Not With A Bang…But A Whimper.

 

As in today’s Harper Cabinet Shuffle.

The key spots all remained unchanged – not that it matters though since the only real change needed is in Stephen Harper’s mind.

In other-words, breakout the Hidden Agenda!!

So following is my wish list for the Prime Minister over the second half of his mandate:

• reduce the civil service salary / benefits by 10 – 20% across the board (this to apply to MP and Cabinet as well);
• reduce the size of cabinet by 10 – 20%;
• sell off the Crown Corporations;
• jettison the green energy nonsense;
• impose a term limit on abortion;
• put through the pipelines;
• balance the budget;
• reserve the term ‘marriage’ for heterosexual couples only;
• introduce private medicine into medicare;
• deep six the Senate;
• no more corporate welfare;
• expand NATO into an economic, as well as military, union for Democratic Nations which respect the Rule of Law;
• drop the requirement that federal employees need be bilingual;
• cut income taxes across the board by 25%;
• stop funding CBC television;
• freeze Muslim immigration for 5 years;
• put the right of property ownership in the Charter of Rights;
• make all votes in the House of Commons free votes unless it pertains to the budget vote or a vote of non-confidence;
• give MPs real power by increasing the power of Parliamentary Committees with the resources needed to make that function properly.

I could go on and on – but you get the idea.

No doubt I have missed one or more of your own pet wishes – and if so, please let me know and I will publish those as well.

This would put the C back into Conservative and give us something to be proud of.

As I see it …

‘K.D. Galagher’

 

Well Why Didn’t He Say So ?

 

As in Well Why Didn’t He ?

The ‘He’ in this is of course Ottawa Senator’s owner – Eugene Melnyk.

Poor Mr. Melnyk, he feels cheated by Ottawa City Council’s decision to back the Rideau Carleton Raceway as it’s preferred site for OLG’s proposed Casino.

Indeed, Melnyk was so incensed by this that he threatened – no promised, that he would not to spend any more money in Ottawa.

My question again for Mr. Melnyk is why did it take you so long to come out and say you were even interested in tendering for a new casino. 

This debate has been going on for well over a year and if the media is correct, it was not until just very recently that you came out to express interest in submitting a bid.

This issue has bounced around more than a tennis ball at Wimbledon.

And the fact is, Council finally came to the correct conclusion – that is to say, the best site for a casino is on the grounds of Ottawa’s current casino site – Rideau Carleton.

I say this because choosing Rideau Carleton helps to alleviate the damage done to Ontario’s Horse Racing Industry by former Dalton McGuinty’s Government.  In short, expanding the existing casino at Rideau Carleton means that Horse Racing here in Ottawa will not wither (pun?) away.

Indeed, had McGuinty gotten his way, 10’s of thousands of jobs in that industry would have been lost as well as hundreds of horses ending up in glue factories.

We can thank our new Premier for giving horse racing a second chance.  Wynne, like me, is no fan of government gambling but she, unlike me, does not let her principles stand in her way of getting government out of the business. 

But I digress – maybe more on that another day.

But back to the issue at hand – Rideau Carleton is the best casino site available for a host of good reasons.  If Mr. Melnyk wanted his own site to have been considered he should have said something before positions hardened.

As for his threat / promise to stop spending money in Ottawa – he should look to his captain Daniel Alfredsson as an shining example of a loyal Ottawan.

Oh – bad example.

As I see it …

‘K.D. Galagher’

EDWARD SNOWDEN …

 

Hero or Traitor ?

You either fit into one of two camps – there is no middle ground and very little ‘I don’t know’.

As for me, he is very much a Hero; and this from a law and order guy.

But what is surprising is that this issue crosses liberal and conservative lines.  Many of Obama’s biggest cheerleaders on the Left feel totally betrayed by Snowden’s revelation that Big Brother America is spying on their tweets, emails and phone calls while a good number on the Right are equally turned offed.

The question that remains outstanding though is when do security measures go too far in their encroachment of our freedoms?

When do we tell the airport security folks to stop checking the elderly’s pacemakers and the infants’ diapers all the while electronically strip searching the rest of us … all in a bid to uncover radical Muslims?

Why do we paralyze our border crossings with useless delays?

And why does the US believe it is necessary to spy on all of our electronic communications with the same objective in mind?

Their supporters parrot back “if you have nothing to hide, then you should have no objection to being monitored”.

