Excited Delirium

This article leaves a lot to be desired for the decision to vaccinate a lot of young Canadian girls with HPV treatment.

I think we need to re-evaluate why we were in such a rush to spend $300 million on a drug that may not have been adequately tested, especially when we’re ready to go to election again over $28 million in public finance for political campaigns.

Thanks to Calgary Grit for these quotes to be compiled for the Harpercrite files:

September 15, 2008 : "My own belief is if we were going to have some kind of big crash or recession, we probably would have had it by now ." – Stephen Harper

The next month: Dow Jones plunges 2,340 points

October 7, 2008 : "I think there’s probably a lot of great buying opportunities emerging in the stock market as a consequence of all this panic ." – Stephen Harper

Six week later: TSX down over 2,000 points

September 26, 2008 : "All the fundamentals of the Canadian economy are good. It’s not the time to do anything new, wild or stupid ." – Stephen Harper

September 26, 2008 : Harper accused Dion of attempting to "drive down confidence in the Canadian economy without foundation, and quite frankly, sitting on the sidelines, virtually cheering for a recession ."

October 6, 2008 : "I know economists will say well, we could run a small deficit but the problem is that once you cross that line as we see in the United States, nothing stops deficits from getting larger and larger and spiralling out of control ." – Stephen Harper

October 8, 2008 : Asked if running even a small deficit would be bad in these difficult times, Mr. Flaherty said flatly : “Yes, it would be .”

October 10, 2008 : "This country will not go into recession next year and will lead the G7 countries ." – Stephen Harper

November 22, 2008 : "These are, of course, the classic circumstances under which budgetary deficits are essential." -Stephen Harper

November 27, 2008 : Flaherty predicts recession, offers no stimulus package

December 15, 2008 : "The truth is, I’ve never seen such uncertainty in terms of looking forward to the future. I’m very worried about the Canadian economy. [...] Obviously, we’re going to have to run a deficit ." – Stephen Harper

December 16, 2008 : Canada’s leader [Harper] says depression possible

December 17, 2008 : "It’s quite clear on the basis of the forecasts, and the continuing decline in the forecasts, that there will be a deficit ." – Jim Flaherty

December 18, 2008: Harper says deficit could hit 30 billion

Folks:  let’s add more.  I know there are a lot out there that prove to Canadians that these people cannot and should not be trusted with the future and fortunes of Canadians.  Please post below in the comments section.

Canada’s environmental policy (or lack thereof) has come under scrutiny yet again, this time in Poznan, Poland.  Last week, at the summit that would help determine some of the terms of the follow-up to the Kyoto Protocol, Canada again deferred to the worst polluters in the world and said we couldn’t do something until they did.

I can’t get my head around the stupidity of this philosophy.

This is like saying ‘I can’t pass grade 12 math because my younger brother of 8 years isn’t about to’.  Or ‘I can’t quick smoking because there are at least two or three other people smoking.  If I quit, I’ll insult them’.

Give me a break.

Canada needs to set standards, not follow them.

I’m getting sick of hearing about the plight of North American car companies.

And now we’ve done it:  we’ve made a commitment to old-school, traditional businesses that speak nothing about the future that Canadians want.  Just today, Stephen Harper announced a bailout package for GM and Chrysler, something he could finally stomach after his lord and master George Bush did the same in the US.

If I understand correctly, we’ve been forced to wait and wait and wait again while the Republicans (in the US and here in Canada) tried to turn the screws to unions and force them to make concessions.  I’d like to see numbers, because I really don’t believe that unionized employees represent the lion’s share of costs for car companies.  I could be wrong, but as I say, I’d like to see numbers.

Harper’s announcement still has a lot of ties to it, so expect to see either a wide range of layoffs or a number of concessions, despite feedback from the CAW that they won’t back down.

And they shouldn’t have to.

For weeks now, the solution has seemed obvious to me, but I’ll share them and see if you agree:

1. Let them go bankrupt.  Bankruptcy is an exceptionally important function that’s been institutionalized in the capitalist system.  Let the lawyers and bean counters take over and kick all of the management out.
2. Give guarantees for pensions.
3. Ensure that ALL warranties are covered and will be supported by any government in North America.  People aren’t buying North American cars because they’re out of touch with demand.  People aren’t buying North American cars because there’s no confidence that these companies will be around to honour their warranties.
4. Long term plan:  Build good cars.  Stop with this ‘disposable 5-year car’ bullshit philosophy.  The world demands better from all of our manufacturers and it should start with car manufacturers leading the way.  If you’re not making as many bags of money in the future, well, boo hoo.
5. Slightly longer-term plan:  let’s figure out how to encourage the development of a made-in-Canada car manufacturer.  For example, why are we keeping the ZENN car on hold?
6. Longer-term plan:  let’s figure out how to build a car-less society.  Cars are not our future.

If you’re reading this and you run your own blog, please post to this story , as they captured some essential background information related to Ottawa Police conduct.

We owe it to Canadians to remind them that there’s no point in fretting about a couple of million here or there in terms of philosophical cuts like public finance for Canadian parties or holding off on Constitutional rights to strike if you’re a public servant.

We have a fantastic opportunity ahead of us, but we need to mobilize lobbying efforts and encourage local politicians to act before it’s too late. (more…)

OK … so for once in my life, I actually find myself agreeing with Stephen Harper.

No, hell did not freeze over.

Even though we don’t elect leaders in Canada, we have a tendency of seeing the leader of any party as the personality that we’re collectively voting for. A way to correct this would be to push us towards multi-issue/person voting cards, including the choice of leader, local representative and so on, but that’s a very different and complicated discussion (or is it?). (more…)

It’s easy to feel honest when folks like Kenneth Copeland are submitting their airplanes for deductions against their ‘charitable’ entities.  Original link here .

Of course, the denial to allow the deduction only occurred because they wouldn’t release their salaries to the auditor.

Other things that should be questioned:

Copeland’s ministry on a 1,500-acre campus behind an iron gate includes a church, a private airstrip, a hangar for the ministry’s aircraft and a $6 million church-owned lakefront mansion.

I’m listening to Peter Mansbridge interview Stephen Harper and I’m appalled by the string of lies and contempt that this man continues to show for the people of Canada.

In particular, Mansbridge asked him about the efforts that Harper made in 2004 to work with the Bloc to form a coalition to oppose the Liberals.  Harper denied that they did anything of the sort.

Here’s a re-print of a letter that Harper sent to the Governor General in 2004:

September 9, 2004

Her Excellency the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson,
C.C., C.M.M., C.O.M., C.D.
Governor General
Rideau Hall
1 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A1

Excellency,

As leaders of the opposition parties, we are well aware that, given the
Liberal minority government, you could be asked by the Prime Minister
to dissolve the 38th Parliament at any time should the House of Commons
fail to support some part of the government’s program.

We respectfully point out that the opposition parties, who together
constitute a majority in the House, have been in close consultation. We
believe that, should a request for dissolution arise this should give
you cause, as constitutional practice has determined, to consult the
opposition leaders and consider all of your options before exercising
your constitutional authority.

Your attention to this matter is appreciated.

Sincerely,

Hon. Stephen Harper, P.C., M.P.
Leader of the Opposition
Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada

Gilles Duceppe, M.P.
Leader of the Bloc Quebecois

Jack Layton, M.P.
Leader of the New Democratic Party

What’s the truth?  Can anyone please help me verify why Stephen Harper would contemplate such a misleading statement?

Have I missed something?

Last weekend, dozens of rallies took place across the country and the people of Vancouver were no different.

Except … they had a compelling speech by Peter Julian, as captured on YouTube: