Category: Federal Politics

It is good to hear that some think tanks are taking a hard look at the Conservative government’s Economic Action Plan. They act surprised. What seems to puzzle the academics is that the Conservatives are spending more taxpayers’ money on the advertising than they are on the programs. Those of us who took the trouble to assess the budget when Finance Minister Jim Flaherty delivered it in the spring had already figured it out. If it smelled like it, looked like it, it probably was bullshit.

The first thing that gave it away was the stipulation that the proposed corner-stone Canada Job Grant Program was only applicable in provinces that did not have its own program in place. We knew immediately that this stipulation would eliminate Ontario and Quebec and probably Manitoba and New Brunswick. At the same time, we were sure it could be implemented in Prince Edward Island. Like many federal programs, it would most likely cost more to administer there than the dollars delivered to the applicants.

The Caledon Institute senior researcher who co-authored the recent report said it simply when he is quoted as saying, “There is little evidence to suggest that the Canada Job Grant would help train workers to fill positions where there are actual job shortages.” The report is particularly concerned that the new program ignores all the progress previously made in federal-provincial co-operation in this field.

The federal government’s unilateral action actually takes back the $300 million per year contribution to the provinces and territories for their job training programs. They will be taking back more than they will be spending.

But the entire plan looks good in the print and television advertising program. This is where the real loonies are being spent. Look at all those smiling young people in the ads who are being trained for better jobs. You do know they are actors do you not? Even your local Conservative MPs are in on the plan with their heavy advertising of the federal economic action plan. And what really galls is that they are spending our money.

Our favourite part of the television ads is the ocean going oil tanker on a pristine sea—carrying bitumen from Alberta to some third world country that does not care how much it pollutes in converting it to synthetic oil. With this as our economic action plan, our country is in one hell of a lot of trouble!

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

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

Luckily for Canadian communications people, English is a living language. It is in a state of constant change and usage and there is no tribunal ready to refuse this use or that use of words or forbid the encroachment of another language. There is no authority for English as there is with Canada’s other official language. It is this wonderful flexibility of English that enables copy writers, script writers, pamphleteers, publicists, authors and others to change perceptions of products, processes, politicians and propositions by subtle changes in words. It also leaves Canadian translators struggling with word concepts to meet the demands of l’Office québécois de la langue française. As is often noted, one person’s opportunity is another person’s problem.

This is why what was previously known as Athabasca tar sands is now Alberta oil sands. This change serves multiple masters. Few people know precisely where the Athabasca area of Canada is located but Alberta as a political entity is well understood. Clarifying ownership is the obvious objective.

The change of ‘tar’ to ‘oil’ serves multiple conceptual needs. While surface tar sand deposits are a world-wide geological phenomenon, the Athabasca area appears to have the mother lode. While the tar extracted from the tar sands in North America is not by any stretch oil, neither is it tar. It is bitumen, one of the oldest construction materials known in the world. Bitumen can be heated and distilled for pitch and used for waterproofing. It can be used instead of mortar to lay bricks. It can be mixed with sand and gravel for asphalt. Asphalt is an excellent road-building material. Bitumen can also be put through a highly polluting refining process to make synthetic oil.

Calling tar sands from the Athabasca area ‘heavy oil’ is also something of a stretch. For Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline across British Columbia, the plan is to twin the pipeline with a smaller diameter pipeline that can be used to bring light crude from tankers in Kitimat, B.C., mix this crude with tar sands bitumen and ship the resulting slurry back to Kitimat in a heated, higher pressure and larger diameter pipe.

In the Line 9 proposal in Ontario, the plan is to mix in polymers in Alberta, heat the line at frequent intervals and increase the pressure to push the slurry eastward.

In all of the material about the eastern pipelines, the emphasis is that there are refineries at the seaport terminus of the pipeline. The assumption that many people make from this is that these refineries will welcome the bitumen product to refine. They will not. Most of these refineries would need extensive modifications to handle bitumen. And they would rather not do that.

North American refineries would prefer that bitumen be processed somewhere else where the amount of pollution it causes will not be considered as serious a problem.

