The Odd Prime Minister Stephen Harper  needs to get all of his acts in much better shape still.

"Zero-tolerance program required for oil spills  Publish Date: 17-Aug-2006   This letter is a plea to our local and federal governments to not lift the moratorium on oil tankers and offshore drilling along the B.C. coast. Until our government sets a zero-tolerance standard for oil spills and environmental damage due to industry negligence, we are not ready. This was illustrated once again with the Gearbulk oil spill in Squamish on August 4 [“B.C. oil spills more rule than exception”, August 10-17]. 

Our government isn’t sending a strong enough message of accountability to industry. Why doesn’t the Ministry of Transportation implement a zero-tolerance program for toxic spills such as the recent incident in Squamish?

Why doesn’t the B.C. premier address the issue of accountability on the part of industry and government? 

Why isn’t our prime minister, Stephen Harper, creating ways to heavily reward companies that demonstrate exemplary standards of safety and revoke licences of companies that don’t? The message government sends industry is “Pay the fine, let’s clean up the mess and go on—business as usual.” > Michelle Neilson / Squamish"

Liberal Press Releases "Harper Government Reneges on Funding for the Homeless August 17, 2006  Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government must immediately reverse course and pledge to help the homeless rather than hurt them by cutting funding for homelessness programs across Canada, Liberal Party Finance Critic John McCallum and Social Development Critic Bonnie Brown said today.   “I’m dismayed but not surprised by this move,” said McCallum. “We have to remember that this is the same Finance Minister Jim Flaherty who pledged to make homelessness illegal in 2002. It is unfortunate that extremist views like his always tend to hurt society’s most vulnerable.”  McCallum first called on the Finance Minister not to cut funding for the homeless during question period last May when the Conservatives tabled their first budget which indicated that homelessness programs might be on the chopping block.  The budget chastised the previous government for the “Use of the Federal Spending Power in Areas of Provincial Responsibility,” and outlined three such areas: early childhood development, childcare and housing and homelessness. McCallum pointed out the first of those two have already been eliminated and now it appears that they are moving on to the third.  “It takes a certain amount of cruelty and lack of sympathy to cut funding for the segment of society that is most in need of our help,” said Ms. Brown. “I think it speaks directly to the character and principles of the entire government.”  “This will create deep budgeting shortfalls in over 60 communities across Canada,” added Ms. Brown. “The government knows this and for Human Resources and Social Development Minister Diane Finley to go on record and claim the Harper government is honouring its current funding commitments on the one hand, while taking back past federal funding with the other, is completely disingenuous and disgraceful.”  The Conservative government’s decision to freeze the Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative (SCPI) effectively reneges on millions of dollars in funding that has already been booked by municipalities to combat homelessness and will put hundreds of people and programs at risk.  SCPI has been a cornerstone of the National Housing Initiative (NHI), partnering with communities across the country to provide financial support to community groups to develop new and innovative local responses to homelessness.  Since its launch in 1999, the previous Liberal government had invested more than $1 billion through the NHI.  Yesterday, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities notified its members that the National Secretariat on Homeless has ended the long-standing practice of municipal housing departments being able to carry over and move funds from the previous fiscal year to the next, thus preventing any unused SCPI money from being spent. The Homelessness Secretariat also confirmed this is happening across the board and is not isolated to particular cities.  This most-recent initiative is just the latest example of Minister Flaherty’s ruthless social policies. In 2002, Flaherty raised eyebrows during his first failed attempt to win the Ontario Conservative Party’s leadership by suggesting that the homeless should be arrested. The proposal riled Flaherty’s current Cabinet colleague, Health Minister Tony Clement, who said at the time, “It’s bad politics because this kind of half-baked pandering gives common-sense conservatives everywhere a bad name.”   “I think this goes to show you that recent musings in the press about this being a kinder, gentler Jim Flaherty than the Jim Flaherty of four years ago are wrong,” said McCallum. “He is still the same ruthless, extremist, homeless-jailing Jim Flaherty that Ontarians came to know under Mike Harris’ government.”" Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government must immediately reverse course and pledge to help the homeless.

 

Liberal Press release "Petroleum Money Drives Conservative Climate Change Skepticism    August 15, 2006 Prime Minister Stephen Harper must come clean about who is driving his anti-Kyoto agenda, say two Liberal MPs. Hon. John Godfrey, Liberal Environment Critic, and Mark Holland, MP for Ajax-Pickering, charge that Harper’s policies are being driven by climate change skeptics closely aligned with the Conservative Party and funded by petroleum companies.  The two were responding to a report in Saturday’s Globe and Mail outlining how Harper crony Barry Cooper was involved in channeling petroleum money to Friends of Science, an anti-Kyoto lobby group, through the University of Calgary.  “It’s clear the Prime Minister is prepared to ignore mainstream science, which has overwhelmingly concluded that human activity is a major contributing factor to climate change,” said Mr. Godfrey. “This Globe and Mail report begs many questions as to what is fuelling Conservative party denial that man-made climate change exists.”  “The ties between the Conservatives, fraudulent science, and the petroleum industry appear to be quite an incestuous network,” says Holland. “Not since big tobacco twisted medical science to find cigarettes harmless has there been such an extensive campaign of misinformation to deceive the public on one of the most important issues of our time.”  Calgary-based Friends of Science is an organization of Canadian and international climate change skeptics, of which, a majority appear to have close links to the petroleum industry. The group runs advertising and produces scientifically dubious research and editorial comment questioning mainstream science on climate change, arguing that it is either not a problem or that it is not caused by human activity. In fact, just last April, Friends of Science was responsible for submitting an open letter to Prime Minister Harper (printed in the National Post), which insisted allocating funds to initiatives to mitigate climate change “would be irrational” and expressed the hope that the group could “furnish [Harper] with more information on this crucially important topic.”   Mr. Cooper is a member of what has become known as the Calgary School, a group of right-wing University of Calgary professors considered mentors to Harper and whose thinking has molded Harper’s political agenda. The group is closely aligned with the Fraser Institute, a British Columbia right-wing think tank partly funded by the petroleum industry. Mr. Cooper, a political scientist at the University of Calgary, directs the Alberta Policy Research Centre of the Fraser Institute.  In addition to Mr. Cooper, petroleum lobbyist Morten Paulsen also has close Conservative ties. Mr. Paulsen is registered as a lobbyist for Friends of Science, as well as several petroleum companies including Conoco-Phillips Canada, and Kinder Morgan Canada Inc. Paulsen has long been active in the federal Conservative Party and its Reform/Alliance predecessors, serving as Preston Manning’s communication director, managing MP Art Hanger’s 2004 election campaign, and also holding high-ranking positions with the Alberta Conservatives.  John Weissenberger, a petroleum geologist, is another of Harper’s closest friends, who has also written a number of anti-Kyoto articles.  “I think it’s safe to say the Prime Minister’s views on climate change and various right-wing issues have been heavily influenced by Mr. Weissenberger,” says Holland.  Tom Harris, once a legislative assistant to former Conservative Environment Critic Bob Mills, has been a prolific writer of anti-Kyoto op-ed pieces, typically quoting scientists associated with Friends of Science. He is a lobbyist with High Park Group, a firm with a number of energy industry clients. Previously working as an associate with the public relations firm APCO Worldwide (Canada), he organized a news conference of climate change skeptics in 2002. Most of those who spoke at the news conference have ties to both Friends of Science and the petroleum industry.  Outspoken climate change skeptic Gwyn Morgan, former CEO of EnCana, is a Harper crony and Conservative fundraiser. He is a trustee with the Fraser Institute. Harper attempted in April to appoint Morgan to oversee patronage appointments, but Morgan’s appointment was blocked by opposition MPs concerned about comments he’d made linking immigrants with crime.  “Financial links between the petroleum industry and climate change skeptic groups in the United States are well documented,” says Godfrey. “We need more transparency about who is behind this campaign in Canada.”  Exxon Mobil Corporation in the U.S., for example, outlines on its website its funding of academic research showing that millions of dollars have gone to organizations opposing action to address climate change. Among its contributions in 2003 and 2004 were $60,000 U.S. each year in funds for climate change policy research to the Fraser Institute."

I do believe that all of the citizens themselves, the seniors deserve to have a better pension. while I do also agree that the armed forces as well do deserve a proper pension too I cannot agree that the too often incompetent, pretentious RCMP deserve any pensions for that matter, especially since in Canada the last 3 decades I have never got a decent service from any them, unwarranted as well.

 

Meanwhile an Immoral person at the Globe & Mail bashes Catholics in their newspaper this week..