Blog of Adam Daifallah -- author, journalist, law student. Lover of politics, writing, golf, curling, fitness, fashion, bacon and maple products -- not necessarily (but probably) in that order. Partisan of the Anglosphere. Contact me via email at adam@daifallah.com.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Borys Watch
Over on the blog of Michelle Oleil, a curious picture appears of two Liberal MPs at a pro-Israel rally in Toronto:
At the outset I stipulated that the weapons with which we are fighting World War IV are not all military—that they also include economic, diplomatic, and other nonmilitary instruments of power. In exerting pressure for reform on countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, these nonmilitary instruments are the right ones to use. But it should be clear by now to any observer not in denial that Iran is not such a country. As we know from Iran’s defiance of the Security Council and the IAEA even while the United States has been warning Ahmadinejad that “all options” remain on the table, ultimatums and threats of force can no more stop him than negotiations and sanctions have managed to do. Like them, all they accomplish is to buy him more time.
In short, the plain and brutal truth is that if Iran is to be prevented from developing a nuclear arsenal, there is no alternative to the actual use of military force—any more than there was an alternative to force if Hitler was to be stopped in 1938.
Read the whole thing. You may not agree with this viewpoint, but it is the most compelling and coherent case I have seen to date for this course of action.
TORONTO — The Conservatives' environment plan favours the oil sands, leaves taxpayers to foot the bill for industry, and doesn't explain how any drop in greenhouse gas emissions will be achieved, says a leading environment group.
In a harsh review of the government's proposals, the Pembina Institute says its month-long analysis of the figures left them with dozens of questions.
The government says it will reduce the carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent by 2020.
But Matthew Bramley, director of the Pembina Institute's climate change program, says the government has pegged that reduction to emissions levels recorded in 2006, when the Kyoto Protocol is based on 1990 levels.
Using a different base year for emission levels gives a “misleading impression of their [government] adequacy,” Mr. Bramley wrote in his report released on Monday.
Now let me tell you why this is the most irritating kind of report in the world.
The Pembina Institute is a left-wing environmental lobby that has received several hundred thousand dollars in government funding. Nowhere in the article are these important facts noted.
I have no objection to Pembina receiving media coverage -- they put out a report! But please identify them properly.
Why is it that whenever the Fraser Institute or the Montreal Economic Institute are cited, they are called "the right-wing ( ... ) Institute" but the same standard is not applied to the left? A neutral report would have written the second paragraph as follows:
In a harsh review of the government's proposals, the Pembina Institute, a left-of centre environemntal lobbying organization that has in the past received government funding, says its month-long analysis of the figures left them with dozens of questions.
This is one of the many hurdles conservatives face in the media.
Following the daily twists and turns of the Conrad Black trial was fun for a while, but it's gotten a bit tedious. It's been clear for weeks that the government's case was a joke. (This was established long before David Radler took the stand, but confirmed by his testimony.) You hear different perspectives coming out of the courtroom from different observers, but the overwhelming consensus amongst credible sources (this excludes Tom Bower's pontifications and the online coverage of Toronto Lifemagazine, which has been nothing short of embarassing) is that the prosecution's witnesses have nearly all left the stand limping after undergoing not one but four cross-examinations -- one by each of the four co-accused's legal teams.
Still, while I'm convinced no crimes were committed here, and that this has been a giant waste of time and money for every party concerned -- including the US taxpayer -- I'm not 100% sure the jury will report back with a not-guilty verdict. With some of the inflammatory stuff intdroduced by the prosecution -- a lavish birthday party for Barbara Amiel, a holiday in French Polynesia, some of Black's colourful use of English in email correspondance -- the emotions of the jurors could possibly overtake reason and lead them to convict. I don't think the chances of this are high, but they are still there. This trial has accomplished nothing other than to ruin a once-powerful and profitable company and nearly destroy several people's lives.
