As much as I’d like to believe that Joyce Murray can pull off an upset and win the LPC leadership, I cannot realistically expect this to happen. Trudeau has the momentum, the money and the supporters. And the hair.
But…
Joyce has the policy knowledge. She knows the files. We don’t know if JT knows the files. J’en doute.
She has the guts to stand up to the hyper partisan portion of the party to say : let’s put our differences with the NDP aside for one election and cooperate in order to defeat the Cons. Then we reform the electoral system with something that will more accurately represent the intentions on Canadians.
She recognizes that splitting the centre / left of centre vote election after election will only assure a CPC government… Election after election.
She also sees the value of environmental sustainability and policies aimed to ensure that biodiversity, our water supplies and our food supplies are protected.
She also knows that Canada’s place on the international stage has been severely tarnished by the Harperites, and she will work to put us back in a place where we are once again respected.
And she also knows that the war on marijuana is one that should have never been waged and the time has come to legalize its use and remove the criminal element from this industry.
I Just voted for Joyce Murray, the best candidate to represent the interests of Canadian progressives and the LPC!
Remembrance Day is tomorrow. Give some thought to soldiers old and young and how war has ruined and changed so many lives. They have earned at the very least our respect not only on November 11, but every day.
Too bad the CPC doesn’t agree.
========================================================================================================================================================Hockey lockout continues... and I think some fans will turn away for good. I might be one of them… billionaires arguing with millionaires. And it’s the concession staff, ticket takers, sports bar staff, etc., who suffer the greatest.
At first, I was surprised about the resignation. Men and women cheat on their spouses all the time, but don’t have to give up their jobs. After some thought, I then realised that the affair could be fodder for blackmail by the bad guys and the affair, hence, becomes a security risk. Does that sound reasonable? I also heard that he is an ex-General, and adultery is a fire-able offense for senior officers. And even though he is not active, he may have felt honour-bound to fall upon the sword.
Don’t agree with what he did, but how he handled it what amazingly classy, and, yeah, honourable.
Finally, much cyber-ink has been spilled about Harpo sending his private limo across the world to India to ensure his protection while there.
NEW DELHI, INDIA Prime Minister Stephen Harper is travelling in India using at least two armoured vehicles flown in from Canada, an extraordinary measure that suggests the prime minister is facing heightened security threats during his extended visit here.
And as many as 70 Canadian security personnel — a bigger than usual contingent — has traveled to India to ensure the prime minister’s protection, according to a source.
Guess what?
I *gulp* agree with this.
Look. Like it or not, Steve is a foreign leader in an non-secure environment. He needs to be safe. This was the right move. If I were the PM, I would have done likewise.
Man, it gives me cramps when I agree with the Prime Robot.
I’m writing this in the stands at my son’s skating practice. Wow, has he ever improved! And he adamantly refuses to do the ” Chicken Dance” as requested by the teachers. Atta boy!!!
At this rate, he doesn’t have far to go before he betters his old man!
Last, the diet. Dropped 18 lbs. BP consistently around 118/78. Feel good except for that motherf***er of a cold.
And its not really that hard to go lo Na.
I’ll cheat. Not the CIA version, but my birthday is approaching and we are spending next weekend at Chateau Montebello. I’ll not care about the salt content for one night.
Public servants who got in trouble for wearing “Stephen Harper Hates Me” buttons to work are fighting back.
Several employees at the Canada Revenue Agency who were told to remove the buttons by their managers have filed grievances through their union to fight the order.
The buttons were made by members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), the largest union representing federal public servants, and have been circulating around the country. Some workers wore them at May Day rallies to mark International Workers Day and they were available at PSAC’s national convention in Ottawa at the end of April.
Robert Campbell, president of the Union of Taxation Employees (UTE), which falls under the PSAC umbrella, said some CRA employees pinned the buttons to their jackets and wore them to and from work in the following weeks. They complied when advised to remove them.
Look, folks criticise the government all of the time and I do think that The Robot and his minions don’t particularly “love” the PS. BUT, as long as it is done on your own time and own equipment (at home or over an iPhone, for example), criticism is within the bounds. But government critics who are also in the PS ought to be very careful about the line that is straddled because, like it or not, ultimately, the government is the boss. And one should not criticise them on work time or on work premises. As far as I am concerned, what public servants do outside these parameters is well within their rights, as long as they are not casting aspersions on their own departments.
So no, the employer is within their rights to demand that these buttons not be worn on work premises. Just like they have the right to dictate hours and dress codes.
