Lieutenant Governor Robert Graves Simcoe

I very rarely agree with Dan gardner, but he is right on this. We should honour Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe and his emancipation of the slaves. We should also remember slavery was abolished throughout the Empire years before the US. There was no civil war. It took an act of Parliament.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/Know+what+celebrate+should/5176388/story.html>Monday, August 1, is a holiday in Canada. Everyone knows that. But what is the name of the holiday?

Most of us call it "the August 1 holiday," or "the civic holiday" or some other placeholder. Of course these are not its official name, which varies across the country.

The imaginative legislators of New Brunswick dubbed the holiday "New Brunswick Day." Showing equal verve, legislators in Saskatchewan and British Columbia, respectively, named the holiday "Saskatchewan Day" and "British Columbia Day." Alberta's legislators, being the bold mavericks they are, called it "Heritage Day."

In Ontario, until recently, there was no provincial name, and municipalities honoured local heroes - "Colonel By Day," "James Coburn Day" - with proclamations which everyone ignored. But three years ago, a private member's bill finally gave the holiday a name that manages to be provincewide without being provincial, in that other sense.

Know what it is?

Of course not. This name is deeply rooted in the Canadian past. It commemorates one of the greatest struggles in human history. And when people hear it - which they likely won't since no one uses it - they have no clue what it means.

It is "Emancipation Day."

A conservative ascendancy?

Things are looking for the right in upcoming fall election, which is good news. However it is never a good idea to take things for granted. We will all have to work hard to win those races.

Chance collision of factors, including the softening of social conservatism, may be responsible for turning the nation’s electoral map more blue over the next few months, as Canadians prepare for an unprecedented wave of votes.

In five out of seven provincial and territorial races, the Tories are poised for a win or a gain in seats. Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently boasted his new majority government is proof the Tories reflect Canadian values and have become “Canada’s party.” But analysts are hesitant to credit the widening support to a fixed ideological sea-change rooted in some sort of “aha” moment among voters.

They point instead to a powerful combination of personality politics, global economic anxiety, a desire for change in provinces with long-time incumbents and a “sweet-spot” strategy that together shore Tory appeal across the country.

University of Saskatchewan professor David McGrane said conservative parties found their so-called sweet spot by having effectively “neutralized” social conservatism — they have been near-silent on controversial issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage. All the while, they have ratcheted the rhetoric on the new bogeyman in town: the economy.

Global economic anxiety is permeating voter psyche nationwide, said Fraser Institute vice-president Niels Veldhuis, citing the current U.S. debt crisis and the precarious situation unfolding in Greece. When people fear default or downturn, and when voters sympathize with pleas for austerity, conservative leaders become more attractive, Mr. Veldhuis said.

Anonymous Posting

I don't always like anonymous posters, but that is the price of free speech. I agree with this court ruling protecting three anonymous posters. I also agree that anonymous defamatory postings cannot be allowed , so I think the court ruling was far.
The Internet has given rise to thousands of online chat forums, where participants can sound off on the issues of the day often shielded by the cloak of anonymity. Anonymous speech can be empowering – whistleblowers depend upon it to safeguard their identity and political participants in some countries face severe repercussions if they speak out publicly – but it also carries the danger of posts that cross the line into defamation without appropriate accountability.

Striking the balance between protecting anonymous free speech on the one hand and applying defamation laws on the other sits at the heart of a new Ontario Superior Court decision last week. The case involved postings about Phyllis Morris, the former mayor of Aurora.

In 2010, the website auroracitizen.ca featured an online chat forum where participants discussed a local election campaign. After Morris was defeated in the election, she launched a legal action against the site, the chat forum moderators, its lawyers, and website host to order them to disclose the identity of three anonymous posters. Morris did not identify the specific defamatory words, but claimed that six posts were defamatory.

The court was therefore not asked to determine whether the posts at issue were in fact defamatory. Rather, it simply faced the question of whether it should order the disclosure of personal information about the posters themselves so that Morris could proceed with a defamation lawsuit.

@CarrieFFisher: Wishful Drinking

This is been a weekend about mental illness. I went to see the Mirvish production of Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking. I is basically an autobiography. I usually sit in the third or fourth row on the aisle. I used ti sit in the front row at hows, but it sometimes got me into trouble at comedy shows. Well during this show Carrie Fisher asked if we had any questions about her having had her friend die in her bed, six years ago. I asked about the autopsy and she asked my name. When she found out it was Roy, she said she calls her manic mood Roy (and her depressed mood Pam). She referred to me several times during the first part of the show and finally had me on stage ( my stage premiere at the Royal Alexandra Theater) to see if her life sized Princess Leia doll would respond to my penis ( she wanted to see if the doll was straight). She asked me to show my penis. I demurely  declined. She asked me to approach the doll. The doll was not attracted to me. It pulled away.  She then had me wear a Princess Leia wig and announce that during intermission I would sign autographs in the lobby. She then took me back stage and we had a chat ( I reminded her of her visit to my friends at the Bermuda Film Festival) and her assistant took a picture of us. After the intermission, during which several people came up and said hello and congratulations, she gave me an autographed package of Penis Pasta and I kissed her on the cheek.
Carrie Fisher is a very funny woman with a complicated past.  As you can tell from the anecdote above, the show was not for children.She talked about her family, her career, her 12 year relationship with Paul Simon, her gay husband , her addictions and her mental illness as if the the 1000 people in the audience were friends in her living room. She told us she had recently had electro convulsive therapy. Like I said it was a mental health weekend. Besides her several anti GOP jokes, she was utterly charming and hilarious. It was a wonderful show. It was also an HBO special. You should see it if you ever have the chance.

For my other Roy not my mood Thank you love Carrie Fisher

Next to Normal

 I attended the Dancap production of Next to Normal. It is a musical about a family coping with mental illness. It has won numerous Tony awards and a Pulitzer!
It was an amazing show with massive nervy and massive highs and lows. The cast was spectacular, led by Tony Award wine Alice Ripley. It discussed mental health issues pretty realistically. It dealt which the chronicity of these issues and some controversial treatments. Though there was the inevitable mocking of my psychiatric colleagues. The music was also wonderful. I really enjoyed the show, though it did make me sad. Theater is supposed to make you feel and this show did that!

Me Neither!

Lorne Gunter doesn't believe in the climate hoax. Increasingly, neither does anyone else.


Even NASA's James Hansen, the godfather of the modern global-warming alarmist school, has recently written that the recent lack of warming is the result of particulates from Chinese pollution reflecting energy back at the sun before it reaches Earth. The warming from CO 2 is still happening, according to Mr. Hansen, it's just being masked by sulphates and other pollutants from China.

Never give up on a theory that's made you famous (and in some cases rich). Should it become hard to maintain the theory in light of contradictory real-world evidence, simply make up unprovable excuses for why your hypothesis isn't coming true and stick with it.

The more likely explanation is that carbon dioxide simply isn't as capable of absorbing solar energy as first thought. According to Roy Spencer, the scientist who has run NASA's global weather satellites for over 30 years, the atmosphere releases more heat than we once believed. In a new study for an upcoming issue of the peer-reviewed journal Remote Sensing, Mr. Spencer demonstrates there is a "huge discrepancy" between how UN climate computers predict the atmosphere should handle CO 2 and heat and how the real atmosphere actually handles both.

Salim Mansur on the monster in the Kingdom of Norway

Another of my friends, Salim Mansur was mentioned by the monster. Like my friend Bruce Bawer, Salim is a quiet gentle, thoughtful man who would never hurt or in any way encourage violence. The monster is delusional.

On Monday morning, following the Friday rampage by the mass murderer Anders Breivik in Oslo, Norway, I was informed by a reporter from the Canadian Press about my name, besides those of a few other Canadians, appearing in his manifesto.

Needless to say, I was momentarily taken aback with this bizarre information.

Colin Perkel, the reporter, wanted my reaction to this piece of news of whatever questionable value.

Following my exchange with Perkel, I received phone calls and e-mails from reporters across the country wanting to take note of my reaction on learning a mass murderer took note of my writings, and quoted passages from one of my papers published in an American journal.

I eventually took a cursory look at Breivik’s manifesto titled A European Declaration of Independence, courtesy of the link Perkel kindly sent me after we had spoken.

This is a massive document of some 1,518 pages filled with musings and ramblings of a troubled mind feeding his demons.

In it, Breivik fantasizes his role as some knight of an ancient order dedicated to preserving an imagined Europe — Christian and racially white — cleansed of alien cultures and mixed races, in particular Islam and Muslims.

Also listen to Salim on the Rob Breakinridge Show here

The breakdown of science

One of my biggest complaints about global warming scientists is that they seem to have a conclusion and work backwards. They have a vested interest in making sure their science goes in one direction. That is not science that is dogma. I am perfectly willing to entertain the idea that the war mists may be right, but much of the "science" the warmists put out is full of holes. This paper from a Canadian Scientist pokes big holes in the warming models.

John O'Sullivan: Evidence from Top Climatologist Backs Greenhouse Effect Critics
Thursday, July 28th 2011,
New science papers discrediting greenhouse gas effect fit with findings of top climatologist. Emerging group of skeptics re-ignite debate.

The fledgling new organization, Principia Scientific International (PSI) this week publishes the second of what may be a devastating series of new papers dissecting the traditional greenhouse gas effect and exposing the misuse of equations by climatologists. The new findings fit neatly with those of leading skeptic climatologist, Richard Lindzen, of MIT.

Canadian physicist, Joe Postma presents compelling evidence that equations used by government climate researchers are not valid because they incorrectly treat Earth as is if were a star constantly emitting and receiving its own energy.

Liberty Summer Seminar

It is time for the annual celebration of freedom. It's time for the Liberty Summer Seminar. This will be a special celebration after the victor over the small minded officials that tried to shut the LSS down.
LSS is always a great way to network and always has amazing speakers! I don't always agree with the speakers, but the debates are always interesting. You really need to go.

The world-famous Liberty Summer Seminar will be held on August 6-7, 2011 in Orono, Ontario. This event combines two days of lectures on the ideas of liberty with camping, music, and friendship. The Liberty Summer Seminar will take place at the home of the Jaworski family, located at 7570 Best Road. Guests are invited to camp on the property (BYO tent and sleeping bag), although some choose to seek comfort in one of several nearby B&Bs. Be sure to bring clothes for all weather - it could be hot, it could be cold, and it will definitely rain!
This year's line-up features Radley Balko of the Huffington Post, plus:
Nimish Adhia (Visiting Professor, Beloit College)
Leon Drolet (Educational Programs Director, Institute for Humane Studies)
Alide Forstmanis (Executive Director, Tribute to Liberty)
Jasmin Gunette (Vice President, Montreal Economic Institute)
Anton Howes (Director, UK Liberty League)
Jan Narveson (Professor Emeritus, University of Waterloo)
Chris Schafer (Executive Director, Canadian Constitution Foundation)
Michael Schmidt (CCF Client and defendant in R. v. Schmidt)
Gregory Thomas (Federal Director, Canadian Taxpayers Federation)
Registration for the Liberty Summer Seminar is $125, or $60 for students. Registration includes all seminar activities, camping space, and meals from Saturday lunch to Sunday lunch. We have a limited number of volunteer positions available for students, please contact us if you would like to be considered for one of these positions. Student volunteers are not required to pay

Another biased documentary

The McAleers continue in their campaign to stop the anti business left. They exposed this opponent of shale gas and the attempts made to censor them.

We wanted you to be the first to know that we have been victorious over the attempts to censor our journalism. As you know, Phelim's questioning of Josh Fox, the director of Gasland, was removed from YouTube after Fox used his expensive lawyers to make a false copyright claim.

Well, after a lengthy appeals process we have won and YouTube has restored our video which shows Fox being forced to admit that he behaved unethically and withheld important facts from viewers.

These facts would have completely undermined a central thesis of Gasland and, pushed into a corner, Phelim forced Fox to admit that he knew the facts but withheld them because "they were not relevant".

Well, Fox's admission of this unethical behavior was starting to go viral, with the exchange being covered by Fox Business, American Family Radio, G. Gordon Liddy and Big Hollywood among others. So Fox and his lawyers have it removed from YouTube. It seems that Josh Fox does not like criticism and dissent is not tolerated. We replied by setting up the Fight Gasland Censorship website whilst waiting for the YouTube appeals process to make a finding.

Well we have won this battle and you can now see Fox's dramatic admissions - here.

Please send the link to anyone you think might be interested in seeing how environmentalists simply ignore facts that contradict their ideology.

Also, Ann will be speaking at Republican Party Animals event this Saturday. It seems you can still buy tickets, so if you live near Hollywood and have no plans for the night, please join us!

Tories cut corporate welfare!!!

I object to corporate welfare. The stare has no business picking winners and losers in business. Giving money to corporate behemoths like Suncor is a joke. This is a good first attempt to remove some of the billions HM Canadian Government hands out of our money. We need to cut all of it!! We should also continue to lower corporate tax rates and reduce capital gains taxes.

Canada Won’t Commit New Funding for Renewable-Energy Program, Oliver Says
By Andrew Mayeda - Jul 28, 2011 5:25 PM ET

Canada won’t commit new funding to a C$1.4-billion ($1.47 billion) program used by companies such as Suncor Energy Inc. (SU) and TransAlta Corp. to fund renewable-energy projects, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said today.
Canada plans to cut C$4 billion in spending annually to help it balance its budget by the fiscal year starting April 2014. Oliver said spending restraint was one reason his department hasn’t renewed the ecoEnergy for Renewable Power program, which funded wind farms developed by Suncor and TransAlta as well as solar-power projects developed by Enbridge Inc.
“You’ve got to make choices. You’ve got to make decisions. Things have to be affordable,” Oliver said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg News.

More evidence debunking the hoax

Actual data showing that the warmest computer models are wrong. The warmists like using the woefully inadequate computer models, since all the data are contradicting the hoax. Thus will be very hard for The hora Le and his friends to counter. I guess they will attack the author and try and ignore it. unfortunately many in the public also understand that it is a hoax.
New NASA Data Blow Gaping Hole In Global Warming Alarmism

By James Taylor | Forbes – Wed, Jul 27, 2011

New NASA Data Blow Gaping Hole In Global Warming Alarmism
NASA satellite data from the years 2000 through 2011 show the Earth's atmosphere is allowing far more heat to be released into space than alarmist computer models have predicted, reports a new study in the peer-reviewed science journal Remote Sensing. The study indicates far less future global warming will occur than United Nations computer models have predicted, and supports prior studies indicating increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide trap far less heat than alarmists have claimed.
Study co-author Dr. Roy Spencer, a principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and U.S. Science Team Leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer flying on NASA's Aqua satellite, reports that real-world data from NASA's Terra satellite contradict multiple assumptions fed into alarmist computer models.