Some readers may recall that last summer I blogged for a few weeks from Washington. I was there doing some minor reasearch at the National Archives for Black's Nixon biography, which is on shelves beginning today. The reviews, even from some unexpected sources, have been fawning. No matter what happens in the coming weeks, no one will be able to take away Conrad Black's accomplishments of writing two seminal presidential biographies, the defining biography of Québec most's consequential premier, the revitalization of the moribund Canadian newspaper industry, the mainstreaming of small-c conservative thought in the Canadian press, the building from scratch of what was one of the world's great newspaper companies, and much more.
Anti-Olympic activists trashed the premier's downtown offices yesterday, protesting the evictions of poor people from the Downtown Eastside for the 2010 Games. They trashed the reception area, and the office of the premier's chief of staff, Laura Dauphinee, but did not get into Premier Gordon Campbell's inner sanctum or reach the office of Ken Dobell, one of the targets of the protest.
...
After trashing several rooms, but not the downtown cabinet room, the protesters sat down on the floor awaiting police.
"There was a lot of furniture overturned, a fax machine damaged, a number of ornaments and pottery that has been smashed," Chow said."The two staff members were visibly shaken. They were frightened for their safety."
This article brought back memories of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) protests of the late 1990s. These people went to such lows as to throw a slab of concrete through a Queen's Park window and to cut the hamstring of a police horse to frustrate the cops.
In honour of the impending retirement of Bob Barker in June, this blog will be posting videos in the coming days to pay tribute to this multi-generational icon who was on TV for 50 YEARS!!!!
Today, we watch what is likely the stupidest bid in the history of the Showcase Showdown.
If you thought no real-life Americans were ready to make good on those promises to leave the U.S. because of the Bush administration -- think again.
Today I ran into an American lady who is planning on doing just that! And she's thinking of moving to Québec City, of all places.
The woman, who was probably about 60, was unable to communicate in French with the cashier at the checkout of our neighbourhood grocery store. I helped her at the cash register and we got talking. She came up to visit for a few days to scope out the place and was comparing produce prices here to those back home in Washington state.
"I can't afford to retire in Washington, it's too expensive," she told me. "And I want your free healthcare."
Hmmm, I thought. Interesting reasons.
I explained that yes indeed, our health system has its benefits, but just like the U.S. one, it has drawbacks.
"Were you aware that a large number of people can't even find a doctor here, and that you can wait a year or more for a hip replacement?" I asked.
"Oh, well it can't be worse than our system, and besides, you don't have to deal with our illustrious president," she said.
Hmmmmmm, I thought.
"Ma'am, were you aware that 99% of this city is French-speaking?"
We must also be careful about the language we use. No Muslim I've ever met is offended by Christmas, or supports its replacement with 'Winterval'. But many Muslims I've talked to about these issues are deeply offended by the use of the word 'Islamic' or 'Islamist' to describe the terrorist threat we face today.
Give Cameron credit for one thing: Fishing for votes from readers of The Guardian has likely never been tried by the UK Conservatives before.
The man partly responsible for bringing about André Boisclair's downfall (his people had been working behind the scenes to force his resignation since March 26) has now bowed out of the PQ leadership race 24 hours after he entered it to allow a coronation for the Grand Dame of the sovereignist movement, Pauline Marois. Duceppe realized two things: 1) he probably wouldn't win; and 2) even if he did, he would subject the already-weak PQ to a bloodbath of a race, leaving the party in worse shape than it already is.
Duceppe's announcement is more good news for Stephen Harper. Duceppe will now be relegated (maybe only temporarily) to lame-duck status. Dion is not improving Liberal fortunes in Quebec and Justin Trudeau's candidacy is a gift for the Tories in the ridings they are aiming to win.
The answers to Duceppe's questions in the House tomorrow ought to be entertaining.
The latest from Quebec's ADQ, the party all my friends (those who don't live in Quebec) keep telling me is "right-wing":
Liberal Premier Jean Charest is hinting strongly that he will plow ahead with his proposed tax cuts, setting up his minority government's first major confrontation with the Action democratique du Quebec.
Charest signalled yet again on Thursday that he was undaunted by ADQ Leader Mario Dumont's lack of enthusiasm for the cuts. "Reducing personal income tax stimulates growth and encourages work, that's what we want," Charest told a gathering of Quebec municipal leaders.
