CBS Notices Alberta Oil Sands

US network CBS has a long article on the Alberta oilsands and what they mean for US energy security and the int’l economy (the headline shows a 2005 publication date, but the copyright is 2006 - so it seems this article is recent).

Nothing really new for ThePolitic readers, but it’s interesting a major US TV network takes notice.

Polls Predict Conservative Party on Cusp of Majority Win

Something to think about on your way to the polls today. Ipsos Reid’s latest polling finds:

Stephen Harper and Conservative Party on Cusp of Majority Win

Grits and Bloc are Battling it Out for Official Opposition as NDP Makes Impressive Gains

Future Parliament: Conservatives 148-152 Seats, Liberals 62-66 Seats, NDP 34-38 Seats, Bloc Quebecois 56-60 Seats.

When you’re done with that poll, head over a take a peek at, The Strategic Counsel poll. Looks like most of the election predications are going to be off, way off.

L’État, C’est Moi: Liberals Think They Own the State

Via Plato’s Stepchild, Mark Steyn documents the extent to which the Liberals have politicized the judiciary, bureaucracy, and most recently, the supposedly politically neutral Privy Council Office:

The scandal isn’t Harper drawing attention to the politicization but the unwillingness of the thoroughly politicized organs of the Trudeaupian state to see it. Consider this small item: the Liberal Party solicits donations from the Privy Council Office employees at the office. That’s merely the gazillionth tiny sign that the party no longer understands the codes and conventions by which the Westminster system operates. I’m not arguing that, in their elision of the line between party and state, the Grits have turned us into the Soviet Union. But, as I’ve put it for a few years now, they have turned us into Malta in the Seventies - we have the outward emblems of a functioning constitutional monarchy, but all the checks and balances have gone.

Cosh on Buzz on Alberta Separatists

Key line:

Unlike Quebeckers, who dream poetically of unmaking Confederation but perhaps recognize the impracticality of the final step, we are people who want to stay put but realize that all the logic and incentives are increasingly on the other side. We grow frustrated when we seek for the exact moment that our individualist, democratic, pro-enterprise principles became un-Canadian.

More on Bush, Lincoln, War Powers

Drawing on Benjamin Kleinerman’s article on Lincoln, Joe Knippenberg writes on using Lincoln’s war powers as an analogy of Bush’s justification for wire-tapping here.

Kleinerman responds and Knippenberg responds to Kleinerman.

UPDATE: Knippenberg and Kleinerman continue their discussion here.

Liberals Call on Quebeckers to Vote for the Bloc

In a matter of days in this election campaign, we have gone from the scary, to the shameless, to the bizarre and now to the ridiculous.

Labour leader Buzz Hargrove says Conservative Leader Stephen Harper’s attitude toward the provinces is essentially a separatist approach.”If you devolve all the powers to the provinces, what do you have left? His view of the country is a separatist view,” Hargrove said as he campaigned alongside Paul Martin.

He said Quebec voters should choose the Bloc Quebecois over the Conservatives.

“Anything to stop the Tories.”

Buzz is right about one thing. If the central government devolves all its powers, there would be no more than an empty shell left. But the labour boss fails to establish a connection from Harper’s more respectful attitude toward provincial jurisdictions to the complete devolution that he suggests Harper espouses. A labour boss being dishonest. Imagine that!

Flipping from the dishonest to the ridiculous, and please note that Hardgrove was alongside the prime minister when he spoke, Buzz said that Quenec voters should opt for the Bloc rather than to vote Conservative. Ummh. Who exactly is the separatist here lobbying for a Bloc vote?
Anything to stop the Tories. Anything? What exactly does that mean? Surely Buzz is not suggesting that the Liberals are going to engage in Jimmy Hoffa type of activities when he says “anything.” Exactly how far is the union boss prepared to go to stop the Tories?

Earlier in the campaign, Harper suggested that the Martinistas would rather have the separatists ruling (or representing) Quebeckers because it served Liberal purposes. Effecting indignation, Martin demanded an apology. But Harper was exactly right, and Buzz now provides the hard evidence.

Crossposted from Civitatensis.ca

Elections Canada asked to investigate Blogging Tories

CanWest News Service reports that Elections Canada has been asked to investigate Blogging Tories, a coalition of conservative blogs.

…a Victoria, man, Eugene Parks, and Toronto Tory dissident Carole Jamieson allege the venture may be in contravention of the Elections Act and third-party financing laws. They say it may have “unduly influenced the election coverage and potentially the outcome of this campaign.”

“They’re using a third-party agency to get elected,” said Parks, a former Conservative supporter who now says he is an opponent. “It’s pure hypocrisy.”

Parks says that Conservative MP Diane Ablonczy approached him in December to head up an initiative on behalf of the party.

But Romeo St Martin of PoliticsWatch says he talked to Elections Canada’s boss-man about blogs, and got this clarification:

In December, Canada’s chief electoral officer, Jean-Pierre Kingsley, said at a press conference in Ottawa that as far as he is concerned political blogs are a form of free expression, not political advertising.

“I don’t think that there’s going to be a major problem with respect to blogs,” Kingsley said in response to a question from PoliticsWatch.

“This is a means where by a lot of people have decided they are going to express themselves

“If a political party or a candidate were to have a blog then that would fall under the financing regime. But if it’s the supporters, there are going to be supporters all over for various parties and it’s a form of self expression.”

What, exactly, is the problem? First off, the Liberals and NDP have their own equivalents to Blogging Tories– “Liblogs” and “Blogging Dippers”, respectively.

Secondly, it doesn’t matter if Diane Ablonczy approached Eugene Park or any number of others with the idea. The rules regarding third-party advertising don’t prevent people from expressing their views, and bloggers do just that (and aren’t paid for it either, unless my cheques got lost in the mail…) People are free to express there views, which is why (for instance) the Young Liberals’ organized effort to blitz letters pages and message boards to get their party’s message out wasn’t illegal. Or why a coalition of taxpayer-funded social advocacy groups are allowed to set up an anti-Conservative website.

Third, Park’s claim that “They’re using a third-party agency to get elected” is irrelevant, unless he and Jamieson can show specifically why Blogging Tories would fall under restricted third-party advertising. “Unduly influencing the election coverage and potentially the outcome of this campaign” in itself is not against Elections Canada rules (although I wonder if the Liberals were aware of that… it might explain how their campaign has thus far failed to influence anybody, except perhaps influenced them to vote for the opposition parties.)

And finally, the fact that the driving force behind this complaint is Harper-hating Carole Jamieson should say all you need to know about the motivation behind it.

Voting is, like, totally hot right now!

Equal Voice, a group dedicated to getting more women involved in politics, has apparently chosen Paris Hilton as their role-model, the Canadian Press reports:

The youth wing of Equal Voice held vote drives at McMaster and three other Ontario universities yesterday.

In a bid to attract the attention of young women, members sported bright pink T-shirts with the slogan “Voters are Hot” emblazoned across the front.

They’ve taken a page from pop-culture figure Paris Hilton. The slogan refers to her famous quote, “That’s hot,” which she uttered most notably on her former reality TV show, The Simple Life.

I heard that last time Paris Hilton tried to vote, she spoiled her ballot because she didn’t know how to spell “X”.

Politics and Sports, take 2

A war of words between Quebec Liberal MP Denis Coderre and NHL player Shane Doan is headed to court, the Toronto Star reports.

Doan, captain of the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes and recently chosen to the Canadian Olympic hockey team, is also the brother-in-law of Canadian Olympic multi-gold medalist Catriona Lemay-Doan. He was ejected from a hockey game on December 13 after a verbal confrontation with French Canadian referee Stephane Auger. Auger claimed Doan had used an ethnic slur, but Doan denies it. An investigation by the NHL’s disciplinary committee found no evidence to support Auger’s allegation.

But that doesn’t cut any ice with Denis Coderre, who wrote to Hockey Canada on December 22 to demand that Hockey Canada kick Doan off the Olympic team.

Coderre senses cover-up, something a Liberal MP might know a thing or two about, and is demanding that the NHL release its report into the incident. Colin Campbell, NHL director of discipline, says no:

“Our game reports are not for public dissemination and particularly not for politicians who may be using this whole disjointed affair to seemingly garner votes,� Campbell told The Canadian Press.

Oh, right. AS IF a Quebec politician would try to make political mileage out of the Olympics.

Paul Martin as Anakin Skywalker?

One of the biggest movies of 2005 was Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith. It’s the final chapter of the trilogy, depicting Anakin Skywalker’s metamorphosis from golden-boy, to troubled young man, to the legendary villain Darth Vader. Episode 1 and Episode 2 were flawed movies, but Episode 3 really brings a satisfying end to the tale. Beyond the action and special effects, Revenge of the Sith is really a story about how a man’s loss of faith in his beliefs lead him to his downfall. You see, Anakin started with only the noblest ideals. But as he matures and discovers life is more complicated, he begins to have doubts. Opposing forces pull at his moral compass, and when the war against the separatists forces Anakin and his allies to make desperate choices, Anakin finds himself struggling to reconcile–

–wait, separatists?

Well, yeah. In this trilogy, the backdrop is a war against separatists that seems to justify all of these morally ambiguous choices that are made. For example, when the separatists–

–wait a minute. Was this thing based on Canada?

Well, no. Not exactly, anyway. Well, there is this one character that sounds a lot like somebody we know.

When we first meet Anakin, in Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, he is a young child with wide-eyed admiration of the Jedi Knights. They believe he is destined to be one of them– one of their greatest– and so they take him to their temple to learn their ways.

Paul Martin, like Anakin, seems to have been destined for politics. His father was an influential cabinet minister and contended for leadership of the Liberal Party. Before the 2004 election, Martin spoke of how he grew up with great admiration for Canada’s parliamentarians and said he was “raised in these halls,� referring not to the Jedi temple but to the House of Commons.

In Episode 2: Attack of the Clones, Anakin Skywalker has become a young man. He has grown up to be powerful, but also impatient. He feels he is being held back by people who are jealous of his growing power. Although still an apprentice, Anakin believes in his heart that he is already a greater Jedi than his master. He continually pushes at the boundaries of his master’s authority.

Paul Martin, if we check in on him in the 1990s, has also grown powerful. In 1990 he contended with Jean Chrétien in a bitter leadership battle that went to four ballots before Chrétien emerged victorious. When the Liberals swept to victory in the 1993 election, Paul Martin became Finance Minister, perhaps the second most powerful position in the government. And over his run of 9 years as Finance Minister, Paul Martin achieved triumph after triumph. Paul Martin’s success as Finance Minister was a great asset to Chrétien, but it also became a thorn in his side. Martin, like young Anakin, began to challenge his master’s authority. The rift in the party between Chrétien loyalists and Martin’s supporters became common knowledge. Martin became openly defiant of Chrétien, mocking Chrétien’s authoritarian style of leadership with the slogan “Who do you know in the PMO?â€? and challenging Chrétien’s views in areas that went far beyond Martin’s Finance portfolio. Martin pledged to do things differently– better– if he became Prime Minister, a destiny that now seemed all but assured. Martin would heal regional rifts. Martin would address the democratic deficit. People from coast to coast were anticipating Paul Martin’s turn as Prime Minister. Even Albertans would get behind Paul Martin, it was believed, because Paul Martin’s fiscal conservative street credentials would resonate with Albertans. “Paulberta,â€? some called this impending breakthrough. Paul Martin was a consensus builder, people said, not a pugilist like Chrétien. Politics would stop being about personal power and start being about solving problems. Everything would change.

In Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith, Anakin Skywalker has become a full-fledged Jedi Knight in his own right. As was his destiny, Anakin has become a great and powerful warrior. But the journey from starry-eyed child to grown man has cost him the idealism he had as a youngster. His vision of the purity and nobility of the Jedi ideal has been tarnished. The Republic is in crisis, and war against the separatist forces pushes the Jedi Council into making choices that sacrifice morality for expediency. Anakin becomes troubled by the Jedi Council’s hypocrisy when he is asked by the council to betray the trust of Chancellor Palpatine. As well, Anakin breaks the Order’s rules by having a clandestine love affair, prohibited by the Jedi for reasons that he disagrees with. And ultimately, when he is given the chance to save the woman he loves by betraying the Jedi Order, his diminished view of their ideals and his awareness of their hypocrisy seals his fate. Anakin is able to betray the Jedi Order because in his heart he has already abandoned them.

And if we check in on Paul Martin in 2004, we find that he has now become Prime Minister, fulfilling the destiny that has seemed certain for years. But like Anakin Skywalker, Paul Martin has paid a moral price during his rise to power. His bloodless coup against Chrétien and the political aftermath have come at a cost to the party unity and to Martin’s own reputation. Many Liberals lost their seats in the 2004 election, and Paul Martin was obliged to fill vacant Senate seats with defeated comrades and party aides, rather than “addressing the democratic deficit�. Rather than ending cronyism, Martin found patronage appointments a helpful way of rewarding his allies. Rather than healing regional rifts, Team Martin again ran a campaign that drew the anger of Albertans and “Paulberta� became a myth. Rather than diminishing the importance of the PMO, it seems as though it’s bigger than ever. The answer to “Who do you know in the PMO?� has become that just about everybody has heard of Tim Murphy. Like Anakin Skywalker, the ideals Paul Martin held before seem to have vanished as he came to power and had to contend with difficult choices.

Of course, I don’t claim for a moment that Paul Martin has become as ruthless and morally vacant as Anakin became as he transformed into Darth Vader. It’s not like Paul Martin is the first politician who’s had to make compromises to hang on to power, or the first guy to fail to live up to lofty expectations. And if you think back to the ending of Return of the Jedi, you remember that even Darth Vader was not beyond redemption.

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