Posts Tagged ‘Conservatives’

COLUMN: Levant – What happened to Manning on the environment?

- March 14th, 2013

Presto turning green

by Ezra Levant

At his annual convention in Ottawa, Preston Manning called for conservatives to become environmentalists. He said it was the key to winning elections.

“Conservatives are generally considered to be weak or disinterested on the environment ­— the issue of greatest concern to many of our children and grandchildren,” he said.

Prescribing environmentalism as a path to government seems unusual in the wake of Stephen Harper’s third successive election win, each time with a greater percentage of the vote. Stephane Dion’s Green Shift, which made the environment a campaign centerpiece, was a disaster. Read more…

Tags: , ,
Categories: Contributor Columns | Comments off

COLUMN: Lilley – The lies about the F-35

- December 14th, 2012

Feds told truth on F-35: Opposition really about clipping air force wings

by Brian Lilley

You are being lied to about the cost of fighter jets except that the lying isn’t being done by the government.

If you’ve paid attention to the news at all lately you’ve heard about the “rising costs” of replacing Canada’s aging fleet of F-18 fighter jets with the new F-35. Initial government costs to buy the plane came in at $9 billion but this week headline screamed about the cost being $46 billion.

What a load of garbage. Read more…

Tags: , , ,
Categories: Contributor Columns | 7 comments

A look back at the Conservative record in 2011

- January 1st, 2012

harper in commonsI give the Conservative Party a hard time for spending too much and generally not being conservative enough.

In some ways that is true but have they delivered in other ways?

For 2011, especially since getting their majority, the answer is yes.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has put out his own list of accomplishments for the year that just ended but here are a few of the key conservative minded actions that spring to mind for me.

  • Ending political welfare. The per-vote subsidy that made political parties lazy and unresponsive to the voters of this country and insulated them from angering their core supporters will be gone by 2015-2016. Legislation ending the subsidy has already passed but the parties are slowly being weaned off the money and will get smaller amounts each year until the subsidy is gone.
  • They saw the light of common sense and released the names of those on their wanted list of suspected foreign war criminals. These were people that officials admitted should not be in the country, had been ordered out but that were still in Canada. At first officials would only admit there was a list of suspected war criminals but not say who they were. After much pressure, common sense won the day.
  • Ending the insane rules that would see farmers from certain provinces jailed for daring to sell their wheat to the customer of their choice. The Canadian Wheat Board still exists for those that want to use its centralized system. For those that want freedom, they now have that choice.
  • While much attention has been paid to Bill C-10, the omnibus crime bill, the government has passed C-2 (the mega-trials bill), this bill will make it easier to conduct the mega-trials now associated with organized crime without infringing on the right to a fair trial.
  • While the bill to end the gun registry has not been passed yet, it has been introduced and will pass early this year.
  • Immigration. On this file the Conservatives continue to push for ever higher numbers of newcomers while keeping those skeptical of high immigration onside by cracking down on fraud, cleaning up the system and putting Canada first.

Another thought for those, often myself included, that like to say this government is not conservative enough. Imagine what Canada would be like if they were not here:

  • A government run daycare system infringing on provincial and parental rights.
  • The Court Challenges Program would still exist paying for left-wing activists to take the government to court and use the courts to accomplish the social change Parliament would reject.
  • Based on what the opposition parties have called for over the last three years we would have a 45-day work year where after just 45 days of full-time work you could collect EI for a full year. If you think the deficit is high now, just imagine what it would have been like otherwise.
  • And while I complain about spending by this government on a regular basis, the opposition parties, had they been in charge would have spent more, more, more. How do I know this? They told me so.

Tags: , , ,
Categories: Conservatives | 10 comments

Conservatives congratulate the communists? Really?

- July 5th, 2011

The Conservatives recently congratulated the Communist Party of China on their 90th anniversary. Mao Zedong was the party's murderous leader for many years.

I’ve heard of fiscal conservatives, defence conservatives, social conservative but never communist conservatives.

Not even commie loving conservatives.

It appears though that Conservative Party President John Walsh may belong to the later, formerly unknown, category.

Walsh is quoted in the Chinese press as sending warm wishes to the Chinese Communist Party as they celebrate their 90th anniversary. Unless it is all lost in the translation. Walsh better hope that’s the case or he’ll have some real explaining to do.

Here’s the headline, translated from Chinese

Some foreign leaders, parties congratulate the 90th anniversary of founding of the Chinese Communist Party.

Here is what the paper, through Google translate, quotes Walsh as saying.

“Canada’s Conservative Party National Committee Chairman Walsh said in a congratulatory letter: “July 1, 2011 the 90th anniversary of founding the Chinese Communist Party, Conservative Party of Canada willing to work with political parties around the world to work together to celebrate and witness this important special significance time, we appreciate the Chinese Communist Party and the Conservative Party of Canada is committed to developing positive relationships, and look forward to the future relations between the two parties has been growing.”

I know plenty of Tories yucked it up when we pointed out during the election that Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff paraphrased Mao, the murderer of millions of people.

I think it’s actually worse for a national party president, one affiliated with the government to congratulate an oppressive regime on the founding of their party 90 years ago.

The Communist Party of China, through its revolution and its policies, is responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese citizens. Some were killed due to their politics, some in prison camps for counter-revolutionaries and millions of others just starved. That doesn’t even count the millions of girls aborted or strangled upon birth due to the combination of China’s one child policy and the culture’s preference for boys.

Perhaps Walsh thought he would gain the support of Chinese-Canadians. Perhaps he didn’t think.

Whatever it is, something isn’t right here.

Walsh, and the Conservative Party, have some explaining to do.

Related: North Korea to lead UN disarmament conference, Canada welcomes role

Time to dump the UN into the Hudson – Byline – June 30, 2011

Tags: , ,
Categories: Conservatives | 10 comments

Selective scandal coverage is a disservice

- April 8th, 2011

Bloc Quebecois Gilles Duceppe (bottom right), Liberal Party Michael Ignatieff (bottom left), NDP Jack Layton (top left) and Prime Minister Stephen Harper (top right). CHRIS ROUSSAKIS/ QMI Agency

Who knew that the most pressing issue facing the country was whether the Conservative Party of Canada checked the Facebook statuses of people coming to their rallies to see if they are friends with other politicians.

I’m not saying the Tory tactics are right, in fact it was one of our family of papers, the London Free Press, that started the ball rolling on this. In essence, we broke the story and the rest of the media ran with it.

And how have they run with it.

Almost all other issues were put aside while reporters following Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s election tour quizzed the PM and tried to force an apology. They got one Thursday.

Questions about his plans for a cap-and-trade system, the economy and Quebec’s rejection of federalist parties were all vetoed so that we could get to the bottom of Facebookgate. Oh, and there were no questions about Canada sending more troops to Libya.

What is interesting is that while there has been plenty of pick-up on the story we started with the Facebook flap, other media outlets ignored another part of our story that ran on Tuesday.

“When Ignatieff was here last week, the RCMP got physical with two Free Press reporters, even elbowing a pregnant reporter in the stomach. Told she was pregnant, the male Mountie said: ‘That’s what you get for rushing a bodyguard.’ ”

I’m sure you’ve seen the headlines and watched the nightly indignant reports on Ignatieff’s goons roughing up reporters.

What’s that? You haven’t seen any reports like that?

I wonder why?

It’s not like the media hasn’t been tough on Jack Layton. In between snide tweets, the NDP leader has had to deal with claims that his schedule was slower than the other leaders because of his fragile health. Of course that’s not true. Layton’s schedule has been as busy as the other two federalist leaders and he’s covered the same ground.

It’s almost like some reporters are trying to kick the cane out from Jack as he walks by.

Meanwhile it’s all hugs at the Big Red Tent.

On Wednesday, we found out from the NDP that the Liberals had a candidate in Quebec who referred to Native Canadians as “featherheads” and belonged to a white rights group. He had been the candidate since August 2009 but was booted quickly.

We also found out that the Liberals have a candidate in Vancouver who was convicted of drunk driving in 2003. Given how Ignatieff has made it clear he doesn’t believe in criminal rehabilitation for former Harper aide Bruce Carson, you would think he would have something to say. Not really.

You also might think that with two candidates in trouble you’d have seen headlines on Thursday morning that declared the Liberals had racist, drunk-driving candidates.

No, those issues weren’t on any of the front pages, but the Toronto Star did put the Facebook flap back on the front page. Top story, above the fold.

Stories on Liberal woes were downplayed.

I’d rather see election coverage focus on policy. What would each of the leaders do if elected? How would they change Canada?

But if media outlets plan on running story after breathless story about the latest mini-scandal, then it should happen on all the campaigns.

That’s not happening right now and Canadians are poorer for it.

Tags: , , ,
Categories: election | 1 comment

« Older Entries