Introducing Lesley Hughes. It has been revealed that Liberal candidate for Kildonian-St. Paul Lesley Hughes is a full blown conspiracy theorist and 9/11 "truther". The article is titled Get the Truth, and she also quotes prominent Truther and former NDP-candidate Barry Zwicker.

Hughes also writes in Canadian Dimension after the 2006 election, that she in fact didn't vote for the Liberals in the last election:

Okay, here’s the ugly truth. I refused to vote in the federal election. I turned my back on my ballot. I skipped the whole thing. When all was said and done, it felt like the only responsible thing to do.

I declined to vote not just because the truly urgent issues - the absorption of Canada into a U.S.-driven continental entity, the sale of our publicly owned health system to private buyers, the impact of impending bank mergers, etc. - had been effectively deleted from the campaign. Not just because embarrassingly influential personalities - George W. Bush, Conrad Black, Stockwell Day, to name a few - had also disingenuously disappeared from sight.

Will Stephane Dion ask Ms. Hughes to step down?

UPDATE: Stephane Dion has ditched Lesley Hughes. Good for him and good for the Liberal Party.

Labels: Lesley Hughes, Liberal Party, politics, Stephane Dion

We Canadians are a fortunate bunch. As if the excitement surrounding the American Presidential race wasn't enough, we get our own election running at the same time.

Early on, Stephane Dion looks like the weakling Stephen Harper has been portraying him as. He's running, as many Liberal's before him have, on a strictly anti-Conservative platform.

An interesting poll that was up on canoe.ca yesterday asked the question "If you could vote for anybody in the following election...", with Canada's current party leaders listed with Barack Obama, John McCain, and Sarah Palin. Not good results for Stephan Dion. He was in last place with 5% of the vote, behind even the evil-Republican-Bushite John McCain (who had 6%). Also bad news for Dion, Harper was significantly ahead of everybody else, even media-darling Barack Obama.

Harper is also playing his economic credentials correctly. While Dion is proposing a massive tax "shift" and announcing all kinds of new spending, Stephen Harper is set to roll out a cut in the diesel-fuel tax. One option will make life more affordable for Canadians, the other a confusing shell-game that ultimately will end up with Canadians paying more in taxes.

On the American front John McCain seems to have stolen all of the momentum from Barack Obama by selecting the fiery Sarah Palin as his running mate. Seeing as momentum was all that Obama ever had going for him, it could be rough times ahead for the Democratic nominee. Not that he's out of the race by any stretch, but he will have to start getting into policy in detail if he's going to win this thing come November.

The next couple of months will be interesting times. As for predictions, I'm calling an ultra-slim Harper majority, and McCain will take it in a walk south of the border.

Labels: Barack Obama, John McCain, politics, Stephane Dion, Stephen Harper

Via Susan Delacourt:

It happened when Liberal leader Stephane Dion got up to ask a second round of questions, abandoning the Cadman controversy and turning to the Canada-Obama affair, which the NDP has been hammering away at all week.

Harper said: "I would point out to the Leader of the Opposition that when he was throwing around wild accusations of scandal, the leader of the NDP was already on top of this issue." [...]

Dion, to his credit, however, had a pretty decent comeback. "We do not know how to choose among all the scandals he has," the Liberal leader said.

Which brings us back to the last Liberal leadership race:
It would appear that Stephane Dion is still having a tough time "making priorities"

Labels: politics, Stephane Dion, Stephen Harper, YouTube

I have a brief history of taking money from old people by kicking their asses around golf courses, it paid for a years worth of tuition for me. It's not my fault if people make stupid bets!

Stephen Taylor has a post up about an upcoming Liberal fund raiser, where they're auctioning off the right to play in a foursome with Paul Martin.

How much fun would it be to beat the ever living crap out of that old man on 18 holes of golf? And not to mention having approximately 4 hours to unload on him. Then again, they did call him Mr. Dithers while he was in power, so it could very well be a 9 hour round of golf. I can just imagine him deciding weather he wants to shank a 9-iron into the bush or rope-hook the 8-iron into his caddie's throat.

Tennis with Bob Rae may be a bit of a challenge, I don't think he's the kinda guy who would get into something like that if he sucked. But I'm saving my money for when they offer up a five-round mixed martial arts fight with Stephane Dion. How do you say roundhouse in French?

Labels: Liberal Party, Stephane Dion

The most insightful quote I've read from Stephan Dion in a long time:

"The Conservatives, they have difficulty in seeing social programs otherwise than as a burden on the economy. We Liberals, we think that social programs that are well-designed will help people be better trained, better-educated, healthier, more confident in life and because of that, they will be better equipped to be competitive in the market... And then the market economy will be stronger and provide more room for social programs."

