A trillion here….

A trillion there…pretty soon you’re talking real money.

Written by jay on December 1st, 2008 with no comments.
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864 points…

Fortunately the largest point drop in the TSE’s history had nothing to do with the Three Mouseketeers. For a look at life under the new junta you won’t do better than the Flaming Kitty.

Written by jay on December 1st, 2008 with 3 comments.
Read more articles on CPC and Canadian Politics and Fiscal Policy and Liberal Leadership and Liberals and NDP and Toronto Party.

SDA gets results!

“We’ve decided that the only person and the best person to lead and form a coalition government is the elected leader of our party … Stéphane Dion,” said leadership hopeful Dominic LeBlanc.

“We are comfortable with that, we support that and we think that’s right.” globe and mail

Kate has been pulling for this for donkey’s years.

The Maple Syrup Revolution (h/t Dr. Dawg) will be lead by a man who was decisively rejected by Canada’s voters, had his Party confined to Toronto and a few vis-min ridings in the ROC, ran a distant third in the leadership popularity polls, is despised by a significant section of his caucus and has no program whatsoever. Oh, and did we mention he is in bed with the NDP and the Bloc gets to veto the action.

Perfect.

Written by jay on December 1st, 2008 with 9 comments.
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Jonathan Kay on the Gift for Harper

If Stéphane Dion really wants to be Prime Minister, let him. The best Christmas gift the Conservatives could get right now is to lose power.

How does that make sense? Let us count the ways:

1) Having an unpopular dud like Stéphane Dion as leader hurt the Liberal brand. Having him as prime minister will kill it. There was a reason Canada decisively voted down this guy in the October election. Let them rediscover it.

(2) The Liberals will heretofore be known as the party willing to jump in bed with separatists to get their grubby hands on power. Don’t you think that will be an interesting talking point to bring into the next election? This will cement the Tories’ status as the federalist alternative in Quebec, and the guardian of national integrity in the rest of the country. national post

One might almost think that Kay overheard the same imaginary conversation I did.

Go read the whole thing.

Written by jay on December 1st, 2008 with 2 comments.
Read more articles on CPC and Canadian Politics and Liberal Leadership and Liberals and NDP.

Scramble the Airbrushes!

You ought to restore your original attribution of Steyn’s excerpt to America Alone rather than just changing it to the Fallaci review (Dr. Miller accused Steyn of taking material for his review of Oriana Fallaci’s final book The Force Of Reason from illegitimate sources…) without disclosure. comment from belial at big city liberal

First you make yourself look like an idiot with badly sourced material (lawiscool claims responsibility “See the post at Big City Lib on the info we leaked to him.”) and then you quietly correct your errors without mentioning you post publication edits. (Oh, and you delete comments which underline your imbecility.)

Written by jay on December 1st, 2008 with 11 comments.
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Re-Allignment?

While we watch the clash of egos in Ottawa (and Toronto) let’s take a moment to consider the broader implications of an NDP/Toronto Party coalition supported by the Bloc.

First off, regardless of whether the coalition achieves government - which I think unlikely at the moment but no matter - an essential fact about Canadian politics has been confirmed: there is no principled difference between the left of the Liberal Party and the NDP. If there was then a coalition would not be possible.

Second, the Liberal Party/Toronto Party has been reduced to a few enclaves. Those enclaves are, by and large, heavily vis-min, urban and tend to look to government as a solution to this week’s problem. Are they socialist? Not particularly; rather they tend to see the state as a first rather than last call.

Third, does the Liberal Party have a core constituency? Well the answer might be contained in my second point - urban, vis-min, statists; however there is nothing to bind that constituency to the Liberal Party if they got a better offer from a newly respectable NDP.

Fourth, the great difficulty the NDP has had at a federal level has been in persuading the electorate that it could be trusted to govern. The coalition - whether it is actually formed or not - strongly suggests that the Liberals at least have no trouble with the thought of Libby Davies in Cabinet.

Fifth, unlike the Liberal Party, the NDP has some room for growth in the West. The Liberals will be lucky to hang on to even one of their seats in BC and have very little room anywhere else in the West. The NDP, while unloved by many Westerners, has a history out here. And, the NDP, unlike the CPC, has the potential to undermine the Eastern enclaves of the Toronto Party.

Finally, the NDP stands for something other than grabbing power at any cost. I suspect the coalition will prove, if proof were needed, that the Liberal Party is entirely about power. Make a deal with the separatists…sure. Adopt NDP economic policies…why not?

The CPC represents the center right in Canadian politics. The NDP and the Liberal compete to represent the center left. What the coalition option opens is the question of whether Canada really needs two center left parties: one driven by principle, the other by sheer lust for power.

