Turn down the noise

We have all heard the warnings to turn down the volume on our iPods. The ubiquity of iPods and other MP3 players, combined with ready access to large libraries of music, mean that people are listening to more music than ever. That, in itself, is not the problem. It is the fact that we listen to our music so loud. As it turns out, part of the blame can be placed on the high volumes of modern life.

A recent article in the National Post notes:

"If you've ever tried to listen to your iPod on an airplane, your tendency is to turn it up to overcome all the other noise, engine noise, whatever else is going on in the cabin," continues Dr. Towers. "And that's where we start getting into the damaging level."

While most listeners might not take to the sky every week, they'll likely turn up the volume on the daily bus ride to help block out engine and traffic noise. Even with only a half-hour commute to and from work or school, the total weekly exposure time to overly loud sound levels can be extremely detrimental.

The article then goes on to suggest that we replace our earbuds with conventional headphones or noise-cancelling earphones that block out external sounds. But who really wants to live in a bubble? Maybe part of the solution lies in reducing the noise in our cities.

Having moved to Toronto last year from Montreal, one thing I quickly learned is that the decibel levels of the Toronto subway vastly exceed those of the Montreal metro. The steel wheels of Toronto subway cars make a terrible racket. In Montreal, the wheels are made of rubber, and consequently are much quieter.

Unfortunately, nothing in the specifications for the new Toronto subway cars suggests they will be any quieter than the current fleet. That is a pity. If we could turn down the noise, the quality of big city life would improve considerably. An added bonus is that music lovers might make it to old age without need of a hearing aid.




My 12-year old daughter provides her perspective on the iPod on her web site.

Still the party of big business

News that Eastern Canada's captains of industry are lining up to back Liberal leadership candidate Scott Brison comes as no surprise. The Liberals and Canada's business elites have always had a symbiotic relationship. Just look at any list of contributors to Paul Martin's leadership campaign.

Given the corporatist credentials of the Liberal Party, I have never really understood recurring accusations that the Conservative Party is somehow in the pocket of big business. In the old days, the Liberals always received the bulk of donations from corporations. In contrast, the Conservatives continue to rely primarily on individual donations.

The revelation about Brison's backers suggests that nothing has really changed. Notwithstanding Liberal MP Paul Zed's assertion that "the business elite in any community no longer has a lot of influence because of the bill that limits financial contributions," the Liberals are still the party of big business.

3 minutes 30 seconds

I've seen this music "meme" a few times now. Out of curiousity I decided to see what songs I have on my computer that are exactly 3 minutes 30 seconds long.

Here's the list I exported from iTunes:

1. Ella Fitzgerald - 's wonderful
2. Stefie Shock - 18
3. The Lion King soundtrack - Akuana Matata
4. Tia Carrere - Ballroom Blitz
5. Kaiser Chiefs - Born To Be A Dancer
6. Monty Python - Bright Side of Life
7. Bill Wymans Rhythm Kings - Cadillac Woman
8. The Buzzcocks - Choices
9. Jan Hammer - Crocket's Theme
10. Lou Reed - Dirty Blvd.
11. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Don't Let It Bring You Down
12. Pink - Don't Let Me Get Me
13. The Tubes - Don't Touch Me There
14. Ron Sexsmith and The Uncool - Every Word Of It
15. Atreyu - Ex's And Oh's
16. Beck - Forcefield
17. Prince - Forever in My Life
18. Paul McCartney - Get Out Of My Way
19. Frank Zappa - Hungry freaks, daddy
20. Lynyrd Skynyrd - I Know A Little
21. Linval Thompson - I Love Marijuana
22. The Rolling Stones - It's All Over Now
23. Star Academie (Stéphane & Francois) - La Vie Roule Et Coule
24. Suzanne Vega - Left Of Center
25. Fiona Apple - Limp
26. Yes - Long Distance Runaround
27. Boomtown Rats - Mary Of The 4th Form
28. Metric - Monster Hospital
29. Frank Sinatra - Moonlight Serenade
30. Billy Joel - Movin' Out
31. Paul McCartney - No More Lonely Nights 2
32. Split Enz - Nobody Takes Me Seriously
33. The Police - Once Upon A Daydream
34. Alice Cooper - Only Women Bleed (Single Version)
35. R.E.M. - Perfect Circle
36. Laurence Jalbert - Rage
37. bran van 3000 - Rainshine
38. Iggy And The Stooges - Search And Destroy
39. Eurythmics - She's Invisible Now
40. Johnny Winter - Silver Train
41. Ron Sexsmith and The Uncool - Speaking With The Angel
42. Cream - Steppin' Out
43. Stiff Little Fingers - Straw Dogs
44. The Tragically Hip - Summer's Killing Us
45. The Cranberries - Sunday
46. Paul McCartney - The Long and Winding Road
47. Bruce Springsteen - The Long Goodbye
48. Orgy - The Obvious
49. 10 Years - Through The Iris
50. Macy Gray - This Christmas (Hang All The Mistletoe)
51. Lord Of The Rings - Twilight And Shadow
52. The Beatles - Two Of Us

