Watch for this to be Steve's next tactic...

South of the border, the Republicans are pressuring scientists to deny the science of climate change.

How long before Steve starts using Climate Change science denial tactics? Oh wait he already has. As recently as last month, Mr. Harper denied the seriousness of the Climate change:

- "As we implement our clean-air agenda, the focus is a little different than the other parties. They focus only on so-called greenhouse gases ." (Stephen Harper, The Toronto Star, December 21, 2006)

This is consistent with Mr. Harper's continued denial of the facts about climate change:

- "The science is still evolving [with respect to climate change]." (Stephen Harper, Toronto Star, June 10, 2004)

- "I think these are subjects where we know a lot less than some claim we know. Climate is always changing. My suspicion is that human activities have some impact upon that but I think the jury is out on a lot of the actual specific trends." (Stephen Harper, Interview with Frontier Centre for Public Policy, May 18, 2004)

Since denial hasn't been working it's only a matter of time before he starts strong-arming scientists like his buddy George and firing Parliamentary watchdogs...

UPDATE: CP is reporting that Steve has swallowed himself whole.

(CP) - A prime minister who now promises to fight climate change once ridiculed the Kyoto accord as a money-sucking socialist scheme and said he would battle to defeat it.

Stephen Harper derided the global treaty and questioned the science of climate change in a 2002 fundraising letter sent to members of his now-defunct Canadian Alliance party. With polls showing the environment is a top priority with voters and Harper keen to bolster his environmental credentials, the letter could prove embarrassing.

An excellent choice

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion has appointed Gordon Ashworth to be the National Campaign Director. This is an excellent choice - Ashworth knows how to win National elections and also knows how to win in Ontario.

This is very bad news for the Conservatives as it is tangible proof the the internecine warfare within the Liberal Party is over and that all hands are on deck to take out the Conservative menace before they do any more harm to our country's international reputation, quality of life, relations with Aboriginal people or our natural environment.

A word of advice my friends, don't make a funny face the next time you see a Conservative - that unusual smell is them crapping their pants.

Environmental Auditor General Canned!!!!

I am informed by sources on Parliament Hill that a second officer of Parliament in as many months will be leaving their job. Last month, after ruling critically on the illegal Conservative Convention kickback scheme, Jean Pierre Kingsley "resigned" from his position as Chief Electoral Officer.

Today, there is word that the Commissioner of the Environment (out of the office of the Auditor General) is being sacked for being critical of the Environmental policies of Canada's New Government.

DEVELOPING

Fun with Tory ads

Check it out! Hat tip to JL .

Cost of Tory ads - Many Thousands of dollars
Cost of Superbowl ad buy - $1.5-2.5 million

Cost of homemade Liberal spoof ads - nuttin
Seeing Steve with egg on his face - priceless!!!

Frankly, this concerns me more than the silly Tory ads

Stephane Dion has a squeeky clean image. No one in their right mind would doubt his personal integrity. But politics makes for strange bedfellows, last week it was the union guy who donated money to him, endorsed his leadership and oh yeah, got busted for smuggling 130 lbs of coke across the border in a - wait for the irony - knapsack.

This week it's former LPC (BC) president Jamie Elmhirst, under subpoena for over three months to testify in the upcoming breach of trust trial of former provincial government aides David Basi and Bob Virk who only resigned his position January 15. This means that Elmhirst was subpoenaed by police on October 4, 2006, long before the LPC Convention in Montreal.

Vancouver media reports that his letter of resignation to the party made no mention of the subpoena, insisting that he was leaving to concentrate on his business and upcoming wedding.

On Dec. 28, 2003, the same day police searched the B.C. Legislature and other locations, a search warrant was executed on Pilothouse offices. The charges allege that David Basi and Virk were bribed to provide confidential information on the $1-billion privatization of BC Rail to Bornmann, who was a lobbyist for OmniTRAX, one of the bidders.

