Toronto Mayor Aubut: "Just Trust Me"

John Barber wrote a couple of weeks ago:

Suddenly there's a new mayor in town. You don't know him and you didn't vote for him. But if his threatened coup comes off, he will be the one giving orders in Toronto for the next decade.

And after handing this new civic potentate supreme power, no pipsqueak council or elected mayor will dare complain as he burdens local taxpayers with grandiose monuments of crippling expense and little use.

All hail Marcel Aubut, chairman of the Canadian Olympic Committee! Desperately seeking attention in a perpetual fit of adolescent insecurity, we salute you. Make us do something other people will notice! Lay on the magic hands.

Today, we hear from Mayor Aubut in in his own words.

“There are lots of people...who are there ready to commit to go one step further,” says Marcel Aubut. “But I won’t give you the list.”

Well, why the heck would he? He's not answerable to anybody.

It’s “difficult” for Olympic backers to be transparent at such an early stage, Aubut said, but he promised the public would learn more soon.

Pressed for details, Aubut would only say there will be "momentum" leading up to Sept. 15, the deadline for cities to tell the International Olympic Committee they’re interested in bidding for the 2024 Games.

Torontonians may not remember or care about Marcel Aubut, but the people of Quebec City sure do.

Aubut was President of the Nordiques when the team was sold to an American communications company and moved to Denver in 1995, becoming the Colorado Avalanche. Maclean's Magazine reported that Aubut personally made $15 million from the sale and that t-shirts reading "Marcel Aubut: Wanted Dead or Alive" were not an uncommon sight in Quebec City at the time.

To add insult to the proverbial injury, the team won the Stanley Cup the next year.

And now the "big man -- with the equally large personality" is president of the Canadian Olympic Committee and is pushing to have Toronto sign a blank cheque to host the 2024 Summer Games.

But is that his ultimate goal?

Who knows?

But it would irresponsible not to speculate in light of this (from January 2012).

But where his pro-hockey and Olympic interests happily intersect are in the efforts to finally build Quebec City a new arena. The vision is that the $400-million, 18,000-seat facility would also serve as the centrepiece of a Winter Games bid. But funding for the project—a pastiche of provincial, city, Quebecor and fan money—remains sketchy. And the “target” Olympics is now 2026, which won’t be awarded until 2019.

Aubut, who splits his time between Quebec, Montreal and Toronto, remains an enthusiastic proponent. Quebec, like Winnipeg, is a different city these days, with a more vibrant economy. And it has the capacity to host not just NHL hockey, but the world.

Would there be an element of personal redemption? “You appreciate what you don’t have,” he says.“I really want a team back.”

Got that? The man who profited by $15 million on the sale of the old Nordiques wants another team in Quebec City and he's prepared to plunge Toronto and Quebec City too, presumably, into MASSIVE debt to get it.

No matter that every media pundit in Toronto is against it, joined yesterday by noted urbanologist -- and Toronto resident -- Richard Florida.

Mr. Tory posed the issue correctly when he said: “The most important question I have is, ‘Do you think this would be to the benefit of the people of the city of Toronto?’” Based on every shred of evidence, the answer is No.

Pundits, urbanologists, academics -- all think it's a very bad deal.

Even City Councillors are getting twitchy.

BREAKING Anthony Perruzza calling on Mayor John Tory to have a special council meeting on an Olympic bid #TOpoli pic.twitter.com/iexJRWp5Ne

— Don Peat (@reporterdonpeat) September 9, 2015

And then there's us peons who have little recourse but a petition.

But what Big (Unelected) Mayor Aubut wants, he wants.

And we should just trust him?

Yeah, right.


ADDED: Freedom of Information requests to John Tory's office raise lots more questions.

Democracy Needs YOU!

Watch this trailer (3 minutes of your life).





Voting rights are the essential fuel of democracy. If we can't trust that our electoral system is fair and properly overseen, we're screwed.

This is a non-partisan issue. And should concern everyone who gives a damn about the power of the people to scare this hell out of the elites.

Sensible people from across the political spectrum understand that bad laws and corrupted institutions can and will be exploited by ANY party.

The makers of this documentary have been busting their butts to get this done and distributed in time to inform Canadians what's at stake in the upcoming election.

Here's the blurb from the gofundme site.

Help us get this doc on the road before the election!

In a few weeks Canadians will head back to the polls without any clear assurance the last federal election delivered the results they voted for.

Documentary filmmaker Peter Smoczynski has just completed a 42 day road trip across Canada from Guelph to Whitehorse interviewing and filming recipients of the harassment, live and robo calls which took place in 234 out of 308 ridings in the 2011 federal election.

MPs, journalists, scholars, court challenge litigants, and experts on the Fair Elections Act, voter micro-targetting and professional voter suppression techniques imported from the U.S. also lend their voices and expertise to the film.

