Thursday, December 12, 2002

Court Wrong

Am I the only one that thinks that the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear this case is wrong?

The English-speaking owners of a Quebec antique shop have lost a bid to overturn a section of Bill 101, the provincial language law, that requires French to be predominant on commercial signs.

Who says our courts are unbiased?  To me, this smacks of not wanting to interfere in a sovereignty issue.

Tuesday, December 10, 2002

Expensive Pandering

Here’s the real reason the Liberals set up and continue to push the gun registry - despite its massive cost overruns.

But saving lives was not the point. Pandering was the point. How else to understand the Liberals’ despicable defence of the indefensible? Is it ideology that makes Mr. Rock and his cronies so dishonest? Or is it cynicism and opportunism? And can they even tell the difference any more?

Thursday, December 5, 2002

Throwing rocks

Every now and then, some letter writer says it way better than I can. 

Time to get rid of Rock.

TheStar.com - Thanks to Rock, I didn’t get shot

Thanks to Rock, I didn’t get shot

Allan Rock says that he is proud to be associated with the $1-billion gun registration program because it saves 300 lives a year.
Although I would be fascinated to learn the mathematical formula he used to come up with this number, I will, for the sake of argument, give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he has acquired some sort of amazing Star Trek-like abilities and can now tell what would have occurred in alternate realities.

Rock should resign

It’s comforting to see that there is another uprising in the Liberal party, this time against the arrogant Alan Rock.

Ontario Liberal MPs Benoît Serré and Alex Shepherd both said that Allan Rock, the Industry Minister, should resign over the cost overruns because the former justice minister was the architect of the registry.

While it doesn’t look like the government will fall over this, it still is good to see the most effective opposition to the government is from within.

Wednesday, December 4, 2002

Sensible Liberal

Never thought I’d say this: a liberal that makes sense.

A Liberal MP is calling on Industry Minister Allan Rock to resign over the $1-billion federal gun registry fiasco.
Benoit Serre said Rock is responsible for the nearly $1-billion cost overrun in the program because he was the architect of the registry when he was justice minister.

“I think that this whole fiasco rests squarely on the shoulders of Allan Rock,” said Serre, who represents the Northern Ontario riding of Timiskaming-Cochrane.

“He was given that file and everybody told him what was going to happen and he did not listen. ... He’s cost the treasury close to $1 billion unnecessarily.”

Would you buy a…

...bridge from our little man from Quebec?  If you’re making multi-million dollar decisions, would you risk capital based on his words?  At a speech yesterday, he wanted everyone to know that everything would be alright.

Prime Minister Jean Chrétien says it is time to “put aside the rhetoric” on the Kyoto protocol and focus on making it work for all Canadians.

Chrétien, who said yesterday MPs will vote on ratification of the climate-change accord on Monday, tried to reassure Albertans last night they will not pay a heavy price for its passage despite dire warnings from oil and gas industry executives and Premier Ralph Klein.

“We will not sacrifice the Canadian economy

This from the man that said he would scrap the GST - but didn’t.

This from a man who said that the gun registry would cost 2 million, then 100 million, and now we learn its over 1 billion.

He said the $1-billion Liberal gun registry was “an example of what happened when the government sets targets without a plan.

“How can Canadians trust the government on Kyoto or anything else when it is running 500 times over budget on the gun registry?” he said in the Commons.

Mr. Harper said he blames “the entire Cabinet” for the mess.

Why aren’t Canadians rioting in the streets over this waste?

Tuesday, December 3, 2002

Bail for murderers

Another victim of Canada’s foolish justice system was claimed on the weekend.  The suspect, who had been on bail release on charges of attempted murder, killed the victim in a fight.

A former actor on the Degrassi television series was out on bail on an attempted murder charge when he was arrested Saturday in the beating death of a stranger.

Tyson Stewart Talbot, 30, who appeared on four episodes of the popular Kids of Degrassi Street and Degrassi Jr. High TV series, is charged with second-degree murder in the slaying of Christopher Shelton, 23, a University of Toronto student and a bartender at the Hilton hotel.

Shelton, who was engaged, died at St. Michael’s hospital after suffering blunt force injuries to the head. The former model, who had worked in Milan and New York, was knocked unconscious and then kicked in the head at 3:30 a.m. Friday by a man after an argument erupted at a Broadview Ave. and Gerrard St. Chinese restaurant.

