867...Paradigm Shift In Alberta

Interesting by election result in the most conservative city in Canada, Calgary, yesterday.

Adam Daifallah, National Post writer posts a story from the southern Alberta metropolis recording the victory of Wildrose Alliance's Paul Hinman, winning in a riding held by the Alberta Conservatives for 38 years. The year they took the seat was the year they took power in Alberta, power they have not relinquished.

Mr. Daifallah seems to think that this win by the Wildrose Alliance may be the crack in the wall that will bring down the Conservative government.

WFDS

753...Cut And Paste To Warm Russel Barth's Heart

Going their own way; While the U. S. turns a blind eye,
its 'partner' states are quietly decriminalizing illicit drugs
National Post
Fri Aug 28 2009
Page: A12
Section: Editorial
Byline: Cobly [sic] Cosh
Column: Cobly [sic] Cosh
Source: National Post

Say, are we still having that debate over whether
the United States constitutes an empire?
I remember the idea seeming controversial a few years back.
In 2009, the whole idea of disagreeing with it seems quaint.
But maybe things will look different in a few more years.
Empires do not rise and fall monotonically; they expand and contract,
relax and relent. In an extraordinary turn of events,
Caesar has temporarily turned a blind eye to the policing of morals in the provinces, allowing startling drug reforms in two major "partner" states.

Late last week, the Mexican government,
trying explicitly not to call too much attention to what it was doing,
decriminalized the possession of very small amounts of illicit drugs.
Not just marijuana, which is subject to a possession limit of five grams,
but the whole kaboodle: cocaine, methamphetamine, LSD, even heroin.
In general the U. S. media treated this as a counter-intuitive move
made in the midst of a full-scale war between drug cartels
and the Mexican state.
But it is precisely the bloodiness of that war that has
Mexico moving away from ideological prohibitionism.

The idea is to cut into demand by treating addicts as
potential treatment clients rather than criminals, to fight corruption among the police by taking away one of their major tools for shaking down the poor and marginalized, and to concentrate resources on organized crime. This is, of course, a form of centralized social planning just as much as total prohibition is. Even a borderline-anarchist libertarian (like me) might well question whether it will accomplish the criteria of social peace and harm reduction by which it will be judged; Cato Institute fellow and Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron, for one, worries that decriminalization will get the blame if intensified supply-side enforcement leads to more violence.

But the Portuguese model on which the Mexican reform is based,
which saw the adoption of Europe's most liberal drug laws in 2001,
has been successful in all the ways that most of us would consider
important, particularly in reducing the spread of HIV and
exposure to drugs amongst teenagers.
One feels that what's needed above all else right now,
when it comes to drugs, is a little openness and sincerity.
The single worst effect of criminalizing drug possession is to
make it harder for everyone to talk about drugs.
It has created a world
although things have changed a lot in the last 20 years)
where most everyone has taken a bong hit at one time or another,
but no one wants to admit it,
whether it's to their kids or to co-workers or in the newspaper.

And that, in turn, has made it harder to make the core argument
that it is none of the state's business what you put in your body.
[Doing so inevitably comes off as sounding like a coded apology for
past indiscretions.) But in some places it is being made anyway.
On Tuesday the Supreme Court of Argentina reversed the
conviction of a 19-year-old caught with two grams of pot
and decriminalized the possession of drugs for personal consumption.
The Kirchner government anticipated the ruling and says
it is content to abide by it;
meanwhile, other Latin states, including Brazil,
are talking about following suit. Crucial
to the logic of the court's decision was an
article in the Argentine constitution that states,
"The private actions of men which in no way offend
public order or morality, nor injure a third party,
are only reserved to God and are exempted from the authority of judges."

It's a sentiment one might have expected to hear
coming from the U. S. A., at one time.
President Obama has been a disappointment to
the harm-reduction crowd when it comes to domestic
drug reform, but the rapid pace of change in the
Latin world shows that the State Department is no
longer imposing its will there. Whether it's because
Washington has more urgent priorities like saving the
American economy from reverting to the Stone Age, or
just because the Bush administration's cadre of drug
warriors is gone, American satellites seem to find themselves
free to go their own way, perhaps only for a brief moment.

Canadians who have argued that the adoption of
a harm-reduction approach here would jeopardize
our trade relationship with the United States
can therefore pipe down for the foreseeable future.
Unfortunately, we greet the occasion with a
law-and-order he-man Conservative government
in place -- one which, whatever its virtues when it comes
to crimes that have victims,
is full of people like Peter van Loan,
Rob Nicholson and Tony Clement,
and plenty of others who are
about as likely to give birth to a muskox
on the steps of Parliament as they are to
support rational drug policy. From that standpoint, our timing sorta stinks.

colbycosh@gmail.com 

563...Canada May Be Terror Target - National Post

That is the headline and fingers are crossed.

A terror target!

Just like the big countries!

Exciting!

WFDS

510...It Is The Border

And Washington doesn't seem to get that the border between us and them and the border between them and them is different.

Polina Levina, National Post, quotes Christopher Sands, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, as stating that yesterday's report on the border "...is about the dysfunctional way the U. S. manages its border...[Americans] need a constructive way to distinguish Canada and Mexico in terms of policy..."

Fluidity on our border with the United States is important and the big fear of the Americans, one of them, illegal immigration, doesn't play so much betwixt Canada and the United States. When we go shopping in Buffalo we cannot wait to get home, that is the difference between the northern border and the southern border.

A tight border costs both sides money, that is the opposite of good, it is bad.