Canada is still AAA

Hopefully so wil our American friends, but that is not for sure.

TORONTO — Moody's Investor Services is renewing Canada's debt rating at triple-A, the highest possible.

The firm said the AAA rating was warranted due to the country's high degree of economic resiliency, efforts by Ottawa and the provinces to deal with their debt ratios over the coming years and other factors.

Moody's says the state of Canada's housing market and Quebec's sovereignty issues do pose some risk, but the risks are low.

The housing market also poses some risk because many mortgages are insured by a federal Crown corporation.

More of the hoax unravels?

Is this yet another scam in support of the hoax? high priest gore continually used to talk about polar bears, based on this paper. Will gore apologize if the paper is found to be a fraud? There are more polar bears and they are not drowning.

Arctic scientist who wrote of drowned polar bears faces ‘integrity’ probe
BECKY BOHRER

A U.S. wildlife biologist whose observation in 2004 of presumably drowned polar bears in the Arctic helped to galvanize the global warming movement has been placed on administrative leave and is being investigated for scientific misconduct, possibly over the veracity of that article.

Charles Monnett, an Anchorage-based scientist with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, or BOEMRE, was told July 18 that he was being put on leave, pending results of an investigation into “integrity issues.” But he has not yet been informed by the inspector general’s office of specific charges or questions related to the scientific integrity of his work, said Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

More on Ethical Oil

My friend Alykhan Velshi's new Ethical Oil Blog is profiled in the Globe today.

Alykhan Velshi, a 27-year-old who established himself in Ottawa as a master of messaging and a crucial cog in the Conservative machine, has a new job – he’s out to polish the image of Canada’s oil sands in the minds of freedom-loving people everywhere.

“When petroleum reserves were deposited around the world, it is unfortunate that they were all given to the world’s bastards,” he said. “With the exception of Canada, most of them are with the world’s bastards. You need to recognize that when you are buying oil.”

Buy the book.

The Sun agrees with me

The Sun also notices that hypocrite suzuki and his "charity" is probably in violation of car regulations on partisan involvement.

The rules at the Canada Revenue Agency seem clear.

A registered charity "cannot be involved in partisan political activities."

Unless, apparently, you're David Suzuki and the David Suzuki Foundation.

Here's how the CRA defines what's prohibited:

"A political activity is considered partisan if it involves direct or indirect support of, or opposition to, a political party or candidate for public office."

Charities can promote the policies of political parties and candidates they agree with, but "must not directly or indirectly support the political party or candidate for public office."

On July 21, the Toronto Star reported Suzuki, in an interview, urged Ontarians to re-elect Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty on Oct. 6.

"I'm offering an endorsement of what Mr. McGuinty has done, absolutely" Suzuki said, describing the environmental polices of his Conservative rival, Tim Hudak, as "absolute insanity."

That's non-partisan?

Summer silly season

This is news????. Pelland was a federalist and his pictures will be hung somewhere else. The pq is so pathetic. They want the pictures "repatriated" They want pictures of Canada. That's sweet.
It is completely appropriate for a picture of Our Sovereign Lady to hang in the DFAIT lobby.

The desperate Ontario grits

The signs of impending doom for mcliar and his friends are everywhere. Christina Blizzard summarizes the most recent ones. She forgot to mention the recent Ontario grit conclave where the panicked activists were told everything is fine. wonder if the grit spin doctors sang them soothing songs or gave them Teddy bears.
It is not time to stop working, remember the mcliar union lackeys have extorted $6 million from their members in order to try and keep the profligate grits in power. I urge all my Ontario friends to donate, volunteer and votefor the provincial Tories.

Political quiz: You know a party is in trouble when:

(a) Cabinet ministers blame the media for their poor showing in the polls;

(b) They start raking up toxic issues — such as abortion — to distract voters from more relevant issues;

(c) Ambitious members of the ruling party start positioning themselves to replace their leader when the inevitable happens and the party is defeated.

When all those things happen within one week, you can only conclude internal Liberal polling is showing more disastrous numbers than have so far been reported.

Using the Norway massacre

We cannot avoid the jihadi threat. We cannot allow the actions of this evil man to derail the fight against the jihadis.
Excellent commentary from Sun News network. (h/t BCF and SDMatt.

Quebec's debt

Quebec's rapidly increasing debt is one of the reasons I helped co found the Quebec Freedom Network. ( By the way I urge you to join the RLQ.) legault and his CAQ are not interested in cutting the budget, but raising taxes. My friend Jasmin Guenette has a great piece in the Gazette on Quebec's rising debt.

Right now, a political game is being played in the United States over the raising of the federal government's debt ceiling.

It is unlikely that the U.S. will default on its debt obligations come Aug. 2. As has happened no less than 74 times since 1962, Congress will agree, once again, to raise the ceiling, which is already over $14 trillion. Democrats and Republicans alike have used this strategy to keep public spending much higher than revenues. In 10 years, the U.S. debt has grown by $7.9 trillion.

Of what conceivable use is a debt ceiling if it is raised every time it is reached and is about to play its constraining role?

But the U.S. is not alone in this paradoxical situation. Quebec has no debt ceiling, of course, but it did adopt, in 1996, a law requiring it to present balanced budgets. Since that time, the province's gross debt has nonetheless increased by $57 billion. This is because even when the government follows the letter of the law, it violates its spirit by building infrastructure financed directly with debt. Furthermore, it is ultimately responsible for the debts of public corporations and municipalities. Quebec's balanced-budget law therefore ironically does not prevent its debt from climbing higher and higher.

Addiction

It is a terrible, terrible thing to watch a person destroy themselves ,and often those around them, with addictive substances. There have been many attempts to medicalize addiction and there is good evidence that there are genetic traits that make addiction more likely, however that is only part of the story. There are many people that overcome addiction.
One of the reasons that I had long supported the war on drugs is in my work I have watched many people destroy themselves in this way. I thought legalizing these addictive substances would increase human misery at state expense. I am gradually beginning to think that the war on drugs is not working. I have still not wrapped my head around legalizing all drugs but I have come to the conclusion that the Portuguese solution is a viable option. Though I do have problems with Insite and needle exchange programs. I find it weird that the State is a drug enabler. I think I am hanging out with too many libertarians:).


Could Amy Winehouse Have Been Saved?
Posted Sun Jul 24, 2011 4:08pm PDT by Chris Willman in Stop The Presses!
Who, if anyone, could have saved Amy Winehouse?



The question always arises after any drug-related celebrity death about whether the star was surrounded by sycophants and enablers who ignored health risks to keep their meal ticket in motion. But we may never have seen a celebrity case as extreme as Winehouse's: The last four to five years of her life represented as extended and public a trainwreck as pop culture has ever witnessed. This was not a Heath Ledger, whose problems were kept largely under wraps, tipped only by suspiciously heavy-lidded interviews, but a superstar who seemed to openly court disaster for a shambolic half-decade, regardless of whether she was being enabled or shamed.

Explaining the Monarchy to Children

A lovely new book for children about Our Sovereign Lady. I hope it is widely distributed throughout the Dominions as well.


