Let's look at them one at a time.
1. Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot.
In the last General Election January 23, 2006, the results were (in round numbers):
Bloc - 28,000 (56%)
Conservatives - 12,000 (24%)
Liberal - 5000 (10%)
NDP - 2700 (5.4%)
Total votes cast - 50,000 (67% - based on 76000 eligible voters in 2007 by-election).
In the by-election September 17, 2007, the results were (in round numbers):
Bloc - 13,500 (42%)
Conservatives - 12,000 (37.5%)
Liberal - 2400 (7.4%)
NDP - 2500 (7.9%)
Total votes cast - 32,500 (43% based on 76000 eligible voters)
Summary:
1. Bloc lose 14%
2. Conservatives gain 13.5%
3. Liberals lose 2.6%
4. NDP gains 2.5%
5. Turnout down by 24%
Conclusion:
Conservatives make big gain on the Bloc. NDP gains a little on the
Grits. Turnout very low.
2. Roberval - Lac-Saint-Jean
In the General Election, January 23, 2006, the results were (in round numbers):
Bloc - 18,000 - 45%
Conservatives - 15,000 - 38%
Liberal - 3000 - 8.5%
NDP - 2000 - 5%
Total Votes cast - 40,000 (63% of 63,000 eligible voters in the 2007 by-election).
In the byelection the numbers were:
Bloc - 8000 - 26.8%
Conservatives - 17,500 - (59.7%)
Liberal - 2,800 - 9.6%
NDP - 700 - 2.3%
Total Votes Cast 29,527 (46% based on 63,000 eligible voters).
Summary:
1. Bloc loses 18%.
2. Conservatives gain 20 %.
3. Liberals gain a little - 1.1%.
4. NDP lose 2.7%.
3. Turnout down by 17%.
Conclusion: Conservatives win big over the Bloc. The rest is a wash. Turnout very low.
3. Outremont
In the last General Election, the results were (in round numbers):
Bloc: 12,000 (29%)
Conservative: 5000 (12%)
Liberals: 14,000 (34%)
NDP: 7000 (17%)
Total votes cast 41000 (65% of by-election eligible voters)
In the by-election, the numbers were:
Bloc: 2600 (10.9%)
Conservative: 2100 (8.6%)
Liberals: 7000 (29%)
NDP: 11,400 (47.5%)
Total votes cast: 24000 (37.5%)
Summary:
1. Bloc lose 18.1%
2. Conservatives lose 3.4%
3. Liberals lose 5%
4. NDP gain 30.5%
5. Turnout down by 27.5%
Conclusion:
NDP win big over the Bloc, and picks up a few points from the Conservatives and Liberals. Conservatives go nowhere in the big city riding. Turnout very low.
So who took it on the chin?
I say the Bloc. Its losses were the greatest in terms of popular support - 14%, 18%, and 18.1%. It also lost a seat. It bodes ill for the Bloc and by extension, Pauline Marois' PQ.
Who was the big winner? Why the NDP of course. They haven't had a seat in Quebec since Phil Edmonston fluked one in 1990 in a by-election in the Riding of Chambly. Edmonston, a contrary sort who continues to be a superb consumer advocate fingering 'lemon' autos, was also a Quebec nationalist. He was never at home in the NDP and packed it up without running again in the next General Election in 1993. That, so far as I know, is the only time the NDers ever took one in Je me souviens land. So, why did they win in Outremont? Apart from the qualities of the candidates, which I am not in a position to comment on, one could easily conclude that Layton's robust attack on the government's Afghanistan policy must have had an impact - and therefore a bright Amber light for Steve Harper.
For the Grits, it must have been a disappointment to lose Outremont. And for the Conservatives, the win in Roberval and the gain in Saint-Hyacinthe must have felt good. But their dismal performance in Outremont will give them pause.
The two leading parties - Grits and Conservatives - have more work to do in Quebec before they roll the dice and plummet the country into another General Election.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
EXXON REX TO STELMACH: 'BE VERY CAREFUL'
Exxon is a big, big oil company. The biggest. Its roots go back to the kerosene days of the 19th century and the baby steps of the Rockefeller fortune. It is rich too. In 2006, it made in profit almost 4 and a half million bucks an hour. Its profit for the same year was a cool 40 billion. The government of the Province of Alberta - supposedly rich - made about 12 billion from oil and gas revenues this past year. This is about 30% of Exxon's profits. Exxon also owns 70% of Canada's largest oil company, Imperial Oil.
The new CEO of Exxon is a fellow with the rakish but fitting name of 'Rex.' Rex Tillerson. 'Rex' means a King, a Sovereign, a male king. He's a Texan. Rex is big in the oil biz and will become bigger in the years ahead. His predecessor was a fellow with a more modest and plebian moniker. His name was Lee Raymond. But don't let the name fool you. When Lee walked out the Exxon door for the last time a year or so ago, his golden parachute was, when it all added up, a cool 400 million. What is 400 million anyway? Its half the cost of the big new hospital to be built down in the southern extremities of Calgary. Its about 70% of all of the money spent to date on the 42 kilometres of existing LRT track in Calgary. That's the kind of retirement money Lee took from Exxon. Approved by the Board of Directors, naturally. All going into one man's pocket.
But Rex needn't worry. There will be plenty more where Lee's rainy day fund came from. And he's off to a great start. On the job for only a year, Rexy already had a pay raise of 17% to almost 2 million a year, and his bonus has gone up more than two-fold to about 3 million a year. When he bites the dust, you can rest assured there will be no tag days to pay his funeral expenses.
Yes, Lee Raymond did well alright. Not that his career was unblemished. It was on Raymond's watch - in 1989 - that the Exxon Valdez oil spill happened in the environmentally sensitive Prince William Sound in Alaska. It was one of the worst environmental catastrophes of all times. 240,000 barrels of oil - and some say much more - was dumped into the sea, killing wildlife and polluting shores. A half million seabirds perished. So did 5000 sea otters, 300 seals, 250 bald eagles and 22 orcas. The spill continues to affect the environment and will continue to do so for generations. The captain of the vessel, a relapsed alcoholic, was drunk when it struck the reef that caused the spill. The owner of the vessel: Exxon. Cleanup cost was about 2 billion dollars, and Exxon remains in litigation over the debacle to this day.
It is interesting to follow the litigation. I think it says something about Exxon. In a class action brought in 1994 by thousands of fishermen and landowners, native groups and so forth, an Anchorage jury awarded the actual damages for clean-up plus 5 billion dollars as punitive damages. Punitive damages are awarded when the offence giving rise to the lawsuit together with the aftermath is egregious. In this case, the short-term and long-term environmental impact caused by the spill was so extreme, that the jury deemed that a punitive penalty should be paid. The purpose is to teach the perpetrator and all other potential perpetrators of such a disaster that such irresponsible actions will not be tolerated. The 5 billion was one year's profit for Exxon at the time. It is now 13% of its current profit.
Exxon was not happy with the result. It carried on with the fight over punitive damages. The various stages of litigation had the award reduced to 4 billion, increased to 4.5 billion plus interest, reduced to 2.5 billion, and upheld at 2.5 billion. Not happy with the results so far, Exxon has decided to appeal to the Bush-heavy Supreme Court. The company has still not paid a dime towards the punitive damage award. For the record, its position is that since the mishap was caused by an accident, then the punitive damage award should be limited by law to 25 million. Besides, its lawyers say, the company has already spent 2 billion in clean-up costs and 1 billion in settling suits.
Well, the other day Rex was in Calgary to speak at the annual Spruce Meadows Round Table, a genteel gathering of 70 or so business notables who pass the day discussing and pontificating weighty issues while watching equestrian show jumping. It was a timely visit. The Alberta government-appointed panel on what to do with oil and gas royalties in Alberta is about to report its conclusions. And Rex was there to have his say, perhaps - with luck - even to have the last word. In a message tailored for the ears of the Stelmach government and the people it governs, Rex warned, "I say be very careful and recognize that none of us know what oil prices are going to be - none of us." He also urged caution in amending the 1 % sweetheart royalty deal in the oil sands, saying, ". . . you need to be very careful about dealing with ongoing projects . . . because all of that risk is still out in front of us." Of course Exxon is big in the oil sands - 'big' as in high double digit billions.
And, naturally, he resorted to that tried and true bludgeon that big oil and little oil in these parts always dig up for doing battle with governments that want them to cough up a little more for the people - the National Energy Program. He urged the policy makers to 'look at the past,' and remarked, "We have a history in Canada of failed energy policies and fortunately sensible people came in and fixed that."
As could be expected, many industry executives oohed and aahed over Rex's warning with pursed lips and furrowed brows, vigorously nodding their collective heads in approval.
Despite putting all that money into Exxon's coffers, its executives', and the retirement accounts of senior officers, Exxon still pursues government handouts like a smitten young man pursues his first young sweetheart. Back in June at the Exxon Annual Meeting Rex said that the Canadian taxpayer must kick in with part of the 16 billion necessary to build the Mackenzie Valley pipeline project. Otherwise, said Rex, it should be scrapped. Exxon, Shell and Conoco Phillips are partners in the project.
Whether he is working hard enough to earn his current generous salary and bonus take, or to receive retirement stipends of $400,000,000 (yes, count the zeros!) plus is highly problematic. But give Rexy his due. He's a company man through and through.
And that is something that Stelmach, his government and the royalty panel should remember. Rex is a company man. That company is Exxon. It is not the people of Alberta.
Let's hope Eddie gets it right.
The new CEO of Exxon is a fellow with the rakish but fitting name of 'Rex.' Rex Tillerson. 'Rex' means a King, a Sovereign, a male king. He's a Texan. Rex is big in the oil biz and will become bigger in the years ahead. His predecessor was a fellow with a more modest and plebian moniker. His name was Lee Raymond. But don't let the name fool you. When Lee walked out the Exxon door for the last time a year or so ago, his golden parachute was, when it all added up, a cool 400 million. What is 400 million anyway? Its half the cost of the big new hospital to be built down in the southern extremities of Calgary. Its about 70% of all of the money spent to date on the 42 kilometres of existing LRT track in Calgary. That's the kind of retirement money Lee took from Exxon. Approved by the Board of Directors, naturally. All going into one man's pocket.
But Rex needn't worry. There will be plenty more where Lee's rainy day fund came from. And he's off to a great start. On the job for only a year, Rexy already had a pay raise of 17% to almost 2 million a year, and his bonus has gone up more than two-fold to about 3 million a year. When he bites the dust, you can rest assured there will be no tag days to pay his funeral expenses.
Yes, Lee Raymond did well alright. Not that his career was unblemished. It was on Raymond's watch - in 1989 - that the Exxon Valdez oil spill happened in the environmentally sensitive Prince William Sound in Alaska. It was one of the worst environmental catastrophes of all times. 240,000 barrels of oil - and some say much more - was dumped into the sea, killing wildlife and polluting shores. A half million seabirds perished. So did 5000 sea otters, 300 seals, 250 bald eagles and 22 orcas. The spill continues to affect the environment and will continue to do so for generations. The captain of the vessel, a relapsed alcoholic, was drunk when it struck the reef that caused the spill. The owner of the vessel: Exxon. Cleanup cost was about 2 billion dollars, and Exxon remains in litigation over the debacle to this day.
It is interesting to follow the litigation. I think it says something about Exxon. In a class action brought in 1994 by thousands of fishermen and landowners, native groups and so forth, an Anchorage jury awarded the actual damages for clean-up plus 5 billion dollars as punitive damages. Punitive damages are awarded when the offence giving rise to the lawsuit together with the aftermath is egregious. In this case, the short-term and long-term environmental impact caused by the spill was so extreme, that the jury deemed that a punitive penalty should be paid. The purpose is to teach the perpetrator and all other potential perpetrators of such a disaster that such irresponsible actions will not be tolerated. The 5 billion was one year's profit for Exxon at the time. It is now 13% of its current profit.
Exxon was not happy with the result. It carried on with the fight over punitive damages. The various stages of litigation had the award reduced to 4 billion, increased to 4.5 billion plus interest, reduced to 2.5 billion, and upheld at 2.5 billion. Not happy with the results so far, Exxon has decided to appeal to the Bush-heavy Supreme Court. The company has still not paid a dime towards the punitive damage award. For the record, its position is that since the mishap was caused by an accident, then the punitive damage award should be limited by law to 25 million. Besides, its lawyers say, the company has already spent 2 billion in clean-up costs and 1 billion in settling suits.
Well, the other day Rex was in Calgary to speak at the annual Spruce Meadows Round Table, a genteel gathering of 70 or so business notables who pass the day discussing and pontificating weighty issues while watching equestrian show jumping. It was a timely visit. The Alberta government-appointed panel on what to do with oil and gas royalties in Alberta is about to report its conclusions. And Rex was there to have his say, perhaps - with luck - even to have the last word. In a message tailored for the ears of the Stelmach government and the people it governs, Rex warned, "I say be very careful and recognize that none of us know what oil prices are going to be - none of us." He also urged caution in amending the 1 % sweetheart royalty deal in the oil sands, saying, ". . . you need to be very careful about dealing with ongoing projects . . . because all of that risk is still out in front of us." Of course Exxon is big in the oil sands - 'big' as in high double digit billions.
And, naturally, he resorted to that tried and true bludgeon that big oil and little oil in these parts always dig up for doing battle with governments that want them to cough up a little more for the people - the National Energy Program. He urged the policy makers to 'look at the past,' and remarked, "We have a history in Canada of failed energy policies and fortunately sensible people came in and fixed that."
As could be expected, many industry executives oohed and aahed over Rex's warning with pursed lips and furrowed brows, vigorously nodding their collective heads in approval.
Despite putting all that money into Exxon's coffers, its executives', and the retirement accounts of senior officers, Exxon still pursues government handouts like a smitten young man pursues his first young sweetheart. Back in June at the Exxon Annual Meeting Rex said that the Canadian taxpayer must kick in with part of the 16 billion necessary to build the Mackenzie Valley pipeline project. Otherwise, said Rex, it should be scrapped. Exxon, Shell and Conoco Phillips are partners in the project.
Whether he is working hard enough to earn his current generous salary and bonus take, or to receive retirement stipends of $400,000,000 (yes, count the zeros!) plus is highly problematic. But give Rexy his due. He's a company man through and through.
And that is something that Stelmach, his government and the royalty panel should remember. Rex is a company man. That company is Exxon. It is not the people of Alberta.
Let's hope Eddie gets it right.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
MULRONEY MEMOIRS: A BASKET CASE TRIES TO SETTLE OLD SCORES
I had been suffering from writer's block for several days. Feeling guilty. About disappointing my legions of readers. Hemingway used to call it 'black ass.' I was suffering from 'black ass.'
What to write about? Stelmach? Harper? Borrrrrrrrring! Afghanistan? Not boring, but God, if people don't get it about Afghanistan by now, they probably never will. What to write about?
Muldoon to the rescue! I might have continued staring at my computer screen in a state of suspended animation indefinitely were it not for Muldoon (as Canada's 18th Prime Minister is referred to by that splendid rag 'Frank Magazine').
We found out this morning that - oh, hell, let's call him by his real name -Mulroney mustered up the courage to really let the seven year deceased Trudeau have it. According to Mulroney, Trudeau wasn't morally fit to lead because he failed to support the war against Hitler and that he [Trudeau] opposed the draft during the war.
Mulroney was obviously smarting from Trudeau having called those who supported Meech Lake and the Charlottetown Accord names. For those who must be reminded or who have forgotten about what Meech Lake and the Charlottetown Accord were, these were basically constitutional bribes of power advanced by Mulroney and his Federal government to the Quebec separatist government to sign the constitution. Trudeau had called Mulroney and his ilk 'weaklings,' 'cowards,' 'snivellers,' and 'eunuchs.' Trudeau had said this in the inimitable understated way he said such things when he became pissed at weaklings, cowards, snivellers and eunuchs, who for their own aggrandizement, personal and otherwise, tried to turn Quebec into a province quite unlike the others.
As always, whenever Muldoon speaks, two things happen. First, you remember what a basket case he was and is, and secondly, you learn something new.
As to the basket case Mulroney, his outburst reminded us of his penchant for self-destructive over statement and exaggeration, his unrelenting passion for a glowing place in history that he believes is owed to him, and his holding his bete noir Trudeau responsible for the death of his pet constitutional proposals which, in his mind, would have stopped the separatists in their tracks and led him to time immemorial fame and glory.
The facts are these.
Mulroney's big mouth - his penchant for self-destructive over statement and exaggeration - consistently got him into trouble while he was in office (recall him telling the reporter that a good politician had to know when to 'roll the dice,' to win, and he had won Meech Lake by 'rolling the dice' at the right time - saying this, when he hadn't yet won Meech Lake, which he went on to lose).
Mulroney's unrelenting passion for a glowing place in history led to his constant preening and mugging before the cameras, and more blarney than the Canadian people could ultimately stomach, all of which was instrumental in the destruction of the Progressive Conservative Party.
And finally, there is no doubt that Trudeau fought effectively against Meech Lake and the Charlottetown Accords. But to credit Trudeau alone for their defeat - when they were rejected by every region of the country, is to give the great man far too much political credit. In fact, the Canadian people had figured out for themselves that Meech and Charlottetown were power bribes to Quebec that would make that province different and more powerful than the others. And so Canadians rejected them. By the way, Stephen Harper seems to have learned something from the Mulroney experience with Quebec. He is not bribing Quebec with power. He's doing it in the old-fashioned way - with money - as witness his last Budget.
So much for the basket case. Now what have we learned? We learned or at least were reminded that Mulroney still believes - and probably others of the now-defunct Progressive Conservatives - that Trudeau brought down Meech and Charlottetown.
If this is so, then by implication Trudeau's attack also led to the Tories defeat at the polls in 1993, because clearly, the nation's revulsion at Meech and Charlottetown was a major reason for the Tory debacle. And it was this debacle - the grotesque Tory defeat in 1993 that left them with two seats - that destroyed the Tory Party. And so it follows, if it was Trudeau who defeated Meech and Charlottetown, then it was he who destroyed the Tory party. Thus, according to this school of thought, Pierre Trudeau's effectiveness as a national leader did not end in 1984 when he left office. No, it carried on through 1993 and therefore, not only were Stanfield and Clark his victims. So were Mulroney and Kim Campbell.
