Saturday, November 30, 2013 

Brian Pallister ... the Conservative Who Wants To Be Premier Of Manitoba ... Wishes you 'Merry Christmas' .. Even you infidel athiests too!!!!!!



What is it with the Right Wing in Canada lately ... are your REQUIRED to take those 'Stupid Pills"????

Monday, November 25, 2013 

For PM Stephen Harper ... 'Electability' Trumps Criminal Behaviour



"For the PM, electability apparently trumps criminal behaviour. Not a big seller in Conservative circles."


(Michael Harris nails whats wrong with Stephen Harper in his November 24th iPolitics article. For Mr. Harper, no amount of lying, fabrication, Senate manipulation, RoboCalls etc matter if you can get re-elected. In Harper's world, Rob Ford is forgiven of everything if he remains 'electable').

"Rob Ford and Mike Duffy may not prove to be the end of Stephen Harper, but they are the beginning of the end.

To what must be the disbelief of his political base, the prime minister reduced Mayor Ford’s saga — of cocaine use, driving while over-refreshed and hanging out with guys who pack heat and use it — to a political cliche. When asked for his view of the ‘gangsta’ side of Rob Ford, Harper responded simply that the voters of Toronto will decide his fate.

That can only mean one thing: If, 11 months from now, a conflagration of idiots re-elects Rob Ford, Harper is suggesting he believes that ROFO’s drug use and criminal associations are inconsequential, if not utterly without meaning. Political success purges all. This from the fellow who used to say he would rather lose an election than do the wrong thing in Afghanistan.

It was also a strange thing to say for a man who has presented himself to his supporters as a champion of law and order. Harper once spoke for people who thought law-breakers should pay for their crimes, not run for public office.

Jason Kenney, who properly called for Ford’s resignation last week, is now the sole Harper cabinet minister the base can trust on one of their key issues: justice.
Conservatives have another peculiar trait. They traditionally expect their leaders and MPs to tell the truth — just ask ‘Lyin’ Brian.’ Wantonly misleading the public is supposed to be what Liberals do. Not only has Harper turned his mania for control on his own MPs, corseting the few who are actually allowed to speak in talking points — he has lied egregiously on Duffygate, and attempted to cover that fact with the aura of office."
-Article continues .. iPolitics

Sunday, November 24, 2013 

And The PMO Keeps Grinding Out The Lies .. Half Truths And Fabrications ...


What a load of crap is coming from the Prime Minister's Office ... you Conservatives are out of your minds!!

PM didn't know staff asked Conservative Party to pay Duffy's expenses: spokesperson 

Prime Minister Stephen Harper had no idea his staff had asked the Conservative Party to pay Sen. Mike Duffy’s ineligible expenses, his spokesperson said Sunday.In an interview with CTV’s Question Period, Harper’s director of communications, Jason MacDonald, also said Harper didn’t know PMO staff wanted a Senate report into Duffy’s expenses sanitized, or that the party’s chief fundraiser tried to influence the independent audit of Duffy’s claims.

When asked how such a hands-on prime minister like Harper could have no knowledge of those events, especially when so many of his staffers were communicating about Duffy’s expenses, MacDonald said the answer is in the 80-page sworn RCMP affidavit.

CTV News

Saturday, November 23, 2013 

Remember not that long ago when Nigel Wright was praised by the PMO for doing the honourable thing of writing that $90,000 cheque for Mike Duffy?







Harper is 'Ministerially' responsible for the activities of the PMO ... get real Conservatives!!

(H/T to Creekside ... )

Friday, November 22, 2013 

Stephen Harper ... You are a gutless, sleazy liar. Resign!



"Prime Minister Stephen Harper has fought for months to prevent the Senate spending scandal from tarnishing him personally. He no longer can.

RCMP Cpl. Greg Horton’s 81-page narrative of the events surrounding Nigel Wright’s $90,000 payment to Duffy last March immediately enters the pantheon of transformative Canadian political writing. It reveals Harper’s command structure, at the level of his closest and most loyal confidants, to be a nest of corruption, intrigue and shameless deceit. Its contents raise serious questions about the prime minister’s own role, and, frankly, his honesty.

