The Black Rod has the transcript;
Adler: Now, some people say that it, it’d be okay if they could pay the money back. I don’t know if there’s much of a history of, uh, Canada charging refugees, uhh, for evacuations. Uh, but is there any feeling at all, um, as far as you know, as far as the news conferences that you’ve been going to, the journalism you’ve been doing, is there any feeling at all on the part of any government officials to charge people for the evacuations, to help defray the cost of it ?
Dobrota: Well, so far, I mean it’s hard to answer that question. Um. Obviously the journalists were there yesterday. We would have liked to ask Mr. Harper a follow up question. Uh. But as you know, uhh, many of us refuse to put our name, uh, names on a list and so therefore, you know, he would not, uh, we tried to, to ask him, to put that point to him but, you know, he, you know, we tried to ask him questions after the question period but he wouldn’t let us. So obviously that’s something that we would like to, to clarify, as well.
Adler: This has to do with the ongoing conflict between the journalists and the government. Uh, do you think. and I guess I’m putting you on the spot here, but, do you think that, uh, I realize there’s a conflict between the national press media and, and the government, uh, because the government wants to do things a little differently than the previous government did, and find out who wants to ask questions first and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I don’t want to get into a lot of inside baseball, but…
Dobrota: Right
Adler: …do you think at a time like this it might be a good time to have a ceasefire between the people in the national press gallery and the Government. I mean you can, you can have your point. It can be as principled as you want it to be. But can’t you go back to that after this conflict is over?
Dobrota: Well, you know, I wouldn’t venture to, to speak for my colleagues, um, but I think what’s interesting to, to know here is that as much as, as his policy can, can hinder, um, our job, or my job, where I couldn’t, you know, I would have liked to ask him a follow-up question on his comments, if they, I didn’t have a chance to do that. I think that as much as it can, you know, it can hurt me, I think it can hurt, you know, in a way, him as well, because he doesn’t have a chance to clarify. And so, you know, he gives us a quote and we run with it and then, you know, we do a story on it. and you know, I just think that, you know, I think it’s damaging to him as well.
Adler: I just, I just, I, I, I guess what i’m trying to say is that these events are larger than either of you, and would be in the interest of the public, or, wouldn’t you agree that it would be in the interst of the public to drop the Press-Government conflict for now?
Dobrota: Well, as I said, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t, you know, I could hardly answer that. I wouldn’t want to speak for, for all my colleagues. I think it’s a larger issue than myself included.
Well, actually, Dobrota – no it isn’t. In fact, it really is all about you.
More of the transcript at the Black Rod link.
“We would have liked to ask Mr. Harper a follow up question. Uh. But as you know, uhh, many of us refuse to put our name, uh, names on a list and so therefore,”
1. We’re idiots
2. We’re not doing our job
Ha! I saw an item on tonight’s news about this very thing – although it was framed as a U.S. sale – and my thought was “why the heck are they selling military hardware to those jerks?”
Bruce says “It has been suggested in other places that the sale to Saudi Arabia was part of the American purchase price for recent anti-Hezbollah statements by the Saudi government.”
Given that the Saudis are starting to make threatening pronouncements against Israel, a guess a little give-and-take only goes so far.
Sorry, late at night, commenting on the wrong item.
Um, this Grope and Fail person, like, um, him don’t talk so good, like, er, for a paid communicator.
Or is his real job something else?
He can’t make up his mind what is in the public interest? Yet his chosen career is to supply information to the public? Yes, this interview makes it very plain who they really serve. Musn’t break ranks!
And that Mr.Dubrota is precisely the reason why I won’t place MY name on the list of people who subscribe to The Grope and Flail.
The PPG is loaded with egomaniacs empowered by their own sense of self importance. Everyone of them should do a tour of the Lebaneese front and see if they would like to instruct Hezbolah in the fine art of press scrums.
That poor reporter, he cannot speak! Should I
say “poor man” or “poor us in this case?
If they don’t come better than him we are in real
trouble and I totally understand the Prime Minister not wanting to waste time with this
type of person. Um, Um, Um. must get irritating
after hearing it many times in one question or
answer.
I think what bothers them most is it seems no-one
seems to care one way or the other about them.
They really don’t, people do not notice they
are gone for the most part because as with
five years old kids do, they need a little
growing up.