Does the Queen Wear Her Crown In Bed? Her Majesty to bring out first children's book to answer favorite questions
By REBECCA ENGLISH


The Queen is bringing out her first children’s book to help answer some of the burning issues youngsters have always wanted to ask her.
Entitled Does the Queen Wear Her Crown In Bed? the colourful 32-page paperback features a pair of inquisitive cartoon children, accompanied by a footman and one of her corgis, as they explore Buckingham Palace and its surroundings.
The charming paperback title explains what youngsters should do when they meet the monarch: men and boys should bow their heads while women and girls curtsey. You should start by calling her Your Majesty then use Ma’am – to rhyme with jam – for the rest of the conversation.

I am a long time supporter of the Canadian Taxpayer's Federation. I have many friends who work at the CTF. They do important work, trying to protect us from the voracious appetite of the nanny state. I helped fund the national debt clock. I didn't have a chance to see the national debt clock , but you can see it in this video. Please donate to the CTF! These kind of organizations are very important now that we have a majority Tory government. They need to push the Tories to the right, while the opposition tries to push the Tories to the left.

Get Well Soon Jack

Jack has looked somewhat unwell to me for the last few months, so I am not completely surprised by Jack's announcement. I am surprised that Jack has a second primary, I would have expected sequelae to his prostate cancer. I am genuinely saddened by this news and wish Jack a speedy recovery. though I hope he will be back in September, though I think that date is quite soon and sounds unrealistic. My thoughts and prayers are with you Jack!

Jack Layton, who led the New Democrats to a historic electoral victory this spring, is temporarily stepping aside as Leader of the federal NDP to fight a second type of cancer.

In a strained voice, and appearing to have lost weight since the election, Mr. Layton told reporters he was taking some time off for treatment so he can return to Parliament to fight on behalf of Canadians.

Bruce Bawer on the tragedy in the Kingdom of Norway

My brilliant friend Bruce Bawer, who has lived in Oslo for some years, has written two excellent pieces on the tragedy in the Kingdom of Norway. He has written many books on the jihadis and their threat to to the west. He agrees with my friend Tarek Fatah the soft jihadis are celebrating. The monster actually quoted Bruce's books in his rantings.

Here in the WSJ
When bombs exploded on Friday in a compound of government office buildings in the heart of Oslo, I assumed, as did pretty much everyone, that the perpetrators were Islamic terrorists. But over the course of the day—as the bombings were overshadowed by the gunning down of dozens of young people at a Labor Party youth camp on a nearby island, Utøya—it emerged that these atrocities were not the work of an international jihadist organization. Instead, the perpetrator was a 32-year-old Oslo native named Anders Behring Breivik. He was motivated by a hostility to multicultural policies that, in his view, are leading his country down the path to Islamization. His response was a murderous rampage that has taken the lives of at least 92 people.

It came as stunning news that Norway had been attacked by a blond, blue-eyed, anti-Islamic terrorist. It should not have been: Several of us who have written about the rise of Islam in Europe have warned that the failure of mainstream political leaders to responsibly address the attendant challenges would result in the emergence of extremists like Breivik.

But I was stunned to discover on Saturday that Breivik was a reader of my own work, including my book "While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam Is Destroying the West from Within." In comments posted in 2009 on a Norwegian blog, document.no, Breivik expressed admiration for my writings, but criticized me for not being a cultural conservative (although he was pleased that I was not a Marxist, either).

and in Pajams Media.

Living in Oslo during the past few years, I passed the government buildings downtown almost every day. I lived right up the road from them, only a five-minute walk; they were my gateway to downtown Oslo. Very often, when I looked over at these structures in which, I knew, the prime minister and all of the cabinet ministries had their offices, I shook my head in wonder at the utter lack of visible security. Almost never did I see a single armed — or even unarmed — guard. (The only exceptions were on the rare occasion when a blizzard of foreign flags and a motorcade parked on the sidewalk indicated that some president or prime minister was visiting from abroad.)

This lack of security was certainly not unusual for Norway, where the police don’t carry guns, and where the very idea of police carrying guns is widely looked upon as some holdover from an earlier stage of human evolution. But — hello — in front of the main office buildings of a Western European government? After 9/11? It seemed sheer madness. In recent weeks, passing grim-faced soldiers with machine guns at Amsterdam airport, and then outside the New York Stock Exchange, I thought immediately of those vulnerable-looking government buildings in Oslo.

A train wreck waiting to happen

I actually like Amy Winehouse's music. Unfortunately she was unable to deal with her fame. My deepest sympathies to her family and friends who tried to save her from herself. 27 is far far too young to die.

Tragedy in the Kingdom of Norway

HM has written to her cousin HM KIng Harald V to express her horror and the horror of us all.

In her message, the Queen said: "I am deeply saddened and shocked by the tragic loss of life of so many people on the island of Utoeya and in Oslo."

She added: "Prince Philip joins me in extending our heartfelt sympathy to your majesty and the people of Norway. Our prayers and thoughts are with everyone who has been affected by the dreadful atrocity."
The Norwegian Royal Family has attended services and tried to comfort the bereaved.



HM King Harald addressed the Kingdom



“the acts committed in Oslo and on Utøya is an attack on the Norwegian Society we cherish and Norwegian democracy’s core.”
“We will spend a long time digesting and adapting to impressions, grief, and feelings, both as individuals and as a nation. We need one another during this process.
The Royal Family met young people who had survived and the families of the deceased at Sundvolden earlier today, lighting candles in memory of those who died.
“We will use a long time to digest and adapt to impressions, grief, and feelings. People all over the country have lost someone they love. Many children and young people are frightened today. We must take special care of them,” continues King Harald, saying many will find it important to be together, others will need time for quiet reflection.

suzuki a grit hack

Why does the suzuki foundation have charitable status? david suzuki runs around bashing Tories and endorsing grits. That seems to be a clear violation of charitable status rules. suzuki, the green hyopcrite, has all but said vote for dalton mcliar. Does the cra know about this? Or has grit hyopcrite
suzuki totally distanced himself from his registered charity?
David Suzuki, Canada’s most famous environmentalist, is urging Ontarians to re-elect Premier Dalton McGuinty this fall to save the Liberals’ “groundbreaking” green energy policies.

In an exclusive interview with the Star, Suzuki made a rare foray into partisan politics, warning it is “absolute insanity” for Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak to want to scrap wind and solar power initiatives that the Tories claim are too expensive.

“I don’t get it, because it’s a job creator — I would have thought that the Conservatives would be banging away at the need to create jobs,” the host of CBC’s The Nature of Things said during a stroll with McGuinty in Stanley Park on Wednesday.

“Ontario right now is a leader in North America. Why would anybody come in and throw that out the window? It doesn’t make any sense.”

Suzuki expressed concern at Hudak’s pledge to kill the “feed-in tariff” subsidy program that promotes green electricity generation by enabling farmers and other producers to sell hydro, wind, and solar power to the grid.

The Tories, who lead in public-opinion polls, blame McGuinty’s Green Energy Act and the 13 per cent harmonized sales tax for rising hydro bills

caplan is pretty funny

gerald caplan noted leftist spend another column randomly attacking fellow conservatives around the world, while damning HM PM Harper with faint praise. I am sure that HM PM Cameron, President Sarkozy and Our GOP friends will never read what this loon has written, but if they do I am sure they will just laugh. caplan is indeed a joke. One wonders why the mop and pail publishes such garbage.


