April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

conservatives

Stephen Harper – He’s Not In It For You!

by

Stephen ‘we aren’t in election mode‘ Harper’s attack ads on Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff takes various quotes with no context in order to paint him as someone with no love for Canada and apparently by extension no right to govern. Now I’m neither a Liberal nor a great supporter of Ignatieff, however, if this is the litmus test for leadership let’s see how Harper does when hoisted on his own petard.

“A culture of defeat…”
describing the Atlantic provinces

“Canada is a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term, and very proud of it. Canadians make no connection between the fact that they are a Northern European welfare state and the fact that we have very low economic growth, a standard of living substantially lower than yours, a massive brain drain of young professionals to your country, and double the unemployment rate of the United States.”

June 1997 Montreal meeting of the Council for National Policy, a right-wing American think tank.

“I was asked to speak about Canadian politics. It may not be true, but it’s legendary that if you’re like all Americans, you know almost nothing except for your own country. Which makes you probably knowledgeable about one more country than most Canadians.”

June 1997 Montreal meeting of the Council for National Policy, a right-wing American think tank.

“Canada appears content to become a second-tier socialistic country, boasting ever more loudly about its economy and social services to mask its second-rate status, led by a second-world strongman appropriately suited for the task.”

“It is time to seek a new relationship with Canada,”

“In terms of the unemployed, of which we have over a million-and-a-half, don’t feel particularly bad for many of these people. They don’t feel bad about it themselves, as long as they’re receiving generous social assistance and unemployment insurance.”

June 1997 Montreal meeting of the Council for National Policy, a right-wing American think tank.

Harpers views on particular Canadians

Immigrants

“You have to remember that west of Winnipeg the ridings the Liberals hold are dominated by people who are either recent Asian immigrants or recent migrants from Eastern Canada; people who live in ghettos and are not integrated into Western Canadian society.”
Report Newsmagazine, 2001.

Does that make NDP supporters Satanists?

“The NDP could be described as basically a party of liberal Democrats, but it’s actually worse than that, I have to say. And forgive me jesting again, but the NDP is kind of proof that the Devil lives and interferes in the affairs of men.”
June 1997 Montreal meeting of the Council for National Policy, a right-wing American think tank.

Feminist -read women’s rights and health care oh my!!

“The establishment came down with a constitutional package which they put to a national referendum. The package included distinct society status for Quebec and some other changes, including some that would just horrify you, putting universal Medicare in our constitution, and feminist rights, and a whole bunch of other things.”
June 1997 Montreal meeting of the Council for National

Lost your job? don’t worry daddy Harper cares or maybe not…

In terms of the unemployed, of which we have over a million-and-a-half, I don’t feel particularly bad for many of these people.
Rebel Youth magazine

Gay? no rights for you!

Same sex marriage is not a human right. … [U]ndermining the traditional definition of marriage is an assault on multiculturalism and the practices in those communities.
Hansard, February 16, 2005

Poor child? Suck it up wussies!

These proposals included cries for billions of new money for social assistance in the name of “child poverty” and for more business subsidies in the name of “cultural identity. In both cases I was sought out as a rare public figure to oppose such projects.”
The Bulldog, National Citizens Coalition

On coalition

As leaders of the opposition parties, we are well aware that, given the Liberal minority government, you could be asked by the Prime Minister to dissolve the 38th Parliament at any time should the House of Commons fail to support some part of the government’s program. We respectfully point out that the opposition parties, who together constitute a majority in the House, have been in close consultation. We believe that, should a request for dissolution arise this should give you cause, as constitutional practice has determined, to consult the opposition leaders and consider all of your options before exercising your constitutional authority. Your attention to this matter is appreciated.

From a letter to then-Governor General Adrienne Clarkson signed by all three opposition leaders: Gilles Duceppe, Jack Layton and Stephen Harper (September 9, 2004)

All the Lurkers Love Me!

by

Tony Clement says government won’t budge despite criticism from radicals like statisticians, religious groups, governments……

Ever since the move was announced in late June, statisticians, researchers, academics, municipalities, religious groups and others have decried the move, arguing it will result in skewed and unreliable data.

In an interview with CBC Radio’s The House, Clement says that despite the criticism, coming during the summer when many people are not paying attention to politics, he is not going to take another look at the issue.

“No, we’re not,” he said. “We’ve heard from Canadians from all walks of life who are quite relieved that we’re taking this position as well.”

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/07/16/clement-house-census.html#ixzz0u2UYPNTP

Conservatives Really ARE Dinosaurs!

by

According to two Cornell University studies if you are the squimish or queasy type you are also more likely to be politically and socially conservative.

Participants who rated higher in disgust sensitivity were more likely to oppose gay marriage and abortion, issues that are related to notions of morality or purity. The researchers also found a weak correlation between disgust sensitivity and support for tax cuts, but no link between disgust sensitivity and the other issues.

And in a separate study in the current issue of the journal Emotion (Vol.9: No.3), Pizarro and colleagues found a link between higher disgust sensitivity and disapproval of gays and lesbians. For this study, the researchers used implicit measures (measures that have been shown to assess attitudes people may be unwilling to report explicitly; or that they may not even know they possess).

Interestingly, despite the ‘bleeding heart’ and other monikers denoting ‘wussiness’ it seems that Conservatives not Liberals are the ones ruled by emotion;

Liberals and conservatives disagree about whether disgust has a valid place in making moral judgments, Pizarro noted. Conservatives have argued that there is inherent wisdom in repugnance; that feeling disgusted about something — gay sex between consenting adults, for example — is cause enough to judge it wrong or immoral, even lacking a concrete reason. Liberals tend to disagree, and are more likely to base judgements on whether an action or a thing causes actual harm

Disgust was meant as a protection from things that could cause harm or disease not to pass laws or judgements on the choices or morality of others. Being more evolved it behooves us to help our Conservative brothers and sisters to …. oh wait they also don’t believe in evolution…. never mind.

Source

Tories Preparing Attack Ads

by

“We poll better on offence,” said one government official. “That’s always sort of guided us.”

Well isn’t that special? Nice to know they have the bully and arsehole voter demographic sewn up.
Personally I fail to see the point in targeting Ignatieff. He already is allowing Harper to govern unopposed.

Apparently the ads will focus among other things as branding Ignatieff as a flip flopper. Really? They want to go there. With a leader who breaks his own election date laws. Who appoints a record number of senators after a career of working against the senate. Who signed a declaration in support of women’s rights and equality and then gutted SWC and brought forward legislation in the budget that would end pay equality. These are but a few among the many other ways he has proved his disregard for Canadians especially female Canadians.

Though he did not win his pined for majority, Harper is still unfortunately PM. For him to constantly belittle the opposition, in effect belittling the citizens of this country who choose those members as their representatives, shows that Harper is a bully both politically and personally and is not fit for office.

O Canada We Hardly Knew Ye

by

I’m having a hard time blogging these days. Not because there isn’t plenty to be outraged about. Too much in fact!

It is more that I see so many of my fellow Canadians falling for the bullying, obfuscation and downright deceitful practises of the Right Wing Coalition Party. Rove/Cheney politics is alive and well and living in Canada. While Obama may be no saviour in the United States, Ignatieff is even less so in Canada.

Fed on a diet of Faux “News” and Amercian “reality” tv we end up with such ignoble quips as this
“First we lost saying the Lord’s Prayer in school, then the Pledge of Allegiance, and now the singing of O Canada…”
See Alison at the Galloping Beaver

And while “Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon will not even return phone calls from lawyers for Canadian Omar Khadr, the last Western detainee in Guantanamo Bay.” the Right Wing Coaltion Party does have time to decide that elementary school students should be required to be indoctrinated with jingoism patriotism through the forced listening of canned O Canada music because

“We have soldiers in Afghanistan on a continuous basis rotating in and out and the least we can do is show pride for our country and our flag,”

Yes it is the absolute least we can do. No doubt they want the kids to be rabidly partisan..er patriotic so they can support a war that most of their parents [and the rest of the country] don’t. Gotchya
[Helps to have rabid jingoist when you need cannon fodder.]

When Canadians are losing their jobs, 129,000 in January alone, calls for changes to EI and other social safety nets are met with “We do not want to make it lucrative for them to stay home and get paid for it” However, there is no problem using taxpayers dollars, the same soon to be jobless taxpayers, to make it lucrative for their corporate buddies to keep cutting jobs and moving plants offshore.

The Harper/Ignatieff Coalition

by

In a move that showed Canadians Liberals have their best interest at heart, newly minted Liberal leader Ignarieff voted down the Harper budget. Citing lack of initiatives to protect or create jobs, complete disregard for the women of Canada, and a deficit which will take decades to pay yet resolves nothing…… Oh wait no.. that’s not what happened at all.

Sure the budget wasn’t worth the cost of the paper it was printed on. Sure women received absolutely nothing. Sure ordinary working class Canadians were once again told to stuff it in favour of an estimated 3 billion to paid to those who not only can afford to keep their homes but renovate them too, sure there were reports of infrastructure payments –oh did we mention they got the idea from a spam scam? ya– you put up the money first and then we’ll give you riches…sure the budget held all this and more but Ignatieff voted for it anyway.

OOOOO but there were caveats. Yep there were. Big special important ones too. Like the Cons gotta keep Canadians informed about where their money is being spent and gotta check in and keep the parliament informed…uh pssssst Iggy…isn’t that how a democratically elected government is supposed to perform anyway?

What was the point in the Liberals electing appointing a new leader?