The ongoing international incident, or “act of war” according to the deranged lunatics on the right, over the 15 British soldiers being held captive by the Iranians reminds me of this international incident, or “act of war” according to the deranged lunatics on the right. And it will be resolved in much the same way.

Not so good, eh.

Some surprising news late this afternoon — the United States has formally complained to Canada about softwood lumber — accusing Canada and the provinces of paying illegal subsidies.

The U.S., late this afternoon, alleged that $2-billion worth of aid that Canada and the provinces are providing to the softwood industry in Ontario and Quebec is illegal. So, the U.S. is seeking either more restrictions on the amount of Canadian lumber that can be exported to the Canadian market or they want more export taxes slapped on the wood.

Maybe PMS can buy us six more months of peace on the softwood lumber front with another billion dollar payoff to the Americansextortionists.

Earlier this year when the Conservatives released a series of advertisements attacking Stephane Dion the rightwing Canadian media lined up to give them hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of free advertising by playing and talking about the ads for a week. Now it looks like they’re set to repeat that disgraceful move as the Conservatives have announced another set of ads will be released and already every major media outlet is lining up to lick PMS‘ balls.

What makes this behaviour even more appalling is that the NDP advertisements released two weeks ago received next to no coverage by the very same Canadian media.

It’s clear that the majority of the Canadian media outlets have become nothing more than shills for the Conservative Party and in doing so have turned themselves into a national disgrace.

It’s also clear that progressive Canadians, particulary NDP supporters, are being slowly shut out of the national debate by the major media in Canada. Most of the major daily newspapers–like the Sun newspapers or the National Post–and weekly magazines–such as Macleans–lack even one columnist who writes from a socialist/NDP point of view but are overflowing with conservative and rightwing liberal columnists. And most media outlets consistently ignore the NDP and their announcements.

What makes this behaviour so appalling is that the NDP and its supporters are not a niche market; they account for nearly one in five Canadians. So it’s time for the NDP’s supporters and all progressive Canadians to send a message to the rightwing Canadian media. If they’re going to continue shutting our voices out of the national dialogue, then we’re going to start shutting them out of our wallets.

The NDP has finished rewriting Bill C-30, the Clean Air Act, by getting 11 of their 12 amendments passed. Nice work.

An excellent columnn from Jim Stanford exposing the fraudulent nature of rightwing astroturf organizations in their reactions to Ralph Goodale’s `05 budget and Jim Flaherty’s `07 budget.

The greatest difference between the two budgets is the much larger amount of new spending announced by Flaherty [ed: $14.6 billion over 2 years for Goodale versus $28.4 billion over 2 years for Flaherty]. (To be fair, the Liberals had already made several big one-time spending announcements in 2004.) The business tax cuts are only marginally larger for Flaherty than under Goodale. There is more debt reduction under Goodale than Flaherty. (And in practice, debt ended up being paid off far more quickly than the modest repayments officially announced in the 2005 budget — by a total of $22.4 billion over the next two fiscal years.)

However, business lobbyists weren’t swayed by this (superficial) resemblance between the two budgets. They gave one-and-a-half thumbs down to Goodale’s “spending spree,” and two thumbs way way up to Flaherty’s “wise productivity budget.”

Corporate astroturf organizations such as Canadian Council of Chief Executives, Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, Canadian Chamber of Commerce and C.D. Howe Institute all trashed Goodale’s budget for overspending yet despite the fact that Flaherty’s budget will increase spending by double the amount they all hailed it as good news.

While a few conservative astroturf organizations such as the Canadian Taxpayer’s Federation did let out little squeaks of indignation over the Harper government’s careless spending habits–that have now matched those of Paul Martin’s government–their outrage was shortlived and meek compared to the outrage they routinely direct at Liberal and NDP governments.

Of course this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. It was proven long ago that most, if not all, organizations that support conservative issues are nothing more than rightwing astroturf organizations whose only real purpose is to spew pro-conservative and anti-progressive propaganda. It would be nice if the media would acknowledge this reality in the future and refrain from giving them carte blanche to peddle their lies.

Not so good, eh.

Guerrillas have been firing rockets at will into the Green Zone, the supposedly safe district of downtown Baghdad where the US embassy and Iraqi government offices are located. Reuters reports that on Wednesday they killed a US soldier in the Green Zone that way, and wounded another. On Tuesday they had killed a US contractor in the zone. Also on Tuesday, guerrillas had killed a US Marine in al-Anbar province. Folks, when guerrillas can kill a US soldier inside the Green Zone, Baghdad is just not safe.

It looks like most Americans agree that the surge isn’t working. Some rubes however, would rather take the word of two Iraqi bloggers/dentists over their own lying eyes.

Here’s how Conservatives think democracy works.

