OfficiallyScrewed.com

Last night and all day I have listened to various pundits, newscasters, TV personalities, and other sorts all talk about how the Conservative minority was smaller than expected. How everyone thought it would be big enough to easily pass many bills. And how could the party members be happy because of the lack of expected support from the electorate spoke volumes. The question of ‘how could we have the sponsorship scandal happen, such a poorly run Liberal campaign, a tight Conservative campaign, yet still only have 124 seats.

Three years ago, the Queen Mary was heading left. It was almost out of sight on the horizon.

It was that long ago ago when the right wing of Canada was splintered in two decent sized entities splitting the right wing vote. Before the 2004 Election, Stephen Harper (and Peter McKay) did what they needed to, in order to make the right work together. Without a policy convention, without years of time under their belts as a party, they managed to take 99 seats in parliament. It was a strong showing for a party still in its’ infancy.

It was at this point the Conservative Captain had hit the brakes and pulled the ship up short of sailing off into the storm.

Not two short years later, after a solid policy convention, the party made a clear nudge to the left of it’s perceived view. The ‘reform’ side of the party, although the majority at the time, realized that social issues took a back seat to the need to clean up government, and clean up crime, and get back to the basics.

This was the Turning of the Queen Mary.

In the next 18 months to 3 years, the Tories will have to show that their sound policy is good for Canada. There is a lot of middle ground with the Bloc, the NDP and even some Liberals. Finding good solid policy based compromises is very attainable.

The Tories have the benefit in knowing that if the other parties shoot them down quickly, the electorate will scream in volumes for not working for us and running perpetual campaigns. (Although, I technically think the campaigning will be ongoing for the term of our 39th parliament because many do expect it to be short lived and not break the 3 year barrier)

If the Tories can walk the line well, then the voters will see that they aren’t scary, this will give them a good shot at gaining some seats the next time around.

In other words, the Queen Mary is now almost fully turned and ready to head back to the center again. To say the country is going right is correct. To say that it is going right of center is a far cry.

Remember, when you are on the Queen Mary as many Conservative supporters have been for several years now, it is often hard to feel that she is or has turned.

Be happy the government has changed. Be happy our Auditor General will have fantastic new resources to ensure our tax dollars are spent wisely. Be happy that by the time the Liberals fill Stornoway, we may have quite a bit to smile about in terms of policy coming out of our elected officials.

My wife is not political, but even she breathed a sigh of relief because she knows if the Liberals had won, I would have been looking for a job in Alberta or Quebec instead of here in Ottawa, in effect, giving up.

From my view, our glass is 124/308ths full. To some it is 184/308ths empty.

Sail on Captain Harper, sail on.

What created the success in Eastern Ontario? Why did we elect 9 of 12 Conservative M.P.s? What is different about the Ottawa Valley?

1) CFRA – In my honest opinion, CFRA has done a tremendous job of not only being fair, but of keeping everyone in the valley abreast of political ongoings. Lowell Green, Steve Madely, Michael Harris, John Counsell, Nick Vandergragt, and many more do an incredible job keeping all politicians on their toes and holding them to task. With this being the premiere talk radio station in Ottawa, they have earned the respect of countless people in the Ottawa Valley.

2) Civil Service – Ottawa does have a higher per capita civil service than most other parts of the country. This really says something when those working within a government managed by graft and corrosion have quietly spoken their mind. Maybe not in the fashion of Allan Cutler, but in tiny amounts of one vote, they added their voice to those who know we need to clean up government. I know many will lose their jobs under the new government but many know that a booming economy with rich people working hard and spending more money will create countless jobs everywhere.

3) Wealth – There are a lot of wealthy people in Ottawa. Excluding all the diplomats and ambassadors, the city has a thriving technology community, (of which I am a member), along with a lot of rural farmland tied in to the urban ridings. My riding is largely farmland with numerous towns of several thousand, but it also contains Kanata, the Silicon Valley North. This brings together a combination of rural farmers without money or help from the sitting Liberals, as well as the high income, high tax paying high tech sector. This created a 22500 seat plurality for a small landslide.

4) Military – In the area we have NDHQ, National Defence Headquarters This puts thousands more in the area. They are spread out right across the city considering the NDHQ has overload at their primary facility and has locations in a few areas around town. We also have CFB Petawawa. Home to over 4400 military personel and 1000 civilians. If you include family who are nearby all these fine soldiers, you can see what that nasty attack ad must have done.

There are other reasons I am sure. But I do feel that this part of the country should be proud for not having fear for a change in our leadership. The sun did rise today. No fire and brimstone came raining down upon us.

