Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Contrasting environment visions. Dion vs. Liberal.ca

Stephane Dion purposes his carbon tax; the so called green shift.

The official LPC website Liberal.ca promotes something a little different.


Is it any wonder why these guys are having such a tough time selling their carbon tax grab to Canadians when their own party website is promoting a radically different policy that is now well over a year old.

Too funny. Over a month has now gone by since Dion went public with the details of his carbon tax and not 1 person over at Liberal.ca even noticed, and perhaps worse yet, not a single Liberal visiting their site bothered to tell them about it. Truly a great show of the true Liberal commitment to the environment vision and support for your own policy, or is that policies?


Blog note:

I am going to be taking a few days off from the blog and spend some time enjoying some of what our short summer has to offer.

Until then, thank you again for reading ,and for all of your comments.

Al

Monday, July 28, 2008

Ralph Goodale and the mystical Liberal money fairy.

Fighting for his political life in his home province, Liberal MP Ralph Goodale takes his attempt at selling the carbon tax to the people of Saskatchewan and invokes the mysterious Liberal money fairy in the process.

What Mystical Liberal Money Fairy am I talking about you ask. Well the one that is going to have to come up with the real money for the Liberal promises and claims of increased spending on, R&D both in private industry and universities, alternative energy, new green based business', public transit, an Office of Petroleum Price Information, emissions reducing technology, special funds, and other assorted promises made by Dion and his band of inept Liberals.

Just how big are these Liberal promises? Lets see what Ralph Goodale had to say on that.

"And those investments are going to bring literally billions of dollars in new business activity to these two provinces. While we had the initial problem of the largest bulk of emissions, we have ultimately the biggest benefit of the largest amount of the new investment that is going to be made to deal with those emissions and the order of magnitude could be about the size of building the St. Lawrence Seaway and that will come into Alberta and Saskatchewan over the course of the next 10-15 years".


Now that sure sounds big to me, but there remains an issue that the Liberals have seemed to overlook, or are purposely omitting in their efforts to deceive Canadians.

Just where is all of this money going to come from?

It cannot be from the taxes collected via the green shift because that is promised to be revenue neutral and "that every dollar that is raised from carbon pollution will be returned to Canadians in tax" cuts." and the Liberals are planning to write that into law and have it monitored by the Auditor General.

So if not even $1.00 of taxes collected by the green shift will be going into either directly reducing CO2 emissions or into ANY of the programs/spending promised by the numerous Liberals out trying to sell this fraud of an environment program to Canadians; where will those big promises of investment money come from?

You guessed it; the mystical Liberal money fairy.


All of this talk about the money that will be flowing into the economy are nothing but empty promises and very wishful thinking on the part of Dion and the Liberals. There is no basis in reality for these claims and again the Liberal Party of Canada are showing us their arrogance and contempt by taking the voters and taxpayers of this country for idiots by trying to convince us otherwise. Nobody is buying it, the plan is a dud and the Liberals will be rewarded for their contempt at the ballot box.


That is unless they happen to have a Mystical Liberal Vote Fairy on standby as well.

------
A quick afterthought: If PM Harper made the very same dubious claims about alleged billions of dollars of investment money that would magically come rolling into Canada as a result of his governments environment plan (and he could because the claims are nothing but pie in the sky wishful thinking not based on reality); how long do you thing it would take for those claims to be chewed up and ripped apart on the front pages of every news paper in the country?

So why the silence from the MSM?


Sunday, July 27, 2008

July 27,1953 The Korean War ends

55 years ago today the Korean War came to an end when an armistice was signed. 26,791 Canadians served in the war and 516 lost their lives in the conflict including 45 who died in peacekeeping duties after the war ended.

Some consider the Korean conflict to be Canada's forgotten war and an argument could easily be made to that affect, but what ever your thoughts on that topic please take a moment today to remember those that did serve and those that fell in the name of Canada.

They all deserve not to be forgotten even if 'their war' has.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Another day, and more green shift lies revealed

Stephane Dion, July 2,2008: "I won't have to hire a single civil servant" to implement the carbon tax formally known as the green shift.

July 23, 2008 Dion says he will create an"Office of Petroleum Price Information" as part of his green shift proposal.

In other words, Dion is going to hire a civil servant, or more accurately, civil servants. Sigh; why am I not surprised.

And what will this proposed office be doing exactly?

Well according to Gerrard Kennedy:Part of their job will be to see that oil refiners will not pass those new taxes on to the consumer and if they try, part of the money generated from carbon taxes will go to creating a new 'energy ombudsman' to stop 'em in their tracks.

This is interesting considering that Dion himself has already admitted that industry WILL pass on these added costs from the carbon tax onto consumers, and unless the Liberals are planning to introduce a set of draconian laws that would limit what industry can charge for their own products; what Kennedy stated above would not only be completely impossible to do, it would also be illegal.

So unless Kennedy has just accidentally exposed the LPC hidden agenda for us all to see, which I really doubt; he has just proven himself to be just another Liberal spokesman playing fast and loose with the truth in their efforts to con Canadians into believing the green shift is good policy.

Another day, another lie exposed.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

900 Days

Congratulations to PM Harper and his Government for being in office 900 days.

For a list of what this government has accomplished please follow this LINK.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Dion confirms what MHF said about the greenshift.

Stephane Dion has confirmed what Martha Hall Findlay had earlier stated about green shift and its dubious claims of reducing CO2 emissions.

"Findlay said it's impossible to calculate the emission reduction numbers at this point, "because energy prices have gone up so much, we don't know how the shift will affect consumption," she said."

Dion at a speaking engagement in New Brunswick: "He also said they know this plan will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but can't say for sure by how much until they see how industry reacts once it's implemented."

Oh, and just how does Dion think industry will react?

"When asked if those companies will simply pass the costs along to the customer, he said that's likely in the beginning, but will change as companies invest in greener technology to pay less tax."

Sure it will Stephane; because there are plenty of reasons for industry to invest their own money to reduce taxes that are already being passed on to someone else.

Lots of incentive in that plan isn't there?

