Sister Sage's Musings

Posts Tagged ‘Stephen Harper’

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?

Well, the Reseau Liberte Quebecois, aka The Tea-bagger hit parade, the Quebecois edition, as I’ve mentioned, is having their launching luncheon at Hotel des Gouverneurs Ste-Foye in Quebec City come October 23.  For those who haven’t caught the details of this extravaganza, details here.

Now, if I were catering the event. I think the most fitting meal that can be served would be….

Feeling green around the gills yet?

That meat, green; moldy and oldy just like Steve’s and those tea-baggers’ politics and ideologies. That oughta war their hearts (if they had any) and stick to their ribs.

Only fitting a meal, naturally. For the extra 10$ the meat won’t be as green, perhaps.

The pork is, of course, cured at the same butcher shop as  Steve’s meat baloney.

Whew! After creating that monstrosity and having seen the package of Steve’s baloney over at Pale’s, am I glad I don’t eat red meat! Yeah, I know, pork is considered white meat. It crawls on four legs, it’s gross; I don’t eat that neither.

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.

More so than unreported crime, Rob Anders’ Chinese spies, those dastardly Tamil (or any other non white refugees and/or immigrants, for that matter). Badder than socialists, separatists and Russian planes that barely graze our air space in the north.  And yes, by golly, it’s even more perilous than Canadian Idol rejects who actually, in their own weird way, actually sing better than Avril Lavigne.

It’s Super “I think I  make the rules” King Stevie! And boy, does he looks maniacal!  Actually, he reminds me of Jim Carey racing on that scooter, cackling off into the night after spiking Jeff Daniels’ drink with turbo lax in the movie “Dumb and Dumber”.  Speaking of, I wonder if some of us can do a readaptation of the movie “Dumb and Dumber”, starring the Harpercons. I have a good idea for a script.

Actually, the pic of Steve on the Quad, his helmet looks like it’s too big!

What an arrogant pig!

Here’s the video

H/T Dammit Janet

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, I remember how the Blogging SupposiTories were mercilessly chiding Iggy for getting down and boogying in front of the Much Music building during the Liberal Bus tour.

Now, Stevie Spiteful does it in the Arctic; some native dance. Betcha Hunter, Sandra Dee Crux and the rest of those  Shrieking cheerleaders known as the ‘ladies’ of the Blogging SupposiTories are going to fawn, faint and perhaps cream their panties over their Steve is oh so dreamy over the following video:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/video/stephen-harper-dances/article1685888/

Sorry, couldn’t find a copy on YouTube. Just click the link above. You know ya wanna!

Perhaps this is his way of scaring those evil Russians from flying near our air space?  Yes, must fend off those evul commie spirits now!

You’ll forgive my cynicism here, but it seems that there are some who actually applaud this from his own base! I get it now. So long as it’s a good PR move sure to raise King Steve’s polling numbers and that those Muslim Brown people stay where they are and not even think of setting foot here either by boat or by airplane. Yeah, that’s it.

I just caught this from Impolitical’s Tweets. Lawrence Martin just wrote and reviewed how Kory Teneycke’s new position at Pierre Karl Peladeau’s outfit was quite the coup for King Steve.  As we all know, it hit a snag with the CRTC in trying to get that coveted category 1 licence not long ago. I posted about this small victory, but I also expressed concerns about how this would not bode well for the CRTC neither, given Stevie’s propensity for having his way, come hell or high water. After all, we have seen this lately with Veteran’s Affairs Canada and with Stats Can.  And take a look how he handles dissent.   Now, according to Lawrence Martin, the CRTC could take a hit, and we shouldn’t be surprise, given the latest malicious acts from ol’ King Stevie Spiteful.

The CRTC chair is Konrad von Finckenstein, and his term doesn’t end until 2012. But insiders report that Mr. Harper now wants him out well before that date and replaced by a rubber stamper. The independently minded Mr. von Finckenstein, who did not respond to queries on the matter, is reportedly being offered judgeships and ambassadorships, one post being Chile. So far, he’s not biting. But the bait might get bigger.

In addition, CRTC vice-chair Michel Arpin is being ushered out the door. His term expires at the end of the month; he’d like to stay on, but his request is not being granted.

Names being floated as a replacement for either the chair or vice-chair include none other than Mr. Péladeau’s long-time right-hand man, Luc Lavoie. Mr. Lavoie is a competent fellow but, given his Péladeau ties, the idea sounds far-fetched, positively galling. But, then again, when has galling ever stopped Stephen Harper?

Yes, boys n’ girls, watch for these names to hit the airways or print media. If you hear of them either leaving, being moved to parts unknown or early retirements, you’ll know why.  Really, CRTC, did you honestly think you could get away with thinking independently here? Did you think you could go against Master Steve and not ensure that every cable or satellite subscriber isn’t saddled with a channel that is dedicated to the praise of King Stevie? Really now.

Remember, the Kory Klan, or Fox News North Print has already pulled the Steve purge and gotten rid of columnists deemed not Harpercon friendly enough; the likes of Greg Weston, Christina Spencer, Liz Thomson and the latest casualty, 27 year veteran, Eric Margolis.  I’m surprised they took David Akin.

I imagine there will be a fight to save the integrity of the CRTC. I should hope so.

Among those hearing about the pending CRTC shakeup is Ian Morrison of the advocacy group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting. As he correctly points out, the integrity of the CRTC has to be defended. “You can’t have the Prime Minister handing out radio and TV licences.”

As Martin correctly points out, agencies like the CRTC are supposed to keep the prime minister at arm’s length, but in the case of Steve, they’re only at knuckle’s length.  Good point, it gives the image of Stevie spiteful having his fists clenched of do it my way, or else!

Further evidence that Stevie spiteful is really losing it.  He really needs to be medicated.

I remember folks awhile back telling me they thought I was exaggerating when I blogged about Steve being a totalitarian. In spite of providing the definition with links, I was criticized. I will do it again.

Totalitarianism is a political system where the state, usually under the control of a single political organization, faction, or class domination, recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible.^[2] Totalitarianism is generally characterised by the coincidence of authoritarianism (i.e., where ordinary citizens have no significant share in state decision-making) andideology (i.e., a pervasive scheme of values promulgated by institutional means to direct the most significant aspects of public and private life)^[3]. Totalitarian regimes or movements maintain themselves in political power by means of an official all-embracing ideology and propagandadisseminated through the state-controlled mass media, a single partythat controls the state, personality cults, control over the economy, regulation and restriction of free discussion and criticism, the use ofmass surveillance, and widespread use of state terrorism.

Besides the blogging SupposiTories who will forever be Stevie’s faithful lap dogs, and quite frankly, many of them are advocating this totalitarianism from their man Steve; does anybody else still think I’m off the mark?