When asked if he informed the Liberal Party of Canada that he had been subpoenaed to testify in the Basi-Virk trial, Elmhirst said: "I don't have any comment on that."

And when people start keeping things like that to themselves, if one were to put this in the mix, the leader looks bad by association. Elmhirst should have known better and the leader will need to deal sternly with this.

Sometimes Yanukovych reminds me of Stalin

Better the grain should rot than provide income to Ukrainian farmers. That could have as easily been attributed to Uncle Joe during the famine-genocide as to the government of Viktor Yanukovych this past year. See attached report from Radio Free Europe:

Up to 10,000 tons of Ukrainian grain is being thrown into the Black Sea every night, Ukrainian Television reported on January 26.

The grain, loaded into elevators at Ukrainian ports last summer to be subsequently exported, was stored for too long because the government of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych introduced grain-export quotas. The government justified the quotas by saying there would be not enough grain for domestic needs. Having been stored for six months, the grain reportedly spoiled, germinated, and was attacked by insects.
The volume of unusable grain now amounts to some 270,000 tons.

Farmers say the grain market in Ukraine is saturated with 6 million tons of excess grain, which could be sold abroad for 4 billion hryvnyas ($800 million). "It is a paradoxical situation that this country has never seen before. Every night 5,000-10,000 tons of grain are thrown out into the Black Sea, feeding fish. At the same time, we are looking for funds for the agricultural sector," Ukrainian Television quoted Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation Chairman Leonid Kozachenko as saying.

This is the type of corrupt and backwards managemnt that Ukrainians have come to expect from the Kuchma/Yanukovych regime. Sad really.

Ukrainian bust to become Canadian

The artist who commissioned the bust that is being displayed at the Art Gallery of Ontario was 20th century Ukrainian modernist Alexander Archipenko.

Archipenko was born in Kiev in 1887, lived in France and Germany, and died in New York in 1964. He never set foot in Canada. The seller of Flat Torso was descended from someone who bought it in Mannheim, Germany, in 1922. How does a Ukrainian's sculpture, purchased in Germany, qualify as Canadian heritage? Flat Torso was cast in 1920; Archipenko died in New York in 1964. The vendor said that his Flat Torso was brought to Canada during the Second World War.

The Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board, which deals with about 400 export permits a year, informs curators and consultants when an object of "national significance" is about to be sold abroad (about 20 cases a year). If the experts come up with compelling reasons for keeping the object in this country, the board can delay the sale, giving Canadian museums and galleries the chance to bid.

The application for permission to sell Flat Torso, a sinuous, 38-centimetre-high bronze nude (a little bigger than an Oscar) on a 9.3-cm grey marble base, by Archipenko was blocked, allowing this Ukrainian treasure to stay in Canada.

Barack Obama and the multi-coloured spin machine

It is interesting to read in today's New York Times that Barack Obama spends too much time listening to people and building consensus. Next thing you know, they'll say that he's hiding his legal background from Harvard...hmmn???

Glad someone is working on Foreign Affairs

While Peter MacKay has returned to the potato patch to mourn the departure of his Deputy Minister Peter Harder, Quebec's Premier, Jean Charest seems to be the only one speaking up for Canada in Davos.

We may not be hosting the slappingly good parties that we did when Allan Gottlieb was our Ambassador to Washington, but there needs to be something form this government on the world stage - no to Aids funding, no to Kyoto, no trade reps, no Sino-Canadian relations...I guess photo ops of potato patch Pete playing shimmy with the troops is all we can expect from this gang. It's sad, really.

New Conservative Ads

My fearless prediction:

The new Conservative ads will play for a week, Liberals will be offended and say that they backfired. Conservatives will pull them and say that they only bought a week's buy and that they were very effective. In the end, the goal of the ads is to try to have Canadians question Stephane Dion's leadership and it won't work. He is too bright and this parlour game won't mask the absolute flip-flop that the Tories have made on Environmental issues.

The bigger concern, frankly, is that they have enough cash to burn millions in the pre-writ period in order to avoid election expense rules.

