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!

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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.

Am I becoming a curmudgeon?

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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.

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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.

Check out this link to see how a successful urban hen policy can work.

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So, O Canada ranked 4th out of 6 national anthems examined in a British study…. in terms of sing-along-ablily, that is…

I’m not surprised at all… The ol’ Soviet National Anthem rocked… didn’t understand a freakin’ word, of course.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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.

An internal report on how the Privy Council Office spent $340,000 on hospitality found widespread flouting of a basic rule — that is, public servants must get prior approval from a supervisor before spending the cash.

The review of 2,100 hospitality claims over 13 months, ending last June, found employees repeatedly failed to get a green light before racking up expenses.

The average claim was for about $160, for drinks, meals and other largesse.

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.

But I do expect the Office that reports directly to the Prime Minister to abide by the same rules.

Am I asking too much????

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

Great vid on why you should vote for anyone but Harper.

Watch this and think… think really hard if you are thinking of marking a “X” beside the Harper Party candidate in your riding.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

I love how Gable made Stevo’s nose extra long…

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

…is what I call these words:

Conservatives are reacting with fury to a Liberal attack ad that accuses them of harbouring a secret agenda to cut health care funding if they obtain a majority government.

“The Liberal ad uses some of the dirtiest tricks in the book — including twisting words out of context and deliberately altering dates to make old words appear recent,” Tory campaign manager Jenni Byrne wrote to party supporters in reaction to the new attack ad.

I hate attack ads no matter who the source and who the target, but I had a bit of a belly laugh when I read the bolded text above. The Cons perfected the art. And isn’t imitation the highest form of flattery?

Remember this ad that was pulled from the Con website after they were spanked by everyone for so blatantly taking words out of context?

Cons – if you’re gonna give crap like that, ya gotta be prepared to take it too.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

This is where your tax dollars ended up.

So it’s only 100K? Right?

100K buys a low income family a decent living arrangement.

100K buys a whole lot of food for a food bank.

100K buys more than a few boxes of textbooks for our kids.

100K could have been spent better.

httpv://trashysworld.ca/2010/08/01/the-tony-clement-gazebo-on-video/

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

Truth told, I never really liked Brian Mulroney. I found him kind of arrogant and self-absorbed. He also got WAY too cozy with the Americans – IMHO. I ran in the 1993 election for these reasons, among others.

But I did respect the guy. Although our politics differed somewhat, I found him to be intelligent, articulate and knowledgable (OK, well-briefed). He was also arguably the “greenest” of all our Prime Ministers having established the “Green Plan”. An environmental roadmap that was lauded by the rest of the world.

Ah, those were the days… when Canada actually led the world in something other than spin…

So when I read this piece on the lack of enthusiasm that Mr. Mulroney has for the Harper-led Conservative government, I was not really too surprised. Mulroney was a PM who, love him or hate him, articulated policies, not political opportunism.

It was an illuminating moment in a remarkably candid conversation.

Brian Mulroney, the most successful Conservative prime minister since Sir John A. Macdonald, was sitting down for a rare television interview the other day in Montreal.

TVOntario’s Steve Paikin, always adroit at coaxing politicians to dish, broached the subject of the May 2 election and Conservative Leader Stephen Harper.

“You’re voting for Mr. Harper, I take it,” said Paikin, coincidentally the moderator of Tuesday’s English-language leaders’ debate.

“At this point,” replied Mulroney with a pause that seemed to hang in the air longer than its mere second, “I’ll vote for the Conservative candidate in my constituency.”

Whoa!

Thanks Mr. Mulroney, for showing that it is not only we progressives who are uncomfortable with Harper’s version of conservative politics.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

Feschuk is a pretty funny guy.

Authors have devoted entire books to trying to decipher and understand Stephen Harper. But is he really that complex? I’d say his pattern of behaviour over recent years has given Canadians a rather clear sense of who he is.

He’s the only leader of a G8 country who also happens to be a seven-year-old boy.

A seven-year-old cannot tolerate being wrong, so he goes to any lengths to explain things away.So does Harper. Consider his reaction when the Federal Court of Appeal ruled the Conservatives had violated our election laws with their “in-and-out” financing racket.

First, Harper called it an “administrative dispute”—which is like getting caught cheating on your wife and trying to dismiss it as an “anatomical incident.”

He then downplayed the ruling, claiming there have been “different court decisions on this particular matter.” That’s an interesting take on how our justice system works. Last I checked, court is not a best-of-five thing. You cannot, for instance, lose at the Supreme Court and still claim to have squeaked out a thrilling three-to-two court victory.