Like Samson, Trudeau slew them all. If I may carry the biblical analogy a bit further, it can be fairly said that he slew Mulroney and Campbell with the jaw bone of an ass!
Wow! What a career! Of biblical proportions! 25 years of beating up and finally destroying the Tories! Longer than Mackenzie King!
One final comment. Mulroney says that Trudeau wasn't morally fit to lead, because as a young man in his very early twenties he did not support the war against Hitler nor the draft. Well, what about the moral fitness of a leader who accepts $300,000 is cash delivered to him in 3 instalments in quiet hotel rooms by an unsavoury businessman who for years has been fawning over him in order to get contracts for his clients?
What to write about? Stelmach? Harper? Borrrrrrrrring! Afghanistan? Not boring, but God, if people don't get it about Afghanistan by now, they probably never will. What to write about?
Muldoon to the rescue! I might have continued staring at my computer screen in a state of suspended animation indefinitely were it not for Muldoon (as Canada's 18th Prime Minister is referred to by that splendid rag 'Frank Magazine').
We found out this morning that - oh, hell, let's call him by his real name -Mulroney mustered up the courage to really let the seven year deceased Trudeau have it. According to Mulroney, Trudeau wasn't morally fit to lead because he failed to support the war against Hitler and that he [Trudeau] opposed the draft during the war.
Mulroney was obviously smarting from Trudeau having called those who supported Meech Lake and the Charlottetown Accord names. For those who must be reminded or who have forgotten about what Meech Lake and the Charlottetown Accord were, these were basically constitutional bribes of power advanced by Mulroney and his Federal government to the Quebec separatist government to sign the constitution. Trudeau had called Mulroney and his ilk 'weaklings,' 'cowards,' 'snivellers,' and 'eunuchs.' Trudeau had said this in the inimitable understated way he said such things when he became pissed at weaklings, cowards, snivellers and eunuchs, who for their own aggrandizement, personal and otherwise, tried to turn Quebec into a province quite unlike the others.
As always, whenever Muldoon speaks, two things happen. First, you remember what a basket case he was and is, and secondly, you learn something new.
As to the basket case Mulroney, his outburst reminded us of his penchant for self-destructive over statement and exaggeration, his unrelenting passion for a glowing place in history that he believes is owed to him, and his holding his bete noir Trudeau responsible for the death of his pet constitutional proposals which, in his mind, would have stopped the separatists in their tracks and led him to time immemorial fame and glory.
The facts are these.
Mulroney's big mouth - his penchant for self-destructive over statement and exaggeration - consistently got him into trouble while he was in office (recall him telling the reporter that a good politician had to know when to 'roll the dice,' to win, and he had won Meech Lake by 'rolling the dice' at the right time - saying this, when he hadn't yet won Meech Lake, which he went on to lose).
Mulroney's unrelenting passion for a glowing place in history led to his constant preening and mugging before the cameras, and more blarney than the Canadian people could ultimately stomach, all of which was instrumental in the destruction of the Progressive Conservative Party.
And finally, there is no doubt that Trudeau fought effectively against Meech Lake and the Charlottetown Accords. But to credit Trudeau alone for their defeat - when they were rejected by every region of the country, is to give the great man far too much political credit. In fact, the Canadian people had figured out for themselves that Meech and Charlottetown were power bribes to Quebec that would make that province different and more powerful than the others. And so Canadians rejected them. By the way, Stephen Harper seems to have learned something from the Mulroney experience with Quebec. He is not bribing Quebec with power. He's doing it in the old-fashioned way - with money - as witness his last Budget.
So much for the basket case. Now what have we learned? We learned or at least were reminded that Mulroney still believes - and probably others of the now-defunct Progressive Conservatives - that Trudeau brought down Meech and Charlottetown.
If this is so, then by implication Trudeau's attack also led to the Tories defeat at the polls in 1993, because clearly, the nation's revulsion at Meech and Charlottetown was a major reason for the Tory debacle. And it was this debacle - the grotesque Tory defeat in 1993 that left them with two seats - that destroyed the Tory Party. And so it follows, if it was Trudeau who defeated Meech and Charlottetown, then it was he who destroyed the Tory party. Thus, according to this school of thought, Pierre Trudeau's effectiveness as a national leader did not end in 1984 when he left office. No, it carried on through 1993 and therefore, not only were Stanfield and Clark his victims. So were Mulroney and Kim Campbell.
Like Samson, Trudeau slew them all. If I may carry the biblical analogy a bit further, it can be fairly said that he slew Mulroney and Campbell with the jaw bone of an ass!
Wow! What a career! Of biblical proportions! 25 years of beating up and finally destroying the Tories! Longer than Mackenzie King!
One final comment. Mulroney says that Trudeau wasn't morally fit to lead, because as a young man in his very early twenties he did not support the war against Hitler nor the draft. Well, what about the moral fitness of a leader who accepts $300,000 is cash delivered to him in 3 instalments in quiet hotel rooms by an unsavoury businessman who for years has been fawning over him in order to get contracts for his clients?
Saturday, August 11, 2007
THE STRANGE CASE OF MAHER ARAR: THE COVER-UP COMES DOWN
So, finally, Canadians now know what really happened in the Maher Arar case. Getting there wasn't easy. We had to sue our own government to find out. But we did. The Judge found in the people's favour. The system worked.
Now, there is not one, but two components to the Arar case. The first is the matter of his detainment, transportation to Syria, his torture and his release. The second is the cover-up by Canadian polticians and the Harper government.
Remember Watergate? There were two components to Watergate. The first was the break-in at the Democratic Party offices. The second was the cover-up. It was the cover-up that brought Nixon down. The Arar coverup may yet help bring the Harper government down. At the very least, it besmirches his government and confirms his blind and misguided loyalty to the Bushies.
The Arar case has now been in the forefront of the news in this country for four years. It is as instructive as it is horrifying. Maher Arar's nightmarish, Kafkaesque experience as a result of being wrongly accused by government agencies running amok in secrecy, should never have happened to a Canadian citizen and must not happen again.
The whole sordid and shameful affair should be indelibly etched on the mind of every Canadian who places human rights at the forefront of our values. What follows is a brief review of the case and developments to date.
Maher Arar was born in Syria in 1970 and came to Canada in 1988 with his parents. In 1991 he became a Canadian citizen. He attended University and acquired a BSc from McGill in Computer Engineering and a MSc in Telecommunications from the University of Quebec. He married his Tunisia-born wife, who has a PhD in Finance. By 2002 they had two children.
Between 1997 and 2002 he and his family lived variously in Ottawa, Montreal and Boston depending on the locale of his employment. In 2001, he started his own consulting company within which he carried on his business as a telecommunications engineer.
He was placed under surveillance by the RCMP by reason of being seen in the company of a Syrian born young man from Ottawa, Abdullah Almalki. Apparently Almalki had done some high-tech business in Afghanistan which was considered suspicious.
On September 26 2002, while returning home from a visit to Tunisia, Arar was stopped JFK Airport in New York and detained by U.S. Immigration authorities. He was held in solitary confinement for two weeks. On October 7, he was told by a U.S. official that he was considered to be a terrorist and an al-qaeda member because he knew Almaki and another Canadian citizen of Arab origin from Ottawa, truckdriver Ahmed Abou El Maati.
On October 9, Arar was flown out of the U.S. by the U.S. authorities to Jordan and then a few days later to Syria. He thus became a subject of the U.S. policy of extraordinary rendition - the policy of transferring a detainee terrorist suspect out of the U.S. to another country which has no qualms about using torture to elicit confessions.
For several weeks, while incarcerated in a cramped, dark, rat-infested cell, the Syrian authorities beat the hell out of this Canadian citizen. They persisted until he confessed that he was trained as a terrorist in Afghanistan. Then they eased up on him. For six months he didn't see daylight.
During a visit by Canadian consular authorities in August, 2003, Arar said that he was tortured. He was released in October after being incarcerated for more than a year. He then returned to Ottawa where, together with his wife, he started a campaign to clear his name and to convince the public that he was not a terrorist or an al-qaeda member.
Shortly after his return, there were reports that he had been detained by U.S. authorities as a result of information supplied to them by the RCMP.
The RCMP, true to their tried and true Canadian cop traditions, decided to investigate itself over the Arar case. This was done by Superintendant Brian Garvie. His heavily censored report was released on September 25, 2004.
Among Garvie's findings were that the RCMP gave the U.S. authorities information on Arar with no strings attached, that an RCMP officer assigned to the Foreign Affairs Department may have known of the plan to ship Arar to Syria but said nothing, and that a Deputy Commissioner had put heat on Prime Minister Chretien not to tell the Syrians that there was no evidence that Arar was a terrorist, because he was still a person of 'great interest.'
On February 5, 2004 the Martin government, much to its credit, set up the "Canadian Commission of Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Maher Arar," under Ontario Associate Chief Justice Dennis O'Connor, to find out what really happened. The Americans nixed this idea and didn't cooperate.
O'Connor is a highly respected Judge who has had a brilliant career as both a lawyer and a judge. Given his experience as the Commissioner of the Walkerton Inquiry, he knew how to handle political hot potatos. He was a perfect choice for the job.
It is highly relevant that Stephen Harper took over the reins of government on
February 6th, 2006.
The O'Connor Inquiry concluded its public hearings on September 14, 2005. O'Connor's report was issued on September 2006. As expected, it completely exonerated Arar. He also concluded that it was likely the U.S. put Arar through his ordeal because it relied on false information provided by Canadian officials.
The swift fallout from the O'Connor Report included an immediate public apology from the RCMP to Arar and his family. Shortly after, RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli resigned in disgrace because of inconsistencies in his testimony at the Inquiry hearings. The Government also apologized to the Arar family and agreed to pay them a settlement of 11.5 million dollars including legal costs.
It was at the time of the issuance of the O'Connor report that the Arar cover-up took place. Government lawyers insisted that before the report was issued, some 1500 words had to be kept from the public because their release would compromise national security.
The O'Connor Commission disagreed. It sued the government to have the censored 1500 words released. The result was the decision of the Federal Court last week to release about 1000 of those deleted words. And we now know a great deal more about the Arar case. For example, we have learned:
1. CSIS, in the words of its Deputy Director at the time Arar was sent to Syria, thought that Arar would be sent to the Middle East to be questioned in a 'firm manner,' so that the Americans 'can have their way with him.'
2. The RCMP, in applying to a Judge for a warrant to eavesdrop on telephone calls, didn't disclose that they were relying on information from a country with a poor human rights record [Syria] and did not make an assessment of the reliability of that information.
3. In respect to the same application for a telephone warrant, despite that the RCMP knew that a confession was obtained through torture in Syria, it nevertheless insisted to the Judge that the confession was accurate and true.
4. Although the Syrians, as early as one month after they had Arar in custody, told CSIS that Arar was a nuisance rather than a terrorist, Canadian officials refused to help in his release.
5. One of the 'national security' reasons for withholding some information was that the RCMP did not wish to compromise the goodwill of foreign agencies like the CIA with which the RCMP shared intelligence. In other words, the goodwill of the CIA towards the RCMP was paramount to the full disclosure of the facts involving the torture of an innocent Canadian in a foreign, rat-infested prison. As a result all references to the names of the foreign intelligence sources such as the CIA had been censored out along with the other 1500 words.
There is more fallout from the court's decision. The new Conservative RCMP Commissioner William Elliott, who replaced the disgraced Zaccardelli, admitted late last week that when he was Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day's Associate Deputy Minister he was among a secret group of bureaucrats who were involved in a process that led to the government deciding not to allow disclosure of the 1500 words of the O'Connor report. A shaky beginning, to say the least, for a new Commissioner who was selected to improve public accountability of the Mounties.
Day, the Liberals' gift that keeps on giving, tried to deflect responsibility on the bureaucrats. He said of the government attempt at censorship that "senior officials from various departments" decided to block out the passages before the government approved the recommendations. Day, by the way, is an old hand at using the courts at massive taxpayers' expense to avoid coming clean. One recalls the case of Goddard v. Day lawsuit of a few years ago in Alberta. Day had defamed a Red Deer lawyer in a letter Day had written to the editor of the Red Deer Advocate. At the time of the defamation, Day was a minister in the Klein government and so his legal fees were borne by the public purse. He put the lawyer through grinding and protracted litigation before settling the case on the eve of trial for $60,000. The total cost to the taxpayers who were footing the Day bill - close to $800,000.
Harper, for his part, made a public statement in the wake of the Court decision and the new disclosures that avoided any reference to the government cover-up. Instead, as is his wont, he emphasized that the Arar affair took place under the watch of the Liberals and not the Conservatives, and so the Grits were responsible for all of it.
Yet the cover-up took place on Harper's watch. And it is consistent with other examples of the Harper government's excessive secrecy or downright lies and misleading information designed to throw the public off sniffing out the facts. We have seen the Foreign Affairs Department lie and deny the existence of a report on the progress of the war in Afghanistan. When caught in the lie, it issued the report but it was heavily censored based on national security reasons. When the Globe and Mail produced the uncensored report, the national security arguement couldn't possibly stand up because the whole censorship exercise was shown to be merely an attempt to keep news - bad news in this case - from the public (See Darryl Raymaker Blog, Harper and O'Connor: Canada's Bush and Rumsfeld . . March 25, 2007).
Similarly, General Hillier has issued his order that neither will there be any information passing to the public about the fate or whereabouts of detainees captured by Canadian troops in Afghanistan. Without elaboration he argues that the security of the troops is imperiled if that information is publicly available. How this is so, he doesn't say. Security reasons, we suppose.
One final observation. Recently, the Harper government had occasion to appoint a new Chief Justice of Ontario replacing the departed Roy McMurtry. Its choice was to elevate to the Court of Appeal from the Ontario Superior Court, Warren Winkler. Winkler, by any standard, was a worthy appointment. However, so would have been Dennis O'Connor. O'Connor was already on the Ontario Court of Appeal and was the Associate Chief Justice. As such, he was the strong favorite to replace McMurtry. The Harper government chose Winkler over O'Connor.
That'll teach him, I guess.
Now, there is not one, but two components to the Arar case. The first is the matter of his detainment, transportation to Syria, his torture and his release. The second is the cover-up by Canadian polticians and the Harper government.
Remember Watergate? There were two components to Watergate. The first was the break-in at the Democratic Party offices. The second was the cover-up. It was the cover-up that brought Nixon down. The Arar coverup may yet help bring the Harper government down. At the very least, it besmirches his government and confirms his blind and misguided loyalty to the Bushies.
The Arar case has now been in the forefront of the news in this country for four years. It is as instructive as it is horrifying. Maher Arar's nightmarish, Kafkaesque experience as a result of being wrongly accused by government agencies running amok in secrecy, should never have happened to a Canadian citizen and must not happen again.
The whole sordid and shameful affair should be indelibly etched on the mind of every Canadian who places human rights at the forefront of our values. What follows is a brief review of the case and developments to date.
Maher Arar was born in Syria in 1970 and came to Canada in 1988 with his parents. In 1991 he became a Canadian citizen. He attended University and acquired a BSc from McGill in Computer Engineering and a MSc in Telecommunications from the University of Quebec. He married his Tunisia-born wife, who has a PhD in Finance. By 2002 they had two children.
Between 1997 and 2002 he and his family lived variously in Ottawa, Montreal and Boston depending on the locale of his employment. In 2001, he started his own consulting company within which he carried on his business as a telecommunications engineer.
He was placed under surveillance by the RCMP by reason of being seen in the company of a Syrian born young man from Ottawa, Abdullah Almalki. Apparently Almalki had done some high-tech business in Afghanistan which was considered suspicious.
On September 26 2002, while returning home from a visit to Tunisia, Arar was stopped JFK Airport in New York and detained by U.S. Immigration authorities. He was held in solitary confinement for two weeks. On October 7, he was told by a U.S. official that he was considered to be a terrorist and an al-qaeda member because he knew Almaki and another Canadian citizen of Arab origin from Ottawa, truckdriver Ahmed Abou El Maati.
On October 9, Arar was flown out of the U.S. by the U.S. authorities to Jordan and then a few days later to Syria. He thus became a subject of the U.S. policy of extraordinary rendition - the policy of transferring a detainee terrorist suspect out of the U.S. to another country which has no qualms about using torture to elicit confessions.
For several weeks, while incarcerated in a cramped, dark, rat-infested cell, the Syrian authorities beat the hell out of this Canadian citizen. They persisted until he confessed that he was trained as a terrorist in Afghanistan. Then they eased up on him. For six months he didn't see daylight.
During a visit by Canadian consular authorities in August, 2003, Arar said that he was tortured. He was released in October after being incarcerated for more than a year. He then returned to Ottawa where, together with his wife, he started a campaign to clear his name and to convince the public that he was not a terrorist or an al-qaeda member.
Shortly after his return, there were reports that he had been detained by U.S. authorities as a result of information supplied to them by the RCMP.
The RCMP, true to their tried and true Canadian cop traditions, decided to investigate itself over the Arar case. This was done by Superintendant Brian Garvie. His heavily censored report was released on September 25, 2004.
Among Garvie's findings were that the RCMP gave the U.S. authorities information on Arar with no strings attached, that an RCMP officer assigned to the Foreign Affairs Department may have known of the plan to ship Arar to Syria but said nothing, and that a Deputy Commissioner had put heat on Prime Minister Chretien not to tell the Syrians that there was no evidence that Arar was a terrorist, because he was still a person of 'great interest.'
On February 5, 2004 the Martin government, much to its credit, set up the "Canadian Commission of Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Maher Arar," under Ontario Associate Chief Justice Dennis O'Connor, to find out what really happened. The Americans nixed this idea and didn't cooperate.
O'Connor is a highly respected Judge who has had a brilliant career as both a lawyer and a judge. Given his experience as the Commissioner of the Walkerton Inquiry, he knew how to handle political hot potatos. He was a perfect choice for the job.
It is highly relevant that Stephen Harper took over the reins of government on
February 6th, 2006.
The O'Connor Inquiry concluded its public hearings on September 14, 2005. O'Connor's report was issued on September 2006. As expected, it completely exonerated Arar. He also concluded that it was likely the U.S. put Arar through his ordeal because it relied on false information provided by Canadian officials.
