… on the the Harper Christmas card too. But his boss said no (wait for it), one rodent is a enough. Budda-bing! (1) Trashy, Ottawa, Ontario
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Assorted content to end your week. - Murray Dobbin recognizes that there’s more at stake on the federal political scene than merely replacing the Harper Cons – and that the most important debate may be found within the NDP. Meanwhile, Tim Harper is concern trolling on that front, demanding that Thomas Mulcair silence Linda McQuaig and anybody else whose principles might not align perfectly with Fraser Institute talking points. - Carol Goar makes the case (as I’ve done before) to deal with the Senate through a new convention which simply avoids future appointments. But Andrew Coyne proposes a far (Read more…) If you want a simple illustration of where Stephen Harper's sinister Con regime is taking us, all you have to do is contrast two pictures.This picture of Bruno Saccomani, Harper's former chief bodyguard.Who now has his own limo, and somebody to open the door for him, as our new/nouveau ambassador to Jordan. Read more » Many people were waiting for the on the horizon cabinet shuffle in Ottawa that finally took place today. Pundits saw it as an opportunity for a scandal plagued government to turn the page and change the channel by getting Canadians to talk about something other than Duffy-Wright. And while people have focused on it for today, as we are here, the seemingly safe measures taken by this shuffle will do little in getting anyone to move ahead permanently. For a shuffle that was being seen as a fresh start, it was ultimately quite a major disappointment. In the most (Read more…) H/t The Toronto Star Recommend this Post Federal Treasury Board President Tony Clement, left, makes Duffygate disappear, while two reporters and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, at right, look on. Actual Canadian politicians and media personalities may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: The real Tony Clement, Arthur Porter. Desperate to divert public attention from Mike “The Puffster” Duffy’s expense account exploits and the arrest by Panamanian authorities of the fellow who not so long ago ran the watchdog overseeing Canada’s spy agency, the Harper Government has turned to that hardy perennial of conservative diversionary tactics: union bashing. Well, the pandas didn’t work. Any old port in a (Read more…) Canadian diplomats, as seen in the public’s imagination and doubtless as they will soon be portrayed by the Harper Government. Actual Canadian diplomats abroad do not appear quite as illustrated, even when dressed casually for picket line duty. Below: Gary Doer, Canada’s Ambassador to the United States; Treasury Board President Tony Clement. The working stiffs of Canadian diplomacy, members of the Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers, were walking a picket line in Washington, D.C., yesterday – which raised some eyebrows in the Imperial Capital and must have created some minor discomfort for the Canadian ambassador, a (Read more…) 
 Boston Marathon bombing, Canadian Politics, Chechnya, Czechoslovakia, diplomacy, Gary Doer, Haiti, Islamabad, Kabul, labour relations, Online Tory Rage Machine, Pakistan, Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers, temporary foreign workers, Tim Hortons, Tony Clement, United States, Washington Former Australian PM John Howard at the Manning Centre’s Ottawa gabfest Sunday. Below: Tom Flanagan pictured on a button worn by many at Preston Manning’s “big-tent” conservative revival meeting, “Calgary School” professor Rainer Knopff seen in passing sporting his Flanagan button. OTTAWA Was former Australian PM John Howard sending Canadian conservatives a coded message about their future Saturday, or was his research just not up to snuff now that he’s no longer a prime minister? Mr. Howard is a Liberal, which in Australia means he’s a conservative, which almost anywhere else would mean he’d be termed a neoliberal, which here . . . → Read More: Alberta Diary: Former Aussie PM’s unintended message to Canadian progressives: coalitions work! This and that to end your Saturday. - Bill Curry breaks the news of the Cons’ next round of public service slashing – with Canada Revenue Agency employees whose work far more than pays for itself once more looming as one of the main targets of a government determined to ease the way for tax evasion and avoidance. - Jodie Sinnema reports on the Parkland Institute’s ideas for a more progressive tax system in Alberta. And it’s particularly worth noting that Albertans themselves recognize the value of fair taxes even as their government continues to insist on the need to . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links Calgary City Hall: The next target for former Reform Party leader Preston Manning’s not-very-merry band of far-right ideologues? Below: Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi and neoconservative ideological guru Manning back in the day. Is the so-called Manning Centre for Building Democracy preparing to target Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi and other progressive city councillors for a corporate-backed reprise of the far right’s domination of federal and provincial politics in recent decades across Canada? So it would seem. Indeed, it would be fair to say the benevolent sounding Trojan Horse founded by Preston Manning, the former Reform Party leader and unflinching market ideologue, . . . → Read More: Alberta Diary: Preston Manning’s well-funded ideological hobbyhorse takes aim at civic progressives
Alberta Politics, Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, Brian Day, Calgary City Hall, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, Canadian Politics, Canadian Taxpayers Federation, City Of Calgary, conservative party of canada, David Collyer, Ezra Levant, Frontier Centre for Public Policy, Institute of Marriage and Family Canada, Jason Kenney, John Howard, Manning Centre for Building Democracy, Montreal Economic Institute, Municipal Governance Project, naheed nenshi, Preston Manning, Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, Reform Party, stephen harper, Tony Clement … doesn’t have anything better to do than to declare war on Santa-haters? Really, Uncle Tony? Really? The Government of Canada has no guidelines that restrict federal employees from putting up Christmas or other holiday decorations in their workspace. “There are those who would like to snuff out the holiday spirit in the name of [...] Oh my Ding Dong. Deck the gazebo with boughs of holly. Or steaming mounds of horse shit.Tony Clement, the King of Muskoka and the Minister of Misery, wants us all to know something REALLY important.He's no grinch, and the Cons don't hate Christmas. Read more » Thanks to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Canada’s oilpatch will soon take a Great Leap Forward. Below: CNOOC’s logo. “When we say that Canada is open for business, we do not mean that Canada is for sale to foreign governments,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper intoned at a news conference in Ottawa Friday – except, he didn’t add, those parts of Canada our government’s rich pals feel like selling off. So, once again, Dec. 7 gets to be a date that will live in infamy, in this case the soon-to-be infamous sale of Calgary-based Nexen Inc. for a tidy $15 . . . → Read More: Alberta Diary: The Nexen deal: ‘Friends with benefits’ may not be nearly as good as it sounds! According to a recent poll only about 16 percent of Canadians now trust Stephen Harper and his insane Con clown posse.And who can blame them eh? Because today was such a three-ring circus it really makes you wonder whether they are mentally fit to rema… . . . → Read More: Montreal Simon: In the Court of the Con Clowns Good Lordy…I mean good lardy. You can't trust those Cons as far as you can spit, and they can squeal.For they will strip most of our lakes, rivers, and creeks of any environmental protection.Just not the ones in their ridings.Read more » This and that for your Tuesday reading. - Chris Hayes notes that Mitt Romney’s $50,000-a-plate dinner caught on video represents a rare glimpse inside the U.S.’ plutocracy – as well as a strong argument as to why we shouldn’t allow that group to decide policy affecting the public at large: Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy - Meanwhile, Linda McQuaig notes that Mitt Romney’s great mistake was to expose a bit too much of what his party has long stood for. - The CP documents the latest example of . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links Now we know why Treasury Board President Tony Clement did not think twice before spending $50-million of G8 funds in his Muskoka riding. Why Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page threatened to sue the Harper government for refusing to comply with his repeated requests for financial and related information. Now we know why some of the Conservative Government’s publicized spending figures are always untrue. Why sometimes they are millions of dollars below the actual figures. The latest report of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates tells us that “arcane rules are keeping MPs in the dark about the billions in . . . → Read More: CANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: MPs in the dark about the billions in Conservative government spending Communist physician Norman Bethune, left, and a comrade from the Red Chinese Army speak with Canadian Treasury Board President Tony Clement, right, in a vignette as imagined by Sun News Network. Below: Dr. Bethune, looking weirdly contemporary with a fashionable goatee; far-right ideologue Rob Anders; the real Mr. Clement. Is the bizarre brouhaha over who stood up for the Chinese national anthem and what its words are evidence of a serious ideological split within Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s ruling Conservative Party of Canada? If you think stuff like that only matters in places like Communist China and North Korea, maybe . . . → Read More: Alberta Diary: Does Bizarre Bethune brouhaha signal ideological rift within Harper Conservatives? …. you should know better than to get into a Twitter mud-slinging match just because Ezra thinks it’s a good idea to bash former newspaper editors! I thought you were a tad better than that! I mean, I’m not exactly your “fan” (though hey, I’ll be in your riding this weekend so wouldn’t decline a [...] Every day that the House of Commons is sitting, just before the end of question period members of the press gallery begin to gather in the foyer outside the chamber for the scrums. It’s usually the best opportunity to grab an MP and get a few quick questions answered or some comments on the story of the day without having to phone communications staffers who have to fill out message event proposals. There are three pool cameras and microphones set up in the foyer, one each on the government and opposition sides and one in the centre ostensibly reserved for the Prime . . . → Read More: A BCer in Toronto: Video: Scrum shopping on Parliament Hill But then again, perhaps Peter MacKay is only modelling his behaviour after his elders. Recommend this Post Despite the ongoing and very critical coverage of Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair and his myriad leadership failures at the 2010 G20 Summit in Toronto, the truculent top cop refuses to both apologize and resign. The most withering criticism I can think to make is that Blair is just another politician. You know, a politician in the mode of incompetent and unethical public ‘servants’ like Bev Oda, Peter MacKay, Christian Paradis, and Tony Clement, all ‘Honourable’ in parliamentary title only, all betrayers of the public trust in many ways, none possessesing the personal integrity necessary Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. - Jim Stanford neatly sums up how the Cons’ obsession with selling off both natural resources and natural resource producers affects other industries: There is no doubting the statistical correlation between oil prices and the loonie. Econometric analysis indicates that since the turn of the century, oil prices explain 86 per cent of the dollar’s rise. The precise reasons for this correlation are unclear. It certainly is not due to a strong trade balance. In fact, Canada has experienced a deepening international payments deficit in recent years, because non-petroleum exports are falling faster than . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links This and that for your Thursday reading. - Carol Goar notes that the Cons’ decision to mess with retirement security may be just the type of issue to rouse voters who had been lulled to sleep by promises of stability – which seems more plausible than Chantal Hebert’s theory that the Cons can reasonably expect to benefit politically by focusing attention on exactly the kind of cuts they can only get away with in relative silence. Meanwhile, Ellen Roseman points out that an increase in the eligibility age makes no sense at all and Trish Hennessy runs the numbers on . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links I had to laugh when I read this: ..Clement will be hosting a conference in Ottawa next week on open government. “As a minister, Clement has pushed forward with initiatives to enable Canada’s public servants to use social media in the workplace and a broader initiative to introduce open government principles to the Government of Canada,” says promotional material for the event at the National Arts Centre. This coming from the guy who just refused this: The New Democrats are calling on Treasury Board President Tony Clement to bring the same sunlight to salaries in the Prime Minister’s Office as |
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