November 2006
You are currently browsing the articles from Jay Currie written in the month of November 2006.
Along with a commitment to eliminate the federal debt by 2025, this graph which shows federal government revenue as a percentage of GDP suggests that the Conservatives are willing to walk the fiscal responsibility walk. I am never thrilled with items expressed as a percentage of GDP simply because they can be manipulated at the margins and can allow the government to take credit for fiscal probity when the actual driver is a growing economy; but the mere fact that Flaherty is willing to publish such a graph strongly suggests a commitment to reducing the overall size of the federal government.
Written by jay on November 24th, 2006 with 3 comments.
Read more articles on CPC and Canadian Politics.
The Prime Minister is going to table a motion in the House of Commons which answers these two questions:
“The real question is straightforward: Do Quebeckers form a nation within a united Canada? The answer is yes.
Do Quebeckers form an independent nation from Canada? The answer is no and it will always be no!” citynews
No doubt this will cause a certain degree of consternation in BQ ranks as it takes a bit of the wind from the sails of their motion which simply declared Quebec a nation.
Harper has pretty much adopted Liberal leadership candidate Michael Ignatieff’s current position on Quebec’s nationhood: call it a nation and then maintain that this does not actually mean anything. Most of the Quebec Liberals going to the convention are lined up to support a motion which would affirm that “Quebec is a nation within Canada” but begs the question as to what, if any, rights or privileges this confers or which other nations maybe tucked within Canada’s ample bosom.
Justin Trudeau weighed into the debate back in October channeling Pierre,
“Unfortunately, some people these days are wrapped up in this idea of nation for Quebec, which stands against everything my father ever believed,” (ctv via the national post)
As Justin is not actually on the ballot for the leadership his views of his father’s views don’t count but they do open the door for a candidate to question what has now become not only Liberal but also Conservative orthodoxy.
Stephane Dion seems the only Liberal leadership candidate willing to suggest there might be one or two small difficulties in a rush to embrace Quebec’s claim of nationality. (I have cut a little here for clarity…follow the link for the full interview.)
Solomon: So, is Quebec a nation?
Dion: I have no difficulty to find a definition of the word ‘nation’ that may fit Quebec reality. I have no difficulties to find definitions of the word ‘nation’ that will show that there are many nations in Quebec, or only one nation in Canada. It depends on the definition you choose. But, if you want to put that in the constitution then you need to be very, very, very precise….
It’s only one nation? All the Aboriginals are one nation, or 600 nations? The Acadians — I go each year to La Fete Nationale, a national holiday. Are they a nation the same way that Quebeckers are a nation? Anglo-Quebeckers — can they claim to be a nation? Newfoundlanders — they were, some decades ago. Maybe if we ask them now the question they say why are we not to be a nation too? So, second question: what is the significance of these recognitions? Is it purely symbolic or that it means more powers, privileges and public money to the people that are nations? If you compare with people that are less than a nation do we want to go there? If we want to go there, let’s start to have a clear map of what we have to do before we start the debate. evan solomon, cbc
Not exactly a ringing endorsement of “one Canada” nor a direct refutation of the “Quebec is a nation” trope; rather a rather academic, indeed bloodless, response Ignatieff’s proposition.
Now, there is little doubt that Iggy reads the data out of Quebec rather cleverly and the “nation” trope is red meat to soft seperatists and assorted Liberal nationalists. Dion’s academic finger exercises in definition dicing and constitutional logic chopping are not cutting it.
Dion, or any of the other candidates might do a little better if they looked up what Iggy says a political nation is,
“As a political doctrine, nationalism is the belief that the world’s peoples are divided into nations, and that each of these nations has the right of self-determination, either as self-governing units within existing nation states or as nation states of their own” ( Blood and Belonging, 1993)
More than a few Liberal delegates, weaned on Trudeau’s hardcore anti-nationalism, are going to have trouble endorsing “Quebec is a nation”. Especially if, as if in prescient answer to Dion’s questions, Ignatieff’s evocation of the political consequences of nationhood is part of one or more candidate’s campaigns. And Justin may be just the guy to bring it front and center.
