Month: October 2009

Loonie's rapid rise won't "choke recovery", Harper says

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The loonie is flying (left, the Cdn vs U.S. currency since July 1), great news for those buying things from Americans but lousy news for anyone who, like most exporters, sells things to Americans.

Consumers tend to cheer a loonie that's close to par with the American greenback and for good reason. Because the world oil market works through U.S. dollars (even the oil produced and sold in Canada, believe it or not), a strong loonie keeps energy prices relatively low. Lettuce from California and broccoli from Florida will be (or ought to be) cheaper for Canadians.

But we're in a recession, not because of American broccoli or lettuce was getting a bit pricey, but because not enough people are working. And a high loonie works against a jobs recovery because, for many manufacturers, a Canadian worker has just become relatively more expensive than, say, a worker in South Carolina. Given the option of ramping up production in the U.S. or in Canada, a multinational manufacturer will find it makes more economic sense where workers are cheaper and that ain't Canada when our dollar is worth 97 cents.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, speaking in Vancouver, seems to agree with Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney that this scenario ain't a good one but, on the other hand, he doesn't think the loonie's strength threatens, at this point, to derail the recovery here:

We know that Canada's economy is relatively stronger than certainly virtually any other developed country, industrialized economy, certainly stronger than all of the G7 economies and stronger than most in the developed world.

And obviously, some of these factors, you know, will have something to do with the rise of the dollar.

That said, the governor of the Bank of Canada has been clear that too rapid a rise in the dollar is a risk to our recovery.

As we have said before, we are not out of the woods. There are many risks., some of them within our control, some of them beyond our control and obviously, the value of the Canadian dollar is a risk to recovery.

I don't think it's a risk to choking off the recovery but if it goes up too rapidly, it does have difficult effects on our economy. That's why the governor has expressed those concerns.

Tutu, Sarkozy thumbs up; Taliban thumbs down on Obama's Nobel Peace Prize

Mike Allen, author Politico's Playbook Daily Update, helpfully compiles some of the early reaction to the news that Barack Obama is the year's recipient of the Nobel Peach Prize:

The Taliban says:

“We have seen no change in his strategy for peace. He has done nothing for peace in Afghanistan,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Agence France Presse. “We condemn the award of the Nobel Peace Prize for Obama,'” he said by telephone from an undisclosed location. “When Obama was elected president, we were hopeful he would keep his promise to bring change. But he brought no change, he has continued the same old strategy as (President George W.) Bush.”

France says:

'Obama's Nobel Peace Prize marks 'America's return to the hearts of the people of the world,' said French President Nicolas Sarkozy said..

Desmond Tutu says:

“It is a very imaginative and somewhat surprising choice. It is wonderful,” Tutu told reporters. 'He has had a very significant impact. It (his presidency) has changed the temperature and almost everybody feels a little more hopeful about the world.”

GG v. PM: I'm the Head of State. No, you're not. Yes, I am …

In France, Governor General Michaelle Jean referred to herself as Canada's Head of State.

Monarchists were riled.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper reminded the GG that, no, she's not head of state, Queen Elizabeth II is.

And now, a freshly updated GG Web site (according to Maclean's John Geddes) makes the case that, yes, the GG is the head of state:

In 1947, the Letters Patent of King George VI transferred all the duties of Head of State of Canada to the Governor General and the new Commission of Appointment referred to the Office of Governor General and Commander-in-Chief in and over Canada.

UPDATE: The GG updated their Web site after I posted this and so the link to the source for the info on letter patent will not work. I leave the link intact, though, as a kind of footnote as to where I got this info. (End of update)


Meanwhile, Ottawa-area Conservative MP Royal Galipeau or someone pretending to be Galipeau jumped in to this debate last night on Twitter. Galipeau, who tweets as GalipeauMP, had this up after dinner Thursday night:

GalipeauMP: The GG is the defacto Head of State so everyone just chill. She can call herself whatever she wants….she eats seal meat!!!!

That remark was then deleted from Galipeau's Twitter timeline (you can still find it via search.twitter.com by searching for the phrase “seal meat”) and this showed up in its place:

Somebody got to my Twitter. Was not my post. Thanks to @MinJK for spotting it.

(@MinJK is the real Jason Kenney).

More Tory Patronage: Finley makes 12 friends happy

The issue of patronage, I'm told, may come up today in Question Period. My contribution to the debate that may occur includes:

Less than a week after Prime Minister Stephen Harper railed against “left-wing ideologues” in Canada's court system, Harper appointed five judges with ties to the Conservative Party of Canada . . . [Read the rest here]

Going through e-mail this morning that has piled up over the last couple of days, I came upon a message from Mike Savage, the Liberal MP from Dartmouth, NS, who is also his party's critic on Human Resources and Social Development Canada. Diane Finley is that department's minister. Savage's office reviewed some recent appointments Finley made to Canada Pension Plan Review Tribunals and to Employment Insurance Act Board of Referees. Lo and behold, Savage finds that 12 appointees have close ties to the Conservative party of Canada.

“Just one week after the Liberal Party told the Reform-Conservatives their time was up, this government's first priority was to guarantee the appointments of top Conservative donors,” Savage said in a release. “[Harper] promised to end political patronage, but clearly this is another promise broken for the government,” he said.

The appointments were made on Sept. 9, just days after that Harper speech in Sault Ste. Marie in which he rallied Conservative supporters by saying that had the Liberals won the government last fall, they would be putting “left-wing ideologues … in the courts, federal institutions, agencies, and the Senate.”

Here's Finley's dozen:

Appointed to Canada Pension Plan Review Tribunals

  • Judy Dreeshen – Conservative Campaign Worker
  • Joe Spina – Brampton Progressive Conservative MPP, 1995-2003
  • Jeffrey Keefe – Donated to Conservative Party Candidate in 2006
  • Suzanne Dery – Donated to former Conservative MP Luc Harvey
  • Kelley Sherwood – Reform Party activist; appeared in 1997 Reform Party platform
  • Arthur Lust – Donated to Conservative MP John Baird in 2008
  • James Walsh – Donated to Conservative Party in 2004
  • Robbie Grossman – VP of SI. Paul's PC Association

Appointed to Employment Insurance Act Boards of Referees:

  • Nick Katalifos – Donated to Conservative MP Maxime Bernier
  • Claire-Marie Jadot – Donated to Conservative Party in 2006
  • James Caroeneto – Donated to Conservative MP Pat Davidson in 2008
  • Heather Jane Chutler – Former member of the Vancouver Quadra riding association board…She is the ex-wife of Geoff Chutler, a Tory activist who ran unsuccessfully in Quadra in 1993 and 1997 for the old Progressive Conservative party.

News flash! Conservatives and Liberals united on tough-on-crime bill

Bill C-25 has just cleared the House of Commons and is off to the House of Sober Second Thought. This bill would “limit the credit a judge may allow for any time spent in pre-sentencing custody in order to reduce the punishment to be imposed at sentencing, commonly called credit for time served.” It is known by its shorthand as the “two-for-one” bill because judges would often give a criminal two days credit for every day spent in jail before conviction. Some smart criminals (isn't that an oxymoron? – ed), knowing that they face certain conviction would take advantage of that by forgoing bail and delaying trial. Then, as soon as they knew they'd been in jail long enough, they'd plead guilty and get their lawyer to convince a judge to apply the two-for-one rule.

The Conservatives want to put an end to that and that's what C-25 does. But to hear Justice Minister Rob Nicholson tell it, those dastardly Liberals in the Senate want to “gut” the bill. Here's Nicholson outside the House of Commons today:

Nicholson: I'm urging Michael Ignatieff to show some leadership, to get the message to his Liberal Senators not to amend Bill C-25. The bill that we have will make the new rule one for one. Canadians have been telling us that this is what they want to see. I have the support of provincial Attorneys General, I got it through the House of Commons, the Liberal Senators are having a look at this today at 4:00 in clause by clause. They should leave it unamended because I believe that's what Canadians want.

But here's Liberal justice critic Dominic Leblanc. Seems to me, Liberal MPs are united with their Conservative colleagues on this one:

Leblanc: Mr. Ignatieff and I and the Liberal caucus have been very clear we support Bill C-25, the two-for-one remand bill, unamended. It wasn't amended in the House of Commons. We sent it to the Senate without amendments, having supported it, and we continue to support it. I'm told that there may be some amendments at a Senate Committee. We haven't seen the amendments yet. I think the committee meets later this evening. The full Senate will have to accept or reject those amendments ultimately. Mr. Ignatieff is not like Mr. Harper; he doesn't order caucus members around. The Senate has a role to play but I can be very clear that we don't believe the bill should be amended and if there are amendments proposed and they come back to the House of Commons my recommendation to the leader would be that we vote to remove those amendments.

Sounds like we Conservatives and Liberals, together finally and tough on crime!

Memo to the Minister: Implications on the use of high-level ethanol

Over the weekend, I filed a story based on the contents in this briefing note, a memo to Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt from her deputy minister, Cassie Doyle. (See: Environmental impact of ethanol use overstated, government warned, Oct 1, 2009) Feel free to download the briefing note yourself.
Here's some key chunks:

  • The Gcvemment of Canada must fully assess the implications of actively promoting the production and use of E85 in Canada.
  • The voluntary Company Average Fuel Consumption (CAFC) program in Canada provides a fuel consumption credit for the production and sale of alternative fuel vehicles. The vast majority of the credits currently being allocated to manufacturers are for the production of [Flex Fuel Vehicles] FFVs. Given that E85 is not sold in significant quantities, these credits are not tied to actual GHG emission reductions because Canada's FFVs are fuelled almost exclusively with gasoline.
  • NRCan's life-cycle analysis of E85 fuel shows GHG emission reductions in the order of approximately 35-40 percent, depending on the feedstock used to produce the ethanol (e.g. com, wheat, ete.). for FFVs operating on E85 compared to these same vehicles operating on gasoline. However, the regulated mandate for renewable alternatives to gasoline will deliver an equivalent GHG emission reduction regardless of whether it is through the use of E10 or E85 ethanol blends.

Gilles Duceppe on Prime Minister Ringo Starr: Try Canadian Idol!

From the daily scrums after Question Period, here is Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe on Prime Minister Stephen Harper's performance Saturday night where he sang the Beatles' “With a Little Help From My Friends”

Reporter: What did you think of Stephen Harper's performance at the NAC Gala?

Duceppe: Well, I think he was a good singer. And now if he could start answering questions in the House he could be a good Prime Minister. It's not the case yet.

Reporter: But how do you think Quebecers will take to that?

Duceppe: Maybe he should go to Canadian Idol!

– my translation from French to English follows —

Reporter: But this is a man denigrated those who attended galas during the last election?

Duceppe: I think it's late for him to catch up. He can not fool people. It's one thing to go try to present a good image. It is another thing to have policies that go against culture….

–end of my translation —

Reporter: Do you think that playing a piano and singing a Beatles' song helps?

Duceppe: I don't want to discuss his musical talent. : I mean if he wants to dance next time, let him dance.

Reporter: As a strategy?

Reporter: Do you dance?

Duceppe: In private. But I'm in politics. I'm not a singer.

Reporter: His stand on arts and culture in the last election –

Duceppe: I mean that doesn't change an iota to what he said before and what he's doing now. I mean a lot of people could have talent and it's not the same as having policies and having – developing good strategy for culture all around.

NDP MP asks if PM will change his tune on arts support? Or will he "Let It Be?"

NDP MP Paul Dewar riffs off of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's performance on Saturday of the Beatle's classic “With a Little Help From My Friends” with this statement, delivered moments ago in the House of Commons:

Mr. Speaker, we saw the Prime Minister's attempt to sing a new song on the weekend.

While those in attendance at National Arts Centre's gala enjoyed the Prime Minister's show, the question is will he honestly change his tune when it comes to supporting the arts? Will he take a sad song and make it better?

For example, will he check the math of his heritage minister? This Minister has inflated the costs of the proposed national portrait gallery by 50 million dollars. Money can't buy you love, but you can invest in a portrait gallery with many fewer notes.

Will he clarify the minister's “twist and shout” on the portrait gallery? Or will the Prime Minister allow disharmony to continue and simply Let it Be?

Millions of dollars have already been invested in preparing the former US embassy for use as our national portrait gallery. Canadians want to know what the government is planning to do with this space now that they have decided to cancel the gallery. Do they have a plan or is it just a Magical Mystery Tour?

Mr. Speaker, if he truly wants to sing a new song on the arts, and not just be a “day tripper,” I ask the Prime Minister to stop “hiding his love away” and start supporting the portrait gallery.

Why Chicago lost the Olympics: No one wants to go through U.S. airport security

Michelle Higgins, writing at the “In Transit” blog on the New York Times site says that both IOC voters and U.S. tourism industry associations say that, for too many foreigners, it's just no fun entering the U.S. and that may have been one of the reasons Obama's charm could not sway IOC voters in Copenhagen:

Among the toughest questions posed to the Chicago bid team this week in Copenhagen was one that raised the issue of what kind of welcome foreigners would get from airport officials when they arrived in this country to attend the Games. Syed Shahid Ali, an I.O.C. member from Pakistan, in the question-and-answer session following Chicago’s official presentation, pointed out that entering the United States can be “a rather harrowing experience.””

Once the news came out that Chicago lost its Olympic bid, the U.S. Travel Association didn’t miss an opportunity to point that out, sending out a critical press release within hours.

“It’s clear the United States still has a lot of work to do to restore its place as a premier travel destination,” Roger Dow, U.S. Travel’s president, said in the statement released today. “When IOC members are commenting to our President that foreign visitors find traveling to the United States a ‘pretty harrowing experience,’ we need to take seriously the challenge of reforming our entry process to ensure there is a welcome mat to our friends around the world, even as we ensure a secure system.”

[Read the rest of Higgins' post]