Canadian Blogs.net

Preston Manning calls for post-recession roadmapIn an op/ed column appearing in the Globe and Mail, Preston Manning writes about the current federal deficit, and compares it to the 14-year quest to put an end to Canada's last deficit.He argues that a lack of planning undermined efforts to control that deficit, and argues that a plan is needed to tackle the current federal deficit.The best reason for doing this, he insists, is not necessarily the deficit itself, but some of the unconsidered consequences of accumulating debt:"To combat the current recession, governments around the world have instituted economic recovery measures breathtaking in their magnitude and scope. These include dramatically expanding the money supply (printing money), taking significant ownership positions in key...

Mulroney wants Tories to kiss and make upWhen Conservatives gather to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Brian Mulroney's 1984 majority government victory -- one of only two for the party in the past quarter century, and only three in the past 60 years -- Mulroney wants the party to be more than simply a celebration of a past triumph.He wants the Conservative party to kiss and make up."It's in the interest of all Conservatives -- Progressive Conservatives and the latter-day group -- to come together in support of common principles," Mulroney recently told Canadian Press.How welcome, precisely, Mulroney's call to reconcile is in the mind of Stephen Harper is likely only truly known to Harper himself -- who will not attend the party, as he will be in the United States on that day -- or...

Richard Cleroux forecasts Charest's return to OttawaIn an op/ed column appearing in the Orleans Star, Richard Cleroux makes a bold prediction:Jean Charest will not only return to Ottawa, but win the office of Prime Minister within the next five years.It's a bold prediction for a number of reasons.First off, despite a recent minority government setback (which was avenged with a majority government victory less than a year later) Jean Charest is firmly ensconsed in the office of Premier of Quebec, and the prospects of the Parti Quebecois or Action Democratique du Quebec of unseating him any time soon are rather slim.Secondly, if Charest accomplished the feat he would be the first former Premier to win the office of Prime Minister in Canadian history -- Robert Stanfield, Tommy Douglas and...

It's bad enough when elected officials dip into public funds to enrich themselves or their cronies. Canadians got a good taste of such scandals during the dark period of Liberal rule between 1993 and 2005. Despite a series of expensive and drawn-out investigations and parliamentary inquiries, too many of those involved in those scandals then are still anonymous or free as a bird. Taxpayers were taken twice: first, by the corrupt and criminal actions of those in power, and then again, by having to foot the bill for all the public inquiries. But when politicians act criminally or unethically while......

In a post on his blog today Warren Kinsella is promoting a strange video suggesting that Stephen Harper doesn't like Brian Mulroney very much.Not a great secret.Presented in the form of a storybook, replete with "The Dance of the Sugar Plum fairy" playing in the background, the video chronicles Stephen Harper's turn away from the Mulroney-era Progressive Conservatives. Harper had worked for then-Calgary West MP Jim Hawkes as a Parliamentary aide, but would quit over concerns about Mulroney's fiscal policies.Harper would run unsuccessfully against Hawkes as a Reform party candidate in the 1988 federal election before defeating him in 1993.After a falling out with Reform party leader Preston Manning, Harper left the party to become the President of the National Citizens Coalition. The video...

Karlheinz Schreiber, wanted by German authorities for his impressive résumé of bribery, fraud and tax evasion, has admitted to doctoring documents and lying in an attempt to avoid extradition to his native country, where a prison cell has been waiting for him for years. On Thursday, Karlheinz Schreiber admitted to a federal inquiry that he was lying when he wrote a letter to Brian Mulroney seeking the former prime minister's help in convincing Stephen Harper not to extradite him back to Germany. As L. Ian Mac-Donald noted on this page yesterday, Mr. Schreiber also seems to have invented a friendship......

Liberals complain about cost of income trust investigationWhen the Liberal party lost the 2005/06 federal election, many partisans blamed the Income Trust scandal and the RCMP investigation of it for their defeat.To a certain extent, this is true. And while they continue to insist that the RCMP investigation was inappropriate and (allegedly) politically-motivated, they also conveniently overlook the fact that the Sponsorship Scandal had made the idea that the Liberal party would tip its friends off to a potentially advantageous taxation decision seem incredibly believable. Even likely.So as documents obtained via the Access to Information act reveal that the RCMP spent $445,000 on the investigation it's only natural that the Liberal party would take this as an opportunity to complain...

When politicians act like children, or when they disappoint their own supporters, it is not surprising that more and more people are losing interest in politics – or in participating in the political process, such as by voting on election day. Last year one former Canadian prime minister, Brian Mulroney, was thrust back into the limelight: in view of new, and some old, allegations of wrongdoing while in office and after, the Liberals called for a full-blown inquiry into Mulroney's relationship and dealings with German arms dealer Karlheinz Schreiber. Schreiber, who's been wanted by German authorities for years, grabbed the......

