Saturday, July 7, 2007

Dave Rutherford bitchslaps Mark Holland

I'm still catching up on posting audio files that have been sitting on my server for months. Today's clip is from February 2, 2007, and features Liberal MP Mark Holland being interviewed by Dave Rutherford.

I blogged about Mark Holland's nutty NEP II proposal here. Given the huge interventions into the Alberta economy being proposed by Holland, it should come as no surprise that the Alberta media picked up on this rather quickly. In addition to proposing a new NEP, the interview contains many examples of how ill-informed many of the pro-Kyoto people are.

I will fisk the interview at a later date.

Listen here:

Mark Holland interviewed by Dave Rutherford - Feb. 2, 2007

Friday, July 6, 2007

Mark Holland's infamous attack on Alberta

Fun, fun, fun.

Today's audio is dated, but memorable. It features an appearance by Liberal MP Mark Holland on the February 1, 2007 Charles Adler Show. During the interview, Holland creates the impression that a Dion government would engage in a massive intrusion into the regulatory jurisdiction of Alberta over the Athabasca oil sands.

Holland was at one time considered an up and comer in the Liberal Party of Canada, and was appearing a lot in the national media. I notice that his appearances have been scaled back considerably since the spring.

Another example of the Peter Principle in action?

Listen here:

Mark Holland interviewed by Charles Adler - Feb. 1, 2007

Thursday, July 5, 2007

The David Suzuki Meltdown

I have figured out how to embed audio in blog posts.

This is a welcome development, given that Liberals and their statist allies in the NDP and Green Party like nothing more than the sound of their own hyperbole, and this trait, combined with the fact that Liberals and their ilk don't know what they are talking about half the time, leads to plenty of factual errors - and overwrought displays of emotion - whenever a Liberal takes to the airwaves.

My first offering is a classic case of Liberal meltdown on the radio. It is a recording of a segment of "The John Oakley Morning Show", dating from February 15, 2007. The interviewee is one Dr. David Suzuki, and the subject is Kyoto. He is literally talking out of his ass the whole time he is on the air.

Suzuki also gets quite ticked at Oakley's intransigence and questions, and evidently stomps out of the interview just after its conclusion. More analysis of the many Suzuki falsehoods contained in this clip will follow.

Listen here:

David Suzuki interviewed by John Oakley - Feb. 15, 2007

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

New premier; new poll; same old result for Kevin Taft

Today's edition of the Calgary Herald contains a new Ipsos Reid poll measuring provincial party support amongst Albertans.

Notwithstanding the optimistic blatherings of Alberta Liberals, the results show no real growth in support for the Alberta Liberal Party. In fact, the Alberta Liberals are still polling at 9% less than what the party received in the November, 2004 general election:

The April 10 to 20 survey of 800 Albertans found that almost 66 per cent of respondents approve of Stelmach's performance as premier (21 per cent "strongly approve," 45 per cent "moderately approve").

Those ratings aren't far off of Klein's support levels in the last weeks of his leadership (71 per cent) and very similar to the former premier's approval ratings this time last year (65 per cent), shortly after receiving a vote of non-confidence from the party.

"It's a first report card for Stelmach," said Ipsos Reid pollster Cory Davison. "It is consistent with the support given to the Conservative party."

The poll has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Yet, backing for the Tories has dipped nine points since Stelmach took the reins in mid-December, the polling numbers show. And Stelmach is struggling a bit to get Calgary and southern Alberta on his side.

The Conservatives remain well ahead of the second-place Liberals, with the support of 59 per cent of decided voters in Alberta, and would still roll to an easy majority government if an election were held today.

The Liberals garnered 20 per cent support, with the NDP at 10 per cent, the Alberta Alliance at six per cent and the Alberta Greens at five per cent.

The results represent a nine-point drop from Stelmach's initial post-election bounce in December (68 per cent), but pollster Davison said the dip was to be expected after the immediate honeymoon with voters ended.

A regional breakdown reveals support for the Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville MLA is far greater in central Alberta (77 per cent), northern Alberta (70 per cent) and Edmonton (69 per cent), than it is in Calgary (57 per cent).

Back on January 9, Kevin Taft announced that the new Stelmach government would be divided, and that he was moving to position his party as a "government-in-waiting".

Well, based on this latest poll, Albertans will be waiting an awfully long time for a Premier Kevin Taft ...

... and thank goodness for that.

Screencap (click to enlarge):

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Stephane, we didn't get it done ...

That is the line Michael Ignatieff used in the recent Liberal leadership debate to ridicule Stephane Dion's pathetic record as Canada's Environment Minister.

It's not a bad line, but not a particularly good one either. Dion's comeback was: "Do you think it's easy to make priorities?"

Alright, we now know Dion isn't much of a debater. This may be the first self-inflicted knock out punch in Canadian debating history.



This is my favorite of the three ads released by the Conservative Party yesterday. The Liberals obviously have a huge credibility gap on the environment, and in electing Dion as their leader, they have handed the Tories a golden opportunity to exploit it.

Saturday, January 6, 2007

Liberal blogger calls for Kevin Taft's head

Alberta Liberal blogger Wild Rose Grit has issued a call for Kevin Taft to step down in this post.

Kevin Taft is about to reach his expiration date. His role was to bring the Liberal Party back from its dismal performance in 2001. He has done it. But I do not believe he has what it takes to become Priemer.

Not terribly surprising.

I predict Taft will remain until the next election, and then resign on election night after the Liberals lose seats to the Tories.

It will be interesting to watch how much dissatisfaction spills out into the open before then, as the Liberals remain stagnant in the polls under Taft's leadership.

Sunday, December 31, 2006

Stephane Dion's NEP II will be the story of 2007

Well, it's prediction time.

In my opinion, the biggest news story of 2007 will be the federal government's implementation of the Kyoto Accord, the first phase of which comes into force next year. It is clear that the Conservative plan is a non-starter, so it will likely be fed into the nearest paper shredder whenever the Conservatives leave office, which I predict will happen as early as the spring of 2007. My crystal ball tells me that they will lose the budget vote at that time, although it is certainly possible that the Bloc Quebecois may support the Conservatives if the Bloc's poll numbers are lower than they would like them to be.

If the Conservatives are defeated in the spring of 2007, I predict that we will see a return to Liberal government, and with that, a return to the regional preference and discrimination policies that have been the hallmark of that party's success since confederation.

If the next government is a Liberal minority, it will be especially scary for Albertans. The government will likely seek support from the NDP and/or Bloc, and will have to strike a fairly extreme position on Kyoto implementation in order to keep these partners satisfied. They will insist on billions in spending, billions in new taxes and penalties -disproportionately paid for by Alberta of course - and preferential treatment for Eastern-based industry. The Liberal government of Stephane Dion will be only too happy to accomodate these requests, since votes in Alberta are relatively scarce for the Liberals, and certainly far less valuable to them than the potential billions they believe they can extract without any expense to the people that matter.

Given these predictions, one of my new year's resolutions is to cover the Kyoto implementation issue from an Albertan's perspective, while paying particular attention to chronicling the greed, lies, fear-mongering, and outright duplicity of the Kyoto proponents.

In furtherance of this resolution, I have begun gathering articles and news clippings on the Kyoto issue. Based on the materials that I have reviewed to date, it would appear the first lines of argument that Dion will attempt will be (i) exaggerate the dangers to the environment of the petroleum industry in relation to other emitters, and (ii) repeat the canard that the petroleum industry receives excessive benefits from the public purse - thereby conditioning the public for the upcoming cash grab. These lines of argument become clear when one focusses on the public statements of Dion since he was elected Liberal leader. For example, the day after his election, he held a press conference wherein he promised to "revisit the tax system" as it pertains to the petroleum industry:

"Certainly it will mean revisiting the tax system, but not to put the money out of Alberta - to help Alberta save their water, to save their development, to avoid acid rain, to reconcile agriculture and (the) oil industry." ...

