Monday, July 26, 2010

Goodale Rips Into Harper And MP For Calling Sask Mayors And Reeves Delinquent School Kids

Ralph's latest weekly update:

MR. HARPER TAKES SASKATCHEWAN FOR GRANTED – AGAIN!

Our province is going through a rough patch.

It started when high potash prices didn’t materialize as expected, punching a $2 billion hole in provincial revenues. And then we were drowned in the worst spring seeding conditions in history.

Over 85% of Saskatchewan’s farmland was affected. Some areas got more than three-times normal precipitation. Between a quarter and a third of the land (maybe 15 million acres) was either unseedable or will not produce a harvestable crop.

As a result, farm incomes will be down this year by some $3 billion.

The weird weather also extracted a heavy toll in property and business damages in Maple Creek, Saskatoon, Yorkton, Raymore, North Battleford, several First Nations and other places. The losses are approaching $400 million.

For the provincial economy overall, growth projections are being cut by about one-third.

You’d think the federal government would be sending heartening messages of encouragement. But instead, the Harper Conservatives give Saskatchewan the back of their hand.

On the farm front, the feds have offered only a puny $18 per acre – not to compensate for income losses, but only to defray extra land rehabilitation expenses after the water dries up.

This is hopelessly inadequate for the grain sector. There’s nothing for livestock. And it appears anything a farmer gets from this so-called “recovery” program will be offset against what he/she would have received anyway under the much-criticized “Agri-Stability” program. So it’s not “new” and it’s not much!

To add insult to injury, when municipalities asked Mr. Harper to extend the deadline for finishing flood-delayed infrastructure projects, they were told to get stuffed.

One Conservative M.P. compared Saskatchewan’s Mayors and Reeves to delinquent school kids who couldn’t be trusted to do their homework. That attitude shows how deeply the Harper gang takes this province for granted.

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Thursday, July 22, 2010

Stats Can and Thought Crime...

So, Harper has now decided to dismantle Canada's most accurate purveyors of truth... Statistics Canada.

Seems that anyone guilty of speaking the truth (or researching it) in the face of this governments continuous lies is guilty of "thought crime"...

The government that hates government, hates Canada's institutions, and despises scientific fact, is slowly doing an "end-around" to circumvent any misgivings about "deboning" and "neutering" StatsCan.

Ignorance is bliss. Conservatives seem very "blissful" right now.

We'll choose the "light" of education; of progress. The illumination of science and research... Of rational thought. It appears the battle lines are being drawn: between the "government of stupid/the Party of Ignorance", and true liberal democracy. Time to bring the light back into Canadian politics.

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"If You Think Education's Expensive, Try Ignorance"

Michael Ignatieff waxes poetic on the ignorance our "conservative" government loves to wallow in...

See the video here...

http://www.liberal.ca/newsroom/blog/michael-ignatieff-weighs-in-on-the-census-debate/

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Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Goodale Report: Ignatieff Listens To Sask Farmers

IGNATIEFF LISTENS TO SASKATCHEWAN FARMERS

The Harper government has to do a lot more to help prairie farmers battling the worst farmland flooding situation in history.

That’s the message federal Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff took away from talks he held this past weekend with farmers and farm leaders – after visiting some water-damaged areas near Saskatoon.

Mr. Ignatieff noted the Conservatives easily found more than a billion dollars for just three days of G-8/G-20 meetings in Toronto – which produced nothing to bolster a struggling global economy. They’re spending another $16 billion on an untendered contract to buy military aircraft – which senior defence experts describe as absurd and appalling.

Mr. Harper wastes hundreds of millions of dollars annually on partisan advisors, consultants and advertising. He’s spending more on prisons than on education or skills training. His priorities are disgraceful.

The stingy amount of farm aid announced to date ($30/acre, with only $18 coming from the feds) is clearly insufficient when you consider basic production costs are in the neighbourhood of $150/acre.

Plus, there will be additional land rehabilitation expenses this year, just when farm incomes are being slashed by a staggering $3 billion because of the flooding.

Further details are impossible to get. The Conservatives promised full information and application forms within a week of the Federal-Provincial Agriculture Ministers Meeting in Saskatoon at the beginning of July. That timeline has long since come and gone.

There are no clear rules on eligibility or how to apply. Livestock producers are apparently being excluded altogether. And it’s rumoured that anything “extra” that farmers get through the Agri-Recovery program will be counted against what they might otherwise have received anyway under another program, Agri-Stability.

So it’s not net additional help!

Mr. Ignatieff came to see for himself. He listened. And he committed to fighting for a better deal.


-- Post From My iPhone

Friday, July 16, 2010

Conservatives Purchase Fighters To Compensate For Lack Of "Happenings" In The Pants' Department...

Short "conversation" posted elsewhere justifying the Conservative fighter purchase (coming to you from the same party that killed the Avro Arrow)...

We do need these fighters, of course, because of the fighters the Taliban have. Oh really? They don't have any fighters? They don't have planes at all? No tanks you say? What do they fight with? 1940s WW2 Era Kalashnikovs? You don't say. What about the nuts in the Middle East? They don't have air forces? Don't we have any other enemies? The Russians, maybe? Oh... They're our allies now. They fought along side us in the Gulf. Oh. We use their bases. Oh. How about the Chinese? They're red. They're commies. Yup. They also keep our and the US's economies afloat (along with most of Western Europes'). Oh. Can't we just fight 'em anyways? That DOES seem to be what Harper wanted (with his earlier statements about China). We need some sort of enemy to justify these purchases in the deepest darkest of recessions, don't we? How about aliens? We need to bomb someone. What do you mean these planes can't bomb anyone? They're pure "fighters". Meant for air-to-air combat with other similar fighters... But no-one supposedly has any fighters like this. I guess we'll just park them and fly them over football games... Kinda like giant dicks in the sky... Just like if Harper got to buy his Camaro (to justify a lack of something..)... That's it!!! The fighters are just the Conservatives' insecurities about penis size. That's gotta be it... That's gotta be behind the whole wanna-be tough image...

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