Voting Day Is Monday

Apparently some nefarious person or group is sending around an email which states that voting takes place over two days – Monday and Tuesday. This is bunk. Voting is for one day, 12 hours, check your local media or www.elections.ca for details.

Fraudulent E-mail Circulating Regarding Election Day

OTTAWA, Saturday, January 21, 2006 — The Chief Electoral Officer of Canada, Jean‑Pierre Kingsley, has received reports of an e-mail being sent with the Elections Canada logo, and bearing his name and title, telling electors they can vote over a two-day period. This message does not come from Elections Canada, and is against the law. Anyone having information identifying the source of the message should contact the Commissioner of Canada Elections at Elections Canada as noted below.

There have also been reports of incorrect information about voting and voting places on some candidates’ materials.

Mr. Kingsley reminds electors that the only polling day is Monday, January 23. Elections Canada is the official source of information for electors about the voting process and voting places. More >

Conservative Party Links to Right Wing American Groups

Noted on “Zerbisia’s blog”: at the Toronto Star, a link to http://www.harperstiestousa.org/ which opens up to a page showing a graphical tree of relationships.

Over 20 candidates and members of Parliament for the Conservative Party of Canada, including leader Stephen Harper, Justice Critic Vic Toews, Foreign Affairs Critic Stockwell Day and Firearms Critic Garry Breitkreuz, have links to organizations established under the umbrella of the Council for National Policy (CNP), an American group that the New York Times calls a “club of a few hundred of the most powerful conservatives in the country,”¹ and which Rolling Stone reports has “funnelled billions of dollars to right-wing Christian activists.”² This should perhaps come as no surprise given that the Vancouver Sun estimates that “roughly half the current 98 members” of the Conservative caucus “are religious social conservatives,” which is “well over double the national average.”

That’s probably a good estimate based on my own knowledge of the party and the current batch of candidates.

The site also provides a link to a 20 page PDF report

Clearly someone went to a lot of trouble to set this up; the internet registration provides no clues however. Irrespective of this, it would appear that the report is carefully researched and appears to accurately identifies links between individuals and organizations.

This information is fair game in a political contest; now if only the researchers had done the same on Liberal social conservatives I could fully applaud it. Still, the key point is that a sizable percentage, perhaps a solid majority, of electable Conservatives hold what most Canadians will consider rather extreme social conservative views.

That is troubling.

Recyling

A blast from the past (2002 in fact):

Sierra Club of Canada on Party Platforms

No surprise here – the Sierra Club of Canada released its analysis of party electoral platforms and ranked the Conservative Party – deservedly so – a distant forth place.

All the platforms were graded against a possible total of 75 points, augmented by a questionnaire, posted at www.sierraclub.ca/national/vote-canada/2006/, for a possible additional 28 points.

The commitment to the Kyoto Protocol is paramount, but was only one of many possible points to be allocated within a full breadth of environmental commitments.

Party scores were as follows: Green Party 97, NDP 91, Liberal 53, Bloc 46, and Conservative 31.

The poorest set of environmental promises was those of the Conservative Party.

“We are very concerned that the Conservative Party, alone among all the major parties, is unprepared to commit to current Kyoto targets, to which Canada is bound under international law, nor to adopt longer term targets post 2012 within Kyoto,” said John Bennett, Senior Policy Advisor on energy to the Sierra Club of Canada. “In the coming week, we hope Mr. Harper will be called upon to explain how much emphasis he will place on reducing greenhouse gases and what approach he will take to the upcoming global negotiations for deeper reduction targets, should his party form government.”

As I’ve said before, the Consevative Party is adopting industry’s cheap parlour game of ignoring climate change science. The party’s policy declaration is completely silent on the matter. A 51 page policy document (PDF) which speaks about polution but makes not a single reference, not one, to climate change, green house gas reduction, or Kyoto, is not the mark of a responsible future government.

