NDP Narrowly Defeats Libertarian Party

The Libertarian Party of Canada ran a candidate in the Vaughan byelection and was narrowly defeated by the NDP by just 1.1% (is that inside the margin of error?). Why did the NDP even run a candidate in Vaughan? Their 1.7% of the vote could have helped Tony Gecko. Meanwhile Jack Layton was on TV yesterday saying they lost their safe seat in Winnipeg North because they ran a rookie against a veteran. Who's fault is that? The Dippers are notoriously bad at candidate selection. I remember in the last election in my riding the NDP candidate had to drop out when he was found on Youtube talking about how awesome it is to drive a car while high on acid. This man was elected to his candidacy by the local NDP rank and file.

Maybe Layton should follow the Liberal lead and start appointing candidates instead of electing them?

Keeping Up With the Pauls

While I identify myself as a Libertarian and there are some issues where I strongly agree with Ron Paul, some of his policy ideas are pretty crazy. I only found out who his son was a few days ago, but as I heard on the Laura Ingraham Show, Rand Paul has dropped some of his father's more controversial foreign policies. Either he doesn't believe in them, or he realizes that the more extreme message doesn't settle well in the center, like dismantling the CIA. Ingraham said that Rand Paul was doing too many interviews and being too candid, and then suddenly he goes on TV and makes very controversial statements.

I get most of my American political opinion from Laura Ingraham and Dennis Miller. I have yet to form a definitive opinion of Rand Paul, and even as a Libertarian I am as skeptical as I am excited. I love that Ron Paul is in the Senate, but God help us if he ever became President. I know that my father and I agree on a lot politically, so I have to wonder how far Randy has fallen from the apple tree. Does he agree with daddy's views on the military or 9/11?

"I see national health care as being like the DMV with open wounds"

-Dennis Miller

The Problem with Libertarians

In reading public opinion from some of my fellow Libertarians in the past week(s), I am growing ashamed to identify myself as one. I understand the desire to reduce government spending, and while I do not generally support economic stimulus (which I have long described as administering morphine to a patient in critical condition); I am pragmatic enough to realize that when you are just returning to work after an attempted coup, you have to make compromises. Sometimes you need to be realistic instead of idealistic.

Now I see Libertarians and fiscal Conservatives throwing Stephen Harper under the bus for doing what the majority of parliament demanded. So if the PM had snubbed the opposition and they voted against the 2009 budget, would we have been better off under a Liberal coalition with the NDP and Bloc? Absolutely not! Should we have stood up for fiscal conservatism when the big tax and spenders were at the precipice of forming government? And do I need to come out and say this every fucking week? Be frustrated if that's what suits you, but attacking the Prime Minister for doing what he had to do is ridiculous.

Which gets me to the Fraser Institute. I have supported them in the past, and I will not debate their assertions on the effectiveness of the Economic Action Plan (which they were against from the beginning, now finding data to back-up their initial claim) until I have had a chance to review the data. But regardless, our economic recovery has been one of the best in the world and our GDP growth is smashing expectations. What exactly are we complaining about? “Sure our recovery has been fantastic compared to the rest of the world, but here's what I would have done differently?” Maybe we would have been even better off without the stimulus, but our recovery has been success. That's like a hockey fan watching his team win 4-2 and saying "we should have won 7-2".

Come on Libertarians, where is the realism? We have a minority parliament and a borderline bipolar opposition that control a majority of the seats in our legislature. If you think Jack Layton or Bob Rae would have done better as Minister of Finance, then may God have mercy on your soul (if he exists)...

Ron Paul Bests Romney and Palin in CPAC Presidential Straw Poll

It would appear that the Libertarian wing of the Conservative Party was out in force at the CPAC conference this week. The final result of the poll for best Presidential candidate was Ron Paul with 31%, Mitt Romney at 22%, and the "populous" Sarah Palin came in a distant 3rd with 7% of the vote. Granted the opportunistic Palin was noticeably absent from the Conservative Political Action Conference, an auspicious absence for someone who is considering a run at the 2012 Presidential ticket. At this point I am almost willing to cede my candidate of choice Rudy Giuliani as Attorney General or a VP running mate. I want Rudy to hunt down and prosecute Bin Laden.