I don’t think we do and, I suspect, we are seeing the middle of the end of the Liberal Party.

Written by jay on December 1st, 2008 with 2 comments.
Read more articles on CPC and Canadian Politics and Liberal Leadership and Liberals and NDP and Toronto Party and culture.

Why stimulus won’t work

As 50 million storage lockers filled to capacity with consumer crap are emptied in a desperate move to reduce expenses and raise cash, the value of literally everything ever manufactured will fall to near-zero. charles hughes smith

Are there really 50 million storage lockers in America? Are there 5 million in Canada? I doubt it. But there are lots as well as basements full of stuff. Twenty years of maxed out credit cards and steady employment produces a mountain of stuff. A contraction in the economy would bring some of that stuff to market. Anyone who has ever been to a garage sale knows how much that stuff is worth. Marked to market that popcorn maker/waffle iron/CRT monitor is, at best, ten cents on the dollar. At worst it’s landfill and that costs money to haul and to dump.

Giving the middle class extra money is unlikely to make them charge out to the mall and buy more “stuff”. And, at the moment in Canada, the Opposition (perhaps soon to be Canada’s New New Government) is baying for more money to be helicoptered out of Ottawa. The net effect of which will be a monetary inflation. Oh Joy!

Written by jay on December 1st, 2008 with 1 comment.
Read more articles on Canadian Politics and Fiscal Policy and business and economics.

A vote of non-confidence

TSX -749.33

Written by jay on December 1st, 2008 with 5 comments.
Read more articles on Canadian Politics and business.

First we Take Manhattan, Then we Take Berlin

Michael Ignatieff will become Prime Minister in a Liberal-led coalition government if the opposition parties succeed in bringing down the Conservatives in a no-confidence vote in the House of Commons next week and if the Governor-General deems it to be a viable alternative, sources said late last night.

Mr. Ignatieff met with lame duck Liberal leader, Stéphane Dion, and leadership candidates Bob Rae and Dominic LeBlanc in Toronto last night and hammered out a deal that would see Mr. Dion and Mr. Rae step aside, with the latter named to a senior post, likely Foreign Affairs Minister. john ivison national post

Somewhere in a jungle in Toronto a Jackal is eating the carrion of the Dion and the Rae. Assuming of course the Liberals really are this a) tight, b) greedy.

So much for grass roots democracy and all that…we can beat the Tories but we have to get rid of the guy Canadians didn’t vote for and replace him with the other guy Canadians didn’t vote for.

Now this is beginning to sound like the Liberal Party!

Ruthless, unprincipled, cynical and more than capable of underbussing their own grandmothers if it lead to power.

Yes We Can!

Written by jay on December 1st, 2008 with 8 comments.
Read more articles on Liberal Leadership and Liberals and Toronto Party.

The Sweet Art of Doing Nothing

There is a good deal of excitement/hysteria over the prospect of the defeat of the CPC and the installation of an NDP/Liberal coalition.

The trigger for this was the CPC’s announcement, since retracted, that in its economic plan it was going to cut the $1.95 a vote/year public subsidy Canada’s main political parties now enjoy. But rather than being seen as pigs annoyed that the trough is might be torn away, the Opposition insists its real issue is tha absence of economic stimulus in the Tory economic plan.

After all, every nation on the planet is pumping ever more money - and I use the term loosely - into its financial sector and, potentially, any sector of its economy which looks like it might be hit by the current credit crisis. The NDP and, more or less, the Liberals are demanding that Canada get on with flooding the marketplace with “money”.

Er, why? The main features of the credit contraction in Canada have been

• a retrenchment in stock prices,
• a reduction in the amount that oil and other energy products can be sold for,
• the collapse of the auto industry
• a collapse of commodity prices
• a reduction in housing prices

None of which is good. However, there is next to nothing we can do about any of these issues by spending more money. Energy prices reflect world demand as do commodity prices. The collapse of the big three car companies reflects conditions in the US about which we can do very little. Housing prices in urban Canada were absurdly inflated and their decline, given the general prudence of Canadian bank mortgage practices, poses no threat to the banks and may grant some relief to house buyers. Stock prices reflect the decline in world markets and the dependence of many quoted Canadian companies on commodity prices.

Would spending more money help? Well, to a certain extent, spending money on infrastructure would make sense. The CPC already has 30 billion earmarked to infrastructure and spending that money quickly and perhaps adding a bit more would make economic sense in that we would have actual assets to show for the money spent.

But, as for the rest there is little or nothing the government spending money will do save create inflation. We might look at some tax expenditures - eliminating capital gains tax altogether would help the stock market and firm up the real estate market a bit.

