Buckdog

A smart, smiling, committed delegation from my union was on hand in front of Queen’s Park Saturday to carry a message about the priorities we believe the world’s leaders should be pursuing. Among these, there should be a place for art and for artists – for building “village squares” in the world for people to come together and tell their stories, share their values and dream about the future.

But that message was not heard.

Nor was much of the message carried by thousands of other union activists that day. Instead, the people who were heard all around the world (including across the Atlantic here in Paris, from where I’m writing) were a relative handful of a very different kind of activist. Dressed in black. Equipped with hammers and various other tools and weapons. And determined to create mayhem on the streets of Toronto.

As someone else said in a different context, what is happening in our streets is not only wrong, it is a mistake. It is wrong to turn peaceful protest into riot and violence. Gandhi, King, Mandela, and many other leaders, political and spiritual, all taught the same lesson – real change comes when the overwhelming majority demand it, and that overwhelming majority is won through the force of argument that does not back down and does not ever give up. Not through force.

It is a mistake to turn peaceful protest into riot and violence. Because this gives the bad guys what they need to unite and to react. And because – and this is the decisive point – it persuades ordinary citizens to rally against the forces of progress and toward the forces of reaction.

The people currently running conservative governments around the world need to be defeated, and replaced by progressives, whose global duty is then to meet and to act.

In a democratic country, violent protest is morally bankrupt – the twin brother of the interests it is aimed at.

In a democratic country, violent protest is stupid – counter-productive, demobilizing, demoralizing. It is doing the work of the political right.

So to the kiddies in Toronto in masks with hammers: do us all a real favour. Go back home to mommy, in the comfortable upper-middle class homes many of you probably come from.

Grow up. Learn to work. Learn to do political work with a moral centre – work that hurts the bad guys instead of helping them.

Globe & Mail

Brian Topp is executive director of ACTRA Toronto. He also serves as chair of the board of Creative Arts Savings and Credit Union, and is a member of the board of directors of ROI Fund, a venture capital fund. He previously served as a senior vice-president at Credit Union Central of Canada, the national office of Canada's credit union system outside of Quebec. He served as deputy chief of staff to Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow. He co-ordinated the federal NDP's campaign war room during the 1997 and 2004 federal elections, and served as that party's national campaign director during the 2006 and 2008 elections.

de·ba·cle (dĭ-bä'kəl, -bāk'əl, děb'ə-kəl) n.
1. A total, often ludicrous failure.
2. A sudden, disastrous collapse, downfall, or defeat; a rout.

The level of stupidity involved in $tephen Harper's G20 is almost unbelievable. In his arrogant mind, looking and playing the part of a 'world leader' prior to the next federal election will help push him over the top into majority government status. To achieve his little plan, all the stops were pulled on security preparations for the G20 meeting. Over a $Billion was spent just on security and the total final bill will likely far surpass that amount.

Most ironic of all was watching $tephen Harper lecture the world's leaders about the need for fiscal restraint while his government was literally throwing public tax dollars away by the bucketful.

Imagine, trying to paint $tephen Harper as a 'fiscal conservative' with the moral authority to tell other nations that they need to pinch pennies. What a load of crap!

Part of the Harper strategy is to cut and slash any public program or expenditure that his Right Wing ideology disagrees with and label it as 'fiscal restraint from a fiscal conservative'. In the next while, you should expect to see massive cuts to federal spending in the area of social programs. Don't expect to see any cuts to big business.

The biggest problem that $tephen Harper has going at the moment, is that he believes he is smarter than the rest of Canada. Luckily for Canadians, $tephen Harper is in for a very unpleasant surprise in the aftermath of his G20 debacle.

$tephen Harper is NO 'fiscal conservative'!

"Many Canadians have been cringing at the ballooning $1.1bn (US$1.1bn; £730m) bill to host this week's G8 and G20 summits.
While a staggering 90% of the summits' budget is for security, it is a "fake lake" which has come to symbolise what many critics see as Prime Minister Stephen Harper's extravagant spending. The temporary water feature is intended to impress the 3,000-strong contingent of journalists who will be housed at a $2m international media centre in Toronto. The display - which promises a shallow pool, a deck, deckchairs and canoes - is intended to promote the Muskoka region, the picturesque lakeland setting north of Toronto where the G8 leaders will meet. The G20 summit will be held in Toronto after the G8. Ironically, the "fake lake" is just a stone's throw from the real thing - Lake Ontario, one of the world's biggest lakes.
BBC World

"Hosting the G8 and G20 summits will cost Canada around 770 million euros, and while journalists may enjoy reclining around an artificial lake and getting a taste of Canada in a costly media centre, the Canadian public is far from impressed…"
France24

Cartoon by kind permission of
Graeme MacKay at mackaycartoons.net

Now that we have exposed the MYTH that $tephen Harper is a 'fiscal conservative', we can now also demonstrate how he 'supports' Canada's troops by using millions of our tax dollars to fight their legitimate health claims in court.

