Notes on the leaders' Debates

'Fraid I missed the entire first hour of tonight's french language debate due to a mix of parenting duties and my sacred responsibilities as Al Goulem's biggest fan.

Duceppe was on his home turf and coasted through masterfully as usual, making scathing points about Martin (a talk-the-talk but not walk-the-walk kind of guy, in his estimation), and saving the occasional shot for Harper as well.

Harper was, basically, as scintillating as a big tub of margarine (official Quebec-grade, extra light yellow) that breaks into a disturbingly forced little smile at the end of every sentence. He framed virtually every response as a question of the federal government not over-stepping its bounds into provincial jurisdiction, and stifled his giddiness at labeling Liberals as criminals with an entitlement complex. He was clearly trying to turn on the charm (which just gives me the willies), but I have to say his command of french does seem to have improved since the last debate.

Martin was wearing a bright blue shirt with a crimson tie, the two of which conspired to give the impression his wardrobe was attempting a hostile takeover of their host. It made it hard to concentrate on what he was saying (but he stuttered less than yesterday, and seemed more "on"). He looked somewhat wan as he listened to Duceppe and Layton reciting statistics of millions of Canadian children still living in poverty despite years of Liberal governments' heartfelt promises to Put an End to this, Once and For All.

Martin's best moment was when he layed into Harper, telling him it's not very Prime Ministerial to go on American TV and slam your own country for not joining in on the Iraq invasion. (Good move reminding Quebeckers of this fact - we were considerably more negative on that war than the Canadian average).

Layton was less repetitive than in the english debate (thank God) and his command of the issues was strong. He used his "winning conditions" for Quebec within Canada line from last night's debate (which does sound nice - more so in french; but where's the beef?) Then he tried to frame last year's NDP-revised budget as a response to the fiscal imbalance while painting Harper and Martin with the same brush: as fat cats favouring tax cuts for big corporations over money for social programs. Layton also blasted Harper on his promised GST cut, asking what's to keep commercial outlets from cynically raising their prices and negating any savings for consumers?

Duceppe, Layton and Harper all went after Martin for his surprise announcement yesterday that he wants to take away the option of using the Notwithstanding clause for federal lawmakers. They all seemed bewildered, and either made cogent arguments for keeping the constitution as is, or used it as a prime example of Martin's lack of vision, pointing out that the things he believes in Very Very Dearly is constantly changing.

Of course Martin used that as a pretext to shoot back at Harper for being a turncoat to his own deeply held convictions over the past 20 years, what with all these new policy announcements.

So there was a lot of excitement tonight, and from what I saw I'd say it was the best debate of the four. I'm taping the Radio-Canada newscast right now while the wifey watches Gilmore Girls. I can't wait to see Bernard Derome's take on it; he can always tell when Rory is heading for a romantic disappointment.

He may even have something to say about politics too.

- 30 -

Why did Montreal cops kill Mohamed-Anas Bennis?

When you live in a city with a murder rate this low, it's always troubling when one of those less-than-weekly killings was carried out by a police officer on a man with no criminal record. Doubly so when the victim is a member of a visible minority. The official line of our police is that Cote-des-Neiges resident Mohamed-Anas Bennis was shot and killed in self-defence after he attacked them with a knife - while on his way home from morning prayers at his local mosque last December 1st.

Fellow Montrealer kersplebedeb over at Sketchy Thoughts has been following this questionable situation - and the shamelessly marginal coverage of it by our local media - with a keenly jaundiced eye. Go have a look.

- 30 -

Weirder than Fiction

Is she weird?
Is she white?
Is she promised to the night?
And her head has no room
--Pixies' Is She Weird


I have been tagged by Dazzlin' Dino to come up with five things that are weird about me, myself and I.

1. As the above picture of my son Francis suggests (seen here last month at just under 20 months), I believe strongly in the need for enforced child labour. And perhaps weirder still, my son loves the idea. While his grandparents inundated him with plastic beeping, whirring toys, still nothing beats the fun of vaccuuming (which I have every intention of reminding him about once he's in his teens and refusing to clean his room).
   
