Category: Politics/Conservatives

Quebec Conservative seeks to ban the burka at the polling booth

Quebec Conservative MP Steven Blaney today will introduce a private member's bill which he says will “strengthen our democratic system.” He will do this by engaging in what my friend Paul Wells describes as the “ritual humiliation” of women who choose to wear a burka.  There has been much muttering, particularly in Quebec and from Quebec politicians of all stripes, that our democracy is somehow terribly threatened by the handful of women who show up at a polling place with all the proper forms of identification but who cast a ballot without showing a polling officer their face.

To prove that our democracy needs strengthening from this threat, Blaney and supporters of his legislation will have to demonstrate how our democracy was weakened in the last election by the more than 250,000 Canadians who voted by mail using a special ballot — without showing anyone their faces.

In other words: You must be against the burka at polling booths and against voting by mail or you must be in favour Elections Canada applying its very sensible voter identification policy — which does not in all cases require a visual identification. But if you seek to ban the burka but not ban voting by mail, then you look like a xenophobe for believing that “strengthening” a democracy means introducing legislation that is a veiled attack (and you'll forgive the pun) on a religious minority.

 

Conservatives aim for rural Quebec in attacks on the Bloc Quebecois

Earlier this week, the Bloc Quebecois caucus met in Quebec City and, at its conclusion, leader Gilles Duceppe spelled out what it will take to get the BQ to support the Conservative government this spring when the Tories table Budget 2011: about $5 billion in stuff for Quebec.

The Conservative spin masters promptly fired up the Alerte-Info-Alert ‘bot with the following talking points to be used by their MPs. I reproduce it for you below. One of the things that caught my eye, particularly in the wake of the Conservative television ads of last week that suggest Duceppe is “too much of a Montrealer” are the lines from the Info-Bot that specifically suggest the BQ’s position has no appeal to “rural Quebecers” nor to  “des régions du Québec.” Conservatives won’t come right out and say it, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that the party is pretty much writing off any electoral chances in Montreal. I’m sensing that this kind of line helps them defend their seats in and around Quebec City and in the Saguenay and may help them poach a seat or two from the Bloc in rural Quebec, mostly in the Eastern Townships but also in the Gaspé region. In the 2008 election, for example, the Tories aimed, without success, at upsetting BQ MP Robert Bouchard in Chicoutimi and at André Bellavance in Richmond-Arthabaska. I suspect they may be looking at those ridings again, as well as perhaps France Bonsant in Compton-Stanstead and Christian Ouellet in Brome-Missisquoi.

As Harper’s 2008 election campaign also took him up to Val D’Or, one might assume the Tories saw some polling that suggest their message might appeal to enough voters in Abitibi–Baie-James–Nunavik–Eeyou to steal it from the BQ’s Yvon Levesque. It did not in ’08 but who knows about the next one. (That’s a picture, above, that I took of the scene that greeted Harper in Val d’Or. Notably, I saw more protesters at Harper events in Quebec during 2008 campaign than I saw anywhere else in Canada.)

Meanwhile, as former Liberal turned TV pundit Jean Lapierre famously quipped during the 2008 campaign, the only red signs one saw in Quebec outside Montreal were stop signs — a funny way of saying that the Liberals were largely a non-existent electoral threat anywhere outside Montreal. It’s my sense — although I’d be quite pleased to be corrected — that the Liberals still have much work to do outside Montreal and a few ridings near Ottawa.

All of which means, the next federal election campaign in Quebec will actually be two very different campaigns with different messages: The BQ will be on defence in both but in the Montreal/Ottawa area it will be BQ vs Liberals vs NDP while in the rest of the province it will largely be the BQ vs the “nouveaux bleus”.

Here’s that info-Bot Alert from the Conservatives:

The Phony Defence of Quebec’s Interests

Today, the Bloc Québécois held a press briefing with the excuse that they wanted to present the budget demands of their party. But Quebecers won’t be fooled!

By presenting budget demands that, according to them, amount to $16 billion ( Bloc Québécois News release, January 26, 2011), Gilles Duceppe and his MPs are just looking for an excuse to vote against the next federal budget, and thus force an election that Quebecers don’t need. That’s their only objective.

This is also why the Bloc Québécois, on two occasions, in 2009 and in 2010, VOTED AGAINST the Economic Action Plan put forward to help Canada weather the worst global recession since the Great Depression. When it comes to the economy, the Bloc Québécois has no lessons to teach our Conservative Government.

Before the global economic crisis even began, we took action to help create jobs, keep taxes low taxes for the middle-class families and seniors, to improve the Employment Insurance Program and to help businesses pull through the crisis. Our actions produced results in all regions of Quebec and, the Bloc Québécois VOTED AGAINST them every chance it could.

Furthermore, even before the global economic recession hit Canada, our government took action by reducing taxes on job-creators. Gilles Duceppe pointed out today that low taxes have been helpful to stimulate job creation. However, the Bloc Québécois VOTED AGAINST lower taxes in December 2007. This is yet another example of the glaring opportunism and hypocrisy by Gilles Duceppe’s party.

The Bloc Québécois does not care about the priorities and values of rural Quebecers.

The Bloc Québécois serves neither the interests of Quebecers and Quebec regions. It only serves its own interests.

————

La fausse défense des intérêts du Québec

Aujourd’hui, le Bloc a tenu un point de presse en prétextant vouloir présenter les demandes budgétaires de la formation politique. Mais les Québécois ne sont pas dupes !

En présentant des demandes budgétaires qu’ils chiffrent à 16 milliards de dollars (communiqué de presse du Bloc, 26 janvier 2011), Gilles Duceppe et ses députés ne cherchent qu’un prétexte pour rejeter le prochain budget fédéral et déclencher des élections dont les Québécois n’ont pas besoin. C’est leur seul objectif.

C’est pour cette même raison que le Bloc A VOTÉ CONTRE, à deux reprises, en 2009 et 2010, la mise en œuvre du Plan d’action économique qui visait à combattre la pire récession mondiale depuis la grande dépression. Mais notre gouvernement conservateur n’a pas de leçon à recevoir du Bloc en matière d’économie.

Nous avons agi dès le début de la crise économique mondiale pour aider à stimuler la création d’emploi, pour réduire les impôts de la classe moyenne et des personnes âgées, pour bonifier le programme d’assurance-emploi et pour aider nos entreprises à traverser la crise. Nos actions ont produit des résultats dans toutes les régions du Québec et, chaque fois qu’il en a eu la chance, le Bloc A VOTÉ CONTRE nos mesures.

 

Pork watch: Denis Lebel brings home the bacon

We note the following announcements from Denis Lebel, the minister of state for Canada Economic Development in the Quebec Regions, about some announcements which will direct federal cash into the riding of Roberval-Lac-Saint-Jean, a riding currently held by one Denis Lebel:

And a reminder about my Twitter-based “Ottawa Spends” project, where we try to track these announcements, large and small, as they come out.

Memo to Liberals: You're three years too late on the corporate tax cut vote

If we are to trust Prime Minister Stephen Harper's powers of observation — and Hansard's ability to record those observations — just a handful of Liberal MPs stood in their places in the House of Commons on Dec. 13, 2007 and voted against the very corporate tax cuts that now, more than three years later, are dominating pre-budget politicking.

Minutes ahead of the final vote on Bill C-28, the Budget and Economic Statement Implementation Bill of 2007, the Liberal whip Karen Redman (who would lose her seat in Kitchener, Ont. to Conservative Stephen Woodworth) pleaded to the Speaker that Robert Thibeault, the Liberal MP from West Nova (who would lose his seat to Conservative Greg Kerr) be allowed to vote on the bill even though he had arrived at the House after the doors had been closed and all entry barred for the vote.[1] Her request was rejected but not before Harper rose to say: “Mr. Speaker, since the Liberal whip indicated that the member for West Nova was delayed, I wonder how much further delayed the other 100 members are? How far away are they?”

They were, as it turns out, very far away because, had they shown up, they would have likely been forced to vote with the Bloc Quebecois and NDP agains this bill and that would have forced a general election.

I was compelled to research the circumstances of the passing of Bill C-28 as this is the bill that contains the corporate tax cuts that Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff and his caucus now vow to vote against. There's just one problem, of course: They are three years late for that vote.

