Lowered expectations
By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, February 5, 2009 - 7 Comments
Rona Ambrose, then environment minister, July 5, 2006. “The transit tax credit will not only save people money, but by taking public transit Canadians will be helping to improve our environment. The transit tax credit is part of our government’s made in Canada environmental plan. Our transit tax initiative will take the equivalent of 56,000 cars off the road each year which will significantly reduce greenhouse gases here in Canada.”
Environment Commissioner, December report. “In its 2007 Climate Change Plan under the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act, Environment Canada stated that the Tax Credit is expected to result in emission reductions of 220,000 tonnes each year from 2008 through 2012. This was approximately double Finance Canada’s estimate of the resulting emission reductions in its strategic environmental assessment. In its 2008 Plan, Environment Canada amended the figure for expected reductions to an average of 35,000 tonnes per year—about 16 percent of the original estimate. Given the lowered figure, the Tax Credit will have a negligible impact on Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions. Many factors influence public transit ridership, including the price of gasoline. The result is that it is almost impossible to measure actual greenhouse gas emission reductions attributable to the tax credit. With regard to other air emissions, Environment Canada could not provide any analysis to support the assertion that the Tax Credit would result in measurable impacts.”
Jim Prentice, environment minister, this afternoon. “Well, as I said, there are two ways to measure the tax credit. One is greenhouse gas reductions. The other is it’s important as a fiscal measure for people who use bus transportation and it needs to be measured in light of both of those public policy objectives. But certainly, you know, we will take the report. We’ve just received it in the last few hours. We’ll take it. We’ll study it and we’ll learn from what the commissioner has to say. They do — they do good work and we can all benefit from their advice.”
David McGuinty, Liberal environment critic, asked to comment on Prentice’s remarks. “Well then give me a tax break for taking out my garbage.”
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Your Team Iggy starting line-up
By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, January 22, 2009 at 5:23 PM - 43 Comments
Posted without comment for the moment. Some attempt at analysis to follow after some consideration now offered below.
Intergovernmental Affairs Michael Ignatieff
House Leader Ralph Goodale
Deputy House Leader Marlene Jennings
Whip Rodger Cuzner
Deputy Whip Marcel Proulx
Finance John McCallum
Foreign Affairs Bob Rae
Defence Denis Coderre
Environment & Energy David McGuinty
Health Carolyn Bennett
Industry, Science & Technology Marc Garneau
Public Safety & National Security Mark Holland
Natural Resources Geoff Regan
Justice and Attorney-General Dominic LeBlanc
International Trade Scott Brison
Public Works and Government Services Martha Hall Findlay Continue… -
Fantasy government
By Aaron Wherry - Monday, December 1, 2008 at 2:25 AM - 37 Comments
Latest reports put a coalition cabinet at 24 members—18 Liberal, 6 NDP.
Consider this a rough draft (uninformed by any inside information and based only on personal speculation). Continue…
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And then there were two? (Special 100% Vancouver South recount speculation-free post!)
By kadyomalley - Tuesday, October 28, 2008 at 6:10 PM - 56 Comments
First Dominic LeBlanc, now … David McGuinty? National Newswatch lays out the circumstantial evidence here.
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ITQ BerryCam – In which our heroine is confronted by abstractly angry farmers, and surprisingly cheery Liberals
By kadyomalley - Monday, September 8, 2008 at 12:25 AM - 10 Comments
After spending the morning outside Rideau Hall, ITQ headed off to the Billings Estate in Ottawa South to liveblog Stephane Dion at the launch of the local Liberal campaign – which we did right here. But first, we had to run a small- to medium-sized gauntlet, as gauntlets go, of protesters:
Actually, "protesters" might be a bit too strong a term; they were more like "angry-looking people carrying oddly generic signs while walking determinedly in the opposite direction from the rest of the red-shirted crowd". But that's a bit unwieldy.
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The Commons: Stéphane Dion introduces himself, again
By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 19, 2008 at 6:54 PM - 0 Comments
‘The Canadian people is ready to do the right thing’
The Scene. By midday, the Liberal leader was getting a bit ahead of himself, referring in the third-person hypothetical to “Prime Minister Dion.”
You might forgiven him that bullishness though. For this was likely his happiest day since that night in Montreal. Not that there is a great supply of good days with which to compare what transpired today.
