There Are Days When Christie Is A Tonic...

Afghan protests, cruise ships, jumpsuits and other pressing matters
Christie Blatchford: Is anyone else growing just a tad weary of Afghanistan and Afghans and all those who continue to carry on about the accidental burning of Korans?
...and then we have the liberals and ndp:
Robocalls scandal is bad, but politicians are being a little hypothetical
Chris Selley: Trying to trick someone into not voting is indeed more offensive than trying to trick him into voting for the other guy. The law, however, seems not to make any distinction
Scott Stinson: Robocalls scandal sinks Question Period debate to new lows
...you really have to ask yourself if there is even a smigden of truth do those who were swayed really deserve "the right" to vote? I know we allow criminals in prison to vote and I have to wonder whether this same right is extended to those in mental instituations? The success of the ndp in quebec might say yes!

You Have To Wonder Why Mother Nature Is Not Mourning?

So far "she" has sent down two deluges of rain to wash away people's messages of mourning...

John Moore: Why people are mourning Jack Layton

Blatchford is right that our society overflows with false sentimentality. But she missed that, this time, it’s not false.

Jack Layton’s death has precipitated an outpouring amongst Canadians. In Toronto, the public square in front of city hall where he served as a councillor has been blanketed in a rainbow of chalk-written tributes. People who never met the man have wept. They will likely turn mourners away at his laying in state.
For some this is all a little overwrought. Ground zero for that perspective would be my friend Christie Blatchford’s column in Tuesday’s National Post. Christie’s greatest skill is her ability to not only take the public pulse but to interpret it. She’s one of the few print columnists who can prompt you to say “Exactly!” out loud while you read her. But her column on the keening accompanying Jack Layton to his final rest has provoked a ferocious pushback. True, the column was “liked” on Facebook by thousands but it has also drawn a record number of flaming online comments and countless emails to Christie, many she tells me opening with the salutation “Dear C–t.” Read More »

Canadiana - Politics & Our Other National Sport...

The Voter's Perception...

Potash?

...too many it is an item prepared on one of the cooking shows on the ANPT channel and when you mention fertilizer they think you are talking about politics at the national, provincial and municipal level.

Commentary Editorials


Potash and the misbegotten fear of recolonization

NOT Items Ford Needs To Put On His Plate...

More anti-Toronto discrimination


If you add Chantal Hebert‘s column today (Where are the big-city women mayors?) to the Star’s discovery last week that Toronto goalies are being discrimnated against by the NHL, you get this inescapable conclusion: There is not a single Toronto woman playing goal in the NHL.

Makes you think, eh?

How Canadian!

Jeffrey Simpson

Party financing: Yes, end the public subsidy, but raise the individual limit

Canadians’ tax dollars are being used legally but quite flagrantly to finance a party that wants to break up the country

Bloc census idea: Don't complete the form? No passport
 
The Bloc Quebecois says it's got a compromise solution to the census spat -- and it involves replacing jail sentences wi

Democratic Mantra...Reward Those That Support (VOTE) You!

You And I Can Be Audited But Not Our Emplyees...

L’état, c’est le Board of Internal Economy

By National Post Staff  May 24, 2010 – 9:22 am

 

Every year, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) audits thousands of taxpayers. They may grumble, they may panic, but for most Canadians, it would never occur to them to say: “Wait a minute Mr. Taxman, I don’t need to show you my receipts, just take my word for it. Why would I cheat you? There are laws against that sort of thing.”
The reason for this lack of resistance is not our mythic Canadian politeness, but the fact that failure to comply with an audit can have very nasty consequences. The CRA can seize your bank account, put a lien on your house and generally make your existence a living hell. Such is the power of the state.
But apparently when you are the state, different rules apply. There are no immediate sanctions, and perhaps not surprisingly, your attitude shifts a little. L’état, c’est moi, as Louis XIV used to say. Membership has its privileges, and one of them appears to be avoiding scrutiny of your expenses.
Read More »
Posted in: Full Comment 

Parliament's audit disgrace

If the House of Commons were a business, MPs would be either facing a shareholders’ meeting from hell, a stock price meltdown, or a lawsuit

Another One Of Those "The House Of Commons Did What..."

 ...the left wing iniated this silliness and I wonder how many tories voted Yea?

Just a oui bit silly

By Mindelle Jacobs

You can often shrug off political correctness as a minor irritant. But sometimes it’s not only goofy, it’s a slippery slope into dangerous territory.
Such is Bill C-232, which would require Supreme Court of Canada justices to be bilingual. It has passed third reading in the House of Commons and is off to the Senate for what one can only hope is sober second thought and a good thrashing.
The bill, championed by New Brunswick NDP MP Yvon Godin, would require that our top justices understand English and French without the help of an interpreter.
Godin wants the impossible — perfectly bilingual Supreme Court justices in a nation that is bilingual only in its dreams.
Ask yourself whether you want good judges or good linguists deliberating the country’s most complex and significant legal issues. Because you can’t always have both.
Retired Supreme Court justice John Major doesn’t mince words criticizing Godin’s private member’s bill.
“The thing just makes no sense,” says Major, now a consultant with the Bennett Jones law firm in Calgary. “If they want to sacrifice competency for linguistics, well, it’s just a mistake.
Gifted in law
“It’s essential that we pick not the most gifted language people, but the most gifted lawyers (for the bench),” he emphasizes. “There are enough lawyers in the Liberal party sitting in Parliament who should know that.”
In fact, every Liberal MP present for last week’s vote did so in favour of Godin’s bill.
All those Grit lawyer-MPs, like Bob Rae and Ujjal Dosanjh, should be ashamed of themselves.
“To think that you can get nine people fully bilingual — you might find them but you’re not going to find the most competent candidates,” says Major.
If Godin’s bill becomes law, it will dramatically shrink the pool of qualified candidates, especially from the West, and quite possibly make the Supreme Court worse, not better.
That’s what happens when you try to make language more important than legal ability when determining eligibility to sit on the Supreme Court.
It’s madness. But, after years of on-again, off-again language wars, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised.
Godin offers a bizarre kind of compromise. Supreme Court justices would have to be verbally competent in both official languages. Written expertise wouldn’t be required.
But there’s a vast difference between competence in basic conversational French and the ability to understand complex legal concepts in French, says Major.
Because of the intricacies of the law, he explains, unless a Supreme Court justice is fully bilingual, he or she will need a translator.
The upshot is that lots of bright lawyers will never become bilingual enough to sit on the Supreme Court if Godin has his way, says Major.
“You can’t teach somebody 50 years (of age) and older anything more than basic conversational ability,” he says.
Good intentions
“(Godin) is probably well-meaning and this is popular in his New Brunswick riding but if it passes, it’s not going to be good news.”
Godin doesn’t fully understand how the Supreme Court works, adds Major. The justices have a good grasp of cases before they even get to court because they’ve read the entire file, including the judgments of the trial judge and the court of appeal.
“There’s so much preparation,” he says. “The time in court is of value but it’s only one small piece of the puzzle.”
mindy.jacobs@sunmedia.ca

First Plank In A Winning Election Platform...

Making decisions that put people first
Duncan: How many folks watch the Rick Mercer Report? Most will know Rick Mercer as the amusing "take no prisoners" comedian and political satirist.

Pardons Have Become A Cottage Industry.....

Google: Results 1 - 10 of about 5,910,000 for getting a pardon

In Canada Our Bastion Of Independance Is Timmys...

...where the issues of the day are last night's hockey news and the condition of the ice surface at the local ice rink.

 

Matt Gurney: Get me a decaf, non-fat dark cherry mocha and a Glock, please

Posted: March 18, 2010, 3:00 PM by Matt Gurney

Man, I sure could use a coffee after this... A growing grassroots movement across the United States is seeing public meetings of armed citizens gathering together just to prove their right to gather in public with weapons. I'm sure many Canadians are appalled by the very thought, but there really isn't anything wrong with a bunch of people standing around in a park with holsters on their hips. What's provoked the controversy has been the increasing number of these meetings that are occurring in those shrines to urban leftism — Starbucks coffee shops. Symbols matter in politics. Rightly or wrongly, Starbucks coffee shops have indeed become synonymous with lefty, latte-swilling urbanites. While plenty of right-wingers and apolitical types enjoy getting their caffeine fix there, too, there's enough truth to the perception to have made Starbucks the location of choice for those Americans eager to flaunt their Second Amendment rights.

Click here to read more...

Canadian Politics...

...BORING. But to our credit we do have CPAC!

Strange Bedfellows

Don Martin: No need for PM to capitulate

This Will Make Steve Janke's Day.......

The return of Garth Turner, as if Ignatieff didn't have enough problems

Posted: August 17, 2009, 2:00 PM by NP Editor
Filed under: Kelly McParland,Canadian politics

The Hill Times reports this intriguing news:

Former Conservative-turned-Independent-turned Liberal MP Garth Turner who represented the Ontario riding of Halton from 2006 until 2008 but lost the last federal election to Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt is now seeking the Liberal nomination in the Ontario riding of Dufferin-Caledon, currently represented by three term Conservative MP David Tilson.

Mr. Turner did not respond to interview requests but Judi Longfield, executive director of the Ontario wing of the federal Liberal Party confirmed that Mr. Turner is seeking the Liberal nomination in Dufferin-Caledon. As of last week, the Liberal nomination in the riding had not been called but Ms. Longfield said that only one other candidate Jeff May, president of the Dufferin-Caledon Liberal Riding Association, had officially entered the race.

It can't really surprise anyone that Garth wants back into the House. After losing his riding to Conservative Lisa Raitt, Garth shut down the blog that got him into so much trouble, channelling Richard Nixon ("You won't have Nixon to kick around any more") and taking himself off to issue warnings of the approaching apocalypse while flogging advice on how to cope with it.

Click here to read more...

Shades Of Tommy Douglas

Rep. Tsongas tries to explain why Congress is exempt from Obamacare. Fails.

By Michelle Malkin • August 10, 2009 07:01 AM

Herein lies the ultimate Achilles’ Heel of Obamacare. Watch as Democrat Rep. Niki Tsongas of Massachussetts attempts to explain why Congress is exempt from the government health care takeover mandates.

More.....

We Lost Track Of Sewell So.........

Politicians’ heads buried underground

John Sewell

31 July 2009 05:41

The city workers’ strike certainly was a distraction in regard to city business.

One issue that slipped under the public radar was the renovation of Union Station. An announcement was made last week that the federal and provincial governments have agreed to contribute almost half of the $640 million allocated to renovate the structure. The city will put in the rest.

Almost half the money is to be spent digging out space under the station for a new underground retail mall. The last thing we need downtown is another place to shop underground. This is a really dumb way to spend public money.

A big chunk of the remaining money will create underground pathways to and from the station and a large area — also underground — where GO Transit riders can wait for their trains to arrive. City Hall seems to think we’re a bunch of moles who don’t like open air.

The Great Hall at Union Station — one of the most impressive spaces in the city — will continue to be an empty place since there’s no reason for anyone to pass through it. Facilities will be built to encourage passengers to avoid it by staying underground.

In Europe, passengers get to walk from attractive transit halls, lit by natural light, right onto platforms where they board trains. We could do that in Toronto by dead-heading three or four tracks to create a common platform on the same level as the Great Hall. Many GO trains that run on these tracks stop here and back out rather than run right through, so it’s not operationally difficult to achieve.

But the new plans don’t allow that to happen.

A new glass roof will be built over the tracks and that’s good, but there won’t be any pedestrian walkways over the tracks, as there are in Europe. City Hall’s motto seems to be: “Keep them all underground.”

What these three levels of government are doing is funding a bad plan for a great building. Union Station and the Great Hall deserve better. There are smarter and more attractive ways to spend good public money.

Sad Days For A Conservative.......

....and the only saving grace is we aren't Liberals.

Kelly McParland: Ignatieff might win if he runs as Stephen Harper

Posted: July 07, 2009, 8:45 AM by NP Editor

Here's an idea for Michael Ignatieff if he's still looking for an excuse to bring down the Tories: The Liberal leader should force an election on the basis that the country needs a conservative government.

We don't seem to have one at the moment. If Parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page is right, what we have is a deficit-crazed pack of wild spendomaniacs, who have drunk so deeply at the well of the God Stimulus that we'll be $160 billion in the hole by 2014, with a permanent $12 billion structural shortfall and no way out other than to cut spending or raise taxes.

Cut spending? Hey, isn't that what the Conservatives said they'd do when we elected them back in those wild carefree days when Canada had a surplus so large that Oppostion Leader Stephen Harper accused the Liberals of deliberately stockpiling cash?

Click here to read more...

TORIES CLIMB TO TOP OF THE POLLS

Cutting Through The Verbose?

Liberal-Era Diplomatic Language Killed Off
by Jeff Davis

It was once considered a hallmark achievement of modern Canadian foreign policy, but few breathe the words "human security" in Stephen Harper's Ottawa. And this is no accident.

Since taking power three years ago, Conservative political staffers have worked to purge the language of the previous Liberal government's much lauded "human security" policies from the DFAIT lexicon.

This has prompted a debate between those who feel a "smaller" Conservative foreign policy has been implemented, and others who argue that human security still plays a role in Canadian foreign policy beneath what is merely a political rebranding exercise.

DFAIT insiders tell Embassy that since the Conservative government took power in 2006, political staffers have directed rank and file Foreign Affairs bureaucrats to stop using policy language created by the former Liberal government.

"There are phrases you are not supposed to use," said one Canadian diplomat, on condition of anonymity. "Anything that smacks of the previous government is totally verboten.

Source