Moving Forward after the election, Take 2

[Jaydee]

What happened to the other thread? Or am I blind this morning?

anyhow...

  Trump roasts Trudeau and the CBC over editing the Home Alone movie

The deleted scene is in the link below

U.S. President Donald Trump responded to the news that CBC had deleted his Home Alone 2 cameo with two tweets this evening, both joking in nature. In the first tweet, he refers to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “Justin T.”  

I guess Justin T doesn’t much like my making him pay up on NATO or Trade!” the president tweeted:

 

The story went viral over the last couple of days, with CBC responding that it had originally edited Trump out in 2014 when they first acquired the rights to the film. The reason given by CBC was that the cameo was not integral to the plot and they needed to cut scenes to make room for commercials.

https://www.thepostmillennial.com/donald-trump-responds-to-being-edited-out-of-home-alone-2/

Edited December 27, 2019 by Jaydee

[Jaydee]

Keeping you abreast of where YOUR countries borrowed money is being spent...

Message from the Minister of Foreign Affairs

Peace and prosperity are every person’s birthright. Today, as Canadians, we have a great opportunity to help the people of the world’s developing countries join the global middle class and the multilateral system that supports it.

It is worth reminding ourselves why we step up—why we devote time and resources to foreign policy, trade, defence and development: Canadians are safer and more prosperous when more of the world shares our values.

Those values include feminism and the promotion of the rights of women and girls.

It is important—and historic—that we have a prime minister and a government proud to proclaim themselves as feminists. Women’s rights are human rights. This includes sexual and reproductive rights—and the right to access safe and legal abortions. These rights are at the core of our foreign policy. 

(AKA MURDERING babies ) 

I am delighted my colleague the Minister of International Development and La Francophonie is launching Canada’s first Feminist International Assistance Policy, which targets gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. We are positioning Canada at the forefront of this global effort. This is a matter of basic justice and also basic economics. We know that empowering women, overseas and here at home, makes families and countries more prosperous.

Now is the time to rise to the great challenges of this century. As I said in the government’s foreign policy statement, our job today is to preserve the achievements of previous generations and to build on them, as we are doing through Canada’s first Feminist International Assistance Policy.

The Honourable Chrystia Freeland
Minister of Foreign Affairs

 

https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/issues_development-enjeux_developpement/priorities-priorites/policy-politique.aspx?lang=eng

 

[QFE]

I'll bet Chrystia is glad today that her mother didn't abort her! 

[Jaydee]

3 minutes ago, QFE said:

I'll bet Chrystia is glad today that her mother didn't abort her! 

Policies like the above only come from people that have already been BORN. Who wudda thought 

[Jaydee]

This is the year Canada looks for real leadership
 

We’ve decked the halls and joined the chorus. We’ve sung the carols, swilled the eggnog and had it up to here with figgy pudding.

But where, oh where, are the wise men?

Where’s the leadership this country needs to guide us back to fiscal stability, international respectability and national unity?

We awaken from our holiday coma in a dangerous leadership vacuum. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appears to have abdicated his office in favour of deputy PM Chrystia Freeland. Nice for her, but it would have been more transparent if he’d told us his intention to retire before the election.

The Conservative Party is beginning a leadership race, which could unite the party or see it consumed in a blazing funeral pyre of back-stabbing.

This country faces serious challenges created by a hamfisted Liberal government that’s botched major files internally and externally.

Last year’s election left this country divided as never before. Western alienation is real and foolishly underestimated by eastern Canada.

At the same time, we saw a resurgence of Quebec nationalism.

The country’s former Prime Minister Stephen Harper left united, fiscally stable and respected on the world stage no longer exists.

We’re now divided not by two solitudes, but three.

This country is staring down the barrel of double-digit deficits with no hope of a return to balance. Our standing on the world stage has dramatically diminished. China is holding two innocent Canadians hostage – and our government does nothing.

Yes, it’s tough for Canada to flex its muscles against a rogue power. But if you let the biggest bully on the block kick sand in your face once, he’ll just keep coming back.

Leadership is about more than who gets the keys to the Challenger jet. It’s about making difficult decisions and speaking up for the human rights of your wrongfully imprisoned citizens. Instead of battling provincial premiers, it’s about finding common ground to work with them.

It’s about leading by example and inspiring by action, not posting platitudes and selfies on Twitter. It’s about substance over style.