Every Canadian of voting age should read Horton’s account: It’s that compelling. But whether they do or don’t, its impact will be lasting. Because the crux of the entire, sordid affair, and an explanation for everything that has transpired in Ottawa since last May, including all the prime minister’s public statements and the talking points of his spokespeople, can be found in the contrast between two critical passages, on pages 15 and 33. The rest is fascinating context.[...]But Feb. 13 wasn’t the end. It was the beginning. First came a flurry of communications between Wright, Duffy, Conservative Sen. David Tkachuk, Duffy’s lawyer Janice Payne, and Benjamin Perrin, then counsel to the Prime Minister — all aimed at a deal that would see Duffy’s tab paid, not by the senator himself, but by the Conservative party. The emails show officials were prepared to pay up, with party funds, and put the matter quietly to bed. On Feb. 21, eight days after the meeting with Duffy and Harper, “Mr. Wright told him (Duffy) to repay in full, with interest, stop future claims, don’t defend his entitlements in the media anymore, and the PMO would look after having the money reimbursed,” (emphasis mine) Horton writes. So much for Duffy as renegade.

But then we get to the nub, revealed in two of 2,600 emails gathered by the RCMP in their investigation. On Feb. 22, after more intense finagling involving Wright, Duffy, Perrin, Payne, three Conservative senators and five senior PMO staffers, a deal was finally struck to repay Duffy’s improperly claimed expenses, and his legal fees — apparently, judging from the document, with Harper’s personal approval. “I do want to speak to the PM before everything is considered final,” writes Wright. Then, from Horton: “Less than an hour later, Nigel Wright followed up with an email stating ‘We are good to go from the PM once Ben has his confirmation from Payne.’

Harper has denied, in the House of Commons and through a spokesman, that he knew of the Feb. 22 deal. Wednesday, he said in question period that “good to go” referred to his belief that Duffy was repaying his own expenses. Um, OK. But that’s more than a little difficult to believe, when measured against the content of the emails, and the facts outlined previously in Horton’s narrative. On the contrary, the evidence suggests that nine months ago, the prime minister of Canada did indeed sanction a payment, from the tax-credit-supported Conservative party, of Duffy’s improper expenses and his legal fees. This would explain the pretzels into which the Tories twisted themselves last month in trying to justify the legal payment, which in the end amounted to $13,560. How could it be denounced, if the boss had signed off?
Either way, the prime minister’s story is in doubt.  So is the credibility of his outrage at senatorial misconduct. And so is his past denunciation of Wright’s “deception.”

For Wright did not “deceive” his boss, judging from Horton’s document. Rather he kept him in the loop, seemingly to the point where all the players clearly understood it was best, for Harper’s own good, that he be kept out of it. They knew the Duffy deal needed to be kept secret, the emails make clear. It seems plausible that Harper also knew it needed to be kept secret – even from him. That is how most fair-minded observers will interpret Horton’s report. It’s a crushing blow to the prime minister, just as he gears up to make the case for a fourth term."
 
O.canada.com


-No one believes this PM .....

Thursday, November 21, 2013 

Sometimes I Amaze Myself With My Prophetic Political Posts ....



 Here's the post I published on May 20, 2013 where I outlined the problem Stephen Harper created for himself with inappropriate Senate appointments:

 "When Stephen Harper decided to add Pamela Wallin and Mike Duffy to Canada's unelected, undemocratic Senate, he started in motion a series of events that has ultimately become an ugly, nasty political scandal. For starters, neither Duffy nor Wallin qualified for senate appointment as representatives of their respective native provinces.  While Ms. Wallin is originally from Saskatchewan, she has lived away for most of her adult life and Saskatchewan was no longer her principle residence."
-'One Thing Leads To Another' - How Stephen Harper Single Handedly Created The Current Senate ScandalMay 20, 2013


(Now .. here's what the RCMP report on the PMO Senate scandal is telling us):

"OTTAWA — Fearing two of its top fundraisers would lose their seats in the Senate, senior officials from the Prime Minister’s Office appear to have attempted to strong-arm Senate officials to declare Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin as meeting their constitutional residency requirements, according to recently released RCMP court documents.
Questions about the duo’s residency have dogged them since they entered the Senate in 2009.
The court documents filed this week as part of an investigation into a $90,000 payment to Duffy from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s former chief of staff Nigel Wright suggest that Harper’s office tried to get a Senate committee to clear the two of residency questions, and that the province of Ontario was investigating Wallin over her Ontario health card, even though she was supposed to be a resident of Saskatchewan.
It also appears that any opportunity for the Senate to redefine the constitutional residency requirement — that a senator be a resident in the province they represent — was put on the backburner while the Senate walked through audits of Duffy and Wallin’s spending. 

Wednesday, November 20, 2013 

"We are good to go from the PM" - Nigel Wright

(Click on image to enlagre ....)

Released RCMP Report:
(Email from Nigel Wright)
"We are good to go from the PM
Nigel Wright
February 22, 2013


"I was not informed and my permission to do such a thing was never sought"
PM Stephen Harper
November 7, 2013 
House of Commons
 
 Progressive Bloggers

 

We DON'T Make This Stuff Up - Rob Ford fitness consultant a convicted steroid trafficker, banned from coaching in Canada!