It's all about social programs leading to bigger, stronger, faster social programs. Stephan Dion's ideal world is one where everybody is taken care of by some form of government program. And that is a sad vision for Canada.

Labels: Liberal Party, politics, Stephane Dion, Winnipeg Free Press

The Conservatives have launched a new website detailing Stephane Dion's weakness as a leader. The website can be found at www.NotALeader.ca (h/t Stephen Taylor).

The site has a few more attack ads on it, along with some eCards that can be sent to friends. But the best part of the site is Kyoto the dog's blog. Thats right, the Conservatives have put up a blog for Stephane Dion's dog.

Kyoto's Dog Blog:

May 29, 2007

On days like today, I wish we were in France!

Spent the morning lying on the couch in Stéphane’s office listening to him pleading with Liberal Senators to pass the Government’s term limits. He said the Tory ads were making him look weak and powerless. Again. "Eight years and out? No way!" they said. He moped around all day muttering about how unfair life is.

Yesterday I was taking the master for a walk when I spotted the Prime Minister’s cat strutting down Sussex like she owned the place. Can you imagine? She’s not even purebred. I gave chase, dragging Stéphane down the street. He kept shouting "No Kyoto! Stop it!" Madame Elizabeth May happened by and almost had a coronary. She thought he was talking about the Accord.

Ignatieff came by the other day. He grimaced at me and told Stéphane he preferred big bald eagles to dogs. When I barked in protest he lectured me about the appropriateness of torture in "certain" situations. So I showed him my fangs. "Yikes," he said, "when are you going to get this dog trained?" Stéphane barked back: "You don't know what you speak about!" and asked Ignatieff: "Do you think it’s easy to make priorities?"

Tonight Stéphane tried to get me to listen to that stupid joke he told on TV last year about the world’s shortest bedtime story. "You know Bam the dog?" he said. "The car goes by, and bam, the dog. Now go to sleep." Then he laughs, like it’s funny. Gives me nightmares. I whined and cowered until he apologized. It’s a trick I learned from him. Now that’s funny.

Time for bed. I'll dream about France. Stéphane tells me we will move back one day but I've heard him flip flop too many times before so I'll just keep dreaming for now.

Thats one funny dog!

Labels: Canadian Senate, Conservative Party, France, Liberal Party, Michael Ignatieff, Stephane Dion, Y2Kyoto

Today Jason Cherniak is trying to convince us that Stephane Dion and the Liberal party care about Israel. Jason says it's a Liberal party priority. He cites the fact that Stephane Dion, Gerrard Kennedy, Michael Ignatieff amongst other prominent Liberals attended the United Jewish Appeal's Walk with Israel. Thats interesting.

Sure they support Israel when it comes to a nice walk in the park. But when it comes down to brass tacks, the Liberals would sell Israel down the river in a heart beat.

At the Liberal leadership convention, which Dion won, Bob Rae was attacked "because his wife is Jewish". It is alleged that the attack came from Gerrard Kennedy supporters. Gerrard Kennedy ended up supporting Stephane Dion, a move which ultimately ended Bob Rae's leadership bid.

Of course there's also Michael Ignatieff's infamous accusation of Israeli war crimes being committed in Lebanon during last summer's war. Iggy never did retract those comments, he simply revised his comments to accuse Israel AND Hezbollah of committing war crimes. Clever.

Thirdly, during last summer's conflict between Lebanon and Israel, the Liberal party under Bill Graham denounced Prime Minister Stephen Harper because of his strong support for Israel. The Liberals thought that Canada should remain neutral in a conflict between the sovereign state of Israel and the terrorist organization Hezbollah.

Then there's dear Stephie. When Stephen Harper took the initiative to cut off funding to Hamas, another terrorist organization that stages almost daily rocket attacks on Israeli civilians, Stephane Dion was the Liberal foreign affairs critic. His response was to slam Harper, saying "The social problems [in the territories] are awful and, in fact, Canada should do more not less. So to cut $7-million would be a mistake."

So to sum it up Stephane Dion, the leader of the Liberal party has suggested Canada should fund an anti-Israeli terror group. His second in command, Michael Ignatieff, accused Israel of war crimes, when in fact they were defending themselves against a terrorist organization. The man who's support won the leadership for Dion helped him along the way by slandering his political opponent for marrying a Jew. Former Liberal leader Bill Graham, from whom Dion took the reigns of the party, explicitly said that Canada should not support Israel.

