The Western Standard has released a video of artist Lindy Vopnfjord performing his new song, which speaks out against the Canadian Human Rights Commission:
The incredibly talented musician Lindy Vopnfjord put together a song in honour of our friend and former publisher, Ezra Levant, and his continuing battle against the Canadian Human Rights Commission. The song, appropriately called "Shakedown," sharing a name with Ezra's book, is a tribute to freedom of expression, and hammers home the message that the Canadian Human Rights Commissions are in violation of this traditional Canadian freedom.
The song was debuted at this year's Liberty Summer Seminar. Here is the video:
The Green Party of Alberta has been de-registered as a provincial political party by Elections Alberta:
The Acting Chief Electoral Officer of Alberta has cancelled the registration of the Green Party of Alberta/Alberta Greens in accordance with Sections 10 (1) and 10 (3) of the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act. Although the cancellation is effective on July 16, 2009, the party has 30 days to request a review of the cancellation.
The party requested the cancellation of its registration in accordance with Section 10 (1) of the Act. Audited financial statements for the 2008 calendar year have not been filed, as prescribed by Section 42 of the Act.
Canadians are fed up with consecutive minority governments in the House of Commons, according a new poll conducted by Harris-Decima. The survey found that 64 per cent of respondents would prefer a majority government in the next election, up from 52 per cent a year ago. This is good news for the Liberals and Conservatives—the two parties that have a chance of winning the next election—and bad news for smaller parties, like the NDP, which could see a significant drop in support if enough Canadians choose to vote strategically in order to try and obtain a majority government.
It is not all good news for the Conservatives, however, as 44 per cent of respondents prefer a Liberal government (majority or minority) to another Conservative government (33 per cent). These numbers are a little skewed, since respondents were only given four options: Conservative majority or minority, or Liberal majority or minority. A similar study conducted by Angus Reid at the end of June found the Conservatives maintaining a slight lead with 32 per cent support, compared to 31 for the Liberals.
While I would not put too much stock in these numbers (considering the earliest the government could fall is the end of September, which is an eternity in politics) the numbers do show that Canadians are not happy with the consecutive minority governments that we've witnessed since 2004. And can you blame them? While 60 per cent of respondents said that these minority governments have accomplished about as much as they expected, they were also twice as likely to say they've accomplished less, rather than more, than expected.
In yet another flagrant attack on personal liberties in the province, the Alberta government announced a series of measures to remove armoured vehicles from the roads:
As of July 1, gang members will be hit where it hurts with a new law that removes their illegally armoured vehicles from Alberta roads.
An armoured vehicle is a motor vehicle constructed or adapted to protect its occupants from weapon assault such as gunfire, explosive devices and rocket-propelled grenades. After-market modifications generally add significant weight to a vehicle and if the weight is not offset by an enhanced engine, suspension, steering and brakes, the vehicle is unsafe and poses a risk to public safety.…
The amendment to the Vehicle Equipment Regulation under the Traffic Safety Act allows peace officers to require an armoured vehicle to undergo a safety inspection. If the vehicle does not pass the inspection, the vehicle can be removed from the road and the driver(s) can be charged. Charges require a mandatory court appearance and the individual could face a penalty of up to $2,000 and six months in jail.…
Legitimate uses for compliant armoured vehicles such as military, policing, and transportation of valuable goods are not impacted by this legislation.
I sometimes get the feeling that Canadian politicians haven't quite figured out this minority government thing yet. Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff brought the country to the brink this week in an attempt to gain some last minutes concessions from Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
And why not? It's worked so well in the past. Our opposition parties started using this strategy—of extracting concessions from the government whenever a confidence vote is looming—after Jack Layton successfully pressured then Prime Minister Paul Martin into putting $4.6 billion worth of NDP demands into the budget. The NDP then ran on this success during the 2006 election, as it is the only thing the party has ever accomplished.
Harper was largely able to avoid this type of blackmail during his first term in office. He didn't take crap from the opposition and, for the most part, was able to run the country as though he had a majority. Yet, after last fall's coup attempt by the opposition parties, Harper realized that his minority government was in jeopardy of destabilizing, just weeks after the election. Ignatieff was able to use this apparent weakness to secure massive spending increases from what used to be a fiscally conservative government. This has since led to a projected $50 billion deficit, the largest in Canadian history. Are you starting to see a pattern here?
Conservative MP Scott Reid is blasting opposition members of a commons subcommittee after Monday morning's disgraceful attempt to secretly stop a bill to abolish the federal long-gun registry (Bill C-391) from coming to a vote in the House of Commons.
Reid's office issued the following statement:
On the morning of June 15th, at the subcommittee on Private Members' Business, the Liberals, Bloc and NDP revealed that they have a strategy to jointly and secretly kill efforts to repeal the firearms registry. Their strategy is to declare Bill C-391, the PMB that repeals the long-gun registry, non-votable.
The three parties were well aware that all government MPs support this bill, and that enough opposition members do as well, to allow it to pass the House of Commons.
So their solution was to kill the bill, behind closed doors, at an in camera meeting of the subcommittee, making it non-votable.
But, the committee met in open session. The Liberal, Bloc and NDP members did not read the notice of meeting and assumed that the meeting was in camera, and therefore, stated openly that they have no basis, under the Standing Orders, to deem the bill non-votable.
When it was revealed that the vote was taking place publicly, they halted in mid-vote to force the meeting to close its doors to the public.
Their goal? To kill the bill in secret, thereby getting their backbenchers—who have promised to vote against Bill C-391—off the hook.
"It is shameful that the Opposition would attempt such underhanded tactics to circumvent the will of the majority of Members of Parliament," said Scott Reid, MP.
Despite a 2006 campaign promise to scrap the federal long-gun registry, the realities of a minority parliament have prevented the federal Conservatives from making any real headway on this issue. Today, opposition members tried to quietly kill a private members bill that attempts to repeal the controversial registry, which has seen billions of dollars worth of cost overruns.
The registry was enacted by the previous Liberals government and a number of bills have been introduced to try and dismantle it. Bill C-391 was before the Parliamentary Subcommittee on Private Members Business on Monday, while a second bill (S-5) is being debated in the Senate. The subcommittee is responsible for determining which private members bills will be voted on by the House of Commons and, on Monday, opposition members attempted to use parliamentary procedures to kill the bill.
During the subcommittee meeting, the opposition members tried to ensure bill C-391 could not be voted on by arguing that it was similar to bills C-301 and S-5 and that the same bill cannot be voted on more than once by the same parliament.
The Wildrose Alliance Party has set its sights on Alberta's Progressive Conservative government and the fiscal mismanagement that has led to a record deficit during the current economic downturn:
Please Lord, Give us 1 more chance and we promise we won’t vote
Stelmach again!
This title is a variant of the famous bumper sticker of the 1980’s that
asked for one more boom so we wouldn’t screw it up again. It appears that
our Stelmach PC’s have. This time, Albertans do have a choice and that is
the Wildrose Alliance!
A have not Province is what Alberta now is. Our Finance Minister has gone
cap in hand to the Federal government begging for “$220 million more, sir”.
This is an embarrassment for a Province with the gusher of resource wealth
that has been frittered away with wasteful spending on items such as new
logos, studies on license plates, and secret MLA pay raises.
If spending had been kept in check at the rate of population growth and
inflation the Province would have a multi-billion surplus allowing the
Province to capitalize on lower costs at low points in the economic cycle
rather than spending the most at high points.
Economic sensitivities for the Province are in the extreme and show the
Stelmach PC’s for what they are: kids with a credit card they don’t think
they ever have to pay off. Their projected deficit for the current fiscal
year left them with a slight operating surplus but a significant deficit
when factoring in capital projects such as roads, schools, and hospitals.
With the poor economic environment, and factoring in current energy prices
of $67/bbl for oil, $3.30/mcf for gas, and a $.91 C$, this works out to a
budget deficit of $7.3 billion. Given that the Stelmach PC’s were figuring
it would be $4.7 billion, this is cause for concern! With gas inventories
expect to reach record levels in November this year, it does not appear
that gas prices will come to save the day.
It is also important to note that while oil and gas prices were hitting
new highs in 2008, economic growth was falling off sharply in Alberta.
Thus, the global economic collapse happened after the decline was well
under way and can only be attributed to government policy. This has led to
the loss of 51,000 jobs since December in Alberta and the highest level of
unemployment in 7 years.
Paul Hinman said, “Today we see the government admitting they bungled
their budgeting and are leading us into debt. The former sustainability
fund they used to crow about will be burned up in one year. If they keep
this up, the Heritage Fund will be gone in the next couple years. This
government needs to be sent a message that Albertas don’t want a big
spending government!”
The Wildrose Alliance believes Alberta has all the resources to put
Albertans to work. It simply is a matter of reinstating the Alberta
Advantage of low taxes, stable contracts, innovative thinking and
entrepreneurial sprit. On that note, the Wildrose Alliance would support
capital cost allowances for the construction of upgraders and refineries,
the matching grant to the City of Calgary for the airport tunnel, and the
restoration of the former Royalty Framework and Royalty Tax Credit for
small producers. These simple measures will get business investing in
Alberta and Albertans working good jobs.
After watching opposition members bashing Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt all day over some recently released tapes that feature the minister making some insensitive remarks, I was glad to see a common sense Western Canadian perspective on the issue from some of Canada's foremost talk radio hosts:
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