Who are you people who actually keep VOTING for $tephen Harper??!! I guess your 'support' is selective.

-National Post

-CBC has more ...

No area of the province has been more loyal to the Saskatchewan Party than the Maple Creek area - now affected by massive flooding. However, a public meeting held for flood victims left many unhappy with the official response for financial compensation from the Brad Wall government.


Photo courtesy SouthWest TV News ....

"The issue with Sun TV is not that it wants to add yet another boring, frothing, word-for-word predictable right-wing voice to the choir of identical voices singing in harmony in English Canada's media. Although the idea that we have a shortage of such voices is laughable.

Nor is it a problem, particularly, that this enterprise is run by a repurposed staffer from Mr. Harper's PMO. Those of us who have laboured in leaders' offices are united in wishing our sisters- and brothers-in-arms well in their job hunts.

The issue with Sun TV is that it is being financed by a regulated cable television monopoly.

It seems highly unlikely that Pierre Karl Péladeau is funding this network via his printing business, his television network or his tabloids – all mostly on life support. Arguably, "net net," every dollar of the $100-million Mr. Péladeau wants to spend on this propaganda exercise is a dollar that was overcharged to his Videotron cable subscribers.

Concurrently, Canada's regulated cable monopolies are doing Prime Minister Stephen Harper's political work, building television and print empires that share the Prime Minister's political DNA. It illustrates another familiar pattern – how insiders and "public rentiers" work together and serve each other.

It's a familiar story, similar to the abuses associated with privately-owned power companies – almost all of whom were replaced by publicly owned utilities in Canada over the course of the last century for identical reasons.

So what is to be done?

Denying Sun TV a licence would only be a good start.

What is required is a period of energetic trust-busting.

The cable monopolies need to be pruned back to their core mandates. Cable and Internet rates clearly can be cut – to a level sufficient to finance the operation and growth of the cable network, not empire-building.

Perhaps the mandate to provide cable service in specific territories should be put up to regular public tender, complete with a form of term limit.

The reward for consumers will be much cheaper cable and Internet service, at a time when access to that network has become an economic fundamental.

As for Sun TV, if it wants to crusade for the unregulated lusts of the rich, perhaps it should start by practising its own religion itself. What is happening here is everything Mr. Harper and his retinue once claimed to oppose. And now wallow in."
Brian Topp
June 21, 2010
Globe & Mail



Brian Topp is executive director of ACTRA Toronto. He also serves as chair of the board of Creative Arts Savings and Credit Union, and is a member of the board of directors of ROI Fund, a venture capital fund. He previously served as a senior vice-president at Credit Union Central of Canada, the national office of Canada's credit union system outside of Quebec. He served as deputy chief of staff to Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow. He co-ordinated the federal NDP's campaign war room during the 1997 and 2004 federal elections, and served as that party's national campaign director during the 2006 and 2008 elections.

If you have ever driven the trans Canada highway from Saskatchewan to Alberta, you will have a hard time believing how badly it has been washed out by weeks of endless rain.



-CBC has more ....

-National Geographic.com

Here is a video from the 2010 First Nations University of Canada Pow wow held in Regina ... Men's Traditional Dance ...


Iron Swing from Sturgeon Lake, Saskatchewan ...

"REGINA - The Saskatchewan Communication Network has been sold to Bluepoint Investment Corporation."
Winnipeg Free Press


... which seems to fly in the face of everything that the Saskatchewan Party says when they DENY that their overall plan is to PRIVATIZE as much as possible!!
WALL DENIES PRIVATIZATION PLANS!


... Accidental Deliberations has more ...

OTTAWA—Canada’s twin summits are ringing in at nearly a million dollars a minute but the cost is worth it because Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other leaders will get a chance to let their hair down and talk “face-to-face,” a PMO spokesperson said Friday.

Explaining the eye-popping cost of next weekend’s meetings, which will ding taxpayers for about $833,000 per minute of actual leaders’ meeting time, Dimitri Soudas said G8 and G20 leaders face daunting challenges from a struggling economy, global warming, rogue nuclear states and crises in Afghanistan, the Korean peninsula and the Middle East.

“You actually need leaders sitting around the table having these difficult discussions, making progress,” Soudas told reporters in a pre-summit briefing.

The leaders “sit down and make collective decisions on what’s best for the global economy,” Soudas said. “So that is exactly why we need these type of summits, that is exactly why leaders sitting around the table face-to-face—and not through Twitter, Skype or video-conferencing—will eventually produce more results.”

Soudas also suggested that once leaders get down to business, any questions about Harper’s credibility as a result of the $1.2 billion cost of the meetings and the controversy over the “fake lake” at the media centre will be left far behind."
The Star

... this would be Canada's Parliament ....




-The Globe & Mail

"Prairie farmers are being overcharged $200 million a year by the railways, and Ottawa needs to do something about it, say farm groups that include the Canadian Wheat Board, Canadian Federation of Agriculture, National Farmers Union and three provincial farm organizations. At a news conference at the Western Canada Farm Progress Show here Wednesday, the farm groups released a study indicating that farmers recently paid an average of $6.87 per tonne more to ship their grain by rail than was considered "fair.''
Regina Leader-Post

In the late 1800's, the Canadian Pacific Railway was provided with $millions$ by the Federal government to complete the transcontinental rail line, In return, the CPR agreed to the implementation of the 'Crow Rate' to subsidize the movement of western grain from remote prairie farms in perpetuity. The CPR benefited hugely because it received a huge amount of federal land and money while western grain farmers had an means of moving tons or grain to Ports for shipping.

However, in the 1980's & '90's, Right Wing farm groups and political parties called for an end end to Crow Rate subsidy claiming that increased 'competition' would lower grain transportation costs. Yeah, right!

In 1995, while looking for ways to balance the federal budget, the Chretien Liberal government bowed to the loud right wing voices and the Crow Rate subsidy was ended with a one time cash payment to farmers. As usual, the Right wing Reform Party, Conservative Party and Saskatchewan Party were completely WRONG!

Over the years, the CPR has worked steadily to end movement of grain by rail wherever possible and transportation has heavily moved to large grain trucks which daily pound the crap out of provincial highways.

The only voices that fought the demise of the Crow Rate were the National Farmers Union and the New Democratic Party. History has now proven that they were correct and individuals like Reform's Preston Manning and former Saskatchewan Party leader, Elwin Hermanson were dead WRONG!

Told ya!!

As a lifelong and insanely afflicted fan of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, I am pretty happy to hear that the Royal Canadian Mint is going to issue a special 100th Anniversary Loonie for the team's Centennial!

CBC News

"Two in three Canadians agree the Royal Family should not have any formal role in Canadian society, according to the results of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted for Canada.com and released Wednesday. [...] As for what would replace the Queen, a majority of Canadians surveyed in the poll said they would prefer a republic system where the Governor General would become the elected head of state."
Ottawa Citizen

... $tephen Harper insists that security is ONLY going to cost $930 Million!!!

Globe & Mail

-Even Conservatives are getting more and more ANGRY!!

"Among the trends reshaping the use of time, leisure and culture activities, the report cited greater consumer demand for services outside of weekday hours, the rise in urban sprawl and workplace technologies like email and smartphones increasing demand on employees to be "perpetually on call. [...]

"The time crunch pressure seems to be growing more so on women than on men, but the fact that it's growing generally is a bit of a concern," "
Roy Romanow,
-Chair of the CIW advisory Board
-Former Premier of Saskatchewan
CBC News

-Montreal Gazette
-Toronto Globe & Mail

It just won't stop raining in Saskatchewan this spring. As a result, 10,000,000 acres (about 15,625 square miles) of farmland is drowned out and no crop is expected this year. The potential loss of such a large amount of grain is raising international concerns as well. India is particularly concerned.

Both Brad Wall's and Stephen Harper's Right wing governments depend on rural support to maintain their hold on power. Yet, not a word is coming from either the government of Saskatchewan nor the government of Canada when it comes to what they plan on doing to help with this pending disaster. Why, you ask? - It's simple. Both Brad Wall and Stephen Harper notoriously assume that farmers and those on the rural prairies will vote for them, no matter what.

Saskatchewan has bought into the Right Wing mythology that Canada's 'equalization' formula is akin to being on 'welfare'. Complete nonsense. For over 100 years in Canada it has been acknowledged that when there is an occasional agricultural disaster, Saskatchewan's small population simply cannot bear the weight of carrying such a large segment of the AG industry for the rest of the nation. Traditionally, the whole country must, from time to time, help to ensure that our AG sector does not go under.

So as over 15,000 square miles of farmland will NOT be cropped this year, what do we hear from Brad Wall and Stephen Harper? ... (cue the sound of crickets chirping cause our Right Wing governments aren't planning on doing a damned thing!)

Saskatchewan's Official Opposition Leader, Dwain Lingenfelter is calling on Premier Brad Wall to implement a program with cooperation from Ottawa, to find $100 per acre for the area affected by the unusual flooding.

At the moment, if a farmer manages to get some seed into the ground and then goes and purchases provincial crop insurance, he can qualify for up to $50 per acre when the crop inevitably fails. But, if you don't put any seed in the flooded ground, you can't purchase crop insurance!!

Any farmer who can't even get out on his land to plant the crop .. is completely out of luck ... oh ... and is still 'expected' to vote for both Brad Wall and Stephen Harper.

I happen to think that prairie agriculture producers (a more fancy way of saying 'farmers') are smarter than that.

Mr. Wall ... put our money where your mouth usually is! Mr. Harper ... oh never mind, you're toast anyway ...

-Official Opposition News Release


UPDATE:
-Western Premiers Urge Ottawa To Shore Up Prairie Flooding Support

-Canadians question summit cost: poll

-Fake lake shows ridiculous costs for summits - Ottawa Citizen

-Mea culpa: It’s a $1.9-million ‘alley,’ not just a fake lake

-It's not a 'fake lake' it's a fake 'water feature'

-The lake may be fake, but will the potatoes be real?

-$2M for a fake lake? Well, no one ever said megalomania is cheap!

"On a day when a $1.9 million “fake lake” in the G20 media centre in Toronto had opposition MPs and taxpayers crying foul, a quick spin north of the city revealed that almost everything north of Barrie was getting an upgrade — or so it seemed — for a summit that will last a matter of hours. New sidewalks, trees, gazebos, paved roads, fresh coats of paint, gardens and all manner of buffing and polishing, all compliments of federal largesse, much of it for tiny towns well off the beaten track. Federal government signs trumpet the investments everywhere."
The Star


It was inevitable that $tephen Harper would get caught. The master manipulator Prime Minister of Canada has been caught red handed infusing hundreds of millions of tax dollars into key ridings and then calling them 'G8/G20' expenditures. That is what is going on here. Outside of official infrastructure programs, $tephen Harper thought that he could throw buckets of largesse at federal Ridings he needs to hold or win in the next election and hide it in the G8/G20 summit ledgers.

Estimates are starting to emerge that the entire 'cost' of 'G8/G20' may just reach the $2 Billion mark.

Cheesy .. sleazy ... and so typical of the Conservative Party of Canada under Harper's leadership. Shame.

UPDATE:
The 'master manipulator', himself, came out this afternoon to defend his spending of $1.9 million tax dollars to build his fake lake/media centre .... Mr. Harper.. when you are 'esplaining' ... sir, you are LOSING!

UPPERDATE:
Consistent with their complete inability to EVER admit that they are wrong, $tephen Harper's Office insists that over $1 Billion for this 72 hour event is 'smart' marketing.

What's next? Expect $tephen Harper to send John Baird out to YELL and HOLLER at us all soon!

Here is what the world press is saying:
• (CNN) –– Canada’s Cabinet ministers are in hot water for their government’s plans to spend nearly $2 million building a man-made lake for this month’s G20 summit.

• (AFP) — Canada’s Conservative government was castigated Monday for spending huge sums to host G8 and G20 summits at the end of June, including two million dollars on a fake lake inside the media center.

• (Business Week) -- Canada’s Conservative government came under fire Monday for spending nearly $2 million on a simulation of the small town site of this month’s G-8 and G-20 summits complete with an artificial lake inside a temporary media center. The display, which cost $1.9-million Canadian ($1.8 million), is called The Experience Canada Corridor and will include canoes, trees, deck chairs and a fake dock.

-CBC
-The Globe & Mail
-Standard-Freeholder
-Town sees $50 Million taxdollars for 'G8/G20' Summit

-The Price We Pay For A Government Of Fear

OTTAWA, June 7 (Reuters) - Public support for Canada's ruling Conservatives is dropping amid controversy over how much a pair of big international summits will cost, and the party might not win a viable minority government if an election were held now, according to a poll released on Monday.
'Summit Costs Hit Conservatives In Polls ... -Reuters

Readers of this blog know that I have brought forward a number of examples that disprove the idiotic claim that Right wingers are somehow more 'fiscally' responsible than their political opponents. I call it as it is ... 'fiscal conservatism' is a myth advanced by the Right wing 'country club' elite.

