My question to Conservative party supporters across the country is: why in the hell would anybody defend this ignorant clown?

Many point to the fact that the video was taken seventeen years ago. His attitude could have changed over such a long period of time, they claim. Then again, maybe they haven't. What we do know, is that once upon a time this guy had a seriously despicable attitude towards homosexuals.

In addition to having a bad attitude, Lukiwski demonstrated extremely poor judgment in allowing a statement like this to be video taped, even if it was meant as a joke. It really makes a guy wonder what other videos Lukiwski has starred in.

Tom Lukiwski's career in politics is probably finished for good. At this point, he's no longer an asset in the House of Commons, but a liability. For this reason, he should go, now. It would also send a strong message that the Conservative Party of Canada will not stand for homophobia amongst its members. I do believe his apology is heart-felt and honest, but his current demotion from parliamentary secretary is merely a slap on the wrist.

Lukiwski is entitled to his opinions, and entitled to video tape all kinds of crass, confusing, and offensive jokes. But I don't think any Canadian would want someone with a sense of humor as exhibited to be their representative.

Labels: politics, Tom Lukiwski, YouTube

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

It's been three long months dear readers (cue the sound of crickets). Anyway, on to more important things: Presidential Politics 2008!

I'm pretty much in agreement with this assessment of the GOP field. It's very weak, especially since Guilliani dropped out. I don't agree with the idea that McCain will drive "real" Conservatives to vote for Hillary Clinton. That is just patently insane.

Nor will it ultimately matter. Hillary Clinton will not win the Democratic nomination. The media is far too in love with Barack Obama, and that is in large part because Hillary is too divisive among independent voters. Of the general field the party, um, fielded, I think it is also weak on the Democratic side. One one hand you have a person who rode in to power on their spouses coattails. On the other, the polar opposite: a candidate with absolutely no record, but he's charming, a left-wing nut-job, and he's black to boot. Oh, and change, lots of change. He's just handing out spare change everywhere he goes. He says change so often, you'd think he's actually targeting the homeless vote.

Once McCain and Obama have their nominations though, this thing is going to go straight Republican. Because McCain will start move to the left throughout the race he'll placate the Indie's. Meanwhile, the Republican attack machine is going to have an aweful lot of questions about Obama's admitted cocaine use, and you know the thing about his Muslim education are going to come up again.

McCain will ultimately win the Presidency. He'll be a mediocre President, but we're all just waiting for Jeb Bush 2012 anyway.

Labels: Democratic Party, politics, Republican Party

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

Any time that some organization or scientist questions the reality of mainstream global warming theory, they instantly are accused of being in the pay of Big Oil. Of course this isn't always true, and in either case it doesn't necessarily put the credibility of the science into question.

In this context, it's curious that Al Gore's Alliance For Climate Protection can plan to spend $100 million a year on a massive ad campaign (sure to include lots of fear mongering) to convince American's to "quickly and meaningfully reduce their own global warming pollution" (*). $100 million is a lot of money for a "public awareness campaign". But I am curious as to who's funding such a large attempt to change public opinion.

Hopefully the Alliance has also remembered to buy their carbon offsets from Generation Investment Management. A $100 million marketing campaign is sure to generate a lot of hot air.

Labels: Democratic Party, Environment, politics, Y2Kyoto

As Winnipeg suffers from yet another death caused by car thieves, the government continues to dither and deflect on the issue.

Justice Minister Dave Chomiak is demanding that the Federal government toughen the YCJA. It's a good call, it's definitely a necessary step to put a stop to this epidemic.

Chomiak is barking up the wrong tree. Rather than calling on the Conservative government to introduce the bill, he should be demanding his Federal NDP counterparts to vote for the bill. It's his Dipper buddies who are always watering down the Torie's crime bills when they're not voting against them.

Likewise, Chomiak should be concerned with whats going on in our own backyard foremost. The Winnipeg Auto Theft Suppression Strategy (WATSS) is obviously not sufficient as a deterrent or a prevention strategy.

Prof. Rick Linden, member of the Manitoba Auto Theft Task Force, sums it up best: "Just hours after being released, they'll be back doing it again. We thought that with youth knowing police are following them more intensely it would be a deterrent, but many of these kids aren't deterred at all. It's just part of youth culture in some areas."

The police can only act as a deterrent if the courts will hand down real consequences for the criminal. In the case of youth car thieves in Winnipeg, The Law is a catch and release program where the kids have no reason to fear being caught.

Gary Doer and the NDP need to take some new action on this still-growing problem. Chomiak's comment that, "We've now had several (stolen car deaths) and several is too many", does not instill a lot of confidence. Isn't ONE DEATH too many?

Labels: Canadian Justice, Conservative Party, Gary Doer, Manitoba, NDP, politics, Winnipeg Crime, Winnipeg Police

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything here. Truth be told, I've just been lacking inspiration, and have been unseasonably busy.

After listening to the fools on CNN blather on and on about how wrong Bush is for commuting Scooter Libby's sentence... something had to give.

Interestingly, back in 2001 Bill Clinton defended the 450 pardons(thats way more than Bush) he handed out during his presidency. On the many reasons a president can issue a pardon, Clinton writes, "A president may conclude a pardon or commutation is warranted for several reasons: the desire to restore full citizenship rights, including voting, to people who have served their sentences and lived within the law since; a belief that a sentence was excessive or unjust; personal circumstances that warrant compassion; or other unique circumstances."

President Bush today said, "I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive." So then the real question is weather or not the sentence was too harsh or not.

Considering that Libby was never charged with leaking Valerie Plame's name, and that the originally leaker, Richard Armitage, was never charged with a crime, then not only does the sentence seem excessive, but also absurd that a conviction even occurred. Clinton himself issued pardons because, "in some cases, co-defendants had received significantly shorter sentences." So why would the same logic not apply when the co-defendant and primary culprit of the non-crime, was not even charged?

Patrick Fitzgerald deemed early in his investigation that no crime was committed by leaking Plame's name, but still decided to charge Libby with lying to investigators who were investigating a non-crime. How can you obstruct justice from being served when there is no injustice to correct? Clinton touched on this point as well:

The exercise of executive clemency is inherently controversial. The reason the framers of our Constitution vested this broad power in the Executive Branch was to assure that the president would have the freedom to do what he deemed to be the right thing, regardless of how unpopular a decision might be.

Now, there is little doubt that President Bush is one of the best ever when it comes to making unpopular decisions. So, is it "the right thing" to do? Libby only had his prison sentence commuted, he wasn't pardoned. He still has a criminal record, and he still has to pay the fines, so he's hardly off the hook. And if you consider the conspiracy theorists' assumption that Libby was acting under direction from Vice-President Dick Cheney, that would be even more reason why Libby shouldn't go to jail, if he was in fact just following orders.

President Bush did the right thing today. Regardless of what the talking heads say, there is nothing unusual about this move - Clinton basically said so.

Labels: politics, President Clinton, President George W Bush, Republican Party, Scooter Libby

It's a very simple proposition: if someone commits a crime with a gun, that person should spend a period of time in jail.

Most of the Canadian population would agree with the Conservatives gun bill. After all, it was one of their key platforms during the last election, and the Conservatives won.

Unfortunately, Manitoba Liberal MP's don't agree.

Neville said the bill was poor legislation because it stripped the judiciary of its sentencing powers and refused to support it.

"It flew against the advice of many people in the justice system," said Neville, adding sentencing is often best left to judges after they've heard all the evidence in a case and not legislators.

"You have to leave the discretion to the judiciary."

She said her main concern with the bill was an escalating clause that would send criminals to prison for longer sentences with subsequent offences.

Except that judges have been saying for years that new legislation is needed if Canada is to get tough on gun crimes. They've claimed that there are precedents that prevent them from handing down "tough" sentences. The only solution to this problem is new legislation.

The "escalating clause" of the bill which Neville is so opposed to, is one that would have criminals serve longer sentences the second time they commit an offense. As the bill currently stands, for a first conviction of a gun crime, the minimum sentence handed down would be a five year jail term. On that persons second offense, the minimum sentence would lengthen to a seven year jail term. If you keep doing the crime, you keep getting more time. It seems fair.

