So I’m getting these damn leaflets in the mail. The text attacks Iggy as being pro-raise-taxes and extols the virtues of the ReformCons as being the economic saviours of Canadian families everything.

Do I really want this crap to be funded out of the pockets of those same families? Doesn’t Harper (and ol’ Larry Miller) realize that we have been down this road before and that the Cons have angrily and self-righteously launched into vitriolic attacks against the Grits for engaging in the same type of political game-playing?

And why am I getting this leaflet from the M.P. for Bruce/Grey/Owen Sound? I cannot help but think that the ReformCons are once again exploiting holes in the Elections Act.

Here are copies of the leaflet that I received.

I am, apparently, not the only one who is questioning the use of these obviously partisan leaflets and the public purse being unzipped to finance them.

Bill Tieleman, a B.C. political commentator, says:

Perhaps the federal Liberals will send me a similar letter soon with these and other quotes about Stephen Harper – and I supply them to Iggy here for free.

But I’d rather that all parties talk a lot more about their policies and a lot less about their opponents’ many and obvious failings.

And most of all – stop wasting my damn tax dollars mailing me junk I didn’t ask for!!

But I’m a little worried. This Larry Miller guy is a bit freaky lookin’… and he gets things “done”…  I may wanna check over my shoulder a bit more often.

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Never one to miss a chance to score some political points, Stevie lays the groundwork for blaming the Grits et al if the refugee claimant system isn’t “fixed”.

Mr. Harper insisted the visa obligation for Mexicans will remain in place until Canada’s refugee system is fixed, calling on opposition parties to join his party in reforming Canada’s refugee system to discourage bogus claimants.

“The visas will stay as long as the problem exists,” he said.

“Parliament should be seized with this issue [and] I hope our Parliament will take advantage of the attention that’s been brought on this issue to deal with this problem,” Mr. Harper said.

Next to come will be:

• blaming the previous regime (the Liberals) for not doing something about this during their (brrr…) reign of terror

• the introduction of legislation that will be just contentious enough to fall outside the “we’ll sign on the dotted line” zone of approval for one of the Opposition parties.

• attack ads labelling Iggy as being soft on bogus refugees and hence soft on terror… or something like that. The words “soft on” will most definitely be used.

Just watch. He is becoming so bloody predictable.

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There are some great observations out in the blogosphere about how some of the Harperite’s crazy cash (aka Economic Stimulus Funding) is being doled out.

I wrote a note about this last week with regards to Clement’s refurbishing of public washrooms in Muskoka. One commenter to that post rightly pointed out that it is the habit of politicians to roll out the ol’ pork barrel when they have the opportunity. I agreed but noted that the ReformCons seem to do it more than the Grits did while in power.

Happily,  we (as in you and I) are giving the spa industry a much needed massage:

The Honourable Christian Paradis, Minister of Public Works and Government Services, today announced the awarding of $200,000 in repayable funding to Spa Le Montagnais under the Community Economic Diversification Initiative – Vitality to undertake the work necessary to establish a Nordic spa… The coexistence of a Nordic spa with other local attractions is bound to attract novelty-seeking visitors.

But giving 4 million smackeroos to a private christian school? Well that takes the cake and it strongly offensive for a hell-bound(1) atheist like me.

I thought we were a secular nation… you know… all that separation of church and state and stuff.

If so, why are Canadian taxpayers footing part of the bill for this project? IMO, this is clearly a case where the religious right is being thanked for its unwavering support for the Harperite socially conservative agenda.

Thanks to Paulitics for pointing this out.

Question – who goes to these schools? There does seem to be a lot of them. Especially out west.

Anyhow, we’re gonna see a lot more of this crap, so I am already planning out the 3rd pork barrelling post, and the fourth and the fifth….

1. As an atheist, I obviously don’t believe in the existence of a heaven or hell, or valhalla… or leprechauns either. But christians sure think I’m destined for fire and brimstone!

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It is really easy to see what the Harperite’s cornerstone will be for the next election campaign.  Oodles of dollars are being used by the CPC trumpeting their Economic (In) Action Plan. The ship of state is being calmly steered through the economic malaise with your good Captain Stevo at the helm… ably assisted by his wacky crew.

I don’t watch a lot of TV but I saw the ad for this the other day.  The home renovation tax credit is the centerpiece of the cornerstone in this instance. This is completely expected as the ReformCon script always calls for simple messages targeted at their weak points – electorally speaking. What better way to sell the Harper brand than by putting some coin back in the pockets of young, middle to upper middle class home-owners?

At least this is what the ad says to me.