Stephen Harper questions Michael Ignatieff's moral compassPrime Minister Stephen Harper has seized upon a Conservative party spat over the appointment of the Oliphant Inquiry into dealings between Brian Mulroney and Karlheinz Schrieber to steal some moral capital away from Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff.Harper insists that his currently-troubled relationship with Brian Mulroney proves that his government is concerned with ethics, while Ignatieff is only concerned about garnering political advantage wherever he may find an opportunity."Mr Ignatieff and the Liberal party, when the matter first broke, were practically demanding that I throw Mr. Mulroney in prison without a trial," Harper said. "Now they're out there pretending that somehow they're his best friends and they don't agree with...

With the growing split inside the Conservative Party over Stephen Harper's treatment of former prime minister Brian Mulroney, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff is showing off his strategic smarts in exploiting the situation: Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff offered unexpected praise for Brian Mulroney yesterday and criticized Stephen Harper for failing to show the veteran Tory due respect - comments calculated to exploit unprecedented public bickering in Conservative government ranks over the former prime minister. [...] Asked about the Tory spat yesterday, Mr. Ignatieff made a point of singling out Mr. Harper for showing disrespect to Mr. Mulroney, a move designed to......

Dumont's ride into the sunset may not be permanentAs the Action Democratique du Quebec looks anxiously toward its future -- a future without the only leader it has ever known -- some continue to speculate on former leader Mario Dumont's future.Last year Lawrence Martin suspected Dumont would be named to the Senate as one of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's 17 new Senators. That didn't pan out.Westmount Examiner columnist is being a little more cautious in his predictions. He expects that Dumont will be back, he just won't say how or when."Mario Dumont is a hero in his home town — the local lad who defied all odds to become the leader of a third political force in Quebec," Laresen writes. "He not only put Rivière-du-Loup on the map, he also served as an inspiration to many young rural...

"Fringe" parties can play a vital role in Canadian politicsIn an op/ed article appearing in the Winnipeg Sun, Paul Rutherford has a message for Canada's fringe political players:Go away.In the course of the column, Rutherford describes Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe, Green Party leader Elizabeth May and Reform party founder Preston Manning as "the worst thing to happen to Canadian politics in the last 20 years".Rutherford accuses these parties of stealing votes from "legitimate parties" and insists that "they play no role in the democratic health of our country".Unfortunately for Rutherford, he couldn't possibly be further from the truth.The truth is that not only are fringe parties necessary, but sometimes they're inevitable, even when one would, as Rutherford, just as soon not...

Four former prime ministers have signed a declaration calling for climate change action. Two days into the campaign for the Oct. 14 federal election, four former prime ministers have joined a coalition of Canadians demanding urgent action on climate change. The group of about 60 business people, academics and environmentalists calling themselves Canadians for Climate Leadership is set to release a document Tuesday entitled Time To Get Serious on Climate Change. The report calls for a $30-a-tonne price tag on emissions, and says a "staggering" investment in green technologies is required. The group is headed by Joe Clark, Kim...

Andrew Coyne, usually a common-sensical sort of fellow, seems to have slipped over to the dark side, with one commenter on his blog even suggesting that he's begun to sound as if he were the president of the Liberal Party. Indeed, Andrew begins his new blog entry on Brian Mulroney's testimony before the ethics committee as follows:Brian Mulroney finally comes forward to explain... and explains nothing. Or rather, digs himself deeper. Those who might have been inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt until now will have a harder time of it after the preposterous story he told the ethics committee today....I refused to post about Mr. Mulroney's testimony because I don't believe, as a taxpayer, that we should be wasting millions of dollars on an "investigation" (witch hunt...

No, like I didn't pay much attention to the Conrad Black and Barbara Amiel saga, I'm not paying attention to the Schreiber affair involving former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and 300 gra...make that $500 000. Sorry, whoppee-doo. They lost me at when they discovered pasta wasn't exchanged. Was it tortiglioni or rigatoni? Barilla or Gallo? Fresh or packaged? Dammit, that's the part of the story I want to know more about. It goes right to the culinary credibility of those involved.Nope. Not suggesting using influence from a position of power for personal gain is not sleazy. It is. But how does this affect me exactly? How does this enhance democracy? Nah. We have far more important things to tackle.Move along. Nothing to see...

With each day it is becoming increasingly apparent that Karlheinz Schreiber may be making up his allegations against Brian Mulroney as he goes along. Schreiber is desperate  and doesn't want to face justice in Germany (something his body language during an interview for CBC's Fifth Estate made perfectly clear even to non-psychologists). That his allegations may be fabricated is illustrated by this latest turn of events:Schreiber refuses to talk if he's extradited The man at the centre of allegations against former prime minister Brian Mulroney, Karlheinz Schreiber, served notice yesterday he would not co-operate with a public inquiry if he were extradited to Germany. Mr. Schreiber's threat intensifies pressure on Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government to use its power to...

This post by Jason Cherniak (and this one too) proves that Liberals are best ignored whenever they call on the government to do something, because once the government acts on it, the Liberals will still complain and try to turn it into an attack on the government. This paragraph is typically Liberal and shows that Jason's postings cannot be taken at face value (i.e., he writes one thing but believes something else privately -- but he has the nerve to call Harper a hypocrite):[...] I don't think an investigation was necessary. While I understood the arguments for it, I had a lot of sympathy for the view that Brian Mulroney is an historical figure who should be left alone. While as a partisan I was not going to say it in public, I thought Harper had the right idea in refusing to...

