Liberals need to funnel money though Canada Post again?

Continuing my Canada Post theme tonight, I think we all really know why the Liberals are calling for the resignations of the thirty-three recent appointees. And it is not just because the Liberals are entitled to their entitlements. Well, not just because anyway.

As some of you may remember, crown corporations like Canada Post were found to have participated in Adscam by funneling money through questionable means. 

Could the real reason the Liberals are so bothered by the appointments be that they need to replenish their war chest for the next election? After all, it was a long and costly campaign.

What do you the readers think of this theory?

Another Liberal broken promise?

Looks like door-to-door service will not be restored for those who already have community mailboxes. And the minister wasn't categorical about not re-starting the community mailbox roll-out program either.

Though, if one was to be fair, if they re-instated the community mailbox program it would be a least the right policy decision (though another blatant example of Liberal's promising anything to get elected).

Regarding the whole community mailbox program, I always thought the whole hoopla about it was overblown anyway.

Here are the facts:

1. Every neighbourhood built post 1985 had community mailboxes. That is a lot of neighbourhoods.
2. Canada Post services more area then any other postal service in the world
3. The phase-out of door-to-door service affected less then a third of the addresses in Canada
4. It costs 283 dollars per year to service each address door-to-door. This is versus 108 for a community mailbox.
5. The amount of items mailed (not including parcels) has dropped by over a billion since 2006
6. A Conference Board of Canada report suggested that Canada Post was on track to lose a billion dollars a year by 2020, with the switch over to community mailboxes projected more then half that yearly deficit

The Conservatives are supposed to be the ones against change, and yet here are the Liberals promising more of the same.

Oink Oink Oink

The Liberals have returned to the trough! Is anyone really surprised? I have to admit, I am a bit surprised. (Only at the speed of the return!)

After nearly 10 years out of power, they sure are hungry for some all you can eat taxpayer dollars!

1. Nearly 400 delegates at the UN Climate Conference. "Canada has sent more people to Paris than Australia (46), the U.K. (96), the U.S. (148), Russia (313) and almost as many as host-country France (396)." That is quite the carbon foot print!
2. His entire family (and their nannies of course) for a week long European vacati^@&#& jaunt! Since the "first family" has no role in Canadian government, who pays for their airfare, meals, etc? The inclusion of them on the trip is purely for Canadian political consumption. The taxpayers shouldn't foot the bill.
3. Speaking of the nannies, he hires his two former nannies. The issue isn't that he has nannies, its that he has the gal to bill taxpayers for them after his attacks on the NDP and Conservatives during the election. In addition those attacks, these are the very same nannies he had when he was the leader of the third place party. I can only assume he paid for them out of his own pocket then, so why bill them now?

There is also scuttlebutt that the public sector can start hiring, and the taps are flowing in government to spend whatever they want, and this is all before their first official budget. Hold on to your wallets Canadians!

Trudeau doesn't need help with childcare.....

.......unless he is getting his nannies paid for by the state.

It is completely hypocritical for Prime Minister Trudeau to have the government pay for his nannies. He campaigned on the premise of him being the rich, and not needing taxpayer help for paying for childcare.

Once elected, his tune changes.

To be clear, these are the same nannies he had before he became Prime Minister,so why now does the taxpayer have to foot the bill?

To juxtapose, the Harper's didn't hire a nanny, Mrs. Harper looked after the children when her husband was elected Prime Minister.

Time to get back on the horse.

I guess it is time to get back on the old saddle around here. I have been gone way too long, and with the events of the last few months I really feel I should get back to blogging.

To be honest, it was hard to be motivated to support the last Conservative Party, with the negativity, hate (barbaric cultural practices hotline??), and frankly, small-mindedness.

That being said, I just cannot fathom this rock star persona around Prime Minister Trudeau, and the left's giddy behaviour with regards to him.

I understand the desire to change. I understand the hope he purports to bring. I cannot understand the people posting to Facebook about his, or his wife's looks. Posting his glamour shots, being proud of having a "handsome" Prime Minster. It smacks of sexism.

Nor, can I stand the free ride Prime Minister Trudeau gets from the press, examples like

1. Equal gender cabinet, where nearly all the women are second-tier Cabinet Ministers, or reporting to men. And if we want to be honest, there are only a few more women in PM Trudeau's cabinet then there were in Stephen Harper's. 
2. A dubious Science Minister shilling a decidedly non-scientific MS cure.
3. The free ride he is getting on explaining why we shouldn't bomb ISIS in Iraq and Syria. But have more trainers.
4. Explain how we will screen the refugees, to ensure security. Or why we should bring in twice as many as the Americans.

That is just four, I am sure I could come up with more if I really tried.

Stop the populism - HST is a good tax

I am tired of the simplification in arguments about the HST. Seriously, let's get informed in this. This simplification, and the Ontario Progressive Conservatives (as well as the Federal NDP etc etc) intent to make this a populist revolt are simply uneducated. Stop playing on fear, uncertainty, and doubt and start educating, and having an informed debate.

From an old TorontoStar editorial:
Sales tax harmonization is simply good for the economy as has been shown in other jurisdictions. In fact, Canada is the only one of 30 OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries to continue to use a two-tier sales tax system.

And the top 10 benefits for the BCers out there.

Come on, get informed people.

Thank you Flaherty - GST cut saved thousands of jobs

Now, I am sure you will never here this in most media sources, but today the National Post is running a story on how a senior Liberal wants to raise the GST, and subsequently kill thousands of jobs.

What is interesting is the last couple paragraphs, where the president of Infometrica discusses how his firms modeling data showed the GST cut created 162,000 new jobs!

Carl Sonnen, the president of Infometrica, said his firm's economic modelling shows a two-point cut in the GST translates roughly into about 162,000 new jobs. Conversely, reversing the Conservatives' cut would mean losing those jobs.

"You can't argue that raising the GST rate won't hurt jobs. It will," said Mr. Sonnen, who said the Conservative GST cut likely softened the recession's blow. "In our analysis, we got some positives out of that [cut] for GDP in the second quarter of last year. Otherwise we might have been in recession much earlier."

I remember back when the GST was cut, and Minister Flaherty described it as stimulus, the media and opposition attacked him for it. Seems he was right after all. A little more vindication for the Conservatives.

It has been a good month for Conservative vindication. Winning two court cases against Elections Canada, a Liberal complaint to the Ethics Commissioner also dismissed, lots of faux scandals dismissed.

I wonder how long it will be unit the next faux scandal?

Tories drop back to "normal" levels - MSM spins story

Here we go again. The Conservatives are back in their normal range of about 34% and the pollsters and MSM are spinning this as a massive loss for the Tories and a gain for the Liberals.

Smart political watchers know that this see-saw affect is very normal for the Conservatives and Liberals. Liberals do/say something stupid like threaten an election or a coalition and the Liberals drop, and the Conservatives gain. This has happened many times over the past 4 years.

If I remember correctly, pollsters and pundits used to bash the Conservatives for not having a bigger lead (when at about 34%) over the Liberals back in 2006 during the Liberal leadership race. The rational being that the Liberals were rudderless/leaderless/whatever and they should be easy pickings.

But, the Conservatives tend to poll in the mid-thirties, and out campaign the opposition during an election.

While I am sure that the "prorogation effect" has had an affect on their poll numbers, I don't think the Conservatives would be in the high thirties or low forties right now as the Liberals haven't threatened to bring down the Government in a few months.

This is just the way it is.

I would say the Conservatives are doing OK considering the full-on assault many in the MSM have launched against them.

Totally Legal! Tories win in-and-out court battle

The Conservatives have won their court case against Election's Canada over the so call "in-and-out" scheme.

I am sure the Liberals and the rest of the opposition's apologies will be coming forthwith.

Or not.

O'Connor and the rest of the Conservatives redeemed

Should I expect the lefties to apologize for their past actions? Somehow I doubt it.

“Could we have done this 10 years ago? I don't think so. Not this fast and not to this degree,” said a military spokesman who described the total number of Canadian troops who would be deployed overseas as “historic.”

The Conservatives' legacy will be the rejuvenated Canadian Forces that has grown in numbers, pride, and capabilities since the Conservatives have taken office. Despite the caterwauls of those on the left.

With the focus this government has put on the military, with new personnel and new equipment Canadians are finally aware that they do more then deliver food and shovel snow, and have a new and profound respect for what our military does. A big improvement from the Liberal sponsored decade of darkness.

If the Liberals and the rest of the left had their way, or response to Haitian crisis would be much smaller, much later, and much less effective.

For that we have to thank the Conservatives.

I can hear the crowing from Liblogs miles away

Well, a new poll came out today that should the Conservatives and Liberals in a VIRTUAL DEAD HEAT!!!! OMG!!! Let's leave aside the fact that this poll is part phone and part online, and online polls are never as accurate. And let's leave aside the Angue Reid poll that showed the Conservatives at 34%. And of course the torqued headlines at the Red Star.

Our friends over at LibLogs are now salivating at these poll numbers, thinking they will soon overtake the Conservatives.

Of course they forget that this drop in the polls happens all the time, the Conservatives lose support, drop down to about the level of the Liberals then suddenly come back up again. The Conservatives lose support when the house is sitting and gain support when the house isn't. Been like this for years.

These polls are coming off of the Christmas break where no one was watching, after the attack by the MSM over the prorogation issue, and now we see the Liberals launching attack ads. The attack ads are well timed from the Liberals for once, even though they break a Liberal promise not to launch attack ads. I wonder if Peter Donolo paid for these ads on his credit card?

But I am not sure I would crow over the poll results just yet. While the Conservatives have lost support, the Liberals haven't gained support. This can't possibly bold well for them.

I predict that over the reminder of the prorogation period that the Conservatives will launch ads, take to the airwaves, cheer on Team Canada and continue handing out the stimulus money. This will in turn cause their poll numbers to go up, the Liberals to get cold feet, then abstain or vote for the budget.

This is not to mention that the Conservatives have been out-campaigning and out fund-raising the Liberals for years. Nor does it address the fact that Conservative supports are more dedicated, and they tend to out perform their poll numbers at the ballot box.

I am not worried yet, but if I was a Liberal I would be wondering and worried as to why we haven't picked up any support yet in the polls....

Ahead of the curve

Seems my fellow Blogging Tories are starting to latch unto the argument I advanced on Sunday -- Liberal's cannot accuse the Government of torture without implicating the troops. Following orders is not a defence of war crimes. Guess I was ahead of the curve here...

The Liberals are indirectly attacking the troops, there is no doubt about it.

Pot. Kettle. Black.

Norman Spector has it right on the money. He does however have the title wrong. His post should be titled "What the Liberals know we have forgotten".

The Liberals know all about cover-ups:
- Prorogation over ad-scam
- Shutting down an inquiry over the Somilia affair

Now the Liberals are launching their small and petty attack ad campaign. Yet another broken promise by Iggy to not "go negative".

Petty because this "Afghan scandal" isn't much of a scandal, few Canadians cared about it prior to the prorogation. The campaign offers nothing new, no new ideas or policies, just a petty partisan attack.

Small because the poverty-stricken Liberal Party of Canada can't afford to launch TV ads, only radio ads. There is also question as to how much air time they will actually get. Of course, the launching of the ad-campaign will get lots of TV time, and hence some free advertising for the poor Liberals.

Further more, I still don't see how the Liberals can claim that they are not attacking the troops with this line of attack. By saying that the government is complicit in torture, they implicitly tar the soldiers that handed them over. Following orders is not a defense against war crimes.

The Liberals are small and petty. They are poor and decrepit, they were on the ropes -- financially and electorally, and the Harper brain trust goes and throws them a bone with a prorogation that can be spun all kinds of negative ways.

This will rank right up there with the fiscal updates as a tactical and strategic mistake in the history books.

Prorogue shemogue - Lefties intellectually dishonest - again

I am against the proroguing of Parliament. There I said it. I wonder if a petition will start to get me removed from the Blogging Tories.

Proroguing Parliament is going to go down in the history books as another blunder, another tactical error. By proroguing parliament, the Conservatives have managed to provide legitimacy to the opposition's attacks over the Afghan detainee affair. Where polls used to show that most Canadians didn't care about the issue, new polls are showing that they think the Afghan detainee issue is why Harper prorogued. Bang! Instant credibility.

Polls are showing small but detectable slides in support, and that the Canadian public are buying into the opposition's line of attack. We all know why Harper prorogued, to re-jig the Senate, but that will be brushed aside over their attacks.

All this doesn't excuse the lefties pathetic lines of reasoning, and short term memory.

Last year the opposition was on the offensive to subvert the will of the people with their coalition. They claimed that a coalition was constitutionally valid and therefor the polls against the coalition didn't matter. Today they say Harper is subverting the will of Parliament, and to look at the polls. How soon they forgot.

Harper made a constitutionally legal move. Parliament has been prorogued over a hundred times in 143 years, proroguing is not without precedence. It is a legal move.

Get over it, and stop comparing him to a dictator. Vote down the government in March and go to the polls. Put your money where your mouth is, and no more gimmicks. Present an option.

And for the last time, no one voted for the coalition!

Ontario, Quebec say they won’t shoulder oil sands burden

Quebec and Ontario are not "going to carry higher emission-reduction burdens", but will of course continue to soak up the equalization payments that the oil-sands projects generate for the Canadian economy.

Thanks hypocrites.

What's next, boycotting Remembrance Day?!

Once again, the Opposition parties have shown how out of touch they really are. How petty, how mean, and how disgusting they are. They claim the high ground, they claim (with some reason) that the Conservatives are mean spirited and petty. And then they go and boycott the non-partisan ceremony yesterday marking the 20th anniversary of the Dec. 6 l'Ecole Polytechnique massacre.


They claim it is because they can't stand beside a Minister that represents a government that has "rolled back the fight for women's equality and safety". They specifically argue that the Conservative policies of abolishing the gun registry, and the reduction in budget to the Status of Women program.

It is of course all a crock.

Liberal and NDP MPs voted with the government to abolish the gun registry. Does this mean the Liberals and the NDP are anti-women? The gun registry would do nothing to protect women in an event.

The reduction of funding to the Status of Women program was not a reduction in funding to women's programs in general. In fact, the Conservative Government took that 5 million from the SoW, and an an additional 5 million and put that into other women's programs that are aimed at directly serving women, such as a programs aimed at integrating immigrant women in major cities.

The odd thing is that 14 parlimentarians and staff including NDP MP Libby Davis, and Liberal MP Judy Sgro placed white roses in vase to represent the 14 women gunned down that fateful day. No Bloc MP bothered to show up at all.

Simply disgusting politics, I am sure somehow Warren and others will blame the Conservatives for this.

"TortureGate" decisively disputed?

TortureGate, TortureGate, how do I dispute thee?

• Will sworn testimony from the ranking diplomat in Afghanistan dispute thee?

TortureGate, TortureGate, how do I dispute thee?

• Will the sworn testimony of 3 distinguished generals dispute thee?

TortureGate, TortureGate, how do I dispute thee?

• Will comments from the International Red Cross dispute thee?

Switching metaphors, Mr Colvin, it's one, two, three strikes you're out in the old smear game!

Hopefully the Liberals and the rest of the opposition will let reason take hold, and stop the smears against the Canadian Forces and the government. Some how though, I doubt it.

Blatchford sets the record straight?

Reading Christie Blatchford's latest column seems to destroy Colvin's credibility. I am sure the left will just disregard everything that is being said, and still call for an inquiry.

After reading her column, I think there is even less to the story then before. From her column, the facts seem to be:
- Colvin visited the first prison on May 16, 2006
- ICRC rated the prisons as "not that bad", "not the worst in Afghanistan", inmates were "...in reasonably good condition", and received "enough food"
- Colvin only sent 3 emails in 2006
- Only one in the first three months of 2007
- Vast majority written about the same time the Globe and Mail was breaking the story on the abuses in the Afghanistan story
- Colvin only spent a day and a half outside the wire
- Prisoners were not simple farmers etc, they were all tested for gun shot residue, or were caught with large amounts of Pakistani cash.

Seems that Colvin is on a vendetta against a "hyper-secretive" government. Get ready for him to jump to politics as a candidate for the Liberal Party.

And in slightly unrelated news, on the radio today, I heard some women say that GSR tests prove nothing. She "wouldn't be surprised" that a large percentage of Canadians wouldn't pass a GSR test. Wow, some peoples kids.

200 billion and counting

According to the Fraser Institute, Canada has poured more then 200 billion dollars in corporate bailouts and welfare since 1994.

In my opinion, the money quote is this one:
“The illusion of corporate welfare directed to the automotive industry in 2009 was the illusion that jobs were being saved. No, they were not. Instead of jobs being cut at General Motors or Chrysler, they were simply cut elsewhere or prevented from being created at other automotive companies that would have increased production to meet market demand in the absence of GM or Chrysler in the marketplace.”

This is exactly the position I argued for last winter. Most people responded with a "Hmmm, never thought of that.". Damn these sheep. Damn those politicians that pander to them.

Your tax dollars at work:



You can see from the chart that the corporate welfare peaked in the dying days of Paul Martin's government. With a two year trend (only two years of data with the Conservatives) you see that the trend was moving downwards. This will of course change once this "conservative" government's bailouts to GM and Chrysler are factored into this.

I was against the bailouts, but I do (somewhat) accept that their was little choice once the Americans elected President Obama and moved towards bailing out the automotive industry.

[h/t]

Iggy - Even more inspired by the Americans

Seems Iggy is taking all his cues from America these days. Not content with just supporting torture and the Iraq war, Ignatieff is now supporting American style politics.

Checkout the last "demand" from Ignatieff:
"The name of the leader of the sending member's party must be included in any ten percenter and the leader must explicitly the content of the product."

That seems pretty darn American to me. I am sure we have all seen their campaign ads before.

Maybe Michael Ignatieff should explicitly say he is defeated and whining. Maybe he could have added a little message like this to the bottom of his letter to the Speaker:
"My name is Michael Ignatieff, and I explicitly acknowledge that I am at a lost of what to do to improve our poll numbers, so instead of policy, I come up with faux scandals and whiny letters. "

Do you think Canadians notice these faux scandals? Judging by the poll numbers, I don't.