Voluntary survey "will never be comparable to census data"
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, August 25, 2010 - 0 Comments
Acting StatsCan chief says the controversy over long-form census hasn’t led to “morale problem”
In an internal newsletter to StatsCan employees, acting StatsCan chief Wayne Smith said the data collected from the new voluntary survey that will replace the long-form census “will, of course, never be comparable to census data.” Smith added that, despite the change, “the National Household Survey will produce usable and useful data that can meet the needs of many users.” Smith was appointed to the position in July, after Munir Sheikh resigned shortly after the government announced the changes. Smith maintains that Statistics Canada has not lost credibility despite the census controversy and also reported that he doesn’t see a “morale problem” among the staff.
-
149 to 148
By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 1:03 PM - 0 Comments
Postmedia finds three NDP MPs who are committed to voting in favour of C-391: Peter Stoffer, Dennis Bevington and Jim Maloway. Carol Hughes is undecided. A spokesperson for John Rafferty, the NDP MP for Thunder Bay, says Mr. Rafferty will only comment on his stance to the local media. (The hilarity of this position aside—the invention of the telegraph in 1794 making it relatively easy to transmit news from one city to another—it should at least compel someone from the Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal to give Mr. Rafferty a call sometime today.)
Nonetheless, while we wait to see to which media outlet Mr. Rafferty will reveal his decision, nine NDP votes now remain in play, or at least unaccounted for. Those belong to Malcolm Allen, Charlie Angus, Niki Ashton, Nathan Cullen, Claude Gravelle, Hughes, Bruce Hyer, Rafferty and Glenn Thibeault.
The potential math of this vote has previously been laid out. But for the purposes of keeping score—including the votes of Messrs Mark and Bevilacqua for now, with only Judy Wasylcia-Leis’ seat officially vacant—the known tally at this moment is 149 votes in favour, 148 votes against.
-
No wine-fed beef: Canadian Food Inspection Agency
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 12:42 PM - 0 Comments
Cattle breeder says CFIA is on a “power trip”
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has put a cork in a B.C. rancher’s plan to put wine-fed beef on the menus of Vancouver restaurants this fall. The agency said wine is “not an approved ingredient,” which will likely kill the burgeoning industry in a province where ranchers have struggled economically. Southern Plus Feedlot operator Bill Freding, who spearheaded the movement, told The Canadian Press that CFIA officials are on a “power trip.” He’s vowed to fight the decision.
-
Information as the enemy
By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 11:27 AM - 0 Comments
While an evaluation report of the gun registry languishes in some sort of bureaucratic purgatory, the office of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews explains why you don’t need to see it anyway.
“Canadians don’t need another report to know that the long-gun registry is very efficient at harassing law-abiding farmers and outdoors enthusiasts, while wasting billions of taxpayer dollars,” a spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told the Star Tuesday.
This all may sound familiar. Last November, around the time of the last vote on the long-gun registry, another report was delayed and the office of the Public Safety Minister used nearly the exact same words to explain why. The dispute inspired one of the greatest displays of ministerial obfuscation in modern history from Mr. Toews’ predecessor.
A day later it was reported that the report had been submitted four weeks previous. Last May, evidence turned up that the report had been submitted seven weeks previous.
-
Brian Wilson takes on Gershwin
By Mark Dillon - Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 9:11 AM - 0 Comments
The Beach Boy talks about the band, his new life and ‘Rhapsody in Blue’
Clay Patrick McBride/ KEYSTONE PRESS AGENCY
“True music . . . must reflect the thought and aspirations of the people and time. My people are Americans. My time is today.”
The quote is from George Gershwin, but those words might well have been spoken by the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson. The two men’s bodies of work are characterized by a similar specificity of time and place—the fantasies and reality of Jazz Age and Depression-era audiences in Gershwin’s case, 1960s southern Californian adolescence in Wilson’s. Yet both have proven timeless and universal. Any indie band today worth its amplifier can talk breathlessly about the Beach Boys’ influence—the layered productions, unorthodox song structures, and, of course, those harmonies. And Gershwin’s musical legacy needs no introduction.
