I liked Paul Martin.
While that may come as a surprise as he is an “Evil Liberal” he seemed like the sort that would offer me what I wanted, a loose fiscally conservative approach to the money and big talk and little action on the social side of the spectrum government shouldn’t be involved in but find themselves involved in.
It wasn’t Ad-Scam that drove me away from Paul Martin, it was the Liberal Party and their moving target of values and principals that did.
If I cast a vote for the Conservatives or the New Democrats even without flipping open their platform I have a good idea of what I am getting, their principals and stances on issues has been fairly consistent, and their approach in regards to the direction this country should be moving in has been fairly consistent.
The problem I am finding with the Liberals is that they just can’t wrap their head around the concept of being the opposition party, every move that is made is a move that is made with the intention of getting back into power and when you are polling 10 – 15 percent behind the Government you have to start thinking about governing from within your role.
Every week I see a Liberal MP waving a doorknob or complaining about a blue website, or going on about an Olympic Logo and I have to ask myself is there not a better use of the official oppositions time?
Last night while the Liberal bloggers and pundits are out in full force claiming that finishing a distant third in four by-elections was all part of the plan and they were not competitive in those ridings anyway so why bother?
Why bother?
Because you are a party that now has half the seats of the party you need to defeat to enter power in the future.
This excuse that the Liberals could not be “competitive” in any of the four ridings is a reflection of what is wrong with the party.
The NDP was not “competitive” in Hochelaga, and they ran a hard campaign they knew the odds of winning were slim in, they lost but they did not roll over.
The Conservatives were certainly not “competitive” in Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup and they ran a hard campaign and shocked even some of the most optimistic Conservatives.
The Liberals are a party that is 78 seats away from forming a majority government, and the old saying “beggars can’t be choosers” comes to mind.
Especially when it seems that Quebec has been the only region that has seen any sort of growth in terms of Liberal popularity since they dumped Dion earlier in the year.
As I stand back and look at the Liberal Party and try and analyze what’s wrong I think the problem ultimately starts at the top of the party, and works its way down.
During the 2006 Liberal Leadership Convention on the final ballot I watched Bob Rae supporters crawl over the figurative broken glass to assure that Michael Ignatieff did not become leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.
They opted for their dislike of team Iggy to override their ultimate accountability to the party by selecting someone who could beat Stephen Harper.
When Mr. Ignatieff was appointed leader of the Liberal Party earlier this year, I have to ask myself what are the thoughts of the Bob Rae supporters who hated the idea in the first place?
Have they walked away from the party? Or are they simply laying in wait to be able to throw Mr. Ignatieff’s career under the first political bus they see coming?
There just doesn’t seem to be strategy coming from the top, there is no general leading and directing policy and platform, it just seems like you have 77 Independent MP’s who happen to sit together in the Commons who have their own agenda’s and plans who are held together by a mutual dislike of the governing party.
While the NDP can build bridges with the hate they have toward the government party, the reality is you can do that when you are expected to be the third opposition party in the commons.
If the Liberals hope to be elected again they need some substance, and more importantly they need a leader who:
1) Is known as a Liberal first, not a writer, professor, or New Democrat
2) Is electable in a region the Liberals need to grow within to be competitive (Ontario or Quebec)
3) Has his or her own reputation and cannot be “branded” by the Conservatives
The problem now is that every leader they select within the confines of a minority government is nothing more then a battlefield promotion because the guy before hand was blown to bits on the battlefield in front of the troops crushing their morale.
The Liberal Party needs time, they need to rebuild, they need to fundraise, they need a concise strategy and policy that the entire party can get behind and sing in unison.
I don’t see that happening within the realm of a minority government,
Leadership conventions take months, and they provide months of a defacto Conservative majority, which makes the Liberals look weak because they need to support the government or abstain from the legislation to avoid walking into an election leaderless which just harms their reputation more.
The Liberals are going to lose their Senate majority in early January, that may have been the only thing keeping them going to this point,
But with that gone moving on in this manner just hurts the party more.
The Liberals are best served by a Conservative Majority, and after last night and after it became clear with the early retirement in the Senate that will cost the Liberals their majority in the upper house.