Get a Tony Snow, the Prime Minister should
be free of this daily torture, he is a busy
man and needs to speak only when it it important
to him or us.
No guts no Glory.
Syncro
As fun as it is watching Globe and Mail summer intern Alex “n00b” Dobrota get pwned by crafty vet Charles Adler, watching him get pwned by nonpolitical young student geek blogger “MasterMaq” is perhaps even funnier:
“If there is one thing that was drilled into my head in the last 8 years of my education, first in high school and then University, it is to always cite your sources…Like so much of what I have learned at University however, that’s simply not the way it works in the real world. Case in point, a recent article on podcasting titled “Podcasting at a business near you”. It was written by Alex Dobrota, and published in the Globe and Mail on July 6th:
…
Maybe the problem is that a journalist can simply put “experts say” and get away with it. In any case, I do believe I should be cited as a source for that entire paragraph. You see, Mr. Dobrota called me at around 1:30 PM on June 22nd to ask me some questions about podcasting (I remember this exactly because it was just moments after I got back to the office after the Oilers Tribute Event). He made it seem like I was being interviewed, which isn’t all that unsual given the publicity Paramagnus has received in the last few months. Evidently I was wrong. He started out asking what podcasting was, and the follow-up questions he asked made it seem as though he really didn’t have any idea what was so special about it, or why it was different than streaming audio.
…
I actually emailed Mr. Dobrota on July 1st, to ask if he had written the article. I never did get a reply from him, which makes this all the more aggravating.
Maybe there’s lots of reasons why he and other journalists can simply put “experts say”. You know, word count, page layout, that sort of thing. I just can’t help but think though, that with all the fuss about the blogosphere being a place full of unsubstantiated rumors, we’re missing that our so-called “mainstream media” don’t follow the rules either.”
blog.mastermaq.ca/archive/2006/07/11/5802.aspx#comments
I can see this reporter attended the Paul Martin
“How to Speak in Public” Seminar.
As for the content of what he said – he basically admitted that it is the reporters refusing to ask questions rather than the PM refusing to answer them.
Now that’s really doing your job – what the h*ll do they get paid for!!!!
The poor msm as it gets more and more irrelevant it gets more and more like ann mclellan, shriller and shriller. I hope over time the blogs can cohesively wipe these sickening lefties off their wobbly soap boxes.
whatever happened to the shrill Anne McLellan? she was possibly more annoying than Sheila Copps, especially the way she condescended to just about everyone.
well, i am off to France with NoLongerProudtobecanadian. We met on this forum and it turns out he is really hot and actually a conservative.
Sic Transit Gloria
Typical righty…minimize (“the government wants to do things a little differently”) and drop your principles, so you agree with the leader.
Or better…suggest the other guy drop his (“It can be as principled as you want it to be. But can’t you go back to that after this conflict is over?.”)
So when does the PPG start making Harper pay the price for all of this ? Maybe they could spin it that Harper is just travelling around to key
ridings, promoting the local MP, doing
partisan politics disguised as announcing government policy. And doing it all on the taxpayer-funded Challenger Jet.
Maybe the PPG will hope that their audience has forgotten that Paul Martin used to do that kind of stuff all the time. But he was very crude and obvious about it. The same Paul Martin who used to run his press conferences with the PPG just like Harper wants to run his now. The PPG
might try to re-write history and claim that they
were kicking and screaming wiht PMPM back then too.
Too bad for the PPG that the Blogoshphere has an excellent memory for all these things,
and is only too eager to gang up on them now and point out all of their hypocricy, partisanship and mediocrity.
I sit in wonderment at what the stilted Cnukistani media think they will accomplish by carring on this petulent snit to proportions where they ( the stilted media) have become totally ineffective ( from their usual reletaively ineffective).
With subscriptions to broadsheet papers and showbiz styles TV news market share dropping faster than a new brides pajams, is it wise to cut your nose off to spite your face as the Ottawa MSM has done?
Although I have criticized Harper before for his exclusive office policies where access by party members and the general public are concerned, he surely affords the media far more openness than he does even lower ranking officials of his own party…the press snit against the PM is groundless and if having a structured media scrum with a qualified journaists list is not to their liking then they are unprofessional and their bosses should fire them rather than praise them for needlessly severing vital info flow from the PMO to their media publications.