When the writ drops, Peter plans to have an abbreviated version of the full length film ready to tour across the country from church basements and libraries to movie houses.

This is where you come in.

The film is running on fumes here. 

We urgently need your help with post-production and editing expenses to get this doc out into the public eye before the upcoming election.

Please check back for details of our progress and information on future tour dates. 

Producer's overview of the film can be viewed here .

Thank you for your time.

PETER SMOCZYNSKI
The Script & Film Co.
Producer/Director/Writer
Documentary Filmmaker
Peter's profile.

People give dough to the damnedest things. But this project seems not to have the "right" kind of appeal.

Beats the shit out of me why not.

Please consider contributing. And/or pass the info around your networks.

Donate.

At the moment, $855 of the goal of $10,000 has been raised by 16 people in 15 hours.


UPDATE: Sunday, August 2, 8:30 a.m.: $1515 raised.

Conservative Does Not Think Conservatives Deserve Majority (Wait til you find out who)

Putting this here for people who do not do the Twitter thing or who may have missed it.

Connie Fournier (yes, that Connie Fournier) writes:

Canadian conservatives don't deserve to have a majority government.

There. I said it. I haven't given up on conservatism. Actually, quite the opposite. I have just come to the conclusion that it is not in the interest of conservatism (or liberty or democracy, for that matter) for the Conservative Party to remain in power.

She goes on to excoriate -- very capably but from a conservative's point of view -- this government's abuse of privacy, freedom, and democracy focussing on the Jihadis Under Every Bed Bill, aka Bill C51.

Fourth-last paragraph:

It is obvious that we, as a political movement, do not have the maturity at this time to handle the unlimited power of a majority government. When we, as citizens, are left depending on the NDP and the Green Party to try to stop the Conservatives from stripping us of our rights, it is very, very wrong.

Go read the whole thing.

So, Connie, I guess we can expect to see you at upcoming anti-C51 rallies, eh?

More Harper Lies

DAMMIT JANET! should have been doing this on a weekly, if not daily basis since Harper took power.

Since 2006, his regime has perfected the art of ideological spin to an artistic apex that surely has Goebbels clapping wildly in his grave.  Here's one wrap-up of obfuscations deployed by his thousands of communications flunkeys.

Remember Vic Toews' _line in the sand_ ...?

Boy, that sure was some hugely volatile speaking point, charged with insinuations that had previously worked momentarily for Harper in the 2005 election campaign.

Only it backfired again, this time with a MASSIVE pushback.

Here's the reality with regard to the Cons' disingenuous, desperate tactic.  It turns out that Harper's government isn't really all that committed to providing the RCMP with adequate resources to investigate, gather evidence, charge child pornographers and bring them to trial.

In fact, Harper and the RCMP dropped the ball as soon as it was evident that their regime could pursue other avenues for spying upon, harassing and destroying organizations and the lives of people who didn't agree with them, or openly opposed their policies as is allowed in a democratic country.

The CRA has been directed by Harper to audit specific organizations. The RCMP has been told to focus on First Nations, Métis and Indigenous resistance movement and its leaders, as well as environmentalists.  CSIS will be empowered to disregard constitutional rights as it spies on those identified as *terrorists* by Harper and MacKay.

And now, it appears that Harper/Kenney monstrosity, the _Monument to Victims of Communism_ might allow Nazis and Third Reich officials to be remembered, since the figures cited include these people.

[...]memory squares will be embedded in a series of ascending folded concrete rows, rising 14.5 metres at their highest point. Visitors will be able to walk among the rows and touch the memory squares to “viscerally experience the overwhelming scale of the Communist atrocities,” says the winning team’s statement of design intent.
At Thursday’s announcement, Kapusta referenced Josef Stalin’s infamous statement that “one death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic.”

As our friend Jay Watts III notes:

He also raises these valid points.

For the modest sum of $1000, folks who admire the work of Wilhelm Kube could have his name inscribed on one of the Memory Squares.  He is one of those "victim of Communism"... included in the statistics deployed by the Harper Cons.

The Contempt of Harper Conservative Reformists: enabling child pornographers, glorifying fascists and eventually jailing Canadians who disagree with them.

If things continue his way, Harper will be remembered for human rights abuses as egregious as those of Joseph Stalin or Robert Mugabe.

A Modest Proposal: Subvert (Harper's) Democracy

I think it's fair to say that PMSHithead has hit some stormy seas lately. The details hardly matter; what matters is that the pundit class seems to have woken up to the little matter of Canadians' widespread loathing for the man, his lies, and his puppets. Even some of his puppets are tiring of his hand up their butts.

Here's Chantal Hébert:

That Harper is more isolated and less in control today than a year ago is not in doubt. Consistently mediocre poll results; heightened caucus unrest; public cabinet squabbles; a poorly handled Senate scandal and what has turned out to be a bad hire for the top party job indicate as much.

A more interesting question is whether, after a decade at the helm, the Conservative leader is inexorably becoming detached/distracted from the business of running the party and the country.

Evidence that the government is adrift is accumulating and the responsibility for that can be traced right back to the top.

More often than not over the past eighteen months the messes that the prime minister has had to mop up have been of his own making. The Soudas episode is just one case in point.

Here's Lawrence Martin, writing under the title, "Harper machine in is in disarry":

Few expected this. The bet would have been that the Prime Minister would have gone to the wall to protect Dimitri Soudas, as he has many other loyalists after acts of folly.

But just four months after having been appointed, the Conservative Party’s executive director is out the door. He joins a lengthening list. In recent months, Stephen Harper has also lost his chief of staff, his finance minister and a Supreme Court nominee, plus several senators as a result of the expenses scandal.

Here's Susan Delacourt from last July on Harper's enemies:

“Creepy” was one of the words used this week to describe the existence of those enemy lists inserted into the briefing binders of new ministers in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government.

Here’s something potentially creepier, however. What if the government kept its list of friends and enemies on a huge, computer database, with names, addresses and personal information about millions of Canadians? And what if you had no right at all to see how you were listed?

Such a database exists. Up to now, it’s been called the Constituent Information Management System, CIMS for short, though the Conservative party is reportedly in the midst of building a better machine, called C-Vote.

And yes, CIMS does organize the political universe into friendly and not-so-friendly people. If you’ve been a friend to the Conservative cause over the years, volunteering, donating or even writing nice things about Conservatives in letters to the newspaper, a yellow, smiley face appears beside your name in the database.

If, however, you have put up lawn signs for rival parties, slammed the door or hung up the phone on the Conservatives, your name appears in CIMS with a frowning red face.

Friend: smiley face. Enemy: frowning face. It’s as simple as that.

And here is my hero and as far as I and many other are concerned, the only one who truly gets what a sick basturd the PM is. Meet Michael Harris:

Someone described Stephen Harper as a Sphinx without a riddle.
...
In Calgary, I ran into Bill Phipps, the former moderator of the United Church. Phipps, a lawyer, churchman and social activist, ran against Harper in 2002 as the NDP’s candidate in the riding of Calgary Southwest. Harper refused to debate Phipps and won in a landslide.

“I went over to congratulate him at his headquarters and he wouldn’t shake my hand. He told me he despised me! I couldn’t figure out how he could despise me, since he didn’t know me.”
...
The Fair Elections Act is almost like one of the dark novels of Evelyn Waugh. How absurd is it that the party that cheated in the In-and-Out scandal is now redesigning the voting process? What are they trying to fix — the system or the next election?
...
Have you noticed how everything to do with government in Canada these days is either secret, under investigation, or in court?

As Bob Rae put it, “Harper can be nasty, cynical, and has a deep authoritarian streak. If there is something these guys don’t like, they must pass a law to stop it. He destroys the freedom people should have to express themselves.”

Be advised. That will soon include elections.

(Read every word he writes. His work can be found at iPolitics and The Tyee and you can follow him at @HarrisAuthor.)

Given all this, it's not surprising to see this yesterday.

Fascinating: Harper says he's running #2015, but today CPC is calling Cdns to ask; "Wd you vote for *Harper?" Note NOT CPC! Harper #cdnpoli

— Red Mitten (@2010redmittens) April 2, 2014

The CONs are polling to see how viable their fading, out-of-touch psychopath leader is for the next election.

Here's what I propose. Whether you are friend or foe, more especially if you are foe, voice your solid, unqualified support for Harper.

In polls. Phone polls, online polls, whenever you are asked by professionals your opinion of Harper, show him some love.

In other words, lie your ass off. (As a point of pride, I always lie to pollsters anyway.)

He wants to suppress our democracy. Let's subvert his.

Let's fuck up his beloved CIMS database.

And the beauty of this is that even if his operatives get wind of the effort, they won't believe it. They will believe their own poll numbers if they are moving in the direction they believe they should. They will not believe that a few determined Canadians would or could subvert the process.

Further beauty: It may panic the FUCKING USELESS OPPOSITION®. "Whoa", they may think, "Maybe we'd better rethink our age-old game of slamming other Opposition Parties rather than cooperating to preserve what little of Canada is left."

(To this end, I have a new Twitter policy. I am unfollowing all Opposition members, professional or amateur, who prefer to denigrate other Opposition parties over rallying to defeat the vandals currently in office.)

Of course, this won't work with über-partisans. And it may confuse your less political friends and relations.

You'll have to explain that you are engaged in a campaign of disinformation, feeding bullshit to the bad guys, in order to encourage them to continue in -- indeed double down on -- their blithe democracy- and environment-destroying ways only to wake up on election morning with a Kim-Campbell result.

I can't think of anything else for ordinary Canadians to do. Petitions, letter-writing, rallies, demonstrations, fah! They don't give a shit.

What we can deliver is false confidence.

Then, when they least expect it, a totally gratifying knee to the nads.

I leave the last word to co-blogger deBeauxOs, speaking of Harper.

@SusanFelucifer @fernhilldammit His violence is ideological, not personal. He will eliminate his enemies if we are a threat to his projects.

— deBeauxOs (@deBeauxOs1) April 1, 2014

We will not appear to threaten his projects; we will subvert his most important one -- getting reelected.

Fair - that is non-fraudulent - elections

Yesterday this retweet in Nancy LeBlanc's twitter stream caught my attention.

Like all politically aware and engaged Canadians, the blogging team at DJ! has been observing the CONtemptuous CPC maneuvers to pass their Unfair Elections Act, which the smarmy Poilièvre titled, with considerable malevolent double-speak from PMSHithead's PMO, the "Fair Reform Act".

So I turned to resolution 31 in the LPC convention program.  It's a long one, and advances this: 

... A truly independent, properly resourced Parliamentary Budget Officer;

A more effective Access-to-Information regime with stronger safeguards against political interference;

An impartial system to identify and eliminate the waste of tax-dollars on partisan advertising; Careful limitations on secret Committee proceedings, Omnibus Bills and Prorogation to avoid their misuse for the short-term partisan convenience of the government;

Adequate funding, investigative powers and enforcement authority to ensure Elections Canada can root out electoral fraud; ...

In short, the Liberals bringing this resolution forward hope that it acknowledges the harm and damage Harper's CPC government has wrought upon Parliamentary process, address it with specific actions to redress Con malfeasance, and inscribe it within their own party's mandate.

It's a tall order.  I don't know if media folks and bloggers are allowed to attend the discussions that accompany the presentation of resolutions, but I will certainly be reporting on how this one is received and whether it passes.

Note in the twit pic the presence of Fair Vote Canada, a non-partisan organization.  May this augur well for a unified and cohesive cooperative strategy by all opposition parties to rid the country of Harper's greedy grifters, fatuous felons, corporate criminals and sleazy kleptocrats.

Conservative Amnesty Act, or Butchering Democracy

I am in total despair over the Cons' plan to butcher democracy, or as Canadian Cynic dubs it:

Critics should simply start referring to the "Fair Elections Act" as the "Conservative Amnesty Act." Oh, the hilarity.

— CC (@canadiancynic) February 8, 2014

I was going to blog and collected a bunch of links.

Chantal Hébert

Marc Mayrand

Andrew Coyne

And Alison @ Creekside's expansion on Coyne's thoughts

Stephen Maher

Don Martin

Finally, Michael Harris's excoriations.

But really, it can all be summed up by this:

.#cdnpoli The scariest thing about the #UnfairElxnsAct is how brazenly it screams "We cheated b4, we'll do it again & you'll never prove it"

— Penny Mills (@Pennyvane10) February 9, 2014

And we are absolutely helpless to stop them.

Unless. . . there are 18 or so principled Cons willing to vote against their party.

One thing to do today. Participate in the Council of Canadians' Hold the Phone campaign.

I don't have a Con MP (thank the goddess). The Council suggests calling one nearby.

I'm going to call Peter Kent, who claims his self-imposed demotion to the backbench will give him the opportunity to "express my mind and opinion across all our files."

I'll report.

UPDATE: First, all day the title of this has had "Butching" in it. Just noticed and fixed. Kee-rist. DJ! readers are lousy proofreaders. (It's all YOUR fault.)

Next, I called Kent's constituency office and talked to a pleasant young (sounding) man. I explained that I didn't live in the riding and why I chose Kent to voice my concerns to. The man assured me that my comments would be passed along, but that I should put them in writing as well. I told him I had already, but that I wanted to call so that someone would hear my voice and understand how deeply upset I am about this bill. (Thought that was a rather nifty move on my part, playing emotional old doll card.) No email reply yet and the bill passed second reading tonight, which apparently limits the sort and scope of amendments that can be made in committee.

So. They win.

But. #UnFairElxnsAct (Council of Canadians suggested hashtag, q.v.) trended today. We did what we could.

And. Justin Trudeau had pressing business elsewhere, I guess. He wasn't in the House to vote against this. Not that it would have made any difference, but.

THIS Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

Wonder how we Canadians continue to elect arrogant, classless imbeciles?

Most people don't give a damn.

Only 10 per cent of respondents to the Samara survey had volunteered, donated to or joined a political party in the previous five years. Just 17 per cent said they had taken part in political discussions on social media such as Twitter or Facebook over the past year. The same percentage said they had written a letter to the editor about a political issue in the past 12 months.

Full, depressing report that our elected morons will be merrily jacking off to.

Democracy at Risk!!!!!

The decision to deem Warawa's Wank non-voteable is becoming even more fun.

