NDP-Bloc to work together

Relevant Link

I guess the Conservatives haven't heard of the Watergate scandal.  It is pretty rediculous that they have stooped so low as to start covertly recording closed opposition meetings.

As a matter of interest, though, is an alliance between the NDP and the Bloc.  They are pretty similar in terms of policy, other than the whole separating Quebec from Canada thing.  If they do a full merger, all of the sudden the Liberals will be the third party.  It would certainly mean the decline of the Liberal party, with the NDP no longer just a fringe party.  This move doesn't surprise me at all, as the whole separtism thing has died down and the Bloc are facing a problem with relevance.  Also, having a leader like Gilles Duceppe taking on a national campaign, I think they could well become the dominant party.

Certainly, these are interesting times in this country.

Harper delays his demise

Relevant Link

Good to see my buddy Mike on Don Street in Winnipeg blogging again.  He is always a good person to debate with and can be very tricky to beat.

Relevant Link

In the face of impending defeat, Stephen Harper has delayed a confidence vote by a week.  This gives him a week to cave into the opposition demands, or to poke them some more.  I wouldn't put it past Harper to do the later.  But seriously, this fiscal update is without a doubt the biggest political blunder since John Turner "could have said no".  If the Conservatives are defeated and there is an election, it will be the shortest lived parliament in history.

To suggest that the Conservatives have sole right to be in power because they won the most seats is rediculous, as has been shown in history.  In 1925, the Conservatives won the most seats, but because the Progressive Party was more likely to side with the Liberals, they were the ones who got power.  Of course, that only lasted a couple of months before they fell, but it lasted longer than the Arthur Meighan government, that fell after 3 days.  However, I think in this case, the other parties have a self interest in keeping the Conservatives out for a while so that they have time to recover from the last election.  I would anticapte that a coalition government would last until next fall, enough time for the Liberals to get a new leader and probably enough time for the Conservatives to consider throwing out Harper for such a foolish move.

What the hell are the Conservatives doing?

Relevant Link

Don Martin is one of the best political analysist in Canada, and I think he hits it bang on with the Conservative plan to "save money" by eliminating public financing of political parties.  Having followed the Green Party since the 2004 election, it is clear that they would not have been able to mount the past two campaigns without public financing.  By having public financing, it allows smaller parties who may have more support with people less able to donate money, it allows these smaller parties to operate.  What is really jarring is that the Conservatives have such a high amount of donations, that the relative amount they get with public financing is far less than the other parties.  All of the opposition parties get more than 50% of their funding from the public financing, while the Conservatives only rely on 37%.

The sad thing is that this was likely just a way to divert attention from the fact that this fiscal update offers up no plan to help the economy.  The only way they balanced the budget was by putting in $10 billion in anticipated sales of crown corporations.  Selling crown corporations is the worst way to budget, as once they are gone they will never again provide benefit to the government.  There is no stimulus package either, something that every other major economy is putting forward.  As exports decrease, unemployment will increase, and there needs to be plans in place to create jobs now, before the rate increases too much and tax revenue goes away to start those jobs.  Shoring up infrastructure is an obvious way to create jobs and create important spinoffs.

Considering how bad this fiscal update is, there may very will be another election.  I hope instead that the opposition parties can come up with some sort of agreement to make a coalition government for a year or two in order to give these delusional Conservatives a time out and to let them recover from the election.

Entering a "technical" recession

Relevant Link

Harper is saying we are heading towards a "technical" recession.  Well, there is no pussyfooting around this, times are going to be bad.  Oil has plummeted nearly $100 since the summer, an other natural resources have had similar plunges.  The auto manufacturing sector is finished.  Tourism will continue to be poor.  No matter how much Harper wants to sugar coat it, the economy is going to be poor during the next year or two at least.  I work for the second largest mining company in the world, and they have implemented a hiring freeze.  That should tell you how bad it is.  This Conservative government is a joke.

Parallels between the 1990s Japan and Now

Relevant link

This Globe and Mail article describes the downfall of the Japanese economy during the 1990s, and relates it to what is happening with the global credit crisis.  There are a lot of similarities for sure, however the difference between Japan and the United States is that the United States doesn't really export anything.  They are not the leaders in advances in technology anymore.  They do not have many natural resources anymore that can be widely exported.  Most manufacturing has been shipped off to overseas markets while people were making money off stock markets and housing.  However, with the housing market bubble burst and stocks worth half what they were 6 months ago, what is the solution?

