Zombies Among Us

So I was trawling the internet, and lo and behold, I find this!

Sinclar Stevens, spreading his own distinct flavour of idiocy throughout the world, one vote at a time!

Incidentally, that’s about how they do every election.

Those In Glass Houses…

Curtis Glencross was one of my favourite hockey players last year. My team, the Oilers, picked him up mid-season and quickly became a fan favourite. He played rough and tumble hockey, scored every couple of games, and was fast as all get out.

This offseason he was a free agent, and he signed with the Calgary Flames. That’s the political equivalent of Peter Mackay crossing the floor to the Green Party, spitting on Harper and signing on as senior correspondent to the CBC.

Here in Alberta, the Flames and Oilers have a rivalry uncomparable in the League. There are a lot of fans who will cheer for Anybody But Calgary, or inversely, Anybody But Edmonton.

In the political spectrum, we’ve been seeing much of the same lately. Leftists or “progressives” are often influenced to vote Anybody But Conservative, but then told in no uncertain terms that only the Liberals and their champion, the Great Dion, Trudeau’s second coming, can stop the vast right wing conspiracy. Only Captain Planet can defend human rights, get Canada out of the war in Iraq, and stab a wrought iron spike through the heart of the evil Stephen (not to be confused with the Incredibly Intelligent, Exceedingly Brilliant and Ridiculously Good Looking Stephane).

Mind you, never are people urged to strategically vote for the NDP, or the Greens. Never are Elizabeth May or Jack! touted as saviours of the free world, despite the fact that both of them are more articulate, and are arguably stronger spokespeople for the enviromentalist bloc.

Not only that, but both of them have more signs pointed up than Our Great Leader-In-Waiting. Their trends are more positive, their support is ever expanding, and they aren’t on the defensive this election.

But never mind that. Dion is great! And he’s our ONLY HOPE.

Excuse me, but I’m going to go throw some stones around. Hold my calls.
 

Grand Theft Auto and Car Thieves: Connection?

Take a look at this image of the top car thieves in Surrey.

Check out that tattoo on the back of one.

But no, there is no connection between the GTA series of video games and crime.

Really.

What do you mean, you don’t believe me?

Surrey BC Riding Update – Newton/North Delta

The big news in this riding locally has been the defacing of political signs.  It has been worst in South Surrey/Cloverdale/White Rock where the popular Russ Heibert is running for re-election as a vocal social conservative, but it has also carried over into this riding.

It is hinted at in the coverage that the defacings are happening to everyone, but funny thing when you look hard at the facts, it is only the Conservative signs that are being defaced.  It is especially interesting to note that this is occuring in otherwise typically conservative ridings.  What is it about the left that resorts to crime to knock down the opposition on what seems to be a more frequent basis?  Note, I am not suggesting that NDP or Liberal candidates condone or in any way approve of such defacings, but rabid followers acting alone or in small drunken groups are most likely the cause.  Conservative supporters just don’t go off like that – or it’s very rare.  I don’t think it’s unfair to say that the typical right wing supporter is more law-abiding than the typical left wing supporter.

Surrey BC Riding Watch – Fleetwood/Port Kells

If you need a refresher on what this riding has been doing since the election was called, check out the first of this series.

A commenter has asked, “How are the carbon taxes (both BC’s and Dion’s proposed Federal) gone over in the riding?”

My sense is they aren’t.  Fleetwood and Port Kells are nicer, more suburban areas with lots of big homes and lots of RV’s and boats in driveways.  RV’s and boats mean big, often diesel-powered truck to pull them.  The kinds of gas prices we have seen in the Lower Mainland are unrivalled anywhere else in Canada (except in the far north, where it costs a fortune to truck in gas).  In addition, this riding is not serviced by significant bus or skytrain service – the skytrain doesn’t even come within 5 km of its border yet!  Cars are the mode of transport here, and commuting is the norm.  Hence, we don’t like carbon taxes.

We also don’t like crime.  Most people out here have moved this way to get away from the crime of the King George corridor, mostly related to drugs, but also part and parcel of more urban living.  As the elements that people have fled spread in here, there is a conservatism that comes of that.  A homeless guy set up camp beside a church on a main road during the summer, and one of his dogs was seized by the SPCA after he bit someone.  The row this caused was big news.  From those I talked to, a lot of people tried to do what they could to help the “Fleetwood Homeless Dude” but he didn’t really want anything, except to be free to complain about the government and how much wrong he has been done by them.  Some people don’t want to leave their crutches.

The other question by a commenter was “How is Dion’s Tour going over?”  I haven’t heard any coverage of his campaign stops in Surrey.  If he’s had any.  I think the average person in the riding doesn’t really care about campaigns or platforms – they want to know what affects them personally, and what the politicians can do for them.  As much as pundits like to pontificate over policy and politicking, in the last election Harper hit the right notes in knocking down the GST and promising money to help with child care.  It’s help you can see and feel.

And now back to the riding update: Brenda Locke’s team has finally gotten around to putting out signs – the little lawn ones are now littering every grassed meridian I’ve seen.  Still, the large NDP and Conservative signs give more visibility to the candidates.

The Surrey Now (oh, look at that. Another paper owned by the same company who owns the Province and the Sun.  Monopoly anyone?) has a piece on the candidates in the riding.  They do a good job of making Grewal look slimy, and allow Locke to get away with the party line “revenue-neutral” rhetoric on the carbon tax.  They also allow the NDP candidate to make such statements as being “for” increased wages and “against” industrial subsidies, without a thought as to how we can ratchet up industry’s expenses and cut off corporate welfare, and not see a massive collapse in Canada’s private industry.

Surrey BC Riding Watch – Surrey North

Finally saw some competition for Dona Cadman put out some signs Monday morning.  The Liberal candidate here is one Marc Muhammad.  Different combination that – a French first name and a middle-eastern last name.  He takes the place of 2006′s candidate Surjit Kooner. In reading his bio, and seeing his picture, he reminds me very much of the Conservative candidate I supported in this riding in the 2006 election – another young man without much clear political experience.

Dona’s team is way out in front in terms of marketing though.  It will take time to even out.

The Now has a piece on the NDP candidate’s positions.  Some of them I even agree with.  Too bad I don’t agree with the party’s positions on everything else.  I haven’t even seen any of Arab’s signs.  (That’s his name.  Really.  Cadman’s running against Muhammad and Arab.)

The Truth About “Revenue Neutral” Carbon Taxes

The local rag out here in Surrey has come the closest I have seen of any newspaper to tell us the real story on carbon tax.

BC is the only province that has one, and the government claims it is revenue neutral.  The Surrey Leader timidly crunches the numbers.

They use two case studies: the $40 000 a year single woman, and the $70 000 a year single income 4 person family.

The numbers for the single are crunched most thoroughly, and you get the sense that more often than not, the single will come out ahead in this carbon tax scenario.  Fine.

But then look at the family.  The paper doesn’t do nearly as thorough a job breaking this scenario down, because the numbers quickly get ugly.  They barely break even, and only if you assume that they drive less than what is really a very low number for kms driven.  Especially if those kids are in sports, or any extracurricular activity.  And the number sinks still lower when you factor in that most families live in places heated by natural gas, which also has a carbon tax on it.  The number of kms becomes even more unachievable if there is a dual income, which is more and more common.

When you look hard at the numbers, it is not even close.  The carbon tax is nowhere near revenue neutral for families in BC.

Maybe we should change the name to the “Family Tax”.

Justin Trudeau promotes Franglais

I thought the Conservative.ca website was really bad self-publicity until I learned about Justun.Caca! Maybe he wants to fight the Europen elite or maybe he just wants to one-up a fellow second-generation politician? I wish I had caught it earlier.

Race Can’t NOT Be a Factor in the Presidential Election ’08

The polls are close, and lefties are surprised.

What would account for this tight race?

Quality of candidate?  No.  Barack Poppins is practically perfect in every way.

Policies?  The Brilliant Obama has thought out carefully every one of his positions… which is why he votes the Democratic Party Line so much more often than McCain did for the Republicans.

No, it must be race.  More than half of the United States of America is deeply, profoundly racist.  And that half, coincidentally, overlaps perfectly with Republican voters.

Yeah, that’s it.

Yes, true believers.  No matter what happens in this election between now and November.  No matter what is said, no matter how the leaders campaign, no matter who is the better candidate.  If John McCain wins the election, it’s because America is racist.

A flowered hat tip to Wonder Woman.

BREAKING: Is Garth Turner Splicing Images?

It has not been a good week for Garth Turner so far, what with his campaign being caught in an attempt to present an overly favourable electorate in Halton where none exists. However, the week is only half-way over and I noticed something a little fishy today on his blog…

Today’s post is supposed to be a juxtaposition of Stephen Harper’s visit to the same room Stephane Dion visited during the summer. Aside from the camera shots being at different points, giving us only a glimpse of the room in Harper’s case while Dion’s was the panorama, the graphics designer in me also picked up another issue immediately:

See that? Well, at first I had to be sure myself, so I blew up the image to get a closer glimpse…

Yup, that lady seems to not only have two different hair colours, going straight down the middle from the angle that the picture was taken, but she also wears two brightly different shirts! In other words, it’s clear that this photo has been doctored and cannot be trusted as an authentic view of the Dion event. Who knows, maybe Turner and co. took some of the extra people from the Harper event last night! The bigger question though is why Garth Turner (who, in this case, is personally responsible for his blog) insistent on deceiving voters? Oh, and on that note, since some of us Blogging Tories have known Garth to revise history…

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