A source said Talbot had been released from custody on bail pending the resolution of a charge of attempted murder in connection with a stabbing on Danforth Ave. March 23.

One of the few things our government should be doing is protecting its citizens.  What a pity they think someone who stabbed another in the neck is safe to roam the streets while awaiting a trial. 

What are our judges doing?

Bottomless pit

The gun registry sinkhole is costing a fortune, and Canadians are not one bit safer knowing what gun owner’s gun has killed them.

The amount spent on the controversial federal program established in 1995 --- expected to reach $1-billion by 2004 --- is more than 10 times its original price tag, critics complain.

Critics complain?  If the general public knew what a sinkhole this was, with really no measurable results, they would be outraged.  It appears that the government isn’t going to advertise the fact that they’ve wasted all this money in any advertising campaign (as they’re doing with Kyoto).

Saturday, November 30, 2002

Senate good for something

Mr. Simpson thinks that the Senate is good for something, including their report on health care reform.

The Senate committee under Michael Kirby presented the honest report. It recommended a basic additional infusion of $5-billion into the system every year, plus some other spending. The less-than-honest report got much more attention. Prepared by former Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow, it called for $6.5-billion in additional spending, plus an escalator clause that would further increase annual spending by more than the growth in the economy.

The Senate had the guts to say the money had to come from somewhere reasonable, whereas Romanow leaves the question up in the air by basing his funding on the artificially created surplus.

What did anyone expect from an NDP socialist?

Wednesday, November 27, 2002

Wheels falling off

It seems the wheels are finally falling off the Chretien rickshaw.

The inept attempt at damage control by Ducros, aided and abetted by the Prime Minister himself, may turn out to be more revealing of the disarray in Jean Chrétien’s office as it lurches from crisis to crisis during his long goodbye than the comment itself.

This retirement process is going to be very painful for the country.  Go now!

Saturday, November 23, 2002

Bring back Mulroney

The Canadian Blog has an interesting campaign to being back Mulroney.

I keep up my lonely quest to promote this guy as the solution to our problems in this country and NOBODY hears me. The PC’s are soon going to elect a new leader (if they can find one) and here they are...still fiddling around and fretting amongst themselves when the solution is right in front of them.

Personally, I voted for and like the man.  I don’t think he’ll come back, but I am sure he’d give the Liberals something to think about if he did come back.

Tuesday, November 19, 2002

Rumors Quashed

Oh well...it was fun while it lasted… it good to know someone has a little pride left, and can resist making a comeback.

Brian Mulroney said yesterday he has no intention of returning to politics, despite reports of growing pressure within Conservative ranks for the former prime minister to take over the leadership of the struggling party.

Friday, November 15, 2002

Canadian’s guide

Jonah Goldberg writes a good article on how Canada now follows the lead of the UN and not its mother country, the Britain. 

But the biggest problem on the horizon for U.S.-Canada relations is the fact that Canada now looks to the United Nations as its moral guide. For much of their history, Canadians saw the British Empire as their parent (the country was founded by loyalists after all). This often meant they were on the right side of some issues well before the United States was. They entered both World Wars earlier than their American brothers, and they were unified in their opposition to slavery without needing to settle the issue with a bloody civil war.

But now, the Jean Chretien government as well as Canada’s intellectual classes see the United Nations as the true moral authority. The examples are endless. After 9/11, Chretien all but declared that the United States deserved the attacks because it is too rich and arrogant.

The sad part is that Canada is slowly disarming, following the lead of the UN:

The clearest signal that the Canadians have embraced UN-ology is their unilateral disarmament. The Canadian military was once among the most formidable in the world. Today it is in danger of vanishing. Its navy is old, rusted and sinking. Its army is woefully underequipped and overworked. Its airforce is held together with wire hangers and Scotch tape. Canada, enthralled by the U.N., likes to say it is a “moral superpower” and a “nation of peacekeepers” not warriors. But among nations of the world, it ranks 37th and falling as a peacekeeper.

Wednesday, November 13, 2002

BM the PM

Brian Mulroney for PM?  This article says there has been an offer for BM the PM to come back.

‘How does $1.5-million sound, Brian? It’s yours if you come back to lead the Conservative Party.”
That was the recent pitch from a Toronto businessman to former prime minister Brian Mulroney. “It’s for party use, expenses and stuff like that,” said long-time Mulroney confidant Sam Wakim, confirming the offer. “Mulroney was quite flattered.”

