I’m new here

So Stephen Harper’s at it again. I mean what else could rouse this blog from hiatus and spurn me into yet another rant? Nothing gets the blood boiling like our Conservative government.

Harper announced 9 new senators and stacked the deck for the second time in less than a year. He’s stockpiled the senate with supporters, creating an echo-chamber for anything he really needs to get passed through the upper house.

But let’s be frank, this process is nothing new. Prime Ministers have been doing this for a while and Harper’s maneuvering isn’t as insidious as it might seem. What does make me chuckle (and by chuckle I mean cringe with anger), is the clueless assholes he’s so lovingly inserted into these posts.

Take for instance his “star” candidate and former NHL coach Jacques Demers who’s qualifications are that he’s a conservative.

Demer’s masterful grasp of our country’s government (and his new job) was on display in a Toronto Star article where he was quoted as saying:

“I don’t know the schedule. I don’t know what’s the plan, how many times they meet at the Senate. I don’t know none of that right now.”

So Demers will be coming into the job wide-eyed and full of naiveté, which one presumes is the best starting point for people entrusted with passing legislation.

Jesus Christ, couldn’t someone have pulled him aside and shown him the Wikipedia page on the Canadian Senate or told him what days they meet? Or let him know that the senate is the body of people not the place?

This is of course in direct contrast to a quote Demers made just a few days earlier after his appointment to the senate. Apparently he was approached by Harper last year to run as a Federal MP. Demers said this:

“I didn’t feel comfortable being that kind of politician — stand around in a shopping centre, ‘vote for me,’ make promises,” Demers said. “It’s not something I wanted to do. But a senator plays a different role, could be a positive influence. And that role was more acceptable for me.”

So he knew enough about the Senate to realize it was exactly the sort of role he wanted in the Conservative government but not enough to know which days of the week he should show up to work.  I think Demers realized what most people have been saying for ages – the senate is an absolute sham. Or at least at the hands of people like Stephen Harper it is.

I’m guessing the $100,000 annual salary made Demers’ choice that much easier too.

Once the dust settles

For the past few weeks I’ve been hesitant to blog about the Toronto strike for a few reasons – none of which being that I sympathize with the strikers. I think the contentious points these unions went after were greedy and are the exact reasons that unions get a bad name. But that’s the sort of rant I wanted to avoid, because everyone’s saying the same thing.

But now that the strike is over all bets are off.

And so I read this quote from Ann Dembinski, president of CUPE Local 79 in regards to how the negotiations went down:

“Labour relations has [sic] been set back decades,” she told reporters after the deal was reached.

“It will not be the same for years to come…You can’t treat members like this and expect things to ever be the same,” she added later, predicting there will be a much more combative attitude in day-to-day dealings with senior managers.

Please note the complete and utter lack of culpability by the unions in this process: They never said anything incendiary or inflammatory. They were never difficult or disruptive and certainly never treated fellow citizens with disdain.

Living in Toronto and commuting through the strike’s epicentre – City Hall – I was privy to some of the really terrible behaviour from BOTH sides – citizens and strikers alike. Bust trust me when I tell you I saw and heard first hand the ignorant manners from some union workers.

But this is regular strike behaviour (enabled if not encouraged by local police) and the delays and rude behaviour are to be expected. Hell during the strike they were flaunted! So to read Dembinski’s quote completely absolving the unions from their part in this debacle drives me to distraction.

Going forward I don’t doubt there will be bad blood between management and unions over this prolonged strike, and in four or five years time we’ll go through this whole exercise again. A city held ransom every few years doesn’t seem like a workable solution for anyone involved – oh except the unions who blackmail their way into more and more lucrative deals.

This is me neglecting my blog….

…enjoy.

Polaris Shortlist

So – as if I wasn’t spreading myself thin enough – I’ve taken on yet another blog. But this one is only short term and is a group project with two fellow bloggers and friends. We’ve decided to take the 12 shortlist nominees for Canada’s Polaris Music prize and review each album – one a week.

This week we’re reviewing St. Johns, Newfoundland’s Hey Rosetta! and you can read our full reviews here.

Meanwhile you can start brimming with anticipation now, by checking out the coming weeks reviews.

Up next:

Elliott Brood –  Mountain Meadows
Chad VanGaalen – Soft Airplane
Fucked Up – The Chemistry of Modern Life
Malajube – Labyrinthes
K’Naan – Troubadoour
Joel Plaskett – Three
Great Lake Swimmer – Lost Channels
Metric – Fantasies
Patrick Watson – Wooden Arms

Having heard a few of the albums already and being familiar with some of the artists, this is an extremely rich crop of talent. Makes you proud to be Canadian.

Really? Again?

Brad Trost is a bigot

Every time I’m hard up for blog fodder I need to remind myself to open a newspaper. Because within just a few pages I can find something that will make me itch with rage.

Brad Trost is a big fat bigot.

For those unfamiliar with the Saskatchewan MP, here’s some back-story:

Turns out some of the funding for the recent Pride Week in Toronto came from the Federal government’s Marquee Tourism Events Program. Apparently being gay is against the Conservative code and therefore Bob Trost unthinkingly made this comment –

“The pro-life and the pro-family community should know and understand that the tourism funding money that went to the gay pride parade in Toronto was not government policy, was not supported by – I think it’s safe to say by a large majority – of the MPs.”