Wilson certainly felt a kinship to Gershwin. In fact, it was the composer’s symphonic jazz masterwork, Rhapsody in Blue, that awakened his own musical consciousness. “I was two years old when I first heard it,” he said, speaking to Maclean’s on the phone last week from his Beverly Hills home. “To me, Rhapsody in Blue is the song of my life.”
Pop experts hear Gershwin in the melodies and in Wilson’s piano playing on the early Beach Boys surf albums. Wilson even produced a version of Summertime for singer Sharon Marie in 1963. But it was in the early 1970s, when he was housebound and suffering from depression, that he set out to deconstruct Rhapsody. “I learned how to play the pretty part—you know, the violin part—when I was 28 years old,” he recalled. “I had a copy of Leonard Bernstein’s version. I went from the record to my piano—back and forth. I learned two bars at a time until I had that whole centrepiece down.”
So it seems apt to see the two giants of American music paired on Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin, released Aug. 17 by Walt Disney Records on its Pearl imprint. On it, Wilson tackles standards by Gershwin and his lyricist brother, Ira. “Isn’t it a nice album?” he enthused. “It’s very simple but direct, you know?”
It’s also apt Wilson is getting buzz for his new disc just as Paul McCartney—his friend, and the Beatle with whom he has most closely identified, since they are both bass players known for their melodic ballads—wraps up a tour that sold out arenas all over the U.K. and North America. The Beach Boys and the Beatles vied for pop supremacy in the ’60s. “I was envious as hell,” he recalled, “because they eclipsed everybody. I loved their music. Paul and John’s voices put me into a good thing, and their songs were so unique.” Each group’s albums would influence the other, but he insists it was not competition so much as mutual admiration. “I hoped they liked Pet Sounds as much as I liked Rubber Soul.”
These days, Wilson is enjoying a creative renaissance. Six years ago, he recorded a complete version of his aborted magnum opus Smile, which the Beach Boys started and then shelved in 1967 amid internal conflict. Its long-awaited release was met with big sales and euphoric reviews. His follow-ups have included 2008’s That Lucky Old Sun, a well-received suite of new songs, and live performances with the first-rate band he put together after his official departure from the Beach Boys, which followed the 1998 cancer death of his youngest brother, guitarist Carl. (The Beach Boys’ lineup in the group’s formative years also included middle brother Dennis, who died in 1983, the Wilsons’ cousin, Mike Love, neighbour David Marks, and high school friend Alan Jardine.) With the involvement of his wife of 15 years, Melinda, and his manager, Jean Sievers, Wilson has an active presence online, with a constantly updated website and regular posts on Facebook and Twitter. “Great dinner out with the family last night at Arnie Morton’s. LOVE that Cajun Ribeye!” read a recent tweet.
The productive new phase comes amid renewed interest in his old band. Dennis will reportedly be immortalized on the big screen in The Drummer, a dramatization of the fast-living Beach Boy’s final years, from the recording of his lauded 1977 solo album Pacific Ocean Blue to his drowning death six years later.
The film will go into production in January, and is just one event planned around the Beach Boys’ 50th anniversary next year. Capitol Records is also mulling over archival music releases.
-
The true fallout from the BP oil spill may be unimaginable
By Chris Sorensen - Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 9:08 AM - 0 Comments
The U.S. government and BP are rushing to put the Gulf spill behind them—but it’s not over yet
Chris Bickford and Stephen Crowley The New York Times/ Gerald Herbert/AP
It only took a few weeks for Jim Cowan to discover there was more to BP’s massive Macondo oil spill than meets the eye. He was part of a team of scientists that took to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico shortly after an April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon killed 11 workers and caused the US$350-million drill rig to sink. As oil gushed uncontrollably from the damaged well 5,000 feet below, Cowan and his colleagues plied the waves until they came across a telltale sheen. They dropped their remotely operated submersible beneath the slick and confirmed their fears—a giant moving cloud of oil droplets, later dubbed a “plume.”
The discovery challenged the all-oil-rises-to-the-surface belief that had been guiding the cleanup and containment efforts. And it was met with resistance from both BP and the U.S. government, which had given the oil giant permission to spray an unprecedented amount of chemical dispersants on the surface and, unusually, at the source of the leak. “We took a lot of heat,” says Cowan, an oceanographer at Louisiana State University. “There was a great deal of denial.”