Update: Dion puts his foot in his mouth again. "Mr. Dion said he would only put $3-billion of each annual surplus toward the debt, making any additional surplus available for spending priorities that may come up as a result of the green shift." h/t KerPlonka

Spending priorities as a result of the green shift? Wasn't this plan promised to be revenue neutral?

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Stephane Dion - A "so called" Denier.

As promised yesterday; a follow up post. (please read yesterdays post for some context)

Stephane Dion does not believe that the left wing of the political spectrum exists in Canada.

Yes really, he said so himself and it can be seen here on CTV's Question Period . (video below)

Sorry NDP, Communists, Socialists, 3/4 of what remains of Liberal Party supporters, Marxists, and other various lefties everywhere; but Dion does not think you exist.




See for yourself. No editing and taken 100% in context.





Denying the existence of the left wing;this is big!

There is a chance that Dion really could be hurt in the polls with this and I think I should get out an email to fellow Blogging Tories ASAP.

To all Blogging Tories

Hi all,

On
CTV's Question Period, Dion referred to the "so
called
left; left wing". I don't know about you, but I believe that this is
a
big screw up on his part.

If you agree, please mention it. It is the sort of thing that the
MSM
should be forced to pick up.

A
Ardvark

Let's force those MSM lackeys to run with what has to be the biggest story of the year, and please try to ignore the Liberals who are trying to spin this; so far they have two responses to this Freudian slip.

First of all, if it is no big deal then why doesn't Dion say it all the time? Clearly he knows that this is not something Canadians would appreciate. Yes, it is similar to when journalists refer to the "so called war on terror". They are not saying there is no war on terror, but neither are they saying that there is a "war on terror". "So called" clearly suggests a certain cynicism about the subject under discussion.

The second excuse is even worse. You don't go around saying "so called left wing" unless you have a reason for saying it. My suspicion is that Dion often says this in private and made a mistake by saying it in public. That is why he did not and likely will never repeat the phrase. There is no doubt in my mind that Dion recognized almost immediately that he said something he should not have said. The fact that he tried to cover up his error does not change the fact that he gave us a momentary glimpse into his psyche.


Wouldn't it be great if I could get the PM to include this quote into an official government document somehow? But I doubt that it would be an easy task, because what type of a moron would use spin like this without checking out the facts first? (edit: Link to Stephane Dion removed)



Monday, July 21, 2008

Dion incorporates Cherniak manufactured spin into Liberal policy.

Stephane Dion, the so called intellectual, the one who called for honest debate, and the one who decries low brow politics has contradicted all of the above by allowing an already dis proven, deliberately taken out of context, partisan driven and manufactured smear to be used in the official Liberal policy document regarding the Green shift. So much for taking the high road Mr. Dion.

I am referring to the following quote taken from page 15 of the Green Shift document.

"Sadly, Stephen Harper - who as Prime Minister has referred to what he terms “so-called greenhouse gases” -...."


The quote, or rather out context quote, has an interesting history and is a classic example of the Liberal spin machine in action; read on and see for yourself to what depths the Liberals will go in their efforts to smear the PM.


FYI the original words as spoken by PM Harper Dec 14 2006 in an end of year interview on CBC: "As we implement our clean-air agenda, the focus is a little different than the other parties. They focus only on so-called greenhouse gases and ignored smog entirely."

The spin campaign:

Jason Cherniak December 14th 2006 (Be sure to read the comments for good lesson on Liberal spin) "Stephen Harper just referred to "so called greenhouse gasses" during his end of session press conference! Apparently, the other parties pay too much attention to them."

Not one to let a little thing like the truth or facts get in the way of a smear; Cherniak ignored the reality of the"quote" as pointed out in other blogs or even in his own comment section and continued with his campaign to heavily promote the smear with the following email to all members of Liblogs.

The Email:
From Jason Cherniak (Thu, 14 Dec 2006 23:43:25):

Hi all,

In his final press conference of the year, Harper referred to "so
called
greenhouse gasses". I don't know about you, but I believe that this is
a
big screw up on his part.

If you agree, please mention it. It is the sort of thing that the MSM
should be forced to pick up.

Blogger Support Services: a non-profit corporation operating as
<http://www.libBSblogs.ca/> Liblogs
per: Jason R. Cherniak
President


Did you catch that? "Force" the media to pick up on the story. A story about a quote that Cherniak knew full well was taken completely out of context but still wanted to promote for his partisan purposes.

December 15th, 2006 Jason goes even farther with his campaign and he posts a conveniently edited video. (Note that he again gets eaten alive for this in the comments but still continues with the smear attempt and lies)

December 21, 2006 a proud Jason Cherniak proclaims his smear campaign a success when it gets picked up by some in the MSM who like Dion himself apparently could not be bothered with some simple fact checking.

"Finally, Harper's slip of the tongue where he referred to "so called" greenhouse gases has been reported in the main stream media.

I first reported this as it happened one week ago. Other Liberal bloggers quickly picked up thestory. We then highlighted the posts on Liblogs news. It was not long before somebody posted a video clip on YouTube, which has now been viewed over 900 times.

Conservatives have two responses to this Freudian slip:

1) It is no big deal because "so called" is the proper way to describe greenhouse gases; and

2) It is no big deal because the rest of Harper's statement supposedly makes it clear that he accepts the science behind global warming.

Neither of these arguments are particularly persuasive. First of all, if it is no big deal then why doesn't Harper say it all the time? Clearly he knows that this is not something Canadians would appreciate. Yes, it is similar to when journalists refer to the "so called war on terror". They are not saying there is no war on terror, but neither are they saying that there is a "war on terror". "So called" clearly suggests a certain cynicism about the subject under discussion.

The second excuse is even worse. You don't go around saying "so called greenhouse gases" unless you have a reason for saying it. My suspicion is that Harper often says this in private and made a mistake by saying it in public. That is why he did not and likely will never repeat the phrase. There is no doubt in my mind that Harper recognized almost immediately that he said something he should not have said. The fact that he tried to cover up his error does not change the fact that he gave us a momentary glimpse into his psyche.

