Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

That's "Senator" Partisan Hack To You

Congratulations to Jabba the Duff on finally coming out of the closet. It was always rather a poorly kept secret that Duffy was a Conservative hack in journalists' clothing, but at least now he'll be guaranteed an income till age 75 and a cushy pension thereafter.

But quite aside from Senator Duffy wallowing in pork that was heretofore utilized merely as a topping for his ample servings of poutine, there remains the blatantly obvious flip-floppery of der Führer Stephen Harper stuffing the Senate with 18 patronage appointments after staking a part of his political career on vowing to institute an elected upper chamber. I'm sure we'll hear all the usual Conservative propaganda about how you have to break it in order to fix it, or fix it in order to break it, or something like that. Some see Harper as a "pragmatist". I see him as a man so crazed by the prospect of losing power, that he will throw anyone and anything (including his own ideals) under the bus when the going gets tough. Like atheists, it would seem that there are no Reformers in a foxhole.

Bailing Out

Jim Arnett, appointed only 3 weeks ago as special auto industry advisor to Stephen Harper and Dalton McGuinty, has quit his job. Although he will continue to work with McGuinty, he appears to have had irreconcilable differences with the Harper Conservatives over the plan for restructuring the auto industry.

Federal insiders said yesterday the Conservative government never really saw eye-to-eye with Arnett on what needed to be done, and Ottawa has no immediate plans to look for a successor.

That sounds pretty bad. This sounds even worse:

Instead, Ottawa will rely on internal advice on how GM, Chrysler and Ford can be made more competitive.

Fantastic. Hopefully, these advisors will be as productive and credible as other giants of Conservative "internal advice":

Wajid Khan: Harper's former special advisor on mid-east affairs. Khan's report on the middle east was so top-secret it was never released to the public, and so influential that Stephen Harper was single-handedly able to use it to bring lasting peace to Arabs and Jews. Khan worked all of these miracles while possibly only violating Elections Canada spending laws to the tune of $30, 000, which most Canadians considered a bargain.

Jim Prentice, Lisa Raitt, John Baird: Together, these three intellectual superstars comprise Harper's environment & energy committee. Just like Obama's energy czar Steven Chu (who won a Nobel Prize in Physics and is the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), this team's scientific credentials speak for themselves. Prentice is a lawyer who specializes in physical property rights and served as director of the Calgary Winter Club. Raitt is a lawyer who was the former CEO of the Toronto Port Authority. And Baird has a Bachelor of Arts from Queen's and has been a vegetarian since 1997. Toss in Rona Ambrose, and you have a true scientific powerhouse that has helped to make Canada the envy of the world when it comes to action on the environment.

With internal advisors like this, I have no doubt that Canada's New Government can guarantee the automakers a rosy future, just as Jim Flaherty projected bugdet surpluses for the next five years. And we all know how that turned out.

CPC Spin & Public Ignorance: The Chicken Or The Egg?

A few days ago, Steve V over at Far and Wide posted about the reality of seemingly overwhelming public disapproval of the coalition. In general, I agreed with most of what he had to say. But I couldn't escape the nagging feeling that public views on matters of government are largely shaped by knowledge about the way government is supposed to work. Today, some numbers have come out which confirm that, in general, Canadians are rather poorly informed about our system of government.

For example, results of the Ipsos Reid survey show 75 per cent of Canadians asked believe the prime minister, or the Governor General, is head of state.

It's a telling statistic, and I have to wonder how a misperception of our PM being the head of state may have influenced public acceptance of the legitimacy of the coalition.

All of which brings me to the point of my post. The Conservatives have been busy in recent weeks denouncing the coalition as "illegitimate" and "undemocratic". Harper himself has said:

"The opposition does not have the democratic right (to replace the Conservative government)...without your say, without your consent and without your vote"

This is of course a falsehood in our constitutional monarchy. So by repeating a lie, is Harper creating ignorance, or simply feeding off it?

In either case, I think a strong case can be made for mandatory civics classes in our elementary and secondary schools. As citizens of a democratic nation, we owe it to ourselves and to future generations to take our obligations as electors seriously. As Marc Chalifoux (president of the Dominion Institute) said:

"Canadians certainly were interested by what was going on in Ottawa, but lacked in many cases the basic knowledge to form informed opinions"

Gretchen Carlson: The Festivus Grinch

In response to a Washington man's request to place a Festivus pole amongst the holiday displays at the state capitol in Olympia, Gretchen Carlson of FauxNews expressed her phony outrage at yet another attack on Christmas by the heathens. Said Carlson:

I am tolerant. I'm all for free speech and free rights, just not on December 25th.

You can watch the whole video below.

And for those of you who lived in a cave during the 90's, here is a bit of info on Festivus: The holiday for the rest of us.

Buckle Up, It's Iggy!

Mere days after Dion's resignation, the Liberal caucus has endorsed Michael "Iggy" Ignatieff as interim leader. As readers of this blog will know, I was a supporter of Bob Rae's leadership bid. Like Bob, I wish that the LPC had decided to engage the entire membership in the leadership process, but time and circumstances appear to have dictated otherwise. No matter. The Liberal Party has a number of difficult problems on its plate, and continued political infighting about the leadership need not be one of them. Bob Rae himself has been tremendously gracious about his withdrawal, and has unequivocally given his support to Iggy. From Bob's blog:

I offer my full and unqualified support to Michael, a friend and colleague of more than forty years standing. I call on my friends and supporters to do the same. I know Michael to be a person of wisdom and generosity. He will make a great Prime Minister.

Though I'm disappointed that Rae is out, I think it's time to move on. I still believe the OMOV system will be an important mechanism for the LPC to generate funds and interest, and to connect with grassroots supporters. But this debate is better saved for the convention. For now, it's time for Liberals to focus on the new leader. Iggy's greatest task in the coming days will be to bring the party together and devise a strategy to deal with the inevitable CPC attacks prior to and during the upcoming parliamentary session. If he is to succeed, he will require the party's full support, and he should have it.

Dion's Gone...Now What?

Now that Stéphane Dion has officially offered his resignation, a few thoughts on the current state of the Liberal nation.

• Despite the rather ignominious manner of his departure, Dion should always be remembered as a man of intellect, honesty and integrity.
• Don't rush. Although the weight of support seems to be behind Ignatieff (Dominic LeBlanc has just given a press conference in support of Iggy), the Liberals need to avoid "installing" him as leader via a backroom deal.
• Open up the leadership process to the membership. A One Member One Vote system would serve the dual purpose of offering an inclusive and transparent process, and re-connecting with grassroots supporters.
• Fire every single person working on the Liberal marketing team. Now. The Liberals have to understand that good ideas don't just sell themselves, especially not in the face of a vicious and ruthlessly well oiled CPC attack machine. While they search for a new leader and a new message, they need to hire PR types that are as shrewd as their Conservative counterparts to sell their vision to Canadians.
• Keep up the pressure on Stephen Harper. Make no mistake, King Steve isn't spending even one minute navel gazing about what he could have done differently. He is sitting somewhere, seething at the the way in which he was betrayed by the opposition parties, and he is already plotting his next move. Be prepared.