Another victory for Stephane Dion

Liberal star candidate Marc Garneau has decided not to run in the 2009 Federal election. Another victory for Citoyen Dion surely. Garneau was a supporter of Ignatieff’s in the leadership race and had attempted to run in Outremont in the recent by-election:

Garneau became discouraged when Liberal Leader Stephane Dion announced three or four days later he would handpick the Liberal candidate for the riding.

“Mr. Dion said he would choose the nominee and in my own mind I was not sure that I would be that nominee.”

Garneau said he never formally withdrew the nomination papers but he assumed they were no longer relevant because Dion was going to pick the candidate.

While Garneau, who backed Dion’s leadership rival Michael Ignatieff in the leadership race, was diplomatic, throughout the process it appears the party and Dion did little to actively hold on to him as a candidate. While he said some ridings were suggested to him, they were not ridings in which the Liberals had a strong likelihood of winning. [source]

Garneau is not alone in abandoning Dion.

The Vues D’Ici Blog catalogues the collapse of the Liberals in Quebec:
Serge Marcil, General Director of the Party and Director of the next federal campaign in Quebec (appointed in February of this year), is resigning, according to party insiders. Apparently a small circle of Dion’s closest advisors want to pin the whole Outremont fiasco on Marcil. Dion won’t be able to count on Denis Coderre to help with organisation in Quebec, since Coderre won’t be the Quebec lieutenant. Instead, Dion will have to rely on Marcel Proulx (MP Hull-Aylmer), who is being roundly criticised by party insiders for what happened in Outremont. Proulx not only seems devoid of basic organisational skills, he doesn’t even seem to want the job, complaining that it’s a lot of work and doesn’t pay extra.

This all makes me think that an election will come this fall.

Sound political judgement would tell any Liberal that they will go down to a humiliating defeat if there were an election today.  They have no money, they have problems attracting talent, and they are internally divided between Dion and Ignatieff supporters.

To try to bring down the government over the throne speech and precipitate that election would demonstrate a mind-boggling blindness to political reality.

Which is of course why I think that’s just what Dion would do.

A short film about Canadian health care

The point I take from this film isn’t that we should abolish the public system, or that it’s all bad. The point that I’m taking away from this is that Geroge Smitherman is a boob.

This appears to be borne out by all of the available evidence.

During the last federal election, he said he would get married to his same-sex partner as soon as possible, because he feared that the Tories would ban it once in office. 19 months into Tory rule later, he got married with no problems.

He ‘deputized’ Ontarians and asked them to track down American vans that were performing for-profit diagnostic tests on locals.

He refused a contract with a private clinic that would have cleared up the waiting list for knee surgery and saved money to boot. You can view a TVO episode on that here.

Now I have no problem with him being a boob. Peter McKay is often one, and I’d vote for him. But Smitherman is the minister of health, and his first priority should be ensuring the health of all Ontarians, not just the politically appealing ones, not just the unionized ones, but the boring ones like those old woman in Orillia or Ajax or Iroquois Falls.

I don’t know how this man can attack private delivery while not offering any alternative or even just giving lip-service to the 10,000+ Ontarians who die on his waiting lists and in his broken hospitals each year.

Quebec Byelection Results – Predictable

On the off chance that bad karma causes us to lose a Calgary riding next time around, I won’t gloat too much, just 2 things:

1. Cherniak on the vote: “Not happy about Outremont. Obviously.”

2. This guy. The fellow on the left is Justin Tetreault – a classy Liberal from Northern Ontario who helped out in Outremont by tearing down NDP signs. Not enough apparently – you lost. Who’s the Natural Governing Party now, hmm?

So, just like the polls showed, NDP in Outremont, Bloc in Saint Hyacinthe, Tories in Roberval:Here’s the latest from Elections Canada [8pm pacific]:

Roberval

Green Party    Jean-Luc Boily    489    1.7%
Liberal    Louise Boulanger    2,728    9.5%
NDP-New Democratic Party    Éric Dubois    664    2.3%
Bloc Québécois    Céline Houde    7,693    26.9%
Conservative    Denis Lebel    17,051    59.6%
Total number of valid votes:         28,625

Saint Hyacinthe

Conservative    Bernard Barré    10,599    37.3%
Liberal    Jean Caumartin    2,037    7.2%
NDP-New Democratic Party    Brigitte Sansoucy    2,283    8.0%
Green Party    Jacques Tétreault    1,052    3.7%
Bloc Québécois    Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac    11,998    42.3%
Total number of valid votes:         28,388

OutremontLiberal    

Jocelyn Coulon    5,631    28.2%
Conservative    Gilles Duguay    1,661    8.3%
Bloc Québécois    Jean-Paul Gilson    2,039    10.2%
NDP-New Democratic Party    Thomas Mulcair    9,870    49.4%
Green Party    François Pilon    420    2.1    2.1%
Total number of valid votes:         19,998

Check out Liblogs.ca for some more of the response, a report of media bias in favour of the NDP (I kind of believe that), and dirty Tory and NDP grubbing for so-called “Bloc” votes.

Ideally this is just another sign of the realignment of the party system in Canada towards a Left-Right, Tory-NDP system. For more on that, check out this interview with NDP strategist, Jamey Heath. He comes right out and calls the Liberals in illegitimate force in Canada.

Parting thought – You’re a federalist in Saint Hyacinthe – 5% gives the seat to the Tories over the Bloc.  Neither the Liberals  or the NDP can win the riding – who do you vote for?

The Liberal Nightmare

From Liblogs (The Liberal Party Blog Aggregator):

If, and this is still a big if, these numbers come down like the above, then Dion and the Liberals suffer a huge blow, that isn’t easily discounted. A possible Conservative victory provides plenty to crow about, and the NDP would be beyond ecstatic to win in a former Liberal stronghold. The Liberals would be left to damage control, as the realization that the last bastion of support is threatened and Dion looks an albatross.

The numbers in question:

Outremont:

NDP 38%
Libs 32%
Bloc 14%

Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot

Bloc 49%
Cons 32%
NDP 7%
Libs 5%

Roberval-La-Saint_jean

Cons 43%
Bloc 37%
Lib 12%
NDP 4%

See also SDA

In bad taste

Is it wrong to laugh at these things?

1. Monkeys are sexually harassing women in Africa:

The monkeys grab their breasts, and gesture at us while pointing at their private parts. We are afraid that they will sexually harass us… read the rest

2. Jason Cherniak is accusing the Tories of ’stealing’ the election:

it took a mixture of an unheard of mid-election RCMP investigation, a hostile media and some advertising snafus to bring down the Big Red Machine. Sure the campaign made big mistakes and Martin seemed too tired by the end, but those problems do not stand alone… read the rest

3. Liberal Torontonians, work their fingers raw tearing down anti-child soldier ads:

She said she was so upset that she ripped down all the Camp Okutta signs that she encountered during the afternoon, “until my fingers were actually sore from tearing at the tape and ripping them off.” Heywood said other people on the street, including a group of teenagers, were also removing the posters. When she arrived home, she visited the camp’s website and discovered the camp was part of a new War Child Canada ad campaign…read the rest

Check out the camp here

But my mom says I’m handsome…

Take a look at Cherniak’s blog – at the top right is his proud acheivement: ‘nominated for best political blog’.

Well done … so I say, hey let’s see who else is nominated, maybe I can find another interesting political blog to read.

Just 2 votes? hmmm, and then you see who nominated him – ‘jcherniak’ [click the image below to see full-sized]. Holy living christ, it’s just too funny. Do Liberals have no shame?

NB: I kind of respect Cherniak. Sure he’ll say absurd stuff – and do lame stuff like the above – but he has open comments and he’s tenacious in the defence of his point of view. So fair play to him and all that.

They’ll make an honest lady of her yet…

Islam is finally making that broken old whore – the Socialist International – an honest woman. The ceremony will be in Toronto. They got together after 9-11 and it’s been a raging passion since then. No word yet as to who’ll be ‘on-top’.

Translation: Canada’s Marxists are formalizing their relationship with Islamist terror. Their conference in Toronto will prominently feature supporters of terror and give it a platform to advance their neo-fascist agenda.

From LGF

MARXISM 2007

May 10-13, 2007
Bahen Centre for Information Technology, University of Toronto
40 St. George Street (north of College Street)

a four day conference of over fifty workshops, artistic display and performances. If you are against imperialism, war, corporate greed and destruction of the environment, if you want to learn about and organize for a new world of peace, freedom and liberation then don’t miss Marxism: A Festival of Resistance…

Speakers:

Imperialism and the new Middle East
with speakers:
Mohammed El Masry
Virginia Rodino
James Clark, International Socialists

Building unity: Muslims and the Left
with speakers:
Zafar Bangash
Wahida Valiante
Ausma Malik
Peter Leibovitch
Ali Mallah
James Clark, International Socialists

Now I suspect that you may be thinking that I’m being unfair by implying that these guys are terrorists just because they have Arab names. Well, no. Their names in and of themselves don’t alarm me. Their track record of justifying terrorism and explicitly supporting it alarms me. Look at the name at the top of the list – El Masry – the self-proclaimed leader of Canada’s Muslims. This is a transcript of what he said on the Michael Coren [MC] show:

Elmasry: Were not; not. That is why we are saying totally innocent people and totally innocent people, obviously, are the children. But they are not innocent if they are part of a population, which is, total population of Israel, is part of the Army…

MC: Okay…

Elmasry: From the age …

MC: Okay, Okay…

Elmasry: From the age…

MC: Okay, Okay…

Elmasry: From the age 18 on, they are part of the soldiers…

MC: So, if…

Elmasry: Even…

MC: So you’re saying…

Elmasry: Even if they have civilian clothes.

MC: So if Israeli children are killed, that is a valid use of military force by Palestinians.

Elmasry: No, it’s not a valid use.

MC: So, what are you saying?

Elmasry: I am saying it has to be totally innocent. Okay. Totally innocent are the children, obviously. Okay. They are not innocent if they are military in civilian clothes. Okay…

MC: How about women?

Elmasry: Same if they are women in the army.

MC: So any one over 18 in Israel is a valid target.

Elmasry: Anybody above 18 is a part of the Israeli army.

MC: So everyone in Israel, so anyone and everyone, irrespective of gender, over the age of 18, in Israel is a valid target?

Elmasry: Yes

That’s not even the worst of it – Google any of the other men on the list and you’ll find men literally cheering over the death of Israeli soldiers and cursing all that is good in this dominion.

You know I’d love to go to that conference. Not just for the hate tourism – though that has an appeal – but to take pictures of all of the Green Party candidates, NDP officials, and the so-called “Peace” movement gurgling in pleasure at every blood-curdling incantation of islamist misogyny and intolerance.

At the end of the day, I am thankful for events like this – in fact, I wish there were more of them. Then maybe we Tories would win the Jewish, the Hindu, the urban female and the gay vote.

Something only a Liberal could say

From Jason Cherniak’s Blog:

One important thing that Jews can do to encourage continued support for Israel in the Liberal Party is to recognize when the leader shows his support for Israel.

Those ungrateful Jews, why don’t they realize that existence is a favour. Thank the Liberals … or else.  As a card-carrying Tory, I praise Allah five times a day for Liberals like Jason Cherniak. We’ll have to save quotes like that for election time.

Ignatieff – could be worse

I don’t agree with Ignatieff’s views on federalism and the role of the “national” government. Federalism is the only issue of import in a federal election. A party that respects the division of powers will naturally shy away from social spending, megaprojects and cultural ambitions. A party that doesn’t respect the division of powers, will interfere in provincial responsibility and dream up child-care schemes and twist around the EI system to create a class of parasitic subject provinces. That said, I think Ignatieff would is – by far – the least worst of the Liberal leadership candidates.

He is the only one among them who you could call moral. For example:

International human rights groups, like Amnesty International, are dismayed at the way both the British government of Tony Blair and the Bush administration are citing the human rights abuses of Saddam to defend the idea of regime change. Certainly the British and the American governments maintained a complicit and dishonorable silence when Saddam gassed the Kurds in 1988. Yet now that the two governments are taking decisive action, human rights groups seem more outraged by the prospect of action than they are by the abuses they once denounced. The fact that states are both late and hypocritical in their adoption of human rights does not deprive them of the right to use force to defend them.

The disagreeable reality for those who believe in human rights is that there are some occasions — and Iraq may be one of them — when war is the only real remedy for regimes that live by terror. This does not mean the choice is morally unproblematic. The choice is one between two evils, between containing and leaving a tyrant in place and the targeted use of force, which will kill people but free a nation from the tyrant’s grip.

Source