I know that Tories will do everything they can to attack this story. They absolutely hate it when anybody reports facts that happen to counteract their hard sold message that Harper has changed his mind on a number of issues. Before they do it, though, I hope they consider one thing. If Stéphane Dion were to briefly refer to the United States as our "so called ally", nobody would let it slip by.

I can't wait to see the clip on TV.

UPDATE

Little did I know that the Halifax Chronicle Herald already mentioned this. I can't find the date of the article."


Unbelievable, but even more unbelievable is that now Stephane Dion is using this type of crap in official Liberal Party of Canada policy.

I am not sure if Dion is deliberately trying to mislead Canadians with this or if he isn't smart enough to have done his own homework on the words he himself is quoting and actually believes this ridiculous manufactured spin. Either way these are not the characteristics that I would ever want in a Canadian PM.


As I await the usual suspects to arrive and try to defend Dion's use of the quote, or even Cherniak's smear campaign, I will be preparing a follow up post that really shows just how dumb this entire thing is.

Stay tuned.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Bob Rae confirms that Dion's carbon tax is not an environment policy.

Bob Rae doing his best Ken Boshcoff impersonation: "Mr. Rae said the plan makes the tax system more progressive and could reduce poverty by 30 per cent and child poverty by 50 per cent with a child tax credit."

There you have it again folks; the green shift is not an environment plan but rather just a tax grab to pay for another in a long line of failed Liberal social programs.

I wonder what Garth Turner will have to say now since it was only a few days ago that Liberal MP Ken Boshcoff faced a firestorm of criticism when he let the cat out of the bag with his now famous statement, The ‘shift’ will transfer wealth from rich to poor, from the oil patch to the rest of the country, and from the coffers of big business to the pockets of low-income Canadians." This admission was vehemently denied by Garth Turner who had the audacity to try to translate what Mr. Boshcoff really meant to say and claim to us all "the goal of the Dion plan, which is to tackle climate change, not to redistribute wealth".


What a mess these guys are. One Liberal MP tells the truth about the carbon tax, whether he intended to or not is another question, another Liberal MP jumps in to spin and translate what the first guy meant, and now a third Liberal MP confirms as correct what the first MP said and in the process discredits the second MP and exposes his Liberal spin.

With friends like these....

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

PM Harper Bring him home now.

Enough is enough; it is time that the government of Canada did the right thing and repatriated a Canadian citizen currently being oppressed in a foreign jail. We have all seen his videos and we know the truth.

I don't care if he allegedly committed his crime in the US and that some of you feel that he should be tried and held to those barbaric US laws. As a Canadian he deserves the protection of the Charter. The corrupt legal system of the US is well known and I doubt, with all the expected publicity that is sure to follow, that he will be able to receive a fair trial under such a system. He is Canadian who has rights, and we as a society have a moral obligation to do the right thing no matter who they are.

Mr. Harper please put a stop to this travesty of justice and do the right thing.

Bring Steven Page home now!



.
Update: (Developing) According to my sources Paula Todd and Dan McTeague have both been seen heading towards the home of Steven Page's mother with camera crews in tow.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Not for the faint of heart.

As much as I am trying not to sound like side show barker, I would not be good citizen if I did not offer the following warning to all of my readers.

I must warn everyone now that what you are about to hear is not for the faint of heart. If you are hypertensive, have a heart condition, have a weak stomach, are a Liberal, or have any other serious medical issues, we cannot be held responsible for what happens if you choose to listen to the following radio interview. You have been warned!

John Gormley interviews Liberal MP Ken Boshcoff, of The ‘shift’ will transfer wealth from rich to poor, from the oil patch to the rest of the country, and from the coffers of big business to the pockets of low-income Canadians." and Dion's carbon tax is "a green anti poverty plan" fame.


Listen to the interview HERE.



Calling that performance by Ken Boshcoff a train wreck would be putting it mildly; it was a total disaster.

Right from the beginning of the interview Boshcoff is pushing the 'Green Shift is an environmental policy' spin, I guess someone from Liberal HQ has had a little chat with him on this point since his last fiasco, and sounds as if he is reading from a list of talking points mumbling and stumbling around with his spin about how this is a national plan, increased benefits for the country, and about refineries that were NOT built. Listen carefully from around the 7 minute mark as Boshcoff gets knocked of script and falls flat when Gormley asks him the simplest of questions. Ugly; I do not think we will be hearing Mr. Boshcoff do many more interviews in the future.

BTW, to answer Mr. Gormley's question, since Ken Boshcoff had no clue.

Of the 15.4 billion dollars that is expected to be collected with the Dion's carbon tax, the amount that is supposed to go back directly into the environment is zero dollars. Yes that is right, zero. None of the money collected will go directly to environmental measures or technology to reduce CO2. Dion and the rest of the green shift pushers all like to talk about all the money that will flow in to the provinces, universities and business for environmental tech research etc, but Dion's plan provides NO money for this, and the Liberals never say just where that money will come from. They can't say; because the money does not exist other than in the minds of the Liberals trying to spin this pie in the sky nonsense to Canadians and looking like fools in the process.


The facts are the facts and no amount of Liberal spin will change this; the green shift is not an environment plan.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Why we do not hear from more people supporting Dion's carbon tax.

I think I may have figured out the reasons for the almost complete absence of people/groups coming forward to support Dion's carbon tax.

I touched on this before when I asked where most of the Premiers and mayors from the major cities have been hiding on this issue; and here we are almost 2 weeks later, and with a big push(spin) by the Liberals to get the plan out there, we still have not heard from most of this same group. Aside from Edmonton Mayor Mandel, who was not a big fan of the carbon tax, the rest still seem to be absent from the debate. You know things are not going well for the Liberal plan when this normally very vocal group are silent on the subject.

I believe that the same reasons we have not heard much from the other levels of government on Dion's tax, are the same reason we are not hearing from any of the usual Liberal policy supporters; Dion's carbon tax is on all levels bad policy, such bad policy that even the usual suspects cannot support or praise it.

Let's take a look at some areas and see why everyone is so quiet.

