Another American Intervening in Canada’s Election

Mork, or Robin Williams, wants Canadians to vote Liberal.

US Ambassador Wilkins didn’t even go so far as to tell Canadians which party to vote for.

I’m with Maude Barlow, Americans should stop intervening in our election.

Except unlike Maude, the CBC, and the rest of the Toronto intelligentsia, I don’t want Americans left and right intervening.

Don’t be so selective Maude!

Income Trust Scandal

Captain’s Quarters has all the poop on the Liberal Party’s income trust scandal.

Most importantly, he asks why no investigation has taken place.

Isn’t it embarrassing an American has to ask these questions? I suppose Maude Barlow would complain about such interference.

Holy &#%$@! It’s Jesus!

What are you doing in Edmonton, Jesus?

Costco Fires Catholic Over Knights of Columbus Hall Case?

Via Small Dead Animals, Lifesite News is reporting on one of the individuals involved with the British Columbia Human Rights case where 2 lesbians won $1,000 because the Knights of Columbus reneged on their agreement to rent them their hall after the KoC learned they were gay (decision here in pdf).

Dan Hauser claims Costco fired him in retaliation of his views on homosexuality and over his involvement with the Knights of Columbus. He claims his supervisor strongly objected to his views and concocted to have him fired (for other reasons). He also claims there’s no way the couple didn’t know about the Knights of Columbus and its affiliation. Lifesite News reports the hall is part of a larger complex with a Catholic church and other facilities. Moreover, Hauser challenges the couple’s claim they found the hall by driving around (the reason they didn’t know anything about the KoC) because the sign “hall for rent” would have been too small to see from the road.

I’m in no position to judge over this he said, he said, they said episode. But something about it smells fishy and I hope more comes of it to clarify the matter.

Vote Liberal for National Unity! Pretty please?

The Liberals want this election to be a fight about national unity. Vote Liberal if you love Canada! Federalist Quebecers should especially vote Liberal, or else the separist Bloc Quebecois will represent their province in parliament yet again. But a Liberal party memo that was accidentally emailed to the press suggests it’s a fight they’re not very confident of winning.

According to the memo, the Liberals believe that only 10 of their Quebec seats are safe. Another 20 seats– 9 currently held by the Liberals, and 11 held by the BQ– are believed to be up for grabs. It seems as though the Liberals themselves believe they’ve got no chance in 45 of the provinces’ 75 ridings. Should they really building this election up as an important vote on national unity when they already know they’re going to get clobbered?

Copps Still Angry, Bitter

Although she’s been out of politics since the 2004 election, Sheila Copps has not mellowed out one little bit. And it seems as though she hasn’t warmed up any to the guy that gave her that last big push out the window.

During a December 14 interview on CPAC, Copps claimed that Paul Martin, as well as his top henchmen Anne McLellan and Ralph Goodale were dead set against Kyoto:

“I remember very well when (Chretien) actually endorsed Kyoto, he called me before he went to South Africa because he was getting tremendous push back from the bureaucracy, the department of finance, the former minister of finance (Martin) and all of those attached to the natural resources … including Mr. Goodale and Anne McLellan. (They) were viciously against Kyoto.”

And, she says, the rift within the party created some greenhouse gasses of its own:

“We burned thousands of pounds of paper with briefing notes from the department of Natural Resources and the Department of Finance showing us why we could do nothing because it was an economic disaster.”

Copps wonders how Martin can go to Washington to criticize the Americans on Kyoto when our own record on greenhouse gasses is, in Copps’ opinion, “Abysmal.�

If this were coming from somebody else, it would probably be a pretty damning indictment of Paul Martin’s sincerity when it comes to environmental issues. But from Sheila Copps, it just sounds more like the prom date that still hasn’t forgiven him for puking on her dress and leaving with her best friend.

Ontarians: Like Albertans Minus the Will to Live

David Warren is pessimistic about the Conservatives chances in this election. Being the great wordsmith he is, I couldn’t help but to chuckle at his characterization of rural Ontarians:

And yet a huge, still basically WASP, semi-rural Ontario continues to exist out there, and continues to share precisely the same ethos and outlook as Alberta — minus the will to live.

Canada’s Demographic Freefall

CBC reports that in 10 years seniors over 65 will outnumber children under 15. A more detailed article in a recent Policy Review makes a similiar point.

No need to think too hard on its political implications - when a society of seniors depend on not enough people of working age to support not only their retirement pensions but also the welfare state.

Canada, it seems, faces a future that Quebec is currently experiencing. Father Raymond de Souza compared Quebec to a bachelor pad:

Though the Bouchard manifesto returns over and over to the issue of Quebec’s “demographic decline,� a more accurate phrase would be the death of a nation. Quebecers may be masters in their own house, but rather than the head of a bustling household, the future looks more like a party boy living it up in his cool party pad.

A posthistorical fantasyland where the state takes care of a civil society too solipsistic to take care of itself.

I thereby suggest a new term for this phenomenon: we’re a Bachelor Pad Polity.

“That’s Too Simplistic” is Too Simplistic

“Simplistic” is the smart word to describe something you don’t want to do but cannot be bothered to think of any plausible argument against - as in, “Putting bobbies back on the beat is just too simplistic.”)
– Ferdinand Mount

H/t: Kevin Michael Grace

Don’t Wish Me “Happy Holidays”

A couple of years ago I spent Christmas in Singapore, which has an incredibly diverse population of ethnic groups: Chinese, Sri Lankan, Malay, European and North American ex-pats, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, etc.

Walking down Orchard Street, the main shopping district, I was impressed with all the holiday displays that actually wished shoppers, “Merry Christmas.”

My hosts told me that right after Christmas the lights come down and get replaced with Chinese New Year’s displays. When it’s Ramadan, same thing. When it’s the Hindu holiday, same thing.

In other words, Singaporeans are allowed to celebrate their distinctive holidays, not a milquetoast “Happy Holidays.”

That’s how Singapore differs from Canada and the US. We’re told to celebrate “Happy Holidays” or else we’re intolerant.

Next time someone chastises you for not saying “Happy Holidays,” wish them “Happy Hanukkah” or whichever celebration is specific to their religious tradition. If they’re irreligious, chastise them for being parasitic on the traditions of others.

Actually knowing the other tradition and acknowledging it does more for tolerance than milquetoast “Happy Holidays.” I’m reminded of something Hannah Arendt said a few years after WW2. She said that people who wished to view Jews as human beings as an antidote to Nazi anti-semitism had it all wrong because they refused to acknowledge the particularity of the Jews. If you’re to wish her well, she said, wish her well as a Jew, not as a human being, which is too generic and therefore meaningless.

“Happy Holidays” is yet another example of liberalism running to the lowest common denominator. Ultimately, the lowest common denominator for us humans is simply our biology. I don’t need a holiday to celebrate my biology.

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