The swift fallout from the O'Connor Report included an immediate public apology from the RCMP to Arar and his family. Shortly after, RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli resigned in disgrace because of inconsistencies in his testimony at the Inquiry hearings. The Government also apologized to the Arar family and agreed to pay them a settlement of 11.5 million dollars including legal costs.
It was at the time of the issuance of the O'Connor report that the Arar cover-up took place. Government lawyers insisted that before the report was issued, some 1500 words had to be kept from the public because their release would compromise national security.
The O'Connor Commission disagreed. It sued the government to have the censored 1500 words released. The result was the decision of the Federal Court last week to release about 1000 of those deleted words. And we now know a great deal more about the Arar case. For example, we have learned:
1. CSIS, in the words of its Deputy Director at the time Arar was sent to Syria, thought that Arar would be sent to the Middle East to be questioned in a 'firm manner,' so that the Americans 'can have their way with him.'
2. The RCMP, in applying to a Judge for a warrant to eavesdrop on telephone calls, didn't disclose that they were relying on information from a country with a poor human rights record [Syria] and did not make an assessment of the reliability of that information.
3. In respect to the same application for a telephone warrant, despite that the RCMP knew that a confession was obtained through torture in Syria, it nevertheless insisted to the Judge that the confession was accurate and true.
4. Although the Syrians, as early as one month after they had Arar in custody, told CSIS that Arar was a nuisance rather than a terrorist, Canadian officials refused to help in his release.
5. One of the 'national security' reasons for withholding some information was that the RCMP did not wish to compromise the goodwill of foreign agencies like the CIA with which the RCMP shared intelligence. In other words, the goodwill of the CIA towards the RCMP was paramount to the full disclosure of the facts involving the torture of an innocent Canadian in a foreign, rat-infested prison. As a result all references to the names of the foreign intelligence sources such as the CIA had been censored out along with the other 1500 words.
There is more fallout from the court's decision. The new Conservative RCMP Commissioner William Elliott, who replaced the disgraced Zaccardelli, admitted late last week that when he was Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day's Associate Deputy Minister he was among a secret group of bureaucrats who were involved in a process that led to the government deciding not to allow disclosure of the 1500 words of the O'Connor report. A shaky beginning, to say the least, for a new Commissioner who was selected to improve public accountability of the Mounties.
Day, the Liberals' gift that keeps on giving, tried to deflect responsibility on the bureaucrats. He said of the government attempt at censorship that "senior officials from various departments" decided to block out the passages before the government approved the recommendations. Day, by the way, is an old hand at using the courts at massive taxpayers' expense to avoid coming clean. One recalls the case of Goddard v. Day lawsuit of a few years ago in Alberta. Day had defamed a Red Deer lawyer in a letter Day had written to the editor of the Red Deer Advocate. At the time of the defamation, Day was a minister in the Klein government and so his legal fees were borne by the public purse. He put the lawyer through grinding and protracted litigation before settling the case on the eve of trial for $60,000. The total cost to the taxpayers who were footing the Day bill - close to $800,000.
Harper, for his part, made a public statement in the wake of the Court decision and the new disclosures that avoided any reference to the government cover-up. Instead, as is his wont, he emphasized that the Arar affair took place under the watch of the Liberals and not the Conservatives, and so the Grits were responsible for all of it.
Yet the cover-up took place on Harper's watch. And it is consistent with other examples of the Harper government's excessive secrecy or downright lies and misleading information designed to throw the public off sniffing out the facts. We have seen the Foreign Affairs Department lie and deny the existence of a report on the progress of the war in Afghanistan. When caught in the lie, it issued the report but it was heavily censored based on national security reasons. When the Globe and Mail produced the uncensored report, the national security arguement couldn't possibly stand up because the whole censorship exercise was shown to be merely an attempt to keep news - bad news in this case - from the public (See Darryl Raymaker Blog, Harper and O'Connor: Canada's Bush and Rumsfeld . . March 25, 2007).
Similarly, General Hillier has issued his order that neither will there be any information passing to the public about the fate or whereabouts of detainees captured by Canadian troops in Afghanistan. Without elaboration he argues that the security of the troops is imperiled if that information is publicly available. How this is so, he doesn't say. Security reasons, we suppose.
One final observation. Recently, the Harper government had occasion to appoint a new Chief Justice of Ontario replacing the departed Roy McMurtry. Its choice was to elevate to the Court of Appeal from the Ontario Superior Court, Warren Winkler. Winkler, by any standard, was a worthy appointment. However, so would have been Dennis O'Connor. O'Connor was already on the Ontario Court of Appeal and was the Associate Chief Justice. As such, he was the strong favorite to replace McMurtry. The Harper government chose Winkler over O'Connor.
That'll teach him, I guess.
Monday, August 06, 2007
HARPER'S AFGHANISTAN: A FINE MESS
I have predicted for some time that the perfect political storm likely to engulf the Harper government is Afghanistan.
Canada began its participation there for the right reasons. We agreed to help rid the world of the terrorists who organized 9/11 and the government that supported them - the Taliban. At the same time, we wanted to help the development of the country, to help children get an education, and assist in bringing about some semblance of the rule of law to the country. Good intentions. But as Samuel Johnson once wisely said 'The road to hell is paved with good intentions.' Afghanistan is turning out to be indeed a road to hell - for NATO troops there and the politicians of the countries who sent them.
The reasons for this international nightmare are plainly evident. Now that at least some of us have read some history of the region (the Prime Minister excluded, it seems [see, DARRYL RAYMAKER BLOG, July 5, 2007, 'Harper Gets Ready To Cut and Run - Again'] ), we realize that this war is an attempt to bring order to one of the wildest countries on earth. For more than 2000 years Afghanistan has proved itself to be a tough and well-nigh impossible nut to crack by powerful invaders and occupiers. From the era of Alexander the Great to modern times this mostly lawless country has always left their opponents either lifeless on the battlefield or beating a hasty, bloody, and disorderly retreat. Even vast and well-equiped armies from far more sophisticatred empires have failed to subdue the war-like propensities of the Afghan people. Alexander the Great didn't stay long. The British Army at the height of its Empire was routed there. And more recently, the Russians left in failure after racking up 15,000 dead Russian soldiers as part of the lost cause (See DARRYL RAYMAKER BLOGS, July 5, 2007 and March 18, 2007, 'Gordon O'Connor - In Over his Head').
The Kandahar region of southern Afghanistan is particularly difficult. For centuries it has been home turf to Pashtun tribes who roam the mountainous and lawless border region of Pakistan-Afghanistan. To the people who live there, life is cheap. Islamic religious fanatics abound. Added to this holy mess is the timid and weak NATO offering to the project - a scant 35,000 troops scattered throughout the country. Neither is there any great enthusiasm among NATO nations to relieve or help Canadians who, with so far 66 troops killed in action, are taking the worst of it.
But it gets worse. The NATO forces, together with the Karzai government are looking the other way while the poor Afghan farmers cultivate their only significant cash crop - poppies. This year there is a record harvest of poppies in Afghanistan. That harvest will be turned into the production of opium, which will thereupon provide nearly 90% of the world's supply of heroin - heroin that continues to poison the minds and lives of millions of people throughout the world. Most of the heroin users reside in western member nations of NATO - rich nations - whose citizens are rich enough to support a heroin habit. So Canada and other NATO nations involved in Afghanistan are not only pursuing a lost cause with little support. They are tacitly supporting the production of heroin which fries the brains and ruins the lives of millions of people - mostly westerners, and many Canadians.
And according to all credible reports, the whole situation there is getting worse by the day.
Once again Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor and the Chief of Defence Staff Rick Hillier are tripping over each other as to where Canada goes from here. Two weeks ago, O'Connor gave the sunny prediction - contrary to everybody else who knows something about what is happening in Afghanistan - that over the next four or five months Canada would take on a reserve role. He said that when Quebec's Royal 22nd Regiment - the Vandoos - had completed their rotation in Afghanistan, there would be 3000 Afghan Army personnel operating in Kandahar and that "we will continue to withdraw" as more Afghan army personnel are trained. He said that it would mean a reduction in Canadian combat duties.
A few days later, Hillier contradicted O'Connor, saying that the training process had just started and it would be a long time before the Afghans could do the job themselves. O'Connor tried to recover this past weekend at the Conservative caucus meeting in Charlottetown, by saying he and Hillier were on the same page and that he did not know how long it would be before the Afghans were capable of taking the pressure off of the Canadian troops.
This latest O'Connor/Hillier difference of opinion, when added to their misleading and contradictory statements on other embarassing issues surrounding the Afghan adventure, seems to have been the last straw for Harper. There is now strong speculation that O'Connor is on his way out in a very merciful and immediate shuffle to Veterans Affairs. Deputy PM Jim Prentice is widely predicted to replace the hapless O'Connor.
Chalk one up for Hillier. However the General, who has never met a microphone he doesn't love, may be next on the list for the secrecy obsessed Harper.
And if Harper doesn't wake up to the futility of it all soon, he too will be a victim.
Canada began its participation there for the right reasons. We agreed to help rid the world of the terrorists who organized 9/11 and the government that supported them - the Taliban. At the same time, we wanted to help the development of the country, to help children get an education, and assist in bringing about some semblance of the rule of law to the country. Good intentions. But as Samuel Johnson once wisely said 'The road to hell is paved with good intentions.' Afghanistan is turning out to be indeed a road to hell - for NATO troops there and the politicians of the countries who sent them.
The reasons for this international nightmare are plainly evident. Now that at least some of us have read some history of the region (the Prime Minister excluded, it seems [see, DARRYL RAYMAKER BLOG, July 5, 2007, 'Harper Gets Ready To Cut and Run - Again'] ), we realize that this war is an attempt to bring order to one of the wildest countries on earth. For more than 2000 years Afghanistan has proved itself to be a tough and well-nigh impossible nut to crack by powerful invaders and occupiers. From the era of Alexander the Great to modern times this mostly lawless country has always left their opponents either lifeless on the battlefield or beating a hasty, bloody, and disorderly retreat. Even vast and well-equiped armies from far more sophisticatred empires have failed to subdue the war-like propensities of the Afghan people. Alexander the Great didn't stay long. The British Army at the height of its Empire was routed there. And more recently, the Russians left in failure after racking up 15,000 dead Russian soldiers as part of the lost cause (See DARRYL RAYMAKER BLOGS, July 5, 2007 and March 18, 2007, 'Gordon O'Connor - In Over his Head').
The Kandahar region of southern Afghanistan is particularly difficult. For centuries it has been home turf to Pashtun tribes who roam the mountainous and lawless border region of Pakistan-Afghanistan. To the people who live there, life is cheap. Islamic religious fanatics abound. Added to this holy mess is the timid and weak NATO offering to the project - a scant 35,000 troops scattered throughout the country. Neither is there any great enthusiasm among NATO nations to relieve or help Canadians who, with so far 66 troops killed in action, are taking the worst of it.
But it gets worse. The NATO forces, together with the Karzai government are looking the other way while the poor Afghan farmers cultivate their only significant cash crop - poppies. This year there is a record harvest of poppies in Afghanistan. That harvest will be turned into the production of opium, which will thereupon provide nearly 90% of the world's supply of heroin - heroin that continues to poison the minds and lives of millions of people throughout the world. Most of the heroin users reside in western member nations of NATO - rich nations - whose citizens are rich enough to support a heroin habit. So Canada and other NATO nations involved in Afghanistan are not only pursuing a lost cause with little support. They are tacitly supporting the production of heroin which fries the brains and ruins the lives of millions of people - mostly westerners, and many Canadians.
And according to all credible reports, the whole situation there is getting worse by the day.
Once again Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor and the Chief of Defence Staff Rick Hillier are tripping over each other as to where Canada goes from here. Two weeks ago, O'Connor gave the sunny prediction - contrary to everybody else who knows something about what is happening in Afghanistan - that over the next four or five months Canada would take on a reserve role. He said that when Quebec's Royal 22nd Regiment - the Vandoos - had completed their rotation in Afghanistan, there would be 3000 Afghan Army personnel operating in Kandahar and that "we will continue to withdraw" as more Afghan army personnel are trained. He said that it would mean a reduction in Canadian combat duties.
A few days later, Hillier contradicted O'Connor, saying that the training process had just started and it would be a long time before the Afghans could do the job themselves. O'Connor tried to recover this past weekend at the Conservative caucus meeting in Charlottetown, by saying he and Hillier were on the same page and that he did not know how long it would be before the Afghans were capable of taking the pressure off of the Canadian troops.
This latest O'Connor/Hillier difference of opinion, when added to their misleading and contradictory statements on other embarassing issues surrounding the Afghan adventure, seems to have been the last straw for Harper. There is now strong speculation that O'Connor is on his way out in a very merciful and immediate shuffle to Veterans Affairs. Deputy PM Jim Prentice is widely predicted to replace the hapless O'Connor.
Chalk one up for Hillier. However the General, who has never met a microphone he doesn't love, may be next on the list for the secrecy obsessed Harper.
And if Harper doesn't wake up to the futility of it all soon, he too will be a victim.
Saturday, August 04, 2007
THE STELMACH DISASTER OF THE WEEK: RALPH KLEIN AND THE 'BANFF IN KOREA' FIASCO
Surely Special Ed deserved a rest. What with his battles with Mayor Bronco over money, homelessness, greedy landlords, the tree-huggers giving him grief over greenhouse gas emissions, the infection ravaged St. Joe's Hospital in his own riding victimized by the Tory government's utter failure in heath care restructuring, the rapid evaporation of Tory support in Calgary, and the loss of the Klein riding of Calgary Elbow to the Liberals, surely it was time to lay back and rest for awhile and enjoy the summer. Hopefully, to be reenergized and rejuvenated to join the battle for his political survival in the fall. By God, he deserved it.
Ah, sorry Premier, no such luck. The return of ex-Premier Ralph to the political limelight were to disrupt his plans. Klein had caused Stelmach some grief once before. It was when Klein announced within days after pocketing his legislature retirement allowance of 600 grand that he was taking a lobbyist job with a major blue-chip law firm. This no doubt caused Klein's protege, the current Premier, some embarassment. The haste in Klein's announcing his new post seemed to be in the minds of many, somewhat unseemly and mercenary (See DARRYL RAYMAKER BLOG, 'MORE PUNGENT ODORS FROM TORYDOM,' January 19, 2007).
And now Klein had done it again. On Wednesday it was reported that the ex-Premier was giving two speeches - one in Calgary on August 7th, and one in Edmonton on August 9th - in an effort to find Alberta investors who were prepared to kick in with 150 grand each to get a piece of a 30 million dollar resort development in Cheongsong county in South Korea.
The resort, to contain the usual garish combination of golf courses, hotels, condos and the rest of it, was to be developed by Spring Fresh Investment and Development Inc. It was ballyhooed in the promo literature as 'the Banff of Korea.' And Ralph was to be the developer's shill - the keynote speaker at the meetings.
The Company's VP Carson Cole said that Klein was being paid for the speeches and if he stuck with the company, he would receive some options. The smooth talking Cole said, "Well, quite frankly, we need a front guy . . . we needed a front guy that could attract people to show, you know . . This is high risk. Ralph Klein's perfect. Everyone knows he's a gambler." Indeed, we do. One recalls Klein, during his last term in office, leaving a First Minister's Conference in Ottawa on Health Care while it was still in session, in order to get in on the slot action at the casino in Hull before returning to back to the old grind in Edmonton.
It must have been particularly jarring for the current Premier to have heard this 'Banff in Korea' news. After all, his government wants the 'cooling off' period for lobbyists who have worked for the government to be 1 year after leaving government service. Although Klein is within the present rules, he has only been away from the Premier's office for 7 months.
However, there was more for the Premier to be concerned about with this 'Banff in Korea' stuff than merely the Ralph Klein shill. In addition to Klein being the keynote speaker, Tories Doug Griffiths, MLA for Battle River-Wainwright, and Thomas Lukaszuk, MLA for Edmonton-Castle Downs were listed as 'guest speakers.' And so, from the advertisements, it was easy for a reader to conclude that the MLA's along with Klein were helping to promote the project. The developer went even further in implicating the two MLA's by sending out an Email that said that they would be providing a 'blessing' for the project.
The MLA's, upon discovering the slimey inferences that were being drawn about their involvement as promoters of the project, were quick to deny that was the case and advised the developers of such. They said that they thought they were attending the meetings to talk about international trade and Alberta's role in the world economy, and in no sense were they promoters of the project. By Thursday, both Griffiths and Lukaszuk withdrew from the event stating that they did not want to appear as promoting the project.
Also on Thursday, Klein himself withdrew from the meetings citing 'legal reasons' for his withdrawal. There was no elaboration on the 'legal reasons.'
There the matter rests. But does the Premier? Not yet.
Ah, sorry Premier, no such luck. The return of ex-Premier Ralph to the political limelight were to disrupt his plans. Klein had caused Stelmach some grief once before. It was when Klein announced within days after pocketing his legislature retirement allowance of 600 grand that he was taking a lobbyist job with a major blue-chip law firm. This no doubt caused Klein's protege, the current Premier, some embarassment. The haste in Klein's announcing his new post seemed to be in the minds of many, somewhat unseemly and mercenary (See DARRYL RAYMAKER BLOG, 'MORE PUNGENT ODORS FROM TORYDOM,' January 19, 2007).
And now Klein had done it again. On Wednesday it was reported that the ex-Premier was giving two speeches - one in Calgary on August 7th, and one in Edmonton on August 9th - in an effort to find Alberta investors who were prepared to kick in with 150 grand each to get a piece of a 30 million dollar resort development in Cheongsong county in South Korea.
The resort, to contain the usual garish combination of golf courses, hotels, condos and the rest of it, was to be developed by Spring Fresh Investment and Development Inc. It was ballyhooed in the promo literature as 'the Banff of Korea.' And Ralph was to be the developer's shill - the keynote speaker at the meetings.
The Company's VP Carson Cole said that Klein was being paid for the speeches and if he stuck with the company, he would receive some options. The smooth talking Cole said, "Well, quite frankly, we need a front guy . . . we needed a front guy that could attract people to show, you know . . This is high risk. Ralph Klein's perfect. Everyone knows he's a gambler." Indeed, we do. One recalls Klein, during his last term in office, leaving a First Minister's Conference in Ottawa on Health Care while it was still in session, in order to get in on the slot action at the casino in Hull before returning to back to the old grind in Edmonton.
