Promethean acts at the G20 protest? I doubt it.
June 28, 2010
In the greatest T.V. commercial of all time a young woman enters a large auditorium dominated by a huge blue screen. She runs up to the front and smashes the IBM symbol with a sledge hammer, releasing the captive audience from its thrall. Ridley Scott directed this initial effort by Apple and the piece ran without comment during the Superbowl in 1984.
I wonder if the heavy-set woman in black hoodie and spandex was thinking of this commercial when she put a baseball bat through the window of the Starbucks on Yonge Street in Toronto on Saturday afternoon. She certainly took a heroic swing at that window, though I think it’s a little unclear just what she was trying to accomplish. Then there was the tall, very fit man, also attired in black, who allowed the camera a good look at his face as he tossed a headless mannequin into the gutter while stepping out of a shattered store window. He had the look of an intelligent workman, just going about his job.
The other members of the mob of vandals looked much less impressive, pretty much what you’d expect: a bunch of malcontents with nothing else to do with their Tai Kwan Do skills.
So there was a busload of these guys from central casting in Montreal, and from all reports there was a two-hour window in which they were able to run “amok” on a less-tony section of Yonge Street. There were no policemen in evidence, though lots of journalists were there to drink in the imagery.
After a morning of looking at the photos and film available on the Internet, I can only conclude that this “riot” was as fake as the loon calls at the media centre. Why else would the police cars which were set afire all be stopped in the middle of the street, far from combustibles? With 19,000 uniformed police officers within a half-mile of this site, how come none strayed onto the scene to stop the vandalism?
The thing reminded me of an A-Team episode from the seventies: lots of mayhem, but no blood. All violence was directed at cars and windows. If it is this directed, is it still violence? Or is it television fare?
Much more interesting were the occasional interviews with real protesters on Saturday. They were the usual array of moderates who had come out to speak for their causes. One very effective interview was with a middle-aged Filipino woman standing under an umbrella who spoke out against abuses in her native land and in Canada.
Members of my generation used to joke that we went to university to learn how to read and riot. We were told it was our duty to change the world. Understandably many Torontonians of my age were on the lines once again. They weren’t going to miss a parade in their own backyard. A lot of younger protesters dressed as though they had come to the demonstration to get a date, or at the very least to get their pictures taken with armed police in the background as a weird souvenir.
Apart from the imported “talent” it was a remarkably nice crowd for a rainy day.
As far as the police, it’s clear that a number of excesses occurred for which someone should be held accountable: first and foremost, I read that it cost up to $100,000 per officer (average cost? $49,000 per badge) to put the constabulary on the streets for that weekend. And there was that mysterious window of opportunity for the black bloc to give the media something to fuss about and take the heat off the obscene price of security for the weekend. I sincerely hope the cost of rebuilding the damaged storefronts on Yonge Street was factored into that $1.2 billion. And finally there is the issue of the arbitrary arrest of innocents. Nobody likes police-state tactics except those employing them to suit their own ends.
So for the weekend Torontonians were shut out of their own city and subjected to arbitrary search and seizure. Like the veterinarian who woke up at 4 am to the muzzle of a police pistol in his face and the sound of his child screaming in panic. Oops, sorry, wrong address. No warrant, forced, silent entry, and no consequences for the befuddled police officers. Think of the overtime pay, guys.
Monday’s Globe and Mail did its best to spin the summit press release into something of significance, but its efforts paled in comparison to the disdainful Star editorial which condemned Harper for the damage he did to their fair city.
And I watched a Fox news clip where some moron was giving Harper credit for announcing impending budget cuts and setting an example for the rest of the world. In the face of the profligate waste of this G20 Summit, it’s enough to make you sick.
Check out the following video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOjGdvju-po&feature=youtu.be
Every politician wants to be Grace Park.
June 13, 2010
If you want North Americans to pay attention to what you say, present it as make-belief. The Canadian-made T.V. series Battlestar Galactica ended a four-year run this spring, touted as the smartest thing on television by Rolling Stone, loved by its avid viewers who at some level bought into every one of the humanitarian issues it raised. What’s more, its cast moved on to other lucrative show business positions as soon as they retired from the old Vancouver warehouse where the series was shot.
So the Battlestar Galactica legacy is struck: every politician in Canada wants to be Grace Park and have endless offers of other roles when this gig is finished. A clumsy, makeshift stage set in a cavernous old barn of a warehouse, some intellectually unchallenging but edgy issues raised and dealt with in a 46-minute format, and then the credits roll. Plywood space ships sliding around the floor to simulate crashes? No problem. It’s the characters and the ideas that are of interest, not the special effects or the credibility of the plot.
So Stephen Harper’s myrmidons can hardly be faulted for the Fake Lake, the odd fanciful gazebo, prop lighthouse and an old, creaky ship. It’s as close as they can get to emulating the appeal of Battlestar Galactica. Of course they may not have thought it out too carefully – as with the maternal-health-for-the-Third-World kick. On T.V. the writers can just cut to a commercial and then roll the credits, but in the world of politics there’s still Question Period. As well, unfortunately PMO staff are all too likely to be compared to Cylons, and Harper’s apparent contempt for the environment makes more sense if his supporters all aspire to nabbing seats on the first ship to escape the doomed planet.
Perhaps I overdo it in suggesting that control-freak Stephen Harper would prefer the world were safe on a video screen where his editors could have complete and final control over the message mix. For one thing a brief look at any history of Canadian cinema will make it obvious that the Fake Lake follows a noble tradition of government and corporate propaganda films to promote immigration to Canada from Britain and Western Europe. That’s what the media centre’s for, right? Showcase Canada and encourage immigration, trade and investment.
As early as 1910 the CPR and Sir Wilfrid Laurier worked on films to get people to come here and fill the gap between Thunder Bay and Vancouver. Then as now, the image Canada presented to the rest of the world was much more important than the reality the settlers discovered, once exposed to the Canadian climate, its insects, and above all, its intimidating vastness.
I love the spoof video, “If I Had a Billion Dollars.” It shows genuine wit, and makes excellent use of You-Tube. But the more I think about the Fake Lake the less I feel inclined to ridicule it. This week’s Liberal ad on the subject makes me want to defend the alleged “boondoggle” because I detest attack ads, whatever their source.
In the prequel to Battlestar Galactica the inventor of the Cylons offers this: “In my business if it makes no difference, there is no difference.”
Look at what the organizers are doing: they’re taking a group of urban electronic journalists and allowing them to remain in their chosen milieu: close to the bar and away from bugs, sunburn, bad weather and scarce toilets, a milieu they trust and understand, plunked in front of a giant T.V. feed. A few shiny images of Muskoka will do the job, for the sheer multiplicity of imagery can only confuse the camera. It has to be simple and a bit artificial to work on T.V.
So let’s give Harper and his crew some credit for the imagination to see that all that really comes out of the summits is a few select photos and sound bites, and that significant effort must go into the manipulation of these bits. Most likely the cabinet’s tepid response to opposition baiting in Question Period this week has been due to their unusual position on this issue: for once they aren’t called upon to defend the indefensible, and they simply haven’t gotten around to dreaming up a rational response to legitimate questions about its cost.
So they have created an opportunity with the Fake Lake. It’s a chance to showcase the work of the many animation studios around Toronto as well as the Vancouver and Montreal movie industries. How they use the propaganda machine will to some extent contribute to Canada’s image as a world technological leader, but even more on the domestic front it will determine the Conservative Party’s immediate future. They’d better hope the film-at-11:00 is good. If the Fake Lake bombs, come fall there will be a lot of ex-MP’s lined up with Grace Park at casting calls for the next CBC blockbuster series.
Jack Layton for PM?
May 31, 2010
The buzz has hit the papers this morning. Turns out Quebec voters would flock to the NDP if they believed Layton had a chance to become PM. The Liberals are dying under Ignatieff’s seat-filling leadership.
Maybe Layton as PM wouldn’t be so bad. What’s he going to do? Spend billions on vanity projects? Nationalize a major industry? Sell off Atomic Energy? Tax everything?
Wait! Harper’s already done these things with the H.S.T., the bailouts last summer, Olympics and Summit spending and the new omnibus budget.
So what’s the difference? Layton wants a balanced approach to foreign relations and Harper’s a Zionist all the way. Take a breath, Canada! This guy might be a pretty good deal.
The political spectrum has long since gone the way of the dodo, and with it any valid measure of ideological space between parties.
Far-right Harper blows billions on centre-left stimulus funding because that’s what it takes to remain in power.
If an NDP candidate were threatened by a voting block of anti-abortion crusaders, that candidate would likely vote against abortion to preserve his or her seat.
If we agree it’s about power and little else, then it comes down to choosing up teams. At the moment the Right has combined two teams and so is winning against the other, fragmented squads. This can change if the two most likely Left teams join forces.
Who cares if they call the new Left squad the Newer Liberal-Democratic Coalition? As long as it gets rid of Harper’s gang, I’m for it. Jack Layton might make a very good prime minister. Few others are lining up for the job. Remember what Lenin said, “I saw power lying in the street, and I picked it up.”
I was raised a fifth-generation Tory, but I wish him well.
Review: The Armageddon Factor, by Marci McDonald
May 17, 2010
Every columnist has an opinion about Marci McDonald’s new book, but as she quipped in a CTV interview last Thursday, “They haven’t read it.” It took me a couple of days to get through what amounts to a history of the evangelical movement as a political force in Canada. It’s a very good book, well researched and believable. McDonald has capably defined that elusive group journalists refer to as “the Conservative base.” I’ll run the second half of the review next week.
The legal separation of church and state is an American concept. Because our country was not populated by religious refugees in the manner of the Thirteen Colonies, we have never had the equivalent of the First and Fourteenth Amendments in Canada. In the United States for members of the religious right to assert their power over government they have to bypass the constitution, but there is no such roadblock in Canada.
In fact, the orderly history of Canada relies upon a strong tradition of the church exerting a benign influence over government. Schools, universities, and hospitals were started by churches until well into the twentieth century.
In Quebec the Catholic Church controlled the province until the Quiet Revolution of the 1960’s. Over 2 million acres of clergy reserves in Ontario left the Anglican Church an economic power of great influence.
On the prairies the desperation of the Depression gave rise to the J.S. Woodsworth and Tommy Douglas radio ministries and demands for compassionate treatment from government. The Social Gospel movement became the CCF and later the NDP. Canadians have this populist movement to thank for Canada’s current system of medicare.
Bible Bill Aberhart in Alberta founded the Social Credit, a right wing populist group. After Aberhart’s death Ernest Manning took over, hosting the Back to the Bible Hour while serving as Alberta Premier for a generation. His son Preston founded the Reform Party which later morphed into the Canadian Alliance and later the Conservative Party of Canada.
But when the bill passed in June of 2005, same-sex marriage legislation in Canada came as a galvanizing defeat to social conservatives. In its aftermath many threads of the religious right coalesced around the Conservative Party, determined never to allow a defeat like this again. The strident theo-conservatives from the United States moved north, responding to invitations from ambitious individuals in Canada seeking the benefit of their organizational expertise and image.
Ralph Reed is widely credited with engineering George W. Bush’s White House victories. Rev. Charles McVetey of Canada Christian College invited him to Canada and the American Republican influence gave new intensity to the organized activities of Christian evangelicals.
As Reed told his audience in Toronto, “Democracy is often a game played by a motivated few: in the nitty gritty of grass roots organizing, it can take only a handful of citizens to commandeer a nomination contest.” Several prominent members of the Conservative Party were in the audience.
Preston Manning reinvented himself after losing the helm of the Canadian Alliance. Although he remained loyal to the party and to those who had supplanted him, embodying the Christian tradition of his upbringing, he apparently realized that his straightforward approach to politics would no longer work, and so he opted for a much more covert approach to leadership. His Manning Centre for Building Democracy now trains Conservative party operatives using the twin metaphors of the serpent and the dove.
McDonald likens the new Conservative legislative strategy Manning devised to that of the anti-slavery activist M.P. William Wilberforce in the 2006 film Amazing Grace.
Frustrated for two decades in his efforts to end the British slave trade, during a war with France he engineered a “patriotic” bill, the Foreign Slave Trade Act, which forbade trade with the French. It slipped through the British Parliament before the pro-slavery elements twigged to its real intent: by barring British slave merchants from selling their human cargo to French plantation owners in the United States, they had effectively outlawed two thirds of the slave trade and destroyed its economic viability.
Apparently inspired by the film, Preston Manning repeatedly showed clips from it in his training sessions and urged evangelical activists to study Wilberforce’s strategy “backward and forward,” counseling them to employ both his patience and his subterfuge.
“If Harper’s sly circumvention of Parliament (on the issue of grants for Canadian films) bore an amazing resemblance to that of Amazing Grace — right down to undercutting the commercial viability of the Canadian film industry — it was no accident.”
End of Part 1
Link to Part 2
https://rodcroskery.wordpress.com/2010/05/24/all-the-christianity-that-fits/
The Armageddon Factor: notes
May 17, 2010
I’ll upload more notes as I go.
Notes for a review of The Armageddon Factor, by Marci McDonald, Random House. 2010
The separation of church and state enshrined in law is an American concept. Because our country was not populated by refugees who believed they were fleeing religious oppression in the manner of the pilgrims to the Thirteen Colonies, we have never had laws like the First and Fourteenth Amendments in Canada. In the United States for members of the religious right to assert their power over government they have to bypass the constitution, but not in Canada.
