"EDMONTON -- An era in Canadian politics will come to a close this week when the spring sitting of the Alberta legislature ends and Premier Ralph Klein leaves the assembly he has served since 1989. Klein had initially planned to remain in office until early 2008, but soft support in a leadership vote by Progressive Conservative party members in March hastened his retirement to the end of this year. No fall sitting is planned, so Klein's last day in the premier's seat will likely be Thursday, when the legislature is expected to adjourn. A major disappointment for Klein this spring was the derailment of his much-vaunted Third Way plan to reshape Alberta's health-care delivery. Public outcry forced the Tories to back down on elements that would have allowed patients to pay extra for quicker joint surgeries and doctors to practise in both the public and private systems. "The Third Way was a bit of a setback, but someone's going to have to deal with it,'' Klein said Tuesday as he flipped burgers for a charity event on the sun-drenched grounds of the legislature. Prime Minister Stephen Harper also sharply criticized the proposed reforms in a letter to Klein at the end of March -- on the same day as the Tory leadership vote. Liberal Opposition Leader Kevin Taft called it a miserable session for the premier. "Ralph Klein's career as premier started with a bang but has ended with a whimper,'' Taft said. "The energy went right out of this sitting when the premier had the rug pulled out from under him by his own party.'' NDP Leader Brian Mason agreed. "Every political career comes to an end, but this has been a disastrous sitting for Ralph Klein,'' said Mason. "One of the things he's wanted to do for two entire terms is bring in more privatization and set up a two-tiered health-care system.'' There were other bleak moments for Klein this spring, including an outburst from one of his cabinet ministers. Lyle Oberg, one of the contenders for Klein's job, was fired as infrastructure minister after he threatened to reveal "skeletons'' in the government's past. Oberg said later he was angry that Klein had ordered leadership hopefuls to give up their cabinet posts by June, even though he wasn't planning to leave for another year. Ed Stelmach and David Hancock, two other cabinet ministers eyeing Alberta's top job, did step down. That set the stage for a summer of jockeying by at least a half-dozen contenders who will face off in a leadership vote this fall. Former finance minister Jim Dinning is the early front-runner, but the wild card is Reform party founder Preston Manning, who has been assembling staff for a possible run. Klein says he plans to take it easy this summer, playing golf and fishing. He's expected to formally resign in September, then leave public office for good once a new Tory leader is chosen. In one last annoyance for the opposition, Klein's government is expected to pass a bill that puts a five-year blackout on public access to cabinet briefing documents. "There is no way that I'm going to give (the opposition) my briefing book,'' the premier told reporters. "They would use it for purely political purposes.'' But Taft accused the government of having "a walk-in closet of skeletons that they want to keep hidden.'' "They want everything buried as far from the public as they can get.'' The Tories were also sharply criticized by seniors advocates and others for putting no teeth into new standards for nursing homes after an auditor general's report last year found quality of care wanting. Taft said it amounts to a betrayal. "They're not getting the care that they need, and in some cases they're dying from lack of care.'' Klein has at least one more battle to fight in his final months, starting with a possible showdown with Ontario and Quebec over equalization payments to the provinces. He'll be looking for allies at this month's western premiers conference for his position that resource revenues should be left out of equalization calculations. The spring sitting also featured another multibillion-dollar surplus budget and a new endowment fund for cancer research, a pet project for Klein. He will use a trip to France next month to tour cancer research facilities and also plans to visit Ukraine and China on what the opposition parties are calling his farewell tour. "Let Klein now use his own money to finance these world wide excursion trips, for he has robbed and abused the poor people of Alberta long enough.
Tell me who your friends are and I can tell you what you are like. Now there is only one body of Jesus Christ, only one true Church universal, but there are many different local flavors, various categories of churches, denominations for a start, and thus also there are many false ones there as well. And for certainty not all of them are positive ones. Just as in the various Catholic Churches, I have been shocked to discover how even the Evangelical churches can differ significantly in their beliefs, theology, practice, and managerial styles too. . I had become closely familiar with some of the Alliance Church pastors and their district superintendents of the CMA churches now too including Stephen Harper's Calgary's First Christian Missionary Alliance Church which clearly, rightfully to me is a non Christian church, and it is a false community that supports the rich and despises the poor people, and it now also would reflect part of Stephen's Harper's own management style too."Harper welcoming Australia's anti-labour John Howard to Ottawa Canadian and Australian prime ministers share similar pro-corporate and anti-worker economic views. Ottawa (18 May 2006) - Stephen Harper, the only major Canadian leader who has failed to sign the Workers Bill of Rights, welcomes one of the most world's anti-labour leaders to Parliament Hill today. The visitor is Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who has used his latest parliamentary majority in Australia to roll back some of the most important labour reforms achieved by working people in more than a century. He will open a three-day official visit to Canada by addressing members of Parliament. Outside, a group of Canadian workers are expected to protest in solidarity with members of the labour movement in Australia, which has fought valiantly against the so-called "reforms" that Howard has used his muscle to ram through his own Parliament. Among the changes brought about by his Orwellian-named WorkChoices program are the following (more details): • Abolition of protection from unfair dismissal for four million workers employed in companies with less than 100 staff."