Given that iTunes tells me I have 3o days of music to listen to, it is perhaps not surprising I found stuff I've never heard before. Hopefully, I'll get to them some day as I load new random mixes on to my iPod Shuffle. It's only a matter of time. I listen to more music than ever since I got it.

The productivity agenda

If you thought it would be politics as usual once the Conservatives got elected, then you must read this recent press release from the Department of Finance:

The Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT) had recommended last fall that the Government of Canada impose surtaxes on imports of bicycles and barbeques as a way to counter the effects of increased imports of these products.

"After considering all of the information, it was determined that temporary protective tariffs simply wouldn’t provide a competitive long-term solution in these two cases," said Minister Flaherty. "We want to grow and strengthen our economy, and imposing these surtaxes would have increased costs for both Canadian retailers and consumers."

[...]

"Our government believes there is a better way," said Minister Flaherty. "To ensure Canada remains competitive in the global marketplace, we are reducing taxes and providing additional support for education and the skilled trades. These tax measures include lowering the GST as well as small business and other corporate taxes, and providing tax credits to encourage apprenticeships."

Under the Liberals, I fully expected the government to cave into requests by Quebec bicycle manufacturers for protection. After all, despite the economic arguments against a tariff, there were votes at stake. Consequently, I rushed out to buy a Chinese-made, Supercycle bicycle for my daughter at Canadian Tire for $130 last fall.

Obviously the new Conservative government is different. Most encouragingly, Flaherty's decision is the right one. At last, we have a government with a real productivity agenda backed with action not talk.

Guilty as charged

I usually try to avoid the topic of media bias. To me at least, it is largely self evident that the Canadian media has it in for the Conservatives and its predecessor parties.

Of course, non-conservatives will argue that it all depends on your perspective. Jeffrey Simpson makes this point in today's column (behind subscriber wall):

Conservatives are no different than other media consumers: They read into the media what they want. They remember only a fraction of what they read or see. They tend to remember those bits that confirm existing beliefs – in the Conservatives' case, that the media is hostile.

Nonetheless, I feel fairly qualified in making this judgment. I used to be a Liberal before I came to my senses. At the time, nothing gave me more pleasure than to gloat at critical media coverage of Brian Mulroney. He had good reason to distrust the media. Even his purported friends in the media would stab him in the back when given the chance.

There is nothing more hilarious than the media defending itself against Harper's charge that they are biased against his party. In its editorial opposite Simpson's column, the Globe and Mail pleads (again behind subscriber wall) that:

This kind of petulance might be excusable if there were any evidence that the media really were out to get him. In fact, he has pretty good press. A recent poll gave him an 18-point lead over the Liberals, hardly evidence of a media conspiracy.

If I understand their argument, the fact that the Conservatives are now ahead in the polls proves that the media are not biased. Such hubris. But then, does that mean when the Conservatives were behind in the polls (i.e., for most of the previous decade) it was because the media was against them? You can't have it both ways.

Having dug that hole, the Globe then has another go at it with an op-ed piece by Mark Entwistle entitled Even Brian Mulroney met the national press (also behind subscriber wall). While the Globe notes that "Entwistle was press secretary to Brian Mulroney," it conveniently omits that he has also served as a hired gun for CPC turncoat Belinda Stronach. One would think even the Globe could come up with a more credible defender than that if it really had a case.

How pathetic. Guilty as charged.

Sorry Gwyn

I can't help feeling partly responsible for the hatchet job on Gwyn Morgan, Stephen Harper's appointee to lead the proposed Public Appointments Commission, earlier this week. You see, I helped one of his chief accusers, NDP MP Peggy Nash, get elected.

Not that I am an NDP supporter. Far from it. But in my efforts to bring down Sam Bulte, the former Liberal MP representing Parkdale-High Park, I helped pave the way for Nash to win the riding in the last election. It's not that the Conservatives stood a chance in a central Toronto riding anyway. But while the Conservatives did increase their share of the popular vote, it was really a two-horse race between the NDP and the Liberals.

At the time, I did not think Nash's victory was a bad outcome. After all, we knocked out a conflict-ridden Liberal, in favour of the seemingly bright and articulate Peggy Nash. While undoubtedly on the left side of the political spectrum, she was quite impressive in the election debates, even if I disagreed with many of her views. To her credit, I thought she supported her positions in a positive and rational manner without resorting to the over-the-top rhetoric all too common among her socialist brethren.

However, such restraint was certainly not evident in Nash's smear job of Gwyn Morgan as she and other opposition members on the parliamentary committee grilled him on previous statements he had made about ethnic gang violence. While lacking the nuance of an experienced politician, Morgan said nothing that was factually incorrect. But that didn't stop Nash from attempting to paint him as a racist:

"He said that refugees tended to be less qualified than economic immigrants. He questioned the role of multiculturalism," said New Democratic Party MP Peggy Nash, who introduced the motion to reject Morgan.

"I think we are proud of our multicultural country and to stereotype whole cultures, that was problematic," she said.

Not that Morgan did any such thing. But in partisan politics, none of this seems to matter. Nevertheless, Nash's little tactic will have lasting repercussions. Why would anyone that has been successful in other endeavours besides politics volunteer for public service if it means being subjected to the indignities of such partisan smears?

In effect, we are excluding our best and brightest from public service. Our fate now rests exclusively in the hands of self-interested politicians.

Too bad for Canada. If I played any part in bringing this about, I am truly sorry.

Impressions of Alberta

I visited Alberta last week. It has been almost a dozen years since I last visited. The last time was during the Calgary Stampede. I thought all Calgarians wore cowboy boots and cowboy hats. Not this time. The old stereotypes die hard.

There is no doubt Calgary is booming. Construction cranes dot the skyline. Jobs are going begging. Yet the people remain down to earth. Even though the city is growing rapidly, Calgarians seem to eschew the hectic lifestyles typical of other big cities.


The city is also becoming more cosmopolitan. One of the biggest surprises of my visit was hearing French on several occasions while out for a jog along the Bow River. I asked one young mother out pushing a stroller with her friend about it and she assured me, "il y a beaucoup de francophones à Calgary."



Here are some other pics from my trip:


The infamous Red Square in Calgary


Acting the part at a natural gas collector site


Compressing the natural gas for shipment


A typical Albertan oil rig


Cows on the prairies


The Starship Enterprise in Vulcan, Alberta

RSS is driving me crazy

This RSS stuff is driving me crazy. I have been struggling to get my last 5 or 6 posts listed on the Blogging Tories aggregator without success. After hours of troubleshooting, I've got my fingers crossed that this one will actually list. Wish me luck.

Apparently, the source of the problem is that my RSS feed on Feedburner has been polluted by extraneous code inserted by Microsoft Word. Typically, I compose my posts in Word and copy the text into Blogger. Posts created this way no longer seem to validate on Feedburner and consequently don't show up in my RSS feed, although I didn't have any problem with this in the past.

You can still use Word to compose your posts in Blogger if you use a special tool called Blogger for Word. This tool strips out the offending XML code as well as illegal characters such as smart quotes. Check it out if you are experiencing similar problems or see wacky text in your RSS feed.

In the meantime, check out a few of my more recent posts which may have escaped your notice. As much as I like to write, it is also nice to have an audience.

Telling the government what to do

For what it's worth, I submitted my opinions on the 2006-2007 budget last night. I believe the deadline has been extended another 24 hours, which means to today, or so the link said last night.

Here is my submission:

To start, I agree with the basic thrust of the government’s priorities outlined in the last election, particularly its promises:

· To reduce the GST;
· To put money into the hands of parents rather than institutions to help with childcare costs; and
· To work with the provinces to establish a wait time guarantee for patients.

In my view, the most important economic challenge over the course of the new government’s term is to deal with Canada’s lagging productivity growth. In this regard, a number of factors need to be addressed.

· First, it is critically important that the Canadian business tax system be internationally competitive, with the overall tax burden appropriate to the level of public services and other government benefits accorded to business. Moreover, we need a tax system that does not skew investment incentives such that financial resources are misdirected into otherwise uncompetitive industries.

In light of this, any proposed tax expenditures (which should be generally eschewed) should be broadly available and not directed at specific industries.

