Ex-Conservative has warning

A few months ago I was a card carrying Conservative, serving as a director on both the Guelph and Kitchener-Center Conservative electoral district association boards. I succeeded Michael Sona as president of the University of Guelph Campus Conservatives and I can tell you I deeply regret all the work I have done for the Conservative Party of Canada.

They have gone against Canadian values and have made a joke out of our democracy. I believed I was working for a cause to bring greater accountability, transparency and respect for the taxpayer; the result was just the opposite.

Canada is a great nation, built by a people who value hard work, taking responsibility for one’s actions and above all honesty. The government that sits in Ottawa values only power and cannibalizes its own in order to save face.

As someone who has seen what is talked about in the party, I can only say God help Canada in the next four years. Because it won’t be the country that veterans, like my grandfather fought so hard to protect.

Victor Pocaterra, Kitchener

Source: The Toronto Star

Sign the petition: Hands off our CBC

Only you can stop devastating Conservative cuts to our cherished public broadcaster

The Conservative government has begun a campaign against the CBC. 

Consider this pattern of behavior. 

It starts with a broken promise:

Heritage Minister James Moore recently announced upcoming cuts of up to $110 Million to the CBC.

This is completely contrary to the promises he made prior to the election. “We made a simple, specific promise to Canadians in the last election to maintain or increase funding to the CBC,” Mr. Moore said in February. It didn’t take him long to break his promise to Canadians. Last month he announced a 5% cut to CBC’s budget, this month he is announcing it’s 10%. Who knows how much further Harper’s Conservatives will go.

Click here to sign the petition!

 

'Ethnic' Voter Rally at Harper Event

Thursday, April 14
5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel (Toronto Airport)
655 Dixon Road, Etobicoke

Please come dressed in your traditional "ethnic costume" - whether you're Chinese, Arab, Portuguese, Italian, South Asian, Irish, Vulcan, Klingon, Zombie, or Ewok.  

Let's show the Conservatives that "ethnic voters" are not props for photo-ops.

Bring placards!

The Conservative rally will take place at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, 655 Dixon Road, near the Toronto Airport. The Conservative event is slated to start at 6:30 p.m. We're asking that you be there for 5:30 p.m. so we can be sure to greet Harper when he arrives.

Organized by community organizations, anti-racist groups, and "ethnics" across the Greater Toronto Area

Map: http://bit.ly/RallyLocation

RSVP:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=218684188147549

Conservative culture of deceit and contempt

Conservative culture of deceit and contempt
The Conservative government under Stephen Harper is showing its true character. Secrecy and intimidation have taken the place of transparency and respect. The examples are too numerous not to see a pattern:

1. Accusing police of corruption for protecting officer safety. In a brazen show of contempt for our police forces, the Conservative MP who chairs the House of Commons Public Safety Committee has said that police chiefs “derive financial support from pro-registry sources” and called them “a cult” for seeking to maintain the gun registry that they access 11,000 times a day to protect officer safety.

2. You’ll get the documents “when they are good and ready.” A Justice Department lawyer refused to even give a date for when specific documents would be provided to the Military Police Complaints Commission’s hearings on the government’s role in the torture of Afghan detainees.

3. Silence regarding Rahim Jaffer’s alleged lobbying activities. The Prime Minister will not say whether Rahim Jaffer, a former Conservative MP and unregistered lobbyist, lobbied any government minister or secretary of state to obtain government grants.

4. Showing contempt for victims of crime. While the Prime Minister doesn’t hesitate to trot out high profile murders to score cheap political points, his government has paid victims lip-service by cutting 41 percent of the budget to Grants for the Victims of Crime Initiative and another 34 percent - $2.7 million – in Contributions for the Victims of Crime Initiative.

5. Refusing to reveal why Helena Guergis was kicked out of cabinet and caucus. A sitting cabinet minister was forced to resign because her conduct while in cabinet had been referred to the RCMP for investigation, yet Stephen Harper still won’t say what alleged criminal activity was happening in his government.

6. Failing grades from the Information Commissioner. While the Conservative government was elected on a platform of transparency and accountability, the Information Commissioner has found this government to be the most secretive in history when it comes to answering Access to Information requests. Canadians await the Commissioner's findings on charges of political interference.

7. Shutting down Parliament when the questions get too tough. In the ultimate act of contempt for Parliament, Stephen Harper prorogued Parliament so he wouldn’t have to face continued questioning on the Afghan detainee torture scandal.

8. Challenging the supremacy of Parliament to cover-up Afghan torture documents. The Conservatives refused to comply with a motion passed by Parliament that would establish a review process for Afghan torture documents that respects national security.

9. Withholding information on government spending. The Conservatives won’t tell the Parliamentary Budget Officer what their baseline departmental spending levels are, denying Parliament the ability exercise oversight on the government’s spending freeze and the cutbacks needed to pay for it.

10. Raising taxes by $13 billion – and then falsely accusing Liberals of raising taxes. While the Conservatives don’t have the guts to admit they’re bringing in a $13-billion payroll tax that will kill 220,000 small business jobs, they have the nerve to portray the Liberal’s plan to freeze corporate taxes as a tax increase.

From The Globe & Mail

Tory candidate dumped for frank TV comments

A moment of candour has cost Gordon Landon a shot at federal politics.
Landon was dumped Monday as the Conservative candidate for Markham-Unionville after publicly musing the GTA riding was being shut out of federal infrastructure funding because it is held by a Liberal.
The York regional councillor says he complied with a request from the Conservative party to step aside, adding he is not used to people telling him what to say and think.
The news came as Prime Minister Stephen Harper touted his government's progress in rolling out the pro-growth stimulus money announced in the Jan. 27 budget.
Source: The Toronto Star

You may recall the post from September 24th where I predicted Mr. Landon would be punished by Hitler Harper, so this is really no big surprise.

Gay Pride cash may have led to demotion of MP

A Conservative MP says federal funding for Toronto's Gay Pride parade may be responsible for junior cabinet minister Diane Ablonczy losing a key part of her portfolio.

Brad Trost, the MP for Saskatoon-Humboldt, said Ablonczy's decision to use $400,000 for the popular parade that celebrates homosexual, bisexual, and transgendered culture was not supported by most of the Tory caucus.

Trost told the anti-abortion website LifeSiteNews.com that the decision surprised the Conservative cabinet and the Prime Minister's Office.

He said that responsibility for the Marquee Tourism Events Program, a $100 million initiative, has been given to another cabinet minister. The two-year program helps fund major tourism events such as the Calgary Stampede, which received nearly $2 million or Ottawa's Bluesfest, which took about $1.5 million from the program.

Industry Minister Tony Clement has taken over the program, his office confirmed.  Full Story at CTV.CA

Obviously the Harper Conservatives are still making up their own rules as they go along and are not interested in getting elected in Toronto.  Wherever you are please do NOT vote for these pigs who have no interest in equal rights!

Gun raffle draws fire

A backbench Saskat­chewan Conservative MP is coming under fire for speaking to a gun lobby in the Greater Toronto Area next month where a Beretta semi-automatic handgun is being raffled off.

MP Garry Breitkreuz is the guest speaker at the Canadian Shooting Sports Association’s annual general meeting and dinner April 18 in Mississauga where he’s to be lauded for his private member’s bill to abolish Canada’s controversial long-gun registry and relax rules on prohibited and restricted weap­ons.

News of the gun prize drew immediate outrage.“We have got to be finding ways to get them (handguns) off the streets, not handing them out as prizes,” Liberal MP Mark Holland (Ajax-Pickering) said yesterday.“It really is an insult to a community that has seen so much gun violence and where so many people have been killed … to give that away as a (raffle) prize,” Holland said.The Toronto Star could not reach Breitkreuz, the MP for Yorkton-Melville, or the CSSA, which claims to be very politically active.
Source: Metro News

Obviously Breitkreuz has no clue as to the feelings of myself, and many others in the city, who want all handguns banned. I have no problem with legitimate hunting guns and/or hunters, but handguns have only one purpose and this raffle is a load of crap.

John Tory Finished!

John Tory's fate as leader of the Progressive Conservatives is in serious jeopardy after a defeat that I can only describe as fantastic.That has left the Opposition in limbo and could spell the end of his political career. Sorry, I can't feel any sympathy for this guy who famously wanted to extend funding to religious schools, beyond the Catholics. Rather than taking public funds away from the Catholics and all religious schools which still, in my opinion, needs to be done.  Read more about it here.

Maybe he should change his name to John Grit and run for the Liberals?

Conservative staffers shameful resignation

A staff member resigned and apologized Tuesday for writing a speech read by Stephen Harper in 2003 as leader of the Opposition that plagiarized from an address days earlier by then Australian prime minister John Howard."Pressed for time, I was overzealous in copying segments of another world leader’s speech," Owen Lippert says in a news release sent out by the Conservative camp on Tuesday afternoon. 

"Neither my superiors in the Office of the Leader of the Opposition nor the leader of the Opposition was aware that I had done so."

Full Story

Calgary Conservative Disses Immigrants

Another Conservative is in hot water over controversial comments - this time about immigrants.

Both the Liberals and NDP are demanding that Lee Richardson resign as Calgary Centre candidate for suggesting that immigrants are prone to commit crimes. Richardson told a weekly newsmagazine: "Look at who's committing these crimes ... They're not the kid that grew up next door."

He also said immigrants and refugees don't have the same respect for authority or property.

Read the full story here.