Mid-Week Post

Six more shopping days before Christmas ...




The election is ten months away and the smell of desperation hangs in the air like a godawful stench:

Justin Trudeau says he's confident he'll win re-election next fall by sticking to a positive, thoughtful approach to difficult issues, in contrast to the Conservatives whom he accuses of resorting to bumper sticker slogans that prey on voters' fears and prejudices.

Well, let's see what a positive unifier Justin has been so far:

Canada, responsible for 1.6% of global emissions, reduced our emissions by 1.4% in 2016, far short of what Trudeau needs to fulfill even his Paris commitment.

So what is Trudeau’s plan really about?

It’s a political strategy to defeat Scheer and the Conservatives in 2019, who claim, absurdly, that they can meet Trudeau’s emission targets without a national carbon tax.

Trudeau’s appealing to the universe of potential Liberal voters who share the attitudes described by renowned climate change journalist George Monbiot, in his 2006 book, Heat, How to Stop the Planet from Burning.

While not referring to Canada specifically, Monbiot described these types of voters in the industrialized world as those who, “demand that the government acts, while hoping that it doesn’t”, who “wish our governments to pretend to act”, so they “get the moral satisfaction of saying what we know to be right, without the discomfort of doing it.”

“Political parties in most rich nations have already recognized this,” Monbiot writes. “They know that we want tough targets, but that we also want those targets to be missed. They know that we will grumble about their failure to curb climate change, but that we will not take to the streets. They know that nobody ever rioted for austerity.”

That’s why Trudeau portrays his carbon pricing scheme as a method of making more people better off financially than worse off, because higher-income Canadians who consume above average levels of fossil fuel energy will subsidize lower income Canadians who use less.

Except an ineffective carbon pricing plan like Trudeau’s is really just a wealth redistribution scheme.
To effectively lower emissions to meet even his Paris targets, Trudeau would have to raise Canada’s carbon price immediately to the $100 to $200 range per tonne of emissions, and much higher in future years, not $20 next year rising to $50 in 2022.

Trudeau’s plan is a cynical political strategy that plays on the guilt of potential Liberal voters, while condemning Scheer and the Conservatives as climate deniers.

(Sidebar: why, this sounds like preying on people's fears to me.)

**

Federal Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi and International Trade Diversification Minister Jim Carr announced $1.6 billion in potential funding to Alberta’s oilpatch — with emphasis on the word potential.

“Our government always has and always will stand with the oil and gas sector,” Sohi said. “Because we understand that when Alberta hurts, so does Canada.”

One billion dollars of the funding will ostensibly help companies invest in new technologies, $500 million is available in commercial financing initiatives over three years from the Business Development Bank, $50 million is up for grabs from Canada’s Natural Resources Clean Growth Program, and another $100 million is available through Canada’s Strategic Innovation Fund for diversification-related projects.

Let's put this in some sort of perspective: a frat-boy, like his dad, rails against a system that has made your workplace the forefront of the economy. He not only burps out useless talking points devised by well-funded foreign interests, he goes one further: he fires you. Your job, your livelihood, your meaning is now gone. To rub salt in the wound, he smirks that he might throw fifty bucks your way ... or not. Whatever. He still has his dad's job (for now).

Justin is that frat-boy. His father not only tried to regulate the oil industry with the National Energy Program (NEP), he tried to take the proceeds of Alberta's oil boom to benefit Quebec (that sounds awfully familiar) and set back investment for years. The stymied pipelines (pick one) have cost the country millions in revenue and in jobs. An industry that does not need subsidisation because it is already super-lucrative also cannot afford $1.6 billion slap-in-the-face any more that it can afford to buy a pipeline that won't be built or a welfare program that can't funded from oil proceeds that don't exist. All of this to pacify one squeaky wheel east of Ottawa.

But budgets balance themselves or something.

**

Hundreds of Alberta truckers lined the streets of Nisku Wednesday to show their support for the construction of oil pipelines in Canada.

(Sidebar: convooooy!!!)

**

What was meant to be a unified show of support for the energy industry at a rally Monday at times turned contentious, with one city councillor abruptly ending his speech midway through and the mayor sometimes being booed during his remarks.

