Liberals distance themselves from the Green Shift
The carbon tax has come back to haunt B.C.'s Liberals |
The idea of a carbon tax to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is dying politically in the place where it was born: British Columbia. MORE... |
An Internet Fisherman who uses barbless hooks and this one dimensional world as a way of releasing the frustrations of daily life. This is my pond. You are welcome only if you are civil and contribute something to the ambiance. I reserve the right to ignore/publish/reject anon comments.
The carbon tax has come back to haunt B.C.'s Liberals |
The idea of a carbon tax to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is dying politically in the place where it was born: British Columbia. MORE... |
To Win, Harper Should ... |
As campaigning for the October election continues, I humbly offer Stephen Harper a political platform which, if espoused, would, I think, win him the majority he seeks. In no particular order, then, Mr. Harper should: MORE... |
PM rejects meeting on economy |
NDP Leader Jack Layton demanded an emergency leaders' meeting as chaos on Bay Street and Wall Street mounted yesterday, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper rejected the request as he continued to portray the fundamentals of the Canadian economy as sound. MORE... |
Jack Layton's plan would kill Canadian productivity |
There are many reasons why NDP Leader Jack Layton's suite of policy preferences is less a platform, than a trap door in the floor of a scaffold. MORE... |
By SUN MEDIA
Life would be perfect if the world operated the way NDP Leader Jack Layton says it does.
That is, if you could solve all problems by increasing taxes on big business and using the cash to fund more social programs at no cost to taxpayers.
That's pretty much Layton's election platform, which he vigorously defended before Sun Media's editorial board yesterday.
Layton says he'd raise $50 billion by cancelling corporate tax cuts promised by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservatives and redistribute it to working families, led by a tax-free baby bonus of up to $5,000 annually, per child.
He'd also charge corporations billions of dollars for emitting carbon dioxide in order to fight global warming and use that money to pay for such things as making homes more energy efficient.
There's only one problem with all this -- reality.
In the real world, if you increase the costs of doing business, businesses pass along those costs to consumers. If you make businesses uncompetitive by raising taxes too much, they'll lay off employees, move offshore, or go bankrupt.
In the real world, Layton can't force them to stay open, just as he can't "eliminate" poverty by 2020 by passing the Poverty Elimination Act, as he's also promising.
While Layton predictably says he's running to be prime minister, in reality, he's trying to unseat Stephane Dion as official opposition leader.
It could happen.
One poll has the NDP and Liberals tied.
That said, some NDP support has gone back to the Liberals in the last two elections whenever it looked like Harper was close to winning a majority government, which some polls are also indicating.
That's Layton's real worry. If he can't replace the Liberals as official opposition this time, given the perfect storm of an unpopular leader, Stephane Dion, and a virtual civil war going on inside the Liberal party -- he may never be able to do it.
That's why, while Layton says he's running for PM, the job he really wants is opposition leader.
The Liberal party has thrown just about everything it could think of at Stephen Harper in the past three weeks, with precious little to show for it.
It's tried the Green Shift, gambling that Canadians were willing to bet the economy on an untried and hard-to-explain theory for climate improvement.
It's tried the scary routine, with Stephane Dion intoning: "We need to stop this man," as if the Prime Minister was a mutant gene that had somehow escaped a top secret laboratory and was rampaging across the land.
It's tried blaming him for ruining the economy, and warning that no one but Liberals could fix it.
It's attacked him as mean, heartless and narrow-minded. He's taken an axe to arts funding; he's cancelled the Courth Challenges program; he doesn't care about women and has no platform for protecting their rights.
Wonderful words from Christie Blatchford in the Globe and Mail:
The most wonderful thing about the Lesley Hughes story is not that Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion finally asked her to step down yesterday [Sept. 26], or her odd beliefs that the 9/11 attacks were an inside job and that the war in Afghanistan is the result of "lengthy failed negotiations between American business and the Taliban over access to drugs and oil [oil!?!}," or even her bewildered, injured insistence yesterday that her firing "is so incredibly unjust."No, what is wonderful is that Ms. Hughes has had such a good go of being such a proper little Canadian lefty (I rarely use words like this, but there ain't no other way to describe her) that I have no doubt she's genuinely bewildered.
She's played by all the rules as she knew them, embraced all (well, okay, almost all, the Sept. 11 conspiracy theory, being a shade out there) the right causes, and what, now this kick in the teeth?
Not even a Raging Granny, one of those women who with hideous regularity show up at protests and the like to sing hideous ditties, could have summoned up greater righteous indignation.
As a perfect illustration of the peculiar sort of Canadianness Ms. Hughes seems to embody was what she said yesterday when a TV reporter broke the news to her that Mr. Dion was giving her the boot, and then, it being television, asked her how she felt.
"I guess this is how soldiers die in trenches, eh?" she said. "This is how it must feel."
Only a particular kind of Canadian woman of a certain age who has spent her life in the safe and cozy confines of Winnipeg, making a decent living and reputation as a caring social activist and never coming within a hair of a battlefield could compare her suffering as a cruelly aborted Liberal candidate to that of a dying soldier...
Kate McMillan a nicely acid post on the role bloggers played--compared to the major media--in Ms Hughes' downfall. Meanwhile, the NDP has its own troofer troubles (surprised?), and the Greens have their own problems in comprehending terrorism--a post by Robert Jago (via Terry Glavin):
Green Party candidates on the record: “Is Hezbollah a terrorist organization”?
And take a look at Norman Spector's THE COLUMN I’M GLAD I DIDN’T WRITE.
Posted by markc
If you would like to move to Canada here are a few simple suggestions to help you on your way:
2) Desert your military and your country - aka be a SHITBAG.
It was a study in contrasts, a spirited encounter between a young, black Democrat and an aging, white Republican as America's economic future hangs in the balance
You can just hear the winds blowing over the plantation, can't you?
Wonder Woman on September 27, 2008
I had heard through a "comrade" that his place of work (a large, national food retail chain) will very likely be going on strike very soon, and I will probably be out with him and some fellow comrades doing some strike support in my spare time. There is a good chance that this strike will be a very ugly one. I had asked another very close friend who works there about the situation, and to my surprise he told me he was planning on scabbing as he will get paid more during the strike. He isn't a very political guy, but I was very shocked that he would say something like that.
My initial reaction was to call him a few not very nice things. I am wondering if I should do anything and what I should do to try to talk him out of scabbing, as it is a very immoral act and it will be harming some of my other friends who are doing the right thing and staying out.
union guy
For less-knowledgeable readers, here are the reasons why: scabs undermine strikes by working jobs held by striking unionized workers, in the service of their own self-interest. Unions function most effectively when workers stick together. Nobody views a strike as anything but a last resort, and it’s tough, I’ve been there. Strikes have a better chance of ending sooner, with optimal outcomes for the workers, if everyone supports the strike.
Yes, do try to talk him out of scabbing. Explain the basics if he doesn’t already know them, and remind him that the wages he currently earns are a result of past struggles of union workers. You say he’s a “very close friend” which to me means you’re able to talk about life’s difficulties together. If he doesn’t want to walk the line/picket, can you suggest that all he needs to do is stay home, NOT cross the picket line to work? Try to get him to understand that his choice doesn’t only affect him, but everyone who’s chosen to strike.
The sad reality is that there are some unionized workers who are not that pro-union. This reality must be faced, and at times like job action is when they often come to the forefront and reveal themselves. I believe it’s possible for you to change his mind, but not probable. (See past Ms .C. columns on that issue.)
The fact that he told you his plans means he’s already thought about it, and has investigated what it would mean to scab. He may have made up his mind already. For that, he might be beyond reaching, but it’s always worth a try.
Ms. C.
The one thing that has always tempered my views against Canada and the Canadian people, albeit UNFAIRLY, is that during my 1st experience in Canada, I was surrounded by a majority of Liberal, dope-smoking/growing/loving, anti-American, …
Read the full story »It wasn’t so very long ago that Canada was debating homosexual marriage. During that time, the homosexual lobby was screeching about churches fighting them. The churches had tax exemptions, they said, and therefore shouldn’t be involved in a political issue.
The worm has turned. From today’s Star:
Canada’s interest groups have a lot to say, especially those concerned about poverty, women’s rights or the environment. And rightfully so. Their staff, volunteers and contributors care passionately about their issues. But many advocacy organizations appear to have been stifled from expressing their opinion during the current federal election campaign. That’s unfortunate. Indeed, it could be argued, this is when their views most need to be heard.
The problem is that many advocacy groups are registered charities, and federal income tax rules forbid them from getting involved in partisan politics. These rules are long-standing, but the charities were issued reminders in 2004 (when the Liberals were still in power in Ottawa). They were specifically warned that they could not endorse a candidate, post election signs and or give money to a party.
My guess? The Toronto Star editorial board does indeed think “advocacy groups” should be heard, but that they don’t include religious institutions in their view.
Posted by: Right Girl
The appointment of an integrity commissioner to monitor the conduct of Toronto city councillors has hit a snag.
The city announced in late June that lawyer Geri Sanson would take over Sept. 1 from David Mullan – the city's first integrity commissioner, who was due to retire Aug. 31 – but that didn't happen.
Mullan agreed to stay for September as the city scrambled to find someone to fill the vacancy on an interim basis.
City council hastily appointed Loren Sossin, a law professor at the University of Toronto as interim integrity commissioner.
Mullan said Friday that it became apparent contractual details with his successor had not been worked out.
"I finish on Tuesday," he said. "I made it absolutely clear that I could only do one extra month."
The city had conducted a widespread, months-long search before announcing Sanson's appointment. The snag could force the city to start over, said councillor Paul Ainslie.
"My biggest concern is if they can't negotiate a contract agreement with the integrity commissioner, we could be back at square one," he said. "After the whole headhunting process, it could be very embarrassing for the city."
Councillors were told the interim appointment was only for 30 days, and that technical details stood in the way of signing Sanson as permanent integrity commissioner.
Councillor Janet Davis said she expects Sanson will join the city, but couldn't estimate when.
"We're still in discussions to finalize the terms of her contract, our agreement with her," Davis said. "I have no reason to believe at all that there is any indication that it won't have a successful outcome."
The city has touted it was the first municipality in Canada to hire an integrity commissioner, whose job is to adjudicate allegations of misconduct by city councillors.
The integrity commissioner's position came in response largely to recommendations made after the inquiry into the MFP computer leasing scandal.
Queen's Park also revamped oversight rules, requiring the city to have an ombudsperson, auditor general and lobbyist registry.
Council last week appointed Fiona Crean to be the city's first ombudsperson, effective Nov. 17. The plan was to have someone in place by June to deal with citizens who feel they have been treated unfairly by the city.
Despite touting its accountability officers, the city has had trouble hiring and keeping them. Lobbyist registrar Marilyn Abraham suddenly announced plans to quit, less than a year into the job and barely after the registry went online.
Tell us, oh great ones, about how you'll save us from C. difficile, listeriosis and Big Oil
By LORRIE GOLDSTEIN, TORONTO SUN
Today, let's play 20 questions about the federal election.
OK, I admit they're all going to be my questions and I only had room for 15, but here goes:
1. Shouldn't we be worried a lot more about the C. difficile outbreak that has killed thousands of Canadians in hospitals across Canada over the past few years and a lot less about the latest verbal gaffe by some obscure candidate, whose views don't represent those of the party for which he or she happens to be running?
2. Does Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty really get to decide all by himself that there will be no public inquiry into the hundreds of deaths from C. difficile that have occurred inside his province's hospitals over the past couple of years? Seriously.
3. Does anyone else think like me that the limited investigation Prime Minister Stephen Harper ordered into the recent listeriosis outbreak that killed at least 19 Canadians as a result of eating tainted cold cuts from a Maple Leaf plant in Toronto, won't get to the bottom of what appears to be systemic weaknesses in Canada's meat inspection system going back years?
4. Contrary to conventional media wisdom, isn't it possible Canadians don't like Liberal Leader Stephane Dion's proposed carbon tax not because they don't understand it, but because they do?
5. Can Stephen Harper explain why we can afford to publicly subsidize Big Oil but we can't afford arts funding, much of which isn't spent on rich artists or galas but on paying subsistence wages to artists, stage hands and others who willingly work in Canada's labour-intensive, tourist-generating and economy-boosting cultural industries?
6. While we're on the subject of Big Oil, could Stephen Harper and any other party leader who wants to take a shot at it, please explain why the way the retail price of gasoline is set in Canada doesn't qualify as (a) collusion (b) price-fixing or (c) profiteering?
7. Could Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe please explain why, if Canada is so awful, he keeps running in our elections?
8. Could NDP Leader Jack Layton explain how he got himself into the bizarre predicament of defending a cap-and-trade carbon market as a good idea to lower greenhouse gas emissions, while attacking a carbon tax as a bad one? Doesn't he know both do the same thing -- put a price on carbon emissions and that both will inevitably lead to the same thing -- higher prices for consumers for almost everything they buy?
9. When Layton's finished with his explanation, could Stephen Harper please give his?
10. When pundits, criminologists and prisoners' rights groups accuse Prime Minister Stephen Harper of being out of touch with "mainstream" Canadian values in promising to toughen the Youth Criminal Justice Act, could they please explain who these "Canadians" are and exactly what "values," other than their own, they're talking about?
11. Did everybody in Canada suddenly find a family doctor right after the federal election was called, or is there some other reason why the fact millions of Canadians still, presumably, can't find one has fallen right off the election radar screen?
12. How many people actually care whether a political candidate has ever smoked marijuana, as long as he doesn't consider that to be the high point of his life?
13. Does B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell still think all those media pundits who praised him for his carbon tax earlier this year, actually knew what they were talking about?
14. Is anyone else besides me planing to watch the televised leaders' debate primarily to see what Green Party Leader Elizabeth May does?
15. Why do journalists quote unnamed "Liberal sources" bitching that Stephane Dion has run a poor campaign? Given that that's pretty obvious, who cares what some anonymous Liberal thinks, especially if he doesn't have the guts to identify himself by name? How do we even know such a person exists, let alone what their motives might be if they aren't named? Former Liberal Party president Stephen LeDrew publicly criticized Dion and the Liberal campaign last week. Is he the only Liberal left who actually has a pair?
By SUE-ANN LEVY, TORONTO SUN
Mayor David Miller was at his Barack Obama best as he endeavoured to justify the appointment of Joe Pennachetti as the new city manager at council last week.
By THANE BURNETT, NATIONAL BUREAU
All the spilled blood doesn't seem to dull the spirits of diners around the crime scene.
WHEN SOMEONE IS CONVICTED OF A SERIOUS CRIME AND IS SENT AWAY TO PRISON, THEY DON'T GET TO VOTE IN THE ELECTION, RIGHT?
By MOIRA MACDONALD
When Ontario's student testing office released results from the latest round of Grade 3 and 6 tests earlier this month, numbers for Toronto's public school board showed students had made at best modest improvements in attempts to reach the Ontario standard in most subjects over the last five years.
Lots of people are saying the NDP might jump over the Liberals and form the Official Opposition in the next Parliament.
posted by Gerry Nicholls
Hey, have you heard about Stephen Harper's plan to fight global warming by raising the cost of everything?
Because he does have one and he's been getting a free ride on it in this election, simply by incessantly charging Liberal Leader Stephane Dion's Green Shift will increase the price of everything.
Back in the real world, Harper promises to put a price on emitting carbon just like Dion.
True, his plan isn't as ambitious as the Liberal leader's.
Harper's promising to reduce Canada's carbon dioxide emissions by 20% by 2020 compared to 2006, the year the Conservatives took power.
Dion promises a bigger cut of 20% by 2020 compared to 1990, the base year of the Kyoto Accord.
But unlike Dion, Harper has given no serious explanation of how he'll help Canadians cope with higher energy prices, while Dion has promised lower income taxes and new tax credits in order to do so.
Harper, like -- ironically -- NDP Leader Jack Layton, proposes a cap-and-trade market in carbon credits, every bit as controversial as Dion's carbon tax.
Carbon trading (under Europe's Emissions Trading Scheme) has been a fiasco, resulting in skyrocketing electricity prices for consumers and undeserved profits for corporations, while greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions continue to rise.
The Kyoto initiative through which countries and companies can obtain carbon credits -- the Clean Development Mechanism -- is rife with allegations of profiteering and ineffectiveness.
Council meetings are nothing more than rubber stamps under Mayor David Miller
By SUE-ANN LEVY, TORONTO SUN
Coun. Brian Ashton summed it up perfectly yesterday when he contended that the monthly council meeting would be better described as the "Mayor's Monthly Meeting."
Instead of a forum to debate new city policies and offer status reports on key issues, council -- under the steadily evolving dictatorship of (King) David Miller -- has become merely an opportunity for the mayor to brief councillors on "those selected projects" he considers part of his mandate, says the veteran Scarborough councillor.
"I don't think the majority of council are engaged in any of these projects in a positive, creative way ... so council just sits and waits to be briefed on what the mayor's doing on a day-to-day basis," Ashton said.
Granted the Politburo has been working feverishly as of late manipulating the message to ensure only "happy talk" emanates from Socialist Silly Hall. I also know that many councillors -- apart from those lapdogs who play the game the mayor's way -- feel increasingly impotent by the day.
As one City Hall insider noted yesterday, "it's a whole new world here" -- and not necessarily a "brave" one.
Still, after returning earlier this week from 18 days overseas, even I was surprised to see a council agenda so thin and devoid of any issues, let alone explosive ones.
After all, this is the first council meeting since the end of July. Perhaps it escaped the Mayor and Co.'s attention there was a major propane explosion in the Keele-Wilson neighbourhood last month that uprooted thousands of people from their homes and resulted in the death of firefighter Bob Leek.
Perhaps they hope we'll all forget as well that starting Nov. 1, we'll be paying a new tax for the privilege of having our garbage picked up by Miller's union buddies. Or that nearly a year ago we were presented with the mayor's latest scheme to revitalize Union Station, but haven't heard a word since.
Also this month, the regular meetings of two key standing committees -- the Licensing and Standards and the Parks and Environment committees -- were cancelled. The rest of the committee agendas contained nonsense.
In fact, as has become the habit, any issue considered remotely sensitive is sent to Miller's powerful executive committee (and even there it's slim pickings), where the socialist automotons know they'd better nod and approve the items without question, or face banishment to the Hinterland.
And yesterday Miller's key item was his highly hyped Tower Renewal Project -- billed as an "ambitious new" project designed to renew concrete high-rise residential towers and which the mayor claimed won't cost the city a cent. (Yep and I'll place first in the Scotiabank half-marathon on Sunday.)
When I happened up to the council chamber at 3:20 p.m. yesterday -- after council plodded along debating the item for more than three hours -- only 17 of 45 councillors were in their seats. The discussion continued for 10 minutes before the quorum bells were rung.
Coun. Mike Del Grande says he's heard from a number of colleagues that they've just given up. "They say, 'what's the point?' ... everything's controlled ... they're just filling a seat," he said.
He has not given up. Still he suspects the pile of motions he's put on the council agenda today -- several related to better handling of emergencies like the propane explosion -- will be either "ruled out of order" or sent for no further action to the mayor's office.
"There's absolutely been a centralization of decision-making and control (in the mayor's office) that the public and council should be concerned about," contended Coun. Denzil Minnan-Wong, noting all major issues bypass standing committees and go directly to the executive committee, where they're blindly adopted and "rushed through."
Ashton agreed that when an issue does appear at council "it's a fait accompli."
Coun. Case Ootes said he can't remember when he last got any status updates on key issues like the garbage tax or Union Station.
"Everything seems to disappear into a big black hole," he said.
"Instead of solving problems, they (the mayor's team) have decided to sweep them under the carpet by making sure there is absolutely no debate ... by not letting them on the agenda," added Minnan-Wong, noting that city staff jealously guard information as well.
"We used to get answers at City Hall and now we just get a blank wall."
Who is going to win the national election?
You want to get some blank stares, go out and ask that question on a Friday night in Toronto.
"There's an election?" said Dillon Henthorn.
The 18-year-old and his bandmates in Dawn Vally, Bartolo brothers Jeff, 20, Joe, 26, and Nick, 18, admit they are not at all into the political scene. They are recording an album and getting ready for a big show Nov. 15 at Duffy's tavern on Bloor St. They would invite the prime minister, but they say they are not really sure who that is.
The world was tuned into the debates to see which candidate fared better. Yeah, right! All kidding aside, I went over to the Starbucks near the Sun building and just did an informal poll -- based on that question. Not only did most not know which election I was talking about, but did not even realize both Canada and the U.S. are in the midst of campaigns.
Just as many did not know who the candidates were -- even our prime minister's name.
"I admit I don't know any of that," says 27-year-old Monique Wiseman. "I have a young daughter and I am pregnant, I work full time, so I just don't have time to watch TV."
She's too busy for any of it. Her focus is on daughter Serenity and getting to work and back home to her. A delightful person, by the way. A giant smile and I found a heck of a lot more interesting than some people I know who know the middle names of every candidate. Same goes for all of these people I met. The guys in Dawn Vally are not going to be on Reach for the Top like Stephen Harper was. But they don't want to be. And these guys are still cooler.
Many people I talked to who took a shot at the PM's name said Stephane Harper!
MoreInappropriate remarks resulting in an apology are acceptable to the NDP when it occurs within their own party but burning at the stake is the minimum expected when it is a rival candidate. NDP candidate said what? |
That suspicious sniffing at winds, that cocked ear to the slightest change in posture has begun in earnest over the Ontario government's celebrated promise to implement an aggressive poverty-reduction plan.
The poor and their advocates sense threat in the air. If nothing else, poverty renders the antennae acute. Wariness goes with the territory when the margins for survival are small.
Recent remarks from Premier Dalton McGuinty that economic challenges might delay implementation of his government's poverty-reduction plan, due by year end, have triggered alarms.
Having raised expectations of historic change, the premier is now – days of easy prosperity gone – busy lowering them.
Trying economic times mean adjustments will be required, he said. The question is not whether a plan with targets and timelines will be produced, but "how quickly we can move on this particular strategy given our financial challenges."
In short, the plan will be delivered as promised. The funding might not be.
I wonder if Kim voted for CHANGE........
Re:Poverty slips on McGuinty's agenda
Sept. 22
I can't understand Dalton McGuinty's backpedalling on the poverty issue. It is inexcusable for him to put the people who are in the greatest need on the back burner yet again. Having 1.3 million people living in poverty in Ontario is sickening but he is unwilling to take hold of the situation because of the economy. These very people are the ones who feel it the most. Now is the time for action in the fight against poverty here in Ontario.
Kim Goebel, Roseneath, Ont.
Toronto officials are scrambling to determine whether the city's new $60 vehicle registration tax has unfairly hit drivers who were supposed to be exempt.
It looks like the little guy running a small business – from taxi drivers to couriers to newspaper carriers – is getting smacked by a new city "revenue tool" that was supposed to apply only to personal vehicles, not commercial ones.
Taxi drivers were the first to complain, saying that when they went in to renew their plates they were asked to pay Toronto's new $60 fee as well as the regular provincial fee.
"It's a massive cash grab under the guise of they didn't think it through," Louis Seta, president of the Toronto Taxicab Industry Association, said this week. "Some exemptions should have been worked out or a rebate system created."
Here's the hitch:
Where the vehicle is registered to an individual, it is deemed a personal vehicle. Where the vehicle is registered to a corporation or other entity, it is not considered personal.
But, to ensure taxi licences aren't controlled by companies, the city's "ambassador taxi" program requires its cabs to be owned by the operator.
It doesn't appear city council considered the dilemma last year before approving the fee, which went into effect this month.
Councillor Howard Moscoe, who chairs the city's licensing and standards committee, said the city will rectify the situation if taxis are being considered personal vehicles.
"There's no question that taxis are commercial vehicles. They have meters in them and they have numbers on the door and they carry licence plates that identify them as a commercial vehicle," Moscoe said.
"Now, if somebody is doing casual pizza delivery, it may not be in the same category."
Councillor Case Ootes thinks this was a mistake: "I don't believe the intent of the personal vehicle tax was to tax the same guy with a small business who uses a personal vehicle," he said.
City spokesperson Cindy Bromley said officials are looking into the complaint, and will meet next week with taxi industry officials.
The province has agreed to collect the tax for the city when drivers renew their plates. Drivers who refuse to pay it won't get the renewal.
Toronto expects to collect about $20 million in additional revenue from the fee during the rest of this year and $56 million over a full year.
By BRYN WEESE
Toronto Councillor Adam Vaughan said he may sue one of his colleagues over what he says are "false," "defamatory" comments made on a radio show yesterday morning.
Vaughan (Trinity-Spadina) rose in council yesterday to say he intends to sue a councillor for accusing him of knowingly appointing a man to a city committee who made a donation to his campaign.
Councillor Rob Ford (Etobicoke North) later identified himself as the one who had made the comments on AM640. Ford said in council the candidate had donated $250 to Vaughan's campaign.
Vaughan told reporters during a break from council there was "one little iota of truth" that a man had been shortlisted by senior city staff as a candidate for the city's sinking fund committee who had also donated to his campaign.
Vaughan said "I had never met this person."
Governance should be left in the hands of the people elected not by a group of political appointees? The Supreme Court is just another layer of beauracrcy allowing the citizenry and politicians not to take responsibility for their actions.
Is Harper’s proposal to impose harsher sentences on teenaged criminals constitutional?
John Geddes | Sep 25, 2008 | 5:25 pm EST
ROD MICKLEBURGH
Globe and Mail Update
September 25, 2008 at 11:04 PM EDT
VANCOUVER — Protests are a fine, healthy thing in a democracy. But the folks who like to bring their embittered crusade against the 2010 Winter Games to any public event where there are TV cameras aren't much interested in protesting. Their game is disrupting.
No peaceful parading around with placards for these so-called activists. Let's review some of their past activities.
Updated: Thu Sep. 25 2008 1:13:06 PM
ctvtoronto.ca
A man is facing multiple drugs and weapons charges after a brazen afternoon shooting in the heart of downtown Toronto.
Shots were fired at Yonge and Alexander Streets at around 5:30 p.m., at a time when people were heading home from work and school for the day.
Police say a man got into an altercation and a sawed-off double barrel 12 gauge shotgun was discharged.
The man ran east on Alexander Street but a police officer managed to catch up with a suspect and arrest him.
A second man was seen running north on Yonge Street. Police have a vague description of the suspect but say he was wearing a grey hoodie.
Christopher Macoon-Evans, 18, is facing the following charges:
QUIETLY, behind the scenes, the Clinton Administration is preparing for the biggest regulatory crackdown of recent years. Attorney General Janet Reno is linking up with banking regulators and with HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros to end the supposed epidemic of discrimination against minorities in making home loans. The implications for society at large are ominous.h/t
If you really want to get Jim Flaherty exercised, ask him about the city of Toronto and its needs.
That the city has needs is unquestionable. The clean, safe, somewhat dull Toronto the Good of old has morphed into a seedier, dirtier, more frightening version of its old self, like a Bay Street banker who lost his job and has taken to selling dubious penny stocks to gullible widows.
The traffic gridlock is all-encompassing, and eternal. The pollution is awful. Waterfront development has been criminally mishandled, so the city is now separated from the lake not just by the ugly old Gardiner Expressway (which is falling apart), but by dozens on dozens of lookalike condominiums offering scenic upper-floor views of their neighbour’s windows, at extortionate prices. To walk down the sidewalks is to perform a dance around panhandlers and street-sleepers. There were ten shootings last weekend alone; today the parents of two young men gunned down while they sat quietly in their car outside a friend’s house several months ago offered $50,000 reward after the police admitted the still don’t have a clue who did it.
So the need is there. Mr. Flaherty, the Finance Minister, is well aware of it. He represents nearby Whitby and spent years in the Ontario legislature. What he isn’t, is sympathetic to the city leaders who regularly pester Ottawa to do something about it.
“What doesn’t help is Mayor Miller with his hand out all the time,” Mr. Flaherty said Wednesday during an editorial board meeting with the National Post.
“When he can’t get his commercial tax rate to be competitive with other municipalities and he complains about businesses leaving the city...You have to get some economic fundamentals right, fiscal fundamentals right whether you’re the mayor or the premier or the prime minister or the minister of finance. I don’t like this fairy tale discussion by some of the mayors.”
He continued: “Look at Mayor Tremblay from Montreal. He came to us and said ‘The most important thing you can do is make the gas tax funding permanent because that gives us a stream of money that is coming in perpetuity and then we can get into public-private partnerships. The City of Toronto won’t even do public-private partnerships. So it’s not an urban problem across Canada. There are some governance problems in the City of Toronto that need to be fixed if the city is going to progress as it should progress.”
It’s not surprising that Mr. Flaherty wouldn’t see eye-to-eye with Mr. Miller. The finance minister is from the conservative wing of a right-of-centre party. Mr. Miller, like most Toronto politicians, is on the left, and a bit mushy to boot. He got elected largely on his opposition to construction of a short bridge that would have linked the shoreline to a small island airport. The bridge wasn’t built, so passengers take a 30-second ferry ride. Big victory.
What seems to irk Mr. Flaherty is the sense of unreality that permeates so much of the city’s activities. Last year the province announced a plan to spend $17.5 billion on a series of transit projects, with $6 billion coming from Ottawa. The Ottawa portion still isn’t guaranteed, despite regular pleading. Flaherty has promised to kick in $700 million to extend the city’s subway system. With all that going on, a regional political grouping called Metrolinx went ahead on Tuesday and unveiled a grandiose scheme for 100 transportation projects across the Greater Toronto Area that would cost $50 billion and take decades to build.
Mayor Miller, a board member of Metrolinx, wasn’t there for the unveiling, because he was in Montreal with a group of other mayors asking for even more money.
“We’re not asking for a bank machine,” he said. “We’re asking for a partnership in the investment in the success of our country.”
The cost of that partnership would be -- $123-billion. The spokespeople for Metrolinx, meanwhile, acknowledged that -- even if built -- their plan would boost transit use just 25% and cut the average commute by just five minutes.
$50 billion, to save five minutes, 25 years from now.
That’s the sort of thing Mr. Flaherty might consider a “fairy tale discussion.”
National Post
Rather, it's his willingness to campaign front and centre on a promise that – to many voters – seems positively medieval.
It wasn't that long ago that Harper replaced justice minister Vic Toews with the smoother Rob Nicholson. Toews' sin was that he was too straightforward about his hard-line views on crime and punishment, at a time when Harper felt this wasn't the image he wanted to project.
But now, Harper is confident enough to let voters sense the metaphorical leather jerkin beneath his cuddly, blue sweater vest. The dungeon-master is ready to punish, and he doesn't care who knows.
Top court, not PM, calls the tune
by Rosie DiManno
It all started around 2 p.m. when mall security tried to detain a man for apparently shoplifting, police said late this afternoon. The suspect then lifted his shirt revealing a handgun on his belt, police added.
The man then pulled out the gun and police were told at least one shot was fired, although they have not confirmed it.
In addition to the mall, Bloor Collegiate Institute, Brock Jr. Public School and St. Mary's Catholic Secondary School instated a partial lockdown as a precaution.
The lockdowns were lifted just before 3 p.m.
Police said no students were ever in any danger as the suspect ran away from the schools and mall at Duffering and Bloor streets.
The suspect is described as black with a large afro tied in a ponytail. He is approximately six feet tall and was last seen wearing a white T-shirt, cargo-style pants and a white head-band. He was also carrying a knapsack.
Voters believe Tories most likely to follow through on campaign pledges if elected, poll shows
By KATHLEEN HARRIS, NATIONAL BUREAU CHIEF
Canadians see the Conservatives as the party most likely to make good on their campaign promises.
An exclusive Nanos Research-Sun Media poll shows 30.4% of people surveyed think the Tories will honour their commitments -- more than double the 14.5% who think the Liberals will deliver and 14.1% who put their trust in the NDP.
......based on this information you have to wonder if social in-activists for the homeless were celebrating the promises made by the ndp, liberals and greens.
Toronto candidates offer up promises to help needy, combat poverty
By JENNY YUEN, SUN MEDIA
Transit plan just glorified bikepaths
What do you think we will see first -- new subway lines or new bike paths?
Since most of the already announced projects mentioned with this MetroLinx Big Move transportation plan yesterday never seem to get done. I am betting on bike paths.
Sure there's lots more talk about subway extensions to York University, a new rapid transit line along Eglinton, from Port Credit to Brampton, new transit for Yonge St., expanding the expressways and a lot of other things.
But in their news release on key projects, the only initiative that had a pricetag attached to it was the "investing up to $500-million over 25 years in new walking and cycling infrastructure creating more than 7,500 kms of new dedicated on and off-road facilities."
Just what this city needs. More bike paths. It's preposterous. Is that really how we should spend $500 million?
All you need to know about the motivation here is the order in how they place the "Eight Big Moves" -- or what they say "propose transformational changes to the way we get around."
The first "Big Move" on their list is "a fast, frequent and expanded regional, rapid transit network." Second is "a complete walking and cycling network with bike sharing programs."
A walking and cycling network is this city's second priority while "transit connections to Pearson Airport" is sixth.
Somebody has to tell Mayor David Miller and his green friends that biking is a hobby and that most people don't want to risk their lives to ride to work in an urban setting so he can get his face on the cover of another environmental magazine.
Flip over to page 29 and you can see what these cars-are-bad, bikes-are-good visionaries are really up to: "Plan and implement a complete, integrated walking and cycling network for the GTA, including Toronto's PATH system, that addresses key barriers to walking, such as bridges over 400 series highways and that brings every urban resident to within a maximum of one kilometre of a dedicated bicycling facility."
Are people supposed to walk in from Barrie, Hamilton and Oshawa and cross over the highways on one of these new bridges? Or are they supposed to ride their bikes over them? Will there be a toll?
"This will be supported by a provincial funding commitment increased over time to at least $20 million per year for municipalities to complete the network."
Does that $20-million budget in the plowing and salting in the winter? Ever ride a bike on black ice? I know a guy who has a steel rod in his leg who can tell you how treacherous it can be.
This crazy report has a whole "active transportation" section which includes "walking, cycling, roller-blading" and even spends a lot of space on creating a "pilot bike-sharing program."
These people have absolutely no concept of who is in the city, who lives here and who works here. I can guarantee nobody asked Iris Maraaganise what her transit concerns are.
I rode the bus with her yesterday east along Eglinton where she was heading to her nursing job.
She has been in Canada for five years from Zimbabwe and says "overcrowding" during rush hour on the bus is what makes her most uncomfortable.
Truth is, throw on a couple of extra buses and maybe you don't even need a "rapid line" along there. Hey, I just saved the taxpayer's millions. This whole problem is so simple to solve. Sometimes we just need more trains on and integrating the cost between the GO service and the TTC could be completed in 15 minutes. No need for more study and no need for any talk of more taxation after 2013 either.
Yesterday's Band-Aid approaches are just that -- political solutions and not practical ones.
Taking away driving lanes on Eglinton Ave. to put on so called "rapid transit" lines -- really nothing more than glorified street cars -- is craziness. If you want people out of their cars, don't build bike lanes, build proper subway lines.
We don't need phony "rapid transit networks" and "mobility hubs." We need a big-time transit system. It can't be that hard. "If we build it they will come," former transportation minister Frank Klees, now a Conservative critic, said. "But you have to build it."
So build it. Where appropriate, build new subway lines, new highways, new tunnels, bridges and whatever else you need to get commuters in and out of the city in the most efficient way.
We have the money. We have the know-how. We have the need. The main job is getting people to work and then safely back home, where they can ride their bikes on the weekend.
The Liberals under Stephane Dion were absent for 43 House of Commons votes. And, they say the last parliament was not dysfunctional. They should be docked pay for not doing the job they were sent to Ottawa to do. [...more]
I can already hear the critics grumbling about Stephen Harper's proposals to replace the dysfunctional Youth Criminal Justice Act with legislation that actually emphasizes the protection of the public.
Well, whine away, folks. You're not only out of sync with the sentiments of ordinary Canadians, but with the feelings of many experts who routinely deal with young offenders.
By MOIRA MACDONALD
It's not that making public schools GST-exempt, as Toronto District School Board trustee Bruce Davis has long wanted to do, is a bad thing.
By ROY CLANCY
Talk about a clash of cultures.
On one side, you have arts groups and opposition parties warning reduced government funding threatens the very survival of Canadian culture.
On the other, Prime Minister Stephen Harper dismisses artful attempts to paint the Conservatives as a party ideologically opposed to culture.
"Ordinary people understand we have to live within a budget," he said, calling the furor over arts funding "a fringe issue."
When it comes to whether I pay my taxes, property & income, to keep a roof over my head, to buy food, to put gas in the car to get to work, etc. I find I am hard pressed to find money to go those "cultural events" that appeal to me.
The Liberals accuse the Tories of making $45 million in cuts over the summer to programs directly geared to supporting the arts, while conveniently ignoring the chops to the CBC, Canada Council and Canadian Heritage made during their own reign.
A rally protesting Tory arts funding was planned last night in Quebec.
NDP Leader Jack Layton accused Harper of "grabbing hold of the aorta and putting the squeeze" on Quebec culture.
To hear him talk, you'd think the arts in La Belle Province were in cardiac arrest, when in reality the scene there puts the rest of Canada to shame.
That's because Quebec consumers support their artistic industries and not necessarily as the result of massive injections of government grants.
It would be nice if the same could be said about English Canada.
No one should underestimate the richness and texture arts and culture add to our lives in Canada.
But there's troubling evidence too many of the beneficiaries of Canada's cultural cash cow are mostly gifted in the art of extricating government funds. These are the people screaming loudest.
Too many middlemen and hangers-on are more focused on getting grants than creating "art" that can be enjoyed and appreciated by the multitudes.
Ordinary Canadians are aware of this and are voting en masse with their wallets and channel changers.
Rather than feeding more dollars into this morass of mediocrity, it's time for a radical overhaul that will see more of the money go to the gifted artists -- performers, writers, musicians and filmmakers -- who actually craft our culture.
By PETER ZIMONJIC, SUN MEDIA
What's all this fuss about the arts?
Re:MacKay okayed $16,800 tab for Passport Canada lunches
Sept. 22
I have been in private sector management for a number of years and I find the tone of this article to be unnecessarily antagonistic.
The total cost quoted in the headline looks like a big number and another example of government waste. Once you read the article, however, you can see that the amount spent comes to $42 per employee, over three weekends.
Most companies think nothing of providing lunches to employees working extra time for necessary projects; in fact, it is usually considered good employee relations. These Passport Canada staffers were dealing with a huge workload, caused by factors outside their control. If providing this minor amount per employee made it more palatable to them to put in this extra effort, I fail to see where it can be considered any sort of problem. Yes, it's unfortunate that the total was so high, and perhaps the deputy minister should have realized that this would be the case before the $5,000 limit was exceeded, but it appears he took steps to rectify the situation.
I know a number of people who were caught up in that backlog of passport applications, and I can't help but feel that this is not an unreasonable cost to minimize the impact on so many Canadians.
Stephen J. Leitch, Mississauga
Breaking news: Peter MacKay bent government rules in giving the nod to $16,800 for passport officials' lunches. The facts, unfortunately, don't support the claim. The regulations say that civil servants can be fed at taxpayer expense if they're working overtime. If the cost is more than $5,000, the appropriate minister must approve. MacKay was solicited. He approved. The rules were followed. Assuming that the bureaucrats in question did not imbibe several bottles of Bollinger, where's the story? I, too, am anxious to show Stephen Harper the door but not at the cost of the truth.
Geoff Rytell, Toronto
Garbage fees for Toronto residents may not be going up after all.
Mayor David Miller yesterday backtracked on the city's stated position of hiking garbage fees by 3.5 per cent as of the new year.
"Not next year, no," he said when asked if homeowners would pay more for having their trash hauled away. "The plan when it was passed by city council contemplated regular increases to pay for things like an increase in the price of diesel and gas, but the project's just starting for single-family residential in November, so it wouldn't be appropriate to increase the fees in January."
Asked how the city would absorb the higher fuel costs that have hit consumers and other businesses this year, Miller replied, "There's enough money there this year for the program."
Miller's comments contradict those of his budget chief, Councillor Shelley Carroll. Carroll last week was asked about the idea of an increase and said, "We will have to announce fairly soon – within a week or so – that there is the possibility (of a 3.5 per cent hike)."
Yesterday, Carroll's office referred the Star to the mayor's office, saying Carroll was locked in talks with staff on the solid waste budget.
By PETER ZIMONJIC, SUN MEDIA
Prime Minister Stephen Harper wants to replace the Youth Criminal Justice Act with a law based on the spirit of "deterrence and responsibility" rather than deterrence and rehabilitation.
By KATHLEEN HARRIS, NATIONAL BUREAU CHIEF
Stephen Harper says a re-elected Conservative government will jail violent kids longer and publicly release the names of minors who commit murder.
But a liberal attorney general's position........
By ANTONELLA ARTUSO AND MARC KILCHLING, SUN MEDIA
The Conservative proposal to revamp the Youth Criminal Justice Act with stiffer penalties for young offenders has the support of victims' rights groups, but not Ontario's attorney general.