Not to Anita Neville however. Neville would rather leave that up to the judges discretion, to let the criminals justify there behavior, and get a slap on the wrist. We're not talking about punk auto-thieves, or shoplifters here; we're talking about criminals that point a gun at their victims and threaten their lives. They have absolutely no place on our streets.

The truth of the matter is that for three consecutive Liberal governments, the laws of this land were watered down in favor of criminals. If Liberal MP's were to vote in favor of these "tough on crime" laws, it'd be an admission that their reign was a failure. You need to look no further than the Youth Criminal Justice Act for evidence.

The Liberals would rather spend billions of dollars on a gun registry, which has proven to be a failure, while letting the criminals off without taking any responsibility.

In fact all of Manitoba's Liberal MP's voted against the legislation. That includes Tina Keeper, MP for Churchill; and Ray Simard, MP for St. Boniface. For the Liberal MP's from Manitoba it was a free vote, they had no instructions as to how to vote. They voted how they thought their constituents would have wanted them to vote. But even the typically soft-on-crime NDP voted for the bill.

To those folks living in Winnipeg South-Center, contact Anita Neville and let her know how you feel about her "stand" to keep as many gun criminals on the streets as possible. She can be e-mailed at Neville.A@parl.gc.ca or at email@anitaneville.ca.

Update: Right in Manitoba raises another point:

Even more ironic is that just this week we heard Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty demanding that the federal Conservatives toughen up gun laws. Rather than call on the Conservatives Dalton, you may do better talking to you brother David [Liberal MP for Ottawa South] and his cronies!

Labels: Anita Neville, Canadian Justice, Conservative Party, Guns, Liberal Party, Manitoba, NDP, politics, Winnipeg Crime

WinnipegFirst has a story up today about the abysmal failure of the Communist in the Manitoba election.

The highlight of the story, is that halfway through the campaign their only car broke down. Thats right, five Communist candidates in Winnipeg were sharing one car between them. Not even the damn car could finish the campaign as a Communist! Why didn't the community rally to fix the car?

In a province of more than 1,100,000 people the Communist party garnered less than 400 votes province wide. 69 of those votes came from my riding of Wolseley, which did elect a Communist who runs under the NDP banner, Rob Altemeyer. Love thy neighbour? Not bloody likely.

I guess between the 400 Communist supporters in Manitoba, they couldn't get the car fixed. But thats probably because each of those 400 votes came from a lazy waste of skin who wouldn't do any work to save his own sorry life, much less to fix the automobile of a political party who shares their beliefs of leaching off of others.

Update: Speaking of Communists, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is spending $18,000,000 of hard earned Communist cash to make a movie. Dear Comrades, how does giving Danny Glover $18M to make a movie in Hollywood do anything to better the lives of Venezuelans? And do we really need anymore evidence that Hollywood is unabashedly Communist?

Labels: Communism, Manitoba, NDP, politics, Trough Feeders

The democratic process has once again elected and NDP government in Manitoba. And not only did the NDP win, they won resoundingly. Three straight majorities, and increasing in seats each time is a hell of a feat for Gary Doer (results).

The Dippers won most of the potential swing ridings, leaving the PC's in the dust. Bob Stefaniuk in La Verendrye lost to Ron Lemieux by almost 900 votes.

Unfortunately fellow blogger Steve Andjelic also lost in the riding of Seine River. I hope it's not his last attempt at Theresa Oswald's seat.

So Manitoba loves it's socialist governments, what else is new? We'll see four more years of little accomplishment, and probably a couple more crocus-esque scandals. By the way, what ever happened with that? Hugh McFadyen told us he'd be tough on crime, but he wouldn't even call Gary Doer out on his own crimes!

Basically the PC's downfall came from the complete lack of substance in their campaign. Daily promises are great, if they're backed up with some kind of detailed plan. A headline screaming "Tories promise to bring back the Jets" only works if there's a Who, When, or What behind the story. Otherwise it's just more empty rhetoric, and Gary Doer's proven to be great at that.

The Tory campaign was also lacking any real focus. What were the big issues that were being hammered home with voters? Other than the "revolving door" commercials, the PC's and McFadyen were all over the map.

Doer and the Dippers coasted their way to victory. They didn't even have to work for it. When the opposition can't articulate what they're going to do differently than the sitting government, the incumbants are going to win every time. Doer knew that he wasn't dealing with a real threat, so all he did was blather on and on about selling Hydro.