2. I was was born with a bifid uvula (scroll down, it's near the end of the article).
3. I have lived in La Belle Province my entire life yet my grasp of French is still intermediate at best.
4. I graduated with a degree in Journalism and Communications over ten years ago, and was once the co-editor of a University newspaper but have still never been paid one red cent for any copy, stories or songs I've written.
5. For chrissakes, I'm a blogger! What could be weirder than that?

Okay, now to pass it along. Take it away folks:
Mark[Section 15]
CathieFromCanada (who seems to have ignored Dave's tagging, naughty girl)
Pretty Shaved Ape
Gazetteer
Ivan Prokopchuk (who probably won't stop at five, ...or ten even - that crazy cat)

Cheers all.

- 30 -

Screw you, Scott in Montreal: Harper

Now it all makes sense. Harper said yesterday a Conservative government would repeal the recent Liberal tax cut people like me just started benefitted from.

“We will be doing our tax plan, not the Liberal tax plan,” (Harper) said, singling out the Tories’ promise to cut the GST to five per cent from seven per cent as the centrepiece of the initiative that involves selected personal and business tax cuts. “We can’t do both. And our tax reduction will save a lot more money for Canadians than the Liberal plan.”

One of the measures implemented from the Liberals’ November mini-budget reduced the marginal tax rate for persons earning less than $35,595 to 15 per cent from 16 per cent. At the time, the Liberals promised further cuts in the income-tax rates down the road.

So instead, I'm supposed to make do with paying 1% less on the GST. I know they always try to get it played as a 2% cut, but I note that only the first 1% cut would be enacted this year. The other half would come at some time over five years (in other words, towards the end of his mandate, at the point he would call us back to the polls again.)

So basically, this is a big screw you to working families like mine, who can't benefit from any capital gains tax cut on donations to charities because we are struggling just to keep up with mortgage payments and other bills. It's a pretty meagre portion of my paycheck that goes into non-grocery purchases, let me tell you. At least Jack knows the score on this, and I thought he had the best take on it:

"I was shocked to learn that Stephen Harper and the Conservatives apparently are willing to increase the income taxes on the lowest income people in our community in order to pay for all of their other tax cut promises that they have been throwing around. This to me is shocking and the fact that this has come forward should give every Canadian citizen pause as to what kind of an agenda is here and certainly it is the wrong way to go."

Layton said his party's tax policy calls for no increases in taxes, supports an increase in the basic personal exemption and a reduction in the lowest income tax rate that is now coming into effect.
(emphasis mine)

That's a turnaround from conventional wisdom for you: the far right-wing pledging to raise taxes at a time when the government is awash in money, and the left-wing pledging to lower them. Of course we can see that it depends which rung you find yourself occupying on the social ladder. As one of the families Layton is talking about, I assure you the proposed GST cut would be felt very little in this household in comparison with having my income taxes bounced back up.

Plus, with the currently hot economy, it's the wrong time to take measures designed to increase consumer spending anyway. With interest rates already on an upswing to cool down the economy, cutting the GST could therefore put even more upward pressure on interest rates; this at a time when Canadians are overwhelmingly more indebted than perhaps ever before.

There is no doubting it: Harper would look out for those who are already better off. That's the only segment of the population he really cares about (as long as they don't want to marry their same-sex partner, that is).

- 30 -

What's Going on in Haiti?

This is more than a little disturbing:

Found wearing boxer shorts and sandals, Lt.-Gen. Bacellar apparently killed himself as the multinational force is under increased pressure to curb violence in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country. The security situation has been unravelling in past weeks, with a rash of kidnappings hitting the capital. International election workers, journalists and ordinary Haitians have been among the victims.
...Lt.-Gen. Bacellar, who had served in Brazil's armed forces for 39 years, became commander of the multinational force in September, replacing Brazilian Lt.-Gen. Augusto Heleno Ribeiro, who had the force since its deployment to Haiti in June 2004.
...Election officials recently postponed the Jan. 8 election, blaming security problems and delays in distributing voting materials. It was the fourth such postponement of the vote. No new date has been set. It was not immediately clear what Lt.-Gen. Bacellar's death would have on the planning for a new election timetable.
...(He) is survived by his wife and two children.

Sen. Romeo Dallaire tried to commit suicide post-Rwanda, but that was after witnessing a terrible genocide he felt powerless to stop. Which leads to the question of just how bad is it in Haiti, anyway?

Of course, the commander's death is still under investigation, so yes, what appears to be a suicide at first may yet prove to have been a murder. But one way or another, this can't be the kind of situation Bush had hoped for when he helped oust Jean-Bertrand Aristide back in 2004. And this incident surely does not inspire confidence that the country is stable enough for a peace-keeping force to have a useful presence. (Right now Quebec has around 100 police and a couple dozen ex-cops down there, ostensibly to train Haitian police.)

Aristide was popularly elected and still hasn't conceded his presidency from exile. There are elements that want him re-instated, and they are kicking up a fuss. Depending on the resolve of the UN (and let's not forget Brazil and the other countries supporing the mission), this could be the type of shock that leads to the country falling into civil war.

One can't help but wonder what the Haitian-born Governor-General of Canada's opinion is, and if she might eventually become moved (and daring) enough to speak up about it; or at least to discreetly pick up the phone and give the Prime Minister her 2 cents.

One thing seems certain: Haiti did not get any closer to knowing peace today.

- 30 -

Item: Short Jewish New York Comedian to Host Oscars

No, Billy Crystal isn't back. This year's host is none other than Jon Stewart.

The producer of the Oscars show said Stewart has many of the qualities of previous hosts.

"Jon is the epitome of a perfect host -- smart, engaging, irreverent and funny,'' producer Gil Cates said.

I couldn't be happier about this development if I was Jude Law. Damn you, March 5 for your incorrigible not-here-nowness! How relentlessly you tease us, o cruel, toyful Lord.

Yeah, this should be a good one.

- 30 -

Impeccable (Cynical?) Timing, Mr. Prime Minister

That erstwhile gentleman Conservative blogger Dazzlin Dino of Blogging Party of Canada dropped by in the comment thread here yesterday and left this tidbit as food for thought:

You two do realise that EVERY taxcut the Liberals have ever offered ends up as the renegotiation of future increases, have you ever seen a tax reduction while a Liberal government was in power? No you haven't.

Well, I just got my first pay stub of 2006 and couldn't help but noticing a little more than I expected is reaching my bank account. I compared the deductions to my last stub from 2005 and wouldn't you know it, the amount deducted for federal tax went down by 10% and my EI contribution went down 20%.

The proof, as they say, is in the pudding. Sorry to have to make you eat crow there, Dazz ;-). Cynical timing to be sure, but this is one Liberal tax cut everyone in the country will both see and feel on at least two occasions before casting their votes. The question is: will this be a useful ploy for them to counter the Harper GST reduction promise and the CPC's current momentum?

And will it be the breath of fresh air the Liberals need to cover up that smell?

- 30 -

More Big Time Blarney on Healthcare

So Martin has spelled out his healthcare proposal and it's almost the same as Harper's plan, except the feds will pick up the tab when they schlep us around to wherever we can get timely care (and the U.S. is not an option under the Liberal plan). I don't see how that would provide any incentive for the provinces to improve their wait times. And isn't it just more stampeding on provincial turf?

Because in the end it's the provinces that decide where to allocate the real money on health care delivery. When Lucien Bouchard made his cuts in the late nineties as Quebec premier, he closed hospitals and drastically reduced the number of nurses. The feds didn't have a say. Of course the primary reason he did that was in response to massive cuts in transfer payments from Ottawa for healthcare. It was deficit strangling time all around.

Now we have a very strained system where family doctors are working long hours and turning new patients away. Nurses are over-worked and many opt for cushier jobs at better pay in Alberta or south of the border. We aren't graduating enough new doctors, nor keeping enough here either. We have fancy new machinery but not enough trained technicians to run them or decipher the results. Anesthesiologists are in short supply as well.

It's like the NHL trying to put a better product on the ice by tweaking the rules. You still have too many teams and not enough skilled players. The product is just as watered down.

So here we have the people running for Prime Minister telling us they can make it all better. In the end, they really can't and they shouldn't be expected to. Our provincial premiers have that job.

- 30 -

Is Harper Getting a Free Ride from the Media?