The government should consider measures such as moderately accelerated write-offs for capital investment to encourage investment in new technologies, as well as training incentives for firms and individuals in order to enhance the skills of working Canadians.

Similarly, the personal income tax system must be competitive relative to the bundle of government services and other public benefits that Canadians receive.

Moreover, the various federal and provincial tax benefits must be better integrated to avoid perverse situations where marginal tax rates can reach punitive levels as taxable income levels increase from relatively low levels.

To improve fairness, we should consider assessing income tax on a family basis to remove the penalty that single-income families and many two, but unequal, income families pay relative to families with two similar incomes.

· Second, we must enhance the effectiveness of government, given its large share of overall economic activity, by focussing its efforts on tasks which it does well and exiting areas where its contribution is questionable. It is my suspicion that the underperformance of the public sector has had a major negative impact on Canada’s productivity performance, impeding the rise in living standards that we might otherwise expect.

Government simply must deliver better value for the taxes we pay. It cannot be insulated from the pressures the rest of us face to continuously improve our efficiency and the quality of our work. Clearly, high profile failures, such as the gun registry or the HRDC boondoggle, greatly detract from the effectiveness of government in the absence of any mechanism to quickly modify them or shut them down should they go off the rails.

On the question of fiscal imbalance, there is growing awareness of the mismatch of tax revenues and responsibilities at different levels of government. This issue needs to be addressed and I think the government is on the right track in insisting that it will stick to its jurisdiction and defer to the provinces in dealing with theirs. Obviously, a way of addressing the revenue mismatch needs to be negotiated.

My preference would be for the federal government to vacate the tax space in order for the provinces to directly raise the funds they need to deliver the programs in their jurisdictions. This restores accountability to the level of government that collects the tax and provides the service.

The system of equalization must be transparent and designed to reward success, not failure. In this regard, I feel it is appropriate that if, for example, the offshore oil industry in Atlantic Canada generates new wealth and sources of tax revenue in the region that the region retain the bulk of the benefits for a reasonable period of time rather than be forced to give up the equalization payments it receives on a one-for-one basis. That is a huge disincentive for the region to reduce its dependency on federal equalization payments.

Conversely, since equalization is typically described as a hand up and not a hand out, Canada’s regions must bear some of the risk if their economic development policies render them uncompetitive and drive investment away. I would like to see some time limit put on equalization payments, barring unanticipated events outside their control, to help focus citizens and their governments on finding real solutions rather than continuing to depend on handouts from the federal government.

True conservatives

William Gairdner makes the provocative claim that:

... all true conservatives (whether or not they believe in God) are "social" in the sense that they accept the reality that we share in a common humanity and therefore have an obligation wherever possible to place the good of all – which is the good of society – before our own individual desires. So in this sense, all conservatives are social. Indeed, there is no such thing as a non-social, or a merely fiscal conservative. The latter is a really a person with strong business and free market interests who doesn’t mind government control by way of lowering taxes and laws that favour business, but who is likely a strict libertarian in personal and sexual matters (which he will define as private and having nothing to do with society).

[…]

So for me, at least, it comes to this: all true conservatives, past and present (and I am not using political-party language here) are social because they accept that the good of all must be prior to their own individual desires (and they accept this truth whether they like it or not). So-called "fiscal" conservatives are libertarians in hiding because they support coercive laws that favour commerce, but resist all laws in matters they consider private. The term "social" conservative is thus redundant.

If I was to reduce my political philosophy to a short epithet, I would call myself a "fiscal" conservative or "libertarian" conservative. Consequently, I take issue with the notion that a true conservative is a "social" conservative and that I am not a conservative at all.

In the economic realm, we can thank Adam Smith for his illustrative metaphor of how the invisible hand guides us to economically efficient outcomes. Smith's genius was in recognizing that markets allocate resources to their most efficient use, to the ultimate benefit of society as a whole. For the most part, efforts to interfere with this process are misguided and typically result in less desirable economic outcomes. Consequently, we let individuals make their own decisions regarding what to buy, where to work, in what to invest, etc. Individually, we are responsible for the decisions we make. If we make bad decisions, we adapt. That is how the system works. And it works very well.

Why should it be any different in the social realm? If we have confidence in people to make their own economic decisions, how can we turn around and make their "moral" decisions for them? If some had had their way in the 1950s, Elvis Presley would have been banned. Why should anyone have the right to make that decision? Of course, that won't stop people from trying, but we should rightfully be sceptical of their authority if they should try.