At least the weather this evening matched my mood. The weather is also another reason why I always try to take advantage of the early voting option. On the bright side a pretty girl came to visit me at work today. Oh, and I got a letter from MPI saying they want to give me free immobilizer. I think I'm going to take them up on their offer just for laughs. My car's not worth as much as the immobilizer.

Labels: Bob Stefaniuk, democracy, Gary Doer, Hugh McFadyen, Manitoba, NDP, politics

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

With a provincial election right around the corner, most political junkies look forward to debates. In a shameless move, Gary Doer is refusing to debate his opponents.

It makes sense with a record as pitiful as Gary Doer's. While Doer's promises about healthcare go unfulfilled, he's quite content to sit out the campaign and attempt to coast to victory. It would be uncomfortable for Doer to have to face questions about why his government did nothing when they knew that Crocus was being run as a pyramid scheme. Or having to explain to a provincial television audience why healthcare funding isn't reaching the front lines. How much credibility would Gary Doer have with environmentalists when they realize that despite promising that Manitoba will meet it's Kyoto targets, our Greenhouse Gas emissions are growing faster than any other province in Canada?

Gary Doer knows that Hugh McFadyen and Jon Gerrard would have a field day attacking his record, and Doer knows it. So rather than proudly taking responsibility for his career, he tries to hide what he's accomplished.

Labels: Gary Doer, Hugh McFadyen, Jon Gerrard, Manitoba, politics

The reasons why Nicolas Sarkozy beat Socialist Segolene Royal in France's Presidential election are too numerous to list here. But two of the most obvious reasons were Royal's close relationship with far-left groups, and desperate fear mongering near the end of the campaign.

Just four days ago, Segolene Royal warned of riots if she were to lose the election. Making sure not to make a liar of their leader, leftist groups across France rioted after the results were announced.

Despite the fact that voter turnout was 85%, and that even women rejected the female candidate, and nobody has questioned the legitimacy of the election, leftists riot in defiance of democracy.

Labels: democracy, France, Nicolas Sarkozy, politics

The Manitoba PC Party wonders if Gary Doer and the NDP got their slogan "Forward, Not Back" from The Simpsons.

Labels: Funny, Gary Doer, NDP, politics, YouTube

When the federal budget came out in March, Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams called it a "betrayal" of the province. It was a great example of a fine Conservative Premier turned panhandling socialist. He is now waging a personal War on Harper, much to the glee of the media.

If Newfoundland is strapped for cash, they've got an interesting way of showing it (h/t Bound By Gravity).

Premier Danny Williams, in a bid to build on his already commanding majority government, is offering Newfoundlanders the largest personal income tax cut in the province's history in the run-up to a provincial election.

Drawing from a $261-million budget surplus, Williams also slashed user fees Thursday while increasing spending on schools, the health-care system and infrastructure.

The value of the income tax cut was pegged at $155 million.

Danny Williams has some explaining to do. Why does he think that the rest of Canada should fund tax cuts to keep him in power? Here in Manitoba we live in one of the highest taxed provinces in the country, and this Newfie is pandering for more of our money. Shameless.

Labels: Conservative Party, Danny Williams, politics, Stephen Harper, Trough Feeders

Did anybody not see this coming?

Venezuela stripped the world's biggest oil companies of operational control over massive Orinoco Belt crude projects on Tuesday, a vital move in President Hugo Chavez's nationalization drive. [...]

The four projects are valued at more than $30 billion and can convert about 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) of heavy, tarry crude into valuable synthetic oil. [...]

"Open investment will never return," he [Chavez] said on Monday to thousands of cheering workers dressed in the signature red of his self-styled leftist revolution at a rally for workers rights.

"We are sealing up that open investment era and burying it deep down in the Orinoco oil reserve," he added. [...]

Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez has said there may not be compensation in some cases and that Venezuela will only consider agreements on the booked value of the projects rather than their much larger current net worth. [...]

Industry analysts fear Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA could ultimately run into production and safety problems when it loses the management and technology of the experienced majors.

