Tory Majority; One Year Later

As we reach the one year anniversary of the Canadian Conservative party winning majority control of parliament, how would you rate this first year of Tory majority government? Do you approve, disapprove, or are you neutral? Much has been accomplished, and there is still 3 years remaining with lots of time on the agenda. Some would argue that democracy is being slowly ripped away from us, others would say the government is doing a far better job than the alternative ever could. Kind of depends who you talk to.

Wildrose Lost?

Ouch, very few saw that one coming. Given that Wildrose was leading in the polls for most of the campaign, one of two things must be true; either there was a last minute swing in support, or the polling during the campaign was completely inaccurate. Wildrose won zero seats in the previous election, so a jump to 20 should be considered a strong step forward; had it not been for repeated lofty expectations of a Wildrose victory. If the polling was accurate, then what officially knocked the train off the tracks? There were some comments by individual candidates which created significant amounts of negative press. Was it simply a case that in a pinch, people will tend to go with the devil they know rather than the one they don't? Can we find a way to blame this on the unions?

As a non-Albertan, I can't speak about the mood on the street; but I am trying to figure out what happened. I'd still rather live under Allison Redford than Dalton McGuinty, so in that sense Alberta, it could be worse (aka living in Ontario).

Did You Celebrate The Charter's Birthday?

Today was the 30th anniversary of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Did you throw a party or otherwise celebrate this occasion? That is today's poll question. There were minor grumblings in the media that the Conservatives were crudely shunning human rights by not throwing a party, which shows you how far the level of discourse has fallen in the Canadian press. I've always viewed the Charter as something that feels nice in theory, but in practice has proven to be a Pandora's Box of frivolous litigation. Frankly it is ridiculous to criticize the Conservatives for not hosting a government celebration of Liberal legislation. Why wasn't today a national stat holiday? Why not hold annual birthday parties for the National Energy Program?

Are Budget Cuts Putting Your Life At Risk?

Today's poll question; are you concerned that government budget cuts are putting your life at risk? That seems to be the running theme lately of the CBC "ballot box" questions. They even have an article about challenging the scrapping of the gun registry that includes a picture of a gun pointed at the viewer (where have we seen that before?) Basically the message is that government cutbacks are putting your life at risk. Do you agree? It should be noted that the CBC is hardly an unbiased observer, as they have been whining about their own budget cuts. They are trying to help sell the story that government budget cuts are bad; but hey, if I were receiving a hefty government salary, I'd probably be saying the same thing.

F35-gate: What's In A Pricetag?

Reading and listening to the media outrage over F35-gate, you would be convinced that the consensus opinion in Canada is to have gasoline and insurance costs included in the sticker price when you go to buy a car. If the dealership does not put your cost of fuel for the next 30 years in the purchase price, then it is lying deceit and the salesman should resign. It's that simple, or stupid, depending on how you choose to look at it. The dealership should attempt to guess what oil changes will cost in 2040, and then include their guesses in the 2012 price of purchasing the vehicle. It shouldn't matter if you are already paying a similar amount for maintaining and operating your existing car, you must guess how much the next 30 years of associated expenses will cost and put that in the current price. And if you're off, you must resign.

F35-gate has proven to be another case of crying wolf when there is no wolf present. The Tories campaigned on the cost of NEW expenditures, but others disagreed with what should be included in the price tag even before the election. If this was such a grand controversy worthy of the Prime Minister resigning, why weren't the opps able to hammer him on this during the campaign? This cost debate started well before election day. Now you have the media spinning Peter McKay's response of a difference in accounting procedures as him blaming an "accounting error". McKay never said it was an error, it was a matter of campaigning on the cost of new expenditures and not money we already spend on our current air force.

Today's poll question; Should costs already incurred by the Canadian air force be included in the purchase price of new jets?