They act like jilted debutantes who were dumped at the prom when, in fact, they shied out and refuse to go to the prom because there is a dress code.
Boo-hoo-hoo, Alex Dobrota. So sad, so bad that you just couldn’t ask Prime Minister Stephen Harper the follow-up question you were dying to ask. Cry me a river.
I’ll bet that if the interveiw had been on TV we would have seen Mr. Dobrota’s eyes flickering, looking to his left, and hands fluttering. What a pile of insincere, self-inflating, drivelling CRAP.
‘Simply confirms the wisdom of my decision a year ago to stop reading the Probe and Fail. Never-probe, obviously, and fail every minute of every day.
WLM, they act like jilted debutantes, because they are jilted debutantes.
As a reward for their arrogance, they get no money from me, and I have unplugged the cable and turned off the TV.
Putting a finer point on it, they are acting like irrelevant jilted debutantes.
Shaken said re the PPG: “Putting a finer point on it, they are acting like irrelevant jilted debutantes.”
…and cry-baby, spoiled, arrogant, entitled, no-couth, couturier-clothed, well-coiffed, loser, jilted debutantes…
Send the dance band home.
DAve m – what principles are involved?
For the PPG to assert that THEY alone have the right to select who gets to ask questions is not a matter of principle, just as it is not a matter of principle for Mr. Harper to select who gets to ask questions. It’s simply a matter of organization. In this case, the PM’s office wants to organize the press interview; whereas, the PPG insists that IT wants to organize the interview.
Principles involve the duty and necessity of the press to gather, research, validate and present reliable information. The PPG is rejecting its commitment to journalistic principles – and is instead, focusing strictly on a Power Play. They have made the organization of the press interview into an act of Power. They have entirely dropped their duty and responsibility to gather, research, validate and present reliable information in this personal power agenda.
What should they have done? Stuck to their principles – gone along with the PM’s organization of press interviews..and gathered the news.
They claim that the PM’s method of organization prevents them from gathering the news, because, they claim he will select only CPC favorable journalists. Not proven; and his many one on one interviews with such die-hard Liberals as Duffy, Mansbridge and others, denies their claim.
So- it’s the PPG who have dropped their principles.
The PM’s principles are to govern justly, accountably and for the benefit of Canadians. He seems to be doing an excellent job of that.
Here’s what the PPG is just dying to do, but can’t quite manouver to pull off under Harper’s press conference format … Get about three reporters in a row to ask variations of the same question (eg “why aren’t you attending the Out Games ?”). Hope that Harper displays some kind of frustration, exasperation or whatever in one of his replies. Edit the “coverage” of the press conference to highlight that one moment. Get Layton, Graham, k.d. lang, to reply in the appropriate shocked, disgusted, tones. Put the clips all together, play it over and over and over in all the newscasts. Try to keep the “story” going in the newspapers. Then pat themselves on the back for being the real opposition to this government, revealing Harper’s hidden agenda, being hard-hitting reporters. Whatever they think will work to help defeat Harper.
Calgary Junkie, that sounds about right. What a crew of cry baby, adult toddlers! I’m going to buy some pacifiers and send them on to the PPG, as they obviously have lots of time available to indulge themselves in self-serving antics which are no use to anyone.
Mixing my metaphors, they’re dinosuars too! I receive daily updates from the PMO via the Internet. I feel more connected to this government and our PM than I ever did to the LPC losers, whose handwaving, loudmouth theatrics sicken[ed] me. The relative public peace and quiet of this government, which is because it’s working on the important things behind the scene and only reports when there’s something worth saying, is a huge relief. It’s the way adults are supposed to behave. And it’s happening. For a change. Here. In Canada. 🙂
The PM and CPC: 10. The PPG: -10.
And now, with the greatest pleasure–I’ve been meaning to do it for ages–I’m about to dial the G & M to cancel my Saturday subscription. I’ll be sure to mention why. 🙂
Hurray: I’ve just cancelled my G & M subscription after more than 30 years! I spoke to a polite G & M “Customer Care Representative.” He asked, “Is that a temporary or permanent cancellation?” PERMANENT.
I quoted the words on the Globe’s masthead, “The subject who is truly loyal to the Chief Magistrate will neither advise nor submit to arbitrary measures. – JUNIUS”
I explained that I now find just too many commentators at the G & M biased and arbitrary, e.g., I mentioned Mr. Dobrota’s latest antics at the PPG. The Customer Care Rep. said he’d pass on my remarks.
