Valentine’s Day Card campaign clarification

There was room for confusion in my last post.  The Valentine’s Day Cards mailing address is actually a CAPP Ottawa mailing address and CAPP Ottawa has lined up a horse and carriage and are working on a volunteer Cupid. We will make a spectacle of the delivery so that the press continues to cover the issue.

The FB Group is called Valentine’s Day Cards for Democracy but more important is getting the word out with the Event Invitation on that page. If you’re not on FB, our mailing address is P.O. Box 693, Osgoode, Ontario K0A 2W0.

Please help spread this initiative through the various regional sites and with reposts on the CAPP main site. Please collect cards from everyone you know and send them on. Together, we can make this a news worthy event.

Thanks for supporting the cause.

Valentine’s Day Cards for Democracy campaign

CAPP Ottawa wants to heap a pile of Valentine’s Day cards (“I love Democracy” and the like) on Mr. Harper but we need your help.

So far there are only 84 members at the Valentine’s Day Cards for Democracy FB Group. Out of 222,384!?!? Please join the FB Group “Valentine’s Day Cards for Democracy” and forward the Event Invitation to your contacts.

Collect cards from family, friends and co-workers to send on.

Please post the link to your regional CAPP sites. Please repost this request regularly on the CAPP sites since we only have a short window of opportunity for this initiative. Thanks for your help, and let’s get those cards rolling. Cheers.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=449845460461&ref=mf#!/event.php?eid=459823830166&index=1

The rallies were a success, even if the Tory’s won’t admit it.

Originally posted on http://ColinLeFevre.ca/

It was an amazing turnout in Toronto

Conservative spin drives me nuts. I absolutely hate it. But as much as I dislike what many Conservatives are saying about the “bad turn out” of the rallies this past weekend, I feel it is important to listen to their point. Why? Because on some level I can understand their arguments. Yes, compared to many historical rallies, compared to the number of people in the Facebook group, and moreover compared to the overall population of Canada, yes, the rallies were not attended by an insane number of people. It is certainly not unprecedented to get a few thousand people out to a rally. Period. What I disagree with was that these rallies were not a success, because they absolutely were.

Why were they a success? Just because this was not the largest rally known to Canada certainly does not mean it was not successful. We had an extremely large group on the streets showing our disappointment with Harper. We didn’t need hundreds of thousands of people in one place to prove that we have created a solid movement. We had a strong and concentrated effort across Canada to show our discontent with Stephen Harper. There were not just one or two rallies; there were more than 60 across the country. For the largest rallies, I have heard significantly different attendance numbers, but I can say from my own presence in Toronto there were definitely more than 3,000 people as many are claiming. I don’t know what the “official” numbers were, but if you were there I’m sure you agree with me. It was a huge and imposing crowd, and it was absolutely a success.

I really don’t care what the Conservatives who are spinning the rallies to be a failure are saying. To be honest, if they thought it was such a failure they would be simply ignoring that rallies even happened… instead they won’t stop telling us it was such a failure. That in of itself says something.

Lastly, this rally took place in January in Canada. We got thousands of people out on the streets. Canada is not warm in January. Enough said I think.

Also, we have a Facebook group with over 200,000 people across the country who are disappointed by the Prime Minister’s abuse of power. Yes, to the critics, it doesn’t take a lot of work to join a Facebook group – but here are the facts: there are now over 200,000 Canadians who are now informed about this anti-democratic situation, and are very likely passing off their discontent and knowledge to others. This was all done with little effort, and would have likely not happened without this Facebook group. Why? Because the younger generation often does not get their information from traditional forms of media such as news shows or newspapers, but they do from the internet, and specifically through forms of social media such as Facebook and Twitter. This is why the Facebook group has been a huge success. I will disagree with anyone who says otherwise.

This morning John Moore interviewed me on Newstalk 1010 about the protests and he did ask me one interesting question, which I will address once again on here. Essentially he asked me if Stephen Harper will care about these rallies. My honest answer to that is – no, he will not care. Not even one bit. This is not a Prime Minister who is willing to bend his agenda to the will of Canadians. His agenda is just that – his agenda, not that of the electorate. He will not change his plans because of a rally. On the other hand I do feel that these rallies have motivated the opposition and have started to change the electorate’s opinion on the Harper government – you can see it in the polling numbers. The Conservatives and the Liberals are in a dead heat now, which was not even close prior to Harper proroguing Parliament. We have a motivated opposition with significant momentum. This is very good for Canadian democracy.

