PRESTON MANNING GROVELS FOR SENATE APPOINTMENT . . . OR SOMETHING

Like Father

Like Son

Preston Manning is after something. And what he is after, Steve Harper has got. Or at least he has control over it. And so what is young Manning to do? Well, just like his old man he’ll move heaven and earth to get it, and if it means having to stroke Steve Harper (a very distasteful exercise if you think about it), well, so be it.

How else can one explain the drivel of his column published in this morning’s edition of the Globe and Mail? See: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/honesty-is-the-best-policy/article1413594/

Manning lauds Harper for his stands on China and the climate change talks in Copenhagen and says both were consistent with the desire of Canadians that Canada be “a moral beacon and . . to set an example on the global stage.”

He chalks up Harper’s tardiness in visiting China to the PM's concern about China’s human-rights violations (Wish it were that Harper would have the same concern for Canada’s violation of human rights abroad). He would have us believe that the four long years it took Harper to get through this little exercise of pique was fair and reasonable because the Chinese now know where we stand. He must believe that the Chinese are slow learners.

According to Manning, Canada's four-year long snubbing of China, is our message to the Chinese that Canadians have a different view of democracy and human rights than China, that we want more trade with China, and that we will not sacrifice one for the other.

As a further suck-up to Harper, he naturally lambastes previous Liberal governments as being hypocritical in their dealings with China – dealings which, by the way, were much happier and far more productive than anything Harper has done since he took power.

But has Harper's actions caused China to change its stand on democracy and human rights?

Not a whit.

Has Canada changed its stand on Canadian-Chinese relations? After four long years it has done a complete about-face. It is Canada that has changed its position and not China.

All of this Manning says shows that Harper has made the Chinese “realize they were dealing with . . . a leader who says what he means and means what he says on both human rights and trade.”

What a crock!

A better explanation for Harper's abrupt reversal of policy is that somebody (could that somebody be the only Conservative who knows anything about China, namely ex-Grit David Emerson?) convinced Harper that his ignorant policy of ignoring China and playing kissy-face with the Dalai Lama was leading nowhere in terms of economic benefit to Canada and that after four years it was bloody-well time it changed.

On Copenhagen, Manning again lauds Harper for being realistic in his commitments to greenhouse gas emissions – naturally condemning Chretien’s Kyoto position as being unrealistic and hypocritical. The point of Chretien taking a positive leadership role in Kyoto of course does not cross his mind.

Now don't laugh. Manning concludes that Harper’s “modesty, honesty and transparency . . . on these issues is preferable to policies tainted by hypocrisy if Canada truly aspires to be a ‘moral beacon’ on the global stage.”

Manning’s relationship with Harper has never been warm. In fact, the space between his shoulder blades still bears deep scars from Harper knives inserted while Manning was leader of the Reform Party and Harper one of his disloyal camp-followers.

See: http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:Av5ptUkqKrkJ:pushedleft.blogspot.com/2009/07/harpers-mean-streak-was-perfect-fit-for.html+Manning+Harper+expenses+conflict&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca

See also,

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:lw1oR48hvAEJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Harper+Harper+Manning+personal+expenses+conflict&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca

Given that history it is striking that Manning should be so fawningly partisan in supporting his old nemesis.

It reminds me of his father, the pious preacher and former Social Credit Premier of Alberta, Ernest Manning. In 1968 and 1969 during the early days of the Trudeau government and shortly after his retirement from provincial politics there was no more vituperative critic than Ernest Manning of everything the federal Liberals were doing – whether it was Medicare, the Official Languages Act, energy policy, or anything else.

However, at the beginning of 1970, the elder Manning fell strangely silent. For several months nary a word passed his lips publicly save for his weekly Sunday Back to the Bible Hour broadcasts.

At the same time, some misguided Alberta federal Liberals who had old Social Credit connections were trying to engineer a merger of Liberals and Social Crediters on the provincial scene to help knock off the threat of Peter Lougheed so that Social Credit would support the federal Grits in the 1972 federal election. Given the history and make-up of both parties it was a stupid scheme that was doomed to failure. Nonetheless it was pursued.

Many blandishments were offered to leading Socreds by the federal Liberals during that process. But the big fish that these confused Grits were after was Manning. If they could do something nice for Manning, they thought, Social Credit would be theirs. In early October 1970 they landed him. Manning Sr. was appointed to the Senate by Prime Minister Trudeau - a decision Trudeau no doubt regretted until his dying day.

Alas, it was all to no effect. Lougheed won the provincial election in 1971 and the Alberta federal Grits were wiped off the map in 1972.

Could it be that this is another Manning manifestation of like father - like son?

Could it be that this fawning over Harper by Preston Manning, this unseemly brown-nosing and apple-polishing of one's former tormentor is just a replay of his father’s many months of abject silence in the lead-up to his coveted Senate appointment by the Liberals almost 40 years ago?

Could it be that Preston Manning is looking for something that Stephen Harper has the power to give him? Like a Senate appointment, for instance, or some other pensionable lofty post?

As Conservative icon Sarah Palin would say, “You betcha’ !”

GWYN MORGAN: PINOCCHIO, A FAILING MEMORY, OR POLITICAL HACK?

Gwyn Morgan, in case you missed it, is a far right-wing conservative oil man. He loves Ralph Klein and is a Trustee of the Fraser Institute and a Director of the Manning Center for Building Democracy.

The record of Ralph Klein speaks for itself.

The Fraser Institute's Mission Statement states, "Our vision is a free and prosperous world where individuals benefit from greater choice, competitive markets and personal responsibility." Among its board members is Peter Pocklington.

The Manning Center is headed by its CEO, Preston Manning, former leader of the Reform Party and son of Ernest, longtime Social Credit Premier of Alberta and convert to conservatism following the Leduc oil discovery. Part of the Mission of the Manning Center states that it "is commited to achieving a democratic society guided by conservative principles." Its literature also states that it "is commited to the support of issue campaigns that will increase public interest in and support for conservative-oriented ideas and policy proposals."

So Gwyn Morgan is a conservative.

He is so conservative that like many of his colleagues and fellow travelers, his memory often fails him. An example appeared in a Globe and Mail column on October 29, Populism tramples Principle in Alberta, in which he gave Premier Stelmach a good thrashing for increasing royalties to be paid by the oil and gas industry.

In referring to Klein near the beginning of his piece, Morgan wrote that when Ralph became Premier, "Alberta was suffering the after effects of Trudeau's national energy program followed by a prolonged slump in energy prices." A mere half of that statement is correct - the part about the slump in energy prices. The rest is hogwash. Some might even say it was pure bullshit.

First of all, the National Energy Program was introduced in October, 1980. Secondly, Morgan's pal Brian Mulroney became Prime Minister in the fall of 1984. Thirdly, Mulroney and the signing of the Western Accord trashed the last remnants of the NEP at the end of March 1985. Fourthly, Morgan's pal and idol Klein did not become Premier until December 14, 1992 - a full 12 years after the National Energy Program and more than 7 years after its demise.

And fifthly - in every other jurisdiction of this whole wide world, credible business leaders remember the havoc brought down on world economies by high interest rate policies led by the Federal Reserve Board of the United States in the early 1980's. Morgan and his fellow conservative travelers never remember this when discussing the difficult times during the eighties. They remember only the NEP. But here are the facts:

- - in October 1980 - the same month of the introduction of the NEP, the prime rate of the Federal Reserve Board of the United States rose from 13.5% to 14.5%
- - in November 1980, the prime rate of the Federal Reserve Board rose from 15.50% to 17.75%.
- - in December by Christmas of 1980 the rate was 20.50%
- - in September 1981, the rate was 20%, after which it began a slow and tortuous slide downwards.

The results of those punitive interest rates was a prolonged spate of foreclosures across North America which lasted for years, the like of which had not been witnessed since the Great Depression.

So, what are we to make of the oft-feted Morgan? Is he Pinocchio? Does he have failing memory because of age (he is only in his early sixties and works out religiously, apparently)? Or is he a conservative political hack?

It's your pick.

SPECIAL ED'S TORIES: INTO THE DEATH THROES

For the discerning and keen observer of the passing political parade it is high drama. For the partisan who believes his party has been kept from power for years, indeed generations, by an increasingly incompetent political monolith that cruel fate has smiled upon, it is payback time. For the Alberta Liberals and other opposition forces, it is unbelievable.

Is it political hara-kiri? Is this grotesque Vegreville Gothic scene really happening? Has this cowpoke Alberta Government slipped its own neck into the noose they had made for the rustlers - i.e. the people of the perceived rich and pampered Calgary? The answer is yes to all three questions. Special Ed and the revenge of the hayseeds from north eastern Alberta are wounded and bleeding. They don't quite realize it yet. The shock of taking power is masking the pain. But the pain is coming, and soon.

We've seen it before. Ernest Manning passing the mantle of leadership of the once formidable Social Credit Party in 1969 to nice, pleasant and borrrrrring Harry Strom, a salt-of-the-earth, God-fearing farmer from Southern Alberta. The wrong guy at the wrong time. Peter Lougheed (yes, that Peter Lougheed that the dumb and dumber Alberta neocon Tories of the Klein years vilified as being a liberal), led his party into a golden age. The farmer never had a chance. By 1971 Lougheed was Premier, and Strom was a footnote. The pundits and the Alberta Tories couldn't believe it.

We saw it also with the catastrophic succession of Kim Campbell to the Federal Tory Leadership after Muldoon in 1993. The frowning, babbling, lightweight pseudo-neocon who believed that a political campaign was no place to debate issues carried her Party to a two measly seats in the Federal Election. She was toast, and so was the venerable Federal Progressive Conservative Party toast. Neither would recover. Neither the pundits nor the Federal Grits could believe it - at least not the size of the Grit victory.

The Federal PC's were dead and for good. Those who believe that the present Federal Conservative Party is the old Federal PC Party better shake their collective heads. John Diefenbaker would be lynched by Bush's pal Steve and his pals like Stockwell Day, Jason Kenney, Vic Toews, and Jungle Jim Flaherty. Dalton Camp would be confined to Devil's Island. Joe Clark has gone into self imposed exile no doubt fearing for his physical safety.

This weekend's Provincial Tory Convention in Edmonton was a political disaster for Special Ed and his Government. First of all, they trash Joe Lougheed in his bid to become Party President. You see, young Joe, an attractive and ambitious young lawyer, has two strikes against him as far as the Stelmach boneheads are concerned. First of all, according to the present day 'Special Ed' Tories, his father was a liberal who spent beyond our means (translation: he maintained infrastructure and services, and never divided the electorate by playing one group off against another). Secondly, young Joe was from Calgary, and how many times do the Special Ed guys have to tell you that these days, Calgary is out. St. Albert must be in. Lougheed lost to a St. Albert party hack.

The Special Ed squad also chose to do nothing about massive rent increases. This is a problem throughout Alberta, but particularly so in Calgary where greedy landlords, including old Klein pals who bought the Holy Cross Hospital for a song, are sticking it to the little guy like there was no tomorrow. And with rent increases of 50% and upwards and $1000 per month or more, there is an increasing number of modest income tenants or hopeful home buyers who have decided that there is no tomorrow in Calgary. It may be in Regina, Saskatoon or Swift Current, but not in Calgary.

Special Ed spelled out his solution at the Convention. It is - get this - to sic the hirsute Ray 'King Kong' Danyluk, his Housing Minister, after the greedy landlords. Danyluk, who has the appearance of real muscle in the Tony Soprano sense of the term, has yet to offer any suggestions to resolve this crisis, even though it has been percolating for many months. Special Ed though gave us hope. He said that the solution is for King Kong Danyluk to get the Landlords in line by 'moral suasion and intimidation.' Eddie added, "He's (King Kong) a pretty big guy. Maybe people will listen to him." I kid you not!

The conventioneering Tories weren't finished with the venerable cowtown who gave the Province both the now non-person Lougheed and the clown Klein. Special Ed in his cumbersome, bland oratory, actually brought a thousand of his neanderthals to their feet - and that is no small achievement for Eddie - and a 40 second standing ovation. Why? Do you think it might have been the announcement of the construction of a hospital or some schools or the upgrading of highways? No. They cheered him for attacking Calgary's Mayor Bronconnier - known as 'Bronco', to his exponentially increasing numbers of supporters in his home town. What did Eddie do to get this awesome reaction? He belittled Bronco's argument that Special Ed's strings-attached offer of millions of bucks to the cowtown, most of which was for pet Provincial projects, would delay the westward extension of the LRT.

