April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

Politics

Blame it on Hamas

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With apologies to Kris Kristofferson

Harper’s up in Ottawa he’s really in stew
Canadians in Gaza what’s he gonna do?
But then he hears a whisper into his tin robotic ear
Lets just blame it Hamas

Blame it on Hamas, blame it on Hamas
You’ll feel so much better, knowing you don’t stand alone
Start the accusation, tell the bleeding nation
Get it off your shoulders, blame it on Hamas

Conservatives won’t take the blame, won’t take responsibility
Lies are cheap and easy, the truth it don’t come free
It’s not our fault if lives are lost
We’ll just blame it on Hamas

Blame it on Hamas, blame it on Hamas
You’ll feel so much better, knowing you don’t stand alone
Start the accusation, tell the bleeding nation
Get it off your shoulders, blame it on Hamas

So while civilians in Gaza are blown to little bits
Conservatives wax arrogantly but they don’t give a shit
They just sit there useless immune to all the cries
We’ll just blame it on Hamas

Blame it on Hamas, blame it on Hamas
You’ll feel so much better, knowing you don’t stand alone
Start the accusation, tell the bleeding nation
Get it off your shoulders, blame it on Hamas

See POGGE for the news story

Here is the original song

Howard Hampton: Soon to be former ONT NDP Leader

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hh_thumbnailTodays Star has a good article on Howard Hampton the soon to be former Ont. NDP leader. Hampton never did get the chance to shine, stifled as he was by the shadow of Bob Rae. A shadow which even a move by Rae to the Liberals has not lifted. Ironically Hampton and Rae were not allies during the Rae administration. The Neo-Con climate of profit and business before people was also not conducive to Hampton’s message of fighting poverty and social responsibility.

Hampton, according to the Star article, gets under McGuinty’s skin and that alone is endearing. Having campaigned originally on a message of change, McGuinty has done precious little to change the circumstances of the most vulnerable in the province.

I hope that the next NDP leader will take up the fight for social responsibility recognizing that a society is only as strong and as healthy as the weakest of its members.

Who wants to be USA North?

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I’m wondering who is behind the polling questions on the latest Angus Reid poll. Most deal with questions of confidence around the parties and leaders and whether you support coalition. There was also this question among the mix;

Which of these political systems do you think would be best for Canada?
Please select one response only.

    A presidential system, with an executive branch that is separate from the legislature
    The current parliamentary system, with the prime minister and cabinet exercising power
    A semi-presidential system, with a president in charge of foreign policy and a prime minister in charge of domestic policy
    Not sure

A Presidential or Semi-Presidential system? Wonder who’s looking into garnering support for that?

Dion Steps Down

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As was expected Dion stepped down as Liberal leader today.
Dion endured smears from the beginning. About his ability to converse in English, his light frame, his backpack and even his ability to answer incredibly poorly worded questions. Conservative ads consistently showed Dion as weak and ineffectual, it was the modern day equivalent of the big dumb bully kicking sand in the face of the nerd.

Though not a Liberal supporter I do think Dion is a man of honour and integrity. And while I don’t necessarily support his policies I do believe he has a great respect for both the country and the environment. In that he showed himself head and shoulders above Harper.

What may be the unkindest cut of all is that so much of the campaign to oust him came from within his own party. He was lured into the shadowy corners of the Big Tent and shived in the back.

John Manley, seen as a possible successor was quoted as saying, “If I were to be critical of Stephane, I think he took the party in a direction where it was fighting in a very crowded field for too few votes on the left side of the spectrum and that’s not where you win elections” The Star

This would seem indicative that the Libs have decided to follow the Conservatives on the track to the right wing fringes. With the majority of Canadians who did vote voting in support of ‘progressive’ parties, and so many choosing to abstain from voting, one wonders what makes them believe this move to conservatism is something the Canadian public wants. After all previous liberal governments have shown that campaigning from the left has served them well.

A move to a right wing agenda would of course be a move away from Dion’s plans for environmental protections and the Greens already represent right wing market based environmentalists. It will be interesting to see where on the political spectrum the Liberal power brokers place the party.

Shortly before the election, in response to Harper’s taunts to the other leaders about quitting if they were not elected as PM, Dion said, “I am not a quitter”. I don’t believe he is. It is too bad though that his party quit him.

I wish Mr Dion well in his future endeavours.

The Debate

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Tonight’s leadership debate was much better than I expected. While I didn’t see a clear winner I did see more honest talk than there has been for some time.

May was fantastic and a real asset to the debate. Duceppe was hilarious when asked what his first order of business would be as PM he said he wasn’t going to be elected PM but this is what he would lobby the others to do.

Layton was articulate, on message and got some lovely digs at Harper including asking Harper if he was keeping his platform under his sweater.

Harper slipped a couple of times with Dion proving how he is misconstruing Dion’s words to put forth his own agenda.

As far Harper I’ll quote my son;

he really showed obvious signs of “fight or flight” instincts any time he was asked a direct question from one of the other candidates or whenever they called him on something he said that wasn’t true. His eyes were darting, he shifted multiple times in a small time period and he hunched down making himself as small as possible. And all I could think is if he can’t stand up strong during a simple debate was: How, if he ever actually got elected, could he stand up to his opposition (excluding underhanded tactics.) And if he can’t do that, how would he be able to stand up to other world leaders, especially those who he already seems to have a weakness to? (Bush, McCain if he somehow gets elected.)
he just seemed like a very weak leader in that, he couldn’t stand up to any of them strongly, and could do nothing but evade any straightforward question. He showed clearly his policies are based on lip service to ideology.

It will be interesting to see how the media spins it.