All that aside, what struck me about this was the prominent use of the Big Green Envelope that can be used to store all of those receipts for the new brickwork, water heaters and bidets.  Hey, it’s not like we needed those trees  anyway, right?

Here’s a partial pic of one of those envelopes… best I could find.

Now, here’s my reckonin’. The ReformCons will never pass a policy / take up a position / take a crap unless there is some political gain to be had. Yeah, yeah, yeah… they ALL to this to a certain degree – that’s politics. But I am still of the mind that the CPC has this principle as the overriding deal makers or killer. If it doesn’t score us political points, then we ain’t doin’ it. Period. The other parties take political gains into consideration but I am yet to be convinced that the cynicism is as deep as in the meanderings of the Harperites.

So if we take as given the envelope and the campaign around it as a purely political move, then what happens next?

The envelopes will be made available to “home improvement” retailers this fall. My Mom, for example, can go to her Home Hardware Building Centre, buy a new sink and ask the cashier for one of these handy-dandy envelopes to store it in. She takes her rather sturdily-made (at least it seems sturdy – and heavy… glossy too – by the looks of it) home and stores all of the rest of her receipts for the tax year.

Then it is that wonderful time of the year where we file our taxes. I do mine electronically, but my Mom (or anyone’s Mom) likes to do them long-hand (By the way Mom, if you’re reading this, I’m not really talking about you… just using you as a hypothetical example…love you!).

And after carefully doing the additions and subtraction and having carefully stored all of those receipts in that wonderfully-made envelope, what does she you do now?

Why she mails that sturdy package to the government for processing, of course. Yes, she knows that you need only produce your receipts on request. At least that is how things were done in the past. But this sturdy envelope looks so official. Has that nice flag in the corner and everything. Surely I am meant to send it back! Why would the government give me something like this and not expect me to use it? That wouldn’t make any sense at all, would it?

Hey – maybe Mom should take the sturdy, glossy envelope back to Home Hardware?

My observations are as follows:

• A lot of tax payer $$$ was put into the design and production of these politically motivated sturdy and glossy envelopes.

• A lot of tax payer $$$ will be spent distributing them to the retailers… postage and courier costs will be sky-high.

• Tax payers will likely send them back to the government along with their cheques or claims for rebates… and the government folks who receive them won’t know what to do with them… et voilà – landfill fodder!

• Retailers will be confused when folks bring their receipts back to the store.

• And, knowing the CPC, they won’t stop at simply making them available at the retail level; they will target some borderline ridings with just the right demographics and do a wee bit of a direct mail. So, if you see a big, sturdy, glossy envelope in your mailbox this fall, don’t say I didn’t warn you!

• How many of these sturdy, glossy envelopes might we expect to be distributed? Hard to say for sure, but I figure there are at least 50 “national retail establishments and their affiliates where home renovation products are sold” (the CRA’s description) here in Ottawa, and that’s conservative. So, that’s about 1 for every 16,000 people in the City. Extrapolate to Canada and you get about 2,125 outlets. The Harperites spare no expense when it comes to matters political, so pencil in 1,000 envelopes per store. That’s 160,000 sturdy, glossy pieces of political paper. I just ordered quite a few thousand brochures to be printed and they cost about 20 cents per brochure. Given that these envelopes are undoubtedly of higher quality stock and almost definitely heavier… with glue and stuff to hold everything together, I’ll estimate the production of these to be about 50 cents per. That’s 80K to produce. Add about 2 bucks a pop to distribute them and you get a grand total of :

400K!

And that is before advertising costs, outreach, help lines, etc. And before the costs associated with the (I’m presuming) distribution to targeted ridings.

In short, once again we are seeing the real costs of the Harper’s government approach to governing. All politics all the time and damn the bank account!

Thanks Steve!

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I take a particular interest in the political goings-ons in Parry Sound Muskoka. After all, I grew up there, all of my family (save moi) still call it home and I ran as a candidate there in the ’93 General Election. So I do retain an emotional attachment to the place.

A place that is now represented by Tony Clement at the Federal level… a ReformCon from a time when the party wasn’t even yet birthed.  A key part of Mike “The Monster” Harris’ Common Nonsense Revolution, Big Tony moved over to the Harperite bunch a while back and has had a few plum cabinet appointments.

Seems like Big Tony has become Uncle Tony to many of the riding’s folks as he is handing out big bags of moolah to almost everyone who asks! And all in the name of the G8 Summit due to take place outside of Huntsville, Ontario next year... Huntsville is one of the larger centres in the riding.

Funny thing is that much of the largesse (as noted in the article) is not really targeted toward the Summit at all. The Summit is being used as a convenient excuse to practice some good ol’ pork barrel politics.

