DING! The Jig is Up!
David Dingwall’s expenses were verified by an independent audit, and low and behold, the Conservative fearmongering over the issue is, well, exposed. With Gomery coming out next week, the Tories and the Bloc will begin the scare tactics and threaten an election. Canadians will see the Gomery report exonerate the current Prime Minister and the former Prime Minister while condemning those who the Tories and Bloc treated as sacrosanct. Stevie and Gillies will now head into an election where their only policy is overhyped allegations of Liberal corruption with no new ideas and a policy ripped straight from the headlines instead of thoughtful discussion and debate. Liberals have moved on with their progressive agenda for Quebec and Canada. What song will Brian Pallister be singing next week…will it go something like: Uh Oh We’re in trouble! Something's come along and it's burst our bubble Uh Oh!
For underrepresented, the time is now.
North of 60 star Tina Keeper is going to run for the Liberals in Manitoba’s Churchill riding in the next election, and frankly, I couldn’t be more excited. http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/
news/story.html?id=d380b0bd-d720-490b-a5c9-f7f85605b368I was never an avid watcher of the show, and honestly don’t know much about Keeper, but I’m resoundingly happy every time I hear that another women or visible minority is running in the next federal election- regardless of partisan affiliation. The problem surrounding the awareness of and the ensuing complaints regarding under representation in the House of Commons is that it always comes too late, usually once the writ is dropped and the candidate numbers come and then again once the final votes are counted. The time to make our House of Commons better resemble our population is now. It’s in the months before an election, when party riding executives are looking for qualified candidates and holding nomination races. Too often I hear cop-out explanations where people choose to blame poor representation on leaders or political party big-wigs, “the system,” or “society.” Well I think each and every citizen can also take a little personal responsibility for the situation and open up your chequebook to a female or visible minority candidate, encouraging one to run, or running oneself. Tina Keeper did, and I think it’s fantastic.
Justice is Served…HARD and COLD
Paul Coffin thought he escaped the enclosed space that is federal Canadian jail by receiving a sentence of 2 years less a day of house arrest for screwing the Canadian population out of millions of tax dollars. Now he faces 34 months in jail, and could be eligible for bail after only 25 weeks. But those 25 weeks will be spent in a penitentiary where he will think long and hard about his crimes…Ironically if Paul Coffin accepted the 34 months and went to jail, he could be out in time to vote. Methinks he won’t be supporting Paul Martin…HAHAHA Jean Brault and Chuck Guilty must be shaking in their boots. Coffin stole less money and he confessed, not to mention he paid the money back…but not these two…hahahaha Bonne Chance les gars! Too bad their trials are AFTER the election…I would have enjoyed seeing those morons get their helping of justice too.
I found Bouchard’s Boom
I found Bouchard’s Boom
Long before André Boisclair was sniffing around for power, Quebec was on the verge of an economic boom. Jean Lesage and the Quebec Liberals had led Quebeckers through a period of renewal, a rebirth for Quebeckers which had been sheltered by the Grande Noirceur of Maurice Duplessis. French was making a strong comeback in business circles. French-speaking CEOs and executives were invading Montreal’s board rooms French Canadians were taking their place among the business elite of this province.
It was a time of great personal freedom for Quebeckers. Multiculturalism and bilingualism were policies that benefited Montreal, the city was becoming bilingual at an exceptional pace. We had a French Canadian Prime Minister who stood for the values espoused by traditionally liberal Quebeckers. Major Canadian corporations had head offices in Montreal and were employing bilingual employees, as demand in Quebec for their services increased greatly. Montreal was only happy to oblige. The city was in a period of renewal through the Olympic Games in 1976. Everything was looking up for Montreal and for Quebec…then…it happened….the boom was gone
Rene Levesque swept into power in 1976, making sure the enormous benefits the Montreal revival would bring would be wrapped up and sent straight down the 401, to Toronto. Nothing kills economic success than ethnic nationalism.