I’ll probably write Mr. Greenspon myself. (That ninny, Jane Taber will receive suitable opprobrium in my remarks. What a spoiled brat. And WHAT an idiot! In her stunted opinion: Not Hot? The Tories and the media. HOT? Belinda Stronach’s “Pink Book” to “address women’s [sic: not mine!] political issues.” Give me a break.)
I WILL miss the obits but can probably check them out on-line.
Good move, lookout!
Bah, who cares about the PPG-CPC spat. It’ll solve itself when the Liberals get back in power next spring.
By aligning the Conservative Party of Canada with the radical theocracy in Israel, Harper has permanently blown any hope for a CPC majority in the forseeable future and will probably lose the next election against Michael Ignatieff. Enjoy the next 8-10 months of Harper and the CPC, because it’s the last you’ll see of them in power for a good long while. The Canadian people will never support a party that jeopardizes their personal and national security to this unprecedented degree, and that is precisely what Harper (or whoever is giving him really bad advice/marching orders) is doing.
6 months of political capital and years of party building and the CPC flushed it all down the toilet – for no clear and discernible benefit or moral principle. What a waste.
True dat, Bob. Harper done pished it all away to please GWB. Being a sycophant to the first Bush is what ended Mulroney’s run and it will almost certainly end Harper’s brief stint in office.
Bob,
Right on.
I’m completely for the Libs adding anti-Israel to their next election platform for personal and national security reasons. I feel safer already.
Ural,
there you go again. Bob never said the libs would be anti-israel. get yer head out. he said aligning himself with a nation that is pummelling the $H£$ out of another nation is going to prove foolish for harper, and then you trippin on him like he done said something he didn’t.
you huddling in your rec room waiting for the shiites to come git yo?
Bob – You’ve been watching too much CBC. “[R]adical theocracy in Israel”? Are you nuts or just ignorant–or worse? Theocracy: “a form of government by God or a god directly or by a priestly order etc. claiming divine commission”. Canadian Oxford Dictionary. Israel’s a secular democracy. I think you’re actually talking about Iran, Bob. (It’s a good idea to get your facts straight.)
You say that the CPC “jeopardizes [our] personal and national security to this unprecedented degree” by aligning Canada with the fight of our lives against terrorism–at its source. Wrong, Bob. It’s if the Iraelis, as proxy for the rest of the democratic, freedom loving world, smash Hezbollah that our personal and national security will be protected and advanced.
The MSM generally support a lot of your muddled thinking: Spreading lies on behalf of the enemy in a time of war is very dangerous–even treasonous. And, BTW, Ignatieff supports the war on terror, which is a prime reason he may not win the Liberal leadership race. Think about that.
By the way, Bob, would your full name happen to be “Baghdad Bob”? Just wondering, ya know…so many similarities.
“……..radical theocracy in Israel……”
That’s it. We truly live in bizzaro world when someone can apparently say this, with a straight face no less.
The PPG think they are right.
They can play the game anyways or they can take their ball and go home.
They have lost sight of the fact that is a lot more fun to win.
They do not like the rules so they have decided to take their ball and go home, which is their perogative.
But, now lots of other people also have balls with which to play (i.e. PMSH speeches are a popular download on ipods) and so the game goes on and hardly anyone is even noticing the PPG has left the game. hahaha
What a whoot. Over half (56%) of Canadians either support Harper’s statements on Israel or think he didn’t go far enough in their defense. Now we get all these formerly entitled LPC supporters saying what a disaster it’s been, and how it’s going to cost him the next election. It’s wishful thinking, innumeracy and a history of personally supporting the party who comprehensively corrupted our nation’s institutions through money-laundering all rolled into one. Wow.
Nice post, lookout.
No Bob, Harper hasn’t aligned Canada with the ‘radical theocracy’ in Israel. He has aligned Canada with those global nations, such as the US, UK, Australia, etc, who are fighting Islamic fascism.
Israel is, at the moment, a proxy for the West, fighting Islamic fascism. Just as Hezbollah and Hamas are proxies for the leadership of Islamic fascism – which is Iran.