It must have been particularly jarring for the current Premier to have heard this 'Banff in Korea' news. After all, his government wants the 'cooling off' period for lobbyists who have worked for the government to be 1 year after leaving government service. Although Klein is within the present rules, he has only been away from the Premier's office for 7 months.
However, there was more for the Premier to be concerned about with this 'Banff in Korea' stuff than merely the Ralph Klein shill. In addition to Klein being the keynote speaker, Tories Doug Griffiths, MLA for Battle River-Wainwright, and Thomas Lukaszuk, MLA for Edmonton-Castle Downs were listed as 'guest speakers.' And so, from the advertisements, it was easy for a reader to conclude that the MLA's along with Klein were helping to promote the project. The developer went even further in implicating the two MLA's by sending out an Email that said that they would be providing a 'blessing' for the project.
The MLA's, upon discovering the slimey inferences that were being drawn about their involvement as promoters of the project, were quick to deny that was the case and advised the developers of such. They said that they thought they were attending the meetings to talk about international trade and Alberta's role in the world economy, and in no sense were they promoters of the project. By Thursday, both Griffiths and Lukaszuk withdrew from the event stating that they did not want to appear as promoting the project.
Also on Thursday, Klein himself withdrew from the meetings citing 'legal reasons' for his withdrawal. There was no elaboration on the 'legal reasons.'
There the matter rests. But does the Premier? Not yet.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
THE STELMACH DISASTER OF THE WEEK: CONTAMINATION, TURF WARS AND A SCREWED UP HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
Premier Stelmach has an impressive resume of public service. Beginning in 1986 and continuing to December of 2006, it was always onward and upward. His first step was to win a seat on the County of Lamont Council in 1986. The next year he was appointed Reeve, a post that he held for the next 7 years. He was elected to the Legislature in 1993 as the member for Vegreville-Viking.
Happily for Stelmach, his election to the legislature coincided with Ralph Klein's first election as Premier. He certainly caught Ralph's eye, for his rise to government prominence was as fast as it was impressive. He began by becoming Chair of the Alberta Agriculture Research Institute. He continued with getting the posts of Deputy Whip and Government Caucus Whip in short order. In 1997 he was appointed Minister of Agriculture. He served in that post until his next appointment as Minister of Infrastructure in 1999 which he held until 2001. From 2001 to 2004 he was Minister of Transportation, and from 2004 to 2006 he served as Minister of International and Intergovernmental Affairs. Add to this impressive list 5 years of service on the government's important Agenda and Priorities Committee. So for 13 years, right up to the time the Tories turfed Ralph, Ed Stelmach and Ralph Klein were shoulder-to-shoulder all the way.
Oh yes, I almost forgot. The Premier had plenty of health care experience along the way. While Reeve of the Municipal Council he served as Regional Representative on the Alberta Health Unit Association. His health care record included 7 years on the Board of the Lamont Health Care Center. He was a member of the boards of the Archer Memorial Hospital and the Lamont Auxiliary Hospital and Nursing Home. And in the Legislature he served on the Standing Policy Committee on Health Restructuring. The Premier was very much an integral part of the Klein years and so deserves an important share of the credit, or otherwise, of the initiatives taken during that time. And that includes the government's actions in health care.
Which brings me to the new Stelmach disaster of the week. Back in March of this year it was reported that Health officials began a review of patient records of the St. Joseph's General Hospital in Vegreville. Vegreville happens to be the Premier's riding. The review came in the wake of a methicillin resistant staphulococcus aureus (MRSA) superbug outbreak in January. 7 patients in the 25-bed hospital had contacted the bug. An investigation revealed that hospital equipment at St. Joseph's wasn't properly sterilized. In fact, the East Central Health Region's medical health officer ordered the hospital to halt all admissions and close its sterilization room. Letters were going to be sent out to all patients treated with surgery and emergency room procedures, since they all had been exposed to the inadequately sterilized equipment. The letters would advise them of the cheerful news that they should get tested for HIV as well as hepatitis B and C. This was no small job. The hospital's emergency room alone sees 14,000 people a year.
Health Minister David Hancock immediately ordered the Alberta Health Quality Council to look into the matter and to report their findings back to him.
Those findings were publicly released last week and thus became the Stelmach Disaster of the Week for the week of July 22.
The Health Quality Council pulled no punches. Its scathing 100 recommendation report released Wednesday said bluntly that it was 'vague legislation' and a 'widespread patient safety culture' that led to the improper sterilization of surgical equipment which caused the spread of the superbug.
The 'root cause' of the problem, according to the report, was due to faulty provincial legislation. In the Council's view, the legislation gave both the faith-based hospital and the East Central Health Region jurisdiction over standards of infection control.
Here is a sampling of some what Head of the Council Dr. John Cowell and the Health Quality Council had to say about the problems at St. Joseph's hospital:
" . . . You have the problem of two bosses and no bosses. . . . "
" . . . Move down the food chain to the individuals trying to do their jobs who don't know, at the end of the day, who they are getting their direction from. This led to ambiguity, a lack of clarity and thus allowed unsafe practices to continue. . ."
". . . there were severely strained relationships between the Region and St Joseph's that failed to ensure that best practices in sterilization and infection prevention control were followed in St. Joseph's despite knowledge the practices did not meet standards."
" . . . There seemed to be much more focus on turf and not enough on patient safety . . ."
Among its 100 recommendations, The Health Council proposed that the government should review provincial legislation to ensure one entity has final authority over hospital health and safety issues. It warned that if nothing was done, similar problems would happen again. It also recommended that the government "define and create a cuture of safety" among staff, managers and administrators.
Health Minister Hancock had to pick up the pieces. He appointed two administrators to oversee the East Central Region's operations to replace the Board. He admitted that the relationship between St. Joseph's hospital and the Region were unworkable. And he vowed to get a handle on the situation.
This whole sorry mess happened as a result of the health restructuring that created the new system of Health Regions. Ed Stelmach, who had served on health boards prior to becoming an MLA, served on the very important government committee on health restructuring. For those reasons alone, he deserves part of the blame for the fiasco.
But, even more devastating, it happened not only on Stelmach's watch as Premier, it took place right under his nose in the largest town in his riding. Given the importance of health care, it is also very likely that the Premier was largely involved in making the appointments to the board of the East Central Health Region, which board had failed so miserably in overseeing its relationship to the hospital.
And that is last week's Stelmach's 'Disaster of the Week.'
Happily for Stelmach, his election to the legislature coincided with Ralph Klein's first election as Premier. He certainly caught Ralph's eye, for his rise to government prominence was as fast as it was impressive. He began by becoming Chair of the Alberta Agriculture Research Institute. He continued with getting the posts of Deputy Whip and Government Caucus Whip in short order. In 1997 he was appointed Minister of Agriculture. He served in that post until his next appointment as Minister of Infrastructure in 1999 which he held until 2001. From 2001 to 2004 he was Minister of Transportation, and from 2004 to 2006 he served as Minister of International and Intergovernmental Affairs. Add to this impressive list 5 years of service on the government's important Agenda and Priorities Committee. So for 13 years, right up to the time the Tories turfed Ralph, Ed Stelmach and Ralph Klein were shoulder-to-shoulder all the way.
Oh yes, I almost forgot. The Premier had plenty of health care experience along the way. While Reeve of the Municipal Council he served as Regional Representative on the Alberta Health Unit Association. His health care record included 7 years on the Board of the Lamont Health Care Center. He was a member of the boards of the Archer Memorial Hospital and the Lamont Auxiliary Hospital and Nursing Home. And in the Legislature he served on the Standing Policy Committee on Health Restructuring. The Premier was very much an integral part of the Klein years and so deserves an important share of the credit, or otherwise, of the initiatives taken during that time. And that includes the government's actions in health care.
Which brings me to the new Stelmach disaster of the week. Back in March of this year it was reported that Health officials began a review of patient records of the St. Joseph's General Hospital in Vegreville. Vegreville happens to be the Premier's riding. The review came in the wake of a methicillin resistant staphulococcus aureus (MRSA) superbug outbreak in January. 7 patients in the 25-bed hospital had contacted the bug. An investigation revealed that hospital equipment at St. Joseph's wasn't properly sterilized. In fact, the East Central Health Region's medical health officer ordered the hospital to halt all admissions and close its sterilization room. Letters were going to be sent out to all patients treated with surgery and emergency room procedures, since they all had been exposed to the inadequately sterilized equipment. The letters would advise them of the cheerful news that they should get tested for HIV as well as hepatitis B and C. This was no small job. The hospital's emergency room alone sees 14,000 people a year.
Health Minister David Hancock immediately ordered the Alberta Health Quality Council to look into the matter and to report their findings back to him.
Those findings were publicly released last week and thus became the Stelmach Disaster of the Week for the week of July 22.
The Health Quality Council pulled no punches. Its scathing 100 recommendation report released Wednesday said bluntly that it was 'vague legislation' and a 'widespread patient safety culture' that led to the improper sterilization of surgical equipment which caused the spread of the superbug.
The 'root cause' of the problem, according to the report, was due to faulty provincial legislation. In the Council's view, the legislation gave both the faith-based hospital and the East Central Health Region jurisdiction over standards of infection control.
Here is a sampling of some what Head of the Council Dr. John Cowell and the Health Quality Council had to say about the problems at St. Joseph's hospital:
" . . . You have the problem of two bosses and no bosses. . . . "
" . . . Move down the food chain to the individuals trying to do their jobs who don't know, at the end of the day, who they are getting their direction from. This led to ambiguity, a lack of clarity and thus allowed unsafe practices to continue. . ."
". . . there were severely strained relationships between the Region and St Joseph's that failed to ensure that best practices in sterilization and infection prevention control were followed in St. Joseph's despite knowledge the practices did not meet standards."
" . . . There seemed to be much more focus on turf and not enough on patient safety . . ."
Among its 100 recommendations, The Health Council proposed that the government should review provincial legislation to ensure one entity has final authority over hospital health and safety issues. It warned that if nothing was done, similar problems would happen again. It also recommended that the government "define and create a cuture of safety" among staff, managers and administrators.
Health Minister Hancock had to pick up the pieces. He appointed two administrators to oversee the East Central Region's operations to replace the Board. He admitted that the relationship between St. Joseph's hospital and the Region were unworkable. And he vowed to get a handle on the situation.
This whole sorry mess happened as a result of the health restructuring that created the new system of Health Regions. Ed Stelmach, who had served on health boards prior to becoming an MLA, served on the very important government committee on health restructuring. For those reasons alone, he deserves part of the blame for the fiasco.
But, even more devastating, it happened not only on Stelmach's watch as Premier, it took place right under his nose in the largest town in his riding. Given the importance of health care, it is also very likely that the Premier was largely involved in making the appointments to the board of the East Central Health Region, which board had failed so miserably in overseeing its relationship to the hospital.
And that is last week's Stelmach's 'Disaster of the Week.'
Saturday, July 28, 2007
MULRONEY AND SCHREIBER AND THE AIRPLANES THAT JUST WON'T FLY AWAY
Former PM Muldoon (as the very respectable muckraking journal Frank Magazine refers to him) is once again in the news. Not in respect to any of his multitude of directorships which he has eagerly amassed over the course of his 14 year retirement. Nor is it because of his inordinate kow-towing to conservative men of wealth and power. Neither is he in the news for rendering advice to Bush's pal Steve Harper, who has become his disciple. No, he is not in the news for any of those normal activities for an ex-PM. He is back amidst the sleaze of the Airbus Affair and that annoying and aggravating boil on his backside, one Karlheinz Schreiber.
Schreiber, you will recall, was the arms dealer, bagman and political gad-fly who, unable to work his way into the affections of Peter Lougheed's Alberta Tory government, found the Muldoon Federal Tories not quite so high-minded. Realizing this, he rightfully concluded that the Federal Tories were rich fodder for a lobbyist who represented European manufacturers of arms and aircraft. And so he set about the task of enriching himself and others as well as European arms and aircraft manufacturers by arranging purchase deals with the Canadian government. (For an excellent review of these activities read Stevie Cameron and Harvey Cashore's fine book The Last Amigo, MacFarlane, Walter and Ross 2001).
It should be noted that Lougheed's nose for potential scandal was indeed so sensitive, that neither he nor any member of his government were touched by even a hint of one in more than 14 years in office. Bravo!
Not so with Muldoon's crew however (for a further excellent review of the excesses of his administration, read Cameron's On the Take, MacFarlane, Walter and Ross 1994).
It is trite to say at this stage that the most intriguing scandal of those years was the famous Airbus affair in which the ubiquitous Schreiber played a central role. You will recall that the Airbus affair happened during the Muldoon Administration and involved the sale of 34 European manufactured Airbus aircraft to Air Canada, which at the time was a Canadian crown corporation. Schreiber played a middle-man role in getting the parties together and made gazillions on the deal.
After Muldoon's departure from office, unhappy differences arose within Schreiber's business organization. As a result, serious accusations were made of kick-backs by Schreiber to Tories in high places. One of which was the late Frank Moores, former Newfie Premier, indefatigable lobbyist and Tory shill, who at the time was a Director of Air Canada. Another high profile accused recipient of Schreiber's largesse on the deal was Muldoon himself.
Things really heated up in late 1995 when the Canadian Keystone Kops - the RCMP - notified Swiss authorities in writing that they wanted access to Schreiber's bank accounts as part of its investigation of a crime in which Muldoon took kickbacks. The letter to the Swiss was publicly revealed and Muldoon sued the Canadian Feds for libel. After pre-trial depositions, the case was settled in 1997 with the Canadian government paying the ex-Prime Minister $2.1 million of your money.
But the matter didn't end there. In his lawsuit against the Feds, Muldoon denied under oath that he had any business relationship with Schreiber. However, 6 years after the settlement- in 2003 - it was revealed that Schreiber had given the ex-PM $300,000 in cash at 3 different meetings in New York and Montreal shortly after Muldoon left office in 1993.
Life has not been easy for Schreiber. For years he has been fighting off extradition attempts by German authorities to haul him back to his native Germany to face fraud and corruption charges. According to all reports, he has almost exhausted all of his legal challenges and will have to face the music soon.
In the meantime, whatever relationship existed between Muldoon and Schreiber seems to have turned poisonous. The Schreiber/Muldoon/Airbus affair, which has arisen and gone back into dormancy several times over the years, has now returned - carrying with it the usual pungent hydrogen sulphide smell of sleaze. Schreiber sued Muldoon in March demanding the $300 grand together with interest be returned, alleging that his ex-pal didn't deliver on promises to help a Schreiber client locate an armored vehicle manufacturing factory in Canada. Neither, says Schreiber, did Muldoon promote, as promised, Schreiber's pasta business.
And this week, after much stalling and bickering between the counsel, Schreiber's lawyers entered a default judgment in the Ontario Courts, without the knowledge of Muldoon's lawyers. Of course, the Muldoon lawyers are mad as hell. They've applied to set aside the default judgment. The Judge has let it be known he is not happy with this 'silly war' as he calls it. He's told both sides to shape up as he ponders whether or not to set the judgment aside.
All of which should give Bush's pal Steve Harper pause about embracing Muldoon as a trusted advisor. It has been reported that the ex-PM's counsel has been sought by Harper from time to time. And just last week, Muldoon praised Harper as having done 'exceptionally well.' Warming to the subject in his inimitable way that's got him into so much hot water over the years, Muldoon raptured, "In fact, I would say that his government is probably off to the best start of any government that I can remember in my lifetime."
Advice to Bush's pal Steve Harper: keep him at the laundry.
Schreiber, you will recall, was the arms dealer, bagman and political gad-fly who, unable to work his way into the affections of Peter Lougheed's Alberta Tory government, found the Muldoon Federal Tories not quite so high-minded. Realizing this, he rightfully concluded that the Federal Tories were rich fodder for a lobbyist who represented European manufacturers of arms and aircraft. And so he set about the task of enriching himself and others as well as European arms and aircraft manufacturers by arranging purchase deals with the Canadian government. (For an excellent review of these activities read Stevie Cameron and Harvey Cashore's fine book The Last Amigo, MacFarlane, Walter and Ross 2001).
It should be noted that Lougheed's nose for potential scandal was indeed so sensitive, that neither he nor any member of his government were touched by even a hint of one in more than 14 years in office. Bravo!
Not so with Muldoon's crew however (for a further excellent review of the excesses of his administration, read Cameron's On the Take, MacFarlane, Walter and Ross 1994).
It is trite to say at this stage that the most intriguing scandal of those years was the famous Airbus affair in which the ubiquitous Schreiber played a central role. You will recall that the Airbus affair happened during the Muldoon Administration and involved the sale of 34 European manufactured Airbus aircraft to Air Canada, which at the time was a Canadian crown corporation. Schreiber played a middle-man role in getting the parties together and made gazillions on the deal.
After Muldoon's departure from office, unhappy differences arose within Schreiber's business organization. As a result, serious accusations were made of kick-backs by Schreiber to Tories in high places. One of which was the late Frank Moores, former Newfie Premier, indefatigable lobbyist and Tory shill, who at the time was a Director of Air Canada. Another high profile accused recipient of Schreiber's largesse on the deal was Muldoon himself.
Things really heated up in late 1995 when the Canadian Keystone Kops - the RCMP - notified Swiss authorities in writing that they wanted access to Schreiber's bank accounts as part of its investigation of a crime in which Muldoon took kickbacks. The letter to the Swiss was publicly revealed and Muldoon sued the Canadian Feds for libel. After pre-trial depositions, the case was settled in 1997 with the Canadian government paying the ex-Prime Minister $2.1 million of your money.
But the matter didn't end there. In his lawsuit against the Feds, Muldoon denied under oath that he had any business relationship with Schreiber. However, 6 years after the settlement- in 2003 - it was revealed that Schreiber had given the ex-PM $300,000 in cash at 3 different meetings in New York and Montreal shortly after Muldoon left office in 1993.
Life has not been easy for Schreiber. For years he has been fighting off extradition attempts by German authorities to haul him back to his native Germany to face fraud and corruption charges. According to all reports, he has almost exhausted all of his legal challenges and will have to face the music soon.