How appropriate!

 

This Is Where Right Wing Politics Will Take The Whole Nation If NOT Held In Check ....



Progressive Bloggers  

Canadians of the 'Conservative' persuasion are still having a hard time detaching from Rob Ford and his complete insanity. The hatred that the Canadian Right has for anything but their own agenda will continue to divide and antagonize the nation. 

What we have been witnessing in Toronto could well become the norm in politics across the nation. We are almost there now ... you've been cautioned.

 

Canadian Tire's Money Talks ... SUN News Network's Right Wing Crap Walks ...


(Click to enlarge image above ..... )


Rob & Doug Fords Sun Network Show Cancelled After First Episode

Progressive Bloggers

Monday, November 18, 2013 

Sounds like 'Cocaine Psychosis' to me ........



"Ford has previously admitted to smoking crack cocaine "in a drunken stupor," but in excerpts of an interview aired on CNN's "New Day" Monday, he admitted to having "smoked some crack sometimes."

Cocaine Psychosis

Progressive Bloggers


 (just sayin' ......)

 

Yuck! Another Foul Odour Is Coming From The PMO .. This One Smells Like Robo-Calls Coverup




"At the same time as some Conservative party staffers allege meeting with Michael Sona and reporting that he told them of his involvement in the robocalls controversy in the riding of Guelph, travel records show that Sona was vacationing on the island of Aruba. Sona is charged with violating the Elections Act in a controversy stemming from the 2011 election wherein robocalls directed voters to the wrong polling stations.[...] Elections Canada has heard complaints of dirty tricks in the 2011 election from over 200 ridings. Many of the grievances don’t amount to much, sources say, but a substantial number are thought to be of a serious nature. A source with knowledge of the Elections Canada probe said investigators are handicapped because they are being blocked from gaining access to Conservative party records.  As a result, he said there is only a small chance of charges beyond those against Sona being laid" 

[...] Sona has denied the charge against him and has told reporters he is being framed and set up as the fall guy for an attempted vote–rigging operation by the Conservatives that, he says, went far beyond the riding of Guelph. The Conservatives deny any role in orchestrating such a scheme. Guy Giorno, former chief of staff to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, called any such action would be “despicable.”

Records show Sona on a beach when Conservatives claim he confessed to robocalls  - iPolitics

Saturday, November 16, 2013 

Canada's Conservative Party Is So Fixed On Right Wing Ideology That They Will Tolerate A Crack Smoking, Drunk Driving, Profane, Gang Connected, Bombastic Bully To Stay On As Mayor Of Toronto ...



Progressive Bloggers


Rob Ford gives us the very best example available of the moral bankruptcy that infects the Conservative Party of Canada.

Stephen Harper's complete silence ... and total lack of public criticism of Ford's scandal .... proves the point. 


Friday, November 15, 2013 

We See Some Evidence That The PMO Interfered With Elections Canada Investigation Of Robocalls .... (are you surprised?)



Former Ministerial staffer, Michael Sona insists that he was thrown under the bus by the PMO. A newly released email shows that the PMO interfered in the investigation of RoboCalls by Elections Canada:

OTTAWA – One of Prime Minister Stephen Harper‘s top advisers instructed a potential key witness in the robocalls investigation to delay an interview with an Elections Canada investigator until she could obtain legal advice.

Jenni Byrne, who was the Conservatives’ national campaign manager during the 2011 election, emailed Guelph campaign worker Andrew Prescott on Nov. 30, 2011, to ask him not to talk to an investigator looking into the “Pierre Poutine” robocall until she had a chance to talk to the party’s lawyer.Prescott, whose computer was later linked to the robocall through web data logs, consulted with party lawyer Arthur Hamilton, as instructed by the party, in December, but he didn’t speak with the investigator until more than two months later –  on Feb. 24, 2012, the day after the Ottawa Citizen and Postmedia News reported that the fraudulent election-day robocall had been sent through a Conservative voter-contact firm.

In early March, under intense media scrutiny, Prescott hired a lawyer, who advised him not to speak with the agency, and he cancelled a planned meeting with investigators.
Byrne sent the Nov. 30 email in reply to Prescott’s earlier message, titled “RE: Fake message during Election.”

Prescott had written to a local Conservative to let the party know that he had been contacted by Elections Canada investigator Allan Mathews, who was trying to find who was responsible for election day calls directing opposition supporters in Guelph to the wrong polling location.
Prescott’s email was forwarded to Byrne, then the party’s director of political operations.
“Please hold off doing anything until I consult with a lawyer,” she wrote back. Prescott did just that and did not respond to Mathews’s request.