-
High-flying civil servants
By Charlie Gillis - Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 9:03 AM - 0 Comments
Why bureaucrats’ travel and entertainment costs keep soaring
Newscom/ Sandor Fizli/ Pawel Dwulit/CP
Even by the standards of a globe-trotting public-health physician, the summer and fall of 2009 was a frenzied period for Dr. David Butler-Jones. The world was bracing for the onslaught of H1N1, and Butler-Jones was in charge of this country’s preparations.
He travels a lot at the best of times, but from the moment the first case of swine flu was confirmed in Mexico in late April, the bespectacled physician single-handledly sent the federal government reservation system into overdrive. Three trips to Vancouver. Four to Toronto. One to Mexico City. Another to London, England.
-
I bet Mr. Trower has a delightful accent
By Colby Cosh - Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 7:27 PM - 0 Comments
“Cold War weapons expert warns Wi-Fi could cause birth defects” cries the National Post, heralding Barrie Trower’s arrival unto the good microwave-fearing people of Simcoe County. Who is Barrie Trower, you ask?
Barrie Trower, who specialized in microwave “stealth” warfare during the Cold War, was to lecture at the University of Toronto on Tuesday night…
“When I realized these same frequencies and powers [as weapons during the Cold War] were being used as Wi-Fi in schools, I decided to come out of retirement and travel around the world free of charge and explain exactly what the problem is going to be in the future,” Mr. Trower told Postmedia News in an interview on Tuesday.
…“What you are doing in schools is transmitting at low levels,” said Mr. Trower, who teaches at Britain’s Dartmoor College and holds a degree in physics.
You will notice what’s very specifically not been said here, which is that Mr. Trower teaches physics at a university. Lest anyone should carelessly arrive at this impression, it ought to be said that what the Post calls “Dartmoor College” is South Dartmoor Community College, a state comprehensive school for children aged 11-18. They are doubtless lucky to have a “weapons expert” like Mr. Trower on staff (assuming he is on staff), although it is damned hard to be a military expert in anything for any length of time without inadvertently getting your name on any patents or peer-reviewed papers to speak of. Trower has said he worked for what he called the “Government Microwave Warfare Establishment”; it’s possible the Post judged this a strong claim after Googling “Government Microwave Warfare Establishment“, or just “Microwave Warfare Establishment“, and finding links to loads of pages related to Barrie Trower and not much else. Excellent work.
[UPDATE, 1:15 a.m. Eastern: the Post's original story has vanished from the Web, so you'll have to visit the Vancouver Sun's site to read it.]
-
Bastarache, day one: he said, he said
By Martin Patriquin - Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 6:28 PM - 0 Comments
The Bastarache inquiry, for you ignorant or indifferent souls, is the commission du jour here in Quebec. It’s a really, really long back story (chronicled here by yours truly in April), the gist of which is this: earlier this year, former justice minister Marc Bellemare alleged that under the Jean Charest Liberals, the judge selection process is replete with cronyism and partisan politicking–less a selection process than a coronation of people who have curried favour with the Liberal Party of Quebec. Charest, in a familiar fit of pique, took exception and called a commission into said selection process, to be chaired by esteemed jurist Michel Bastarache. Bellemare and Charest called each other liars, the latter sued the former for $700,000, Bellemare said he wouldn’t testify, then said he would. Meanwhile, Quebec’s voting public found yet another reason to be jaded and cynical about this province’s political class.
Anyway.
Bellemare testified today, and put meat on the bones of his earlier allegations. And lordy, quelle meat: Charest, Bellemare alleged, bent to the will of Franco Fava, a Liberal fundraiser, who wanted certain judges appointed. Bellemare named the judges in question: Marc Bisson, Michel Simard and Lin Gosselin-Desprès, all of whom have ties of some sort to the Liberal Party. Bellemare said he felt pressure to appoint the judges in question because of “colossal” pressure from Fava. “Franco is a personal friend, he’s an influent fundraiser. We need guys like him. We need to listen to him. He’s a professional fundraiser. If he tells you to name Simard and Bisson, then name them,” Charest said, according to Bellemare. He named dates and times that he met with Charest, and recalled being served Perrier at one of the meetings. He also said the he found the whole judge appointment thing morally abhorrent, and was one of the reasons he left the job not even a year after being elected.
