Owner: True North URL:http://canadiangovernment.blogspot.com Join Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2006 02:06:31 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: Commentary on Canadian and International news from the perspective of a 12th grade high school student. Focus on political and economic issues. Site statistics:Click here
A victory for those disgusted by political correctness 2006-11-12 03:29:00 I don't have a problem with the phrase "Happy Holidays" per se, but when it's used in place of "Merry Christmas" so that people won't be "offended", then it gets to be an issue. So much of an issue that many shoppers last year boycotted Wal-Mart for removing the word Christmas from its holiday message.This year, in what could be a brilliant move, they're bringing the word back, and with much media fanfare. Of course you have the usual political
ly correct nuts with their oh-so-valuable commentary:Not so, said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of the Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State. When Wal-Mart executives "cave into these demands, they are really making a statement that non-Christians should probably go elsewhere this holiday season," he said.Changing store policy to cater to Christmas lovers is a risky calculation, said Keith Tudor, professor of marketing at Kennesaw State University in Georgia."Are they going to offend people or attract Read more:correctness
, political correctness
Liberals will lose support if they declare Quebec a nation 2006-11-12 02:28:00 An SES poll shows that 40% will be less likely to vote Liberal and 16% will be more likely to if they recognized Quebec
as a nation
. In Quebec, they would have a 40 (more) vs. 12 (less) advantage, but in Ontario and the West they would lose out by a significant margin. The Conservatives should be wise and not push this issue so much. Let the Liberals
bicker about this all they want. If Ignatieff becomes Liberal leader, then we'll bring this up again. Read more:declare
It's about time Canadians on the left supported the troops 2006-11-11 23:15:00 The anti-war left thinks that it's "supporting the troops" by pushing to bring them home. They refuse to believe that those in Afghanistan actually want to be there and strongly believe in what they're doing. Supporting the troops doesn't necessarily have to mean agreeing with the premise of the Afghan mission. But it does mean giving those fighting over there the respect they deserve, and ending this nonsense about ending a mission they believe in and which they've sacrificed a lot in. They think they know better, but the last person to understand anything about what it's like to fight in Afghanistan is the yuppie living in a downtown apartment building sipping some ridiculously-named coffee and reading news with a left-wing slant. Read more:Canadians
Why our justice system needs some fixing up 2006-11-11 22:25:00 Two teens, aged 13 and 15, beat 76-year old Shingara Thandi to death last year, and now they're getting charged for manslaughter. And because they're teenagers, they can't be named. That means they'll be back out on the streets in a few years, possibly getting a job. What would you feel if you found out from other sources that you had just hired a killer? Don't give me any bullsh*t about those kids "not understanding" that they're beating an old man to death. Bottom line is that youth do not gain a sudden sense of rationality the exact moment they turn into adults. So let's end this silly nonsense of protecting criminals.
Sign the petition for Canada's last WWI veteran 2006-11-11 11:44:00 They've just reached their goal of 50,000, but you can still sign the petition
to honour the last World War I veteran with a state funeral. It will be submitted to Harper next month."We the undersigned feel enormous gratitude for the sacrifice made by all the Canadian Armed Forces through the ages in defence of this country and its values; acknowledge the very special nature of the sacrifice made by those who fought in the First World War in appalling conditions and with terrible loss of life; note that only three First World War veterans remain, and urge the Prime Minister that their sacrifice, and all of those they served with under arms from 1914-1918, be celebrated by offering a state funeral to the family of the last veteran of the First World War resident in Canada
."The Dominion Institute will send the petition on behalf of its signatoriesto the Prime Minister of Canada on December 11, 2006.Thanks to Devon Rowcliffe for the link.