Building a strong economy does not involve oppressing a large affluent chunk of your society. Large corporations did not leave at the sight of a strengthening French Canadian business community. They left when their economic well-being was threatened by a pipe dream.
What killed Quebec M. Bouchard? Quebec Sovereignty did. Rene Levesque did. Jacques Parizeau did. Bill 101 did. Half a million affluent Anglophone Quebeckers moving to Toronto did. Billions of dollars in corporate tax dollars fleeing to Ontario did. Closed Ethnic Nationalism killed Quebec
Bravo Jean Lapierre...(Has Antonio lost his mind?)
Mark your Calendars…this is the day I write something GOOD about Jean Lapierre I called Benoit Pelletier a separatist long ago…it was one of Fuddle Duddle’s first accusations which landed me in hot water…well after bringing many JLC(Q) members into the Benoit Pelletier Separatist Club (BPSC), it seems the BPSC has recruited it’s first cabinet minister JEAN LAPIERRE Welcome Ok so it’s not like we have any proof he’s a member but I believe that M. Lapierre’s statements speak for themselves. After Question Period Wednesday, John the Rock did the BPSC a great service…here are some quotes from ‘my favorite’ Le Devoir «M. Pelletier a réussi aujourd'hui à meubler toute la période de questions du Bloc, a-t-il dit. S'il veut continuer d'écrire les questions du Bloc, peut-être que tous les députés du Bloc vont devenir des permanences contre le Parti libéral du Québec. Il ne s'aide certainement pas.» «Un jour, j'aimerais que M. Pelletier fasse de la politique pratico-pratique, qu'il écoute ses propres collègues et qu'il ait le même esprit de collaboration qu'eux... À essayer d'être plus péquiste que les péquistes, les gens vont voter pour les vrais, pas pour les faux.» Whether or not jean thought about the last part of that last sentence before the last election....no comment. Lapierre has come a LONG way in persuading Quebeckers he is back on the federalist side and willing to fight for Canada. STOP THE PRESSES…REWIND…WTF Yes Ladies and Gentlemen, I, Antonio Di Domizio, am saying that I think Jean Lapierre did something good for Quebec and for Canada. I have always said that Charest tries to walk the middle so much in Quebec he will soon end up with some separatists in the ranks. Paul Martin and the Liberals are focused on results…Benoit Pelletier is concerned about posturing, not results. It’s about time the Charest government DID something rather than offer their opinion cuz them pissing on the federal government not only wastes people’s time, but also works against the federalist cause…that cause the PLQ supposedly stands for…these days I could barely tell the difference.
Alex est de Retour pour Planter Pelletier
Beaucoup de libéraux doutaient de Jean Lapierre quand il est revenu en politique il y a un peu plus d’un an et demi. Personnellement, je n’ai rien contre l’homme mais certaines de ses déclarations me font sourciller parfois. Par contre, aujourd’hui, il m’a ravi ! Il a dit tout haut ce que la vaste majorité des militants libéraux disaient tout bas depuis un bon bout de temps. BENOîT PELLETIER FLIRTE AVEC LES SÉPARATISTES ! Ça doit cesser, ça n’a aucun sens. La collaboration entre Ottawa et Québec est très bonne, seul Benoît Pelletier vient gâcher la sauce. Quand je parle de collaboration, je pense à l’annonce faite cette semaine pour venir en aide à l’industrie forestière suite au dépôt du rapport Coulombe. Michel Audet, ministre des Finances du Québec a demandé le printemps dernier au ministre du développement régional, Jacques Saada, s’il pouvait lui venir en aide en annonçant un plan d’aide aux régions touchées. Lundi, on apprenait que Développement Économique Canada mettait 50M$ d’argent neuf pour aider les régions affectées par le rapport Coulombe. N’est-ce pas un bel exemple de collaboration des deux palliers de gouvernement ? Il est grandement temps que Jean Charest mette son pied à terre et dise à Benoît Pelletier de se la fermer. Il empoisonne les relations fédéral-provincial. À l’instar de son ex-collègue Yves Séguin, bientôt plus aucun ministre fédéral ne voudra travailler avec M. Pelletier. Charest avait fait un coup d’éclat en annonçant la candidature de Séguin dans Outremont en 2003, le pétard lui a explosé dans les mains… Séguin a inventé ce qui est devenu la principale doléance des séparatistes québécois (et curieusement de M. Pelletier), le fameux déséquilibre fiscal, que je me plais à appeler déséquilibre mental ! J’aimerais que M. Charest réalise que, très souvent, nos pires ennemis sont parmi nous. Si vous souhaitez une relation avec Ottawa encore plus harmonieuse, faites en sorte d’enlever les obstacles à la relation, Benoît Pelletier est le premier obstacle. Si vous perdez votre ministère, M. Pelletier, je suis convaincu que les portes vous seront grandes ouvertes au Bloc Québécois. Ils vous accueilleront à bras ouverts, ils ont besoin de gens comme vous, des gens qui chiâlent et qui ne sont jamais prêts à s’asseoir pour négocier et régler un dossier. Dehors Pelletier !!! Alexandre Plante
NDP = Hypocrites
The claws are out. NDP MP Bev Desjarlais lost her nomination for the Manitoba riding of Churchill. I have never seen anything more outrageous outside of Hamilton in my life. I won’t lie to anyone, the Liberals have had their outrageous nominations as well, but the least I can say is nobody was thrown out for what they believed in. I don’t decide what goes on in the House but I believe the Liberals are better off fighting an election than taking orders from a bunch of hypocrites. Before gays and lesbians fought for the right to marry, blood was shed for the cause of having a freely-elected parliament that could freely express its opinion. The rights of freedom of expression are what same-sex marriage is all about. Gays and Lesbians want the right to express their love for each other in matrimony. It’s also about equality of the person, something we Liberals happen to know enough about. The difference between the Liberals and the NDP is that we hold equality of the person JUST AS HIGHLY as freedom of expression. The NDP have shown themselves to be dogmatic, and willing to hold a government hostage to meet their demands. Blackmail is the only way they can ever have a role in Canadian government and we all know what happens when the NDP gains power….we have seen the results. I think the Liberals should tell the NDP they don’t negotiate with people who blackmail them and if the NDP brings us down they will have to justify to the population how blackmail is effective parliamentary strategy.
Une partie manquante du curriculum
Exhaustion and Fulfilment: The Ascetic in a Canoe
Par Pierre E. Trudeau, 1944 (Je cherche toujours la version en français...) I would not know how to instil a taste for adventure in those who have not acquired it. (Anyway, who can ever prove the necessity for the gypsy life?) And yet there are people who suddenly tear themselves away from their comfortable existence and, using the energy' of their bodies as an example to their brains, apply themselves to the discovery of unsuspected pleasures and places. I would like to point out to these people a type of labour from which they are certain to profit: an expedition by canoe. I do not just mean "canoeing." Not that I wish to disparage that pastime, which is worth more than many another. But, looked at closely, there is perhaps only a difference of money between the canoeists of Lafontaine Park and those who dare to cross a lake, make a portage, spend a night in a tent and return exhausted, always in the care of a fatherly guide - a brief interlude momentarily interrupting the normal course of digestion. A canoeing expedition, which demands much more than that, is also much more rewarding.
It involves a starting rather than a parting. Although it assumes the breaking of ties, its purpose is not to destroy the past, but to lay a foundation for the future. From now on, every living act will be built on this step, which will serve as a base long after the return of the expedition. and until the next one. What is essential at the beginning is the resolve to reach the saturation point. Ideally, the trip should end only when the members are making no further progress within themselves. They should not be fooled, though, by a period of boredom, weariness or disgust; that is not the end, but the last obstacle before it. Let saturation be serene! So you must paddle for days, or weeks, or perhaps months on end. My friends and I were obliged, on pain of death, to do more than a thousand miles by canoe, from Montreal to Hudson Bay. But let no one be deterred by a shortage of time. A more intense pace can compensate for a shorter trip. What sets a canoeing expedition apart is that it purifies you more rapidly and inescapably than any other. Travel a thousand miles by train and you are a brute; pedal five hundred on a bicycle and you remain basically a bourgeois; paddle a hundred in a canoe and you are already a child of nature. For it is a condition of such a trip that you entrust yourself, stripped of your worldly goods, to nature. Canoe and paddle, blanket and knife, salt pork and flour, fishing rod and rifle; that is about the extent of your wealth. To remove all the useless material baggage from a man's heritage is, at the same time, to free his mind from petty preoccupations, calculations and memories. On the other hand, what fabulous and undeveloped mines are to be found in nature, friendship and oneself! The paddler has no choice but to draw everything from them. Later, forgetting that this habit was adopted under duress, he will be astonished to find so many resources within himself. Nevertheless, he will have returned a more ardent believer from a time when religion, like everything else, became simple. The impossibility of scandal creates a new morality, and prayer becomes a friendly chiding of the divinity, who has again become part of our everyday affairs. (My friend, Guy Viau, could say about our adventure, "We got along very well with God, who is a damn good sport. Only once did we threaten to break off diplomatic relations if he continued to rain on us. But we were joking. We would never have done so, and well he knew it. So he continued to rain on us.") The canoe is also a school of friendship. You learn that your best friend is not a rifle, but someone who shares a night's sleep with you after ten hours of paddling at the other end of a canoe. Let's say that you have to be towed up a rapid and it's your turn to stay in the canoe and guide it. You watch your friend stumbling over logs, sliding on rocks, sticking in gumbo, tearing the skin on his legs and drinking water for which he does not thirst, yet never letting go of the rope; meanwhile, safely in the middle of the cataract, you spray your hauler with a stream of derision. When this same man has also fed you exactly half his catch, and has made a double portage because of your injury, you can boast of having a friend for life, and one who knows you well. How does the trip affect your personality? Allow me to make a fine distinction, and I would say that you return not so much a man who reasons more, but a more reasonable man. For, throughout this time, your mind has learned to exercise itself in the working conditions which nature intended. Its primordial role has been to sustain the body in the struggle against a powerful universe. A good camper knows that it is more important to be ingenious than to be a genius. And conversely, the body, by demonstrating the true meaning of sensual pleasure, has been of service to the mind: You feel the beauty of animal pleasure when you draw a deep breath of rich morning air right through your body, which has been carried b~ the cold night, curled up like an unborn child. How can you describe the feeling which wells up in the heart and stomach as the canoe finally rides up on the shore of the campsite after a long day of plunging your paddle into rain-swept waters? Purely physical is the joy which the fire spreads through the palms of your hands and the soles of your feet while your chattering mouth belches the poisonous cold. The pleasurable torpor of such a moment is perhaps not too different from what the mystics of the East are seeking. At least it has allowed me to taste what one respected gentleman used to call the joys of hard living.
Make no mistake, these joys are exclusively physical. They have nothing to do with the satisfaction of the mind when it imposes unwelcome work on the body, a satisfaction, moreover, which is often mixed with pride, and which the body never fails to avenge. During a very long and exhausting portage, I have sometimes felt my reason defeated, and shamefully fleeing, while my legs and shoulders carried bravely on. The mumbled verses which marked the rhythm of my steps at the beginning had become brutal grunts of "uh! uh! uh!" There was nothing aesthetic in that animal search for the bright clearing which always marks the end of a portage.
I do not want you to think that the mind is subjected to a healthy discipline merely by worrying about simplistic problems. I only wish to remind you of that principle of logic which states that valid conclusions do not generally follow from false premises. Now, in a canoe, where these premises are based on nature in its original state (rather than on books, ideas and habits of uncertain value), the mind conforms to that higher wisdom which we call natural philosophy; later, that healthy methodology and acquired humility will be useful in confronting mystical and spiritual questions. I know a man whose school could never teach him patriotism, but who acquired that virtue when he felt in his bones the vastness of his land, and the greatness of those who founded it.
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