What’s Next?

The Governor-General prorogued Parliament giving the Politicians a chance to take a breath and reflect on their actions.   Everyone of the elected Members of Parliament need to shake their heads and realize that they should be ashamed of their behaviour.  No one is exempt from this shameful demonstration of power politics.  Canadians in general are not amused and are disgusted by their actions.  A pox on all their houses.

The Prime Minister initiated the troubles with his ill thought out plan to kick the opposition when they were down.  His misjudgement has probably damaged his reputation forever.  He has done enough damage to the Conservative cause that they will never achieve a majority government under his leadership.  It’s time to groom the replacements.

The Leaders of the three opposition parties needs to have a reality check.  Yes, if you add up all their votes and all their members they outnumber the Conservatives but there is no consistency in their party policies that would justify saying that they represent a majority view.  They are 3 distinct views that are barely similar and often opposed to each other.  So saying that they represent a majority of Canadians is invalid.   The Liberals under Stephane Dion are desperate for power since they lost it, but they lost it for a reason and they haven’t corrected that reason.  They haven’t cleaned up their act like the Conservative had to when they were down to 3 seats.  There is little contrition for the bad faith they showed Canadians under the various scandals and little cleanup.  Stephane Dion is desperate to change his legacy of being one of the few Liberal leaders that weren’t Prime Minister and I think that is what drove him to work out this coalition.  He probably saw it as a golden opportunity to improve his historical record.  Even now the second place runner in the leadership contest, Bob Rae, is trying to use the coalition for his own political gains.  This could precipitate a complete collapse of the Liberal party should they piss off the Canadian people which is their current direction.

The leader of the Bloc sees this as an opportunity to have a veto on any and all actions in parliament.  The other members of the coalition try to pretend that they haven’t given the Bloc the equivalent of Sovereignty Association.  The terminology in the agreement was between Canada and Quebec.  The Bloc had nothing to lose everything to gain no matter what happens.  Canada is the one who loses by this political pandering to Sovereignists.

Finally, we have Jack and the NDP.  He knows that this is the closest he will have come to being in power.  Canada is not a socialist country and wouldn’t support their policies in government.  They provide a counterbalance to other policies but they aren’t mainstream.  When Jack has participated in anything in a cooperative way you get told by him that he did it.  He takes credit for everything that comes close to him.  He needs constant reinforcement that he is a good boy.  Jack loves the camera and just can’t resist puffing himself up.

The politicians have damaged their standing in society – they have shown themselves to be more interested in power than getting the job done.  Originally the opposition didn’t want to cooperate with the Conservatives lest they be successful in handling this crisis.  Canadian have engaged themselves in this situation and hopefully they will hold the politicians to account for doing what we citizens want them to do.

Hot Air

So we had the “important” speeches from the Prime Minister and the Liberal Leader (sort of).

Mr. Prime Minister you missed an opportunity to engage the members of the coalition and the people.  You were not conciliatory and unapologetic for your badly thought out decision about political financing.  Have you given up?  Is it time for you to turn the reigns of the Conservative Party to someone who can work with other parties without under cutting them?  I was disappointed by your performance, I expected more.  You seem to need a time out to shake your head.

Mr. Dion, what it wrong with you?  Tonight’s video was an incompetent exercise.  You missed the deadlines for the networks to show you address.  When it did air, it was out of focus and amateurish in quality.  Your speech was uninspired and hard to follow.  The biggest error was to have a book behind you entitled “Hot Air”.  That describes your performance.  You want the control of government and you can’t even put out a professional message. 

You have not demonstrated any qualities that make you a suitable Prime Minister.  Your behaviour in Question Period bordered on hysteria.  You are fighting so hard to be Prime Minister that you have lost sight of what this country is about.  Your coalition members are making it sound like the Government is responsible for all of the job losses and you are not telling the truth when you say that nothing has been done to provide relief.  It may not be adequate but your job is to get it improved not take over the government.

The Bloc has a veto on any legislation that your coalition will propose so they are an integral part of that government.  They also seem to have managed to get promises for more than $1billion additional funds for Quebec for their support.  What about Canada?  You use language in the agreement – An agreement between Canada and Quebec.  You have given Quebec Sovereign Association by your actions.  You sir, are full of HOT AIR.

The F.U.D. Factor

I am confused about the statements and musings of Stéphane Dion and Jack Layton.  They’ve been saying the sky is falling and panicking about the financial crisis and the coming recession in Canada.  Both are spreading Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt without being fully truthful in their statements.  Unfortunately, it seems to be working in this election.

Now we have reports from outside Canada that say we have the most sound banking system in the world.  We’re number 1 – the U.S. if 40th and Great Britain is 44th.  Another report says that Canada is not likely to have recession yet these two “leaders” are running around saying “we’ve got to plan, we’ve got to plan” for the coming recession.  Maybe they know something that we don’t.  Just maybe they know their policies will create a recession.

Now, I’m not all that thrilled with Stephen Harper either but he is not to blame for the current world crisis like the other leaders would like you to believe.  None of the above is not a viable option so we go with the least likely to screw up badly.

On one hand, Stéphane Dion says that the government should not interfere with the banks and on the other hand he would go after the banks to ensure they pass on the full interest rate reduction.  I’ve not heard Jack’s response yet but I can only imagine.

I can only hope that the universe will unfold as it should.

Omar Khadr and other difficult choices

Omar Ahmed Khadr (عمر أحمد خضر, born September 19, 1986) is the fourth child in the Canadian Khadr family. He was captured by American forces at the age of 15 following a four-hour firefight with militants in the village of Ayub Kheyl, Afghanistan.^[1] He has spent six years in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps charged with war crimes and providing support to terrorism after allegedly throwing a grenade that killed a US soldier.^[2]

A Canadian citizen born in Toronto,^[3][4] he is the youngest prisoner held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp by the United States and has been frequently referred to as a child soldier.^[5][6] The only Western citizen remaining in Guantanamo, Khadr is unique in that Canada has refused to seek extradition or repatriation despite the urgings of Amnesty International, UNICEF, the Canadian Bar Association and other prominent organisations.^{[7][8][9][10]}

Khadr is the only Guantanamo detainee who has faced a judge and who is not boycotting the military tribunals.^[11] In February 2008, the Pentagon accidentally released documents that revealed that although Khadr was present during the firefight, there was no other evidence that he had thrown the grenade. In fact, military officials had originally reported that another of the surviving militants had thrown the grenade just before being killed. – Wikipedia

The Conservative Government of Canada refuses to seek the return of this troubled and messed up young man to Canada saying that the US Government is providing due process.  Problem is, the President and his minions should be prosecuted for torturing prisoners, denying basic human rights and acting like a dictator.  The Prime Minister is making a number of philosophical statements that are really at odds with true Canadian values of justice and human dignity.  Khadr comes from a notorious family, he was raised in that environment, indoctrinated by his family about jihad.

Khadr fits the definition of a child soldier and should have been treated as such.  He’s our problem, Canada’s that is, not the Americans and we should be dealing with it in a democratic and Canadian way not the abomination that the Americans are using.  If these prisoners are guilty then they should be handled by the legal process, provided basic legal protections and not be subjected to torture.  It has been proved over and over that torture doesn’t get at the truth but only gets what the interrogators want to called the truth.   If you look at the measures that have been put in place by western governments they are quite severe and remove many rights and privledges that we used to enjoy in the name of homeland security.  When you look at the direct threat, there has been little offered as proof that these measures were needed or have done the jobs that for which they were established.  We lose more people to drownings, accidents, disease or whatever than we have lost to terrorism.  We are paying a high price in our loss of privacy and personal rights.  The Americans are happy because they have been taught to fear the unknown, give them their guns and other personal weapons but take away all their other basic rights and they don’t even know what has hit them.  They have also set a precedent so possibly in some future conflict the same logic and rules will be applied to Americans by some new enemy and they will justify saying “you did it first!”