Silamic fascism has split into two realms. It began with Al Qaeda terrorism, which was focused, interestingly enough, on Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden wanted the US to bomb SA, end its ‘royal family’ so that he could take over and set up his Pure Islam. Instead, the US freed Afghanistan from Bin Laden’s Taliban and freed Iraq from Hussein…hoping to open up the whole ME to democracy.
This move marginalized Al Qaeda, which has become instead, splinter networks filled with schizoid youth – in the West, rather than the ME. That is, the US war against Afghanistan and Iraq moved Al Qaeda out of the ME and reduced it to, still serious, but more haphazard, networks of criminals..
However, the real problem in the ME, its refusal to move out of tribalism and into a civic democracy, remained. Iran, in its agenda to prevent democracy in the ME, moved in to supply and maintain the insurgency in Iraq – to prevent the Iraqi people from their democracy.
AND the most recent phase is that Iran has also quickly moved in, with an agenda of renewing the Persian (not Arab) Empire in the ME. That’s why it is arming Hezbollah and Hamas.
It wants a war in the ME; it’s been trying to get the US to attack for some time – and the US has been refusing. Now, Iran is trying to set up the ME as a ‘hot point’ by having its proxies attack Israel. It wants the West to come in and fight on behalf of Israel. The agenda – is War in the ME – and Iran wants to emerge as Head of the New Persian Empire.
That’s why Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq – are worried. They don’t fancy being controlled by Iran. This split in the ME, with the focus being, not on refusing democracy, but on refusing to be controlled by Iran – is a vital and important shift in ME power. The onus is shifting from the West, to the ME states, such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq – to prevent Iran from its agenda of power. This also means, that they might themselves, move more into democracy – ie- to empowering their majority citizens.
I’m not sure what you think should be done about Islamic fascism, but sitting back and doing nothing, permits them, as Al Qaeda terrorists to bomb office towers, trains, hotels, restaurants. And it permits Iran to move itself into becoming the controller of all the states of the ME, using Islamic fascism as its tool.
How would you deal with both Al Qaeda and Iran’s emerging control of Islamic fascism?
whootwhoot,
Are you suggesting using a modified NDP slogan “Business Friendly” … “Israel Friendly”. Great idea! People like slogans. May the spirited energy be with you.
i dunno why y’all make such a big deal about the sponsorship “scandal”. so they pissed away $150 million. maybe it was $300 million, whatever, it was the price to win the referendum and it worked.
Harper settled the softwood lumber dispute by asking for only $500 million of the $5 billion we had to pay the US that was deemed unjustified by the WTO, not once, not twice, not thrice but FOUR TIMES!. that $4.5 billion was ours and Harper just let GWB take it. that is 15 sponsorship scandals rolled into one. Wow.
Talk about innumeracy. Y’all don’t get the big picture do you?
Ural,
i am not suggesting anything like that. Are you suggesting you wish to have congress with your dog?
URAL: Israel Friendly and Dog Friendly
whootwhoot,
“you huddling in your rec room waiting for the shiites to come git yo?”
Not at all. I’m also not fussing, throwing fits, and crying because nanny isn’t here.
whoowhoot – You don’t get either the factual or the big picture.
1) The sponsorship money had zilch to do with the referendum ‘win’. The sponsorship funding came AFTER, AFTER the referendum. OK? Got that fact clear? The Liberals did nothing to ‘fight for the federation’ during the referendum phase, and were stunned that the loss was only by a few percentage points.
So – why was the money spent, since it was AFTER the referendum? It was laundered money. It was, on the surface, supposed to show a ‘love-in’ emotional bash of flinging money at Quebecers, if they would simply ‘show the Canadian flag’. As if anyone can be bribed to hold a political viewpoint simply by seeing a flag fluttering at a hockey rink.
So- what was the money really spent on? It was taxpayer money, laundered via on the surface being spent on ‘ad campaigns about Love Canada’. But, nothing was produced by these ad companies. Instead, the money went for their services during the next federal election, in Liberal ridings.
Get it? The money was laundered from the taxpayer, to the Liberal Party. That’s illegal. OK?
It went to pay for these services in getting Liberal candidates elected in Quebec. Chretien was extremely worried; Chretien had only ONE agenda – ever – which was to maintain power. His power. He wasn’t interested in Canada.
So- the ad companies were paid, on paper, AS IF it was for ad campaigns about Love Canada in Quebec. But their real work was in getting Liberal candidates re-elected and elected in Quebec.
