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Posted by Scott Tribe on October 24, 2009, at 11:49 am |
..and crediting it to my party instead. Here I am sending you all your very own partisan infrastructure stimulus funding novelty cheque:
Do you also want to be a Conservative MP for a day? Create your own novelty cheque.
By the way, on a more serious and related note, read the Jim Travers article this AM on this pork-barrelling the Conservatives are engaging in:
Almost daily reports that the ruling party is favouring ridings it holds now and those it hopes to win soon mask deeper problems. Conservatives either don’t know or won’t say precisely how all those taxpayer dollars are being spent.
Call it confusion or obfuscation, Ottawa’s [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on October 22, 2009, at 2:36 pm |
I saw this fellow being quoted over at Impolitical’s blog this AM, but I think his analysis of Harper is well worth repeating:
Michael Behiels, a native of Alberta’s Peace River country, teaches Canadian constitutional history at the University of Ottawa. He says Harper’s approach to politics and governance is shaped by his Christian fundamentalism. “Harper is a fundamentalist ‘values’ conservative and his evangelical Christian views drive both his domestic and foreign policy agendas,” Behiels continues. “On foreign policy, Harper is a dyed-in-the-wool Republican who maintains that the U.S., Canada and the U.K. have a mission, a religious duty, so to speak, to impose an American form of democracy [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on January 29, 2008, at 3:18 pm |
Ok, maybe it’s just my biased self thinking this, but it appears those of a more objective nature are thinking the same thing, if not outright saying it: I think the strategy to bring Health Minister Tony Clement in after Linda Keen testified about the circumstances of her firing from the Nuclear Safety Board totally backfired.
Keen was as sharp as a tack and very knowledgeable with her replies, while Clement just droned on the same tired-out and overused line the Conservatives have used about “needing to save lives” and looked clueless when cross-examined by the Opposition. I think this is a case of some PMO Conservative strategists concocting [...]
Posted by Elizabeth May on January 21, 2008, at 7:55 am |
(Foreword: There have been many comments on the blogs over the firing of Linda Keen in the middle of the night and the circumstances surrounding it. One of those was from Chris Tindal, Green Party blogger and candidate who I met at the Progressive Blogger BBQ in Toronto last August. I casually asked Chris out of the blue if Green Party leader Elizabeth May would like to express an opinion on the Keen firing and how Gary Lunn and Harper have handled the situation in an op-ed on a blog. A day later, Ms. May contacted me and was pleased to do so, so my thanks to Chris for [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on January 19, 2008, at 4:04 pm |
This news is about as surprising as being told that Christmas will occur this year on Dec 25, 2008. The Manley Afghanistan panel believes in the status quo:
Many people who have contributed submissions to the panel say they came away with the impression that Mr. Manley and his fellow members are essentially in favour of staying the course in Afghanistan.
Even less surprising; the fact that the panel had already essentially decided that to be the course of action while listening to submissions:
“I basically said we should stay and continue our role,” said Canadian military historian and author Jack Granatstein, summarizing his submission to the panel last [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on January 18, 2008, at 11:04 am |
There has been some discussion lately on what Stephane Dion said or didn’t say about what we should be doing with regards to Pakistan in the fight against terrorism. The interpretation of this has been jumped on by the Conservatives and their Blogging Tory supporters, led of course by their leader, Stephen Taylor, which has caused some bloggers on the Liberal/Progressive side to go after Taylor, as well as wasting time trying to defend Dion for what he said or didn’t say.
As I argued at the one site, this is actually nothing more then the Conservative government’s attempts to change the channel on both Helena Guergis’s breach of [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on January 17, 2008, at 4:56 pm |
My title could be taken literally as well as figuratively, when describing what the Toronto Sun discovered (yes, the Toronto Sun) with regards to the circumstances surrounding Resource Minister Gary Lunn’s grilling by the Natural Resources committee yesterday:
Taxpayers shelled out to pay a private image consultant to coach Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn for his televised appearance before a Commons committee in Ottawa yesterday.
At least we have an idea what Minister Lunn was doing while being incognito all these weeks; he was being coached on the proper spin for replies to tough questions, as well as stalling tactics to run the clock out on hostile questioners, but [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on January 14, 2008, at 10:18 am |
I could talk this morning about Secretary of State Helena Guergis jeopardizing Stephane Dion and Michael Ignatieff’s security and possibly their lives while they were in Afghanistan under news blackout – all in the name of hyper-partisanship (and by extension Stephen Harper and his Conservative strategists in the PMO jeopardizing their lives – because in this control-freak environment they run, no one releases a press statement like this without their knowledge or approval), and I could talk about how hypocritical it makes Guergis look after her past statements of wanting decorum in government, but there are others out there who have ably covered that angle.� Instead, I’m going to [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on December 19, 2007, at 10:02 am |
The lack of political savvy of Harper and the Conservatives in general over this Chalk River episode has been amazing to witness. As I mentioned yesterday, after Harper accuses the Nuclear Safety Board – and specifically its head Linda Keen – as being Liberal hacks endangering the safety of Canadians, we have the Globe and Mail discovering that the former head of the AECL who submitted his resignation was a former Canadian Alliance fundraiser who was picked by the Cons as they refused to hire another candidate despite independent recommendations to do so.
Today, the Globe talks to that former AECL Chairman, who isn’t particularly thrilled he was being [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on December 18, 2007, at 12:11 pm |
Harper blamed the crisis over Chalk River on the “Liberal appointed Nuclear Safety Board”, making it out to be the fault of Liberal hacks (though as I pointed out, all are eminently qualified to be on the board).
Now, it turns out, the Globe and Mail has discovered that the recently resigned chairman of the Atomic Energy Board of Canada was a former fund-raiser of the Canadian Alliance Party, and that he was picked for the position over the advice of independent recommendations to choose another candidate.
Apparently, Harper doesn’t think the media does any fact-checking up here or something. They’re not perfect, but they aren’t quite to the [...]
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