Odds and Ends
A couple major of events have happened in the past few days
Alberta Leadership Race
Ed Stelmach has picked up the support of Lyle Oberg and Dave Hancock so it looks like he has some momentum. As I've said earlier, if he can come in second on the next ballot, he should be able to pull it off since he is most likely the second choice for both Morton and Dinning supporters. Although I still continue to have Dinning as my second choice, I do think Ed Stelmach might just be the best choice in terms of uniting the party. Though I would be happy with either him or Dinning, but definitely not Morton, that guy is scary.
Tom Axworthy on government's role
I was quite interested to read about Tom Axworthy's view on how bigger government generally doesn't work. I support the ultimate goals of the type of Canada the Liberals want to create, but feel the parties relies too much on government and not enough on individuals. I hope we return to the philosophy we practiced in the mid 90s as government only areas where the market fails, not trying to solve every problem as regretfully too many Liberals advocate. Leave the big government advocates to the NDP.
Limiting federal spending power
This seems to be a major bombshell that Rae has called for Harper to be defeated over. While I don't think it would be wise to defeat the government now, I do think the government's shelf life shouldn't be much longer. At the very least any legislation introduced now likely won't pass before the next election. I understand people's concerns about the feds interferring in provincial jurisdiction, but if we are a united country, we do need common standards from coast to coast. What I think needs to change is the attitude of pitting one province against another for political gain. We need to work cooperatively with the provinces to achieve our goals. Even though I oppose creating any further national programs, this should be up to the voters to decide based on who they elect; the federal government shouldn't be handcuffed through some constitutional amendment.
Mike Chong Resigns from Tory Cabinet
As tempting as this would be to attack Harper as pushing moderates out, I believe this is a case where no matter what position Harper took he was bound to lose one cabinet minister. Issues of national unity cut across partisan lines and ideological lines so no surprise. And since he plans to remain a Conservative party MP, I suspect this is similiar to Joe Comuzzi's resignation over SSM and the late Robin Cook's resignation over Britain's participation in the Iraq War. If anybody has benefitted from this debacle it is the Bloc Quebecois since not only are the Tories divided, but so are the Liberal leadership candidates.
Women's Liberal caucus released Pink Book
I support some proposals, while oppose other. The important thing here is that those who believe in a more hands off government approach are not less supportive of women's rights necessarily they just believe in going about it in a different way. Free Market Libertarians and Socialist on women's rights both have the same goals, just different means on how they want to achieve them. However social conservatives do not share the same goals so I have more problem with their approach than the socialist one. The sad part is there are few non-political women's groups since most tend to be highly political and often favouring one ideology, so I think the Liberals should have also met with a random selection of average women who are not politically active in order to get a better feel for their concerns rather than relying on interest groups who often have a certain agenda. Still there is some good ideas that I would hate to say not implemented.
Private Emergency Centre to open in BC
It looks like BC will be opening its first private emergency centre. While some will make a big issue out of this I should note Quebec already has one, although since those doctors completely opted out of medicare, whereas in BC they haven't, BC's one might violate the Canada Health Act. I am all for such clinics so long as they are in separate private facilities, get absolutely no government subsidy, and are required to pay all taxes both corporate and property. I also think there should be restrictions on doctors working in the private system either by requiring doctors to work in one or the other, or requiring all doctors to spend at least 40 hours a week in the public system before they can go to the private system.
BC hit with a massive snowstorm
Okay, this is not political, but I must say it looks like I left Vancouver just at the right time. After all I avoided the boil water advisory and now in a city that is suppose to be getting heavy snowstorms, it is in the teens and people are out golfing while where it is normally still in teens it is snowing and cold.
Alberta Leadership Race
Ed Stelmach has picked up the support of Lyle Oberg and Dave Hancock so it looks like he has some momentum. As I've said earlier, if he can come in second on the next ballot, he should be able to pull it off since he is most likely the second choice for both Morton and Dinning supporters. Although I still continue to have Dinning as my second choice, I do think Ed Stelmach might just be the best choice in terms of uniting the party. Though I would be happy with either him or Dinning, but definitely not Morton, that guy is scary.
Tom Axworthy on government's role
I was quite interested to read about Tom Axworthy's view on how bigger government generally doesn't work. I support the ultimate goals of the type of Canada the Liberals want to create, but feel the parties relies too much on government and not enough on individuals. I hope we return to the philosophy we practiced in the mid 90s as government only areas where the market fails, not trying to solve every problem as regretfully too many Liberals advocate. Leave the big government advocates to the NDP.
