A simple question about an NDP policy

We know where the Conservative Party stands.

We know where the Bloc Quebecois stands.

We know where the Green Party stands.

 We know where the Liberal Party stands.

So what, on an up or down vote, is the NDP position on the long gun registry in this election campaign?

Fly SchnookAir! Everything tastes like chicken.

It has been said that Stephen Harper likes animals.

And they seem to like him too.

When he tried to give his pet coalition monkey to Michael Ignatieff, the monkey decided it would rather live with Stephen Harper.

We think he missed his friend, Stephen Harper's prorogation monkey.

And today, we learned that Stephen Harper has a new pet - a debate chicken.

We've not yet seen a picture of the chicken but imagine that it looks something like this:

Monkeys and chickens.

Can a jackass be that far behind?

At this rate, the Tory campaign plane is going to have to hire a veterinarian.

Lions and tigers and schnooks.

Oh my.

Them's fighting words

Medicine Hat News
March 29, 2011

"We went from a good parliamentarian in Monte Solberg to a heckler in LaVar Payne," said Boucher. "His own party treats him like a member of the opposition."

Star Harper Tory repudiates stated position on gun registry

Oh look.

The star Harper Tory candidate has repudiated his former (as recently as yesterday) position on the long gun registry.

That hasn't gone down well with his former union colleagues:

Denis Côté, représentant des policiers municipaux du Québec, pense «que c'est une position qui peut compromettre la sécurité des policiers et policières du Québec.» Il réitère que le registre est un outil efficace et sécuritaire pour les policiers du Québec.

They still think that repealing the long gun registry will put cops at risk.

I wonder what else Dagenais no longer believes.

Gun lobby goes to work

Vancouver Province
March 28, 2011

The Canadian Firearms Institute is promising to keep their "war room" humming with the effort to get 157 "gun-friendly" MPs elected so they can "own" Parliament Hill after the federal election.

"We're not ogres, and we are a political force if we ever get organized," said Jim Newman, the CFI's amiable CEO.

The gun lobby, however, still seems to think that wife-killing jokes are funny.

The reporter gets it.

It's too bad that the NDP doesn't.

UPDATE: NDP candidates continue to tell reporters that the long gun registry is a free vote.

The government we deserve

This is worth reading.

Red Deer Advocate
March 28, 2011

All of these measures and more can be resurrected in the first budget by whoever wins the election, and be back on track before our newly-minted MPs take their much-needed summer break.

But if you poll your friends, you'll probably find that contempt of Parliament — refusing to tell MPs the cost of the government's campaign to build more prisons (before Parliament was to vote on a bill to approve them) — seems one of the more forgettable aspects of the Harper government.

That a minister interfered with decisions that are supposed to be made by a Parliamentary committee by handwriting "not" on a contract seems a trifle compared with open contempt of Parliament.

That election funding rules written by the Tories to prevent the Liberals from going to their most trusted well of money were broken by Tories seems like just details. That two government insiders are under investigation by the RCMP for selling their access to power? Who was harmed?

Nobody, really, except those Canadians who believe Parliament should have the last say in all things, and not the leader of the party that happens to have elected the most MPs. There's a difference, and people around the world are being killed because they want to have a democracy like ours, where their governors are directly answerable to them.

The prime minister needs to be reminded that he is a servant of Parliament. In Canada, power flows from Parliament to the prime minister's office, not the other way round.

This is our fourth federal election in seven years. But it's not something you should be tired of going through. Millions would love to trade places with you and get to vote four times in seven years.

But if this election becomes about a $75 tax deduction for piano lessons, the Liberals will deserve their defeat. And you will deserve the government you get.

Star Tory candidate bashes Western Canada!

The Conservative Party has a new star candidate in St-Hyacinthe-Bagot.

Jean-Guy Dagenais is the current President of the Quebec provincial police union.

From our persective, Dagenais' support for the long gun registry is newsworthy:

Chez nous, le Registre est un incontournable. Mais je crains qu'on ne pourra arriver à s'entendre avec l'Ouest.

Imagine the outrage from the old Reformers at the core of the Conservative coalition if a star Quebec Liberal candidate had blamed Western Canada for blocking the inescapable in any field at all.

On this one,  I predict crickets from the old Reformers.

It's become sadly typical.

Jack Layton did it before. Will he do it again?

In 2004, Jack Layton sat around a table plotting to make Stephen Harper coalition Prime Minister.

In a highly ironic moment, Layton uses that collusion to call out Harper today.  Now, Layton says Harper cannot be trusted:

"I think this recent position that he’s taking now, that the idea of parties working together is somehow contrary to the Canadian constitution and totally unacceptable is a false outrage, because he was doing that himself when he would have become prime minister," Layton added. "I know, because I sat at the table where those discussions took place."

Jack Layton was at the table.

In that backroom deal, Jack Layton agreed to make Stephen Harper Prime Minister.

Jack Layton signed the 2004  letter to the Governor General asking her to make Stephen Harper Prime Minister.

Why should Canadians trust Jack Layton this time? He's already shown his eagerness to make Stephen Harper Prime Minister.

He's done it before.

Canadians can't afford to take that chance again.

Lions and tigers and coalition governments! Oh my!

It may come as a shock to those see Harper Tory talking points as having any basis in reality, but coalition governments lead the world in protecting property rights.

At least that's what the 2011 International Property Rights Index shows.

1) Finland - coalition government
2) Sweden - coalition government
3) Singapore
4) Luxembourg - coalition government
4) New Zealand - coalition government
4) Norway - coalition government
4) Switzerland - power sharing arrangement
8) Denmark - minority coalition government
9) Netherlands - coalition government
9) Canada - minority government
9) Australia - minority government with negotiated support from independent MPs

A day one musical dedication

The prorogation monkey

Unlike the imaginary and hypothetical "coalition monkey", the prorogation monkey is real.

Wouldn't it be nice if the media were to ask party leaders whether, if elected Prime Minister, they would prorogue Parliament just to avoid being held accountable.

We already know Stephen Harper's answer.

He'd blame the opposition.

Put $21 million in the bag or the gun owners get it!

Think back.

Think back all the way back to Budget night.

Think back to @cherylgallant telling gun owners that they would only continue to have free licenses if Budget 2011 was passed.

And that tweet really fit into the unnecessary election - if only the opposition would let us govern - storyline. 

But it turns out that storyline is just not true.

On Friday afternoon, at the same time as the government was losing the confidence of the House (or just after), Public Safety Vic Toews announced a further two year extension of the already five year amnesty for individuals seeking to register unregistered firearms but a fee waiver was not included.

The Harper Tories chose to play politics with the fee waiver.  They didn't have to.

The fee waiver goes back to the very first amnesty announcement and it has been extended every year along with the amnesty.

The question gun owners should ask their Tory candidate is why are the Harper Tories putting the gun to their heads?

Why are the Harper Tories treating gun owners like rubes?

And why do they think that your price is $60 once every five years?

Even more Harper Tory favourites

Bribe for gun owners: $21 million

Promised funding for more cops: not one cent

Even by well established Harper Tory standards, this lacks class

"If Michael Ignatieff is successful in forcing an unnecessary election, Dale Saip will not be a our candidate in Delta – Richmond East," he said.

Harper Tories score $10 million for professional sports

The Harper Tory Government has taken what it would call a principled stand against funding professional sports.

Imagine our surprise to find $10 million buried in Budget 2011 for professional sports - $5 million for the Canadian Football League and $5 million for the Calgary Stampede.

So much for principle.

Still more Harper government priorities

Bribe to gun owners: $21 million this year

Improving airport safety: $21 million over five years

More Harper Tory math problems

Bribe to gun owners: $21 million

Improving Great Lakes water quality: $5 million

Harper Tory budget includes $21 million bribe for gun owners

According to @cherylgallant.

Budget 2011: Putting a price on Harper Tory values

Poor seniors: $50 monthly

Escorts: $200 for 30 minutes

Is Baghdad Bob running the Harper Tory war room?

UPDATE: Susan Delacourt posts the Tory hit piece in its entirety.

So the Tory war room has launched another preemptive strike on Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff.

This one is, well, goofy.

Imagine the Tory narrative if someone like Ignatieff was Tory leader:

IMAGE: Fade from image of Stalin to the gulags

VOICE OVER: Our leader's family fled a totalitarian Soviet regime that murdered millions of its own citizens.

IMAGE: Generic Russian church

VOICE OVER: Our leader's family helped the victims of Communist abuse.

IMAGE: Canadian Red Ensign

VOICE OVER: Our leader's family chose Canada.

IMAGE: L.B. Pearson's Nobel Peace Prize

VOICE OVER: Our leader's family helped Canada win the Nobel Peace Prize.

IMAGE: Stephen Harper

VOICE OVER: Our leader.

TEXT: BUILDING ON CANADA'S BEST TRADITIONS

Unfortunately for the aspiring Baghdad Bob's in the Tory war room, their leader doesn't have that kind of narrative.

He's just an ex-Liberal from Leaside.

That's why they feel obliged to obfuscate.

Gun registry works again!

So what would happen if a licensed gun dealer in rural Quebec were to start to sell handguns to street gangs?

(Other than gun registry shills accusing this blog of making stuff up.)

Police investigating gang crime would use the gun registry information to shut him down.

Just like they did in this case.

Is Stephen Harper ugly?

Canada's NRA endorsed gun lobby thinks so.

At least that's what their new web ad says.

This relationship used to be so much better.

Four gun lobby board members and one staffer are on the Harper Tory Government's radical anti-gun control advisory committee.

Hell, the Harper Tory Government was so close to the gun lobby that they sent Canadian Shooting Sports Association President Steve Torino to United Nations gun control meetings as an offical representative of the Government of Canada.

The Harper Tories saw the gun lobby as natural allies in their fight against the long gun registry.

But for this lobby, it never was about the long gun registry.

It was all about getting access to the Harper Tory Government to push their radical NRA-like agenda.

Don't act surprised.

Another absurd Harper Tory analogy

Harper Tory Foreign Minister and possible West Quebec political boss Lawrence Cannon was asked about his party's readiness for an election in two urban ridings bordering on his own.

His response was, shall we say, odd at best:

Si vous voulez parler à des gens du Bloc Québécois dans le comté de Mont-Royal, à Montréal, vous allez probablement avoir autant de difficultés.

According to Cannon, being a Tory in West Quebec is just like being a separatist in one of the most federalist communities in Montreal.

Somehow we doubt it.  The BQ riding president in Mount Royal probably knows how many members his association has.

Assault rifles in the masthead - Harper Tory values in the wallet

In the category it's not really news for $50, yet another gun club is raising money for yet another Harper Tory candidate.

This time, the Sporting Clubs of Niagara is promoting a Garry Breitkreuz fundraiser for gun club endorsed Conservative candidate Leanna Villella.

As an aside, it's worth noting that the Sporting Clubs of Niagara is the only local gun club anywhere in Canada with two executive members on the Harper Tory government's radical, anti-gun control advisory group?  Checking phone numbers on the website, one of those members is selling Tory fundraiser tickets.

Felipe Calderon: He's not in it for you either

Watching the Brier this afternoon, I just wasn't quick enough to avoid seeing this Conservative Party ad.

As I watched the slick montage, two questions immediately popped to mind.

How does Mexican President Felipe Calderon, a man who worries deeply about gun violence, feel about appearing in a campaign ad from Stephen Harper, a man who so obviously doesn't care?

Do you think that the Conservative Party asked permission?