Political Events that happened while I was away
Since June 1st, as posted in my earlier post, I have been overseas in Europe where I visited 8 countries, stayed in 8 cities and stopped in several more. It was a great trip and I will post something on it later including a few of the pictures.
Bill Casey was expelled from the Conservative caucus for voting against the budget. My view on this is the Conservatives were right to kick him out of the party, but he was also right to vote against the budget. The budget is a matter of confidence so while I support dissent on most issues, this is one issue I believe all MPs should vote with the party unless they are willing to leave the party. I also believe Bill Casey was right to vote against the budget, since besides being an overall lousy one, it was not good for his province and as a representative of his constituency first ahead of the party, his job was to try and fight for changes in the budget and when this couldn't be achieved, then vote against it. Even though he has said he will not be switching to the Liberals, I do hope like Garth Turner he comes to the realization one is very limited in what they can do as an independent. That being said, he got 52% last time around and the Liberals only got 23% so my suggestion is he do what Keith Martin did, which is stay as an independent until the election is called, but run under the Liberal banner next election. I would encourage all former Progressive Conservatives who are dissatisfied with the current Conservatives to consider switching to the Liberals. We may have our differences as I've found as a former PC, but the Liberals have more in common with the former PCs than the current Conservatives do. In fact in many ways the PCs were more like your typical European conservative party while the Reform/Alliance/Conservatives are more along the lines of American conservatives. I'll post more later in this post on European politics.
The Atlantic Accord spat seems to be a big news maker. I will admit that the equalization formula is so complicated that it is tough to have an informed opinion on it. The fact they need a university professor who is an expert an equalization to crunch the numbers really says it all. If the formula was more simple, so an average citizen could understand it, we would know who is telling the truth and who is lying and could hold them accountable. Still from what I do know my opinion is as follows: I want both Nova Scotia and Newfoundland & Labrador to some day become have provinces and since allowing them to enjoy the benefits of their offshore oil would make it possible to do this, I support the changes Rodney Macdonald and Danny Williams are asking for, with one exception. I don't believe Nova Scotia and Newfoundland & Labrador should continue to receive equalization if they ever become wealthier than the poorest have province. The richest have not province should never be wealthier than the poorest have province as this flies in the face of what equalization was might to be. In addition with all the political squabbling over this and the fact jointly administering certain programs like health care significantly increases the cost, I think the federal government should just take over all the programs that are jointly administered and leave the ones that are done exclusively by the provinces now to the provinces. While some may say this violates the constitution, I would check with the supreme court on this since John A. Macdonald when he wrote the BNA Act was in favour of strongly centralized government and rejected the American model of states rights. It was only the privy council ruling in 1891 that granted the provinces jurisdiction in several areas. Otherwise it was the British, not the Canadian government that wanted provincial rights. Ironically today, Canada is one of the few countries in the world (not even the United States falls under this group) where the combined budget of the provinces exceeds the federal government. In fact if Harper's plans of decentralization go through and the European Union continues to integrate at its current place, we will be more decentralized than the EU in 20 years, which isn't even a country. I think we as Liberals need to change our position from opposing further decentralization to supporting further centralization. Having programs done exclusively at the federal level would also cost less too due to economies of scale and the fact there would be no more overlap so those for less government and lower taxes should suppor this.
In my home province of British Columbia, the supreme court ruled Bill 29 which ripped up the collective agreements of some unions was unconstitutional. I believe the ruling was regrettable, but as a strong supporter of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, I am opposed to using the notwithstanding clause to avoid this ruling and from what I am hearing I believe the BC Liberals won't be using it. My view is that view is that while this did violate the rights of the unions, the rights of the taxpayer must also be included and the ruling should be made on the basis of whichever violation was larger. That is why I believe it could be saved under section 1, but I understand why the court may have ruled differently.
Finally, while I was in Germany, the G8 meeting was being held. I did not going anywhere near where it was being held as I was in Berlin and then later Munich. However, I did see Tony Blair when leaving the Reichstag as his motorcade drove by as he was heading for a meeting with Angela Merkel. I also earlier noticed the union jack flying on the chancellor's place, which made my think there must be a meeting with the British PM as normally only the German and EU flags fly on the chancellor's residence. At the G8 meeting, tackling global warming was discussed and it was regretable they had to water down the original plan. I am especially disappointed that Stephen Harper sided with Bush. I don't think a consensus could have been achieved but we should have at least sided with the Europeans. And lets remember both France and Germany have conservative governments who understand the seriousness of global warming and support tackling it unlike Canada and the United States.
