Inkless Wells

Paul Wells on all the latest out of Ottawa—along with the occasional post about jazz. Follow Paul on Twitter: @InklessPW

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Meanwhile, in Kandahar…

by Paul Wells on Thursday, May 7, 2009 9:49am - 11 Comments

…the Prime Minister returned to Afghanistan today for his first visit since 2006. Only yesterday on the radio, A. Pundit had been saying it was significant that the PM hadn’t been back since his first visit. So I can tell you this visit was a well-kept secret.

UPDATE: Plus he was there in 2007. So I had no clue what I was talking about!

Tags: Afghanistan, egg on my face, Stephen Harper

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Chuck VS Macleans

First visit to afghanistan since 2006?

Was his 2007 visit fake?

http://pm.gc.ca/eng/media.asp?id=1660

Paul Wells

Yes. It was done by the same team who faked the moon shot of 1969. They’re very good.

http://www.jackmitchell.ca Jack Mitchell

Ironically, he hasn’t been to Sudbury since 2005.

madeyoulook

Lessee: Sudbury. Kandahar… Kandahar, Sudbury… Anyone got a coin?

Chuck VS Macleans

LOL, well played sir.
http://deleted Sandi

Watch it there – you’re aging youself.

CAPS

Yes, I believe this A. Pundit has a much more hesitant voice when appearing on television or the radio as opposed to when he writes his trenchant columns and blog posts.

Said pundit also made a claim that the proposed carbon tax from the Green Shift would have had no effect either economically or environmentally at the level it was propsed. This is correct only in so much as the carbon tax was designed to start at a low level and ramp up over four years to the point where it would affect people’s purchasing decisions and in the mean time there would be the concurrent lowering of corporate and personal taxes.

Also, the crack about “choking on a fork” n’était pas digne de M. le Pundit.

Paul Wells

Actually I stand by the second point, and the third tells you all you need to know about my dignity.

CAPS

Well somebody has to stand up for M. Dion’s ideas because he is absolutely incapable of doing so himself.

JamesHalifax

Actually, a carbon tax would have worked to curb greenhouse gas emissions….from Canada.

Unfortunately, China and India belch out more crap in a week than Canada does all Year. Add to this, China is building a new coal fired plant every few weeks and you can see that Canada could stop every car, plane, bus or train…..we could stop burning furnace oil, and every other fuel that creates carbon emissions. What would it give us if no one else decides to participate?

Nothing but a long cold walk to work……and with no power, what would you do when you get there?

A carbon tax will hurt the poor more than any other group of people. The rich could still heat their homes or drive their cars. The poor…..I guess they’ll have to save the planet for everyone else but themselves.

Critical Reasoning

There’s no guarantee that a carbon tax would have worked to significantly reduce GHG emissions. The only thing we know for sure is that it would have shifted some of the tax burden from one group to another group.

If Canada wants to put a real dent in our GHG emissions, the most effective way to do so would be public/private partnerships to build new nuclear power plants and retire old coal plants.