Bill Clinton supports Afghan mission, even thanks Canada for being part of it 2006-11-11 10:59:00 For those on the Canadian left that would have you think that Afghan
istan is Canada
's version of Iraq, that it's hopeless and we might as well get out, maybe they should listen to Former US President Bill Clinton
."I promised myself that as long as the situation in Afghanistan persists, I would never come to Canada without thanking you for your participation through NATO in the effort to save a genuine moderate, pro-western democracy," he said. "I am grateful."Canada is "doing a good thing," Clinton said."Because we have to pursue both these things together: a security policy and a policy to create more partners and fewer terrorists."In an half-hour question and answer session with B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell after the speech, the two-term Democratic president urged the deployment of more troops."We have under-forced the mission there," he said. "We have 20,000 American troops there, 20,000 NATO troops there, and there are 140,000 troops in Iraq."He is urging the U.S. government to f Read more:Bill Clinton
What does Remembrance Day mean to you? 2006-11-11 02:40:00 At the Remembrance
Day assembly at my school today, there was a powerpoint presentation prepared by one of the teachers, who happens to be a left-leaning Green party supporter. I didn't expect much that would qualify as "supporting veterans" or "supporting the troops", and there wasn't. Instead, he chose to interview a few students and their relatives' experiences in war. None of those relatives were actual soldiers in the war.Now, of course we can't forget about those who witnessed war in their own land and lost many relatives because of that. But what about the men and women that served in the armed forces and those that do today? What about their sacrifices and their losses? Those were conveniently shoved aside. Come to think of it, very little of the brief event had to do with the actual people who fought in war.The teacher didn't hesitate to put an image of George Bush bouncing around on the screen though. I guess he likes playing around with Powerpoint features. A lot of peo
The Bloc... is pathetic 2006-11-11 01:38:00 The Liberals illegally used hundreds of millions of dollars. Unfortunately for the Bloc, the same hasn't happened yet to the Conservatives. So they're bringing up a 17 cent fax that Peter Mackay's father sent from his son's constituency office, claiming that he was acting as a lobbyist and shouldn't have used government money for that.You've gotta wonder who the *expletive* had the time to dig this up. Don't they have anything better to do with their time? What really is a bigger disgrace to this country? An MP's father using a fax machine with government money, or the Bloc MP that spent your tax dollars finding out this information when he/she could've been working to make our country better. Imagine the hundreds of dollars wasted just by giving this a minute of time in the House of Commons. Read more:pathetic
"From the desk of Steve MacKinnon" 2006-11-10 09:24:00 From the desk of Steve
MacKinnon comes this message:Fellow Liberals,In less than one month the attention of hundreds of thousands of Canadians will turn to the Palais des Congrès in Montreal for the Liberal Party's Leadership and Biennial Convention. Our Party's momentum continues to build towards this seminal Convention. Between now and then, Stephen Harper is challenging Liberals to stand up for their values. He has called two by-elections for the 27th of November, the same day that registration at our Convention opens. The week of November 27th is the week that support for his ultra-conservative Party will be permanently weakened.Ultra-conservative? Since when? Last time I checked, they barely cut taxes, they're not even bothering with the abortion issue, and all they did was admit that Kyoto targets can't be met. Does that sound far right-wing to you?
Major Afghan survey shows that many are positive about the direction of the nation 2006-11-10 06:36:00 As GayandRight reports, a major survey done by the Asia Foundation shows that 44% believe that the country is headed in the right direction, whereas only 21% think it's headed in the wrong direction. Here's some other numbers:•77% said they were satisfied with the way democracy is working in Afghan
istan.•Only 6% ranked security as the biggest problem in their area, behind unemployment (18%), electricity shortages (12%), poverty (10%), a weak economy (10%) and scarce water supplies (9%). Sixty percent said they rarely or never worried about their own safety. However, 22% said security was the biggest problem facing the nation
.•54% said they were more prosperous than they were under the Taliban, which governed Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001; 26% felt less prosperous.•42% said corruption was a major problem in their daily lives, and 77% called it a major national problem; 51% of those who dealt with public health care officials reported paying bribes for health service.•Afghans Read more:Major
CBC spin strikes again 2006-11-10 04:32:00 They did a survey that showed that support for the Afghan mission increased slightly from October to November. They decided that this concept does not fit in with their left-wing mindset, which is that the Conservatives are down right now and anything they support is poison. So instead they chose to point out that those who "strongly support" the mission has dropped.Overall, 50 per cent of Canadians asked in November expressed some degree of approval, that is, they either "somewhat approve" or "strongly approve" of Canada's participation in Afghanistan. While that total was up slightly from the October survey, it is a six percentage point drop from June of this year. (June was a six percent rise from March, but they don't like to mention that.)I wonder why the current government hasn't cracked down on this state-run bastion of borderline propaganda for the left.