It's just a matter of time until they start digging mass graves in Venezuela. And to ensure that Venezuela has to go it alone when their economy collapses, Chavez announced that Venezuela will be pulling out from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

On the bright side, Hugo Chavez's bestest buddy Fidel Castro missed the annual International Workers' Day parade in Cuba due to health issues. The clock is ticking.

Labels: Dead Dictators, etc, politics, Wish You Were Dead

From the Canadian Press:

Liberal foreign affairs critic Ujjal Dosanjh said he wonders whether the Conservative government ever sought advice or asked the human rights group any questions about the wisdom of transferring detainees to the Afghan intelligence service.

Mr. Dosanjh has good reason to wonder. When the Liberals were in power, they asked all the time (h/t).

The old liberal government had been prevented by Canadian diplomats in station in Kabul, in 2003, 2004 and 2005, that torture was a current practice in the Afghan prisons.

In spite of these warnings, the Martin government decided to sign an agreement with the Karzai government, in December 2005, in order to deliver to the Afghan authorities all the prisoners captured by the Canadian soldiers, reveal documents of the Ministries for Foreign Affairs obtained by the Press.

The Liberals are using unfounded rumors to score political points from a mess their own government left behind.

Labels: Afghanistan, Liberal Party, politics

An analysis of the carbon credit trading industry from The Financial Times reveals that the industry is largely a sham (h/t SDA).

The FT investigation found:

• Widespread instances of people and organisations buying worthless credits that do not yield any reductions in carbon emissions.


• Industrial companies profiting from doing very little - or from gaining carbon credits on the basis of efficiency gains from which they have already benefited substantially.


• Brokers providing services of questionable or no value.


• A shortage of verification, making it difficult for buyers to assess the true value of carbon credits.


• Companies and individuals being charged over the odds for the private purchase of European Union carbon permits that have plummeted in value because they do not result in emissions cuts.

Carbon credits may or may not be useless in an environmental sense, but they make the buyers feel oh so good and green. As David Suzuki and Al Gore have made clear over the years, it's more about the image you portray than your actual effect on the environment.

The situation gets even murkier when you realize that the biggest carbon-con-artist of them all, Al Gore, purchases carbon credits from his own company. Gore then uses the profits from selling value-less credits to power his mega-mansion that in one month consumes twice as much power as the average American family does in a year.

It would be interesting to see an actual law enforcement agency look into this new "industry". If there is widespread fraud, the perpetrators should be shut down.

But why aren't environmentalists up in arms about this? They should be concerned that all of their hard work is for not due to some clever and greedy crooks. As Darcy says, environmentalists are only happy if the solution "resides within the loving arms of a money-sucking socialist scheme fathered by Karl Marx."

Labels: Environment, politics, Y2Kyoto

The only reason why Green Party candidates across Canada have yet to break through is because of the whacko-fringe aspect of the party. All too often the fringe aspect of the party takes over.

Such is the case in Manitoba. Green Party of Manitoba leader Andrew Basham takes the party to the fringe with his economic policies. Hell, the party theme is "Rethinking Progress: Well-being NOT growth". In this article Basham delivers a few killer-quotes like, "I don't look at it as running against Gary Doer, I look at it as running against the paradigm of growth economics." And why would an aspiring politician want to knock economic growth? "Economic growth actually costs a lot of jobs, it doesn't create them as we like to think," Basham said.

If the economic platform isn't confusing enough, try the parties "six pillars" on for size:

• Ecological literacy
• Rebuilding democracy
• Creating ecological communities
• Protecting the commons
• Bringing the economy home
• Establishing a sustainable energy future

But we wish Andrew Basham the best of luck in the next election, if for no reason other than he's taking on none other than Gary Doer in Concordia. With Basham and Ken Wadwell challenging Gary Doer, they may just steal enough votes to take down Doer. But God save us all if the Green party were ever to get into power.

Labels: Gary Doer, Green Party, Manitoba, politics

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

The city has finally sold The old Metropolitan Theater in lovely downtown Winnipeg.

Heritage Winnipeg is heralding the sale as a huge success. Of course success is all relative. If success is having a valuable property such as The Met sit vacant for twenty years, I'd hate to see their idea of failure.

Success also doesn't mean profit. The rumored $100,000 price tag for the property is a fraction of what the City could have gotten for the property - if they would have torn the theater down twenty years ago.

I'm all for keeping old buildings in the city, they do have great character. But people in the city complain about not having enough development downtown, but at the same time groups like Heritage Winnipeg are there to explicitly stand in the way of development, by restricting what people can do with old properties downtown.

Labels: Manitoba, politics

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

Trevor Kennerd announced yesterday that he will be seeking the Conservative nomination for Winnipeg South-Centre (h/t). Winnipeg South-Centre is, of course, the riding of Liberal MP Anita Neville.

Kennerd has several things going for him from the start. Most obviously is his fame in Winnipeg. Kennerd won three Grey Cups with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, during the club's golden years (we used to win championships); including kicking the game winning field-goal in the 1988 Grey Cup.

Kennerd, who has been running a marketing and communications company since retiring from football, would seem to be a natural for politics (link). He's also been a resident of the riding for 26 years, since moving here from Edmonton.

The Winnipeg South-Centre riding has been dominated by the Liberals since the beginning of time, or so it seems. The 2006 election was close in the riding, with Anita Neville winning by less than 8% over Conservative contender Michael Richards (not the racist actor from Seinfeld). Kennerd is more of a working middle class type guy than Michael Richards was. That will resonate more closely with the riding than Richards' slick-city-lawyer personality.

Also working for Kennerd, is the fact that Anita Neville has gotten on the wrong side of constituents of late. She's taken a head-in-sand approach to crime, in a riding with crime problems. She also abstained from voting on a Liberal motion to take business away from Manitoba.

Kennerd even talked about crime at the announcement, something that Anita Neville thinks is, well, criminal. Kennerd acknowldeged a crime problem in the riding, "As a frequent victim of crime, the property crime in the riding is really out of sight." As of posting, there is still no word on when Anita Apology will demand that Kennerd not sully Winnipeg's reputation with such vial accusations.

Kennerd will win the riding, and quite handily I suspect. Anita Apology will go the way of all the other old-tyme Liberals. And good luck to whoever the NDP nominates.

Labels: Anita Neville, Blue Bombers, Conservative Party, politics

Jeff Nyquist writes of another impending war on the horizon (h/t New Zeal).

People living a hundred years from now will be puzzled by today’s America. The signs of impending destructive war are everywhere. We do not see the signs because we do not want to see them. This is true in the White House, at the CIA, in the major newspapers and within major corporations. Russia and China are maneuvering against the United States on all fronts. Russia and China are supporting Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, North Korea, Syria, etc. All the worst regimes, led by criminals and butchers, are supported by Moscow and Beijing. The objective is to arm as many rogue states as possible. And the reason for doing so is transparent.
A researcher and former news editor wrote the following note to me last week: "Russia has been conducting war in Chechnya for years, slaughtering, raping, imprisoning and displacing Muslims. Russia slaughtered Muslims for ten years in Afghanistan. Russia is 'right next door' [to the terrorists]. Yet bin Laden, allegedly tired of what has been done to Muslim peoples, chose to attack... the United States. Bin Laden ignores the enemy who has been slaughtering Muslims in his backyard for two decades and instead targets a nation thousands of miles away..."

The tie that binds is pure unbiased anti-Americanism.

Labels: Afghanistan, China, democracy, Iran, politics, Russia, United Nations

Sigh.

Anticipating the actions of the Conservative government, the Assembly of First Nations overwhelmingly passed a resolution in December calling for a day of action on June 29.

Considering that these guys were planning the protest three months ahead of seeing the budget, I find it hard to believe that any budget would be able to stop them from protesting. And do they really think that preemptive protesting is going to help their cause?

Point-in-case, now that the budget has actually dropped, some natives would like to up the ante, with Terence Nelson chairman of the Dakota Ojibway Tribal Council Chief saying, "My personal goal is to have the Treaty 1-11 First Nations jointly demand that CN and CP voluntarily cease operations for 24 hours on June 29 or face the threat of a month-long roving blockade across our treaty territories."

I say, bring in the troops.

Radical natives are listed in the Canadian army's counterinsurgency manual as a potential military opponent, lumping aboriginals in with the Tamil Tigers, Hezbollah and the Islamic Jihad.

