Month: March 2009

Gary Goodyear, Canada's science minister, refuses to answer Globe and Mail science report Anne McIlroy when Anne asks Gary if he believes in evolution.

“I'm not going to answer that question. I am a Christian, and I don't think anybody asking a question about my religion is appropriate,” Goodyear, the Minister of State for Science and Technology told McIlroy.

Gary might want to ask Steve about evolution. That is to say, any one of the 700 Steves on this list. They're all scientists. And I'll bet many of them are Christians. And they all say evolution is an undisputed scientific fact.

Here's what those Steves say:

Evolution is a vital, well-supported, unifying principle of the biological sciences, and the scientific evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of the idea that all living things share a common ancestry. Although there are legitimate debates about the patterns and processes of evolution, there is no serious scientific doubt that evolution occurred or that natural selection is a major mechanism in its occurrence. It is scientifically inappropriate and pedagogically irresponsible for creationist pseudoscience, including but not limited to “intelligent design,” to be introduced into the science curricula of our nation's public schools.

You Twitter freaks out there that are interested in politics might want to check out #mnce09 and/or #roft. #mnce09 is the Twitter hashtag for the Manning Centre for Building Democracy 2009 conference a three-day event on in Ottawa right now and the lineup of small-c, big-c and officially-c conservatives is pretty impressive. #roft is Stephen Taylor's creation — it stands for Right of Feed Twitter — a place for Conservatives to talk to each other on Twitter.

In any event: This afternoon, there was this panel:

A conservative response to economic downturn

Chair: Gwyn Morgan

– Bill Robson, C.D. Howe Institute

– Ken Boessenkool, GCI Canada

– Andrew Coyne, Maclean's

I've been stuck in the office chronicling the Conservative (Government) response to economic downturn but I've been keeping an eye on #mnce09 Twitter feed. Here's some of the content as at 1715 Ottawa time (I've stripped out some of the Twitter-junk and re-arranged it in chronological order from start to finish). For those not familiar with Twitter, it's a micro-blogging servier and your “tweets”, as they're called, can only be 140 characters long. So correspondents here only have a sentence or so to say something:

jmcjannett: Heading over to hear Gwyn Morgan and Coyne offer economic advice to Canada's conservative movement. #roft

jneilson42: listening to panelists describe how conservatives should solve the financial crisis at #mnce09

jneilson42: Bill Robson is explaining how US Congress rigged mortgage policy- off their balance sheets but artificially inflating home ownership #mnce09Dscn3897_2_normal

ncgafuik: Andrew Coyne, Gwyn Morgan, Ken Boessenkool, & Bill Robson talking economic downturn#roft

jneilson42: Bill Robson's telling the story of the porn industry asking for a bailout and it's obviously upsetting a nearby so-con at #mnce09Nickgafuik_normal

jneilson42: Robson: Wouldn't it be great if the people whose retirement dreams crashed w/ the market got the same support as those w/ pensions?

jneilson42: Bill Robson's view on bailouts – supporting banks is one thing, but picking and choosing who to support in the economy is a problem. #mnce09Dscn3897_2_normal

jneilson42: Ken Boessenkool invoking Goldwater at #mnce09Dscn3897_2_normal

jneilson42: Ken Boessenkool defending Harper's budget at #mnce09Dscn3897_2_normal

jneilson42: is a little confused about the compatibility of her last two tweets at #mnce09Dscn3897_2_normal

jneilson42: Ken Boessenkool: “Moderation in the defense of liberty is no vice.” Bastardizing the quote explains those tweets. #mnce09Dscn3897_2_normal

jneilson42: Coyne: Being opposed to a policy doesn't make you a fanatical purist. #mnce09Dscn3897_2_normal

stephen_taylor: Andrew Coyne (@acoyne) just called himself a socialist #roft

jneilson42: Coyne: Principled politics matters. What you do should cohort with what you say. #mnce09N81008618_36712070_1932_normal

stephen_taylor: “Principles are what you jettison on your way to power” — @acoyne #roft #mnce09

jneilson42: Coyne: Canadian Conservatives think that principles are the things you jettison on the way to power, but nowhere else in the world. #mnce09N81008618_36712070_1932_normal