While I like some of what Ron Paul says, I would not endorse him on a Presidential ticket. I would prefer the Mormon Romney over Palin in a heart beat, but I am leaning towards shifting my allegiance to Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty for 2012. Obama is setting the table for a Conservative resurgence in 2010 and 2012. Sarah Palin might serve a purpose, but if that is on a Presidential ticket, it is doomed to fail.

Perhaps you are familiar with American Conservative talk show host Michael Savage? This is what Savage said recently about Sarah Palin, it is a good clip.

"I didn't say she's bad, I didn't say her heart is not in the right place, I just know more about the American electorate than you do, and I know more about it than the stupid Republican Party does; and I am telling you that if they make that idiotic mistake of pushing her as their lead candidate, it's over. Obama will get a second term no matter how bad his presidency has been. That's my opinion. It's one man's opinion. It doesn't mean I don't agree with her politically, it doesn't mean I think she's a bad person. She's not electable as President."

Nationalizing Industries to Reduce Deficits

In the wake of President Obama's state of the union address, the assertion that bothers me the most is that nationalizing health care is going to be an economic benefit and lead to deficit reduction; as though there exists a mystical aura of trickle down government health care. To suggest, as many left wing pundits have, that freeing business from the burden of providing health insurance and transferring the burden to taxpayers is going to have a net positive effect on GDP and deficit size is ludicrous.

There are legislative options for reducing insurance costs that do not include nationalizing the industry. The government rarely does anything more fiscally efficient than the private sector, but if you allow market collusion and impede the competition between competing providers, there will be a net loss in both efficiency and of mutually beneficial transactions. I do not subscribe to the hardcore Ron Paulish Libertarian ideology of "remove any and all rules and regulations which govern economies and industries." There are instances where state intervention and regulation can increase the social good. Fighting against collusion, corruption, and many other potential ethical liabilities are a good thing.

I thought it was telling that today Evan Soloman was running video footage of Scott Brown's acceptance speech over the caption "Death of Conservatism: Republicans have become too ideological". That's right, Republicans winning a Senate seat in the Liberal stronghold of Massachusetts that has not elected a Conservative Senator in 30 years is a clear sign that Conservatism is dying due to their extreme ideology. Granted, that is the type of partisan spin that I have come to expect from Evan Soloman and the CBC.

For more on Obama's state of the union address, I turn you over to the excellent analysis of Kelly McParland.

Dennis Miller on "Copenhagen Chaos"

I am a very big fan of Dennis Miller.  Of all the people on TV with an opinion, I agree with him the most.  He magnificently presents a classic Libertarian analysis of the loonacy in Copenhagen.  I would strongly encourage everyone to watch this segment of the O'Reilly Factor if you have not seen it already.  Dennis even inspired me to do a little Photoshopping...

On the subject of Miller, this past year he interviewed a guest who had a PhD in Astrophysics who wrote the biography of the Sun. David Whitehouse was one of the first credible PhD's I heard come out against the false science of the hardcore climate changeologists.  It inspired me to write Fire in the Sky.

I would encourage you to buy his book.  If you purchase via the link below, I earn a commission for you owning a book that you need to read and you can own it for cheaper than visiting your local Barnes and Noble.  I don't know if you can get it delivered in time for Christmas.

Fossil of the Year

I just finished watching this "Fossil of the Year" ceremony that has been awarded to Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Copenhagen. As a Libertarian-Conservative pundit and climate skeptic, am I supposed to be offended? Truthfully, I actually just finished a really good belly laugh, and I wasn't laughing with them. They have these E-List actors who couldn't get a job in a Chunky Soup commercial masquerading themselves around foolishly serenading someone in a Harper mask.

