Conservative fiscal responsibility? An oxymoron.

Just as a matter of curiosity I went back a few years and took a look at the annual contributions to the national debt. Then I overlaid the party in power at the time.

83/84 was the last of the Trudeau/Turner years, followed by Mulroney/Campbell. During Mulroney’s reign annual debt contributions grew by nearly 100%.

In late ‘93 Chretien came into power and with Paul Martin began to turn things around. By 2005-06 annual debt had been reduced by close to 50% – almost to pre-Mulroney levels – and a $13 billion surplus was on the books, which would have reduced it even further.

Now we have the Harper Conservatives in charge, and guess what’s happened. The $13 billion surplus has been spent and the annual debt contribution is now in excess of $50 billion a year, far surpassing even Brian Mulroney’s profligacy.

And they have the gall to represent themselves as being the best custodians of Canada’s financial health? One can only laugh at the self-delusion.

Darwin contender

I’m always suspicious of those Darwin Awards that periodically cross the blogosphere and end up in my inbox, but here’s a real case that deserves special consideration as a contender. According to the Seattle Times, this happened in Dover, N.H.

A New Hampshire high school student shocked so severely in shop class that his heart stopped beating is suing his teacher, the school district and the city of Dover.

Kyle Dubois and his parents claim teacher Thomas Kelley did not warn Dubois and other students of the dangers of the electrical demonstration cords in their electrical trades class.

On March 11, Dubois attached an electrical clamp to one nipple while another student attached another clamp to the other. A third student plugged in the cord.

Dubois was critically injured.

The New Hampshire Union Leader says Dubois' suit contends he suffered permanent brain damage.

Kelley resigned from his teaching position about a month after the incident. He declined to comment on the lawsuit.

I expect the brain damage may have been a pre-existing condition.

Rob Ford – just 1 of 45

If there was ever any doubt about Rob Ford’s credentials to become mayor of Toronto, the fact that he is being endorsed by his friend Jimbo Flaherty should quickly put that to rest.

As an outsider I can stand back and smile condescendingly as the good burghers of Canada’s largest city all but acclaim Ford amidst the chorus of calls for sanity from the main stream media (except for the Sun, of course). But having seen Ottawa’s Larry O’Brien experience up close (which has many similarities, including a Sun endorsement, if I recall correctly) it’s worth remembering that Rob Ford has only 1 vote out of 45 on council.

So unless he’s a helluva salesman and can convince at least 22 fellow councillors he has the right answers he’s just going to be another angry white guy with a pulpit, doing little permanent damage other than providing the rest of Canada with 4 more years of entertainment at Toronto’s expense.

How not to impress the boss

From today’s Toronto Sun, online edition. (http://www.torontosun.com/comment/2010/09/17/15388356.html)

On September 5, 2010, a column by Ezra Levant contained false statements about George Soros and his conduct as a young teenager in Nazi-occupied Hungary.

…

The management of Sun Media wishes to state that there is no basis for the statements in the column and they should not have been made.

Sun Media, this newspaper and Ezra Levant retract the statements made in the column and unreservedly apologize to Mr. Soros for the distress and harm this column may have caused to him.

Well aren’t we sensitive.

Last Sunday, Ian Davey quipped on CTV’s Question Period that “It was once said about the Toronto Sun that it’s a newspaper for people who can’t read.”

Well that prompted a flurry of indignation from Sun editorialists and reporters (of which there are some apparently, when they’re not watching CTV) who failed to see the humour in Davey’s comment.

But instead of being a 1-day wonder, the story is still being reported in the Sun media empire days after the dastardly deed.

• Iggy's former mouthpiece takes 'cheap shot' at Sun readers

• Elite Grits sniff at plain talk

• Sounding it out at the ballot box

• Iggy's pal denies dissin' Sun readers

• You read it here first

Of course the one common element is that in every story and editorial Davey is prominently linked to Michael Ignatieff, even though he hasn’t worked for him for about a year.

Today Lorrie Goldstein, in an open letter to Ian Davey also made the requisite link to Ignatieff, but at least contributed this bit of humour to the discussion.

“The Globe and Mail is read by people who think they are running the country but aren’t. The Toronto Star is read by people who know they should be running the country, but aren’t. The Ottawa Citizen is read by people who are running the country and don’t know how to. And the Sun is read by people who don’t give a damn who’s running the country, as long as she has big boobs.”

Now isn’t that a LOT better than being told you can’t read?

Welcome to Faux North.

“Scrap the registry” hypocrisy

The Toronto Sun reports today that the Conservatives are mounting a targeted ad campaign against those MPs who might vote against Hoeppner’s long-gun registry private members bill.

The huge 10-by-20 foot billboards will go up in the key ridings early this week, calling on constituents to pressure the local MPs to vote with the government and support Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner's private member's bill to scrap the registry later this month.

(I wonder who’s paying for those – Candice Hoeppner? The Conservative Party? Canadian taxpayers?)

Party deputy director Fred DeLorey said, in support of the initiative:

 "This will be a part of our plan to encourage the 20 Opposition MPs to keep their word to their constituents. These MPs need to be reminded they work for their constituents who want the long-gun registry scrapped, not their Ottawa bosses who want to keep it."

The hypocrisy is palpable. Is John Baird “working for his constituents” in Ottawa-West Nepean when he stands to vote for this bill? How about Pierre Poilievre (Nepean-Carleton)? Or Alice Wong (Richmond, BC)? There are numerous Con MPs representing major urban areas where the majority of the population has, and will continue to support the long-gun registry, and those Con MPs are most certainly NOT “working for their constituents”.

"Whatever the leader said, I stand behind what the leader said,"

This according to Vic Toews as reported in the Winnipeg Free Press. Reporting on the Quebec Conservative hockey arena fiasco (to be named the Stephen Harper Coliseum?), Toews is further quoted as saying "Manitoba has received, in fact … more than its fair share"  of infrastructure spending.

I don’t particularly care who got more or less of MY money (for it is, in fact, my money (and yours) the feds are throwing around to seed the Conservative vote garden) but that they are getting any of it at all – especially for commercial/professional sports facilities.

But the real point of this is that, yet again, another Conservative Minister has publicly admitted that he cannot or will not think for himself, but instead just blindly follows the orders of the supreme authority.

Say what you will about the so-called dysfunction in the Liberal and NDP caucuses where individual members sometimes take a principled stand on an issue, or publically disagree with their leadership, but I for one would much rather have thinking MPs in Parliament than just a bunch of bobbleheads doing what the boss tells them. That’s how Kim Jong Il operates and we’ve all seen how well that’s worked out.

The voters in Provencher should think hard about that come election time.