Gaza As A Ballot Box Issue In 2015

Our home sweet Gazan home!

So being enraged by the senseless slaughter of innocent people in Gaza - children bombed while they sleep in supposedly safe U.N. schools, children being killed while they play soccer on the beach, the destruction of schools, hospitals and Mosques, children being murdered as they play on swings in public parks - I decided to voice my opinion to our leadership who have been anything but leaders regarding this horrific state of affairs.

Our government has steadfastly stood by the Israeli state, claiming that it's Israel's right to defend themselves, so "oh well" about the collateral damage. "It's all the terrorists fault". I'm quite sure none of those sleeping children were terrorists. This reminds me of the case in the States recently where a guy shot and killed a pregnant women who attempted to burgle his house. The overarching opinion of folks south of the border seems to be that it was the woman's own fault for being caught committing a crime. The man was simply defending his home so he had a right to "bust a cap into her baby belly". No one there is talking about murder or the un-justified use of lethal force.

Anyway, Our Government is in no way seeking an end to the slaughter, merely stoking the flames of discontent by pointing the "flying fickle finger of fate" at the very people who are dying in their hundreds. It's their own fault for supporting Hamas so "fuck em"!

I would expect nothing less from our Conservative Government. They have displayed nothing

There are only friends and enemies to
Citizen Stephen. Friends can do no wrong
and enemies can do no right. 

even remotely close to a balanced approach to affairs in Israel. Stephen Harper is incapable of that kind of response. He sees the world as black and white, friends and enemies. It's connected to his mental health issues. And the fact that Citizen Stephen dismisses out of hand any condemnation by the U.N. regarding the bombing of Gaza, is also not surprising. He's been at war with the U.N ever since Canada was denied a seat on the security council in 2010, thus placing the U.N squarely in the enemy's column.

So the response from Harper and his hand-puppet, Bellicose John Baird, while reprehensible, is not surprising. But what about our Opposition leaders? Why does Justine Trudeau, the great hope for a new and different Canada seem to follow lockstep, Harper's unmitigated support for Israel's war crimes? The official statement on the Liberal Party website regarding Hamas as being a terrorist organization and Israel having the right to defend itself, parrots almost to the letter the Harper response. Hardly the stance of a progressive Liberal leader.

The "Once and Future King" has
lost his way.

And what about Thomas Mulcair, leader of the opposition and Canada's traditionally most progressive party? Well Mr. Mulcair's stance was somewhat more balanced, but he still chose to point a bony finger at Hamas, saying it's "all their fault" while declaring Israel has the right to defend itself. No mention of excessive force, breaching of international law, illegal occupation or, heaven help us, the "G" word (genocide). Just like the Conservatives and Liberals. I somehow doubt that this is the kind of response we would have seen from Jack Layton's NDP.


Which brings me to Elizabeth May and the Greens. At their recent convention, the Green Party voted to adopt a resolution which decried the illegal occupation of Palestinian land. This was a good start. But then the president of the party, Paul Estrin, put out a rambling, poorly written statement (possibly penned whilst in a drunken stupor?) That actually goes beyond Harper's and Trudeau's highly political statements about the Gaza crisis. He declared he openly felt sad that Israel simply had to take the steps it's taking to defend itself and claimed that it's methods were highly "moral". Ms. May quickly distanced herself from these comments while defending Estrin's right to his own opinion.

So like many, many Canadians, I am beyond anger and frustration regarding our collective leadership's lack of a balanced, neutral approach to the current Gaza humanitarian crisis. One that not only expresses discontent with rockets fired from Gaza (which have killed very few civilians by the way) but the ones fired indiscriminately into masses of defenseless Palestinian civilians. There's nothing wrong with one friend (Canada) saying to another (Israel): "hey, we're still your friend, but what you're doing is wrong". So I emailed each of the four leaders mentioned above plus my Member of Parliament, NDP Deputy Leader David Christopherson, to highlight my extreme displeasure with their lack of leadership and unbalanced positions regarding Gaza. So far, the only person who has responded is Elizabeth May. Here is what she had to say: 

Even the Greens are divided

"Thank you for writing about the situation in Gaza and Israel.

I am heartbroken to watch such death, destruction, and violence with seemingly no end in sight. In recent days, the death toll has soared to unspeakable numbers, mostly civilians. With each death, the prospect of a lasting peace seems further away.