Justin Trudeau; There Will Be No Rematch

Having defied the expectations of many partisans and non partisans alike, pulling off an upset in a charity boxing match against Senator Brazeau, Justin Trudeau will not allow his opponent an opportunity to redeem himself. He's done. Retiring on top. Given that Justin proclaimed his victory to be a symbolic representation of the fight between Liberals and Conservatives, losing the rematch would itself be ripe with symbolism. As Apollo Creed said to Rocky at the end of the fight in Rocky 1, "there will be no rematch". He probably knows that he was lucky to win, and even though a rematch would likely raise even more money for cancer research that the original fight, he's had enough. It makes sense from a self image perspective. Muhammad Ali won both rematches against Joe Frazier. Lennox Lewis creamed Hollyfield in their rematch. Rocky won the second fight against Creed. If you win, that's basically as good as it is going to get. Who wouldn't want to go out on top instead of risking embarrassment in a rematch?

Is Justin Trudeau retiring from charity boxing because he's preparing a run at the Liberal leadership next year? Today's poll question, why do you think Trudeau is denying his defeated opponent a chance at redemption?

Who Attacked The NDP Leadership Vote?

Okay so let me get this straight, the company responsible for the NDP's online voting in their recent leadership race claims that someone hacked hundreds if not thousands of computers and directed them to the website where the NDP was conducting online voting in order to suppress democracy. They are not openly accusing the Conservatives, but did say that such attacks are "often launched as protests by the organization's political or economic opponents" and came from 10,000 different IP addresses. Hint hint. Do you really think the Conservatives would do this while already under investigation for electoral fraud? How stupid would you have to be to do such a thing when so many are trying so hard to convict them of a similar crime? Meanwhile, what is the probability that the NDP's online voting problems were the result of a technical glitch or the system being unable to handle the volume of voters? Allegations of a "cyber attack" came pretty early in the day, not long after after the problems began. But hey, accusing Pierre Poutine 2.0 of a cyber attack makes for a better news story than a technical glitch or system flaw.

Today's poll question; what is the most plausible explanation for the NDP leadership race internet voting problems? Was it a large scale cyber attack from the Tories or Liberals? Was it a technical glitch? Was it foreign espionage? Was it Anarchists?

Who Will Be The Next NDP Leader?

With the debates over and the NDP leadership campaign heading into it's final weekend, who do you expect to win? Will it be Mulcair, or will Topp land on top? By the way, prepare yourself for the silly puns if Topp is crowned the next leader. Will Broadbent's last minute attempt to swing momentum from Mulcair to his boy Topp have any significant impact, or did he unwittingly help Mulcair? Will the media be asking questions about Mulcair's hidden agenda, which Ed Broadbent alleges he has? Will Kady O'Malley ask Tom is he believes Osama Bin Laden is dead? These are questions we'll know the answer to on Monday.

At the beginning of the campaign some speculated that the Tories were the most afraid of Paul Dewar winning the leadership, which I'm not so sure about. There is not a single candidate on this list who will even be half as effective in that job as Layton. It's all downhill no matter who they choose. There will likely be a temporary bounce for replacing Turmel, but come the next election, we are looking at a likely fall in seat count (with the severity depending on the performance of the new leader). Nobody has any idea how Topp will perform in the House of Commons, where we at least know Mulcair can yell and scream across the aisle.

For 2013, I call dibs on the headline "Orange Crushed"...

BC Teachers On Strike "For The Children"

Today's poll question; why do you think British Columbia's teachers are on strike? Is it for the money, or for the children? Most of the commentary coming from the teachers is that they are fighting to give your children a better education, fighting for special needs, that this job action is not about the teachers, it's about the children. What do you think? Personally I'm of the opinion that it's all about the money, trying to get a 15% wage increase during a time of fiscal austerity. No question there are great teachers out there who have a sincere desire to see their students succeed, but that's not why you walk off the job. They're trying to get paid.

The Curious Case Of "Pierre Poutine"...

Today's poll question; Who is Pierre Poutine? He's the anonymous figure who seems to be at the heart of Robogate. As the authorities conduct a proper investigation we should find out his true identity. If and when that becomes public, who will he turn out to be? A Conservative, Liberal, Dipper, Anarchist, Marxist, Media member, Green, foreign spy, Al Qaeda, Taliban, an American activist, or do you think that we will never know? The hyperbole regarding Robogate has been insane. The allegations warrant an investigation by the proper authorities, more the police than Elections Canada, and I'd like to know more about the EC riding office in Guelph last April. Something smells fishy, in my professional opinion.

