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It's not like they all agreed anyways.

I was all ready writing on Maxime Bernier’s new crazy “pro-constitution” rant about getting the government out of provincial transfers, when I see Robert Silver beat me to it (the bugger). He’s put the issue quite squarely on the table, wherein, if we want to interpret the Constitution Act of 1867 into literal usage, then the Prime Minister can choose, if he so wishes, to co-opt any legislation the provinces pass. We would be giving powers back to the Governor General that are not actually underwritten, and we would bring back more federal powers then I think Bernier would ever want to. However, we all know he doesn’t want this. He wants smaller government, as do most conservatives. I will say this, however. I feel that this discussion is one we should be having and I’m glad to see a discussion being brought about without scandal, secrecy or top down, authoritarian action.

Here’s my take on it, for better or worse. The federal government’s job is to make sure that our social institutions are safeguarded from the market. The Federal government should strongly regulate health care and education, as well as old age pensions and possibly even a police force (I may be wavering on this last point). Provinces, though, should be allowed their own jurisdiction to use these money’s as they see fit. The provinces know how best to spend this money, and I don’t think many federal MP’s would disagree. However, just disengaging the feds completely is a scary proposition. By pulling out of this direct relationship all we end up doing is giving over complete control to provinces whom should not be allowed unfettered control. We need a strong federal government that can lookout for the best interests of all Canadians. Of course, we know that Bernier supports private health care, so this suggestion that we just stop transfers all together isn’t at all surprising. I cannot help but wonder if this is actually his idea or a Harper plant to test the grounds on this issue and see if it has weight. As of yet, I have not caught wind of much yet, but maybe when the parliament returns we will hear more.

So we lost the UN security council seat. I actually had predicted this, though unfortunately not in writing (darn)! But, as Don Martin has also correctly pointed out, this isn’t the only thing we can worry about this week. The UAE boot we received this week should bring some much needed attention by our government to it’s policies regarding other nations. We’ve lost a base for now, but we will soon also lose billions of dollars in exports. Check this out “Of the $1.8-billion in two-way trade, $1.2-billion goes from Canada’s canola fields and gold mines into the UAE market,” according to Martin’s article.

I actually e-mailed the newly minted Transport Minister to warn him that this would happen. The UAE would act swiftly, I warned, and would likely start by kicking us out of camp Mirage and would follow up by cutting economic ties. This is serious. The UAE has economic and political clout and is not afraid to use it. What do they really owe us anyways. And all this over some planes landing in Canadian airports? Give me a break. I’m sure this is just more of Harper’s pro-Israel, anti-everyone else policy towards the middle east. I also have no doubt that this, coupled with Minister Van Loans new trade agreement with Israel, our policy towards Israel centrally and our support of countries like Colombia,  played an important role in Portugal being picked over us. Good for them. They definitely deserved it. Canada didn’t. I look forward to the awkward games that the Government tries to play. Pin the tail on the opposition isn’t going to work this time Stevie. You’ve kicked your own butt this time. Live the the bruises of your own stupid and ideologically driven foreign policy.

This is actually an interesting follow up on my blog about Conservatives being Liberals in Fis-Con clothing. Today we learned that the government really did make the decision to scrap the Mandatory Long Form Census in a hurry. About a month before the ludicrous decision, this view is supported by almost every single public institution in Canada, the government dished out $1 million dollars in test runs, consultations and, believe it or not, PRIVACY CHECKS. How did hyperinflated privacy check “check out?” According to the Toronto Star, the privacy commissioner okayed it, proving once again that the government trusts nobodies advice, even those who work directly with the public service in the interests of privacy.

Of course the Industry Minister shrugs off this spending and even the results of the consultation saying that “We had a few other issues that were occupying my time before that, like the world economic meltdown.” Well guess what Minister, you didn’t even bother consulting anyone except the PMO. This “test” was done, and then one month later, you brought out your ideological guns to shoot down something we desperately need to get a sence of what is happening in our country. Your bloated rhetoric is just window dressing at best, and bold faced lies at worst. And as a result of your lies, a top buerocrat was forced to resign who up to this point was just doing his job. This government has no problem throwing money away for ideological purposes. They should have looked at these consultations and gone to Canadians with them, if the census was really an issue of privacy, which we all know it wasn’t. This was something floated down from upon high because the Prime Minister likly had some kind of personal grudge with the census. Maybe it didn’t pick  little Stevie for kick ball back in the day. Only this could explain Harpers pointless, senseless and idiotic scrapping of something so fundamentally important to us. Information, in an information age, is worth it’s weight in gold. We have steps in place to keep it private. But of course, don’t expect Conservatives to trust facts. Facts are just things, as Colbert has always said, that are used by Liberal elites. If that’s true, then whose running our country?

A great thing is happening in Ontario. Children are finally getting all day kindergarten. This is great. Experts all through-out the education field have told us that all day kindergarten greatly increases children’s academic success. The same plan is being followed in half of B.C. classrooms this year, with a full roll out next year. PEI has also put a program together that is running this fall. Three provinces that will run such a lauded program sounds like great progress. Every child will benefit and children in these provinces can look towards a bright future. Well, all except the aboriginals, who are left out of the Ontario program.

