THANKS FOR FINALLY CATCHING ON, CANADA

So in today’s GLOBE AND MAIL I read that a new poll reveals Canadians believe Stephen Harper is motivated by political survival and would never have unveiled this week's multibillion-dollar stimulus budget were it not for opposition pressure. The poll also found that, despite moderate support for the budget, most Canadians continue to hold Mr. Harper responsible for the crisis atmosphere that prompted it and believe he hasn't fundamentally changed.

Well, it's nice to finally know that most Canadians are seeing Stephen Harper the same way those Federal Progressive Conservatives who never trusted him have always seen him.

So let's go one further. The entire Reform executive currently running the CONSERVATIVE-IN-NAME-ONLY party are of the same ilk.

I've been saying since 1994 if the Reform Party thought Canadians hated the elderly you'd see their leader cutting his mother loose on an ice flow the next day. These people don't have vision, they cut whatever policy they can from whatever direction the wind is blowing and backtrack whenever they think it’s politically expedient.

That's why they put a law fixing election dates and then broke it by calling an election.

That's why they campaigned on transparency and then started stamping TOP SECRET on everything once they were in.

That's why they campaigned on accountability and then started shouting matches in ethic committees; called elections; and prorogued Parliament EACH TIME THEY WERE IN THE WRONG IN ORDER TO AVOID BEHIND HELD ACCOUNTABLE.

You can always count on a Reformer; they'll say what they think you want to hear and then do whatever it takes to hang onto whatever power they get.

Meanwhile in the south the PROGRESSIVES have risen to the height of power; it'll be nice when some of that vision comes north again.

THE WEASEL IS A NOCTURNAL ANIMAL...

The problem with having a weasel run the country is that when the crap flies all the weasel cares about is saving its own neck.

So here we are... Stephen Harper prorogued parliament hoping to save his neck after coming out with a very weak and bitter pill laced November economic statement that will go down as his biggest mistake.

During the break he worked tirelessly to drive a wedge between the Liberals and NDP, thereby gutting the coalition, and the only way to do that was focus the budget on those items the Liberals would support, while removing those items they wouldn't.  It was the only intelligent thing to do and worth his effort the moment Ignatieff said he would not vote against a budget he hasn't read.

But now he's discovered that when you write a Liberal budget you trigger the contrarian nature of your fellow Conservatives. 

So now the weasel has to find a way to save his neck against his own and that'll be tough for the weasel. 

I wonder how long it'll take for some comedian to show a video montage of Harper's latest mistakes with the "Hinterland Who's Who" music in the background.

GRENADE SALAD

So the latest is that Ignatief and the Liberals have decided that action on the economy really is more important than power right now and will support the latest Harper budget, which as anyone with a brain can tell you, was pretty much written to get the approval of the Liberals.

Now you’ve got to wonder how Harper can claim to being in charge when every piece of legislation he’s going to present from here on in is going to have to meet the approval of the Liberals.

I’ve got news for you Harpo, if you’re writing to appease the Liberals you’re effectively just the poster boy running a Liberal government and frankly that’s a good thing.

God knows if Harper has his way with anything we’ll all be driving Hummers, spewing toxic fumes directly into the mouths of polar bears and if last November taught us anything its that this guy is dangerous when he thinks he’s in charge.

But then Layton and the NDP toss another grenade into the salad. All of a sudden the Harper ads trying to scare the bejezzus out of us claiming that the Red Menace is still a big threat seem pretty trivial. Red Menace is what Reformers call a Liberal/NDP coalition by the way.

Because Uncle Jack is on the radio waves now mocking the Liberals for propping up the Government. Heaven forbid anyone puts their egos aside right now and does something for the MAIN STREET they all talked about in the last election; Jack got a whiff of relevance and it made him drunk for more.

And even though Stevie’s first response to the “Worst Economic Crisis in 80 years” was a cheap shot at gutting the opposition with no real measures to help Canada bridge the crisis; followed by his second response of SHUTTING DOWN THE COUNTRY FOR 8 WEEKS hoping the Opposition (not the crisis) would simply go away; one has to wonder how long it’ll be before the Evil Version of the Prime Minister comes back out of the shadows thinking any idea of a coalition is dead.

And why wouldn’t he think that? Rather than stay cool and bide his time until the real Stephen Harper reappears, then snag him in the rope snare for all of Canada to see, Layton’s popped up flinging the knives at his Liberals co-conspirators dicing up the common ground faster than a coffee grinder prepares Arabian Special Blend at a Starbucks.

And you can read all about it in Jack Layton's new book: "How to make friends and influence people." The latest installment in his "I'll do anything to appear relevant" series coming to a Chapters/Indigo near you!

Jeez, Jack, get back on the meds, will ya? It’s bad enough the Conservatives keep trying to tell us what to think, we don’t need you doing it too.

And am I the only one who thinks we need a referendum on the next ballot that asks "Are you fed up with spiteful children running the country?" I mean I'm actually thinking about moving to America for a little common sense and optimism and that scares me.

THE ONLY PLACE WITH SINGLE PARTY RULE - HINT: It's not Toronto!

I love the Albertans who are still sounding off about the Liberal Adscam.  It amounted to $25 million a year for 5 years and some posters on various newspaper threads are still demanding the Liberals pay back the money spent even though every inquiry has found the irregularities were with the companies and not the government.  Even where the Government has some culpability in being too trustworthy it was clearly Chretien’s PMO and not Martin that was to blame.  I mention that because Paul Martin was, for some ungodly reason, the one held accountable.

And what I love about the Albertans sounding off about so-called Liberal thefts is this:  In the early 1990's the Albertan premier was Peter Lougheed.  During the 5 years I lived in Calgary his CONSERVATIVE government was involved in no less than 4 serious scandals.  They gave hundreds of millions to Peter Pocklington (I still don't think that one is settled) and lost over a BILLION DOLLARS in a massive Nova scandal (money for oil).