They are a party that just needs to time.
If the Conservatives secure a majority, they can take eight months to hold a leadership convention and pick the right leader,
Someone like Frank McKenna or Dalton McGuinty who are Liberals first.
Then you have three years to fundraise, three years to develop policy, and three years to actually get some degree of dirt on the government to run on.
Most Liberals turn green at the thought of losing an election and causing a Conservative Majority, but the reality is that the Liberal Party has simply become reduce to a bunch of MP’s that sit in the corner rubbing their hands together hoping for something to go wrong with the government,
It’s easy to climb the polls because you are the protest party because the electorate is angry at the government,
But it’s a lot easier to press two on your touchtone in a poll in anger then it is to vote for a party based solely on anger.
The Liberals need to win based on what they bring to the table, and thus far they seem to hope they can win because of what the other guy left off their table.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
The End of The Long-Gun Registry?
Bill C-391 is being voted on this evening, for those not following politics that closely it is a piece of legislation that would see the long-gun portion of the gun registry be repealed.
This is a piece of legislation that has trapped the Liberal Party of Canada is a sense. The Liberals originally introduced the gun registry years ago as a means to control and register weapons within Canada as a means to reduce gun violence.
In the process the included hunters within this net of legislation.
The optics of the Liberal Party of Canada is that they are a party that represents the views and mindset of those within the major cities of Canada, and that they are out of touch with those of us who don’t live in a 800 square foot condo near a Subway Station who watch TV on their ipods as they take the Subway to work with Starbucks in hand.
The mistake of the original registry was to require responsible gun owners to go through more paperwork and bureaucracy then the thug on the street that buys a handgun that was brought into this country illegally who doesn’t buy his gun legally in the first place.
It made a handgun basically no different then a rifle.
The problem is that the weapons covered under the long-gun portion of the registry are not really the weapons that are used in conventional street crime.
It seems that people in Toronto are of the impression that stores are being held up by someone using a three and a half foot A-bolt single shot hunting rifle, which couldn’t be further from reality.
Hunting rifles being used in violent crime are so rare and of such statistical irrelevance you will notice that no one in support of keeping the long gun registry is using any sort of numbers in their defense of this registry.
The trouble with this piece of legislation is that is a private members bill, and all parties have opted to make this a free vote.
155 votes in favor of scrapping the registry are needed to move the bill forward, the problem of course is there are only 143 Conservatives in the Commons.
Meaning that 12 opposition MP’s must vote with the Conservatives for it to pass.
The Bloc has made it clear they will not support the legislation.
Which leaves the Liberals and the NDP to allow for the passage or defeat of this legislation.
Four New Democrats and Two Liberals who are from ridings with a lot of Rural votes have apparently stated that they will vote with the Conservatives in order to support the legislation to scrap the registry.
Based on all the data that has been tossed around by both sides I can’t find any significant evidence that the Long-Gun Portion of the registry has done anything to reduce the gun violence that it was originally passed to reduce all those years ago, at least not in any significant way.
Much to my surprise I learnt a while ago that per capita, we as a nation own more guns then our neighbors’ to the south. That figure is of course a little skewed because a large portion of our guns are used for the purposes of hunting.
However the large number of weapons, coupled with the low number of crimes committed using weapons listed under the long-gun portion of the gun registry leads me to believe that our hunters and long gun owners are a very responsible group of weapons owners.
The trouble is that city folks don’t like guns.
It doesn’t matter what sort of gun, they have decided that they just don’t like them
I can’t blame them, living in the city the largest animal I have seen on my property was a Raccoon who took an interest in my uncovered garbage can, and I can hide in my house and call Animal Services.
The problem as I see it lays in the fact that the NDP and Liberals en mass may very well vote to keep bad legislation simply to appease voters who the legislation does not apply to for the most part.
The Liberals are being painted as the out of touch big city intellectuals’ and if they vote against this legislation en mass, they are certainly not helping dispel that depiction.
This is a piece of legislation that has trapped the Liberal Party of Canada is a sense. The Liberals originally introduced the gun registry years ago as a means to control and register weapons within Canada as a means to reduce gun violence.
In the process the included hunters within this net of legislation.
The optics of the Liberal Party of Canada is that they are a party that represents the views and mindset of those within the major cities of Canada, and that they are out of touch with those of us who don’t live in a 800 square foot condo near a Subway Station who watch TV on their ipods as they take the Subway to work with Starbucks in hand.
The mistake of the original registry was to require responsible gun owners to go through more paperwork and bureaucracy then the thug on the street that buys a handgun that was brought into this country illegally who doesn’t buy his gun legally in the first place.
It made a handgun basically no different then a rifle.
The problem is that the weapons covered under the long-gun portion of the registry are not really the weapons that are used in conventional street crime.
It seems that people in Toronto are of the impression that stores are being held up by someone using a three and a half foot A-bolt single shot hunting rifle, which couldn’t be further from reality.
Hunting rifles being used in violent crime are so rare and of such statistical irrelevance you will notice that no one in support of keeping the long gun registry is using any sort of numbers in their defense of this registry.
The trouble with this piece of legislation is that is a private members bill, and all parties have opted to make this a free vote.
155 votes in favor of scrapping the registry are needed to move the bill forward, the problem of course is there are only 143 Conservatives in the Commons.
Meaning that 12 opposition MP’s must vote with the Conservatives for it to pass.
The Bloc has made it clear they will not support the legislation.
Which leaves the Liberals and the NDP to allow for the passage or defeat of this legislation.
Four New Democrats and Two Liberals who are from ridings with a lot of Rural votes have apparently stated that they will vote with the Conservatives in order to support the legislation to scrap the registry.
Based on all the data that has been tossed around by both sides I can’t find any significant evidence that the Long-Gun Portion of the registry has done anything to reduce the gun violence that it was originally passed to reduce all those years ago, at least not in any significant way.
Much to my surprise I learnt a while ago that per capita, we as a nation own more guns then our neighbors’ to the south. That figure is of course a little skewed because a large portion of our guns are used for the purposes of hunting.
However the large number of weapons, coupled with the low number of crimes committed using weapons listed under the long-gun portion of the gun registry leads me to believe that our hunters and long gun owners are a very responsible group of weapons owners.
The trouble is that city folks don’t like guns.
It doesn’t matter what sort of gun, they have decided that they just don’t like them
I can’t blame them, living in the city the largest animal I have seen on my property was a Raccoon who took an interest in my uncovered garbage can, and I can hide in my house and call Animal Services.
The problem as I see it lays in the fact that the NDP and Liberals en mass may very well vote to keep bad legislation simply to appease voters who the legislation does not apply to for the most part.
The Liberals are being painted as the out of touch big city intellectuals’ and if they vote against this legislation en mass, they are certainly not helping dispel that depiction.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
The Kids of Today Scare Me...
For anyone who still watches the news, I am sure you are aware of a group of protesters that stormed the House of Commons to protest a Private Members Bill that was tabled by the NDP.
I won’t even get into the details of the bill, because private members bills are the very definition of my tax dollars being wasted by way of MP’s salaries going into debating legislation that:
1) Has no money attached to it.
2) Is unenforceable.
3) Has no legislative teeth even if it passes.
Basically even if legislation that promised a chicken in every pot passed via a private members bill, since there is no money tied to these bills it would pretty well equal up to the government wasting hours debating the bill to conclude that having a chicken in every pot would be a good idea, however doing nothing to actually get a chicken into Canadians pots so to speak.
So for these rocket scientists that opted to storm the house of commons to defend a piece of legislation that has less value then the paper I used this morning in the washroom as I was thumbing through the latest issue of Cosmo and learning “If my guy is really that into me”, it ended poorly as they were escorted out by Commons security and resulted in two Commons guards being sent to the hospital in the process.
Yeah, some of the protesters were hurt.
However, none of them were hurt enough to bother discussing it.
Now the accusation by Conservative MP Jay Hill, is that NDP leader Jack Layton actually booked the room that these protesters used to practice their chants before they stormed the Commons.
Have a read here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/bureau-blog/did-jack-layton-know/article1340688/
I understand that it’s hard to get excited about what passes as a “scandal” these days in Ottawa, where you have the Liberals holding press conferences to discuss how certain websites are “Blue” and the conspiracy theory that the Canadian Olympic Logo is a defacto Conservative Party of Canada Logo.
Because I for one can assure you that during the last election, the last thing I saw was a red car in the parking lot which mesmerized me so much that I simply needed to vote Liberal…
See that is the problem with the NDP, not enough Orange cars on the road.
What passes for scandal in Ottawa is clearly not as sexy as it use to be.
However,
If Jack had anything to do with these young folks storming into Parliament then as far as I am concerned, that is a pretty sexy scandal.
One that a Conservative or Liberal MP would need to resign as a result of.
Although, it doesn’t seem to be getting any airplay?
Had Iggy pulled this stunt, it would have resulted in a lead story on most news networks?
Had Harper pulled this stunt, there would be a seven day exposé in the Toronto Star, and CBC would have broken into the middle of Pit Pony to drop this bomb.
I think this really does explain why the NDP is stuck in the mud, and destine to because the fourth party till they are overtaken and forgotten, because this sort of thing seems to get the standard response of:
“Come on, It’s Vintage Jack”
While at the end of the day, its good news because Jack can continue to lead and fight the good fight regardless of if he was in anyway involved or not which we really don’t know.
However, if the NDP ever wants to become a viable opposition party they have to stop acting like the spoiled younger brother who’s parents are too tired from raising the first few kids that they just give in when little Jackie stomps up and down, or holds his breath.
The fact that most media outlets don’t find this news worthy, when a Press Conference of Wayne Easter shaking a doorknob last week made page one on many of the news websites seems to be indicative of the fact that we don’t hold the NDP to the same standard we hold the other parties.
Which has to make you wonder if voters’ en mass can ever hold the NDP to a high enough standard to give them more then 40 seats in the Commons?
I won’t even get into the details of the bill, because private members bills are the very definition of my tax dollars being wasted by way of MP’s salaries going into debating legislation that:
1) Has no money attached to it.
2) Is unenforceable.
3) Has no legislative teeth even if it passes.
Basically even if legislation that promised a chicken in every pot passed via a private members bill, since there is no money tied to these bills it would pretty well equal up to the government wasting hours debating the bill to conclude that having a chicken in every pot would be a good idea, however doing nothing to actually get a chicken into Canadians pots so to speak.
So for these rocket scientists that opted to storm the house of commons to defend a piece of legislation that has less value then the paper I used this morning in the washroom as I was thumbing through the latest issue of Cosmo and learning “If my guy is really that into me”, it ended poorly as they were escorted out by Commons security and resulted in two Commons guards being sent to the hospital in the process.
Yeah, some of the protesters were hurt.
However, none of them were hurt enough to bother discussing it.
Now the accusation by Conservative MP Jay Hill, is that NDP leader Jack Layton actually booked the room that these protesters used to practice their chants before they stormed the Commons.
Have a read here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/bureau-blog/did-jack-layton-know/article1340688/
I understand that it’s hard to get excited about what passes as a “scandal” these days in Ottawa, where you have the Liberals holding press conferences to discuss how certain websites are “Blue” and the conspiracy theory that the Canadian Olympic Logo is a defacto Conservative Party of Canada Logo.
Because I for one can assure you that during the last election, the last thing I saw was a red car in the parking lot which mesmerized me so much that I simply needed to vote Liberal…
See that is the problem with the NDP, not enough Orange cars on the road.
What passes for scandal in Ottawa is clearly not as sexy as it use to be.
However,
If Jack had anything to do with these young folks storming into Parliament then as far as I am concerned, that is a pretty sexy scandal.
One that a Conservative or Liberal MP would need to resign as a result of.
Although, it doesn’t seem to be getting any airplay?
Had Iggy pulled this stunt, it would have resulted in a lead story on most news networks?
Had Harper pulled this stunt, there would be a seven day exposé in the Toronto Star, and CBC would have broken into the middle of Pit Pony to drop this bomb.
I think this really does explain why the NDP is stuck in the mud, and destine to because the fourth party till they are overtaken and forgotten, because this sort of thing seems to get the standard response of:
“Come on, It’s Vintage Jack”
While at the end of the day, its good news because Jack can continue to lead and fight the good fight regardless of if he was in anyway involved or not which we really don’t know.
However, if the NDP ever wants to become a viable opposition party they have to stop acting like the spoiled younger brother who’s parents are too tired from raising the first few kids that they just give in when little Jackie stomps up and down, or holds his breath.
The fact that most media outlets don’t find this news worthy, when a Press Conference of Wayne Easter shaking a doorknob last week made page one on many of the news websites seems to be indicative of the fact that we don’t hold the NDP to the same standard we hold the other parties.
Which has to make you wonder if voters’ en mass can ever hold the NDP to a high enough standard to give them more then 40 seats in the Commons?
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Who are you? And what are you doing here?
It’s hard to care.
Please be clear, it’s not because I don’t care about my country, or the democratic process or the sacrifices that were made so that I could enjoy the freedoms I wake up with every morning that I take for granted.
It’s just hard when the majority of your country is populated by people who are more interested in what happened on last nights CSI trilogy episode then what is happening in the halls of the very government they rolled their eyes and had to drive all the way to the polling station to vote for a year ago.
Listening to people talk about politics in this country is enough to almost want a despot, not a really mean one, but just a guy who is enough of an asshole to make people realize what “fascism” and a “theft of liberties” actually is, and just for a few months. I can assure you that voter turn out in the election to follow would be in mid 90% range.
People seem to form their opinions based on the headline in a newspaper, or a 30 second TV ad.
Forget about actually reading the article under the headline, or doing your own research to verify what is being fed to you, I mean come on…Survivor is on tonight…
To be very clear, so that I don’t lead anyone along the wrong path:
I consider myself to be a strong fiscal Conservative, and a strong social Libertarian.
What does that mean?
1) It means I don’t care who you are nailing in your bedroom,
As long as they are of age and they are consenting.
2) It means that I don’t care what you drink, smoke, or snort in the comfort of your living room.
But the second you go out on the streets or behind the wheel onto roads that you share with me and the sons and daughters of this country, you should be pulled aside and asked to bite the curb as your skull is stomped into it for being a reckless idiot, because now you are effecting my freedom and my rights.
3) It means that I understand that many laws are in place because of a minority of people who cannot understand what it means not to infringe on the rights of others.
I can talk on my cell phone and keep my eyes on the road, however I understand that the asshole barreling down the 401 @ 3PM talking, texting, and watching a YouTube Video on his iPhone is going to kill someone, and if I have to use a headset because other people cannot be responsible just in the chance that law will save the life of someone I have never met, I am fine with it.
4) It means I don’t consider the Government a replacement for personal responsibility
You make your own choices in life, you raise your kids, you have kids, you parent your own kids, however if we reach a point where your kid power slams someone on the playground at recess because you didn’t supervise them and they watched Monday Night Raw, its not the governments responsibility to ban Raw, its your responsibility to do your damn job as a parent.
5) It means the Government should run their finances like every Canadian has to run theirs
I would love a 50” 1080p Plasma in my crapper and I could whip out the plastic and pay for that TV, however then I have to deal with how to pay for it when the bill shows up later that month, something the government (of all political stripes) simply do not do, its spend, spend, spend to buy votes and let the kids deal with it.
Well I am one of those kids who is dealing with the consequences of that mentality during the Pierre Trudeau era, I am the generation that was left holding the bag so that he could have his own chapter in Canadian History textbooks.
I always considered Pierre Trudeau to be like that cool uncle who you only saw once or twice a year who brought you awesome gifts and was so laid back and cool that you just wanted to be him, yet at his funeral you had debt collectors lined up around the corner,
Stephen Harper for all his faults (pre 2009 budget) was like that stingy uncle (a miser or a cheapskate if you will) who always brought a sandwich and an apple in a brown paper bag, never ate out, and always gave you these odd cheap gifts which were practical but not cool, and when he died you found that he left you 20k in his will.
I don’t need my politicians’ to be “cool” I need them to do their damn jobs and have the best interest of the future of this country in mind all the time.
So why am I blogging?
I don’t want to “talk” politics with my friends, neighbors’, or family.