Yikes! Peter MacKay without a net...

It is with regret that I learned that Peter Harder is leaving the federal public service. Peter is one of the most professional public servants I have ever had the pleasure of working with. He is a person of sound intellect and high integrity who had brains and political smarts. It is a shame that future generations will be deprived of future Peter harders because of the myopic Accountability Act.

Best wishes to Peter Harder and his family.

I am rarely amazed at Peter MacKay's ability to do something stupid

Peter MacKay has decided in his now legendary wisdom to close 4 Canadian consulates in G8 countries. Let's put aside the interests of Canada's textiles industry and the importance of Milan and the fact that Russia as a BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) country is a primary trade growth target and that you are closing the consulate in St. Petersberg - Putin's home town. And finally, two-way trade between Canada and Japan is roughly $20 billion (CAD)a year, and roughly in balance.

Why would you shut the doors to 4 G8 country consulates whose GDP represent $7.4 trillion of economic output almost triple the GDP of China? If anything we should be re-doubling our efforts by adding additional trade commissioners there and in China.

Like the Kyoto climb down, this narrow-minded short-term decision by Canada's toddler government will need to be reversed.

Sometimes you have a bad week in politics

The Liberal leader is having what could objectively be called an "off week", with first the Marc Yvan Cote reinstatement flip-flop and now word that a BC Union official involved in an International Drug bust was a donor and supporter.

The test of the man's mettle will be his ability to deal with controversy and adversity. I think that he is up to the task.

The new leader's bunnies

This video made me laugh out loud. I wondered about this when I read Yakabuski's piece on Saturday. Maybe he was in upstate Vermont...

Still more Conservative sleaze

Well, here are a couple of more Conservative sleazebags getting into some trouble:

1) Scotter Libby - gets fingered by CIA official.
2) Dick Cheney - in an interview with Wolf Blitzer "Criticism of me is hogwash"

BLITZER: Here's what Jim Webb, senator from Virginia said in the Democratic response last night -- he said, "The president took us into this war recklessly. We are now, as a nation, held hostage to the predictable and predicted disarray that has followed."

And it's not just Jim Webb; it's some of your good Republican friends in the Senate and the House are now seriously questioning your credibility, because of the blunders and the failures. Gordon Smith...

CHENEY: Wolf, Wolf, I simply don't accept the premise of your question. I just think it's hogwash.

BLITZER: That what? There were no blunders? The president himself said --

3) GOP Rep Sherwood - for failure to pay hush money to his mistress.

4) Disgraced Evangelical preacher Ted Haggard - Evangelicals have the best sex life - yeah but what about the gay drug dealer part?

5) And to Lord Vader himself for not coming clean with Canadians on the $300,000 payment from Karlheinz Schreiber - something stinks here.

Royal with cheese

Kudos to Stephen Harper for the swift rebuke of Segolene Royal's dumb-ass comments after her meeting with Andre Boisclair indicating her support for an independent Quebec. When it comes to defending Canada on the global stage we need to do it with a united front.

Harper immediately issued the following statement:

STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER

January 22, 2007
Ottawa, Ontario

Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued the following statement in response to media reports of the reputed comments by French Presidential candidate Ségolène Royal:

“Experience teaches that it is highly inappropriate for a foreign leader to interfere in the democratic affairs of another country. We look forward to marking the 400th anniversary of the founding of Canada at Quebec City with the next President of France.”

“We expect in turn that the next President will display an understanding of our shared history, and the respect for Canada and Canadians that such an important partnership requires.”

France has long had a policy of non-indifference, non-ingerence, and to quote my Quebecois nation friends "elle a rate une hostie bonne occasion de se fermer," which I will translate as she shoulda no-commented.

COLTS WIN!

In what can only be described as one of the greatest come from behind victories in NFL history and in one helluva exciting football game, the Indianapolis Colts overcame a 21-3 deficit, scoring an incredible 32 points in the second half to beat the New England Patriots 38-34. Manning threw for 350 yards and the Indianapolis running game added another 125. And the pundits had said that the Indie Defense was porous!!!