Charest outlined details of sweeping cuts for the middle class in the innaugural speech of his minority government on Wednesday.
The tax cuts will likely be the centrepiece of the minority government's first budget, to be tabled on May 24.
But earlier on Thursday, Dumont reiterated his unease about Charest's promise to use $700 million in federal transfer money for middle-class tax cuts.
"We needed this money for our hospitals and our schools," Dumont said in the legislature.
When Mike Harris was Premier of Ontario from 1995-2002, it was very difficult to have any personal interaction with him. He was heavily protected by his staff and his public appearances were always so tightly-managed it was next to impossible to get a word in with him.
Since his left office, however, I have been able to get to know him better, and he even hosted the book launch party for Rescuing Canada's Right in November 2005.
He was in Halifax this weekend attending the same event I was and on Thursday night he joined a small group of us for drinks on Thursday night.
A few tables away, a very elderly gentleman, decked out in full military regalia complete with a bunch of medals and ribbons, sat down with his wife. It was obvious he was a WWII veteran.
Mike Harris got up from our table and went over to talk to the man for several minutes to thank him for his service.
To answer Izzy's question below, I have little to say about the André Boisclair resignation. He was a disastrous leader from the start and proof positive that, to alter slightly the words of the title of Peggy Noonan's excellent book on Ronald Reagan, Character is King.
As has been noted many times by many people, including by me tonight on Rob Breakenridge's radio show, Boisclair was too snobby, too elitist, too Montreal, too gay and too leftwing for rural francophone Quebec. The PQ is ideologically out-of-whack with its base and that dynamic is likely continue if ex-Maoist Gilles Duceppe takes over the party. They won't change.
I was out in Halifax the past few days attending the annual Civitas conference. On Saturday, a new conservative journal, of which I sit on the editorial board, was launched.
C2C: Canada's Journal of Ideas is the latest step in the ever-growing movement to build a real conservative infrastructure in Canada. An intellectual journal that could at once serve as an outlet for innovative conservative thinking and as a place for young writers to publish their work was desperately needed -- and now we have it. Much thanks must go to Patricia Trottier, Gwyn Morgan, and the Manning Centre for Building Democracy for their support of this very important initiative.
I hope you'll check out the whole thing, especially the article by Travis Smith. I contributed a book review. Reader comments are welcome at the site; the hope is to get a lot of interaction going. It will publish quarterly.
After reading a few sentences, I was reminded of something Michael Bliss, the erudite and opinionated Canadian historian, told me at a dinner party a couple of years ago.
"Professor Bliss," I said, approaching him, my hand extended to shake his. "We miss you. Why aren't you writing much anymore?"
"Well," he replied, smiling, "To be honest, I was afraid that if I kept writing, I'd start sounding like an angry old man."
Jeffrey Simpson might want to heed Professor Bliss's advice. When you write about something like Canadian national politics for two, three, four decades (I've lost count) without stopping, you are bound to run out of interesting things to say. Simpson's best before date was in about 1982, after he wrote that excellent book, Discipline of Power, about Joe Clark's failed 1979 government.
Today, Simpson (who's son is, or at least was, an Liberal Party staffer) takes Stephen Harper to task for trying to appeal to francophone Quebec voters. Simpson makes it sound like Harper's strategy is scandalous and almost akin to treason. The PM actually said, in public, that he wants a strong, autonomous and proud Quebec! The gall.
In truth, what Harper is doing is neither scandalous nor innovative. He is doing what every single Conservative leader who has succeeded in Quebec has done, whether it be Sir John A. or Diefenbaker or Mulroney. Despite the constant hysteria of Simpson, Andrew Coyne's et al., there is nothing wrong with appealing to francophone nationalist voters. Indeed, it is the only known winning formula for a Tory majority.
I particularly enjoyed this line from the column:
The sturdy walls Mr. Harper builds between himself and serious journalists prevent questioning.
Translation:
The sturdy walls Mr. Harper builds between himself and me prevent me from getting an interview with him and I'm bitter.
I apologize if this is harsh, but this stuff is not fit for publishing in a serious national newspaper.
