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Elizabeth May is an hot-wateragain,this time over Iran. If these shenanigans continue you might see individuals start drawing distinctions between the Green party of Canada and the Green movement.. [Click here for full article]
Category: Canadian politics
Harper Distances Canada From The Hermit Kingdom
For all intents and purposes Canada is closing shop in the hermit Kingdom of North Korea. Today the Canadian government announced a series of tougher sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea . As well the government is pushing for the United nations Security Council to take a united position on the communist dictatorship.
From National Post
OTTAWA – The Harper government will announce Thursday tightened Canadian sanctions against North Korea as part a plan to punish that nation for its continued “aggression” on the world stage.
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon will reveal details of the sanctions, which come on top of controls unveiled earlier this year by Canada.
There will be reduced trade and investment with North Korea, and Canada’s already fragile diplomatic relations with the country – there is no Canadian ambassador in the country – will be downgraded further.
” It is deeply troubling that a regime routinely unable to provide for its own people should invest so much of its effort and wealth into its weapons programs.
“Canada continues to work in concert with our allies to address these issues. We hope that the United Nations Security Council will recognize the gravity of these tests, and respond appropriately with a unified voice.”
In contrast to the Harper government’s resolute stands the Obama administration is taking a wait-and-see attitude to the north Korean threat.
From Reuters
One can argue that … before there’s a transition there are opportunities (or) argue that there would be better opportunities after a transition,” he said. “And I don’t think we take a position on that.”
“We are making proposals. We’re looking to do things. And if they do them before the transition occurs because the current leader is looking for a legacy, that would be great. But I don’t think we can pin a policy on an assumption that that would be the case,” he said.
It is heartening to see the conservative government in Canada take a firm line against one of the world’s bully’s and tin-pot dictatorships
THE ART OF THE BACK-HANDED APOLOGY
lot of backpedalling and spinning happened today at Queens Park over Minister Glen Murray’s controversial bigoted tweets and apology. The Liberal government was in full damage control mode trying to seem above the fray in a very sticky situation. The Social media uproar started when Minister Murray re-tweeted this message, “Ford, Hudak and Harper — the trifecta of Republican-style, right wing ignorance and bigotry” on his twitter account. The statement should be beyond the pale of public discourse for a Minister of the Crown. In fact, a young MPP said as much, in a statement in 1992, “When you serve as a minister of the Crown, special standards apply.” “That young idealistic MPP who believed in a higher bar for ministers at the time was none other than the premier Dalton McGuinty. Now with time and the advantages of governing this might have a softening effect on your moral compass, however; this should not affect the standards that each MPP is held to at Queens Park.
Back to Minister Murray, he made a bad situation worse by issuing an apology that insinuated the PC party is not open to all, and perhaps homophobic bigots were running smear campaigns. Sadly this is not the first time that Minister Murray has used targeted language to marginalize Ontarians that don’t agree with him. He had public misgivings about some Ontarians and the opposition to the new sex education curriculum. “ many smaller communities outside Toronto pushed back against the curriculum, demanding more consultation with parents.
It’s a very big province, and some people have more concerns about those things than you or I would,” Murray tells Neale. “But we do believe it’s a very important document” It’s a classic political tactic of telegraphing your message to targeted groups during this and his message yesterday is subtly giving the impression that the political opposition in the province would turn back the clock on many initiatives that he holds dear to his heart. Don’t be surprised to hear phrases if you hear words like Ontario might become a smaller province if the Ontario PC Party is elected. On one hand the reason why the conservative movement succeeds when it does is because it doesn’t play games with different groups in society. Instead, conservatives craft a general message that will appeal to a broad base of the population.
There are no cliques or special clubs inherent as in the Liberal way of doing things. There is just a significant swath of Ontarians who are yearning for a better and brighter future for the Province. This is just another example of liberals exhausting their welcome and resorting to personal attacks instead of putting forward sound policy.
Harper Talks Tough In Ukraine
Prime Minister Harper was in Ukraine today for his first trip abroad since the infamous UN vote. Seeing the Prime Minister stand up for Ukraine on the world stage is not only good foreign policy it is great domestic politics.
In contrast the Liberal leader Michael ignatieff has occasionally shown contempt for Ukraine and its people he has gone as far as saying “Ukrainian independence conjures up images of embroidered peasant shirts, the nasal whine of ethnic instruments, phony Cossacks in cloaks and boots, nasty anti-Semites “. What do you think as the greater impact on the Ukrainian community in Canada, Harper’s actions or ignatieff’s words.
Dalton the Economic Disaster
The typical liberal combination of taxing the “rich” and spending like drunken sailors has Ontarians playing a gruesome game of catch-up with an ever mounting debt.
From Financial Post
As a result, Ontarians can expect another $77-billion in deficits over the next five years. Under the current fiscal plan, the accumulated deficit will reach $187-billion by 2012-13, up $63-billion since McGuinty became premier in 2003-04.
McGuinty also implemented a number of damaging tax increases to help pay for his spending spree (i.e. the then-new Ontario Health Premium, cancellation of the planned elimination of the personal income surtax, and corporate income tax increases). In contrast, while Ontario increased personal and corporate income taxes, governments of all ideological stripes in Western Canada were busy improving the incentives for hard work, savings, investment and entrepreneurship by pursuing pro-growth personal and corporate tax reductions.
For example, Conservative-led Alberta decreased its corporate income tax rate (12.5% to 10%), as did Liberal-led British Columbia (13.5% to 10%) and Saskatchewan’s NDP and now Conservative governments (17% to 12%). In other words, while McGuinty significantly increased the cost of investing in Ontario, governments out west were moving in the opposite direction.
Fortunately for Ontarians, McGuinty partially realized his errors and changed course, announcing a phased-in plan to reduce the general corporate income tax rate from 14% to 10% by 2013.
McGuinty also reduced Ontario’s bottom personal income tax rate from 6.05% to 5.05% on Jan. 1 of this year. However, he left the middle and top personal income tax rates unchanged — Ontario’s personal income tax rates on skilled, educated workers remain among the highest in Canada.