STEVE'S FLIP-FLOP: TOUGH GUY FLAHERTY GOES THROUGH THE MOTIONS - BADLY.

It was even worse than expected. Talk about a stacked deck, kangaroo court, a snowjob, a railroad job, and all of the other trite, hackneyed expressions to describe a steamroller.

If Canadians wanted to see the reasons why Mikey Harris and his Tories were finally turfed by the good burghers of Ontario, they need look no further than the first hour of deliberations of the Tory-Chaired House Finance Committee looking into the issue of Income Trusts. As scheduled, the first witness was the Finance Minister James Flaherty, looking for all the world like James Cagney as a Prosecuting Attorney in a second rate Warner Brothers flick out of the nineteen thirties (Cagney usually played the hood. In this case, the hood was playing the Prosecutor).

Jimmy took up the first 40 minutes of the first hour, explaining the reasons why Income Trusts should be gassed. He had facts and figures, and his coterie of Finance Department nerds looking on approvingly. He went on and on.

When Grit John McCallum, an economist and banker by profession, finally muscled his way in with the simple question as to whether Flaherty's department had prior reports of the damage to be inflicted on the net worth statements of ordinary Canadians, Jimmy, with gargantuan arrogance and condescension, not seen since the dying days of Ralph Klein's or Mikey Harris's politcal careers, ducked, stonewalled, delayed, objected, avoided, evaded, and eluded the simple question for at least another 10 minutes. That's 50 minutes. For the balance of the first hour, tough guy Flaherty toyed with a question from a Bloq Member and then turned it over to one of his numbers geeks for an explanation of his department's calculations.

So what was set aside for 10 witnesses including 5 from the affected industry or members of the public, Flaherty and his boy from Finance were the only guys who made the Agenda.

In addition, it was announced to those aggrieved today that the time of the Hearings had been further cut. It has now gone from 10 hours, to 6, and as of today, down to 4. There will be two hours of hearings on Thursday. And then, kaput.

The hearings provided little solace and comfort for the industry or investors who have lost their shirt on Harper's Flip-Flop. The fat lady is waiting in the wings. However, Stephane Dion and the Grits should have more than a measure of comfort. There is no way that the Canadian people are going to want these arrogant twaddles in power.

One is reminded of Joe Clark's ill-fated decision to govern as if he had a majority in the Commons, even though he only had a minority. He did, and his Government met its end. Today the new Tories (RATs as previously explained) did the same. They will meet the same fate.

BUSH'S PAL STEVE HARPER'S IDEA OF FAIRNESS

People the world over become frustrated and intimidated when having to deal with Government. The citizen petitioner, more often than not, senses overwhelming forces thwarting the achievement of his good cause - a dense and large bureaucratic jungle, cards well-stacked against him, insensitivity, and deaf ears.

Conservatives the world over make their case that they are the proponents of less bureaucracy and a more user friendly Government - Governments that listen and act fast. Governments that are lean and mean only to bureaucrats, not the oppressed citizenry. This is no less so of the relatively new RAT (Reform, Alliance, Tory) Party in Canada. Indeed Bush's pal Steve Harper has through most of his adult life been immersed in such ideas, through his very active involvement with the lunatic fringe of Conservative politics, and a lengthy stint as President of one of the nation's chief proponents of such blarney, namely, the National Citizens Coalition.

And since we are now on the subject of blarney, it is most fitting that we examine the Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's orchestration of the Hearings of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance on the Harper flip-flop issue of Income Trusts.

The purpose of the hearings, which commence tomorrow morning at 11:00 AM, is to air the grievances of the Income Trusts and the organizations and individuals who have been or will be adversely affected by the decision of the Government to do away with them over a period of four years.

The first session tomorrow lasts one hour, the second one which commences immediately after the first, lasts one hour. The scheduled witnesses in the first hour are: The Minister of Finance (Flaherty), and from the Department of Finance, the Deputy Minister (Robert Wright), the Senior Associate Deputy Minister G-7 Deputy for Canada (Mark Carney), Senior Assistant Deputy Minister Tax Policy Branch (Bob Hamilton), General Director Tax Legislation Division, Tax Policy Branch (Brian Ernewein)and Senior Chief Payments, Financial Sector Division, Financial Sector Policy Branch (Denis Normand). So leading off for the bad guys are no less than 5 government heavyweights (and heavy titled) and Flaherty himself.

