One of the benefits of federalism...

...is that it takes two levels of government to screw up to really tank the economy:

Consider the often-made comparison between Greece and the state of California. Both are in deep fiscal trouble, both have a history of fiscal irresponsibility. And the political deadlock in California is, if anything, worse — after all, despite the demonstrations, Greece’s Parliament has, in fact, approved harsh austerity measures.

But California’s fiscal woes just don’t matter as much, even to its own residents, as those of Greece. Why? Because much of the money spent in California comes from Washington, not Sacramento. State funding may be slashed, but Medicare reimbursements, Social Security checks, and payments to defense contractors will keep on coming.

For a change, Paul Krugman sticks to economics and doesn't blame George Bush for anything. His column provides a lucid assessment of Greece's economic predicament.

Given Dalton McGuinty's economic mismanagement of our province, Ontarians can indeed be thankful Ontario is not a unitary state.

The tissues that bind us

Where does Michael Ignatieff come up with this stuff?

"If this [Conservative] ideology prevails in this country it will permanently weaken the tissues that bind our society together," Ignatieff said.

Is it any wonder he is taking such a drubbing in the media lately.

Perseverance in the face of failure

After thirty some years of toiling in relative obscurity, Canadian heavy metal band Anvil appears to be finally on a roll following the release of the documentary Anvil! The Story Of Anvil.

At the Sundance Film Festival last year the film received a rapturous welcome. Art-house cinemas picked it up for distribution in the UK and US earlier this year, which brought it to the attention of more rapt critics. "The first great film of 2009" - NME. "A hell of a movie" - Empire. "The best documentary I've seen in years!" - Michael Moore. Even the New Yorker's normally hard to please Anthony Lane found it the "most stirring release of the year".

So much for Anvil! the film. But something even more extraordinary has been happening to Anvil the band. I catch up with Lips on the phone on his way to a gig in San Francisco. It is a gig with a difference: the band is performing in a cinema directly after the end of the screening in what is being billed across several US cities as the "Anvil Experience".

[...]

When they did the Anvil Experience in Los Angeles recently, Lips was amazed to see Dustin Hoffman standing on his seat doing devil horns and singing along to Metal On Metal. Fan mail has been pouring in from thousands of Americans saying that the band's dogged determination has inspired them.

"I've been getting confessional letters from people from all walks of life who can barely make their mortgage payments saying if you guys can keep going anything is possible."

The 13th album has been selling like hot cakes through Anvil's website, and Lips has all but paid his sister back. Now they are on to the 14th - working title Juggernaut of Justice. Even Keanu Reeves, whose glasses Lips failed to sell, has gone on record saying: "I bow at the feet of Anvil."

Maybe there's a lesson in this. I wonder if the Roll Ons would be up for a reunion.

The great cap-and-trade swindle

It was really only a matter of time before Kyoto morphed into an excuse for protectionism.

The closer the United States gets to adopting a cap-and-trade system to control greenhouse gas emissions, the more frightening it gets.

Not because the plan now under debate in the U. S. Congress would complicate the lives of energy producers, or impose new costs on consumers. Those drawbacks might be bearable if the system was truly designed to reduce emissions, and if the expense was reasonable. The alarm results from increasing evidence that emissions have become a secondary concern of a plan whose main purpose is to serve the partisan interests of the Democratic Party.

[...]

The Democrats' evident determination to use global warming to mask a transfer of wealth from one part of the country to another mirrors the ill-starred Green Shift proposed by former Liberal leader Stephane Dion, which began as a means of fighting emissions and ended up as an anti-poverty program financed by Alberta for the benefit of more Liberal-friendly parts of the country.

Barack Obama has his work cut out for him if he truly wants to avoid being called the Depression President.

