"The tyrannical instinct to censor"...is fine when Tories do it

Senator Doug Finley (formerly Tory war room chief) delivered a speech in the Senate on Tuesday attacking the Human Rights Act, and said of it that "The tyrannical instinct to censor still exists." Apparently Finley didn't get the memo, the Conservatives are fine with censorship, as long as it suits the political ends.

After all, they have shut up climate change scientists:
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/editorial/story.html?id=d489ec1a-36d4-41fb-b692-6c90faa0dcaa

And now they've gutted vital environmental oversights:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/tories-curtail-key-environment-provisions/article1518844/

Released thousands of censored documents on the Detainee Issue:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/afghanmission/article/785188--tories-table-thousands-of-documents-on-afghanistan-mission

The Senator also quotes George Orwell, saying that "Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear", which given Conservative actions, is also ironic.

One only has to look at the treatment the Tories have given to whistle blower Richard Colvin, or former CNSC head Linda Keen to see what this government thinks of those who speak truth to power.

Heck, the Tories will even ignore those who tell them what they don't want to hear when it is your tax dollars paying for it, such as how they have ignored the taxpayer funded crime research.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/2010/03/14/13226061-cp.html

It's a little rich for the Senator to talk about telling people what they don't want to hear when:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has explicitly and publicly stated that his government does not accept peer-reviewed research on criminal matters.

In a 2008 speech, Harper flatly denounced research-based justice policies, accusing the pedlars of such policies of trying to “pacify Canadians with statistics.”


Yes, how dare such things as "evidence" and "facts" play a role when forming public policy on climate change and the environment. Despite Senator Finley's pleas, his government is doing a fine job of censorship.

Lawrence Jospeh acclaimed for NDP

http://www.paherald.sk.ca/News/Local/2010-03-26/article-964956/Joseph-receives-nod-for-NDP-nomination/1


Former chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations Lawrence Joseph was acclaimed today for the federal NDP nomination for Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River riding.

The times have changed. Tim Hudak hasn't.

Andrew Steele does a good job of pointing out the potential problem's with the roll out of Tim Hudak's first set of policy proposals here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/andrew-steele/cut-ontario-vs-open-ontario/article1511071/

Tim Hudak is stuck in the Mike Harris mindset. He is either so ideologically blinded or willfully ignorant to see that times have changed in Ontario during the past 15 years. He wants to cut and paste the "solutions" of Mike Harris, which lead to turmoil in our schools and hospitals, slashing cuts to vital public services, and terrible human consequences in places like Ipperwash and Walkerton. While the Ontario Liberals are moving forward with change, making investments in the green energy to create tens of thousands of jobs, and tax reforms which will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and investing in schools and families, Tim Hudak wants to go back to the failed ideas of cutting investments in creating jobs for hard working citizens of Ontario, killing environmental regulation as a sop to his climate change denying base, and attack the our schools and hospitals.

With the Budget coming out today show Ontario is well on the way to tackling the deficit, our economy is still in recovery mode. The Liberals are looking forward to ensure all of Ontario can benefit from the recovery, while the Hudak PC's are trying to turn back the clock so they can put in place ideologically driven and wrong headed policies from a different time. Ontario Liberals are keeping up with the challenges and changes the province faces. Tim Hudak hasn't.

Geoff Janoscik bringing Hudak PC Slash & Burn agenda to Mississauga South?

So the first candidate for the PC nomination for Mississauga South, my home riding has declared, lawyer and former staffer Geoff Janoscik. After the debacle that was the PC nomination last time around, odds are the PC's are looking to have a more orderly procession this time around, and Janoscik, with his close ties to Hudak (he worked as a staffer while he was a Minister) has a very solid chance to pick up the nomination.

So let's take a look at what Janoscik could bring in terms of policy. He is a former staffer for, and has been endorsed by Rob Sampson, a former MPP and cabinet minister who was the point man for privatization of government services under Mike Harris, as well as minister of Correctional Services.

Perhaps Sampson's biggest "accomplishment" was the privatization of Highway 407. It's worth noting that the deal Sampson and Harris struck to privatize the road is generally held up as a textbook example (quite literally, we studied it in my 3rd year political science class) of what NOT to do in terms of public-private partnerships. Thanks so Janoscik, Sampson, and Harris, the 407 is operated privately under a 99-year lease agreement with the provincial government. The lease was sold to a largely foreign ownership group, dubbed the 407 International Inc. for approximately $$4.1 billion in 1999, far below the value of the road, which has been estimated at closer to $10 billion.

The cost given up, and the rapid gouging which happened at the road was a slap in the face to residents of the GTA West, and demonstrated a clear sign that the Common Sense Revolution had lost the sense, taking the citizens of Mississauga and other suburban areas for granted. Indeed, even former PC leader John Tory has been critical of the actions taken by the PC government of the day, and said that had he been Premier at time, he would not have leased the road.

The nomination of Janoscik would be a very clear sign that Tim Hudak fully intends on unleashing outdated and impractical slash and burn ideology on Mississauga South and across the province. The "10 for 2010" website rolled out by the PC's recently further demonstrates the backwardness of the Hudak PC vision of Ontario, amounting to little more than the tired, 15 years out of date Mike Harris trinity of slashing cuts to vital services, provoking discord with public servants, and attacking public goods which our province holds dear. In 2003, Mississauga South and Ontario turned away from these ideas, in 2007 we re-affirmed our commitment to moving forward together, and in 2011, we will show that we reward the politics of new ideas presented by the McGuinty Liberals, not the re-hashed politics of division the Geoff Janoscik and Tim Hudak want to bring.

News from out West

http://www.am1150.ca/node/1103627

The NDP nominated a candidate in Kelowna – Lake Country, with Tisha Kalmanovitch winning by acclamation. The riding is a Tory stronghold, with Rob Cannan collecting 55.9% of the vote last time around.

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/Hill+seek+federal+seat/2700210/story.html

Saskatoon city councillor Darren Hill says he'll go after the Liberal nomination in Saskatoon-Humboldt. The riding has a bit of an odd history, being home to a legitimate 4 way race in 2004, with under 2,500 votes separating the winner, current Tory MP Brad Trost, and former MP Jim Pankiw, with the Liberal and NDP candidates losing by under 400 votes. Pankiw, who has a controversial history, is running for his old riding again after going over to Battlefords – Lloydminster in 2006 and finishing a respectable if distant third. Pankiw seems like he can carry a decent number of votes, if not win a riding, and if he can hold his own and either NDP or Liberal numbers spike, the race could get interesting.

Ontario federal/provincial vote switching: A recent history

Much has been out out of the tendency of Ontario voters to do a switch when it comes time to vote either federally or provincially. That is, they tend as a whole to elect the same party into government provincially as federally. I decided to take a closer look at election results from the late 60's to now, only looking at federal results from Ontario. Some interesting thoughts looking at the graph:

-Twice the Tories have lost the popular vote but ended up with the most seats in the province, the 1985 provincial election and the 1988 federal election.

-For all the talk about the disunited right and vote splitting being a factor in Chretien's victories in the 90's, an overlooked factor is that the Chretien Liberals won a hell of a lot of votes, twice breaking the 50% mark (in 1993 and 2000)

-At the time, many pundits speculated if the provincial Liberals bringing out a budget during the 2004 campaign was a drag on the federal campaign, a closer look at this graph would seem to indicate that in the end, it wasn't a huge factor, Paul Martin got almost the same percentage of the vote as McGuinty had won a year earlier in what was deemed a "landslide", and indeed, while the overall Liberal numbers did dip from 52%, Martin hung on to a bigger number of seats than McGuinty won the previous year.

-Looking at the margins of victory for other governments, seeing the the NDP won a sizable majority with only 37% of the vote speaks to the kinks in the FPTP system, the PC's provincially were unable to climb back into majority status despite winning 40% in 1977.

-It would seem that a very decent chunk of voters do seem to regularly swing between voting for one party provincially and another federally, as the large majorities both Mike Harris and Jean Chretien won in the province would indicate, as well as the massive swings against the incumbents (and the party opposite which held power) that might have played a role in propelling Peterson, Chretien, and Harris into power.

-Last federal election was the first time in nearly two decades that the Liberals didn't win a majority of the seats in the province.

NDP look set to have candidate in Saanich-Gulf Islands

http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Federal-Politics/2010/03/17/LoringKuhanga/

Only one candidate has thus far declared for the NDP in Saanich-Gulf Islands, Edith Loring-Kuhanga, a first nations educator and conference organizer. Saanich-Gulf Islands is notably the riding in which Green Party leader Elizabeth May is nominated to run in, although she won't have the benefit of the Liberals sitting it out, as Renée Heatherington, the Liberal candidate, has strong environmental credentials of her own. Last election saw incumbant Gary Lunn hold the seat for the Tories narrowly over Liberal star candidate Briony Penn, a former Green Party supporter, and the strange case of Julian West, the NDP candidate (and also a former Green) drop out of the race after allegations of indecency (which included underaged girls and nude swimming).