Shattering the Myth of Conservative Fiscal Responsibility

Nicely played by “Views From The Lake – Eh?“, where the blog author shows clearly and completely how the Conservatives are inept when it comes to managing the country’s finances.

I’ve stolen the graphic that was created, but more can be found at the original site.

Vote buying has never seemed more obvious.

Unfortunately, Flaherty and the rest of the Cons will use their own incompetence as an excuse to privatize everything from the CBC to the CRTC to the CMHC to the AECL and a thousand other useful public services.

cdn-spending-1983-2010

Israel War Crimes, Canadian Cowardice

Israel has finally been condemned for the acts of violence and cruelty against a humanitarian flotilla in the Mediterranean this past summer.

A summary of the conclusions:

Grave violations of human rights law.
Clear evidence to support prosecutions for ”wilful killing” and ”torture”.
IDF used ”totally unnecessary and incredible violence”.
Blockade of Gaza is ”illegal”.
Israel dismissed the report as ”one-sided” and ”extremist”.

Canada’s response? It’s Israel. We’ve got their back.

Unfortunately, our government’s complacency and failure to be politically objective has made us all complicit in crimes against humanity.

So now what?

My answer to ‘why is there no political outlet for anger on the left’

Naked Capitalism poses a great question: why is there no political outlet for anger on the left these days?

The author is looking at the US, but Canadian ‘lefties’ are in the same situation.

I have a few answers:

Unprecedented levels of media concentration in the hands of the few;
The left is paying the right, either in the form of iPad payments, cable bills, cell phones or 3-year contracts;
Efforts by the media and media critics to paint the media as ‘liberal’ and ‘lamestream’, leading to an interesting ‘dumbing down’ process that affects all discussion, argument and efforts to move forward;
The intentional campaign to smear all opposition as ‘radical’, ‘leftist’ or even ‘terrorist’ (landing many in jail and thousands of others on watch lists);
Massive ongoing efforts to discredit those that commit their lives to the public service, from corruption scandals, to spending issues and mis-management of taxpayer dollars, to ridiculing basic salaries;
Fragmentation on the left, rooted in a level of respect instead of demands to acquiesce (like the Cons did when they forced the Alliance and Reform MPs to ‘merge’);
The inability of the left to create any kind of common voice, either via their own media outlets (which they would have to essentially start from scratch) or other means of communication.

The core of the issue lies with the very basic notion of propaganda and/or communications.

We don’t own the conversation.

Ironically, it’s been the right and – most importantly – the religious right that has been very effective at showing solidarity and unity, the very notions that should be at the core of the left. They repeatedly use many voices to express a common theme and beat the crap out of progressives who are fragmented and appear confused when they have a crack at sharing an opinion on ‘public’ airwaves.

While reading some of the comments, I came to another epiphany, something the author is trying to evoke: reading about rebellion is useless. We no longer act.

How do we get people to act? We are at the point of needing to panic, as the waves of Cons are just getting more maniacal and controlling.

Many people are stopping dead in their tracks out of fear. How do we break those bonds that the Cons have placed on us?

Do we start canceling all of our cell phone contracts, cable bills and land lines and start pouring our savings into our own network?

Within a year, we’d have a hell of a lot of cash to invest if we actually made this crucial first step.

Who’s up for it?

Ontario Hydro Rates: The (Financial) Half-Life Of Nuclear

For any of you out there that pay for your electricity, expect to see a big jump in rates both in the short term and the long run.

Most of the head-in-the-sand types would argue that it’s because of the rates that are being paid to renewable sources. The truth of the matter is that this is the only thing that the province seems to be doing right.

Others would point out that we’re being hi-jacked by profiteers that would continue to gouge the public and industries of Ontario if the Ontario Power Authority were to be privatized. This cannot be tolerated.

We’ve also been hearing (and, more importantly, reading on our statement) for several decades a good chunk of our monthly payment goes to debt reduction. Remember that this debt was incurred in the 1960s and 70s when nuclear power plants were built for the province. Many of these projects were never completed and still many remain unproductive. Some are even paid to not operate and deliver energy.

At the core of all of this is the reality that the people in Ontario have been ripped off by nuclear for the past 3 decades as a result of inefficiencies, failed promises and a half-life for waste that will enter the tens-of-thousands of years.

The people of Ontario need to demand an investigation into power generation in this province and why we’re still paying for product that has never worked. We should go far as to consider a class-action lawsuit against the builders of Bruce and Pickering plants, even if that includes the AECL.

The people of Ontario deserve better management of their electricity source.

If we don’t get it, our digital infrastructure, along with other industries, will suffer greatly from this mismanagement.

CBC Gun Registry Poll

http://www.cbc.ca/news/pointofview/2010/09/long-gun-registry-should-canada-keep-it.html

Toronto’s Future Gets Uglier …

Rob Ford … great.

Thanks to Bionic Liberal for this video clip.

This is the kind of civility we need to elect to our cities.

Right.

At the root of this: for years, the media and the right-wingers have been attacking public servants with a specific intent: make it miserable for any decent person who wants to be a public servant and leave the gaps for the bullies.