I want to post this to say Congratulations to each and every Tory who won their riding tonight. A special congratulations to Stephen Harper, my new Prime Minister; to Gordon O’Conner, my returning M.P.; to every blue riding in the Ottawa Valley. (Thank you Lowell, you can add to your count of 5 ridings in earshot being blue); and to every other Tory M.P.

In fact, I would like to congratulate every one of the 308 new M.P’s and each of their competitors for a hard fought election. Eight weeks for everyone on the bustings is a long time.

I am so exhausted as I did get called in by elections Canada. Look for my more coherent blitherings on the day tomorrow night. I have a full day in Hawkesbury tomorrow checking out a potential new job so won’t be back until tomorrow night.

Feel free to leave your comments on the election in this post.

Good night my friends. Job well done by all. As a Canadian who is pleased of the change in leadership, I would also like to add a final quick thanks to the bloggers out there for sparking such interest and accountability in the public eye. The 65% voter turnout is a testament to you guys (and gals) in my eyes.

Via Bourque.com:

Well, the Axworthy vs. Vellacott race is getting more juicy by the hour. A sworn affidavit was produced by an ex Liberal who swears under oath that the voice making the phone call was George Laliberte.

I have listened very closely and for several times to the CBC Six O’Clock News broadcast of Thursday, january 19, 2006, as available from the website: http://www.cbc.ca/sask and confirm to the best of my knowledge and belief that the voice of the call-in person stating allegations against Maurice Vellacott in the telecast of the open and public debate between Wanuskewin Federal Election Candidates was that of George laliberte, who is well known to me.

Well the case is heating up with this sworn statement. If Tom Hengen is correct in his testimonial, then it was, indeed, a good friend of Liberal Chris Axworthy who made the baseless accusations directly from the Liberal candidates Headquarters.

Well it looks like it is finally getting out into the press.

Saskatoon Star Phoenix (a CanWest paper) is now reporting on the Vellacott/Axworthy story.

During a StarPhoenix viewing of the tape provided by Vellacott, a caller asked him, “Maurice, did you used to be a Liberal candidate at one time?” Before Vellacott could answer, he went on to ask “Were you also removed from (a local church) because you were charged with sexual assault on your secretary?”

Vellacott said he has never been accused by any woman of sexual assault and has said he was never a pastor at the church or ever attended the church.

Vellacott, who was taken aback by the comment during the forum, requested the name and number of the candidate from Shaw Cable.

Axworthy has said he would investigate the matter.

“Certainly if these allegations are true, I would react to them very quickly,” he said. “We’ll investigate, we’ll find out whether the allegations are true, and we’ll make sure that if anybody did something of that sort they will not participate in our campaign in the future.”

Axworthy himself, who was present at the forum, said he heard the caller question Vellacott about sexual harassment at a church.

I actually got a call from Maurice Vellacott himself a few minutes ago and he also confirmed that the press release pretty much says it all. I haven’t heard back from Axworthy’s office yet, but I did email them this afternoon.

SDA is actually IN Saskatchewan and is posting that local radio has Axworthy stating he is unaware of this but if it is found that the call came from his office he will take immediate action.

I wonder why George Laliberte is no longer the Civic Co-ordinator for the Pleasant Hill community association for Pleasant Hill. He was (via google cached pages) but is not anymore.

I just heard on CFRA that a huge breaking story is hitting the wires about a televised debate phone in interview show on the Shaw Cable network for the riding of Saskatoon-Wanuskewin.

During the debate show, a caller called in and accused Conservative Candidate Maurice Vellacott of sexual assault on a church secretary. Vellacott, immediately asked for the name and number of the caller for legal action and they had an idea of who this person was. I didn’t catch the name, but it was in the news brief. The campaign volunteer who apparently made the call is George Laliberte. When they ran a reverse lookup of the number, they came up with the Liberal campaign headquarters of Chris Axworthy.

i.e. a Liberal supporter at the Liberal campaign HQ accused on public TV, the CPC candidate of sexual assault on live television. There was no 7 second delay to cut the statement off. So many heard it.

This should be interesting. Stay Tuned. We will get all the links once MSM gets it out there.

Addendum – 12:56pm EST

I left voicemail with the program director asking for more information on this. The newsbrief was read by Lowell Green (one of my favourites to listen to) in the last hour of his 9am to 12pm weekday show. Next news cast on CFRA is at 1pm. Hopefully, they elabourate in this segment. You can listen via the internet.

Addendum – 01:00pm EST

The news is now on Vellacott’s website. Click Here to open the word document download.

Here is a snippit.

