The Lousypoet

You know, I have to give it to Stephen Harper. After running up a deficit of over 50 billion dollars and sitting on his ass for most of the worst of the recession before even acknowledging that it was happening, he has now decided to do something to help.

He’s providing jobs for people to search out bad quotes by and about Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff. He’s then employing several employees to splice these together in several 30 second ads. He’s then supporting local television networks by paying them to play said ads.

Good for you Stephen. Way to spend your money and help keep a few Canadians in a job. Hell, maybe you even made three or four jobs with these ads. Way to show true leadership in these trying times. Certainly when Canadians are losing their jobs and feeling generally lousy about themselves and their nation, it is time to start throwing the muck. We all need to have our government show us how to tear a person down. Next time my job is in jeopardy, or people are starting to question my decisions, I’ve now learned from you Mr. Prime Minister, that my natural reaction should be to show how much worse someone else is, so everyone forgets about me. I might just get myself some job security. Thanks for the positive role model Stephen!

Vote Green Party in the next federal election. Forget the Conservatives and the Liberals. They’re all a bunch of criminals and ego maniacs that don’t give a damn about any of us.

You can see a how Stephen Harper is helping some web designers stay in business over at http://ignatieff.me/

Honestly, I was not a huge fan of Harper to begin with, but this crap just leaves a bad tast in my mouth. I’m not saying Ignatieff is all that, but is this really the time in the life of our country for this kind of smear campaign? We’re not even in an election!

I’m not much of a political genius. Nor am I an economic guru. But this article at the Toronto Star about the upcoming Ontario budget really impressed me. I asked in my earlier post, Where is Canada’s Obama? and I’m still waiting. As this article points out, our recent federal budget could have been full of transformational ideas. It could’ve been the stimulus to propel Canada to new places. But instead, we had promises of a bunch of money thrown about that will probably do little to help the economy, our future, or more importantly, the common Canadian. I love how governments talk about needing people to spend to boost the economy, and then they give us an average tax break of about $140 a year. Woohoo, with that big money I can feed my kids at McDonald’s one time extra every two months. Will this help the economy? If they want to really boost the economy, why not pay down peole’s mortgages? I mean, what is the dollar value of the outstanding mortgages in this country or the United States? I can tell you this, my mortgage being paid off would result in an extra $1000 in my pocket every month, and I might just take a vacation, or have some more dinners out, or maybe buy a Blu-Ray DVD player. But so long as that mortgage saps half my paycheque, those things are not going to happen. But this is a purely personal desire.

What I would like to see from my government, and what is more realistic, are budgets that truly lay the groundwork for the future. Let’s see more tech and development. Let’s see more green types of industries. Let’s give poorer families a real chance at sending their kids for post secondary education. And for goodness sake, let’s look at overhauling our healthcare and numerous other government service structures so that they run more efficiently, are cost effective, and deliver better services.

Given the current economic situation it seems a forward looking government could get away with far more now than they could at any other time. Why not seize that chance?

So the association of Banks asked the Ontario government to cut corporate taxes in order to “help stimulate the economy and save higher paying jobs” yeah, theirs. I’ve not been a huge fan of Dalton Mcguinty, but I’m glad he had the balls to call the banks on this one. I’m glad he looked them in the eye and said, hey, if you’re so worried about the economy, why not pass along the full extent of the lower interest rates set by the Bank of Canada? And I’m saying, why not invest your billion dollar profits into the economy instead of hoarding it for yourselves and paying yourselves six figure incomes with even six figure bonuses! The fact is, businesses are only looking out for themselves. They want government help, in other words, money from us tax payers, and then they want to further rape the tax payers’ wallets with ludicrous fees and interest rates.

The big three car manufacturers aren’t looking to truly save themselves. If they really were interested in saving their ass, they would take 10% off the wages of the highest earners in the company, sell their private jets, fly econo class, and forget paying any kinds of bonuses. But we all know this isn’t going to happen. No, the rich will continue to get richer, and do it all on the backs of the average tax paying citizen. They aren’t truly interested in saving their companies, or stimulating the economy, they are only interested in saving their own pay cheques and their own standard of living.