In the next hour, five representatives of the affected industry are scheduled to appear as witnesses. But that's not all. The 2 Finance honchos - Ernewein and Normand - will wrap it up, supposedly in some sort of rebuttal.

The Hearings continue on Thursday. In the first hour, 5 witnesses from the affected sector are scheduled to appear. But not to be outdone or outmaneuvered, the Government (the bad guys to many of the RAT party) are throwing in David Dodge (Governor of the Bank of Canada), although they will probably argue that he is independent (he's not), and the obsequious Ernewein and Normand. All of which are to be heard in one hour. In the second hour, another 10 witnesses are to be heard, including the Provincial Treasurer of Prince Edward Island and the wrap-up guys, Ernewein and Normand.

Another 2 hours of hearings are set for the following tuesday, making the total Hearing time reduced from the early representation of 10 hours to 6 hours.

So those organizations and citizens adversely affected by Harper's policy flip-flop might well ask, what are all those Finance guys doing here, taking up valuable Hearing time (at taxpayer's expense) and space? I mean, do we have to have all of them sitting around at tax-payer's expense just to show us the Government means business? And why give the Finance guys the chance to speak last? And how are all of our witnesses going to make their case in one hour sessions - approximately, 5 minutes each, on such a complicated issue? I mean, it must be complicated - look at all of the mandarins sitting around, Deputy Ministers, Governor of the Bank of Canada, yada, yada, yada.

Indeed Harper, Flaherty, the RAT party and the heavyweights from Finance have stacked the deck. They weren't even subtle about it. For the Income Trust proponents, the fat lady is about to sing.

BUSH'S PAL, STEVE HARPER: RUNNING SCARED

At the moment Paul Martin Jr. is not fondly remembered by many Canadians and members of the Liberal Party of Canada. There is a litany of good reasons for this which do not yet bear repeating because for Liberals to hear them so soon after losing power, generally results in dark moods of contemplation of nasty ideas such as murder or suicide.

Having said that, the release today of the first RAT (Reform, Alliance, Tory) Party attack television ads against Stephane Dion, hearkens back to the disasterous attack ads against the RATs, ran by Martin's brilliant campaign organizers in the last Federal Election. It is worth remembering the result of those Martin attack ads: they changed nothing. Harper got his not quite razor-thin minority government and Martin, his merciful early retirement, both of which events would have happened without the ads. As a matter of fact, Canadians generally do not like attack ads, and particularly attack ads that are personal attacks. Canadians are too nice for such politics.

Bush's pal Steve Harper, who can be deeply obtuse most of the time, obviously didn't get the message. For today, his party launched attack ads against Stephan Dion. The RAT Party's intention apparently is to pay the big bucks and run them in the prime time of the Super Bowl game.

One ad focuses on Dion and the Liberals not dealing with emerging environment issues when they had a chance to do so, implying that Dion had all of the Chretien years to solve them. The other ad focuses on Dion's supposed lack of leadership skills. They include an excerpt of a testy exchange between Iggy, Dion and Ken Dryden during a Leadership campaign debate. The concluding statement of one ad urges Canadians 'not go back' to the Liberals. The concluding statment of the other is 'Stephane Dion is no Leader.' The ads convey the impression that the producer's intent, at least in part, was to emphasize Dion's French accent and his struggle with the english language. Both ads were personal attacks.

The ads have been launched by Calgary MP and new Secretary of State for Multiculturalism (believe it or not!), Jason Kenny, the rotund, cherubic little motor-mouth neocon zealot with the perpetual five o'clock shadow (that is an example of a personal attack - but unlike the Dion ads, it is fair).

In any event, this whole attack ad business is an interesting opening salvo in what promises to be a knock-em-down, drag-em-out pre-election slug-fest. I can't wait for the Grit attack ads focusing on Harper's heart-felt support for the Iraqi mission, his early rejection of any sensible environment policy and his flip-flop on oil income trusts, among others.

But one thing is for sure. Harper, getting into expensive attack ads at this early stage and with Dion so obviously in his cross-hairs, is running scared. In the forthcoming election, a loss or even another minority will not do. If that's the best he can muster, Bush may be longer in the saddle that his pal Steve.

FAST EDDIE: RALPH'S BIG STICK

Let the people be reminded that Fast Eddie Stelmach is no novice to either politics or Government.

The beginning of his political career began more than twenty years ago, when he was a little gaffer in his mid-thirties and was elected as a County of Lamont Representative. In 1987 he became the Reeve of the County, and thus began a close involvement with, not only Municipal Affairs, but also Health Care. He was a Regional Representative on the Health Unit Association of Alberta and was on the Board of the Lamont Health Care Center.