That’s illegal. Do you approve?
And remember, this had zilch to do with the referendum – which was held BEFORE the sponsorship.
2)The softwood lumber dispute was settled correctly. Canada was subsidizing its lumber producers, particularly in BC, by its low stumpage fees, as low as 25c for a log, which would then sell for $300 a log! Those low stumpage fees were a form of subsidy and WTO did rule against Canada.
The US had every right to demand tariffs because of our subsidizing. All they wanted, was for Canada to sell the lumber rights at market price, not by those stumpage fees.
In the maritimes, this isn’t a problem, because the lumber is harvested from private lands not public and the subsidy of low stumpage doesn’t apply.
You don’t seem to know or be interested in FACTS.
What’s with your fictional cowboy talk? How about an interest in facts?
Dude,
if the US had every right to demand the tariffs, then why did they lose every appeal on the issue? The WTO did not rule against Canada.
GWB put the tariffs in place to please voters in the states he needed to win, just like he put steel tariffs in place to try to win Pennsylvania.
You think the US doesn’t subsidize its own lumber producers?
as for the facts, i am interested in them.
and yes, i approve of laundering the money to stay in power. there’s no romance without finance, pal.
whoowhoot –
Your conclusions are without factual evidence. Therefore, your self-description that you are interested in facts is invalid.
Kindly provide factual evidence that the US subsidizes its lumber producers.
The US did not lose every appeal. Kindly get your facts straight.
To pay a 25c per cubic metre of wood, and then sell it at $300 a cubic metre is unfair.
Kindly provide factual evidence that Bush put the tariffs in place for his own election agenda. This is particularly interesting since those tariffs were in place before Bush.
‘romance without finance’ is a meaningless statement.
The FACT that you approve of a political party stealing taxpayer money and using it to pay for their election campaign – says a great deal, none of it good, about your intellect, morality and judgment.
“The offices of some Conservative MPs have been inundated, first as Prime Minister Stephen Harper termed Israel’s attack on Lebanon a “measured response,” then as he refused to condemn Israel — and suggested UN culpability — in the presumed death of a Canadian peacekeeper.
“It’s definitely generated the most calls since I’ve been in office, since Jan. 23,” Mike Wallace, the MP for Burlington in Southern Ontario, said yesterday. “Obviously those who are calling and e-mailing have been fairly passionate about the issue.”
While most constituents have praised the government’s efforts to get Canadians out of the war zone, their views about the government’s diplomatic efforts have been divided, Mr. Wallace said.
…
In Toronto, where the Conservatives have no MPs, some of the party’s organizers are shaking their heads.
“The Jewish community is very staunchly in favour of the party’s position. The Muslim community is not so happy,” one very active member said. “And there’s more of them than there are Jewish people. So in terms of a vote-getting thing, if he is doing it for that reason, I don’t get it. It makes no sense to me.”
…
“He is in a very, very tough spot,” Dr. Gerolymatos said of the Prime Minister. “In the polls that I’ve seen, half the Canadians support [his stand] and half oppose it. If he’s not careful, he may end up losing a lot of votes because you have to remember there’s a lot of Lebanese Canadians in Canada, there’s a lot of Muslim Canadians, who are going to see his actions as being strictly one sided.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060728.wxmideharper28/BNStory/National/home
Re Bob’s comment “there’s a lot of Lebanese Canadians in Canada,” it’s also a fact that a lot of them haven’t, until two weeks ago, lived in Canada for years. Another indicator of the Librano$’ corruption of Canada’s sovereignty: That dual citizenship for people who were not born in Canada is allowed–and brings in thousands of votes for the LPC–is an abomination and perversion of democracy. Sadly, these scuzzy tactics are nothing new from the Libs.
ET socked it to whoot, whoot (a new kind of insect? swat, swat) who cares not a whoot that the Librano$ are crooks, thugs, liars, and cheats. Exactly the reason PMSH and the CPC were put into office in January. Hmmm. And s/he thinks that Canadians are going to bring the party of duplicity and dirty tricks back into power in the next election–and that it’s OK?
Scary. Unacceptable. Just ’cause you say it’s so doesn’t mean it’s going to happen…
Hmmm, Whootwhoot says that Harper’s government ignored a WTO decision and made a financially-bad deal, leaving $500 million on the table…
On issues like this, I always ask myself “What would Paul Martin have done?