Here’s the problem. Aboriginal education falls under the jurisdiction of the federal government and the Ontario Ministry of Education has said that if the Feds don’t provide the investment then these programs can’t be run. So again, aboriginal children are getting shafted. They are being left out of a great program when it’s clear that they are the children who need it the most. Aboriginal reserves are plagued with poverty, high unemployment and oh, this little statistic; 70 percent of on reserve children don’t finish high school. 70 percent. That’s a lot of kids who aren’t graduating and getting, what should be, a basic education. So as it stands, these kids are being left behind. And as the population grows (the aboriginal population in Canada is growing almost seven times faster then any other population and it’s also the younger) we will have more and more adults who don’t have a basic education and made up a larger and larger section of our society. And then, here comes a great program to help these kids get a head start and they are left out. I mean, why aren’t these Ministries collaborating, working together to make sure that there is some sort of egalitarian offering for kids in the Ontario. The situation is just sad. Most of these kids on reserve are defeated before they even start out because of how little the government cares. It’s pathetic.

What kind of consolation prize do aboriginal children get in Ontario from the Education Ministry? “…support such as sharing learning materials, guides and curriculum…” Wow, stuff that should have already been provided for them. Ya know, it seems to me that the issues surround the poverty and despair that hangs over our aboriginal communities could have been solved years ago if our governments did more then just throw money at these people. That’s been the solution so far. “Here, take this money and be quiet.” Well I don’t know if any government bureaucrats are paying attention, but that band-aid solution ain’t working so well. Poverty continues to rise on reserve and kids are still dropping out of school, joining gangs and getting addicted to drugs. All this does is increase the incarceration rate of aboriginals, which is the highest in the country. Governments, provincial, federal AND municiple, need to start putting their heads together and figuring out how to really solve this problem or all we are going to have in the next couple decades are more and more poor aboriginal adults flooding our prisons and stuck on welfare when they should be educated and contributing to our society. I’m pretty sure that’s what they’d prefer. Too bad in this country, nobody cares what they want.

It seems odd, but the more I watch and learn from this Conservative government, the more I see them as a Liberal party in reverse. In the 1990′s the Liberals were notorious for campaigning to the left of the political spectrum, but governing from the right. This can be attributed to the fact that the right was split two different ways, and if the Liberals could convince enough NDP supporters to come to their side, the Liberals would have perpetual majorities. Paul Martin, Chretiens Finance Minister and “slayer of the deficit” did so by cutting some $6 billion in transfers to the provinces, which resulted in calamitous shifts in the tax burden. Many universities, for example, were forced to raise tuition fees because the Liberal government at the time felt it couldn’t afford to keep funding schools the way they always had. In this time period Martin cut spending, managed to reduce our debt to GDP ratio and the deficit was erased in three years. This is all good, if you are a government trying to balance the books. However, if you rely on social assistance, child care, health care, education or anything else that the provinces funded with help from the feds, you are in trouble.  Somehow, we made it through, the Liberal government started reinvesting with surpluses (albeit, with the prodding of New Democrats) and things were okay.

I see Harper as the exact reverse of this situation. Harper vigorously campaigned on the right. He campaigned for fiscal discipline, no deficits and tight government spending. In reality, his government is throwing money out the door so fast it can’t catch it’s breath. Lets use a recent example from the Globe and Mail today. According to Federal Auditors, $5 millions dollars was paid out by the Transport department that they say was “based on documentation that, in our opinion, was insufficient to attest to the legitimacy and eligibility of the expenditures.” The auditors followed this up by saying that the conditions were so flimsy that those seeking the money didn’t have to prove best value and that competitive bidding wasn’t required before the money was doled out. Where have we heard this before? Ah yes. Those billions of dollars being spent on F-35ighter jets that are going to protect our sovereignty from Russian planes that can barely outrun a wheelchair (actually, I’ve seen wheelchair athletes and I think they’d have the upper hand). My point is, paralympic analogies aside, the Conservatives have no fiscal discipline. They throw money at everything and anything they think might win them some votes and then try to explain away their fiscal idiocy by saying things like “It’s the best plane our there” or “Jobs rely on spending this money.”

In the case of the $5 million dollars for the Transport Canada program, they have admitted that they weren’t monitoring or screening the process for this specific program and will investigate why the money was divvied up without much scrutiny. This is, however, another sign of this government waywardness and complete lack of fiscal discipline. The day that people can look to the Conservatives and question their motives and monetary policy is a day when we can see just how the political landscape has changed. One thing is for certain. The government shouldn’t be allowed to call themselves Conservatives. They prove everyday that they throw more suitcases of money out the door with little regard for where it’s going, that they are no better then the Liberals that came before them.