Her email was copied to Guelph Conservative campaign manager Ken Morgan and Chris Rougier, who worked directly for Byrne at campaign headquarters in Ottawa during the campaign. Rougier was responsible  for the Constituent Information Management System, the party’s voter-tracking database that investigators believe was the source of phone numbers used in the robocalls.
o.canada.com

Thursday, November 14, 2013 

SUN News Network Signs Rob And Doug Ford To Host New TV Show .... are you freakin' kidding me?!!!




"Every TV station wants Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. But it's Sun News Network that has landed the hottest man on the airwaves. If you have loved or even hated the Ford Show so far, stayed tuned because there's more to come. The Rob and Doug Ford Show is coming to Sun News Network.

You read it right.

The Fords are about to relaunch their on-air platform, this time on the small screen.
The brothers have agreed to terms with Sun News to pick up where they left off with their much-listened-to show The City on Newstalk 1010. That show ended its run last week and a lot of people missed it last Sunday.

SHOCKING DETAILS: Tales of booze, drugs, suspected escorts in new Rob Ford docs
"Rob is like Howard Stern or Rush Limbaugh," said Councillor Ford. "You just never know what he is going to say."

Well, they will be back on the air Monday."
Sun News Network.ca

 

You Are Sometimes 'Known' By The Company You Keep ....




-Rob Ford is a member of the Conservative Party of Canada.

-Mike Duffy is a member of the Conservative Party of Canada.

-Patrick Brazeau  is a member of the Conservative Party of Canada.

-Pamela Wallin is a member of the Conservative Party of Canada.

-Are you a member of the Conservative Party of Canada?

(if so ..... I guess you are where you should be ... in bad company ......)

Wednesday, November 13, 2013 

Dear Canadian Taxpayers - You Are About To Spend $100 Billion On 15 New 'Surface Combat Vessels' - These Are NOT Fiscal Conservatives



My experience with Conservative administrations is that they tell everyone (who will listen), that they are masters of fiscal responsibility (unlike New Democrats) and that your tax dollars are best left in the hands of these fiscal conservatives. Bull crap!!

Conservatives generally spend every single nickel in the public purse. They can't help themselves. Let me demonstrate ......

"The cradle-to-grave cost to Canadian taxpayers to acquire new warships will exceed $100-billion, the federal government says – tens of billions of dollars more than Ottawa has previously disclosed. It is the first time the federal government has gone public with its best guess on the full life-cycle cost of up to 15 surface combat vessels."
The Globe & Mail

Tuesday, November 12, 2013 

What The Hell Is Wrong With Canada's Conservatives - "Conservatives Without Conscience"



“Conservatives Without Conscience” by John W. Dean should be a 'must read' for all progressives who are wondering what is wrong with Canada's Conservatives.

The author, John W. Dean, is a self admitted 'recovering conservative, and was White House legal counsel for President Richard Nixon for three years but later become a key witness for the prosecution in the Watergate trials.

Dean was NOT a Bush supporter, His book, published 7 years ago, provides urgent warnings concerning the political mind set and aggressive behavior of the Right-wing in North America.His analysis of what is wrong with America's Tea Party and ultra-conservative movement clearly applies to Stephen Harper's administration in Canada 

Here is a sample:

“Conservatives without conscience do not have horns and tails; if they did they would be easier to identify. Many of them can be quite pleasant, but at heart they are tough, cold-blooded, ruthless authoritarians. They are limited in their ability to see the world from any point of view other than there own, and they are narrow in their outlook. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are prototypical conservative leaders without conscience.”
-----------

“I have not written this book with the slightest expectation of ending the vile attacks of these authoritarian conservatives or of changing their Machiavellian attitudes. They cannot be stopped because their behaviour is simply a function of the way they are and how they think, their dispositions and the way they deal with the world. However, they can be understood, exposed, and watched, and there is a compelling reason to do so.”
----------

“Many conservatives, however, are simply entertained by reading conservative authors or hearing conservative talk show hosts rand about liberals. The exaggerated hostility also apparently satisfies a psychological need for antagonism toward the “out group,” reinforces the self-esteem of the conservative base and increases solidarity within the ranks.”
----------

“Not surprisingly, the very conservatives who love to hurl invective against the ranks of their enemies prove to have the thinnest of skins when the same is done to them. Many of the examples are familiar: Ann Coulter, who can trash perceived liberals on national television but has been known to walk offstage when booed, or to start crying when she thinks she is being treated unfairly.”