The parliamentary expert had no problem with either the jurisdiction or possible repetitiveness of M408, aka the Gotcha Motion That Proves Pro-Choicers to Be Enthusiastic Murderers of Pre-Born Women. Those were the flimsy excuses the committee cited: that abortion/health is a provincial matter and the subject had been voted on recently (Woodworth's Wank).

Natch, Warawa shrieked about democracy, independence of MPs, yadayada.

(When any fool with more than one functioning neuron could see the Iron Fist of PMSHithead clamping down on any whiff of the dreaded abortion debate.)

Today, it seems Warawa is getting some support.

Here is where Mr. Warawa might get the support of those who otherwise oppose his views on abortion. Regardless of how one feels about his motion, regardless of how uncomfortable it might make the leadership of Mr. Warawa’s party, every MP and everyone who is represented by an MP should be concerned if Mr. Warawa is being prevented from putting a motion before the House simply because some people oppose its sentiment or would rather it not be brought forward. Never mind the very fraught matter of abortion, this now threatens to become a question about the nature of parliamentary democracy and the independence of MPs.

This is delicious. If M408 is found to be voteable, opponents can squeal 'HIDDEN AGENDA!' If non-voteable, everybody can squeal 'DEMOCRACY SCREWED!'

In short, PMSHithead is between a rock and a hard place.

Good spot for him, isn't it?

For interested watchers -- popcorn!



By the way, this is the committee that will hear Warawa's appeal.


Image source.

Black Out, Speak Out

More information.

Finance to Greece: elect a new people, or else

I note with some happiness and satisfaction for the future of the human race that the Greek government has decided to put the latest "bailout", handed down from on high by non-Greek politicians in the thrall of big finance, to a referendum. I note with further satisfaction the howls of outrage represented in the "market reaction", and the absolute naked hatred for democracy demonstrated thereby. Exposed and ugly as ever.

Prepare for massive application of shock doctrine tactics to the Greek people. I wouldn't be surprised if the Greeks were eventually to vote yes, even though I am firmly hoping for a no. Make no mistake: the brutal confidence fairy's insatiable thirst for the well-being of the old and the future of the young will not be slaked by another austerity package.

This is the lesson: you cannot have free trade without political union. One is the other. All supranational free trade (protected investment) zones are political unions. Most of them are hidden corporate dictatorships. Now the Greek government---as part of a gamble for the political capital that they would get on a yes, notwithstanding the fact that the situation had become untenable in Athens---has done the unforgivable and exposed this reality. Europe will have to decide whether it is going to implement democracy or abandon the project (or resort to corporatist military coups in noncompliant states...).

I for one am with you, Hellas. Here's hoping that they'll retain the strength to say no, and to force the rest of Europe to stop trying to pass the buck. The truth is, a referendum is far preferable to what would follow if the world is forced to feed the vampire squid another decade.

I don't believe in fairies. Unicorns, maybe. Fairies, no. Especially not confidence fairies.

Citizens Demand Respect

Glen Pearson offers a thoughtful blogpost titled: 'The New Democracy'.

Those who watched the Republican rivals in their leadership debate this week were treated to quite a scene – eight rivals squaring off against one another in hopes of the politics’ ultimate prize. Whatever your political leanings, it was an impressive sight as they spread out across the entire platform.

Sadly, it might be a rare occurrence in the new age of Canadian politics. Last May’s federal election introduced citizens to a new kind of political strategy – opting out of debates. It occurred extensively and was practiced primarily by those running for the Conservative party. This isn’t a partisan shot; it was just a reality that was confronting Canadians for the first time.

Somehow the Conservatives figured on two growing realities. The first was that citizens were increasingly tuning out of politics, and the second was the split vote on the left provided them an obvious advantage in any kind of electoral contest. In both cases they turned out to be right. And now we hear of reports that the Ontario Progressive Conservative candidates are refusing to attend debates in the run-up to the provincial election. What’s going on out there?

Pearson attributes the phenom to candidates' ambition and public inertia. Ambitious pols don't want to fuck up. Public inertia is a reaction to relentless talking points and bullshit. We're starting to believe that none of it matters. Not one of these assholes is going to be accountable to us after the election, so why should they show us any respect even to try to get our votes?

Pearson concludes:

If Jesse Jackson was right when he said, “Deliberation and debate is the way you stir the soul of our democracy,” then any jurisdiction where people refuse to participate in public debates is cheapened. When any party adopts the motto “Silence is Golden” in a campaign, the result is political and social deafness. It might be the new democracy, but it’s demeaning to us all.

In the May federal election, CBC's Janyce McGregor got saddled with maintaining a list of no-shows. It started with a short report that other reporters added to. Members of the public piled on and it got very looooong indeed.

Just now on Twitter I proposed that we help out whoever ends up being the Ontario election's McGregor, by reporting on #NoShows.

I found a few quite easily:

Hudork was a no-show in own riding's all-candidates debate.

In Lambton-Kent-Meddlesex, only three candidates turned up at an all-candidates debate on post-secondary education.

[Lib] Van Bommel made note of [PC Monte] McNaughton's absence in her closing remarks, noting her disappointment that he could not be there to answer questions or defend the Conservative's record on education.

"More importantly, he was not here to listen to the views or concerns of the people of Lambton-Kent-Middlesex," Van Bommel said.

She notes that McNaughton also did not attend an earlier all-candidates meeting regarding agriculture held earlier in the week in Glencoe.

Same in Ottawa.

An all-candidates debate expecting high-profile faces yielded a mere pair of hopefuls for the upcoming Ontario provincial election.

The debate, hosted by the Municipal Taxpayer Advocacy Group, attracted only Liberal Madeleine Meilleur and NDP Anil Naidoo.

But the two candidates are not even going head-to-head in the Oct. 6 provincial election. Meilleur is the incumbent in the riding of Ottawa-Vanier and Naidoo is hoping to steal the seat in Ottawa-Centre from Meilleur's Liberal counterpart Yasir Naqvi.

No Progressive Conservative candidate appeared before the disappointed crowd.

The event held at Ottawa City Hall was advertised as an arena for known names such as Randall Denley, Jack MacLaren and Bob Chiarelli.

The Cons got away with this in the federal election, but then they were the governing party.

If Hudork and gang -- or any of them -- think they can hide from us and we'll vote for them anyway, let's show them they've got another think coming.

Pearson tagged his post with 'political absence'. I'd call it political abstinence and like sexual abstinence, let's show the pols it will NOT continue to work.

Keep an eye on local reporting. If you go to meetings, note no-shows.

If you're on twitter use #NoShow and #VoteOn. If you're not, leave links here and I'll twitterize them.

PILE ON: Dr. Dawg! Who else?

Image source

Spain's Tahrir Square

From 'Arab Spring' to 'European Summer'? Specifically Spain. (Good background at the link.)

Spain’s people’s movement has finally awoken. La Puerta del Sol in Madrid is now the country’s Tahrir Square, and the "Arab Spring" has been joined by what is now bracing to become a long "European Summer." As people across the Arab world continue their popular struggle for justice, peace and democracy, Spain’s disillusioned citizens have finally caught on with full force. Slow at first, hopeful that Spain’s dire economic conditions would magically correct themselves, the Spanish street has finally understood that democratic and economic justice and peace will not come from the pulpits of the country’s corrupt political elite.

Demonstrators are calling it the May 15 Movement for the day it started. Organized by a self-proclaimed 'peace movement' called 'Democracia Real Ya' (literally 'Real Democracy Now'), protests spread across the country on May 17 to more than 50 cities and towns.

More pictures and videos here.




We Canadians might wanna take notes.

Towards a Post-Partisan Blogosphere?

impolitical has an interesting idea.

The internets will be this generation's Cité Libre, methinks.

Well, here's a site trying to get that going.

The Sixth Estate describes his effort:

I’m frustrated enough with the demonstrable inability of the major media to cover the important issues that I’m starting a little experiment called the Sixth Estate Newswatch, will be a news service based primarily on blogs (left to right, but mostly just the sane ones) and hopefully will become at least as useful, if not quite as often-visited, as the raving climate change denialist running Bourque. Consider this a demonstration of just how utterly useless the mainstream corporate media is if it’s serious about settling into a role consisting entirely of rebranding AP and CP reports, summarizing press releases and soundbytes and the occasional leak or ATI request which comes its way with only the slightest pretence of genuine investigative journalism, and then offering meaningless commentary from Larry Solomon, he who says Canadians shouldn’t vote.

There are, of course, aggregators out there, but the political ones are partisan.

And we just saw how well this increasingly poisonous partisanship performed for the country.

Other bloggers agree: Orwell's Bastard, Just Another Willy Loman, and The Galloping Beaver, to name just a few.

Maybe it's time, as they say, to move on.

Alice Klein, one of the people behind the (unsuccessful) strategic voting site, Project Democracy, calls herself a 'passionate post-partisan progressive'.

But it is not just progressives who are dissatisfied with both the state of democracy and the mainstream media in Canada. After all, Fox News North was created on the pretense premise that media is biased. (Well, it is, but not quite in the way right-wingers think.)

After the last prorogation, we saw citizens coming together to form groups like Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament and CRUSH. In the CRUSH Facebook group, there were disgusted democrats of all stripes, but we managed to keep partisanship out of the discussions.

I, for one, welcome the arrival of a new post-partisanship.

Who's in?

Harper: The (Post-Election) Great Uniter?

One thing this election has made abundantly clear -- progressives can't or won't work together.

And Jack Layton is delusional if he really thinks he can work with the Harper Regime.

So I was thinking. From DJ!'s ongoing efforts to divide the right, an odd thing became apparent. There are quite a few issues that left and right can agree on.

