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Post by Dr. Drum on Mar 26, 2007 20:45:39 GMT -5
Some amazing results coming out of the Quebec provinicial election for the ADQ tonight. Hate to think what this might mean in terms of Harper's potential in the province in the next federal vote.
Would have loved to have had Phil around right now for some first hand reaction!
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Post by Dr. Drum on Apr 29, 2007 7:23:57 GMT -5
Masters of our own house
Danny Williams
National Post
Saturday, April 28, 2007
On Tuesday, Newfoundland and Labrador Lieutenant-Governor Ed Roberts read the Speech from the Throne. In the article below, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams explains the meaning of the speech's most notable phrase, "masters of our own house."
Our people are proud and strong Canadians, but we are equally proud and strong Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. We are proud of our diverse culture and distinct dialect; proud of our vibrant history and our promising future; proud of our humour and our legendary generosity; proud to be partners in the federation but also very proud of our contributions to Canada.
Despite some misconceptions to the contrary, our province has made substantial and meaningful contributions to this country. Over the course of the life of our current offshore projects, the federal government will receive an estimated $20-billion dollars. Our hydroelectric resource at the Upper Churchill yields an estimated $1-billion annually into the coffers of Quebec, improving their financial position and thereby reducing their equalization payments from Ottawa. And our nickel helps to employ workers in Ontario. These are just a few examples of how we share our natural resources with Canada.
And while our province is recently starting to see some of these financial benefits at home as well, we have languished for too long while the principal benefits of our renewable and nonrenewable strengths have been channeled elsewhere. That is why our government pledged to chart a bold new approach to self-reliance by getting our fiscal house in order and harnessing every opportunity to grow our own economy.
Through sound fiscal management we have been able to start reducing our debt, but we still have the highest per-capita net debt in Canada, more than double the national average.
This is precisely why Prime Minister Stephen Harper's promise on equalization meant so much to our province.
It would have given us an opportunity to keep more revenues from nonrenewable resources today to build a foundation of sustainable growth for tomorrow. His promise meant that once the oil and gas is inevitably gone we would be able to maintain our position of self-reliance and prosperity, because we were able to put those nonrenewable resource revenues to work when we needed them most.
The Prime Minister should remember Ottawa's National Energy Program of the 1970s and how outraged Albertans were to see federal policies work against them. He should remember it because he fought so very hard against it. I believe he needs to do some soul searching and find his way back to his philosophical roots.
The Prime Minister's complete lack of recognition of his promise is only slightly less alarming than his seemingly "anything to win a majority" attitude. This attitude has now extended to his Finance Minister condoning and ignoring federal finance officials providing misleading information to independent economists in order to reach inaccurate conclusions to foster a deceptive agenda. This is all conduct unbecoming elected officials.
This is why I caution all Canadians to seriously question any promise made to them or information provided by federal finance officials. Broken promises from Ottawa have fed the feeling of Quebec and Western alienation, and disillusionment throughout our country.
Newfoundland and Labrador has made the very conscious decision that if Ottawa will not work with us as they clearly promised to do, that will not stop us from pursuing self-reliance on our own. As masters of our own house, we will take charge of our future as a people, as we have done in this year's provincial budget.
We will continue to move forward assertively to strengthen our financial autonomy by diversifying and growing our economy, reducing our burden of debt, implementing competitive tax regimes and reducing our dependence on equalization payments.
Even as we implement these good policies and make our strategic investments for the people of our province, how does the Prime Minister react? Mockingly implying that we deserve no more. Does he honestly fail to understand that which he once stood for -- to "remove non-renewable natural resource revenue ? to encourage the development of economic growth in the non-renewable resource sectors across Canada" (Conservative Party Policy 2005)? In addition, he has unilaterally altered our 2005 Atlantic Accord, which will potentially diminish the gains we had already made.
We will cultivate greater moral autonomy -- no longer letting others leverage us into doing what they decide is "for our own good"; but finding our moral compass within and defining our own values and priorities.
We will cultivate greater cultural autonomy --defining how we see and project ourselves: as a distinct nation, not defeatist but innovative, determined, bold, courageous, adventurous, confident and cool.
It's not separation we crave, but respect -- the kind of respect that comes from within. Self-respect breeds self-confidence, which breeds selfdetermination, which breeds self-reliance, economically and socially. As a self-respecting partner in this federation, we will work alongside our colleagues as proud equals with a new sense of maturity and self-worth; and our newfound sense of self, so much the better for Canada.
We will take charge of our own destiny. We will craft our own future. We will chart our own course. We will indeed achieve self-reliance within Canada by becoming masters of our own house.
- Danny Williams is the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador.
© National Post 2007
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Post by rockkid on May 1, 2007 11:34:36 GMT -5
I’ll tell you now due to the housing/rental mess going on here in Alberta & the cons lack of effort towards it, I can’t see them holding AB.
Especially Edmonton ridings.
To say the situation is bad does not begin to cover it.
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Post by Dr. Drum on May 1, 2007 21:09:37 GMT -5
Yeah, but where would you see the Conservative vote there going, rk? Linda Duncan got within striking distance (vs. Rahim Jaffer) last time, but otherwise practically every Alberta Conservative racked up 55, 60 – sometimes 70% of the vote. Most of 'em can afford to bleed a lot while still carrying their seats very comfortably.
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Post by Dr. Drum on Aug 24, 2007 4:54:16 GMT -5
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Post by phil on Oct 2, 2007 12:15:28 GMT -5
Student recruits unfit for service, say former border guardsFacebook postings show drinking and partying while officers in uniform Last Updated: Monday, October 1, 2007 | 9:01 PM ET CBC News Canada Border Services Agency officers who work in B.C. are being accused of posting inappropriate and offensive material, some of it directly related to their jobs, on the internet. The material includes jokes about guns and passports, an allegation that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is a "serial killer" and insults directed at French-speaking Canadians. ----------- Geez! You have to wonder what will be the biggest threat ... Those idiots armed with guns patrolling our borders or terrorists trying to sneak into Canada ...  See the pictures ... www.cbc.ca/bc/news/071001-borderguards.pdfRead the story ... www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2007/10/01/bc-borderguards.html
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Post by phil on Nov 9, 2007 10:01:17 GMT -5
Neorhinos pledge to put Harper on a diet
Updated Thu. Nov. 8 2007 2:23 PM ET
The Canadian Press
OTTAWA -- If by some miracle it ever gained office, this new political party would declare Spanish as Canada's official language and pass legislation forcing Prime Minister Stephen Harper to go on a diet.
They're proud of smoking marijuana, plan to scrap the military budget, and would replace the Department of National Defence with a Ministry of Laughter.
Welcome to the Neorhino party.
They bill themselves as the heirs to the old Rhinoceros party that specialized in satire and ran unsuccessfully in every federal election from 1965 to 1988.
The new party -- Neorhino.ca -- held a news conference on Parliament Hill today.
They call themselves Marxists-Lennonists -- inspired by Groucho Marx and John Lennon -- and don't seem to have a clear political ideology, other than the promotion of fun.
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HÉ! They also promised weekly orgasms for everyboby
and the creation of a gas BBQ National Registry ...
Serious stuff right there !
And if the 40 % of electors who don't bother to vote
gave their support to the Rhinos, the "Party" party
would form a majority government without problem !
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Post by phil on Nov 9, 2007 11:08:03 GMT -5
Stephen Harper listened to The Beatles when he was young ? Yeah! Right !! How the Conservatives plan to get a majority government by hating the '60s Philippe Gohier | Oct 19, 2007 | 1:43 pm EST Bob Dylan once insisted "everybody must get stoned." The Rolling Stones’ extended family used to include "cousin cocaine" and "sister morphine." While Lou Reed was boasting that shooting heroin made him feel "just like Jesus’s son," Jefferson Airplane enjoined us to "feed our head." And then there were The Beatles, singing jolly little ditties about "Lucy in the sky with diamonds" and the "little help" they got from their "friends." Harmless musical artifacts from a by-gone era? Hardly, says Stephen Harper. "We are up against ... a culture that since the 1960s has at the minimum not discouraged drug use and often romanticized it, or made it cool," Harper said earlier this month when he announced the government’s new anti-drug strategy. "My son is listening to my Beatles records and asking me what all these lyrics mean ... I love these records. I'm not putting them away ... But we have to change the culture." Of course, Harper doesn’t want you to think it’s just the Beatles’ fault Canadians are hopped up on drugs - because it’s the Liberals’ fault too. By toying with the decriminalization of pot in the early part of the decade, Paul Martin and Jean Chrétien spread the mistaken impression it was legal. That’s all over now, and Harper wants the message spread far and wide. Continued Below "It's time to be straight with Canadians," he said, "so Canadians who use drugs can get straight." Read more ... www.macleans.ca/canada/features/article.jsp?content=20071019_144237_6108 |
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Post by Dr. Drum on Nov 9, 2007 11:10:45 GMT -5
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Post by phil on Nov 9, 2007 12:59:19 GMT -5
Gawd! I wish ... ;D
21:40: The Rhinos have just taken Nunavut. Go figure.
First Nunavut! Then ... THE WORLD!!
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Post by Dr. Drum on Dec 14, 2007 8:15:40 GMT -5
So did anyone buy into any of lyin' Brian's song and dance yesterday??
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Post by phil on Dec 14, 2007 14:03:35 GMT -5
Bah! The poor guy just didn't want to pay
those atrociously high Bank ATM User's fees !!
Who can blame him ?
And almost everybody he's supposed to have lobbied are dead
so they sure won't contredict his stories ...
But mostly, around here, nobody gives a damn
and sees this affair as "business as usual" ...
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Post by Dr. Drum on Dec 15, 2007 7:42:55 GMT -5
There was an Ipsos poll last week, though, that seemed to show the Cons slipping pretty badly in Quebec. Though still ahead of the Liberals...
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Post by phil on Dec 15, 2007 9:20:30 GMT -5
Quebecers get on my nerves pretty badly these days ...  |
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Post by Dr. Drum on Jan 26, 2008 7:05:17 GMT -5
Not usually in the habit of recommending ROB magazine, but not a bad read for 'ye mainlanders' (even if the author does feel the need to repeat Margaret Wente's vile epithet.) A bit long, so if you have the time...  tinyurl.com/2z5xh9 |
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