Damn Harper. The sly old dog's doing a good job campaigning this time. The media's allowing him to control the topic of conversation every day it seems, and on his terms. He will have to pray he keeps getting this treatment however, because at the root of it, his policies and priorities are not good for this country. (Sorry to sound like Martin there, but that other sly old dog isn't off the mark on that call).

For example: Throwing a check at parents of toddlers sounds great, but most Canadian women would prefer affordable daycare they can trust instead of having to watch their careers go down the toilet for four years while they're forced to stay at home full-time as the primary care-giver.

And his proposal for the three icebreakers is a dud. Put the same money into aerial surveillance and you would at least have a chance of it being effective. Too much geography up there for just three clunky ships.

All in all, there isn't much meat on the bones of his policy proposals. I for one, have been watching Harper for awhile and doubt he's suddenly changed his spots. I don't think he would eventually keep many of these promises.

I also don't want the Christian Right to have a strong hold of the ear of the PM (and several others who would be ministers). I don't want another vote on SSM. I don't want a federal government with no Quebec MPs that will fuel the separatists here. I don't want a leader in bed with Bushco, ready and willing to go along with Missile Defence and whatever wars they choose to prosecute illegally.

I am really hoping something breaks his current momentum because he will remake Canada into a far-Right winner-take-all screw-the-poor nation if given the chance, and that would be a bloody shame.

- 30 -

Update: Fixed the last link. BTW, I forgot to say, tips of the hat to (in order): Dazzlin Dino at BPOC, Cathie from Canada and Dave at The Galloping Beaver.

Original Song #13 - We Have Our Voices

We Have Our Voices

You own the presses
You own the airwaves
You own the publishing rights
We have our voices

You own the lawyers
You own the pollsters
You own their questions
We have our voices

You have opinions
And you can share them
But it’s not convincing
When you enforce them

You have the unions
Right where you want them
Just lay them off now
And then contract them

Ideas may get bought and sold
You can try to suppress them
But they still take hold

You own our pensions
Dictate our choices
Of politicians
We have our voices

You’ve got the airlines
You’ve got the phone lines
You’ve got the pipelines
We have our voices

You own the mountains
You own the oceans
You own the buildings
We have our voices

You can have the earth
You can take the sun
You can claim the stars
But you won’t have won

We have our voices
We have our voices
We have our voices
We have our voices
We have our voices
We have our voices
We have our voices
We have our voices
We have our voices
We have our voices
We...

- 30 -

Original Song #12

Buried

How many times can you stand to fall over
How many drinks will kill this sober
Spending all your time
Losing video games

How many days must you sit by that window
Watching your dreams get covered up in snow
At least the seasons
Have the courtesy to change

You could’ve been something
You could still be something now
Only thing you haven’t beaten
Is that crippling self-doubt

You’ve got to help yourself out

How many days do you read your newspaper
Watch the TV for Dini and Oprah
Media placebos for your agoraphobia

How many times can you stand to fall over
How little changes as you grow older
Maybe do some chores
Check up on the sports scores

You’ve got friends you know
Maybe even give you a hand
Watching from the sidelines
This gem buried in quicksand

I do and don’t understand

- 30 -

Debate #1 - Vive les tornades libres

Well apart from Jack Layton stumbling over his french and apparently refering to Quebeckers as "tornados" at one point, Debate #1 proved that it is still possible to produce television less stimulating than Alan Thicke. All four did well enough at getting their message out I suppose, with Duceppe looking the most nervous, and Harper looking off to the side each time he finished as if seeking approval from his school-marm.

Martin seems to have picked up a little wind in his sails from playing Captain Canada against the hapless U.S. ambassodor (Williams? Wilson? Wilkinson? Oh, who knows?*) I half expected him to show up in a cape after this week's histrionics. In fact, early on he gave the appearance he had just stepped off one of his steamships, he was swaying so much from starboard to port. He almost made me sea-sick watching him.

I thought Layton was the most convincing, partly because he has learned to be less dweebish in front of the camera. But he loses points for going over his time and getting duly chastised from the moderator.

I noticed Duceppe decided to downplay the idea that this election was the beginning of the road to another referendum on separation. You never know with him. Some days it's a major first step (especially if he's sharing a stage with Andre Boisclair in front of the faithful); other days, we get a back-pedaling performance like tonight's. Which is it?

Ah, and then there's Harper. He did not disappoint, calling the Liberals criminal with such verve he actually lost that shy new smile for a moment.

Perhaps the most illuminating thing was how Radio-Canada's post-mortem on its Le Telejournal news managed to completely ignore the fact that Layton was one of the participants. Their report showed a couple of minutes of clips of the other three, but had no time at all for the beleaguered chef du parti nouveau-democratique. Afterward, host Bernard Derome, perhaps the most respected broadcaster in Quebec, failed to direct the conversation to Layton or anything he'd said even once during a three-minute segment with a political analyst (forgive me; I didn't catch his name). The other three leaders got their due, which really left me scratching my head. As difficult as live TV is, this oversight was disturbingly unprofessional.

*check the 4:20 P.M. entry

- 30 -

Our "Disappointing" Neighbour

The best that can be said of the recently concluded meeting on climate change in Montreal is that the countries that care about global warming did not allow the United States delegation to blow the whole conference to smithereens...

So begins the NY Times editorial that caught my eye with a link titled: "Shame in Montreal". The shame seen by the Times is heeped rather forcefully on the Bush administration, for its continuing recalitrance in facing up to its responsibilities on Global Warming. A good read.

Another good read is Stephen Harper's letter to the Moonie-owned Washington Times. In it, you will find some nice diplomatic language explaining his thoughts on such topics as whether Canadian troops should now be commited to the cause in Iraq:

On Iraq, while I support the removal of Saddam Hussein and applaud the efforts to establish democracy and freedom in Iraq, I would not commit Canadian troops to that country. I must admit great disappointment at the failure to substantiate pre-war intelligence information regarding Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction.

Oh dear! So very... disappointing. Disappointing? I'm sure that word sums up the feelings of the dearly departed Iraqis quite nicely. For me disappointing is missing the bus, or not being able to find the DVD I'd hoped to rent. No doubt a good deal of thought went into the choice of that particular word (we don't want to ruffle any feathers now). But it's so achingly bending over to be diplomatic that it ends up being callously insulting.

Beyond that, Harper states his wish for the United States to respect NAFTA; his desire to revisit the gay marriage issue; his assessment of Kyoto as being "deeply flawed"; and a fairly strong-sounding statement about not initiating or supporting any legislation that would "restrict abortion" (although I wonder if he would be kind enough to qualify whether that is any different from restricting access to abortion).

But what I wonder most of all is when you were planning on making these thoughts clear to your own countrymen, Stephen? Or were you just going to refer us to this American rag to find that out?

- 30 -

Update: More disappointing news from the Washington Post. It seems another Iraqi Interior Ministry detention center has turned up evidence of torture that "appeared to have been more severe" than what was found last month in Baghdad. The line that sticks out for me:

Lt. Col. Guy Rudisill, a spokesman for U.S. military detention issues, said American authorities had already been aware that the prison searched Thursday existed.

'Nuff said.

Original Song #11

Missing You

Hey there, how’re you doing?
I’m doing all right, I guess
I see you’re doing something different with your hair
You smile; you say I’m looking good
You smile like you’re a friend
Somehow I can’t stay mad at you
All the same, why do I miss you?
I’m missing you

Sometimes you don’t want to know
Sometimes that’s the way to go
Don’t think that you’ll be immune to the blows when they come
Stand up for your heroes
They may be a little tarnished
That doesn’t make them zeros
Time for a little hero varnish
And I’m missing you

First we’ll go and get some coffee
Then we’ll do a little window shopping
Paint the town red with snooker balls
Call one friend, then call them all
Playing poker with Boreales
Pictionary with brown cows
Put another log on the fire
But the wet wood dampens the desire

I’m busy discarding my crutches
I know it doesn’t sound like much, but
I’ve got to get better somehow before I buckle
And I quit smoking, and I quit drinking
But I quit quitting smoking, and I quit quitting drinking, too
Can’t quit missing you

- 30 -

We must never forget

Geneviève Bergeron (1968-1989)
Hélène Colgan (1966-1989)
Nathalie Croteau (1966-1989)
Barbara Daigneault (1967-1989)
Anne-Marie Edward (1968-1989)
Maud Haviernick (1960-1989)
Maryse Laganière (1964-1989)
Maryse Leclair (1966-1989)
Anne-Marie Lemay (1967-1989)
Sonia Pelletier (1961-1989)
Michèle Richard (1968-1989)
Annie St-Arneault (1966-1989)
Annie Turcotte (1969-1989)
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (1958-1989)

It was 16 years ago this evening.

From the CBC archive:

For 45 minutes on Dec. 6, 1989 an enraged gunman roamed the corridors of Montreal's École Polytechnique and killed 14 women. Marc Lepine, 25, separated the men from the women and before opening fire on the classroom of female engineering students he screamed, "I hate feminists."

We, who abhorred this violence 16 years ago, if we didn't call ourselves feminists before, Marc Lepine, we surely became feminists on that day.

May your victims know eternal peace.

- 30 -

Why a Harper gov't is Duceppe's wet dream

POGGE postulated the other day on the scenario of a minority Harper government, which opened up an excellent discussion, well worth checking out. I tried to comment twice there, but neither were accepted for some reason. So here's my take.

A Harper Conservative government would be a death-knell for the federal cause, partly because he burned his bridges with Quebeckers over Same-Sex Marriage; partly because he is too far to the right for us, and won't budge on anything substantial policy-wise, even for the Quebec wing of his own party:

Quebec delegates at the convention expressed dismay over the rejection of same-sex marriage and the Kyoto Accord, and the fact Mr. Harper vowed to restart talks on missile defence with the U.S. -- all policy positions that have little traction in Quebec.

Hasn't anyone noticed he has virtually no support here and little hope of electing even a single MP from this province? He didn't even care to introduce any of them to the media. One wonders if he even knows any of their names!

Layton has the same problem (support-wise) but has a better shot of being accepted here because his priorities and the BQ's are almost identical, save for the sovereignty issue. Also, the french media tends to pay the NDP short shrift, making it even more difficult for Layton to make any inroads here, despite being a native of Montreal with decent french himself.

That leaves the Liberals, so we'll just have to see if Quebeckers' feelings are still as hurt next month as they were in 2004.

- 30 -

Harper's healthcare proposal

As per the CP report:

“We will reduce waiting times,” Harper said. “We will hold (provincial) governments accountable.”

If patients can’t get speedy treatment in their own provinces, he said, they should have the option of going to another.

And he promised to work with the provinces to help universities turn out more doctors and nurses.

...

“We are going to do what it takes to protect the public health-care system,” he said. “There will be no private, parallel system.”

Let's brainstorm on this.

Pros:
1. This sounds good on the surface. Every province would pitch in and there would be benchmarks for wait times set by healthcare professionals.
2.It could give a built-in incentive to provinces to reduce wait times so as to avoid the costs (I assume the province would bear) of sending the patient to another province for the procedure or tests they are waiting for.

Cons:
1. Does a Kamloops, BC woman needing a hip replacement want to go to say, Calgary or Montreal for the procedure, depending on where the bureaucracy determines it can get done on time? Does she then get sent to say, Sudbury or Yellowknife for the timely physio needed afterward? Is that such a good option when her family and support network remains back home?

2. What if our patient is a unilingual francophone from Jonquiere, Quebec and she can only get the procedure and/or physio in Vancouver where she can't get french health service?

3. For this to work, Harper would have to go through the thorny problem of getting all provinces on board (think Meech Lake), and given Scenario #2 above, Quebec would have a lot of concerns.

4. It seems to me a new bureaucracy would need to be created (see Scenario #1 above) handling travel and shelter arrangements with various provinces, and determining: a) if the patient truly needs to go out of province for timely care; b) which hospital in which province can and will provide it; c) following-up to ensure the care was received in the correct timeframe (would be necessary to track this for each and every medical procedure carried out in the entire country, it seems to me); which leads to d) a mechanism for resolving disputes over the timeframe and quality of the care received.

5. What kind of wrench does all this throw into Equalization payments?

If I'm in the press pool, I'm asking all those questions.

- 30 -

Duceppe scores on own net

Kevin Lowe, assistant manager of Canada's 2006 men's Olympic team, doesn't think much of Gilles Duceppe's idea of entering a separate Quebec team in international hockey competition — and he has company in the hockey world.

Lowe, who grew up in Montreal and is fluently bilingual, flatly rejected the Bloc Québécois leader's proposal, which was unveiled Wednesday as part of his party's election platform.

Sure, he's still got a big 8 to 2 lead with only 5 minutes gone in the first period. But it can't be good for your cause when some of your voters' biggest heros are unanimously saying your idea is stupid, and then they go on to wax patriotic about their country - Canada; not Quebec.

Of course they're going to react this way, given they all hope to play in the Olympics, and that means recognizing that the only way that can happen is if they chose to live in the real world, as opposed to some Quebec nationalist fairyland, where all the taxes ruthlessly vaccuumed-up by the Canadian government will become a glorious windfall of extra cash in our pockets after separation. Yadda yadda yadda.

Big gaffe for Duceppe. Makes you wonder if he feels his lead is so huge he can afford to coast through the remainder of the game. Ask any hockey player and they'll tell you you don't win that way. We can only hope...

- 30 -

Big Deal

Well, Harper's getting the headlines he hoped for (online anyway: see here, here, here and here as well), but the fine print shows it's just a 1% cut to the GST (currently 7% - would go down to six for the next five years, at which point it would go down to five).

This should take most of the attention away from yesterday's stumbles in Quebec City, as craftily summarized by Meaghan over at Somena Media, but it won't get him much traction in provinces like Quebec and Ontario - each of which have an additional 8% provincial sales tax piggy-backed onto the GST. What good will it do Ontarians, who presently calculate 15% in their heads while in line at the checkout, to only pay 14%? And then to have to look all the way down the line to 2011 before it drops to 13?

In Quebec (although it's still unbelievable to me that they got away with this in the first place), the GST amount charged is taxed by Quebec at 8% as well as the total, which would bring the current 15.56% to 14.48%, lowered presumably to 13.4 in 2011. And this is assuming the provincial rates stay where they are.

In Alberta, where there is no provincial sales tax, it's arguable this would be enough for consumers to notice the difference on their bill, but a measely 1% doesn't amount to a hill of beans for voters in the two provinces where Harper so desperately needs to pick up seats. I seriously doubt this will be a vote-swinging campaign promise, and if that's what the CPC braintrust is hoping for, they'd better have some juicier planks to come.

- 30 -

Update: I know I'm starting to sound like a Dipper, but I can't help but point out that Layton is showing a better understanding of what issues are priorities to Ontarians. (Any Ontarians out there who care to comment?) Now Jack: what about the pulp & paper industry?

A refresher on why the Martin gov't fell when it did

There is a good answer to Martin's charge that the NDP made an alliance with the Conservatives and Bloq to hastily take down the government against the wishes of Canadians.

Some folks I know argue that Layton made a mistake in pulling his support of the Liberals when he did, and that this counts as a flip-flop or some lack of integrity. Scotian (and other bloggers) took issue with his compromise proposal to spare us this Christmas-time campaign.

I think Layton would've lost more integrity going along with the Martin Liberals until Spring. Have we so soon forgotten what brought this on? The money quote from Layton's November 7th public letter to Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh:

(The Martin government's healthcare proposals) are in no way a satisfactory response to the values and needs of Canadians, and therefore do not provide a basis for our party to support the Government in Parliament.

When it became clear Martin would not meet Layton's demands that the federal government stop the creeping privatization of Medicare, that's when he declared the NDP would no longer support the government on a confidence motion. In doing so, he took a principled stand for the one issue dearest to the hearts of most Canadians coast to coast. It was the NDP precursor (Tommy Douglas's CCF) that created the first socialized medicine program first in Saskatchewan of course, so if the NDP had compromised on this issue, Layton would've been a disgrace to his party. And he would've been seen as turning his back on all those who voted for him in 2004, not to mention the raison d'etre of the NDP: fighting for social justice.

I don't think the timing is an issue any more if it means standing up for the universality of our health-care system. Layton would do himself a favour to remind us of that at each campaign stop.

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