At the end of the day, it was Tom Brady who choked. We are now going to witness one of the best match ups in recent Superbowl history with the Urlacher-led Monsters of the midway taking on the Colts in what may finally respond to the question of "what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?".

Now, I must start working on my Pumpernickel Superbowl recipes which I promise will be a treat.

Bits and Pieces

A couple of things:

• Congratulations to Nathalie Duhamel who recently started as a Western Assistant in Mr. Dion's office. Nathalie performed very well in the prairies for Mr. Dion in a tough environment while Ajay Chopra did an excellent job for Bob Rae, and all the establishment candidates supported Dryden (Neville, Carstairs, Zimmer) or Ignatieff (Simard). Nathalie is a bright fluently bilingual and politically savvy person who is a chip off the old Carolyn and Ron Duhamel block. Mr. Dion will be very well-served if he can find more folks like Nathalie.
• The Tories are trying to neutralize Mr. Dion on the Environment by re-announcing warmed-over, leftover Liberal announcements from the 2005 Budget. The next one is said to encourage consumers to use energy more efficiently and reducing emissions. It is a shame that they have swallowed themselves whole, given Canada an international blackeye and are now trying to champion policies to address Climate Change which they publicly disavow.
• The fight for Rahm is on. The Washington Post writes that both Obama and Clinton campaigns are fighting to land one of the keys to Bill Clinton's Presidential and electoral success. Emmanuel is definitely a valuable tactictian and strategist worth fighting over. Whoever lands Rahm will definitely have an advantage in the primaries.
• Police have matched the image of Litvinenko's real assassin with his death-bed description.
• Could Bill Richardson be Barack Obama's running mate?

9 Conservative lies

The Toronto Star takes aim at Steve's integrity gap.

This is what happens when you make your bed with your poisoners

The government of PM Yanukovich has cut off funds to the foreign ministry, leaving Ukraine in the unusual position of not being able to pay its foreign service, diplomats or its dues to international organizations.

Parliament in December dismissed President Yushchenko's Constitutionally appointed Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk, who Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich has tried to block from acting as foreign minister.

Tarasyuk says his dismissal was illegal and President Viktor Yushchenko has kept him in his post.

What's next, flushing the toilet while the President is in the shower?

Conservative sleaze - CONVICTed

The NY Times reports of another Republican sleaze casualty here.

Layton: SARS, BSE, WHAT--EV'ER...

Jack Layton demonstrated this week why the NDP are increasingly irrelevant and slumping in the polls by confusing BSE and SARS in a speech to Manitoba farmers. OOPS. This is the CP story, further evidence of Jack's decreasing level of importance is that no one bothered to pick the story up:

Jack Layton mistakes SARS for BSE in speech to Manitoba Agriculture producers

Jan 17, 2007 BRANDON, Man. (CP) It was all acronym soup at a speech by Jack Layton at Manitoba Ag Days on Wednesday.The federal NDP leader left agricultural producers looking at each other in wide-eyed wonder after a speech about farm issues in which he repeatedly referred to the "SARS'' crisis which affected the Manitoba cattle industry. "Another important issue is SARS,'' said Layton. "I was just talking to a cattle producer today who said the situation is worse now than when we were in the middle of SARS.''

As Layton continued his speech, Manitoba Agriculture Minister Rosann Wowchuk loudly whispered, ``It's BSE, not SARS,'' from her seat at the front of the audience. BSE is the acronym for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease, while SARS stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, therespiratory illness that paralyzed Toronto for several months in 2003.However, Layton didn't hear Wowchuk and kept going, saying SARS several more times, until producers in the audience chimed in to point out his error.Finally he got the message and stopped his speech.``I'm sorry, did I say SARS? I meant BSE. SARS is a Toronto problem,''Layton said, to laughter from the audience.But the joke was lost on some. Don Neufeld, who raises cattle near Boissevain, Man., said that politicians of all stripes "just don't understand what's happening at the grassroots'' and suffer from an overall ignorance of farm issues. (Brandon Sun, Winnipeg Free Press)

I used to think "say-anything Jack" was just his reputation from his days at Toronto City Hall, so much for that theory.