----------
“Right-wing authoritarians employ a number of psychological tricks and defences that enable them to act fairly beastly, all the while thinking they are ‘the good people’. To begin with they have relatively little self-understanding. For instance, they do not realize they are more prejudiced and hostile than most people. In fact, they do not realize any of the many undesirable things that research has discovered about them. Second, right-wing authoritarians have very compartmentalized minds, and they can just pull off a Scarlett O’Hara (“I’m not going to think about it!’) whenever they want.”
---------

“Probably about 20 to 25 percent of the adult American population is so right-wing authoritarian, so scared, so self-righteous, so ill-informed, and so dogmatic that nothing you can say or do will change their minds. They would march America into a dictatorship and probably feel that things had improved as a result. The problem is that these authoritarian followers are much more active than the rest of the country. They have the mentality of ‘old time religion’ on a crusade, and they generously give money, time and effort to the cause. They proselytize; they lick stamps; they put pressure on loved ones; and they revel in being loyal to a cohesive group of like thinkers. And they are so submissive to their leaders that they will believe and do virtually anything they are told. They are not going to let up and they are not going to go away”

---------

Conservatives Without Conscience is thought provoking. Dean uses his lengthy involvement with American Republicans and conservatives as the basis for his observations. Canadian small 'c' conservatives, as well, fit nicely into the authoritarian description that Dean provides.

Saturday, November 09, 2013 

The Office Of The Prime Minister Of Canada Encouraged Senator Duffy To Lie About The Source Of The $90,000 And Coached Him On What To Say To The Media




"An e-mail has surfaced that shows the Prime Minister’s Office offered Senator Mike Duffy communications advice just days before he told Canadians he’d repaid questionable expense claims out of his own pocket.

It will fuel the controversy over recent allegations by Mr. Duffy – now suspended from the Senate – that the PMO told him to lie to Canadians about the source of the $90,000 used to reimburse taxpayers for controversial expenses.

The money had in fact come secretly from former PMO chief of staff Nigel Wright, a fact that was kept hidden from Canadians until mid-May when news broke of the arrangement designed to make a public fuss over the expense claims disappear.

Fighting a suspension motion last week, Mr. Duffy alleged that the PMO advised him to tell the public he’d obtained the $90,000 through a loan from the Royal Bank.

It was back on Feb. 22 that the PEI senator first announced to Canadians he would “voluntarily pay back my living expenses related to the house we have in Ottawa.”

An e-mail obtained by CTV News shows that on Feb. 20, two days before the repayment announcement, senior PMO officials approached Mr. Duffy to help him explain things.

The electronic message, sent to Mr. Duffy from his lawyer Janice Payne, informs him she’s been contacted by a PMO lawyer who works for Mr. Wright.

The Prime Minister’s Office names two PMO staffers who are standing by to craft messages for Mr. Duffy. “Chris Woodcock of his office and Patrick Rogers are communications specialists – very talented and happy to work with you to develop various strategies around communications,” Ms. Payne wrote in the e-mail to Mr. Duffy.
The Globe & Mail


 Progressive Bloggers

Thursday, November 07, 2013 

Bank Of Canada Unveils NEW $5 and $10 Polymer Bills ...

(Click on image to enlarge ... )

The Bank of Canada has unveiled the new Five and Ten dollar polymer bills for circulation.

Progressive Bloggers

 

Former PM Joe Clark's New Book Accurately Describes Stephen Harper's 'Adolescent' Administration ...



Progressive Bloggers  

"Canada now talks more than we act, and our tone is almost adolescent … full of sound and fury," 
Joe Clark
Former Prime Minister of Canada

"In a recent excerpt of the new book (it comes out this week) in the Toronto Star, Clark claims that, with the exceptions of Afghanistan and trade, there has been a recurring pattern in the Harper government actions: "It is unusually assertive in its dramatic gestures and declarations," but then retreats from actions designed to actually resolve critical problems abroad.

That why Canada has "drawn back from the fight against international poverty, peacekeeping, Kyoto, arms control, a broad presence in Africa, and Canada's customary leadership in the United Nations, Commonwealth and related multilateral institutions."
"Canada now talks more than we act, and our tone is almost adolescent … full of sound and fury," which leaves us wondering what Harper considers the purpose of foreign policy.
Even on the domestic front, Clark notes, Harper's locked-down style keeps him clear of federal-provincial conferences and close working relations with other governments.[...] "Ideology doesn't need analysis, and if you have the answers you don't need questions, and that's where we are these days,"

CBC.ca

Wednesday, November 06, 2013 

The Diminished Mental Capacity Associated With Serious Drug And Alcohol Abuse Should Require Him To Step Down As Mayor ...

