The Conservative Record?

Straight outta Conservative Central, this is an edition of The Conservative Record? where we compare what they claim on conservative.ca, versus actual facts! Let's hold Tory smoke-and-mirrors up to the light to see what's really inside them eggs.

Note to self: I selectively cut-and-paste from the linked page because I don't have enough time in the day to argue every point that they selectively chose to make.

The Conservative Record?
> Lowest unemployment rate in 33 years.

The Truth!
> Yesterday, the Conference Board of Canada forecast that Canada's unemployment rate will boost to more than 8 per cent from 6.6 per cent last month.

The Conservative Record?
> Canadian job growth is overwhelmingly in high-quality, high-paying jobs like printing manufacturing, heavy and civil engineering construction, electrical equipment appliance manufacturing and mining.

The Truth!
> Yesterday, the Conference Board of Canada forecast that Canada will lose a net total of 175,000 jobs this year. 90,000 job losses in manufacturing is not job growth.

The Conservative Record?
> More than $37 billion of the National Debt paid off.

The Truth!
> Mr. Harper suggested the deficit could be up to $40-billion this month. With one budget, Harper more than erases years of "fiscal management".

The Conservative Record?
> Canada has the most resilient economy in the G7. And we alone in the G7 have kept our budget in surplus”.

The Truth!
> $40 billion deficit.

Thank you for listening to this edition of The Conservative Record?

Tune in next time when conservative.ca makes fiction fun again!

Taber vs Baird

Taber vs Baird, not the title fight of today's Question Period, but sort of an inverted diamond-in-the-rough of what turned out to be the Obama edition of CTV's QP.

The tenacious and fiscally-responsible? Minister of Transport, Mr. John Baird said on QP earlier today, we're spending "...literally billions and billions of dollars in each province and we're going to be doubling that." Billions in EACH province? Minimum $6 billion in Quebec (more or less?) plus at least $1 billion in each other province is $15 billion (this could easily be a lot higher, but I'm just going off Baird's words). Baird promises twice as much spending, so let's double down on that 15! Now his one department is spending another $15 billion (minimum) plus augmented spending in close ridings, I'm sure. I wonder how did Harper ever get away with pretending he would never run a deficit?

John Baird's mandate comes directly from the Prime Minister, which, as he said, is to make things happen. Which must be a variety of things, taking from how many times he used the word "variety" to describe what they are actually doing. Spending on a variety of things here and a various things there. He also wants support for the Tory agenda - yet Mr. Harper is taking a conciliatory approach for the next parliament. Maybe, Mr. Baird is no longer reading the Tory interoffice memos.

Mr. Baird, who usually never lets other people control the topic of conversation, appeared extremely nervous and was rushing through his answers. He seemed to be scared that Jane might ask him an "out of the park home-run" question, but, in her usual Jane-trademarked scripted line of questioning, she tries to stick him with some tough ones, but her rebuttals and follow-ups are weak and Lunesta-inspired.

Baird wins by split decision.

Hockey Crazy

It's been awhile since I've been writing on the chalkboard here. Working and studying too much, keeps me glued to the desk for far too long. My freedom arrived when I managed to watch a lot of the World Junior Hockey Championship! Oh glory days. I am amazed how great our Canadian boys are - they are a true inspiration. Congratulations to each of them for a well deserved victory.

Now, my return here was basically spurred on by Mr. Harper and his dismal enthusiasm while attending a fantastic game. I saw his image literally burn into my TV set and I thought wow, Mr. Funbags, the self professed "hockey nut", is taking time out of drafting the next budget to attend a photo op. That photo of him (not at the tournament) screams "proud to be Canadian" - look his son is a Leafs fan. What fun! High five.

I even found a quote on the PM's website “This event is great for the future of hockey in Canada and is a real treat for hockey fans around the world." Sure, it's great for hockey IN Canada, we're beating the crap out of other countries in our national sport. I love that the PM released this shortly *after* Canada beat Kazakhstan 15-nil; what a treat it is, to be out scored in the tournament 46-2!

Oh well - I suppose he would have actually worn Team Canada colours if they weren't so Liberal.

Ottawa Minute

I'm in Ottawa, just finished a work-related seminar. Nevertheless, it's surprisingly non-partisan here in the nation's capital. No smearings of campaign slogans or MP posters or missing documents. I guess I had assumed Harper and the choir would be painting the town red, so to speak.

I've been buried in the books since Sunday, so I am just emerging in to the current state of the federal campaign. Here are my impressions of what has happened since the writ was dropped:
1. May was voted off of the election island (2 voted against her out of a possible 4?)
2. Harper crapped on Dion, quickly wiped it off, then apologized for it.
3. Dion said he doesn't listen to English music very well.
4. Harper promises to cut a tax on burning fossil fuels - claiming David Suzuki wanted it this way.
5. May gets re-introduced to the Big Brother household by a surprise twist in the election rules!
6. Politics on CBC states Harper has run a very careful and strategic campaign so far.

Now, I may be slightly off on all of the above 5 items, but why did Don Newman let his press gallery "puff" up Harper without interjecting about ignoring his own (election) law, the Puffin Incident, or the fact that Harper's lying when he says that "Dion will increase the GST and eliminate the child care benefit"? The Tory campaign seems to be struggling to control the agenda, as they so desperately need to do, yet it's only 72 hours old?

I think Harper will be cleaning up a lot more off himself soon enough.

Tories Bury Negative News

FICTION: Conservatives are making government more accountable to build a stronger, safer, better Canada.

FACT: Tories slammed for burying negative reports

OTTAWA -- The Harper government's timing for the release of some unflattering reports has critics scratching their heads over the Conservatives' concept of transparency.

The Tories took office promising clean, open governance and vowing not to practice the same old politics as previous governments. But they've stuck to one tried and true tactic -- releasing negative news when it will get the least media attention

Last Thursday and Friday -- on the eve of a holiday weekend -- three major reports were released late in the afternoon, leaving the opposition scrambling to respond.

The latest release -- at 5:30 p.m. Friday -- was a Foreign Affairs report on the misplacement of government documents by former foreign minister Maxime Bernier.

from
The Canadian Press

Harper Gets Rejected

Jasbier Sandhu with the Professor Mohan Singh Memorial Foundation says the brief announcement was not at all what the Sikh community was looking for.

"As soon as he spoke, he left. The Indo Canadian community right away rejected it with their hands up in the air. They totally rejected the apology that was offered."

Of course, Harper is only apologizing in local ridings to each individual community so he can try to win over votes across the country. Apologizing for the right reasons, and that reason in this case is what was done is incredibly unacceptable. However, apologizing on a regional basis only, not a national stage, which is quite apparently, only to try to win over votes in the Sikh community, is simply unacceptable.

Harper shoves his foot in his mouth, while Jason Kenney quickly tries to pull it out. Harper no longer can do his own dirty work. Harper quickly changes colours.

O Canada

I noticed on our national birthday, the Government of Canada's main web page has a splash graphic that is absurbly Conservative blue. Is the sky really that shade of blue or has it been changed?

Just to compare, here is an image from the Conservative web page and the Government of Canada splash image: