The Anth Zone

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Jack Layton met in Ottawa this evening to go over the NDP’s plan to deal with Climate Change. Earlier this afternoon I reported that Mr. Layton considering introducing a no-confidence motion to be voted in the House of Commons due to his great disapproval of the Harper Government’s Clean Air Act, he still is. Mr. Harper dismissed and wasn’t convinced of the urgency of the situation.

The Prime Minister has implied that climate change is a figment of people’s imaginations. No, it’s a reality Mr. Harper.

Norman Spector is Brian Mulroney’s former Chief of Staff and currently a journalist working for the Globe & Mail. Today he was a special guest on CKNW’s Bill Good Show and said the following about Ms. Belinda Stronach: “I think she’s a bitch. It’s as simple as that. And I think that 90 percent of men would probably say she’s a bitch for the way she’s broken up (retired hockey player) Tie Domi’s home and the way she dumped Peter MacKay. She is a bitch.”

I sent Mr. Norman Spector a short email:

To: Normal Spector
From: Anthony Wittrock

Mr. Norman Spector,

I do not appreciate hearing your poor decorum on CKNW’s Bill Good Show this morning when you disrespectfully named Ms. Belinda Stronach an offensive term for a female dog like your good buddy, Peter MacKay.

I do not appreciate you speaking on behalf of our gender on any issue including this one.

Shame on you,

Anthony Wittrock

You can send your thoughts to Mr. Spector at nspector@globeandmail.ca. If you want to send one to Mr. Good about Mr. Spector’s comments on Ms. Stronach, you can email him here - good@cknw.com

NDP Leader Jack Layton was a major player responsible for bringing down the last Liberal government with his Conservative and Bloc cronies. In recent weeks he has grown reckless with his best of buddies, Stephen Harper over the government’s Clean Air Act. Jack Layton is threatening to introduce a no-confidence motion to topple the Harper government because the Clean Air Act is likely to cause more damage than fix the problem due to the government’s pro-industry and business policies that pollute the country. If the motion is successful this will be damaging to the Conservative’s accountability for their short duration in office for scraping the Kyoto and Kelowna accords that have so far proved devastating.

A large majority of Canadians support both of these Accords and the failure of the Conservative Government to realize that they have to appeal to the rest of the country than the special interests of their supporters.

According to the most recent polling by Angus Reid Consultants the Tories have fallen back from 34% to 32% and the Liberals still hold onto their 30% in the popularity polls. The success of the NDP’s no-confidence motion will place the Liberal Leadership Convention in Montreal on hiatus and Bill Graham will lead the party into the next election.

The Conservative Government’s Clean Air Act authored by the lovely but stupid Rona Ambrose and it is aimed at reducing greenhouse emissions from 45% to 65% of the levels recorded back in 2003 by 2050. The Clean Air Act also targets to fight smog pollution. Jack Layton is telling the truth that this will cause more harm and eliminating the chance for Canadians to lead healthy and pollution-free lives. Climate change is a reality and the current mindset of Harper’s government believes it is just an imagination of the country’s left wing political parties.

From Stéphane Dion’s Leadership Campaign’s Website:

Stephen Harper’s Conservative government is moving in the opposite direction: removing Canada from the Kyoto process, absolving itself of any international responsibility to live up to its international treaty obligations, and replacing some of the most important investments in Project Green with tax cuts that will not help us make progress on reducing green house gas emissions. I believe that this is an abdication of duty by the Prime Minister, who is obliged to prepare this country for a challenging future, and act responsibly on the international stage.

Well said, Stéphane. Mr. Harper act responsibly now or, kiss the Prime Minister’s Office goodbye!  It is unclear if the party will support Mr. Layton’s no-confidence motion.

Garth Turner last week was suspended from the Conservative Caucus and now sits as an independent MP over his political views that he holds dearly. The notable issues are Same-Sex Marriage and Gay Rights which brought media attention when he was quite vocal against Stephen Harper’s proposal to bring C-38 back for a free vote.

There are speculations that he maybe the Green Party’s first Parliamentarian, nothing has been made official. Best of luck to you, Mr. Turner.