(An aside.Try this at home: next time you make a mistake–drop your toast on the ground, say, or accidentally nominate a judge to the Superior Court–scream out “Bastarache!” It’s like swearing without being naughty.)
It’s rather explosive stuff, if only because Charest has spent the last six months swearing up and down that none of this was true. And, yes, Charest showed up in front of the cameras not even an hour after Bellemare wrapped things up for the day, to reiterate how Bellemare was full of Bastarache. It would be comical if the whole thing didn’t cost $6 million. Also, as Gohier pointed out, Charest’s quick sortie “calls into question all those non-statements about how public officials can’t comment when an issue is before the courts/commissions.”
Yes, Bellemare has a freakish ability to remember dates and times, and he’s a copious note taker. Yet there are a few details that don’t quite square:
1) Bellemare paints himself as an outsider who said he was done with politics when he retired in 2004. Yet he twice ran for mayor of Quebec City after that. Running for office takes moolah, and take a guess which fundraiser he tried to recruit in 2005: Franco Fava.
2) He left office in 2004 disillusioned, he said, because Charest went back on his promise to support the revamping of Quebec’s no fault insurance plan to better serve car accident victims, his pet project. And for the last six months he has basically painted the Premier as a stooge for Liberal bagmen and construction unions. Yet in 2004–right around the time he was running for mayor, coincidentally or not–he wrote a slobbering open letter in Le Soleil, describing Charest as a statesman of the first order. “Every time [Charest] receives foreign dignitaries in Quebec City he score precious points. By exploiting his best quality, he meet the great expectations of the citizens who live there.”
Some decent fodder for cross-examination, to say the least.
The inquiry continues tomorrow.
-
The StatCan Tribune
By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 5:30 PM - 0 Comments
Postmedia has the text of an interview Wayne Smith, the interim chief statistician, gave to the internal newsletter at Statistics Canada.
The government selected one of those options, which we are now in the process of implementing under the name of the National Household Survey. Survey results will, of course, never be comparable to census data. Nonetheless, the National Household Survey will produce usable and useful data that can meet the needs of many users.
-
'The one exception is Canada'
By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 1:52 PM - 0 Comments
In light of the Australian result, Patrick Dunleavy with the London School of Economics surveys the world’s major Westminster parliaments, the state of governance and the possibility of electoral reform.
Although Duverger’s Law is clearly dead, and the idea of using a voting system to artificially create Parliamentary majorities is on its deathbed. But in all five these countries, the executive is still in a powerful position relative to the legislature … Yet although ‘Westminster model’ countries continue to share a powerful institutional heritage, it seems doubtful that the electoral aspects of the model can ever be the same again. For the UK’s forthcoming referendum on adopting the Alternative Vote, this recognition that the world as a whole is changing towards more complex and multi-party politics may sway some more voters and politicians towards backing reform.
Then again, since the Australian system, like ‘first past the post’ elections, has now failed to produce a clear electoral outcome, those who hanker after artificial majorities may take it as further reason for opposing change.
-
U.S. judge rules against federal stem cell funding
By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 12:39 PM - 0 Comments
Injunction bars government from using public funds on embryonic research
A federal judge in the U.S. has blocked the Obama administration from funding human embryonic stem cell, citing a federal law which bars governments from spending taxpayer money on embryonic experiments. U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the National Institutes of Health from funding the research. The ruling is a setback for the Obama administration, since embryonic research is in many ways the holy grail of medicine due to its potential to cure many diseases despite being seeped in controversy. Opponents to the research have celebrated the ruling. “We are encouraged that the court has recognized the seriousness of the ethics and the funding of embryonic stem cell research,” said David Prentice, senior fellow for life sciences at the Family Research Council. The administration has yet to respond to the ruling.
-
Canada-wide warrants out for Lafortune torture suspect
By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 12:30 PM - 0 Comments
Lafortune’s former roommate wanted in connection with the gruesome assault
Investigators in Regina and Calgary have issued arrest warrants for 30-year-old Dustin Ward Paxton in connection with the gruesome assault of 26-year-old Dustin Lafortune, a former Calgarian who was burned, beaten, and dumped at a Regina hospital in April. Paxton, Lafortune’s former roommate and colleague at a moving business in Calgary, has no fixed address, police said. “This investigation took four months, for a number of reasons, one being that it stretched from British Columbia to Winnipeg, including four provinces and four different police agencies,” said Det. Doug Crippen of the Calgary Police Service. The last public statement by police regarding this case dates back to May 19, when they confirmed officers had gone to a Regina apartment block not far from the hospital where LaFortune was dropped off.
