$22 Billion

According to this article in the Ottawa Citizen today, "The Afghan war is going to end up costing the Defence Department more than $22 billion, in actual money spent on the mission and future payments to rebuild equipment and provide long-term care for veterans...".

For another perspective on the cost of this war, read this post by The Enlightened Savage.

Is there a pattern emerging here?

Every 50 feet or so along a stretch of Terry Fox Drive in Kanata this afternoon there was a Re-elect Gordon O'Connor sign posted beside the roadway. In among the sea of blue signs were the torn out signs of the NDP and Liberal candidates (There may have been some Greens in there too, but I was trying to pay attention to traffic at the time.) Not a single sign for the other parties was left standing that I could see.

Unfortunately this was a day I left my camera at home, but that image I think says more about one element of Stephen Harper's base than anything I could say in this blog.

The Liberals have the key to Alberta .... who knew?

According to John Baird, climate change expert extraordinaire, the Liberal Green Shift Plan will be "welcomed by the oilsands industry". And he should know, being well aware of what it takes to please those guys.

Palin and Clinton on SNL

In case you missed it. Besides we can all use a break from the campaign and the latest financial news...

"I've got a crush on Harper"

Don't click the link until you've had at least 2 or 3 cups of coffee. And make sure the Maalox is handy.

Campaigning should not be dangerous!

In the heat of an election campaign, this may be considered old news as it was posted 18 hours or so ago, but I think it bears being highlighted again.

Garth Turner’s blog for Day 5, posted late last night, describes some of the intimidation tactics that are being used against him and his family in response to his campaign. Anonymous threats, vandalism, electronic tampering – all very frightening and worrisome. Like the Guelph incident, there is as yet no proof that this behaviour originates from any particular party or its supporters, but as I posted a few days ago, it would not be surprising to find some impressionable neanderthal responding to Harper’s compulsive hatred of all things Liberal with this sort of behaviour.

Let’s just hope that before they progress beyond making threats these morons are caught and dealt with to the maximum extent of the law for what really amounts to hate crimes based on political beliefs.

And it wouldn't hurt to have all party leaders make a clear and unambiguous statement that this behaviour is not only not acceptable but it's criminal and anyone caught will be charged, along with anyone who has directed or otherwise encouraged such behaviour.

It needs to stop. Now!

Is no one paying attention?

There’s been a lot of blogging on all sides over the last 24 hours or so about Canadians being called stupid – or not. Well, one can’t help wonder if there isn’t a lot of truth to that comment when this happens:

• Conservatives show just how juvenile and partisan they really are through Puffin-gate, Sparrow-gate and the whole not-a-leader shtick.
• Conservatives are caught using copyright material on their web site and ordered to cease and desist by at least one network.
• Harper self-identifies as a fruit.
• The RCMP pushes members of the press away from the PM so he won’t have to answer questions while standing in a Quebec vineyard (presumably relating on a personal level to the grapes). When they realize the potential damage, the Tories subsequently back track and later allow the press to question Harper on the Sparrow situation.
• Harper threatens to not play at all if the Greens are invited to the debates, then back-tracks when his buddy Jack flip-flops.
• In Quebec, Harper trots out national unity as a feeble (and convoluted) excuse to vote against the Liberals and their Green Shift.
• Harper backtracks on his ‘no reductions in fuel taxes’ stance of about three weeks ago to offer up a transparent vote-buying 2 cent reduction in diesel fuel taxes, thus encouraging the use of fossil fuels and discouraging conservation.
  

And the Canadian voting public responds like this: “The Nanos daily tracking survey for CPAC and Sun Media puts the Conservatives at 37% nationwide, up from 33% in August -- when a Nanos poll placed the Tories and Liberals in a statistical dead heat.”

Just what is it going to take to get people to wake up?