King Arthur Movie Tristan

What an apt choice by Governor General Michaelle Jean to prorogue Parliament: It would hard to find a larger gallery of rogues, and, as Brian Mulroney would tell ya, they're a pack of old pros.

The Coalition of the Treasonous is supposedly upset about a lack of fiscal stimulus in the recent federal update. Other countries, they proclaim, are jumping off the Brooklyn bridge providing stimulus, so we have to too. Here's a suggestion for PM Harper: do what the Brits are doing. Lower the GST a couple of points:

BRITAIN'S contribution to a global effort to add a shot of fiscal adrenaline to ailing industrial economies was delivered by Alistair Darling, the chancellor of the exchequer (finance minister), on Monday November 24th. He produced an emergency winter budget, which had been preceded by a deluge of leaks, to the House of Commons...

The scale of the giveaway certainly sounded impressive. The centrepiece of the fiscal package was a big reduction in the main rate of value-added tax (VAT), which is charged on most goods and services, from 17.5% to 15%.

For those who don't know, the British VAT is the equivalent to our GST.

Oh wait, did that two years ago. Maybe that's why Canada's "GDP rose an annualized 1.3% in the third quarter." Because the stimulus is in the system.

Since Britain is copying Canada's success on the lower consumption tax, maybe someone at CTV can send Craig Oliver a memo: Reducing taxes does put money in peoples pockets.

Don't believe me, ask the British Labour Party.

Elizabeth May claims to have never smoked pot. Don't know, don't care, what's obvious is she has never tried to grow it

Canada's Green Party leader Elizabeth May apologized on Wednesday for never having smoked marijuana, as she unveiled her election plank, which touts legalizing and taxing pot...

May told reporters at a campaign stop in Halifax, televised nationally. "I've never used marijuana. I apologize."...

As well, the party would like to see "small, independent growers" thrive, and the government taxing the weed at the same rate as tobacco, generating an estimated one billion dollars Canadian (931 million US) annually.

I always laugh at this argument. George Carlin called it Toledo window box, implying that you can grow it on a window ledge. I have never grown the stuff myself, but I know of people who have grown it in a planter.

Personally, I grow herbs all summer, and do a few indoor winter herbs. If I was inclined to smoke pot, and it was legal, I would plant it. It's effortless, and you won't be paying government rates for it. And if you don't want to grow it, why wouldn't someone else grow it in their back yard and sell it to people tax-free?

There are some interesting and compelling arguments for legalizing pot, and the war on drugs has certainly been a massive failure. I'm all for re-thinking it, but the argument that it will be profitable for the government to legalize it just doesn't wash, and anyone budgeting $1B on a marijuana tax better have a plan B.

I have become a fan of Rondi Adamson the last year. Unfortunately, she is usually turning up at The Star or The Globe and Mail, the two dailies I don't regularly read. Today however, she turned up at The Sun, which I managed to catch without having to resort to those internets.

A different slant on the various Maxime Bernier "scandals," noting that what his "spouse" was wearing at his swearing in is minor compared to the fact he is allowed to declare her a "spouse for travelling purposes," and fly her around at taxpayer expense, after dating her only a few months:

For Bernier to designate Couillard -- a woman he had apparently only dated briefly -- a "spouse" is setting the limbo bar so low for what constitutes a "spouse" that a wee beastie could dance its little way under it. It is also inconsistent with the outrage at Couillard's decolletage last summer. Why the priggishness there, but not in her "spouse" status? Surely social conservatives should be offended.

Fiscal conservatives should be troubled, as well...

Prior to running for election in Beauce, Bernier had served as vice-president of Quebec's leading free market think-tank, the Montreal Economic Institute. In his previous incarnation, he would have been unimpressed with someone's girlfriend -- flat or big-chested -- tagging along on the company dime.

I submit that this piece was probably written before Bernier's resignation (although not before the news of the envelope-gate). However, I would suggest that Adamson makes a good case for his resignation even before the top secret envelope under the pillow routine, and would guess that PM Harper had pencilled Bernier for a shuffle during the summer when nobody was paying attention.

how I felt all those years:

Clark said that he does not have a political affinity for any of the current federal parties, noting that he was a "political orphan."

When Joe Clark is running the Conservative party, a conservative guy like me was pretty much an orphan.

Now will the press please stop treating this guy like he has an ounce of credibility?

If Pine Beetles were ruining Ontario's forests, dooming Canada's Kyoto efforts and releasing "five times the annual emissions from all the cars, trucks, trains and planes in Canada," we'd just ban the little buggers.