What Eddie and his rural army from Northeastern Alberta together with their arch-rightist pals fail to recognize, is that the Calgary problems are symptomatic of urban and rural problems in the whole Province. Calgary's problems are Edmonton's, Lethbridge's, Medicine Hat's, Grande Prairie's, Red Deer's, Fort McMurray's, Drumheller's, Hanna's, Pincher Creek's, Redwater's, Barrhead's and Peace River's. They are driven by a crying need for schools, hospitals, infrastructure, and some relief for tenants, affordable housing, and much else. All of this has been brought about by mindless neglect. Which continues and which is being recognized by Albertans in the four corners of the Province.

Kevin Taft is licking his chops. He's going to be Premier after the next election and you can say you heard it here first.

A GOOD MAN: ART DIXON

Calgary lost a good man this past week. His name was Art Dixon, and he made a difference.

Arthur J. (Art) Dixon began his life in Windleston, County Durham, England just over 87 years ago. He immigrated to Canada with his family as a young boy, and spent most of his early years growing up in Okotoks. After the war began he joined the RCAF and fought for his country. He was married during the war. When the war was over, Art returned to Alberta, started a couple of small businesses, and in 1950 entered the real estate field. He started his own real estate company which carries on business still today as Dixon Real Estate Services. As a businessman his word was his bond. He was an active member of the Calgary Real Estate Board and for his services to the Board he was awarded an Honorary Lifetime Membership.

It was Public Service for which Art is most well-known. Growing up in the depression, Art knew hard times. The Social Credit movement in Alberta began as a political force to ease the extreme want and destitution endemic throughout the Province during the early years of the depression. Art liked that part about Social Credit - the part that was supposed to help people. In 1952, with his war years behind him, and a business to sustain his family, he went into politics. He was elected that year as a Social Credit Member of the Alberta Legislature for Calgary, and served as an MLA for the next 23 years. In 1963, his natural fairness and obvious intelligence landed him in the Speaker's Chair of the Legislature, a post he held for 12 years. Art was not cut from the same cloth as many of his colleagues in Social Credit. He was tolerant and flexible. He would never attempt to impose his standards of morality on others. He represented the progressive side of the movement, and there weren't many of them during the reign of Premier E.C. Manning.

I knew Art Dixon and liked him very much. My most memorable encounter with Art was to have its beginnings in late 1964. As a very young lawyer, I was retained by members of the Calgary Italian Community to fight expected charges under the Criminal Code and Liquor Control Act we anticipated were to be laid against members of several Italian new-immigrant families. This situation arose as a result of a rather violent RCMP raid on the Brdgeland homes of families suspected of making wine at home - a long and honorable Italian tradition. These families were making wine, as it was part of their culture, and many of them did not know it was illegal to do so. I wrote a heartfelt letter to the RCMP asking for compassion for these families, and whether due to it or not, charges were not laid.

My clients and I decided to take the next step - to convince the straight-laced Social Credit Government of Premier Manning to amend the Liquor Control Act so that people could make wine at home for their families. In 1965 prior to the beginning of the spring session of the Legislature, we tried lobbying the Premier and a few of his Members. Those efforts were fruitless. For the next spring session in 1966, we gave the 3-member Liberal Opposition a brief of our position, and they introduced a Private Members Bill to amend the Act so as to allow home wine-making. The Government tabled the bill and it died on the Order paper. For the 1967 spring session of the Legislature we had acquired our secret weapon - the Honorable Art Dixon, Member of the Social Credit caucus. Art had gladly accepted the important task of trying to convince his colleagues in the Social Credit caucus that our cause was just - even if it did involve the Social Credit Government approving home brew. Due in large part to Art's efforts behind the scenes, the Manning Government amended the Liquor Control Act to allow people to make their own wine and beer for their home consumption - an Act that has stood the test of time and remains on the books to this day.

Art was defeated in 1975 with the election of the Lougheed Government. He returned to his business and his many volunteer activities. One of his pursuits was as the founder and President of the William Aberhart Historical Society.

Art was a life-long supporter of the Salvation Army, from which he received its highest civilian honour, an International Distinguished Service Award. He was a Member of the Order of Canada for his contributions to the Province. He also received an Alberta Achievement Award in recognition of his community service, including his efforts on behalf of the Salvation Army, as an active member of Kiwanis International, as a volunteer Citizenship Court Judge, and as a driving force behind the development of the Dream Haven Senior's residence. He left behind a loving family and countless friends and admirers.

Art Dixon was a good man.

TORIES, STANWAY, 0LSEN: FINALLY CHURCHED

Its about time, really. The Love Affair between the Provincial Tories and columnists Tom Olsen and Paul Stanway, has been an open secret to discerning readers for years. It has been as passionate as it has been long-lasting. Finally, it is sanctified.

Oh, perhaps not in a religious sense. That could have happened maybe in the old Social Credit Days, when Parson E. C. Manning was Premier. He could have performed the ceremony during one of his 'Back to the Bible Hour' Sunday broadcasts. No, in these more secular times, the more worldly Tories and their illicit love companions Olsen and Stanway, have sanctified their relationship legally. They have signed a contract to join 'Notsofast' Eddie's communications staff. Longtime Sun columnist and Tory cheerleader and apologist, Stanway, is the new Director of Communications. Olsen, longtime Klein insider, stroker, coddler, brother to Gordon who for years was on Klein's office payroll, and Herald hack columnist, is Notsofast's Director of Media Relations.

The Tories have finally made Olsen and Stanway, an honest woman. No longer will they be forced to deny the obvious. No more darkened, smoky bars, cheap hotel rooms, ducking around corners. No. The two Tory hacks can come right out and admit it now. They can honestly say, "Yes, we work for the Tories." No more shameless denials. No more dissembling. No more masquerading objectivity. No, its finally truth-time. They're working for the Tories, and proud of it.

In fact, they've been working for the Tories for years. Not paid by them, although their hiring after years of unflinching Tory loyalty in their columns, causes the raising of more than one set of eyebrows, and more than a whiff of whatever it was Marcellus thought was rotten in Denmark.

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.

SPEAKING OF DEAD FISH

I have had occasion within the last few days of speaking intimately - at separate times and in Calgary - with a couple of former power forces of the ancien regime de Le Roi Ralph - in a civilized atmosphere with good booze (but expensive) and comely service. Although they have been politcally misguided for many years,they are bon vivants who have done well financially representing the flotsam and jetsam of favour seekers, promoters, flim-flam artistes, and other riff-raff who curried favour with the Klein Government.

Although they like the new Premier - in that they find him benign and possessing of a certain hayseed charm - they are of the view that the 'Strom Syndrome' is probably in play. For those of you who are not familiar with the 'Strom Syndrome,' its like the 'Frank Miller Syndrome' only with an Alberta farmer in place of an Ontario hamlet Rotarian. Either way, it means a change of Government. Harry Strom was an upstanding but boring southern Alberta farmer who replaced Ernest Manning as Leader of the Social Credit Party in 1969. Alas, he faced the cool, smooth, urbane Peter Lougheed in the General Election of 1971, and it was curtains for Strom and the Socreds. They have only now recently come back to life in their 'Conservative Party' incarnation under Bush's pal Steve Harper.

Likewise with Frank Miller, who replaced the cool and smooth 'Buttermilk Billy' Davis, only to go down to defeat to David Peterson which, come to think of it, was no mean achievement for Frank. Something like Buster Douglas knocking out Mike Tyson. It gave new meaning to the expression 'Cinderella Man.' That last crack was subtle, but you get my drift.

So, according to my two unimpeachable sources, the future is bleak for Fast Eddie. But that ain't all - as Stevie's pal Bush would say. No. The big story is that both of these gurus predict that Calgary Elbow - Ralph's Riding - will go to the Grits! No Contest they say. For the Tories, Elbow is history!