So who is Pierre Poutine? Might as well make a prediction before we find out the truth, assuming we ever do. I'm voting he's a random Anarchist. I'd be shocked if he were a prominent Tory insider.

Robogate: Do You Believe?

Today's poll question; do you believe that the Conservative Party engaged in widespread systematic voter suppression in the 2011 Canadian federal election? The poll question at the CBC politics page is; do you believe laws were broken in the last federal election? 95% of their audience has voted yes, though the question doesn't specifically ask if people believe the Tories broke the law. Frankly there is no evidence to suggest that the party is responsible for these phone calls, but the presumption of guilt has been running rampant through the media and opposition benches. One panel guest on CBC radio this week said "if anyone would do this, it's these guys", as though one journalist's presumption of guilt is adequate justification for criminal allegations.

We also have fringe parties in this country who are strong advocates of proportional representation, who often cite low voter turnout statistics as proof we need to overhaul our democratic system. These parties also get copies of the voters list, and have more incentive to engage in "voter suppression" than the Tories. They've got nothing to lose, whereas the Conservatives would have a lot to lose for doing this (with a high probability of being caught). Many Conservative supporters also received these misleading phone calls, which is not a very intelligent strategy for the Tories. Do I have any evidence that the Green Party or the Marxist Leninists engaged in voter suppression? No, but that shouldn't prevent me from alleging criminal behaviour. If I believe there's a chance it's true (and they have incentive to do so), I should be allowed to make unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud, right? (that was sarcasm by the way)

Pat Martin's latest theory is that the Tories were trying to suppress votes in safe Liberal and NDP ridings to deprive them of the $2 per vote subsidy money. Meanwhile the Tories campaigned on scrapping subsidy and have made good on that promise.

This is getting crazy. Elections Canada has been investigating this for months, and we should let them finish. Why is the investigation taking so long? My guess is that they are trying everything they can to find evidence of criminal activity by the Conservatives. If no evidence exists, this could take a while.

Has Vic Toews Been Treated Fairly?

Today's poll question; has Justice Minister Vic Toews been treated fairly this week? On Tuesday he introduced a government bill to help police catch child pornographers, which had many on the left and some on the right going bananas expecting to be persecuted like child predators. By Thursday the CBC was promoting places on Twitter where you could go to attack Vic personally. One Twitter feed with a House of Commons IP address went so far as to post sensitive details from Toews personal life. All this because he introduced a bill to catch child predators, then made the ill advised comment that if you do not support the legislation then you support child pornography.

Liberal MP Wayne Easter seems to think he deserves what he's getting, but I'd rather hear what you have to say. Has this now gone too far?

Should Trudeau Run For Liberal Leader?

Today's poll question; would you like to see Justin Trudeau become leader of the Liberal Party? Previously I have endorsed Gerard Kennedy as my favoured "scorched earth" candidate, but he has been overtaken in recent days. There is no doubt in my mind that the Tories would win a second majority if JT led the party into the next election. The assortment of video clips that are piling up in his wake are becoming legendary in a bad way, and will provide priceless material for election ads. The third person references are outstanding and hopefully those will continue.

Realistically the separation fiasco this week has eliminated the likelihood that he runs against Bob Rae in 2013. He has a constituency should he decide to run, and I truly hope he does. Promoting separation as an option if you disagree with the elected government? The fact that he doesn't seem to understand why his words were so toxic, is just further evidence that he's not fit to lead the country, but lead the Liberals, absolutely. He can count on the Iceman's endorsement, because the Iceman also lives Canada in his bones.