Making excuses for Somali pirates

Johann Hari of the Huffington Post claims we are being lied to about pirates. Far from being despicable scallywags, they are to be admired for their democratic and egalitarian ways:

Pirates were the first people to rebel against this world. They mutinied against their tyrannical captains - and created a different way of working on the seas. Once they had a ship, the pirates elected their captains, and made all their decisions collectively. They shared their bounty out in what Rediker calls "one of the most egalitarian plans for the disposition of resources to be found anywhere in the eighteenth century." They even took in escaped African slaves and lived with them as equals. The pirates showed "quite clearly - and subversively - that ships did not have to be run in the brutal and oppressive ways of the merchant service and the Royal navy." This is why they were popular, despite being unproductive thieves.

Similarly, the Somali pirates are but poor, honorable folk fighting against injustice:

Did we expect starving Somalians to stand passively on their beaches, paddling in our nuclear waste, and watch us snatch their fish to eat in restaurants in London and Paris and Rome? We didn't act on those crimes - but when some of the fishermen responded by disrupting the transit-corridor for 20 percent of the world's oil supply, we begin to shriek about "evil." If we really want to deal with piracy, we need to stop its root cause - our crimes - before we send in the gun-boats to root out Somalia's criminals.

One commenter even suggests:

The pirates are totally justified in their actions, no questions asked. I don't care who they pillage or plunder, it's only for their own benefit provided that we don't start killing them like the Israeli's did with the Palestinians.

The more crewmen they hold hostage, the more ransom they collect, the happier I feel seeing that the common peasant still wields a weapon over even the most powerful of governments and corporations.

With pirates as their model, it is little wonder that Barack Obama is their hero. Kind of puts the recent tea parties in a new light.

Environmental protectionism

Environmentalists are not going to stop until they get their way. The latest lever to impose their designs on an unwilling population is the threat of trade protectionism:

The most immediate problem Canada faces from greenhouse gas emissions is economic rather than environmental. At least that was the message at a news conference on Thursday held to unveil a report from a government advisory body on carbon pricing.

Bob Page, the chairman of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, said that if Canada does not introduce an effective, national carbon emissions control program, it will face potentially ruinous trade retaliation from the United States once Congress and the Obama administration introduce their own emissions control programs.

Just what we need – another pretext for trade protectionism. As if the problems of the current global economic crisis are not great enough. Great Depression II anyone?

Barack Obama: The Depression President?

The recent news that U.S. public works projects funded by the stimulus package will be required to use only U.S.-made iron and steel was not entirely unpredictable. On issues of trade, the Democrats are bad for Canada, and by extension global trade. If Barack Obama lets this stand he risks becoming known as the Depression President.

Thus far, the temptation among nations to shield their economies from the ravages of the global credit crisis has largely been limited to backstopping their financial sectors or bailing out struggling industries such as autos. To be sure, these efforts are at root protectionist, but it is still possible to believe that the primary intention is not to beggar thy neighbour.

The recent U.S. stimulus package approved by the U.S House of Representatives rips away any pretense of adherence to the principles of free trade. It is as if the legislators slept through their history lessons on the catalytic role of the Smoot-Hawley Act in the Great Depression.

So instead of standing up to the entreaties of Big Labour, Congress now looks to it for its marching orders.

"We've got manufacturing in America in a total and complete freefall. ... It's about time we had some economic patriots," said Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers union.

And to make matters worse, Congress is not content to stop there:

Senators are working on an expanded version that would also include other materials such as cement, Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, told reporters.

Fortunately, Obama is on record as being opposed to protectionism:

By a cruel irony, President Obama used the steel business as an example of the futility of protectionism in his book The Audacity of Hope, where he wrote that "A tariff on imported steel may give temporary relief to U.S. steel producers, but it will make every American manufacturer that uses steel in its products less competitive in the world market."

Encouragingly, even Iggy sees the threat, although Jack remains true to form.

The Obama Administration is said to be "studying" the rule introduced by the House; meanwhile, our opposition leader, Michael Ignatieff, is asking pointed questions about it in the Commons when he might be better advised to form a united lobbying front with the Conservatives. (And Jack Layton is exemplifying the worsening international mood by calling for immediate countervailing action.)

We can only hope that there is substance behind Obama's rhetoric. Otherwise, things are going to get a lot worse.

Merry Christmas to all

That was fun

Some pics from the Rally for Canada at Queen's Park, Toronto:

10 Years Later

Today is the tenth anniversary of the National Post. Say what you will about the MSM, but can you imagine what Canada would be like if it had never existed?

From the beginning, the Post provided intellectual support to a Canadian conservative viewpoint that was sadly lacking in other Canadian media. The headline on the October 27, 1998 first edition was "Klein backs unite-the-right movement". Well it turns out they did. And now we have a Conservative government.

Happy birthday National Post!

More on that dead squirrel

And we wonder why young people don't vote.

Diefenbaker's Manifesto on Freedom of Speech

In my days as a young lawyer, I began the drafting of a Canadian Bill of Rights. The 1938 election manifesto of the Conservative Party in Saskatchewan, authored by me and issued under my leadership, began with the following statement:

"The Conservative party pledges itself to maintain the rights of freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, and freedom of the press, reaffirms its implicit belief in democracy and democratic institutions, and its absolute opposition to the principles of both Fascism and Communism."

One Canada, Memoirs of the Right Honourable JGD, The Years of Acheivement 1957-1962, MacMillan of Canada, 1976 pg 252

That was 70 years ago.

In 1960, after winning two landslide majorities, the Rt. Hon. John G. Diefenbaker and his government prevailed, and passed the Canadian Bill of Rights.

That was 48 years ago. Have we "progressed"?

What would Dief do with the HRCs?

Early on in his career, former Conservative Prime Minister John G. Diefenbaker recognized the threat to freedom of speech and individual liberty:

I was concerned in 1936 about the continuing extension of the powers of the Crown at the expense of the individual. My concern was greatly intensified by experiences during and after the Second World War. On 2 May 1946, I moved an amendment to the Citizenship Bill in an attempt to have a Bill of Rights included in its provisions. I wanted to see Canadians assured by statute of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and the right to peaceable assembly; that habeas corpus should not be suspended except by Parliament; and that no one should be required to give evidence before any tribunal or commission at any time if denied counsel or other constitutional safeguards. My amendment was opposed by the King government.

"One Canada", Memoirs of the Right Honourable JGD, The Years of Acheivement 1957-1962, MacMillan of Canada, 1976 pg 252

Canadian and Free

I am a Canadian, a free Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship God in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, free to choose who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.

The Right Honourable John G. Diefenbaker, Prime Minister of Canada, House of Commons Debates, July 1, 1960

Diefenbaker said this in the debates for the Canadian Bill of Rights. Since that time, something has gone terribly wrong. It will take a Conservative majority government to get us back on track.

It's election day. Go vote.

Best reason for an elected senate

Stéphane Dion has reportedly been wooing Elizabeth May with a Senate seat in return for telling Green Party supporters to vote Liberal.

Reforming or Abolishing the Senate
The Conservatives and Stephen Harper believe that the current Senate must be either reformed or abolished. An unelected Senate should not be able to block the will of the elected House in the 21st century.

As a minimum, a re-elected Conservative Government will reintroduce legislation to allow for nominees to the Senate to be selected by voters, to provide for Senators to serve fixed terms of not longer than eight years, and for the Senate to be covered by the same ethics rules as the House of Commons.

After Gerard Kennedy loses Parkdale-High Park, will he expect a Senate appointment too?

An economist at the helm

As the global economy heads into troubled waters, Canada is fortunate to have Stephen Harper, an economist, at the helm. Let's just hope the voters resist the sirens' call to put Stéphane "do something" Dion at the helm.

Paradoxically, perhaps, the fact that orthodox economics has a good deal to say about how the Great Depression happened itself suggests that there is after all something puzzling about the Great Depression. What's puzzling is not that the depression happened, given policies that were resorted to, but that such destructive policies secured wide support despite their often readily-predictable, adverse consequences. But to call even such perversity a "mystery" is to be guilty of hyperbole. After all, politicians are rewarded for appearing to "do something," and not for their command of "abstract" theories.

h/t: Cafe Hayek

Civilization versus barbarism

This is what we're up against.

Toronto hates Conservatives Part 2

I do not like small dead animals, especially when I find a stinking, decaying carcass on my front step. Oh, did I mention I have a Conservative sign in my front yard?

Is Carolyn Bennett running scared?

This is just too despicable to imagine an opponent being responsible for, particularly as it is more likely to help rather than hurt the Bennett campaign.

Carolyn Bennett should have a stranglehold on the riding given her margin of victory last election. Nonetheless, I think she is running scared.

Dr. Roy has already noted that Bennett broke the rules by distributing her House of Commons newsletter after the writ was dropped. I can vouch for this, since I live in the riding and received it after the election was called. Particularly galling is the fact that the content of the newsletter, which is virtually indistinguishable from election literature, was paid for by the taxpayers of St. Paul's.

I have been out canvassing for Heather Jewell, the Conservative candidate in the riding. It was discouraging at first, but lately people seem to be more receptive, though the chilliest responses still seem to be concentrated in some of the richest neighbourhoods.

But there is hope: the Conservative message is getting through. Blue signs have been sprouting up in my decidedly downscale neighbourhood during the past week. Forget the Toronto elites. Follow the people.

CAW Endorses Nash for Conservative decision to block MDA sale

Oddly enough, the CAW endorses NDP candidate Peggy Nash in Parkdale-High Park, yet it was the Conservatives who blocked the sale of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates, for which they give her credit.

In the Greater Toronto Area, the CAW is endorsing an 'ABC' voting strategy (Anyone But Conservative) in all ridings with the exception of Toronto's Parkdale-High Park.

In Parkdale-High Park, the CAW is endorsing NDP MP and NDP industry critic Peggy Nash. Nash, the former assistant to both previous CAW presidents Bob White and Buzz Hargrove, was instrumental in stopping the sale of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates' space division to U.S. arms manufacturer Alliant Techsystems back in April and has been an exceptional advocate of working people, said Lewenza.

Who could it be now?

It's hard enough running as a Conservative against a popular NDP MP and Gerard Kennedy, the failed Liberal leadership candidate.

The battle for Parkdale-High Park is getting nasty.

Go Jilian!

Gerard Kennedy: Any openings at the food bank?

Christina Blizzard thinks Gerard Kennedy's prospects of winning Parkdale-High Park are not good.

Which brings us to former McGuinty education minister Gerard Kennedy. He's in tough in Parkdale-High Park against NDP power chick Peggy Nash. Provincially the riding is held by another popular New Democrat woman, Cheri DiNovo. Between DiNovo and Nash, they have the riding all sewn up.

If Kennedy loses, it will be poetic justice. He was the guy who foisted Dion on an unsuspecting party by throwing his support behind him in the leadership convention.

TIGHT RACE

Most pundits predict it will be adieu, Gerard. And the end of his political career. Any openings at the food bank, I wonder?

Toronto hates Conservatives

I see this sign on Harbord Street every morning on my bike ride to work.


I actually had a coffee at the Linux Caffe once. But I guess you can afford to insult your potential customers when those voting Conservative accounted for only 9% of the vote in the last election.

Wireless Nomad might also want to reconsider its affiliation with the business. They use the location as home base for their ISP business.

Another US industry in a tail spin

I'll be glad to see this one go, although the consequences could be dire. With the U.S. media fawning over Obama, the anti-Obama merchandise market will likely be unable to pick up the slack.


Economists Warn Anti-Bush Merchandise Market Close To Collapse