No this time I am not here to discuss the international environment protection treaty that our conservative government recently axed. I am talking about Stephane Dion’s Husky, Kyoto. I am a dog lover, and I want to see Kyoto’s master, Stephane as Leader of the Liberal Party and the next Prime Minister of Canada. He dreams of chasing squirrels and rabbits off the grounds of 24 Sussex Drive. Will you help him? Donate $100 to Stephane Dion’s campaign and remember to support him at Convention. One vote for Dion, is one step closer to making Kyoto’s dream a reality.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper made disturbingly poor and non-prime ministerial comments today in response to what Michael Ignatieff said on a French Canadian television show that Israel should be charged with war crimes in response to the Qana air strike during last summer’s armed conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.  As a result, Michael Ignatieff lost an important organizer and has raised a lot of eyebrows in the party.

I cannot support Mr. Ignatieff and do disagree with what was said during the broadcast. I do not believe Israel should be charged of war crimes. Mr. Ignatieff himself defended Israel’s position on the armed conflict and said they have the right to defend themselves as the only liberal democracy in the region.

Qana was a hotspot where the missile bombardments of Israeli towns were coming from. The assault wasn’t unlawful due to civilian deaths, which Israel did apologize for – however, you cannot go around the obstacle of collateral damage in armed conflicts.

I did oppose Israel’s actions during the armed conflict, only because the Lebanese were in my best interests and rumours of Canadians were among the death toll, including a Canadian peacekeeper. However, Israel has come to apologize for their deaths, which I have accepted.  I do apologize for going off topic; I did want to explain my thoughts on what Michael said.

Prime Minister Harper accused the leadership contenders of being, “anti-Israel”.  Harper stated the following to the press this afternoon (Liberal contenders slam Harper for ‘anti-Israel’ accusations; CBC.ca):

“Well, that’s a serious charge,” Stephen Harper said when asked by a reporter about Ignatieff’s stance. “As you know, I don’t support that view.

“Frankly, I think, though, this is consistent with the anti-Israeli position that has been taken by virtually all of the candidates for the Liberal leadership. And I don’t think it’s helpful or useful.”

The contestants running for the leadership of my party, Stephen Harper are not anti-Israel. One cannot speak for the rest. They have defended Israel’s actions from day one, including the candidate that I support, Mr. Stephane Dion. What you said was inexcusable and damaging to one’s character.

Mr. Stephane Dion agrees with me he said the following today, “I think it’s not prime ministerial,” Dion told CBC News. “The prime minister is dividing communities, dividing the nation for clearly partisan purposes.” Mr. Harper has done this multiple times in hopes to see the Liberal Party implodes because he knows that he doesn’t have the chances in hell to win a majority government in the next election.

Mr. Harper says that he is a humanitarian in fact two weeks ago he was the only one not to support a resolution to recognize the suffering of the Lebanese from the armed conflict.

The Senate’s Standing Committee on National Security & Defence has advised the government in a report for Canada to sign onto the Ballistic Missile Defence Program with the United States over protecting our territorial claims to our artic passageways.

The report criticized former-Prime Minister Paul Martin’s decision to reject Canada’s involvement in the bilateral program. I support his decision. I remember U.S. Officials and Military Experts supporting his decision also, that it would have been a bad decision for Canadians if Martin dedicated our country.

This missile system has not shown much promise after the tests failed because they did not hit and/or reach their targets. If Canada or our closet ally fell under a nuclear attack it would be a man carrying a suitcase sized device into a marketplace in a large metropolitan area, like New York City or Toronto.

The threat of nuclear war has dropped since the end of the Cold War; however nations in the developing world such as North Korea and Iran are getting closer but are no direct threat to the North American continent. Why should we put our faith into a system that has failed simulations? I have no clue.

This does seem quite similar to the time when officials from both countries were calling for Diefenbaker to scrap the Avro Arrow project, however we gave in and I think our current Prime Minister will do the same. Steve-oh will not disobey his masters to the south.

The part of the report on the Artic stated that the artic being a military target is ‘ridiculously low’ and that other agencies should be primarily operate in protecting our claims to it. The report also advised to arm the Coast Guard. I do agree with the report on this issue, however, we should increase activity in the Northwest Passage to monitor movements of foreign vessels regardless of classification whether it be military or merchant.

The National Security and Defence Senate Committee also advised for the federal government to allow the Department of National Defence to allow its minister to be empowered to spend up to $500 million on equipment for the Armed Forces.

I do agree with this point, the Canadian Forces are ill-equipped and some of it is out-dated. The rest was that the funding to the Armed Forces is inadequate and should be increased by $15 billion.

Your Moment of Zen