It was all taxpayer money and there was no doubt to anyone who was responsible.  So what punishment did that righteous defender against Govt abuse also known as the Albertan voter give to the Provincial Conservatives for this series of idiotic and near criminal blunders with the taxpayers money?  THREE MORE MAJORITY GOVERNMENTS.  Yup, you read that right kiddos, the Albertan Voters hold their governments to such a high standard that they are the only province in Canada with more than 30 years of "SINGLE PARTY RULE"!  

The province of Preston Manning and Stephen Harper hasn't changed provincial parties since 1971 and as the Social Credit party that came before the Conservatives were farther right than Progressive Conservatives its safe to say Alberta hasn't held ANY provincial government accountable for ANY mistake in over 80 years.

Billions were taken from the taxpayer, given to rich friends and wealthy associates, with almost no accountability and absolutely no reckoning.  AND THEY WANT A MAJORITY GOVERNMENT SO THEIR SINGLE PARTY MENTALITY CAN DO THE SAME THING TO THE REST OF CANADA.

So the next time a poster in Calgary or Edmonton spouts off about Federal Liberal mismanagement remember their loyalty to the local team is higher than the repeatedly disappointed fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs!  But at least the Leafs aren’t fleecing the public purse for their buddies.

THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE

So the latest Conservative election-ad-when-there-isn't-an-election earnestly states at the end "tell your MP to put the country ahead of politics".

HO HO HO HEE HEE HAW HAW

If the Harpercrits had put the country ahead of politics back in November when the nation needed them to deal with the economic crisis BEFORE it got bad this mess wouldn't be as bad.

I'm sorry but politics aside: compare how Martin's economic policies kept us from following the US into recession after 9/11; ensured there were economic buffers when SARS, Mad Cow, and Softwood lumber took billions out of our economy.

Now look at Harper, whose first acts were to cut the GST by 2% (a cut I don't even notice benefiting me if it really does) thereby removing 9 BILLION DOLLARS annually from any buffer the Govt had. Then he increased spending in nearly every department (but only for ridings that voted Conservative). I dare say even if the US wasn't in an economic mess right now this poorly thought out economic strategy would have had us heading there the moment oil dipped below $40/barrel - which is has.

So Mr. Harper, hopefully this isn't shallow rhetoric designed to placate your opposition long enough for you to get over this mess you made worse by abdicating your responsibilities for the last 8 weeks, but most of us doubt it.

You can put lipstick on a pitbull, but don't be surprised when it bites you. It is, after all still a pitbull!

A PITBULL WITH LIPSTICK

I've always said that if a pollster told Harper that Canadians didn't like seniors that the next day you'd see him cutting his grandmother free on an ice flow.

We had 12 years of Martin-economics during which the US went into a recession following 9/11 that we did not follow because our economic house was in order. Nor did we slip into recession when the softwood lumber issue drained 5 billion from our economy; or when SARS shut down the Ontario film industry; or when forest fires wiped out huge swaths of BC; the list goes on and we weathered each.

Not because we followed the US, not because we waited until we saw where they were going and then made up plans, but because the steady hand at the wheel of our economy had a solid understanding of risk and knew if we remained prudent and conservative with our finances we could steer our own course.

Its small surprise then that the party called Conservative has spent the most, cut $9 billion a year in revenue removing any hedge room and put our economy at risk just ahead of an economic downturn even a 5 year old could see coming (I traveled through the US in April 08 and you could see most areas were already in a recession then).

This failed version of the Conservative experiment is already past its best before date and all we're going to see in this budget is too little, too late pseudo-populist half-economics trotted out just ahead of another Conservative radio ad blitz designed to sell Canadians another pitbull with lipstick.

We can't afford another 300+ million dollar election but it's long past time for change. And as the only way the Liberals were going to govern in the last election was through a coalition I put to you that every vote for the Liberals and NDP was a vote for a coalition.

Either way the majority must rule and the current majority in the House is not represented by Mr. Harper.

MR HARPER - TEAR DOWN THOSE WALLS!

Some phrases from Obama's inaugural made me think of Harper:

"On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics."

We too could use an end to this right now. Mr Harper, it's time for you to stop your attack radio ads and get to the business of dealing with this crisis, to chose "hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord."

Because even the Canadian electorate is tired of "those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history."

It's time for you to shelve your plans to change how Canada works and work with your fellow parliamentarians on the common task of getting Canada back to work. Do this and you will succeed, you may even earn your majority; continue to put politics ahead of your greater responsibilities and your defeat will be of your own making.

IGGY CAN'T SWIM!!

I think what I love about Conservatives is their Stephen Colbert level of blind hypocrisy.

Any reasonable person can see that Harper's proposed coalition (which included tactic support of the Bloq) back when Martin was in power is NO DIFFERENT than what Ignatieff would lead, but if CONS align with separatists that's a good thing because it benefits CONS; while if Liberals align with separatists it's a bad thing because its not good for CONS.

There's a consistency that would be amusing if the country wasn't in such trouble.

It's like how Harper has only been able to pass legislation when the Liberals abstain or support it.

And as the Bloq would not be a part of the government if the coalition occurred Ignatieff would only be able to pass legislation when the Bloq abstained or supported it.

Yet it's the Liberal's fault if Harper compromises or presents a bill that doesn't warrant non-confidence JUST AS IT WOULD BE the Liberal's fault if, in a coalition government, the Bloq compromises or doesn't push for non-confidence?

So here's a joke: A bunch of conservatives visit Ignatieff's house and while they're there Mike comes out and walks across the water on the pool. The next day all the CONS are running around saying "Iggy can't swim!!"