Where’s the leader who can take speak up for this rudderless nation – and take us into 2020 with competence, courage and our heads held high?

https://torontosun.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-this-is-the-year-canada-looks-for-real-leadership

 

Edited January 6, 2020 by Jaydee

[Guest]

Looking at the Itinerary for the Prime Minister:  Jan  06  https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/itineraries/2020/01/05/prime-ministers-itinerary-sunday-january-5-2020

Edmonton, Alberta

11:00 a.m. The Deputy Prime Minister will meet with the Mayor of Edmonton, Don Iveson.

Office of the Mayor
City Hall
1 Sir Winston Churchill Square

Notes for media:

• Photo opportunity at the beginning of the meeting.
• Media should arrive no later than 10:45 a.m.

Prime Minister’s itinerary for Monday, January 6, 2020

 

 

January 5, 2020
Ottawa, Ontario

 

 

Note: All times local

Ottawa, Ontario

Private meetings.

Prime Minister’s itinerary for Sunday, January 5, 2020

 

 

January 5, 2020
Ottawa, Ontario

 

 

Note: All times local

Ottawa, Ontario

Personal

[Jaydee]

HIGHEST SPENDING IN CANADAS HISTORY....

Today, the Fraser Institute released a new study, Prime Ministers and Government Spending, 2020.

This study finds that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has now recorded the highest ever per-person spending level of any federal government, including those that fought wars or faced recessions. In fact, inflation-adjusted spending in 2019 ($9,066 per Canadian) tops the previous all-time record of $8,811 (in 2019 dollars) set by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2009 during the global recession.

 

https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/prime-ministers-and-government-spending-2020-edition

Edited January 7, 2020 by Jaydee

[Jaydee]

“Canada is on an economic road to nowhere”

The Liberals spent five years pandering to environmental, regional or anti-capitalist interests. Now in a minority position, the situation will worsen

Who’s going to look after Canada’s economic wellbeing for the next five years? Canada slips and there’s nobody to catch it, not Parliament or other levels of government. The Liberals spent five years variously pandering to environmental, regional or anti-capitalist interests. Now in a minority position, the situation will worsen.

The country’s governance, like a 100-car pile-up, is a tangled mess that is transiting out of the free enterprise system every year.

The Liberals have adopted a soak-the-rich taxation approach and swallowed whole the green’s concocted “Climate Change Emergency.” As a result, Canada has missed out on what The Economist labelled the recent, half-decade global “jobs boom.”

Deficits were supposed to disappear but have soared. Jobs and unemployment calculations are suspect and include so-called “part time” and “self-employed jobs.” For instance, before the Oct. 21 election Ottawa claimed that job gains hit 81,000 in August, then another 54,000 in September. Then suddenly, post-election, gains turned into losses of 1,800 in October and 71,000 in November, the biggest decline since the financial meltdown in 2008.

Since 2015, median income has increased only $38 a year under the Trudeau regime, compared with $428 a year increases under Prime Minister Stephen Harper (even though he had to steer through the financial meltdown.) Consumer debt has become the highest in the G7, because Ottawa has not cracked down on illicit capital flows into condos in Toronto and Vancouver, which has helped drive housing prices to excessive levels.

The private sector is embattled. In 2019, the World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business” report found that it takes 249 days to obtain all the necessary permits to build a new warehouse in Canada — 160 days more than in the United States, the only country Canada really competes against for capital.

And how long does it take to obtain a permit to build needed infrastructure? Ask Kinder Morgan and hundreds of other corporations who have left because impediments turned into all-out obstructions.

Overall, the World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business” report ranked Canada 23rd out of 190 countries, but this has fallen from fourth in 2006. Meanwhile, New Zealand is first; Singapore second, and the United States ranks sixth.

Canada ranked 64th in getting permits and the U.S. 24th; Canada ranked 124th in providing electricity to businesses and the U.S. 64th; and Canada ranked 100th in enforcing contracts and the U.S. 17th.

Other job-killers include anti-resource development laws (C-48 and C-69); the NGO and the federal government war against fossil fuels and mining; and interventionist labour laws, red tape, and excessive “green” energy regulations. Last year, the country’s biggest export sectors were slammed. General Motors shuttered operations in Oshawa, forestry laid off thousands, and Alberta lost thousands of oil-related jobs.

Among the 34 OECD (Organization of Economic Co-Operation and Development) members, Canada has the highest regulatory burden and the lowest investments in machinery, equipment, and intellectual patents.

Interprovincial trade barriers worsen. British Columbia should not be able to block oil pipelines just as Quebec should not have been able to block transmission lines from Atlantic Canada. Recently, after years, a natural gas pipeline route had to be approved — in order to bypass Quebec via the U.S. — to deliver Alberta natural gas to a Nova Scotia LNG project.

Regulators, special interests, and politicians did not hoist this country into the economic big leagues and the G7. Business, entrepreneurs and opportunities did. Now, in GDP terms, Canada is behind India and Brazil in size and will soon be overtaken by Russia and South Korea.

It’s all very tragic given Canada’s track record, potential and talent. In the absence of smart economic leadership, Canada will become a road to nowhere.

https://business.financialpost.com/diane-francis/diane-francis-canada-is-on-an-economic-road-to-nowhere?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1578406892

 

 

 

Edited January 8, 2020 by Jaydee

[deicer]

Canada is doing just fine...

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/december-caps-canada-s-second-best-year-for-jobs-since-2007-1.1371957

December caps Canada's second-best year for jobs since 2007

 

Canadian employment rebounded in December after two straight monthly declines, capping the second-best year since the recession and supporting the Bank of Canada’s view that the bottom isn’t coming out of the labor market.

Canada’s economy created 35,200 jobs in December, Statistics Canada said Friday in Ottawa. That brings the total number of jobs added to 320,300 this year, the second-most since 2007. The unemployment rate ticked down in the month to 5.6 per cent, from 5.9 per cent in November, and wage gains decelerated to a still healthy 3.8 per cent from a year earlier.

December’s report was crucial for policy makers in assessing the health of the nation’s job market, and should back the central bank’s view that the labour force continues to be resilient, despite trade headwinds weighing on other components such as exports and business investment.

”Overall, a healthy enough report to have the Bank of Canada maintaining its steady as she goes stance in January,” Avery Shenfeld, chief economist at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, said in a note. He cautioned, however, that because fourth-quarter gross domestic product looks to be tracking only a 0.5 per cent growth rate, “we expect softer jobs figures ahead.”

Currency traders liked the report. The Canadian dollar reversed an earlier decline and was up 0.2 per cent to $1.3036 against its U.S. counterpart at 8:53 a.m. Toronto time.

Key Insights

• Policy makers may use this report to look past the prior two months of weak jobs data and support their view that the labor market remains a source of strength against an otherwise lackluster backdrop
• The report was largely in line with economist forecasts for a 25,000 gain in employment, as most were expecting jobs to bounce back from the prior two months of losses but to remain below the highs seen earlier in 2019
• Employment gains in December were mainly a result of full-time jobs increasing by 38,400 jobs, while part-time employment dropped slightly by 3,200 jobs

Get More

• The private sector reversed course with nearly 57,000 job increases, offsetting a decline of a similar size in November; public-sector employment dropped by 21,500
• Provincially, employment gains in December were led by Ontario and Quebec; British Columbia led declines
• For the year, employment increased for both young men and women, and for men ages 25-54, and 55 and older
• For 2019, services producing jobs rose 367,000, versus a decline of 47,000 in the good-producing industries

[Guest]

December caps Canada's second-best year for jobs since 2007

When of course Canada was under a Minority Conservative Government.  and our debt was falling:

 Federal debt stood at $467.3 billion at the end of 2006–07, down $95.6 billion from its peak of $562.9 billion in 1996–97. Over the past two years the federal debt fell by an amount equivalent to $1,142 for each Canadian.

Quite a change from the current picture.  

Quote

Government Debt in Canada increased to 685.45 CAD Billion in 2019 from 671.25 CAD Billion in 2018. Government Debt in Canada averaged 315.18 CAD Billion from 1962 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 685.45 CAD Billion in 2019 

How ever to be fair, using the Bank of Canada Inflation Calculator, the 2007 debt expressed in 2019 $$$$ would be 916.53 billion Canadian, so perhaps the Libs are not doing that badly.    https://www.bankofcanada.ca/rates/related/inflation-calculator/

 

 

[deicer]

My question is this....

Why is it bad that the Liberal government has increased debt, yet when Conservative governments (ie: the U.S. Alberta, Ontario) do it, it isn't a problem?

https://business.financialpost.com/opinion/doug-fords-ontario-government-spent-billions-more-than-wynne-had-planned-in-2018-19

https://ca.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idCAKBN1X32O8

Edited January 12, 2020 by deicer

[Jaydee]

“ Is Canada alone on the world stage? One reader writes: 'We admired Bill Clinton, derided George W. Bush, worshipped Barack Obama and flaunt our disdain for the present President. … It may be a good idea to stop self-righteously lecturing the United States (or any other country) and stick to doing business.'”

“ Perhaps if Canadians didn’t treat the United States with such distaste, we would have a strong and loyal ally. (Especially our politicians starting with Pierre Trudeau and continuing to this day, with rare exceptions such as Brian Mulroney and Stephen Harper.) You can only crap on a friend so many times before they start to question the effort they put into the relationship. We have used the U.S. for defence and as the foundation of our economy and offered little in return. –Kim Roblin

 

It’s absolutely true that we need to build alliances to counter the zero-sum approach the world’s biggest economies are taking. Canadian business also needs to start taking better advantage of the new opportunities in the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the European Union. –AnglerBob

 

Despite who is elected in 2020 down south, one would hope that Canada learns from this period and continues to reduce our dependency on the United States in the future. Oddly left out of this article is any mention of the European Union, a body of nations that perhaps share more values with Canada than any other. With Brexit at the end of the month, it would serve Canada well to bolster our partnerships with both the United Kingdom and the EU.

Perhaps Canada could resolve the Hans Island dispute with a border with Denmark down the middle, to remind Canadians that the Europeans are our neighbours as much as the Americans. –agropyre1”

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-if-canadians-didnt-treat-the-united-states-with-such-distaste-ally/

[Jaydee]

From Global news...

“ Canada has a secret program that grants visas to war criminals, terrorists, security threats”

Three months before he boarded a plane in Cairo and six months before he made a refugee claim in Toronto, Canadian security officials deemed retired Brig.-Gen. Khaled Saber Abdelhamed Zahw “inadmissible” to Canada because of national security concerns.

Zahw was a “high-ranking” member of Egypt’s military when it orchestrated a coup of President Mohamed Morsi’s government in 2013, according to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).

READ MORE: Saddam Hussein cabinet minister made refugee claim so Canada could pay for dialysis treatments

An inadmissibility finding would keep most people out of Canada, but it didn’t stop Zahw and his wife from obtaining valid visitor visas from the Canadian embassy in Egypt in April 2015.

This is because, according to internal government documents obtained by Global News, Canada has a secret program that allows certain “high-profile” foreign nationals who would otherwise be barred from entering the country due to national security concerns, war crimes, human rights violations and organized crime to be granted special “public policy” entry visas so long as it is in Canada’s “national interest.”

But exactly what “national interest” means in relation to this policy and how the government decides who gets this kind of visa is unclear.

That’s because there’s almost no information available about the program, and the government refuses to answer questions.

Details of Zahw’s immigration file, including internal government documents detailing the secretive visa policy, were submitted to the Federal Court when Zahw challenged the government’s efforts to block him from making a refugee claim.

Zahw sponsored by National Defence

In Zahw’s case, visitor visas were issued after a senior official from the Department of National Defence (DND) in Ottawa wrote a letter to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) saying Zahw and his wife should be given visas to avoid upsetting Canada’s relationship with Egypt’s military.

This type of “national interest letter” can be issued by any federal department or the head of a Canadian mission abroad, such as an ambassador or high commissioner, according to an unpublishedgovernment “operational bulletin” contained in Zahw’s Federal Court file.

 CBSA cancels arrest warrants for people it can’t find

These letters, the bulletin shows, are valid for up to 24 months, are good for multiple trips to Canada — including personal and official travel — and are issued when the CBSA has completed a security screening and determined that the “risk/danger” to Canada is low.

https://globalnews.ca/news/6289240/canada-secret-program-grants-visas-to-war-criminals-terrorists-security-threats/
 

 

Edited January 20, 2020 by Jaydee

[Jaydee]

Further to the above..
 

“ So, while Donald Trump knocks off a mass murdering Islamic terrorist general in Iraq, the Liberal Government of Canada are sneaking Islamic generals into Canada.