Nothing makes me appreciate Stephen Harper more than the moral corruption that characterize political life in the nations to which Canada is closest: the U.S., Britain and France. Last week I wrote about the bizarrely amoral world of French socialism, but failed to point out how much better the left still were than France's conservatives, including the erratic, hyper fellow who is now president.

Then there’s the Britain. What should be clear by now is that Rupert Murdoch has actually owned the British government all the way back to Margaret Thatcher, his soul sister. That influence is what he brazenly demands in return for the backing of his papers that every British leader has sold his soul for. It’s not just that he’s been able, until this month, to build his hegemonic media empire unimpeded by the normal regulatory obstacles. It’s been far more sinister.

Despicable

Matthew 18:6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.



 I was horrified to hear of the murders in the Kingdom of Norway.  I don't know what motivated this monster , but his acts were inhuman and totally violate the teachings of Christ. Murdering children is beyond despicable. My deepest sympathies To TM King Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway and the People of Norway. The Norwegian Royal House and The Canadian Royal Family are closely linked. Norway is very much like Canada. The people of Canada weep with you.

Statement by the Prime Minister of Canada on the explosion and shooting in Norway

July 22, 2011
Ottawa, Ontario

Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued the following statement on the large explosion in Oslo and subsequent shooting in Utøya, Norway:

“I was shocked and intensely saddened to learn of the attacks in Oslo and Utøya today.

“We deeply regret the loss of life and injuries resulting from the explosion which occurred today in the government quarters, where the Prime Minister’s Office and other government offices are located.

"We were also horrified to learn that a gunman has opened fire at a youth camp at Utøya.

“Canada condemns these barbarous and senseless acts of violence and our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, witnesses and all those affected by these attacks.

“On behalf of all Canadians, Laureen and I wish to express Canada’s sincere condolences to Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and to the Norwegian people.

“Canada stands with Norway on this tragic day.”

The Ongoing investigation into grit corruption

The Sponsorship scandal investigation continues. We may finally get to see some grit big wigs go to prison. Some more of the tens of millions the libranos stole may be returned.  So far of the big players have really been revealed. Which grit candidates got the brown bags of money to subvert a Canadian election. Elections did nothing about that. They are too busy persecuting the Tories to deal with actual grit criminality. Good news for Canada, that we may finally find out more about the grit lies and criminal acts, but bad news for any grit attempt to save their sinking party.


Key figure in sponsorship scandal set to become witness
DANIEL LEBLANC

The RCMP is closing in on its first major Liberal operative after a decade-long probe into the sponsorship program, as it nears cutting a deal with another player in the scandal to become a state witness and testify about millions in alleged political kickbacks, government sources said.

It is the bookend to a story that, until recently, The Globe and Mail has been prevented from investigating. Only after a winning a lengthy battle at the Supreme Court last year against Groupe Polygone could the newspaper continue to press on in the public interest. Polygone was attempting to force the newspaper to reveal the identity of a key source as part of its defence against a federal lawsuit aimed at recouping money the former Liberal government paid the firm. As part of its ruling, the top court struck down a contentious publication ban preventing The Globe from reporting on negotiations to settle the federal lawsuit.

Amazing

This story made me smile. In India teachers are still treated with respect. Hard work and good teachers can Mak a huge difference. In Canada parents to often coddle their kids and blame the teachers for the poor performance of their kids.

One-room schoolhouse + fanatical teacher + committed students = freedom from a life of poverty
STEPHANIE NOLEN
VAISHALI, INDIA— From Friday's Globe and Mail
A few weeks ago Dharampal Yadav received momentous news, the kind of news that, in an instant, fundamentally and irrevocably alters a person’s life.

He rushed home to this village in the rural Bihar state to tell his family, and they celebrated with him – even though none of them really had a sweet clue what he was talking about.

Increasing mcliar grit desperation

dwight duncan, Ontario's worst finance minister ever, has begun uncontrollable rantings. The mcliar grits are looking increasingly desperate and pathetic. The people of Ontario deserver better than the grits. Change is coming to Ontario. Tim Hudak will be premier on Oct 6, 2011 and Ontarians will try and forget the horrible mcliar years.

Blizzard: Duncan joins fruitcake brigade
BY CHRISTINA BLIZZARD ,QMI AGENCY

Queen's Park - Ontario Politics
If you were placing bets on which Ontario politician would be the first to raise the name of Rupert Murdoch in the context of this province’s economy, Dwight Duncan wouldn’t be top of list.

The Liberals have any number of crazy, off-the-wall fruitcakes who are far more likely to run off at the mouth than he is.

In the past, I’ve jokingly accused the roly-poly finance minister of looking like the Pillsbury Doughboy. But I’ve never thought of him as a fruitcake.

Until now.

His bizarre rant Wednesday about the “right-wing media,” naming the Toronto Sun and papers in our chain as being “intellectually dishonest,” demonstrated he has surely become a fully paid-up member of the lunatic fringe.

Soldier, Welcome Home

A Tribute to HM brave returning Canadian Troops! Buy it here and donate a portion to Wounded Warriors.

War of 1812 Bicentennial

A great article on the commemoration of the War of 1812 by my friend Matt Bondy. Undoing the horrors of the trudeaupian nightmare are well underway. The Tories must also reverse the attacks on our liberty by decreasing taxes, reducing the size of government and getting rid of the hrcs and other such horrible pseudo judicial bodies.

Harper will exploit War of 1812 bicentennial

For Stephen Harper’s Conservatives, it’s a gift like no other.

In the second year of their majority mandate, the Conservatives will guide, fund and shape Canada’s commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812.

Tales of Canadian determination, valour and loyalty to Crown and country will hallow the month of October, 2012, slated to be designated as a month of remembrance by the federal heritage ministry, and the Conservative government will frame the meaning, outcome and impact of Canada’s improbable victory for living generations of Canadians.

The 1812 bicentennial is a once-in-a-generation political opportunity to shape Canada’s self-understanding, and weave a nationalist narrative from the pre-Confederation era through to the present day.

Make no mistake, the Conservatives will seize this opportunity to shape Canadian identity with a keen sense of its political consequences, and in the spirit of a deep, core conservative conviction: that, as American statesman Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote, the central conservative truth is that culture, not politics, determines the success of a society.

To the Conservative party of Stephen Harper, the key to lasting political success — and the key to achieving their vision for Canada — is to shape and connect with Canadian cultural values; to become their steward, their cheerleader, and, finally, their long-term political vehicle and emblem.

This is the mission of the Harper Conservatives, and since coming to power in 2006, they have pursued it with remarkable diligence and focus.

The anti human left

This article is truly anti human. The Beckhams can afford 4 children and they have every right to have as many children as they can afford! The left wants to control every aspect of your life. I guess they wanted Victoria Beckham to have an abortion. The left is a threat to fundamental liberty. They are using their environmental activism to try and control all aspects of our lives. The left yearns for the one child policies of communist China. They really are environmentostalinists.


David and Victoria Beckham may have been overjoyed to welcome their new daughter, Harper Seven, last week but, according to a growing group of campaigners, the birth of their fourth child make the couple bad role models and environmentally irresponsible.

As the world's population is due to hit seven billion at some point in the next few days, there is an increasing call for the UK to open a public debate about how many children people have.

Now the Green MP, Caroline Lucas, has joined other leading environmentalists in calling for the smashing of what TV zoologist Sir David Attenborough has called the "absurd taboo" in discussing family size in the UK.