Carywill: RT WHA?! how is that possible?! Andrew Coyne (@acoyne) just called himself a socialist #roft(via @stephen_taylor)

jneilson42: Coyne: No more argument in politics on what should be in the budget in Canada, just on who would pass it faster. #mnce09Cary_and_poppy_normal

stephen_taylor: Political debate has been reduced to who wil pass the budget faster — @acoyne

jneilson42: Coyne: Compromise might be a virtue in politics, but it shouldn't be the only virtue. #mnce

jneilson42: Coyne: don't be lulled into thinking Canada's higher spending is short termed.

jneilson42: Coyne kicking the crap out of partisan conservative defenses of Harper's government at #mnce09Dscn3897_2_normal

jneilson42: Coyne kicking the crap out of partisan Conservative defenses of Harper's government at #mnce09

jneilson42: Coyne: Conservatives don't think half a loaf is better than no loaf, they think no loaf is acceptable

jneilson42: Coyne: politics isn't the art of the possible, it's the art of expanding the possible

jneilson42: Coyne: Conservatives haven't just abandoned conservatism themselves, but have closed off the possibility of anyone else applying it. #mnce09

jneilson42: Coyne: whole sections of public policy have been ruled off limits because “even the Tories wouldn't do it.”#roft

jneilson42: Coyne: Conservative ministers go around the country boasting that their party delivers more pork

jneilson42: Coyne explaining why Conservatives have burned the bridge towards being anywhere near conservative if they become a majority#roft

jneilson42: Wonders if Coyne would like to come back to the podium and tell us how he really feels

jneilson42: Thinks there must be a lot of libertarians atfeeling vindicated after Coyne's thrashing of the Conservative party. #roft #fr33

jneilson42: Bill Robson: stressing taking the long view at #mnce09

jneilson42: Ken Boessenkool says Conservatives might be criticized for economic policy, but argues that strengthening the military is good#roft

jneilson42: Ken Boessenkool argues that the most important thing the Conservatives have done is stopped national child care

stephen_taylor: Coyne and Boessenkool battling it out on the CPC record #roft #mnce09

jneilson42: Coyne pwning Tories some more and sparring with Ken Boessenkool at#roft

jneilson42: Coyne: principled politics is possible, but it is difficult, especially when people give up before they've even started

jneilson42: Boessenkool outlined why conservatives can support the CPC in spite of economic lameness but libertarians are abandoning it#roft

jneilson42: Coyne argues for PR and recommends a Harper/Flanagan paper on the subject

jneilson42: Bill Robson: the less we spend, the happier I am

jneilson42: Coyne: when I wrote about the death of conservatism I was merely describing something, I wasn't lamenting anything.#fr33 #roft

jneilson42: Coyne calls out partisan Conservatives for being born-again Keynesians at#roft #fr33

jneilson42: Bill Robson: One of the most important things the government is doing is unilaterally cutting tariffs #fr33

jneilson42: @Freedomnation Hudak calls Coyne atcombative, possibly for claiming that disagreement needn't be interpreted as rabid purity? #roft

brentcolbert: Andrew Coyne didn't come to make friends but hopefully people will listen #mnce09

stephen_taylor: Coyne thinks artic sovereignty is a Conservative political gimmick. #roft #mnce09

jneilson42: Coyne: the issue of arctic sovereignty has been vastly overblown as a smart political move by the Conservatives#roft

stephen_taylor: Joe Clark tories started applause inflation by desk thumping #roft

stephen_taylor: Coyne gets a rousing desk thumping from the crowd #roft #mnce09

stephen_taylor: Flanagan reduces coyne from an economic coach to an economic sports writer. “He's not a player” Ow! #roft #mnce09

stephen_taylor: Flanagan: Stéphane Dion deserved everything he got from the Tories (attack ads) #roft #mnce09

jneilson42: Coyne's call for desk thumping has resulted in an awkward mixture of desk thumping with applause to show approval at #mnce09