In the meantime, whatever relationship existed between Muldoon and Schreiber seems to have turned poisonous. The Schreiber/Muldoon/Airbus affair, which has arisen and gone back into dormancy several times over the years, has now returned - carrying with it the usual pungent hydrogen sulphide smell of sleaze. Schreiber sued Muldoon in March demanding the $300 grand together with interest be returned, alleging that his ex-pal didn't deliver on promises to help a Schreiber client locate an armored vehicle manufacturing factory in Canada. Neither, says Schreiber, did Muldoon promote, as promised, Schreiber's pasta business.
And this week, after much stalling and bickering between the counsel, Schreiber's lawyers entered a default judgment in the Ontario Courts, without the knowledge of Muldoon's lawyers. Of course, the Muldoon lawyers are mad as hell. They've applied to set aside the default judgment. The Judge has let it be known he is not happy with this 'silly war' as he calls it. He's told both sides to shape up as he ponders whether or not to set the judgment aside.
All of which should give Bush's pal Steve Harper pause about embracing Muldoon as a trusted advisor. It has been reported that the ex-PM's counsel has been sought by Harper from time to time. And just last week, Muldoon praised Harper as having done 'exceptionally well.' Warming to the subject in his inimitable way that's got him into so much hot water over the years, Muldoon raptured, "In fact, I would say that his government is probably off to the best start of any government that I can remember in my lifetime."
Advice to Bush's pal Steve Harper: keep him at the laundry.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
THE ZANY WORLD OF SPECIAL ED: TENANT RIP-OFF BECOMES TAX PAYER RIP-OFF
At first, Special Ed's response was to get his Municipal Affairs Minister King Kong Danyluk to threaten to use some of his ample muscle to get some avaricious landlords in line. When it was pointed out that there were too many of them for even a hulk like Danyluk to push around, he went for the legislative solution. He would help ripped off and suffering tenants keep their homes with his new 7 million buck Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Fund.
Basically, the fund was for rent subsidies to tenants to pay for unconscionable rent increases. In other words, with the Special Ed subsidy plan, everybody wins - poor and strapped tenants who couldn't afford the increases, and greedy landlords. Oh yes, there was one loser - the Alberta taxpayer who pays for it all. Better than rent controls says the government. Better to have the taxpayer foot the bill than greedy landlords.
Actually, we've seen this type of Tory program before, during the reign of Special Ed's mentor and patron, Ralph Klein. Remember the assistance to cattle growers during the mad-cow crisis? In that case, the bulk of the tax-payers' money (the fund), designed to subsidize the cattle growers (the renters), found its way into the deep pockets of the meat packers (the landlords).
As if the program wasn't deeply flawed enough, we discovered last week it is probably worse. The fund money is disappearing faster than the Tory vote in Calgary. 93 grand a week. In two short months, 4.3 million of the 7 million has already been disbursed. Its due to run out in September. And there are serious allegations of fraud.
It seems that government oversight of the program was so lax, that in no time at all two-bit fraudsters and con-artists figured out that here was a mother lode no self-respecting thief could pass up. The only documents anybody needed to qualify was proof of finances such as a bank statement, and a letter from a landlord threatening eviction or announcing a gluttonous rent increase. No income thresholds. No asset thresholds. Furthermore, it was reported that employees who worked on the disbursement of fund monies were informed by supervisors to dole out to anybody who asked for assistance. No delays. The government of Special Ed was in enough trouble. The result: false statements, forged letters, phony landlords and some of the money being doled out to anybody but the needy.
The allegations are so serious that Employment, Immigration and Industry Minister Iris Evans has ordered an audit to investigate any abuse that has taken place. The Premier stated Thursday that, "If anybody has submitted improper information, at the end of the day, we're going to go after them, because to me it's fraud." Yes siree, it's fraud alright, Mr. Premier! Which your government openly invited by instituting an ill-considered program based entirely on trust and administered with this upper-most thought in mind - take the heat off of the government for not putting the heat on greedy landlords.
The Premier characteristically added a few weasel words. He said, "I don't know when the audit will be complete, but we're certainly accountable to Alberta taxpayers and we'll release all the information to the public once it's done." For his part the Auditor General said that the earliest he could get to the file would be November. So you can bet that it will be some time indeed before Albertans will find out what really has gone on. Surprise, surprise, it may even be after the next provincial election, given the recent election rumblings coming out of the Special Ed bunker.
Basically, the fund was for rent subsidies to tenants to pay for unconscionable rent increases. In other words, with the Special Ed subsidy plan, everybody wins - poor and strapped tenants who couldn't afford the increases, and greedy landlords. Oh yes, there was one loser - the Alberta taxpayer who pays for it all. Better than rent controls says the government. Better to have the taxpayer foot the bill than greedy landlords.
Actually, we've seen this type of Tory program before, during the reign of Special Ed's mentor and patron, Ralph Klein. Remember the assistance to cattle growers during the mad-cow crisis? In that case, the bulk of the tax-payers' money (the fund), designed to subsidize the cattle growers (the renters), found its way into the deep pockets of the meat packers (the landlords).
As if the program wasn't deeply flawed enough, we discovered last week it is probably worse. The fund money is disappearing faster than the Tory vote in Calgary. 93 grand a week. In two short months, 4.3 million of the 7 million has already been disbursed. Its due to run out in September. And there are serious allegations of fraud.
It seems that government oversight of the program was so lax, that in no time at all two-bit fraudsters and con-artists figured out that here was a mother lode no self-respecting thief could pass up. The only documents anybody needed to qualify was proof of finances such as a bank statement, and a letter from a landlord threatening eviction or announcing a gluttonous rent increase. No income thresholds. No asset thresholds. Furthermore, it was reported that employees who worked on the disbursement of fund monies were informed by supervisors to dole out to anybody who asked for assistance. No delays. The government of Special Ed was in enough trouble. The result: false statements, forged letters, phony landlords and some of the money being doled out to anybody but the needy.
The allegations are so serious that Employment, Immigration and Industry Minister Iris Evans has ordered an audit to investigate any abuse that has taken place. The Premier stated Thursday that, "If anybody has submitted improper information, at the end of the day, we're going to go after them, because to me it's fraud." Yes siree, it's fraud alright, Mr. Premier! Which your government openly invited by instituting an ill-considered program based entirely on trust and administered with this upper-most thought in mind - take the heat off of the government for not putting the heat on greedy landlords.
The Premier characteristically added a few weasel words. He said, "I don't know when the audit will be complete, but we're certainly accountable to Alberta taxpayers and we'll release all the information to the public once it's done." For his part the Auditor General said that the earliest he could get to the file would be November. So you can bet that it will be some time indeed before Albertans will find out what really has gone on. Surprise, surprise, it may even be after the next provincial election, given the recent election rumblings coming out of the Special Ed bunker.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
SPECIAL ED'S RESPONSE TO THE MAYORS: TAX THIS!
Stampede week was a good week for Special Ed. He flipped flap-jacks, gave some big bucks to the Stampede (15 million) along with Bush's pal Steve Harper who gave another 15 mil out of the Feds' coffers. His new lady minister from Calgary got some ink about the depleting assistance fund for renters, and that she would fight for more. Even some of the Herald and Sun columnists who have been beating on him for some time seemed to go easy on him. "Ah, shucks," as Eddie and his classy pals at the Stampede Board would say, "It's Stampede time. Everybody should get a break during Stampede." So Special Ed got his break.
However, this week is a new week. Special Ed is back at work. And - too bad for him - he and his good ol' boys are up to their usual standard of ineptitude. This time it is Special Ed government's largely non-response to some proposals from the Minister's Council on Municipal Sustainability. The Council's report was submitted by Mayors Mandel of Edmonton and Bronco of Calgary, together with the heads of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association and the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties. The report contained specific proposals designed to help Alberta cities, towns, villages and municipal districts financially meet the public needs of their residents.
First of all, the government, whose spokesman was Municipal Affairs Minister Ray Danyluk, turned down the request of the municipalities to receive some portion of oil and gas royalties to meet their infrastructure needs. No matter that in many places in Alberta the roads and bridges are beaten up by oil and gas heavy equipment and trucks, Special Ed's boys said no dice. The royalty rates - some of the most generous of any jurisdiction in the world - would remain the same, and remain within the exclusive domain of the Province.
However, to show Albertans how generous they may be with the people's money, Danyluk said they would graciously look to giving municipalities the right to raise more taxes from their own residents - through an amusement tax perhaps, or a tourism tax, etc. - but that would take more study and consideration. So, as far as royalties were concerned, Alberta towns and villages were told, "Get lost!" As far as other sources of revenue are concerned, "Well, we're still thinking about ways that you can stick it to your own residents."
One good thing was announced by Danyluk - the return of the Regional Planning Boards, to settle disputes between municipalities and to bring more coherence to planning respecting adjacent municipalities.
Regional Planning Boards had been mindlessly abolished in 1995 by the Klein government as part of its attack on deficits and debt. For the same reason at about the same time, Klein combined the Public Utilities Board together with the Energy Resources Conservation Board under one roof - the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (EUB). Prior to that, the Public Utilities Board (PUB) was concerned with regulating the orderly development and transmission of electrical power and the Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB), with regulating the orderly development and transportation of oil and gas resources. With the Klein measures the EUB dealt with both.
The result of these reckless moves in the case of the abolition of Regional Planning Boards was planning chaos, and in the case of the new EUB, more work than the Board members and their staffs could keep up with.
The government has recently announced that it would again separate the two energy functions into the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board which will now only regulate only oil and gas, and the Alberta Utilities Commission, which will handle power. And now, Danyluk announced that the Regional Planning functions would be reinstated.
So Special Ed at least has cleaned up a small part of the mess of the Klein years, in which he played so prominent a role ( see Darryl Raymaker Blog, FAST EDDIE: RALPH'S BIG STICK, January 27, 2007). Too little, too late.
However, this week is a new week. Special Ed is back at work. And - too bad for him - he and his good ol' boys are up to their usual standard of ineptitude. This time it is Special Ed government's largely non-response to some proposals from the Minister's Council on Municipal Sustainability. The Council's report was submitted by Mayors Mandel of Edmonton and Bronco of Calgary, together with the heads of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association and the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties. The report contained specific proposals designed to help Alberta cities, towns, villages and municipal districts financially meet the public needs of their residents.
First of all, the government, whose spokesman was Municipal Affairs Minister Ray Danyluk, turned down the request of the municipalities to receive some portion of oil and gas royalties to meet their infrastructure needs. No matter that in many places in Alberta the roads and bridges are beaten up by oil and gas heavy equipment and trucks, Special Ed's boys said no dice. The royalty rates - some of the most generous of any jurisdiction in the world - would remain the same, and remain within the exclusive domain of the Province.
However, to show Albertans how generous they may be with the people's money, Danyluk said they would graciously look to giving municipalities the right to raise more taxes from their own residents - through an amusement tax perhaps, or a tourism tax, etc. - but that would take more study and consideration. So, as far as royalties were concerned, Alberta towns and villages were told, "Get lost!" As far as other sources of revenue are concerned, "Well, we're still thinking about ways that you can stick it to your own residents."
One good thing was announced by Danyluk - the return of the Regional Planning Boards, to settle disputes between municipalities and to bring more coherence to planning respecting adjacent municipalities.
Regional Planning Boards had been mindlessly abolished in 1995 by the Klein government as part of its attack on deficits and debt. For the same reason at about the same time, Klein combined the Public Utilities Board together with the Energy Resources Conservation Board under one roof - the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (EUB). Prior to that, the Public Utilities Board (PUB) was concerned with regulating the orderly development and transmission of electrical power and the Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB), with regulating the orderly development and transportation of oil and gas resources. With the Klein measures the EUB dealt with both.
The result of these reckless moves in the case of the abolition of Regional Planning Boards was planning chaos, and in the case of the new EUB, more work than the Board members and their staffs could keep up with.
The government has recently announced that it would again separate the two energy functions into the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board which will now only regulate only oil and gas, and the Alberta Utilities Commission, which will handle power. And now, Danyluk announced that the Regional Planning functions would be reinstated.
So Special Ed at least has cleaned up a small part of the mess of the Klein years, in which he played so prominent a role ( see Darryl Raymaker Blog, FAST EDDIE: RALPH'S BIG STICK, January 27, 2007). Too little, too late.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
TALLADEGA NIGHTMARES II: STEVIE HARPIE IN 24TH PLACE
From information received from the guy that writes that brilliant 'Born With a Tail' blog, who by his good fortune bears my family name and more importantly for him - the family genes and jewels - I'm here to report to you that the NASCAR Conservative entry is not doing too well.
You will recall my brilliant piece 'Talladega Nightmares: the Ballad of Stevie Harpie (with apologies to Will Ferrell)" of June 18, 2004. The piece commented on the Conservatives sponsoring a sleek gas guzzling (125 gallons in a 250 mile race) Dodge owned by Pierre Bourque.
Bourque, you will recall, masquerades as a news provider with his 'Bourque Newswatch' on the internet, but in reality is a shill for the Bush's pal Steve Harper's Conservatives. He does this lowly and demeaning toil for a very good reason - the Conservatives have sponsored his gas eating Godzilla in the Canadian NASCAR circuit.
The flashy purveyor of Conservative flim-flam, in his capacity as fearless, but slow, stock car racer can be seen here: http://www.pierrebourque.com/.
His current lowly standing in the competition is 24th out of 36.
You will recall my prediction. I said that this ill-conceived misadventure of the Harperites would go nowhere, and that the bubbas and the crackers were too smart to be manipulated to vote Conservative as a result of such shoddy patronizing.
So far, I'm right. Bourque's crate will soon be on its way to the auto-wreckers, and the Conservative sponsorship bucks are going right up into the ozone layer.
The crackers will show that they haven't been convinced by such nonsense in the next election.
You will recall my brilliant piece 'Talladega Nightmares: the Ballad of Stevie Harpie (with apologies to Will Ferrell)" of June 18, 2004. The piece commented on the Conservatives sponsoring a sleek gas guzzling (125 gallons in a 250 mile race) Dodge owned by Pierre Bourque.
Bourque, you will recall, masquerades as a news provider with his 'Bourque Newswatch' on the internet, but in reality is a shill for the Bush's pal Steve Harper's Conservatives. He does this lowly and demeaning toil for a very good reason - the Conservatives have sponsored his gas eating Godzilla in the Canadian NASCAR circuit.
The flashy purveyor of Conservative flim-flam, in his capacity as fearless, but slow, stock car racer can be seen here: http://www.pierrebourque.com/.
His current lowly standing in the competition is 24th out of 36.
You will recall my prediction. I said that this ill-conceived misadventure of the Harperites would go nowhere, and that the bubbas and the crackers were too smart to be manipulated to vote Conservative as a result of such shoddy patronizing.
So far, I'm right. Bourque's crate will soon be on its way to the auto-wreckers, and the Conservative sponsorship bucks are going right up into the ozone layer.
The crackers will show that they haven't been convinced by such nonsense in the next election.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
THE DION AND TAFT SNUB: IS IT ALSO ABOUT THE MONEY?
A couple of days ago some light was shed on the bush league decision of the organizers of the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede Board not to recognize the Leaders of the Opposition of the Canadian Parliament and Provincial Legislature at the President's reception on opening day of the Calgary Stampede.
There appears to be more to it than mere crass partisanship of the corporate and political establishment of the city of the Blue-Eyed Sheikhs (with acknowledgements to Peter Foster for coining the phrase in his excellent book on the Canadian Petroleum Industry of almost 30 years ago). As you might guess, the 'more' that was involved was - surprise, surprise - government money. Government handouts. Government handouts from both Special Ed and Bush's pal Steve.
Government handouts? - you say - surely the right wing Conservative boys who dominate the Exhibition and Stampede Board wouldn't be interested in government handouts? Are you kidding? The only thing these guys like better than tax loopholes are government handouts.
The further reasons for the boorish snub of Messrs. Dion and Taft at the President's reception came in a news release on Tuesday July 10. It was revealed that Federal Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice and Federal Transport and Infrastructure Minister Lawrence Cannon, on behalf of Bush's pal Steve Harper, together with Special Ed, announced they intended to to give the Exhibtion and Stampede some money. There were a few strings attached, but nothing that couldn't be worked out.
Here's the deal. Under the Building Canada Infrastructure Plan Stevie's Feds would give the Stampede up to 15 million bucks towards the Western Legacy project. The project includes reclaiming a 14 acre inner city parcel of land to create a park, the development of a heritage interpretive center and the relocation of the traditional Indian Village of the Stampede in order to expand the interpretive program. In addition, the money would be used to facilitate a cross-cultural exchange with the participation of Treaty Seven First Nations.
Special Ed and his Country Boys (among whom are a small smattering of girls), is giving an additional 15 Million to support the expansion and upgrading of the Stampede.
So, getting back to the Friday reception, it appears that the Board showed their gratitude towards their government patrons by not allowing any lowlifes like the Leaders of the Opposition to share the limelight with Bush Lite or Special Ed. ('Don't bite the hand that feeds you,' 'they know what side of their bread is buttered,' 'you gotta dance with the guy that brung ya,' yada, yada, yada - you get my drift, I hope. If not, you're qualified to be a minister in Special Ed's cabinet).
In this connection, they may have been influenced by the usually brooding and surly PM, who detests Grits so much that he insults them at every opportunity with slashing contempt, the like of which has seldom been observed in Canadian politics (some of Stevie's more outrageous observations: the Opposition have more sympathy for the Taliban than it does for our troops; Liberals are not a friend of Israel; Paul Martin supports Child Pornography, etc., etc.). So, better not piss him off, before we have the bucks in the bank, right?
As to the class act of Special Ed, the Board could have known about an earlier action of the Premier when he refused to have his picture taken with Stephane Dion on the latter's courtesy first visit to the Premier's Office in Edmonton after becoming Federal Opposition Leader (See Darryl Raymaker Blog, January 10, 2007, 'FAST EDDIE AND THE QUESTION OF CHARACTER). Recognition of Dion at the reception would probably not be appreciated by the dithering, blundering, milquetoast farmer who was coughing up 15 million big ones of hard earned taxpayers' moolah for the Stampede.