Lucas said: "We need to have a far greater public debate about population, whether it focuses on improving family planning or reducing global inequality – and looking again at how we address the strain on our natural resources. The absence of an open and honest discussion about this issue means most people don't give much thought to the scale of global population growth in recent years. In 1930, just one or two generations ago, the world's population stood at around two billion. Today it is around seven billion, and by 2050 it is projected to rise by a third to 9 billion.

Equalization

It is increasingly clear that equalization is not working. I think it probably needs to be abolished and the provincial governments given more tax points. Fadcinating how dalton mcliar has truned Ontarion into a have not province.


TORONTO — In just three years, Ontario has become the second-largest recipient of equalization payments in the country, with $2.2-billion set to flow into its “have-not” coffers this year.

Only Quebec, which takes in $7.8-billion in such payments, receives more.

More ominously, Ontario’s burgeoning take threatens to destabilize Confederation, says one of the country’s leading academics, by creating problems for Quebec, Manitoba and the Atlantic provinces.

Tom Courchene, an economist at Queen’s University and a senior scholar at the Institute of Research on Public Policy says those other have-not provinces will find themselves increasingly squeezed out of a fixed pot of equalization money as Ontario takes a bigger share of the pie.

Federal equalization payments to Ontario have risen 534% in the two years since the province received its first payment. The program has been capped at Canada’s GDP growth since 2009.

Poverty in Canada

Socialist simpson thinks there should be more government to make sure that the poor are looked after. He whines that wealthier Canadians continue to prosper. The huge amount of money governments have spent on eliminating poverty have had the opposite effect. The proud people of the Maritimes and Newfoundland have been quite negatively affected by the dole. LBJ's war on poverty in the US accomplished a permanent underclass. Our government programs have also separated the poor from the rest of us. We as individuals have a duty to help our porr friends and neighbours. Government programs sweep poor people under the rug. socialism does not work. Dependency of the state is a bad idea. Encouraging growth and jobs is the true way to defeat poverty. Look at the gains of industrialization in Capitalist countries and the horror of the communist countries of the world.



The poor, it is said, will always be with us. Yes, but how many poor must there be?

In Canada, there are too many poor people. The country that often likes to congratulate itself can’t take comfort from an inescapable fact: We’re becoming a more unequal society.

Legislative committees and think tanks sometimes work on poverty, but, for the general public, income inequalities are consigned to the dead-letter box in this apparently conservative age. Even the NDP, which takes poverty more seriously than the other parties, has taken to talking incessantly about the “middle class,” figuring that’s where the voters are and where the poor would rather be if they could.

The long gun registry

This useless and expensive boondoggle will soon be abolished. That is good news. Harassing law abiding Canadians should not be a function of the government. There are many other nanny state functions ( hrcs, wheat board etc) that should go, but this is a good beginning.
It will also be another opportunity to see if the dippers can hang together. The grits have very few rural mps left, so they will probably stay together on keeping their 2 billion dollar boondoggle.


The vote will be an early test of unity for Canada’s new official Opposition — the NDP — which wrangled with internal disagreement over the contentious issue when it was voted on as a private member’s bill in 2010.

Manitoba MP Candice Hoeppner, the Tory backbencher who introduced the failed private member’s bill last year, said earlier this week the government will kill the registry soon after Parliament resumes.

“Everyone knows it’s been part of our party’s policy for many years, and the prime minister committed to Canadians during the election we would scrap the long-gun registry,” she told Postmedia News. “We’re going to follow through on that commitment.”

“Canadians can expect to see it fairly early on in the fall,” she added. “It’s a priority for our government.”

Advice for the dippers?

 Grit pollster frank graves told the grits to try and fight a cultural war with the Tories. That excellent advice helped bring the grits to a terrible defeat. Now always uber lefty murray dobbins is making the same suggestion to his dipper friends. This should be more fun for the Tories. Bring it on dippers.

Back in April, 2010, EKOS pollster Frank Graves got into a lot of trouble in the neo-con blogosphere for advising the Liberal Party to "invoke a culture war" on the Harper Conservatives. "I told them that they should invoke a culture war. Cosmopolitanism versus parochialism, secularism versus moralism, Obama versus Palin, tolerance versus racism and homophobia, democracy versus autocracy. If the cranky old men in Alberta don't like it, too bad. Go south and vote for Palin."

It was good advice for the Liberals then and it's good advice today for Jack Layton and the NDP. But whether the temporarily triumphalist NDP has the imagination to take on such a fight remains to be seen. It's a higher risk strategy than the party seems to want to take and the longer they avoid it, the tougher it will be. Social democrats and liberals have become far too timid in the past two decades defending what they stand for and what they built in the post-war period.

His All Holiness Bartholomew I

HM Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird met with Bartholomew I, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch. His All Holiness knows about religious persecution as the Head of the Orthodox Church living in Turkey. I am proud HM Government is defending persecuted religious groups around the world.

Climate Realism Conference 6

I was unable to attend the latest ( Sixth) Climate Realist Conference sponsored by the Heartland Institute. I wish I could have attended. I always enjoy James Delingpole

heartlandinstitute on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

You can watch the other videos of the sessions below.

Watch live streaming video from heartlandinstitute at livestream.com

consensus?

We shall argue that consensus among a reference group of experts thus concerned is relevant only if agreement is not sought. If a consensus arises unsought in the search for truth and the avoidance of error, such consensus provides grounds which, though they may be overridden, suffice for concluding that conformity is reasonable and dissent is not. If, however, consensus is aimed at by the members of the reference group and arrived at by intent, it becomes conspiratorial and irrelevant to our intellectual concern.
More here.

Ezra on Press Councils

Press councils and organizations lik cbsa are fairly useless. I agree with Ezra.

I love writing for the Sun newspapers. But now, I love writing for them even more.

That’s because the Sun has officially quit the Ontario Press Council.

The Press Council sounds very official. But it’s just a club. It’s a group of journalists and public members who operate as some sort of pretend court, to hear complaints from people who don’t like what they’ve read in a newspaper.

They take the complaints, hold a hearing and then issue a ruling about whether or not the newspaper got it right or wrong.

It’s a combination of a complaints department and the Oprah Winfrey show.

And, just like Oprah Winfrey, press councils are politically correct.

The only good thing I can say about them is they’re voluntary. They do not have the power of the law behind them.

Steve Crowder...

...channels olbie. Love Steve Crowder!

Donny and Marie in Toronto

Donny Doll made by Marie

 Dancap productions has brought Donny and Marie to Toronto, from their smash Vegas show, for a limited two week run! I saw Donny Osmond as Joseph 3 times while he was in Toronto. I also watched the Donny and Marie Show on TV and loved the Osmond brother.s Donny and Marie have been entertaining for almost 50 years!
It was a glitzy, sometimes schmaltzy show but I had a lot of fun. There are a lot of middle aged ladies who adore Donny. Some had been coming nightly to the show, but no one threw their underwear. There was a contingent of Danish Ladies who led the audience in songs when the performance was delayed.
There was a lot of nostalgia and even new stuff!. Donny and Marie have released their first album in >30 years!
THe show was fun and I attended a meet and greet with Donny after the show. Unfortunately Marie was feeling unwell and I didn't get to meet her. It was a rollicking fun evening.
 Lots of media attention.

Captain Ahab

I wrote a letter to the Winnipeg Free Press about frances russell's latest anti Tory , anti Harper column. russell really is obsessed.


