Who Will Be The Next Liberal Critic For The Environment Portfolio?

First we had Scott Brison who said:

Instead, the previous plans in terms of Kyoto agreement was written on the back of an airplane napkin on the way to Kyoto. There was no altered planning. There was no real negotiations with the provinces or with industry sectors. In fact, it was a last minute, hastily drafted, agreement.

Scott was removed:

Well on Wednesday, the new Environment Critic, David McGuinty, brother of the infamous Dalton McShifty, showed me what kind of politician he really is.

First, he get’s bitchslapped by Environment Minister, John Baird when Baird quoted past statements by McGuinty:

While we are talking about quotes, what about this quote, “when people see the cost of Kyoto, they are going to scream”. Who said that? It was the environment critic for the Liberal Party, the member for Ottawa South.

Note the member from Ottawa South is David McGuinty.

Here is another quote that I wonder if the hon. member opposite will agree with: “If Canada does ratify Kyoto…the cost…would be as much as $40-billion a year.”

Do we know who said that? It was the official spokesman, the Liberal critic for environment, the member for Ottawa South, who said that.

Note the member from Ottawa South is David McGuinty.

So how does the grown up David McGuinty react? Let’s take a look. During points of order the following conversation took place.

Mr. David McGuinty (Ottawa South, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, during question period the Prime Minister was asked 18 times whether he was misleading Canadians then or misleading them now on climate change. In answering those questions the Minister of the Environment continued misleading the House of Commons and Canadians by taking out of context comments I have made in the past as a professional. This is precisely the kind of conduct that Canadians have come to count on from the new government.

I would ask the Minister of the Environment to table the documents. I would ask all Canadians to understand these comments were taken out of context.

I would ask the Prime Minister again to answer the question as to whether he was misleading Canadians then or whether he is misleading them now.

Hon. John Baird (Minister of the Environment, CPC): Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to give the references for my comments in question period.

When I said, “if Canada does ratify Kyoto, the cost would be as much as $40 billion a year”, that was from the Globe and Mail of January 29.

When I said that the Liberal member for Ottawa South said that the Liberal Party was involved in a “medium sized car crash during the recent federal election”, that came from the National Post of March 23, 2006.

When I said “but when people see the costs of Kyoto, they are going to scream”, that came from Canadian Speeches, January 1, 2003, volume 16, issue 6.

The Speaker: I do not know that we are going far with this. It sounds to me like debate.

Is the hon. member for Ottawa South rising on another point?

Mr. David McGuinty: Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the Minister of the Environment for his extensive detailed research into my background. I thank him very much.

I would remind him on this point of order that the kind of conduct he is pursuing is conduct unbecoming of a Minister of the Environment. He should understand that Canadians are watching; his constituents and my constituents are watching. This does not advance the cause of climate change one iota. In fact, what the Minister of the Environment should do is prevail upon his boss, the Prime Minister, to answer the question.

The Speaker: I do not think we are on a point of order here, so we will move on.

Even the Speaker says it is not a point of order. I call it a point of whining on behalf of Liberals everywhere and with comments like these, I can’t imagine Dion will keep McGuinty on the Environment portfolio for long.

Smackdown – Deception In The House Of Commons

We wouldn’t say the deception is intentional because that would be unparliamentary of us. But MP’s Maria Minna (Lib-Beaches-East York) and Irene Mathyssen (NDP-London-Fanshawe) tried to sling some mud at the Minister of Heritage and for the Status of Women, Bev Oda, yesterday.

But as usual, the Minister gave a straight answer that 1) Smacked back the attackers and 2) displayed that the Status of Women groups that are in an uproar over the recent cuts won’t even meet with the Minister.

I find it reprehensible for two MPs to try to portray the Minister as the one who won’t meet when she has offered these groups three dates to meet and all have been rejected.

You can watch the video of Oral Questions by clicking the link below ONCE.

If the above video did not play for you, try clicking the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5zLfLKlL4E

Liberals Would Have Us Believe Lightweight Lift Aircraft Are Heavyweight Lift Aircraft

On Tuesday January 30th, 2007 the Minister of Defence, Gordon O’Connor, cleared up any question of the heavy lift aircraft tender with one statement.

In answering Liberal Denis Coderre’s question regarding the contract being changed so that only one aircraft could meet the requirements, the Minister said:

Requirements are set by the military and they go through a process from a desk officer all the way to the Chief of the Defence Staff, and then they come to me. At that point I get the requirements from the military.

The military requirement was not changed after the Chief of the Defence Staff gave it to me. By the way, the weight I think was 39 tonnes and the aircraft we eventually selected lifts 85 tonnes.

(emphasis mine).

So let’s figure this out. Let’s say that the contract weight lift requirement was dropped to 35 tonnes to allow a second or third bid to be eligible, these options would be lifting LESS THAN HALF what the Boeing airplanes can lift.

Since the armed forces were not looking for a lightweight or middleweight lift aircraft, I think the arguments being made by opposition are simply baseless and the Boeing C18’s are clearly the king of heavy lift … twice over.

To accept other bids from aircraft that can lift 30 odd tonnes would be like a soccer mom buying a Volkswagon Golf instead of a Suburban. Oh sure, it can get our team to the game, but it would take two or even three trips to do it and when it comes to the troops putting their lives on the line, I would rather they get what they need as quickly as possible.

But the ulterior motive is that the Liberals would rather have a non Boeing company provide us with the aircraft because Boeing spreads the wealth around the country, whereas other contractors would focus much of the reinvestment in Quebec.

HandoutThis ties in nicely to how Gilles Duceppe is looking for 60% of the Boeing reinvestment to be in Quebec as Quebec has 60% of the military contractors in Canada. Does Mr. Duceppe not see the hypocrisy of his request? He is trying to slam the government for not addressing the fiscal imbalance but he wants a completely disproportionate amount of the Boeing money in his province. He is starting to look like a ragged beggar with his hand out all the time.

Green Ribbons On Liberal Lapels

Green Ribbon 2Today, Liberal MP’s, including Citoyen Dion, were all wearing green ribbons on their lapels.

So I thought I should find out what green ribbons stand for. And this is what I found by googling “Green Ribbon Campaign”

1. Open Adoption Records

2. Ban The Stupid Campaign

3. Free The Irish Political Prisoner Campaign

4. Hemp For All (NORML)

5. Support Marijuana Smokers

6. Rural Community and Family Support

7. Sexual Assault Coalition

8. End institutionalized aggression

Green Ribbon 1I wonder which of these the Liberals were showing their support for.

Double Smackdown – John Baird Serves Up Double Trouble To Liberals

I knew when the PM mixed up the Rubik’s Cubinet on us a few weeks ago that he did it for a solid reason. After two days of watching Question Period, I now know why.

1) I am glad Monte Solberg is in the forefront with HRDC. He is a sharp witted man who can really handle himself in Oral Questions. Diane Finley did fine, but Monte has a magic touch in the verbal sparring department.

Monte Solberg

But more importantly,

2) The PM put John Baird, the equivalent of debating juggernaut into the environment portfolio. Watch him dismantle the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the member from Ajax-Pickering (while giving a subtle shot at the member from Wascana) in today’s oral question period.

(Click the video below once to start the show)

If you cannot see the video play above, try clicking the following link instead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HouCOMEJKGY

Go Figure – Suzuki Bus Tour Will Burn A Ton Of Gas

The night was February 8th, 1989. David Suzuki’s hair had more black than grey in it. The location was Alumni Hall at the University of Western Ontario. The debate was about race and a University of Western Ontario professor, Philip Rushton was preaching that intelligence was related to your race and penis size.

The controversy was immense. The outrage was real. Me and my fellow students were all up in arms over this outrageous claim made by an unknown professor.

So a debate was scheduled and the famous scientist David Suzuki was to be our saviour. We knew that a lowly professor could not possibly stand up to the onslaught that a worldly man like Suzuki would bring.

But it never happened. If there was someone scoring the debate, Rushton would have kicked Suzuki’s ass. All Suzuki could go on about was how a University of 50 or 60 thousand students couldn’t find anyone to debate this monster. How our world class school had to go outside its’ walls to find someone to denounce this professor. I was never so disappointed in David Suzuki as I was that day. But heck, when a major controversy was happening, Suzuki was there … at least in name.

And now he is at it again. The economy is flush with money and David Suzuki is aiming to make his mark on the subject of climate change and global warming. He is launching what CTV calls an “election-style environment tour“. Note it was not called an “Election-style Attack Tour”.

The first question that crossed my mind was “how much emissions is this tour putting into our atmospphere” as Suzuki is using a bus for the tour. The response is given:

The David Suzuki Foundation says in a news release that the carbon emissions associated with the tour are offset through its investments in sustainable energy projects, such as wind farms, solar installations, or energy efficiency projects.