Strange shooting

Police in Ukraine are investigating the death of Yevgeny Kushnaryov, described as "the right-hand man" to Ukraine's pro-Russian Prime Minister, Viktor Yanukovych, who died this week after being shot by one of his hunting companions.

This whole thing Sounds strange to me - Dick Cheney was not even in the area.

Congress at Work

In Congress
Here, the Huffington Post has a great article about the amount of progress that the Democratically held Congress has made in its first 100 hours of sitting. Well let's just see how long it lasts.

In the House of Commons
Why is it that when Stephane Dion says that he will not defeat the Budget before seeing it, Canadian media accuse him of blinking?

In the New York House of Assembly
NY state Rep Aurelia Greene is proposing a bill that would prevent the sale of some video games to those under the age of 30. The bill would stop all violent games being sold to youngsters under the age of ...30.

Put aside for a moment that people are considered old enough to smoke, vote, join the army at 18, drink at 21 (in NY) and they can even rent a car at 25, but they cannot buy a video game. I don't know what is more pathetic: the prospect of a thirty year old buying the video game for an "under aged adult" or thirty-year-olds buying the games for themselves. This bill, if passed, may push the cartoon violence of video games onto the real streets. What a colossal waste of time!

5 Minutes to Midnight

In case people thought I was kidding about my fear of nuclear escalation in the Middle East post yesterday, the following is a quote from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock.

The clock conveys how close humanity is to catastrophic destruction--the figurative midnight--and monitors the means humankind could use to obliterate itself. First and foremost, these include nuclear weapons, but they also encompass climate-changing technologies and new developments in the life sciences and nanotechnology that could inflict irrevocable harm.

"Board Statement
17 January 2007
We stand at the brink of a second nuclear age. Not since the first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has the world faced such perilous choices. North Korea’s recent test of a nuclear weapon, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, a renewed U.S. emphasis on the military utility of nuclear weapons, the failure to adequately secure nuclear materials, and the continued presence of some 26,000 nuclear weapons in the United States and Russia are symptomatic of a larger failure to solve the problems posed by the most destructive technology on Earth.
As in past deliberations, we have examined other human-made threats to civilization. We have concluded that the dangers posed by climate change are nearly as dire as those posed by nuclear weapons. The effects may be less dramatic in the short term than the destruction that could be wrought by nuclear explosions, but over the next three to four decades climate change could cause drastic harm to the habitats upon which human societies depend for survival.
This deteriorating state of global affairs leads the Board of Directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists--in consultation with a Board of Sponsors that includes 18 Nobel laureates--to move the minute hand of the “Doomsday Clock” from seven to five minutes to midnight."

Yes, this is some scary stuff. On the bright side, I guess this will result in an increased interest in the Smiths and Radiohead.

OBAMA Mania - Redux

Well people have been talking about Barrack Obama announcing his candidacy for months now. People find his commentary to be refreshing.

I for one am glad that he has decided to form a Presidential Exploratory Committee. Today's Globe and Mail points out that he is polling a strong second to Hilary Clinton and that he is generating some excitement. My only concern is that the American right wing is already using the "race card" by using his middle name "Hussein" extensively and by having pundits like Limbaugher refer to him as Osama. I for one believe in a place called Hope and think that Mr. Obama has excellent chances provided he has the right running mate.

Is this a game of chicken with Iran?

This is escalating at a dangerous pace.

Bush reportedly has been weighing his military options for bombing Iran's nuclear facilities since early 2006.

As Seymour Hersh wrote in The New Yorker, a number of senior U.S. military officers were troubled by administration war planners who believed "bunker-busting" tactical nuclear weapons, known as B61-11s, were the only way to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities buried deep underground.