While Jack Layton and his NDP caucus and Gilles Duceppe and his BQ caucus are counted in Hansard as voting against the corporate tax cuts now coming into effect, then Liberal Leader Stephane Dion and the future leader Ignatieff did not vote either way on the issue. Just six Liberals voted against the corporate tax cuts and all of them were, like the late Thibeault, from Atlantic Canada (They would be Brison, Cuzner, Eyking, Regan, Savage and Russell). This, you may recall, was the budget that contained the so-called Atlantic Accord, which changed some of the equalization terms for Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador and which turned out to be a controversial enough notion that Danny Williams organized his successful ABC or Anybody But Conservative campaign for the 2008 election and which prompted Nova Scotia Conservative Bill Casey to finish his parliamentary career as an independent MP.

But because of that 2007 vote, corporate taxes on New Year's Day this year dropped to 16.5 per cent and will drop to 15 per cent on New Year's Day 2012. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty need not mention a word about corporate tax cuts in this year's budget and those tax cuts are coming next year.

The 2011 budget implementation bill, then, may very well be completely silent on the issue of corporate tax cuts.

And that gives both the Bloc and the NDP the perfect fig leaf to vote in favour of Flaherty's 2011 budget should they see enough in it to satisfy their own supporters. Say, for example, Flaherty provides some relief on taxes for home heating oil or commits to boosting CPP and OAS payments. Then, Layton is perfectly free to say his party is voting for measures important to NDP supporters and, in any event, Layton and other NDP MPs already stood up and voted against those horrible corporate tax cuts. Even better for Layton, he'll stand up and say that when he voted against corporate tax cuts three years ago, the Liberals didn't even bother to show up for work that day.

Meanwhile, if Liberals are serious about suspending the corporate tax cuts they say we cannot now afford, they would have to defeat the government, win the subsequent election by campaigning, at least in part, that they would immediately introduce legislation suspending next year's cuts. If they wanted to do more than that, and reverse this year's cuts, then they would, of course, be campaigning to raise corporate taxes. (Probably a politically popular move if the Liberals are appealing to their left-leaning voters but not so much for those leaning right who then could be pushed to vote Conservative).

[1] The procedural rules for the House of Commons include the following instructions for “Recorded Votes”: “When Members have been called in for a division, no further debate is permitted. From the time the Speaker begins to put the question until the results of the vote are announced, Members are not to enter, leave or cross the House, or make any noise or disturbance. Members must be in their assigned seat in the Chamber and have heard the motion read in order for their votes to be recorded. Any Member entering the Chamber while the question is being put or after it has been put cannot have his or her vote counted. Members must remain seated until the result is announced by the Speaker.”

Aerospace industry slams Liberal attack ads

The Liberal Party of Canada, earlier today, released the 15-second ad (above) which it says will air across the country. By the end of the day, the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada and Aéro Montréal had joined the Conservatives in denouncing the ads.

The tone of the release from the AIAC ( IAC comments on Official Opposition's fundamental lack of understanding of the importance of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program to the Canadian Aerospace industry ) was pretty dismissive. Key quote:

The Aerospace Industries Association of Canada (AIAC) today deplored a fundamental lack of understanding of the strategic importance of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program to the Canadian Aerospace Industry as demonstrated in television ads posted on the Web this morning.

“The Government of Canada has participated in the JSF initiative for almost 15 years and an acquisition decision to acquire 65 aircraft to replace our aging CF-18 fleet was finally made earlier this year.  Moreover, many of our members are now pursuing JSF contract opportunities with the determination and confidence that defines our industry,” said Dr. Claude Lajeunesse, CEO of the AIAC.  “And the doubt and dithering signals that internal political debates send to the world will only result in the loss of opportunities and much needed high-skill, high-value added and long-term jobs for Canadians from coast to coast.”

The release from Aéro Montréal, which represents aerospace industries in the Montreal region, is less partisan and seems less interested in picking a fight with Liberals. Still, it didn't seem too pleased with the ad. Read the whole thing here: Ottawa Official Opposition's new television ads – Aéro Montréal reiterates the importance of the acquisition of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Jets for the aerospace industry but here's what amounts to the juiciest quote:

“To maximize the benefits of this decision for the industry, we need a stable environment. That's why Aéro Montréal supports the federal government's decision to proceed with the purchase of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets. By working together, we can protect and create thousands of high-quality and well paid jobs that will be available for future generations. “

In the meantime, former diplomat Mark Collins has an interesting comment on some of the troubles the F-35 program is getting into in the U.S.