But Jason Chernaik says the Liberals support Israel, because they showed up for a walk in the park. It seems the Liberals can walk the pro-Israeli walk, but they won't talk the talk. I think Stephen Harper was correct when he accused the Liberals of being "anti-Israel".

Update: Rene reminded me about Denis Coderre's story. Denis Coderre, is the Liberal National Defense critic, and another person I'd call a "higher-up" in the Liberal party. Coderre marched in support of Hezbollah last summer. Thats the same Hezbollah that started the conflict by kidnapping an Israeli soldier and firing rockets at civilian targets in Israel. But seriously, Liberals support Israel. Seriously.

Labels: Bill Graham, Gerrard Kennedy, Hezbollah, Israel, Liberal Party, Michael Ignatieff, Stephane Dion, Stephen Harper

Justin Trudeau gave a speech yesterday to several hundred Windsor, ON high school students. Following in his father's footsteps, the theme presented to those young minds was of course: the evils of capitalism (h/t Uncommon Truths).

Justin Trudeau called on hundreds of high school students in Windsor Wednesday to rethink the capitalist system and reconsider Canada's reputation as a model nation. [...]

Trudeau suggested to the students the capitalist "machine" that sustains modern existence may also become modern civilization's downfall.

The system promotes exploitation of natural resources without accounting for future consequences of consumption, he said.

"Our capitalist model has given us tremendous things," Trudeau said. "But the time has come for us to look at it critically and try to improve on it, given the accelerated pace of change and the fact that we have limited space."

Well, at least we know that he's cut from the same cloth as his father. On the other hand, if I were an inquisitive reporter type, I'd ask Stephane Dion if "rethinking" the capitalist system is official Liberal Party policy.

I'd bet that half the kids in that room have a better understanding of ecenomics than Trudeau does. As Colby Cosh points out:

The prize quote from the Windsor Star's account of his anti-capitalist speech has to be this highlight reel of the chief social and environmental injustices of our time: "We consume more water per capita than anyone else on the planet. We produce more solid waste than just about anyone else on the planet. In terms of social justice, our treatment of our aboriginal communities are an absolute disgrace."

Notice anything about these crimes of "capitalism"? Right — none of them have anything to do with the free market. Water is a resource that has long been allocated by government utilities as a public trust, is generally not covered by classical property rights and is still unpriced for many users; commoditizing it would be an excellent first step toward conservation in places like Alberta, where water is essentially commandeered without limit or unit cost by industry.

Disposal of solid waste is another government-provided service that almost no one is forced to pay a market price for. As for our aboriginal communities, you can go to any reserve and ask the locals whether they consider the Department of Indian Affairs a benign paternal institution that has done an excellent job of protecting them from the tender mercies of capitalism.

Trudeau has his father's rabid socialist streak, and apparently has picked up Al Gore's fanatacism for all things green. Combine these two former leaders and you have a Communists wet-dream come true.

Labels: Capitalism, Justin Trudeau, Liberal Party, Ontario, politics, Stephane Dion

The Liberals have released their latest ad promoting Stephane Dion (h/t).

First, watch the video.
Now a little perspective from The Manitoban.

That would be the same 2005 climate change conference at which Dion received the insulting "fossil award" from the Climate Action Network, the same award given to Rona Ambrose in 2006. Of course when Ambrose, a Conservative, received the award it was front-page news and there was outrage that she dare go against Kyoto. When Dion received the same award, there was barely a mention. No media bias there.

But doesn't Stephane Dion look cute playing with his gavel?
Update: Jason Cherniak points out in the comments that Stephane Dion did not win the "fossil of the day" award in 2005 - he finished second to Japan. But he did win it in 2004. Stephen Taylor also points out that the previous Liberal environmental Minister David Anderson won the fossil award three times. The Liberals record on the environment is not something they should be promoting.

Labels: Liberal Party, politics, Stephane Dion, United Nations, Y2Kyoto, YouTube

National Newswatch is reporting that Belinda Stronach will not run for re-election.

This shouldn't come as a surprise, as her political career has been bleak, to say the least. She entered politics with the Conservative Party of Canada, and made a run for the party leadership, but failed. Consequently, she later crossed the floor to prop up the Liberal minority government in exchange for a cabinet posting under Paul Martin.

Her political fortunes continued to flounder after that, with the Liberal Party losing the 2006 election to the Conservative party.

After Paul Martin's retirement in 2006, Belinda expressed an interest in seeking the Liberal leadership. Quickly realizing she had no chance of winning, she announced that should not seek the party leadership. Seeking the leadership of two different parties, within two years would have taken a toll on her credibility.