I want to comment. I want to take the latest outrage and vent on it.
You as a reader will basically just read my internal frustrations as the explode onto a page.
In this political climate with an opposition in Ottawa that is making decisions based on weekly polling data, and a Liberal Government in Toronto who can rock out a scandal like eHealth yet still be ahead in the polls…
I need a place a vent, and since every other asshole has a blog?
Why not this asshole?
Please be clear, it’s not because I don’t care about my country, or the democratic process or the sacrifices that were made so that I could enjoy the freedoms I wake up with every morning that I take for granted.
It’s just hard when the majority of your country is populated by people who are more interested in what happened on last nights CSI trilogy episode then what is happening in the halls of the very government they rolled their eyes and had to drive all the way to the polling station to vote for a year ago.
Listening to people talk about politics in this country is enough to almost want a despot, not a really mean one, but just a guy who is enough of an asshole to make people realize what “fascism” and a “theft of liberties” actually is, and just for a few months. I can assure you that voter turn out in the election to follow would be in mid 90% range.
People seem to form their opinions based on the headline in a newspaper, or a 30 second TV ad.
Forget about actually reading the article under the headline, or doing your own research to verify what is being fed to you, I mean come on…Survivor is on tonight…
To be very clear, so that I don’t lead anyone along the wrong path:
I consider myself to be a strong fiscal Conservative, and a strong social Libertarian.
What does that mean?
1) It means I don’t care who you are nailing in your bedroom,
As long as they are of age and they are consenting.
2) It means that I don’t care what you drink, smoke, or snort in the comfort of your living room.
But the second you go out on the streets or behind the wheel onto roads that you share with me and the sons and daughters of this country, you should be pulled aside and asked to bite the curb as your skull is stomped into it for being a reckless idiot, because now you are effecting my freedom and my rights.
3) It means that I understand that many laws are in place because of a minority of people who cannot understand what it means not to infringe on the rights of others.
I can talk on my cell phone and keep my eyes on the road, however I understand that the asshole barreling down the 401 @ 3PM talking, texting, and watching a YouTube Video on his iPhone is going to kill someone, and if I have to use a headset because other people cannot be responsible just in the chance that law will save the life of someone I have never met, I am fine with it.
4) It means I don’t consider the Government a replacement for personal responsibility
You make your own choices in life, you raise your kids, you have kids, you parent your own kids, however if we reach a point where your kid power slams someone on the playground at recess because you didn’t supervise them and they watched Monday Night Raw, its not the governments responsibility to ban Raw, its your responsibility to do your damn job as a parent.
5) It means the Government should run their finances like every Canadian has to run theirs
I would love a 50” 1080p Plasma in my crapper and I could whip out the plastic and pay for that TV, however then I have to deal with how to pay for it when the bill shows up later that month, something the government (of all political stripes) simply do not do, its spend, spend, spend to buy votes and let the kids deal with it.
Well I am one of those kids who is dealing with the consequences of that mentality during the Pierre Trudeau era, I am the generation that was left holding the bag so that he could have his own chapter in Canadian History textbooks.
I always considered Pierre Trudeau to be like that cool uncle who you only saw once or twice a year who brought you awesome gifts and was so laid back and cool that you just wanted to be him, yet at his funeral you had debt collectors lined up around the corner,
Stephen Harper for all his faults (pre 2009 budget) was like that stingy uncle (a miser or a cheapskate if you will) who always brought a sandwich and an apple in a brown paper bag, never ate out, and always gave you these odd cheap gifts which were practical but not cool, and when he died you found that he left you 20k in his will.
I don’t need my politicians’ to be “cool” I need them to do their damn jobs and have the best interest of the future of this country in mind all the time.
So why am I blogging?
I don’t want to “talk” politics with my friends, neighbors’, or family.
I want to comment. I want to take the latest outrage and vent on it.
You as a reader will basically just read my internal frustrations as the explode onto a page.
In this political climate with an opposition in Ottawa that is making decisions based on weekly polling data, and a Liberal Government in Toronto who can rock out a scandal like eHealth yet still be ahead in the polls…
I need a place a vent, and since every other asshole has a blog?
Why not this asshole?
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