The party wasn’t as low in the polls when he was PM than it is now:

The party has been moping along at 10 to 18 per cent in the polls ever since Mr. Mulroney left. Even in his worst days, the party’s numbers were never that low. Since re-election in 2000, the governing Liberals have been beset by internal leadership fights and a raft of controversies that has seen five cabinet ministers leave this year. But the Tories are a bus without wheels. They’ve been unable to capitalize.

Since Canada seems to only be able to recycle PMs, stranger things have happened.

Hey, I’d even vote for him (again).

Tuesday, November 12, 2002

Canadians defined

Jonah Goldberg has a great excerpt in today’s Post about how Canadians are defined more by what Americanisms they are not:

Five decades ago, historian Frank Underhill wrote that the Canadian is “the first anti-American, the model anti-American, the archetypal anti-American, the ideal anti-American as he exists in the mind of God.” In a sense this isn’t really true. Philosophically and politically, the New Soviet Man was a superior anti-American: He not only hated America but had a blueprint for its replacement. After all, the perfect anti-American must be pro-something else; he must offer a viable alternative to that which he detests.

Monday, November 11, 2002

Never forget

Never Forget...visit the legion today.

Saturday, November 2, 2002

Wheat board monopoly

It’s sad to see that the Canadian government is so eager to jail its farmers for protesting against the Wheat Board - an anachronism that should have been shelved years ago.

Jim Chatenay is one of 13 Alberta farmers who went to jail on Thursday to protest the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly over Western grain growers.

Why isn’t it strange to hear that in Canada, it’s illegal to make a decent wage?

The farmers were charged in 1996 under the Canada Customs Act of illegally transporting grain across the U.S. border breaking customs rules.

At the time, Canadian farmers were drawing $5.40 a bushel for durum wheat south of the border, instead of $2.20 from the Canadian Wheat Board.

Once more, Canada is deciding to go against the giant instead of cooperating with it...and Canada will lose.

WASHINGTON – Responding to a complaint filed by the North Dakota Wheat Commission (NDWC), U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick announced today that the United States will pursue multiple avenues to seek relief for U.S. wheat farmers from the trading practices of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB), a government monopoly trading enterprise.

Wednesday, October 16, 2002

Via tax bum

When are we going to give up the massive subsidy VIA gets and let it sink or swim on its own?  Why the obsession with the rails? Is it purely historical?  In this article, it’s clear that VIA cannot even keep to its alleged service record.

When picking up someone at Via Rail, it’s always wise to take a stack of newspapers. You’ll often have plenty of time to read them between the moment when the train is supposed to arrive and when it actually does.

The environmental argument is bogus too. 

The only justification—and it was a thin one—used to be that trains polluted less than planes, buses and cars. Maybe they do, but the number of passengers travelling, say, from Montreal to Toronto on the train is a fraction of those going by other modes. So the environmental saving is minimal.

It’s time to let VIA sail on its own.

Sunday, October 13, 2002

Queen

Once more, HM Queen Elizabeth showed poise and dignity in the face of our dis-loyal government and its deputy PM Manley, who was anything but.

Our liberal government, starting with Trudeau, has been eager to shred tradition and rebuild its (un)just society.  Instead of honoring the stability the monarchy has brought the country, our government wants to discard them.

The kicker is that the monarchy’s role is mostly ceremonial in Canada, so scrapping it is simply kicking sand in an institution’s face - in this case, the Queen’s.

Hey, if the liberals want to scrap marriage’s tradtion of being between a man and a woman, what’s a monarchy to them?

As usual, Quebec’s malcontents were busy publicly humiliating themselves…

Some things never change.

Saturday, October 12, 2002

Killer Released

No matter what you think of capital punishment, the fact that someone in Canada can get out of jail in 15 years after murdering someone is crazy.

In this article, Thestar.com/Family struggles with killer’s release, we read of the release of such a killer, albeit after 25 years. 

“Every Thanksgiving since Ron’s death has been difficult for us, but this one will be a little harder to bear because we know Ron’s killer is going to be set free to do pretty much as he chooses,” said McKean’s widow, Anne Gage.
“He took away Ron’s chance to see his children grow up, but now he goes free,” said Gage, fighting back tears.

Sign the petition to bring back capital punishment to Canada.