The reality in the energy and commodity sector is that the government can do very little to effect the price of the commodities. It might reduce direct taxes on commodity producers; but their tax rate is already pretty low.

The one thing which the government can do is encourage consumer demand. There are really only two ways of doing this - increasing transfers to individuals or reducing taxes. These are not mutually exclusive. And these sorts of measures can be tilted towards the less well off.

Were the federal government to make an addition 2 billion a year available to increase the Child Tax Benefit for lower income people that would have an immediate stimulatory effect where it could do the most good. Raising the income upon which federal income tax must be paid would also help.

For the middle income earners moving toward eliminating the marriage penalty would be a big step forward. A start on real income splitting would benefit stay at home parents and seniors.

None of these programs would require spending a great deal of new spending; however the implied tax relief would reduce government revenues and likely lead to a deficit in the near term. Because none of these programs will create additional government services or workers and may in fact reduce the need for such workers, there will be no permanent program costs associated with this tax relief.

The federal government will tighten its belt to leave more money in the hands of the only people who can bring Canada out of recession: Canadians. There would be a deficit for a couple of years until the growth in Canada’s economy caught up. The stimulus would come from millions of Canadians having more money after tax to spend and invest.

I suspect the NDP/Liberal coalition would not like this; but the CPC should be out banging the drums and demanding that Canadians be left more of their own money to weather the economic storm ahead.

Written by jay on December 1st, 2008 with 2 comments.
Read more articles on CPC and Canadian Politics and Fiscal Policy and Liberals and NDP and business and economics.

The Real Enemy - Islam

The other doctor, who had also conducted the post-mortem of the victims, said: “Of all the bodies, the Israeli victims bore the maximum torture marks. It was clear that they were killed on the 26th itself. It was obvious that they were tied up and tortured before they were killed. It was so bad that I do not want to go over the details even in my head again,” he said. rediff

Written by jay on November 30th, 2008 with no comments.
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Another Imaginary Conversation

MI: A coalition would get Harper out of office.
LJ: Sure, and it would get you Veteran’s Affairs.
MI: I could live with that if Bob Ray got Sports.
LJ: But he won’t. Stephy likes Rae.
MI: He likes me too.
LJ: Mike, you are kinda missing the point here. If there is a coalition it will matter who Stephy likes ’cause he gets to be Prime Minister.
MI: For a couple of months.
LJ: You hope; but I bet he’ll like the job and then what happens?
MI: Well, the leadership convention in Vancouver.
LJ: My fish tells me that Prime Minister Dion may cancel the convention in Vancouver.
MI: Your fish isn’t that smart…He can’t. The Liberal Party has rules.
LJ: How long were you in England Mike?
MI: Look, I prefer Michael.
LJ: Well, Michael, you are about to get your ass kicked in Canadian politics.

Update: Apparently John Ivison is hearing the same thing but without it being imaginary. I’d call it a meme.

Written by jay on November 30th, 2008 with 8 comments.
Read more articles on Liberal Leadership and Liberals.

Splat!

Big City Liberal may want to check his facts before he posts.

Otherwise his ongoing public foolishness just kind of hangs out there for all to see.

Update: Blame for all “See the post at Big City Lib on the info we leaked to him.
We’re more interested in an apology by the publishers rather than Steyn himself, for the reasons expressed above.”

You have to scroll down; however (and I repost it here as the mini-barristers at lawiscool.com have been known to sanitize the record) if you scroll up to the first comment you will note that some guy named Currie wrote on November 25th,

What’s fun about Miller is that he simply has no idea what he is talking about. The particular book Steyn was referring to is well known to people who pay attention to the writings of the Shi’ite hierarchy. Miller’s attempt to smear Steyn has entirely backfired and his persistence in beclowning himself has made him a laughing stock.

The poor man should simply have the grace to retire from Ryerson and avoid engaging in blog battles he has no chance of winning. He is far too used to the days when “journalists” could write their version of the truth without risk of contradiction much less “fisking”. Miller’s train has left the station. lawiscool

Written by jay on November 30th, 2008 with 15 comments.
Read more articles on Islam and Liberals and blogging and idiot lefties.

And Once You’re Gone, You Can Never come Back

Seems right for the day’s events. There really is more to the picture than meets the eye.

Written by jay on November 29th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on CPC and Canadian Politics.