The Stampede Board could also have been influenced by the fact that the Federal contribution under the 33 billion dollar Building Canada Infrastructure Plan appears to be a bit of a stretch. The proclaimed purpose of the Plan according to the press release is to provide long-term, stable, and predictable funding to help meet infrastructure needs across Canada. When common sense Canadians think of infrastructure they think of bridges, roads, rail transportation, and the like. They do not associate parks, Calgary Stampede indian villages, interpretive centers or cross-cultural relations with indians, with infrastructure. And so, it just may be that the proposed grant from the Feds may be on very shaky legal ground - all the more reason to make nice to the Prime Minster and shun his opponents.
There appears to be more to it than mere crass partisanship of the corporate and political establishment of the city of the Blue-Eyed Sheikhs (with acknowledgements to Peter Foster for coining the phrase in his excellent book on the Canadian Petroleum Industry of almost 30 years ago). As you might guess, the 'more' that was involved was - surprise, surprise - government money. Government handouts. Government handouts from both Special Ed and Bush's pal Steve.
Government handouts? - you say - surely the right wing Conservative boys who dominate the Exhibition and Stampede Board wouldn't be interested in government handouts? Are you kidding? The only thing these guys like better than tax loopholes are government handouts.
The further reasons for the boorish snub of Messrs. Dion and Taft at the President's reception came in a news release on Tuesday July 10. It was revealed that Federal Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice and Federal Transport and Infrastructure Minister Lawrence Cannon, on behalf of Bush's pal Steve Harper, together with Special Ed, announced they intended to to give the Exhibtion and Stampede some money. There were a few strings attached, but nothing that couldn't be worked out.
Here's the deal. Under the Building Canada Infrastructure Plan Stevie's Feds would give the Stampede up to 15 million bucks towards the Western Legacy project. The project includes reclaiming a 14 acre inner city parcel of land to create a park, the development of a heritage interpretive center and the relocation of the traditional Indian Village of the Stampede in order to expand the interpretive program. In addition, the money would be used to facilitate a cross-cultural exchange with the participation of Treaty Seven First Nations.
Special Ed and his Country Boys (among whom are a small smattering of girls), is giving an additional 15 Million to support the expansion and upgrading of the Stampede.
So, getting back to the Friday reception, it appears that the Board showed their gratitude towards their government patrons by not allowing any lowlifes like the Leaders of the Opposition to share the limelight with Bush Lite or Special Ed. ('Don't bite the hand that feeds you,' 'they know what side of their bread is buttered,' 'you gotta dance with the guy that brung ya,' yada, yada, yada - you get my drift, I hope. If not, you're qualified to be a minister in Special Ed's cabinet).
In this connection, they may have been influenced by the usually brooding and surly PM, who detests Grits so much that he insults them at every opportunity with slashing contempt, the like of which has seldom been observed in Canadian politics (some of Stevie's more outrageous observations: the Opposition have more sympathy for the Taliban than it does for our troops; Liberals are not a friend of Israel; Paul Martin supports Child Pornography, etc., etc.). So, better not piss him off, before we have the bucks in the bank, right?
As to the class act of Special Ed, the Board could have known about an earlier action of the Premier when he refused to have his picture taken with Stephane Dion on the latter's courtesy first visit to the Premier's Office in Edmonton after becoming Federal Opposition Leader (See Darryl Raymaker Blog, January 10, 2007, 'FAST EDDIE AND THE QUESTION OF CHARACTER). Recognition of Dion at the reception would probably not be appreciated by the dithering, blundering, milquetoast farmer who was coughing up 15 million big ones of hard earned taxpayers' moolah for the Stampede.
The Stampede Board could also have been influenced by the fact that the Federal contribution under the 33 billion dollar Building Canada Infrastructure Plan appears to be a bit of a stretch. The proclaimed purpose of the Plan according to the press release is to provide long-term, stable, and predictable funding to help meet infrastructure needs across Canada. When common sense Canadians think of infrastructure they think of bridges, roads, rail transportation, and the like. They do not associate parks, Calgary Stampede indian villages, interpretive centers or cross-cultural relations with indians, with infrastructure. And so, it just may be that the proposed grant from the Feds may be on very shaky legal ground - all the more reason to make nice to the Prime Minster and shun his opponents.
Saturday, July 07, 2007
CALGARY: WORLD CLASS OR WORLD CRASS?
Calgary. The city of Petrobucks and plenty of them. Gleaming skyscrapers. Headquarters of the booming Canadian oil biz. Over a million people with thousands of new arrivals every year. Estate homes worthy of barons and earls. Its companies scour the world in search of the elusive black stuff. And plenty of power too - the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister are Calgary MPs. And class . . . . . well, you can't have everything.
Late yesterday afternoon I had occasion to attend a key opening ritual of the Calgary Stampede - The President's Reception, held at the Round-up Center on the Stampede Grounds located not far from the City Center. The Round-up Center is a typical convention center with a high ceiling and a partionable large hall. The Reception was hosted by the current President of the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede Board, the portly and affable epitome of civic boosterism, local businessman George Brookman. About 500 of Calgary's business and political elite comprised the invitees. Being Calgary, it was pretty much a sea of Conservatives, with rarely seen, small outcroppings of the beseiged and long-suffering Grits - perhaps 50 or so in the crowd.
The slain political carcass of Jim Dinning, the Dragon to Special Ed's St. George, was there. In fact, Dinning showed some signs of life - no doubt somewhat resuscitated by his conqueror's dismal performance as Premier. Ralph's eminence gris, Rod Love was there. Love, who rose from a lowly waiter to the supreme power wielder on behalf of his patron and friend the Mayor and then the Premier, has shorn his formidable and fearsome looking facial hair. He now looks like the prosperous and respectable Tory uber-super-lobbyist that he has become.
The venerable and colorful Art Smith was there. The former Alderman, Tory MP and MLA, and World War II bomber command pilot hero, now nearing 90 is still spry enough to belly up to the bar. Smith obviously continues to enjoy the political game, together with the company of his army of friends and Tory comrades-in-arms.
Bush's pal Steve Harper and his wife were there, as was his Deputy Jim Prentice and his spouse, both Conservative heavyweights being fawned over by their multitude of fans and boosters as befits such a Calgary establishment crowd. Indian Chiefs and Elders, some Stampede volunteers, and many prominent citizens were sprinkled throughout the hall.
As the cowtown glitterati sipped wine and milled about the hall, surrounding a few round tables at which were seated some of the honored guests, Brookman took to the podium. He introduced the very worthy theme of the Stampede - the battle against breast cancer - as well as some video presentations. Then came his jovial and spirited introduction of guests. Reading from a teleprompter, he went through the list - Harper, Prentice, new Deputy Premier of Alberta Ron Stevens, Mayor Bronconnier, Indian Chiefs and Leaders, Stampede Board Executives, and so on. The list was long.
Also in the audience was the Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition in the House of Commons, Liberal Party of Canada Leader Stephane Dion. There too, was the Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition in the Alberta Legislature, Alberta Liberal Party Leader Kevin Taft. In addition, Jack Layton, Toronto MP and Leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada was present.
The President ended the program with not a peep in recognition of these important Canadians from the podium.
I then led Dion up to the side of the stage and introduced him to Brookman. He was immediately apologetic at not introducing him to the crowd and claimed that the reason for his exclusion was that his introduction was not in his script. Simple improvisation, I suppose, was too much of a challenge for him. He wished Dion well during his stay in Calgary.
The episode shows just how ingrained the Conservatives are into the soul of most of Calgary's movers and shakers. These events are organized by Conservatives for Conservatives. Others who are not Conservatives are there because they are merely tolerated by Conservatives and should not expect recognition - protocol or good manners, be damned! Not even if they occupy the second most important government role in their respective legislatures - Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition.
Let's say the shoe was on the other foot. If the Prime Minister happened to be a Liberal - as is the usual situation in Canada, and will shortly be again - and the Leader of the Opposition was a Conservative, it is unfathomable that in such a Calgary crowd the Conservative Opposition Leader would not be recognized. That just would not happen.
So there you have it. Calgary - Is it a world class city, or world crass city? For the moment, judging by the behaviour of its establishment, it has a way to go to be truly 'world class.'
Late yesterday afternoon I had occasion to attend a key opening ritual of the Calgary Stampede - The President's Reception, held at the Round-up Center on the Stampede Grounds located not far from the City Center. The Round-up Center is a typical convention center with a high ceiling and a partionable large hall. The Reception was hosted by the current President of the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede Board, the portly and affable epitome of civic boosterism, local businessman George Brookman. About 500 of Calgary's business and political elite comprised the invitees. Being Calgary, it was pretty much a sea of Conservatives, with rarely seen, small outcroppings of the beseiged and long-suffering Grits - perhaps 50 or so in the crowd.
The slain political carcass of Jim Dinning, the Dragon to Special Ed's St. George, was there. In fact, Dinning showed some signs of life - no doubt somewhat resuscitated by his conqueror's dismal performance as Premier. Ralph's eminence gris, Rod Love was there. Love, who rose from a lowly waiter to the supreme power wielder on behalf of his patron and friend the Mayor and then the Premier, has shorn his formidable and fearsome looking facial hair. He now looks like the prosperous and respectable Tory uber-super-lobbyist that he has become.
The venerable and colorful Art Smith was there. The former Alderman, Tory MP and MLA, and World War II bomber command pilot hero, now nearing 90 is still spry enough to belly up to the bar. Smith obviously continues to enjoy the political game, together with the company of his army of friends and Tory comrades-in-arms.
Bush's pal Steve Harper and his wife were there, as was his Deputy Jim Prentice and his spouse, both Conservative heavyweights being fawned over by their multitude of fans and boosters as befits such a Calgary establishment crowd. Indian Chiefs and Elders, some Stampede volunteers, and many prominent citizens were sprinkled throughout the hall.
As the cowtown glitterati sipped wine and milled about the hall, surrounding a few round tables at which were seated some of the honored guests, Brookman took to the podium. He introduced the very worthy theme of the Stampede - the battle against breast cancer - as well as some video presentations. Then came his jovial and spirited introduction of guests. Reading from a teleprompter, he went through the list - Harper, Prentice, new Deputy Premier of Alberta Ron Stevens, Mayor Bronconnier, Indian Chiefs and Leaders, Stampede Board Executives, and so on. The list was long.
Also in the audience was the Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition in the House of Commons, Liberal Party of Canada Leader Stephane Dion. There too, was the Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition in the Alberta Legislature, Alberta Liberal Party Leader Kevin Taft. In addition, Jack Layton, Toronto MP and Leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada was present.
The President ended the program with not a peep in recognition of these important Canadians from the podium.
I then led Dion up to the side of the stage and introduced him to Brookman. He was immediately apologetic at not introducing him to the crowd and claimed that the reason for his exclusion was that his introduction was not in his script. Simple improvisation, I suppose, was too much of a challenge for him. He wished Dion well during his stay in Calgary.
The episode shows just how ingrained the Conservatives are into the soul of most of Calgary's movers and shakers. These events are organized by Conservatives for Conservatives. Others who are not Conservatives are there because they are merely tolerated by Conservatives and should not expect recognition - protocol or good manners, be damned! Not even if they occupy the second most important government role in their respective legislatures - Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition.
Let's say the shoe was on the other foot. If the Prime Minister happened to be a Liberal - as is the usual situation in Canada, and will shortly be again - and the Leader of the Opposition was a Conservative, it is unfathomable that in such a Calgary crowd the Conservative Opposition Leader would not be recognized. That just would not happen.
So there you have it. Calgary - Is it a world class city, or world crass city? For the moment, judging by the behaviour of its establishment, it has a way to go to be truly 'world class.'
Thursday, July 05, 2007
HARPER GETS READY TO CUT AND RUN - AGAIN.
He's a tough guy alright. Bush's pal Steve Harper. By God, if you could count on Stevie for anything, it was that he would restore the respect and influence of the Canadian Armed Forces in Canada and throughout the world. So long as he was leader of the Conservatives, our soldiers were going to take their rightful place and participate in the events of their time. If that meant blood, well, so be it. With our allies, especially the United States, and NATO, our young men and women would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with theirs, defending freedom and democracy and fighting terrorism at every turn. This was and remains the essence of the foreign and defence policy rhetoric of Steve Harper.
Consistent with this policy, in the spring of 2003 he led the Canadian Alliance (which was soon to become the present 'Conservative' Party), to be the only party to vote against a House of Commons resolution to stay out of the Iraq war. It came as a surprise when Harper, a reputed nerd, showed a weak grasp of modern history when he said of the Chretien government at the time, " . . . this government has for the first time in our history left us outside our British and American allies in their time of need."
Had he forgotten that, much to the satisfaction of the Canadian people, Canada did not support the United States in their time of need in the morass of Vietnam? How could that have happened - a smart guy like Stevie? Well, maybe he's not that smart. Or, like many of like-minded neocons, he has erased the debacle of Vietnam from his memory.*
(*It should be noted here that a former neo-con fellow traveller who is going through a conversion - gazillionaire movie star tough-guy Bruce Willis - has rationalized U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War by believing that the war led to a government in Vietnam that supported a market economy. If it hadn't been for the war, Willis believes, Vietnam would be like the old commie states of yore. See Playboy Interview, July 2007).
Similarly, Harper overlooked the fact that Canada had not supported Britain in her time of need when she, France, and Israel attacked Egypt in 1956 in the wake of Egypt's nationalization of the Suez Canal. Perhaps he had a mental block about the history of the Suez Crisis. To help quell the fireworks over Suez, it was Canada's Lester Pearson who would lead in the creation of a UN Peacekeeping force and for those efforts be rewarded with a Nobel Peace Prize - which led directly to Pearson becoming Leader of the Liberal Party and a few years later, Prime Minister of Canada. To a Conservative, this is clearly not a pleasant memory - little wonder why it could be conveniently forgotten or lost in a state of denial.
Harper continued to beat the Iraq war drums. To the Wall Street Journal, he wrote that his party " . . . supports the American and British position because we share their concerns, their worries about the future if Iraq is left unattended to, and their fundamental vision of civilization and human values." He soon introduced his own motion in the House asking Canada to support the war.
However, as the disaster in Iraq became more apparent, as Canadian anti-Iraq War sentiment grew and as Harper got closer to leading his Conservative Party in an election, he checked the polls and changed his stand. What he meant, he said, was that he morally supported Bush and Blair, and that he only wanted to frighten Sadam with his rhetoric and not engage in fire power. He, in effect, cut and ran on Iraq.
But Afghanistan was quite another matter. Becoming Prime Minister in February 2006, Harper wasted little time in making clear his government's hawkish position on the conflict. This was an easier sell to the Canadian people. Canadians widely accepted the arguement that the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan was a proper and moral step, given that it was being fought to rid the country of the people who actually encouraged terrorism, harbored terrorists, treated much of their citizenry miserably, and prevented little girls from attending school.
Harper also had the advantage that he could honestly claim that it was the Liberals who got us into Afghanistan, and all he was doing was living up to commitments made by the Liberals. Canada's involvement began in early 2002 with our activities directed at al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in a campaign against terror due to end in the fall of 2003. Our commitment was extended and in the spring 2005 our troop contingent were transferred from Kabul to the ever dangerous Kandahar region in the south of the country. In the meantime, Canadian troop levels increased from 600 to 1200.
By early 2006, Prime Minister Harper's new government was now in power, our troop levels stood at 2500 and our mandate had changed to include providing assistance for security and economic recovery. We soon committed our troops and resources for a further 2 year period. Since that time the war has become much more dangerous with armored tanks sent into the fray as well as house-to house combat and the ubiquitous roadside bombs. Our casualties mount alarmingly at the same time as persistent reports from the region indicate that the war is not going well.
The Prime Minister nonetheless has continued with his war-time drumbeating about our heroic troops and the honorable cause for which they are fighting, calling on Canadians to continue to support the troops, applauding efforts at rebuilding the country and so forth. But the bad news keeps in lock step with his message. There was the detainee problem and evidence of a cover-up, Ministers of Defence and Foreign Affairs who couldn't get their stories straight, reports of a bumper poppy crop making Afghanistan the world's biggest supplier of heroin, the Prime Minister trying to play down the publicity of the funerals of fallen troops, the Defence Department chintzing on funeral expenses, obvious corruption within the Afghan government and law enforcement authorities, the return of the Taliban as a competitive fighting force, and the increasing financial cost of the mission to Canadian taxpayers: at least 6 billion dollars to date, and rising steadily.
Hovering over all of that is the refusal of NATO to increase their total troop commitment to the war in Afghanistan beyond 36,000 troops - about one quarter of the troops that Russia had in action during their debacle in the nineteen eighties. Worse yet, there appeared to be an unwillingness on the part of NATO partners to help in the heavy lifting in the most violent and war-torn part of the country: the Kandahar region.
In staunchly advancing his aggressive policy in Afghanistan, Harper was making a giant leap of faith, and asking the Canadian people to do the same. Had he been a better student of history, Harper may not have been so reckless. Western intervention in Afghanistan over a couple of hundred years or so had never gone well. The remoteness and harsh environment of the country, coupled with its history of fanaticism and lack of respect for life or limb, had historically led to harsh and tragic consequences for nations which, for reasons good or evil, engaged its population in hostilities on their own soil (for a good summary of the Afghan Wars, read 'Tournament of Shadows,' by Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac).
The most recent example was Mother Russia's ill-fated experience. During her nightmarish 9 years as an occupying force in Afghanistan, she had as many as four times the numbers of the present NATO troop deployment. To no avail. When the debacle ended in 1989 and the Russians went home, they had lost 14,500 troops, not to mention 120 tanks, 300 helicopters and 118 planes (See Darryl Raymaker Blog 'GORDON O'CONNOR: IN OVER HIS HEAD,' March 18, 2007).
Events are now moving quickly.
Firstly, a few days ago we lost another 6 brave Canadian troops in a roadside bomb attack on a heavily armored vehicle, thus increasing the number of Canadian troops killed in the conflict to 66 - 19 in the last three months. These deaths on top of the rest of the quagmire clearly weakens the resolve of the Canadian people. And for good reason. Canadian people will sacrifice much for a cause, provided they believe it is a worthy one and that we are advancing forward and not backward.
Secondly, with the deployment of the famed Quebec Royal 22nd Regiment to Afghanistan in August, Harper has to be concerned about seeing his political strength erode further in La Belle Province given the traditional anti-war sentiment of its people, or as Stevie likes to put it, 'The Quebecois Nation.'