In the end I feel Harper, the Conservatives, and their spin machine are running scared. These rallies were a huge success, and because of this they have to be out in full force ensuring people believe they were a failure when they clearly were not. Thousands of Canadians took to the streets in 60 different rallies across the country, and that made it a success. We have the Conservatives running scared… now is the time to capitalize.

Prorogue Polka Revisited

Short post about Facebook, and the implications for politicians.

Prorogue Polka Revisited

We have a government, that doesn’t want to govern. We have a population that is so upset that 208,228 people have joined a Facebook Group in protest.

Canada had a population of 33,739,900 in 2009 according to Statistics Canada, which means that just over 0.6% of the total population have joined the Facebook Group. But that includes children, who cannot vote. When you remove the population which is under the voting age, which is 7,863,700, the voting age population is 25,876,200. The Facebook Group as a percentage of the voting age population, is 0.8%. When nearly 1% of the voting age population of a country joins a Social Media site group, that is significant.

Politics in is undergoing a sea change. Facebook is one of the things that is allowing people to become more active, which is a good thing. The power of social media to change the political landscape has been demonstrated in several campaigns, including the Obama presidential campaign and the Massachusetts Senate Race. If the current batch of politicians ignore social media (note that I am including Twitter in my definition of social media), they will lose. Think of it as Evolution in Action.

There is a Point to all of This

People in general already know *who* Harper really is underneath it all and they are not happy with being repeatedly manipulated. Facebook is uniting a formidable force.  Sitting bull Canadians usually a docile and easygoing group, now no longer exists! 

This translates into votes down the road… as this will not be forgotten.  Neither will the income trust scam- elderly people take note of your statements this year!

French Quebecers Seem to be too Cynical to Care About Prorogation

Cross posted at Sister Sage’s Musings

Something that I had been concerned about since this all happened.  An article in today’s Grope & Fail with translated sources from French language newspapers.  Honestly,  had it not been for my observations of apathy amongst my French speaking  co-workers and Francophones in general as well as the low Francophone memberships Montreal and Quebec City Chapters of Canadians against prorogation rally planning groups on Facebook and, search as I may, not much reaction from Gilles Duceppe other than the following tweet on his Twitter account, I wouldn’t have believed the article in the Grope & Fail.

Sadly, they feel their voices aren’t heard enough in Ottawa; that their voices don’t count.

Gilles Duceppe’s reaction: prorogation has become “a tradition for Harper.”

“Instead of facing the music, he prorogues,” Duceppe wrote.

Other than the fact the Bloc announced its’ plans to work in their ridings, like the N.D.P., not much is happening from that corner. Perhaps if Gilles Duceppe announced it was going back to Ottawa alongside the Liberals on January 25 and he made that known to the mainstream media, perhaps Quebecers may have a different attitude toward prorogation.

A variety of reasons seem to contribute to French Quebec’s apathy: from lack of understanding of Canada’s Parliamentary system to lack of respect for parliament, according to the Grope & Fail.

Josee Legault of the Montreal French language weekly, Le Voir writes:

“There’s nothing like a populace ignorant of its own democratic institutions to allow a prime minister to go so far as to strip our elected representatives of their constitutional prerogatives,”

Now, that is frightening.  Education would be the logical answer, but one has to want to know.  One gets the feeling, they don’t want to know, so how do we engage them?

I work for a social services agency that serves the Anglophone population of Quebec; thus far, only one of my co-workers is interested in attending the Montreal rally up to date and asked me to keep him up to date. The rest don’t even know about or barely heard grumblings of it.

One of my French speaking co-workers came up to me yesterday and simply grimaced; ” it doesn’t matter what we think or do; Harper will get his majority.” She, of course, must have stopped following the polls awhile ago.  Stevie’s numbers started going down since prorogation and he is now down about 10 points since last Fall.  I told her his numbers dropped but she didn’t change her tune. She is of the belief Stevie will climb back up. She did, however, ask me to forward her any literature on the subject. Sadly, I think her views reflect most of those of French Quebec society today.

I also tend to wonder if the  now dormant separatist movement will make a comeback if there is an election coming soon and Stevie does get his majority? Are the separatists perhaps saving their energy for a potential separatist movement?

Perhaps the separatists just don’t feel that prorogation matters as they’re only interested in le Pays du Quebec?

I think there are only two ways we can perhaps get them out alongside Quebec’s Anglos in the Quebec City and Montreal Rallies come January 23. Our planning meeting spoke of the possibility of getting leaders of Quebec’s largest labor unions. French Quebecers; separatists or not tend to be very pro union.

Another way would be to hit the message home that whether or not you’re separatist; your democratic rights were stripped away just like the rest of us.

There is still time to get French speaking Quebecers to demonstrate alongside the rest of us, be they separatist or not.

To my French speaking readers, I hope you can get your friends, relatives and co workers out come Saturday afternoon, January 23.

Kelowna-Okanagan No-Prorogue Protest Planning Meeting

A rally logistical planning session and ideas meeting will take place in Kelowna on January 16, 2010, from 1:00-3:30 pm.

Please bring materials to make signage. Some poster templates will be provided.

Location is #1250 Glenmore Rd N, at the All Saints Lutheran Church (basement of house).

View Larger Map

For more information, contact Lisa: lisadahrouge@gmail.com

Today’s Corporate Media Hacks-Not Only Hypocritical, But Also, Sore Losers!

Yikes! Where do I start?  Pale and Montreal Simon wrote articles on this subject recently. There should be a whole anthology with a mass collaboration on the subject, especially since that Facebook group grew, demonstrations are being organized across Canada among other activities being planned. All this, thanks to social media; the blogosphere; blog aggregators such as Progressive Bloggers.

Today, we are standing up to Corporate Media hacks.

Now, hacks like Don Crook of  Blogolotics at the Grope & Fail, who  gets his math wrong and must humble himself to correct it. He posts the radio show of a fellow hack; the one & only, Chuckles Adler. Remember him? Let me refresh your memory: The one who referred to us as elitists who did nothing all day but suck on lattes in coffee houses?

You can catch the audio of Chuckles ranting alongside Matt Gurney of National Posties and of course, Christopher White, the founder and sole administrator of the Facebook group, Canadians against the Proroguing of parliament. I love how Gurney and Chuckles ranted at White about there being censorship on the site: that dissenting views being posted are being deleted  almosts as quickly as they were posted in the first place to hear them tell it. White at least pointed out what I hoped he would: that these folks may well have been deleting their own posts just to cry out censorship.

Chuckles would go on to poke fun at the site, as if it were nothing serious but a bunch of graphics and Nazi references.  I think what Chuckles doesn’t like (and I expect many others from that corporate media machine) is that it already started accomplishing something.  Conservatives and Centrists who had been pushed to Stevie’s hard right have joined us. These are folks who are particular fans of free speech.These people also tend to be for senate reform and thus, one of  Stevie’s promises that attracted them to vote for him in the first place was senate reform. Proroguing parliament in order to stack up the senate with his friends and cheerleaders, of course, would sour them toward Stevie.

Speaking of censorship hypocrisy; Guess who practises censorship on his blog? That’s right! The one and only Cook; comments are disabled. Like ol’ Stevie, Dan just don’t want to hear the opinion of other Canadians.

Just a note, it would appear that all of Don Crook’s blogs have disabled comments. Me thinks he protests too much. Hey Cook! Enable comments, will ya?

We are sharing information.

The Liberals are going to show up for work come January 25. With continued efforts our parts, we can perhaps get the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois to join them.

Canadians are writing Stevie, the opposition leaders and their MPs.

Up until now, Canadians had been apathetic. Now, they’re standing up and expressing their distaste for Stevie and the Harpercons’ lastest move.

Stevie runs away, and obviously, social media is  getting louder, making it more difficult for these  Harpercon cheerleaders to spoon feed Canadians what they want Canadians to think.

Here’s a thought for those who may still be struggling with their thoughts about the events of late and how they’re being covered:  and yes, hacks, pay attention. Everyone is free to follow whomever they like, it’s part of democracy, however, if average working Canadians with families and busy schedules are making the time to get Canadians involved or to inform them without payment (except for perhaps Google ad sense; never tried it, but I hear it really doesn’t pay much). We do this because we care. We care about our country and fellow Canadians. We don’t like the direction Stevie and the Harpercons are taking it with their actions and/or inactions as of late. May seem partisan, but we would be doing all of this if another leader were in charge and behaving exactly like Stevie has been.

Hacks, get used it! We’re staying and we will continue to make noise until Canada is steered back in the right direction. And even then, we will continue making noise in order to make sure our country continues in the right direction.

Mocking opposition for intentions of showing up to work? What are you all really afraid of? That they actually may find something damning in their unofficial investigation of torturegate?

Sidenote:  Speaking of  corporate media and the world of communications, guess who Stevie hired for a second time? Yup, none other than one of  his big ol’ buddy Georgie’s buddy, Ari Fleischer. More proof that he’s a Georgie wannabe.

Thank you Christopher White for founding the Facebook group. Readers who are on Facebook, please click the above Facebook link to join this group if you haven’t already. Contrary to what Chuckles, Crook and others have said, it doesn’t matter what usual affiliation you’re with.  You really do make a difference.