Framer Recognizes Ignatieff... Liberal Victory On It's Way!

I'm not a big believer is polls, except as they reflect "general trends". A "statistical tie" is the best assessment we can glean from the current round of polling.

One thing I do believe in, is the "buzz on the street". Last week, while getting some work done around the house, a framer pointed out "Ignatieff" (not "Iggy", or "that Liberal leader", etc.). I was floored.

For several years I've been hoping to hear some recognition of one of our leaders (post-Martin) by members of the general public. Not just random comments about what's on the the cover of the local paper, but "real" recognition. Last week I found that recognition.

When the real "Joe Average" (not pundits, politicos, and hacks) start talking up your leader, you're coming around.

We've come around.

Now let's give them all something concrete to stand on.

Can we wait until the "Thinkers Conference"? I don't know. We certainly should make public some of the discussions that will occur leading up to, and during, that meeting of "the minds".

Hmmm... It's nice to be 'back'...

VICTORY FUND

Jason Kenney Must Resign... Pt. 5

Kenney continues his crusade against the people he feels he doesn't want in Canada.

Today's target: Haitian orphans who have been adopted by Canadians.

Instead of approaching the Haitian Government to fast-track paperwork to fly these tots out (as the Netherlands did), Kenney prefers to call the Dutch action "kidnapping". He "cleared" a tiny handful of orphans through the Canadian part of the process (ones already cleared to leave Haiti). Big whoopie!

What an idiot.

Kenney goes on to say how "generous" our family unification class of immigration is (he claims it is the most generous in the world), which is total bullshit. The USA has a much more welcoming immigration policy when it comes to family reunification, and they are miles ahead of us (decades?) when it comes to the lottery system for green cards.

Getting married in a couple of weeks, our "friendly" policy/government has rejected the visitor visas for some of my fiance's family members (maternal cousins). Can't attend a wedding. A bloody "visit", not staying or anything. They were accused of trying to "queue-jump", since they had previously applied for immigration. Oh yeah. One more thing: they happen to be South Asian/Indian. It's not "preferred nation status" when it comes to immigration under this Conservative Government. If they were a majority religion, and perhaps from a different lattitude, their luck may have been different.

Jason Kenney. Keep up the hypocritical work! Your talking out of two sides of your pie-hole may "curry" favor with some minority quarters (mostly from your "preferred" groups). There are even morons in my own community who continue to jump at the opportunity to pose for pics with you when you slither into town... Opportunists know no bounds... Heck some of them are even MPs in your caucus. Earning their "keep" within their ridings by being THE conduits for immigration "letters" for their own groups of friends and networks...

Not really holding my breath for you to resign. You'll lose your job (though not your seat) in the coming "crimson tide".

Farewell, my not-so-worthy nemesis! May the door to the House not hit even one quarter of your posterior on the way out...

VICTORY FUND

I Didn't Know I Am ... Elite...

Dear Tony Clement:

Thanks for describing me as "the best of a class" (according to Webster's definition of elite).

Judging by my salary (a scant FRACTION of your's), I couldn't possibly have thought myself to be "elite" in the past.

Maybe it's because I buy my own "fair trade" organic coffee and brew it myself - instead of paying the Conservative Party's favorite Calgary-based corporation (Tim's) the $1-whatever per cup it costs... Does that make me "elite"?

Maybe I went to university and received post-graduate education. Maybe THAT makes me "elite". It certainly makes me a fair bit more educated that most of your Cabinet - even your PM perhaps... But elite? Never thought of it that way.

It is good to be considered the "best of the best". But... seriouslyTony, I don't know why you'd consider me to be "elite".

I have to say, the real "intellectual elite" in this country have been pissed on just a little too long. In the 70s and 80s - even the 90s - our governments used to celebrate our scientists and researchers. My high school texts were full of elite minds who made Canada a better country. You know - people like nuclear watchdogs, professional civil servants, and hard-working climate researchers.

When your brand of NeoConservatism came to light (first in Bush's America, now here) your hyper-ideological kooks branded a whole class of hard-working Canadians as "elitists". All the while you took your funding from the elite of Canada's elitist classes (the Big Oil Companies and mega-corporations - the preferred funders of conservative movements the world over). Talk about the pot calling the kettle...

Conservative movements/right wingers around the world have used these tactics to seize power. You and your friends, Mr. Clement, are no different. You need votes and a way to gain favor with the working masses. You need to drive a stake - create a schism. You begin to tear apart society and create an "us and them" mentality. You tell hard-working farmers that city folk are a bunch of latte' swilling elitists. You go to an assembly line and tell the workers there, that people like teachers, scientists, artists, etc., are "elitist" snobs who are out to get them (even though many of those workers earn more than the teachers and artists ever could). You try to divide. To tear society assunder, then create a backlash against the scapegoat: "the elitist".

You also wish to "shut up" those who would question you. Those who would debate your logic (or lack of it). A lot easier to scapegoat an adversary, and call them names, than to actually debate them. Heck, why not just close debate altogether? Call it a prorogue....

There have been scapegoats created in societies in the past. It is a dangerous path you take. They were also referred to as "elitists" - and much worse. We don't need Canada to take that turn...

Sure, I'm "elite". I consider myself good at what I do. I consider years spent going to school, earning next to nothing, and constant studying, to be "sweat-equity" into a world where my thought do mean something... And now... me, and others like me, are going to do everything we can to ensure that your schisming of Canadian society does not succeed.

In the meantime, I'll keep brewing my own organic brew (and saving what I don't spend at Tim's).

I'll keep reading.

I'll keep questioning.

I'll keep speaking out.

I'll keep on being "elite", because it will take elite thought, and elite action, to bring down your farcical government. Not kowtowing to the lowest common denominator...

VICTORY FUND

House Leader Goodale Discusses Prorogue

Ralph Goodale makes a few great points surrounding the Harper Con suspension of Parliament:

PROROGATION SHOWS LACK OF CHARACTER

Prorogation! Most Canadians probably never heard of it, before these past two weeks.

It’s an ancient procedure. It means discontinuing all the functions of the House of Commons and the Senate, stopping just short of dissolving Parliament for an election.

Typically, a Prime Minister “prorogues” Parliament when virtually all the business scheduled for one session has been accomplished, and it’s time to start over. That’s how Liberals used the procedure – and no more frequently than once every three years.

But in the pathologically partisan world of Stephen Harper, “prorogation” has become a parliamentary swear word.

It’s no longer a rare, but honourable procedure. In Mr. Harper’s hands, prorogation is a frequently-invoked tool of political cowardice, to throttle accountability and cover-up Conservative wrong-doing.

Whenever he’s confronted with that wrong-doing – e.g., his willful blindness to torture in Afghanistan, his farcical behaviour at the Copenhagen environmental conference, his domestic failure to create jobs, protect pensions, or reduce barriers to education – he puts a padlock on Parliament and runs away.

But that’s not Stephen Harper’s only despotic tendency.

He methodically intimidates the public service, except for one brave diplomat (Richard Colvin) who insisted on telling the truth about Afghan torture.

Mr. Harper also fires or cripples the supposedly independent “watchdogs” who are intended to protect the public interest – the Military Complaints Commission, the RCMP Complaints Commission, the Nuclear Safety Commission, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, the Chief Electoral Officer, the Ethics Commissioner, the Information Commissioner, and on it goes.

His vindictiveness even includes slashing the budget for groups that advocate equal rights for women, church organizations like KAIROS, and the independent Canadian Council on Learning.

To quote Stephen Harper himself in 2005: “When a government starts trying to cancel dissent or avoid dissent is frankly when it’s rapidly losing its moral authority to govern.”

Amen!

VICTORY FUND

It's "Iggy" - Not Ignatieff...

We can take a page from Harper's playbook... He wants to wrap his party in Olympic glory, then intro a throne speech. This will put the Opposition on the spot: "support" the speech to avoid an election, so we can have our "thinker's conference" in March (to develop policy), or end the government, and scrap it out...

He will goad us into defeating him, because he wants either the "support" of the Opposition, which he can wave in our faces all session long (to allow him to have free reign), or he gets his election before interest rates and debt catch up to him (the economic "genious" that he is).

What to do? What to do? Well, for one thing, we need to start calling Iggy "Iggy".

Yup.

I know he doesn't like the nickname. He's said so much on a ride in a car from downtown Vancouver to Richmond a few years back.

There is, however, more at play here. Ignatieff is catching on with the public (as far as knowledge of him goes). I've heard people who normally don't mention Opposition Leaders' names mention his. He is named on the late-night talk shows. This is all good.

Still, we need to have a catchy name for our leader. Like Ike. "Mike" Pearson, etc.

Our choice? Iggy. Why? With the Olympics in full swing in the next month, one of the heroes of the games will be "Iggy" - Jarome Iginla. Jarome is someone a lot of the Canadian public will associate with next month. A carefully placed meeting and photo-op will help tie that bind with Iggy-Iggy. I can see the headlines: "Liberal's Iggy Meets Canada's Iggy", etc. Ignatieff will wish him well, etc., and proudly wear a Team Canada jersey. It could even be staged with a press conference immediately afterwards promising to bring back the "Team Canada Trade Missions" that are so sorely needed by Canada's business/trade community (something Harper has ended due to his contempt for the rest of the world).

"Iggy to lead Team Canada to China/India". "Iggy Scores For Canada", etc., etc., etc.

Circulate buttons, "Score With Iggy" (yes, a little overtly suggestive); "Join Team Canada".... etc....

Get all this out BEFORE the Conservative Olympic love-in.

By the way, who do you think Iggy votes for???

And it is IGGY... Go with it.

VICTORY FUND