Why Canadian Conservatives loose.

So why are the Canadian Conservatives in so much trouble?

Not too hard to figure out for a Dutchman. Just look at some of the issues of the last few months and how Conservatives have handled them.

Remember the confidence vote? Conservatives were willing to align with the Bloc Quebecois to beat the governing parties. Yes, align themselves with "the Bloc".

And then there was Belinda. Now I have to agree with the Conservatives when they disapprove of her actions: changing parties right before an important vote (the confidence vote, can it be more important?) is immoral. Actually I believe it should be illegal. The fact that it is not, is just as astonishing as the fact that BC parties are still allowed to spend huge amounts of money on advertising (to sway political opinion); both actions are part of the Canadian democratic deficit and all Canadians should be ashamed that the buying of votes is still legal. But Conservatives gave Belinda's latest "moves" names that where unfamiliar political terms to me. I suppose that's what Conservatives "express" when "power hungry hypocrites" loose. Just another reason to find Conservatives scary.

Today more reasonto distrust Tories. Here are Harper's "wise" comments when discussing Bloc Quebecois' position on same sex marriage: "Because it's being passed with the support of the Bloc, I think it will lack legitimacy with most Canadians". So what does this say about the Conservatives? Indeed: power hungry hypocrites! Conservatives align with the Bloc when they feel they have a chance of beating the Liberals (regardless that it might "lack legitimacy with most Canadians") but, when on a different issue the Bloc aligns with the Liberals, the Bloc is suddenly considered illegitimate.

So what have we learned?
1. Conservatives think Quebec voters are not legitimate Canadian voters
2. Conservatives do not know how to make or keep friends; therefore a future minority government with Conservatives seems unlikely.
3. Conservatives use polarization to clarify their position, even if it will work against them.

Personally I can't wait to see what will happen with "Defend Marriage Canada", "a citizen based effort" that considers the same-sex legislation "a costly social experiment on the backs of our children". What's there to defend when gays have the same rights under the law?

Conservatives, with their self-destructive actions, get better and better at loosing. Reason enough for some to call this party the "Canada Stupid Party". Congrats.

Downing Street Memo (3) - Thanks to Wolfowitz and Friends

The NPR on the Downing Street Memo.

And Wolfowitz, a prime architect of the Iraq war during his service as Deputy Defense Secretary, has heard about the downing street memos, but is not going to read them (excuse: he doesn't want to be distracted by history from his new job as head of the world's leading development bank).

For Wolfowitz the War seems to have lost it's "glance" and is now just another "issue" that he chooses not to focus on; "There will be a time and place to talk about history". It's frightening to read how Wolfowitz tries to escape history by not to talking about it while so many innocent Iraqis (and U.S. soldiers) have no other choice than live trough it. Thanks to Wolfowitz and friends.

Downing street memo(2)

A growing number of media outlets (including some in the U.S.) are picking up on the "downing street memo". Bloggers throw in their own two cents.

Downing Street memo is gaining momentum

Don't miss the latest developments in the downing street memo.

The minutes [or memo], which were published May 1 by the Sunday Times of London, paint a picture of an administration that had already committed to attacking Iraq, was manipulating intelligence and had already begun intense bombing of Iraq to prepare for the ground invasion. This was almost a year before the actual invasion officially began. The minutes are from a July 23, 2002 briefing of Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top national security advisers by British intelligence chief Richard Dearlove. The minutes contain an account of Dearlove's report that President George W. Bush had decided to bring about "regime change" in Iraq by military action; that the attack would be "justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD" (weapons of mass destruction); and that "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

Listen to the interview by Democracy Now by clicking here.

Bill Graham: "Ich habe es nicht gewusst"

Minister Bill Graham's excuse in the Arar case:

"What surprises me is that this was not conveyed to me," Mr. Graham said. "I was not told."

What bothers me most is that, at the same time, he keeps defending his former officials:

"In the light of what we knew at the time, and the practices, the nature of what we were trying to achieve . . . I honestly believe that we did the best we could and for the best motives."

Of course, nobody wants to look bad when things turn ugly. But a "mistake" has been made which resulted in the deportation and torture of a Canadian citizen. Graham's "I was not told" cannot simply be excused, especially given the seriousness of the "incident". Graham was in charge and failed to help a Canadian citizen (yes, just someone like you and me). His reaction is of course not new:

When things go wrong, personal irresponsibility will eventually result in a complete denial of the impact of one's actions, and in holding others responsible. Denial was the predominant response for instance of the Nazis at the Nuremberg trials after World War II (Peter Steeghs-Center Point, TX).

Let's consider that Bill Graham is telling the truth and that he really didn't know this. A few follow-up questions immediately come to mind: "Being the minister of foreign affairs, shouldn't you have known about this?". "Did you ever ask your officials about this?"

U.S. demand was unacceptable

Indeed, the U.S. offer to "send Arar back to Canada in October 2002, but only if Canada promised to charge and imprison him" was unethical and (therefore) unacceptable. Nevertheless every possible action should have been undertaken to have the Canadian Arar returned to Canada safely. "Simply" rejecting the offer because "We have a Charter of Rights ... we don't have cause to arrest and press charges and put him in jail" is just another excuse for non-action when it was needed most. Really, why did Canadian officials not "tell" the U.S. officials that they were going to imprison him and later "simply" let him go because of the Charter of Rights? When there was a chance to get Arar back Canadian officials chose to stand up for the principle "we have a charter of rights" with the known outcome. Poor timing resulting in torture.

BC Rail sold to liberal-friendly CN rail

"Not only did they sell it, but they sold it to a Liberal-friendly company. CN chairman David McLean was involved in Campbell’s 1993 Liberal leadership bid, as reported by Richard Warnica in The Tyee on Monday, and signed Liberal donation cheques totaling over $36,000 under the CN banner in 2002 alone."

Read the full story here.

Ready for change? I am! Change the Liberals, the NDP and the Green Party with one vote.

There are two main groups voting for the Liberal:
- people voting for self interest (the 10% upper echelon)
- people who think there is no better option.

I'm afraid the first group can't be helped. They are in power and whatever I might have against them: too bad. The second group is a lot more interesting: why do they think there are no options, and how can this be changed?

First of all, this group feels that the NDP isn't a real option. I can somewhat sympathize with these people although it must be said that the current BC NDP does consist of many new members as well. But there are other viable options out there, one of them being the Green Party. Unfortunately the Green Party is harmed the most by the greatest deficit of the First Past The Post system: strategic voting. Considering the terrible track record of both the Liberals and the NDP I'm convinced the Green Party would have a major chance to win this election, if it wasn't for strategic voting.

But we have the opportunity to beat the system tomorrow. No liberal or NDP'er or Big Business Media wants you to think about this: all parties mentioned rather cling to their undeserved power, given to them by "the advantages" of the FPTP system. But there is a new way and it is called STV.

Are you tired of this terrible monster called FPTP, only creating a polarized division between "the lefties" and "right wing", between Big Business and Big Unions? Are you ready for real positive change?

Vote STV!

US Army and Navy Recruiting

Do you remember the saying what if they gave a war and nobody came? Well, this saying from the 60s is becoming a current reality again.

The US Army and Navy has a hard time recruiting.

“In April, the Army missed its recruiting goal for the third month in a row, short by nearly 2,800 recruits, or 42 percent off its target. And for the first time in 10 years, the Marine Corps missed its recruiting goal for the last four months.”

Therefore these recruiters started some new “marketing techniques”: threatening potential recruits.

The Army has ordered a one-day suspension this month of its recruiting efforts, already made difficult by the Iraq war, to confront incidents of misconduct by its recruiters.
The incidents included a Texas recruiter (Sgt. Thomas Kelt) threatening a man with arrest if he did not show up at a recruiting station for an interview and Colorado recruiters telling a high school student how to get a phony diploma from a nonexistent school, Army officials said.

