Category: Federal Politics

The Hair was in his environment. Every lock was in line. The light touch of make-up was set to the softer lighting. It was time for the Prime Minister’s holiday greetings to his nation. It was time to tell the peons how it is going to be.

This was the Shaw Media version of kiss-up to the Leader. It looked as though the Hair did not want Tom Clark to ask the questions so Jacques Bourbeau from the Ottawa news team did the honours. Bourbeau’s soft lob questions did the trick and the family setting was lovely. It was the perfect setting for the Hair to play Santa Claus.

But he did not. His answer on tar sands exploitation and the environment was a classic of bafflegab. You knew that he was going to B.S. the viewers from the start of the answer when he said: “Well look, I think there’s more to it than the emissions issue.” The rest of the answer was lost in a labyrinth of studies and reports on tankers and pipelines and comments on coal-fired electricity and greenhouse gas emissions and that the government just might bring in some standards and regulations, some day.

What was contained in that bafflegab was the information that his government has done nothing about the greenhouse gas emissions involved just in mining the tar sands. He feels that this is more of a continental question and he seems to want the United States to set the regulations and then the Canadian government can pay lip service to them. When you consider that Canada’s tar sands in the Athabasca region of Alberta are the largest such deposit in the world, that is probably the most mealy-mouthed excuse, Canadians have ever heard.

Frankly, Canadians are Scrooged. The Hair made it clear to all who would bother to listen that he does not give a damn about the environment and especially not when it gets in the way of profit.

It should also be noted that the Hair assured Mr. Bourbeau that the Conservatives have no intention of going on a wild spending spree when Finance Minister Jim Flaherty balanced the federal books in 2015. Why was that not a surprise?

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]

It is one of those times when you need retired generals to lead the charge. The war, at this time is with the government that pays them. And it is all about Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s balanced budgets. Flaherty—the Grinch—is taking another two billion from the military’s $20 billion to balance his 2015 budget and he is telling the military to suck it up and live with it.

Even with the additional cuts, the Conservative Cabinet is telling the military to maintain the current manning levels of 68,000 personnel. That will work if all 68,000 of these military personnel sit around playing tiddlywinks in their underwear instead of doing any training or using any of their expensive equipment. The only place the military had left to cut at this stage is in operations and equipment maintenance.

These additional cuts show the hypocrisy of the Conservative government. They have put their foolish promises to balance the federal budget ahead of the training and effectiveness of our military personnel and their ability to serve our country. Ships will stay in dock, planes will stay on the ground and tanks and trucks will be parked. The Army is currently in the process of mothballing 6800 heavy trucks. If troops want to go to areas were they can conduct training, they will probably have to march.

But, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, retired generals such as former chief of the defence staff, Rick Hillier are complaining bitterly. They consider the Conservative’s short-sightedness to be devastating to the preparedness of the armed forces.

It is not as though National Defence is the first federal department to feel the pinch. Thousands of former government employees are eking out a living today filling temporary positions under short term contracts and without benefits in the desperate attempt by departments to maintain a minimal level of service.

This approach to solving departmental needs has included the military. Non-uniformed employees of National Defence have also been decimated and this has transformed the department into a legion of consultants running up bills of $2 billion to $3 billion per year. For some reason, the government is not talking about that situation.

For the Conservative government, the situation with the military is something that the Prime Minister and his senior Cabinet Ministers would like to keep quiet. The preparedness and ability of the military to serve Canada is a vital issue with the party’s voter base and anything that impacts that is considered a serious dereliction of responsibility by those voters. They are not pleased with the present situation.

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]

Surprise, surprise: The jewel of Canada’s beautiful Pacific Coast is now to be a commercial port for supertankers carrying tar sands bitumen to the Orient. Did you think the exercise would end otherwise? When the Conservative government makes a mockery of democracy, ignores our environment, chooses the panel and reserves all decisions to itself, did you think there were options? This decision was made two years ago.

And it is still an ugly decision. It is to spend more than $5 billion to build a dual pipeline from Bruderheim, Alberta to Kitimat, British Columbia. The smaller diameter pipe is to pump light crude oil up, over the Rockies to Bruderheim where the light crude will be mixed with tar sands bitumen, heated and pumped under high pressure back to Kitimat. In Kitimat, the tar sands slurry will be pumped into tankers and sent on its way to Asia.

“But,” they hasten to tell you, there are conditions. Yes there are. There are many conditions. And all of these conditions will be approved by the government—whose Ministers are dancing in the hallways of Parliament as another leap into tar sands wealth is completed. And it will be the National Energy Board—with headquarters in Calgary—that will decide if the conditions are met. And, oh yes, the Energy Board will decide just how much effort each condition will require.

The news media are cheerfully pointing out that one of the options remaining to Canadians is civil disobedience. They fail to note that one of the conveniences in pipeline laying is that people who throw themselves in front of the trenching machines can be conveniently left in the bottom of the trench and forgotten. And if you wondered why the cost conscious government has not cut the numbers of our men and women in uniform, just try civil disobedience and you will realize that the brutality of the Toronto G20 police action was just a civilian exercise.

And we can hardly count on the greed of British Columbia to help. The B.C. Premier has made it very clear that B.C. can be bought. We all know that all she is doing is haggling over her price.

What is of much greater concern are the stands of federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and New Democrat Leader Thomas Mulcair. These leaders and their teams will have to be creative and strategic to keep the final decision from being made before the 2015 federal election. That is the only real chance for this pipeline atrocity to be vanquished.

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]

There have been conflicting opinions about whether Stephen Harper is going to stay on as prime minister to fight another election. In some cases, his expected departure might just be wishful thinking. While there is well reasoned logic as to why he might step aside at this juncture, the truth is that it is his potential replacements that would give him pause.

Leadership characteristics do not seem to be prominent in the current Conservative gene pool. Canadians should hardly forget that Stephen Harper took over from Stockwell Day as leader of the Canadian Alliance. And it was Peter MacKay who allowed the Conservative Party to be absorbed into the Reform/Alliance. The party of Sir John A. Macdonald has gone downhill badly over the past 140 years.

But that is what you get from centrally run political parties. The rigid control that Harper has wielded over the Conservative Party since 2003 has produced a government caucus of drones and sycophants. No Conservative is allowed to challenge the leader. No Member of Parliament elected or appointed as a Senator is allowed to think in or outside the box. It leaves a very poor choice of successors to ‘The Boss.’

Take B.C.-native, Industry Minister James Moore, for example. While he might have a following in the party, it is his lack of judgement that does him in. Sure, he apologized profusely for his ill-considered remark but it was only when his recorded statement threatened to go viral. Obviously someone who knew voters told him that you cannot say “Is it my job to feed my neighbour’s child? I don’t think so.”

That is pure James Moore. The truth is that is how he thinks. You can hear that cant wherever Conservatives gather. Even if he does not like school breakfast programs for needy children, they are a reality in a country where the government puts tax cuts for the wealthy ahead of the needs of children.

And then there are the Bobbsey Twins: Most often mentioned as possible successors to Stephen Harper, Foreign Minister John Baird and Immigration Minister Jason Kenny set their own unique standard for Conservatism. Canada’s international relations have never been worse and the only place where it is easy to get a job in Canada is in Minister Kenney’s Calgary electoral district.

We are never sure which of the Bobbsey Twins is Freddie and which is Flossie but we do know that Mr. Kenny is no favourite of Finance Minister Flaherty. Mr. Kenney was saying something derogatory about Toronto’s mayor recently and Mr. Flaherty used quite unparliamentary language to tell him to shut up.

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]

An election campaign usually comes down to be one basic proposition. If the perception of this proposition is not obvious, the news media will often pick something. What most political observers agree on about this is that while the political parties would like to choose this one thing, they rarely do.

It is reasonable at this juncture that the Conservatives want to fight the next election on the proposition that the Harper Tories are the best managers of our economy. The New Democrats want to be the alternative to the Tories because they want to get rid of the Senate. And that leaves the Liberals a broad range of targets. The danger for the Liberals will be that they might go after a broad range of targets and fail to reduce them to the one simple idea.

The absolutely worst proposition for the Liberals is the legalizing of marijuana. This would cloud the issues of the election and turn the Liberal campaign into a farce. At the same time, the Liberals have to stay away from any grouping of issues that can be costed. There is no way the party can appear more stringent than the Tories, nor does it want to provide any fixed figures on which their opponents can attack them.

One of the more interesting possible propositions is the concept of a national guaranteed annual income. This is an idea that’s time has come. This would involve the consolidation of a broad range of federal and provincial programs and take a long time to properly implement but would not really cost more than all of today’s expenditures that are badly mismanaged. The savings are in all the jurisdictions and provincial ministries, federal departments and bureaucracies that can be reduced and consolidated into a more humane, streamlined system.

The system can be as simple as a reverse income tax. If an individual is not earning as much as the poverty baseline, they apply to the guaranteed annual income agency for payments that will take the individual up to the baseline. Pass the baseline in income and the income tax system will be taking some cash back. It really can be that simple.

But the Conservatives among us will be horrified. Why they seem to think that a person should have to freeze or starve to death is never very clear. As Charles Dickens’ Mr. Scrooge asked, “Are there no work houses?”

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]

Do you know why Heinz closed its Leamington plant? Or why Kellogg closed its London, Ontario plant? The plants were old. They had been there for a long time. We are just not privy to the decision making process of a board of directors in another country. Why should they care about Canadian jobs? And, for that matter, why should a Canadian board of directors care about Canadian jobs? Where is the profit in that?

What we have in this country, under a Conservative government, is a right-wing business ethos that says profit is more important than people. Companies are encouraged to move jobs like chess pieces to lowest cost locations. It is an attitude that says unions are gougers and nobody should protect employees from exploitation. It is an attitude that says if Canadians will not do the dirty jobs, we will bring in foreign workers who will. And they can use foreign workers to drive down Canadian wages.

This is the same government that appears to be allowing oil companies to collude on retail gas prices. It is the same government that is restraining environmentalists from addressing concerns about tar sands, pipelines, railroads, and anything producing high carbon emissions. It is a government that seems to be funded by business, run on behalf of business, and sees itself as the devoted supporter of business. It is so devoted that it eliminates food inspectors, railway restrictions, environmental protection, informative statistics or anything else that might get in the way of their friends in business.

And how do you expect business to respond to all this selfless love from the Tories? Are they then going to say “Our employees are a valuable asset and we want to show our appreciation”? Instead, they give fat bonuses to the executives and keep them happy. Foreign-owned companies appreciate the low taxes and continue to sell their products in Canada while moving production to Mexico.

It used to be that it did not matter whether a company was owned in Canada or elsewhere. What really mattered was whether the company acted as a good citizen in the Canadian community. The company recognized the contribution it was making to Canada’s economy and considered that as important as any savings to be made in lower cost manufacturing areas. These were companies that recognized their role in creating an economically strong country.

But what do these companies do when the government discourages good citizenship?

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]

If the Liberal Party of Canada thinks it is going to please the middle class with its policy plans, it is deluded. The party cannot even define middle class. The Liberals who gather in Montreal for the party’s biennial convention and policy fest on February 20, 2014 have a single objective: to win the country in 2015.

But with all their middle of the road platitudes, how do you distinguish the Liberals from their opponents? For example: Harper and his Conservatives will promise tax breaks. Do you really think Trudeau and the Liberals will counter these tax breaks with promises of higher taxes? Hardly. The Tories will try to show how middle class tax breaks can be.

And do you think Thomas Mulcair and the New Democrats are going to let Justin Trudeau’s Liberals steal all their votes by telling the traditional NDP voters that they are really middle class? Not a chance. Mulcair wants his share of that political middle and he will spend the election showing Canadians how middle class he can be.

And before some sociologist jumps up and starts explaining the various quartiles of the Canadian population, remember that being middle class is a state of mind. While we are very much a middle class country, we are a classless society. The people who sweep our street (mechanized today) are not lower class. They can make more than $30 per hour, with good benefits, because of their unions. A bright young person with a post-graduate degree can be working in retail for $10 per hour and no benefits. By living with the parents, life is good.

As much as real estate people like to sell homes in millionaires’ enclaves, these peoples roots can be the same as the rest of us. Paying someone else to mow your lawn and clean your swimming pool does not make you better than those you pay. And remember that Lord Cross-the-pond—Conrad Black—is not a Canadian citizen and cannot vote.

At their policy meeting, the Liberals will consider a mish-mash of policy alternatives ranging from the far right of the political spectrum to the left. Whether they will dig into the seminal issues of concern to Canadians is a good question. Take a key environmental issue: the exploitation of the tar sands in Alberta, for example. All three of the major parties are on side in this. Can any party deny Alberta spewing its tonnes of carbon into the environment for the pure objective of profit? Dare we say ‘No’?

Will we return the long-gun registry? Will we save Employment Insurance? Will we try to ditch the Senate? Could we dump the crown at the same time? Will we buy the F-35? Do we really want to legalize pot? There are so many weighty questions. Will the media report them all? Will the voters respond?

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]

It is the last chance for the drones of parliament. They can either rebel now or fade away with their ill-fated Conservative Party of Canada. Those who have done nothing before or during the time of a majority have a last chance to stand on their hind legs and speak for their constituency. They hardly have long odds on returning.

You heard about Michael Chong in Ontario trying to reform parliament by proposing rules, most of which Members of Parliament are already able to do without his bill. It does not seem all that innocent to be challenging the right of the party leader to select candidates for the party. That is a direct challenge to Stephen Harper.

We are also starting to hear more from the religious right. Reform and Conservative MP Maurice Vellacott is proposing parliament get into questions about abortion. Judging by his religious background, he is probably just playing to the folks back home in Saskatchewan. He has already announced that he is not running in the next federal election. We suspect he is preaching for a calling.

He thinks he is getting around Prime Minister Harper’s avowal to not discuss abortion by creating a couple parliamentary bible classes to discuss the needs of the unborn. While there is no doubt that Mr. Harper would prefer to send Mr. Vellacot to Coventry, he has probably never talked to him anyway.

There is also likely to be some ideologue in that caucus of eunuchs who wants to bring back capital punishment. Will that motion try to get around the Prime Minister on the issue by getting parliament to discuss more humane ways of killing people? You would think the gun nuts would want to stand up for shooting people. If they can reach a decision on that, will the PM then let them discuss whether executions should be public or private affairs?

As it is, they have already sentenced one segment of Canadian society. The Conservatives have reduced the once socially stabilizing Employment Insurance system to a sad joke. Nobody trusts it or should. In their efforts to be sure that nobody gets anything that they might not deserve, the Conservatives prefer to have people starve to death.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty intends to wave his banner announcing his budget is deficit free before the 2015 election. It will demonstrate more than anything else, the cruel, unfeeling, unkind, destructive nature of the Conservative Party. They will not be missed in our Parliament.

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]

Your country is like your garden. It takes care, cultivating, weeding and the approval of others to make it a source of pride. And if Canada is your garden, it is showing a serious lack of care and concern.

And everyone has to care. There is no exception. No one is too busy. If you are too self-centred, too ignorant, you can simply leave the room, leave the province, leave the country. Canada has to be a caring country. Our winters are too long and cold for the indolent. The season of our gardens is too brief for the uncaring. There is absolutely no excuse for anybody to deny our heritage and the heritage of our progeny.

Canada is not a country for ideologues. Ideology divides and destroys. Canada is a country for builders, people with ideas, people with ambition and people who care. There are no social classes in this country and we must make the pact with each other that there never will be. There can be no upper class or lower class—nor is there the vaunted middle class. We are one.

We are a people who left caste, nobility, poverty and privilege in old worlds and came to build something new. And we shared. It is the land that offers the opportunities but it is the people who give it warmth. If a person sleeps on the street, we have failed. If a child goes hungry, we have failed and if a person cries out for help and we fail to listen, it is society that should answer for it.

Pierre Eliot Trudeau called on us to be a caring society. We have been side-tracked by troubles in the world. We forgot while serving ourselves. We believed alarmists who said we cannot afford to share, we have been told to be selfish and yet we dig deep into our pockets to help those reeling from natural disaster. We really have no idea of the empathy and caring of which we are capable.

Every one of us should spend some time asking ourselves what we are doing to help build this country. The pollsters tell us we have no glue, no social cohesion, no caring. And when was the last time the pollsters were right about anything? Canada cannot be just an ideal. We have the ability to make it a reality.

Remember the flag-waving episode in Montreal in October, 1995. It was the largest political type rally in Canada’s history. We cared then; we care today. The rally said in simple words that we love our country. It might be a good idea to repeat those words on a regular basis.

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]