Problem solved!

Hey, B.C. give Dalton a call, I'm sure he's got extra copies of the paperwork all ready to go.

Ouch. Caledonia Resident Merlyn Kinrade answers Michael Bryant's amateurish Caledonia videos with a few of his own:

"This video is the result of a Minster of the Ontario Government, Michael Bryant, coming to Caledonia and making light of the critical situation in Caledonia. Mr. Bryant we sincerely asked you last fall to meet with us. Why not accommodate our request to meet rather than producing You Tube videos?"

"Tim's is a great cup of coffee, you get the pulse of the community by going where the issues are." That's the kind of 10 second zinger politicians would kill for.



"There's a great fishing spot by the dam, but the river is somewhat polluted since the Province hasn't funded a new sewage treatment plant."

As I noted before, Kinsella called Bryant's videos smart use of new technology, but it's never smart to give your opponents the chance to get in the last word, and that's exactly what Bryant did. Not just that, but a couple of guys in Caledonia did better, more professional videos than Bryant did, that's not good.

Score Merlyn Kinrade 1 - Michael Bryant 0.

Stephane Dion today opened the door to a coalition government, joining the Liberal party of Canada with the Conservative Party. The plan would see Dion's Liberals stop threatening to topple the Harper government, and in return Prime Minister Dion would make Stephen Harper the Deputy-Assistant Vice-PM.

When it was suggested Harper may not agree to relinquish the PM role, Dion was unapologetic:

"If you got the assurances of ultimate unity, then it's a great mistake for other people to try to shut this process down early," it is assumed Dion said. "If you put those two things together, you'd have an almost unstoppable force. I believe when this is over, if we can unify the Parliament, then we will clearly win because there is so much energy behind what is happening.

"We'd be hard to beat," Dion added.

When told of the comments, Harper said, with unusual diplomacy, "what an idiot," to which Dion replied, "hey, it's good enough for the Clinton's and the Maple Leafs!"

If we win, we'll let you take a point.

Seen talking animately to the refs late in Saturdays game, it was assumed Mats Sundin was arguing a call. It turns out, he was negotiating on behalf of his team. With his team down by a goal and less than a minute to play, Sundin went to desperation:

"Let us take the two points, we'll give New Jersey one point and everybody is happy. We will all go out tonight and we'll be an 'unstoppable force.' Or better better yet, give us Marty Brodeur, we'll let them take Andrew Raycroft, and we'll 'be hard to beat.'"

Later, Sundin was heard to say:

"When this is over, if we can unify the Toronto Maple Leafs and New Jersey Devils, then we will clearly win because there is so much energy behind what is happening."

When it was pointed out to Sundin that his team was losing, so New Jersey wouldn't likely agree, he shrugged and said, "hey, it's good enough for the Clinton's!"

Yesterday I ranted somewhat about how completely useless our Provincial politicians have been lately. Today comes a series of videos by Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant standing around Caledonia with a Tim Horton's coffee talking about the unrest there, and saying things like "here's the bridge; there's the river."

Kinsella calls it a smart use of new technology, but really shouldn't smart use of any technology involve professionalism. The wind blown microphones, Bryant speaks with more "umms" than a Paris Hilton video and jerks around, shrugging and pointing all over the place. This could be smart use of new technology if it was done better (hire a teenager with a cell phone, they'll tell you how to do it) and the subject matter wasn't the complete abdication of the rule of law.

It's a sad state of affairs when the local newspaper starts reading like The Onion, but that's the case today. These guys are nuts, and they're running this province.

Health care in Ontario is a +$30B dollar ministry in Ontario, and the guy running the show doesn't have the native intelligence to figure out how unpleasant it might be to wear a soiled diaper:

Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman says he's considering personally road-testing a new absorbent adult diaper to see if it's appropriate for the province's nursing home residents.

"As a matter of conscience, it's something that I have been seriously considering," Smitherman told reporters yesterday.

The super diapers have become a flash point in the debate around adequate staffing in long-term care facilities.

It's a mighty cold day in hell, and Hespeler when Sid Ryan and Peter Kormos are the guys making sense in a debate, but in Dalton's Ontario, that's how effective banning pit bulls has been against global warming:

Ryan:

"So if the minister wants to play silly games, let him put on a diaper and sleep in it all night long and come into the legislature and wear it until 12 o'clock, and let him soil that diaper and lay around in it for the length of time our seniors have to do in this province."

Kormos:

"Smitherman's a damned embarrassment. One doesn't have to use or exhaust one's imagination to understand the humiliation, the indignity, of sitting in one's own waste for what could be hours at a time."