After the cable show ended, Vellacott was handed the requested phone number by Shaw Cable producer Gracie Field. Upon arrival back at his campaign office he was told that a person had reported in and was 100% confident that it was the voice of George Laliberte. The caller maliciously and falsely accused Vellacott of being “removed from North Park Church because you were charged with sexual assault” on his church secretary. Laliberte is a friend of Chris Axworthy’s and apparently owes Axworthy some favours. When the 1-306-956-2570 number provided by the Shaw Cable staff member was dialed, it was found to be Chris Axworthy’s campaign office phone number. At that time Laliberte could not be reached at his home number of 1-306-[removed by author]

Addendum – 02:13pm EST

This is now being picked up by the MSM. Nealenews.com is linking to an article entitled
Liberal Campaign Caught Falsely Accusing Conservative Candidate of Sexual Abuse

Here come’s the MSM to pick up the torch.

Addendum – 05:20pm EST

I called Shaw Cable in Saskatoon to talk to Gracie Field. A gentleman answered her phone and, basically, confirmed the number in the release was what they gave Vellacott.

I also called Vellacott’s office but they have nothing to add at this time. I wonder what Axworth’s people are drumming up for the print.

Oh, and for those who live in the Pleasant Hill area of Saskatoon, you should all get more involved and get to know some of the others helping out in your municipality. *nudge nudge wink wink*

Not even 24 hours after urging NDP supporters to vote Liberal in one riding, Buzz Hargrove has urged Les Quebecois to vote for the Bloc. Talk about three faced.

Buzz came out endorsing the Bloc, and thus, a separatist view. For the PM’s most vocal non MP supporter to come out and promote a separatist party is not looking good for Martin. How could he possibly defend Buzz Hargrove’s statements? I’m not so sure he can. The man just told people to vote for the Bloc…

The party that wants to separate…

From Canada…

We’re not making this up.

We’re not allowed to do that.

As we have stated before, strategic voting is not to any persons benefit. Two detailed reasons why are:

a) you take money out of your favourite party’s coffers. Approximately $1.75/year per vote. If you consider that you just gave it to another party, that’s a $3.50 swing annually. Multiply that by 4 to 5 years and you are up over $175,000 for every 10,000 votes that swing. That buys a lot of commercials and road signs for the next election.

b) Your party, no matter what size, has a strong voice in a minority government. This is the case no matter who wins. Your party negotiates with their seats in many cases and for best representation, the more seats the better. Why give away a small part of that power without anything in return? This is what you are doing if you vote strategically.

I guess what I am trying to say is don’t listen to Buzz Hargrove. He is a union leader, not your party leader.

Stick with the one who brung ya.

Via Bourque.ca

Liberal Joe Volpe, MP for Eglinton-Lawrence in Toronto, is in trouble again after documents revealed he took a limo ride from Toronto to Buffalo for over $1000 at our expense. This on the heals of his $138 pizza lunch.

Leaked documents detail a 12 1/2-hour trip to the nearby U.S. city last March that included an $850 fare, $127.50 tip and $68.43 in GST for a total cost of $1,045.93.

Another 10 1/2-hour trip to an undisclosed location from Pearson airport cost $522

Let’s see how the average citizen might get to Buffalo.

Option A) Via Rail – Our illustrious rail transit system. A round trip to buffalo costs anywhere from $74 to $88 dollars from my work at ViaRail. Note: you should click “view all stations” over the list to select the Buffalo options as they do not appear in the common stations drop down list. I tried both Buffalo stops and dates from as early as one day away to way out in the end of February and the pricing was, basically, the same.

Option B) Car Rental – I went to National Car Rental’s website for two reasons. One they are a very reputable company, and two, they offer one way drop offs. I priced a one day rental of their most luxurious car for a one way with a drop off in Buffalo, and a second with the return of the vehicle back in Toronto. The one way with drop off cost just under $400 (with taxes) and the round trip was significantly lower at $122.76.

(click to enlarge)

Option C) Helicoptor – ok, maybe the average citizen wouldn’t do this, but I just HAD to price it out. I called a company in Toronto just north of the airport called National Helicoptor Tours and they told me for a four seater helicoptor the going rate is ~$900 an hour which includes fuel and pilot. A one way trip to St. Catherines is about 45 minutes so Buffalo would be roughly an hour is what they told me. This would put the round trip at about $2200-$2500 with tip and down time while at whatever meeting he had in Buffalo.

In any case, I think Volpe took us for a ride. I worked in an executive role for several years and even I rented cars, took cabs, took the train to and from Montreal, and once….just once…was lucky enough to ride in a Lear Jet. It was cheaper for 8 of us to travel in it than to buy 8 round trip tickets to Chicago. But even that trip was well priced out and the best option was taken.

Hey Volpe, you’re just an average Joe put in your position by average Joes. How you spend your MP salary is your business. How you spend our tax dollars is ours.

Eglinton-Lawrence needs to send him a message on January 23rd telling him what they think of his limo rides.