Read this story here

Or here the actual voice message here (from Democracy Now!)
http://www.yorstart.com/audio/recruiting-technique2.mp3

Paul Willcocks' YES for BC-STV

Read his full story here .

Find out more about BC-STV

Iraq moving towards open civil war

Pulitzer prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh delivered an address at an event entitled "Can Freedom of the Press Survive Media Consolidation?"

Read more at Democracy Now!
Hear it here (audio) | See it here (video)

People avoid paying fees for B.C. parks

B.C. Government documents show that fewer people are visiting provincial parks since parking meters were installed. According to Eva Riccius (spokesperson for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society) only a quarter of visiting drivers put money in the meters which also contributed to low revenues of about $800,000. That's less then 20% of the projected revenues of $4 million to $6 million.

"The money raised from the meters was supposed to be put back into parks, for picnic tables and hiking trails, but with the revenue shortfall where does that leave our parks today?” said Gwen Barlee, WCWC policy director. “We’re calling today on the BC government to rectify the mistake that was made and immediately remove the parking meters from our provincial parks."

Read the full story here

BC Green Party and the US war on Iraq

Adriane Carr, leader of the B.C. Green Party responds to a letter by Will Offley.

"We find it utterly reprehensible that public service pension funds would be invested in corporations that contribute to the devastation inflicted on the Iraqi people. We fully support divesting public pension funds from any companies that are so involved. Thank you for bringing this important issue to our attention."

Read the full letter here.

Prime minister, it's time to go.

"Canada's Liberal minority government says it will not resign despite losing a key censure vote in parliament." Read the full story here. (BBC)

Even when Prime Minister Paul Martin loses a moral authority to govern he wont have any of it. Somehow I'm not all that surprised; in B.C. we've heard it before. Gordon Campbell did not resign after being caught drunk driving on Hawaii either.

In this light it is not surprising that many people have lost respect for politicians when drunk driving and being voted out by the majority of the House of commons are no reasons to step down.

B.C. Pension Funds investing in US War on Iraq

Did you know that $4.6 billion in (British Columbia) pension funds have been invested in corporations producing, among other things, the munitions, missiles, landmines, cluster bombers, attack choppers, tanks, fighters and depleted uranium weapons for use by U.S. armed forces in their occupation of Iraq?

Some people are fully aware of this, including Carole James and Adriane Carr, but are unwilling to raise the issue: "There has been no formal response from James or Carr yet, but the position of both is increasingly clear from their echoing silence."

Read the full story at Resist.ca

Canada's right to choose

"While media attention in Canada focused on the U.S. concerns over the availability of counterfeit or pirated products at home, the coverage missed the real story. Just weeks after the Canadian government announced its plans for copyright reform, the U.S. has injected itself in our policy debate by criticizing our future laws as well."

Read Michael Geist's full story here (p2pnet.net).

Why Victoria B.C. Police should stop using the taser gun

"MONCTON, N.B. - RCMP in New Brunswick are investigating the death of a psychiatric patient whom police shot with a Taser outside a Moncton bar"

Read the full article here.


"Authorities are investigating the death of a 44-year-old man who died in a jail cell hours after he was shocked with a Taser stun gun early Friday morning".

Read the full article here.

Norman Spector calls STV "a dumb idea"

According to his column of Friday May 6th he is a proud British Columbian. Why? Because of the May 5th debate; judging from the debate "it would be unfortunate if we gave up our system now (first past the post in comparison with STV) when it is working properly. This is like saying that you're proud of the latest commercials from Honda, General Motors and Toyota, and therefore it would be unfortunate to look for green alternatives.

What's really unfortunate is that many journalists (including Norman Spector) consider a TV debate in the presented format will give the reader a good view on their political agendas. Observing all the half truths (and many times plain lies) presented at recent debates, how could a journalist be proud of this? Shouldn't it make any self respected journalist "mad like hell" that politicians get away with their own propaganda talk without being countered by real journalism?

Of course, Norman is right, the FPTP system is "working properly". The question is: for who? Read Norman's own analyses why STV is "such a dumb idea".