The Liberals, as reported, are pushing for a taxpayer-funded investigation into the financial dealings of Brian Mulroney and Karlheinz Schreiber (who shouldn't even be in Canada anymore by all rights). Here's one of the dumbest comments by a Liberal I have read today:"Taxpayers' dollars are lining the pockets of Mr. Mulroney," Liberal MP Karen Redman said.Personally, I'd be more concerned about the $10 million in taxpayers' dollars that are lining this guy's pockets and the things he might do with that (our) money. The Liberals had a chance to investigate Mulroney many years ago, and they blew it. The Liberals didn't do their homework then, so they should not scream for a new investigation now. The botched affair resulted in Mulroney receiving $2.1 million. This guy, however, got $10...

I attended the Fraser Institute Gala for Brian Mulroney. It was the end of my very Tory week. It was a glittering affair attended by many members of the present and Mulroney era cabinet ministers. Many members of the Senate including Senator Segal, Senator Angus , Senator Labretton and Senator Lynch Staunton I had a nice chat with John Crosby. we commiserated on what a blowhard Danny Williams is. I had a chat with Mila Mulroney. I also got to speak to Premier Jean Charest and HM Minister for the Environment John Baird. There was who's who of Tory illuminati in attendance.Several Blogging Tories were also in attendance including Adam Daifallah, Tim Mak and Vincent Geloso.HM Former PM Brian Mulroney was honoured with the Boyle Prize for encouraging economic freedom. Senator Fortier and Jean...

One of the many reasons I have always supported Brian Mulroney is the Free Trade Agreement. pseudochretien vowed to tear up the Free Trade Agreement, but ended up wholly endorsing it. This was true of many of the Tory policies.( Remeber trhe GST?) Most Canadians and Americans see the FTA as vital to the economy. It has brought jobs and porpserity, but we almost didn't get it.by L. IAN MacDONALDThe Gazette, Wedneday, October 3, 2007Twenty years ago today, Canada and the United States signed the free-trade agreement, as the hands of the clock ticked toward midnight and the expiration of Ronald Reagan's "fast-track authority" to negotiate a deal to be voted "up or down" by Congress, but without amendments. As Brian Mulroney recounts in his memoirs, it was a "near-run thing." Other actors -...

It is was never a good idea to be nice to Trudeau. He would just kick you in the teeth. Truideau learned well friom Ceaucescu ,Castro and his othe commie mentors.Nope, this is about payback for Meech, not that Trudeau opposed it, but for the way he opposed it, and for his glaring breach of courtesy from one prime minister to another.While there is no doubt that Mulroney speaks ill of the dead, there is equally no doubt that Trudeau spoke ill of Mulroney in his famous missive on Meech.Trudeau wasn't content to dismiss the Meech Lake Accord on substantive grounds, such as whether the distinct society conferred special status on Quebec. That would have been one thing, and quite within bounds.Not stopped at that, Trudeau personalized the debate by calling Mulroney "a weakling" and a...

Brian Mulroney has stepped back into the public spotlight to promote his memoirs — and accuse former archrival Pierre Trudeau of having lacked the moral fibre to lead.Among other things, Mulroney accuses Trudeau, in so many words, of having been a Nazi sympathizer. There are several aspects to this whole story. One, as the title of this post suggests, you're not supposed to speak ill of the dead. Two, there is no need for that because most Canadians know how bad Trudeau was (and was recently voted Worst Canadian by a Canadian magazine) -- even Trudeau himself realized, towards the end of his life, that he'd made a number of serious mistakes (such as multiculturalism, an idea that he genuinely came to regret before his death). Third, Mulroney's opinion of Trudeau has always been...

I will be attending the dinner to honour Mr Mulroney in October. I supported MR Mulroney fully when he was in power and I believe his characterization of the spoiled totalitarian brat trudeau is correct. For those who excuse trudeau's anti semitic, pro nazi and anti English, youth should read this from The Socialist Gulag:I have to get this straight, Senator David Smith thinks that b/c Trudeau was 20 at the time he was a Nazi sympathizer & condemned Canada's efforts to stop Nazi tyranny, that it enables him to get a free pass?? Bull f'n ShitLemme tell the good Senator something. At the same time Trudeau was admiring Hitler & wallowing in anti-semitism, 16 & 17 year old boys, not men, BOYS were lying about their age to get into the Army to save the world from fascist, & were dying on the...

After Conrad Black, if there is another high-profile Canadian most people would love to see cut down to size, it's former prime minister Brian Mulroney. An Ontario court has now found in favour of Karlheinz Schreiber in a lawsuit he filed against Mulroney and ordered Mulroney to pay $470,000 to the German dealmaker, who is currently fighting his extradition to Germany on various fraud and tax charges. The court reached this judgment because Mulroney had failed to show up (Mulroney insists that the case should have been brought in Québec and not in Ontario). Interesting turn of events in the Schreiber case, but it doesn't change the fact that the sooner Schreiber is on a plane back to Germany, the sooner Canada's legal system will have some of its reputation......