Harper's Jelly Beans and Flaherty's Peanuts

Harper is brilliant to the point of being an evil genius. He is a master of distraction and has the devious nerve to offer us "jelly beans" with regard to the SSP 2007 Leaders’ Summit in Montebello, Quebec.

“Is the sovereignty of Canada going to fall apart if we standardize the jelly bean?” asked our Prime Minister with a smirk. “You know, I don’t think so.”

And now Harper's guardian of the Mother Hubbard ministry, Jim Flaherty, is saying the cupboard is bare yet less than a week ago he was looking at an unexpected billion or so from The Canadian Tar Pits.

Please Mr. Harper can I have the standard black jelly beans?



Flaherty has been 'hollowing out' the piggybank since his budget last fall which trumpeted a slashing of 1% off the GST and cutting taxes to Canada's 'hollowed out' corporations by $60 Billion in order to show us the cupboard is really bare - proof! And all I can see as a citizen is peanuts in my pocket which I might as well feed the corporate elephant too.

And the military too is getting a big raise.

And the Tax Free Savings Account? Unless I was moderately wealthy I am scrambling to pay my ever increasing energy bills and gassing up old betsy. And how come the subway fell apart when I was trying to get to work this morning?

There was something I saw on the news the other night, five, or maybe six, of the highest bank towers in the heart of the financial district have been exempted from paying property tax as they claim to have overpaid their share for a number of years totalling an amout of $6 million! No wonder they complain that their obscene profits are not obscene enough to them. Well the citizens will have to cover their obscene butts 'til they deem justice is served.

Call it what it is, the Harper is selling us a crock of peanuts and before you buy into this crack one open to see if they haven't hollowed them out too.

Transparently Opportunistic

John Dorion's letter to the StarPhoenix, " Appointment best serves northerners" Thursday, January 31, 2008 is a poorly calculated risk to align himself with Ralph Goodale and those who believe they hold the reigns of Power in the Liberal Party. As much as Ms. Beatty's achievements are to be praised, Mr. Dorion's acheivements can be lauded as well. But what more and more Canadian people are looking for in their representatives is consistency.

We are sick of strategists. We feel we are being used as fodder in their meaningless political wars. We are tired of 'jumpers' and 'drop-in's'. The Liberals should have learned a lesson when Ignatieff was dropped into Lakeshore/Etobikoke South. Such was another monkey on the back of a Martin government that was falling apart from all directions. You never learn.

They had better take seriously the local backlash. Goodale and Dion and Dorion have miscalculated the "tempest in a tea pot" that is being read on everyone's computer from coast to coast to coast. To yourself this may only have originally have been an out-of-the-way affair. It's not the size that matters here, it's the principal, democracy. It's not surprising that you are nervous weighing your inconsistent values.

We all know David Orchard. Canadians all across the country have known him for years because, above all, he has been consistent. Whether consevative or liberal, he more than most represents what Canadians dream of being as a country. He is the type of person who has proved to have made a difference.

See below...

Appointment best serves northerners

The StarPhoenix, Thursday, January 31, 2008

Appointment best serves northerners
by John K. Dorion

The recent uproar over Joan Beatty's appointment as the Liberal candidate in the Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River byelection is really nothing more than a tempest in a teapot.

After our MP resigned last summer, I threw my hat in the nomination ring, and toiled for months – meeting people, raising funds and selling memberships as I criss-crossed the vast expanse of northern Saskatchewan. Had there actually been a nomination meeting in November, I have no doubt that I would have trounced my opponent – political gadfly David Orchard.

Of course I was disappointed when Stéphane Dion pre-emptorily appointed Beatty, but I understand that a leader sometimes must make tough decisions in the best interests of the party. As a longtime loyal Liberal, I fully support his choice.

Like myself, Ms. Beatty is an aboriginal person from the riding and has my full and unequivocal backing. That she was a cabinet minister in the Saskatchewan government shows that she has developed certain skills that can benefit the people of northern Saskatchewan. Her election can address a gender inequality in Parliament today.

However, I am profoundly dismayed over the antics of Orchard. Whatever his agenda, it's not one that has the interests of the people of northern Saskatchewan foremost. Nor does it help the Liberal party.

It's true that he helped Dion win the leadership of the Liberal party. But a few short years earlier, he also played king-maker at the Conservative convention and was pivotal in Peter MacKay becoming leader.

Orchard does well when it comes to picking leaders (in whatever party he happens to be in at the time), but his subsequent actions prove that he has enormous difficulty in abiding by the rules (of whatever party he happens to be in at the time). Orchard now should join the next party on his list, or failing that, start his own to keep himself at the center of attention.

During the last election, farmers at the southern fringe of this riding voted Conservative. The rest of the riding is predominantly aboriginal – Dene, Cree and Métis. We pulled together as Liberals and won by 67 votes.

It is important that we stay united and work hard to get an aboriginal person elected as our representative in Ottawa. We don’t need Orchard coming here to tell us what is best for us.

From such ground breaking policy initiatives as the Residential School Settlement and the Kelowna Accord, to strong action on the international scene in support of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Aboriginal Peoples, the Liberals have shown us time and again that they are the best way for us to advance.