(By the way, one of the Conservative insiders charged by Elections Canada tweeted that anyone who thinks Harper knew about the illegal financing scheme is “an idiot.” That claim makes perfect sense because Harper is renowned for his laid-back, hands-off style of management.)

LOL!

I’ll be keeping that pic for posterity!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

I’m not going to jump into the OdaGate debacle. Nor am I going to rant again against the attack ads that the CPC continues to run. The description of the what she did and the outright condemnation by Canadian of all stripes has been well-covered in the MSM and the blogosphere. As well, there does seem to be a bit of a backlash against the attack ads that the Harperites continue to air.

Regular readers of this corner of cyberspace know where I stand on these things.

Instead, I want to look at what some conservatives themselves are saying.

From My Corner of the Universe, re: Oda:

It’s a big deal because it proves that politicians can’t truly be trusted.  It proves that the CPC has members that can’t be trusted.  It proves that the CPC has lost those true conservative values and are willing to do whatever it takes to stay in office.

I was willing to overlook the attack ads.  All the parties slam each other, it seems to be an expected behaviour.  The Minister of Finance has done an okay job, despite his apparent ignorance of basic economic principles.  But bald-faced lying is the straw that’s broken the camel’s back.  I cannot, will not, support a party that not only encourages its members to lie, but supports it as well.

From the Blogging Tories forum:

What Ms. Oda is, in fact, a big deal. The facts seem to verify that she did lie and deliberately try to deceive Parliment (sic). It’s an old story. The coverup is worse than the crime (think Nixon and Clinton). What her punishment, if any,will be is anyones (sic) guess but I suspect she will simply go to the back benches in the next cabinet shuffle.

From Searching for Liberty:

And if you notice, Bev Oda signed the recommendation..  err.. the “NOT” recommendation, some two months after the other two committee members.  One might guess that amongs (sic) the thousands of civil servants in Ottawa, maybe, as this obviously wasn’t an urgent priority, they might have found one employee to re-type the form, or maybe, oh I’m just spit-balling here.. maybe Bev Oda could have written a whole sentence in her own handwriting saying, “I respectfully decline to approve” or something like that.

Call me crazy, but as a government Minister, I’m guessing she talks and writes occasionally in complete sentences.

I’ll tell you what.

I’m guessing the committee reviews these things and then comes to a unanimous decision as a rule.  And then they draft the memo and they circulate it for signatures.

And then they sign the stupid form.

But this time, someone vetoed them.

I’d like to know who.

But then, as a card-carrying Conservative, who donates to the party.. I’m just another one of those lefties in a knot.

Not.

I’m a Conservative who doesn’t like weasels when they are Liberals and I don’t like them any more when they are Conservatives.

In fact, I like them less.. because I don’t expect federal Liberals to be honest and open.

From Conservatives, I expect more.

And finally, from The Squid Zone on attack ads:

It has become clear, however, the the Conservative Party of Canada wishes to lower the standards of political behaviour.  Instead of educated and intelligent people debating issues and presenting facts, CPC would prefer to sling mud and make attacks worthy of any kindergarten sandbox.  I am embarrassed that a party of conservatives – people who value our best traditions (that is what “conservative” means) – would go out of their way to try and destroy what I think is one of our best traditions: gentlemanly discourse in the political arena.

I wish to make this perfectly clear.  The Conservative Party of Canada will not get so much as a penny from me, nor will any CPC candidate gain my support in an election as long as the party continues to produce or run attack advertising.  If the party cannot stand on its record and on its position on issues, it is unequivocally unworthy of my support financially and at the polls.

There is just one thing to remember – Oda and the CPC communication folks take their marching orders from the same person: Stephen Harper. Bev Oda may indeed be a competent Minister, but Harper has set her up in order to knock her down. Make no mistake about that.

Maybe, just maybe the politics of cynicism and division will eventually catch up with our dear PM. The polls are not showing that currently, but rather than illustrating asurge in support for the CPC, I really think that they are a reflection of the unpopularity of Iggy – whether he deserves this or not is another matter.

Here’s what I think will happen in the election that is almost sure to happen this spring. There will be good CPC strength right through the campaign… showing numbers close to a majority. But what happens on E-day might be different as I suspect that just enough conservative supporters will either stay at home or hold their noses and vote for the Grits if they have a good local candidate.

And *poof*! Another minority ReformCon government.

And you know what? They will have only themselves to blame.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario