Personally I think Stephen should resign. I hate to say it as he is a friend and I do admire him but he made a grave error and somebody should pay and it should not be Canadians - it should be him.

I believe he misjudged the situation in the H of C and made a bad decision to include things in the financial update that infuriated the Opposition (cutting funding to political parties, taking away the right to strike to public employees - which got the unions up in arms). He also did not know the other parties had been talking about a coalition before the election. However, the buck stops on his desk and he has 'tainted' the party with his misjudgement. If the party is to have a chance when we go to an election in Jan (I believe we will - will explain later)he cannot be the Leader at that time.

 <q>Also, regarding the Bloc not being someone you can vote for if you're not in Quebec - the west has had its share of regional parties that others couldn't vote for. Those in Quebec can vote for whoever they want, that is on the ballot! And, their votes should count. Maybe because they haven't is part of the separatist movement in the first place? Just like in Alberta?</q>

I don't know of a Western party that did not run candidates all over Canada. They may not have been accepted but they were available. Of course, Quebecers can vote for whomever they choose and of course their votes should count - if they voted for a national party as the rest of us did. The Bloc is a separatist party - do you think it is wise for a separatist party to be able to not only veto any and all legislation put before the house - not VOTE on it - VETO IT? This is the agreement of Layton and Dion to Duceppe.

The other side of the veto power of course is the most dangerous. No legislation can be tabled in the H of C unless it as approved by the Bloc - whose only interest in the Parliament of Canada is to use it to advance the separatist agenda.

The stimulus package the 'coalition' is talking about contains $1 Billion to Quebec, in cash, no questions asked. This is the first installment on what will be an incessant stream of demands from the Bloc to maintain their support.

In listening to the rhetoric today after the GG decided to peroque parliament until the budget (which means Parliament is going to adjourn 6 days earlier than it would have) I couldn't help but notice the leaders of the coalition were angry with the GG for her decision. The budget will be presented as originally planned on Jan 26. (It takes time to prepare a budget and traditionally it is presented in Feb.)I think it was good she adjourned the session to allow cooler heads to prevail.

Now, to the rhetoric - Last night I listened to Dion, Layton and Duceppe speak after Harper. I will comment on all of them.

First, Harper: Did he apologize for his misjudgement? No. Should he have? I don't know - the opposition has been all over him about going into deficit. Their favorite saying is he has spent the 'surplus'.

Perhaps if we rename the surplus to reflect reality we would call it 'overtaxation'. Gov't is only supposed to collect as much money as it needs to do it's business. So any surplus is overtaxation. Gov't does not have any money of it's own - it takes it all from us in one form or another. What the Conservatives did was to give it back to taxpayers with tax cuts. He did not 'spend' it as the opposition contends. He reduced the amount he collected.

So in the spirit of not running a deficit he is looking for cost cuts as he knows the taxpayers may be called upon to fund bailouts of failing industries. Make no mistake - this is our money that we work hard for that is going to be spent on the bailouts. Remember that when you listen to the coalition talk about spending $300 billion in the first week of their administration. If they already have a plan for that money perhaps they should let us in on it. If not, then I'd be a little worried about where that amount of $ would be going. It will have to be borrowed and it will rest with our children and grandchildren to pay it back - along with the current half trillion $ debt we are already carrying (thank you Pierre). But I digress.

Stephen, in his speech last night mentioned he had removed the offensive parts of his financial update to satisfy the opposition. Then they demanded to know why he didn't table a budget which is ingenuous because they knew the budget was scheduled for Jan 26. The opposition says Canadians can't wait until then to know what the gov't is going to do for an economic stimulus package. Let me address the economics of that.

The G-20 countries are praising Canada and Stephen for his foresight in tightening up mortgage regulations before we got into the trouble the US is in with the housing market. Nothing our gov't could do or will do can protect us against failing industries. Businesses fail all the time. What Stephen has done is introduce incentives through the tax system for companies to invest in new technologies Re: green. The fact the auto industry in N America did not anticipate the increased demand for 'green' autos and the decreased demand for gas guzzlers is not the fault of the governments of the countries where they do business. In contrast, European, Japanese and other auto makers did anticipate the moving market and were able to meet it fairly intact.

It is also prudent to wait until we know what Obama is going to do before making a decision on bailouts. The US and other countries have injected massive amounts of cash into the financial sector to prop them up and it is not working. The markets are still crashing and the banks are still not lending. It seems the only result of all that cash is to drive global inflation. Better Canada does not add to the situation without careful consideration.

These are very complex global issues and the coalition is wanting to act with a haste I find frightening. We are not talking about paper here - we are talking about real money - money our kids will have to pay back along with the interest. This will greatly reduce their ability to provide things like eduction and health care.

Yes, people are losing jobs and the Conservatives have put in place more funding for retraining and education. Perhaps the coalition would rather we just send everyone without a job a cheque to match his lost paycheque? No job is guaranteed for life. I have been self-employed most of my life - no EI, no benefits - just whatever I earned and my choices on where to spend it. No safety net. Sure it is scary, but so what? Nobody ever said life would provide me with a living or anything else - that is my job and I am so grateful to live in a country where I can earn a living and not have to worry about marauding soldiers raping my daughter and granddaughters and carting off the children to be soldiers - or of starving to death in Darfur. We have to keep our expectations in perspective.

Now to the coalition rhetoric:

They say Stephen is unwilling to work with them - not true. He asked again for their input. Dion never mentions the green shift anymore - he seems to have given that up. What would he like the PM to do? (Other than spend $300 billion next week with no plan). Layton wants to eliminate the tax cuts to business that Stephen put into place ahead of the crisis to stimulate the economy. How will taxing business more help the economy? It is the business of business to buy and sell services and products. When gov't takes more in taxes of all kinds it reduces the amount business can spend on wages and inputs, thus reducing production, thus reducing economic activity inthe country. Incidentally Canada is still showing economic growth as opposed to the US and other countries whose economies are shrinking. Thank you Stephen.

Dion: Last night he could not even get his taped speech to the news networks on time - it was an hour late and looked like a home cam - promting even the media to comment on his inability to run the country.

Now to what he said: He went on for awhile about how Canadians are worried about jobs, homes and savings. Our banks are the most stable in the world and the government guarantees savings up to $100,000 so most of us won't lose our money. We do not have a housing crisis because Stephen tightened up the mortgage regulations and we didn't get into the 'subprime' mortgage business. Yes, some investment house bought bad mortgages and stocks are losing value. However, even I predicted this was going to happen. It is not as though Stephen just discovered the problems last week. He also saw them coming and took measures to prevent and alleviate the fallout for Canadians. We should be grateful to him for that. There is much of the global crisis which is affecting Canada over which he has no control. Nor does the coalition.

He then went on about our Parliamentary traditions and how coalitions are normal and current practice in many parts of the world. This is partly true - it took something like 9 months for the last coalition in France to work and the one in Israel broke down almost immediately. Italy has never had stable government and Japan is known to have fist fights in their House of Government. The only really successful coalition gov't in the world is the one in Switzerland and they have a whole different culture of gov't than we do.

Dion goes on to say he and Layton and Duceppe believe 'they can do more for Canadians through cooperation than through conflict using teamwork and collaboration rather than blind partisan feuding and hostility.' And yet when asked what Harper could put in the budget to satisfy him Dion said 'nothing, nothing can change what s going to happen. We are going to defeat his government no matter what is in the budget." Both Layton and Duceppe echoed those sentiments.

This does not speak to 'cooperation and consenus, goodwill and collaboration. This sounds like partisan feuding.

Now, if they had said 'we will consult with the PM and inform him of our concerns and offer our thoughts on solutions' I would have had more respect for his previous words. I learned a long time ago the words we utter mean little. It is our actions that count. The actions of the opposition leaders do not match their words.

Incidentally, before the election both Layton and Dion promised they would not enter into any coalition to overthrow the government (even though they were already talking about it).

Dion, in his speech before the GG prorogued Parliament said "Let us all show maturity in accepting the result with grace and the larger task of serving Canadians in mind." That didn't last long - he is very angry at the GG for her decision.

I am hoping this will spark some discussion of the issues. Not everyone sees things as I do and I respect that. My daughter has taught me over the years to be more flexible in my thinking. However, I have too much first hand education in the political system in Canada to not see the contradictions and outright untruths being bandied about - from both sides.

The thing we must remember is the Separatists are deadly serious about their intentions. We tend to see them as the noisy, harmless cousins but they intend to become a sovereign nation and they intend to make the ROC pay for it.

To give them the right to direct the affairs of the nation toward their agenda is very dangerous to the unity of this country. This is not a popular position because it is not politically correct to point out the obvious conflict of interest that entails however that does not make it less serious.

As a Canadian I don't want the resources of Canada to be exploited for the benefit of one province with no input from the ROC. That is unfair - after all we also work to provide those resources and should have a vote (our representatives I mean) on those decisions. As flawed as our system is - this is a receipe for disaster. I would feel the same way if the Reform Party was in this position and was given a veto over spending by the government of Canada.

That will do for now. I have been saying for years that Canadian politics was so boring compared to other countries in the world but now I have to take that back! This crisis has kept me glued to radio, TV and internet!

Love you kiddo. Thanks for your comments. Look forward to hearing more of them.

 craftythings1 

--mom tried to post this up, but it got rejected. Her and I both are LJ-illiterate! In mechanics, I mean. I have to go to yoga - I'll post up my thoughts later today.

Very entertaining. Except when the power flicked off, on, off, on. Can't have been good for old bessie (my computer. Or me, whichever).

Though, I'd rather have gone out or had someone in. 

And now, to the Wii! For more solitary, indoor activity!

-I don't really know what "exanimate" means, I just thought it was cool.

Yikes! I've missed both

velvetpage

Hope the days were great. 

Sailing may not be for clutzy people.

During my first sailing lesson, several ropes got wrapped around my left foot, and tied me down to the hiking support. I told my teacher, who exclaimed, "that's not good!"

And, when he put me on the tiller, I think I really scared him. "You're going to turn, you're going to turn, OK - we're turning!" I was trying to go straight.

What I'm most surprised by is that I didn't manage to hit my head on that damn thing (which has a name, but crap, there were a lot of new names to know) that swings back and forth at the bottom of the main sail. I also did not get knocked overboard. A good thing.

Port is left (if you're facing the bow) and starboard is right. The red light has to be on your right if you're returning to port. Sailboats must make way for swimmers and row boats, after that, everyone gives way to sailboats (though this is tempered with healthy realism, especially for lane-restricted, monstrous-sized, ocean-going vessels). If worried, let go of everything. I did learn some stuff. Grace and skill will come much, much later, if ever.

In other news, my girl got a penalty at her last swimming meet. Imagine yourself, doing a handstand in water. Now, imagine that the water will only support to you just above your waist (that is, closer to your neck than your waist). Would you fall over? And now, imagine that you're not holding onto the bottom at all, but are in deep water, using strength and honestly, I don't know what else! I'm not a synchronized swimmer! to hold you up. 

Poor thing fell. 2 point penalty. This is figures, the part where they go before judges individually. 2 points are a lot of points.

I was very very proud. She immediately tried to finish the figure as though the falling didn't happen. Then, she re-did the figure (very well) when the one judge asked her to re-do it from the start. Only after that did she start crying. And then, she pulled herself together to do the other 3 figures.

How did I end up with an athletically competitive kid?

Not really.
Just an observaition - it may be impossible to keep up with it! Postings, comments, long conversations. 
Interesting, but what I want to know is - where do people find the time?

I'm going to bed.