That last stated act alone is absurd, and all Canadians now too should have the same legal job protection, unlawful dismissal rights whether a firm is 2 people or more than 100 even. In case you have not been unlawfully, immorally dismissed in your lifetime, that is really an unacceptable negative act that endangers one's personal health as well. It is not just the rich who should have legal protection from unlawful job dismissals and have access to a fair, honest justice system.It was no big secret that the Conservative and S Harper's secret agenda was a majority government. Stephen Harper personally had by his own free will accepted the job of being a Prime Minister of a minority Government beforehand knowing that it was a minority government and he had said he would work with the opposition. But it now seems he wanted to be a Prime Minister of a minority government while acting as a Majority government and that is impossible, a sure reason his government will fall and face re-election before the end of his term. The Conservative and S Harper, based mainly also on even the evidence of his recent incompetence, his own unacceptable dictatorial management style, his showing false partiality, his neglecting the poor persons in Canada, as well we all can thank God he, the Conservatives now, did not get a majority government for sure. Also I have said even before the last federal elections no political party will firstly have a majority government really unless it really cares equally about the good welfare of all Canadians, young and old too, equally in all parts of Canada, the rich and the poor ones as well. So far we do not have such a political party not even the Cobservative one, and is why we are also in minority governments.
"Miffed, Mr. Harper kills his commission The six opposition MPs on the Commons operations and estimates committee despite Mr. Morgan's insistence that he was colour-blind -- he and his wife "basically love the Caribbean" and "attend their churches" -- the six said he was unsuitable for the post and outvoted the five Conservative MPs. But that's politics. That's life in a minority government. There is no rule that opposition MPs have to rubberstamp the Prime Minister's choices. In fact, the system runs more smoothly if the government sounds out the other parties before making a nomination. But Mr. Harper's reaction was wildly disproportionate. He pulled the plug on his own appointments commission. In a fit of pique, he walked away from a crucial part of his ethics package. He said there was no point in even trying to get the commission up and running until his Conservatives could form a majority government -- when, presumably, he could impose his will without fear of contradiction. Mr. Harper is getting a reputation for peevishness, which in his position has unsettling consequences. Consider yesterday's declaration of an amnesty for Canadians who break the law by refusing to register their rifles and shotguns. Mr. Harper had clearly calculated that opposition MPs would thwart the Conservatives' promise to kill the registry. He therefore eliminated a major part of it in all but name -- by fiat, without the need to deal with those pesky elected representatives of the Canadian people, who won't get a chance to vote on it until later. This inability to negotiate, to seek compromise, sends a disconcerting signal about how far Mr. Harper might go if indeed he did win a majority, once he had even more power to override dissent. That is not a misgiving he should want to plant in the public's mind"""But immigration has a social side as well as an economic one. The social side is all too evident with the run-away violence driven mainly by Jamaican immigrants in Toronto, or the all too frequent violence between Asian and other ethnic gangs right here in Calgary. Politicians talk of the need for more police to protect the public. Immigration groups blame "poverty" or "police discrimination" or "lack of opportunity". Once again, these are symptoms, but not the root cause. Here is the root cause they all know, but don't talk about: the vast majority of violent, lawless immigrants come from countries where the culture is dominated by violence and lawlessness. Jamaica has one of the world's highest crime rates driven mainly by the violence between gangs competing for dominance in the Caribbean drug trade. Why do we expect different behaviour in Toronto, Ontario than in Kingston, Jamaica? Similarly, a portion of our Indo-Chinese immigrants have lived in situations where violence is necessary to survive. Again, the violent behaviour continues in Canada. It's fair to say that most immigrants who abuse our society have come in as refugee claimants rather than "economic immigrants". This not only means they are more likely to have violent tendencies, but also much less likely to have the skills, training and attitude necessary to contribute to our society. So, we need to remember this when we consider admitting refugee claimants and we need to be much more effective at exporting those who abuse our society." Gwyn Morgan
But as well I too used to be naive, and I felt comments like this, especially by the police were racists, discriminatory.. "Gwyn Morgan, until recently the head of EnCana Corp., he said: "Immigration has a social side as well as an economic one. The social side is all too evident with the runaway violence driven mainly by Jamaican immigrants ... or the all-too-frequent violence between Asian and other ethnic gangs ....." " and that was until I had attended a local black church and a Montreal Jamaican pastor punched me in front of a witness cause I would not do what he demanded of me and I had called the police on him... now I too personaly understand too many Jamaicans are of a different temperament from the rest of us. I also rightfully understand that Asians are undeniably fed much too much on a culture of violence, ( disguised as religion- karate) since I have become a fan of Asian movies. They the Asians in general do need to practice more the shalt love they neighbour as thyself as well as even all of us too.