A former senior intelligence official told Hersh that the White House refused to remove the nuclear option from the plans despite objections from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "Whenever anybody tries to get it out, they're shouted down," the ex-official said. [New Yorker, April 17, 2006]

By late April 2006, however, the Joint Chiefs finally got the White House to agree that using nuclear weapons to destroy Iran's uranium-enrichment plant at Natanz, less than 200 miles south of Tehran, was politically unacceptable, Hersh reported.

"Bush and Cheney were dead serious about the nuclear planning," one former senior intelligence official said. [New Yorker, July 10, 2006]

The Sunday Times reported on January 7, 2007, that a way to get around the opposition of the Joint Chiefs would be to delegate the bombing operation to the Israelis. The reasoning goes something like this: an Israeli-led attack might be more politically palatable with the Congress.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has rightly called the possibility of an Iranian nuclear bomb an "existential threat" to Israel that cannot be tolerated.

Israel is reportedly stepping up preparations for air strikes against Iran, possibly including the use of tactical nuclear bombs, to destroy Natanz and other Iranian nuclear facilities.

The Sunday Times of London reported on Jan. 7 that two Israeli air squadrons are training for the mission and "if things go according to plan, a pilot will first launch a conventional laser-guided bomb to blow a shaft down through the layers of hardened concrete [at Natanz]. Other pilots will then be ready to drop low-yield one kiloton nuclear weapons into the hole."

The Sunday Times wrote that Israel would also hit two other facilities – at Isfahan and Arak – with conventional bombs. But the possible use of a nuclear bomb at Natanz would represent the first nuclear attack since the United States destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan at the end of World War II.

The Israeli government denied that Israel has drawn up secret plans to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities.

Some observers may believe that Israel or the Bush administration may be leaking details of the plans as a way to frighten Iran into accepting international controls on its nuclear program, I tend to take the possibility of nuclear war seriously and see these preparations for a wider Middle Eastern war as very serious.

Bush's actions in the past two months suggest that his future course is an escalation of the Middle East conflict and not some "graceful exit."

I'll have the Polonium cabbage rolls with a dioxin shake

Tomorrow, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko will be on a one day trip to Viktor Yanukovych's stomping ground in the Donetsk Basin.

Reports from Ukraine indicate that Yushchenko never eats in Donetsk.


According to the head of the Donetsk regional administration, Volodymyr Logvynenko, during his visits to Donetsk, the President of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko has never eaten.

According to Logvynenko, the head of the State has visited Donetsk three times but has had only tea or coffee. Look at the pictures - can you blame him?

Khan just stepped into a big steaming pile of, Wajid?

From Today's National Post:

Khan's riding association delisted Registration revoked for not filing financial returns on time
Elections Canada revoked the legal registration of new Conservative MP Wajid Khan's former Liberal riding association in December because it failed to file financial returns for 2004 and 2005, the Ottawa Citizen has learned.

The returns, now available at Elections Canada, show that Mr. Khan, whose defection to the Conservative party was announced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper only 10 days ago, lent his old riding association a total of $179,946 through his Toronto car dealership during the two years covered by the late returns.
The riding association transferred $32,000 to Mr. Khan's campaign for the 2004 election and a further $50,000 to his campaign for the January, 2006, election, the returns show.

Khan's former Liberal riding association has had its registration revoked by Elections Canada as of the end of 2006 for late filing of financial returns for 2004 and 2005. Mr. Khan's auto dealership, Dufferin Mazda, also lent $86,388 to Mr. Khan's campaign for the 2004 election, his financial returns for that election show.
The returns list Mr. Khan as the guarantor for the campaign loans.