Welcome to Canadian politics in the 21st century.

The End of the Internet As We Know It

As we progressives are well aware, THEY own the media which, in large part, includes access points to the Internet.

“They” being folks like Rupert Murdoch (Fox, NewsCorp), the Asper clan (once CanWest), the Peladeaus (Quebecor, Sun Media) and so on.

These stories, however, paint a very real portrait of things to come.

It’s bad enough that bloggers are posed to be considered the world’s biggest threat to economic and democratic stability since the Lenin years (aka ‘blogging terrorists’).

Now, we’re going to be shunted into the halls of oblivion, never to be seen or heard from as long as the douches at Microsoft and other corporations have their way.

Here are some sample stories to digest:

This map shows us just how few companies and organizations hold their fingers on the ‘delete’ button, threatening any act of dissent.

Folks, we have to get very serious about what the Internet means to us.

Battles like Net Neutrality and access are just the tip of the iceberg and are actually meaningless and miss the point.

The real point is that we have to get ready to start building our own public internet or THEY will take it away from us.

If only we could get George Soros to start investing in real infrastructure. That would be COOL!

Blackwater Hired by Canadian Government

Jeffrey Scahill continues to expose the inner-workings of a company known as Blackwater, the mercenary-for-hire American company that had some minor issues with killing 17 Iraqis in a public plaza three years ago today.

In his piece in The Nation, Jeffrey Scahill identifies that Disney and Monsanto are among many of those in corporate America who are turning to mercenaries to protect their assets and activities across the planet.

The company – through one of its subsidiaries – also provided services to the Canadian RCMP:

Some of the training Blackwater provided to Canadian military forces was in Blackwater/TRC’s “Mirror Image” course, where trainees live as a mock Al Qaeda cell in an effort to understand the mindset and culture of insurgents. Company literature describes it as “a classroom and field training program designed to simulate terrorist recruitment, training, techniques and operational tactics.” Documents show that in March 2009 Blackwater/TRC spent $6,500 purchasing local tribal clothing in Afghanistan as well as assorted “propaganda materials—posters, Pakistan Urdu maps, etc.” for Mirror Image, and another $9,500 on similar materials this past January in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

According to internal documents, in 2009 alone the Canadian military paid Blackwater more than $1.6 million through TRC. A Canadian military official praised the program in a letter to the center, saying it provided “unique and valid cultural awareness and mission specific deployment training for our soldiers in Afghanistan,” adding that it was “a very effective and operationally current training program that is beneficial to our mission.”

Apparently, the Democrats are the next group of people in the sites of Erik Prince (the leader of Xe Services, the new name for Blackwater) as he prepares to release a book in November during the midterm elections:

He’s now writing a book alleging that officials in the Clinton and Obama administrations “approved of his most sensitive and controversial operations,” according to a report by veteran intel reporter Jeff Stein published in The Washington Post earlier this month.

The Post‘s Jeff Stein cited two unnamed sources who say Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, is hurrying to sell his company before he can go public with a book that takes aim at the Democratic Party. One of the sources told Stein that Prince and his friends “think this will destroy the Democratic Party in the elections.”

The source, who is described as having a “business relationship with Xe,” said Prince had “given his people three weeks to complete the sale of the company and the book will be released then,” in time for the November elections.

Be careful who you do business with. Some of them will sting you.

Where Would You Go …

If you were a politician looking to garner the love and admiration of the Canadian voting population?

The Toronto Star is doing an interesting series on the face of politics, particularly in the wake of new and unique marketing tools for voters.

Here are links to Part I and Part II. The series is expected to continue tomorrow. I look forward to continuing to read about what they have to say.

I have many thoughts on the whole piece and the direction it’ll probably take.

The first thought is that if I were running as a politician, I would NOT go to a Tim’s OR a Starbuck’s or even a Timothy’s.

Instead, I would pick every single farmer’s market between Tofino and St. John’s and make sure I bought at least one tomato or piece of corn at each one. I would deliver a message that local and grassroots is more important than generic and processed.

Here’s another broader concept: Canadian politicians and advise-givers are tipping on a perilous edge of a thunderous mistake when it comes to our country’s democratic future.

They are treating politics like it’s a business and a marketing game. Voters are becoming ‘targets of campaigns’.

They are treating Canadian democracy like it’s something that can be made in China and marketing.

They are trying to generate want.

Want is the only thing we were good at producing in the 20th century and we’ve failed at that today.

Understanding need will be the most important task of any politician in the 21st century.

Do we need clean water? Yes.

Do we need to ensure that our health care system continues to be reliable? Yes.

Do we need a reliable digital infrastructure to sustain a knowledge economy? Yes.

Do we need carbon taxes or some kind of response to stem the catastrophic decline in the quality of our environment? Yes.

Do we need to throw cash at failing / ailing manufacturing industries like the automobile? No.

Do we need more roads? Definitely not.

Do we need tax cuts on consumption taxes? Absolutely not.

Priorities change when you consider a campaign in terms of the needs of ALL Canadians as opposed to trying to mimic a model that no one actually fits into.