The premiers and mayors cannot support it because they know that this tax is going to cost their own governments millions of extra dollars, and that those costs are going to have to be passed on to the taxpayer in the form of added increased taxes or user fees. It is hard to offer support for a plan, not even their own plan at that, where they are going to have tell their own voters that they are going to have to pay a lot more for.

The environmentalists cannot support it because they know that it is not really a plan for the environment. With no real targets, no tax on gas, no guarantees of any real reductions, and the knowledge that the green shift just a wealth redistribution make support difficult.

Poverty groups as well will have a hard time offering support for Dion's carbon tax, even though this tax has been revealed to be another anti poverty Liberal social program but green wrapping. The reasons are very simple; Dion's tax will impact the hardest on the poor than any other group in this country. The promised tax breaks are not going to come close to covering all of the increased costs, that is if some in this category will even get a tax break, with the increased costs for heat, power, food, shelter, property taxes, clothing and just about everything else you can think of going up, those with the least ability to pay those increases will suffer the most. It would be extremely difficult, and obviously two faced, for any advocate for the poor to call for the poor to have to pay even more because of the Green Shift.

Business can be considered a very large and varied group and tough to lump together on opinion, but they hardly could be expected to offer support for something that is going to cost them more right now just to operate, and much more in the future as their employees demand higher wages to deal with their own green shift induced price increases. While as Garth Turner has graciously admitted, "that the ultimate cost will come from consumers", meaning that business will just pass their increases on to us; it will take awhile for that to take place and in the mean time it will cost business' money, and it will kill others completely.


Buzz and the rest of the union leaders are also among those very noticeably absent on this file, and again the reasons should be obvious. The tax will not only hurt business, and business are the ones who employ those that they supposedly represent, but it will also hurt their fellow union brothers and sister with the associated increased costs. Can you honestly imagine Buzz Hargrove standing up and telling auto workers to support a policy that will, if not cost them jobs and seriously harm their industry, it will also take a big chunk out of their salaries to pay for? I don't think most of union members, with their current annual wages and lifestyle, will qualify for the alleged benefits of this poverty plan in disguise, as they will be the ones that will be paying for it.

Child Care Lobby: see poverty groups above.

Economists are another funny group to try pin down for a consensus of opinion on the carbon tax, but there is one thing that 100% of economists will agree on. Dion's carbon tax will cause a noticeable increase to the rate of inflation in Canada, and that can not be considered a good thing by any standards for the economy or individuals. (Liberal spin alert) Finding an economist who praises the green shift without qualifying that praise, is going to be very difficult to find.

Student groups: (late addition) Similar to the reasons that we have not heard from poverty groups; student advocacy groups too are very well aware of the increased costs that students will have to face with the Green Shift. Increases for rent, food, books, transportation, and even tuition hikes can honestly be expected as centres of higher education pass on their own increased costs on to the backs of students.

Your average taxpayer. Well they also have not been heard from much on this issue as of yet, but they will get their chance, and I do not think that Dion will like at all what they have to say.

Did I leave anyone out? Let me know, because with so many silent on Dion's carbon tax, it is hard to be sure I did not miss anyone.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Garth Turner, again doing more harm than good for the Liberals.

Garth is at it again and this time he attempts to come to the aid of fellow Liberal MP Ken Boschoff who let the cat out of the bag the other day with his comments about Dion's carbon tax being a wealth redistribution plan rather than an environment plan, and Garth in his usual manner ends up causing more grief for the LPC in the process.

Here are a few highlights from Garth's blog entry along with my comments. (Highlighting mine)

"So, yeah, I know what Ken wrote. I also know why, and what he meant."

Got that; ignore your own eyes and the words that Boschoff himself wrote, because Garth knows better. He know what Boschoff really meant to say, and he knows more about what Boschoff wrote than Boschoff does. Hey Garth, do you also want us to ignore Boschoff's interview on Adler on Friday, where he called the carbon tax "a green anti poverty plan", as well? Please tell us what he meant Garth, because obviously Mr. Boschoff didn't have a clue about what was coming from his own mouth and got it all wrong again since you say in your blog entry; "And lost in the spray of this regional pissing match is the goal of the Dion plan, which is to tackle climate change, not to redistribute wealth."

And what about these quotes?

From the green shift plan pg 7: "To help low-income Canadians in particular, and as part of the Liberal 30/50 Plan to reduce poverty in Canada by 30 per cent and cut child poverty in half within five years, "

Dion: "We Liberals also have a goal – to fight poverty. Our Green Shift will be especially targeted to decrease poverty with further emphasis on helping children in poverty," an upbeat Dion told Liberals MPs and party supporters."

"It's a part of the Liberal plan to decrease poverty,"

There are lots more of these I could dig up, but I guess they all have got it wrong because Garth has told us that it is NOT a goal of the green shift "
to redistribute wealth."


He isn't done yet folks; Garth wants us to actually believe the following:


"I can also tell everyone reading this that not a single time, not once, has the notion of (a) screwing the West, (b) finding a new NEP, (c) transferring wealth from Big Oil to Toronto, (d) funding lavish new social programs or (e) dreaming up a plan to secure the Eastern vote, been discussed in national Liberal caucus."

Lets see if I have this correct. Garth Turner wants everyone to actually believe that the Liberal caucus has never talked about ANY of the things listed above? No talk about what to do to get the East to vote Liberal? No talk at all about how you guys were going to pay for your 30/50 poverty plan? No discussion about how the green shift may be perceived in Alberta and Saskatchewan? Just what do Liberals talk about in their caucus meetings anyway; last nights big game, how to sit on your hands and not ruin your manicure, the weather, what?

I find impossible to believe that these things have never been discussed in the Liberal caucus, considering the quotes on how this ties to the LPC poverty plan I listed above, but maybe I am reading his spin wrong. Perhaps Ken Boschoff could pop in and explain to us what Garth really meant to say in his blog post. It does seem to be the thing to do in Liberal circles lately. ( "Dion's press secretary clarified the leader's comment, ...)

Keep spinning Garth, because with each attempt you give Canadians another chance to see just how the Liberal Party of Canada likes to operate, and to what levels they will go to return to power.



Saturday, July 12, 2008

If there was ever any doubt.....