I firmly believe that Israeli children and Palestinian children have an equal right to grow up free of bombardment. This should not be a controversial statement. While I, of course, condemn Hamas as a terrorist organization for sending rockets into Israel, the Israeli retaliation and the invasion of Gaza violates international law and humanitarian norms. The death and destruction in a place that was already experiencing a humanitarian crisis is simply unjustifiable.

At the recent national convention in Fredericton, the Green Party of Canada passed the following emergency resolution:

"Be it resolved that the GPC urges the immediate cessation of hostilities between Israel and Palestine. The GPC will adopt a posture of engaged neutrality, opening all available diplomatic avenues in both Palestine and Israel to press for a peaceful resolution to the conflict consistent with the GPC’s commitment to justice and custom of speaking truth to power".

The people of Israel and Palestine desperately need a ceasefire. They desperately need this battle to end so that they can return to resolving the enduring issues in this conflict. The people of the Middle East cannot afford to have this flare up so tragically every few years. The issues of the blockade of Gaza, settlements in the West Bank, permanent borders, refugees, and terror, will need to be dealt with in a cooperative and comprehensive manner, so that Israeli and Palestinian children can grow up without fear and without hatred.

Canada can and should play a constructive role in this process. A one-sided stance on this issue forfeits any opportunity for Canada to be a useful mediator. Canada needs to stand up for human rights and international law wherever they are violated. Canada should continue to condemn Hamas rockets and terror but any Prime Minister of Canada worth his or her salt would also say, as a friend and ally of Israel, “you’ve gone too far - you must move to peace talks.”

Thank you again for writing.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth May"

2015 is fast approaching fellow citizens. While the tragedy that is now taking place in Gaza is a world away, how our leaders react to this humanitarian crisis speaks volumes regarding their views about Canada and it's place in the world. If they can't be trusted to be the voices of justice in times of international crisis, how can they be trusted to be the voices of justice here at home? So keep this in mind fellow Canadians when we go to the polls in October of 2015.

10 Wishes For Canada In 2014

Nope, no reviews or predictions here!

As a rule, I don't much care for "year end reviews". I find them to be a waste of time. 

While I consider myself to be a student of history, I find that looking backwards to rehash what has happened in the near past isn't nearly as constructive as looking ahead. What has happened in the past has already happened. We've already lived it for better or for worse. 

Yes, I believe it to be true that he who fails to heed the lessons of history is doomed to repeat it's mistakes, but hey- 2013 has shown us oh so many mistakes- at least as far as Canadian politics is concerned- we all know what they were. In this age of 24/7 news coverage, they've been all too glaring and impossible to ignore. So lets move on already. 

And don't get me started on predictions. None of us has a crystal ball and none of us is, to my knowledge, psychic. The best any of us can do regarding the year ahead, is to make guesses, educated or otherwise. 

So no, I won't be titillating anyone with my prediction that Stephen Harper will suffer from male pattern baldness in the next year and end up wearing a hair piece that makes him look like Donald Trump, hence leading to his continued slide in the polls and his eventual ouster as P.M. But we can hope. 

So no, no rehashing of the high or low lights of 2013 and no Ouija board induced glimpses into 2014 from this corner. But what I CAN offer, are some of my hopes, dreams and wishes for Canada for the coming year. So here is my list of top 10 things I hope happens in 2014:

1) While vacationing on his yacht in the sunny Caribbean, Gary Bettman is

"Arrrr Billy, Have yea ever been to sea"??

kidnapped by a merry band of homosexual pirates. The Pirates attempt to ransom Bettman, but no one seems willing to cough up the money for his safe return. So the price the pirates are asking for the "Tiny-Perfect Person" keeps getting lower and lower until finally, Don Cherry offers the sum of $1.95. The Pirates accept the deal but ultimately, Gary, who ends up changing his name to Sherry, refuses to leave the company of his new shipmates. 

2a) In the absence of Bettman, the NHL seems to come to its collective senses and cancels an impending expansion franchise  that would have seen Boise Idaho land a team which the city had intended to call the "Ice Taters". 

2b) The league then decides to place franchises in Hamilton, Saskatoon, Quebec and Halifax and subsequently creates a Canadian and American conference so that each year, the Stanly cup is contested by an American club and a Canadian club. 

3) Justin Trudeau continues to have good hair days. Much as they try, the ReformaCons can't seem to find a bad picture of Justin who on his worst day, still exudes more charm and charisma than Helmet-Head Harper on his best. 

Harper was never able to pull off the
Clint Eastwood look. 

4) Thomas Mulcair keeps his beard which gives him a  Clint Eastwoodish kind of persona in Parliament that suits his shoot from the hip, rapid fire style of questioning. In keeping with this theme, Thomas's handlers eventually talk him into wearing a poncho and chewing on a cigar stub during question period while occasionally uttering the phrase "go ahead, make my day".

5) Elizabeth May becomes Prime Minister. Hey, if you're going to dream, dream big.

6) Ezra Levant accepts an offer to be a celebrity rodeo clown at the upcoming Calgary Stampede. Once there however, Levant becomes upset with a particularly confrontational Bull who he accuses of being antisemitic. The Bull subsequently launches Levant into orbit and was last seen streaking past the International Space Station where resident Cosmonauts claim to have heard the ex-lawyer screaming "I'LL SUE"!

7) Mike Duffy puts a curse on the entire Conservative caucus so that every time one of them attempts to spout empty talking points and twisted rhetoric, their lips spontaneously combust. 

8) Rob Ford, deciding he needs a vacation from the stress and strain of his own stupidity, goes on Safari in deepest, darkest Africa and attempts to poach wild elephants so that he can sell their tusks for a tidy profit. However Ford's brother Doug, (who is also on this vacation, because the Ford brothers can't seem to do anything on their own), mistakes Rob for one of their prey and accidentally shoots him. Rob, eventually recovers from what turns out to be a flesh wound in the posterior and subsequently blames the Toronto Star for his ordeal. 

9) In an extremely rare moment of contrition, Stephen Harper invites Stephane Dion to lunch at an outdoor cafe in Ottawa. As Harper is about to apologize to Dion for ruining his career, a puffin flies overhead and poops on Harper's head to which Dion comments: "Karma is a bitch eh fat boy"? 

10) Canadians finally wake up and realize that our country's experiment with conservatism was a horrendous mistake and we can all go back to being a respected, progressive nation again. 

In 2015, Who Will Be the Voice of Hope For Working Class Canadians

It's as plain as the smarmy grin
on Harper's face that the CPC
are the champions of the 1%

Well we are now past the half-way point in Stephen Harper's dark and sinister majority mandate. So you can expect little in the way of actual governance between now and the next election.

Not that there was much in the way of any real management of the country since May of 2011. There HAS been a whole hell of a lot of politicking however from the party that currently claims to be the Canadian Government. 

The Government of Harper has created solutions (and bad ones at that) to problems that don't exist. A tough on crime agenda for example, at a time when Canada's crime rate is at its lowest level in over 40 years. But hey, his base LOVES the idea. 

He used the 2008 economic crisis to unnecessarily spend us into the largest deficit in our history. Previous Governments had insured that our banks were adequately insulated against the kind of madness that occurred in the States. But the financial crash was a wonderful excuse for Mr. H to throw cash around (mostly in Conservative ridings) like a drunken sailor in a brothel, all in an effort to win over future votes. 

With Stephen, it's always been about the next election. Damage control, political spin, attack ads and scoring points with his ideological base has replaced day to day management of the country. In essence, we have no real Government. We have a self-serving political party that has been given the keys to the family car and has been on a reckless road trip for the past seven years while you and I pay for the gas. 

But now that Stephen has reached a critical juncture in his mandate (complete with a brand new directionless throne speech), expect the madness to escalate to dizzying heights. He will be going overboard in his efforts. Not to manage the country responsibly, but to score political points. Everything- EVERYTHING he does from here on in will be about 2015. It's all about the party. It's all about HIM. It has nothing whatsoever to do with you or I. He could "care less".  

So in his effort to stake out his "turf" in the war to come, his

Harperness is attempting to return to his populist roots. He is trying to paint himself as the outsider, the "everyman", a Timmies double-double kind of guy who is taking on the down-town elites. 

And Citizen Stephen might well win a vote or two with this "little guy" shtick of his. But it doesn't take much of an effort to see through the charade. In fact, it's probably the ONLY thing about his current reign that is in any way transparent. 

We know the Emperor is wearing no clothes. It's as plain as the

Stephen is Bullish on the One Percent

smarmy grin on his face that he is the envoy of the 1%. The oil patch lovin, Bay Street humping corporate Elites. Yes, "Elites", which makes Harper's down-home, humble pie routine all the more pathetically transparent. 