A Mohammedan is handed his Head

By no less than the binks:

It also appears that Mo’ was familiar with various later false gospels and not the main from-the-beginning message of the Evangelists and St. Paul. We are left to conclude that not only was the founder of your faith misinformed and mistaken about the Christianity he rejected and claimed to supercede (Nestorianism & pseudo-gospels), but that he wrote that misunderstanding into his writings, and into the roots of Mohammedism itself, and passed it on to subsequent generations. steynian

I wish I knew more theology. But the binks is sound on doctrine and more than a little droll as he explains it all to his Mohammedan interlocutor.

Obviously a hate crime as binks, politely, suggests that the Mohammedan’s religion is in error.

Written by jay on November 29th, 2008 with 1 comment.
Read more articles on Islam and religion.

Untitled

Hotels, office towers and apartment buildings represent large concentrations of people with few access points. They have all been favourite targets for truck bombs for many years, but some counter-terror officers have often wondered how long it would be before some group of gunmen tried to control these buildings rather than destroy them. This is the future face of terrorism. John C. Thompson is director of the Mackenzie Institute, a Canadian think-tank concerned with organized violence and political instability

It has become unfashionable to think about terror attacks in North America or Europe; but the fact is that Mumbai is not so very different from a North American city. It has malls,hotels, hospitals, train stations and schools. It’s horror was created by its relative proximity to Pakistan. But all proximity is relative. Vancouver or Seattle are 15 hours away from Lahore by jet.

Without being crazy about it we need to begin to harden those targets. Train the staff, arm some of them, consider the right rapid response.

Written by jay on November 28th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Canadian Politics and International and Islam and Terror.

Memories….

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.

-From a letter to then-Governor General Adrienne Clarkson signed by all three opposition leaders: Gilles Duceppe, Jack Layton and Stephen Harper (September 9, 2004) kady o’mally

“Consider all of your options”….It is always amusing how quickly politicians in power forget what they have said out of power.

Written by jay on November 28th, 2008 with 1 comment.
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But Seriously

An open letter to Jack Layton and Stephane Dion

Dear honourable members,

It is my understanding that you and your parties have worked out an agreement to attempt to topple the current Canadian government. I refuse to mince words about how I feel about this blatant attempt at subverting the Canadian people’s democratic rights. It is unfathomable that in a free democratic nation like Canada that your parties would engage in such totalitarian-style politics. This affront to the democratic process will not stand with average Canadians. clear conservative thought

There is a good deal of this sort of chest thumping over at the Blogging Tories. What it ignores is the fact that Harper did not win a majority, that it is open to the Opposition to, at any time, put forward a leader who claims to enjoy the confidence of the House, and that this is within the finest traditions of Parliament.

“Clear Conservative Thought”, the fact of the matter is that well over 60% of Canadians did not vote CPC in the recent election. The people’s democratic rights extend to a Parliament which addresses their concerns and a government capable of either doing what the majority (albeit misguided) wants or explaining why it should not. PM Harper has failed on both accounts.

There is nothing in the least “totalitarian” about seeking alternatives to an unresponsive government. In fact, it is parliamentary democracy at its finest.

Harper seems intent on ignoring his own Party in Convention and he seems equally intent on bringing this Parliament to a premature close. Both are entirely at his option; but there will be a price to pay when the next election is called.

Frankly, to date, Harper has proven himself barely capable of governing. He has been lucky in his Leader of the Opposition. However, he knows that his luck will not hold. Lame characterizations of the fact Dion “was not elected” as Prime Minister demonstrate a fundamental lack of seriousness on the part of Harper.

We are in serious times. We deserve and will get a serious Prime Minister. Either the one sitting or his replacement.

Grown ups Rule.

Written by jay on November 28th, 2008 with 12 comments.
Read more articles on CPC and Canadian Politics and Liberals and NDP.

Oh Great…

Faced with having their funds cut off the Liberals and NDP - with Bloc support - seem ready to give the CPC the old heave-ho. Heady chat about “Coalition” swirls through the blogosphere.

And now, Kady O’Mally is standing by to live blog a Prime Minister’s statement.

Updates as they happen but I cannot help thinking that Canadians do not respond well to bloody mindedness.

Written by jay on November 28th, 2008 with 11 comments.
Read more articles on CPC and Canadian Politics.

The Sun on the Moon

But first things first. If we’re to ensure that we’re using our resources wisely in our effort to deal with problematic speech, we must first repeal s. 13 of the act. And that’s a job to which Parliament should set its mind. vancouver sun

This editorial captures the real, practical, strength of Moon’s recommendation to repeal s.13.

It might be a good idea for the CPC, faced with the fiasco of its party defunding “gotcha” to move on a matter which would prove popular with the CPC base and a wide swath of Canadians.

Written by jay on November 28th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on CPC and Canadian Politics and free speech and media.