Could be an interesting convention.
Written by jay on November 23rd, 2006 with 2 comments.
Read more articles on Liberal Leadership.
In the National Post no less:
It is starting to look as though wind cannot meet more than a fraction of our energy demand even if other issues with the technology, like esthetics and wildlife impacts, are ignored. The problem, as engineers skeptical of wind power have been yelping for decades, is that power usage and production constantly have to be balanced in an electrical grid. Adding too much unstable, unpredictable power to the system creates a risk of failure and cascading blackouts. In fact, the EU is investigating the possible role of Germany’s heavy wind-dependence in causing a Nov. 6 blackout that hit 10 million Europeans. national post
Cosh cites a series of depressing facts about Jack Layton’s favorite Kyoto solution. But mainly the problem is that wind is predictably unreliable.
At some point people are going to realize that modern energy solutions are going to use a variety of technologies to reduce demand at the margins. Big wind may be one of them, little wind - the mini-turbine on your roof top - may be another. But the one which I am inclined to think has the most promise is household and neighbourhood geothermal for heating and cooling. It is always the same temperature six to ten feet underground and the differential between surface temperature and below ground allow heating in winter and cooling in summer. Yes, the front end costs are large. yes it is tough to retrofit; but the constant heat of the ground is potentially a way of providing all household heating and cooling, carbon free, everywhere in Canada but the High Arctic.
Written by jay on November 22nd, 2006 with 6 comments.
Read more articles on tech.
Figures released last week by Statistics Canada, show that in 2005, people in B.C. travelled 50.86 billion kilometres in vehicles weighing 4.5 tonnes or less. That is, everything from a Hummer to a Smart car.
That compares to 2004, when they travelled 55.94 billion km by car or light truck, and 2000, the year surveys of this kind began, when they travelled 54.18 billion km. the times colonist
The Rick Mercer Effect, a commitment to Kyoto?
Then there’s the price of gas. “If they do the same survey a year from now, there will be less driving because the price of gas has gone up so much,” Hardie (BC Transit spokesman) said. “We have seen a significant shift to transit ridership this year, and we have to attribute that to a rise in the price of gas.”
B.C. Automobile Association president Bill Bullis also put the decrease down to prices at the pump. “I know of no other phenomenon to explain it,” Bullis said. “That’s a big mileage decrease. That’s an awful lot of kilometres.”
It is not a major bit of economic news that as price increases demand falls. Assuming that there are actual alternatives. In both Vancouver and Victoria a long term fully integrated transport strategy - where the people who run the buses also build the bridges and the Skytrains - is beginning to pay off. For all of the chat about carbon taxes and other harebrained schemes for meeting the Kyoto targets (and grant China even more room to pump CO2 into the atmosphere) price and a bit of planning will actually reduce miles driven and therefore CO2 emitted.
Taking the bus, working from home, riding a bike, carpooling; Rick Mercer can caper about for years and people’s habits will not change. But if the price of gas doubles you bet the SUV will stay in the garage.
Written by jay on November 22nd, 2006 with no comments.
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Bob’s Back! (He might have, ya know, sent an email or something.)
Written by jay on November 21st, 2006 with 1 comment.
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For those who’ve been wondering exactly what went wrong with Michael Ignatieff’s Liberal leadership campaign, I can now provide the terrifying answer: the party obviously brought home the wrong Michael Ignatieff. The guy the Liberals wanted was the stylish, erudite human rights expert from Harvard University. But the Ignatieff now in all the papers is apparently some totally different guy who’s been farming for the past few decades. colby cosh
I blame Bob Rae who should have alerted Canadians to the replacement of his former roomie with some farmer dude.
Written by jay on November 21st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Liberals and canadian gossip.