Russell 'obsessed'
Triumphal pride now invites a fall later (July 13) is another column from Frances Russell berating the prime minister. She is genuinely obsessed. I guess we will have to call her Captain Ahab.
Russell and the rest of her left-wing friends will just have to get used to the fact that there will be a strong and stable Tory majority government until October 2015.
In fact, Stephen Harper has every right to congratulate the Tory team on a huge win. Remember, it has been only six weeks since the election. At the convention, he told the Tory faithful that we would have to work hard to keep the trust of Canadians. He said that we should never refer to ourselves as the "natural governing party."
What he did say in Calgary is that Canada is tired of the Grits and their day is done. That is the opinion of many columnists and, unfortunately for Russell and her friends, it is also the opinion of many, many Canadians.
Roy Eappen
Montreal

Whiners

Wow, I thought language was to be used to communicate. It is truly awful that such petty little people actually work for the federal government. I live in Quebec, most of us try and communicate in whatever language is needed.

If you want to know what's wrong with Canada's official language policy, look no further than Michel Thibodeau.

He's the fluently bilingual federal government employee who sued Air Canada because he and his wife were denied service in French -- the trigger being his failure to get a 7Up when requesting it in French on an AC flight in 2009.

He and his wife sued for $25,000 each -- plus $500,000 in punitive damages. But the court awarded them "only" $12,000.

Thibodeau is quoted as saying he was not asking for anything he wasn't entitled to: "I have a right to be served in French."

Yes, he does have that "right" in a country that is officially bilingual -- but in reality is not as bilingual as most would like it to be.

In fact, Canada will never be fully bilingual in the lifetime of most of us.

Linguistic zealots like Thibodeau do not help unify the cultural divide, but instead exacerbate the chasm.

More Free Trade

HM Canadian Government is on track to have free trade with the eu in 2012. Free trade is good. I would love to see the entire Commonwealth as a massive free trade zone. Canada will have free trade with India soon. I am happy that HM Government is actively expanding our trade relationships. Especially given the problems of bo's America, we need to expand our trade relationships as much as possible.


The Harper government says it's successfully concluded an eighth round of free trade negotiations with the European Union and is on track to clinch a deal by 2012.

During discussions in Brussels this week, Canada and the 27-member country EU traded offers to open up their respective markets in the fields of goods and government purchasing.

Non partisan cic?

 I had been a member of the so called non partisan Canadian International Council. After the latest Harper bashing in their journal, I have dropped out. I was already somewhat dubious about this organization. Itseemed to take a pretty left wing view on foreign policy, but they claimed to me non partisan so I stayed. This latest article was too much. I quit the organization and I encourage any remaining conservatives to leave as well.

What is Stephen Harper Afraid of?
Roland Paris | July 14, 2011
Stephen Harper shared his views on international affairs with Maclean’s magazine last week, and it wasn’t a pretty picture. Harper’s world seems to be full of danger and struggle. In response to open-ended questions on foreign policy, he repeatedly came back to these themes. Most interestingly, he offered a Manichean vision of international relations as a struggle between good and bad, and of moral clarity as the greatest asset and most reliable guide to foreign policy.

I don't like rupert murdoch

I haven't written a letter to the editor to the NP in a while. I have been pretty busy. I did write yesterday. More here on rebeccah brooks. And Lord Black on murdoch. And murdoch's apology? He's just sorry he got caught.
I don't like Rupert Murdoch

National Post · Jul. 15, 2011 | Last Updated: Jul. 15, 2011 3:03 AM ET

Re: This Fox Hunt Not About Hacking, Terence Corcoran

I don't like Rupert Murdoch. He and has papers have a nasty republican bent. This scandal started with the hacking of cellphones belonging to Prince William and his aides. The latest revelations about bribing Royal Protection officers to betray the Sovereign, if true, are treasonous.

I am pretty conservative, and I believe that Mr. Murdoch is not a fellow conservative, but an opportunist. His papers backed Labour in the United Kingdom for many years. If it is proven that his staff members violated the privacy rights of British subjects, these acts are criminal. Indeed, they put the safety of the Sovereign at risk.

Mr. Murdoch owes our Queen, the Royal family and the British people an abject apology. Those responsible for these acts must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Rupert Murdoch has no one to blame but himself.

Roy Eappen, Montreal.

The grits and the culture war?

An interesting article by Chantal Hebert. She makes the point that the grits attempt at a culture war was part of their undoing. Martin's careening to the left alienated part of the grit base.


In the dying days of the 2006 federal campaign, then-prime minister Paul Martin stood in front of a gaggle of pro-life and anti-gay marriage government MPs to proclaim that only a Liberal government could be trusted to safeguard the equality rights of Canadians.

That dubious appeal — given Martin’s surroundings — was the last inglorious volley in a culture war originally launched by the ruling Liberals to shelter their vote from Stockwell Day’s Canadian Alliance and, subsequently, from Stephen Harper’s Conservatives.

Against an unprepared adversary with active social conservative credentials such as Day, the Liberals — under Jean Chrétien — had a field day.

But when Martin turned the same guns on the more secular Harper and a born-again Conservative party, he found himself increasingly shooting blanks and — eventually — shooting himself in the foot.

By January 2006, the narrative that had initially been crafted to equate Canadian values with the Liberal party in the minds of the country’s decisively centrist electorate had lost its already thin veneer of subtlety and become a naked attempt at saving the furniture.

Like all last-ditch attempts, Martin’s appeal was based on more calculation than actual principle and those calculations involved cutting more than a few corners with his own party’s track record.

A Great New Blog

My friend James Bowden has started a new blog. It will be well worth reading, especially if you are interested in constitutional issues. My young friend has already written an interesting article on these matters that I posted before. Understanding of our amazing system is at a particular low these days. We need to understand theses things so that our liberties are not compromised. I wish James much luck with his important work.
After a tumultuous cycle of single-party minority government from 2004 to 2011, the 41st Parliament gave the Conservative Party a parliamentary majority. Many Canadians would think that the results of the last election give Prime Minister Harper unlimited latitude to pass all the policies that he so desires. But they would be wrong – at least, in theory – and they are missing the point entirely, because Parliament, not Cabinet, determines who governs. Sadly, most parliamentarians miss the point as well. The principle of responsible government, arguably the most important unwritten constitutional convention in modern Westminster parliamentarism, affirms Parliament’s ancient right to exercise its sovereignty, and underscores that the cabinet is subordinate to the House of Commons. In other words, the government can only govern inasmuch as it commands the confidence of a majority of the House of Commons. A single-party majority government can normally do so, but cabinet ought never to take that support for granted – and nor should government backbenchers unconditionally lend their support to cabinet.

More Attacks on Mumbai

Another despicable attack against the people of India almost certainly by islamofascists. Once again one must wonder if the isi is involved. My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Mumbai at this terrible time. We must not discount the johaid threat.


Statement by the Prime Minister of Canada strongly condemns terrorist attacks in Mumbai

July 13, 2011
Ottawa, Ontario

Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued the following statement today related to the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India:

“On behalf of all Canadians, Laureen and I offer our deep and profound sympathy and condolences to the families and loved ones of those killed and injured by these heinous acts of violence, including Canadians who may have loved ones in Mumbai.

“These attacks are a stark reminder that terrorism is alive and active around the globe and can strike at any time. All countries need to work together and take necessary precautions to combat the scourge who perpetrate these atrocities.

“Canada remains united with the Government and people of India in their fight against terror. Our thoughts and prayers are with them in this difficult time. We offer our support as India works to bring to justice those responsible for these cowardly attacks against innocent people.“

Scrap INAC

HM Government spends $9 billion on INAC. It has become an industry to keep Aboriginals poor and dependent. I believe the treaties with the Crown must be respected, but we must abolish the Indian Act. As I have said before I would prefer to just take that $9 billion and give every Aboriginal covered by the treaties a stipend. It disgusts and shames me that my Aboriginal brothers and sisters live in such conditions. I was sickened by the murder of Ethan Yellowbird. I believe we must encourage Aboriginals to go to school, to be able to own their own property and engage in legalbusiness. That is how other groups in society have exited poverty. I support more autonomy for Aboriginals, but I do want them to be citizens of this great land. INAC is not working. It is time to try something else.


Mr. Atleo presented a brief to the AFN’s annual general assembly in Moncton on Tuesday that, among other things, called for the replacement of the Aboriginal Affairs department – the administrator of the act – with a body that would deal with first nations on a government-to-government basis.

But that brief was just a reflection of the sentiment that is being expressed by first nations communities across the country, Mr. Atleo said in a telephone interview.

The fact that “there are over 200 communities that are actively at negotiation tables has the effect of moving beyond the Indian Act as well as taking greater control into the communities,” he said. It also means “not relying on Indian Act bureaucracy which is, in fact, growing. The bureaucracy is growing while conditions get worse.”

Mr. Alteo said the call rising from first nations leaders who attended the first day of the three-day gathering is for the federal government to honour the treaty relationship, “and for the mechanisms that are required to move away from the bureaucracy controlling the lives of first nations to be brought into effect.”

For many years, first nations have called for the establishment of their own auditor general and ombudsperson. At the Moncton meeting, they also talked about the need to create an independent treaty tribunal, said the national chief.

“Those are types of institutional shifts away from government dictating from Ottawa how the lives of first nations should be governed,” said Mr. Atleo.

Hiring Boom!

More good economic news. Canadian businesses continue to be confident and will continue to hire.Unlike in the USA these days, Canada's recovery continues. The Tories need to continue cutting red tape so businesses can creat job. They need to cut the deficit and cut personal income taxes. The aggressive search for free trade partners will also continue to help our economy, especially as bo's America unfortunately falters.

Despite growing concerns about economic growth south of the border, Canadian businesses still have faith in the recovery and intend to hire more workers over the next 12 months to support prospects for growth and and plans for expansion, a Bank of Canada survey indicated Monday.

The positive stance on employment has reached a record high level among Canadian firms, with 57% of those who participated in the survey now expected to increase employment over the next twelve months versus 50% in the previous survey published in early April.

Companies also indicated more difficulty finding workers than in recent surveys as the percentage of firms reporting that labour shortages are restricting their ability to meet demand moved up.

Treason!!

I don't like Rupert Murdoch, though I do like some of his companies like Fox News. Murdoch is a republican and his papers have hounded Our Royal Family. The phone hacking scandals started off with HRH Prince William. It now seems that some of those sworn to protect Our Sovereign Lady have betrayed their sacred duty. These charges are truly treasonous. Murdoch's British papers bribed certain Royal Protection officers about locations and movements of HM. I am utterly outraged. These officers should be punished severely if these allegations are true. Murdoch owes the Royal Family an abject apology. Indeed those at news Corp who knew of these despicable actions must be prosecuted.

Personal details about the Queen and her closest aides were sold to the News of the World by corrupt royal protection officers, the Standard reveals today.

The information included phone numbers and tips about the movements and activities of the Queen, Prince Philip and staff in a serious breach of national security. The payments, and involvement of the royal and diplomatic protection squad, were uncovered by News International in 2007.

But despite the potential risk to security they were not passed on to the Met until last month. Scotland Yard was only informed after other News International bosses discovered the existence of the emails during a separate internal probe set up to uncover evidence of phone hacking. There are hundreds of royal protection officers.

The disclosure that News International failed to pass on information revealing criminal activity by royal protection officers will raise serious new questions about the company's conduct and heap further pressure on Rupert Murdoch after his arrival in London to tackle the crisis.

R.I.P. Sherwood Schwartz

I loved the Brady Bunch and Gilligan's Island and I was saddened to hear of the death of Sherwood Schwartz. He loved a long and fruitful life. He is survived of his wife of 69 years! May he Rest In Peace!


Sherwood Schwartz, who died Tuesday at the age of 94, had a long and fruitful run in radio and television before he created "Gilligan's Island" and "The Brady Bunch," the shows that earned him a place in the history of TV and the life of the people. To not know these series — to not understand the expression "three-hour tour" or what it means to prefer a Ginger to a Mary Ann, or the deep wells of frustration contained in the phrase "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia" — or to be able to sing their theme songs, each co-written by Schwartz, is to be in some small but real way culturally illiterate.

These shows crown a career that began in radio, in 1938, when Schwartz backed into a job writing for "The Bob Hope Show," on which his brother Al was working (Al Schwartz later wrote for "Gilligan" and "The Brady Bunch"); he continued on radio with "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" before moving into television with "I Married Joan" (a sort of "I Love Lucy"-light that costarred future "Gilligan" player Jim Backus), "The Red Skelton Show," for which he won an Emmy, and "My Favorite Martian."

Then came "Gilligan." There is something brilliantly strange and reductive about "Gilligan's Island," which premiered in 1964 and was the first series to bear Schwartz's name as creator. With its cast of symbolic characters — the Skipper, the Professor, the Movie Star, the Millionaire and His Wife — trapped together in a small, inescapable space, it might with a subtle shift of emphasis become a play by Ionesco or Sartre. (It is impossible to think long about "Lost" without running aground on "Gilligan's Island.") There is nothing vaguely real about this much-visited uncharted desert isle; its seven stranded castaways are as fixed as if it were commedia dell'arte, and so completely did the actors fill up their roles that, for most of them, there was nowhere to go afterward.

"...an unbreakable link with our past and our unqualified optimism for the future"

An amazing gift to TRH from HM PM Stephen Harper. A great article from Maclean's on our Constitutional Monarchy.

All in all, it does make a charming souvenir gift. Just ask the Prime Minister. A copy of Maclean’s May 15, 1939, souvenir edition of the 27-day royal visit made by King George VI and his consort Queen Elizabeth—Prince William’s great-grandparents—formed part of a personal gift from Stephen Harper and his wife, Laureen, to the prince and his wife, Kate, on the occasion of their current visit to Canada. (The gift also included a copy of Chatelaine of similar vintage.) The 1939 royal tour of Canada, the first ever visit of a reigning monarch to the Crown’s senior dominion, was like no other royal visit before it, and Maclean’s, naturally, treated it as such.

In many ways the souvenir issue, with the king’s portrait on its cover, set the template for the magazine’s coverage of royal visits ever since. That included printing the Queen’s portrait first, on the cover of the otherwise business-as-usual May 1 issue: early recognition that the royal women, whether as rulers or consorts, from Elizabeth II to Diana, princess of Wales to Catherine, duchess of Cambridge, have always been the stars of the show. Photos were a huge part of the special edition, including a shot of the two royal children, who had been left at home for this arduous cross-continental odyssey: princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose, seated at a piano.