Harpie's lying, cheating, and scheming to stay in power.

His contempt for democracy.

HIs authoritarian fetish made manifest in the G8/G20 police state and proposed legislation on Internet privacy and freedom and copyright issues.

And smaller matters too like the closure of the prison farms.

Here is John Moore in today's NatPo.

I want an open government where cabinet ministers have the latitude to run their departments. I want a Prime Minister’s Office that doesn’t hold caucus and cabinet in such a vice grip that no one dares speak or propose policy without first asking permission. I want transparency and an atmosphere where high-ranking civil servants offer counsel without fear of cabinet ministers hanging them out to dry. I want to know what major policy initiatives are going to cost.

Mostly I want fiscal conservatism. Is that too much to ask?

The Conservatives have spent five years pandering to pocket constituencies with conniving tax breaks and cash handouts. It’s not the government’s job to favour tradesmen over managers or to subsidize hockey and piano lessons. Rationalize spending, simplify the tax code and let individuals decide where to spend the extra money in their pockets.

Stimulus spending was necessary to cushion the economic plunge, but when you take out a mortgage you don’t blow it on bandstands and jungle gyms. Major spending must always be on the kind of legacy projects that benefit the future generations that will pay for them. If there are to be large cash layouts in the coming four years it should be for necessary and justifiable initiatives, not photo opportunities.

The Conservatives have grown rather than shrunk government. Each year spending has gone up beyond the rate of inflation and GDP growth. The Tories have spent more on polls, focus groups, advertizing, travel and outside consultants than the Liberals ever did. Rein it in. Health-care spending wouldn’t be a looming crisis if money wasn’t being bilge-pumped out of the treasury. Jim Flaherty rivals Paul Martin in the mastery he brings to the Finance Department. It’s time he was allowed to bring in a budget dictated by national need, not political canniness.

On every front, the time has come for the Conservatives to plot a course for Canada and not just for their electoral aspirations. Conceive of a crime strategy that addresses public safety, not fear. Embrace the family values of newcomers without tacitly nurturing the sexism and homophobia that may go hand in hand. Chart a foreign policy that does not first involve data mining the nation’s ethnic communities. Show respect for the institutions that create the framework for the privilege you now hold. Respect for Parliament should be a core Conservative value.

Yes, I know. But disregarding that fantasy about Deficit Jim Flaherty, I can agree with much of the rest of it. For reasons other than fiscal conservatism, of course.

Throughout his reign as Slime Minister, Stevie Peevie has faced a Fucking Useless Opposition®. Arguably, the new opposition will be even more fucking useless.

The Sixth Estate has laid out a Manifesto for the Next Opposition*, including five reasons why 'we' lost the election.

Among them:

Third, it is fiendishly difficult to challenge a government in power when it is supported and endorsed by 90% of the media. The reasons for the media’s complacence vary: rich corporate owners favour low-tax Conservative governments, and lazy journalists favour cheap and easy stories based on press releases and innuendo rather than genuine but time-consuming investigative journalism. But the polls show conclusively that 90% of the media only speak for about one-quarter of Canadians. That’s a problem, and it’s a problem that we can do something about. I’m going to return to that in a moment.

He says we need credible new media.

I can’t do much about the above at the moment, but I do want to return to the third problem. We’re reaching a point where the mainstream corporate media is so unvaryingly compromised and corrupt that it is mostly useless. They opposed the NDP by reflex, they endorsed the Conservatives because they were pro-business, and we can count on them to do the same for the next four years. The majority of people in this country are not politically active outside of election campaigns and are mostly trusting of the media, mostly because there are no trustworthy alternatives and because finding those alternatives would take effort.

He goes on to lay out the challenges and advantages the blogosphere faces in trying to fill the gap.

The problem we have is coordinating our efforts and getting people to notice. Those are big problems, but not as big as the problem the Internet solved for us in the first place.

Internet freedom is going to change, too, as the result of the death of Internet neutrality. But we have an unprecedented window, and while it is closing, for the moment it’s still open. And I continue to believe that a large majority of Canadians do care about democracy, about healthcare, about the health of the planet, even if they’ve been temporarily dazzled by tax breaks and bamboozled by scaremongering about separatist coalitions. I have to believe that. There is no other choice. I refuse to believe that this country has raised multiple generations who are ignorant enough, selfish enough, and narrow-minded enough (not to mention in brazen denial enough) to genuinely support the government they just voted for.

How do we go about seizing this opportunity? Haven’t a clue. But we have four years to find out, and now’s a good time to start.

I too believe that a majority of Canadians -- from right across the political spectrum -- care about democracy, accountability, transparency, fiscal responsibility, and rational policy-making.

It's up to us to hold this government to account through a Citizens' Loyal Opposition.

Because this isn't funny anymore.



*I don't do that 'MUST READ' thingy, but I strongly recommend people read the whole thing.