Then afterwards they interview this goofball from the Sierra Club who says "Canada is sending the message that they want to make money from oil." To which my response was, "yes, what's wrong with that?" Can anyone tell me what percentage of total Canadian Economic output comes from resources? 60%? 75%? Are we supposed to stop making money from our endowment of resources because a cabal of scientists manufactured consensus before anyone else really had a chance to run the numbers? And now troupes of bad actors and drama nerds have gone bananas because they see this as their entry point into the Hollywood Elite.

This is all crazy. Now they say that they have reached a deal on climate change. I will save that analysis for tomorrow if indeed a treaty is signed. I just wanted to take a moment to comment on this Fossil of the Year honour. Thanks goofs, I had a hearty laugh watching you make asses of yourselves on my television. Thank you for entertaining me, for the first and likely the last time. On matters of economics, I will trust my Mathematical Economics Degree over your Theatre Arts Degree.

Hold on, Stephen Harper is doing a press conference live from Copenhagen. I'll be back...

(watching press conference)

...I'm back. That's about as solid a presser on a controversial issue as you will see on TV. This Miloofsky guy the CBC sent is a dipshit. He is queued to ask a question, and he rants for 5 minutes asking like 6 different questions. Is that journalism? The PM handled it magnificently; he is doing so well that they are cutting away from the press conference early to go back to Soloman and Barton. God forbid the Soloman Show relay footage of the Prime Minister performing well on the international stage. Evan Soloman is an amateur at best, and the most reflexively partisan on staff. Who is his boss, and who is that person's boss, etc. Why does he even have a job?

And I am never buying Tide laundry detergent again.

Jack Layton is disappointed in the Copenhagen agreement, ergo, it can’t be that bad. My opinion of the Copenhagen treaty as of 4pm pacific time, Jack Layton is disappointed which makes me happy.  As a wise philosopher once said, "if it makes you happy, then it can't be that bad"...

Rosemary Barton's a Year in Review

I am watching Rosemary Barton hosting the Soloman show on the CBC, and 30 minutes in I am at a loss for words. I am trying to think of the best way to describe what I'm watching, and it is not complimentary. She is lovable in a Bridgette Jones kind of way, with a naive innocence that can be endearing. Like when she is standing on the streets of Ottawa and Obama's motorcade drove by, she started screaming "I think he saw me!" like she was 12 years old at a Jonas Brothers concert. But when she actually sits in the big chair and offers her opinion on the big picture meaning of specific stories; she is lost in space. Her grasp of the meaning of events is juvenile at best.

I was not the biggest fan of Newman, but in watching the awful downward spiral of partisan incompetence that has followed in the wake of his retirement…I miss Don Newman. I can't take much more Barton or Soloman before I just stop watching. I am certain that the CBC does not want to lose one of its dozens of viewers in that time slot. I do enjoy the Lang and O'Leary Exchange, but that is not to say that I always agree with them.

Here is “the power panel”, should be interesting. I am agreeing a lot with Rob Russo, even Don Martin; but this is definitely the most bitter, pointed, and slanted that I have ever seen Julie Van Dussen. She has her face buried in her notes while using a very spiteful tone of voice, and she doesn't want to look up at the camera. I'm willing to bet the notes she kept looking down at were in Donolo's hand writing. I do disagree with Rob Russo that Canada is ready for Ignatieff. That seems like a stupid thing to say. Rosie is leading every question to a negative. She seems completely incapable of expressing the opinion that the government did anything good this entire year.

Oh wait a minute, here is the wise and sage like Margo MacDermid to tell us some good news. Okay, so we are not getting any of the good news, but rather two CBC "journalists" joking back and forth about Tory Ministers outlining the Government's accomplishments in the last year. Don't actually discuss the good news, but rather make a mockery of the fact that they are even suggesting that anything good happened this year. Got it. Is Donolo producing the show today?

Sorry Rosemary, I have muted you for this CRTC segment. The way you set it up, I was not interested in listening. But I will turn the volume back on when you enlighten us about Copenhagen after the commercial break. Never again will I buy Bounty Paper Towels, or Cascade Dish Soap, or Pantene Pro V Shampoo. Ever. Great, Rosemary is back on to enlighten us on climate change. This guy she chose to interview is a complete goofball. He seems to lack the ability to speak coherently with any emotion. Sometimes you see a person speak as a spokesperson, and you really wonder how the hell they got a job speaking about anything for a living.

Does Rosemary avoid talking about Economics because she doesn't know anything about it, or because virtually all of the economic news is good news? I suspect that it is a little bit of both. Here she is hosting a "year in review" show about the government, and she is just drilling the bad news into the narrative, whether she can make it stick or not. It is too bad. I liked Rosemary Barton back when she reported the news. Now that she is offering her interpretation of the meaning of news stories, she is lost in space.

Oh Lord, here comes Kady O’Mally to talk about the internet reactions. Fascinating to know that there is a "hilarious" Photoshop manipulation contest over in the Liberal blogosphere, and that Stephen Harper himself manages to manipulate the Blogging Tories. Though they never mention the Blogging Tories by name, they merely reference “sympathetic bloggers”. At least Kady doesn’t make any effort to hide her partisan bias, where mainstreamers like Rosemary have to at least pretend to be impartial. I have a disclaimer right at the top of my page that I am a Libertarian who votes Conservative.

I suppose the CBC gave up impartiality long ago…

Just read for yourself what some of the Liberal Bloggers are saying today...

Giuliani-Romney 2012

I would like to make a suggestion to Rudy and Mitt. I want both of you two on the Republican ticket in 2012, and I don't really care in what order. If both of you decide to run for the Republican leadership, I would like you to agree to a deal, if either of you win the nomination you will select the other as your running mate. I want a Giuliani-Romney ticket, or even Romney-Giuliani. I am not entirely comfortable with the Mormon Church, but Mitt comes across as the sort to separate Church and State. But if we find out that Mitt gets marching orders from the Grand Temple in Salt Lake City, you are disqualified from my ideal Republican ballot. My parents live in Salt Lake City and I visit them often. We are not fans of the LDS, ergo Mitt must be a really great candidate for me to want him on the ticket, possibly as President.

One of the all-time best episodes of South Park was the one regarding Joseph Smith.

Mike Huckabee creeps me out. Ron Paul is a little too Libertarian. Sarah Palin is better suited for beauty pageants and a talk show. Jindal, no chance. Maybe there is a solid governor out there, but when I look at the preliminary list, I want Rudy and Mitt.

"Liberal Tactics"

I would like to take a moment to do a public reading from If Democrats had any brains, they'd be Republicans by Ann Coulter, page 190. As a Libertarian I do disagree with Ann on a few issues, but the book is hilarious. Read for yourself, about Liberal tactics. I quote this because it is a fantastic description of the Liberal Party of Canada over the past 3 months.

"The Liberals' typical response to a point of blinding clarity is a look of shocked perplexity. They are fiendishly bright in a certain way, but also moronic because they can't see obvious truths. Liberals can study issues one by one and never see a theme emerging. But they are very sneaky.

This is the essence of the modern Democratic Party, polished to perfection by Bill Clinton: They are willing to insult the intelligence of 49% of the people if they think they can fool 51% of the people."

Obama, you've got a problem

When you are trying to get an accurate read of the mood of the electorate, polling data is fine but interim elections speak the loudest of all. The Republican Party had a remarkable showing in 3 major midterm elections today securing new Governors in New Jersey and Virginia, and coming within inches of winning a Congressional race in New York. Obama defeated McCain by 15% in New Jersey in 2008, and Republican Chris Christie won by 5%. That is a 20% swing in popular vote and represents a massive shift in voter support in a very Liberal state. The Democrats may have completely lost the center in these 3 races, which has to be a troubling omen for Democrats seeking re-election in 2010. The entire Congress is up for re-election in one year.