WFDS

404...Cut And Paste And Comment

From Michael Taube, Calgary Herald and the National Post.

Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff will likely never become prime minister . . . When you have victory in your sights, you don't give a political opponent time to regroup and get stronger. You move forward, bring them down, and defeat them in an election. Ignatieff ignored this basic principle--and his dream of moving into 24 Sussex Drive may have just gone up in smoke. (National Post --Full Comment, Jan. 31, 2009)

The former speechwriter for future Calgary Real Estate Salesman of the Year, Stephen Harper, Mr. Taube writes today that the next Prime Minister of Canada, Michael Ignatieff, won't be the next Prime Minister of Canada because he did not seize the day on a minimum of two occasions.

"Ignatieff has blown it again." He then cites "...an EKOS/CBC poll, the Conservatives have taken the lead with 34.8 per cent popular support, as compared to the Liberals' 32.8 per cent. The difference between the two parties is still margin of error, but it's the first time in six months the Harper Tories have nosed out in front. Methinks the margin will get larger."

Food for thought.

Evil, bad, distasteful thoughts.

WFDS

320...X Does Not Mark The Spot

The Next Prime Minister of Canada, Michael Ignatieff, in a great display of statesmanship, delayed his inevitable move to 24 Sussex Drive by coming to a compromise and agreeing to not take down the Conservative government this week.

Brilliant.

This shows why Mikey I. will be one of the greatest Prime Ministers ever; he continues to show how strong and principled he is. Plus it gives the current Prime Minister time to bone up on Alberta real estate law for the big test he will have to take to become a real estate agent back home in Calgary when his political career winds down in the next couple of years.

I have said it before and will say it again: Stephen Harper will sell homes like nobody before him. He has that "je ne sais quoi".

One person who didn't approve was L. Ian MacDonald is editor of Policy Options magazine who wrote disapprovingly of Mr. Ignatieff on page A23 of today's National Post. Mr. MacDonald, if memory serves, has been a Tory hack since, minimum, the days of Brian Mulroney, the pre PM Muldoon, so, it does not suprise that his bylined article "Ignatieff's lousy week" was disproving.

WFDS

314...Ignatieff Talks Self Off Ledge

Reads the headline in today's National Post.

The complete headline in John Ivision's article this morning is:

Ignatieff talks self off ledge; Liberals in no shape for a summer election

Beauty headline, eh? And as Mr. Ivision goes on to write, the Tories seem more prepared to hit the polls than the Libs, Dips or Le Bloc with 21 times as many candidates registered with Elections Canada than the Liberals. The fact that the Liberal Party is in disarray indicates that when the writ is dropped they will simply impose candidates, without the fuss of nomination battles. The Liberals could simply re-nominate everyone who ran last time; considering the election was less than a year ago this will be relatively facile. In addition to the party's 77 MPs, 18 former Liberal MPs are said to be running or are thinking about it. This of course is a problem for Mikey I. because it is same old same old same old not the new blood that Mr. Ignatieff would surely like to the Liberal fold.

Better later than sooner. In this writer's view the next Prime Minister of Canada would be better served by chilling out and waiting until the fall of 2010 to take out the Conservatives.

WFDS

285...Is The National Post Lying...?

Cut and paste job from Warren Kinsella's blog:

IS THE NATIONAL POST LYING TO ITS READERS?

Wednesday, June 10, 2009, 10:55 PM

The newspaper, I saw today, publishes columns by "Raphael Alexander." They may have in fact done so for a while (I barely read the paper when I wrote for it, and don't do so at all, now.) The "Alexander" columns are the usual stuff - regurgitated Harper PMO talking points, anti-Ignatieff screeds, blah blah blah. Yawn.Thing is, "Raphael Alexander" is not this columnist's real name. Dawg's asked the guy straight out, too.

Here's the exchange, from a few weeks ago:

Dr.Dawg Says: March 1, 2009 at 4:50 pm Is “Raphael Alexander” your real name? Just curious. Raphael Alexander Says: March 1, 2009 at 9:21 pm Define what real name means... "Raphael" then goes on to play some parsing games about what's on his birth certificate, what's real, what isn't, etc. But he confirms that at least part of his Post handle is bullshit.So, does the Post willingly publish untruths, or has it simply been hoodwinked? Good question.Let's think about that.

WFDS

262...Drop The 'New' In NDP, Branding Expert Urges

That is the headline in the online edition of the National Post.

Alyn Edwards of Vancouver public relations firm Peak Communicators, says a name change would generate valuable publicity.

He didn't mention this, but for further success they should also drop the "Jack Layton" in NDP too.

WFDS

213...My Car Is Now Worth Three Grand

Or will be if the proposal reported by Nicholas Van Praet in today's Financial Post section of the National Post comes to fruition.

Richard Gauthier, president of the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association is the point man for a 100 million dollar fleet replacement program [my fleet by the way looks very much like one very tired old Ford, albeit with an amazing tape deck] that would offer owners of vehicles 10 years old or older $3,000 cash to trade in their beaters for new models. They want the government to free up $300-million initially to fund the plan, enough to replace 100,000 vehicles.

The only fly in this ointment, wait, no, make that one the many flies in this ointment, is the fact that people like myself who drive 300 dollar cars are more than willing to make that big step up to a brand new vehicle. Whether we are willing and/or capable of making the monthly payments is a whole other story, a story that will be most likely punctuated by the repo man. If this plan comes to fruition for a bright shining moment neighbourhoods like North Central in Regina, St. Henri in Montreal and Vanier here in Ottawa will be rife with shiny Cadillacs and Chryslers.

WFDS