"Stephen Harper’s climate-change record can’t be ignored anymore" - because it's putting Canadian jobs and our economy at risk

Worthwhile article from Chantal Hebert here.

She's not the first to link Harper's gutting of environmental regulations, skeptical attitude towards climate change and attacks on the environmental movement to other countries (particularly our major trading partner south of the border) reluctance to embrace Canada's natural resources, but in just two sentences, Hebert does a good job of exposing the box that the Conservative government has painted Canada's economy into:

"Harper has made it impossible to have a national conversation on the economy without talking about pipelines, but just as impossible to debate those without addressing his climate change record. When it comes to Canada’s energy agenda, it is the elephant in the room that will no longer be ignored."

When other countries and trading partners read reports that state Canada ranks worst on climate policy among industrialized countries, that doesn't encourage confidence. 

As someone who was part of the Young Liberals of Canada delegation to the United Nations Conference of the Parties climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in 2009, it is disappointing that Canada's leadership sees the environment and the economy as competing interests, but I am happy that the the Liberal Party and Justin Trudeau have a sustainable and balanced energy policy.

This understanding that responsible approaches to environmental and energy policy can benefit all Canadians also contrasts nicely with Thomas Mulcair and his NDP, who are when speaking in front of a Calgary corporate oil sands audience say "Pipelines...should be a priority...[we] will be a partner with the development of energy resources...We will be there with you." while attacking the oil sands in Toronto Centre.

Why not a McQuaig vs. Mulcair debate on natural resource development?

As I predicted back in September, the Mulcair NDP has wasted no time in demonstrating that the "Love is better than anger" NDP is long gone, as Mulcair candidates in the by-elections (particularly Toronto Centre) have spared no opportunity in launching angry attacks on the third-party Liberals.

Mulcair's candidate in Toronto Centre, Linda McQuaig has been negative from day one, attacking the Liberal candidate for not being "from" Toronto (an interesting strategy in a riding with one of the largest population of New Canadians in the country and not one I really thought worked well for the NDP against Glen Murray in his by-election, but the Mulcair NDP is not going to miss a chance to be angry) and attacking Justin Trudeau on the environment and energy development. You can see a sample of Ms. McQuaig's consistency on environmental policy above, but something McQuaig has also been demanding is more debates. I'd love to see her debate a political leader who has positions like this:

Mulcair promises partnership with oil sands..."Pipelines to carry oil from the West to the East should be a priority...[we] will be a partner with the development of energy resources...We will be there with you."

And this in a speech "organized by the Calgary Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by oil sands producer Suncor Energy Inc. and pipeline company Enbridge Inc." Or how about a leader, who speaking to the elite and well connected Canadian Club of Toronto:

"Mulcair throws support behind West-to-East oil pipeline...Mulcair gave his clearest sign of support yet for the notion of a west-to-east pipeline...Mulcair said shipping western oil to Eastern Canada is “pro-business"...Mr. Mulcair later told reporters he has long said he would not speak against the oil sands expansion.

A debate between Ms. McQuaig and her fellow Mulcair candidate Cory Szczepanski in Brandon-Souris would also be interesting, considering he proudly tweeted out the first article on October 27th:

"Willing to bring it … hard", "stoke[ing]...frustration and anger" - What the expect from NDP campaigns in the upcoming by-elections

That's what Pundits' Guide and David Akin wrote about new Mulcair candidate Linda McQuaig's approach to politics in their (both very good) summaries of the Toronto Centre nominations. I was happy to spend the day pulling vote for Chrystia Freeland, who McQuaig wasted no time in attacking. Those who read my blog frequently will know that I would be a wild hypocrite to pretend to be offended by going on the attack, but as Liberals, we have to realize both that Mulcair's NDP will pull as few punches as the Harper Conservatives in both Toronto Centre and Bourassa going after Liberals and making personal attacks both nationally and on local candidates. The "Love is better than anger" etc stuff was always more how New Democrats saw themselves then how they actually behaved, but Mulcair's NDP's determination to attack the third-party Liberals years before a general election is something Liberals are going to have to deal with when campaigning directly against the NDP. In the past, Liberal campaigns against the NDP failed too often when they simply boiled down to strategic voting arguements - an arguement that collapsed in the 2011 federal election. We have to be unafraid to defend our Leader and candidate from personal and policy attacks, and argue that Justin Trudeau and candidates like Chrystia Freeland are better suited to address the needs of all Canadians. And yes, we can make arguements like how McQuaid's support of "Israeli Apartheid Week" and Mulcair's main focus as leader being tearing open the Constitution with Senate abolishment demonstrate that the NDP isn't focused on the issues of everyday Canadians. As a soon to be constituent of Toronto Centre, I'll be looking forward to helping out Justin Trudeau and the Freeland campaign.

Toronto Centre analysis, and looking toward OW-N and Leeds-Grenville

Glen Murray continued the Ontario Liberal winning streak last night, rolling to victory in Toronto Centre. Just as in St. Paul's, the Liberal vote held almost exactly at 2007 levels, with Murray holding on to the broad Liberal base across the riding. The NDP had high hopes with Cathy Crowe, but ultimately fell short, although the 33% of the vote pulled by her represents the best showing by the party in that riding since they nearly won St. George-St. David in 1990.

While the Liberals and NDP both went to sleep feeling fairly good for different reasons, the PC's and Green Party both had rough nights. Pamela Taylor finished a distant third, with the PC vote dropping to 15%, and the Green Party vote, which in recent elections had made Toronto Centre one of the better ridings in the country for them, collapsed, going from 10% in 2007 to 3%, with Stefan Premdas finishing with under 1,000 votes.

Although no one was thinking they would win the riding, the 3rd place finish for the PC's has to be demoralizing going into the next round of by-elections, particularly in the leans Liberal but still swing riding of Ottawa West-Nepean. Taylor's campaign was always going to be an awkward one after trying to promote Mike Harris 2.0 in 2010 after declaring that the PC Party she ran under in 2007 "had nothing to do with Mike Harris", and from what I have heard, her status as a very Red Tory didn't do her any favours, both amongst the general population of the riding, and amongst Progressive Conservatives. A friend of mine who was recently elected to the OPCYA executive told me how after the AGM, which was held in Toronto, the staffers tried to take advantage of an influx of PC youth being in the city to go campaign for Taylor, with little to no success, as the Hudakite Youth wanted little to do with the socially liberal Taylor, denying her the same sort of out of riding volunteer support that the Liberal and NDP campaigns had. And while one would think a Red Tory might be more successful in a riding like Toronto Centre, the lack of independence Taylor was given to campaign also hurt (her website contained no local issues, just a news feed from the PC website). The only time the Taylor campaign picked up any press, it was for her outing of John Baird, whose sexual orientation has long been an open secret in political circles, and was hardly a momentum builder.

The other, perhaps more tangible issue one can see from the failure of the PC campaign is a repeat finding from the St. Paul's by-election, that attempting to turn by-elections into referendums on the HST seems to be a losing strategy. Indeed, a non-partisan consensus seems to be building around the by-election results that the HST just wasn't much of a factor in the vote, with the big issues being the battle of personalities between Glen Murray and Cathy Crowe, with Taylor getting almost totally squeezed out of the picture. When I was out door knocking for Glen, I maybe had a couple voters who expressed anything about the HST at all. The mantra that all politics is local seems to perfectly fit this by-election.

Moving back to the idea that Taylor's status as a Red Tory hurt her campaign thanks to internal divisions within the PC Party, this is something that could come back to hurt the PC's in the next round of by-elections. After losing badly in St. Paul's and Toronto Centre running against the HST, and little else in the way of tactics, some grumbling must be building in PC ranks over if Hudak, who has campaigned against the HST since his election as leader across the province and made it a central part of the PC messaging, cannot deliver the goods electorally. In terms of candidate selection, it will be interesting to see how OW-N goes, with 2007 candidate Mike Patton, who has a Red Tory past, going up against former assistant to Lisa MacLeod, Beth Graham, and who seems to tack more to the right. If Patton, former communications director for Larry O'Brien wins the nomination, could he have the same trouble motivating a grumpy and right-wing PC base that Pam Taylor had?

And in Leeds-Grenville, a crowded Tory race could get interesting, with the powers that be seemingly lining up behind Steve Clark, a former mayor of Brockville and EA to Runciman, who seems to be the establishment candidate in a field that includes current Brockville mayor David Henderson and perhaps most interestingly,
Shawn Carmichael, vice-president of the Leeds and Grenville Landowners Association and a close ally of Randy Hillier, who has endorsed him for the nomination. With the PC party having had two socially liberal by-election candidates in a row under Hudak (Sue Ann Levy and Pam Taylor), another one possibly in Mike Patton, some PC's on the right/Randy Hillier flank of the party could rebel against another "establishment" candidate, a theory put forward by Andrew Steele (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/andrew-steele/runcimans-exit-exposes-hudaks-right-flank/article1449243/)

It is worth noting that in a 1982 by-election, former newspaper editor Neil Reynolds ran as a Libertarian candidate and finished 3rd, getting 13.4% of vote. If Carmichael, the Landowners candidate, is forced out by the party or loses the nomination, could he run as an independent? Or failing that, will the weight of the Landowners force Clark into taking some further-right positions? If it is the latter, the Liberals could jump on this by framing it as part of a Hudak "secret agenda", and use it to campaign in Ottawa West-Nepean. If the PC's don't win Ottawa West-Nepean, a riding they need to win if they wish to form government, murmurs of discontent could definitely start to surface more.

NDP infighting in Toronto Centre?

While I was out canvassing for Glen Murray on the weekend, I saw an interesting piece of NDP lit a few times. It was standard anti-HST rhetoric, claiming that with the costs of living rising, the HST was bad for lower income voters (never mind the historic lower income tax cuts the NDP voted against), and one of the things it claimed was going up, which would be hurting lower income voters? TTC fare hikes. Never mind that the province has no responsibility over the price of TTC fares, so Crowe is shamelessly hoping to fool voters with base populism, but just who would be responsible for said TTC fair hikes? Former federal NDP president, current TTC chair, and newly declared Toronto mayoral candidate Adam Giambrone. With Giambrone looking to beat former Toronto Centre MPP George Smitherman for mayor, getting attacked from the left for making life harder for lower income voters can't help, and shows that the Team Orange supporters in downtown Toronto don't seem to be working all on the same page right now.

ProudToronto.ca: NDP candidate Cathy Crowe takes a page out of Pamela Taylor's book

I blogged earlier about Pamela Taylor's classless remarks at her nomination meeting that implied that Glen Murray was unfit to be Toronto Centre MPP because he hadn't lived in the area for long, and that he wasn't a " proud Torontonian."

To counter this snide remark, Glen Murray set up a section of his website, http://www.proudtoronto.ca/ , to demonstrate that to be a proud Torontonian, and a proud citizen of Ontario means it doesn't matter if you are new to Toronto, a city where 49% of the population was born outside Canada, and a majority was born outside the city.

Little did I expect NDP candidate Cathy Crowe to echo Pamela Taylor's comments. In a news article attacking Murray on her website, Crowe suggests that "I guess Glen Murray hasn’t lived in Toronto long enough"

Cathy Crowe has a long and respectable record as an activist and advocate, but this quote demonstrates that the NDP is just a happy to play dirty politics and sing from the same fear-mongering songbook as the Tim Hudak PC's. Ms. Crowe may want to run on the "real issues", but the NDP has no interest in anything but cheap shots.

ProudToronto.ca: Glen Murray's classy response to Pamela Taylor's classless comments

Toronto Centre PC candidate Pamela Taylor said at her nomination meeting that "Unlike some other candidates, I'm a proud Torontonian. I'm asking you to vote local."

49% of the population of Toronto wasn't born in Canada, and a majority of the population was born outside the city. Taylor's remarks showed just how out of touch and insensitive the Tim Hudak PC's are to both new Canadians, and the vibrant urban centres many of them call home.

In response to Taylor's comments, the Glen Murray campaign has set up http://www.proudtoronto.ca/, an innovate website that allows grassroots citizens of Toronto to tell the story of the Toronto they know, be they life-long residents or new Canadians. Glen Murray and the Ontario Liberal Party understand that to be an Ontarian, it doesn't matter where you are from, it matters what you can do for the province of Ontario, and help your fellow citizens. Pamela Taylor's comments are a clear sign that the Ontario PC's under Tim Hudak are once again the "nasty party", seeking room for growth not by appealing for a vision of a better Ontario, but by appealing to fear, by appealing to opportunism, by appealing to cynicism.

If you are from Toronto, send a message to http://www.blogger.com/www.proudtoronto.ca and show the world that Ontario Liberals are the party of hope in a better future for all citizens, not the party that seeks political gain by dividing our province with cheap politics.

Pamela Taylor sending mixed messages

Pamela Taylor, the Toronto Centre PC by-election candidate, said today that voters in the riding should "send a message."

But what messages are Pamela Taylor and the Hudak PC's sending to voters in Toronto Centre?

Taylor says she cares about job losses in Ontario, but she is running for the Hudak PC's, who have flipped flopped on the HST, which according to noted economist Jack Mintz, would create 591,000 new jobs. Columnist Andrew Coyne has described the PC's strategy on the HST as being one of "calculating that the voters are too stupid to understand the arguments" and "a numb devotion to the status quo, no matter how grotesque; and an appeal to the ignorant fear that any change must, by definition, make things worse", and that PC legislative protests against the issue were "beneath contempt".

Furthermore, Pamela Taylor, who in 2007 ran on a platform of "compassion and inclusiveness", described herself as a "proud Torontonian", by simple virtue of her length of time living in the city, a slap in the face to the 49% of the city who was not born in Canada, and the majority of citizens who were not born in Toronto. If Glen Murray, who has not only lived in the city for several years, but played an active role in Toronto civic society (serving as a Fellow at University of Toronto's Faculty of Architecture and Landscape Design, a lecturer at Massey College, as well as sitting on the boards of Artscape, the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research and the Toronto City Summit Alliance Greening the GTA task force and the Toronto District School Board) is not a "proud Torontonian", what is the PC message to recent immigrants and new Canadians in Toronto?

How is attacking proud Canadians who have been attracted by the multicultural and dynamic make-up of Toronto as not being proud of the city showing "compassion and inclusiveness"?

Pamela Taylor is sending mixed messages to the voters of Toronto Centre. She presented herself as a socially tolerant, truly progressive conservative in 2007, now she has flip-flopped to the hard-right to support the anti-jobs, anti-human rights agenda of the Tim Hudak PC's, whose vision of urban politics is firmly and proudly looking backwards.

Glen Murray offers the voters of Toronto Centre a wealth of experience in front-line politics, deep ties with civil society/NGO's, a progressive social values. Pamela Taylor offers flip-flops, broken agendas, and mixed messages.

Pam Taylor on "Change"

PC leader Tim Hudak announced that 2007 candidate Pam Taylor will indeed be running for the PC's in the Toronto Centre by-election. In her candidate statement, Pam Taylor says she wants to bring "real change" to Toronto Centre. However, the only thing that Pam Taylor and the PC's offer in terms of "change" for Toronto Centre is her flop-flopping on social positions and running for an Ontario PC Party that wants to move Toronto Centre and Ontario backwards.

Let's review:

In 2007, Pam Taylor said "This party has absolutely nothing to do with [former Conservative premier] Mike Harris," she insists. "I would not have been knocking on doors for Mike Harris."

In 2010, Pam Taylor is running for a PC Party lead by the Mike Harris endorsed Tim Hudak, who proudly sat in the Harris cabinet when our schools were being shut down and our water was being polluted.

In 2007, Pam Taylor said Part of our strategy now is to be inclusive."

In 2010, Pam Taylor is now running for the Mike Harris 2.0 Tim Hudak PC's, who want to disband the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal and put the rights of vulnerable citizens at risk. Tim Hudak voted for Bill 91 in 1996, which would have greatly interfered with a woman's right to choose.

In 2007, Pam Taylor said in regards to protecting GLBTQ youth schools should educate students about queer realities.

"We need education within education," she says. "Most of the behaviour we see that we find regrettable comes from ignorance. We need to have part of curriculum be a place to talk about these issues.

In 2010, Pam Taylor is running for the Tim Hudak PC's, when Tim Hudak was part of the Harris government that attacked our public schools and brought education in this province to the brink. Tim Hudak was a loud supporter of faith-based funding for private schools.

In 2007, Pam Taylor had this to say about trans rights: "I would like to see the addition of language to the Human Rights Code to protect the trans group," she says. "As for surgery, everything I have heard suggests it should be supported. The party hasn't taken a stand but in terms of relisting the cost of each surgery may be high but the numbers are low. You can't listen to the stories and not feel compassion. There was something inherently unfair about the delisting....We will need better long-term care, better drug plans. The trans population may need separate facilities."
"

In 2010, Pam Taylor is running for the Tim Hudak PC's, when Tim Hudak was part of the PC government that de-listed surgery. Tim Hudak is not only against adding trans rights to the Human Rights Code, he wants to abolish the Human Rights Tribunal.

In 2007, Pam Taylor said "We don't play favourites...The hallmark is compassion and inclusiveness"

In 2010, Pam Taylor is running for Tim Hudak, who was endorsed by Randy Hillier for leader. Hillier called the openly gay former MPP for Toronto Centre, George Smitherman, the anti-gay slur "bugger" during a debate. In Randy Hillier's and Tim Hudak's Ontario, public funded health care professionals would be able to reject providing public health services to the citizens of Ontario based on their own moral prejudice, and have tax-payer funded marriage commissioners to refuse services to same sex couples, a slap in the face to established equal marriage law. Hillier's leadership bid was managed by social conservative activist Tristan Emmanuel, who is in favour of the death penalty for eleven-year olds, organized a Canadians who Bush rally, which Tim Hudak attended, described gay men as "sexual deviants", and homosexuality as "the wrong choice, a bad choice", described Islam as being "as far from peace, as hell is from heaven". Hillier's reward for his 18th century views? Being named the PC Labour critic, giving him a platform to vent his homophobic views.

When Tim Hudak and Pam Taylor talk about "change" for Toronto Centre, what do they really mean?

How will Pam Taylor answer to...Pam Taylor?

Word is out that 2007 Tory candidate Pam Taylor is looking to run again for the PC's in Toronto Centre. Assuming no other candidate comes forward, this would be the second time the Hudak PC's have thrown a socially liberal female candidate into the mix in a Toronto riding, following Sue-Ann Levy's angry but unsuccessful campaign in St. Paul's.

Taylor is firmly on the Red Tory side of the party, being a close ally of John Tory and playing an active role in Christine Elliott's leadership bid. In fact, she was so critical of Blue Tories and the Harris Tories that she told Xtra.ca during her 2007 Toronto Centre bid that;

http://www.xtra.ca/public/Toronto/Toronto_Centre_candidates_on_the_stump-3681.aspx

"This party has absolutely nothing to do with [former Conservative premier] Mike Harris," she insists."

Really? Mike Harris must be pretty terrible, I doubt she would run for a PC Party that took inspiration from him...

http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/640343
"Ex-premier says Hudak has 'common sense' needed to lead province"

Oh wait. I think this Youtube video says it well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9tvBfcoLjU

But thats not all Taylor said, not only did she consider the John Tory PC's much better than the Harris PC's, she said;

"I would not have been knocking on doors for Mike Harris. Part of our strategy now is to be inclusive. We don't play favourites, we don't fund things for political gain. The hallmark is compassion and inclusiveness."

So she won't knock on doors for the Harris Tories, but she plans to door knock for Tim Hudak, who has openly emulated Mike Harris at every turn, including a shining endorsement from the man himself?

She says part of her strategy is compassion and inclusiveness, but Tim Hudak wants to disband the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, was a loud supporter of faith-based funding, which would have set Ontario schools and multiculturalism back a generation. Tim Hudak voted for Bill 91 back in 1996, which would have greatly interfered with a woman's right to choose. Tim Hudak backed the Harris government de-listing from provincial health coverage sex reassignment surgery (which was disguised as being a tax-saving measure, but only saved mere cents from each citizens tax load).

On the last point, in 2007, Taylor had this to say:

"I would like to see the addition of language to the Human Rights Code to protect the trans group," she says. "As for surgery, everything I have heard suggests it should be supported. The party hasn't taken a stand but in terms of relisting the cost of each surgery may be high but the numbers are low. You can't listen to the stories and not feel compassion. There was something inherently unfair about the delisting."

The 2007 Pam Taylor was against moves to attack the status of human rights in this province, and was regretful of the de-listing made by the Harris Conservatives. The 2009 Pam Taylor evidently is going to cheerlead for her leader Tim Hudak to abolish the Human Rights Tribunal and use queer rights and activism as a fear-mongering tool to throw red meat to the Hillier/Klees social conservative wing of the party.

And thats not all.

Taylor says schools should educate students about queer realities.

"We need education within education," she says. "Most of the behaviour we see that we find regrettable comes from ignorance. We need to have part of curriculum be a place to talk about these issues. Supporting Our Youth will actually provide resources in doing that kind of work."


When it comes to queer seniors Taylor says the Conservatives would pay attention to their needs.

"I think we should be guided by what they tell us we need," she says. "One of the hallmarks of a John Tory government is listening. I've come and spent a lot of time at Church and Wellesley listening to people. We will need better long-term care, better drug plans. The trans population may need separate facilities."

The 2007 Taylor stood for gay rights. The 2009 Taylor seems to think the PC's should be setting an example by having the PC labour critic be Randy Hillier, who called Toronto Centre's previous MPP, the openly gay George Smitherman, a "bugger" during a debate at Queen's Park, and as Matt Guerin pointed out, has a long history of opposing queer rights:

http://queer-liberal.blogspot.com/2009/03/randy-hillier-stokes-anti-gay.html

It is of course relevant to point out, that in addition to Mike Harris, Tim Hudak was also endorsed by Randy Hillier.

The people of Toronto Centre deserve better than the socially regressive policies of Tim Hudak and the flip-flopping of Pam Taylor.

By-elections

Well, I'm doing some mail-in ballot scrutineering (so I guess thats what I can say I am doing to help the Liberal Party of Canada) up here in Ottawa, but here are some of my predictions:

-Lower than normal (even for a by-election) turnout in all 4 ridings

-Willowdale, Vancouver Quadra, and Toronto Centre all easy Liberal holds, DMCR is too close to call, but I am going to go out on a limb and say the Conservatives take this one

-Liberal margin of victory averages around 10-15%

-The Greens do well in Vancouver Quadra and Toronto Centre, finishing 3rd in both races

-All elected Liberals go to the front bench (Rae is already there)

-Gives us a nice little boost in the polls, but nothing dramatic

Cabbagetown Canvassing pics

Bob Rae campaign kick-off: Pictures

Myself and my girlfriend in front of the office
Rocking some buttons and a t-shirt
Bob himself gave a good speech
Lots of signs
Bob makes the rounds

It's obviously that Bob has a great team around him, and should cruise to victory in Toronto Centre, either in a by-election or a federal election, and I look forward to volunteering as much as I can for him and his campaign.

Mark Warner and Bob Rae's fundraiser

I've written about the disconnect and outright hostility of the Conservatives to Canada's urban areas, and so this is not that surprising to me.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071123.wwarner23/BNStory/National/home?cid=al_gam_mostview

While Warner states his attending of a Rae event should not be seen as an endorsement, a man of Mr. Warner's intelligence of course realizes that it will be broadly seen as one. Warner, while he was a candidate, ran a localized campaign, on issues of relevant to the people of Toronto Centre. However, issues like poverty, equality, and opportunity don't mesh well with the current Harper Conservative platform and strategy, which is more focused on throwing potentially billions of dollars down the drain in an unneeded drug war, abandoning Canadians on death row, and borderline unconstitutional crime bills. That Warner's "endorsement" comes on the heels of the defection of the Progressive Canadians comes as no surprise, and should be a sign to dissafected Red Tories that they do, again, have a political home from which to work towards a moderate agenda.

After all that talk on Red Tories being said, I urge Liberals in Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River to vote against David Orchard.