OTTAWA - Less than a week after the Conservatives hailed Sen. Mike Duffy’s “leadership” in repaying $90,000 in improper housing expenses, it turns out the office of an entirely different leader made the bill go away.Stephen Harper’s chief of staff Nigel Wright personally covered Duffy’s repayment, the Prime Minister’s Office said Wednesday.The Senate’s conflict of interest code explicitly prohibits senators from accepting any gift that “could reasonably be considered to relate to the senator’s position.” The Senate ethics officer refused to comment on the matter Wednesday, despite the fact gifts are supposed to be publicly disclosed.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper told an audience in New York City today that the Keystone XL pipeline needs to go ahead and he laid out the reasons why it should be approved by the American government. […]
On other topics:
- Harper was asked about a national inquiry on missing and murdered aboriginal women and said that his government has funded studies and is encouraging action to improve the status of aboriginal women in their communities. He said he is skeptical of commissions of inquiry.
- Harper said that external factors remain the biggest risks to Canada’s economy and that the government is making progress on improving Canada’s productivity.
- Arming the opposition in Syria is “risky” according to Harper and Canada wants a diplomatic solution to the conflict. The G20 often fails to grasp the holistic approach that needs to be taken on global issues.
- Canada wants foreign investment but doesn’t want to see sectors “nationalized” by state-owned enterprises.
Watching the video, Harper reiterates how the pipeline will benefit the United States, how much support there is for the pipeline in the US, and how emissions goals will allegedly be met. Admittedly, his audience is American, but his failure to address the Canadian angle remains deeply worrying. The United States’ “energy security” would appear, at a glance, to be more important to the Canadian Prime Minister than his own people and country. He also reiterates yesterday’s headline about the intention to orient scientific research toward business in a justification of the pipeline’s ongoing environmental sanctity.
Harper also reiterates his support for Israel as the last strong beacon of the West in the Middle East, and identifies Iran and its alleged nuclear weapons as the biggest threat in the world.
The same party that has been screwing over my province for more than a decade won again, and with more power than before. I’m sure there will now be a continuation of their long history of lies and betrayal. =/
The only positive note is that a green party leader did get elected. He is a scientist; a Climatologist at the University of Victoria. Its nice to have more scientists in government especially when climate change has been so put down in politics.
Just a reminder that polls close at 8 PM.
If I’ve missed any, let me know and I’ll edit them in. :)
Live Video:
Live blogs:
Times Colonist Live Election Map
Times Colonist Live Storify Blog
Huffington Post Live Election map
National Post Live Election Map
News 1130 live blog (contains links to live twitter feeds too)
Live Radio:
Canada’s poverty and starvation has gotten so bad since 2008 that the United Nations has tried to intervene. The conservative government won’t even admit that the issue exists.
Shit Harper Did is trying to get a 30 second ad aired on tv during the NHL playoffs. They need to raise $95,000 within a few days.
Donate HERE
Over the past few years, the Canadian government has been lurching into antiscience territory. For example, they’ve been muzzling scientists, essentially censoring them from talking about their research. Scientists have fought back against this, though from what I hear with limited success.
But a new development makes the situation appear to be far worse. In a stunning announcement, the National Research Council—the Canadian scientific research and development agency—has now said that they will only perform research that has “social or economic gain”.
This is not a joke. I wish it were.
John MacDougal, President of the NRC, literally said, “Scientific discovery is not valuable unless it has commercial value”. Gary Goodyear, the Canadian Minister of State for Science and Technology, also stated “There is [sic] only two reasons why we do science and technology. First is to create knowledge … second is to use that knowledge for social and economic benefit. Unfortunately, all too often the knowledge gained is opportunity lost.”
I don’t even recognize my country anymore. We have fallen from grace. This is such a backwards move, it makes me want to cry.
Click title to read more.
When they are not refusing to disclose what they are doing, they are giving out false information; when they allow dissenting opinions to be voiced, they smear them as unpatriotic or worse; when they open their own mouths to speak, it is to read the same moronic talking points over and over, however these may conflict with the facts, common courtesy, or their own most solemn promises. Secretive, controlling, manipulative, crude, autocratic, vicious, unprincipled, untrustworthy, paranoid … Even by the standards of Canadian politics, it’s quite the performance. We’ve had some thuggish or dishonest governments in the past, even some corrupt ones, but never one quite so determined to arouse the public’s hostility, to so little apparent purpose. Their policy legacy may prove short-lived, but it will be hard to erase the stamp of the Nasty Party.
- Andrew Coyne (via anibxb)
In the last 20 minutes of the advance polls. XD
Just remember to vote on May 14th if you hadn’t done so already.
I don’t want people complaining about the government later if you didn’t go out and make your voice heard now.
Whether jobs are created or lost on any given month, the one constant in Canada’s post-recession employment record has been that for young people, the news has always been bad.And the lack of progress in job creation for young Canadians is becoming a political liability for the Harper government that continues to boast of having the best employment record in the G7.
Opposition Liberal MPs took turns Friday hammering the government on the issue after Statistics Canada released the latest labour market report showing a net gain of 12,500 jobs for the month of April, but a loss of 18,800 jobs for the 15-24 age group.
Click title to read more.
This explains a lot about my current situation, and why its been so hard to find a job.
Politicians please get your ass together. Young people will need to be the backbone of the future economy. If we can’t get work now, this will only get worse down the line.
About Shychemist