Information is important for citizens of this country to understand what their government is doing. We need information so that we can keep an eye on the money that they spend and the policies they are implementing. We also need access to information so we know, for example, whether or not donors to the Conservative party have had renovation deals on Parliament Hill fast tracked. This is just one example of what ATI has allowed us to see from a government that keeps it’s briefcases tightly closed and paper grossly blacked out. When Parliament wanted information on Afghan Detainees, we got document dumps with almost entire pages blocked out, or redacted. It’s like Nixon-phobia has taken hold in Ottawa and either the people inside the PMO or ministers themselves are getting Sharpy happy. This government is so incredibly terrified that Canadians are going to find out what’s going on behind closed doors that they are blacking out almost everything ad-hoc.

Seriously, this has to stop. Canadians have the right to see information, regardless of what the government feels about it’s importance. If I apply for access to information about ANY file, it should take less then 30 days for me to get it. But according to Jennifer Stoddard, the Privacy Comissioner, ATI requests are met by 30 days only about 50% of the time; and the rate is going down. This is SHAMEFUL. It’s clear what the government agenda is. SECRECY. They don’t want us to know what’s going on. This is from the government that was supposed to clean up things in Ottawa. It was all transparency and accountability and in Harper’s words, we would not recognize Canada when he was finished. I disagree. The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same. The accountability file has fallen by the wayside because the government knows it’s not in their interest to allow information to get out.

The government can talk about doing things for Canada and how much they have achieved economically, but as long as they continue to stand in the way of public access to government documents, they prove that they are no different than anyone who came before them. Governmental clean-up? No. More like a public shake-down.

Correction: In the first paragraph it states “It’s like Nixon-phobia has taken hold in Ottawa and either the people inside the PMO or ministers themselves are getting Sharpy happy.” The bold part should read “A Nixonian tendency…” Sorry for the confusion.

Hi everyone. Logan here. Let’s get right down to it. I’m a progressive blogger and member of Canada’s New Democratic Party. Yes, that’s right. I have a bias. I am not a socialist though. I am a Free Market Lefist very much on the side of those like Gary Doer. I have been involved in provincial and federal politics since I was eighteen years old. I was one of the youngest members of a constituency association in BC when I was selected as the Vice President of my NDP constituency at the age of 19. I’ve kept myself involved and have been a consistent social activist.  I organized my local Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament protest and it was a stunning success. I currently live in China with my fiancee and will until April 20th 2011.

Now, why am I here? I would say that I’m angry, but I think’s that too simple a word to use to describe my horror at the lack of progressive presence in the media in Canada. I’m not under any illusion that I will be able to change the world by writting some words on a blog. I know how easy it is to ignore blogs. But I don’t want us to be ignored anymore. I’m tired of the right in this country constructing the narrative and shows like Power and Politics using Conservative talking points in every single debate or subject line that they report with. I watch with such sadness, because the CBC is suppose to be a place that Canadians can come together that allows for talk and debate without taking sides. As long as the CBC uses right wing talking points and continues to pandor to the government just so they can have ministers on the show continues to push debate farther and farther afield. Even moderate Liberals and red Tory viewers, who are pounded day after day after day with Conservative talking points from Pierre Polievre and Dimitri Soudas, will either just shut off and tune out. Or worse. They will agree with them.

So the time has truly come. It’s time to stop being afraid to challenge the right in this country. They cannot call us socialist just because was believe in a safety net for our nations poorest people or want strong environmental regulations. We can be radical and we can be passionate and not be socialist or even social democrats (not that being either of these things is bad). When the media becomes so concentrated with one message over and over, we have a dangerous situation.

The Left needs to consolidate, however it can. Yes, this means coalition, this means merging, this means coming together to fight the anti-fact(see the census issue), anti-diplomatic (see Conservative attitutdes towards Palistine), and anti-democratic (proroguations) Conservatives so we can deliver ourselves the country we want. In the last election 66% of us didn’t vote for the Conservatives. But they are in power. And we can no longer rest on our laurels and say “Oh well we didn’t vote for them.” Yes, we didn’t, but they are in power and will continue to be as the percentage of Canadians turn away from the polls. The vote will concentrate more and more in the hands of the right wing and the Conservative majority will come. For those who still aren’t convinced that there is a hidden agenda, just look to this past summer. The agenda came out. Harper has tried to put a lid on it, but the genie is out of the bottle.

How much is it going to take for progressives to band together and kick these guys out. They are not good for Canada. They are not good for our weakest and most marginalized, they aren’t good for our own democracy and they have proved that they are not good for those who depend on us abroad. This is the beginning for me. I will not rest until progressives are riled up and take to the streets. I’m not calling for violent protest. This just gives the right wing and mainstream media to call us radicals. I’m calling for logic and discussion. I’m calling for ideas and coming together. Let’s work hard in these next months and years to bring progressives and liberals together to form a powerful Bloc that can show the right wing that we will not be silent when it comes to their corporatist agenda.

This is what you can expect to come from Logan. My introduction and my first little rant. I hope you comment. I hope you like what I have to say. If you hate what I have to say, that’s great to. But let’s talk people. Our country is being taken from us and it’s time to take it back.