The fact that Harper is spending a $$ BILLION $$ on the G8/G20 meetings is bad enough. Now add a further $1.9 Million for a Fake lake! WTF?!

-National post
-CBC has more ....

Ever since the Saskatchewan Party came to power in the fall of 2007, the province's official financial watchdog has found example after example of serious financial mismanagement. In a recent audit, the Provincial Auditor of Saskatchewan wrote:

"Because the government uses inappropriate accounting policies, the GRF financial statements (for 2008-09) report net debt and annual surplus inaccurately. If the government had accounted for all transactions properly, the statements would have recorded net debt of $8.07 billion instead of $3.85 billion on March 31, 2009, and recorded a surplus of $1.62 billion instead of $2.39 billion for the year ended March 31, 2009."

His most recent report again itemizes mismanagement of millions of dollars of taxpayers money.

Of note today in Saskatchewan is another example of questionable financial decision making by Brad Wall. A news release from the Office of the Official Opposition raises serious concerns about taxpayers money being used to solicit high profile candidates for the Saskatchewan Party in the next provincial election:

" ... the Wall government has confirmed that its hand-picked candidate in the constituency of Regina Northeast, Kevin Doherty, was paid more than $49,000 in moving expenses and offered a salary of $210,000 as a SaskPower executive to entice him to move back to Saskatchewan. Doherty was subsequently nominated and is running for the Sask Party in the next provincial election. The information was confirmed in the Wall government’s answers to written questions tabled in the final days of the recent legislative session. McCall said it is appalling that taxpayers and SaskPower customers are being forced to foot such an exorbitant moving expenses bill for Brad Wall’s longtime friend and former colleague in Grant Devine’s government."
Official Opposition News Release ...

"If I have ten tax dollars to spend on health care, I want to spend $10 on health services, not 8 dollars for the actual health care and 2 dollars for someones profit margin."
Roy Romanow
Former Premier of Saskatchewan
Health Care Commissioner

No matter what Brad Wall says, the government of Saskatchewan is taking initial steps towards privatizing health care in the province. Proponents of privatized health care use carefully crafted rhetoric to try and demonize proponents of public health care ... but what they fail to explain is their determination to build private 'profit making' into the costs for health care.

These same proponents of 'unfettered free markets' are determined to force their ideology into Saskatchewan's public health care system one way or another.

Face it, we have a premier who has already ear marked hundreds of millions of tax dollars to build a new football stadium, but refuses to put money on the table to purchase whatever CT scanners are necessary to fix the patient backlog his government has created over the last 3 years.

It's all a question of priorities and the priority of the Saskatchewan Party is to advance their ideology of 'private over public'. Period.


-Saskatchewan Party Gov't Seeks Third Party Suppliers For Health Care

-CBC has more ...

Just last September, BP announced finding a huge deposit of oil in the Gulf of Mexico that they were committed to 'bring to the shores of America'.... you know the rest.

MSNBC - September 2009




H/T to Jordan Cooper ....

Saskatchewan's Right wing premier, Brad Wall, is a textbook case of confused political ideology. Daily in the Saskatchewan Legislature, he and his ultra Right wing caucus slam the New Democratic Official Opposition as 'socialists'. They sputter and spew venom that would make Joe McCarthy happy.

"Socialist' this ... and 'socialist' that ... Wall never tires of this lame old invective. But what is this ...? Saskatchewan's 'unfettered free market' premier has a big 'heart on' over doing business with the People's Republic of China!

Having just joined in opening a trade office in the PRC Wall has gone on to praise the communist nation as if it is some long lost relative. Known for his dislike of Saskatchewan's crown corporations, Wall has suddenly developed a passion for Chinese crown corporations!

The point of this post is simple. Wall and his Caucus are using tired old Reform Party rhetoric and it is cheesy and sleazy. Spitting hatred at the NDP for being 'socialist' while at the same time signing deals with the People's Republic of China is childish, simplistic and frankly quite idiotic.

I realize that Mr. Wall has to deal with some extremely Right wing members of his caucus such as cabinet ministers Bill Boyd and Yogi Huyghebaert. Huyghebaert was in the military during most of his working life, taking pay cheques from the taxpayers .. yet he hates anything 'public' and simply wont' shut up with all of his 'socialist ... socialist' nonsense.

Wall should give himself and both of these red baiting, dinosaurs a little talking to. Now that Saskatchewan has decided to do business with 'communists' .. maybe the rhetoric will be toned down a notch or two.