I’ve got a simple plan. Fire all the top executives who fucked these companies up, save several million from their salaries, and replace them with a committee of average working, average paid, joes who will worry about putting the company right, not just their own bank accounts.

Now, I know this is an over-simplification. The numbers speak nothing but doom and gloom if we lose the jobs supported by the big 3 auto makers. But if they’re going to get money, it better come at a damn hefty price to them. They should be forced to cut the costs of their vehicles to the consumer, they should be forced to give up their perks, their bonuses, and take a salary cut at the top. And there should be guarantees as to plants remaining open. Why should we Ontario citizens give an automaker money just so they can go move their plant to Mexico?

We’ll see how this global recession plays out. This may be the catalyst for change. Perhaps our world is transitioning towards 2012, just like all the Mayan calendar watchers have been claiming. LOL, we’ll see…

So I was mentioning in my previous post that a contender for the Liberal party leadership is Michael Ignatieff. For fun, and because I like to be informed, I’ve been doing some reading on the man who may very well become the next Prime Minister of Canada. I have to say, I am impressed. Aside from being a writer of renown, this is a man who truly seems to understand the world, and I get the impression that he might just have some vision of Canada that will propel us forward instead of being stuck in the mire we currently find ourselves in.

If you’re interested in Michael Ignatieff’s official stands, go visit his homepage at http://www.michaelignatieff.ca/en/. You can even register with the Liberal party so you can have a say on the future leadership of the party.

And if you don’t trust the man’s own words, give him a Google, there’s lots of interesting reading.

So the Governor General prorogued parliament. This is not all that bad.

For one, it allows the government a chance to put together an actual budget that might help Canadians and Canada, instead of just kicking other political parties in the balls and pretending like we haven’t just had the worst job loss rate since 1982.

Also, it might mean that it gives the Liberal party time to get Stephane Dion out of the leadership and put someone in who might be more capable of actually running the country with some strength and dignity if the coalition does take power. I’m putting money on Michael Ignatieff.

While I’m not thrilled that we have almost a month and a half without any decisive action to help our economy, I really wonder if the coalition could do anything truly comprehensive any faster even if they had taken power tomorrow.

I still find it funny how so many Canadians act like this is such an outrage. This is just as much the fault of voters and our political parties as anything else. I mean, if Stephen Harper were a better, more charismatic leader and his party more active and reactive to the situations in the world, they might have managed a majority which would’ve prevented all this. The fact is, this is a political move. This is a last ditch effort of the opposition parties to prevent Stephen Harper from succeeding in saving the country and therefor assure himself a majority government next time we go to the polls.

But given the somewhat disgraceful way that all parties have handled themselves, should any of these leaders be given their kick at the can with a majority? I’m hoping Michael Ignatieff, who has acted with some calm and poise during this past week, will bring the needed decorum to the proceedings and manage to win back some trust. Maybe he can even clean up the Liberals, who went from being the party of choice for most Canadians to a complete disorganised mess. The simple fact is, these people need a strong leader they can get behind and stick with that person. Their infighting is an embarrassment, and frankly, who wants a party running the country when they can’t keep their own party in line. And I like the Liberal party generally…

We need a unifying force. We need someone with true vision and the strength to pull it off and pull it off right. We need someone who will put the betterment of Canadians and Canada ahead of their own goals. In other words, we are going to be sorely disappointed for some time.

Right now we have a ruling party that is most interested in keeping power and doing everything they can to strengthen themselves. On the other, we have a bunch of other parties that are acting like the little punks in the schoolyard that talk a mean talk, but fall apart when they’re called on it. Where is true leadership? Where is someone who will make Canada great again?

This isn’t rocket science. This country is composed of brilliant people. Someone has to have some good ideas on how to fix things. Why aren’t they being listened to?