How is it exactly that the Nation of Canada came to be a full-on supporter of Islamic governments, and their high-ranking military leaders? For CAP, this began with ex-Liberal prime minister, Pierre Trudeau, and is fully  supported by his son, current Liberal PM Justin Trudeau.

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this story other than government’s change in political allegiance is the fact that CBC and other Canadian media institutions have never once pointed out this trans-sition.

Any Old Stock patriots out there remember a pre- Trudeau Canadian government? Please do tell–were the governments of John Deifenbaker, MacKenzie King, or even Lester B. Pearson fully dedicated to the advancement of Middle Eastern religious ideology within our society?

Not at all–so why has the CBC refrained from articulating anything which speaks to Canada’s ideological and social shift towards supporting Islamic government’s and their diaspora populations in Canada?

Perhaps an answer is found in the latter–meaning the strategic political agenda of packing Third World migrants into urban Canada, and the corresponding lock on Third World-dominated ridings in the GTA, Vancouver, and other major urban centres.

Therefore, Justin Trudeau and his gang of cultural eradicators choose to pander to Islam, rather than support anti-terror measures in the Middle East.

Man, are these Liberals ever a greedy bunch. Turns out they aren’t satisfied with the degree of progress in this regard. Now, Liberal Immigration Minister MP Marco Mendicino has rolled out something called the Rural Immigration Pilot Program.

This brand new migration policy will bring tens of thousands of Third World migrants to Canadian towns such as Vernon, B.C. and Thunder Bay, Ontario. Eleven towns in all for the initial round. Then, one can easily surmise, with each passing year the program will expand.

How about, let’s say, 35 towns in 2022, 65 towns in 2023..and on and on–until every small town and urban riding had enough Third World voters to ensure the Liberals win every riding in future federal elections by a landslide. Keep hammering away in this regard, and Canada is sure to eventually transition to a One-Party State--the exact goal of the globalist brigade.”

 

https://capforcanada.com/as-trump-battles-islamic-terror-trudeau-sneaks-egyptian-generals-into-canada/

Edited January 20, 2020 by Jaydee

[Jaydee]

Socialism at work....

 

“Singh says NDP wants exhaustive review of USMCA before ratification”

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he wants to take a “thoughtful approach” to ratifying Canada’s new North American trade deal, calling for an exhaustive review of the agreement before deciding whether the NDP will support it — a move that could slow down the Liberals’ plan to get it passed quickly.

Singh was in Ottawa Wednesday to begin a two-day planning session with his caucus before the House of Commons resumes sitting next week.

He told reporters the Trudeau government won’t get an easy pass from his party on the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

Singh says Canadians were told in the past that Canada got the best deal possible in the initial agreement negotiated with the U.S. and Mexico, but later saw Democrats in Congress make revisions to labour rights and steel and aluminum provisions.

A full debate in the House of Commons and a study at committee will ensure Canadians are getting the best deal possible, Singh said.

 

“There’s still some ongoing concerns about the changes that were made to help protect workers and the environment,” he said.

 

“I’m concerned about the enforceability, and I want to make sure we do an exhaustive debate, a study in committee, to make sure this is a good deal for Canadians.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday he wants Canada to move swiftly to formally approve North America’s new, long-delayed free trade pact.

His government plans to introduce a motion to apply some of its elements Jan. 27 when Parliament resumes, and will table legislation to ratify the deal two days later.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-ndp-to-discuss-supporting-usmca-at-caucus-planning-session/

 

[Guest]

Here we go. The NDP will delay signing of the  CUSMA       because I guess they thought they could have done better. Let us remember who we are dealing with (the US) and accept that we got the best deal they were willing to give us ..... we really do not have any leverage on our side.

Jagmeet Singh says NDP wants lengthy debate on new NAFTA deal

'We are not going to take Mr. Trudeau or the Liberals at face value. We want to make sure we are doing an exhaustive review'

Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh delivers his speech during the BC NDP Convention at the Victoria Convention Centre in Victoria, B.C., on Saturday, November 23, 2019.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito

Ryan Tumilty

January 22, 2020
8:15 PM EST

 

OTTAWA – NDP leader Jagmeet Singh wants a thorough review and debate in Parliament of the new NAFTA agreement before deciding if the deal gets his party’s support.

Singh met with his caucus Wednesday in Ottawa, in advance of the parliamentary session next week. The Liberals have indicated they will make the new Canada U.S. Mexico agreement (CUSMA) one of the first pieces of legislation when the House of Commons resumes sitting next week. 

