeless advocates to keep the momentum going for their mission to make the world aware of the homeless problem and the solution is housing and jobs with adequate incomes; not sanitization or legislating their situations.

My question is, if the Homeless can protest, involve themselves in some form of activism or other measures to garner attention from the public at large and make their voices heard: why can’t the rest of Canadians? The rest of us who are fortunate enough to have such tools at our disposal to communicate with anyone in the country  as well as other means to continue what we started when Christopher White first formed CAPP on Facebook?

Yes, other groups and symbolic events have popped up.  There have been flash rallies in various cities whenever a Harpercon visits. We have been sending Valentines Cards to Ottawa. Many of us continue to write our MPs.  However, I can’t help but feel that we’re losing momentum here.

The Montreal Chapter representatives are keeping us up to date as to what is coming and when; however, they had expressed whether or not planning activities during the Olympics would be worth it given every Canadian’s attention would more than likely be deflected there. We had spoken of not doing anything Saturday, February 27 because that is the night of the Olympic Hockey finals. Hockey, being the religion that it is in Canada, particularly in Quebec would no doubt take precedence over everything else.  It would probably be more watched than the closing ceremonies the next day. Sadly, I get that.

However, we are taking a hit in the Corporate Harpercon media. They’re hitting us from everything to poor showings at rallies held cross country on January 23 to the groups claiming to be non-partisan but tainted that by having politicians with us to our movement fizzling out.

Even some progressive bloggers  have taken aim at the facebook groups and the rallies, showing divisiveness on our side, something Stevie, Harpercons and their media and pundits thrive on.

The latest posting  from Five on Five infuriated me when I first read it.  Montreal Simon shared my sentiment. However, after reading both their posts, I find myself somewhere in between their arguments. I’m sure many Facebookers who are members of CAPP and have taken a liking for onion rings to new heights are also getting weary of the other groups forming and join simply because they don’t want to be counted out. A symbolic gesture of solidarity if you will.  However, we mustn’ t lose site of the fact that if it weren’t for Christopher White getting the anti-prorogation ball rolling with CAPP on Facebook with other sites subsequently popping up like noprorogue.ca.  Social Media competing against the Corporate Harpercon media machine.  It got Canadians out there and the usual apathy was broken. Simon tells it best :

I do have to say this: The Facebook Army has done MORE to mobilize progressive Canadians, and put a big dent in the side of the Harper dictatorship, than anything or anybody has done in more than FOUR years.

That is exactly how this movement got started. However, it is now time to move this away from Facebook groups and onion rings somewhat, as Robert McBean suggests.

It is time to make noise and continue doing so throughout the Olympics and of course, beyond.  Let’s take this government to task and make sure they work for us (including the Homeless across Canada, naturally)  and not the other way around.

To be honest, I don’t know what the other groups across Canada are planning if anything; I haven’t heard. Montreal definitely wants to keep this going.  It is after all, more than just about proroging parliament. It is Stevie’s high handedness and lack of transparency that is at issue. We can’t allow this any longer. The Europeans would be up in arms over something like this.

I we’re (Montreal group) game; still planning activities to keep up the momentum. I only hope we can remain unified with the other Canadian groups.

Many Canadians are out of work with no prospects of new jobs, our troops are risking life and limb fighting a senseless and unwinnable war with no break in sight  and  in response, Stevie leaves us high and dry, so he can be secretive, stack his senate, run away from such nastiness like Torturegate and climate change to the point of making us unrecognizable on the world stage and make backroom deals basically selling out even more of Canada by incessantly begging President Obama  to lift his ‘Buy American’ programs.

Why can’t we attempt to make noise during the Olympics?  Stevie pretty much told Canadians to fuck ourselves  so he can watch the Olympics in peace. I say we shouldn’t grant it to him. Being without leadership, a government that is ‘working’ clandestinely against its’ own citizens, the jobless rate which leads so many to homelessness isn’t  a recipe for peaceful living.