To set the stage though we turn first to the afternoon before. Chatting with reporters after QP, David McGuinty was asked to cast forward toward the Liberal plan to come. And without giving away any of the surprises—details of what we would come to know as the “Green Shift” were already being leaked all over Ottawa anyway—he did as good a job as any have done so far of making the case for his leader.
“We’re going to do what Mr. Dion’s always done,” he said, “which is to, you know, be strong, be sincere, be thoughtful.”
If Her Majesty’s Opposition has figured out the point of Stéphane Dion, this is probably it: He is not Stephen Harper. It surely ain’t much. But with two-thirds of the population fairly certain they don’t want to vote for the sitting Prime Minister, it might be enough. Continue…
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BTC: How Andrew Coyne is like Barack Obama
By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 6:32 PM - 0 Comments
From David McGuinty’s scrum this afternoon.
“Wait, if you wait until, if you wait until tomorrow, you’re going to get a very good and solid breakdown on how we intend to price carbon, where we intend to price carbon, what it’ll apply to, over what phased-in period. It’s a very, very intelligent and well crafted plan. And that is why Mr. Harper is so desperately afraid of the growth capacity for this idea. It’s a coalition in Canadian society. We have David Suzuki agreeing with Andrew Coyne, we have David Frum agreeing with Elizabeth May. The right and the left, those old clichés of the past are over when it comes to dealing with the only atmosphere we have.
“They’re desperately afraid of the fact that a new groundswell coalition in Canadian society is coming up saying you know what? We want to hear more about this because the status quo isn’t going to take us there and they aren’t going to take us there. And everybody knows it. Eleven independent groups have looked at the plan and said it’s nonsense. Stop playing. If they’re so sure about their plan, then why aren’t they actually presenting it?”
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Weekend Notes (Vol. 1, No. 18)
By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, May 18, 2008 at 3:00 AM - 0 Comments
The Prime Minister’s second answer on Thursday included this meditation on patriotism. “Whenever this government announces something for the men and women of the forces, the Liberals always attack it. They always complain. Canadians know their attitude and that is why they elected a government to be for the Canadian Forces.”
The same day, Rick Fuschi, Conservative candidate in 2006 for Windsor-Tecumseh, posted these thoughts on one of our Forces’ more decorated veterans. “Romeo Dallaire is a Liberal soldier. That’s similar to jumbo shrimp. Before he became confused about right and wrong, he was best known for having had emotional difficulty after witnessing wholesale slaughter in Rwanda, and becoming confused about the required action. The height of his confusion was becoming a Liberal senator. Now he is doing his best to confuse the rest of us about the definition of ‘enemy.’” Continue…
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Weekend Notes (Vol. 1, No. 17)
By Aaron Wherry - Friday, May 9, 2008 at 9:14 PM - 0 Comments
In response to this week’s open challenge, a reader raises an interesting point about the in-and-out controversy: if all the component parts are legal on their own, how can the scheme in its entirely be illegal?
Interesting point. Indeed, that’s essentially what the Conservative party argues in the Donald Affidavit.
Is it a sound argument? Well, if the ADA from Law & Order were here, he’d probably point out that it’s entirely legal to own a gun. And it’s entirely legal to fire a gun. And society has deemed it lawful, or at least acceptable, in various situations to fire a gun and propel a bullet in order do another person great physical harm. And yet, it’s not legal to murder someone.
Likewise, it’s legal to consume alcohol to the point of intoxication. And it’s legal to operate a motor vehicle. But it’s not legal to drive while drunk.
Context is rather important that way. Continue…
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The Commons: A Prime Minister named Sue
By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, March 13, 2008 at 11:56 PM - 0 Comments
The Scene. The government benches stood and cheered, unanimously and enthusiastically, swollen with pride. What were they all so happily applauding? Good question.
Surely it was not the news that an inquiry into their handling of Afghan detainees will soon be launched. Nor could it have been word that one former prime minister (Clark, Joe) sees Canada’s international stature wasting away under this administration. Nor reports the last prime minister (Martin, Paul) was recently in Mexico showing more concern for a mistreated Canadian citizen than the current head of government has yet demonstrated.
What about the arrival on Parliament Hill of Justice Gomery, the esteemed detailer of government malfeasance, to identify the current Prime Minister’s Office as a “danger to Canadian democracy?” Or the latest calls for various resignations in the wake of that NAFTA messiness?
No, neither of those developments seem worth cheering either.
So what was it? What had so reassured this bunch of its purpose and righteousness? Well, it was this. Continue…