Things to glean from Brad’s statement:

Gay’s apparently hate families and are against the idea of life. They’re some kind of nihilistic sect of humans bent on destroying everything we believe in. Stage one of their plan is to throw a flamboyant and brightly coloured parade to corrupt us all. (Irish and Santa Claus, be on notice we’re on to your shit).

Also, an event that brings people from all over North America and generates upwards of $91 million for local businesses clearly has no right being supported by a tourism program. That’s just bad math – why would you stimulate the economy for a payoff of more than 200 times your investment?

I’m just going to cut to the chase. This is yet another sign that the current federal government is so wildly behind the times that it’s embarrassing. We can’t even claim to be more forward thinking than the US anymore. For once we stand alone as the blatantly ignorant and bigoted country, ten steps behind the rest of the civilized (and uncivilized) world. Is this the country we want to be? If it is than I don’t want any part of it.

Also – I fully imagined Trost would be some ancient curmudgeon who pre-dated the founding of the country, but was shocked to find a 35 year-old former geophysicist who’s probably never been off the farm.

Take me to your leader

I noticed the Ontario Conservatives are close to picking a successor to John Tory (I think that’s the closest you’ll ever see John Tory’s name printed near any variation of the word success).

The new leader will be announced today (Saturday) and this is apparently a momentous occasion as whoever wins today “will be the next premier of Ontario,” according to candidate Frank Klees.

At first blush that sounds like the bluster and grand-standing of a politician running for office. But then I remember that anything is possible in whacky Ontario where there’s no accounting for the crazy ways in which the 905 districts vote. Looking at Dalton McGuinty’s two terms you can’t exactly argue he’s falling asleep at the switch – even if as a man he’s so boring he makes you fall asleep. Seriously – he’s so boring his aura is beige.

But back to the Tories.

I must confess that I’m not up to speed on this crop of candidates other than some choice information like: Tim Hudak comes complete with an endorsement from Mike Harris which to me is as positive as an endorsement from Cancer. Then there’s the evangelical christian Klees with his staunch anti-abortion leanings which screams progress and change in 2009.

Either way – with an election looming in 2011 – I’m sure they’ll make things interesting even if only for a cynical, left-leaning pinko like myself. It’s been a while since I’ve had someone to hurl insults at.

Carnivore

Photo by passiveaggressivenotes

A streetcar named retired

To the mayors of Mississauga and Brampton, please accept a kindly “screw you” on behalf of the city of Toronto. Funding for the new TTC streetcars is unfair? That doesn’t count! You’re not eligible?

Does baby want her soother?

Seriously – this is a project that could create up to 5,000 jobs in the province and you want to stop it because it’s “unfair” as per the rules of the federal funding plan? Well, here’s a hard reality that you may have trouble accepting – the City of Toronto is the heart of this country and yes – in the grand scheme of things – it’s more important than your city.

Where do you imagine all those people in your tidy little bedroom communities work every day?

So you can take your complaints, roll them up into a little ball and cry your eyes out into them. Because anyone who’s sat on one of these in the middle of a hot July day (with a broken air conditioner) knows how necessary the new ones are.

Hate to say I told you so

The Federal Conservatives are making me look like some kind of Nostradamus of governance.

You may recall back in October, I commented on Harper’s new cabinet and what an enormous mistake it was to choose people like Lisa Raitt, John Baird and Joe Flaherty. I maintained their track records clearly showed they were bad at their jobs. I predicted it would only be a matter of time before one of them did something so monumentally stupid and they would be buried in the back benches.

What I didn’t predict was that it would be a race to prove me right. I mean Christ – it’s only been 7 months and I can’t open a newspaper without seeing one of them apologizing (or not apologizing as the case may be), for one blunder after another. Their self-destruction is a spectacular thing to watch.

Proof A: Let’s face facts, on a long enough time line John Baird will punch someone in the face. The man takes rage to whole new levels (between you and me I think Mayor Miller could use a hard smack though).

Proof B: Lisa Raitt is just useless. Quite simply put the woman embodies all that’s wrong with Harper’s government. Prone to mistakes, makes appallingly bad decisions and thumbs her nose at anyone who disagrees with her, Raitt clearly could give a shit what you think. But is that any surprise given her past title as head of the Toronto Port Authority where mismanagement just came with the title.

Proof C: Then there’s good old Joe Flaherty, who may or may not have early-onset Alzheimer’s. “We’re in a recession. We’re not in a recession. We’re fixing the economy through tax cuts. No, now we’re doing it through stimulus. I forget where I left my pants.”

As fun as all of this is to watch, I have to remind myself that this is a country they’re running not a Wendy’s. And that my sinister glee should be replaced with outrage. But honestly I’m just exhausted with how ridiculous these Conservatives are.

And as smart as they’re making me look, Michael Ignatieff must just be licking his lips like a hungry cat over a wounded bird. He hasn’t had to do anything and he keeps coming away looking like a genius.

They tried to attack him in ads calling him un-Canadian and arrogant. Well he might be arrogant but so far he’s not a moron which is more than I can say about the current Cabinet Ministers.