-
Drinking more water helps shed pounds
By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 12:23 PM - 0 Comments
Study confirms long-held belief in the link between water and weight loss
Scientists are now saying the best appetite suppressant to use for weight loss is plain old water. In a study described as the first randomized controlled trial on water and weight loss, Virginia Tech researchers found those who drank two, eight-ounce glasses of water about 20 minutes before meals lost some 2.3 kilograms more on average over 12 weeks than those who didn’t increase their water intake. “Everybody was successful in losing weight, but the water seemed to offer some added benefit,” said Brenda Davy, senior author and associate professor in the department of human nutrition, foods and exercise at Virginia Tech. The researchers found water fills the stomach, increasing feelings of fullness, and added water may have been substituting for caloric soft drinks. This finding may seem intuitive, but the team said they searched the medical literature for studies on water and weight loss, and “in spite of it being such a popular idea for those who need to lose weight, there was almost nothing that had been done, research-study wise,” said Davy.
-
Canadian tourists killed in Manila hostage-taking
By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 12:20 PM - 0 Comments
UPDATED: A Canadian and his two daughters are reported dead
The Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs is trying to confirm whether one or more of the eight tourists killed in a hostage-taking in Manila were Canadians. Roland Mendoza, a former police officer in the Philippine capital, stormed a tour bus on Monday in an attempt to get his job back. Eight people were killed in the ensuing fight. Media reports say five of the hostages held Canadian passports, and three of the deceased may be Canadian. The Manila police has faced international criticism for what is widely understood to have been a botched rescue attempt. It took over ten hours for the hostages to be rescued, by which time Mendoza had killed eight passengers.
UPDATE: CTV News is reporting that Canadian citizen Ken Leung, 58, and his two daughters, Jessie Leung, 14, and Doris Leung, 21, were killed in the hijacking.
-
Another one for the list
By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 12:08 PM - 0 Comments
The Urban Public Health Network, representing the medical officers of health of the eighteen largest public health departments in Canada, files a submission with the industry committee.
-
There’s a new Brian Mulroney
By Philippe Gohier - Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 12:00 PM - 0 Comments
And he’s not the first prime minister’s grandson to carry the family name
Photograph by Mila Mulroney
As a successful television host, Ben Mulroney has carved out a niche well outside the political world. But the eldest—by one minute—of his two sons born at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital last week won’t have to look far to find a reminder of his family’s connections to power. That’s because Ben and his wife, Jessica Brownstein, named him Brian Mulroney.
Ben had reportedly struck a pact with his siblings to ensure his first-born son would carry the paternal grandfather’s name. (The younger Brian’s twin, John, is named after his grandfather’s older brother, who died just hours after birth.)
-
The size, scope and purpose of government
By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 11:42 AM - 0 Comments
Alex Himelfarb takes stock of the state and the competing visions of welfare and security.
We have seen in the U.S. today how hard it is to shift the momentum, to provide access to health care for all or to build bridges rather than fortresses. In Canada we should have it easier. We have a better base. But we seem to be vulnerable to those promoting distrust and fear. Perhaps our version of the welfare state has worked too well and we expect too much from it and are too easily disappointed by its failures. It seems too that as we get older, we are more fearful. Perhaps we expect more security from physical harm than is ever possible, especially in a free and democratic society. Leaders who over-promise in either camp do us no service, nor does fueling distrust and false fears or ignoring the evidence. And it is too easy to promise that we can somehow have it all without having to sacrifice anything or pay the taxes.
-
Pakistan overlooks Canada for help with flood recovery efforts
By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 11:41 AM - 0 Comments
Disaster Assistance Response Team has no immediate plans to travel to Pakistan
Foreign military forces from the United States, Japan and Australia are either in Pakistan or en route in the wake of the worst flooding in the country’s history, but the Canadian military’s Disaster Assistance Response Team has no immediate plans to travel to Pakistan since it hasn’t been asked to go. An official at the Canadian High Commission in Islamabad said a DART deployment “can only be considered upon formal request from the government of the affected country.” The Pakistan government publicly thanked DART for their assistance following the 2005 Kashmir earthquake that killed 80,000 people, but there was controversy over Pakistan’s demand that Canadian troops avoid bringing any weapons into the country. If Canada ultimately does send DART to Pakistan, the team would probably be deployed in southern Pakistan where floodwaters remain high.