Singh said his party won’t be rushed into supporting the deal. 

“We have seen the text and we want to make sure there is a thoughtful approach,” he said. “I want to make sure we are signing deals that are in the best interest of Canadians, particularly Canadian workers.”

In a minority government, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will need support from one of the other parties to get the agreement passed. U.S. and Mexican legislators have both passed the deal, leaving Canada the last country to ratify. 

Singh said he wants a committee review of the legislation and extensive debate in the house before the bill is voted on. 

“We are not going to take Mr. Trudeau or the Liberals at face value. We want to make sure we are doing an exhaustive review.”

Alberta premier Jason Kenney said on Twitter Wednesday that all MPs should work to pass the agreement quickly. 

“A very big deal for Alberta’s economy, and we can’t risk it being derailed by politics south of the border,” Kenney said online. 

Federal Conservative leader Andrew Scheer has said he believes the deal could have been better for Canada, but has said previously his party will support it, because it’s so important to the economy. 

The new trade agreement was worked out in exhaustive negotiations with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration. It was then reworked when Trump needed the support of congressional Democrats to approve the deal. 

When the deal was first reached, Singh said the Liberals were already saying it was the best it could be. 

“We were told by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberal government  that this was the best deal ever and then it turns out it wasn’t. Then the Democrats, luckily, fixed it.”

Singh also said he intends to push for a tax on digital companies, similar to those that have been imposed in countries like France. Those digital taxes, largely against American firms, have sparked Trump to threaten tariffs against those countries.

Singh said Canada can’t make all of its decisions based on Trump’s reactions. He said Canadian firms pay taxes here and tech giants should do the same. 

“That just makes no sense at all. I believe in creating a level playing field, I don’t think it is right to give an advantage or prioritize foreign companies over local companies.”

[Jaydee]

[Jaydee]

“ Conrad Black: What did Canadians do to deserve this government? “
 

 

As was recounted by Gary Mason in an exceptionally pompous comment in the Globe and Mail on Monday, I have indeed been in Calgary (and Vancouver) in the past week, where energy policy and resources generally were extensively discussed, and also engaged in a delightful debate in Toronto on Wednesday on climate change with my friend of many years, former Quebec premier and federal Progressive Conservative leader Jean Charest. I had the good fortune of speaking with a large number of interesting people in all three cities, and learned a good deal about the prevailing perspectives of their business and political communities. Since I was invited in each city to give my opinions on several subjects, I did as asked, to the general agreement of my hosts, however discountenanced Mason may have been by hearsay of my remarks.

I was invited in each city to give my opinions on several subjects

 

 

The principal points I emphasized on resource policy were that just as China and India, representing nearly 40 per cent of the world’s population, settled into hot pursuit of economic growth 30 to 40 years ago, raising demand for base and precious metals, energy and forest products so that they were much closer to being vendors’ markets than consumers’ markets, a confluence of improvident circumstances assaulted the oil and gas industry. Following the decisive defeat of the international left in the Cold War, the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the collapse of international communism and the defection of China to the virtues of a market economy (though still with a heavy command ingredient), the international left, evicted from power and even intellectual respectability, fetched up in the camp of the conservationists, those who cared most demonstratively for the environment. They shouldered aside the long-standing opponents of untreated effluent and advocates for natural habitats, and assaulted capitalism from a new quarter, waving the green flag of ecological radicalism rather than the red banner of Marx. Capitalism was not to be overthrown in favour of socialism, but rather the more incontestable goal of saving the planet. The left, for once, deserves high marks for improvisation.

The left, for once, deserves high marks for improvisation

 

 

In its way, it has been the most pure Leninism: the founder of the Soviet Union said “If you can’t get in the door, use the window.” This is what Marxist Naomi Klein was celebrating with her book “This Changes Everything,” claiming environmentalism would derail capitalism. And the affected militancy of generally respected figures of institutional finance, Mark Carney and Jim Leach and others, in turning themselves into a pressure group for green-friendly investment through the vacuous concept of sustainable finance (though Carney has reservations), are proving the truth of Lenin’s prediction that “The capitalists are so stupid they will sell us the rope we hang them with.” A green test of investment grade will be as complete a fiasco as was the spurious attempt to invest in companies according to the imputable quality of their corporate governance. Fad follows fad; the only yardstick for measuring the quality of investments is capital appreciation, and those that don’t rise in value will not be sustainable.