Stronach also made big news with her high-profile, home-wrecking affair with former NHL tough-guy, and current TSN loud-mouth Tie Domi.

Not surprisingly, Stronach also announced she will be taking the cushy position of Executive Vice-Chairman at her fathers auto parts company Magna International, effective immediately.

It should also be noted that she did not resign her seat, and seems to be attempting to collect two paychecks at the same time. I sincerely hope this was an omission in the press release. But it would be the "Liberal way" to keep collecting checks and providing nothing in return.
Update: Steve Janke posts about how Magna had a press release out about the situation, before the Liberals even knew what was going on. Not good news for Stephane Dion.
Update 2: Right in Manitoba translated an article from Le Presse claiming that Stephen Harper is planning on a Spring 2008 election. How the hell can Belinda fake being an MP for an entire year? She's obviously got to resign her seat, which will cost the Liberals yet another vote in the House.

Labels: Dirty Liberals, Liberal Party, Ontario, politics, Stephane Dion

Shockingly, Stephane Dion is demanding an apology from Stephen Harper (h/t Dust My Broom). What was the comment that was so offensive to Stephie Dion? Well, apparently the truth:

I can understand the passion that the Leader of the Opposition and members of his party feel for Taliban prisoners. I just wish occasionally they would show the same passion for Canadian soldiers.

A heavy accusation, but Dion's comments clearly lead to that response:

Mr. Speaker, there are few things that are more important for the honour of a country than its duty to protect human lives, including war detainees. It is clear that the Minister of National Defence failed in his duty, even though he has often been briefed on this.

I have no other choice than to ask the Prime Minister to ask his Minister of National Defence to do the honourable thing and resign. [....]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has to see that his minister was negligent and incompetent with respect to a very serious issue for a country like Canada: the protection of the human lives we are responsible for.

The Prime Minister cannot keep his Minister of National Defence, not unless the Prime Minister is telling us that it is not important for Canada to protect the human lives we are responsible for.

Stephane Dion doesn't seem to understand the fact that the Government of Canada is responsible for Canadians and Canadian soldiers first and foremost, not murderous Taliban thugs. But Dion shows his spine in his response to the Prime Minister. Instead of denying the accusation and throwing it right back in Harpers face, Dion whimpered and whined.

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister made two shocking statements. First, he said that the government does not care about human rights and, second, that the official opposition does not care about Canadian soldiers.

The Prime Minister must understand that he has insulted the entire Parliament with his statement and he should apologize.

Stephie, say these four words after me: "WE SUPPORT THE TROOPS". He should have screamed those four words back at Harper as loud as possible. But he can't say it, or he won't say it, because it would be a lie. The Liberal Party under Stephanie Dion does not support the troops. By concentrating all of their efforts to ensure the safety of Taliban fighters, they undermine the safety of Canadian soldiers.

There's also the fact that - as the US has demonstrated with Gitmo, and again pointed out at Jack's Newswatch - insurgent fighters do not qualify for treatment under the Geneva Conventions because they are not soldiers.

Dion's spinelessness brings back memories of a Charles Adler rant, put to video by Officially Screwed.

Labels: Afghanistan, Liberal Party, politics, Stephane Dion, Stephen Harper

The Conservative budget has claimed it's first victim.... and it's a Liberal!

Joe Comuzzi, has been a Liberal MP since 1988, won six consecutive elections for the Liberals, and served in Cabinet as Secretary of State until 2005. On Tuesday Comuzzi threatened he would break ranks with the Liberals, and support the Conservative government. His decision is based on pretty clear principals.

"It's for a single issue that's of absolute critical importance to all the people in Thunder Bay and northwestern Ontario, and that's the cancer research centre ... and hopefully it's going to be funded in this budget," he told CTV Newsnet's Mike Duffy Live on Tuesday.

The centre would bring 300 jobs to the struggling city on the shores of Lake Superior. "To vote against it, every citizen in Thunder Bay would be tremendously upset with me," Comuzzi said.

If the Conservative Caucus is defined by it's culture of secrecy, then certainly the new Liberal caucus should be defined by it's culture of fear; specifically the fear of crossing Dear Leader Stephane Dion.

In late February, Stephane Dion threatened his caucus, declaring that if Liberal MPs did not vote against the anti-Terror provisions, Dion would not sign their nomination papers for the next election.

