Pre-Game Action Before Your Olympics, Perhaps?

Cross posted at Sister Sage’s Musings

Yes, nice fun ReformaTory Games only Stevie can play, although, thus far he hasn’t been successful, has he?

Haiti became the would be perfect crisis for him but, obviously never raised his numbers, in fact, according to most polls as of late, Stevie’s Harpercon numbers continue on that downhill spiral.

The anti-prorogation rallies across Canada were a success; many of the venues even acknowledging the plight of Haitians.

Also, the fact is most Canadians acknowledge and expect their politicians to react quickly toward a crisis in another part of the world or domestically. Regardless of whether or not Stevie remained at the top, prorogation or no prorogation, it is his job to react quickly.  In fact, I would presume that one of the reasons for Stevie’s dismal showing as of late would be that Canadians would have liked to see parliament reopen for this crisis. As Jane Taber had recently asked Jason Kenney on an episode of Question Period, ‘can’t the Haitian crisis be handled with parliament sitting?’ To which Kenney showed a sudden need for speech therapy.

Furthermore, none of the opposition parties came out to criticise the Harpercons for their handling of the Haitian crisis. In fact, the opposition parties are doing their part to help Haiti as well.

Now, the trap. It would seem that Stevie & the Harpercons want to cancel March & Easter Breaks: a time MPs generally go back home to their families and check out their constituencies. After that prorogation ruckus, It would be  assumed that most Canadians would want this to happen. Certainly Conservative Canadians who were against the prorogation of parliament would be for this.

Traditionally, the parliamentary calendar does remain the same after prorogation of parliament.  If the PM wishes to change the calendar, all opposition parties must vote unanimously for this change.

According to Harpercons, they say there will be just too much work and they must make up for the time he prorogued parliament. Typical Stevie and his Kingly ways: parliament must only operate when it’s convenient for Stevie.

“Instead of playing silly games, the PM should recall Parliament right away to deal with all the important issues facing Canadians,” says Karl Belanger , spokesperson for NDP Leader Jack Layton.

Indeed. I was waiting for something like that to be said, by someone; anyone, really. This is exactly what Canadian voters should be thinking. Be for or against the suspension of spring breaks, but the fact of the matter is if they’re falling so far behind on their work, perhaps parliament shouldn’t be prorogued. Perhaps Stevie should call everyone back to parliament as soon as possible. The Liberals are already there doing some work and being productive. I’m pretty sure the N.D.P. and the Bloc Quebecois would head  back to Ottawa if parliament were called to session again.

Liberal House Leader Ralph Goodale mocked the Conservatives’ sudden change of heart from demanding time to “recalibrate” to now wanting to toil straight through.

“It’s clearly a government in full panic mode . . . trying to scramble out of a mess they created,” Goodale said in an interview Wednesday night.

In spite of what Goodale said, it is likely that the Liberals will entertain Harpercon propositions. Liberal support which has been going up since prorogation, is quite fragile and can change at any time. I even suspect those so-called centrists or small c conservatives who have been supporting Stevie and the Harpercons are looking for a reason to give support back to him. According to many pollsters and pundits, Liberal support is only up because of Stevie’s latest high-handed games, not because of a sudden Iggy love-fest.  In fact, some may argue that it’s not the act of proroguation of parliament itself but more the underhanded way Stevie went about it

“It’s completely a reaction to Stephen Harper,” Bricker, president of Ipsos-Reid, said in a Jan. 24 interview.

“It’s not because people have a really big issue with proroguing the House,” Bricker said.

“It’s really the (political) games, that’s what gets under people’s skin. That’s what you are seeing the effects of (in the poll).”

Well, I would say the act of prorogation itself did play a large part in the recent polls. There are many Canadians calling for parliamentary reform so that prorogation can’t happen again or, at the very least, much more difficult to do so. I think most who attended the rallies and joined the facebook group would agree with me. Most certainly the conservative voters who spoke out against prorogation would agree with me here.

The question becomes will the opposition parties vote unanymously for this calendar change? According to senior Harpercons, they strongly believe that will be on board with this. Gordon O’Connor said,

there is no reason for the House of Commons to take constituency breaks during these weeks. Quite frankly, we would be surprised if the Opposition disagreed.

Gee, Gordo, no time to spend with constituents?  Just because your boss can’t deal with them doesn’t mean the others might not want to.  Sometimes, it’s a good idea to be in touch with the citizens of the country you lead.  You Harpercons would know that if you only made some semblance of effort to open your emails, even if it is a form letter.