Liberals have no right to tell Conservatives to meet Kyoto targets 2006-11-10 03:35:00 The Liberals
and the Bloc brought several proposals to the Conservatives
, including one that would force them to meet the 2012 Kyototargets
, and another that would force them to make even tougher targets for after 2012 than Kyoto.Yeah. The Liberals proposed this. If you haven't had your head stuck in the ground and your ears shut for the past 13 years, you'd know that the only reason why we can't meet those targets is because the Liberal party made it impossible. This is analogous to a whiny, elitist child who wrecks the dining room and tells the kid next to him to fix it up two minutes before the guests arrive. The Conservatives should listen (a bit) to what the NDP and Bloc have to say, but the Liberals obviously have no good ideas. If they did, they would've come up with them when they were in power.
"Macaca"- the word that ended the Republican Senate majority 2006-11-09 09:15:00 It looks like Jim Webb of the Democrats is going to win the Senate
seat in Virginia, and history repeats itself again. No party in US history has ever won the House without winning the Senate as well. I'm sure if they didn't take it, the MSM would be endlessly mentioning this fact as a reason that the Democrats actually failed. (Note: sarcasm)It's amazing that it wasn't really Iraq or the economy or health care or stem-cell research that took down George Allen. It was a minority volunteer who happened to have a video camera with him. That kid must be overjoyed right now. But only time will tell if he changed history for the good or bad. Read more:Republican
What right does a guy who wants to break apart our country have to tell us what he thinks of Don Cherry? 2006-11-09 04:55:00 David Akin accounts how many MPs, particularly Bloc MPs, booed Don Cherry
as he left Parliament today. It makes me wonder, why is a guy who wants
to take Quebec out of Canada telling us who should or should not be a "Canadian icon"? He despises the very idea of Canada, that's why he wants to get his province out. Giving him a seat in the House of Commons is one thing, but letting him tell us about our national sport is ridiculous. We can figure it out ourselves, Mr. Duceppe.
Can you bear to live in the politically correct culture that leftists embrace? 2006-11-09 03:15:00 First it was Darrel Reid. A typical social conservative who was regarded as "extreme" by Canada's opposition parties. Apparently they've written off much of the evangelical vote. And for good reason.Now it's Don Cherry's turn. They're calling a national hockey icon a racist who should not be regarded as a distinguished Canadian for saying this:In 2004, Cherry questioned the toughness of French players during a Coach's Corner segment on Hockey Night in Canada. Cherry said only "Europeans and French guys" wear visors.People who know how outspoken Cherry can be would simply laugh and take it as what it is, a joke. He says he has many French friends anyway. But with a Liberal government running out of things to attack the Tories on, they've decided to bring in the right-wing "intolerant" label and put it on a nationally respected Canadian. My question is simple: How can we function as a society when something as simple as this is regarded not only as a racist comment, but makes the Read more:politically
, culture
, embrace
Each Liberal leadership candidate would lose votes for the party if chosen 2006-11-12 12:27:00 What a devastating find by SES.Ignatieff would mainly scare away NDPers, and bring in a few Greens. Conservatives won't be flocking to his party if he becomes leader though. In this kind of scenario the Liberal
s might get crunched in the middle from both sides.Rae would attract some NDP votes, but would drive away Conservatives as well as Bloc voters. Unfortunately there aren't that many NDP seats to win. Rae would make it very difficult to capture the Conservative seats which the Liberals lost in January.Dion would attract voters from other parties, particularly pushing away potential Conservative and Green switchovers.Kennedy appears to be in the worst shape of the bunch, especially with that horrid Bloc number. He can't win Quebec and he won't be winning the leadership convention if the Liberals have any sense left in them.Now the "more likely/less likely" numbers appear to be fairly balanced for current Liberal voters, but it doesn't really matter that some of them are more li Read more:chosen
How many times can a great nation retreat from inferior forces and remain great? 2006-11-13 02:30:00 Jules Crittenden of the Boston Herald asks this question as he comments on the Democratic victory's implications for US foreign policy. It's an excellent article, although rather critical of Canada.Islamic extremists are ascendant among the world's 1 billion Muslims thanks to their successes, which are nothing more than our failures. American voters, whether they realize it or not, have chosen the path of Europe, of Canada - wealthy, smug democracies that profess concern for the oppressed but will do little for them, little even in their own defense.Yes, we in Canada have a long way to go, but it's rather unfair to compare us with the Europeans. Canada may be full of prideful, know-it-all liberals with surprisingly narrow-minded, even bigoted views, but we also have many decent, hard-working individuals with common sense. Some of them are over in Afghanistan, in case the Americans forgot. Crittenden makes a good point nonetheless. The Republicans may have caused their own downfall Read more:nation
, retreat
, inferior
Interesting article critical of the climate change "consensus" 2006-11-13 02:23:00 The Telegraph, a British paper, was brave enough to publish several major articles by Christopher Monckton, critical
of the so-called "consensus
" that scientists apparently have over the climate change issue. One thing Mr. Monckton notes is that the UN has conveniently forgotten about a period of time known as the "Medieval Warm Period".The UN, echoed by Stern, says the graph isn't important. It is. Scores of scientific papers show that the medieval warm period was real, global and up to 3C warmer than now. Then, there were no glaciers in the tropical Andes: today they're there. There were Viking farms in Greenland: now they're under permafrost. There was little ice at the North Pole: a Chinese naval squadron sailed right round the Arctic in 1421 and found none.Get a load of these widely different graphs: Indeed. I'm not a strong advocate for this, but people should always keep an open mind. Debates in science are never "closed", and whenever you hear of a so-called "consensus", tr
Irresponsible anti-American reporting by CTV 2006-11-13 01:23:00 You'd think journalists would at least TRY to sound objective when they write an article about American
politics. I guess the little leftie monsters inside their heads got too excited over those election results.Following a disastrous election and amid growing pressure for an exit from Iraq, White House aides said Sunday that President Bush welcomes input on the war, even from Democrats.Bush's advisers are trying a new tack after the Republicans were trounced at the polls in mid-term elections last week by voters who don't approve of the war.Uh... excuse me. Disastrous? Trounced? Unless your head was stuck in a freaking ditch this past year you would know that Democrats have led in every single generic ballot poll for over a year now. The Republicans lost 29 seats, which was in the middle of most analysts' expectations. They lost a few Senate seats, no big surprise there either. Yeah, they lost, and they probably deserved it, but trounced? I don't think so.Results of a new poll fr
How many times can a great nation retreat from inferior forces and remain great? 2006-11-13 03:25:00 Jules Crittenden of the Boston Herald asks this question as he comments on the Democratic victory's implications for US foreign policy. It's an excellent article, although rather critical of Canada.Islamic extremists are ascendant among the world's 1 billion Muslims thanks to their successes, which are nothing more than our failures. American voters, whether they realize it or not, have chosen the path of Europe, of Canada - wealthy, smug democracies that profess concern for the oppressed but will do little for them, little even in their own defense.Yes, we in Canada have a long way to go, but it's rather unfair to compare us with the Europeans. Canada may be full of prideful, know-it-all liberals with surprisingly narrow-minded, even bigoted views, but we also have many decent, hard-working individuals with common sense. Some of them are over in Afghanistan, in case the Americans forgot. Crittenden makes a good point nonetheless. The Republicans may have caused their own downfall Read more:nation
, retreat
, inferior
Late night poll results 2006-11-13 07:31:00 20 out of 20 voters (100%) confirmed that Remembrance Day is best described as remembering the sacrifices of war veterans and not remembering the consequences of war or promoting pacifist ideals.As for which party True North visitors would vote for if they couldn't vote Conservative, the most popular choice was abstain (30%), followed by Christian Heritage (21%) and Green (18%). Read more:results
Oh I wonder what Garth is going to do... 2006-11-13 11:04:00 It's obvious. Being an Independent was fun for a while. Garth
got some national attention for himself as well as his blog, but now he wants more. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with being a little opportunistic. Will he win again as a Green? That remains to be seen. At the end of the day, however, his constituents will look for what he accomplished as a Green, not how big a show he put on before becoming one. Read more:wonder
The media is a product that gives its audience what it wants to hear 2006-11-13 23:29:00 People on the left seem to deny that an anti-American, or specifically, anti-Bush/Republican bias exists in the media
, even in Canada. Well, think about it. Even if, and that's a big if, journalists manage to display complete objectivity, there is an obvious advantage to cater to the centre-left under these political conditions.A UCLA study done last year examined major media outlets and the kind of news they reported over the past ten years. If you haven't heard of this study, it's a must to look into.Of the 20 major media outlets studied, 18 scored left of center, with CBS' "Evening News," The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times ranking second, third and fourth most liberal behind the news pages of The Wall Street Journal.Only Fox News' "Special Report With Brit Hume" and The Washington Times scored right of the average U.S. voter.The most centrist outlet proved to be the "NewsHour With Jim Lehrer." CNN's "NewsNight With Aaron Brown" and ABC's "Good Morning America" were Read more:wants
A call for more civilized blogging 2006-11-14 01:21:00 We all have fun once in a while mocking the other side of the political spectrum, but when it seems like the main purpose of your blog is to make snide comments about bloggers that don't agree with you, then that's not exactly making an intellectual contribution to the political blogosphere, is it?Take for example Canadian Cynic, a well-known leftie that likes to poke fun at us Blogging Tories, including me a few times. Look at this recent post:You're entitled to your own opinions ...... you're not entitled to your own facts. And this is the basic issue when dissecting the inane dumbassitude of the wankersphere.It's not that their opinions are illogical, internally inconsistent, poorly reasoned and even more poorly defended. It's that their basic facts are just hopelessly wrong. Or, as Arnold Rimmer would say, "absolutely brimming over with wrongability."I've been chided (in good fun, of course) for picking on the "low-hanging fruit" of the Canadian wankersphere. But, I ask you,
Why the outrage? 2006-11-14 00:10:00 Where were all these environmental activists and "outraged" foreign nations for the past 13 years? Why didn't they pressure the Liberals to actually make some progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions? Why get all angry at the Conservatives for admitting that the situation has gone too far and the Kyoto targets can't be met?The answer is simple: the Left has turned Kyoto into an untouchable idol. Anyone who dares question its effectiveness or fairness is immediately labelled ignorant, uninformed, or worse yet, a pawn of the oil industry. They fail to realize that Kyoto is just a bunch of numbers that people agreed on over a decade ago. (Numbers that favour certain countries, such as those in Eastern Europe that are now ridiculously under their Kyoto targets.) It's not a comprehensive plan for action.China and the Group of 77 developing countries have also lodged a formal complaint against Canada and a handful of other nations for failing to file progress reports that were requir
US Liberals, don't celebrate just yet 2006-11-14 08:14:00 What the media sometimes overlooks is the fact that many of the seats that the Democrats won, particularly in the Senate, were won by moderate and even centre-right Democrats. Ezra Levant has a nice column in the Calgary Sun talking about this:Americans may have grown tired of Bush and his cabinet, but they haven't grown so tired of Bush's foreign policy that they are willing to cut and run in the face of terrorists.There are signs senior Democrats understand this. Hillary Clinton, the leading presidential contender for her party, has been staking out a firmer position in favour of the war on terror and sounds positively hawkish on Iran.Nancy Pelosi, the hyper-liberal San Francisco Congresswoman who will now be Speaker of the House, is unrecognizable in her public comments -- she is calm and moderate, not the radical Berkeley stereotype of days past.It will be interesting to see if the responsibility of governing makes Democrats more serious about security and foreign affairs -- and Read more:Liberals
Whoops. Democrat House Speaker makes first controversial move, and she's not even in power yet! 2006-11-14 08:05:00 Nancy Pelosi, the San Francisco liberal destined to be the first female Speaker
of the House
, is already involved in a bit of controversy by endorsing John Murtha for House Majority leader.Some Democrat
ic lawmakers and watchdog groups say they are baffled that Pelosi would go out of her way to back Murtha's candidacy after pledging to make the new 110th Congress the most ethical and corruption-free in history.Murtha, a longtime senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, has battled accusations over the years that he has traded federal spending for campaign contributions, that he has abused his post as ranking party member on the Appropriations defense subcommittee, and that he has stood in the way of ethics investigations. Those charges come on top of Murtha's involvement 26 years ago in the FBI's Abscam bribery sting.That was fast. So much for getting rid of corruption. Who knew that liberals could be corrupt too? I guess the American electorate may have forgotten that, Read more:makes
, power
A call for more civilized blogging: Part 2 2006-11-15 02:48:00 Well, I didn't get much of a response, but I said I'd post it anyway, so here:Apparently, we should all step back and take a deep breath.Oh, dear. Apparently, I have breached the bounds of decorum, so it would seem incumbent on me to demonstrate more restraint and more politeness, to perhaps better emulate the manners and civility of our right wing colleagues and ... um ... hang on a sec ... be right back ...Sorry, where was I? Oh, yeah ... something about decorum and civility.I hope this helps lead bloggers on both sides to (ahem) engage in more respectful dialogue. We can start by not calling each other names. (That goes for people on the left and right.)
Garth never ceases to surprise us all 2006-11-15 03:39:00 It seems like he can't live a minute outside the spotlight. First speaking out against his party on a regular basis, then MPtv, then getting kicked out, then making people think he was going to join the Greens, and now this.He has also started a website dedicated to democratic reform - promiseskept.ca - and he plans to rack up plenty of frequent-flyer miles in the coming months."I will travel anywhere that people want to talk about democratic renewal, parliamentary reform, the role of our MPs and how citizens can get more involved to reclaim the system from the unrepentant, arrogant party bosses and the unelected backroom boys."We have to break this tedious cycle of electing politicians who sell us on change and deliver same old, same old." This begs the question: did the good people of Halton elect a Conservative who would work together with other Conservatives to deliver on their election promises, or did they elect a guy who's going to "shake things up" and change the way everyone Read more:Garth
A call for more civilized blogging: Part 2 2006-11-15 03:38:00 Well, I didn't get much of a response, but I said I'd post it anyway, so here:Apparently, we should all step back and take a deep breath.Oh, dear. Apparently, I have breached the bounds of decorum, so it would seem incumbent on me to demonstrate more restraint and more politeness, to perhaps better emulate the manners and civility of our right wing colleagues and ... um ... hang on a sec ... be right back ...Sorry, where was I? Oh, yeah ... something about decorum and civility.I hope this helps lead bloggers on both sides to (ahem) engage in more respectful dialogue. We can start by not calling each other names. (That goes for people on the left and right.)
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