In fact, the orderly history of Canada relies upon a strong tradition of churchmen exerting a benign influence over government. Schools, universities, and hospitals were started by churches until well into the twentieth century. In Quebec the Catholic Church controlled the province until the Quiet Revolution of the 1960’s. Over 2 million acres of clergy reserves in Ontario left the Anglican Church an economic power of great influence. p. 52
On the prairies the desperation of the Depression gave rise to the J.S. Woodsworth and Tommy Douglas radio ministries and demands for compassionate treatment from government. The Social Gospel movement became the CCF and later the NDP. Canadians have this populist movement to thank for Canada’s system of medicare.
Bible Bill Aberhart in Alberta founded the Social Credit, a right wing populist group. After Aberhart’s death Ernest Manning took over, hosting the Back to the Bible Hour while serving as Alberta Premier for a generation. His son Preston founded the Reform Party which later morphed into the Canadian Alliance and the Conservative Party of Canada. 53
Same-sex marriage legislation in Canada was a great defeat for the religious right, their Alamo, if you will. In its aftermath the movement evolved and strengthened, determined never to allow a defeat like that again. The strident theo-conservatives from the United States moved north, responding to invitations from individuals in Canada seeking to profit from their fundraising expertise and image.
Ralph Reed is widely credited with engineering George W. Bush’s White House victories. Charles McVetey of Canada Christian College 81 invited him to Canada and the American Republican influence gave new intensity to the the organized activities of Christian evangelicals. As Reed told his audience in Toronto, “Democracy is often a game played by a motivated few: in the nitty gritty of grass roots organizing, it can take only a handful of citizens to commandeer a nomination contest.” 76
Preston Manning reinvented himself after losing the helm of the Canadian Alliance. Although he remained loyal to the party and to those who had supplanted him, embodying the Christian tradition of his upbringing, he apparently realized that his straightforward approach to politics would no longer work, and so he opted for a much more covert approach to leadership. His Manning Centre for Building Democracy now trains Conservative party operatives using the twin metaphors of the serpent and the dove.
McDonald likens the Conservative legislative strategy to that of the anti-slavery activist M.P. William Wilberforce in the 2006 film Amazing Grace. Frustrated for two decades in his efforts to end the British slave trade, during a war with France he engineered a “patriotic” bill, the Foreign Slave Trade Act, which forbade trade with the French. It slipped through the British Parliament before the pro-slavery elements twigged to its real intent: by barring British slave merchants from selling their human cargo to French plantation owners in the United States, they had effectively outlawed two thirds of the slave trade and destroyed its economic viability. 98
Apparently inspired by the film, Preston Manning repeatedly showed clips from it in his presentations and urged evangelical activists to study Wilberforce’s strategy “backward and forward,” counseling them to employ both his patience and his subterfuge. 98.
“If Harper’s sly circumvention of Parliament (on the issue of grants for Canadian films) bore an amazing resemblance to that of Amazing Grace — right down to undercutting the commercial viability of the Canadian film industry — it was no accident.” 98
Rocking the Vote: Faytene Kryskow.
Self-styled prophetess and cheerleader for the charismatic Christian right, Kryskow’s activities as a youth organizer have garnered significant media attention and free passage through the corridors of power of the Harper Government. An energetic pro-life campaigner who counts among her mentors Stockwell Day, she has outlasted more lurid performers of her crowd who have fallen to scandal and become a force on Parliament Hill.
One of her projects involved writing a short history of Canada from a Christian perspective. She sent copies to every senator and parliamentarian. Perhaps inspired by her historical researches for the book, she once rented the Dominion Chalmers United Church “trumpeting it as the site where the nation’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, ‘got saved.’”
In fact the church was not built until after his death and the man wasn’t known for his religious beliefs, but Kryskow doesn’t seem much inclined to let a lack of facts get in the way of a good story, which might reflect upon her frequent claims of divine inspiration.
Ken Epp, an Edmonton backbencher, sponsored a private member’s bill in 2008 to protect the rights of the unborn in murder cases. The bill passed, in part due to a snowstorm which kept voting opposition members away from the house. Kryskow and her crew burst into cheers in the gallery. When the bill died without a third reading when Harper called an election, Kryskow blamed Harper’s betrayal of her cause for his sudden decline in popularity, the same way she tied drops in the stock market and the Canadian dollar to each successful move by pro-gay legislators.
What’s scary about Kryskow is not so much her visions or her flexible concepts of veracity, but rather the unfettered access she and her gang have to Parliament Hill and Stockwell Day. Her motto of “kicking major devil butt p. 174” says a lot.
Remember when comedian Rick Mercer played the trick on Stockwell Day, getting Facebook kids to ask him to change his name to “Doris?” Our Faytene did one better, swamping a CBC 140th anniversary poll — which asked for teen’s fondest wish — with 9500 votes for the abolition of abortion. 169
Chapter 7: The Joshua Generation
Styled upon the successful Patrick Henry College in Virginia, Western Trinity University is a small British Columbia Christian school which was founded in the 1960’s with a view to producing a generation of Christian leaders for Canadian government. With the opening of the Ottawa Laurentian Leadership Centre in a renovated mansion, its students have a base from which to work as interns on Parliament Hill. Harper’s government members have willingly accepted these interns. “At least thirty of the centre’s young Christian soldiers have won jobs in Ottawa’s permanent policy-making apparatus and every semester produces new recruits.” 244
MPs Chuck Stahl and Diane Ablonczy are Western Trinity alumni. Jared Kuehl went straight to Harper’s office after graduation. Mark Penninga became spokesman for Focus on the Family Canada, then founded the Association for Reformed Political Action.
Before he was prime minister, Harper railed against the liberalism of the civil service and Trinity Western is not alone in attempting to help him reverse that tilt. More than a dozen well-regarded Christian colleges and universities now exist in this country, and the Conservatives are quietly fostering their growth. When economic stimulus funds were being doled out, Harper funneled more than $26 million their way, including $2.6 million to Trinity Western – a windfall that was announced by Conservative MP Mark Warawa, a TWU alumnus himself. 245
“In today’s society, there are important issues and Christians have a role to play. I think our students are already influencing the thinking of government.” Don Page, Dean of Graduate Studies, TWU. 245
McDonald steps outside her normal role of historian in the book when she recounts a morning visit to the Laurentian Leadership Centre.
Only weeks earlier the National Post had run a flattering, full-page profile of the Laurentian Leadership Centre, celebrating it as a new haven for the “sharpest edge of intellectual evangelical Christianity, but on the day I visit there is little evidence of that acuity. If this is history filtered through a biblical worldview, it is a version that seems hopelessly skewed by conservative bias and a marked disregard for the facts. When students refer to the Toronto Star as “the Red Star” and deride Canada as a “welfare state,” I feel as if I’ve stumbled into the ornate clubhouse of some fresh-faced relics from the Reagan era. 242
10. Among the injured in the blowout on the Deep Horizon drill platform were a number of British Petroleum executives on hand to celebrate seven years of accident-free operation on the rig.
9. The Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska, damaged 1300 miles of shoreline and exacted a terrible toll on the ecosystem. All economic indicators, though, listed this environmental disaster as a boon for Alaska. The field of economics does not have a way to put a value on degradation to the environment.
8. CBS News reports that 15 years after the event, of the 11,000 workers employed on the Exxon Valdez cleanup, 6000 were dead. 21 years later many Alaskans are still waiting for Exxon to pay up. British Petroleum has promised to pay for the costs of the Gulf of Mexico cleanup, but Dick Cheney got a law onto the books capping liability for oil companies at $75 million per incident. President Obama promises to raise that limit, but mid-term elections are coming with expensive campaigns to fund.
7. Dick Cheney’s deregulation of the oil industry during the Bush administration allowed oil companies to cut corners on safety. According to lawyer Mike Papantono, if the Deep Horizon oil rig had been set up off the coast of Denmark it would have been equipped with an acoustic switch for the blowout protector, a fail-safe mechanism which costs an additional half-million dollars. The year they opened this well, BP profits shot up an additional 3.9 billion dollars. They could have afforded the safety equipment, but corporations won’t do what legislators don’t require, and Big Oil has a history of spending money on politicians rather than on environmental safeguards.
6. Last week Mississippi Congressman Gene Taylor spoke to reporters after flying over the oil spill:
“This isn’t Katrina. It’s not Armageddon,” Taylor said. “A lot of people are scared and I don’t think they should be.” He described the spill as a light, rainbow sheen with patches that look like chocolate milk. He did not see any traces along the Louisiana shore, near the Chandeleur Islands in Louisiana or the barrier islands in Mississippi. He said the closest he saw oil was 20 miles from the Louisiana marsh and that it was further than that away from the Chandeleur Islands and even further from the barrier islands. “It’s breaking up naturally; that’s a good thing. The fact that it’s a long way from the Mississippi Gulf Coast, that’s a great thing, because it gives it time to break up naturally,” he said. (sunherald.com/2010/05/01)
Later in the week the estimate of the oil flow rate increased five-fold, the slick reached shore, and much less was heard from Congressman Taylor.
