On Tory sects education (take two)

Turns out that Stockwell Day has another reason to oppose the census.

He doesn't want the neighbours to know how many Jews live in their community.

In a way, his concern is understandable.

You never really know what you might find when you turn over a few stones.

H/T: BCL

Giving credit where credit is due

You have to hand it to NDP MP Nathan Cullen.  He thinks he can have it both ways.

In one case, Cullen decries an ideologically driven Harper Tory decision designed to "please a very, very narrow base of citizens".

In another, he takes a cynical stand that threatens the lives of vulnerable women and children to please a very, very narrow base of citizens.

Duplicity, it seems, is only shocks Cullen when Tories do it.

Sometimes MPs contradict themselves

The Wawa News ran a column written by Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing MP Carol Hughes on the Tories plan to protect prisoners of war Canadians from the long form census.

Hughes notes the importance of good data in informing policy decisions:

It may sound oversimplified, but without census data, we would be working from best-guesses instead of hard fact.

She's right.

It's too bad that she doesn't apply the same fact-based standard to her support for Stephen Harper's dream of repealing the long gun registry.

But that would be too much to ask, wouldn't it?  Of course it is.

Turns out that Hughes roots her opposition to the long gun registry on a self-selected mail in survey -  the very process that she describes as working from "best-guesses".

Oh well, it's not as if it's a life and death decision.

Oh right.

It is.

Challenge yourself

The Libertas Post has an interview with Ontario fringe party leader Paul McKeever.

While we certainly are not advocating voting for the FPO, McKeever says some very interesting things about the state of the conservative movement in Canada.

It's well worth reading.

The sirens' song

Watch this.

Read this.

Understand?

The first rule of Canadian politics

Which MP recently recently said:

The first rule of Canadian politics is "You never do anything to offend anybody in Quebec ever."

How upset would Jack Layton and Thomas Mulcair have been had it been a Tory MP who framed his argument that way?

And why does Pat Martin think it's OK to go on the BBC and take a cheap shot at Quebec while making an otherwise important point?

Another upstanding citizen gun owner makes the news

And puts Central Alberta into the sights of the Globe and Mail.

His mommy must be so proud.

So now Dmitri Soudas is approving guest lists

PMO says Chretien will be invited to anniversary of hometown park he created

Soudas' intervention, of course, makes Jim Prentice's staff look like morons for offering (possibly PMO approved?) lines like these:

Environment Minister Jim Prentice's office can't say for certain whether the Liberal prime minister will be invited. It says the event-planning is still in its initial stages.

"Minister Prentice will attend, but we haven't decided on the format of his visit," said Prentice's spokesperson, Frederic Baril.

"If no decision has been made yet on the format of his visit, then no decision has been made yet on invitees."

Snubbing Jean Chretien? That's stupid...even for Tories

The 40th anniversary of La Mauricie National Park will be celebrated later this summer.

Radio-Canada is reporting that Harper Tory Environment Minister Jim Prentice will travel into La Mauricie to commemorate the anniversary of the establishment of Quebec's second national park.

And Jim Prentice won't invite Jean Chretien to that ceremony.

Really?

Turns out that Chretien played a major role in establishing the park.

Locals understand that fact.

Not that fact means anything to the Ottawa-based, taxpayer funded petty partisans who approve the guest lists for Harper Tory Ministerial visits.

Maybe its a size thing

Long gun registry - not yet gone

Long form census - gone, but not yet forgotten

If I lived in...let's see...Livelong, I'd be getting awfully nervous.

On Tory sects education

It has to be admitted that we had been puzzled by the Harper Tory government's decision to abolish the mandatory long form census.

After careful consideration (and a couple of beers), the reason revealed itself.

And that reason is rooted in an aural fog.

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines sensuous as producing or characterized by gratification of the senses : having strong sensory appeal.  It goes on to explain that sensuous implies gratification of the senses for the sake of aesthetic pleasure.

It's obvious, the Harper Tories cancelled the long form sensuous census in confusion.

A short, utilitarian census is acceptable if you don't enjoy it but a longer census will make you go blind.

Yet another long gun owner finds himself before a judge

Michael Wentzell is also charged with uttering threats to kill Stephan Taite and Mary-Ann Zinck during that same time period. Police also charged the Simpsons Corner man Friday with possessing a .22-caliber rifle without holding a certificate for the gun and with failing to store it legally.

Despite stories like this from across rural Canada, Nathan Cullen still thinks repealing the gun registry is a good idea.

And Jack Layton still won't do the right thing.

We're not in Beijing are we Toto?

The happiness of G20 protesters according to Bado.