Canada's Aging Second Hand Submarines

Today's poll question; Should the Liberals have bought Canada's 4 cold war era submarines from the British 13 years ago? Hindsight is starting to show that it was a colossally bad idea, as repeated problems and frequent repairs have wiped out the savings from buying the boats used. Would you rather we buy new subs or do you think that we don't need any at all? Canada has one of the world's largest coastlines and as such submarines can serve a useful purpose (like patrolling for smugglers). If there are more efficient and less costly means of performing this function, all options should be considered. The current sub fleet is close to its end anyway, so we are going to have to start slowly decommissioning them in the not so distant future. Perhaps we can buy fewer planes and a few more boats?

Evan Soloman was trying to float the idea today that there was a mysterious cover up regarding a training accident last summer, and that the government has been "misleading" Canadians. It was reported that there was an accident, but apparently we should have been told there was a big hole in the front of the boat. None of the sailors were seriously injured (two had minor bruising), the boat made it back to base on its own power and an inquiry was held into the incident (which is why Evan even had pictures to wave around for the camera). I'm not sure why they seem to think every detail regarding damage to our military equipment needs to be broadcast immediately to the entire world. How many other countries do that?

Evan was focusing in on the fact that the damaged sub was removed from the water at night to support his cover up conspiracy "under cover of darkness". Then later he had a military rep on the show who simply explained that it was done at 4am because they needed high tide to lift it onto the dry dock. Evan struggled to come to terms with the simple truth, and that the damage was structurally like "ripping the skin off your bumper", except that it is an expensive bumper. He had a very unhappy look on his face. It was almost funny to watch him conduct his interview while trying to compute the information, after he'd been pumping a cover up of a larger story for the first hour and a half of his show.

This is yet another example of the media breaking a story before they have completed their research. In the modern 24 hour news cycle and Twitter universe, journalists compete to be the first to break a story, and often do so before completing their due diligence. The bloggosphere and punditry class then go on to draw conclusions based on incomplete information. When they end up looking like idiots, they'll blame the government for not telling everyone every detail about everything immediately.

Three Cheers For Pandas!

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's trade mission to China has been a roaring success. Not only did he secure Canada billions of dollars in trade agreements, but he scored Toronto and Calgary a pair of pandas. Nice touch! Granted, there are some people who don't want us to sell resources to China or accept their pandas. Rather what we should be doing is boycotting trade until they change their foreign and domestic policy to something that's more agreeable with Canadian values. Evidently making public statements disagreeing with Chinese policy is insufficient, we should cut off trade altogether until they change (because doing so will surely make them change course).

The poll question today on the CBC's Rosemary Barton Show was; is Canada putting trade with China ahead of human rights? 83% said yes. It's ridiculous that Soloman has started naming his polls "the ballot box question", when most of his loaded questions are completely irrelevant to how people vote. I'd like to see Rosemary permanently take over for Evan. The better question is; should Canada halt trade with China until they adopt more agreeable foreign and domestic policies?

Warning Shots-gate

The controversy of the day on Thursday was whether or not it is appropriate to fire warning shots with a gun to deter someone threatening your life. Recent comments by the Justice Minister set off a small media firestorm, including attacks in Question Period and a grilling on the Soloman Show. Though when Evan ran a poll asking "should you be able to defend your property with a gun?" it is unlikely he was expecting 80% of his audience to answer "yes". You can lead sheep to water, but you can't always make them drink. He should have asked if it is cool to fire warning shots.

Today's poll question; if you are being threatened, is it acceptable to fire warning shots with a gun?

Government Promoting Torture?

The big controversy today on the Soloman Show was a "government directive to CSIS" to use information that MAY have been obtained through torture if that information can save lives. As you can well imagine, the usual suspects went bananas claiming that this was tantamount to promoting and encouraging the use of torture. Gerard Kennedy was damned near ready to ship Vic Toews off to the Hague. Evan kept referring to "groups" who might use torture, when in fact what he's talking about are foreign governments, a number of them our allies.

Canada has intelligence sharing agreements with roughly 150 countries, and a chunk of them allow what we define as torture. Does that mean we should immediately stop accepting all intel from those countries, or should we have them prove that no torture was used on a case by case basis? I was hoping that Evan would list all our allies who permit torture that we should stop sharing intel with, but he would only mention the United States and Afghanistan. Today's poll question; should we stop accepting all intelligence from countries known to on occasion use torture? We're going to have to stop using most intelligence coming out of the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. I'm not sure how much we can use from South America either.

