My letter to my MP Peter Stoffer

Dear Mr. Stoffer,

Allow me to begin this letter by commending the job you do as my Member of Parliament for Sackville-Eastern Shore. I feel you do an exceptional job at representing our riding, especially in this era of partisan politics. I respect you greatly for always doing what's best for us, your constituents, even if that means the occasional disagreement with party lines.

What I wish to write you about has a lot to do with your upcoming caucus meeting in the middle of this month. I'm sure you are aware that Stephen Harpers Conservative Government has announced that they will prorogue the sitting of our Parliament into the first part of March. Although done under the auspices of a completely legal constitutional mechanism, and in order to present new policies and quote "recalibrate the governments agenda", this seems more like a disrespectful "low blow" to Canada's democracy than a simple pause in proceedings.

My reason for wanting MPs on Parliament Hill has nothing to do with MPs somehow having to earn the salaries they make. I have come to the conclusion some time ago that a lot of MPs could serve on boards of major corporations etc, the earnings of which would make the average's MP salary seem paltry. My issue with this prorogation is that the good and necessary work of parliament will be further delayed.

It is interesting that Mr. Harper chooses this time to prorogue parliament. Canadians are still waiting on answers from the House of Commons committee that is working on the Afghan detainee issue. We are awaiting the publishing of a report from Kevin Page, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, on the fiscal standing of Canada. This report is no doubt going to lead to necessary questions being asked of the government in regards to its spending. Mr. Harper is about to appoint new Senators in an attempt to push through reform of the upper house which will further damage the Atlantic provinces standing within Canada. Also, not to be forgotten, is that the government has not yet needed to answer questions about our shameful lack of action and borderline obstructionism at the recent climate conference in Copenhagen. It seems as if Mr. Harper is more than content to have his MPs enjoy the perks of government (the ability to make spending announcements etc) without the scrutiny of Canada's Parliament to worry about. The "clear and transparent" government Canadians were promised now hides behind an appointed, unelected representative of Her Majesty the Queen who has very little choice about whether to grant prorogations or not whenever Mr. Harper quite literally "calls".

My request to you Mr. Stoffer is twofold. I would very much like you to go to your caucus meeting with the viewpoint that the NDP should join the Liberals on January 25th in the House of Commons. Even if just for pure symbolism, the coverage of Canada's two other federalist national parties attempting to get work done, even without the presence of the government, will be a powerful imagine on the Canadian psyche. Also, subsequently to the resumption of the session, I would like there to be legislation drawn up and introduced limiting the length of time and amount of prorogation's that can occur within a session of Parliament. Sometimes it is expedient and valuable to have prorogation as a tool. This occurs to the best of my knowledge when there are maybe a few days left in a session and the business of government has concluded. Perhaps placing a limit of seven days on further prorogation's would be prudent.

I thank you very much for your attention and thank you again for the great work you are doing for the people of Sackville-Eastern Shore.

Respectfully,

Conservative Party using U.S Republican Playbook.

Just a quick note.

Today in the House of Commons every question directed at both the Minister of National Defense Peter McKay and Prime Minister Stephen Harper regarding the Afghan detainee issue was greeted with a response of: "Asking questions regarding the treatment and potential torture of detainees handed to Afghan officials by the CF means you don't support the troops!". This is eerily similar to the approach used by the Bush White House whenever there were questions about the regimes handling of the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

What a shameful farce this "Most Open and Accountable Government in Canadian History" has become. Unfortunately they have sufficiently stalled, stonewalled and obstructed the search for the truth on this issue to take us into the Christmas break. They are now banking that the average Canadian forgets about this issue over the Holidays, an issue which a recent EKOS pole says is hurting Conservative chances of forming a majority government. Unfortunatly they are probably correct in this assumption as Canadians (even the politically involved) will be focusing on the spring budget and its potential to bring us to yet another federal election.

Today Richard Colvin, a current Intelligence Officer and former diplomat in Afghanistan, testified before a House of Commons committee that Afghan detainees transferred from the Canadian Forces to Afghan officials were knowingly tortured by the Afghan officials and prison system.

To make this worse, Mr Colvin claims, that many of the detainees transferred were actually innocent Afghan civilians. Mr. Colvin goes further to say that his department made the government, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper's foreign policy adviser aware of the situation. They were told in no uncertain terms to stop writing details of torture into their reports and to handle reports of such claims verbally. Also Mr. Colvin claims that his department was told not to report or speak publicly about the deterioration of security in Afghanistan in 2006-2007 even though it was plain to them that things on the ground were getting much, much worse. Mr Harper stood in front of Parliament and the Canadian people and said that Afghan detainees were not being tortured and if there was reason to believe they were that they would not be handed over to the Afghan government. This was plainly either an informed or uninformed lie. Now begins the Conservative smear campaign. Mr Colvin will be attacked both professionally and personally by the Government in an attempt to make this all go away.

The most pathetic part of this is that Harper will most likely win a majority in the next election as the Canadian populace seems to be much more concerned about who plays the best Beatles tune on the piano than human rights. We are supposedly losing soldiers in Afghanistan to make the country a free and better place for its populace. I may be mistaken, but allowing the torture of Afghan civilians to proceed doesn't seem much like nation building to me.