Perhaps as continuing series:
| Iggy |
PET |
| Listened to Leonard Cohen |
Knew Leonard Cohen |
| Writes Books |
Wrote Book |
| Can Imagine Torture |
“Just Watch Me” |
| Quebec is a Nation |
“We wish nothing more, but we will accept nothing less. Masters in our own house we must be, but our house is the whole of Canada.” |
| TV Presenter |
Good on TV |
| Dad: Son of Russian Count |
Dad: Gas Station Owner |
| PHd. |
ABD |
| “The 21st century imperium is a new invention in the annals of political science, an empire lite, a global hegemony whose grace notes are money, free markets, human rights and democracy enforced by the most awesome military power the world has ever known,”"It is the imperialism of a people who remember that their country secured its freedom and independence by revolt against an empire, and like to think of themselves as the friend of freedom everywhere.” |
“Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.” |
| “This is the kind of dirty war you’re in when you have to do this and I’m not losing sleep about that.” |
“It’s not the end of the world, but you can see it from there.” |
| Ian Davey |
Keith Davey |
| One of the things I’ve given emphasis to throughout the campaign, and, I think, more than any other candidate, is on the need for the Liberal Party of Canada to reach out to rural Canada, to farming Canada. I’ve proposed a national food strategy that would link consumers, producers, distributors and processors so that rural Canada and regional Canada feels that the Liberal Party cares about them and is engaged with them. |
Why should I sell your wheat? |
Written by jay on November 20th, 2006 with 1 comment.
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“Also in the back of the room, blocking Maureen Dowd’s view on stage, was a riser filled with cameras. Among these were McCain’s campaign officials. They were broadcasting the speech live out over the internet. McCain, it seems, has also taken to bypassing “the filter” — even if it means obscuring his “base’s” view of the action.” the corner
At a guess broadcasting live over the internet is going to make television news and the silly people in the Parliamentary Press gallery increasingly irrelevant. Especially when, with a few hundred dollars worth of video editing software, a user friendly “highlights package” can be made available to new media.
Written by jay on November 17th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on media.
The Prime Minister of France is urging the European Union to impose a punitive import tax on goods from countries such as Canada that refuse to sign on to a tougher second phase of the global warming deal. Dominique de Villepin said countries that do not commit to new targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions should not be allowed to benefit by avoiding the costs associated with reducing global warming. He said France would make specific proposals for the European Union to discuss in the new year. globe and mail
So the poet Prime Minister is proposing to penalize Canada, China, India and the US. And how will the wily de Villepen accomplish this? By raising the prices EU citizens have to pay for the goods made in those nations.
Brilliant.
Written by jay on November 17th, 2006 with 3 comments.
Read more articles on Uncategorized.
“Canada has one target and we all share the responsibility to work together and fulfill our obligations under Kyoto,” Ambrose said in her speech. “Let there be no doubt, Canada remains strongly committed to the UN process; Canada remains firmly committed to Kyoto.” bloomberg
If there is one reason not to vote for the Tories in the next election it is their dithering on Kyoto. There was some hope that, on election, Harper and Co would have driven a stake through the great waste of time and resources Kyoto represents. To do that they would have had to patiently explain why Kyoto was a very bad idea, why CO2 reduction is, at best, an expensive solution to a problem which may not, in fact, exist and why such a diversion of resources would, necessarily, mean that simple initiatives like the funding of micro-loans or the provision of clean water would have to be put on the backburner.
Had the Tories the wit of a rock they would have actually campaigned against the junk science and lousy economics of the treaty and crafted a response to the actual costs of pollution which could have been stacked up against the vague and largely ignored “commitments” under Kyoto.
Instead we are treated to Ms. Ambrose riding the fence: unwilling to acknowledge that Kyoto has not the slightest chance of actually doing anything about CO2 emissions but forced to pander to the Green (and Euro) fantasies of the Quebec and British Colombia electorates.
Apparently the alternative of pointing to the inconvenient truth that virtually all of the Kyoto hysteria is premised on doubtful science and economic illiteracy is just too difficult to actually contemplate.
Written by jay on November 16th, 2006 with 2 comments.
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