Greta Thunberg, the tiresome Swedish teenage scold, has been sailing around the world reproaching the planet’s adult population for failing our progeny by mismanaging the planet environmentally. This is a demonstration of weakness by the environmentalists, not strength. Successive claims of imminent doom by the climate alarmists have consistently failed to materialize. Our oil and gas industries are not being strangled by the irresistible veracity of the climate change movement; the entire world except Western Europe and Canada are carrying on without any obvious sign of believing their carbon emissions are threatening human civilization.

Swedish climate-change activist Greta Thunberg, centre, takes part in a climate protest during the 50th World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 24, 2020.

In September, former U.S. vice-president Al Gore repeated that we have 12 years to prevent irreparable climatic damage to life; he said much the same thing a decade ago, and a decade before that. At least he got a Nobel Prize and became a centimillionaire for being so repetitive. Every informed person in the world has realized for over 50 years that we had to be careful to reduce environmental pollution and protect endangered areas and species. The sudden injection of far-left militancy drove the argument to anti-capitalist hysteria and hijacked a vehicle formerly filled with virtuous ecologically minded people. And useful idiots are telling resistant groups like the benighted province of Alberta to enjoy their martyrdom and adjust to impoverishment.The chief meteorologist of Japan disembarked from the climatist movement several months ago, saying it was unclear what was happening to the climate, if anything unusual. The whole policy of dismantling and discouraging most of the energy industry except the hopelessly inadequate and horrendously costly solar and wind power boondoggles has been officially rejected as based on unproved suppositions by all major governments except the principal Western European countries and Canada. Since the science is divided and the proportions of the whole climate question are impossible to judge, Canada should devote itself to neutral and exacting research to seek, urgently, to ascertain what is happening, instead of singing our hearts out in the chorus of doom, like catechism students, as we strangle our greatest potential source of export revenue and greatest manufacturing cost advantage, our oil and gas industry.

Canada should devote itself to neutral and exacting research to seek, urgently, to ascertain what is happening

Countries that are not defined by an exclusive culture, like Poland, Italy, Russia, Sweden, Japan and many others are, and cannot claim a unique secular-evangelical mission and mythos, as the United States claims as the redeemer, exemplar, champion and guardian of democratic government and the free market, must define a community of interest, amplify and equitably distribute prosperity, treat its different component regions and cultural groups fairly, and endow themselves with a distinct purpose. What is needed is a vision, without which, as is recorded in Proverbs and is engraved at the entrance to the Canadian House of Commons, “the people perish.”

The current federal government defines its first priority to be fighting climate change, which is nonsense, making a shambles of matters of gender, and inciting egregious myths and practices in native issues. We are embracing a false national objective to oppress Alberta and Saskatchewan while encouraging charlatans and misfits to claim that there are more than two sexes and that the right of everyone to work out their own sexuality in perfect freedom is a matter for state coercion, and while inciting the inference that those of European ancestry invaded, occupied and oppressed this country in a manner morally indistinguishable from what Hitler and Stalin did to Poland in 1939. There is no vision except platitudes and quixotry. We are driving Alberta to the consideration of extreme remedies and are stuck with the authors of this visionless miasma for four more years. Canada is a great country crossing the desert of self-chosen and misguided leadership. In a democracy, a people gets the government it deserves; we must solemnly consider what we did to deserve this.

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/conrad-black-what-did-canadians-do-to-deserve-this-government

[Jaydee]

[Jaydee]

[Jaydee]

The bill for the trip to the UN Climate Change conference in Madrid last month is not in. But we did discover that 65 Canadian bureaucrats and political staff burned their way through a lot of aviation fuel and taxpayers’ money to attend – proof that the number of bureaucrats required to attend a foreign conference is in direct proportion to the temperature at the location.

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/john-ivison-written-answers-from-liberal-ministers-reveal-questionable-spending-by-federal-government

Edited January 30, 2020 by Jaydee

[Jaydee]

[Jaydee]

 

[Jaydee]

[Jaydee]

“ Providing an aid package to lessen the damage inflicted upon people by their own government. Unbelievable.”

Liberals ready aid package for Alberta as deadline for decision on Teck Frontier mine nears
 

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alberta/article-liberals-ready-aid-package-for-alberta-as-deadline-for-decision-on/