-Son

Is this the birth of a european based IRL?

The FIA and FOM are busy trying to destroy Formula 1. Or at least the F1 that I know and love. I am a person who belives that F1 is supposed to be the pinnacle of motorsports. It is supposed to lead to new innovations and technologies through competition. Under a budget cap system and technical and component standardization as favoured by the FOM and FIA this will soon be a series of identical cars. The three new teams coming in are a testament to what the "new" F1 will look like. They are all going to be running Cosworth engines, gearbox's etc and will probably share chassis info with a bigger team. This seriously effects the commercial value of running a manufacturer based F1 team at all. The FIA and FOM are in affect trying to create a european based IRL. They believe that as long as the teams can call their cars a Ferrari or a Mercedes or BMW and paint them in their own colours they'll be happy. Maybe the time has come for these teams to switch into a sport where technology and competition are still at the forefront. This weekend I saw a diesel powered Peugeot beat a Diesel powered Audi and a gas powered Aston Martin in an international sporting event. Seeing a Ferrari LMP1 car at the 24 hours of LeMans next year may be a good sight to see as well.

A letter to my city councillor...

Good evening Councillor Jellett,

Enough is enough.

My wife and I have suffered through these 41 days of no transit service and yet this is the first time we have written to our councillor, Member of Parliament or an ATU union representative. Why? Because we have (or rather had) faith in our city government and the union to keep the interests of the citizens of Ottawa front and centre in this debate. Clearly, that has not been the case.

We began this stoppage of what we consider an essential service by blaming the union and backing the city. While we still blame the union and the senior drivers for taking the city and our most vulnerable hostage, we lately have become frustrated with the city's ambivalence towards binding arbitration and the refusal to remove the scheduling issue from the bargaining table, however temporary. A cynic, Mr. Jellett, would accuse the city of stonewalling in order to reap the maximum financial benefit while the buses remain off the road. We know Mayor O'Brien has no incentive to get the buses running again - he walks to work (at least I hope he does) and the 3-million dollar per week savings looks good in the city coffers. The union bosses really don't give a toss about what happens - their senior drivers will be protected from any layoffs due to seniority and life will go on, raises and choice of shifts intact. Meanwhile, the poor, elderly, and otherwise disadvantaged population of Orléans and Ottawa continue to suffer through a harsh and unforgiving winter, while the union and the city act like children arguing over control of the sandbox in the playground.

We moved to Ottawa from Nova Scotia three years ago. We moved here partly because of the availability of public transit, something we had never had the advantage of using in any of our previous places of residence. We took pride in promoting Ottawa and indeed its transit system to anyone who would listen. We considered both the city and our public transit system to be models for the rest of Canada.

No more. I only talk about our city, our municipal government, and our transit system in negative terms now, as no-one seems to have the ability, skill, or incentive to get things running again. While Councillor Doucet may have spoken out of turn, at least he had the courage to do so and to generate discussion. The city, Mr. Jellett, is on the verge of running off of the high road and it won't be long before you're no better than Mr. Cornellier and the rest of the union management. That is an unfortunate state of affairs, and does not bode well for the future.

I plead with you to do whatever you can to bring this needless and idiotic strike to a close before more people lose their jobs, suffer from a lack of medical treatment, miss their education, are involved in traffic accidents, or suffer the other effects of this dispute. Our livelihoods, as well as the reputation of the city and our entire municipal government hangs in the balance.

Sincerely,

No pressure boss.

America saw the light and elected Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States. I am in a state of disbelief that somehow the appropriate choice was made and we didn't see a repeat of the 2004 debacle. Now comes the interesting part.
There was not a person outside of the Republican party in the U.S that was unhappy about the result of the U.S elections. Furthermore people across the world are convinced that an Obama presidency will lead to their issues being resolved and their lives getting better. Obama faces incredible tasks and expectations. Palestinians in Ramalah expect a resolution to the Middle East crisis. Kenyans believe he will bring Africa ito the 21st century. Europeans believe that an Obama presidency will lead to an immediae reversal in U.S unilatertarianism and a more peaceful world. People living in impoverished areas of the U.S believe they will be brought to the middle class while minorities believe that they will be treated as equals to the majority starting in January.
All of this despite the fact that America and the world are in the midst of an economic crisis unseen in decades. They are mired in two wars which are costing billions and show no sign of a near resolution. Add to this the fact that the threat of terrorism has not gone away and that Russia seems on the brink of reasserting superpower status. All of these factors combined lead to me speculating that Obama will not be able to placate everyone and everyones needs. I'm hoping the American people give him the time he needs to make a meaningful change. As he said in his acceptance speech, it may not happen in 1 year or even in one term but he will make America a fairer more inclusive country. A country which will be the envy of the free world.



-Son

A sigh of relief from the Republicans

Well, she didn't win. But she got enough talking points and clichés out that "Joe Six Pack" probably thought she won, which was the real goal. I swear though, if I would have heard "maverick," or "say it ain't so, Joe" one more time, I would have gone through the screen at her.

She did just enough to confirm to me she has no business being in charge of the most powerful nation on earth.

Father