Buying carbon credits with investments in green programs is good for his foundation but it is not acceptable for our government to invest money in Made in Canada green programs. For Suzuki to be happy, we need to give our tax dollars to Russia and Saudi Arabia via Kyoto.
David Suzuki has now disappointed me twice.

Stephane Dion Just Can't Get It Right – Flip Flops On Marc-Yvon Côté Remarks

FlipFlopsAfter the backlash in the press yesterday Citoyen Dion is backtracking on his comments about reinstating banned party members.

“Certainly, you cannot exclude forever people who made mistakes,” he was quoted as saying. “And someone who has even, I believe, recognized their error.”

Yesterday, Mr. Dion backtracked, insisting that he would have no involvement in reinstating Mr. Côté and suggesting it probably will not occur.

“I am not seeking to reopen that issue and there’s not an application [from Mr. Côté] as far as I know. There is a procedure we follow,” Mr. Dion said, asserting that party officials would handle any such case. “I’m not recommending anything.”

Dion is quickly building a reputation as the “wrong choice” for Liberal leadership.

Mr. Dion’s aides acknowledged privately that the leader is trying to bring the controversy to a quick end and is unhappy that his misstep could raise the spectre of the sponsorship scandal again — noting that his leadership campaign had stressed that he was a veteran Liberal with untainted integrity.

Aides said his comments were an off-the-cuff answer to an unexpected question.

< sarcasm > That’s what I want in a leader …… good solid off the cuff answers!! < /sarcasm >

Liberals Redefine "Life"

This is huge.

Stealing a page from their judicial definition of “life”, the Liberals have redefined the term to mean “some arbitrary time we see as being fit”. Today, Citoyen Dion says he would not be against letting some of those banned for their part in the Sponsorship scandal back into the party.

Specifically speaking about bag man Marc-Yvon Côté, who dispersed over $100,000 in illegal funds to several Liberal Party candidates, Dion says he would consider letting Côté and possibly others back into the party after they were banned for life.

Here we go again. Listen to CFRA newsclip below.

ADDENDUM For a crude English translation of Le Soleil, click here.

30 Minutes Can Save Your Life …

… If you tossed it away on being an environmentalista.

For those who don’t know, I went to dozens of Grateful Dead concerts in my youth. I used to have long hair, go unshaven for weeks, I wore tie-dye and Guatamalan pants and cruised around the American north east whenever the Dead were coming around. Heck, I was even at a concert in Rich Stadium in Buffalo the night before my Transform Analysis Final exam.

And one thing that I can tell you is that at a Grateful Dead concert there is lots of dancing and lots of drumming. This is not limited to the actual concert mind you, but what takes place the whole day of in the parking lot and for hours after the show. Past live concerts can be heard playing all over and if you walk around enough you find this circle of drummers. Anyone is welcome to sit in with their bongos or whatever they want to beat on. It’s actually quite surreal.

When Jerry Garcia died, I always wondered what would become of the Deadheads. What would this pro peace, anti war, anti capitalistic society do? What would the innovative ones among them do to survive? I am talking about the ones selling home made crafts and tie dyes and veggie burritos.

Now I know where they are all dancing and drumming.

(note: the video below contains some swearing, but is WELL worth the 30 minutes)

I can safely say that after watching this video, I have realized that over half the people show up at these things for the party and not the cause. I am not sure if I find that to be a good thing or a bad thing.

H/T to 905Tory

A commenter at 905Tory pointed out a link to Penn’s radio show where he interviews Patrick Moore. It is also quite enlightening. Patrick Moore WAS the International Director for Greenpeace until 1986 and grew the organization from the original fledgling it was to an entity pulling in $100 Million USD before resigning. Find out why.

Of Mice And (Boys Pretending To Be) Men…

Tell me about the rabbits Stephane Dion.

“My first interest was for the society of animals, not of man,” he recalls. “We had a neighbour named Gaston Moisan, a biologist who was a deputy minister of natural resources. He set traps for the rabbits, to band them, and used to take me with him. He was 5-foot-7, but he was a giant for me.”

A charming childhood anecdote — except, according to Mr. Moisan, it never happened. “I don’t know how he could have imagined that,” the retired bureaucrat and university professor says. “I had nothing to do with Stéphane. And I never sensed any interest on his part for my work.”

H/T to Darcey at DustMyBroom.