Thirdly, Harper himself has begun to hedge his bets. He has recently spoken of wanting a consensus in parliament among political leaders respecting any continuation of the mission past 2009. Being the stand-up guy that he is, he tried to weasel some political points out of it by stating, "I don't want to send people into a mission if the opposition is going to, at home, undercut the dangerous work that they are doing in the field." Of course, it will not be the opposition that derails the mission. What will derail the mission is that the Canadian people see the futility of the mission, which at the present time is becoming apparent to everyone, including Harper.
And finally, a couple of days ago the dyed-in-the-wool Conservative and member of the warrior class, General Lewis MacKenzie (ret.) gave Harper an honorable way out - the lack of cooperation by NATO. MacKenzie said that NATO was committing only 35,000 of one million troops at its disposal, and that the 35,000 was the lowest ratio of soldiers to the population in an insurgency in the history of warfare. He said that he was 'frustrated' that NATO had not divied up the troops it had promised to the operation. In his words, "For some reason we have a tiny, tiny force and an alliance that was supposed to preach one for all and all for one - well, it sure in hell hasn't turned out that way." He added that if NATO failed to deliver the troops that were necessary, "then I would agree that the time has come to part (leave Afghanistan)."
So, the conditions seem to be set for Harper's second 'cut and run.' Its unlikely he will have a third chance, given that his time in office is very limited. It is fair to say, that had he had a better fix on history, his bellicosity over war may have been more muted - to everyone's benefit, including his own.
Consistent with this policy, in the spring of 2003 he led the Canadian Alliance (which was soon to become the present 'Conservative' Party), to be the only party to vote against a House of Commons resolution to stay out of the Iraq war. It came as a surprise when Harper, a reputed nerd, showed a weak grasp of modern history when he said of the Chretien government at the time, " . . . this government has for the first time in our history left us outside our British and American allies in their time of need."
Had he forgotten that, much to the satisfaction of the Canadian people, Canada did not support the United States in their time of need in the morass of Vietnam? How could that have happened - a smart guy like Stevie? Well, maybe he's not that smart. Or, like many of like-minded neocons, he has erased the debacle of Vietnam from his memory.*
(*It should be noted here that a former neo-con fellow traveller who is going through a conversion - gazillionaire movie star tough-guy Bruce Willis - has rationalized U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War by believing that the war led to a government in Vietnam that supported a market economy. If it hadn't been for the war, Willis believes, Vietnam would be like the old commie states of yore. See Playboy Interview, July 2007).
Similarly, Harper overlooked the fact that Canada had not supported Britain in her time of need when she, France, and Israel attacked Egypt in 1956 in the wake of Egypt's nationalization of the Suez Canal. Perhaps he had a mental block about the history of the Suez Crisis. To help quell the fireworks over Suez, it was Canada's Lester Pearson who would lead in the creation of a UN Peacekeeping force and for those efforts be rewarded with a Nobel Peace Prize - which led directly to Pearson becoming Leader of the Liberal Party and a few years later, Prime Minister of Canada. To a Conservative, this is clearly not a pleasant memory - little wonder why it could be conveniently forgotten or lost in a state of denial.
Harper continued to beat the Iraq war drums. To the Wall Street Journal, he wrote that his party " . . . supports the American and British position because we share their concerns, their worries about the future if Iraq is left unattended to, and their fundamental vision of civilization and human values." He soon introduced his own motion in the House asking Canada to support the war.
However, as the disaster in Iraq became more apparent, as Canadian anti-Iraq War sentiment grew and as Harper got closer to leading his Conservative Party in an election, he checked the polls and changed his stand. What he meant, he said, was that he morally supported Bush and Blair, and that he only wanted to frighten Sadam with his rhetoric and not engage in fire power. He, in effect, cut and ran on Iraq.
But Afghanistan was quite another matter. Becoming Prime Minister in February 2006, Harper wasted little time in making clear his government's hawkish position on the conflict. This was an easier sell to the Canadian people. Canadians widely accepted the arguement that the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan was a proper and moral step, given that it was being fought to rid the country of the people who actually encouraged terrorism, harbored terrorists, treated much of their citizenry miserably, and prevented little girls from attending school.
Harper also had the advantage that he could honestly claim that it was the Liberals who got us into Afghanistan, and all he was doing was living up to commitments made by the Liberals. Canada's involvement began in early 2002 with our activities directed at al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in a campaign against terror due to end in the fall of 2003. Our commitment was extended and in the spring 2005 our troop contingent were transferred from Kabul to the ever dangerous Kandahar region in the south of the country. In the meantime, Canadian troop levels increased from 600 to 1200.
By early 2006, Prime Minister Harper's new government was now in power, our troop levels stood at 2500 and our mandate had changed to include providing assistance for security and economic recovery. We soon committed our troops and resources for a further 2 year period. Since that time the war has become much more dangerous with armored tanks sent into the fray as well as house-to house combat and the ubiquitous roadside bombs. Our casualties mount alarmingly at the same time as persistent reports from the region indicate that the war is not going well.
The Prime Minister nonetheless has continued with his war-time drumbeating about our heroic troops and the honorable cause for which they are fighting, calling on Canadians to continue to support the troops, applauding efforts at rebuilding the country and so forth. But the bad news keeps in lock step with his message. There was the detainee problem and evidence of a cover-up, Ministers of Defence and Foreign Affairs who couldn't get their stories straight, reports of a bumper poppy crop making Afghanistan the world's biggest supplier of heroin, the Prime Minister trying to play down the publicity of the funerals of fallen troops, the Defence Department chintzing on funeral expenses, obvious corruption within the Afghan government and law enforcement authorities, the return of the Taliban as a competitive fighting force, and the increasing financial cost of the mission to Canadian taxpayers: at least 6 billion dollars to date, and rising steadily.
Hovering over all of that is the refusal of NATO to increase their total troop commitment to the war in Afghanistan beyond 36,000 troops - about one quarter of the troops that Russia had in action during their debacle in the nineteen eighties. Worse yet, there appeared to be an unwillingness on the part of NATO partners to help in the heavy lifting in the most violent and war-torn part of the country: the Kandahar region.
In staunchly advancing his aggressive policy in Afghanistan, Harper was making a giant leap of faith, and asking the Canadian people to do the same. Had he been a better student of history, Harper may not have been so reckless. Western intervention in Afghanistan over a couple of hundred years or so had never gone well. The remoteness and harsh environment of the country, coupled with its history of fanaticism and lack of respect for life or limb, had historically led to harsh and tragic consequences for nations which, for reasons good or evil, engaged its population in hostilities on their own soil (for a good summary of the Afghan Wars, read 'Tournament of Shadows,' by Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac).
The most recent example was Mother Russia's ill-fated experience. During her nightmarish 9 years as an occupying force in Afghanistan, she had as many as four times the numbers of the present NATO troop deployment. To no avail. When the debacle ended in 1989 and the Russians went home, they had lost 14,500 troops, not to mention 120 tanks, 300 helicopters and 118 planes (See Darryl Raymaker Blog 'GORDON O'CONNOR: IN OVER HIS HEAD,' March 18, 2007).
Events are now moving quickly.
Firstly, a few days ago we lost another 6 brave Canadian troops in a roadside bomb attack on a heavily armored vehicle, thus increasing the number of Canadian troops killed in the conflict to 66 - 19 in the last three months. These deaths on top of the rest of the quagmire clearly weakens the resolve of the Canadian people. And for good reason. Canadian people will sacrifice much for a cause, provided they believe it is a worthy one and that we are advancing forward and not backward.
Secondly, with the deployment of the famed Quebec Royal 22nd Regiment to Afghanistan in August, Harper has to be concerned about seeing his political strength erode further in La Belle Province given the traditional anti-war sentiment of its people, or as Stevie likes to put it, 'The Quebecois Nation.'
Thirdly, Harper himself has begun to hedge his bets. He has recently spoken of wanting a consensus in parliament among political leaders respecting any continuation of the mission past 2009. Being the stand-up guy that he is, he tried to weasel some political points out of it by stating, "I don't want to send people into a mission if the opposition is going to, at home, undercut the dangerous work that they are doing in the field." Of course, it will not be the opposition that derails the mission. What will derail the mission is that the Canadian people see the futility of the mission, which at the present time is becoming apparent to everyone, including Harper.
And finally, a couple of days ago the dyed-in-the-wool Conservative and member of the warrior class, General Lewis MacKenzie (ret.) gave Harper an honorable way out - the lack of cooperation by NATO. MacKenzie said that NATO was committing only 35,000 of one million troops at its disposal, and that the 35,000 was the lowest ratio of soldiers to the population in an insurgency in the history of warfare. He said that he was 'frustrated' that NATO had not divied up the troops it had promised to the operation. In his words, "For some reason we have a tiny, tiny force and an alliance that was supposed to preach one for all and all for one - well, it sure in hell hasn't turned out that way." He added that if NATO failed to deliver the troops that were necessary, "then I would agree that the time has come to part (leave Afghanistan)."
So, the conditions seem to be set for Harper's second 'cut and run.' Its unlikely he will have a third chance, given that his time in office is very limited. It is fair to say, that had he had a better fix on history, his bellicosity over war may have been more muted - to everyone's benefit, including his own.
Friday, June 29, 2007
GETTING AHEAD WITH TONY BLAIR: IT IS NOT WHAT YOU KNOW. IT IS NOT WHO YOU KNOW. IT IS ABOUT WHO YOU 'YES.'
.tmp)
We've seen it before in business, government, and the professions. The inept and incompetent moving from one disaster of their own making, to the next - promoted all the way as a result of powerful and influential friends. Not because of competence or success in the last position held. But because of the tender loving care from people in high places, who may value loyalty to the exclusion of all other traits, or who put a premium on pedigree or social status to the exclusion of ability, record of success, or even intelligence.
The name of Robert S. McNamara comes to mind. The wunderkind Eagle Scout, Harvard MBA, and Ford Motor Company CEO who trashed the Edsel - so far so good - together with his boss LBJ, embraced the Domino Theory of third world countries going communist. The result was the build up of American forces in Vietnam, the subsequent 9 years American participation in a civil war, the millions of casualties among innocent Vietnamese, Cambodians and young Americans. Finally, there was the admission of failure. There was defeat and abandonment of the cause. His reward: President of the World Bank.
Similarly there is the career of Henry Kissinger. Harvard Scholar and Professor, National Security Advisor and Secretary of State in the Nixon and Ford Administrations, Kissinger bears the dubious distinction of being behind the bombing of Cambodia during the Viet Nam War. The direct result was the Cambodian civil war, from which the Khmer Rouge emerged victorious. The aftermath was a genocide of several million innocent Cambodians. He was behind CIA support in bringing to power General Pinochet in Chile. He actively supported the Argentina's dirty war carried out by the Military Junta. His travel is so restricted, for fear of arrest for war crimes, that for years he has traveled outside the United States only with the utmost caution. The result: a lengthy list of Corporate Directorships, including the infamous Hollinger International (where he too paid little attention to the financial statements), and an advisory capacity with George W. Bush, rendering advice on how to deal with Iraq!
More recently, we have the case of Paul Wolfowitz, the notoriously infamous neocon Deputy Secretary of Defence, who was one of the architects of the disasterous invasion of Iraq and its consequences, the greatest military misadventure in the history of the United States. His reward: like McNamara, President of the World Bank. He has since had to resign because he was caught using his influence getting his banker girlfriend a sweetheart job deal. What's next for him? A nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize?
Canada is somewhat less forgiving of real or perceived ineptitude. When John Turner failed to inspire the masses as Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, he returned to a modest private law practice, and significant corporate directorships eluded him. Equally with ex-Alberta Premier Don Getty, when he left office after a less than stellar performance as Premier. However there is the exceptional case of Premier Ed Stelmach of Alberta. Although it may sound incongruous mentioning his name in such lofty company, by Canadian standards his career should have been torpedoed as a result of his dismal performance as Infrastructure Minister, Transportation Minister and member of the Agenda and Priorities Committee in the Alberta government. Instead, the Tory rank and file rewarded him with the Party Leadership and Premiership. It will take his forthcoming fall in the next provincial election to put Ed in his rightful place of Canadian politicians who screwed up.
And in recent days we have the strange case of Tony Blair. Charming, charismatic, and bright, Blair was in the early part of his career as Prime Minister, highly popular in the country. Although his record at this early point in history appears to be somewhat pedestrian, his policies included a greater reliance on market forces, and more spending on health and education. He admirably played a significant role in the Northern Ireland Peace process.
The name of Robert S. McNamara comes to mind. The wunderkind Eagle Scout, Harvard MBA, and Ford Motor Company CEO who trashed the Edsel - so far so good - together with his boss LBJ, embraced the Domino Theory of third world countries going communist. The result was the build up of American forces in Vietnam, the subsequent 9 years American participation in a civil war, the millions of casualties among innocent Vietnamese, Cambodians and young Americans. Finally, there was the admission of failure. There was defeat and abandonment of the cause. His reward: President of the World Bank.
Similarly there is the career of Henry Kissinger. Harvard Scholar and Professor, National Security Advisor and Secretary of State in the Nixon and Ford Administrations, Kissinger bears the dubious distinction of being behind the bombing of Cambodia during the Viet Nam War. The direct result was the Cambodian civil war, from which the Khmer Rouge emerged victorious. The aftermath was a genocide of several million innocent Cambodians. He was behind CIA support in bringing to power General Pinochet in Chile. He actively supported the Argentina's dirty war carried out by the Military Junta. His travel is so restricted, for fear of arrest for war crimes, that for years he has traveled outside the United States only with the utmost caution. The result: a lengthy list of Corporate Directorships, including the infamous Hollinger International (where he too paid little attention to the financial statements), and an advisory capacity with George W. Bush, rendering advice on how to deal with Iraq!
More recently, we have the case of Paul Wolfowitz, the notoriously infamous neocon Deputy Secretary of Defence, who was one of the architects of the disasterous invasion of Iraq and its consequences, the greatest military misadventure in the history of the United States. His reward: like McNamara, President of the World Bank. He has since had to resign because he was caught using his influence getting his banker girlfriend a sweetheart job deal. What's next for him? A nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize?
Canada is somewhat less forgiving of real or perceived ineptitude. When John Turner failed to inspire the masses as Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, he returned to a modest private law practice, and significant corporate directorships eluded him. Equally with ex-Alberta Premier Don Getty, when he left office after a less than stellar performance as Premier. However there is the exceptional case of Premier Ed Stelmach of Alberta. Although it may sound incongruous mentioning his name in such lofty company, by Canadian standards his career should have been torpedoed as a result of his dismal performance as Infrastructure Minister, Transportation Minister and member of the Agenda and Priorities Committee in the Alberta government. Instead, the Tory rank and file rewarded him with the Party Leadership and Premiership. It will take his forthcoming fall in the next provincial election to put Ed in his rightful place of Canadian politicians who screwed up.
And in recent days we have the strange case of Tony Blair. Charming, charismatic, and bright, Blair was in the early part of his career as Prime Minister, highly popular in the country. Although his record at this early point in history appears to be somewhat pedestrian, his policies included a greater reliance on market forces, and more spending on health and education. He admirably played a significant role in the Northern Ireland Peace process.
Blair's downfall was his slavish support of the policies of George W. Bush in respect to the unwinnable Iraq war. In his country, he appeared to be a patsy or handmaiden to the widely disliked President. He embellished existing intelligence on Sadam's WMD capability, the basis of which proved to be false. He indulged in identical Bushite rhetoric in support of Britain and the United States' role in the conflict, all of which further diminished his standing in the eyes of his people, who increasingly opposed the war. In most of the Arab world he became as much of an anathema as his ally Bush. He was ultimately hounded from office by the British people and his party.
Blair's reward: an appointment as Middle East Envoy for the United Nations, approved by the European Union and Russia (one wonders how and why), and, of course, by the United States (which is quite understandable). He botched Iraq. Instead of letting him mercifully pass into history, his pals give him another chance. This time he may botch the rest of the Middle East.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
SPECIAL ED THROWS CALGARY A BONE (AND A SMALL ONE AT THAT)
It has now sunk in to anybody with half a brain who follows Alberta politics, that Special Ed and his Vegreville Gothic Tories have a huge problem in Alberta cities. It is trite to say that Special Ed and his government of farm hands brought it on all by themselves with the spiteful and juvenile transfer of power from Alberta's cities to rural settlements and communities when he formed his first cabinet. This was the result of the Special Ed crew being bound and determined to have their day in the sun after their boy, in December, beat Calgarian Jim Dinning for the leadership of the Tory Party.
Dinning was a symbol of everything Special Ed and his gang wanted buried. He was smooth, urbane, educated, and connected to a Calgary corporate and political establishment, that had enormous influence in Provincial Governments continuously since Peter Lougheed knocked off the Socreds in 1971. In the view of Ed and his pals, the effete and pampered cities - particularly wealthy, arrogant, and oil drenched Calgary - were out.
Boy, did Special Ed and his boys really want to stick it in the cities' ear. And boy, did they. In Special Ed's first cabinet, from Edmonton, a city that boasted 1/3 of Alberta's population, there was only one cabinet Minister out of a cabinet of 18. This was down from 3. And from the detested Calgary, also having 1/3 of the population, there were 3 Ministers out of 18 - down from 7.
Special Ed and his range riders shure showed those cities who was boss.
Yep, they shure did. In 6 months time, Special Ed would see his party's popularity in freefall as well as the loss of Ralph's Klein's seat in Calgary Elbow to the Liberals.
Something had to be done. And by jiminy, Special Ed was decisive if he was anything. He had to make Calgary and Edmonton feel a part of his government again. He had to mend fences and fast. So he and the boys got together and came up with a solution. Bring a couple of Calgary ladies almost to the cabinet table by making them associate ministers, add a former Edmonton Liberal turncoat to an almost minster associate minister, and give one of the two guys with real brains in the cabinet, who happens to be from Calgary, the Deputy Premiership - a position that because of his comparative sharp intellect amongst his pygmy-like colleagues, he for all practical purposes occupies already.
So, the lucky Calgary ladies are the toothsome Cindy Ady, the new associate minister of Tourism, and the longtime silent MLA Yvonne Fritz, the new associate minister of Affordable Housing. Justice Minister Ron Stevens of Calgary Glenmore is the new Deputy Premier. On the Edmonton side, former Education Minister and Liberal turncoat, Gene Zwozdesky has now been elevated to the lofty role of associate minister of Capital Planning.