Limiting federal spending power
This seems to be a major bombshell that Rae has called for Harper to be defeated over. While I don't think it would be wise to defeat the government now, I do think the government's shelf life shouldn't be much longer. At the very least any legislation introduced now likely won't pass before the next election. I understand people's concerns about the feds interferring in provincial jurisdiction, but if we are a united country, we do need common standards from coast to coast. What I think needs to change is the attitude of pitting one province against another for political gain. We need to work cooperatively with the provinces to achieve our goals. Even though I oppose creating any further national programs, this should be up to the voters to decide based on who they elect; the federal government shouldn't be handcuffed through some constitutional amendment.
Mike Chong Resigns from Tory Cabinet
As tempting as this would be to attack Harper as pushing moderates out, I believe this is a case where no matter what position Harper took he was bound to lose one cabinet minister. Issues of national unity cut across partisan lines and ideological lines so no surprise. And since he plans to remain a Conservative party MP, I suspect this is similiar to Joe Comuzzi's resignation over SSM and the late Robin Cook's resignation over Britain's participation in the Iraq War. If anybody has benefitted from this debacle it is the Bloc Quebecois since not only are the Tories divided, but so are the Liberal leadership candidates.
Women's Liberal caucus released Pink Book
I support some proposals, while oppose other. The important thing here is that those who believe in a more hands off government approach are not less supportive of women's rights necessarily they just believe in going about it in a different way. Free Market Libertarians and Socialist on women's rights both have the same goals, just different means on how they want to achieve them. However social conservatives do not share the same goals so I have more problem with their approach than the socialist one. The sad part is there are few non-political women's groups since most tend to be highly political and often favouring one ideology, so I think the Liberals should have also met with a random selection of average women who are not politically active in order to get a better feel for their concerns rather than relying on interest groups who often have a certain agenda. Still there is some good ideas that I would hate to say not implemented.
Private Emergency Centre to open in BC
It looks like BC will be opening its first private emergency centre. While some will make a big issue out of this I should note Quebec already has one, although since those doctors completely opted out of medicare, whereas in BC they haven't, BC's one might violate the Canada Health Act. I am all for such clinics so long as they are in separate private facilities, get absolutely no government subsidy, and are required to pay all taxes both corporate and property. I also think there should be restrictions on doctors working in the private system either by requiring doctors to work in one or the other, or requiring all doctors to spend at least 40 hours a week in the public system before they can go to the private system.
BC hit with a massive snowstorm
Okay, this is not political, but I must say it looks like I left Vancouver just at the right time. After all I avoided the boil water advisory and now in a city that is suppose to be getting heavy snowstorms, it is in the teens and people are out golfing while where it is normally still in teens it is snowing and cold.
posted by Monkey Loves to Fight at 2:53 PM
7 Comments:
it's kind of ironic that Toronto is supposed to be experiencing our weather and BC is supposed to be experiencing closer to what your experiencing in TO.
Indeed it is ironic. Having lived in Toronto and Victoria, I can tell you, it's usually the inverse.
It really hows the difference between BC and Ontario. Everyone in Victoria seems foreign to all this snow, and are ecstatic about it snowing so hard. For me, this isn't anything new. Having lived in Ontario for 18 years, this is standard winter conditions to me.
As for Michael Chong, I said on my blog, it's a major loss to the Cabinet, he's a great guy, but, as much as I disagree with his view on this matter, I believe he did the right thing by sticking to his convictions.
I must say I thought I would see Toronto get its first major snowstorm prior to Vancouver. Although I suspect over the next ten years, Toronto in the majority of them will get the first snowstorm before Vancouver and I am sure by March Toronto will have had more in total.
As for Michael Chong, I too think he did the right thing. In fact this is a divisive motion that has hurt both the Liberals and Conservatives. Once again the Bloc Quebecois is playing games with the country. I do support the motion, but with great reluctance since I feel we were backed into the corner.
Peter Van Loan has been promoted to Cabinet to fill Chong's old position.
BC Tory - I think Peter Van Loan was a good choice for two reasons
1. He is besides Mike Chong and Jim Flaherty the only other conservative in the GTA or at least on the edge of it.
2. He is a former Progressive Conservative like Mike Chong so it will help counter the idea Harper has no room for moderates.
It's a massive snowstorm over here in SK too.
It's a massive snowstorm over here in SK too.
Hopefully Toronto is far enough south to avoid this when it finally passes through Ontario.
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