That aside: the trap Stevie set is not whether or not anyone will go along with his proposal to skip holiday weeks this spring; there surely will be. However, as mentioned above, the parliamentary  calendar remains the same with or without prorogation and to change it requires a unanimous vote; as in no dissention. I have doubts about that kind of vote being unanimous.  The Bloc Quebecois hasn’t said much since prorogation and I guess if he feels Stevie’s proposal is in the best interests of Quebecers he’ll go along with it.  It looks like the Liberals will go along with it. Will the N.D.P. ? Anybody’s guess.

If we remember one of Stevie’s tactics for remaining so successful is that he knew the game of divide and conquer. He would keep the opposition parties divided. The reason the cross Canada rallies last month were so successful was that the politicians from the opposition were united for that short period.  The picture on the front page of the Montreal Gazette showing Thomas Mulcair, Gilles Duceppe and Marc Garneau (we only see his arm at the other side of Mulcair, but still)  walking side by side leading the anti-prorogation procession through the streets of Downtown Montreal to Philips’ Square.  Our opposition MPs were leading us in unison.

I am also realistic enough to know that this unification was fragile at best.  Unfortunately, I had already seen Mulcair take some shots at the Liberals on Question Period since the rallies.   Right now, as a whole, the opposition is not united or feeling particularly collaborative; this already doesn’t look good for a unanimous vote on calendar change. Also, no matter which party votes for or against the Harpercon proposed calendar change, columnists, pundits, bloggers and of course, the rest of Canadian voters; left or right will no doubt either praise or criticize whatever was voted for and by whom.   Yikes! This isn’t going to be pretty no matter how we look at it.

That is why, Stevie will choose to play the tactician; it works for him. As pointed out earlier, his proposal will have succeeded in dividing the opposition and Canadians; a formula that could raise his numbers back up again. Make no mistake, he doesn’t care whether there is work that will have fallen behind`and catching up with it.  He will have divided and then conquered. Or will they? Do I dare hope for the miracle that the albeit uneasy peace between opposition parties to continue and that they will see right through Stevie’s tactical game? If he were really concerned about being behind on work, he wouldn’t have prorogued parliament in the first place or he would unprorogue parliament as soon as possible.

If we thought this was going to be a bumpy ride; prepare for more of  St-Stevie’s antics between now and March 3; including the reading of the budget, which is sure to be a poison pill.

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.

We Need to Continue

The events of January 23 in Canada proved that online activism can and does work.
I have seen though what can only be called ‘childish’ comments in some quarters.  Despite all the genuine anti-Harper feelings out there we really cannot and should not be advocating solutions that even hint of violence.  We also should not be attacking the Governor General in any way whatsoever.  Our GG is a titular job.  She MUST accept the advice of her first Minister.  We had a ‘constitutional crisis’ way back in 1926 which resolved this issue once and for all

We must keep up the activism using the online methodology used for January 23.  It’s very short notice but some presence on Parliament Hill on January 25 is a possibility – although with such short notice it will be far fewer than January 23.

However the only REAL WAY to deal with the partisan-based prorogation by Mr. Harper is to ensure he cannot do it again.  A bill such as the one being prepared by Jack Layton may help but the reality is our constitutional convention makes passage of such a bill somewhat problematic.

The way to ensure Mr. Harper cannot do this again is to ensure he is no longer able to do it.  Only an election can determine that.  We need to encourage Canadians to accept that an election  is necessary.  We also need to encourage strategic voting in the election whenever it comes.

Montreal No Prorogue Rally Details

A short march and a rally with a few very short speeches.

I do hope that those in and around Montreal will come in great numbers despite the early hour. At least (knock wood), the weather should cooperate.

This is a non-partisan event. Everyone is welcome, no matter what affiliation they may be with:  the Left or the Right; Conservative or not: French speaking or not; Separatists or federalists; it doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, ol’ Stevie has stripped every Canadian of their Democratic rights.

Sidenote: Another interesting read would be over at Scott  Ross’s, where he actually details  how much prorogation is costing the tax payers. Those of the Conservative persuasion who claim to abhor government wasted spending: Scott Ross’ post is worth a read.

A Letter I wrote to MY MP

Crossposted at Sister Sage’s Musings. For those who have been following me there realize this post is somewhat dated. I wrote my MP and posted this to my blog awhile ago. However, I wanted to share it with the readers from the Noprorogue.ca site. For those who haven’t yet written their MPs; what are you waiting for ?

ATT: Irwin Cotler
Member of Parliament for Mont-Royal
Liberal Party of Canada

Hello,

I think most Canadians realize that the prorogation on the part of PM Stephen Harper is more sinister than last year’s. All one has to do is to read the news and the columnists. Globe & Mail’s John Ibbitson calls it “Devilishly clever”. Norman Spector of that same paper is even predicting an April election. Those are just a few examples of newspaper columnists all celebrating this move of PM Harper. Mike Biehl’s recent article in the Ottawa Citizen has referred to Prime Minister Stephen Harper as a not so benign dictator. Our prime minister’s actions and inactions as of late are certainly proving this much.

The question being asked by Canadians, myself included is what are the Liberal Party of Canada, The New Democratic Party and the Bloc Quebecois going to do about this?

How are you going to not only persuade Canadians how dangerous a Conservative Party of Canada under Stephen Harper would be, but also, to persuade Canadians that you are the best choice(s)? There are many who simply dismiss Stephen Harper’s past from the Reform Party, the National Citizens’ Coalition and the Canadian Alliance Party, simply because they can’t see real leadership in the Liberal Party.

Stephen Harper once again, abandons Canada at the worst possible time simply for his own political partisan agenda. Are you (the Liberal Party of Canada)going to do the same or are you going to take action, like so many Canadians want you to do?

Next question; are you going to allow today’s corporate right-winged media, like CTV, the Globe & Mail, Most Canadian talk radio shows and the National Post dictate your party strategies or agendas or are you going to think of what is best for Canada?

I, like so many other Canadians: everyday tax payers, pundits in the mainstream media and the blogosphere, believe that with Mr. Harper’s numbers remaining well within majority grasp (remember, former PMChretien had successive majorities with only 37%- 38% of the vote,with the popular Bloc Quebecois),he is hammering the nails in the opposition parties’ coffins while away.

It has been said that neither the Liberal Party nor even the NDP have shown strong leadership consistently. Isn’t it about time that changed, now more than ever? I mean, if we had strong leadership offered to us by the Liberal Party of Canada and the New Democratic Party of Canada, perhaps we wouldn’t find ourselves in the mess we are in now. We are also tired of hearing the Liberal in-fighting dominating the Corporate right-wing media.

Stephen Harper is counting on Canadians to forget about the torture allegations, even if Canada may be in breach international laws, namely the Geneva Convention. If you (the Liberal Party of Canada), the New Democrat Party and the Bloc Quebecois show up for work and perhaps to continue to keep this issue alive.

I, like so many Canadians, particularly the majority; who did NOT vote for the Conservative Party of Canada are extremely concerned about this prorogation as this permits him to not only stack up those five senate seats with his conservative friends, but all that hard work putting out legislation will have been for nothing.

The majority of Canadians are embarrassed at the poor showing on the world stage as of late. We are sad to see our international reputation sink further than that of the United States during the Bush/Cheney era.

For the above reasons, we, the Canadian people are asking you (the Liberals, New Democratic Party and the Bloc Quebecois) to put aside your differences, find common ground, put away the partisan games that Stephen Harper seems to be quite proficient with, show strong leadership and go to work January 25, 2010 as you would have had Governor General Michaelle Jean hadn’t granted proroguation (over the telephone no less; is this democracy?) to Stephen Harper. This, of course is just for starters.

Just an afterthought, perhaps it is time to revive that Coalition from last year, only, this time, do it before Stephen Harper engineers the next federal election; take a page from the former Canadian Alliance Party and the Progressive Conservatives.

My letter is surely not the first in your email box from Concerned Canadians. Please take this letter as well as other letters you have received from constituents. The future of Canada depends on it.

My letter is of course, not without bias as I am notm  nor have I ever been a fan of  Stephen Harper and his Conservatives. However, I do believe that proroguing is wrong for any party, particularly if they’re using it for such banal reasons like they can’t play nicely with others or they are trying to extracate themselves from pesky activities, like investigations for any government wrong doing. Parliamentary reform would be needed to make sure this can’t happen again.

Everyone should write to their MPs. Once again, here is how to reach your’s.

Are we still going to be complacent? Are we still going to allow Corporatist media to continue spoon feeding their Harpercon friendly agenda to us? Or allow them to spoonfeed us that we don’t care about prorogation.

Just a Reminder…

Here’s a goody from emotion 999

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

Video: 3 tunes for democracy

Check out the Ottawa Raging Grannies’ video against prorogation:

You can get the words to the songs at http://www.ottawagrans.net/songs/Politics

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.