The transactions suggest Mr. Khan was using his car dealership as the primary source of funding for his election campaigns, said NDP MP Pat Martin.
"It's hard to count the serious problems here -- massive loans from a business in excess of donation limits that might not be repaid, enormous spending outside the election period. I wouldn't know where to start," Mr. Martin said.
Dufferin Mazda lent Mr. Khan's riding association $88,377 on Dec. 31, 2004, the same day the association transferred money to Mr. Khan as a candidate, and $91,569 on Dec. 31, 2005. The association had transferred $30,000 to Mr. Khan on Dec. 22 and another $20,000 on election day.
Corporate political contributions are banned under new election financing provisions that took effect with the Federal Accountability Act but were limited to $1,000 under previous political financing rules. Loans to candidates and riding associations are allowed, but must be declared as contributions if not repaid within 18 months.
Mr. Khan's campaign report for the 2004 election stated an expenditure of $75,887 on expenses that were subject to his spending limit, and a further $95,692 in costs that were not included as election expenses because the money was spent either before or after the campaign period.
For the end of 2005, Mr. Khan's riding association reported outstanding financial liabilities of $91,569 and a deficit of $47,327.
It was unknown outside the association whether the riding had paid back the loans by the end of 2006.
Mr. Khan could not be reached yesterday.

Apparently, he's working on a sanitized version of his report to Harper.

You mustn't follow, little shrub...

Well Dubbya's approval ratings are in the toilet following his new plan for Iraq. This provides me some fodder to examine steve's foreign policy approach.

Since his election as Canada's exalted and supreme leader of Canada's new government, Steve has charted a different international course from not only that set out by the previous Liberal Govwernment but also one that is different from the traditional role that Canada has played.

Steve's government has, to be sure, loaded up on military supplies for the forces. Defense lobbyist turned Defense Minister O'Connor has ploughed forward with several large procurements, using sole-source and non-competitive contracting as his preferred method of selection of vendors.

Harper has tried to use Afghanistan as a wedge issue during the Liberal leadership race. He has said that any discussion of the role of the mission demonstartes a lack of support for the troops. This is the same line that the Republicans have been using unsuccessfully with respect to Iraq for a couple of years with disastrous
results.

Canada has a rich history in international relations using the so-called 3D approach which favours equal attention to Defense, Diplomacy and Development. Think of Canada's historic role as a nation of peacekeeping. In fact, this year we commemorate the 50th anniversary of Pearson's Nobel Peace Prize.

As well, Canada fought successfully for the R2P (Right to Protect) doctrine at the United Naations, has served as an honest broker for years in many parts of the world, and used its clout and membership in many international bodies to make progress on issues such as land mines, AIDS funding and many others.

Finally, Canada has a tradition of building civil society through development assistance, be it in the form of education for girls in Afhanistan or training the judiciary in Ukraine or providing health and food assistance to African countries such as Malawi.

To date, the extent of his diplomacy on the world stage was to complain that other countries have not sent enough troops to Afghanistan, while on the Development side it was limited to a botched photo op with Josee Werner.

I use these examples to illustrate the point that Steve just doesn't get the complexities of the world in which we live. Sure he has done well for defense, but without the other 2 Ds - we run an even greater risk of being seen as Bush's little helper.

And my sense is that Canadians want a thoughful leader who will take a Canadian approach to International Affairs.

Never write a headline that ends with a Question Mark

The temptation for political mischief often gets political parties into trouble. Think of Ontario PCs asking whether Dalton McGuinty was an alien kitten eater or Harper's boys asking if Paul Martin supported Kiddy porn in the 2004 election.

It would be cheap and tasteless for someone to ask if Steven Harper is really the devil based on the attached photo(?) So I won't do it and will allow people to come up with there own explanations for the photo.

Pelletier wins another round in court

So how long will Steve continue to pursue Jean Pelletier in Court? Mr. Pelletier, a man whose integrity was never in question until former Olympian turned fugitive Myriam Bedard introduced her zany testimony in Committee, has won another round in his seemingly bottomless pit of legal actions for wrongful dismissal, and other things.

Bottom line - will Steve have the testicular fortitude to do the right thing and settle with Mr. Pelletier before Pelletier's reputation is damaged any further?