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

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

Leader of the Opposition Thomas Mulcair is hardly the first egotistical politician to be challenged by the RCM Police on his way to Canada’s Parliament. Many Ottawa natives just assume that duty on the Hill is used as a form of punishment by higher ups in the national police force. While the Speaker’s security people look after the inside of the Parliament buildings, the Mounted Police are delegated to look after the grass and Centennial Flame. And, two weeks after graduating from RCMP training school in Regina, these newly minted officers take their work seriously.

Many years ago, a Member of Parliament from Toronto asked us for a ride from the Ottawa airport to his office on Parliament Hill. It seems he was late for a meeting and knew that we would have a rental car waiting. We were quickly out of the airport and heading down the Airport Expressway.

When we got to the Hill, he asked to be dropped at the Centre Block. We turned in at the West Block to go around the internal driveway to the Centre Block. It was while driving past the West Block that we were flagged down by a RCMP Constable. Rolling down the driver’s window, we offered the constable a pleasant ‘good morning.” He politely asked where we thought we were going.

This did not suit the MP in the front passenger seat. He screamed impatiently, “Do you know who I am? The young constable obviously did not but he did a snappy salute with his right hand while surreptitiously indicating to get moving with his left hand. The incident was not overly memorable except for the deafness in our right ear for the rest of the day.

In the more recent problems of Thomas Mulcair, it seems that little has changed on Parliament Hill. Obviously, the RCMP personnel are taking their responsibility for the Parliament grounds more seriously. This might not be just because somebody trampled on the tulips.

But why is the Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition driving his own automobile to work? Are those union bosses who run the New Democrats too cheap to get him a chauffeur? That is a disgrace.

Mind you, Tommy needs to be a little more patient with overly officious minions. He needs to remember that they might vote NDP.

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

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

If Canada’s Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney is getting all he has wished for, why does he not look happy these days? Is it possible that he has been in his present position with the Conservative government too long? Is he wearied of the tasks Mr. Harper has set him? There is also the possibility that he is hurt by the growing criticism of how he is doing that job. He knows that it is time for a change. The problem is that the change he wants is Stephen Harper’s job.

Other than the fact that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is in no rush to step aside, many agree that Kenney could be a leading contender for the leadership of the Conservative Party. Kenney is just worried that there will be scorched earth when he gets there. It is not all smooth sailing on the good ship Harper.

Jason Kenney is a contender because he is the darling of the religious right of the Conservative Party. This is despite his only post-secondary education being at a Jesuit College in San Francisco where he was noted for organizing against female students who wanted the right to birth control information. He has also never held a job other than in politics or with right-wing pressure groups. He was first elected as a Reform candidate and then United Alliance, before the Alliance united with the Conservatives. He is not noted for his balanced view of issues.

This has been a constant aggravation for many Canadians as he has besmirched Canada’s reputation around the world for fairness and understanding. He insults the immigrants he does encourage to come to Canada but then brings in temporary workers to do the jobs that should be taken up by new immigrants. There are astute observers of the Kenney portfolios that say he has made a mess of all three because of his prejudices.

His campaign use of ethnic groups is almost a farce as he lines up backdrops of visible minorities behind Harper and other party luminaries. A speech by Kenney seems to be a long list of catch-words that work on prejudices that he might want to exploit.

The major concern with Kenney is whether he could tone down his religious bias enough that someone like Defence Minister Peter MacKay could work with him. Stephen Harper would obviously prefer to eventually turn over his job to some one who is an economic conservative such as him. No Conservative minister stands out.

Even the other half of the Baird-Kenney Bobbsey Twins duo, Foreign Minister John Baird, would be a more popular choice with the economic Conservatives. He probably does not have the same passion for the job as Jason Kenney.

Of course, Kenney has to hope that Harper will pull his government out of its current tailspin and restore the marketability of the Conservative brand.

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

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

Just last week, this commentator asked: if an MP fell in Ottawa, would anyone care? Days later MP Brent Rathgeber from Alberta fell from the Conservative caucus. And, yes, people cared. The news media gave the event a two-thumbs up.

Rathgeber left because he was piqued. He was right in the groove with what we were talking about. He is a guy who finally stood up on his hind legs and said, “I’m not going to put up with this crap any longer.”

This is one mad Member of Parliament. He is tired of being a patsy. He is fed up with trying to do something in Parliament and being treated like a puppy that has peed on the carpet. He is tired of young kids in the Minister’s offices telling him what to do. He is not only older than most of them but he has more life experience and he is the elected MP—not them.

But what do the other drones think of all this? These are the Conservative backbenchers who would not have a clue on how to propose a bill such as Rathgeber did. He proposed a bill asking for access to information regarding government employees earning more then $144,000 per year. Someone rewrote the bill to make the level above $444,000 per year. That effectively gutted his bill.

The drones are conflicted about this. Their concern is that one of their number has done something that they do not understand. He is doing their tadpole squiggly swim in the wrong direction. He has challenged management. He has asked for more. He has made himself a pariah. He has chosen to go to Coventry where they cannot speak to him.

Most of the drones enjoy the attention that they get from the minions in the Ministers offices. They are made to feel important. They get to ask their favourite Minister soft-ball questions in the House of Commons. They get to ask gratuitous questions in committees. They are lionized by the second tier lobbyists who have nothing better to do than to make sure that MPs are on side for their various initiatives. They love going home to give out medals or plaques for being over 100 years old. They enjoy feeling important. They know that MP Brent Rathgeber is not going to feel quite as important from now on.

There might be a few of the older Conservative backbenchers who will quietly—certainly not openly—sympathize with Brent. They know that unless they hoe the line, there will be no win for them in the next election or an appropriate appointment to some federal board before that election. You should not expect a sudden rush of Conservative MPs to join Rathbeger in Coventry.

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

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

What do bitumen and lemmings have in common? They both seek the sea. And you would think that when God put all those tar sands in land-locked Alberta, maybe He was trying to tell us something. And why is Alberta Premier Alison Redford running around North America seeking routes to pipe bitumen to the sea?

Despite the efforts of the public relations people from Enbridge and others, bitumen is not ‘heavy oil.’ Not that there is anything wrong with bitumen. It is considered to be the oldest engineering material known to mankind. The Mesopotamians when building what became known as the Tower of Babel used bitumen instead of mortar because of its easy availability in the Middle East. The ancients also used bitumen to waterproof the wooden hulls of their galleys. Today we still use it to build roads.

The fact that Alberta has so much bitumen in the Athabasca tar sands appears to be the reason for the Alberta Premier’s sales efforts. What she fails to promote is the conversion of the bitumen from the tar sands into synthetic oil before it is shipped out of Alberta. If this was done in Alberta, the entire province would be knee deep in a form of slag known as bitumen coke. Even worse, Canadians in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Northern Ontario would be up in arms about the destruction of their farms and forests from the black rain of carbon fallout.

The eagerness of Albertans to get that stuff out of their province is quite commendable. Their only concern is that others should not suffer because of their desire for lower taxes. This is why they want the pipelines to take their bitumen to sea ports and let other countries worry about the black rain. There are now six different pipeline routes in various stages of proposals or planning.

The west coast is closest and Northern Gateway by Enbridge is an obvious loser as it proposes to head straight for Kitimat, B.C. Expect much more effort to be spent on completing the twinning of the Kinder Morgan pipeline to Vancouver.

President Obama still has to decide the fate of TransCanada’s Keystone XL line south to the Texas Gulf ports but there is a back-up route for Enbridge to take up some of the slack on that route to the sea.

Ontario has gotten into the act with the pipelines seeking the Eastern Seaboard. Enbridge’s Line 9 was built more than 20 years ago to take crude oil from Eastern ports to Ontario refineries. By reversing it, heating the bitumen slurry and increasing the pressure, they hope to send bitumen to Portland, Maine and Saint John, New Brunswick. Waiting behind this scheme is a TransCanada gas pipeline to Montreal that TransCanada is considering using for bitumen slurry.

Lemmings are little furry rat-like animals that tend to over-produce and have to control their population excesses by heading for the sea and self-destruction. Bitumen is an asphalt like substance that has some use but, until the world is actually desperate for oil, it should be of academic interest only.

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

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

It makes the heart sing for this former airman. The retro red, white and blue paint job of the old Royal Canadian Air Force has really gussied up the Hair’s Airbus A310. They have even numbered it as Harper’s personal Air Force O-One? That is what it is.

And it is far more impressive than that awful battleship grey that it used to be. You always wondered if we could get lucky and have some uninformed fighter pilot from some misbegotten nation shoot it down just for practice. The color always made us wonder what country Harper wanted to go to war with this time. Flying around in a military aircraft was always a bad strategy for Canadian Prime Ministers.

Harper, the Hair and the hairdresser are doing Europe next week. They are going to end up in Ireland for a meeting with the G-8 countries. Harper will be hoping that all the other leaders (except Obama—who has a gorgeously painted Boeing 747 for his personal use) are still at the airport when he lands so that they can see how important he is.

First, Harper is going to London where he will bend his knee to the Queen and assure her of his fealty. He will then get to address the Mother of all Parliaments at Westminster. What he will say there is probably just as irrelevant as his answers to opposition queries back home in Ottawa.

But you can be sure that the Hair will be perfect. There is a Tower of London nearby for the hairdresser who does the Hair less than perfect.

From London, Harper will carry on to Paris for a bit of shopping. He has no real excuse for the Paris visit but he always like to get well acclimatized on these trips before getting down to business. The only reason for the trip is the G-8 meeting in Dublin at the end of the week. If the Irish spend as much money on Dublin as Treasury Board president Tony Clement spent on Huntsville for the Canadian G-8 meeting a few years back, Dublin should look phenomenal!

(Addendum: Or is the meeting in Belfast? The Brits would never waste a shilling gussying up that town.)

But this meeting might be the start of the fall from grace of Canada’s Stephen Harper. It has now become clear to many G-8 members that Harper’s so-called economic expertise is a lot of hot air. As an exporter of oil, they realize that he is exporting pollution in the guise of bitumen and no responsible nation wants it. Like many Canadians, they hope they will not have to put up with his Hair and his pomposity much longer.

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

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

According to Bob Hepburn of the Toronto Star, Lord Crossthepond calls people such as us “the haters.” And yet 500 people came out to hear Black speak last week according to Bob’s report. While there was some thinly veiled innuendo about his ‘troubles,’ they came mainly to hear about his latest book. It is a book on American history that Lord Connie wrote while in an American prison. As you can imagine, that can draw some interest—probably akin to the interest people used to have in public floggings.

Mind you, a public flogging of someone who has so outrageously reviled our country as has Lord Connie would need a much larger venue. This guy not only, more or less, told us to take our citizenship and shove it but he continues to wear his Order of Canada pin when most Canadians want to tear it from him. Lord Connie does not seem to appreciate how polite Canadians can be and he needs to tone down his rhetoric about us.

Hepburn put a lot of ink into the Toronto Star story telling us how the media are fawning over Black. This is no surprise when you realize how much ink and video tape was used to welcome Karla Homolka back when she got out of prison. Hell, she did not even want the attention. Lord Connie seems to revel in it.

Would we really care if Black was less pompous? This guy seems to think he has more entitlement than Senator Mike Duffy. At least Duffy is doing something useful for Canadians: he is making Prime Minister Stephen Harper look like an idiot for appointing him to the Senate. He has already destroyed the credibility of the Prime Minister’s Office in his accepting an illegal $90,000 present from Harper’s chief of staff.

Somebody should take the trouble to find out when Conrad Black’s temporary visa expires. We could send him home to England. People are more tolerant of pomposity there. He might enjoy the chicken feed that his speaking engagements earn him while he is here, but this is a guy who sees himself as a big-time wheeler-dealer. His books might meet with some scholarly approval but they will soon be remaindered in bins for people who like the look of them on their bookshelves—and will never read them. He needs bigger fish to fry and he is not going to get them while entrapped in his Canadian halfway house. The only good thing if Prime Minister Stephen Harper gives him his citizenship back will be then Canadians would want to lynch them both.

Lord Connie’s only hope is to quietly blend into his Bridle Path community in Toronto and stay out of trouble. He has to become the common man—if there have ever been any in that community.

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

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