The homeless and their advocates in Vancouver certainly aren’t going to leave Stevie, Harpercons, or Campbell and his cronies or even the Municipal governments and Olympic organizers for that matter, in peace: they will be competing for the cameras and air time no doubt. We should do the same. After all, Stevie has gotten away with what he had because we allowed him to with our apathy and inactivity.

The homeless aim to bring attention to their plight from olympic visitors from all over the world. Perhaps we should let them know that Mr. Smiley Blue eyes in the matching sweater vests who he really is and what kind of government he really leads.

Yes, nice fun ReformaTory Games only Stevie can play, although, thus far he hasn’t been successful, has he?

Haiti became the would be perfect crisis for him but, obviously never raised his numbers, in fact, according to most polls as of late, Stevie’s Harpercon numbers continue on that downhill spiral.

The anti-prorogation rallies across Canada were a success; many of the venues even acknowledging the plight of Haitians.

Also, the fact is most Canadians acknowledge and expect their politicians to react quickly toward a crisis in another part of the world or domestically. Regardless of whether or not Stevie remained at the top, prorogation or no prorogation, it is his job to react quickly.  In fact, I would presume that one of the reasons for Stevie’s dismal showing as of late would be that Canadians would have liked to see parliament reopen for this crisis. As Jane Taber had recently asked Jason Kenney on an episode of Question Period, ‘can’t the Haitian crisis be handled with parliament sitting?’ To which Kenney showed a sudden need for speech therapy.

Furthermore, none of the opposition parties came out to criticise the Harpercons for their handling of the Haitian crisis. In fact, the opposition parties are doing their part to help Haiti as well.

Now, the trap. It would seem that Stevie & the Harpercons want to cancel March & Easter Breaks: a time MPs generally go back home to their families and check out their constituencies. After that prorogation ruckus, It would be  assumed that most Canadians would want this to happen. Certainly Conservative Canadians who were against the prorogation of parliament would be for this.

Traditionally, the parliamentary calendar does remain the same after prorogation of parliament.  If the PM wishes to change the calendar, all opposition parties must vote unanimously for this change.

According to Harpercons, they say there will be just too much work and they must make up for the time he prorogued parliament. Typical Stevie and his Kingly ways: parliament must only operate when it’s convenient for Stevie.

“Instead of playing silly games, the PM should recall Parliament right away to deal with all the important issues facing Canadians,” says Karl Belanger , spokesperson for NDP Leader Jack Layton.

Indeed. I was waiting for something like that to be said, by someone; anyone, really. This is exactly what Canadian voters should be thinking. Be for or against the suspension of spring breaks, but the fact of the matter is if they’re falling so far behind on their work, perhaps parliament shouldn’t be prorogued. Perhaps Stevie should call everyone back to parliament as soon as possible. The Liberals are already there doing some work and being productive. I’m pretty sure the N.D.P. and the Bloc Quebecois would head  back to Ottawa if parliament were called to session again.

Liberal House Leader Ralph Goodale mocked the Conservatives’ sudden change of heart from demanding time to “recalibrate” to now wanting to toil straight through.

“It’s clearly a government in full panic mode . . . trying to scramble out of a mess they created,” Goodale said in an interview Wednesday night.

In spite of what Goodale said, it is likely that the Liberals will entertain Harpercon propositions. Liberal support which has been going up since prorogation, is quite fragile and can change at any time. I even suspect those so-called centrists or small c conservatives who have been supporting Stevie and the Harpercons are looking for a reason to give support back to him. According to many pollsters and pundits, Liberal support is only up because of Stevie’s latest high-handed games, not because of a sudden Iggy love-fest.  In fact, some may argue that it’s not the act of proroguation of parliament itself but more the underhanded way Stevie went about it

“It’s completely a reaction to Stephen Harper,” Bricker, president of Ipsos-Reid, said in a Jan. 24 interview.

“It’s not because people have a really big issue with proroguing the House,” Bricker said.

“It’s really the (political) games, that’s what gets under people’s skin. That’s what you are seeing the effects of (in the poll).”

Well, I would say the act of prorogation itself did play a large part in the recent polls. There are many Canadians calling for parliamentary reform so that prorogation can’t happen again or, at the very least, much more difficult to do so. I think most who attended the rallies and joined the facebook group would agree with me. Most certainly the conservative voters who spoke out against prorogation would agree with me here.

The question becomes will the opposition parties vote unanymously for this calendar change? According to senior Harpercons, they strongly believe that will be on board with this. Gordon O’Connor said,

there is no reason for the House of Commons to take constituency breaks during these weeks. Quite frankly, we would be surprised if the Opposition disagreed.

Gee, Gordo, no time to spend with constituents?  Just because your boss can’t deal with them doesn’t mean the others might not want to.  Sometimes, it’s a good idea to be in touch with the citizens of the country you lead.  You Harpercons would know that if you only made some semblance of effort to open your emails, even if it is a form letter.

That aside: the trap Stevie set is not whether or not anyone will go along with his proposal to skip holiday weeks this spring; there surely will be. However, as mentioned above, the parliamentary  calendar remains the same with or without prorogation and to change it requires a unanimous vote; as in no dissention. I have doubts about that kind of vote being unanimous.  The Bloc Quebecois hasn’t said much since prorogation and I guess if he feels Stevie’s proposal is in the best interests of Quebecers he’ll go along with it.  It looks like the Liberals will go along with it. Will the N.D.P. ? Anybody’s guess.

If we remember one of Stevie’s tactics for remaining so successful is that he knew the game of divide and conquer. He would keep the opposition parties divided. The reason the cross Canada rallies last month were so successful was that the politicians from the opposition were united for that short period.  The picture on the front page of the Montreal Gazette showing Thomas Mulcair, Gilles Duceppe and Marc Garneau (we only see his arm at the other side of Mulcair, but still)  walking side by side leading the anti-prorogation procession through the streets of Downtown Montreal to Philips’ Square.  Our opposition MPs were leading us in unison.

I am also realistic enough to know that this unification was fragile at best.  Unfortunately, I had already seen Mulcair take some shots at the Liberals on Question Period since the rallies.   Right now, as a whole, the opposition is not united or feeling particularly collaborative; this already doesn’t look good for a unanimous vote on calendar change. Also, no matter which party votes for or against the Harpercon proposed calendar change, columnists, pundits, bloggers and of course, the rest of Canadian voters; left or right will no doubt either praise or criticize whatever was voted for and by whom.   Yikes! This isn’t going to be pretty no matter how we look at it.

That is why, Stevie will choose to play the tactician; it works for him. As pointed out earlier, his proposal will have succeeded in dividing the opposition and Canadians; a formula that could raise his numbers back up again. Make no mistake, he doesn’t care whether there is work that will have fallen behind`and catching up with it.  He will have divided and then conquered. Or will they? Do I dare hope for the miracle that the albeit uneasy peace between opposition parties to continue and that they will see right through Stevie’s tactical game? If he were really concerned about being behind on work, he wouldn’t have prorogued parliament in the first place or he would unprorogue parliament as soon as possible.

If we thought this was going to be a bumpy ride; prepare for more of  St-Stevie’s antics between now and March 3; including the reading of the budget, which is sure to be a poison pill.

Well, since the success of the rallies yesterday, many media outlets have covered this. Craig Oliver was impressed. Too bad CTV didn’t send anyone to many of the venues. I never saw them or Global TV at the Montreal event. I heard this was the case at other venues.