-
Tory donors top list of patronage appointments, Liberals say
By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 11:39 AM - 0 Comments
Analysis claims Harper government favoured political supporters for positions
An analysis of Elections Canada records by the Liberals claims at least 20 patronage appointments handed out by the Harper government this month went to political supporters who had given money to the Conservative party or its candidates. Some jobs are honorary titles that pay small per diems, while others are full-time positions with salaries. Twenty of the appointees named this month gave a total of more than $25,000 to the Conservative party or its candidates, the Liberal analysis of Elections Canada records shows, but it’s unlikely jobs are handed out in return for small campaign contributions, as political donations are capped at $1,100 annually, under election finance changes ushered in by the Tories. PMO spokesman Andrew MacDougall said the Liberals know well of hypocrisy and patronage, having appointed Liberal MPs to several patronage positions.
-
Windsor, Ont. engine maker employees accept steep wage cut
By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 11:04 AM - 0 Comments
Wages reduced from $30-an-hour-plus to $19.50 in bid to save plant
Windsor, Ont., once Canada’s motor city, lost its last GM plant last month. Now, employees at a plant that makes engines for Ford have voted 84 per cent in favor of wage cuts that would bring salaries down from $30-an-hour and above to $19.50 an hour. Workers at the Nemak Essex Aluminum Plant, which employs 124 people making Ford engines, will be laid off in November 2011 if Ford doesn’t renew its contract. Marketing experts say the plant is unlikely to court any new contracts from automakers without the wage cut.
-
Islamist militants in Somalia kill 32, including six MPs
By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 11:01 AM - 0 Comments
al-Shabab claims responsibility for attack on hotel in Mogadishu
Militant Islamist group al-Shabab has taken responsibility for an attack on the Muna hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia that killed 32 people, including six MPs. Dressed as government soldiers, militants shot the hotel’s guard and rampaged through the building for about an hour, killing guests. A suicide bomber then blew himself up. al-Shabab aims to overthrow the African-Union-backed transitional government so it can impose Islamic rule. The weak transitional government controls only small areas of the capital, partially protected by 6,000 African Union troops. Al-Shabab was responsible for the World Cup bombings in neighbouring Uganda that killed 74 on July 12. Somali has experienced intense fighting for power since the government collapsed in 1991.
-
Notes for a column, never written
By Paul Wells - Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 10:58 AM - 0 Comments
Begin with anecdote about how Poland’s centre-right government is preparing to decriminalize simple possession of recreational drugs. (Point out that Harper government is moving in opposite direction? Or is that too obvious?) Add that the leading non-socialist governments in Europe — France, Germany — are not socially conservative by any measure (partial exception for Sarkozy’s seasonal anti-immigrant rhetoric).
Then lengthy discussion of David Cameron’s UK government, which is cutting government spending far more than Harper has ever dreamed of doing, while conducting a foreign policy, especially in Middle East, that directly rebuts every line Harper government has taken.
Throw in Australia, where even if Tony Abbott wins power, he’ll have even weaker hand than Harper in Canada’s parliament.
Finish by pointing out that gay marriage is legal in Spain and Portugal, and California Prop 8 court ruling suggests widespread acceptance of gay marriage in U.S. may not be far behind.
Wrap up: Wherever conservatism is on the rise, it’s a fiscal conservatism that has few points in common with Harper’s social policies or foreign policy. So if Harper’s project is to dismantle the degenerate socialism of the Trudeau years, step by incrementalist step, doesn’t he have his work cut out for him? Because isn’t Harper-style conservatism increasingly isolated in the world?
-
One more for the list
By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 9:41 AM - 0 Comments
The Canadian Association of Police Boards calls for the reinstatement of the mandatory long form census.
-
For every country, there's a weather disaster
By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 9:20 AM - 0 Comments
PHOTO GALLERY: Mother nature hits hard around the world