I’m really fed up. I hate the Conservatives, I have no faith in the coalition. I don’t see things getting better for an all too long while. So depressing…

So much has been said and written about the current goings on in Ottawa these past few days. If for some reason you haven’t been following it, or aren’t Canadian and just haven’t heard, the opposition parties, including the separatist Bloc party, have signed an accord to bring down the government and that they will form a new coalition to govern the country.

The timetable is that on Monday, they intend to hold a no confidence vote, which will defeat the government, since it is a minority government (meaning they do not hold a majority of voting seats in the house of commons), and once the government is defeated, they wish for the Governor General to install their coalition as the ruling party of Canada.

Now this is constantly being painted as a “crisis” and many Canadian people are up in arms stating that this isn’t what they voted for. The interesting thing is that, while maybe individually we didn’t vote for this, as a country we did. Our political system has had, for the 140 or so years that it’s existed, always contained the possibility for no confidence votes. It has always contained the possibility that a new coalition government could take power, and we, as Canadians, did, as a majority, vote to not have the Conservatives as our ruling party. I think this happens to have people in a panic because coalition governments just have not been a normal thing in Canada. I think I read somewhere that the last time it occurred was 97 or so years ago.

The simple fact is, this is all about political maneuvering. Canada, like most of the world, is facing an economic crisis. Everyone is well aware of this. What the political parties of Canada are also aware of, is the fact that whoever guides Canada successfully through this will most likely form the next government of Canada. This is pretty simple. People want stability, they want a government that will provide them with security. Whoever proves they can do this will easily get a majority government the next time we go to the polls. The parties all know this. And as they watch Stephen Harper, they realise that if they do not act, and he is successful at getting Canada through this, he will most likely win a majority next time, and the other parties will be powerless to stop his partisanship governing ways. They see this as their window of opportunity. And maybe, just possibly, some of them believe that they truly could do a better job of guiding Canada through this.

Much of this stems from the government’s recent economic statement. The Conservatives used this as a means of telling the other parties that they are going to reduce, or eliminate, the public funding of elections. While the Conservatives have enjoyed much wealth from private donations, it would effectively mean that some parties would not be able to mount a campaign. So many of Canadians see this move as a purely selfish measure by the other parties to secure their funding. However, what people fail to realise is that the economic statement also failed to do something that is fundamentally needed at this time, which is to address how the government intends to address the economic crisis. In this sense, the opposition parties are justified in stating that they have no confidence in the current government. How, as Canadians, can we? Our Prime Minister has attended several high level meetings of world governments to address the global economy, he told us that it would be necessary to take “drastic steps” in order to secure our own economy (many people interpreted this as to mean going into a deficit), so where was the plan when it came time to discuss the economy? Need I remind that this is the same party that didn’t bother to release a platform until after the debates, which was only a week or so before we went to vote! They seem to be resting all too much on their laurels.

Another sticking point here is that in order for the new coalition government to stand, it has to rely on the support of the Bloc Quebecois party, which is a party that stands primarily for the separation of the province of Quebec from the rest of Canada. They are a seperatist party that only runs in Quebec, and therefor in many people’s views, does not represent Canada as a whole. While this may be true, I might point out that we did go through a period where the Bloc was the official opposition party. Did we all burn in hell? Did the country fall apart? No, actualy, the Bloc was quite effective in the role. The simple fact is, it is quite interesting really to see the Bloc in this role. They are a seperatist party, that is now being forced to be at least somewhat, of a nationalist party. This, to me, provides an incredible opportunity. If the seperatist party can be shown to work hand in hand with two other nationalist parties, does this not bode well for Canada remaining as a whole? In a sense, this coalition government is more representative as Canada as a whole than almost any other single party has for many years. The simple question is, how long can it last?