One thing that kept coming up today was that the information obtained through torture "is not reliable" or "tainted". It is most unreliable when obtaining a confession, but I would be curious to see the actual numbers when it comes to the locations of militant bases, future attacks, or the names of operatives. That data is likely classified, but my guess is that the more specific the information, the more reliable it is. I don't condone torture nor want to see my country torturing enemy combatants, but if Saudi Intelligence informs us that there could be an attack on a subway on a certain day, we certainly can't ignore that because someone may or may not have been tortured. It may not be 100% reliable, but neither is it 100% unreliable.

The letter Vic Toews wrote to CSIS (which Evan kept waving around for the camera today) made perfect sense. It is not creating a "market for torture" if we accept intel that may save lives. One panel loon even
went so far as to say that this memo was going to lead to rendition, where we start shipping off prisoners to foreign countries for the sole purpose of having them tortured. Come on man! Seriously?

Canada's Relationship With China

Once upon a time when Stephen Harper criticized China for human rights abuses, the Liberals went bananas saying that it jeopardized our valuable trade relationship. Now that Harper is in China on a trade mission, Bob Rae is on the CBC saying that the PM should speak out against human rights abuses when Evan Solo asked him how he should deal with China. I believe Bob's exact words were that the Harper government must "become a more robust proponent" on human rights. Meanwhile the PM has gone so far in the past as to boycott the Beijing Olympics, which won him support in the Canadian Asian community.

Now Mark Holland is on criticizing the Prime Minister for once doing too much and now not doing enough. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Either way, China has a lot of money and we have a lot of resources to sell. Though 63% of Evan's audience does not think that we should "boost ties" with China while they support Syria. My poll question: how much trade should we seek with China? More, less, or the same?

The Soloman Show has a neat new feature that if you Tweet something with the hash tag #PnP during the show, it will pop up on the screen during the broadcast. Obviously there is a filter. I went 2 for 3 today. My Tweet asking if Mark Holland gets paid for panel appearances (and if so how much) did not make it to air. It was a surprise to see my Tweet "Anytime anyone even loosely affiliated with the Tories mentions abortion, Soloman has to dedicate half his show to it. #PnP" pop up on my television. Solo has really been pumping the Twitter hard.

The James Moore Decline

Very rarely do I run a poll during a "controversy" asking if a Tory minister should be expelled from cabinet with the result leaning 75% yes. Yet James Moore has accomplished exactly that. Did this collapse in support happen overnight or has he been slowly building towards this since taking the Heritage portfolio? He has lost more support in the right leaning community in a short period of time than Helena Guergis ever did. Many have stood by Christian Paradis, Maxime Bernier, Tony Clement, Bev Oda, Lisa Raitt, etc; but Moore's support of the CBC and his prophecy of Sun News demise has created more ill will than any of the aforementioned "controversial" figures.

I'd have to say that the first Blogging Tory I can remember hammering James Moore on a semi-regular basis was BC Blue. He's been on this for a while, but the calls for his cabinet expulsion are a very recent phenomenon. Once upon a time Moore was a rising star, but after too many galas he's become drunk on the elixir of Canada's cultural elite.

Should James Moore Be A Cabinet Minister?

Today's poll question; do you think that James Moore should be sitting in cabinet? The Tory Heritage Minister is under fire for recent comments to a Sun News reporter that she's a "pawn" for her employer after a question about the CBC broadcasting porn. He went on to say that Sun News is going to be shut down (I'll try not to hold my breath while waiting for that prophecy comes true). Even Heather Mallick has come out in favour of Moore, once considered to be a bright star of this Conservative Party. I'm starting to wonder if he's attended too many galas and parties to be thinking straight on the matter of Canadian culture. Nobody gets to attend more parties than a Heritage minister. Should he be booted out of Cabinet, shuffled out of Heritage, or stay in his current job?

For more dialogue on this matter, check out the comment section over at Blue Like You.