Let’s see…here’s what he said on November 16, 2005:
“Martin said he would not soften his stance despite a ruling in favor of the United States on Tuesday from the World Trade Organization (WTO).
“Not a bit. And in fact the WTO decision is largely irrelevant to this,” he said.
The problem is that both the WTO and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have pronounced on various aspects of the perennial dispute, sometimes siding with Canada and sometimes with the United States.
Washington says this means they should negotiate a settlement, but Martin says NAFTA came to a final verdict on one aspect which requires a refund of $3.5 billion of duties.
“The fact is that what we’re talking about are NAFTA rules, NAFTA panels which we have won consistently so let me be unequivocal,” he said.
“We are in the right. We are not going to negotiate a win. The Americans…owe Canadian companies $3.5 billion. The fact is that Canadian companies are in the right and I’m not going to back off of that.”
Hmmm. “WTO…irelevant” “$3.5 billion”
Egad!!! Could Harper have actually made a BETTER deal than MArtin was seeking…one wonders…
Perhaps, bob, Harper’s decisions are not derived from a focus on personal power – to buy votes from Interest-Groups; but instead are derived from principles of justice and morality. How about that?
A politician whose actions are not about personal power – similar to the dictatorships in the ME and elsewhere – but are geared to justice, truth, ethics, morality. Hmmm?
Do you approve of politicians, or any individual with power, who base their decisions solely on whether or not that action enhances their power? Wouldn’t you prefer a politician, or individual with power, (doctor, lawyer, judge) to base their decisions on principles?
Whootwhoot the dispute has a lot more to do with Jimmy Carter’s personally owned sawmills than it does GWB who has bigger fish to fry at the moment.
Trade is political. It works when a buyer and seller can agree on the terms. To think that the WTO is going to solve anything is like thinking the UN will solve the ME crisis. Negotiations between countries only work when both parties want a solution. There is no enforcer. Liberals did not want softwood solved; it was part of their hysterical anti-Americanism. Unfortunately that works on a certain self-loathing segment of the Canadian population. Harper and Bush wanted a solution and got one that isn’t perfect. Then again they aren’t utopians so they can live with less than perfect.
95% of Canada/US trade works. Thank God. Canadian companies are too regional in outlook and too tiny to compete globally. Therefore we are totally dependent upon the US economy because we haven’t championed an investor class, we’ve taxed it. If this were not the case, softwood companies would have long ago told the Americans to stuff it and sold their goods elsewhere. Only a few decades of Conservative capitalist government can turn this US dependency problem around. Ironically Liberals have created US dependency and Conservatives will help make Canadains feel self-sufficient and sovereign again.
Harper is solving problems. He’s taking moral stands on geopolitical events rather than equivocating and it’s working with more and more Canadians. We need 42% for a majority government and that is reachable.
Principled Liberals such as Ignatieff will have a tough time in a party whose membership like whootwhoot thinks it’s OK to laundry money. Therefore Liberals are likely to elect another sleazeball. Too bad. Because Conservatives need a healthy opposition and Canadians deserve it.
Who let the trolls hijack the topic?
The Librano MSM has been packaging reality for the Canadian voting lemmings for a good long while, but with the advent of the blogosphere and growing availability of bandwidth, they are losing market share fast.
PMSH knows that the MSM is losing its grip. Apparently, the useful dupes at the MSM haven’t figured it out yet. They’re too busy preening in front of the mirror to understand that they’ve been disintermediated. I say it looks plenty good on them.
Critics are saying they are has beens.
As evidenced on another thread, whootwhoot should is a hatemongering, anti-Semite troll and should be (at least) ignored or (better) banned from SDA or (best) reported to the authorities. I implore you all to cease giving this scum any attention.
Shaken is ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. The MSM in Canada is fast becoming obsolete. They have been making the news for far too long. Always looking for some hack to interview, that will say-what-they-want-to-hear. Then, at the end, in a know-all fashion; This XYZ, CBC News, Canistan.
Point noted Shaken. I wandered. I should have at least drawn the connection between the MSM trying to keep the emotions high on softwood and Harper taking a principled stand with the UN.
The PPG hates it when Conservatives deal with facts and issues instead of stirring up emotions and creating fiction.