 

 

 

 

'Black liquor' and other subsidies: Feds have millions for forestry firms

The federal government rolled out Thursday $278 million in subsidies to private sector players in Canada's pulp and paper industry. The subsidies are part of the government's so-called Pulp and Paper Green Transformation Program for the industry, a response, essentially, to the U.S. government's decision to subsdize the American industry for the use in that country of “black liquor” as a fuel. One  A summary of today's Canadian handouts (to be updated as the announcements are made), all but one of which are in ridings held by Conservative MPs:

A little more on Canada's “black liquor” subsidy program, courtesy of PMO communications:

The Pulp and Paper Green Transformation Program provides companies with credits based on their production of black liquor ($0.16/litre) in 2009. Black liquor is a liquid by-product of the pulping process used to generate heat and power.

Firms then have until March 31, 2012, to draw on these credits to finance approved capital projects that offer demonstrable environmental benefits, such as improvements to their energy efficiency or their capacity to produce alternative energy. The program is capped at $1 billion and total payments to Canadian industry will not exceed this amount.

Thirty-eight pulp and paper mills across Canada, representing 24 companies, generated credits under the Pulp and Paper Green Transformation Program based on their 2009 production levels of black liquor.

This morning's Conservative Talking Points: About those new senators…

Conservative MPs got the following INFO-ALERT in their e-mail inboxes this morning from party HQ:

Welcoming Two New Senators

On Monday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the appointments of Larry Smith and Don Meredith to the Senate of Canada. Yesterday, Larry Smith announced that he will seek the nomination as the Conservative candidate in the riding of Lac Saint Louis. If nominated, he will resign his Senate seat to run in the next general election.

Contrary to media speculation, the Prime Minister will not be naming any Senators to Cabinet.

Please use the following lines when speaking to media:

  • We are pleased to welcome Larry Smith and Don Meredith to the Conservative caucus.
  • Larry Smith and Don Meredith are well-regarded and visible figures in their communities who will bring a wealth of experience in business, philanthropy, sport and community initiatives to their new roles.
  • Senator Smith and Senator Meredith are strong supporters of our government's Senate reform agenda.
  • Their skills and experience will be invaluable as our Government works to pass legislation that is important to the well-being, safety and security of Canadians.

Prelude to an election? Tories launch attack ads over so-called iPod tax

The federal Conservative Party of Canada this afternoon said it will soon pay to air a series of radio ads in which it attacks the opposition “coalition” for what the Tories say is their support for an “iPod Tax” of up to $75.

Some in Ottawa have suggested that when the Conservative Party, which has more money than it can likely spend during an election campaign, starts to burn off a bit of the cash overflowing in its vaults with some pre-writ attack advertising, we may take that as part of the 'softening up' bombast that could very likely come just before some kind of election call. Now, I do not detect a hint of prevarication among Tories when they tell me they are not planning to engineer their own defeat in the new year. You, dear reader, are certainly entitled to call me naive and/or you simply may not trust anything a Conservative tells you. Fair enough. But this ad could also be a pre-emptive strike from the Tories in case any opposition parties were getting any funny ideas.

And, in any event, as I mentioned, the Tories have tons of cash to burn so what the heck …

But if there is to be some pre-election posturing, I think it a fair role for reporters to play a “reality check” role on the propaganda that is likely to come out from all quarters and so, in that spirit, let me note the following:

  • The Tories say evidence of an opposition coalition can be found in a motion passed by the House of Commons Heritage Committee to explore the idea of levy on iPods and MP3 players. True enough: All Liberal, Bloc, and NDP members voted in favour of that but so did the Conservative MP who chairs the committee: Gary Schellenberger, your coalition membership card is in the mail! [Read more about that vote, with the link to the minutes of the meeting where the vote was held here]
  • By coincidence, on the same day the Tories released the iPod tax attack ad,  the Liberal Party of Canada released its official response to C-32, the copyright bill that would contain any new fees consumers would pay to artists. In a release outlining its response, Liberal MP Marc Garneau is, it seems to me, unequivocal about the so called iPod tax: “The Liberal Party does not support the iPod levy.  It is not sustainable in a world of changing technology, and is unpopular with consumers. Canadians are already using multipurpose media devices to listen to music, like Blackberries, iPhones, iPads and computer livestreaming, on which the levy would not apply.”