Really, wet socks are annoying, how much brains and imagination does it take to know spending hours in wet diapers is not good enough.

Then there's Aboriginal Affairs Minister Duncan Bryant, who is telling developers not to pay extortion to the Six Nations Development Institute, a group who is demanding $7,000 fees to develop along the Grand River, land which the institute has no legal claim on:

Ontario will not stop Six Nations from charging developers fees on disputed land near the Grand River, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant said.

He spoke yesterday as calls mounted for the government to halt what some are calling extortion.

A Six Nations development institute is demanding developers pay fees to build around the site, while protesters continue to occupy a former Caledonia housing project.

Developers who got letters seeking fees say the province is hanging them out to dry by not intervening or guaranteeing their safety.

But Bryant said it's up to police to intervene and press charges.

"Developers ... didn't just fall off the turnip truck," he said. "They know very well what the rules are and the laws are."

But Bryant won't step in and nobody can reasonable expect the OPP to do anything about it. Not after Caledonia. So the developers pay the bribes necessary to do business in Ontario (how about a new slogan? "not your average third world country." That ought to rake in the tourists). So the developers pay, the Liberals pretend the issue has gone away, businesses moves on to the next province, and Ontario sinks in to have-not status.

Speaking of which, Dalton is doing a fair bit of whining this week:

Federal politicians have to stop "talking down" the Ontario economy, Premier Dalton McGuinty says.

The premier said he wasn't prepared to follow their advice to cut taxes because he would have to close hospitals, cut social services and stop buying textbooks for students.

Instead, the Stephen Harper government should be partnering with his government on strategic investments in training, jobs and infrastructure to help grow the provincial economy, he said.

"It'd be nice to have the federal government in our corner," McGuinty said. "It'd be nice to have a federal government which doesn't seem to take so much delight in talking down the Ontario economy." Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's comment that the McGuinty government is letting Ontario slide into "have not" status and should cut taxes to improve the business climate did not go over well at Queen's Park.

It would be nice to have the federal government in our corner. Instead, the feds are reduced to acting like stern parents, warning the province of the consequences of it's actions. Dalton's response? Right on cue, here comes the petulance. Answer one question Dalton, are we or are we not heading for have-not status according to the federal equalization formula? If not, answer the argument with facts. If so, why? And don't say it's Mike Harris's fault.

Better yet, someone give this guy a diaper.

Finally, we go back to article two, Bryant Skips Home Fight, for one last item:

Meanwhile, Tory party leader John Tory wrote Gary McHale yesterday opposing the Richmond Hill activist's "inappropriate" planned Caledonia demonstration Sunday at OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino's home in Woodbridge. Public figures accept protests with their jobs, but "have a reasonable expectation that our families and our private homes will be left out."

While I agree in principle, don't the people of Caledonia have a reasonable expectation that there families and private homes will be left out of protests, whether by native bands, angry unionists or local nutjobs? And if they do end up in the middle of "inappropriate" protests, that their leadership, both politically and in the police, will aid them? And if that doesn't happen...?

Ladies and Gentlemen, your Government of Ontario: a rash on all their asses

The federal Conservatives are claiming the Liberals have promised spending commitments and "promising tax dollars to special interest after special interest, writing IOU after IOU," according to Industry Minister Jim Prentice. The result, according to a Conservative report, would be to add $62.5B debt over the next four years.

Predictably, the Liberals have fired back with John McCallum, calling it a shoddy, dishonest document." All that spending would be phased in, thus, it's OK claims McCallum. The Liberals further suggest that the report is "pre-election stunt designed to distract from the Harper government's own free-spending ways."

Let's see, the Conservatives say Dion's Liberals... spend too much, the Liberals say Harper's Conservatives... spend too much.

Enough! You both spend too much! Listening to John McCallum and Jim Prentice argue over which party spends too much is like listening to two old hookers accusing each other of nymphomania. And sadly, the opposition to these two parties, Jack Layton, Elizabeth May and Gilles Duceppe would argue that what the other two really need is to get laid once in a while.

A sexually transmitted pox on all their houses - the whole damn lot of syphilitic old whores.

A quick excerpt from Brian Mulroney Memoirs:

I had long been impressed by the elaborate courtesies extended to former American presidents by their successors, "out of respect for the office," even when their earlier relations were not warm. I was determined to act in the same fashion toward my predecessor.