It has a certain logic but it misses the point entirely.

In a free and open society citizens have the right to carry on their day to day activities without having to worry about someone looking over their shoulders.

If someone is…we no longer have a free and open society.  Full stop.

And until Snowden enlightened us with his recent disclosures we thought such espionage was restricted to police states such a China and Russia.

Yes dear reader – we owe him a great debt of thanks.

My question in all of this is what has gotten into the once great United States of America?

They are engaging in activities they once railed against.

A parallel example can be seen in the case of waterboarding.  To his credit Obama has discontinued this method of torture but it was prevalent during the time of George W Bush’s Presidency and many look back in fondness of its effectiveness. 

Again the Walter Mittys’ of this world seem to favour this type of torture and even torture in general because it “saves lives”.

Again a true statement but do we lower ourselves to the level of evil regardless of how noble the objective?

Either we in the West stand for Freedom and Liberty and Humaneness or we do not.  There is no middle ground. And as for those who say we need to jettison our freedoms for safety – let me assure them – once we jettison the former, we will never enjoy the latter, despite their best wishes.

But of even greater importance, we will no longer be Free and it appears to me that that is exactly where we are all headed and it is scary.

As I see it..

‘K.D. Galagher’

It Defies Belief…

 

As in Stephen Harper’s continued assertion that he knew nothing of his Chief of Staff’s gift of $90k to Senator Mike Duffy.

In my Blogs of May 21 and 22 of this year, I recap why I thought it highly unlikely that Stephen Harper was telling the truth about not knowing of Nigel Wright’s gift to Mike Duffy.

I ended though by saying that he should be given the benefit of the doubt unless new facts came out that would prove otherwise and in such a case, dear Mr. Harper would be “toast”.

Sadly, this is exactly what has transpired as recent reports seem to suggest that virtually everyone in Harper’s own office – including his lawyer – knew of the gift in advance.  It defies credibility now to suggest that Harper did not know.

In short, it is obvious to me now that he lied to the Canadian people and as such the only honourable thing for him to do is to resign.

Will he?

Not likely, but that does not mean he should not. The main thing leaders have is their credibility and when that is discarded, all respect for the office goes with it.

I hope both McGuinty & Wynne are listening.

And it is all so sad since it did not need to happen over a petty falsifying of the books by one little thief.

If you will recall, poor old tricky Dick Nixon fell on his sword in similar circumstances.  History tells us that he did not know of the bungled Watergate burglary but he too got caught in the cover-up. 

All tricky Dick needed to do was to report those at fault and he would have been in the clear.  His failure to do so made him the first President in US history to resign.  

In Harper’s case, he obviously should have told the Duffster to get lost and told Wright to keep his cheque book closed. 

Failing to do that, he should have come clean and said he knew what was transpiring and quickly apologize for his stupidity.

At the very least, he should have kept his mouth shut and let the cops do their investigation.

His failure to do any of the above and then do the worst thing possible – claim he was always in the dark with respect to the Wright – Duffy loan meant that he lied and for that he must too fall on his sword and make way for someone else to take over the reigns of power.

It was all so needless but regardless of how one loses his or her credibility - once lost, it is almost impossible to reclaim especially in cases of leadership.

As I see it…

‘K.D. Galagher’

And Speaking of Oxymorons…

 

Here is another one for you -

Democrat Kathleen Wynne

She just called 5 by-elections on less than a month’s notice – in the summer – at the beginning of the busiest holiday weekend of the year.

Do you suppose she did this because:

a) they are all Grit Ridings and as such a quick election call would hinder the other parties from organizing?  or,

b) a summer election – especially one tied to a busy holiday weekend would encourage a smaller turnout in the knowledge that bigger turnouts often signal a protest vote?  or,

c)  the teachers are off for the summer and thus available to work on the Grit Campaigns?  or,

d) all of the above.

If you chose (d) you get full marks.

No one though can accuse Dear Ms. Wynne of being a slow learner.

She has watched her previous master shut down the Ontario Legislature to allow their Liberal Party time to elect a new leader …the one and only Kathleen Wynne.

Moreover, the same Dalton McGuinty just recently called a snap Nomination Meeting in his riding, with under a week’s notice, to ensure victory for his long time aide John Fraser.

No democracy for these folks …it is just too messy and of course dangerous.

What we need is a Tahrir style occupation by the beleaguered taxpayers / voters of Queen’s Park since I believe it will take such an event to shock some of these politicians back to reality.

