Gritchik rox royally sometimes…

httpv://gritchik.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/a-very-conservative-christmas-message/

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

Eerie, isn’t it?

Redrum, redrum… Regrem, regrem…

Think about it… Mulcair in Jack’s role… Hammering an axe through the Liberal caucus room’s door!

For those of you who don’t get the cultural reference, I pity you.

Seriously, if the progressive voices are to ever unseat the ReformCons, they will have to merge, or at the very least come to some sort of a cooperative agreement.

Yeah, yeah. Bad blood. Whatever. Get over it… else I’ll be collecting a pension before we see something other than a regressive party in power.

Regrem, regrem, Regrem, regrem,Regrem, regrem

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

Warren Kinsella penned a very good note recently on all of the Grit/Dipper Mergecoalicooperation (new word!) which drew some equally insightful comments… as Kinsella’s columns often do…

James Bow correctly pointed out the following:

You need to be clear about what’s on the table, here. Electoral cooperation, coalition and merger are three very different things, each with wholly different implications for Canadian voters.

And I agree. There is some confusion over these terms that are being thrown about rather haphazardly these days.

Electoral cooperation

This is akin to voting strategically, except on the side of the parties rather than on the voters. There are certain ridings where, in the pursuit of defeating Harpy and having a House with a Progressive Agenda, there can be tacit agreements that the Grits will support the Dippers in some way, or vice versa depending on the circumstances during and election campaign.

For example, say the Cons won a seat by a small margin and one could realistically expect some voters from the 3rd place party to support the second place party if encouraged to do so by the third place party. Take Nunavut for example:

2008 General Election Results:

Even if only 25% of the NDP voters went to the Grits, that would be more than enough to unseat the Cons because it would be highly unlikely that any of the Dipper votes would vote for the Cons… most Dippers would rather burn their union cards than do THAT!

The cooperation could take many forms. Sharing workers, running low-keys campaigns or weak candidates, even an outright endorsement of the opponent – all are possible. But do not. I repeat, do NOT run less than a complete slate of candidates. That is a coalition – not cooperation. And the Harperites would pounce on that like a mongoose on a cobra!

I predict that this is the most likely development we will see in the next election. And it may, just may further the Progressive Agenda.

Coalitions:

Yes, they are legal. Yes, western democracies do use coalitions as a way to bring together different parties under one banner with an agreed upon legislative agenda. Nothing wrong with it.

However, because of the way that the Cons portrayed the last unsuccessful attempt at a coalition between the Grits and Dippers (and NO, the Bloq was NOT as part of the coalition) any notion of a working coalition by the two should be stated up front in the course of the campaign. Give the voters the opportunity to vote for a Progressive vision and still allow them to keep the faith for their own respective parties.

This scenario might happen. But I’m not sure Iggy has the balls or the inclination to do so. His ego might get in the way.

Merger:

Admittedly this is my preference but for a variety of reasons, I don’t think it will happen in the near future, and here is why:

• Too easy a target for the ReformCons. Can’t you see the ads? “Michael Ignatieff and the liberal party have chosen to partner with the tax and spend, nationalizing, pro-Taliban socialists”. Yes, a pile of crap, but the Tim Horton crowd would eat it up.
• Many Blue Grits would rather head for the DeceptiCons than merge with Jack Layton. And many Dippers would just stay home. There is a long history here and to ignore it would be perilous. The combined party – at least right now – may garner fewer votes than the two parties combined as separate entities. That being said, the two parties of the Left and centre Left MUST coalesce at some point in the future if we are to avoid years and years of right-wing bullshit.
• Don’t forget that it took 4 or 5 years before the current Cons won as high a percentage of the vote as the PCs and the Alliance put together during the 1997 & 2000 election campaigns. The internal schism, even if it was temporary, would open the door to a Harper majority; something all Progressives in this country definitely do NOT want to see!

But, hey, for political junkies like me, these are the best of times!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

There is an interesting opinion piece in the Star today penned by Glenn Wheeler on how it is up to the rank and file of the Grits and Dippers to start the coalition ball rolling.

To be clear – while I have been a member of both parties in the past, I am not so currently. But one thing I am sure of is that I am a progressive.  And I would actively support any arrangement that would move the progressive agenda forward to counter the social conservatism that has been dominant on the Hill for the past several years.

But – sigh – this has been talked about again and again and again… so I am slightly less than optimistic that an effective coalition under strong and clear leadership is waiting in the wings.