Blogging Tories and other Harpercon cheerleaders are scrambling trying to save face. Blogging Tory Craig Smith’s page was particularly ridiculous in explaining the events failed due to the proximity of the photographers when pictures were taken. A common refrain is that they would like to compare the  numbers of the anti-coalition rally (ies) of last year to our event of this year.  Stupid. Apples and oranges, really. Besides, no one can ever provide precise numbers of each and every event,  particularly those where a march and a rally took place. There are always stragglers. There are those who join in the middle of the procession and of course, those who only attend the main event at the end of the line.

Montrealers who listen to CJAD, how about we take bets as to Tommy Schnurmacher trying to  scoff at yesterday’s events and try to tout them as ‘insignificant’ or ‘just some Harper bashers’? How much do you want to bet he calls Canada hypocrites for not setting up and attending anti-prorogation events when the Liberals did it? Yes, I’m afraid Tommy is slipping in his old age and has become quite predictable.

After all, Tommy, like his other minions on the Gang of 4 appears to suffer from Liberal Derangement Syndrome ( I got the term from Pale Cold from A Creative Revolution puts it. Read her piece about Liberal Derangement Syndrome as well as other Conservative mythologies).

Will 1010 CFRB’s John Moore eat his words like he said he would in the National Posties if the rallies succeeded? Clearly, they have. When a veteran like Craig Oliver who has seen and heard everything over the years, uses words like ‘extaordinary’ to describe the events of yesterday, call it a bonus. Johnny boy, it was successful, so when can we expect to witness the event of you eating your own words?

Then, of course, they will call us liars for having promoted this as a non-partisan grass roots movement.

Hell, I love Blogging Tory Monte Solberg’s reverse guilt trip, saying the media spoon fed Canadians to things they just don’t care about. I would refute him directly, but, comments are disabled at his page. Why would that be?? Ok, Monte, here’s a comment, wishful thinking don’t make it so!

Ok, I’m going to give a kick start to your jobs for tomorrow; I’m feeling charitable today. I will speak for the Montreal Event that we did invite Conservative MPs, Senators and other Conservative party members to join us and to even even speak. They declined or didn’t answer our emails.

Another thing, it was a grass roots movement. If politicians were in attendance and speaking, it’s because we asked them to speak. All were offered equal air time. Not our fault if some either refused or didn’t answer.

Over at Section 15, Mark launches a challenge to con pundits, Harpercon cheerleaders and others like minded and other Harpercon minions. Launch your own cross country movement.  Launch a movement in support of prorogation. Set up rallies and marches equipped with colourfully designed signs with witty slogans in support of St-Stevie. Find a group like the Raging Grannies to put on a musical number showing support.

I will add this to Mark’s challenge though: just to keep things fair and to make sure we’re not comparing apples and oranges, but rather apples with apples and oranges with oranges: Same rules apply as our events did. It must be grass roots.  This means, only citizens getting together to organize their events.  No media types. Nothing even resembling Fox News’ 9/12 tea-bagger hit parade.  No politicians. Just citizens getting together and organizing.

Also, make sure to coordinate a date with other Canadian cities.

When you invite speakers, have civilians and different politicians speak.  Your invitations must include all of the MPs, senators and members and a paper trail would be required to proove this at any time if requested.

Then invite the media outfits. One thing though, make sure they’re there solely to cover the events and not promote them as Fox News seems to be guilty of.

Go ahead, tell Canadians how a Harpercon totalitarian regime benefits Canadians, because when Stevie says opposition parties bring down the markets , Jason Kenney saying they can get more done without the opposition, When Tommy, Kim and Don Crook said prorogation is best because ‘they do less damage, they won’t squabble like children’ on the Gang of 4 last Friday, Jan 22, and of course, who can forget last November’s by-election placard slogan in Hochelaga of “de l’action, pas d’election”? It  looks like ambition for a  totalitarian regime and for washed up buffoons like Tommy Schnurmacher and his buddies to say things like what they did on the Gang of 4 sounds like they’re also for it and are spoonfeeding that message to Canadians.

Tommy, Kim, Danny boy:  Do you support a totalitarian regime for Canada? How about the Blogging Tory Trolls: what say you?

