Enemies of The State

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Skid

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Well, it's official. I've been a very bad boy according to Our Government. So bad that I am classified as "an enemy" of the CRAP that rules the country. I found out when a friend who runs a political advisory company emailed me to sympathize that we had been branded. It wasn't a public humiliation where six squad cars of black ops police without name badges pull up to your home, drag you out and beat you, while those other guys with the big hats and red coats repeatedly taser you into submission. No, this is a lot more subtle, like that election fraud that never happened.

You are simply ghosted – Our Government won't answer your mail, emails, or tweets with anything other than a non-committal talking points response, if at all. You don't get invited to any speaking engagements, fundraisers, fishing trips, or caucus meetings. Your chances of receiving a plum appointment or a patronage grant are less than a snowball's chance in hell. You may find yourself stopped at the border as a security risk, especially if you are known to subscribe to nature magazines or other eco-terrorist resources like the IPCC Assessment Reports on Climate Change. And may the gods have mercy on you if you are a supporter of the David Suzuki Foundation.

Now I am part of that shunned minority of 70% of Canadians who no longer support Our CRAP Government.

I watched Michael Moore's Capitalism: a Love Story the other night (also on the enemy list). It reminded me with shocking clarity why I became an enemy of a government committed to the partisan promotion of profit over social justice, environmental literacy, and economic security for all Canadians. You forgot the old adage, Mr. Harper: Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. As Attila the Hun revealed in his Leadership Secrets: "Do not underestimate the power of an enemy, no matter how great or small, to rise against you on another day." Let the games begin.

*****

Skid Crease, Caledon

New Shuffle, Marked Deck

Posted on July 16, 2013 by Skid

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Given Stephen Harper's desperate need to change the channel after a spring fraught with scandals – election fraud, financial fraud, senate fraud, PMO fraud – we all knew a Cabinet shuffle was coming. I took cerebral bets on the outcome and won most of them with a few glaring exceptions. Given the rules of political payback, the Prime Sinister had no choice but to keep the Mike Harrisites – Flaherty, Baird, and Clement – in the inner circle. Peter MacKay, who will eternally collect his thirty pieces of silver for turning over the Conservative name to the Reform Alliance posse, did a parallel career shift into Justice after being unable to defend his F-35 fiasco.

Another easy prediction – no senators allowed. After all, if you are going to try to toss the whole sober second chamber out, why bother. And besides, the stench of the PMO/Senate scandals did not fit with the happy tweeting about the fresh and innnocent new cabinet.

And no surprise for those who watch Power and Politics, that the young and photogenerational talking heads like Michelle Rempell and Chris Alexander will be now smiling for the camera from their new cabinet positions. Both had shown promise in the past but lately have demonstrated an inability to think – there is not much to talk about once you get past the glare of the Crest strip grin.

Now if a truly intelligent and independent thinker like Michael Chong, MP from Wellington-Halton Hills, had been appointed to the "new" Cabinet, it would have signalled genuine winds of change. Chong, however had previously supported Peter MacKay in the Conservative leadership race, went against the government's denier mentality in his support of the Kyoto Accord, and voted nay to Quebec as "a nation within Canada", all fatal flaws in the eyes of the PM.

Instead – in the first of my failed predictions – the hapless and synaptically challenged Pierre Poilievre, he of the now infamous blurt: "The root cause of terrorism is terrorists," makes it in as the Minister of State for Democratic Reform. Really? The thought of Harper's hyper-partisan yap dog trying to reform democracy is frightening indeed. This new position is a thinly disguised attempt to put Nigel Wright and Mike Duffy et al in a deep dark closet somewhere. Poilievre would best be assigned to the media room designing attack ads against anyone and anything slightly to the left of the extreme far right.

My second failure was in predicting that Peter Van Loan would be replaced. Astonishingly, he remains as Government House Leader, a continuing example of the bully-boy, bumbling brute kind of MP that Canadians have come to loathe. Sorry, Mr. Harper, nice try with the "generational change" shuffle, but you are obviously staying with the same predictable hand. And hard-working, tax-paying Canadians know your deck is marked.

*****

Skid Crease, Caledon

Harper Finds Humility

Posted on June 28, 2013 by Skid

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I have waited ten years to see Stephen Harper humbled. I thought it would take a full-blown caucus revolt or a leadership convention defeat, or a massive loss in the next federal election. It only took an act of nature. While his head was firmly stuck in the tar sands, all of Mr. Harper's climate change chickens came home to roost in the capital of his oil industry on June 20, 2013.

When he arrived in Calgary on June 21, the flood devastation was at its peak. There was no controlled media studio with seamlessly edited images of kittens and blue sweaters. This was all too real with a sombre Harper overlooking the Bow River flanked by some real leaders. The Mayor of Calgary was resolute, the Premier of Alberta was decisive, the Prime Minster of Canada was simply stunned. “I never imagined we could have a flood of this magnitude in this country. Until you really see it in person you don’t get a sense…this is an incredible event,” Harper said. No imagination. This is the same man who proclaimed that climate change was a socialist plot.

Aided by his "Friends of Science" climate change deniers like Tim Ball and Ross McKitrick and all the other signatories on the anti-Kyoto petition delivered to the newly installed PM in 2006, Harper has systematically destroyed Canada's credibility. He has denied accelerating climate change exists, has removed Canada from the Kyoto Protocol obligations, has snubbed existing environmental review policies, and has impeded the development of new ones. All the while, legitimate meteorologists and scientists have been warning about the increasing frequency of severe storms as one of the symptoms of accelerating climate change.

The insurance industry has also been vocal, serving notice that claims for severe storm damage have been steadily increasing in frequency and dollar amount. Unfortunately for Calgarians, Canada is the only G8 country that does not offer overland flood insurance. Critics of this lack of foresight have suggested that we adopt the UK model that links insurance policy coverage to the government's policies to mitigate severe climate change catastrophes. No government policy, no insurance coverage. And those policies would include severe storm disaster preparation.

Part of my heart and soul are in Alberta. I met my first grizzly in Waterton Lakes while horseback riding on the trails, and later rock climbing there marvelled at a golden eagle as it soared beneath me. I delivered my first major Global Perspectives keynote on Earth Day 1990 in Kananaskis Country to a lengthy standing ovation. I got married in 1999 in Canmore on the banks of Cougar Creek under the peaks of The Three Sisters and our wedding party walked through town along the Creek's new boardwalk. On June 20, 2013 that was all washed away. My entire wedding party lives and works in Calgary. I emailed them all as soon as we got news of the flood. Their homes were safe and the cabin in Canmore was on high ground and protected. They are also practitioners in wilderness crisis management, and their response didn't mince words: "We are fine, but the city is crippled. This is serious – there's a wide world of hurt ripping away so close to us."

Calgary and Alberta, my heart is with you. Stephen Harper, this is supposed to be your home – wake up!

*****

Skid Crease, Caledon

Canada’s Official Colours

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Skid

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I was challenged by an enraged local tory over my last post mocking the Conservative paint job on "Canada's Economic Action Plane"; he declared that there was nothing wrong with "Tory Blue" being added to "Liberal red and white" colours.

Well, au contraire mon ami! It is very wrong simply because the official colours of Canada are only red and white, no blue of any kind – not royal, azure, ocean, or tory. The official colours of red and white were proclaimed by King George V in 1921, red from the French and white from the British in a cultural reference to the crusader's crosses of those European founding countries.

So, if the PM's plane is painted with the official colours of red and white, then it is Canadian; if it is painted with the official colours of the Conservative Party, then it is a flying election bus for Stephen Harper, and someone in the PMO should cut another slush fund cheque to pay back the taxpayers.

*****

Skid Crease, Caledon

Canada’s Economic Action Plane

Posted on June 8, 2013 by Skid

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Yes, Canada, it is true – we now have a flying billboard for the Canadian Conservative Reform Alliance Party. The logo resembles the logo of the Royal Canadian Air Force, but not quite. The blue is the "true blue" of the Conservative Party of Canada, not Air Force blue. Close, but no cigar for the 60% of Canadians who did not vote for this CRAP (now claiming on their website to be "Canada's Founding Party"). Observe the evolution:

First we have the honourable – the logo, all royal blue circling a fully etched maple leaf, of the Royal Canadian Air Force for which my father flew in World War II. The "Royal" was lost for a while during the Canadian Armed Forces amalgamation, but was reinstated in 2011, along with a simplified maple leaf.

Then, we have the partisan – the colours and symbols (the "C" that never ends, the simplified maple leaf) of the Conservative Party of Canada, a symbol that was supposed to represent accountability and transparency, now more closely associated with micromanaging scandals and remaking Canada in the image of an oil corporation.

Finally, we have the freshly painted Airbus advertisement for the Conservative's Economic Action Plan; if you look closely, you'll notice the logo is NOT the RCAF's original but is the Conservative modification. Behold the Canadian PM's freshly painted plane, all battle ready for our military to borrow for use in the world's most dangerous regions. Nice target for any opposition.