The Liberals have been very kind to the voters of Canada the last couple of days.

First they have admitted that the tax formally known as "green shift" is not really an environment plan as advertised, but rather a tax grab to pay for their social programs. (Is this like attempt number six now, going back to Chretien's Redbook of 1993, to cure poverty for the Liberals?)


And today with the announcement that Reid Scott was leaving the NDP to join the Liberals and confirming to all what most of us already knew; that the left has completely taken over the LPC.
And with this announcement; the last hopes of the few centrist Liberal supporters they had remaining have been dashed as the reality that the party has totally abandoned the middle ground of the political spectrum is inescapable.

Wow; when a hard core socialist, former CCF member, and former NDP MP jumps ship from the socialist NDP to join the Liberals; you realize just how far gone the Liberals have become since electing Stephane Dion as their leader. I wonder how many Liberals, as they watch their once proud Liberal Party veer hard left, now are regretting that decision ?

Friday, July 11, 2008

Truth in Liberal Advertising.

Boom! The words of Liberal MP Ken Boshcoff:

"The Liberal Party’s Green Shift announced on June 19th marked the most aggressive anti-poverty program in 40 years. The ‘shift’ will transfer wealth from rich to poor, from the oil patch to the rest of the country, and from the coffers of big business to the pockets of low-income Canadians."

The Green Shift is not an environment plan.

---

Boom! The words of Liberal MP Martha Hall Findlay

"Findlay said it's impossible to calculate the emission reduction numbers at this point, "because energy prices have gone up so much, we don't know how the shift will affect consumption," she said."

And even if it was an environment plan; the Liberals have no idea if it will even work.
---

Finally some truth in Liberal advertising! I wonder if the dynamic duo authorized those comments?

It has been a little over 3 weeks since the big roll out of Dion's carbon tax and it is becoming more and more difficult for the Liberals to 'sell it' to Canadians. Most are already not buying it and it is only going to get worse from here on out for Dion's plan as the numbers start rolling in that will show the taxpayer just how much this little scheme is actually going to cost them, and how much damage it will do to the Canadian economy.

What will the Liberals be saying a few weeks from now? I think the following taken from this article and attributed Martha Hall Findlay, will be fairly close.

"Findlay, who is also the associate finance critic, commended Dion for putting himself so fully on the line with the sink or swim 'Green Shift' plan."



Update: Garth rides to the rescue and interprets for us stupid Canadians what Ken Boshcoff's words really meant. No interpretation of Findlay's comments yet, but remember spin takes time and even more so when trying to defend a poor plan.



Thursday, July 10, 2008

Rae Days in Edmonton Canceled

Rae days in Edmonton canceled; local area LPC candidate Indira Saroya doesn't bother to tell anyone.

Background: Bob Rae was supposed to be in Edmonton today to take part in three events to benefit local area Liberals. The "Bearpit with Bob", and the evening "BBQ with Bob" were both postponed due to personal reasons and are tentatively being rescheduled for sometime in September according to information posted on the LPC Alberta wing web site. The third event, a meet and greet with Bob Rae and Indira Saroya, the LPC nominated candidate for Edmonton Millwoods Beaumont , was also canceled but it appears that Saroya did little, if anything, to inform the public about the change.

The story: Well I was at it again today, I guess that I did not get my fill this week of Liberal smoke and mirrors, and decided I would go and hear what Bob Rae had to say since he was going to be almost literally in my own backyard. I may truly be a gluten for punishment.

The event was scheduled to take place 1:30 - 3:00pm at a local community centre very close to my home and I arrived just before the scheduled 1:30 start time only to find a few people milling aimlessly around the parking lot with no Bob Rae in sight. The hall was locked, the lights were off, and there was no notice posted anywhere on the status of the event. As a few more people started showing up, word got around that the evening BBQ may have been canceled, but nobody had read or heard anything about the status of the event that we were all there to attend.
(note: as of this writing Saroya's web site has yet to be updated informing people of the change.) It was just after 2:00pm when a young lady arrived and asked if she was in the correct location for the Rae/Saroya event; when she found out that indeed this was at the correct location, out came the cellphone and she called the candidate herself at home to get an explanation.

Yes, that is correct. Saroya was at home doing who knows what rather than bothering to come to the hall to post up a notice, check if anyone had shown up, or even update her website telling the public about the changes. It is almost as if she is taking a page from Dion's arrogant point men for the tax formally known as green shift as her cue for how to do things. For the record Saroya did manage to show up just as I was leaving; which was well past the scheduled start time and it appears that it was only because that young lady had called her at home as she looked rushed and was not dressed as if she was planning on meeting with the public.

Ladies and gentlemen, that is your candidate for the Liberal Party of Canada in Edmonton Millwoods Beaumont.

She is not going to get my vote, that is a given, but if the comment made by an older gentleman just before he drove off is any indication, she may not be getting his as well. His comment: "The least they could have done was stick a damn piece of paper on the door."

Garth Gets called out

Hey Garth, Jennifer Wright has something to say to you.





The offending Blog post posted June 23 2008. You can see that the Liberals are still trying to use the same spin today as Garth did back in June. Aside from the smear against Ms. Wright, the following part of Garth's post looks to be very interesting and I am sure her lawyers have it all typed up waiting for the court date.

"Actually, here’s the story: Over the months that we worked on this concept of tax shifting, various names were used for the project, the “Green Shift” being decided upon relatively late in the process. Once that happened, a lot of branding quickly took place. One obvious key element was the URL.Within minutes, the existing greenshift.ca site was located, and a strategy discussed for dealing with the commercial company operating it. They would be contacted in advance (which happened)."

Let's see if I have this correct. The Liberals were fully aware that a private company was using the name and the "strategy' worked out was to just call them? (which they did on the night before the plan was rolled out, but after it was all printed up and ready to go) How about checking if anyone owned a trade mark you fools? Did any of the superior minds in that meeting even think of that? Obviously not. Please take a look at this other quote of interest regarding knowledge and timing: Joseph Mayer, the Liberal Party's director of communications, said that although the party realized prior to the plan's launch there was another entity with the Green Shift name he believes "it was too close to shift back."