The decision by a prominent Canadian mayor to stay on the job in spite of an admission of cocaine use and "drunken stupors", is likely a good demonstration of his diminished capacity to make sound judgements. For his own physical well-being, and the interests of the City of Toronto, he should step down. He continues to hurt himself and the Office in which he serves. There is no other option. He must resign his office and attend to his serious health concerns.

"Alcohol combines the elements of both mental illness and physical disease. Alcoholism is classified as a substance abuse disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III). Mental and emotional symptoms of alcoholism exist long before the grave physical complications of the disease appear. The mental symptoms consist of loss of control (taking in larger amounts of alcohol over a longer period of time than the person intends); persistent desire to drink (one or more unsuccessful efforts to cut down or control drinking); continued drinking in spite of adverse social, occupational, or legal consequences; and frequent intoxication or withdrawal symptoms when expected to fulfill major obligations at work, school, or home. These are all behavioral or mental symptoms, which, unless interrupted permanently by treatment, will inevitably lead to physical complications of alcoholism. Cirrhosis of the liver, chronic brain deterioration, and other grave organic consequences occur as a result of long-term heavy drinking, but the core of the disease is the cluster of behavioral symptoms that constitute the mental disorder called alcoholism. Consequently, the treatment of alcoholism targets the mind rather than any physical system. So alcoholism and all other substance abuse disorders are mental disorders, with a high physical complication rate."
Betty Ford Clinic

Progressive Bloggers

Tuesday, November 05, 2013 

"Conspiracy against Rob Ford and Stephen Harper exposed"!!!!


Yes, Rob Ford did smoke crack cocaine. So what? He says he'll stay on as Toronto's mayor. It's Bill Blair, the police chief investigating Ford who should resign.

Ditto in Ottawa. It's not Stephen Harper's fault that he appointed to the Senate three people he now calls grifters. It's not his fault that his most trusted aide wrote one of those senators, Mike Duffy, a cheque for $90,000 in exchange for unspecified services.

Nor is it the prime minister's fault that the party he heads paid $13,000 to cover the legal fees Duffy incurred in hammering out the $90,000 deal.

Nope. It's the fault of the courts for stymieing Harper's Senate reform plans.

Clearly, there is a conspiracy afoot to discredit conservative politicians. The courts are in on it. Harper nailed them in his speech to Conservative delegates last week. So are the Ottawa elites that the prime minister insists he doesn't belong to.

Chief Blair? We've got his number. Rob Ford's brother, Doug, blew the whistle on him Tuesday morning.

Blair's the most political police chief in the history of the world, said Doug, and should step aside. That's because the chief said he was disappointed to find that the mayor of Canada's largest city had been caught on video smoking crack.

Do you need any more proof of the conspiracy?

The conspiracy has been aboil for some time. International in scope, it is directed at right-thinking politicians who are simply trying to defend liberty and save the taxpayers their hard-earned money.

In the U.S., the conspiracy has taken the form of Obamacare. When Sarah Palin pointed out that the aim of Obamacare was to set up death panels, the elites mocked her.

But anyone who knows anything knows Palin was right. Anyway, Obama is a Kenyan-born Muslim and probably a terrorist too.

Thank goodness that we in Canada have Harper. He figured out early on that the entire climate change debate was a scare tactic employed by anti-growth zealots who want to subvert the market.

His energy minister, Joe Oliver, identified the cabal of foreign socialist billionaires who want to derail not only the Conservative government's pipeline plans but the entire Canadian economy. Billionaires like financier George Soros.

Soros is central to pretty much every conspiracy.

Harper doesn't go to those fancy parties in Ottawa put on by the elites. His idea of a good time is dinner at Arby's in Kanata.

In fact, that's probably where he ran into Pam Wallin, Mike Duffy and Patrick Brazeau back in 2008. That's probably where he said to himself over a bacon beef ‘n cheddar: Hey, these three would make great senators.

How was Harper to know that Duffy didn't live in Prince Edward Island, the province he is supposed to represent in the Senate? How was he to know that Wallin has a passion for limousine travel?

Harper's problem is that he is too trusting. He's a laid-back '60s kind of guy who lets his ministers and MPs do whatever they please. He's no match for the sly elites.

Nigel Wright is part of the elite. Probably, he's a secret ally of the union bosses. But Harper, in his usual trusting way, hired Wright to run the prime minister's office and then gave him his head.

How was Harper to know that Wright would single-handedly mastermind a scheme to pay Duffy's questionable expenses? How was he to know that Sen. Irving Gerstein, the Conservative Party's chief bagman, would cut a $13,000 cheque to pay Duffy's lawyers.

Nobody ever tells Harper what's going on. The Ottawa elites were probably cooking up this scheme in one of the fancy Quebec bistros they frequent. Down at Arby's, no one knew anything.