He became the Tory Member of the Legislature for Vegreville-Viking, almost 14 years ago in 1993. Ralph must have loved him, because he sure made him a Big Stick. First of all, his corpulent patron made him Deputy Whip, and then, in 1995, Caucus Whip. Subsequently, he served as Agriculture Minister from 1997 to 1999. For those Albertans who rightfully bellyache about our deteriorating and unsafe highways, schools, hospitals, and other public works, may I remind them that he was Infrastructure Minister from 1999 to 2001 and Tranportation Minister from 2001 to 2004. And then, surely for his diplomatic skills (made evident when he refused to have his photo taken with Federal Opposition Leader Stephane Dion during a courtesy visit), he served as International and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister from 2004 to 2006.

Oh yes, I almost forgot, during his years in the Klein Government he served 5 years on the Agenda and Priorities Committee and 6 years on the Treasury Board.

I have described his smooth, upward, Klein-paved rise (probably the only successful infrastructure project during the Klein years) to prominence to remind Albertans that Fast Eddie was an important member of the Klein Government. The Klein Government was arguably the worst Government in the history of the Province. Every endeavor, the responsibility for which belonged to the Klein Provincial Government - whether it be our schools, universities, colleges, hospitals, highways, municipal funding, social policy - you name it - wound up in worse shape than when Ralph took office. If the Feds ever needed an arguement why more powers should not devolve to the Provinces, it is the Klein Government,inside of which - as described above - Fast Eddie carried a big stick.

So let the people not convince themselves that the Stelmach victory was the dawning of a new day. It isn't. It is likely more of the same with merely a change of personality at the top. Instead of the moist and garrulous Premier Klein, we have the tentative and twitchy Premier Eddie - that is the only difference. And judging from his cabinet selections and his stripping of the cities' power, the new Government may be even worse than its predecessor. Let Albertans get this message from recent history: if you wanted to punish Ralph for the mess he's made, your only chance now is to punish Eddie.

MORE PUNGENT ODORS FROM TORYDOM

Since the election of Fast Eddie, the Tories sure haven't been short on providing blogging material: Eddie trashing Cenaiko; Eddie and his volunteers being caught red-handed trying to organize the $5000 intimacy session with the new Premier,only to shut it down because of 'perceptions;' Fast Eddie the Statesman refusing to have his photo taken with Stephane Dion; Energy Minister Mel Knight's generosity with the people of Alberta's birth-right bitumin so that his corporate and political pals in the U.S. line their pockets with billions of dollars of value-added benefits; the wounded Ty Lund wanting to keep the Government out of the bedrooms of Albertans, while looking for law -breaking smokers (presumably Ty wants to protect the honorable tradition of cigarettes following sex); Treasury Board Chairman Lloyd Snelgrove (one of Fast Eddie's bosom buddies)admonishing Health Minister Dave Hancock that he had no business speaking out on stronger anti-smoking legislation! Wow! A veritable smorgasbord of gaffes, fumbles, foolishness and stink test failures all of which are making thoughtful Albertans shudder about their future under Fast Eddie.

And if that wasn't enough, who should again emerge, 'Godzilla'-like, but arguably the worst Premier in the history of the Province, Ralph Klein. Just when we thought we were rid of him once and for all, there he was, all over the newspapers and television screens enveloped in a miasma of foul pungent air, talking about his new job as a senior business advisor with the national blue-chip (if not blue-blood) law firm of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP.

Well, just what does a 'senior business advisor' do for a 'blue chip' law firm? The firm's spokesman stated that, "The Alberta economy has got to be the hottest place for investment in, if not Canada, North America.. . "So people all around the world are interested in investing here, and with our expertise and Mr. Klein's profile, reputation, and expertise . . . those investors will want to come and speak to us." He went on, "We have a very significant client base of corporations from the United States and around the world and Mr. Klein is well known in both Asia and Europe and, quite frankly, there's a lot of them that want to invest here in Alberta and there's nobody better to advise them on what's happening in Alberta than Mr. Klein." Translation: We want Ralph out glad-handing our clients and smoothing their way through the morass of Government regulations and decision-makers, so that they get from the Government what they are looking for.

Ralph, so far, falls within the letter of the law - the Conflicts of Interest Act. He mustn't lobby on behalf of clients in the first six months upon leaving office; he can only advise them. Borden Ladner Gervais assures us that they and their new acquisition will adhere to the letter of the law.

So, why the foul air? The announcement that Ralph took the job came just 3 days after his final day in office, the same day that he became entitled to his fat $650,000 severance payment. He grabbed the job with unseemly haste-particularly when Bush's pal, Steve Harper's Federal Accountablility Act provides for a 5 year 'cooling off' period before any member of the Federal Government can begin to apply his charm and influence for his new private-sector bosses.

Ethics Commissioner, Don Hamilton, found nothing wrong, with Ralph's taking the job. This followed the tradition of his predecessor Ethics Commissioner, Bob Clark, who seldom found Tory wrong-doing in his investigations. A couple of Clark's investigations topped the El Stinko charts - like the Multicorp and the Hong Pham/Aftergood Civic Election scandals, the stench from which still permeates the air on a bad day. Interestingly, both are alumnae of the dead carcass of the Social Credit Party. Oh well, after the disappearance of the Party of Aberhart and Manning the Elder, they had to do something for a living.

FAST EDDIE AND THE QUESTION OF CHARACTER: PART II

Premier Eddie was asked by reporters yesterday if the $5000 contributions paid by various flim-flam artistes and other shameless Tory favor seekers for intimate trysts with the Premier, had been returned since the stink arose last week.

His response: "I don't know what has been given. We have a committee in place to deal with the fundraising and that's up to the committee." So, for such a malodorous scheme, hatched by Eddie and his boys to pay off the Premier's and his kingmakers' $300,000 worth of campaign debts, the buck doesn't stop with Eddie. It stops with his 'committee.' Later in the day, his office admitted that his "volunteers did not get the message strong enough" the week previous, but now Eddie had it "clarified" to them.

So, was the decision to return the money Eddie's or his committee's? According to Eddie, its the committee. According to his spokesman, it's Eddie. Thus, quite apart from the issue of the Premier's 'character,' in this sorry affair, we are now also dealing with the issue of his competence.

But getting back to the issue of Fast Eddie's 'character.' The Premier said that he cancelled the $5000 favour seeker's intimacy program because "the optics were poor." A reasonable interpretation of such a statement is that because the program 'looked' bad, wrong, unseemly, and morally indefensible, therefore the program was cancelled. Not because it was bad, wrong, unseemly and morally indefensible. So Eddie trashed the program because he thought it 'looked' bad. Not because he thought it 'was' bad.

Too bad Eddie wasn't as quick to publicly trash his well-heeled insider's fundraising program as he was to trash the career of Calgary MLA and Dinning supporter, Harvey Cenaiko a couple of weeks ago. Something for the people of Alberta to keep fresh in their minds as we head into Election territory in the months ahead.

FAST EDDIE AND HIS ENERGY MINISTER: NOT ON THE SAME PAGE

Another ominous sign from Premier Ed's new Government. Fast Eddie said last month that he didn't want any bitumin shipped to upgraders built outside of Alberta for processing. He said he wanted the taxes on the value-added product to be paid in Alberta and not elsewhere.

That seems like a pretty sensible idea. And not only for the taxes he mentioned. There are also plenty of jobs that are generated both in the construction and production phases of these giant and costly facilities. It may be that there is a shortage of labour in Alberta now. However, times change, and there will come a day when Albertans will be happy we kept all those gazillion dollars worth of jobs and work in the Province, rather than export them, along with the bitumin, to upgraders in the United States.

Not so, his Energy Minister, the Member of the Legislature for Grande Prairie - Smoky, Mel Knight. He said yesterday, that he is not concerned with the export of bitumin and the value added to the product, outside of the Province. His view is that its the same as conventional oil and natural gas. "We've exported oil from the Province of Alberta for 65 years. Are we going to do the same thing (with bitumin)? Absolutely," says Mel. Dick Cheney will be happy to hear that. After all, the people of Alberta will have presented his United States with a gift in jobs and contracts worth countless billions for merely the market price of the raw stuff.

Does the Stelmach team know what they are doing? Don't bet on it.

Anyway, let's see how Eddie responds.

FAST EDDIE AND THE QUESTION OF 'CHARACTER'

Jim Silye is a friend of mine. More than thirty years ago he plied his trade with the Calgary Stampeders in the CFL as one of the best punt return men in the business. He was fast and he was fearless. And he took a lot of punishment, including hits to most of his body. And his head.