We have the worst government in Canadian History – except possibly for the Duplessis years in Quebec - and Wynne and McGuinty continue to carry on business as if we are all just dummies there to do their bidding.

It’s pathetic and if the stakes were not so high, it would all be quite comical.

But the stakes are high as our once great province continues to sink lower into have-not status.

As I see it …

‘K.D. Galagher’

 

Today’s Example of an Oxymoron

 

Answer – The Democratic Military Coup in Egypt which knocked out democratically elected President Mohammed Morsi.

With thousands upon thousands in Cairo’s Tahrir Square protesting the Morsi Government, the military acted to take him out.

This is indeed good news.

How so?

When Morsi was elected, I along with many others predicted that he was merely a front for the Muslim Brotherhood and he would use his time as President to entrench Muslim Rule on all of Egypt.

As if to script – that is exactly what he did but this did not go down well with moderate Muslims and non-Muslims alike.  They were not going to let their hard fought efforts to secure democracy for Egypt die so easily.

And the military … to its credit, sided with the just and pure.

One could and quite rightly raise the concern that the military will just once again install one of its generals at the helm, as it did in the case of Morsi’s predecessor Hosni Mubarak.  But I don’t think this is in the cards.

There is a genuine well spring of support in Egypt and I believe the Arab Spring is truly coming to fruition.

As far as Arabia goes, Egypt is the linch pin.  It is by far the most populated and influential and if it can settle on the road to freedom, there is indeed hope for the rest.

We will keep our fingers crossed but this is the best news to come out of the Middle East in years.

As I see it…

‘K. D. Galagher’

Lack of Sunshine in Ottawa…

 

As in Sunshine List and not the absence of Sun …though that too is missing most days.

Former Conservative MP Brent Rathgeber, had his Bill to disclose the salaries of highly paid bureaucrats gutted recently by his then conservative colleagues on orders from on high (a.k.a the PMO).

His ‘Bill’ would have required the Fed’s to publish an Annual Sunshine List similar to the one in effect in the Province of Ontario.  All those earning $188,000 would be centred out but due to the intervention of the pantywaists from the PMO this already too high ceiling was upped even further to nearly $450k.

Let the light shine in…

Rathgeber did what I consider to be the honourable thing and that was to resign from the Tory Caucus.

In so doing he had this to say:

“I joined the Reform / conservative movements because I thought we were somehow different, a band of Ottawa outsiders riding into town to clean the place up, promoting open government and accountability. I barely recognize ourselves, and worse, I fear that we have morphed into what we once mocked”.

Strong words and yet, for me, so true.

Like Rathgaber, I too joined the Reform Party in the hope that it would return honour, integrity and civility to government.  That unlike the other parties, Reform would stand for the wishes of the grass roots.  In previous Blogs I have recounted how this Hope was soon dashed.  The top reformers came down with the Ottawa sickness quicker than one could say transparency and open government.

Rathgaber’s resignation was not a one event reaction though:  it came about after the disclosure of numerous petty scandals and a concerted effort to control the Tory Backbench.

Commentators speak of Harper using this summer to “reset the dial” and point to a likely cabinet shuffle to see that happen.

Although a shuffle is most likely to happen – it  will not reset any dials.

The only reset button that exists can be found in Stephen Harper’s mind. 

Unless he resets himself – nothing is going to change in the lead-up to the next election.

He and he alone needs to return to those heady days when the Reform Party was first formed – the excitement that existed that for once their supporters and via them, the voter himself would finally be listened to.

Will he do it Galagher?

Can a leopard change its spots?

I personally think he can indeed do it and for the sake of our country I am hoping and praying that he does.  I would not be prepared to bet the family farm on it though.

That is not to say that the Harper Government has been a total failure like the one in Ontario – it has accomplished a number of important things – especially in the area of foreign affairs – for the first time since the War our country stands for honour and integrity which is all the more noticeable when compared to the embarrassment of the little guy in the White House.

At home, for the first time in decades, we Canadians are taking pride in learning and hearing about our history – a history which pound for pound is as interesting and as dynamic as our neighbour’s to the south.

So let’s collectively hold our breath and hope when Parliament resumes in the Fall, it will be a renewed and committed Prime Minister at the helm.

Thanks to Alberta M.P. Brent Rathgeber it has a much better chance of happening.

As I see it …

‘K.D. Galagher’