Now, you may say, so what? Don’t they all do it?

Well, no. Not to this degree.

Big Tony unseated Grit Andy Mitchell a couple of elections back and before him was the legendary Tory,  Stan Darling. Both were very, very good constituency MPs. Looked after their folks well and found money when needed and warranted. But never was present this flagrant and cynical misuse of the public purse in order to buy votes! Yeah – Parry Sound gets some new infrastructure and street work.  Baysville gets some new washrooms. And many other small communities in the riding will get some cash infusions.

And none of these places will have anything to do with next year’s Summit.

Are the ReformCons worried about their prospects here in the next election?  Probably not – it’s just another example of the Politics of Cynicism.

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On the political stage

Just noticed that Iggy has laid down some conditions that the Harperites will have to meet in order to avoid a no-confidence motion and a summer election.

According to Ignatieff, the government must meet the following four conditions:

• Provide more details about improving the employment insurance system before the House of Commons votes on budget estimates at the end of the week. The government has said it will introduce unspecified new EI proposals in the fall.
• Give more information about the rate of stimulus spending than included in last Thursday’s progress report.
• Show more details on the government’s plan to contain the ballooning deficit, instead of offering what Ignatieff called “rosy projections.”
• Provide clearer answers on the government’s action plan to deal with Canada’s medical isotopes shortage.

Ignatieff said the government’s answers and performance so far on these issues “just aren’t good enough.”

This is a type of “haggling”. The Grits are playing from a strong position in that the economy has nose-dived, the have a new and semi-intelligent leader, the polls are pretty good and, of course, Steve is still a robot. And no one likes robots.

What Iggy is saying is the following:

I will support you and we can all have a nice, election-free summer if you at least give the appearance of cutting me a deal by meeting me halfway and following through on my demands. Or at least some of them.

Due to it’s unpredictability, it’s a dangerous game when you engage in political haggling. The seller (in this case Harper) can back away and say “Forget it – I’m calling your bluff.” In which case, the one in the role of the buyer (Iggy) must risk losing the “good” that he is bargaining for (the avoidance of an election) or backing down himself and risk losing credibility.

As much as this Trashman would love to see Harper and his merry gang of ReformCons heaved out onto a pile of half-cured compost, he is very nervous about this game that the Grits are playing. It may just backfire and we’ll end up at the polls this summer. Canadians may take out their frustration on the new kid on the block instead of the robot.

Yikes. Careful Michael, careful…

At the store

The teen-monster is doing some training to ready herself for her 3 week stint as a kid’s camp counsellor and last week was my turn to deliver her to said training centre. For whatever reason – and I didn’t want the details… scaaaaarrrrrrrrrrryyyy – the kid was obviously having a bad day / week and it culminated that day in a ruined shoe. Somehow (again, no details please) she caught a lace in a fence and this tore the footwear asunder.

I actually heard about this earlier in the day when she texted me “Daddy – I need new shoes!”

Feeling particularly magnanimous that day, I suggested that on our way home from the training (which was totally “lame”)we stop at the Billings Bridge plaza to see if we couldn’t outfit her in a new pair… was gonna be a rush since closing time was about 15 minutes away. Hurriedly, she tried on a few sizes before settling on a pair and size that she really liked.

“How much?” I asked the sales-dude.

“$89.99”.

“Yikes!”, said I, “how about a discount?”

“Sure, I’ll give you 15% off.”

Huh. It was that easy? I just had to ask? I may be middle-aged, but in no way resemble a senior.

And any commenters claiming the contrary will be immediately flamed and ridiculed.

Our western culture is anti-haggle, with some exceptions. Haggling over the price of a car or a house or negotiating a price at a garage sale is perfectly OK, but we aren’t like those in many Asian or Middle-Eastern nations where the “back and forth” is the norm.

I’m thinking that I’ll do this more often!

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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.

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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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Yeah, I know. I shouldn’t be giving bandwidth to propagandists like this.

But it is the ill-informed and self-serving agents of the Politics of Cynicism that make me wish that there were an election just around the corner… when we can reduce the ReformCons to a rump in the boondocks of Alberta and rural Canada.

What pisses off RefoooormCons more than anything else is the ability of others to formulate a vision for the country that is not simply an anti-whatever-the-other-guy-is-saying. They are incapable of this and are envious. I guess I’m a little sorry for them.

I may not be Iggy’s biggest fan but I’m 100 % behind him as he tries to put together a forward motion that is NOT cynical and vindictive. This sets him apart from the Harperites.

Stay above the fray M.I.! Leave the gutter sniping to the gutter snipes!

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Great editorial cartoon in the Globe today.

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