There was also the controversy over Bush placing a missile defence shield in the Czech Republic. Since the Cold War is over, I think such shield as unnecessary and so do most Eastern Europeans, so I wish the Eastern European governments would listen to their own people instead of Bush for a change. Also countries like Poland and Czech Republic should realize their future lies with the European Union, not a trans-Atlantic Alliance. And I should note I also feel the same way for Britain as well.
Finally I should add something about the politics of Europe. While I didn't talk politics a lot, some common themes I noticed is even though Europeans are divided on issues like Canadians and Americans are, they seem to be far more united on global warming on dealing with the issue. In fact gas prices ranged from the equivalent of $1.60/litre to $2.10/litre and they have better public transit systems including inter-city high speed trains, so perhaps we could learn from the Europeans here. And yes I do support tolls on highways and higher gas prices since as annoying as they are, it would give us incentives to drive less. I also noticed the Europeans were pretty much united in their hatred of Bush, which was no surprise, although I wouldn't say anti-Americanism is rampant there as some seem to think. Like Canadians many still realize not all Americans agree with Bush and his destructive policies. All countries I visited have some form of proportional representation, so because they means constant minority governments, coalitions are often formed and this usually forces parties on both the left and right to govern close to the centre in order to get anything done, which was is why the election of a socialist or conservative government in Europe is less negative than in Canada since they usually are forced to make compromises. In addition many Liberal parties are classical liberal ones that believe in the free market like our conservatives, but are socially liberal like our Liberals. By the same token, the Conservatives in Austria are socially conservative like our Conservatives, but generally support an interventionist government economically unlike our Conservatives.
Bill Casey was expelled from the Conservative caucus for voting against the budget. My view on this is the Conservatives were right to kick him out of the party, but he was also right to vote against the budget. The budget is a matter of confidence so while I support dissent on most issues, this is one issue I believe all MPs should vote with the party unless they are willing to leave the party. I also believe Bill Casey was right to vote against the budget, since besides being an overall lousy one, it was not good for his province and as a representative of his constituency first ahead of the party, his job was to try and fight for changes in the budget and when this couldn't be achieved, then vote against it. Even though he has said he will not be switching to the Liberals, I do hope like Garth Turner he comes to the realization one is very limited in what they can do as an independent. That being said, he got 52% last time around and the Liberals only got 23% so my suggestion is he do what Keith Martin did, which is stay as an independent until the election is called, but run under the Liberal banner next election. I would encourage all former Progressive Conservatives who are dissatisfied with the current Conservatives to consider switching to the Liberals. We may have our differences as I've found as a former PC, but the Liberals have more in common with the former PCs than the current Conservatives do. In fact in many ways the PCs were more like your typical European conservative party while the Reform/Alliance/Conservatives are more along the lines of American conservatives. I'll post more later in this post on European politics.
The Atlantic Accord spat seems to be a big news maker. I will admit that the equalization formula is so complicated that it is tough to have an informed opinion on it. The fact they need a university professor who is an expert an equalization to crunch the numbers really says it all. If the formula was more simple, so an average citizen could understand it, we would know who is telling the truth and who is lying and could hold them accountable. Still from what I do know my opinion is as follows: I want both Nova Scotia and Newfoundland & Labrador to some day become have provinces and since allowing them to enjoy the benefits of their offshore oil would make it possible to do this, I support the changes Rodney Macdonald and Danny Williams are asking for, with one exception. I don't believe Nova Scotia and Newfoundland & Labrador should continue to receive equalization if they ever become wealthier than the poorest have province. The richest have not province should never be wealthier than the poorest have province as this flies in the face of what equalization was might to be. In addition with all the political squabbling over this and the fact jointly administering certain programs like health care significantly increases the cost, I think the federal government should just take over all the programs that are jointly administered and leave the ones that are done exclusively by the provinces now to the provinces. While some may say this violates the constitution, I would check with the supreme court on this since John A. Macdonald when he wrote the BNA Act was in favour of strongly centralized government and rejected the American model of states rights. It was only the privy council ruling in 1891 that granted the provinces jurisdiction in several areas. Otherwise it was the British, not the Canadian government that wanted provincial rights. Ironically today, Canada is one of the few countries in the world (not even the United States falls under this group) where the combined budget of the provinces exceeds the federal government. In fact if Harper's plans of decentralization go through and the European Union continues to integrate at its current place, we will be more decentralized than the EU in 20 years, which isn't even a country. I think we as Liberals need to change our position from opposing further decentralization to supporting further centralization. Having programs done exclusively at the federal level would also cost less too due to economies of scale and the fact there would be no more overlap so those for less government and lower taxes should suppor this.