Will it turn Special Ed's luck around? Not bloody likely. The appointments are tokenism and nothing more. This was reflected last evening at Mayor Bronconnier's super fundraiser on the grounds of La Caille Restaurant in downtown Calgary. The guest list of 1700 or so was a who's who in business and professional circles at $200 bucks a pop. They were the type of people that used to be the backbone of the Tory party of the old days. As Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft and his four Calgary Liberal MLAs worked the crowd, they were greeted by friendly smiles, hearty hand shakes, and plenty of friendly advisors all around. There wasn't a Tory MLA in sight - little wonder since Bronco has been bashing them for some months now. So its got to be back to the drawing board for Special Ed. His move was precious little and already, very late.
Ominously, for Ed, it was whispered about that, alas, Fritz and Ady were not the first Calgary Tory MLAs who were offered those posts. Apparently, a few other sitting Calgary MLAs were offered the new posts before the offers were made to the lucky winners. They of course, had done the wise thing. They turned the offers down.
Dinning was a symbol of everything Special Ed and his gang wanted buried. He was smooth, urbane, educated, and connected to a Calgary corporate and political establishment, that had enormous influence in Provincial Governments continuously since Peter Lougheed knocked off the Socreds in 1971. In the view of Ed and his pals, the effete and pampered cities - particularly wealthy, arrogant, and oil drenched Calgary - were out.
Boy, did Special Ed and his boys really want to stick it in the cities' ear. And boy, did they. In Special Ed's first cabinet, from Edmonton, a city that boasted 1/3 of Alberta's population, there was only one cabinet Minister out of a cabinet of 18. This was down from 3. And from the detested Calgary, also having 1/3 of the population, there were 3 Ministers out of 18 - down from 7.
Special Ed and his range riders shure showed those cities who was boss.
Yep, they shure did. In 6 months time, Special Ed would see his party's popularity in freefall as well as the loss of Ralph's Klein's seat in Calgary Elbow to the Liberals.
Something had to be done. And by jiminy, Special Ed was decisive if he was anything. He had to make Calgary and Edmonton feel a part of his government again. He had to mend fences and fast. So he and the boys got together and came up with a solution. Bring a couple of Calgary ladies almost to the cabinet table by making them associate ministers, add a former Edmonton Liberal turncoat to an almost minster associate minister, and give one of the two guys with real brains in the cabinet, who happens to be from Calgary, the Deputy Premiership - a position that because of his comparative sharp intellect amongst his pygmy-like colleagues, he for all practical purposes occupies already.
So, the lucky Calgary ladies are the toothsome Cindy Ady, the new associate minister of Tourism, and the longtime silent MLA Yvonne Fritz, the new associate minister of Affordable Housing. Justice Minister Ron Stevens of Calgary Glenmore is the new Deputy Premier. On the Edmonton side, former Education Minister and Liberal turncoat, Gene Zwozdesky has now been elevated to the lofty role of associate minister of Capital Planning.
Will it turn Special Ed's luck around? Not bloody likely. The appointments are tokenism and nothing more. This was reflected last evening at Mayor Bronconnier's super fundraiser on the grounds of La Caille Restaurant in downtown Calgary. The guest list of 1700 or so was a who's who in business and professional circles at $200 bucks a pop. They were the type of people that used to be the backbone of the Tory party of the old days. As Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft and his four Calgary Liberal MLAs worked the crowd, they were greeted by friendly smiles, hearty hand shakes, and plenty of friendly advisors all around. There wasn't a Tory MLA in sight - little wonder since Bronco has been bashing them for some months now. So its got to be back to the drawing board for Special Ed. His move was precious little and already, very late.
Ominously, for Ed, it was whispered about that, alas, Fritz and Ady were not the first Calgary Tory MLAs who were offered those posts. Apparently, a few other sitting Calgary MLAs were offered the new posts before the offers were made to the lucky winners. They of course, had done the wise thing. They turned the offers down.
Monday, June 18, 2007
TALLADEGA NIGHTMARES: THE BALLAD OF STEVIE HARPIE (WITH APOLOGIES TO WILL FERRELL)
Shurely, we've seen enough proof that the government of Bush's pal Steve Harper is out of touch, out of synch, out of step and living in the neocon past of the dumb and dumber era of his idol, G.W. Bush. Shurely!
I mean, it had its own mini Abu Ghraib in Afghanistan. The military brass and the government turned a blind eye to the dark fate of detainees in the hands of the notorious Afghan security service. They then followed the tried and failed Nixon/Libby/Bushite policy of covering it up and lying about it. That, too, was exposed, giving rise to the tired policy of lies, bravado and obfuscation about our role in Afghanistan and how well it is doing - actions identical to those of the Bush administration in the wake of its disasterous Iraq adventure.
It grovelled to Quebec at Budget time not unlike Bush has grovelled to his rich pals at his Budget time. It blindly followed Bush in the abandonment of an even handed Middle East strategy. Like the United States under Bush, Canada under Harper could no longer be a credible broker of a peace in that tragic region, nor have any credibility for peace-keeping there, if and when it is required. The Harperites have pushed and tried to bully the Opposition and the Provinces just as Bush and his neocon cohorts, again to the detriment of his country, have pushed and tried to bully his country's former allies and the United Nations.
Harper's Conservatives have played hardball with negative advertising and personal attacks which appear to have been designed and created by the destructive mind of Dr. Evil himself, Karl Rove.
And where has it all led? All of this blind endorsement of the policies and tactics of someone who is destined to be considered as one of the great political disasters in modern history? It is turning out to be a very sad story indeed. Bush's pal Steve Harper's government's popularity has dwindled to less than 30% support of the electorate - just about the dismal level as Bush's approval ratings in the United States.
I mean, don't they get it?
Apparently not. Just as the Bushites thought they discovered nascent Republican storm troopers in the Stock Car speedways of the United States, the Harper Conservatives have decided once again that they should follow Bush's lead. And they are going one step further. They are sponsoring a car in the Canadian NASCAR circuit!
But that's not all. The car, a sleek white job with great big blue Conservative logos on its hood and side panels, is a leaded gas guzzler of the highest order. It consumes 125 gallons of the stuff in a 250 mile race. This speaks volumes on the Conservatives' commitments to emissions reductions or, for that matter, the whole environment.
And more yet. The sponsored car is driven by Pierre Bourque, operator of the website 'Bourque Newswatch,' a cyber-rag noted for its tailoring of news headlines at every opportunity to make Harper and the Conservatives look good and Dion and the Grits look bad. In other words, with this sponsorship deal, the Conservatives are paying Bourque off to get good media publicity. Another tried and true Karl Rove strategy.
So what else does Bush's pal Steve Harper and his cronys get out of all of this? Only the Canadian bubba, red-neck, and cracker vote - and they have had that sewed up for years already.
But their stated intentions seem to be ostensibly more ambitious than merely to kiss Bourque's backside and sew up the crackers. They are out to get Grit, Green and NDP middle class votes.
Listen to Immigration Minister Diane Finley's pitch at the race track yesterday when the Conservative car was introduced. "This is a way for the Conservatives to tap into that growing following," she said. "It's getting harder and harder to reach people through the regular media," she opined (she must have been tempted to add, 'particularly when Mr. Harper displays such contempt for it'). She went on, "Fewer people are watching the network news . . . fewer people are reading the newspapers. So we have to find new advertising outlets to reach them, to get our message through." She continued, "And the people who follow NASCAR are our kind of people. They're hard-working families, they're taxpayers who play by the rules. And those are the people we're targeting."
In other words, what the Harper Conservatives are saying is that since the broad middle class of Canadians don't follow the news or even read newspapers, the Conservatives will damn well induce them to support their cause by entering a car into the NASCAR circuit.
Come on. Even the NASCAR fans in the States have figured Bush out. The G.O.P. these days couldn't grow their support at a NASCAR race any more than they could in New Orleans. And if anything, Canadians are more cynical towards politicians than Americans. A politician in Canada throwing out the first ball of the season is more likely to be booed off the field than cheered. A Conservative logoed car - indeed, any car that bears the colors and logo of any Canadian political party - entered in a Canadian NASCAR race, is likely to be greeted not only by jeers and hisses, but all kinds of nefarious actions up to and including sabotage. Canadians will see it for what it is. An attempt at manipulation.
Anyway, for Stevie Harpy (with apologies to Will Ferrell) it is all for naught. Just as the American middle class has figured out Bush, so too are the Canadian people figuring out Stevie Harpy. As a result of this fiasco, look for a further reduction of Stevie's numbers.
There isn't any number of NASCAR entries that can save Bush or Harper, whether they are in the United States, Canada or Timbuktu.
I mean, it had its own mini Abu Ghraib in Afghanistan. The military brass and the government turned a blind eye to the dark fate of detainees in the hands of the notorious Afghan security service. They then followed the tried and failed Nixon/Libby/Bushite policy of covering it up and lying about it. That, too, was exposed, giving rise to the tired policy of lies, bravado and obfuscation about our role in Afghanistan and how well it is doing - actions identical to those of the Bush administration in the wake of its disasterous Iraq adventure.
It grovelled to Quebec at Budget time not unlike Bush has grovelled to his rich pals at his Budget time. It blindly followed Bush in the abandonment of an even handed Middle East strategy. Like the United States under Bush, Canada under Harper could no longer be a credible broker of a peace in that tragic region, nor have any credibility for peace-keeping there, if and when it is required. The Harperites have pushed and tried to bully the Opposition and the Provinces just as Bush and his neocon cohorts, again to the detriment of his country, have pushed and tried to bully his country's former allies and the United Nations.
Harper's Conservatives have played hardball with negative advertising and personal attacks which appear to have been designed and created by the destructive mind of Dr. Evil himself, Karl Rove.
And where has it all led? All of this blind endorsement of the policies and tactics of someone who is destined to be considered as one of the great political disasters in modern history? It is turning out to be a very sad story indeed. Bush's pal Steve Harper's government's popularity has dwindled to less than 30% support of the electorate - just about the dismal level as Bush's approval ratings in the United States.
I mean, don't they get it?
Apparently not. Just as the Bushites thought they discovered nascent Republican storm troopers in the Stock Car speedways of the United States, the Harper Conservatives have decided once again that they should follow Bush's lead. And they are going one step further. They are sponsoring a car in the Canadian NASCAR circuit!
But that's not all. The car, a sleek white job with great big blue Conservative logos on its hood and side panels, is a leaded gas guzzler of the highest order. It consumes 125 gallons of the stuff in a 250 mile race. This speaks volumes on the Conservatives' commitments to emissions reductions or, for that matter, the whole environment.
And more yet. The sponsored car is driven by Pierre Bourque, operator of the website 'Bourque Newswatch,' a cyber-rag noted for its tailoring of news headlines at every opportunity to make Harper and the Conservatives look good and Dion and the Grits look bad. In other words, with this sponsorship deal, the Conservatives are paying Bourque off to get good media publicity. Another tried and true Karl Rove strategy.
So what else does Bush's pal Steve Harper and his cronys get out of all of this? Only the Canadian bubba, red-neck, and cracker vote - and they have had that sewed up for years already.
But their stated intentions seem to be ostensibly more ambitious than merely to kiss Bourque's backside and sew up the crackers. They are out to get Grit, Green and NDP middle class votes.
Listen to Immigration Minister Diane Finley's pitch at the race track yesterday when the Conservative car was introduced. "This is a way for the Conservatives to tap into that growing following," she said. "It's getting harder and harder to reach people through the regular media," she opined (she must have been tempted to add, 'particularly when Mr. Harper displays such contempt for it'). She went on, "Fewer people are watching the network news . . . fewer people are reading the newspapers. So we have to find new advertising outlets to reach them, to get our message through." She continued, "And the people who follow NASCAR are our kind of people. They're hard-working families, they're taxpayers who play by the rules. And those are the people we're targeting."
In other words, what the Harper Conservatives are saying is that since the broad middle class of Canadians don't follow the news or even read newspapers, the Conservatives will damn well induce them to support their cause by entering a car into the NASCAR circuit.
Come on. Even the NASCAR fans in the States have figured Bush out. The G.O.P. these days couldn't grow their support at a NASCAR race any more than they could in New Orleans. And if anything, Canadians are more cynical towards politicians than Americans. A politician in Canada throwing out the first ball of the season is more likely to be booed off the field than cheered. A Conservative logoed car - indeed, any car that bears the colors and logo of any Canadian political party - entered in a Canadian NASCAR race, is likely to be greeted not only by jeers and hisses, but all kinds of nefarious actions up to and including sabotage. Canadians will see it for what it is. An attempt at manipulation.
Anyway, for Stevie Harpy (with apologies to Will Ferrell) it is all for naught. Just as the American middle class has figured out Bush, so too are the Canadian people figuring out Stevie Harpy. As a result of this fiasco, look for a further reduction of Stevie's numbers.
There isn't any number of NASCAR entries that can save Bush or Harper, whether they are in the United States, Canada or Timbuktu.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN'
I was at the University of Calgary University Club on Thursday for a Faculty luncheon, the purpose of which was to recognize volunteers who had made a contribution to academic activities and studies at the University (which usually means those recognized helped to raise money). It was one of those sedate and proper events where behaviour is genteel and reserved, and talk is measured and civilized. Present were a few faculty members and staff, some show-case students, and several men and women from business and professional circles.
What seemed to be the preponderence of the attendees were many aging, and obviously successful business men together with their loyal and faithful (and probably more than a few long suffering) wives. This latter group, well into their twilight years, have the look of being comfortable in the knowledge that for them the rat race was well-nigh over and they are quite satisfied with where they finished in the pack. In other words, since it was taking place in Calgary, it was mostly a Conservative Party gathering. Or so it seemed.
Although the room seemed more appropriate to a cup of tea, I remained true to my principles and took instead a glass of good Merlot, and entered into conversation with several of the attendees who were milling about before the speeches. The talk turned to the by-election in Calgary Elbow where two days before the Liberals landed their first victory ever and for the first time increased their city standings in the Legislature to four members. This group of Conservatives were happy with the victory. None of them could in fact stomach Stelmach (now, there's a line!). According to them - still speaking in the measured and sober manner as befitted the occasion - he had done nothing as Premier, had neglected the cities and was not up to the job. This Taft fellow looked pretty good to them.
The talk then drifted to Stephen Harper. Whereas the name 'Stelmach' seemed to stir up little emotion amongst our group, it was quite another matter when the name 'Harper' entered the conversation. Smiles turned into frowns. What were friendly and affable eyes, turned fierce and angry. "That liar," uttered a fuming and animated, quite formidable senior lady, who a few moments ago appeared and behaved as everybody's favorite grandmother. "He's broken so many promises," uttered another gentleman. "Look how he has cuddled up to Quebec," remarked another. Another stated, "I've never been a Liberal. I've been a Progressive Conservative, I was in the Reform, the Alliance and supported the new Conservative Party and voted for Harper. But never again!" Nods of approval all around.
I suspected, although did not confirm, that their anger was probably related to Harper's senseless flip-flop on income trusts, which adversely affected retirees with some money in much greater numbers than other Canadians. They had seen a good part of their net worth disappear forever with a stroke of the Harper pen. He broke his word and squandered the support of this formerly loyal and reliable segment of the Conservative constituency. Judging from their comments - if they were representative of their class, and I suspect they were - they will not return to the fold in time for the next election. If ever.
A Decima poll released June 12, had the Grits ahead of the Conservatives, 32 to 29, with the NDP at 18 and the BQ and Greens tied at 9 each. Liberals led the Conservatives in Atlantic Canada 38 to 31, and Ontario 39 to 33. In Quebec, although the Bloc led with 38, the Grits were ahead of the Tories 23 to 16.
Take my word for it. Stevie is going down. Prime Minister Dion, ah, it has a nice sound to it, doesn't it?
What seemed to be the preponderence of the attendees were many aging, and obviously successful business men together with their loyal and faithful (and probably more than a few long suffering) wives. This latter group, well into their twilight years, have the look of being comfortable in the knowledge that for them the rat race was well-nigh over and they are quite satisfied with where they finished in the pack. In other words, since it was taking place in Calgary, it was mostly a Conservative Party gathering. Or so it seemed.
Although the room seemed more appropriate to a cup of tea, I remained true to my principles and took instead a glass of good Merlot, and entered into conversation with several of the attendees who were milling about before the speeches. The talk turned to the by-election in Calgary Elbow where two days before the Liberals landed their first victory ever and for the first time increased their city standings in the Legislature to four members. This group of Conservatives were happy with the victory. None of them could in fact stomach Stelmach (now, there's a line!). According to them - still speaking in the measured and sober manner as befitted the occasion - he had done nothing as Premier, had neglected the cities and was not up to the job. This Taft fellow looked pretty good to them.
The talk then drifted to Stephen Harper. Whereas the name 'Stelmach' seemed to stir up little emotion amongst our group, it was quite another matter when the name 'Harper' entered the conversation. Smiles turned into frowns. What were friendly and affable eyes, turned fierce and angry. "That liar," uttered a fuming and animated, quite formidable senior lady, who a few moments ago appeared and behaved as everybody's favorite grandmother. "He's broken so many promises," uttered another gentleman. "Look how he has cuddled up to Quebec," remarked another. Another stated, "I've never been a Liberal. I've been a Progressive Conservative, I was in the Reform, the Alliance and supported the new Conservative Party and voted for Harper. But never again!" Nods of approval all around.
I suspected, although did not confirm, that their anger was probably related to Harper's senseless flip-flop on income trusts, which adversely affected retirees with some money in much greater numbers than other Canadians. They had seen a good part of their net worth disappear forever with a stroke of the Harper pen. He broke his word and squandered the support of this formerly loyal and reliable segment of the Conservative constituency. Judging from their comments - if they were representative of their class, and I suspect they were - they will not return to the fold in time for the next election. If ever.
A Decima poll released June 12, had the Grits ahead of the Conservatives, 32 to 29, with the NDP at 18 and the BQ and Greens tied at 9 each. Liberals led the Conservatives in Atlantic Canada 38 to 31, and Ontario 39 to 33. In Quebec, although the Bloc led with 38, the Grits were ahead of the Tories 23 to 16.
Take my word for it. Stevie is going down. Prime Minister Dion, ah, it has a nice sound to it, doesn't it?
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