Society is not static. It is a dynamic system. Over time, some forms of social organization will prove to be more adaptable and effective in an evolving environment than others. But it is only through experimentation that the most successful social forms will emerge. In my opinion it is far better to lead by example than to outlaw activities with which one might disagree. Some people will undoubtedly make bad decisions. They will adapt, and if they don’t, others will see the errors of their ways. Society is far more resilient than people give it credit. We must trust our citizens to do what is in their best interests and those of their loved ones.

Ultimately, politics is about the kind of society we desire. Social outcomes concern us all. The difference between a "social" conservative and a "libertarian" conservative is that the "libertarian" conservative extends the faith we have in individuals to make decisions in their best economic interest to the social realm.

While the "social" conservative would impose their morality in an attempt to socially engineer their preferred outcome, there is little difference in method with "liberal" social-engineering schemes which he typically reacts against. In contrast, the "libertarian" conservative eschews such repression and welcomes free and open competition among social forms in the belief that, as in the economic realm, society will converge toward a socially desirable outcome if our citizens are free to choose what is in their best interests.

Bringing government to the people

The Harper government is bringing government to the people. With today's launch of the Online Pre-Budget Consultations for Budget 2006 and Beyond, budget-making is no longer the preserve of the lobbyist elites. You can submit your views too.

Canadians of all backgrounds are invited to help the CPC government craft its first budget. The deadline for submissions is April 19, 2006.

While I have had the past good fortune to appear before the Standing Committee on Finance in past pre-budget consultations on behalf of a previous employer, this time I will be telling the government what is important to me.

Among other things, I will tell the Harper government how important it is to restore accountability to government. I will tell them how high taxes and expensive, poorly adminstered and ineffective government programs undermine our living standards. I will encourage them to deliver on their promise to immediately cut the GST by 1 percentage point, and, if there is room, to go all the way to 5% instead of adopting the Liberal/Toronto Star income tax cuts.

This time your government is listening. Make sure you do not miss this opportunity to speak.

Overpowered by hype

I'm playing the Arctic Monkeys on my iPod and just registered and uploaded my first video on YouTube. Although I find the Arctic Monkeys interesting, there is no way the poor band can ever live up to its hype.

On the other hand, YouTube is totally cool. Press play and check it out.

Biggest fool of them all

I'm not a big fan of polls. But a recent poll conducted for the The Comedy Network reveals that Canadians have chosen the federal Liberal Party as "Fools of the Year."

TOP 5 CANADIAN "FOOLS"

1. The Federal Liberal Party (34%): for its involvement in the sponsorship scandal and ultimate election defeat.
2. Celine Dion (27%): for pleading that officials send kayaks to rescue New Orleanians after Hurricane Katrina.
3. CBC (13%): for locking out its employees and thus giving away viewers to other channels for reasons nobody really cared about.
4. The Canadian Electorate (12%): for electing a Stephen Harper government.
5. Team Canada (11%): for one of its worst performances ever at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games despite a star-studded line-up and a $100-million US NHL payroll.

Good riddance

Pauline Marois is leaving politics. Although she undoubtedly has her admirers among PQ hardliners, I have nothing but contempt for the woman. I am happy to see her go.

Among her accomplishments highlighted yesterday were the creation of the province's low-cost daycare system, the constitutional amendment replacing religious school boards with linguistic ones and the drafting of youth-protection legislation.

I will always remember Marois as the person who kicked the English out of our local elementary school when she handed control of the school over to the new French school board. Until then, the school was one of the pioneers of French immersion education in Canada, operating as a completely bilingual school with a student population that was 60% English and 40% French.

Imagine that! A bilingual school! In Quebec! I’m not making this up. Of course, Marois wasted no time putting that to a quick end once she had a constitutional amendment in hand permitting segregated schools.

As to Marois’ other "accomplishments," she, more accurately, created a high-cost, low-price daycare system. Having lived through the system, I have never understood why advocates for institutional daycare in other parts of the country have lionized the Quebec model. For example, we were forced to enrol our daughter full time to secure a place even though we only needed care for three days a week. Is it any wonder that costs have spiralled out of control?

And finally, her youth protection legislation apparently did not obviate the need for forceful advocates to speak out against continuing injustice. One casualty along the way was youth court Judge Andrée Ruffo, who was removed from the court "for repeatedly speaking out on the inadequacies of the youth protection system."

Darth Harper

I have decided to end my little trial subscription with the Toronto Star after seeing Sunday's editorial cartoon. It is actually quite offensive when you think about it.

I sent them the following note:

I want to cancel my subscription... I know the Star is a Liberal paper, but publishing an editorial cartoon equating our prime minister with Darth Vader is going way too far. I simply cannot stomach it. Good bye.

I certainly won't miss their editorials or the spin they put on the news. However, I will miss some of the ads. So to all those advertisers that might wish to attract me as a customer, you better start advertising in the National Post since it is the only newspaper I will be getting from now on.

The discipline of power

Adam Daifallah has posted his thoughts about what has been said about David Emerson. Let me address his points one by one.

First, every person who enters politics does so for a combination of altruistic and selfish reasons. Emerson does not need to be a minister. He could go back to the private sector and easily earn ten times his minister's salary.

Second, the Liberals badly flubbed the software lumber file, even with Emerson as a Liberal minister. That said, Emerson does bring inside knowledge of the forest industry and a no-nonsense approach in dealing with issues. Is he indispensable? Far from it. But he does have a lot to offer.

Third, loyalty and criticism need not be mutually exclusive. However, I believe the way many have gone about criticizing the party does amount to disloyalty.

Fourth, while similar on the surface, the two defections differ in fundamental ways. Belinda was a driving force behind the merger and a founding member of the CPC. She crossed the floor in a way calculated to cause serious damage to the party. Her reasons for leaving were Liberal talking points and were disconnected from reality, especially her professed fears about Quebec separatism.

In contrast, one could call Emerson a fair-weather Liberal. He was attracted by power and the good he could do with it. Paul Martin personally recruited him. His loyalty was to Martin, not the Liberal Party. Yet Martin stepped down when he lost power. Harper offered Emerson an opportunity to advance his agenda through the CPC in a real position, not something invented to feed his ego.

One similarity in the two defections, however, is that the Conservatives were hurt politically by both. For some reason, the Liberals have escaped relatively unscathed.

Fifth, there was nothing improper in what Stephen Harper did with either cabinet appointment. It was consistent with past practices and served an important strategic purpose in bolstering his government, at least until party members starting shooting each other in the feet. If Harper does nothing to advance his accountability platform, then all the criticism is justified. But give him time. I do not think he will disappoint us.

And finally, Harper is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. An awful lot of ink was spilled in the aftermath of the election regarding the lack of CPC representation in the major metropolitan areas. If Harper did nothing to address this, he would have been subjected to continuing criticism. And yet he is also criticized for deftly ensuring that these cities are represented in his cabinet.

It is tough enough to put together a government when you lead a new party that is largely made up of members with little experience governing. The last thing a leader needs is to be ducking shots from his members. That does not mean we should be silent about actions with which we disagree. But there are more diplomatic ways of communicating these concerns than through the media. If the CPC is to succeed in advancing its agenda, then its members must learn the discipline of power.

No minors allowed

On Warren Kinsella's invitation at the Blogstravaganza, I went to see the Shit From Hell show tonight with my 12-year old daughter. Warren suggested that I bring some earplugs for her because they play loud. Unfortunately, he didn't mention fake ID. No minors allowed.

So we waited in the rain at the corner of College and Bathurst for our streetcar and went home. Too bad. I would have liked to see if he has improved any since I last saw him play with The Trial Continues. That was too long ago.

Puppy distraction

As if I didn't have enough distractions to keep me from blogging, we recently added a puppy to our household. It is almost like having another child. Although as I remember it, changing diapers and toilet training a child is easier than house training a puppy, or at least the mess is better contained.

We got the puppy just before Christmas. My 12-year daughter, who had been asking for a puppy for years, finally got her wish. A few months earlier, she had found a breeder in the neighbourhood and we put our name on the list for one of the puppies in the next litter.

We first saw the puppies when they were three weeks old. The mother is a Jack Russell and the father is a Jack Russell-Shih Tzu mix.

We were hoping the Shih Tzu genes would temper her a bit since Jack Russells are known to be pretty active and lively dogs. Well, it seems that it was the Jack Russell that came out in the mix. At three months, she is already jumping over the gate we were using to keep her in the kitchen.

Moreover, she seems absolutely defiant at times when I insist that she pee on the mat. Kaloo will wander over to a spot in the living room and do her business while looking straight at me. So far, she hits the mat only about 50% of the time.

Raising a puppy is far more work than I expected. Fortunately, my daughter is keeping her end of the bargain and giving me lots of help. It has certainly been a learning experience for both of us. In the meantime, if my blogging is even lighter than usual, you'll know why.

Belinda was wrong about Quebec

It seems Belinda had it all wrong. Instead of being a threat to Canadian unity, support for Quebec independence has actually declined following the election of a Conservative government. Not that she would have listened to me anyway.

People in French-speaking Quebec are rapidly losing interest in the idea of independence, according to a new poll released on Tuesday.

The CROP poll for the La Presse newspaper showed only 34 percent of Quebecers would vote "yes" in a referendum on whether to split from the rest of Canada, down steeply from 43 percent before last week's federal election. The number who would vote "no" rose to 58 percent from 49 percent.

The newspaper linked the drop in support for separatism to the election result. The Conservatives beat the Liberals, who had been badly hurt by a corruption scandal in Quebec which damaged the image of federalism in the province.

From the original article in La Presse:

Pour Claude Gauthier, vice-président de CROP, les Québécois croient, avec le départ des libéraux fédéraux, que les changements souhaités au fédéralisme sont possibles, qu'il pourra y avoir un dialogue fructueux entre le gouvernement Charest et celui de Harper.

" Les gens ne croyaient plus que le changement était possible, les Québécois sont clairement favorables à la main tendue par M. Harper ", résume le sondeur, qui voit même dans ce message un écho de l'arrivée d'un Brian Mulroney, porté au pouvoir en septembre 1984 avec la promesse de faire adhérer " dans l'honneur et l'enthousiasme " le Québec à la Constitution répudiée en 1982.

This is great news for Canada and Quebec. Let’s just make sure we follow through.

Admitting you're a Conservative

Here in Toronto it is not easy being a Conservative, or at least admitting it.

Yesterday while out canvassing for Jurij Klufas, my local CPC candidate, one prospective supporter greeted me enthusiatically at his door. Yet when asked if we could count on his support he whispered he was voting Conservative; his friends inside were all Liberals and he didn't want them to know it.

This widespread reluctance to display one's Conservative stripes reminds me of francophone federalists in Quebec. Federalist Quebecers have traditionally kept their political views to themselves such that pollsters systematically underestimate support for federalist parties if they take their word at face value. Consequently, experienced Quebec pollsters typically give the bulk of the undecided vote to the federalist side.

I suspect something similar may be at work with the Conservatives. Rather than enduring possible discomfort when revealing their political preferences, some may opt for the politically correct answer and choose the Liberals.

That may be changing if this story is any guide.

On Monday, Martin's Liberals could well find that Toronto and Ontario are peppered with federal Conservative voters — Tory-leaning folks who've said little about their political sentiments for a couple of decades.

While their friends and families packed the Commons with Liberals from Ontario these past dozen years, these Conservative sympathizers were content to hang back or even vote with the prevailing trends.

But the past few weeks and months, Ontario's "closet Conservatives" have embarked on coming out, step by slow step.

Of course, if this is true then the polls may be giving a more accurate read on public opinion. In any event, the Conservatives are on the road to victory. It is only a question of by how much.

Kick the Bastards Out

No one expected the Liberals not to play dirty, but the depths to which they have sunk still surprises me. In their final dying days, they are pulling out all the stops to paint their opponents as extreme. Without doubt, the last batch of Liberal ads go well beyond what would once have been considered unacceptable political tactics in this country. But then, the Liberals are proving what we knew them to be all along.

In that spirit, I have resurrected my song Poor Paul (right-click to save), which I wrote last spring. Admittedly, the lyrics (printed below) rather crudely express how many of us feel and are more Carolyn Parrish than high art. Nonetheless, it can be quite cathartic to sing along, especially during the chorus. Give it a try and keep in mind that next Monday Canadians are finally going to kick the bastards out.

Poor Paul

This is a story about Mr. Dithers
Otherwise known as Paul
Prime Minister Paul Martin
The saviour of the Liberal Party

Kick the bastards out
Kick the bastards out
Kick the bastards out
Ooo ooo ooo
Ooo ooo ooo
Ooo ooo ooo

Poor Paul was born to be Prime Minister
And when he got his chance
He blew it
He blew it badly
He doesn’t know what he’s doing
Not at all
Poor Paul
Poor Paul
Poor Paul

Kick the bastards out
Kick the bastards out
Kick the bastards out
Ooo ooo ooo
Ooo ooo ooo
Ooo ooo ooo

We don’t want you
As our Prime Minister
You’re an idiot
Get the hell out of the way

Va chier ailleurs

Oo oo
Oo oo

(cc) Steve Stinson (aka Stint Malicious)

Note: this song is being offered under the terms of a Creative Commons license. This means you are welcome to download it and share it with your friends.

Double or nothing

Source: Reuters

Buzz Hargrove has raised the stakes. With his Liberal senatorship about to slip out of his grasp, Buzz has apparently taken another sip from Paul Martin's kool-aid.

"(Harper's) view of the country is a separatist view that doesn't have a strong federal government. A strong federal government is what makes Canada the country it is," the Hargrove said Wednesday.

[...]

He said a Harper-led government would put in place "a framework that will make it easier for the separatists to win in Quebec -- surely that's pretty close to being a separatist."

[...]

The CAW head also implied that Quebecers should vote for the Bloc Quebecois if it meant keeping out the Conservatives.

This strange bit of logic comes after the Canadian Auto Workers Union leader placed his bet last month to endorse Paul Martin's Liberals, abandoning his long-time allies in the NDP. With even longer odds now, Buzz is doubling his bet. He needs help.

Liberal Sam Bulte doesn't get it

It seems my little question at Wednesday night’s all-candidates meeting for the Parkdale-High Park riding has set the blogosphere on fire. I asked Liberal incumbent Sarmite Bulte to take Michael Geist's copyright pledge, which simply commits candidates to exclude themselves from potential conflicts in deliberations on copyright reform if they accept contributions from entertainment and media industry interests. Bulte responded with outright anger to my question, so much so that she might have throttled me if the microphone had been any closer to the candidates table.

Accordion Guy has a video of her response on his blog.

The sad thing is that Bulte does not get it. She is oblivious to the obvious conflict of her deep involvement in reforming Canadian copyright laws and the direct support she receives from the primary beneficiaries of her proposed leglislation.

Here is my full question with notes. The parts I skipped over, largely due to Liberal-orchestrated jeering, are in faded text.

My name is Steve Stinson.

I moved to this riding five months ago from the Saint-Lambert riding on the Montreal south shore [some polite clapping here].

This question is directed to all the candidates, but first a little background. [Here I was asked to choose a specific candidate to which I replied it was probably most appropriate if Ms. Bulte answered first.]

My old riding gained considerable notoriety as a result of the Liberal candidate Yolande Thibeault receiving more than $19,000 in declared contributions from the principal parties implicated in the Gomery report. [Midway through this part some people, led apparently by Bulte's campaign manager, started shouting “ask the question.” A little rattled, I diligently ploughed on.]

Somehow, I thought things would be different when I moved Toronto. However, I was quite dismayed to read that our current MP Sarmite Bulte has received significant individual and corporate contributions from the very groups that she oversees in her role as Canadian Heritage parliamentary secretary. [At this point, the moderator also piled on demanding I ask the question.] They are also reportedly organizing an upcoming fundraiser.

Consequently, I would ask each of the candidates whether they would take the Copyright Pledge proposed by University of Ottawa law professor and Toronto Star columnist Michael Geist. The pledge is as follows:

No Member of Parliament who has accepted financial contributions or other benefits from

(i) a copyright lobby group,
(ii) its corporate members, or
(iii) senior executives as well as
(iv) a copyright collective

shall serve as Minister of Canadian Heritage or as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, nor sit on any legislative committee conducting hearings or deliberations on copyright matters. [Here my microphone was turned off and I abandoned my concluding comment which follows.]

Sounds reasonable to me. The voters of High Park-Parkdale need reassurance that our MP will be working for us, and not corporate media interests.

With the exception of Bulte, all the candidates accepted the pledge including Conservative candidate Jurij Klufas, who outlined how the CPC would ban all corporate donations to political parties and limit individual contributions to $1000 per year. NDP candidate Peggy Nash also responded articulately to the question, highlighting the need to balance the rights of both creators and users in reforming our copyright laws.

Parkdale-High Park residents deserve better. On January 23rd, Bulte is going to get her butt kicked.

Note: After the meeting, Gregory Hamara, chair of the Bloor West Village Residents Association, apologized to me for interrupting and cutting off my question. Overall, he did an excellent job moderating an unruly meeting.

Gomery's unlimited mandate

One thing that really jumped out at me during last night's French debate was Paul Martin's assertion that he gave Justice John Gomery an unlimited mandate with unlimited resources to investigate Liberal government wrong doing.

Je l'ai donné un mandat illimité, des ressources illimités...

Really?

You can watch his statement in French by clicking the first clip in the Gouvernance et éthique section and advancing to about the 1:20 mark.