Stephane Dion blames everyone except himself

I wanted to give Stephane Dion the benefit of the doubt — I like my Green Shift idea — but now I am grateful he was shot down. A couple of things bothered me about his press conference yesterday where he announced his future resignation:

1. he does not understand the relationship between image and politics
2. he no longer sounds sincere about his Green Shift platform

He kept going on and on about how nobody got to see the real image of himself. Like, the Liberals would have gotten elected if only Canadians saw the real Stephane Dion. Now a Liberal leader knows what it is like to have false images portrayed by their opponents. For years, the left wing portrayed Stephen Harper, Stockwell Day and Preston Manning as knuckle-dragging, bible-thumping neanderthals who will bring back capital punishment or outlaw abortion. Well, now the tables have turned.

Somebody ought to clue Stephane Dion in to reality: unless you have charisma or if you are young and good-looking or you can actually carry on an interesting conversation, do not count on your image to win you votes.

Anyway, what bothers me the most is that he insists that he never got a fair chance to explain his Green Shift plan. That bothers me because his Green Shift plan is not that difficult to explain. All he had to say is: “We are going to cut income taxes and replace them with carbon taxes.” [Granted, there is a whole lot more minutia in how these tax changes would be devised but the gist of it is still the same.] Why is that so difficult to explain?

The only reason why I can think that would be difficult to say is if the Liberals were lying about their plan. This is why I am thankful the Liberals lost the election. I do not think they should be trusted to follow through with their own plan. I think they were using this Green Shift as a phoney PR stunt, to make a nerdy old guy look hip but then use it as a cover for more Liberal cronyism.

Dion: We Didn’t Win… It’s all the Conservative’s Fault

Stephane Dion recently sent an email to the Liberal’s national email list, here is what he said:

You may already know that earlier today I announced that I will step down as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. Over the next several months, the party will conduct a leadership race to determine my successor.

Moving forward, I have one overarching goal: the next leader must not be subjected to the same Conservative Party character assassination that I faced. To be successful, I need your help.

Harper’s Conservatives have enjoyed an enormous financial lead since the fundraising rules were changed, and from the moment I was elected leader, they poured millions of dollars into unprecedented attack ad campaigns. The Liberal Party lacked the resources to respond, and by the time the election was called, a false image of me was cemented in the minds of too many voters.

That can never be permitted to happen again. Between now and when the next leader is elected, you and I must ensure the Liberal Party has the financial resources to counter Conservative attacks. Every single time.

So I’m asking you to be generous now, not for me, but for the man or woman who will succeed me and lead our Liberal Party into the next election – an election we simply must win. And while a one-time donation today will help, for long-term strength and stability, I would like you to consider making a monthly contribution of $10, $15, $25 or more.

We did not win this election, but our vision of a richer, fairer, greener country lives on. Please help now to ensure that the next leader of the Liberal Party can turn that vision into Canada’s reality.

It’s always sad when people fail to take personal responsibity for their actions – whether it is a leader of a political party or a political party as a whole.  As Adam has recently pointed out, the Liberal party has bigger problems than anything Dion has done to the party – let alone anything the Conservatives have done.

Dion Steps Down, Stays on Til May

Dion is gone, folks. He’ll still be leader until the leadership convention in May, when his successor is chosen.

The Liberals don’t exactly have a bumper crop of candidates this time around. So far I see:

Michael Ignatieff: The best choice. Of the group he’s the most likely to bring the party back to moderate right on fiscal issues and moderate left on social ones. But because they’re the Liberals, they’ll pick someone less likely to succeed.

Bob Rae: No-starter in Ontario with a horrible track record and an easy to attack platform.

John Manley: He has all of the same pros as Ignatieff, and has a shot at being the establishment candidate. Expect him to last to the second ballot, if that.

No-Name, Unelectable Compromise Candidate: This guy will win.

Liberals Have Bigger Problems Than Dion

Unnamed Liberal insiders, members of the media, and leadership contenders should get it through their heads that they have bigger problems than Dion and the Green Shift.

Things like being broke, having no vision and little party unity spring to mind.

Good luck Iggy.

McCain Can Win

One election has come and passed, and once again we turn our eyes south of the border to the unending election party they have down there.

I’ve been saying for months that McCain’s going to win, and I stand by that statement. Many pundits and news agencies are saying he’s basically out of the race. However, I would suggest that when one looks at this chart, you’d have to admit that McCain has a shot if he can keep his message on course.

All of the yellow, or “tossup” states on that map are ones that I can very easily see falling into McCain’s “win column”. If that were to happen, McCain would be within 7 electoral votes. That means he’d only need Iowa OR Virginia to swing over to red. Both states selected W. in ’04.

He may be 72, but I’m calling McCain the “Comeback Kid”.

Paul Gross on Arts Funding and Canadian Identity

What is with artists in this country?  Do they ever actually find out what they are talking about or do they simply get handed talking points by their buddies?

I’ve actually been excited to see Passchendaele since I saw the posters for it in theatres.  That it was made by a Canadian and was seeing wide release was also pleasing.  But now that I am hearing its star and primary movier, Paul Gross try to paint Stephen Harper with a broad “arts hater” brush, I am not so interested anymore.

I attempted to look into exactly where cuts to arts funding that have been made by the Conservative Government would have intersected with his film, or any art being produced in Canada of significance.  I found this list of recent arts cuts totalling 60 million dollars.

After reading that list, I don’t really see anything of consequence on the list.  A website is closing (we have more than enough arts and culture sites run by the government in my opinion), some public funding for artists who can’t afford to travel the world, to travel the world (the government doesn’t pay for me to travel internationally – why can’t artists pay for it themselves?), a minor independent video fund, some funding for provding archival material online (which presumably would be done by now?), and some other small funds without clear purpose or even clear usefulness.

I am sure that some artists are actually directly affected by some of these cuts.  But certainly not major film producers like Paul Gross, or any other artists I have heard in the media in the last few months, complaining about cuts.  The one that started this qhole ball of wax, if I recall correctly, was just rendering ineligible for public funding the making of pornographic or other morally questionable art.  Again, I am not aware that this would apply to movies like Passchendaele.

Paul Gross says that he shouldn’t have made these cuts  “…because that’s where the Canadian identity comes from.”  If Canadian identity rests on federally funding the porn production industry, or on Canadian artists’ need to be funded to travel all around the world, then I think we have bigger problems and more important places to fund.  Emily Carr didn’t need to see the pyramids of Giza in person to create world renowned art.  Nor did the Group of Seven need to attend swanky conventions in Prague to produce amazing pieces.  Get a grip.

Toronto Star Makes My Head Hurt

Can anyone else tell, from the contents of this article alone, what the substance is of the contention that the Conservatives could run up a 10 billion dollar defecit this fiscal year?  The one that is already half over?

I read this article and all it talked about was talk.  No explanation whatsoever.  Someone must understand this.  Please tell me exactly where this ten billion dollar deficit is supposed to come from.

Freedom of Speech Continues to Be Defended in Parliament

One of the issues skirted around by every major party is that of the Human Rights Commission and their unending attacks on the freedom of speech. However, there are some MPs who have been willing to take a stand on this issue, and I’m proud to announce that two of Canada’s most active defenders of freedom have been reelected to the House.

Keith Martin, a Liberal who put forth a private members bill regarding the issue, was retained by the electorate with a slim plurality of the votes. Rick Dykstra, on the other hand, achieved a commanding victory.

Hopefully these two men will continue to serve at the forefront of this battle, and hopefully they will win.

Stop worrying about voter turnout — your democracy is fine

Ladies and gentlemen, your sky is not falling. Stop worrying about low voter turnout. Stop blaming non-voters. This last federal election had the lowest voter turnout on record and now everybody is worried about democracy failing. Nonsense!

Not surprisingly, for some people it is just a question of money. Speaking of money, this, on the other hand, is a real worry: the Prime Minister announces plans to study why voter turnout is falling. What a ridiculous waste of money!

First of all, it is a false problem. The Canadian population today is different from the population of yesteryear. Therefore, we are just imagining a trend between apples shrinking into crab-apples and oranges shrinking into tangerines. It is a false comparison of two different populations. We would not be so impressed by reports of shrinking hoola-hoop sales now, would we?

Second, voter turnout does not matter. Governments can still get elected to power regardless of the voter turnout.

Third, low voter turnout makes sense and it is logical. Some people have great difficulty with simple mathematics, but the truth is that the individual vote makes no arithmetic difference to the calculation and determination of an electoral win. This is the same mechanism of the free-rider phenomenon and it applies all over the place — elections are not immune to individual incentives. This may all sound pretty much like heresy to our sensitive democratic ears but too bad. It is the truth — a curious truth that Green Party supporters seem to witness repeatedly and casually dismissed by defenders of democracy.

Fourth, the numbers suggest that approximately half of the population does not feel so compelled to demand something of their government. How can that be bad?

Fifth, the numbers may also suggest that approximately half of the population does not feel that a piece of paper can make a difference in the power exerted by their government. [I guess that would depend on the nature of the paper. Last week, the government just printed stacks and stacks of paper without parliamentary approval and that inflation of the money supply will most certainly affect them.]

Low voter turnout can be interpreted many different ways. One thing is certain: it reflects an observable exercise of freedom given a constrained amount of choice.

The polls got the Green Party all wrong

One thing in common with all of popular polls that were released before the election is that they seemed to get the Green Party all wrong. They all seemed to estimate about 10% for the Green Party but the actual result was not a single seat.
Strategic Counsel
EKOS
Harris/Decima-Canadian Press

Looking at the WikiPoedia reference for the preceding election shows the same error in over-estimation of the Green Party.

« Previous Page — Next Page »