All these massive spending and program initiatives that Obama and Pelosi have in the pipeline may never pass the Democrat dominated House because a significant proportion of moderate Democrats are afraid of losing their seat. Today was a great day for all of us who are afraid what "cap and tax" will do to the North American economy (whether Canada signs on or not). The size of the demographic shift that was officially measured today is astounding when compared to other momentum shifts. What is more astonishing is how quickly the tides have changed. Jesus Christ I don't even think Jimmy Carter tanked this fast! 3 for 3 would have been the best possible situation, but since they were all Democrat seats, 2 out of 3 is fantastic.

I was born when Jimmy Carter and Joe Clark were both in power at the same time. I honestly can't believe that I survived to adulthood... Assuming that there is an almighty creator, he would have been watching down on North America in 1979 from Mount Olympus while Clark and Carter reigned supreme and perhaps decided to "create" a few extra Libertarian/Conservative economists...because that is what Planet Earth needed. Just a theory.

Which Republican should follow after Obama?

I am doing a new poll of which potential Republican nominee is best suited to follow after Obama and undo the damage. This is not which is the most electable, it is whom is the most talented in the areas that a President would need talent in 2012. Sarah Palin is not included as a nominee because she does not have enough experience in government to take over after Obama. I am not saying that she can never have a future in politics, just not in this individual poll. There may be other more electable and likable candidates, but I would like to narrow the focus to the people who ran last time in the leadership.

The choices are:

Rudy Giuliani - I have been on the Rudy bandwagon since "broken windows". I supported him for President in 2008, and I continue to support him in 2012.

Mitt Romney - Mormon, but perhaps the best candidate from a fiscal perspective.

Mike Huckabee - Is likely the only reason McCain won the nomination.

Ron Paul - The Libertarian made noise.

Dalton Attends Kindergarten

As I watch Dalton McGuinty on my television unveiling his new kindergarten, my advice to the Premier of Ontario is to stick around the classroom for a while, you just might learn something. Based on the folly of his leadership and the deft ignorance of his governance, he could stand to benefit from spending a few days as a student in his new pre-school system. Ontario needs to get Dalton hooked on phonics before the end of his reign of foolishness. Dalton McGuinty sat on a wall. Greg Sorbara had a great fall. All the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put Ontario back together again.

And to my new adversaries over in the Liberal blogosphere, remember that the Iceman is a member of the Libertarian wing of the Conservative right, and I believe gays should be allowed to marry. It is very insensitive, even malicious the manner by which you make gay jokes as a means of character assassination about people who support gay marriage. I am not gay, but are you suggesting that there is something wrong with homosexuality mister Liberal? I only ask because this slander is coming from the left, not the right. Again, thank you for all the exit links. I will not be sending any to you; I will just continue doing whatever it is I was doing that pissed you off in the first place...such as the paragraph above.

Ross Rebagliati to take on Stockwell Day?

Ross Rebagliati is going to be running on the Liberal ticket against the Minister of Trade? I was a fan of Ross the athlete, so it does pain me to see the man in my cross hairs. All I will say is that this is one of the dumbest nomination ideas that I have ever heard! I don't want to slander snowboarders as a demographic, but I have met several of them over the course of my life and not once have they elicited from me a "I would love it if you represented me in the legislature." Infact most often times they elicit the exact opposite opinion. It is absurd to have Keannu Reaves character from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure sitting in Parliament on your behalf.

This is coming from a Libertarian who supports legalizing Marijuana. I just listened to an interview with Ross on the CBC, and the man is not the brightest bulb in the tool shed to put it mildly. If I had to forecast his IQ based on that interview, I would say 82 give or take 5 points. Does he have any education? Any business experience? Or is his name and a shiny medal all he's got? This is all for not anyway, as his probability of unseating Stock is slim to none at best. Elizabeth May in Central Nova thinks this is a poor choice.

If I were Stockwell Day, I would not be concerned.

Damned Global Cooling!

I was out on the golf course this Sunday, and because of the cold rainy weather, it was like golfing on a sponge. At one hole I was backed up behind the twosome in front of me. They were talking about the best places in Vancouver to golf, and one of the gentlemen talked about how the winter is the best time to golf because the prices are cheaper and the crowds are diminished. He rarely golfs in the summer because it is better to golf in the winter. I said to him "this might not be a good winter to golf; there may be a lot of snow. There was a lot of snow last winter, and right now they are setting record low temperatures across the country." He was very disappointed.

