Scott's DiaTribes

Public backlash forces Harper to back down a bit on OAS cuts

Scott Tribe — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:17:42 +0000

Conservative MP’s are often described as parrots for doing nothing but repeating scripted phrases over and over again in defense of their government, or being not the brightest bunch in the world. However, they are smart enough to recognize when the voters get mad, and concerned enough about their own electoral well-being to bring it up to Harper:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s musings about possible changes to Old Age Security have resulted in a public backlash — and complaints from his own MPs. Conservative MPs have been overwhelmed with emails and phone calls from constituents who have been concerned about their retirement pensions since Harper mused on the need [...]

Tony Clement is your champion of open government, Conservatives?

Scott Tribe — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:19:35 +0000

I had to laugh when I read this:

..Clement will be hosting a conference in Ottawa next week on open government. “As a minister, Clement has pushed forward with initiatives to enable Canada’s public servants to use social media in the workplace and a broader initiative to introduce open government principles to the Government of Canada,” says promotional material for the event at the National Arts Centre.

This coming from the guy who just refused this:

The New Democrats are calling on Treasury Board President Tony Clement to bring the same sunlight to salaries in the Prime Minister’s Office as the government shone on the highly-paid staff at the [...]

Harper needs to come clean on his Old Age Security ‘reforms’

Scott Tribe — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:13:17 +0000

Parliament resumes very shortly as of this writing. It is to be hoped that Stephen Harper will deem Parliament important enough to reveal the details on his very public musings in Davos Switzerland last week about Old Age Security needing to be “reformed” – an announcement that couldn’t wait for Parliament to re-open this week, apparently.

It should be hoped that Harper’s “plan” consists a bit more then this:

It’s time to step on a Caterpillar, Premier Mcguinty

Scott Tribe — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:12:16 +0000

I was reading a column that Martin Reg-Cohn wrote yesterday on the continuing saga in London where as those who’ve followed it know, Caterpillar has locked out it’s workers in a draconian effort to get them to slash their wages by half – this as the CEO earns a million $ salary and the company worldwide made profits in the billions of dollars.

I agree with the column where he says it is now time for the Premier and by extension, his Labor Minister Linda Jeffery, need to do something more then just issue statements saying they are “hopeful” the 2 sides will moderate their tone. Let’s cut to [...]

Harper to First Nations: Bother my MP’s, not me, with your issues.

Scott Tribe — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:12:31 +0000

I’ve not seen another article come out yet on the meeting that Harper had with the First Nation’s Chiefs other then this one, but from the First Nations perspective, their concerns appear to have been taken rather lightly by the PM, to say the least:

First Nations leaders will be listening closely to the words Prime Minister Stephen Harper chooses in his speech at the Crown-First Nations gathering Tuesday after he left chiefs feeling underwhelmed by his response to their presentations during a special, two-and-a-half hour meeting with a delegation Monday. Harper told chiefs that they should consider contacting their MPs and that he can’t just focus on Aboriginal [...]

‘Canada is becoming a jingoistic petro-state’

Scott Tribe — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:05:49 +0000

Who made that declaration a couple of days ago in the US? The Nation? Daily Kos? Some other left-wing publication?

Nope. Slate did – and Slate isn’t exactly known for its left-wing tendencies. A rather unflattering portrait of it’s northern neighbour:

It’s well known that America’s dependence on foreign oil forces us to partner with some pretty unsavory regimes. Take, for instance, the country that provides by far the largest share of our petroleum imports. Its regime, in thrall to big oil interests, has grown increasingly bellicose, labeling environmental activists “radicals” and “terrorists” and is considering a crackdown on nonprofits that oppose its policies. It blames political dissent on [...]

Polls: Bob Rae may be gaining support, and marijuana is popular

Scott Tribe — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:52:36 +0000

Those are the findings of one specific poll. First the poll #’s and the pollster’s speculation:

Buoyed by high approval ratings for interim leader Bob Rae, support for the federal Liberals is on the rise, according to a new poll. The Forum Research survey found support for Rae’s Liberals at 25 per cent, a four-point increase since the pollster’s last survey in mid-December. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives received 35 per cent, Nycole Turmel’s NDP had 28 per cent, while the Bloc Québécois and Green Party earned 6 per cent and 4 per cent, respectively….Bozinoff suggested the Liberals’ popularity increase may be attributed to Rae — the interim leader’s [...]

Getting into the spirit of things, post-Liberal convention.

Scott Tribe — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:18:46 +0000

I’ve seen this logo floating around on some blogs - a suggestion to upgrade the Liberal Party logo:

I’ve seen it on some Blogging Tory blogs critical of the legalizing marijuana resolution that was passed, and on some Liberal blogs with people just having fun with it.

Personally, I think our Blogging Tory friends should be careful of passing that logo around too much; when the National Post unexpectedly comes out with an editorial supporting the Liberals stance on marijuana, you know the Liberals might be onto something that helps more then hurts them.

[...]

Liberal Convention results/wrapup thoughts

Scott Tribe — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:29:20 +0000

As you might expect, though I was not at the Convention in Ottawa this weekend, I did monitor how events went, and here is my take on things:

Things I liked:

- The election of Mike Crawley as Liberal Party President. It was a bit of a surprise win, according to some I was reading at the Convention. One statement I read from an observer was that a lot of Liberals expected Sheila Copps to win, but they all voted for Mr. Crawley. Apparently, enough like-minded people did the same thing, and we now have a President who was preaching renewal, and also was promising to do it behind [...]

The case is made for the Liberal Party to adopt primaries to pick leaders

Scott Tribe — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 12:02:17 +0000

As those politically inclined know, the Liberal Party is holding a convention in Ottawa this weekend, where delegates will be voting to elect different candidates to various party positions, and also to vote on several different policy resolutions. One of those is to adopt a US primary-style system to open up a Liberal leadership vote to potentially hundreds of thousands of Canadians, rather then the 1000 or so delegates that have traditionally done it.

I’ve not had a strong opinion really one way or the other on this one, though it would serve the purpose of opening up the voting system to more Canadians. I’ve read a column by [...]