stephen_taylor: Manning Centre is like a dietition that tells us (Conservatives) how to eat. — Boessenkool #roft #mnce09

stephen_taylor: Yikes! Boessenkool: PMO needs to be more accepting of criticism from their friends. #roft #mnce09

stephen_taylor: Wow, illegal mex-us immigratn uncharacteristically hits the floor for the first (and likely last) time at a Cdn con conference #roft #mnce09

jneilson42: Boessenkool/Coyne: it wasn't deficit or depression, it was deficit or defeat

stephen_taylor: In January, the PM faced deficit or defeat. — Boessenkool. Coyne says prorogue saved the Libs from themselves. #roft #mnce09

jneilson42: Coyne: political madness lies where political parties convince themselves that they are indispensable

jneilson42: Coyne: when greed is untempered by the usual competitive forces of the free market, you get economic problems #fr33

stephen_taylor: Coyne calls wall st. not a failure of capitalism but a failure of the

jneilson42: Coyne: don't excuse stupid behaviour in the private sector, but people respond to incentives from the gov to do stupid things#roft

jneilson42: Gwyn Morgan argues for keeping immigration low #deytookourjerbs!

Last night, Prime Minister Stephen Harper opened a three-day conference of conservatives convened by the Manning Institute of Democracy.

Harper had lots to say about conservatism in an era of big government, about Liberals, about Barack Obama, and about the cause of the recession.

You can read a summary here and, as I have time, I'll put up some transcripts. UPDATE: Well, there' s just no pleasing some people. First of all, somebody named “Ti-Guy” (read the comments) thinks I should have stopped everything and put up a transcript toot sweet. (Ti-Guy thinks it's because I spend too much time on Twitter.) Then a blogger named Sandra Crux thinks I and Jennifer Ditchburn grossly distorted the content of the speech in separate reports. You can read Sandra's beef with me here and “Gabby in QC” has provided Sandra with the transcript . Looks like Sandra has changed the URL and, as a result, you'll get a “404” error when you click through the link. Ask her for the correct link.

Incidentally: I can't talk about Jennifer's source, of course, but my “source” for the tape recording was me! And it was hardly a secret. I stood beside a speaker and recorded it while Harper was talking. And I wasn't trying to hide anything — I told Harper's representatives before and after the speech that I'd be reporting on it.

In the meantime, for those Harper-o-philes among you, grab a coffee and sit down for 17 minutes. You should see a QuickTime player control right below this sentence but, if not, click on this link:

Incidentally: I can't talk about Jennifer's source, of course, but
my “source” for the tape recording was me! And it was hardly a secret.
I stood beside a speaker and recorded it while Harper was talking. And
I wasn't trying to hide anything — I told Harper's representatives
before and after the speech that I'd be reporting on it.

To kick off a three-day conference of The Manning Centre for Democracy, Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave a remarkable — and unannounced — defence of small-c conservatism. It was remarkable, in my eyes, for its candour — we rarely get to hear him talk politics in this way nowadays — and its frank assessment of the mistakes that got us to where we are:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the global recession was caused by American consumers and investors who believed in the “unconservative” idea that they could borrow without consequences.

In a speech Thursday night to a group of supporters attending a fundraising dinner for a conservative think-tank, Mr. Harper delivered a frank diagnosis of the world's economic problems, took a swipe at U.S. President Barack Obama's stimulus plan, and suggested the federal courts and bureaucracy was filled with Liberals who did not share his Conservative government's agenda.

“Imagine how many Liberal insiders and ideologues would now be in the Senate, the courts and countless other federal institutions and agencies – I should say, how many more,” Harper said to the laughter of the mostly conservative crowd of about 300.

“Imagine what a carbon tax would be doing to our economy in the middle of this global recession.”

… in his speech, Mr. Harper gave a passionate defence of conservatism in what has become an era of big-spending, big government.

“We are in a global recession principally – and we have to face this – because a lot of people on Wall Street, because of a lot of people in the private sector more generally – homeowners or consumers – pushed or bought into a very unconservative idea:That they could live beyond their means,” Mr. Harper said. [ Read the rest of the story ]

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