The Omnifarium - Politics

Conservatives Playing Games Again

Category: Politics
Wed, 23 Apr 2008, 14:31

During the last federal election campaign, it was reported in the Toronto Star that the Conservative association in my riding, Scarborough-Guildwood, was offering a special offer: Donate $100 to the Conservative candidate, Pauline Browes, and you'd get a $25 gift card in return. Curious, I wrote to Browes and asked if I would get a $100 or a $75 tax receipt. She answered back that I would get a receipt for $75.

Hmmm, this didn't seem like that great a deal. If I donated $100, I'd get back a $25 gift card and a $75 tax receipt. On the other hand, if I donated $75, I'd get a $75 tax receipt, and I'd still have $25 cash in my wallet I could spend anywhere. What was the advantage to the offer? Could it be that, before the story reached the Toronto Star, some trusted Conservative Party supporters were getting $100 receipts?

Even if $75 receipts were always issued to donors, could they have used this scheme to some other advantage? Now then, I'm no accountant or tax lawyer, but perhaps they were reporting a string of $75 donations when in reality they were getting $100 donations? Even if it was entirely on the up and up, something just didn't quite pass the smell test.

We all know that at least a few candidates for political office will do what they can to bend the rules to their advantage. Heck, twenty years ago, a co-worker told me that the main raison d'être for the Libertarian Party was to game the election system for the tax breaks for candidates and party supporters!

And now we learn that Conservative Party is alleged to have played games at the level of the national campaign during the last election. When they reached their national spending limit, they transferred money to participating local candidates who would pay for national party ads. Small fine print at the end of the ads revealed that the ad was paid for by the local candidate.

The Conservative Party, of course, insists that they did nothing wrong. But one Conservative candidate, Garth Turner, is reported to have said that the scheme seemed fishy to him, and so he refused to participate. Indeed, the majority of Conservative candidates did not participate either. Heck, even the party's own election advertisers expressed doubts about the scheme!

If the Conservatives are found guilty of spending a million dollars more than allowed on national advertising, what would it mean? It could be argued that that million dollars meant the difference between winning and losing for the Conservatives, and that the Conservatives effectively "stole" the 2006 election.

During the next election campaign, be sure to ask your Conservative candidate if he or she participated in the "in and out" scheme in the last election.

Omnifariously yours, Hans

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Earth Hour 2008

Category: Politics
Mon, 31 Mar 2008, 15:05

By all accounts, Earth Hour 2008 was a big success. Toronto met its target for power usage reduction, as did a lot of other cities. Along with the downtown skyscrapers, the CN Tower went dark, even though it already uses highly efficient LED lights for its exterior lighting. And in Ottawa, a number of buildings, including the Peace Tower and Stornaway, took part. But one building in Ottawa was conspicuous by its undimmed lights - 24 Sussex Drive, the home of Canada's prime minister.

Earth Hour was intended to raise awareness for the issue of climate change, which is expected to drastically affect all of us over the coming decades. We need to take action now in order to mitigate and reverse the effects of the greenhouse gases we're spewing into the atmosphere. Politicians of all stripes must show leadership in navigating us through the foreseen troubling times. And so, for the prime minister of our country to ignore Earth Hour in such an obvious and callous manner is unforgivable. The opposition leaders all understand the issues. Why should Steve Harper be the one to bury his head in the sand over the issue?

Omnifariously yours, Hans

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Message to Flaherty: Butt Out!

Category: Politics
Thu, 27 Mar 2008, 17:15

In the past few weeks, federal Minister of Finance, Jim Flaherty, has been offering his opinions on economic issues involving the province of Ontario. Have his comments been helpful? No, of course not! Ontario is governed by a Liberal government. Would we expect a federal Conservative to say good things about Ontario?

Flaherty has been pushing for business tax cuts. For those living outside Ontario, it should be noted that Flaherty was part of the Mike Harris government which ruled Ontario from 1995 to 2003. The massive tax cuts brought in during those years resulted in drastic cuts to the funding of health care and education, as well as other valuable social programs.

Flaherty's rantings are unwelcome for other reasons. How can Ontarians tolerate a federal minister who actively discourages business investment in a province of Canada? How can Canadians as a whole tolerate such blatant partisan meddling? Provincial spending is the responsibility of the provincial government, not the federal government. The citizens of Ontario made it very clear in 2003 that we didn't want Conservatives ruining this province anymore. And yet Flaherty is doing his best to continue that work.

Of course, there's one thing Flaherty could do to help out Ontario. Currently, the federal government takes in 20 billion dollars more in taxes from Ontario than it returns to the province. Reducing that deficit would, of course, have an incredibly positive impact to the provincial economy.

While Harper and Flaherty are doing their best to bring more Liberals and New Democrats to Ottawa in the next election, they're also having an impact on the provincial Conservatives. PC leader John Tory today announced that his party will not object to the provincial budget. While this might seem strange on the surface, clearly he is trying to distance himself and his party from his federal counterparts.

One more interesting piece of political news today was a clarification to the federal budget. The resurrected train service between Toronto and Peterborough turns out to be just funding for a feasability study. Some analysts suggest that Flaherty overstepped his bounds in announcing the new passenger service.

Omnifariously yours, Hans

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Boycott the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing

Category: Politics
Sun, 23 Mar 2008, 14:15

The time has come to take a stand. Countries that care about human rights in China must finally come around and boycott the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

When Beijing was granted the 2008 games back in 2001, there was the expectation that China would improve its human rights conditions. With the crackdown on protests in Tibet, world leaders must get their heads out of the sand and realize that any optimism back in 2001 was totally unfounded. Human rights abuses are just as common as ever in China.

While Tibet is in the news these days, the Tibetans aren't the only oppressed minority in China. The Uyghurs in the remote north-western part of China have been the object of repression for years. Unfortunately, since these people are Muslim, they haven't had the support from western nations that they need.

Of course, we can't expect the IOC to take a principled stand. They have too much at stake. They'll continue to spout platitudes about how the games foster communications between nations. But we all know it won't make a difference to the Chinese government. The Chinese leaders, along with the IOC executive, will speak about fellowship in the context of friendly sports competition. But they've already announced limits on what journalists can cover outside the Olympic venues. Limits that would be unheard of in any democratic country.

Sure, the athletes will suffer. But what athlete wants a medal forged from the sweat of government oppression? Besides, considering the air pollution blanketing the city of Beijing, staying home may well be much healthier for most athletes anyways!

We call on other bloggers to take a stand too, and call for a boycott. The Chinese authorities will almost certainly add our pages to their blacklist. But what will they do if all the blogs outside their borders are on their blacklist?

Omnifariously yours, Hans

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New Liberals Win Seats, But When Is Next Election?

Category: Politics
Tue, 18 Mar 2008, 11:12

Three of four by-elections yesterday were won by Liberals. The conservatives now have to face Bob Rae and Martha Hall-Findlay on the opposition front line. But this will not squelch speculation on when the next election will be called.

For the past few weeks, we've been subjected to some strange posturing going on in Ottawa. Stephen Harper seems to be doing his best to give the opposition every chance possible to bring the government down in confidence votes. But the Liberals aren't biting. What's going on? Officially, the Liberals are saying they're waiting for the right time. I think they're right. They know exactly what the right time is. And so do the Conservatives. Here's what I think is going on in the back rooms of Ottawa:

The Conservatives want an early election. This might seem strange since the Tories are only slightly ahead of the Liberals in opinion polls. This means that the likely outcome of an election is yet another minority government. But that would give them another 12-18 months in power. Possibly longer if the Liberals decide on another leadership convention.

The Liberals want a Fall election. The reason is simple: A Fall election campaign would happen at the same time as the US election. There, the race for president will likely pit Barack Obama versus John McCain. Current political sentiment south of the border seems to favor a shift to the Democrats, which suggests that the campaigns for president, congress and the senate will be feistier and dirtier than ever.

In Canada, the Conservatives would have to battle a negative association with the Republicans south of the border. Normally, the Tories seem to do well with negative campaign ads. But if they do that when people also see negative GOP ads, that may well further reinforce the Conservative-Republican link in peoples minds. This would, of course, spell bad news for Steve and the Conservative Party.

Spring election or Fall election? That's the $64,000 question. We'll have to see how badly the Conservatives want to avoid a Fall election, and how badly the Liberals want to avoid a Spring election. And we'll have to see how much tolerance Canadians have for the current gamesmanship.

My guess is that Steve will find some excuse to dissolve parliament early and call a Spring election.

Omnifariously Yours, Hans.

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Resurrection of the Toronto to Peterborough Rail Line?

Category: Politics
Wed, 27 Feb 2008, 17:43

One interesting item in the Conservative federal budget presented in the House of Commons yesterday was money to improve the rail line between Peterborough and Toronto to allow the resumption of VIA passenger trains. For public transit advocates this came as a big surprise since there are so many other transit priorities in the Greater Toronto Area.

Clearly, politics has something to do with this decision. Peterborough MP Dean Del Mastro, a Conservative, had been lobbying for the rail line for the past two years that the Conservatives have held power in Ottawa. Furthermore, the rail line runs through the riding of Whitby-Oshawa, currently held by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

Couldn't the Conservatives have done something smart instead? Like consult with public transit experts to see where the real needs are? Communities closer to downtown Toronto are struggling under increased road traffic. What about some federal money for Toronto's Transit City plan? Or grade separation for the busy rail lines running through heavily populated communities? There are at least half a dozen level crossings along the CN mainline in southern Scarborough alone!

But no. We get more of the same partisan politics we've come to expect from Conservatives.

Hans

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