Jets Overhead - Beach Dream

Via Facebook:

We are pleased to announce a new video for the song Beach Dream, directed by Jeremy Lutter and starring Cameron Bright and Sarah Desjardins. Watch the video here:

Elizabeth May: Kickass Canadians

All photos courtesy of Green Party of Canada

A little while back, I got the following email from Ottawa-South Green Party of Ontario member James Mihaychuk:

“You need to get Elizabeth May on your site. Elizabeth has been an activist, environmental lawyer, federal policy advisor, head of the Sierra Club Canada, our first elected Green MP, and was the 2012 Parliamentarian of the Year as selected by other MPs.”

Quite the endorsement. Not that the Green Party of Canada leader really needs it. She’s had an extraordinary life so far.

Read through Elizabeth’s Green Party bio or Wikipedia entry and you’ll learn that she was just a teenager when she led a successful campaign to prevent insecticide spraying on the forests of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. That finances kept her from finishing an undergraduate degree, but that she got through Dalhousie Law School anyway as a mature student (graduating in 1983 with a reference letter from then-Governor of Arkansas Bill Clinton).

Good read.

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PM's former chief of staff controlled secret Tory fund - Politics - CBC News

CBC News has learned that Stephen Harper’s former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, had control of a secret fund in the Prime Minister’s Office when he cut the now infamous $90,000 “personal cheque” to disgraced Senator Mike Duffy.

In exclusive interviews, sources familiar with the fund tell CBC the money in it comes from Conservative Party coffers, and at times has reached almost $1 million.

Like all political party funds, more than half of all the cash in the secret PMO stash ultimately comes from taxpayers’ pockets. Individual donors to political parties receive generous tax credits. Parties also receive millions from taxpayers through a per-vote subsidy, which is being phased out by 2015.

Sources tell CBC that Harper’s chief of staff — to date, there have been four, including Wright — has exclusive signing authority over the fund, which was set up in the PMO when the Conservatives came to power in 2006.

Its existence has apparently been a closely guarded secret for the past seven years, even within the Prime Minister’s Office. Only a few Conservative insiders know how the PMO cash stash has been spent.

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New CRTC wireless rules ban contract break fees after 2 years - Business - CBC News

The CRTC has unveiled a new code of conduct for cellphone companies that forbids charging customers to break their contracts after two years, and makes it easier to unlock cellphones.

Its a canadian miracle.

Canada is run by some of the greediest cellphone and telecommunications companies in the world. I’m glad we’re finally getting some progress towards fairer cell contracts.

Call Me Crazy for Wanting the Government to Do its Job

Last week, citizens demanded answers from their Prime Minister — a reasonable enough request — and the leader of our responsible government promptly ignored us. He treats us like we have no rights at all. And given our lack of reaction, I guess we don’t.

Greg Weston: Senate scandal may be Harper's worst hour - Canada - CBC News

The widening Senate scandal that the prime minister flippantly tried to dismiss as a ‘distraction’ just days ago has instead become arguably Stephen Harper’s worst hour.

The question is no longer only whether taxpayers have been stiffed by the expense-account hijinks of a few senators feeling overly entitled to their entitlements.

At risk is Harper’s own credibility, with his apparent mismanagement of the growing political crisis having already provoked rare public criticism from members of his own cabinet, caucus and Conservative party core.

The worst part about this isn’t that so much wrong doing has been done in this scandal, its that the PM hasn’t admitted any fault what so ever. This man doesn’t have an ounce of accountability in his body. I’m sorry but no one is going to believe that someone who is such a control freak, would not know what his staff and ministers are doing. This is just the latest in a long line of scandals and rogue, disrespectful behaviours.

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