5. Notwithstanding Rep. Taylor’s optimism, BP seems overwhelmed by the magnitude of their mess. So does the Obama administration. Yet oil companies continue to drill, and industry analysts complain that the modest drop in the price of BP stock is out of proportion to the company’s potential loss.
4. Shell has recently paid the United States Government $2 billion for licenses to join BP in drilling in the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean.
3. Paul Watson commented in a recent Toronto Star article: Stephen Harper insists his government won’t let Canada suffer an offshore oil well blowout like the one threatening the Southern U.S. coast. “As we’ve said before, the National Energy Board is clear: there is no drilling unless the environment is protected, unless workers are protected,” the prime minister told the House of Commons Monday. “That is the bottom line and this government will not tolerate the kind of situation we see in the Gulf of Mexico.”
Harper sounded as confident as Gene Taylor there.
2. The Exxon Valdez spill was a large, but finite amount of oil in a confined area on a rocky coastline. The Louisiana coastline is not sharply defined, with thousands of miles of bayous, rivers and swamps which are the nursery for much of the aquatic life in the Gulf of Mexico, one of the richest seafood producing areas in the world. When they get the gusher stopped, cleanup of this area will make Alaska’s two-year effort washing rocks and birds look like a cakewalk.
1. And they have no way of knowing where the end will be. (Tom Foreman, CNN)
An encounter with the Long Gun Registry
April 24, 2010
Martin and a few other grad students have been planning a spring goose hunt for some time now, so a couple of weeks ago he showed up at the farm with two class-mates, a box of clays and a hand-held launcher, determined to practice his marksmanship before the climactic day. The three of them came back to the house, crestfallen. They couldn’t hit anything with his single shot Cooey.
I dug my Remington pump out of a cupboard in response to his hang-dog look, and away they went. They quickly ran out of shells, but progress was good.
Time passed, more clays were broken over the walnut field, and then came the email: “May I please use your gun for the goose-hunting trip? I checked the regulations and I need to have the original of the registration form with it, so could you dig it up?”
This proved a problem. Over the last twenty-five years as computer records improved I became less and less concerned about keeping track of specific pieces of paper. Whereas in 1975 looking after a single copy of an essay from a student was of critical importance, by 2004 when I cleaned out my desk I routinely required a printout of an original on the school computer with a backup or two on the student’s disk. As well, over the course of the writing process I would have looked at anywhere from three to five versions of the work.
After reading, marking, and returning well over a million sheets of paper over three decades, I wasn’t about to be bothered by a specific piece of it any more, not when a simple computer search can produce a pristine copy to everyone’s satisfaction.
This mindset no doubt governed the purge of the large filing cabinet the day I moved it from my study in our last house to its current residence in the barn, empty of all but tools. I carefully saved income tax forms and personal correspondence. Everything else went for disposal.
A search through remaining documents produced no registration sheet for long guns. Fine, I’ll call and have them send me another copy. That’s the point of a gun registry, right?
The OPP guy gave me the number, so away I went on my own wild goose chase, not nearly as pleasant as Martin’s planned expedition.
I landed in the middle of one of those telephone menus. None of the many selections had anything to do with what I needed, which was simply to ask them to print a copy of the list of guns I have registered with them or send it along by email so that Martin could legally take my shotgun into Quebec.
I punched button #5, and waited until an operator answered. First I had to convince the woman that I was not a criminal looking around for a nice cache of guns to steal. I don’t know if she ever got past that impression.
Eventually after I had given her every piece of information she requested and discovered that I had offended her by not notifying the Registry within thirty days of a change of address (even though she had somehow obtained my unlisted cell-phone number), I realized that this operator had no intention of helping me at all. This was a one-way information tap, and the only direction for the flow was away from me, towards her.
She directed me to the registry’s website to download a file and make a written application for a copy of my registration, “Which is to be kept with the gun at all times.”
Fine, lady, but that wasn’t what they said in 1995 when I was one of the first to register a firearm online. Do I need to keep a copy of a book if I have donated it to the local library?
We ended the call with her assurance that there was no way on earth I would get a registration certificate replacement within a week. “I don’t do that. You have to send down-east to have them print certificates.”
“Where are you?”
“Orillia,” I think she said.
On the website nothing applied. From the looks of their forms, having guns already registered doesn’t mean a thing if you wish them to provide a replacement copy of the certificate. Looks as though you have to go through the whole registration process again. This does not make sense.
Based upon this experience I have to conclude that the current Long Gun Registry is a dead list, poorly conceived insofar as it does not serve the needs of those who contribute to it, and the bureaucracy that I have encountered actively resists citizen interaction with the list.
I explained to Martin that he was out of luck. A day later he proudly informed me that a prof sold him an almost new Remington 870 which had been used for a research project a few years ago involving the destructive testing of snow geese.
As for the Long Gun Registry, that is one sick puppy of an organization. Put a hunter in charge of that office for a month and things would be a lot different.
The Final Taboo
April 19, 2010
In 1988, trailing badly in the polls to Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis, Republican George H. W. Bush reluctantly allowed a line to remain in the final draft of a speech: “Read my lips: no new taxes!” That sound bite (and attack ads questioning his opponent’s sanity) won him the election, but then he was forced to impose a 10% income tax surcharge to cover the cost of the Persian Gulf War or face a bankrupt administration. In the 1992 election Bill Clinton made Bush into a one-term president by forcing him to eat his no-new-taxes pledge.
George W. Bush started wars in Iraq and Afghanistan during his time as American president. Unlike his father, “W” made no effort to pay for his foreign adventures. While traditionally governments have called for a strong commitment from the citizenry to support wars, Bush recognized the paper-thin public support for his projects and avoided seeking a visible public commitment such as a tax levy or a draft. Instead he ran deficits while pumping up military budgets and even cutting taxes. The cost of the two wars has almost hit a trillion dollars ($985 billion), and there is no plan to pay for it. It costs a million dollars per year to keep a U.S. soldier in the field and Obama recently sent 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. The fiscal abyss looms, but few dare gaze upon it.
George Sr. had been forced into this tax position by the right wing of his party, and from that point on national campaigns in North America have been more about getting elected than laying the groundwork for a successful administration. In fact, the disparity between what it takes to run a country successfully and what it takes to get elected to the position soon widened to the point that tactician Karl Rove Jr. is afforded the sort of respect in the media formerly reserved for senators who had championed important legislation. All Rove has done is get George W. Bush elected through dirty tricks.
What does this have to do with Canada? I fear the Republican’s fiscal recklessness has made its way north. In Diefenbaker’s day it was said that the party ruled which marched to the left while proclaiming it marched to the right, and claimed it would never change while adapting to every eventuality. Harper’s government seems to have adapted the rule to: “Crow about how prudent Canada is fiscally while spending like a drunken sailor.” Or perhaps it involves warning Canadians about the threat of socialism while nationalizing GM and Chrysler.
The recession of 2009 struck and stimulus funding was needed to protect the minority government from the opposition. Free market principles be damned, away went $65 billion dollars to Conservative discretionary spending projects. With the GST reduced to 5% and the $13 billion surplus from the Martin administration spent, there’s no real prospect of balancing the budget without increased revenue, but with the Bush taboo, no politician can admit to a plan to increase taxes and win an election. Look what happened to Stephane Dion with his carbon tax. Thus Jim Flaherty clings doggedly to the party line and insists that growth will take care of the deficit within five years…. or fourteen.
Most likely Canadians will face a federal election within the year. That will mean another round of attack ads. Rumour has it that the favourite Conservative attack line this time will be: “Ignatieff: we just can’t afford him.”
Why? When asked by a reporter if he would raise taxes to pay off a deficit, Ignatieff once said he couldn’t rule it out. That’s it. A $65 billion dollar Tory war chest and millions more spent on American-made signs, and airplanes to fly MPs around to hand out cheques with the Conservative logo illegally attached. But an attack ad blaming the other guy for trying to balance the budget will probably work.
The No-New-Taxes pledge – I’ll call it the Bush taboo – means that no potential leader can honestly speak to voters, because voters themselves are dishonest. They commonly vote their prejudices and their wallets, and only on rare occasions, their aspirations.
So what’s a voter to do? Reject attack ads. Say an ad comes along during a hockey game: “Stephen Harper. The way he’s handled the Guergis situation, if he were a school principal he wouldn’t last a week.” Change the channel. Don’t change your attitude toward Stephen Harper, even though you know in your heart it’s true.
And of course if a politician asks voters to think rationally about paying for our war and funding our pension plans and medical care instead of passing the problem on to the next generation, we would likely be wise to pay attention, rather than allowing the nearest bully to shout the idea down in an attack ad.
An Interview with Stephen Mazurek, Liberal Candidate
February 22, 2010
Property values in Westport are higher than in Smiths Falls. What’s going on in North Leeds?
North Leeds is a wonderful place to live. It is an absolutely beautiful part of the riding. I know people from all over Ontario love the wonderful waterfront, fantastic shops and great dining in Westport. It’s no wonder many people, especially seniors and young families, are choosing to move to this community. I suspect this increased demand is what has driven up the property values in that area.
Smiths Falls has been through a challenging couple of years; there is no doubt about that. We need to bring good-paying jobs back to that community and I believe we have the right economic plan and the right tax package to do it.
Mr. Harper and Mr. McGuinty have jointly created the 13% Harmonized Sales Tax. Would you explain a bit about what the HST will mean to voters in Leeds-Grenville?
The HST is just one element of the Liberal government’s comprehensive tax package that, taken together, will create 600,000 new jobs, increase business investment and leave more money in people’s pockets.
We are beginning to see signs of economic recovery, so governments have a choice. They can either choose to act, helping businesses create new jobs — or choose to do nothing, stand back and hope for the best. I am proud to say the Liberal government has chosen to act.
Moving to a single, value-added tax like the HST allows businesses, large and small, to be reimbursed for the PST they pay on the items they buy every day to run their business. Decreased costs for business will mean lower prices for consumers. In fact, a study by TD Bank showed that 95% of business cost savings will be passed on to the consumer within 3 years.
While businesses start hiring as their tax burden shrinks, people in Leeds-Grenville will also benefit from the $10.6 billion in permanent, personal tax relief which accompanies the HST legislation. We have already lowered the personal income tax rate on January 1st, cutting income taxes for 93% of Ontario taxpayers. Ontario now has the lowest income tax rate in all of Canada on the first $37,000 of income.
And while it is true that some prices on some items will go up, it is nowhere near what’s being suggested by some of my opponents. In fact, 83% of the things we buy will have no additional tax after July 1st.
Things exempt from cost increases because of the HST include basic groceries, prescriptions, clothing, children’s clothing and footwear, books, home cable and telephone service, cell phone charges, municipal water bills, your morning coffee and newspaper, restaurant meals, furniture and appliances, movie tickets, mortgage interest charges, prepared food under $4 and automobiles, to name just a few.
And finally, the people of Leeds-Grenville will also benefit from permanent, targeted tax cuts offsetting the increases on the remaining 17% of purchases.
Starting this July, and an integral part of the HST legislation, the new, permanent Ontario Sales Tax Credit will provide up to $260 for every low and middle-income Ontarian, paid out quarterly like the current GST credit. We are also doubling the Seniors’ Property Tax Credit to $500, helping seniors stay in their homes longer. And finally we also created a new, permanent Ontario Property Tax Credit that provides up to $950 for residents of homes, whether they rent or own.
We need a strong economy to support the high quality public services like hospitals and schools that we’ve all worked so hard to build. The government’s plan adds up to more jobs, greater prosperity and a brighter future for Leeds-Grenville.
In a recent article Mr. Runciman ripped Mr. McGuinty for his green plan, claiming that Hydro will have to pay out astronomical amounts to homeowners with solar panels. He claimed McGuinty’s numbers are “the stuff of fantasy”. Can you provide a more balanced look at the Green Initiative?
I think we can all agree that the days of cheap energy are over. Whether because of the economic or environmental impacts, we must turn to new sources of energy, harnessing the natural gifts of the planet – the sun, the wind, and our crops.
It is always amusing to listen to the Tories discuss things like climate change and energy production. Runciman is now part of a government that seems to deny that climate change is even a fact, and was part of a government, under Harris, that fought to keep coal plants open. This attitude was wrong then and is even worse now.
The Liberal government knows how critical this issue is, and has responded. We have already reduced Ontario’s use of dirty coal by one-third and will reduce it by another third next year. This will clean the air we breathe and improve our quality of life.
We also recently announced that we are protecting an area in Northern Ontario larger than Prince Edward Island from logging, which in addition to the Green Belt and our 50 Million Trees Program, will go a long way to turning back the clock on environmental destruction.
Putting the environmental reasons aside, I believe Leeds-Grenville is uniquely positioned to harness our natural elements to create the highly-skilled jobs we want right here at home.
While solar and wind power are seen by some as a pipe dream, the reality is the green energy revolution is happening right now and it is happening all around us. I was pleased to visit Upper Canada Generation Limited with the Premier just last week. That is a great example of a company that is creating the kinds of jobs we want by using leading-edge technology to turn the natural bounty of this riding into usable energy.
We must remember that leading-edge technologies often have upfront costs. I remember how much more computers cost 10 years ago compared to what they cost today. Wind turbines, solar panels and ethanol processing plants are no different. I think it’s important that we look at the overall cost, both environmental and economic, rather than just the specific rate for generation of a new energy source. While an initial feed-in tariff is needed to encourage investment in these right kinds of technology, I am confident that over time we will see wind turbines and solar panels dotting our landscape and benefitting both the environment and our pocket books.
the Walnut Diary 