During the 1984 campaign I had promised a commission of inquiry into the Petro-Canada financial transactions. I was aware of substantive allegations about prominent Liberals - including some close to the Prime Minister - making millions on the deal when Petro-Canada was set up. Upon reflection, I declined to proceed when it became clear that Trudeau would be forced to testify, thereby being caught up in the media circus that could badly harm him and his family. Because I believed it would be wrong to drag a former Prime Minister through the mud, I cancelled plans for the inquiry ... (Mulroney, Brian. Memoirs: 1939-1993. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Ltd., 2007. Page 529)

I point this quote out not because he's right, he's not, at least not when it comes to possible criminal action, but because it says a lot about Mulroney. And it says a lot about our political process. As I mentioned last month about a Warren Kinsella penned article:

Here's a tip for Warren Kinsella, and the rest of the Liberal party. it wasn't the Gomery Commission that dealt the shattering blow, it was the acts committed by members of the Liberal party that the Gomery Commission investigated that dealt the blow.

Same principle here, an inquiry doesn't dis-respect the office, it's the actions of the office holder that stand to disrespect the office.

Stephen Harper is right to call an inquiry, and it should be a full inquiry, looking into Mulroney's actions while in office, as well as the later actions of Jean Cretien regarding the Airbus probe, reporters who won't let this story go, and anyone else involved in this story. It's time for full accountability or, if no accountability is required, to put this story to rest.

Nice piece in the Financial Post today by Terence Corcoran, Flaherty should tackle his own price gougers, making some reflections on Jim Flaherty's announcement that he would meet with retailers to discuss why the price of goods hasn't come down lock-step with the rise in the dollar. Nice to have a conservative finance minister that has so little faith in the free market, that he must intervene at the slightest provocation (and I do mean slightest).

I have an idea for Jim Flaherty: want to see the market kick into gear? Remove the duty on goods consumers bring back into Canada upon leaving the country. No need to be away 48 hours for a $400 duty free (or 7 and $750). One day in the U.S., bring back as much consumer goods as you please (booze and cigarettes subject to the usual rules, of course). This would create competition with American retailers, forcing Canadian retailers to bring their prices more in line with American prices.

This way, you see, I could get up Saturday and say, Hey! Let's go shopping! Couple of hours later wee're in Buffalo, buy a big screen TV, 5.5 Surround sound system for it, a HDDVD, and a bunch of DVD's. Back at the border:

"How Long have you been out of the country?"
"Couple of Hours."
"Anything to declare?"
"Four-thousand-five-hundred and seventy-two dollars worth of goods."
"Any liquor or tobacco?"
"No."
"have a nice day, sir."

Jim Flaherty says he wants the markets to work for Canadians. That's how they would work, by adding competition, not by some busybody politicians harassing sellers.

And the big advantage is he could do it tomorrow, just issue an order in council, or whatever these guys do, and suspend the paying of consumer duties until a) Jan 1 b) Further notice. Simple, and would even be popular amongst us unwashed masses -er voters.

While we are on the subject, and speaking of upping the competition, and since the price differential in books seems to be one of the items that is really annoying people, how about eliminating those pesky Canadian ownership requirements to owning a large bookstore. Then we can get Borders/Barnes and Noble in here and give Chapters a run for their money. Problem being, I admit, this one would take a while. Unlike the issue with not paying duties, which could be implemented tomorrow.

So how about it Jim Flaherty, want to really fix the problem of consumer prices? or do you want to play big hero politician who interferes in the market, but solves nothing?

My pal Gerry Nicholls has quite a funny column on Stephane Dion in today's Sun: Let's replace Dion with a carrot.

My favourite bits:

Stephane Dion wants to move the Liberal Party to the Left.
A carrot is good for your eyesight.
Advantage: The Carrot

Stephane Dion is a former academic with a keen interest in constitutional affairs.
A carrot is an inert piece of vegetable matter.
Advantage: The Carrot

Stephane Dion has a green plan.
A carrot is actually organic and has a green stem and feathery green leaves.
Advantage: The Carrot

Read the rest here, with Sheila Copps less amusing, slightly more personal re-jab comparing Harper to a rutabega here.

Never mind the politics, someone pass a slab of meat.

Now that the Ontario election is over, we can ask it? Is there anybody, anywhere, who's a worse campaigner than John Tory? He ran Kim Campbell's 1992 disaster, got his ass kicked over a bridge that affects a few hundred voters in Toronto, and now the Ontario election where, instead of voters warming to John Tory as promised, his numbers went down as the campaign wore on. This against a dishonest Premier who is presiding over Ontario's descent into have-not status within confederation, while anarchy reigns in small pockets of the province. If you couldn't beat this guy, couldn't even mount a reasonable challenge against him, you don't belong in politics.