In Joe Comuzzi's case, Stephi's delivering some tough love. Stephi kicked Joe out of the caucus today, just for publicly praising the Conservative budget, he didn't even get a chance to vote on it. This isn't the first time Comuzzi has butted heads with the party leadership. In 2005 he resigned his cabinet position so that he could vote against gay-marriage.

As far as the next election goes, Dion may have just handed a seat to the NDP. In the last federal election, Comuzzi won his seat over NDP candidate Bruce Hyer by just over 400 votes, out of nearly 40,000 votes cast. Oh, and Comuzzi was expected to retire before the next election. Instead of letting a veteran Liberal MP retire with dignity, (and presumably help the party re-build in his riding, and advice the incoming Liberal candidate) they kicked him out on his ass. With this display of callousness by the Liberal party, the NDP candidate is almost sure to win the Thunder Bay-Superior North seat.

Labels: Liberal Party, politics, Stephane Dion

More evidence that the climate doom-mongers are stark raving mad.

Paul Hellyer, 83, is calling for a public disclosure of alien technology obtained during alleged UFO crashes -- such as the mysterious 1947 incident in Roswell, New Mexico -- because he believes alien species can provide humanity with a viable alternative to fossil fuels.

So it's possible that Stephane Dion and David Suzuki aren't the only little green men watching out for the environment.

At the same time, I don't know why we'd have to look to extra-terrestrial technology, when we've got a domestic solution; Santa Clause and his amazing flying-reindeer. Reindeer could be used to replace Canada's fuel burning aircrafts, thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The obvious advantage here is that reindeer are a sustainable and renewable resource.

I hope the folks at PETA don't see this.

Labels: Environment, Stephane Dion, Y2Kyoto

First Stephane Dion demanded that Canada "rebalance" the mission in Afghanistan

Earlier this week, Canada delivered $1,000,000 in cash to farmers who had been displaced by fighting. Now we get the announcement of "hundreds of millions of dollars" in aid for Afghanistan. One would think that the mission has been "re-balanced", and would regain the support of the Liberal party, right?

WRONG! Apparently Dion misspoke when he said the mission needed to be re-balanced, what he to say was it needs to be ended. The Liberals released a statement about their "plan" for Afghanistan today:

* Committing to ending Canada’s mission in Kandahar in 2009 and immediately informing NATO of this deadline so that a replacement nation can be found;
* Better integrating military, aid and diplomacy efforts;
* Developing an effective strategy to combat the problems stemming from the local economy’s dependence on the illegal opium trade; and
* Addressing the chronic fresh water shortage.

Basically what Dion and the Libs are saying is that the current strategy will do just fine, until 2009; at which time control of Kandahar should be given to whomever fills the power vacuum left behind by the Canadians.

As a Liberal cabinet minister when Canada committed itself to the Afghan mission, one can only assume that Dion supported the war. When it comes to winning the war, he's not so supportive.

Labels: Afghanistan, Liberal Party, Stephane Dion

Good news for all NATO allies currently preparing for the "spring offensive" in Afghanistan:

Political attention swung back to the "forgotten war" yesterday as the Federal Government grappled with its difficulties in Iraq.

Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said a reconnaissance team had gone to Afghanistan to assess whether extra Australian forces were needed.

About 550 Australians are based in Afghanistan, with nearly 400 in Oruzgan province. Their job is about to get tougher as temperatures climb.

"All of our intelligence suggests that the Taliban will this year mount a significant do-or-die offensive across Afghanistan, including in Oruzgan," Dr Nelson said. "If we do need to redeploy Australian defence forces to Afghanistan, we will."

Prime Minister John Howard confirmed the Government was looking at bolstering our commitment to Afghanistan.

"We have not made any decision but I don't rule out some increase there," Mr Howard said.

If only more NATO allies could be more like Australia. Actually, I wish more Canadians could be more like Australia.

In a speech to students at the University of Montreal, Dion reiterated today that a Liberal government led by him would not extend Canada's mission in Kandahar beyond February 2009. He also says he would also inform NATO right away how firm that deadline is and that it must find a replacement nation.

Because all good allies should set a time table for defeat, right Stephie?

Labels: Afghanistan, Australia, Stephane Dion

Much has been made about the comments PM Harper almost made in the House yesterday. The comments were about this article in the Vancouver Sun, revealing a link between a Liberal MP and a former terrorist group.

The Liberals are crying foul, because they think its cheap politics to bring up an MPs family. Normally, I'd agree with them.

However, this has nothing to do with an individual MP and his family, but has everything to do with the depths to which the Liberal Party of Canada will stoop to receive support - from anybody.