Got that. It was too late to change the name once the Liberals had found out!



The PR on this is terrible. Maybe someone should have explained to Dion that having a major political party being sued for trademark infringement is not good public relations before having him go out in public and call this woman's defense of her trademark(required by law FYI) as deplorable. Bullying and trying to smear woman entrepreneurs is textbook stupid on so many levels it makes you wonder just who is running the show over there. She told them no when they called, she even sent them a cease and desist order, but the arrogance of the Liberals know no bounds and now she is forced to sue. Maybe the LPC woman's caucus can discuss such examples of courage and leadership at their next meeting. Not Dion's, Jennifer Wright's.


Dion is already failing badly in selling his carbon tax plan to the country, and he is still in the honeymoon period as the real costing to the taxpayer has not yet been completed and exposed to the public. Once that happens his carbon tax will be history, and so will he. It is getting so bad that Dion's own party are leaving him to dangle in the wind on the "tax formally known as green shift". Has anyone seen much of those normally high profile Liberal MP's out there shilling this plan?

Even those that are supposed to be on point for Dion on this are doing him more harm than good by lighting more and more fires. The Garth Turner & David McGuinty show has been a total disaster and if it was Dion who hand picked these 2 to run point on this for him; he deserves all of the consequences that such a poor leadership decision brings.









Wednesday, July 09, 2008

3 from the news.

Lots going on and not enough free time to hit everything in separate posts, but here are a few things of note.

Stelmach commits 4 billion dollars to make Alberta #1 in the battle for CO2 reduction. Commit; now there is a word you can't get Dion to say very often when he is talking about his inflation causing carbon tax. Hunter has the story up here.


The G8 wraps up and it looks like Russia and the US have for the very first time committed to the reduction of CO2. The moonbats will howl because for them there can never be enough, but anyone with a mind knows that if the goal is real reductions in CO2 than the US, Russia, China and India HAVE to be on board. If the real goal is not CO2 reductions but rather punishing Canadians and destroying our economy to redistribute wealth, vote Liberal.


More from Alberta as 8 of the highest paid public health executives get the axe. Normally when you here of layoffs in the health care system it is the nurses or other front line workers who are the ones getting cut, you know the ones that actually do the job of patient care, so you can expect no negative impact from this announcement. In fact you might even see the opposite as moral among the front line staff increases. Trust me, the system is full of very costly dead wood.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Stephane Dion in Edmonton

Liberal leader Stephane Dion was making the rounds in Edmonton on Monday promoting the carbon tax formally known as the Green Shift. He had a 45 minute closed door session with Mayor Mandel which according to Mandel Mayor left him with more questions than answers, and afterwards Dion ducked reporters claiming no time due to scheduling issues. Later in the evening Dion held a town hall style meeting where he answered questions about his carbon tax proposal among others.

I happened to have some free time this evening so I thought I would go and listen to the leader of the loyal opposition speak.

Here is my honest take, that will end up being way to long by the time I write it all down, but read on if you wish and if you were there feel free to drop in a comment.

We arrived early to the Polish Hall to be guaranteed of decent seating, but it turned out not to be an issue as there were plenty of seats open throughout the even. I heard someone use the number 400, but I think closer to 300 would be more accurate, still a good turnout by any standards for a Liberal in the west.

Before the event started and while I was waiting patiently in my seat being stared at by the hundreds of posters of Dion that were stuck up on the walls, I did hear an interesting comment from a local LPC organizer who referred to Jennifer Wright's company, and rightful owner of the Green Shift name, as " an environmental crap company". Just a friendly reminder not to get in the way of the big red machine in their quest for power I guess.

Dion arrived a fashionably 15 minutes late and the usual introductions were made. A couple of points; my friend whispered a great piano player joke to me when Tommy Banks was introduced that I cannot repeat here, and while they were calling out the names of local Liberal candidates and they were running up onto the stage to be beside Dion; I noticed that a few were missing when their names were called. I wished I had been paying more attention as to who was not there and who was not, but thought it interesting that all of them would not be there standing in solidarity with Dion.

Dion initial speech contained many of the same well used lines we have all heard in the past and was very heavy on how Albertans would benefit and how we must show the world we care. It was remarkably short and I give him full marks for getting to the floor for questions as soon as possible. Dion's English has improved a lot in my opinion and only a couple of times when he got a bit riled up did he have some difficulty, and I did manage to learn a new word tonight from Dion; "inventicity."

The questions were, as I expected, quite varied, but in my opinion there were no real hardballs thrown towards Dion on this night. I will get to the more serious ones near the end along with how they were spun, but first some others of note.

There was the 8yr old? kid (the comment "plant" was overheard from the chairs a few rows behind me, LPC supporters BTW) who asked about the future.

We had the guy who claimed that the oil he invented made his old Pontiac get 118 miles per gallon (this apparently could be confirmed by a Green Party candidate), but he was cut off by the moderator after he rambled on for too long. Thank you Senator.

Someone asked if the Dion would remove the GST on wind turbines, and couple of others were pushing geo thermal.

One older lady was asking for Dion to remove Premier Stelmach from power, and what Liberal event would be complete without someone calling PM Harper an evil dictator; interestingly enough he complained about the Liberal media strategy. I wanted to cry out call Krista Erickson at the CBC but the good voice in my head stopped me.

There was only one question relating to heath care that I can remember; it dealt with nursing home standards, which is a provincial responsibility, and there was one question about child care where Dion committed to Dryden like childcare plan. Where he is going to come up with the 20 billion for that is any ones guess, but that is for another day.

There was a question from an older fellow asking Dion if he had ever looked at the other side of the issue. I heard the word 'denier' whispered at least twice while he was speaking, and one young lady yelled out to not believe those scientists because they 'were being paid by Shell Oil.' What did surprise me though was Dion seemed unaware that there are many credible scientists out there who do have doubts; stating he did not know where this guy got his numbers from and went for the old majority of scientists line. Agree or not, believe or not, if you are embarking on a plan to radically alter our economy shouldn't you at least be aware of all sides of an issue before making us all take the plunge? Your average Liberal blogger is more aware of the scientific argument than Dion is, and that is very scary if you ask me.

What I found most entertaining was watching Liberal spin live and in person. This really showed itself with a couple of questions that dealt with the added costs that we would be expected to pay, and they were all answered in the same way. Actually the specifics were not answered at all as Dion was working the smoke and mirrors hard avoiding the actual questions.

One was from one of those easy money guys from Fort Mac who didn't care if the price of gas went up $1.00 a litre because he could afford it, but asked how seniors could be expected to shoulder the extra costs. Dion totally avoided the question by talking about how the Liberal loved and supported seniors in Canada.

Another was from a low income student who did not make enough to pay income tax and was renting who wondered how he could be expected to cover the increased costs and still afford to go to school. Dion's answer was classic Liberal BS. Dion acted like he knew more about how the student lived than the student did. He told him that the $400 dollars he would get would easily cover the costs because as was student he would not have to heat a big house, he would be taking public transport and not be driving, and he would not have many tv's or computers so it would not cost him that much. Now that is arrogance at it's best folks. I wish he would have asked Dion if tuition would go up because of the carbon tax, because watching Dion squirm around that one would have been worth the price of admission, but that was not to be.

It looked like a couple of times that Dion might have to actually address the concerns over inflation and the rising costs due to his plan, but instead of addressing the concerns Dion used his pat answer of at least we would be getting something back with his plan. No mention that for most of us, with the poor being hit the hardest, that what we will be getting back will be much less than what we have to pay out in added cost.

Something else that really bothered me tonight was Dion's interchanging the word pollution for CO2. I have noticed this a couple of times in the past with some of his MP's in their summer letter writing campaign to local papers, but Dion, being the self proclaimed environmental hero, should know better. CO2 is NOT pollution because CO2 is necessary for life on this earth to even exist and without it we would simply die. So stop it already.

There is much more as I haven't even mentioned half of the obvious spin, the platitudes, or the rah rah it is up to us to lead and save the world stuff that Dion was trying to sell everyone in the room, and plenty of thoughts about my role as a blogger and what I should or should not do at an event such as this, but this post has already gotten way too long and it is time to shut it down while there might still be someone left who has read this far.


Comments and questions are always welcome.

Monday, July 07, 2008

That Was Then This is Now.

(cue host) Hello, and welcome once again to That Was Then This is now. The show where we look at the Liberal Party of Canada and their much varied positions over the years.

You may remember past episodes such as our top rated show on the GST.

Then: Abolish "We have put in writing that the GST will not be there and will be replaced by a system that will be a better one." Jean Cretien

Now: Increase "We will consider if in our plan we need to revisit the decision of the government about the GST. We'll consider it." Stephane Dion

Ha, ha, ha, it was one of our favorite shows as well, but tonight this episode will deal with a topic on many of your minds lately; the environment.

Who here can remember back just a short time ago to December 2007 in Bali?

Well, that was..

Then: Liberals of all shapes and sizes as well as various other lefties were screaming at the top of their lungs that Canada's position in Bali, to get China and India to commit to reducing CO2, was wrong & would be hardship on those "developing" countries.

This is Now: Punishing China, India, and all of the other developing countries with a carbon tariff on their goods. "We will build carbon pricing into our strategy for international trade, endeavouring where possible to ensure that goods from countries that are not pricing carbon will face a tariff reflective of carbon content."

I guess that this confirms that Mr.Bairds position, that China and India must be on board for any meaningful reductions to happen, was right from the beginning. I wonder how China now feels after their Bali buddy Dion went out of his way to let them off of the hook of carbon reductions and now sideswipes them with a punishing tariff for not having a plan for those very same reductions. I hope they don't get mad.


Still on the environment we have this little contradiction in logic for you.

Then: Liberals claiming that the conservative $100/month per child universal child care benefit would not do anything to help with childcare and the money would be wasted.

Some quotes: "Don't give people $25 a day to blow on beer and popcorn."

“The Conservative approach is one-dimensional, lacks vision, and fails to address the tax system’s bias against single-earner families with one parent at home,” & "‘little more than a symbolic gesture’ toward stay-at-home parents. Let’s be honest, the Conservative approach is just your basic tax cut in disguise and is one that undermines families who use organized day care for their children.”

Well it certainly uh uh, the approach to child care is just spiteful its its its canceling the supplement for our most vulnerable uh children. There is actually no plan for early learning and childhood education. So its a good job there putting more money for prisons in the budget because we're gonna need them if we don't get this early childhood right.

"My understanding of what he's talking about is a program that will probably give you roughly $25 a week. What are low- and middle-income Canadians going to do for the rest of the week?"

Well right back at ya Liberals because

Now: The Liberal are claiming that the small cheque from Greenshift tax cuts will not only pay for and solve climate change, but cure poverty, provide social justice, and will somehow cover the increased costs on EVERYTHING from Dion's carbon tax.

It seems that the Liberal Party of Canada change their policies and ideas more often than they change their clothes; as is shown in this last example we have for you today.

On a carbon tax.


Then: Against (Dion isn't the only one either) "I've always been against it. I will have other ways to get there." and "A carbon tax is less effective than a carbon market at reducing emissions. Some of my opponents for the Liberal leadership have suggested that a carbon tax would be the most effective measure to curb climate pollution. This is simply bad policy...." More of the same here.

Now: For "More precisely, we will tax fossil fuels, like coal and natural gas, according to the amount of carbon dioxide they emit when they are burned. This carbon tax will be....."



It looks like our time is up for today, but we will be sure to return in the near future with another episode of That Was Then This is Now.

Good night everybody, and a big thank you to our sponsor, the Liberal Party of Canada. Who without their constant changing of positions this show would not be possible. (wave to audience)


(Cue theme music, fade out.)



Sunday, July 06, 2008

Garth keeps making Dion look foolish.

Not only did Garth make Dion look like a fool with his original comments, he did it again when he turned Dion into a liar by not apologizing to anyone in Alberta or Quebec as Dion had already stated to the press that Garth had done.

Way to go Garth! I hope you have Elizabeth May on speed dial.