Announce there will be a non binding plebiscite to decide the fate of the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly on barley sales. Organize meetings to discuss the proposed changes but stack it with people who share your viewpoint. Disenfranchise as many of the voters as you can. Use every resource at your disposal to campaign for your side while gagging the opposition. Work to undermine the credibility of the Wheat Board at every opportunity. Have 2 of the three ballot questions favour your position. Make sure it’s not a secret ballot and mail out more than one to some voters. Declare victory and then use this mockery of democracy to justify doing an end run around Parliament.

That’s Conservative demockracy in action.

Why isn’t it anti-semitic to refer to someone who is Jewish as “a self hating Jew” like many right whingers do? It’s considered anti-semitic if they’re referred to as “a money grubbing Jew” so why is it acceptable to call them “a self hating Jew”?

Some excellent mocking of the pundits.

…until we have a federal election, nothing that happens in this country will fail to be explored by the national media for its “impact” on Stephen Harper and the Conservatives’ pursuit of a majority government.

For instance, Charest’s humbling last night is bad for Harper, in that Harper personally invested so much in their relationship, but it’s also good for Harper in that the separatists were routed, even though that’s bad for Harper because Quebecers may ultimately confer a sympathy vote on the Bloc in a federal election to demonstrate that they’re not quite as opposed to sovereignty as it looked last night, which is actually good for Harper because he’ll have a separatist threat to play against and rally the federalist vote, exploiting Dion’s current weakness, which is actually bad for Harper because it will set Dion’s bar of expectations very low, allowing the Liberal leader to generate momentum this spring, which is good for Harper because spring is a warm and happy season that puts people in a good mood, which is bad for Harper because he hates people who are in a good mood, especially if they are gay, which is good for Harper because fitted T-shirts don’t suit him anyway. Back to you, Lloyd.

I’ve already noted that last week’s talking point, “nobody wants an election right now,” has already morphed into, “an election is inevitable now.”

Let’s face it. Sexual harrassment happens in politics. It’s not a good thing. It shouldn’t happen. But it does. The rumour around the internet (Let me be very clear; I am not suggesting that the rumour is true. I am only stating that it is out there.) is that Jason Cherniak sexually harrassed a female member of the Liberal Party by threatening to ruin her reputation after she refused to go out on a date with him. I don’t know if it’s true, but just the rumour should lead the federal Liberals to fight for news rules governing the conduct of party members. If nothing else, such rules would at least ensure that women can have confidence that they can take part in the democratic process without worrying they’ll be sexually harrassed.

That has to be part of the context in which people consider the current debate in the Liberal Party over increasing the number of female candidates running in federal elections. It is extremely important to respect the rights of women and protect them from systemic abuse. The question should not be whether more women are needed. The question should be how can you protect these women so they can make a choice to enter politics, without allowing people in positions of power to take advantage of that.

I think a compromise position is fairly obvious. Have the Liberal Party set up a committee to investigate any and all rumours of sexual harrassment by one party member against another. That would solve both problems at the same time.

At its best, politics is about compromise. Let’s bring down the volume of the debate and discuss it rationally.

Update: Chernyuk: I was wrong.

Conservatives are incompetent.

Dennis Desrosiers of Desrosiers Automotive Consultants says the Vehicle Efficiency Initiative announced this week in the federal budget may be the most expensive program yet in terms of dollar per tonne of reductions of greenhouse gases:

“ Another quick back of the envelope calculation on this whole feebate fiasco:

$14 per litre of reduced fuel consumption
each litre combusted emits 2.5 kgs of GHG
400 litres of fuel combusted results in one tonne of GHGs emitted
400 litres X $14/litre = $5,600 per tonne of GHG emissions reduced

At $5,600 per tonne this policy has the dubious distinction of being even more expensive per tonne of GHG reduction than the previous record holder - the Conservatives’ transit pass tax credit ($2,000 per tonne, because about 97% of the subsidy recipients were already daily transit riders). [in fact it’s] The most expensive environment program anywhere in the world by a wide margin.

That works out to $5.6 billion/megatonne which is 88 times more expensive than the cost of the initiatives under the previous Liberal government. No wonder conservatives believe that implementing a plan to combat climate change will destroy our economy. If PMS is left in charge of it, it will.

Accidental Deliberations has more on this boondoggle that the NDP’s Brian Masse calls an “ineffective side show”.

On a related note, Far and Wide and The Galloping Beaver point out how Conservative Finance Minister Jim Flaherty slipped himself a little pork in the outrageously expensive fuel efficient vehicle rebate.

Edger’s Law of Conservative Political Discourse: “The Conservatives that accuse non-Conservatives of fearmongering when they mention the possibility of a Conservative hidden agenda, will console themselves every time Harper sells out his base by reminding each other that Harper has a hidden agenda.”

I’ve updated the previous chart to include provincial budget increases.

Click on image to enlarge.

The Most Frugal: Jean Chretien whose 10 budgets barely increased spending by little more than the rate of inflation.

The Most Frugal Currently in Power: Although the new Premier of New Brunswick, Shawn Graham, brought in his first budget with a program spending increase of just 3%, I think it’s fairer to give this honour to Manitoba’s Premier Gary Doer and his 8 budgets.

