Posted on 11/05/2005 4:33:20 AM PST by goldstategop
A federal judge proclaimed last week that in the final years of Canada's Chretien government, untold millions of dollars were channeled from the treasury into the bank accounts of the federal Liberal Party, several Liberal-friendly advertising agencies and a few senior party backroom gentry in Montreal. His report was viewed with alarm by the media, the politicians and the pundits by everybody, it seemed, except the Canadian people.
They knew that already. They had gathered it conclusively from a report of the auditor-general three years ago, and reaffirmed it in the testimony of the sordid parade of Liberal insiders who spelled it out for days on end before Mr. Justice John Gomery's judicial inquiry. How much was effectively misspent or stolen, Gomery did not say. Unofficial estimates ran well over $50 million.
Even so, with the central facts already known, the Canadian people had returned the same Liberals to office under the new leadership of the present prime minister, Paul Martin. True, the government's majority was gone, but with the help of the socialist New Democratic Party it still clung to power by a single vote in the Commons last spring when the worst of the corruption became public.
Those disclosures briefly sank the Liberals' polled popularity down to the level of the rival Conservatives. Within two months, however, it was back up again a full 10 percentage points ahead of the Conservatives, enough to return the Liberals to office with a safe majority.
The Gomery report does little more than officially establish what everybody already knew. So what difference is it likely to make in the election expected next February or March? The answer is none whatever, and the explanation is the political bent of the Ontario voter. He elects about one-third of the Commons, and he votes overwhelmingly Liberal. That was enough to determine the outcome of the last four Canadian general elections.
But why does he do this? Why this unfailing attachment to the Liberal Party? Most would agree that it's not his love of the Liberals. It's his fear of the Conservatives. More specifically, it's his fear of western Canada, which exerts the dominant influence in the Conservative Party.
"Time and again," said one western Tory last week, "Ontario has had to choose between the Liberal crooks and a westerner. Always they choose the crooks, and they'll do it again."
But in a way, their Liberal bent is understandable. For the Conservative Party under the leadership of the fastidious, studious and largely colorless Stephen Harper threatens sweeping structural changes in Canadian government. For instance, they would require that senators be elected rather than chosen by the prime minister. This would gradually change Canada's present pointless artifact Senate into something much closer to the American model and thereby make it a powerful body. That is, it could and no doubt would significantly amend legislation advanced by the government without bringing the government down. In so doing, Canada's legislative branch would actually legislate, rather than rubber stamp.
Moreover, the Tories would submit judicial appointments for Senate review and ratification, making it much more difficult to pack the court with ideologically driven judges. The Tories would restore to the provinces many of the functions taken over by the federal authority and thereby reduce the gargantuan federal civil service.
In short, the Conservatives would restructure Canada. And why should Ontario vote for that? All through the 20th century, Ontario has been winning the game. It has become the biggest, richest, most economically powerful province. So better the crooks than a westerner.
The first poll after the Gomery Report showed an electoral response much the same as the one that followed the disclosures of last spring the Liberals had dropped to 31 percent and the Conservatives were at 30 percent. But the Martin government has four months to convince the public that the bad old days of "Chretienism" are gone. "The tone we must take is one of respect, one of regret," Martin told his party last week.
Thus the line: The whole Liberal Party has learned its lesson and will now abandon its errant ways. Under the guidance of the staunchly scrupulous Paul Martin who was absolved by Gomery of any blame in the scandal the party will now move pristinely forward.
Will Ontario buy this? You bet they will. Especially when the only other feasible option is those dangerous revolutionaries from the West. Why change the rules, when you're winning?
Canadians are Americans that know how to make love in a canoe.
You could be in for a big surprise, much of the so-called anti-Americanism is really just "penis envy" which is all we have to differentiate us and create some kind of self identity, particularly among the Anglo's. Quebec choses France as it's role model even though they were abandoned by the French 350 years ago.
Do not confuse politics with reality. We huddle along the northern border, constantly eavesdropping and doing our best to emulate your sucesses, avoid your failures, deflect your excesses and participate in the benefits spawned by your financial powerhouse and expertise.
Based on that, we create a society that probably is closer to the idealistic America envisioned by the Founding Fathers. Hence the smug superiority, condescendance and envy because in order to enjoy this perch, we have to freeze our asses off each winter.
...and drive down thru I-75 to FloriDuh. :D
Actually, I go by Westjet down to see Mickey.
...Don't blame you, one bit...3 1/2 days is a long drive -vs- 3+ hrs Wide Body Jet...fly the happy skies. :)
BTW, I know, I was there...
... in downtown Toronto, Ontario.
Bump!
Wow! That sounds as if it's terminal! (And a great history lesson btw.)
Obviously a heavy immigration policy impacts on a nation. In recent times, attention has been drawn to the rise of anti-semitism in Canada, a blight on any nation. Some have pointed out that this phenomenon has occurred alongside an increase in Islamic fundamentalism in Canada. Anti-Americanism also goes hand in hand with Islamic fundamentalism. Again this is endemic in Canada and in many other parts of the world - do I have to mention France? Immigration can no doubt change a nation, and not always for the best. All countries that are encouraging immigration need to look at the potential long-term effects. Unfortunately, political correctness has prevented this. The sooner the political correct accept the reality that not all cultures are compatible the better off everyone will be. How, for example, can you reconcile the position of women in Western culture with that of women in Islamic culture? What will happen to women if Islamic culture becomes the dominant culture? It is not the past we have to fear but the future.
Canada's immigration policy is very extreme non-assimilationist. So much so that new immigrants are felt that they are rebuilding replicas of their former home countries in Toronto, Vancouver, or Montreal.
Having said this, English Canada doesn't have much Muslim problems - yet. Most of the Islamic problems in Canada are confined to Islamic immigrants to Toronto. Presumably becasue there are still a relatively small number of Muslims in English Canada at this stage. In Vancouver and Toronto Chinese, Indians, and Jamacians seem to predominate.
So I don't think anti-Americanism in Canada is due to Muslims (as is the case in some Western Euroepan countries). The rot is already set among the native populations.
I feel that even though the leftists in BC are leftists, from their rhetoric they are far more "American" from the Tory-influenced anti-American people from Ontario. Read enough articles from leftist or MSM in Canada that Victoria and Vancouver's lefties don't get along well with the fellow lefties from Ontario/Quebec.
This phenomenon has even extended to ethnic immigrants. I'm Chinese and I know HK migrants living in Vancouver frequently taunt those who chose to immigrate to Toronto (snow, boredom, etc), and vice versa (mansions, filthy rich).
To be honest, I can talk a great deal of sense with you guys in the West than those "in the East". You share a lot more in common with America, Australia, and even NZ (whenever NZ is entering the conservative episodes) than the High Tory socialists in Ontario, French socialists in Quebec, or welfare-dependent Maritimes people. It is a shame why the area from Manitoba right up to coastal BC is not a separate country from Canada.
If you read a lot about who's who in power in Ontario, notice what the Premiers' last names were like? Umm, let's see...MacDonald, Whitney, Hardy, Ferguson, Conant, Drew, Frost, Davis, Miller, Harris. They are Ukrainian names. Yeah right.
And BTW, as your election last year shows, Canada has 61% of people supporting the Left, while this country is bitterly divided at 49-50% in September's election with almost identical conditions. Enough said about it - at least we aren't even as bad as you when it comes to leftism (though it is still far too left-wing relatively to Australia).
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