Even though I am not a BB user, I do of course feel for the thousands of families who are going to suffer because of the downfall of the once Canadian Golden Boy of the tech world.
But I gotta wonder if this would have happened hadn’t the previous CEO, Jim Basillie, been more concerned with his companies health than with landing an NHL franchise.
A local MP and police in northwest Toronto are calling for a national stolen cellphone registry to stop an epidemic of thefts in their area and across the city.
Mike Sullivan, MP for York South-Weston, says the CRTC must act quickly to create a registry of identification numbers from stolen cellphones and ask providers not to reactivate phones on that list.
That’s all for now! Have a safe and fun long weekend and try to picture a Canada Day a few years out when we will NOT have Stephen Harper living at 24 Sussex… (151)
If you are, or if you really think that this is an innocent Private Member Motion to simply discuss updating the “when does life begin” law, then you need to give your head a shake.
Of course, the timing of this is to distract Canadians from the F-35, prisons, crime bill, Bev Oda, election fraud, etc. etc. And the motion itself is intended to appease the red meat social cons from the west and in rural Canada.
The end game is to take away or limit right-to-choose rights from women. There is no doubt in my mind.
Harper micromanages and controls all messaging coming out of the CPC. All of it. This PMM did NOT just sneak though. It has the full support of the PM.
Didn’t he say last election “Let me be perfectly clear, we will no reopen the abortion debate”
Mr. Harper has taken Canada down an ugly path of gradual incrementalist polarization, division, cynicism, and subterfuge. I am deeply embarrassed and ashamed that such an amoral and unethical character could sit in the chair of the most important office in the land. He does not deserve the respect his office commands. Why? Because this sinister attack is only the latest in a very long string of flagrantly debasing drive-by hits, destructive and cynical policy, and immoral conduct by this small man and his smaller coterie of taxpayer-funded cheap shot artists and assassins.
This criticism is not aimed at the vast majority of Conservative Party members. They are good and decent people. I know they are horrified with how Stephen Harper has perverted the basic values of the old Reform and Progressive Conservative parties.
Robert Stanfield, Joe Clark, Brian Mulroney and Kim Campbell would never sanction – much less stomach – Stephen Harper’s actions and the ugly politics he personifies.
My favourite quote : “Stephen Harper is the Todd Bertuzzi of Canadian politics.” Good one!
Majority Government. No election in sight for years. And still they practice the politics of cynicism and fear… (366)
So Harper is acting all smug and tough in Davos, isn’t he?
Although short on details, Mr. Harper’s speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday made clear the sweep of his ambition. He will change how Canadians finance their retirement. He will overhaul the immigration system. He will make oil and gas exports to Asia a “national priority” and aggressively pursue free trade in India and Europe.
Sigh. I agree with most of that but too bad no one in Davos is calling him on the G8 slush fund, the In and Out scandal, abandoning the environment to oil companies, corporate welfare enhancements, etc., etc.
Message to the Cons – the pendulum will swing back one day – and it will smack you right in the forehead!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ It’s All Star weekend in Ottawa! So why aren’t I smitten? I dunno, but I guess I’m getting more cynical as I get older and see these things more as money-making circuses and less like celebrations of the game.
Good to see that the OC Trashpo head, Alain Mercier has backed down from his “you’ll get GPS data when I say you can” stance -,albeit under enormous political pressure from both some Transit Commissioners (thank you Councillor Tierney!) and the public at large.
Hens in the backyard? Why not, as long as there are strict controls in place and enforced. I grew up on a hobby farm where we had fresh eggs every day. Nothing like them.
There is a movement building in O Town to convince Council into changing the City Bylaw that prohibits the keeping of backyard hens. Keeping hens in an urban setting is not exactly an unusual practice and provides food for a household and education for the little ones. If done properly, there is little noise and no smell.
Given the hoops that Public Servants are forced to jump through to be able to have coffee available at a meeting, this type of stuff REALLY pisses me off!
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s own department has repeatedly broken the government’s tough rules for hospitality spending.
I’m serious. If you aren’t a Public Servant who has tried to get even the tiniest hospitality expense approved, then you cannot appreciate the bureaucracy involved and levels of approval that are required.
And I’m not really complaining about that; after Adscam, abuses or even the potential perception of an abuse must be prevented. It may be a bit overboard sometimes, but the rules are the rules… at least for some of us.
Yeah....
The ignorance of those sans enfants
Trashy in Parry Sound
