PM Harper's Excellent Speech at DAVOS conference

Woe. Many cool ideas are coming up. I am thoroughly impressed with the speech Stephen Harper gave at DAVOS. He won't raise taxes, wants more free trade, and wants Enlightened Sovereignty. I'm in love.

Part of Enlightened Sovereignty, I gather, is the new worldwide banking regulations that every country wanted so badly last year. The PM is going to use the G8 and G20 to bring more Canada to the world. An international regulatory banking system that is built on the Canadian Model would be very very interesting to see unfold.



In a broader sense, Enlightened Sovereignty, is world cooperation on many issues.  The Economic Crisis and now the Haitian Earthquake response are examples of this new way of international politics.  The Copenhagen complaining  conference is not.  NGOs and advocacy groups are inherently negative and poison all discussion with exaggeration, lies, and outright hypocrisy.  Cooperation towards mutual benefit is the path to success.  False blame and revenge is not.  Harper's Enlightened Sovereignty is a beacon in the night.

I am really optimistic about all this. Thanks Stephen Harper, excellent work.

Shepards Pie is the best answer to PETA's Pie

A cruel attempt by PETA to humiliate our Fisheries and Oceans Minister Gail Shea fortunately failed.  They assaulted her with a pie during a speech to no effect.  With Grandmotherly dignity that a full life of earned wisdom tends to bestow, Gail shrugged her shoulders and got herself cleaned up.

PETA and other loony tune outfits like the Sea Shepherds do everything to get attention.  Self actualization to them is forcing other people to look at them and then do what they say.  Nothing aggravates them more than to be ignored and then to do the opposite of what they want.

If you want to protest PETA or if you are just hungry, then I suggest you have some Shepard's pie.  Gordon Ramsey makes a mouthwatering cooking video below for you. Enjoy your comforting meal and think of PETA foiled.

Senate Reform: Our One Chance

Its time to remake the Senate. Its time to set this country straight once and for all. We won't have this chance forever. Its worth fighting an election over. Its worth losing an election over. This is the one issue where polls don't matter. In fact, the worse the polls get, the more urgent this issue becomes. The Senate must be reformed.

The big problems with the Senate include:

1. Appointed, Not Elected.
2. Long Term Lengths.
3. Unfair Distribution of Senators.
4. Unfair Veto Power over Bills.

Appointed, Not Elected
Make them elected by the people. Democracy overrides any objection to this. I don't care about the cost or the hassle. We are spending billions in stimulus for the sake of the economy and nobody can tell me that Democracy is not important enough. Democracy is the only thing more important than the economy. The voice and will of the people is not the place to weasel out. Its going to cost money. Suck it up.
The other excuse is that it will just make another partisan house. So? Should the House of Commons be appointed then? It seems to me that the Senate has been pretty partisan so far. The only difference between an appointed Senate and an Elected Senate is that the people can change the partisanship themselves rather than waiting for a Senator to retire while holding government.

Long Term Lengths
Once appointed they stay there forever almost. The Government is working on changing term lengths already. The Library of Parliament says this:

The main argument in favor of a single term of eight years is that it is long enough to allow senators to acquire the experience needed to perform their legislative duties while being short enough to allow a regular renewal of ideas and experiences in the upper chamber.

I like new ideas.

Unfair Distribution of Senators
There aren't enough Senators. Some provinces are over represented while others are under represented. There is just no excuse for this. BC has 6 Senators, while QC has 24. Seem fair to you? The best excuse that Ontario and Quebec can produce for their over representation of the Senate is that changing it needs the constitution to be changed. I don't care. That isn't a reason, that''s an excuse. Canada does not owe Quebec and Ontario dominance. Especially not after how they behaved in Copenhagen. Use every trick in the book. Redistribute or increase Senate seats by any means necessary immediately. If there is one thing that can be changed about the Senate this is it. Its not like I'm saying Alberta Senators should dominate the Senate or anything. I'm just asking for a fair distribution. That's all. For some its too much.

Unfair Veto Power
How in the heck does an appointee vote get the power to override a majority vote of elected representatives? It boils my blood. Don't give me any crap about being appointed by an elected official. No. Once there, they are totally independent and stuck there beyond anyone's reach. We don't need sober second thought from an appointee of a long defunct regime.

Nobody East, West, English, French or Native would agree with this configuration of a Senate. This is one area that can't be shelved or backed out on. I agree with stimulus so long as it doesn't involve increasing taxes. I don't believe in AGW, but I have to swallow hysteria and excuses for drastic or severe penalties. I will not swallow skipping out on Senate Reform. If new Senators aren't a part of a plan to reform the Senate I don't think I could support this Government. If the Senators themselves, once out of reach of the Prime Minister, decide to sell us out for a sweet job, they will be vilified forever. That Senator will have people spit when they hear their name. When they show their face people will throw things.

If on the other hand a sincere and determined effort is made on the above problems, people will fight hard to help. Success on any of these issues will be honoured and respected forever. Oh I'm sure some Liberals and Premiers will be up to their old dirty tricks and we aren't guaranteed to win. But the time for change is now. This year. We don't know when we'll get this chance again.

Who is the Puppet Master at the Liberal Party?

Its not Iggy.

Iggy said this today regarding the cabinet shuffle: "The puppets are always there, and they just change the little puppets, but the great leader is still there."

Iggy is not a great leader.  Iggy is a puppet himself.  You can tell because Iggy can't really be described as a self-starter.   He doesn't really take the initiative and get out there do stuff.  He likes to think in the rain and practice smiling.  I hear he can't even show up to work on the right day.

Ever since he lost his own party election and won Dion's historic defeat, I've been waiting for some kind of platform.  Remember when he tried to pull an election without a platform?  Too funny.  Even my high school president promised to make longer lunches. 

A plane might fly on autopilot, but it won't land.  There is a pilot on Liberal Airways 416, but it is not Micheal Ignatieff.  Should I ask the man behind the curtain about a platform? 

What are Liberals about Mr. Donolo?  You are about blaming war crimes on the best troops we can field.  You are about holding back Senate reform and prolonging a dying gun registry.  You are about forcing elections because of some timer you set back when you failed to force one last time.  Oh yes, and don't forget the most important Liberal item of all: You are about more Taxes.

Yup.  Liberals want more taxes.  Its in their blood.  I saw a hint of it today.  Iggy was careful not to say taxes but it was there and he didn't want to talk about it.  Reporters didn't chase him on it, but they are mostly incompetent leftard cheerleaders anyway.

A New Political Model

The other day I watched Glenn Beck say something that mirrored my own thoughts.  He said, "you have to stop looking left and right, and start looking up and down."  That hit me like a ton of bricks.  He casually touched on something that has been rolling around inside my head for a few years now.  The closest thing I can find to it is the Nolan Diagram, but that isn't quite what I'm expressing.

Everyone knows the Conventional Political Model.  Fascists on the far right, Communists on the far left, and in the middle is everyone else.  When you look at the two extremes, its easy to see how similar Fascists and Communists really are.  They hate each other, and justify their own evil historically by the crimes of the other.

What I have done in the New Political Model is to attach the extreme ends of the left and right wings to make a circle.  Totalitarianism is at the bottom where Communism and Fascism meet, and Freedom is at the opposite end where Libertarians and Anarchists meet.

The Center Line is where Left and Right meet in the Conventional Model.  In the New Model the Center Line represents the maximum level of Freedom and Liberty without really ceding the government to Al Capone or the Taliban.  The Center Line is not static. 

Its interesting to note that while in Canada the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party are relatively close together in the center, they are worlds apart in my model.  This is closer to the reality.  While their level of freedom is similar, their style and approach could not be more different.

Outside the circle or political continuum, are the ideological pressures that drive a party up or down towards freedom or totalitarianism. 

Libertarians believe in smaller government.  They believe that individuals and institutions alike can decide what is best for them.  In short Libertarians believe that more Liberty is the ultimate goal.

Social Conservatives in the west are like libertarians with a moral compass.  I included them here in this model because there exists a route to right wing totalitarianism that is not expressed in the west.  Saudi Arabia, Iran, the Taliban and Dark Age Europe took this route to tyranny.  Religion can never be used to fix social problems through law and the power of the state.  The state must be secular in order to treat all faiths of all peoples equally.  Any believer will tell you that God has granted us with free will that cannot be taken away by the state.  Through history Social Conservatives have learned that their faith is much safer in a free society at peace with other faiths than to dominate by force.  If you are unlucky enough to be of a different belief than the state, or your faith loses control of the state, you will be oppressed.  A conservative path to tyranny is clearly impossible due to current and historical examples of this folly.  Our Social Conservatives are an indispensable moral conscience to Conservatism as a whole.

On the left or red side we have the Anarchists.  These people are largely ignored by everyone.  This is because people with a passion for freedom but who still believe in civilization drift towards libertarianism.  All that is left over are the people who want to hunt and gather in an empty world.  There is no draw towards freedom on the left.

The answer to everything on the left is Socialism.  In some cases Socialism is the goal unto itself.  Socialists believe that its the right of government to intervene in everything.  Every last little part of a citizens life is regulated and controlled the deeper into socialism one goes.  Taxes are a favorite tool of the Socialist.  They use taxes to further whatever goal is in vogue and have little regard for property or wealth.  Once Socialism descends into Communism it has no freedom at all.  The evil brother of fascism, it commands the economy and its people are slaves to the collective.

The large orange arrow represents Government Scope Creep.  Its like gravity in that it pushes all parties and governments towards totalitarianism.  Scope Creep is a systems analysis term to describe the tendency of system planners to take on more and more responsibility and functions in their system.  Lawmakers make laws.  All of them.  Every government, no matter what its philosophy, tends to make more and more rules.  These rules accumulate over time and drag us all down in red tape.
This is where I find Progressives.  They are neither left nor right but will use government or business to further their chosen agenda.  Progressives can be thought of as post-Socialists since they simply outsource social goals to large corporations.  Large corporations are only too happy to become extensions of government.

There are so many pressures towards totalitarianism its a wonder we have any freedom at all.  Only Democracy ensures that governments stay towards the center line.  Conservatives are deeply committed to freedom and free markets.  Some regulation is always necessary along with adequate enforcement.  The key advantage that Conservatives have over Liberals is the Libertarian element.  Conservatives should not only move closer to the center but find innovative ways to move the center line upwards.  In the conventional model this would appear as though new territory was being created on the right.  The people don't change easily, but more people would find themselves amicable to Conservative ideals if we could only move that center line.   

The trick is getting as close to freedom as possible without letting the crooks out there win.  We need to be smart with our taxes, our laws, our policies.  Government should strive towards minimalism.  Only Conservatives have the ability to counter all the pressures incrementally pushing us into totalitarianism.

The more I look at this the more it makes me think.  This is why I have shared this model with you.  You should think.  There is no Utopia here, only compromises between opposing forces that allow us to live together.   Perhaps a new model is just what we need?


Note: I've inverted left and right for aesthetic reasons and labeled them according to the conventional model.  Remember that the model is just a metaphor and that left and right, blue and red, are arbitrary.

Haiti Needs Our Help

I came home from a long day at work to find my girlfriend crying today.  She is a teacher and she had seen pictures of children who were killed in their classroom during the earthquake in Haiti.  It didn't take long before I saw our Governor General profoundly distraught as well.  Tears are contagious and so is action.

My government has sent ships, planes, helicopters, personnel, and millions in emergency aid.  I am quietly proud of Canada today.  Lets all show them who we really are.  Lets donate money.

I work hard for my money and I'm sure you do too.  We know the value of a dollar.  I'll work to see those people who survived the earthquake make it through this to rebuild.  The Canadian Government has announced that it will match each dollar raised for the victims of Haiti's tragic earthquake.  Thank you Prime Minister.

I assume that all charities will be aggregated to calculate the governments contribution.  Pick your favorite charity or go to World Vision Canada to donate please.

Thank You
Alexander Fernandes

No Summer Vacation for Parliament

Now that would be funny!  It would also be useful since Senate reform will probably be very tough in this most difficult of Parliaments.  I would like to see members sit for double or triple the usual length of time after the Olympics.  Its obvious that the Liberals are already angling for an election, so its unlikely that the Parliamentary term will make it that far anyway.  I'm not even sure the government has the power to extend the term length at all.  I do know that Prorogation is within the Prime Minister's right and its also nothing special either.  