In my home province of British Columbia, the supreme court ruled Bill 29 which ripped up the collective agreements of some unions was unconstitutional. I believe the ruling was regrettable, but as a strong supporter of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, I am opposed to using the notwithstanding clause to avoid this ruling and from what I am hearing I believe the BC Liberals won't be using it. My view is that view is that while this did violate the rights of the unions, the rights of the taxpayer must also be included and the ruling should be made on the basis of whichever violation was larger. That is why I believe it could be saved under section 1, but I understand why the court may have ruled differently.
Finally, while I was in Germany, the G8 meeting was being held. I did not going anywhere near where it was being held as I was in Berlin and then later Munich. However, I did see Tony Blair when leaving the Reichstag as his motorcade drove by as he was heading for a meeting with Angela Merkel. I also earlier noticed the union jack flying on the chancellor's place, which made my think there must be a meeting with the British PM as normally only the German and EU flags fly on the chancellor's residence. At the G8 meeting, tackling global warming was discussed and it was regretable they had to water down the original plan. I am especially disappointed that Stephen Harper sided with Bush. I don't think a consensus could have been achieved but we should have at least sided with the Europeans. And lets remember both France and Germany have conservative governments who understand the seriousness of global warming and support tackling it unlike Canada and the United States.
There was also the controversy over Bush placing a missile defence shield in the Czech Republic. Since the Cold War is over, I think such shield as unnecessary and so do most Eastern Europeans, so I wish the Eastern European governments would listen to their own people instead of Bush for a change. Also countries like Poland and Czech Republic should realize their future lies with the European Union, not a trans-Atlantic Alliance. And I should note I also feel the same way for Britain as well.
Finally I should add something about the politics of Europe. While I didn't talk politics a lot, some common themes I noticed is even though Europeans are divided on issues like Canadians and Americans are, they seem to be far more united on global warming on dealing with the issue. In fact gas prices ranged from the equivalent of $1.60/litre to $2.10/litre and they have better public transit systems including inter-city high speed trains, so perhaps we could learn from the Europeans here. And yes I do support tolls on highways and higher gas prices since as annoying as they are, it would give us incentives to drive less. I also noticed the Europeans were pretty much united in their hatred of Bush, which was no surprise, although I wouldn't say anti-Americanism is rampant there as some seem to think. Like Canadians many still realize not all Americans agree with Bush and his destructive policies. All countries I visited have some form of proportional representation, so because they means constant minority governments, coalitions are often formed and this usually forces parties on both the left and right to govern close to the centre in order to get anything done, which was is why the election of a socialist or conservative government in Europe is less negative than in Canada since they usually are forced to make compromises. In addition many Liberal parties are classical liberal ones that believe in the free market like our conservatives, but are socially liberal like our Liberals. By the same token, the Conservatives in Austria are socially conservative like our Conservatives, but generally support an interventionist government economically unlike our Conservatives.
posted by Monkey Loves to Fight at 6:33 AM
4 Comments:
Did you get a piece of the Berlin Wall?
Anonymous - I got a picture, but not an actual piece. Besides it is a cultural artifact and could be seized by customs if I did not have a permit. Never mind there is not much left of it anyways.
What do you think about the movements to resurrect the old Reform Party? Surprised you didn't mention that...could the CPC being getting split at both ends?
Anonymous - Considering it is Atlantic Canada as opposed to the West where the anger mainly is, I doubt the Reform Party will be resurrected. Lets remember they were in single digits in this region. If the West was angry, then you would have a point. As I said earlier I suspect the Liberals and to a lesser extent the NDP and maybe even Greens will benefit from this as most Atlantic Tories are Red Tories so they if anything would prefer a party to the left of the Tories not to the right as was the case in the West in the early 90s.
I could see another CPC split, but this time I think it is more likely to be the centrist elements breaking off then the more right wing elements as was the case in the 90s.
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