Conservative senator Bert Brown seems to be quite confused about the Canadian Senate. He complains that there isn't a 50/50 split between the Conservatives and the Liberals in the senate regardless that there are more than two parties in government and that even though Liberals have been in power for a majority of the last 50 years they have appointed senators from every party in rough proportion to the number of seats held in the House. He sees that the senate has a job as a sober second thought to the House of Commons, but is upset that it is doing its job as a sober second thought now that the House is Conservative.
The Calgary Herald bemoans the lack of draconian police action in Calgary.
... when one crook shoots dead another crook, the result is one less crook ... Not the highest expression of human empathy in any case, but for Calgarians such denial is becoming harder, and the case for draconic action easier to make.
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No reasonable Canadian aspires to a police state, nor some Minority Report world in which people are convicted upon suspicion. Yet, long before Albertans need grapple with the dilemmas posed by such extremes, they could find a comfortable balance of civil liberties with police powers sufficient to accomplish what most Canadians say they want -- safe streets, and the worst criminals set to manufacturing licence plates for long enough to get good at it and perhaps even turn their lives around.
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It starts at the top. Work the police as hard as one can, but judges must be ready to jail felons, and governments prepared to build penitentiaries. A federal election is a perfect time to hear concrete plans towards these ends. We must demand it.
(Background: Maple Leaf meats released a lot of tainted lunch meat which led to the deaths of at least 17 people. Gerry Ritz, a Conservative, is the current agricultural minister. During a recent teleconference, he referred to the deaths as "death by a thousand cold cuts", and upon hearing of another death in a Liberal-held riding, he asked if the death was the Liberal MP for that riding, all while laughing.)
Lyn Cockburn somehow finds a way to turn Gerry Ritz's heartless comments about the Listeriosis deaths into an attack on the Liberals and NDP -- All of this propensity for coverage of political gaffes is fundamentally unfair to the Conservatives, none of the other parties gaffe like this. If the other parties show their insensitivity and gaffe more, then the coverage will be fair again.
Tom Brodbeck really hates the NDP and Jack Layton, but mostly Jack Layton. Why? Jack Layton supports the NDP premier of Manitoba, but not the Harper's Conservatives. He defends this hatred by comparing apples to oranges and claiming they are bananas.
Rick Salutin mourns the slow demise of the cultural community in Canada at the hands of Conservative censorship. He believes that grants for culture are nonpartisan long term endeavours to improve life for all Canadians. Harper believes that art grants should be morally vetted by whomever happens to be in power at the time.
Father Raymond J. De Souza believes that because the OHRC (Ontario Human Rights Commission) believes that doctors shouldn't be allowed to selectively treat their patients based on their personal prejudices (eg. only treating straight couples who want to conceive.) then obviously all doctors will be forced to do abortions.
(Background: Harper recently stated that he believes Canada is becoming more Conservative over the last 20 years.)
Janet Bagnall takes on Harpers claim that Canada is becoming more Conservative and thoroughly tears it to shreds and also demonstrates out the hypocrisy of Harper claiming to be fiscally Conservative.
Harper recognized in his Fredericton remarks that the Canadian public is not "necessarily as conservative as everyone in our party." He said the Conservatives would have to move toward Canadians "if they want to continue to govern the country."
This is a tacit acknowledgment that two in three voters - a large majority, in other words - do not intend to vote Conservative. The fact is that the Conservatives will likely win anyway. But that is emphatically not because Canadians have drifted rightward. The problem is that the non-Conservative vote is divided among four parties in the centre and on the left, the Liberals, the Bloc Québécois, the NDP and the Green Party.
Susan Martinuk trots out the same old Conservative talking points about the Green Shift -- concentrating entirely on the carbon tax and ignoring entirely the massive cuts to income tax.
Jeffrey Simpson searches for what it mean to be Liberal -- What is the Liberal brand? -- and comes up empty handed.