Daddy Harper

There are some wonderfully creative election videos zipping around the Toobz. Like this one, answering (sorta) the series of 'It's Over, Steve' made by women all over the country.



The anti-Harper forces are smart, funny, and creative. And we totally get this whole democracy thing.

Vote strategically.

That 'Unnecessary' Election

Since Friday, I've been monitoring a Facebook event inviting people to vote in the 'unnecessary, reckless' election. I'd like to see it go viral like CAPP did.

From under 30, when I replied affirmatively, right now there are over 5500 Yes/Oui replies (2000 more than yesterday at the same time), with more than 29,000 invitations awaiting reply.

Apathy Is Boring is doing even better with its I Will Vote event. I haven't been following this one, but organizers claim that more than 11,000 accepted in 48 hours. Now there are over 12,000.

I keep reposting this link to Elections Canada for people who don't know how to go about it and for people who offer lame excuses.

Now, because I'm a generous person and SiteMeter indicates that almost nobody came back for their prize last time, I'll link to it again. You'll laugh out loud at the singing poodle. Not cutesy, just funny. (Facebook sign-in required.)

Democracy's Future*

If nothing else, the past five years have shown Canadians how badly broken our democracy is. Until and unless we get some radical electoral and democratic change, it's going to be up to citizens to protect what's left of that creaky old institution.

Luckily, we're a resourceful lot. When Harper prorogued Parliament for the second time, we'd had enough. Unfortunately, over 200,000 of us on Facebook and thousands in the streets didn't seem to impress the politicians much.

But that was just the beginning. More non-partisan or multi-partisan grassroots groups sprang up: Catch 22 Harper Conservatives, Unseat Harper, and a more recent group, LeadNow.

Today I went looking for more, specifically for groups aiming at young voters. Found two.

Apathy Is Boring.

Revolutionizing democracy through art & technology.

Apathy is Boring is a national non-partisan project. Our mission is to use art & technology to educate youth about democracy.

Apathy is Boring aims to meet the following Youth in Democracy Goals:

Increase youth voting rates.
Increase youth engagement in their communities.
Build a sustainable dialogue between youth and elected officials.

It has a dandy facts page with definitions and other helpful info.

OurVote is also targetting youth.

OurVote.ca's goal is to mobilize young Canadians to actively engage and participate in the now declared 2011 Elections for the governance of Canada!

Young Canadians have a decisive voice and interest in determining the direction of Canada and necessary leadership that takes into account our needs & concerns!

Why does does getting youth involved matter?

Because voter turn-out is declining and there's that old saw: 'Low voter turn-out favours the conservative parties'.

Hey, look at this (from October last year).

How Parliament would look if only youth voted .

Canada’s youth would elect a Liberal minority government, with a substantial increase in representation for the New Democrats, Bloc Québécois, and Greens, according to projections based on recent polls of Canadians between the ages of 18 and 24. The Conservative Party would be severely reduced, virtually wiped out east of Manitoba.

Want to unseat Stephen Harper? Encourage the kids to vote.

(*Cross-posted at Voices for Democracy, Unseat Harper's blog. Good bloggers there. Check it out.)

Adieux, cons et le roi des cons.

"Après moi, le déluge" ... ? Not likely - Emperor Stevie Spiteful the 1st - since your reign has been one raging incompetence and/or scandal after another.

At this point, a democratically functional government is required.

For the first time in a while, I'll be actively participating in a federal election - to ensure that Anyone But a Con gets elected. And I will offer help to those in other ridings, too.

Political caricature from here.

'A Difficult Happiness'

The Grauniad has landed in Tunis and Angelique Chrisafis reports on the state of affairs.

It's bad. Shooting, looting, snipers on top of buildings that held Ben Ali's torturers in basements. The army seems to be on the side of the people though.

And there are further horrible revelations.

Meanwhile, the full horror of repression over four weeks of demonstrations is beginning to emerge. Human rights groups estimate at least 150-200 deaths since 17 December. In random roundups in poor, rural areas youths were shot in the head and dumped far from home so bodies could not be identified. Police also raped women in their houses in poor neighbourhoods in and around Kesserine in the rural interior.

Sihem Bensedrine, head of the National Council for Civil Liberties, said: "These were random, a sort of reprisal against the people. In poor areas, women who had nothing to do with anything, were raped in front of their families. Guns held back the men; the women were raped in front of them." A handful of cases were reported in Kesserine and Thala last Monday. Rape was often used as a torture technique under the regime; opposition women report they were raped in the basement of the interior ministry, as were men, too.

But where there's courage and good will, there's hope.

On national state radio, a tool of regime power until days ago, DJs spoke freely for the first time, but had to regret that the joy of a dictator's departure had been tempered by a fear of the militia attacks.

"Ours is a difficult happiness," sighed one music show presenter, before putting on another 1960s resistance song.