The Biggest Spender: Drunken sailor Ralph Klein whose last 7 budgets increased program spending by a whopping 70%; not surprising considering the state of Alberta’s demockracy. The new Premier, Ed Stelmach has yet to bring in his first budget so we won’t know until April whether he inherited Ralphie’s drunken spending habits.

The Biggest Spender Currently in Power: That honour goes to both PMS and Saskatchewan’s Premier Lorne Calvert with Ontario’s McGuinty and BC’s Campbell hot on their heels. Way to bring down the NDP average Calvertasshat.

While this doesn’t give a clear picture of what party is the big spending party, it does set the record straight on program spending increases at both the provincial and federal level.

Update: I’ve found some more Ontario financial numbers that go back further than the Harris years and have therefore been able to calculate Bob Rae’s average yearly increase in program spending. It was 5.9% for each of his 4 budgets.

Their propaganda no workee.

Canadians are convinced that global warming exists and that it is having a negative impact on day-to-day living, says a new poll.

The Angus Reid survey says 77 per cent of Canadians are convinced that global warming is a problem. Only two per cent flatly reject the notion that the earth’s climate has changed.

Thirty per cent of Canadians feel that climate change is a pressing issue in this country and that it should be given almost as much attention as health care.

About 70 per cent of respondents believe that theories about global warming are “true science,” 12 per cent think they’re “junk science” and 19 per cent are not sure.

Of course this isn’t very surprising since the reality based community has known that the debate has been over for quite some time now.

McGuinty is feeling the heat.

The Ontario government will bump the minimum wage to $10.25 an hour by 2010 in the provincial budget tomorrow, the Toronto Star has learned.

It comes after weeks of pressure on the government from poverty activists and the New Democrats for an immediate hike to $10 an hour from the present $8 an hour.

Instead, the increase will be phased in over three years, sources say. Next year it will jump to $8.75; in 2009 it will go to $9.25 an hour; and in 2010, to $10.25 an hour.

Congratulations to NDP MPP Cheri Dinovo, who spearheaded the campaign to get the minimum wage raised, and the rest of the Ontario NDP for a job well done.

Here’s a chart of the average yearly % increase in program spending by the last 4 Prime Ministers.

Click on image to enlarge.

While the dataset is limited, it sure looks to me like fiscal conservativism is nothing more than a myth.

If the data is readily available and I’m in the mood to do the work, I may do similar charts for the Premiers of each of the ten provinces in order to definitively settle the question of who and what party is the king of fiscal responsibility in this country.

My initial reaction after glancing at the budget summary is that it looks like Canada’s New Harperment has decided to throw handfuls of pennies into the crowd.

Stay tuned, more to come.

Update: A good summary of the budget at Relentlessly Progressive Economics.

After looking through the budget, the first thing that jumped out at me was that the Cons are shifting more of the tax burden onto the backs of Canadians. Income tax revenue from table 7.4 in $billions.

06/07 Personal Income Tax: 111.64–% of total: 73.43%
08/09 Personal Income Tax: 120.8–% of total: 75.08%

The corporate tax burden however, will continue to drop.

06/07 Corporate Income Tax: 35.03–% of total: 26.53%
08/09 Corporate Income Tax: 35.35–% of total: 21.97%

Clearly Joe Canadian is getting screwed over by the rightwing fiscal agenda.

The peril in taking that first step down the authoritarian road is that every subsequent step becomes less difficult to make.

“Five days or five weeks or five months, but it certainly isn’t going to last any longer than that.”–Donald Rumsfeld

And so we come to the end of the 4th year of the Iraq war.

Despite the almost total monopolization of the debate in the media by the pro-tax cut crowd, it looks Canadians aren’t buying their propaganda.

On the eve of the March 19 federal budget, a new poll suggests only a minority of Canadians want the government to cut taxes, while half want Ottawa to spend more on social programs.

When respondents were asked what they thought to be the most important issue for the budget to address, social programs were the clear favourite:

Increasing spending on social programs: 50 per cent
Cutting taxes: 19 per cent
Transferring funds to the provinces for their use: 15 per cent
Reducing debt: 13 per cent

“That’s because (Canadians) believe that in the face of this prosperity, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer … And secondly, that our social safety net is unravelling in the face of this prosperity — our health care system is worse, our education system is worse, the quality of life in our cities is deteriorating.”

The sentiments of Canadians echoes what Linda McQuaig wrote in her article the other day.

Utterly lost is a key point made in Yalnizyan’s study – tax cuts are of little benefit to most Canadians. In fact, they ultimately hurt the majority of Canadians, by depriving government of revenue it needs to fund social programs and transfers, which do help Canadians.

It looks like the winds of popular opinion have shifted on tax cuts. Now all that remains to be seen is whether or not the media will recognize this and stop ignoring those who have presenting the other side of the debate.