The military is putting the finishing touches on the manual, but a draft version of the document obtained by The Globe and Mail outlines a host of measures the military might use to fight insurgents at home and abroad. The measures include ambushes, deception and killing.

Labels: Conservative Party, politics, Treason

Anita Neville is demanding an apology (again). The last time she got so cranky was when somebody pointed out that Winnipeg has a crime problem.

This week Neville's got a beef with Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice.

Prentice said that he hopes $50.8 million in taxpayer grants and contributions to the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs isn't used "in planning illegal and disruptive blockades."

"I am prepared to order forensic audits of every organization that participates in blockades and civil disobedience to ensure that monies intended for children were not used to plan these activities," he wrote.

Neville accused Prentice of making threats to "quash the democratic voices" of aboriginals who wish to show their disapproval with the Tory budget.

What Neville doesn't understand, is that some things should not receive government funding, ie. road blocks that damage the economy and property. Do taxpayers pay millions of dollars for highways, just to spend millions more on shutting them down in protest? Hell no! It makes life more difficult for many communities.

It's about time these terror tactics stopped because it's getting out of hand.

• March 2, 2007 - A blockade in Northern Manitoba comes down.


• March 6, 2007 - Railway blockade comes down near Marysville, ON.


• March 13, 2007 - A blockade in Quebec comes down.


• March 23, 2007 - Mohawk protesters blockade a road near Deseronto, ON.


• The occupation in Caledonia has been going on for over a year.

And thats just this month alone!

The standoff in Caledonia has cost Ontario taxpayers over $46 million to date. Dalton McGuinty's pathetic performance on this file is now costing the federal government over $26 million.

Worse than the cost incurred to taxpayers is the message this sends to the citizens of Canada; Justice will not prevail, welfare payments will. When our federal MPs start defending criminal actions, you know there is a problem.

Anita Neville should be turfed in the next election. When problems arise, she sticks her head in the sand. When confronted, she feigns incredible insult and demands apologies. When will she actually stand up for Winnipegers?

Labels: Anita Neville, Canadian Justice, Dalton McGuinty, Dirty Liberals, politics

Spring fever and election fever abound in the Manitoba blogosphere. With a federal election pending - and the provincial election to follow - the local blogs are working overtime.

A quick summary of whats going on:

The Black Rod is posting more frequently than ever. He's dissecting the Crocus scandal, and doing a hell of a job detailing the absolute failure of fighting crime in Manitoba under the NDP. He's also doing excellent weekly coverage of whats happening in Afghanistan. Oh, and he throws shots at the Winnipeg Free Press for good measure. And hey, why not?

A Proud and Unapologetic Winnipeger has announced that he's going to run for the Manitoba PC Party (link) in Seine River. The man is passionate, and thats a great starting point for a new career. His name is Steve Andjelic and you can visit his website.

Jim Cotton is systematically dismantling any platform they may potentially roll out. Jim is rather impressive because he, unlike most Manitoba bloggers, realizes that this province needs actual change and not just a change in leadership. I hope to have a link to the Freedom Party of Manitoba soon.

The Blackberry Addicts have been posting furiously of late. Unfortunately they're lacking their usual insight into all-things NDP. They have resorted to rabidly attacking the media over the Crocus issue, and making the government appear very weak.

Andy Fletcher has been keeping his nose on the Crocus storm. Otherwise, he's been relatively quiet, which makes one wonder if he's got some new gossip brewing in the hopper.

Rene has started a new blog at Right in Manitoba. Much like this blog, Rene blogs about all things Canadian with no real focus on any particular issues.

Comments Closed has been quite of late, but seems to be revving up again.... just in time for election season. We're looking forward to his insights in the provincial election, and hopefully digging up some dirt on the Dippers.

Comments Closed said he thinks that YouTube will only swing a dozen or so voters. I think he's slightly mistaken there. It's just a matter of time until some YouTube video catches the attention of the MSM in Manitoba, or some nefarious blogger reveals a new scandal, and this whole thing will blow wide open.

The Lemon Chicken has finally shut down. Shae's apparently moving to Victoria to terrorize the locals with his brand of anti-Conservatism.

Labels: Manitoba, politics