VIDEO: Julian Fantino's first day walking his House of Commons beat

Julian Fantino, the new Conservative MP for Vaughan, Ont. is, I think it's fair to say, a polarizing figure. His supporters love his take-no-prisoners, tough-on-crime persona. His detractors say he's an authoritarian with little regard for the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Either way, the former police chief now has a new beat in the House of Commons. Wednesday was his first day there and, like all MPs who arrive in the House in-between elections, he was introduced to the House by his party's leader, Stephen Harper, and his regional minister, Jim Flaherty. MPs from all parties gave him a welcoming standing ovation (as they do for all new MPs) and then it was down to the business of being a partisan, in which Fantino was assigned to deliver one of the lob-ball questions that the government gets during every Question Period session. You can watch all the action, as filmed by House of Commons TV here:

The politics of the prime minister's first trip to Cape Breton

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has a full day of activities scheduled Friday in Sydney, Nova Scotia, out there on the northeast tip of beautiful Cape Breton. As many local Liberals told us when press gallery journalists were in Cape Breton over the summer for the annual Liberal summer caucus meeting, Harper has never, in his five years as prime minister, visited that part of Nova Scotia. We later had that confirmed with the PMO.

Still, better late than never, and so the curious will want to head to the Sydney Marine Terminal where Harper will hold a photo op at 12:40 pm (Atlantic time), followed by a press conference at 1 pm; and a reception and speech at 5 p.m. He'll also squeeze in a roundtable discussion with local business leaders at 3:30 pm at Cape Breton Beverages Ltd.

The local MP in Sydney is Liberal Mark Eyking who has been pressing the federal government to help chip in to the cost of dredging Sydney Harbour. This expensive project is seen as a key to local economic development because making the harbour deeper will allow it to handle bigger cargo and passenger ships.

If I were a betting man, I suspect that, given the location of the event — right on the harbour — and the fact that Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter will also be in attendance for the 1 p.m. announcement, Cape Bretoners are about to learn that the feds and the province are ready to fund that dredging project. (The feds, incidentally, have paid for dredging projects on the Fraser River on Canada's West Coast, a project with similarly important local economic development implications.)

The trip to Cape Breton is also going to feature a whole lot of one Peter MacKay, the MP from just across the Canso Causeway in the riding of Central Nova. MacKay is the regional minister for Nova Scotia so it's entirely normal for him to attend. But there are still those here in Ottawa — and probably in Nova Scotia — who are wondering about his commitment to staying on as an MP. The Globe and Mail last month, citing unnamed sources, said he was considering leaving politics for a Bay Street law firm. MacKay, speaking on the record, quickly denied those reports.

A few days later, at the NATO Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, I noted that MacKay and Harper seemed to be getting along famously. I suspect that part of the rationale behind tomorrow's event will also be to demonstrate to Nova Scotians and Cape Bretoners that MacKay and the prime minister continue to have a strong relationship.

Finally: While the next general election is unlikely to be decided in Nova Scotia, there are a couple of seats in that province in play and, even Liberals in the riding concede, there is an outside chance one of those might be Eyking's. The scenario that puts his seat in play would be one in which the Conservatives appear headed for a majority and Eyking could get caught in a “blue sweep” through the country. The Conservatives have a nominated candidate in that riding – who no doubt will be at one or all of the events tomorrow — named Cecil Clarke, who is currently the Member of the Legislative Assembly for Cape Breton North. Both Tories and Liberals believe Clarke is a more credible threat to Eyking than the challengers Eyking has faced down before.

No one believes that the Liberal representing the other half of Cape Breton, Rodger Cuzner, is likely to lose his seat in any scenario.

The other riding in play in the province, though, is West Nova where rookie MP Greg Kerr beat Liberal incumbent Robert Thibeault. Thibeault wants a re-match and both Tories and Liberals believe they'll have a fight on their hands there in the next election. Harper's day of politicking, then, in Cape Breton will be done with an eye towards the fight in West Nova and a potential one in Eyking's riding of Sydney-Victoria.

Thought I'd normally use any excuse for a visit to Cape Breton, I won't be there tomorrow but I'd love to hear from anyone who is attending to send along some colour and flavour.