I Want a ZENN!

I'm not sure why, but I seem to have developed a reputation as some sort of environmentalist in this town. People invite me to join eco-friendly Facebook groups and hand me business cards for naturopaths and organic food distributors all the time. It might have been this letter I wrote to the Champion a while back, or my attendance at Turner's little 'EcoSummit' last year. Or maybe it's just my general leftist tendencies in this largely centre-right rural town.

I assure you, this green reputation is entirely unwarranted.

Ok, so I bitch a lot about urban sprawl (who doesn't?), I've scolded the produce manager at the Loblaw's for mis-labelling Mexican peppers as 'Product of Canada', and I've taken to riding my bike everywhere I can. But that's mostly for the exercise. And not in the winter. And I'm lazy.

The sad fact is, this is my ride:



(ok, not mine per se - mine isn't that clean)

Now before you start wagging your finger at me, you should know that my husband and I are both self-employed, and my husband's business (and mine up until a year ago) involves transporting large bins of saleable goods, tents, tables and display units to various trade shows, conventions and film locations. We need a van - specifically a van that can take a 4' x 8' sheet of plywood.

Unfortunately we can't afford to buy and maintain a second, smaller vehicle right now, and Milton is currently in the process of moving every grocery store, hardware store and office supply store to the outer reaches of our universe. So it's either drive our gas-guzzling behemoth on short trips around town, or get ourselves a bicycle with a motor, a roof, a heater and a REALLY big basket.

Or we could get us one of these instead:



Dear Mr. McGuinty: I really, REALLY want a ZENN. Please approve them immediately. It's electric, it's affordable, and it's Canadian. It's a no-brainer. I don't give a crap if I can't take it on the highway - we have the van for that.

Admittedly, I would be happier if their top speed was 50 kph instead of 40 kph. After all, my street is 50 kph (40 by the school), and already I get assholes honking at me and trying to pass when I insist on adhering to the speed limit. Still, I'd be willing to put up with it if I could just buy my groceries without either getting soaked in the rain on my bike or being overwhelmed with eco-guilt for killing my grandchildren.

So here is my pledge: When the ZENN becomes available in Ontario, and assuming it stays somewhere within the $12,000 price range, I WILL BUY ONE.

I'm getting conflicting reports as to whether the speed limitations of the ZENN are due to the battery technology or a quirk of the licensing regulations in the U.S., but I have the impression that a 10 kph bump is do-able at some point in the future.

In the meantime, I could just get myself a new bumper sticker.

The Bitter Truth

I just ran across this thoughtful piece by Frances Russell of the Winnipeg Free Press. It's ostensibly about the Manley Report, but it's really about the shifting political landscape in North America.

Get ready for a bracing splash of perspective (and my apologies for quoting at such length).

CANADIANS watch hopefully as the exciting, even transformational, U.S. presidential race unfolds. Then they watch despairingly as their politics stagnate in a slough of thuggery, ineptitude and opportunism.

A Harris-Decima poll released earlier this month found that 61 per cent of Canadians would choose a Democrat to win the White House compared to just 12 per cent who would pick a Republican.

These numbers, and a steady stream of polls showing Canadians want our combat role in Afghanistan to end in 2009, should be a warning to Conservatives and Liberals to choose their positions carefully as they address the report by the so-called "blue ribbon" panel on the future of the Afghanistan mission.

...Harper's Achilles heel with voters is a partisanship so intense it borders on thuggery. It appears Harper chose Manley for two reasons: to preordain the outcome (Canadians shouldn't forget that it was Manley who got Canada into Afghanistan in 2001) but chiefly, to sow discord in Liberal ranks.

It's not difficult to sow discord among Liberals. They're doing an excellent job themselves. Ideological parties have the glue of their core beliefs to hold them together in opposition and in power. But the only glue "mushy middle" parties like Canada's Liberals have is power itself. In a nation where two-thirds of the electorate leans to the centre-left, the Liberals' winning formula has always been to tilt to the left.

But the 1993 post-Mulroney political meltdown robbed the Liberals of most of their left wing. Arising from the ashes of Mulroney's doomed Quebec-Alberta axis, the Bloc Québécois deprived the party of Wilfrid Laurier and Pierre Trudeau of much of its leftist oxygen. Previously, the Liberals could always count on a large contingent of progressive Quebec MPs to counter the more right-wing, "business" Liberals from rural Ontario and the Maritimes.

The preponderance of business Liberals during the Jean Chrétien years was muffled by the leftish populism of the prime minister himself. But his successor, Paul Martin, was the best-known business Liberal of them all. The combination of Martin, the right's reunion and the sponsorship scandal dispatched the party to opposition in 2005. It immediately embarked on a debilitating 10-month leadership race won by the candidate who began the convention with just 16 per cent of the delegates.

Wow.

I hate to admit it, but I think she might be spot on. Her analysis of the devolution of the Liberal Party in the post-Trudeau years and their backwards slide into the pro-corporate, America-centric Liberal Party of the 40s and 50s is upsetting, and yet essentially correct.

The schism between what Russell terms the "business Liberals" and the party's left wing is precisely mirrored in the Democratic party in the U.S. Thing is, the Democrats finally seem to be giving up on the centrist 'Blue Dog' appeasement strategy epitomized by the likes of Joe Lieberman and (to a lesser extent) the Clintons.

Instead, they appear to be flocking to the left - or at least as far left as Americans are capable of - in their embrace of the Kennedy-esque Obama and Edwards. Unfortunately, it took nearly eight long years of war, fiscal incompetence, ballooning debt and the near dismantling of American democracy to get them to this point. And even now, the final victory over Right-wing Republican menace is far from assured.

(seriously, you'd think the Democrats could nominate a HEAD OF CABBAGE to run for president and still beat the Republicans at this point - but apparently not.)

After all this time, I'm still not sure where Dion stands in this trend. Is he part of the same school of progressive, left-leaning Quebec intellectuals as Trudeau and his father, Leon Dion? Or is he more of a Martin-style, centrist Liberal, socially progressive but less concerned with Canada's economic sovereignty than with where the TSX closed? I know Dion talks a good game for social justice and the environment, but does he truly understand what it's going to take to go up against corporate interests to make those ideals a reality? And does he have the stones to go through with it?

Russell has some thoughts on election strategy and timing as well, via Lorne Nystrom.

Earlier this month, longtime NDP MP Lorne Nystrom sketched out Jack Layton's strategy -- the same strategy the NDP leader used in 2006 and Ed Broadbent employed in the 1988 free trade election: first, kill the Liberals. Nystrom told The Globe and Mail New Democrats are pushing for an early election to force the Liberals to abstain on confidence votes, making Dion look like a weak leader.

"If the economy gets worse and the election isn't held until fall and there's an anti-Conservative mood in the country, then usually what happens is people seek the largest alternative party which is the Liberals... If you have an early election, it may be too soon for the Liberals and work to the NDP's advantage," Nystrom said.

I'm not sure I agree entirely - among other things, Nystrom is forgetting the huge numbers of disaffected Cons who seem to be be fleeing to the Green Party as the least revolting alternative.

Besides, is it really going to take another six months, or twelve months, or two years of Stephen Harper making enough of a hash of things for Canadians to wake up and do away with him once and for all? I hope not, but if it will end up purging the Conservatives of the right-wing neo-liberal pseudo-Republicans who have taken over the party, then so be it.

I just hope the damage can be repaired afterwards.

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(And BTW, if you think I've been on a major blogging bender over the past couple of days, you're probably right. The DH is out of town all week and now I'm down with the same cold he and the boi have infected me with. WTF else am I going to do?)

Ask And You Shall Receive

I love my MP.

To: Garth Turner
From: Jennifer Smith
Subject: Harper redecorating the Government lobby?

Lordy, lordy - read this.

Is this new, or had Harper already replaced all these pictures with his own when you were on the other side? And what are the odds of you sneaking in there with a camera tomorrow? Enquiring minds at The Galloping Beaver want to know. As do I.

I honestly didn't expect him to do it. After all, security is pretty tight back there and according to the Ottawa Citizen article, only current Conservative Party Members are usually allowed in.

Still, this is Garth Turner. As another Canadian has famously said, what other kind of shenanigans could he get into?

A few minutes ago I got this:

From: garth@garth.ca
Subject: Re: Harper redecorating the Government lobby?
To: jsmith25@cogeco.ca

Done.

Garth

And I thought, holy crap, he didn't really do it, did he?

Yes. Yes he did. And he's put it all up on his blog.

Let me count the ways…

Running beside the House of Commons, on each side of that historic chamber, are two equally historic rooms. We call them the ‘lobbies’ – one, to the right of the Speaker, reserved for government MPs, and the other for members of the opposition. Stone-walled and normally bristling with activity, these rooms are a living part of Canadian history – and for the years I’ve been in Parliament, have been graced with the photos of former prime ministers.

But, no more. At least not the government lobby – a piece of public real estate which has suddenly been turned into a portrait gallery for one man. Our dear leader. Stephen Harper.

And there's a lot more where that came from, plus a picture of the corresponding Opposition lobby for comparison.

Ok, so I don't really think he went back there and took those pictures just because I dared asked him to. Still, how cool is that?

(UPDATE: And then the pictures came down.)

Meet Dave

I am not a military person. I do not come from a military family. I therefore have no basis on which to form an opinion about anything to do with the military, aside from a general feeling that war is bad. So whenever I want an informed, rational, detailed analysis of military-related news, I turn to Dave over at The Galloping Beaver.

Dave is different from most people who blog about the military and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq because he actually spent his career in the armed forces as a sailor and a marine. Unlike most military and ex-military pundits, however, his support of the troops goes beyond mere boosterism and cries of "Support the mission at all costs!" Instead, he questions the underlying assumptions of both the military and civilians, he calls bullshit when he sees it, and then he explains exactly when and how we are being fed a great steaming pile by those who we assume know better than us about these things.

Here is what Dave had to say today:

So Harper, gushing all over the Manley Report, (Didn't we he do a lovely job on that!), tells us that he is pretty firm on the idea that Canadian expeditionary forces in Afghanistan need to have helicopters and surveillance drones as one of the conditions for keeping a Canadian combat force in Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper twice said yesterday that crucial new helicopters and drones for the troops in Afghanistan are "on order."

However, government officials later said the Prime Minister jumped the gun and that they are still trying to find the best way to obtain the equipment quickly.

Yes, Harper did say that. And he's a fucking liar.

He then goes on to explain exactly how you too can verify the status of these mythical helicopter and drone orders through the Canadian Forces’ own website.

And then he explains why we don’t have cargo helicopters anymore (Mulroney sold them to the Dutch) and why we could have some tomorrow if we really wanted to by buying used ones cheap from the Americans.

And then he reminds us of what the media and the bloggers seem to be overlooking in all this: that the overriding reason why we need these cargo helicopters YESTERDAY is so our guys can fly above the IEDs instead of repeatedly driving over them and getting blown up.

Dave is awesome. Dave is my guru. Keep up the good work, sailor.

Linda Keen's Testimony

Linda Keen finally appeared before the Commons Committee today, and essentially shredded every single argument the government had raised to justify her removal as president of the CNSC.

Here is her testimony.

Some important points she clarified:

1) It was AECL and NOT the CNSC who decided to extend the shutdown of the Chalk River facility once it was discovered that the required safety upgrades had not been made. Just like I've been saying. This point has been consistently misrepresented by the media and the government, and even by Gary Lunn who should have known better. Yes, she said the CNSC would have extended the shutdown anyway, but the point is that AECL recognized that there was a serious problem and that the extended shutdown was absolutely necessary.

2) The risks to the health and safety of Canadians as a result of continuing to run the reactor without the safety upgrades were NOT negligible, as the government has repeatedly implied. They were, in fact, 1,000 times greater than the level of risk recognized by international standards as being the minimum acceptable for a nuclear facility.

3) The impact on health and safety of a shortage of medical isotopes that may (or may not) have resulted from the shutdown of Chalk River was NOT taken into consideration because such considerations are NOT, repeat NOT covered under the mandate of the CNSC. Her proof? The fact that the government found it necessary to add the consideration of these consequences to the CNSC's mandate after the 'crisis'.

(my take on this is that it would be like requiring a health inspector to consider the risk of neighbourhood kids going hungry when deciding whether or not to shut down a rat-infested grocery store.)

4) Despite this, the CNSC was NOT oblivious to the effects of a potential medical isotope shortage. Which is why it took a VERY pro-active approach in expediting both the re-start of the Chalk River reactor and the approval of alternate isotopes for its licensees. As she put it, she and the panel were "available 24-7" to facilitate the resumption of normal operations and isotope availability.

5) Neither Ms. Keen nor the CNSC had any issue with Parliament passing Bill C-38 mandating the restart of the Chalk River reactor. Parliament had a duty to balance the risk of a nuclear accident against the risks to those affected by the shortage of medical isotopes because that is their job. It is NOT the job of the AECL. The AECL is there specifically to assess the risks associated with the operation of nuclear facilities - NOT their shutdown.

I didn't catch Two Tier Tony's testimony, but I can only assume it precisely mirrored Lunn's and the Party line.

The worst part of all this is not Keen's dismissal, nor the blatant interference of a minister with an independent quasi-judicial body, although these are disturbing enough. The REALLY disturbing part is that this is just part of an ongoing, systematic purge of the civil service by the Harper government. Remember when he said that we didn't have to be afraid because there were enough Liberal-appointed judges and career bureaucrats in place to keep the Cons in check? Well, not so much any more.

Linda Keen - CNSC president.
Arthur Carty - science adviser.
Jean-Pierre Kingsley - chief electoral officer.
Marc Mayrand - chief electoral officer.
Johanne Gelinas - environment commissioner.
Bernard Shapiro - ethics commissioner.
Adrian Measner - wheat board president

All senior bureaucrats. All appointed by a Liberal government. All either fired, 'encouraged to resign', marginalized or on the chopping block.

(I'm sure this list is incomplete - feel free to fill it out.)

(UPDATE: Oh dear. We might just have to add Information Commissioner Robert Marleau to that list pretty soon.)

I keep thinking about that movie, 'Pacific Heights'. Michael Keaton plays a somewhat psychotic but seemingly trustworthy con man who rents a ground floor apartment from a young Yuppie couple, and then proceeds to dismantle and destroy the place. He never pays any rent, he ends up suing them when the hubby loses it - and all the while he convincingly feigns complete innocence.

I wonder - even if the Liberals win the next election, who will be left of those who actually keep the country running?

The Last King of Canada

Ok, this is just creepy.

According to Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, someone has been doing a little redecorating in the House of Commons - specifically in the area behind those curtains behind the government’s MP seats known as the ‘government lobby’ (there’s a corresponding ‘opposition lobby’ on the other side).

This area is usually restricted to MPs, guest speakers, policy advisers and (presumably) lobbyists, and May has been back there a few times over the years under various governments. The walls used to be decorated with an assortment of photos and paintings of landscapes, the Queen and past Prime Ministers.

Today, every one of those pictures has been replaced. I’ll give you one guess.

Every available wall space had a large colour photo of Stephen Harper. Stephen Harper at Alert. Stephen Harper in fire fighter gear. Stephen Harper at his desk. Stephen Harper meeting the Dalai Lama. Even the photo of the Queen showed her in the company of Stephen Harper. None were great photos. None were more than enlarged snapshots in colour. They didn’t feel like art.

The student with me said it was the same in Langevin Block, the Prime ministers Office. Photos of Stephen Harper everywhere.

She describes the sight as leaving her "chilled to the bone".

Me too.

(H/T to Kady O'Malley)

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UPDATE: The Ottawa Citizen (bless 'em) has picked up this story. They have reactions from various MPs, but failed to get an official comment: "A press aide to Mr. Harper said he would get back with an explanation, but didn't."

Quel surprise.

Manley on 'Cross Country Checkup': Ooooh! Let's Call In!!

John Manley is going to be on 'Cross Country Checkup'* on CBC 1 this afternoon, 4:00 EST, 1:00 Pacific.


I think everyone who has been blogging about the Manley Report this week should call in and ask him why he plagiarized his own earlier article, or why there was absolutely no mention of detainees in his report, or one of the other hundred or so questions nobody on television has dared ask him to his face.

The man has some serious splainin' to do, and I for one would like to hear his answers to some real questions, preferably unfiltered by the MSM or his PMO handlers.

The toll free number to call is 1-888-416-8333. That's 1-888-416-8333. We can call it a Radio Blogswarm!

* and the first time I posted this I 'misspoke' and called it 'As It Happens', because, well... I'm a dope.