When your Lib, NDP, Green or Bloc friends say something about Harper signing up for a coalition in 2004, you can call them a bald faced liar and point them to this blog post.
Watch the video.
H/T to Dr. Roy’s Facebook.
Politics-Federal
The Red-Headed Step Election
In 2008 we had the election about nothing which was dubbed the Seinfeld election.
I am officially dubbing this election “The Red-Headed Step Election” as it is the election nobody wants.
That’s it, that’s all.
h/t my friend Ken in Stittsville
Elections Canada Rehashing the B.S. – Treating Tories One Way and Grits Another
In light of the witch hunt, I feel the need to repost two videos I made when the In and Out was first brought up.
and
Inspiration Moved Me Brightly
Bizarro world collided with NeverNeverLand this past week for me. On Tuesday June 29th I received a very unexpected and very welcome invitation from the PMO to attend a special dinner in the presence of Her Majesty and His Royal Highness at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto. At first I thought I was on an episode of Punk’d or that my kids had submitted something to Pranked. But as I quickly realized this was simply reality. So in a whirlwind I made sure I was black tied and Monday morning I hit the road for Toronto.
Arrival at the Royal York was a zoo with the power outage in that part of the city. Of more concern to me was the potential for a lack of air conditioning. Being a big man, I overheat quite easily. The cocktail room was quite spectacular and while mingling, I quickly ran into a couple of familiar faces. Three of them being past or present Blogging Tories. Matt from A Step To The Right, Dr. Roy from Dr. Roy’s Blog and Sean from The Politic.
The crowd was prepped on how the introductions to HM and HRH would go down. It still all seems a bit surreal to me but real enough none the less. As the crowd waited for the introductions the power came on (thank Goodness!!). We slowly made our way behind the white curtain to meet the Royals.
When my turn came up, the greeter was dressed in his finest military and as he checked my invitation card I thanked him for his service. He seemed pleasantly taken aback at my remark but seemed to appreciate it. The announcer confirmed the pronounciation of my name and proceeded to announce me to Her Majesty and His Royal Highness. I stepped forward first towards the Prime Minister who smiled and greeted me with a firm handshake. He said it was nice that I could make it . I then took a step to my right and Her Majesty held her gloved hand out, so as I took it, I bowed and greeted her as well. Similarly, the Duke of Edinburgh extended a hand to me. I was quite honoured to receive this formal of a greeting. Then in her usual friendly self, Mrs. Harper greeted me last and said it was a pleasure to see me again. The whole process seemed to be a blur to me but it was clear enough for me to know I was in the presence of a truly magnificent institution and heritage and one of the most magnificent monarchs our race will ever know.
Then as Her Majesty entered the whole group joined the singing of God Save The Queen. It was quite moving. The speeches and dinner were delightful and the unveiling of a new Hockey Hall of Fame exhibit was interesting to say the least.
As coffee and dessert were served, the group was serenaded by the Four Canadian Tenors who are world renowned already. I was especially moved by the second song which was not fully understood as it was mostly in French but I know it was about Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre Dame and La Esmerelda.
Then shortly after this, the Four Tenors sang the National Anthem and once again the crowd joined in. After this the Royals left the dinner and the crowd mingled quite a bit taking photos in front of the exhibit. I snuck a couple of the roses from the table and am drying them for the shadowbox.
I did get a few moments to speak with Minister Jason Kenney about inroads into the Greek community, congratulate Minister Flaherty on holding the world at bay on a bank tax, and I got to let Senator Duffy know that a friend of ours is running for Ottawa City Council. I also got a chance to see Lois Brown again and I met Peter Kent for the first time. He was very charming. As was Michael Chong and his wife.
Some photos/items from the evening. (more to come I am sure)
Smackdown: PM Harper Returns Liberal Leader Michael Zsohar’s Serve On Roland Garros Claycourt
I love Question Period. Call me a goofball. I actually caught this without sound on a TV in the lobby of a customer’s yesterday afternoon. Good timing on my part. The bolded part is a nice zinger that plays on Liberal Leader Michael Zsohar’s status as a temporary visitor to our great nation.
Hon. Michael Ignatieff (Leader of the Opposition, Lib.):
Even France is saying that the costs of this summit are getting out of control, and France knows something about extravagance. Its foreign minister is making jokes about the lake.
How can the Prime Minister preach austerity and restraint to Canadians and his G20 colleagues when he has lost control of the cost of his own summit?Right Hon. Stephen Harper (Prime Minister, CPC):
Mr. Speaker, of course, as has been observed by many people, the cost of these summits in this age is very expensive because of the security demands placed on the summits. Well over 80% of the cost for our summit are, of course, for security, and this is similar to all similar types of summits.
As for extravagance in France, I would not know about that, but perhaps the Leader of the Opposition, at his home in Provence, could tell us all about it.
Harper: 15, Ignatieff: L’oeuf
World Governments Acting Like Teenagers
When I was a young man still in University I was offered my first credit card. It was a GM VISA with a $500 spending limit. Considering I didn’t have $500 to my name and summer was coming I was ecstatic that I would be able to load up my tackle box and pick up a carton or two of smokes. Although not necessities to the average person, they seemed like they were necessities to me.
So I cautiously ran up a bit of a tab on the card. Then the inevitable bill came. Sure it showed me a minimum payment which was a bit of reassurance. I wouldn’t have to pay the whole thing off at once. But little did I realize that that small monthly payment was coming right off the top of my income. Why? Because I chose to spend something I didn’t have.
