Jack Layton has accused Paul Martin in the deaths of homeless people due to cuts Martin made as Finance minister.
Paul and members of the Liberals are demanding an apology, as is Stephen Harper. Matter of fact Harper looked distinctly uncomfortable when he said that Jack Layton went a little over the top in his comments.
Wonder why Harper looked so uncomfortable? What is he really planning if elected? Is he p'raps anticipating charges levelled at him for policies he "may" implement?
What about those charges? Is there any substance to them?
After all, governmental policies do sometimes result in the deaths/suffering of people.
Who is to be held accountable for them? Is the principle of accountability valid in such cases?
Interesting questions that only the citizens of a country are able to answer........
Thursday, May 27, 2004
If Conservatives were truthful
If and it's a big IF, Conservatives told the truth this is what we would be hearing on the campaign trail;
We'd like to cut taxes by 25%. Of course this would benefit the rich greatly because they would save huge amounts of money....well because they make huge amounts of money. Fair is fair!! You will save money too, but you better hang on to your savings, you'll soon see why.
With government revenues down, you the ordinary worker will now have to pay user fees for services that your collective taxes used to pay for.
Yes! We know that user fees are another form of a tax, but we will use Government revenues to pay our pals in the advertising industry to convince you that they are in fact not taxes. You'll believe us too. We learned that from the Mike Harris Tories in Ontario after he was re-elected to a second term.
What it will also do is reduce the governments ability to govern and would allow business to violate all the rules/red tape that society has imposed on them, because, gee...we hadda layoff all those civil servants who would have enforced the rules.
We will then have to implements cuts in Medicare....again...gee......because government revenues are down. Gosh and gawddamn...we just gonna have to delist more and more services that used to be covered by Medicare to our buddies in the private sector. Yeah! We know it's privatizing Medicare, but hell, with a majority government you cannot stop us. 'Sides..we'd just do some more advertising...
Kyoto? What Kyoto? We don't agree with that treaty because our pals in business told us that we do not support that illogical treaty. There is no global warming. It's a figment of your imagination, George Bush said so!
That George has some fine ideas. We especially like his ideas about Iraq. We've said it before and we'll say it again. Our troops should have gone to Iraq because of Saddam Husseins arsenal of WMDs,........no sorry, because Saddam was an evil dictator and we needed to liberate the Iraqi people......actually because Iraq is the forefront of the war on terror. Yeah! We know again that the majority of Canadians opposed this war, but we'd just do some advertising to convince the voters that they really support it. Of course we're not going to suit up Jason Kenney in body armour nor will we provide Stockwell Day with a jet-ski and send them off to Iraq. Do you see any of the political elite, or the children of prominent Americans going to Iraq? Whassa matter with you?
That's the job of ordinary citizens and their sons/daughters. Plus it will provide them with good jobs, because we'd speed up the imposition of Free Trade treaties with the rest of the Americas. We have to do this because Canadian workers are too highly paid and our businesses cannot compete with other low wage countries.
As you'll recall, under the last Conservative government the N.A.F.T.A. agreement cost a lot of Canadians their well paying jobs and made us and our business associates a lot of money.
We'd roll back many of the liberties that Canadians have come to take for granted because of the war on terror and..
Oh! Yeah, we'd build some super-jails and hire extra police, 'cause you know, there are some trouble makers out there in society who want to protest just about everything. Our Mike Harris experience taught us that.
Of course we are only asking for two terms. After that you will not recignize Canada, just like Brian Mulroney famously told you three Liberal majorities ago.
We know that after two terms we are not likely to ever get elected again. But thats okay with us. After all it was okay for Mikey and Brian as well.
We'd like to cut taxes by 25%. Of course this would benefit the rich greatly because they would save huge amounts of money....well because they make huge amounts of money. Fair is fair!! You will save money too, but you better hang on to your savings, you'll soon see why.
With government revenues down, you the ordinary worker will now have to pay user fees for services that your collective taxes used to pay for.
Yes! We know that user fees are another form of a tax, but we will use Government revenues to pay our pals in the advertising industry to convince you that they are in fact not taxes. You'll believe us too. We learned that from the Mike Harris Tories in Ontario after he was re-elected to a second term.
What it will also do is reduce the governments ability to govern and would allow business to violate all the rules/red tape that society has imposed on them, because, gee...we hadda layoff all those civil servants who would have enforced the rules.
We will then have to implements cuts in Medicare....again...gee......because government revenues are down. Gosh and gawddamn...we just gonna have to delist more and more services that used to be covered by Medicare to our buddies in the private sector. Yeah! We know it's privatizing Medicare, but hell, with a majority government you cannot stop us. 'Sides..we'd just do some more advertising...
Kyoto? What Kyoto? We don't agree with that treaty because our pals in business told us that we do not support that illogical treaty. There is no global warming. It's a figment of your imagination, George Bush said so!
That George has some fine ideas. We especially like his ideas about Iraq. We've said it before and we'll say it again. Our troops should have gone to Iraq because of Saddam Husseins arsenal of WMDs,........no sorry, because Saddam was an evil dictator and we needed to liberate the Iraqi people......actually because Iraq is the forefront of the war on terror. Yeah! We know again that the majority of Canadians opposed this war, but we'd just do some advertising to convince the voters that they really support it. Of course we're not going to suit up Jason Kenney in body armour nor will we provide Stockwell Day with a jet-ski and send them off to Iraq. Do you see any of the political elite, or the children of prominent Americans going to Iraq? Whassa matter with you?
That's the job of ordinary citizens and their sons/daughters. Plus it will provide them with good jobs, because we'd speed up the imposition of Free Trade treaties with the rest of the Americas. We have to do this because Canadian workers are too highly paid and our businesses cannot compete with other low wage countries.
As you'll recall, under the last Conservative government the N.A.F.T.A. agreement cost a lot of Canadians their well paying jobs and made us and our business associates a lot of money.
We'd roll back many of the liberties that Canadians have come to take for granted because of the war on terror and..
Oh! Yeah, we'd build some super-jails and hire extra police, 'cause you know, there are some trouble makers out there in society who want to protest just about everything. Our Mike Harris experience taught us that.
Of course we are only asking for two terms. After that you will not recignize Canada, just like Brian Mulroney famously told you three Liberal majorities ago.
We know that after two terms we are not likely to ever get elected again. But thats okay with us. After all it was okay for Mikey and Brian as well.
The Right is Wrong
It scared me when I read in a local paper, that the Reform/Alliance now known as the Conservatives after forcing a merger with the Tories, were trying to soften their image and round out the sharp edges in preparation for the election now under way.
Why soften images? What sharp edges? Who will get injured by these sharp edges? Screw all that, just tell the truth.
It all smacks of deception to me.
How can we believe Stephen Harper when he claims to be an alternative to the ruling Liberals, if he is softening his image and rounding out sharp edges, to sell himself to voters?
Fact is, the Right is the wrong choice for the vast majority of citizens. Matter of fact, in this increasingly globalized world, the message of rightwingers offers exactly the wrong solutions in a complex world.
There may have been a time when rightwing policies made sense, if pure unadulterated greed and callous indifference to the plight of the poor and disenfranchised and unmitigated violence in defense to those policies can ever make sense. That time is long past. Never forget that those who espouse this brand of political governance, once claimed that the abolition of slavery and of forced child labour was uneconomical.
We only need look south of the border, down Americas way, to see the incredible damage rightwing policies cause.
The damage cuts through every aspect of a citizens life, from environmental damage, to the loss of life, limbs, liberty not to mention the staples of an ordinary workers life like overtime pay and of course the sheer contempt that American citizens are treated to the world over.
The neo-cons are ruling America and our neo-cons,
the Re-formed Alliance of Conservatives are in lockstep with them. Verily I say that I am scared to death of these guys ever taking power here in Canada.
Next segment; What if Conservatives actually told the truth?
And speaking of accountability, betcha old dollywolly can't write like this and he is making big bucks off of my dues!!
Why soften images? What sharp edges? Who will get injured by these sharp edges? Screw all that, just tell the truth.
It all smacks of deception to me.
How can we believe Stephen Harper when he claims to be an alternative to the ruling Liberals, if he is softening his image and rounding out sharp edges, to sell himself to voters?
Fact is, the Right is the wrong choice for the vast majority of citizens. Matter of fact, in this increasingly globalized world, the message of rightwingers offers exactly the wrong solutions in a complex world.
There may have been a time when rightwing policies made sense, if pure unadulterated greed and callous indifference to the plight of the poor and disenfranchised and unmitigated violence in defense to those policies can ever make sense. That time is long past. Never forget that those who espouse this brand of political governance, once claimed that the abolition of slavery and of forced child labour was uneconomical.
We only need look south of the border, down Americas way, to see the incredible damage rightwing policies cause.
The damage cuts through every aspect of a citizens life, from environmental damage, to the loss of life, limbs, liberty not to mention the staples of an ordinary workers life like overtime pay and of course the sheer contempt that American citizens are treated to the world over.
The neo-cons are ruling America and our neo-cons,
the Re-formed Alliance of Conservatives are in lockstep with them. Verily I say that I am scared to death of these guys ever taking power here in Canada.
Next segment; What if Conservatives actually told the truth?
And speaking of accountability, betcha old dollywolly can't write like this and he is making big bucks off of my dues!!
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
The NDP
Never forget that the New Democratic Party was, at least its predecessor was, the party that introduced Canadas much loved and valued Medicare program. This means that Canadians do not have to mortgage the house to pay for medical treatment, or go heavily into debt, American style, for a simple medical procedure. Medicare remains the crowning achievement of the NDP so this means that the NDP alone, amongst Canadas political parties is most suited to protect Medicare, as opposed to the conservatives who are drooling at the prospect of privatizing it. Great profits are to be had out of the suffering of ordinary Canadians and the insurance companies are lining up at the public trough at the prospect of the Conservatives winning power. Stephen Harper has fired the first shot across the bows of the Royal Canadian Medicare Program, (RCMP..? Someones gonna bash me for this, I just know it)by offering a 25% cut in taxes. Next thing you'll know is ....Hey! We just do not have the money to pay for Medicare, so lets get the thin edge of the wedge in and privatize "some" services and before you know it you'll be paying for an increasingly privatized system.
Accountability means looking at political parties' past records. One of the main movers and shakers of the new united Conservatives was none other than Brian Mulroney. Remember what he did to Canada? Recall how popular he remains in the collective memories of the citizens?
Want another dose of Mulroneys medicine? Hah! Didn't think so.
Remember the mess the rightwingers have landed the globe in! Iraq is a key example of rightwing political solutions gone wrong. In todays increasingly complex world Right is Wrong!!
Go Left Canadians.........GO LEFT!!
Accountability means looking at political parties' past records. One of the main movers and shakers of the new united Conservatives was none other than Brian Mulroney. Remember what he did to Canada? Recall how popular he remains in the collective memories of the citizens?
Want another dose of Mulroneys medicine? Hah! Didn't think so.
Remember the mess the rightwingers have landed the globe in! Iraq is a key example of rightwing political solutions gone wrong. In todays increasingly complex world Right is Wrong!!
Go Left Canadians.........GO LEFT!!
Monday, May 24, 2004
Liberal accountability
An auditor generals report created a stir for newly elected Paul Martin as the Leader of the governing Liberal party.
In what I view as a true measure of accountability, P.M. the Prime Minister, struck a parliamentary committee and commissioned an inquiry to get to the bottom of things.
A lot of people scoff at the notion of Martin being unaware of the goings on in Cabinet, even when he was the Finance Minister.
I want to state that I believe him. It happens all the time, when the chief executive, takes secret decisions in cahoots with their staff and operatives, leaving key ministers in the dark.
It will not be business as usual with this Prime minister, if his initial actions of accountability are any indications.
In what I view as a true measure of accountability, P.M. the Prime Minister, struck a parliamentary committee and commissioned an inquiry to get to the bottom of things.
A lot of people scoff at the notion of Martin being unaware of the goings on in Cabinet, even when he was the Finance Minister.
I want to state that I believe him. It happens all the time, when the chief executive, takes secret decisions in cahoots with their staff and operatives, leaving key ministers in the dark.
It will not be business as usual with this Prime minister, if his initial actions of accountability are any indications.
Election Call
I believe that we are entering into an "Age of Accountability".
Democratic institutions the world over are failing their constituents, taxpayers and payers of dues and fees.
In the political world, a glaring example of this is the illegal invasion of Iraq, based on lies, in spite of opposition to war by significant portions of the publics of the invading nations.
At least a couple of news media have subsequently referred to anti-war protestors/public opinion as the "other" superpower in relation to the globes remaining military hyperpower, the US.
The subsequent inquiries in Britain and the US are due largely to public pressure.The publics cry for accountability if you will.
In the corporate world, the Board of Directors and shareholders of Hollinger Inc. are asking penetrating questions about executive salaries and bonuses. In this most conservative of media institutions/conglomerates, the cry of accountability rings out to the tune of lawsuits numbering in the tens, (if not hundreds) of millions of dollars.
In other areas, ........well.. I'll comment on those at a later date. (believe me I have a lot of experience in the lack of accountability in "other areas"-plus an opinion to go with it)
For now.........Remember these two phrases that speak to the lack of accounatbility;
Our taxes-Theirs to spend!
Our fees/dues-Their (and their families') lavish lifestyles!!
Right now I've got an election to practice accountability" on. Canada'a Prime Minister, Paul Martin, has dropped the writ, the candidates are off and running and the new Conservative party deserves my comments. Thank you for reading this, my initial post.
Democratic institutions the world over are failing their constituents, taxpayers and payers of dues and fees.
In the political world, a glaring example of this is the illegal invasion of Iraq, based on lies, in spite of opposition to war by significant portions of the publics of the invading nations.
At least a couple of news media have subsequently referred to anti-war protestors/public opinion as the "other" superpower in relation to the globes remaining military hyperpower, the US.
The subsequent inquiries in Britain and the US are due largely to public pressure.The publics cry for accountability if you will.
In the corporate world, the Board of Directors and shareholders of Hollinger Inc. are asking penetrating questions about executive salaries and bonuses. In this most conservative of media institutions/conglomerates, the cry of accountability rings out to the tune of lawsuits numbering in the tens, (if not hundreds) of millions of dollars.
In other areas, ........well.. I'll comment on those at a later date. (believe me I have a lot of experience in the lack of accountability in "other areas"-plus an opinion to go with it)
For now.........Remember these two phrases that speak to the lack of accounatbility;
Our taxes-Theirs to spend!
Our fees/dues-Their (and their families') lavish lifestyles!!
Right now I've got an election to practice accountability" on. Canada'a Prime Minister, Paul Martin, has dropped the writ, the candidates are off and running and the new Conservative party deserves my comments. Thank you for reading this, my initial post.
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