Category Archives: Federal

Federal

The Blame Game.

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Wednesday June 3, 2009: the day that Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party unveiled their new strategy for denying responsibility for the consequences Canadians are suffering for Harper’s actions, policies and ideology – ‘The Secret of Success is knowing who to Blame for Your Failures.’

Henceforth, rather than have any Conservative MP (or the Prime Minister) accepting accountability for what occurs on their watch and under their direction, failures will be blamed on staff members.

Although … given the issues Canadians as a people and a country face, and in light of Harper and the Conservatives demonstrated inability to comprehend or understand the myriad issues (including what it means to be Canadian) that exist outside their limited ideology, there may not be enough government employees for Harper and the Conservatives to blame their failures on.

The appeal that not taking responsibility for failure has for anyone in the shoes of Harper and the Conservatives is understandable.

An affordable housing crisis in Canada? Increasing homelessness because of the lack of affordable housing? Canadian workers who’s EI has run out ending up homeless? Increasing numbers of Canadians and Canadian children living in poverty and in danger of homelessness? Government policies the transfer wealth to the wealthy while more than 90% of Canadians become less wealthy to fund this transfer of wealth? Problems and complications caused by the denial of the recession and refusal to acknowledge the depth and affects of the recession on the Canadian economy and working Canadians? … …

All staff’s fault; Stephen Harper and the Conservatives are not, in their worldview anyway, in any way responsible for any negative consequences of their polices and actions.

A $50 Billion deficit? Staff should have told/convinced Harper and the Conservatives that cutting the GST when the economy was booming, rather than using the money to reduce the national debt, maintaining the higher cash flow and maintaining the option of using GST cuts as stimulus during a recession, was as poor a decision as fiscally responsible Canadians with common sense pointed out, at the time the GST cuts were announced, it was.

No, for Stephen Harper and the Conservatives a good scapegoat is as welcome (more welcome?) as solutions to the issues.

I suppose it is only a matter of time before Mr Harper and the Conservatives, desperate to find any success to take credit for, create successes out of their sea of failures by simply redefining the meaning of success. ‘Stephen Harper today stated that the Conservatives had been SUCESSFUL at preventing the deficit from ballooning to $100 billion dollars.’

No need to accept responsibility and address the issues – just blame your failures on others and redefine what success is.

Federal, Media

PBS Model – not more Corporate Welfare

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Should the media conglomerates Machiavellian “save local television” campaign manage to con Canadians into demanding their MP’s impose a new tax on Canadians and use the revenue to bailout/save the media conglomerates from the consequences of their own bad decisions and management the federal government should say NO loudly.

Rather than rewarding the duplicitous nature of this campaign by using a new tax on Canadians to provide ongoing corporate welfare for the Canadian media conglomerates, the federal government should tell the media conglomerates to take a lesson from PBS and its pledge drives.

Local PBS stations depend upon donations from local viewers, running pledge drives throughout the year to raise the funds they need to continue broadcasting. Vancouver’s “local” Seattle PBS station receives a significant proportion of its donations from the lower mainland. Proof residents of the lower mainland are willing to support financially television they judge worthy of support.

Citizens should be permitted to clearly indicate whether they support the giant media conglomerates that control Canadian media or whether they would prefer the return of local media to local ownership,

Indeed, given the ethically questionable nature of the “save local television”, and that the media has chosen to beguile local charities into endorsing this disguised political campaign, the CRTC needs to impose sanctions on those who formulated and implemented this hustle.

Consider, Federal, Provincial

A matter of Choice, not Vote.

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It is a matter of choice, not a matter of voting.

The majority of people equate being able to vote with being or living in a democracy. They are wrong.

If it was merely a question of being able to vote in elections then China would be a democracy. After all the Chinese government regularly holds elections for elective office that citizens turn out in their millions to vote in. Yet most Canadians would not consider China to be a democracy.

Why? While Chinese citizens get to vote and are encouraged to vote, they are limited to casting their votes for candidates all of whom are from the Communist Party and approved by the Party. They cannot make a choice onthe policies, direction, priorities, practices or behaviours of their government.

Democracy is not defined or contingent upon voting; rather it is a matter of choice, the ability to use your vote to choose and/or have a say in the policies, direction, priorities, practices or behaviours of the government.

Since incorrect policies, direction, priorities, practices or behaviours by the government will give rise to negative, perhaps very negative, outcomes – citizens want to choose MLAs and a government that will pursue policies, direction, priorities, practices or behaviours that will bring about positive outcomes.

If, as in the current BC provincial election, only bad policies, direction, priorities, practices or behaviours are offered to choose among, without some way to reject the bad choices citizens are denied the ability to make a choice that will have positive outcomes.

In being denied the ability to choose policies, direction, priorities, practices or behaviours that will have positive outcome; citizens am denied the ability to choose.

It is the inability to choose, to vote for desired, policies, direction, priorities, practices or behaviours that makes the current provincial election an undemocratic election.

Indeed given the current state of elections in BC and throughout Canada, denying as they do citizens the ability to choose policies, direction, priorities, practices or behaviours they want their government(s) to pursue, Canada has ceased to be a democracy.

While Canada has not yet become as undemocratic as China, until we as a country adopt election legislation that presents citizens with a range of choices reflective of desirable policies, direction, priorities, practices or behaviours or enables citizens to reject all choices if they are considered unacceptable – elections will be undemocratic in nature and Canada will not be a democracy.