Of course,  judging by only a 22 member pro prorogation group on Facebook,  compared to over 200 000 members on Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament Facebook group; I wish you all the luck in planning this event. Let me help you, your fellow Blogging Tory, Tamara of Rightchik, claims to be an event planner extaordinaire.  I’m sure you’ll have no trouble finding that blinding near flourescant page of her’s.

So, I say let the games begin! So Harpercon cheerleaders and all other neo-cons who support prorogation, I put it to you. Do your worst! Let’s see your rally (ies).

Speaking of that Facebook group witht that rather paltry membership. Matt Gurney, the next time you feel inclined to whine about censorship  at  the Facebook CAPP group, I suggest strongly you keep that claptrap of your’s shut.  Apparently, over at pro-prorogation on Facebook,  potential members have to request to join, their wall and contents are invisible to all who are not members. I dunno, but that looks like censorship to me. The fact that they’re restricting membership proves they’re afraid of debate.

So, boys & girls of the pro prorogation faction, organize your events. Until then, shut the hell up and be good sports.

Here are some video highlights of the Montreal event from  Matness4dummies’ channel on Youtube. Thanks Matt!

Added Bonus: People outside Canada organized events to support us. Still think our events were a failure? Can you get outside of Canada support for your pro-prorogation events?

Yes, they are. A short march and a rally with a few very short speeches.

I do hope that those in and around Montreal will come in great numbers despite the early hour. At least (knock wood), the weather should cooperate.

This is a non-partisan event. Everyone is welcome, no matter what affiliation they may be with:  the Left or the Right; Conservative or not: French speaking or not; Separatists or federalists; it doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, ol’ Stevie has stripped every Canadian of their Democratic rights.

Sidenote: Another interesting read would be over at Scott  Ross’s, where he actually details  how much prorogation is costing the tax payers. Those of the Conservative persuasion who claim to abhor government wasted spending: Scott Ross’ post is worth a read.

That would indeed be the Harpercon Media machine’s tactics.  Many die-hard Stevie supporters have swallowed the kool-aid since the earthquake in Haiti.

The corporate media machine is feverishly making sure that we see Stevie the philanthropist rather than Stevie the dictator. They couldn’t have asked for a better time for any crisis to come up.

It is undoubtedly working for some.  That Facebook group , Canadians against Prorogation had a few trolls coming to post on the wall: things like we should be ashamed of ourselves for still caring about prorogation while thousands upon thousands die  in the devastation in Haiti.  I’m sure the Stevie clan and disciples are thinking the same thing. One problem with this though? We’re supposed to forget about our democratic rights as well as the demons Stevie chooses to run away from?

9/11 was the ideal crisis for Georgie’s presidential career; it’s what boosted his approval rating & kept him in office a second term. In fact, there is much speculation that Georgie had opportunities to catch BinLaden & his merry band of bushwhacking thugs during his first term, but never ceased that opportunity as it would have surely costed him a second term in office.

Stevie’s numbers have taken a nose dive since prorogation and his right arm, the corporate  right-winged media, try as they might; failed miserably at spinning Stevie in a positive light and spoonfeeding to Canadians how they should feel and what should be important. Like 9/11 for Georgie,  this is growing to be  the ideal crisis for Stevie and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Here is an article over at the Grope & Fail describing a matured PM and how he is now looking like a statesman instead of the ogre who shut down parliament simply because he wants to hide and not play nicely with others. Stevie and Corporate Right slanted media are all probably breathing a collective sigh of relief.

My question is: will it work? Will the coverage and potential overkill  coverage of Haiti not only have Canadians forget Stevie’s prorogation and transgressions that led to this prorogation, but actually bring his numbers back up to majority territory?

Campbell Clark at the Grope & Fail seems to hold very high hopes:

A week ago Mr. Harper was under attack for shutting Parliament until March, was perceived as hyper-partisan and was losing his edge in the polls. A successful response to the disaster in Haiti would counter all that.

“It backs him away from the mean-spirited, petty image that some would paint him with,” Mr. Lyle said. “It makes him a statesman, instead of a partisan politician. And that’s of great benefit to him.”

I also noticed that CJAD isn’t talking at all about prorogation anymore. Brian Lilley is no longer bringing it up in his newscasts. It is all about Haiti thus far.

Yes, CJAD talks show hosts, like Tommy Schnurmacher no longer have any pundits or politicians to entertain these days and thus, not a whole hell of a lot to talk about now can devote their entire shows to this crisis.  But, he is a talk show host and is paid to be opinionated.

Brian Lilley is not. He is supposed to be a newscaster and thus, report the news without prejudice; not pick & choose what to cover and not to cover. What ever happened to the days newscasters & reporters reported the news fairly without prejudice? Since when do newscasters & reporters set up camp at sites like the Examiner & Homeless Cons? But, I digress.

What happened in this already downtrodden country is tragic. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their loved ones.   It’s great that Canada (not Harpercons or Liberals in particular) is coming through to help them.

It should be incumbent upon our leaders to help out a country in distress–without first going through the whole ‘ Oh my and what shall we wear?’ Or which is my best side? They should not be waiting around to pose for the cameras.  If Stevie were serious, go to Haiti right away. Don’t stop for photo ops: just go!

Mia Rabson from the Winnipeg Free Press   not only lists the shameless photo ops they take basically tells him just that: Enough Photo Ops & Just Help these  poor people:

Late last night we got a photo from the prime minister’s office of Stephen Harper on the telephone, presumably with UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, discussing the situation in Haiti.

Today Defence Minister Peter Mackay is posing in Halifax as the HMCS Athabaskan and HMCS Halifax leave for Haiti.

At about the same time, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife, Laureen, were staging a photo op making a donation to the Canadian Red Cross.

Enough already. Stop posing for photo ops and just get on with the business of helping Haiti.

After all, how much did he really care about this downtrodden country and its’ misfortunes before the earthquake? How much did most of us, for that matter, care?

Would this earthquake in Haiti get this much air time had parliament been not prorogued? How about during the Olympic Games?

I certainly don’t remember the floods from Tropical Storm Ketsana in the  Philippines, another poor country and Tsunami in American Samoa in September 2009 getting this much coverage in the Corporate media, nor do I remember  seeing or hearing about so many photo ops for Saint-Stevie.

I hear a telethon is being organized to help out; a great idea. There is at least, a more altruistic goal with that than what talk radio or the likes of the Grope & Fail have to offer.

Do give to a charity looking after Haiti, but please, do be careful and do careful research before donating; not only due to scammers who will, no doubt, crawl out of the wood work, but also make sure the charity you choose to give to can be trusted to make sure the aid actually gets to the people instead of some corrupt government hands or some black hole known as bureaucratic red tape.

Again, my thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their loved ones. I hope everyone is found & accounted for soon.

However, that is not to say that I am to be impressed with Saint-Stevie; he is to do what every statesman should do during a crisis in the world and it shoudn’t require a photo op.

Sorry, Campbell, photo ops of a well-timed crisis won’t and  should never outweigh the fact that Stevie is a dictator, coward who can’t play well with others and that he has taken away our democracy.  Just because you like shiny things doesn’t mean you should force that onto your readers.

I hope that the anti-prorogation rallies will still have great turn-outs.

Something that I had been concerned about since this all happened.  An article in today’s Grope & Fail with translated sources from French language newspapers.  Honestly,  had it not been for my observations of apathy amongst my French speaking  co-workers and Francophones in general as well as the low Francophone memberships Montreal and Quebec City Chapters of Canadians against prorogation rally planning groups on Facebook and, search as I may, not much reaction from Gilles Duceppe other than the following tweet on his Twitter account, I wouldn’t have believed the article in the Grope & Fail.

Sadly, they feel their voices aren’t heard enough in Ottawa; that their voices don’t count.

Gilles Duceppe’s reaction: prorogation has become “a tradition for Harper.”

“Instead of facing the music, he prorogues,” Duceppe wrote.

Other than the fact the Bloc announced its’ plans to work in their ridings, like the N.D.P., not much is happening from that corner. Perhaps if Gilles Duceppe announced it was going back to Ottawa alongside the Liberals on January 25 and he made that known to the mainstream media, perhaps Quebecers may have a different attitude toward prorogation.

A variety of reasons seem to contribute to French Quebec’s apathy: from lack of understanding of Canada’s Parliamentary system to lack of respect for parliament, according to the Grope & Fail.

Josee Legault of the Montreal French language weekly, Le Voir writes:

“There’s nothing like a populace ignorant of its own democratic institutions to allow a prime minister to go so far as to strip our elected representatives of their constitutional prerogatives,”

Now, that is frightening.  Education would be the logical answer, but one has to want to know.  One gets the feeling, they don’t want to know, so how do we engage them?

I work for a social services agency that serves the Anglophone population of Quebec; thus far, only one of my co-workers is interested in attending the Montreal rally up to date and asked me to keep him up to date. The rest don’t even know about or barely heard grumblings of it.

One of my French speaking co-workers came up to me yesterday and simply grimaced; ” it doesn’t matter what we think or do; Harper will get his majority.” She, of course, must have stopped following the polls awhile ago.  Stevie’s numbers started going down since prorogation and he is now down about 10 points since last Fall.  I told her his numbers dropped but she didn’t change her tune. She is of the belief Stevie will climb back up. She did, however, ask me to forward her any literature on the subject. Sadly, I think her views reflect most of those of French Quebec society today.

I also tend to wonder if the  now dormant separatist movement will make a comeback if there is an election coming soon and Stevie does get his majority? Are the separatists perhaps saving their energy for a potential separatist movement?

Perhaps the separatists just don’t feel that prorogation matters as they’re only interested in le Pays du Quebec?

I think there are only two ways we can perhaps get them out alongside Quebec’s Anglos in the Quebec City and Montreal Rallies come January 23. Our planning meeting spoke of the possibility of getting leaders of Quebec’s largest labor unions. French Quebecers; separatists or not tend to be very pro union.

Another way would be to hit the message home that whether or not you’re separatist; your democratic rights were stripped away just like the rest of us.

There is still time to get French speaking Quebecers to demonstrate alongside the rest of us, be they separatist or not.

To my French speaking readers, I hope you can get your friends, relatives and co workers out come Saturday afternoon, January 23.

I had a dilemma earlier: either wreck my page with this drivel of a video or link to the  Mathematically challenged shrews  Hunter or Sandy’s pages, thus, surely giving them more traffic.

I decided on neither, but will tell you all it’s at Hunter’s page, Climbing out of the Dark, if you dare or at Sandy’s (Look at me I’m Sandra Dee) page, I guess it may have entertainment value.  These shrews have claimed to telling the ‘truth’ about prorogation.

The thing I loved most was the incorrect math; they repeat over and over again in the video that this  prorogation is only for 17 days. Now, I know I sucked at math in high school and again in college, so folks, help me out here: there are only 17 days between January 25 & March 3?? Even when we only count week days, it comes out to more than that. 11 days of Olympics not counted? Last I checked, the Olympics have never been considered legal holidays.

I have one thing to ask these wingnuts; pro-war wingnuts I might add. How come the soldiers, yes, those same soldiers we elistist lefties are accused of not supporting, not allowed to prorogue? They can’t take time off during the olympics. They can’t take time off because they can’t play nicely with their platoon, they can’t run away because they’re scared. They certainly can’t run away because they no longer believe in the senseless mission, much like the late young Jonathan Couturier.

Oh, and their video sucks: score 1 for our side; talent!