No Sun TV For Me

Sadly I do not get Sun TV in my Telus cable package, and my computer is too old and fragile to watch video online. As excited as I have been to watch the newest news network, alas I shall be deprived of this essential service. Telus generally displays all the channels available, even if you don't get them in order to encourage you to buy an expanded package. After a diligent search of all channels, there was no Sun TV.

I'll send an angry e-mail to Telus, but I can't afford to buy an expanded package. We already had to buy 25 channels just to get the History channel. It is almost criminal the way they bundle channels together. If you are looking for a cable provider, I do not recommend Telus. I'm locked in for another few months, but if they don't offer Sun TV, I won't be a customer for much longer.

I get 12 different CBC feeds for f**k sakes! This is not fair!

Run Bernard Run!

Rumour has it that former New Brunswick Conservative Premier Bernard Lord is considering taking a run Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe, where Liberal MP Brian Murphy won by just over 3% in 2008. The riding is very vulnerable for the Liberals, who have to be concerned about the recent rightward shift in Atlantic Canada. Bernard Lord is an excellent candidate and would make a valuable addition to the Conservative Government of Canada.

No commitment has been made as of yet, and perhaps April 2011 is a little too soon for Bernard to resume his political career. He has been long rumoured as a possible replacement for Stephen Harper when the Prime Minister decides to retire, and I would like to see him put in some service in Ottawa before that day comes. This Blogging Tory would like to formally request that Bernard Lord run for the Tories in the next election, whenever that election is. Please Bernard?

Farewell Danny Williams

The flamboyant Premier of Newfoundland is going to step down next week, a move that is quite the surprise. I didn't see this one coming, unlike the slow demise of Gordon Campbell. Jean Charest is hanging by a thread, and Dalton McGuinty has passed his expiry date. Danny is on TV saying that he is sad because he is leaving what he calls "the best job in the world", which makes you wonder if there is more behind his decision than is currently being made public. He has stopped complaining about Stephen Harper, and I doubt that there will be another PC led ABC campaign in the next General Election.

It seems that a lot of people are leaving politics, Liberal and Conservative these days. While I enjoy being a Canadian political pundit, I have no desire to ever run for public office. Politics has become a bloodsport in our era of 24 hour news, and it blows my mind how some people can handle it for as many years as they do. I do know this much, I am not going to miss Danny Williams, but I do wish him a happy retirement.

Danny Williams Speaks Nice About Stephen Harper

In the 2008 federal election campaign Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams ran a campaign of "Anybody But Conservatives", but today on Power Play he spoke quite nicely about the Prime Minister and said that relations between Newfoundland and Ottawa have improved significantly since "the dark times". If the wounds have healed and Tories start voting Conservative again on the rock, that could pose big problems for a few Liberals. Shiboom Coady is only a member of parliament because of Danny's little ABC stunt, as the Tories fell from 16,644 votes in 2006 to 4,324 in her riding in 2008 when she won her first election. What is interesting is that while the Tory vote went down by over 12,000 votes, Shiboom only experienced an increase of 2,625 votes over her 2006 mark. People were not leaving the blue tent for the red tent.

With the sea change in New Brunswick and Danny Williams playing nice with Stephen Harper, the Liberal's Atlantic caucus should be concerned. The end result of Danny's little tantrum back in 2008 was that many voters simply stayed home and didn't vote. People said to themselves "I can vote for Shiboom or not vote at all", and they chose not to participate in democracy. I also expect that the Newfoundland Liberals may experience some backlash from the gun registry survival, given their proud tradition of hunting and fishing.

I don't know if Don Martin is now the permanent host of Power Play, but he is so bad at hosting that it is comical. There is some entertainment value like how some people only watch American Idol during the tryout session to see the train wrecks. When I say Don Martin is bad, I am not talking about ideology. I strongly disagree with some of his opinions, but I agree with him a lot more than I do Taber or Soloman. Don Martin is just terrible at hosting. It pains me to say it, but I'd rather watch Soloman than Martin.  In a perfect world there would be a host on television that I actually enjoy watching, but sadly we do not live in a perfect world...

First Past The Post

Yesterday's Conservative trouncing of the Liberal Party in New Brunswick has some people complaining that the Tories have more seats than they deserve. They collected nearly half of all votes cast and won 75% of the seats in the legislature. This is being decried as a "schmoozle", and as an example of why we supposedly need proportional representation. What the article at the Globe and Mail does not mention is that proportional representation significantly reduces the probability that any party wins a majority government. Under the British parliamentary system, minority governments are generally dysfunctional, as we know all too well here in Canada. The Brits and the Aussies call it "hung parliament".  The constant threat of an election undermines our entire political system.

This Fair Vote Canada group can't understand why Canadians aren't mad as hell and marching in the streets to right this perceived wrong. Why aren't more Canadians demanding proportional representation? Because we are sick and tired of hung parliament. The machinations of our legislative branch operate more effectively in majority governments.

Is What's Good For Ford Good For Harper?

When Conservative Toronto mayoral candidate Rob Ford first took the lead in the polls, many pundits on the left began to scramble over a possible right shift in the heart of the Liberal Party. Some even tried to suggest that the right shift was actually bad for the federal party, because they call it an "anti-establishment" protest as opposed to a sea change in Toronto politics. I'm curious, if Rob Ford loses, then is that good for Stephen Harper? If you claim Ford's victory would be bad news for Harper, then shouldn't his loss then be considered good news, or do you get to have it both ways? A new poll suggests that the race for mayor is much closer than originally anticipated, and I'm wondering if Smitherman wins, will the voices on the left start ringing Hell's Bells about terrible news for Liberals?

Do you think that if Shawn Graham has won tonight that Liberals would be claiming a victory nationally? Absolutely they would, instead they are crediting the loss to a single issue and saying that it in no way tarnishes the federal Liberal brand. Liberals have a terrible showing on Election Day, and somehow this is good news for Liberals? They call it a vote against "big government", as though voting Tory provincially is bad news for Tories federally. They want it both ways.

Tories Crush Liberals In New Brunswick

With the votes now being counted in New Brunswick's provincial election, early results indicate that Conservative David Alward is the new Premier in a crushing defeat of Liberal incumbent Shawn Graham. As of 8pm eastern time, the Tories have pulled 50% of the popular vote, up from the 47% collected in 2006 by Bernard Lord. The federal Tories scored 39% of the popular vote in NB during the 2008 federal election. Does this victory signal part of a greater surge in Conservative support throughout the Atlantic provinces? The Tories already hold a majority of the NB seats in Ottawa, and only have 1-3 additional seats to possibly gain if only New Brunswick is shifting to the right.

The Tories are weaker in Newfoundland (17% in 2008) and Nova Scotia (26% in 2008), and those will have to be where the gains are made if the party would like to add a significant number of Atlantic seats.

New Brunswick Votes

On Monday the province of New Brunswick will go to the polls to elect a new government. The Liberal Party under Shawn Graham has crashed the proud province into fiscal disarray after replacing two term Tory incumbent Bernard Lord. This election may provide a bellweather indicator for general voter sentiment in the Atlantic provinces, where the Conservatives have been polling very strong in the past year. Bernard Lord has kept a low profile since his defeat in the last election, a man who had been considered a rising star in the Conservative Party.

In the 2008 federal election, the Tories carried NB with 39% of the popular vote to the Liberals 32% and the NDP 22%.

Follow The Liberal Express

I decided to visit the Liberal Party Website to see if the Liberal Express would be making a stop at a Tim Horton's near me in BC. Sadly it does not appear that Pandora's Bus will be leaving Quebec and Ontario (other than a lone trip to Saskatoon today). The Liberal list of summer events does include British Columbia, but those events conflict with a softball tournament in Laval, or "lunch with Ignatieff" in Stratford. I'm guessing that he won't be attending "The Big Red Bike Ride" in BC, as he scheduled conflicting breakfast and lunch events in Ontario.

There has been some false advertising. A cross country tour? The bus is making 95% of its stops in only two Provinces! That leaves a lot of Tim Horton's unvisited. I suppose from a pragmatic point of view this makes sense. Iggy has little chance of electoral success west of Ontario, so why make the effort? Atlantic Canada will elect Liberals no matter what, so they are easy to take for granted. Also there are only 3 events scheduled for August and September (none of which include the "Liberal Express"), so when they said a "Summer Tour", what they really meant was two weeks in July.

They wanted to give the impression that they would spend the entire summer visiting the entire country. When Mike said that he'd visit every Tim Hortons even if it killed him, what he meant to say was that he'd visit a half dozen Tim Hortons in Ontario over a two week period. This is not the Summer Across Canada Tour; this is the "Two Weeks in Ontario and Quebec Tour", with one lonely stop in Saskatoon. This should not come as a surprise to anyone, as we should have known that they couldn't afford what they were advertising.

Are Regis And Kelly A Sound Investment?

I have been seeing advertisements for Regis and Kelly doing their show live from Prince Edward Island. The province is paying $750,000 dollars to bring the duo to Confederation Landing in Charlottetown July 12-15 in the hope that it will attract tourists who are fans of the show. There will undoubtedly be tourists who target PEI because the show has a large loyal audience, the question is; will it be at least $750,000 worth? Would you support your provincial government putting up that kind of money to bring Regis and Kelly to your town?

You may remember that Conan O'Brien was brought in to do a series of shows from Toronto, and it ended up shrouded in controversy after Coco sent Smigel and Triumph the insult comic dog to Quebec. True to his name, Triumph was horribly offensive.

Holland and Coady: Catch a Liberal Shooting Star

The past session of Parliament saw the Liberal Party give a lot of air time to two MPs that Canadians previously had not had much exposure to, Mark Holland and Shiboam Coady; two MPs who play the role of angry politician very effortlessly. I don't know if the LPC actually selected these two at the beginning of the session to become their main spokespeople, or if they just lucked into having critic roles of the portfolios that created controversies. They could be rising "stars"; they could just have been in the right critic chair, in the right place at the right time. Public safety critic and ethics critic are two excellent positions for opposition members who do angry well.

Whatever you think of John Baird, every political party needs a few MPs of that ilk to survive in the pressure cooker, especially with 24 hour instant media. The kind of MP who walks into Parliament and thinks of Robert Duval in Apocalypse Now "I love the smell of napalm in the morning." You may recall when Coady snapped at Baird in committee, the left applauded the brave MP standing up to the "Big Bad Baird", but look into her eyes when she unleashed the fury. That lady has a nasty, nasty temper. I'd say she got more face time on the CBC the session than Ujjal Dosangh and Scotty Bryson combined.

It is not my intention to insult John Baird by comparing him to Holland and Coady, but they are just Liberal versions of him. They serve the same function within the Liberal Party as John Baird did when he was in opposition (provincially). The main difference being that since the Tories formed government (federally) we have found that Mr. Baird is also a very effective Cabinet Minister, so he has a bureaucratic competency that I suspect is lacking in the Liberal attack dogs.

These two Liberal shooting stars are both at big risk of crashing down to Earth in the next election. Holland has a very tough fight ahead of him in Chris Alexander, and Coady has the NDP right over her shoulder. I'm sure she would love to see a deal where the NDP candidate capitulates. Newfoundland will be really tough to predict next time around, as Danny Williams ABC campaign skewed the data in 2008. Did you hear that Don Newman, Ms Coady is a perfect example of how the Liberals can benefit from a strategic non-compete agreement with the NDP.

Raising Sales Taxes Unpopular?

