Snow In Toronto!?!?! Where's the Army???

It was 10 years ago that Toronto got deluged with about a metre of snow in a span of little more than a week. Certainly other Canadian cities have been hit as hard, and worse. But Toronto mayor Mel Lastman decided to call in the army, something which Torontonians will never live down. It made the city the brunt of jokes all across the country, and was the inspiration for this hilarious CBC spoof.

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CTV News Predicts $40 Billion Deficit

In a news story released Friday January 9th, CTV News is reporting that the soon to be released federal budget will include a $40 billion deficit. The story doesn't give any indication as to a source, which has me wondering if this is perhaps a typical 'trial balloon' being floated by Conservative insiders.

Its not an uncommon practice for governments (Conservative, Liberal or NDP) to float a 'doom and gloom' story to the press. You'll often see it at the municipal level, with reports of huge increases to property taxes. When the actual news comes out, its often not nearly as bad as earlier reported. Oh it still might be bad...but the object is to get people to say:

"Phew, that's bad, but not nearly as bad as I thought it would be".

Call it managing expectations, if we're anticipating a $40 Billion deficit and then get hit with a number that's half or two thirds of that figure, we're likely going to be less angry...we might even view our government as being effective managers of the country's finances. It seems like a long time ago that Ottawa was consistently running massive budget deficits. Having our books in order is something Canadians have taken justifiable pride in.

What I'm finding ironic in all this...

Think back to the recession of the early 90's. Bob Rae's NDP government in Ontario was almost universally condemned for racking up huge deficits in an effort to spend our way out of that recession. Now it seems that massive government borrowing is the universal panacea to all that ails our economy. I'm not sold on the notion that deficit spending is the way to go. Surely there are prudent ways to nudge the economy without racking up hundreds of billions in debt over the next 3-5 years. What about tax incentives to encourage newer and greener industries?

I'm not advocating anything draconian. Obviously tax revenue will be down and expenditures are going to increase. But I would like to see any budget shortfalls kept to a minimum. Whatever the feds borrow now will have to be paid back by taxpayers later.

CTV News Story Here: Conservatives to table $40 billion deficit

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Is Stephen Harper Getting Religion?

For those unfamiliar with the term, ‘getting religion’ often refers to an individual who recognizes his or her sinful ways and repents. With Stephen Harper backing away from partisan politics and preaching a new gospel of conciliation and compromise it seems a fitting description. What caused this sudden about face and will it last? Is our Prime Minister abandoning forever his penchant for political combativeness, or is this just a temporary reprieve?

A big part of this sudden conversion is likely the release of new polling numbers. A Nanos Research survey released Friday shows the Tories and Liberals in a virtual dead heat, with support at 33 and 34 percent respectively. The poorly received Economic Statement released in late November, (which resulted in the formation of a Liberal – NDP coalition) used projections that were almost universally derided as overly optimistic, a fact acknowledged by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. Newly minted Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff is using his new position as leader of the Official Opposition to put the government’s feet to the proverbial fire as we wait for the Conservative budget on January 27th.

Ignatieff is advising the government to introduce measures that pass a “national interest test”. The Liberal leader is calling for initiatives that protect the vulnerable, for infrastructure spending that is ‘targeted in the right places’ and for investments in the economy to get us out of the current economic mess faster. While these all sound like wonderful ideas, they’re very short on specifics. The only thing concrete I’ve seen mentioned is a proposal for increased spending on military initiatives as a means of stimulating the economy, with shipyards repairing military vessels and automakers being given military contracts.

I fully expect that no matter what the budget document looks like, that the Liberals will support it with reservations. And so long as Harper perceives the Liberals to be a genuine threat to his hold on power I think we’ll see a cooling of tensions on Parliament Hill. The big losers right now appear to be both the NDP and Greens as Canadians coalesce around our two major parties. The media is currently fixated on “The Stephen and Iggy Show”, while Jack and Liz are shunted off to the side.

It’ll be interesting to see if Monsieurs Harper and Ignatieff can maintain this tone of reasonable discourse. Personally I don’t expect it to last.

Media Articles:

Ignatieff vaults Liberals into tie with Tories Canadian Press

Ignatieff Liberals move into tie with Tories National Post

Liberals neck-and-neck with Tories Globe & Mail

No longer combative, Harper calls for co-operation in drafting federal budget CBC News

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U.S. War Resisters Deported – Time to Get Angry

When our governments enact legislation or pursue political policies it reflects on all of us, we are after all a democratic country. And when our elected officials ignore the public will on important issues we need to get active and involved in the political process. But we don’t, most are happy to grumble, moan and bitch.

“Do something? You can’t fight city hall, they’re going to do what they’re going to do”.

But we are city hall, we are the government, Canada is not a dictatorship.

By and large Canada is viewed by the international community as a fair and reasonable nation, with citizens who are tolerant and kind. We’re proud of our reputation, and well we should be. When the U.S. called upon us to join them in invading Iraq we rightfully refused. Had Stephen Harper been our Prime Minister at that time you can be certain we would be seeing even more of our brave soldiers killed in combat, both in Iraq and Afghanistan. Back when he was leader of the opposition Harper went on U.S. television and said that Canadians strongly support the Iraq war and that we should be taking part. (Story Here)

Canada’s reputation is being tested right now, in the case of U.S. war resisters who have fled to this country seeking refuge from prosecution and imprisonment for refusing military duty in Iraq. How do Canadians feel about these war resisters? According to polling done by Angus Reid we’re overwhelmingly in favour of granting them permanent residence. Our own parliament adopted a resolution that called on the Government of Canada to allow U.S. conscientious objectors to stay in Canada and to halt all deportation proceedings: NEWS WIRE STORY HERE

Enough said right? The people have spoken and our government acts accordingly. Not so, not in Stephen Harper’s Canada. We’ve had Prime Ministers in the past who have had the courage to disagree with our American friends and to back it up with action. Love him or hate him Pierre Trudeau had the cajones to stand up to the U.S. and grant asylum to Vietnam War resisters. He even maintained Canadian relations with Cuba despite a U.S. trade embargo and loud protestations from the U.S. State Department.

I know there are a minority of Canadians who would like to see these brave men and women deported back to the U.S. for refusing to fight in Iraq. Some seem to think that once a soldier signs on the dotted line, that they must obey orders regardless of their own personal moral compass. Thankfully that’s a minority, and hopefully there will be a welcoming place for these brave war resisters to come and stay. And there will be once we get the Canadian Government to recognize and act on the collective will of the majority of people in this supposedly (sic) democratic country.

What can we do? Start by visiting “War Resisters Support Campaign” where there’s plenty of suggestions for action such as:

CALL PRIME MINISTER STEPHEN HARPER AND MINISTER OF IMMIGRATION DIANE FINLEY

Tell them you want them to:
• immediately cease all deportation proceedings against US Iraq war resisters in Canada
• implement the motion adopted by the House of Commons on June 3rd, 2008 by creating a program that would allow US Iraq war resisters to apply for permanent resident status in Canada

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper
613.992.4211

Stephen Harper's constituency office:
403.253.7990

Or email him at:
harper.s@parl.gc.ca

Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Diane Finley
613.996.4974

MP Diane Finley’s constituency office (Simcoe):
519.426.3400

Or email her at:
minister@cic.gc.ca
or
finled1@parl.gc.ca


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