I suppose the other issue is Stephan Dion. The man has been generally seen as an ineffective leader. In fact, he would only be Prime Minister until a new head of the Liberal party was elected in May. Then, if the coalition still stands, we would have a new Prime Minister, who has never been voted for. But this happened recently at the end of the Mulroney years. He resigned while the PC party was still in power, and his successor Kim Campbell became Prime Minister for several months until the election actually occured. I think the Conservatives had done this as a way of test driving Campbell to see if she could engage Canadians who had come to dispise Mulroney. She failed miserably and the Conservative received a crushing defeat. I think the Liberals are playing the same game. Once again, if their new leader guides Canada through the next year and a half or so successfully, proves himself a valuable and effective leader, then it is entirely likely the Liberals could return to power.

But all of this rests on the decision of the Governor General. In our political system, she is charged with ensuring the continued operation of the government. If the no confidence vote occurs, she can either allow the coalition to run, or she can order an election. If she goes with the election, it is likely the current negative backlash could blow up in the faces of the coaltion and we could see a Conservative majority. If, however, she accepts the coaltion, they will get their chance. And then it is theirs to blow. However, there is also the option that the Prime Minister will request to prorogue parliament (effectively it would cause parliament to cease until a specified time). No parliament session, no vote. This would allow the governemnt to put together a budget that could possibly tame the coaltion. After all, if the coalition’s stand is that the government must fall because of their delay in addressing the economy, how can the coalition argue this if they are presented with a budget that addresses the issue. Not to mention that if the budget contains lots of gimmes for the average Canadian, it will leave much bitterness towards the coaltion if they tumble the government then.

There are so many twists and turns here. I think that is why so many people are anxious, because there is no clear path. I’m sure even the Governor General is scratching her head, because there is no clear path for her either. She has options, and none of them are proven to truly be better or more appropriate than the other. At this point, I don’t think she will prorogue parliament. I think that would be seen as a favouritist act and an abuse of the government’s power. Instead, I think she will let the vote come to be. And, given the resentment Canadians showed during the last vote, I think she will give the coalition their shot. After all, our system exists to support this. We vote, and once we have voted, our choice of who controls parliament is gone until the next vote. It is in the House of Commons that who is leader is decided. If the House has lost confidence in the current leader, then it is the right of the House to defeat that leader. And, in tandem with that, if the House as a majority has confidence in a new leader, they have every legal and constituional right to put forward that leader.

Whatever happens, this is an interesting time in Canadian politics. I am only sorry that we do not have our own Obama waiting to take the reigns (you can see my lament about that in this previous post). I can only truly hope that whoever remains in power does so truly looking out for the interests of the average Canadian, and is not just maneouvering for the sake of their political party.

Recently, I find myself looking southward to our American neighbours, with a bit of envy.

Certainly, there is much that I am happy with here in Canada. I’m glad our economy hasn’t completely tanked, I’m glad our government stayed clear of the Iraq war, I’m glad our nation has universal healthcare. There is a lot to be proud of in Canada, and to not feel too envious of the position of the US. However, there is something that I envy about the United States. It is their passion and the passion of their leaders.

On November 4th, the United States of America elected their 44th president. What was monumental about it, was that not only is their president-elect a man of colour, but that unlike the previous election, that was very much about sticking with what you know, this time around Americans overwhelmingly voted to change the course of their country. They voted for a man who is advocating change; a man whose passion and conviction is powerful, palpable, and contagious. As I sat and watched the rapture of that massive crowd as Obama made his acceptance speech, something in me went a little green.

In Canada, our politicians always seem so reserved. Even when they are trying to express their love for our country, they come across as having read the lines from a teleprompter instead of feeling them from the heart. Perhaps this is because we don’t have the same fierce nationalist pride of the Americans. Perhaps our reserved and quiet appreciation of our nation doesn’t lend itself to a fiery passion in our leaders. Or maybe it’s just that we are all so stuck in the status quo that we feel no need for a national revolution like that in the States. Perhaps our leaders feel that they shouldn’t speak out too loudly for fear they jar us calm, reserved Canadians; which, I think, is pure and utter bull shit.

The fact is our nation is in need of a great leader. While we like to think our country is great, the fact is we are a splintered, fractured nation that needs great leadership to truly unite us. Canada is a wonderful nation in its diversity, but that diversity seems more to drive wedges between us than to unite us in a celebration of our differences. The West feels bitter towards Central Canada, the East Coast feels often abandoned and under-appreciated. And then there is the province of Quebec that all too regularly wants its own desires to be put ahead of others and even talks all too easily about separation from the Canadian nation. Where is the leader that creates such a compelling vision for the nation that it unites the country? Where is the leader that the majority of us can feel great pride as we send that leader out into the world to represent us? When will the day come that a leader delivers a speech so rousing that I thank God that he/she is our Prime Minister?

I suppose maybe our system isn’t set up to inspire such a thing. After all, we do not vote for our Prime Minister, we vote for the party that we wish to form the ruling party and whoever is the leader of that party becomes Prime Minister. So it is possible that despite how great a leader might seem, he/she may not be elected because of the party they represent. But I think that if a party had a truly inspiring leader, a leader who could effectively deliver a vision of Canada that united the nation, that party would win.

Taking a look at the most recent Canadian election, none of the leaders could effectively convey their vision for where to take Canada. The Conservatives proposed a stay the course response, and while other parties discussed some different paths to pursue, I don’t think any truly connected with Canada as a whole and the leaders just seemed incapable of capturing the nation. When it comes down to it, our leaders seem more like lawyers and academics than they do “leaders.” Which I suppose is appropriate because I think most of them come from legal or academic backgrounds; which isn’t to say a great lawyer couldn’t be the leader I envision. It just seems that Canada lacks the ability to turn out a truly strong, charismatic leader that will operate for the benefit of Canadians.

And that’s the problem we seem to have. Our leaders get into office, and while they may do some good things for Canadians, they then do crappy backroom deals that bring disgrace to their parties, or become so protectionist that there is no longer any transparency. Also, why does it seem to be the intent of the Federal party to dump as many responsibilities as possible on the provinces? Why is healthcare a provincial jurisdiction when it is a Canadian, national, philosophy that healthcare being available to all people of our nation? How can a country be governed effectively and universal standards applied if the nation’s major tenets are fractured across the individual provinces?

I’m wandering a bit, I know. But I do love my country. I do want a leader who can be as passionate, visionary and charismatic as Obama. I do want to feel all Canadian people are united and emboldened by a vision for a glorious future for our nation. I want to see Canada be on the forefront of things like renewable energy, peace making agendas and healthcare research. I want to hear a Canadian politician speak and feel pride, instead of bitterness and apathy.

I’ve been told by more than one person that an Obama would never work in Canada. That our fractured nation would reject such a strong nationalist leader and that Canadians are just generally unprepared for such passion from their leadership. And perhaps that’s because things have been too good for too long. The rest of the world is falling into turmoil, but our nation appears generally well prepared. Our healthcare has problems, but it is still better than what most countries have. We need to be shaken. We need to wake up. We need to realise that we could play such a larger part in the world if we would just embrace it.

So, to my American neighbours, I say congratulations. I pray that your new president is able to deliver on the great promise he has shown thus far. While I would be envious to see you resurrect Camelot and gain new and great prosperity, I will not begrudge you it. You deserve it for taking a chance on change. I can only wish Canada had the same opportunity.

So yesterday Canadians went to the polls. Big Fat Hairy Deal. Things haven’t changed a whole lot; we still have a minority government. But there are some interesting things that came out of last night’s results, and possibly we will see some true change because of them. Here’s a few interesting tidbits about the Canadian election:

This is the third minority government in a row. This is the first time that has happened since the 1960s

The Liberal party received the least percentage of seats in the party’s history, dating back to the mid 1800s!

The Green party did not win any seats, but increased its share of the popular vote by 3 percent.

The turn out for voters was an all time record low at just 58 percent of eligible voters.

Now, why is this interesting? Well, to me, it seems the next election we might see two new party leaders. In the very least, I believe that Stephane Dion will be replaced as the Liberal leader. He was just too weak in his delivery of their platform and appeared to just let Harper walk all over him. Harper, on the other hand, might feel his neck a bit, because for the third time he has failed to lead his party to a majority government. This can only weaken the Tories, because if the Liberals don’t fuck up with their choice of leader this time, they might be a better, leaner beast in the next election. And hey, how about the gains made by the NDP? I haven’t seen any figures, but I’m sure they have more seats now than the party ever has in the past, certainly that I can remember. Jack Layton has really done some impressive work for that party, and I think his job is pretty safe. Elizabeth May, I think, will stay on as leader of the Green party. The woman is smart, well spoken, and if the Greens can continue to grow their base, I think they could very well make some more headway in the next election.

I think it should be alarming how few voters turned out. In the 1980s, voter turn out was as high as 88 percent! I think Canadians are just sick of voting. It seems like we’ve done nothing but have campaign after campaign for the past 6 years. And every time, the results are very similar and there really isn’t any change. And again, instead of parties standing up and stating their platform loud and clear, they resort to scare tactics and defamation as a way of trying to shore up voter support. You know, when I was in grade school, we ran an election for class president. You know what, when it came time to make our speeches, we didn’t say how much cooler we were than our competition, we didn’t tell our classmates that their way of life would be in jeopardy if they voted for the other guy, we just clearly stated why we wanted to be president and what we would do for our classmates. Now, if we could manage that in grade school, why can’t our federal politicians do that? Why, when the Conservatives clearly knew before anyone else that they were going to call an election, did they not release their platform until the week before the election? Why did all the other parties manage to write lengthy, comprehensive platforms that totaled in the hundreds of pages, while the Conservatives merely weighed in with 40 pages, at 14 point font and over 20 pictures of the Prime Minister? I think Canadians felt like they were just being sold short. I think Canadians just wanted to keep the statusquo until we knew what the hell was going on in the world. And that is why the government is still a minority, why the Conservatives still lead it and why most Canadians couldn’t even be bothered to vote.

Next time though, oh I so look forward to the next election. I can only hope that we have younger, smarter, stronger, more dynamic leaders that have true vision for the future of Canada and the strength of character to present it in a way that ignites the country. Oh, if only….

So a few days back I watched the Canadian political debates. I watched both the French and the English debates. Over all, I was most impressed with Elizabeth May. I do not believe that the Green Party has a hope of winning the election, but I do believe that they have a very strong sense of what our nation, maybe even our world, needs. I think their voice needs to be heard in parliament, so I’m hoping some of them get there. And today, I committed to helping that cause along. I now am sporting a spiffy sign on my lawn supporting my local Green party candidate. There are a lot of reasons to support the Greens. I suggest you head over to their website at

http://greenparty.ca/ and view their platform.

So tomorrow marks a difficult decision for Canadians. Should we watch our own debate among those vying for Prim Minister, or should we watch what promises to be an entertaining debate among the American Vice-President candidates? I suppose many a PVR will be working tomorrow to answer that question, but I wonder which people will choose to watch first.

It’s a funny thing about Canadians. For all our belly-aching about everyone comparing us to the US, we ourselves our almost perversly obsessed with their goings-on. Some will say that it is because we are so closely linked economically; that the current economic crisis in the states is so important to Canada that we need to see how their current and future government will handle it. But I sometimes wonder if it isn’t a little bit of envy. I mean, the US is kind of like the brother that is loud and brash and confident. Who believes in himself despite any and all obstacles. Canada is more like the quiet nerdy brother, burning with a sense of confidence that he is too shy to show to the world.

Myself, I’ll be watching the Prime Minister debate. I’m very interested to see what will happen. I saw the Green Party’s candidate on tv the other day, and she was very well-spoken, had a platform that at least on the surface sounded doable, and she has a mean hate on for Stephen Harper. I’m hoping that the debate will allow for more presentation of platforms rather than everyone just dumping on Harper. Not that I have great love for the guy, but I want to see how each candidate deals with their questions and answers based on their platforms, not just who got the best barbs in.

Besides, Youtube will have the best highlights of the VP debate I’m sure