I couldn't help but notice the outrage sweeping across the Province of Nova Scotia, where the NDP Government has decided to raise the sales tax by 2%, which is expected to cost households $400-$500 annually. There is a pseudo referendum happening in British Columbia because Gordon Campbell has decided to add provincial sales tax to goods that were previously not taxed (note that the feds gave the BC Liberals the option of not adding the tax to what was previously untaxed, but Gordy declined). Evidently consumers are extremely sensitive about adding taxes to the sale of goods and services, and thus the best time for a regime to do it is near the beginning of a term.

It is easy for Kevin Page to demand increasing the GST, because he does not have to run for elected office. It will be interesting to see if Ignatieff ever adopts increasing the GST as part of Red Book 2.0. He has left open the possibility of raising taxes, but he really just doesn't want to talk about it. He just has his minions like Gerard Kennedy do it instead. Gerard is easy to throw under a bus if need be. Be warned opposition, you may want to raise the GST now, but there will be a wave of backlash against the party who actually pushes this increase through.

Gerry Byrne, a Liberal I like

I watched an interview today with our new terrorism czar, and he actually made a lot of sense. It seems silly to even begin to compare a pie in the face to the much more violent acts of international paramilitary organizations. If so, Vernon Wells had better lawyer up! Nobody has more pie on their hands than Vernon.  But when the act is commited by a political activist trying to inflict harm, either physical or emotional on a government official, that should qualify as a criminal offense. 

The point that Gerry was trying to make is that because PETA claimed responsibility, that it was a confession that they sent an individual into a foreign country to commit a criminal offense. If the assailant is successfully charged with assault and PETA claims responsibility, then PETA is liable. My Little Oxford Dictionary defines terrorism as "practice of using violent and intimidating methods to secure political ends."

By the definition of the word, it could be construed that what the PETA activist did was in fact terrorism, even if it qualifies by the narrowest of margins. What if the Minister had been knocked down and injured? That was a very real possibility and was disregarded by a loon who has convinced herself of something that she will go to any length to force upon others. It isn't just this pie in the face incident; there are several instances where PETA or affiliated organizations send political activists to places to commit crimes. What other word do we have to define it? 

So at the end of the day, I have to complement Gerry Byrne for taking a stand on this one. I will not go so far as to declare PETA a terrorist organization myself, but I think they are really getting close. Is Mr. Byrne interested in floor crossing?

The Olympic Torch is in Newfoundland?

I am watching CBC news and I see the Olympic torch in Newfoundland. The Tories do not have any seats on "the Rock", what the hell is going on? The Olympics are supposed to be a partisan propaganda tool that us Tories can use to boost our own standing in the country, and I don't want the torch to spend a single minute in a non-conservative riding! I am outraged that the torch has touched down in Newfoundland! Whomever planned the torch route was supposed to keep it away from Liberal ridings, so that Liberal MPs cannot slip into precious Conservative photo ops! Oh the humanity! The Liberals don't have many seats left outside of Montreal and Toronto, it should be easy to keep the flame out of their ridings. Come on partisan torch planners, do your damned jobs right next time!

P.S: If you are unaware of the concept of sarcasm, you probably should not have read this. I was attempting to spoof Don Martin's feigned outrage at the partisan nature of the torch route. Generally anyime I break out a "oh the humanity" it is as satire.

Bricklin SV-1

The Bricklin SV-1 is an excellent example of what can go terribly wrong when the government gets too involved in "big ideas" that were poorly planned and even more poorly executed. The folly of Richard Hatfield. It is a case study in government investment gone horribly awry, and should be in the backs of our minds as we embark on some of these miniature concurrent "Manhattan Projects".

I had a flashback today about a documentary that I saw on the History Channel, or perhaps the CBC. I saw it a few years ago. It could have been an episode of Disasters of the Century, about the fall of the Bricklin. It is a compelling documentary, and whichever station owns the rights, could you please put the Bricklin documentary back in circulation?

I am also curious to have Mike Ignatieff share some of his "big ideas" with us. Not all "big ideas" are good ideas Mike...