In his new book on the history of hockey, Harper details how Toronto's early 20th century elites (which, tellingly, included the Toronto Star) attempted to prevent Canadian hockey from going pro. Even then the conspiracy against market forces was in full swing.

In the end, the elites weren't able to stop hockey players from becoming millionaires. We shall see whether they are able to sideline those sterling champions of good government, Rob Ford and Stephen Harper.

Thomas Walkom's column appears Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.
The Star

 

Rob Ford Says He HAS Smoked Crack While Serving As Mayor


TORONTO - The embattled mayor of Canada's largest city performed a stunning about-face Tuesday, saying he had smoked crack cocaine after months of staunchly denying he used the drug.

"Yes! I've smoked crack cocaine!" said Mayor Rob Ford. "Am I (an) addict? No. Have I tried it? Probably in one of my drunken stupors."

In the shocking admission which reversed his earlier statements, the Toronto mayor said he tried the drug about a year ago, while he was in office.
National Newswatch

Monday, November 04, 2013 

Harper's Conservative Party Takes A Hard Turn To The 'RIGHT"



Progressive Bloggers


Ladies and gentleman, behold ... The Tea Party (North). New Conservative party policies adopted in convention November, 2013: 

— Canadians should not be forced to join unions and pay dues. This is the start of an effort by Conservatives to persuade Harper to introduce a contentious “right-to-work law,” similar to those in some U.S. states, that critics say is a thinly veiled attempt to destroy unions.

— Federal public service unions and those in federally regulated industries should tell their members how much of their dues go to political donations, media organizations and other political activism. Union members should be allowed to “opt out” of the portion of their dues that go to such activities.

— Federal public service pensions should be brought in line with those in the public sector, likely meaning they are either slashed now or the rate of future growth is cut. Treasury Board President Tony Clement spoke in favour of the motion and promised it will be an approach he soon takes to the bargaining table to seek concessions from federal unions.

“For too long, there has been this major gap in wages and benefits between the public and the private sector,” said Clement. “This is not sustainable, it’s not right, it’s not conservative, and it’s not in the public interest.”

— The Conservative Party will not support any legislation to legalize euthanasia or assisted suicide. This was a motion that sparked strong debate on either side, with one delegate warning that legalized euthanasia would give doctors “the right to directly and intentionally cause your death.”

— The party “condemns discrimination against girls through gender selection” — which means it opposes abortion in cases where the parents don’t want to give birth to a baby girl. British Columbia MP Mark Warawa, who put forward the motion, was blocked by Harper’s team on Parliament Hill when he tried to discuss it in the Commons earlier this year. But Conservative delegates passed his motion easily.

“Right now in the world there are over 200 million missing girls because of the practice of using ultrasounds to find out if it’s a boy or girl,” Warawa told delegates. “Girls have equal value as boys, we should not be discriminating against them in any form.”

— The party pledges that a “Conservative government recognizes the legitimacy of private ownership of firearms and will resist any domestic or international pressure to the contrary.” After the last election, the government moved to kill the long-gun registry, and more recently, it drew sharp criticism in September when it failed to sign an international treaty to regulate the global arms trade.

— The party, whose members have often complained of bias in the CBC, believes the best way to “control” the network is for the government to establish “distinct” budgets for the TV and radio arms of the corporation.

— To properly punish criminals who are convicted of more than one “serious crime,” they should serve their sentences “consecutively rather than concurrently” so that they would spend more time in jail.

O.canada.com

 

Andrew Coyne's (must read) Analysis Of The Conservative Party Convention: 'More Cult Than Political Party'???


Columnist Andrew Coyne nails it with his analysis of this past weekend's Conservative Party of Canada National Convention in Calgary. Is this a political party or a cult?

"Thus the Conservative tragedy grinds on. When your only principle is paranoia — when your central organizing proposition is that “everyone is out to get us” — when every criticism is merely confirmation of the essential rightness of that proposition, and every deviation is evidence of disloyalty, then you are less a party than a cult.
I don’t say that is what the party has become. But it is an early warning sign in any group when its members are required to cut themselves off from the outside world.
Andrew Coyne

Saturday, November 02, 2013 

Canada's Right Leaning MSM Is Starting To Realize What Progressives Have Long Known About The Disturbing Character Of Stephen Harper ..



Andrew Coyne: Harper speech a parody of a parody of an empty cliché

You have to understand: He is not ever going to change. He is not ever going to admit error or show contrition or "let people see his heart" or "share his vision" or do any of what the dimestore philosophers in my chosen trade advise him to do.

Every time Stephen Harper comes to a moment where he's supposed to "pivot" or "raise his game" or "reset," he responds with ... more of the same. Every speech that is supposed to be an opportunity to broaden his message or show a new face or signal his concern or confront an issue, he gives us ... this. He simply will not given them the satisfaction - the media, his critics, the elites, choose your devil.

And so we get this damp recital of past slogans, this parody of a parody of an empty cliché of a speech, this 4,000-word migraine. A strong, stable national government! Protect our economy amid global uncertainty! For those who work hard, pay their taxes, and play by the rules! For our children! And the generations to come! If you thought he was going to take the opportunity to level with Canadians about the Senate scandals - to explain what happened, to tell what he knew, to clear up the many contradictions and gaps in his story, even to acknowledge it's an issue, beyond the sins of a few miscreant senators - you should have known better. If you were one of those who thought he might even, in a bold flourish, call for a national referendum on Senate abolition, well, you must be the kind who still believes in flourishes
.
He will not do any of what is urged upon him, what conventional wisdom or common sense would dictate you do when you're in the kind of fix he's in, not just because he is stubborn and unyielding, but because to do so would be to consent to being judged by others' terms.
If you say you are sorry, you are not just conceding that you did something wrong. You are conceding the possibility of wrongness. You are accepting that you might be held to some standard not of your own choosing: not only ethical, but rhetorical, strategic, managerial, democratic, any of it. You are acknowledging that you need somebody else's approval, beyond those you have carefully selected and groomed to approve you. And so he will not do that.

If you never act as if you expect to be held to any standard, he calculates, you won't be. If you never act as if you're guilty, you aren't.

It's entirely possible he is correct in this analysis. The long, triumphant, disgraceful career of Jean Chrétien, on whom he increasingly seems to model himself, is ample evidence of
its crude efficacy. Chrétien made all kinds of messes, was caught in all kinds of scandals. But as he seemed so visibly not to care, neither did - could - anyone else. He lowered everyone to his non-standard. A grander experiment in this vein is under way in Toronto.

Is it working for Harper? It's a little harder to see evidence of it, just at the moment. His party is in third place in some polls, and south of 30 per cent in nearly all of them: an extraordinary rebuke for a governing party in relatively good economic times. His own approval numbers are now the worst of any major party leader. Where once he was the rock on which the Conservative party was built, now he is at risk of becoming the anchor that drags it under.
It's possible this refusal to change, to pivot, to reach out, to inspire, to do anything but what he has been doing is simply a display of Harperian sang-froid, the legendary long game - an ability to see past transitory difficulties, without the sort of panicky thrashing about that consigns other party leaders to the deep. But it's also possible he just doesn't get it: how deeply his party is loathed, how narrow his base has become, how unnerved his party is by the rolling sixmonth knife-fight that is the Senate scandal.

And so, slowly, tentatively, the race to succeed him has begun. It is not an open challenge to his leadership, yet. But it is not quite the loyal "aye aye sir" he might once have expected. There is no other way to interpret the glaring departure from the prime minister's line - or rather his latest line - with regard to Nigel Wright, first by Jason Kenney, then by Peter MacKay: where Harper had condemned his former chief of a staff as a deceiver who had betrayed his trust, both of these senior ministers vouched for his integrity, as many in the party would. Yes, he had made a serious error of judgment, but an uncharacteristic one.

More significantly, perhaps, neither made any attempt to bridge back to the PM's position, when asked.
It isn't that Harper is going anywhere soon, either by his own volition or someone else's. But the more his stature shrinks, the more real the possibility becomes - and the more the smaller fish in the party start to look around to see which of the bigger fish they need to get behind, in preparation. And the more different sections of the party line up behind one or another of these undeclared candidates, the less acutely they will be harkening to the voice of the leader.

Possibly an explanation or a show of contrition or an abrupt change of direction - something, anything - would only have exacerbated this. Possibly it would look weak, uncertain, rattled.
Or possibly he is caught, unable to move one way or the other, trapped in his own body.
Andrew Coyne - National Post

Friday, November 01, 2013 

I thought that Stephen Harper said he had personally reviewed Pam Wallin's expenses .. and they were ok??


“I have looked at the numbers. Her travel costs are comparable to any parliamentarian travelling from that particular area of the country over that period of time,”
Stephen Harper
Prime Minister of Canada

--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

RCMP allege that Senator Wallin defrauded Canadians with her Senate expenditure claims!

 

Two Key Dates In The Duffy / Wright / Harper Scandal ...



CBC's Peter Mansbridge examines what went on behind closed doors on two key dates that led up to the current Senate scandal. If you are following the Senate Scandal ... this is 'must see' viewing!




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