... "In particular, the advantageous tax treatment oil and gas companies receive should be reviewed," his policy states.

"It is no longer clear that this special tax treatment is warranted given the boom in development, massive profits and rising price of all types of fossil fuels."

Source: Calgary Sun

Click for full screencap

Click for full screencap

Then, from the December 22, 2006 edition of Business Edge:

Dion said he will review existing breaks for the oilsands if he becomes prime minister, and will only allow them for companies that meet high environmental standards. ...

... Dion said he would not impose a tax on gasoline but would use fiscal measures to encourage companies to adopt green technology.

Alberta's oilpatch receives an estimated $1.4 billion in annual tax breaks through a program designed to encourage new construction projects.

Dion said the Accelerated Capital Cost Program, designed a decade ago to help the then-fledgling industry, is outdated and needs to be revamped.

"We will revisit it completely," Dion said.

"Instead of an economy based on waste, we will have an economy based on recycling, on the best environmental technologies available."

Source: Business Edge

Click for full screencap

Click for full screencap

So, to summarize:

  • Dion is basically confirming the Accelerated Capital Cost Program will be cancelled, which will result in an additional $1.4 billion to the Ottawa treasury (almost entirely from Alberta). None of the billions in direct subsidies and tax breaks to the Ontario auto industry, the Quebec aerospace industry, or the industries of Atlantic Canada warranted attention from Dion at his first press conference. Evidently, such things as cars, and Bombardier executive jets - which are the most polluting mode of transportation in the world - are less of a target in the gun sights of Dion.
  • The additional money sent to Ottawa will "not be put out of Alberta", but will be reinvested here to save our water, development, and farmland - and to save us from acid rain. Dion does not state the constitutional basis for these new regulatory intrusions into local developments and Alberta's farms. Is this another example of asymmetrical federalism, wherein the federal government exercises powers in Alberta that it doesn't even purport to possess in Quebec? Time will tell.
  • There will be unspecified additional fiscal measures directed towards the oilpatch, but there will be no tax on gasoline. However, I'm sure Dion knows that there are already an array of taxes on gasoline. In fact, gasoline is one of the most heavily taxed commodities in the country. We even pay taxes on the taxes on gasoline, so I assume Dion is saying he will impose no additional consumption taxes on gasoline. But what about regional and industry specific taxes? Does Dion have an economic study that would support such taxes? If so, where can I get it? If not, why has he ruled out a broader consumption tax?

Hopefully, during the course of the next year, I'll be able to find the answers to some of these questions.

On the other hand, I already know what the answer will be to the question of how the Alberta Liberals will respond to all this: they will go along with everything their Ottawa masters propose.

After all, you can't expect Kevin Taft to actually defend the people or businesses who pay his salary, and thereby jeopardize his appointment to the Senate, can you?

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Kevin Taft: busted

This didn't take long (click on thumbnail for the full screencap):


I suppose Kevin Taft deserves some small amount of credit for rapidly retracting his false allegation. The fact that he failed to apologize for his unwarranted attack certainly comes as no surprise.

Liberals are arrogant, and will always equivocate and dissemble with words like "misunderstood" - which leaves open the possibility that the problem lay with the wording of the Order - rather than admit the real reason for this mistake was their own incompetent research and analysis.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

A false accusation from Kevin Taft?

Alberta Liberal leader Kevin Taft attacked the government on Friday for supposedly passing an Order in Council that would remove the Alberta Health Quality Council from scrutiny under the Access to Information legislation. Here is a screencap of the story (click for the full web page):

Article containing accusation from Kevin Taft

The Government of Alberta was quick to respond. They state that the Order in Council Taft was relying on simply removed the Alberta Health Council from one of two categories that it had been listed in.

It remains subject to information requests:

Article containing responsed

I don't know who is correct here, but the ball is clearly in Kevin Taft's court. Has he made a false accusation, and, if he has, will he show enough class to withdraw it publicly and apologize?

Given that he is a Liberal, I certainly won't be holding my breath waiting.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Liberal math: 3 Quebecers = 8 Albertans

I just read this post over on CalgaryGrit. It would appear that the delegate selection process for the federal Liberal Party is a bit of a fiasco. There are allegations of voting irregularities, and forged signatures on delegate forms.

In other words, it's pretty much par for the course in the natural governing party.

In addition to the scandals, it would appear that even Liberals are beginning to notice the regional favoritism in their party. The rules of the party are such that approximately 3 Quebec members have the same representation as roughly 8 Alberta members in terms of delegate selection. Commenter Jason Bo Green weighs in:

Wow, interesting numbers.

I'm inclined to agree with you, man - it does look like everyone bombed out in Quebec.

And - pardon my English, but just what the fuck is going on with Alberta getting so royally screwed on say/votes yet again?

Honestly, I'm amazed (and grateful) Alberta sticks it through with us ...

Jason, for your information, Albertans are not sticking with you, or the Liberals. According to the numbers CalgaryGrit posted, your party has a grand total of 3,299 voting members in the Province of Alberta. There are individual ridings in this province with more Conservative members than that. I have also heard that the number of members expected to vote in the provincial Progressive Conservative leadership race could go as high as 200,000.

The federal Liberal Party is completely dominated by eastern Canadians, as your leadership race shows. Albertans simply aren't interested in it (other than a couple of opportunists like CalgaryGrit and daveberta).

Ask yourself this: who is the last leader of the Liberal Party of Canada to come from Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, or Manitoba?

Got you stumped? Let's make it easier: who is the last western Canadian candidate to get a single vote at a federal Liberal Party leadership convention?

Think hard now. There must be someone.

Friday, October 6, 2006

New Leger Poll: Bad news for Kevin Taft

A new Leger Poll was released yesterday. The results for the Kevin Taft led Alberta Liberal Party couldn't be more laughable. Here is a summary of the results:

Leger poll results

The Kevin Taft Liberals are at a pathetic 12% in the province, with only 10% of the popular vote in Calgary, and 6% in rural Alberta. This is about 17 points lower than the Alberta Liberals scored in the last provincial election.

The Kevin Taft deathwatch has officially begun.

Methodology

This Leger Marketing opinion poll was conducted among 900 respondents throughout Alberta, September 20th and 30th, 2006. The maximum margin of error for a sample of this size is ± 3.3%, 19 times out of 20.

The margin of error for each area, namely Calgary, Edmonton and other areas combined is ± 5.7%, 19 times out of 20. The Margin of error for the sample of self-declared PC Party supporters is ± 4.4%, 19 times out of 20.

Using the latest data from Statistics Canada, final results were weighted according to gender and region to ensure a sample representative of the province of Alberta population.

Source: http://legermarketing.com/documents/pol/061004ENG.pdf

Sunday, September 3, 2006

College dropout Gerard Kennedy wants to run Alberta's education system

Anyone familiar with the Liberal Party of Canada is certainly familiar with its obsessive impulse to take over the public policy functions of the provinces in areas of provincial jurisdiction. The most obvious example of this is the Canada Health Act, but the Liberal desire for total domination of the provinces extends far beyond healthcare. They have their beady little eyes set on education as well.

Don't believe me?

Gerard KennedyTake a look at one Gerard Kennedy, the "new generation" of Liberal. He started off in the Liberal leadership race with great fanfare, but, unfortunately, he has appeared a bit stale as of late, and is rarely mentioned as a frontrunner anymore. He has obviously decided that he needs a new schtick, and what better way to endear himself to fellow Liberals than to promise to do to education what Pierre Trudeau did to healthcare. Young Gerard may be a college dropout, but he ain't no dummy. He knows that nothing titillates a Liberal more than grandiose talk about national standards and new federal roles:

Kennedy calls for national education standards

Elizabeth Thompson
CanWest News Service; Montreal Gazette

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Canada should adopt national standards in areas such as education if it wants to compete in an era of globalization, says Liberal leadership hopeful Gerard Kennedy.

"A federal government can be much more effective if it takes the leadership role and I think that is what has been missing," said Kennedy, who stepped down as Ontario's education minister to seek the leadership of the federal Liberal party.

"We need to declare what our goals are, the provincial governments need to be brought along as partners ... These are the jurisdictions of the provincial governments but they too should meet standards, just like the federal government should. In the absence of that we will be unable to compete in the global economy."

Kennedy says those national education standards should be accompanied by federal cash and the provinces should work together to set them.

''If you look at the equalization premise in the Constitution it is about comparable standards. We don't even know if we have comparable standards. What we have is comparable funding, but what we don't have is the result. And that is going to hold us back.''

While he wants to see Ottawa play a leadership role in developing national standards for education, he says it would be a mistake to have a homogenous curriculum across the country.

Under the Canadian Constitution, education falls largely under provincial jurisdiction and provinces have jealously guarded their right to decide what is taught in their schools and which standards should apply.

However, the way Ottawa and the provinces relate to each other over their respective jurisdictions is just one of the things Canada should approach differently as it moves into the 21st century, says Kennedy.

Ever since he jumped into the crowded leadership race in April, Kennedy has sought to set himself apart as a candidate for a new generation and for a new century.

With less than two weeks to go before the next general Liberal leadership debate this time in Quebec City on Sept. 10 Kennedy is also working hard to show Quebecers that a guy raised in the West and who served in Ontario Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty's cabinet can understand Quebec and deal with its concerns.

Kennedy, who was criticized in the spring by some Liberals for lack of fluency in French, has spent much of the summer in Quebec.

Along the way, he says, he learned a lot about the province.

''I think I got a sense of diversity in Quebec which was really important ... I also got a bit of a sense, that I'm still sort of assimilating, about the whole relationship between Quebec and Canada and Quebec in its own past.''

And when it comes to how to approach Quebec, Kennedy rejects a tough federalist line as well as a more decentralized view of federal-provincial relations.

''I'm in favour of the third way which is basically to come up with a purpose that appeals equally to Quebecers and to the rest of the country.''

Wow! How fortunate. Just when Gerard needed an issue, along comes a crisis in education. Some people have all the luck.

I'm sure the parallel between Gerard's approach to saving us from provincial standards in education, and the Liberal approach to saving us from provincial standards in healthcare, is also a pure coincidence.

Let's review the essential elements of Gerard's approach:

  1. manufacture a problem regarding provincial standards (in this case, provincial diversity would appear to be the problem);
  2. use the fear factor to hype the problem to the brain dead supporters of the Liberal Party (Kennedy makes the unsupported claim that Canada risks falling behind in the "era of globalization");
  3. propose federal government input and control as a solution (without explaining what it would do that the provinces are incapable of doing);
  4. offer federal funds to bribe the provinces (the feds can always withdraw them after they have achieved full political control of education - just like they did in healthcare); and
  5. exempt Quebec from the scheme (some provinces are more equal than others, and Quebec can be cranky when it comes to federal domination).

The fact that Alberta students are already amongst the highest achievers in the world on standardized tests (and perform far better than all other Canadian provinces) doesn't even warrant a mention. To admit that would be anathema to a Liberal. Provincial governance is something that Albertans must be protected from. Albertans governing themselves in an area such as education is a problem, because Gerard Kennedy says it is, and, by golly, the only way to fix it is reduce the role of Albertans in their own public affairs and increase the role of Ottawa Liberals.

So, there you have it. Canadian imperialism in action. Beautiful in its simplicity, isn't it?

It will be interesting to see if anything appears in the media in the next few days from the Alberta Liberal Party regarding this plan. After all, they keep insisting they are fit to govern the province of Alberta, if only the voters would give them a chance.

Here is Kevin Taft's chance to show some leadership on an important issue.

I'll keep my eyes and ears open Kevin, but, let's face it, since both you and your colleagues in the Alberta Liberal Party essentially agree with this agenda, you aren't going to challenge it.

It's just not in your character.

Source: The Montreal Gazette