To the leaderships of both parties – put the egos aside and start working toward a partnership that would provide Canada with a clear and progressive path forward!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

So gold medalist snowboarder, Ross Rebagliati, is going to carry the Grit banner and go up against Doris in the next election. And I say why not?

Lotsa of pundits are going to pan this saying that this guy has no experience, has a dubious past because of the whole pot thing and is a bit goofy looking.

So what?

Listen. If any party is going to go anywhere in engaging voters who are not necessarily attracted to 50+ grey haired male spin-doctors, they must recruit candidates that fit the target demographic. Not exactly rocket science, eh?

Iggy. I hope you’re paying attention.

Besides, I think Mr. Rebagliati would make a great M.P. He is an ex-Olympic athete who knows how to compete, must have had a work ethic to get to that level and likely believes that the world is more than 4,000 years old!

Hell, I might even send him out a few bucks to go toward his campaign!

Go for it Ross! Best of luck!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

Possible summer election

As much as I’d like to say that I’d like to see an election this summer I have to counsel caution… leadership numbers still too soft, unpredictable and therefore the Grits are vulnerable to the slightest slip-up. Give Iggy the summer. The Harperites will no doubt stumble some more and give the Grits some firm wedge issues on the leadership front.

The risk is that we really are seeing the beginnings of an economic recovery and this will bode well for the Harperites. I doubt that this is the case and that we are at least a year away from seeing real recovery. And even then the manufacturing sector in Ontario will still be undergoing a long period of restructuring.

Regardless, give the ReformCons the summer to (pick one or all of the following:

• Say something stupid about race, religion, immigration or language
• Leave Top Secret docs on an OC Transpo bus
• Leave Top secret docs in the washroom of the Spark Street CBC studios
• Reveal information that links a sitting ReformCon MP to a white supremacist group or a  loony religious sect
• Miss a photo op with other world leaders
• Wear a leather vest or something equally unflattering – like a sweater vest for instance

Sprawl

Ottawa will expand the boundaries of the City by a few hundred hectares.  Despite the Official Plan provisions that intensification projects be preferred over more suburbanization, the City staff and politicians will undoubtedly give in to pressure from developers and allow a further stretching of the designated urban area.

I am a Planner by training. Have a Masters degree in the field as a matter of fact. And, in planning school we were taught that sprawl was bad. Infrastructure costs are higher, a sense of community is more difficult to foster, there are higher GHG emissions due to higher automobile traffic, etc., etc.

Haven’t we sprawled enough? Time to give up the quaint notion of the Greenbelt and plan our City more sustainably.
The kids who are running the government

Is it my imagination or does it seem like most of the staffers who work with the ReformCons are under 30? Not to put down those who have yet to experience the delights of middle-age, but the inexperience is beginning to show. Witness the problems that various Ministers have experienced lately that have been the direct result of ill-prepared staffers.

Still. The buck stops at the Minister’s office, doesn’t it? Folks like Lisa Raitt have to accept responsibility and not use the poor kids as scapegoats.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

How Conservatives try to distort the truth. Lesson #231.

I recently blogged about this right-wing site that at times will register right off the ol’ cynicism meter.  But I do enjoy my visits there – if not only for the “wtf” factor than anything else.
It is also quite well-written. Although I don’t think the author and I would agree on much past “good morning”, I do respect his talent vis à vis the written word.

But.

I was on the site this morning to see what latest drivel was seeping from the blog. The most recent post was about the “eviction” of the much-aligned Grit, Ruby Dhalla (and man, this guy has some hate on for poor Ruby!).

I, being the curious cat that I am, went immediate to my trusty Globe and Mail to see what their take was on all of this.

Hmm… nothing there.

OK. The National Post would OF COURSE have something… likely a half-page column!

Nope. Nada.

So I Googled her name combined with the word “eviction”.  And the only things that rained out were on a bunch of right-wing blogs… most of them citing the aforementioned Angry in the Great White North blog.

So, I, being the helpful little guy that I am, commented on the posting noting that I couldn’t find this information anywhere else and could someone please help me verify it.

Funny thing is that I can’t find this story anywhere but in the conservative blog world. Can’t find a mention of it in the Star either. Maybe I’m simply not looking hard enough but can someone point me to a source that I can believe?
I always enjoy reading these posts – from a “wtf” perspective. But I cannot believe that even a right-wing blogger would make something like this up!
Convince me otherwise!

THIS set off a number off “uh-oh” type comments. Some of which mentioned the word “libel”.  Soon thereafter, the poster placed a request from the MP’s office asking him to remove the post as it was patently untrue.