For the record:

Garth's comments: "You might not agree with everything he says, but you have to admire this about him. He stood up once to the self-aggrandizing, hostile, me-first, greedy, macho, selfish and balkanizing separatist losers in Quebec. I guess he can do it again in Alberta. "
"Not there are any similarities."
"Quebec or Alberta, saparatists are losers, ten times out of ten."

Dion's comments: "He retracted and it's not something we want to do. We want to have a respectful debate." source and "It's unacceptable, we don't discuss this way. He said he was sorry, he said what he had an obligation to after what he said." source

Garth's non apology:

So, why should I even try to justify my words? My attempt to show the Liberal leader has the stones to face down those who think of themselves first, and the country second – no matter where they hail from – succeeded only in making his task more difficult. That was not my intention. Nor do I have anything but respect for my fellow citizens in Quebec and Alberta.

But there’s no way I, as a federal member of the Canadian House of Commons, am going to lay down before people who openly advocate ripping the country apart. Moan all you want about money, or lament those who don’t share your culture or language. But don’t expect me to roll.


And for fun this little excerpt: (note he leaves out the words "separatist losers in Quebec. I guess he can do it again in Alberta" in this version) "The issue is a single sentence in my last post in which I drew comparisons between those who wish to separate from Canada, whether they live in Quebec or Alberta. I called such separatists, who put regional and self-interest ahead of the national cause, “self-aggrandizing, hostile, me-first, greedy, macho, selfish and balkanizing.”

Hey Garth, you put a quote around the period following the word balkanizing. You would almost think that was done on purpose to deceive, but you would never try to hide the truth from Canadians would you Garth?

Friday, July 04, 2008

We are from the Alberta Government....

We are from the Alberta Government, and we are here to help you.

So it goes lately in Alberta as the Liberal Stelmach Government feels that we are not capable of looking after ourselves so they are now going to do it for us by law.

Today the Stelmach Government announced that they are going to be taking away the rights of a certain group of private business owners to price their own wares in their own establishments.

"The Alberta government announced Thursday it will introduce minimum drink prices...."

How very Stalinesque Eddy. Don't bother enforcing existing laws dealing with alcohol sales, public drunkenness, or rowdy and violent behavior; just take away the rights of business owners because that is easier than really dealing with the situation at hand. Taking away anyone's rights should never be the first option Mr Premier, but looking at how you are ignoring the abuses at the AHRC, why am I not surprised by this.

Speaking of the government helping us out by legislation, I noticed that sellers of tobacco products now have to shell out cash to buy new displays that hide the product from our view. Well thanks again Ed, I didn't know smokes were bad for me and now that I cannot see them I will not be tempted to buy them. What would I ever do without you.

The same however may not be correct when we are talking about kids though. I may be wrong but it seems that the harder you try to keep something from kids the more that they seem to want it. Think about it; there are many examples from something simple as staying up late like the adults do, or wanting to drive, to the more off limits 'adult only' stuff like sex, and booze. By making it even more taboo you may just enhance that already curious teen to see what all of the fuss is about with these smokes that he is now forbidden to see. I might be way off base here but the existing laws did not seem to stop kids from smoking if they wanted to and I cannot see how this will help.

h/t Right from Alberta


Thursday, July 03, 2008

Killing our exports: By Stephane Dion.

"Since the tax will be imposed at the wholesale level, Dion said, the level of taxation will depend on consumption of energy, not on production. He noted that 46 per cent of industrial emissions in 2002, the last year calculated by Statistics Canada, were on goods and services exported from Canada. That means a lot of carbon tax would be passed onto foreigners, not Canadian consumers, he said." source alternate source



It is not as if our high tax rates, the high dollar, stiff foreign competition, protectionism and unfair subsidies were enough of a hurdle for Canadian exporters to deal with; Dion's plan would make all of those exports even more expensive.

This guy really has no clue.

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

More questions that the Liberals will not answer

More questions that the Liberals will not answer. Alternate title: The oil spot was right.

So far the Liberals and their supporters have been keeping a low profile when it comes to answering specific questions regarding the so called Greenshift* plan. They can give plenty of generalizations and they like to talk a good game about how big the hearts of Canadians are, but when it comes down to actual costs of the carbon tax for individuals, business, other levels of government etc, or even with specifics of CO2 reductions targeted or otherwise, the Liberals are awkwardly absent about any of these important details. All the while claiming to anyone with a microphone just how badly they want an honest debate on the carbon tax.

So in the interest of honest debate I offer up yet another simple question to the supporters of Dion's carbon tax.

Can any of you give me a list of things, or even just 1 thing, that will NOT be going up in cost as a result of Dion's carbon tax should it, (insert deity here) forbid, ever be implemented.



This should be an easy one to answer so have at it, but I personally think that the oil spot was correct . This will be a tax on everything.


* it's not enough that the Liberals want to steal your hard earned tax dollars, they stole the name as well.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Does anyone else find it odd...

Does anyone else find it odd that not one single reporter has of yet managed to stick a microphone in the face of Danny Williams, Gary Doer, Shaun Graham, Robert Ghiz, David Miller or any mayor from one of Canada's major cities, to ask them their opinions of Dion's carbon tax or how much they figure it will cost those they represent?

Considering that those on this list seem more than happy to voice their thoughts on almost anything and everything, even when not asked, their silence on the carbon tax has me a bit confused.

Maybe all of the above listed have been too busy to bother with reporters, out of the spot light, or perhaps the media itself might have figured that the multi million dollar increases, as a result of Dion's tax scheme, to the cost of running their respective levels of government would not be of any interest to the public.

Whatever the reasons I just do not know, but today we have a golden opportunity to find out for ourselves what the media can't seem to do for us. Because today they all will be out and about doing what countless other Canadians will be doing; celebrating Canada Day.

So while you are out celebrating Canada Day today and you happen to see any of the above mentioned politicians out schmoozing the public, or perhaps even others like Buzz Hargrove or any other union boss, do yourself and your country a big favour and take the opportunity to ask them for their thoughts on Dion's carbon tax and the subsequent costs.

You will be glad you did.