Perhaps an extension would make an entertaining bill?  Journalists have always called it "cheap theater."  The real work of government is done outside of Question Period and everybody knows that.  You don't actually think all that horsing around, jeering, and grandstanding serves a purpose do you?  Come on.  Anything that can't wait until after we host the world will need some kind of emergency session anyway.

I say: make them all work thrice as hard (or long) for the same pay and see how that empty rhetoric stands up.

What to do with the CBC? Part 2

Its a simple idea really.  I think the CBC should be broken up into specialized parts.  The French part is already its own separate entity so there is nothing to do there.  I'm working on my largely atrophied French skills and occasionally watch CBC in French.  They seem to be very insulated.  They are a closed community within Canada.  A separate nation, and their CBC reflects that.  What news of the country and the world they get is always viewed through their unique perspective.  They are lucky.  I'd leave it alone.  They have achieved the dream.

The rest of us get centralized machine dominated by active Liberals.  (the French CBC is also predominantly Liberal)  Splitting the CBC into parts would not necessarily reduce the Liberal influence but it would be easier to sprinkle the new headquarters across the country.  Separated from their cliques, their bubble would burst in some areas and concentrate in others.  We could even divide it along lines that already exist.  The new Crown entities would lose the CBC logo but retain their functions, staff and facilities.  New channels would include:

1. News Red (for Liberals)
2. News Blue (for smart people)
3. Sports
4. Education & Documentaries
5. Canadian Arts

Each channel would sink or swim on its own.  Government funding should mirror funding from ads.  The poorer a channel does at attracting viewers the less people it will have until its unable to function and its gone.

How do you think they would react to this plan?  It could involve more funds in total than the original CBC with more employees at first.  If all the channels do well and bring in cash for the people, the shareholders, then we keep them all.  If not, then bye bye sold.

Thanks

What to do with the CBC?

(this one is for you Strombo)  I have a problem.  I don't believe that News or Entertainment is the domain of government.  I believe in public health care, the Police, Firefighters, the Military, and a whole host of government services that facilitates a free and fair society.  

I could be convinced that the CBC fits into this category.  Chantal Hebert once said that the CBC provides national unity.  She was quite animated when she said it (because she was probably talking to me), but I think she meant specifically that removing the cultural lifeline of the CBC from Quebec would be a disaster for everyone.  I agree.  Its too big to fail, even if it only produces mediocre results on the national unity objective in Quebec. 

So we've established that the CBC is impossible to get rid of and its even sort of useful sometimes.  Should it not be impartial then?  As the effective Ministry of Culture, should they not be as impartial as the RCMP or Revenue Canada?  I mean we pool our money to do all these useful things and then it gets funneled into party politics. 

Don't believe me?  But they are impartial?  Don't wear out your rolling eyes because I have proof.
This night on The Hour, Strombo looked directly into the camera and said "We deserve better."  He said so three times, like some kind of Liberal hypnotist.  You can see him just aching for some kind of traction.  The words are no mistake either.  "We deserve better" is the bastard step child of  "we can do better."  The Liberal slogan that made everyone think: no you can't, you actually suck hard.

I remember on the night before an election the cast of Royal Canadian Air Farce got together and actually said to the camera "vote liberal".  Aren't there frigging rules about that kind of thing?  There should be!  Who decides what show gets aired and when?  Who picks the cast and to what end?  This is where the sinking suspicions about the CBC bias come from.  Say what you will about Mike Duffy, but CTV is still a private entity last time I heard.  They can do and say what they want and they should not get a bail out if they mess it up.  CBC gets a bailout no matter what happens.  The Continual Bailout Corporation (CBC).  Why can't you guys make some money or die like a real business huh?  Can you at least do it fairly then?  I don't see them pleading "vote conservative" on Dragons Den, or "vote green" on Dr. Fruit Fly's show (yet).  And this is just what I've caught in passing and can remember right now.  Imagine what else is out there.

Anyway.  I've got some ideas on how to change the CBC for the better without losing the good things it does sometimes.  More on that tomorrow.


(Note: The government disagrees with me of course.  I have zero say in what goes on in either my party or my government.  I'm just a loud mouth idiot with a talent to complain.  So don't take it out on them please.  Don't take it personal either.  Its my country you're messing with.)