Well governments around the world are doing it now. Forget extreme hyperbole such as “spending like drunken sailors”. Expressions like this make it sound like we are just exaggerating. Well the truth is they are spending like unsure, unaware teenagers with their first credit cards. They don’t realize that pulling more out of the taxpayers is like that teenager trying to find a job in a down economy. The potential to pay back that debt is there, but the economic conditions to allow that to happen are just not there. And the more we run up the debt the harder it will be to dig ourselves out.
That’s it. I don’t have any links on this. Just the anology and the request that everyone out there contact the politicians representing them at all levels of government and simply ask them to spend within their means. Do NOT extend their means to accommodate how much they want to spend.
Liberal Leader Michael Zsohar Loves US Eh? (or is that U.S.A.)
When I was a boy, I used to love “make-believe” and “pretend”. I would run around the house with a towel waving behind me pretending I was Superman or Batman, or I would paint a broken broomstick handle blue and have lightsaber battles with my friends. But the reality always came back to me when my mom would yell “Dinner!!”.
Liberal Leader Michael Zsohar hasn’t heard the dinner bell and continues on with his “make-believe” and “pretend”. I can see him day dreaming about meeting heads of state or attending the G8 or G20 summits. I bet he even has furniture picked out for 24 Sussex. It’s really quite amusing for him and for Canadian voters.
From the CPC website:
On Monday evening, Michael Ignatieff told an elite group of Liberals that his 34 years away from Canada made him “more of a Canadian.” (National Post. May 18, 2010)
Are we talking about the same Michael Ignatieff who praised the United States, going so far as to call himself an American?
“You have to decide what kind of America you want…It’s your country just as much as it is mine.” (C-SPAN, June 17, 2004)
“I want to make it clear; there isn’t an anti-American bone in my body. I love the republic I live in.” (Sunday Edition with Michael Enright, CBC Radio, Sept. 16, 2001.
“I think that one of the ‐–‐ that almost the nemesis of American power is that we are deeply hated and simultaneously supposed to have magical powers.” (Charlie Rose Show, April 28, 2004)
Are we talking about the same Michael Ignatieff who repeatedly bashed Canada, its flag and its people?Ignatieff told an interviewer that “the only thing he missed about Canada was Algonquin Park”. (Maclean’s, November 20, 2006)
Ignatieff described the Canadian flag as “a passing imitation of a beer label” (The Observer, July 8, 1990), and
Ignatieff said, “Quebeckers walk around with this fantasy of how different they are, but they are just North Americans who speak French…They take the minor difference and magnify it.” (Globe and Mail. April 2, 1998)
Electoral Reform Reminder
This article (thanks Charles Adler for the link) is another reminder for me about how easily our own Canadian electoral system can be manipulated. I have brought this up several times with friends, family, political allies, MPs, Ministers, etc. Yet still our system is broken.
You see in Canada you are supposed to be a Canadian Citizen to vote. Yet our system has so many ways in it that let non Canadians in to vote illegally.
1) We have a vouching system. This is when one person has no identification but has a friend who IS on the voter’s list there to vouch for them. This helps create problem 2.
2) Once you have been vouched for, you are now on the voting list. This means the next election, you can then vouch for up to two people who may not be Canadian citizens. This means that technically one Canadian could vouch for two friends. One election later, those two non eligible voters could each vouch for two friends. (now we are at 4 ineligble voters). And then in the third election, we are at potentially 8 ineligible voters. This reminds me of the old shampoo commercial. And you’ll tell two friends. And they’ll tell two friends, and so on.
3) The glue that binds all these together is the fact that you do not need to show proof of citizenship to vote. This is simply ridiculous.
The law says you need to be a Canadian citizen yet it offers several ways for non Canadians to sneak in on the system. In m y opinion, you should be required to have your citizenship card or passport or a photo ID/Birth Certificate combination to vote.
That’s it. That’s all. Anything less to me is unacceptable.
The only way this can really be achieved is to either a) bring back enumeration or b) scrap the voter’s list completely and restart with the current list of provincial birth certificates and federal citizenship and passport lists. Then EVERYone voting should be required to show proof of citizenship to get a ballot.
Liberal Bob Rae Indirectly Supports Foreign Aid Monies Being Used To Support Child Slave Labour
Ok. Maybe that’s a stretch, but not by much.
But Liberal Bob Rae thinks that money we give nations should not hold a caveat that lets us impose our ideology on those countries. He said exactly just that when addressing the decision by our government to not allow our foreign aid to be used to pay for abortions.
Liberal MP Bob Rae told reporters in Ottawa the Federal Government is trying to impose its moral agenda on other countries, adding “Canada is now taking an ideological position and, frankly, I think they’ve raised something which could well have been avoided in the effort to create a stronger international consensus.”
So where does Liberal Bob Rae draw the line? Ideology has a very broad description.
If we decided to give foreign aid to Lebanon would he be ok with them using that money to buy bombs and drop those bombs on Israel? THAT is ideology.
If we decided to give money to a Afghanistan, would he be ok with them using that money to buy acid to throw in the face of women who do not wear a burka? THAT is ideology.
If we decided to give foreign aid to Afghanistan, would he be ok with them using that money to grow Opium and sell it for import into Canada? THAT is ideology.
If we decided to give foreign aid to China….oh wait we DO give foreign aid to China….would he be ok if they took that money and ran over student protesters with tanks in Tiananmen Square? THAT is ideology.
Liberal Bob Rae has NO scruples. None. He is well past his due date but his orange roots are clearly showing.
Boldly Go…
*cue spacey music*
Rideau Hall…the final frontier.
These are the voyages of the Star….Shatner.
His 4 year mission…
To explore strange little towns across the nation…
To seek out new and interesting aspects of Canadiana…
To boldly go where no Governor General has gone before.