Darshan Singh Saini, who's the father of Liberal MP for Mississauga-Brampton South Navdeep Singh Bains, is listed as a potential witness in the Air India bombing investigation.

Mr. Saini also has ties to Liberal Gerrard Kennedy. Saini was even supposed to attend the Liberal leadership convention in support of Kennedy, but apparently fell ill. It's a good thing that his son-in-law, Liberal MP Bains, was there to deliver the Sikh vote to Kennedy, which then went to Stephane Dion. It's no secret that Kennedy delivered the leadership to Dion, and Mr. Bains played an influential role.

Mr. Saini was also the spokesman for the Ontario wing of Babbar Khalsa Panthak. The Babbar Khalsa has since been listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and Britian for engaging in activities such as torture, rape, targeted assasinations, and suicide bombings worldwide. Which leaves a casual observer asking "Why not in Canada"?

So the question isn't about Mr. Bains, it's about how much influence terrorist groups have in the Liberal party, and how they are exerting that influence. It's a fair question, and it deserves not only a response from the Liberal party, but probably a little soul-searching as well.

Labels: Dirty Liberals, Gerrard Kennedy, Liberal Party, politics, Stephane Dion

After Stephane Dion won the Liberal party nomination, he declared that he wanted women to make up a third of the party's candidates come the next election.

Well, the pace is gearing up for said election, and Dion is prepared to go to great lengths to make sure that women are running for the Liberal party.

During last year's leadership race, Dion promised that under his watch at least a third of the party's candidates in the next election would be women.

But campaign organizers conclude that will be impossible without intervention to secure nominations for women.

So-called green-light committees, set up to run the party's nomination process in each province, have been empowered to ensure the 33 per cent target is met. Among other things, the committees can approve or reject nomination papers from would-be candidates.

Where necessary, the committees will be able to simply refuse to allow men to run for nominations in some ridings.

And if you're sitting there thinking this is a temporary Liberal policy, guess again.

Kennedy said any outcry over perceived favouritism toward women should be limited by the fact that all leadership contenders, including himself, echoed Dion in promising to substantially increase the number of women candidates, with the eventual aim of reaching 50 per cent.

And the final blow to democracy:

The Liberal leader retains the power to simply appoint women candidates, bypassing the nomination process altogether. Insiders say Dion wants to use that power sparingly, if at all.

As Neo points out, theres really nothing stopping them from applying these kinds of affirmative action policies to basically any "minority".

Labels: democracy, Liberal Party, Stephane Dion

First Hugo Chavez in Venezuela nationalized oil and energy companies.

Then Russia started retaking state control of oil and gas projects.

And in Canada, we have Liberal leader Stephane Dion. Mark Holland is his Natural Resource critic, and recently did an interview with Charles Adler.

When I asked Holland whether a Liberal government under Stephane Dion would shut down or limit oil sands production if necessary to meet Kyoto targets, his response was, "Exactly." He then went on to say "I think what you are going to see is we’re going to say you cannot exploit that resource, basically go in there and pump it out as fast as you can to give it to the Americans and sell out our national interests and blow apart our emissions targets."

[..] A day after Mark Holland’s threatening remarks, he appeared on my Corus colleague Dave Rutherford’s program and was asked whether a Dion government would consider nationalizing oil companies if they didn’t meet Kyoto standards. Holland replied, "If they refuse to work with us….there will be consequences."

But rest assured, Stephane Dion's not out to "kill the milk cow".

Labels: Liberal Party, politics, Stephane Dion, Y2Kyoto

Deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff doesn't like the way that the NDP and Tories are getting along right now.

"There's something nauseating going on which Canadians have to notice," Ignatieff told the Star. "Layton gets up and pretends to oppose a government that he's propping up. He's got to decide what the hell he's doing here."

I don't think that Michael Ignatieff understands a minority government yet. What Layton is doing, is working with governmenet to further his parties agenda. It's why we elect the people we do. It's their job. The fact that he's working with the government only gives him more influence in parliament, which I would imagine most Dippers would like.

In fact, I'm not sure the Liberal party as a whole understands minority parliaments yet. Jack Layton and the NDP propped up the previous Liberal government for months as well, and again managed to punch above his weight in parliament because of it.

The Liberals during their 429 days as a minority government accomplished next to nothing. The Sponsorship Scandal was a major priority for the party at the time, and the only meaningful legislation passed by the Liberals was the Gay Marriage legislation. Their only budget also had given many concessions to the NDP, who supported the budget, and saving the government in the process.

In comparison, Stephen Harper has already had 378 days in government. During this period he has already passed the Accountability Act, recognized the Quebecois as a distinct nation, has dropped the GST by one percent, and has made gains in priority surgeries. Also expected to pass is Harpers Clean Air Act, and the 2007 budget. Both of these pieces of legislation will have Jack Layton's greasy finger prints all over it.

So rather than ragging on Jack Layton and the NDP for getting things done, I'd say Ignatieff and his Liberals should instead try to get in the game.

Labels: Jack Bin Layton, Liberal Party, Michael Ignatieff, NDP, Stephane Dion

For a party that is supposed to be "new", the Liberals are bringing back a lot of old names.

Stephane Dion has given his stamp of approval for Justin Trudeau to run for the Liberals in the next election, says a senior Liberal insider.

Either Dion wants to make Trudeau work for it, or he thinks the kid's a rock star.

The insider said a riding has not been selected but Dion does not want him to run in a safe Liberal riding such as the Outremont riding recent vacated by Jean Lapierre.

The insider said the party wants Trudeau to run in a Montreal-area riding now held by the Bloc Quebecois.

The Torie attack dogs have got to be salivating at the thought of a Trudeau family member. (h/t Uncommon Truths).

Labels: Liberal Party, politics, Quebec, Stephane Dion

Here are the ads that everybody has been the talk of the town.

Going after Dion's environmental credibility:


This is the only commercial I would call an "attack ad". Though one could also say it's just a friendly reminder of what the Liberal Party of Canada did over the last decade.



This one is my personal favorite. It shows Dion has no leadership ability, and no ability to deal with adversity.


Interestingly, earlier in the week Ezra Levant showed that the Liberal Party has been abusing its connections to the Ad-regulating agency in Canada, Telecaster.

Today, one day after these Conservative aired in Canada for the first time, the heat is being cranked up to get these commercials off the air as soon as possible.

The television ads, which began airing Monday, use footage from last fall’s Liberal leadership debates to deliver the message that the new Grit leader is weak, indecisive and an environmental failure.

But that footage belongs to a consortium of TV networks which pooled their resources to provide live coverage of the debates. The Cable Public Affairs Channel provided the pool camera for each debate.

The networks are now looking into how the Conservatives obtained the debate footage for their ads.

It sounds to me like Dion is crying "That's unfair", again. The damage has been done already anyway. The Conservative's got a week of press coverage around the ads, they're on the internet, and I'm sure most people have seen them already.

Labels: Liberal Party, politics, Stephane Dion

I don't personally think that any of the party leaders have the stones to trigger an election this spring. That being said, the Conservatives are going to make sure that they're ready when the writ is dropped.

The Conservative party intends to run TV attack ads against new Liberal leader Stephane Dion, CTV News has learned.

Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenny will hold a briefing tomorrow in Ottawa to unveil the ads that mock Dion's leadership abilities and his environmental record, sources say.

Party insiders say the Conservatives will buy TV spots during the Super Bowl and other prime time slots for maximum impact. [...]

One of the ads is a clip from the Liberal leadership campaign.

"You don't know how hard it is to set priorities," Dion states in one ad as a perplexed Ignatieff looks on, according to a Tory source.

Another ad mocks Dion's failure as environment minister to meet the Kyoto climate change targets.

"We didn't get it done." Deputy Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff says to Dion in an exchange taken from the Liberal leadership race.

Tory MPs roared when the ads were played for them at the caucus retreat.

"They are all Liberals in the ads and they are quite funny," one Tory MP said.

It is not known how much the ads will cost but the Conservative Party is flush with money compared to cash-strapped Liberal Party.

Now before any Liberal's start bitching and moaning about "dirty politics", I'd like to point out two things.

The first point being these attack ads only use direct quotes from Stephane Dion that were made on national television. The second point speaks for itself in this blatant Liberal fear-mongering:

'Nuff said!
UPDATE:View the Video and Analysis Here!

Labels: Conservative Party, Liberal Party, Michael Ignatieff, politics, Stephane Dion

Since Wajid Khan crossed the floor recently, many Liberals have been begging to see the report he wrote after his Middle East fact finding mission, even though Paul Martin routinely did NOT make such reports public. The speculation amongst Liberal blogs is that "either the report that Khan wrote does not exist, or it does exist and is of such poor quality that it could not be released."

Today, CTV is reporting that in fact, the report does exist. Further more, Harper will be implementing some of the recommendations from said report in government policy.

And, Harper will kick sand in their Liberal faces to boot:

Wajid Khan, the embattled former Liberal MP who recently crossed the floor to the Conservatives, will be heading out on another fact-finding mission in his role as special advisor on the Middle East.

