Canada’s Debate

Ok, so I’ve been working almost feverishly on my new webproject this last week, and as you may have guessed by the links menu on the left, it will involve, well, me. That being said, it’s time to wrap up this little stroll down forgettable-memory lane.

Name: Bev Oda
Portfolio: Heritage
Grade: F

If you had asked me at the start of the year who the least competent Minister would be for 2006, I would not have thought to mention this woman. Yet here we are. As a visible-minority woman, Mrs. Oda had the sort public-currency with which to accomplish substantive changes. Nonetheless, here at year’s end all she has really done presided over the dismantling of the Status of Woman program. A transparent, last-minute funding announcement for a bunch of Ottawa-area Museums counts against her in fact, when considered against her broader cuts to projects outside of the capital region. (Continue reading…)

Ok, so the holidays are over (for the most part) and I finally have the time and energy to pick up where I left off.

Name: Chuck Strahl
Portfolio: Agriculture
Grade: C-

For years farmers have been doing everything short of burning their own crops and livestock to try and get more “recognition” from the Federal government. While the merits of their cries of “injustice” are a subject for some debate, there can be little doubt that they’ve felt neglected. It must come as a kick in the teeth then to learn that the Conservative Party that they helped elect, the party that was supposed to speak to the rural Canadian, is going ahead full-steam to dismantle the Canadian Wheat Board. (Continue reading…)

Over the past five months or so I’ve been toying with a web-page idea. I put it to bed back in September but recently it’s been gnawing at me again, so I thought I’d put the idea out there and see if anyone else thinks it’s a good idea.

Basically my idea is working with other bloggers to create a sort of internet-based shadow cabinet, with participants voted on by members of the Canadian blogging community. Once a group is assembled (either by some sort of vote or selection) participants would be assigned to specific portfolios (although not corresponding exactly to the Federal cabinet: e.g. one blogger could cover the issues under Natural Resources, Agriculture and Fisheries). Each participant then would be responsible for watching and commenting on that area specifically. The purpose of this site would be to both generate original content as well as maximizing community discussion and interaction online. (Continue reading…)

I’m going to be making an announcement for a web-based political project later on today, so stay tuned. In the meantime, here is the latest hit from the Canadian Conservative Cabinet Comedy Cavalcade. Due to a general shortage of free time, and the post coming later, I only have one report-card to issue today.

Name: Gordon O’Connor
Portfolio: Defense
Grade: C-

Similar to Mr. Toews, I had lowered expectations for this particular Minister, and he actually exceeded them. (Continue reading…)

I’ll get to my latest report card in just a bit. First I want to talk about Jack Layton for a few minutes. The blogosphere has been all a-twitter in recent weeks over the NDP’s strategic failures and electoral stagnation. Now, when Layton decided to support the Clean Air Act pending committee oversight, I was confused. Say what you will about the guy: I’ve met him and he’s not the bumbling opportunist everyone makes him out to be. That being said, keeping a turd floating in the bowl in the hopes of turning it into a three course meal is a curious way to go.

Well, now it has become clear to me (although apparently others picked up on it long ago.) Given Layton’s recent pronouncements regarding bringing down the government and the committee work being done on the CAA it is apparent that Layton wanted, perhaps desperately, to be able to put his name on the environmental legislation of the decade before another election. Will it work? Not with his party riding the CPC coattails and the Green Party trying to draft… Ok, report card time: (Continue reading…)

Ok, so I’ve given everyone of note in Harper’s government a letter grade; so where to begin? I’ll try to balance each post between a minister that received a bad grade and one that received a (relatively) good one.

Name: Rona Ambrose
Portfolio: The Environment
Grade: F

Rona is noteworthy for two reasons. First, she has been in the news quite a bit, probably more than anyone else. Second, because she is the only cabinet minister that will receive an F from me; and F she so richly deserves. Now to be fair Rona has been villified for the wrong reason at times. Criticism for her hair care from environmental groups (with an assist to the media for running this picture of her fiddling with her hair non-stop while looking like Kirstie Alley) was beyond the pale. (Continue reading…)

It’s that time of year again… the grass turns greyish-brown, all my non-secular friends retreat into their families and give up the pretense of staying in touch, and December 26th rolls around. I don’t give a shit about boxing day mind you, but the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship starts… and that is yearly the best hockey to be seen.

It’s also as good a time as any to reflect on the first year of Stephen Harper’s minority government (any resemblance to similar reflections on the blogosphere are purely coincidental.) To wit, over the coming days I will be grading each cabinet minister, or at least the ones that actually did something of note. Simply being appointed to the job from the Senate just won’t cut it I’m afraid. My official grading will start tomorrow. If anyone has any requests on where to start, let me know.

I’ve added a couple of things to the site that I feel are worth mentioning. On the right you should now see a countdown clock, denoting both the time when Steven Harper’s proposed air pollution guidelines come into effect, and the general silliness of them.

I’ve also changed the links up a bit. My sister is no longer taking donations for the “Walk to End Breast cancer” campaign of 2006, but when her page is up for the 2007 campaign I will put a new link in. I’ve also added a link to DailyCanuck.com, a combination blog/aggregate for Canadian politics. I highly recommend it. And yes, I did get the link from Warren Kinsella…

Oh, and I’ve dropped Bob Rae’s campaign-page link for obvious reasons. I should probably write a mea culpa for supporting him, but I won’t.

On Edit: Oh, I forgot something. If anyone has any spam-filtering recommendations I’d appreciate it. I’d like to open up the commenting system a bit more, but right now 99% of the comments I get for moderation are junk. I’m running Wordpress 1.5 at the moment.