Relevant link

Well, it looks like an Obama presidency is planning to do what they did during the depression - build up infrastructure.  Will an American public that has lived off credit the past 10 years be able to go back to the construction block?  Certainly these jobs will not give people the kind of money that they are used to having for spending.  However, improving infrastructure is a great and much needed investment.  If, for instance, they were to build high speed train rails between the major cities of the US, they could cut down significantly on the reliance on fossil fuels and increase productivity as it would take less time to get from place to place.  Time will tell how this plan will work out, but it is a good start.

And parliament begins!

Relevant link

Well, the new session of parliament began today with the selection of a "new" speaker.  And of course by new, what I really mean is old.  Although Milikan is well respected as speaker, I think switching things up would have made things better.  I have watched question period, and it is pretty disgusting.  I would like to see a speaker who is not afraid to kick out those who are causing a ruckus.  You can't make things better with sarcasm.

Anyways, tomorrow is the throne speech.  I doubt there will be any hardballs here as I don't imagine Harper is going to want to have an election anytime soon, and is going to need an opposition that is not going to be pissed.

The Quebec Election

Relevant CBC Editorial

Now, I am pretty much electioned out, and have chosen to pretty much ignore the election in Quebec, the second in just over a year.  Everything is pointing to the ADQ collapsing.  People do not like Jean Charest and nobody cares about separation right now.

The article I linked is certainly sensationalist.  I have driven through a large part of Quebec, and I didn't think that the roads were any worse than anywhere else in Canada.  I don't really know a whole lot of people who are from Quebec, so I cannot comment on the health care and education systems.  There has been a common theme that is heard from many commentators that the province has stagnated as the red herring of separation from Canada continues to persist.  The politics of Quebec continues to be stuck on tired ideals based solely on separation vs continuation in Canada.  Right now, Quebec, no less than the rest of Canada, needs leadership to deal with the recession and ultimately build up infrastructure.  Although blaming socialism is probably a bit harsh, it is unlikely that any of the three parties has any real plan to deal with the real problems facing Quebec.

Let the fight begin!

Well, let it begin!

It certainly didn't take long for the Liberal Leadership race to descend into bickering.  There are currently 3 contenders in the leadership race: Ignatieff, Rae and Dominic LeBlanc, and unlike last time, I anticipate that these will be the only three.  Rae and Ignatieff already have large blocks of support, but I have my doubts that Rae has any chance.  Ignatieff is a pretty decisive guy, and will certainly run a giant's stomping campaign.  I don't like Ignatieff, and I think he is running for the sole reason of gaining power.  He is dishonest and probably closer to the Conservatives than any Liberal supporter would like to admit.  His tactic of keeping the campaign debates closed is designed to prevent the gaffes that probably cost him the leadership last time.  By avoiding the proverbial puffin poo, Ignatieff will win on hype alone.  The dark horse of course is LeBlanc.  However, I would expect he will put on a Tony Clement style showing.  I really hope to hear more about LeBlanc, but I have little doubt he will have trouble getting his face shown amongst the titans that are Ignatieff and Rae.

Atheist's Put up Billboards

Just in time for the holidays, a group of atheists has decided to put up some billboards in Colorado:

Link to story

Now, I don't believe in any gods, nor do I agree with the concept of organized religion in general.  But by putting up these billboards, I think that this just shows that these atheists are nothing more than a new kind of religious group.  Believe me, they have an agenda for control, just like any religion.  They want to influence the thoughts and minds of others to conform to their standards.  And of course they chose this time of the year to prod Christians, and just looking at this story shows that they are getting the desired response.

I feel that if atheists really want to get their message across, they should ignore these messages intended to bring forth a knee-jerk reaction.  What they really need to do is focus on improving the education system.  If you look at what has happened in the United States, the school boards and governments have been infiltrated by those who seek to impose their views on the education system.  The fact that many places considered teaching "intelligent design" just shows the depth of how far these religious nutjobs have sunk themselves into the system.  This shows that there needs to be more reasoned people in these positions, lest things continue to degrade.

Blog Started

Let's face it, I am a very opinionated fellow, and I like expressing my opinion.  The reality is that the world of blogging was meant for me.  The problem is that most news websites are packed full of comments very quickly, which doesn't allow for much discourse, and after a couple of days, the story is buried.  By having my own blog, I can express my opinions and anyone else who wants to join in the discussion can do so on my terms.  I also hope to attract lots of Conservative Trolls, who disproportionately dominate the Canadian blogging world, and are incredibly easy to goad on.  To say that my point of view on most things is the opposite of mainstream Conservativism would be spot on.  I also will diverge from politics and post other things that interest me.