‘Targeting’ Canadians to ‘segmented campaigns’ that are all about ‘conversions’ is archaic double-speak for treating us like cattle. In fact, the use of war-related terminology is insulting and annoying, to say the least.

Politicians and their advisors need to wake up and realize that they have hopped on the communications bus about a century too late.

The good news is that there’s another bus at the terminal and the politicians of tomorrow will use today’s tools and engage with Canadians in a very real and genuine way.

Here’s an example: I won’t vote for Michael Ignatieff and the Liberals because every time he’s quoted, he uses phrases like ‘I enjoy talking to Canadians’ or ‘when I talk to my people …’ like he’s the only one who’s entitled to have an opinion. The nuance he should consider using if he’s going to at least get my attention: ‘the last time I spoke with …’ He needs to use his language to show that he’s willing to have a conversation.

And it has to be natural.

Progressive Platform: Price Parity Program

Think of any product that you buy in Canada:

Books
Cars
Most food items
Clothing & Shoes
Gas
Basic inputs (eg. wood materials or drywall)
Etc

How many of you have gone to the US and found that your dollar goes much further there now, particularly now that the Canadian dollar is nearly at par with the US dollar?

How many of you have wondered if the price difference is because we believe we have a different tax structure (eg. higher ‘sin’ taxes on things like booze, smokes and gas) compared to the US?

I know I have for some time.

However, I’m beginning to question these prices more and more every day and I’m beginning to convince myself that Canadians are being taken for a ride.

We’ve experienced a state of ‘currency stability’ with the US for more than two years where the value of the dollar has been in lock-step with the US dollar.

Prior to rise in the value of the Canadian dollar, most prices in Canada reflected a reasonable difference. Think of a book you may have bought 6-8 years ago when the Canadian dollar was in the $0.75-$0.85 range compared to the American buck.

You can picture it now: $12.99 US / $16.99 CDN (or something similar).

Today, you don’t even see the US price. In fact, I think it was more profitable for publishers to do a run of Canadian editions than continue to show how much they were gouging us as we bought the latest and greatest from Nick Hornby or Marci McDonald.

And don’t even think of getting me started on car prices. They’re all made in North America and they all (within certain ranges) follow the same safety requirements, so the prices shouldn’t be that different. The result: many cars in Canada usually have anywhere from a 20-50% premium placed on the final sticker price.

The numbers on this category are outrageous. Think of the volume of cars that are bought in 2009 (New Motor Vehicle Sales, Canada, 2009, StatsCan) was nearly 1.5 million. If the prices were actually reduced in 2007 and 2008 as the value of the Canadian dollar rose, we may not have seen the drastic drop in sales that we did in 2009. As a result, we may not have needed to bail out GM and Chrysler.

While this is speculation (on the scale of 100%), the numbers are eerie in their similarity. If car manufacturers were charging $10,000 more in Canada than the US (on average), that would amount to $15 billion in value. We loaned them $20 billion (ignoring for the moment that the US loaned GM and Chrysler substantially more and that and that we’re only talking about two companies).

If we had pressured those companies to reduce prices, the reduction in sales may not have been quite as profound, at least in Canada.

Summary: despite our dollar appreciating more than 20% in recent years, we have not seen a similar decline in prices or what economists call ‘buying power’.

When you add in what should be happening with price decreases in Canada to the fact that the Conservatives have brought in unprecedented levels of corporate tax cuts, we should seriously question the economic policy of our current government, particularly with respect to what ‘Joe and Jane Average’ can buy in this country.

Currency issues present a double-edged sword, particularly for a country like Canada that relies very heavily on exports. As the value increases, the cost of our goods to foreign buyers is higher as well. This is why we lose jobs and business to countries that habitually depreciate their currency (eg. the US). Manufacturing jobs evaporate because we lose the competitive advantage that’s embedded in cheaper exchange rates.

The trade-off is that there should be a balance achieved with demand-driven consumption fueled by a sharp decrease in the cost of imported goods, including imported materials. Since this hasn’t happened, we lose both jobs and buying power.

Something smells.

Canadian politicians need to latch on to the grass-roots opportunity that this policy represents.

By pursuing price parity, they will be able to promise lower prices for anything from books to corn seed to new cars. They will be able to push for price breaks and not tax cuts, giving them the opportunity to increase what should be increased: Canada’s consumption tax (now commonly referred to as the HST).

There are many ways to approach this situation.

You could promise a basic investigation. The mere threat of a review of prices will likely result in an instantaneous drop in prices.
Expand the scope and mandate of Statistics Canada to include price comparisons for common goods converted to local dollars. Start with a basic list of items that might change in price immediately and continue to add to the list and monitor the differences.
Create an information campaign that focuses on the value of excise taxes, the common point of blame by industry when it comes to purchasing disparity.

What are your ideas for expanding the scope of such a project?

Do you have specific examples of price differences that should be addressed immediately and showcased in campaign slogans?

Excited Delirium

Stories about Excited Delirium, the Shock Economy and a little fiction here and there.

Monthly Archives: September 2010