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Read also Owleye's blog "Single Transferable Everything - A Response to Norman Spector"

Luminara reveals true corporate nature of Victoria's Times Colonist

The Luminara has been part of much local debate lately. Especially the unsigned editorial of January 21 has fanned the flames. Let's have a look how the editors of the Times Colonist skew the facts to make all of us think that commercialism is the way to go for the Beacon Hill Park.

The TC begins their bullying right from the start: the Friends of the Beacon Hill Park are the "most unfriendly folks imaginable". According to the article, "all the rules and regulations" make "the the park no fun to go to anymore". No fun anymore? The rules haven't changed, but the opinions of our favourite (and only) Island newspaper clearly have.

The article continues with an abundance of complaints, you wonder what their coffee breaks are like. I will address a few of them.

1. We (most probably meaning: the editors of the Times Colonist - the TC is definitely not talking for all of us) are denied a Great Canadian Family Picnic. Well excuse me, what's wrong with bringing your own lunch?

2. The editors of the Times Colonist "can't buy an ice cream cone there on a hot day": can someone send a free city map to the editors of the TC and mark where the Beacon Drive Inn is located? It seems the "journalists" are not only bored to death, they're also either lazy or stupid.

3. "There's no place to sit down for a cup of tea." Where does this nonsense come from? There is plenty of space, just bring your own tea. Can someone else sponsor these editors with a thermos? (Don't forget to include the instructions :).

4."God forbid a beer or glass of wine". Hey, I have to agree with the TC on this one. When will it be possible to have a drink in public? Coming from the Netherlands (yes, pot country, gay marriages and what not), drinking a beer in the open is one of the things I miss. Symphony Splash with a beer? I'm for it! But don't blame the Friends for it, they do not make the rules.

The Friends are also blamed for the rules and regulations, set by the city counsel, that wouldn't let the sponsors of the event show their names inside the park. Rules that do not allow commercial activity to take place in Beacon Hill Park. Are the Friends of the Beacon Hill Park wrong by abiding the law?

Finally we get to the heart of the matter: According to the editors of the Times Colonist it is also "naturally" that sponsors, who would like "a little credit for their generosity", are giving up on the Luminara and therefore there will be no "lanterns or children's faces shining in the park".

Is it so usual that sponsors give up funding when they can't even show their names in small print inside the park? I don't think so. I am sure there are lots of people in Victoria who regularly donate (yes, donating is also sponsoring) activities and good causes, without needing much in return: a tax receipt does it for most of us. The tsunami donations, were a perfect example of real generosity. Unfortunately another breed of sponsors used to fund the Luminara. And this breed is used to getting what they want, or else.

Who are they? And what do they want? Maybe someone can fill me in on the first WHO question?

WHAT they want? THEY WANT IT ALL.

There are many ways of letting people know who is sponsoring the Luminara. Sponsors can inform their own clientèle through newsletters, they can buy some advertising space on one of the local radio stations "claiming their generosity", they can even buy advertising space in the TC.

But, the Times Colonist thinks that this is "naturally" not enough. Sponsors want a "little credit for their generosity". Their imposed advertising practices should also be allowed inside the park. And that's what the Friends are against, and so am I.

Commercialism without restrictions is a dangerous thing. It has ruined the objectivity of most North American TV stations and newspapers, and quite obvious that of the Times Colonist.

I like the Luminara. I like the Beacon Hill Park. I'm starting to adore the Friends of the Beacon Hill Park for taking a firm stand to sticking to their principles. I am disappointed about the stand of the TC. Not only are they (and their corporate friends) imposing their advertising on us whenever and wherever they think they can, they also bully well meaning volunteers with their false and inciting statements.

The Beacon Hill Park is a peoples park, not a corporate park. Let's keep it that way.

Friends of Beacon Hill Park, keep up the good work!

Recording Industry Australia in court

Malik in Sydney Australia is wondering why the Australian Recording Association is in court, and not Britney herself.

Terminator at work

Gov. Swarzenegger's executes in real life. Visit his first execution.