Harper Will Reverse Canada's Position on US Ballistic Missile Defense

Another disasterous about face on established Canadian policy will follow a Harper majority: Harper open to missile-defence talks with U.S.

Stephen Harper said a Tory government would consult Parliament about whether Canada should join the U.S. missile-defence system.

Harper told Radio-Canada in an interview Thursday that he would wait for a formal, written offer from the U.S. before deciding whether Canada should participate in the ballistic missile defence program.

Prediction: the written offer will show up soon after any Harper-led majority. If he wins a minority, the American’s, and Harper, will back off until the next election, where Harper is almost certain to get a majority.

Make no mistake – a Harper minority is an easy stepping stone to a Harper majority. I disagree with Harper on a great many issues, but I would never suggest that he is not cagey enough, and ruthless enough, to stickhandle his coalition of radicals and moderates through a minority in good shape to win a significant majority, at a time of his chosing.

Canadians if given the facts on Ballistic Missile Defense will sound a resounding NO! but it doesn’t seem that the inept opposition – Liberals and NDP alike – are very effective at raising issues of true historic national importance to a useful level of public awareness.

Harper Will Kill Kyoto Agreement - News Report

Its official now: Harper would turn his back on Kyoto

A Conservative government would turn its back on the Kyoto accord and set its own targets for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, party leader Stephen Harper said Thursday.

The accord’s targets cannot be met either internationally or within Canada, Mr. Harper said, citing the country’s woeful record on climate change since the agreement was signed in 1997.

“The Kyoto accord will not succeed at achieving its objectives and this government — the Canadian government — cannot achieve its objectives,” Mr. Harper said.

While this is extremely disappointing, it can hardly be said to be a surprise. Harper and policy critics in the Conservative Party who have a hand on the environmental file have been saying for years that Kyoto was a mistake and that they’d rip it up if ever given the chance.

Kyoto isn’t a perfect agreement, but its the only international effort to do something about climate change.

A Conservative government led by Stephen Harper, directed from the background by the petro-chemical industry, doesn’t care about climate change, doesn’t want to recognize it. Fact: Stephen Harper has said in this election and before that he would rip it up. Fact: The Conservative policy declaration, the first official policy document of the newly merged party, of March 2005 doesn’t mention climate change even once. Doesn’t mention greenhouse gas or CO2 emissions even once. Fact: That same policy document in plain view says that a Harper-led Conservative government will tear up its international treaty obligations.

For more detail on how those opposed to Kyoto and Canada’s participation use deception to further their agenda, see Greenhouse Gas Emissions Misdirection.

And Stephen Harper… who DID contribute to your run for the leadership of the Canadian Alliance? Canadians have a right to know.

Gaffes of the Day

I really should put together a substantive post on the incredibly insulting Liberal attack ad featuring a conservative proposal to locate Canadian Forces units near major urban centres. Coming soon.

This just in however – B.C. Conservative candidate to go on trial

The Conservative Party was not aware that their candidate in the B.C. riding of British Columbia Southern Interior is due to go on trial next month on smuggling charges, and if convicted, he could end up in jail.

Derek Zeisman, who is running in the riding currently held by Conservative MP Jim Gouk, previously made national news for a serious car accident five days before Christmas.

In July 2004, Zeisman was crossing into British Columbia from the United States, when Canada Customs charged him with attempting to smuggle in a Mercedes-Benz vehicle and 112 containers of alcohol.

Curious. Somehow I doubt that Mr. Zeisman informed the party or Stephen Harper of this when he filled out his nomination forms.

Mr. Zeisman is also the author of a detailed account of how he would change the country if he could be prime minister. Among the changes he would make he’d:

• abolish the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (a common call among certain ideological conservatives I must admit)
• create a monetary union with the US and other American countries
• abolish all taxes on corporations, industry and small business

Interesting that last one – within no time Canada would become a nation of 30 some odd million personal corporations. Good idea, for tax lawyers that is…