You see, the "Elites" Mr. Harper is at war with are the educated class. The doctors, the professors, teachers, the artsy-fartsy set, and most especially, the media. Not to mention scientists or anyone who gives a flying fig about the environment. You know, the ones who could potentially throw a monkey wrench into his  corporate agenda. 

So despite his circus-like antics, it's pretty plain to see who Harper speaks for in this Canada of ours and it's pretty safe to say they rarely visit the local Tim Horton's drive through. 

But what about the "other" guys? For whom in this country do Mr Trudeau and Mr. Mulcair speak?

Prince Justin: Charming, Likable, In
every way, the Anti-Harper. But does
he represent ALL Canadians?

Well it's pretty clear that Prince Justin has staked out the traditional Liberal territory in the middle of the pack. Canada has, by and large, been a pretty middle of the road kind of country historically, never straying either too far to the left or too far to the right. And the driving force behind this has been a healthy middle class. Progressive, but not too progressive. Pragmatic, but not too pragmatic. This is why the Liberals have been dubbed Canada's "natural ruling party". 

So Trudeau has quite emphatically shouted to the folks residing in the Centre of Canada's economic and political spectrum: "Hey you! You in the middle class! Yous is my peeps". If he can keep from shooting himself in the foot on a regular basis, this is territory he might well conquer between now and 2015. 

But the middle of the road is a place that ALL  the parties want a piece 

Tom Mulcair channels the late Jack Layton

of which is why Stephen pretends to be your next door neighbor and Thomas Mulcair has taken to calling himself plain old "Tom" and has made sure HIS party has dropped any and all references to "Social" Democracy in its Mission and Vision statements. Those middle of the road folks don't cotton to none of that "Bolshevik" nonsense. 

So JT will have his hands full trying to win battle-ground suburbia. It seems that EVERYONE is simply tripping over themselves to look after those folks in the middle class. Which is terribly nice for the folks in the middle class. They are Canadian citizens and deserve to be looked after.  And Stephen already has a lock on the 1%, which is real nice for them as well. 

Just because an unemployed single mom doesn't
donate to a political party, is she less deserving of
our politician's support?

But I have to wonder who speaks for the REAL "Everyman", the one who is now less and less likely to be a middle classer. He's the guy just a few notches below that hallowed ground. He's the guy who's carrying more debt than income. The guy with two jobs. The guy who can't afford to put his kids through college. And as often as not, that guy is a girl. And equally likely, a single mother to boot. 

And who is staking claim to the unemployed as well as the working poor, the homeless, the mental health patients, the drug addicts, the elderly and all those folks that we here in Hamilton would refer to as "North Enders". 

Well Tom's party USED to be the ones who claimed to represent the lower class. And they represented the working class as well, the REAL Timmies folks. But lets face it, the poor rarely vote. I mean, how the hell do you enumerate homeless people and drug addicts? And the poor NEVER donate to political parties. And thanks to Stephen The Terrible who has eliminated subsidies for political parties, donations are the ONLY way parties can survive now. Which of course means the lower class don't matter a rat's ass in the big game of politics. 

So with Stephen being the hand puppet of the 1% who NEEDS a sizable chunk of the middle class to win. And with Justin having pitched HIS tent squarely in the middle of the road. And Tom eyeing that same territory, just who the heck DOES speak for the lower class anymore. Who really gives a damn about a truly "just" society or about unprecedented income inequality? Who cares about that Everyman who is forced to pay a visit to Money Mart more often than he cares to admit because he  owes his left testicle to the bank? Who really gives a shit about the welfare recipient who has to make that monthly decision between paying the rent or feeding her children? What about those 800,000 Canadians who still rely on food banks? Are they any less important  because they can't contribute to the coffers of our political parties?

Yes, I've heard some lovely lip-service coming from the three amigos with regard to poor and working class Canadians. But lets face it folks, in reality, Stephen is positively revolted by the peasantry while Justin is pretty much playing it safe and Tom, well dear old Tom wants to be PM so he'll play the political game to the hilt. I'm just not seeing anyone who is claiming to be the right and true advocate of the poor/working poor, the ones with no light at the end of the tunnel, just more darkness. Until we see some real commitment there, someone who can lay claim to be the voice of ALL Canadians, I'm not sure any of the three above mentioned gentlemen are deserving of my vote or yours.  

And who will be the champion of the unemployed?