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Green Party Leader Elizabeth May discovered something while acting as a leader earlier this month for a model parliament for students: A wall of Stephen Harper photographs in the the “Government Lobby”, the lounge area reserved for government MPs that is behind the green curtains on their stide of the aisle in the House of Commons:

It did not strike me until I walked into the Government Lobby to await my turn as Speaker that I had not been in there since Stephen Harper became Prime Minister.

It used to have some paintings on the wall. Past prime ministers, certainly a formal portrait of the Queen. Landscapes. I know there was the occasional photo of current Prime Ministers, but when I walked in this time, I felt chilled to the bone. Every available wall space had a large colour photo of Stephen Harper. Stephen Harper at Alert. Stephen Harper in fire fighter gear. Stephen Harper at his desk. Stephen Harper meeting the Dalai Lama. Even the photo of the Queen showed her in the company of Stephen Harper. None were great photos. None were more than enlarged snapshots in colour. They didn’t feel like art.

The student with me said it was the same in Langevin Block, the Prime ministers Office. Photos of Stephen Harper everywhere.

The PM’s deputy press secretary, Dimitri Soudas, confirmed the existence of this photographic display. The photos, taken by PMO official photographer Jason Ransom, show pictures of the PM as he travels about the country and the world and it gives PMO staff and MPs a chance to see their leader in action. Soudas notes that MPs and staffers do not normally get to travel with the PM.

Both the Government Lobby and the Opposition Lobby are strictly off-limits to reporters.

The Liberals, of course, were the previous occupants of the “Government Lobby” room and, I am told, they placed pictures of past Liberal prime ministers on the walls while they were in office.

The U.S. State Department maintains an online encyclopedia, if you will, of the countries of the world. The page for Canada was recently updated and, thought it seems to be an otherwise accurate and complete summary of political, economic and social conditons here, there are a a couple of oddities on it. First, the only photo on the page is a picture of the legislative buildings in Victoria, the seat of British Columbia's government. There is no explanation at the page that this is the legislative home of a province and I wonder if many Americans or others who visit would mistake this as the home of our national government. Would you put up a page with basic facts and figures about the U.S. government and throw up a picture of the Texas State Capitol? Of course, you wouldn't.

The page also notes Prime Minister Harper's meeting with U.S. President George Bush. It notes that their first meeting was at the so-called Three Amigos summit in Cancun, Mexico in March, 2006. True. The site says they met a few months later in Washington. True again. But then the State department skips forward saying they met again at the Three Amigos summit in Montebello, Que. this summer. They certainly did meet there, but they also ran into each other at two G8 meetings and two Asia-Pacific Partnership meeting in the meantime. Perhaps the State Department is referring to formal bi-lateral meetings.

Some other notes from the page — nothing wrong here, so far as I can tell, just interesting stuff. The quotes are lifted from the U.S. State Dept.:

• We have a $1.25-trillion economy. (2006 numbers). The U.S., I believe, is a $13-trillion economy.
• “Canada views good relations with the U.S. as crucial to a wide range of interests, and often looks to the U.S. as a common cause partner promoting democracy, transparency, and good government around the world. Nonetheless, it sometimes pursues policies at odds with our own. Canada decided in 2003 not to contribute troops to the U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq (although it later contributed financially to Iraq's reconstruction and provided electoral advice). Other recent examples are: Canada's leadership in the creation of the UN-created International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes, which the U.S. opposes due to fundamental flaws in the treaty that leave the ICC vulnerable to exploitation and politically motivated prosecutions; its decision in early 2005 not to participate directly in the U.S. missile defense program; and its strong support for the Ottawa Convention to ban anti-personnel mines. The U.S., while the world's leading supporter of demining initiatives, declined to sign the treaty due to unmet concerns regarding the protection of its forces and allies, particularly those serving on the Korean Peninsula, as well as the lack of exemptions for mixed munitions.”
• “Canada is a significant source for the U.S. of marijuana and synthetic drugs (methamphetamines, ecstasy), as well as precursor chemicals and over-the-counter drugs used to produce illicit synthetic drugs. Implementation and strengthening of regulations in Canada and increased U.S.-Canadian law enforcement cooperation have had a substantial impact in reducing trafficking of precursor chemicals and synthetic drugs, but cannabis cultivation, because of its profitability and relatively low risk of penalty, remains a thriving industry. Canada increased maximum penalties for methamphetamine offenses in August 2005 and implemented new controls over various precursors in November 2005. Canada is active in international efforts to combat terrorist financing and money laundering.”
• “The two nations share the world's largest and most comprehensive trading relationship, which supports millions of jobs in each country. In 2006, total trade between the two countries exceeded $500 billion. The two-way trade that crosses the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario equals all U.S. exports to Japan. “