Which may explain why, when he first went into politics, he joined the Reform Party. He was elected as the Reform MP for Calgary Centre in 1993. He did not run in 1997, but returned in 2000 to run (and lose) in the Federal Election in Calgary West as a Progressive Conservative - an odd switch given that in those bleak days for the PCs under the second coming of Joe Clark, most of the switching was taking place away from the Tories towards the Reform/Alliance (for which 'RA' is a convenient acronym).

Jim took another kamikaze foray into politics in 2004 when he ran in an Alberta Senate Election - again, as a Progressive Conservative. The Federal PCs were still highly unpopular in Alberta at the time with the still clear memories of Mulroney, the GST, Meech Lake and the Charlottetown Accord, still etched in the minds of the body politic. Silye went down to defeat once again.

Since then, Jim has stayed away from public life and, like the writer, restricts himself to being an observer of the passing parade. Is he plotting a switch to Social Credit? That would seem a natural step for him, given his early deft move from the RA to the Tories. Or is he planning on joining the new Federal Tories (to be consistent, now that we have the Reform/Alliance/Tory amalgamation the appropriate anacronym is 'RAT.')? Is Jim going to join the RATs? No one knows.

But what we do know is that Jim is a cheerleader for new Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach. You see, Jim received a complementary copy of my first blog article 'Dead Fish' from me, as did the rest of my personal Email contact list. Rising to the bait, Jim then burdened my many friends and admirers on that list with a 'Reply to all', challenging my conclusion that Eddie was on his way out, and indeed, invoking the Premier's virtues of 'character, conviction, and commitment',suggesting further that these were "were qualities unknown, unfamiliar and unpracticed by many Liberal politicians that we both know."

The second part of his statement I can hardly quibble with, except that the adjective 'Liberal,' for the sake of accuracy, should have been deleted. Both Jim and I know plenty of politicians from all parties lacking 'character, conviction and commitment.'

The qualities of 'conviction' and 'commitment,' can be found in men and women, both good and evil. One can't deny that Adolph Hitler, Idi Amin and Pol Pot had 'conviction' and 'commitment.' They were not good qualities. Those qualities are positive and good only if combined with 'character' and by that both Jim and I would mean 'good character,' so that the whole bundle means good, positive leadership, as we Canadians understand it in a democratic sense.

Which brings me to Fast Eddie Stelmach's character as he has begun to reveal it to the people of Alberta. The most recent clue of his true nature is the scheme to sell intimate access to the Premier, to rich Albertans who wish to put up $5000 to his Party's coffers. Upon hearing of the scheme, Albertans, Oppostion parties and the news media expressed outrage - both at the cost, and more importantly the concept. I mean, selling intimacy is rather poorly regarded, even with our society's more permissive outlook on human behaviour. I mean, that's what hookers do.

Stelmach got the message and backtracked, scrapping the scheme. He lamented that the outrage was 'a bit of a perception' and claimed not to have paid a whole lot of attention to what was happening. But is he returning the $5000 chunks already received? No, thank you very much. He will keep the money anyway. That's Eddie the politician. A man of principle, right?

Another example of the real Eddie came during a courtesy visit of the Leader of the Federal Liberal Party Stephane Dion to the Premier's office in Edmonton earlier in the week. By all reports, they had a pleasant meeting and discussed some issues. However, when Dion was about to leave, the Preem refused to pose for a picture with his guest. That's Eddie the Statesman.

He's already showed his true colors by booting out from his Cabinet many urban MLA's who happened to support Jim Dinning in the Leadership Contest, and transferring power to his rural pals. That's Eddie the magnanimous healer.

And he joined the lynch mob on the hapless Harvey Cenaiko who tried to do the Premier's family a good deed by promoting his son within the Alberta Sheriff's organization. Instead of just refusing the helping hand, he made a big deal of it press-wise, rubbing poor Harvey's nose in it after he'd already been turfed from cabinet, thus deep-sixing Harvey's political career forever. That's Eddie the Party Loyalist.

So, to my friend Jim Silye, that is the 'character' of which you speak. 'Character' is the trait that separates good leadership from bad, courage from cowardice, loyalty from betrayal, statesmanship from pettiness. Albertans are waking up to see that the Tory mobs have elected a man who appears thusfar to be wholly deficient in 'character' . . . unless its the character of a weasel.

HARVEY GETS IT IN THE EAR . . .AGAIN! AGAIN! AND AGAIN!