Wow. That's super-unifying right there.

**

Half-baked plans or half-baked people? You decide:

Canada must be the only country in the world that has legal marijuana and an abundance of oil, but can’t make a go of either of them.

Lots of other people find it easy to make money off drugs. Criminals are great at it. The business was so sure-fire, flourishing all over Canada, we were told it had to be legalized to bring it under control. 

Well, I guess that worked: now there’s a shortage of the stuff and Ottawa is busy carping about municipalities that don’t want pot shops anywhere within their boundaries.

And oil. It’s hard NOT to make money off oil. Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s biggest, contains US$1 trillion from oil earnings. The fund is such a big deal in Norway it has its own TV show, a situation comedy about the clash between high finance and inbred Nordic moderation. Oil is the sole reason the Middle East is awash with ridiculously rich petro-princes, hereditary monarchs and heirs-to-the-throne so brazen they feel safe ordering the dismembering of inconvenient journalists.

Corrupt politicians around the world have grown fat on their pilferings from oil. Not in Canada. In Canada the oil business has been so profoundly botched by political interference that the federal government felt compelled Tuesday to offer $1.6 billion in aid to an industry struggling to keep its head above water.

“Today, our government is taking critical next steps with new measures to protect and promote Canada’s natural advantage,” intoned International Trade Diversification Minister Jim Carr. “Measures that reflect our belief that Alberta’s energy sector is not just the historic backbone of our economy but a key part of our country’s future.”

Carr’s announcement is itself an illustration of how cockeyed Canada’s treatment of its energy industry has become. If oil is a “natural advantage,” why on earth does it require federal measures to “protect and promote it?” It’s like Gary Bettman declaring special protection for the Stanley Cup champions because they have too many good players. How many other countries do you know that can hail “the historic backbone of our economy,” and at the same time toss it five bucks so it can get itself a sandwich?

It might be half-baked people:

In a recent comment on Twitter, Catherine McKenna confirmed what people have been saying about the Trudeau government for a long time:

They put global interests ahead of Canadian interests.

Here’s what she said:

“Countries need to see beyond their national interest. That requires solutions and compromises in the broader interest.”

**

In 2010, Marlo Raynolds – then the head of the Pembina Institute – wrote a letter to U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
 
Here’s some of what he wrote:

“The U.S. commitment to clean energy will necessarily force them to confront the problems with oil sands, which have a significant environmental impact. Right now, the U.S. can take one step by denying the Keystone XL oilsands pipeline. Otherwise, the U.S. is tacitly saying that it condones the ongoing mismanagement of the oil sands, and Canada’s role as America’s dirty gas tank.”

So, Raynolds thinks the oil sands make Canada “America’s dirty gas tank,” which is a horrible thing to say about an essential Canadian industry, and he wanted the Keystone XL pipeline blocked, which would severely hurt our country.

And guess where Raynolds is now?

He’s Chief of Staff for Catherine McKenna – the most powerful staff position in her office.

**

Justin managed to alienate a starry-eyed member of his youth council (why does that sound creepy?) with his comments about construction workers but he did unify premiers ... against him. He also unified people into thinking that he is doing a poor job and that Andrew Scheer would better. He has also unified people in realising that he has no g-d- idea what he is doing or that his zero-impediment immigration policy is what people want. That's kind of like unifying a country. Kind of.

He has also unified China against Canada by kidnapping a third Canadian national. That's positive, right?

And how could one forget unifying one group in burying the dreadful reality of terrorism from their co-religionists? What could be more positive than never mentioning how Sikh extremism took down Air India 182?


Where is that "positive, thoughtful approach" to the problems that Justin created? Why doesn't he just list his positive accomplishments in the last four years?

Oh, wait ...




Moving on ...




Ford has to make the cuts because the Liberals blew all the cash. It's that simple:

A couple of recent spending cuts to non-core services are being blown out of proportion by a media that seems more intent on being the official Opposition at Queen’s Park than reporting basic facts.

I’m talking about cuts to the College of Midwives and some minor cuts to non-classroom spending in education.

The College of Midwives is upset that after 25 years of getting funding to run their organization, they have been cut off. The organization was expecting $750,000 from the provincial government next year.