What was the first album you ever bought? I'm old enough, of course, that my first record was on vinyl. I'm certain it was a 7″ 45-rpm single likely bought at Rutledge's Music Store, then in St. George's Square in Guelph, Ont. (Rutledge's — or perhaps Routledge — sold drums, guitars, pianos as well as sheet and recorded music. Today, if you know Guelph, there is a Canada Trust in that corner of St. George's Square) As this was very early in the 1970s, I'm sure my first vinyl was likely a pop hit of the day — perhaps something like Gilbert O'Sullivan's “Alone Again Naturally” which, being all of eight or something, I thought was tremendously clever.

But the first album I ever acquired was purchased up the street from Rutledge's at Records On Wheels. R.O.W. was a regional chain that is no longer in Guelph, so far as I know, but when it was, it was the hippest record stores in the city. For most of its life, R.O.W. Guelph's home was on MacDonnell Street but when I was 11-years-old Records on Wheels was a second floor walk-up on Wyndham Street across the street from the Odeon Theatre.

Guys with long hair and vests — they might have been bikers to my 11-year-old sensibility — ran the place. Later, as a 19-year-old DJ spending a few hundred bucks a week at their store, those guys with long hair and vests became my friends.

Anyhow — sometime around Christmas 1975, I walked up the stairs with a few dollars I'd earned delivering Toronto Stars, and walked out with Supertramp's Crime of the Century. I remember it was the Christmas season because I was supposed to be spending that money I'd earned on gifts for my family but I was just so nuts about the single off that record, “Bloody Well Right”, that I had to have it. And so I did.

Now, more than 30 years and about 5,000 albums later, I still get a kick out of that record. It happened to be on the digital turntable tonight and YouTube had the video of Rick Davies and his friends performing it a few years after its initial release.

From the e-inbox this morning, this call-to-arms put out in the U.S. by those who dismiss the notion that climate change is happening and that it’s dangerous. You can find the original with more background on the blog American Daily. The author is apparently Chuck Cushman, executive director of the American Land Rights Association. He’s asking Americans to call, fax, or write the president and other officials to prevent them from placing the Polar Bear on the U.S. Endangered Species List. Their thinking, which should be crystal clear from the letter below, is that such a symbolic statement will “start the ball rolling down the hill toward you.”

Here’s the call:

Proposed Polar Bear ESA listing threatens you!

Global warming regulations will come at you hard – This is an all out call to action.

You must call, write, fax and e-mail again and again.

See Action Items below

—–You have no time to waste.  You must deluge the White House and Interior Department with calls, faxes and e-mails.  We’ve given you some special inside numbers and addresses below.

—–Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, the Department of the Interior and its Fish and Wildlife Service are getting ready to trample on your rights, drive up your cost of living, and regulate virtually every aspect of your life.

—–President Bush plans to announce his concern about the Polar Bear in his January 28 State of the Union address.  This statement will start the regulatory ball rolling down the hill toward you.

Under intense pressure from radical environmentalists over their perceived threat of Global Warming, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne is dropping hints that under the Endangered Species Act, he will declare the Polar Bear a threatened species – within the next few weeks but after the President¹s State of the Union Message.

If he does, any activity that arguably adds to hypothetical global warming Š and thus supposedly causes arctic ice melting, habitat loss and Polar Bear deaths Š will be subject to Department of the Interior (DOI) and Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) control.

This decision would destroy jobs, undermine economic growth and destroy personal choice on the basis of conjecture and computer models.

—–When the public realizes how much damage is caused by naming the Polar Bear a Threatened Species under the Endangered Species Act, this economically destructive decision will cause massive outrage among the voters.

This decision would effectively put the Fish and Wildlife Service – and an army of bureaucrats, regulators, activists and judges – in charge of every energy and economic decision in America. The impact could easily be worse than the Kyoto Protocol.

You¹re going to have Fish and Wildlife agents on your property.

Compared to this decision, the Spotted Owl and Snail Darter cases were pimples on an elephant.

Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne plans to issue his Endangered Species Act ³Threatened Polar Bears² decision a week or so after the President¹s State of the Union message. But it could happen even earlier than that.

You can help stop it.
—–Action Items:

—–1.  Tell President Bush ­ Keep the Polar Bear out of his State of the Union address. Ask Secretary Kempthorne to scrap this dangerous idea.

Opposition Leader Stephane Dion just announced a mini-shuffle of his critics. Montreal MP Marlene Jennings becomes deputy house leader taking over from fellow Montreal Lucienne Robillard, who is retiring. There is no missing Jennings in the House, if you ever have the chance to visit during QP: She is a loud and persistent heckler and is one of the most effective for getting under the skins of those on the other side of the House.

New Brunswick MP Dominic Leblanc had been his party’s Intergovernnmental Affairs Critic. He’ll continue to do that but will now also take on the job of Justice Critic. Jennings had been the Justice Critic. As Justice Critic, Leblanc will be matched up against Minister Rob Nicholson.

Susan Kadis, the Thornhill, Ont. MP, becomes Revene critic, opposite Minister Gordon O’Connor.

The Libs have a full slate of critics — there are, by my count, 44 of them on top of positions like whip, house leader and so on.

One of the reasons, some market experts believe, for the monster selloff yesterday (and future selloffs down the road) was a concern that the large 're-insurers” of mortgages were having their credit rating downgraded.

One of those is Ambac Financial Group Inc. of New York. Here's how it Ambac fits into the ecosystem:

When a bank lends you money for a house, it buys insurance in case you default and it can’t get back all of its money even if it seizes your house.  So, in this way, the bank gets its money back either from you or the insurance company or a combination of both.

The bank's insurance company wants to hedge its bets, too, and so it buys insurance from another, bigger insurance company in case all of its bank customers have trouble at once.

This other, bigger insurance company is Ambac and others like it. It insures insurers.

If Ambac's credit rating falls, it cannot backstop the insurance companies who are backstopping the banks who are dealing with defaulting mortgagees.

With banks losing money to defaulting mortgagees and unable to get decent insurance to spread their risk around, banks have a serious capital problem. Their solution: stop lending money to anyone. And with that, the whole bloody system comes to a grinding halt.

This is a big problem – a way bigger problem than a mere recession.

This morning, Ambac announced its financial results for the fourth quarter 2007. Ambac lost $3.2-billion.

Wow.

The morning after I reported on yesterday’s stock market carnage, there have been a few developments. The U.S. Federal Reserve surprised some by cutting its key interest rate by 75 basis points. The Bank of Canada cut, too, but while some thought it ought to be aggressive as well and cut by 50 points, it only cut by 25 points.

As I write this in mid-morning, stocks in Canada are up quite nicely — the S&P/TSX Composite Index is up nearly 350 points — while American markets are already recovering. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged nearly 450 points at its open but now it’s down by less than a 100 points.

Here’s some excerpts from reacion I’ve received this morning:

• “The Bank (of Canada) signalled that more rate cuts are coming,” says BMO Nesbitt Burns’ senior economist Michael Gregory, who notes that this is Governor David Dodge’s last rate cut announcement. Mark Carney takes over as governor before the next scheduled rate announcement on March 4. “Canadian rates are headed lower. With the fed funds target rate on a fast train to 2% (consistent with past Fed policy responses to recession), the Bank of Canada will likely cut its policy rate to 3%. Indeed, given that economic and financial market conditions will probably continue to deteriorate between now and the next policy announcement on March 4, you can’t rule out an eventual 50 pointer.”
• “We have clearly underestimated the impact that the subprime mortgage market has had on equity valuations and the broad and growing threat that it now poses to financial market disintermediation,” said CIBC Capital Markets Chief Economist Jeff Rubin. “While default rates on subprime mortgages in the US are still unlikely to reach the 50% rate implied by credit default swaps, cumulative default rates may still rise high enough that, coupled with further housing market price declines, they will fuel growing anxiety over the health of the American financial system.
  “We see a mid-year low of 11,000 followed by a spirited 2,000 point recovery over the second half of the year as central bank easing and a gradual reduction in subprime mortgage refinancings allows the index to climb back to the 13,000 mark by year-end. With the subprime mortgage issue largely behind markets in 2009, and still strong growth in overseas economies, an energy and resource-based TSX should be in position to rally further in 2009.
  As a result of these revised targets for the TSX and interest rates we are moving nine percentage points of weighting from stocks to bonds. While our new index weighting in equities is still vulnerable to shortterm corrections in North American stock markets, it reflects our longer-term optimism about both global energy and resource markets,” Rubin said.
• “Today, the Federal Reserve was forced to cut its key federal funds rate by three quarters of a percentage point, to 3.5 percent, to calm global stock markets, as investors adjusted anew to the long-term structural weaknesses in the U.S. economy, particularly in consumer spending and in the housing and mortgage markets,” wrote Christian Weller, a senior fellow at Washington, D.C. think tank Center For American Progress. “What sparked Monday’s stock market sell off, however, was investors’ lack of confidence in President Bush’s grasp of the depth of the problem. His proposed $145 billion economic stimulus package is not targeted enough to get the biggest bang for the buck from the sizeable spending increase he proposed, and it does not include an answer to the threat of sharply lower house prices.”
• “The question for investors is “what next?”, says Andrew Pyle of ScotiaMcLeod.  “I believe that this quarter will mark the bottom of the equity correction.  The Canadian call is a little tougher, not simply because the BoC is conducting policy by looking in the rearview mirror, but because it will take time for lower rates to work through U.S. demand and finally show up here.  With the exception of CDN financials, I still think things are going to be rough on the TSX (especially if  oil and commodities continue to erode, which they should if the world is slowing down).”
• “Today’s release points to additional rate cuts ahead by the Bank [of Canada] especially if the US economy remains under downward pressure,” says Dawn Desjardins, senior economist at the Royal Bank. “Our baseline forecast is that the Bank will lower the overnight rate by another 50 basis points over the next couple of meetings with the risk of more aggressive rates cuts if the US situation continues to deteriorate.”

 

Former Liberal deputy prime minister John Manley today presented his panel’s report on Afghanistan to Prime Minister Harper. From the panel’s press release:

“We owe it to the Afghans, to our allies and to our own future security needs to give this mission every possible chance to succeed,” says John Manley, Chair of the Panel. “What is evident is that the commitment to Afghanistan made by successive Canadian governments has not yet been completed. The ultimate objective is to enable the Afghans to manage their own security.”

The Independent Panel says Canada's military mission in southern Afghanistan should be extended beyond February 2009, provided two key conditions are met:

1. That a new battle group is deployed by International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) partners to Kandahar province, enabling Canadian forces to accelerate training of the Afghan National Army; and

2. That the Government secure by February 2009 at the latest new, medium-lift helicopters and high-performance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

If these conditions are not met, the Independent Panel urges the government to notify Afghan and allied governments that Canada intends to transfer responsibility for security in Kandahar.

The Panel also recommends a new diplomatic push by Canada to ensure that the international effort to help Afghans rebuild their country and reconcile their differences is better coordinated and produces measurable results. The report calls on the Prime Minister to personally take charge of this diplomatic effort.

Prime Minister Harper’s response: ““Over the coming days, our government will thoroughly review the recommendations with Cabinet and our Caucus before coming forward with our response.”

Liberal Stephane Dion, speaking from Kitchener, Ont. where the Liberal national caucus was meeting:

“We need to look at it — it’s 90 pages — I was in the caucus. We’ll look at that and we’ll react. It would not be responsible for me to react now.”

We want the combat mission to end in February 2009 and Canada to continue with another mission in Afghanistan. We want to focus on development. We’ll see what Mr. Manley and his group are proposing. It’s time for Canada to do something else in Afghanistan.

Independent policy group The Senlis Council, whose analysts live and work in Afghanistan, like Manley’s idea that there should be no fixed date for withdrawal of Canadian troops and they say the government should divert whatever money the Canadian Internatioanl Development Agency is getting in Afghanistan’s war zones to the Canadian military:

“Withdrawal from Afghanistan based on a specific calendar date simply isn’t a viable option,” said Almas Bawar Zakhilwal, Canadian Country Director of The Senlis Council. “We have to stay until the job is done. Until there is peace and prosperity in Kandahar, we would be failing the Afghan people and the future security of Canadians if we were to leave. Instead, any withdrawal date should be based on a number of measures of success and not a timeline.” …

 “Like us, The Manley Panel has seen that the humanitarian situation in Kandahar is becoming increasingly desperate and that CIDA has failed in providing food aid to the deeply impoverished rural communities,” he said. “We feel that the Panel could have gone a step further in recommending that the military should be empowered to ensure the delivery of food and medical aid in Kandahar. This would be a wonderful opportunity for the troops to win over the local people, putting them in a positive relationship with the villages and a less hostile environment to fight the insurgency in.”

The Australian Air Force this week took delivery Friday of its fourth and final Boeing C-17 Globemaster (left), the very same plane that the Canadian Air Force is buying:

Just two years after Australia decided to purchase four Globemasters for the heavy air lift role, the accelerated acquisition program has delivered the giant aircraft on time and on budget . . .

. . . The C-17 project’s (AUS)$2.2 billion budget includes the construction of permanent facilities for Number 36 Squadron and its support agencies at RAAF Base Amberley. The project also includes significant improvements to Air Movements facilities at RAAF Bases Darwin, Townsville, Edinburgh and Pearce.

Canada has already taken delivery of 2 of its 4 C-17s. They will be based at CFB Trenton, Ont., where, according to a senior DND official I had a briefing with this week, there are a forest of cranes busily constructing new facilities for the C-17 and the 17 new C-130Js that will be arriving over the next few years.

DND sources, incidentally, indicate that the planes Canada received were in close to perfect shape. Upon delivery, each of the planes we’ve received were given a Category 2 rating which, per the terms of the contract, means “The airplane exhibits one or more deficiencies”.” DND officials are foribidden to tell me what those deficiences are — trade secrets and/or national security and alll — but they say they are very minor in nature. The government held back less than one-quarter of one per cent of the value of the contract or about $1.25–million per plane.

In its release highlighting the delivery, Boeing takes stock of the worldwide fleet of C-17s and gets in a not-so-subtle jab at U.S. lawmakers to keep the orders coming for more C-17s:

…. the worldwide C-17 fleet now includes 171 U.S. Air Force C-17s as well as four in the UK Royal Air Force (RAF) and two in the Canadian Forces. The RAF and the Canadian Forces each will receive two additional C-17s this year. The U.S. Air Force is on contract to receive 19 additional C-17s by mid-2009.

…Today's delivery leaves just 23 C-17s remaining on the production schedule. Without additional orders, the C-17 line will close in late 2009. Despite significant evidence of increasing airlift needs, the U.S. Air Force has not budgeted for additional C-17s the last two years, forcing congressional plus-ups to meet the needed requirement.

First, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates had to mend fences here after he seemed to criticize Canadian troops in Afghanistan. Now, Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier is paying back the favour, mending fences with the U.S. after we reported on Wednesday night that Canadian diplomats had a “Torture Awareness” training manual that listed the United States and Israel along with Syria, Iran, China and others as states that employ torture or illegal  interrogation techniques.

Bernier’s office issued this statement this afternoon:

“I regret the embarrassment caused by the public disclosure of the manual used in the department’s torture awareness training. It contains a list that wrongly includes some of our closest allies. I have directed that the manual be reviewed and rewritten. The manual is neither a policy document nor a statement of policy. As such, it does not convey the Government’s views or positions.”