Harvey Cenaiko, the MLA for Calgary Buffalo and recently dismissed Solicitor General in the new Government of Fast Eddie Stelmach, must feel that the Almighty Himself (Herself, Itself, etc.)has brought his wrath down upon him.

Harvey, you may remember, backed Jim Dinning in his failed Tory Leadership bid. Strike one. Following the Dinning Debacle, he was dismissed from Cabinet by the victorious Stelmach. Strike two. And now, he is publicly exposed by a Government mole as having tried to promote by way of fast-track, the Premier's son Terry from Officer to the rank of Sergeant of the new Alberta Provincial Sheriff's Branch, without going through the normal promotions process. Strike three. The Sheriff's Branch is one of the few ideas to emerge from the Klein Government. It is supposed to provide an enforcement service for some traffic and other Provincial laws. Some expected that it would replace the RCMP as the law enforcer in rural Alberta.

Harvey can be forgiven for this misadventure. After all, since he attempted to make the promotion after Stelmach's win over Dinning and before the new Cabinet was announced, it was one way of possibly surviving any purge of Ministers as part of the fallout from having supported the wrong horse. Furthermore, Harvey was a former Police Officer with the Calgary Police Service for many years, prior to entering a new brand of politics as a Tory MLA. The Service is an institution alleged by some to have a system of advancement partially based on nepotism, as well as the principle that, "its not who you know, it's who you 'yes.'"

The public disclosure of the affair - by an anonymous source, who clearly was not in Cenaiko's corner - allowed Stelmach to portray himself as an honorable man of the people, who would never countenance such laying on of hands to get his son a promotion. Speaking through his spokeswoman, the Premier expressed no gratitude whatsoever to his son's volunteer patron. "As soon as Mr. Stelmach heard about it, he said, 'Absolutely not. That is not going to happen'", said the spokeswoman. She added, " . . . just because you're the Premier's son, someone should not circumvent the process. It's as simple as that."
That's gratitude for you.

So poor Harvey is now left to twist slowly in the wind, as he awaits the verdict of his constituents in the next Provincial Election in the riding of Calgary Buffalo. The Riding in recent years has been represented by Liberals Sheldon Chumir and Gary Dickson. Political observers are predicting that Calgary Buffalo, like Calgary Elbow, will soon be represented by a Grit. In Buffalo it will be the colourful Liberal Candidate Kent Hehr.

ALAS, POOR RONA - REPLACED BY A CONSERVATIVE PITBULL

Steve Harper has decided that the Environment Portfolio has been mishandled by the 'babe' of the Conservative caucus, Rona Ambrose. His solution is to sic Mike Harris' and now Harper's favorite pitbull, John Baird.

It is obvious that Rona has been the 'fall guy' (if I may use that expression) for the non-policy 'Clean Air Act' foisted on her by Steve himself. There is no doubt that up to the election of Stephane Dion as the Grit Leader, and a few words of warning from Brian Mulroney, the Harper Government did not take climate change seriously. The Conservative leadership and more importantly, most of their big time right wing supporters did not believe in the science. Furthermore, quite apart from the science, they were concerned that their captains of industry pals did not want any part of any serious policy to reduce greenhouse gases because it was a threat to the profitablility of their operations. Stockwell Day (the Grits' "gift that keeps on giving" according to one erudite Liberal Blogger) even tried to make jokes about climate change in a recent communication to his constituents.

Dion's elevation to Leader and his obvious emphasis on the Environment as a major issue in the next election, together with Mulroney's warning that unless the Environment was dealt with seriously by the Government, it would suffer the consequences, changed all that.

Harper has now decided to get on the Environment bandwagon - which means that the 'Clean Air Act' will go the way of the Do Do bird even before it drew (or squelched) its first breath. It will be replaced by more comprehensive and 'serious' legislation that will seek to blunt any Dion initiatives or attacks on Government policy. To accomplish this, Harper has sacrificed the ill-fated Rona and made it look like the sham of the 'Clean Air' policy was all her idea. It will be replaced by more serious legislation in light of the challenges of Dion and Mulroney.

And to do all of this, he has called upon Mr. Nasty himself, John Baird - a renowned parliamentary attack dog, more familiar at this time to the good folks in Ontario than in the rest of the country.

Baird will have his work cut out for him. The Conservatives are late to the game, and will have to back track and scrap a policy, and start anew - All the while having to absorb what is sure to be wilting attacks by Dion and his attack
crew including Ajax -Pickering MP Mark Holland who beat up on Stockwell Day in respect to the RCMP handling of the Arar case.