Government sources told The Globe and Mail that Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be sending Khan to Afghanistan and Pakistan, though there were no details on when he will be leaving.

But what about the money that Khan's dealership loaned to his riding association? Apparently there's nothing there either:

Elections Canada says there's nothing illegal in MP Wajid Khan using loans from his Toronto car dealership to finance his riding association and his election campaigns.

And even if those loans are never repaid -- effectively turning them into huge personal or corporate donations that are supposed to be prohibited -- there is likely nothing that the independent watchdog can do about it.

So it seems the only law that was broken was that the Liberal riding association didn't pay back the money it was loaned. I'd say that Stephane Dion owes Wajid Kahn a couple hundred grand!

Labels: Afghanistan, Dirty Liberals, politics, Stephane Dion, Stephen Harper

h/t to Uncommon Truths. There is a petition online now, demanding that Stephane Dion change his first name to Celine.

Go ahead and chuckle, and then go sign the petition.

Labels: Stephane Dion

The numbers speak volumes.

Those who think Afghan President Hamid Karzai is a lost cause should think again. So says the evidence from a recent poll of what Afghans think, five years after the fall of the Taliban. "The current Afghan government retains broad support," concludes the survey by Charney Research, with 68 per cent of Afghans approving Karzai’s work.
(snip)
While the Taliban are active throughout south and west Afghanistan, their suicide bombings and attacks on schools and government buildings are not winning them any supporters. Nearly 90 per cent of Afghans have unfavourable views of the Taliban, with 76 per cent saying they have "very unfavourable" views. The only thing with a worse rating: Osama bin Laden.
(snip)
Another indication of the trauma of Taliban rule is that 85 per cent or more Afghans are thankful for the US invasion, grateful for the presence of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation troops in the country and prefer the Karzai government – despite its inability to provide law and security or stamp out corruption – to the Taliban.

All the while Jack Bin Layton, Gilles Duceppe and Stephane Dion talk about how the mission is a failure. They want to quit now that we're on the verge of victory. The Taliban are hated in Afghanistan, and they need to be exterminated.

Oh, and is this what it looks like to "force our lifestyle" on another culture? Because I think they like it.

Labels: Afghanistan, Bloc Quebecois, Dead Dictators, democracy, Fun With Polls, NDP, politics, Stephane Dion, Stephen Harper, Treason

The treasonous Gilles Duceppe is making wild threats about toppling the government over military operations in Afghanistan. Not surprisingly, he's got support from other opposition parties.

Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe warned Monday he might table a non-confidence motion if the mandate of Canadian soldiers in the wartorn country doesn't change.

And the other opposition parties suggested they might join a Bloc effort to that effect in the new year.

Duceppe is only making these threats because Quebec is starting to send a lot more troops over. He is not concerned with the well being of Canada's reputation on the International stage. His only concern is not losing more seats in Quebec come next election.

Fortunately for Duceppe, the Liberal Party has just elected another coward in Stephane Dion. Dion has also expressed skepticism about the War in Afghanistan, saying, "We'll wait to see (the motion) before making a choice."

The NDP's position on Afghanistan is quite clear. Jack Bin Layton can't cut-and-run fast enough. His policy is unilateral withdrawal, and possible peace talks with the Taliban.

These are the three parties that are currently screaming bloody murder about a $5M cut to the "Status Of Women". Yet they have no problem sending every woman in Afghanistan back into the stone age. Not to mention all of those schools we've built, they'll all be promptly destroyed.

Either way, I don't think Duceppe, Dion, or Jack Bin Layton have the guts to fight an election over the Afghan War. Since Layton started spouting off about unilateral withdrawal, the NDP's popularity has dropped by six percent. If Canadians do decide that they want out of Afghanistan (and I don't think they do), surely they wouldn't decide to elect the Liberals - who got us into Afghanistan in the first place. Which leaves the Bloc, who only runs candidates in Quebec.

So the only party that would actually gain from making the Afghan War the main election issue, is the Bloc. That being said, neither the Bloc, or Liberals have presented any kind of an alternative strategy in Afghanistan - while the NDPs plan is offensive to most Canadians. Dion will have a tough time articulating any kind of "alternative strategy" in Afghanistan, since he was sitting in Cabinet when the Liberal government committed our troops to the mission.

Duceppe is bluffing, however. And I think Harper should call him on it.

Labels: Afghanistan, Bloc Quebecois, Dirty Liberals, politics, Stephane Dion, Treason