It won’t be coming and that is a good thing.

This doesn’t mean actual funding for midwives to show up and deliver babies is being cut, just funding to the self-regulating body that governs midwives.

This was the only professional college being funded for their daily administration in the entire province. The College of Nurses runs off of dues, same with the College of Teachers and the College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Yet, this is portrayed as the Ford government slashing front line funding.

As one media wag said on Twitter, it looks like Ford “hates babies.”

Hardly.

Why are we funding this one organization above all others?

Meanwhile, on school funding we are told that after-school tutor programs are being slashed.

Well, there is a line item allocating $840,000 to tutoring programs through what government officials call the EPO. In regular English EPO stands for “educational programs – other.”

Despite having allocated the money, there was no TPA or “training partner agreement” to actually spend the money.

So basically, theoretical tutors are being cut, not actual tutors have been cut.

In the meantime, the government has promised even more money to deal with what actually matters to parents — failing math scores and the horrible math curriculum.

The government has promised $200,000 to help teachers improve their math skills and $1.4 million for other math and literacy supports.

But ... but ... Singapore!:

U.S. officials will try to expedite humanitarian aid to North Korea, a U.S. envoy said on Wednesday, as Washington and Pyongyang struggle to find a breakthrough in stalled talks aimed at ending the North's nuclear programme.

This North Korea:

A Canadian military surveillance aircraft monitoring United Nations sanctions was harassed in international airspace off North Korea by the Chinese military — part of "a pattern of behaviour that's inappropriate," Canada's top military commander said Wednesday.

The incident involving a CP-140 Aurora, which has since returned home, took place in October as allied nations monitored the sea lanes for cargo ships and tankers intent on violating embargoes imposed on North Korea by the UN Security Council.

"We have been interfered with on our flights in the area and been challenged inappropriately in international airspace," Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jonathan Vance said in a year-end interview with CBC News.

The Chinese, he said, flew too close to the sophisticated maritime patrol planes, used improper radio procedure and "inappropriate language."

Chinese President Jinping "you'll never be bigger than Jesus - ever, ever, ever" Xi declares that no one can dictate reforms to China:

Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged today to push ahead with his assertive policy agenda despite calls from Trump and others to allow more competition in China’s economic system and cut support for state industries.

Xi told an audience of party officials, military leaders and entrepreneurs in a speech Tuesday that “no one is in the position to dictate to the Chinese people what should and should not be done.” The 80-minute address in Beijing was held to mark the 40th anniversary of the Reform and Opening Up campaign that unleashed the country’s economic boom under then leader Deng Xiaoping.

I would not dream of doing so. I say let the Chinese reform their own country, first by removing Xi from office and pelting him with rocks.


Also - China is a polluted craphole that makes half of the chintzy Christmas garbage out there. One might as well let them hang it up:

A city in northern China has been stripped of Christmas cheer after the authorities banned all festive decorations from its streets.

Officials in Langfang said the move, which prohibits shops and street vendors from selling anything Christmas-themed, is part of efforts to keep the streets clean to win a National Civilised Cities award.

The award, presented every three years, is the highest honour for a Chinese city, and is judged on social development, economy, infrastructure construction and public services.

However, critics have said that the rules are part of wider curbs on freedom of speech and religion.

Over Christmas, government workers will be carrying out inspections in Lanfang, and religious activities in public spaces will be monitored and reported, according to state media.

The Christmas crackdown comes as restrictions over freedom of speech and religion have tightened in China under President Xi Jinping.

Truly this is the spirit of generosity:

When their daughter, Cadi, was born a year later, Watson became a grandfather figure, taking the time to drop off Christmas presents for the child. Watson died in October.

On Monday, Watson’s daughter stopped by the Williams home with a large bag containing 14 wrapped Christmas presents her father had bought and wrapped for Cadi.

“I kept reaching into the bag and pulling out more presents,” Williams said in an interview with The Washington Post. “You could have knocked me over with a feather. It was quite something.”

He posted notes about what happened on Twitter to spread some Christmas spirit. He wrote that he wasn’t sure whether he should give his daughter all the presents now, or hold onto them and give her one a year.

(Merci beaucoup)