Fort Whoop-Up

Back from 3 days in Lethbridge and I can tell you that the weather there is just as crazy as anywhere in the country. When I arrived Tuesday it was +11 degrees celsius, and when I left this morning it was - 25 degrees celsius. Western amigos will remind me that it's a "dry cold".

2 Conservative provincial mini-scandals have popped up while I was out of blogging range:

1) The "mess in NS" - hat tip to GMAC for the moniker. This is the alleged tale of former human resources Minister Ernie Fage leaving an accident scene while liquored up and the subsequent cover up by the provincial premier's office. Fage has resigned and is/will be expelled from Caucus...the only thing left to figure out is the matter of possible criminal charges and whether the scandal has the legs to further tag the Premier. Stay tuned.

2) The second one involves a $5k per person fundraiser with Premier Ed Stelmach to clear up his campaign debt. Provincial leader Taft says this should be illegal. Last I checked there are plenty of former federal Liberal candidates with debts that need to be paid off. Perhaps Taft should think before opening mouth and inserting foot.

All for now. Lethbridge was cold and lovel...well it was cold for sure.

UPDATE: It appears that Stelmach has bowed to political pressure and cancelled the receptions.

Not exactly the Ukrainian Carol of the Bells

I was looking for a good version of a Ukrainian Christmas Carol to go with my traditional Ukrainian Christmas Greeting of Khrystos Narodyvsya, but alas I found this neat R&B version of a traditional folk song instead. Enjoy!

Putin must be getting nervous

News that Litvinienko's killers were high ranking military/KGB types is not surprising, but it is surprising that Scotland yard has tracked them this quickly. Polonium, polonium, where forth art thou...?

Hat tip to CyberCossack for the link.

Khan to Tories

Wajid Khan, MP for Mississauga-Streetsville crossed the floor to sit with the Conservatives. Somewhere, Gurmant Grewal can be seen crying in his drink.

As for Khan, I always found him to be a hard-working, industrious MP. Don't get me wrong - he could also be a pain in the ass and was always looking to be the centre of attention (aren't they all!) but his heart was in the right place.

I guess he got a chunk of his fifteen minutes of fame this week. He should savour it, his riding is solidly Liberal and he will be toast in the next election.

I found Stephane Dion's response both meek and weak. Chalk this one up to learning for the new Liberal leader.

Political truisms

Today Steve will shuffle his Cabinet for the second time in 2 months, approaching the 1st anniversary of his government. Clearly, when replacing an embattled, beleaguered, struggling and weak minister with borderline competence, it is time to drop the "Canada's New Government" moniker. It is only a matter of time before pundits start referring to re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. But Liberals should not get too cocky and start referring to the Conservative government as desperately clinging to power and grasping for straws - it took the Liberals 12 years to get to that point and public opinion will not turn on that dime, this quickly.

To be honest, Steve would do well to say that his front bench was untested and he is getting rid of some folks who "are not ready for prime time." But he does not have that luxury in a minority government, so we will all have to wait and see what BS he tosses out.

What??!!!

How doed a 22 foot high statue weighing 4000 lbs go missing from a park in Oakville?

Happy New Year!

2007 will be an excellent year

Here are my 10 fearless predictions:

10) There will be a McCain-Giuliani ticket for the GOP
9) The price of molybdenum will skyrocket.
8) There will be another round of Parliamentary elections in Ukraine. Western aligned parties will win.
7) Jean Charest, Danny Williams and Dalton McGuinty will be re-elected.
6) Canadiens win Stanley Cup.
5) Stephane Dion wins federal election with smallest minority in Canadian political history.
4) Bears and Chargers meet in Super Bowl. Chargers win.
3) Pumpernickel cookbook is published and sells scores of copies.
2) Barrack Obama will be the Democratic Party's candidate with a Western Southerner as a running mate.
1) The situation in Iraq and in the broader Middle East will continue to deteriorate, with thousands of additional casualties and oil prices will soar.