Of course, I, being the resourceful soul that I am, saved the original posting before it is erased.

Now, I’m not saying that the Grits or anyone else never tries this thing once in a while, but I would like to think that the non-Harperites would AT THE VERY LEAST do some background work BEFORE posting something that could harm the rep. of a public figure.  This was deceiving, deceitful and shameful.  Not to mention sloppy.

The postscript to this is that the blogger has apologized to the M.P. for the misinformation:

Since I have no reason to doubt this, I’ll retract the statement that
Ruby Dhalla has been evicted.  Appropriate sections have been struck out.

I have asked for clarification on two issues:

• Is the letter legitimate?
• If so, is the
  landlord providing permission for the office to operate?

If the letter is not legitimate, then it would appear that I’ve been snookered by someone who has access to
Ruby Dhalla’s office in order to post a letter on the inside.

If so, I apologize to
Ruby Dhalla, and wonder who would be interested in embarrassing both of us.  I would also like confirmation from
Ruby Dhalla that there is no problems between her and the
landlord.

Final Resolution:
Ruby Dhalla never responded to my requests for more information, including a clarification regarding the original notice terminating the lease.  I retracted the statement that she had been evicted, because despite the content of the letter, Dhalla insisted her office was open.

Fair enough.

I also received third-party confirmation that the letter had been posted.

Finally, I got in touch with the Bailiff, Earl Lewis.  His only statement to me was to say “The matter has been resolved.  I have no further comment”.

So it seems clear that
Ruby Dhalla had gotten into some sort of bind with her
landlord regarding “improvement maintenance and repair requirements”.  It had gotten to the point that the
landlord initiated action to terminate the lease.  At the 11th hour, it seems,
Ruby Dhalla sorted things out.

An honourable retraction and I give him credit for it. But it still does not erase the fact that ReformCons are getting more and more desperate and will stop at NOTHING to discredit the Liberals.
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Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

The Grits have come up with a pretty clever idea… setting up a website in the name of holding a government to account on specific promises is not new – but it is indeed novel here in the land of the ice and snow.

onprobation.ca is exactly what the name implies – keeping the neocons in line and to account. This is especially useful since these same purveyors of all things Victorian have campaigned on the sacred notions of transparency and accountability (too bad the budget watchdog -an independent and non-partisan office – is not towing the company line…. though the government of the day is going to suffocate this useful initiative through underfunding).

I especially like the timeline on the site. It points out the dates of release of key economic indicators and other dates that are of importance when assessing the Harperites’ (non) progress in mitigating the worst effects of the current financial shitstorm.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

Some very interesting new polling numbers from Nanos Research. This firm is, in my admittedly VERY informed opinion, the most competent group out there from a methodological and question development perspective. They have been doing daily tracking since the writ was dropped.

There is a clear upswing in Grit fortunes – especially in QC, where the change is outside the margin of error.  This is curious because some quebecois friends of mine told me this would happen close to the end of the campaign. Most surprising is Dion’s increase on the leadership index – only 8 points in arrears.

Time (as in tomorrow) will tell whether this is indeed a true trend or sinply a statistical anamoly.

Steve over at Far and Wide has made some good points about this poll.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

Over at The ramblings of a frustrated journalist, Devon wrote the following:

For Dion, I think it is too late to be a leader. The only hope you have is in some of your stronger members. That is one place I think the Liberals are ahead. The Conservatives are running on Harper’s reputation. The actual quality members of the Conservative party are few and far between. Emerson and a few others are leaving, so good luck all those who vote for the Conservative party, you’re not going to get what you’re expecting. There will be a lot of inexperienced people pretending like they know what they are doing when they don’t.

I completely agree with Devon. For Dion, it is too late to be a leader – they can only hope that he doesn’t screw up something too badly. The only hope they have is in some of your stronger members.  The Grit front bench is BY FAR stronger than Harper’s. You have Iggy, Rae, Martha, Dryden and Bennett against:

Uh, well, Stevie is the only one that really matters, eh?

Though, I don’t think this tactic has yet to be considered by the Grit team as they are now pushing back at the CPC Dad-ads with a show on the Liberal website showing Stèphane to be the fun-lovin’ nature enjoyin’ down-home guy that he is.  Rather than try and take charge of the agenda, they are following Harper’s script.

Man, the back room folks in Harper’s shop must be salivating!

But, hey! Campaigns DO matter… but the Grits had better get their act together – and fast!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario