Proof That There Are Gays In Iran

Persian Music Video:

The Case Against an Elected Senate

One issue I am very against is an elected Senate. I am disturbed that Harper is appointing an elected Senator. This is why:

The Canadian senate is an historic institution which exists to provide a sober second thought to legislation passed by the House Of Commons. It continually is able to look at House Of Commons bills, and provide constructive criticism. Also, the Senate and its committees are able to produce reports, often unanimously, that will ultimately go into new legislation. It can do this with little partisanship.

An elected Senate would cripple Canadian democracy. The new Senate would be subject to the partisan bickering currently reserved to the house of commons. Also, an empowered senate would run the major risk of stagnating the legislative process, if the two houses were in control of different parties, and bills would take forever to pass, much like in the USA. An elected Senate is a dangerous thing, and is defiantly not in Canada's best interests; Canadian democracy has achieved a rare fusion of democratic representation and efficiency, which gives Canada generally good governments, that can get the job done.

If you are willing to stand up for Canada, join my Facebook group: http://ubc.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2306077400

Liberal budget press release

I'm sure everyone has already read the coverage of the budget from many different sources, and I really don't have much to add, it is just as everyone expected. Also with the Bloc now supporting it, it will pass. Now everyone can begin to speculate about who will bring down the government, and how, and when. I personally think soon, this budget is merely a way for the Torries to give them selves a nice boost in the polls. Canadians will still be going to the polls beforethe end of summer. Anyway, here is the party reaction to the budget:

Conservative Budget Fails Canadians

March 19, 2007

OTTAWA – Today’s Conservative budget does little for the average Canadian family, and by paying only lip service to competitiveness, environmental stewardship and social justice it does nothing to position Canada for the 21^st century, Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion and Liberal Finance Critic John McCallum said today.

“This budget is further proof that the Harper government is more concerned about electioneering for the short term than helping the average Canadian succeed both now and in the future,” said Mr. Dion. “Either that or the Conservatives simply don’t understand the pressures facing low- and middle-income families.”

Mr. McCallum added that once again, the government is turning its back on the majority of hard-working Canadians.

“The Conservatives implement tax policies that look helpful on the surface, but their benefit is cancelled out by the tax hikes on low- and middle-income Canadians hidden in last year’s budget, which have still not been reversed,” he said. “The net personal tax relief is a modest $80 per tax-payer.”

Mr. Dion pointed to the deceptive schemes that the Conservatives are trying to pass off as solutions right before an unwanted election.

“Their so-called equalization formula for the provinces is little more than using taxpayers own money to buy favour, since they’ve already cut nearly $10 billion in provincial transfers since taking power by scrapping agreements on child care, labour market partnerships and more than $3 billion of the Canada-Ontario agreement,” he said.

Both Mr. Dion and Mr. McCallum said the budget:

FAILS to offer real tax relief - Taxes began to go up literally the day this government took power – the lowest income tax rate was 15 per cent in 2005, 15.25 per cent in 2006 and 15.5 per cent in 2007. The Conservatives also decreased the amount that can be earned tax-free in 2006. The least they could do was to reverse some of these tax hikes. This budget maintains the Conservative tax hike on the first $35,000 of income. The cost of this tax hike -- $1.4 billion – cancels out the benefit of their new child tax credit. Overall, the tax relief for hard-working Canadians is modest: some $1.3 billion per year, or $80 per tax-payer.

FAILS to help Canadians safeguard our environment or fight climate change - It cuts back our commitment to renewable energy to 4000 megawatts from 5500 megawatts of support for clean and sustainable production. It keeps tax breaks for new oil sands expansion in place until 2015 to help with their plan for explosive growth. It slows our planned cleanup of lakes and waterways. It replaces rewards for those who make energy savings changes with gimmicks that cost thousands of dollars for every tonne reduced. It reduces funding to our provincial partners by half. There is no plan to make sure polluters pay for using the atmosphere as a free garbage dump. Without an overall plan for the environment, modest support for greener cars falls short.

FAILS to offer new support to the provinces and territories – The Conservatives cut nearly $10 billion from projected federal-provincial-territorial transfers through 2010-11 by killing the Liberal childcare agreements, scrapping the Labour Market Partnership Agreements and reneging on much of the Canada-Ontario agreement. In place of these agreements, they put back $11.1 billion in new funding. So the net benefit to provinces over the next five years is about $1.1 billion.

FAILS to position Canada for the 21^st century global market-place – In 2005, the Liberal government put forward the CANTrade strategy, which provided $485 million over 5 years to help Canadian businesses succeed in emerging markets. The Conservatives scrapped this initiative, and have now replaced it with $60 million over the next two years. The Conservative budget also cuts $970 million from the Indirect Costs of Research program, which provides support to Canada’s universities.

FAILS to offer new support to students – The budget doesn’t put a penny in the pockets of Canada’s under-graduate students. There’s money for Canada’s top 4,000 graduate students, but the vast majority get nothing at all.

FAILS to help working families – In 2006, the Conservatives promised 125,000 new child care spaces over 5 years. Fourteen months into its mandate, Canadian families are realizing this promise wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on: there have been zero spaces created in the past year. What’s worse, the so-called Universal Child Care benefit – neither universal nor child care – is fully taxable, and the government will rake in an average of $400 per family thanks to this. The 2006 Child Care Plan was a complete failure. Why should Canadians believe the so-called “new approach” will be any better?

FAILS to address the needs of Aboriginal Canadians – The Conservative budget provides no clear vision for improving the lives of Aboriginal Canadians, instead offering a hodge-podge of measures, with funding that is a drop in the bucket compared to the Kelowna Accord they abandoned.

Agent 00-Dumbass

I assume by now everyone has seen the YouTube clip of Tory staffer James Murray, if you haven't here it is:

I'm not gonna call out the Tories for spying on us, because let's face it, this is politics. I'm reasonably sure that all the parties have their own agents going to various events and keeping tabs on there opponents. Even the greens probably have some spies here and there. I'm also not gonna write about the fact that this guy is own the public pay-roll. That is greasy, very greasy - this guy should at least be payed by Conservative party money, they had enough for that ridiculous ad campaign - but a blind man can see that. What i find disturbing is just how stupid this guy is. No self-respecting spy should let himself be caught on video, with a camcorder, spying. I find it insulting that the conservatives would choose someone with so little skill to spy on the Liberals, and if this is what they send to spy on the Official Opposition, what losers do they send to the NDP and the Bloc. As a taxpayer, I find it most disturbing that they would spend there money on such an idiot. If your going to waste public money, at least do it well. If your going to cheat, cheat to win.

And Now A Message From Canada's New Governement

Sorry to use the term Canada's New Government again in a title, i promise I'll try not to from now on, its just so much fun to say, like entitlement. Besides I'm fine with the CPC being Canada's New Government, as long as we can continue to be Canada's Natural Governing Party.

Now, on to the matter at hand, the new Tory ad campaign. Yesterday i mused that the CPC would likely focus the ad campaign on their newfound love of the planet, probobly using some green, I also said that if they had the balls, they would go after Dion. I give credit where credit is due, it looks like the New Government has New Balls, its an attack ad campaign. Using slogans like "Stephane Dion is not a leader," and sound bites from other leadership contenders, they are attempting to make it appear as though Stephane Dion will take the country backwards. This is coming from the same religious right party that went back on Liberal income tax cuts, and attmepted to revoke the rights of same-sex couples. I hate hypocrisy. They say an animal is most dangerous when backed into a corner, and this is what this new focus conveys, a government scarred of its opposition leader. This ad likely won't resonate well with the Canadian public, and help give the CPC what they want, some more time in opposition. One more thing, i'm pretty impressed that the CPC got a Super Bowl spot, I'm not sure how much this cost them, but I must admit, I'm impressed.

Also, mad props for Stephane Dion's video message on the Liberal Party website, thats good use of technology right there.

Canada's New Government Has A New Add Campaign

First off, i want to say that I'm looking forward to seeing how long one party can go on calling itself Canada's New Government, I mean it's already over a year old, is a baby still a newborn after its first birthday? Is a couple still newlywed after a year? Harper is 47 years old, can you say midlife crisis?

Anyway, it looks like Jason Kenny will be announcing a new add campaign tomorrow. My guess is that it will be something depicting the New Government's new love of the environment, and maybe, if they have the balls, attacking Dion's environmental record. Maybe they will also sing their own praises on the child care allowance and the GST cut, you never know. I'm sort of looking forward to this, I mean Tory ads are normally entertaining (nothing beats a deflating balloon), the CBC needs some good commercials, and if an election comes soon, theres nothing wrong with a public already sick of Conservative TV-spots.

Some Congrats

I Just want to say congratulations to some of the victors in this weekends YLCBC executive elections.
First to Braeden Caley. Braeden is one of the hardest-working and most dedicated Liberals I know. Choosing between him and Andrew Phillps was one of the hardest decisions that i have had to make in this party. While i would like like to do a complete bum move and not disclose who i voted for, I will say that I hope that these two will continue to work productively together, with Braeden as president, and Andrew as youth co-chair; they have the ability to be a truly dynamic duo.
Next, my boys Josh and Gurminder from West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea-To-Sky Country, mad props. They were elected as VP Communications and Secretary respectively. These two showed incredible dedication when we worked to get Blair Wilson elected, and i know they will continue to do so.
To Cait McCallum, I ultimately decided not to run against you, and it was a good call, i know you will do an amazing job as Women's Rep. Keep up the efforts to being more women into the party.
I don't really know Nan Wang, but I'm sure he's an alright guy.
I won't try to hide the fact that i didn't vote for Rocky Xiong, i voted for Mia, because she has been an amazing friend to me during my time in the party, and i have no doubt she would have excelled at VP External, but i met Rocky briefly (after i had voted) and he seems like a really good guy, and i think he will do his duty with great dedication and the spirit of Rocky Balboa.
Finally, the Unity Slate candidates, I know some of you well, and some of you I don't know at all, but I'm sure you were chosen by both candidates because of your talents. In particular I'd like to make a shout-out to Geoff and Paige. You two rock.
This election was tough for me, I saw good friends win and good friends loose, but i know that we will all work together to make the next government a Liberal government.