This Week In Politics (according to me)

My friends, in my 29 years on this earth and this country the stupidity that goes on in government has never ceased to amaze me. Political intrigue in Canada? Please, all we have in Canada is political bickering.

Take for example of yesterday: The federal Liberals we finally able to say that they were over the sponsorship scandal because they had retaken the lead in polls in Quebec for the first time since 2004. On the tail of that announcement the PQ announced that they had discovered a new “sponsorship scandal” at the provincial level claiming that the provincial Liberals had used funds that were supposed to be distributed in the Saguenay for economic development and funneled it down to companies in Montreal owned by Liberal party members. This isn’t even a political game or an attempt at character assassination, this is just good detective work by the PQ and a big let down by the Charest government.

If the PQ is indeed right, this would be devastating for Jean Charest and his federalist party. If the PQ is right, it might be exactly what the separatists have been waiting for to be able to tip the scales in their favor. Even if it’s only 8million dollars and it basically means nothing on a provincial budgetary level, it’s 8million TAXPAYER dollars that weren’t allocated where they should have been... and that ladies and gentlemen will be enough to sink the Liberals.

On a federal level, the Conservatives are saying that Canada has measures in place to counter the possible pandemic of swine flu. This is the same government that told us late last year (when the whole world was panicking about money) that the economy was fine and would be fine for a long time. Sure, now they’ve revised their stance and have taken action, but as with the economy, I fear that we are going to have to wait until imminent infection is upon us before the government revises its “everything will be okay, trust us okay?” stance that they’ve so far taken.

Then there's crazy Elizabeth May, whom I used to be a fan of, but now is more like a soap box carrying crazy cat-lady (no offense to cat-ladies) who preaches to whomever is willing to hear it that Harper is trying to buy votes in Quebec.

And what about "Jumping" Jack Layton? Where has my favorite sandal wearing MP been recently? I haven’t seen him on the news or read about him or his party in a long long time. Maybe he’s taking time off to grow a goatee or buy new sandals? If anyone knows I’d love to hear it.

Forget Iggy and Jack and Steve and Lizzy, I’ve got bigger fish to fry... I’m still trying to figure out what I can do to have the utterly racist book “Anglaid” removed from the shelves and banned from sales anywhere in Canada. If a book like this had been written about any other race or culture the entire country would be up in arms about it. But since it’s only about English folks in Quebec no one seems to give a damn.

Muchacho Enfermo

A plea for unity and common sense

A few days ago I received a email from a man from a 26 year old University of Alberta graduate named Jared Milne. He asked me and a handful of other bloggers if we were interested in putting up a letter he had written to all Canadians up on our blogs.

For various reasons I am not posting it here in its entirety but I have made it available for download at with a link provided below.

the letter/la lettre


In his letter Jared where he calls on all Canadians, politicians and voters to put aside their differences in the face of the global economic crisis and for the sake of national unity. He outlines various reasons why the proposed coalition of the NDP-Liberals-BLOC was formed in the first place. Why certain people were for the coalition and why others opposed it.

But I think most importantly he outlines the ramifications that the actions of all of our politicians is currently having on the entire Canadian population.

Here are a few excerpts:
"Any coalition with a political party whose stated goal is the separation of one of Canada’s provinces will provoke a negative reaction in the rest of the country by itself…and who is to say what demands the Bloc will make in exchange for its support? Don’t forget, too, that Dion claimed during the election he would never form a coalition, and that Layton attacked him for not knowing how to handle the economy."

"Arguably even worse for Canadian unity is the backlash this has already provoked in Western Canada."

More importantly he outlines the need for cooperation from all of our political parties. Stating that the two consecutive minorities are clear mandates for cooperation between parties.

"What the opposition parties should be doing is working with the Conservative government, the way the people wanted them to! Both sides should remember that, in order to avoid the collapse of the Harper government and avoid an election that Canadians absolutely do not want, they must cooperate and compromise, which what they were elected to do in the first place."

"With no party receiving a clear mandate of support from the voters, and with nearly 40% of the population staying home on election day, to me it seems clear what Canadians want, for their politicians to not play partisan games and cooperate with one another in dealing with our economic, environmental, and social issues."

All that to say that I think this young man has hit the nail on the head with his letters and I encourage other who read this post to download the letter or offer the link on their website.

Pour ceux de nous qui préfèrent lire en français la lettre de Jared est complètement bilingue. Chapeau!

For those of you who'd like to read more of this young man's work click here and if you have any comments for Jared I'll make sure to pass them on!

Thanks for reading,

Muchacho Enfermo

Canadian Parliament Suspended, The government's on vacation!

The Governor General of Canada has granted Prime Minister Stephen Harper's request to suspend parliament until January 25th.

Closing down parliament this week will stop a coalition formed by the opposition parties from taking down the Harper government on Monday; a no confidence vote was scheduled for Monday. Harper hopes to be able to present a revamped budget to Canadians on January 27th, one that would also be acceptable to the opposition and allow him to cling to power.

What this all means people is this:
1- The opposition doesn't care about Canada, only their paycheques and they formed a coalition because Harper threatened to cut their funding.
2- Harper is a fool for trying to run a country the way he does and running away from this fight speaks volumes about his integrity.

Again, my two cents!

Muchacho Enfermo