Personally, I am planning a golf holiday in Utah next month, when you are supposed to be able to golf. If this Global Cooling trend robs me of my plan to play as much golf as possible, I am holding Al Gore personally responsible! Hopefully being a blogging Libertarian hasn't landed me on Janet Napoleontano's terror watch list. Having no criminal record and a security license should get me through the KGB checkpoints.

Another Logo Controversy?

Seriously? Another "Logo Controversy" is threatening to topple the Conservative government? Grow up. Some of you people take "logos" way too seriously, and this is coming from a man who's fantasy hockey league is titled "Hockey Is God". The logo on the government cheque was a dumb idea, but nobody is hurt by it, except maybe the Tories themselves. If this is the worst scandal that we have going right now, I'd say things are progressing fabulously!

You should not have done it, but this Libertarian pundit could not care less. No harm, no foul.

Let's get on to the next subject please.

Can Ignatieff even win Etobicoke Lakeshore?

This question needs to be asked. I have been crunching the numbers on this latest Strategic Counsel poll, and if the Tories are truly polling at 46% in Ontario, any imminent election would not only be a Tory majority, it would be a "bath of blood". I ran the numbers regionally (sorry, I left the Maritimes untouched because S.C does not consider them important enough to list on the Globe and Mail article that I retrieved my polling data from).

Based on the Ontario numbers, I have Ignatieff losing his own riding by 1500 votes. Which would essentially end his Canadian vacation and send him back to Harvard for good. My forecast model has the Tories at 164 seats, Liberals at 61, the NDP at 29, and the Bloc at 53. Give or take an independent. No Greens. The Globe headline was "Tories Flirt With Majority", but I'd say 164 seats is outside the margin of error and well within the comfort range. Where do those 164 come from? 18 new seats in Ontario, I have the Tories losing 4 Quebec seats, 4 more Tory seats in BC, and one new seat in each of the Arctic, Alberta, and Manitoba.

Under these circumstances, here are some Liberal names that would not be joining the next session of parliament: Mike Ignatieff, Ruby Dhalla, Anthony Rota, Joe Volpe, and Ken Dryden. Sadly Bob Rae would retain his seat despite the dismal Liberal numbers in Ontario. My advice to Mike if he gets this election that he says he so desperately needs, you may want to do a lot of campaigning in your own riding. Because as it stands, your own seat might get pulled away in this next round of "musical chairs" and that's with a little help from your "friends"...because with "friends" like Bob Rae, who needs enemies?

Hmm, when I said the Liberals demanding an election in Sudbury made no sense, I must have been right. To all those Liberals who responded with the “you are a Tory blogger so we must do the opposite of your advice” rebuttal; remember some of us pundits are more concerned with making an accurate statement than manufacturing false advice for partisan gain. I have found the challenge to this writing business is making a joke and having people understand it as a joke. I like making jokes, I just haven't figured out how to convince all readers that it is a joke. When I make a comment that I should be afforded the right to enter into a civil union with my golf clubs, that is a joke.

I will turn around and shoot “friendly fire” at my own side if I disagree with the policy, like the HST, but in those situations I abstain from any knockout punches. I am a Libertarian, I have my beliefs, and the party that I agree with the most are the Conservatives.

I also believe that many Canadians finally had a chance to see the footage of our new international singing sensation, and feel better about him today than they did when the polling was done. Stephen may not even need a little help from his friends, but after that touching performance he is more likely to get even more help from a lot more friends. He may have even broken off a piece of the center.

"Music is a discipline, and a mistress of order and good manners, she makes the people milder and gentler, more moral and more reasonable."

-Martin Luther (1483 - 1546)

George Stroumbolopolis

While I don't watch his program regularly, I will confess that I have enjoyed some of his interviews in the past. I can't say with absolute certainty which party he votes for, but I can predict with reasonable certainty that he is unlikely to vote Conservative. I have not watched his CBC program in some time, so nothing he has said recently has provoked this post. I do question his trustworthiness as a "media pundit". I only write this post because as I was browsing the quotes of the American Libertarian-Conservative pundit PJ O'Rourke tonight and I saw this quotation; I could not shake the image of George from my brain.

"The weirder you are going to behave, the more normal you should look. It works in reverse, too. When I see a kid with three or four rings in his nose, I know there is absolutely nothing extraordinary about that person."

-PJ O'Rourke

Dalton McGuinty is a Buffoon

Dalton, you are personally responsible for my highly educated mathematician brain emigrating out of Ontario to beautiful British Columbia. I still remember that winning election campaign of yours, when you made all those overly ambitious spending promises and then ran hundreds, nay thousands of television commercials where you looked into the camera and said "I will not raise your taxes." First budget, massive new taxation. That morning when I picked up that newspaper and read the content of your first budget, I booked my plane ticket to Vancouver. It seems like half the people I have met in BC are Ontario transplants, and a significant proportion of those people left under your tenure. Smart people. Talented people. Very affluent people who did not want to live in Dalton's Ontario. I was one of the first to leave, but a lot of people followed after me.

When you took office and introduced your massive new taxation, you blamed it on Mike Harris. "We didn't know that the government was not generating enough revenue" you said. What else was going on at the end of Tory rule? SARS. Do you remember what SARS did to murder commerce in Southern Ontario? I was living in Guelph when the SARS scare hit. Tourists stopped coming, people were afraid to be in public, meaning that the amount of money the government was collecting in tax revenue was significantly reduced. Mike Harris didn't introduce SARS, and yet you felt it prudent to blame your financial miscalculation on your predecessor when justifying all those new taxes that you introduced in your first budget.

And yet, you won re-election. Congrats on that. All it means is that I am not coming back to Ontario anytime soon. John Tory fell out of the gate with a thud and paved your way to victory. Ontario is suffering more than most Canadian provinces right now, and that is because of you Dalton. You are a buffoon. Mike Harris was putting my home province on the right track to global competitiveness, and went to war with the gluttonous public unions who are bleeding the public treasury to death. You made obscene promises to placate those unions, and now the largest province in the country is dying a slow and painful death. The Harper Government will bend over backwards to keep Ontario afloat, but it will not be until Dalton McGuinty loses his job that Ontario really begins to realize its true potential.

Scott Reid may poke fun at "Harris refugees", but the fact remains that a lot of people believed that he was doing what needed to be done despite the enormous toll that the battle took on his personal life. "Refugees" who believe that we need to deflate the public unions who are gorging themselves on Ontario's prosperity. "Refugees" who were sad when Harris resigned. "Refugees" who re-elected Iron Mike to a second term despite all that heavy fire he took from his battle with the teachers. "Refugees" who gave the Tories 12 more Ontario seats than they gave the Liberals in the 2008 federal election. "Refugees" who enjoy beer and popcorn Scott... (as an aside, why do the Liberals keep putting that guy on TV?)

And that’s all I have to say about that. As a commentator, I do experience a pushback from Conservatives when I promote my Libertarian values, but you people love it when I attack a common enemy.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

Libertarians are your friends.

Dalton McGuinty is destroying Ontario.

"Buy American"

I love reading through my archives and finding things that I wrote on a public forum in the past that applies to the present. With Peter Mansbridge ringing alarm bells on this brewing "Buy American" fight, what I said in March about the NAFTA is completely relevant to the debate today. I don't hold any grudge with Stockwell Day and what ground may or may not be gained while knee deep in American Socialist protectionism. We are facing an uphill fight against the Dems who want to close their borders to free and fair trade. Libertarians should be disappointed in Obama.

I will now direct you to my March post on the NAFTA. I know "economics-speak" can be boring at the best of times, but I write allegory between our manufacturing sector and Oliver Twist. Does it get any better than that?

pragmatictory.blogspot.com/2009/03/north-american-free-trade-agreement.html