For me, I was planning on holding my nose and voting PC, until last week: In order to win over my vote, specifically my vote I believe, John Tory decided to announce test marketing corner store sale of beer and wine. It was the bone I needed throwing to get my vote. Then my local moron, Gerry Martiniuk, stated in debates last week he's not in favour of that policy. One conservative policy in the whole damn platform, and my local Progressive Conservative candidate is not in favour of it.

One bone, that's all I asked for. I frickin' bone.

So after voting F*&% no to MMP, I voted for Gerry Nicholls favourite candidate, Montgomery Brewster. A cowards way out, I admit, but John Tory/Gerry Martiniuk had made themselves un-votable in my eyes, and they were heads and shoulders above the rest, at least in my riding.

What a mess this whole election was. Can we please get on with finding a conservative to run the Conservative party in Ontario, and start getting back to having some hope.

Have you seen that commercial yet? Dalton McGuinty virtually giggling into the camera (scroll down the empty page and click on video 3: Public Schools):

You know what I love about Ontario's public schools? They're public.

Not that it's good, effective, gives our kids a superior education, prepares them for reality, or is inexpensive and efficient. No, what Dalton McGuinty loves about the education system is that it's owned and operated by the government of Ontario.

Which makes giggles McGuinty a dangerous ideologue:

Soviet TV, 1978 - Your great leader Leonid Ilyich McBrezhnev:

Comrades. Do you know what I love about Russian made GAZ automobiles? That it takes three years to get one? Nyet. That it breaks down with annoying regularity? Nyet. That it's dangerous, unreliable and poorly made? The way the glove box rattles, the coffee cup holder is twice the size of any coffee cup I ever saw, and the sun roof won't close when it gets wet? Nyet comrades. What I love about my Lada is it's made by the government.

Don't we need a better reason for supporting public education than "because it's public"? And if that's the only reason to continue supporting it, then isn't that an admission that it's time for a complete re-think on the education file?

I can't begin to say how much I have been enjoying the political hornets nest Brian Mulroney has stirred up with his trashing of Pierre Trudeau this week, and release of his memoirs, Memoirs 1939-1993 next week.

And, strangely, I half agree with Stephane Dion that Mulroney is off base, although Dion calling him a political coward demonstrates a complete lack of knowledge in Mulroney's history, if he really believes it. But slapping Trudeau around for youthful indiscretions? Even if they were as serious as being a Nazi sympathizer (which I in no way believe they are), they are events that happened 70 years ago, in the youth of a man who lived a full life, and passed over six years ago. Besides, Trudeau's work and policies in no way suggest he was sympathetic to the Nazis.

No, if Mulroney wants to attack Trudeau, policy is the place to do it. And there is lots of room to attack, and it is, frankly, fair game whether Trudeau is alive or dead. Policy is the legacy a politician leaves behind, and Trudeau left enough policy is just downright bad. I will reserve judgement until I have read the book, but if Mulroney's critique of Trudeau can't rise above the "he didn't fight the Nazi's when he had a chance" stuff, if he can't find enough policy to lambaste Trudeau over, then it explains much about what went wrong during Mulroney's years in office. If a Conservative Prime Minister can't find pages an pages of critical comment on Trudeau's politics, then he should never have been a) a Conservative and b) Prime Minister.

The fallout, however, looks like it will not be constrained to pistols at sunrise between the Trudeaupeans and the Mulroneyites. Today Senator Pat Carney wrote a letter into the Post regarding David Frum's piece of the free trade Agreement. In his piece, Frum suggested that John Crosbie was the minister of trade who negotiated the FTA. It's not so much Carney's setting the record straight that's interesting; that happens all the time. But the tone of the letter strongly suggests the following entry in Pat Carney's (Sen. PC) Christmas card list:

Here is the letter itself:

David Frum's mundane account of Brian Mulroney's historic accomplishment in achieving the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is marred by his false assertion that John Crosbie was the minister of trade who negotiated the FTA. That role is properly mine, as trade minister whose signature is on the Agreement in Principle negotiated by finance minister Michael Wilson, chief of staff Derek Burney and myself in a clock-racing marathon in Washinton [sic] on Oct. 4 1987. John Crosbie, who famously said he had never read the FTA, was responsible for implementing the negotiated agreement. Look it up.

With this being the week before the first of the two big memoirs coming in the next few months (Jean Cretien also has his coming out), this could be a lively and fun fall.